2012- A Look Back

2012 was a great year.  It wasn't filled with major life transitions or monumental events, but it was filled with the people I love.  

January: We went to 12 straight nights of Code Orange Revival at church and it was an amazing way to start the new year.

February: We celebrated Love Week at church.

March: We went to the NeedtoBreathe concert.

April: We traveled to Atlanta for a few days during Spring Break.

May: We traveled a lot.  We went to Wilmington for my sister's graduation and then to Edisto for Brandon's cousin's wedding.

June: We went to San Diego and I volunteered at Camp 658 with some amazing kids.  Oh yeah, and Brandon broke his ankle.

July: I watched one of my closest friends get married. We celebrated the Olympics and were glued to the t.v. for the next month.

August: We celebrated our second wedding anniversary!  Oh and school started back.

September: We went to Myrtle Beach for Labor Day and my cousin got married.

October: We went to Raleigh for our annual Wolfpack football game and we got tickets to the Panthers game that same weekend.  Brandon began traveling for work and was in Florida for two weeks, so I went to visit!

November: We ran the Color Run!

December:  We went to the Panthers game, celebrated Christmas, and prepared to ring in the new year.  

                           Bring it on 2013!!  I know it will be great!!!

Dig a Ditch

Well hello there long lost friends!  I know I have been MIA for quite a while...a month to be exact, but to be honest with you work is kicking my butt.  I have been so exhausted and literally fall asleep every night before 9:00.  I know, old womanlike.  Anyways, I have had a relaxing Sunday and figured I should venture back into the blogging world.  Something that has really spoken to me this weekend is the concept of "digging ditches".  No, not like a construction worker or gravedigger, but in a spiritual sense.  

Pastor Steven Furtick, my pastor, released his new book Greater recently and it has been our series at church these past two weeks.  The book is hitting spiritual spots on my heart, especially this week.  This week we talked about digging ditches.  Elisha was asked to pray to the Lord to bring water to the armies who were dying of thirst in the dessert and God responded "make this valley full of ditches".  He meant that if the armies would make preparations in faith that the Lord would show His faithfulness and bring the rain.  

This really struck me.  So many times I pray to God to make something happen in my life.  I pray for reconciled relationships, I pray for the will to forgive, I pray for people to be saved, I pray for purpose, etc. etc., but rarely do I make the room for God to move.  

God is omnipotent, yes, but we are not helpless.  He expects us to get up and step out in faith.  We cannot expect God to honor our faith if we do not demonstrate it to Him.  All we have is all God needs, but we need to use what we have to prepare the way for the Lord to do greater things in our lives.  I am so guilty of this.  I just expect that God will answer every prayer and I can just sit back and watch.  Not the case.  I need to get up and start digging some ditches because God has a rainfall coming my way that will cause the ditches to overflow with blessings.  So let's get dirty and dig some ditches.   

Camp 658

This week my sister, Melissa, and I had the amazing opportunity to volunteer with Project 658 as a "coach" at Camp 658.  This camp was organized and held at a local apartment complex in a low-income area of our city.  For four days we got to hang out, play with, and reach out to children from the surrounding area.  It truly was an incredible experience.  We did arts and crafts, sports, games, and of course talked a lot about Jesus.  The kids have an incredible spirit and were so full of life and joy. 

Each day we would walk to the surrounding apartment complexes and go to the doors to pick up the kids.  Some kids didn't speak English, but still wanted to come.  They were all so sweet and fun.  Many of the kids would just run up, grab your hand or crawl on your back, and be ready to go.  I can tell you I got a major workout from carry kids around all week!  Just an added bonus!  Two days of the week were dedicated to art and two were dedicated to sports and playing outside.  The kids loved it all.  They were up for anything and it was so sweet to be able to teach them new things and see their little faces light up when they accomplished something.  

I truly believe that Jesus calls each of us to serve our cities and  communities.  We are all so blessed to know Christ and need to be a light in the world.  Whether you like working with kids, adults, the elderly, or just doing something with your hands, the Lord can use your talents and skills.  Trust that you can make a difference.  Just holding a child's hand or serving someone a meal goes a lot further than we think.  So get on out there and make a difference!  You will receive just as many blessings as the people you are serving.

Love Week 2012

Every year my church hosts a city-wide event called Love Week.  The goal is to spread out all over and serve our city through a variety of service opportunities.  Love week started in 2010 with a goal of serving 5,000 volunteer hours and we busted that goal by serving over 10,000.  Last year the goal was 30,000 hours and this year the goal was 50,000 hours.  Our church partnered with 93 churches to serve those 50,000 hours.  This year the mayor of Charlotte declared this week officially as Love Week for the city of Charlotte, totally awesome!  Brandon and I had the opportunity to serve in 4 projects over the last week.  Love week is an amazing opportunity to serve others and demonstrate Christ's love through our actions.  It is one of my favorite events that the church hosts. 

Our small group met to make snack packs for A Child's Place.  They support homeless children and give them a snack bag every nigh because they don't know if they will get dinner that night. 

