Been a while...

Wow, I really need to write in this thing more often!

My life has been going wonderfully, lately. I've gotten some sad new over the past few weeks but the shock has worn off and I'm moving forward. I decided about 2 weeks ago that I'll be coming back to Gettysburg for a second year of MC. I'm pretty excited and terrified at the same time, but God wants me here so I'm gonna give it a go. 

God's been doing some good stuff around here. Things are going great with Harvest Cry and The Hope Initiative. God's really been showing me that if you trust Him then He'll come through. I'm loving it.

HOPE

Strongholds

I went on a trip with the youth group of my church a few years back. The main "theme" of the trip was breaking strongholds that the enemy has on us. There are so many strongholds over us, it's insane. There is sexual strongholds, addictive strongholds, being overly critical, being malicious, doubting, worry, there are all kinds of desires and actions that we commit or want on a daily basis. No wonder there are so many people in the world who have given strongholds more power to keep them away from the one who can set them free from their strongholds.

We can't get anywhere by giving power to the strongholds in our lives. We will never be able to get even close to our full potential spiritually, by giving power to our strongholds. Staying in them and giving them power is just like cowering behind something and waving the white flag to the enemy saying you surrender. NO! We should never surrender to our strongholds. We are a country so stuck in our own sin, so stuck in our own strongholds that we can't see how deep we are.

The whole reason in saying this at all is that I've been finding in my own life that the deeper grounded you become in God the more He begins to show you the things that need to be "fixed" in your life. God has been showing me a lot lately in the aea of the strongholds in my life. I've also found that the more God shows me the strongholds in my life, the more I notice strongholds in other peoples lives. I find it incredibly annoying, but at the same time a blessing. Because when I'm being shown the things in my life i see things in other peoples lives that I might be able to offer help or comfort with.

I've been growing a lot lately. I pray that I would never stop. No matter how annoying things may get sometimes!

We Shall Overcome

I've been thinking a lot lately about being an overcomer. We all have things to overcome, whether it be addictions, abuse, worry, doubt, a past, or maybe even the present. We ALL have things to overcome.

The literal definition of Overcome is: "to get the better of in a struggle or conflict; conquer; defeat.
Another definition is: "to prevail over; surmount"
And another is: "to gain the victory; win; conquer"

There are countless accounts of overcomers in the Bible - Jacob, Jeremiah, David - and those are just a few of the MANY. Jacobs name was changed to Israel meaning "one who wrestles with God" and David even went from a shepherd boy to killing a 9 foot giant! There are countless numbers of people in the Bible who have overcome unbelief, overcome doubt, overcome unfaithfulness, overcome worry, overcome sinful lifestyles,

It doesn't matter what your struggling with. It doesn't matter what is trying to overcome you - YOU are the overcomer.

Valentine

I don't even think much about Valentines Day most of the time. Most years, it just floats by like any other small holiday. Christmas and Thanksgiving are exempt from this of course. They are amazing holidays...but the others are just kinda there - for me at least. 

I'm gonna make a change in that this year. Valentines Day is going to be important for me this year. It's going to be a day where I can focus, even more than usual, on my Father and who He is in my life. It's going to be a day where the twoof us can spend some extra time together. We can spend some extra time talking. I can spend some extra time telling Him how much I love Him and He can do the same for me. 

Love

I'm so happy I have LOVE.

So exstatically happy.

The Love of my God.

The Love of my Family.

The Love of my Friends.

How exceedingly blessed are we to have Love?

None of us deserve it in any form.

Yet we are.

Loved.

Amazing, Hectic, Wonderful week.

So the past week has been a blur! We've had so much to do its not even funny! Starting Wednesday we had to go out to Pennsburg for 7 Project at Upper Perkiomen HS. It was an awesome time. I really enjoyed myself! We had a small hold up on the way to Pennsburg though. Our van's brake lights decided that they wanted to go on early retirement. Not good when you're driving for several hours with a trailer! We found a machanics shop and decided to see what he could do. Turns out the wiring in the van was bad and he fixed it all up for us - and the best part is that he didn't even want us to pay him! He was pretty stinkin' awesome. As great as it was to have our van fixed an back on the road we still had a problem...we were an hour and a half late! 

We finally got to Pennsburg a little after 9pm. We completely missed setup - Sad day. We got settled with our homeopeners for the night and got some shut-eye. The next day was alot of fun. We all got to the church at 7:30am and got started. We were all assigned different jobs for the morning assemblies. I ended up helping with lights. It was so much fun! Changing the lights from purple to white and to all the different colors and patterns. I enjoyed it. It was also really nice to be able to hear all the different speakers stories and learn where they came from. First was Zack who is a skateboarder and has an incredible way of using his passion and talent to reach young and older people alike for Christ. Then there was Seth. He was one of the first white men in the Harlem Globe Trotters since the 1960's and he has an awesome talent for the game of basketball, and has an equally awesome ability to reach young people for Christ. 

We finished up both assemblies for the morning and started teardown. It was kind of fun and at the same time, hard. The church that was hosting 7 Project also treated us to lunch back at their church and it was pretty amazing. Lasagna, Garlic Bread and Salad followed by Apple Pie for dessert. Great cooking!! We got a chance to hang out with everyone for a few hours before we had to go back for the night rally. There are some great people associated with 7 Project. I really enjoyed myself that afternoon. 

The night rally was a-w-e-s-o-m-e! We had inflatables, we broke out the sumo suits and Zack did some skateboard jumps. It was alot of fun. Seth ended ital up by sharing his faith with everyone and telling them about Jesus and about salvation in Him. There was alot of talking, which is going to happen in any HS assembly, but there seemed to be alot of kids actually listening. It was nice to see. Seth ended things by giving an altar call of sorts. Tons of kids responded! There was atleast 80 to 100 kids surrounding Seth. He led them in a salvations prayer and then gave them an opportunity to pray themselves and or talk to any of the leaders. It was an awesome time. 

After everyone cleared out after a bit we helped tear everything down and get everything packed up. Once we left we were invited to a dinner somewhere in town but needed to get gas for the van first. Once we stopped at the station we realized our break lights were out again! We ended up having to stay in a hotel room for the night and let me just say that the Holiday Inn Express is an awesome hotel! I got a good nights rest. I think we all did! 

We came back Friday night and had family night at the Landis house, which is ALWAYS awesome. They are such good people. (Hey Charity! If you read this tell your parents they are amazing and Mama G's cooking is wonderful!) 

We also had a visiter at Freedom Valley this weekend. Johannes Amritzer was here from Sweden. He is an awesome man of God. I got the chance to hear him speak twice. Once at Freedom Valley and once at Bethel AG. It was awesome and I look forward to seeing him again in June at Harvest Cry!

God really showed me alot over the past week. He worked in me and through me in ways that He hasn't in a while. I thouroughly enjoyed it. My God is an amazing God!