For every mountain....

So while getting prepared to lose weight and start my weight loss journey. This past March I found out one of the reasons why my legs hurt so much. I found out that this is due to a condition (which obesity can bring about) called Lymphedema. Before I can have surgery, my surgeon wants me to gain strength in my legs and also lose the fluid in my legs so that I can move around easier.

Last week was MY week...Let me explain.

I spoke with my physical therapist, he said that I needed new shoes. So I went to a shoe store with a set of specific needs. With the support of a friend and the help of a pleasant sales associate, I found the perfect shoes. They fit and were within the budget I was allowed. I was soooooo happy.

Last week, Friday to be exact. I was sent new wraps by ezmedicalwraps. They sent me wraps and I tried them on. That night I wanted to walk everywhere. I could see a BIG improvement in the swelling of my legs.

I'm counting my calories for two weeks now. I've lost four pounds. God is being so good to me and I give Him all the glory for helping me. I have said no to all kinds of temptations and even had a slice of cake.

I hope to be done with physical therapy in 5 to 6 weeks. Then back to the surgeon to see when I can have the lap band done. They just want me to be up and moving around right after surgery and reduce the size of my legs so that I don't get an infection.

I hope that I will soon be healthy enough to walk the 2 and a half blocks to the beach maybe by next year.

I heard this song by Karen Wheaton For Every Mountain. You should look it up. I feel like it resonates with everything the Lord is bringing me through so far.

Right now I'm currently looking up music to put on my headphones so I can exercise. Please pray that I can keep it up at least a couple days a week.

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I will try to write more often.
Chrissy

Five Minute Friday - Glue

1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt: “Glue” with no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to please visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.


Today is Good Friday. I always wondered why they call this Friday "good". I know that the end result was very good. Jesus rose again on the third day.

I find sometimes thinking in the mind of the disciples. They didn't know it was a good Friday, at least not until the third day. Sometimes I laugh because they went back fishing, right back to where Jesus called them out of. Jesus is the "glue" that held them together. When Peter saw Jesus, he was so excited that he jumped out of the boat and even forgot to put his clothes on to go and meet him.

Lately the world has been getting busier and crazier. I only have one simple question for you. Is Jesus the glue that holds your life together? Sometimes I can find myself going into the place where Jesus called me out of just like the disciples. Still, I know Jesus is my glue.

Jesus paid it all all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed me white as snow.



(Please note I own no rights to this video. Only sharing a song that means a lot to me on this Good Friday)

Love you all
Chrissy

Five Minute Friday - Paint

1. Write for 5 minutes flat on the prompt: “Paint” with no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to please visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community.

Today's prompt is Paint. 

So......let's go.

So I am sitting here in the living room at Jesus People USA. Every floor has its own living room. There are red and white walls. The white walls are very pretty (they might be off white) But there are two sides of the four walls that are a dark red. Almost the color of dark red grapes. 

Just from the description I gave you, you are probably thinking that the red wall is pretty and you wouldn't imagine any flaws in the wall. But there are big splotches of white paint covering one of the red walls. It looks very tacky.

This week, God keeps pointing out to me that really we all have our struggles. A few years ago, If you would have asked me as a young Christian, I would have said that we are all like white walls. I thought we had to be perfect. I went to a huge church a few years ago, no one seemed to struggle and there were no talks of struggling,  

This week this was pointed out to me in my Lent devo that even the disciples had their struggles.In the garden falling asleep. Jesus came to them and said something like (Chrissy's paraphrase) Why can't you stay awake in My hour of need the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

Lord, thank you for the white splotches on my red wall. I know that your blood is what covers my wall. I don't have to pretend to be perfect, because I'm not where near perfect.

end

Five Minute Friday

So this weeks Five Minute Friday prompt is willing.

Not sure how this will go since Im posting from my phone...so...here I go.

START

Lately when I think about willing, especially this week, I think about the insurance "nightmare" I went through this week. I went to the doctor on my insurance...well that was all fine and dandy. I had them send my prescription to CVS and then surprise surprise they cant find my info even after calling the insurance company.

So I called the insurance, they called the insurance. I spoke with managers at the call center. (now having been in the same boat as a call center agent, I know how it feels to get yelled at for something you didnt do).

Fives calls later with two supervisor calls and its Friday. I still dont have my medicine. The reason I say this is because in the Christian life, we have to be willing to spend all our time and resources on the things of God. Pursuing Him like He is the insurance company but not because things arent going the way we want, but because He loves us and we love Him. We have to be willing to serve even though things dont go our way and we dont get what we want.

