Missing...

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder..."

I have never agreed with this quote more than I have these past 6 weeks! I remember thinking 6 weeks is nothing and wondered why everyone was making it seem like I was going for this terribly long time. After all, I went away to college and spent a few summers off on missions. But I have never been so homesick as I was this summer. I mean, looking back the time has gone quickly. I can't believe it is almost over, and I know this week will fly by and creep by all at the same time.

Being away and missing the things and people of my day to day life has in a strange way been a very sweet thing. Difficult but sweet all the same. I appreciate things so much more! Love people so much more! And I am so thankful the Lord has given me these 6 weeks to see the beauty of my day to day life back home and the abundant blessings I have there!!

I have had a wonderful summer and I look forward to my last week here and seeing what the Lord still has in store for us! I can't wait to tell you all about my summer soon! God is too good to me!!

These new friends will be missed!! 

Women

This post is an attempt to give you a glimpse into my summer thus far. I will be honest. I have yet to fully process my summer, so it is just a quick overview of what I have been up to this summer and a bit of what God is teaching me. Words seem to fail me as I try to write about what I have done this summer.

I have taken on a bit of a role this summer that is new for me...women...
Children are my sweet place...I am usually pretty comfortable when you throw me into a room of children. This summer I was hoping for a change of pace and I got it. I am bringing groups of 11th and 12th grade girls to three different ministries in New Orleans that minister specifically to women.

My sites range from prayer walking around Bourbon street for a ministry that goes into the strip clubs to love on the women working there to sitting alongside women in rehab and being an ear to hear their stories and their struggles as they seek to get their lives right. To say this is a step out of my comfort zone might be an understatement, but I am thankful for the opportunity to get uncomfortable and allow God to stretch me.

It's weird that my heart doesn't really hurt for them in the way I thought it would. I mean it does, but as I sit and hear stories of how God is bringing them out of these lives, out of bondage, out of depression and out of a life void of hope and joy, all I can do is be excited for them. Excited that they have found hope and joy and forgiveness and restoration and satisfaction in Christ alone!

So many of the songs we sing in worship speak right to the lives of these women. If I could gather them all and fill our evening worship services with these broken women, I would because I would love for them to have these words of encouragement and hope sung over them! And then to hear their voices raise to the Father proclaiming life made new in Him...

"I am new"
I am not who I was
I am being remade I am new
Dead to the old man I'm coming alive
I am new

Forgiven beloved
Hidden in Christ
Made in the image of the Giver of Life
Righteous and holy
Reborn and remade
Accepted and worthy this is our new name


I believe if we could all just see our worth in Christ, we would so easily leave the things of this world behind and walk more confidently in His ways, in the things He desires for us. Not settling for anything less! My prayer  for all women (myself included), is that we see ourselves as Christ sees us...worthy and beautiful! 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17