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acebygracealone
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Name: Vicki
Country: United States
State: Georgia
Birthday: 11/6/1983
Gender: Female
Interests: people, animals (especially labrador retrievers), the outdoors, flowers, Australia, shopping, the Bible, fairy tales, Redeeming Love, my Father (the love of my life), taking pictures, beauty, freedom, truth, love, hope, music (rap and country and some Christian and classical and top 40), singing, laughing until I can't breathe, coffee shops, dancing with my girls, travelling, exploring, Spanish.
Occupation: Student
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
5/1/2005
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| It is so interesting to me, the Lord's timing! I got off work tonight around 9:45 and was thinking about staying and eating at Outback since I get a discount. But I felt like God was leading me to go home, so I did. Then I checked email and was hungry...so I decided to go to Waffle House, and decided to bring my Bible and study Genesis some more while I was there. Well, it was PACKED, but luckily there was one parking space left and a chair between a few empty ones at the front counter (my least favorite place to sit). But I sat down, ordered chocolate chip waffles (one of my favorite foods), and began.
My time with the Lord was really good, just with His reassurance of His timing with my singleness and not settling no matter what. I know that's a simple lesson, but it's honestly been such a STRUGGLE lately. I feel like all of my friends are getting married or engaged or about to be in a relationship. Sometimes it will hit me and it will be so hard to be content. I will often feel plain and too weird to ever attract a guy. Still, whenever I ask the Lord about it, the answer is the same: He is guarding me. I've asked Him not to let me date or fall for another guy until it's my husband.
Anyway, so I finish reading and begin eating my food. By this time, there's a gentlemen and a lady sitting next to me, and I think I see the gentlemen staring at me...so I ignore him. I finish eating and the man asks me, "So, are you studying the Bible?" I turned around then and...we just had this amazing conversation about the Lord, things we liked in the Bible, etc. This couple ended up pouring out their lives to me at that crowded Waffle House, some of the most heart-breaking things and their own struggles with the Lord. It was wonderful to be able to share Truth with them, to share the gospel with these people! (I cannot stress enough how much I really love to share the gospel.) Although I'm not sure how (or if) they were impacted right now, it was still wonderful to share, and they left being glad they met me, and me promising to pray for them.
Praise the Lord for giving me such a divine opportunity to share the gospel with these people! His timing with everything was so perfect, so ordained...I mean, wow!!!! You are so good, Lord, and I know I wouldn't have had that opportunity if I'd been married or whatever. Thank You. | | |
| I love how my lift is looking totally different from how I thought it would be...and I'm growing to love it the way it is right now. For one thing, I have a lot of free time...on my own. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love people, but it was to the point that if I was by myself, I would get very very depressed. I believe that God started working on me about this during Beach Project and even more here in the "real world." The book that has been the most wonderful for me has been "Abba's Child" by Brennan Manning, which literally addresses the issue of hating to be alone. I always thought that I hated it because I was extroverted, but now I see that it is something completely different altogether. I need that intimacy with my Savior. So...I'm beginning the process (which is hard because, despite what many of you probably think, I'm lazy...or I just waste time really really well) of using all of this time to grow intimate with the Lord. I'm still reading through Genesis and loving it (I'm at the part where Esau and Jacob are born), reading "Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood" (gives me an idea of the man I'm looking for in a husband and the kind of woman I need to be), listening to sermons, and...housekeeping. I've also started taking dance classes to improve and work toward using this gift/passion for God's glory. I had my first jazz class on Thursday and really loved it. It's a plus that the classes are so cheap.
I'm still meeting with college girls all the time...hanging out, being crazy, sharing the gospel with them, and just trying to help them grow in their relationship with God. I got to share the gospel for the first time since Beach Project recently. I'd forgotten how much I feel like I come alive when I share my faith, how it helps me in my own walk with God, not just the other person. I hope it makes Him look good, too.
Another good thing has been seeing my motives with fellowship become more...real? It was so tempting for me during college to be part of things just to feel like I'm "in" with a certain crowd. I mean, that temptation is still there, but it is less present. Now, I go to stuff because I deeply desire fellowship and to be spiritually fed. I'm learning, I think, to let God be my best friend. Once again, I'm seeing how much deeper our relationship could be, how much it's lacking. Maybe it will always be this way...at least until I go home.
