The Best Days in History

Today I am dedicating my blog post to one of my heros. This gal is simply the best. I can't imagine my life without her and I am so lucky to call her...my mom.

Where can I even start with how great my mother is? She has been there for me when I am happy and when I am sad. She has given me advice and has been there to wipe away the tears when I didn't take it and things did not turn out well. She is truly a gift from God.

Today I am especially proud. My mom has overcome so many obstacles in her life and came out smiling but this one in particular was really hard and she took it like a champ. Let me tell you a little about it.

My mom married at a very young age and shortly after started the family with my older sister Kristin. I guess Kristin was a little too much to handle because they waited another 9 years to have me. (lol jk Kristin...LOVE YOU!) While my mom was busy raising a young family she realized that she needed to go to school in order to have a career. She followed my dad to mortuary school where she then became a Funeral Director. I might be a little biased but I think that I can say with full confidence that she was one of the greatest Funeral Directors ever. She cared so much about each person that came into the funeral home and I remember her coming home and telling us stories of people that she had met. My mom touched many lives in her 20 something years of being a funeral director. She has helped several family members deal with loss and has been a blessing to everyone that she meets. She truly used her gift of compassion to bless others in their time of need. My mom always said that being a funeral director was her ministry and she was right. It takes a certain person to be able to sit with a grieving family and help them make arrangements for their loved ones.

After working in the same profession for so long you can understand her shock when she learned that the company that she worked for was closing down and that she needed to find another profession. While most people would find this news traumatic and not know how to deal with things my mom (although she was sad) said no to a pity party and started trying to figure out what the next step was.

The next few months were hard but I am so blessed to say that my God is a mighty God. Every step my mother took was blessed by God. He guided her right to where he wanted her. My mother has always been good at decorating and putting things together. She is also great at selling stuff. So what better job for her than real estate? She was introduced to the idea from a friend and then was blessed with a job offer after she completed real estate school.

Now any normal 50+ woman might have heard the word school and would have given up then. But my mom didn't let that stop her. She pulled up her boot straps and signed up for school. Online school was tough and she did struggle to find the time to do classes with my little sister bopping around from place to place and activity to activity. After a meeting with her new job they offered her schooling in an actual classroom where she would finish quicker than online. God provided the funding for that and off she went.

During this time she travelled back and forth from San Antonio to do her classes. Now San Antonio is about an hour from where my mom lives and gas prices are not necessarily low right now but God knows what he is doing. When I left for England I left my parents with my little car. Now she could get back and forth from San Antonio without spending a fortune. I just love how God provides. After she finished classes she had to take her test and then that was it. She would be a realtor. Well today...SHE PASSED!!!!

I cannot explain how proud I am of my mom. She is truly my hero. She overcomes so many obstacles and when Satan is starring her in the face saying "give up" she punches him in the face and says "not today bucko." I see so much of myself in her and I am blessed to know that she passed down her resilience to me and helped make me strong.

I know that my mother has always been proud of my accomplishments and I think that she has seen them as outweighing her own but honestly I think that she has done more than I ever could. I am so proud to call her my mother and I am blessed to be able to see the hand of God working in her life.

Now go sell some houses mom! Love you!

How many of us remember saying "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." I imagine that if I were in a room full of you then hands would be flying up all around because I am sure that we have all said it. The real question is do we really believe it? Can anyone honestly tell me that they have never been hurt by someone's words? If someone can tell me that then I really want to start hanging around them cause they sure have something special. But I think that we can all agree that at some point in our life we have been hurt by words.

I read this quote the other day and it really stirred something up inside of me.
Wow! What a thought. How many times do we say things through out the day that we wish we could take back? Well after reading this and thinking more about it I decided that I was going to try to make an effort to watch my words.

One of the things that I am passionate about is speaking life into people's lives. I don't want to speak negative words over them. I want to bless them. Several years ago when I was working in the nursery I heard a volunteer comment on this little babies appearance. This baby was probably only about 6 months old and was a little bigger than babies that age. This volunteer looked at this baby and said "look at you, you are just so fat." I am pretty sure that I had to pick my mouth up off of the floor. I could not believe that we were already speaking these horrible and negative words into this babies life. I turned to the volunteers and said "let's not start her off on the wrong foot and having a self image issue." I then turned to the baby and told her that she was beautiful and was wonderfully made by God. She was perfect and was going to change the world when she grew up.

