a passion of mine

Many of you know that I do work for a non-profit organization called LiNK (Liberty in North Korea). This time, last year, I was sitting in a film screening that was hosted by LiNK & I found myself yearning to act. After watching footage of the atrocities that are taken place currently in North Korea, & finding out how the world is so blind to the human rights crisis going on there, I knew that I had to do something. I wasn't sure what that "something" was, however I wasn't going to waste anytime trying to figure it out. Within two weeks, I sold my car, moved out of my apartment, sold my belongings, dropped out of school & moved to Torrance, CA where the LiNK HQ's is located. I began training to go on the road as a "LiNK Nomad" for 2 months. Needless to say, my life since then, has been radically changed. And for the better.
My eyes have been opened, & my heart has been drawn to this issue more so than anything else in this life.

I say all of this to you because LiNK has the opportunity to be apart of a contest to WIN $250,000. Pepsi recently created a campaign called the Pepsi Refresh Project where they are giving away money to the groups/ideas that receive the most amount of votes. Only the TOP TWO candidates will receive the $250k! When we entered the contest, we were in 68th place. As of today, we are in 4th place! We have climbed so high due to social networking sites such as facebook, twitter & myspace. People have made videos, put us in blogs & even announced us on the radio. This is so monumental for this organization. By winning this competition, LiNK will be able to provide assistance to North Korean refugees who have not only escaped from their country but who have also been resettled into a country where they are 'free'. We will provide a community for them, where they will learn, be loved, grow & be educated. We are not asking for money, we are not asking for much of your time. All we are asking for are your VOTES. You can vote once a day, EVERYDAY until February 28th. We have been stuck in 4th place for a few days, & we are up against well known organizations. But I have not lost hope. Please, spend the next 8 days broadcasting & promoting this contest. Get creative! Reach out to your school, church, your favorite band, etc. The easiest way to get people to vote is to post it on your facebook or twitter. Educate your friends & family members about this! Remember, every vote counts!

TO VOTE: go EVERYDAY to www.linkglobal.org & from there, you can click VOTE! It takes 5 seconds.

I encourage you to go to our website & watch our media, read our history, & see the results of our organization.
Friends, I wouldn't ask this of you if it wasn't something that I whole-heartily believed in.

I will leave you with this video to watch. It's short! His name is Joseph & he is a North Korean refugee who escaped his country & found our organization. LiNK taught him English, fed him, protected him, educated him & helped him resettle into the USA where he now has freedom, like you & I. Joseph holds a very dear spot in my heart. I have met him & still talk to him. He is a blessing & a miracle. Tell his story.

Joseph:The Underground from LiNK Global on Vimeo.

Heal my heart & make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

Keep fighting.

i forgot to mention...

...in my last blog, that i got a job! woo-hoo!
It is only once a week, but it will bring in enough money to practically cover my rent! Praise God.
I had my interview yesterday, & they offered me the position on the spot!
I will be working for this church in Long Beach on Sunday mornings facilitating the youth, doing teachings, mentorships, activities, worship, etc. I am really, really excited about this. It is doing something I really love to do, & it is only 4 hours a week at a fantastic pay. Now, I just need to find some part time work during the week & I'll be able to meet the rest of my bills.
The Lord has definitely provided for me in this hard time, & I am excited to embark on this new chapter!
Thank you for your prayers & please, always, always let me know how I can be in prayer for you all.

& all of this to say, I found this job on craigslist. haha!

I hope you all have a wonderful monday!

Fight on.

dragoste

dragoste - love, in Romanian.

:]

Valentine's Day. A day to celebrate a love that you share with someone. Someone special & dear to your heart. There is nothing wrong with that, in fact, that is a beautiful thing! Yes, some may say it is a hallmark holiday, but who cares! Another day to feel special, & make someone else feel special too. I encourage it. So, dear friends, if you have a special someone, remind them that they are special to your heart. You don't need money, you don't need gifts, just your time & attention. So give it.

I do not have a significant other to share this day with, but I am okay with that. It warms my heart to see my friends status updates & tweets, pictures & posts about what they are doing today & who they are sharing it with. I thought today would be a bitter day for me, but it is not. I am single, lovin' Jesus, & observing that love is truly in the air.
If you are single, or miserable on this day, know that the God of this universe, loved you before you even knew what love was. His love is unconditional & never ending. Now that, that is something to rejoice in!

So blog readers, I leave you with one of my favorite Bright Eyes song, & hope it will bring joy to your heart & remind you of how special you are

Be blessed today.

This is the first day of my life
I swear I was born right in the doorway
I went out in the rain suddenly everything changed
They're spreading blankets on the beach

Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Now I don’t know where I am
I don’t know where I’ve been
But I know where I want to go

And so I thought I’d let you know
That these things take forever
I especially am slow
But I realize that I need you
And I wondered if I could come home

Remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange you said everything changed
You felt as if you'd just woke up
And you said “this is the first day of my life
I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you
But now I don’t care I could go anywhere with you
And I’d probably be happy”

So if you want to be with me
With these things there’s no telling
We just have to wait and see
But I’d rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery
Besides maybe this time is different
I mean I really think you like me

remember my chains

I love reconnecting with the people who made the most impact in your life at one point & seeing where they are now, & discussing where you are as well. This past September marked 10 years of me being a Christian. I have never regretted a single minute of it. My first youth pastor that I had was Jeff. Him & his wife, Rebecca soon became like second parents to me. Within a month of my father leaving my family, I stepped, for the firs time, onto a church property and was greeted by these two amazing, God-fearing people. My life was forever changed.
It has been almost 7 years since I last saw Jeff & Rebecca, but their words of wisdom, guidance, & love has followed me in all of the decisions I have made in life.
Late last night I noticed Jeff was online on facebook, so I sent him a message & that was the start of our 2 hour online conversation. It consisted of jokes, laughter, tears & complete awe of God & how he truly speaks through His children. A lot was discussed & I walked away from our conversation desiring to seek God even more about what He is doing in my life currently.
Two major things he told me & that I learned was that,

Don't make contemporary decisions off of historical pain.
&

While we wait on the Lord, He is at work in our lives.

