Yay for getting to hang with a really good friend. One of my kamp friends came through town Monday night, and it was really fun just to get to fellowship with them for a little bit. This person is one that truly impacted my life this summer, in the sence that watching him live and interact with people made me really think about how I was interacting with people. Not the people right around me, but the people that I don't even know. For instance, he and I and another friend were at the landing one 2-4 (our days off from kamp) and he sees some guys laying brick in the hot boiling sun. Now if you've been to the landing you know that there are LOTS of information centers and they all have free drinks. My friend says, I'll be right back ( I say okay and head on the atm to get some cash) I turn around to see him giving cups of water to these guys who are laying the brick. What a testament to the person he is inside, he is so consistent in serving everyone who comes in his life whether that is for 15 seconds or for a life time. His life has really opened my eyes to the opportunities we have to serve people and to show them the love of the Lord everyday... such a blessing! Open your eyes for these opportunities as you live today!
Life at the Institute is well, I started my internship last Sunday night. It will be so fun to serve this Church the next couple months as I get to hang out with kiddos and dive into their lives. I'm continuing to pray about my vision statement, and really just direction for how the Lord desires my gifts, talents, and passions to be used for His glory. If you'd like you can join in on those prayers as well.... until next time...later!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
I don't even know where to begin...
How about with a shout out of a Happy birthday to my nephew Caleb, he is 10 today...It's kinda unbelievable, kinda like he is. Such a smart, gifted, young guy he is. So Happy Birthday Caleb, wish I was there to give you a BIG hug and kiss on your BIG day to celebrate! But I'm not so Bridge, its your job to relay these actions to your son...
How about now we go to the topic in class last Thursday, that would be another great place to start (there is that phrase again Marketia). The topic was creating a vision statement for your life... WHOA! Already, I have to create a vision statement, I've only been here two weeks and have one skimmed the surface of beginning to learn everything we are to learn this year....and I have to create a vision statement? Yup, sure do Andrea and it's due next Thursday...it must have 3 parts to it...a what, a how, and a why...oh ya and by the way each one of those sections can only be 2 sentences long... where oh where do I begin... one thing is obvious to me, I want to build relationships with girls through our interest in cheerleading, to give me a plateform to teach the disciplines of life, through the discipline of the sport of cheerleading. With that, my mind automatically start thinking but that's not going to bring in money...so what do I do? (let me insert that at this time I'm listening to Pandora music, and Shane and Shane just happen to be playing....the song is Psalm 13, the chorus is I will wait for you, Lord I will wait for you) Which is exactly what I was about to type, the what do I do is build relationships with girls through cheerleading and let the Lord us me to teach them about life and a relationship with Him through the disciplines of cheerleading. Who knows if that will be my job, but for now its my vision and purpose in life. I am at the same time praying about nursing school, the Lord has definately given me a heart for people, to love on them, and help them in their time of need. Being a nurse would definately give me that opporutnity. More on that later...
I had the most wonderful opporutnity to eat breakfast with a wonderful family this morning. It's always such a blessing to see how different families interact. I also got a chance to have some good conversation with a women and to hear her heart about raising children (which goes hand in hand with the paper I'm writing right now). Come to find out she's actually written a book, with a calender like set up to help mother's find their schedule and to help teach the importance of teaching the Lord from a very young age. I was blown away and asked...why do I feel like no one knows this about you...this spurred into a conversation that really spoke to my heart. I relate to this precious women in a really deep way, for some reason I feel like I keep alot of myself to myself, and honestly it is screaming to get out...I have always felt like I'm on a completely different page than most people, but maybe it was more so that I never gave them the opportunity to listen. This summer I had the rare occasion to have a friend who expected nothing out of me, other than to just be a friend...such a blessing it was to my life because for 1 of the 1st times ever I felt as if they just enjoyed my company and enjoyed being around me. For so long I've felt like my relationships were based on a need me basis; people would be my friend when they needed me. Kinda a rough place to be, which is probably why I don't talk much about what is going through my mind. But the way my friend and my's conversation ended today was that the Lord has given up desires, wisdom, knowledge, and a passion for a reason and we shouldn't hide it.... How often I fall short of this....Lord, help me today to be ever so present in the many life situations that I would know when to speak and when to listen, when to open up, when to keep the heart closed. We need to people, but people won't ever know what's going on if you don't tell them.... Open up, share, and let people help guide you, with the word, with their experience, so you to can experience the Lord in every aspect of your life.
