Jehovah Jirah - God Provides

I can say the words, but when it comes to believing them fully, with all my heart, I realize that saying and believing can be different. Drastically. "God will provide." It's simple. It's easy to say. Yet, it is utterly overwhelming.

In two days I will be walking across a stage, shaking Dr. Halvorson's hand, and receiving my diploma from Covenant College. Four years of my life will climax on that day. Except I don't know the rest of the story. I'll be honest, in my dreams of going to college I imagined that I'd graduate knowing exactly who I'd be marrying and where I would work and live. The truth is, I know none of those things. I am as single as single can be, I have applied to several jobs, but have had no leads, and I don't know if I'll have an income this summer, thus I don't have a house and don't know where I'll be living when June rolls around.

Older, wiser people who have a family, a job, and a home, have told me not to worry, that God will provide. And I know God will provide, but it sounded like such a cliché phrase. They could say that because God had provided for them, but I was feeling helpless. I'd gotten more rejection letters than acceptance letters. Discouragement was looming and praying seemed hopeless.

And then I had my last day of student teaching. I walked around the classroom on that last day, helping my kids as usual. They were working on reading journals when one girl called me over. The question for them to answer for their reading was, "What spiritual emphasis is in the passage you read?" I asked her what the passage was and she proceeded to tell me about Morris (a blind man) who trusted his eye-seeing dog to walk him across the busiest street in New York. The dog did it and Morris walked safely across the street without even a scratch. The student asked me what spiritual emphasis I saw in the passage. Faith. Faith is something hoped for, something not seen. Faith is putting your trust in someone, trusting them because they have promised to never leave you nor forsake you. Morris had faith in his eye-seeing dog, just as we should have faith in God. Though we may be blind to the future, God sees it clearly and will lead us through it, strengthening our faith all the while. I was convicted. And I prayed for renewed faith. And God, being ever faithful, has been answering.

Being that this is the last week of college life, many friends are wanting to get together one last time over a meal. I don't have a job, thus no income (except for food funds thanks to loving parents!). I decided I'd be frugal with my money and not spend it on meals. I was fine with it and decided I would go and order water. Last night I went out with a group and just ordered water. The waitress came and had an extra apple juice. She apologized and said we could keep it. I thought it was pretty neat and was thankful for it. This morning, I went to breakfast with the elementary majors for one last hurrah. I ordered a cheap coffee and sat down with them to enjoy it. They were eating muffins and bagels and I'll admit, they looked so good. The waitress brought by a bagel and set it down on the table. Someone finally asked me why I wasn't eating the bagel in front of me. I told them that I hadn't ordered it and we found out that nobody had and it was an accident. But they let us have it for free, so I got breakfast too.

The way God works is astounding. I had prayed for more faith, but my faith in God's provision was wavering. And then God showed me that He provides for something as small as an apple juice or a bagel so that I can join in on the meals with my friends. If this God can provide for something I didn't even ask for, how much more will He provide for my future? For a job, a house, maybe even a family?

Today I was overwhelmed by God's grace and provision. It is only because of Him that I even made it through four years of college. And I know that He who has been faithful will continue to be faithful. I may not know the future, but I do know that in two days when I cross the stage to get my diploma, that I can fully trust that God will provide! He knows what I need and He will bring it to pass. And I pray that I can believe that and that my faith in Him will continue to grow as I walk into the unknown with an all-knowing God. 

A Month of Thanksgiving: Day 2

Today I am thankful for today.

Morning class was great. I love my classmates. We hung out by the coffeemaker today talking about Christmas, our schools, and Broadway. Dr. Pennington brought us chocolate from her leftover halloween candy stash. Chapel was phenomenal on the book of Ruth. Lunch with Sonya and Faith was wonderful as always. Science in the afternoon was good. Lots of laughter as we were giddy over it being our last day of science class. The weather was warm. I ran and it felt amazing. Ate dinner with Damarise (and got food in the fridge!). And... today is Friday!

Today, I am thankful for all that God has blessed me with. 

It's About Time

I should probably write something about our time in Zambia, but at the moment it all feels so long ago, and there is so much to tell that I don't even know where to begin. Most everyone who knew we went to Zambia for Christmas has asked both Damarise and I (and I quote), "How was Africa?!" Wow. What a broad question to answer. I don't know where to begin with that question and tend to just say, "Great!" And I'm right back in that place for blogging. There's too much to tell. Maybe over the months I'll sporadically throw in a fun story from Zambia, but until then I'll leave it with this: Going to Zambia this December/January was one of the biggest blessings of the year. I thank God for providing the funds for Damarise and me to go see our family. I'm thankful for the change to see a different Africa. I'm thankful for my family and the time spent with them. It was long anticipated and definitely enjoyed.

In more recent news, I am now a second semester Junior. When and how that happened, I still don't know. Time has flown by. The majority of my classes this semester are education classes, and though I'm feeling overwhelmed when shown examples of perfect teachers, all my professors assure us that one day we too will be able to teach like them. Currently, I'm not so sure about that, but I'm sure with more teaching and some first-hand experience we might get there. In the meantime I'm studying lots and definitely seeking help from God and praying for wisdom and guidance.

One more thought before I end and get back to studying – today is January 18th. I realized that while writing in my journal today and was reminded of God's never-ending grace and faithfulness. It's been three years since Ian was in a malaria induced coma and on the verge of death. It's been three years since we saw God work a miracle in Ian and bring him back – alive, healthy, and well! I love the reminder that this serves every year. Every year I'm reminded of what a powerful God we serve. Not only is He all-powerful, but He also hears every prayer. He cares for His children and He gives grace. He is faithful even in the midst of pain and suffering. He is God and there is none like Him. This is the reminder I was given today, and I'm sitting here praising God for His faithfulness and for the fact that Ian is still with us today. I am thankful!

Done... for real!

Last week I got an email from my advisor advising ( ;) ) me that I needed to complete another hour of math to get my full math credit. I can't say I was happy about because, well, truth be told, I wasn't. I'm not a huge math fan, hence why my concentrations for middle grades are in History and Language Arts. Oh well, I thought to myself, one hour will pass quick enough and then I'll be done. I got a meeting set up with the math professor here and she met with me today at 5. Well, it was supposed to be 5, but I was sort of in the wrong room waiting, and when someone came and showed me where I was supposed to be, then we got down to the business of our meeting. She began by explaining to me everything I was required to do by Georgia state law. At least 24 lesson plans were due with loads of math problems, explanations and other stuff that my brain could not comprehend. If I could only use one word to describe my feelings in that moment it would be: Overwhelmed. Ms. Donaldson stopped talking and asked if I had any questions. My brain slowed down a bit to concentrate back on what she was saying. One question, oh! only one? I had a zillion whirring around in my brain, the main one being, "Why ME?!" But the question that popped out of my mouth was, "When is this due by?" She answered my question and continued talking. My brain finally connected back up with my mouth and spit out, "I'm sorry, I do have one other question. Why do I have to do all of this math when math is NOT one of my concentrations." Her face was the best ever! She looked at me and said, "You aren't a math concentration?! Then why in the WORLD are you on this list?! Ignore everything thing I said and get out of here! You do NOT have to do any of this!" Oh my heart was overjoyed, my brain cleared up and I felt like I was floating on clouds :)

So, yes! I really am DONE WITH MATH! YEAH!!! :D Party time! :D

Pottery, the 80s and Barbie

That title pretty much wraps up my weekend up to this point. Weird and random stuff? Yes! I definitely agree. Perhaps I should go ahead and explain it.

Pottery

For a hall event on Friday night we decided to go down the mountain to a cute little shop to paint pottery. Unfortunately not many girls wanted to go, so it ended up being me, my RA and my suitemate. But it was a blast nonetheless. I love painting pottery and, oh my goodness, I LOVED all the variety of colour choices. I love colours and it was a blast paining my mug loads of different bright colours. I'd post a picture, but it's not done yet :) We leave whatever we painted with the shop for a week and they fire it, or is it burn it, maybe cook it? Whatever it is they do, they'll make the paint look glassy basically and then I'll get my mug and definitely post a picture :)

The 80s

Ohh the 80s! :) Talk about an amazing Friday night. About 15 minutes after I came back from painting pottery I was once again on my way down the mountain in some 80s attire :) Headed where? Why to the skating rink! Yes, Friday night was 80's Skate Night and it was SOO much FUN! It didn't start til 11 and ended at 2 (yawn!) but it was a blast! Just a bunch of college students dressed in 80's attire, rollerskating around a rink to 80's music :) FUN!

And Barbie...

