**Guys I have been wanting to tell you about menstrual cups for so long... I have had several posts drafted-- on why I have chosen cups, as well as cups that are good matches for different sorts of needs and the benefits that one will find in using them-- but I want to prioritize this one before the others because of an awesome fundraiser I have planned. It is officially over on June 21 so act fast**

I have no idea if you have ever even heard of them but *all* the details are below about cups and why I use them and why you should help me. 

 I want to challenge you to buy a Tshirt or two  as well as to consider sharing this page in your social media circles. My social media circles only reach so far and shares would mean the world to me. 

Help me advocate Menstrual Cup Awareness by giving away 15 cups to 15 high school students in my area. Your donation of $15 will also get you a totally awesome T-shirt! Click here to donate today:         

     https://www.bonfirefunds.com/menstrual-cup-awareness-high-school-setting

٧٧٧    Read about what I am going to be doing with your funds below    ٧٧٧

Menstrual cups are a reusable menstrual option that is inserted like a tampon to collect blood instead of absorbing it like traditional options.

 I absolutely love these products, specifically those of the NaturalMama brand, am very interested in purchasing menstrual cups for teenage girls in my area. Of all the cups that I have purchased and seen, this one is the best to be providing them with. I have found that there are not teenagers that are aware of this monthly option, and it is a shame! In a world where TSS is a fatal problem and girls have to manage their periods for an average quarter of their teenage years, menstrual cup awareness is very important. I am not looking into selling these cups to the students, but to give them freely. 

The high school is Chambersburg Area High School, link here. There are slightly over 2000 kids in attendance. Yet very few of these girls have heard of these menstrual cups, especially in the school setting. Periods are something that girls find inconvenient amidst the large school campus and I hope to aid them. This is is the school district that I have grown up in and I can confirm these things myself. 

If you do not mind me saying such personal information, I was considering a hysterectomy last fall when I first bought a menstrual cup. I was experiencing heavy periods and having menstrual cups available to me changed my life! Periods became so much less stressful and I want to share that with others--  I think that a great place to start is with young adults.  

Of the three cups that I have tried, have found the NaturalMama to be the most practical. I have ordered it twice from http://www.femininewear.co.uk/index.asp  and this is the cup that I will be distributing, with your support. This cup is fairly long, however it is comparable to a small size menstrual cup in diameter. The longer length of the cup allows it to hold 27mL where a common regular tampon hold 6-9mL.This brand pops open very effectively, however unlike many springy cups, it is a softer cup option. In fact, I never feel it when I am using it coupled with the convenience of being able to use a cup longer than a single pad or tampon, am allowed to focus on other things. This particular brand advertises quality that allows this cup to be actively used for about 10 years, far beyond the high school years of these students. The economic cost is incredibly small compared to the worth of the product. 

Your donation of $15 will allow you to get a creative awareness T-shirt as well as support these young women. Cups cost approx. $13 USD from the website listed above. I would like to start my efforts with giving away 15 within the high school setting. Cups will be distributed on a first come first served basic at the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year in Chambersburg PA. The local high school has over 1000 girls in attendance and I have plans to increase awareness if this is successful. 

At the moment, I am the only blogger that is working this actively however I am gathering support from a few of my friends and blogging peers who also love menstrual cups. I can work closely with the teachers and administration and I know that I will be able to distribute as many cups that donations will cover. 

Questions and concerns about cups or this fundraiser can be commented below and I will get back to you asap. 

Written: May 26. After writing this post, I lost all but three of the images I was going to include, so excuse the technical difficulties, this all would have been much better with images from the same sky. The images gathered are from a few different occasions but all but the one <---- is still mine. 

"We are called to love the Lord with all our heart, all our souls, and all our mind - to make Him the driving force of our lives. We are called to make disciples everywhere and anywhere. We are called to love those around us who are easy to love AND hard to love.  We are called to live according to what is written in the Bible.

We must know that we are not here to stay, and there is great joy in knowing that. DO YOU FEEL THAT JOY?! You should. I should. We all should. I mean come on - we're going to be with Jesus Christ in heaven someday. We'll finally get to meet him and experience the ungraspable joy it speaks about in the bible. That is in the future for us and isn't that just enough to make your whole body dance with joy?!? Just knowing that the best we experience here on earth won't even compare to what is come! That in itself is soo astounding! There is such peace of mind when you focus on eternity. Whatever season in life you may be in, may you always hold this joy, this hope, as an anchor for your soul - as you eagerly wait for the Lord."

