New Years Eve :)

Happy 2013!! (almost)

The New Year is coming and it is so exciting. I love it so much because it gives me such an amazing sense of hope for the new things that will begin in the year to come. Its a time where people decide to change things, to begin new adventures, and to make new goals.

I was looking on someones instagram this morning and this person had put up a list of her new years resolutions and it was so happy :). So many of the things she wrote were to better herself FOR other people and for the Lord. It was seriously beautiful and motivating for me.

I rarely ever make new years resolutions because I don't always keep them, so I just stopped doing it. But you know what?! God showed me something through that! I don't make them because I am afraid of failure, I'm afraid I wont accomplish them so I don't even set myself up for that. THAT IS SO SILLY! I haven't been taking risks, I haven't been setting myself up to succeed! In order to move forward it requires great faith and stepping into something that might even look IMPOSSIBLE. 

That is why New Years is exciting, because its a time for risk and CHANGE. I desire change and growth within myself but I won't ever see it if I don't take that step forward. 

THANK YOU JESUS.

I love new understanding and revelation. 

SO.. I'm going to do it, I'm going to make some New Year resolutions. When I do I will post them up and hopefully it will not only be encouraging for me but for you too :) 

RESOLUTION: res·o·lu·tion  

/ˌrezəˈlo͞oSHən/

Noun

A firm decision to do or not to do something.

Synonyms

decision - determination - resolve - solution

me and my mama at church, shes an angel. 

Check it out! Santa showed up at church, SAY WHAT?! Santa knows Jesus is KING. 

Christmas eve Tamales before watching the Santa Claus :) 

Christmas morning glory. Thank you Lord. 

Sort of blurry but my friend from middle school had a handsome baby boy that I was finally able to meet :) 

New Years Eve = New Years Socks =Warm feet and a happy me :)

Christmas Parties & Sweet Goodbyes..

                                        

                                 

7 days til Christmas!!

Can you believe it!? Oh my word that happened fast. 

The first quarter of my school is officially over this Friday; we wrapped up by getting into the minor prophets. When we return from Christmas break we will dive back into the Old Testament and finish it. 

It has been such an amazing past 3 months; God has been so incredible and loving to me. 

Before starting this bible school I felt a bit lost and unsure about my future, I've known since I became a christian in 2008 that I am called to full-time missions but during the past year I went through a lot of ups and downs and spent a lot of time seeking God on what he had for me next. 

  God taught me how to be patient while waiting for His direction and I am so thankful that  his plan was for me to dedicate 9 months to studying his word! Learning the word of God has been so foundational and key in preparing me for the future. I have been so blessed and filled up by studying the word!

Thank you Jesus! 

To conclude the first quarter of the school we are having a mini outreach throughout this week. We as a class are breaking into groups and teaching people how to study the Old Testament. Today I taught about the Kings in the Old Testament; it really fired me up and got me excited about learning more of the word! I love teaching and telling people about the way God has been so faithful throughout history. Its sooo great!

                                  

My boyfriend David left to China for three months last Monday. He is leading a team with two other guys; they took a bunch of amazing Christian skateboarders to preach the gospel to people and  specifically skateboarders over there. I am so in awe of their team, they are so passionate and so real. They love God and have an amazing gift of connecting with people through their gift of skating.  

You can hear about them at Callingallskaters.blogspot.com

It was really sad to say goodbye to David and I miss him a lot :(, but I am soo thankful that we are both doing what God has called us to do in this season. 

Below I added some pictures from two Christmas parties that I went to. The first one was the YWAM staff party... I was able to go because David is on staff here :).

The second one was a party that my class had and my friend and I decided to dress up tacky instead of formal! It was so great. 

I hope you have a wonderful week :)

Jessica, Dorothea, me, and Nova at the Christmas party

David and me :) 

My class had our own party and you could either dress tacky or formal.. My friend Melissa and I chose tacky :)

Melissa and me with our incredible school leader, Megan. The three M's!

