Guest post: My new friend Nina!

Hello friends! In the midst of my "blogger burnout," my new blog friend Nina from The Grand Adventure of Me  was sweet enough to email me and let me know that she'd be happy to write a guest post for me at this time. Nina has a beautiful heart for human trafficking with women. She recently just came home from the Dominican Republic, and today she's going to share more about this trip with the each of you. Thanks again Nina, I'm so happy that we crossed paths! :) Love, Jess

Meet Nina...

Hey! I’m Nina and I blog over at The Grand Adventures of Me about my life as a 20 year old college student. My 20's have started out quite chaotically, and my most recent adventure was to the Dominican Republic. When I'm not blogging, I'm eating Mexican food, reading books, craving cupcakes, and drinking frappuccinos. 

On June 19 (which is my birthday, in case anyone wants to send me Starbucks gift cards next year – mark your calendars) I received an email telling me that I had been accepted to do an internship in the Dominican Republic with a safe house for women coming off the streets. The only problem: I was leaving in 12 days. I had 12 days to raise $1600! I put out my metaphorical fleece and left the rest up to God. He totally pulled through. 10 days before I flew out for a month-long slumber party with 7 incredible women, I received more money than I needed, without asking a single person for a dime . How great is our God?!

My passion for anti-human trafficking was sparked by a tiny flame when I was 15. I was at church camp and my heart just broke when I saw a beautiful young lady stand up and say that she was raped, but that she was purified through Christ. From then on, I knew it was God’s desire for me to work battered and abused women. Somewhere along the line, I heard about sex trafficking and I knew I wanted to help fight against this monstrosity that people are just now becoming aware of. I don’t think I can change the world, but I know that I can hug people, and I so desperately want to hug each and every one of these women, boys, and girls, and tell them that they are beautiful, they are loved, and they are special. I want each and every victim of sex trafficking to know that he/she is loved – not because of how they can service others, but because they are loved first by Someone who is the ultimate lover because He loves our souls.

So God blessed me with an opportunity this summer to spend a month working alongside women who are being rehabilitated in God’s Word, through discipleship, and making jewelry. I got to hug and love on these women and hear their testimonies. However, I was really frustrated with the language barrier. Despite my four years of intense Spanish (I hardly put forth any effort in these classes,) I was not fluent. I knew enough to get around and have shallow conversations, but I wanted to speak with girls on deeper levels, and get to know their souls. But God said that He wasn’t ready for me to do that, yet. (And it’s probably a good thing.) Because I was unable to form relationships based on words, I had to form relationships based on actions. I got to laugh with these women, dance with these women, hug them, and pray for them. It was in this time that I really began to understand that Christianity is not just for Americans, or English speaking people. These women sang their hearts out to God in their own language, and it was a tremendous blessing to be able to worship alongside these women. Our God is multicultural, and multilingual. I just think that is so cool.

In the Dominican Republic, I discovered something. The Lily House (the name of the organization) director said that she wanted to write a book one day about how we all are prostitutes. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that we all are! You and I may not sell our bodies to other men for money, but how often do we "sell our souls" to the things of this world? I am no different than the women on the streets. I sell myself to things that are not of Christ to get my fix, just like these women sell themselves to other men to get their next fix - whether it be drugs, alcohol, or even meals to feed their family. We are all daughters of Christ, but only a few of us know that. And that is why I want to dedicate my life to a ministry of anti-human trafficking. Oftentimes we snub our noses because we don't understand the situation. I don't want to be a woman who snubs her nose at someone because her circumstance is different than my own. I want to get to know her, and tell her that she, too, is a daughter of Christ, and He is beckoning her with open arms. I want to make women feel beautiful because of who they are, not what they do. 

I wish that we could all just sit down with iced lattes and cupcakes and talk about this, because I feel there is no way to convey how much I love what God has called me to do, and how passionate I am about this field of ministry just over a blog post. The most exciting part about it all: I have to completely wait on God in every area. He puts me in so many waiting rooms, and while I absolutely hate waiting, I am learning to develop a deep trust in God that I never thought I would have. My testimony in a sentence would be this - "prayer seriously works, and God always pulls through."

The #1 problem with Christianity

"But Lord...I'm so upset with this whole thing! What do I do to release this pain?"

Start writing. Now. Tell them how I was misrepresented.

    That conversation with God happened about two nights ago, around two in the morning. Frustrated, angry, sad, confused, I was blowing up. Then God told me to start writing, so I did. I hope you care enough to read along. If not, thats okay too.

