This, that and some other stuff.

Most of the people I know aren't up to date on the happenings in my life. So I thought I would take the time to inform you all with a little photo blog. Enjoy.

This is my boyfriend Kyrre. (Pronounced Curry)He is wonderful.
I ended up saying goodbye to 180JV (a ministry I love dearly) To pursue the will of God for my life which at this point is in Portland Oregon.



I had many rockin adventures in Bend before I left.




Kyrre, Mason, Michelle and I went to Portland for my orientation. I sat in classes, they rode bikes. Michelle was just being awesome. It's her thing.


Kyrre left and moved to Bellingham to attend Western Washington University.


McMenamins.


Sometimes I like Trees.


And Double Blended Caramel Frappacinnos.AKA Grande Double Blended Glory...


:)


I miss my friend Whitney. We went camping together and I wish she was here in Portland with me.


Thats all for now Folks. Pictures of the beautiful city of Portland and my rockin campus soon to come. :)

My Plan...

My plan was to come to North Carolina and at night to upload my pictures and blog so that everyone can know what is going on in my life. Unfortunately my plan was shipwrecked when I relized I brought the wrong cord to the 'pine needle' state. So. No pictures for now but be expecting at least 4 new adventure stories WITH photo proof soon. :) I love you all. :)
Paige

The painful C-Monster

con·demn [kuhn-dem] –verb (used with object)
1. to express an unfavorable or adverse judgment on; indicate strong disapproval of; censure.
2. to pronounce to be guilty; sentence to punishment

MY God is powerful. He is big and wonderful and has everything under control all the time. Constantly. He is faithful, loving, kind, gracious..the list goes on and on. He is everything.
As a new Christian I did not completely understand the cross. (P.S. I don't think we ever will, fully) But as I grew into a follower of Jesus I continually was met with this idea that the cross was more than just a guy who died for me. You see. When we say Jesus died for my sins it leaves much unsaid and many minds inquiring as to what that MEANS. This leads me to something that I think I KNEW but never UNDERSTOOD. It's like Golf. I know what it IS. I just don't GET IT. The thing that God has been hi-lighting in my bible are verses that say who I am in Christ. Those verses lead me to the question, "HOW can I be this? How can I be this amazing creation in Christ? Look at me God." (As if He wasn't already) What He said in response hit me hard. "You can stand before me pure and beautiful, with NO condemnation because my Son died AS your sins." You see, Jesus was on the cross and in the 6 hours in which He was on the cross he actually became filled with our sins and died the very death that that sin brings. God cannot be near anything imperfect. HE IS PERFECT. So in that time on the cross His perfect Son was without Him because Jesus chose to die for us knowing that we would all benefit. He dies as our sin, we can now be blameless and without condemnation in front of God. This was all done with a price we didn't pay. Giving our lives to Christ was not the 'fee' to get this. It wasn't a package deal. Jesus did it knowing that some may never know Him out of choice or otherwise but He did it anyway. He was the price. How blessed are we?
So. Why open this blog with the word condemn? Simple. Because we don't have to go through it. There are times when we go through things and we may mess up. In these cases apologies need to happen and prayer and healing must take place. However, be careful how you deal with these situations because God will never point a finger and say, "I can't believe you did that! That was so STUPID!" Nope. He knew everything was going to happen and instead of saying "I'll show them!" He came prepared with the medicine to heal it and the comfort to let you sleep. Who are we that we deserve this? Well. We don't. We ARE however heirs with Christ and therefore God sees us worthy, only by His sacrifice, to sit in His presence and receive comfort from the most famous person ever. God. Jesus is the one who saved us from our own dumb decisions. If He is Lord of our lives than we need to walk in that and as condemnation comes to try and take over let Jesus come in and protect you from it. His grace is enough to cover you and anything that you may do, on purpose or in total pride or something you didn't know was holding you back. His grace is SO amazing. It's not earned, however. It is a gift. When it runs at you, receive it. If you hold onto condemnation, Grace cannot work in your life to the fullest extent. So let go of the painful C-Monster and grab onto grace. :)

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2

No pictures. Just words. :)

The Big Escape...

