He makes us love one another

Just this past Thursday I returned from a week-long trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where I attended the 77th Associated Brotherhood of Christians General Conference. It was magnificent. I have been attending this conference for about six years now and I always enjoy it, but this year, well I do believe it changed me.

The General Conference is a time for all the ministers from the AB of C to come and take care of business while still being fed from the word of God. I enjoy it because I love all the ministers in the AB of C and it is great to hear what they have to say and also to fellowship with other believers who I only get to see sparingly throughout the year.

This year was very special because I got the priviledge of staying with a very special lady, whom I love very much. It was a great growing and bonding experience for the both of us and I miss her very much already!

However, now, with all the preliminaries and explanations of what I have been up to out of the way, I would like to share with you what God spoke to me throughout the conference, and even after I returned home.

It seems as though all the preachers at the conference were on the same page, which is always reassuring. It seems to me that if preachers from all over the country come together with the same message without having previously conversed over the matter, then it must be from God. Right? Right. So the message that rang clear throughout the entirety of the conference was simply this: Love One Another.

Its such a simple message, and I love it. Of course, there were quite a variety of messages. I heard messages about listening to the voice of God, hearing the truth, the evangelist spoke about the Law of Loosing, talking about how Mary and Martha were responsible for taking the grave clothes off of Lazarus (Think about it, its powerful). He also spoke about the seasons changing (which was so encouraging) and the power of positioning (when we are in the right place with God, he will work through our circumstances!).

But through it all, like I said before, it all comes own to love. Even the Bible says that one can possess all the spiritual gifts, but if he or she has not love, the gifts are useless.

I believe in the future, I believe in having a vision. Change is good. But I also believe that true religion died on a cross two thousand years ago, and He did it all for love. The Bible says that God is Love. Thats powerful! So yeah, give me that old time religion!

One of my favorite quotes from the conference came from a minister I have known since I was very young. He said, "We can't win the the world if we continue to condemn the world." How true is that? I walked away from the conference this year praying "God give me compassion!' Who am I without it?

Angels

Since I have returned home from college, one of my sisters, who is about four years younger than me, has decided it is okay for her to sleep in my bed. Every night. Honestly, I'm ok with that most of the time; we usually go right to sleep, though occasionally one of us will spur a late-into-the-night conversation. Tonight was one of those nights. My sister told me she is scared of angels. At first, I laughed at her. Angels are nothing to be scared of; they are the gentle, glowing, white beings who ride in our cars with us, protecting us when we speed, or watch over us as we sleep...right?
I don't know. You've asked the wrong person. I've read some in the Bible about angels. I know about Michael and Gabriel and I know that Satan is a fallen angel, all the basics. But their role in our everyday lives? Now that is some studying I could definitely brush up on. I've read enough Frank Peretti books to allow myself liberty of the imagination, enough to count on their presence when I am needing some help. However, being filled with the Spirit, I usually count on God himself being with me 24/7.
I would love to hear some of your opinions on the role or roles of angels in our everyday lives, because I am by no means an expert. But if I have any opinion, it is this: I think angels can be used as messengers from God to us. And this is why:
I have grown up in a ministry family. I have a grandfather and a grandmother on seperate sides of the family who are pentacostal pastors. My dad is the music minister at my church and other members of my family, as well as myself, are also in the ministry. I have been in the church through thick and through very very thin in my short lifetime. Once, a few years ago, I guess I was probably twelve or thirteen, the church was going through a pretty difficult time, we were in the midst of a church split and things weren't looking so pretty. My parents were devestated. They had done all they knew to do and then some. They spent time in prayer and fasted for the church and still things were pretty glum.
Well, one day, we went to eat at Ryan's, one of my dad's favorite restaraunts. The hostess showed us to our table, but instead of seating us close to the buffet, where all the other customers were seated, she took us past several empty tables to the very back, where only one other couple were sitting (Now, we are a big family, but not THAT big, ya know?). Whatever, we didn't care, we were there to eat and now we could do it without the intrusion of neighboring conversation. So there we were, eating away, having a good ol' time, not knowing that we were about to encounter someone who could give us a message straight from the mouth of God.
The other couple who were sitting in the back had finished eating and stood up to leave. My whole family were captivated by their appearance. The couple looked to be African, both the man and the woman stood, reaching over six feet for sure, and picked up the small child that had been sitting with them. They were dressed from head to toe in African garb: Saris, I'm telling you! Then, instead of turning for the door, they walked over to our table. The woman looked at my mom and told her, "God wants me to tell you, keep doing what you are doing."
That was it! And it was exactly what my parents needed to hear at that time in our lives! I will never forget it!
So, angels, whoever and whatever they are, are from God, that much I know is true. And really, thats about all I need to know.

VBS 2010

My fingers have definitely been itching to write this blog. I am so excited about what God has done through our first-ever Vacation Bible School at Hope. We have a very small group of young people, but we decided that no matter how many guests we had, we would still make this Bible School as great as possible.

