Grandpa

My Grandpa has been in the hospital for the past few days, and I am praying he is discharged today, Lord willing.

As of Monday evening,

HE IS HOME!!

One of my favorites...

Being forced into being creative in a college cafeteria, has led to me to one of my newfound 'loves'. About halfway through last semester they started putting craisins on the salad bar. So I put craisins in my cheerios, and then add bananas. I have found it to be very tasty!

Chapel Message by Tom Harmon

Here is an audio of our chapel message from yesterday done by Tom Harmon. He did a great job: he was funny, lively, a godly example, and most importantly quoted scripture throughout the time. I personally think it is well worth your time!

Chicken and Mushroom Thursday

My friends who I sit with for most meals, and I, decided we wanted to do something random. We had one meal where we were just off the wall, and then decided "we should plan a meal where we plan to be serious and have serious conversation" which led to, "let's dress up...like formal dress up". A note to those of you who don't already know this, dinner is our casual meal (by which I mean pants, no sweats or pjs allowed), after we ladies have been in skirts all day, and the gents have been in dress pants and a collared shirt. So this was no normal dress-up-as-class-dress, we were going all out in dress-up-like-in-suits-and-formal-dresses type thing. We spent the rest of dinner time cracking jokes on different things we could do, and hamming the event up just about as much as it could be. We scheduled it for Thursday evening, and everyone at the table, remembered to remind everyone else at the table to dress up formally for dinner that night. We tried to come up with something to say we were celebrating, but the 'official' 'holiday' of the day was something about nakedness, so we opted out of celebrating that and instead decided to make up our own holiday. We asked the cooks what Thursday's dinner would be, and they informed us "chicken with swiss and mushrooms on top", so we designated our cause for celebration as "Chicken and Mushroom Thursday"!

Melissa and I had class until 5:30, and then a class at 6:30, trying to fit an eventful dinner in between the two. We hurried back and all of us girls got ready together, and all exited at the same time to see the gents waiting in their fine suits. I was impressed that the guys went along with it so well. Some guys were wearing bow ties (I am not a big fan, but I will say they do fit the occasion of 'formal'), some vests, and some those things they wear on their waist (the official title is slipping my mind). We took several pictures in front of the notorious fireplace, and then headed down to dinner, to all walk in together. We got many looks, and many laughs, but we were having fun. Andrea had gotten Suzie to put a "Reserved" sign on 'our' table, and then she volunteered to put a table cloth and full setting on it too, so that was fun, and welcomed us into the dining hall quite nicely.

Once we got to our table, we drew names for 'king and queen', and the queen then got to wear a tiara (which she actually didn't, because she said it didn't fit right [haha]). We made sure to ham it up just about as much as possible, as we 'snapped' our napkins all at the same time, drank cranberry juice, and made what felt like a million toasts (someone even tried hitting his plastic cafeteria cup with a fork. doesn't work so well with nasty cafeteria cups). Most people talked in a British accent about the oil rigs, and stock market. That was our attempt at 'being serious'. The funny part about this too, is that we planned it before we had really thought through that this was previewer weekend, so we had a few previewers. I guess we will figure out next year how badly we scared them off.

Here are a few pictures from the fun evening. You can check out more on facebook (Melissa's (sorry to those who can't view her's) or Rebekah's).

church dress

I stole this picture from my brother's facebook, but I just can't get over how precious my niece is. I can honestly say I think she is the cutest baby I have ever seen. I am overwhelmed by my love for her, and find myself thinking and praying for her so often. If you haven't had a niece or nephew yet (and yet to have your own child), I can just about guarantee it will be the best time of your life so far. Can't wait until I see her again, whenever that may be, but I look forward to it.

New Furniture!

Our campus truly has seen God's goodness recently. The building I live in has been used as a women's dorm for...let's just say a very long time. The same furniture has been used for just about as long, if not as long. The school has been wanting to get new furniture for quite some time now, but it has been a struggle because other needs have come up, and it isn't like the old furniture was unusable, you just had to be delicate with it, haha. A 'sister' college had recently had to close a few years back, and long story short, they offered to let us buy there new furniture that had only been used for a few years. The school (in school I mean the higher-ups. I did not know any of this until after) began to pray about this offer when Dr. A (the president of the college) met a man in the airport who offered to buy all of the furniture and pay for transportation.