How about now we go to the topic in class last Thursday, that would be another great place to start (there is that phrase again Marketia). The topic was creating a vision statement for your life... WHOA! Already, I have to create a vision statement, I've only been here two weeks and have one skimmed the surface of beginning to learn everything we are to learn this year....and I have to create a vision statement? Yup, sure do Andrea and it's due next Thursday...it must have 3 parts to it...a what, a how, and a why...oh ya and by the way each one of those sections can only be 2 sentences long... where oh where do I begin... one thing is obvious to me, I want to build relationships with girls through our interest in cheerleading, to give me a plateform to teach the disciplines of life, through the discipline of the sport of cheerleading. With that, my mind automatically start thinking but that's not going to bring in money...so what do I do? (let me insert that at this time I'm listening to Pandora music, and Shane and Shane just happen to be playing....the song is Psalm 13, the chorus is I will wait for you, Lord I will wait for you) Which is exactly what I was about to type, the what do I do is build relationships with girls through cheerleading and let the Lord us me to teach them about life and a relationship with Him through the disciplines of cheerleading. Who knows if that will be my job, but for now its my vision and purpose in life. I am at the same time praying about nursing school, the Lord has definately given me a heart for people, to love on them, and help them in their time of need. Being a nurse would definately give me that opporutnity. More on that later...
I had the most wonderful opporutnity to eat breakfast with a wonderful family this morning. It's always such a blessing to see how different families interact. I also got a chance to have some good conversation with a women and to hear her heart about raising children (which goes hand in hand with the paper I'm writing right now). Come to find out she's actually written a book, with a calender like set up to help mother's find their schedule and to help teach the importance of teaching the Lord from a very young age. I was blown away and asked...why do I feel like no one knows this about you...this spurred into a conversation that really spoke to my heart. I relate to this precious women in a really deep way, for some reason I feel like I keep alot of myself to myself, and honestly it is screaming to get out...I have always felt like I'm on a completely different page than most people, but maybe it was more so that I never gave them the opportunity to listen. This summer I had the rare occasion to have a friend who expected nothing out of me, other than to just be a friend...such a blessing it was to my life because for 1 of the 1st times ever I felt as if they just enjoyed my company and enjoyed being around me. For so long I've felt like my relationships were based on a need me basis; people would be my friend when they needed me. Kinda a rough place to be, which is probably why I don't talk much about what is going through my mind. But the way my friend and my's conversation ended today was that the Lord has given up desires, wisdom, knowledge, and a passion for a reason and we shouldn't hide it.... How often I fall short of this....Lord, help me today to be ever so present in the many life situations that I would know when to speak and when to listen, when to open up, when to keep the heart closed. We need to people, but people won't ever know what's going on if you don't tell them.... Open up, share, and let people help guide you, with the word, with their experience, so you to can experience the Lord in every aspect of your life.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Day 7...
So today we inductively studied Jonah... It was so stinking fun to really get in and dig deep. Yesterday when studying 2 Peter we walked through it all together as a class, today we got to go through it on our own. It was really fun to see the discussion that occured when we all came back together and shared our thoughts. One thing that stood out to me was that Jonah after being told to go to Nineveh said he wanted to flee God's presence. It makes reference to "fleeing God's presence" 3 times in the first 2 chapters- this became quite the topic for a bit b/c it was made known that in Psalm 139 it speaks of how the Lord is EVERYWHERE we go, so technically you can't "flee from God's presence" because He is everywhere. After discussing for a bit the teacher enlightened us with the fact that in literal translation Jonah is saying he wants to flee God's face, not actually His presence. We then connected in chapter 2 that he speaks of how he actually fled from the Lord's face and didn't like where he was.
