Penne and Me

I was recently reminded of one of my utmost favorite songs! Classic Hanson, Penny and me. My mother spells her name like the pasta and I always think about how much my dad loves my mom when I listen to this song, so instead of Hanson's "Penny", I think of my mom, Penne.  I love my mother so much, and I have genuinely never met anyone as selfless are her. She is a silent-strong warrior, and such a prayerful person. She is faithful to her family, husband, church, friends, and students. She cries for others. Mom would drop anything to help you out. She would cancel important meetings and appointments just to come down to College Station a day earlier than scheduled to help me out. She would take in an Army into her home if asked, and she would give her life for her children. She has. My mother is one of my heroes, and if I can give just a percent of what she has given me to my children, I would be thankful.  I am so thankful for how she loves me, puts up with me, and comforts me. It is so sweet to see how our relationship is becoming more like a friendship than parent and child. Love you Mommy.

Enjoy this song, it's so good!

 

Joyfully His, 

Lex

Lespwa means Hope

 

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. "

Psalm 51:7

Lespwa means Hope. Ssekos. Della. Be the Joy.  Seeds for Help.

Prelude: Tonight at dinner, my dearest friend Elizabeth and I were discussing about the phrase "break my heart for what breaks Yours", and how we interpret it. Elizabeth's story alone is an inspiration, and she constantly challenges me. She mentioned how when she prays that phrase or dwells upon it, she's asking God to break her heart for those around her. How could she be used in the lives of those in her realm. I discussed how I think about that phrase in reference to my own sin and those lost around the world. Either way the Lord stirs your heart when He mentions it, I often forget how apathetic I can be sometimes when He calls me to have a heart like Him.

Last night at our sorority meeting we had three men come and share their story of how they decided to make a difference in doing something bigger than themselves...

As an inspiration, here are these men and other neat organizations/movements of people taking advantage of opportunities God gives them to spread His gospel and bless others, including some that my dear friends are a part of. My prayer is that we would daily ask God to break our hearts for what breaks His so that we would naturally yearn to fulfill our calling for the poor, lost, and broken. Maybe will see areas within our selves that God is broken over or areas within others.



Here is a video of the guys we met at our meeting...funny and passionate men, follow them on facebook and twitter! They could potentially come to your University!

 lespwameanshope.org

Here's an incredible video from InvisibleChildren on one of their campaigns called MEND
    A MUST WATCH

My big in my sorority works for this company!
Ssekos

Another girl in my sorority started this Non-profit called Be The Joy.

Be The Joy, Inc. is a non-profit organization designed to help send girls to school in Uganda, East Africa. By educating young women in this developing country, we can provide a better life for them and generations to follow. All profits earned from heartbeads, JoyNotes, Tees, or other merchandise help pay for girls school fees. Join the movement in educating the youth of Uganda today! Watch this video for more information

 Seeds of Help  

-non-profit helping children in Guatemala 

Other organizations making a difference:

Della-an organization helping women in Ghana

http://www.onemangotree.com/  - Bags helping women in Northern Uganda

http://www.keza.com - a more "upscale" company helping women in Rwanda

My purpose of this post is to not convict you to spend money or feel compelled to purchase from these organizations. Rather to hopefully encourage you to see peers and older men and women committing their lives to give back to those in need. Sometimes I get so cooped up in my bubble of what my day -to-day tasks are that I forget how much of the world I can be in prayer for when no tangible means of helping them are possible. May He break our hearts for what breaks His.

Joyfully His, 

Lex

Snowboards, Wipeouts, and Everything in between

So that is definitely not me, but we just finished our first day of boarding! I forget how much I love the snow, mountains, and snowboarding. This is also our first full day of spring break in Steamboat and it has been filled with great memories as well...

This morning we all woke up on our own, and went down stairs to have coffee and time with the Lord. I am incredibly blessed to be surrounded my Godly women that spur me on to want to pursue Him harder. (I think that its great to have friends encourage us to spend time with the Lord, but please check your motives in that you're not wanting to just read the bible in front of others, just so they know you are reading the bible. I have definitely been guilty of that before).

We hit the slopes, and had so much fun with everyone. One thing I love about snowboarding and skiing is that you get to be with all your friends, yet it's such a time to yourself as well. Another thing I love are the ski lifts. Well sometimes I dread them because I ALWAYS fall! It's genuinely so funny, haha, but I also love them because they allow you to just take in God's creation(never forget to look back when you're going up and see the view!) and potentially get to meet new friends from around the country. While on some lifts today, we met Mary Beth from Colorado, Betsy from Nashville, and a father and son from New Jersey. I just want to encourage you to take advantage of those 15 minutes you have to meet someone.

 The first part of the day was filled with falls and wipeouts, some scary ones and hilarious ones too, but you just got to keep a smile on your face :) After a fun lunch with all our friends we hit the slopes again, only this time I realized I forgot to put sunscreen on(don't tell my parents)...oops! Tomorrow I will have to lather it to make-up from today. I also decided to listen to music while boarding and it was the neatest thing to be able to praise God through worship while boarding. I only wore one headphone in so that I could hear what else was going on.

