Dec
19
The other day, a group of us went to a grown up playground called the City Museum. The following video tells a story in song about that night. Enjoy the creative genius of the St. Louis FYT...
Dec
07
I've heard the Christmas story every year since I was born. After a while, I started to tune out because it was the same story over and over. I forgot how amazing the story was. It's gripping. A virgin gets pregnant, angels appear, the Savior of the world is born in a stable and laid in dirty hay.Jubilee Church is doing a 3 week series called Christmas 360. It looks at the Christmas story from the perspective of The Shepherds, King Herod, and Joseph. It was great to hear the first installment this morning and get a new, fresh perspective on the story.
I encourage you to check out Christmas 360 by either listening online or visiting us at Jubilee Church the next 2 Sunday mornings if you live in the St. Louis area. Get a fresh perspective. Give the Christmas story another chance.
Nov
21
1. Taking pictures in Photo Booth on our Mac.2. Jam Sessions.
3. Good convos in the Roy.
4. Trying to read in the Roy and having at least one of us burst out in laughter so that none of us actually get anything done.
5. Spontaneous games of Foosball.
6. Worshiping together.
7. Meeting with amazing women of God.
8. Trying to get every visitor who comes to the building to come down to play foosball and then beating them. :)
9. Sleepovers with Anna.
10. Dinner times at the Hein Household.
11. Spending an 8 hour work day together, eating dinner with each other, and then hanging out till midnight. Those are good days.
12. Making impromptu videos on the Mac.
13. Singing out hearts out to the Lion King Soundtrack on every road trip we take.
More to come as the year goes on...
Nov
04
These last couple of days I've been really stressing over the fact that I don't know what the next year of my life will bring. Will I get a job teaching? Where should I live? Who will I marry? I expressed these frustrations to my mentor here, and she told me to stick my hand in front of my face. It seemed a bit odd, but I respect her, so I listened. She told me that the distance from my eyes to my hand was all I knew. God has given us today and that's all we need to worry about. I believe that God speaks and He directs my life, so why am I worried? God will reveal to us what He wants us to do next, we just need to focus on today and make sure we are living today as we should.One of my good friends lost her Grandpa this past week. Her blog about his life and death really spoke to me. I want to look back on my life and be able to say that "I fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7). I want to help people, to reach out and show them the love of Jesus. I can do that no matter where I live and no matter what job I have.
I'm going to trust that God has a plan for my life and let tomorrow worry about itself.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 7:34
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future'" Jeremiah 29:11
Oct
13
I spent the last week in Joplin, MO for a week of training and it was amazing. It was great to see the other young people who are doing this same internship as me from around the state of Missouri. We grew a lot in our friendships over the week and had some great times of worship and intense conversations. It was a long week, but I would say everyone came away with a deeper understanding of God and themselves.
For the weekend about 70 other college aged people joined us and we went out to serve the community. The Joplin area was hit with a tornado in May and there were still some families who needed a bunch of help rebuilding and clearing debris on their property. Where I went we spent all day just cutting up fallen trees and hauling them to either a pile of firewood or a pile of brush. The property we were on was out in the country and from what it looks like had a good sized forest behind their house. We estimated that we cut up 25 trees in the time we were there and still did not completely clear this family's property.
When we arrived I got to have a great conversation with the woman who owned the house. She told me the story about that day the tornado hit and I was amazed at the fact that her and her family survived, let alone that their house was still even half there. Even if she didn't realize it, God was definitely there. She told me things like "I don't know why, but I just had a feeling that the roof was going to collapse in a certain area, so I yelled to my cousin to move to a different room and sure enough a tree fell right where she had been and the roof caved in." She also told me about how they hadn't gone to the basement (the place where you would normally go in a tornado), but stayed upstairs, and that actually saved their lives. I guess a door had been blown in downstairs and if they had gone down there the suction would have pulled them from the house and into the storm. Things like that aren't a coincidence. God was moving there and he was saving them.
Now I'm back in St. Louis and into the flow of normality once again. I hope that I can remember God's power in what He displayed through those storms now in the every day and apply all I have learned this past week to my life here.
For the weekend about 70 other college aged people joined us and we went out to serve the community. The Joplin area was hit with a tornado in May and there were still some families who needed a bunch of help rebuilding and clearing debris on their property. Where I went we spent all day just cutting up fallen trees and hauling them to either a pile of firewood or a pile of brush. The property we were on was out in the country and from what it looks like had a good sized forest behind their house. We estimated that we cut up 25 trees in the time we were there and still did not completely clear this family's property.
When we arrived I got to have a great conversation with the woman who owned the house. She told me the story about that day the tornado hit and I was amazed at the fact that her and her family survived, let alone that their house was still even half there. Even if she didn't realize it, God was definitely there. She told me things like "I don't know why, but I just had a feeling that the roof was going to collapse in a certain area, so I yelled to my cousin to move to a different room and sure enough a tree fell right where she had been and the roof caved in." She also told me about how they hadn't gone to the basement (the place where you would normally go in a tornado), but stayed upstairs, and that actually saved their lives. I guess a door had been blown in downstairs and if they had gone down there the suction would have pulled them from the house and into the storm. Things like that aren't a coincidence. God was moving there and he was saving them.
Now I'm back in St. Louis and into the flow of normality once again. I hope that I can remember God's power in what He displayed through those storms now in the every day and apply all I have learned this past week to my life here.
Oct
08
I graduated from Northwest Missouri State University in May and from there decided to go into a 9 month training program called Frontier Year Team through a family of churches called Newfrontiers. Now I'm living in St. Louis, MO with a great couple Seth and Shannon who are a part of the church family here and a fellow Year Teamer Anna. I've had a blast living in the city, but I do miss the rural setting from time to time. I realized that even after a month in the city you forget the stars. I'm currently spending the week in Joplin, MO for training and last night I looked up and was just blown away by the stars. I forget sometimes that God doesn't need us. Creation alone reveals how great He is, but He chooses to use us to bring people to Himself. I want to be used, I want to be a part of that.
Renee Marie
About Me
-
I'm 24, loving Jesus, and working for Newfrontiers USA and Jubilee Church.
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