Help bring more smiles to these Kiddo’s faces by shopping with AmazonSmile this Christmas.
Did you know you can shop and Amazon and at the same time help children in need?
It’s so easy!
All you have to do is add the word ‘smile.’ in front of the normal Amazon web address, (smile.amazon.com), choose Compassion International as your charity, do your normal Christmas shopping, and then when you are finished shopping Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchase to Compassion!
How AWESOME is THAT?!
We have a running joke in our house when it comes to birthdays.
Instead of just one day for your birthday, instead, you get a whole week, which by the end of the month has actually become a whole birthday month.
During birthday month the person with the birthday usually to tries their best to get the other people in our family to buy them gifts or to do things with them that we normally wouldn’t ask for or do.
For instance, when it’s my birthday week I know that it’s a given that my husband will take me out to dinner on the big day, BUT for the whole week I usually try my best to get out of cooking and every chance I get I will drop hints like, “have you seen the new birthday pancakes at Ihop” Or, “wow you sure can smell the Mexican restaurant down the street today!” I also throw in the fact that many of the restaurant’s reward clubs I belong to have sent us coupons for free birthday meals and somebody has to use them so it may as well be us 😀
Even though I truly don’t expect my husband to have to take me out to eat all week, A girls still gotta try, right?
And try try try I have because guess what October is for me?
October my Birthday month!
This is how Birthday month went down for me this year….
First, my husband gave me a new fitness tracker that I have been really, really REALLY wanting, AND I managed to talk him into letting me have it about 3 weeks early. And then fast forward to Birthday week in which I managed to talk him into taking me to Ihop for free pancakes, we tried out a new Mexican restaurant that some friends suggested, We went to 54th Street Bar & Grill & Dairy Queen on my actual birthday, and then two days after my birthday, we went to another Mexican restaurant which just moved in at the end of our street. We also went on a ton of walks, Sunday drives, and shopping.
As I write this I realize how spoiled I am because even if it weren’t my birthday month he would still do all that stuff with me. Thankfully we don’t do all of that eating on a regular basis or we’d both weight 5000 pounds!
Now fast forward to a little bit ago…
Last night I was writing letters to the kids I sponsor through Compassion. As I was answering the questions one of them had asked I realized that one of the questions was – When is my birthday month?. The cool thing about that question is that the child who asked it just so happens to have her birthday in October too and it was really kind of cool to tell her that we share the same Birthday month.
As I was writing her letter I began wondering how she had spent her birthday. I started to write the question asking her if she had done anything special for her birthday but then I stopped. I stopped because I wasn’t sure if that were an appropriate question to ask because she lives in extreme poverty. The more I thought about the question the more I realized that she most likely doesn’t eat dinner out or get extravagant gifts for her birthday like I do.
As a sponsor, I am always offered the opportunity to send a donation towards a birthday gift for her and several times when I have done this I’ve received pictures back of what she bought with the money. What I’ve noticed is this – Every time she used her birthday money to buy practical gifts such as clothing or cooking supplies such as flour or sugar. While those are good gifts, and she seems to be very excited to get those things I know they would not be my first choice of how to spend my own birthday money. I realized now that her birthday and my birthday are probably very different.
I ended up never asking the question about her special day, but I did tell her how special she is and that God made her special by creating her on her birthday day. I also wished her a Happy Birthday.
I think birthdays should be special for everyone, but especially for children.
I know my birthday was a little very extravagant, but the truth is even if I’d never gone out to eat dinner or received a gift it would have still been a great birthday. It’s not about the eating or the gifts, it’s just knowing that people love me so much that they took the time from their own days to wish me a happy birthday, or to just hang out with me. Those are the things that really make birthdays special for me.
How about you? What makes your birthday special for you?
How do you like to make birthdays special for the people you love?
Today is the last day of my birthday month and in honor of birthdays of everyone everywhere, I’d like to try to squeeze in just one more gift. But this time the gift is not for me. This gift will be a special birthday opportunity for a child who may not normally have a special birthday. If you follow the link below you will go to Compassion International’s child sponsorship page. On that page you can use the birthday search filter to choose a child that has a birthday coming up, or if you’d like you can even choose a child who shares the same birthday as you. when you sponsor a child he or she will receive the news just in time for their birthday that they have been sponsored by YOU!
Wouldn’t that be an amazing birthday gift for that child to receive?!
If you’d like give the gift of sponsorship to a child for their birthday just click this picture and it will take you to Compassion Internationa’s website. If you are unsure or just want more information this link will take you to that too. 
Don’t you sometimes wish God would just talk out loud?
A few nights ago, my husband and I were supposed to volunteer for the Compassion table at The Roadshow concert. But I was thinking about not going.
I am 3 weeks post surgery and I’m not supposed to be standing for long periods of time plus I feel pretty wiped out every night by evening. Add to that it had been a dreary cloudy day and they were calling for a lot of rain that would make driving an hour and a half to and from the concert miserable.