Why do we insist on putting these negative terms on people?

Now I have always been a really positive person. I like to find the good in situations but there are some things that just really get the negativity flowing in me. Things like injustice or people not being treated fairly (myself included), being forced to do things that I really don't want to do, and a few others. Basically if I am being honest I have a tendency to be negative about too many things. So after thinking through things I decided to try to have a more positive outlook on life.

One of the ways to have a more positive outlook is to stop speaking negative words. One thing that I do to people around me when things get to be too negative is I make them say 5 positive things about the situation. I love doing this until someone turns it around on me and asks me to follow through. Why is it so hard for us to find the positive in a bad situation.

I did notice the huge change in my life after adding more positivity. I feel like the first week was such a blessing and the second week was even more blessed. I really felt God's hands in my life and His presence in situations. When you keep adding the positive into your life you tend to start noticing more of God's creation, His grace and His love in the everyday things. You have a better attitude about life and I think that you are generally better at facing the day and whatever may come your way.

I want to challenge you to find the positive in every situation this week. When things start to get to negative then list off the good things about your situation. I guarantee that there are some...sometimes you just have to look harder.

Today was just one of those days. One of those days that you lose focus and forget why you are here. One of those days that you just feel like quitting and going home. One of those days that you feel like you made the wrong choice. Today was just one of those days.

I am usually a morning person. I love the mornings. I like waking up and taking my time to get ready but lately I have just been so exhausted that I have not gotten to enjoy my mornings. Today was definitely one of those mornings.

After a great message in church I thought that maybe my spirits would be lifted a little but they were not. The gloom of my bad mood hung around well into the afternoon. I spent my afternoon watching past sermons from my church in Oklahoma and then realized that it was baptism Sunday at NORTH. I immediately felt my heart drop into my stomach and the homesickness started quickly.

After watching the first baptism any normal person would feel joyful and excited that people that they knew were giving their life to God. But I was not any normal person today. I was a selfish person. It was all about me and how I felt. So to keep feeling the "oh poor Callie" feeling...I kept watching. I kept thinking about all the things I was missing back home. I started to think "did I really make the right choice?" "Should I really be in England right now and not in OK?" "What if I would have stayed...where would I be?" Satan really had the questions for me this morning.

After spending a few minutes feeling sorry for myself and shedding multiple tears I realized what I was doing. I had so many people around me that are great people and have been put into my life and I was spending my time crying over something that I cannot change. How unfair is that to everyone around me? It wasn't until I got into Planet Kids for the night service that I realized why I am in England. I had forgotten that I was called here to be a voice. I was called to speak life into their precious lives. I was called to be an influence and a role model. Why would anybody want to be like me today???

It really made me think about why I am here and what I am doing. I think that the biggest thing I learned today is that not all days are easy. Some days I am going to be homesick. Some days I am going to feel like a failure. Some days will not be a walk in the park. BUT! It is on those days that I need to work extra hard to do what I have been called to do. It is those days that I need to pray more and stress less about the future. It is those days that I need to look at my kids in PK and remember why I am here. To be a light in their lives.

Everyday is not a walk in the park...but everyday is a gift from God. Today I am thankful for the realization of how silly I have been today and today I am thankful for the grace to start over tomorrow.

What do the top 2 photos have in common? Well nothing to a normal person but to me Jesus and a messy bun was a conversation started that could eventually change a young girl's heart. Let me explain...

On Tuesday my team and I went into our Secondary school which is like high school. It was a normal day. I attended my first 2 classes and then it was break time. I love break time because it is a chance to stand around with the students and get to know them more. I found my group of girls that I have been building relationships with and started to chat.

We talked about the usual things; school, friends, plans for half term break and messy buns. Now the messy bun is where all the good stuff starts. I asked them how they all did their messy bun in hopes that I would be able to get some tips to improve mine. We chatted some more and then it was my turn to share. Well my messy bun is a little unique. In fact it has a story with it. I started my story off telling them about my friend that taught me how to do my messy bun. I told the girls how "before Jesus" my friend got in trouble and did a lot of not so great stuff. I told them how she learned to put her hair up so fast because she had to get it out of her face when she ran from the cops. Then I said "but now she has Jesus in her life and is going to church and has a great life with no more cops."

