Fall semester is DONE!!!!!!!!!!! PRAISE GOD!!!!! it has been a great semester overall… not too stressful and i feel like ive learned alot and God has done some amazing things! Thank You, Lord!
It snowed yesterday, on the last day of exams for me and we still had to go in like 4 inches of snow and then lol christa and i walked home..:p we went to food lion for a few minutes on the way and it took us about an hour.. i felt very laura ingalls =D so because of the snow, i was delayed one day from going home, but it’s ok.. last night we watched Charlie Brown Christmas and A White Christmas and ate alot lol so it was relaxing, and I just cannot believe it’s over!! woo!! only one more semester left.. i cant believe it…
It is so amazing to say, but I am not the same as I was at the beginning of this semester. You hear about believers saying that all the time, and i have to admit that i was a little skeptical , not of them , but of the changing factor… i didnt really want to change..what would it look like? would i still be the same person? would i still like the same things? but now i understand, at least a little of what that means. to be a different person. and it’s beautiful. thank You, Jesus. thank You for being so faithful. at the beginning of this semester i was broken still in places i didnt know, and held captive by things i didnt realize were still there..but, it has been a semester of liberation.. God, please continue this process.. it has been such a sweet time. so special. God, please do not ever let me leave this place. Thank You for fighting for me. Lord, bring into a deeper reality of Your fullness, Your love. Fill me to overflowing and seal me. Help me to set my face like a stone, determined to do Your will. I cant even really believe You have been so gracious to do this in my life. I think back to the night after our summer party and just weeping by the fire. Weeping for things I thought i was healed of a few years ago, weeping for your lost children, weeping of a brokenness that I didnt even know was there. I have learned to forgive. I have learned not to displace His love. I realized that any revelation the Lord might reveal, or even just reading His Word, I would see who I know that it would apply to, to be able to help them out without realizing that i need to read it for me. I need to be healthy. I was feeling such a disconnect between knowing and believing of His love in my head, but not really knowing in my soul of that reality. This was confirmed by a word from the Lord in my heart as well as a prophet that came to this area last week. One thing Pastor John said was I was hurting/ lacking more than those I was helping; that i was giving out of my lack. And up until this semester, I didnt even realize this was so. but that had begun to change, he said that I was not the same as I was last year when he came and that I would begin to give out of a place of enrichment because I have been enriched. adorned.
Another major thing that has happened this semester, just about a month and a half ago was I had to purposefully let go of an unhealthy friendship. Jesus, thank You for walking with me. Thank You for taking me by the hand. Thank You for standing in front of me, protecting me. I can’t believe things are so different than they were back in the end of october. I cannot even believe my heart and soul were so tangled in what they should not have been. and for so long. and I thought I was ok..Oh Lord, thank You for directing my life and having the grace to pursue me, fight for me, desire my whole heart. and I just pray that the intercession that was done is redeemed and received as offered with a pure, Christ-like heart. I believe that if nothing else from that time, that it was You placing a burden and that chains of satan were broken in Your name. God, please continue to give me wisdom and protect me from fear. Guide my thoughts because greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. Continue to break the soul ties by the blood of Jesus. I know You will perfect that which concerns me.
I have learned the beauty and power of Truth. and the passion to fight for it, to speak about it in the authority of His name.
I have felt the waves of glory. Hallelujah, I have learned the frailty of our human bodies.
I have learned that time spent with the Lord is never wasted time.. you know sometimes, when you just are with someone too much, or feel irritated with yourself for lingering too long..it can never be that way with Jesus. Time with Him is never wasted time.
Lord, teach me to love as You have loved me. Please continue to fill me and make Your love such a reality. such a tangible, evident, inextricable part of my being. Take me deeper with You, Lord. Thank You for the xa family, and the blessing they have been this semester especially. Please Lord, direct my next steps and show me what You want for a more focused intercession. Take away anything in me that is not of You. Please give me a fully surrendered heart that accepts with joy.
