Friday, August 29, 2008

Keeping up with the siblings

I was actually planning on typing a new post in my blog before checking out the blogs of my siblings, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that two of my three siblings had also posted new info since last time I looked at their blogs.
I finished my first week of classes and things are going pretty well. I am still not back into the school thing yet. I am completely unmotivated to do school stuff and my schedule with work and His House activities and such is still up in the air. But it has been a good week with some good chances to connect with people.
First of all, as I think I mentioned, I am going to be leading the international ministry with His House this year, so I connected with some international student organizations. Dave and I also became friends with a Chinese student, playing basketball with him on our way back from Main Stage...much better than staying at the concert with the lead singer dropping f bombs left and right and talking about getting drunk.
I also had a good conversation today with a guy I met last year in racquetball club. We talked some about community and what is really important in life and then a little about spiritual beliefs. He is a cool guy, really down to earth. Be praying for him.
Tonight I reconnected with a friend who was in a singing group with me my senior year of high school and her freshman year, so now she is a freshman here and I am a senior and we hungout after His House with some people and had fun.
Classes are alright. Spanish class is pretty fun. My HEV classes are pretty boring so far, but not too bad. Also, I still haven't gotten everything going with my senior research project but I am working on it.
Praise God. He is doing some sweet stuff. Oh, I forgot to mention prayer. I have had some good prayer times this week. We have a 24/7 prayer room that I have gone to a few times, and I also went to the prayer meeting on Tuesday which was really good.
Anyway, I love you all. Have a great day and/or night. Adios

Friday, August 22, 2008

Mount Pleasy

Yup, you guessed it. I am back in Mount Pleasant at the Men's House (also known as the His House - mom and others, and the Men's Room - Kelsey).
I got back aroudn 2 today and got caught up in some kind of whirlwind. After Dan, one of my new roommates, helped me move my stuff to my room, some of my friends came over and we went rope swinging into the Chip (Chippewa River). From there we came home and hungout for a bit before deciding to go out to Los Palominos for my dinner (my first meal of the day). It took a whle to get our food so by the time we were done we were a few minutes late for His House. After the service I saw and talked to a bunch more people I didn't see all summer. It was pretty great.
Then I came home for about 20 minutes and tried to start unpacking before a few of us went on a prayer walk down Main St with a bunch of parties and drunk people and cops. Despite the sadness of the scene, God gave me a sense of hope and anticipation for what he is going to be doing in these peoples' lives. I am excited to see him work this year. Now, I must get some sleep to wake up and go rope swinging at 9 tomorrow before Brenna, my house sister from last year, has to leave.
Adios

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Family Time

I am not sure if it is just because we weren't allowed to dance in the DR or for other reasons, but I have started to enjoy dancing since returning from the DR this summer. I guess you might not really call what I do dancing but it is fun nonetheless.
We are having our family gettogether. Everybody else is asleep now. It has been pretty good. We haven't really done anything too exciting as a family but it is nice to see everybody. Tomorrow we are expecting some more visitors, some family and some like family.
I finally got all the photos from the DR on facebook, at least enough of them, and tagged and captioned.
I can't really think of anything exciting to share. If something exciting has happened to me recently, you probably already know or don't care.
One thing I have been realizing lately is the freedom of life with Christ. Of course I have heard it talked about throughout my life, but I am starting to realize that I am excperiencing some of it. I feel like there are many people, even people I think of as good Christians, who do not really have the same freedom I have. Some of it is situational, but one thing I am realizing is how much we worry about things that don't matter and stuff, so that is one thing I am trying to get rid of in my life. "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7. There is also a good section at the end of Matthew 6 that talks about worry too. I especially like 6:33 which talks about seeking God first and everything else will fall into place. God wants us to let him take care of many things we spend time worrying about. He wants us to focus our time and energy on him and his will rather than our own worries.
Alright, I'm out. Time for some sleep. Freedom and Peace in Christ.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Me Olvido

Well, I kind of forgot about this thing, my blog. But here I am, back for more. I had an awesome summer in Dominican Republic. I learned some Espanol, met many awesome people, and God taught me some things about true love.
I learned about seeking love primarily from him, rather than from other people and the importance of spending time with and receiving love from God in order to pour that love out to others.
I am enjoying my time back with my family. I miss the DR but am excited about what God has for me here this year.
Speaking of which, there are a couple things I am particularly excited about. I just went through the twelve lessons on the Travelling Team website and I suggest them for everyone. One thing they talk about is welcoming, which is basically becoming friends with international students. I feel like i have a pretty good opportunity for that since i will be leading the international ministry with His House this year.
Also, something to keep me accountable on is being a mobilizer. A mobilizer is basically somebody who informs and motivates people to do their part to fulfill the great commission. I want to maybe talk at life groups or something about missions and have a daily or at least a few times a week prayer meeting, specifically focusing on missions. I might try to do some other things as well.
Basically, please be praying that I don't lose focus when I get to school and forget about all of this but that I can stay motivated. Also, if you want to join me with any of this, I would love your help.
If you want me to change anything about my blog writing other than making it more frequent, which I am going to try to do, let me know. If you have specific questions about my life, just ask. I love you all. God bless.