Links I Love

Basically this post was born out of the fact that I spend way too much time on the internet. Support raising is a wonderful time (sometimes lol) because I have a lot more freedom to read books, surf the internet and find interesting things.

So I don't even know if you guys will like anything that comes out of this crazy place I call my brain, but I'm just gonna go ahead and share anyways. Don't judge me too harshly :)

• How and why videos go viral - This is a subject that completely fascinates me! Seriously, I am just excited and amazed at the possibilities of a gospel video going viral. 
• This post by Emily - I love this whole post. I love Emily and her heart. I love how she puts her faith into action. I especially love this quote from that post "when women get together and refuse to talk badly about each other it's like a sunrise. all pretty and miraculous. it lights up everything."
• Fundraising for the orphan - I wrote about this earlier this week. But I love the orphan and I love it even more when we're invited into someone's special story by donating. I and most love that I can do that by buying fair trade coffee. Buy here
• Parmesan Truffle Fries - From My Life as a Mrs. I have a particular affinity for anything truffled. I want to make these soon.
• Lucky Charms Treats - Uh is this real life? Please get in my mouth right now.
• Hunger Games - Yes I bought into the insanity. It's as good as the hype. Go see it.
• This song - By Jimmy Needham and Lecrae. Two of my faves. Plus it's free if you tweet about it :)
• Foursquare - So I just discovered foursquare. And I love it. Let's be friends. 

So there you have it. A glimpse into my week. Add some fro yo, hilarious text conversations, and great brainstorming times and you're basically me.

What are you loving this week friends?

The God who Reveals

"For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant" 2 Samuel 7:21

Have you ever been the victim of a random act of kindness? Maybe someone paid for your coffee ahead of you in the drive through or paid your toll at a bridge.

I know a friend who used to "toilet paper" houses in college. But instead of unraveling it and throwing it over the house she filled up the inside so they wouldn't run out.

I imagine there are lots of things that God does for us that we don't know about. Sparing us from pain or heartache, or blessing us in an unexpected way.

But how neat is it that he doesn't always keep us in the dark? He makes known the great things that he has done for us! He has given us his very words so that we can know Him and what he has done for us.

But he doesn't just make his great works known so that we'll feel all happy and warm and fuzzy inside.d

He makes them know to us for the sake of his word and according to his will.

So that we will have a deeper understanding of who He is!

Oh Lord thank you that you don't keep us in the dark! Thank you for revealing yourself through your word so that we might see the great works you've done for us. Most of all thank you Lord for the greatest work you've ever made known to us: your death and resurrection so that we can be with you forever in eternity.

Linking up with Laura at Faith Filled Fridays

TV and the Glory of God

So can I confess something to you guys?

I love TV.

{um this little girl is too cute. and looks surprisingly like a baby me}

All kinds of TV. I like reality shows, dramas, those gross crime scene ones, the Office, 30 Rock, and pretty much anything except Jersey Shore.

You know how some people are "movie people"? I'm like that but with TV shows. I love getting whole series on DVD and watching them over and over.

Maybe this makes me a "bad Christian" but aren't we all "bad Christians"? If we were all good and perfect then we wouldn't even need to be Christians at all.

And since every.single.thing reveals the character of God, can't you look at things with your renewed mind and sort out what is good and what isn't?

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will" Romans 12:2

So what does not conforming to the pattern of this world look like? Does it look like avoiding everything completely and going and living in a cave? No. Does it look like being so consumed with the world that nobody could tell that you're a Christian? No.

It means being in this world, interacting with and observing, and yet not being of this world- thinking differently than the world tells us to.

God has given us a renewed mind and his Spirit living within us to that we might test and approve what  is good. And because truth is not subjective, and all truth comes from the Lord, we can see aspects of his character by knowing what is true!

Now, you have to walk cautiously and be continually asking God to fill you with his spirit so that you can test and approve what's right. But isn't that true always? If you're interacting with this world (like you should because Jesus told us to in a direct commandment) don't you have to be on guard?

So let me tell you about one of my favorite shows right now and how I think it reveals the character of God. I just love the show Once Upon a Time. Have you seen it? Do you love it as much as I do? :)

It's this awesome fairy tale meets real world story. There are two worlds and one thing that connects them- a book of fairy tales. Each character in the real world coincides with one in the fairy tale land.

