The March of the Unqualified

One of the questions that were asked is, "Are you fishing for men?" I really started thinking about his and it made me turn back to Matthew 4:19 which says "And he said to them, 'follow me, & I will make you fishers of men'." I live on a lake full of fish! Growing up me and my brother would always want to go fishing!! So we would dig for an hour to get as many worms as we could, then go to our backyard and start fishing! He was totally a pro! He caught all of the fish and I would only catch them with his help. I on the other hand, pretty much wanted to do anything but sit there and wait patiently for a fish to bite. I obviously made an awful fisherman! In this verse in Matthew, Jesus says to his four disciples, "Follow me." When you begin to think of discipleship, Jesus is the perfect example of the first step of finding someone. Jesus knew he wanted a small group of twelve men. He, even within the twelve, had an inner core group of three men. Jesus went to these men and just said "Follow me," and in verse 20 it goes on to tell us that, "At once they left their nets and followed him." "At once," "immediately", "vaminos," these men responded right then and right there. There was something so magnetic about this Jesus that these men dropped everything and followed him immediately. I wonder if we are like that in our schools. People see something so different. Younger Christians are encouraged by us and non-Christians may persecute us or ponder us. Can you imagine Jesus approaching you and saying these same words? I pray that I would react just as the four newest disciples by following at once. After deciding to follow Jesus, I wonder if I should look at Christ's example and find someone to say to, "Follow me as I follow Christ." Although I might not be a great fisherman of fish, I pray I am a constant fisherman of people to pour my life into as Jesus did when He walked this earth.

So basically I want to constantly be pouring love and life into others and create relationships with everyone I know! I want to be heart broken for my friends and for people who aren't my friends! I want to get out into the world and be a friend to the friendless!! I love the song "My own little world" by Matthew West!! Its for sure one of my favorites!! It is so easy for, like I explained in my very first blog, us to have "tunnel-me-vision". Its like we don't pay attention to the rest of the world!! One verse that always sticks out to me is, "I throw a twenty in the plate, but I never give till it hurts, and I turn off the news when I don't like what I see. Yeah its easy to do when its population me." Umm hi mister west, where you writing to me when you wrote this song?? haha! To be completely honest I never watch the news because it scares me!! And after I have a babysitting job or something like that where I make some money, I'll put five dollars in the offering plate at church, but I NEVER give till it hurts!! at the Tenth Avenue North concert, Matt talked about how so often we are like, "yeah I can't help this dude because taxes on my $600,000 house are pretty tight. or I have two new cars I have to pay insurance for" and stuff like that! We have become so selfish!! I want to totally become selfless!! As much as I feel incapable to help someone who is in a low part of their life, I'm going to do it anyways! Because no matter how inadequate I am, God can totally work through me!! I think that is so cool! I'm so tired of the world referring to Christians as hypocrites and I'm so tired of it being true! In order to stop myself from being a hypocrite, some days I may have to get my hands dirty. I may risk my reputation or maybe cause people to question my choice of friends. It's time for Christians to STOP walking past others who are suffering on the side of the road. I refuse to let fear stop me! If I were one of the people walking past the Levite traveler, I want to be the good Samaritan!! I want to visit people lying in the ditch that the traveler was in! I want to view the world in a totally different way!! More than anything I want to abandon my comfort boundaries and love others not for what they do but because the almighty GOD loves them!!

