Where can I serve?

Over the last few months God has really been changing my heart. He has incredibly blessed my family and my life. I am so thankful for the things that He is doing in my life, and the ways that He has used my life experiences to bring me closer to Him. I spent so long believing there was no way I could truly change, but that's such a cop out! I am remade in Him because His perfect and pure son paid the price for ME. I could not believe that for a long time, and I am still in awe of that. I have grown sooo much in the last 6 months and God has changed so many things in me. One thing is my desire to serve in any way possible, and not just in a church setting, but ANYWHERE. I want to help those in need -- Near and far, friends and complete strangers, those severely in need and those who just need someone right now. It is my desire that all my actions would be an example of Christ and His love for everyone, and that through my actions and willingness to help and serve people would be drawn not to me, but to God. I know that not everything I do is an example and there are a lot of things I could change, but I truly feel God working in me to change the things I struggle most with. It is my desire that I would be the most welcoming person and anyone anywhere could come to me for help or just someone to talk to because they see the spirit in me. I want to be an example in all things in my daily life, but also in the bigger things that I do. The great thing about this is that I am not alone in these desires. My husband has a heart to serve those in need as well. I am hoping that when we get to Maryland and he gets home we can find some sort of way to volunteer to serve those in need in our country be is children or adults, but I also want to reach out to people outside of the country. There are people starving to death all over the world, drinking bad water or living with no electricity, working in extremely poor environments, and living in war torn countries. I want to reach out to those people too. I am not sure how exactly I can do that, but I plan to.

At our church this past Sunday they introduced a mission program we support called Kenya Children's Fund. They were doing their annual Easter Basket Fundraiser. For a mere 15 dollars you provide a basket of food that feeds a family for an entire month! Amazing right? Anyways, I instantly wanted to buy one so I wrote the check took the DVD and went on my way not thinking too incredibly much about it. Today I got an email from a lady at our church who works with KCF. I attended the women's tuesday study last fall and on missionary day signed up for the emails. In the email she talked more about what KCF does and how they need help. For 30 dollars a month you can sponsor a child to provide food, school expenses, and medical for the whole month. They send you pictures and letters and truly become a little part of your family. I really feel moved to become a partner with KCF and sponsor a child. I am going to talk to my husband about it and pray on it and tomorrow watch the DVD. I will let you all know what we do. Check them out HERE


Also, check out this song.. it's really made me think lately.. I am new.. So many people think they know me from years ago.. and in a sense you do.. but I am not who I was I've been remade by His blood and I am new.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsJ1E9cbHL4


Also, we close on our house on Monday. Getting so excited but also a tad anxious. Praying for God's peace as we make the biggest investment of our lives. I know it has been blessed by God though and am looking forward to many years of using that house to bring glory to Him.

craziness

Hi my bloggy world friends,

Sorry I have been MIA.. I had to have emergency surgery to remove a kidney stone that was 3-4 times larger than what a dr considers a large kidney stone.. I am in recovery now and getting better every day.. I will do a real post all about my life here soon.. until then.. my healthier me workouts/eating were put on pause for a full recovery and trying to finish up the quarter with school.

My prayers go out to everyone affected by the earthquakes and tsunami today. Please be praying for everyone's safety and for our troops as they embark on humanitarian relief that's been all over the news.

The Future?

It has been a crazy ride these last few days, but I am so thankful! A lot of big changes are getting ready to occur and I am so ready for them, but also a little scared! First things first in 10 days I will be in Maryland signing for our very first house! My sailorman and I are going to be first time homeowners of the perfect house for our little (and hopefully one day growing) family. Than in a little less then a month from today I will be making the journey to officially become an East Coast resident. Hello change?! I woke up in September a Southern California resident, woke up the first of the year a Midwest resident, and in less than a month I am going to be on the East Coast?! As crazy and mind boggling as it is to me, I am beyond excited. I think the location we are moving to is going to be so amazing and holds so many new adventures for myself and for my family. Being in DC for the brief time that I was a little over a month ago was seriously amazing. It took my breath away to see the National Monument or even just know I was in a place that held such importance to our great nation.. I can't wait to take off and explore!

That being said, I'm a tad scared to be moving to Maryland in a few weeks before my husband is still deployed so aside from the week my adoptive dad is there it's going to be just me and my little one until the ship decides to release him. The being alone thing doesn't usually scare me, but being in a place where I will literally know not a single person not even the spouses or people from the command is a bit scary not gunna lie!

Something cool to go with the house closing and the moving coming so soon is that the hubs and I are on the hunt for new furniture. We sold basically all the furniture we owned when I left CA so it has been so exciting to look at different things and find stuff we agree on and such. Pretty sure we picked out the bed we want and the sectional for the living room and the dinette set for the breakfast nook that we will get first thing when we get there. Other things are little by little, but I will do a more in depth furniture post in the near future!

