Hey everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! I know I did. This Christmas break has been such an amazing time to visit with family and relax. Over Christmas break I have made 2 wonderful online discoveries that I would really like to share with you..

The first one is a website called trade as one. This is a website that I received a couple Christmas presents from, and that my family bought a few gifts from for friends. The website is very reliable and so cool . It takes art work and purses, and all sorts of things that local people make from a bunch of different countries and sells it on the site. The goal of the site is to cut out the middle man and stimulate jobs and economy in developing countries. The product is beautiful and reasonably priced and you can really help others while buying presents. I recieved a beautiful purse from india as a Christmas present and I love it!! So I would encourage you to check it out.

The other thing I've discovered over break is a cool online devotional tool called examen.me it has really awesome prayer guides and devotionals that are easy to use. I don't use the site daily but I have found that it can be a nice way to switch up my devotional routine and that it helps to keep it lively and fresh. So I would encourage you to use this site as a tool to help you to grow closer to God this new year.

I pray you all have a blessed new year, I leave early in January and will not be back till May so it may be awhile till I post again.

Blessings,
Hannah Grace

P.S what did you do to celebrate Christmas?

Merry Christmas everyone!! its been so great to be home from college with my family to celebrate the birth of our savior!!! My Christmas season has been busy with shopping and preparing to leave for Asia on January 11th...for 4 months!!! I can't wait! Also I am going to be teaching a session at this years winter retreat at our church..I'm excited but a little nervous about teaching a room of my peers for 45 minutes...I feel very inadequate to do such a thing but I feel like God has really blessed me with a word that I would like to share with them..so I am stepping out in obedience ( a little scary.). I am titling my session A self-centered gospel (can God work in spite of you).

Another thing I have been doing is really working on the spiritual discipline of meditating on Gods word..its been a challenge but also an immense blessing and I wanted to share with all of you the passage that God has laid on my heart this Christmas season. Its not a traditional christmas passage but still so special..and a beautiful picture of Gods glory and salvation (which happens to come through immanuel/God with us aka baby Jesus, God as a man). So its kinda christmasy... Hope its speaks to your heart as it has mine.

Psalm 107
Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His faithful love endures forever.
Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out!
Tell others He has redeemed you from your enemies.
For He has gathered the exiles from many lands,
from east and west, from North and South.

Some wandered in the wilderness, lost and homeless.
Hungry and thirsty they nearly died!
Lord help they cried in their trouble,
and he rescued them from their distress.
He led them straight to safety, to a city where they could live.

Let them praise the Lord for His great love,
and for the wonderful things He has done for them.
For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

Some sat in darkness and deepest gloom. Imprisoned in chains of misery.
They rebelled against the words of God, scorning the counsel of the most high.
That is why He broke them with hard labor,
they fell, and no one was there to help them.
Lord help, the cried in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.

He led them from the darkness and deepest gloom,
he snapped their chains.
Let them praise the Lord for his great love
for the wonderful things he has done for them.
For he broke down their prison gates of bronze
and he broke their chains of iron.

Some were fools they rebelled and suffered for their sins.
The couldn't stand the thought of food.
They were knocking on deaths door.
Lord help! They cried in their trouble and he rescued them from their distress.
He sent out his word and healed them.
snatching them from the door of death.
Let them praise the Lord for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
and sing joyfully about his glorious acts.

Some went off to sea in ships,
plying the trade routes of the world.
They, too, observed the Lord’s power in action,
his impressive works on the deepest seas.
He spoke, and the winds rose,
stirring up the waves.
Their ships were tossed to the heavens
and plunged again to the depths;
the sailors cringed in terror.
They reeled and staggered like drunkards
and were at their wits’ end.
“Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
He calmed the storm to a whisper
and stilled the waves.
What a blessing was that stillness
as he brought them safely into harbor!
Let them praise the Lord for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
Let them exalt him publicly before the congregation
and before the leaders of the nation.

He changes rivers into deserts,
and springs of water into dry, thirsty land.
He turns the fruitful land into salty wastelands,
because of the wickedness of those who live there.
But he also turns deserts into pools of water,
the dry land into springs of water.
He brings the hungry to settle there
and to build their cities.
They sow their fields, plant their vineyards,
and harvest their bumper crops.
How he blesses them!
They raise large families there,
and their herds of livestock increase.

When they decrease in number and become impoverished
through oppression, trouble, and sorrow,
the Lord pours contempt on their princes,
causing them to wander in trackless wastelands.
But he rescues the poor from trouble
and increases their families like flocks of sheep.
The godly will see these things and be glad,
while the wicked are struck silent.
Those who are wise will take all this to heart;
they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!