the wind and the rain

Here lately God has really changed my heart. As I read what I wrote a while ago, my cry to God, I realized that He has done what I asked of Him. Isn't it amazing when God does that. That He can do it so gradually that you don't even notice it? I love it when He does that!

Thank you Lord,
For changing my heart. For being patient with me and having mercy on me.

I wrote prayer during a great storm in my life and it has been amazing to listen to God tell the wind to stop blowing and the waves to be still in my heart. Sometimes, like the picture above I have little ripples, but, they aren't ripples of anger like they used to be, they are ripples of sadness and pity. And the amazing thing is, He is there and then they are calm and peaceful again and He lets me know, that I need to pray.

How can I not worry about anything?
Show me how to hide under the shadow of your wings
Heal my heart so that I can hold me arms out open
Help me to forgive and forget
And never look back again

Some say that's just how it is
Why does it have to be this way?
Please let us all be home one day
Don't let us be separated anymore
By miles, burned bridges or wars

Help me to love others and be of help
Use me in a way that your light will so shine
Help me tell others that love is here
That you are Yahweh and always near
That it is okay to mourn and shed a tear
God, I know that this will be tiring, but it must be done.
I do it in hopes that it will inspire a reunion

Some say that it can't be done
That it will always be this way
Please, bring us all home today
Don't let be separated anymore,
By miles, burned bridges or wars.

The the end is in your hands
Please give us strength to stand
Help us, as your children to stand with You in all we do.

Just wanted to let you know I have posted some interesting facts on"Fight For Their Lives" If you would check it out I would appreciate it!

God Bless,
Leah-Joy.

Picture Perfect (post 200)

Buddy is growing into such an amazing young man. He now has cows pigs, and this summer he had an amazing garden. He has become even more of an amazing older brother to J Man and Sunshine and I am now looking up to him. He works so hard and becoming everyday more like our Lord. It is wonderful to see him fill the chivalric code of being trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave,pure and reverent more and more.

Dear Father,
Thank you so much for my brother. Thank you for allowing to look up to him even though he is younger then me.

A Dissater That Needs Your Prayers!

This is a letter from a dear cousin who lives in the Pillipines but is currently in the US. Please keep these people in your prayers. Not only have they had to suffer this horrid flood, but another is expected tonight our time and Friday morning their time.

It has been a tough week in the lives of so many in Manila Philippines. I am currently in the US for work so I am not on the ground first hand to experience the disaster and pain the population is currently living through. On Saturday a Typhoon dumped 30 days worth of rain in just 6 hours. As I write this on Tues evening flood waters still submerge many homes and the death toll is nearing 300. My family is safe but the reality of this disaster is that many who lived in this third world country had little before the storm hit and now they have nothing.I have tried to put the words to the paper to describe what it is like in Manila right now and I just can't find them. It was heartbreaking to see children in the streets with nothing before. Now you see the pictures of them with even less, and no means of improving the situation as the mud and water are still standing. More storms are projected in and they really can't care for the large groups of displaced people as it is now.The stories of what the Filipino will do to survive are phenomenal. Their dedication and loyalty to their family and those in their lives just can't be described. Most Filipinos live on less than $10 a day and the work they do for that $10 is strenuous but always done beyond expectation. On Monday morning with flood waters still rolling my housekeeper, with a house underwater up to the ceiling of the first floor showed up for work. Johnnie took them back to their home, picked up the children and they will stay with us until it can be determined if the house can be salvaged. Her father remains in the second floor, 4 days later with water still standing. Today they will go back, try to convince him to leave with them, and tie what remaining things they have to the ceiling of the second floor in hopes the new rains wont raise the water that high. The father has held firmly that he will not leave, he intends to protect what his daughter owns, as she has worked hard for it.Please pray for the country. The death toll is rising, and the disease has already begun. The mosquitoes will be hatching soon and Dengue fever will increase. Medicines are scare, and dehydration is already being reported in the young and the elderly. Many are forced to drink the flood waters which will result in typhoid most likely.If you would like to make a donation of used clothing, sheets, towels, sponges, soap etc or non perishable food or even small children's toys or books, you may mail it to my US address. A Flat rate Post office box to an APO/FPO address is about $12 to mail. Johnnie will distribute until I arrive back in the Philippines. I am attaching pictures which were taken from a slide show on yahoo. If you type in Philippine floods 2009 you will find more than 300 photos of the damage. I urge caution when viewing. The pictures are traumatic. They are not filtered and they do show death and removal of casualties. The picture I attach called floodchild is a boy in line waiting for emergency food rations to be handed out. In today's paper the article spoke of a 69 year old man who waited and waited in the food line but when they got to him all they had was water. He said he missed the bag of rations for the day. The bag contains a can with 2 sardines, and a pouch of noodles and is the ration amount for the day for a family.The two fish are there…please pray for the five loaves and the miracle to go with them.

With Love,

Kathy and Johnnie Jackson

PSC 500 Box 19 FPO AP 96515

It Is Amazing!

Last year at this time I never would of imagined that every night before we "off the light" as Sunshine puts it, would I read a Bible story to her and then pray with her! It amazes me every night! I get share with her about my Lord, listen to her tell Mommy the babies name in the basket, and listen to her tell Hope and Grace* "Jesus said 'Let the little children come to me.'" It is amazing! Just the other night she was saying the words of the story with me as I was reading them and she asked me about the guards in front of the tomb. I got to tell her why they were there, how they went to sleep because God wanted them to and that Jesus came out of the tomb! It was so awesome. Then we learned what Mary said when she saw her Lord! It is amazing to hear our precious ball of a miracle look at Mommy and say, "JESUS IS ALIVE!" All I can say is that it is awesome!

