MaryKay... sign me up!

So this favorite out-door restaurant of mine, Fralos, supports local businesses and artists once a month by allowing them to put their work on displays. My mom and I found this out a couple of weeks ago as we went searching for some delicious pizza. When we pulled up to Fralos, half of the out-door seating was filled with booths and women! With my mind on the pizza, I was determined to walk right past all of the booths to find a seat and order! Of course, eyes wondering, I found myself walking in more the direction of, "Look at that beautiful necklace mom!" The distracting booths were equipped with a mixture of necklaces, clothes, pictures, purses, spa lotions, etc. Another words, paradise.

My growling stomach ordered me to go sit down and order my pizza before I continued gawking over the products. Dismayed, I headed to the table with my mom only to be stopped by a beautiful Mary Kay lady, Lorraine. She asked if I would like to try her Satin Hands products. Well, I needed to wash my hands before I ate anyway right?!? Good enough excuse for me! Um... can you say yumminess on my hands?!? After "washing my hands" with Satin Hand products, she asked me if I'd like to fill out a raffle ticket for a drawing. The drawing was for a free makeover... yes please!

Later that night, I received a call from a familiar voice; I had won the free makeover! Siked, because my usual luck is none existing, I listened vary intently to the Lorraine's voicemail. Not only had I won, but they were serving Olive Garden at the makeover! To top it off, I could invite my girlfriends! And then, something really shocked me about her. There was something about her that just stuck out. Just then, Lorraine sent me an email with the details of the night; Her first sentence was, "I pray this finds you having a richly blessed day!" Her words were full of blessings. "Wow," I thought, "the way she shared her faith just through an email is really such a blessing". Not often do I hear someone so openly share their faith. Least to say, I was really excited to spend some time with Lorraine, my girlfriends, Olive Garden, and makeovers!

Before the makeover, my best girlfriend, Bailey, began sharing how her sister had paid for her own law school solely by selling MaryKay. Totally interested on how I could make some extra money, I wanted to start MaryKay that day! Yet, I controlled my initial decision to join MaryKay. First, I needed to make sure God was in my decision and that I wasn't just overly excited about makeovers and money!! I also needed to get to the makeover and actually make sure I liked the MaryKay products!!

As I sat there, learning how to apply my face makeup correctly, I asked God to show himself if I was called to do MaryKay. After falling in love with the MaryKay product, I got to sit down with Lorraine and enjoy my Olive Garden lasagna! As I about to take a bite, I heard a man say, "I'm going to pray for our meal before we begin." And he prayed; He prayed to God straight from his heart. It wasn't an everyday "Thank you for this food God. Bless it to our bodies." It was a prayer, speaking from the Spirit! I couldn't control myself anymore. I turned to Lorraine, "Wow. I can just tell the Holy Spirit seems to be present here. In your voice message, your emails, his prayer. It's shocking to find this in a business environment." Then, Lorraine smiled and said, "Well, you know, I actually love MaryKay, because it has become a ministry for me to share Christ with other people. MaryKay is a business founded on Christianity. Mary Kay's famous saying is Faith First. Family Second. Career Third. And, Patrick, the guy that prayed over our meal, he is actually a preacher downtown." She continued explaining to me that at MaryKay conferences you can just feel the Holy Spirit's presence. At that time Patrick walked up, he began sharing with me a part of his testimony. I hurried to ask if he had heard of Young Life. Apparently, right before he was saved he actually met a guy from Young Life who planted the seed that led him to Christ. That was when I knew God was calling me to MaryKay.... sign me up!

Find me: www.marykay.com/carmel.may

Transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing Glory

Wow... the way God has moved in my life this last couple of months.

He has proven to be faithful yet again! Who was I to doubt that his grace? Who was I to doubt his restoration? Who was I to doubt Him, whom laid the Earth's foundation?

Who marked off its' dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone_
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angles shouted for joy? 
Job 38 5-7
For God, patient and loving God, has been waiting for me to give up the fight, to stop putting rules over relationship. For a while, I seemed to have been spiritually struggling with hearing the devil's legalistic word louder than God's word of freedom. The devil took advantage of this when I was faced with some legalistic preaching. This made me begin to struggle with the concept of being fruitful; Is it being "good" by following rules that makes me fruitful or showing Christ's goodness from the overflow of my heart? Yet, of course God has delivered me through Scripture and prayer, teaching me the Truth and speaking louder in my life than ever. After a time of suffering, I am now overflowing with His fulfillment more than ever before! I am convinced that if I had not gone through this struggle, I wouldn't ever-increasingly enjoy God the way I do now.

