she made me cry

Tomorrow is the day!
Tomorrow is the day I start something new in my life and I finally take hold of what Jesus has given me to grab on to!
BUT
Before I do that, Emily wrote a blog about me and totally made me cry like a baby. So its mine turn!

One of my earliest memories of Emily is when I was in middle school. Sitting in her room with another gal my age asking Emily all these questions (she was dating Ryan at the time) about dating and relationship. I sat there quietly and saw something different in this gal (Emily), someone I could trust.

Now in Emily blogs she writes about how she was frustrated with me when we first meet because she saw that I wasnt living victoriously (http://considering-it-pure-joy.blogspot.com/2010/06/tribute.html you can read her post here)

I dont blame her! :)

But she was always there. Ups and Downs. Good and Bad times.

I remember times in high school where she saved my butt many times, I knew that I could call her in the middle of the night and she would be there (and she was more times then once!) She was someone that I could always look to and not have to cover anything up. I could be real.

I will always respect her and Ryan. I have seen them pick out the best in people and pull that out. They dont let a persons past define what God has for that person future. I have seen them make choices to love and show grace in areas other might not have. I have seen Jesus through them and in them.

I need to stop writing now, tears once again fill my eyes.

Dear Emily,
no words will ever be able to tell you how thankful I am for you. The fact that you trust me with you beautiful daughters and let me love them is big itself. I wouldnt want to trade one moment of this past year for anything. You have been a ear that listens in time of need. A friend to cry with, when things got hard. a best friend to laugh with, and so much more!

I will miss you. Evie and Ella also! (maybe Ryan!)

I love you.

You made me cry!

Youth With A Mission Colorado Springs

This fall I have an amazing chance to be apart of Youth With A Mission Colorado Springs base!
I will be apart of the School of Strategic Missions. It is a 12 week lecture phase, learning about Urban Ministry, Justice, Calling and Craft, Missions, Church Planting, Communications, Biblical Worldview, Launching New Ministries, Globalization, and Community Development.

Then there is a 12 week outreach phase were we take what we have learned and apply it out in the field. We work along side of contacts that we have in the 10/40 window!

I would need about $5,000 to cover cost of the lecture phase along with the outreach cost. Would you be willing to stand along side of my on the journey that the Lord has placed out for me?

Birthdays

Tomorrow the 25th of May, I will be turning 24 years old. I know people dont say that is old and I still have my whole life ahead of me, and I agree with them. At the same time I feel like a super old person who has gone no where in life! BUT we are not going to focus on that! I am also very blessed! Jesus has covered me with his blessings over the last few years and I am thankful!

I thought I would give you guys a peek into what the last three birthday have looked like! Enjoy!

23rd was a green themed birthday party, everything was green even the food! It was small with only some of my closest friends! it was sunny and prefect all around! Picture above is me with a slice of my cheesecake birthday cake, and below is what the dinner table looked like!

22 was spent up at a friends family cabin on camano island. It was filled with old friends and lots of laughing! picture up above is everyone doing the "katy" its the pose I would do all through highschool and below is my 'its a boy" cake! wouldnt have traded it for anything!

My 21st birthday was truely one I will never forget. At this time I was living on the Youth With a Mission base in Herrnhut, Germany. This day just so happened to be the first day of a conference called festival of the nations. So pretty much our base was PACKED out with people from ALL over the world! The picture above is me with my very good friend Johanna who had made me a cake and had everyone sing to me!

healing begins

I was listening to the radio the other day and this song came on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88xHIwd4CWM

I listened and thought "wow thats a really good song" and then didnt think another thought. Today I went to the doctors office and driving home I heard this song again on the radio. This time I pulled over the car and started to listen to each of the words coming out of the speakers. What powerful words to be spoken into life. I needed this song. I need to know that the healing can start now, I dont have to wait for it, I dont have to search for it, I dont have to be in this darkness anymore.

Then I did more research on this song and found this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF1X9VvQbD4

I hope you watch it before you keep reading! He got it right. We are more afraid to tell God about what we have done, then we are humans! Where did we lose the thought that our God is full of Grace!

Romans 6:14 (New International Version)
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

If I think about it more and more, why wouldnt I want to tell God first? Yes there is the James 5:15 "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." Sometimes I think we focus on the "confess to one another" more then the "so that you may be healed"!

I want to be healed. I want the healing to start. I want the light to come into the dark places.

Im a sinner

I get jealous easy

I hide my anger

I compare myself to other

I have a lot of faults


....BUT

This is where the healing starts!

the four loves

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." ~CS Lewis, The Four Loves

summer loving

summer loving

summer sunsets

summer markets

summer baseball/ferry rides

summer boatrides

summer bondfires

summer adventures

one man's junk is another man's treasure

I went to the Mill Creek garage sale last Saturday with a good friend. I wasnt looking for anything specific and so it was just kindof fun riding along and see what everyone wants to get rid of. Its funny though at thing like this you get a small peek of what that persons world is like. There was a couple house that by just looking at what books they were selling you could tell that they were Christian to some extent or at least had that influence somewhere in their lives.
It was also funny to see how the people who were having the sale acted when we would approach their driveway. You would get the people that would just sit there and not say a word to you while you took the time to look at their stuff. Or you have the very outgoing people asking how you are and how your day is going! There was also one house where we saw no parents but three kids that I am pretty sure were under the age of 8! Its funny what people do sometimes!

Next time you go out and you see a sign that says yard sale, you should take a second and drive by to get a small peek of what kindof life those people have lived or are living!