When was the last time I was heart broken for other people? Daily my heart goes out to people who are struggling and I love reaching out to them! I've been in really tough places in my life, and to see other people hurt makes me hurt. Constantly my heart hurts for others that I can see are hurting! For me, what stood out of the sermon we heard, was when he was saying "where are the tears?" To cry in front of other people is extremely tough for me. To be honest, when I am going through struggles no one really knows. I keep everything bottled up because I don't want people to feel sorry for me or to feel like they have to be nice to me or love me because I'm going through a rough time. The last time I openly cried with people was the choir trip in Dallas last year. The people in my room I was really close friends with and it was totally cool what God did! The night started off with us just being crazy and having a silly fashion show in the room! (plus a little bit of a dance party) :) but then it turned into a five hour Bible study!! from 12 am to 5 am we just talked about things on our heart. Hearing what the other girls had to say and finally admitting all my struggles going on in my life just made me cry uncontrollably. It was totally a good cry though! A cry I needed! For probably 30 minutes all we did was pray over each other and it was soo awesome!! It created this awesome bond between all of us and it was so great to experience that. We also took about thirty minutes and wrote letters to each other telling the other person everything we adore about them and just encouraging each other! One of the girls, Leigh Lloveras, was my very best friend in 8th grade and one of my best friends in 9th grade. She no longer goes to Houston Christian, but she was on the choir trip with us. We were talking together and she told me one of the things that made her cry was seeing me cry. She talked about how I've watched her cry and fall to pieces so many times and I've just been there for her and comforted her. She said she'd never thought about it but for two years of knowing me and being my best friend she had never seen me cry, and seeing me cry made her fall apart. I remember after telling the girls everything that was going wrong in my life they were all so shocked, as would be probably the whole grade would have been if they knew. I really am just genuinely a happy person and whenever pain comes into my life I try to ignore it as much as I can, and then certain days when I get home it all falls apart. I'm also really emotionally strong so thats also why I dont cry. In school I'm constantly smiling and saying hello to everyone in the hallways because thats what I love to do! So whenever I am having a bad day I just try to cover it up so that noone feels inclined to ask me about whats is wrong or anything. I know it is soo silly! Anywayss, Im getting so off topic! but my main point is that all six of us crying together and praying over each other made us so much more close! I think the speaker made some really awesome points and I think it for sure can be a good thing to just cry with people! The stories he told where awesome! I really enjoyed hearing this sermon and it totally opened my eyes to new things!! :)

I love this video!! Its so awesome knowing that no matter how unqualified I am, God can work through me!! "Get in line!!"

"Father break my heart for what breaks yours. Give me open hands and open doors. Put your light in my eyes and let me see, that my own little world is not about me."

Community Service (more to come)

Mission of Yaweh

Mission of Yaweh is an awesome program for homeless women and children. The Mission of Yahweh has served homeless women and their children for over 49 years. The doors are always open for families in crisis. They not only give food, clothing and shelter, but also try to help residents become people of the society that are able to take care of themselves. The Mission of Yaweh supports 2,300 residential stays each month. They also provide thousands of Houston-area residents with donations of food, clothing, school supplies and other needs. The goal of this organization is to meet the needs of the homeless. The Mission of Yaweh is definitely a Christian group. You can tell just from the name! Mission of Yaweh. I love the name of this group! Their verse for the organization is: “I was hungry and you gave me food. I was alone and you invited me into your house. I was without clothes and you gave me something to wear.” Matthew 25:35-36. This organization is needing volunteers! They always need dedicated individuals and groups, who want to experience God working amongst his people, and want to make a difference in others' lives. "Volunteer Tag Teams" are created to allow us to reach out and affect other's lives...and in the process, change our own! I think this is soo cool! I would adore reaching out to others and possible changing my life in the process!! Something else I love is the "requirements" if you'd call them that, on the website, which are: Must be "special" to work here! We are NOT for everyone. Must be looking for "hands-on" mission work! Need a heart for the poor! Want to witness miracles! Want "purpose" in your life! (...we're a "purpose-driven" Mission!) Looking for 1:1 contact - We change one life at a time! Mentoring - "Change Your Life AND Touch A Life"! Volunteering is the chance to implement The Great Commission in your life! Convenient Northwest Houston location! You can be a "Missionary in Your own Backyard"! Rewarding! "Genuine, one that feels for the poor, a "missionary." Have a heart, gutsy, want to be closer to God and want purpose for their life!" I love these comments!! I don't know about you but my heart is just screaming out, THATS ME!! I WANT TO WORK HERE!! If this organization didn't exist.. over three THOUSAND homeless women and children would be without help. This group really, really helps people in the Houston area and I think its such a blessing to have them here!! I honestly think that we can partner with them, I think that it would be so great and such an awesome recognition to alot of us, who like me, grew up in giant white house on a lake and have driven in nice cars our whole lives.

