Same Old Same Old

It really have been a while since I have sat down and blogged. Maybe it's because I am busy or I just dont feel like I have anything of value to say these days. 

Truth be told it's most likely because I am lazy. I have found that since being home from Czech

{goodness has my heart has been missing it a ton lately} 

I have been battling laziness. I use to be really disciplined in a large amount of areas in my life. Now I just have NO desire. It is really frustrating. I know that God has not created me to sit around and be some lazy bump on a log. I know he has designed me to do SO much more. 

I was sitting with a friend in the kitchen this morning. We started talking about our passions, what our purpose is in life, how we want to get there. 

{Purpose, Passions, Pursuit}

It was such a motivating conversation. One that I haven't been able to get our of my head all day. It was one of those conversation that I am sure God used to push my butt into gear and stop being lazy. I find that it is so easy to sit around and "wait for life to start". You ever hear that one before? Well guess what?! Life started that day you were born. What am I doing with my life right now? The
same old, same old" is what I find I am telling people. I feel like I am stuck that I am sitting around waiting. That my time here is being wasted when I could be doing other things. This leads me to be unmotivated, undisciplined and lazy. The  answer " the same old same old" just isn't cutting it for me anymore. Why? Because I don't want to me doing the "same old same old". I dont want to sit around and wait for life to happen. I don't want to sit around and waste what God has given me.

God sent Jesus here to this earth. The Earth that he so specifically created so his Son could come to it and die on the cross for the sins of the world. My God is a God who is specific and He WASTE NOTHING!  He isn't wasting my time here. He loves me too much to waste my time. So in the answer of "same old same old" I am convicted that these days may seem monotonous and routine. But what I am doing with them to bring glory and honor to the Lord? 

What are you doing with your day to day life, in the "same old same old", that is bring glory to God. He isn't wasting our time in these days. He loves us TOO MUCH!

That conversation in the kitchen stirred all this. Me back into blogging, pursuing that things I was designed for so I can bring glory to the Lord in the "same old same old". 

The Call To Adopt

Well, I'm back here on this blog. With this I want to share something so dear to my hear.

I graduated from high school about 6 years ago. My time in high school was spent being sheparded by two amazing people. Todd Roughton, who was my high school pastor, and his wonderful wife Summer. Who was my small group leader for about two years. I spent time loving on their children, soaking up truth and love from both Todd and Summer. I developed my love of crafting and scrapbooking from Summer herself. Spent countless house at their house. 

God took them to San Luis Obispo, Oregon, and now Idaho. They were missed and still are missed greatly.  Now God has called them to something even more exciting. Adoption. I would try to tell you their story but trust me Summer does a much better job at it. So I'll go a head and let you read it about here at www.joyfullyruined.com. Just click on the website I just typed and it should take you straight there. They also has a vidoe about their adoption story. I watched it and cried!  So go ahead and watch it here.

Todd, at the end of the video, reminds us that as followers of Christ we are called to help the orphans. He too does a much better of explaining this then I can. SO seriously go ahead and watch the video!  RIGHT HERE!

I would like to announce...

that on May 29th I will be stepping onto a Jet plane destined for  Prague, Czech Republic where I will spend the next 3 months as an intern with Josiah Venture (learn more about the organization here)  leading English camp and telling the Czech youth about the good news of Jesus Christ. I AM SO STIKIN EXCITED!!!!!! I got the call on December 20th and was invited to be a part of the Czech Republic Intern Team. I ecstatically accepted!

This has been something that I have been praying about for the last 6 months. God has so graciously allowed me to be apart of this amazing ministry. I could write for days and days about what I am thinking and what I am feeling. There is just so much to say! 

I will be a part of an intern team made up of about 5-7 other people and we will be leading English camps. That includes training teams that come and going with them to camps to teach conversational English classes, play games, lead discussion groups, lead night time programs, sing, dance, share about Jesus, and build relationships with these Czech students. I am not kidding this is what I was designed for! If you have followed any of my previous blog posts then you will know how near and dear this ministry, this country, and these students are to my heart.

I have many challenges ahead of me. For starters I have to raise support. I have never raised support on this level before and yes I am VERY nervous for it. But I have already seen God providing for me in this area in simple ways. Why should I doubt? I have to figure out how my leaving in May is going to affect my school that doesn't end till June. There is preparation I know that the Lord is going to be doing in my heart before I leave and so many other different things that have to come together, and by God's grace I know they will, before I leave.

If you are reading this and you feel the Spirit tugging on your heart to pray for me I have a few request! =)

1. That I am diligent in my time and with the recourse that God is providing for me as I look ahead to fundraising.
2. That I will continually hand over to the Lord my anxiety and fear about raising money and that I can set aside my pride and humble myself to invite others into this ministry with me.
3. That I will not resist the preparation God will be doing in my heart
4. Unity of my intern team, softened hearts of the students we will meet, and provision for the other teams that churches will send over to serve with us.

