Cheating.

I am writing to you a free lady. No more school until January for this girl. But in the process of getting here, I had to conquer that mighty college-student foe. Finals. I can so easily say I am thrilled to be finished with them, but for the purposes of this blog I'm not going to elaborate on all of them. Just one. My guitar final.

This semester, as you could assume from my previous paragraph, I took a beginning guitar class. It has been so fun and I've learned so much! But there has been something about the class that has frustrated me throughout the semester. Quizzes/Tests. Normally, we meet twice a week, and after a few weeks, we will have a day of review, and then the next class period will be a test/quiz and a song/scale/something we have to play for the professor. During these quiz days, we'll be in the music room while the teacher goes to a practice room where he will call us out of class and we go play the song for him and he'll write either pass or fail. While he's doing that, we are in the room taking the written portion. 

Mostly it is stuff on the history of the guitar, reading music and tablature, or specific playing techniques. But it's not the tests themselves that has bugged me. I studied and practiced. What's frustrated me is that on every one we've had, people cheat. The teacher leaves the room, and suddenly it's okay to start giving each other all the answers to the questions. It's even made me angry at times.  The worst one was the final. The majority of the class cheated! 

It makes me question:  "why wouldn't they just study? Isn't it the point of this class to know this stuff? " or "why do they think it's okay to do that?" or "Don't they care about being honest?" or "Didn't their mom's and dad's teach them that it's not okay to cheat?" or "what would they do if the teacher catches them..... like with a secret camera or something?" . But all these questions, I've realized, don't get to the root of the problem.

I think deep down there are more problems, deep seeded, more life altering problems that will most likely manifest themselves in other parts of their lives, rather than just a guitar final. That's what makes this worth blogging about. 

First off, there is an unwillingness to strive towards something better. There is a complacency with how things are. I think this manifests itself in spiritual lives as well. Often it's easy as a christian to get stuck in a rut of complacency. We think, "oh, things are going well enough. I'm content. I don't need to work on anything."   When in reality, scripture tells us the opposite. We are to strive for perfection. "Be holy for I am holy". We're aren't to settle for less. Strive for something greater.

What are you reaching complacency about? Is God calling you to "practice" or "study" more?

The other issue I'll address is that there is an unwillingness to acknowledge a lacking and accept the consequences of it. In my guitar class these students weren't willing to take on the test in an honest "I have no clue but I'm willing to accept the consequences" kind of way. Rather, a "I don't know but it's okay. I know what I'm doing is cheating but it's okay because I can get away with it" attitude was dominant during the final.

 There is an unwillingness to accept the consequence of not studying, so even though they knew it's not right (because they'd only attempt it when the teacher is out of the room) they will resort to cheating. Scripture tells us in Ephesians 5 about living in the light and the dark. In this context, the teacher's presence would be the "light" , while his absence would be a "darkness". In the darkness the cheating was safe, but if a teacher were there to see the cheating, it would be exposed. I'm betting most of the cheaters in the room were glad the teacher or "light" was not present  because that would have not allowed them to get by. There would be consequences for not studying or practicing. There would be failure. And being a failure is not okay. I believe this involves our pride as well (something else for a whole different blog).

This is exactly what we can end up doing in our daily lives. Our lacking is a lacking of the knowledge of God and an obedience to Him (a whole 'nother blog coming up about this one) and this leads us to sin. Our sin is made evident in the presence of God's "light" in Jesus Christ. our "cheating" was done in the dark before (But in the dark God still sees) He came, and further exposed our sin, showing us the true "cheaters" we all were and are. But, instead of justly having us fail the test, God did things in a backwards (to our way of thinking) kind of way. Instead he offered free passes. While we don't deserve to pass, He gave us Grace. Crazy.