The Mayor, who is the evil queen in the fairy tale side of the story, is the only character that knows there are two worlds. Others speculate but she knows what's true and she lies about it to everyone.

And as the deception grows and the other characters start to piece things together, they feel betrayed and hurt by her web of lies.

God, the ever truthful, hates lies also! He is quick to warn us from telling them. He says in Proverbs 6 that he hates lying lips and in John 8 that Satan is a liar, the father of lies, and when we lie we are speaking his native language!

To be clear I avoid shows that are clearly against God's will - shows that promote sexual immorality in particular. But I do believe there are shows that are "morally neutral" and can reveal the glory of God.

What do you guys think? Do you watch TV at home? What are you 'rules'?



Linking up with Thought Provoking Thursdays

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The days when I wish life was easier

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” - CS Lewis

There are days when I find myself like this child playing in the mud. I like where I'm at. I don't want to look outside of myself and see the beauty that God offers. I put my fingers in my ears and sing "la-la-la-la" ignoring everything God has to say.

I find my flesh winning out and being satisfied by things that are just not important. Things like March Madness or Pinterest or the Hunger Games.

My gracious God does not abandon me here but whispers in my ear "Come, child" and waits ever patient for me to repent of my lack of vision.

And there are other days when I feel like I'm a child who has been taken away from the mud and yet has not seen the sea. I'm in transit.

I feel ripped away from what I know and like and yet can not see the end goal. I know that I'll ultimately end up in a place of beauty but right now all I see is pain and discontentment from leaving my comfort.

The Lord has recently led me to put my money where my mouth is in regards to Human Trafficking. You all know how much I hate the evil of slavery. Whether it's girls in Cambodia being sold for sex or men being exploited in coffee plantations in South America or children being kidnapped and forced into being soldiers in Africa.

Me and Hannah on a mission trip last year

I was talking to a friend of mine, Hannah, (who happens to be in Cambodia right now!) about Fair Trade Coffee. She said something that I might never forget "Sure I look at the price of this coffee and wince because it's so expensive, but then I think about what the slaves are going through to make my coffee cheaper and suddenly the price just doesn't matter"

And I knew right then and there I had to stop buying coffee that was made using slave labor.

Just imagine if one of those slaves was your brother, or child, or friend. Wouldn't you do everything in your power to bring them freedom? Wouldn't you move mountains, fly across the world, fight governments and authorities to free them and bring them safety? Wouldn't money be the last thing on your mind?

I was on board. Hook, line and sinker. I'm all in. Only Fair-Trade coffee for me.

But then I realized that meant giving up my beloved Starbucks. My four-times a week Starbucks. My convient and there for me anywhere I need it Starbucks.

I can do it, by the power of God living in me, I can do it. But I don't always want to.

I catch myself longing for the days of ignorance where my actions didn't matter. Where I didn't care if my stewardship was pleasing to the Lord. Where I made decisions based on my feelings and desires rather than what brings the most glory to the Lord.

I feel like the child lost in transit. Knowing that I'm heading in the right direction but unable to see it. Not wanting to be satisfied by only mud pies, but missing the comfort of the sandbox.

I beg the Lord that I won't be easily satisfied. That he will make me into a woman who does not desire things of this world but the God who created me. I plead for an eternal perspective so that
 I might look to the holiday at sea rather than a measly mud pie. I ask that while I'm in transit he'll continue to remind me of the race marked out for me.

{I know that not everyone has the same convictions and that's okay, but if the Lord leads you to invest your money in Fair-Trade coffee would you consider purchasing it here? You would not only be helping free slaves but also helping my friends bring home their precious baby girl through adoption (my other heart!) It would mean the world to me and them!}

{Also, would you check out my sweet friends' blogs today? They love the trafficked and orphan too. Laura at Beholding Glory and Sara at the Nutt House}


Linking up with: On Your Heart, Finding Heaven, Write it, Girl, We are THAT family, Women Living Well,  Good Morning Girls

The sending, saving, loving God in Cambodia

Last Thursday our ministry sent a team of 9 to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to serve the hurting and oppressed that are trapped in sex trafficking.

