We're all the same....

Saturday morning my team from Zanesville pulled out and my new team pulled in just a few hours later, it's an all women's group from Elizabeth, New Jersey they've come to love the women in my life. The Pretty in Pink girls, my homeless lady friends, the little girls in my neighborhood and the homeless ladies I've grown to love in the park. On Saturday night we had trip orientation and we talked about the week, one of the ladies on the trip was worried about not being able to relate to the women she would meet this week, we talked about how she's right in so many ways she won't be able to relate to a girl standing on the corner selling her body, or a woman living in the park, or a young girl who goes home to an empty home with no food, but then we talked about all of the ways that she would be able to relate, she's a woman growing up in today's world, God has made us all beautiful and special and we each have a story to tell.

Sunday morning this particular girl was put to the test we went to street church and interacted with people who are "different" than us, we invited women who they didn't know to join us a few hours later for lunch and a day of pampering. A day of pampering it was, the ladies arrived to the church around 12:45 and we all had lunch and fellowship, and then the women on the team served the women from the streets through feet washing, massages, pedicures, manicures and love. It was a room full of beauty, I wish that I could have been able to share it with everyone of you who is reading this, this was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. Laughs, love, hugs and stories were exchanged, some of the most broken women in my life were smiling, were relaxed and were getting the opportunity to forget about the outside for a few hours and understand the love of God through a group of women who God sent to serve them.

As I sat back and got pampered as well, I realized that we really are all the same, not in the uniqueness that God has created us all differently but in the sense that we do all have a story, and that we are all beautiful in God's eyes, God doesn't make ugly.

Today as we hosted day 1 of Princess Camp, we talked about being brave princesses, and we read a story about a little girl who was so brave that when lighting struck around her she believed that she was so beautiful God was taking pictures of her. When I first read the story I through to myself, how often do I become scared of life? How often does fear stand in the way of serving God? Am I not trusting God if I don't believe that He could protect me from my fears. The bible verse we meditated on with the girls today was 2 Timothy 1:7 "For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline." God has created us to be confident, to walk boldly into this world and serve and love Him beyond all measure.

As I pray over this week, I hope that God works in my heart, I struggle sometimes with accepting the truth I read about God creating my fearfully and wonderfully, and about how I am beautiful in God's eyes, and how the girls on the street that have captured my heart are no different that me. I am so thankful that God has called me to serve these women and young girls He strategically places in my life, I hope and pray that the story I have is one that can change lives, that can help these women. I hope that I can continue to blossom into the woman that God wants me to be.

I sat in a room yesterday full of women who were broken, but that God is working in, a room full of women who can relate to my journey and women who are going to love me through the ups and downs of the journey God is taking me on, for that I am so thankful and realize how blessed I am.

As I close tonight I have just one request, would you please keep these special women in my life (my team from Elizabeth, the women in my neighborhood, the women I meet through Pretty in Pink, the women from the homeless park and the women of street-church) in prayer, each of them has something in their life they are working through, each of them has a story to tell, would you please pray that their hearts would be protected through their journey?