Christmas is coming!

19 days until Christmas, can you believe that?! Time really flies. I am so excited because my mom blessed me with a Christmas present of flying me home to Colorado for the holiday. I can't wait!! 

I like the picture above because it is the way Southern California is, not very cold.. no snow.. and some days you could actually go to the beach. I think the only 'weather' we experience here for the winter season is rain. This week it has been raining a lot, it makes me want snow.

I have a two week Christmas break from the 21st of December to the 7th of January, I am really looking forward to it. I'm also quite nervous for it because the day break is over I am supposed to have my next quarter of school paid for... which is 1500 dollars and the thing is I have NO IDEA where its going to come from. I have been praying a lot and have once again realized that I struggle with trusting God for finances even though He's provided in the past. I know its the holiday season and money can be tight but if any of you would like to donate to my school fees you can do it easily through this blog or on the YWAM LA website: https://ywamla.org/donatepay/. It would be greatly appreciated. 

So speaking of school it is going well!  We were in 1st and 2nd Kings last week. They are pretty intense books... very similar to the book of Judges. They are both cycles of people not choosing God but doing what is right in their own eyes. Which I think everyone in the world does; including myself. It is amazing to learn how to revere God, but it really shows me that I don't seek Him or have reverence for HIm in all that I do. Its a process and I am definitely a work in progress.

Through the book of Kings I also noticed a trend... compromise. Each bad king and even some of the good ones compromised their morals for the affection and favor of the people they were leading. For example in 2 Kings 14.3 "He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not like his ancestor David. The high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and made offerings on high places."

The high places are the places for idol worship. So see, he was even good! This king did what was right in the sight of the Lord but not fully!! Weird, huh? Yeah so I noticed a theme of compromise throughout the book and it really challenged me. I know I compromise in my faith with God, maybe not huge ways but small compromises pile up and turn into large ones. 

 I know sometimes I compromise in how I love people, for example if I'm at Starbucks and I could buy my friend a drink but for some reason I don't because I fear money. Not only is that compromise in the way I love but its not trusting God for money. Whoa.

 I'm not going to analyze myself and find all of my shortcomings,because I have far more than just not always loving well.. haha. But I think I'll start to notice more of the compromises I make that God may be pinpointing, and work on them. You can join me if you would like? :) 

Have a great Thursday!

happy december!

Happy December! 

Sooo I was trying to think of what to write in this blog and I thought I would share an assignment that I had to do for the book of Job last week. Job was is a really incredible book. It can be confusing and I think like most people, I don't fully understand it. But something that I think is cool about it is the fact that it is in the Bible for a reason; so as much as I question it I also think it is really amazing and has purpose.  

One of the assignments we had to do was write about a time in our walk with God that we went through a time of testing or suffering. I have only been a christian for almost 5 years so there hasn't been a whole lot of suffering but I thought of something and I'm going to share with you the essay I wrote. :) Enjoy:

    The most severe time of testing I have been through in my four year walk with God would have been the time after my engagement ended a year ago. It was October 2011 when I called off the engagement to a guy that I had been with for a bit over a year and engaged to for 4ish months, it was a difficult decision and was a life changing one for sure.

  My past of complete brokenness didn't set a very sturdy stage for that relationship. I had done two training schools with YWAM and staffed two DTS’s but I was still not at a place that I was able to take on a new and serious relationship. It was an amazingly beautiful and painful relationship that revealed to me where I actually was in my hearts healing process.  I learned that the things that had been done to me as a child were still open wounds that I hadn't allowed to heal. All of the pain and distrust that were in that relationship were a direct result of the things that I had gone through when I was younger and without the Lord as my savior. I didn't know how to receive love, give love, and I couldn't believe that someone could purely adore someone of the opposite sex. After a year on the roller coaster of that relationship I realized that there was no way I could enter into a marriage being as broken as I was, so I ended it. It wasn't as if God had spoken and said end that relationship, nobody was telling me to, in fact people were encouraging me not to; it was a very confusing and hard decision to make. I remember asking God if I could be done because my heart was so tired from trying to figure out how to go forward. So many pieces of my heart were not put together; I felt like God allowed me to end it and I did.

