Pictures from the weekend

The cake that my sister made for my birthday!

My cute nephew and nieces...

Sweet Anna

Watching the kids hunt for Easter Eggs

  

The Fam!

Grandparents and Grandkids

 

The whole Crew

SISTERS!

The beautiful sunset...

Better Late than Never

Just 10 days late...

If you remember...I told you in an earlier post that my family has traditions on Valentine's Day...well we still do!! Haha...on Tuesday night my sister had all of us (My parents, brother, myself, and all of her kids...there were 11 of us total!!) over for a Late Valentine's dinner. JJ makes the exact same thing my mom does on Valentine's: homemade lasagna, bread, salad, and our infamous heart shaped Red Velvet Cake. It was delicious!!

Here are a few pictures of the table and the cake!

The best part was just getting to see all my family! I hadn't seen them since our ski trip to Colorado in mid-January. It definitely was refreshing to get to be with them. My nephew and nieces literally stayed by my side. As soon as I got to my sister's house, I had Anna, Joshua and Esther all grabbing my hands and pulling me to come with them. I realized that if you need someone to just love you...let a child love on you! It makes you feel good! :) haha

Oh and my Dad gained 4 pounds! Praise the Lord! I know to some of y'all that's not a big deal, but it is to my family! We have just got to pray that he keeps gaining and not losing. He is so precious and I am still thankful that He continues to be with us each day!

Last Sunday we (Family Legacy) had our first set of team meetings for this summer. We had about 100 people come to our meeting in Dallas. It was a great turn out! These meetings always get me excited about what is to come! *If any of you want to come with us this summer please apply NOW!! We have lowered the prices until March 1st. So if you want to come be a part of this life changing journey and see what God is doing in Zambia then go to Camp LIFE 2009 . If you have questions please call me! I would love to have you come and be a part of it! (I know there are some of you out there just itching to go. Please don't miss this opportunity! You will never be the same again!)

Have a great weekend! Love yall!

Living for Him,

Joy

First Ever Christmas in Zambia...

Okay...Here is the most precious video I have wanted you all to see. Our staff in Zambia put this together for me! Maggie and Susan, as well as 3 other kids, were just gifts from the Lord that I got to love on last summer. I can't wait to see them in a 100 days!! 

Enjoy....

Ministry Update!

WOW! I still can't believe that Christmas has come and gone already! This Fall has gone by so fast and so many things have happened that I want to give you an update on. I PRAISE GOD FOR ALL THAT HE HAS DONE. Thank you for being apart of this season! Okay well here are some of the exciting things that have happened...

1. I started working for Family Legacy September 1. The past few months have been filled with so many NEW things in the ministry. God is doing so much and I only have time to give you a glimpse of it. Anyways, I have had the privileged of being the coordinator for the Sponsorship Program. As Mom would put it...I just inherited 10,000 kids. :) I have been so humbled each day as I go to work and be a voice for the kids in Zambia on this side of the world. On top of that, we have launched many projects throughout the fall that I have been able to help facilitate....Thanksgiving Day Project which was organizing and processing through all the letters written from the children to their Sponsors and sending those out so that each sponsor would know how much they mean to their child. Reading through the letters made my heart so happy! These children don't have much, but they are realizing how important it is to have prayer partners on the other side of the world fighting for them through prayer. Along with that, we launch our new Community Resource Centers. We have 18 centers throughout Lusaka, Zambia that are available for children to come as a safe-haven within their harsh communities.  We believe that being in the community with these children will have a greater impact in the lives of so many people! These centers have benefitted so many children so far and God continues to amaze us at how much He loves these children and desires to rescue them! Oh I just pray that more and more children will come to the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior!! Recently I have been working on our First Ever Christmas Project! We are actually going to have a Christmas Party for the child in Zambia. I can't wait!!! Organizing and getting things together for that has been quite the task, but very rewarding!! Keep praying that God will bless these precious children with His Love!! (Please check out the Family Legacy Blog for recent updates on the newest happenings of the ministry: www.legacymissions.org/blog)
2. I have also continued to live with my sweet Aunt and Uncle. They have been quite the blessing! They have such big hearts and their generosity is out of this world!! I praise God daily for them and how loving they are! I have learned so much from them and they don't even know it! I can't believe that they have put up with me for almost 4 months now. I told them that it will probably be around 2 months that I would be living with them until I find somewhere else to live, but from the looks of it...I will be here for a little longer! I really do love where they live. It is so refreshing to come back to a 'Home'! I am so blessed and grateful for the family that I have had the honor of growing up with! (*Thanks Mom and Dad for raising me and instilling so many biblical principles and truths in my life! What you have done for so many years, is coming full circle.) I am praising the Lord above for providing a place for me to live during this transition in my life! I am still believing that God will provide a place for me to eventually move to when the timing is right. 
3. Personally I have grown so much this Fall. God has been challenging me and taking me deeper in a relationship with Him. I have had to face many things, but in the end it was there to refine and shape me to be more like Christ. My heart is at a good place and I am loving the journey that God is leading me on. I have been studying the Song of Solomon this Fall and I have loved looking at scripture more in-depth. This study has really unveiled so many things that I would not have known if I didn't go through this study. I love how God's Word is so applicable in our lives - from understanding more of who I am in Christ, to really knowing the love that God has for me, and then experiencing all of that day-to-day! I wish that I could explain all the little things that my Beloved Jesus has been teaching me. To wrap it up in a few words..I am pursuing Jesus with all that I am as He leads me through each season of my life and I am seeking to faithfully obey Him no matter where He asked me to go.
4. Financial Update...As the end of the year comes I have been significantly blessed by so many of you in your financial support over the past few months! I am so thankful for all that has come in thus far. It is not too late if you are wanting to support me. All you need to do is go to my link...www.legacymissions.org/joy and then follow the instructions or you can just click the link on the top right of my blog that says Joy's Donation Page. It would be such an honor to have you come alongside me as the Lord uses you and I both to bring His word to so many children. I am still praying that God will continue to provide month to month. I know that He will give what is needed at the time. Thanks so much for all your prayers too! God is moving and it is so exciting to what is ahead! I can't express to you enough just how humbled I am to have you partner with me in this ministry the Lord has called me to be in. My prayer is that God will return the blessing!  