Through some minor inconveniences (losing our desks the day before fall semester exams started, and sleeping on the floor for one night), our new furniture arrived yesterday! Thursday afternoon we took a lot of the old furniture out: chairs, bed frames, some mattresses, cinder blocks (used to prop beds up), and of course, the desks had already been taken out. Friday afternoon two semis arrived on our campus, packed floor to ceiling like a puzzle. The guys were all assigned shifts, to which we are so grateful. They were a huge help. It was so amazing watching the entire campus pull together to get everything done. Guys and girls carried things in from outside (and might I add it was frigid yesterday), and there were a few teams of guys that would assemble the beds. It was a science. As far as I know, no one was injured. Several students are kind of hobbling around (it is hard work lifting and climbing and walking after being a student of sitting at a desk doing homework), but beyond being sore, we are all fine--Praise the Lord!

I am so thankful for this wonderful gift, and thought I would show you some pictures of the new furniture and how I arranged it! I guess I didn't post pics of how my room was arranged after my roommate left, but here are some pics of how my room was at the beginning of the year, with the old furniture.

As you walk into my room, this is what you see diagonal to the corner with the door. The next few pictures are from the other corners moving clockwise.

Here a few closer ups.

I love the hutch on my desk! Each room gets two beds, two dressers (our old dressers are still in because the hot water heater goes through it, so that will be a chore for another time), two desks, two chairs, and two hutches.

As you can see in this picture, the hutches can go on the dresser too. Everything can stack!

The quilt my mom made me makes just about anywhere home. She is so talented, and I am thankful for the bed quilt, and lap quilt she made me. Also thankful for her teaching my younger sister, who quilted the pillow in the above picture. There are lights in the ceiling in both the corners over where the desks used to be, but since the top bunk now covers the light coming from that at night, I strung white lights under the top bunk so if I ever wanted to read, I could have light!

So very thankful for the Lord's goodness to us here on campus!

Read more, and see more pictures at ABC's facebook page.

so proud of my church kiddos

What a week this has been, and I don't say that negatively. The week went by fairly quickly, was exhausting, but was a very good week. Classes went well. I don't think there are any classes that I really don't like. This semester will have a lot of required reading keeping me rather busy, but that isn't always a bad thing. I am taking several elementary education classes, which is a lot of fun! Intro to Special Ed is my first night class (which I was dreading) but has pleasantly surprised me into being a great class! My other el ed class is Elementary Art Methods. Surprisingly this class will require a bit of work, but will be a change in pace when I work on that homework.

Wednesday night, those kids were crazy off the wall. I enjoyed being back with them all and was so encouraged by their enthusiasm for memorizing the Word of God! One little boy came in with his Dad and his Dad was trying to explain to me which verses his son had ready for that night. The little boy perked up and said "the one with flawlessness in it" in his adorable 4 year old voice with a strong southern accent. His father could not remember the other verse he had memorized, so I sat down with the little boy and we were reviewing different verses, and I was trying to sound out which one he had not yet 'officially said'. After reviewing for a little bit, he remembered that it had something to do with 'indoor' (again in his 4 year old voice with a strong southern accent). I dug into my memory trying to think of what verse talks about the indoors. He had stumped me good! So we continued to work through each verse, and we got to 1 Corinthians 16:34 when he got all excited and said the verse. And then it hit me--he hadn't been saying 'indoors', he had been saying 'endure' and I was unable to understand past his adorable southern accent. These children may be a challenge and a test to my patience at times, but I truly have grown to love each one of them, and am so proud of them for how they have been hiding God's Word in their heart. They have Miss Rebekah so proud, but more importantly, they have pleased the Lord! I am so thankful the Lord has given me this opportunity.

The end of the week, was very exciting and tiring here on campus. The dorm I live in got all new furniture! I am loving every bit of it, and again, so thankful!

I challenge you to not just go to church tomorrow, but to meet with God (a common challenge from a prof here at school Friday afternoons).

take every thought captive

I have arrived back on campus safely. I actually got in around 4:15 EST Thursday afternoon in time to catch a much needed cat nap, eat dinner, and go to my night class. Talk about a long day! When we got in all I could think of was "I have never been so happy to get to school". I guess it is true, God works in mysterious ways, haha.

I had a lovely visit though with Tim, Beth, and Annette, and enjoyed the extra few days with Mom. I only solidified the knowledge I had already, which is that my niece is absolutely beautiful and I love her so much. I loved the time I had with her holding her, snuggling, and getting to learn her. It was fun too because in the time we were there, she started picking up smiling...which was a blast! What a privilege it was to spend the time with the four of them. Another nice aspect of my time in AL was I got to see Daniel! He was stopping by to spend the night on his way through to go back to school. He had originally planned to leave first thing Monday morning, but due to Monday, he stayed for several more hours. You didn't hear my complaining. All in all, it was a lovely time in AL!

