I forgot to add this picture into the last post... We'll see if this stays.  Maybe I really really love it and maybe I'll paint over it tomorrow. ... considering it's 1:00 am, and I'm running on 5 hours of fitful sleep I can't guarantee my judgement is even close to decent. 


I used to love to paint in my sophomore and junior year of college, and I haven't done it much since then.  I know I'm not an artist, but it's relaxing.  On the rare occasion I actually like the end result, it's fulfilling.  Painting makes me feel trendier than I am.  I also really love to have quotes or words like this around- it reminds me where my mind should be. 


The picture in the corner is from my sophomore year of college on a mission trip to Jamaica with the freshmen ministry at UGA Wesley. The picture spontaneously came together to look like we belonged on Saved By the Bell or something... it dominated almost all of our profile pictures on Facebook for weeks. Good memories! That trip also represents HOPE in my eyes... the Lord really met me on that trip. 

I haven't updated in 95 years but I promise I have a good reason... 


1. I took an intensive class at Asbury which is 5 days of class, 8 hours a day with a big paper at the end...  So I went to class Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and the following Monday and Tuesday. I know the suspense is killing you so I'll go ahead and let you know I'm an A student at this point in the process. Yay! 


2. Staff Retreat... Wesley staff took a little weekend getaway to New Smyrna Beach to an amazing condo! 

I had a lot of fun! I got to know some people I hadn't previously been around, and I love them! We loved Jesus, soaked in His presence, took care of logistics, played in the sunshine, walked on the beach, ate good food, played the question game forever and learned to love each other a little more along the way.  This was the weekend in between my class so the brain vacation was so welcome, and I was so encouraged by the people who make up CFL Wesley staff. 

3.  First research paper in grad school... you already know I got an A but I need to share that my professor complimented me on the paper and let's just say I'm bragging.  I spent every evening of the next week in a book and typing my fingers to the bone to finish that stupid paper. It paid off, and I finally found an Athens-like coffee shop in Orlando. 

4. Leadership Retreat... similar to staff retreat except we didn't go away.  No pictures because I kept forgetting my camera! Great retreat... played a really terrible round of putt-putt, had some good staff and leader time with Freshley (they are definitely insane, but I love them already!), and had some great worship/prayer time Saturday night. Jesus really met me and heavens, did I need some breaking to happen! I really had to confront some things I am hurting over, and it was so refreshing to completely, 100% honestly lay my heart before God.  He knew what was there the whole time- I just wanted to be Miss Independent. Yay for the enduring patience of our God!

5. Welcome Week! 

This is the insanity that people at CFL Wesley contrive for the first week of classes... on campus advertising every afternoon and an event every evening.  To say I felt frazzled is right! I can't complain about my job... I love it! I couldn't ask for a more perfect fit for my life right now, but goodness- glad that's over! Lots of fun, but my bed missed me. 

Random facts from my life recently:

- I went line dancing for the first time ever- I loved it! I was terrible at it, but nonetheless. 

- Been on a tiny rampage of trying to make my room work here... just can't feel settled ever which leads to messiness because things don't have a place.  Getting there slowly but surely. Painted my dressers and mirror, took off the hutch and painted my bookshelves brown instead of stark white.  Like I said- we're getting there. Pictures need to be rehung according to this new organization and I desperately need a cute lamp but that crazy thing in the corner will have to do for now... (by the way, I hate how the pictures in this post are acting, but I'm giving up on them- it's not worth my time to try and move such stubborn objects.)

- I bought the cutest little bird house like decorations at Michael's last week- My daddy would kill me for saying this (he hates when my mama and Elizabeth and I talk about how much we paid for things), but they were 90% off!!!!! A girl has got to brag sometimes. So $6 total later... I have these little cuties greeting me when I walk in the door. 

Basically- I sometimes wake up and can't believe this is actually my life... far from fairy tale perfection but who wants that anyway?

So at the beginning of my internship last year we were asked to listen to this sermon from Bethel Church in Redding, CA... Totally changed my life.  Not sure exactly why but I quote it often and I think it about this sermon all the time.  I wish I actually put more of it into practice.  You should listen.  Put it on a CD and listen in the car or while you're doing laundry.  So good!

A Culture of Honor

Today has been a hard day... And what makes it harder is that I'm not sure if it's hard because sometimes life is just that way or if I've made it harder for myself- if I've created stress or frustration in my mind, if I've blown situations out of proportion, if I'm just sitting in insecurity.  So that being said, I want to get on one of these...

I want to take my Bible, journal and every Hillsong worship CD ever made and just disappear for a month or two.  I think it'd be pretty good for my soul today. 

"When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another- and ourselves."

Jack Kornfield

Tomorrow I head back "home" to Orlando... This week at home has been fabulous, restless, refreshing- couldn't have asked for a better break....But more than ever, I'm positive that Orlando is the place I should be right now.  Do I miss so many people here? Absolutely! Did I get to see even half of them? Not really.  Am I ready to be back in the land of fun in the sun? Can't wait.


My only reservation:: busyness


I start my counseling degree at Asbury Seminary on Wednesday morning with an intensive class (5 days of class 9 am to 5 pm) with a hefty little paper due 11 days later.  This wouldn't be a big deal and really it isn't... except school starts at the campus where I'm the brand new freshmen ministry director for the Wesley Foundation the next week...  Some of you may not understand campus ministry, but here's a clue- the first few weeks of school are overload! So with staff retreats, meetings, class, books, leadership weekends, welcome week, small groups, papers, etc.  I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.  Yes I'm fearful of not making great grades.  Yes I'm fearful of stumbling through some important weeks at Wesley.  Yes I'm scared I'll have an emotional breakdown.  But fear number one... forgetting God.  Missing out on the one who called me  is calling me to pursue a counseling degree, who is calling me to minister to the freshmen He brings.  I don't want to live life in my own strength.  Doing life on my own is ugly and wasteful.

The Sunday I moved to Florida a man I greatly look up to in my home church read Proverbs 3:5-6 over me.  Growing up in church all my life, I can quote you this verse without a moment's hesitation, but I heard what those words meant for maybe the first time on June 7, 2010...

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean NOT on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."

The solution to missing Christ in my busyness is plainly there... but not simply lived. 

Ten things I would transport to Orlando from Athens... I'm praying that at least half of these actually happen.

10. Ike and Jane

9. The sidewalks and scenery from Wesley to Five Points

8. UGA's beautiful campus- the springtime version on North Campus

7. Barberito's

6. the big yellow tree on Milledge Circle in the fall

5.Georgia fans on Saturdays in the Fall... mostly the sober ones

4. Mark Richt and family

3. Two Story Coffeehouse

2. UGA Wesley Prayer Chapel (well, go ahead and throw in Freshley Monday nights and all their events and Wednesday night services, too.)

1. All the incredible people who I had the privilege of getting to know and learn from while I lived in the Classic City 

 

Can't wait to visit tomorrow!

(only 28 days 'til Georgia Football returns...whoo hoo!!!)

home: the place in which one's domestic affections are centered

Home is an interesting concept to me... it means so many things to me personally and has all kinds of connotations to the world at large. The house where you currently live, the place where you were born, the city your family lives in, your favorite town. Can we have more than one "home?"

I'm headed back to sweet Georgia early Monday morning, and I can't help but reflect on the past two months here in the heart of Florida. Orlando has become home. I never imagined in ten thousand years I would say that. It's flat and balmy. The people are eclectic and most definitely not Southern. The city is always rushing, and there's no peace and quiet. You can't see the stars without driving for miles and miles. But... I think I'm in the center of where God wants me so it feels like home. I have my hodge podge of a family here between old friends who feel like family and new friends who are making their way deep into my heart. I just never expected to love life here. A year ago something deep in my heart said "Go!" so I went... anticipating tears and loneliness and struggle. But knowing that God had a plan and purpose. I never imagined when He said "Go!" that'd I'd actually enjoy the path.

When the sun is rising on Monday morning, and I'm sitting at the Orlando airport I'll be flying "home." I can't wait to be back where things are familiar, where ordering a diet coke doesn't peg me as an outsider because of my accent, where my real family is, where people know my mistakes and love me anyway, where you can hear the crickets, where traffic doesn't actually exist, where water from the tap doesn't taste like a swamp. While I can't wait to be home, I am sad to be leaving this new home. I feel like I'm pulling vulnerable baby roots out of the soil and seeing if the can survive out of the ground for a week. Back to native soil I go! Can't wait to be there... can't wait to get back!