But some avoid the whole "God thing" because they don't want to deal with their sin.Jesus is avoided because when we see Him in His splendor and greatness, it causes us to be uncomfortable. We can no longer "get by" so easily. It's easier to push our sins under the rug. To meet Jesus is to meet who we really are. Scum. Worse than scum. We see ourselves for the cheaters we are and have to deal with it. But with God, our "tests" are always under surveillance. We may think our "cheating" is going unseen, but only to most of the world. God sees our sin. All of it, whether we want to look it in it's ugly face or not. And there will be judgement whether we choose to face it or not.

BUT to not meet Him is to miss out on true life! He didn't come to this world to condemn but to give life! And that we may have it in the fullest! (John 10:10) While we come face to face with Jesus, yes our sin is exposed, but life with Him opens us up to something different. We no longer need to live trapped in our disgusting lives! With Jesus (and only with Him) we are better than that! We are made new and we are offered a chance to change! To be transformed! It is no longer our sin that defines us but Him living inside us! Since He lives within us (Galatians 2:20)  and he has been given all authority on heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18)We have access to all things through Him! We are no longer slaves to our sin! He loves us regardless of our sins as well. It's crazy to me!

This is probably just a fraction of the things going on underneath, but I have another post in mind that gets deeper into fruit and what that means in our lives in terms of our faith and salvation. But that is for another time, let me just conclude and I will elaborate more in future a future post.

I truly believe that the cheating I saw in my guitar final was a manifestation brought forth by the deeper-seeded issue of not truly understanding and/or not accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ (or in direct defiance of it). The more and more I see in this world, the more convinced I am that ALL evil and wrong doing is, at the most fundamental level, not having Jesus Christ living inside of us. Some would say I'm stretching it or making it a bigger deal than it really is by including something as seemingly meaningless as a guitar final for a general credit at a small college in Duluth, MN. I don't think it is. Isn't it in those small moment when "no one is looking" that our true nature, our very character and being, is revealed?  God is relevant in everything. Even guitar finals.

This realization brought a change in me though, too. I realized my anger and frustration at the cheating was also not good. My problem was that they were not going to be caught. They weren't going to be punished.They were going to get the same grade as me, who was the "good little girl who studied and didn't cheat". That right there is my ugly selfishness. Instead, I now see their cheating in light of the deeper truth. Instead of anger, I actually feel sorry for them and pray for them. I pray they are transformed by the power of Jesus and respond with obedience, which would manifest itself in honesty and integrity.

Lord may I continue to know you more and may those in my class be revealed your greatness and your truth and respond with loving obedience. May your transforming power work in their lives, speak to them, shine light upon them. May they get a true picture of who they are, but more importantly, who you are. May they experience your forgiveness and respond with actions rooted in the fruits of your spirit. Forgive me of my selfishness and may I be more thankful of the grace you so freely gave to me. Amen.

Wise words.

Most of the time George Carlin is crude at best, but here I think he actually gets it right. 
How are you living?

How would Jesus have us live?

I think Jesus would agree with George on this one.

"The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but
shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more,
but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and
smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees
but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more
problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little,
drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too
little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our
possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and
hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to
life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but
have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer
space but not inner space.

We've done larger things, but not better things. We've cleaned up the air,
but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold
more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less
and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small
character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of
two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.

These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one
night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer,
to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the
stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time
when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going
to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to
you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your
side.

Remember to give a warm hug to the one next to you because that is the only
treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent. Remember,
to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all
mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep
inside of you. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday
that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak
and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind."
~George Carlin

Thanks to my roommate Ingrid for this one :)

Pray Big, Pray Bold.

God has been revealing and teaching me so much about prayer in the last year and a half. It's nuts. 

I'll start by giving you a brief rundown of my experience of prayer before college. I grew up going to a small Lutheran church in Meadowlands, mostly older folks, and very what I would call "traditional". structured service, certain songs we sing every week (and ones we switch up too, all of which hymns), and written out prayers. 

Thinking back, I could probably count on one hand the amount of prayers I heard during a service that were not scripted into the bulletin or our worship "guide" books (I can't remember exactly what they are really called...I always called them the "blue book" and the "green book". You knew which one to get your songs from because the green book didn't go up to the 700's like the blue book. Recently the church upgraded to the "red book". Snazzy, I know. But  I digress.)

