have you ever felt like you were on the edge of your map. my whole life i had planned to get married, have kids and do the family thing. as i only dated one guy i began to make all kinds of other plans. i tried to plan losing weight or where i was going to live or what i was going to do in life and God changed each one to his own plan rather than my own. i am not married w/ kids, i am not doing what i thought i would be or living where i wanted. every day i see my faith growing but in a different direction than before. it is all of a sudden growing out instead of in. as i read "a new kind of christian" it brings me to tears. i see God calling me to step beyond the map where there are no foot prints or paths to follow but simply follow the light he provides for the next step. to trust that he will use me for his kingdom though sometimes i fear since he hasn't, he won't. to trust that one day i will be more than just the best friend which is where i always find myself. that one day i will get to see his glorious face. that one day i will hear "well done." not because i followed the bible to a T but because i loved like he loved. because i cared more for a person and the world than how many souls i could "save." we get it so wrong to think that it is we who are doing anything. but even worse than that is that we think we have won the battle when they are baptised and say a prayer to ask jesus into their lives. IT IS SO MUCH MORE! it is selling everything we have to help our brothers and sisters in christ. it is genuinely loving, without expectation that they will come to the same conclusion about God. it is a joy of assurance of salvation. it is thankfulness that he has a plan. a trust to live with our hands wide open for him to bless us beyond our wildest dreams whether it is a blessing we were hoping for or not.
because i'm going to be stationed in spokane washington for 27 weeks! idk how close that is to them but closer than i've ever been. maybe i could drive over and see them sometime.
layne and ellie are both in the home school group with me, and layne and i are in the same orchestra and take viola from the same teacher. i was on sheldon's blog and they were with me, saw your name, and wanted me to click on it to see if it was the kim they were thinking about. they knew it was u becuz of ur picture, they asked me to say hi
hey! I hope you're doing well. :) Do you have a digital copy of that really sweet picture you took of my grndparents (Collier) a couple of years ago? Grandad passed away last week. I'd be really happy if you did :)
um...so the new year is here and you have not come to visit yet. will you email me your mailing address so i can invite you to my baby shower at least? :-)
i know i have neglected to be on here. i am sorry for this. maybe i will try to be better about it. :/
life has been keeping me busy. God has been blessing me with times of growth and opportunities. a couple of weekends ago i got to go on a spiritual retreat that was absolutely amazing for my heart. i truly felt the Spirit invade and give me a peace about my future and life that i have always known i should have but simply haven't.
i am in the process of becoming the leader for a young adult community here at our church. i don't really know what this looks like or what the crap i am doing but i am ready to do whatever it is that God wants me to do with it! the possibilities are endless.
my family isn't going to get to come for thanksgiving so i am spending it with my good friend michael and his family. it will be lots of fun as his family is pretty crazy i hear at thanksgiving! fun times.
potential trip to austin for my birthday... you should come!!! it has been too long since i have seen these great friends!
this weekend i get to go visit one of my dearest friends over in tyler, tx and i am stoked. michael, jacob and i are driving the motorcycles over and hanging out with her in celebration of our friendship and her birthday! it will be great times!
it is awesome to me to see how God always provides. how he gives peace in hard times. how he loves us so much that he won't leave us where we are!
wednesday we actually put the playground together. it was great. there were about 85ish volunteers. mulch was wheel barrowed everywhere. the best part was that it was a whole bunch of older people building a playground for kids. and when i say older... i mean most of them were at least 50 and up. it was great!
towards the end of the day, it totally rained on us. we built a playground in the rain. we were soaked. :D it was still so cool to do it all! i learned so much! i can't wait to do another one.
later that night we walked around the french quarter. it was so much fun. what a great city! as we are walking around, it started raining again... of course. all in all, it was a great friend!
the more i do this stuff, the more i enjoy it! i love building. i love helping people. i can't wait to see what God calls me to do! what an exciting time of life i find myself in.
Hello!!! Is that you my long last roommate =). Hey shoot me an email or something. When I moved to AR I totally lost everybodies contact info. =( so sad.
so my good friend michael in texas installs playgrounds for a living. his company works with this non-profit company that has a goal of installing 100 playgrounds in katrina affected areas. they usually do 1 a month or but have like 12 to do in like 6 weeks. so i am in new orleans with him for the week to keep him company and to help with the build.
now i have never been to new orleans before so i have nothing to compare its current state to but oh my goodness i am amazed at what i see while i am here. people are still living in trailers two years later. people are still living under interstates and on the sides of buildings. buildings are still in disarray with windows shattered and busted out.
i don't understand. this city that is in shambles and barely making it still promotes big casinos, bars/clubs and $40K worth jewelry. seriously! the priorities are so out of whack. and i guess i don't know everything. i actually don't know a lot about the situation but it seems like something is off kilter here...
it has been really interesting to visit. the architecture is amazing. and we saw some of the most amazing oak trees today. they are the oldest group of oak trees in the united states. i will post pictures soon of michael right in front of them. it is amazing how big they are...
so we are having fun. tomorrow we actually put the playground together and that will be interesting cause there will be like 150 volunteers to do it in like 6 hours. so fun!
You realize that the more they can build their economy with the casinos and whatnot, the better chance of re-building. Seems out of whack, yes, but when people come to the city and spend money, it helps build their economy back up, which helps people build their homes and such. It is pretty depressing in that area still. Mom and Dad only live an hour from New Orleans, so we have seen the destruction first-hand. You can't appreciate it until you've seen it. Glad you are having a good time!
has been such an awesome journey. i kinda wish sometimes that i had it all on video tape. to look back and see how things have changed. to see how God has worked. to see how i just didn't (don't still) get it right away. to see how God protected me time and time again even though i didn't know it. to see how i have grown.
i am loving my house. i just got a roommate in the last couple of weeks and she is awesome. i have really enjoyed getting to know her and hanging out.
i discovered i love strawberry daqueris. they are so delish! and i learned that line dancing is fun. so are karaoke bars (when they aren't filled with idiot drunks and smoke).
i am reading this great book called "how people grow" and it is really impacting my life. things that i hadn't really thought of before.
i am about to step into a leadership role of growing the young adult community at this church and i am really excited. i will be working with two possibly three other people and am so excited to see what God does. i love to see people get truly connected and have genuine friendships. that is what the kingdom is about!
i love that he loves that you love life..j/j I'm glad to hear you're doing well Kimbo! I need to e-mail you...I'm so bad at keeping in touch with people! Hey, wanna go to Egypt in March?
yah! theres a trip goin gin march-mike and sandy willis are heading it up-I got info on it from someone else's link to a blog. I'm 98.9 percent sure that I'm going-its a group of christians and they're going to follow the 'exodus route' thourgh egypt to israel and then fly out of jerusalem-11 days trip....whoo hoo!
