June 18, 2011

This past weekend, husband and I traveled to Charleston, SC to partake in the wedding festivities of my college roomie, Amanda. Amanda and Brad have been dating for several years so everyone was SO excited to see them tie-the-knot (even the priest!!) The wedding was beaut-i-mus and we got to catch up with one of our couple friends! Here's the weekend via pics!

Happy Marriage, Amanda and Brad...We love ya'll :)

Happy Dad Day

 ^"5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." Deut. 6:5-7

Thank you, Dad for impressing the Lord upon me, Jessica, Stephen, and John. Thank you for never neglecting us through your years of ministry and for always making all of our sporting events and activities! Your dedication to us has never gone unnoticed and we thank you for that! Thank you for being the parent that Jesus teaches His followers to be. LOVE YOU, Dad!

Suffering

I wanted to a "camp post" that summarized all of camp...but I think I will write something that has been heavy on the hearts of our students and then post some pics later. Lately, through talking to some of the students, it has become truly evident that what most of these guys and girls are going through is...suffering. Suffering for their faith, suffering through family loss, and suffering through relationships. This morning I was reading Philippians 1:12-20: Paul uses his chains in prison to advance the gospel. I think the main question that comes to mind when we endure hard trials in our lives is "Why, God?"..."Why me? A good person?"..."I can't handle this."..."Why would something like this be for your glory?". Well the answers to those questions are simple yet tough and the answers will always be, "We don't know". I believe that if we knew why God did everything that He does then He would not be God. God is a god that is unexplainable. However, we DO know that God places everything in our paths to advance His name...to give Him glory.


When Paul was imprisoned, His focus was still not on himself, but on the Lord. Whenever I endure trials, I think of the many trials that Christ went through for me. We were made to be like Christ in all aspects of our lives...and that does involve suffering for Him in the same way He suffered for us. I'm sure that while sitting in chains in jail, Paul had no idea what was going to happen...he didn't know God's plan for that jail. However, Paul kept preaching and he kept telling others the joy of Christ. Through Paul's perseverance through suffering, prisoners in the jail found Christ, people were saved and would therefore go out and preach the name of Jesus.


There are so many things we go through in life that leaves us questioning "Why." Well, the answer remains, "For the Lord". Though we may not see an immediate response as to why God has us go through things, He does promise to reveal Himself in time. The only way for us to get through sufferings is through prayer and through faith knowing that He does not do anything "just because"...He does EVERYTHING for His glory. Scripture says that He will never give us anything that we cannot handle...so if you are going through suffering, know that God thinks you are strong enough and has chosen you to reveal Himself to.


I'll leave you with the neatest thing from camp:
The Wave Baptisms