Thursday, November 27, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Certainties About Exams
Greetings,
There are a couple certainties that accompany the dreaded exam time:
- actually seeing what the inside of the library looks like
- opening the textbooks that you bought for $120 for the first time
- snacking or drinking tea all day, every day
- being on-edge and irritable the days leading up to a big final
- no more classes!!!
- a great desire to NOT study for the next exam after having just written one
- finding anything possible to do instead of studying (like I am doing right now)
I thought that I should give you all an update anyhow. Last week was relatively uneventful other than going to Adore and finally having people to sit with!!!! I went to visit Serena for her birthday and we spent Friday night at CBC watching the men's bball game which they narrowly won by 4 points. On Saturday was the big birthday party which was, of course, fun times! Also I gave Serena an awesome present. On December 13 she will be accompanying me to Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, Washington to watch a Michael W. Smith and 65 piece orchestra Christmas concert!!! I am so excited. It is going to be amazing.
As for my future . . . I really don't want to think about it. I know that I should be responsible and be making some plans, but right now I just want to bask in the celebration of being done my degree! Honestly though, the more unsure I am of what I will be doing in January, the more peaceful I am. I have fully given it over to Jesus. I have placed all my worry at His feet and am just allowing Him to spark ideas and opportunities that I could go after. I used to think that being indecisive about something and letting Jesus guide you was a cop out for actualy making a choice. I thought that by having an idea in mind and taking steps to accomplish that, and then having Jesus tell you to do something else, was the only way that He was supposed to work in you. Like, I thought that it was a leap of faith to give up what you have and follow on the path that He is leading you. However, I think that He is willing to give us what we want. He wants us to work at a job that we are passionate about. He wants to see us in an environment that is uplifting and a place that we can encourage and bless other people. And maybe that is why I am having a hard time deciding on something. I know that what I chose to do in January doesn't have to be the one thing that I do for the rest of my life, but I want to be on the path to achieving future goals. What I do now does affect the future and my opportunities in my career of choice. I am passionate about marine life, animals, nature, but also cooking, baking, sports, health and fitness, and my faith. How do you go about narrowing that down? I don't think that it's supposed to be "What does God want me to do?" I think that it should be more like "How can I serve and love God and people in my career?" and "How can I honor God best with my life?"
So if you have made it this far in reading my ramblings, I would appreciate some prayer. For exams and deciding my next step. Hope the rest of your November is rockin'! Later days!
There are a couple certainties that accompany the dreaded exam time:
- actually seeing what the inside of the library looks like
- opening the textbooks that you bought for $120 for the first time
- snacking or drinking tea all day, every day
- being on-edge and irritable the days leading up to a big final
- no more classes!!!
- a great desire to NOT study for the next exam after having just written one
- finding anything possible to do instead of studying (like I am doing right now)
I thought that I should give you all an update anyhow. Last week was relatively uneventful other than going to Adore and finally having people to sit with!!!! I went to visit Serena for her birthday and we spent Friday night at CBC watching the men's bball game which they narrowly won by 4 points. On Saturday was the big birthday party which was, of course, fun times! Also I gave Serena an awesome present. On December 13 she will be accompanying me to Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, Washington to watch a Michael W. Smith and 65 piece orchestra Christmas concert!!! I am so excited. It is going to be amazing.
As for my future . . . I really don't want to think about it. I know that I should be responsible and be making some plans, but right now I just want to bask in the celebration of being done my degree! Honestly though, the more unsure I am of what I will be doing in January, the more peaceful I am. I have fully given it over to Jesus. I have placed all my worry at His feet and am just allowing Him to spark ideas and opportunities that I could go after. I used to think that being indecisive about something and letting Jesus guide you was a cop out for actualy making a choice. I thought that by having an idea in mind and taking steps to accomplish that, and then having Jesus tell you to do something else, was the only way that He was supposed to work in you. Like, I thought that it was a leap of faith to give up what you have and follow on the path that He is leading you. However, I think that He is willing to give us what we want. He wants us to work at a job that we are passionate about. He wants to see us in an environment that is uplifting and a place that we can encourage and bless other people. And maybe that is why I am having a hard time deciding on something. I know that what I chose to do in January doesn't have to be the one thing that I do for the rest of my life, but I want to be on the path to achieving future goals. What I do now does affect the future and my opportunities in my career of choice. I am passionate about marine life, animals, nature, but also cooking, baking, sports, health and fitness, and my faith. How do you go about narrowing that down? I don't think that it's supposed to be "What does God want me to do?" I think that it should be more like "How can I serve and love God and people in my career?" and "How can I honor God best with my life?"
