up to speed

yes, I realize that I haven't posted since October 9th, which was 7 months, 1 week, and one day ago.

but who's counting?

those 7 months have been some of the most exciting, challenging, and faith-growing months I've ever experienced in my life. I've changed a lot (for the better), but it does make me wish I would have kept everyone a little better updated. oh well!

since it's been that long, I figured I'd start by making a list of the things that have happened since we last communicated. hopefully we won't have any more droughts.

but who am I kidding?!

1. I turned 15 on October 26th. unfortunately, the only thing I can remember about it is that we went and ate at Bo Lings, my favorite Chinese restaurant.

 I always remember stuff about food.

2. November/December brought more family birthdays, including Isaac's first birthday in America. he loved it as most normal kids do. then my "little" bio brother (who is now 3 inches taller than me!) turned 13. it made me feel so old!

3. of course, Christmas. check out my little brother Isaac (adopted from Uganda almost a year ago!)'s letter to "Santa Claw":

my dad turned 40 in early December. whattt? my parents are getting old! my mom also turned 40 in January. I'm sure they'll really appreciate me putting that on here. they kept repeating that "40's when the fun starts." needless to say, all of us kids were on our guard for the first few weeks! we had no idea the adventures that were to come though....

3. January was the most exciting month. I felt God calling me to go to Honduras with my youth group, even though all of the other kids had signed up to go in October. thankfully, there was a spot open! oh, and did I mention that the trip was in March?!

our first team picture!

4. 1.75 months to prepare for a missions trip?! might not have been such a crazy idea except for the fact that I had $0 raised. I got to watch God provide $2000 for me to go on this trip in just a little over a month, including $900 in the first week that was needed to secure my plane ticket. February was pretty full of babysitting and fundraising for my trip which was coming up soon! we serve a GREAT God! you can read all about the trip in my next post called "Honduras" :)

5. March came quickly, and I finished up the 3rd quarter of my sophomore year. right before the trip, which was on March 10th, my parents told us that we were taking our house off the market (it had been on for over a year) and were not moving out to the house we'd found in the country. although I liked the house, it was nice to know that we weren't going anywhere because I also really liked where we lived.

6. HONDURAS! see next post.

7. got back from amazing Honduras and celebrated my little sister's 8th birthday the next day. she's such a sweetheart. later that day my parents pulled me aside and said they had something to tell me. I was a little nervous.

they said, "we got two offers on our house the day we were taking it off the market. we've accepted one of them and are moving in about three weeks!"

now, I'm sure they said it in a more complicated, nice-sounding way than that, but that's all I heard. let the craziness begin!

8. in between that little announcement and us moving, my other little sister turned 11. super exciting!

my favorite picture of her and I. perfectly describes our relationship.

9. THE MOVE! despite only having three weeks to accomplish it, it went pretty well. sledding down the steep stairs at our old house on moving boxes had to have been the highlight. the night before we moved, my best friend spent the night. we also had lots of help from neighbors and family! that last night in the house was pretty bittersweet. I'm always up for a new adventure though! I did run into a slight problem when I was about to eat my ice cream and realized that my family had packed all the spoons...

electronic, serrated filet knife blade to the rescue!

April 12th-13th were moving days. they went by perfectly. I'll post later about all of our adventures since the move, because they have been wonderful. but that just about catches you up on my life these past *cough* few *cough* months.

last picture I took of our old house!




 

what went wrong?

i saw something today that really made me think about our culture and our priorities. it's this:



it's not that i think this is horrible. i believe that helping animals is a good thing. but now I want you to look at this picture.

this little girl lives in Uganda. she doesn't have a family. she probably doesn't have enough food to eat most days. she's waiting for someone to come adopt her, to show her what it means to be loved or to be in a family. she's never known the love of a mom or dad, or a sister or brother. she's all alone.

and yet, i sure dont' see her picture circling around facebook like the one shown above. i don't hear near enough people willing to spread her cause, willing to make a difference.

there are 143 million orphans in this world. there are 11 million children who starve to death or die from preventable diseases. there are 8.5 million who serve as child slaves, prostitutes, or are under other horrific conditions. there are 2.3 million children who live with HIV. all these add up to 164.8 million needy children. that's 164,800,000 needy children.

please don't view these as just numbers.
each and every one of these numbers has a face, and a story. they are beautiful, needy children.

164,800,000 seems like a huge number. 164.8 million. but you know what?

