New Year.....New Beginnings

As I reflect on this past year I am amazed at the road I have traveled and how God has walked with me every step of the way. I ended my 3 year teaching job with ACA in order to go to school full-time to finish my master's degree. I in turn received a job teaching at the college a couple days a week and more hours at my other job. I gave my daughter away to a wonderful man and gained him as a son-in-law. I spent a month in Ukraine where I met some fantastic people and saw the Lord work in miraculous ways!!
Upon returning I was blessed to find the perfect apartment and spent my 40th birthday surrounded by all those I love and adore!!
School started and the stress came, but each step of the way I would just stop and pray if it got to be overwhelming and He was always there to give me peace. I found out I'm going to be a grandma this coming new year and am looking forward to meeting my grandson Brayden and have enjoyed in sharing the experience with Montessa and Shawn. I started having family nights every Thursday, which included me having my family be guinea pigs with all my new recipes.....only 1 has been a bust as of yet. I learned to play my new favorite card game (Dutch Blitz) and have now passed the addiction on to the family. I started a Bible Study in my home for my girlfriends which I enjoy immensely. In the midst of it all a random encounter at Firestone has brought an amazing man in my life!! YAY!!! All in all it's been a fabulous year, I'm looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for me in 2012!!

All that to say this, if you 2011 wasn't what you expected or even what you wanted....know that 2012 is a new beginning a chance to start over. If you have a relationship with the Lord ask Him for help, if you don't what better time to start one. Not as a resolution but as a commitment to follow Christ for the rest of your days in the way that he wants you to!

Praying you and your families all have Happy and Blessed New Year for 2012!!

Cause and effect

I hadn't realized it had been so long since I have posted on my blog. Life has been busy, I made it home from Ukraine safely and with wonderful new friends. I moved into my new apartment closer to my family and friends. This has allowed me to start a Bible study in my home for my friends, which has been a wonderful experience so far! I started attending school full-time in hopes of finishing my degree before I turn 50......oh and yes, I turned the big 40!! Life's been busy but God has been good and provided along the way! Things have started to slow down a little so I thought I'd sit down and blog for a moment.

The other day I was making my 45 minute drive down 74 on my way home from school and noticed how beautiful the trees were. The colors were slowly changing from bright green to orange, yellow, brown and red. It struck me right then how every year at the same time (give or take) the leaves begin to change color and start falling off the trees preparing themselves for the cold winter to come. Through the shedding of this year's foliage new leaves will bloom in the spring! I started to realize how God wants us to shed our foliage (or sin) in order for new foliage (or life) to bloom.

Do we really think about the effect our sin has on our lives and on others. If you haven't, consider the broken home and the child who has to separate their time between parents. The home where alcohol or drugs plays a major factor in someones life, how is that behavior effecting those around them. Consider the parent who gambles away their pay check and the family that is left without money to pay for food, clothes or shelter. Lastly, think in your own life at what point did the sin of someone else effect you. If it hasn't consider yourself a lucky one, because I can imagine for the majority of us, the sin of others has been an effect on each of our lives even if only indirectly.

When we start to think about how our life effects others, either good or bad we may consider changing how we live. It's the selfish person who only considers their own happiness and not the happiness of those around them and whom they love. God gives us the ability to be forgiven and start over, we need to just believe that He's forgiven us and want to start over. It's time to shed our old selves in order to make room for the new.

Not by accident

You ever wonder if an event was a coincidence or if it all came together because God made it happen, I mean are there really moments in our lives which have been divinely put together by God? I've been thinking about that lately and how God knows even the smallest details of our lives and what we need each day. We came to Ukraine do work in a few ministries and it seems that our youth camp would have been an amazing ministry opportunity and it was cancelled due to the weather.

If God sent us here, then is a day sitting in a house waiting for the power to come on and water to be delivered a day truly planned by God? I have to believe it is, if coming on this trip was what each of us feel was His will for us, then a day of not doing a whole lot for Him has to be a day planned by Him as well. I wonder how often I think of work that I can do for Him without asking Him what it is He wants me to do?

If we are to show Christ's love then sometimes sitting with a friend and just listening to their problems is all God requires of us. Maybe we don't feel like we did much, but to God it was, because we showed love. I truly believe God places good and bad events in our lives, as well as change our plans so that we can do what is His plan for the day.

It's not for me to figure out what God's reasons are for why things change, it's only for me to accept the change and go about showing Christ's love in hope of winning another soul to His Kingdom. Sometimes we make it more difficult than we need too, sometimes we need to sit back, grab a cup of tea and just have an open ear and an open heart!

From the village to the mountains

I've had a lot of time to reflect about my life the past few weeks and the one thing that I've come to understand is how amazing God is! Looking back over the last few years I see how He has taken a little girl from the village of New Miami and used her in the mountains of Ukraine. Although I may never get to see the outcome of this experience here on Earth, one day I'll get to know how this trip has affected those we have ministered to.

I'm pretty sure growing up in the village I didn't even know places such as this existed, let alone that I would be working for the Lord in the country. Giving my life to God has helped me to not only see the world, but to see it through His eyes.