I hope you all have had a blessed holiday with your family and friends! I pray that you all had the opportunity to reflect on what all that God has given and provided for you! Praise God that He loves us! 

Loving Him more and more,

Joy

Please pray for the weeks and months ahead...

>I depart for Zambia, Africa in 137 days and there is SO much to be done before then! Not only within Family Legacy, but outside of that too. I am in 2 weddings only 2 months apart (the first one is next weekend) and it will be an adventure trying to balance everything out! 

Loving the Holidays

I just love the beginning of the holidays...

I have so many memories of good 'ole traditions and one of those is waking up on Thanksgiving morning and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with the entire family. All of us girls grab our cup of coffee and sit together on the couch as we watch the long parade...so thats just what we did with kids running around us! Jamie, my second oldest sister, came up from New Braunfels and we just had so much fun!! We missed JJ this year...she was actually hosting her in-laws at her house, but we are really looking forward for Christmas so that we can ALL be together!!

We had a good group for Thanksgiving...everyone (extended family on my dad's side and few from my mom's side) came over and we ate, relaxed, ate some more, and watched football, especially the TEXAS GAME! :) That has been another tradition to watch football throughout the Thanksgiving weekend...what can I say? My Dad brought me up well... :)

(I am going to be adding some funny videos soon of my nephew playing football with my brother!!)

Then once Saturday hit...it was decorating galore! Mom, Dad, and I all worked together to get the house decked out for Christmas. I just love getting ready for Christmas!! Mom and I exchange memories of past Christmas' as we were bringing the house to life with the touch of the holiday season. This is by far my favorite time of year...I uploaded this video to give you a glimpse of the end of a day of decorating...Me, Dad and Mom made a fire, turned on Polar Express and drank hot chocolate under our Christmas lights...can't get better than this!! :)

As I got back to work this week, it has been busy as always, but such a fun week!! We launched our new website tonight! It looks so good thanks to our tech guy on staff. You need to check out the new changes: www.legacymissions.org . We also launched a Christmas Project for our precious kids in Zambia! Holly, my co-worker, and I had several people call in requesting to send their child a Christmas gift and with the Lord's guidance we developed a way to distribute gifts to the children!! It's all on our website through the Father's Heart Program....http://www.blogger.com/www.legacymissions.org/christmas . It is going to be incredible and I can't wait to see how it's going to bless these kids!! They are going to love it!!!!!

Well by now, I am hoping you have heard a song or 2 automatically playing on my blog. I wanted to share with y'all some of my favorite songs that have ministered to me in the past week or so. I just love how God will use music to speack to us! Take time and listen to them...all of them are really powerful! Oh...and...I have changed the title of my blog. I have noticed that a lot of things I have posted about have to do with my life, what I'm learning, and what has been happening...so I wanted to make more of a general title to share ALL aspects of my life along with my passion for Zambia!

That's it for now! I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and a good week! YAY for the holidays...go grab some coffee, sit by a fire and watch a good Christmas movie...or drive around and look at Christmas lights!! All of it is just sooo fun! I hope to be doing ALL of that very soon...

Blessings,

Joy