Plea

Father teach me just how to die
For I fear my will has grown too strong
Strip away my false humility, and grant that I boast solely in the cross

Father teach me just how to die
For my ears love to hear praise from men
Take my drive to be recognized and grant that my life only point to You

You're worthy, the only one who's worthy
Jesus You are worthy, worthy
Father teach me just how to die Forgive me when I think you owe me something Instill God fear within my bones. Lord I surrender, I am Yours
You are worthy, the only one who's worthy,
Jesus you are worthy, worthy
~Branch


This song was recently introduced to me as "something I can totally hear you singing!" from a good friend of mine. I just love the lyrics. "Father teach me just how to die. Forgive me when I think you owe me something...". It just reminds me our how selfish I can be in thinking that God owes me anything. He doesn't and I don't deserve anything, however He gives generously and lovingly. What an awesome God we serve!

I hope you guys are having awesome weeks! God is so good! I can't believe the amazing support I've gotten from you about Romania! You guys are making this trip something amazing.. thank you so much for being involved in what the Lord is doing! Have a wonderful rest of the week.. it's almost Friday! I love you all more than you know!
Forever His,
EmilyJo

Romania 2010?! Yes Please!!

This summer I will be joining a group of fellow Christ followers to Constanta, Romania. We will be there from July 2 until July 12. It's going to be an amazing trip! Here are some fun facts about Constanta!

• It is one of the oldest cities in Romania
• The city is located on the coast of the Black Sea
• In the winter time, they get more wind than snow
• The flag of Romania is vertical stripes of blue, yellow and red
• Romania doesn't have a national religion
• Of the few that are actually practiced, the dominant religious body is the Romanian Orthodox Church
• 23,105 Romanians are atheists

These are just a few of the interesting facts about Romania. We will be doing a lot of different things such as playing with children and bringing the Good News to all we come in contact with. I'm so VERY excited to see how the Lord uses us in the lives of the Romanian people, but I'm more excited to see what the Lord has in store for the lives of myself and our team members! The idea of Christ allowing us to be His hands and His feet blows my mind! I am so humbled by another opportunity to follow Christ overseas! I'm so excited to keep everyone posted as the weeks and months go by on the progress of the trip. Also, I'll have specific prayer requests for all you faithful prayer warriors! Stayed tuned... you're not going to want to miss out on what God is doing!!

I hope you're having an awesome week! Enough with the cold weather already! I love you all more than you know!
Forever His,
EmilyJo

...I want to be beautiful...

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."
-- Elizabeth Kubler Ross

I got this quote from my friend, Hanna, in Estonia. I just LOVE it!!!

Something Tells Me I'm into Something Good!

Ok I'm going to spill my guts about a recent blessing that has been sent my way! As you may know, I recently changed my major from Early Childhood Education to Mass Communications with an emphasis in Journalism. Changing your major is always kind of a big thing, but doing it when you were super close to graduation... not the best idea. I have basically had to start over, however I am LOVING my new classes! Having this in mind, I knew I would have to quit my job and take more classes than I really wanted to in each semester to try to get caught up. I quit my job, knowing I had a car payment, knowing it cost money to put gas in my beautiful car and all my other expenses, but also knowing God would somehow provide. With the help of my sweet dad, I applied for financial aid and loans and didn't hear anything back. If you know me at all, you know I was freaking out and losing sleep over it. I was going to have to sell my car and start walking all the way to my school. I'm stressing myself out again just thinking about it! I was going to have to work over-night shifts at the hospital to make ends meet and I was so dreading the idea of being constantly exhausted and sleep deprived. Then God, after laughing at my faithlessness, threw me a curve ball! My dad happened to look at his old email account, and for whatever reason, he had an email with an offer for a loan. It just happens to be enough for me to live on for the semester, and I don't have to get rid of my car! It was a HUGE weight lifted off my shoulders! Why God is so good to me, I have no idea, but I'm totally loving it!

This situation has really just proved to me how little faith I have in Christ sometimes. I mean, did He not create the universe, live as a man, endure the worst pain and punishment of all times? If He did all those things, what makes me think He can't provide me with the things I need? I'm amazed at how unworthy I am of Him, but how He still loves me and blesses me with surprises like providing me with a little money for the semester.

In other news, my sweet Grandpa Kelley celebrated his 79th birthday this week! Happy birthday Grandpa Kelley! I love you so much! Thanks for being such a blessing to me!

I don't know what I did to deserve the love of such an awesome God, but I sure love it! I hope you're letting Him be your everything this week! I love you all more than you know!
Forever His,
EmilyJo

O the Places You Will Go...

I think my favorite part about Collin College is the people it attracts. There are people from all over the world, including students from various parts of Africa, Japan, Korea, India, Peru, North Carolina. But those aren't the students that interest me most. I mean, don't get me wrong, I LOVE learning about different cultures, and especially first hand from some of my classmates, but the kind of people I'm talking about are the people most never really meet.