Even the prayers we "said" (we generally sang them) before potlucks were the same old "Be present at our table Lord". Now don't get me wrong, they are good enough prayers, that's not the issue. And I bet there is genuine desire for the things we pray for when we pray them....maybe the first 50 times (okay I don't literally mean 50, but you get my point ).....but after that, can we truly say we are praying them with the passion with which we once started?? I'm going to be frank and say for the majority of us, no.

And then there were the prayers outside of church. For me at least, they mostly consisted of asking for things when I wanted them. God was the "cosmic sugar daddy" as I've heard pastor Kyle say a few times at Rock Hill. He was there for me to ask to hand out when I needed something.

My first experience of revelation of a different kind of prayer came when I came to college. I got plugged into InterVaristy and all of a sudden, these people prayed out loud and from the heart. I began to realize, hey, maybe there's more to this. Maybe it's more than just what we are reading off of the bulletin at church, or out of a book. Maybe there's something more genuine, more real.

My freshman year I went to an IV conference called Urbana. By this time I had jumped into the world of actually praying out loud with other people (gasp!) and I got to hear this guy speak. http://vimeo.com/8467883.

Seriously. Watch it if you haven't seen it.

I learned that there is a way to pray, greater than anything I had ever experienced. Not only was there powerful things happening from prayer, but I learned that prayer is not about getting answers. Sunder Krishnan put it perfectly when he says: 

"What if in every situation you that you prayed for, you took the time, pouring over the word of God, to first of all ask yourself,

 "what does it mean to bring a Sovereign God into this situation?

 What does it mean to bring the Creator God into this situation? 

What does it mean to bring the Revealer God into this situation? 

What does it mean to bring the God who is active in history into the situation?" 

and you keep that up for days and weeks and months and years, you know what is going to happen? Circumstances outside of you may never change, but you will be recognizably transformed"

Wow. This was also around the first time I had heard whispers of what was happening at the Dillon's house (a family host's a college age prayer night, which I now and a regular part of...but we'll get to that).

So. I had my first taste of this thing "intercession". Interesting. New. Exciting. What would that transformation look like in me if I prayed like that??

So, the end of my freshman year, I got to practice it a bit. We started meeting with our chapter for weekly prayer meetings. And come summer time, I had my first night of prayer with the college group. (see Prayers, Vampires, and Werewolves for that story).  There was a whole world of prayer I never even knew existed. People could hear from God. People prayed with passion. With scripture. With purpose. And there was transformation.

This last summer was a time of growth as well. Spending many late nights praying with people and taking time to listen to the Lord. And then I read the book Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets. Read it. A whole new door of awesomeness was opened in the room I had just entered about prayer a year previous. I could go deeper. There was still more. What if I could take a look at specific uses of the word for Intercession, paga, and experience a whole new world of prayer? 

That I can be praying for meetings with God, for blinds to be lifted, for God to be hounding people on my campus, building hedges of protection and so much more. Dutch Sheets tells of the miraculous things he's personally seen happen through the power of prayer. This book brought me to tears many times because of the redeeming, miraculous, and saving power of the one true God, and had me laughing as well at the humor of Dutch Sheets.

What if I could start to pray like this? What if all God's people would pray like this! The transformation and power we would let loose! Definitely going to reread this book.

Also, at the beginning of this school year I found this video after seeing a brief part of it at IV Fall Retreat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MlGmO_6EoE&feature=related.

What if I approached prayer as a conversation with the God that truly is? What would be my first words to him?

So now to the present. Well, at least closer to the present. November 4th-6th I was at a conference called Cross Training in Green Lake Wisconsin. Despite the creepy barns, buildings, and back roads on the 6 hour trip there and at the place itself, this was one heck of a trip and experience with the Lord. 

