Blogs I’ve been reading…

Here are a list of links to blogs that I LOVE reading!!!

Mckmama

A mommy blogger, Christian and photographer! I love her writing and pictures!

Kelly’s Korner

A mommy blogger, Christian as well, she mostly just writes about her life as a stay at home mom of a toddler and with one on the way!

Kingdom Twindom

This is an amazing blog! This woman LOVES Jesus and she has this blog to inspire and encourage marriages. Her husband cheated on her and they have now been rebuilding their marriage for 4 years since that happened! Incredible testimony. And they have 5 children, two sets are twins!!!

Tatertots & Jello

This is a crafty, decorating blog! I love getting ideas!!

Chatting at the Sky

I just found this one yesterday, but I LOVE IT already. She is a Christian writer and her posts are soooo encouraging and glorifying to the Lord!

Lisa Leonard Designs

Love looking at her pics and she also has an amazing jewelry company! Hand stamped jewelry! Check it out for gifts!

The Nesting Place

A home decor blog! I love her style and ideas for decorating!

Julia’s Poppies Design

An awesome and creative photographer and designer! She is also soo crafty and has tons of DIY’s.

 

Well, I could probably keep going but I will just limit myself! Enjoy!

Year-End Giving

We are launching a 3 week fundraising campaign to raise $50,000 by December 31^st. We need this to finish out our commitments for 2010 and also help bring sustainability for the 1^st 3 months of 2011.

Would you consider partnering with us in reaching our goal?? This is the first step into sustaining IHOP-AC and build towards 24/7 prayer in Alamance County, NC!!!

You can donate in 3 ways:

-Online: www.IHOP-AC.org

-Mail your check to:

IHOP-AC

P.O. Box 113

Burlington, NC 27216

-Cash donations can be made by contacting me!

Your donation to IHOP-AC is a tax deductible contribution.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and your desire to be a part of something that the Lord is doing!!!

Wedding 10/17/10

My friend Katrina got married!!! Isn’t she beautiful! We brought her black couch out to the wedding site (it was outside) and took all the pictures with it! I thought it was such a great idea!

Bridesmaids!!! The two on the right end of the couch are pregnant!!! Acutally, 3 girls were pregnant here…but we didn’t know about the 3rd yet!

Oh and this bride is already pregnant too, about 3 weeks after she got married!!! Babies GALORE!

Praying over the bride right before the ceremony started!!

Bride, walking down the isle!! She was so happy!

It was the most beautiful outdoor wedding ever! It was on a lake, under a willow tree! I loved it!

The new Mr. and Mrs!!! (Martin)

Love this shot of them!

It was a great wedding, and it was so fun being a bridesmaid for one of my best friends! I wish them every year of happiness!

Novemeber Newsletter!!

Here is my November Newsletter! I am finally getting back on track with my MONTHLY newsletters!!!

November NEWSLETTER!

Have a wonderful and blessed day everyone!!!

NEW YORK CITY!!

and off she goes….

Christmas 2008. Me and Carol.

Christmas 2009

Oh the places I will go!

My schedule:

Dec. 11th- Christmas Party!! (where Carol and I will take our 3rd annual Christmas photoshoot!

Dec. 12th- Start my crazy month of busyness! I head to GA to a retreat place called Restoration Road. There I will spend a week by myself with Jesus…and my sewing machine! I am soooo excited to be by myself with the Lord!

Dec. 17th- Head to Atlanta, GA to catch up with my wonderful friends down there, and one of my best friends new baby boy, Josiah (who is due to make his arrival any day now!)

Dec. 17th/18th- Head to Florida for Christmas!! I will get to spend my days with my niece and nephews and parents and sister! I am very excited about this time with them!! And celebrating Jesus’ birth!

Dec. 27th- Fly out of Florida on a missions trip to Romania!!!! I have the awesome priviledge of going to Romania for a young adult conference over New Years! I will be helping out with the conference, teaching/ministry for 3 or 4 days. Then I will get to go to Bazna, Romania to visit the house of prayer there for 4 or 5 days!! This is going to be an amazing trip!

