Be bold. Make a joyful noise.

Hi!

On my last post last week, I mentioned to you that I was taking a step back from a few things.

I have been trying to seek the Lord in many areas of my life; however, I feel like I am just getting past the basics.

You know when you plan to do some major house cleaning, and you have to get the first layer cleared out before you can get to the good stuff?

Move the magazines off the coffee table, clear the bills, etc.

That's kind of how I have felt trying to clear up my life. I feel like recently my priorities haven't been in the right order. I have been so busy with this and that, that I haven't even taken the time to just really sit, pray, and wait on the Lord.  Finally..I can do that!

In the next couple of weeks, I want to share with you the things the Lord is showing me.

Maybe you feel like you are in a rut too, and something I might say might inspire you to take a step back from your everyday life, and just really listen to God.

Lesson #1: Be bold. Don't worry about others.

The past couple of months, my mom has been after me to join the choir. Believe me when I say...I can not sing. Do I love it though? Absolutely. I especially love singing praises to my King.  Honestly, every since she (and her fellow choir members) have been asking me, I have kind of looked at it as just being funny, and something I would never do. Deep down inside I have been dying too though.

I was afraid.  Afraid of what others would say. It's not a secret that my voice isn't beautiful. Trust me. I was afraid of the jokes that would be made. The things that would be said about my voice.

Does God care? No. God knows I don't have the most beautiful  voice in the world. He created me.

He is the giver of this voice. To him, any praises I send up are beautiful.

God moved on my heart yesterday, and showed me that I needed to be bold, and make a move for Him.

Last night...I joined the choir :)

Are you in a rut? What bold step have you taken lately? Are you making a joyful noise for the Lord?

"Every breathe that I take, every moment I'm awake...Lord have your way in me.."

HI :) I am doing great! Today I am writing from the hut outside rather than my mosquito net, which is where I typically am. We are leaving at 9:15 to go to the high school. They are having “High School Day” today! According to Richard, this is the first official one Lamsugod HS has had. Every couple of months they get to have a worship service at school. They take it time about between baptist and catholic, and today is baptist. Some of the staff, and a few of the high school students have been busy preparing music for worship! They sound very good. I am excited to get to go and be a part of it. Last night I went over to listen to the group as they prepared their music for today. Jestoni and Miko walked over with me. We listened and hung out with the kids for a while before saying our "goodnights" about 9:30.

It was thundering and slightly raining. Those of you who know me well know how well I sleep when it's stormy, much less if it's raining on a tin roof. Best sleep everrr. However, about one this morning, there was a huge noise that woke me up. I quickly realized everything around me was shaking including myself. Folks, what I was experiencing was my first ever earthquake! For some reason, I never thought about having an earthquake here, but oh boy we did! Got everyone pretty excited! Knocked my fan over, and a few things off some shelves in the other rooms. Don’t experience those everyday in Mississippi! Haha. They said that for them it was a pretty strong one.

KB and I “worked out” yesterday! We jumped rope. They are feeding me so good here..I have to do something! I'm beginning to grow a rice baby in my belly. Yesterday, while the boys washed their clothes, I went out and chatted with them about life for a little while. They ended up blowing more bubbles than washing I think! Jestoni didn’t really blow as many bubbles as some of the others, but he took the absolute longest to wash his clothes! He was the first out there, and the last to leave. Bad part is, he still didn’t finish. He literally took about 3 hours to wash maybe 10 things! Probably the cleanest/preppiest Filipino I have ever met! It’s quite funny!

I want to apologize for these blogs being soextremely choppy and probably hard to follow.  I do not have Internet access at the orphanage so I have come into town to this little chicken place, "Emily's,"  to use their wi-fi! The previous two blogs were from my journal. I was hoping to send emails, but after the huge delay I decided this would be easier. The portion above was from earlier today.

I want to briefly tell you about the High School Day. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect when we got there, but I was sure it would be like most high schools whenever it came to staring at an American. I was correct. So I found some of the kids from the orphanage and sat by them. As a lot of you know, the high schools make me very uncomfortable.  Soon after we arrived there, the group began leading worship.  At first several of the children were just going through the motions, or just enjoying being out of class, and not paying attention at all.  While we were singing, "I Give You My Heart" I just began praying to God to open up their hearts!  You could really feel the Holy Spirit there! Pastor Roy got up to share the message. I didn't know that was part of the plan either. As he began speaking, I could tell it was the exact same message we share in the schools. Good News. Bad News. Except for when it came time to pray, he didn't say "Raise your hand if want to ask Jesus in your heart." He told them to come forward. Come up to the stage where he was. One by one they began to come down. There were boys coming who were being made fun of. Girls weeping. It was incredible.  Within a minute the majority of the school was down at the stage. It was such an incredible moment! Some of the kids were raising their hands. Tears were flooding down their cheeks. It was remarkable! After they prayed to ask Jesus Christ into their hearts, we sang another song. I could tell there was such a difference with them! They were singing with their whole hearts now. They were singing because they now had joy of knowing Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior! I am so thankful I was a part of that! Well, I don't have much time left here. I am going prom dress shopping with the girls, and then going back the the orphanage for movie night. Tomorrow we have planned to make t-shirts, watch more movies, and eat junk food! I love these kids so much!!

Hopefully, I can update you again soon! Thanks so much for praying :)

**from now on I will be posting a date in the title. Don't be confused because the date in the title will be different than the actual date that I post it. The date in the header will be the date which I actually wrote the post. As I mentioned earlier, I have to type, and then post later.