India

I have been fairly busy since my last post. I finished yet another semester in school and only have one more till i graduate. Weird feeling. And i have traveled across the world to India with a team from my church (121 Community Church) which has since produced a such a big passion within me for missions and India. I have been so blessed by these experiences. So here goes nothing. Enjoy =)

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INDIA

A little taste of the streets of Delhi:





















Our sweet, new church friends we visited on our
first Sunday within the slums of Delhi:

















Sweet faces we met while visiting
the slum schools put on through
Cooperative Outreach of India (C.O.I)
one of 121's mission partners.





















These people below have left such an impact on me
and our whole team. They are such warriors in the
faith beyond which i had never seen before. We were so
blessed to be able to meet so many amazing warriors
of faith while in India. Their little lights shine SO
immensely brightly in such a dark world.
















The temple we prayer walked while in Delhi
was one of the most impacting things for me.
This place solidified for me how many people
really are lost in India and has left a huge weight
of prayer on my heart for the people ever since:
















We hired local Delhi train station workers
to ensure that our 22 bags weighing over
50+ pounds each, full of supplies for the retreat
and our belongings would make it through
the chaos of the train station to our train.
But we were taken by surprise when
they loaded sometimes more than 1 bag on
top a workers head and then walked them
through the chaotic crowd.




















We stayed in Ramnigar, India at Jim
Corbit National Park for a retreat we led
for the local India missionaries through the
International Mission Board (I.M.B.)
The whole area was absolutely breath-
takingly beautiful!





















I had the opportunity to ride my first elephant
while at the retreat center. It was nerve racking
but quite fun!















We heard many of stories of local tiger attacks
while at the retreat center. Luckily even with our
Tiger safari we got to go on this is the closest
we got to any type of tiger while in Ramnigar.
Which i was 150% okay with! =)














Ramnigar train station:





















We ran into so many sweet kids
while in India. It was so hard not
to take each and everyone home with
us, especially the street kids. These
two beggar boys were just handed
a couple of our American crackers.
I've never seen two faces so happy.




















One of my favorite things to do on
the India trains was to hang out
of the doors and watch the country
side go by. Such an adrenaline rush
and is way worth the danger of falling
out.



















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We were so blessed to have our camera guy from our Church, Matt Coleman go with us to India. He filmed most of what we did, saw and experienced while there and produced two videos from it. So i hope you enjoy getting a taste of India and our trip. I was so immensely blessed by it in ways i am still trying to form words to explain. These videos can much better explain our experiences than i can myself at this point. The Lord is so good and is moving so much! Unfortinlty i have no clue how to upload them on this page so i have provided a link where you can watch them.

Video 1 Link:
http://vimeo.com/17066177

Video 2 Link:
http://vimeo.com/17242499


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My God is BIG, so STRONG and so MIGHTY...

I wrote this in the middle of Church... i tend to do that.. someone will say something and words will just start rushing in and i have to either forget them or write them down... here is the product.

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God's power is so big, why in the WORLD do we doubt it? God is much more worried about our end product than our pain right now. It may hurt now, but later it WILL be worth it! You will see the fruit that was grown through your tears that were endlessly sown. Your strength will one day move mountains through the pain you've endured with God's overwhelming love. I used to be SO bitter towards God because of the trials i endured through my life. I finally now understand that God's overwhelming love for me is WHY i endured these trials. He loves me SO much He won't let me stay stagnant. He pushes for growth and trials so that i will solely rely on Him and His love and allow Him to further mold me to be more like Him. IF HE DIDN'T LOVE ME, HE WOULD LET ME STAY WHERE I AM! If it took what i went through in my life to honor my God to the best of my ability, so be it. Would i want to go through it again, no... but to God be the Glory ... His will is bigger and better than mine. As it will continue to be.

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2 Corinthians 1:3-10

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. "

Your Love, Oh God!

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This song pretty much sums up my heart's song for the last couple of weeks. His love is what carries me through every moment of every day at this point in my life. His love is what covers my wrist, and will be my ever present reminder for the rest of my days. His love is what covers my past, my present and my future. How lucky am i to serve a God who loves me this much despite of what i do or who i am. I promise i will post pictures of my tattoo experience later... I just wanted to let ya'll know a little behind the scenes reasoning for getting it. If you want to know the full story.. just let me know.

~Kristie

Its been a while...

I've decided to slowly get back into this... haven't told anyone yet. But i gradually will get back into the swing of blogging, thoughts, songs, prayers... whatever comes to mind. I can't believe the last time i posted this was my freshman year at DBU... haha... welp.. im now a senior and graduating in may... i think it might have been a while. If i could delete it .. i would... but i haven't figured out how to do that yet. Oh well... Looking back i can't believe how much the Lord has grown me and all i have experienced since coming here to DBU. So grateful for the Lord's guidance in my life. Anyway... i will leave you with a video of one of my favorite comedians... Enjoy!