Being Ruined for the Ordinary

This semester I have started taking a class called Perspectives. It’s a class that was started in the 70’s and is hosted all over the U.S. and the world. One of there slogans is “Prepared to be ruined for the ordinary”, and my experience has been exactly that! Speakers from all over are brought in and teach along the curriculum of our Perspectives textbook, which is a collection of chapters and articles from over 120 books by brilliant theologians! Every Thursday we meet at a local church and learn about the world Christian movement. My mind has been blown every week with all the knowledge I’ve been soaking up!! I’ve learned about God’s heart for the world, the evangelism of the gospel, and where this leaves me as a follower of Jesus Christ. My heart has continued to be changed by the gospel. I’ve been learning what it means to love God with all of my mind! The first week the speaker was talking about how a common thread throughout the whole Bible is God’s love for “all nations” and the world. He explained how he devoted a year to reading through the whole bible and highlighting every time it talked about the world, or the whole earth, or the nations. He said he went through several highlighters that year and discovered that God’s heart for the nations is reiterated countless times in Scripture for a reason. The gospel is meant to be brought to every tongue, tribe, and nation, and we are responsible, as followers of Jesus, to fulfill that mandate from God. We are blessed to be a blessing to the world (Genesis 12:1-3). It has been incredible starting the One Year Bible in January of this year and already seeing exactly what he was talking about and it’s only February! I can’t fully explain everything that I’ve learned but I can tell you that it is one of the greatest investments of time and money I’ve ever spent! I would highly encourage you to look up on perspectives.org to see if there is a class near you. Oh gosh… I just reread that last sentence in a cheesy announcers voice…. there is a class near YOOU (cue Uncle Sam pointing at you)! I promise I’m not being paid to be a commercial for Perspectives! I guess my closing statement would be that God has used Perspectives to super charge my spiritual growth and I would love for people to experience how Jesus is transforming me in ways I didn’t know were possible.

Autumn Bliss

October is my FAVORITE month of the year! Maybe because it's my birthday month but I really do love the fall, and the changing leaves, and apple cider and all the other goodies that come with the fall season :) It has been an incredible fall so far! At the end of September my mom surprised me by flying in my best friend and kindred spirit, Laura Talton, into Fayetteville for an early B-day present! Laura is from Selma, AL and goes to school at Wake Forest so I only get to see her about once a year at Kanakuk. I was so shocked when she jumped out of the trunk of my mom's car! It was such a sweet moment! We got to spend the weekend together and download with each other. Ahhhh it was wonderful! I had a great 20th birthday and the Razorbacks even won for me on the 8th :) Sorry 'boutcha Aurburn! We also got our first Fall Break at Arkansas which was so fun! About TWENTY (yep count 'em) Kappas came and stayed with us over the break! It was such a blast! I love showing off Kansas City to people who only think of the Wizard of Oz when they hear "Kansas". Here are some pictures of my fall adventures :)

I was surprised to say the least!

The Mustache Shop in Fayetteville is a MUST(ache) hehe

I don't even know where to begin explaining this picture.... Megan Phillips everyone.

(**No animals were harmed in the making of this picture)

Rachel, Jenny Hayes and I made bows when we were in KC :)

Throwin' the key at the Louisburg Cider Mill

Phillips and Trott sistas rockin that Arkansas Red!

Morgan and I went to the Farmers Market to get flowers for the room

Kappas carving pumpkins.... the owl, the key and the Batman sign! Love you Rach :)

The Gospel is all I have...

The Lord has been teaching and stretching me in amazing ways this semester. This incredible Godly gal, Hayley Holmgren, has been discipling me and it has been transforming my life through scripture memory, prayer, and evangelism. I've learned so much!! I've been studying John as of recently and it has become so fresh to me! I love it! I've been amazed by Jesus' teachings that are shared in this book! I was reading John 5 last night and got so fascinated by what Jesus explained in his witness to others. He was explaining that his testimony was not valid if He was the only one testifying that He was the Son of God; basically saying He's not some loon that has no authority and is claiming to be something He's not. He goes on to say that his testimony is valid because John the Baptist came before him and told everyone that He (The Son of God) was coming. I love that Jesus appeals to human logic for our sake of understanding salvation in Him. He does not NEED human logic for his testimony to be true but by his grace He appeals to our finite minds and shares his testimony in a way that we can understand and trust. This is so cool to me for several reasons. One is that he simply conveys the importance of knowing who He is. Knowing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is a life changing truth that seems so basic but is SO vital to our salvation. Second is that he explains his witness to us in a way that we can trust Him with our finite minds. And lastly, He shows us that He WANTS us to know him. I have been so encouraged by the Good News of the gospel and I hope that you are spurred on to share how the gospel has changed your life.

Sparknotes through pictures

So I really never gave the low down on kamp, or the rest of my summer, or Kappa Bid day, or school... so I thought I'd just blow up my blog with pictures of the last several weeks of my life. I always liked the picture books anyway. Holla atcha visual learners!!

My first group of kampers were 16 and such a stellar group of girls! It was so encouraging to see their hearts be transformed by Christ!

My second group of kampers were 15 years old and were SO much fun!! They all bonded as a kabin so well and were an amazing group of leaders for the kingdom!

My story made the Kappa National Magazine, The Key!! That was pretty exciting!

Had a hand-full of "crafternoons" as Jami Nato would say :) I aspire to be the Crafting guru that she is.

The girls and I had to say goodbye to the sweet Lindquist family before we all headed off to college. www.deepinthehart.blogspot.com

During work week of recruitment, nothing bonds girls more than dancing while drinking Route 44's out the back of Poe's SUV in the Sonic Drive-In!!

jumping pics. classic.

What a SURPRISE! Meg went Kappa :) Sisters through blood, sisters in Christ, sisters in KKG!!!

Throwin' the key with our new baby KAPPA'S :) :) :)

(Megan Phillips, MoMo Trott, and Allie White)

The first function of the year was Opposites Attract. We say go ballsy or go home. Yep... it happened.

But look how cute my banner turned out :)

I love my Keds on a beautiful September afternoon :)

Bless your heart if you made it through that entire post. It was a marathon but you MADE IT! That deserves a double fist pound** In the words of Amanda Bynes.... Word to ya motha!

"Beautiful Things"

It's been a while since I've posted because every time I try to blog I am just overwhelmed. Sometimes its better to just put it to a song. This is my anthem right now.

1kidneykate REDESIGNED!!

Ahhhh! FINALLY!! It only took forever, but I finally redesigned the blog! My dear friend, Laura Rayburn, did an AMAZING job designing my original page :) thanks again Laura!! I finally mustered up all my tech savvy (HA) and gave the blog a new look. Oh my word this process ate my lunch AND dinner! After a "how to" video tutorial and sev-er-al hours later I (somehow by the grace of God) finished it! Let me know what y'all think :) Have an awesome weekend and be looking for a post coming soon on my summer at Kanakuk!

MO of MO

I took some more senior pictures of Morgan at the beginning of summer and forgot to post them! haha! Thought it would just be fun to post them even though she's graduated already! enjoy :)