I'm gonna now walk through the Scriptures that God nourished me with...

God asked me to give up the fight. Stop trying to argue with the Devil about what it means to be fruitful! Let me fight, just turn and rest in me!

The Lord will fight for you; you need to only be still. Exodus 14:14

&

Come with me by yourselves to a lonely place and rest awhile. Mark 6:31

God set me free with this Truth: I am weak and pathetic in flesh, but God does not judge me according to my flesh or works, but according to my faith in Christ. He is to be praised!!

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free; stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

&

Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor your ancestors have been able to bear? No! 

We believe that is is through the grace of Jesus Christ that we are saved, just as they are. Acts 15: 10-11

&

I'd rather you to be faithful and to know me than to offer sacrifices. 

Hosea 6:6

&

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and it is nor from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2 :8-9 

&

Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. I know that they are zealous for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don't understand righteousness that comes from God; they seek to establish their own righteousness by keeping to the law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are justified. Romans 10:1-4

&

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! Galatians 2:21

He reminded me that it is not about looking like a  "good" Christian; it's about a relationship with Jesus that will allow His goodness to be the overflow of my heart! (Oh, how he freed me with this reminder!)

A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. From the overflow of his heart, his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45

&

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with every-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Repent and Restoration

Today, I (Carmel) had a fantastic, urgently needed Bible study with my girlfriend, Paige! Lately, we both have been in a place no Christian wants to be. A place where one has drifted away from the Word, a place where conviction resides, a place where opening the Word seems frightful. Being afraid to open the Word is not a good place to be and is definitely not a place God wants us to be. God was oh-so-ever present at our Bible study tonight; As we were talking, I was playing my iTunes, and Addison Road's Hope Now played as we sat there. Here are the lyrics.

If everything comes down to love
Then just what am I afraid of
When I call out Your name
Something inside awakes in my soul
How quickly I forget I'm Yours

I'm not my own
I've been carried by You
All my life

These lyrics match to how we've been feeling exactly. I think many of us feel this way at times. We find ourselves asking, "What am I afraid of? God is lovingly at my side, so what am I afraid of?"

After openly admitting to each other our fears and convictions, we prayed the sweetest prayer over each other! A prayer asking God for a fresh start, a new beginning, complete forgiveness. A sweet prayer that followed this verse: Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. 2 Corinthians 7:1 After our heart-spoken prayers, the next song that came on my iTunes was Addison Road's Starting Over.

Every moment is a second chance 
At starting over, at starting over 
Move from the past to the present tense 
You can start over, start over again 
If you feel ashamed 
Of the choices that you’ve made 
You can be whole again 
And return to your innocence 

Clearly, God was there with us, there when we called. <3 

So here is my continuous prayer. Lord, I pray that I can recite the following verses and feel it truthfully in my heart again... I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is like to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:11-13

The truth is I prayed this for my Young Life girls a couple months ago when I was secure in the Word. Now, I find myself in prayer again for this strength in the Lord, but this time for myself...

One last thing. What a sweet reminder to know that when my friends, like Paige, have loved me without hesitation when I confessed this to them, how much more our Heavenly Father loves me here, now as I lay this at his feet.

Love- Carmel May

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I am so behind and caught up in the nothingness of Christmas Break! My blogging is slacking.

Anyways... just wanted to catch you up on Christmas and everything Godly that comes with it.

Young Life- Last club of the year! A tradition has began at our South Side Christmas Club; For the second year in a row, our team, committee, and kids have wrapped presents brought by the Sealy's Gifts for Kids Charity. This charity helps the low income San Antonio families provide their children with Christmas presents every year! Adrian, on of our leaders, has made it possible for the South Side Young Life to help out the charity with wrapping some of the thousands of presents during our Christmas club.

