What stirs your affections for Christ?!

We have started "house groups" at our church! what is a house group you may ask? on Sunday nights we meet with a small group of people at our church at someone's house and our main goal is to make disciples! These groups are all multigenerational and the first night we started, some of the people in the group had never even met! What a wonderful way for the church to grow together and learn more about each other and disciple the generations. It has been awesome! Dave and I have been meeting at Scott and staci hutchesons home and....wow are they amazing hosts! Last night she made a huge pot of chili and we had petros and amazing desserts, Yum! I love each person in the group so much! We are going to start serving the community together and it's exciting to think about 11 different house groups in our church out serving the community! 

We are going through a series called "gospel revolution." In our discussion last week we started talking about how we hate sin and ways to turn your heart towards God and away from your sins. Which is so difficult and something we will never fully grasp until we enter heaven. But one thing we discussed was stirring your affections for Christ so that you are so in love with Him and close to Him that it makes it harder for you to sin. Stirring your affections for Christ does not just have to be sitting down reading scripture and praying, which are great things, but Dave challenged us to think of things that just made us marvel at God and draw close to Him just throughout our daily life. 

For me, I loooove to walk! But even more, I love to walk and listen to Hillsong blasting in my ears and I almost want to shout and sing along but people around me may think I'm crazy! :-) but I just love to marvel at Gods creation being outside and listening to worship music! Dave on the other hand hates to walk, he would rather run and he loves to put in a good sermon in his phone and run and listen to sermons. Can you see how stirring our affections for Christ is different for each person! Lol! Lori talked about how she loved to sit on the patio near the beach at night and marvel at God while listening to the waves crashing! And Carolyn loves to read hymns and think about the words and how God inspired those words in people so long ago. Another thing I love to do is to go out to coffee with women a little older than me and hear about their walk with Christ and just find encouragement in them. Tessa Shaw has been such a blessing to me when we have our coffee dates and I am learning so much from her! Dave's nana and I get together regularly for coffee and meals and her stories are just amazing! We have so much to learn from the older generations and it really brings me closer to Christ being around mentors in my life because I thank Him so much for placing them in my life! 

I also love being a labor and delivery nurse! How can I not be amazed at God each night when I see the birth of a baby! Wow! What an honor to be in the room when two people become parents for the first time and their parents become grandparents! I don't want to take it for granted that God has blessed me with this job and I want to make each families experience the best it can be. I'm thankful that each night at work my affections can be stirred for Christ while doing something as simple as getting the baby's first weight and length and getting their footprints! Awesome!

Ultimately, I want to do things that bring glory to God! I want to live my life filled with the spirit and intimate with Christ! I want to grow closer to Him every day and I'm so thankful for His creation and ways He has given us to marvel at creation, enjoy His creation and the people He created that we get to live life with!

So, what stirs your affections for Christ? What can you take time to do on a daily basis that will make you marvel at God and thank Him for His blessings and just make your heart so filled with love for Him?!

Where did time go?

Ironically, I am sitting here drinking a cup of HOT TEA and decided I needed to blog again. Working the night shift, I usually can switch back to sleeping through the night when I am not working, but tonight I am just wide awake. So, I decided to reunite with my "Tea with Chrissy" site. I am not great with the internet world so I was pleasantly surprised when my passwords worked and I was able to find my blog page online. So, here I am!

Last time I wrote a blog, I was Chrissy "Duncan." It has been awhile! But, I still love hot tea (come over and have some and chat with me sometime) and I need to have more relaxing moments like this where I sit down and write some of my thoughts. Even if it is the middle of the night... lol.

Our Women's Ministry at church has challenged all the women to memorize scripture together this year, with accountability partners to encourage us and "quiz" us on our memorization at church or facebook or wherever! We are starting with two a month and Tessa and Jessica wrote the most beautiful applications to go along with each verse.
My index cards with all my verses sit in my kitchen window. I can't claim that I cook a lot and that is why they are in the kitchen, but I do LOVE to look out of my kitchen window into the yard everyday! Today I found myself standing in the kitchen just saying the three verses I have memorized so far out loud over and over again. I was just praying them into my life and was so encouraged by them. I want the verses to be true in my life and having them memorized is so beneficial to thinking on them throughout your daily life.

