Family weekend full of memories!

This weekend me and my family went down to see my Great Grandmother. She lives in assisting living because she has Alzheimer's. The night we got in South Carolina we went right over to see her. She was so excited to see us! I noticed that she kept staring at me. She said she couldn't believe how big I've gotten. We think she is remembers me as a little girl so its hard to process that I'm 19 years old. She still remembers us and some things which is good. I was happy she rememberd ALL of us!
On Saturday we celebrated MawMaws birthday! She was really happy that everyone came out to spend time with her and have a good time!

 I got to see my cousin Erica we have always been close. We don't get to see each other much, but when we do we always have fun!

I am so glad me and my family got to go down to see my mawmaw i know everything meant a lot to her! I love spending time with my family!

So this is Love.

    Today, I went to a wedding. And if anyone knows me they know I absolutely LOVE weddings!! It is really weird for me to say that I have a friend from high school that is married, but I am extremely happy for them! It was a really unique wedding I love everything about it. They did all different things I have never seen before in a wedding. Instead of the wedding march going when she came down the aisle they played "This is Love" from Cinderella. That absolutely just describes her. It was really grand!

  The wedding really felt like a high school reunion, crazy as it sounds it really did. Me and my friend Jessica Driggers walked in and we saw all these people we went to school with. It was really great getting to see everyone that I haven't seen in a really long time! The cake they had was awesome i loved it they were so neat (:  

I wish them many great, awesome years together. I am so happy for the happy couple! Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Justin Fyan!!

It's over...? yes, that's crazy it came to fast. Don't you think so?

How crazy the end of my year has been! I've been so busy i haven't gotten to update! Well,i will catch you up to date! I finished my 20 page paper YAY! Shortly, after that i graduated on May 21, 2011. It was such an wonderful day! i loved every second of it. Even though i cried so much the whole time. Mostly, my tears were happiness, but others were because i knew me and my friends will go our separate ways no matter how hard we try. I love my senior class so much we seemed more like a family then classmates which I am so grateful for. 

If i had to tell someone about my senior year I would probably say it was the most stressful year I have ever had in a really long time. But when I look back at all the great times i had, the laughs and great memories I made with everyone I'm thankful for everyone that was part of my senior year because they made so much greater! (Now, i bet your wondering what I'll be doing for college. Well, i will share that at another entry!) (:

  But my new adventurer that I am going to be taking on is going to Tegucigalpa, Honduras! I will be leaving this coming Friday at 3 am (24th) and will return July 5th! It's going to be an awesome opportunity and I am so thrilled to see what God is going to do for this city!

I didn't think i would be able to make it on this trip because i was so low on money, but My Savior found me a way! He always finds a way and I'm so happy he is my father! Happy Fathers day to our heavenly father and to all the dads everywhere! Dads are such an important role in a child's life and it is so important that we show that we are grateful for what they do! But this is all for now i will share more on my trip and keep all of you guys updated! Please keep me and my team in your prayers while we are there! 

Beautiful, Beautiful

Today in mission trip meeting we were talking about preparing for the trip. I thought to myself I really want to be prepared this time. I don't want to slack off any, or get lazy, or too busy because there is always time for God.I really want God to use me while on this trip. I want to be able to really impact someone's life while I am there. 
So while I was doing my devotions, I ran across a couple of things while reading in John. John 1:6-9 "⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

 ⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

As Christians we are like John. We are here to represent Jesus, to bring more to the Kingdom of Heaven. When we are in the world we are supposed to be separated from the world. But do we really look different from the world? Or do we act the same as others that are of the world. It's really difficult to not do things if the world sometimes because everything is so much fun. 

John 2:23-25 ²³ Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.^[a] 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. ²⁵ He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person." 

What does this mean to you?

Coming to the end of my High School Road. :)

The next couple months for me are going to be crazy.  I'm getting ready for mission trip, and graduating all at the same time. I feel like I'm going in circles all the time. I'm trying to keep everything in order and keep myself from going sane because of all the things I need to do before I graduate. 

