Joy!

I've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart to stay! 

This is the second week of the fruits of the spirit and this week I'll be focusing on joy! 

James 1:2-3

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

When you are going through things, you'll find joy if you praise God through the hard times. 

1 Peter 4:12-13 says "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed."

Joy is an amazing thing to have:) We are happy and happiness can be contagious. God loves when we all have joy but he loves it more when we have joy towards him!!! 

As Christians we should have joy and joy towards God. When we have joy towards God he will continue to give us joy! 

Love

This week I am starting off with Love, the first fruit of the spirit. Love is an amazing thing especially when you love God. 1 John 4:7-12 says this "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." 

There are so many verses in the bible about love and his word is love because God is love! He loves us so much that he died on the cross for us and for our sins. He sent his son to this earth. 

Love is one of the hardest commandments, even if people have hurt us and it's hard to forgive them but we still have to love them. It's so hard. I've been hurt  and trying to love them is very hard to do but with God's love we can love them. 

Loving people can be so hard yet it is the most amazing thing! 

1 John 3:16 says "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." 

1 Corinthians 13:4-8,13says "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love NEVER fails! And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 

LOVE NEVER FAILS! Isn't that amazing?!? God's love for YOU will never fail! He will always love you no matter what!! I thought I should end off this week with the love chapter:) 

 

Next week I will be speaking on Joy! I hope that you can apply this lesson to your life. You are loved! God loves you so much. He died on the cross for you. 

Love one another! Speaking of love....I will show you a few pictures of my boyfriend and I:) 

God loves you!

As I sit down reading my bible, God just makes himself visible and I have never felt his love and peace like this before. I thought I should share with you what's been on my heart and I want you to know how much God loves you! God is amazing and even through the darkest times he is there even though you may not feel him. He wants you to run towards him and he wants you to be safe in his arms. God is there if you ever need to talk, scream or just cry. He understands what you're going through. You are not struggling alone, there are many people that are going through the same thing. 1 Peter 1:6-9 says "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you may not see him, you love him; and even though you don't see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." 

I just wanted to let you know that God loves you even in your darkest times. He is so proud of you even when you have done stuff that you're not proud of. He knows the desires of your heart and he wants people to know you! You are going to help change the world!! He loves you so much that he died on the cross for you! Keep smiling! 

Back in Canada

I had an amazing time in Uganda! The weather reached about +50, very hot! We went to the orphanage for about a week, hanging out with the kids. We handed out sanitary packs to the ladies at a school and at the Ogooma church. We hosted 4 weddings at out church which was so beautiful, we also had a couple come to The Lord that day. After the weddings we were incredibly blessed with a thunderstorm that included lots of rain and hail. 

We went to the kumi hospital where we visited some kids that were really sick. It was so sad to see. So much broke our hearts yet we rejoiced because we knew that God was in control. 

We did some pretty cool things while we were there, my friend and I got to drive stick shift on the wrong side of the road!! We also got to pump water out of a well, we got more involved with the community this year than last year. 

There are so many stories to tell and you will hear them, right now I am really struggling here in Alberta. I don't like it here at all, the only things that are keeping me back here are my family, friends and my boyfriend but other than that my heart is still in Uganda and that's where it will be. My home is there. I can't wait to go back!!!!

Almost there!!!!

Hey everyone!!!!! Just wanted to let you know that there are less than 12 hours away before we get on a plane. We packed almost 30 suitcases/hockey bags full of stuff that we are taking to the Orphanage. It's going to be an amazing time!!!!! Thanks for your prayers and your continued prayers:) I will blog next when I am in Amsterdam! 

Things to pray for:

-Safe travels

-Health

Thanks! 

Counting down the days!

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend. Guess what ?1?!?! 3 MORE SLEEPS!!!!!

I am very excited to be going to Uganda again. God is going to do some amazing things on this trip. There are 17 of us that are going on the trip. Our team is called the "Amina" team. Amina means love. As the hours are ticking by, I just pray that we will be prepared emotionally, physically and spiritually. We have many things lined up for the trip and going to be experiencing some new things.

I am almost done packing!!!!! My goal this year as well as last year was to try to get all of my stuff in a carry on suitcase! We'll see if that happens again this year. Haha! I just have a few more things to pick up at the store, I have to to print off my tickets and then I am pretty much ready to go! I would leave now if I could! I am so pumped and ready to go. Time has sure flown by. On Thursday night, we are having a packing party at my church where we will packing around 30 some hockey bags full of stuff that we are bringing to the Orphanage. Then on Friday we will head for Calgary and fly fly away! I will try and post a blog either Thursday night or Friday morning before I leave, it will probably be a really short blog.

My boyfriend "Grant" will be heading to Belize this weekend on his missions trip which is very exciting. God is going to use in him in lot's of ways to show God's love to the people there.

Things to pray for:

-We will get everything we need and won't forget anything.
-That we will be ready emotionally, spiritually and physically.
-That we won't be stressed as we are getting things ready.

Thanks so much!!!

Getting to know me

Hi everyone, this is my first blog so please bear with me. My name is Mikayla Andrushko and I am so glad that I am alive today sharing my life stories with all of you :) Here are a few things about me: I have a huge heart for missions, I have been to Africa and I am going again in 11 days to an Orphanage that my church built. I love photography! I will post a few pictures below. I am done school, I graduated in June of 2013 and I am currently taking a Christian college course called Perspectives. I currently have three jobs...I work at Shoppers Drug Mart, I house clean...(did I tell you how much I love house cleaning?!?!) and I absolutely love it, I am part of the Street Team at the radio station 90.5 Shine Fm where I walk around with the mascot during events. My family is crazy...but I love them! I have two brothers, who are 9 (almost 10) and 6(almost 7), they are very wild and they are so crazy! I used to have a Dachshund dog named Kylie but she passed away January 3/14. I have an amazing boyfriend and if you are my friend on Facebook, you probably see some of my posts are about him. Anyways, he loves the Lord and he is off to Belize on a missions trip in 13 days! We love travelling!

5 things that I love doing are:
-Smiling..I love smiling!
-laughing, I love all the time, laughter is good medicine!
-Sharing God's love. I love telling others about God and how amazing he is.
-Shopping. If you know me, you know I love shopping :)
-Dance parties, I absolutely love having dance parties! They are so much fun aren't they?


Thank you so much for reading my first blog!! Here are some pictures of life...