The first verse is "So, as those who have been chose by God, holy and beloved; put on a heart of compassion, kindness, gentleness, humility and patience; bearing with one another and forgiving each other. Colossians 3:12-13" I love this! It is so challenging!!! As a christian, God has called me to live a life that is compassionate, kind, gentle, humble and patient. I need to treat everyone in my life like this, from my husband, family, friends, church family, co workers, patients at the hospital and strangers but I fail everyday!! It is so hard when you are stressed, frustrated, tired, busy, overwhelmed etc but I need to be obeying Christ and treating others with the respect and kindness they deserve. This verse has definitely challenged me and I pray everyday that God will work on my heart in this area!

The second verse is "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Psalm 34:8" We all have so much to be thankful for! We have to remember this verse and promise when life is challenging us and Satan is beating us down! The Lord is GOOD and He blesses our life even when stress, frustration, battles, anger, loneliness, and hurt all turn us away from having a grateful heart.  Even in our most ungrateful and lowest moments, we can always find SOMETHING to be thankful for! I have seen very close friends go through miscarriages, cancer and divorce this past year. Heartbreaking... but "Blessed is the man who Trusts in HIM!"
I love this song we have been doing at church recently and I hope it encourages you!

There is strength within the sorrow, There is beauty in our tears
You meet us in our mourning, With a love that casts out fear
You are working in our waiting, Sanctifying us
When beyond our understanding, You’re teaching us to trust

Your plans are still to prosper, You have not forgotten us
You’re with us in the fire and the flood
Faithful forever, Perfect in love
You are sovereign over us

You are wisdom unimagined, Who could understand your ways
Reigning high above the heavens, Reaching down in endless grace
Youʼre the Lifter of the lowly, Compassionate and kind
You surround and You uphold me, Your promises are my delight

Even what the enemy means for evil
You turn it for our good, You turn it for our good and for your glory
Even in the valley You are faithful
Youʼre working for our good, Youʼre working for our good and for your glory

This song is so hard to sing when we are going through trials, but what a blessing it is to know we can trust in God who is in control of our lives and uses trials to show us His faithfulness.
Speaking of God's goodness, I encourage everyone who happens to read this blog to think on the things you are thankful for today! Spend some time counting your blessings today!

Beth-Ann...

My sister is getting married in the morning and I cannot sleep. There are so many memories and special moments running through my head! I could fill books and books on the crazy things beth-ann and I have done together... But here are a few highlights!

From the moment I was born beth-ann and I became roomates. Every night we would talk and giggle till we got in trouble.. But it never stopped us from talking and giggling the next night! Beth-ann was the type of person I always found something to laugh about with! When I think about our relationship it pretty much consists of laughter! I just look at her and I burst out! Sadly, there have been many serious moments such as prayers or devotions etc where
I have busted out laughing for no reason just from looking at beth-ann! :-)

Beth-ann was a wonderful friend to me growing up! She was always there to listen and cheer me up! She would spend hours and hours listening to my problems and never mention her needs she is such a great big sister in that she was always looking out for me.

Beth-ann has the sweetest spirit and would always do anything I asked her to do and go the extra mile to make sure I was happy!
I have met so many people that already knew beth-ann prior to meeting me. They always say oh you are beth-Anns sister!!! She talks about you all the time and how wonderful you are! We heard this and that... Etc and I'm like no she is just being nice! She was always my biggest can and I always knew beth-ann was proud of me and cheering me on in life!

People used to ask us if we ever fought... And we would honestly always shake our heads and smile. Cause we never fought... we loved eachother too much and would end up laughing if a fight ever got close to starting!

I am so happy that ba has found Jared and they are getting married! I am just sad to be losing my childhood roomate and best friend! But I know she'll always be there to listen and cheer me up and make me laugh even if it's over the phone or text or vists to eachothers new homes!

She is going to be beautiful tomorrow! Jared is such a lucky guy to he getting such a jewel! But he is wonderful and loves her so much And will be a great husband to beth-ann!!

Beth-ann i wish you so much happiness with your husband and marriage! I love you so much!