This was dinner tonight. :) Janessa, Bethany, Damarise and I were sitting at our table eating dinner tonight. Damarise had gotten a chicken breast that looked unseasoned and dry! She didn't even bother trying it and decided she would go find something else to eat. While she was looking for something else Bethany decided she'd try some of Damarise's chicken. Hahaha, she tried it and said, "EW! That is the most disgusting chicken I have ever tasted! It's like plastic." When Damarise came back Bethany told her she had tried some of Damarise's chicken. Damarise asked her if it was good. Bethany's response, "Oh no! It tasted like a Barbie! Like a Barbie's leg!!" HAHA! Eww... doesn't sound very good ;)

One last thought

I have really been enjoying my New Testament class! At first I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it much, it seemed way over my head. But now we are past the intertestament times and into the New Testament and I love it! I'm seeing so many new things that I just never really noticed before. One of the really cool things that we went over this past week was in the gospel of Mark. Throughout his gospel Mark is constantly pointing out the authority of Jesus. But another thing he points out is Jesus' compassion. It has just been really neat to study and perfect for this week! I'm so thankful that we serve a God who has all authority in and heaven and on earth and who is still compassionate and caring! What an awesome God we serve!

Syllabus.

Sunday afternoon I sat down with my Intro to Literary Studies book and decided to write out my flash cards for an upcoming test. Actually, not to sound boastful, but I was pretty proud of myself. The test was on Friday and I was getting a head start on the studying. So, I sat down with my cards and decorated them up a bit (it also helped the definitions to stick in my mind when I had a picture attached to it :)) And then a friend who's in the same class walked by and I asked her what she was up to on this lovely day. Her reply: "Well, I'm studying for our test tomorrow." Me: "TOMORROW?!" Her: "You may want to check the syllabus..."

And this is where the title of this post comes into play. This entire semester I have been awful at checking my syllabuses. Once it bit me... I was late on a paper (fortunately the teacher was ok with it!) and then with last night's scare... I just figured the test would be on Friday. Yah, lesson number one: Don't figure! LOOK! I'm thanking God that I was working on the flashcards yesterday anyways, and today we have a snowday, so I have a bit more time to study :) But I hope I have learned my lesson... Look at the syllabus!

TWENTY?!

February 12th 2010. Abraham Lincoln's 201st birthday. Covenant College again has half a day of classes due to snow. And Damarise's TWENTIETH birthday! Yes, yesterday Damarise graduated from the teen years and went into the twenties. Crazy! :)

Well, I couldn't let her birthday pass without some happy birthday decor :) So I decorated her door... and her bed :)

Yep! You've conquered those teen years :)

Ummm.... Mom and Dad wanted me to pick up Damarise a balloon... not a "blow-it-up-yourself" balloon, but a helium one. Sooo, I did pick one up... but I totally forgot to ask about having it filled! I didn't remember til I was half way up the mountain. Ohh well, Damarise just tacked it to the wall ;)

I wrote on the mirror too ;)

This morning I made Damarise her birthday breakfast/lunch/snack ;) I decided to make cinnamon rolls :) And how do I do that in a dorm room?

Well this dresser looked like this.....

Then I cleared it all off and made it my counter top :)

And used a can of hairspray as a rolling pin :) It worked! :D

Then we waited for them to rise...

Stuck them in the oven... and vwala...

Ooooo so good! :)

We were excited about them :)

Mmmmmm :)

Happy 20th birthday Damarise!

What a Wonderful Wednesday!

This morning I woke up to my alarm clock loudly dinging in my ear. Oh! I don't think I've written anything on here about my alarm clock. Well, for those of you who don't know, I have an alarm clock with the bells on top :) And it's dinging is super loud! So, this morning I woke up to the super loud dinging, shut it off as fast as I could and laid in bed for a bit really not wanting to begin the day, but alas I knew time was flying by and I had places to be. So I read my Bible, prayed, and then crawled out of bed to get ready for the day. And what a wonderful day it was! :D

#1: It was 9/9/09! A very cool date to say the least :D

#2: I had breakfast in the Great Hall and got a lot of reading done :) The Great Hall also had raisin bran which was just so good!

#3: Then I was off to work study. My job is to clean the library. As of last week, I had never ever in my life been into a guy's bathroom, now, I'm cleaning one almost every day :P Funny how quick some little things in life can change ;) Anyways, while I was cleaning the bathrooms I pulled out a rag to wipe stuff with and it was a Razorbacks rag :D Awww, it made me think of Arkansas and all my friends there :)

#4: After work study, which seemed to go by really fast :D, I went down to Brock to wait for my next class. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I always have 30 minutes in between work study and my next class, so I sit outside on a bench and get some reading done before class :) This morning it was a lovely morning so I sat out on the bench and got a lot of reading done again :D

#5: Math for Educators was my first class and it went sooo well this morning! I learned some stuff and learned how to explain other stuff and all in all it was a good class.