Now, for my female readers (males can read too, but I just don't know how much it will mean to you)....Last night I was talking with a close friend about some of the things I really struggle with and have much room for improvement. One of the things we talked about is a severe case of the worry worts. I am afraid, I do have that severe case. I think it is a struggle most females have, but I won't speak for the rest of you. All I know is that I really have a hard time, and often times, worrying takes over my life. I know that is wrong, and so we were talking last night about how I really have to work on it, and not just half heartedly, but it is a sin that I have got to work on wholeheartedly. It is a daily battle that with God's strength I need to overcome. I am not sure if it will be possible to officially overcome, but I am ready to fight the daily battle until the day I die if I have to. All this to say, this morning in our Women's Sunday School class, we talked about self-control.

In our Women's Sunday School class we are using the book Feminine Appeal to guide our lesson and discussion. In our study this morning on self-control, one of the main points was focused on 2 Corinthians 10:5, "take every thought captive to obey Christ". I valued this discussion with the other women in the class, as we shared what a struggle this is. Women are thinking of something all of the time. I know for me personally, I sit in class listening intently, while planning out my afternoon and the order I will do my homework; I wake up in the middle of the night replaying through my mind tomorrow's activities; my mind is constantly adding to a to-do list, and so I make my point--a females mind is always working. I would like to say my mind is always thinking on productive and positive things, but that would be lying. To be quite honest, all too often, my mind dwells on negative subjects: I will never get everything done, that class was so boring, I am tired of teaching and feel I have no energy left, and again the list could go on. So I know I shouldn't be thinking about those things, but how do I stop it? That is the part of Sunday School I especially loved.

Soaking in the wisdom of older wiser woman is so uplifting. One of the ladies talked about how hard it is picking up after her husband and children, and how she found her thoughts almost always going negative at that time, so she has been trying to instead during that time, thank God that He has given her a husband, and children who are healthy enough to play and make a mess. Another woman shared how when her husband would do something that annoyed her, she would think in her mind how annoying that was, and how dare he say it that way (or whatever the situation). She has thought about it though and realized, "why do we focus on the 20% bad in a person and choose to comment on it, when they do 80% good, and we ignore it or don't comment?" These are good things for me to store away for when I am a wife and mom, but the first two situations don't just have to play out in a marital situation. I think of my 'bad' nights teaching at church when it seems like none of the children are behaving and could care less about the hard work I put into the lesson I am trying to teach them. Instead, why can't I be thankful there are children who are at church. They are the next generation, and they are learning the Word of God. What about those times I am overwhelmed with schoolwork, stressing and worrying my moments away. What if I were to take my thoughts captive and be thankful I have the Word of God to study, and that I have the opportunity to be at Bible College. Another woman shared this morning about she would like to start quoting scripture when the worrisome thoughts creep in. We talk about the Bible being like a double edged sword, why not use it?

As mentioned earlier, a woman is always thinking of something, and when those negative thoughts creep in far too often, it is impossible to just 'forget it'. I know I have tried, and I don't think I have succeeded once. The trick is to replace it with something: thankful for those children and husband who made the mess, the 80% good in a person, or straight up Scripture!

It is important for me to remember though that I can't do this on my own, and it is not by my own strength that I am able overcome this issue of worry. God is my source of strength and power, and it is Him I need to go for help and for comfort about those situations that cause to tempt me to stress.

I know I got a bit long-winded, but that has really challenged me and taken over my thought life today. I am excited to experience the relief the Lord gives me when with His strength, I don't allow worry to captivate my thoughts, but that I allow the Lord to take my thoughts captive in obedience to Christ! I hope you all have a lovely week, and remember the one who should occupy our every thought!

time in Alabama

Thank you all for your prayers. After changing plans several times, it looks like I will be heading out early tomorrow with another ABC student to head back. Classes start tomorrow, so we will miss a few classes, but I am thankful to have found a ride. We are praying though that roads will be clear tomorrow after a good snowstorm yesterday!

It has been good spending time here in AL with my brother, sister-in-law, niece, and mother. I have enjoyed being able to hold Annette and spend time with her. What a sweet little girl she is. Here are a few pictures to enjoy....

prayer

Prayers are appreciated as once again, my travel plans have been turned upside down.