The Team just before they left

I love love Cambodia so much. It really is my very favorite country in the whole world. It was the only place I've ever been sad to leave. I just love what God is doing there and how He is moving in the hearts of the trapped and broken. You can read about when I was there by clicking here.

As much as I love Cambodia and a piece of my heart still resides there, it is a terrible and evil place. 90% of white men are there to buy sex with young girls (like 3-15 years old young). In Svay Pak (pronounced s-why pock), where I was with Laura last summer and where our team is now, 50% of girls are sold every night by their own parents.

This morning I woke up to this update from Austin (Laura's husband who is leading the trip):

(Click make it bigger)

There is a difference between knowing about sex trafficking and seeing it. When  I was there, my heart was broken. I wept at the thought of girls being sold for the same price as a beer. I knew I had to act when I heard the statistics about girls being sold by their own parents every night.

But when I looked into the face of girl who had just been raped, it became real. I looked into the eyes of a man who had spent money to rape a girl who barely looked 15. And my life changed radically.

Less than an hour later we saw the horrors of the Cambodian Genocide where 1/3 of the population was killed in less than 4 years. We walked the halls of the tourture center where there was still blood on the walls. I don't think my crying eyes had a break all day.

Genocide Museum

I begged God to please show me how this evil could possibly show His character. How could murder and rape reveal the glory of God?

And as I cried a heavy, ugly, cry all day God reminded me of two verses:

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us" Romans 8:18

"The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but everyone to come to repentane" 2 Peter 3:9

 God does not delight in evil. He destests sin. He hates when those made in his image are disgraced. God weeps alongside of us when we hurt. Jesus felt the pain of the whole world, past, present, and future, when he was on the cross. He isn't unable to sympathize with us, or with any who are hurting.

The team with some awesome belivers in the local church

Yet He withholds his wrath for the sake of his name. (Is 48:9) He is patient, meaning willing to endure suffering for a long time, because he wants more people to come to know Him.

He is willing to endure pain because of this evil because His love is so radical that he wants more people to know him.

He wants those men to know His grace.

He wants the moms who are selling their daughters to know His forgiveness.

He wants the whole world to turn and repent and see His face.

The God who loves,
The God who saves,
The God who forgives,
The God who comforts,
The God who sends,
The God who waits,

The God who is willing to take the wrath we deserve on himself.

That is the God who is in Cambodia.

Despite all the evil, God is there. And always will be.

Would you please pray for our students? Austin, Aaron, Korina, Jacob, Marietta, Nolana, Stella, Hannah and Luwam. Also for this man- that justice would be served and that he would know the gospel. They will be gone all week, hopefully I'll be able to keep you all updated with what He is doing there!

Counting my gifts:

37. A team of servant hearted students willing to go to the hard places

38. A wonderful new coffee shop that doesn't add to the slaves in the world by serving Fair Trade coffee

39. A patient God

40. The promise of glory revealed and knowing one second in Heaven is going to be all worth it

41. Extra surprise money so I can go to Allume with Laura!

42. Green marshmallow peeps (my favorite treat!)

43. A free cup of delicious french press coffee just when I was wanting one

44. The feeling that Uniquely Made is really coming together!

45. New music that refreshes my soul

Linking up with:

Joseph Kony, Scandelous Grace and Social Justice

Have you see this video?


Chances are, some of your facebook friends have posted about it. In fact, I've had over 30 friends share the video in my news feed. There are over 10 million views on YouTube alone. It has gone viral. Why?

My generation is a generation obsessed with social justice.
There is a very real desire for justice to reign. Both among Christian students and non-believing students social justice is very popular. Groups like Invisible Children and Amnesty International and International Justice Mission reach young people of all walks of life.

But why are so many millennials (people 18-30) drawn to social justice? Honestly I don't really know. I have a few guesses because I know the things they value - honesty, being up front, perserverance in the face of trouble, and risk taking. (Laura wrote a great article about them and the things they value. She's the resident expert!)

Why does it matter? Why does it matter that my generation is obsessed with social justice?

Because my God is obsessed with social justice.

My Lord loves the outcast. He loves the down-trodden and the weak. He loves to comfort those who are suffering. He wants all to be free from slavery and bondage. He is both just and the justifier. He is the good judge who administers justice.

