Mexico 2012

This isn't a normal post, but I wanted to share about my trip to Mexico. So here goes.

On July 7th I woke up at 3:30 in the morning to go on a Missions trip that I never thought I would be taking again. Now let's back track a little to... 3 years ago. I went to San Luis for the first time when I was 14. It was the greatest trip ever. But while I was there I picked up some sort of stomach bug. Long story short, it made me very VERY scared to ever go again. I'm the kind of person who is flat out miserable when I don't feel good, and not feeling good in a different country was hard for me. Especially at 14. So the next two trips after that I turned them down. Mostly out of fear. So when they announced the 2012 Missions Trips I had no set plan about where I was going to go. Some of my friends knew right away that they were FOR SURE going to Mexico, or FOR SURE going to Haiti. I, on the other hand, had not a clue. I prayed about it and talked to several different people about it. I ended up applying to Mexico, and getting accepted. So I figured, okay... I got accepted. That must mean something, right? I was still confused. Still terrified. Still up to my ears in fear. Everyone told me to trust in God, and that he would make a way, and his will would be done either way. It started getting closer and closer. I don't remember when exactly, but I found out about a very bad and violent shooting that happened in San Luis. Needless to say, I was telling myself I was not going on this trip. I did not want to. In any way, shape, or form want to go. I know it sounds terrible, but trust me... it gets better! So let's fast forward to Youth Camp(which was 2 weeks before we left for Mexico). I went to Youth Camp without a clear answer from God about weather or not I was really supposed to go on this trip. All of Camp I prayed about it, and as camp neared it's end, I was just as, if not more, scared then I had been. Almost everyone I talked to told me "sometimes you just have to do things scared." So I was relying on that. So back to July 7th.... I woke up, and first thing I thought was.. "I don't want to go." I cried as I packed the last of my bag and got ready. Once I arrived at church and saw my team, I felt a little better. A little reassured that I would have fun. After a long day of traveling, we arrived at Bethel Orphanage. Believe it or not... it was not until my foot touched the sand that a remarkable peace came over me, and God told me that this is where he wanted me. Everyone greeted the Children, because they had known them from previous years. None of them knew me, so I just sat down and marveled that I was actually there. As days went on, the fear was taken over by joy. But I knew that I was still holding back. I still wasn't letting God use me in the ways that I knew he could. We did Shut In Ministry 3 days. The first two days they split us into teams, one to go the first day, and one to go the second day. I volunteered to do the second day because I knew full well that I was not in anyway prepared for the things I was going to see at the Shut Ins. (Shut Ins are homes with people with disabilities, or people that can't afford to live anywhere else. They usually live in shacks made out of whatever they could find.) So I spent the day before just preparing myself, and asking God to prepare my heart. The day came, and I was a little nervous. We went and saw 5 people, all with a lot of needs. But the one that stood out to me the most was this older woman. Her name was Carmen. In all honesty I don't really know what was wrong with her. Something with her hip, or back, or both. But I do know that she had been bed ridden because of her injury. When we arrived, they had a very tiny house made out of signs and pieces and wood. And a piece of cloth was their door. They had an old couch on the front "porch" and some chairs. Right when we got there we were told to go in immediately and start praying because she was in a  lot of pain. I will never forget walking through that cloth, and seeing this womans face. She was in pain. She was in A LOT of pain. She wouldn't even open her eyes, she was crying and moaning. We laid hands on her and prayed, then we all shuffled out to the porch while her husband and the woman who came with us cleaned Carmen up, and tried to move her. Carmen was in so much pain, that she could not move. We sat on the porch for an hour and a half and listened to this poor woman scream in pain. We were all silently praying and crying. It was so hard. I've never felt so helpless. The woman came out and told us that they had called an ambulance. And that was that. She was taken to the hospital. The next day(I think...) we got word that she was home and we took the whole group to visit her. This time, the sight I saw walking through the doorway was different. She was smiling. And greeting us. Still in her bed, but looked as happy as ever. And I remember I looked into her eyes, and the pain I saw the first day was no longer there. She was happy. Carmen may not have been healed completely, but God definitely did something inside of her. And it was the most amazing thing to witness. 

Another thing we did was Village Ministry. These are always tear jerkers. Basically all we do is a human video or something, testimonies, and there is a message. And then we hand out beans and rice. At the last Village Ministry we did, a lot of people came up for prayer, which was great. And there was also a lot of kids at this one. After the prayer, everyone started heading back to their homes. And I did what I always do, station myself in a specific spot where I can see everyone walking. I watched the people and children run done the sand roads. That very moment, is when God revealed to me why he had brought me back to Mexico. And that was simply to stretch me. To get me out of my comfort zone. To get me to take a step of faith, and to trust in him with my entire heart. I broke down crying. It was so incredible and amazing, the feeling that came over me in that moment. I can't describe it any other way then purr joy. PURE. JOY.