  The time after that relationship ended was one of the most challenging times in my walk with God. I was so lost, I didn't understand if what I had done was right or wrong, I was a mess and didn't know how to get back on my feet. All of the temptations that I had dealt with and gave into from before I was a Christian came up again. I began drinking heavily, living extremely recklessly, hurting the people around me with the choices I was making and I was afraid to go to God. My prayers were short and desperate; everything in me ached with confusion. One night while I was taking a shower I broke down to God and said that I didn't want to live the way I was living anymore, I poured out my heart to Him. I was angry, broken and so depressed;  I knew something needed to be done. I finished my lament to him by saying I can’t do this anymore and his response was perfect! He said clear as day, “Then change it.” Whoa, so simple but so radical to my brain at that time.

  From that time on I was determined to change it, with so much help from my sister, her husband, and an amazingly talented professional therapist I began the journey back. The counsel that was given to me during that time was the most solid and helpful counsel I had ever gotten in my life. None of the people I was talking to addressed the issue of the ended relationship at hand; they all took a deeper look. My therapist took me back to the places in my past where I had been hurt and he walked me through the healing process of those things. Each week that I visited my counselor he looked at the fruit that was a product of the deep rooted event that had happened in my past. He didn't help me just cut the fruit off, he helped me pull up the ENTIRE root. It was painful but so needed. My sister and her husband took the role of being there to comfort and encourage me when I felt as though I was faltering. I would have days that seemed to go on forever and I thought that I wasn't going to be able to continue on with the healing that God was giving me. Sometimes I was so sad and confused about all that had happen that I didn't want to turn to God; but He always gently nudged me to keep going.  I questioned God a lot in that time; I questioned the things that I thought he had spoken to me and wondered if I had completely missed something. Some days I would be really angry at God, not only for the relationship but for the things that had happened in the past that left me so broken and unable to relate at that time in a romantic way.

   During all that time of healing I realized how much grace God had with me; He showed it especially through my sister and her husband who I took a lot of my anger out on. They were so patient with me and reminded me constantly that it would take time and time was not a bad thing. I thought I had an idea of what my life was going to look like, I was sort of leaning on that and when it all ended I realized just how much God loves me and wants me to look to him for my future and in that I would find complete peace and wholeness.  In that time I also learned that I am a fighter, a stubborn fighter but still a fighter. I go after the things I believe in; the stubborn part of the fighter in me is if I don’t believe in something even if it’s true, it takes a lot of urging to get me going. Gods working on me though ;). 

  Some advice I would give to someone who is about to go through the same thing as I did or is in it right now would be to not give up. It sounds cheesy but it’s so true. DO NOT GIVE UP. Have grace with yourself and take it step by step… Eventually you will look back and see that each step you took was a part of a mile.. Which turned into two or three miles and before you know it you are in a completely different state from where you came from!  God is gracious and gentle with us. Always remember that.

So there it is folks! One of the assignments I did for Job. I haven't spoken about many personal things on here yet, but I am willing to. The relationship/engagement I was in was super important and a big part of my life.. and it wasn't that long ago. I am open to talking about it, because I do feel like I've learned a lot from it. But I'm not finished, like I said in the essay some days were really hard and still some days are difficult. But this time, instead of turning to my own devices I take time to spend with God and the people around me that remind me that it just takes time. 

:)

My beautiful sister Jessica. I am so thankful for her everyday. I look up to her and learn from her constantly- She is INCREDIBLE. I am sooooo blessed to have her as my sister and best friend. 

