Sunday, December 15, 2013

A Special Blog from One of My Best Friend: Leeann's Story

It’s been a while since anyone posted to Love's Journey. As people so often say life gets in the way. We become busy with our day to day life and forget to take the time to appreciate all we have and all we have to be grateful for. It is usually in a time of sadness or despair that we finally remember. I am no different. I guess I should started by telling you a little about me and my story.

 My name is Leeann. Jessica is one of my closest friends and the mastermind/owner of Love's Journey. I met Jessica about 5-6 years ago. While I didn't understand the unlikely friendship at the time, I truly believe with every breath I breathe that God puts people in your life for a reason. I may not understand it now but I will say Jessica has become not only a pain in my side but also my closest friend.


   Allow me to tell you my story. When I was 16, I lost my mother in a car wreck. At 16 your life seems so crazy and you tend to forget to absorb it all. I'm not saying my life was easy by any means, but I had good parents who raised me to believe that as long as I had roof over my head, food in my belly, and my family by my side that I would always have everything I need. I always thought this was true even through the struggles I face as an adult. Nothing rocks your world more than losing the person you admire the most, for me that was my mom.

My mom was the foundation that held our family together, losing her rocked my world and left a hole that has yet to be repaired. Shortly after losing her, I got married and had my first child. Now I in no way think you should get married early or for any reason other than knowing you're ready. My intentions were true and I truly loved him, however my reasons I now see were somewhat selfish.

I was looking someone to fill the void left behind from losing the one who meant the most 2 me. After 2 more kids and a very rough life, we decided to walk away as friends rather than enemies.

In all the time since then I have done my best to keep people at arm’s length. I know this is no way to live but when you feel as though you lose all that matters you find a way to protect yourself. In the process of "protecting" myself I gave my heart away to another. Even though I tried to not care, I fell madly in love with him and for the first time in my life, I gave someone everything I had without holding back.

We would soon learn that time was not on our side and would walk away with an even bigger pain in our hearts. After months of back in forth, we are just now to the point where we can be friends. While I thought I was done needing or wanting people in my life other than my kids, God proved to me that he was the one running the show. Just a few weeks later, I would meet the most wonderful man ever but busy schedules and highway miles would keep us apart. No matter how we would try, it would eventually become harder and harder to walk away.

Then just two weeks before my birthday I would get 2 adorable puppies that would turn my world upside down. My kids and I became completely head over heels in love and attached to them. My little prince and princess would be my driving force. They would be the ones who kept me company in those lonely nights when my boys were with their dad. They brought me joy and would lick away my tears. All would be right in my world until last night 12-14-13 when my little prince suddenly became sick. Feeling a love and connection to him like I've never felt for another pet before, I sat up all night by his side. I sat in church today and prayed for God to put his healing hands upon my 4 legged friends. Just when I thought things were going to be ok and my little prince was going to make it, things got worse. I would leave my beloved friend in capable hands to make the 3 hour flight to feel the arms of the man I want to hold me. While at his side I get the call that I was dreading. My poor little prince passed away. My heart feels heavy, my eyes keep filling with tears and my life feels empty.

I have never felt a sense of loss like I feel this very moment. As I struggle to console my kids and keep my princess alive, I find that I am losing faith in all things that matter. My mother would scold me, my grandmother would smack upside the head and drag me to church but my dear friends struggle to comfort me while the one I want rushes to be home by my side.


A lot of people would say it’s just a dog, no big deal. Hell I use to say that, but I know see it’s more than that. My words of advice to you are to keep fighting! No matter how life gets you down, keep fighting! No matter who breaks your heart, keep fighting! Most importantly when you find yourself losing faith remember someone always has it worse than you and that God will always carry you thru! Until next time remember Love is a journey we must all take, where the road will lead you no one will know, but like all good things the journey is half the battle.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Just some encouragement

This post is going to be a bit different in that it's just going to be a list of Bible verses that are encouraging and or related to the mission of Love's Journey.  Please continue  to keep Love's Journey in your prayers as we Pray God's Plans for us and His wisdom and His direction as we seek to do His will.  I hope to have more time with the semester winding down to spend with getting some movement on Love Journey but that is all God's timing and plans of course.  So here we go with the Bible verses :


Nahum 1:7 ~ The Lord is good, a refuge in time of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.

Psalm 73:25:28
You’re all I want in heaven!
    You’re all I want on earth!
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
    God is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
    Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again.
But I’m in the very presence of God
    oh, how refreshing it is!
I’ve made Lord God my home.
    God, I’m telling the world what you do!

acts 4:29-30
And now they’re at it again! Take care of their threats and give your servants fearless confidence in preaching your Message, as you stretch out your hand to us in healings and miracles and wonders done in the name of your holy servant Jesus.”


