sweet haleigh

I was blessed to baptize Abby
Dec. 2010

After I baptized Haleigh
Dec. 2010

Abby, Haleigh and Mollie at our Campaigner Christmas Party 2009

If you look wayyyyy back at my first posts you can read all about when I left Lynchburg to move to Chesapeake how it was hard but good. Lynchburg was a really difficult place for me I had a love hate relationship with my time there but the things that I loved far outweighed the things that I hated.  One thing I loved in Lynchburg was the ministry at Jefferson Forest High School that the Lord called me to.
The people I lead with became my best friends and we grew together as we ran after a school that seemed to have doors that were cemented shut.  After my first semester leading there that team left (they were seniors) and from that semester on I had a new team pretty much every semester which made for consistency in ministry difficult.  But the girls were the same, the heartbreak was the same, and the passion the Lord gave me was the same... thank goodness... all of that leads me to the Andersons and to Haleigh.

Abby and I at Saranac

I met Haleigh when I was 19, she was 16. Haleigh was a Junior and was reaching for everything and anything that she thought would give her life... she was very close to my best friend Natalie (she also lead with me) and once Natalie graduated and stopped leading she and I became close.  I spent many afternoons with Haleigh talking about her life and quietly introducing her to Jesus at a local coffee shop in the tiny town of Forest. Those afternoons were precious but she just wasn't seeing the words she was reading as we would look through Mark together... that summer I took a group of 11 girls from JF to camp at Saranac including Haleigh and her sweet little sister Abby.  That week changed those two girls for the rest of their lives... not just Haleigh and Abby but the entire Anderson family... they were changing the generations that both Haleigh and Abby would create.  That week on a sandy beach at Saranac I got to pray with the sisters to come into the arms of their Lord and savior. I will never ever forget that moment as long as I live those girls are precious to me.  When they got home they were exploding with Jesus and their littlest sister Sydney and their mom eventually came to know the Lord through their own testimonies, it was beautiful!  All of that leads me to this past Monday.
I was in Lynchburg for the weekend and was able to get coffee with my sweet Haleigh on monday morning. Haleigh is now such a grown up! She is married and is pregnant with her first baby a sweet little girl.

We had a photo day in a field :)

Playing "scenarios" together

Being silly at our first Spink Party!

Haleigh and I sat and drank our waters and talked for hours about her life and her family the hardships of pregnancy and marriage what I was so thankful to see and hear throughout everything was her heart for Jesus... she has immersed her life in Christ every action every word everything she wants Christ to be at the center.  I was amazed to see how she has grown and changed and how she is in love with her savior just as much now as she was 4 years ago I would say even more so!

I sat back in my chair as Haleigh described what the Lord was teaching her and I felt so convicted that the Lord is calling me to create a legacy... to alter lives... to alter generations... families... lives for all eternity... just for Him, not for me, not for young life, not for a job but for Him! As I listened to this beautiful girl speak of her savior I couldn't help but think of her past of her life and of the healing the Lord did to make every broken thing in her 4 years ago whole again and here she was whole and passionate.

 I am so thankful the Lord let me see this and experience this and see that our lives here are short but when we use every moment for His glory we can experience every second of this life.  So my sweet Haleigh I am so proud of you, for your passion for your love and for your desire to raise your sweet baby girl in the name of Jesus and how her life will forever be changed just as yours was on that little beach at a small little young life camp called Saranac.

 Abby, Haleigh and I At church

Haleigh, her husband Levi and their sweet baby girl (in her belly!)

not being cool...

I'm tired...
I woke up to the feeling of a wall in my face and my kitchen floor on my feet, oh thats right because I slept in a hallway... poor working conditions? Maybe... but definitely so worth it,  last night I had about 16 high school girls over for a sleep over.  Such a sweet gift, I love having a house full. I never loved sleep overs in high school I think because I liked waking up in my own bed being able to shower and do what I normally did in the morning without disruption but I was probably a weird kid.

I remember when my leader would invite us over for sleepovers it was a little different because she was married and there would be about 4 of us but we would sleep on these giant floral sofas stay up kind of late and laugh and I just loved it, in fact I can't remember much about the sleepover but just loving it and loving being with her.... I don't know if girls really love being with me.

Here is where insecurity feeds itself, I know that I am wonderfully made by a God that loves me desperately that cares for me abundantly and the ONLY thing I offer is Him truly that is the only thing that is attractive about me but sometimes don't you just want to be liked? I am a 23 year old girl who spends the majority of her time with girls between the ages of 14-18... and I STILL seek their approval... I"M ALMOST 24! I could have a child of my own at this age and I still want high school girls to like me... we are crazy creatures.  I want them to want to be with me, to beg me to play just dance with them, to laugh at me and with me... but they don't.  I am not that cool... but here is what I have to believe is that its ok... there will be a time where they will want to be with me but I think the biggest thing is that I have to remember that my worth does not rest in their opinions of me.

I'm not cool, thank goodness... but today I hope I see the need to be an adult in the lives of adolescents not just an older sister who takes care of them... sometimes.