The"UT" Chapter of My Life

I cannot believe that I will be graduating from the University of Tennessee on May 12th!  Time has flown by, and at the same time I feel like I have been at UT FOREVER!  I have been thinking a lot this week about the things I am going to miss and the people I have met and the person I have become since being here. 4 years of college will grow and shape you into an adult even when you don't notice it happening.

UT has been my "American" home.  I moved from South Africa in December of 2007, where I had lived since I was two years old, and came straight to Knoxville to start my first semester at UT.  My first impression when I was moving into the dorms was "Wow, the girls here have ALOT of clothes!" ha! My parents were still in South Africa and my grandpa moved me in. And then, he drove away and I don't think I have ever been so scared in my entire life! Beth-Ann, my older sister, lived a few floors down from me in the same girls dorm, and I called her that night and ended up sleepig in her room because I was just too overwhelmed and scared!

I moved from the warm sunny beach in South Africa to the coldest weather I had ever experienced in America! I remember being freezing! South Africa never gets CLOSE to being as cold as it can get here in Tennessee. I was so excited to see snow but could not sit outside in the snow and enjoy it because I had never owned a "heavy" coat in my life! :)  I remember being so miserable walking a mile to my classes in the freezing snow just crying and thinking "I am going to seriously die just walking to class, I will never be warm again!"

I remember trying so hard to be "American." I started dating Dave and asked him every day "Do my clothes look American?" "Is THAT what Americans like to eat??" "SO THIS is what Americans to do for fun!?" I would dress up in all orange and cheer on the basketball team not knowing what in the world was going on in the game. I would take forever buying a drink from the machine because I never remembered what quarters, dimes and pennies looked like.  My favorite thing was going to the library and heading straight for Starbucks. I had always heard about Starbucks, and it was the best treat in the world to me! I remember one of my closest friends from South Africa came to D.C. and my mom and I got to spend the weekend with her there. I took her to Starbucks and she said "Wow, Coffee in a to-go cup!"  No wonder I was so excited to go to the library! ha!

When Dave and I first started to "talk," we were hanging out at the BCM. He asked me if I wanted to grab something to eat down on the strip. (restaraunts near campus.) Well, all the restaraunts on the strip were new and exciting to me so I was like "YES, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING ME!!!!!!!" So, I asked him if he could give me a couple of hours, because in South Africa people do not eat out every day. It is usually for something special and not just to grab dinner on the go. So, I thought this was really special and got super dressed up. When we met up to head down to the strip, he was like "Why are you dressed up, we are just going to Wendys..." And I was like "I KNOW!!!!! Thank you for asking me!"
My friend Sarah Roberson and I would study for nursing together most nights and she introduced me to late night study candy. (brain food) It was then that I got addicted to Raisinets, Three Musketeers and MnMs.

When I was growing up, my dad would have to make trips to America occasionally for conferences and would always bring me back a Diet Dr Pepper! I would save that one diet dr pepper for the most special occasion! I would wait and wait and then finally sip on it all day just enjoying my taste of America. When I came to UT, I realized I could get a diet dr pepper each time I turned a corner at any little grocery store or drink machine. Let me just say that A LOT of diet dr pepper has been consumed in my college career!

My first football game was the most overwhelming experience! I didn't know that I HAD to wear orange and freaked out the night before because orange is not a color I just have stting in my closet. Everyone told me to meet at like 10am to tailgate when the game was at 6pm. I was thinking "WHY are we meeting so early, does it take that long to get to the front of the line???" I remember being crammed in the student section with my friends not knowing when to stand or sit or what I was cheering for! I got extremely sunburnt and was exhausted by the time it was over from cheering and trying to see over people and trying to figure out the actually rules of the game. It was a long game. And I couldn't believe that the next week we would do the whole process all over again! haha! I told Dave that I didn't understand why Americans liked sports so much, but obviously this was going to be my weekend entertainment throughout college!

I also loved having wireless internet at UT. In South Africa we always had to wait like ten minutes just to get logged on and then my dad would give me like ten minutes to be online on facebook. Seriously?? I was missing out! I entered into a whole new world when I realized I could get online anytime, anywhere, all the time, neverending, forever!!!! haha! Thats when I became an amazing facebook stalker and wrote novel long emails to my South African friends.

