1996-Millbrook-2013

I love any excuse to visit my family! Normally it goes hand-in-hand with seeing a baseball game as well because if I want to see my family, I have to 9 times out of 10 see a baseball game! Good thing I love it! So, last weekend me and mom ventured to Jacksonville to see Stephen play and this weekend I went to see John play near my hometown which was perfect because the main reason I went back was for something a lot bigger than a baseball game (sorry, John ;)

Close to 17 years ago, me, my angry butt (and man, I was real mad...where the heck was Aiken anyways!) and the rest of my family made the move from Greenville, SC to Aiken, SC for my dad to lead pastor a church! As a fourth grader, I didn't really care where God had call my dad cause he wasn't calling me! So I secretly made arrangements to live with a friend...'cause that's what kids do, right? Ha! Well it only took my first day of school to prove me wrong, which He has done quite often in my life. I quickly made the best of friends and the rest is history! But my dad has always said that the "dash" on a tombstone is the most important...and though that would be a book in itself, let me just pinpoint some of the dash in between 1996-2013, shall we?

• Salvation & Baptism of Jessica, Stephen, and John
• I met Heather, Ashley, Ashley, Mandy, Nicole, Lindsey, Ashleigh, Bailey...and so many others that were the best friends I could've ever asked for during different times of my life! I thank ya'll for that!
• My 4th-12th grade small group leaders...you have ALL made quite the lasting impact on my life! Not only did you disciple and teach me but you did life with me and my friends! Thank you for always opening your home to me and coming to see me play basketball and cheer! That has shaped the kind of leader that I try to be today! I love you all immensely! It was so good to see some of you on Sunday! See you soon ;-)
• Thank you, Mike & Debbie Chandler, Brandon & Ashley Bowers, and Stephen & Morgan McNeil! You invested in the life of my teenage and adult years when it was easy and when it was hard, helped me stay the course, and played a profound role in my passion for students! I love you guys to the moon and back! 
• We saw a new beautiful facility go up and bought tons of new property! Thank you, Church, for investing in the lives of people in Aiken to help fill the seats, see people saved and baptized, and disciple others!
• I interned one summer in the student ministry with Jake & Jenn Edwards, met my husband through that (I'm forever grateful to you both!), and got married at Millbrook! 

Millbrook, thank you for investing so much of your time, energy, talents, and money into my family! Your love will never return void for me! Yes, my parents have done a phenomenal job raising their kids and have poured so much prayer into our lives that has molded us into the Christ followers that we are today, however, they couldn't have done all of that without the encouragement and leadership of some of you! Thank you for being a refuge for my family. Thank you for allowing me to LOVE the Church!! A lot of Pastors kids can't say that but I can and I thank YOU for that! Please, love your next Pastor and his family in the same way that you have loved all of us! I could go on and on but my words could never fully say how I feel about you! So, in the words of my dad on Sunday, I will just say ... 

"How can you love Jesus and not His Church! Jesus is using YOU to build His church You have a job to do! YOU are the 29th chapter of Acts! The Church won't fail you, don't fail it! Continue the Good work! Don't give up! Don't reminisce or sit on your hands!! The Church shall move AHEAD and MAKE DISCIPLES! Make it about JESUS"

Please continue to pray for my parents in the next phase of their lives! Pray that they continue to have a burning passion for those who do not have a relationship with Jesus and that they would continue to storm the gates of hell! Pray for their next church and their new city...that they will be on fire to reach others no matter the cost! Pray for the practical matters of it all: for a house to sell and a smooth transition to a different city! Pray for clarity and guidance in a chaotic world! And as you pray for them, we will pray for you!

'Til next time MB,

Know God--->Show God

 This weekend Pursuit students ventured to Cedar Grove Retreat Center for a little retreat action. We wanted to focus on building relationships and knowing God so that we can better show God. I loved this weekend because being still fairly knew to Team Church, I got to better know some of the kids and leaders who are hysterical and loving! I obviously don't want this post to be three pages long (although that would be easy) but if you're anything like me, you won't read it...you'll just skim it! So, for that reason, I like bullet points. I like simplicity. And I like catchy-easy-to-remember-one liners! So, here we go. This is what we hammered home in all four sessions this weekend:

• When we don't view God correctly, we risk worshipping God for not who He truly is, but who we've created Him to be! 
• Our view of God affects the way we pursue Him and the way we live!
• How can we change the way the world views God? By the way Christians live!
• Our God is a promise maker...& a promise keeper! What are we blaming God for?
• The only way to not waste your life is to chase after Christ! What we we doing that is wasteful?
• What relationships need to be restored in order to no longer waste time?
• Sometimes, we as Christians, do more harm than good! Are we shaming the name we are claiming? 
• What part of Jesus do we not want to shine through in our lives?
• If a non-believer had to characterize Jesus by looking at our lives how would He be portrayed?
• The world is so dark but we carry the Light. Others need our Light to see in the dark!
• All of us create a city on a hill that cannot be shaken!
• Don't walk around covering up the Light! 

We call our student ministry "Pursuit"- Pursuing God and loving others! One of our own worship leaders, Katie Balich, wrote an original song for our ministry called "Pursue" and we were able to debut it this weekend! Ultimately our longing for these students is that they will chase God and love everyone and we wanted them to get that this weekend! Here are some ways in which God worked this weekend! 

We also partied a little...

And played in the mud...

 

And roasted s'mores!

