baptism

my niece, emma, got baptized and it was amazing and beautiful.

no more finals!

okay so i am finally finished with this semester.

no more finals.

i leave tomorrow to spend my 21st Christmas with my parents and I am pumped about it.

in the meantime i have been enjoying the tree lauren picked out to go in OUR house =)

go bears!!!

Fort Mill, SC this weekend. I have a niece who is turning 9 and so I came up here to celebrate with everyone.

Last night my other 11 year old niece, Macy, had her first school dance. A boy named Luke asked if she would go with him, not directly of course, but through a mutual friend. She said yes. They rode in seperate cars and danced near eachother at the dance. When she got home they had an email conversation that went something like this:

LUKE: I had fun tonight at the dance. I like you. Do you like me?

MACY: I like you too.

…..ohhh 6th grade romance….

then this morning I went to my nephew’s football game and cheered as he and about 20 other 8 year olds ran up and down the field attempting to beat the crap out of each other… all the while surrounded by parents who take pee wee football WAY to seriously…

here are some shots from my weekend :

my niece macy. she’s beautiful and growing up so fast it scares me.

little boy i creeped on at the game because i was obsessed with his hair.

tanner is number 10. he’s the one dragging behind the boy running the ball. hahaha.

tanner and his mean football player face.

portrait. lj.

window light portrait of lauren jordan for JOUR 537.

turned out swell.

obrigado

I went to Africa for three weeks this past summer. I was in Mozambique and South Africa. I spent most of my time working with local orphanages and just going to love on the kids and hang out with them. One orphanage in particular that I visited in Mozambique impacted me the most.

Of the 22 children that live there full time, 15 are HIV positive. It broke my heart to see these children who desperately need families to love and care for them… yet they are almost always smiling. It’s like these tiny lives are so insignificant as far as the world is concerned but the creator of the universe loves and cares for them as much as he does anybody else and he gives them this peace of mind that is indescribable. I spend my days worrying over my future and they live each day like it’s the only one they have left.

It’s hard to explain what kind of impact Africa has on you. You go with intentions and expectations, but then you arrive. From the time you get there, all plans are off and God begins to bless you with experiences and people that will change the way you view Him and the world around you.

I was given the chance to experience this and I pretty much just think everyone should go at least once… go with me! I plan to go back.

oh, and obrigado is thank you in portugese, the official language of Mozambique.

devotion.

A lot has happened since I last blogged…

Lauren finally got a dog, Osita. devoted to being the most awesome dog ever.

Lindsay moved to Delaware…. i miss her a ton. devoted to missions and whatever God calls her to.

luda and erica got married! devoted to Jesus and each other.

Puritan prayers are probably the most amazing prayers I have ever read in my life. I don’t know who wrote them but they are solid. One of my most favorites is the morning dedication prayer…. but recently i’ve found a new favorite called devotion. it goes like this:

God of my end, it is my greatest, noblest pleasure to be acquainted with Thee and with my rational, immortal soul; it is sweet and entertaining to look into my being when all my powers and passions are united and engaged in pursuit of Thee, when my soul longs and passionately breathes after conformity to Thee and the full enjoyment of Thee; no hours pass away with so much pleasure as those spent in communion with Thee and with my heart.

O how desirable, how profitable to the Christian life is a spirit of holy watchfulness and godly jealousy over myself when my soul is afraid of nothing except grieving and offending Thee, the blessed God, my Father and friend, whom I then love and long to please, rather than be happy in myself! Knowing, as I do, that this is the pious temper, worthy of the highest ambition, and closest pursuit of intelligent creatures and holy Christians, may my joy derive from glorifying and delighting Thee. I long to fill all my time for Thee, whether at home or in the way; to place all my concerns in Thy hands; to be entirely at Thy disposal, having no will or interest of my own. Help me to live to Thee for ever, to make Thee my last and only end, so that I may never more in one instance love my sinful self.

3rd grade

SIDEWAYS STORIES FROM WESTSIDE SCHOOL!

i was reminded today of a book that was read to me in like 3rd grade… it was book on tape and my class used to listen to it… i love it when i remember things from childhood that are so random….

greatness…

also, i had team teachers in the third grade. my teacher was Mrs. Bevil. Our school had a world day and my class did one country but i dont remember the name of it, and I had to dance with a boy in front of my whole school…

and then, that same year my class did a project on the rainforest and the animal i was assigned was the sloth… the slowest animal ever…. do you know how hard it is to make a sloth out of paper mache? it was ridiculous… but i remember it was SO fun… we had a miniature rainforrest filled with all the animals we made in our classroom for like, the whole month after that…   ballin.

first publication

yes i know it’s only the daily gamecock… but you gotta start somewhere!

thanks for taking a picture of the paper laur!!!

dc

I went to Washington, DC for my spring break. It was ballin! dance party!!! GROUP AWESOME!! God taught me a lot.

It was great. God is great.

ten cuidado con el fuego

made dinner with lauren. (new recipe)

cut matt’s hair. (never did a “real” haircut on a guy… turned out swell)

*saw slumdog millionaire. (new favorite movie- and the bollywood dance number during the credits was a beautiful thing)

went to sonic. (me and lauren had our own “sonic tuesday”)

listened to FUEGO. (new favorite song)

all SUCH a big win.

thank you Jesus for awesome friends that I can be ridiculous with.

*Just so you know, when me and lauren walked out of the movie theater we were the ONLY ones there…. for real. All the lights were off inside except for the popcorn stand and all the lights were off in the parking garage… it was very scary. we held hands. Jesus protected us… that’s all i can say.