Oh and God blessed us so much! Our theme for this year was under the sea and each night we had a lesson and crafts and snacks and music. We were visited by Tina Bell the clown, two pirates, a fisherman, and a scuba diver! It was so awesome! I was privileged to be chosen to teach the lesson each night, which was a wonderful opportunity. I got to teach the kids about being baptized, repenting, how to fight the devil, being fishers of men, and finally about being filled with the Spirit of God.

The greatest moment all week came on the night that I taught the children about being filled with the Spirit. It was Thursday night and most of the kids who were there had been there all week. One of the kids was Hunter, the only little boy who came to VBS. He actually lives next door to my grandparents, we call him Dennis the Menace haha. He is a great kid but a little bit of a rascal. I had a hard time getting him to pay attention during the lesson sometimes and on one of the activities they had for the kids he had written that he had forgotten everything he had learned that week.... not exactly something that makes a teacher feel too great ya know?

Well, when I finished up the lesson about being filled with the Spirit, I asked the kids to raise their hand if they wanted to be filled with the Spirit. Hunter's little hand was the first to shoot up! It is an image that will forever be engrained in my mind. His little face was just so eager and honest, I knew that he knew what he was asking for.

Even better, Sunday morning, Hunter showed up on my grandparent's doorstep asking if he could come to church with them... annnnnd Sunday night he came back and brought his older sister! Now if that isn't success I don't know what is! I can't wait until next year!!!

A little bit of the Old, A little bit of the New

I've kept a journal for as long as I remember. Last night I was reading through some of my stuff from kindergarten and I thought it was worthy of a post.

8-13-1998 (I was seven years old)
I remember when I was 2 or 3 years old.
I playd in my grandmammas buneluwayfer box.
and wore my uncle Gregs red baseball hat.
That was fun. Because I love
Buneluwafers ther good.

So that was a poem about vanilla wafers. It gets better though... I was quite the little writer.

8-17-1998
In 1998 Anna Link's famaly is bilding a church.
it is ecsiding because they have been praeing for
the mony to bild it for 2 years
but now they have it.

Soon after we built the church, I was baptized. Actually, My sister, my cousin, and I were the first ones to be baptized at the new Hope. This next entry is my absolute favorite.

10-1999
I've done a lot of bad things in my life
but i forgave Jesus and got baptised
and I'm ready to get the holy ghost.

I just think that is awesome. Its amazing how our minds work as children. My favorite line is "I forgave Jesus." I also think its awesome because I can just picture Jesus up there laughing at me, knowing exactly what I meant.

A few years later, when I was in middle school, my writing changed tremendously. Check this out:

Where I'm From
I am from ruffles and lace
Shiny black shoes and itchy white slips
Paper fans and metal chairs
a place held close to my heart
the whimsicle dreams of a young girl
one little sunlit room

I am from the wide open spaces
the vast blue sky and endless blue hole
History tucked in the corners of the earth
The future on the wings of the sparrow

I am from a lineage of love
a heritage not to be broken
a legacy to build
an empire still standing
a vision to follow

I am from where it started.

So yeah, my writing improved somewhere between second grade and ninth grade. I don't know, I'm just so happy I kept up with that stuff. God has really used it to show me how much I have grown in Him and really how much He has cared for me since the very beginning. Its quite a beautiful thing. This final poem, I wrote a couple years ago, probably when I was about sixteen.

Life itself consists not of fragments or broken pieces
but of puzzle pieces
the riddle of life solved after the answer is found
an untimely question
Purpose
this world consists of complacency in th efforts to fulfill each destiny
if life is full of puzzles, riddles, questions
where can we find th answer
must we look to others
or is the resolution to the turmoil of the soul found within ourselves
we must look and see to search each corner of the mind and heart
sweeping away the cobwebs of societal impressions
to find for ourselves the meaning of
life.

Honestly, its not my favorite thing I've ever written, I just really think its a good example of spiritual growth, even from then until now.

Mikeschairrrrrrr....

This year at Camp Mulberry, for the first time ever we had a live concert: Mikeschair!!! Whoo hoo! Seriously, it was my last year at camp and I had so much fun. I acted a total fool at the concert. While singing, Mike took my flip camera and took a video of himself and the band. Hopefully, I'll upload that later. Anyways, I got to meet them after the concert. They're pretty awesome :)

I met Mikeschair!!!!!

Prayer and Action

Its so awesome how God can show us things through the little things in life. One lesson I have learned today (not for the first time either) is that sometimes our prayers do not get answered because we fail to take action. I know that many times in my life I just expect God to 'magically' change my circumstances, when in reality, God has made the way for me and I just need to take action.

For instance (and this is really silly), for my geology class, my professor told me I could ask him questions about the quiz... so I definitely take advantage of that! Well, I e-mailed him about one of the quizzes and when it was almost time for the quiz to be due he still hadn't e-mailed me back! I was freaking out because I really needed help! So I was praying and praying that he would message me, and I went to church (it was Wednesday) and came home and he still had not answered me! And I was just like, "God, really? Come on, its been a whole day, could you please remind him to e-mail me back?" And it was like this little voice in my head says "Why don't you remind him?"

DUH! Seriously? So I sent him another e-mail and no lie, about ten minutes later he e-mailed me back.