John 13:34-35 
“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”

Proverbs 3:5
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding"

Psalms 139:14
" I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made" 


I could speak words about the last one but I will just end by saying the God the maker of the universe - the maker of the beautiful fall colors, the maker of the stars, the maker of you and me and the maker of the heavens and the earth DID NOT MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN HE MADE YOU-  YOU ARE FILLED WITH THE VERY BREATH OF THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE AND YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!!!!!


Love 
Jessica 

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Dream Big ~~ Work Hard.

"Dream Big Work Hard" ~ JJ Watt- Defensive End for the Houston Texans.  This week I have questioned this journey several times and found myself wondering if it was worth it.  I have a fantastic group of friends who reminded me that if I quit now that no one gets help.  I sat and thought about that and Mr. Watt's quote came to mind and I began to feel like the burden of this journey to lift and my eyes on the "prize"  Mr. Watt is right I need to Dream Big and Work Hard.  That is the only way that Love's Journey will get off the dream and burden in my mind.  As I dream about the Who, the What, the When, the Where and the How I begin to see how BIG this dream of mine is.  I'm reminded that God doesn't call the equipped He equips the Called.  Well with that I'm ready to Dream Big and Work Hard so that soon I can see the fruits of my hours of labors. 

We'll that's a lot of blogs this week from me but I've just felt like it's something that needed said more for a reminder for myself. 

Names Mean Something

Love's Journey 


When I was burdened by God to start Love’s Journey -in June of 2013- I had no idea what would happen with it or what it would mean.  Every name has a meaning –Parents spend 9 months thinking about what to name their child because a name means everything.  While I’m dealing with a cause, not a baby this name also has a meaning.  If God gave me this name it obviously has a meaning and a Bible verses that go off of the name.   I think this is a perfect time to explain what Love’s Journey means and how the verses it uses to derive its name are the perfect ones for what Love’s Journey is all about. 
First off we need to do a little defining of terms J when I used http://www.merriam-webster.com to define love and journey I got a lot of definitions which is good but I as the CEO/Founder of this organization, I had to really think and pray over which definition I wanted to use.  I did the same thing with the verses.  When it comes to this organization I will never move or make a decision until I have prayed about it, talked it over with people I trust and respect, which have a heart for seeing this organization move forward, reaching its mission.  I spent some serious time in this “battle” because I am God’s servant and that is a job I don’t take lightly – I want the perfect things for this organization as much as the next person but this is a God breathed and God ordained Journey –which means I won’t move until I feel that the move I want to make is something God agrees with.  Ok, back to the definitions of Love and Journey.  http://www.merriam-webster.com gives the following definitions for Love:
A: a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person
B: attraction that includes sexual desire : the strong affection felt by people who have a romantic relationship
C: a person you love in a romantic way

When I think of Love and Love’s Journey I think about how B and C are such a worldly view point and how A just seems to be the right way to use the word.  So this organization is using Love as a “feeling of strong or constant affection for a person (in our case young women and girls, and women and girls in human trafficking and modern day slavery.)” I say this because as a young women ( as I write this I’m 23) I find that I being raised in the church and knowing I’m loved means I’m still on a journey searching for Godly love and love from people- which I know thousands of young women who are doing the same thing- on a journey for true, authentic, love- a unconditional love- which exist – but it’s often times hard for young women an especially hard for women and children in human trafficking and modern day slavery to believe that no matter what they do or don’t do that God still loves them

Let me say this right now – if you are one of them stop that type of thinking and know this : the maker of the stars, the maker of the skies, the maker of everything, the maker of you- breathed life into you LOVES YOU no matter what you have done or ever will do!  This is hard for me at 23 to remember and believe but once we grasp this as women and become confident in that we are loved by the maker of the universe we begin to see that we are worth so much more than what the world says we are.  You are God’s beloved child – rest in that truth that GOD LOVES YOU.   If you haven’t figured out by now that Love’s Journey exist to simply love on girls and young women (who are in human trafficking/modern day slavery and girls who aren't in human trafficking/ modern day slavery) who are having a rough time in their lives and need someone to remind them that they are loved, accepted and known by the maker of the universe no matter what they have done or will do.  

I have heard it put this way- “To be loved is to be known and to be known is to be loved.”  This is so true and as I sit in my church’s lobby writing this I and reminded of that.  When I was looking up love on www.biblegateway.com I fell in love with psalms 136:23-26 in the Message version which statesGod remembered us when we were down, His love never quits. Rescued us from the trampling boot, His love never quits.  Takes care of everyone in time of need. His love never quits. Thank God, who did it all! His love never quits!” This is why Love’s Journey exists to remind girls and young women that God’s love never quits! Ever no matter what happens.  This verse also reminds us that God works in his timing; God will rescue us and fulfill His plan on His good and perfect time.  Just rest in knowing that GOD’S LOVE NEVER QUITS. 