I decided to tell my husband about my thoughts on not going but before I could speak he said, “I sure am looking forward to going to the concert tonight!”
So you guessed it, I kept my thoughts to myself and we went to the concert.
Upon arriving we were met by a lot of our friends we’ve made over the years who also work these events and suddenly I was happy to be there.
We then had training and prayer and we were soon off to our assigned table… A table on the floor inside the concert. Most people only visit the table during intermission so that means we pretty much got to watch the whole concert in what I would consider some of the best seats in the house!
Now I want to get off subject for just a minute…. Hopefully, this will all come together and make sense soon.
For quite some time now I have this odd feeling that God is stripping me down bringing me back to the basics. I’ve been a little mixed up about why when I follow His lead things don’t go like I thought they would go.
Now add this – Volunteering with Compassion has always been something I feel very passionate about but for about a year God had been leading me in a different direction which felt strange to me. And then this past December I started feeling Him pulling me back toward Compassion.
Add to that the story about my blog I told you a few days ago and it’s a recipe for confusion
Now back to the concert…
I am sitting there watching the concert (they gave me a chair! Yay!), Natalie Grant comes on stage with a powerful message about wanting Jesus more than anything and then she sings the song ‘More than Anything.’ The words go – Help me want the Healer More than the healing, Help me want the Savior, More than the saving, Help me want the Giver, More than the giving, Oh help me want You Jesus.
I had never heard that song until that moment… Add this to the stuff I wrote earlier- A lot has been going on in my life for what seems like a really long time from all sides of life. I keep living my life for Jesus yet bad stuff just keeps happening and there is really nothing I can do about any of it except keep praying and stay close to Jesus.
Which I do do.
Natalie sang more songs all of which had God speaking to me through them and then she started singing ‘How Great Thou Art’ and I started to sing along. I could totally feel God speaking to me about what I am supposed to do…the writing, Compassion… the junk in my life.
At that moment I was laying it all down and then I said to him, “God, it would be so much easier if you would just speak out loud to me,” and I heard Him in my mind say, “It’s time to get to work and get some kids sponsored” and then at the same exact time I felt a tap on my shoulder and heard the words “it’s time to get back work and get some kids sponsored” coming out of my husbands mouth.
!!!!!!!!
I was suddenly jarred back into the room… strangely I never really realized that I had totally forgotten the rest of the people there. For in the previous moments it had only been me and God. The lights were coming on now and people were coming up to the table to sponsor kids. I looked across the table and saw a woman who I had been talking to at the beginning of the concert who had been unsure about sponsoring as a child, she was now turning in a packet because she was sponsoring!!
I knew without a doubt this was where I was supposed to be. I can’t even begin to explain the peace that washed over me.
The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7
How Great God is!
Since my surgery, I haven’t been to a church service in 3 weeks. I was sick for 2 Sundays and then church was canceled another Sunday because of snow.
Today it felt so good to get to church and imagine my surprise (not) when we sang “How Great Thou Art
Happy Music Monday to you!
What song has moved you recently? Share it in the comments or on your blog and then link in the comments.
Why is it that whenever God gives me a job to do I always allow myself to get all worked up into a frenzy?
My biggest fear in the world is speaking in public.
Tomorrow is Compassion Sunday at my church and in order to present the kids waiting for sponsors I am going to have to speak in public.
Last week I was feeling excited for the opportunity to share these children with my church and was not feeling nervous at all.
But then Wednesday afternoon the child packets arrived…
Suddenly things felt different.
Suddenly I felt a huge responsibility to those children.
Within a matter of an hour of receiving the packets I began feeling nervous. By that evening, I began rethinking what I had planned to say in church on Sunday. I soon began writing down a plan and I began practicing what I was going to say over and over. Before I realized what was happening I had myself so worked up that each time I practiced, instead of getting better at what I was going to say I began to get worse.
Yesterday I thought about it some more, changed my presentation again, settled on what I thought was my finished product a few more times, and then finally ended up going to bed very late last night feeling sick to my stomach and panicky at the thought of speaking in front of the church on Sunday.
HELLO social anxiety!
Did you forgot that you don’t live here anymore??!
After a restless night, I woke up this morning with God’s voice in my head saying, “stop worrying about what YOU can’t do and instead, remember what I CAN do!”
Suddenly I realized that I just needed to chill out and I needed to give this worry to God! Nothing here has changed except I seemed to have forgotten God is the one who is in charge of all this.
I have already been in this place way too many times in the past so ya think I would have known the drill by now.
So like I have done every time I set out to talk in public, I took out a piece of paper and wrote on it the words, ‘I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.‘ I threw all my extra notes in the trash and put it all back into his hands.
Tomorrow instead of a bunch of notes in my hand I will hold his words as a reminder.
From this day forward when it comes to the God stuff, I have to remember not to spend my time thinking about what I should be spending my time praying about!
Update… Somehow I forgot to push publish on this post last night so figure I may as well finish the story with what happened today.