I read these words, and my heart cries out "I want that peace again!" Without a shadow of a doubt, this school year I have fell way away from God.

There is a question “In five years, will you be a more godly girl because of what you’re doing in your life today, or will you slowly drift off the path?” that I was going to blog about sometime. Ironically, I am telling the tale from the other side than what I expected to.

I didn’t expect to drift from “the narrow way” in my heart, but nor have I been loving God with all he deserves, my heart, soul, strength, mind.

Like looking back I see a lot of what was going on, but its really pathetic to know that I haven’t been growing spiritually. Actually, I haven’t been very successful in anything:

 I didn’t go to the Y from like Late August to Mid April once even though I love to swim and even though I love racquetball and even though its fun to do the Espresso bikes and do like a mile and a half in 5 min.

I used to be able to read 365+ books a year and now I’m not sure if I have read 65 this school year.

And I really wanted to do my manuscript completely through the first draft or two, but that just wasn’t on the list of priorities, even though looking at my grades, those aren’t proportionately better either.

And this is the saddest of them all by far: I don’t pray routinely or read my Bible at all, haven’t for months. I wanted to but never did.

You know what? I honestly want to blame it on getting too much sleep. I am a person that loves to stay up way late and and that plan has not been working out; I fall asleep mid-homework (say at 9) and wake up sooo tired (about 6) from getting so much shut eye, scrambling to do what all homework cant be put off anymore. But in the mornings I don’t want to do anything, believe me, and getting me out of bed is a joke.

But that’s not the problem. All of a sudden all the time I wanted to be reading, writing, growing closer to God, etc is gone and I don’t like it but there is nothing I can do to change the past. There is nothing that any of us can do to change our pasts, actually, and somewhere along the way we have to learn to search out God for healing. We just do. 

It used to be that "they" would say things like “You need to be actively pursuing God all the time not just for the week at camp” and I was like blah, like that would ever be me. I feel like so many of the things that I say have been turned around on me…..and now I am the one behind and now I need support. 

Because I’m not that kid that goes to Wednesday night. You want to know what Wednesday night youth group is? Its kids playing sports and singing music that is too loud. And since I don’t do sports and I don’t do loud music so I have no reason to go. Socializing, yeah right, I can talk to myself if I need expert advice.

I think of Sunday school and the basic ideas “Jesus died on a cross” “God loves you” “Stay pure” that don’t really amount to much for any of us that show up. I think about the pastors sermons and how I walk away so often learning nothing. #pityparty Its so easy to go through the motions, too easy to fail to love selflessly and shine flawlessly. 

But you know what I think? I think that it is AMAZING that I can share these things. Do you know why?

·         I see that there is a problem

·         I want to fix it

·         I want to fix it now

·         I want to use this experience to Grow with a capital G

·         I want to tell you about it so that you might Grow with a capital G

The other day I had picked up my Bible, started in Matthew, right in the New Testament, and it was so refreshing. I got to like Mathew 7 before my eyelids got too heavy and I fell asleep but it was great. Three in the morning or no, I was full of joy. 

This morning, and I love cloud and sunsets and things, the sky was gorgeous. 

 God was saying “Thank goodness you have come back! You are precious to me, Kate!”

He said “I forgive you for your faults and have plans for you that you can not even comprehend. Here is a pretty sky to remind you that I am here for you. I have such good plans”

God was saying “Have I ever failed you?” And I was saying “No, no you have not” and getting all emotional.

God was painting the sky because he can do all things and he is everywhere. I wanted to drop what I was doing and just adore all the beauty before me. 

It reminded me of the large galaxies around us, the countless stars dotting the sky, but also the tiny cells of an onion skin under a microscope, the smallest details placed into creation. I felt small and God felt big and I knew I was loved. 

And even more, it reminded me of when I think I can do things on my own, but God can do things so much better. Guys, God is perfect!

Whatever are we thinking when we stray?

