Read about the great news that I have recieved this week....www.accordingtohisrichesandglory.blogspot.com !

Great news, my friend Luc is doing very well!  Surgery went great and his pancreas didn't need to be removed.  There was a sandy-like substance that was irritating the pancreas but it was removed.  Praise the Lord!

In other news, I have a new blog and I might switch over to this one because it's nicer looking and you can put photos up for free, unlike xanga where you have to pay for premium.  So, here is my new blog website: http://accordingtohisrichesandglory.blogspot.com/  I have already started journalling.

I will keep this xanga site so that I can still comment on other xanga sites, but I probably won't write anymore on here.  Peace and love to everyone during this wonderful Christmas season.  Praise be to God for sending His son! 

Everyone please pray for my dear friend, Luc Jordan.  He is an IT at the college I attend (an employee) and went into the ICU at the Lake Wales Medical Center on Friday because he has an infection in the gall bladder and it looks as if it spread to the pancreas.  He will be in surgery to have his gall bladder removed on Tuesday and if the pancreas is infected, he will be having that removed as well.  Please, please lift him up in your prayers!!  Luc is an amazing Christian man and is one of my closest friends.

I will keep you updated!  Thank you for praying!

~Rachel Snow

Carry each other's burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  Galatians 6:2

There's Snowplace like home for the holidays!  Yes, I am coming hooooommmmeeee!!  Home to family and best of all: SNOW!!  Yeppie!  Although, I am really going to miss my buddies. :(  Emily is staying with my family and me for exactly four days.  I am so excited!  I will miss her when she leaves though. :(  I will miss Kelly, Emily, Benjamin, and Carolyn.  They're so important to me.  Kelly, Emily, and Ben make me laugh the hardest...I can also make myself laugh, like when I busted it on the floor when I tried to run inside with my wet flip-flops....yes, completely hilarious!  I thought Emily was going to pass-out from laughter.  Oh, but let's not forget when I make random comments like, "We really need to get some more stools"...although, that was actually a logical thing to say, Emily and Kelly (if you're reading this)! 

It's been a great semester.  Always learning...academically, spiritually, and socially.  I could not have made it without my friends.  Heaven knows I talk their ears off!  I beat myself up about that all the time...but I wish people would seriously just say "Rachel, stop talking.  Let's just sit and enjoy the moments of silence."  Because you know if you're really good friends if you can sit in silence and it's okay.  Sometimes I feel like people expect me to fill the silence.  Please tell me you don't!!!  Hahaha.  I'm not shy, that's for sure.  I like to be kind and friendly to whomever I come in contact with...unless they've really rubbed me the wrong way (and some really have this semester..ahem).

Kelly....I loooovvveee yoouuuu!  You can be really competetive and really, really giddy.....but, uh so can I.  Hahahha.  I love how you care, you call me, you spend time with me, you give me hugs (you let me smack your hiney...LOL), you listen, and you make me laugh so hard!  If only we had an extra room in the apartment! Stink!  Haha  

Emily....I loooovvveee yoouuuu! You are an encourager and you also listen very well.  You understand me and you uplift me in my standards....as you are following in them as well! :)  You are my 2:00am buddy...spiritual talks abounding.  I always gain so much from our discussions.  Thanks for letting me vent sometimes too.  God knew I would need you as a roommate. :)  Thanks for calling me and telling me you miss me on the weekends, Lord knows I look forward to Mondays when you come home!  Oh, and...thanks for the hugs!

Benjamin.....ummm...I can't really say I love you because that would be wierd, you're not a girl....so I can't say it as freely.  But!  You are my brutha in Christ and I love ya!  Okay....it's easier to tell girls how you feel and not so much guys.  You are definately a huge encourager in my life and you always make my days so much better with your humor, your concern, your interest, and I am so amazed that you put up with me....girls have to, you don't.  Hahaha.  Anyway, thank you for being there when I have needed someone to talk to....and thanks for not yelling at me when I've complained.   Thanks for remembering things and for phone calls!  You make me laugh so much and that gives me great joy!  You are always exemplifying Christ in your life and you treat everyone with respect and care....that's such a blessing!

