My facebook status

My current Facebook status is: “Grace’s heart is pounding. oh my GOD.”

Reason #1: adrenaline.
The excitement I talked about it my last post is still there. Multiplied. I’ve been sleeping about 5 hours a night since then. That’s been tough on me since it’s KIDZ KABOOM week, but thankfully I wake up just as excited and full of energy as when I went to sleep. The energy fades toward the end of the day… dramatically fades… but I guarantee in about an hour I’ll be dancing again.

Reason #2: God. And adrenaline.
One Hour With God was amazing. Spending time in God’s presence tonight was like… falling into bed after a long day… it was such a relief! I was exhausted and all I wanted to do was sit and talk with God. About half way through, Pastor Jeff asked me to pray for Kidz Kaboom. In all honesty, I said “no” because I was so tired. Like saying “no” would actually work! I got up and prayed for Kidz Kaboom. Within a couple of minutes of finishing, I forgot I prayed. After the service ended, P. Jeff came up to me and commented about how when we’re tired the Holy Spirit takes over! It’s so true. I didn’t even remember praying. The Holy Spirit definitely took over! He’s so good like that

Reason #3: Surprises.
An e-mail from Pastor Nate. In August, I will be visiting his church in Michigan. I am so excited! I know it is going to be a great trip. As I’ve been reading his blog, I can see that God is doing amazing things there. I can’t wait to take part in it! (Reason #3 1/2… an e-mail Dr. Freitag and Michael White got from Pastor Nate…)

There’s one more reason I can’t write about yet. When I can, trust me, I will write my heart out about it!

Life with God is always an adventure. His love makes my heart pound.

Excitement

I have not felt as excited as I am right now since I arrived in Pittsburgh. I can hardly contain it. Cornerstone TV was amazing tonight – I spent an hour on the phones praying with callers, crying with them, standing with them while we prayed for everything under the sun. (Seriously. Catch me in person and I will tell you a crazy story!)

After CTV, we (P. Chris and P. Kate, Laura, Drew, Brendan, Bridget, and Holly) went out to eat. It was so much fun! I was really talkative (less than normal, but WAY more than normal in Pittsburgh!). I don’t know if I made a lot of sense, but I was so eager to talk about the amazingness of God after my time on the phone lines. I talked about the time Jolene got attacked at the Yellow Building and everyone came back to the sanctuary. I talked about that crazy Celtic band that played prophetically and the walls of our chapel literally shook. I talked about when that student got delivered at Praise Gathering! I talked about our beloved Sanctuary at NCU and how we spent hours into the night there. God has done so many amazing things at NCU! I don’t think I made any sense; I was too excited!

I forgot to talk about the glitter that appeared all over the altar and on people’s hands. (If you ever see me inspecting my hands at the altar, now you know why!)

I talked about God sized dreams ~ a few weeks ago, I was praying for Japan and I found myself praying that one person would get saved. I felt like God was telling me to pray bigger. So I prayed, “Fill the church.” Bigger. “Osaka?” Bigger. “Osaka and Tokyo?” Bigger. “Japan?!” Even bigger. “All of Asia???” I asked God. This seemed big enough, so I began to pray for all of Asia to be saved. After praying in faith for an entire continent, I realized how little my faith had been just minutes earlier. I couldn’t believe my dream was only for one person (this is not about the APC one person vision). God’s plans are so much bigger than ours! The only way they won’t get accomplished is if we don’t get on board! I don’t know about you but that makes me want to jump up and down with excitement! Imagine – not just the North Hills, not just Pittsburgh, not just Pennsylvania, but the entire US saved! ~ That’s a God sized dream that He can use us to accomplish if we’re willing and ready to dream God sized dreams and walk in God’s power to do His will!

Something else that makes me excited: Jesus Life House. This is what a friend wrote in her blog today:

梅雨やね~
it’in rainy season…
ジトジト暑いよ～
its so humid and hot recently…
でもチャーチは良い意味で熱いで！！
but！ church is hot in a good way！

(if the characters don’t display right, it’s in Japanese.)

That makes me excited!

I often joke that “excited” is the word I use most. It’s true at school. I get so excited I run up and down the halls screaming and dancing! I get excited for EVERYTHING. But that excitement has been lost at Allison Park. I don’t know what happened. But the past is the past. I’m going to try my best to keep the excitement I have right now going strong!

I’ll post a link of the CTV program here soon!

The Difference

For Community Care Day, I am helping organize a free cookout for the local heroes of West View, PA. I’m a little nervous for it, but mostly I’m just excited. I can’t wait for this Saturday. I just looked up the weather report and it said there were scattered thunderstorms that day. Not quite cookout weather, right? If it rains that day, it would create a lot of problems!

Here’s the reason for the blog post: When I saw the weather report, my mind immediately flashed back to last summer. I remember organizing events for Harvest Church and having a feeling of sheer panic every time I realized something wouldn’t go to plan. And I wouldn’t just panic when something came up. I was paranoid all the time. I was just waiting for the moment that I would realize I had made some huge mistake and everyone would know I had failed. Maybe I should say, everyone would know I was a failure.

God has done some big stuff in my life.

I didn’t realize how much He had changed me until I started working at APC. Little things have gone wrong. I’ve screwed up some things. But for the first time in my life I am not panicking. I don’t feel like a failure. I am not paranoid 24/7. In fact, I am openly telling people when I screw up. Last summer, I felt so sick over mistakes that I made that I couldn’t write in my journal without shaking. I know this change comes from the confidence that He has given me and the truth that He has put inside me that I am not a failure. God’s truth truly does bring freedom!

Allergies or Aneurysms?

Tiffany W. and I are both feeling sick today. We’re both toying with the idea of going to the doctor. We spent most of the morning watching baby shows on TLC and evaluating the color of our mucus on google. Now it’s noon, we’re still in our pajamas, we’re still watching baby shows on TLC, and we’re checking our symptoms on webmd.com. Anyone who watches The Office knows about this very reliable tool, lol. The Symptom Checker told us some very disturbing things, so after discussing this, we both feel that this is the best course of action:

1. Call the church.

“Great things are happening at Allison Park Church. How can I help you?”

“Hi, this is Grace and Tiffany. Can you please tell Chris that we’re at the hospital? We both have headaches and webmd.com’s symptom checker said we’re having brain aneurysms. Thanks!”

2. Go to Giant Eagle to buy medicine and junk food.

3. Do nothing. All day long. Especially not listen to Tiffany’s mom plan her wedding for her. Come to think of it, maybe that’s why we have headaches.