Our last day- Farewell Friends

Today was our last day for the summer and my last day for Club 121. It was a sad day for me, looking at all of your smiling faces and knowing that when I left I'd cry the whole way home. Some of you gave me cards and gifts which was so sweet and made me feel special. I am happy to know that I impacted your life in such a way! I wanted to give you a bit of the speech I had prepared for today. Just some last words before I say goodbye.

I'm leaving you today hoping that you can realize what you have here. This is a rare opportunity to go through junior high and high school with a family of warriors fighting the same battle and taking care of each other. Are you going to throw that away? Two years in the making of this club will you let it fall 7th graders? 8th graders will you stick together in high school? You are my family and I can not go with you to the next step on your journey. I wish I could still be around every Friday cheering you on but the time has come for you to leave my nest and spread your wings! I am so proud of each and every one of you! I know that you will continue to let your light shine and show the love of God to everyone you encounter! Stand together my family and keep our legacy going.

God blesses those who do what's right and share his love with everyone. He is very proud of you for even just showing up to club. Continue to make Him proud and to make me proud. When we get to heaven we will all be together forever. The people in our club are apart of your eternal family. How you treat them and the relationship you have with them is very important. When we get to heaven and we are having a club 121 at my mansion, what will we be talking about? Will we be talking about how badly so and so treated whats her name and how good the donuts were or will we be talking about how great it was to have each other through our trails and the impact we made on this world?

What we will be talking about will be up to you. The relationships you have with each person in this club will be up to you. We are a family forever. You can not escape us. So I leave you all with this and I pray you think on these words every time you look at each individual face from our club: Love one another like crazy, forgive like you never held a grudge and when you hold each other, never, ever let go. Form a circle of love, this is your family.

Its all in the Name

God has many different names in the Bible that we have been covering in club. Today we talked about why he has so many names and what that means. God's names paint a picture of who he is for us. It is impossible to capture the entire essence of Christ in one name!

Names are important. If names were not important he wouldn't have changed Saul to Paul, Abram to Abraham, Simon to Peter, or Sarai to Sarah. What their names meant, meant a lot to God. He wanted them to be a picture of their name and their name to be a constant reminder of who they should be.

So where does that leave us? God has a special name for each of us, a 'secret name' that will be only between you two someday. But right now we have our earthly names that give us definition. How can we take our name and make it into a constant reminder?

Our challenge today was to research what our name means and then put it as our facebook status. For example mine will say: JoAnna- Hebrew: Gift from God. I will strive to live up to my name.
In class Kylie came up to me and said, "it would be hard to live up to being a boomerang." I laughed and then thought about it on the way home. Boomerangs are awesome because they are always coming back to their master. Kylie can live up to her name by being like a boomerang, and always coming back to God.

So this is our mission! Its called a facebook outreach. Go share Christ love! Even if your name means hill, be a foundation for Christ. Or if your name means Royalty show the Royalty of God! I'm sure when you think about it, God will show you what your name wants you to represent.

Something happened today

I don't know how to describe it but something happened today. I woke up late, frustrated, and unable to breathe out of my nose. I thought I'd be able to recover on my way to club but it only got worse. I was happier when I saw everyone, but then I didn't get to teach my prayer lesson because everyone was talking. Frustration raised and then boom.

I was blank inside. I had finally hit the edge.

After club I got in my car and wanted to cry but I couldn't. Its like my tear ducts went on strike. They were dry just like my passion for my ministry. All I wanted was to go home and stare at my ceiling.

As I drove down the highway I passed a large Keebler truck. I started to think about all of the cookies inside. I wanted those cookies. I quickly devised a plan to hijack the truck and take all of the snacks. It was a genius plot that made me laugh, laugh until I cried.

It was at that moment that I realized that those cookies would never be mine. That I would never have the skills to hijack a Keebler truck. And that I might be called to lead a normal life, free of such life and death adventures. I might be called to just go to college then get married, be a teacher, have kids, grow old, and knit sweaters on the front porch and die all in the area of Lees Summit. Any other day I would hate everything about that thought, but today something happened.

I was o.k with the thought of being normal. People who know me know that I am not your typical 20 year old but I am certainly not a Beth Moore or off saving the world one homeless child at a time. Things I want to be more then anything. I have been so set on making sure my life goes according to my plan that I told God that I refuse to be anything less then my dreams. But what about Gods dreams for my life?

If God wanted me to hijack a Keebler truck he would've equipped me with the means to do so. If God wanted me to be a speaker at youth camps and travel the world, he would provide a way. But what if he doesn't? Will I sit around and pout wishing I wasn't dealt the short end of the stick? No way, at least not after today.

Whatever God wants, I want for my life.

I become jealous when I hear about my friends off joining missions schools, teaching in Ecuador, and going to Hillsong United in Australia. Not giving up, but being able to give years of their lives to God before starting college and getting married. I keep crying to God, "when is my turn? Look at all I do for you here! I want to go to Lord, its not fair!." Today God finally got my attention. He said, JoAnna, If your off saving the world, who will save my people here?

Click. Surrender.

As long as I am completely surrendered to God, He knows whats best for me. The idea of leading a stereotypical normal life is no longer this scary monster that will feel me with regret. My life will never be normal, not as long as I am working for the King. I will have great adventures, I will love, and I will be the woman God wants.

I'm not giving up on my dreams, I'm just giving in to God.

Sometimes God just wants to know if your willing to go and do His work. I'm willing to be whatever God wants. No more wishing my life away, His ways and His plan are better then my own. So I will continue my work in my ministry and live my life with a knew attitude. It's not my ministry, it's Gods. I am just happy I get to be apart of it.