There is a lot that has happened over the past few months. One thing that I did not blog about is the trip I took to Seattle in February. Now, for some of you this is no big deal but for me, a future ready, life seeking 18 year old who is looking forward to leaving the nest, it's huge. My parents let me travel form Bend, Oregon to Seattle, Washington with little supervision (you'll see in a minute why I say this) and stay there in a hotel room by myself and visit churches and have some independance. This is HUGE! Here are some pictures form my adventure.

Cassie went with me to guide and mentor me on the way to Seattle. She was on her way to visit her family. We stayed in Maupin on the 13th then drove in on the 14th.



This is the view from my car to Cassies. We had walkie talkies to communicate. And code names too but I don't remember them....something goofy, no doubt.



We sported shades and danced around Praising the Lord. Hey. David did it.


We stopped at a Starbucks, visited some old memories and had some delicious beverages for our Valentines day together. It was fantastic. This is Cassie by her vehicle.



Cool Artsy Shotttt.




and this is my with MY vehicle. (P.S. Driving stick shift in Seattle is not fun.)



So. We finally got to Seattle (Kirkland) and we got me all situated in my hotel room. I was ready to go to the church. Cassie left to go to see her family and, to be honest, I got a little pang in my stomache when she left me. She guided me up to a certain point then had to let me go. So. I was alone in Seattle, Washington and the first place I wanted to go was The City Church, Kirkland.

This is a look at part of the main sanctuary.



After meeting with students in the Generation Interns programme I decided to go to Generation Church (The City Church's youth group). The campus was very cool. It was in the University District in Seattle and the building was surrounded by frat houses. Isn't that how God does things? Jesus was just like a lot of the guys back in the day on the outside. This building was like all the others, I assure you. But it was plopped down in the middle of a bustling place, humble on the outside, revolutionary on the inside and certainly, as Jesus is with the local church, the hope of a city. The hope of the world.



2 things I found to be cool are this EXIT sign and the fact that The City Church has their own water bottles. :)





The next morning I was up bright and early to go to the Generation Interns classes and prayer. It was SO awesome. I met a ton of people who were all very nice and I got to spend time talking with people about the program. John Smith is Jay Smiths brother and the Uncle of Stephen, Alisha, Jesse and Lily Smith. He is very nice and super cool! I went by the Bucks on that early morning, too. (24 hour drive through, Praise the Lord.)



Next I drove to Mill Creek Washington (very pretty) to stay with my Aunt and Uncle. They were awesome to be around and I enjoyed spending time with them! (Danna and Diane, I LOVE YOU!)While I was there I got to go to my first concert (Matthew West, Tobey Mac and Jeremt Camp.) Very cool. Here are some pictures.
Matthew West.



Tobey Mac.




Jeremy Camp.




Me with Matthew West. He is very nice.



And to finish off there are som pictures of the trailor park I lived in for a few years when I was younger. I got locked into the pool bathrooms at the age of 3 and the fire department had to come get me out. I thought I could do it alone but the door was too heavy to open again and I couldn't turn the knob. My mom thought I had drowned. It was not good. And the Monkey bars...I got stuck up there. Once again, I thought I could do it alone. And there is a picture of Hood that I took coming home in the last stretch. I learned how to pump my own gas in Seattle too. Very cool. :)









It was an awesome trip and I enjoyed everything that happened. I went in knowing that God may not call me there and He did not, as it turns out. The biggest thing on this trip was not the time in Seattle or the craziness that took place there. It was the miracles that God did in the planning. The money that just dropped in my lap to go. The hotel rooms at a discounted price just because someone believed that God had a plan for me and that that plan included a trip to Seattle. It was awesome to have fellowship with Cassie and other, too. God is good and He loves to provide for us. I got a chance to reflect on this a lot. So, What am I doing after high school? I have some plans but I am allowing the Lord to direct my steps. Stay tooned and I will inform you as soon as I know. In the very inspirational words of Lindsay Parnell, "God wants His will for your life more than I want His will for my life and if we have a heart that is cultivated around Him and His will we won't miss the mark." God is good. I believe that. He provides. He loves. He is. :) Talk to you soon!

