Only Ten Days Late...

Bradley turned 21 on July 12th, but he has been loving and sharing Jesus with people in Serbia!

So we finally got to celebrate his birthday this weekend (ten days after his actual birthday)!

Saturday evening I drove to Raleigh to surprise Bradley at the airport.

They were supposed to land at 8:15pm and didn't land until 11:30pm.  

I was a nervous wreck.

I was so happy to see him!

After we got his luggage we wanted to talk.  Not many places are open around midnight that have relatively nutritious food...so we parked at Sheetz beside our church, snacked, and chatted.

My pretzels and hummus container was adorable and very accurate.

He dropped me off at the purple house full of exhausted and revived women...and I woke up the next morning to my best friend in the whole world jumping on my bed fold-out couch! 

So so great.

Trip Lee, Bradley's favorite Christian hip hop artist, preached at Summit!

After church we grabbed Panera to go and went to Duke Gardens!

 I gave him a homemade coffee mug and homemade mint chocolate chip cookies with the 21 reasons why I am glad he was born :)

In the midst of sweet conversation...Bradley got another surprise!

Then we headed to Frankie's!

On our drive Bradley gave me gifts from Serbia!

A beautiful handmade mug, Serbian keychain as a reminder to pray for the country, and about three dollars!

We played a round of putt putt...

We don't joke around.

...except when there's an opportunity to Tebow of course.

We're pretty competitive.

Especially when we hit each others balls into the grass.

We headed to the Brier Creek area and enjoyed some coffee and God's Word.

And later grabbed a yummy dinner and he opened his last gift:

confusion.

It still needs some tweaking with the push pins, but this verse eerily sovereignly relates to what God told him on his last flight home.

I am so grateful for that special time together, since I won't see him for five more days.

I gained a deeper repentance and thankfulness for God's character, design for humanity, and the community He has given me.

Happy Birthday!

Today is this man's 21st birthday!

He is spending his birthday in Belgrade, Serbia building relationships with kids, teenagers, and college students (aka not drinking).  

Since Serbia is so incredibly hostile to the gospel/any sort of religious talk, his group is encouraged to be patient and evangelistically winsome instead of shooting for the Romans road with every conversation (aka it's hard). 

There are several missionaries that have planted their lives in Belgrade along with a few Serbian Christians, so Brad's team is encouraged to cultivate relationships that can be developed with time in the hope that the Spirit would bring them to salvation in Jesus.

Bradley and I got to skype this morning (afternoon to him) and I read him 22 1/2 (I tried for 21 and couldn't narrow the list any more) reasons why I am glad he was born.  

I'll share just a few:

I miss him when he's not with me (especially for 2 months).

He's a good combination of strength and tenderness.

He makes me laugh/is not afraid to make a fool of himself.

He loves my family well.

He's super fashionable.

If you couldn't tell, I certainly love him a lot.

I am confused and thankful that the Lord has given me this man who loves and pursues me so well, yet daily makes Christ the center of his affection.

I am SO excited to hug him soon and hear detailed story after detailed story about how the Lord made Himself known on this trip.

Sticky Notes & Being Loved Well.

A wise woman in my life told me months ago that she thanks God that her husband fails her, because if he didn't, she wouldn't need God.

I love that--mostly because I love when Bradley is not failing, and am frequently disappointed when he ultimately does (duh, he isn't Jesus).  This leads to excessive criticism because my hope in that moment is in someone who will disappoint me.

I hope Bradley has been thanking God that I fail him lately...because I haven't been so great to him.  Yesterday, I had yet to start a paper that was due this afternoon and was preparing for my first final exam today.  Along with other frustrations that were out of my control, I was downright cranky.

Bradley and I walked to class together yesterday morning, and during that five-minute conversation I managed to vent my frustrations and turn them on him.  

Nooot the sweetest thing to do. 

I didn't even apologize immediately.  I did once I saw him that afternoon--but it stinks to be mean to someone who is being patient with you. 

I met up with him to apologize, and so we studied together afterward.  I was doing my laundry and when I realized my clothes weren't dry enough, and I didn't have time to wait because I had class at 1:30.  He offered/told me he would wait for them to finish and would take them to my room if someone was there to open the suite door.

Well, when I returned to my room, this was the sight:

He covered my room in sticky notes...

He folded my laundry...

He wrote me a poem and pointed me to biblical Truth...

Needless to say, I was crying after I read those items.

And I found more sticky notes today:

...and that's not even all of them.

So today, after I got out of my final exam and last class of the day, he called me and told me he wanted to meet up with me.  I was frustrated on the phone (though I had just finished a final, and felt great about it!)...because my class was dismissed 20 minutes late.

Is there a more lame reason to take frustration out on another person?


I'm even embarrassed to write down how quickly I forget Jesus, how quickly I forget that He is Lord, this life is not my own, and all good things come from Him and not me.

So we met at a swing outside, and Bradley gave me this:

In his precious, 6-year-old handwriting, he wrote (most of) the names that God gives Himself in Scripture.
Yesterday, when Bradley was super sweet to me, of course I was giddy and felt so loved by him...Thank You, Lord that he doesn't stand for that too long.

When Bradley handed me this, he said to me,
"You could not use any one of these words to describe me, yet even these words are not sufficient to capture all that God is."

Ummmm, so does Bradley point me to Jesus, or does he point me to Jesus?