When the Lord says go or do, we really shouldn't second guess what He has in store, THANKFULLY, our God is a God of second chances and that is seen strongly in the story of Jonah in both Jonah's life and the life of the people of Nineveh. Don't wait for the second chance to follow, listen and obey today!
When the Lord says go or do, we really shouldn't second guess what He has in store, THANKFULLY, our God is a God of second chances and that is seen strongly in the story of Jonah in both Jonah's life and the life of the people of Nineveh. Don't wait for the second chance to follow, listen and obey today!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Seriously?!?
Well I survived writing the papers that were due on Sunday and actually though time consuming I enjoyed every part of writing them. Sunday we all went to Church together, they introduced us to the congregation and prayed over us and the year ahead. After Church and while finishing up my papers, Abbie and I moved back into our old room (the one that flooded) and I finally feel settled! My life seems so much less stressful when the room I live in is a little organized.
Today and tomorrow a guy named David Lawson is doing the lectures for class. The topic is How to Study your Bible. We learned and practiced the inductive study method which we will be using to study the book Isaiah this fall. Today we did an overview of 2 Peter. We were in class from 8-12:30 and 2:30 to 4 studying the Bible! Seriously?!? That's what I do for school....how stinkin cool is that? I am WAY beyond blessed to have this experience.
On December 14th I have been asked to run a 1/2 marathon with one of my friends...this will be a HUGE challenge but I feel that the situation I am in right now is one that will definately help me succeed in this process...I've wanted to run a 1/2 marathon for awhile, and I am finally going to make that happen...
enough from me for tonight...back to the reading I go!
Today and tomorrow a guy named David Lawson is doing the lectures for class. The topic is How to Study your Bible. We learned and practiced the inductive study method which we will be using to study the book Isaiah this fall. Today we did an overview of 2 Peter. We were in class from 8-12:30 and 2:30 to 4 studying the Bible! Seriously?!? That's what I do for school....how stinkin cool is that? I am WAY beyond blessed to have this experience.
On December 14th I have been asked to run a 1/2 marathon with one of my friends...this will be a HUGE challenge but I feel that the situation I am in right now is one that will definately help me succeed in this process...I've wanted to run a 1/2 marathon for awhile, and I am finally going to make that happen...
enough from me for tonight...back to the reading I go!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
All in one week...
Hello world! I am currently sitting in the dining hall thinking back upon the week that I just experienced. Exactly one week ago to I was driving up to Missouri to make my home for the next couple months. It was an absolutely unbelieveable week and I would totally LOVE to walk you through what has been going on.
Saturday we arrived and moved into the Cabanas...My roommate is an absolutely wonderful girl named Abbie from Missouri. We bonded relatively quickly us both being very layed back people. That night we had dinner and games in the Hale Olina (house of joy...aka the dining hall) then we were free to continue getting settled in. Well by the time the settling occured it was about 1am for Abbie and I. We were SO excited b/c we were organized...life is good when organization is in place. So we went to sleep...did I mention that a Hurricane had hit Texas a couple days before and we'd been told it was going to rain? Or that I live on the bottom floor at the end of a little slope in the road? So Let me rephrase that with sandbags in place at the bottom of the slope and 1 am Abbie and I went to bed....We were awaken at 3:30 am by our sweet mate Kristin by a pounding at the door (I'm laughing as I replay this memory in my head) Abbie crawls out of bed and announces our floor is wet! She goes to the door cracks it a little and I hear water rushing in...she slams the door! We then start trying to decide what we do now that our room is flooded, we try to call some people, we laugh, we call some more people, and laugh some more...the only people to answer their phones were some K one staff who are living on the Kauai properties while they re-do their house. They were nice enough to allow us to come to their house and sleep for the rest of the night. The next day we changed rooms and are currently still waiting for our room to dry out so we can move back....memoriable experience, for sure!