Katy Christian 

Katy Christian is an organization that provides many different services. They have Social Service Departments that offer emergency financial assistance, Food Pantries, a Crisis Center that houses the Domestic Abuse Center and the Sexual Assault Center, two resale stores and two Donation Centers. This organization is also a Christian organization and they help meet the needs of many people. Katy Christian has soo many volunteer opportunities! The areas that they need help in are: Administration:  Data Entry, mail-outs, receptionist, assist with Special Events and Annual Fundraisers Social Services:  Receptionist, Data entry and filing Food Pantry:  Sort food donations, bag food to distribute. Receive food donations. Bread Pick-up from assigned grocery stores.  Weed, plant garden. Resale Stores:  Greeting and assisting customers, merchandising product, creating displays, maintaining floor appearance of merchandise, receiving, sorting and preparing donations. Donation Center:  Receive/sort/prepare donations for Resale Stores. So there are soo many ways that as a class we could help! Mostly in the Food Pantry, Resale Stores, and Donation Center! Katy Christian helps soo many people, the hungry, the people with tighter budgets, people who have been abused or assaulted, and even more. Without them, I think a lot of people in the Katy area would not know who to turn too. As a class, I believe we can partner with this organization and help them whether it be in the food pantry, resale stores, or donation center!

WHAM

The core values of West Houston Assistance Ministries are integrity, compassion, acceptance, respect, and encouragement. "WHAM will be a model of Christian service, utilizing the talents and resources of the community to minister love and support to those in need. WHAM will provide assistance with basic needs and promote independence." West Houston Assistance Ministries provides services through these ministries: The CARE Ministry which provides direct support to those in need. Volunteers work with the needy to determine immediate and long-term needs. Aid often is in the form of rent and utility payments and can also include food and items like clothing donated to the Second Blessing Store. The Job Search Ministry which provides assistance in resume writing, finding positions through bulletin boards and direct assistance in job search. Computers with Internet access are available to post resumes and search for job openings. The Food Pantry provides food to needy clients of the Care Ministry. The Food Pantry also supports special programs, such as Holiday dinners. The food come from local food stores, food drives by organizations in the community and from individuals. The Second Blessing Store depends primarily on donations of saleable items as provided by individuals, businesses and organizations. ESL (English as a Second Language) classes are used to introduce residents to a basic understanding of American culture and language.  More than learning the English language, students are provided a background in banking, credit and business as it pertains to the local culture.  And annually, the Ministry supports Christmas and Thanksgiving meal programs, and a Back-To-School supplies program.  The Christmas program provides gifts and toys to children in need, while the Thanksgiving program provides special food.  The Back-To-School program distributes gently used uniforms and new school supplies to young students in need. WHAM seeks volunteers in all the departments described above and before volunteering you have to have a training session. This program helps the community in so many different ways and really impacts peoples lives. I think this program, like the others, would be a good place to volunteer as a group.