 Growing up, I was raised in a different kind of church. Every Sunday I would enter the building and go to Sunday school and sing along with my friends and family. Along with my own family, other people we knew very well went to this church as well. One day, my dad decided that he wanted to start go to a Church closer in town. So we did.

     I think it was no longer than 6 months after we stopped going to our old church that I pretty much stopped hearing from the everyone who we were close with that went to our old church. Close relationships with these people transformed into an occasional "merry Christmas!" or a "happy birthday!" It was at this point I began to believe the lie in my head about God even more clearly that I would never be good enough for Him. I felt that my performance would never be acceptable to a God who was concerned about my church attendance or my status as baptized or non-baptized.

Instead of showing us love, grace, and support when we really needed it the most, my family and I were shown rejection. Perhaps they believed by pushing us away, they were doing God a favor for not going to "their church" anymore. It seemed to me that they were wrapped up in the idea of God being some kind of scorekeeper. A God who keeps tabs on anyone who slips up by not maintaining a perfect score with their church attendance record. 

In this day and age, its the church itself that is idolized, instead of Jesus. It's all about going to church every sunday and having that perfect answer ready in response to every question given to us in Sunday school. We seem like we have Jesus down to the core, by dressing pretty on church for Sunday and then doing whatever we want any other day of the week. Are we blind? How can we sit there and convince ourselves that this is it, that Jesus died on the cross so we would... go to church? Have we not understood that Jesus Himself wanted nothing to do with religion and wanted everything to do with a relationship with Him?

 We say we love God, but when God calls us to forgive someone, we run away. We put aside our brokenness and choose to carry shame instead of bringing ourselves the cross to experience God's love and forgiveness. Instead of loving God as we claim we do, we really demonstrate that the only thing we love and worship is religion itself. We claim we know God, yet it's impossible for us to show grace, forgiveness, and compassion to others.  We began to pull out bits and pieces of the Bible for us to follow with our own lives, and forget the point of following the entire book.

Jesus says I love you the way that you are now already, religion says I will love you more if you do this or that.  Jesus says show grace and love to everyone, religion says love and forgive only those who you want to love and forgive. Jesus says we'll experience His love for us more by reading his love story for us in the Bible, religion says God will love us only if we read the Bible period. 

What happens when we replace religion with Jesus? We get a whole lot of...nothing.

  

Click HERE to like Forever Convinced on Facebook and click HERE to follow Jess on Instagram!

VLOG! How God has changed me this summer

Hey friends! Today's vlog I'm sharing with you guys how mind-blowingly fast God has changed my heart this summer and taught me many wonderful things! I narrowed it down to three specific things to share with you all that the Lord has taught me. I think it's important to be vulnerable and also for me to share my past with the each of you wonderful friends. God has redeemed me from so much, and it would be a shame to keep any part of my journey with Him a secret. I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think! 

ps- thank you ALL for your wonderful comments on my post a couple days ago about my blogger burnout. I loved reading each one of them, and I felt so loved and encouraged by the each of you! **Some lovely guest poster's are coming your way soon on here..be on the lookout!**

Sorry this one is a little bit long, I didn't realize I was up to 10 minutes by the time I was finished! I tried to make it as un-boring as possible for you all :)  I laughed out loud as I heard that freakishly loud truck in the background in the middle of the video.

PS- Click HERE to like Forever Convinced on Facebook and click HERE to follow Jess on Instagram!

Blogger burn out: HELP!

Hello blog friends! How are you all doing?

Today I couldn't help but be completely honest with you guys and just say I am feeling totally wiped out with the whole blogging thing lately.

I don't know whats with me. I just feel like I don't know where to go with my blog from here, and that my blog isn't growing as rapidly as I want it to.

I know part of the problem is my stubbornness in desiring for things to happen as quick as I want them to. I have to keep reminding myself that at the end of the day I'm not the one who's in control of how quickly I make progress in my life, God is. Have you ever felt this way about your blog? How were you able to motivate or re-ignite the inspiration in you to keep moving forward with your blog?

I hate it when God puts me in a position to wait. Okay just kidding God ALWAYS has me in a position to wait for Him on something, but lately I am feeling more than ever major impatience in waiting on God's timing with moving forward with my blog. God keeps telling me to be patient and that good things are RIGHT around the corner, but I'm just having a very hard time waiting on Him to bring me to that point.

