First Semester Down, New Opportunities Ahead!

Hey y'all!

So many awesome things have been going on, but it's been so stressful lately! Being in college keeps me a busy bee! With exams coming up next week, Christmas coming up, and the New Year, it's supposed to be stree free, right?! Nooooo! It's always busy busy busy. I have always loved being busy, but it tires me out so quick! But I really have enjoyed this semester of college, and I can't wait for what the next semester will bring!

^we had our last nursing home ministry visit for the semester :(  can't wait to be back next semester!

Just wanted to update y'all on what all has been going on lately! So last Monday, we had a Christmas party at the BSU for the Baptist Children's Village! I can't tell y'all enough how awesome it was! To be able to give gifts to kids young and our age who can't have a normal Christmas like we can have. I saw so many smiles that night. I was able to paint a girl's nails, play cards with one of the young boys and some friends, and just talk to some of the kids and what they wanted to do when they grew up. It was such a blessing to meet and talk with these kids.

(I wish I had some pics but for safety reasons they asked us not to post pics.)

^Elizabeth, Reneé, and me with our Christmas sweaters!

^roomie and I, with Jordan creeping in the background!

Tuesday, we decided to have a "joint bible study" night since it was the last BSU bible study for the semester. Only it wasn't bible study, it was a surprise going away party for my roommate, Grace! (She is transferring from Colin to Holmes to be closer to home.) She had no idea about it! We had a great night eating snacks, playing games, and just spending time with Grace all together one last time. I'm so happy and blessed beyond words to have met her at Passion this year, and I am so blessed to have had her as a roommate for a semester! We got to know each other so much more, and I know she will be a friend for a lifetime. I'm going to miss our grouchy morning arguments! I love you! 

^My amazing roomie and me drinking hot coco and eating cookies from our awesome dorm moms!

Lastly, I recieved some amazing news over Thanksgiving break!

Here it is!

I am officially going to the Philippines for Summer Missions 2014! I will be gone from May 29-August 2!! I am so excited for this adventure! 

As y'all know (and if you don't I encourage you to read my Ukraine blog real quick ------> http://summerof2013.blogspot.com/2013/07/justwow.html ) I have became attached to orphans and just abandoned kids. In my life, I have felt unwanted in the past, so I know (in a way) how they feel. If you don't know my testimony, I will be happy to share it with you sometime.

I visited an orphanage only for 1 day while in Ukraine, and I fell in love with it! Just spending time with the kids and playing with them, and caring for them! 

This is why I chose the Philippines. I will be mopping floors, changing diapers, feeding & holding babies, playing with children, and discipling youth. I will be able to share my faith and disciple those around me! I will be a part of the Nehemiah Team and will care for "the least of these." I am excited to help play and hold little children, but also to disciple youth because youth is also where my heart is.

Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans.... (James 1:27)

I am looking forward to seeing what God has in store for me this coming summer, and to just give my summer to Him and to serving orphans.

^I ask y'all to please pray with me as these 2 beautiful girls leave during the Christmas break to go to China on a mission trip! It's so awesome that they are spending their Christmas holidays to go and spread the love and Word of God there! Please be in prayer for them! Love you girls!

^This is Carlianne, and I met her this year at Colin! She will be my roommate next semester, and I can't wait for an awesome adventure with her!

^These are the tshirts I am selling to raise money for the Philippines! They come in long and short sleeves! Long-$20. Short-$15. Help me raise money for my mission trip!

This has been such an amazing semester, and I ask y'all to please be with me and my friends as we take our final exams next week! Our last day is the 13th, then 3 weeks off for school!

Thank y'all!

Tonya, :)

Show Love. Be Love.

A Little Bit of Everything

Hey y'all! 

So lots have been happening lately! 

I recently turned 19 years old! And I couldn't be more happier that God has given me 19 years of life, and I can't wait to see how He uses me this next year! 

We had the a Holy Ghost Weenie Roast at Lake Lincoln with BSU for Halloween, and it was a blast because we had an awesome speaker, worship, and a costume contest! I was in a group where we dressed up like Duck Dynasty! Our friend Maura actually won the contest dressed up as a farm girl!

^Duck Dynasty Crew! 

