Thanksgiving in Phoenix

So tomorrow I will experience my very first American Thanksgiving. I am in Phoenix for this holiday. my second state, so that's only 48 more to see, hehe. I can't tell you how excited I am about pumpkin pie, sweet potato mash, cornbread, pecan pie, pumpkin bread, turkey and cranberry sauce, to name but a few of the things I have heard rumours of. 

I can't tell you how many years I have been desperate to try pumpkin pie. It's strange how we hear about certain things and can't forget about them ever. My American friends would post photos every year and I always longed for a slice of pumpkin pie. 

 Everyone has been amazing and is going all out to make sure that there is plenty of delicious gluten free fare for me.

And at this time I am feeling rather homesick too. We watched Brave today too, which made me even more homesick and I had to fight back those tears. 

I love my Mummy, and I love my Daddy, and all my siblings!! I love all my college friends, and my church family, and my family back in England!!

Meeting a cyber friend! And Jamba Juice!

So a couple of weeks back I had a pretty exciting Saturday.

Way back in 2008 I met three girls online. Now, I know that statement sounds slightly sketchy; please let me clarify it a bit. We came across them on Myspace, there was a funny video posted up and everyone was commenting on it, and well we all just became friends, and then Myspace became unfashionable, and we moved over to Facebook.

On Saturday the eighth of September I met one of these girls and her fiance as they travelled right past my college in California!
I can't tell you how exciting it was! It was also weird to meet someone who you feel like you've known your whole life, and constantly see status updates and photo updates for online.

They weren't able to stay long, but we had a great morning. AND they introduced me to Jamba juice!! I'm in love!

The glory of God

This morning by a seemingly natural course of events I wound up reading Isaiah 43 as my morning devotions. And more specifically verses one to seven. This chapter pretty much sums up why God created us. I mean why would God make us? We must have a purpose. God does nothing randomly like we may do, he is not led by impulse and whatever takes his fancy; Everything he does is carefully planned and apart of a far larger plan that he formed before the foundations of the earth were even laid.

Now, this is what the Lord says,

the one who created you, O Jacob,

and formed you, O Israel:

“Don’t be afraid, for I will protect you.

I call you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I am with you;

when you pass through the streams, they will not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;

the flames will not harm you.

For I am the Lord your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your deliverer.

I have handed over Egypt as a ransom price,

Ethiopia and Seba  in place of you.

Since you are precious and special in my sight, 

and I love you,

I will hand over people in place of you,

nations in place of your life.

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.

From the east I will bring your descendants;

from the west I will gather you.

I will say to the north, ‘Hand them over!’

and to the south, ‘Don’t hold any back!’

Bring my sons from distant lands,

and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,

everyone who belongs to me,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed – yes, whom I made!

Isaiah 43v1-7

We are made in God's image. And an image is created in order to point back to the original. So we are to reflect, like a mirror, God's glory. Through what we do and say. We are to be like God, to imitate his attributes and live according to his will.

The world around us is spectacular! Think of all the billions of stars, or the Niagara falls, the green rolling landscape of New Zealand, the Northern lights, the oceans so deep they cannot be explored, or the simple everyday things such as sunrise and sunset, the sun and moon. Everything displays his might and majesty. We are apart of his creation. Are one purpose is to worship and glorify God. God doesn't need us, but he wanted to display his mercy and grace.

The Northern Lights.

He accomplishes this through his redemptive plan; through the crucifixion of his one and only son. This sacrifice reveals his faithfulness, love, grace and abounding mercy. Nothing that we truly deserve. God, the most holy one, owed us nothing, yet he did this for us. When we were nothing but dead in our transgressions.

China

God's ultimate glorification comes through the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross as a way for all those who believe in him, but repent of their sins will have eternal life. This act displays the grace that is literally lavished upon us. We have been given so much grace we are practically drowning in it. We did not deserve salvation, why do we so often think that God owes us?
This is God's world and he can do as he sees fit. We cannot demand from him, and insist he do what we want. We are not in control; he is.

