Where there are no groceries.

 To sum up the Kenya 2011 trip in one sentence would be: God works in so many ways.
The first week in my beautiful home country, I spent at New Hope Children's Centre in Uplands, Kenya. Tears immediately filled my eyes as I got our of the van. Twenty kids of all ages came running up to me, hugging me and for the little ones hugging my legs. The gate into New Hope reads The Lord is My Shepard...and as we all know the ending...I shall not want. The 8 days I spent at New Hope I felt not an ounce of want from any of the kids. Even though the kids come from horrible gut-twisting pasts they are overjoyed to be alive and the little that they have. Such pasts include being burned in a church fire, being found in a hole covered in fleas and being abused sexually. My first night at New Hope we had weekly fellowship and a sweet little 3 year old named Helena climbed into my lap and for the longest time we just looked at each other. Her little eyes were filled with hope. When she fell asleep I was perfectly content to kiss her little head and watch her sleep. The fellowship seem to end all to quickly and the older girls took her up to her bed. Spending time with the kids in any way was so special to me. When the kids came home from school we would go and talk to them about their day and what they learned. The boys love to play football (soccer for you Americans haha) and we would go out and of course the boys would cream us volunteers. It wasn't about winning or losing but it was about having fun and listening to the laughs and seeing the smiles on their sweet faces.
Our time in Olkoroi was equally as wonderful. The days flew by and yet each one of them was so busy that we fell into bed exhausted each night. Satan sure tried to scare us and run us out but we know who our trust is in and He will never ever leave us. One night, mom and dad heard what they thought were footsteps in the attic. It kept them awake all night and they were scared that someone was up there. Come to find out it was just rats. We were also threatened with jail time when we went to Tanzania. The police were trying to get a bribe ans so they were telling us all sorts of things that we did wrong and saying we were "in their hands now" but, we were in the Lord's hands and 6 hours later, we were let go and sent home. The Lord blessed us in so many ways this trip. We completed most of the water project and so 90% of Olkoroi has clean drinking water. We are so thankful that stomach illnesses are becoming almost non-existent in our little village. I was blessed to have 2 of the amazing volunteers from New Hope come out to visit me for a week. Cheryl Vickery and Sarah Ross came out and spent time with us in our little village. We explored the river and laid under the stars and visited the villages. I was so encouraged by their visit and pray that the Lord blesses them as the serve in Kenya. Even though our little village isn't on any map, its so very big on the map of our hearts and we pray that the Lord does big things even while we are away. Please pray that the Lord pierces the hearts of those who are still wondering in darkness.
Bwana Asifiwe (Praise the Lord!)
Angela

pictures from our trip:

 The beautiful kids at New Hope

 Saying goodbye

 Scooping Cow Manure :/

 

 Sarah and Cheryl

The kids at Olkoroi

So this is what devastation looks like.

Sunday night a tornado went right through the heart of Joplin, Missouri. Joplin is around of Springfield. We watched in horror as the news reporter's showed the ruins of what was once people's homes, cars and businesses. Monday rolled around and more graphic images filled our TV set as we sat glued to our seats. I felt like I needed to help. God kept nudging at my heart to do something, to help my fellow Missourians. I prayed all day that the Lord would show me what I needed to do. By the end of the day I felt like I had to go to Joplin itself. I contacted a group going and was there bright and early Tuesday morning.
We got to College Heights Christian Church ready to help out however we could, not expecting to be sent out into the devastation. Even though we were not ready to go, we found it within ourselves to do whatever was needed. We were sent out to 26th street and this is what we faced:

 It looked as if bombs had been dropped. Nothing was left standing.Houses were gone. Everything that once was a thriving community now only resembled the shadow of what was.
The people were shell shocked. No one knew what to do and many just stared at what once was their home. One man we helped was shaking and couldn't even complete sentences. Through it all God's name was glorified for the lives that had not been lost. There was hope even among the devastation. Some of the people in our group found an American Flag in some of the rubble and decided that she deserved better and the hung her by a 2x4. It was beautiful to see that even among the mess, we are still Americans united under the one true God and no matter what the situation is we will stand together through it all.

It hit me as soon as I stepped in the door of my house that I am so blessed to still have a place to call home. A front door still welcomes me into a home where the roof is still intact and glass still in the windows. I still have clothes to wear and everyone in my family is still alive. For so many in Joplin, they have lost everything and everyone. Please pray for the community of Joplin as they continue to pick up the pieces of their lives. Pray that the love of Christ will be shown and God will be glorified through it all.

In Christ alone,
Ang

Top 5 favorite memories from freshman year

I have been reflecting over the last school year and thought I would share my top 5 favorite memories from the past school year!!!

#1 Becoming A Ninja!

