Walking Dead 3

"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 

2 Timothy 3:16-17

We wrapped up the third and final week of Walking Dead last night! If you missed out, here's what you missed!

• We treat our bibles the way we treat our trophies-they sit and collect dust! Bibles aren't used for decoration but for transformation!
• A dusty bible=a dirty life!
• Just like medicine, the bible only works when we take it & it cures every sin!
• If we don't want to walk dead, we must be spiritually fed!
• We always want a word from God but we never want to read the word of God!
• The bible's useful! It's our instruction manual!
• We rely on 1 or 2 spiritual meals, being Wednesdays & Sundays, to get us through the week! If we went with only 1-2 meals a week, we'd be cranky & weak! 
• We get knocked down because we leave the house being unequipped!
• We combat the enemies lies with God's truths.
• Some of us go into battle with a dull sword!
• If we aren't in the word, we can't overcome the world! 

'Til next time,

Warm Weather Essentials

Normally, I would start a post like this by saying something like, "As we welcome in the warm weather...", but if you know anything about living in the south (the Carolina's especially) you'll know weather here can never make up it's mind. So, as the last few chilly days are hopefully leaving town, I'll say "as the warm weather approaches us again...hopefully...soon..." I'm going to tell you my must-have products for the warmer days! Most can be found a drugstore unless stated otherwise :)

1. Clean & Clear Deep Action Exfoliating Scrub

I really can't go without this! Not only because it works but because of how it feels! I like using this after going to the gym because it gets the grime off, or if I have to get up super early (which let's be honest, is once in a blue moon) because it tingles and wakes you up! 

2. Loreal Magic Beautifier BB Cream

This is my favorite BB Cream because it gives the right amount of coverage without feeling cakey. I like it also for warmer months because it helps mattify my face. I have pretty dry skin until the Summer time when the shine comes out! The only down side to this product is I don't believe it has a built-in sunscreen like most BB creams so you'll have to layer that on underneath :)

3. Suave Professionals Dry Shampoo

This is a cult product for me year round but it's especially nice to have in the Summer. I normally only wash my hair 3 times a week and in the Summer when I sweat more, this helps me not look like a hot mess!

4. Tangle Teezer

This little thing has saved my life arm & hair! When I say I have extremely tangly hair, that's an understatement! My high school gym coach used to be so impressed by my arm muscles, especially when he found out they were just from brushing my hair! It's a feat to brush out my hair but with this silly looking "brush" it's a breeze! I don't know where it has been all my life! (You can get it at Sally Beauty Supply)

5. Healthy Sexy Hair Soy Tri Wheat Leave-in Conditioner (whew, what a name)

I use this product year round but in the Summer my hair doubles in dryness so I use this everytime I wash my hair right out of the shower. It helps the detangling process, keeps my blonde hair from snapping so much, smoothes, and protects it from the heat! (You can get it at Ulta or TJMaxx on occassion)

6. got2b Beach Trippin' Waving Spray

This product saves me so much time in the Summer. My hair is especially thick, especially frizzy, and especially crazy during the hot months so I pass on the straightener and pick this up after I get out of the shower and it helps keep my mane tamed while letting it do it's natural thing (whatever that is, ha!)

7. Elf Mineral Infused Primer

Now, I don't use this a lot! And you can really use any form of face primer! I actually like just using Monistat Chaffing Relief Powder Gel, also! (don't be grossed out, it serves the purpose!) Like I said, my skin is normally very dry but if I'm going somewhere (an outdoor wedding, etc.) where I need my makeup to not sweat off, I like using a silicone based product to keep it on my face! (You can get this at Target or eyeslipsface.com)

8. CoverGirl Lash Blast Waterproof Mascara

Okay, I really hate waterproof mascara because as long as it takes me to get the tangles out of my hair, it takes twice as long to get this baby off my lashes. However, if I ever go out of the house with no makeup on, 99% of the time I have on mascara so yes, I will wear this to pool parties or the beach...call the cops ;)

9. Maybeline Baby Lips

So "maybe I was born with it baby lips", but no anymore. Just like my skin, my lips are dry if I don't keep something on them! I have to have these in the summer! I use them around the house and at the beach because they keep my lips from peeling off, they have a high SPF in them, and a lot of them add color so why not?

Go get you some and enjoy :)

'Til next time,

Walking Dead 2

"Pray continually." 1 Thessalonians 5:17

Last night we continued on in our Walking Dead Series at Pursuit! It was SO good so if you missed it, I'll help you out and catch you up to what you missed!