This passage speaks primarily of the nation Israel, and how God will never abandon her, and how he has preserved her through so many hardships and difficulties. And even though this doesn't directly apply to Christians, we can draw encouragement and hope from this passage because it tells us why people were made. And it reminds us that even though we are fickle and break our promises to each other, God is always faithful and he never breaks his word. If we have been saved, he won't let us go.

I am here to display God's love and mercy. Are you?

Does your life reflect the salvation that you have received from Christ? Mine often doesn't, it is something I fail at daily.

Machu Pichu in Peru

The Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

A prayer request

I am normally fairly anonymous on my blog. I prefer to be unknown, however I have a big request of anyone who reads this.
My family is trying to save enough money in order for my Dad to study for his MDiv (Master of Divinity) at the Master's Seminary in LA, California.
We will need a not so small miracle to be able to move to California and to pay the tuition fees, getting a place at the Seminary was the easy part! 

I just want to ask for your prayers, they are deeply coveted right now. 

Check out the information page here,

 Supporting the Forsyth family through Seminary

Thank you =)

The Winco and Trader Joe's experience!

So, I've been in the US of A for over a month, and I had never been to Winco or Trader Joe's! How bad is that, right?! Pretty awful, especially for a complete foodie like myself. So a couple of nights ago I went with two friends to both Winco and Trader Joe's. And let me tell you, this country just gets better and better, and hasn't disappointed as yet.

Winco is so big and awesome! On the down note, I found out I had paid a lot more for my organic creamy peanut butter online, and left Winco with a very large jar of Adams crunchy peanut butter. When I see peanut butter, I get peanut butter. But anyway, they have these huge bins of nuts, granola, dried fruit, grains, seeds, everything!! They even had chili coated mango?! Yes! And you could buy chocolate by the pound. For the record, dark chocolate coated strawberries are divine. Fact.
And then they had fridges full of almond milk and, even better, coconut milk. Hmmmmmm, hmm.

But then we hopped back into the car and went to Trader Joe's. I guess it's like Wholefoods but a little cheaper. They have some amazing dark chocolate bars, imported from Belgium, naturally.

All this, and it wasn't even 7:30pm.

I was also introduced to organic peanut butter panda puffs! It is so lush! I had it in a mug with coconut milk. It's like that really unhealthy, too sweet golden nuggets cereal back in England, but a hundred times better. And um, eating cereal from a mug is so cool, go try it.
also what I love about this cereal is that it doesn't have bucket loads of sugar, which would give me a headache, it is sweetened with cane juice, which although not ideal is far better and healthier than what they could put in it.

So this was pretty much the highlight of my weekend; don't judge, you know you're jealous!

Letters from home

I got post this week. I was so excited to have a little brown envelope with a Royal mail stamp in the upper right hand side! Inside were three letters; one from each of my youngest siblings.

I was so happy! A letter is like your character bound up in ink. You can convey who you are through the words you choose. A letter is so personal and means so much. It's like sitting next to that person and having a conversation with them, albeit a one sided conversation.
Reading my three letters was like spending minutes with them, talking to them, enjoying their time. They took time out of their day to remember me, and took the effort to let me know that they missed and loved me. They love me enough to give up their time to make sure I don't feel forgotten and unloved.
The Atlantic ocean is vast, yet I feel the love of my siblings, trussed up in paper and ink. It's incredible how such small things bring happiness to one's heart and brightens everything around you.

Learning to trust

Sometimes God takes you completely out of your comfort zone in order to force you to trust in him. Sometimes the only way to make you entirely dependent on him is to change your situation so drastically that you have no other option but to give it all to God.
Sometimes your circumstances are so incredible that in order to truly believe where you are, you have to trust in him.
Sometimes in order to not be completely overwhelmed by terror and fear at your position you have to entrust every single aspect of your life to God.
Sometimes God tests you in many different areas all at once and all you can do is cry to God for help.
Sometimes you can find utter peace when you look back at what has come about, and trust that he has everything that is to come in his hand.