This year I am the co-editor of the yearbook so I'm constantly going in circles and bending my brain to think of new ideas. Thank goodness for my co-editor Janie and my teacher Mrs. Morton, I think all of us would go crazy if we didn't have each other. I have also been helping plan Spring Formal this year and we have been doing it in such a short period of time so we running around like crazy people! I've also been writing my 20 page paper, I'm almost done with it thank goodness, but it is still time consuming and I can't do everything else on my list until I get that done because it's the only way I can graduate. 

Some people have asked me if I will miss High School. Honestly, I really don't think i will. I will miss my friends and being able to see them everyday, but I am ready for a new adventure and be able to actually study something I want to study. Don't get me wrong high school is good till a point, but high school isn't rainbows, clouds, and flowers. Sometimes it is literally just stupid because the people that you have to hear complain about every little thing, but that is another bowl of wax. Anyways, I am ready for college and I am really excited to see what God is going to bring on in my life. 

  "For I know the plans I have for you, "declares the Lord," plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans  to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11 

Valentine's Day?

     Why does everyone hate Valentines day? Is it because they do not have someone to share it with? Well, it probably is because sometimes i feel the same way. I think everyone is going to feel this way because they want to feel special and loved from another. I think everyone wants something like that. But what I've realized is that we do not always need someone to be happy. We do not need a special person in our life to make our Valentines AWESOME, but we have people here already that can be with us on Valentine's Day and that is our family. Our family will always be here for us especially more than some boy or some girl that we have no idea if they are the "one". So why have a Valentine's Day at all? When we have the best Valentine of all he has all of our hearts and that is JESUS!

Time Flies

     It amazes me every year when gets around this time of the year. The air starts feeling crisp, cool, and you can feel that it is at the turning point of spring. The mornings start getting brighter, and you can hear the birds chirping in the early morning. Another thing that is completely crazy is how fast the school year goes by. Before I know it, it will be time to graduate! It is crazy!
     One thing that gives me joy more than ever is knowing that God spent time thinking of how the world will work, how it will look, smell, the future, the kinds of culture there will all over the world. Every morning that we get up it is another beautiful day, another day for birds chirping, another day for crisp, cool air, and another day for memories, and so much more. 

     Our life is like a book, we have chapters in our life when we don't know exactly what to do in our life, but then we always figure it out. We may have a chapter in our life when we are "in love", but then we realize how stupid we are later. We may have a rebellion chapter. Where we do not do anything that we are told to do, but by the next chapter we grow up and realize what is right Like how books end, chapters in our life may end, but there is always a new beginning in our life. One day our "book" will end and we will be with Jesus and, yet another book will begin.

Jesus has new mercy for me everyday

                              " Amazing love how can it be?"   
  My life this past week has been completely crazy like no joke. I'm so busy working on my thesis, doing homework, doing the yearbook, now planning formal and working that I haven't had time for myself hardly. I feel like I don't have a life and it is really sad considering it is my senior year. Your senior year is supposed to be the greatest year of your high school career, but mine has not been. It's been mostly very stressful. When I get really stressed all I can do is ask God to help me through this period in my life because I know soon my life will be changing for the good and I might not be as stressful. 
     
     Psalm 150: 1-4
"Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done. Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength ; seek his face always."


Today when doing my daily quiet time with God. I ran across this verse. It really is an awesome verse. I think everyday we should give praise to God not just when we feel good because even when we are having a bad day we can still praise Him and it will make our day better! 
   

   At the end of June I'm going to Honduras! I'm so excited to see what God is going to do there for the people. I will be there for 2 weeks. I will be going with a team from Trinity Chapel. It is going to be an amazing trip I can feel it in my bones. God has so much planned for the people in Honduras! He is going to set people free from their chains of bondage. 