• Jesus is dying to talk to you, therefore He took the cross for you. 
• You need God, I need God...we can't do life without constant communication with Him and are spiritually dead without it. Always leave the phone off the hook in your communication with God because He wants to always be talking with you, don't hang up on Him! 
• God gave us scripture as His communication to us but prayer is our way of communicating with him and we treat our prayers with God like Aspirin. We use it as a lifeline when we're in pain, hurting, sick, need to feel better! 
• We pray 10 cent prayers expecting a $1,000,000 answers! We throw up a "God help me ace my test" when we didn't glance at the study guide and while that seems lame, we do it with much more trivial things as well! 
• When we delight ourselves in God, His desires for us become our desires for us.
• When we pray, it helps keep us from sinning but when we sin, it helps to keep us from praying.
• The saddest prayers aren't the prayers that go unanswered but the prayers that go unasked.
• Pray & let God worry :)
• The quickest way to get a room to go silent is to ask someone to pray...(adults, too:))

The challenge was this, set your alarm for a certain time each day to go to a certain place and pray. Give God your struggles, though He already knows them, and keep surrendering to His plan for you! Like I said, God already knows your heart and knows what you're dealing with but He wants you to come to Him and communicate with him. It's hard to have a relationship with someone if you just throw up your hand to them in the hallway or tip your hat to them every once in awhile. Pray, continually.

And last but not least, God does not view our prayers like this :)

'Til next time,

Parenting from a Non-Parent

Husband and I have often times been slightly ridiculed for giving parenting advice because we aren't parents, and while that is a valid reason to be concerned, we actually are parents...in a sense! Though we have no (biological) kids of our own, we've co-"parented" (to an extent) some great students in the past couple of years! Since we are in student ministry, we are always surrounded with teenagers and their parents! As much as we love raising up students, we also love walking alongside their parents as an advocate for them and as a third party looking in! Parents have the most impact on their students...not us! So, it's important for us to help parents and be their number one cheerleader when it comes to raising their students! Over the past 3 years, we have been to parent seminars, hosted some of our own, read parenting books, studied parenting blogs, and tried to help parents when they've needed us. And now I know that none of that compares to actually raising a child of your own, we love to see different styles of parenting and how that influences the children that they get older.

Last weekend we held a parenting seminar at TC and it's always refreshing to hear parents share in their love and struggles of parenting. In case you weren't there, I want to recap some things that could be helpful for you as you parent, not coming from us, but from Mike Landrum, someone who has helped spiritually mentor us in ministry and life. He teaches at a North Greenville University and has helped us tremendously in making ministerial decisions in the past. So, enjoy a breakdown :)

• Live Jesus to your kids! The older your kids get the more they will realize you succeeded. (They won't think you're right at the age of 13)
• God, family, job! Your kids & spouse need to know that you love Jesus more than you love them and eachother! Your kids can tell if your church attendance is just a way to get noticed, just to get your check and leave, or if it is because you truly have a relationship with God! 
• It doesn't take a lot for someone to be influenced by someone but it does take a lot for someone to be impacted by someone. You can't impact your child from a distance! Be IN their lives! Love them through their bad decisions! 
• There are some hills worth dying over and some that are not!!! Say yes as often as you can (if the requests are valid) so that when you say no...you mean no and they know you mean no!!
• Raising kids is not the job of the church! If your kid makes a bad choice, don't blame it on your pastor or student pastor and if your kid makes a good choice, don't praise your pastor or student pastor! (thank God :))
• Be a parent not a friend! Rules with no relationship breeds rebellion! You do need to earn the respect of your kids or else how do you expect them to come to you with their every need? Like mentioned before, you can't make an impact in your child's life from far away...be involved in their lives! Have a relationship with them that involves rules that they can respect because they love & respect YOU as their parent!
• Sometimes the worst thing we can do is overprotect our kids and shelter them from what's going on in the world! If your child wants to smoke weed badly enough, he/she is going to find weed! If they want to sleep with someone badly enough, they're going to find a way to sleep with someone! We need to teach them why sin is sin and that they shouldn't just not sin because "we said so!" Give them a valid reason for why sin is sin..."because it goes against the character of God." And if you've built that relationship with your kids, they will be more likely to come to you with issues of sin and temptation!
• Help kids own their own faith...not your faith...by answering the "Why's?" We see this a lot in student ministry. Kids go off to college having no clue why they believe what they believe and their answer to "Why do you believe that" is answered with "Because that's what my pastor taught me or that's what my parents said". That can be so dangerous!
• We can't have a "head in the sand" mentality when it comes to our culture! We can't ignore it like it's going to just disappear! Teach them to be in the world but not of the world!
• The most effective weapon against sinful forms of popular culture is a strong, healthy family life integrated into a loving community of faith!
• Pop culture is not evil, but it easily takes on evil forms as it tries to please a fallen world. (E.g. your phone is not evil...but can be used for evil. A computer is not evil...but can be used for evil. Your TV is not evil...but is often used for evil.) Monitor them all :) 

