Go Love

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27

I have now been home about 2 weeks after a 2 week trip to Africa.  It is still weird to be going through my normal routine of what my life was before Africa.  This is the 1st of hopefully many posts about my trip.  The 2 weeks in Africa would be too much to cram into one blog post and I don't want to leave stuff out.  Now my problem is to where to begin....

I guess I will begin by sharing how I got to go to Africa....

I can begin on saying going out of country to love on orphans was laid on my heart a couple years ago.  I have always wanted the opportunity to get to go and experience of going to care for and love on children who need to have fun, be kids, and feel loved.  About 2 years ago I was sharing with my family about a resent trip I had to Mexico on a building mission trip.  I shared with them my desire to go love on children in orphanages.  I found out my aunt's church goes to Jamaica to love one children in orphanages.  I went this past February to Jamaica and enjoyed loving on the babies there.  While I was preparing for the Jamaica trip a friend of mine sent me a link to a girl named Katie Davis' blog (link is on the side Amazima).  I fell in love with this blog and was in tears reading it.  through Katie's blog I came across a website Visiting Orphans (link also on the side).  I went through the website and wanted to go somewhere with them. I didn't know where at the time but just wanted to go.  Ended up one night talking with a friend about my upcoming trip to Jamaica and about Visiting Orphans and she said she wanted to go to Africa.  I told her I would love to go with her.  After both of us praying we both agreed we were led to go to Africa now we just needed to decide on where in Africa were we going.  After reading about Amazima and Katie Davis we both agreed on Uganda.  There fore we signed up for a Uganda and Ghana trip.  Some stuff happened with the Ghana part of the trip along the way of planing so we ended up going to Ethiopia instead.  

So that is the story on how I was led to go to Africa and will have more posts to come on my amazing trip to Uganda and Ethiopia trip!

Is It Already July?

Well in February I went to Jamaica on a mission trip. I was great! I got to know some wonderful women, and spend time and love on some kids at the boy's home and with the sweet babies at an orphanage. Here are a few pictures from the trip.

This past May I finally graduated from Ivy Tech with my Associate of Applied Science in Early Childhood Education!! It is such a relief to be finished with school! But now everyone is asking me what I going to do now...Well I am not sure yet.  I am going to stay as a nanny for the 2 families for now one because they do not want me to leave them and two I love these kids so much I don't know what I would do if I didn't see them all the time.

In June Lauryn, Julia, and Abigail had their yearly dance recital and I was finally able to go because Abigail danced this year. It was great to get to go watch my girls dance! First picture is me and Lauryn, next is me with Julia and the last one is me with Abigail.

In June I also got the privilege to go with one of the families I work for to Disney World and on a Disney cruise! It was an amazing experience and so glad I got to go.

My next exciting adventure is that on July 14-27 I will be traveling with Visiting Orphans (link on the side of my blog) To Africa! We will be visiting orphanages in Uganda and Ethiopia for the 2 weeks we will be there. I am so excited to get to go and can not wait to see what God has in store for this trip!

I think my blog is now up to date. Ha I'm sorry I am not a very good blogger and do not keep it updated very often.

Prayer

About a week ago I attended a local church's DNow weekend as a leader for 7th grade girls.  This has been my 6th or 7th DNow that I have been a leader for.  To think when I was in high school and attended these as a student I would always tell myself how there is no way I would ever be able to do that.  Well now look at me HA God  had another plan in mind.  This past weeks DNow weekend was on prayer.  I had never done a whole weekend on prayer.  But I loved it! It was so refreshing and it was something I really needed to hear myself. The theme verse for the weekend was "But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who sees in secret.  And your Father will reward you." Matthew 6:6.  We focused a lot on how when we become a Christian we inter into a relationship with Christ, and when we are in a relationship with anyone the key thing we do is communicate.  Praying is our way to communicate with God and one of my favorite verses is; ""Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.  The scripture that we went over in our small groups with they youth was in Matthew 6:9-13  we went through each verse on how Jesus gave the disciples the model prayer and on how we should pray also.  It was a great weekend with these girls and I pray that the got something out of the weekend.  Even though 7th grade girls can be challenging God gave me the strength to show these girls how we are to live like Christ and to live our lives to glorify God. 

