A Life After Death

It's been a long and up and down week. Did I really just post last Wednesday? Life is just flying by.

On Friday we lost one of our sr highers. She was a junior. She drowned in a pool down the shore. She was like literally just on facebook posting statuses. Next thing you know, her wall was just filled with "praying for you" and than slowly the "RIP" statuses and "praying for your family" statuses started filtering on when the confirmation came...

Divinely, we had a praise and prayer night scheduled for Friday night for sr high, and I've never seen so many kids show up at a Praise and Prayer Night. And we prayed, and we praised, and there was such brokeness.

And I won't pretend like it has not been hard. She used to be good friends with my sister and brother. She used to come over and dress up like a cow. She used to come to youth events and wear footie pajamas to retreats and read her Bible from her Kindle. And I won't pretend like she was on fire for the Lord. She was struggling. But I believe she was saved (Praise the Lord for His grace).

And tomorrow night is the viewing. And just thinking about it has made me so heavy. A lot of my small groups girls were good friends with her. But I remember them all being on the retreat this last January and I can remember during our small group time just saying to these girls, "Jesus is worth it." and I remember saying to them that whatever it takes to bring them to Jesus, it's worth it- no matter how hard it is, no matter how much it hurts or how painful it is, if it brings you to Jesus it's worth it. And a lot of those girls that I said that too just lost their best friend.

And today my heart for was just hurting. Hurting for her family, for her friends. I'm overwhelmed for this funeral tomorrow. A lot of her classmates from her public high school will be there. And I'm just asking Jesus to please meet with us. To minister. To take our burdens. Matt 11:28-30 has been such a comfort. I'm so thankful that there is Hope to offer these kids. I'm so thankful to know Jesus, Our Comforter- to have the Holy Spirit. And oh that I would be broken for the kids who don't have that. And oh that I would be urgent to share with them about who Jesus is- our Only Hope.
Please pray.
Please.

well, God is already doing exceedingly abundantly beyond anything  I could have imagined...
I'm learning how small my faith really is...I don't expect that God will really do a great work in my day...but now that I'm literally watching Him do it, I kind of feel like Thomas when Jesus said to him "blessed are those who have not seen yet have believed" (John 20:29) and now I just want to expect Him to do even greater things- 
my friend Carli shared this verse at our College and Career Girl's Bible study (which has WAY more girls than I imagined- or was ready for!) last night- Habakkuk 1:5 "Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told"
ESL was just incredible tonight! I'm just blown away and I'm excited to see how God just brings His name glory! I'm expecting people to get saved. I'm expecting God to just declare who He is to these people. For His love and His Spirit to be manifest. I'm like so excited!!!
p.s. gmom came home the day after the ER visit, but than started coughing and wheezing and we were worried she was getting pneumonia, but we got her some breathing treatments going on and she's getting better! good news indeed!

Well, we made it almost a year without any hospital visits...and we broke that streak today! And we broke it with the longest ER visit ever- over 8 hours...ugh! Anyway, we actually kind of planned our ER visit, if that makes any sense. You see, grandmom just hasn't been herself all month and I've been planning on just taking her up to the hospital to get her all checked out, and life finally slowed down enough for us to actually do that...so how do you call a non-emergency into 911...you just kind of make stuff up- which worked and I think everything we made up ended up being true-
Predictions- low sodium or bladder infection
Diagnosis- low sodium AND bladder infection. Her heart enzyme things were also up but that could have been because of her pacemaker...also her eye has been gooky and red all month so they're gonna check that out too!
so it ended up being a success, but it just took a long time to get her a room up there tonight.

Anyway- crazy ER story of the night. Around hour 4 I went out to use the bathroom. I come out and I see a patient in a bed in the hallway (they were super busy which equals patients in beds in hallways) and her husband next to her...Would you believe that it was my grandmom's neighbor in the nursing home from a year ago (that i mentioned here)????!!! Anyway, I'd really gotten to be friends with this elderly woman, ended up finding out she goes to church with one of my small groups girls, and we wrote back and forth until I lost her address last summer. (I had sent her a copy of some old German lullaby she'd been looking for that I found on the internet). So imagine my surprise when I walked out of the bathroom and saw her. I ran into our room and told my mom and than spied on them for the next few hours till they got their own room upstairs. Anyway, I didn't want to bother her while she was in the emergency room so I'm going to visit her tomorrow when I go up to see grandmom. I mean, what are the odds that they would both be in the same hospital, in the same ER room, in the same section of the ER ward, and in the same hallway??? There are no odds, and I wonder why the Lord has continued to cross our paths...we'll see.