Speaking of home (Australia, not heaven), I emailed a friend of mine who works for MTW (Mission to the World: it's a Presbyterian Missions organization) about doing something short-term in Australia. She told me some basics and is gonna have someone get in touch with me. Sometimes I find myself wondering if all of this is in my head, that God didn't really call me there. However, the Lord keeps showing me pretty much everywhere I look that this is His will for me. I don't know why I get this dumb idea in my head sometimes that my desires are never of the Lord, that He wants to make me be in pain all the time. Sometimes he does...but through time I'm seeing (still a process) His huge, beautiful plan, the wonderful lessons and healing through some of the most painful experiences in the past year. And then dreams that do come true: being a room leader on Beach Project, for example...and living in this incredible house...and seeing people you really care about come to know Jesus. :)
Okay, I'm going for now. Work's going good...but I wish everyone knew to tip your server at least 15 percent. Please? We mostly live off of your tips. | | |
| First off, I'd like to say that I feel like Bethany Dillon's new album is just what I need right now. It's so much about coming out of trials, wrestling with issues, and seeing God's beauty in a bigger way than you ever have before. I feel like that's me right now. The gospel is soooo much sweeter and more nourishing to me right now.
Update: I got a job. Rather, the Lord graciously gave me a job (after several interviews) as a waitress/server at Outback Steakhouse. I've been training (menu tests and "following" other waitors) since the beginning of the month, and this afternoon was my first day by myself. Not only is it exciting to be getting tips and learning a new skill, but it's also been great just beginning to build relationships. I really like my co-workers, and praise the Lord, one of the girls I trained with is a Christian!
God's used the little time on this job (and in the real world in general) to show me just how little I believe the gospel, how DETERMINED I am in my flesh to do all these things perfectly in order to be righteous and justified. Galatians 3:10 runs through my mind, about those who live this way live under a curse. This even showed up at work! My managers could tell that I was really nervous, you know? So, it's taking this to a whole new level, just fighting to believe the Lord and have that be my righteousness. Well, it already is, but it's hard to cling to that all the time, at least for me, and accept His grace (from the tip today even though the food was late and they got their food for free) and mercy (having the toughest manager in the restaurant repeatedly encourage me). It is great to be right in the midst of the Lord's will, loving on college students (mostly girls) and discipling girls. It's the most challenging and rewarding thing there is!
And as many of you know, I've been really asking the Lord where He would have me next. My parents and some of my friends have been eager for me to go to seminary...so I can have a regular salary, something stable, to use my biblical knowledge and thirst for truth. College girls have talked about me maybe going on-staff with Campus Outreach. Both would be "safe," if you know what I mean, at least for me, and I have had the feeling that at the very least, seminary would probably be bad for me spiritually.
But I've been reading in Genesis lately, the part about Abraham. The last time I read that story in-depth, I was raising support to go on CCP (Cross Cultural Project) to Australia about a year and a half ago. I was realizing while reading it that I've been trying to push Australia out of my mind and heart. It was sooo hard to leave and to be honest, if I truly start thinking on that place, I miss it like it's my home, and the Lord told me to come back to the States. I was scared to go there, scared of my desires.
But anyway, so I've been back here, and I've seen some AMAZING things...girls coming to know the Lord and have a heart for the lost and the nations. I assumed that it would be through them that the nations would be reached, and I was to stay here and reach people here. But it was like the Lord was telling me, "No, Vicki, I want you to go. I'll bless the nations through them, too, but I want you to go." And I'm even daring to hope that maybe, possibly, He wants me back in Australia...maybe even by next year!!!
Thank you all so much for your love and your prayers. Please keep it up, and I'll try and update more frequently.
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| I love Project! I love my girls and being a room leader. There's a wonderful wonderful bond on Project already. And the teaching's great! Funny note: My girls and I are working at McDonald's. Yep, I'm there again. Hilarious! I'm honestly just thankful to have a job, and not every McDonald's is the same. If ya'll would, pray for my growth this summer. I don't have time to elaborate, but that'll do for now. :) | | |
| ...as a room leader. Is this freaking REAL?!?! It's been such a dream, a passion of my heart, and to see God grant it to me at the last minute...It just astounds me. 
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