Me at Big Bear last week hoping to see snow but there wasn't any.. I like this picture.. my sister takes tons of pictures of me all the time which is super helpful for blogging.. this one is sort of artsy ;)

Happy day after Thanksgiving! 

I hope you had such a wonderful time celebrating.

I had a great Thanksgiving.. The pastor of a local church invited a group of us over to enjoy dinner with his family :).

We ate a huge meal, played a game, had dessert and to finish it off we all worshiped together! It was by far one of the best Thanksgivings yet! 
a few things I am so thankful for.. 
-My mom. She is AMAZING. I love her soo much, she takes care of me so well and is always there for me.
-my sister Jessica and her hubby Shaun.. they are so wise and I learn from them everyday. I'm amazed by their lives and walk with God.
- My incredible boyfriend. he's so sweet to me and shows me Gods pure love. I'm super happy to be with him. :) 
-My dog Lucy. Dogs are the best ever.
-Friends! I love friends! They are so fun
-annddd a lot of other things. but these are on my brain right now. 

Thank you, Lord. 

So I wanted to share some pictures and let you know that if you would like to contact me you can email me at M_Wilson797@yahoo.com.

 I'd give you my phone number on here too but I'm not sure how safe that is haha.

 Anyway I'd love to chat with anyone that wants to! I dont have Facebook so it would be awesome to hear what you all think of the blog, and if you have any questions about what I'm doing email or phone works :)

Have an amazing weekend!

Thanksgiving dinner :)

Jessica and I at Starbucks taking a picture for our dad :)

Worship time-- to thank God for everything he has done

Just a little something about me-- I love sweet things and coffee. So put them together and you have the best drink in the world!  :). 

Happy Wednesday everybody! 

I hope you are having a great day so far and that the beginning of your week is wonderful! 

So last week in CSBS (Chronological School of Biblical Studies) we studied two books.. Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. They were incredible! A few things that I learned from Song of Solomon were-

- That God really loves romantic relationships. He is so for them and so created them!

- Purity is beautiful. 

- From the relationship of the man and woman in the book, I saw how strongly God desires intimacy. He desires it among his people with one another, especially in a marriage relationship. While I was reading it I saw the progression of how the couples love grew for each other. They desired each other so strongly... even just to be in one another's presence was satisfying
.
 Also, from this I understood Gods heart better. Something that is so important to Him is intimacy with his people, in chapter 8 verse 6 & 7 it reads: "Set me as a seal upon your heart as a seal upon your arm; for love is as strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If one offered for love all the wealth of one’s house, it would be utterly scorned."
WOW!! How cool is that?
 If you dont understand it, let me give you a tad insight of what I learned when I read it.. its an exclamation of love! Imagine you are sitting with your special someone and they were to tell you that nothing could quench their love for you..  its beautiful. But really I just thought of how God was saying that to all of His children.. that His love is as fierce as the grave and that nothing could stop it.. which reminds me of another verse in Romans 8.38-39 "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God."

And from Ecclesiastes I learned A LOT too... here are a few of the things :)-

-Solomon could have written it when he was a grumpy old man after seeing the mistakes he had made in life and realizing that the things he poured himself into were pointless. 

-Its a pretty pessimistic book but there are such amazing things that you can see while reading it. Solomon knew that life with God was greater than all riches, relationships, and enjoyments of life. While I was reading, I kept thinking of how it says in

Hebrews 12.27- "This means that the things on earth will be shaken, so that only eternal things will be left."

Solomon knew that relationship with God was ultimately the most fulfilling and lasting thing ever, despite the fact that he turned away from God.  

TRUE THAT SOLOMON! way to get it. 

Ecclesiastes 12.13 "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone."

      This week we are studying the book of Job.. it is such a great book. I'm not finished with my homework from it yet but when I am done I will tell you all about it!

Final thoughts:

God loves us! 

He wants intimate relationship with us! 

No earthly thing will satisfy our eternal needs!