My parents met at the BCM and my sisters both were very involved and so I started to check it out as well! My sister Beth-Ann had already been going to the BCM and told me she knew who I was going to marry from there and his name was "David Williams." She had been in a class with him the previous semester and apparently she knows us both well! :) I started coming around the BCM wanting to find American friends so badly! I am the type of person who needs girls to TALK to! and walk with and have coffee with and share my life with!! I came to the right place apparently!
I started playing on the worship team at the BCM like two weeks into my first semester and have never stopped.  The crazy bass player, David Williams, has never stopped playing either. :)  The BCM has been the place where I have found my bestest friends and of course my future husband! I have had the greatest time just getting to know the people and having a home away from home.

I had already decided in high school that I wanted to be a nurse and started doing everything I knew possible in order to get accepted into the UT Nursing Program. I went and spoke to the advisors, took 12 hours of summer classes, stayed up late studying, woke up at 4am to study multiple times during my micro class, got to know girls in the nursing program that I knew from the BCM, prayed, prayed harder, stressed more, worked like crazy, became best friends with the library and finally on March 23rd, 2008 I got my acceptance letter to the UT College of Nursing! I was estatic!!!!!!!! March 23rd, 2008 was also Dave and I's one year anniversary of dating so it was a big celebration day for me! 

On the orientation day the professors told us that we were sitting in a room of 100 strangers and soon these people would become our best friends. And that has been so true for me! Through 8 hour clinical days, Monday class days that last for 9-10 hours, labs, study dates, lunches and coffees I have been blessed to have the most amazing girls on my journey with me through nursing school! We have stressed and been exhausted together and cleaned up poop together in hospitals, but cleaning up poop sure has bonded us in a special way! I am so thankful for nursing school and the way I have been exposed to so many different hospital experiences, gotten to know such amazing nurses, learnt so much from my fantastic professors and grown so much as an individual! I love nursing, sooooo much! I loved all my clinicals and loved the people I got to meet in the hospitals. This nursing career is going to be an excitig journey!

I am going to enjoy tomorrow, my LAST day to study for a nursing test in college! I am going to live it up with some starbucks, raisinets and diet dr pepper! But once I take that final, I must say, I will be THRILLED to be done! I am ready to just BE a nurse, BE a wife, BE in the real world and NOT have to study or go to classes!

But UT has been a great adventure and I will always look back on my time here with great memories!

Wedding Season!

In the past month I have attended 4 showers.... needless to say....it is WEDDING SEASON!

When I got engaged in August, I didn't realise that I was about to start a huge trend! ;-)  I thought I was one of few people engaged and planning a wedding...until I showed up to my nursing class the first day of Fall semester!  EVERYONE was enagaged!  And as the year went on, even MORE people got engaged, one being my own sister! I soon realised that I was not in this wedding planning business alone and the new fun thing to do in class was to compare engagement rings and show each other wedding plans.  It definitely has been a fun time!

As I think back on my engagement period so far, I just smile.  It has been a total blast!  I have loved every minute of wedding planning, I have not been stressed, I have received SOOOOOO much help and encouragement and support from friends and family and I have just been so excited about planning the big day!

But I am way more excited when I think about the man God gave me and the life we have together!  I could not be more thankful for David and for God placing us together so perfectly in His plan!  As little girls we dream about the man we are going to marry and write lists of characteristics they have to have and what they should look like and act like etc. (at least i did! ha!) David truly meets ALL my dreams and then adds pages and pages to a list of things in a husband I didn't even know I wanted, but God just blessed me with anyway.

