Christmas in America!!!!

As Americans, silly little traditions have become such a big part of our lives. By far, Chritmas day has always been my favorite day of the year. I honestly have never slept the night before Christmas, from the lack of ability to stop my excitement. My parents keep waiting for me to out grow it....but I just can't.


I really have struggled with the idea of being away from my family this Christmas. I will miss the baking, leaving cookies for santa, waking up to see what he brought, seeing the cookie crumbs, and opening presents. (I obviously know santa isn't real....but the traditions always stuck)


Gina, my roommate who is also one of my best friends, has a Birthday coming up on Christmas eve. We decided that that this weekend we would celbrate her birthday on friday and then "Christmas" the next morning. We started out with going to Macaroni grill for dinner, and then having a party at our house after. Things elevated from there, and I have to say....This has been one of the most memorable Christmas's EVER! Look at these pictures and read the captions to see what we have been up too!

We really got into decorating for the party

We made Ginas favorite....red velvet cake!

Precious Gina blowing out all 21 of her candles

We then decided, if it was Christmas we needed a Santa to come eat our cookies (my parents have always done it) So we gave our friend, Will, our house key and made him a santa outfit!

Making Santa cookies

Hung the stockings

We were upstairs getting ready for bed and we heart a noise.
We ran downstairs and this is what we saw....

leaving presents

    We woke up to "snow" on Christmas morning...every girls dream! (I made these cool snowflakes)

We opened presents, listened to Christmas music, and made pancakes! We now are currently watching Christmas movies.

I seriously have AMAZING FRIENDS! The past two days have been so wonderful! Merry Christmas!

ONE WEEK UNTIL I BOARD THE PLANE!

A week from today I board a plane for Africa. Wow! A year ago, almost exactly is when God started speaking to me that I was to go there. I think that after a year of talking about it, the reality I am really going doesn't seem much like reality.

The last post I wrote about Africa was saying I was about halfway through raising support. Amazingly, about a week after that post I had raised all the money I needed to buy a plane ticket. He has proved to be faithful through monetary aspects of this trip.

I prayed that God also give me opportunities to use this trip as a witnessing tool for this past year. Many times, I have been given the opportunity to do so. People sometimes seem confused on why I would go to Africa for Christmas, so may explaination is a great way to share my faith. My favorite instance is when sometime asked, "what is a missions trip?" That opened a lot of doors to share the Gospel. Ironically, this same person randomly came into the lives of some dear friends of mine, and He now attends church on a weekly basis with them.

 Also, to be completely honest, I have been given many similar opportunities that I have by-passed. It amazes me how many times I have done this  throughout my life. Actually, it surprises me how many times I have done that just this week.

I pray ALL the time God give me boldness to share His word, and He gives it too me....and I dismiss it. This recently has been my biggest struggle pertaining to my trip to Africa. If I fail to share the Gospel here, in my daily life...why am I going to Africa? What makes me good enough for that? Its something I am constantly convicted about, and try to learn from. Luckily God is bigger than me, and knows what He is doing. Why He is using weak me, I often can't understand....its been a humbling experience for sure!

Pray for me as I prepare my heart. I am so ready to go "Tell the Nations!" but am TERRIFIED all at the same time.

Be looking out for another post tomorrow about details of what I will be doing in Liberia.

He Prepared My Heart

(I have not blogged in a LONG time. 1. because my life has been out of control 2. blogspot locked me out of my account)

Over the last few months so much has happened. I have learned a lot of great life lessons as "life" itself has slapped me in the face.

One Monday afternoon I led a bible study at this cute diner in downtown Raleigh. We even dressed for the occasion. As requested by a peer, at the diner I led a study of 1 Corinthians. As we went chapter to chapter we pulled out teachings applicable to our life.

Us girls at the Diner

Applications of chapter 10 went on and on... but one verse struck us all the most.

1 Corinthians 10:13 says,  "No temptation has overtaken you that is unusual for human beings. But God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. Instead, along with the temptation he will also provide a way out, so that you may be able to endure it."

Wow! How comforting to know this truth. We began to discuss times in our lives that bad things happened, and though they were hard, God provided us with a way to endure it.

That night when I got home this same scripture was posted as someones status on facebook. The next day I read it in a tweet on twitter. That following weekend I attended a retreat where I would be hearing several testimonies. Two girls included this scripture in their testimonies. That night the praise and worship leader introduced a song by using this verse.

Later that evening I told a dear friend of mine that I was worried. I knew this scripture was the truth, but the fact it was reappearing in my life so many times made me think something bad was about to happen. This was not the last time I would hear this verse that night. I remained slightly frightened, but prayed that God would continue to prepare my heart, if in fact that was what He was doing.

Sunday we returned from the retreat, and that night I got a heart breaking phone call. Someone very important to me had been diagnosed with cancer, and it wasn't good.

The week to follow would be a long, confusing, and worry-filled week. That Saturday, Ms. JoAnne Croix  went to be with the Lord. It was probably one of the hardest realities I have had to face.

Ms. JoAnne

Through the pain... 1 Corinthians 10:13 remained in the back of my head.... actually the front of my head, and on the tip of my tongue, and in the depth of my heart. It truly did comfort me.  What is most amazing is God is right...He did not give me more than I could handle, and He did provide me with the strength to see this trail through. Not only did God comfort me, but I watched in comfort so many people around me.

Not only is scripture the truth, but it is alive, and this experience was confirmation to me. God is good all the time. All the time God is good.