God I look to you

On Monday past, while I was thinking of all God has done, I couldn't help but fight the thoughts of what was still left to be done. I felt myself getting a bit twisted (code for stressed), so decided to shift back to my help. my source. [btw: I guess the emotional roller coaster from last week isn't quite done.]

I spoke out loud..."Lord I am looking to you and I will not allow myself to be overwhelmed."

With the declaration of that statement, this song came flooding back to me and I burst into song. For those of you who have NOT had the privilege to hear me sing, count yourself blessed! :) With the singing came the peace. Oh I long to live continuously with that sense of peace. Call me what you like, but I'll take peace over muscle spasms in my mouth (clenching & grinding my teeth) and/or shoulder aches that burn anyday.

Whatever the situation, whatever the calling --no matter how BIG....know that He is our rock (Psalm 91:2), He is our strength (Psalm 28:7/Isaiah 12:2), our peace (Ephesians 2:14/John 14:27), our joy (John 15:11). He is the God most high. We can put our belief, our faith, our trust in Him, knowing that He won't ever leave us nor will He let us down.


Grace peace and love,
Gia

Remaining focused

Last week was interesting. I got some indicators in the past month that my beloved and fairly new laptop was having some problems...one of which was "blue screen of death". After a quick google search last Monday, I realized that I needed to really investigate this matter. What I learned was that my hard drive was corrupted (?) I'm not sure if that was the term used, but regardless, I needed a new one....and fast before this unstable one crashed!

It is funny how, when you are stressed, how the smallest of things become major. Now, in all fairness, as a full time graduate student who is about to propose a dissertation based on research and courses from the past three years, (that are all stored on said computer), I think I legitimately had a reason to have a mini-freak out but I knew that this was so much more than that.

The very cool part of this week though, was the fact that I never once lost it. 

I began a journaling challenge about 3 weeks ago (Girlfriends in God).  Essentially, I record how God has shown up in my life each day [sudden glory moments] and since I began that, I've been more aware to ASK God to show up in specific areas. Then at the beginning of each day, I reflect and carefully review how God responded to each request from the previous day.

It also made me more aware of some moments as they are happening...I was able to smile and nod when I recognized God's hand in it. I was more aware to look for God showing up (remember my post about expectancy).  Those were the coolest...experiencing a "sudden glory moment" and recognizing it for what it is at that point.

This week was no different. As I learned more and more of what I was facing, I presented it to God each morning and asked for clarity.

Can I say, that each step of the way, I got answers. clearly. 

What it also did was minimize my anxiety about the challenge I was facing. I'll be honest and share that although it may have minimized anxiety about the computer situation, I still had other lessons to learn (part two to come)... In any event, the week was THAT much better because each day, I took my cares and requests to God and then looked for Him to show up and/or reveal the answer.

How was your week last week? Any lessons learned? Better yet...what were your glory moments?

Grace peace and love,
Gia

It's Christmas!

Well...so it's about a month and some days away from the actual day we celebrate Christmas but in our apartment this past weekend, it surely seemed like Christmas sans the Christmas tree I guess.

I'm a firm believer in putting my time and my money where my heart is. As you've read...my heart is with the kids of Timothy Project.  A couple weeks ago, I pitched the idea of shoebox Christmas (or did I just develop it).  The point is, I felt very strongly that each child should have something to open on Christmas (since they celebrate Christmas) AND to push the limit, this shouldn't be something that the community supports. It should come from the members of the Timothy Project team.

The catch is, there are currently 26 children apart of Timothy Guyana and maybe about 10 non-Guyanese members...this inevitably meant...some of us were going to have to take more than just one kid. Because the majority of the members are in fact unemployed full-time students, we set a very reasonable cap for this initiative and made the announcement. It was well received and we had some members who took as many as 6 kids!?! 

Awesomeness!