Goodwill

Goodwill's mission is to provide education, training and job opportunities to people with disabilities and other barriers to employment, improving the lives of individuals, families and communities. The values of Goodwill are People, Integrity, Stewardship, Innovation, Teamwork, Communication, and Continuous Improvement. Goodwill is an awesome place to donate things. Goodwill places 92 cents of every dollar into their programs, keeping overhead as low as possible. Donated materials are the lifeline to training and job opportunities at Goodwill for people with disabilities and other barriers to employment! This organization not only offers inexpensive items to people with a tighter budget, but also jobs to those that need them. Through their volunteer program, they offer fun, hands-on opportunities to get involved and make a meaningful impact in the Houston community. Whether you are an individual interested in getting more involved in the community or a group looking to work together and make a difference, Goodwill Houston has an opportunity for you! There are over 30 stores in the Houston area which makes it easy for HCHS to travel too. Volunteers are always needed in the production and donation areas of the retail stores. Duties include; receiving and sorting donations, processing and displaying merchandise, and representing Goodwill through customer service. Volunteers must be at least 16 years of age to volunteer on their own. Volunteers between 12-16 years of age must be accompanied by an adult (or teacher!). I think this is a good organization to work out because they benefit a lot of people and personally I think its fun to organize :)

Special Olympics

The mission of Special Olympics Texas is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in the sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics athletes and the community. Special Olympics Texas holds more than 250 competitions annually on area, regional and state levels. Each participant receives a medal or ribbon after their event! Volunteers are the lifeline of the Special Olympics program. More than 48,000 volunteers in Texas currently dedicate their time to Special Olympics. These volunteers serve as coaches, officials, committee members, competition assistants, speech coaches and much more. Whether they participate for one day or for years, volunteers make a difference in the lives of Special Olympics athletes and in their communities. SOT is a volunteer-driven organization, which means that volunteers are needed for just about everything.  Volunteers can assist at the events, coach athletes, help with fundraising, coordinate events, give office support, serve on committees and so much more! Groups are welcomed to volunteer year-round. Special Olympics is an awesome organization because it gives children with disabilities the ability to compete and be involved in athletics. It also encourages children with disabilities and lets them be winners, no matter their athletic ability! Volunteering at one of their events would be really fun for everyone in the class and I think it'd be fun to meet these children!!

Chapter 2

I think chapter 2 was a really awesome book of Missio Dei and it taught me a lot about how God loves us so much! He really wants a relationship with us and I think we need to have a relationship with Him and with others since his purpose is relationships. I think I am someone who looks for reconciliation in every aspect of my life. And I think relationships are SOOOO important. and I love creating relationships and deepening my relationship with Christ. I'm definitely still growing daily with my walk with God, and I love it! I am currently trying really really hard to grow in humility. Right now I'm reading a book called "Humility - True Greatness" by C.J. Mahaney and I'm just loving trying to grow in humility, no matter how frustrated I get or how hard it becomes sometimes. Its so great just taking everything in and turning back to the Bible to see everything God has to say about being Humble. Like James 4:6 which says that "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble." I think that the more invisible we make ourselves the more VISIBLE God becomes!! And what has been humbling me the most is my realization of the sin in my life. So I'm really working on becoming more humble and just continuing to love others and try and show Christ's love to others. I love reaching out to the people who most people would rather make fun of or ignore, because I just really want everyone to be shown the amazing love that I have been shown through the Lord and through God blessing me with awesome friends! What has drawn me closer to God lately is encouragement. So I just love growing in God and making relationships

God's Purpose - WORTH READING!

 God's purpose for creation was to have a relationship with us!! God desires an intimate relationship with us and this just is so so cool to me! This encourages me so much to just know that the Lord wants a deeper relationship with me, a girl who totally messes up all the time! So with this said, I have experienced a time where I just felt God in me and knew that he was trying to have a deeper relationship with me! Okay so one day, I came home from a hard day at school and just broke down in tears when I got into my room. I was just so upset with my life. It didn’t make since to me why all these hard trials were happening in my life. I felt like I had no one and that none of my friends really loved me or cared about me. I was just going through a rough time, I was fighting with my family and this was at the time when I was being persecuted for my faith, my grandma had just died, and I was about to have surgery. I just fell to my knees and gave it all to God. The pain I felt I can’t even describe. I felt so empty, yet so filled with the Lord. I basically said to God that I have nothing, but I don’t want anything. All I want is you God. Most people would look back at this time of total desperation as the worst part of their life. I look back at it and it was the best time of my life. Nothing was in the way of me and my God. I was so hurt and broken, yet the Lord was going to take good care of me. It felt so amazing to have no distractions and to have nothing but the Lord. I think that part of this journey for me was God’s way in teaching me the meaning of total reliance in Him. I feel so blessed that the Lord brought me to this feeling of brokenness. I think it’s an honor to suffer. That sounds weird, but it means the Lord is reaching out to me personally. He’s wanting me to draw closer to Him therefore he is willing to see me in pain in order for me to experience the greater intimacy He has planned for me. When I chose to glorify God in the midst of my persecutions, perseverance was created. Perseverance than produces character, and charter produces hope. Hope in the life we will have in Heaven. It is that hope that keeps me going when things get tough. Persecution never stops, but then again, neither does hope. So this “breaking point” for me was such a blessing! While these trials were happening I had no idea what was happening, but when I took a step back I could see everything God was doing in my life. I think this goes a long really well with talking about God's purpose, and this totally encourages me!

Its so easy to see Satan in the world today! The world we live in is sooo sinful! Mr. Rodden talked a tiny bit today about how one of the things that is making the world so sinful is sex. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, "for this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality." Why is it that sex looks so appealing? Why does it seem so harmless? And for that matter, why do you think God speaks so directly about it? Sex in our world is so casual, so easy, and so not a big deal. Well, I hate to be the bearer of a news flash, but sex is a huge deal! I am going to be sort of bold and blunt about this topic because I am just so tired of our world that is yelling lied and I am done with quiet whispers of truth. Your sexual purity is much more than whether or not you have done it. It means your body, mind, and soul are pure before a most Holy God. It means that you are the boy or girl who has boundaries that makes the world call you weird. It means that for most of high school you might not have a boyfriend or girlfriend because all the boys/girls at your school know they won't get anything from you. Your sanctification means that you know the holiness that is in you from being a Christ follower and wouldn't dare to rub God's holiness and purity in the ground. It means that in the depths of your heart you know that the words "IT'S WORTH IT" really are true because you trust the God who made you that He wants the best for you even in sex. It means that you know the best for you, and your sex life means that it is only with one man/woman and one man/woman only. I know you might be thinking "Courtney, it is soo hard." I have to be honest with you this concept has never ever been hard for me (believe me I have many other concepts that are hard for me!), but for some of my friends it has been a major struggle and just hearing what they have to say I have learned and now understand so much. Through friends I know that in the middle of high school that pressure takes over. I know that you may feel stupid that you are the only one of your friends who's still a virgin. I know boys may make fun of you because you're the "goodie-good" who said no to their homecoming or prom date. And I'm guessing the thought; "Is it even worth it?" has crossed your mind. Oh, sweet friend, it is! Do you believe that God is faithful? Then waiting for your perfect pure wedding is WORTH it. Do you believe that God wants to bless you? Then waiting to give all of yourself to a man/woman you would lay down your life for is WORTH it. Do you believe God's perfect will for your life? Then waiting for your prince charming or perfect wife is WORTH it. For some reading this, your purity has not been questioned and you have never had a boyfriend or girlfriend. Great! For others, you have dated some but never crossed that line of commitment of purity to the Lord. Great! And still for some, you might be reading this and know in your heart you have messed up in this area of your heart. Great! God is big enough for anything. He desires to extend the same exact love to all three groups of you all. Purity can start today, right now, with you finally handing God your heart and your body. Remember: It's so WORTH it!!

Knowing that God's purpose is relationship, redemption, and reconciliation really opens up my eyes. It shows me that if GODS purpose is relationships then MY purpose needs to be relationships. I want to follow after God and try my best to live a godly life, so I want to follow after Him! This encourages me so so much to go out and create relationships with people! One of my favorite things in life is making new friends! I love getting to know people and just being there as an ear to listen and a friend to lean on!! I absolutely adore giving my friends advice, while getting advice from my mentors (Proverbs 13:10). Knowing that God's purpose is a relationship with his people encourages me to continue making relationships with people on earth, but more importantly to continue growing in my relationship with the Lord! Growth isn't always easy, but it's always good! :) So I'm just really excited to continue attempting to live a godly life and loving others and God!!

I absolutely LOVE this video!!! I hope you do too!

The Bible!

The Bible is one story! Pretty hard to comprehend, huh? The Bible is one story centered around one thing, God! The Bible shows us God's glory!! It tells us about an awesome God who wants to save us! He wants a relationship with us! Now THAT is pretty hard to comprehend!! The God of the universe wants a relationship with me? He wants ME to follow Him and He wants to work through ME?? YES! the amazing God works through NOBODYS like fishermen and tax collectors, like you and me! How crazy is that?? It just fills my spirit with joy! I love reading the Bible! I don't know about you put it can just turn my day around. So often though I don't approach it as one story. Looking at it as one story makes the Bible just so much more miraculous! In my opinion at least. Seeing the things God did through people, and what God did for people is just so awesome to me. It makes me love the Lord more and look up to Him more daily when I think of the Bible as a whole story. Last year, in writing and dec, we had to write a letter to the author of our favorite book. Naturally, I decided to write a letter to God :) So I thought I'd share it..

Dear Daddy (God),

           

I have had your book my whole life, however it has meant different things to me according to the stage of my life. Your book has changed my entire existence, my beliefs, my hopes, my dreams. Your book has crafted my heart, and the hearts of so many on this earth. It has given me a reason for life, thank You so much for giving me this special gift--it really means the world to me.

While I was young, Your book, the Bible, was just the book that I was told stories from every night before bed, every Sunday at church, and every day that I had school.  I knew all the stories, however I couldn’t tie them all together, that is, until I was four. When I was four, I proclaimed that I knew what You where talking about in the Bible. I understood it and I wanted it. I wanted to be a part of it. I don’t remember what exactly happened when I asked you into my life, since I was so young, but I do remember one thing. I remember that it felt like my heart was elated with joy, and my parents say that it showed on my face. It felt like You, the almighty God, were a part of me, the dreadful sinner. Before I was four and accepted You into my heart, I was legitimately dead. My life meant nothing and had no meaning, no reason. I was burrowed in bottomless sin and was stuck in it. After I had you in my life, I woke up. I came out of the sin because you let me, through forgiveness. That’s when all these pages with hundreds of thousands of words came alive in my life.

Through elementary school, the Bible was fascinating, but I rarely picked it up on my own until about third grade, and even then I only did rarely. It was what I turned to when I had to, like in Bible class, Sunday school, and chapel. It was supposed to be the head of my life, but it was just pulled out when I thought it was needed. Although You had Your plan, and You knew that I was going to turn back to You and Your book. 

From middle school, up until now, You and the Bible are my life. Your Bible is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Your holy word is composed with the love letters that get me through the day. It is the song that my heart sings, the hope that starting over brings. This special gift you gave me is the map of my life, and what I turn to in every situation. Your book has truly changed my life and become my life. You have shown me how to act in every situation, You show me the easy way out and watch me pick the hard one. You always take me back into Your loving arms and comfort me with the beautiful scripture you have created. Throughout the last few years of my life, Your word has transformed me and become the love letters You wrote just for me. Once, I felt so lonely, and so betrayed by one of my friends. It seemed as if I had lost the plan that I had set up for myself, the friends I was going to have through life, the schools in my future, everything that I had ever intended for my life was now gone. I decided that even though I felt as if You had abandoned me, I was going to read my Bible. That’s when I found Jeremiah 29:11. You showed me that You do have a plan for me, and I need to stop making decisions on my own and just lean on You. I’m so happy You showed me that verse, because it has transformed my life. It has made me give everything to You, because I know that You have a plan and will take care of whatever I am struggling with.