After a lot of ministry, hard work, sweat and tears, it came time for the final fiesta....... Which is almost the complete opposite of a fiesta haha. It's out last little party with the kids at Bethel, and when we say our goodbyes. Aka..... the hardest thing in life. 

After pizza, singing and dancing, pinatas, and the L from hell....... the kids had kind of dispersed and I went and sat down on the ground with two of my friends, Bethy and Rachael. We were all bawling our eyes out, but I stopped for a moment and just looked around. I saw genuinely happy people. Happy people that have nothing. I mean, these kids are well taken care of, but they aren't with their families. They don't have as much stuff as kids here do. The people of San Luis are some of THE happiest people I will ever meet. Seeing that... makes you so grateful.

So, that's a very brief ( believe it or not :P ) summary of my trip. If you'd like to know more feel free to ask! :) 

John 3:30

"He must become greater, I must become less." John 3:30


Super simple. Yet it might possibly one of the hardest verses in scripture to put into action. Why is that, do you think? 


We're selfish.
We're needy.
We long for attention.
We want to be noticed.
We want to be liked.
We want to be accepted.
We want to be popular.
We want to be told "well done, good job."


Those are just 8 things. Maybe you thought of more. There are probably more. The list goes on, really.
But let's pick those 8 thing apart. 
1.) We're selfish.
This is one of those things that is like the sad truth that no one really wants to accept. Now some of you may do what I just did, and look up the meaning of the word selfish. And reading it, some of you may say "oh my! I'm not like that at all." But come on now.... 
Selfish: devoted to or caring only for oneself; concerned primarily with one's own interests, benefits, welfare, etc., regardless of others. 
I'll be honest with you. The one that stood out to me the most was "concerned primarily with one's own interests." Some people don't consider reading Gods word one of their "interests". But I often feel like some of our interests get in the way of how much we actually DO read his word, and how much time we devote to it. We're so focused on our own interests. I feel we're all selfish in that aspect. Think about that one. 
2.) We're needy.
3.) We long for attention.
These two go together, and are somewhat strange. When you saw them up there you may not have known what they meant or how they applied to the verse. What I meant is that we're needy for the attention of those around us. This one is hard to deny.Especially in this generation. Someone is always doing something that will get the attention of others. Whether it's something good or (sadly) something bad. Because it gives people something to talk about. You become the "hot topic" of conversation.(okay maybe not but you get what I mean..) We want people to be interested in us, and to want to know more about us. 
4.) We want to be noticed.
This one ties in to the two above. We do things to get us noticed. So that people look at us. To get peoples attention. To make people curious about us. 
5.) We want to be liked.
6.) We want to be accepted.
Again, these two go together. We long to be liked and accepted by those around us. And our society today sadly gives us a bad example of how to go about that. When you think of being liked or accepted by someone what do you think of? Probably a lot of different things. I think of doing things that those people like so that they will be accepted. Showing them that you're "good enough" to hang out with them. Showing them how awesome you can be.
7.) We want to be popular.
Pretty simple. We want people to know us. To like us. To look up to us. We want people to know our name.
8.) "We want to be told "well done, good job."
We want to do things that will make people say "Oh my goodness! You are amazing. You're so good at (fill in the blank)." We like feeling accomplished. And we like to know that something we did made someone else notice us. And the things we're good at. And the things we've done.


So now that we went through all of those and broke them down. Let's look at them in a new light.....


We're so focused on His interests, we forget ours.
We want people to be interested in God.
We want people to know more about Him.
We want to make people curious about God.
We want to show people how awesome God can be.
We want people to know His name.
We want people to notice the things He does through us. And the good things He's done in us.


Now compare those and look at the verse again.
"He must become greater, I must become less." John 3:30

Do It.

"Do not merely listen to the word, and so decieve yourselves. Do what it says." James 1:22


I came upon this verse today highlighted and underlined in my bible, but yet I never remember reading it ever before today. And it was one of those, smack in the face, kind of things.


I was at Youth Convention this past weekend, and the speakers last message was titled, "Don't just stand there...... DO SOMETHING." (I'll come back to this in a minute...)