After I said that line I thought for sure the conversation was over...nope. One of my girls looked at me and said "how long have you been going to church?" This started me in on explaining my church background and how I grew up. I then go to tell a little of my testimony and how God changed my life. Surely we would be done right? Nope. Another girl said "I want a religion." That led me in to talking about how I didn't have a religion but I had a relationship with Jesus. I got to share about how Jesus does not like it when "religions" fight with each other and lose focus on why they really go to church. Even though I could have gone on more and more and talked all day with them I was interrupted by the bell ringing. I promised the girls that we could talk more about this later and they all agreed that they would like to.

How crazy is it that I can go from talking about messy buns to talking about Jesus? One of my prayers lately is to have intentional conversations with students anytime I am around them. I don't want my conversation to be just a "hey how are you" but I want them to take away something from the conversation. I know that God is helping me have these conversations with students and I am in awe every time he opens a door to speak about Him. Now I just keep praying that I will be able to see these opportunities and not waste them.

I guess the moral of the story is simple...Jesus is in everything...even messy buns.

We are in the final days of our second week at Xcel Church. Last week we finished up our training and took a tour of a school but this week we actually got to go in and start!

On Tuesday we went and spent the day at a local Secondary School here in Newton Aycliffe. School systems are a little different here. Here is a basic outline of the school years in the UK.

(Year 12 and 13 are also called "College")

So know when I say Primary School or Secondary School you can kind of understand. One thing that I found interesting is that students are allowed to finish school after Year 11 (age 16). They can then go to "college" and choose from a list of courses to study. After college they can then go on to University. So you can understand why I got very confused when talking to a group of young people who told me they were going into college at age 16. lol.

The time has finally come and I am now in Newton Aycliffe sitting in my new office. Of course I got the desk by the window because who could resist glancing out every now and then and seeing green grass and tall trees. It is such a drastic change to the Texas heat and dying grass.

My team and I have started planning for going into schools next week. This week we have meetings with head teachers to establish our schedules. We are so excited for what God is going to do this year. During training, they explained that in the british school system, teaching religion is a requirement. So who better to teach it than missionaries? I could not believe how open schools are to religion. I think about the states and how we pride ourselves on freedom and yet while in training I felt as if someone was going to slap my wrists if I said the word God in schools. It is different but it is a GOOD different.

My team is so great. I don't think I could have asked for a better one. We all get along great and although we are different we all compliment each other and so far are working together very well. I love that no matter how different we are we still have the same goal in mind and we are here for the same purpose. I enjoy getting to know them more and more each day and boy do we have fun!

Wowza it has been a long time since I posted an update. So much has happened and God has been so faithful. Me on the other hand...not so much.

God really rocked my faith a few weeks ago. I received an email stating that my UK Visa had been denied. I got that email on a friday morning after having an incredible morning with some of my favorite people. We went to movie at 10am and had a blast! I thought it was going to be the makings of a great day. I was ready to get some stuff done.

As I was sitting in my car checking my email I got to the one about my visa. Reading the word denied I immediately felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I had to read the words over and over again to make sure that I was seeing it correctly. Immediately I began to cry and text everyone I knew, looking for some kind of encouragement. I needed someone to tell me to calm down and everything was going to be ok. But how was it going to be ok? I had just lost $300 and was running out of time. I started thinking that maybe England was not in the cards for me this year.

I found that person to calm me down when I called my mom. Now for those of you who don't know this my mom is my biggest fan. She helps me with everything. But me moving to the UK for a year has kinda quieted her opinion a little. She is not as excited about this decision as she usually is. But in this moment that I needed her she did something that I did not expect. Any mother hating the idea of her daughter moving halfway across the world for a year might have taken this opportunity to say "Maybe this is God telling you to stay." But no! My mother put her feelings aside, told me to dry my tears and began to pray for me over the phone. She was my rock in that moment. She knew that England was God's plan for me and she was not going to stand in the way.

