Baby Jayden and Avery Island

We got two treats this weekend- seeing Baby Jayden Shroyer and visiting with our good friends Kendal and Richie! We had so much fun catching up with the Bookers, oohing and ahhing over Jayden, and visiting Avery Island with Richie and Kendal. I totally forgot to get a picture with me and Jayden :-( But here is what the cutie looks like!

She was soo good while we were there. She slept pretty much the entire time except when mommy was feeding her and was wearing her first bow! She was so pretty. :-)

After we ate some crawfish with the Bookers, Kendal and Richie and Justin and I decided to Avery Island. This is the Island that manufactors all the Tabasco sauce in the world, and also houses a beautiful garden (with alligators!) and bird refuge. We had such a good time catching up briefly with Kendal and Richie and going on a spur of the moment date!

Beautiful flowers blooming ALL over the island!

Look at this guy! You could walk right up to them. No fences!

This is the barallels that they store the tabasco peppers in for up to 3 years to age them. They put a layer of salt on the top to preserve the peppers as they age.

We had a great weekend!

A House Guest!

This weekend was SUCH a fun weekend for us! We had Katie, a friend of mine from high school come and stay with us while she went to the American Counseling Association conference. We had a good time showing her around!

We took her to Drago's. Love that Corn and Shrimp Bisque!

Lobster, Justin's fave!

We ended the night with Sucre. The best ice cream in New Orleans!

That's Important to Me

My Uncle Carl is producing a band in Nashville called Joey+Rory (cool right!). They are such a sweet Godly couple, and he gave us a cd over Christmas. Well I fell in love with this song, because it so describes our home and marriage and what we stand for. Call me a grandma, but I firmly believe that life today is so frenetic that we've lost track of the small moments that make relationships precious. I hope you enjoy this song and maybe it resonates with you as well.

Not planning our day around the TV set..
Paying our bills and staying out of debt..
That's important to me..
That's important to me..

Openin' the windows and lettin' in air..
Holding hands when we're saying a prayer..
That's important to me..
That's important to me...

Having somebody to share my life..
Loving my husband, being a wife..
And the very best mother I can be (someday!)
That's important to me.

Telling the truth and being real..
Feeding my family a homecooked meal..
That's important to me..
That's important to me..

Always having you to hold,
And being beside you when we grow old
And they plant us neath that big oak tree.
That's important to me.
That's important to me.

Slavery still Exists..in America.

Today Justin and I attended this event.

We heard from multiple organizations that are passionate about freeing victims of the sex industry. I am blown away by these individuals. They are rock stars! These people are on the streets loving on victims and doing life with those who are rescued. Let me tell you a little about how this issue came to be such a pressing one on my heart. When we came to the campus, one of Justin's classmates told him about this ministry called Inward that reaches out to dancers on Bourbon, shows love, builds relationships, and works to provide freedom both physically and spiritually. I began praying about this, and my heart seemed drawn to it, but I waited until January to jump in. These ladies have blown me away! They are so in love with Jesus and God is blessing the ministry and showing us his miraculous power it seems like on a weekly basis. As I have had the priviledge to pray for these girls working on Bourbon, my heart just breaks for them. I am literally broken hearted for the thousands of victims in the sex industry. So here I am. Right now I am praying earnestly for freedom from the captives. I am not sure how God will ultimately use me here, but I figure a good start is sharing with you some facts as I learned today. I pray the Holy Spirit will stir in your heart compassion for these women and children who have no voice.

*27 million people are in slavery worldwide

* In America, approximately 17,000 people are in slavery

* 12 is the average age of entry into prostitution and pornography in the United States.

* Within 48 hours of being on the street in America, a runaway child is approached by a pimp.

* 70% of street youth are victims of commerical sexual exxploitation.

*77% of strippers and prostitutes were victimized as children

* America is the LARGEST producer of porn IN THE WORLD. Not all of these "actors" are performing under their own free will.

* 1 in 4 women will be victimized in their lifetime.

These is a HUGE issue, and the Christian community has got to step up. Satan is having a heyday wrecking lives and putting women and children in captivity that all too often steals their life. The darkness is deep and persvasive. BUT our God is greater. He is so MIGHTY to save. You would be amazed at how he is mobilizing people, from little old ladies to ex CIA to help rescue these people. God is active in this area. The Women's Missionary Union has even made human exploitation their focus until 2013.

So what can you and I do? Well, I think the best thing is to be aware. I know that when I lived in Brandon, the darkness seemed so far away from me. It was so easy to ignore. Now it is in my backyard. So I hope my reader's will realize that no matter how safe your environment feels, this is an issue you need to be praying for. Also, the church needs to step up and face the fact that many of our MEN have been taken captive. Our church men are feeding this industry. Porn and Sexual addiction is the MOST PREVALENT addiction within the church. So instead of wasting time judging, maybe we need to start helping these men find freedom.

If God has pricked your heart at all, here are some resources that might help you understand more. I want to warn you that some of these resources are extremely graphic. They are not for children and I would also encourage you to guard what you share with your husband. This level of darkness requires intense spiritual warfare. So, without further ado:

Here are some books:

Somebody's Daughter

The Slave Across the Street

Renting Lacy

The Shame Vault

Movies:

Taken- accurate as far as how they took her but not accurate in the sense that it can happen in the United States, not just overseas

Human Trafficking

Trade

In closing:

"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom from the captives, and to release from darkness for the prisoners." Isaiah 61:1- That verse is enough for me to KNOW Jesus would be all over this.