So I went to bed last night in peace and then woke up this morning with this crazy notion in my head that because we already have so many child sponsors in our church most likely we would not have many kids sponsored today. Yep, you guessed it I was already thinking way too much again! Thankfully I caught myself and went for a drive before church and prayed.
God set me straight and I arrived at church excited and knowing in my heart that God was going to make something big happen today. Sure enough, I soon found myself with a front row seat watching as another one of his amazing stories began being played out before me!
From our worship pastor starting us off speaking his own sponsorship story to our pastor’s Compassion tailored sermon everything went great. It wasn’t about any of us presenting the story today as much as it was about God uniting his children with one another.
27 children received new sponsors today but also at the same time 27 sponsors also received new children.
Many blessings are in the making for all those involved I’m sure.
There was never any need to be nervous or worry.
No need to second guess.
Just show up is all that was required … because just like He always does, God also showed up in a mighty big way in our church today!
If you would like more information about sponsoring a child or Compassion Sunday visit www.compassionsunday.com or contact me through the contact link at the top of this page.
Thanks for reading and have a great week!
The first time I heard of Darren Terpstra was the day I saw him in a YouTube video. In the video he was introducing a little girl from Brazil named ‘Ayla.’ He had just sponsored Ayla through Compassion International with money he had saved by living on $7 a day. He also shared in the video that he had made a commitment to live on $7 a day for a year and that at the end of each month he was giving the money he had saved to charity. Sponsoring Ayla was what he was able to do with the money he had saved during his first month.
How exciting was that?! I was really impressed to think that in only one month of saving he was not only able to sponsor Ayla, but also he had saved enough to sponsor her for 7 years!
After watching Darren’s video I just had to know a little more about the guy behind the video and I had the privilege of doing just that a couple of weeks ago when he so kindly agreed to meet with me.
When we first started talking Darren seemed like he was your average 25-year-old guy, but within just a couple of minutes I realized there is so much more to this guy than just your average 25-year-old guy. I did already know from watching his videos that he had a very strong passion in his heart for helping those in need, but having a conversation with him gave me a much bigger look into just how truly deep that passion really is.
Today I am really excited to share our conversation with you, so that you too can know a little more about Darren Terpstra.
Darren Terpstra is 25 years old. He grew up in Janesville, Wisconsin and went to school in Jackson, Mississippi. He now lives in Colorado Springs where he works as a marketing manager for the publishing company David C. Cook. He is also the founder of KiwiConnect which is still in the making.
Darren shared that God has put three things on his heart that he wants him to do with his life which are:
“If we’re known for picketing parades and getting angry at Starbucks cups…we’re probably doing it wrong.”
Another thing that started Darren on this journey is when he was in high school he had a friend who was sexually abused at home. He was with her day in and day out and seeing what she was going through was really heart breaking. One day they had a class assignment in which they were asked to bring forth an idea that could help change the world. His friend stood up in front of the class and said that for just $40 you could buy a person out of sexual slavery.
He’s not sure where she got that fact from but said, “when you figure that ISIS is selling girls for between $10 and $40, and that for $3000 you can fund the raid of a brothel, and an arrest is made off of that raid they calculate that 200 girls would be saved in the future. Which comes out to a cost of only $15 per girl.” (I was stunned by that fact)
He told me that statistic is from when he was in high school so he is pretty sure that has changed by now, but whether that amount were $100 or $200, would it really make that much of a difference?
Right after the Haiti earthquake there was this guy who was rallying their college to help who said that for $5* you could feed a family in Haiti for a month.
“To think that for 20 to 25 cents you can provide a meal.”
“With the change in your pocket you can provide immunizations for people in Africa so diseases that we have completely cured over here are not over there. Immunizations are one of those things that you can very easily do to save a life.”
He heard one place that stated boldly – For $200 put into immunizations you can save a life. “I thought that was pretty mind-blowing when you think of our priorities.” (And so do!)
*Just a little side note – Darren has a new video out ‘Day 101‘ according to Samaritan’s purse $35 will feed a family in Africa for a month!
Initially he had the idea of just not buying anything for a year and then to document his journey. After thinking about it he decided that way might be really difficult to put rules around. So he talked with some friends and came up with the idea of the $7 a day year.
He came up with the amount by figuring out how much he spends per day minus the things he needs such as rent, utilities and insurance. From there he came up with the figure of $7 a day. Anything he makes above the $7 he gives to charity. He plans to spread each month’s savings across several different charities.
As you saw in the video at the beginning of this post, during his first month he saved $3164 which he used to sponsor Ayla through Compassion International for 7 YEARS! WOW!
He has 1 sister and 2 brothers and is what he calls himself an ‘extreme’ middle child. He hasn’t received Christmas Gifts for the past 5 years because he always asks for money and then he donates that money to charities… so all of this was not a real surprise to his family at all. “One time my mom asked the question… ‘If Darren had to choose between true love and bookoos of money what do you think he would choose?’” his little brother said, “I think he would probably choose bookoos of money and then give it all away.” Darren laughed as he told me this and he said, “I didn’t really know how to take that so I think it was a compliment…so ya, that’s my family and yes, they are very supportive of what I am doing.”
