God's is so faithful and then some....

I am going on week six here in the Mid States, and my eyes are completely being renewed by the Lord every day. I think some times I forget how important it is to let God plan my life, and I shouldn't even say my life I should say this life. It is important to plan out what you will do each day therefore not to squander away all the little time that you have, but it is also important to remember that just because you plan it doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit can't come in and shake things up a bit for Gods glory. The lessons and leadership skills that I am learning as an Area Director are irreplaceable. God continues to give me wisdom in times of need, and courage in times of weakness. This past week has thrown me for a loop but because of the trial God was able to show his love and grace even more abundantly.

The Lord has been so faithful and I would be a fool to not share with you all what he continues to do in my life not so that I may boast in myself, but so that I can boast about the Lord and his goodness. Two weeks ago I felt the Lord tugging on my heart about something that he wanted me to do. You see I have a friend who I love dearly, and God was telling me to bless them with a certain dollar amount. I was not sure why but I do know that I couldn't stop thinking about it until I obeyed Gods calling. So I did....I know that I am a recent college graduate and I don't have much to offer my I have more then I need to sustain myself, so when God allowed me to bless my friend I knew that his will was being carried out. Two weeks later I was short a little money for some bills because some how the money I had sent in the mail never got to its destination, well today I got a call from my roommate telling me that I had three checks that came in the mail totaling the amount that I needed and then some. I do not tell this story to say that every time you give that you will get something back, I tell this story to encourage all of you to have faith that God will supply your needs maybe not in your timing but in his, and don't be surprise when it happens.

Also I got a bit of a refreshment this weekend becuase Matthew my love came to Chicago to visit little ole me. We had such a blast in both Milwaukee and Chicago. We got to see the whole city from Sears tower, look at the Buckingham fountain, Millinium Park, and the greatest part was the Cubs game. Not because we are Chicago Cubs fans(cause were not got Cardinals!) but because we got to see Wriggley Feild!!! It was an experience in itself, Cubs fans I have decided are at the game for two reasons, to yell cause they can, and drink until all of a sudden the Cubs look good in their eyes. It was a lot of fun, mostly because I got to hang out with the coolest person I know:) Here are some pics from the trip .....

creating memories one city at a time

Its the SIMPLE things in life we forget

I am on week five and things have been a bit challangeing. I have had to deal with some issues this week that were not so much fun. Its funny how life sometimes seems overwhelming when realy life is what you make it, so KEEP IT SIMPLE! and that is my challange for this next week to not worry and trust God, I think the Bible verse that speeks volumes to me right now is Psalm 28:7 that says

"The LORD is my strength and my shield;my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."

When Life comes at me with guns and swords I remember these little things that I live for:

Family Friends

Love

Poverty In America

So I am on my fourth week and God has already "opened my eyes" to so much....I am driving between four different states this summer and they are all in urban communities. I have witnessed poverty and hope all at the same time. My staff has been doing an AMAZING job at leading all these youth to step out of their comfort zones and truly live the gospel, by serving these communities in so many ways such as; cleaning out old buildings, working with senior citizens, working in gardens, playing with kids, and so much more.

One of the things that my heart has been broken by is once again my frustration with poverty, I know that in Gods word he says that the poor will always be with us (Mark 14:7), but why? I mean we have such large resources for people to get help, why do we still have poverty. I have eaten at several soup kitchens these past couple weeks, and it has made me truly step back and thank God for the food and wealth that I have. I know that there are many reasons why people are homeless, or are scraping by, but I still ask the question why? Is it because of pride, is it because of lack of family, is it because of ignorance? I do know this that I could sit around a coffee table and talk to my friends about theological issues, I could sit and talk about why the "church" is so imperfect, but that would not solve anything.

Here is my challenge for the Body of Believers...when the "Church" is willing to eat together (even if it’s in a soup kitchen), listen and tell the truth to one another, clean together, peal potatoes together, this is when the Gospel comes alive not in our debating!

The Big Suprise!!

Ok so It was another fun filled, jam packed week but quite the excitement all around first I must all tell you about a little surprise I had last week.... Please Read below, this is an excerpt from my boyfriend Matthews blog...

"I art the sneaky hombre! OK, so here's the story. On Sunday, June 4, Bobbi called me and told me that her Great G-Ma had past away and it was going to be tough to go home when she was working hard in Minnesota with Youth Works. Well, to help her out, I went online and bought the airplane tickets for her since I told her that I found a couple of really good deals. Well, in the back of my mind, I felt like I should surprise her and go with her to the funeral and be with her as I knew it would probably lift her spirits.

