My Blog

Thank You!

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:28:45 -0500

It is over, and I can’t believe it. There are many mixed emotions happening right now. A part of me is so excited to get back and be with family and friends, and back in my routine; however, there is another part of me that is really sad to leave Europe and the team. I have just learned so much, and I want to continue to be challenged daily, like I have been these past 32 days. God has shown me so much, it really blows my mind!

Switzerland has been a wonderful ending to the trip. Being back with Neal, Jenn, Anna, Bryan and Daniel has been great, and the beautiful scenery here in Switzerland has been breathtaking. When we were in Grindelwald we had a wrap up, pretty much the equivalent of the last night of youth camp share time. :) It was great though; we all shared our experiences, what God showed us on this trip, and different things that we have learned. Just to hear what God is teaching each person is so encouraging. Listening to how God works in your friend’s lives is awesome! I have seen God acting constantly, moment by moment, on this trip, and it has opened my eyes tremendously to just how big God is. One thing that God has done is give me a genuine burden for lost people. I thought that I had a burden for those that had not accepted Christ as their Lord, but I really did not. I am almost embarrassed to say that, but I truly did not care. It is funny how you ask God for something (I prayed that God would give me a burden in Amsterdam) he answers it, and then I act surprised. Silly me.

I wanted to thank everyone who has prayed for me and the team for the past month and even before then. For those who gave and made it possible for me to go, I thank you with all my heart. It means so much to have family and friends that support and encourage me. I have had a life-changing experience, sounds cheesy I know, but it is true. God has changed my heart, and I know that I will never be the same. There is such a big world, my Southern bubble has popped for sure.

Thank you again for your prayers.
Go ahead and start praying for next years team. :)
Love yall.

Something better than the Vatican...

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 23:54:00 -0500

Rome was definitely not built in a day! I wasn’t sure how Rome was going to be, because it is such a big city, I didn’t know if it would be overwhelming; but it was great! I really enjoyed Rome and all that it offered. We went and saw it all...the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Paul’s prison cell, Trevi Fountain, Parthenon, etc...but my favorite thing that we did was going to Vatican City and St. Peter’s Basilica. It was beautiful!! Even though we saw all of these amazing attractions, something even more amazing happened in Rome.

Ron, a guy that I talked with in Barcelona, and also wrote a blog about, was in ROME at our hostel! We were all sitting in the hostel lounge waiting for pizza and in walks Ron. I am pretty sure that my mouth dropped down to my feet. It was an answered prayer, but to my surprise I got this pit-in-my-stomach feeling because I knew that this was God saying “Okay, LA, here is it, I am giving you another chance.” As soon as I realized all that was happening, I began to pray and asked God to give me the words to say, because I knew that anything I would say would mean nothing. We all ended up going out for gelato later that night, and I got a chance to talk with him, not anything too deep, but he was able to hang out with us again and hopefully see Christ living in our actions and words. Though I wasn’t able to really talk with him, Chase had the opportunity to share. Soo I was very thankful for that!

I have been going through the Psalms throughout the trip, and God has pretty much rocked my world with His word. In Psalm 34 David writes “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth”. It is my desire that I would bless the Lord ALL the time, and praise him continually. That is one thing that God has been showing me day after day is that I must seek Him with a whole heart.

Another cool thing that we got to do in Rome was go see the movie Angels and Demons. It was so neat because the movie was set in Rome at all of the sites that we had seen. Plus we all pigged out on popcorn and coke! Oh goodness, it was heaven! :)

I am actually writing this from Grindelwald, which is absolutely amazing...this is my favorite place by far. It is unbelievable to think that the trip is almost over. All of the planning and prep has come and gone, and we are down to a couple more days. It just blows my mind to know how many opportunities that God has given me and the team to meet people and have God just teach us so much. Our God is an awesome God!

Continue to pray as we are almost done. Love yall.

Ciao Ciao

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 08:45:27 -0500

Oh I just love art! Florence is just full of so many things that I love! It is really cool to see all these pieces that I have studied. I pretty much feel like a nerd, but that is okay. The Florence hostel was great; with the rooms there were so many opportunities to get to know girls. We met a girl named McKenzie who was from Denver, a girl named Kelley from South Dakota, and also an older lady named Kay (yep, I thought about you moma) from Australia. We hung out with them most of the time when we were in Florence. Through talking with Kelley, I came to know that she was Catholic and she was very knowledgeable about her Catholic faith. We took a tour of the Tuscan countryside, which was absolutely unbelievable! I felt as if I was in a movie looking out at the rolling hills with all of the vineyards. The scenery brought all of the memories of some of my favorite movies....Under the Tuscan Sun, Only You, and others. It really made me wish that I had a couple extra grand to just buy a villa and fix it up. :) Sound good Lee?