I know and trust that God is working big in my life right now! If you would like to support me send me your e-mail address and address to my e-mail here : jacquelyn.thomson@gmail.com and I will be more than happy to send you a support letter and information on how to better support me. There will also be a few other things that I will be launching to raise support like my very own Etsy Shop , which is still in the works, and another secret event that I will just keep you guessing for!


God is doing great things!


His Hands & Feet

><>
Jackie

The Heart...

is a funny thing really. It hurts, it breaks, we follow it, and we say with all of it and we say to protect it. Well, tonight, my heart hurts. Not just a little but a deep deep hurt. Have you ever felt that? I want to run ,hide, sleep, and make it all go away. I pray that daily. Then I am reminded in the midst of that prayer that more than wanting this pain to go away I want God's will to do be done. I want God's way because it leads to life not my way. Let's be honest my way gets me nowhere. Actually my way just gets me into a bigger mess than I am already in.


I went to the High School group tonight. A friend of mine has been raving about the speaker and so I thought I would come and see what all the fuss is about. He was good! I really enjoyed him! He made me feel like I was sitting down with my Pastor having a cup of coffee and discussing life and looking at what the Bible had to say about it. I don't know, there was something really unique about him. Oh, did I mention that he is the PRESIDENT of Joshia Venture the Christian Organization that I am applying to be a 3 month missionary intern in the Czech Republic for? Yeah, Dave Patty! I get to meet him, no big deal =D Anyways, that's not the point! The point is that Dave talked about getting scammed tonight. He read from Genesis 3. You know, where Satan convinces Eve that she won't die if she eats the apple...yup she got scammed. We are all getting scammed by Satan. This made me think, " How have I been scammed in the past?" Well, when I asked this question of course if brought up A LOT of past and present pain all at once. I have been scammed by Satan in romantic relationships, in friendships, with school, work, family, daily simple life choices, my eating habits, work out habits, money, and so much more. I just haven't realized it. It is all because I choose to believe that Satan's way was better than God's way. I didn't think that at the time but now that I look back on it I can clearly see that.

When I think about these things my heart hurts and I am saddened. I have lost so much and so much has been damaged because of these scams. I asked myself tonight " How do I get back what has been taken from me?" You know what came to my mind immediately? THE CROSS! That's how I get back everything that was taken from me...the cross and recognizing that at the foot of the cross lies great hope and salvation. That at the foot of the cross is the blood that washes me clean and redeems me.  So, yeah, things have been taken from me and because I believe these lies and got scammed I have made some bad and sinful choices. But at the foot of the cross there is forgiveness. God sent his son to die on the cross and pay the ultimate penalty for our sins. So, because of that I am able to take back what was stolen from me. Now, I know that I can wake up tomorrow with new mercies. Will my heart still hurt? Yeah, but only because I am healing from the aftermath of the scams and the trying to do it my way thing. Will the pain go away right away? Probably not. But you know what? That's okay, because I have a God who is willing to forgive me for believing lies over His truth and a God who is willing to walk with me hand in hand, and sometimes even carry me, through the mess and the pain that I have created.

So much to tell...

about what has been going on in my life in the last month. Well, most of you know that  my parents are going through a divorce. Yes, that is right a divorce. =( My heart is broken in this situation because of the circumstances of it. But, my heart breaks the most because sin is what is driving the situation. I hate sin. I have cried countless nights because of this situation. But mostly I cry because of the sin. I hate sin. I will say that till the day that I die but I HATE SIN. Yet, because we live in a broken and fallen world sin is amongst us.

Here is the one thing that I can rejoice in. God is good! God is so so good. Let me just give you a few example of this because I am sure most of you are like " How do you see the good in a situation like this?"well let me tell you.

 Good Things From This Bad Situation

1. God's timing. He has been preparing us for this for a long time. I look back over the last few weeks, months, and years and can count endless moments that were used in preparation for this.

2. God's lessons. The Lord is just stretching all of us in this. Let me tell you, in a situation like this there is really nothing that you can do to control what is going on and what the outcome might be. If anyone of you know me well at all you know that I am a control freak! So, I am learning how to let go and let God because there is nothing that I can do about this and so I need to trust God and let him handle this.

3. God's Love. God loves us enough that he is allowing this situation to refine us and to grow closer as a family. This is time for us to grow closer and build a bond that not many families have. This is a time for us to really see and feel God's Love all around us. There are countless people praying for us specially  and God has provided an amazing community for us. So, I see him loving on this broken and hurting family.