3 Things I learned in 30 days

It's been SO long. How is everyone doing? An update on my life? Well, there have been plenty of events, some pleasant and others not so much but thanks to the Grace of God and His incredible strength we have begun to scale UP the mountain that stood mocking me and ya know what? With every step the mountin seems to get smaller and smaller. Sometimes I have to climb (out of bed at 1am to pray) and sometimes I run on the less steep parts (this is usually when I trip on a rock because I get ahead of myself) and everytime I fall or slip my Savior is there and He catches me! The last few months have been a huge reminder of a few things.
1. I CANNOT DO IT ON MY OWN! That is a huge thing. Sometimes I get so comfortable in God and things are going great and I say every morning, "God, I can't do this alone." But then He asks me, "Why are you trying then?" At first He whispered it. Then He said it a little louder but I couldn't hear because my music was up too loud. Then He screamed it loudly. But the funny thing is this. God did not scream it loudly while my music was on or while I was waiting for people to come meet me or while I was pounding the keys...No. He screamed it in the most serene silence there ever was. And SO! I learned once again that I cannot do it on my own.
2. I learned that love is not words. Love is not even necessarily actions. Sometimes it is. A lot of times it is. Shoveling your neighbors driveway. Taking out the trash even though it's not your day. Giving a Vet a hot meal. The list goes on. But something that I learned was that love is faith. Love is praying. Love is waiting. Love is believing. In you. In the other person. In God. My mom doesn't tell me every day that she loves me. But I know she does. And here we have God who tells us He loves us in crazy ways all day. This morning He said, "Hey. I made the sun rise for you today. I knew you'd be up early. I love you."
3. No matter how hard the hardest thing is it is not too much for God. Is God so small that He can't change the course of our lives while we are living it? Is God so small that He can't deal with the stress? Is God so small that He can't grab onto or tired, hurting, painfilled, bruised, exhausted bodies and carry us? He does it every day. Pray and ask Him to show you when He carried you. He does it for us. He never gives us more than we can handle. He is a GOOD GOD! :)

Last but not least. I went to Prom. It was fantastic. I went with Jordan Wolfe. We had a BLAST! Cassie was out photographer and chaperone. She was amazing. We love her SO VERY MUCH! Here is a picture or two. :)

Isn't it funny....

OK! Hello and I've missed you. Wow. Life has been crazzzy this past few months. I have just been going non stop and so spring break was much needed even though I worked a lot more than normal but hey...God is good. I'm doing track. I'm running distance (ouch BTW) and I am going to attempt the Long jump on monday. Woo hoo. Glory. we'll see what kinda hops the Lord gives me. I am currently in the midst of just waiting on the Lord which is good and hard but good all the same. I am working at the GAP still and I've found that the Lord speaks on the sales floor. Who woulda thunk it? I remember being at the front of the store after I had just started my job and I remember hearing God say, ever so softly but clear as day that I would not be there long. And I don't know how long long is but we will see with that too. I'd like to have a job as a nanny or an administrative assistant or something. They would be cool but I think the Lord will have me there for a while longer. It's going to be awesome. Somuchis coming up in the next few months like track meets, sisters bridal shower. SAT's. Prom. Sisters wedding and then. finally. the moment we've all been waiting for. GRADUATION! AH! but for now I am going to go to sleep. God is good. Diacogiannis sisters and brothers...I love you. night.

Steen Mountains Running Camp. Amazing.