When You Can't Forget. . .

          When you can't forget the faces. The stories. The smiles and tears. JESUS. . . You go back.

             This month, my youth group and I were able get in our big white van and go back and serve with 7 Bridges for a third time.

                                      All pics that are not other wise marked photo credit: Gus ( my youth pastor)

                    We go under the bridges and in condemned apartments and pray with the the homeless. We give them lunches and listen to their stories, because it is really only by grace that we are not in their situation. It's different every time. You see some familiar faces and some new ones. 

                   This time my friend Claire and I met this man named John and he made me smile extra big from the first moments. He smiles and comments on my abnormal shortness ( I don't mind at all) and I compliment him on his rings. He says they hold memories and show love for the people who gave them to him. I know what he means. How a little thing can mean so much more just because of who it came from. The smile when they gave it to you. I like Mr. John even more and I wish I could get a picture with him.:) 

                    The group leaders call us to group prayer over the area and Mr. John doesn't come. He asks me to come back after and pray with him alone. I am happy to! He asks me to pray for joy and happiness in his heart. I do and I am SO thankful for this opportunity! He tells me he loves me and will never forget me and I tell him the same. How could I forget him? I don't ever want to! 

                I share this not to make myself look great but to show how amazing our God is! Who could form a friendship neither will forget between an older homeless man and a sixteen year old girl in less than 10 min?! Only our Sovereign God, you guys! He has greater plans than we could ever imagine! How freeing would it be if we remembered that every day! 

Here are some more pics from our day. We don't get to take pics with the homeless but we took a few side adventures. :) 

                                   Love!                   Photo credit:Tyler :)

        And then we found a cow and named her Timothy! You read it right! hehe  

Exploring the awesome little fake town of Morrow, Ga. 

Only by Grace, 

~Bought Back~

               Ok, so I am really not a great blogger, but I try. . . or try to try. :P Honestly there has been so many things on my heart the past few months that I kind of gave up on putting it in words. ..  But I want to try to share a little bit. . .

              I have, in the past, chose a word at the beginning of the year and just watch to see how God works and how He uses that word through the year . . . Almost every time God has amazed even in how He shows me what word He has for me! So this year my word is

                 It's a word I have grown up, known since I was little, but I never really knew what it meant until a few months ago when I looked up it's meaning. BUY BACK. That's what it means. To buy again something that was once yours. Pretty amazing, right?! So I write it down.

               At the beginning of the year I went to "Move" conference in Macon Ga. Ed Newton spoke on verses in Titus and there was that word. . . So I wrote it out to the side in my bible,"Bought back", and listened as Ed Newton shared this amazing, beautiful gospel of redemption. How a perfect God sent His only Son into this broken world to buy back His prized possession with His own blood.

            We get into the church van and turn on music. . .

"YOU HAVE BOUGHT ME BACK WITH THE RICHES OF YOUR AMAZING GRACE YOUR RELENTLESS LOVE. MADE ALIVE FOREVER."

               I'd heard this song before, but not in the same way. It had a new meaning, and I had an idea of what my word was for 2014. 

                So now my mom and I are following the Compassion Bloggers in Uganda, which I strongly encourage you to too, and I read this post today. I smile big at the little girl's shirt. 

              All this to say, this year I am going strive to, and hope you do too, to live REDEEMED! We were ONCE slaves, stolen by sin, but JESUS, in His love, bought us back and made us HIS! His sons and daughters!! 

           We are free, are chains have been broken and now we can live in the JOY of HIM! We can share the love that we have been given! We can serve as He served! We can have bad days too! We can fail!! I know I do miserably! Because of Jesus, Grace covers us! 

"But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
         I have called you by name, you are mine." Isaiah 43:1

Sponsor a Child and live redeemed!           

Student Life 2k13!!

It has almost been a month since we left for Student Life.We had an AMAZING week at camp! I learned so much!

Fun times in the van! Best friends!!

Beach time!! 

Memories were made! We laughed SO much! It was so great to just explode in joy over what God has done! Just Jesus joy!! 

