Well...it's Saturday, June 30...one week from TheCall Nashville. This time next week we'll be getting ready to worship all day!

I'll write more later...

Labels: Lou Engle, Nashville, Summer, TheCall, Titans Stadium

So...this week has been fun/amazing/and just full of God. Last week at my weekly lunch meeting with my good friend Aaron we talked about quiet times (and my lack of one) and about wanting to fix that. Well...I started reading through the book of Isaiah on Sunday night and also made a list of goals and objectives for the week. Let me share a few with you:

~ Do quiet time every day
~ Fast one meal this week
~ Go to prayer room once
~ Update blog twice
~ Starting reading Irresistible Revolution

And, what have I accomplished? Well, I did my quiet time 3 out of 5 nights so far this week, I didn't fast a meal, I didn't go to the prayer room, and this is the first time I've updated my blog. I did start the book and am on page 30...which I think is pretty exciting!

This week was the first week of Crossroads Worldwide Summer Camp here at GWU. Everyday they have morning worship and workshops along with afternoon activities and evening worship for tons of youth that are here. Well, one awesome part is that the community is invited to evening worship and we went twice this week! Tuesday night and tonight...it was really REALLY awesome; what a great ministry Crossroads is and Carl Cartee (who is leading worship). It is just so amazing to be able to go to these services! Tuesday Clayton King talked about living a life of purity and how it is a process, tonight he talked about generosity and being generous to others because God has been generous to us. Talk about convicting stuff, it is so amazing and I am so fortunate to be able to go.

Just a little over a week until TheCall Nashville...I'm getting really pumped! We are taking my car with hopefully 4 people (right now just 3) and are staying in a hotel in Nashville Friday night and going to TheCall all day Saturday and coming back Saturday night. It is going to be amazing!

Pray for me and the others as we prepare for TheCall; pray for the kids and counselors with Crossroads as they are truly experiencing God these few weeks they are here; pray for me to be more disciplined when it comes to doing my quiet time and meeting goals I set for myself.

Labels: Camp, Carl Cartee, Clayton King, Crossroads Worldwide, Irresistible Revolution, Nashville, Prayer, Quiet Time, Summer, TheCall

Just thought I'd post a picture of Chad and I from earlier this semester...pray for him as he is spending his summer in Uganda.

Well...it has been awhile since my last post. This month has been completely crazy! I thought I would post the lyrics to an old hymn that I have fallen in love with. We sang it at Broad River Community Church a few weeks ago and then I listened to the covered version by David Crowder Band the other day. Here it is:

COME THOU FOUNT (OF EVERY BLESSING)

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

PS: The 4th verse is my favorite.

So...I haven't at all been growing in my faith this summer (I actually feel that, if anything, I have been falling further and further behind). Temptation, stress, and just pure laziness has taken a hold of me and I haven't been reading my Bible or working hard to overcome struggles and destroy strongholds.

On Thursday night Joseph and Sarajane and I sat out under the stars for a few hours and talked about God and our childhoods and stuff like that...it was so amazing. We decided that we want to try to make our dinners together a time of sharing what God is teaching us, that way we are holding one another accountable for spending time with God. Joe and I also decided that we needed to stop enabling one another and hopefully this will help us grow more in our faith. We talked about how the Bible is supposed to be read in a community and that we can work together to understand God's teaching. It was just an awesome night in general and was so refreshing...I guess we'll see where I go from here.

Please pray from me as I confront temptation and strongholds and try to know and love God more and more...

You know...whenever I go home to visit during the year it always take me so much motivation to get packed and ready to go and then so much motivation once I'm there to get packed and come back to GWU. At times I find myself frustrated with my family or just sick of being around my friends at home and really like being able to come back to GWU, a place that I truly love. At the same time I can always escape to the mountains if I need to get away from school.

I guess I didn't go home to terribly much my first year of college; I went home for breaks and some weekends and even for a Sunday afternoon once. I spent a good bit of time at home when my great aunt died first semester, but tried to stay at GWU as much as I could.

When I decided to apply for my internship that I'm doing right now I consulted my parents to make sure they were ok with me staying in Boiling Springs all summer...although it was hard for them at first, they understood and were very supportive. So, classes and exams ended and I went home for a few days...then it was back to GWU to go to Chicago. Once I was back from that trip my parents came down, moved me into my apartment, and that has been it.

So, I've been in the A-P-T for what? Almost a month and haven't really gone home...and I'm starting to miss it. I feel like it's immature or silly to be homesick, but I am starting to get to that point. I get The Transylvania Times (my hometown newspaper) and read it and miss that community so much. I go out to eat at a Mexican place in Shelby with friends here and it makes me miss Celito Lindo in downtown Brevard and eating there with my friends. While it is hard at home (I feel like I fall in my faith a lot more easily, I slip up and say and do things I shouldn't, and a lot of my friends aren't Christians-or don't profess their faith as I do) I really do love it. I love my friends in Brevard and even though I said at one point that I really didn't want to deal with them this summer I want to deal with them. I want to be annoyed by Sarah's wining and Brooke's mom not letting her do things. I want to get frustrated with Chris and Alex because they are such jerks all the time. I want to hang out with loud mouth Jeanette and hear her talk dirty about tons of guys. I want to hug Kati and spend time with her and hear about what is going on in her life. I want to harass Lori and try to steal Justin from her. I want to get mad at my mom or dad for being annoying or threaten my little brother's life for messing up something of mine. I want to get upset with my grandmother's nagging and bad attitude. I want to go to the mall and Barnes & Noble and Cheeseburger in Paradise and see a movie and go in the forest and lay in my hammock and walk around downtown and spend time with some amazing people that have been and will always be an important part of my life.

I want to go home...