Now I am sitting in our room, Julie's napping, some girls are reading, and all of us our resting our bodies. Let's just say I won't be surprised if I can't move in the morning. All the girls are about to go to dinner in an hour, hopefully I'll keep you updated more often :) Here's some scripture I read this morning, and even in a small way it applies to all of us here because it's so easy for us to feel dehydrated and want some water while in the mountains, yet He is our wellspring of life.

 ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

 ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

 ¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

 ¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

 ¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:7-13

Sunrises

Well I am currently on my senior spring break trip!!! Wahoo! Go crazy!!!....just kidding. ha!

Since freshman year, I've learned that spring break trips can be incredibly glorifying to God, and I can't say if this trip so far has been glorifying to Him(I hope so), but I do know He has used it already for some great reflection and reading time with His word. Please allow me to inform you on some other things that have happened.

So currently, I am writing you from the La Quinta in Pueblo, Colorado. Home of the fighting Mountain Lizards. Okay, I made up the mascot, but I'm just trying to get in the "Mountain mood" :) It is currently 7:25 a.m. and the past 145 minutes have already been emotionally up and down.

First off, yes, I woke up at 5. Naturally. You may ask our Lord, "why did she do that?", well, I'm still pondering that myself, but over the morning I think it's just God graciously giving me the opportunity to watch one of my Simple Joys... a sunrise from beginning to end.

How can you not see God in sunrises or sunsets? Peaceful, majestic, calming, powerful, gentle, refreshing...all are adjectives I would use to describe sunrises.

This morning I was also informed that a friend of a friend, Kiefer Holman, was confirmed to have passed away from a canoeing accident. Be joyful for he knew Christ as His savior, so we can rejoice that Kiefer is in a far better place right now, but please be in prayer for his family and friends.

This morning, I read John and for some reason the story of Jesus clearing the temple just hit me. His frustration of the market sellers was so easy to understand.

 Imagine wanting to worship our Father in a church and finding it used for worldly things. How would you feel?

 We were uniquely created to worship our Father, and He designed this earth so accommodating to our needs, in order for us to praise Him, and yet here we are like the market sellers. We have polluted His creation with adult lounges, places lifting up false Gods, and developing industries/lifestyles so engrossed in promoting ourselves that we forget to keep the main thing, the main thing- which is the Gospel. A story of how life is given through the overcoming of death. From the rising of a sunset(reminder of life) to Kiefer's death, I can't help to think about the cross.

Our God who sent His only son. A son who lived a perfect life, and yet was sentenced to die because He is "the King of Jews." Because He is our King, He died a painful death for me and you, and yet overcame and resurrected!  No gift can we get to repay Him or that equates to a thank-you. He died so that we may find life in Him! What?!?  I'm speechless. Why?

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" -John 14:6

Crazy morning. Great morning. Stirring thoughts. Maybe next time you get to watch a sunrise you'll be reminded of His grace, power, and love for you.

Back on the road to Steamboat, Colorado!

Book Sculptures

I would like to introduce you to Sir Nicholas Jones. Well, I'm sure he goes by just Nicholas, but I think he is deserving of the title. Sir Nicholas is a book sculptor. Yes, a book sculptor. Take a look. Be inspired. p.s.- This is getting me really excited about Tell Your Story, which is less than two weeks away!!! Please pray for hearts and lives to be moved and encouraged through the forum! Now I present to you the work of Sir Nicholas Jones...

Princesitas de Jesus

Hello again,

   It's been a while, and I do have a lot to catch you up on, but in the mean time I would like to post you a letter I wrote to my supporters. "Supporters of what?" you might ask. Over the Christmas break I got to go to Guatemala with Pine Cove on one of their Commission Camping trip. Those ten days were truly the trip of a life time. To explain more, here is the letter I sent to the people who supported me through prayer and donations. The letter will help you understand the pictures I posted below :)....(also- Princesitas de Jesus, was the cabin name of the group of girls I helped counsel)...

Georgie, Me, and Xaris

Guatemalan and American Team

My cabin and Vicky

 Some of the girl leaders

Hola mis amigos y familia,

    I sit here back in the States after serving our God in Guatemala for ten days, and cannot help but feel humbled to have had the experiences I had, because of your prayers and donations.  Thank you for being a part of this trip. I believe we all have pivotal moments in our lives that have/will forever impact us, and Guatemala is surely one of mine.
    I would love to take the opportunity to describe all that I did, but for times sake and incase I miss anything, I encourage you to read through our team’s blog about the trip. The blog can be found at PCRanchGuatemala.wordpress.com (you will be excited to find a hilarious picture of me as the thumbnail screen for a video post!).  Now more about what I did and how I was impacted through my Guatemalan partner and campers…