Take the time to mentor your kids. Don't brush off their questions about the bible or brush under the rug their deep theological questions. Maybe you don't know the answers to their questions...seek someone you trust that does or else they'll find out from someone or somewhere else! Take the time to love them and build that relationship with them! Let them know that you are their biggest advocate in life aside from Christ! And, just to put in a plug, get them plugged in to church! Bring them to Quest, Chase, or Pursuit on Wednesday nights, if their in college we would love their help on Wednesday nights, get them in a Hometeam (they meet on Sundays or throughout the week), get them to Kid's Camp or "Unleash" Summer Camp coming up, bring them with you on Sundays, get them serving somewhere in the church. I'm telling you, those things will make all the difference in the growth of your child...and plus, we just love to see their faces all the time :)

We will have another seminar in the Fall if you missed out on this one...please make plans to attend! They really are SO helpful! Always praying for ya'll!

'Til next time,

Jesus loves Starbucks, too!

I've decided to take the plunge, knowing a lot of people will not agree with me, but this is a blog right? So I guess it's worthy of my opinion! A few weeks ago my entire Facebook was bombarded with article after article and person after person telling the world how they were no longer going to give Starbucks their business (just google "Dump Starbucks if you missed out)! I thought, "this is gonna have to blow my mind in more ways than one for me to stop going to Starbucks!" Well, after reading two or three articles, I'm still giving Starbucks my business! [GASP] I decided not to post my response right away so that I could do some research on my own and hear from my Starbucks manager friend :) Now I know you're probably shocked to hear why I'm not jumping on the "Lets boycott Starbucks" wagon but if you'll let me explain, I may be able to lessen your heart rate right about now ;-) Haha! Oh, and if you're reading this thinking, she's just being rude and sarcastic...I am a little sarcastic by personality but I'm not meaning to be rude! At all! These are just strictly my thoughts and opinions!

So, why am I going to continue giving my business to Starbucks? Because I give my business to Walmart and they sell alcohol (which has caused great damage among some of my friends)! I also pump gas at gas stations that sell lottery tickets which have caused great pain amongst some people! I also buy books at Barnes and Noble where they sell inappropriate novels and magazines that wreck marriages! I've also eaten at restaurants that are owned by homosexuals! And lastly (but certainly not everything), I have bought wine to cook with at Publix!

These days, it is so difficult to be in the world but not of the world...to be transformed and not conformed...and to love those who aren't like us!! Yet we are called to do so by Jesus himself! I just find it a daunting task to never come in contact with those outside our Christian bubbles! What good are we doing in our world if we make a bunker in the ground and live in it never to breathe life into someone or shine a light in the darkness? Isn't that our job? We can't hide from "bad stuff" and we can't pretend sin doesn't exist! The same sin in "those people" is the same sin in us and Jesus died for it ALL! He didn't go to the cross so that some of us could be saved and then hide it from others and keep it to ourselves! May we all remember that Jesus came to save the world, not condemn the world. This may be a stretch but I think Jesus would sit in Starbucks, drink his coffee, and share the love of the Father with them!

Saying that, Starbucks, you will continue to have my business...same morals or not because I'm going to make it my duty to shine a light in your establishment, drink your coffee, and show you that Jesus loves you, too!

Cheers to Caffeine :)

Walking Dead 1

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:14-17

This week we started a new series at Pursuit, "Walking Dead". I'm pretty excited about this series as we dive into how to walk out our faith in a manner that's ALIVE not dead! Our faith and our actions have go side by side in our lives! Christianity doesn't end with saying a prayer...so, then what? Husband taught on the three types of people that we encounter in our faith, those that are alive, those that are artificial, and those that are just dead. <Which one are you?> We were/are all born dead men walking on the way to death row if we don't have Jesus to make us fully alive! Though our salvation doesn't produce immediate perfection, it should produce new direction...and people should be able to see that! We are doing more harm than good to those who see our actions and instead of portraying Jesus we are betraying Jesus. Is the God you believe the God people see? Believing isn't enough. We all sing "I believe I can fly" but do we really believe we can fly? No. Do we really believe in Jesus if our actions say otherwise? The demons believe and shudder. 

So, is the God you believe the God people see?

'Till next time,

"How was your trip?" Jamaica 2013

"How was your trip?" A question that is popular amongst those that return home from a trip...or anything really! We were told to think about that question our last night in Jamaica and think about how we would proceed to answer it. Now, if you know me, you know I can be very wordy on here but not so much in person because in person I start to feel guilty for taking up too much of your time but on here you choose to read it and I hope you will! So, I'll try my best to answer "How was your trip?"