^Maura our farm girl winner

^Joanna Banana

^Si and the girls from Despicable Me

^Si and Taylor Swift

^Social Networks

^Siamese Cats

There were many funny consumes there at the Holy Ghost Weenie Roast! It was such a fun night and it's awesome how you can have fun in a Christian way.

My family and I went up to Duck Commander in Louisiana just to take a trip and pick up some things there for Christmas and it was awesome there! We didn't see any of the Duck Dynasty Crew, but it was still fun. We also ate at Willi's Diner which opened maybe a month ago. Amazing food.

I had the awesome opportunity to speak at the BSU this past Monday! My church's youth group lead worship with 5 of my jr high small group girls, and we had two of the students lead a skit there at the BSU. I shared a little about my life and how God has used me in the mission field. It was mostly about my trip to Ukraine. 

While I was preparing my presentation, I had so much on my mind about missions and people. Here is a little something I shared about Monday. (I included the Phillipines in there because as y'all should know, I plan on going this coming summer.)

((How can we call ourselves Christians if we aren't going out and making disciples? God commands us to go out and tell people about Him, but how are we doing that sitting at home? We are supposed to go out and share about Him, whether it's here in Wesson, Brookhaven, in the states or out of the country. There are people who get passed by everyday and never hear anything about Jesus. Can they even tell something is different about you? Or do they see you like the rest of the world?

So many people in other countries don't know anything about Jesus. Take the Philippines as an example. About 10,000 people were killed this weekend. How many of those people do you think really knew Jesus? All I could think about during these news updates about the Philippines, was the orphans that I want to go help and see. I look at kids around here I live close to, and they don't know anything about Jesus because their parents never taught them. Think of the orphans who don't have parents at all, and they are just sitting there wondering about their life and why they are even alive. They feel like no one wants them. That's why I want to go there so badly because they need someone to hold them and tell them that people do care about them and love them, but mainly there is one person who has and always will love them, and that's Jesus. 

So I ask again, how can you call yourself a Christian, yet not go and share the love of Christ with others? He tells us to go, so go.))

So that's what I shared, and it's something that I challenge you to think about also! :)

^My amazing roomie! So happy she was there to hear me speak!

^we got awesome BSU shirts!

So much more is happening in the next few weeks and I can't wait to share with y'all about that also! 

Show Love. Be Love.

-Tonya, :)

But how can they call on Him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about Him? And how can they hear without a preacher? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good things! (Romans 10:14, 15 HCSB)

Prayer Walking through the French Quarter

Hey y'all!

This weekend, I had the awesome opportunity to go with 3 people to pray around the French Quarter. I have to say, I saw some beautiful, amazing things. But mostly, I saw sad, heartbreaking things. I just don't understand. The sights I saw, the smells I smelt, I just don't understand how people can live the way they live. I felt sadness for the homeless, I felt sick for the drunks, I don't have words to express the feelings for the women having to work at strip clubs and selling themselves to be able to live. I'm just heartbroken. Each place I saw, each person I saw, definitely have my prayers. Being here in New Orleans, in the bad area, I felt like I was in another country. And something like these sights are normal in Louisiana and other parts of the States. I just pray. God knows my prayers...

Here are some pics of some rough sites I saw. Just heartbreaking...

^voodoo magic ideals

^homelss people sleeping

^more voodoo and strip clubs down Bourbon Street.

^more strip clubs and bars.

Here are some pics of some awesome things I experienced and saw. Also including some things we did.

It was defiantly an experience here in New Orleans!

Show Love. Be Love. 

Tonya, :)

Confirmations!!

Hey Guys!

I haven't written a blog in a month! Wow! Well lots have been going on!

So lately, everything seems to be falling into place for what God wants for my life. I've always known that I wanted to be in the ministry somehow working with youth. It's like I'm getting more confirmations about that!!

We have chapel every Wednesday. We just have like a 5-10 minute devotion to to help people get through the rest of the week. Someone different speaks every week, and I was asked by my friend Reneè to speak this past Wednesday(which was yesterday)! So I was excited about that! Thanks Reneè for that opportunity! 

^in chapel!

