The best.

The absolute best birthday. 22 and could not be happier! Thank you to everyone who has made this days special in every way and for all of the well wishes. Each one you are loved more than you know.

Now to continue celebrating!! Let us begin with dinner………

Read on to join in my morning….

I have the best of the best of friends!  Between last night and this morning I am already beyond blessed with those that have celebrated in my birthday with me.  Chick-Fil-A and Yogo Ono with some pretty snazzy people to kick off my night last night.  Then to a dear friends house where we brought in my birthday at midnight with toastings and a movie.  Lots of laughs and tears as we went through the past year of my life together and remembered the ups and downs. So appreciative of their Godly hearts and faithful friendships!

Then, there is this morning….

The plan was to sleep in this morning but a precious dear had other plans for me.  Knowing that I wanted to relax, he planned accordingly.  At 8..on the dot, this morning I awoke to this blasting through the house:

Startled, I rolled over and just chuckled. I knew who it was in my house! A surprise that made me very happy to be up earlier than planned.  I pulled on my sweatpants and a t-shirt and stumbled out the door.  Sitting on the couch was sweet Bryan in sweatpants and a t-shirt with a beautiful elephant tray sitting in front of him with delicious delights on it. He came over early and made homemade banana-nut muffins and doughnuts and brewed some tasty Nica coffee for us.  He just looked at me, and said, “I know I shouldn’t, but I had to.”  He is a mess, but I am so glad he is in my life.  He told me to get back in bed and he brought in the tray and we did breakfast together after he put in my guilty pleasure, PS I Love You.  It has been a sweet relaxed morning of just hanging out and enjoying time to just sit and be with each other.  God is too GOOD.

It is only 10:30am and my day is still ahead of me. Next on the schedule: lunch with my dear and beautiful friend Amy.  I am so blessed by this girl and her love and faithfulness to me through thick and thin! God has big plans for both of us and I cannot wait to see what’s next!

Let the celebration continue!

Love you all more than I can put into words!

A shared thought

A friend of mine, a sister of mine, shared this with me tonight. She said she cries every time she hears it thinking of me. I found that a little odd, but man did I see this girls’ love for me and my still very broken heart. Thankful for friends like her!

A season like no other…

This season that I am in right now will never be repeated.  No season ever is.  This season is unique though.  This season holds major milestones in my life and in the lives of many of my family and friends.  There have been great tears of unspeakable joy and rejoicing and there have been really tough tears through a lot of pain and trials.  God has been so faithful through both ups and downs.  He has proven Himself faithful over and over again, even when my doubts were strong and my faith not so strong, He has stood true to His every promise.  There is no one like Him.

The next three weeks:

Birthday (22 on Tuesday!)

Graduate from college

Move to NC

Sis graduates from high school

Brother gets married

Close friends adopt from Africa!

Time to PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!

No Words

I do not really have the words to express my heart.  I sat in silence this morning listening to the Lord just bring peace over my heart and this tune kept creeping into my head.  I finally threw it on my ipod and just listened, over and over and over. His love never fails.  A little faith is always enough! A little faith can see a mountain lift and move.  Father I pray for courage, for obedience, for a love like You have loved me.  I love You forever. ~~B

That sneaky feeling is back…

That feeling like God is about to do something huge!

In less than a month I will move to NC to work at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters to counsel youth while enjoying the sunshine in the mountains!  To say that I am excited is an understatement on the grandest scale. I spent this past weekend up there, and I just feel, well, like a completely belong.  Georgia is not home to me.  The mountains are, the fields are.  Maybe I should not say Georgia, but rather metro-Atlanta, where the nature has been removed.  Being surrounded by blue skies, green fields, and rolling mountains made me feel at peace as I drove up, and as I spent the weekend in Andrews, NC, it just felt, right.

Being surrounded by a hundred+ brothers and sisters day in and day out is definitely right.  My heart went up there burdened and crying out, and left joyous with a different cry, a cry to worship!  Genuineness is evident in the SWO staff that I will so graciously be serving alongside this summer.  They get it, they LOVE Jesus!!