After crying my eyes out to my mom I then went home to sulk more. My life and plan were over. Everything had been thrown out the window. All I could do was sit and think why would they deny me. I would not know the answer to that question until monday or tuesday. So I had the weekend to wait...and wait...and wait...

It was awful! I believe that God denied my visa to test my faith and boy did I fail. I did not believe that God could or would give me my visa. I started thinking that what was once His plan was now my plan and it was ruined. How was I going to come up with another $300 and how would I be able to get everything done in time.

After waiting some time we found out the reason for me being denied. Paperwork...a silly number was expired and all I needed was a new one. Things were starting to look up. Within that next day my parents had overnighted me my passport, God had provided the $300 and I was on my way to mail off my application once again.

This time I put each paper in the envelope carefully, double checking everything to make sure it was perfect. Then I had my church staff family pray over it and sent it on it's way. I have never been so terrified.

During this time I waited...and prayed...and waited. But what was different this time is that I BELIEVED that God was going to give me my visa. Well...today I received the email. I was so nervous opening it up. My eyes were searching in fear for the word denied but they did not find it. They did however land on the word ISSUED WOOHOO!!!!  I got it folks. I am officially headed to the UK on August 23rd.

I know now why God denied my visa the first time and I will be sure to not ever doubt him again. Thank you to all of my family and friends for the prayers and support. I could not have done any of this without you!

As I sit and think about the journey I am about to go on I can't help but get a little nervous. I have done missions all my life and I started going oversees when I was 15 so that is not what is making me nervous. I think it is the time. I have never been somewhere longer than 3 months. This time I will probably not see my friends or family for a year! That is a scary thought. I know that I will make new friends and that my team will feel like family but I am still nervous at the thought of not being around the people I am used to. But I guess that is what getting out of your comfort zone is all about. I think that is why the song "Oceans" by Hillsong has been wrecking me lately. Every time I hear it my soul just screams. Here are the lyrics. 
                                           

                                           "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)"

My best friend Jennifer makes fun of me all the time because I HATE movies with a bad ending.  You know the ones that just stop and don't fill in the rest of the blanks?  I want to know EVERYTHING about the characters lives including their happy ending.  If the boy gets the girl then I want to know did they get married?  Did they have kids?  Are they happy?  Where are they now?  I want no detail left unsaid.  I really hate the ones like Harry Potter when you know they are not making another one and they show you Harry's kid at the end.  WHAT THE HECK??????  Now I want to know which house did he choose?  Is someone trying to kill him all the time?  Does he fall in love?  I just can't handle it.  It actually ruins the whole entire movie for me.

Now before you start thinking that I am crazy hear me out.  I have not always been like this.  I realized that this is something that has just recently been bothering me.  How did I come to this conclusion you ask?  Well I was babysitting the other night and I decided to watch one of my favorite movies...August Rush.  I remember this movie being SOOOO awesome!  I had not seen it in a few years so I did not remember everything...especially the ending.  I sat down, got all cozy and got lost in the music until...THE END!  UGH!!!  That was the worst ending I have seen in a long time.  They just look at each other.  That's it!  Then it's over.

As I sat back in silence I realized that this was one of my favorite movies.  How come the end never bothered me before?  Well here is what I decided.  I have only had this hate for bad movie endings for about 2 years now.  Hmmmm 2 years.  I graduated from college 2 years ago.  Coincidence?  I think not.  I realized that I hate not knowing how everything turns out in a movie because I hate that I don't know how everything turns out in my life.  I don't know what I am going to do when I grow up.  I don't know who I am going to marry.  Will I have kids?  Will I have grandkids?  I have been so worried about the happy ending that I forget to be in the story.  My life is so crazy hectic right now with moving to a foreign country in 3 months that I have gotten myself all worked up in the ending and I am not enjoying the middle.

This chapter of my life is that...just a chapter.  It is not the end of my story.  My story is hopefully quite long.  But my chapter at NORTHchurch is ending for now and a new chapter in Pais GB is starting.  I am so excited for this adventure.  I just need to remember that "maybe it's not about the happy ending, maybe it's about the story."