Turn, Turn, Turn.

“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

We have all experienced the peaks and valleys of life (and if you haven’t, you’re probably too young to be on the internet by yourself.) Life happens in cycles, there are times when things are so busy we have to schedule in time for sleeping, and figure out how to eat and drive at the same time. There are also times when we feel like we have nothing to do and sit by the phone hoping someone will text us asking to go do something. Our spiritual lives also come in seasons. There are times when we are on a mountain top and we see God working in everything and all things are coming together and we have a clear vision of where God is taking us, because we are above the clouds. Then we begin the descent toward the next valley and as the cloud cover grows more and more dense, we forget how beautiful the view was, we begin to question if God is really guiding us. We look to the right and to the left and sometimes we even begin to just pace in circles with no idea which way is forward. I call these dry seasons, or desert seasons, because the deeper I get into the valley I feel drained and just overwhelmed. In those valleys I feel like I am searching for God and not finding Him.

Good Monday Morning!

I have a little surprise and treat for you guys that I will be posting tomorrow morning. A while back, I asked my dear friend, Kelsey, to aid me in writing posts for this blog. Just like me, Kelsey and I have been so busy with life that we forgot to edit and plan her post.

It is my joy to share with you her thoughts and words. Kelsey is my best friend and fellow adventurer. She encourages me to be confident in my faith and real with my words. I trust her and confide in her.

I hope and pray that you are blessed and challenged by her words, which are grounded in Christ, as much as it did for me.

In Christ,
     Kimmy

Gettin’ Real

Hey everyone, long time no blog. Sorry about that hiccup the other day. I was working on writing this post and accidentally hit publish rather than save draft.

I want to talk about my inactivity. It doesn’t sound exciting, but it’s something pretty important. It’s been over three months since my last post, and that last one was so hard to type and publish. I had hypothesized that it was because summer was exponentially busier than school, that it was because of lack of time. In reality, it was a lack of spiritual growth and then some.

This blog wasn’t created to be popular or to reach out to thousands of people. It was created out of an overflow of what God was doing in my life. The roughly three months of actively blogging, were my most favorite moments in my relationship with the Lord. Those were the times that God and I were close and I wanted nothing more.

Last summer, I had fallen in love with a Christian boy.

Jersey Recap

We flew in from New Jersey June 28. It was bittersweet. Bitter because we didn’t want to leave beautiful Ocean Grove, New Jersey, but sweet because we were beyond exhausted from physical labor, lack of sleep, and spiritual trials.

These past few days back being in good ‘ol California have been almost a blur. I’ve talked to the other leaders and they feel the same way. We miss the kids and having breakfast with their sleep deprived faces.

Since being back home, people have been asking me how was the trip. Every time I answered with, “It was the hardest trip of my life.” And since part of our missions trip took place in New York, many of the questions were asking if we saw certain landmarks. We did, but we didn’t go there to be tourists.

Since I’ve been back, I’ve had many questions about the trip, and I think my most favorite question someone asked me was, “What was your most favorite thing?”
My most favorite thing about the trip was rolling my ankle. I know it sounds weird, but here’s why it’s my favorite thing. Rolling my ankle gave me the opportunity to have the missions attitude and mindset. I got to practice not complaining and doing the work that God has called me to do with a cheerful heart.

I didn’t want the injury to get in the way of sharing the Gospel with the people around me.

I’m pretty sure I was meant to roll my ankle. A few weeks prior, I had rolled my other ankle while hiking and had to go out and buy a brace for my ankle.

While packing for the trip I thought I should bring just in case someone needs it. Of course that person would be me. On the first day of our trip. How? By over stepping the last step on a flight of stairs.

Despite the distractions, exhaustion, and whatever else could go wrong, the Lord provided time and time again. Not only did he provide, he saved. We saw many people, of all ages come to Christ. It was amazing to see lives be touched by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Prayer Request

Mission Trips are exciting. I have never been on one. I’ve done little “mission trips” with cities nearby or in my own town. Never have I gone on a plane to a different place for the sole purpose of sharing the great news of Jesus Christ.

Our youth and young adult groups are going to Ocean Grove, New Jersey next Monday (June 22). Most of us haven’t been there before. Most of us haven’t been on a missions trip before either. The group is mostly high schoolers too. To the naked eye, we aren’t the varsity missions team with seasoned missionaries. We’re not even junior varsity. We’re just a rag tag team of people who love Jesus and want others to know about his relentless love.

This past Sunday, we had an event for the kids to get them in the mindset of missions. The focus: prayer, prayer, prayer. Going into this trip, we wanted the kids to know that it’s going to be a tough week with exhaustion physically, mentally, and spiritually. That leaves an opening for spiritual trials and attack. We spent part of the night praying for all aspects of the trip, specifically against the attacks of the enemy. It was a beautiful night, watching all 20-some kids pray for the trip, even the ones that weren’t going on the trip.

After the event I talked with several leaders about their week and events leading up to the event. Almost all of the leaders had gone through some kind of spiritual trial that week. During our group’s time of prayer, the enemy tried to attack again using people that we try our hardest to love on. I can’t imagine this week coming up and all the possibilities of attack that are going to happen with our kids, our leaders, and within the group.

