His prayer for us...

Over the past semester I have been extremely stressed with school and changes involving relationships with significant people in my life. The Sunday school answer for dealing with stress a lot of the time is to open up God's word and pray. BUT....I have learned over the past few months that reading and praying can be be some of the hardest things to do when you are stressed and even sometimes frustrated with God. It is easier just to find something else to do that will divert my attention away from the bad situation. Leading a Bible study this semester was a good way to make sure that I was spending time studying the Word but I don't want my relationship with God to be forced. I desire to desire God. I know that my being reluctant to spend time with the Lord comes from my sinful nature and the evil one. A lot of the time I ignore the fact that there is someone out there that hates when I spend time with my Creator. Someone who wants to see me fail and make bad decisions. I have found myself begging God for protection at times. Satan can cloud my thoughts with lies and desires that are not from God. There is one place in scripture that I have turned to over and over again this past semester as I have been battling school, relationship struggles, and Satan. What better way to pray than to pray like Jesus did for his disciples (us!) in John 17. Jesus had given his disciples a message to share with the world. The time had come for Jesus to be glorified through his death and resurrection so that He could glorify his father. Jesus asked God to protect his followers because he would be leaving them soon. He was going to be with the father and the disciples were going to be staying in the world. Jesus knew the world would hate his followers and prayed specifically for protection from the world and evil one in John 17:15. I have found myself praying this chapter over and over again this semester. God didn't take his followers out of the world. He left them here to tell the world the amazing news of the Gospel. You may be wondering why I am writing about this because I am definitely not a Bible scholar:) but I just wanted to share something that has helped me push forward in challenging times. We have been commanded to take the Gospel to the ends of the Earth (Matthew 28) and we have also been promised that the world will hate us. Praying the words of my Savior seems like a good way to take on this life...

A CRU Thanksgiving...

Sunday we had our annual Thanksgiving dinner for CRU. It was delicious and a good number showed up considering it was Sunday and a lot of people had tests to study for before the break. Josiah's parents let us use their house since none of our apartments could hold all of the people.We had some very good food and were very surprised at what some of the guys brought. Who knew they could cook so well?!

Sara, Kaitlin, and me

The group

Hello Christmas Tree!

Monday night, Kaitlin and I decided to put up our Christmas tree. We found some really nice guys to help us put it up! Last year we had A LOT of difficulty trying to get it up and lit ourselves. NOT THIS YEAR!! It was easy and we had tons of fun decorating it. Kaitlin's cousin was nice enough to give us her old pre- lit tree last year. It's huge and we love it!

The Guys at work
Our beautiful tree!

Bradley and I

Kaitlin and Brian

CRU Community Groups

Campus Crusade on our campus has community groups for freshmen and upperclassmen. I have had the privilege of leading a freshmen ladies Bible study on Thursday nights at 5:00pm. It has been amazing. I get to spend time in the Word with some awesome girls every week! Last Thursday we had them all over to our apartment for dinner. We had a blast eating and playing catch phrase. I love these girls and I am so glad I have had the opportunity to spend time studying God's Word with them!

Kaitlin's Birthday and Halloween

October was a crazy month for me! I have been so busy with school. We have been having a lot of fun events with Campus Crusade. Last weekend we went to a corn maze and had a bonfire afterwards. We had a ton of freshmen go! On Halloween we had a party with snacks, games and scary movies at mine and Kaitlin's apartment. It was tons of fun! On October 25th Kaitlin had her 20th birthday. I threw her a birthday party because she is so awesome:) There were caramel apples and a pumpkin cake! I have known Kaitlin since we were about 6 years old. We grew up right down the street from each other. We would ride bikes and play in the woods. We reconnected our senior year of high school and decided to live together when we found out we were going to the same college. This is our third year living together and she is the best roommate EVER!!

hayride to the corn maze
Kayla and Scott

Kaitlin, me, and Lydia (I was a plumber...there is plumber gear in my pocket:)

boys never grow up;)

The Cat and the Hat

Brian's 49er pumpkin

Kaitlin and her awesome cake!

People in Campus Crusade are amazing.

THE CAKE

Banking 500 at Lowe's Motor Speedway!

Yesterday a few friends and I went to the Nascar race in Charlotte. It was so much fun! We were able to see Fee, Toby Mac, and Mercy Me. I LOVE watching races even though I'm not the stereotypical race fan! It is such an adrenaline rush to watch those cars go flying by. It was really neat to see these Christian bands share the Gospel in a very dark place. We had a great time and here are some pictures...