“No one at this point. In the days of Netflix, Starbucks and the American culture the way it is, it’s hard to find someone who has the same values as you.” He told me his church group goes out to eat on Sundays and sometimes he goes and doesn’t eat. He in no way means to make it sound like he is against something, it’s just when he figures if 20 people go out to a restaurant spending $10 to $20 each that’s roughly $200 each week that we could be doing something else with. He went on to say he is not saying something is wrong, there is freedom in Christ, but at the same time he is just hoping this challenge shows people some sort of conviction about things like that.
“I find it interesting that just because it’s me, because it’s a person in front of you people always want to buy me something. Hey let me pay for your lunch, let me do this for you let me do that for you. After I first started this challenge cereal started appearing on my chair at work,”
He had to let people know he didn’t want donations to himself, “what I want is to point people towards people who can use this money.”
“So…Wrapping all that up no, no girlfriend, so we’ll see what God has in store”
He also said that when people first find out about his $7 year one of the first questions they ask him is, ‘so, how are you going to date?’ he said, “Well dating wasn’t really an issue in the beginning of all of this so I think I can make it a year, we’ll see what happens.”
Darren says there are 2 types of exercise, the first type is the type he likes… things such as ultimate Frisbee, flag football, most anything active that he can do with his friends. He also does a lot of things with the youth which keeps him young. He doesn’t like workouts such upper body where you just burn it out at the gym.
No he hasn’t heard anything yet but he doesn’t really think he would win because he doesn’t have the finger strength he needs to win. He says you get finger strength by rock climbing and he doesn’t rock climb because that would bust his budget at a cost of about $12 a session.
“We all buy our own food and we have 2 fridges with our own section for our own stuff. So no, no skimming of the top of my roommates”
“That really surprised me.” “I had not done the math and so I thought maybe 3 years or maybe 4 years. When the numbers came out and said it went for 7 years I went wait! No! And I typed it in again and I typed it in again and I thought wow that was a lot more than I thought it would be!” Darren told me that statistic has been pretty powerful to people in the fact that just one month can take a child out of poverty.
I would like to add that Darren also has two other children that he sponsors through Compassion, their names are ‘Rehan’ and ‘Indri’ and they live in Indonesia.
“I lived very frugally before this so it’s not like I was blinded by the light and suddenly went from eating out every day to this. The biggest thing that I miss is not having to take notes on every single dollar that I use. It used to be very easy to say, ‘oh I have a trip in the summer to California’ and know that it was paid for. Now I have to make sure I save a little off of the $7 a day to pay for it.” For instance, he really wants to go on his yearly surfing trip to a friend’s house in San Diego this summer which will cost $250.
He also misses Redbox. “I didn’t used to feel bad about getting a Redbox but when you are living on $7 a day even a Redbox can be a splurge.”
Board games have become a popular alternative he now that plays with friends instead of movie nights.
“People being more worried about me more than about the message that I am trying to get across. I don’t think I was expecting people at work to start bringing me cereal and me having to make the public statement that I wasn’t excepting donations to Darren’s charity fund.”
He did say that he knows that all of the gifts were left out of a good heart, it just wasn’t necessarily the sort of response he was expecting. What he had been expecting was a response like “hey what’s a good charity to get into?” Which he said there actually has been a lot of that too, which has been really good.
He also said the gifts could maybe mean that people really care about him and maybe he should just stop over thinking it.
What he really wants to do with all of this is to point people towards people who CAN use the money.
Yes he thinks he could. Creating the videos and meticulously writing down everything he spends is a small headache, but it’s really not that bad.
“I have a couple of PTA friends and my friend’s mom is a nutritionist and so if I started eating really really unhealthy I would get into a lot of trouble!”
Just in case you are wondering why I asked him this question you will have to watch his day 3 video. I will go ahead and tell you that this girl loves Ramen Noodles 😀
Well that’s it for my questions!
I really enjoyed my interview with Darren Terpstra and sure hope you did too. We talked and laughed and I think I may have blabbered just a tiny bit too much myself because I noticed the other day that I have now made my way into one of his videos (Gangs of El Salvador). Thankfully he called me a ‘super nice lady’ which was really sweet and made me day. I think Darren is super nice too.
Anyway…. that is all I have for today. If you would like to follow Darren on his journey you can visit his Facebook page – Darren Terpstra or his YouTube page – 7DollarYear . Darren if you are reading this, thanks for your time spent sharing your journey with me!
Thanks for reading and also be sure to check out the links below.
Samaritan’s Purse – Lifesaving Food
In 2009 Compassion started a tradition that focused on one word for the year. Two weeks ago I received a blog writing prompt that encouraged me to spend time with the Lord and ask for his guidance as to what word he would choose for me in the coming new year. Though I have never really chosen a word in advance usually by the end of each year I find that there was a particular theme that my year seemed to have taken on as the year progressed.
