Dominican Republic Day 1

Day 1 was a Friday. I left in the later morning with another student from my church, Steve. We had to flights and this was both of our second time flying.

We were nervous. Well okay I was mostly. I was sick my last plane ride two years ago and if was awful.

I caught a cold the night before but my mom gave me some nasty medicine and it only lasted lightly for three days.

Our flights went pretty good. One plane had a flat tire which caused delay but at least they noticed  before we took off.

When we arrived that night I found out that I would be stay with a Dominican Family by myself instead of having an American with me.

I was scared and lonely the first night so I turned to my best friend who was the only one to talk too.
I prayed and God calmed me down. My D.R. family was wonderful and staying by myself with them turned into a blessing.

Dominican Republic

So I have preparing to leave at the end of June to spend one week in the Dominican Republic. I will be traveling with one other student from my church and we will fly by ourselves. I am very excited but still very nerves because we will be flying into the JFK airport and will have to catch our next flight.

Boston

I know that many of you are out there wondering "Why" "why would God allow this to happen?" "why would He allow a precious eight year old die?" "why would someone do this?" I hope that all of you know that He did not cause this AND the reason He allows it to happens is because he loves us. They may seem hard to understand but I that I can help you. Romans 8:28 has been a great comfort to me since my brother was murdered two years ago.

Easter 2013

Happy Easter everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful Sunday. If you went to church, did you enjoy the service? I know I enjoyed mine. My church tried the cardboard testimonies again. The people who participated wrote "because He lives" then what God had done for them on the other side.

Last year a lady painted the crucifixion and then  turned the painting into an empty tomb. That painting now hangs in our youth room. I love Easter services at my church. They always find a way to make it special.

In a couple of weeks we will have a Compassion Sunday. I cannot wait because their is a good turnout.

Sponsor Sunday

I sponsor three children through Compassion International which has changed my life. Through Compassion I can see poverty first hand and I can help the least of these as God has called me to do. With the help of Compassion; I can change the life of one child, I can gain a friend, a pen-pal. Compassion has a special program called correspondence where you can just write to a child and someone else pays for the sponsorship. A couple of weeks ago I lost my best writer who was a correspondence child. His mother pulled him out of the program so there is still hope that he could come back. I love the little boy so much. The last letter I received was the  first one he had written himself and he wrote a second page. That is good for a seven year old.


This month Compassion set-up a website for sponsor to find one child a sponsor. You can view my page here. I feel a strong responsibility to find this precious boy a sponsor. You can also see how I started sponsoring through Compassion International.
 
Isaiah 58:7

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe them,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

8Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

and your healing will quickly appear;

then your righteousness

Or  your righteous One

will go before you,

and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Psalm 73 and sermon

My pastor's sermon was on Psalm 73 the song of Asaph and he took the direction that bad guy seem to prosper and escape punishment while the righteous man suffers and only has enough to survive. His sermon had so much to do with the tragedy. It was not about it but paralleled it. I found the sermon to very impactful. You should read the Psalm. I use You Version which is wonderful. Also I apologize that my posts are vague but I do not cause people to suffer from graphic detail.

A psalm of Asaph.

1Surely God is good to Israel,

to those who are pure in heart.

2But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;

I had nearly lost my foothold.

3For I envied the arrogant

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4They have no struggles;

their bodies are healthy and strong.

With a different word division of the Hebrew; Masoretic Text struggles at their death;

their bodies are healthy

5They are free from common human burdens;

they are not plagued by human ills.

6Therefore pride is their necklace;

they clothe themselves with violence.

7From their callous hearts comes iniquity

Syriac (see also Septuagint); Hebrew Their eyes bulge with fat

their evil imaginations have no limits.

8They scoff, and speak with malice;

with arrogance they threaten oppression.

9Their mouths lay claim to heaven,

and their tongues take possession of the earth.

10Therefore their people turn to them

and drink up waters in abundance.

The meaning of the Hebrew for this verse is uncertain.

11They say, “How would God know?