2010

2010...Wow what a year! This past year has been a great year and a very sad and trying year at times.  It has also been very busy with going to school, working for 2 families, making cakes, and very involved with our children's ministry at our church.  This past year I have made new friends, lost old friends, became closer to a few friends, and re-connected with old friends!
In this past year I have lost 2 people that I was close it in my family.  My great grandmother went to be with the Lord in February.  She was a wonderful woman who taught me many things and was there to take care of me when I would have to stay home from school because I was sick.  She is dearly missed in my family.  Then in October a dear man that was close to my heart went to be with the Lord.  He was my Uncle Bill.  A great man who took me out on a date for my 16th birthday and would call to see what I was up to.  His death was and is hard on me.  But to be reminded of how temporary this life is here on earth and that they are up there now with our Lord Jesus Christ! What a sight that would be! How one day we all will get to spend forever with our Lord glorifying His Name together!
I have greatly enjoyed working as a Sunday School teacher in our nursery at my church.  In the time I have been in there I have watched our class go from 1 baby to 10!  We have been flowing with children in our class and it has been a true blessing to welcome new visitors to the church and love on all the babies in our church and watch them grow.  I have several "buddies" in our room and at times I can never sit down on the floor with an empty lap or even just one child, at times I have had 3 or 4 little kids sitting in my lap.  The kids are great and so full of joy!  One thing I love about being in this room is that when we have visitors with children I can get to know these families.  God has truly given me a heart for little ones,  they are just a joy to work with and always make me laugh!
This year in 2011 I look forward to see what the Lord has in store for me.  I am starting my last semester at Ivy Tech and will graduate this coming May!! I can not wait to be done with school! In February of this year I will be going to Jamaica on a mission trip with a women's group at my aunt's church to an orphanage to love one the children.  I have always wanted to go on a trip like this one and God has finally opened the door for me to go.  This summer I get to go on a cruise with one of the families I work for! That will be a new experience for me.  Then finally there is another trip in the making for this summer!  I am not going to reveal where just yet...but I will give you 2 hints 1.) It is far away and 2.) It has to do with a link I have added to my blog recently about a ministry.  A good friend of mine and I are praying and applying for a 2 week mission trip to work with orphans and we are both excited! I will have more information soon on this trip.

I hope everyone had a wonderfully blessed 2010 and pray that for the things to come in 2011!
God Bless!

My Summer...In A Nutshell

Ok, where do I begin...I can not believe that tomorrow will be September already!! I feel like I just keep getting busier and busier as the days go by. So I am going to try and give you all a little peak to what my summer consisted of...be patient because this will prob be a long blog but I'm sure with plenty of pictures!
So here I go.....MAY

We had a family get together at my grandma's the first picture is of all of the girl cousins with our Uncle Bill on his "No Girls Allowed Truck"...The second picture is of two of some new little cousins.

I also got to meet a new little cousin of mine, her name is Leah

My mom, sister, and I took a nice girls week down to Florida and spent some time at Disney World Magic Kingdom, and Epcot.  We also went to Sea World.  Got to meet another little cousin Victor.  And spent a relaxing day at the beach.

 

Abigail and I went put putting (It was her first time)

We spent some time at the park and made art on the sidewalk with chalk.

In June I went to Mexico again; the pictures are of me with a power tool, me learning how to wire the electricity! That was fun! Then a Picture of the group with the house all done!

 In July my friend Megan and I did our first craft fair and here is a picture of our lovely table.

I got to go down to Tennessee to visit a good friend of mine Joanna.

The rest of the summer was full of wonderful times spent at the pool with Aiden, Saylor, Abigail and Julia (some of the kids I watch).

We also went on a few walks.

Abigail got her Pinkalicious cupcakes for finally getting potty trained!

Went white water rafting with the college group at church and stayed on a lake in Georgia and went canoeing.

Took Cooper to get a hair cut.

Did some yoga on the Wii Fit with the girls.

Did lots of hair. first one is Julia and Abigail, the others are of Saylor (we finally got her hair up and its been fun).

Then we also had some dance parties with Aiden and Saylor to Hillsong Kids Dvds.

Well there you have it, a short version of my very busy summer.  Now that classes have started back I am trying to juggle school, working for 2 families, and starting a little business of cakes with a friend, and helping out at church.  Lets just say I am always on the go.  I am looking forward to May because that means I will be done with school for good!! I can't wait to finally get this over with.  I hope you all have enjoyed reading about my summer...I also made many cakes but you can see all of those on the sweetlysimple7.blogspot.com  ENJOY!