I am currently waiting on the Lord for guidance. I have been for quite some time now, & through it I have learned so much about my self & about my heart. God truly blesses us when we walk in obedience. I know my life & my heart isn't all figured out, & that is okay, but I know & trust that the Lord is going to provide for me & for those around me & heal all of our wounded hearts.
We have to believe this; we have to place our faith in this.

I don't ever want to just sit still in life. It's not worth it. Friends, I hope that wherever you are in life, right now, that you would not focus on the negative or the pain, but instead, surrender that to God. Trust me, He will respond. It may not be in the way you would like it to be, but His plan is always better than ours. So, if you are stagnant in your life right now, search for something to push you; find purpose in life. It always is a lovely experience when we go soul searching, I highly encourage it.

That is enough rambling for a night!

*If you could pray for me financially I would appreciate it, friends. I have been unemployed for 3 weeks now, & am running really low on funds. I have been looking, but it is near impossible to find a job right now. I appreciate it :)
&& please let me know how I can be praying for all of you (whoever reads this!)

....ONE LAST THING! :]
watch this video & please VOTE everyday for LiNK at : www.refresheverything.com/link to win $250k
thanks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eaSYSnpvv0
Keep fighting the good fight.
...even when it seems impossible.

Hand grenade.

Oh, to be young
It sounds like so much fun
Oh, the long wait
For things to happen, expectancy
And you, just waiting on me
I wanna know what's in your plans

If you're an ocean
Then I wanna jump right in
If you're a hand grenade
Then I'll pull the pin
I'll wait right here, all night for you
To let me in and I'll run run run run
Run right back to you, I'll run

Life's moving faster now
I'm older here
But younger somehow
Head full of fear
And it makes me break
Please let me find you
Please let me know
Just what you want
Please let me see
What you need me to be

Oh, if you could see in me
You might be kinda scared
Oh, if you could just believe
You'll take me anywhere

-The Almost

Our walk with God is not meant to be this easy path that we follow. It is meant to be full of hardships & struggles because without those moments, we can not grow. We need to be stretched so that we can continue to morph more & more into the image of Christ that we were created to be.
In the stage of life that I have found myself in lately, I've been really taking steps back to reflect who I've been, who I currently am & use all that information to decide who I want to become. The key is not to only include myself in that decision, but ultimately taking that to the Lord & asking Him to reveal to me who He wants me to be.
There is a certain scripture that I've been reflecting on lately.

Psalm 37:4
Delight yourself in the Lord,
and He will give you the desires of your heart.

I used to think this verse somehow meant, Oh the Lord is going to give me whatever I desire/want...Then I woke up. Haha.
But now, when I think about it I feel that it is saying delight in God; surrender everything to Him, & He is the one that knows our hearts better than we do, & He ultimately knows what's best for us. So, when we delight in Him, He will give us those desires, that we may not even see.
I don't know if I am making any sense here. I hope you all understood that.

That's all for now.
Hope you are all well. I don't even think anyone reads this but hey, if there is someone out there, radical, if not, it is just a place for me to write out my thoughts. :] win-win.

Keep fighting the good fight.
<3

it doesn't feel as far when i know you're doing well

Sometimes I look back on the past few years & am amazed at where I am at, & other times I am frustrated that I haven't progressed it certain areas. For instance, school. I don't even want to think about how many times I have dropped out, didn't go, or did go but dropped classes. It bothers me, but at the same time I know that because of not going to school, I've been able to accomplish so many things that I didn't think that I would be able to do. Traveling for LiNK (www.linkglobal.org) was probably the biggest thing I did in the last few years. It was huge, & outside of all that I knew was comfortable. However, it radically changed who I am, & who I will continue to be. Moving out on my own was definitely life changing as well. I say all of this because I know for myself, I sometimes get down when I think about all of the things I haven't done, & forget about all of the things I have done.

that was just a ramble, but I felt like saying it.

----

I don't have much of an update today, sorry if you were looking for some profound blog, not today friends. I will say though, I have been on a Copeland high for a while now, & I have continued to fuel it by getting two albums that I didn't have before.
Dressed up & in line and Eat, Sleep, Repeat. I know, I know, you're saying, "Eat, Sleep, Repeat" is old, and I am just now getting it? Well, when I first heard it, *especially Control Freak* I was not impressed & rather bothered by the album. However, I was challenged to give it another chance, & I did. I can't believe I was missing out this entire time. It's like you can't say you fully know & love Copeland without listening to this album. I stand corrected.
Then, with Dressed up & in line, I was just browsing iTunes to see if there were any albums/EP's I didn't have & sure enough this is what I found! I can't believe I also was missing out on this album! There are a few acoustic songs that they reproduced on this album from other albums, but there are a few new (technically old since it was released in 2007) songs on there as well. Anywho, friends, fellow Copeland lovers, please get these albums if you don't already have them.
My favorite song ever just so happens to be by Copeland is "when Paula sparks" & they have an alternate version on this album. I cried. I am not a baby, but this song holds so many meanings to me. I can't believe this is the end for Copeland. Ah, I don't want to think about it. I can't wait to see them in March. Two times. San Francisco & The Glasshouse. It will be glorious.

...I can't believe I just wrote a blog about Copeland. Oh well. Deal with it. <3

& when you've found something to die for...
it can make you face all your fears
they'll be knocking on your heart's door.