Full of Thanks

I am just SO overwhelmed with gratefulness for all that is happening in my life right now. Through the ups and downs, I am seeing over and over again that He is there every. single. step. of the way!

I keep forgetting to count my blessings here, but I want to continue that now!


184. The ring that one of my school leaders, Tim, gave to me - it has The Lord's Prayer on it, in Spanish
185. Cheese and ham toasties

186. My warm sleeping bag
187. When my fringe looks good, even when I don't try to make it work =D
188. Encouragement from Jamie, that my life story IS impacting
189. Coffee
190. The opportunity to share my testimony at church this morning
191. Starting to read a novel :-)
192. Listening to people discuss tonight's church service
193. Keeping in touch with my Third Wave buddies on Facebook

194. Contact lenses! - even though my poor eyes get gritty at night
195. That there was money in my bank account to transfer to pay my phone bill
196. The prospect of seeing Andre tomorrow =D
197. The use of Paul's internet
198. Monday: our day off!!
199. My lovely, soft, pink and green journal
200. Laughing at the people I'm spending time with
201. My new LLFF

202. A "meeting" with Paul - actually, Paul rescuing me [story in another post]
203. Prayer walking in Oyster Bay
204. Muscles that allowed me to lift many boxes to help move house
205. Tim's guitar-playing - WOW. Reminds me of my awesome brother Brento!!!
206. Having fun with my DTS Outreach buddies
207. Andre's visit last weekend

208. This phase of outreach...
209. ...to meet new people...
210. ...do new things...
211. ...get my hands dirty...
212. ...be a blessing
213. The Lord giving me Psalm 115 to meditate on. Here is verse 1:

"Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, [and] for thy truth's sake."

Praise the Lord for all He is and all He does!!!

~Rachel

My Testimony

Last Sunday (the 23rd of August), I shared my testimony at the (night) youth service.

I'd only found out (a.k.a. volunteered!) that I'd be sharing my testimony on the Friday night beforehand, so I didn't have much time to prepare. I wrote down some main points, and I added in some Bible verses that have spoken to me over the years--mainly the last couple of years.

The points I'd scribbled down to speak about included:

• How I got saved, that I grew up in a Christian home, etc
• Jan 05: I was unsure of who I was in God and with my family--I was insecure
• 2005: I wanted to get so much closer to God, but felt helpless. I felt like God wasn't interested in me, yet I knew in my heart that He was there. I wrote many songs and poems in my journal during this year
• Jan 06: I committed my life to service for God. On that day, and at other times through my life, people have said they believe God will really use me
• I've always wanted to shine for God, and many diary entries over the past 4 years state that
• Many diary entries also stated how badly I wanted to have daily time with God
• Jan 08: Youth Camp's theme was Audience of One, and in the few months before then I had felt really far away from God. I was excited for camp, because with Audience of One, each day we spend half an hour by ourselves, like a devotinoal time just praying, etc, and we got journals to write in. For the whole week, I was just crying out to God, asking Him to reveal Himself to me (don't know what I expected, but I really really really prayed hard!). I wrote pages of songs and prayers. And after all of that, I felt / heard nothing. Absolutely nothing. That was so disappointing and tested me a lot. I had questions like "Why doesn't God speak?"
• 2 weeks ago, Pastor Doug spoke about humility, and that touched me and spoke to me a lot, and he talked about forgiveness as well. I have struggled to forgive in some areas lately, and at the service when Pastor Doug spoke, I just cried cos it really spoke to me, and was convicted that I need to "fix" this problem
• Jan 08: A friend of mine, Kristy, married Steve. 10 weeks later, Steve died in a tragic boating accident. I struggled (and sometimes still struggle) with this fact, and I just couldn't get my head around how Kristy, an amazing woman of God and someone that I have always looked up to, could go through so much, even though she is so faithful. I asked many, many questions through this time, and also wrote lots of songs about that event, and about the struggle my heart was going through. As I shared this, just after the first sentence, I started crying. I didn't expect to be that emotional, but I guess it all came down on me again. I spent a few minutes bawling my eyes out in front of the congregation ( :S ) and took another couple of minutes to manage to talk again... I did notice that quite a few people there had tears in their eyes, too :'(
• Often I feel hypocritical at church. I've had people say things like, "I wish I had your faith" or "I wish I was as close to God as you are", etc. This just makes me think, "Are you SERIOUS??! Obviously that person doesn't know me!! If they know what I go through, they'd be saying the opposite!!!..." I realize now, after talking to a few people, that just the desire to serve God can be a light to others, and even that has touched people

There were other things that I shared, but this is at least part of my testimony. I must say, sharing it at church was easier to write on here; I wasn't sure what to put and what not to put! But these were the main points, and I also shared some Bible verses that have spoken to me over the past couple of years.

I hope it hasn't bored you!

God bless,

~Rachel