A Sunday for Compassion

Tomorrow is Compassion Sunday. A sunday specially designed to introduce you or reintroduce you to a fabulous organization. An organization called Compassion International, where you can support a child for $40 a month. For some that is a sacrifice, for some it is not. I have sponsored a little boy named Juan for 2 years now and it has been such a blessing for me and I know, for him. He writes me letters, and I write him back and I just feel so thankful to have him in my life. Maybe you have thought about sponsoring a child before, and maybe you haven’t. Whatever the case, I pray that you will at least take 5 minutes or so to take a look at my sponsor page, and maybe Compassion International’s home page. Read some stories, see some of the sweet faces, maybe this sunday you will take a leap of faith and sponsor a child yourself.

Here is my sponsor page : http://my.compassionsunday.com/e/talithapiper

Here is the main website : http://compassioninternational.com 

and here is a blogpost my momma wrote : http://noelpiper.com/haveaheart 

After you’ve visited my page, I would love it if you commented back that you have and maybe some of you will feel compelled to share a story or a thought. I would love to read them.

Blessings as you worship the King this weekend!

:::of college and summer playlists:::

This afternoon I got a phone call to tell me that I’ve been accepted into the PSEO program at North Central University, which is just 5 minutes away from my house!

*cue happy dance and difficulty of breathing*
What?! ACCEPTED! COLLEGE! where has time gone?!

So i proceeded to call two friends and babble incessantly about how excited I was to them.

And then I made a summer playlist for summer 2012.
Since its comprised of 200 plus songs, I will list my top 10

1. Someone Like You, Adele
2. Give Your Heart a Break, Demi Lovato
3. Safe and Sound, Taylor Swift feat. The Civil Wars
4. A Drop in the Ocean, Ron Pope
5. Faint Not, Jenny & Tyler
6. Stereo Hearts, Gym Class Heroes feat. Adam Levine
7. What Makes You Beautiful, One Direction
8. Like An Avalanche, Hillsong United
9. White Flag, Chris Tomlin, live from Passion 2012
10. Defying Gravity, Wicked, Idina Menzel & Kristen Chenoweth

So I’m ready for this summer and bound for college next fall? Crazy!

Interrupting and Together for Adoption

Interrupting my blog series to bring you some posts about the conference I am at this weekend. Its called Together for Adoption and my mom and I will be blogging about it this weekend. So after this weekend, I will bring you part two of my blog series, Fashion God’s Way. I have been getting such amazing feedback on the blog series, so thank so much!! I hope that the series keeps on encouraging you and others. Please keep passing along word about the series. Thanks again! Now for a short post about the first session of the conference.

The first session was taught by Darrin Patrick and it really highlighted social justice. There were quite a few parts that stood out to me in this session but I like to point out three specific points. Number one would be, We are to love God, and we are to love people. You can’t hear that enough, I believe. So true! Sometimes I have a hard time loving people especially those who are not like me. So I constantly need that reminder.

Number two would be a statement that Darrin said, which is, “If you’re not doing justice in your neighborhood, don’t try to do it in your city.” He wanted to really point out that we need to get to know our neighbors. That is something that I’m not really good at. I live in a neighborhood where there is plenty of crime and its just a hard place to reach out. I constantly ask God for boldness regarding sharing the gospel with people who may even yell at me. Some people are willing to hear, and some are not. But if we want to change something, we should start with our neighbors. I think that is a very important point to understand and to carry out.

The third and final thing is he had four points under the title, “What do we do?” , and here they are.

1. The church is called, first and foremost to proclaim the gospel.

2. You must not use social justice to avoid the offense of the cross.

3. Churches should plant other churches.

4. The “institutional” church must equip individuals who will become the “organic” church.

These points really encouraged me and I hope it will encourage others.

Hopefully more posts to come soon!

For more information, here is a helpful link :  http://www.togetherforadoption.org/?cat=428

Answers to Your Questions

Finally, I decided its time to answer your questions! haha lately I’ve been really bad about blogging. forgive me
I copied and pasted your comments here so you can see what the question was and what the answer is! Thanks everyone!
Alright, here we go! ( I have put my answers in italic ! )

1. Do you have a favorite book about dogs? If so, what is it. ~Anna
Hmmm. A favorite book about dogs, well, I guess I really enjoy the big encyclopedia of all the dog breeds and what they’re like!