She is a cutie! :)

 Love this girl! 

God did amazing things through worship and His word! Lives were changed forever! It was so great to talk openly about struggles and things God is showing you. We are free in Christ!

 It was amazing just to be able to dance, sing, run, and laugh in the AWESOME love God has for us! My word for this year is free. . I am realizing worship is not a time to be sad, and timid before God. It is a time to rejoice in His GRACE! It is a time to be excited about what God is doing and has done! It is a time to praise Him and be in awe of His great LOVE! Worship is not us giving God something. .  He doesn't need anything. .  Worship is us freely receiving His gift!

"The real gift of worship is God giving us Him to enjoy" ~Matt Chandler

"Praise is inner health made audible" ~ C. S. Lewis

My youth group is awesome!

Please listen to this awesome song!  . . . It is my new favorite!

All for Him,

Staying Busy. . .

Hi, my friends! I have been busy finishing up school , and now Summer is in full swing! I am loving time with friends, family and books. :)
                      After my youth group and I went to Atlanta to helped 7bridges give out food to the homeless, we asked our church to help us raise hygiene products and other stuff to bring back up to Atlanta to give out. It is AMAZING what God did! We ended up with hundreds of hygiene products to bring to 7bridges!! We went back up to Atlanta on the 8th and handed out lunches and hygiene. It really is an eye opening experience! It helps keep your focus on what is really important. .  His message!
                        After I had to let Aster get another correspondent, I wanted to wait a little to see if God wanted me to get on the waiting list for another correspondent. Well, He made it clear He did want me to get another one! I called Compassion and got on the waiting list. I was jumping up and down excited about the little girl God had for me!!

                                         

Meet Rachel!

She is 10 years old and from Uganda!She lives with both her parents who are both peasant farmers. Some of the things she likes are art, jumping rope, singing, and listening to music! I love her already, and I can't wait to receive her first letter!!  I am so excited to see what God does through this correspondence! He is faithful!

Tuesday ( 6/18/13) my youth group, my mom, and I are leaving for Student Life camp! I went last Summer, and it was life changing! My mom has always wanted to go, so she will be going as a leader. Matt Chandler will be the speaker! He is one of my favorite, and I am SO excited! It will be on the beach too!!!!! Can you tell I am freaking out? hehe Please pray for us as we go! May our hearts be open, and peoples lives changed through His amazing, all covering GRACE!! 

All for Him,

Just Watch It. . .

BOOM!!!

(that is all)

All for Him,

~Picture to the Stories~

For years I had heard about poverty. For years I have hugged the necks of people who live or have lived in poverty. I have tried to release children from poverty in JESUS name. I had heard the stories. I hadn't seen it. . .

My youth group had the chance to go to Atlanta and work with 7Bridges ministries to hand out lunches to the homeless under the bridges.

I LOVE these people!! Gracepointe Church Students. 

 We walked the street and saw people with all they had within five feet around them. I saw them lying on the rock covered ground with only a thin blanket between them and the cold earth. Do you know what else I saw?

I saw smiles! I saw joy that only Jesus can give. I went expecting to spread the love of Jesus, but in more than one case I found myself listening to people sitting on the ground, under a bridge, where they LIVE tell me how good God is and how I should stay strong in Him! It has broke me.

One of the ladies I went with said "I could describe it to you all day, but it will never be what you expect". That is the truth. I knew there were homeless. I knew there was poverty but when I saw it, when I saw the homeless, it was different then I ever expected. By the end of the day I found myself telling people I hardly even knew that I loved them, because I did. It was JESUS; NOT me! A spark was lit in side me to do more! I realize that I could be those people! I could be on the street! Jesus saved me in EVERY since of that word so why would I not want to show his love?

For the last few months I had felt my longing to help the the needy kind of die down. I LOVE Jesus but my excitement to spread His word had leveled out. I was strong in Jesus and that was all that mattered. God has called us to more than that. God's plan is to reconcile the whole world to Himself and calls us to a spirit of reconciliation. He reconciles to reconcile.