2.1 billion people on this earth proclaim to be Christians.
the truth is that if only 8% of Christians would care for just one more child...

there would be no statistics left. each and every one of these children would be taken care of.

so why isn't this happening?

because we're too concerned about adopting needy animals who have never "experienced the love of a family."

you know what?

they're animals.

you know what we are?

children of the Most High God. His most precious creation. created in the image of Him.

so maybe we should concentrate on saving the humans before the animals.

just a thought.

this is not normal.

i hope that people don't think of me as normal. typical. just another teenage girl.

why? because i want to live anything BUT a normal life. let's examine what is generally expected of a teenage girl in America. please don't view this as judging. i'm just stating some observations of mine. tell me if i'm wrong, but a lot of people expect your teenage years to look something like sitting at home or at the pool or with your boyfriend, texting people day in and day out, and having no less than 973 Facebook friends. you'll then go on to a good college, graduate, get married, have 2.4 kids, a nice big house in a safe neighborhood, a gym membership, a pool, and a yorkie. you'll grow old, have grandkids, and die quietly and peacefully in your home, surrounded by the people you love.

now, is there anything wrong with this picture? NO!

or is there?

check out this verse in luke. "then he [Jesus] said to them all: “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow me." -luke 9:23

deny yourself? meaning, denying all those nice things we want or think we need?

take up our cross, daily?!? what does that even mean? not staying comfortable? doing more than just going through the motions of our busy life? going out of our way to show the love of Jesus to someone?

but that sounds too hard. surely God wouldn't call us to something that would be hard.

or would He?

"that's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong." -2 Corinthians 12:10

okay, so I have to admit, it took me forever to understand this. not only does the Bible say that we will have hardships, persecutions, and troubles, it also says that that is the point at which we can have the most joy?

the reason i took the time to post all of this is not to make a point. i'm sure you've heard this stuff over and over again. but lately, the Lord has given me an incredible heart to be open to everything He would have me to do right now. not ten years from now, but right at this moment. right now, that means being the best big sister, daughter, student, and light to the world that I can be right here at my house, in my city. next summer, it means going to South Africa and Zambia for two months, following Jesus and believing in His promises.

the thing is, I am so broken. I could not do any of this without the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of Jesus Christ in my life. in fact, they aren't just in my life, they are my life.

i wish so much to go out to the missions field and start showing people the love of Jesus as a career. for more than just a few weeks, a month, or a summer. for life. because if Jesus gave His life, I know that I am called to do so much more than just sit here and enjoy mine. I believe that we are all called to go GIVE the life that is present in Jesus to the people around us.

this week, I'm challenging myself to go out of my way to show the love of Jesus to one person who needs His love. because we don't have to take off to another country to change a life. Jesus wants to do it right here. in your heart, and in the heart's of those all around you.

here am I.

as many of you know, i went to the country of Panama in Central America on a missions trip from July 9th to August 4th, 2011. 

to sum it up in one sentence,

it changed my life. forever.

i fell in love with panama, with the people there, and with the absolutley and amazingly honest connection with God I experienced there. my team got to panama on July 11th and left for the San Blas islands (our island was called Carti Sugdub) on July 13th. here is part one of my island journal entries and some pictures!

PART 1: a challenge-07.14.11

"i want to have an encounter with God like never before on this trip. I want to be challenged, broken, changed, inspired, amazed, and totally in awe of my Savior. I want to see people be healed, dead people made alive, and broken people be made whole. I want to see the timid be made bold in Christ, and lacking people be fulfilled. I want to see the villages of Panama singing the praises of the one true Lord God Almighty. Not to an idol that will always come out void, and not to the things of this world that will never satisfy. no. to Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. I want to become humble, so that in my weakness, Christ can be glorified. I want my pride to be broken down so that I can have a real, relevant, and revolutionary relationship with the Creator God. I don't just want these things. I believe in the name of Jesus that these dreams will become a reality. I want and believe that through Jesus, I will change the world."

