My week...

It's been almost I week since I've posted. I have been so busy preparing for the fall. I really love fall for many reasons I shared in this post. Tomorrow and Saturday I have a leadership meeting for a college group I am helping out with. I am so excited for the new semester and just want to meet all the new students and tell them about our group called 77, it is a Christian group on campus and is very new, this is only our second semester! You can check out what we are all about at our  web site. I have also been working night shift this week, 11pm-7am. I'm not going to lie, it was been terrible! I hate night shift because it is so hard to sleep during the day, I get home around 8am, eat breakfast and than sleep until around 3-4pm, wake up eat dinner and hang out for a few hours. I am so happy that tonight is my last night shift for a while, hopefully a long while!! Also a week from tomorrow I leave for AFRICA!!! So crazy!! I hope you have all had wonderful weeks!

XoXo,
Valerie

Two Weeks!!!

My dear friends and fellow bloggers,

In two weeks I will be disappearing for a while because I will be in Benin, West Africa!! I can't believe it is just two weeks away!! I still have so much yet to do before then, so please pray that I can get everything accomplished before I leave. For example, I still need to prepare most of what I am teaching!! I am teaching about basic first aid, hygiene, how to treat burns and who knows what else! It will be interesting because they speak French and I don't know any French!! I'm praying for interpreters!

Today I meet up with three of the other women who are going on the trip and it was so exciting to discuss how much God has already blessed this trip. We have received so many precious donations such as beads, bead making material, first aid kits and money. All of which make this trip possible! TWO WEEKS!!!

XoXo,
Valerie

My Prayer Journal

In the book, Let prayer change your life, the author Becky Tirabassi tells of a prayer journal she created with different sections to keep your prayer life organized. So today I created mine and have some pictures to share with you thanks to Hobby Lobby and their wonderful crafts!

The first section is called My Part which consists of 4 sections.
Praise - which consists of devotional reading and suggets rewriting psalms as your own personal prayers.
Admit - Confessing to God.
Requests- Prayer requests. (within this section is another section called My Prayer list).
Thanks - Thanking God.

Gods Part has 6 sections.
Listening - Listen to God in silence and write what He speaks.
Messages - Notes from sermons, outlines and verses.
New Testament, Old Testament and Proverbs - listing verses that comfort and convict you.
To Do - things I need to get done during the day. You write them down and then you don't have to think about them while you are meeting with God.

Forgiveness & Prayer

This summer I've been meeting up with a group of ladies every Monday night for a Bible Study and it has been so great! At the beginning of summer I didn't know these ladies very well but over the summer that has changed. I'm excited every Monday to hear how their week has gone and how I can be praying for them. I have been challenged through this study as well, which is always a good thing! This week our "assignment" is to forgive somebody we need to forgive. Doesn't sound too hard on the surface but actually doing it has proven to be difficult. The person I chose to forgive has hurt be a great deal and I'm not even sure if they realize they have. A part of me wants to be selfish and stay angry and with hold forgiveness ..... but who am I to with hold forgiveness from someone? Why do I think that I am so superior to this person and therefore I can make an exception and not forgive this person. Ouch! This is not a pretty place to be and I don't like being here!

So this week I am on my knees praying hard to my heavenly Father because I need His help with this one. I can not do this alone. Speaking of prayer, I haven't been as diligent and as faithful as I would like to be with my prayer life. I want to be know as a "prayer warrior." So my friends and fellow bloggers, how can I be praying for you this week? I recently started reading this book called "Let Prayer change your life" by Becky Tirabassi and it is amazing, I find it so hard to put down. In fact I think I'm going to read some more right now!

Have a lovely Wednesday!
XoXo
Valerie

Saturday with my Sister

Saturday my sister and I planned on going to the State Fair, only it was pouring rain all day so instead we took a little trip to the Brookfield Square Mall, this mall had some amazing stores. Here are a few of my purchases for you to enjoy with me!

All of the Above are from

http://www.charlotterusse.com/home/index.jsp

Which may be one of my new favorite stores!

And lastly this beautiful dress from H&M

Paid In Full

Paid In Full Those are three beautiful words! I recently paid back one of my two student loans, when I looked at my account online to make sure it was all taken care of it said amount owed: Paid In Full. It's so exciting to know that I have one less payment to make every month. I have also been putting in a lot of crazy, long hours at work to pay back my loans as soon as possible. I hate being in debt to someone, it just bothers me so much. I am hoping to have my other loan paid off with in the next year.

Do you know what else is Paid in Full? The punishment for my sins and your sins too! Isn't that great news!!! When God looks at me, He sees the perfect life His Son, Jesus lived. Jesus took my punishment, He died for me! Because of Him, my debt is Paid In Full. I don't have to work hard to try to "earn" God's approval or make up for past mistakes. God wants me and you just the way we are. He has paid the price, now let Him claim His prize -Your hear, Your life. Won't you lay it down at His feet and accept what He gives you in return? Eternity with the Creator of the universe!

Out of my box

Today I gave a 5 minute presentation on my upcoming mission trip to Africa at a church I used to go to when I lived with my parents. Now that I have moved to a different city I no longer go there. If you know me at all you know that I really, really dislike public speaking. It was great to be able to share about what God is doing in my life and my excitement for Africa. Afterwords everyone was so nice and excited for me as well. God is so good how he sends encouragement when we need it the most! The church also provided me with a donation towards my trip which was way more than expected! (not that I was expecting anything).

After church I meet up with an old friend from high school. It was so great to have lunch with her, we have been trying to plan a time to get together for the last 6 months! We live a couple hours from each other so it's not like we can see each other a lot. She also gave me a card and a donation for my trip which was unexpected. I thought I had seen all the support I was going to get but turns out it is still coming in.

Check it out

I have been busy catching up on work and things around the house that were neglected while I was away on vacation. Not too much blog worthy has happened lately so I though I would dedicate this post to a new blog dedicated to helping others around the world so if you have a few minutes I recommend you check out this blog.