And I had that statement, and entire message in my head in a second when I read this verse. It basically says to not just LISTEN to the word of God, or just READ it. But to DO it. To LIVE it. 
"Do what it says." Read that through a few times. It doesn't say, Try to do what it says. Or, When you want to, do what it says. That is a command. "Do what is says." You know, when your parents tell you to do something instead of asking. Like, they don't always say... "Can you please go clean your room?" It usually sounds more like, "Go clean your room, please." We usually go and do it when there is a period there instead of a question mark. Kinda like this verse. What if it said.... "Could you do what it said, please?" I personally don't think it would've have that slap in the face affect like the real verse does. 


How many times DO we just read our Bibles, and sometimes get a lot of encouraging things out of it, or maybe even something that we needed to hear. But we don't act on it. We just tuck it away inside of us for when we need it again. Don't let the bible be a go-to book for help. I mean, it's great for that, and definitely something you can go to in times of trouble and hard ships, but what would happen if we made it more of a life guide. If we actually starting living out what we learned that day, or that week. What if we all started doing the things God asks of us in the Bible. Things would be different. We would be different. And those around us would be different. Different in the best way possible.


So I'm going to simply leave you with this question.
Are you going to just stand there, or are you going to do something?

Light.

I'm not going to ramble on about how longs it's been since I've posted. But I'm back! Yay!


I'm excited to jump right into this. Would you all turn with me to John 1:1-14.


^"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.
 ⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
 ⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
 ¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

These verses can be a little confusing. But if you are confused just keep reading it a couple times, then come back to this :)


Has anyone ever told you, that in being a Christian, you have the light inside of you? I heard this all the time from different people, and I heard it a lot when I was little. We all probably automatically think "okay... light. Light = God. Light inside of me = God inside of me. Got it." That is true. But have you ever read this verse.... then thought about it? It says.. "In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." Life. It's not just Gods LIGHT inside of us. It's his LIFE. 


-The verse goes on to say.. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." The definition of overcome says... to gain the victory; win; conquer. Darkness HAS NOT overcome it. I heard this somewhere once, not sure who said it but it stuck with me for forever. They said that when light fills a room, darkness is no longer existent. You know, when you turn on a light in a dark room, there isn't a trace of darkness left in that room, because the light overpowers the darkness. 


That's exactly how it is with God. Just think, if his light is inside of us, darkness flees when we walk into a room. Now, I know you guys are thinking, darkness as in bad things. Like sin and things like that. And then you think of how maybe when you're at school, all the "darkness" that is around you there, it doesn't necessarily "flee". No. But it shakes. It gets scared. Because the devil KNOWS that when Gods power is inside of us, once we are walking in it everyday and using it, it's SO SO SO powerful. And he (the devil) KNOWS that he doesn't stand a chance against us. 



Now the question to ask yourself is this: Do you have that light in you? Yes, maybe you have God in your heart and in your life, but are you living in that light, or are you hiding it? Do people look at you and say that you seem different? Are people seeing this light inside your life, or are you hiding it away from the world. Shine your light. Be proud of it. Don't be afraid. Because when you shine that light, and people notice it, that will bring you so many opportunities to share your faith, and Gods love, with others.

"This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God."

Love you all.

Relationship Status | 1.

Yay! New post! Guys, I am so excited for this, and I hope you all are too! So here we go! Let's dive right in.


