Why I love YL

There are so many reasons why I love my job in Young Life ministry! But for lack of time, I'm just going to explain what today looked like for me...and let the following pictures tell the story.
Today, I started the morning, as I do every morning, with the distinct priveledge of praying for the lives of kids at 2 5A high schools to be changed! Afterwards I attended a Pep Rally at one of the schools that I do YL at. Kids couldn't believe that I cared to come. There I met an orphan that had been so in the local area all of his life. Before the pep rally a mom had called me saying she didn't know what to do with her daughter who she found out was addicted to drugs and very sexually active and begged me to please help her. So after the pep rally I met with said girl and had a great talk with her over coffee. I introduced her to a devotional, journal and bible and see much hope. I have been walking through life with her for some time now. In just a few minutes I am meeting with a boy for ice cream (along with another guy leader of mine) to talk about his struggle with sex with his girlfriend and how he can be a man of God. He asked. After that I am attending a high school football game to encourage my kids that I care and to meet more hurting souls. I don't have time to include all the countless texts and phone calls that I have received today from hurting kids in need of hope. But may you get a glimpse of kids faces who...
have brain tumors, bring their babies to YL, invite me to sleep overs and earn my trust after living way different previous, hundreds of lost kids who come to YL for fun yet end up finding hope-Jesus-and someone who cares, kids who only had a have bday cakse made only by me-not by a caring parent, found Christ through YL and shared their story at our recent banquet, hiked over a 14,000ft mountain with me in Colorado this summer, found Jesus in Colorado this summer, see life can be fun w/o partying, still need Jesus but are hearing the story, and who know now that someone cares. This is just a small glimpse of why I love my job and pray for more support in it! :) And this is un-edited due to lack of time.... :)

It's back!!!!

Yes, it's that time of year again...THE RED CHRISTMAS CUPS AT STARBUCKS ARE BACK!!!! Woo-hoo! :) What excitement rushed through me lastnight as I was made aware of this. I was holding interviews at Starbucks for new volunteer leaders for YL and the 1st to arrive was this sweet, innocent young man that had to witness me in child-like thrill and proceed to take pictures of me...ha. Lights are starting to go up as well...I love this time of year! :) Enjoy the Holidays friends! I will with Jesus and a good cup of coffee in a great looking cup! :)

Checkers

As I was sitting at my hair dressers today (getting my head fried under the giant blow dryer that was drying my "glaze") I was bored so preceeded to play a game of checkers on my iphone. Normally the stupid computer beats me everytime. I rarely win. But not this time! I beat that machine in 60 seconds...woo-hoo! To which I pondered, "How? Was it just luck?" Nope. I had a different strategy this time! Normally I never jump the computer's checkers if I know that it can jump me right back. But today I didn't care. I had been at the salon for so long and I forgot reading material and I was bored. So I just kept jumping the computer's checkers knowing that it could very well jump my checker right back. But it worked. And it was after that discovery that I had an epiphany...I normally play checkers just like how I approach life. I am scared to get "jumped" so I make no move and therefore always lose. Yet today I RISKED and I lost a few checkers but I ultimately won, and still with a lot of checkers left on the board! We must risk sometimes with the Lord. It's scary but He takes care of us. Just TRUST. Currently I am in a season where a lot of wisdom is needed as I wait for God's direction. It's not time yet for me to risk but now I know when it is, wherever God leads, I will be OK. Thank you for lessons, Lord! And thank you for enabling me to forgive the checkers iphone game after a certain someone ruined it for me...ha. :) With that being said, here is a picture of my hair cut. My mom saw it and said, "Yuck. You look so old. I like it so much better longer. Why do you keep cutting it." Nice! :) Well, I like it...I like a change! I can't believe that I am doing it, but here's a compare and contrast...Ok, So I am going to grow it back out. :) I just pulled a Jennifer Aniston. Wish I looked like her too...ha. :) Ok, well I'm off now to teach campaigners to my YL folks. We are learning about holiness. God, may we live holy please! And gracious Shepherd, I ask you for wisdom please!

