Clarion University of Pennsylvania….
A YARD SALE for my TRIP in My College Town! WOW!
Memories flood my mind of partying, drinking, class, confusion, looking for a place where I could belong, Vinny’s Pizza, waitressing, Clarion Cross Country Team, Eating At Chandler Dining Hall, Gemmel ( where the food was a little better), friendship, and the Annual Autumn Leaf Festival. Of course not all of my times at Clarion were bad memories but this is a place where I look back and remember how far I truely fell away from God. I used to pray, read my Bible, and talk to Jesus. After going to college, I looked for a Bible study and had remembered joining one briefly for a few weeks but not really feeling engaged. I felt like why try being Christian? I don’t see anyone else trying? Where are the Christians here? So I drifted away. I wanted to fit in. Party after party, underage drinking, and all while trying to run NCAA Cross Country and keep balance. I was a typical college student. Trying to maintain grades, my health, social life…but wait there was something I was neglecting?? My faith. My Values. What I believed. My relationship with God became non-existant.
So After moving to Charlotte and numerous God encounters. I had gotten to my lowest point where all I could do was realize that God was all I needed. All of that other stuff was surface level. Superficial and I was only hurting myself. Jesus met me where I was and God called me back. I learned about what it meant to build others up in Christ and to be held accountable for things here.
Anyhow, Clarion’s painful memories still snuck up on me of how I had let go and went so far off of the path God had intended for me to be on. Especially earlier this year after hearing God call me to missions I had been wondering and praying; “God where were you in Clarion? Why didn’t I feel your presence there?”…. Then he said one night outside a large Christian Concert in Greenville, NC. ” My Child, I am taking care of this. I am sending someone to start a campus crusade for Christ ministry. There is restoration and redemption for Clarion”
Well it didn’t all go just like that! I had been feeling this overwhelming feeling from the Holy Spirit telling me to get outside and sell my Threads of Hope Bracelets before the concert let out. That this was a perfect opportunity to sell these bracelets. So I was obedient and went outside in the parking lot like the crazy girl I am! I sold to a few groups of people and then something happened. I went back to the car and thought “oh that is it”…but I felt something tell me to go back. So I went back to where I was and two Ladies were approaching me to buy a bracelet and they were so excited. Then something happened I will NEVER forget. I met Laura, and she said my sister is starting a missionary in Clarion. Tears welled up in my eyes and I knew that God had heard my cries about Clarion and about the lost on that campus, inluding my past hurts and regrets. I replied “No way! You aren’t going to believe this! Wow…I went to Clarion and that is where I fell away from God”.
Her sister would be Briana Underhill. This wonderful woman named Briana who loves Jesus so much, came with her family and left others behind in North Carolina to be obedient to God’s calling on her heart. He called her to Clairon and GOD WANTED ME TO KNOW!! WOW. That is amazing to me. It’s not a coincidence that God showed up in that parking lot to remind me of his love despite my past failures. I had been beating myself up about past regrets and failures but God knew all along and wanted to assure me of his love by placing this comfort here for me. To know that “I AM HIS CHILD! HE IS SADDENED THAT THIS HAPPENED AND our God wants REDEMPTION!” The Lord’s love and faithfulness is so true, so REAL, and so in our FACE @ times that I don’t understand why some people don’t believe in God.
Not only has Briana been an amazing encounter but continues to be touched by how God is working my life and God has laid me on her heart. She prays for me and I for her. What a blessing! Prayer buddies across the US! Which is beyond me! Briana held a $1 yard sale for me and blessed others in the process by being able to share prayer cards with the gospel on them! She also is selling her products from her website today and yesterday. There are cozy kernels and a few other neat things!
Please keep Briana, the Underhill family, and her ministry in Clarion Pennsylvania in your prayers as this has a very close hold on my heart. I know Briana is going to make huge impacts there! If you would like to help support Briana’s ministry please visit her site @http://www.newlifeclarion.com/ or you can buy her products @ http://vineyardgifts.weebly.com/index.html
I am tearing up again just thinking about the impact she is going to make there and God has some amazing things in store….
“Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your maker is your husband- The LORD Almighty is his name- the Holy One of Israel in your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in the spirit-a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God. For a brief moment I abandonded you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back.” Isaiah 54: 4-7
For a while I may have felt rejected but God welcomed and called me back…. I love God’s compassion and his deep love which will never abandon us.
WHAT CAN I DO BUT SAY:
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU FATHER!!!! AND Thank you to a sister in Christ near and dear to my heart, Briana and the Underhill Family… and to all those who have supported!!
