#fallretreat #lakejames #collegelife2014 #Godisawesome #ActiveChristiansToday #2014 #1988

Fall retreat 2014

 Hannah's Baptism

 new friends

 look in the background....the upper classmen are photo bombing the freshmen :-)

 I love this sweet freshmen...such a quiet, gentle spirit.

 wish I had a better picture of our amazing speaker! 

Lake James is such a beautiful place, it is so easy to feel

 close to God there!

#retreat #LakeJames #collegelife

ACT Fall Retreat @ Lake James 1988

other than the less than flattering hair...not much has changed :-)

women's Bible study and International Women

a picture is worth a thousand words, so this blog is mostly going to be pictures of all the amazing women I get to work with throughout the week! 

Girls sleepover

Girls Bible Study

We celebrated my baby brother Mike's 36th Birthday

 my broth

Ellie played 3 volleyball games and I kept score for all of them ;-)

went with Saudi women to a latino cultural event

made new friends....

English Corner/Conversation partners.....we took lots of pictures, but I can't share most of them!

bend and don't break

As Paul and I walked past these amazing trees we were struck by how small around, yet tall they are! How can something so thin not break when our crazy wind blows!?!?!?

...

They are very flexible!

If these trees did not bend they would break!

It was windy today and these trees were swaying back and forth a ton....they are so tall, the tops are not protected by any other tree in the forest because they tower over them all, they never stop reaching for the sun.....

I am reminded that this is the only way we as Christians can continue to grow under the pressures of this life. We must  continually reach for the SON.

we MUST be flexible in the masters hands.

It is in being willing to bend to HIS will that we become unbreakable to the winds of this world.

  

And they grow in community!

 they help each other withstand the winds....I'm so glad I have this guy by my side, he helps me grow and he blocks the winds of this harsh world that try to knock me over!

AND HERE THEY ARE :-)

Here are the girls that God sent me this quarter to mentor. We had a blast our first 2 meetings and I have no words for how excited I am for the rest of the year.

I am blown away at how HE has answered prayers and drawn just the girls he wanted in this group together. Two have a class together and got paired up for a class project....AFTER they both came separately to my study! Another girl I have known since she was 8 but I have not seen her in many years. another girl I have known since she was little, but she did not come because she knew who I was! And two of the girls graduated from Emmanuel.

One story I Have to share is about a girls who's Bible app didn't work on her phone so I fished one out of my book shelf....she got a strange look on her face and opened up to the front. it turns out that many years ago she was given the exact same adventure Bible as a gift and she can remember reading the 10 commandments for kids in the front....one stuck out to her when she was in 4th grade....."save sex for marriage" she still remembers that moment when she read that. Our study is on Love Sex and Dating. It was confirmation for her that God wanted her to be in this study and that she should save sex for marriage.

I am super excited to have Q join us, she is the only "veteran" ACTer and she is an awesome asset! I am also having a great time getting to get to know my best friends (an ACT alum) daughter a lot better as she is in this study as well!

I have also met with 4 international women for conversation partners/English Corner. once the semester gets underway I'm am expecting that number to triple.

Add 17 Volleyball games to that and we are off to the races :-)

thank you all who support me! I could not do this without you!

to give to ACT you can click on this link

http://actoday.org/giving

Campus/international ministry is AMAZING!

It has been an amazing privilege to get to know this family from Taiwan this summer. Jennifer and Ben (the kids) spent a week with me in at TNC doing a missions trip and are going to Emmanuel for 2 weeks before they go back home! They are getting exposed to Jesus in a HUGE way :-)
The mom, Jean, is an visiting scholar at UT and we were connected through English corner. We laugh a lot together and can relate to each other about being moms of teenagers! that is universal!

Another dear young lady that I met while leading English Corner is asking a lot of questions and

is reading the gospel of John in her native language. I am able to share Jesus with her at UT when we both could be killed for doing that in her country! God is SOOOO good! 

8 girls came to my first Bible Study!

We had a wonderful time getting to know each other and I'm really looking forward to learning and Growing together this semester. One amazing fact is that I have known 5 of the 8 some other way throughout the years but most did not know who I was! I have prayed for the last 6 months that God would lead me to who HE wanted in this study and he has led a girl that I taught Sunday school when she was 8, A girl that I took to volleyball when she was 12, two Emmanuel Alumni and a girl from Westgate! I did not seek these girls out! or would I have even known how to find them! God is amazing!

This last week has been full of prayer walks around campus, 2 English Corners, womens Bible study, freshmen picnic, activities fair, bonfire night on campus, taking a student without a car to UT, taking Ben and Jennifer home every afternoon, helping out at Emmanuel in the morning, getting ready for Lily's 13th birthday and tonight is Ellie's first Volleyball game.

THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO PRAY FOR ME AND SUPPORT ActiveChristiansToday!

I could not spend the hours that I do with students if it were not for your support and I would not be effective if it were not for your prayers!!!!

thank you

thank you

thank you

for me to continue working on campus I will need to raise some of my own support. If you would like to be a part of my ministry team please give to ACT and designate it to women's ministry.

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HE DELIGHTS IN ME

Psalm 18 has this little vs. stuck in the middle of it that just jumped right out of the page at me! It it the truth that saved my life when I was depressed as a high schooler and encourages me to smile and have great confidence in HIS love for me now. Even when Im not all that lovable!

HE RESCUED ME BECAUSE HE DELIGHTS IN ME....I HAVE NOT DONE EVIL BY TURNING FROM MY GOD.

WOW does this encourage me! I have not done evil.....BY TURNING FROM HIM....so when I am sinking and feel like a total failure the only real thing I can do to make HIM disappointed in me is to TURN AWAY FROM HIM. Because HE delights in me  HE longs for me to delight in HIM, to BE with HIM to WORSHIP HIM to TRUST IN HIM. I don't have to be perfect, i don't have to always have it right, i don't have to have all the right answers...I just need to REST in the fact that HE DELIGHTS in me. 

I need to Laugh more....worry less

Not just the me that adopted 2 special needs children or the me that is a campus minister or the me that teaches Sunday school or the me who helps with my daughters Volleyball team....BUT the me who checks facebook before i pick up my Bible, the me that can't seem to love the way I WANT to  love my family, the me that did not cook dinner last night and the me that watched netflix all day because I was just to tired to do anything else.....

some days you just need to crash!

HE DELIGHTS IN ME.....and for this busy, crazy day....that is enough :-)

Rion Paige - Judges are "Blown Away" - THE X FACTOR USA 2013