Even though I have not chosen a word for this year I do know without a doubt my theme and word for 2015 was ‘TRUST’
As 2015 started I began the year with a whole lot of new things on my plate. Now as I look back I can see I had many more things coming my way that I really had no idea were going to be coming. All of those things made way for a whole lot of times I found myself having to Trust the Lord in his guidance and his strength.
There were also many times this past year that He showed me that big things can happen if I just let go of myself and put ALL of my trust in him.
With that said now I will say this has probably been the hardest year in my Christian journey.
I started the year off full of excitement and ready to dive right in to whatever God had in store. But as the year progressed things seemed to get more and more confusing and I will admit it there were times I felt like he was far away, and also sometimes oddly silent.
At one point even though I knew God had led me in to the place I was, things didn’t seem to be going quite as well as I thought they would have been going. I also had conflict going on around me and many times found myself feeling as if I was caught in the middle and for some reason I began to feel as if somehow I was to blame for it. I know now it wasn’t my problem or my fault and also know I did not put myself in the middle of it at all. I can’t really go into detail here but will say that by the end of April my confidence in trusting to what and to where God was leading me was beginning to fall apart. Yet at the same time, he still kept showing time and time again that I was where he wanted me to be.
In April I went on a mission trip to Haiti. While I was there it was really good yet at the same time I had probably one of my worst times ever of feeling like I had somehow messed up and had heard God’s plan in this for me all wrong. Strangely even though I felt that way, at the very same time things happened while I was there that soon proved to me I was actually right where God wanted me to be….Ya I know it sounds totally confusing and weird. It’s a very long story I could never put into words, so I will just say as I now reflect back I can see God’s hand prints all over the place on that trip but at the same time it’s like the enemy somehow was able to distort my vision part of the time that I was there and make me feel really confused. Another thing that happened while on that trip is I was notified that a really close friend of mine had died and I kept a lot of my emotions about her death bottled up until I returned back home. I also think maybe the sadness I felt about her dying may have put a bit of a dark cloud over the trip too. I remember coming home knowing that I was supposed to have been on that trip yet also at the same time feeling even more discouraged.
But here is the cool part….
What I didn’t know at the time was that just a week after returning home from that trip I was going to be invited on another trip. On April 23 I received an email inviting me to attend a vision trip in El Salvador with Compassion International. I know this may sound crazy but even though I was at that time doubting my confidence in discerning what was God and what wasn’t God I clearly heard him say to me “GO on the trip.”
So I signed up.
After I signed up for the trip my confidence still continued to plummet.
Yet God still kept throwing things out there that said I was in the right place but by then I was even more confused and feeling as if I was losing my ability to trust in what I heard from Him was really Him.
I also felt ashamed of my feelings and I didn’t want to tell anyone what was going on so I spiraled through most of it feeling very alone.
Then to top off all those bad feelings in July I started having some serious knee issues and I realized I most likely would not be able to go on the El Salvador trip.
I sent an email to the trip leader explaining to her the situation and I told her that I would not be able to go on the trip. I knew from past experience of going on a trip like this that I may have to walk in places that I couldn’t walk such as rough terrain or long periods of walking which I knew I could not do. I figured most likely they wouldn’t let me go with my knees like they were anyway.
Once again I found myself doubting and I began to tell myself that maybe I had made the decision to go in the first place because I had most likely heard God’s voice wrong. Why would God tell me to sign up for something He knew I wasn’t going to be able to do?
After I sent the email I soon received a reply and a phone call from the trip leader. During the phone call we talked about a lot of things, including the fact that I could possibly have another trip coming up with my church to Haiti, (I forgot to mention that earlier) that I worried if happened the dates may conflict. As we spoke I began to feel as if she was someone I had known forever even though it was my first time ever talking to her by phone. She told me that the trip would not be very physical and that I could still go with the knee problem if I wanted to. She also prayed with me for discernment I would be able to know what God wanted me to do.
We ended the conversation with me having a few more days to pray about my decision which I did and soon I knew without a doubt that God still wanted me to go to El Salvador!
So once again I said, “yes.”
I felt such relief once I made that decision and then suddenly at the end of July I found out that I would have the trip to Haiti but it was not going to be anywhere near the El Salvador trip dates. It was so exciting to know God had worked out the dates!!
But suddenly I had another problem… There was no way I could afford to pay for a trip to El Salvador and also a trip to Haiti.
I felt a loyalty to my church, because I was the new Mission’s director plus I had been a part of setting this trip up. Suddenly I felt like I was torn between the two trips and found myself trying to choose once again. I knew if I was going to have to choose I had to choose my church because I felt a loyalty to our mission there. But God still said to do both! Once again I began struggled with God because I knew I did not have the money to pay for both of these trips!
I made a decision on my own even though deep down I knew God wanted me in both places. I decided I was going to drop the El Salvador trip and I even went so far as to tell a couple of people I would not be going to El Salvador anymore.
As soon as I made that decision suddenly I could not rest.
And God still kept saying, “GO to El Salvador!”