\It was organized chaos! Club was filled with love and laughter thanks to the cheerfulness of Christmas time (or maybe it was because of Annie's tacky Christmas sweater... either way). We had four rows of tables seating over a hundred kids, family members, and committee from the South Side San Antonio. Each person wrapped about five to ten presents that night. The news station found out about it and came to film our kids wrapping these presents! Isn't it funny how doing something for others is so rare that even the news comes out to film?!? I'd have to say so for myself, I know I wouldn't have wrapped any presents for people less fortunate if it wasn't for this charity! It was truly a blessing and humbling experience to help out the Sealy's Gifts for Kids Charity.


Christmas... I have figured it out finally! I didn't really ask for anything for Christmas... Therefore, unwrapping presents was just ridiculous. I felt like a little kid again, excited about anything I opened.  Whether unwrapping a 30 pound rock (literally it is a rock... like out of the ground brown phosphate rock) or a Sonicare toothbrush (which I now dearly appreciate thanks to my pearly whites... thanks Trav :D), I became childish again on Christmas. By not asking for anything, everything I opened was ewwwed and awwwed over... erasing any unnecessary disappointment completely! Because truthfully, there is only one gift of Christmas that is necessary....

The greatest gift of all... And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:10-11


We should all receive the gift of Christ Jesus as childishly as I acted on Christmas!
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
Mark 10:15


And calling to him, a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 
Matthew 18:2-4


Be renewed in childlike faith and praise Jesus!
Love
Carmel May & Travis Ryan

A Free Gift

POLAR BEAR!

Wow. God is good. This weekend was a roller coaster of emotion. We went from bizarre dancing to laughing at lumberjacks to crying to jumping in freezing cold water and back to laughing at lumberjacks.

I had seventeen beautiful, broken women in my cabin. I sat in a cabin of girls whom like me, at one point in my life, was crumbling under a broken world. The question that really brought this broken darkness into the light was: When did you notice something wasn't 'right' in our world? Basically asking, what is or has happened in your life that you know is wrong? I did not ever imagine hearing the devastating answers I heard. My heart broke for my girls. Their hearts broke for each other.

The most heart-wrenching part was not the devastating stories I heard that night, but the girls feelings of unworthiness, as if God wanted nothing to do with them. Sharing the good news of Jesus to them was not an easy task. Their hearts were so ashamed and turned away from God, all they could ask was "Why would God do that for me? I don't deserve anything." I think many of us feel like this at times if not all the time. But, how precious is it that God's gift of redemption through Jesus Christ is FREE.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, Our Lord.
Romans 6:23

Free? My girls couldn't grasp the idea; They stated, "I can't devote my life to God. I'm not mature enough. I'd only set myself up to fail." The truth is... I can't even grasp my head around this free gift of life we have been given. I have asked myself the same question at times that these girls asked: "Why would he do it for me? I am not even close to being a good person." But, that night, it didn't matter that I didn't have all the answers, the Spirit was speaking through me. This became relevant when the words I was speaking brought comfort and confirmation to myself.

I began by making a ridiculous metaphor; Nothing like a parable to help the girls understand. Here it is:
Let's say that there is a person out there in the world. You do not know their name. You obviously do not know their birthday. Actually, you don't even know if they exist. Would you ever buy them a present?

The obvious answer is no. The question doesn't even make since. You have to have a relationship with someone first before you find out their birthday and buy them a present. But that is it! God doesn't ask for us to give him presents, to be good, or to get our life together before we start a relationship with Him. He desires us to have a relationship with Him first! There is nothing good, bad, or ugly we could do that would alter God's want for us to be in a relationship with Him! God does not need us to be good for Him, He does not need us at all. It is for our own good to be in a relationship with Him.

Then I asked but why, why does God want us in a relationship even though we are still sinners?
That night... we had all gone out under the stars for ten silent minutes to talk to our Father (an awesome thing YL does). The girls had come back in and talked about how beautiful God's creation was, how awesome the hundreds of stars were, how awesome the fall colored leaves were, how awesome his every creation was. I reminded the girls that we are God's creation, we are God's prize creation. The Truth is God looks at us and thinks we are more beautiful, more precious than all of His creation. We are more precious to God than all of his mountains and all of his stars that we are so amazed about. This is why he wants a relationship with us.