Then, last night when I got home, I wanted to go to First Priority at CA(which is the highschool I graduated from) the next morning because I don't have school. I asked my friend Stu what time it would be and where, and he let me know, but then he asked me to speak!! I was excited but surprised at the same time! I had the amazing opportunity this morning to speak to about 30 amazing kids! It's so amazing how God is using me in so many ways. Especially when it comes to speaking in public, and able to talk about Him in different ways to many people about life and how we are supposed to live. Thanks Stu for that opportunity!

^me speaking at First Priority!

The biggest thing that has happened to me lately, is finally knowing where God is taking me for Summer Missions 2014!

I continuously kept thinking that God wanted me to go to Africa because it was like everywhere I go, I would hear the word Africa and hear people talking about Africa! But my BSU pastor told me about how there was options in India and the Philippines. In all three of these places, it had to do with working in orphanages, which is what I know God wants me todo this coming summer! Well, even though I really thought God wanted me to go to Africa, He made me realize that He had other plans! I will be going to the Philippines through the BSU to work at an orphanage to help out with kids, play with them, change them, and help out on the orphanage. ALSO, I will be helping disciple youth! I felt this was God's calling because of course it had to do with little orphans, but also because youth is where my life is. I'm closer to their age, I can relate to them, and I have done lots with youth! God knew where I was going, and I had pray about it and get overwhelmed to realize it! :) I realized that Africa wasn't right for me right now, because I wouldn't just be helping with orphans, but I would also be helping with going to Hope Houses, where their are people dying of Aids and HIV, and I knew I wasn't ready for that. So God really has helped me realize where I need to go! 

GOD IS SO AMAZING! I love how he has been giving me all these confirmations for my life. I know as long as I live for Him, and obey Him, and always know that when He tells me to go, that I need to go! I have such a passion for missions, and I pray that my love for it never goes away!

Here are some pics of random events that have happened since I last wrote! 

^we have had lots more people come with us to the nursing home on Thursdays! Awesome!

^the youth group at my church did ministry at the Ronald McDonald House for kids who are sick families to stay. We helped do their chores for them so they could rest.

^the youth going to the fair and the Casting Crowns concert!

^the youth group having a bonfire at Lake Lincoln where Michael spoke.

^Sarah Claire and me!

^me and Camille

^trailblazers! Maura, Regan, me, Carloeah, and Lauren

^Sam, me, and Michael!

^Michael and me!

^Homecoming 2013 at Colin! Trailblazer duty and game with SayClay! Colin-vs-Pearl River! Colin wins 37-27! Go Wolfpack!

^love these girls on BSU nights! Never a dull moment! 

^my roomie and I! Love her and so thankful for her!

Pray for me as God continuous to use me, and pray for my awesome BSU friends as they decide if they will do summer missions and where they will go.

Show Love, Be Love.

Tonya! :)

It's Confusing....

Hello everyone!

School is going great and meeting new friends have been awesome! Being involved with the BSU and helping out and being involved with different things they have going on like the nursing home ministry, girls bible study, and chapel and so on is great. I love it! I feel like I have already found another church family except its full of young adults! Also, being a trailblazer has been an amazing experience so far, and being involved with that is a great way to meet more people on campus! 

MeMe had knee surgery Friday and now is back home doing great! Please continue to pray for her as she recovers. I know she can get through because she is a strong woman.

Lately though, even with these amazing new experiences going on and amazing things happening in my life and new opportunities to serve God, I feel more down than ever. I feel more depressed, or sad. I'm the type of person that is just happy-go-lucky all the time and just always have a smile on my face, but when I'm sad, people automatically notice. And it stinks because people always ask me what's wrong when I'm trying to hide it. Don't get me wrong, I love people being there for me and them showing me love and that they care, but I don't want people to know I'm upset. I want to be happy all the time. I want to show love and happiness all the time, and I feel like I ruin things when I'm upset. Why? I have no idea. 

I'm find out out so many things that I wish I would have never found out. And it's bringing me down more and more everyday because it just builds and builds. Maybe the devil is attacking me? Maybe God is testing me? Maybe I'm not doing something I'm supposed to be doing? I have no idea. I just wish I didn't feel this way. I want to be happy everyday like I use to be. Not upset or mad at the world like I have been the last couple of weeks. I don't like this attitude I have. 

Please be in prayer for me as I begin a new week of school. 

Show Love, Be Love.

-Tonya :)

Some pics :

    Trailblazers! 

           The best roomie ever. She is always there for me.