Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Lent...
Every year around this time I'm told to give up something that I know I need less of in my life in order to spend the time that is spent on those things with Christ. So I was beginning to think about what to "give up" this year and I thought to myself. I'm going to probably give up the same things I've given up in the past. What is something different that I can give up? Then I thought what if I put something new on? What if I added something to my life or changed something instead of taking something out cold turkey? So that's when I came up with this idea to get rid any music that is not Christian for the next 40 days. So for the next 40 days I will only be listening to worship music or music with no words like classical music. So 40 days from now I will come back to this blog and write about my experience after 40 days of only worship music.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Blown Away...
Wow! Where to begin? Well for starters this week has been absolutely wonderful. It started on Sunday when my roommate came home from church with an envelope from a mysterious man from church. He told her that he was doing a pay it forward with his work. She was chosen and Jenn found herself with 100 dollars that she didn't have before. Little did this man know that Jenn is raising money to go to Poland this summer to teach English at youth camps. God provides.
Then, Monday was the start of spiritual renewal week at Taylor. So we had Rodney VanSolkema and Charity Taatjes come from Crossroads Bible Church in Grand Rapids come to speak. Let me tell you, it was outstanding! Charity shared of her many identities that she has had in life and how she needs to find her identity with Christ. Rod compared the story of Joseph and compared it to Charity story. One of the many themes was finding God in our pits and trials in life. Very cool! God speaks!
Then, Tuesday, was just a great day in general. That's all to say there.
Wednesday, was just another mind blowing day. This day was the last day of the spiritual renewal week. But that is not the focus of Wednesday. This night I had BASSYCS (the ministry that I work with at my church in Upland. It's kind of like AWANA.) Well Jamie, our director, was the giver of the lesson on Wed. She is normally not a speak in front of people type of person. Yet she spoke with ease. She carried her message of forgiveness in a way that was understandable.That night in my small group my girls actually finished the Bible study with 15 minutes to spare. If you know anything about 4th grade girls you know that this is near impossible to do when you are given 30 minutes to do so. They all answered questions. They all gave the answers in their own words. They all participated. It was the most wonderful thing ever. God used Jamie who was as nervous as ever to give the forgiveness message to my 4th graders. And they understood. What is really cool about this is that I had prayed that my group would be attentive during the lesson so that we could do our Bible study. God answers prayers.
Thursday, we had wing worship. So imagine 25 college girls worshiping through song. It always sounds beautiful. Between songs those who went overseas for J-Term shared the most significant experience of the trip. Then after all of the songs we took time to share prayer requests. This is the moment where God moved in the hearts of 3CO. People shared what they were struggling with. Girls were being real and open and vulnerable. It was wonderful. God moves.
Friday, was great. I mean think about a typical Friday. All you can think about is the clock and how slow it ticks on a Friday. Not this Friday. This Friday I didn't want to see end. This Friday was the Friday that I looked forward to going to all of my classes. This Friday I had fun in my classes. This Friday I actually wanted the day to not end. This was the first day of college where I was excited to be at school. God replenishes excitement.
Saturday, today I was on my wing retreat. After the events of Thursday night our wing was closer than ever. We went to Sky Zone. The most epic place ever! It's a building with indoor trampolines. They have a trampoline dodgeball court, a trampoline basketball court, and a trampoline foam pit. The hour spent there was amazing. It was filled with laughter, sweet looking shoes, and jumping. God gives us retreat.
Then, Monday was the start of spiritual renewal week at Taylor. So we had Rodney VanSolkema and Charity Taatjes come from Crossroads Bible Church in Grand Rapids come to speak. Let me tell you, it was outstanding! Charity shared of her many identities that she has had in life and how she needs to find her identity with Christ. Rod compared the story of Joseph and compared it to Charity story. One of the many themes was finding God in our pits and trials in life. Very cool! God speaks!
Then, Tuesday, was just a great day in general. That's all to say there.
Wednesday, was just another mind blowing day. This day was the last day of the spiritual renewal week. But that is not the focus of Wednesday. This night I had BASSYCS (the ministry that I work with at my church in Upland. It's kind of like AWANA.) Well Jamie, our director, was the giver of the lesson on Wed. She is normally not a speak in front of people type of person. Yet she spoke with ease. She carried her message of forgiveness in a way that was understandable.That night in my small group my girls actually finished the Bible study with 15 minutes to spare. If you know anything about 4th grade girls you know that this is near impossible to do when you are given 30 minutes to do so. They all answered questions. They all gave the answers in their own words. They all participated. It was the most wonderful thing ever. God used Jamie who was as nervous as ever to give the forgiveness message to my 4th graders. And they understood. What is really cool about this is that I had prayed that my group would be attentive during the lesson so that we could do our Bible study. God answers prayers.
Thursday, we had wing worship. So imagine 25 college girls worshiping through song. It always sounds beautiful. Between songs those who went overseas for J-Term shared the most significant experience of the trip. Then after all of the songs we took time to share prayer requests. This is the moment where God moved in the hearts of 3CO. People shared what they were struggling with. Girls were being real and open and vulnerable. It was wonderful. God moves.
Friday, was great. I mean think about a typical Friday. All you can think about is the clock and how slow it ticks on a Friday. Not this Friday. This Friday I didn't want to see end. This Friday was the Friday that I looked forward to going to all of my classes. This Friday I had fun in my classes. This Friday I actually wanted the day to not end. This was the first day of college where I was excited to be at school. God replenishes excitement.
Saturday, today I was on my wing retreat. After the events of Thursday night our wing was closer than ever. We went to Sky Zone. The most epic place ever! It's a building with indoor trampolines. They have a trampoline dodgeball court, a trampoline basketball court, and a trampoline foam pit. The hour spent there was amazing. It was filled with laughter, sweet looking shoes, and jumping. God gives us retreat.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
New Month... New Semester... New Habits...
So I just completed my 2nd day of 2nd semester classes. After now having one round all my five classes I am really looking forward to what this semester has to offer. Started off with Explorations in Social Work. Surprisingly very interesting. I mean I won't change my major but I will nonetheless enjoy this gen ed. Then today started off bright and early with Spanish of all things at 8AM. So going into the day with bad expectations because it's Spanish, it's 8AM, and my brain barely functions in English this early how on earth I am going to function in another language. But I survived and ENJOYED IT! AMAZING I know! From that point on the day just kept getting better. Instead of going back to my room and sleeping I decided to go to breakfast and do my devos. So I grabbed my Bible and an empty journal and started what I hope becomes a MWF occurrence. Then I was welcomed by the lovely fake TU bell tower on my way to chapel where I was totally blown away by the blessing that it is to worship our Lord Jesus Christ with the Taylor community. We also had a powerful chapel speaker to start off the semester with BANG! From that point I had classes for the rest of the day with a small break for lunch. I walked into Inductive Study of the Bible. I'm pumped for this class. It will be work but it will be worth it considering that there are no papers or a final! After a small break for lunch I went to Interpersonal Communications. Once again I was thinking this will be another boring Gen Ed that I HAVE to take. And once again I was sitting there enjoying myself the whole entire time. Then finally the last class of the day has come. Psychological and Educational Foundations for Christian Educational Ministries. Yea that's the name of my class. Walked in and instantly had a ton of fun. I love my CE buddies and couldn't have asked for a better group of people to get to study with for the rest of my undergrad career. All in all, I have been blessed today. I have been given wonderful opportunity to attend a great liberal arts college where I get to worship God on a daily basis! Yep! Life is good! God is good!
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