Jan. 5th/6th- Fly back into Florida, where Carol will be flying into as well and spending a few days with  me and my family!

Jan. 8th- one of my best friends, Josh, is getting married to his amazing fiance, Bekah!! (and they are in a contest to win a honeymoon at theknot <—click there and vote for them…their story is called Worlds Apart…it is amazing!)

Jan. 9th- drive back to North Carolina and begin a new and fabulous year!!!!!

Oh the places I will go!!!

How I feel…

**I first posted this on May 1, 2009. It is really speaking to me today so I thought I would repost this!

Some days I don’t feel the Lord at all. I can’t live this life based off of my feelings. Most times I’m not having the encounter of a lifetime. Its me sitting in the room trying to commune wit the Holy God. Trying to not think about food, clothes, my hair, money, life in general. Continually bringing my focus on the One who I am here for.

Some days I hear the Lord speaking to me like a whisper in my heart, sometimes through His word. Most days I am meditating on what He has already spoken.

Some days I don’t feel like I can keep praying, singing, worshiping. I feel like I’m not doing enought.

If I was here because of my feelings, I wouldn’t be here. I would be doing something that I could see results from, I would be out doing what looks good to people.

But I’m not here to see results with my eyes. I’m not here for an emotional encounter. I’m here because I love Jesus! I’m here because this is where He wants me and I delight in nothing more then doing what He wants me to do! I’m here to be near to the One whom my soul loves. To hear what is on His heart and to partner with it in prayer. Even if I can’t see the change. Even if people tell me I’m wasting my time.

To tell you the truth, sometimes it feels like I am! But what keeps me here in this place of prayer and worship is love.

Even when I don’t feel anything, I rest in the confidence that I know who my God is. He is love. He loves me. This is truth. NOT what I’m feeling at the moment.

I am confident that partnering with His heart in prayer is the ONLY thing that changes things and brings about the action of change. Even when I don’t see it.

I am confident that I am not wasting my life. Because I know without a shadow of a doubt He’s worthy of ALL my time. He deserves me giving up EVERYTHING!

And I’m here praying for the world because He is worthy of every single person giving up EVERYTHING for Him.

Yeah, its love that keeps me here. There is this burning inside of me called love that has taken root and won’t let me go.

I’m not talking about feeling love. Love is here inside of me no matter how I’m feeling. It warms my heart when it starts to get cold.

When I’m sad or discouraged this love doesn’t leave. It makes me cling to my God!

And even though I am so weak, this love is growing inside of me every day!

This is why I live, breathe, eat, sleep, pray, talk, laugh…because this love I have for my God keeps me going!

Why do I love Him? Because He loves me perfectly. His love never fails me. His love covers my sins. His love is passionate and jealous. No one has ever loved me like this nor will they ever. He has given up everything for me. He has given me everything I’ve ever had. And all those times I’ve been unfaithful, He’s been faithful!

Do you see? How can I not love Him? I have to! He is worthy of so much more but I give Him my all, no matter how small it might be! I give Him my love. And this is why I live and do what I do.

Prayer

**I accidentally posted the last post unfinished! I finished it and so now it makes much more sense!

 

Today I have had a burden.

I have felt the compassion for another person rise up in my heart.

I have felt the concern.

I have felt the overwhelming desire for everything to be right in that person’s life.

I have felt urgency for God’s will to be done.

For God’s voice to be heard.

For God’s heart to be seen.

I have felt love overtake me and cause me to say, “Oh, God!”

When I feel these things, only one thing can be next.

For prayer’s to bubble forth from my mouth.

To turn all that I feel into intercession for that person.

Because I KNOW only One person can answer these things arising in my heart

I can ONLY call on God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, to make things right.

So today, my heart is heavy and burdened. So I am giving my burden to Him!

He loves this person more than I do. He wants all of the things I am asking for more than I do.

So have Your way, God!

I love that I can feel the burden for another person and pray and know that things can change!

Are you pouring out your burdens before Him?