Your book has gotten me through the deepest pit of despair and the longest road of loneliness. It has been there with me during hurt, happiness, love, and anger; it has not once left my side. When I fall away from you, I can turn to Your book that I know will overflow me with words of love and encouragement. It has transformed me from being dead in this dark world, to being alive and seeing Your majesty. Thank you so much for creating this book for me, Lord.

I love you,

Courtney Smith

So my view of the Bible hasn't changed one bit! However I am even more radical about it than I used to be! One new idea that my first chapter of Missio Dei gave me was to be thankful for the ten commandments! It kind of made me mad that I wasn't thankful before! The book gives a beautiful analogy of the ten commandments being like a fence around a play ground, protecting us from danger. I can't explain to you how much I loved reading this. It totally gave me a new view on things and I loved it! Another thing that was sort of a new concept was that the Bible is a whole. Of corse I know its a whole but I never deeply thought of it as one big story. Newbigin's Hindu friend said that the Bible wasn't a book of religion, but a unique interpretation of universal history, the history of the whole of creation and the history of the human race. Lesslie Newbigin's friend makes it clear that they are not a Christian. In some ways I agree with their statement, but in some ways I don't. The Bible is indeed unique. It is the most unique, incredible book ever printed! However I hate the word interpretation that Newbigin's friend uses. It may be just a harmless word when you read it, but to me its just mocking the Bible. An interpretation? Yeah right! its not an interpretation of universal history.. it IS the universal history, it IS creation and it IS the history of human race. Not just an interpretation.. Anyways I absolutely LOVE the Bible! I love highlighting my Bible and writing in it! This blog has been sort of crazy and all over the place, but I guess the main thing is just that I encourage you to dive into your Bible!! Its awesome and you will never regret it! :) 

First trip as a Class!

The trip we went on to I think Champion Church of Christ, was absolutely amazing! It was such a blessing to just be there with the kids! At first I was a little intimidated, it seemed as if the people didn't really want us there. One of the things that I try so so hard to change is that I become extremely shy in situations where I don't know people very well. Not only was I was surrounded with 100 people I had never seen before, but out of all the people from HCHS the only person from my grade and the one person that I feel extremely comfortable around was Michael Vaughan. And I've never really seen him be shy, so he was already hanging out with all the people there :) Anyways, after about 15 minutes, the book of Joshua popped into my head and all I thought about was "Courtney! Be strong and courageous!!" So I went inside and started playing ping pong with Laura, Lindsey, Taylor and some little kids. It was so fun! This sweet little girl was just having the time of her life playing ping pong with us! She was stuck like glue to all of us all night and it seemed like every five seconds she was saying, "THIS IS SO FUN!" She had Laura and me cracking up all night long! She quickly told us that we were all her best friends and it was so sweet to see a little girl that had so much love inside of her! One of the things I just adored is how much all of the girls wanted to dance! Girls would just run up grab your hand and pull you to the dance floor! They were completely filled with joy and they would have been able to dance all night long! There was soo much that we did that night that I would be delighted to share! but I'd rather not bore you with every little detail that I remember :) However there was this one little girl. She is in the 5th grade and I met her towards the very end of the night. She was sitting alone eating and I sat down and started to talk to her. It took a while to get her to open up to me, and when she finally did I understood why. I had to ask questions to get her to talk to me at first, but then she just opened up and told me everything. She told me about her family and her home life and to say the least it was pretty rough. We started talking about school and friends and she told me about how she has no friends and she hates school. She said all of her teachers hate her because she's not good at school and that all the people at her school hate her too. That hit me so hard and I just wanted to cry for her. I started encouraging her and we talked about how Jesus is the best friend in the whole world! I told her how I've been through some tough times and that God always gets me through them and he has become my best friend. For a fifth grader, she was a very strong christian! She has gone through tons of trials, but God remained her number one! We talked about heroes and how Jesus is both of our heroes. This made me think about how usually when I think of a hero, I think of my brother, or someone famous, one of my last thoughts its JESUS! How crazy is that?? I think alot of us are like that. I talked to some of my friends about it and they agreed with me saying that Jesus doesn't usually come to mind as our hero. but how bizarre is that?? John talks about how the Word became FLESH and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. At church we focused on this verse and how two completely opposite things came together! God became man. And he saved our lives! but He's not our hero?? How crazy is that? When you think of your hero, your hero is someone you want to be like, it is someone who you admire and someone who is your role model! I don't know about you, but I want to be more like Christ in SOOO many ways! I want to walk like Jesus, I want to talk like Jesus, I want to live like Jesus! Jesus is my HERO and I want to be like Him!! This sweet girl I met is facing rejection just like Jesus did, and she wants to act like Christ. This past weekend, an eleven year old inspired me to live like Christ. The meaning for this mission trip was to show others love and to inspire them. However, as I showed love to others, I received love. And as I tried to be an inspiration to these kids, they inspired me. That is why this trip was such a blessing. I'm going to be praying for this sweet girl consistently and I am definitely going to go back whenever I can! I'd rather go to this church every friday night, than go catch a movie with my friends. I am soo excited to go back soon and to bring people back with me! This trip was such a blessing and I can't wait to see what God has in store for these kids!! This video I posted at the bottom of my blog is one of my favorites! I just wanted to share with you a little about my HERO, a little bit about my KING! :)