After my selfishness and impatience reared its ugly head directly at him, Bradley obeyed the Spirit's leading to choose to offer me grace instead of reprimand.

I am easily frustrated and critical, and he definitely has his sin patterns and struggles (I love to focus on them, so even recording this is a good discipline for me), but I am so thankful for a man who loves Jesus more than me and who loves me like Jesus first loved me.  

As great as Bradley is, even on his best days--when he is aware of his sin and God's glory, and even when he is loving me well--he is in desperation for salvation.

Jesus' love for me is completely unmerited.  He first chose to love me and He most clearly showed me His love for me by stepping off of His throne, living, dying, and resurrecting on earth, and sending His Spirit to help me in my struggle to love Him back.

I am nothing; He is everything.
My words cannot contain Him and my life is hid with Him.

He delights in me because I am covered by Jesus' blood--and for no other reason.
THAT is being loved well.

Bradley's Summer!

READ THIS.

This is my sweet boyfriend. He is indeed sweet, but he is also fervently passionate, wonderfully patient (especially with me), and absolutely sinful--but the best thing about him is that Jesus gave up His righteousness for Bradley.  All Brad did was become aware of it and desire it.

The Lord has, in the past 9 months, taken Brad's life, plans, and mindset, and turned it on its head (and is doing the same thing in me currently).  Watching God move in him has been one of the most humbling things I've experienced, and has made me worship Jesus vastly more than I did before this happened.  How the Lord will use Brad's career is unknown.  Thankfully, he is an example to me of how to relinquish control in this area of life--read: I love to control my life.

Brad, while he has much to grow in and learn and refine, has been given passions and skills that align with pastoral ministry.  He is seeking counsel and discipleship from older and wiser pastors and laymen that speak truth and wisdom into his life.  He did not experience an epiphany-like "calling" from the Lord to enter ministry, but instead his heart has been, and is, rejoicing at his own salvation and breaking for those who do not know the One for whom they were created.  Jesus is constantly tearing at Brad's and my notions of what ministry is and how that will play out in our lives.  Brad is zealous for the hearts and lives of college students and loves big cities--where a lot of young people congregate.  He is taking steps to prepare to be a part of a church plant/plant a church and be a college pastor/pastor.  

I first ask that you be praying for him--that Jesus would continually become bigger to him so that his humility would increase and his sin would become more and more distasteful.  Pray that the extent of his trust in Jesus and his hatred of sin would increase in light of the grace lavished on him by the Gospel.

Secondly, he is going to be spending his summer participating in a discipleship program for college students, The City Project, through our church, The Summit. He will ministering to Muslims (mostly) in Queens, NY, living in downtown Durham, NC, being discipled by pastors, ministering to Durham locals, doing two internships (one in the church, one with a nonprofit organization--both currently unknown), taking a seminary class, and carrying the message and mission of Jesus to Taiwan.  

Participating in any one of these opportunities would be wonderful, but to be able to get a taste of multiple types of ministry in one summer, especially for a man who is seeking full-time ministry, is a phenomenal blessing.  

In order to participate in The City Project, Brad needs to raise $4,500 by the end of May.  That is a lot of money.  But 5 dollars, 25 dollars, 100 dollars goes a long way, even just emotionally.  If you would like to financially support him, simply write a check, addressed to The Summit Church, and send it to the church office:

The Summit Church

2335-114 Presidential Dr.

Durham, NC 27703


Also make sure you write in the subject line:  City Project: Brad Johnson

He would also love to talk to you more about it.  If you're interested, you can email him at: bdjohns6@ncsu.edu

Or you and I can chat! Email me at: kjwilliford@gmail.com

Prayer is most powerful tool we possess.  I am believing God on behalf of Brad's support-raising process.  

Yee-haw.

Yesterday was so fun!! It was MUCH prettier outside than it is right now...


Morgan, Haley, 3mma (not a misspelling), Christian (Bradley's roommate), and I all went to a farm that's down the street from M & H's house!  The farm is owned by NC State and it's open to the public once a year.

Driving up to the farm, we immediately saw cows!

Walking up to the farm...we are the only people here who are neither under the age of ten nor parents.

The girls.

We (the girls) LOVED this bright red barn door. Perfect for pictures...Thanks Christian.

First thing I saw when we entered: a turkey. 

Then we headed straight for the baby chicks!

3mma holding it! There's a (sort of) picture of Christian!

It was so tiny!

Probably my favorite picture of the day...just look at that poor chick with its feet in the air. I was dying. 

There was a gorgeous, friendly horse.

And cute little girls trying to reach him.

There were some cows off in the distance...

And this Chick-fil-a cow was staring them down hard.

The pigs were so awkward.

And they're names weren't a joke.

Actually, this might be my favorite picture--because of the ridiculous child leash, of course.

There was a one-month-old goat. Cutest thing ever.

Bradley's favorite animal is a goat, and the baby goat tried to kiss me on the cheek...watch out.

Sweet Morg & me.

NC State produces their own Howling Cow ice cream. They were handing it out for FREE.

Silliness in the back seat.

Sad to leave :( ...and we can thank the disgusting pollen everywhere for the dirty windshield and funny-looking picture.

After the farm, I went to lunch with a friend--a three-hour lunch. Those are the best. 

This is what I found on my desk when I returned:

I have the sweetest friends.

The twins and I went to Whole Foods for dinner, yay!

I always get way too much food. This is what I took home: