3.31.2008

Whooo!!!

I have recently developed a mild obsession with country music, its pretty great! I have a bunch of it on my playlist at the bottom of this page, you should have a listen!

Openness and Brokenness

I was reading my sister Mel's blog and talking to her earlier today and realized that I feel the same exact way she does. I do not feel safe of confident in sharing my heart with my immediate family members...for several reasons. She is probably the only one that I can really express myself to and not feel judged, condemned or anything like that. I don't feel like I am all that close with my family, I don't really feel like they know my heart and who I really am and what I stand for. There is only one person in the world that I know that I tell absolutely everything and that is my accountability leader and best friend Aly. She opens her heart to listen to me, to offer her wisdom, insight, and she is the most radiantly beautiful person I know. I tell her everything, and if I don't, I fell bad and it nags at my heart until I do tell her what I am feeling or have done. I share my heart with her and what God is speaking to me and working in me without holding anything back. I wish my family was like that, but it just isn't that way with them. Nobody understands and I don't want to be to vulnerable out of my own fear of rejection...that's something God is working with me on, and I desperately need to change. BUt, for now, the person I love and the only person I can talk to with no secrets is my Aly. Even in this moment I am trying to figure out how to tell her something that is really difficult for me to say, cause I hate breaking her heart and doing things that hurt her, but I must tell her. Anyway, these are my thoughts for the day.

3.29.2008

Heartwork: Uganda

The high school group at my church is in the middle of an inredible project called Heartwork:Uganda. We have been offered by a man at world missions to raise up to $60,000 and he would match every cent. Well, what is this money for? It is to build 4 orphan homes in Uganda. Each home costs $30,000 to build. With this project, we are going to rescue countless children from the horrors of homelessness, disease, and child-traficking. We will rescue thousands of little kids like Adanna (see a few posts earlier.), and make an eternal impact on their lives and on the Kingdom of God. So far, in four weeks, _Tag has given of their heart and lives to raise $43,546.08 - that is amazing! Pray that God will continue to move on our hearts and for the kids and families that will be impacted by this project. That the Kingdom of Heaven, and the justice of the King would reign on this earth. =)

3.22.2008

Lifehouse- Everything Skit

3.21.2008

Adanna's Story

I read this heart wrenching story in the book "Red Letters: Living A Faith That Bleeds" by Tom Davis, and it broke the deepest parts of my heart and opened my eyes to the injustice that is so prevailant in our world today.

“Adanna’s name is a beautiful African word meaning “father’s daughter.” But Adanna won’t live until the next harvest unless something drastic happens. In her home country of Zimbabwe, there are no jobs, there is no money, and the only thing certain is the death that surrounds her.
The expected life span for people in her country is only thirty-three. She has watched her mother, father, and her sister waste away to AIDS. Adanna is now in charge of her family. She is the head of the household.
She is ten years old.
Adanna’s parents left no way for her to care for herself and the rest of her family. She has exhausted every favor from her neighbors, every form of assistance from surviving relatives, and sold her last possession for food. But she and her brother and sister woke up starving again this morning.
There is only on way for them to survive. Adanna has heard about a group of local men who will trade food for sex. Dare she even consider such a thing? For all of her life she has dreamed of someday having a family of her own. She has protected her purity because she wants the man she marries to be the only lover she ever knows. Her mother taught her this.
Adanna’s dreams and her purity mean everything to her, but if she doesn’t eat soon, neither will matter. She will be dead.
Children grow up fast in Africa. She makes a decision. A terrible, necessary decision. She goes to these men. Perhaps they’ll have compassion for her. Perhaps they’ll give her food without asking anything in return. They look at her, they grab her, they fondle her, and they laugh. They refuse to give her food. “Why should we give you anything, you ugly little mongrel?” they shout.
They tell her to go into the back room of the store and wait. She steps into a room that smells of urine and mold. She is shaking. A sickly man is sleeping in the corner.
Suddenly, three men come in drinking and shouting. They approach her not as a human being but as a mere animal. She screams. She cries. Nobody is listening. Nobody cares.
And they steal her dreams.
She leaves with food. Enough to keep her alive. But what kind of life? She has just contracted HIV. She will die of AIDS within three years.”

3.16.2008

HOW HE LOVES!!!!!

This is one of my new favorite worship songs, I first heard it at a friday night Furnace prayer meeting. It is so powerful. It was written by John Mark McMillan...

"How He Loves"
"He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are, and how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us so

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
and If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t the have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way... that..

He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us so

The chords for the whole song are C - Am7 - G - F (if you're a musician!)

If you want to hear the story behind it, check out this youtube video, (be forewarned! you might want to be ready to cry if you're going to watch this video)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Chx6s3qXKt4

How He Loves! God is good!

3.09.2008

Grrr...

That's all. Grrr. I don't even know what to say, I just thought I would say it since I haven't posted in forever. Grrrr. Peace out!