It's that person that insists on sitting in the front of every class that has a strange odor that just follows them to the point where they wonder why all their classes stink. One of my personal favorites is the girl that speaks so loudly she would wake a whole room of sleeping babies with one word, and her sneeze is a Broadway performance, complete with hand gestures and a big "God bless me!" at the end. I also enjoy the fellow that wears gloves with EVERYTHING. There are different gloves for different outfits, with my personal favorite being the skeleton glow-in-the-dark gloves. But I think the person I notice most is the one no one else does. She's the one sitting alone holding her backpack on her lap. As she looks up from the book she was pretending to read, because it was far better than facing the reality of how alone she feels, she tucks the misplaced hair back behind her ear and evaluates the students around her. Who's talking to who. Who's on the phone and who could possibly be in the same boat as she. As she slides her book into her bag, she pauses and decides to hold it. Book clutched to her chest, she makes her way through the hall, wondering if anyone notices her. She starts with the hard questions of wondering if anyone knows her name and what she's majoring in, and then ends up at the easier ones. "What color are my eyes?", "What book was I just was I just reading for an hour?". Then finally to the hardest question of them all... "Am I invisible?"


I think we can blame the tragic situation of the latter on a few different components. One being our selfish human nature. The mentality of this one short life we have actually belonging to us. Another being we're too caught up in ourselves to notice a person in need. It's all about me, all about me getting to class on time, all about me making friends, and all about me living my life as smoothly as possible. I think any way you look at it, this girl being so lonely she doesn't know what to do with herself, could be blamed on really anything and anyone, but isn't it our job to reach out to her? To let her know this life is worth living? To let her know things can be good again? To make her feel beautiful? Somewhere along the road, she fell through the cracks to be left for dead. My heart is broken for the people that fall into a world of the lost. My prayer is that all of us can find a way to reach out to someone this week... just one...

I hope you're all having a wonderful week! You're worthy of so much love and joy! I love you all more than you know!
Forever His,
EmilyJo

Got my lunch packed up! My shoes tied tight! I hope I don't get in a fight!

It's always such an accomplishment to successfully complete your first week of school without wanting to rip your hair out! Being in college is still very much like the first day of middle school. You spend more time than necessary getting ready and picking out the perfect first day of school outfit. You want to get to to school extra early because the mere thought of getting lost and being late for class makes you want to puke. So, you pull into the parking lot a whole hour before class starts, pull out your schedule and make 100% sure you're parked on the right side of the building, you know EXACTLY where your class is (if you're like me, you print out a map of the school just in case), and place it neatly back into your planner, safe and sound. So you look around, noticing you may or may not be the only on in the parking lot sitting in their car, so you pull out the book you keep in your purse (don't lie.. I'm not the only one!). You'll read two, three pages max because you're WAYY too anxious to concentrate. On your way to class, you try not to make any eye contact with any passing classmates, in fear that someone might sense your anxiety. Once you find your class, and before entering the room, you triple check your schedule to be certain you're in the right spot. Take a deep breath, walk in a make a b-line to a seat that's definitely not in the front, but not too far in the back. As you sit there, pretending to read your book or check your cell phone for any texts you might have missed in the past three seconds, the hero comes in. The one that asks the question that everyone else is too chicken to ask but the same question that's burning in the back of your mind... "Is this G211? Public Speaking??"... the second bravest person in the room is the girl sitting in the front... "It sure is!"... with an obvious faked confidence. And so the first day of school begins, and as the anxiety finally starts to wear down, it's time for your next class and it starts all over again! Or maybe this is just me...

It was a very long week of full of new experiences and new friends. I can't wait to do it all over again Monday, but I'm so thankful for having Fridays off!! I hope you had an awesome week and looking forward to a relaxing weekend! I love you all more than you know!
Forever His,
EmilyJo

Disturb us, Lord

Disturb us, O Lord
when we are too well-pleased with ourselves
when our dreams have come true because we
dreamed too little, because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, O Lord
When with the abundance of things we possess,
we have lost our thirst for the water of life
when, having fallen in love with time,
we have ceased to dream of eternity
and in our efforts to build a new earth,
we have allowed our vision of Heaven to grow dim.

Stir us, O Lord
to dare more boldly, to venture into wider seas
where storms show Thy mastery,
where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars.

In the name of Him who pushed back the horizons of our hopes and invited the brave to follow.
Amen.

This morning, on my to church at 7:30 the world was covered in fog. As I drove, thinking to myself just how early it was, and how I got a total of two hours of sleep last night and how I wasn't ready to sing this morning. And then I realized that I couldn't even see the cars around me due to the fog that seemed to be swallowing everything in its path. I couldn't see the stop light until I was right on it, and I began to get scared. I was so busy worrying about silly things instead of the road and instead of what was happening around me. It reminded me of how often I let the fogs of this life engulf me and take me off course. How many times have gotten comfortable in that fog and didn't really care to see what was around me, so my prayer today is that God would disturb me. That I would not let myself get comfortable in this life.

Anyways, just a thought! School starts back up this week... I'm a little nervous... I feel like I'm in 7th grade all over again! I love you all more than you know!
Forever His,
EmilyJo