Praying together...

Once more I had the opportunity to spend just a few moments with the Thurstons, missionary friends from my time at RGBI. After work, I ran over to Starbucks and met up with them on their way through town. We hadn't seen each other in a year so we had much to catch up on and it was an encouraging time of fellowship. :)

I was especially blessed to have prayer with Phil and Pat one more time before we went our separate ways. It was always a priveledge to hear these two pray and I was blessed to have them pray over me with their sincere and warm manner of speaking to their Heavenly Father. Truly something to be thankful for.

Thank you again, Thurstons, for taking time to visit!!

-Amanda Marie

As the leaves begin to change...

I find life and my daily planner filling up at a rapid pace. Summer was a lovely season, but now begins my personal favorite!! Football, bonfires, hunting, the smell in the air, the crisp morning, coffee, cider and donuts, you name it!

A glance at what is going on:

Monday night Bible study just began, we are studying the book "Won by One" with a small group of friends.

Tuesday night D.I.G. is back in full swing starting next week. We are currently studying the oracles in Isaiah.

Wednesday night choir starts up this coming week and also our church has asked me to take over the church youth group, On Fire For Christ. I am very excited about this ministry. Please pray for wisdom in preparing for this new group. I plan to start in either late October or early November.

Thursday nights I have been invited to attend Inter Varsity a college campus youth group.

These should keep me busy for now!!

More updates to come!

-amanda marie

Michindoh Summer 09

The much anticipated Camp update has arrived!

This year at camp I believe the prayers of the church were answered as God was at work in the hearts and lives of many campers.

My co-counselor, Heather Seaton, was such a huge blessing and her help was greatly appreciated. While we planned the week to the best of our ability, God still proved to have His own plans and we went through the week with the motto, " Be Tough, Be Flexible" always keeping in mind that God's plans are the best.

We had 8 Sr. High girls in our cabin and we loved every minute of reconnecting with them and forming strong bonds. Kassie did a great job of coming up with games for everyone to play including making mummies with toilet paper, playing volleyball in the mud pit, watermelon rugby, and capture the flag/three legged race.

In the evening, I had the opportunity to be on the worship team with some very talented musicians and we had a blast praising God together.

Throughout the week, Eric, a fellow counselor and myself had the priveledge of talking with one of my campers on several different occasions. And thank the Lord, on the last day of camp, she was saved!!

An exciting part of camp is the Sr. High bonfire. We were forced inside this year by the rain, but we continued to share testimonies and pray together in the chapel until early in the morning. It is always an amazing experience to see the Spirit move among us and to hear the stories of what is going on in the campers lives.

While it was an exhausting week, it was fantastic! Heather and I are excited about the friendships we made and are praying that God would allow us to participate in camp ministry again next year.

-Amanda Marie

The Language of Tears

Tears that bare the soul
stream down and do not cease
while pain, grief, and mourning
surface at last to be seen

Time stands still as the Spirit with us meets
heart ties form as lives connect
and burdens we lay at Jesus' feet

Hearts overflowing and filled with joy
peace reigns over guilt and shame
Christ and His cross work our redeeming grace

Groan for us, Oh Spirit
make our hearts fully known
tears bare our souls
Draw us near to our GOD!

Welcome to Summer...

Hello my friends,

I'm sorry it has been so long since I've updated my blog. I can hardly believe we are about to enter July! Wow, I'm very excited for the fourth, it's a favorite holiday for me.

D.I.G. has begun and we have had two meetings so far. It is going well and we are all working on learning the new study material. It is very challenging and time consuming, but I know that it is worth it!

We had twelve ladies the first week and are expecting the group to be around seventeen next week. I am thankful for Kassie's help in leading the group and for Jolene our hostess.

Evelyn is doing much better and she has been on her own now for three weeks. I am working in our family's woodshop making and assembling gardening baskets. I am still looking for work though and have sent my resume to a couple of people. Please pray that God's will is done.

I continue to look for ministry opportunities and have emailed an organization asking information about their volunteer program. I will update you on that in the future.

I am excited to share that we have almost reached the maximum amount of campers that we can have at our camp this year! This is fantastic news! I am excited about the week and have much work to do to prepare. I will be getting music together and planning my cabin devotions over the next few weeks.

Yesterday, I went to a neat place called Nuevo Mexico authentic Mexican grocery store. It was a fun time for me as I was able to practice my Spanish with the store manager and buy some things that I miss from Mexico. :)

Have a blessed day!

