Best Friends Reunited!!

So....let's just say, God is good. All the time.

When I first met Christina, I thought surely someone like her in the world couldn't actually exist. Fortunately for me, I was wrong. I met her one of my first weekends at UGA and it truly was love at first sound (we had a long talk on the phone before we actually met in person).  Her brother was the college pastor at my home church and he was insistent upon us meeting each other. So we talked on the phone and met at a Starbucks in downtown Athens one night. We must have talked forever and very quickly learned that our friendship was very different from anyone else's. 

Christina is one of those people that you feel instantly known by. She automatically sees good and beauty in people and allows them the freedom to be themselves. She is radiant and compassionate, gracious and honest. Two or three years into our friendship I came to the conclusion that our friendship mirrored that of David and Jonathan. She got to know me quicker than anyone ever has and found ways to meet me where I was at. She would crawl into the dark places with me or she'd celebrate any victory. She'd pray for me and fight for me in ways I couldn't believe. We both used to study and do terrible on all the same tests. I maintain that we are both very smart but horrific at taking tests. We could talk about anything for hours and enjoy the most random things. I liked to think that she was the introverted version of myself. However, she knew how to act like an extrovert. 

Unfortunately, through a system of events, we took a 2 1/2 year hiatus on our friendship. We were both hurt through several things that started as out of our control but motivated us each to make some poor decisions that didn't help our friendship. We slowly backed away from each other for different reasons and in the summer of '06 parted ways. 

But the good news is GOD IS GOOD. So so good. Full of healing and restoration and beauty. He has brought the most precious person in the world back to me. And I feel so honored and blessed right now. I feel like part of my heart is back again. Christina is truly the most beautiful and compassionate person in the whole world, and I hope you all have an opportunity to meet her. 

Valentine's Day Eve

This is a picture of the 12 roses Patrick sent me at work! He really is an incredible husband in so many ways. I am beyond blessed by his love for me.

The Least of These

Today we had homeless outreach after church. I'm never excited to go because it makes Sunday such a long day, but I'm always happy I go when I get down to the parking lot where all the homeless wait in line for lunch. They brighten my day every week. 

It's been especially cool to see the expectation level in our group rise. We've seen some awesome miracles and each week we go down to the parking lot expecting God to show up in a bigger way today than He did last week. We're constantly seeking out the "greater things" that Jesus tells us we will do. 

Last week and this week there has been a rise in demonic activity, but there has also been a rise in the Presence of God. Last week and this week we had people get out of wheelchairs, stop needing their canes because their arthritis they've had for 10+ years has stopped bothering them, ears open up, sinus pressure and pain gone, degenerative disc disease completely leaving and crutches no longer being necessary, and so much more. We've gotten to hug on people, tell them how much God loves them, and speak life over them. 

One of our dreams for the homeless is that they'd start to realize their dreams and start to pursue them. 2-3 weeks ago we had such a change in the atmosphere downtown. One man told us that he hadn't been singing in awhile, and wanted to start up again. And this man was an incredible singer....similar to, but better than Kirk Franklin. He was unbelievable. He just stood in the parking lot among hundreds of others and just sang. Then we had a guy come up to us randomly and tell us that he loves poetry and that he used to go to open mic nights at coffee houses around Atlanta just to do "freestyle" poetry. You could give him any two words and he would fabricate this beautiful poem around them. We gave him "fearless love" and you would have thought he spent his whole life creating a poem around those two words. He had a lot of religious symbolism as well as stuff from his heart. The funny thing is that he didn't think before he started the poem or write anything down. It all just came spilling out of his heart. Thirdly we had a guy who sketches come show us all the art pieces he'd been doing over the last few weeks. Because he's homeless he only had an old notebook and some scrap paper, but I would have paid him to do a portrait for me. He would use pens or pencils and within an hour would do someone's entire body (the best was TI), shading and everything. I hope to post some pictures of his art soon. The talent among the homeless is unreal.

So we've been really encouraged in our time with the homeless recently. We've seen people get healed and we've seen creativity and dreams get stirred up. We have such a heart to see their passion for life restored. Only when they believe that they can go after their dreams and that they are worth them will they get up and go run after them. And if we do anything down there I hope that we communicate that they have those dreams for a reason. And that God put them inside of their hearts and has given them the capacity to see those dreams fulfilled. And I can't wait to see the dreams flow more freely and the passion and level of expectancy to rise up in them. It's going to be awesome. 