Lastly, we talked about Jesus' ultimate sacrifice for us, his crucifixion. At the last night's Polar Bear club, we watched Jesus' death through the movie The Passion of Christ. While I watched the scene, something I hadn't payed attention to in previous times (previous 12 times...ha oh boy YL) really tugged on my heart. For the first time, I noticed how much pain Jesus suffered. He suffered physical and mental pain beyond imaginable. Yet this suffering, this pain, had an ultimate Purpose, to reunite us with God. I brought this thought to our cabin time and talked about how easily I forget that God himself understands my pain. I told the girls what my YL leader (when I was in HS) had told me once. God can turn any evil into good. No matter what pain we have in life, this pain is somehow a part of God's plan and has a purpose, just as Jesus' pain had a purpose.

I love seeing God's light just glowing in my girls when they understand how much He loves them. It is truly a blessing to be God's messenger and witness.

I LOVE YOU GIRLS!

Love, Carmel May

P.S. At camp Travis decided to let all the guys shave his head. Haha! After the initial shock, I quite like it.

Praises

The good news is, I'm not the only one who gets on wrong buses. As I type, Travis is currently on the Reserve bus headed away from my apartments  :) ha suckerrrr

Today is the beginning of San Antonio's POLAR BEAR weekend! Both, Travis and I, are excited to hang out with our kids and show them the love of Jesus!! Pray for the kids going!

Oh well, Trav just got here... haha the same bus driver who dropped me off yesterday just dropped him off.  He wants to write.... or talk and make me type. :)

So, the other day in speech class, I had a story telling presentation. Of course, I was totally unprepared and had no idea that I had a speech today. Therefore, I made my story telling speech an improv speech.  Quickly praying about it as I was called up to the front of my class of 25 people, I had the idea to give a short testimony of myself. If you haven't heard of my testimony it involves a flipped Jeep, ER room, and lets just say a close call. Basically, God just gave me the words to say in front of my classmates. When I was done with my speech and said the last words "And that is how I begun to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior," the class applauded.... all except for my atheist friend in the back of class whom was asleep... hahah. After class as I was walking in the hallway, a few classmates came up to me and said they couldn't believe that I got up and shared my testimony. They were relieved to know that there were other people in the world like them. They were encouraged by my testimony, and I was encouraged by their comments. :) The end. <3 Travis

Short and sweet Trav ha. Anyways, just wanted to shout out some Godly things I've seen from others this week.

-One of my co-YL leaders for the South Side, Chae, is going through a rough season in life. Lately, this season has kept her from pursuing her love of ministry. We have been praying for her for these last few weeks and MISSSS HER! Anyways, the other night Annie decided we should all go around in a circle and pray for Chae. As we prayed, a bright light caught my eye. I looked up and saw that Annie had her phone out. She had called Chae's phone, and we were leaving her a voice-message of our prayers for her. WOW... Annie Mays... you're awesome.

-This one is short and sweet.... and it is about Travis haha. He always does little Godly things throughout the day that I love. He talks to the people behind every register, steering wheel, and counter, as if he has know them forever, that normally people, like me, would just say, "Hi" and "Thanks". Well, last night on our way back from studying at the library, we hopped on the RIGHT bus to my apartment! :) Trav, being normal, just talked to the bus driver the whole ride. Our friend on the bus asked why he kept talking to her, and I could only smile. That is how I responded when I first met him and noticed he did this to everyone, "What are you doinggg? They probably think you're weird?!?" But, now I get it and love that he does it. They, the ones who often get overlooked, probably never get talked to throughout the day, and someone talking to them, I'm sure, brightens up their day. P.S. The bus driver recognized me, as Trav put it, as "the blonde" who got off the wrong stop. And today, as Trav got off the wrong bus, she said, "Well your gf isn't the only blonde one". HAHAH love it.

-Last night (this is awesome) K-LOVE the radio station called me! I give them a monthly gift, because they are non-profit. Well, apparently, they call all of the thousands of people that give to them! The lady on the other side asked if I had any prayer requests!!! LOVE IT! I asked her to pray for my girls and leaders at POLAR BEAR this weekend... and for my bible study with my bffffffs! How cool is that! Nothing better than getting a random call from someone I do not know asking for prayer requests!

God,
I pray that in return to all of these praises that you bless Annie, Travis, and the lady working at K-LOVE! Let them reap the blessings of their divine work.

Carmel May & Travis Ryan

God's Garden

Oh, what a day.

Earlier, I was trying to think of the words to describe my day... This is all I came up with....

My day has been... d348t2gkwjg92. 