I'm sure I have a long way to go and many things I need to work on and get right. Walking with him one day at a time brings my life and what's important into perspective. What I have in the Lord no man, job or material thing will ever replace. Peace that passes all understanding and a heavenly home that awaits when my earthly duties are done.

Blessings,
Monica

God provides

It's hard to believe in less than 3 days I'll be starting on my mission trip. I'm looking forward to going to Ukraine to work with the children there. We will be doing a Vacation Bible School in one part of the country and then traveling to the other side of the country and doing a Youth Camp. Apparently, the Youth Camp is where my military training will come in handy. We will truly be camping sleeping in tents, bathing in the river and yes even digging our own bathrooms :)

Life is an adventure for sure, I was making one of my many drives moving my things this week and had a lot of alone time to think. While I was preparing to move to Belize I remember testifying in church that I was not afraid to move and I would do whatever God wanted me to, even dig ditches if that's what He wanted. Who knew that He would hold me to that statement years later:) I need to remember never to say something I don't mean because God might test me on it down the road.

A friend asked me the other day if I was afraid. I'm looking at it as God's will and if He is in it He will take care of all of us, so that being said, I'm not afraid in the least. He has given me peace about the trip from the beginning and has provided in every way for me to go.

I was short $350 for the final balance of the trip (plane ticket). I had been praying about it and told the Lord I was not asking anyone for the money. If the trip was of Him, He alone would provide it. I also know I had friends and family praying about it for me as well. I received a call a couple days later from my aunt she said, "I have the rest of your money, someone dropped it off this morning." She told me the person didn't want to be acknowledged for giving but felt God laid it on their heart to give it. What a blessing and answer to prayers! So if that person who gave the money happens to be reading this, "Thank You" and know you are an answer to prayer. Thanks to everyone who gave towards my trip....it's amazing how God uses people in all ways to increase His Kingdom!

Now that Montessa's wedding is over, I've moved my things from my apartment to storage and the plane ticket is bought.....another chapter is about to begin. I have no idea what is ahead of us, however I know who goes before us and will prepare the way!! May we glorify Him and help to build His Kingdom!!

If you remember please pray for my team as we are away. I'll try to update my blog, but not sure how much time or internet access I'll have.

Blessings!

Excited!

I was driving back to Cincinnati today after spending the weekend away and it came to me I hadn't updated my blog in a while. A lot is happening and I don't always have the time or take the time to update my blog. My daughters wedding plans are moving right along and I have one more quiz in my college courses to take and I'll be finished with that for the semester. Still no luck with housing, but at least I have a short term solution until I return from my trip to Ukraine.

Ahh, my mission trip to the Ukraine, it's amazing to me how God opens doors and moves things right along. After feeling like He had changed my plans from Israel to Ukraine He very clearly opened all the doors. I've met via Facebook the group I'll be going with. I've also spoken with the missionaries we'll be staying with and gotten some ideas of what types of things we'll be working on. It looks like Vacation Bible Schools and other children ministries. It's amazing to see God is working it all out. He's been faithful in supplying the funds for the trip and I'm halfway there with all that I'll need. I've not even been worrying about it, because I know He will supply. The one thing I'm not looking forward to however is the Tetnus shot they require us to get before we can go, but I'll get through that fear as well.

It's exciting to know I'm going to a country where Christianity is not the main religion and actually low on the totem pole, but God is trusting me to go spread the gospel. What an awesome responsibility!

I know I've used this verse before but Jeremiah 29:11,"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." This is a verse that helps me keep my head up when I'm feeling low and knowing that I'm trusting God with everything in my life, including traveling half way around the world.

Superwoman, I'm not!!

My busyness and all consuming "To Do List" have turned into Kryptonite! I was speaking to someone earlier this evening about the schedule I have over the next few months, college courses to complete, my daughters wedding the same week as the last week of the school year, leaving for a mission trip for a month to the Ukraine a week later and to top it all off I have to move out of my apartment by mid June. Which will technically be nearly impossible since I'll be in the Ukraine at that time and I'm not sure when exactly I can go find a new place to live! So among the reminders to take out the garbage, I also need to apartment hunt.

The thought of it all just makes me want to throw my hands in the air and say forget it, but feeling like my life is ordained by God and I'm doing what He wants me to be doing, all I can do is ask Him for grace and strength. I've found at the end of each day I can find many blessings throughout the busy day I've had. Even when things happen and my schedule gets thrown off God still shows me what He's accomplished that day in my life.

Last week my niece had to go to the hospital for pneumonia and issues with her kidneys. I was concerned for her health and for my sister and brother in-law, how they were handling the situation. After them being told that the diagnosis would be life long treatments for my niece, I asked my sister how she was doing, she said, "I'm doing fine, the Lord loves her more than we do and He'll take care of her and can even heal her." What a wonderful outlook on a not so great situation and it made me think about how God loves us more than we even love ourselves and He will take care of us if we will just let Him.

My prayer this evening was, "Lord, help me to do your will and draw closer to you.....whatever that might take." If it means leaning on Him for strength to get through my daily tasks then so be it, but also help me to recognize the daily blessings He's given me, even amongst the busyness of life!