Not ashamed

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'But the righteous man shall live by faith.'"

- Romas 1:16-17

Mutilated Christian girl, 10, forgives attackers
By Chelsea Schilling

Hindu extremists may have burned a 10-year-old Christian girl's face, inflicted shrapnel wounds on 40 percent of her body and forced her family to hide in a forest and flee to a refugee camp in Orissa, India, but her plight hasn't shaken her faith and thankfulness to God this season.

"Christmas is a time to thank the baby Jesus who saved me from the fire and saved my face which was disfigured and wounded," Namrata Nayak told Asia News.

Nayak's face was severely mutilated after Hindu extremists bombed the home where she was staying on Aug. 26. They broke into the house and burned it while Nayak and her siblings hid in a small bathroom. Before exiting the home, they left a bomb in a dresser, according to the report.

While the little girl surveyed the destruction, the bomb detonated and burned her face. The explosion also lodged shrapnel into her face, hands and back.

Nayak's mother, Sudhamani, came running out of the forest where she was hiding. "We saw everything burned, and feared that everyone had died in the flames," Sudhamani said. Instead, thanks to God, everyone was safe. Only that my daughter had been wounded. But Jesus took care of her. We took her to the hospital in Berhampur, still unconscious and badly hurt."

Nayak spent 45 days recovering in the hospital. Despite all her troubles, she is cheerful and giving thanks to God for healing her. "There is so much pain and suffering, and I don't know how long the special forces will protect us," she told Asia News. "But Christmas is a time of gratitude. I am afraid that my people will still be attacked, but this is our life. If God has saved me, he can save other Christians too."

The Hindu attackers have vowed to launch another widespread assault on Christians during Christmas. The violence began after Christians were blamed for the death of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on Aug. 24. They continue to be persecuted even though Maoists openly admitted to murdering Saraswati.

Hindus have offered money, food and alcohol to anyone who murders Christians and destroys their homes – especially pastors. Thousands of homes and churches have been destroyed, and Christians have been forced to flee the violence. Many have been doused with kerosene and torched after refusing to renounce their Christian faith.

Nonetheless, Nayak urges India's Christians to forgive their Hindu attackers. "[W]e forgive the Hindu radicals who attacked us, who burned our homes," she told Asia News. "They were out of their minds, they do not know the love of Jesus. For this reason, I now want to study so that when I am older I can tell everyone how much Jesus loves us. This is my future."

Nayak said her life plan is to share the message of God's love. "The world has seen my face destroyed by the fire, now it must come to know my smile full of love and peace," she said. "I want to dedicate my life to spreading the Gospel."

Cake

We've picked a cake!! It's gonna be delicious! :)

-3-tiers
-vanilla with lemon
-chocolate with raspberry
-white icing, with pink accents
- Hopefully they can put the edible shimmer powder over it too!

Here are some designs I like, the cake topper will be real flowers...not the ones pictured here:

Think Pink

Yes, I now have a bright pink extention hanging from my head. Dan thinks it's amazing and wants me to get more. I, on the other hand, still get shocked every time I see it in a mirror. But it's been kinda fun to see the reactions from random people as I walk past them.

Target practice

Once I decided to read the Bible everyday this week, stress flew at me from all directions like archers on target practice. Some of them were so random too!

-Creepy man at work --> he's odd and whispers everytime he talks to me in my cube. He kinda reminds me of Kevin from The Office, but not funny at all, just plain weird.

-Work load --> I assist four people at work and this week they decided to all give me long, detailed projects. I don't mind of course, but it's overwhelming to get them all at once!

-Friend at work --> she normally doesn't bother me much during the day, but man this week she's been in my cube talking and talking almost every hour she visits me! Stresses me out because any time I'm about to get into a work mode, she pops in.

-Florida drivers --> yes, a constant source of stress for me. This week there was a high percentage of "wait 'till the last minute to break" people. So I was constantly on my guard and almost got into three accidents.

-Roommate --> it felt like no matter what I did, there was something I did that bothered her. She chose this week to write me a letter expressing all this and man, what a week to get it. Then when I tried to express myself, she didn't seem to understand my position. ugh.

-Roommate's fiancé --> random! I know, but seriously he got mad at me this week when I didn't answer his text. I was sitting alone in my apartment and he randomly shows up and begins his laundry and stomps into my roommate's room. All he said to me was, "you didn't respond to my text." sheesh.

-Roommate's parents in town --> so she cooked them dinner yesterday, but failed to mention it to me so when I got home I had to quickly pack up all my dinner items and cook over at Dan's house. Thanks for the head's up!

-My Fiancé --> for some reason this week my fiance didn't have great days at work and took his frustration/sadness/annoyance home with him. Praise God that we both prayed together and this was quickly resolved, but still a lot of emotional energy was spent on this one.

-Save-the-dates --> this was the week to complete them and the website I was using crashed and froze, gave me error messages and such. A quick and easy process turned into a nightmare.

-Dreams --> every night this week I've had stress dreams. Dreams where I try and express myself and no one understands. Dreams of fighting with people I love. Dreams where I can't get anything done on time...etc. So not much restful sleep.

Hopefully sometime soon I can get some peace and rest so that I can calm my spirit.