Mercy Me (Energizer was there and that is why the goofball in this picture has bunny ears!)

Toby Mac

pit road..I've never been on the track before so that was really exciting!

Kaitlin and I freezing to death in turn two:) We LOVED every minute.

It was exciting to see my favorite driver race! Sadly, his transmission went out and he just couldn't catch up.

BUT!! my other favorite driver (look at that face!can you see why I like this sport?) Kasey Kahne led for 67 laps!

After an intense battle this loser won..haha just kidding (kind of)

Group Picture from Fall Getaway

The group from UNCC at Fall Getaway '09 (minus a couple due to sickness:/)

Fall Getaway!!

Kaitlin and Kayla
Kaitlin and Caitlin :)

most of the UNCC girls

some of our beautiful new freshmen girls

Catlin, Jessica, and Alisha

Random Craziness!

This weekend we went to Fall Getaway at Camp Thunderbird on Lake Wylie. It was AMAZING! We spent the weekend learning about the Old Testament and where to find the Messiah within it. We all learned so much! We all spent the weekend praying and recognizing what the Lord is stirring our hearts about. Do you know what he wants you to do and just need to take action or are you waiting upon the Lord with patience for him to tell you where to go? We all fit into one of these two scenarios. For me, TIME TO TAKE ACTION:)

Tuesday Nights @ 7

Brother and Sister!

Name Tags

Chubby Bunny -takes me back to Stupid Shay Games:)

The New Student Union (view of the inside from our room)

Practice!

View from our room! ( view of outside from our room-new side of campus)

Our weekly meetings are every Tuesday night at 7pm. This year we meet in the new student union! It is huge! Tonight a man who serves in East Asia with his family through Campus Crusade came to speak about the importance of taking the Gospel to the nations. He has been serving there for 12 years! It was a message that everyone benefited from no matter where the Lord is leading them.

This weekend is Fall Getaway! We have over 20 freshmen going with us! Pray that the Lord will do great things in all of our lives this weekend.

Psalm 67

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us,

that your way may be known on earth, and your saving power among all nations.

Let the peoples praise you O God; let all the peoples praise you!

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity

and guide the nations upon earth.

Let the peoples praise you O God; let all the peoples praise you!

The earth has yielded its increase;

God our God shall bless us.

God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

Fun Weekends :)

Samantha

Lydia

We've tried to plan things on the weekends for people to do since a lot of people leave and we are poor...haha soo we've played capture the flag and ultimate frisbee the past couple of weekends. It's been a lot of fun! I'm not good but it's still fun to play and laugh... here are some pictures:)

First Few Weeks...

Volleyball Wednesdays

Intense discussion at the Belk Tower:)

Pizza Party

I don't have a lot of pictures..mainly because I forgot to take them:) But here are a few from the pizza party. You can see the people from India in some of these pictures. They liked our pizza and ice cream! haha They are grad students from Mumbai. They were so much fun and some discussions about Christ were initiated. It really was a great time. We also have volleyball every Wednesday afternoon.

UNCC is growing bigger and bigger every year. It is the 4th largest school in the state. Over 6,000 new freshmen came in this year. This is a huge mission field and we believe that God can do great things. Please pray for our ministry.

O Lord God almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O Lord, and your faithfulness surrounds you. Psalm 89:8

Forty-Niner New Year

I'm finally getting to post about the start of the new school year! It has been a CRAZY past few weeks. All of us on leadership for campus crusade are excited to see what the Lord has done. We have been praying as a team for a while now that campus crusade on UNCC's campus would be exactly what the Lord wants it to be. We want to use our ministry to glorify God no matter how big or how small. At the end of my Freshman year there were only about 20 people attending the weekly meetings. We spent most of my sophomore year evaluating and praying about what the Lord would have us do. After months of praying and planning God has allowed us to see some of the harvest:) For the past few meetings we have had close to 100 people coming to our weekly meetings and close to 20 people attending each community group. It may not sound like much compared to some of the other crusades in the state but we are SUPER excited and blessed. We are so thankful that the Lord has allowed us to see growth. Thanks to all who have prayed for this ministry!

Butt to Butt

My dad always jokes about the way my dog (little ann) sits with me on the couch. He says his little girls are sitting "butt to butt". Well Sunday night he captured it on camera.

Beach

Last week my parents and I went to Emerald Isle. My family has a trailor in Salter Path. We ate and relaxed a lot! The last night we were there, there was a storm that left a beautiful rainbow! Also, check out the way people are re-decorating their trailors!