My favorite blog

http://whittakerwoman.typepad.com/whittaker_woman

So this is officially my favorite blog. I want to be this family...

This family has 3 children, one is their own, and their other two are adopted from Korea. On this blog, the mom has all the adoption videos posted...and if you know me, I want to adopt a million Asian children!! But it's not just the crayola-ness of this family that I love...

This family also does a cool thing called "Family Night" which they do every week or so (there's a tab on the right side of the page that tells all about each night). One night they did a "Snow" themed night...everyone wore their winter coats, gloves, hats, scarves...etc. They made a snowman on the table out of cotton and drank hot chocolate. They hung snowflakes everywhere and ate potato soup (they put cut up carrots and bacon in it to make the face of a snowman- they called it a melted snowman's face). Then they ate powdered donuts, or "snowballs" and then had a snowball fight with balled up white socks. Some other nights included Beach Night, Carlos' Night (Carlos is the dad), Paper Night, Baseball Night (Patrick can't wait to have children and have baseball night every night), Football/Cheerleader Night, Turtle Night, Back-to-School Night...and SO MANY MORE! these nights might not sound awesome, but if you look at this blog, you can see all the pictures, activities, outfits, food and decor that goes into every single family night! It's incredible. 

I want to be this family, including the Korean children. They're beautiful. 

Me

I stole this from Cam...but changed her answers. :)


I Am: interested in everything
I Have: too much time on my hands some days at work
I Think: that i should get to play outside all day
I Know: that God is good
I Dislike: the dark
I Miss: Athens in the spring
I Fear: that no one likes me
I Feel: a little insecure most days
I Want: to do great things and travel the world
I Smell: my pomegranite Orbit gum in my purse
I Crave: warm cookies
I Cry: when i feel really lonely
I Usually: don't use my free time wisely
I Search: for the good in everything
I Wonder: why I can't adopt the whole continent of Africa and Asia
I Care: about orphans
I Love: PATRICK and kitties and Libby Gray and Melanie, Evie, and Jessica
I Regret: not investing in people better
I Always: love to get letters and flowers
I Worry: that we focus too much on what we disagree on rather than what we have in common
I Am Not: a big fan of vegetables, or even a small one
I Remember: the kindergarteners in Tokyo that wear yellow plastic hats and yellow boots
I Dance: in dressing rooms and in front of mirrors...always
I Don't Always: think before i speak
I Write: whenever something moves my heart
I Win: only at state capital contests
I Wish: I could spend time in every country in the world
I Argue: more than i should
I Listen: to the sounds of children all day
I Lose: at most games
I Don't Understand: why adults don't get a summer break or spring break
I Can Usually Be Found: watching America's Next Top Model, Ellen, or 24
I Am Scared: of the ocean
I Need: lots of people around me all the time
I Forget: how blessed i am
I Am: excited about lots of things

Love

"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it."

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dreams are being fulfilled

Today dreams are being fulfilled.

I wrote the following in my journal last night during worship at Bethel:

"There is a joy in the room tonight during worship. We just watched Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I have a dream' speech. Our level of expectancy is rising in the room. Dreams from long ago are starting to be fulfilled. We are encouraged. And we're ready to see what's about to unfold.

Today is MLK Day. Who we are today as a class, church, city, state, and country is the fulfillment of a dream spoken of by MLK. We are the fulfillment of his dream he declared in 1963. Blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics and many others are gathered around together worshiping tonight, thanking God that MLK's dream came to fruition. 

Shawn Bolz is speaking in a little while and he once had a dream that a generation would be raised up that carried radical things. And that not just the leaders of a movement would hear from God, prophesy and heal, but that an entire generation would be equipped to do those things. We are a fulfillment of that dream. 

Tomorrow, President Elect Barack Obama will become the President of the United States. He will be the first black president. He will usher in equality, courage and compassion in a way that can only be done by him. He is an equal, and he is the fulfillment of a dream. " 

Today as I watched Obama accept the Presidency, I was overwhelmed with emotion. This is an awesome time in history and I feel so honored to get to be a part of it. 

I'm committed to praying for our new President. I want him to succeed. I want him to be honored. I want him to encounter God in new ways. I want him to increase in knowledge and wisdom. I want him to increase in compassion. He is a symbol of hope to so many Americans. I pray that God would use him powerfully to rally this nation together. We are powerful when we are unified. And as easy as it is to hate on someone you don't necessarily agree with, I am choosing to love and not hate. To speak highly of him and to bless him. And I am making a declaration that he will do things in this country that no other president has been able to do. He was brought in for such a time as this. He has something to offer this generation. And it's going to be awesome to see it manifest.