March 12

Well, tomorrow marks a very special day- the day JK asked me to be his wife. I pretty much adore this guy

Isn't that a funny picture?? I really wanted to post it. Okay, well pretty much March 12 marks the best of my decision making ability, because that guy above has made me smile everyday (and most times laugh) ever since that day two years ago. I am EXTREMELY blessed to be your wife JK!

In the storm with a sleeping God

Two posts in one day..I am starting off with ambition :-)
I was in Jackson recently and many people ask me how I like New Orleans.
My honest answer:
"I hated it at first...it was the most horrible six months of my life."
Let me explain. I HATE New Orleans. In fact, I very clearly remember a covo with JK pre-marriage in which I specifically stated my ultra-disgust of the city. So, I was relieved that the Lord seemed to be calling toward North Carolina which is BEAUTIFUL. We got married, and then WHOAH change of plans. Through a lot of decisions much to complicated to go through right now, we both felt like God was changing our plans (imagine that....)! :-) So we dilly-dallied around until about May and then a very wise pastor basically kicked JK in the butt and said OBEY GOD! Who can argue with that? So I submitted my resignation and we put our house on the market.
So here was the situation: I LOVED my God, I LOVED my husband, but I LOVED my church and I LOVED my cute little house in Brandon, and I LOVED everything about our life right then. And I HATED everything about New Orleans.
Regardless of my feelings, I knew you can't just disobey God, so I did my best to keep a positive attitude as we packed up in the middle of July and landed in married housing on the seminary campus. One of my better personality traits is that I am pretty quick to adjust to new situations. I figured that once I got there things would be okay, I just needed to adjust.
Well, I was wrong. Everything about New Orleans was yucky. The people were unkind, everytime you tried to do something it was frustrating,. Nothing ever seemed to go our way. I just wanted to scream, "WHY CAN'T SOMEBODY BE NICE!!!" On top of this, our house wasn't selling. We were getting plenty of calls on it, we took every opportunity to fix it up, and we dropped the price several times, but to no avail. Month after month went by and our "vacation home" was steadily draining the savings account. To top THAT off, I had sincerely felt called to resume my education as well through online graduate school. It ended up being tortuous. As if transitioning from fulltime teacher/ part time homemaker to fulltime teacher/full time student wasn't bad enough, my assignments were insane and my teachers entirely unsympathetic. I had double the work taking two classes that JK had taking 4 classes, if that gives you any idea. This continued all...semester...long. I wish I could say I believed God through it. Not so much. I got really MAD. I was so mad at God. How could he send us here and then leave us? I stopped believing God cared about me. I hurled accusations at him. I became bitter. Not my finest moments.
And it didn't go away all at once. Slowly, the Lord worked on my heart. Finally, we were sitting in Sunday School one day and I heard a story that summed up my story from the last six months. It was the story of Jesus sleeping in the boat. Remember that one? Well, have you ever noticed that God called the disciples into the boat in the first place? He did. Yet, he allowed the storm to happen. It was so violent they were fearing for their life. And what did Jesus do? Did he jump up at the first crash of thunder? Not at all. He slept until they were completely in a panic. When he woke up, he dealt the stinger.."Do you STILL have no faith?" And he calmed the storm.
Well, I realized that story was MY story. God had called us into the "boat" and he had allowed everyone of those situations to happen. In order to test my faith, he withdrew just slightly and hoped that I would keep my faith in him. I failed miserably. After all these years walking, I STILL have no faith. humbling. But he is calming my storm. I am grateful for the rest, but determine that next time this test comes around I will be ready.
I am grateful to a God that has mercy on us in our failings. After all the mean things I said to God and about God, it blows my mind that he has forgiven me and is using me in this city of ours. Let me tell you what he has done. He has expanded my territory. He has given Justin and I a church to call home, an ELL ministry to serve, a ministry called Inward that is reaching out to women working in the sex-industry, and given us the sponsership of 2 little Tanzanian boys through Compassion International. I am amazed that a person that is as big of a spiritual "flop" as me would be entrusted with serving HIM! I wonder if the disciples felt that way?? And an interesting thing is happening, as I pray for these sweet people I meet everyday, I am beginning to love this city called New Orleans an awful lot. Like I don't want to leave anytime soon. God is a god of miracles...he's done one in my heart.

A new site for a new beginning...

I have actually been meaning to do this for quite a while, but the craziness of first semester prevented it. I know that many of you (actually, probably just our family) are curious about our goings on. I'm doing this mostly though because of a little habit of mine. I secretly read other people's blogs. I say secretly because I never post comments or anything like that. JK says it is because I am nosey. And that is certainly true. However, the honest truth is that many times I am inspired by them. This blogging thing is primarily a ladies' hobby, I have noticed, which is not surprising considering our gift for gab. Some of these ladies' blogs that I have read have really got me thinking and encouraged me. I sort of hope that I can do the same for a few women along the way. So I aim for this blog to be an encouragement. To this end, I will write some about our daily lives, but I hope to use this to record my thoughts about Jesus and what he is teaching me. Please comment (that thing I never do on other people's blogs) and enjoy the journey with us!