SPAG DINNER FUNDRAISER

Help Support mine and jess's trip to Guatemala

Spaghetti Dinner and Chinese Auction Fundraiser

Adults- $6.00
Children ages 3-12 -$3.00
Children 2 and under - free

Chinese Auction Tickets
$1.00/each
$2.00/three

When: December 14,2008
12:30-4:00

Where: Monaca VFW
301 6th Street
Monaca, PA 15061

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!
~AND~
SPREAD THE WORD!!!!!!!!!

thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
Some things I am thankful for

1. All my awesome friends
2. Everything God has been doing in my life over the past year
3. Famliy - even tho they drive me crazy sometimes I still love them
4. Victory Family Church
5. and many many more

What I love about thanksgiving

1. All the food
2. LEFTOVERS!
3. BLACK FRIDAY!!

What are some things you are thankful for? what do you love about thanksgiving?

trust/obey

So the past few church services I went to have been either a missionary or a guest speaker. The first missionary I got to hear was Thurs night at Wildwood Chapel and that was Kirk DeVenney. Who is he you ask. Let me tell you... :-) He is the founder of the school I am going to in Guatemala. He talked on trusting and obeying God. One example he gave was how he became a missionary. He kept telling God that he was going to be a pastor and he was one at a church. God kept putting on his heart to be a missionary but he did not want to. Multiple times he ignored the call. And then one time a pastor called people forward for an altar call and God told him to go up bc he was going to be a missionary at that time kirk did not go up but then the pastor had everyone come to the front. Kirk says it was like the parting of the red sea the whole congregation went up front and went to one side or the other and him and his wife were in the center. The pastor came down to them and said we are going to pray for these two bc God is calling them to be missionaries. He still was not bought yet but then a lil while later some lady whom he never met before came up and prayed over him word for word what that one pastor did. After service I got to go over the pastors house for dinner and got to talk to kirk and find out more about what we are going to be doing down there! he got me more exicted! i cant wait its like one month away!!!!!!

Sat night at victory I got to hear Christopher Alam. I loved the video he showed at the begining it reminded me of honduras and was getting me even more excited to spend 6 months in Guatemala!

Sun morning I went to a church in Ambridge and they had a guest speaker there too. He talked about following Gods plan for his life. I found it ironic how the last 3 services I went to all had to do about trusting and obeying God, following his plan for your life. Then for the thanksgiving service tues night victory had people giving testimonies and then had everyone thank god for the things he did in there lives over past year. One thing I was really thankful for was that God never stopped putting missions on my heart (i know that he does not give up on us) but it got me thinkin about how many times i just ignored it or pushed it aside. and then every time i went into looking about what should be my next step missions or ministry school kept getting brought back up. I am very glad that I am going in Jan now whether that is what the "missions call" i had on my life or not i am not sure but one thing i do know is that i WILL know by the time i come back at the end of June

candy bar sales

The last few days I have been selling candy bars outside of walmart and giant eagle. I know I know those annoying people that are asking for money, but at least I had something in return for them!! There were a few people that just really stuck out and made me have a big smile on my face. One guy yesterday went up to the salvation army people, they were beside us, and was like silver and gold I have not but what I do have I will give and gave her a track and was reading it to her. I was like wow wow wow how awesome. Salena, my sister for those of you who do not know that, was like see he is doing what you are going to Guatemala to do. Then there was this guy today who walked past the salvation army people and as he was they said happy holidays and he turned around and was like Jesus lives that's all that matters.

Both of those put a smile on my face and made me happy to know that there are more people than we think out there spreading the word of God in our hometowns. People are going out daily and preaching the gospel and declaring Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of this world. Just think if we would all go out and do just that and not care what people think. There were two examples in just 2 days one was more outspoken than the other but even just sayin Jesus lives.

busy, busy, busy

So the last few days have been very, very busy for me. Jess and I decided to do a chinese auction and spag. dinner to help raise some more money for our trip. So Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday consisted of me and her going around to all the local buisnesses and asking for donations. We went to Beaver Valley mall area, Moon township, Robinson, and Cranberry. We were pretty succesful. Most of the buisnesses were for it and if they were not it was not there fault it was because they were corporate stores. It was awesome because we were able to go around telling every store/resturant what we were doing. There was this one kid that was like what church to do you go to and I told him and he was like did that use to be VCF. so that was cool. We are still looking for a place to do a spag dinner. We called a bunch of fire halls and a few churches. One that I used to go to as a teen called me back and is checkin on the days that I gave her so I am just waiting to hear back from her.