 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 1 Cor. 5:18-19

When we do not spread the love of Christ and share God's message of reconciliation we do not experience the full JOY of the gospel. This is what we were made to do. We were made to SHINE for His glory! We were made to experienced His glory. It was all messed up in the fall but has been REDEEMED through the finished work of JESUS! Christ has payed and the world will be made right! It will all be made right! That is the gospel! We can be made right! 
By HIS GRACE and through our faith in Christ and His finished work we will be made perfect. We ARE made perfect! ALL JESUS!! 

Happy Easter!!!! Jesus is alive!!!!! 

All for Him,

~My African Sisters~

I have put this blog post off for a long time now. Part of it was because I was lazy, but for the most part it is just hard for me to put into words all that has happened since the beginning of the year. . .

     A very sassy African that I call my sister was able to fly to the states, and I was finally able to meet her face-to-face! Meeting Maureen was more amazing than I could have ever imagine! The love and Joy she has in Jesus is contagious! 

            We drove up from our home in Georgia to meet her in South Carolina. She came to the states to speak on behalf of the Mercy House, the maternity home in Kenya. She is the executive director. We met her at the house she was staying at in South Carolina. She was SO happy! I was SO happy! She hugged my mom and said "I can't believe I am hugging you!" We were all SO thankful God allowed us to meet! It felt so good to finally hug her and hold her hand! She means so much to our family! 

                            We were able to hear her speak at church on Sunday morning. She was so real and eye opening about poverty. . the poverty she lived in before Compassion International stepped in. One of the things that she said was " I am thankful for my poverty, because if it was not for my poverty I might not have come to know Jesus". Wow, right!? She is a living example of How the GRACE of God can save! We are all living examples of how the GRACE of God can save! If you are in Christ, He has saved you, cleansed you, and freed you from you chains! I serve and AWESOME God, you guys! 

                            It was SO hard to say goodbye! We cried and hugged again and again! That would not be the last time I would say goodbye to an African this year. . .

My mom and I were sitting in a place to eat in town when Compassion called. .  My heart dropped. Compassion has never called us and I knew when Compassion calls it is most of the time not good news. Sometimes they call and say your child has moved to an area without a project. Sometimes they call to tell you the tragic news your child has past away. Fortunately this has never happened to us. Compassion was calling to tell me Aster's sponsor has decided to stop supporting Aster. If I could not sponsor her I would not be able to write her anymore. We asked if they could hold her and not put her up for sponsorship yet. We wanted a chance to find her a sponsor that we could know. 

We put her picture on Facebook. We explained the situation and one of our long time friends has decided to sponsor this beautiful girl! Isn't God GREAT! I am sad I will not be able to write her anymore, but I know God loves sweet Aster more than I ever could! I am so excited for her and our friends and can't wait to see what God will do. 

All for Him,

                     

~My Word~

Since 2011 I have been choosing a word to focus on and learn from throughout the year. .

2011~ JOY
2012~ LOVE

God uses these words in such awesome ways. He makes them real!! I felt God's love in 2012 like I never have before!! It was amazing! I am so excited to see what God does with my new word. . . My new word. .

I had a few words in mind and was waiting for God to make it clear to me. I was thinking maybe "Embrace" or "Hope" .  .  . God said " Nahh, not those" .  :) My word for this year is . . .

My mom mentioned this word and I thought "wow" this is a good word that God has already used in a lot of ways in my life. I kept it in mind with the other two words and waited. .  I waited for God to show me which or any of these were my word. . .

Today in my devotional I read . . 

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." 2 Corinthians 3:17

AND

 "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." ROMANS 8:1-4 .

                        Guys, God did like the same thinglast year with "LOVE"! You can read about it here! God is SO great!! It is AMAZING what He can do! Knowing what He has done with these words in the past I am SO excited to see what he is going to do with this one! 