Even though I'm not feeling the need to pray but being willing to lay it all down, like Facebook for Lent and say God I am here. Please speak to me.

DONE

Let's Go Down, Come on Down

As I went down to the river to pray
Studying about that good ole way
Who shall wear the robe and crown
Good Lord, show me the way
Oh sinner let's go down
Let's go down
Come on down
Oh sinner, let's go down
Down at the river to pray

So most days, I personally would sit near the fire pit at the campsite. There was one day that everyone was going down to the beach. I really wanted to go. I told my friends that I wanted to go. I was going to walk down to the beach and bathe in the water. (Four days in the woods and I was a bit icky) So we decided the best time would be after lunch. So I had dish duty, so I would go after I did the dishes.

When the dishes were all done we set out. Me, Anastasia, and Julie went. (Julie is a lady that I always ended up sitting by when we were eating, she was sweet and we had a lot of good talks together) The road was a little iffy. It was clay. Once we got to the beach the hard part began. I had to have the cane in one hand and hold on to someone else so I didn't trip.

I made it to the water and my knee was killing me. Also I felt like my feet were on fire. When I got to the water, it felt so goooood.

Funny thing is Anastasia went into the water with me. I don't know what was on her mind. I guess she didn't want to get all the way wet. I would take it a little at a time. I finally got all the way in. I even tilted back and got my hair wet. I WAS FREEZING. THE WATER WAS ICE COLD. So in order to get Stasia out into the water, I splashed her...she gave in and swam out with me. I think we stayed in there for 10 or 15 minutes.

We get up on the shore. All of our group was on the shore. My feet are hurting. I sit on the sand and this hippy guy comes up, and I'm with Julie and Stasia. He asks if he can massage my feet. I was feeling odd because I don't know this guy at all. I figured all my friends are with me so I won't be in trouble. He gave me a pretty good massage.

This day was the biggest day of the trip. I feel like God really spoke to me. He told me that verse I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can DO ALL THINGS through CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS me. I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME. This verse really means something to me now. If I could walk that far in clay dirt to get to a beach to swim out in the lake for 15 minutes...that's okay with me.

I was so happy

Thanks for letting me tell all of this before it's not fresh in my mind anymore. I hope I never ever forget the way I felt that day. After walking that far.

Still more rainbow stories to come

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA5BrS8HmOY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

More Rainbow Adventures

So that evening when Brian was still shopping, even though it was raining we got into the hot tub. It was all nice and warm, even though it was difficult to get in. I am glad I did it. I had on what looked like a gym outfit and so it caused bubbles in the water. I have a picture of people in the hot tub, but its not me.

So the next day, Tom and Anita the people we were staying with, had a  prayer meeting. While we were praying, I experienced something I've never experienced before. Anita said we were to find a boy who lost his way, and needs to come home. We also prayed for all the people that we would minister to. So we headed out the campsite was about an hour away. Anita said that I could use her walking stick, but it was too big and bulky.

When we got to the campsite we were met there by a group of about 15 people. They were a group known as nomads land from Gadsden Alabama. They would be helping us as we were to serve other people. It was weird because they were living out of two buses and all we had were scrawny little tents.

It took me about a day to adjust to everything. The next day it poured down rain. Of the five girls that went we all stay together in one tent. We were lucky it did not rain in our tent. A couple that went with us Amanda and Cody, their tent was flooded. I felt so bad for them this is the second day and we were just getting settled in.

Let me explain a little bit. The Rainbow Gathering is where a bunch of hippies come together. It is supposed to be about love and peace and harmony but really it's not. These people are hurting and need hope. There is a lot of drinking and drugs and violence. We were there to feed the people breakfast lunch and dinner.

A typical day went like this

Breakfast was around 10 a.m. But we didn't have any clocks to go by.
There would be a cook assigned to cook the food and also a helper if needed to chop up things. When the meal was prepared we would all gather around the campfire, pray, and then yell FREE FOOD IN THE WOODS!!!!!

After breakfast we would have a short devotional. I usually sit around the campfire especially when it was raining. The third day we were there Brian built stadium seats out of wood planks. There would be people assigned to go get fresh water from the water buffalo. ( yes every time I thought of it I thought of that silly Veggie Tales song) People assigned to wash dishes, which was usually me.

We had a very musical group when we weren't working we were singing and playing music. There was someone who played the banjo, guitar, and 3 or 4 sets of drums. Sometimes my friend Anastasia would play the violin.