-Amanda Marie

Delighting In God

I'm really excited to tell you all about the plans that are being made to start a ladies' Bible study called D.I.G.(Delighting In God) this coming June. My accountability partner, Kassie, and I are making the preparations to begin a study on Romans using Kay Arthur and David Arthur's Inductive Bible Study program. We especially wanted to start a group that was serious about studying the Scriptures. Meeting once a week to encourage each other to be in the Word all week long, not just at Bible study, through accountability. Kay Arthur's studies take much time in and meditation on the Word of God. We continue to get ready for our first meeting as June quickly approaches and are very excited to see what God will have us to learn individually and as a group through the study of His Word.

What's Coming in Summer 2009???

1)SGBA Camp 2009
I applied for Camp this week and if counselors are still needed, I will be going! We will have a meeting next month to prepare for the week and then camp will be held at Michindoh on the dates of July 13-17th!

Pray for the campers that will be attending, that God will open their hearts and save their souls!

2)Missions Trip??
I am praying for an opportunity to go to Mexico this summer on a short term missions trip.

3)Caregiving
I will be staying with Evelyn for the month of May and then we will probably see if I am still needed at the end of that time. It is possible that during the summer, if she is doing much better, I will still be checking in on her from time to time.
Please pray that Evelyn will soon be able to return to church.

4)Teaching
I am now on the rotation as a Jr. Church teacher at Thornville, so I will be taking my turn again in the months to come.

Although most of these things are liable to change, I wanted to give a quick snapshot of what I'm anticipating my summer will look like. :)

Thank you for your prayers!
-Amanda Marie

With this moment I want to PRAISE HIM!!

Arriving home from church this evening, I am just filled with the excitement and joy that comes when God moves! I am so thrilled to tell that God is working in the hearts of the youth in our small youth group and truly blessing us. We are still praying for our youth pastor and his family as they have all been sick and unable to be with us. We are also thankful for our Sunday school teacher stepping in to teach the lessons on Wednesday nights. Our group has been studying Don Whitney's book, "Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health" and it is so convicting. We are once again touching on the subject of Godly Sorrow and asking the question:
"Do I truly mourn over my sin?"

Our times of prayer and fellowship have been so sweet and I am praising God for His hand in our lives!

-Amanda Marie

That's My King! S.M. Lockridge

I've seen this video various times over the past year or two and it is always an encouragement! Enjoy!

Recommended Reading...

Our Sunday School class has been going through this book by John MacArthur and it has been fantastic! We have been studying the fruit of the Spirit and will be going into the section on I Cor. 13 next week. Check it out at www.gty.org !

-Amanda Marie

February/March Conferences and Retreats Part 3

My final entry for this little series of Special Weekends, I wish I would have done this the other way around because now in April I'm forced to try and remember the beginning of February! :)

Our first Youth Retreat in many years was held at Michindoh where we have our annual summer camp. We love this camp ground and the staff is always really kind and helpful. We went for a quick overnight stay and had so much fun. We enjoyed fantastic food, a fun hayride under the beautiful stars, making spam sculptures, and playing broom ball on the ice!

Along with all the activities we were also enormously blessed by the messages presented to us by Dan Armstrong. We were challenged through God's Word to identify
and overcome the idols in our hearts. Idols that are not necessarily in a physical form, but rather are evident in our sinful heart attitude. What is an idol? Anything that takes the place of God in our lives and anything that we are willing to sin against God to get.

We were each given a notebook and time to talk to God one on one and confess our personal idols and to raise our flag of surrender and ask God to become more beautiful to us than our sin. We studied James 4:1-7 in which we are given the steps to overcoming idols.

James 4:1-7
"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."

Dan emphasized the need to be truly broken about our sin and not to just feel remorse, but to express genuine Godly sorrow. Until we are truly Broken and Humbled we will not be Changed!

Nothing about the fight to Love God more than anything is easy and that includes the fight to get rid of the idols in our lives. However with God's help, It is possible!


James, Heather, Rebekah,and I were given the opportunity to lead worship at the Retreat and the song, "Give Us Clean Hands" quickly became the theme song for the event.

This song is taken from Psalm 24: 3-6,
"Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. Selah"


This is the group of girls that I was able to lead in a short devotional on Friday night. The Lord was really working in my heart during the time that I was preparing for this and showing me where I needed to be changed.

Overall this Retreat was a HUGE blessing in all our lives, we had a wonderful time and I am so thankful!





- Amanda Marie

"Peace, Perfect Peace"
by Edward Bickersteth

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?
To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?
On Jesus’ bosom naught but calm is found.

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?
In Jesus’ keeping we are safe, and they.

Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?
Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.

