New Place to Check Out

So I am going to be combing my photography blog (here) and my India/world awareness blog into one. My hope is that this will allow me to be much more consistent in posting.
Check it out at: jessicahibbard

A Child's Place

This summer I got to be part of the A Child's Place summer camp. ACP helps homeless children in CMS with basic needs and school-related care. This summer we got to teach these kids the art of photography and the gravity of their testimonies. What an honor to spend my summer days with these kids!

www.achildsplace.org

Two Faces

While serving alongside of about 100 Elevation students this last Monday during Love Week, I met two people that impacted me. I did not really expect my life and perspective to be altered, I just thought I was going to sort some clothes. First off, due to the overload of volunteers that showed up, the group got split up. So a group of us headed across the street to the Salvation Army. I had no idea what to expect. As much as I see and hear about Salvation Army, I had really no idea what they do. As we entered the building, we saw dozens of women and their children, being fed and kept warm. Our group had the pleasure of serving ice cream with toppings to them.I met two people that in small ways impacted me like crazy!

The first is this lovely lady, Leona.

She started making faces at me when she realized that I had a camera and that I was taking pictures. I of course snapped a shot of her. Then she turned to me and began asking me how she could get the picture. Long story short, I had a chance to bless this woman simply by taking her picture and making it available to her. She was so thankful for something so simple. Most of us have hundreds of silly pictures of ourselves but she may not have had a single shot of herself. So thankful that I was able to take part in helping out in such a simple way

The next person I met and spent some time with was a sweet little boy.

I never got his name or heard his story but by making him an ice cream sundae, his appreciation gave me some more perspective. When we gave him his bowl of ice cream, he was so thankful but when we asked him what he wanted on his ice cream, this boy was shocked. I'm not sure he had ever had ice cream with anything on it. He was so terribly grateful for the simple things like oreos and chocolate sauce.

I was blown away by how little things can open doors to share life with and love on people around you.

"Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired."

Mother Teresa

A Glimpse Into Team Two

In honor of the beautiful people that spent their Christmas 2009 in India

A. Brown on Sense and Sensibility "It' like watching...me!"
Me to A. Brown "I see your ankles, I'm turned on"
Laura "Hers is going to smell like clean clothes. Mine smells like India"
Maddison "India smells like freshly washed clothes but covered in dirt and shoved in an exhaust pipe"
Rachel Pawar "It's a stop sign! It must be imported"
Clifton about to join the boys peeing "Can somebody hand me my glasses, I can't see what I'm doing"
Maddison "I wonder if Jesus would pee if He were on this bus"
Bradelyn "A bunch of white boys getting off the bus to pee...that DOESN'T draw any attention"
Seth in traffic "I'm going to have a staring contest with every man...it's like flirting"
Tracy "Stop saying words"
Seth "If you want to touch me, send me a Facebook message"
Haley "Let me put a scarf around my neck, it will make it more appropriate"
Seth "When I'm by myself and there's no one to do it, I scratch my head"
Tracy "This is so hot, I swear I just licked the face of Satan"
Me "Pizza's here..."
Seth about India coffee "It's almost like chocolate milk-it's got that warm fuzzy feeling"
A. Brown "When there's nothing else, I like something"
Katty "Sounds like a dog going through a garbage disposal"
Tracy "I don't have enough room in my heart for all these people. I just met 16 new ones"
Rachel Pawar about God "He's very tricky like that...If He had told me that I was going to India, marry an Indian man, live there forever, start this big work, etc...or I may never have come."
Amol when asked if he heard God in Hindi or English "I heard the English version"
Zach "Elephants are made of pandas"

Initial Thoughts After India

*Don't worry this can't and won't be my only post about India, despite my typical lack of blogs.

Smelly Delhi-once you've been there, you cannot deny that name.

Traffic in India runs like no where else in the world. In the words of a local,

"A stop sign, it must be imported!"

"The Taj Mahal Madam" is made of love, not marble.

The one rule in India is that there are no rules. Even when a

'guideline' is stated, anything is possible (including taking pictures inside the burial chamber of the Taj, skipping security to catch our flight...it's ALL possible).

People can live anywhere. They take pride in what they have and that means always sweeping the floors, even when that means sweeping the dirt.

I had THE BEST TEAM...I'm just saying.

Dance parties in India are WAY MORE FUN than any party in the US that I've been to.

I am so thankful for getting to see how God is working in India and be a part of that for my Christmas. BEST.CHRISTMAS.EVER.

In Chains for Christ

This weekend at Elevation Church Pastor Steven Furtick preached on joy from Philippians 1.

A few major points that really hit me:

• My joy is not determined by what happens to me but by what God is doing in me and through me.
• Spiritual Ju-Jit-Su = using the enemy's attacks against him.
• If you are in chains you have a captive audience.
• Perceive God's purpose in your persecution and participate in HIS purpose.
• There is a purpose in whatever sentence you have or whatever prison you are in.
• Shake it of, and step on up.
• Joy is down in MY heart. Where? DOWN IN MY HEART!

I put two and two together today and realized that I have a prison of my own like Paul did. As a teenager I am in prison to going to school. That is neither good or bad all the time. When you look at the 8+ hours that I spend there everyday, what a great opportunity we have as students. People are stuck in classrooms with us for hours upon hours. They have to be there with us. What better way to be a light in your world than to do it during school hours. As high schoolers we spend on average, 1,260 hours in class per year. (That number does not even include any extra-curicular activity hours.)

Why should all that time go to strictly school time. You have a lunch time don't you? Use everyday as a chance to be Christ to your peers. We are in chains to having to be at school, WHY NOT use that as our pulpit?! Who knows what God will do through you this year if you allow Him to make you aware of your 'preaching opportunities' and to speak through you.

"Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly...I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain."

Philippians 1:14, 20-21

Word Waterfall

"The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value. The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment."

Proverbs 10:20-21

The things we say, even in a joking manner, can crush those that hear it. Much value is placed upon the words that spur from our mouths. The people around us take great care to listen to what we say, so much care needs to be taken to the things that we let come out. I can be quick to let something fly from my mouth but I am learning, mostly the hard ways, how hard those words are to those around me and how I need to fix them. I am foolish like the unrighteous if I do not learn how to wrangle my tongue, though my words can be something that nourishes the soul if I learn to control them.

I would much prefer my words to be a nourishing word waterfall that to be dead for my lack of judgement.