Pursuit, 

Hux & I LOVE you guys and gals and are PROUD of your pursuit for the Lord and you're LOVE for all people! Thank you for being excellent, obedient, and open to what Christ wanted to do in your life this weekend! Don't hold anything back in your chase. We're already looking forward to next year!! BUT...Summer camp first...get ready!! :)

Pinterest Love

Contrary to the title, I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day...never have been! I think it's a sweet idea but I just really believe that every day should be Valentine's Day... cliche, I know. For that reason, my creative juices don't really flow all too well and I usually pass on the Love day decor in the Hux house...so, today I'm stealing some cuteness from other people to share with you. Enjoy :)

True love ;)

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I'm a smores-aholic so this makes my mouth water!

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Can't have a Love day without love nails!

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I'm not a "dressy"girl...I'd opt for an oversized sweater over a dress on most days everyday. 

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Contradicting the previous picture, I'd rock these shoes...(with a baggy sweater) ;-)

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Who doesn't love cute kiddos?

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And lastly, a good mushy love song! Don't judge me!

Happy Love Day to you!

Just for Kicks

Just in case you need some cheering up...and it may help if you join in like our students did at the Pursuit kick-off party!  You can see that on my Facebook page :)


'Til next time!

BOY meets GIRL

This week kicked off our new relationship series at Pursuit, "Boy meets Girl". As Hux mentioned last night to the students, we decided to call it that for a reason! Boys/Men are the ones that are to pursue the girl in the relationship yet nowadays it's becoming more popular for the girl to do the chasing!

Some points I jotted down from last night that were right on the money:

• Before you date, your relationship with God must be GREAT! (If you know anything about my husband, you know he's a rhymer ;) Another human (sinner) cannot fulfill your life! This is why so many young people break up and "life is over!" They were using someone else to "complete" a whole in their heart only God can fill! God should be the center of our worship, not someone else...because they will fail us. 
• It's better to be lonely & single (with God) than in a relationship and miserable! Remember two sinners doesn't equal 100% happiness, it equals double the sin ;)
• Are you being the person someone else is looking for? We all have our "perfect person" in mind...down to a tee. But are we working on ourselves just as much?
• God is the manufacturer of our bodies...therefore, He knows how the work and function best! (Just like a car manufacturer knows their car better than anyone!) Don't let something unholy (sexual fulfillment) enter something holy (our bodies)!
• GOD DOESN'T MAKE JUNK! Are you selling your body? Or your heart?

Once the video goes up online, I'll put it up on here...don't you just love modern-day technology? ;-)

'Til next time!

Asleep in the Dark

"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints..." Eph 1:18

I'm not a sleeper. By that I mean that it takes me 3 hours awhile to fall asleep at night. However, it's a whole lot easier for me to fall asleep in the dark...as opposed to trying to fall asleep with the lights on. Isn't that how we function spiritually sometimes? Our eyes become so adjusted to the dark that we fall asleep, lose hope, and our vision becomes blurred.

I'm not usually one to have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night but I have before. You walk into the bathroom, turn on the lights, and suddenly you cover your eyes and get a headache (at least I do!) That's how we become. Desensitized to the light. It takes time to re-focus and get on track as to where we should be heading. That being said, we shouldn't expect life-change overnight. I see this a lot working with students. We expect them to go from sleeping in the dark to walking focused in the light right away. On rare occasion it does happen but on more than one occasion it takes a lot of time and guidance. Sometimes we need to move gradually from the flicker of a candle burning to a light switch. So don't give up hope on those you love still asleep in the darkness. People need people. People need us to help guide them to and through the light.

For those of us that are asleep, remember that we have the riches of his glorious inheritance. He's called us to be awakened with life.

"You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light." Ps. 18:28

January Favorites

Per husbands request, I have channeled my inner "blogger" once again and hopefully can keep up with it! The only way I knew I would be able to keep up with it is if my Type-A self made it a part of my schedule. So we'll see how successful I can be. :) Normally on Mondays (according to my new schedule), I will post a weekend/Sunday service re-cap, but this Monday will be an exception because I wasn't in our services yesterday. We had a special guest at the Hux household and Team Church this weekend! The Simpsons spent some of the weekend with us playing the role of our great friends...and Cinderella :) Our church has been navigating through a parenting series for the past couple of weeks, "OMG...I'm a parent!",  and yesterday was centered around raising your daughter, so naturally we needed a princess and Monica is a princess for a living so we hired her for Sunday! We escorted her around the children's areas and it was hilarious watching kids try to put together the fact that Cinderella had left Disney World for the day to come see them!

So, long intro short, today I'll do a little something that I started doing before my hiatus and mention some of my favorite things from the past month! So, let's jump in :)

BEAUTY PRODUCTS

COVERGIRL LASH BLAST VOLUME MASCARA IN BLACK, EUCERIN AQUAPHOR HEALING OINTMENT, LOREAL MAGIC SKIN BEAUTIFIER BB CREAM IN LIGHT, PHILOSOPHY PURITY FACE WASH, CLARISONIC MIA, CLINIQUE ACNE SOLUTIONS SPOT HEALING GEL, NYX BUTT NAKED EYES PALETTE, ESSIE NAILPOLISH IN TOPLESS & BAREFOOT, WET N WILD NAILPOLISH IN TICKLED PINK, TAYLOR SWIFT WONDERSTRUCK "ENCHANTED" PERFUME, BIG PEARL & BOW STUDS (FOREVER21), NYC BRONZER IN SUNNY, REAL TECHNIQUES BRUSHES (MULTI-TASK, EXPERT FACE, & ESSENTIAL FOUNDATION) ULTA EYESHADOW IN CAMEL, STILA LIP PENCIL  IN CHARMING

FAVORITE SONGS

FAVORITE EVENT

Passion 2013

TV SHOWS

 

PIC

VERSE

"You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance."

Psalm 65:11

'Til next time!