Sometimes I Wonder

if God waits to the last minute to answer a prayer for "Dramatic Effect"!!

The Attacks Keep Coming With No Sign of Relief!

I'm going to tell you something that has to do with an on going joke that has been going on for a while about our family. :-) It has to do with our vehicle situation.

But this is no longer funny. I realize now that it is a direct attack on our family from the enemy.
This morning my mom drove the van, that we are borrowing, to pick up one of Sarah's friends. When she started the van to leave their house, it wouldn't start. It is still sitting in their drive.

I have really been thinking about this for a while.
Our family is so involved in our church, with so many different ministries. And we depend on our vehicles so much, because we live so far away. When our car broke down a few months ago, it was so hard for all five of us to fit in that little truck. And a lot of times, someone would stay home because we didn't want to ride in the truck like that.
Then we got the van. It looked like crap, but it got us where we needed to go comfortably. Now, we're back to having one truck again. The enemy has tried everything they can to keep us from going to that church, since we first joined. And let me tell you, they came close a few times to winning.
This is very discouraging. And this is costing us so much money.

But at least I am aware of the attack. It's just one thing after another! Please pray for our family if you think about it! Our family has been undergoing some tough Spiritual warfare for a while now, and not just with the vehicles. We're getting tired. We need relief.

Natalie Y. Hill

Adding to the last post, becasue I know you want to know.

So, I had to let you know that God has healed my phone!! ha ha!!
He restored it's sight!! It was pretty cool!!

You may laugh becasue I prayed over it.......but I can't afford to buy a new one!! :D I was at the youth group last night and after it was over, I turned my phone on again and it worked!! it was funny becasue I was showing Lindsay Hollowell that it wasn't working, and then it worked!!

So that was nice!!

:-D


Natalie y. Hill

IF ONLY IT COULD SEE!!

So I got my retainer today. Now my gums are sore. Hate the thing already!! And I had to wait in the waiting room for a whole hour, just to have him stick it in my mouth and say, " Alright, you can go!" ( grrr ) That was great.

MY PHONE IS BLIND!! This is a very sad fact indeed.
Let me explain. While I was on my way this morning to pick up the retainer, that I hate already, this idiot stopped right in front of me!! So I threw on the brakes! I "HAD" a big glass of water in between the seats beside me. It was now all over the floor. The lid had popped off and so it spilt Everywhere> My phone, that "WAS" on the seat next to me, was now in the floor floating in the swimming pool!! Because I had to keep an eye on the moron in front of me, I couldn't rescue my poor little phone right away. So it sat and soaked up some water for a little while. That was great. At first it seemed fine, but then the screen started doing weird things. Now, it can't see!! I know that it's on because of the light on the side. So I'm going to have to take it to the Doctor. the bad thing being,........I don't have doctor insurance. Bummer.

I'm so bored I'm getting a head ache!!

I have not been this bored in a long time!! My mom and Dad, and Kristen are sick. Sarah is getting that way!! And they are all asleep right now, 2 O' clock in the afternoon. So what does that mean for Natalie? It means no music, that's what it means!! And I can't got outside because it is so nasty. It's cold and wet!! And I am at the point now that I don't even know what I would want to do if I could do anything!! I wouldn't mind going into town, but I don't want to get ready! I need help! now my head hurts!
So now that I'm through wining, let me tell you what happened Saturday!

O.K. Kristen and I were on our way to Lufkin, right? Well, we got 5 miles, maybe, from our house and this stupid buzzard flies up from nowhere right into the middle of our truck! It would have hit directly in the middle except for the fact that Kristen tried to dodge it. Well, as she was swerving to miss it, the retarded bird, in a last attempted to save himself, flew up over the hood of the truck and smashed right into the wind shield in front of me, who was sitting on the passenger side. The dumb thing broke the glass on that side to where I could no longer see out. And it broke bad enough that the inside layer of the glass broke and sprayed ALL OVER ME!!! It even hit my face!! I am very thankful though. I didn't get cut. But it did poke me, because it was all over my clothes and in my hair, and there was even a piece of glass on my face very close to my left eye.
Kristen on the other hand didn't have any problems att all, except for the nagging realization that she had just smashed our dad's wind shield, in the truck that he has to work in! But, that's not to bad, right?
So we now have NO car that is drivable! But we do have this really ugly van that my dad's boss let us borrow. :P


Natalie Y. Hill

O.K, I had to tell you...

The coolest thing happened right after I posted that yesterday!
First, God is so awesome.

Second, I got a call from Jennifer Conn.

Jennifer and I, with Shelley J. went to the 1st bapt. church in Huntington after Kalob and Kristi's wedding. Jenn's friend Robert wanted us to come and sing and play music just to have fun. So we went and we sang. Well, there was this girl that was there who came to play the drums for us.
Well, to make a long story short, she told her mom that Jenn and I could sing really well. So she got Jenn's phone number and called her yesterday.
So Jenn called me. She said that the lady asked if we would be interested in leading Worship for a women's conference that their church is having on March 25th. And so naturally she said yes!! and then called me!! ha ha!! But it is so amazing how god did that. He totally gets the credit for that!! that lady didn't even hear us, she's just going on what her daughter said!!
I am so excited about what God is doing!! I just wanted to share that!!