    Along with fifteen other Pine Cove staff, I safely arrived to Guatemala on a Monday evening and was welcomed by some very friendly Guatemalans, who would eventually become my dear friends. We stayed in Guatemala City that night, and then rode in a school bus down the mountain towards a rural town. As we pull into a fruit farm, I realize this is where we would run the camps. This is where we would prepare the way for His love to reach Guatemalan children, whom six months ago, I did not even think about. To preface the rest of the letter, our team was not only there to put on two Christian camps, but more so to train the Guatemalan leaders how we organize our camps so that they can put on a camp by themselves one day. Because of this purpose, each Pine Cover staffer was given a Guatemalan partner to work with.  After going through a training session the first day with the leaders from both countries, we were assigned our partners through a matching game. My word, “pies” or feet, matched with Georgie’s word, “zapatos” or shoes, and from that point on I would meet one of the people that the Lord used to influence me the most on this trip.
    Georgie is the Guatemalan that I spent the most time with, and we counseled 13 nine-year olds. Nine-year-olds require a lot of energy, attention, and patience, and Georgie provided all of that to them. She was incredible. O, did I mention Georgie is a 41-year-old Pastor and mother of a seven-year-old daughter? Being able to watch a mother sacrifice her time and energy to love on these children was inspiring. She never hesitated to play a game of futbol (soccer) with the girls, chant funny cheers with them, or laugh.  I have never even considered counseling nine-year-olds when I turn forty, and yet there she was serving them, giving up her time, and still mothering her daughter so well.  I loved watching and serving with her. One of the pivotal moments on the trip was watching Georgie talk to our campers and seeing Christ-like characteristics in her such as humility, kindness, love, compassion, and joy. Then it hit me, the fact Georgie possesses all of these qualities that my family and friends who are Christians possess is not because they watch the same movies or read the same fictional books, but because the same God that loves us and is with us, is the exact same God that is with Georgie and the One she has devoted her life to.  He truly is THE God of the Universe!

       God not only opened my eyes through Georgie, but also my heart through our campers.  The day we got the girls, I was frustrated and wanted to cry. Yes, it’s true I really did! Not because of the girls or missing my family, but because I couldn’t talk to them like I wanted to. I took some Spanish classes, but I am definitely not fluent in the language. The first two-hours with them were so hard because I had been so excited to meet them, and I just wanted to feel a connection with them. Then God showed me that there is nothing that I can do to impact them, but only He can. I was humbled, and thankful that He showed me love truly is the universal language and while I’m not naturally inclined to show love through physical touch or without words, the girls and I began to bond with hugs, smiles, and playing with them in the pool. God took away my pride and replaced it with humility. 
          Be encouraged also about His work within the children of Guatemala! While we were there 6 of the girls in Georgie’s and my cabin accepted Christ as their Savior, and over twenty more children stood up in front of the camp to proclaim their desire to follow God! It was amazing to see them recognize that because of their sins, they deserve death, and then for them not only to desire a Savior, but also to realize He already foreknew their needs! They acknowledged that God sent His only Son to pay the ultimate penalty and die on the cross to redeem them and give them the gift of salvation! These observations were incredible, and impacted me so much. The weight of the gospel on their hearts and its urgency on a people of a completely different nation and culture solidified its truth and realness to me.

    I want to share all these things with you to not only encourage to continue praying for His development of the camp through the Guatemalan leaders, but to also thank-you for being apart of these experiences. I am humbled by your love for me.  I pray this letter reminds you of vastness of our God, how He truly is the creator of our Universe! Thank-you for being apart of the His plan for the gospel to reach all of the nations.

Joyfully His,

 Lex

Simply Sunday's Sweet Study Song & Scripture

         Okay I won't continue to make this post full of "S" words haha.  With the four finals I have in these next three days, this week is beyond anything that I can handle on my own(prayers please!). And while it is incredibly tempting to feel overwhelmed and stressed, I am consistently reminded of how our God is SO much bigger than what this week has in store. Two things that calm my heart when I feel overwhelmed are songs and scripture (as you might be able to tell with some of the previous posts).  So whether you are a student in the middle of finals, a mother in the middle of balancing children, or burdened by other things, cast your burdens on our Lord who comforts and never leaves us (Immanuel).

Matthew 1:22-23

  ^"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). "

Hope you enjoy these :)

Chris Quilala - Your Love Never Fails

Eric Hutchinson - Breakdown More

Psalm 16

 ¹ Keep me safe, my God,
   for in you I take refuge.

 ² I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
   apart from you I have no good thing.”
³ I say of the holy people who are in the land,
   “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
⁴ Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
   I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
   or take up their names on my lips.

 ⁵ LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup;
   you make my lot secure.
⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
   surely I have a delightful inheritance.
⁷ I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
   even at night my heart instructs me.
⁸ I keep my eyes always on the LORD.
   With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

 ⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
   my body also will rest secure,
¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
   nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
¹¹ You make known to me the path of life;
   you will fill me with joy in your presence,
   with eternal pleasures at your right hand. 

Joyfully His, 

Lex