Thanksgiving feast on a cupcake...

         I got an early start on Thanksgiving and made these cupcakes. What do you think?

We have the Turkey cupcake

Here is a Thanksgiving Plate full of mashed potatoes and gravy, turkey and gravy and peas

And last but not least a Cherry Pie.

selfish verses selfLESS

       Selfishness and selfLESSness has been on my mind a lot lately. To be selfish according to Websters dictionary is :  concerned excessively or exclusively with oneself : seeking or concentrating on one's own advantage, pleasure, or well-being WITHOUT REGARD FOR OTHERS. The Key here is WITHOUT REGARD FOR OTHERS. Meaning, you are only looking out for yourself. When I think about what the world would be like if everyone was like that I am scared out of my mind. If everyone is ONLY Looking out for themselves there would be crime rates SKY ROCKETING because people would not care about the well being of others possessions. Everyone would be single because no one would want to marry someone who does not care about them, and that would lead to either:
 a- no reproducing because no one would want to care for an infant who is SCREAMING all of the time, whose diaper has to be constantly changed, who only WANTS and NEEDS things from you
                   OR
b- OVER population because everyone would only want pleasure, and women would be single with 6 kids because the man did not want to care for other people...
        - or rise in abortions because there would be no care for another's LIFE
And that scares me to death. Selfishness is talked about many times in the bible:


Proverbs 18:1
An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends; he defies all sound judgment.

Romans 2:8 
But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

Romans 15:1-2
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.


        Now on to selfLESSness. This is what I hope to be. I hope to put others before myself. I hope to help the "least of these" like mentioned in Matthew 25:40:
 " And the King will make answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Because you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."  If we help out others and they help out others then we will eventually create a chain reaction of selfLESS love and life will be so much easier. 
I have a story of great selfLESS love about my friend Richard.


         Richard came here from Africa with his little boy Alexander. He works super hard, but does not make enough money to live a life with ANY cushion what-so-ever. He has no winter coat, no boots, and sends his son off to school with only rice to eat, because that is all he can afford. One day he was down to his last $5, he was running out of gas, but saw a homeless man. He felt like God wanted him to give the man his last $5 and that He would be provided for. So Richard gave the man his money and was told " God Bless you sir. You will be blessed more than you know.". Richards goes back to work and is loading chairs into this woman's car, and she hands him a $30 tip! First of all, tips are not given at his job, but God provided. Richard is what we would consider to be "the least of these" but the homeless man is what Richard considered to be " the least of these". If we all do as Richard did, I truly feel that we would be a better world, and that we would actually BE THE CHURCH.

filling up belly's one conversation at a time...

       I am over joyed, all smiles, and feel so blessed after our first experience with feeding and clothing the homeless.  There were so many AMAZING people at Monroe Park today.  We set up shop and all of a sudden so many people with UNREAL stories started coming to our tables and grabbing some soup, sandwiches, cookies, coffee and water.

       We all met someone that warmed our hearts in a special way. For me, Liza, ,Olivia, Kela, Alex, Maddie and Ashley that woman was Mrs. Janice Fields!! Mrs. Fields was WONDERFUL! She was a fun and very open older woman who just wanted someone to talk to and share her story with. She came to Richmond from New Orleans after the hurricane. She lost her dog of 18 years in the storm and she said that she is in the same family as Miss Fields Cookies!! Crazy huh?

           For Andrew it was Don. Don has a great story, he is homeless by "choice". He has already WALKED from Maine to L.A. and now he is walking from Maine to Miami! He chose this life for himself after what he called a "dead end job" after 2 years and it was so amazing to get to hear his story and learn more about his life. Andrew got to talk to him about Jesus and the church and Mr. Don is coming to church tomorrow with us!

         There were many other amazing stories but you need to ask of of the many people who came to help us out tonight about their own experience. You see we learned today that there are many people in need. There are REAL people with REAL stories and REAL faces who just sometimes want someone to talk to. There are still skeptics out there and I understand your caution, I actually appreciate it. You see if you were to go with us you would have smelled alcohol on the breaths of 75% of the men and women we talked to BUT who are we to judge. That may be their way of numbing the pain, they may not have gotten the chance or taken the chance to get to know Jesus. He can take away their pain, but He needs us to open the door he is knocking on. I love the picture I get in my mind whenever I hear this saying: Jesus is knocking on the door for you, but there is no handle on his side, so you have to open it up for him.

         Thank you so much to all of the men and women who helped me get this project going. Thank you for everyone who has supported this and for all of your amazing hearts. Now:
                        WHO IS UP FOR DOING IT AGAIN????