2. What was your favorite part of your dad’s time off last year? ~ Victoria
My favorite part was being able to be together most of the time. We actually had the time to go see movies, go to museums, play games,
watch movies at home, play with my nieces and nephews! it was a blast!

3. What’s your middle name?
How do you like to spend your time? ~ Scott
My middle name is Ruth.
I like to read, watch movies, listen to music (I listen to music 24/7 and i probably buy way too much! haha ) and hang out with friends at
the mall, or at a movie theater or just around my house or theirs!

4. Top ten Christian books?? And why??
And what are your dad’s favorites books and why?
Thank you Talitha! ~ Michelle Lago
wow! top ten books! okay here we go.
1. And the Bride Wore White – Dannah Gresh
2. Do Hard Things – Alex and Brett Harris
3. Start Here- Alex and Brett Harris
4. Radical Womanhood – Carolyn McCully
5. Before you Meet Prince Charming – Sarah Mally
6. Be the Change – Zach Hunter
7. Generation Change – Zach Hunter
8. The Misery of Job and The Mercy of God – John Piper
9. Lies Young Women Believe – Nancy Leigh Demoss and Dannah Gresh (wonderful book for teenage girls)
10. Choosing To See- Mary Beth Chapman (this book had me in tears)
I guess I love all these books because a lot of them are about purity, and some of them are about suffering, and
those are two of the biggest things I struggle with as I grow up. I am going to have to ask my dad later, he’s busy hope you don’t mind.

5. What is your favorite subject in school and why? I LOVE history. I love especially learning about my historical heroes and villains! haha
Do you like to cook? I love to cook! I like to bake better, but I am constantly trying out new recipes for dinners/lunches for me!
~Hannah~

6. What was the hardest time in your life so far?
Was that time the time God used in your life to grow you the most? ~ Pete
It was when my niece was stillborn in September of 2007. I took it very hard, harder than I thought! For about two years after even, It felt fresh on my mind and heart. Many tears were shed during that time and the years that followed. It was the time that God used to grow me the most. If that hadn’t happened, the current career that I want to go into wouldn’t happen. My school counselor was a huge help for me and now I want to become a school counselor for high schoolers.

7. How do you deal with being sad? What about anger? Loneliness?
What has God been showing you about Himself lately? ~ Scott
I usually put on some worship music and just sit with my Bible and sing along or just let the words wash over me.
For anger, usually I have to not do anything, but sit and calm down. After I am calm, I usually read my Bible and pray.
For loneliness , I read Psalms or Isaiah, there are so many passages in there that are so comforting!

8. On sunday 16th of January I was on my way to a special theme Service dedicate to the Saami people. It was held in a village church and I travelled by bus. To my surprise most of the others in the bus were from Minnestota, newly arrived to Sweden for a five months stay. What´s the probablity of that? It like if most attendants for a Christian service for one of America´s indigenous peoples, would be Europeans.
Anyway, here comes the question: I told the girl on the bus seat beside me about your family and their happy adoption of you. What do you think about that? ~ emmaia
Thats really cool, Emmaia! great story!

9.If you could tell every girl in the world that is your age one thing, what would it be? ~ Ruthiey
A quote from my friend Dannah Gresh, ” A girl should get so lost in God, that a guy has to seek HIM to find HER!” . I love and live by that!

10. What is your favorite subject in school? Why? What do you love so much about the subject? ~ Anna Olson
I love history! I love learning about different eras!

11. As an African American girl adopted into a white family, what advice would you give to another white family about to adopt a black child? ~ Kim
Make sure the child has a variety of friends. What I mean is that there isn’t just white friends, or just black, but a mixture, say,
black, white, asian, etc… I think I feel comfortable in pretty much every situation if there are more than just one race.
I hope that makes sense and blessings on your adoption Kim! I will be praying!

