Announcement...

I AM GOING TO BE AN AUNT!!!!!

Melanie and Reynolds found out about two months ago that they are expecting a precious little one in November :) I could not be more excited and cannot wait to love on this child! What a BLESSING!!!

Live Love...

"By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." -John 13:35

For the past month, Graham and I have been traveling from Charlotte, NC to Atlanta, GA to Oklahoma City, OK witnessing thousands of teenagers come to know the truth in this verse. Student Life's spring conference this year was based on the theme, Live Love. For eleven weeks, a production and customer service team from Student Life traveled all around the country hosting conference events each weekend. Every three conferences, a different event director and event coordinator would lead the team in these events. Graham and I were able to lead the team in the last three conference events not only for this year, but for good, as this is Student Life's last year to do the spring conference. What a fun time this was! All three weekends were wonderful - but I have to say that getting to see one of my best friends, Lauryn Lane, in Atlanta was a definite highlight :) The conference events were led by Francis Chan, Stuart Hall, JR Vasser, and Kristian Stanfill. These men have been blessed with the incredible gift of sharing the Word of God in such an amazing and effective way. It was a blessing to be able to serve alongside them during this time!

If you have not heard Kristian Stanfill before, I strongly encourage you to check his music out. He and the guys in his band are some of the most genuine and solid guys I have seen lead worship. Nothing they do from stage is about themselves, but soley about the Lord - I believe that anyone who has been led in worship by them would agree with this statement. Take some time to visit his website...it will be worth it! www.kristianstafill.com

There is nothing more powerful and moving for me than to stand in a room full of teenagers worshiping the Lord. Being able to do this week in and week out is an incredible experience and the exact reason that I love my job. It is my prayer that every student that comes to a Student Life event will walk away understanding more about who they are in Christ, and for this event in particular, understanding what it means to truly live out God's greatest commandment: to Love.

Each week I was blessed with the opportunity to share about Compassion International. Seeing how this is already my heartbeat, it was such a joy and privilege to be able to tell thousands of people about an opportunity for them to live love by sponsoring a child through Compassion. If you do not sponsor a child through Compassion, I strongly encouarge you to look into this opportunity. After seeing it first hand, I can tell you with 110% confidence that Compassion International is truly living out the Gospel. There are over 5,000 references in the Bible to caring for widows and orphans. This is not an option for followers of Christ - this is the Gospel. Compassion is making it possible for people all over the world to live love in the life of a child who is living in poverty. For just $32 a month Compassion is providing children with food, clothes, healthcare, education, Christian development, and most importantly, the hope that can only come from Jesus Christ alone. $32...though it may seem to be a sacrifice for us to give this money up each month because we will not be able to eat out as much, drink as much Starbucks, go to a movie, or whatever else we do with our money...it really is not a sacrifice when you think about the fact that it can provide life for a child. You can read more about it at...www.compassion.com. Please do :)

Some pictures from the Live Love Conference...

Kristian leading worship...

AT2AP (All Things To All People) - Student Life's drama team - performing "The Red Man Group"

Room full of teenagers in Atlanta...

The Live Love set...

Compassion International...

Graham, myself, and 8 others from our office recently returned from a trip to Nairobi, Kenya with Student Life and Compassion International. Student Life partners with a ministry called Compassion International. Compassion is a child-sponsorship ministry, based out of Colorado Springs, that exists to end the cycle of poverty around the world. I know the stigmas that often go along with "child sponsorship programs" and the questions of how legit they are. You can throw all of that out with Compassion - they are the real deal. Each year Compassion takes the Event Directors and Event Coordinators at Student Life on a trip to one of their projects around the world. In previous years, they have been to Honduras, Tanzania, Uganda, the Philippines, Haiti, and now Kenya. The goal of these trips are to give us the opportunity to see how Compassion works, and have a first-hand experience with the projects. Graham was on the Uganda and Philippines trips, but this was my first hands-on experience with Compassion. It was incredible.