So if you have made it this far in reading my ramblings, I would appreciate some prayer. For exams and deciding my next step. Hope the rest of your November is rockin'! Later days!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
It shall go down in history as the best retreat ever!
Where to start? Oh man, the retreat that I went on this past weekend was a blast!!!! I don't have the time or the space to run through the whole weekend but I will tell you a bunch of stuff. Let's start with some pictures.
Friday we played a sweet ice breaker game, had chapel, snack and then a neon black light dance party. Despite me never dancing in public as a general rule for myself, haha, I danced the whole night long. It was so much fun. We then played lots of games and went to bed at 3:30 am. Oh and when I speak of "we" it usually means: Faith, Sarah, Rob, Carey, Brant, and I. Darcy and Lauren were also with us a bunch.
Anyhow, on Saturday all before lunch Faith and I played pingpong, had breakfast, started this assassin game, played soccer, played more pingpong with Brant, and had chapel. I love being that busy. Most people go on a retreat to get away and rest, but I loved being busy every minute of the day and having people around that wanted to do stuff all the time too. After lunch we played in a dodgeball tournament. Our team was Faith, Sarah, Ashley, Carey, Brant and I, as the Dragons. Not a very ferocious name, but it was thought up quick. The tournament was 70's so we were wearing some sweet bright clothes. We ended up losing every single one of our games, but it was still super fun and we rocked! A quick trip to the hot tub came after that because we were so cold.
Following a banquet for supper we played sequence and a hugely rousing game of spoons! Then came skating. Now Carey has never skated before, so it was so fun to watch. At first he was using the little kids skating helper, then he had a group of 4 guys around him practically holding him up, then he was able to go by himself but would only glide like a foot or so off each push off. Brant also tried to teach me how to stop, so I am getting a bit better at that. We played British Bulldog with the whole group, which was around 50 people. No major wipe outs.
We then had snack back at the camp, played some theatre games, had worship at 12:30 am, played spoons, cheat, and president. And lastly Rob, Brant and I sat in the hot tub until 4:30 am chattin' it up. Great fun until the next day when I woke up at 10am more tired than ever before. I pumped some tea into me and we had chapel, cleaned up, had lunch and left for home. It was such a good weekend!
I have to tell you about the assassin's game now. Everyone's name was put in a jar and you picked one. So you are that person's assassin and must secretly without anyone seeing go up to them and point a gun and say "Bang. You're dead". The fun is that you don't know who has you so everyone was super paranoid walking around with someone else at all times. Anyhow I had this guy named Chris and he didn't know that it was me until I went to get him in this room, but turned out there was someone else in there. So the kill was null and he then knew that I had him. At dodgeball I killed him again, but then my friend Sarah came up to him and said "Ha you're dead now. She got you." But that meant that she saw and he knew so that kill didn't work either. Then Lisa killed me, so she got Chris's name, but we kept it going that I still had him. Then when he was least expecting it at skating, she killed him. HAHA! Lisa went on to win the game, so I felt like I sort of had a part in that.
As you can tell it was a jam packed weekend that felt like a whole week. I had so much fun and am pumped to have met these great friends that I can hang out with more at Adore and do other things. Let me finish with how refreshed and renewed I feel in Christ as well. The topic of the sermons was "Intimacy with Christ". Mike was a great speaker and I really felt like I was lead by God to be there this weekend. We had communion every day which completely just focused me on His love and the desire to be close to Him and also how to live it out in this fallen world.
Well I am pumped for what this week and weekend brings, but there is work to be done at this moment so I should go. Later days!!
Friday we played a sweet ice breaker game, had chapel, snack and then a neon black light dance party. Despite me never dancing in public as a general rule for myself, haha, I danced the whole night long. It was so much fun. We then played lots of games and went to bed at 3:30 am. Oh and when I speak of "we" it usually means: Faith, Sarah, Rob, Carey, Brant, and I. Darcy and Lauren were also with us a bunch.
Anyhow, on Saturday all before lunch Faith and I played pingpong, had breakfast, started this assassin game, played soccer, played more pingpong with Brant, and had chapel. I love being that busy. Most people go on a retreat to get away and rest, but I loved being busy every minute of the day and having people around that wanted to do stuff all the time too. After lunch we played in a dodgeball tournament. Our team was Faith, Sarah, Ashley, Carey, Brant and I, as the Dragons. Not a very ferocious name, but it was thought up quick. The tournament was 70's so we were wearing some sweet bright clothes. We ended up losing every single one of our games, but it was still super fun and we rocked! A quick trip to the hot tub came after that because we were so cold.
