Around my mind and back again

Another week is upon us...and im just tired. This week is Missions Conference which is great. This is definitely the biggest missions conference i have ever seen with about 45 missionary families present. It really is amazing to see it all.

So the highlights of my week so far. Well there was church on Sunday. When one of the guys i go to church with asked the kids how many gods there are, a little boy answered...three, Peter, James and John. Then Monday morning, between my super roommates, we had an alarm going off every 5 blessed minutes from 5:15 to 6:45. I was very tempted to rewire their various alarm systems (or in other words break their cell phones). Then something very exciting happened on Monday. The wonderful people of WCBC managed to surprise me with the college care Walmart gift card. Usually i know when it's coming because sneaky little me reads the bulletins they send me, but the didnt put it in the bulletin this time, so it was a total surprise! Hmmm...so its tuesday and nothing spectacular or noteworthy has occured so far....o wait, my dad did call me and tell me that there is a possibility of him going to California with the red cross to help with disaster relief, but thats all. I hope any of you dedicated readers (if any of you are left) have had a wonderful week!

Mid-point of the Semester

So a few new things have happened in my life...i got my hair cut...like 7 inches off, and i got my new phone...woowoo!! Let's see, what else....O, Im getting an A in psych!!! That's extremely exciting to me. Im doing well in all my classes but that was the one that seemed to give me some trouble. This semester is hitting the mid-point, and im starting to hit the "I WANNA GO HOME" point, not that i don't love it here...i do. i just want to go see everyone for like a weekend and come back. Hopefully Christmas comes fast enough. Don't really have a ton of time, but i thought i'd put some pics up here since i can't put them on facebook too often

Yep...its me with my new hair...

These are the ppl i go to church with on Wednesdays...aaron was trying to get all of us in on his phone.

Here's my crazy group after Fall Festival...Rachel thinks she looks like a nun...

Look we took a nice one!!

We had a little too much fun...

Sentamentalism

I used to think i wasn't the sentimental type, but within the past few years i have repeatedly seen a thread of sentimentalism running through my mind. I pushed it away until today when i was forced to see the harsh reality that i am senimental to my core. It's spirit week here at school, and after day one (Home state day), it has been a lot of fun. Well, as tomorrow is out of style, and you all know that i don't own anything that could be considered out of style (riiight)...Heidi, Rachel, Amy, and i headed out to find each of us the hideous fashion don't we would be willing to wear in front of our classmates. I found a great 90's sweatshirt at our first stop for a dollar, and against my better judgment i bought it. It really looks like someone threw up highlighter all over it, and it induces the gag reflex on sight. When we reached our second stop, i wasn't looking for anything...on my budget, the dollar was pushing it. Anway, i was walking through the aisles, wandering aimlessly, and laughing at Amy, heidi, and rachel, when something caught my eye. On a shelf full of stuffed animals marked 25 cents sat a little "Miss Piggy" plush. I'm sure many ppl had walked by the same shelf and even seen the same plush, but my mind was screaming at me faster than my hands could reach for it. This very plush was exactly the same as one of the set of 4 that my grandfather had bought me as a 1 1/2 year old little girl. I had to buy the plush, but as i looked up, there staring back at me was Fozzie. Then i had them 2 of the very toys that my grandfather had bought me from McDonalds. So 53 cents later, i am the proud owner of a piece of my childhood, and the knowledge that i am about as sentimental as they come.

Here are some pics of school so far!

Rachel and i taking a pic with our duckies at walmart

This is me at ShopKo...in the...uhhh...crafty disguise section

Rachel and i on Home state day...yeah we made our shirts they're pretty much awesome

Me, Rachel, Amy, and Heidi in our homemade Home State day shirts after we got back for thrift stores.

Refocusing

Ok, so i'm not so sure that anyone reads this anymore, but i like writing on it so i'll update it anyway. This week has definitely been an interesting one. Nothing huge happened, just a lot of little things piling up that i don't really feel like divulging right now, but Wednesday chapel was class chapel. I attended the Junior class chapel, and heard a devotional on refocusing our lives to Christ. I guess i've been holding on to that this week. Just read Col 3...its pretty powerful.

Culture Shock

So in my Foundations of Ed (sociology) class we have been studying culture, and i believe the correct term for my current condition is "culture shock." That is coming from a culture to which you have become assimilated and encountering another culture that seems completely foreign. i can say that after 3 years at Crown, I began to accept it as my norm. Thats not to say i followed all the wonderful rules, but i accepted the fact that i had them. Upon arriving on campus this semester at MBBC, i observed things i hadn't seen on a campus in three years. For example girls and guys are allowed to walk into town together, girls are allowed to wear pants for certain activities, shirts with writing are allowed, people who aren't KJVO aren't in league with the devil, we can stay up late, and there aren't times set aside for the entire campus to study, but the part that hit me the hardest is that with all these things happening and allowed, this isn't some "trap of liberalism" or "Bible college in name only." For three years i have been taught (although indirectly, taught all the same) that if a college doesn't have the strictest standards of living then they are not following God's will. I guess i am just learning something else here, something that God meant for us to know and practice all the time. Man has a free will, and God wants worship and praise that man has decided to give him freely. God doesn't want our forced praise or our mechanical service. He wants us to worship Him because of who he is, not because we are required to do so. The philosophy i heard voiced before was if you are start now because you are forced, you will begin to do it when you aren't being forced, but is that even what God wants? Does He want our praise, worship, and service to be a habit we picked up?

Anyway, all that to say this, I'm having a great time here, and i KNOW im in God's will. Pray for me, i haven't found a job yet, but i KNOW this is where God wants me, so i know he'll provide. Last night i went to a little party (pretty much 8 of us watching a movie and eating food)Today i slept in and went to a football game. It was a ton of fun. I can honestly say that i am glad that i am at a school where influence and academics are equally important, where the students matter, and where i am treated like an adult.

God used Crown in my life for a specific purpose, and i learned a lot there about my life, my God, and my friends, so please don't take this as a "Crown bashing" post. I am just in the center of God's will and loving every minute of it!

Reflections

Well, to say that this summer has flown by would be sadly inaccurate. I guess the end just snuck up on me. So many things have happened to me this summer. I've gotten closer to some of my good friends and farther away from some i still consider good friends. I've learned lessons about life, and had a few interesting moments. I've made memories that will last me a lifetime. Today i went paintballing. That was....well...interesting. It was definitely fun. Well, as fun as being shot can be. I got hit a few times, and that hurt pretty bad, but just hanging out with my friends was so much fun. God has blessed me so much with an amazing church that not only hang out after services, but actually want to get together and do things whether they be ministry or just fun. I am really nervous about going to MBBC, but God has shown me again and again thats what he has for me.

When an amazing book becomes a mediocre movie...

Right now, im sitting here, at 1:19 am, by myself in my house. I'm a little freaked out cause my neighborhood is now full of delinquent juveniles, who would rather break into houses and blow up cars than go home and sleep or do something more productive, and im at home by myself cause my parents are on vacation and my brother is at work. To make it all even better, I've been reading books about twisted realities, and im currently watching a movie about a man with mulitple personalities that is trying to blow himself up. Thats what is really irking me. This movie is a horrendous attempt at recreating an amazing book, and instead of serving the book ANY justice at all, it is butchering the complexities that made the plot gripping in the first place. The book was so vivid that it wouldn't be hard to recreate some of the details, but instead some of the most important parts have been cut.