JAM Days

*Updated: My nieces and nephew and first party attendee of the night...Alice & Wonderland, and Ryan & Sharpay from High School Musical of course... :)




It is Halloween today and there is not much to do. I don't celebrate anymore really and I was going to make my usual favorite fall dish but my mom decided to host a party here tonight for my nieces and nephews and their friends. So, with unusual free time on my hands, I decided to blog. I don't have much to say though. I'm in one of those times in my life where God is teaching me some deep lessons that I feel aren't quite blog worthy for the world yet...private...you know. So I decided to post some pics instead. One of the perks of my job with Young Life is that it is mandatory that we take Jesus and me (JAM) days 1x a month. Of course I sadly never take them but decided this month that I should. So last Friday I turned off my cell phone upon rising (until 5pm) and began the day by fasting and praying. What focused intimacy with Jesus fasting brings! You should try it. Then Jesus and I zipped on over to the Zoo and Herman Park. What fun we had! It was glorious! Boy do I love animals...esp. the baby Orangutans...in which God pleasantly delighted me with! :) Below are a few pics. Most of the animals were playing with pumpkins and it was a ball to watch them with it. Hope you enjoy! Happy Fall Ya'll! One of my favorite times of year! :) For those who care, :), Now you know that I am alive and will write soon enough...

child-like faith

Update: Today (next day of this post) God gave me this in my qt when i first woke up..."Our Father is preparing us to meet the deep inner needs of others by bringing us through the dark places first." Coupled with 2 Corinthians 1:3&4. Wow...so like you God to give this weary and messed up traveler a word. Oh thank You! :)



Tonight has been a rough night...coupled by (as my last post stated) a very rough summer! It seems to never get better! But admist the pain, Jesus shined a glimmer of hope into my life today. I was sitting in my front yard (in the dark) just sobbing...feeling so mis-understood, so out of place...a pity party in a sense, but a well deserved one. Anyways, as I sat there, just wishing I could fly away, I saw a lightening bug flittering all around me. Lord knows that I love those things but never see them in my neck of the woods. But there it was in all it's glory and I couldn't help but smile. A few moments later I look up and a tiny baby kitten is following it's momma down the street and just loving all over her. It was such a site for this animal loving freak! :) And then it hit me, it was at the start of this crazy summer that I had just rescued 5 baby kittens from my garage from the very same mother and they all died but one. My pity party snuck in again. "Everything I touch gets destroyed," I thought. But I always have the best intentions...My heart is good...so why Lord? And then I remembered a conversation that I had earlier that day with a girl that I was helping through a struggle. Before my day got too bad, I had a coffee date with a girl that needed some guidance. She told me that everyone she talked to about this issue would just say, "Man, that is tough. I don't know what I'd do if I were in your shoes. I've never experienced that before." But she told me that she thought I would possibly have some advice. I felt flattered and equally in-adequate by that statement, but then it hit me and the words just came out of my mouth (such a revelation from God at the time...un-beknowest to me)...."You know what sweetheart," I said, "so many people want to be 'christian leaders' but they don't realize the risk involved. It's hard. I may have answers from time to time but only b/c I have had to walk through many of these tough roads myself and was forced to learn a way out b/c the only hand that I had to hold onto was God's. Baby girl, you too will make it through this and have such a story to tell. It may hurt, but God will use this to help others through you and to draw you nearer to Him and make you more like Him. Thats the only way you'll learn. Then you too can answer people and not just say, 'I don't know...I've never experienced that before.' Teachers have to be taught first." I said that to this friend of mine, yet was teaching myself too. So as I looked upon that kitten with it's momma I thought of that and gained a little perspective. And then I remembered a few days ago when I was sitting at the airport watching the movie, Bridge to Terabithia, as I traveled home from Oregon. What a great movie. I had spent the past 8 days in Oregon with my best friend, Hanna and her family. I was surrounded by 3 kids, under the age of 9, who have been a constant reminder to me of what child-like faith is. They have: no issues, no baggage, hardly any fears, basic trust, no insecurities, joy, simplicity, no worries, no time tables, etc. I am envious. It seems un-attainable to me. Yet God Himself calls us to obtain such child-like faith. Why do we struggle so much? In the movie, Bridge to Terabithia, the boy goes through a tremendous lost yet he pushes through, triumphs, finds victory and exercises his imagination. I want that! I am tired of life getting me down all the time. I am tired of the Prince of darkness winning in my life! Right now I feel like Frodo at the end of the Lord of the RIngs, the Return of the King. He wanted to die...was tired of carrying the burden of the ring. But he pressed through and won the victory for him and for the kingdom! I must press through! Yet, like Frodo, and like that helpless kitten, I need someone to carry me. I'm tired of fighting, Lord! But like someone very dear reminded me tonight, "When you are weak, Corrie, He is strong." Carry me Jesus! Give me child-like faith! I have hit 100,00 miles but as people keep telling me in reference to my car, "I have a good 100,00 left to go...."
(See above: my car...the kitten I saw tonight that we had caught a few days before and let go, and the girl who spent over a week with me last week teaching me about child-like faith!) :)