Following a banquet for supper we played sequence and a hugely rousing game of spoons! Then came skating. Now Carey has never skated before, so it was so fun to watch. At first he was using the little kids skating helper, then he had a group of 4 guys around him practically holding him up, then he was able to go by himself but would only glide like a foot or so off each push off. Brant also tried to teach me how to stop, so I am getting a bit better at that. We played British Bulldog with the whole group, which was around 50 people. No major wipe outs.
We then had snack back at the camp, played some theatre games, had worship at 12:30 am, played spoons, cheat, and president. And lastly Rob, Brant and I sat in the hot tub until 4:30 am chattin' it up. Great fun until the next day when I woke up at 10am more tired than ever before. I pumped some tea into me and we had chapel, cleaned up, had lunch and left for home. It was such a good weekend!
I have to tell you about the assassin's game now. Everyone's name was put in a jar and you picked one. So you are that person's assassin and must secretly without anyone seeing go up to them and point a gun and say "Bang. You're dead". The fun is that you don't know who has you so everyone was super paranoid walking around with someone else at all times. Anyhow I had this guy named Chris and he didn't know that it was me until I went to get him in this room, but turned out there was someone else in there. So the kill was null and he then knew that I had him. At dodgeball I killed him again, but then my friend Sarah came up to him and said "Ha you're dead now. She got you." But that meant that she saw and he knew so that kill didn't work either. Then Lisa killed me, so she got Chris's name, but we kept it going that I still had him. Then when he was least expecting it at skating, she killed him. HAHA! Lisa went on to win the game, so I felt like I sort of had a part in that.
As you can tell it was a jam packed weekend that felt like a whole week. I had so much fun and am pumped to have met these great friends that I can hang out with more at Adore and do other things. Let me finish with how refreshed and renewed I feel in Christ as well. The topic of the sermons was "Intimacy with Christ". Mike was a great speaker and I really felt like I was lead by God to be there this weekend. We had communion every day which completely just focused me on His love and the desire to be close to Him and also how to live it out in this fallen world.
Well I am pumped for what this week and weekend brings, but there is work to be done at this moment so I should go. Later days!!
Friday, November 14, 2008
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Greetings!
Well folks, my reading break was awesome! Too good actually. It felt like Christmas break already and now my desire to go to class is fading. I am almost done though. I know I talk about it a lot, but I am excited. I have 4 quizzes, 2 projects, and then just my finals. I only have 2 full weeks of class left too! I spent the weekend at CBC visiting with my friends. We hung out, went to Madagascar 2 (which was amazing), played some bball, went swimming, made a craft, watched some movies and played games. It was really fun. I also got to see Leia, go shopping, and go out for coffee with Melissa. It was a much needed break from the regular school grind.
The next few weeks are definitely going to fly by because this weekend I am going on the Adore Retreat. Adore is a college and career worship service/community on Thursday nights that I have been going to regularly. The retreat is at Camp Imadene on Lake Cowichan up island. I'll for sure have to fill you in when I get back but they have a 70s dodgeball tourney, Neon black light dance party, skating, late night worship, games, banquet and a ton of other things planned. I am really pumped. I am going with my friend Faith, who I met at my church and has been going to Adore too.
Then you all know that the next weekend I am going to visit Serena for her birthday! I don't know who is more excited, Serena or me. Haha. So safe to say that the semester will fly by. I don't really know what else to update you on. I really, really need some new ideas for what to write on my blogs and I bet you would all like to see some pictures. Too bad I don't take any! Well I'm off to my only class today, since I skipped my 8:30 one. Later days!
Well folks, my reading break was awesome! Too good actually. It felt like Christmas break already and now my desire to go to class is fading. I am almost done though. I know I talk about it a lot, but I am excited. I have 4 quizzes, 2 projects, and then just my finals. I only have 2 full weeks of class left too! I spent the weekend at CBC visiting with my friends. We hung out, went to Madagascar 2 (which was amazing), played some bball, went swimming, made a craft, watched some movies and played games. It was really fun. I also got to see Leia, go shopping, and go out for coffee with Melissa. It was a much needed break from the regular school grind.
The next few weeks are definitely going to fly by because this weekend I am going on the Adore Retreat. Adore is a college and career worship service/community on Thursday nights that I have been going to regularly. The retreat is at Camp Imadene on Lake Cowichan up island. I'll for sure have to fill you in when I get back but they have a 70s dodgeball tourney, Neon black light dance party, skating, late night worship, games, banquet and a ton of other things planned. I am really pumped. I am going with my friend Faith, who I met at my church and has been going to Adore too.
Then you all know that the next weekend I am going to visit Serena for her birthday! I don't know who is more excited, Serena or me. Haha. So safe to say that the semester will fly by. I don't really know what else to update you on. I really, really need some new ideas for what to write on my blogs and I bet you would all like to see some pictures. Too bad I don't take any! Well I'm off to my only class today, since I skipped my 8:30 one. Later days!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
New Look!