                       I want to share the freedom there is in Christ, not the freedom to sin but the freedom to do right! The freedom to be yourself because Jesus loves you the way you are! I want to experience in a deeper level this freedom!!

                              

"Hallelujah! We are free to struggle, but we're not struggling to be free! Your blood bought and makes                     us children. Children drop your chains and sing!" 

Do you have a word? I would love to hear! :) 

All for Him,

Lysa

Just some Awesome stuff. . :)

I got a letter from my Filipino princess, and it is precious!!!

She made me a birthday card! It is so sweet! 

Oh, this girl! I love her! 

I have actually received a few letters and just haven't had the time to blog. . .  I feel so close to this precious girl

Compassion International is planning a sponsor tour to the Philippines in January of 2014. . .  :) 

I am praying about going . . I would LOVE to go.

 I have been saving a little every month for my Philippines trip whether it is next year or two or three years after that. Please pray that if it be God's will ( which I think it is) that he would provide the means for this trip. We know a friend who we met working Compassion tables who is going. . God is Sovereign. . . If he wants me to go I will. That is my hope. 

 So. . . Have you sponsored a child or received a letter? Is this your first time here? I would love to get a comment from you.

Will you show love by sponsoring a child?  Maybe you need to write your child. . .

1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.

All for Him,

For Real?!?

I knew it was coming! I knew it was almost time. I started checking my account on Compassion more. Then it was there!!!

Jazzy Rain in early 2011

Jazzy Rain in June 2012

She is SO beautiful!! 

I was SO excited . . . I still am!! 

This girl. . . I can't even explain what she means to me. The letters behind that beautiful girl are the sweetest letters ever! She is SO beautiful inside and out! I know God is going to do awesome things through her. . .  He already is! 

She is my little sister I have never hugged! I love her so much! 

Then it happened again!!! I wasn't expecting this! 

Aster in early 2011

Aster in Summer 2012!!!

Again, I am overwhelmed by this precious girl! She is Beautiful!! I hope I get to know her more, but she already feels like my little sister! 

These girls mean so much to me! I love them all so much! They help me never forget what is really important, showing God's love to the least of these. 

Sponsor a child. . .  Add a family member! :)

All for Him,

Lysa

WoW! God is Faithful!

My mom and I have been trying to think of things to do locally to show God's love. We feel His love so real in our lives we can't hold it in. . .  

So last Saturday ( 6th ) my friend Mary said our friend, Claire,  our youth Pastor's wife, Leah and her wanted to invite me to come and "chalk up the town for Jesus" with them. Her and Claire had done it earlier that day and said they wanted to get me to do it with them. . .  I was excited! I thought it was a great idea. 

Well it turned out to be a lot more then just us four! In all there was about ten girls writing messages all over the sidewalks of our town. 

We wrote things like " Jesus's love covers you" and "Romans 8:1". 

About half way through the day we were all together talking on the side of the road. We were talking about how we have to show love and not just say love. .  How we show love because we have been loved! 

About that time a lady walked up. She asked if we were the ones who wrote on the sidewalks last week and we told her yes. .  That was Mary and Claire! She told us she walked out of her store last week and saw " Romans 8:1 For there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ" written on the sidewalk. She started to tear up. She told us she had thought about it all week and tried to find us to tell us how it had touched her. WoW! 

Another time ( I didn't see this. They told me) a guy drove up to a green light and STOPPED to ask if they were the ones who wrote on the sidewalks last week. They told him "yes" . He told them " I love God a lot but sometimes I wonder if He loves me. When I looked down and saw it written on the sidewalk. .  It touched me. Thank you."  WoW again!! 

God is FAITHFUL! 

This is what I had been praying for! This is what God had in mind. This is how I was to show His LOVE!!

I am not trying to say " I am awesome and show God's love everyday". No. .  I fail a lot! What I am trying to say is even little acts of love can make a huge difference for Christ! We just have to be open to what God has for us! 

This is what it is all about. . .  Showing God's love for HIS glory, even in the little ways! 

All for Him,

I Have A Bible.