The Year of Restoration

2008 was the "Year of New Beginnings." 

2009 is the "Year of Restoration."  I believe this refers to the restoration of apostles to the church. The restoration of the mothers and fathers of faith for this generation. Restoration of 5-fold ministry. Restoration of identities. Restoration of dreams. Restoration of relationships and hearts. Of purity and beauty. Of love and of what grace was intended to be (not just a ticket to heaven, but the keys that unlock realms of the impossible). 

One exercise we did in school several weeks ago was one regarding our identity and declaration. We all laid out on the floor and spent 1 1/2-2 hours asking God to tell us who we were. Soaking music played in the background as we started to see things in us that we always hoped would be there. Things that we never thought possible. Things that we'd been dreaming about since we were children. New things that seemed unfathomable, but were completely possible with a limitless God. The interns walked around and prophesied over us which helped confirm many of the things the Spirit was telling us. 

At the end of this time, many of us had written down page after page of all the things God had showed us. In a sense, God had cast a vision for us for our lives. 

One by one we lined up to make declarations to our class about who we were, and how God saw us. This was tough because God spoke to a lot of insecurities and lies that we believed about ourselves, and we had to stand in front of 70+ people and tell people the truth about who we were. The truth about what was deep inside of us. The truth that we had been concealing and hiding from others. The things we weren't ready for people to know. The things we didn't think we could steward once others knew about them. I wanted to share two different things here with you; who God told me that I am, and then my declarations and dreams that I have for the year 2009. 

I am a healer of hearts and relationships.

I will change the way people hear and think about God.

I make people feel at home.

I am a safe place for people. In me people can find rest. 

I carry radical grace and peace and I will continually walk into deeper and deeper levels of freedom.

I will see healing by touching without prayer.

I am marked for greatness.

I'm worth getting to know.

I carry an inner strength that can be imparted.

I am significant and loved.

I am beautiful. 

I am worth encouraging.

I am a treasure-hunter in heaven. 

I will have radical encounters with God and see visions and angels.

I carry a spirit of revelation.

I have the keys that unlock God's heart. 

I will carry the love of Jesus to hundreds of nations. 

I will see hospital numbers decrease and the need for hospitals decrease because sickness will no longer be able to hold a candle to the sons and daughters of God that are rising up and stepping into their identities.

For 2009:

I will see thousands healed. I will see nations being discipled. I will encounter God in new and radical ways. I will walk and grow in intimacy daily. I will see hearts healed. People will encounter God through my art. We will be blessed financially. Our dreams will increase 100-fold. Night-time sleep will be full of the sweetness of the presence of God. Revelation of Jesus and of heaven and of God's heart will happen daily. We will have angelic visitations. Patrick and I will go to places in the Spirit together. Our families will start to be transformed by the love that we carry and steward. Whenever we take territory, others will also get that territory (Deut. 11:24). Life will be abundant. We will see the dead raised and it will be normal. Patrick will get business ideas. I will find my place here and have clarity added to my passions and heart. 

The cool thing about dreams is that we can dream in two ways. One: we can dream dreams that are so big that they can't be completed in our lifetime. Two: we can dream dreams that would be impossible unless God showed up.  So....basically we need to dream BIG. bigger than we ever thought possible. Because God wants to show up in BIG ways. 

So start dreaming big dreams and let God show up. Dreams are being restored this year. :)

Your Love is Like

Your love is like the rain

Falling on my soul

It's covering every place

Making gardens grow

The sweetness overflows

Pouring from your lips

The kisses from above

Let the heavens drip

Let 'em drip down

Let 'em drip down

Your love is like the ocean

I'm drowning in your Presence

Your love is like the ocean

I'm drowning in your Presence

Getting lost in the gaze of your eyes

Getting lost in the warmth of your smile

Getting lost in the gaze of your eyes

Getting lost in the warmth of your smile

Your love is like a room

Full of precious jewels

It takes my breath away

There's riches beyond words

When it's just me and you

I can't remember storms

All I can do

Is melt into your arms

Your love is like the ocean 

I'm drowning in your Presence

Let the heavens drip

Let 'em drip down

Let 'em drip down

Let the heavens drip down

"Your Love is Like" -Rick Pino

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn4oT0QJyNY

The last of the homeless for now...

Round 3:

The top picture is a picture of our 200+ Christmas presents that we passed out to all the homeless men.