Sleepless in Homewood

Ok, so it's 3 in the a.m., I can't sleep, and feel like total crap. This crud that I got in Honduras is really taking it's toll on me. I can't stop coughing, blowing my nose, and my head hurts now...I'm quite sure it's from the coughing and the blowing of the nose.

That's not the only reason, though, why I can't seem to get some z's. My thoughts are still in Honduras and the amazing people that I met down there. However, there is one person who has truly been on my heart for the past few days.

Her name is Ariana. She's 12 years old and she is a stud. Seriously, this girl has an amazing heart, and in that heart is a true passion for God and his people. This rock star Christian served as one of our translators for a couple of the days that we were there. (There was also another 12-year-old, Elisa, that worked with us for one day, but I didn't get to know her as well as I did Ariana so I can't say much about her.) Anyway, Ariana, at the ripe old age of 12, is bilingual, a leader in her chruch (in my opinion anyway), and is third in her grade at school.

In Honduras they attend school year-round, but the week we were there was a rest week for the middle school and high school kids. Ariana gave up her week of rest -- when most of her friends were out having fun and playing around, doing things that normal teenagers do -- she was out with us, sharing the gospel and showing the love of Christ to her people.

Everyday, we were able to go out into the community and pray for the people in the community, but there was one particular day that Ariana joined us in that. She ended up being the translator for my group on the third day that we went out and I would venture to say that everyone in my group had no reservations about praying with these people. However, there was one point during our door-to-door trek where Ariana just took over. She spoke to the people and asked them what their needs were and if we could pray for them. Of course, she let us do the praying but instead of just serving as our translator the whole time, she actually worked as part of the group and joined in the serving.

I am completely blown away by the devotion of this young girl's heart to God. I can only pray that she will continue to surrender to God's will for her life daily and that God will continue to use her for his glory. Well, I don't have to pray for that because I know that He already will but I can pray for continual blessings on her and her family.

I can tell you for a fact that when I was 12 I was definitely not even thinking about going door-to-door, asking people what needs I could pray for them about. I mean, I was a Christian, I had been for five years, but the thought never entered my mind, nor had the opportunity even been presented to me or explained to me, that you could even do that. I can only hope that if I ever have a son or daughter that they will turn out to be half the stud at 12 that Ariana is.

Praise the Lord for placing her in a home of believers who care enough to teach her how to be a disciple of Christ and how to disciple and serve others!

As my friend Issy (who is also 12 years old) said the other night, "I guess a 12-year-old girl really can impact the world!"

Amen!

ALGL Disses Ole Miss On National TV...That's My Sweet Little Miss MSU!

Sweet Anna Little breaks onto the national television scene by dissing Ole Miss in front of the whole world. Thanks to YouTube we can enjoy it everyday!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

So I'm back from Honduras and I've had the most amazing week of my life! I truly understand what making disciples of all nations means and my prayer is that the fire in my heart will never go away. Soon I'll post pictures and videos and a bit of my journal from the trip but my head is reeling right now and I'm crazy tired so I'm just posting a bit to let everyone know that I'm back. I really did not want to leave and I have a few kids down there that I'd like to just go back and adopt. I could bee the Angelina Jolie of the unfamous world. These kids were amazing! Pure joy in the midst of nothing. It was such a blessing to serve them and to see them wanting to serve us.

So I'll leave you with one of my favorite images of the week: the Honduran flag. As you know, everyone across country, especially coutries in Latin America, are soccer fanatics. I painted faces at the carnival in the mornings all week and this was a big request...along with the American flag, the Costa Rican flag, the French flag, and the Italian flag. I even bought a little Honduran flag to put up in my room so I'll never forget this amazing place!

Fight for Mississippi State, Win the game today! Go State!

And that they did. The Mississippi State Diamond Dawgs are one win away from heading to Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series with their first win in the Super Regionals over Clemson. Now I know you guys are thinking...one win away? They have to play three games. Yes, I know. But since it's best out of three, they only need to win one more. I mean, I sure hope that we win all three but just one more win would suffice.

Win number one came in Starkville in front of a Super Regional record crowd of 12,868. I am so sad that I missed it and am going to miss the last two games because I'll be in Honduras. So boys, you have to win for me so that I can come back to good news. Here's an idea...win tomorrow so I can rest easy for a week in Honduras knowing that you guys are on your way to Omaha!

Go State!

I HATE 18-WHEELERS!!!

I've just got home (about four hours ago...what can I say? A girl's got to unpack!) from my trip home to hang with Pops while Moms is gone on her 2nd beach trip of the summer. Yes, my friends, that's 2 beach trips for the Moms but she only considers this past one her only "real" trip to the beach since her first was spent as a chaperone for the snotty-little-spoiled-rich-kid senior of St. Andrew's Episcopal School. I sure wish I got to go on trips like that when I was in high school. The closest I got to a trip to the beach when I was in school was going to my parents' room while my dad's noise machine was on the beach sounds.

Anyway, the whole point of my post is that I hate 18-wheelers! I've always been afraid of them since I can remember. I mean, seriously, that's just too much automobile for the road. Just about every one that I pass has cars or ginormous steel pipes or gravel or freshly cut trees. I mean, I do everything I can to not have to drive behind them and if I do, I try to pass them as fast as I can because I can just see a wire popping loose or the truck hitting an abnormally large bump in the road and the contents of the truck tumbling on top of my, trapping me in my car. It's scary! I can't handle it. Furthermore, most are top-heavy, they can't stay in their own lane, some have extremely bad smells coming from them, and just about everyone of them sends rocks or mud or something of that sort hurling into my windshield. And not to mention when it's windy or raining the trauma it causes me.

