Provision

God has provided for me in a multitude of ways this year- housing, finances, job, family, church family, and friends- in all of these things I have been more than blessed. It has been a crazy year that will start and end in Mississippi, with a six month journey to DC in between. This year I had both a job and a dating relationship start and end- 

all of which I count as a blessing. 

The Lord has grown my faith and my dependence on Him more than I could have imagined. 

I have much to be thankful for, but one specific provision stands out- maybe because He's been so ridiculously gracious with it in these last few months. The Lord has overwhelmingly blessed me with Godly women in my life this year who have poured into me and allowed me to pour into them in a way that has been life changing. 

Before this year, my experience in a lot of groups of Christian women had been that the conversation tended to be more about relationships with men than relationships with the Lord. For that reason, I got turned off to, and had honestly grown sort of cynical about the idea of women's Bible studies and small groups. But through the deepening of old friendships, the blessing of new friendships, and the opportunities I had to lead a couple of groups of girls/women, the Lord began to show me what it looks like when "iron sharpens iron" and women take a serious interest in seeing each other grow closer to Him.

These are just SOME of the women whose friendships have clearly been a provision from the Lord this year.

 J and I have been friends since before I became a Christian 5+ years ago.  She was right there when I came to the faith, and poured into me then and ever since. She has been off having amazing adventures overseas this year, but our friendship has remained so precious and fruitful.

 C is amazing. I love spending time with her- I can laugh, cry, and wrestle with hard questions with her. She has seen a lot this year, and her faith throughout has been incredibly encouraging to me.

 I could not have even imagined that J would have the impact on me that she has. We were friends while we lived together, but when I moved out our friendship just... exploded! She is one who speaks hard Biblical truth to me, and lets me speak it to her, all with the kind of overflowing love and joy that is evident in the picture above- my favorite one of her.

  This is A, who I love more than words can express. She is family, and her presence and bravery and faith through this year are a true testimony to the Lord. When I think of "provision", she is one of the first people that comes to mind, and its only fitting that we'll be together this Thanksgiving. 

And because I know she's one of the 10 people who reads this blog, she gets an extra personal shout out- I love you, Beans.

I absolutely love this girl's heart, and our relationship is an example of incredibly providential timing. M and I have gone through some eerily similar circumstances this year, and have been able to encourage each other and talk through how to handle them Biblically. I have truly been blessed to pray for her and have felt her prayers through it all.

 Ahhh, I miss these girls so much! These are a few of the amazing girls from the group that I was blessed to lead and disciple earlier this year, before I moved. Honestly, I probably learned just as much from them as they learned from me. Our time together was definitely too short before I moved, and I can't wait to be back in the same zip code!

 This was taken on the day of O's engagement- an event I got to have a hand in setting up! Her fiance enlisted me to get her to the lake, where he surprised her and proposed! Though we both moved this year, she has been a constant source of support and encouragement. Her honest heart and sincere concern for others just fill me with joy. I thank God for her presence in my life and praying, learning, and walking with her this year has been such a blessing.

Try to contain your jealousy over those awesome 3-D glasses- we were chaperoning a field trip with 9th graders and were feeling pretty goofy by that point in the day... The woman on the right is L, an incredible Christian woman that I was blessed to work with this year. We worked closely together on a big project at the school, which provided lots of time and space for conversations about the kids, faith, and the future. I wish I had told her more often how much her friendship and example of incredible character and faith within our stressful job meant to me.

 Bunko! The fellowship of these women was a constant source of encouragement and support and LOTS of laughter. The good food didn't hurt either...

 This is all of the Bunko crew together. I took this as a test shot, and its definitely an outtake- but I love it because it is indicative of what most of our nights together were filled with- much needed laughter!

 J has been a prayer warrior and source of Biblical truth and encouragement for me, and allowed me to be those for her as well. Her heart for God and easy smile and laugh have been an incredible blessing to me.

 S's prayers, generosity, and sincere, desperate seeking after the Lord have been a testament and blessing to me. She has extended hospitality to me to a degree that I have never experienced, and I am so so thankful for her.

Oh my word... where to even start. Friendship with this girl has rocked my world this year. Talking with her about what God is doing in our lives, being accountable to each other, getting down on our knees kind of prayer for each other, belly laughs, hard truths... it has ALL been a blessing. I am BEYOND thankful for her friendship, which the Lord has used to spur me onward and encourage me to place growing closer with the Lord above all other goals and desires. Love you, M, my favorite hipster missionary.

 That is N, my small group leadership coach, Vanilla Ice, and me. That's how we do leadership mentoring out here in DC- with 90s rap stars, haha. Seriously though, the Lord has used this woman in a MIGHTY way to teach me about what it means to lead and how to speak sometimes hard truths into people's lives out of genuine love for them and their walk for Christ. She has done it for me, for sure, and always with so much love. Our coming into each other's lives right when we did was so clearly an answer to prayer that I can't help but rejoice and praise Him for it.

There are so many other women I'm thankful for this year, most notably my current small group who I don't have any pictures of.. yet! I can't WAIT to be back in the same zip code as many of the women pictured above when I move back to Mississippi, but I will dearly miss those I've met and built relationships with here. I can't wait to see what He does with these relationships this next year- I pray that He would knit us together even tighter, spurring each other onward towards an ever deeper, more intimate relationship with Him.