Other than that I have been doing pretty good. I am finishing up my last week of healing team training. I am slowly getting ready for my trip its like 50 days away. I am growing more in love with God everyday.

thats about all for now I have a long day ahead of me. Me and Sergio are going and selling candy bars for a few hours and then Jess will come once she gets off work and then I have to go get the girls from school.

Overcoming Obstacles - part 1

I'm going to start off with a few childhood memories. Growing up I never really had a ton of friends. There were a few girls in my grade that lived on my street so i hung out with them for a few years. That changed when one of them had all of them turn on me. Basically she said I did something and told them they could not be friends with me. Later she was like ya i lied about that. That did not change anything all through jr high and high school I only had a handful of friends. I would hang out with my sister and some of the other kids on the streets but i was always the one that got picked on I remember coming home crying like all the time saying they were making fun of me again. For example when I was about 7ish I came home from a girl scouts event with my mom, and my dad asked me to go get my sister and brother at the new kids house up the street. Now i had no idea where it was at - i had never met him before. Well I go and get them and they are like see I told you she was blah blah blah I cant rem the exact words but it was something like the mean one the fat etc etc. Another time was when we were all up the street playing football and one kid decided to start calling me fat names ( i was a lil chubby kid not fat but my mom forced me to exercise which is prob why i hate doing it now) one of the names was earth, you know BC that's the best name a kid could come up with be the earth is so big. I came home crying all the time it was horrible.

Where I am going with these stories is as I was growing older I had a fear of rejection and need of acceptance. Before making decisions I would see what my friends thought I should do and I went with the majority. I am still overcoming them but instead of doing it by my own strength I'm letting God take care of it. And as I do I realize that I can care less what other people think. I have Gods acceptance and that's all I need. It is def not easy when someone says they don't like you or give you this look, I want to find out why and "fix" it. Its seems like a day to day process but as I grow in the Lord they slowly fade away.

President Elect

Barak Obama President-Elect - what i think

• Wanted John McCain
  
• We have to remember that even though Obama is future president God is still in control.
  
• We are more than just "the people" we are Gods people
• Just because the person we wanted to win did not does not mean we just forget about the leader of our country. We are still are to pray for him and his family.
  

Okay so there was not much on my thoughts about our future president. I may have wanted someone else but that is not going to stop me from pursuing anything in my life. Its not going to stop me from praying for the future of our country and it is def not going to stop me from praying for him.

first weekend of nov

Friday

• Did a haunted trail/house for some troubled youth. That was very interesting. When I finally got there we hurried up and decided what we wanted to do, the prob with what we decided was that we were all dressed cute. I started off just pulling this ghost thingy after the first 2 groups went through I changed my position and went to hang on a spider web between trees. I was dressed as little red riding hood - not so scary. So, Molly made me over! I took my white shirt off so i was just in red and had black face paint on. I scared on group really good - that was about it unfortunately. The life of the party was the one and only bubba aka the chicken.
• Then we went out to eat and just hung out - that's always fun!

Saturday

• Very long day - went to get my sisters oil changed in her car and then she had to return stuff so we went shopping.
• Got to church at 5 and helped her, Kevin, and Tom make their cardboard testimonies! Tried to take over Bubs cubical but I was not very successful :-(
• The Power of One - AMAZING!! - my mom and dad came out which was pretty sweet and I thought it was a great service for my dad because he loves history stuff and well that's what the service was based on!
• 19north - 200 young adults in one room on a sat night for church and they said it could not be done. I cant believe how much we have grown in a year and a half. I rem coming the first week of March 2007 and only like 20-30 people there. ITS SO AWESOME HOW FAST WE ARE GROWING!!

Sunday

• Revolution - 180+ teens/27+ salvation's, Chris shooting bubba with a paintball gun - I was afraid that he was going to miss and shoot me - haha that would have hurt. Over all Pastor Nathan is doing a great job with rev.
• Hanging out at home with my mom - watching some movies, reading grace: the power to change - great book so far and I just started it. Cant wait to finish it!!

Life before being fully devoted to Christ

I feel like sharing where God has taken me these past few years. Growing up I had the bad friends the ones that were always getting into trouble, knowingly having sex, doing drugs, drinking you know all of that. You know how some parents say well my kid never was the bad kid but their friends were - well that rule went for me. But, my parents had no clue they were bad friends.