So this week, there’s not a lesson but a prayer request. It’s my prayer that the people at home know how important they are to those of us who are out in Jersey. We need your prayers. Every prayer counts. Especially yours.

Pray for us. Pray for our trip and that God will be glorified and magnified through our actions, our words, our compassion, and our unity.

Pray that we don’t approach this as a vacation or a retreat.

Pray that the students and leaders alike remember their love for each other and not let petty disagreements or words get in the way of the relationships, the unity of the group, or the spreading of God’s word.

Pray for souls to be saved.

Autopilot

Once again I’d like to apologize for not posting in a while. I don’t have a great excuse like blaming it on school or even on binge watching Friends on Netflix (which I actually did). I do have a reason though. It’s a reason I’m not proud of.

I haven’t posted in a while because I didn’t see God moving in my life. A part of me just stopped looking. Mostly because I stopped reading and praying. I didn’t choose to stop praying and reading all together. It was gradual compromises.

It would be one day, I decided to not read my bible but would pray and read my devotional books. Then the next week I wouldn’t pray or read the bible, but read devotional books. Within several weeks, I was no longer reading and praying.

Spiritual ruts suck. You pretty much run on autopilot for a month or so without even realizing it. That was me this past month and a half. I’ve been on auto pilot, running on head knowledge, thinking that my head knowledge was good enough. What makes me so disappointed in myself is that about a week ago, I knew I was on autopilot and didn’t do anything to fix it. I had no motivation. It was scary, even in the midst of it, how lethargic I had gotten.

This past weekend, our young adults group had a creative retreat. We went all around Southern California for our retreat, doing hikes, playing laser tag, eating ice cream, jumping on trampolines, and getting crazy at parks and beaches. The theme was unity and it went really well. It wasn’t until the last bible study when I finally had a realization. I was filling that hallow feeling with my friendships and going out with friends. I was allowing busyness get in the way of my relationship with God.

What I really want to say is, hey, spiritual ruts happen. Don’t be like me in leaving autopilot on. Read your bible and pray. It’s cliche, but it’s tried and true. It’s so beautiful to think of how simple God has made it for us. We read, we pray, and we serve him with our lives. It’s accessible to all of us. Open up the bible, read a few passages. Ask God to renew you and fill you up. Listen to sermons and worship music. That’s my challenge for this week. Strengthen the relationship that I have with Christ.

Planning Planners

It has been a while since I’ve put up a post, and I’m so sorry. I had my last week of instruction followed by finals the week after. Alas, I am done and free to post!

I love to plan things. I’m a planner. I have at all times, four monthly calendars in my room. One for the current month and three of the upcoming months. I have a calendar in my purse at all times, so that I can physically pencil in plans on the go. I also use the calendar on my phone. I also love spontaneous plans, which I make sure to leave room in my calendars. I’m practically planning unplanned plans. I may have an addiction to planning.

As a planner, not knowing what is coming up next freaks me out! That’s probably why I hated college so much. I had no idea what I was doing or what I was going to do. I was undeclared for awhile, trying to decide what major to pursue. I panicked and went with the first major that someone I cared about suggested. It was only a suggestion and I took it. It was something I could grasp and start planning for right away. The following semester, I took prerequisites needed for biochemistry, and declared Biochemistry as my major. Within a few weeks of being a biochemistry major, I had planned out the next 5 years with the classes I needed to graduate.

Oh Mama Mary!

“On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’
‘Woman, why do you involve me?‘ Jesus replied. ‘My hour has not yet come.‘
His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.'”
John 2:1-5

So for the past week or so I’ve been going through the gospel of John for my personal study time. Today I really want to share with you what really jumped out at me.

Back in February, I went to witness two of my friends be married. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception. The majority of the people at the wedding were either under 21 (like myself) or didn’t care for liquor, so they served apple cider rather than champagne. I went nuts over the apple cider. My whole table did. We went through two bottles of it. If we could have, we probably would have had 10 bottles of it. They had to limit us though, because there wouldn’t be enough to last the rest of the reception. Imagine if they didn’t limit us or anyone at the wedding. Eventually they’d run out. What impression would we have of the bride and groom? Probably not a positive one. Jewish weddings were similar, but instead of apple cider, it was wine of course. At the wedding that Jesus & co. were attending, the wine was gone.

Mary comes to Jesus and boldly says, “Hey, they ran out of wine.”

Great Expectations

“Come to me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28

It’s time for me to be honest. The past couple of posts were difficult for me to write. Almost all of the sentences were squeezed out from what had happened over the past few weeks with little inspiration. For the past few months I’ve been in a spiritual desert.

I earnestly (sometimes desperately) seek to find God in everything around me. Most of the time I don’t see Him. It makes me think of myself as a toddler who still hasn’t figured out peek-a-boo.

Tacos de Carnitas

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18

Backyard Missions: An event with a combination of high school students and young adults sharing the gospel to their communities and the communities around them.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a leader in the high school ministry at my church. For the past few months we have been preparing for our backyard missions trip which happened March 26-29. Three long, gospel-filled days.

I went on Friday and Saturday. Friday was by far the most intense.