Does the Most High know anything?”

12This is what the wicked are like—

always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.

13Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure

and have washed my hands in innocence.

14All day long I have been afflicted,

and every morning brings new punishments.

15If I had spoken out like that,

I would have betrayed your children.

16When I tried to understand all this,

it troubled me deeply

17till I entered the sanctuary of God;

then I understood their final destiny.

18Surely you place them on slippery ground;

you cast them down to ruin.

19How suddenly are they destroyed,

completely swept away by terrors!

20They are like a dream when one awakes;

when you arise, Lord,

you will despise them as fantasies.

21When my heart was grieved

and my spirit embittered,

22I was senseless and ignorant;

I was a brute beast before you.

23Yet I am always with you;

you hold me by my right hand.

24You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will take me into glory.

25Whom have I in heaven but you?

And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

26My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart

and my portion forever.

27Those who are far from you will perish;

you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

28But as for me, it is good to be near God.

I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;

I will tell of all your deeds.

A lot has happened emotionally to me this weekend. There was a crime that happened not all that far from me. I cannot even describe it because I will cry if I try. But a lady died the same way my brother died two days before the anniversary of his death. The only thing I could do was pray. Pray for her young daughter who was there. Pray that God allowed justice to be served here on earth. Pray that I did not hide behind a locked door for the rest of my life. But if you pray please lift this little girl up because watching her mom die was not the only thing that happened.

God's gentle hand

So I have not been posting but writing personal post that I have not published because I cannot go into depth on a lot of the stuff I am dealing with. Lately God has been teaching me to trust and live in the moment. My family lives each day knowing that one in particular might be taken away, not out of this world but to another family because he is a foster child. I find it excruciating painful to keep from shutting him out so I will not have to suffer in the long run. God brought peace to my heart and I am once again learning to trust God no matter the out come.

Now I am struggling with the loss of my youngest Compassion child. He is seven and his birthday is in July so I was looking forward to sending him a card soon. I got back from vacation and Compassion had left me a message saying that his mother pulled him out of the program. I was very hurt. After all I sent him more letters than my other Compassion kids because he sent me so many letters. His last letter was the first one he had written by himself. I pray that God will change his mother's heart because I really don't want to loose the little boy that I was growing close to.

God Stepping In

            I want to start out by saying that God disciplines me just as much or ever more than my parents do(probably more).  He has disciplined me on everything from my attitude to my actions. This past weekend I was struggling tremendously with anger and unforgiveness. I had a great desire to ask my youth pastor for prayer and on Sunday he asked I how I was doing. Of course I said the easy answer . But tonight at youth group he started out by saying "I know that a lot of you have been struggle with this topic (unforgiveness). My youth pastor then preceded to give his testimony involving the murder of his mother. I cannot describe how awful his experience was because I am not fully able to grasp what he went through. However I will say that all the teens pay attention and take to heart everything he says. We greatly respect our youth pastor because of the way he leads us closer to God. Although I have heard most of his testimony before it really spoke to me because of how I hold on to grudges. After all if He forgave the murders then I think I can handle a few hurt feelings.

The First Step In An Awesome Adventure

So I have tried this blogging thing before but it never really worked. This time I am setting achievable goals and blogging about a topic that is broader and endless. My Relationship with God. Until two years ago I never really expected God to talk to me. I had been baptized as my own decision, but my faith was still dead. It was not until a I started using a prayer note book that I realized just how real God is. There were four categories int he book: praise, requests, answer to request and something else. As I prayed, my requests slowly moved to the answered column. For me this was proof that GOD REALLY DID EXIST.We always a book on prayer during the national month of prayer so there is no way out of being spoken to by God. Each time my church has done a church wide Bible study on prayer something big happens to me.  The first year my church did this was in 2010.  A few months later they had another Bible study (that was just for adults) on a different book on prayer. I asked to join one of the Bible studies but was offered the opportunity to help start one for the teens. Not very many teens were interested. In fact only two other teens came. This was stepping stones preparing me for a great trial.