My vocabulary is failing me... or maybe there aren’t words to express it. (Sorry for the cliche.)

Either way, I was talking to God and asked Him for the right words to describe my day. Of course, a minute later, as I put on my headphones (while sitting on the wrong bus home... but we will get to that later), I heard lyrics that perfectly described my day. I was on the internet radio, Pandora, where you never know what song will be next, and tuned to Jack Johnson radio. A song came on, Better Than Sunshine by Aqualung. This song, I’m almost positive, is not a Christian song, but God can speak through anything. Here are the lyrics.

What a feeling in my soul 

Love burns brighter than sunshine 

It's brighter than sunshine 

Let the rain fall, I don't care 

I'm yours and suddenly you're mine 

Suddenly you're mine. 

-Better Than Sunshine

Today, I had a feeling in my soul, a love that burns brighter than the sunshine. Today, I felt God’s love residing in my soul. No matter how many things went wrong today, no matter how much the rain fell, I didn’t care. God was holding me, and I was laying in his arms. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad day. Today was a happy day with unusual (well usual for me) events that normally would frustrate me. But, today, I saw these events through God’s eyes and could only smile and laugh at my mess of a day.

 Lately, Travis and I have been working on this. Since I am the mess in the relationship, we have been working on enjoying my absence of mind, my lack of hand-eye coordination, my forgetfulness, my lack of balance, etc. These things can be naturally frustrating and often lead to fights. But, all of these things seem to come natural to me.

This reminds me of a passage from a Christian book,The Shack, that describes me to a tee. In the book, God talks about a garden he is tending saying, “The garden is your soul. This mess is you! Together, you and I, we have been working with a purpose in your heart. And, it is wild and beautiful and perfectly in process. To you it seems like a mess, but I see a perfect pattern emerging and growing and alive- a living fractal”. Ironically, my name, Carmel, actually means God’s garden in the baby name dictionary... and at the time I read this book, I was a mess (and still am). I jokingly call this ironic, but the Truth is, nothing is ironic, it is all divinely orchestrated.

Sorry for getting off subject... I’m sure you want to know what happened today ha.

First, I woke up to no alarm. I had turned off my alarm last week for the break and forgot to reset it. My meeting with Liz, my Young Life mentor, was in... five minutes. Luckily (or unluckily), after getting ready at lighting speed, I looked at my phone to find that she had   canceled our meeting. Waking up an hour early to a non-existent alarm for a non-existent meeting was how my day started. I decided to devote that hour in preparing for the bible study tonight. Thank God I spent the beginning of my day with the Lord, or the following events wouldn’t have been amusing.

During my first morning classes, all was well. I met with Trav for lunch at our campus Chilis. He had given his testimony in speech class and was beaming. Nothing’s better than times when we both are having a Jesus high. During lunch, I noticed that I had forgotten to pack my laptop for my next class (of course). We parted ways, and I headed for the bus stop hoping I would make it back to class on time. Luckily, the bus was sitting there on my arrival. I hopped on, happy that I would be making it back to class on time.

Unfortunately, the bus driver drove past my apartments and headed towards The Reserve. Whoops, I’m on the wrong bus. When the bus stopped, and I was the only one left sitting, I asked if the bus was headed to my apartment complex, only hoping. But no, it wasn’t. Thankfully, the driver, feeling sorry for me, decided to go out of route and drop me at my apartment’s bus stop. HOW AWESOME IS SHE. 

Anyways, I get home and notice my straightener had been left on all morning! All of you out there who know me, know that I don’t straighten my hair. But, since I woke up in a rush to get ready, I threw my hair up in a pony tail and decided to curl my bangs (a process that takes about 20 seconds). Sadly, at lunch when I asked Trav if he noticed my curled bangs, he hadn’t. II laughed at myself for trying, until I got home and realized that I could have burnt our apartment down.

So my day has been like this, just a frenzy! For now, I’m going to continue my day being carried by God and seeing things through His eyes. I wish I lived everyday like this, fearing nothing, smiling at the messes I make, and enjoying the moments in life that seem so pointless. For everything is divinely orchestrated, from one bus stop to the next, from my name to The Shack, and from a canceled meeting to an extra hour with God.

Carmel May & Travis Wade

P.S. Tonight is our bible study! YAY! I love these girls with a PASSION! I’m sure I will have much to blog about!