 Hi my name is Maimouna. I am 5 yrs old. I have a Bible! 

See. . .  when I was little I was hungry a lot. My father and mother would worry all the time for me and my brother and sister. She mother would cry and I wouldn't know why. I would wonder if it was because of me. 

I didn't go to school. I would help with my baby brother at home. One day when I was going to the market for my mom a nice lady told me that there was a church that could help me. She said her daughter was going  to the church and received a  meal when she went. She said the nice people at the church would help her learn school and teach her about a man named Jesus. She said her daughters favorite part of all that the church did for her was give her letters from a person they called a sponsor.She loved her sponsor.

I ran home and told my mom all that the lady told me! I wanted to go to the church the next day! Mama thought is was a great idea too. The next day we went to the church and Mama answered some questions about me. They took a picture of me! It was the first time I had ever had my picture taken! 

I went to the church once a week. I made lots of new friends, and I learned a lot too! They told me about a man named Jesus. They told me He loves me! I liked that. It made me feel special.  

One day when I came into the project, that is what the church in called one of the ladies told me I had a sponsor!!

I was so excited! I was going to get letters like the other kids!! I learned I was sponsored by a family in America! I had heard about America but now I was going to get letters from America! 

I waited and wrote letters to them.  . . . I turned 7 and had never got a letter.  I wondered why. I wondered if I wasn't pretty enough. I smiled in the new picture, but still no letter. 

I had started to not care about letter days. I thought I would never get a letter. I was talking to my friend while the other kids had their names called to come get their letter on letter day. Then I thought I heard my , name! "Maimouna, you have a letter." I let out a shout! I ran to get my letter! I read it and read it! It was so special. I learned a lot about my sponsor! I learned they had three kids, and the youngest one had MY birthday! 

When I showed my Mom she was excited for me! Then I noticed something. My mom was not a sad anymore. She had not been as worried the past few weeks. I think it is because of my sponsor. 

My sponsors write me now! I wonder why they waited so long. I think they started writing because of Jesus! I know He loves me when I get letters. 

The project gave me a bible! It is my families only bible.  My family and I read it every night. I like my bible because I can bring it home and let my family read about what I learn about at the project. I love my sponsor. . . and I love my bible. 

...........................................................................................................

This story is only half true. There is 5 yr old girl in Burkina Faso.

Her name is Maimouna. 

The only thing is she hasn't got a sponsor yet. She hasn't received a letter. She is still watching children get letters while she waits. She has waited. . . and waited. . . She has waited almost a year now. Will you end her wait? Will you show her His love? I believe you will NEVER regret it! 

To learn more about or sponsor Maimouna please click here. To look at other children click here.

All for Him,

Thank You, LORD!

Dear God,
       Lord, You did something in my heart. You moved me to action! God, you gave me a desire to touch lives for YOUR glory! I am so thankful!
               When mom told me I should sponsor and she would help it was ALL You! Lord, without You I wouldn't have my sweet Jazzy, Reggi, or Aster. Lord, You ARE changing my life through these girls! LORD, you showed your Sovereignty in placing me with each one of these girls! They are not mine. They are YOURS. You just bless me through them. You allow me to tell them of Your amazing love for them. I am so honored. LORD, as I tell them Your love for them I realize more Your love for me. It brings me to my knees. LORD,  fill me even more with a desire to spread Your love. Never let it burn out. Help me never to go numb to the hurting in this world. I want to bring you glory!
             I am so unworthy of Your unfailing, unconditional love for me! Lord, I thank you! I thank you for these precious girls You've put in my life! I thank You for their sweet letters! I thank You for their sweet love and hugs they are always sending. Lord, I can't even thank you enough! I LOVE YOU!! In Jesus name,

Amen


Compassion International. . .  SHOW HIS LOVE.

This Thing that I Love.

For a while now I have been blogging about "Compassion"  and how God has changed my life through this awesome organization. If you have ever read my blog ( or even my blog title) you know it is a huge blessing to me and my family.