Thanks every one for the questions! I enjoyed this immensely!

Please Join Me in Praying

I just felt the urge to write this brief post. I have some good friends who are adopting and I would like to request prayer for them. I know that its almost Christmas and people are busy shopping and wrapping gifts, but if you could just take 5 minutes and stop and pray for this awesome couple!
Their blogs are here, and here.
Read their story and please pray for them!
Thanks and Have a Merry Christmas!

Oh, How He loves us!

I was over at my friend’s house, and we came down to the kitchen and her dad was playing this video on the computer. It’s such a powerful video. I feel like I’m there.
And when I watch this video I get goosebumps. This vocalist is really pouring her heart out for her God.
It is a longer video, but worth every minute.
Worship our great God with me because, Oh how HE loves US!

Oh How He Loves Us ~ Kim Walker/Jesus Culture

My Life: Sponsoring a Child

Today I made a decision. I made the decision to sponsor a child. I’ve thought about it before, but never to the point where I said, “I want to do it NOW”. And thats how I felt sitting in church this morning. We visited Redeemer Bible Church in Minnetonka this morning. They had a visiting band, Indelible Grace, doing their worship and Matthew Smith, (lead singer) talked a little bit about the band and the ministry they were promoting, Compassion International. I wasn’t too familiar with the band, but I did know about Compassion. My sister-in-law, Molly, sponsors a child and actually went on a missions trip and got to meet him! I loved what she wrote about him, and the whole experience! And I always thought it would be cool to sponsor a child!

And now, I am! His name is Juan, and he lives in Guatemala! And when I saw his picture, I know that he was the one! He’s a super cute little boy. And right now he is not going to school, so now he will get a chance to go to school since I am sponsoring him! It’s an awesome thought that somewhere there’s a little boy named Juan, who will now be able to go to school, and be fed and clothed, because I’m sponsoring him!! God has given me a love for children and this little boy already has a special place in my heart, even though I haven’t met him, and we live thousands of miles apart!
I am so excited to embark on this journey of sponsoring Juan, and I’m so glad God prompted me to make this decision today!

Want to know more about Compassion International? Want to sponsor a child?
Go to: http://www.compassion.com/

Jesus Wants the Rose!

One of my favorite videos ever.

Encouragement for the day…

Psalm 42:5-6a
” Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.”

Psalm 40:1-2a
” I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up fro the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog.”

Psalm 37:4
“Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:39
” The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;
he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.”

A serious post

I feel like I haven’t sat down and written a serious post. So I will attempt to do so now! If you haven’t heard that I will be an aunt again, you might want to check out my sister-in-law Molly’s website.  http://mollypiper.com/ I also have been working hard on school stuff and haven’t really had time to unwind and hang out with friends. I didn’t know that beginning the new year would be so busy! Now, however, it is a little less busy. I am thinking a lot about high school and college now. College is only four years away! And high school is coming up this fall! And after I turn 15, i can start taking driver’s ed and can take the test to get my permit! WOW! Life has flown by so fast!!

And my nieces and nephews are growing up. Tomorrow is my youngest niece’s birthday! She will be one year old! I can hardly believe it! Over the years, I feel like God has been making my calling more clear… I feel called to become a school counselor for middle school and high school students. I had a great counselor who helped me through the hard time when Felecity Margaret, my niece died. Now I want to help other kids through the hard times that they go through.

I feel like one of the reasons kids drop out of school these days is because they have absolutely no one to listen to them. Imagine that, no one to listen to them when they get hurt physically and emotionly. No one to help them with their school work, to help them make good grades so that they can go to college. I want to change that, and become a person who the students can to for anything they are struggling with. I want to see students graduate from high school and go on to college. I want to see students turn away from laziness and become diliegent in their studies. I want to see students witnessing for Christ and becoming pastors, teachers, sunday school small group leaders. And I want Christ to so live in me that I radiate Christ’s love and light to the people I meet, and later, lord willing, to the students I counsel! That is my hope and dream!

Alright, so this post got a little long! I hope you enjoyed reading it though! I hope that this verse encourages you today!

Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”