So, Relationship status is the title of all this. You know how on Facebook you can change your "relationship status" ? The options are usually, Single, In A Relationship, It's Complicated, Engaged, and Married. Pretty obvious right? Not too hard to decide which one you would pick. They're self explanatory. But, what if there was a "Your Relationship With God." tab. What do you think the options would be for you to choose from, and how easy do you think it would be for you to pick one. You'd wonder and worry what other people might think about it. You might make it private so no one else can see. We all have relationships with other people in one way or another. Our relationships with our friends, and our family. Boyfriends or girlfriends. And someone we met maybe one or two times, but still talk to. If you really think deep and hard, you realize how many relationships you have in your life. Now, when it comes to relationships with our friends, we really favor them. We value those relationships so so much. Also with boyfriends and girlfriends. I can't really speak from experience, but those are relationships we tend to value a lot. And usually put so much of our time in effort into. We devote specific time to that person. We take time out of our day, and devote it to them. Whether we're talking to them, or hanging out with them. It's pretty easy (usually :P) to explain your relationship with a friend, or boyfriend/gf to someone else if they ask. But what if someone asked you about your relationship with God? What if I walked up to you and said "So how's our relationship with Jesus Christ going?" You'd be somewhat shocked, right? That's not a normal question that we all go around asking people. But really, what would you reply. What would you tell them, HONESTLY? Sometimes we forget about our relationship with God. It gets pushed behind all the other stuff we're faced with everyday. We need to value our relationship with God MORE than we value our other relationships. There is a difference between calling yourself a Christian, and having a real relationship with God. 
- In our generation, it's so so so easy for us to get distracted. Everywhere we turn, there is something to distract us. Tv, Facebook, Twitter, other people, our phones, games, activities that we enjoy doing. Everything distracts us, and takes our mind off of God. I think people in this generation spend more time on Facebook then they do reading their Bibles. 
- When we're in relationships with guys(or girls, if you're a guy.) We really want them to last. We go to extremes sometimes to keep that relationship together. Are you willing to go to extremes to keep your relationship with God together? Are you willing to go majorly out of your comforts zone, to glorify and please him, and help the relationship grow? Are we willing to give up ourselves, for God. And to have less of us, and more of him in our lives? That's a great big question that I really challenge you guys to chew on, and think about for a while. Sometimes, benefitting our relationship with God, means ending some relationships with other people. Crazy sounding, i know. You think, well God, you put this person in my life... why do you want me to get rid of them all of a sudden. I can say, that in my own life, I've had a relationship or two that, sometimes you just too caught up in them, and then God steps in and says "Hey! You're focusing too much on that other person, so I'm gonna take them away from you, until you learn to rely and lean and depend on me, not them." It's a.. somewhat hurtful thing, but God knows what he is doing. When we trust in him with those types of things, he doesn't let us down. 
I'm gonna wrap this up here in a minute. But let me just end with this. Don't make this a private relationship. It's nothing to be ashamed of. God has chosen us to be his dwelling place. God is in us. Let other people see that. Let your relationship with him show in your actions, and your attitude towards other people. Let him be shown through you, don't hide him inside. Let him out :) And show the whole world. 
- Roman 8:39 - 


Welp, this wraps up part one of my little mini series :) I hope you guys enjoy this. And maybe I'll do a mini series again sometimes soon. Stay tuned for part 2! :)

Preview!

HELLO! It's been so long :) But guess what!!
I'm going to start a mini series. And when I say mini, I mean mini. 
It's a new thing for me so we're going to test it out and see how it goes!
Here's a little preview for ya'll.

Don't Forget.

Woah! I apologize for not blogging for a while.
Well Happy June everyone! Summer is quickly approaching and I am ecstatic about it.


So last night at Incline(My Youth Group) Pastor Anthony was talking about this summer
is going to be a good one. Not just a really fun one, but a life changing one. He said he
feels like God is going to do a lot in a lot of people this summer, and I feel the same. So I
just kind of wanted to share what I feel on my heart, if that’s alright?


Ohhhhh Summertime. It’s just so fun. All the sleepovers, and pool days, and kennywood,
and hanging out all day and night with your friends, and just basking in the hot hot
sunshine. Super fun, right? Sure it is! But let’s not forget something. God. I know that we
get all caught up in all the hoopla and fun times. But don’t forget about God. I feel like
summertime can be a major tempting time. You know what I mean. Some of your friends
might have these crazy parties, and they want you to go and just hang out all night. And
probably do things that you will later regret. Pastor Anthony said something last night (
somewhere along the lines of ) about how, if we can’t look our friends (or whoever ) in
the eye and tell them that, no we don’t want to do that because it’s not pleasing to God,
that we need to check our hearts. That really got me thinkin’. How many times have we
maybe been in the car with a friend with the radio on, and a song comes on that has some
sketchy lyrics in it. What have you said? “Can you change the song, I don’t like this
song.” Okay, that’s not a lie. It’s an excuse, sometimes. I’m not really accusing anyone
here because I know that I have done this and I’ve made up excuses. But what we should
be saying is, “I don’t think God likes this song. It’s not glorifying to him. We should turn
it off.” It’s not like, you can be close with God during the school year, and then “take
off” for the summertime. Still devote so much time to him. All your time to him actually.
Still get in to his word. Don’t just forget about him over the summer. He doesn’t leave
you either. Something that I’m constantly thinking about is that ooooooold saying that I
know we’ve all probably heard atleast once, if not 20 times. That “Would you do that if
God was sitting right next to you.” IF? He IS. It makes you think. What in your life do
you need to change? I agree with Pastor Anthony that this summer is going to be a very
challenging summer for a lot of us. But I’m excited. I know God is going to do great
things. I encourage you guys to keep your hearts wide open to him, and open to what he
has and wants for you. Be open to some changes. It may be scary and hard but just
remember that he is in control. Go after God.


I hope everyone enjoys this gorgeous day today!