2009 :)

Most of you kinda know what happened to me this year. So I am choosing to sit down and give it all from a new refined perspective. The truth is looking back on the year now everything just seems different.
January-March
Hah where do I begin?? At the very beginning of this year I appeared in Mid Summer Nights Dream and went to my second youth retreat. At the beginning of February my Mom was diagnosed with Diverticulitis, this was hard for me to work through at first. With that came some hard stuff, it revealed the yuck of my heart. Having been in a state of recovery from my depression/suicide attempt, the Lord did something amazing. Having lost everything that was important to me in late 2008 God was pulling me out of that mess. When I lost my group of friends at church and my connection with the church, I chose to leave my church. After talking it through with an adult, it was clear the Lord wanted me to stay put. I didn't know why or really how I was gonna make it but I made a promise to the Lord that night to stay at my home church. This is just a small bit of my testimony. March was an entire month of intense training in both evangelism, the Bible, and witnessing tools.
April-June
In April the Lord took me to San Francisco. A place that to be completely honest, I never thought I'd go. It was an awesome trip of full out missions work. As I poured into the community the Lord blessed me abundantly. I was faithful to the promise I made in February and God was faithful to bless me. He gave me amazing friends again!! Something I really didn't think I was going to gain back that fast and better than that he mended many broken friendships. God did a huge work in my life in San Francisco. I didn't want to leave, but he gave me the strength to trust him and get through it. Upon leaving San Fran I started talking a lot with another student named Evan ;). It was a simple friendship and awesome spiritual talks, just in total awe of what Jesus had just done on the trip. However, God had different plans for that relationship and after about two weeks of talking we realized how much we liked each other. We waited on the Lord and got to know each other for all of May and June. In May I appeared in yet another show.... Bye Bye Birdie and was honored with a lead role for the first time. June was a busy month of fundraisers and hard work for Ireland. It was a month of learning to trust my Jesus all over again, allowing him to be my great provider. As I stressed through some of my biggest payments for Ireland the Lord worked through all of them. At the end of the month I went to the hospital to say goodbye and to minister to my Aunt in her final days of life.
July-September
It was one of the best years of VBS as I saw many incredible things happen. July 29th, I took off on a plane and I went to Ireland. God had totally blessed my trip and paid the way entirely!! I don't know how to summarize those moments in Ireland (amazing how I still can't articulate what the Lord did). Lets just say many life's were changed and mine being one of them. One of the biggest sacrifices I faced going to Ireland was my Aunt. She was quickly fading and I had no idea if she would pass while I was halfway across the world. God blessed that as well and she survived until four days upon my return home. It was more than difficult I couldn't cry and I couldn't respond in a way that made sense. I kept to myself for around two weeks after her death (for heavens sake I was still jet lagged and grieving at the same time). In September just a week before my birthday we had her memorial service. I chose to speak at it something I had no intentions of doing. But I had promised her that day in the hospital that I would tell her family that she had gone home to meet Jesus. I turned sixteen in September and got the greatest birthday present man could give. I was blessed with the news that I am going to be an Aunt in 2010!!
October-December
These past three months have been both trying and amazing. The Lord has put things in my path that I never expected. He has guided me through all of them and I am thankful. My cousin Josh died early October and his passing brought a hard thing to the table after having just lost his mom in September. On October 18th after getting my parents permission, Evan asked me to be his girlfriend. I was so stoked it felt like decades that we had waited on the Lord and prayed (though it had only been six months ;). The Lord has blessed me with amazing grades this semester and I am now preparing to end my first semester of Junior year (crazy huh?). I am grateful for such an amazing year. I am thankful the Lord has pulled me out of the misery and sin of depression. I am thankful he removed the veil of deception and gave me worth in him. I found myself in God this year and for that I am ever grateful. I am thankful that Jesus has blessed my family and friends with good health and taken home the one's who were suffering far to much. I am thankful for another year in the presence of the Lord!
Be Blessed in 2010
Much Love, Ayana <3