So with the afore mentioned issues that I have with such massive vehicles, it's no wonder that my fear has turned to hatred. The latest issue I have with 18-wheelers their refusal to use their brake or accelerator. I'm convinced that they live and die by cruise control and refuse to slow down or speed up to accomodate other drivers! And the worst thing is when they get next to each other and wait for the cruise to kick in and speed up. It's not going to happen! Pedal to the metal people! There is not reason the people behind you have to suffer because you don't want to go over 50 miles and hour in a 70 mph speed limit zone. There should be a lane designated for 18-wheelers. That way they won't bother us and we won't bother them.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I officially have less than 60 hours before I take off for Honduras! I can't believe it! I'm so excited! And I'm amazed how I really have no fears whatsoever. It's definitely God working! I mean every once in a while I get a thought about getting sick or bit or hurt but it quickly goes away because I know that God is in control. I've learned too many times in the past year and a half that no matter how hard I try I cannot control everything and if I do try it's not going to bring good results, and eventually brings more stress upon me. I've never really had problems with having faith and believing that things will work out but for some reason (maybe it's because I'm in a new and different place in my life) Satan has been attacking me over and over. But I've learned to let go and give God control and never ask for it back. Praise God for the gift of peace and taking on our burdens so we can concentrate on what is important in life...showing His glory to all nations! I'm so excited to go to a country I've never been to before and just let God work through me!

The countdown is on!

I can't believe that this time next week I will have been in Honduras for about seven hours. It still has not hit me yet that I'm leaving the country in a week for about a week and still really have no idea what I am going to be doing. I mean I have a semi-itinerary of what we will be doing, but really there is no telling exactly how things will go until we get there.

Today several members of my group got together and went to finish buying supplies to take with us. We all get to take a bag/suitcase/plasitc container that weighs about 50 pounds with us of supplies that the church we are working with can use. Most of us have opted to get bags or plastic containers that we can just leave there in Honduras and the church can make better use of them than we can.

I did some pre-shopping Friday (on my first day off from work for the summer). I took over the job of buying soccer balls for the group. I got some pretty awesome looking balls...too bad I didn't take pictures. I also picked up a pump/air release. While I was at it I bought a big duffel bag to put all the supplies in since I didn't have any bags here in Birmingham that I could leave in Honduras. I also went to the Dollar Tree to stock up. They had some awesome stuff. I racked up on bubbles and frisbees and some other stuff.

So today when we went shopping as a group, we filled in the gaps. We made stops at the Dollar Tree again, Hobby Lobby, and then Walmart. I think we seriously cleaned Walmart out of travel toothpaste and the Dollar Tree out of crayons, toothbushes, and candy.

Post-shopping, the whole group gathered at Candace's house to pack the supplies up in various containers and bags. We took all the supplies that we had gotten today, along with supplies that other had brought, and our hundreds of Spanish New Testaments and started loading them into bags and suitcases and plastic trunks. My bag ended up with an assortment of stuff (coloring books, balls, bubbles, crayons, toys) and weighed in at a grand total of 47.3 pounds. I'm thinking that's good enough if I have to carry this thing around.

Anyway, I really way too excited about this to even focus on what could go wrong or things that I should be worried about. I think that's God working though. He's filled my heart with such joy and anticipation so that I won't worry about what might happen or what might go wrong because that's not what I need to be focused on. My focus should be revealing God's glory to the people groups that I'm going to interact with. Sure, I'm going to show love and help out people who are less fortunate than I am, and that's exactly how I've been describing my trip to everyone, but what I should have been saying is that God wants the heart of every person of every tongue in every nation to see his glory and we are the tools he is using for this specific mission.

If anyone even reads this, please pray that that is exactly what will happen. That these people will see God's glory revealed through what we do there. We aren't the only group going down there so this isn't just a feel-good trip to satisfy some urge in our minds to make us feel like we actually made an impact or something. We are one of many groups from my church, The Church at Brookhills, that is spending a week or more doing God's work in a country that may or may not get just a glimpse of Him once in a blue moon. However, we are joined by tons of other groups/churches doing the same thing.

I read the journal of my old youth minister who now works at Pinelake Baptist Church in Brandon, Miss., who just returned from a trip to the middle of Africa -- Nairobi to be exact, I believe. Throughout his journal, he talked about the many people that he worked with, some from his church, who had dropped their lives in the comfy U.S. of A to live in the jungle/desert of Africa and mission work as the response to God's call. He mentioned more than once, most in a prayer, that although he didn't feel that God was calling him to do just that, he prayed that if God were to call him to relocate to Africa this is answer would be a whole-hearted "yes". He said of course, right now he would say that he would definitely say yes, but when the time came, and if God called, would he really respond that way, no questions asked? That made me think. I do have a desire for the nations, in particular, Africa, but I really don't feel God calling me to relocate. But if he were, and I know I'm probably playing with fire right now (Ask and it shall be given right?), would I respond with a whole-hearted "Yes, Lord, I'll go!" My prayer is that I will.

So to sum things up, I can't wait for my upcoming trip. The stories I've heard from other people who have been to Honduras and Venezuala in the weeks before us just pump me up even more. And I've already decided...my next trip...Africa!

The group. 10 + 2 that aren't pictured from my singles class at the church.
I am the youngest.