March 2014 Insta-Recap

Bachelor Marathon, haven't laughed this hard in a long time!

Paid off 40 minutes beyond the final deadline by my intern KK!!!

FIrst time at the Habit Burger, SO GOOD!

streaming @bethelredding family weekend waiting to hear one of my original heroes, Mark Chironna #thursdaynighthangs

Those days after weeks of rain when God reminds you you're in California #blueskies #palmtrees #latergram

2nd time eating Japanese food today chicken teriyaki, gyoza, tempura and miso soup

And I tried Sushi for the 1st time!!! Thanks @obey_p for making me adventurous!!! :-)

In 12 days we head to Italy for an incredible time of ministry & family. It feels so surreal. Lord take over, come & do what you do // In 12 giorni ci dirigiamo in Italia per un tempo incredibile del ministero & della famiglia. Ritiene così surreale. Signore assume la direzione di, prossimo & fa che cosa fai #bssm #missiontrip #ViaggioDiMissione

power green smoothie 4 apples, couple handfuls of frozen berries & power greens, 2 tbsp honey, 4 tbsp plain nonfat organic yogurt, enough almond milk to get the blender going #recipe

Partying with Taylor tonight #taylorswift #red #itfeelslikeoneofthosenights #idontknowaboutyou #dancinglikewere22 #annoyingmyhousematewithloudmusic

Face masks, bubble baths & fashion magazines #ilovebeingagirl #saturdaynight

When you have nothing else to do, take selfies watching Heidee, Markus and Rhnelda play Basketball at the Simpson Gym

This is so me, my housemates would agree...but I'm making an effort!

#truth why complicate life? (With the exception of using your truth to hurt someone else...truth isn't truth in the absence of love)

Made chicken teriyaki noodles for this week's dinners, with tons of veggies #sogood!!! #mealprepping

#latergram from St. Patrick's day ceili last night & my 2 dance partners Rhonelda & Janka and Sherry and Kristina #beauties #friends

Finally, to amazing Spring weather & 7pm sunsets this week! Time to unpack the shorts!!! #California #everyweekisthebestweek #happyhappyhappy

Just made these chocolate chip, chocolate brownie muffins for my fellow countrymen i.e Kenyan friends :-) about to deliver them, i only had 1 bite & the chocolate gooing out of em made me so excited to see their faces! #freshbaked #stillwarm

First protein wrap, not gonna be a 2nd time!

Breakfast #smoothie baby carrots, spring mix, apples, strawberries, yogurt & honey to sweeten...vitamin c & iron blast #health

This makes me SO happy #enchanted #wonderstruck #perfume #taylorswift #smellssogood

Praying for mission trip #Italy #myroommatehacksmyphone #loveyoujoan #destiny #prayingsuperhard

since I was 7 years old waiting for a class trip, I've never been able to sleep past 4 a.m, the excitement always gets me. Here I am a decade and a half later, awake at 4 a.m again, this time, getting rocked by God & the house I get the priviledge to represent for the next 2 weeks. Yeah..."there is a wedding feast for all the ones who call themselves His bride" SanFran-Paris-ITALY! #bssm #missionsweek #likealittlechildagain

We're in San Fran, my bags were over the weight limit so I was the crazy lady reorganizing her luggage in front of people (genius move packing undies in a seperate bag!). Finally made it through security, so just grabbing my 1st meal of the day then we're off to Paris!

I'm alive! Bonjour from Paris! Just got through security, after one of the most bumpy flights ever...good news is, my flu is almost gone! #bathroomselfies

so, last update of the day & probably for a while. I was like, I'm not going to get carried away with the food, I packed my healthy snacks, I was ready. All that resolve melted away when the waiter brought out the breadsticks...well, we made it to Italy! We eat & rest tonight, then our 1st ministry session starts early a.m! #thesmilesaysitall

So in a surprise turn of events, we're in Switzerland!!!!! We are part of the ministry team in a beautiful church up here, service starts in an hour or so, everybody is super friendly. My 2 Italian phrases are taking me well, "what is your name" & "my name is" can't wait to see what God does!!!

Team "USA" on their phones, #finallyfoundwifi #addicts #preministryinstagramming It's been 24 hours since we've had internet!!!

Earlier in Varese town square #TII

Mariah, Liz & Alissa activating the kids in prophetic art :-)

Day 2 of ministry, waiting for service to start & they're playing Bethel Music in the background. I'm ready! #TII #bethelitalia

end of night 2, we prayed for a girl who didn't want to wear glasses anymore, we prayed around 5 times asking her to check it out & she moved from a 3 to a 10! 2 of her friends came up with the same problem & we got her to pray for them. When they got to 10, we had them pray for the church people with the same problem. I just pray God will use eye miracles as a wonderful testimony for New Vision Church. The name itself is prophetic. Please join me in praying everyone wakes up with 20/20 vision & perfect eyes from the Perfect Father! #TII #bethelitalia

Heather & I were definitely the luckiest when it came to host families, Gabriella, Roberto & Mariella blessed my socks off & loved me entirely too well the past 2 days. Oh my goodness, they've shown me what it means when we say "love looks like something" or "the church is not a building, its the people". The people of New Vision Varese are the REAL DEAL. The world is gonna be taking lessons from them on how to live this life. #feelingblessed

Team dinner in Firenze. I'm having a mixed grill platter #Florence #food #Italy

Just got to the ☆ #BethelItalia Conference ☆ Dear Prayer Team, today we are Praying for a great day, lets experience Jesus in a brand new way. Praying for God's Power to break through today. Praying for awakening & love to fill every nook and cranny of this city ♡♥♡♥

First session over, amazing worship by the Shine band, followed by powerful words from Sarah, Francesco & Susanna. Now for some lunch!