Our God is a God of action. At my church there is really a burden to see the kingdom of God grow. We are a small church, and lately it has just been really discouraging. I'm telling ya, God and I have definitely had some talks about what is going on and its like He's telling me now, point blank, "Why don't you quit praying and start working?"

Whoa. I think this could change my life. Like faith without works is dead, so is prayer without action. If I really believed that God would answer my prayers then I should live as though He is going to.

God likes to teach us things...

So, as I may have mentioned before, I am taking two classes this summer online: Social Work and Geology. I signed up for these classes because I figured they would be two really easy A's to help me get done a little quicker. Well.... the social work class was a breeze. It ended last week and I got an A and it was no big deal. The geology class on the other hand is very, very difficult. I have three quizzes a week. Three quizzes that, on a normal basis, should be given like... one in a week. They are that hard. Needless to say, I have spent way more hours with my head buried in a textbook this summer than I had planned.

The other day I was really stressed out by this class, so I started to pray about it. I told God, "Ya know what? It would be really great if you could just show me something through this class. Like, just give me a word or something." And you know what? God just showed up and showed out; He did exactly what I asked, like He had been waiting for me to do so.

So I'm reading about landslides, they are actually quite interesting (if you ever have the chance, look up videos of them on YouTube or something... I'm serious). I learned a few things about landslides like that they occur pretty often in California, they typically occur after extensive periods of rain because the sediments get heavy and begin to fall, they cause severe damage and can sometimes cover whole cities, there is not very much you can do about them, and... once a landslide starts, there's no stopping it.

So what did God show me through this? That He is a landslide. Our God wants to take over our lives in such a powerful way that, just like a landslide, it cannot be stopped. Not only that, but just like a landslide, God wants to take over whole cities. He wants to completely cover us. Best of all, once God gets started in our lives, He doesn't stop.

This just really encouraged me, especially when the class is just so horrible. It just goes to show that God can turn anything into a word, into an inspiration for us.

On another topic, I started teaching the teen girl class at our church this past Sunday. It was kinda awesome. I say kinda because it was the first class and entirely more intimidating than I thought it would be. I have all these great plans for the class, but I didn't want to put them into motion on the very first Sunday, it was supposed to be just kind of an introductory class, and it was, and it went very well. Just this one thing: I got so intimidated when I stood there in front of them because I realized that I am responsible for teaching these girls how to live godly lives, and that is quite a task! So, ya know, when you're praying just remember me and the girls in my class.

Whoa July... Lets slow down here.

Wow, I should've been blogging a whole lot more often then I have been. Things have been so incredibly busy that I don't even have time to stop and tell you, my readers, whats going on! So pretty much the whole idea of me keeping track of things this summer is flushed. But, it's ok, I'm about to catch you all up :)

So, last Friday at this time, I was winding up my last day at Camp Mulberry. Oh Camp Mulberry. I could seriously spend the rest of my life (well at least a full week) describing in detail the the amazing things that happened at camp, but I don't have that much time and I'm sure neither do you. Let me just say that even after attending camp for eleven years I still walk away in amazement of God and how He always shows up and shows out. This year at camp was my last year (awwww) and there were soooo many changes. To be honest, I was a little bit skeptical. But, like I said before, God definitely showed up. Which makes me think, maybe God likes for us to change things up a little bit! I guess its like eating vanilla ice cream for years and years and just loving it because, well, its vanilla, its classic, its always good. But then one year you realize you can have so much more and you go for it and it just changes the way you view ice cream forever! The same is true for camp this year. We changed some things and oh. my. goodness. I may never be the same.

So, if you want to see pictures and watch videos and read up on some of the great things that happened at Mulberry this year, check out my facebook page... I have posted a ton of cool stuff! To just quickly cap off the things that happened here... I'll make a list!

1. 15 kids were filled with the Holy Ghost!!! (that is most important)
2. We had two AWESOME speakers, actually three: Bro. Jason Bentley, Greg Henry and Jill Yates!
3. Bandana sport teams.... mixed it up a little, even though I hate sports it wasn't all that bad!
4. My church won the national grand trophy for all over best performance in all areas (Bible quizzing, memory verse, good character....)
5. For the first time ever we had a live concert by MIKESCHAIR!!!! (I got some reallll good video of that!)
6. Minute to Win it....(Yes, I did win it in one minute :)
7. Did I mention 15 kids got the Holy Ghost??? One of them was from MY sunday school class! whoo hoo!
8. Carnival day and Church Volleyball...whoo hoo...
9. My long lost friend Joseph Hillhouse showed up!
10. 15 KIDS WERE FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST!!!!

So, as you see, it was quite a week. But now I'm back to the real world and things are just as busy as when I left them. But I am excited, I know God is getting ready to just do some crazy things here at home. For instance, in two weeks our church will be hosting it's first ever VBS!!! Yay!!!! Also, starting this Sunday, our Sunday school program will be changing things up a bit and I am going to be teaching a teen girl's class... I can't wait! We are going to be studying the women of the Bible and along with that, the characteristics they possessed that we should strive for as well....

There are so many other things coming up, so many great things God has been speaking to my life. I want to share them all with you, but at a later date... like tomorrow. So keep in touch :)