Ok so I feel like I've said enough on love so next up on the defining list the word Journey. When I used http://www.merriam-webster.com to define Journey this is what came up
1: act or instance of traveling from one place to another 
2:chiefly dialect :  a day's travel
3:  something suggesting travel or passage from one place to another <the journey from youth to maturity

I once again spent time in prayer about the right definition (I know I bet you can see that I do nothing without praying over it and for it) I fell in love with #3. Because that is exactly what Love’s Journey is we are traveling from a place of hopelessness, a place that’s empty, a place that is godless to a place that is HOPEFUL, ACCEPTING, and always drawing us CLOSER to a God that LOVES US NO MATTER WHAT!  So as I spent time looking at www.biblegateway.com for a verse on journey I found this and of course I prayed over it – it came from an unlikely book I think – it’s from exodus 33:14 the Message version which states “My presence will go with you I’ll see the journey to the end”  this verse makes me so excited as I dream of the journey’s I’ll get to go on with the girls and young women who walk into the doors of Love’s Journey.  The hardest step these lovely girls and women will make is to walk into our doors and right into the arms of a LOVING GOD who doesn't care how messed up, and torn apart they are.  I dream of sitting on a porch in swings with girls just talking about their stories and how God just loves them no matter what they have been told or what they believe.  Love’s Journey will be a place of healing, a place of truth, and place where girls and women are real with each other and themselves and a place where the God of the universe does what he does best – Loves on his daughters.

Girls- please please please listen to me when I say GOD LOVES YOU NO MATTER WHAT YOU’VE DONE!!! I know that truth first hand.  Do I believe it with all my heart? Yes I do!  Does that mean I don’t have days where I feel like I've messed up so much that there’s no way God could love me?  I of course have those days but I’m blessed with a church home that reminds me that THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE, THE VERY PERSON WHO MADE ME LOVES ME NO MATTER WHAT I’VE DONE OR HOW I'VE ACTED.  I have friends who love on me and remind me of how beautiful I am and how much I am loved.  Girls please listen when I say God can and will redeem our past if we let him.  My favorite author and speaker of all time Beth Moore says this “we have to let TRUTH scream louder to our souls than the lies that have infected us” please girls believe this!!! I’ll share my story later on but right now is not the time J  I promise I will. 

So this blog has been super long and I feel like I should apologize but I’m not going to because God had a message that needed to get out to you all today so I will do what He has called me to do which is to be his messenger and servant. 


Much Love

Jessica 

Monday, September 16, 2013

Been Busy

When I started this blog - I said this was going to be a place where I could vent and let Love's Journey bloom. With that said this post may be a bit negative but as this dream moves forward  I begin to feel unequipped to do what God has burdened me to do.

Let me start by saying I'm still in school and so there has been quite a bit of time between my post because of that. I'm trying to graduate by May of 2015 and so I've been pouring countless hours into my studies.  That's not to say I put Love's Journey on the back burner.  I've just been waiting for God to work on my heart and guide the process. I am determined that this organization will not go anywhere if I try to get it off the ground myself.  So this journey into Love's Journey is never been or ever will be my journey.  I can say this now with full confidence the day I loose sight of the fact that God placed this on my heart will be the day that I shut the doors and walk away.  I am only a medium for God to do his plan.

This year at school I've joined a group called Generation Justice that works with International Justice Mission an fantastic organization that is working on rescuing people from modern day slavery and human trafficking.  I am so blessed that God has placed this cause on my heart and so blessed to learn more about the cause that God has given me.  I am proud to say that I belong to part of a generation that is doing something about this horrible issue.

Love's Journey is far from being built but I have already been drawing up what I see it looking like and I've been writing out what I think the mission statement and vision is.  As time goes on I will share it but right now I need to make sure it is what I feel reflects what Love's Journey really is.


Please keep me and Love's Journey in your prayers as I figure out what it will take to get this beautiful dream off the ground.

Much Love
Jessica

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Busy Dreams

I am a college student who desires to have her degree in Early Childhood education challenged. My desire is to love on God's beautiful, precious creation. I dream of the day when Love's Journey is open, and filled with beautiful children who are beginning their journey. I dream of the day when we can break ground and see beautiful art work hanging in the hall ways.When kids get the chance to be kids. I dream of the day of when they have a safe place to play and dream. I dream of a day when they have a safe place to take care of their own children. My dream is that Love's Journey becomes a journey of loving on God's creation.  


Right now, I have a dream, passion, and desire for all the big things coming to Love's Journey. I've been working on some art work for the center based off the logo. I plan to talk about this more in an upcoming post. I will also talk about our mission statement, our vision statement, and what our logo means.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

My Journey Into to Love's Journey

God has burdened me with only a name and a purpose. The name Love's Journey, the purpose- to aid in the treatment and education of children rescued from human trafficking. As I type this, I know that spending days and nights in the center are far away, but it excites me to dream of what God's plans are for Love's Journey and myself.    I love the logo because it's what Love's Journey is all about.  We exist to show these children love, to minister to them and to share with them Christ's love as they go on their own Love's Journey and leave a broken world behind them. I'm excited to see how God's going to use Love's Journey in the future!  

This blog is a place for me to vent, and sing praises about the process i'm going through.

Thanks