My Life in Tennessee

If you are new, I would suggest reading the first post by scrolling down the page a ways.  It's titled "The Beginning."  Hopefully when I get some free time over Spring Break, I'll be able to complete the different blog sections.    


I realized a lot of y'all don't really know about my school and what I've been up to lately down here, so I decided that I would let you see into my little bubble of life down here in Tennessee. 


Last weekend, I could hear the loud hollaring of monkeys all day.  It makes me so EXCITED to hear them because I know spring is coming, but this doesn't stop the bipolar weather of Memphis.  2 weeks ago, on our snow day, my Kappa Delta house looked like this

And now this weekend, It was over 70.  Crazy Memphis.  I'm a Biology Major and most likely a Religious Studies minor.  Embryology, Chemistry, Physics, and my Modern East Asia class keep me busy with school work.  I go to Rhodes College, and all of my professors for sure know how to keep me without free time, but I do find time to spend away from school and volunteering with children.  I started volunteer at The MED in Labor and Delivery, and it is absolutely amazing.  The first day I was there, I assisted in holding the legs of a lady while she gave birth to a baby boy.  It was such a beautiful process and moment. I will never forget it.  I could FEEL God's presence. 


My favorite place to volunteer is at Memphis Family Shelter.  Last year, my church helped support me to make tie-blankets for every mother and child there.  Right now, they are at max capacity and have more children than every before.  49 children and their mothers live in the Shelter.  I honestly have no idea how they do that because the facility is not that big.  As stressful as watching around 12 toddlers (give or take) by myself each Tuesday is, I absolutely adore each one of them and LOVE them sooooo much.  They definitely test my patience weekly, but it is oh so wonderful. 

This is the littlest one I have, she refuses to go anywhere but my room.  Tamia is quite the DIVA.

Dominique is suchhh a sweet boy.

Jakobi.  The cuddly little man.

Rashod will be an amazing football player when he grows up. 

Junae.  Don't let the smile fool you.

Oh some of my babies.

Lately I've had at least 10 toddlers, so this is from first semester
because, lately, they do not allot for picture time.

Track is going well.  We finished our indoor season and our outdoor meets start mid-March.  I love the track team down here too.  We also have this wierd tradition at out school that before you graduate you're suppose to "ride" the lynx statue on Campus, so last weekend I found myself fulfilling this tradition. 

Right before I left from Christmas break, I went and got my shots required for my trip to Africa.

Receiving the lovely shot.

I know these are not that great of pictures, but I wanted to document the occasion.

I've been SO overcome with God's grace as I hear about the support being sent in.  It makes me so grateful and so glad that I'm a daughter of the KING of KINGS.  Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  


Oh and just for fun, and since this is SO fitting to my personality, (My Mom and Dad are going to think I'm CRAZY for actually uploading this)  but I'm SO excited to hold some babies in these slings and learn the African sling way!

And plus, blogs with pictures are just better.  I edited the comments, so anyone should now be able to post a comment without creating a blogger account.

Loving and seeking my Christ with ever ounce of my soul. 

Lindsay

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his

life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If 

anyone has material possessions and sees his borther in need 

but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with 

actions and in truth.  This then is how we know that we 

belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at

rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us."

-1 John 3:16-20

P.S  Look for God in everything you do this week.  Savor the small moments in each day and be JOYFUL always. 

 Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus LOVES us, this I know!

            Do you ever feel like your relationship with God is like a game of Chutes and Ladders? You go along up this ladder of “good Christian steps” that you think will bring you closer to God.  Making sure you’re being a good girl, being nice, being responsible in school, going to church, doing the occasional good deed, and you’re like, “Man! I’m doing great!  God must really like me right now!  Surely I’m getting closer to Him!”  Then, all of a sudden, you lose your temper big time with your family, shatter your no-swearing streak, and lay around watching TV when you know you should’ve been helping around the house, doing schoolwork, or using the abundant blessings God has given you to be out doing something good for the Kingdom.  At that point, you feel worthless.  You feel as if you’ve let yourself, God, and those you love down, and that you’ve just slid down a long chute, away from God, and out of reach of His grace and favor.  When I look back, I realize this is basically how I looked at having a relationship with God.  I mean, it’s not like I hadn’t heard or didn’t know that God loves his children unconditionally, I was simply clinging to a lie hidden in my heart that God would love me more, the more sinless I was.  He has shown me that I was like both sons in the parable of the prodigal son!  The younger son, when he realized at his lowest point how wrong he had been, thought that his bad choices and actions had removed him from his father’s love and grace, and then, when he planned to tell his father that he wasn’t worthy to be called his son, but would work for him like a hired servant, he was thinking that through his actions, he could earn his way back into his father’s love and grace.   The older son becomes angry of his father’s forgiveness, and never ending love for his younger brother, whom he thought was most undeserving, saying,

“‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’”  (Luke 15:28-30)

He also thought that through his actions all those years, he had earned the love of his father!  The father lovingly responds,

 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.  But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:31-32)

And that is what God is like.  But to be honest, (which is what I promise to always be on this blog,) there are still times when I allow myself to believe that lie I had been sold by the enemy.  In the past year and a half, though, my pathetic view of what I thought a relationship with God was, has been shattered!  Through His word, some very strong Christians He has put in my path, and through some life changing experiences, He has been showing me what a TRUE relationship with Him is really like, and I LOVE IT! 

            What I’m starting to embrace more and more is the truth that God LOVES me, and His love cannot be changed by what I do, whether good or bad.  And that is the most wonderful, liberating thing!  His forgiveness and grace are so abounding, my mind can’t even grasp it!  I know he is with me and because I rejoice in Him, I want to become even closer to Him, and advocate for the causes that are pressing on His heart.  I have prayed, and He has faithfully answered, and shown me the most worthy cause to be passionate about: the over 147 MILLION precious orphans who suffer around the world, and wait for families, and to feel the love and hope to be found in Jesus Christ. 

           

            What has God withheld from me? The family He has blessed me with daily exceeds my wildest imagination for what I could hope for in a family.  Sure, we may be “broken,” but who isn’t?   My mamma, my brother, and my sister are each beautiful, precious masterpieces created by God, and I love them each so much.  He gave me a best friend, and a sister of my heart in Lindsay, and He continues to strengthen our friendship by bringing us closer to Him.  He has blessed me with countless friends, teachers, people in my church, and more who are each priceless treasures.  All of my physical needs have been met all my life, past what most people in the world could ever hope for.  And He has revealed to me that I am His daughter!  HIM!  The King of Kings, which makes me a Princess of Christ!  So what has my Father in Heaven withheld from me? NOTHING!  Why?! Why am I so blessed when I am still so broken and deserve so little?   What am I going to do with the abundant blessings my King has poured upon me?  I want to be the friend to those without one!  I want to be a mommy, a helper, a VOICE for those who need one!  I want to be a servant to those deemed “the least of these,” for God has revealed to me who they are: each and every one of them is handmade by God; a beautiful, highly valued masterpiece!  A quote I heard and loved at Denver Christmas Conference through Campus Crusade this winter is this: “We are all valuable in the eye of the buyer.  God bought us all with His Son’s blood.”  ALL of us!  The emaciated orphans in remote parts of Africa, the little street orphans who are thought of as lower than dogs in India, the “problem kids” with rough home lives in your classrooms, the people who have deeply hurt the ones I love, me you,  EVERYONE is valuable beyond measure in God’s eyes! This, combined with the inextinguishable, unexplainable, burning love that God has created me to feel for these orphans is why I will be traveling to Jinja, Uganda with Visiting Orphans, and my best friend Lindsay, this June, where we will love on some GORGEOUS African treasures!    I just have this feeling that God is going to change my life there!  He has already moved mountains to get us there, not the least of which were my own doubts and fears, (but that’s a post for another day!)

            Almost as a disclaimer, but more so that I may be genuine, I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to sell to you that my “going all in for God” life journey is going to be all butterflies and lollipops from here on out.  I know a lot of our t-shirts and wristbands say it, but the Christian life is definitely not always about, “Smile! Jesus loves you!”  Sometimes it’s cry, or feel really sad, or keep going even if you don’t understand why God is letting bad things happen to you, but it will be okay BECAUSE Jesus loves you.  Nobody on this blog is going to tell you that becoming a more radical Christian is super easy, and makes you feel super cool by the standards of the world, all the time.  Sometimes, you’re going to feel like, “Oh, man!  What is this person going to think of me?, or Am I going to jeopardize this friendship by risking me and my friend’s comfort to bring Jesus into this?”  (on that topic, check out the book I’m currently lovin’, called, A Million Ways to Die, by Rick James)  And just because I say all of this and desire to take action in every area of my life, doesn’t make me some kind of a good Christian, (for faith without action is dead, James 2:17) and definitely doesn’t mean I’m not going to mess up.  In fact, I know for SURE I’m going to fail, like, all the time!  There’s no way I could NOT!  I am sinful, and broken, but I am on this journey to the end, and God promises to be with me, and LOVE me through it all!