The first day we went to an HIV/AIDS project with the Kikuyu tribe. We were presented with a drama by children in the Compassion program, as well as testimonies from ladies who are now HIV positive. These ladies have begun a support group in their community that not only supports and encourages women who are HIV positive, but also encourages women and men to be tested for HIV. It is rampant in Africa - I could not believe the statistics I heard. One area that we went to, it was believed that 1 out of every 5 people are HIV positive. Compassion is working to increase awareness and educate people in these communities of HIV/AIDS and methods of prevention. The amazing thing about this project was to see the joy in the faces of these beautiful people and the hope that they have in Jesus Christ. The women that we met had several things in common, but the main one was that they did not find out that they were HIV positive, until their husbands died from AIDS. It is very common for men to have many wives in these communities, which is why the spread of HIV is so rampant. These women did not dwell on the fact that they were victims, though. They recognized that this is the hand of cards they have been dealt and they have chosen to step out and encourage others to find the same hope in life that they have found in Jesus Christ. There are so many stigmas that go along with being HIV positive - this was something that these women talked about so much - but the courage that they have to break free from those stigmas in order to educate and help others in their same shoes blew me away. I will never forget this day - it was so special to me for so many reasons. Here are some pictures from this day:

The HIV/AIDS support group:

Agnes, a lady from the support group, who invited Graham and I to visit her home:

The second day we visited a project with the Masai Tribe. The Masai are the brightest, most vibrant people I have ever come across. Not only in their dress (which you can see from the pictures) but in their eyes, voices, and precious personalities. When I have always thought of Africa, these are the people I have pictured. Bright clothes, bright beads, the stretched earlobes, long necks, shaved heads - absolutely beautiful. This was such a fun day and so insightful. I love learning about other cultures - it has always fascinated me so much - the Masai culture definitely did the same. Fascinating. Men have up to 20 wives, women do everything including fetching water, building the homes, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the children. Children are often married off by their families by the time they are 14- this is indicated by lots of bright, beaded necklaces and rings around the necks of these precious little girls. Houses are made of cow dung, sticks, and grass, and the doors of the houses are only about 4 feet tall. On the way to our home visit for this project, I saw what looked like a dog being cooked over a fire...a feeling ran through me that it just might be our lunch for the day. I was wrong about one thing...it was a goat, not a dog. I was right about the other...it was lunch. Graham quickly informed me that the goat we were watching cook would be the same goat that we would later eat! What an experience! They brought the goat in for lunch - legs, head, everything still attached. No worries - a few hits with a Masai man's knife, while on the lunch table, and you are served your portion of goat. Although we joked about it and found the experience a memorable one in so many ways, the fact that these wonderful people had sacrificed one of their goat's for us, truly was so generous and kind of them. It was a wonderful day :) Here are some pictures:

Lunch...

The Masai women sang for hours...literally...just like this:

The third day we visited the Methare Valley Slums. This is the second largest slum area in Kenya, and the most dangerous in all of Kenya. As we were driving through the area to get to the Compassion project, I could not believe what I was seeing. Shack on top of shack on top of shack. Space issues is what causes the tension and danger in the Methare Valley. I clearly see why. Raw sewage, trash, chickens, goats, dogs, dirty water, children - all in the same area. The water that runs through the dirt, filled with sewage, is the same water that is used for cooking, drinking, bathing, and washing clothes. It runs into a big river at the back of the slum area...when we walked up to this river the smell was incredibly overwhelming, but more than that was the sight of children swimming in this river. Children with the biggest and brightest smiles I have ever seen. They know no different. Fighting back tears this day was near impossible. This was the day I was able to meet the little girl that Melanie and Reynolds sponsor, Esther. What a PRECIOUS little girl - I loved every second with her and her mom! Mel and Reynolds had sent a bag filled with toys, clothes, crayons/coloring books, bubbles, dolls, socks, a jump rope - all of which Esther was thrilled to receive :)

With Amy and Leigh - the other two Event Coordinators that went:

Esther :)
The Methare Valley Slums:

The last two days of our trip were spent at the Masa Mara game park, located in South Kenya, right on the border of Tanzania. We went on an evening safari and early morning through afternoon safari. Amazing!! Here are some pictures of what we saw:

Wedding Pictures...