Happy Thanksgiving Week! 

Love love love, Meredith

sleepy Lucy

Awkward family photo number 1.

Awkward family photo number 2.

Awkward family photo number 3. (The winner.)

New tattoo. Africa has stolen my heart. 

Jesse Evans teaching on Ecclesiastes. 

my first blog!!

Hello everybody! Welcome to my new blog!!

     I've been thinking for a while about how I can share what I'm doing in life with everyone that I love.. I dont have Facebook so that makes connecting with people a bit challenging but seeing how popular blogging is... I've decided this is the way to go!

                My vision for this blog is to allow people 
   to join me in all my adventures with God.

 As some of you may know, I have been a part of YWAM- a non profit, non denomination Christian organization called Youth with a  Mission for the past 4 years. 

   Youth With A Mission is an international volunteer movement of Christians from many backgrounds, cultures and Christian traditions, dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Also known as YWAM (pronounced "WHY-wham"), our purpose is simply to know God and to make Him known.

When YWAM began in 1960, our main focus was giving young people opportunities to demonstrate the love of Jesus to the whole world, according to His command in Mark 16:15. Today, we still focus on youth, but we have members (known as “YWAMers”) of almost every age and many of our short-term efforts have grown into long-term endeavors that have impacted lives and nations.

YWAM has a decentralized structure that encourages new vision and the exploration of new ways to change lives through training, convey the message of the gospel and care for those in need. We are currently operating in more than 1000 locations in over 180 countries, with a staff of over 18,000.

               Over the past four years I have been 

     able to do so many incredible things and go to soo

              many amazing countries with YWAM.

Here is a small recap of my life with YWAM over the past four years:

    - In the fall of 2008 I attended a 6 month Discipleship Training School with YWAM LA

    - During the spring of 2009; following my DTS, I did a 3 School of Ministry Development in LA.

   - In the fall of 2009 I was a part of staff for a Transformation DTS and co lead a team of 21 young people to Thailand for 2 1/2 months.

  -  During the summer of 2010 I staffed a summer program with YWAM called Mission Adventures.. where we spent time pouring into middle school aged youth and taking them on local outreach in the city of Los Angeles.

 - In the fall of 2010 I was again a part of staff for a DTS and lead a team to South Africa for 2 1/2 months

 - in May of 2011 I left YWAM for a time, I was working as a waitress and then in a local pet shop near the YWAM campus. I spent the year seeking God and asking what He would have me do in the years to come. Which lead me to where I am TODAY!...

 - In September of this year I started a 9 month long Bible school with YWAM LA called Chronological school of Biblical Studies 

  CSBS is a school where-- 

     students survey each book in the Bible (all 66 books)  and discover the big picture, while also digging into the details, paragraph by paragraph. We place an emphasis on understanding the cultural and historic background of each author and original reader of each book. In C-SBS we also consider where each book fits into the big picture of the Gospel story. Then, the student can interpret Scripture with the mindset of the original reader. Finally, that student can take those truths that transcend time and culture, and apply them to their own lives.

     So that is a bit of where I've been and what I'm doing now...

     The CSBS started in September and will graduate on June 22 of 2013, 

so I have some time to plan my next steps of action in life. 

I know that I am called to missions for the long haul and 

that I want to use the Bible to reach people all over the world. 

Studying God's Word has been an awesome experience so far.
I will be sure to share what I am learning with you in the coming months! 


Thank you for following this blog! 
Your love is a gift to my life 
& I am super excited to be connected with you again! 
I hope you are having a wonderful November! 
God bless you! 

These are pictures from recent happenings in my life...
                  1. Lucy sleeping.. Cutest dog ever

                                         

                                  2. Studying Song of Songs at Starbucks

                        3. Jessica and me spending a cold, fall day together

                            4-5. My birthday dinner with great friends

6. Jessica, Shaun, me, David (my boyfriend!) and David's parents :)