Anyway, I'm wiped- I'll update later about ESL (but it literally went incredible!!! The Lord is sooo good!) and I'll update any new info about gmom later (she's already perked up a ton from the sodium and fluids they put in her- thankfully!)

...and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus..." Philippians 3:13-14


Crazy week: Lots of warfare. Lots of joy. Lots of comfort. Lots of the Lover of my soul. Lots of peace. Lots of stress. Lots of ups and downs. Lots of  busy-ness. Lots of floral.

i love these girls

yes, my first high school friend got married saturday, and i still can't grasp it...

Anyway, this all in the midst of our first English Class starting for the summer to reach out to the community (read more about it here on my friend sara's blog)

today my Jersey friend Becky is coming from California (i guess she's my cali friend now) because Saturday we have a wedding for our friend Brianna! too much excitement I can't contain it.

So much has happened lately which is why I haven't posted- it's a little overwhelming but all good exciting things and I'll make a little skeleton outline and maybe flesh it out later for you all...

I. Our sr high group has started going door to door once a month in our neighborhood inviting highschoolers to church- pray

II. Our church is starting an ESL class (English to speakers of other languages) next Wednesday Night and yesterday my friend Sara and my sister April and I went down Bustleton Ave going into any foreign store or restaurant we found inviting people out- its sooo exciting! Literally, we met all Russians, which is really cool since I've always wanted to go to Russia (but the Lord just brought them here- perfect!)
Please pray!

III. Our college group is starting a new girls study/prayer/fellowship which will sometimes meet at my house

IV. we just had a missions conference at our church which was incredible with speakers like Poncho Juarez, Daniel Massieh, Matt Ellison, Bob Caldwell, Akson from the only Calvary Chapel in Zambia (who had never before left Africa!), Rafael from Spain, so many incredible men of God! (I'll link all these later probably!)

V. this is just all on top of regular C&C, sr high, small groups, church, family, grandmom, friends, weddings and showers!

VI. Summer plans- Coasteville missions trip, Surf Camp, Unspoken concert outreach, Senior High events, and more family, grandmom...

Its exciting- but the Lord has definitely spoken to me about clutter- All these are such great things and I'm like, all right Lord- it seems like I'm supposed to be a part of all these BUT He also showed me I'm cluttered- so I'm trying to cut our facebook and tv and anything else that is  source I go to instead of the Lord for my strength, my supply, my life...
it's been refreshing to say the least.

anyway, check out Romans 8, yes the whole thing...the Lord truly ministered to me with it last night- and relooking at it this morning, vs. 34 was so sweet to me "Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?..." (also vs. 35) Jesus Christ faced condemnation for me. He faced the judgement of God for me. He faced the separation of the love of God for me. The Father turned His face away and did not comfort Him. So that I would not have to face condemnation, judgement, separation from the love of God. Praise Him. Selah.

I stole this from my youth group's blog but the picture has been seared in my mind for weeks now because I related to it so much. I literally read it at a time when I was whining in my heart because I always had to rush out of the house after dinner and never got to sit around and drink coffee and tea with my parents and siblings and legit that's probably one of my most longed for moments of the day...but alas, those times are becoming more few and far between, but I'm thankful for when I get them nonetheless...but if you can at all relate to that you will be very blessed by this next excerpt:

“Our best times together as a family are at dinner.  At home after a meal, we push our dishes aside and linger together over coffee or hot chocolate.  We have no particular agenda; we simply enjoy one another.  Listening, talking and laughing.  If you experience the same thing with good friends or family, you know it is a little touch of heaven.

 When Jesus describes the intimacy He wants with us, He talks about joining us for dinner.  “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me.”  (Revelation 3:20)

 A praying life feels like our family mealtimes because prayer is all about relationship.  It’s intimate and hints at eternity.  We don’t think about communication or words but about whom we are talking with.  Prayer is simply the medium through which we experience and connect to God.

Oddly enough, many people struggle to learn how to pray because they are focusing on praying, not on God.  Making prayer the center is like making conversation the center of a family mealtime.  In prayer, focusing on the conversation is like trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it.  It freezes us, making us unsure of where to go.  Conversation is only the vehicle through which we experience one another.  Consequently, prayer is not the center of this book.  Getting to know a person, God, is the center.”