Back to Kelley, she ended up telling me a lot about Catholicism. Honestly I didn’t know very much about it so it was quite interesting to hear about all of the beliefs and rituals. It broke my heart when she began to tell me about prayer. She explained how she prays through certain Saints, and I was able to tell her how awesome it is that I get to pray to the Lord, my King. After I was able to share a little bit about my faith, she kinda got quiet for a while, and then began to ask more questions. Even though they were small and not deep, I was just excited to share about how I was not into a religion, but that I was into the Gospel. She was a really sweet girl, and I hope to keep in touch with her.

I am reading How Shall We Then Live? by Francis Shaeffer right now, and it was really neat to see all of the art work that he talks about in his book. Such as the David, and how humanized man made him during the Renaissance. I have really been praying for humbleness lately and that it would be reflected in all that I do. As our trip is coming to an end, it is crazy to look back at all that we have seen and all the people that we have met. God has blessed our team beyond anything that I could every imagine. He has given all of us many conversations, though not all of them very deep, He has given us the chance to point out that God is in control of our lives and we trust in Him daily.

Florence overall was really nice. I could go back there one day for sure. Just Rome and Switzerland to go! CRAZY!!!

Cinque Terre

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 08:44:59 -0500

Think of a small Italian town and what do you get...Cinque Terre! When you have picture perfect scenery, great Italian pizza, and mouth watering gelato who can ask for more? For real though, our half-way spot was very restful and exactly what the team needed. On a side note, I am so thankful for our team. Rusty, TJ, Chase, and Kristin have been amazing, and it has been such a blessing and encouragement to get to know their hearts, just laugh, and have fun with them on this trip.

One thing that really stood out to me in Cinque Terre was that one night we decided to just have a night where we talked about our lives, kinda where we have been, where we are, where we want to go, etc. Through sharing we all came to the conclusion that we want to go back different. Really that there is no way that we can go back the same. This trip has definitely changed all of our hearts towards those who are lost and how to share. After talking for a while and a few games of nines later, it was so encouraging to know that there were 4 other friends that were going to be able to keep me accountable when I get back to Mobile. I am so thankful.

I made the comment that I want everyone to be able to notice a difference in how I live my life when I get back. By this I mean everyone: my parents, Lee, family, friends; I want so bad what God has revealed to me throughout this trip to shine through in my daily life. A part of me can‘t wait to get home and get back in the routine of things and see just how different my life will be.

Thanks for all the prayers. Love yall.

Why?

Tue, 26 May 2009 10:13:58 -0500

I can’t believe that it is already May 26th! Spain was wonderful! I loved Barcelona; though a much different feel than Madrid, it was very trendy with lots of young people and plenty of unbelievable architecture. The first day we arrived we met a guy at check-in named Ron from right outside of Philadelphia. We said our hello’s and asked him to hang out with us later, and went our separate ways. After unpacking and getting situated, I decided to go up to the “terrace” on the 7th floor and read and journal a bit. To my surprise there was Ron, sitting up there drinking (it was a bar at the same time). We started small talk just about college, his work, and his later travel plans. Soon after he made the comment, “There is something different about your group.” It kind of took me off guard and before I could make a comment back, Rusty and TJ came up to the terrace and sat with us. We all started chatting again, but the entire time, his comment was racing through my mind. I wanted to scream, “Yay!”, someone noticed something different about us, which hopefully means that they saw Christ in us. About another ten minutes went by and Ron made another statement, “Are you all from a Christian college or something? You are all reading those books and stuff.” We replied yes, and gave him the spill about UM. From then on, Ron went on about how he used to be real involved in Young Life in high school, and how he was raised Catholic but leaned more to the Christian side, but really wasn’t into it anymore. We talked with him about Young Life for a bit and then for some reason the conversation kind of dropped. I wanted to ask why he wasn’t into it anymore, but I didn’t, and it has been haunting me ever since.

The opportunity never came again for us to talk with Ron about his spiritual life, but Ron did want to hang out with us a lot. Which was cool, but I was never able to ask him the question, why? He actually is in Nice with us right now, not at the same hostel, but I am praying that we will run into each other so that I can ask him why he isn’t really into Christianity anymore. Be praying for that.

We were able to meet some other people in Barcelona in our room, which was a blessing. It is so interesting to hear other people’s viewpoints on things such as immigration, the war, Obama, etc.

Nice is different than any other city so far for me. We haven’t seen many people our age, but then again we haven’t been to the beach yet. We are heading there today so I pray that we will meet some people and that God would direct our conversations to the Gospel.

God is working for sure. Thanks for all your prayers. Keep praying, we need it! Love yall!