Well, there is this cool thing going on this month called "Compassion Blogger Month" . There is a lot of cool things I could win and stuff but that doesn't even matter. Our goal for this month is for this month is to get 3,108 children sponsored. I know we can do this.
                                                                        
            God is Sovereign!! 

With his help we could get 15,000 children sponsored!! He loves these children more than we ever could even imagine. He cares for them! They are HIS

So what I want to ask you to do is to just go look! Go look at their faces! Look at there beautiful faces, and see Jesus! Through Christ blood on the cross God sees Jesus when He looks at them! 

He sees Jesus when He looks at us! All of us! YOU! They need to know that!! They need to know someone LOVES them! Will you tell them?  Just. . . . . 

                                                             LOOK.

All for Him,

Please Pray for this little Guy!

Well school started Monday at our house. I am a highschooler! It is going awesome! I really love my science!

Anyway that is not what I am blogging about. . .

Our youth group sponsors a little boy. His name is Holito, and he is from the Philippines. One of the college guys in our youth group (Dustin) sponsors him, in his name and writes him. Everyone tries to give at least a dollar a month and that pays for him. If any of us want to write Holito we can because he knows he is sponsored by a group. :)

Isn't he cute handsome?!? 

A few weeks ago Dustin  had an update to share with GPS ( Gracepoint Students) about our buddy Holito. He had received another letter from Holito's mom. She shared that they just found out that little Holito has a heart disease. :( Our hearts are so sad and we pray God heals him. One of the things our youth pastor shares about a lot is how "God is sovereign!". We have to know that God has this in his hands along with everything else ever! He loves Holito more then we ever can. 

I ask you to pray for Holito. Please pray that if it is God's sovereign will that He will touch and heal little Holito. That he would be healed completely of this heart disease. That He would use this sweet boys story, which God is the author of 

            for His awesome glory! Pray that God's peace that only He can give will be with this family.

 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28

                                 

                                               All for Him,

                                                         

From: Ethiopia!!

About a week ago I received my very first letter from my Aster from Ethiopia!! I am so excited about this African Princess! She is so sweet . . . I can tell. :) 

The letter is a fill in the blank so there really isn't a full letter. . . I learned a lot about this sweet girl though!!

Aster lives with both her parents. She has one sister named Sheuase. Aster's favorite game is pretending. :) In school she is best in English. Her favorite pet is a cat, and her favorite color is red.  Her favorite bible story is about Jesus. I guess that means all with Jesus in it. :) She likes Christmas. She said she likes to learn, and she wants to be a teacher that means two of my girls want to be teachers and one wants to be a doctor. 

Beautiful girl! 

I love this girl already!I can't wait to get to know her even more!These girls are changing my life! 

Sponsor a child and change a life!

All For Him,

A Changed Future!

For those of you who don't know, "Student Life" works with Compassion International to promote sponsorship and release children from poverty. They get a few Compassion LDP , (Leadership Development Program) students from Kenya and fly them to the states. At each of the camps a student will share their story and help work the Compassion table. :) 

Maureen (side bar), my sister from Kenya came to the states for SL back in the Summer of  2010. That was before we knew her. :(  Mandi met Maureen, on her trip to Kenya in the fall of that year. -_-

I knew I would meet a LDP student at camp. That was one of the reasons I really wanted to go to a SL camp in the first place. Well my mom was SO excited that I was going to meet a LDP student ( I was pretty stoked too!) she found out who was going to be at my camp, found him on Facebook, and sent him a messege telling him I would be there. Oh my mom. . . I love her! :) 

Tony was who would be there at my camp. The first night of camp after worship I walked over to the Compassion table and looked at the beautiful faces. The guy at the table looked Kenyan and this is how are conversation went. . .  " Hi, are you Tony?". . . "Yes." . . . " Hi, I'm Lysa". . . " OH! Is your mom the one who sent me a messege on Facebook?!" . . ." haha. .Yeah that is my mom!" . . .  " She was so excited you were coming" . . .  " Oh yes!" 

