emily off to Thailand!

tomorrow emily is off to Thailand... we said goodbye to here saturday when she flew back to Orlando. i was sad to see her go but i know that it will be an awesome time for her.

here we are at the airport sending her off... i love these girls... we have so much fun together!

megan got her last hug in! she has already asked when emily is comming back... but i guess she is getting used to us leaving.

charlotte had a birthday on sunday! she is now 14!!! i must say i can't believe it.

megan had to help her blow out the candles... it's so cute!

Well i am sorry that it has taken me so long to update this blog... i guess i let procrastination take hold too long. :)

anyway my time at ihop has come to a close and i was very sad to see it end. i really loved the group of people that i was with and the atmosphere of seeking God that we have at ihop.


i really loved my time in the prayer room because almost all distractions were set aside and it was my job to pray and seek the Lord. there is something so powerful about finding revelation of God after hours before Him.


these are the lovely people that went through the internship with me. i love them all very much and miss the encouragement and companionship that they brought to me! we all came from such different backgrounds and it was so cool to see how God brought us together.


God brought me such wonderful girls to spend my days with and i truly love them. our graduation was small and nice and it was good to do something fun together as the last thing we did.
this is Kayla and Kristen my two new friends. they are so dear to me and i look forward to when i can go and visit them again. :)

now that i am home i am spending time with my family and getting ready to ship the huge pile of clothes to the Philippines. it is good to be back although i miss everyone so much. as of now i will be around until April when i will go with my sisters to the Philippines for a month.

here at IHOP

so i am here at IHOP-Atlanta and everything is going really well. i am doing the Pursuit Internship here which is a three month program. there are 8 of us in the internship altogether. 4 girls and 4 guys. we have a pretty diverse group. one of the guys is from Peru and another is from Germany; the rest of us are all gringos. i must say, i can't believe that i have been here almost a whole month.

my time here is going really good. we are taking some 5 different classes throughout the week and spend about 20 hours in the prayer room. 20 hours seems like a long time but the longer i am here, the more it feels like not enough. part of it is divided into times of group intercession and devotional sets, where it is easy to read and study. we also get one day off each week and the 8 of us have been having a really good time hanging out and doing fun stuff together.

intercession set in the prayer room

at this point, i am trying to grasp how much Jesus loves me. not just the Jesus loves me this i know revelation but that He ravishingly loves me. that He longs to spend time with me and for me to just look at Him. i am realizing so much more, that for me to love the world and to have God's heart for people, i must first know God's heart for me. first, i need to know how much he cares about me... so that i can know how much he cares for others.

worshiping

God is really doing a lot in me as he draws me to Him. He is trying to show me how much i really need Him and that when I am weak then He is strong. everyday he shows me more and more parts of my heart that i have not submitted to Him. each day is a new journey... He is guiding me through it.

surrender

IHOP is in a 40 day period of fasting and prayer for the ending of abortion and for a Godly man in the white house. we are spending a lot of time interceding for this nation and that God would have His way in us.

silent siege in atlanta

last saturday we went to the capital building in atlanta and prayed for two hours for the ending of abortion. we wore life tape on our mouths to represent the voiceless. it was really good.

i will try to update this more often from now on to let you know about my adventures here at IHOP. tomorrow we will tour around the different important places in the city of atlanta. it should be fun!

getting ready

well I have been trying to get ready to leave. but it is quite hard... to be honest I am not used to thinking 3 months in advance so I have really no idea what I will need. good to know there is a Walmart in Atlanta. I will be staying in an apartment with 4 to 7 other intern girls. this is what I am really looking forward to because I know I will make some close friends. we will be in charge of our own meals and such so that will also make things fun. cooking is no problem for me but I have never had to think of feeding only one person before! much of my time will be spent at the IHOP-Atlanta missions base, where we will take part in services and studies as well as spending many hours in the prayer room. my main goal is to develop an intemacy with God that will be a foundation for the rest of my life. I love the Lord with all my heart and I really want to come to a revelation of his love for me. my expectation is to be changed by Him and I know that He has so much He wants to do in me.

my time left at home is short... tomorrow is my last day here. it makes me sad to leave my family, I love them all so much. it will be so strange for me to be on my own because I am so used to being part of a unit. but I know it will be good for me although I am looking forward to being back here with them in December. I take so much joy in knowing that the Lord has a plan and all we have to do is follow Him. He will teach us and mold us into the person He has created us to be!

home from Haiti!

I am home from Haiti and had an amazing time. The children were wonderful. It is really my heart to love on kids so I was really happy.
Emily and I moved in with Keith and Cindy in their new house that is between the boys home and the adoption home. We joined three other interns two of which will be staying there for a year. Our month there was quite full and we tried to spend every moment we could with the kids.

Me and Jessica (one of the interns) feeding the babies

Shortly after Emily and I arrived a second newborn came into the home. Isabella a throw away baby came to us at only 6 days old and Davidson who was 12 days old came to us after his mother died in the hospital. I loved holding and loving on them so much. Two newborns are quite the handful though and we were glad that there were many people taking care of them.

Davidson and Isabella

There are 32 boys in the boys' home now. They are all so precious from the oldest to the youngest and all have their own unique stories. Emily and I spent a lot of our time at the land helping Hanna and Vance missionarys now living down there get settled into their new home. We also helped Hanna make dinner for all the boys! That was a job but so much fun!

At the adoption home they have 29 children in three groups. The girls, the little boys and the babies. I would love to go over and play clapping games with the girls. They also love to sing and dance!
Aaron is a very special little boy who came to the home in April. He has a rash all over his body and always had a sad expression on his face. I love him so much and would hold him and play with him every time I was over there. Soon he started to change... now he is smiling and laughing. I miss that little boy so much.

Before we left we gathered together new shoes, socks, underwear, and t-shirts for all the boys. They were so excited about their new stuff! Many of these kids had never owned something that was really new. The joy in their faces were so wonderful to see.
The kids at the adoption home also got new shoes and were so excited!! It was a fun day!

Three crates that were shipped this spring arrived while we were there. It was such a huge blessing to receive so much provision with needed, peanut butter, tuna, canned meat, diapers, formula, clothes, and supplies for the new kitchen!!

Before we left Ashley, Emily and I made Banana Bread for all the kids!! That was like 94 servings with staff and missionarys included! We had a blast and everyone loved the treat!

Thank you all for your prayers and support. You are such a blessing!

packing

we are all hard at work trying to get everything we need together and in our bags. emily and i leave for Haiti at 4am tomorrow morning so we are counting down to our last hours. so many things are swirling in my head of what i need to pack and what i need to find...

it is sad to say goodbye to our new Korean friends. they are so sweet and i have enjoyed the two weeks i have been able to spend with them. my family will say farewell to them on friday as they will fly home to Korea.

i am looking forward to being in Haiti and really hope that the next couple of hours are very productive. of course what we cannot bring ashley will be able to bring in her bags in a week and a half.

lazy 5 ranch

today we took the kids to Lazy 5 Ranch... they had so much fun feeding the animals!

everyone watching the bear cub

Pang and Michael

Crystal feeding the ostriches

Crystal, Esther, and Deborah

feeding the giraffe

this was some kind of cow... i think

the cow wanted Pastor N's camera

Jun feeding the camel

everyone enjoyed their time getting up close and personal with the animals! it was an experience I won't soon forget.