...or maybe this is just me feeling confused as over, and finding myself in a completely lost place with this blog. I remember when I first started blogging: I had a list of goals, directions, and ideas to get things going. Now as time has went on and I have continued to work on my blog since that point, I find myself in a place of having no clue what to do from here.

I find myself becoming frustrated, overwhelmed, and annoyed every time I begin writing a post for my blog.  What happened to the peace of heart and excitement I used to have about my blog?! Ugh. My mind is drawing a HUGE blank on what to write about. I feel that my blog is stuck in a rut, along with my own head!

I'm also nervous about graduate school, and making time for this blog. I pray that the Lord will make that possible, but seeing how busy my friends have been in the past who went through my graduate program, I'm worried how things are going to go. I would never want to let this blog go. (wheres the tissue box?!)

I love my blog! and most importantly, I love all of you! My mind is in a weird funk, and its going in a million different directions. I just wish God would give me some kind of direction with where to go from here. Instead of wishing, I think thats my cue to start praying about it.

What did you do in the past when you became burned out with blogging? I'd love to hear your guys suggestions on this topic! I know all of you reading this will have plenty of wisdom and encouragement to share with me, so please help a sista out! I would be so very grateful! :)

I love you all!

Love always, Jess

PS- Click HERE to like Forever Convinced on Facebook and click HERE to follow Jess on Instagram!

when I never believed I'd be "good enough" for God

I don't know about you, but back in the day before I knew Jesus, the Bible seemed like a whole 'lot of nothing to me. As I sat in Sunday school and flipped through the dust filled pages of my own Bible, I realized that I did not feel any type of real life connection to the "ancient" book that was sitting in front of me. I felt like I would never be "holy enough" for God, so what was the point of flipping through this massive book that God Himself had apparently written 2,000 years ago anyway?

You see, the message that was preached to me all throughout my childhood about God was all about working for God's love and favor. According to how the old Jessica used to think about God, I needed get baptized ASAP in order to make myself a better Christian, and I also needed to make sure that I attended church every Sunday for the rest of my life, no excuses, or else God would be mad at me forever. God to me just seemed like an angry man up there in the clouds ordering around those He felt to be "worthy enough" of receiving His love for them.

This was it? I told myself. This was Christianity? No wonder this religion has so many phonies anyway, I thought to myself. God just seemed so distant, and as much as I wanted to know and understand Him more, I didn't know how.  How could I ever match up too all of these perfect Christians around me? That would never happen. I never felt that I would be good enough for God. I figured to myself that instead of trying to become a better Christian,  I would strive to build my social status and make new friends. I knew that I received a lot of happiness from making new friends in my life, and I knew that I absolutely loved people. God however, and that whole "Christianity" thing, was just not working out for me.

Although there was nothing wrong for me to have a goal of making new friends in my life, God wasn't at the heart and center of it all, making me doomed for failure. As time went on and I eventually was hurt by some of my friends of the past, I began to become so wounded and helpless, and I wondered if there was anyone out there who could heal my heart. This is about when God established His presence in my life so evidently that I was able to finally understand that Christianity in-fact is not a religion. Christianity is not a bunch of rules based on doing things to get better for God. Christianity is all about a relationship with Jesus, and approaching His throne of grace boldly and confidently.

Does this mean we can receive a "hall pass" for every sin in our life and do whatever we want? absolutely not, and I'd say if you are even considering that question, then you really don't love or know Jesus at all. Not to sound harsh or anything, but thats the truth. When you really come to know and love Jesus, you really love Him, and the last thing you want to do is sin against Him intentionally. That's how real and relational God is- it hurts His heart too when we cheat against Him. He becomes your father. The one that you look up to the most. The one who is always there to catch you when you stumble or make a mistake.

So my friends, tired of going to church every Sunday, calling yourself a Christian, and still feeling empty on the inside regardless? It's time to get real with God. It's time to stop doing life your way, and start letting God take over. It's time to see God for who He really is, and start treating Him like the God of the universe as He truly is. After all, how are you ever going to really know God without responding to Him in this way? The Bible says we must come to God like little children (Matthew 18:3). This means, no matter how old you are, or what type of crisis you are in, you must depend on your heavenly father for each and every circumstance...just as a little child does with his father. 

Love always, Jess


PS- Click HERE to like Forever Convinced on Facebook and click HERE to follow Jess on Instagram!

S'mores Bars!!! (Easiest thing ever and SO GOOD!)