Well in the summer of 2004 I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I shortly found out that being the only one in my immediate family that was saved was very difficult. That fall I found myself a good church and slowly started to get involved. Then I got a job at this local restaurant and ended up working with this guy who I had not seen since I was a freshman and he was a senior. So obviously I started to hang out with him and his friends. Not the best decision 1 girl and 4 guys sometimes another girl would come hang out but rarely ever. I was with them at least 3/4 days a week. The summer of 2005 was the first time I was ever around weed - and that was every time we hung out. I remember coming home scared that my parents would smell it and be like what were you doing. But I never encountered that problem. I was never told that I could not hang out with them so my assumption is they just had no clue what was going on. Now I never did smoke it but I was always around it and when you are around it enough you get contact highs. I am not blaming that on what I ended up doing. Unfortunately they thought I was cute (now your prob thinking ya right why would that be a bad thing) let me remind you that it was 1 girl 4 guys summer drugs. I did things that summer that I told myself I would never do. FYI I made a commitment to not have sex til I was married and kept that commitment but I never took into context anything else. Then I went to summer camp and was like no more - cut off ties from them and I ended up getting baptized in July.

I started to hang out with people from church - they were a few years older than me. Less than a year later right around my 18 birthday (April 06) I put myself in yet another situation. Alone in a bedroom with a guy, no lights. YES, I was the brightest crayon in the box let me tell you! My commitment about not having sex was still in tact and still is to this day but I already did things so what was going through my head was you already messed up so whats the point now and that was after getting my 2nd silver ring. Those friends slowly faded away due to them getting into drugs and OD on painkillers. They started messing with me and just saying how I was the worst christian in the world and how in the world I could be praising Jesus when that is the way I was. And you know what I bought into that lie.

That fall I got a 2nd job and I liked it I was at sears and there was this guy who made me feel special - he had a GF and I was actually friends with her not good friends more of accuantences. That did not bother me bc I was being made the center of attention so we started to hang out after work in each others cars and things happened. That went on for prob a few months and I quit the job bc I was like no I do not want to be known as that person.

In March 2007 I started to attend this young adults program at a different church, VFC. I loved it. I stayed with my friends that I came with so I did not really get to hang out with many other people. Well that summer was prob one of the worst of my life. The first week of July I lost my job, I lost my car in a flood, problems in my family started to be more evident, so instead of turning to Jesus I turned to things of this world. I drank for the first time - actually twice that week and I dont want to blame it on the drinkin bc I fully knew what I was doing but yet again another guy came around and showed interest in me. so i gave in and did things that i vowed i was never going to do agian.

August came around and I was about to leave for my first missions trip - man i did not feel like i should be going. But, I went anyways God changed me while I was down there. When I came back God put it on my heart to switch church's. I started going to Victory Family Church and God transformed me. I thought that the summer was going to be the worst but what happened in the fall topped everything off. A lot of things started to go down hill very fast in my family. People close to me were turning to drugs as a means to escape reality and in return it physically and emotionally hurt everyone involved. The reason that I did not turn to the world was because I had a newfound strength that I never knew existed before. That would be turning to Jesus, relying on Him, knowing He would get me through it. I gave him my all and did not stop looking towards Him once. In Nov I got my 3rd silver ring instead this commitent involved me commiting to not only not having sex but to staying pure. Truthfully I can say that I never had sex. But that does not mean anything because I was still not staying pure.

There are a few reasons why I felt like sharing this:

• tonight the youth at my youth group have a chance to make a commitment not only to themselves but to the Lord and their future husband/wife to stay sexually pure
• I wanted to show you that God can take you out of any thing and make you brand new.
  

• I was searching for acceptance and love and found it in Jesus - who was there the whole time

How I am now

• I am on fire for God
• He is my life, my everything
• There is no way I am ever turning back to who I once was
• I refuse to put myself in any situation that will hinder my walk with God - not just sexual temptations but anything drugs, anger, swearing - I do not want any of that
• I am pursuing the call of missions that I have had on my life for 4 years. - I went on 2 mission trips to Honduras and in Jan I will be going to Guatemala for 6 months
• I realize now that I dont need to be accepted by people - they do not have to like me - they do not have to agree with me I DONT CARE
• I am going to do what God wants me to do and only that people can have their opinions but thats just what they are opinions and that is the way they are going to stay

First Blog

I finally decided to start a blog. I never did this before so its all new to me!

I have been doing healing team training and have been learning so much. This past week we had to listen to understanding healing by Pastor John Nuzzo and it is prob one of my favorite series from him. One key nugget that I loved was "faith does not deny it faith just is not moved by it." So many times we have an ache or a pain in our body and we feel like we have to ignore it and be like no its not there because we feel like if we acknowledge it we don't have faith to believe we are healed but that's not the case if you sit there and deny it and be like no its not there then you are lying. So when an ache comes to you speak out against it. Start quoting what the word says about healing. Stand your ground!!!!!