In the last week I have done some searching and I think I found the church that my sailor and I want to attend. It's a brand new church just now being planted and starting to have Sunday services in a school. When I knew last year that we were moving to the area I looked up Evangelical Free Churches because I knew that's the kind of church I would prefer to attend. Only two popped up that were reasonable and so I looked at both of them, and one of them was the new church that was being planted. It seemed awesome but the fact that it wasn't meeting officially yet was a little bit of a turn off to me because I want so deeply for my family to become rooted and adapted through our relations and activities at church. While I am excited to get connected with and meet other people from his command and just other military people, it has become more and more clear to me what we need more than anything is a good network of believers. I had tossed the idea back and fourth for a while and praying about it and then just recently searched again and came upon this church again. I listened to the sermon online and instantly fell in love. I truly feel the spirit leading us into the body at Redemption Hill and I cannot wait to attend services in a few weeks. Something I found really awesome about this church is that it's one of the only Christian churches in the actual district of Colombia all the others are right outside of DC either in MD or VA. Cool huh?

Lastly, and probably one of the biggest changes in my life right now has to do with my education. I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember. I want to make a difference in people's lives and I absolutely adore kids. However, as I have begun taking my major classes, I truly feel like teaching isn't the field of work I am being called to enter.. This has been an incredibly hard and confusing time for me and until this week I haven't opened up to anyone except God in prayer. This week I finally talked to my best friend, my wonderful second mom, and my husband. I have been struggling through all of my education classes and truly have found no enjoyment in them. I thought at first it would change, but the more I take the less I enjoy, and it just seems to wrong to me that something that requires such passion to commit my life to could evoke no passion in the studying of it. The cool thing is that my minors currently are in biblical studies and church ministries and I absolutely LOVE alll of those classes. So, after a lot of thought and prayer and support from my amazing husband, family, and friends I have decided to change my degree to a Bachelors of Science in Religion and pursue a career in ministry. The possibilities for my future right now are endless, and I honestly cannot tell you right now where exactly God will lead me to work. What I can tell you is that this is all for Him and all to bring Him glory. I want nothing more then to lead a life that displays Christ and to have a career that leads people to Him whatever that may be. This is such a huge change for me as I have always said "I'm going to be a teacher" and now I'm not sure what exactly I will do but I know that I will be a light. This is a little scary for me, but I truly feel like this is the first time God has said here your chance show me you have faith JUMP and I cannot deny him. I am taking a leap of faith and KNOWING that He will provide for me and for my family. While a lot of people won't understand this all I can say is I have a love and a joy and a desire that burn brighter than you can imagine and my place in this world is to make that light shine.

So here is to the future, because I am so excited to see the things God has planned for me. He is so faithful to me, and I am will remain faithful to him

The Journey to a Healthier Me

So I am super happy to be advertising the Homefront United Network and all the amazing things they offer, but I also feel like I need to update you on my journey to a healthier me. I am loving the changes in my life. I'm still trying to figure out some stuff, but I really am so proud of myself and encouraged on what lies ahead for me! I have been doing great on my diet which is a huge feat for me! I would say the hardest part has been getting in the time or motivation or work out, but this morning I said enough is enough and I started the Jillian Michael's 30 day shred and oh my goodness let me tell you, in 20 minutes I worked out as hard as I do in an hour plus gym sesh. I felt the burn in every way and tonight I am soo sore, but to me sore is a good thing it means I am making the changes. The program is set up to do a 2 min work out and then three 6 minute circuits consisting of three minutes strength training, two minutes of cardio, and one minute of abs The best part is that it's only 20 minutes. So you bust your butt and then you're free togo about your day. I was so sore and tired after even those 20 minutes I had a hard time staying standing in the shower! All you need are a set of hand weights and the dvd! The dvd is on sale at target for 9 dollars so I definitely recommend you check it out! So yeah, that's where I'm at! Excited to get some rest tonight and then do round 2 tomorrow and hopefully in a week it won't be as hard on me and I can also head to the gym and work on my fav thing; the row machine! Be on the look out this week I plan to post some yummy snack ideas, give some pointers on being healthy/eating right, and posting some good meals I've developed!

Homefront United Network

This is a shout out to all my milies; active duty, reserves, retired, widows, spouses, girlfriends, family, and friends! If you have not seen or heard about the Homefront United Network you need to get your booty over and check it out ASAP. It is an amazing place for anyone involved in or supportive of our armed forces in this great nation! They have articles on all sorts of great topics from how to deal with PTSD to recipes, to being a male military spouse, to fun tips and even how to properly fold a sheet. The possibilities for this site and the knowledge and information they offer are endless. It is an amazing place to go and connect with others who share a life similar to yours and gain support and companionship to help you through all the different things life throws at you. So seriously, check it out!

Also, they have a facebook page so if you are on facebook I definitely suggest you check that out.

Another exciting thing is that they recently accepted me as a new writer for the HUN and I am an administrator on the facebook page so from time to time you will see my name (Amanda) after a question or comment. I am so excited to be apart of such a great group, and can't wait to see what it does in my life.

My first article should be posted soon and when it is I will link it up for all of you guys!