I signed up for the conference not really knowing exactly what track to take, but the prayer ones had stuck out to me the most in their descriptions. So I picked "praying for a change".  

We looked at many aspects of prayer including what it really is, how God is praying for us and we get to enter into that, listening to the Lord in prayer, interceding, praying scripture and so much more. And best of all, we got to pray for each other, putting to practice what we had learned. SWEET!

But that wasn't even the biggest part for me. On Saturday night, we had our large group celebration and worship at the conference. All 1000 of us crammed into a small, hot room to worship our God, and to celebrate Him together. At first I wasn't really getting into it, and I don't like just singing. It has to mean something to me.

 I went back and got some prayer I think this surprised the prayer people a bit, because I didn't ask for anything specific, rather I was just going to receive what they would give me. I didn't know what was up. I couldn't even hear what they prayed for me because it was so loud, but that didn't really matter because God heard it. I started crying during prayer as the sound of 1000 people praising the Lord was around me. I returned to my seat and I was bawling. 

For those of you who know me, this wasn't very unusual haha. I cry quite easily, but when I do cry, I know why. I didn't know why this time.

The other student from Duluth who came, Megan, turned to me and said, "can we pray for campus?" I nodded and we sat and prayed. Prayed whole heartedly for salvation for our campuses. For renewal. For people to come and follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I literally was crying out, weeping asking for salvation for people on our campuses.

Have you ever hear the song "Hosanna" by Hillsong?  It's a pretty popular one, but just in case, here's a link. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ajFnnKFivY

At then end, there is a part that goes:

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am, for Your kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

It was while we were praying for campus I realized, what I was experiencing was just what this song asks for. "Break my heart for what breaks yours". It was getting a glimpse of the hurt and pain and the hunger God has for the Lost on my campus. How badly He wants to be in relationship with those who do not know Him. Wow. It was so powerful. 

In response to that weekend (along with some other revelations about prayer from my track and the large group meetings) we decided to do something about it. Our response is prayer. With some ideas from a movement in Nigeria and 24/7 prayer movements around the world, here in Duluth, we are staring a every 2nd Friday of the month prayer night where we are hoping to move to a "pray all night". We know that if we want to see things happen, we need to pray. Not just seeing miraculous things happen in our city, although we will graciously accept that!, but even just in ourselves. 

We met for the first time last friday night and prayed, planned and cast some vision. Our next one will be December 9th from 7pm-1am. This is open to everyone! We want to see God's people here in Duluth (and around Duluth!) unite together in a night of prayer with the Lord and each other to meet God and change our city and campuses! Let us respond to the call God has set for us in prayer! I personally invite whoever is reading this to join us. December 9th. 7pm. The Northshore Church, Duluth MN (there actually isn't a church that meets here now, but a building we have to use!).

So I ask: 

What does your prayer look like? Is there more God is offering you? What step will you take to experience Him on a deeper, more intimate, more powerful level? What can God do through your prayers??

People of God, young and old and in between: 

Come. Pray. Move.

The Joys of Summer

Uff-da. This summer has been a fun one. I've ne're come across a busier one, yet alas, I've found myself quite blissful nonetheless. Some highlights for me include (and in no particular order):

Pursuit: experiencing God in great ways and strengthening friendships while testing my patience on extremely long car rides back to Minnesota in the wee hours of the morning.

Old testament Bible studies: This has been neat, to really dig in to the OT and learn more about the Jewish culture to better understand the context of the New Testament and how they would have understood the new things happening once Jesus showed up.

The Stars: Laying out on a wam summer's eve in northern MN...wait....i meant warm....haha that made me laugh :)....anyways....the stars are just so dang bright up here in Meadowlands! You can't miss them! I love just laying out in the middle of my driveway in a sleeping bag (because you can lie on the roads out in the middle of nowhere, they're dirt and no one drives by :) ), listening to some chill tunes and just staring up into the twinkling awesomeness.