I’M A BLOGGER, BABAY!

I hope that all who read the words we have to say here are encouraged!                    

  In Christ’s Love,

            Allison

The Beginning.

I’ve never been a half effort person until I reflected my relationship with Jesus my first semester at college.  This lukewarm, penciling in version I called a true relationship with Christ was unlike any other activity I participated in and was not like my typical relationships.  The version of the Gospel I was acting out was not what my loving King deserved.  Was he truly who I lived for?  Did I schedule him into my day or was he my day?  Moving hundreds of miles away from my close-knit family and not knowing a single soul, Jesus began to completely open my heart to him.  He showed me that he was who I could rely on.  He was always there for me.  He is my best friend I could ever ask for.  He wanted to my protector, lover, and comforter.  I didn’t need anyone else there to do that.  My satisfaction lies in him.

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”  -Revelation 3:15-16

Jesus is slowly letting me see and begin to love like him.  I look around and see what he sees; despair, brokenness, pain, suffering, hurt. But then I see his little signs, and I hear his quiet whispers that he is here amidst it all, sovereign.  I asked him to break my heart and open my eyes.  He did, for the orphan especially.  For the racism still present.  For the homeless and weak.  He showed me how many people still NEED to hear the GOSPEL, and how Christians need it just as much.  My life is not okay to live in my own world circled around me.  It is not my life.  It is his.  He’s who I live for. He’s what matters everyday when my schedule is so jammed packed that I forget whose agenda I’m really on.  So, I’m sick of the comfort.  I’m jumping off of the subway, as my Pastor Bryan in Memphis would say, running towards the finish line while clinging to my KING. 

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” -Matthew 10:39

            Jesus demands your life, every single part of it, and when you lose your life, you gain something better.  Following Jesus is NOT a life of comfort, half effort, and mediocrity.  There is no middle ground.  It’s all in or nothing.  I’m in the game and trying to lose my baggage along the way, including my desire to have an excessive amount of clothing and many other ideas deemed important by the world.  The world wants me to get caught up in myself and my desires, but not God.  Even in my sinful moments, he’s ALWAYS there with arms open wide.  This comfortable life is old.  I want to join the ride and proclaim God’s glory and sovereignty to all the nations, and live all in for him wherever he leads.  There is no middle ground that people “Christians” have tried to create.  The Gospel goes right along with this.

            I love him and cling to him for he is my Creator, Rock, Father, King and Comforter, and HE alone is worthy and righteous.       

So, my journey has taken off.  My feet will hit the red dirt of Uganda on June 2^nd, 2011 with my best friend Allison, and a team from Visiting Orphans.  After the first 2 weeks, I will continue my journey and stay at Amani Baby Cottage for the next month.  I’ll begin my long journey home on July 11^th. 

            God has broken my heart for the orphans and fatherless.  They are just waiting for someone to listen to God’s call to step out in faith, forget what the world says, and jump off the subway and out of the comfortable live. (bc he sets the lonely in families.)   Adoption and the Orphan Crisis is a whole other post.  The staggering statistic is that there are between over 147 million orphans in the world.  The orphan crisis is a silent epidemic because these children have no voice.   Uganda is a country with a population of 32.4 million people.  There are over 2.3 million orphans in Uganda. 

“God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.”  -Psalm 68:6

JESUS has given me such a joyous and complete feeling.  I know my purpose and that he has a plan for me, not my own plan or the worlds.  I’m not worrying about my future because he’s there and will guide me every step of the way.  I want to stay on his road and not stray away.  For he completes me and was there ready and waiting for when I decided to fall completely back in love with my Jesus and back into his arms surrendered fully to him.  I’m so excited for this journey I’m on while clinging to him. 

"I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own, it is not for man to direct his steps. -Jeremiah 10:23

 “'For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”  -Jeremiah 29:11

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” James 1:27

-Lindsay

I'm officially a blogger!

I'm SO glad that God has broken my hearts for what breaks his.