Matt. 11:28-30

David and Mary

This past weekend a big group of us from Burlington headed to Durham, NC to attend the Onething conference that IHOP-KC puts on in different cities.

While I was sitting there, worshiping Jesus with hundreds of kids, teens, and young adults, I was thinking about two of the passages in scripture that “one thing” is mentioned.

Ps. 27:4- “One thing I have asked from the lord, that I shall seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.”

Luke 10:39-42- “She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His world. But Martha was distracted with all of her preparations; and she came up to him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ but the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

The first passage from Psalms is King David crying out for the one thing that he wants even in the midst of his enemies. The second passage, Mary chose to sit at Jesus’ feet even when it wasn’t what she was supposed to be doing. Her sister made it clear, “she needs to be helping me!” But Jesus said that she had chosen the one thing necessary, and that it wouldn’t be taken away from her.

For a long time I have considered myself a Mary (although I know that I tend to be a Martha at times, busy and distracted by so many things), because I love to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to His word. It is the calling I believe that is on my life. To first minister to the Lord, and second go to the nations.

As I was sitting at the Onething conference I was thinking how both of the other intercessory missionaries here at IHOP-AC, David Gordon and David Rickman are named David. The calling on their lives are also similar to mine! They have chosen one thing for the rest of their lives, to dwell in the house of the Lord, to gaze upon His beauty and to meditate in His temple. They were named for their destinies by their mother’s even before they were born!

I felt left out as I also wished I had been named after my destiny. And then I realized: I am! My name is Amanda MARY. My parents named me MARY and for basically ever, I hated my middle name. BUT. But I am now in love with it! I am named after the calling on my life and I was named this before I was even born!

I am a Mary, I have been called to sit at His feet, listen to His word and choose the one thing necessary!

THANKS MOM AND DAD for naming me MARY! This is soooo special to me now and is a blessing to me!!!!

Romania 2010–Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

This is team 1 and team 2 working on team building activities! The Lord was really dealing with me and exposing me and my selfishness during these activities! Help me, Lord!

This is me helping run games the 2nd week with Jeff. He is one of my best friends brothers!

We worked pretty well together…until…

There is one game where you call out random items for the campers to bring into the center and place in the game leaders hands.

Things like a braclet, toilet paper, hair, pastor, or earwax.

Well, without me knowing (since the translator was speaking) Jeff  planned for all the runner who bring the things into the center to have them WIPE the EARWAX (from a campers EAR) onto my ARM!!!!!!!!

It was the most disgusting experience of my life, to this day. I was furious. I stomped off the field.

BUT Jeff apologized and I forgave him and got over my anger. It was actually pretty funny. The campers LOVED it.

Here I am watching intently to make sure no one is doing anything illegal during this game of crab soccer.

Romanians are AMAZING soccer players. And they were even exceptional in this special edition of the game! And it was pretty hilarious to watch all these big guys crawling around on the ground!

Katrina sprained her ankle really bad one of the last days at campe the 2nd week! We got to go to a Romanian hospital and they put a cast on it! But the worst part was that she had no crutches for the remaining time and had to be carried everywhere!

She was pretty happy to get back to US and get crutches!

The 2nd week of camp is always HUGE and has older kids. Some of these kids have been coming for 5 years or more! It is really incredible to see them year after year and to watch them grow in love for Jesus!

On our way home after camp and during our flights to the US, we had a layover in Munich, Germany….and while we were there….

We got to go into the CITY! We were only there for about an hour. But it was totally worth it to get to see Munich!!!

All of us walking and taking pictures! Katrina had to be carried because there were no wheel chairs available! The boys were a blessing, to say the least!

Girls in Germany!

 

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2nd week was a week of exposure for me. The Lord was showing me MANY areas where I still needed to become like Him! But He really worked in me!

Not only that but it was incredible to watch the campers worship Jesus. Many were dancing and rejoicing and cry and just experiencing the Lord!

I got to pray and minister with girls almost every night and many got saved! There were also quite a few who were renewed in their passion for Jesus!

The Lord is so good to let us go and minister and share His love with the WORLD!