 From “A Praying Life” by Paul E. Miller

photo courtesy of sarah leub

So if I haven't mentioned it on here, my home church is Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia...I legit love my church. I've grown up there, literally, my family came to know the Lord shortly after I was born and I got thrown right into the nursery. I can remember fighting in the 3 year old class with some boy over a stuffed pink My Little Pony in sunday school (why did that boy want that My Little Pony??? as  you can see, I'm still a little bitter). Anyway, but even recently, I've grown to just love my church more- our Pastor is such an incredible man of God. So humble. So submitted to the Word of God. Growing in just submission to the leading of the Holy Spirit. So real with just the work that the Lord is doing in his life and with his need for grace and growth still! And I really believe the Lord has continued to work and move and bless our church because of the heart of our pastors and elders (who have just this same heart as Pastor Joe!) and its incredible to see the whole church body growing in these areas also...yeah, so anyway. Calvary Philly has birthed other fellowships in the area over the years and one of them that is very recent is the Calvary Chapel in Germantown. 


So a few weeks ago I got to help with an outreach that our church was partnering with the Germantown fellowship  to do. It was an outreach to the Women in the neighborhood and  also to a local Women's Shelter (they brought the women and their children to the outreach in vans). So somehow or other my friend Sara and I ended up planning a craft for the kids, planning a jewelry project for the teens, finding a movie for them, creating a lesson, and finding volunteers and supplies for nail painting for the teen girls...so needless to say, it was a hectic few days before it and definitely had some hectic moments in it...but it truly was all worth it!

So the plan was have the mom's go back with some older women who came from our church to have their nails done and have a break (and hopefully have a chance to be prayed for and hear the gospel one on one from someone who loves them with the love of Christ!) while Sara and I and our volunteers from our college group and sr high took care of the teens and kids!

I dedicated a "page" to this project which you can find here

We decided a few days before to do the Parting of the Red Sea as our lessons because for some crazy reason I had a MILLION fish stickers in my closet and still to do this day have no clue where they came from. So we had them make their own "red sea" so they could have a visual while we shared the story with them!

So while some did the craft, other played outside, and we let the older ones make "salvation bracelets" (colored bead bracelets that coordinate with the gospel- ex. red= blood of Christ)

The most incredible part is that a few Muslim women came from the shelter with their children. We ended up getting to share not only the story of how God parted the red sea to them (and these little girls paid more attention than any of the other kids!), they also got to make salvation bracelets and hear the gospel, and than we let the girls get their nails done where my friend Ellie (who only just got saved in September) shared the gospel with them again! The older muslim girl said to Ellie, "I wish that i could have this in writing so that I can tell all of my friends who don't know!" But she was hesitant to pray to accept Jesus. The best part is we found out a few weeks later from the pastor's wife that the mom got saved!!!

One of the highlights of the outreach for me was when we went around inviting women in the neighborhood out to the outreach, we came across a woman who had just had leg surgery and couldn't walk down to the church but she let my friend Beverly pray for her. Than Bev send me and another woman and a man to escort us back to their house to bring the outreach to them! Joan did the woman's nails and her and the man from the church spoke with her while I was able to share the story of how God used Moses to part the Red Sea and did the craft with the kids who were super attentive. There was also a 25 year old handicapped boy there who loved doing the craft...it was just so sweet to serve them in the name of Jesus. The one boy even colored me one of the Moses's and gave it to me to keep!

I was definitely exhausted by the end of it but it was truly such a wonderful opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus and I love just proclaiming the glory of God to the world. He's so worthy of it. And we should never be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ- it's salvation! And with all that's been going on lately in the world between Osama Bin Laden being killed and the earthquakes and tornadoes and wars in the Middle East and rising gas prices...I'm so much more urgent for people to come to know the Lord because time is so short, Jesus Christ is coming back soon! And I'm excited for Jesus Christ to reign as King in Jerusalem on this earth one day...

I finished reading through Chronicles recently and one thing that really stood out to me was the heart of the men who followed David to see him be king in Israel. "All these, men of war, arrayed in battle order, came to Hebron with full intent to make David king over all Israel. Likewise, all the rest of Israel were of a single mind to make David king." 1 Chronicles 12:38 What is my full intent? What am I single minded on? Is it to see Jesus Christ be make king in the lives of those around me?  I've been challenged...soon and very soon every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord! But how I long for my friends and family who aren't saved now to see His kingship and His Lordship while they still have a chance to choose Him...