Before I hit the road..

This is my last blog before I leave for the best Christmas ever!! I am pretty pumped about it!! Actually, I am MORE than pumped!!! I am ECSTATIC!!!

I got up this morning and tried to do some more packing, went to Atmore to eat, came back home and finished my packing for the most part, and Sarah came over for a little while to talk and hang out. She gave me some pretty sweet mittens and hat! Super cute and totally my style! :) I also have been doing laundry and getting all my things washed and dried.

Tonight, I went to church and heard a testimony from a missionary from Thailand, which was awesome. Then, my church prayed over me for my trip. :)

Now, I am trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I leave out tomorrow!! This is actually becoming real! This is something I have been wanting to do for 3 years now and it is about to happen. God's timing is always perfect, no doubt about it! His plans are always better. He will always be with us. He will always guide us. He will always take care of us. We are safe in His arms. Don't forget that!

I was thinking today about everything that has happened in the past year and A LOT has happened. Lots of changes, ups, downs, and turning things around in my life. Everything has changed for the better though. Praise the Lord! People have left out of my life and then people have been added and I like the new people a lot. Not that I didn't like the people who left, it is just there is a season and time for everything and everyone and I especially like the new people in my life. :)

Things to pray for: safety, boldness in my witness, that I make use of every opportunity to share the Gospel with others, and spiritual warfare. Oh! And that we do not get sick!

So, I am off to bed due to getting up early. Hope you have a very merry Christmas and a happy new year! :)

Love in Him- MaeLee
Psalm 37:4

2 days!

I got to spend my time with family and friends today. My PawPaw called me last night to tell me that he was coming to see me this morning. So, he came over and talked with me for a little while and gave me advice about going out of the country. After he left, I got ready to go eat with my cousins, Candi and Chasity. We always have a great time together. We laughed and laughed some more!!

I ran errands around town and got things taken care of that I needed to. I hung around Candi's shop for while, which is always fun. I always seem to get into something while I am there. I had something going on with my car and Judson helped me out with that. Praise the Lord for gentlemen and men who know about vehicles! :) Then, I left home again to go meet with one of my best friends, Hannah. We had dinner together and got to talk about everything. I just wished she lived closer to me like she used to so I could see her more often! Hannah is an amazing woman of God and she has helped me with and through so much! God has definitely blessed me with a great friend!

I have just been chilling since then. I found some of my old cds on my way home though and jammed out to them! :) I have watched "The Grinch" while sitting around and not doing anything. I noticed that the main theme of the movie is about Cindy Lou trying to understand the meaning of Christmas and basically how it is NOT about the gifts.

So, the inquisitive side of me decided to look up when the exchanging of gifts began. It started a long time ago around the 4th century when a bishop decided to help out others. Now, it has turned into a HUGE ordeal about presents and that is what most people base Christmas on. People have forgot the TRUE meaning of Christmas. CHRISTmas is based upon the birth of JESUS CHRIST!! I am so excited that I get to spend my Christmas spreading the Gospel to people who have never heard about God!! I know that this is going to be my best Christmas EVER and it is all because I will be experiencing what Christmas is truly about. :)

Tomorrow is going to be my last day blogging. Thursday I leave out to meet up with my all of my team, except Amber. So, if Tim continues to blog the next two days, then we will be even on the times we missed blogging. Please keep me and my team in your prayers! Thanks!!

Have a great night!!

Time to face the music

Tomorrow will mark 3 days before I fly out. Oh! today has completely amazing! It seriously has. I got to get a lot of sleep in, pack the majority of my things, visit with my mom and her co-workers, make a random trip to Mobile, get things I needed from there, pick up awesome salad and bread sticks from Olive Garden, worship and talk to God on my way there and back, and spend some more time studying His Word tonight. Also, I got in around 100 texts from people telling me that they are praying for me and my team! Talk about feeling God's love!!

I needed $3,500 for my trip and I got that. Then, I also have around $900 extra and that is after I gave $200 to a team member who needed it to finish paying their way. I do not understand whatsoever why God is so good to me!! I mean, this is crazy!! Why would He choose to bless me and take care of me the way He does?? I deserve NOTHING! I mean nothing. I am a horrible person. I am a sinner. I do not always follow Him and His commands. I do not shine my light for Him like I should. I deserve nothing. I am worthless and an epic fail in comparison to Christ.

"All of us have become unclean, and all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6
"There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins." Ecclesiastes 7:20

I received some more money today. It was another $100. This time it came from someone who is not a Christian. Someone who I had never asked money from. Yes, she has given money before, but I have never asked once for it. She always writes me a card and says that she will be "thinking about me". This time she wrote she will be "praying for me and she knows that God is going to bless me". I read this before I opened the separate card with the money in it. When I read it, I just started crying. And then when I opened to see how much money I was, i really started crying. It is amazing how God use people in your life to share the Gospel. There are so many Christians who are opposed to missions and sending money with missionaries, and then there are people who are not Christians and are willing to give to others. Something is wrong with this picture.

Mark 10:21-23 "Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack..go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Tim mentioned me yesterday in his blog about praying for me and my team, so I am mentioning him in mine today. Please pray for him as he is preparing to preach on January 2nd at FBC Abbeville. Tim is about to start his last semester at Troy and then his plan is to go onto seminary at Lakeview Baptist in Auburn. Tim is a great guy who truly loves the Lord with all his heart and seeks to glorify God in all he does. So, please pray for him. :)

Tomorrow I get to spend time with some people before I leave out. So, be ready for some great stories come tomorrow.
Peace out!