Star giftwrapper, your truly, ended up having to wrap about 70%  of the gifts which was interesting in and of itself because the boxes couldn't be sealed. This occured Friday night after we drove around collecting the gifts (reverse-Santa). Then, the next day, we drove 8 hours (4 hours each leg) to Toronto to drop off the gifts and send them off...

Fun times indeed. Here are some pics from the two days...

boxes all stuffed and wrapped and ready to be loaded in the car

Schantal's back trunk...looking a lot like Christmas!

last minute finishing touches

 we had to get creative with some of the boxes that didn't have a top that came off, so we wrapped the bottom and then tied it all together with a lovely bow.  Those are what you see on the top of the box as we began to pack it...

This process was also interesting. We had planned to purchase a barrell but with all these boxes that was not going to work. However, there was another option...a large cardboard box which worked out to be about the same cost and maybe get there a couple days earlier. The box was the largest they had and we had maybe about 1-2 inches of space left. 

Definitely a God-thing since we just let everyone find their own shoeboxes.

 The ride back was nice. It was a beautiful Fall day. I felt this truck was smiling at us.

And as we got closer home, the sunset was our guide

...just look at the beauty of what our God made!

Grace peace and love,

Gia

wasted life?

Losing my life doesn't scare me; wasting it does.

I saw this status post on Facebook about a month ago and have since adopted it as a signature for my email.  It called to me because (again), at the heart of the statement of this idea that each of us has a purpose and life is only fulfilled when we are aligned and living on purpose.

It's Monday. What plans do you have for the week? What does your to-do list look like?

Have you carved any time for pursuing purpose? That is of course, if you aren't already living and working in your calling. If that's the case, then continue to press on.

For me, I guess this week is working toward getting the first draft for my dissertation completed. It's not the ultimate but it's a huge step toward the ultimate.  It is a fight though...I've been finding myself in a bit of a funk related to this project but I will not lose sight of the end...it is near and I've just got to continuing pressing.

Other than that, my to-do list looks devoid of anything "important". Maybe I'll carve some time to develop that idea about the Girls Conferences that I mentioned last week...

Tell us about anything exciting, life-altering, inspirational that is planned for today or this week.

Grace peace and love,
Gia

Girl Time

You always know your passion because strong feelings are invoked when the topic arises.  For me, it seems I'm passionate about so many things...however one particular group which has stuck with me from as long as I remember having a passion- young girls.

http://pinterest.com/giavana81/inspiration/

Of course, this explains Mercy House and It's Girl Time. It's all about me finding ways to connect with, empower and promote wellness and resilience among my younger counterparts.  Because of this, I have a collection of activities, sayings, Bible stories that are all stored up for whenever I get an opportunity to work with this population. I saw this picture and was like "YES!!". It was immediately "liked" and "repinned" on Pinterest. ;)

With that said, I'm excited about a new idea/direction for Girl Time. My pastor suggested it and it literally only took 2 minutes for me to think, process and run with the idea. Details are still very fuzzy at this time, but essentially I would like to have a "conference" for young girls. 

It will be FUN, AFFIRMING and all things PRETTY.

I'm thinking spa sessions and tea time....more details to come soon.  I'm also getting excited that this is something I can market to other youth groups, churches, civic organizations to host for their girls and tweens...who knows. It's definitely within the mandate of Girl Time and a great stepping stone toward achieving the vision of Mercy House.

I love hearing from you, so if you have suggestions for this project or your own, please share in the comments section below.

Grace peace and love,

Gia

What does your future hold?

Yesterday, I sat through a training session as a part of my duties for my internship. There wasn't much presented that I didn't know, but two of the assignments stood out to me.

The first was to draw your timeline...essentially, getting the college-aged students to think beyond today and construct some semblance of a life plan. Based on some of the responses, I still think some people did not get it...the points on their "timeline" were vague and unrealistic and when they were challenged to think about resources and specifics, they simply refused to. I took the opportunity to begin drafting my 5 year plan which my good friend, Kaylus, had suggested I do about a week or so earlier.