Peace, perfect peace, death shadowing us and ours?
Jesus has vanquished death and all its powers.

It is enough: earth’s struggles soon shall cease,
And Jesus call us to Heaven’s perfect peace.

February/March Conferences and Retreats Part 2

I'm working my way back to the first Retreat in February, but first I'll share a little from a conference in March.

This year our association's annual Ladie's Conference was held at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Mrs. Connie Tucker was the keynote speaker and her 3 sessions were on the thinking woman of God. We were challenged from 2 Timothy 1:7 to Think God's Thoughts After Him! and to be a woman who is actively pursuing the knowledge of God and who studies the Word of God diligently.



On our second day at the conference, we had a time of singing and testimonies which was a real blessing. Women shared stories of God's work in their lives including one in particular of a lady who was saved just recently after seeing the movie "Fireproof." After years of being in the church and believing she was saved, the Lord opened her eyes and she was genuinely converted.



The Sunday of the conference we were also blessed to hear Pastor Tucker speak at our church and speak more on this subject. The following illustration they both referred to has stuck with me...
We as Christians should be constantly taking in scripture and meditating on it just as a cow grazes all day long and later brings the grass back up to chew on it until every last bit of nutrients are out of it. We should not just let the scripture we read or the sermon we hear go in one ear and out the other, we should bring it to mind again later and think about it and think about it until we have all the "nutrients" out of it. Maybe not the most pleasant illistration to think about, but it makes it's point! :)

2 Timothy 1:7 (King James Version)

⁷"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

-Amanda Marie

Prayer request...

This past week I recieved a letter from our association's camp director inviting me to counsel at church camp this summer. We will be having youth camp at Michandoh again this summer for 5 days. I have counseled the senior girls cabin the last two years and have enjoyed it and found it to be challenging but rewarding spiritually. I would ask your prayers while I pray about whether or not God would have me to minister in this area this July.





Sovereign Grace Baptist Association Youth Camp


Summer 2008

-Amanda Marie

February/March Conferences and Retreats Part 1

This past weekend our church was invited to attend a Woman's Conference at First Baptist Church with speaker, Carol Trahan. Our own association had invited her to speak for our conferences twice over the past few years and we have enjoyed her and have been very blessed by her ministry. So we were very excited to hear that she would be coming to a church so close to ours.

On Friday night Carol shared her testimony which she calls "The Triumph of His Grace", which truly is a testament to the grace of God in the life of a sinner.

On Saturday morning, we were able to attend two sessions and then we were invited to come to visit with her at the hotel she was staying at. We jumped at the opportunity to pray with this woman of God. Carol is a teacher at Northland Baptist Bible College as well as a Biblical Counselor. Something that has always impressed and convicted the ladies from our church is her knowledge of the scripture. While speaking, Carol references the scripture over and over, quoting God's word from memory. She encourages us all and I felt so blessed by the time that she took to meet with my mom, a sister from our church, and myself after her long weekend of traveling and speaking.

It was so awesome to be able to take turns sharing what God is doing in our lives, the things we are struggling with, the prayer requests that are burdening our hearts and to have time together to pray about them all.

You can read more about Carol Trahan and her ministry on her website...

www.caroltrahanministries.org

Amanda Marie

Just wanted to quickly let you know that Evelyn (the lady mentioned in the previous post) is doing really well. She is getting stronger everyday and is able to do almost everything on her own now. She still needs someone to do all the cooking for her and help her remember her pills and things like that, but for the most part she is doing really well. Her granddaughter and daughter will be coming for the first two weeks of April to stay with her. During that time, they will decide how much help she needs now that she has been out of the hospital for several weeks. We are praying now that she will be able to return to church again soon.

Amanda Marie

God's answer to prayer...

Just wanted to update everyone and let you know that the Lord answered prayer and I am now working. A friend from my church was in the hospital for around four weeks and after she was released her family hired me to live with her and take care of her. She is doing well now and getting stronger everyday. I am thankful for her health and also for this job/ministry that the Lord has given me for this season of my life.

-Amanda Marie

Pinto Beans, Goats, and Soccer...

Don Victor was the first person to teach me about sorting through pinto beans. We were chosen to be the ones to sit at the small table and go through the pounds of beans for that night's dinner. As we looked for small pebbles and made separate piles, I was able to attempt at using the very little Spanish that I knew. Of course, Don Victor always had patience with me and listened intently. We managed to communicate more or less. :) I can't remember what we talked about exactly, but I do remember the experience and how Don Victor made each person that he encountered feel loved.

