Is this my life?

I am constantly surprised when I find myself doing something wonderful with my life. I know that this life is something that I continue to want, but it amazes me when it turns out the right way.

Take yesterday for instance.

After my classes I called a few friends to see if they wanted to go out to dinner and my beautiful friends Erica and Hannah responded that they could. I met them at Bella Monica which is a wonderful Italian restaurant in Edwards Mill Shopping Village to the left of Harris Teeter. I didn't remember this from my previous trips, but apparently Bella Monica on occasion serves a traditional Italian meal. Meaning, they take two and a half hours. I'm not complaining because it was a fantastic meal (I introduced H & E to bruschetta (see left)..one of my favorite things!) but it was a bit tiring.

The entire meal we spent talking about how amazing Jesus is. As you know, I'm heading to Lebanon for the summer and Erica will be heading home to Pennsylvania to do her support raising for an internship with Crusade at Meredith (yaaayy!!!) and Hannah will be support raising for STINT in East Asia. We talked about Bible Study girls and our outlooks for our ministires after this semester. I shared my prayer for Lebanon, which is something I'd like to share here.

As I was journaling the other day, I found myself praying this prayer.

"Lord, I want time to stand still while we're there. I want as much time as possible with these people to show them Your freedom. And Lord, I want You there. I want You there so tangibly that the earth shakes and the sun explodes."

I'm not afraid to ask God for big things. He wants us to ask for big things. I truly believe that He loves showing us how BIG He is. And this summer, I want to see wonderfully big things.

After dinner I had a wonderful Bible Study with my girls and then on a whim headed out to Prayer in the Brickyard. Prayer in the Brickyard is something that Ava Michelle goes to every week with about 40 of our closest friends. She's always raving about it and I decided since I had no homework, why not? I loved it. We start out by praying and thanking God for Who He is. It was wonderful. We then took communion and split off into small groups to pray. My group had about 9 girls in it and we just shared openly and then prayed for one another. I loved that even though I still don't know a few of the girls names, we prayed very openly for one another and then later talked through some awesome verses and encouraged one another. That's one of the things that I love about the Body of Christ. We're all found in Him and that's all that matters.

And speaking of the Body of Christ, I found this picture the other day, and it does nothing but make me smile. Labor Day Weekend 2008 was one of the greatest weekends of my life and I just love how close we all are in this picture. I would pay good money to be able to re-enact this photo because my favorite people would all be in the same room.

I love you all more than life itself and I'm praying for you every day.

I can't wait for the day that we're all together again.

Be it here on earth or with our Father.