Hello friends! Today I am sharing my delicious s'mores bars that I made. These things are literally to die for, and simple as ever to make. I made them for my young life summer group the other day and everybody was raving about them. I'm hooked, and I will probably make them about 5 million more times in my life span. Before I begin though, I'd like to let you all know that one of my best friends Julia has officially started blogging over at Living Through His Lens! Julia was one of the first people who led me to Jesus. She is the girl I talk about in my testimony HERE, who was sitting next to me in a coffee shop when God spoke to me in my heart for the first time ever. Julia has a beautiful heart, and her relationship with the Lord is real, personal, and beyond encouraging. I really suggest you follow along her blogging adventures, if you don't you will be missing out, I can guarantee you that!

Now, onto the s'mores bars....

YUM!!!!!!!!!

Step 1: Place Honey Graham Crackers evenly into a baking dish. 

Step 2: Take out packaged cookie dough and spread out evenly onto the graham crackers (I used a rolling pin on a cutting board to make the dough as flat as possible before putting it onto the graham crackers and spreading it out more evenly on there)

Step 3: Place milk chocolate pieces all over the cookie dough. 

Oh. My. Yum.

Step 4: Begin to spread out mini marshmallows over the ENTIRE dish (this photo only shows before I completely surfaced the entire dish with marshmallows)

Step 5: Bake in the oven for 350 degrees for about 20-35 minutes until marshmallows are this pretty golden brown color, as pictured below.


Step 6: Take a bite, and forget why you ever favored any ever dessert over this. ever.

Love always,

Jess

PS- Click HERE to like Forever Convinced on Facebook and click HERE to follow Jess on Instagram!

Somethin' New: Vulnerability is the key to JOY

Holly, me, and Kristin at the Gloriana concert over the weekend! So much fun! this picture was taken on my IPhone through Instagram, click HERE to follow me on Instagram!

photo below was taken on my 60D, when I went through a beautiful evening stroll through my neighborhood!

Hey friends! Today marks my FINAL post for the summer of something new blog challenge. For those of you don't know what this challenge is, it was set up by my wonderful blog friend Annaliese at Southern Belle in Training, and for this challenge Annaliese, Elle, Jenna,  Michaela, Gina and I have been sharing with you guys something new we have done this summer for the past 6 weeks!

Can I first just say WOW? Wow as in how fast time flies and also as in how miraculously amazing God is. I love how he works in every single detail of our lives. He sees our every need, and calls us to pray specifically for that need that we have so He can be our provider. He does this so He alone can get the glory from us that he so graciously deserves.

"The Lord said to Gideon, "You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength."

Judges 7:2-3

Today I thought about sharing with you guys my delicious s'mores cookie bars that I made earlier this week for the summer of something new challenge, but I decided instead to end my final post of this challenge talking about Jesus. After all, it has been His hand so strongly and evidently at work in my heart this summer, so who else would I want to give the final applause to?! (But don't worry, the s'mores bars are coming soon up on here soon, YUMMY!)

This summer God has challenged me beyond belief in making myself vulnerable with the community around me. God has so graciously and patiently explained to me the importance of not only being intentional with building new friendships with other Christians, but also with being intentional in surrounding myself with a community of Christians who love and support me. I have been blessed enough this summer to make new friends in my community of Young Life, who lead me closer to the Lord and encourage me in my relationship with Him every day.

It has been both a blessing and a challenge to develop these new friendships. God has been patient enough with my stubbornness in this area of my life to show me that it takes work, and it is not going to be something that happens with the snap of my fingers. It is certainly so worth all of the effort though, because I don't know what I would do without my Christian friends in my life and also without the community around me. I think this is something that is pretty much necessary for any Christian, don't you think?! We all need encouragement to seek Jesus and live closer to Him!

"So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing."

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (One of my favorite verses!!)

So today my friend, don't doubt any new Christian friendships that the Lord has called you to pursue. Be patient, pray about them a TON, and trust that God OBVIOUSLY wants you to surround yourself with many other Christians and also a strong supportive community! He of course knows not only how important this is to have in our lives but also how much of a blessing it is as well. Don't give up, because I know how frustrating it can be as you continue to work hard to pursue these new friendships. You may doubt yourself in the process (I know I have already done that a ton and learned that it is a waste of time and also a thief of my joy!). God is the opposite of doubt,  He is our confidence!

I love you guys!

Love always, Jess