David is so fun and crazy and brings so much happiness to my life. I remember first meeting him at the BCM and thinking he was so "American" which to me meant LOUD, confident and hilarious!  David is one of the most romantic people I have ever known.  He has written me songs, made me a pillow for my birthday with messages from all my south african and american friends when I was homesick my first year here, carved a heart out of tree bark for me when he was away at a summer camp, put together a scrapbook of our relationship, cooked me dinner by candlelight, bought me roses, written me love letters and every day tells me that I am beautiful and that he loves me. :) He is my biggest supporter and has let me cry on his shoulder over nursing tests and drama with friends  and general stressors anytime I'm upset.  We have "bagels and bibles" time where we do devotions together and pray while eating our favorite bagels. I cannot even begin to count the times David has shown up at my door or at the library with my favorite starbucks coffee, a three musketeers bar, wheat thins or a diet mountin dew just to say hey :)  He writes me notes, which I LOVE, and I constantly find little love letters in my notebooks and mailbox.  He loves God will all his heart and tells me that he loves God more than He loves me, but that only makes him love me the best way possible.  David is always ready to go out and do something fun, and I absolutely love our walks, hikes, shopping sprees, lazy days in Borders, Dollywood trips and finding fun restaurants!  We love our TV shows ad could definitely spend a Saturday or two watching Lost seasons and Greys Anatomy. :)
I have never been complimented so much in my entire life before I met David, and some days I lose count on how many times he tells me I'm beautiful and have the most prettiest eyes in the whole world.  :)

I just cannot believe that David ever took notice of me, the random South African girl, who looked at him with shock and horror as he screamed for the UT mens basketball team with no shirt on and body painted orange and asked WHY sports in America was such a big deal? ha.
We have grown so much together these past few years and I know we have an exciting future ahead of us! 

I have enjoyed going to so many showers and getting so excited for my close friends and their future spouses and lives as married woman!  I think about how each of us are so different and have such different plans for our lives, but we ALL are going to be some lucky (ha) guy's wife and maybe one day mommies! :)
I love how each gift we get at showers is from a special friend, and when we use it in our home we can always think of eachother and pray for eachother in this next journey of our lives!

But most of all, these showers remind me that this is for real! People are giving me kitchen pans, for me to use, in my new home, to cook for my new husband, and I AM REALLY GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!

I still can't believe that David is my groom... but I am going to thank God every day for the extra special blessing!

Friends and Walking

If you know me, you know that I love to walk....like alot....obession alot!  When David was first trying to grab my attention, he asked Beth-Ann what I liked, and she said "hot tea, hillsong and walking." So, he asked me to go on a walk around campus after our first little chat....and I was in love! :)

BUT, I would like to explain my slight obsession for walking and all the benefits it has in my life. :)              
And maybe it will inspire you to grab some friends, find a park and start walking to! :)
I mainly go walking to SOCIALIZE! :) I have certain girlfriends that I have developed weekly walking schedules with, and that is when we catch up on life AND exercise at the same time!

I think it all started with Rachel Riley.  We walked like crazy people to relieve our nursing stress during freshman and sophomore year.  She then transferred to Carson Newman and in order for us to keep in touch, we just decided to walk together every week no matter what!  We did miss a few, but we always tried! Lakeshore is our favorite and Rachel is intense at working out and always makes me do 4 miles. ha. Rachel is now engaged and so of course we walk and talk wedding wedding wedding!

Lauren James and I became so close during or time living at the BCM. Living together made it so easy to plan walks and get motivated. I remember for some reason we always fit our walks in early in the morning, and we would drag ourselves out the BCM door with no makeup on and hair in a mess and start walking! Lauren and I always had a million things to talk about, and now that she is at JMU in grad school I would give ANYTHING to enjoy a walk with her!

Chelsea Brooks and I have also developed a little walking social life together since we started nursing school and during this time we really developed our friendship and now she is one of my bridesmaids! She introduced me to Cherokee Trail in Sequoya Hills and I LOVE it! The whole thing is nearly 6 miles, and I think ONE time we might have done the whole thing! :) Chelsea got me through a lot of stressful times and helped me make it through nursing school with all her advice and help! She is a pro at nursing and got into Vanderbilt for Peds nursing! Go Chelsea! :)

Laura Hood and I met at the BCM and she told me she loved parks, and so I decided to introduce her to all the parks in Knoxville! We always go to Tyson and get lost in the gorgeous greenway! Tyson is so fun and it takes you all the way to Kingston Pike. But I don't think we ever went THAT far! Laura is such an amazing, godly friend who always asks about my walk with Christ on our walks, and things usually get deep and spiritual and I love it!

