Memory Lane

Tonight I had the opportunity to go the Homecoming game for Beech High School.  This is the high school where most of our students go.  We had 5 girls on homecoming court this year from Long Hollow.  Two of the girls tonight, Haley and Brittany are girls that I get to disciple on a weekly basis.

This was the second game I have been to this season.  It definitely brought back a lot of memories from high school.  I will say that it reminded me of how much I loved college more, and you could never pay me enough money to go back to high school.  It's definitely a season of life I am ok with not living again. :) 

It was so great to see all of the Long Hollow girls all dressed up! It was such a sweet reminder of what a blessing it is to walk along side of these girls day in and day out.  I couldn't ask for a better ministry or job! Here are just a few pics from the night! 

 Brittany and Reed

Precious Caroline and I

Emily and Haley right before the game!

Love these sweet girls!

My Sweet Lexi and I.  I will miss her when she moves to Fl.

Me and my sweet Haley! She looked so beautiful!

Rachel, Darilynn, and I hanging out at the game!

It's been a while...

I am such a horrible blogger! It has been quite a while since my last post.  So much has happened in my life over the last month.  I feel as though my life is pretty much organized chaos.  Alot of that has to do with the fact that I work at a church.  Working at Long Hollow has been the absolute biggest blessing in my life! I don't really know that there is anything else I could do that would bring such joy to my life! For those of you who don't know what I do...I am the Girls' Minister to middle and high school girls.  I have started doing some stuff also with college girls as well.  

Over the past month a half when I think about what I have been doing with my life I can sum it up in two words. LONG HOLLOW! Right now I feel as though my life revolves around it. But I LOVE it!!! We have had a lot going on in our girls ministry.  We started a girls ministry blog you should definitely check it out (www.brittanylhbc.wordpress.com) It is still in process of being formed so it is a rough draft :).  

Over the past month I have had a chance to spend some quality time with some people in my life who are most important to me! Labor Day weekend my best friend from home Aaryn came to visit on last time before she headed back to South Africa.  It was such a sweet time with her and much needed! Miss you Aaryn!

Aaryn and I

The next weekend I road-tripped it to Jackson, Tn with my friend Chris Arnold to see one of my best friends from college Miss Annie Ross.  It was such a refreshing time as always! I sure do miss our crazy late night runs to Walmart and dance parties we used to have when we were in college! If we could only go back to those days! Love you Annie! I hope we can see each other again soon :)!

Annie, Chris, and I

Just this past weekend my Best Friend from home Katie and her husband Cody came in on Friday night and it was so great to see the both of them.  I never get to see them enough and I just love being with them both.  Katie is one of those friends from the moment we met I knew we would be best friends.  We both have an obsession for everything that involves fashion...so basically we love clothes, shoes, purses and everything girly! Friday night we met up with some friends of theirs and went to SATCO.  It is one of my favorite places here in Nashville to eat.  They have the BEST tacos EVER!!! After that we headed to Cheesecake factory for some dessert! Which you can never go wrong there! It was a great night! After they left on Saturday one of our girl interns from this summer came into town to finish out the weekend! It was so great to see her and reminisce about the great summer we had serving at Long Hollow!

The group

Katie and I

Overall, its been a great month of September and I am looking forward to October because I LOVE FALL!!!! I am ready for sweatshirts and jeans!! Hopefully next time I post it won't be a post that covers the whole month:) I am going to try and do better this month. Until next time...

A Refreshing Weekend

This past weekend one of my best friend and roommates in college came to visit. If only Megan had been here it would have been complete :) Annie is one of my most favorite people in life. She is always one who puts me in my place, encourages me, and reminds me to take time for myself. That is exactly what we did this weekend. This summer has just been such a crazy time between camp, bible studies for students, and going to Bolivia that I have forgotten to just rest. My body has reminded me of that the past few weeks since I have been sick twice with 2 different viruses. So as you can tell this weekend was much needed for me! I love that fact that Lord is intentional with us. He knew exactly what I needed this weekend and met my need by sending Annie. It was such a sweet time of encouragement for me this weekend. We spent the weekend shopping and watching the Olympics and Step Up 2. She also made me her whole made brownies, which are AMAZING!

I ended the weekend last night at our White House Campus for Riversedge( student ministry). It is amazing to see that after only the second week of starting this satellite campus we had almost 80 students. God is good. I can't wait to see what else he has in store.

This is Our God

Hillsong just came out with a new CD. It is called This is Our God! You need to go out and get it if you haven't already. Hillsong is my absolute favorite! Below is a story of one of the songwriters/singers and his story behind one of the songs on the cd called Healer. I hope that his story reminds of who Christ is! The only one who can truly heal us!

The Story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ_ny8hMgRY

The Song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4xsWldmqAo

May The Nations Be Glad

So my best friend Katie has been begging me to start a blog. I have always said no I don't have time. So when I went to Bolivia last week and got back the Lord taught me so much and I just didn't have time to sit down and tell each person individually what the Lord did in my heart. Saying that, it occurred to me that "if I start a blog then I can just tell everyone at once". So here we go. I can't promise that I will be faithful in posting all the time but I will try to be consistent.

This past week I got the opportunity to go with our High School Students here at Long Hollow (www.longhollow.com) to Bolivia. I serve on staff at Long Hollow as Girl's Minister for Middle and High school girls here in Nashville, TN. We partnered with Food For The Hungry and went into the mountains of Bolivia to work with the indigenous people.

As we lived among these people in the village. The Lord started to strip me of my earthly desires and remind what it means to be a Christ follower. I was reminded of how many things in life I don't need. While we were there it was winter so it was freezing. At night we slept in many layers of clothes because there was no heat. Half of the week we had no running water and we went 5 days without a shower. If you know me, I never would of thought that I could do that. But I did. In Psalms 73 it talks about how wealth in earthly things is not what brings us joy but it is Christ in us that produces joy in our lives. That has never rang more true in my heart than it did while I was in Bolivia.

Our high school connect groups over the past school year have sponsored Bolivian children through Food for the Hungry. While we were in the mountains we went to the village where I students sponsor children and they got to meet the children they sponsor. I went with one of our students Haley to meet her sponsor child. We had an opportunity to go to her home. Her home consisted of mud slab walls and a straw roof. As her father was speaking to us he said, "2 years ago we were the forgotten people but now because of people like you and Christ we are no longer forgotten." WOW! How powerful is that! In that moment the Lord reminded of the hope he brings to our lives. That no matter our living situation, the circumstances we find ourselves in, or journeys we take there is hope in the Lord!