Then I get to pray with her. We pray for Grandmother, Nana and Papa, and Grandpa, and Noel and Darell every night. She always asks to pray for Mommy and Daddy. She loves them so much. It has been wonderful to see her get more and more confident saying things without me saying them. Not only is it teaching her (i hope), but, it has taught me that I need to be more like her. One night in her prayer (i say it, then she says it) we said sorry for not listening to Mommy. That has taught me that I need to apologize more, it made me realize that when I throw an attitude at Mama, not only does it hurt Mama but it hurts Him and that when I mouth off at Daddy, that hurts Him too! I need to be more honest, tell Him more and ask for something even if I think that He may not care when really, HE DOES! They both have been such a blessing. As Grace* said, "They needed us and we needed them."

I can't imagine our life without them and can't think of a time when they weren't here. They fit in so well. We love them and they love us. We have learned how to even each other out, listen to each other, and discipline each other. We remind them to chew with their mouths closed, if they eat all their food they get a cookie and they tell us to answer Mommy when she calls and to not pout (because we remind them not to). We are like little accountability partners for each other. As Mama and Sunshine say, "It is amazing!!" I hope that this has been encouraging. Thank you for taking the time to read it!

God bless and sorry for being absent from blogger world for so long!
Leah-Joy.

Please Pray

Hey Everybody!

I am sorry that I haven't been on blogger in forever. Well, I have a prayer for ya'll. A very dear cousin is very sick. His name is Chris. If you could keep in your prayers that God wouls send a miracle his way I would really appreciate! Thank you all so much!

If you haven't please chech out my pro-life blog.

God Bless,
Leah-Joy.

Hey everybody! I just did a new post on my pro-life blog! If you could stop by and read it and leave a comment that would be great! Please tell your friends about it! Thanks!

God Bless,
Joy.

Fight for their lives

I Don't Know What to Title This One

Well, as you can tell, I have been out of blogger world for a while! Well, last saturday we were blessed with being ale to go to a Do Hard Things Conference (i talk more about that later). While we were there God told me that He had something big for me to do. And so, I was like, well, ok, whatever you say. Well, when He did start giving me signs about what He wanted me to do I got really scared! I told Him that he was going to have to keep giving me signs in order for me to this. Well, I guess He smiled and said, "Hey y'all, what this," and He did. And I guess I should of thought that it was amazing but, because what He wants me is so big the sighns scared me. I was hoping that I was making it all up and that I wouldn't see anything. Well, I saw alot. The mission He has given me is to bring abortion to an end in our state. And when He told that I was like "Well, that would be really hard, what if I fail and look dumb?" What is crazy is at the conference they talked how even FAILED EFFORT BUILDS MUSCLE! We have to kee going! I had shared with Small Group last Sunday that so mant great men in history were because they were stuborn and determined. Whinston Churchhill said to "Never, never, give up." He wasn't considered smart, he had a lipse, but what most people don't know is that he was the only man that Adolf Hitler was afraid of. A humble, determined servant of Christ, who never gave up. And when I thought those thughts of doubt I realized that I was being dumb and COMPLETELY contradicting myself. Let me share with you some f the sighns that He gave.

• In our history lecture our teacher talked about the sactity of life.
• I have seen the director of our Criss Pregnany Center' name twice this week.
• I am reading a book called "Just Do Something" and in it the author talked about Esther saving her people; last year I wrote a paper about Esther saving her people and how the babes of abortion are our people we need to save them.
• I was able to talk about Abort73 (a website who's mission s to raise aware in teens about abortion) on Wednesday night at church and it felt so awesome and I was thankful for that oppurtunity!
• Matthew 8:10,13 says, " As assuredly as I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel... 13Go your way and as you have believed, so let it be done for you."
• Before I read this I was very afraid, Matthew 8:26 says, "But He said to them, 'Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?' And there was a great calm"
• In the book I am reading for school the author talked about what miracles babies are!
• In "Just Do Something" the author sad that if you want a career in medicine, then do something that will honor God, "to not perform abortions." (talk about feeling like you were feeling being hit up side the head wth wrds!)
• And just now my sister told me that our cousns ran a marathon to help stop abortions.

So, yes, there it all is! I am so thankful for all the girs that listened to me tonight at Small Groups and all the girls who got so excted and wanted to join me! God is so awesome!!! As I was talking with them and as I have been writing this I have realized that I wll not be doing this alone, that even if I am physically alone, HE IS with me!!

So, we hope that maybe we can start by volunteering at our local Crss Pregnancy Center. And just a shout out to ny other girl who may read this and have a passion for innocent lives, please leave a comment and I would love to pray for you and would appeciate if you would pray for me. Thanks to all who took the time to read this. Please pray that God will guide so that I will do what need to do, one step at a time.

Thank you all so much for your support, encouragement and if you know anyone who wants to help fight this injustice and speak for those with no voice, please send this way and I would love to encourage them if I can, pray for, just form an online community of ACTIVE prolife young women, for we are either a child or an adult and God has called us to be adults and act as adults, so we need to do something adults would do.

Again thank you all so much for listening!

God Bless you!!

Joy.