I must mention someone else.....Angela.  To anyone that doesn't really know her, you should...she is a blessing to anyone's life.  She is beautiful inside and out.  She is a warrior for Christ.  She blesses people with her words, thoughts, and deeds.  She is also training for the mission field and is fluent in Spanish.  Angela, if you are reading this....you are a joy in my life.  I don't often get to see you or talk with you....but I think of you very often and I pray for you, remembering that you pray for me.  Thank you!  I love you so dearly! 

To all my close friends from Ohio (The Khims, Nadeen, The Merry Moppet Crew, The Julians, The Mishnes), Nathan in Indiana, my dear friend Christa (who is in Japan right now), my family in Peru (the Birons, the Watts, The Huatangare Vasquez family...I will never forget Ivan...he is in my heart always) and to all my dear family...thank you so much for your notes of prayer and for enriching my life.  What an amazing journey the Lord has led me on, and what amazing people He has blessed my life with.  I praise Him for all of those who are near and dear to my heart and I continue to pray for each one of you.  I pray for those that will enrich my life in the future: friends, husband, and children.

A small note....on December 10th, 2004...a year ago....the life of my dear friend, Ivan Huatangare Vasquez, was taken in an automobile accident. He would have been 27 years old on December 18th. The greatest friend I had ever known.  He helped set the course of my life...his relationship with Christ was so pure and full of righteousness.  Just the sound of him singing praises to God made me cry.  Whenever I sing Eres Todopoderoso I will be reminded of the example that he consistently set for me.  What a wonderful day it will be to be with my brother in heaven.  God, thank you for using Ivan to help break my heart for the people of Peru!      

Try living in someone else's shoes:

Imagine with me for a moment…..

You are climbing a very steep hill.  As you look down to the ground upon which you step, the sand creeps upon your toes.  Every now and then a sharp pain is experienced upon the sole of your foot.  It’s another scrap of glass.  Moving further up the hill, the stench of urine greets your nostrils.  You walk around a large stack of trash, yet dodging the rest that is strewn across for miles upon miles.  The sand fleas bite your feet and the itch is insatiable.  The wind has been cruel today, a strong wind from the ocean consistently beating.  Finally you look up and see the brown figure of your house.  You pull the cardboard back and unpin the plastic, stepping inside you shoo away the chickens to the one-foot space blocked off for the kitchen.  Checking the clock for the time is useless, it hasn’t worked since you discovered it among the trash in the near-by field.  You drop your bag and quickly get undressed from your school uniform.  It has been a wonderful day, there was so much that you learned.  Your spelling, math, history, science and other topics are progressing very well.  Today you learned more about the Savior, Jesus Christ.  You had two wonderful, filling meals and look forward to the meals you will have tomorrow.  It has been a great day!

This is an example of what one child at the Roma Lee Courviser school in Reque, Peru may be experiencing.  I have actually walked that hill, I have smelled that stench, I have felt the glass, I have itched where the fleas bit, I have dogged the trash…even though it is quite impossible, and I have felt that cruel wind that beats without mercy.  I looked up to the brown figure of the cardboard house, watched as the mother unpinned the plastic, and welcomed us into her house.  I have seen the clock that doesn’t work.  I have seen the chickens that remain in the one-foot kitchen, wondering myself when they would be fat enough for the family to eat.  I have seen little children, dirty and without the warmth of a blanket or socks.  I have seen the greasy, lice-infested heads of those who do not have water to bathe.  Some things that I saw were blurred from the tears that never ceased to fill up my eyes. Yet, through it all, I have seen complete joy.

Would you consider sponsoring a child from the Roma Lee Courviser school?  I may have been called to serve there one day, but you can serve as well.  Pray about helping a child.  Please visit www.lacf.org

Email them with any questions you may have!  Dios te bendiga mucho! 

At the start of this post, I asked you to try living in someone else's shoes.  Attempting to understand those who are living in a third-world country like Peru, is almost impossible to Americans.  We have everything.  We may believe in God, but we don't depend on God.  We say we are poor but the next minute we complain about our "stuffed" bellies.  We have no money to spend yet we buy a ticket to a movie, a meal out, new clothes.  What does it mean to not have money?  What does it mean to you?  What is poor to you?  Are you ever really without money?  The money you have; was it earned through hard labor, given by parents, obtained through a loan?  Do you open the refrigerator or cupboard and try to DECIDE what to eat?  Have you ever sat and pondered on the fact that you can DECIDE?  Try having no decision at all.  What would you do?  Give up?  Work hard?  Trust in God?

Think about it........