The old has gone the new has come...

So I decided to delete all the old postings and start from scratch. They were from last year and really don't accurately represent our lives right now. WOW, so a ton has happened since last year that I am not really sure where to begin! I guess I will start with the past few months. Chris got a new job working with an electric company that is renovating the base at Ft. Knox. All I can say is that this job is truly a blessing from God! Chris is really enjoying it and will hopefully be there for the next few years. As for me, I am still working at Evergreen Christian Preschool in the nursery and I love it. Currently, we are saving money for a house and/or anything else that God may decide to throw our way. We are discussing starting a family but that we are also leaving that in up to God and His divine timing.

I spent all last week at Youth Camp with the junior high and high school students from our church, it was AMAZING!! I think I was probably challenged as much if not more than the students. One the focuses of this week was on India. We learned that 3 million people in India are professing Christians, the other 997 million are unsaved. As a result of this there has been a huge breakdown in the family system and the value placed on human life. When women give birth to baby girls often times the babies are killed within a few hours to 1 day of their birth. Families of girls are expected to have huge elaborate weddings and most people are unable to provide that for their daughters so instead they take their own children's lives.

However, there is hope, in one of the villages a safe place was created to give families a way out of having to kill their baby girls. (To protect this ministry and the people working for it I will only refer to it as The House.) If an unwanted girl is born a family they can leave her on the doorstep at the House and the baby will be taken care of and loved. For awhile nothing changed, then Grace came and everything changed. Grace is a precious little baby girl with two clubbed feet that was left in a box on the doorstep of The House. After that other children starting coming to the house and now school aged children and younger are able to come to this safe place and escape the abuse in their homes and have the opportunity to hear the gospel. For many of the children that come to The House they live in a war zone of domestic violence, poverty, and constant fear. Most of them may only be able to eat while they are at the house and as a means of escape many of the children do not leave until it is time to go to bed.

One the challenges presented to the students this week was to give sacrificially of their own spending money to help provide support for The House and the ministry organization affiliated with the House. The students raised over $7,500 in one night!!!! That, my friends, is the power of God! Please keep India in your prayers, that lives would be changed and souls would be won over to Christ.

Another challenge presented to the students was "Going Beyond". This is about taking your passion and your burden and going beyond the status quo. Some of the students that had a passion for cheerleading and a burden for children came up with the idea to have a cheerleading camp for handicapped kids and donating the proceeds to The House in India. Others thought of having a charity dinner at their church and sending the money to India or other orphanages that needed assistance. I feel so challenged by "going beyond" that I am praying for God to show me a way to combine my passions and my burdens to be beneficial for His Kingdom.

How will you "go beyond"?