My cousin Megan is one of the most amazing cooks you will ever meet! She also is a hardcore walker and so we meet up at Trex on campus and more recently Lakeshore and catch up on our lives! She is making the groomscake for my wedding and I know it will look fabulous! She came and lived in South Africa with me for a few months my senior year, and we were the most avid step class members at my gym in South AFrica. If the class was offered, we were there! :)

Kayley Ray is like my twin. She probably loves walking more than me and she loves starbucks and green foods and we are just quite the pair. We started walking together when she came to UT at the beginning of the year. She is from Jefferson City, and so over Christmas break, we did not let the tradition die and we met up at Panther Creek in the freezing cold and walked walked walked! :) She is making my wedding cake and everyone is in for a treat!!!!! She did a trial run, mini version of the cake in December and it was gorgeous!

And of course, the people I have walked with my whole life.... my family! Every time I am home on break, SOMEBODY in my family is always there to walk with me! My mom and I will go and talk forever, my dad likes to go on walks and talk about my future (ha) and my sisters of course walk with me and we always have the best time!

David and I walked 5 miles tonight at Tyson! We have done hiking trails, random trails in Knoxville just to be adventurous and Lakeshore, Cherokee and Tyson a million times. Our most recent walks and talks are about wedding plans and jobs and where we are going to live and graduating and BCM etc etc! I really hope he loves our walks, because he will be walking with me for the rest of his life! :)

RN, Registered Nurse, REAL NURSE!

God opened a door for me this week that I NEVER thought He would open, and I am running through it!

I don't even know where to begin!

David, my gorgeous fiance and best friend, and I have been planning on moving to Wake Forest, NC once we graduate since the summer of last year.  We have been so excited about this adventure and big move as newlyweds and even had a townhouse already picked out.  David was going to be attending seminary and I was going to start my career as a nurse in a hospital.
I started looking for jobs and talking to recruiters in December and was determined to find a job and have everything lined up by March! I over plan a lot, but with this, I wanted to make sure we would have a source of income and way to pay expenses before we picked up and moved.
David and I spent our date nights applying to every hospital we could find and emailing recruiters.  We made phone calls and thought we had tried everything possible.

To make a long story short, God closed the door. I don't know why, but obviously His plan is greater than what I had over planned for.  I have been so depressed and disappointed and confused by this and I was just so worried about making a big move without me having a job after getting a degree in nursing and feeling like my college career was a waste.

I started my senior preceptorship on the Labor and Delivery Unit at UT Medical Center on Saturday April 2nd. During April, each senior in our nursing program is placed one on one with a nurse in our area of interest to get intense trainig and learn everything we can about that field before we graduate. I fell in LOVE with the UT Labor and Delivery Unit when I started this weekend! I had such an amazing time being apart of so many births and helping in such a beautiful moment for families! To my surprise and EXCITEMENT, on Wed April 6th,  I was offered a job to join the Labor and Delivery team as a new grad nurse when I graduate! 
 Labor and Delivery is my PASSION, I loooooove it!

Now I have to brag on David. When I told him about the job offer, he prayed about it and had such an amazing willing attitude to change the initial seminary plan so that I could take this opportunity. He knew I was so extremely excited to get a job offer in my area of interest and at a place I know and love!!  He is going to do some online seminary work and extension through southeastern and start looking for a church here in Knoxville where he can serve, learn and grow for a few years before we go to seminary.

I see this as a huge change in plans for us, but I think God is teaching us that He will provide even if it doesn't happen the way we thought it would. I am excited about working in L and D, like sooooooooo much!  I am going to work so hard and love on a whole bunch of pregnant ladies and newborn babies!
David has been an amazing support, and he is going to take every opportunity he can to use this time to grow and learn in a church and gain experience! South Eastern also offers online classes and so he is going to do those in order to get credit hours in and start his seminary experience even while we are here, which is so exciting!

I am excited about our marriage and getting a cute townhouse here in Knoxville and all the amazing things God has in store.  I can't wait to buy my first pair of scrubs for a real RN job and start working!
Please pray for David and I as we start this new adventure! :)