Where I am right now, in this moment has been great for this season, but I know God is about to reveal and begin a new season in me.  I plan on finishing this next month out strong (and turn 22)!  A new season with a new year!  Exciting!

God is too good to me and I am blown away daily by His grace and mercy! I am nothing without Him.  Praying for the staff this summer and the students and leaders that we will get the blessed opportunity to serve!  God work mightily. We trust You to come through!

Stretched

God really knows how to stretch me and have some fun with it in the meantime.

Financially, I am, well lets just say I am a college student working part time with bills and responsibilities. Green is not coming in with abundance. I can get so stressed and stingy with “my” money.  Yeah right, my money?  Last night I sat in small group listening to friends, brothers and sisters, share financial stresses but what I kept hearing was their faithfulness to trust God with it knowing that ultimately it is God’s money, not their own.  Yes, they admitted that it is hard at times to tithe and sacrifice, but ultimately, they trusted and have had faith in the fact that God will provide what is needed. I was absolutely blown away listening to their testimonies of God being enough, and always coming through.

At the present, I am a nanny, making decent money, but living according to what I make, which includes my tithing, my bills, and the organizations I support or partner with.  This leaves me with a little extra every month to be comfortable but not a whole lot to be able to put back and save.  Monday I was in an all out stressed out panic as I worried about what I would do in about a month when I go from what I am making now, to $100 a week as a camp counselor, a whopping $400 a month.  With what percentage I have felt called to tithe, my bills, and my sponsorships, I figured I would be left with $60 a month to be a little flexible with, $15 a week.  Okay, after calculating and recalculating, I can handle that.  Stress relieved for the morning.

Well, so I thought.  I received an email about 2 hours later asking if there was any way I would take on another Compassion Child.  Woah! What?! God could not actually be the one asking me to do such a thing.  I mean, I have to live right?? I mean, yeah, my food and lodging is paid for up at the camp and I do not really have any real expenses up there, but come on God, no way!  I did not respond to the email immediately.  Yesterday, 2 days later, I got a phone call asking if I would be interested in partnering with two other people to support a child. Alright God, $13 more a month, I suppose I will “sacrifice” and do that.  I agreed and let them know that there was already a child selected for us, and we are happily and blessed to be supporting a cute little fellow in Ghana.  Okay, $47 a month, $11.75 a week. Perfect.  Enough.

You better believe that God was not done stretching me, teaching me.  I have been in prayer for an opportunity to sponsor a little girl in Burkina Faso for several months and just have not done so, my lack of faith and my stinginess really.  This morning I got back on the Compassion site to just generally pray over the little ones in Burkina Faso that are still in need of sponsors.  I flipped over two pages and clicked on a random picture of a little girl.  I began to pray for her and read through her situation and location to better know how to intercede for her.  Her name is Yaquieta Kafando and she is living on the plains of Ziniaré-Secteur 2.  I looked up the area through some resources and began to just break for this little girl and her situation.  I flipped back over to the Compassion site and began to really look into who this little girl is.  She is 7 years old, and born on May 03.  Wait, what?? May 03, really God?? That’s my birthday.  A little something I have always prayed about doing, is eventually sponsoring a child that shared my birthday.  Well, eventually was not God’s timing, now is.  I could not use the “no money” excuse, because according to my above, I am left with $47 a month, of which $35, this little girl could really use.  Alright God, I am taking a lesson from my brothers and sisters last night and trusting that you will provide and take care on my finances.  I am not saying this is easy for me, or that I like it.  Having $3 a week left for a comfort balance every week this summer is going to prove difficult, but I need this, and more importantly Yaquieta needs this.

I am not saying any of this to say look at me, because believe me, sitting here right now, I am still struggling with trusting that God is going to provide.  I have been trying to work out solutions in case God decides not to come through and have had to step back and yell at myself several times.  I cannot understand why trusting God with what is already His is so stinking hard, but man is it!!  Learning to get uncomfortable, truly uncomfortable, is not easy nor fun, and I certainly to not like it, but obedience is what I am SLOWLY learning and pursuing!

