I love pumpkin

I do, I love it with a passion! I could eat pumpkin things for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and die a happy happy girl. I tend to sound like Bubba in Forrest Gump, who talks for hours about different ways he likes to eat shrimp. Except, I talk about all the ways I like to eat pumpkin! I saw an ad for World Market earlier last week advertising all of the new fall pumpkin products they had in the store and I made a bee line to the store to get the goods. I got pumpkin coffee, pumpkin bark, pumpkin bar mix, and pumpkin popcorn (already gone...you know how much I love popcorn too--the combo was bound to be the first to go!). I had already picked up my favorite pumpkin bread mix at the grocery store. To top it all off...Starbucks has their pumpkin spice lattes out again!!! That seriously made my day when I discovered that! Kellye Branch...if you are reading this and love me--hook a sister-in-law up! {Kellye works at a Starbucks in Southlake} Anyway, yeah I love pumpkin--what a great time of the year!!

Bringing Awareness

Lately God has been moving my heart. Touching it in strange ways. My thoughts when this is happening are, "Ok, God...I know you are touching my heart for these things for a reason...but I don't understand why or what you want me to do." Have you ever felt like that? I could be quick to decide what I think God is telling me and what He wants me to do with this, but that would just be ME deciding and not allowing myself to be truly led by God. So, I continue to read blogs, books, and pray. I continue to ask God to make meaning out of this for me and to guide me where He wants me.

Here are some of the things that have been drawing me lately:

The Voss family shared in our new Young Adults Ministry class about their mission trip with Touch A Life to Ghana, Africa. I really enjoyed getting to hear about their trip and their passion for these African boys that have been enslaved to fish on boats on a lake called Lake Volta. I was immediately interested in Touch A Life and looked it up on the internet to find out more about it. You can too! Either read more on the Touch A Life website, or watch this informational video by Mercy Project.

Shannon Voss also mentioned having her hearstrings pulled to go to Ghana when reading a book called Jantsen's Gift by Pam Cope. She said it was in our church's bookstore. So, what book did I find myself being gravitated toward less than a week later while getting coffee at our church's bookstore? You guessed it...Jantsen's Gift! I couldn't put it down from the time I bought it. Now, to be honest, life has just gotten super hectic with school starting and I haven't been able to find as much time to read it as the weeks before school began. However, every chance I get, I am picking it back up and being amazed by this woman's story. It is all about Pam Cope's (sister-in-law of Mike Cope, a famous preacher) life leading up to and including her ministry in Vietnam and in Ghana. Her road there hasn't been easy. It includes the loss of her teenage boy due to a rare heart problem that caused sudden death. I won't lie...it is heart-wrenching, but it is SO inspiring. Pam started the Touch A Life Foundation and I am just so intrigued!

While reading more about Touch A Life and Jansten's Gift on the website, I read that Mercy Project led a camp there in Ghana this summer. Mercy Project is founded by some of my friends that I grew up with and went to church with, Chris and Stacey Webb. I will be honest and admit that I had never paid much attention to this foundation they started before, but now that I was reading more about their involvement in Touch A Life, I was interested to read more on their website to see what they were all about! I have never been more proud of or touched by my friends, Chris and Stacey. Wow! God has really grown them and used them in amazing ways!!


Anyway...I still don't know what all of this means or why I am so intrigued and interested in all of these things. So, I will continue to pray, read blogs, and read this book.