@theBCmovement...The Blue Cross Movement

"Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God" Romans 15:7

On every board I have, starting from my first custom board, I have had a blue cross on the bottom, so that I can glorify God in and out of the water and have it as a symbol of my faith in Him. It's also a good reminder of Jesus giving up His life to set us free. Over the years, people have noticed and recognized it...and that cross and God have led me to meet some amazing people just from them seeing it. One of those people would be Randy Nolan of FLOW Surfers. He saw it surfing in New Smyrna Beach years ago and talked to me about it, and ever since, he has been a huge role model in my life, and I could not be more thankful for the opportunities like this that God has blessed me with. It's also led me to Christian Surfers where I have met more amazing people such as DK Plumlee and Jimmy Kaiser. Having the blue cross as a symbol of my faith is a way for people to know that I am a person that they can talk to and express their own love for God to as well. As I mentioned, it has led me to meeting amazing people in many different parts of the country, even in other countries. My three siblings, Daniel, Alli, and Marina, and I thought that it would be awesome to start, The Blue Cross Movement. This movement will simply be a small sticker with a blue cross on it. You can put it on a surfboard, skateboard, car, bike, or anywhere. It will be a symbol of your faith and love for our Lord and Saviour, and if you have it on something where others can see it and recognize it, trust me, it may lead you to meet some people that will change your life and help you to become even closer to God and your faith. My siblings and I are super excited to see how this works out in God's plan! We will have stickers with a blue cross that say @theBCmovement to start this sticker campaign. Please follow the account on Instagram and please reach out if you would like a sticker!

In God's Time

"Whatever you do, do it all for the Glory of God"

1 Corinthians 10:31

Winning U14 Girls at the Easterns Championships this year was a huge accomplishment for me. Being given the opportunity to glorify God when I got the opportunity was an even bigger accomplishment. At all of the big National, East Coast, Primes, or Regionals events, I always hope and pray that I will do good so that I can glorify God and show everyone that if we believe in Him and trust Him to lead us on our path, then He will help us achieve our goals... though many times it does not work out for me. At these big contests when I don't perform as I had hoped and it doesn't work out for me, I am constantly told "This was not your time, this is not where God thought that you could have the biggest impact on the people around you." After competing for four or five years, I have been waiting and praying for one of those moments. This year, starting at the ESA regionals, God started giving me opportunities that I could use to glorify His name. I felt so blessed to have had that experience and going into Easterns last weekend I prayed that He would give me an even bigger platform. After praying heat after heat, finals came around. I was using a new board that I had just gotten, so I did not yet have stickers or my scripture and cross on it yet. But when I came out of the water, I was able to be chaired up the beach with my old board behind me, with the cross facing everyone so they could all see WHO I stand for and I felt so blessed knowing that this was one of the moments that He was providing me with...to show everyone that my identity is in Christ. We went into awards later that day and I was able to give a speech and praise our Lord and thank Him for all He has done for me in front of the entire crowd and online on ESA's website. This was one of the biggest accomplishments I have had in my life and I thank God for every single bit of it. For all of you surfers, or whatever sport you might play that you are waiting for a moment to glorify Him with, just be patient with Him. Know that He will give you the opportunity to glorify Him, when He knows that you are ready.

"Our Identity is in Christ"

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart" Proverbs 3:5

Watching and hearing Synchronized divers David Boudia and Steele Johnson last night at the Rio Olympics was very inspiring. After taking a silver medal, in Synchronized Platform Diving, they gave all of their glory to God. They talked about how blessed they were for the experience and how they put all of their faith in to God and just let Him guide their path. They were literally able to use their platform to spread God's word. It was really inspiring to see these two very successful Olympic athletes showing their faith and knowing God is working through them in such a way that I can only hope and pray that He can do with me. Praying for the rest of the athletes as they take on their dreams in hope of finding glory!

