Busy Busy Busy

So I have not posted on the blog in a while, but HAVE NO FEAR, it does not mean that nothing has been done! I have been so busy organizing so many great things for the future! So for those of you looking to get involved feel free to message me at any time! A lot of great things are coming up. And for those of you who are supporters, MANY GREAT STORIES HEADED YOUR WAY!

One event currently going on is a fundraiser I have organized at my college. William Carey University will be having its very first, WOMANLESS BEAUTY PAGEANT! 100% of all proceeds will go to the STEWPOT of Jackson, the homeless shelters I have mentioned in earlier posts of visiting. I wanted to do something fun the student body could get involved in. I have faith this will be entertaining, and very memorable for the students! This event is opened to the public so I ask everyone to mark their calendars for APRIL 12!!!!! at 7pm!!!!!! Like I said ALL money raised will go to a homeless shelter. Please come to support a good cause and support the men BRAVE enough to get on stage! :)

I will try to keep everyone updated. Right now I am collecting items for prizes for the pageant winners, and CONTESTANTS! We have some brave souls coming in the office now and again to sign up, so I'm hoping for a big crowd because I will defiantly make it fun!!!! SPREAD THE WORD =)

"A Heart of Compassion"

http://leadercall.com/local/x223905313/A-heart-of-compassion

This turned out to be a beautiful article!!! I was so happy to be able to not only capture this experience, but to also share it. What I'm even more thankful about, is the feedback I have received from it. I had no idea how many hearts it was going to affect! God is so wonderful. This was exactly what I had always hoped for. I posted the link on here to be able to share it with you guys. I hope everyone enjoys it. :)

SURPRISE!

What a busy day today has been! From my last post I could barely sleep from excitement. I finally prayed for organization and guidance and went to sleep to start today. This morning everything fell into place! The truck was loaded by this afternoon, and the surprise was on! Ms. Cooley had no idea of all the wonderful things headed her way. WDAM actually contacted me on the way and came to cover the story. I was super excited to catch the surprise, and to offer the public more information on how to help. The best was the children. The little boys were super excited for their new BUNK BEDS! :) I would have to admit today was a very successful day. I thank God so much for bringing me to read the article in the paper about the woman, for showing my heart the direction it needed to go, and for bringing all this together.

We found love in a hopeless place

She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Proverbs 31:26 


I am so thrilled with how the awareness of homelessness is spreading. It is so touching to see people curious about my passion and asking for ways to help. Anyone can help, and it is so EASY!!!! For instance it is finally SPRING and summer and coming quickly. I am a firm believer in physical fitness, so with my free time you can defiantly find me in a gym. I have noticed so many people training, and working hard to slim down for their summer bodies. High fives to those guys! It is a great feeling to be confident in a tank top and shorts during this Mississippi heat. But with losing weight comes NEW CLOTHES! So I'm very eager to spread the word/motivation to get HEALTHY, get FIT, and GIVE ME YOUR OLD CLOTHES! hahaha ok I do not mean it to that extreme, but what a wonderful thought it that? Set a weight goal, and after all your hard work, reward yourself with more flattering outfits and clean out your closet of all those old clothes you will NEVER wear again. I will have no problem finding a new home for them.  :)   Plus is that not what SPRING cleaning in all about?? You will see signs soon in the local gyms, with my contact on them to collect those old clothes, so GET EXCITED :)))))) 


Another note that I am so excited about is earlier in the month I read in the paper of a woman who lost her home in a fire. Not only did SHE lose everything, but so did her 5 children!! Losing everything and starting over in Hurricane Katrina I know how she feels, but I could NOT imagine starting over with 5 children as well! The article simply read WOMAN MADE HOMELESS AFTER FIRE. There was no information about her, or her children. Contact info, of info of how to help. I started by calling fire departments and police departments. Finally someone shared her cell phone number with me. After speaking with her I knew I had to help her. So I started calling furniture stores to see if they had anything they were not using or would throw away. And after a week of calling, I now not only have a few items BUT 2 sets of bunk beds! How great for these kids to have a bed now! If everything goes as planned tomorrow, and I can find a truck to borrow, I will be surprising this lady with her new furniture! GOD IS SO GOOD! 


Please pray not only for this families new beginning, but for me to have the organization to bring all of this together to help her to my full ability. I'm so excited I can barely sleep. But a busy day for me tomorrow, school starts back as well, so I will lay my head down and "Count my blessings, not my problems" =)

Feeling Famous

So today I had a wonderful opportunity of working at a local shelter for children right here in my hometown, HATTIESBURG! I had never heard of this shelter before, and that is because it is a secret. Due to confidentiality and protection of the children, I was sworn to promise that I would not share any info on the kids, or about the location of the shelter. I was so honored that these people found me and ask ME to come!

It was such a wonderful visit, I ended up staying for hours! At first the kids were shy, so I began to tell them how I became Miss Riverbend! I told them about all the areas of competition, and how hard I had worked to win, and how hard I am continuing to work to keep getting better. Most importantly I shared with them the story of how I became a pageant girl. I did not grow up being in pageants, in fact I never thought in a million years I would be that girl walking across stage on tv. Growing up I looked up to these woman, they were smart, they were beautiful, they were talented. I cannot even begin to describe the feeling I get that I am now that role model. With that attitude I shared with the girls how important it is to start concentrating on their lives now if this is something they see in their future. Good grades are important NOW, as well as good moral conduct. They were all so eager, and started to share with me their favorite subjects in school, as well as their talents. Many explained that they want to be in a pageant one day. One girl confessed that because she gets picked on at her school, she does not participate in all the school activities that she would like to. I stood there, all dressed up, in my high heels, make up done, and a crown on my head. I then took the crown off my head and handed it to her to simply explain, "Do you know how many people didn't think I could do this." I told her that she needed to believe in herself and do what made her happy. The best feeling in the world is not only to prove people wrong, but to find out who you really are. I told the girls that I am not going to cry if I leave the pageant without a new crown on my head. I truly believe I have a real reason to be there. It may be to support some one else, to learn more about myself, to push myself to be the very best, or to make a difference in some one else's life. There is no losing in this. So far I have done so much, including the memories from this shelter, that no one can take that away from me. No one can call me a loser. You hold your future in your hand. No one can take away your positive attitude, unless you allow them to. With new hopes and dreams the children all made me a promise to do better in school, and show me their good grades next time I return :) :) :)
BUT before I left, some one had a SIGNATURE  magazine. I was lucky enough to be one of the models in the Spring Fashion section. The kids instantly called me out on it. The Shelter had enough magazines for each kid to have one, where they all asked for my AUTOGRAPH! haha They did a wonderful job of making me feel like a superstar! Two girls had even wrote me letters, telling me how much I meant to them. I'm going back next week, because I could not stop thinking about how important these kids were to me now. After several phone calls with the director, next week we are going to have our very own PAGEANT at the shelter!!!!!!!!! I will teach the girls how to walk and introduce themselves. Then they can dress up and walk one by one, completed with a photoshoot and crowns! If anyone wants to donate lip gloss, or nail polish, or simple girly things to be made into goodie bags, I would TRULY appreciate it! I'm going to make goodie bags for each girl, so bloggers STAY TUNED! I have big plans coming up, and I'm very excited to share them all with you =)

To top it off, some neighborhood kids were riding bikes outside the shelter. As I was leaving, they saw my crown and ran over to talk to me, so I shared with them my story of motivation. Turns out all of these kids were friends from school, who had no where to lived and all lived with one girl's grandmother. Just goes to show everyone has a story; you can never judge a book by its cover. I did not have my camera with me, but they saw my phone so we took some pictures and I emailed them to their grandmother to have! Feeling famous once again!

Counting BLESSINGS not Problems

This has been by far the most rewarding spring break ever! I have been dying to get on here to write and share with everyone what I was lucky enough to experience these past few days. I am such a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, and God sets up opportunities before we even realize it. 2 years ago I had the joy of working with StewPot, a homeless organization located in Jackson, MS. I had heard that this organization is actually growing by adding a new house for abused women and children. Jackson is only 2 hours from my house, so of course I had to go and check it out. I called the CEO of the company, and he instantly remembered me and was excited to have me back.

2 friends of mine joined me. Not only was I excited to have company to share such a rewarding experience, but this was their first time to ever visit a shelter!We had such a blast! We first started out making bracelets, and key chains out of beads. By the end of the day, the children had trusted us, and shared stories of their school life and hobbies. We spent the rest of the day playing on the playground until dark. The children, myself, and my 2 new volunteers has a wonderful time!

A part of me knew this was not enough. My best friend from college, Lindsay happens to live in Jackson. With her heart now touched by humanizing the homeless, she offered her home to me, and I stayed the night, anxious to spend another day with my new friends at the shelter. The next day Lindsay and I went to lunch before going to the shelter. She shared with me her new feelings towards the homeless, and we recapped our previous day. We then realized that we had grown up complaining that we did not have this or that, when in reality, we had it all! It was such an eye opener. We saw that these children had nothing. When we were their age, we did not have to dream of clothes or toys. Before going back to the shelter we stopped at hobby lobby. We wanted to give these children something to have after we left. Lindsay and I put our money together and bought them each a coloring book, and a box of crayons. Something so inexpensive, and simple was going to bring the biggest smiles I've seen all year!We also bought some things to make picture frames out of as just another arts and craft idea. Returning to the shelter was the best thing we could have done with our day. We asked the kids what had they been doing all day and they responded, "Waiting and Hoping you guys would come back." My heart melted, I knew we had made the right decision. Later that evening their mother opened up to us, and told us stories about her family.

Leaving the shelter once again, Lindsay shared with me that she was going to become frequent volunteer now after her experience. She had realized that so many days go by that she takes advantage of, when she could spend her time with children, who crave attention so badly. 

SO THIS WEEKEND WAS A SUCCESS!!!!!! I made some new friends, the kids at the shelter had a pretty fun spring break, and another heart has been given to the homeless. Special thanks to Nic and Lindsay who took a few moments of their time to change another person's life time. 

Thought for the day

Proverbs 14:31 “He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: but he that honoreth him hath mercy on the poor.” We sometimes forget that God made the poor as well, and it is because of the lack of His blessing that one remains poor, so that to oppress one simply because of his poverty is to assume that the poor is God’s enemy and that one is justified in mistreating them. Many people forget that this world is now in Satan’s hands, and is used by him to reward his people, (Luke 4:5-6). A poor man is more apt to be a man of God than is a rich man. It is an honor to God when one has mercy on the poor. “It is not enough merely not to oppress, we must also show positive mercy whereby we honor the Lord, who hath commanded the poor to be relieved."


With this said, I hope people will understand that the homeless is NOT hopeless. I am working every day with different things trying to give back to these people who NEED us! If anyone has ANY ideas, or wants to help please PLEASE please feel free to comment, or contact me! I am always accepting help! :)


It's a beautiful day, let our gratitude show through our actions today as a way to give back to our Father, our GOD!