Since then we have had an intermix of class, and lots of get to know you activities...we've been out on a house boat, played blue gnu and snipper at the landing, we just returned from a camping trip in Arkansas which included hiking and bluff jumping, the sharing of testimonies, and good amount of time with the Lord to prepare for this next year. Its so fun to be at a place of life and learning where nothing goes without being prayed over before something is done...God is to be glorified in all.
We were in class really 2 days this week. Karen did a Biblical overview of the whole Bible as we learned the map out of the Old and New Testament... so cool it was to see how it all interconnected...the old testament has been something I've read but hadn't really tried to understand how it fit together because it has a lot of lineage lists and I got real confused real fast. But now I see how it all fits together, well its a good basis anyways...I'm excited to go deeper! We also got new study Bibles this week, I looked at Abbie when they passed them out and said, "How cool is this....this is our text book! We are studying the Bible for school!" We were really excited.
For me today and tomorrow will be completely ingrossed in writing papers about peoples opinions on spirituality and religion, interesting words, and definately interesting readins I've had to do that I don't honestly know how I feel about...but I heard this class is actually good even though it is the hardest....So here goes nothing, I'm diving in to get these papers done....until the next time...see ya!
Saturday we arrived and moved into the Cabanas...My roommate is an absolutely wonderful girl named Abbie from Missouri. We bonded relatively quickly us both being very layed back people. That night we had dinner and games in the Hale Olina (house of joy...aka the dining hall) then we were free to continue getting settled in. Well by the time the settling occured it was about 1am for Abbie and I. We were SO excited b/c we were organized...life is good when organization is in place. So we went to sleep...did I mention that a Hurricane had hit Texas a couple days before and we'd been told it was going to rain? Or that I live on the bottom floor at the end of a little slope in the road? So Let me rephrase that with sandbags in place at the bottom of the slope and 1 am Abbie and I went to bed....We were awaken at 3:30 am by our sweet mate Kristin by a pounding at the door (I'm laughing as I replay this memory in my head) Abbie crawls out of bed and announces our floor is wet! She goes to the door cracks it a little and I hear water rushing in...she slams the door! We then start trying to decide what we do now that our room is flooded, we try to call some people, we laugh, we call some more people, and laugh some more...the only people to answer their phones were some K one staff who are living on the Kauai properties while they re-do their house. They were nice enough to allow us to come to their house and sleep for the rest of the night. The next day we changed rooms and are currently still waiting for our room to dry out so we can move back....memoriable experience, for sure!
Since then we have had an intermix of class, and lots of get to know you activities...we've been out on a house boat, played blue gnu and snipper at the landing, we just returned from a camping trip in Arkansas which included hiking and bluff jumping, the sharing of testimonies, and good amount of time with the Lord to prepare for this next year. Its so fun to be at a place of life and learning where nothing goes without being prayed over before something is done...God is to be glorified in all.
We were in class really 2 days this week. Karen did a Biblical overview of the whole Bible as we learned the map out of the Old and New Testament... so cool it was to see how it all interconnected...the old testament has been something I've read but hadn't really tried to understand how it fit together because it has a lot of lineage lists and I got real confused real fast. But now I see how it all fits together, well its a good basis anyways...I'm excited to go deeper! We also got new study Bibles this week, I looked at Abbie when they passed them out and said, "How cool is this....this is our text book! We are studying the Bible for school!" We were really excited.
For me today and tomorrow will be completely ingrossed in writing papers about peoples opinions on spirituality and religion, interesting words, and definately interesting readins I've had to do that I don't honestly know how I feel about...but I heard this class is actually good even though it is the hardest....So here goes nothing, I'm diving in to get these papers done....until the next time...see ya!
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