I am so thankful for a faithful group of believers that through simple words last night, allowed God to speak through them.  I am excited to see how God works through continuing to stretch and mold me, painfully at times.  Seeing and being blessed by His faithfulness will prove to be worth it! I am finally in a place of believing what my dear pastor JR says regularly: “You can never out give God!”  Trust is tough, but I have to believe that He will come through, every time!

Thank you to each of you that have pushed and encouraged and shared along the way and in doing so have allowed God to use you guys to speak and move in and through me.

BY THE WAY:

I leave for Nicaragua Saturday and have a huge praise of God’s financial faithfulness: Someone paid my account off as of Monday so I am clear and ready for take off.  Be in prayer for the team of students and leaders that I will be serving alongside. We are excited and expectant to be a part of what God is going to do in Nicaragua!

To see His Kingdom come,

B

The promised update

Goodness, a month ago almost I posted that I would update soon, so I guess this is my “soon”….

Joy.  People keep asking how life is, how I am doing and the word that comes to mind is joyous.  God is so good to such an undeserving servant, but praise be to Him for not giving up on me but instead lifting me continuously from my wicked desires and failures.  I have seen and understood a little more the extent of the graces of the Father like never before in this past year.  Life is never perfect and things are not always to my liking.  Plans fail and hurts and pains happen.  People are sick, school can be hard, and jobs can cause chaos to the mix.  Monies can be low and accidents occur.  Love outside of the Father is not always unconditional and heartache is real.  Temptations sometimes win, my words are not always pure, and my life does not always reflect much of Christ.  BUT. No matter what is going on or what has happened, I know I can trust in a God that has already prepared a way for me.  Grace and mercy are His.  I will never be without a way or a plan when I lean on His understanding and follow His call and will.  I do not have to worry about my tomorrow because I know the One that is already holding it, the One that has already marked it out with me in mind.  Be encouraged brothers and sisters because we serve a mighty God that loves us more than we can wrap our minds around.  Trust Him to carry you, He sticks to His promises! That step of faith that you have been debating, JUMP in, He promises to catch you.  Go for it! If you do know Him, oh what joy you are missing! I could type you a crazy long post on who He is but I think this will show you.  This never gets old.  If you have more questions after watching this, get in touch and I would love to share with you who the Savior, Jesus Christ, is to me and to you!!

 

As far as life and where I am heading….

Short and sweet: Two weeks from today I will be headed to Nicaragua with the youth of West Ridge Church!!! So expectant for this trip!  And its official friends….In May I will be moving up to Andrews, North Carolina to work at Snowbird Wilderness Camp (go check out their site) as a counselor.  I cannot put into words my excitement for this opportunity.  I hope to be blogging to update as God works in and through me at SWO this summer!!

Thats all I have for now!  Keep praying for me as I continue in praying for many of you! Go, and serve the Lord your God will all of your heart, your mind, and your soul!

To see the kingdom come,

B

Updates Coming….

SOON..

Several of you have been asking for updates on the mission trips and just my life in general.  I know I have been slacking on here, give me a few days to catch you all up on where I am at and what the next few months are looking like! Love you all so very much and thanks for keeping up with my crazy hectic self!

 

~~B

Tough Words are Good Words

Some days are better than others.  This I know to be true.  The past several days have not been the better of the two.  After some struggling tears, a mentor/friend came and sat on the roof with me to listen, to share, to speak truth.  Her final words:

Keep waiting. Did you hear me? Keep waiting. Believe in love. Do not give up in foolishness. God waited on you, now you wait on him.

She grabbed my right hand and just stared.  I understood.  Why let go of what God has not allowed me to have peace over yet?  I am not saying that what I desire is going to be what He allows, but I believe He has more in store for me in the waiting.  If there is one thing I have learned, it is that my joy has to come from my God, because there are days where happiness is distant, but my joy remains complete.  I am satisfied being the bride of the King.  I am content in the love that He has for me, for eternity.

Learning to wait, wait with a happy heart that is joyful for what the plans that God has in store!!