It's so cool that God is giving me these opportunities to sing!

I kind of feel stupid that it took me this long to do it. But God has good timing. I'm singing with Ryan this Sunday while he's filling in for Joel. But that's cool that I am singing on Sunday mornings. I love it. I do not know how to describe the feeling of being able to lead others in Worship.
I'm also going to be helping teach the girls in the youth group that sing with Ryan, how to sing harmony. Well, Kelly will be teaching them, I'm just helping her. :o) I'm going to start that tonight.
I'm getting a little nervous though about singing as far as where that will lead. But I'm really excited too.

I still have no car. Our car has been broken down since October, and my uncle has had it for 4 weeks now and hasn't had time to work on it. So I can't go anywhere during the day. So I can't get a job right now.
But I don't know where I'm going to work that won't interfere with church. I want to be able to work with the youth. And I DO NOT want to miss church. I will not work somewhere that will keep me out. That may mean waiting and looking harder. So I will.
But I hope it's soon. I'm getting a little tired of staying home. Although I am getting to read a lot. And I'm getting to play my music a lot!

It is when God is Glorified that our Hearts are most satisfied.

.....no that is not mine, but I thought it sounded right. At least I don't think it's mine? It just came to me! :o) It's basically what we have been studying at Solomon's Porch on Wednesdays.

No Longer Secrets

I did a really good job of hiding the fact that I couldn't sing from other people. And I did this for a while. But after a year of it, the desire of singing began to grow again. But I was afraid of it. How could I do something that I was told I wasn't good at? It almost felt like a cruel tease to have a desire to do something that I wasn't able to do. I still did more hiding.

The summer after I graduated I went to Brazil with my church for the very first mission trip I had ever been on. I was 18 years then. It was a hard trip, but God did something absolutely amazing in my heart! While I was in Brazil, I began to sing! And I sang with Jennifer! It was so great! It was the first time in over a year and a half that I stood up in front of people and sang.- O.K. it doesn't matter that they couldn't understand me! :o) - God used mine and Jennifer's voice to touch the hearts of those who heard! And it was amazing to me that that was how God got a lot of people to come! " Come tonight to church, the Americans will be singing!" How cool is that! When I would be at the church services at night, (which is when we would sing) I would feel this Joy swell up inside me! And that would arouse and stir to life again other feelings that I had long forgotten, that were tucked away from my childhood.
When I returned to the States, I automatically went back into hiding. But not for very long! You see, there was one thing that I didn't take into consideration when I was singing in Brazil. I guess when I got back, I thought that all of that would stay there. That it wouldn't affect me. It was just part of the high of the mission trip! But, there was this one girl, and I won't mention her name, ( Jennifer) that wouldn't let me forget that I could sing. She always encouraged me to sing, and told people that I could. And every time she would say something, it pierced my heart. It caused a pain that I can't describe, but one that I wanted! God used her, and she didn't even know. She kept all those feelings at the surface, and didn't allow them to be buried.

It was just a few months later that we began the college ministry at our church. And a little after that, we started the band for Solomon's Porch. They had auditions and I tried out. And so began my singing at Harmony Hill. I was 19 years old.

I wish I could say that I started living out of what I knew that God wanted for me, but I can't. It was still a great struggle for me as I began my search for my "calling". I was stuck at a point where I couldn't go forward. I had decided that I was going to be an RN. I had been trying so hard for over a year to get into college. But every time I would begin to pursue it something would keep me from being able to get all the stuff in order. My last attempt, I had already had all the things in order and I was ready to go, but the car broke down. I had no way to go! Once again the door was slammed shut in my face!

A week before I left for Passion '06 God began to whisper to me what He wanted from me. "I want your heart. Give me your heart."
"I already have!! I don't know what you mean!"

It was the last day we were at Passion that God finally opened my eyes to what He was saying!
For so long I had been covering up my heart with dreams, plans, and ideas that were my own, and not His. I realized for the first time that I had made those plans to go to school so that I could escape from my heart! That's what was expected of me! "You need to be an RN. That would make the family proud. Not that other thing!! Remember, people will laugh! That's a failure waiting to happen!"

Right then, I gave God my Heart, my dreams! No more acting as if I know what I'M doing! What ever He had, I was willing to do. Even if it meant being looked down on. No more listening to the enemy's lies.

God told me so clearly that for this semester he wants me to sing! And that is what I will do. And for the first time in my 20 years, I'm really living out God's dream for me.
I realize that it seems so insignificant. It even sounds to me like it is something that shouldn't matter. I mean it's just singing, isn't it? Not really. If that is what God has asked me to do, then it's not just singing.
And I am also very aware of the fact that if that is what God has asked, then that is what Satan will try and stop.
I am engaged in war, and this is a fight that can't be ignored. I will no longer fight half heartedly, but with my whole heart! I allowed Satan to, in a way, disarm me. But by the grace of God, I won't stand for that any more!



Natalie Y. Hill