It was so funny!! 

It was great getting to know him.  

 Tony grew up in a slum in Nairobi with his mom and two siblings. His dad died when he was very young. He is the youngest of the three children. In Kenya women without husbands and have kids are looked down on. Tony's family needed a place to live and sometimes their own family would not let them stay with them.

They were able to rent a little house in the slum ( a hut). One of the things he said that almost made me cry ( It takes a lot to make me cry. BTW) was that his mom would have nothing to eat for dinner, but she would not want to tell the kids so she would put water on to boil and act like she was cooking and just wait for the kids to fall asleep. Tony said the next morning he would realize they never ate. 

One day when Tony was walking on street a guy told him he should go to the church and they will give free food. It was the day Compassion was registering kids! He would go to the project a few times a week and hear about God and how He loves him. He would get a meal and medical care.  Then one day, when Tony was a teen he came home from school and his mom had died. :( The children were older and able to care for themself but it was hard for them I am sure. 

Because God intervened through Compassion, Tony now has a degree in finance and accounting!! How AWESOME is that?!? 

YOU can do that! You can change a life for Christ! You can make a difference! Sponsor a child! 

It is amazing what God has done and is doing in Tony's life! I am so thankful I was able to meet him and get to know him over that week! 

All for Him,

This girl!

This is Chanley! 

Chanley is one of my sweet 2 yr olds from the CDA. ( Read the last post :) 

We first met all the kids the first day on the playground. Chanley and a few of the other kids kept picking up sticks and little acorn things and would bring them to me and Katie and say " Popcorn" . Then we would play along and pretend to eat it and they would laugh and giggle. :) It was super cute! 

I love all the kids but I got more attached to Chanley then any of the other kids because she got more attached to me then any of the other kids.<3  After the end of the first day Chanley knew my name but she would say. . " What your name?"  then I would say, laughing " You silly girl. You know my name." . She would laugh and the say " Alyssa! " . She wanted attention. :)

 The end of the second day Katie and I were giving the kids hugs bye. When I got to Chanley she grabbed both my hand, looked with her pretty brown eyes and said " Don't go home".  I told her had to and that I loved her and would be back tomorrow. I wanted to stay though! 

:) 

By the time the next day came I was ready to get hugs from Chanley and the others! We got there and as we were getting out of the van a little voice piped up and said " Hi!". It was Chanley with her head poked out of her car! :) She ran and gave Katie and I hug and then went inside. It was SO sweet!

That day was water day! The kids got their swim suits on and went to the water arch thingies they had behind the building. I didn't know it was water day so I was in jeans and a shirt. I played with the kids any way! I love them to much to just let them play without me. :) Chanley would grab my arm and say " Come on!" as she pulled me through the water arches. It was so fun. I played with all the other sweet kids but none were as excited as Chanley! We all had a blast! 

Chanley with my glasses on. :)

Pretty girl!! 

I was having having a great time with the kids,but I knew in the back of my mind I would have to say goodbye soon. When it came time to say goodbye I gave all the kids hugs, told them they were special and that I loved them. I longed to tell them God loved them. . . all three days I longed to tell them, but it was against rules to talk about any religion or use the name Jesus or God there, and I didn't want to make Jesus loving people ( who we told them we were/ who we are ) look bad by breaking rules.

When I got to Chanley she held her hands out for me to hold he. I picked her up and she said it again . . " Don't go home. " I was on the brink of crying. Again I told her I had to and that I love her so much! Then she said "I want to come to your house!" . WOW!! The fact that she had only known me for two days, but wanted to come home with me hit me hard. She is only two but she wants to leave her family to come to my house!?! 

All kids want, is to be loved. Chanley showed me that. We want affection. That is just how God made all of us. You can show love to a child that may not see it. . . You can show them the greatest love ever. . . You can show them the LOVE of Christ. It is so deep. It is so awesome! He LOVES us!! 

Sponsor a child and SHOW LOVE! 

All for Him,