Holly, Amerrica and I got really bored one night after studying forever and decided to ninja around campus. We rolled down the hill, hid from cars, ran through the chapel, and over all just had a blast!!!!! (Even though some people thought we were a bit crazy)

#2 Fall Break!

Fall break was such an amazing time! I got to catch up with some great friends! I spent the week enjoying eating Kenyan food, going to the aquarium and the Varsity in Atlanta. I was so blessed by that trip!

#3 Spring Break Beach Trip

Spring Break 2011 was amazing!!! We had such an incredible time camping out right by the beach. It was an amazing time with some good friends that I will never forget!

#4 The Photo Project

This past semester we were required to come up with a creative project for Humanities. I came up with the idea to get people to share their favorite verses by writing them on their hands. I enjoyed seeing how everyone's verse reflects them. 

#5 Joy Prom

Joy Prom was one of the most amazing things that I have ever been a part of. I was so blessed to see everyone enjoying themselves so much. We had so many people come up to us and thank us over and over again for helping making the night special for those with mental disabilities. I think that they blessed us more than we could have ever blessed them. Since it was an incredible night it deserves multiple pictures!

We had the honor of doing the girl's nails.

We danced...

and danced....

and danced!!!

It was an incredible night and no one is every going to forget it!

The crazy life of a college kid

Lately I have been so consumed by so many things that I haven't been able to write much on here.

God has been doing so many things in my life and I have been so blessed by so many people around me.
In the past month, my eyes have really been opened to what God is doing in my life.

A couple of weeks ago a close friend and I were at the point of not speaking and it was devastating to me. He has been like a brother to me for a very long time and we had begun to let our differences and silly circumstances come in the way of our friendship. I hate losing any friend but especially someone that is literally a brother to me. We finally after weeks of not talking and ignoring one another sat down and hashed everything out. We began to meet every Wednesday night to hang out and I hope that will continue next fall when we get back to school...and he promised he would skype me over the summer :)

God has also shown me the value of prayer. I have begun to try and pray more. When I was younger and still in High School, I would pray every night and that ended when I came to college. I wasn't finding time to pray anymore. My life felt like something was missing so I began to pray more. When I was going to class, at lunch, etc. I decided that I needed to stop telling people I would pray for them and just do it at that moment. One of my greatest friends was going through a break-up and before we even began to pray, my friend asked me what I needed prayer for and as my friend was praying for my needs I felt like a new person, and that a burden that had been weighing on my heart was now lifted. I thought about how prayer really does impact a person, so I started a prayer board. (Picture to come later) and on my little dry erase board, I have all the prayer requests and praises I can think of. I hope that my prayers can be as effective as the one that my friend prayed for me.

The other big thing that God has taught me is how much we let our technology get in our way. We spend so much time every day on our cell phones, lap tops,  Ipods and the list goes on and on and on. My lap top broke three times this semester and the final time it really gave out and I had to send it in to the company so they could repair it. I had so much more time to spend with friends and do things that I had been putting off because I had to be on facebook for hours and watch my favorite shows when they finally got to hulu. God used my lap top being broken to show me how much friends matter and that I need to stop putting my technology in front of things that matter way more.

So this has been my crazy life over the past month...I will be trying to update this more often and I hope you enjoy!

Loves,
Ang

Oh to create

I recently completed my Humanities creativity project. I chose to do my project through photography. As you will see I had my peers write their favorite verse on their hand . It was so beautiful to me to see how each and every child of God was different but could be united in the name of Christ. I feel so honored that everyone was so willing to help me out. I tied my project into the Reformation and how if the bible wasn't pushed so much to be in the common people's hands and in their own language; we wouldn't have favorite bible verses.
So here it is, so of the pictures from my project:

Helen Biard

Brooke Harris

Holly Barker

Branden Jones

Lauren McInturff

Thanks again to everyone who helped me!

Loves,

Ang

Why so much?

I have begun a job at Plato's closet where people come to buy clothes and to sell their unwanted clothes.I looked out at the floor sets with the thousands upon thousands of clothing items and my first thought was of Kenya. What about all the the people in Kenya who have shreds of clothing. It broke my heart to think of the hundreds of transactions made to people who in reality didn't need a single item they were buying. What if a village of the most extreme poor from Kenya walked into a store like that. They would be so overwhelmed they would not be able to function but yet to us it is so normal. We think that we are not rich but compared to people who do not have anything we are like kings. It is a such a simple issue that can be fixed and yet no one does a thing about it.

The Glory of God

This past week a group of us went to Edisto Island, South Carolina and God reminded me of how majestic His glory is. God is an amazing God! This pictures I hope catch just a glimmer of the beauty of the nature God has created.

 

  

From the purple sunsets to every shell on the sand, God created it all! If this doesn't show how incredibly amazing our God is I don't know what will.