My mom and I decided to start a project called "Needles for the Needy" this last month. We have been given so much from the Lord and our cup runneth over! We felt like it would be an honor to give back to others who need it too!
God has placed a burden in our heart for the homeless. We have a personal experience of being homeless for ten years. Growing in Grace Magazine featured an article that I wrote about my experiences called, With No Place to Call Home.
We want to help the homeless by crocheting as many blankets as we can for next winter! I have contacted the local rescue mission and will get a goal number very soon! We wrote a basic pattern of double crochet blankets using two yarns together to make it thicker and warmer for the needy. However, if you have your own blankets that you created and would like to donate, we will welcome those as well!
We also accept any help financially with donations and even donated yarns to help the ladies make more blankets! Come and visit our website and see how you can be involved! Spread the word please! God bless!
Miss Jocelyn is having a Winter Bundle Giveaway at her blog, A Pondering Heart! There are $700 dollars worth of giveaways and many awesome prizes!! Go to her blog and see how you can enter!!
What a terriffic and busy week! SisterLisa and her family welcomed my family in sharing their traditions, meals and time together all week! It was a true blessing for us and I cherish their friendship a lot! I've been spending time yesterday and today in catching up on all my emails and everyone's blogs! Whew!
Now I can't believe it is almost 2009! I can remember 2007 and how I didn't want that year to end. Now 2008 is over already?? Wow.
2008 was a wonderful year for me. I grew more in God, started attending church more faithfully and tithing faithfully. That was a big improvement this year.
I graduated from college with an AS degree in Social and Behavioral Sciences!
I also grew closer to Lisa through the discipleship class and we became fast friends since. Her family has been a gift from God for us. She taught me a lot about how to be a Christian woman, how to be a better mom and how to be a good wife someday. They also helped us through financially difficult times and I am so thankful to them! _\m/
Lisa also invited me to join as a writer for AGMinistries.org in May and I enjoy it SO much! I joined the blogging world and found a passion in writing for the Lord.
We moved three times this year. I had to move out of our house because of financial changes and I wouldn't be able to afford it anymore. The apartment we moved into was a dangerous neighborhood and drug infested, so I thank God for bringing us to the apartment we have now! Praise the Lord!
I enjoyed a class at the Evening School of Bible at my church about Biblical Womanhood and I want to take more classes in 2009!
Now as I look forward to the new year, I want to make reasonable and specific goals. Here are my resolutions!
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1. A stable schedule for teaching my kids everyday at home.
2. I want to establish a daily family devotional time.
3. I want to have a prayer list and to pray for others daily.
4. I want to reduce the amount of time I go to restaurants with my family and start cooking more often at home & learning more recipies.
5. I want to work on the new project my mom and I created, called "Needles for the Needy" and raise enough blankets for the homeless (post coming soon!).
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Have a Happy New Year everyone!!
May 2009 be bright and better than last year for all of you!
God bless!
Today, I was brought to the local fire department with my kids and Lisa's family. All I knew was that they were handing out toys and the media and santa was going to be there. There was a press confrence and we applauded for all the contributors. Suddenly, Scott got up and he talked about me. It all happened so fast and he said I got a new minivan! What?? And that the bags and bags of toys in the corner were all for my kids! What??
The media was there, the news channels and the newspaper people were there. Also, dozens of people were there. I was just in a DAZE and shock!! Am I dreaming? lol. I was asked some questions and I hope I gave good answers. I was like a kite flying high in the sky.
God has been SO good to me and my family!! The Bertolinis have been a Godsend to us too! My cup runneth over! I didn't have ANY money this month and we've been broke all month due to debt from the past. I have been three months behind on a loan. I only got the kids Spiderman slippers for Christmas that was 99 cents on Ebay. I felt awful not being able to get them more.
Now we have a car! With NO payments! Now we have food and toys for the boys! God ended this year with a BANG for us lol. I am very blessed! I do not deserve any of this, but I have a GREAT God who is merciful and loving. Thank you to everyone who helped us and you all are doing a wonderful thing helping so many families!!
