The most wonderful time of the year...

I am so blessed! I really think that I have the best family ever! I have only been here with them for a day, and already I have seen God's faithfulness and realized how wonderful my family is.
I left for AZ yesterday morning (12/17) and ended up having a layover that overlapped my sister's, so I was able to have breakfast with her. Then I ended up missing my flight because I read my ticket wrong... But they bumped me to the same flight as Jade! Then the flight attendant worked things out so that we could even sit together on the plane! :) God was really working out the details of my trip :) it was so awesome!
And this morning we had a surprise birthday party for my grandpa... He was so surprised, totally blessed, and was crying happy tears the whole time, which started everyone crying :) it was so fantastic :)
And I get to hang out with all of these awesome aunts and uncles and cousins and baby cousins, and siblings and mom and dad and grandparents for the next week! I love all of these people... Really, they remind me of God's goodness and his provision, that he would give me such wonderful people in my life!! We have had so much fun, already! :)
Thank you Lord for my family!
Hope all of you are blessed and able to appreciate your family during this holiday season!
Love!

Justine

Me and Jade at DFW airport together :)

chopsticks

Hey All! :)


Today is fantastic! I hope that today you are seeing God's faithfulness and experiencing His love! :)
I know I am... :) 


Especially with this new ministry opportunity: I get to go to Korea in January!! :)
We will be going to Korea as a department to teach an SST to the students there, and I am so excited! And encouraged! I haven't gotten my newsletters out yet, and God is already providing for my financial needs for the trip! 


So today, I thought I would start preparing myself... 

I gotta eat... right? ;)

So I ate my entire lunch today with chopsticks. :) 

And!! I'm really excited that it's almost Christmas!! :) I get to go home soon, which is so fantastic! I really miss my family!

So... I was feeling the Christmas spirit today. And decided that I would take my friend Meganne's advice and stir my coffee with a candy cane. 

Best. Advice. Ever.

So. Delicious.

I even found a green mug! :)

So that's what's on my mind today:

-God's faithfulness

-Christmas!!

-Preparing for Korea

What's on your mind today? Let me know how I can pray for you!

Love!

Justine

Recent Happenings..

Well, let me tell you people...
When you give your life to Jesus, you really don't have time or occasion for it to be boring! :)
A few of the things that have happened to me, as of late:


- I donated plasma. 
  Probably you either think that's really weird, really gross, or 
  really cool. Let me tell you, I was quite terrified. I had a few
  main reasons for doing it:
      1) My friend Meganne is getting married in March (woohoo! 
         :D), and she asked me to be one of her bridesmaids! So I 
         want to raise money to pay for the dress.
      2) I have a significantly large amount of debt from student 
         loans, and I figured out that with the amount I pay
         toward them every month, I'm covering interest and paying
         very little toward the principle. Super Lame! So I want 
         to try to put more toward that each month. :) 
      3) I am *terrified* of needles and have had bad experiences 
         with giving blood. So I have decided to conquer that
         fear! :)
      4) I'll be saving lives, of course! :)
  
  Well, let me tell you. It was really weird. Without getting too 
  graphic, I'll just make you aware that it is not very much like 
  giving blood at all. It's much more intense. 

My poor arm... this was after I took off the bandage. 

It's much better now :)

- I attended Love Feast! 

  Love Feast is the base's version of a family Thanksgiving 

  dinner. It's a really nice meal that we get dressed up for and 

  look forward to every year. This year everything was gorgeous, 

  and we had prime rib! :)

Fancy for the Feast! :)

My dear friends, Meg and Angie...love these girls! :)

Me and Meganne! :)

- I cut my hair.

  Yes. I personally cut it. It was quite awful. Like, I couldn't 

  even bring myself to take a picture of it because it was that 

  embarrassing. 

  But! Caitlin fixed it, because she's a hair genius! :)

  So here's what it looks like:

- Praying about going to Korea. 

  Our department leader asked me and Kathryn (the girl I work 

  with) to pray about going to Korea for two weeks to teach an SST

  camp! :) I am so freaking excited! I'm still praying, because it

  would mean I need to raise $1500 on top of my monthly support to

  pay for the trip. Please be praying with me! :)

So thankful today for who God is! 

He is my provider, my portion, my friend... and His joy is my strength! :)

Love!

Justine

The Call - Detroit 11.11.11

(written 11.16.11)