Speak no evil, See no evil, Hear no evil

The word "God" or "Christian" is not meant to be used just to win a popularity contest or to try to get more people to think you are some great believer, without actually believing. It should be used to describe the person that can love you like no other and the person who will fight for you in a way that he will give "his one and only son so that whoever believes in him will have eternal and everlasting life". We should use his name so that everyone can understand his love for us and know how amazing our God is. If you say something about your love for God, or being "Christian",  then you go talk bad about someone online or while gossiping then you are not showing people what our Lord is wanting us to portray for him in this world. If there is something bothering you or things didn't go how you planned, don't go and blame other people and try to make them look bad in front of everyone. Just tell yourself that God has bigger plans for you. I would know because in contests when I don't perform well, I try telling myself "that person got in my way" or "she was sitting right in front of me the entire heat" but then I have to talk to myself and know that these were my mistakes and I could have just paddled away. I have to tell myself that one day God will give me a greater platform, where I can tell more people about his love for us. As you can see, there are better things you can do, especially in God's name, to deal with loss other than saying bad things about people and then saying how great God is after. God loves all of us and doesn't want any of us to do wrong to others. If you are a true Christian at heart, you would try to find the good in a bad situation. Ephesians 4:29 "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

Hope is Real...Help is Real

It always hurts me to hear about people having depression and the terrible things that come of it. Sadly, this happened to my oldest sister's friend from high school last night and my prayers go out to his family and everyone else who may be going through these hard times. It is awful to think that people are going through this and it may be unknown to anyone, so they might not get all of the love and support they need to get through this. If it is happening to you or someone you know, let them feel loved. Know that God is always there for you and He never wants you to feel broken or unloved. He wants to give you hope and help you through the toughest times. If you let Him help you and if you just reach out to Him with hope, you will feel his unconditional and unrelenting love. Our God cares so much for us and He can not stand to see anyone hurt. There are also other ways to find help. "To Write Love On Her Arms" is an amazing organization for people who are depressed and searching for hope. TWLOHA helps people who think that they are all alone to know that they are not and will not let them be alone. I hope and pray that whoever may be going through this will reach out to others so that they don't have to feel alone so that they can "soar high on wings like eagles" and so they can feel and know about God's love for them because "No one can measure the depths of His understanding." Let's all raise awareness and not be afraid to talk about or seek out help. For more information about TWLOHA, visit their website www.twloha.com

4 Chair Discipling

Today I was blessed to have been invited to the Christian Surfers "4 Chair Discipling". Dean Plumlee, director of Christian Surfers, spoke to us about how to be disciples and live, love, speak, and act in the way Jesus did. He also spoke to us about how to make more disciples who will then follow Christ in the same way and so that they will keep making more and more generations of disciples. The first chair of the "Four Chair Discipling" talked about when you are lost and how Jesus wants you to "come and see" who He is. The second chair is when you begin to follow the Lord, you are a believer. It's your foundation. You cannot completely succeed the third and fourth chair if you are not a fully devoted believer and if you do not understand what a believer is. Jesus wants to teach you to grow to be more and more like Him so that you can speak and love and teach others to do the exact same. Chair three is being a "fisher for men". You are now a worker. This is where you will learn and begin to become a disciple maker. Where you will "walk as Jesus walked" and learn to teach others to do the same. You will begin "fishing for men".  Last but not least, you are now a disciple maker. You will now "go and bear fruit". Jesus strengthens you so that you can go and seek the lost as Jesus did. You will teach them to love our Father and they will go through the same process so they can be strengthened by God and live in Him and with Him. I learned a lot today and I really hope and pray that Jesus will strengthen me to help people to know Him and love Him as He already loves them and I pray that He will strengthen us all throughout our journey and our lives to speak His good word and that we will all find peace, love and joy in Him. Thank you Dean Plumlee for being one of the disciples in my life to help me on my journey :)  "A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." Luke 6:40

Knowing Jesus

It is crazy for me to believe how many children don't know Jesus. For me growing up with my faith, not knowing Jesus seems impossible because He has always been my strength and my hope. It's like, how could you not know and believe in the person who gave you life and the sun, moon, stars, and everything else that makes us feel so much love and joy? Then, in culinary class we watched a movie called, "Supersize Me". This movie is about a guy who tries to prove a point about how bad fast-food is for you and how it is becoming too big of a part of American's lives. In the movie, they interviewed a bunch of kids, individually, and showed them pictures of people and asked if they knew who the people were. The first picture was of the Wendy's girl and the kids had comments like "Oh, I have seen her on signs before." Then when they saw the second picture they were making curious faces and saying, "I don't know who that is" and "Who is that?" They then, turned the picture to the camera and it was a picture of Jesus. The last picture was of Ronald McDonald and they all knew who he was. Seeing this broke my heart because they didn't know their Father and Creator. I mean, the bible tells us how much God and Jesus love and care for us, yet, some of us have no idea who They are. This is why I started Groms For God, so that everyone can KNOW their Heavenly Father.
"You alone are the LORD. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you." Nehemiah 9:6