After dinner was the best time for music. While the people from outside were still eating, we would sing and also tell testimonies. There were lots of things that went on in this time that I can explain, accept it was the power of God. I saw one guy get healed from drug overdose. A guy in our group got his leg lengthened. There was a guy who got cured of his headache.

I had never believed and healing before. I knew that God could heal but had never seen the Holy Spirit move in that way before.

Then there was a guy from the Alabama group whose nickname is Lost Boy. He asked on one of the last days if he could go back with us to Jesus People. So we ended up bringing back the lost boy just like Anita said.

Some of these days run together so Im trying to write as I remember. I will write more for you later. Thank you, my family and friends for your prayers for me on that trip.

Chrissy

Rainbow Trip in Ocala. This maybe Part 1 of several parts

This might be one of a few posts now that I have something to write about. I have never seen God move so profoundly as he did in the Rainbow Gathering. I feel so flooded with the Holy Spirit, now and I definitely don't want to forget these memories.

This is the big group of us that were actually at the Gathering. This was taken the last day that  we were there actually the campsite right before we left....but let me start off with when we first left.

We all met in our building, yep, all 16 of us. Two of the guys in our class chose to stay behind because they felt like they were called to stay back and help. I felt at first like this was going to be such a bad trip. Not because of the difficulties I might face, but because  of what we experienced the first day of the trip.

We actually got out of the door on time. Brian (our teacher or leader or coordinator for the trip) and the guys loaded up the van, trailer (which was attached to the 14 passenger van), and the suburu (with the heated seats). They had loaded the food earlier, then they loaded the tents and tarps, and then  last but not least they loaded up the luggage, sleeping bags and instruments we had. Yes, there were lots of instruments.

When we first headed out, or even before we headed out. Me and a few other people got into the suburu. Brian, who was the first person to drive the van, couldn't start the van so we had to get it jumped. When we got it jumped, everything went smoothly until we hit the snowy weather on the way to Tennessee. We were stopping the night at some guy's house who knew Brian. We stopped at Subway for lunch and Little Caesars for dinner. By the time dinner was over, I was really tired of fast food. I was thinking that once we get down to Florida I'm not going to want to go into the woods for a week because I will be so exhausted. 

Weather wise, we hit a lot of patches of snow and then more towards Tennessee more areas of intense storming and fog. At times it was really scary, but we made it to the guy's house. This man was really nice. He had a guest house that we were staying in. Everything looked nice until we got to the bedrooms. The guys were lucky. They got to take the sofa and living room furniture to sleep on. The girls got the bedrooms. It looked more like a play room than a bedroom. Ugh! I don't know if I was the only one thinking this, but the rooms smelled. The guy told us he had a pipe burst not too long ago and he just got it cleaned up. The room had a very bad smell, you could walk in there and just tell by the smell something was off. I thought to myself one night is all I have to deal with, I can do this. 

The morning we got up and were going to head out at 8 or so. The man cooked us breakfast. He used eggs from his own chicken, which  was surprising that lead several of  us to talk about sustainable living. He owned his own farm, land and I think he said he had a creek that he filled and fished in. He told us how he bucket farmed sometimes and how it would be easy to do at jpusa. As soon as the dishes were washed, and we got our picture taken we were off to Florida.

This is just our group. When we got in the suburu, I turned on my heated seat. Ah...a heated seat feels great even in 40 degree Tennessee weather. Then we headed down to Florida. We even went through Georgia. I kinda wished we could stop along the way so I could see my family. When that sign comes up that says however many miles to the next few cities, I saw my hometown on there and I just wished I could go see them. 

Anyways, there was a thermometer thing in the car that told how warm (or cold) it is outside. I remember getting into the car in Chicago and the gauge saying 20 something. It read 40 in  Tennessee. Now it was getting to 50. It was funny. My buddy Triumph, who is the second person on the left said that when it got to 50, he would yell out of the sun roof. And he did. Actually, everyone took a turn yelling out of the sun roof, except for me. I wasn't sure if I could do it because of my balance. It was funny, we were cruising the radio and heard the song Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. It's kinda funny since we just came into Florida. We got into Florida not too long after dark. The couple who let us use their house said we could sleep and get in the hot tub that next day. 

The reason we stayed at their house for a full day before going to rainbow was so that Brian and the guy Tom who's house we were at.  They were going shopping for more groceries. Well that's all for now, Part two comes later