Well, I called her father to make sure it was a good idea (good timing) for me to come in and if there would be a place for me to stay. And so after that was taken care of, I had to find a way and place for me to surprise Bobbi Marie. Well I got a great SouthWest "Ding" deal from Phoenix to Ontario, CA (which is several hours closer to her house than LAX). So I found a great price for Bobbi to fly in from Minneapolis to Phoenix and have a little layover before this flight from Phoenix to Onterio which gave me some options/time to fly in from Memphis (actually Nashville, but that's another story) to Phoenix and take the same plane with Bobbi to Onterio. So the day came when Bobbi was on her way home and we text messaged each other as she was telling me she was on her plane going to Phoenix, (as I was in Memphis getting ready to also go to Phoenix) and I was telling her that I was going to be in a meeting when she landed (because she was going to be in Phoenix an hour before I will be). Well, I landed and had to bus to the Southwest terminal (Phoenix airport bites! - No bloody maps!) and then go through all the security checks (again! - again this too also bites) and so by the time I get to our gate, they were just 2 mins away from boarding the plane.
Well, I wanted to surprise Bobbi and I was scanning the room over and over again and I didn't see Bobbi. I was hoping she didn't already board the plane. So I called her on her cell. She answered. She asked how my meeting went and with whom I met with and I answered quickly (as if I really had that meeting) and then I asked her "So, What are you doing now?" and she said "I am sitting down, reading.".....Well, no one at the gate was sitting so I figured she was a little further down the terminal and behold there was a Starbucks ..... so she HAD to be there ;) .... as I walked a couple of steps to Starbucks, I saw Bobbi's back to me. PERFECT! She didn't see me yet. So, as I am getting closer and closer .... I asked "You know I love you, right?" and she was like "uuuuhhh, Yeah I do" and then I asked her again "You know I love you, right?" but I said this almost right into my cell phone and right in her ear.....She was silent. She was moving her head around to see what was going on..... and there I was! The moment was priceless!
Bobbi was sooooooooo surprised. She couldn't figure out what I was doing there. All the info hit her and it took a sec as I told her that I did it all for her....that I was going to Cali with her, to the funeral, and had it all planned out...............I love this girl, yo! And the kisses that followed were wonderful too!!"


Ok so that was the surprise! Can I tell you how blessed I am that someone would be so selfless and come and be with me during a time of great sadness.. I thank God for this man everyday.

I must tell you about the trip, I can't believe that I got to show Matthew my home land. Well lets see our first adventure was Ontario Mills, its an outlet right next to the airport, my mom needed to exchange some stuff and we were along for the ride. It was a bunch of fun as always, Matt loves to shop and I love Matt so it all works out:) Then from there we headed off to go old Redlands California where we settled in my moms house but first we stopped by my little brothers talent show try outs, he was performing Ice Ice Baby!! He made it of course hes only 12 and he knows all the lyrics, so Matthew got to meet my two little bros.

Then we headed to my favorite restaurant, Mimi's Cafe, yum yum...we met my cousin Celina and her husband Miguel there. It was wonderful as always.

Then on Thursday we got to head out to IN and Out!!! O was my life complete right then and there my two favorite things in one room! Matthew thought it was terrific, or at least I hope so;) Then we headed to walk around Redlands which was nice and quite. I love it down there its so full of character, what can I say I am a sucker for small towns. Then on our way out we stopped into my favorite coffee shop to get some cold drinks and met up with one of my best bros Justin. It was nice to catch up and enjoy friends. Then we headed to meet up with my grandmother and aunt to Yucaipa, we ate at a very authentic Mexican restaurant which I have decided is not my favorite food anymore, kind of made me nauseous, but Matthew got to meet more of the fam. My grandma and grandpa and my aunt and uncle. We laughed it up there and then went and hung out with my grandparents at there house. Matthew won over them thats for sure, if you like baseball youre IN THE FAMILY!!!

The next day, which was our last, it was too short.We went to my great grandmothers funeral which was harder then I thought it would be, but with Matthew by my side I was a lot more at peace. The funeral truly opened up my eyes to see how much I truly miss and love my family and how desperately I long to be near them. We got to hang out with my older brother Chris and my two beautiful nieces Alyse and Breanna. For the first time they remembered my name and ran up and give me a great big hug at that moment my heart melted. I think Matthew got a good taste of what I have been missing at that moment.

Then Matthew and I got a chance to relax a little in Oak Glen, its a place in the mountains where you can go and pick apples and lay in the grass, which is sort of what we did. We picked our apple fritter and ice-cream for the store and lay in the grass for a couple hours. I have to say this afternoon was pretty amazing.

Now the funniest part of our adventure was that Friday night when we went out with my best friend Danielle and her boyfriend James to BJ pizzas. You see our server was a girl that Danielle and I had gone to high school with and apparently we ran cross country together and she remembered my first and last name. She said that I burnt her back with a curling iron when we had some sort of sleep over together, oops. I do not really remember this but I was like ok. Well the funny part was that the whole night she basically pulled up a chair and had dinner with us because there was a second that went by that she wasnt at our table and it wasnt to fill up our glasses. It was funny and I think it gave us all a great story to remember.

So this was the first of many great surprises that I cant wait to experience with the love of my life Matthew Brian McCormick