#6: Chapel :) We have it Monday, Wednesday and Friday and it is always great! It definitely brightens up my days :)

#7: Then I had my favourite class, Intro to Teaching. I have a wonderful teacher who is just great at what he does! The class is also wonderful and we have some really good and thought provoking conversations in that class. I always leave it wanting to teach right away :D

#8: After that wonderful class I went to lunch. Mmm I love pickles :D I just found out the other day that the Great Hall has pickles! Yummm! I ate with Damarise and it was nice to catch up with her. I hardly ever see her throughout the day which is really weird :P

#9: Then came Practical Service. I did mine in Sanderson and cleaned some classrooms, staircases, and the kitchen. It went well :)

#10: I then had Old Testament Intro class. What a great class that is! :) I love my teacher for that class as well... especially after today! ... See, we have a paper due Friday for his class. The paper is on a book that I have barley gotten into. I was planning on finishing the book tonight and maybe starting on the paper as well, I was not looking forward being up late tonight though... oh well, such is life. But this afternoon as we were all sitting in his class he gave us the most exciting news... he decided to postpone the due date till next friday! YEAH!!! Oh! It was soo wonderful to hear! :D One student even went up there and gave him a hug :D Yah, it was exciting and definitely made my afternoon!

#11: As soon as that class ended I headed back over to the Library to do 2 more hours of work study. I hung out with Bonnie (the girl who I work with) and we cleaned and talked. :D It was nice. And then... the rains came! :D It was wonderful! We had a small downpour, but oh, it was so refreshing! :D And smelled wonderful :)

#12: After work I went to the Great Hall and ate dinner. Then I came back to my room, settled down with a cup of honey green tea (Thanks Mom :D) And started to read my book for tomorrow when out of my window I saw clouds moving by super fast! It was the neatest thing.. it must've been fog, but it was still really cool to see clouds zooming past the window at window level. :) And then I thought... hmmm... this day has just been so great, I should really blog about it :D And that's what I'm doing now :) Blogging about all the wonderful things that have happened today. What a great God we serve to provide us with small and large blessings all throughout the day :)

#13: One last great thing about today.. well... technically tomorrow.. I get to sleep in :D I don't have class til noon! Yippy!!! That is one exciting thing for me :D

And on that happy note I will close :)

I'm a College Student!!

Tomorrow will mark one week at Covenant College! I have loved every minute of life here so far. I just don't know where to begin telling you all all of my adventures since we got here. Hmm, guess we'll just start at the very beginning, "A very good place to start." ;)

Friday morning Dad, Mom, Damarise and I drove up to Covenant. Our buckets of decorations, clothes, books and odds and ends were stacked up high in the back of the car. As we pulled into the parking lot behind Andreas (our home for this year) we were greeted by upperclassmen cheering and clapping :D Awww, we both felt so loved. The second we hopped out of our car we were surrounded. :D We were greeted and all of our baggage disappeared literally within seconds. We didn't even have to lift a finger. Everything was moved up into our room without us having to do anything! It was awesome!

There were signs and smiling faces everywhere welcoming us to Covenant.

This is our dorm building :D

Our Door...

And Vwala! :D

Damarise and I after our first night of being in the dorms :D

And so orientation week began! We played games... :D

Our team and the other education team tied for one of the games so we did rock, paper, scissors to see who won....

YAY!!!! We won!!! :D

We also went out for dinner with our Oteam. We went to Chattanooga. It was fun and beautiful!

We also went to rock city. A big attraction here. It was really cool! :D

Here's Damarise with friends from her Oteam :)

And me with my whole Oteam! What a wonderful group!

I don't think I can even put into words how wonderful and great this week has been! God has blessed me with more amazing friends and a wonderful hall of girls. I've heard amazing teaching from God's word this week and today being my first day of classes, WOW! It was fantastic! The teachers all teach with such a Christ centered focus and they are all so sweet and wonderful. I'm so thankful to God for placing me here, for providing for me to go here, and for all the wonderful things that have happened this week!

**some of the pictures in this post are from some people at Covenant.

Can it Be?!