My first time meeting Don Victor was in the summer of 2004. He spent time showing me pictures of his family and talking about his soccer team in La Poza. Don Victor had a real love for his family and he and wife were always kind and hospitable when we came to do ministry in his hometown in Mexico. It was so exciting to get the news of the conversion of Don Victor and his wife Andrea in 2005. He was so very generous with his property and resources and always wanted to share God's love with the ministry teams that came through La Poza.

Another memory I have is when Don Victor took our group to see his goats. Upon arriving he asked us to pick out our favorite one and that would be the one we would have for dinner that night! :)

I am thankful to have met such a sweet brother in the Lord, He was a great man and will be missed by many!

In memory of Don Victor Rangel who went to be with his Savior.

-Amanda Marie

This past weekend I had the priviledge of taking a trip over to Grand Rapids to visit some friends at Cornerstone University. It was such a great weekend with time spent enjoying fellowship with my sisters in Christ. While I was there, I was able to make a new spanish speaking friend named Jessica. Her family is Mexican, but she has lived in Michigan her whole life. She is a member at the Iglesia Cristiana Reformada Emmanuel in Wyoming, Michigan. On Sunday morning, Jessica was kind enough to take me with her to church so that I could hear a Spanish service. It was so good to hear the Spanish worship again and to listen to the sermon. I am really thankful for the experience. :)

Also I wanted to share that yesterday I counseled my first hispanic client at the Pregnancy Resource Center. I was really excited to use my Spanish in this ministry! Thank you for your continued prayers!

-Amanda Marie

The Pregnancy Resource Center

Many of you have been asking about my ministry with the Pregnancy Resource Center and I am excited to let you know that I will be working there again starting in February. I spoke with the Client Services Director this morning and have been added to the February schedule, filling in where I was needed. I will be attending a staff meeting tonight to get caught up on what is going on at the Center and what changes have been made since I was last there.

Please pray for my transition back into that ministry and for God's guidance while in the counseling room. Also please be in prayer for the new counselors and staff members that are in training this month and for our Center's Director as she teaches the training sessions.

God Bless!
-Amanda Marie

In the mailbox...

It finally came! I received my graduation certificate from Rio Grande Bible Institute in the mail today and it was really exciting to actually have the real thing! :) Along with it came a letter from the Registrar and my transcripts for the year. I am thankful once again for having been given the opportunity to attend such a great school and to have learned so much.

Thank you to all of my professors, to faculty, and friends!

Thank you also to my grandparents Henry and Muriel Ludwig for making it possible for me to attend!

G is for Glorious

This Sunday morning I was given the opportunity to teach Jr. Church. I was excited to fill in for the week because before moving away to school I used to teach a couple of months a year. This morning I taught the lesson for letter G from the ABC's of God study. G is for Glorious and just like we can't look at the sun because it would hurt our eyes we are unable to look upon the glory of God. However we are able to see God's glory through creation just like we can enjoy the sunset.

Psalm 19:1 "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands."


I find it amazing what they grab onto from the lesson. Even though we were not talking about heaven for more than a few moments, my explanation of the heavens is the one part of the lesson that stuck with the kids the most.

It also amazes me the types of questions that kids can come up with. This for me is one of the best parts about teaching. My favorite one from today was, "Miss Amanda, why do angels wear dresses and not pants?"

Amidst an ever chaotic week of media and politics a familiar name continually rings out, President Barack Obama. The past few days have been an interesting and challenging time for God's people as we watched the 44th President of our Nation take his oath on January 20th. I personally spent the majority of the inauguration day in an almost surreal state as the news I had heard of the elections finally came to life. I watched in disbelief at the numbers of people that had gathered to witness the event and I felt a sudden sadness for the end of President Bush's term. But one word that I believe carries us on is Sovereign. I believe in an all knowing Soveriegn God who has allowed our new President to take office. I believe that he is in complete control and that he loves and cares for his children. I know that because of this, I can trust that even the President is not out of my God's control.

In my family we have discussed over the past few days the need to bring due respect back to the office. I am behind this 100%! I believe that the authorities we have come from God and as such have the right to be respected.

Romans 13:1,2 ESV says, " Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment."

This morning on C.J.Mahaney's blog there was an entry about praying for the President. www.soveriegngraceministries.org/blog
As a result of reading his entry I was impressed with the call to Prayer. We have the responsibility to bring before the Lord not only our President, but also the many other leaders, and our Nation.

1 Timothy 2:1-3 ESV "First of all, then, I urge, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior."

While my initial reaction was not to begin praying for the President, I was challenged and encouraged to do so by these truths and I now encourage you to do so as well.

-Amanda Marie