 I know God has so much planned for me after I graduate and start a new life. I don't know where he will lead me, but I do know he will show me what to do and help me through all the tough times in college, work, and etc. A wise person once told me change is good. I never believe it till I looked at my life from the past nine years. I never saw that me moving away from my family to a new place was good till I saw how much I have grown spiritually, mentally and physically. This move was good for me I have made some really awesome friends, I started going to mission trips, I got closer to the Lord also! 

"There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning"

My Obsession

 "Delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart"- Psalm 37:4


I can't describe of how much in love I am with the Lord. My love for Him is indescribable. He amazes me everyday with new challenges. And helping me through things in my life. With his help i can do anything! Lately I have gotten a lot closer to the Lord, I spend more time with Him and i listen to Christian music instead of non-Christian. But I always want more of Him no matter how much i get I always want more, What if everyone wanted more and more of God? You know how awesome that would be?  But then again the Lord asked us to spread the Gospel to people and to the nations. Even though it may be tough it's so worth getting that person to Heaven! 

 I don't know what i would do if I didn't have the Lord to help me in my life. I want to make the Lord my everything. I don't want some boy being my everything, or clothes, money, friends, I want God to come first in my life. I have a obsession...that obsession is you Lord.




There are so many decisions i have to make in the short time period i have till i graduate. They aren't very easy decisions either. I keep asking myself what do i do? Either i go to Pellissippi for 2 years and get my basics down or go to Youth with a Mission (YWAM). My heart is saying go to YWAM, but then its like no u need to go to college first. I'm so scared I'm going to make the wrong decision and regret it. But why would i regret missions when I'm absolutely in love with it? As Adam Lutts would say, "Go and Do". Easier said then done. I wish I could make the decision right now ,but i feel like i should pray on it a little more. 


Everyday I want to dance for my Jesus and sing for Him. I want to praise Him everyday for helping me through the tough times in my life. He is so worth it he is the best guy ever!
"Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."- Psalm 90:14

New Day, New Adventure

It's so amazing how everyday you can start all over again. Have you ever thought of that? No matter how bad the day before was you can still start all over again the next day. I'm going to be honest I usually let things bother me a lot and probably a little too much. But i still try to make a good day out of it even if its really hard. But why is it when people get really mad they start cussing like crazy? I mean it isn't going to change anything. Its just going to make that person look really immature. So why do it? Why not act your age and talk it out instead of yelling and cussing? Now I'll admit I do yell when i get which i hate so much and I'm working on and i know it doesn't change anything, but yet I still do it sometimes, but you know it isn't worth it. Because something you say in 10 seconds can ruin the next 20 years. I'm going to tell you a story my dad told me.

There were two brothers, they started a restaurant together. For some reason they  disagreed about something. (We aren't sure what they disagreed on) But ever since that day. The brothers spilt up and the other brother made the same exact restaurant right behind the other brother. And they haven't talked in 50 years. 

You know when my dad told me that story I thought why would they not talk for that long thats crazy. They are brothers and i guarantee whatever they fought about is something little and they are just being silly about it. Now i would NEVER want that to happen with me and my sisters or even my friends. I would be loosing something great if that did happen and i would make sure that it didn't happen. 

I love my sisters!

My sisters are amazing. That is all i can say. And yes we have had silly fights haha. But you know we love each other no matter what! We have crazy stories that have happened while together and some we will take to the grave. There are some we will tell everyone we meet just to embarrass each other. And there are some that will make us laugh when we are by ourselves. 

I love these ladies!

My friends keep me in line and thats for sure. Usually when we hang out we just sit and talk about stuff which is great and i love. We don't get to have all three of us together a lot since Jessica is at college, but when she does get to visit its a awesome reunion! I'm so glad i have these girls as friends they are awesome. I love you guys!

When you wake up in the morning after a hard day and you can say new day, new adventure. Bring it!