Tomorrow Dad, Mom, Damarise and I are heading off, off and away. Mom and Dad to see us off, and Damarise and I to begin a whole new life. The life of college students. I can't believe that the time to go to college is already here! It seems like yesterday that I was sitting in my bedroom in Canada thinking, "First Portugal for a year, then Mozambique for say four years, and then college..." College seemed so far away, it still does, and yet come Friday I will be an official college student!

For those of you who don't know, I am going to Covenant College in Georgia :) I've never been to Georgia before, so this will be an exciting experience! Also, I will be majoring in Elementary Education (I hope to one day teach 5th and 6th graders :) ) And I will be roommates with Damarise :)

All this start on Friday! Wow! We would both appreciate your prayers as we begin a whole new life. Thank you! And I will try to keep my blog updated as often as possible, but I'm sure I will become pretty busy pretty quickly :)

So long for now, and the next time you hear from me I will be a college student. Wow! :)

We are ACCEPTED!

Yes that is true! Damarise and I got accepted to Covenant College, Thursday! We are thanking the Lord!!! Damarise and I have always planned on going to college together, then one day someone asked us a question that rather burst our happy bubble. They asked, "What if you and your sister don't get accepted to the same college?" Oh my! That thought hadn't even crossed our minds. We immediately started praying that that would not be the case! Praise the Lord! The first college we got accepted to accepted us both! :) We are thrilled! Now, to finish applying to the other colleges...

My Thrilling Thursday

Thursday, Damarise and I went to SIL to babysit the Paetzold and De Jongh boys. And what game did the boys decide to play? Why, none other than Baseball. Tee hee hee. It was funny playing it with foreigners. (The Paetzolds are South African and the De Jonghs are Dutch) So the Paetzold boys were playing Baseball more like Cricket, they had a "Wicket Keeper" instead of the Umpire. :P And the De Jongh boys kept saying, "This isn't how we play Baseball. We saw it played differently on 'Little House on the Prairie'." :P It was fun.

Okk, so I couldn't hit a baseball for diddly squat. (although I think it might have been that the pitchers were to low... cause when Damarise pitched it, I sorta... kinda hit it :) ) Anyways, it gave all the boys a laugh cause most of them could hit it straight on. Especially Christiaan. He had a hard hit! I didn't think he would hit it the first time I pitched. Whoops! I was totally wrong! It whizzed right past me about an inch from my head! I was in stunned shock for a few minutes! Haha, next time I pitched it to him I ducked! :P

My feet :)

Damarise's heel. She thinks it's infected. Eww.

Camiel ready to hit. 

The baseball :)

A pair of the cute earrings that Aunt Kris got for us :)

Damarise tried to get some school done while we were there. 

Aw! He is such a cutie!!! 

In the afternoon we went to a goodbye party for the Paetzolds and when we returned home we realized that we were locked out. Whoops! ... But amazing Dad opened the door for us! Yeah! Thanks Dad!! :D

And to end the day....(exciting, exciting!) 

I was contacted via snail mail by a college! Yahoo!! It was exciting! :) 

Applying for College

Have you ever listened to a song and thought, "Oh, that sounds so pretty! I want to learn in on the piano (or whatever other instrument)." It sounds easy and simple when you listen to it, but when your fingers try to play it everything turns out a flop and you realize it is actually much harder than you thought it would be. That's how everything seems right now. 

Applying to college is way different and slightly harder than I ever imagined it would be. About a year ago my idea of getting into a college was that I just had to ask if I could go to such-and-such a college, that college would welcome me in, I hoped, and that would be that. Well, I was a little unaware of all that awaited me. First the SAT, that was a shocker. "What?! I have to take a big test before I try to apply to a college?" Then the actual applying. Do you know how many essays have to be written to apply to college? It reminds me of the Bible story about Elijah and the jars of oil that never ran empty. (1 Kings 17:7-16) Yep, that's how the essays seem, like a never ending process. 

Now, I can't say that all of this is totally bad. Yes, the SAT, essays and whatnots are hard, and it is a loong process, but God has been using it to teach me (again) that I cannot do anything on my own. It is Christ Who works in and through me. And it is He and Him alone Who is helping me get through all of this. 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10:

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 

And speaking of all of this, I should go finish writing one of the many essays. :) 

She's a SENIOR?

Monday, I started into school again. My brain came home from it's vacation and together we were ready to conquer my senior year of High School! Wow, does that ever sound scary! It's going great so far and I'm 1/12 of the way done with it! Yay! Only, Lord Willing, 11 weeks left to go! Please be praying for Damarise and I as we are seeking the Lord's will for what colleges to apply for and also what to major in! Thank you so much!