Hi everybody! I was on the Generations of Virtue blog today and I thought you might be blessed by this one [ below]  like I was. Also, while I'm writing I would like to ask a huge favor of everyone.

A few weeks ago I applied for the GOV internship.  The goal of GOV is to "wave the banner of purity" while providing resources for teens and their parents in the US and parts of Asia.

The internship is a month long. If selected, I would travel to 4 conventions with the team helping to set up booths and minister, while Julie Hiramine, the founder, speaks.  The big bonus to me is that I would have a great opportunity to see an active teen ministry behind-the-scenes. While being mentored by the staff.

I sincerely believe God has been leading me to full-time ministry. My dream would be to start an outreach ministry. I have a specific burden for pre-teen and teen girls who struggle with depression, self-image, who ultimately lack God's joy and peace in their lives; for the teens who do not have the opportunity to attend a seminar or read a devotional, teens who are growing up without the blessings that I have. Of course I am not 110% sure if this is God's plan and so I am waiting and praying for his leading. At this point I am planning on a Youth Ministry major in college, after that I draw a blank. However I am anxious to see where God will lead me in the future.  I want so desperately for God to inspire me with an idea of how I could service this people. I am open to his leading but I still pray for the chance to help instill joy in people's lives.
I think that this internship would enable me to get a step closer to ministry than I have ever been. I would have the chance to question Julie Hiramine about how she started the ministry, what inspired her, etc. It would truly be a blessing...
  
     "Then said I, Ah Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth."   Jeremiah 1:6-9

I strongly believe that if it is God's will, I'll be accepted. But in the past few days I've been extra nervous about it. In a couple of weeks, Feb. 15th,  it will be determined who the staff has picked for the internship. The scary thing is, they only pick two girls per session! So if I am picked, it would truly be God working.
Right now I really need your prayers. Not just for me, but for God's will in it. I would not want to be accepted if I were not the right girl for the job. So pray for the GOV team as they select the interns. That God would lead them to the right ones. Then I would be extra blessed if you all would pray for my bundle of nerves, and that God would use this "one-of-a-kind patience working" experience to make me a better servant and tool for Christ.
Thanks a bunch!

Love in Christ,
Cheryl

    "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth into those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus."              Philippians 3:12-14

                                                     *GOV Blog*

One thing the Lord’s shown us (the Generations of Virtue team) is that God’s idea of friendship and our culture’s idea of friendship are two totally different things. Our culture says: “If you like to hang out with someone and they are nice to you and would never think to offend you or make you feel bad, that person is a friend”. Basically, if you get something out of the relationship like acceptance, justification for your sin, or an elevated social status, then by all means, make friends! On the other hand, the minute you get bored with the person, they offend you or start competing with you–forget it!

But God’s Word has a different perspective on friendship: “Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. Proverbs 27:17”. In other words, when God gives us friends, He gives us people who are going to help us become more like Jesus Christ. They’re not going to sit around and flatter our flesh. A true friend is someone who is willing to lay aside his or her own desires for the best interest of the friendship. I’ll be the first to admit that I get upset when God uses my friends to pull me up to a higher standard or expose my flesh. But I have to realize that this is what true friendship is: helping and enabling one another to honor God. Sometimes it is really difficult to be in relationships like these, and they may even seem downright cumbersome at times, but boy are they worth it! I would rather have one good friend who is sensitive to the Holy Spirit and not afraid to be used by Him in my life than ten friends who are always flattering me and making me feel as if I didn’t have a single flaw. Godly friendships really are like Old Ironsides in that they are able to weather the storms of life: disagreements, tough times, separation, etc. True friendship is worth fighting for–which usually requires one to fight one’s own iniquity. Compared to God’s idea of friendship, our culture’s model for friendship is nothing more than a plastic toy sailboat–hardly worth fighting for.

Isn’t this always the way with the good things God has for us–things that really help us in our pursuit of righteousness? Things like trials, tests, discipline, correction, and honest, Godly friends can seem undesirable at first, but you have to admit they really are good for us and we should be so thankful for them!