"But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it and take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless" Psalm 10:14

"Yet their Redeemer is strong; the Lord Almighty is his name. He will vigorously defend their cause" Jeremiah 50:34a 

"My comfort in suffering is this, Your promise preserves my life" Psalm 119:50 

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of the widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisioners with singing;" Psalm 68:5-6 

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" Matthew 11:28-30

The Lord always has been, and always will be, about social justice. His abundant mercy and grace are offered to us even when we don't deserve it. The fact of the matter is that we're not so different from Joseph Kony.

In fact in God's eyes I'm basically the same.

We're both sinners separated from God.

God, the good judge, demands truth. He doesn't let guilt go unpunished. He demands justice.

I think we delight in justice because we were made in the image of a God who delights in justice. But funny enough, we don't ask for justice for ourselves.

We don't beg for speeding tickets when we get pulled over (actually wait... my friend Nate did that one time) or demand that we get punished for every lie we tell.

We want justice in every area but our own lives. What we really deserve from God is death. An eternal separation from him because we haven't lived up to his standards.

Every single person that has ever walked the face of the earth deserves to go to hell.

You, me and Joseph Kony are all in the same boat.

But God.

God loves social justice. He loves the outcast, the failure. He loves you, me and Kony all the same.

He loved us all the way to Calvary. All the way to his own death.

He administered the justice you, me, and Kony deserve on himself because he's a good judge. He punished himself for our mistakes.

So often we glaze over this. This scandelous grace that we don't deserve. The Lord loves Joseph Kony the same way he loves you and I. The offer is the same whether you've told one little white lie or murdered thousands.

Jesus died on a cross so that you can be forgiven of your sins and have an eternity with God.

You, me and Kony all have this option.

Please please take it.

And please please please pray that Joseph Kony does also.

Linking up with Thought Provoking Thursdays and Faith Filled Fridays


If you have a been encouraged would you also consider subscribing over in the sidebar? You can have Angi Does Ministry delievered right to your inbox or your favorite reader to make sure you don't miss anything.

When things don't go how you planned

Thursday evenings I get together with a group of girls who are involved in our ministry and read God's word. One of my dear friends Korina opens her home, serves us tea, and organizes everything.

Korina and I at her Bachelorette Party

Each week is filled with laughter and fellowhship as we look at different women in the Bible. Korina is so good at delegating leadership to others! Some of the girls that come have had the chance to lead a Bible study for the first time.

I rarely lead because I love giving opportunities for other girls to lead and step out in faith in a new way. But nobody was able to lead last night's study so I offered.

I spent the afternoon thinking about different women that I have read about and Abigail, the wife of David, came to mind. She's a pretty dang awesome woman of the Lord and people rarely talk about her (you guys know how I like the obscure parts of the Bible! Hello Philemon and Habakkuk!)

So I wrote out this whole study of how Abigail was wise and prudent and honoring to the Lord. I made connections between her character and the Lord's character and how we can see the Glory of God through her actions. I had questions planned to show us how to take action steps like Abigail did. And you know what?

I didn't use a thing.

We read all the way through 1 Samuel 25 (after discussing the background of Saul and David) and I asked (like I always do, almost out of habit) if any verses in particular stuck out to anyone.

Elizabeth and Tina leading worship in our Bible Study

Someone asked about the last 3 verses and how it was okay for David to have multiple wives.

And our conversation just flew from there. We talked about polygamy and adultery, how the law came to be and our need for it, why Jesus had to die on the cross and the role of grace in sanctification. The gospel was shared and God's character revealed. Scriptures were exchanged and testimonies were shared.

It was the best Bible study I think we've had. And I couldn't have planned it in a million years.

Oh Lord you're so smart in the way you plan things out! Thanks for sweet girls who share the gospel and make people feel so comfortable. Thanks for being a discoverable God! I love that you want us to know you, that you make yourself available for us! Thank you for the cross and how you glorify yourself through it. I love when you are the plan changer and we get to be along for the ride. Please continue to use the conversation that was had, and ultimately your word to increase the faith of the girls who attended. You're so gracious in trusting us to share your word! Thank you thank you thank you!

Did you see that Laura is starting Faith Filled Fridays? I'm linking up with her to share this neat story of what God is doing! You should too!!