Called to Love the Fatherless

This past Sunday kicked of Missions Week at my church. Man, was I totally unprepared to be completely blown away!

Let me begin by explaining how our church views missions. In short, that it is the single most important thing that we do as a church. The leadership is fully committed to being outwardly focused. That is evident in all aspects of the church: from where the money is spent, to what is taught on Sunday mornings, to the sheer number of mission trips are taken each year. I have never been involved in a church that is so committed to bringing the gospel to the world. In addition, the church is involved in only a few areas of the world in order to build lasting relationships with the people that we are called to serve. Those areas are Mexico, Southeast Asia, and Central Europe. By viewing missions this way, the church is able to send numerous teams to each of these locations each year and minister to the same people. It is such a cool way to look at missions!

So, back to Sunday morning. The service did not involve a traditional sermon, but rather we got to hear from some people we partner with in these areas. This year's theme for Missions Week is "loving and serving the orphan." Nothing, and I truly mean nothing, can stir my soul more than hearing about the plight of the orphan throughout the world. As I sat and listened to stories about these kids, my heart broke. I was shocked, appalled, and humbled. It is my prayer that my world will not go back to the way it was before church on Sunday morning. I have to care. There are 144 million orphans in the world, and it's time for the church to step up and care for them. I am part of the church, so that means me.

James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”

I am graduating in August. I have no idea what I'm going to do after that. I have thought since this summer that the Lord may be calling me to go oversees for a little while. I don't know where, I don't know when, I don't know how. I know one thing: orphans touch my heart. Wherever I go, they will be a part of my mission field. I can't wait to know where I'll be next year.

Hilarious!

I watched this video from someone else's blog that I follow and thought it was hilarious! I don't watch the Ellen show and typically think she's really annoying, but this is definitely worth watching. Make sure you watch the whole way through because it gets even better towards the end!

To Indiana and Back!

This weekend Sarah and I took a trip up to Indiana to take advantage of the long weekend for MLK Day. She went to visit her friend Jessica and I went to visit Amy and Pete.

I had a fantastic time and survived the sub-zero temperatures quite well, I think. We hung out, ate tons of junk food, went sledding, stayed up late talking, watched an NFL playoff game, and had a great time! Pete and Amy have been a huge blessing in my life and it's so neat how the Lord worked it out to have Amy and I be roommates during her senior year and my first year in Tennessee. She was mistakenly placed in the wrong dorm, which was the same one as me and we got to be really great friends during that year. Anyway, here are a few pictures from the weekend.

We went to watch the NFL playoff game and had a great time eating wings, potato skins, nachos, and tons of other greasy food. I was cheering for the Ravens, who lost, but we still had a really fun time! [Side note: After trying pictures with Amy on the right, me on the left, and the other way as well, we decided that we both look better when I am on the right and Amy is on the left. This is picture two of our little experiment and the outcome that we were both pleased with.]

We went sledding down Slayter Hill, which was the biggest hill I had ever sledded (is that the right word, English-knowing friends?) down. It was five degrees at this point and my hands got so cold in my non-waterproof gloves that I couldn't bend them or feel them at all. I had to go sit in the car for a little while and let them thaw. Then I borrowed some massive and incredibly warm ski gloves from Pete and it was much better after that. We didn't go down this section of the hill, but a section that was mainly pure ice and a little snow. It was terrifying yet exhilarating at the same time.

Not sure, really...

This is us making Freezer Bag Omelettes. It was fun and they tasted great. They are a cheap, clean, and unique way to make omelettes. I would highly recommend them! We made ours with two eggs, onion, green pepper, cheese, salt, pepper, and Pete used bacon.

Amy modeling her egg-in-a-bag.

On another note, tomorrow is inauguration day and Barack Obama will be sworn in as our 44th President. Please join me in praying for him and our country as we go through many changes in the next four years.

Back to School

Well, this is the first full week of classes and I am already exhausted. Classes officially began last Wednesday, which for me was an 8 AM Spanish class (and I don't speak Spanish!). My classes are actually surprisingly enjoyable (with the exception of one psycho teacher) and I am really looking forward to this semester.

I guess the only exciting news I have to report is that I'm going to Mexico for Spring Break with the college ministry at my church here in Knoxville. I am super excited. We will be gone a full week (Saturday to Saturday) and will be working primarily in an orphanage and a battered women's shelter. I had really been praying for a mission opportunity and this was a really awesome answer to prayer! There's a lot to do before I go, including raising support, but I truly can't wait to see what the Lord does with our time in Mexico!!

I also decided to try and do YOKE again this semester. I haven't done it in awhile because of class schedule and then surgery, but I really feel like it's something I should do again while I'm still in college. I'm going to call tomorrow and see if they still need help.

That's all for now. I'm going to try to go to bed early for a change.

Back in Knoxville (with lots to blog about)

I got back to Knoxville last night after what felt like a very short trip home. It included a trip to Austin to visit friends, a trip to Houston for Christmas with my dad's family, lots of fun at home, and then a trip to Raleigh to see my best friend from childhood, Natalie, get married! So, there's a lot to catch up on. I will post chronologically and include pictures as I go.

My mom, sister, and I went to the ICE! Exhibit at the Gaylord Texan. It's a whole exhibit filled with sculptures made of ice and it's really neat. My favorites were a massive gingerbread house made of ice, a huge nativity scene, and an ice slide (which goes incredibly fast and freezes your butt if you don't sit on your parka!). It is nine degrees inside, thus the massive blue parkas that they supply before you enter. We had a great time.

We celebrated Christmas with my mom's side of the family the Saturday before Christmas day. That was hectic as usual, with tons of little kids running around and a very full house. It was good to see everyone and we had a great time. Here are all the girl cousins in age order, excluding Noel, who lives in Singapore. Usually Grandma's included in the leg-kick picture (and we usually have to do a dance and song as well) but I'm not really sure where she was when we took this.

This is Brie and Cade. Cade is one of four boys, but that did not deter him from carrying around Brie's babydoll all night. It was cute!

Kallie and Laura see who's hair is longer.


I went to visit some of my good friends, the Hales, in Austin for one night. I used to babysit their four kids, Faith, Will, Grace, and Hope, and now am really good friends with their family. We had a great time!

Me and the girls played lots of games.

Me and Mrs. Hale listen to the piano and recorder concert.

We also celebrated Christmas with my dad's family in Houston, and it was the first time in almost ten years that everyone (excluding my Aunt, who got stuck out west due to snow) was together. It was good to reconnect and we finally got the full family photo that Maw-maw has been wanting us to get.

We celebrated Christmas again with the immediate family when we got home on Christmas day and had a really fun time spending time with just us. Here are a few pictures from that.

Laura and I made "We Love Conner" shirts and wore them to one of his basketball games. He was embarassed, but still liked them. Dakota also got in on the school spirit.

After I came back from Knoxville, Anne and I drove to Raleigh for Natalie's wedding. It was so fun to be in her wedding and watch her get married! We had a great time hanging out for a few days before the big day and ran around crazily trying to get all of the last-minute details worked out. She looked absolutely gorgeous in her dress! I didn't take one single picture because I was just running around too much, but here is a picture of her and Matt taken by her brother Joel. It's still weird to think that Nattie, who I met when I was 5, is now married! I mean, when did we get old enough for this??