Wow. Just wow.
This was seriously one of the most spiritually-stretching things I have ever participated in! We were all gathered together at Ford Field to fast and pray for 24 hours for the city of Detroit and the United States. For 24 hours.
Now, I love Jesus. And I love prayer. I can fast. I can go without sleep for awhile. But I have never put all of those things together for 24 hours straight.
Basically, the three things I dislike a lot in life are: 1) being hungry and not being able to eat 2) being tired and not being able to sleep 3) being cold and not being able to do anything about it.
So there we were at Ford Field. Fasting. Praying for 24 hours. In Detroit in November.
So this was definitely not a fun little rally event. It was intense.
The longest worship service I can ever remember being at was three hours long. So after about four hours, I could feel myself tuning out. I went to sit down and observe, and the guy on the stage yells out, "come on people, get to your feet! We're gonna keep praising the Lord!"
It was at that point that I realized that I had never been in a situation where I had really pushed past myself to worship God. I had never been in an uncomfortable situation like that where everything in my physical body wanted to lay down and sleep, and I had to make the choice to turn my affection toward the one who is worthy.
It was a battle every 4 hours or so. You really don't realize how long 24 hours is until you try to do the same thing for that long... :)
But! The reward was so great!
A big focus in prayer was racial reconciliation. We had groups from the prominent ethnicities in Detroit leading in worship and prayer... Even native Americans! It was really awesome.
But the coolest part, and the most healing, was when the different leaders from those groups began asking the leaders of the other ethnicities for forgiveness on behalf of their race, for things that other races had suffered at the hands of their ancestors. So much openness and brokenness and humility!! It was the most awesome thing I have ever witnessed!! God's people walking through healing broken relationships and restoring unity in the Body of Christ. Walking out forgiveness and restoration like that in every level is the only way we are going to see revival in the United States. Those 3 or 4 hours alone were worth all the fasting and being cold and tired. :)
I have to admit though, that I wasn't able to fast for the whole time. Because I was drinking water without eating, I had to pee a lot. And if you've ever been to Ford Field, you know that from the ground floor to the bathrooms, there are at least 100 stairs. After the 12th time up and down, it was like 9am, and I almost passed out at the top of the stairs. So I ate a hotdog for breakfast :) And at one point before that, I woke up after an hour of sleeping, and the last thing I could remember was setting down my purse... :) but hey! I pushed myself, and God knows my heart :)
On top of all of this, we were sleeping at a church, and I was responsible for feeding 75 other people the day before the event. So the weekend, in its entirety, was quite a learning experience and a growth opportunity for me :)
And today, I am praising God for a day off! :)


Love!
Justine

Ready to head out for The Call! Jake, Seth and Me :)

 Me and Jake, waiting for the whole group to make it past security

The Body of Christ, interceding for Detroit!

 Getting tired and hungry...

 You can't tell from this pic, but there's a huge group of people up around the stage worshipping together in the morning. :)

It's been too long!

I am sorry for the recent radio silence :)


Wow. There is so much I could say, but I don't want to write a book... :)


My little sister is married and has moved to Arkansas. Please be praying for her and her new life, and that God continues to pursue her heart. :)


I have been learning so much about working with people lately. I know that God put me here very specifically and with people who are very different that I am. And sometimes that is really difficult. 
But the best way that I've learned to handle it is to pray a lot, laugh a lot, and bite my tongue a lot. :) AND, most importantly, to remember that I am also difficult to work with sometimes. So remembering to have grace for people and doing my best to be loving. :)


A few fun things on the schedule:
- i just got back from a sleepover with my small group girls! We had so much fun :)


- I will be headed to Detroit on Wednesday for The Call 11/11/11! It's a fasting and praying event for the United States.


- Thanksgiving Love Feast is two weekends away. :) It's the base's version of Thanksgiving, as a YWAM family.


-I'll be going home for Christmas!!! :) I'm really looking forward to hanging out with my family. I miss them a lot...


That's just a quick update... sorry for such a long time between posts!


Love!


Justine

Blessings :)

Okay, so I love my job! :) I have my own desk, I get to tell people about not only Youth With A Mission, but Jesus! I get to read the Bible to start off work, and have a weekly corporate worship time with my coworkers. I live with a bunch of really awesome women who love God and care about everyone around them. It's so refreshing! I really do enjoy office work, which is what I am doing primarily right now. I work for the Alaso department, and we have a lot of awesome events coming up: a mini sst (camp) for catholic kids in October, possibly traveling up to MI for The Call in November...mobile teams are scheduled to head out in january, and we'll maybe be partnering with the Discipleship Training School's stateside outreach in january...we'll have a large-scale catholic sst in march...
All of that to say, I have a lot of logistical work to do :) but i love it! God has really blessed me and surrounded me with friends :)

Much love!
Justine

"All things work together for good for those who love Him..."

This has been proven to me over and over again since I've been home! I've seen God provide so much! He led me to a nice, reasonably-priced car that I'm planning to buy (provided everything continues to go well), since I need transportation down to Texas, and something to get around in while i'm down there. I just felt this nudge to ask someone i was on the phone with if they knew of anyone selling a car... turns out, their son was selling his ford taurus! So awesome...
One of the requirements for coming back on staff in the department i want to work in is that we have a smartphone. I was able to purchase an iPhone at half the price that it would normally be, and i'll be saving $40/month on the plan because my parents decided to let me stay under their plan if I paid for my stuff.
I was in desperate need of a suitcase; mine was in bad shape.. so I put a thing on facebook and had two people contact me about suitcases that they didn't need anymore! :)
A family friend handed me $100 cash in church this morning and said she just wanted to help me. She is so sweet!
Basically, I have asked, and I have received. I have been so blessed by God and by the people who have responded!
I am believing that God will continue to provide for me, as I still need at least $200/month pledged support. Please pray about partnering with me in this way to accomplish God's purposes through my life! :)Thanks so much for reading!
Much love!!

Justine