Response to Sermon from John Piper

First of all I want to start this off with saying how amazing of a speaker John Piper is. The whole entire time we watched the sermon, I kept asking myself, "What in the world do I know him from??" Well I actually almost bought his whole series on Romans which takes apart Romans verse by verse and analyzes it. I actually did buy a book written by him called "When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy". It was on this Christian recommended book list my good friend made, however I'm still working on reading some of the others he recommended! I've also browsed around his website, "desiringgod.org". No wonder he sounded so familiar! :) His message really was phenomenal though. I loved all the points he made about being a missionary. It really made me start to think about why it is so important for me to be a missionary. It made me think about how much I want to go on mission trips and spread the Word to others. One thing that his lesson made me think about is how much we want or demand of God. Its like if we don't get exactly what we prayed for, we get mad at God! Or we constantly expect Him to do things. I think its the same way with what we think about for our future. We just want God to be like a mission impossible movie. We want Him to come jump out of a helicopter, glide down to earth, and tell us exactly what our mission is. I used to wonder all the time.. "I just wish I knew what God's will for my life was". But then I realized I was crazy for thinking that and not doing anything! God gave us the bible to show us our will. 1 Thessalonians 4:3-7 and 5:16-17 says, " It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; ⁴that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life....Be joyful always: Pray continuously." If we live according to this standard then we will know a lot more about God's direction for us. If we live outside of this we will be discouraged and lost. If we live inside of this we will receive more peace and joy and comfort. Our purpose is found in the WORD, not in the world. It is not found in how many facebook friends we have, or by how many text messages you get in a day. The world will try to get you to find purpose in the world. I think that so often we mistake God from how amazing he really is! We think that he is some GENIE or something! We are not his robots!! How many times have you done something silly like saying, "okay God I'm going to flip to something in the Bible and whatever page I land on is what you want me to read". Or we are driving and say, okay Lord when I get over to this hill Im going to hit a stop light, if it is a green light, you want me to date this girl/boy. Or if its red, that means I shouldn't date them!! The right decision 100 percent of the time is praying and getting in God's world. If God gave us all the sings then there would be no reason to have faith! So God's plan for me is that I LIVE my life for Him! When I die I pray that I hear the words, "Well done my good and faithful servant." The only way I can accomplish that is living a live devoted to my God and ALL out for Him!