God can use me and he can use you. It doesn’t matter where you have been or what you have done or how hurt you are. You can heal- its not to late, its never too late. 

I was like the lady withe the bleeding disease in the Bible: She clung to God and refused to let go to his good graces. And I'm holding on.

For months, Ive just been religious. One of my friend often says “You are pretty cool for a religious person” and that is been all. Going through the motions. Last faith post I rambled about abortion, Ive been that type of Christian.

Today someone asked me what that “hat thing” was. I said I wear this because it reminds me of my God. It reminds me of his love and that I am a witness wherever I go. It makes others, like you, I said, ask questions, and I can say: “Listen! let me tell you who my Jesus is!” Lately I have just shrugged these comments off, but that is the dumbest thing to do. 

Now I want to act of my faith. It is like when I was just a born-again Christian…. Ah, let me tell you my story:

I was a devil child. The type of child that gets locked in a closet not because her parents are evil,but simply because they need a break. I through fits all the time and hated everyone. If I was unhappy, I would scream and cry and throw things and bite until I got my way and that was all there was to it. Once I tore down the shelving in my closet, moderately suffocating my sister. I was that sort of child. 

In the second grade, my church had a dedication “Lets give these kids Bible’s" service and I loved it! Now I could look at all the pretty pictures of Cain and Abel, World Wide Floods with thousands of dying peoples, the stoning of Stephen, plagues of locusts and insects, etc (that is referencing a Tim Hawkins video) and tune out the pastor. It was great.

It wasn’t long after that and my parents decided that I needed to get baptized, me and my sister. I was either finishing up second or third grade and it was about this time of year, May. Well, the preacher guy was old and retiring so it was rushed and hectic. How it went down was there was one guy acting as a godfather or something, another friend of my parents with an old video camcorder, and the guy in a robe sprinkling water over my sister and I’s heads. And the praying… they prayed a thousand different things and I was getting tired of all this. Usually we sat in the back corner for a quick get away and I didn’t like being front and center. At one point, I heard an “amen” from the prayer book script and so I grabbed my sisters and and marched us off to our seat. We got that one on camera. 

Fast forward a few years and I first found God when I was in the 7th grade.

Before then, when I was little, I refused to go to Sunday School. I would throw fits every single Sunday and keep my parents from having to go to church. Sometimes they left me alone in the Church library, which scares me to pieces now because strangers could have gotten in the doors so, so easily.

Once my mom was in a study “Live like you are dying” and I told myself I wanted nothing to do with God or Christianity. For mom to be a Christian, she had to get sick and die? My parents have always been interesting characters, but I sure didn’t like the sound of them dying!

In seventh grade, I was trying to please everyone and it just wasn’t working.  I was depressed, touching on suicidal some days, and possibly even had selective mutism, which is a rare thing that means you need help because there is something wrong.

My parents also say I was shitzophrentic and hearing voices in my head, but I cant remember that at all, maybe I have blocked it or maybe it never was. 

People are like "nah, you've always been the nicest person" but really I think everyone knows I was a big (insert choice vocabulary) and they just didnt want to believe it. I just know that I was in a bad, bad place. 

In seventh grade, my mother had recently gotten a job where we had to pretend the house was a quiet office: No talking allowed. Because she was a workaholic and I was a teenager with no where to turn, I think that there were times that I could not speak because trying to communicate with my parents would only bring punishment. They did not understand what I was going through and sometimes if felt that I was raising my sister alone. This was not easy.  

At that time, I was barely 100 pounds and thought that I was fat, ugly, and stupid. If you tell me any body feature, I could tell you something I was insecure about it about. Maybe more.  I bought make up behind my parents backs and skimpy clothes that they totally encouraged me to wear, I cut myself bangs as if that would solve everything… and nothing was bringing me happiness.

I was walking dangerous paths. I was lost.

So there I was and the first time I thought about wanted God in my life for real was mid march of seventh grade.  Times were just impossibly tough then, and I was going through what seemed to be more than I could handle.

So I was at this girls retreat, and the only thing I got out of the entire weekend was the best thing I could have heard: Heaven is awesome. 

Heaven is awesome and God wants you and me to spend eternity there with him. Because he loves us more than we can imagine. 

As John 3:16 says, for God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son that whosoever believes, may have eternal life. 