I knew God wanted me to trust him.
I also knew I still had to go on that trip.
I changed my mind and I said, “OKAY, I will go!” but this time I did it differently and I finally gave up my own feelings on the matter. This time placed it back into God’s hands where it belonged; And guess what happened the very next day???? I found out I would not have to pay for my trip to Haiti! Wow! All I had to do was say yes and what I thought was going to be a problem was never a problem at all. God had everything under control!
I know this story is getting really long so if you are still here thank you for hanging in there. I will now try my best to finish this as quickly as possible.
We will fast forward to September….
Since July things had been going really great but then two days before I was supposed to leave for El Salvador something horrible happened. I cannot say much about what happened here because I always try really hard not to put things on the blog that may tell something personal and could possible hurt others. What I will say is that what happened totally threw me for a loop and almost threw me back into my mode of not trusting my ability to truly know what God wanted me to do. I spent the whole next day and night in tears, doubting who I was now and for that matter also doubting who I had ever known myself to be. Its may sound crazy but sometimes old wounds can be opened and when they open you may find new ones you never even knew you had. In a matter of a couple of hours of time I went from feeling closer than I had ever been with God to suddenly feeling like a horrible person. At that point I wasn’t sure how on earth I would ever be able to get myself on that plane to El Salvador.
The day before the trip, I talked to God asking him if what had happened to make me feel that way was true?? I had searched my soul and honestly felt like what I had felt the day and night before was because of lies created by the enemy. But I still wanted and needed God’s input very much.
“Please just give me something to let me know I was truly where you wanted me to be!” I prayed.
As I prayed I opened my Bible and this is what I saw hi-lighted inside – Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” Luke 1:45 That caught my attention and as I recognized the rest of the story suddenly peace just wafted over me.
The next morning as my husband dropped me off at the airport I was still at peace and never one time did I ever find myself thinking that by going on this trip I was making a wrong decision.
A little while later shortly after the plane lifted off the ground I noticed the sun was rising. I remember trying my best to hold back the tears of joy because at that moment I knew like I’d never known anything before that I was exactly where God wanted me to be. I was so thankful that despite all the detours I had taken to get to this place he had never given up on me. I was so thankful that through all the mess I had said yes.
That trip ended up being one of the best times I have ever connected with God and while there he showed me I truly was exactly where he wanted me to be . Another thing about that trip was it was not just a vision trip it was also a spiritual retreat. I had never been on a spiritual retreat before and had no idea what a treat I was in for. Each evening we would all meet for a couple of hours and focus on knowing and just being with God. In the mornings we were encouraged to spend time with Him. we were encouraged to go where ever he took us by walking the grounds or sitting on our porches or whatever felt right. To just BE and connect with God was what we all seemed to do. Never in my life have I experienced something like the closeness I felt with him on that trip. The whole trip from start to finish was perfect. We were very busy yet at the same time it felt like it was the most relaxed time emotionally I ever remember having in my life. It was like God had taken the worst parts of me and my life away for that week.
Another cool thing is that just as the trip had begun with the dawning of a new day and a beautiful sunrise, my trips last leg was finished with my plane taking off from Houston on the journey home with the sun just setting and it was beautiful too. I felt as if I had somehow come full circle and I also knew without a doubt that another chapter of my life was now closing because a new one had just begun.
I knew from that moment on in order for me to do what I am supposed to do for God I had to fully get rid of myself and trust Him.
I also now knew that all the things that had seemed to be reasons for me not to go on the trip were actually all the more reason for me to Go.
Since the trip things have not always been easy but I do now know what God wants from me. I also knew I had to give up a few things that I felt like were getting in the way of what He wants me to do. Giving them up wasn’t easy but oddly once I made my decision and did what I know he wanted me to do I felt relieved and also that peaceful feeling once again.
So my word this past year was Trust
When I looked up the definition of trust it said – “the firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. “relationships have to be built on trust.”
I also found this part of the definition interesting, looking at the word trust used as in law. – “confidence placed in a person by making that person the nominal owner of property to be held or used for the benefit of one or more – others.”
.As I started writing this blog post I had not looked up the definition of trust, though I knew what trust meant I hadn’t really ever thought of it that way. also as I started this post I had no idea what my word of 2016 would be. I had planned to stop this post with the definition of trust and tell you that I still had no idea what my word for 2016 was yet.
But as I read the definition from the perspective of setting up a ‘Trust’ I realized that another lesson I learned in El Salvador was from pastor Carlos when he talked about lending to the Lord (see blog post Casa de Pan Lending to the Lord) somehow seems to go with this definition. Suddenly it has occurred to me that though I place my confidence in God, he also has confidence in me and he has placed me where I am because that is where HE wants me to be. Could it be possible he has made me a nominal owner of HIS property, and now it is my job to use his property for the benefit of others?
As this revelation was flooding over me suddenly I looked up and saw a group of pictures hanging on the wall in my bedroom with the words Dream, Imagine, Love, Hope, Faith and Believe on them. The top word on the pictures is the word Believe. Now I can see that without believing He chose me I can never fully trust myself to do what he wants me to do.