MY WEDDING PICTURES ARE FINALLY IN!!!!!!! You can see them at:

http://phillipdupree.zenfolio.com/p878424940/h1ce1d8e3#h124b9ca1

The Start Of Something Good...

Happy 2009! I hope that everyone's holiday season was wonderful and that lots of quality time was able to be spent with friends and family. Graham and I stayed in Birmingham through the 25th and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family. We boarded a plane at 6:00 am the day after Christmas and headed off to Oklahoma for the next week. Our time there was wonderful - lots of fun time with people so special to the both of us - we were very thankful for the opportunity to spend a week in OK!

For New Years Eve we went out with a lot of Graham's friends from home and found ourselves in an airplane hanger at quite the dance party. Really my scene.... ...wait... It was tons of fun, nonetheless :) Here are some pictures from that night:



Since we have returned home we have been able to spend lots of time with our friends here in Birmingham which has been wonderful! Between the National Championship game (Boomer Sooner anyways :)), friends' weddings, and The Bachelor...I've loved getting to see my friends so much! We are constantly reminded of how blessed we are to have a home to host our precious friends in.

At Gretchen's Wedding :)

With all of the fun that has been going on, we have also been spending lots of time in the hospital with Graham's grandfather and my grandmother. Both are very ill right now, which has called for some tough times over the past few weeks. We appreciate and covet all prayers for our families during these times. We trust and believe that the Lord is in control.

Traditions...

We went to see the Rockettes on Saturday night - it was an incredible show! I have always heard that the Christmas show was great, but it far exceeded any expectation I could have held. I would suggest it to everyone :)
Graham and I have now begun what we decided would be our Christmas tradition...making Christmas cookies! :) Growing up, my sister and I would always go to my Grandmother's house around Christmas time and make/decorate Christmas cookies. I have missed doing this over the past couple of years, so last night Graham and I decided to get all of the ingredients to make the cookies and icing, and then some fun things to decorate the cookies with. Eventually I would like to say we would be making the cookies from scratch just as my grandmother did...but for now a sugar cookie mix had to do. I wasn't too sure how much my husband would really enjoy decorating cookies, but I think that he actually liked it! I am going to have to find some cookie cutters, icing recipe, and more fun sprinkles/decorations for next year, but for our first year I think that it was just perfect :)

I hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas season - we are truly blessed!

My husband hard at work!

Such a mess...but so much fun :)

A few of our final products:
All of our Christmas cookies :)

Life is good :)

Between starting my new job, Thanksgiving, and continuing to get settled into our home, things have been somewhat hectic around our house the past several weeks! I started my new job one week ago – I have been at Student Life for about 1 1/2 years now, but just switched over from the call center to being a Ministry Event Coordinator. It is a job that I have always dreamed about but never thought it was actually out there. I could not be more excited! Graham is actually the Ministry Event Director with me so we work side by side, all day, every day. Some people may think we are crazy for doing this…believe me, I’ve had plenty of people tell me this. But it has always been a prayer of mine that my husband and I would be able to do full-time ministry together. What a special blessing it is to serve alongside my husband as we have the joy of serving others. We will be doing lots of traveling throughout the year – especially in the spring and summer. Some places we will be going this year are NC, GA, TN, FL, OK, PA, and Kenya. We have a busy year ahead of us, but one that I could not be more thrilled about!
Our Thanksgiving was wonderful. We stayed here in AL and spent the day with my family. This was the first year that we have had both my mom and dad’s family together for a holiday, and it was great. It was such a wonderful picture of how much we have to be thankful for!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we put our Christmas tree up and decorated for Christmas. This is my favorite time of the year – poor Graham has had to put up with me listening to Christmas music constantly since…well…before Thanksgiving... Yes…I am that person. But those of you who know me know that it isn’t a rare thing for me whip out a Jingle Bells or Silent Night in June…. Hey..it’s good music :)

I am putting some pictures on here of our Christmas decorations and our house since I have had some requests to get those up here, so here you go!

Our home :)
Den:

Dining Room:

Kitchen:

Upstairs bedroom:Our Christmas tree :)