Listen to 16_e_16s Playlist

Missions

Last night while laying in bed a lot was on my mind. I was thinking about my past mission trips. And i totally realized something while laying there and thinking about it. Us as americans and US citizens have so much and we take it for granted. Ok yea i know a lot of people say that and it probably gets super annoying hearing it, but it is true. When i was on my first trip to Chincha, Peru it was a totally new experience for me. Now when we went to Chincha they just went through a really bad earthquake and didn't have much at all and even without the earthquake they didn't have a lot. But im going to tell you a short story.I was at a pizza parol and let me tell you the bathrooms there were not nice at all the nicest ones i saw was at my hotel and i wasn't there much lol. So i walk in the bathroom and all i see is the bowl of the toilet there was no toilet seat and no toilet paper at all. I was like really? Oh man. So sometimes when i see a toilet with a seat im pretty happy that we are lucky enough to have that.

this was the view from my hotel room.

some people digging through trash.

Now I cant pick my favorite mission trip because i love them all for different reasons, but ill have to say my favorite with locations and settings would have to be Barranquilla, Colombia! It was such a beautiful place all over! This has to be one of the million places in Barranquilla that i loved it was so gorgeous and very peaceful.

Now where we lived was right in the city so when we left the hotel we were right on the street with busy cars coming from left to right, but everyday i would see homeless people laying outside of our hotel on the sidewalk or just sitting it was really sad.

When i went to Iquitos, Peru my favorite thing we did is we went on the Amazon river! it was so cool! We also went to a tribe while we were there and danced with them and spent time with them.

My favorite thing about mission trip is the kids. The kids really show how excited they are to see you and spend time with you. They are such sweet kids and sometimes if you give them a bracelet that we make for all the kids explaining salvation, they will come up to you at the crusade and give you a hug.

Things that have crossed my mind:

This is totally off topic, but today while i listened to Taylor Swift's song "The Way I Loved You". When I really listened to the lyrics and really paid attention to it and when it says, 

"But I've been screamin and fightin 

And Kissing in the rain

It's 2am and I am cursin your name

You're so in love that you act insane

And thats the way I loved you"

Why is it we can act that crazy for a boy? Why is it we can sit down right a billion songs about how guys are this and that and talk about how crazy in love you are with him. Why can't we be that crazy in love with Jesus? Why can't we sit down and write a couple songs about how much we love him and how crazy we are about him? Now if i was on the other side of the screen and reading this i would be like man i never thought of it that way. You know we get so busy with life and trying to find a boy that we don't realize what is really important. Now i know all the girls in the world want to find there prince charming, but we can't do it without Jesus. I mean we can date a couple guys here and there, but yet you still feel like it's not right. The right guy will come in Gods time not in our time and that is even hard for me to admit sometimes because im always saying i want a boyfriend, but right now i have the greatest guy ever and thats JESUS!

A Snowy time

Well it's been a awesome week. All the snow has been amazing and so beautiful. And its been nice for me because I was out of school for 3 days. :) But during this time that i've been out i have been thinking alot lately on how i dont make time for God in my life anymore. I've been so busy lately that i haven't stopped to slow down and take some time and have quiet time with God. So today i changed that i sat down for 15 minutes and journaled  and read my Bible. And i have to say after that it felt good that i made time! Im hoping to keep this up, but im going to ask God to help me through this and give me strength to keep on going. This one step is a start to something though!

Yesterday my Uncle Brad came back from China for a couple days to visit it was really good to see him! Jessica was pretty happy to see him too! Even though it was for a short time it was still alot of fun! We hope to see him again soon and Dana! We love you guys!

Benji my poodle had alot of fun too he absolutely loves the snow haha. he is a awesome dog and i wouldn't trade him for anything! He is a crazy thing but hey thats what dogs are for!

 This is our yard! It got completely covered! It was so awesome waking up on monday morning to this! I think everyone in Tennessee is ready for spring and summer now! :)