I know God wants me to not only trust him but also to totally believe in his ability to make proper decisions and trust that he can and will make things go exactly as he has planned.
I plan to spend this year focusing on believing that God has my life in his hands and no matter what things may look like from the outside to me or anyone else, God knows the truth, he knows the plan and He is the only one I have to believe in.
I said in the beginning of this post that this has probably been one of my hardest years of my Christian journey. I also know, even though it has been a hard year, it has also been my best year on this journey so far.
I am pretty sure it was a good year.
Now I have a question for you.
Do you have a word you feel as if God has given you to focus on this year?
If so add your word to the comments or share your blog post in the link up below I would love to read it.
Thanks for reading my very long blog post and I wish you a blessed and wonderful new year!
P.S. Don’t forget to share your ‘One Word’ below.
[inlinkz_linkup id=595547 mode=1]
1 At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was now obviously pregnant.
6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them.
8 That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! 12 And you will recognize him by this sign: You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth, lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”15 When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 They hurried to the village and found Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in the manger. 17 After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child. 18 All who heard the shepherds’ story were astonished, 19 but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often. 20 The shepherds went back to their flocks, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. It was just as the angel had told them. Luke 2:1-20
Though this happened many years ago there are other young mothers right now around the world who are living in extreme poverty who need to know they aren’t alone.
Check out this video about another mother and newborn…
We have the opportunity right now to help a young mother and baby by sharing with them the love that was given to us in the gift of baby Jesus many years ago.
Today’s 12 Days of Giving Christmas Away gift is – A Newborn Care package
Click this Catalog to send a newborn care package
Day 1. A Very Special Music Monday – Kickoff to Twelve Days of Giving Christmas Away
Day 2. Water of Life – 12 Days of Giving Christmas Away
Day 4. Twelve Days of Giving Christmas Away – Good Tidings of Great Joy and the Gift of the Bible
Day 5. Pigs Chickens and Goats
Day 6. No Time to Write Because I Want to Read a Book and Go to Sleep
Did you know that every minute a child around the world dies from Malaria?
What this means is…
that In the amount of time it took me to brush my teeth this morning, 2 children died from Malaria.
During my 20 minute trip through the grocery store… 20 children died from Malaria.
While I had lunch with a friend… 60 children died from Malaria.
While I watch a movie later this evening… 120 children will die from Malaria.
And when I go to bed tonight by the time I wake up 480 children will have died from Malaria!
Did you know that malaria is fully treatable and also preventable?
No child should have to die from something that is totally preventable and that is why today’s 12 Days of Giving Christmas Away gift is – the gift of Mosquito Nets.
Malaria is true reality for families living in poverty in over half of the world and to think that it could be prevented yet kids are still dying from this seems totally wrong.
It only costs $18 to help protect a child from catching this deadly disease.
If you would like to help by donating a mosquito net you can click the picture below. 
Thank you for your help,
Day 1. A Very Special Music Monday – Kickoff to Twelve Days of Giving Christmas Away
Day 2. Water of Life – 12 Days of Giving Christmas Away
Day 4. Twelve Days of Giving Christmas Away – Good Tidings of Great Joy and the Gift of the Bible
Day 5. Pigs Chickens and Goats
Day 6. No Time to Write Because I Want to Read a Book and Go to Sleep
Hi there and Happy Music Monday!
Not only is today Music Monday on the blog, but it’s also Christmas week and we are also on Day 8 of 12 Days of Giving Christmas away. As you know, for the past 7 days I have wrote a whole lot about gift giving and have posted several gifts that are great ways to help someone to know the love of Jesus during the Christmas season and also all year-long. (If you missed any posts you can read them all –> here)
As we move closer to Christmas, more and more Christmas songs are being played on the radio and one of my favorite Christmas songs right now is ‘Mary Did You Know?’ and my favorite version is this one sung by Danny Gokey…
Enjoy….
Wasn’t that great?!
The words to this song make me think of my own children when I carried them inside of my body. I used to sit sometimes with my hands on my belly feeling life moving inside of me as I would wonder what the baby would be like. I also knew that I was already in love with the tiny little person inside of me even though I hadn’t met him yet.
A few weeks ago my daughter, who is now pregnant was visiting and she announced, “my baby is kicking.” Suddenly everyone in the room was around her and we all began taking turns putting our hands on her belly to feel the baby as he moved. Just as it had been with my own children I wondered what he will be like, and I also know that I am already in love with my grandson even though I haven’t met him yet.
I often wonder what sort of things did Mary think about as she waited for the birth of her baby. Did she wonder what her child would be like, as love filled her heart for her child she hadn’t met yet? And how would she have felt had she known that her baby was actually a gift of love that God was not only givng to her but he was also giving to the whole world?
Luke 1:26-38 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel[ forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.”
38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.