~ “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life..” psalm 23:6a
Where is the balance between living to be a witness, to be light to this dark world, and of quiet, personal time with the Lord? Does everything have to be poured from us? Is it selfish to keep things back, but it is deflection if I am also pouring out? Maybe I am not fully realizing that I am in equal need of everything I am sharing with others…God, increase Your reality in my life. Lead me in the way I should go and keep my eyes fixed upon You. Increase my trust that You ARE good and perfect. Hide me in Your hand and teach me how to receive Your love. I feel like I am always in fight mode, that I just want to rest. Help me to look at the burden, but not try to carry it all myself. Cease any striving. Help me to sit and just ride up the mountain, and not try to labor up it myself.
I want to update the autumn happenings properly, but Im headed off camping in the mountains for the weekend so hopefully next week i can get some pics up and stuff… buuuuut I HAVE SMELLED FALL! FINALLY!! On September 26th
SO, i read in the paper this past week that jmu was having an international photo contest and it looked really interesting…at first i was like shoot, that’d be fun to enter, but then i realized WAIT! i’d been someplace international!!!! it was so stimulating to have my mind on something artsy again, so here are the 3 pictures that i entered.. *hoping for the best!*
(a little girl at the first orphanage we visited up in the mountains)
(hurricane-wrought shacks in a poor fishing village)
Chapter Two finds us, having satiated our hunger with our favorite Whole Foods spread, enjoying the beautiful, quiet Sunday afternoon. our passion at the game the previous evening had found us quite, unnaturally sore and semi-voiceless from the deluge of praise and enthusiasm coming from our section of the stands Needless to say, the tranquil respite was like a balm to our (self-induced) fatigue and injury
Ok, so following along the shirt tails of The Best Summer of Our Lives, what is more natural than well, The Best Autumn of Our Lives?? So what better way to christen to beginning of fall than with a college football game?! I’ve always had a competitive, fighter streak, but I have never really been into sports, much less football, until last season.. Just let me tell you, lol it’s like a whole new world has been opened to me.. I’ve discovered that i LOVE the battlefield, the competition..
I love cheering for a team and sharing , quite personally, in their triumph or defeat..hehe… yehh baby.. SO the opportunity arose for us to go to a UVA game, and considering my utter fondness for my hometown, we carped the diem and went! and OH boy!! what a season opener…! for us (as the doorway to autumn) as well as for UVA!! what a victorious game!!! we got greasy pizza and soda, and wore jeans for like the first time since summer, and were exposed to many a sundress and collared shirt.. :p wooo republican sports make me happy:)
(i took this pic on the chesapeake bay at sunset.. no color editing..God is great)
The peace of the Lord is unlike anything else.. that verse that says, “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” has become reality again.. it has been a really good first week of school. It is amazing at how much more at peace i feel about where i live, my classes and everything… I am actually not dreading any of my classes this semester and am actually excited to learn what they have to offer:) praise God lol! I am kinda ehh about applying for internships, etc ..so i am praying for direction from the Lord about the next step.. i CANNOT believe this is my last year of college. wow its so surreal…so much has happened and now shay is in the same place i was in 4 years ago and gosh i didnt even know i could grow that much since then…im excited to see what God is going to do in her life too… oh boy. im so glad there is a God in heaven who knows and cares about all this stuff…
more thought in a few days… im going home now! and then to the first UVA game with Clover tomorrow!! :)
only one week of summer left? where have the past four months gone? i need to blog/journal more… so many details have slipped away. i hate that. thank You Lord for new details.
hopefully. hopefully new pictures soon
so hopefully next week i can get some pics up and stuff… buuuuut I HAVE SMELLED FALL! FINALLY!! On September 26th 
wow its so surreal…so much has happened and now shay is in the same place i was in 4 years ago and gosh i didnt even know i could grow that much since then…im excited to see what God is going to do in her life too… oh boy. im so glad there is a God in heaven who knows and cares about all this stuff…
