i have cool friends...

i have been staying with my mom in anticipation of gustav. gibby is out of town, so she and i would have been alone. my mom has wireless internet, so i got really excited about downloading some apps last night to my phone. apparently one of the ones i downloaded is not nice and completely froze my phone. i had to come back to my house to restore it. it is downloading all of my old info right now.
while i wait on it i thought i would tell you about some friends of mine that are pretty cool.

i have the greatest friends in the world. i will defend that argument against anyone. i want to tell you about 3 of them.

hallie epperson:

i met hallie in college and we instantly became best friends. you know how people will say that someone lights up a room? well with hallie...it's like someone has turned on 12 flourescent lights. she completely lights up any room. she is one of the funniest people i know. here is a typical hallie story : before she graduated college she went to a hair salon to get her hair done. while she was sitting there she commented on the shoes of the woman sitting next to her. they started talking and at the end of the day hallie had decided to move to germany to be the nanny for this woman's friend. who does that?? hallie.
hallie is from atlanta, but is living in tanzania, africa right now. she is working for cradle of love. she gets to love on these precious babies every day!! to say i am jealous of her getting to hang out with those sweet faces is an understatement! please pray for hallie and her sweet spirit! pray that the Lord would continue to use her to love on these babies. having her as one of my best friends is such a blessing in my life, and it is so amazing to see all these children fall in love with her!
you can click on her blog to the right and read her updates. warning: she has pictures of the babies on there and you just might fall in love with them and move to africa!!




nathan michaels:


i met nathan when i was in high school, but we became good friends in college. ever since i have known him he has always exuded the heart of a servant. from big things to just small things that some people would overlook. i remember in college he came down to seaside for spring break. there was a large group of us down there, and he would cook dinner for everybody! nathan went on a trip to haiti and fell in love with the work and people down there. he is back down there now and loving every minute! please pray for him as he is dealing with gustav coming right through his area. please take a second to read this story and this update on that first story. it is about a little girl, guerline, who nathan found through God's providence. please pray for nathan and his work and safety down there. pray for those who get to experience his servant heart!! (that is hallie and nathan below)








caroline harper:



i told you i have cool friends! and harper is no exception. harper and i have been friends since high school, or maybe before then. she is one year younger than me, and the youngest of 4 girls. when you are with harper you are instantly comforted. you know you are loved and you know that you are in the presence of someone who is going to not only listen to you, but empathize with you. she is such a "real" person. i have a letter harper wrote me when i was on one of my mission trips to peru. she said that she has always looked at me as one of her sisters. what an honor for me!! harper went to ole miss and then just graduated from RTS in marriage and family therapy. she decided to use those things she learned in malawi, africa. she went over with her sister, rachel, to teach at the ABC (african bible college). she is teaching computer in the academy and a counseling course in the college. how cool is that? there is a huge need for counselors over there, and i am so thankful that they get to learn from harper! please pray for harper and her sister as they adjust to teaching and living in africa! you can also find her blog to the right.








i have many other cool friends who minister to so many people, but who may never leave the states. on my mission trips to peru i often found myself looking at such poverty and wanting so desprately to give people everything i could. there was no way i could give them all the material possessions they needed, but i could encourage them to come to the church. there they could find the One who could supply all their needs. when i would return from these trips i wouldn't find myself having that longing to share the gospel with people. you look around here and you see people with everything they need. it was then that i realized that you don't have to see the poverty in a person to see their need for the Saviour.