They other night I lay out (yes, I do believe lay can be used in the past tense just as it is....I've pondered this quite a bit until it made sense..... and then it didn't make sense anymore....... so I just have faith that it made sense at one point....anyways....) I lay out under the stars and the northern lights were out!!! How amazing! I have to believe that God just loves to put on a show for us and himself to enjoy! To me, that is just the joy of the Lord dancing across the heavens! Simply wonderful!

Also, while I lay out (with no mosquitoes! weird, but I'm not complaining!!) I heard the crickets and the frogs. This reminded me of a verse I studied at Pursuit, Psalm 96 , specifically vs 11-13 where it speaks of nature praising him! I think God created the crickets and the frogs just to sing His praises while we sleep, I mean, someone's gotta do it, right?!

Nature in General: Apart from the stars, nature has really been speaking to me the greatness of our God! His amazing creativity and genuine beauty is astounding. Wow.

Look at wildflowers! how beautiful! It's like they were planted right there just to make me happy! Next time you sit down in the grass, pluck a clover and pull out the purple (or white) pats and take a nice good look .The perfection is amazing!

Loot that the giant redwoods and how they uniquely use fog as their source of mositure as they tower up to the sky in awesome grandure.

Peel apart your orange and examine how each little part holds the juicy sweetness in it's own separate sac, yet clings all together in a convenient way to all hold together!

And don't forget sunrises and sunsets! God decides to start and end a day like that!? Okay, and we call people like Picasso great artists but there isn't a good enough adjective to describe His artistry! And there is so much more that you can't even fit it all in one post!

The Rain: Friday and Saturday were days of the Ol' time Fiddle Fest in Cotton. This was the 30th year they have had the festival, and my first time ever going! Since my little sister Alaura plays viola ( she started on the violin) I wanted to take her! She had her heart set on playing but maybe next year she can. Saturday I went to the festival and helped out a bit with the youth center fundraiser and then Steph and I were on a volleyball team for the tourney....in the rain! I've not played in the rain in much to long of a time! By the end of it we were soaked and full of sand and dirt, but it was such a blast! Alaura and I also danced in the rain to the fiddle music! :) we waltzed and swinged each other around...I sure do love that kid! And last but definitely not least of all, we did splash in puddles too. :) I just realized every sentence but that last one ended in an exclamation point... I definitely had a good time. Oh, and thunder and lightning....well,enough said.

Laying in my Hammock: I never had a hammock growing up, but I wanted one, so I bought one. And though I've only got the chance to use it twice so far, those two times were immensely relaxing and utterly lovely. I slung it up using my slacklining gear and I read. I hope I get to do this again before summer is through.

Prayer: I've been absolutely loving our prayer nights at the Dillon house. Talk about a God experience! You can't go there and not be touched by the Holy Spirit! There's just so much that goes on you just have to come and experience it to understand. May I know God even fuller and be able to share Him and His word like they do! Plus, there's Jay's brownies. Delish. (that spelling makes no sense, but whatever, thats how it sounds...)

Dresses: I love wearing dresses. That's all.

Friends: From making new friends at work, seeing old friends, spending time with my friends at the youth center in cotton, kayaking with my best college friend Steph, and just plain fun with friends in general, this has absolutely been great.

Learning Guitar: I can actually play a few songs! Hopefully one day I can know enough to play in a worship team for IV at CSS soon! I even strung my first guitar this summer! can't wait for my class in the fall.

Old People: The snow birds are so cute at Scholastica! they are always so friendly and they tell some pretty neat stories! One of my favorite old people I've met this summer were an adorable old couple at the church in cotton one Sunday. This petite, white haired elderly lady came right up to us and showed us a finger trick ( you'd have to see it to understand) and then proceeded to tell us a secret.

She told us "Me and my husband," as she pointed back to a cute little old man in a pew behind us, "we've been married for 67 years. You know how we do it? Every morning, before we go on with our day, we read God's word. And then we pray. We pray for God to lead us through the trials, tasks, and joys of the day and that we trust Him through it all. Without that we wouldn't have made it."