100,000 miles

So my Nissan Xterra is about 50 miles away from hitting the big 100,00 miles! I looked down at that today when I was getting my oil changed and couldn't believe it. My car is so old and worn! I feel like I too have hit 100,00 miles! This has been ONE CRAZY SUMMER!!!! Hence why I have been limited on my blog writings. So many mixed emotions. It has been hard. I hate hard. I sadly run from my hard. But we/I learn form hard and God has been teaching me a lot about not running lately. The only thing that you should run from is evil. And the only thing that you should run to is God. And nothing good ever comes easy. Perhaps that's why my favorite movies are Lord of the Rings and the Rocky's. A few weeks ago I found myself facing another hard thing. I was taking some YL girls to Wilderness...one of YL's many amazing camps in Colorado. Wilderness is a backpacking trip and I love it. But I had just found out, amongst the many other hard things going on at the time, that my group was about to hike the hardest trail that they have...San Luis. A massive 14,001 ft. mountain. I had just gotten done with an intense, good, yet exhausting camp in Colorado and not even a day later I was off to conquer this....admist my own personal struggles at the time. "It's too much, God!," I cried. I wanted to run. And then a good friend of mine (Jawaan) convinced me that I shouldn't. He proceeded to read me the story in the Bible about Elijah and how he too ran and sat under a tree in the wilderness and wanted to die. But after many pleadings from an Angel of the Lord, he got up and rose to victory (just like the rest of his story later tells.) I went and conquered San Luis after that and was so much the better for it. From breakthrough's in my heart that were long over due, to a very painful break up, to watching YL kids receive and deny Jesus, to learning some very humbling lessons about myself, to new relationships, to shattered characters, to broken relationships...it has been one crazy summer. I still want to run under a tree and "die" at times. But our faithful God has not giving up on me. As a great Christian song says, "He's not finished with me yet."
Lord, please have mercy and bring beauty from ashes. Take over! I need you now...I need you always!
This pic sums up my life right now...it's from the top of the mountain that I conquered just a few weeks ago in Colorado. Freedom is on it's way....

My Shepherd

Lately I have been reminded of how God is my Shepherd. A term that I have heard, known and read several times before from the Bible, but one that has been penetrating into my heart even deeper lately. Think of the term, "shepherd." It means one who watches over sheep (or something.) Shepherds lead thier flocks into good pasture, where they could roam, drink from running water, graze on good grass, and most important, where they would be free from danger. Shepherds would not take their eyes off of their flock, their "children." Rather, they looked out for ferocious wolves, tended to their wounds, etc. WOW!