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Malachi 3:10
God has blessed me and there's no more room to receive it, that I have to open all the windows of my house because it's flowing!! I will never forget this day!!
There is so much joy in being a child of God! Sometimes I just feel my heart bursting with joy and the only reason is because I know my Savior and my God. The world may look at me and expect me to be depressed and miserable because of the hard situations I face, but there's joy that the world does not understand that comes from above. 
We should live life like we know the ending. In the end, we will be living in Paradise with our King, rejoicing in such great wonder for all eternity! Why live any different? We know how it'll all end! What a beautiful ending!
Our time on Earth is so short compared to eternity. We will be tried and tested, but let us stand faithful. We love our Jesus though we have not yet seen him face to face, but we have experienced his presence in our lives! Such joy flows through our soul knowing we shall soon see him just as he is!
"That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom,
though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory:"
1 Peter 1:7-8, KJV
Rejoice while you suffer, and that is when the Lord's glory shall be revealed and magnified! I can't wait to see what God does when we need him the most! He never fails to leave me in awe.
"But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's
sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may
be glad also with exceeding joy."
1 Peter 4:13, KJV
Let our joy be full and flowing in our hearts, and let it remain. Remember, we do not live under the circumstances. Remember that through whatever may come!
"These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might
remain in you, and that your joy might be full."
John 15:11, KJV
Bring on the rain, for the Lord is my shelter!
Today, I was sitting by the window on my couch. I had finished my book and I was drinking coffee. I was thinking about the Lord and then remembered a recent experience. It was a beautiful, awe-filled experience. I feel it whenever I remember what happened. I have wanted to share it with my friends but I haven't because I was afraid of what they would think.
Then I started thinking that I shouldn't be worried about that at all. The Lord has showed me something profound and it shouldn't be kept a secret. I decided that I would write about it tonight.
I'll start with a brief explanation first. Growing up, as a girl, I have always been able to see spirits. Not like psychics do and no, not like the Sixth Sense movie. For a reason that I haven't understood yet, God has showed me these things. I saw a lot of dark, shadow people growing up. I also saw demonic entities who took on many different forms. We were haunted growing up and I believed they were following my father.
When I was ten, I found Christ as my Savior. That experience changed too. I still see spirits sometimes but they are not here for me anymore. I see them passing by once in a while. I ignore it most of the time.
This summer, some of you remember that I was living in a dangerous area and that we were stalked by a gang in white masks. They would come and bang on our door in the middle of the night trying to get us to let them in. My brother in law saw a gang wearing white masks ready to pounce if we opened the door and he called 911. They did this four times. It was scary enough, but I didn't tell anyone about what was happening on the inside of the apartment.
The apartment was haunted and we struggled during the time we stayed there. They would turn the lights on and off, bump on our bed while we were sleeping, run fast out of the corner of our eyes and Brady had a bad incident where he saw one of them. He was inconsolable for three hours and just cried and cried and wouldn't let me go.
One night, I was online and I felt a heavy presence just cower over me. I felt surrounded by invisible and evil beings. I ignored it and walked to the kids' room. I immediately saw something run fast past the corner of my eye. I ignored that and crawled into bed with my kids. I said my nightly prayers and suddenly, I heard shrill shriekings in my ear. Mind you, I am very deaf, so if I heard it, it must have been extremely loud.
I kept praying. Suddenly half of my face felt like it was burning. The room was dark but I saw a pitch black mass on the ceiling. It was frantically moving about the ceiling. I ignored it, closed my eyes and kept praying. I heard the high pitched shrieking again. I looked again and this time, the black entity was fighting with something.
I didn't want to stare at it directly because it terrified me. I looked over to the side by a few inches and could see it clearly. The black mass was fighting against a clear being that looked like water but it was invisible and I could see it move. It's hard to describe but it's like the Hollow man movie with Kevin Bacon and that even though it was clear, you could see it move. I believe that was an angel.
