Everyday Insights and Real Life Stories

I know it’s been a long long while since the last time I wrote; things have gotten really hectic between my college classes and my fundraising for my next trip to Russia.  I’ve been meaning to write for a while now, but something recently has really been niggling me to write and last night I had an experience that I knew God was telling me, “This, this is what you need to write in your blog.” So, since - as we learned from the story of Jonah - saying no to God is never really a good idea, that’s what I’m going to do here.  I won’t use any names for the sake of privacy and all those such things, but I think that, regardless of who you are or where you come from or your gender, this is a good thing to read, ponder, and even discuss as I am always open to discussion over my posts, writings, and ideas.  It may seem scattered at first, but I promise it all comes together at the end. Last night, I went with a friend of mine to a Women’s Self Defense class and I had a real...

One day, Jesus was walking with His disciples and one of them turned to Him and asked, “How do we pray?”  That seems like a really loaded question, but Jesus answered it in a quite simple and quite famous way in Matthew 6 and Luke 11.  Many of us who have been around the church in any capacity have probably at least heard the term “Lord’s Prayer” if not heard, read, or recited the prayer itself. For those of us who don’t know it by heart, here it is: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,    as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,    but deliver us from evil.” I was at youth group in middle school the first time I remember hearing a sermon about prayer.  It was very interesting to me, because, while I’m sure I’d heard sermons on the topic before, this o...

There’s a lot of junk happening in today’s world. Bombs being dropped on innocent people just to take out a few who might be dangerous, threats thrown back and forth between world leaders, and riots and fights, murders and hatred. These things are rampant in the world where we live. There are a lot of questions, a lot of arguments, people taking sides, and “to hell with those who don’t agree”. As Christians, what should our response be? Scrolling through my Facebook, it’s been disheartening to see so many people unknowingly perpetuating the hatred. They say things like “I choose love” when there is so much hatred throughout their post that it would almost make the devil blush. There’s no point in choosing love if you’re going to be choosy with your love. Matthew 5:44-45 says, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He sends the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and...

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations; baptizing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20 All Christians are called to be on mission every day, but Summertime and Spring Break are popular times for missions trips and a lot of opportunities start popping up. I was getting ready to head to Russia in a little over a week at the time that I started writing all of this and it got me thinking, so I decided to talk to some of my friends and family who have done missions and share with you all their experiences and advice in case you’re considering taking this step in your Christian walk. These are all young men and women that I have met through church, youth group, college, or along the way during my own trips. I asked them to answer three questions: 1) Where was/were the mission trip(s) and what types of things were you doing there? 2) Going into it, what did you expect to happen and...