John 10 speaks about how Jesus is our Shepherd. "I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:11.) And then you have Psalm 23. How precious this verse has become to me! While I was in Israel a little over a year ago, a Jewish man came and was inscribing verses, sayings and such, in Hebrew, on fine jewelry for us to take home with us. By default (my back up choice) I got Psalm 23:1-"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want." I was a bit disappointed at first, but a few months later a dream was fulfilled of mine and I finally was heading to Africa to go work with Aids orphans. While there we put a little camp on for them and the theme of it was Psalm 23. Watching these precious african children savor and learn and memorize this Psalm was priceless to me. It made me appreciate my Hebrew ring and this entire Psalm even more. Then I headed home to find a few of my favorite Bible teachers teaching on this Psalm. And now, here recently, God has given me this Psalm as comfort in a much needed time of comfort.

Yall, the chapters in John 10 and in Psalm 23 (and throughout the entire Bible where God is addressed as our Shepherd) hit me in so many levels...esp. for where my heart is at right now. Sparing you the intimate details, I find myself in a season now where God is wanting to take over my heart. You see, I have known and loved God for quite some time now. And He has already healed and tended to so many wounds in this needy heart of mine. But due to a recent "heart issue" in my life, I have realized just how much of my heart that I do in fact still keep under lock and key, under many guarded walls, for myself alone. I was having my QT a few weeks ago when God led me to Psalm 23 again (it was "ironically" on my reading list for that day.) Verse 3 really stood out to me..."he restores my soul." I proceeded to look up what the word, "restore" in it's entirety means here and what exactly God was trying to say. So with the help of my amazing key word study Bible and Beth Moore's old notes on this Psalm, here is what I came up with. To restore here means, "to turn back, return, bring back, be recovered, a 'do-over.'" "What are you wanting to recover in my soul, Lord?" I pondered. To which I felt Him so gently and clearly reply, "Your heart, my child. You have held it in your own hands for too long now and all your struggles stem from that. I created you to be free, Corrie. But you are binding up yourself. Give me your heart. Trust me. Surrender. Let the walls down, and I will lead you to safe pasture. I will bring you back to what I created you to be: care-free. And you will no-longer feel so trapped. You will get your 'do-over.' Just trust me." "Woah!" That was my reply to Jesus. :) But I was ready. I am ready. Tear down these walls, Lord! As one of my new favorite songs by Jimmy Needham goes, "I need You like a hurricane, thunder crashing wind and rain, to tear these walls down. I'm only Yours now, Lord."

The title, Good Shepherd, carries with it so much meaning. For one, It means that He, my Good Shepherd, is my Gate-keeper. He will open and shut the gates around my heart accordingly. It also means that He will watch over me when the enemy is prowling around. For lately, the enemy has been on the move trying to destroy me. What he hates almost more than a child of God's turning from darkness to light is a child of God breaking free from his/her prison cell. I will admit, it has been a fight for me lately. Sometimes the heat gets too much for me and I want to run. But that is another thing that God is teaching me about my heart. I try and be perfect and strong for everyone and in reality, I'm not. I am weak and it has taken me a long time to admit that. I need Jesus too! For when I am weak, then He is strong!

So today, As Kirk Franklin so eloquently puts into song...I will...Be still and know that He is God. I will surrender to His authority. I will stand, fight the good fight, and not give up. I will let Him lead me into green pastures. I will let Him tend to my heart. I let Him guard my heart.

Good Shepherd, thank you for laying down Your life for me! You love me so much...I am in awe! Take this heart of mine and make it Yours! I am apart of the flock under Your care. As Nicole C. Mullen states, "Oh, Lamb of God; Oh Prince of Peace. What tribute shall I bring to worship Thee? I have no gold to lay at your feet. So Lamb of God, I offer me." That is in fact, all that You want...ME! Oh, come let us adore Him!