Oh man!!

Today has been a wonderful day!!!! Got to worship with my church family and then ate lunch with some awesome people. I went to wal-mart to spend more money. :/ I have a love/hate relationship with that place. I came home to wrap my dirty santa gift and bake cookies for the Christmas party.

I went back to church to watch the children's musical and they did an awesome job! After that, I headed over to Sarah and Neal's for the party. We had a great time! I went in with toilet paper and came out with 2 new cds! Whoop whoop!! :)

I have a TON of thoughts running through my mind about everything today. It is really sinking in that I am leaving the country. There are some other things going on as well, but leaving the country is the biggest thing!! I have a whirlwind of emotions going on inside of me! Please be in prayer for me with this.

Hope you have a great week!! :)

Just a few more days..

Tim and I only have a few more days left in this 30 day blogging challenge. I am one up on him since he has missed 3 days and I have missed 2 days. I almost forgot tonight and I remembered as I was getting into bed.

My parents left early this morning to go to Mobile to see my grandmother. She is in ICU and they are trying to keep her stable. She will have surgery on her leg in the morning at 8 AM. So, please be in prayer for her. I slept until 9. I was hoping to sleep later, but my body woke itself up unfortunately. I got ready for the day and then headed to town to pick up some things I needed for my trip. Got to see some people I have not seen in a while. I came back home and watched a LOT of cake shows. I have decided that if nursing completely fails on me, then I am going to culinary school. I have always said that, but now I really mean it. I love cooking and baking! My mom was telling me last night that I needed to go to culinary school and I said I agree!! I decided to bake some cookies while watching the show for tonight. After that, I went outside and walked around the yard and just soaked up some of God's greatness!! Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love watching sunsets and sunrises!! They are my favorite part of the day!! God creates a masterpiece everyday! :)

Tonight I had Christmas with my family. We had dinner and I opened my gifts. I got some new luggage, which was well-needed since mine has been through it with all the traveling I have been doing. I got new sweaters, DVDs, gloves, jewelry, nice coat, and a new Nikon! My camera that given to me by a good friend for high school graduation was either lost or stolen back in July when I was chaperoning a youth conference in B-ham. So, I am pretty excited about the new camera!! God has truly blessed me with a wonderful family and friends!!

Something I have been praying about the past few months is truly becoming a Proverbs 31 woman. I want to be true and real woman of God! I want my only focus is to be on God and serving Him in my full capacity! I want people to see God before they see me. I tend to lose focus so easily though. I am sinner and fail God in every way possible and He STILL loves me. I deserve nothing of His or any blessing He bestows upon me!! It is so crazy to think that after doing the wrong things over and over and over and over and over again...He is still there for me. I know that if I had a friend that was constantly upsetting me, stabbing me in the back, lying to me, breaking promises, being mean to me, and everything else I would no longer want to be their friend. But God is God!! God is UH-MAZ-ING!!!!!! There is no other way to put it!! I am so glad I get to live this life He has planned out for me. I pray that I just do everything to glorify Him and only Him. So, if you want to pray for me about something, then pray that I open and willing to do everything God has called me to do and become the woman of God He wants me to be. :)

Have a great day worshiping with your faith family tomorrow!! :)

Rest

I am so super tired. I guess I did do a lot today, but at the same time I feel like I didn't. I got up and packed my things to go home. I delivered some books back to my nursing instructors that they let me borrow and ran some other errands too. On my way home, I found out that my grandmother had been picked up by an ambulance and I needed to go straight to the hospital. Come to find out, she had fallen at home and she broke her femur. They transferred her to Springhill Hospital in Mobile and she will more than likely have surgery tomorrow.

I did something out of the ordinary today. I got the urge to highlight my hair and so I sent a text out to 3 people asking their opinions on what I should do to it. Morgan's response: "blonde or caramel" Sarah's: "hot pink!" Judson's: "Why are you asking me?" So I did both Morgan's and Sarah's suggestions. The top part of my hair is now a dark blonde/light brown and the bottom is pink! I have never done anything like this, but I kind of like it!! I was really nervous about it at first, but once the color is on there is nothing you can do about it. It turned good, I think. No one has said anything bad about it...yet. haha!

I think I am about to go to bed now. Hope you have a great night and weekend!! :)

Facing the Facts

I took my last final today, so the semester is officially over for me. I came out with 2 D's in my classes. There is first time for everything. I had a moment of weakness, but it did not last too long. God's plans are better than my own and now I am just following Him and only Him. This has been fun so far..I should have let God take full control a long time ago. My life is nothing short of interesting, amazing, fun, and awesome! :)

I worked this afternoon and got to babysit this evening. It wasn't the Hoopers though. After I got back, I decided that I wanted to get out of Livingston and go watch a movie. So, I looked up what was playing because I don't ever know due to having no social life, which in turn means I do not watch tv and I don't know what is ever going on in the world. Anyways there wasn't anything good playing in Meridian with time we could go to..so we went to t-town to watch "Tangled". We sang, rapped, and sang some more!! The movie was awesome!! It was really one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. It was not a typical Disney movie. It was not "kiddy-ish" due to it having a lot of adult humor. It was a wonderful movie. New favorite for sure!!

I have come to find out that people assuming things is a new annoyance of mine. Do not assume things, just ask if you want to know. Assuming gets you nowhere just so you know. I will get off my soapbox now.

Anyways, I have had a great day! Oh and did I mention that I am wonderful and amazing friends?!?! God sends them to you in perfect timing. So great!! :)