Reflecting on 2014!

Psalm 33:21-22 "We wait in hope for the Lord;He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust His Holy Name. May your unfailing love be with us, LORD, even as we put our hope in You."
Looking back on 2014, I see God's faithfulness, goodness, mercy in all the wonderful works He has done in my family.
Winter of 2014, we had three snowfalls in N.C. Its always a big deal when we have snow. We enjoyed sledding, throwing snowballs, making snow angels and making wonderful memories.  In the summer of 2014 we said temporary good-byes to three more babies via miscarriages and we were able to bury one of the three babies. God was still good during those times when we grieved. We prayed for comfort, and healing for our whole family. During that time, God remained faithful!
Fall of 2014, Our family went to a family conference in the mountains in NC. It was nice to be surrounded by similar-minded large families. We learned a lot, played games, enjoyed being with our friends, and enjoying the beauty of God's creation.
We also stayed in a cabin for three days in Blowing Rock, NC. My dad's client let our family use it for free. While we were there, we got a snowfall on the first day of November, it was pretty bad out there, so we had to stay inside most of the time, but we got cabin fever and were able to enjoy some time in the snow.
Throughout the whole year, my family loved hosting our brothers and sisters in Christ in our home. My siblings love playing with their friends and having camp-outs on our property. We also enjoyed having church at our home with some friends from our ministry. It was such  a sweet time of fellowship and worshiping the Lord. A father of six children got to baptize two of his children in our river and it was so beautiful to watch this special moment in their lives.
Last but not least there has been 516 lives SAVED from DEATH! Since 2008, two sidewalk counselors decided to keep track of the many saves in N.C. This means 516 children will get to have birthdays and have the possibility to become what God called them to be. They will get to experience so many things in this life, because there were faithful sidewalk soldiers who were pleading and proclaiming the Gospel in front of the "Gates of Hell' (abortion clinics) THANK YOU to all my faithful ministry friends for being obedient to Christ's calling and defending the hopeless throughout the whole year.
I can't wait to see what 2015 will hold for our family! What did 2014 looked like for you and your family?     

Father & Daughter Retreats

Psalm 1:3 " He will be like a tree  firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does,he prospers." 

Every year my dad and the older girls go to a father/daughter retreat that our church puts together. It is always so much fun hanging out with our dad and we enjoyed doing a lot of cool stuff that young ladies could do with our dads, but most importantly making our relationships with our dads grow stronger.

In 2012 the theme was " Have You In My Heart" and the verse was Psalm 28:7 "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and my song will praise Him." We focused on how our relationship should look like with our dad.  During the retreat in 2012, we learned how we as women of God should respond to our father's leadership.. We can accept it with gratitude and have our dads hearts or we can reject it. Which one do you choose?

In 2013, the theme was "Cultivating Women Of God" and the verse was Proverbs 31:30 "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised." That year we were being encouraged to bloom into Godly young ladies and grow towards Him.

This year's theme was "Nurturing to Full Bloom." Ephesians 5:1 "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma."  As daughters we need to fully bloom and must be grounded in our faith. We talked about building relationships, how we have grown and what kind of women we want to be.

Remember that you are daughters of Christ and you must keep your focus on your Heavenly Father. We must submit our lives to Jesus, fear the Lord, humble ourselves and allow God to get the glory. Are you willing to follow Christ no matter what lays ahead?

I can't wait to see what we will learn in 2015! Lets continue to grow closer to both our Heavenly and earthly father!