My mom, Brandon, and I also served at Bright Blessings.  They provide birthday parties and birthday presents for homeless students.  They serve students in my school, so it was a great way to serve them who serve us.  They are one of my favorite organizations.  

We also helped process new shoes for Samaritan's Feet and donated clothing items and books for local crisis outreach partners.  Love week is always so fun.  I just hope that I can continue the spirit of generosity every week.

12 days

Hello there lovelies!  I'm back!  As you read, I have been involved with a 12 day old school revival with my church called Code Orange Revival.  It was 12 amazing nights of worship and hearing from the Lord from 12 amazing pastors from across the world.  Brandon and I had the privilege to volunteer for 9 of the 12 nights.  We serve as ushers and love it.  It is such an honor to be able to usher people into seats where their lives could be changed forever.  We had planned to serve 10 nights, but Brandon got sick for two nights and then we went to the experience with our precious E-group one night.  

We have 6 campuses, but only two were open during the week for the revival.  The pastors spoke live at one and it was simulcasted to the other in live time.  We served at the overflow campus.  I cannot even begin to describe the life change that occurred over these past 12 nights.  We baptized 205 people and had countless people accept Christ as Savior.  People camped out in the freezing temperatures and rain just to get a seat in the auditorium.  We prayed together, sang together, lifted our hands in worship, and hear the Word preached in so many different styles.  

Night one: Craig Groschel taught us how to be an idiot for Christ.

Night two: Jentezen Franklin taught us how to store up mercies instead of inequities so that future generations will be blessed.

Night three: Matt Chandler taught us that God is for God

Night four: Christine Cain taught us that our due date is not the same as God's appointed time

Night five: Ed Young taught us that Jesus is our life ring, but we have to pull so the house will be full

Night six: Israel Houghton rocked the house with his worship and taught us that the "atmosphere of expectation is the breeding ground for miracles"

Night seven: Perry Noble taught us that we are blessed because of the things we have seen and heard. Oh, and we baptized 204 people!

Night eight: Stovall Weems taught us that we have to create the space for God to fill and lay hold of the moments

Night nine: Kevin Gerald taught us that our right to choose is one of the greatest gifts God offers

Night ten: Bishop TD Jakes taught us that Jesus can touch us and we can reach out for Him

Yes, someone strung up a hammock to camp out

Night eleven: James McDonald taught us that Jesus is not only holy but holy, holy, holy

Night twelve: Pastor Steven Furtick taught us that we have to turn this moment into momentum, the best is yet to come

all photos via

I wish I had taken pictures, but I was trying to focus on the Word and on serving Christ and the guests that came to Elevation.  I am so lucky though that we have an amazing production team who put together an awesome video of the revival. 12 nights in 5 minutes.  Also, they are going to release the podcasts of all of the messages tonight!!  Go HERE to download them all for FREE. Overall, it was an amazing, life changing experience!  I love being a part of this move of God.


Code Orange Revival from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

Where I've Been

Sorry I haven't been very present this week in the blogging world, but I've been somewhere amazing.  No it wasn't a super exciting vacay.  I've been at church.  My church is hosting a 12 night revival called Code Orange Revival.  We have some of the best pastors in the world coming to our church to preach the Word.  I have been volunteering for the first three nights of the revival and it has been INCREDIBLE!  You can be a part of this too.  We are streaming the revival live on the Elevation Network.  Go HERE to join us in this incredible move of God.  You can catch the broadcast at 6:12 every weeknight and 4:12 on weekends through Jan. 22.  It is also rebroadcast at 10:12, 3:12 AM, and 12:12 PM.  So come on in!!  I will be back in regular blogging habits after the revival finishes!

Fa La La La La

We are officially 5 days from Christmas, people, FIVE days.  I can't believe it.  We have been so busy with work and other things that Christmas has snuck up on us a bit this year.   We did decorate our house a few weeks ago.  It was so much fun!  We bought our house in March and this made our house feel new all over again.  I love building a home with Brandon and actually getting to decorate this year.  We put lights outside and of course decorated our tree.  We actually have a mantle this year, so we made the garland to go on top and got to hang our stockings over the fireplace.  We also bought a large wreath at Michael's for 50% off.  We plan to add poly-mesh to it.  It's still a work in progress and I plan on hitting the after-Christmas sales to add to our decoration collection.  Here are some of our decorations.

Poor Piper's stocking is taped to the mantle because it is impossible to find a dog stocking hanger.

On another note, we have also done some other fun Christmas-y things.  My sister and I baked our first batch of Christmas cookies, chocolate cookies with mint M&Ms.  We also had the amazing opportunity to give back this holiday season.  With our E-group at church we adopted a family through an organization called Hope Match.  We went to Target to go shopping together for our sweet family.  We were able to spend $100 on each person and give the family a $100 gift card.  I know they will be blessed through this just as much as we were as we did it.  

 

 What kinds of fun things have you all been doing this Christmas season?