People of HOPE

          As I write this I am overwhelmed with the overflow of love from the people of Hope Church!! I have been going to Hope for about 3 years now, and they have adopted me as their own. Parents allow me to hang out with their daughters, Pete gave me a chance to love on the youth, Nicole Unice has been my mentor and great friend, High School girls want to hang out with me, Women like Krista Quinby, Amy Robinson, Lisa Marshal, Melissa Robinson and Shannon Shaw have loved on me well and my faith has grown. And I have been connected to women my own age FINALLY like Meredith Rose, Clair Isenberg, Stacie McGeever and Kristy Younker. However, the most recent out pour of love has gotten my choked up a few times.

       As many people know, I have a huge love and heart for the homeless. And Nicole and Pete have let me run with my own homeless service project with the youth that involves Hope Church as a whole. This project has allowed me the awesome pleasure of meeting new people at Hope, and has allowed me to see that people at Hope WANT TO HELP. People I do not know are bringing in clothing for the Homeless and a whole plethora of food and drinks that we will be giving out. People are going out of their way to help this project out, and since this is my PASSION I feel an overflow of love personally as well.

      Hope Church has this awesome love for other people which comes from their love for Christ, which makes this love extraordinary and genuine. I feel honored to be a part of this Hope Family. Thank you so much to all of you who have helped me carry this project out. Thank you to the youth who are pulling together to buy food for Saturday and for all of you who have been asking me what I need more of and how you can help. Thanks everyone, I feel overwhelmed with your love and your love for Christ.

The key to a better butt and thighs....???

         My butt and thighs have never been more WORKED until my walk to Williamsburg with some really amazing people. Now which statement is more shocking? That I am writing a blog post about my butt or the fact that 13 people WALKED 48.2 miles to WILLIAMSBURG FROM RICHMOND??

         Let me first start off with our amazing journey to raise $2,100+. Our goal was to support one amazing girl, so that she could go live free of charge, at a home with Mercy Ministries. We all wanted her to get the second chance that she deserves.. We started off at 5:30am meeting up, doing some stretches and "yoga" in the chick-fil-a parking lot. Then our first group of runners took off and started up our amazing 18 hour day together. The awesome thing is we ended up raising enough money to be able to support her!!

        NOW let me show you and then tell you about my choice of attire....

(Kristy and I getting PUMPED)

        Yes, along with my mis-match clothes I am wearing REEBOK EASY TONES. You know the shoes with the commercial with all of the women wearing their short shorts showing off their butt and thighs?? Yea, I bought into the corporate scam and bought the shoes. BUT I took it a step further....

             You see, I hate working out. I am not a fan of "the burn". And running seems so boring to me, unless I am chasing a soccer ball. So I thought to myself:

                          " WHAT IF I WEAR MY REEBOK EASY TONES 

                             FOR THE 45ish MILES TO WILLIAMSBURG??

                             I can kill 2 birds with one stone and get a better butt 

                             and thighs in ONE DAY!!!"

Sounds brilliant huh?? I thought so too, until around mile 16, when I could hardly walk any longer. Anyways, turns out my plan was not so brilliant and I ended up at the orthopedist and he was telling me how I screwed up my IT band. 

BUT THE FUN DOES NOT STOP THERE... I got this gel stuff to rub on my knee. So I'm in class the other day (totally paying attention... ahem) and my knee hurts, so I whip out the gel and apply it. Then I get bored in class and do the whole hold your face up with your hand thing. Next thing I know,  my knee starts to get numb from the gel... 2 minutes later, so does my left ear and face. Turns out the gel was actually numbing gel. Go figure I didn't read the instructions. hahahahah

Anyways, all of this to say, I love my church.  AND Reebok Easy Tones are not the shoe to wear if you ever decide to walk to Williamsburg.

YOGA at chick-fil-a parking 

All of us with our AMAZING 1longroad2gether bracelets made by Olivia!!

submission

       I have talked to many people about the term "submission" and many of the people I have talked to take offense to the term when it is in relation to marriage.  This has tweaked an interest in me to investigate more into the term.  I have been reading this book " God, Marriage and Family" and in the first chapter it lays out the roles of men and women in a marriage, and of course 1 Peter 3 is mentioned : "Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives,  when they see the purity and reverence of your lives." To me I see HONOR in the term submission. Let me explain...


     First of all, in the term submission, it does NOT say Wives be a DOOR MAT, or wives DON'T THINK FOR YOURSELVES, or wives YOUR HUSBAND IS MORE FAVORED AND THE MORE SUPERIOR BEING. 


     We first need to go back to Genesis 2:18 "The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” In this verse woman is called a SUITABLE helper, or EZER. This is a term that was only used for WOMAN and GOD HIMSELF. It is a very honorable term, that is used with great dignity and valor. 


