Ten Years and Counting!

Time flies so quickly, and it can be so hard to realize it until it's passed. This past weekend I had the privilege of celebrating my church's 10th anniversary, woohoo! God has done some awesome things through the ministry at Trinity Baptist Church. For one, this is the church where I accepted Christ as my Lord and personal Savior! (PRAISE HIIIM!!) Pastor Eddie (who also happens to be my best friend's dad-pretty cool, eh?) preached a sermon about heaven and hell, and I realized that even though I had a complete head knowledge of salvation, I had never truly accepted Jesus Christ into my heart, making me unsure of my eternal destination. So on February 18th, 2001, I entered into the family of God, and it was the best decision I ever made. Ever. :) So yeah, it's been awesome growing up in one place, from junior high, to the teen class, to the A-Z Discipleship class, until I left for college! And even then whenever I'd come home I knew I could find a home at Trinity. There's definitely an awesome body of believers there.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture all of the photos I wanted of the church's anniversary service, but at least I took some! The day before the Sunday service there was a really nice dinner for all the members and some guests, so this is where the pictures are from.

The tables were so nicely decorated!

I was pretty much in love with the drink fountains. :) 

These were the centerpieces for the tables. The glass containers were filled with mustard seeds, representative of the faith we've had in God to make it this far as a church to further God's kingdom! Very creative and symbolic.

I pretty much loves the rose balloons.

A few of the teens.

The parents! :) 

Blurry, but the praise team is singing.

My pastor is on the left, Pastor Reynolds is in the center. (He's the pastor of Trinity's sending church!) Pastor Davis is on the end. He preached on anniversary Sunday.

Me and Pastor Eddie!

Whether I'm at Trinity or somewhere else in the future, I know that the more Trinity grows together in the Lord, the more it will be able to do for God's kingdom! She may not be a huge church, but she's impacting the community with the gospel of Christ in a great way, and because of that God is glorified. Looking forward to seeing all that happens in the next ten years! ;-)

Sermons for Sleep

It's a trade-off, really.

One thing my mom has always been good about is listening to sermons in the mornings. She'll turn on WAVA to Charles Stanley first, and then later on listen to Tony Evans. If I have (for some random reason) decided to drag myself out of bed earlier than usual, then I'll get to catch the tail end of a message. And once I hear whatever little portion that I do, I always end up wondering why I don't get up earlier and catch the whole thing!


Well as most people know, I got my license recently (woohoo!) so my mornings now begin even earlier due to me taking my siblings to school and dad to the slug line. (That means I have the car alllllll to myself now!! I'm such a grown-up hehe.) I'm usually out the house around 6:30 AM, which for me is quite early, especially since I'm not in school right now! During my driving time I have the opportunity to turn on the radio and listen to sermons and Christian talk shows. Beginning with Dennis Rainey and ending with Allistair Begg, with John MacArthur, David Jeremiah, and more in between, I have had the opportunity to sit/drive (lol) under sound biblical teaching, much of which has been highly applicable to my every day life!

The thing is, I'm only driving for about an hour. I get back home around 7:40 AM, and thus begins my inward struggle:  To climb into bed or to listen to more sermons? That is the question... At this point I've only listened to two messages/shows, and there are still several yet to come on! Sadly, I must say some days sleep has truly won out. Those days I barely remember what route I took to get home because I was so sleepy! (This extreme sleepiness follows nights when I was up far too late... and don't worry, I stay safe on the road by blasting plenty of Israel, Lecrae, and Trip Lee :)) Thankfully (and I give all credit to the Lord for enabling me to do this!) more days have won out in which I have stayed up to listen to the sermons. I don't simply sit and listen though, otherwise there'd be no hope of me staying awake (sad, but true). So I'll put the radio's message on full blast and occupy myself with something, be it cleaning, or brushing my teeth, or something.

Now I do enjoy my sleep. Very much, for that matter. But the moments spent drinking in the preaching of God's Holy Word are truly sweet, and worth staying up in the morning! As a matter of fact, it's helped me to get to bed earlier (well, earlier for me, hehe) knowing that I won't be sleeping again once I get up in the morning! Once the day starts moving, it's not bound to slow down until the very end of the day. Meaning that if I don't take time set-apart for the Lord early on, it's probably not going to happen later! I still need plenty of growth and discipline in this area, but God is pruning the dead branches of my life that have kept me from being more fruitful in my personal time with Him. I'm definitely excited about how God's working in me thus far; incremental growth is better than no growth!


I totally encourage you guys, if you live in the metro DC area, to listen to 105.1 WAVA for their daily morning sermons. So worthwhile! I know many of you are finishing up school years/semesters, and don't quite plan on starting out your summer getting up earlier than you have to! Totally understandable, hehe. But in that case, you can just check out the website and listen to sermons online! The different pastors are listed, and you can download many of their sermons for free! If you guys have any suggestions on people to listen to online, be it on Youtube or some other site, please do share! I'd really like to hear from you :) Take up the challenge of spending more time with Jesus than you already do... You won't regret it!