Happy November!!!
You may have noticed that the blog has a fresh new look. I wanted a new look. And unlike my sisters who decide to give their bodies new looks by adding "accessories", I would rather change in some way that would be less permanent. However I really do want a new look and I have told Leia that when she is done working on her hair dressing certificate that I want a new haircut/style. Safe to say that I am totally stoked for that although I don't know when that is going to be. I am pretty sure that she will be excited to do someone's hair for real too.
Brianne and I watched "The Bucket List" last night and it was so good. A few things that I took out of it that I wanted to comment on here were these two questions that they asked before they died: 1) Have you experienced joy in your life?
2) Has your life brought joy to others?
Obviously the question of knowing Jesus Christ as your Saviour is way more important however I really like these questions and they get you thinking. I think though that the world gets happiness and joy confused. Happiness is so dependent on circumstances and what is going on around us while joy is a state of being that is not dependent on our circumstances. We find joy in our Creator and in the things that He has given us. We have joy knowing that we are saved and loved no matter how we feel. We can have joy in our suffering knowing that Jesus has suffered far worse and that what we do here on earth is all for God's glory.
It's funny that they should talk about being a joy to others in the movie because that has been on my mind lately. Do people really want me around? Do I make them feel respected, honored and encouraged? What can I do or say to meet someone else's needs today? I think that these are questions that we need to ask our
selves everyday. People meet our needs and build us up in small ways each day and they don't realize it. They hold doors open for us, smile, say hi, compliment us on something that we are wearing, listen to what we have to say, spend time with us, and I could go on and on. I think what Jesus was saying in John 15:13 "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends " in part was that we should sacrifice our time, our money, our lives for the sake of our friends. Time is precious and we are so concious of how we spend our time. How hard is it to take time out of our day to talk to a stranger, meet someone new, let the car in front of us into the lane? There are so many little things that we can do to show God's love to others. I admit that I am guilty of living my life in my own little bubble having things my way so that I can do better than others at school and get places faster than those around me, but that is not how God intended us to live our lives. So let's truly love our family, our friends, strangers, and enemies with a love so precious that could only come from God each and every day. Granted, it will be hard, but there is nothing that God wants us to do that He himself will not be a part of and give us the strength to do.
Peace out and have a great Sunday!
You may have noticed that the blog has a fresh new look. I wanted a new look. And unlike my sisters who decide to give their bodies new looks by adding "accessories", I would rather change in some way that would be less permanent. However I really do want a new look and I have told Leia that when she is done working on her hair dressing certificate that I want a new haircut/style. Safe to say that I am totally stoked for that although I don't know when that is going to be. I am pretty sure that she will be excited to do someone's hair for real too.
Brianne and I watched "The Bucket List" last night and it was so good. A few things that I took out of it that I wanted to comment on here were these two questions that they asked before they died: 1) Have you experienced joy in your life?
2) Has your life brought joy to others?
Obviously the question of knowing Jesus Christ as your Saviour is way more important however I really like these questions and they get you thinking. I think though that the world gets happiness and joy confused. Happiness is so dependent on circumstances and what is going on around us while joy is a state of being that is not dependent on our circumstances. We find joy in our Creator and in the things that He has given us. We have joy knowing that we are saved and loved no matter how we feel. We can have joy in our suffering knowing that Jesus has suffered far worse and that what we do here on earth is all for God's glory.
It's funny that they should talk about being a joy to others in the movie because that has been on my mind lately. Do people really want me around? Do I make them feel respected, honored and encouraged? What can I do or say to meet someone else's needs today? I think that these are questions that we need to ask our
selves everyday. People meet our needs and build us up in small ways each day and they don't realize it. They hold doors open for us, smile, say hi, compliment us on something that we are wearing, listen to what we have to say, spend time with us, and I could go on and on. I think what Jesus was saying in John 15:13 "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends " in part was that we should sacrifice our time, our money, our lives for the sake of our friends. Time is precious and we are so concious of how we spend our time. How hard is it to take time out of our day to talk to a stranger, meet someone new, let the car in front of us into the lane? There are so many little things that we can do to show God's love to others. I admit that I am guilty of living my life in my own little bubble having things my way so that I can do better than others at school and get places faster than those around me, but that is not how God intended us to live our lives. So let's truly love our family, our friends, strangers, and enemies with a love so precious that could only come from God each and every day. Granted, it will be hard, but there is nothing that God wants us to do that He himself will not be a part of and give us the strength to do.Peace out and have a great Sunday!
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