It's funny because I ALWAYS have a plan but when the question was put forth to me, I realized that I essentially stopped planning life once I hit grad school. All plans for the past 4 years, were surrounding the achievement of the major projects and such associated with the attainment of the PhD. This meant that I needed to now think about what I wanted, where I wanted to be and how I plan on achieving said goals after this degree. Yes, I still have another 2 years until I walk across the stage but considering 2013 is pretty much already here, it is definitely a good time to start revisiting my life plan.

I still haven't completed it as yet BUT I've got details through 2014 and highlights for 2015. I'll spend some more time on it in the days to come to get some more highlights through 2017 (at least).

The 2nd assignment was to construct a personal vision statement. wooo who knew this small task would be soooo challenging. Without going through the details, I'm excited to report that I got mine drafted [insert happy dance]. I'm still praying about whether this is "it" or if something else need to be added but I'm excited! Beyond excited...ecstatic.

"For everyone that I work with, my aim in life is to AMPLIFY their strengths, CHALLENGE their faulty thinking, attitudes and belief systems and thus assist with bringing about CHANGE so they can live more fulfilled and meaningful lives."

What do you think? too long? too vague? too pie in the sky?

Those key words: amplify, challenge, and change were a part of a professor's philosophy and pedagogy and although I interviewed her almost a year ago, those words are seemingly on repeat in my head.  It resonated with me over these months, and it actually shifted my own approach so that I looked at my experiences as challenges to bring about change in my life. Challenges are now welcomed rather than avoided.

I've committed to be on a never-ending growth tract and decided my life's mission is to do the same with the lives I'm blessed to interact with.

Do you have a personal vision statement? or something similar? share with us in the comments section below.

Grace peace and love,
Gia

A hug from a stranger

There is something about when I'm "home". I somehow don't have a routine...part of it is because of the excitement of being home, another part is because of my husband's lack of a schedule and then,  because this is "home"- I guess my brain goes into a more relaxed, go-slow mode...not sure.

Anyway, I said all that to say that I've been having some difficulty with getting my regular Monday and Wednesday blog posts since I came home...and I think this lack of structure is the primary explanation. All excuses aside, I should get to the point of this post...

the impact of a small gesture.

About a month ago when I was in Canada, I experienced what I've been writing about. You know I'm the queen of encouraging all of us to give a smile, a hug, an extra word of encouragement...something to make someone's day. Well, it happened to me. And the weird part was: 1. I wasn't having a bad day and 2. It was in church.

Essentially, I'm just going about the routine of using the restroom after church before the long 45 minute drive home  and as I stand in line (because there is ALWAYS a line for women's restroom), this lady comes up to me and gives me a hug. Okay, so that's not weird...I am in church. That is expected. But what she did after is what shook me to the core and literally brought tears to my eyes..

she looked me in the eyes, told me that I looked beautiful and that God loves me.

I think she may have said something else but I need you to know it was not the words, I know I'm beautiful :)) and I KNOW that God loves me...it was the warmth, the intentionality, the "I see you"/"You are not invisible" nature of the act that still has me thinking of it and getting all warm inside because of it. It was love. It was genuine.

It took less than a minute for this woman to validate my humanity when for all intents and purposes, I didn't really think I needed validating at that moment...you know- it wasn't like it was a bad day or I was feeling exceptionally sad or lonely or anything..it was just a normal Sunday....

until she came along.

And THAT is what drives me. THAT gets me excited. THAT is what I want to do with everyone (or at least someone) each day:

Genuinely show the love of our Father, so the individual is validated, encouraged and rejuvenated.

I should note that apparently I wasn't her only victim. ;) Two awkward minutes later (as I stood fighting tears), this burly man comes lumbering over to her (as she too now waited in line for the restroom) and is literally gushing thanks. He was so overcome by her "genuine hug and kind words" that he had to come looking for her to tell her thanks.

That, my friends, is the love of God in action.

Have you had one of those experiences before? tell us about it!

Grace peace and love,
Gia