      Then, Genesis 3:16 states: To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. our desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”  This very CLEARLY states that the man will have "authority" over woman. And this is a very touchy topic. But think about it. When the "fall" happened, roles were reversed. Woman took charge, ate from the tree, and ADAM WAS WITH HER (Genesis 3:6). He did not step up to the plate, he did not take responsibility for him and his wife, and he was more or less a coward, and did not intervene and BAM the fall. FROM THEN ON God gave man ultimate authority and RESPONSIBILITY to provide, protect and take blame for the short comings of him and his family. And I know that I am thankful that I do not have that role because that scares me to death.


     Here is where submission makes sense. I honestly do not think that the majority of women would want to be held to that standard of PROVIDING FULLY, taking full responsibility for the short comings, hard times, etc. and having that GOD GIVEN responsibility because if you fail at it, you are held accountable. But I take honor in one day being the helper to my husband. Because I know that I will marry a Godly man WHO WILL BE LIVING HIS LIFE FOR THE LORD, and so I know his choices and decisions will be Godly and I will take comfort in that. God knows what He is doing, and this plan is laid out in the bible, we need to stop trying to fit it to OUR lives and FOLLOW the word of God.

scary things

       You know those things you know that you should not do, and yet you keep doing them?? Well, one of my biggest "shouldn't do's" is watch scary/suspenseful shows and movies.  God has designed me to be a very imaginative woman, I think in stories, scenarios and pictures, and so scary and suspenseful things do not work well with my personality. 


      I am currently in bed wishing I did not watch Castle. A GREAT show, but its kinda suspenseful and scary. Psalm 101:3  states : I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me... AKA Do not put any bad thing in front of you so that you will not have that image hinder and follow you. And I find that the thoughts follow me in my dreams, then I wake up exhausted, scared and needing someone I love to sit with me and rub my back until I go back to sleep again. That verse has SO much meaning and purpose in it. 

     Right now, I wish I had not watched Castle, BUT I take comfort in Psalm 27:1 " The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of whom shall I be afraid?"

Thank you Lord for loving me so much and protecting me in the darkness.

Homeless Project

      Hope High Schoolers are making a difference in the world. That's right the WORLD, and we are starting in our own backyard. We are going to feed and Clothe the homeless of Richmond on November 20th!! But we cannot do it alone.
      Lately the sermons at Hope have been about grace and the "I AM HOPE" campaign, and we are putting those lessons into action. Everyone needs a pocket of grace and we are hoping to be the people that God uses to show the homeless of Richmond that grace. There are always reservations about the homeless, like : " Some people are just trying to scam us.", " They are just out there because they are lazy and do not want to hold a job.", AND " The homeless are a bunch of drunks and drug addicts."... and you may be right on some accounts, but isn't GRACE about nonjudgmental, sacrificial, and undeserving LOVE?
      Cody Buchan, Andrew Parham and I ( Jessica VanFossen ) went down to Richmond last Friday to talk to the homeless and get to know their needs a little better. We met Jared, a man with no legs and a wheelchair, who has been homeless for 20 years, whose friends and family will not help ( we are guessing he is a vet). Omar who has been homeless since October 12, 2010 because his mom pasted away and he could not afford the house and payments. All he wants is a job, he sleeps at the VCU police station because he says he fear for his life. He loves Steven Seagal, the 49ers and is allergic to onions ( interesting huh? ). And Linda who came here to work with horses at Colonial Downs, but ended up with Kidney failure and lost her job. She has been homeless for 5 years. These are all REAL people, with names, a story, family, issues, loves, passions, and personality, CHILDREN OF GOD who need OUR help.
     These men and women are coming up to a brutal winter and in order to survive need clothes and food. So please when you clean out your closets and switch your summer/fall clothes in for winter ones, consider donating your old/unwanted clothes to our special project. If you think about it, your old winter coat could save someones life this winter.
      SO how can you help us?? Well you can drop off the following items in the first closet on the right in the Hope office....

FOOD:

- 10 packages of Egg Drop Noodles

- 4 containers of Chicken BASE or 5 -8 boxes of Chicken Broth

- Package of Carrots ( Big bag )

- 2 bags of FROZEN chicken

- 4 Jars of Peanut Butter

- 3 Jars of Jelly

- 2 -3 lbs of Coffee ( ground up )

- 4-5 cases of water
- 300 disposable bowls
- 300 disposable spoons
- 300 disposable cups ( FOR COFFEE )
- Napkins
- 300 ziploc sandwich bags

OLD CLOTHES: 

- Jeans

- Sweatshirts/pants

- Coats/ Jackets

- Shirts

- NEW underwear and socks

- Shoes

- Scarves

- Gloves

- Hats

- Blankets

ANYTHING ELSE:

- tooth brush

- tooth paste

- brushes

- soaps

- etc.

Thank you so much in advance. If you have any further questions or want to help in a bigger way please e-mail me at: Vanfossenjm@vcu.edu.