PART 2: first glimpse of the island-07.15.11

"We got to our island today! I have already fallen completely in love with it. God has already done some amazing things, and we just got here! even though we have been awake for 19 straight hours, God has given us all the strength to perservere and open our eyes to the reason we are on this island. I have a 101.5 degree fever today, but I am praising Jesus because He promises that in our weakness, He is strong! I have already been able to use my Spanish a lot, even helping do a little bit of "translating" when we got to the island (no one else really spoke any spanish). I am so thankful that even though we've only gone to our huts and our dinner area, we have got to minister to about 50 kids who have come to see us! they have stolen my heart, i love them so much. I taught some girls how to jump rope and the guys showed the little boys how to play Frisbee. The boat ride was beautiful. loved all of it. I am so so so in love. this place has my heart, and we've been here less than 24 hours. Praise Jesus!"

the island bathroom!

first glimpse of the San Blas Islands!

catching up

yes, it's true.

i know i've been terrible at blogging lately, but life has gotten really busy, really fast!

on the friday of memorial day weekend, my mom, big brother, and BRAND NEW little brother got to come home from Uganda, Africa! Here is a picture of the little dude and his twin.

ok, so not quite twins, but if they didn't look so different you would swear they were! lil and isaac play with each other CONSTANTLY. they are pretty much never apart!

of course, a homecoming would not be complete without an ice cream cake! thanks so much Redford family!

he LOVES the ten-year-old dump trucks in the backyard that colton played with when he was about 2. go figure! here he is checking out the backyard...

although i'm sure it was slightly overwhelming, his first week at home would not have been the same without peachwave!

today, we ventured into the wide world of bass pro shops to check out some stuff for my upcoming trip to panama. however, a trip to bass pro would be stupid if you didn't spend at least 10 minutes checking out the fish!

he REALLY wanted a picture with the "beeeg fish!!!"

also, we've been swimming about 4 times in brittany's (our next door neighbor) pool!

lilly and isaac :)

celebrating one week of being home! (don't you just love the upside down goggles? haha!)

true relationship

i don't know how many times i've seen my facebook news feed fill up with stuff like,

-so and so went from being "single" to being "in a relationship"-

or, -so and so went from being "in a relationship" to "single"-

(these two usually make the news feed within two weeks of each other)

or, my personal favorite, -so and so went from being "in a relationship" to "it's complicated"-



yes, there is a point to this post. read on.

i learned last night that studies show that the number one thing my generation wants is relationship. we want to love. we want to be loved. we want to know that other people find worth in us. we want to feel as if we are valued. we want to have someone who wants to talk to us and who we can talk to about anything, anytime. someone who will be there for us when our day just isn't going the way we want. we want someone who will wrap us in their arms and tell us that they love us more than anything else in the entire world.

that's why i think so many teenagers settle for meaningless relationships that lead nowhere but to heartbreak and sorrow way before they can even begin to think of long-term commitment (i.e. marriage).

why?

see above. we're lonely. i believe that teenagers are too often victims of low expectations. we long to have something to fulfill us, so we turn to earthly love.

so what's the problem?

we've left God out of the equation.

read that above paragraph again. God wants to be all of this and so much more to us every single day. God is love. He loves us more than anything else in the entire world, and he wants us to love him so much that our entire lives are a testament to his glory. He finds crazy amounts of worth in us. He looks at us as His most precious creation. the Bible says that we are FEARFULLY and WONDERFULLY made. God thinks about us non-stop. He is always on the edge of His seat, waiting for us to talk to Him. He loves us so much that He gave His only Son to die a horrific death so that we could live with Him forever. now that is true love.

so my question is, what would happen if my generation took this want, this need for relationship and applied it to their relationships with God? i believe that our world would be changed. if every teenager, every person,  stayed in constant contact with God, we would be enabled to do things this world has never seen before through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 1 Timothy 4:12 says, "don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." we live in a world that wants to be able to do everything. we don't want to be held back or restricted. so why do we set up restrictions for ourselves in our spiritual lives? what if we took 1 Timothy 4:12 to heart and actually developed relationships with God that set an example for all those around us? our lives and our world would be forever changed.

i don't have some incredible closing words of wisdom for this post. all i want to say is that it is my hope that myself and all those around me will take this to heart and will begin to develop relationships with God that change the world.

yes, i knit.

ok, i'm sure most people know this.

i am a knitter.

i have too much yarn. i spend too much money on knitting related supplies.

i <3 to knit, so i decided to use this hobby to glorify God.

right now, that means running a knitting group for girls to make hats for preemies in NICU's in hospitals,

and running a small business, mission knits, to raise money for my mission trips by selling some of the things i make.

i use a facebook page to promote my knitting. it's a great way for people to stay updated.

i also use this blog for my knitting projects.

and, last but not least, check out my etsy shop! here are some of the things i have made:

well, now i feel that i've gotten all my knitting geek out.

hopefully you've enjoyed looking at my knits, and i hope you will check out my links!

-maddy