Gianna Jessen Abortion Survivor in Australia Part 1

Where we are at

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. -Gandhi
This was someone on facebook's religious views. How heartbreaking, because too often it is so true.

Psalm 145:13b-14
The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.
The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down

Basically we are in a state of waiting. TJ has accepted the job at BP and now we are trying to figure out what I am going to do. TJ will be gone 2 weeks at a time for the first year doing rotation work to provide for our sweet new family, which leaves amanda alone, without a clue what to do with her life. I graduate in December ( by the grace of God) but do not have a meteorology job. I've been throwing around ideas of teaching high school math, applying to oil companies, tv stations etc. But TJ will have a full week off when he comes back so its hard to commit to job that would cause me to miss out on that week. Please pray for peace for me. We are seriously considering me staying in CS another year to be close to our Living Hope family. We have watched the body take care of wives when their husbands are gone and that is the main motivation to stay here. But what to do for those two weeks. I'm watching all our married/almost married friends who seem to have everything together and the truth is I'm not sure what this will look like come July. I know that God is faithful and He clearly provided this job at BP for our family. There was one line that God put in TJ's offer letter that was clear evidence God was at work here. Uncertainty is still here as people ask me over and over what I'm going to do since I'm graduating and it is very disheartening to say "I don't know" over and over again. But the LORD is faithful to all his promises and we trust him in that.

4 years?! No way!

Oh hello four year anniversary date. What a sweet blessing it was to spend all day Saturday with my sweet fiance. We went to Atamis and got to spend time watching movies and just relaxing together. Saturdays are my favorite days of the week. No school. No work. Just relaxing enjoying one another's company and fellowship with other believers. We were blessed to have Kristen come visit this weekend which is always such a blessing. My sweet man put up curtains all around my house this weekend so it is starting to look like someone actually lives there. Yes, Vanessa and I did move in almost two months ago but better late than never. Pictures to come once we are all finished making everything cute. Believe it or not we are almost to double digits until the wedding. On Thursday it will be 99 days until I am Mrs. White. Scary? YES! Exciting?! You know it!! Wedding plans are in full force as we figure out what we want for our ceremony, flowers and a bunch of other things we don't know we "need" yet. In our minds we have cake and a pastor so what else could you need? Haha! Jokes jokes. This semester is flying by as we are about to start our 4th week of the year, meaning....test week. dun dun dun. Only 2 more test weeks after this until I am a college graduate! Praise the Lord. I don't like tests. at all. I guess not many people do. But here is to a week of studying and preparation in order to excel in my last year. 

Prayers for this week

This week is a big week. Our God is bigger, but this week is a big week. TJ has decided to accept the job offer from BP. How thankful we are that the Lord has provided. (He always does)What a great joy it is to see TJ's excitement towards this job that he enjoyed so much this summer. For the first year it will be rough as he is on a rotation schedule; but our God is so faithful to bring comfort to the wife :)

Please pray for me as TJ is gone. I don't have a job yet in Houston. The Geoscience Career Fair is this Thursday and my nerves are already shot. I don't know which is worse, the realization that I am graduating in 13 weeks and will be officially a married adult, or the idea of actually getting that "real world" job. Either way, it is a big week. Please pray for calm nerves. Please pray that the Lord would put me where he wants me. God has given both TJ and I a heart for the orphans. I am praying that even if God doesn't bring me a job, that He will show me where I can serve and be used by Him. One of the things that really calmed my nerves about TJ working at BP is that there was a little section (one sentence) in his offer letter that said BP supported adoption and would cover the cost of adoption for its employees. We couldn't have asked for God to speak with more clarity.

Aggie Football has begun!

Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 1 Peter 1: 5-9

Authentic Lifestyles

TJ has a full time offer from BP. What a blessing we have been given. And yet....it comes with a heavy responsibility. After reading Scripture, the Bible clearly says that we are to look out for the poor and the oppressed, the fatherless and the widows. Luke 16 shows us that God takes care of the poor. Lazarus is sitting at the gate of the rich man, covered in sores and starving. And yet, Lazarus enters the kingdom of God while the rich man doesnt.
   In a time in our lives when we are registering for the "necessities" of life, it has begun to hit us that the things we can't see ourselves without, serve to remind us of the rich and the poor. The difference between the comfortable life we live (even as poor, almost married college kids) The abundance God has blessed us with over and over again. But why? Why has He given us a petroleum salary? Why has He allowed these blessings to pour in over and over? What plan does He have for our lives to serve Him and look out for His people? How can we use these things to further God's kingdom?

Please pray for us that we would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and react faithfully with what God commands us to do.