They were fighting intensely and clashing against each other in a speed that was not human. I can't explain it but the moving was not at Earthly speed. It was so quick, so fluid and so fierce. They kept clashing and clashing without pausing for a second and whenever they clashed, I could see sparks fly in the middle. It looked like white flashes or fireworks whenever they clashed and it was like swords clashing to me even though I did not see swords.
The black entity paced around the ceiling and tried to attack the angel from different sides. My heart was pounding and I started reciting Bible verses outloud by memory. I fumbled over it a few times because I was panicked. When I recited the verses loudly, the fighting actually got MORE intense! It became more violent and more quicker. I believe the Word of God had an impact.
This actually continued for several long minutes. Usually, when I see spirits, they run away but these were different. I have never witnessed ANYTHING like this! And I saw it for a prolonged period, maybe 6, 7 or 8 minutes! I have never seen them fight too!
I ran quickly to my mom's room and we turned on all the lights. We prayed and rebuked them in Jesus' name. I slept with the light on every single night (outside for the intruders and inside for the spirtual intruders) for a month until we finally moved.
I am still in awe and I believe the Lord had Angels fight for us. I feel so.. humbled by that. Just, wow. I don't know why God shows me these things, but I feel blessed because I know beyond a doubt they are real. When you see it, you have no choice but to believe it. I am here to tell you all that there are Angels and Demons fighting for us. It's real.
And I know not everyone will believe me. I haven't told many about it but I've heard from others that they have went through a similar experience and have seen things. People are afraid to speak up and share their experiences because they are afraid of what others might think. That is so disappointing. I think we ALL should speak up and share these experiences. It'd do so much if more people started coming forward.
I understand that not every person has seen a spirit, good or bad. I want to remind you that it is Biblical. The Bible speaks of Demons and Angels countless of times. They are real beings and they are out here, fighting over us. I know I will never, ever forget this experience. It leaves me in awe every time I think about it.
Do not fear. Remember the demons tremble in the presence of Jesus.
"For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." Psalm 91:11
"For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee" Luke 4:10
I was planning on writing an article about Santa Claus but I found this amazing article that explains the Biblical and historical depth of Santa Claus much more than I ever could. It is the best website that I've found about this and I want to refer you guys to this link,
http://www.av1611.org/othpubls/santa.html
And I know many of us have childhood associations with Santa. We may have become enamored with him and like Lisa describes it, we have become "grafted" in. I encourage you to truly take a look and learn the truth, especially for our children. They are the ones being exposed to Santa the most. Who is this being that we are allowing our children to become so enamored with? As parents, we must know!
I have never really liked Santa for some reason growing up. My soul feels stirred when he appears. I never knew why until I researched more about him. We do not celebrate Santa or have any Santa decorations in our home. I excite my kids with Jesus and never speak of Santa unless they ask who he is. I will be honest with them.
As we know, Satan is a great deceiver. He will not appear to the world as a wicked creature with horns and a tail. He wants to allure the world and seem harmless and appealing. He also wants to mimic the likeness of God. Santa (switch the words around and it'll spell out Satan), says he sees us all the time, knows when we are good or bad, he claims to be omnipresent (everywhere at once) and omniscient (all knowing). He is mimicking the power of God and taking his glory. Christmas is ALL about Santa and Christ is banned from Christmas. As a matter of fact, Christ was not the origin of Christmas if you research the history. Miss Jocelyn wrote a wonderful article about that HERE.
Many Christians say that God can see what's in their hearts when they celebrate Christmas and that their intentions are pure. The Bible says our hearts are wicked and if only we knew what God saw when he looked into our hearts!
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9
The majority of people keep Christmas because of their own desires. What about God's desires? He abhors these things. I want to delight in what the Lord delights and have no part in what offends him! Let us forsake our own carnal desires that the devil works hard to appeal, and seek after the Lord.
