God's loud voice

Sometimes God answers our prayers in a small still voice (1 Kings 19:12) but sometimes He can be very loud (Psalm 104:7). For me, this happened while I was in Shanghai, China.

When I was preparing to leave for China my constant prayer was, "Lord provide me with fellowship in China so that I may be built up in Your Name to serve You while abroad." Last summer I had been severely discouraged by not having fellowship with other believers during a month long business trip. So now I was fearful that it would be even worse in a foreign country that was a 12 hour time difference to my friends and family in the US. 

But this wasn't a problem for God. 

A friend of mine in Erie, Cindy, told me she knew someone who knew a young Christian woman that lives in Shanghai. One thing led to another and soon I was exchanging emails with Blanche. 

I landed in Shanghai on a Saturday and by Monday Blanche had invited me to tea Saturday afternoon and church Saturday night! I was excited to join my fellow brothers and sisters and worship our King all the way on the other side of the world!! But God's plans were even bigger than I imagined. 

On Tuesday I found out that a night of partying was planned for Saturday. I was excited that God had provided me with an alternate plan for that night. I was eating dinner Tuesday night with my new friend Hannah and I asked her if she was going to the party Saturday and she said no. So I asked her if she wanted to join me for church. Her face lit up and said yes! We instantly smiled and hugged. Over the next 15 minutes it was as if our surroundings had disappeared and we shared how we each came to know Jesus. It was a wonderful start to an eternal friendship. 

That Saturday the three of us, Hannah, Blanche and I, planned to meet for church. Blanche and I hit traffic and were late to church. I was nervous I wouldn't meet up with Hannah because I wasn't able to use my phone to text her. Blanche and I got to church and the service had started. It was packed! We ended up finding two seats in the very back. When I sat down I looked next to me and there was Hannah! Thank you God!

After church, Blanche introduced us to her friends and we went out for dinner. It was so wonderful to have the instant connection with fellow believers. It truly was like having a home away from home. We also had the blessing of attending our new friends Bible study later that week.

God is great all the time. His plans are so far greater than anything I could imagine or plan myself.

1 Kings 19:12

And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

Psalm 104:7

At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.

You want me to sing? .... what?

On Sunday July 21, 2013 I had the opportunity to share how I experienced God's work in Cap Haitien, Haiti with the Millcreek Community Church Haiti missions team. Below is the written transcript of what I shared. You can also listen to it, and stories from the rest of the group, from the MCC website. Here is the direct link to the sermon.

When I began to reflect on this experience, I realized again and again, our God is all powerful. Similar to others in our group, I was nervous going to a fourth world country for the first time but there was another paralyzingly fear that I hadn't realized. I was tasked with teaching songs to the children during our VBS with Ryan... But I was terrified of singing in front of people.

Saturday night, our second night in Haiti, I was sitting in my room praying. I was so overwhelmed already and anxious for Monday's VBS. The rest of the group was playing cards in the living room but I was too upset to come out. I asked God to empower me to overcome this gripping fear. Not a minute later did Amy come knocking on my door and give me a big hug.

On Sunday I spent some time talking with Katie about my fear. I realized several things... that my heart was full of pride, I didn't want people to think I sounded bad, and Satan was using this fear to pull me away from God. God wanted me to minister to these 250 children through song, and it was Satan holding me back. The theme verse for our missions team was, Luke 18:27 But he said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." It was impossible for me to overcome this fear of singing on my own, but it was possible with God.

Later that Sunday night we had a meeting to finalize everything for VBS and at the end, Jess looked at me and asked me to teach the memory verse song to the group. I looked at Katie, later she said the look on my face was hilarious but that she immediately started praying for me. I took a breath asked God to give me the courage. I sang the three lines and for the next ten minutes I practiced with the group! Afterwards I was elated and Katie encouraged me with a big hug.

Then throughout the week I was brought to tears multiple times as the children enjoyed the voices of Ryan, Seville who translated for us, and I. By the end of VBS the children knew the memory verse, Psalm 16:11, and could sing it strongly! Together we praised our Lord in English and Creole. Cultural barriers were broken down through song and the children learned about God's love and our Savior Jesus Christ.  

I learned that a fear can start small but grow to have a huge impact on our lives and hinder our service to our Lord. 2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I learned I need to continually give myself over to God, and not be fearful in my weaknesses but joyful in that God's power is made perfect in those weaknesses!

An App for That ... Organizing my Life

As I get ready to start my 3rd ITLP rotation at GE Transportation I decided to take a step back and see how I could organize myself better. Some of my friends may laugh and say that I am already organized. I agree but I just love organizing things so why not try and do it better?

I got out my technology which consist of an iPad2, iPhone5 (iOS) and Google Nexus (Andriod OS) tablet. I use each for various tasks but I want them to work seemlessly together. The Apple products naturally work together but the question holds ... how do I integrate Apple and Android?

After some intense market research and user analysis I have come upon a great list of productivity apps that work great across operating systems including Apple iOS, Android, and web browsers (i.e. Chrome and FireFox).

1. Pocket: Surfing the web and find a bunch of great articles or your friend emails you an article but you don't have time to read it? No problem ... put it in your "Pocket"! This app stores the articles offline so you can read them at your leisure. It also boasts a great user interface.
2. Currents: A product of Google that takes news feeds and brings them together so you can surf around different news channels getting the up to date events.
3. Wunderlist: Got a long to do list? Writing it on paper? What happens when you loose the paper? Uh oh! Well now your To-Do list is synced everywhere! Great functionality to have multiple lists and check boxes to have the satisfaction of checking something off your list!
4. Bloglovin': So many blogs so little time! I previously had all the blogs I followed in a single folder in my bookmarks but it was a pain to check when there were new posts. Now this app does it all ... pulls the new posts together for you to read. You can filter on different blogs as well.
5. OneNote: Awesome app to take detailed notes (not to-do lists like Wunderlist) such as planning a party or travel somewhere. You can share the notebook with friends to collaborate. The sections of notebooks allow for a lot of organization.
6. Evernote: I use this for recipe collections and Bible study notes. It's a great way to store more detailed notes (not to-do lists like in Wunderlist) that don't need a certain order like in OneNote. Great tagging, search and sharing capabilities.
7. Duolingo: Want to learn a new language? This is the app for you! It's like playing a fun game! You can challenge your friends, even if they are learning a different language. Trust me just check it out ... Italian, German, French, Spanish and more!
8. Spotify: Best app to stream music via radio stations based on artists or genres.
9. Mint: THE BEST personal finance app out there. Brings in information from your bank accounts, loans, and investments to give you a great overall picture of your financial status. You can create budgets, goals and more!

Let me know what you think! What other productivity apps do you use?

Happy organization and planning!