Now read that last bit with your name in place of "the world".

Yeah, even though none of us are perfect, God, our creator, has promised that when we get to heaven, he will wipe every tear from our eye. There will be no more sadness or pain....

And as a seventh grader, I clung to those words. Didnt want anything to do with turning from my sins and living a life pleasing to God, but heaven was a pretty nice notion. 

The speaker continued that heaven is more than just awesome. Heaven is like awesome squared or maybe awesome to the awesome... Beyond our wildest dreams. Beyond anything we can ever imagine. 

(And here I am, little ol’ me that gets her breath taken away to see the sky. And it is so elementary compared to all that God can do!)

Like we think of streets of gold and that is a mere fraction of what it will be like. 

We think of the prettiest sunrise or sunset or just mid day sky we have ever seen and that is only a fraction of the extent of awesome we will have before us. 

Because we are broken people loving in a broken world and we just can not fathom it, the speaker said. Heaven.

Finding God was certainly a break though, but I didn’t change anything for a time.  I beleived in "God" as one that would grant my every wish with nothing requested of me, and to stop lying? Cheating? Cursing? Stealing from stores? My subconscious motto was something along the lines of “Why bother!?!” 

But I started going to Sunday School, testing the waters slowly. 

I was still having rough days in the 8th grade but making breakthroughs. The one month at school we were learning about nuclear weapons, natural disasters like tornadoes and earthquakes and volcanos, poverty in Africa, Mount Everest, the Halocaust, rape, and every other bad thing you can think of and boy, I had some horrible nightmares. Most of them were of God returning but they got really really intense and imaginative. 

 I finally knew I need to make changes away from the World to make changes toward God. The World is a scary place, yo! 

And I did: I set aside my make up and started putting my hair up as I let God dictate my value as a woman instead of Hollywood and the Media.

My thoughts took a u-turn: What if I dont want to wear a bikini? What If I dont want to have my hair chopped off? Or to expose my body to any man that walks by?  I started to give up the things "of the world" that defined me.

 I was born again.

I got baptized for reals and it was a beautiful day. 

Has everything been easy since? No. 

Everyone faces pain. There are the pains of disappointments and sickness. Of anxiety and physical ailments. The pains of would be's and if only's, and grief. 

Pains that feel so large... that we wonder why God lets them close to us. Or even if he can overcome them at all. 

But he can overcome, and I have read the back of the Book, and he has overcome evil and he is always there.

He wants to strengthen you and me, to carry us, he wants to change your life for the better like he changed mine.

Once I had a dream, back a few years ago, that I had died and gone to heaven, and got to meet again all those that mean so much to me... that I was going to see Jesus! And it was a wonderful feeling. 

And then just these past 2 days, two people that mean a lot to me that I hadn't seen in some time I got to see again, and we hugged and it was awesome. The one a good friend who is going through so much pain and confusion... and the other a friend I sang with, but who graduated last year and I hadn't seen since. I'm not even a hugger, I just was so full of glee, to see them again pretty much "wowed" me....

And a very long long time ago, I read a post and the blogger said: No weeping there, no tears, no sighs, no trouble. No tired feet on that golden pavement, no hungry ones there, no hot burning sun, no cold frost or snow. No sickness there, and no death, no funerals in Heaven, no graves in the golden city. Perfect love there, no more quarreling or strife, no angry tones or discordant murmurs, no rough voices to disturb the peace. And all this forever and ever, no dread of it coming to an end, no gloomy fears for the future, no partings there, no good-byes. Once there, safe forever. At home, at rest, with God.

Oh, yes! I've been thinking about it, and well, you know, heaven is going to be awesome. 

Today I looked out my window, and God said “Speak”.

I do not know how my life is going to change further, I do not know if or how these Wednesday posts are going to change. But I know that I would love if you would join me in my pursuit of God. 

On May 29th I had the opportunity to see the Collingsworth family. After I wrote to a friend--

Me: I just got back from the coolest concert ever, the artist being a Christian family by the name of the Collingsworth Family. The mom, Kim, is considered the best gospel musician in the country and you would have loved to listen to her play the piano! At the end, there was a part where people shouted out songs and she would play them from memory and we would all sing along.... There was like 1100+ of us and she lead us in the Hallelujah Chorus and a bunch of different hymns... It was awesome and I have no idea how she knows so many songs from memory! She was like leaping from one end of the piano to the other :) and I have never seen anything like it. Anyway, it was my first time to see them live with them only coming to Chambersburg once a year and if you ever get the change to see them, you totally should!