Those are the good things. Trust me there are many more good things from this but if you want to know you can just e-mail me: captivatedbyonelove@gmail.com. It's hard to be joyous in this but I feel like God is just walking a through this. Yeah it hard. Yeah it hurts. Yeah there are days where I just want to give up... because let me tell you over the last 6 or 7 months I feel like I have just been put through the Gauntlet and this season in my life has been very tough. There are going to be highs and some low lows in this season of my life and my family's life. But guess what? God wants to and will fight this battle for me and for my family. I read this verse just a few days ago that truly encouraged me.  ⁷ "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. ⁸With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles." And the people took confidence from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah." 2 Chronicles 32:7-8 (I would read the whole thing because it's pretty cool!) HE WILL FIGHT FOR US!!! He will give us exactly what we need. At the end of this crappy season we will be able to look back and see how God brought us through this and see all the ways be provided and care and all the ways he fought for us and took care of us. We will be stronger in our relationship with him than every before. So I eagerly look forward to when this season is over. But I don't want to miss the lessons and opportunites that await me in this season.

So, that's my update. If you have questions seriously please e-mail me captivatedbyonelove@gmail.com. I am also going off facebook for awhile just to tune out some of the social networking stuff and focus on my family and tune up the voice of God. So if you want to stay in contact let me know. I'm gonna keep blogging and so if you still want my blog post send me your e-mail address and I'll send it to you or I think you can just subscribe to my blog. =D  If you think about it keep my family in your prayers.  I love you all!

I'll let you in on a secret...

one of my dreams is to travel the world. When I say travel the world I don't mean " I was at the airport, but never got to leave the terminal" travel the world but sit down and have a meal and explore the town travel the world. Meet someone take a picture with them  listen to their story travel the world. So I want this A Scrach Map! It's kind of like a scratch card but it is a map. When I have traveled somewhere, had a meal, listened to someone's story and gotten a picture with them then I can scratch off that country, that state, whatever or wherever that may have been. I wonder how many place I can go, people I can meet, and stories I can hear? So there I just let you all in on a little secret and a dream of mine :)

Lucy...

This BEAUTIFUL girl that I am with has a story to share. I was blessed to be a part of that story and blessed to be able to share her story with people back home. Now I am going to share it with you from her perspective. This is Lucy's story...

i'm not sure what you want hear so i wrote everything about me and God..about my way to faith and how everything changed my life...so take what to you want from that i hope it'll not be so long because when i start talk about it i can't stop
so....in past i thought that i believe in God.But i really didn't.I couldn't say ,,I love Jesus" or ,,I want follow my Lord" it was little bit weird for me to say.But E-camp changed everything.I saw people how they talk about God and about faith and about everything about they shared their problems and everyone listened to them.I was like ,,WAU!" there are so many people who are there for me and i know them only few days!it's so amazing..and all of them love Jesus and they are showing God's love and they are spreading love.And for the first time i saw so many kind people on one place.I didn't know many believers.My mum doesn't believe and my father neither.On camp one day i really felt God's love!This day was so awesome for me!it changed me totally.My opinions my outlook on life.and mainly my relationship to my mum.We have really bad relationship.She always loved my sister and every time she told me that she want me to be like my sister.In everything..i know that i'm more happy with my fathers family and my mum hate it.I always fought with her.But now...yes we have fights..but i learned love her despite all.I'm showing her my love to Jesus..but she doesn't understand.She always says to me that I'll grow up out of it.She never didn't support me.Never.And now neither.But it makes me stronger.Maybe God did this to me because he has something for me to do and i will not have these problems with my mum i will never trying find love from God.I found love in God.I found support in my brothers and sisters in Jesus and that makes me stronger.Everything is new for me and I'm still little bit scared about reaction my friends in my life there in Sokolov and in my school.But i know that I'm not alone.The most helped me e-camp.See you Jackie and John,Natalie,Ashley how you love each other how you're sharing your love with everybody when i listened you in discussion groups i heard how amazing people God makes.When i met Zack,when i talked to him for the first time and Vítek and Josh too.All of them are so kind young boys!I couldn't believe! Because i know only boys without any respect to girls i know maybe 2 boys but these guys Andrew and Jonathan too and every boy on e-camp..It was so beautiful see it.I'm so happy that i met them.I can only say thank you God that i met these people!!All of these things conficed me that only God can make people like them.Only when i will follow him only if i will leave him to lead me on the best way on my life,i can be happy and i can be maybe like these people one day.I Love my Lord!Now i can say that and it's not weird for me it's pleased to me say that i love him!He learned me love people around me be more kind.I wasn't sure with that but now i know that i want study psychology and i want help people with their problems i want help people find support and security.I want help people who were abuse or anything else.Because everyone should have chance to live beautiful live with love.I wish to everyone to find love in Jesus and recognize the feeling what i feel.


This brings chills to me bones and a huge smile to my face. I love this girl and can't wait to see her again and be reunited with my segra (sister).