What I find most interesting about this passage is that when the angel told Mary that she was going to conceive a baby she didn’t argue or say something like, “let me pray on this and get back to you.” She just took the angels word about everything and she answered, “I am the Lord’s servant.”
If she had known the full story in detail what would have her answer have been?
What if she had known that one day when her son became a man, people would follow him and worship him?
What if she had know that one day some of those same people would turn on her son and then ridicule and torture Him until he died a horrible death?
I have a feeling her answer still would have been the same.
I wonder how she would have felt had she have known that one day her son would rise from the dead and be savior to all?
I wonder how would she have felt had she known that for hundreds of years to come people would celebrate her son’s Birthday?
The whole reason we even have Christmas in the first place is to celebrate Jesus.
JESUS – God’s gift to the world. He is the gift that when we accept, he changes everything, from the way we see things to the reason we live. Without Him life has no meaning and believe me when I say that I do know how that feels, because there once was a time that I did not have Jesus in my life.
Nobody should not have Jesus in their life. That is why for today’s 12 Days of Giving Christmas Away gift I would like to give you the opportunity to help make the difference in the life of a child by sponsoring a child through Compassion International.
When you sponsor a child you will be able to write letters back and forth with your sponsored child. In those letters you can share the love of Jesus and bring hope to a child in that will last a lifetime.
I also want to tell you that I have children I sponsor and I have met 2 of them. I have also visited several of Compassion’s projects and have seen them in action. I can promise you that the small amount of money you give to sponsor a child is a very small investment that has a very HUGE return in that child’s life.
Because it is Christmastime and because we are celebrating Jesus’ Birthday this week, I thought maybe you may like to choose a child who has the same Birthday as you, or maybe the birthday of someone else you know. All you have to do is put your birth date into the link below, hit ‘search now’ and a page will pop up with pictures of all the children who are waiting for sponsors.
http://banners.compassion.com/banners/FlashReplacements/searches/embed-300×250-2.php?referer=121431
Every child deserves to know Jesus Christ, will you be the one to help to give a child that blessing?
Go ahead put your birthday in…. or maybe… you could try putting Jesus’ Birthday in 🙂
http://banners.compassion.com/banners/Birthday_Search_300x250.php?referer=121431
Thanks for reading and have a great week!
P.S. It’s another blog hop! Write a Music Monday post or a Christmas post of any kind, add your link up to the inlinkz link up below. Then past the code into your blog to share the link up with your readers and other bloggers who may want to join up.
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document.write('’);
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Day 1. A Very Special Music Monday – Kickoff to Twelve Days of Giving Christmas Away
Day 2. Water of Life – 12 Days of Giving Christmas Away
Day 4. Twelve Days of Giving Christmas Away – Good Tidings of Great Joy and the Gift of the Bible
Day 5. Pigs Chickens and Goats
Day 6. No Time to Write Because I Want to Read a Book and Go to Sleep
Today was Christmas cookie baking day at my house.
I started with M & M Cookies.
Then moved on to Peanut Blossoms.
And then for the big finish and my favorite, Fudge.
As I was baking I started thinking about my Compassion Sponsor child ‘Ericka’. This past September I had the opportunity to visit Ericka in El Salvador.
The Moment we Met… Ericka and Me
Ericka and Me at the Water Park
Heraldo our interpretor, Ericka’s Father Salvador, Me, Ericka, and her Teacher
One of the things Ericka shared with me me during our visit is that she wants to be a Chef when she grows up.
The very next day after visiting Ericka we visited a Compassion project in San Salvador that had a baking class.
Children in Baking Class at a Compassion Project in San Salvador, El Salvador
In the baking class the children were learning how to cook, and that day they were making garlic bread loaves. We were all able to sample them and they were delicious!
The kids really seemed to enjoy the class and shared with us what they were learning and they told us they wanted to be chefs when they grew up.
By being in Compassion’s sponsorship program they were able to be a part of this class and they were learning a very valuable skill that would not only help them at home to safely prepare meals, but also would help them in the future as a job skill they would be able to use for creating and selling food in the market.
This was something I didn’t realize was available to the children and when I saw this I realized that what Ericka had said the day before about wanting to be a chef someday was actually a possibility and it was something she could learn right in her Compassion project!
How exciting is that?!!
So that brings me to today’s Giving Christmas Away gift – the gift of Baking Classes.
As you have just read, learning to cook can be very valuable gift for a child in poverty.
To give the gift of a Baking Class just click the picture below of the little girl in the apron and it will take you to the gifts page
She is one of the kids I met in the baking class in El Salvador, just look at that smile. She was one very joyful little girl 🙂
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
Day 1. A Very Special Music Monday – Kickoff to Twelve Days of Giving Christmas Away
Day 2. Water of Life – 12 Days of Giving Christmas Away
Day 4. Twelve Days of Giving Christmas Away – Good Tidings of Great Joy and the Gift of the Bible
Day 5. Pigs Chickens and Goats
Day 6. No Time to Write Because I Want to Read a Book and Go to Sleep
A Story By Me 
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