Her: Wow Kate, that sounds really cool! I'm glad you told me about that lady. She sounds awesome! Maybe I'll look her up. Also, glad you were thinking of me while watching her. I feel totally honored lol! 

Me: Yeah. I was looking at some of the videos online.... none of them really do the experience justice but such is life. :)

I just loved loved loved ability to bust into the Hallelujah Chorus at a moments notice, or any other song, but more her pounding the keys of that piano-- without any sort of mercy, with total confidence that each note is correct-- Kim shared an awesome testimony and with my bootleg copy, I figure that there's no reason I cant share her words with you.

At the end, my dedication to listening and typing and playing clips over and over started to get cut a little short, but here we have the words you’ll hear in the above clip. I think you get the most out of it if you would listen and read along, because she knows what she is talking about. :)

 She is going to start a few minutes into the clip. 

Well, I never felt more like Noah than sixteen years ago, when Phil came to me and said "Hey Kim, God is talking to me". And I said "Whats he saying?!?!" and he said "I think God wants me to quit my job" and I said "Thats not God". And he said "I think that God wants us to do this- what you see tonight" 

I like had a heart attack. I like to be home. I am a wife and a momma before I am ever a musician, and I love that role as a momma and a wife and so I was like "Phil, surely...surely you need to clean your ears out". Its true- this isnt us.  But the truth of the matter was, it was. And the Lord began to talk to me, severely and very seriously. And he reminded me of several things. One thing being that I promised God at a young age that I would do whatever he asked me to do. When I was just a teenager. That I would go anywhere he wanted me to go, play anywhere he wanted me to play, sing anywhere he wanted me to sing, I’d do anything.

But I was thinking God, I never knew it meant this. I’m never going to be home and all these things I began to tell the Lord of. And after a lot of prayer, we took a big jump- a *big* jump out into the deep. I remember when we were still unsure of the next step.  Phil quit his job and we had a little mini van and a little five bay trailor. We didn’t even have that at first, we just had the mini-van.

And we took off. And I was homeschooling and teaching phonics in the back of the van – and y’all say “That’s stupid”, well I thought that too. But I knew that God truly was in it and I was basically telling God, look what an inadequate person I was.  I wasn’t equipped, I didn’t have the ability, and there was no way I was going to homeschool my kids—they’d all be a bunch of dummies. And I told him everything.

And he just continually through scripture kept telling me, “Kim, you worry about so many things. I don’t call people who are equipped. I don’t call people who already have it all together…. I equip the people that I call.” And you know what? I wrapped around the great big hand of Jesus and I hung on for dear life. If I had time tonight, I kept many many many years, I started journaling when Phil was 8 month old. Hes 21 that will tell you how long. I have story after story of how God has truly truly brought us through all kinds of crazy things. Its been a great wonderful, awesome, scary, terrifying, horrifying, marvelous journey. If that makes any sense to you.

But I do tell you, when we got started, we were singing to thirty people in a little church in Columbus Indiana and I say 30 people but it may have been less, but it may be thirty. Little tiny crowd. The kids were ten, nine, six, and two. I believe they had already sung theyre little special and went and sat down in the front row. And you know, I would play the piano and snap my fingers at them when they started misbehaving… you know. Come on, help me, you know what I mean. My kids were far from perfect, but anyway.

Phil was talking to the crowd and I was playing the piano mighty softly. And you gotta understand this picture. In our family, Phil is the visionary and I hang onto his coat tail for dear life. Doesn’t that sound like a nice wife?

I was sitting playing that night and this time it wasn’t Phil getting a great big dream or visionary, the Lord speaking to him: it was me! It was straight It was clear. The Lord tends to speak to me real simply because I’m a simple person.I really am, I’m not complicated. When you grow up as poor as I did, poor as a turkey, you played with thread. I’m telling you it’s the truth: You tend not to be real complicated with a lot of stuff. Its black and white, theres not a lot of gray.