My AWESOME Treasure Hunt Team! These guys went for it & loved on a bunch of people & shared the Gospel! So excited I was with them! #bethelitalia #treasurehuntsonthebeach #livingitup

Today's meals from The Dune hotel, my friends told me America would add some pounds to me, they were wrong, Italy's done more to me in a week than CA did in 8 months! #eatnowdietlater #yolo :-)

I'm ready to party!!! Concert time with #JesusImpact #930pm

Just that kind of night #worship #dancing #ISeeSlainPeople #lol

Fresh strawberries bought near the Tuscan beach #bestieverhad #itsagoodlife #Camaiore

Fitness & Blurred Lines

So I've been working out & like most people, I spend a lot of time on pinterest & instagram on the "fitspiration" pages getting inspired to be fit i.e. fitspiration. It's worked, I'm in "beast mode" and "giving 1 more push-up" and getting fit because "nothing tastes as good as being fit feels". In the midst of all the mantras and positive thinking and inspiration, is a very blurry line between fitspiration and plain porn.

What exactly is porn. Is it restricted to the actual act of coitus (Big Bang Theory anyone? :-)), or does it start at naked images of 2 or more people, or 1 person. Progress is amazing, but why do we have to turn something as great as fitness and health into sex. If you want to take a picture of your abs, take a picture of your abs, you don't have to do it in a thong and worse, pulling down the front part of your thong to give us more than enough details! Same goes for guys & undies selfies!

I hate the prevalence of the over-sexualization of everything. Take Beyonce's new album videos. I haven't listened to the album, because on Youtube, all the videos are marked "explicit", why? Hasn't Bey garnered enough success to not have to resort to showing her ass to the world? Or, Rihanna's song with Shakira, the lyrics of the song have nothing to do with gyrating in risque swimsuits.

Honest question, where does sexiness end and porn begin? This line is so blurry. I feel like an porn addict could watch a music video playing in his living room in the middle of the afternoon, not sneaking away or hiding anything & satisfy his craving. S

Anyway, on to happier things...

JillIan Michaels totally kicked my butt today. I only got to minute 21 before I quit. Then I thought to myself, "if I'm gonna live a life of no regrets, I better finish this workout". So I took a 5 minute break, turned on some Hillsong Young & Free and got back to it.

BOOM!

I wasn't perfect at it, and like I said, it murdered my arms, which is why this is my new go-to workout, talk about a burn!!! I'll probably do it again after church tonight. It's only 35 minutes so I don't think its too much for 1 day. I can't wait to feel sore tomorrow so I know which muscles I worked lol.

Happy Sunday folks!

Happy & Strong - Body, Soul & Mind

For the life of me, I can't remember what workout I did yesterday, my bad! Today though, I went HARD!!! I walked 4.2 miles, and...

I also did some weighted squats and tricep lifts. I was obviously not perfect at workout video #2, but I went for it & I'm so stinking proud of myself :-)

Foodwise, I had a carrot, spring mix, strawberry & plain yogurt, smoothie for breakfast. Lunch was my leftover chicken teriyaki noodles, then I made some flaxseed, wholewheat, chocolate brownies for dinner. Not a great dinner, but it'll have to do. I think I got plenty of my nutrition for the day.

So my body is covered. For my soul, I watched probably the best movie I have watched in a long time. It's a bollywood movie called Akaash Vani. It's a love story, SO GOOD! My soul is happy. I love the long stares, the gazing into each others eyes, the romantic poetry. Ahh!

For my mind, I'm reading God's Generals/doing homework. It's a biographical book detailing the lives, triumphs & tragedies of past revivalists. I like it because it shows us their strengths, their weaknesses, what they did wrong & what we can avoid. I can't wait to tell you guys all about what I'm learning!

x
Jo

Treasure Hunts, Trader Joe's & Victoria Secret Legs!

Treasure Hunts Today!!!

Treasure hunts are my city service/activation. Basically, a team of 3-5 people fill out a treasure map, which is a list of clues about who God is highlighting to us at that particular time. So today on my list, I had a bunch of stuff among them I had, red & white striped shirt. So we went downtown to a coffee shop which was on my team mates list & found a girl in the shirt I wrote down! So we went up & prayed for a few things for her & prophesied over her that was really cool

The boys also found this guy who had just moved to Redding & prayed and prophesied over him and when they came back & told me, I was like, "No way, I had 'moved to a new city' on my treasure map" It would have been so cool for the guy to see that & know he really was God's treasure for the day just as an added bonus!

Afterward, we had class & were prayed over & released for our mission trips!!! #6daystoitaly

We had a Trader Joes run and I got their Turkey burgers & honey wheat buns & handsome cut french fries.

 

I was craving some In n Out & figued I could satisfy my cravings in a healthier way than animal fries & animal style burger. I just packed the burger with spring mix & cut the cheese. Oh yeah, it hit the spot!!!

I also had some of this...crack in a plastic bag! These are so good. I've never had kettle corn until meeting my housemate Julie, the thought of sugar in popcorn made me sick, but now, OMG Kenya you don't know what you're missing! Nobody does it better than Trader Joe's!

My workouts for the day included walking 2.1 miles to school in the morning and...

these were some amazing stretches for my poor, sore strong body! I don't know what it is about working out & eating semi-well...I feel hot! I know I have probably not lost 100 pounds, but I feel so strong & confident. My legs probably look the same, but I feel like a freaking Victoria Secret Model walking the runway. Exercise is a great self-esteem boost. It's the weekend tomorrow, I just might go on a little run, at the very least a brisk walk. I never thought I'd say this, but, I'm probably packing workout clothes to Italy as well. Let's see if I can do a couple of workouts in the land of pasta and gelato!

x

Jo