Going into this past week I was expecting God to move because He always does when you ask! However, I had not prayed for anything too specific just that my eyes and heart be opened to Jamaica. I have been on numerous mission trips and been involved in many service opportunities as a student and young adult...and this past week tops the charts! When people that had been on the trip before kept telling me that it was going to rock my world I laughed and thought to myself "yeah, yeah, they "always do"...I've done missions before..." I've had to ask God to forgive me because they were right...it rocked my world, and more!

Jamaicans have very little yet exude such joy. I think that was the statement that all of us walked away with this week. We worked with them, hung out with them, ate a little bit like them, and lived a little bit like them. Cold two minute showers, wearing the same sweaty clothes over and over again, no AC, lots of sweating and lots of hard work. Yet, with our conditions, we still had it made and that alone blows my mind. The Jamaicans, having little, still take so much pride in their belongings and are joyful with what they have. A very different outlook than us Americans have...never have enough and never happy enough with what we do have. 

This week we were all challenged and accepted that challenge of denying ourselves and taking up our cross. The work was hard and tiring. Our jobs included sorting their thrift store, digging a 10ft pit of rock, working in their massive green houses where they grow produce, building two new foundations for houses to be built upon out of rock and concrete, built and finished two new houses upon existing foundations, hauling marl up hills, and trying to keep the kids at these serving opportunities entertained because they were out of school for the week! Needless to say, the work itself kicked my butt. We were physically exhausted.

 

    

We also had the chance to go to the Infirmary. Now, when they told us exactly what an Infirmary was, I was tempted to fake sick so I wouldn't have to go. This is waaayyyy out of my comfort zone and I was honestly pretty freaked out. The Infirmary is a place where people with special needs or physical needs go to live because their family members cannot care for them. There were individuals there who couldn't walk so they were confined to the ground and individuals who really couldn't even move and were confined to a bed. On the flip side there were people who were blind and people who just had an illness yet had all of their mental faculties. It was just devastating. No words can describe the pain we all felt for these people yet again we were blown away at the joy they had in Jesus. They just wanted us to play worship songs and read scripture to them (most of which could recite an entire Psalm back to you...we have no excuse when it comes to memorizing scripture, people!) So, just as we were physically exhausted, we became emotionally exhausted.

We also had the opportunity to dedicate the two houses that we built to these families!

Husband and I along with Peyton Hibbard were able to deliver the goats that our students had raised money for this past Christmas to a lady and our students were able to meet her! That was pretty cool finally being able to realize just the impact goats have on their community. They are a source of life!

The last night in Harmons we were able to present our new friends, Bigga's family, with some "basics" of life. They had saved for two years to add an addition onto their house and only a few short months following that, that addition burned to the ground! Our group rallied and rebuilt that addition and more!

Later on the last night we had a special service for our Team. We entered into a room with music and candlelight where stations were set up around the room and outside reminding us all that God had done that week. I sat down at a station that was specifically for the children of Harmons and that's where God spoke to me. Most of our family members know this about us, but I was able to share with our Team how God had laid it upon my heart about 5 years ago in a chapel service at AU to adopt children that were culturally different than me. Husband and I have been talking a lot about it lately but are so stressed out about the details. God was clear to me this week as he said, "Plan less...Pray more"! So whether it's in a year as our first child or in 10 years after we try to have children of our own, God confirmed to me that that's His will for our family. We followed that with a foot-washing service. I had never been a part of one, and as each individual had their feet washed and then washed another's feet, we became spiritually exhausted.

Our time in Jamaica was one that I will never forget. It was emotional to hear how God had spoken so differently to all 32 members of our team. Our God is real and our God is so good. He's a God of many cultures and many backgrounds. He is a God that still reigns sovereign and a God who gives JOY and peace through hurt and pain. He's unchanging and works for the good of ALL who love Him and call of Him no matter what part of the world you live in. His promises remain. Our God's arms spread across the whole world...and so should ours.

To end my mini novel on our week in Jamaica, the whole week this song played over and over in my head.
From babies hidden in the shadows To the cities shining bright There are captives weeping Far from sight For every doorway there's a story And some are holding back the cries But there is One who hears in the night. Great God Wrap Your arms around this world tonight Around the world tonight And when You hear our cries Sing through the night So we can join in Your song And sing along We'll sing along. For the farthest corners of the earth Still His mercy reaches Even to the pain we cannot see And even through the darkness There's a promise that will keep us There is One who came to set us free.

Thank you, Tony, for your "man behind the scenes" approach this week! You've blessed our hearts in ways that you will never know! Thank you for all of the wonderful pictures you took and all of your hard work! 

 'Till next year, Jamaica!