That night I was sitting there and the Lord said to me “Kim, there is so much I can do though your little family. But you don’t pray enough. You and Phil are so busy, busy doing good things, but you don’t pray enough.  And it was as though- and I didn’t see handwriting on the wall or hear an audible voice- but it was as clear as any voice I had ever heard. It was as if the Lord spoke to me and said there are two things that I want you to begin seeking me about: One: The salvation of your kids. If we win the world and lose our kids…. The second thing, was that we would pray that we would be effective for his kingdom right here, not ours.

It was that simple. We got done with the concert and I cant remember a single thing that Phil said- that’s a typical woman right there. We got out I said to Phil, I gotta talk to you. Hurry, tear the sound down. We got in van and I sad to Phil, God spoke to me clear. He said “What about??” it was my turn. I said to him what I just said to you and he said this: Tomorrow night, which is Monday night, I’m going to be gone. I have an appointment.

But what about Tuesday night, you want to start praying Tuesday night? I said Sure. You gotta understand that I was fourteen. He was nineteen and I was just getting out of the 8th grade and was going into his sophomore year of college. He sure trained me up in the way I should go.. We fell in love. Any way, long story short, we dated, got married, lots of romance, but we had never prayed together. We came down tuedsay night and I pray and he prays. We have our own little devotional times. We didn’t pray together but we prayed with the kids when we would tuck them in at night and that was it.

We came down that first Tuesday night and sat on the couch and looked at each other a little different. I told him the things that I thought I was supposed to pray about and were talking a bit and for the first time he got down at the couch and took my hand and we began to call out to Jesus. I was calling about the two things that I knew about- about the kids and that God would be helping us out here.

I didn’t have any idea, I didn’t have any forsight to know statistics. I didn’t know that 50% of evangelical Christians are getting divorced. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that the divorse rate between Christians and Nonchristians is almost the same. I get that stuff happens and its terrible and touches nearly every home.. it’s a sadness, it breaks my heart. In no way am I condemning it because I know that things happen.  I did not know that for couples who prayed together that the divorce rate is 1%. I did not know that and you say that we are the perfect little family , I bet you hardly ever aruge…. And I’m not going to answer that.  Its hard to be divided when you are praying together. Its hard to hate your enemies when you are praying for them. You say “Why are you telling me this?” and I don’t even know except that I can say without a shadow of a doubt that we just sang a song that there is healing in His hands for you. And Jesus said if you humble yourself and pray and seek my face then you will be healed. 

He said I will show favor to those that call on my name. He said I am the Living Water of those that diligently seek me. He also said that the day that you seek me with all of your heart you will find me. I don’t know about y’all but I would rather have ten minutes of the Power of what Jesus can do than 10 years of working of my own strength trying to make something work. I have seen many many things change because of prayer. Are we perfect? So far from it that it absolutely stinks!  I have to go back to my kids and say to them “Hey, Will you forgive me?” Because Ive been short with them. Now all of you gasp right now. I have to apologize to everyone right here. If y’all in PA aren’t like that I am moving here right now. I am moving here.

But I want you to know this: There is power in Jesus. And in 2015 if you turn on CNN or you watch Fox News you see it on your TV or computer screen its everwhere. They give you the bad in this world not the good. The bad news is that this world needs help! They give you the bad not realizing to the Chrsitian that we know what the answer is THE ANSWER IS JESUS CHRIST! But I want to let y’all know, ah, it is a privilege to be on this stage and say that as long as there is breath in whatever situation that you are in  if you call on the name of God that he will be there.

I saw the other day, I don’t know where, a lady talking about God, She said she didn’t believe in him and called him your “imaginary friend”. I said “Wow! My “imaginary friend” heals broken marriages. My “imaginary friend” that you call him talks to me everyday and I talk back to him. He aswers the most littlest minute, detailed prayers. And I see you shaking your head and saying “Amen” because its true. I don’t even know what we are supposed to be singing right now. We start out with a program and then it gets turned upside down. So just hang on for the ride… We’re about 80% done.

We started talking about Noah and Noah knowing enough to float on faith. These kids are jumped out of the nest, living on their own… And I wonder if I have given them what to make it out there. And I remember I dedicated their life…