It's been a while since I wrote. After the surgery I thought I would go crazy being stuck at home so much. Just a few weeks later I am scrambling to get the time to spend at home at all! So much has happened in such a short period of time. God is so incredible and I am so grateful He can keep up with all this when I can't! 

Along with many Women's Retreats, God is also opening the door to more prisons!  It is a very exciting time and many more volunteers are surfacing. I praise God for that.  We have had the blessing of donations to see Beth Moore as well as Casting Crowns, Avalon, Natalie Grant etc... even backstage passes! God has also provided tshirts to sell as well as give to all the volunteers. We are all wearing these cute pink camo shirts with our butterfly logo on it. Soon, there will even be a website up where people can buy things and the money go to the prison ministry! God has opened the door to Death Row, the Mt View Unit, the Murray Unit and  for weekend crusades! All of this and so much more. My head is almost spinning thinking about it God is so faithful!

What is most amazing to me is that this all comes on the heels of a very shaky time for me. Those who have been keeping up with my blog know some of what I am talking about. For those who don't know, it was a very rough year. 

With much prayer and lots of time with God, I have emerged stronger without a doubt. The past couple of weeks, God has allowed that to be tested again. I am so grateful to see a huge difference. I know it is not over and the testing will probably get even harder but hey... I made it further this time!

It feels so good to stand, just stand as the storm blows by and know that God is God and He will bring glory to His name. Sadness is not overwhleming me, it is just a feeling that has no power over the strength God has given. I praise His name!

A few months ago, God allowed me to hear a teaching that has now come back to remind me and fulfill what God started. It was about Jacob wrestling with the Angel of God for his blessing. When I heard this teaching months ago, I realized I had been in a wrestling match I wasn't even aware of until I had almost lost! I will never forget the words spoken directly to me as Beth Moore walked straight over to me. "If you keep fighting, you cannot loose, you will be victorious! You are fighting a good fight!" She talked of how Satan uses a battering ram to hit the same weaknesses over and over again and how we need to fortify the walls of our lives and cut off any access the enemy has. It was a life changing weekend for me and I thank God he allowed me to be there.

Now, these months later, He has brought me back to that passage to not only learn but to teach. Wow, what a difference. Not perfectly of course, but better, stronger and wiser I can emerge from the ashes and trade it for beauty!

With new fortified walls, A new name and a new walk, I am ready to move forward in a new freedom. He has taught me to stand.  What a merciful and awesome God we serve!

Now... go talk to your King