Wow. I pray I have the blessing of a marriage like that someday!

Then she told us "I try to laugh as much as I can. Better to laugh than cry, I always say!" I wish this lady was my third grandma!

Old folks have just lived such neat lives! They have so many amazing stories and they are quite wise. And wrinkles. I love wrinkles. I hope I get to have wrinkles when I'm older because I think they have such character! I will have earned every single one. Plus I can't wait to be a grandma and embarrass my grand children haha! I will also garden in a wonderful, big hat.

Small-town Church: It seems I've done a bit of church hopping this summer! From being at my "home" church here in Meadowlands, to venturing over to the cotton church for regular service and the teen challenge service, to just today where I went to the Kelsey community church where friends were leading the worship. I love the feel of a small congregation that truly loves and cares for one another and the Lord with such genuiness. I pray for blessings financially and spiritually for these churches, may God provide all they need and more, not to just carry on, but to thrive and spread the love of God to all the small towns around here! And for good potlucks. Everyone loves a good potluck.


And last for now, Journaling: I've bought a journal. I never thought I could keep up with one, and I've only had it for a couple days now haha, but I've enjoyed it so far! This one is perfect. It's small. Made from brown leather and has a strap that wraps around precisely two and a half times. The paper is old looking, and handmade. Just what I was looking for. We shall see how well I do!

I will leave you with some words to a LeeAnn Womack song, I hope you dance :

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making

Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance (in the rain :) )

Frustration.

College is kinda stressful. What's even more stressful is filling out dumb paperwork to get me there.

Right now I'm trying to fill out my FAFSA, something I should have done already, so I can pay for school. It's really irritating me. This is why I put it off.

First off, The Fafsa website is not chrome-compatable, so I must use Internet Explorer. My internet explorer decides to malfunction every 10 seconds, no joke. So it resets, I have to reopen it. At the moment it's deciding to not even load the start up page before crashing. This is why I switched to the Chrome browser. It honestly is putting me in a really crappy mood. That's why I'm here, taking a break from the frustrations.

Second off, while I was able to work on it (the browser wasn't crashing at the start) I got to the point where I had to check my bank account to put a number on it. Yesterday my bank had me reset my password and the new one I made isn't working. I tried resetting it but the temporary password isn't working either. I've tried it twice. Still not working. ugh.

But it's also got me thinking. I'm immensely blessed with aid for school. With parents who don't make much money, and with not much myself, I get lots of help from scholarships, grants, and federal aid. I shouldn't be complaining over a few frustrating snags for all I get out of it. I'm being a real poopy pants. (Steph, if you read this, realize I just giggled to myself from our lovely day at work yesterday hahahaha)

For all that God blesses me financialy to pay my way through school, the least I can do is fill out some paperwork. So instead of complaining, I am going to stop here, take a moment and give a "thank you, Jesus" for all God's provision. I pray I change my attitude to one of greatfulness. Anger and frustration benefit me none. May I have the patience and peace of Jesus through the most frustrating times. Amen

Inspired

And so, I blog again.

Having taken quite the break, I have come to the conclusion that I must write, for I have been inspired by none other than a marvelous encounter with thousands of magical luminary insects. That's right. Fireflies. Or lightning insects if you want a mouthful (the words, not a mouthful of bugs, that would be gross).

Side note-Sorry I seem to blog-vomit. I tend to take too long in between so I have a a novel when I actually get around to writing. I'll try to avoid that from now on.

This weekend I paid a long-due trip to my great-grandma Stitch's house in SW Wisconsin. The tiny little town of Stitzer. The trip was.....I don't quite know the right word. Instead, I shall explain.

This summer, not only am unleashing my inner Van Gogh and Picaso with my amazing white-on-white painting skills in the apartments on campus, I have also had the opportunity to be a Physics teacher's assistant for the Upward Bound program here at Scholastica. High school students come from all over to take different classes for a month and I got to hang with them in Physics lab 2 hours a day. Pretty legit, I know.

Anyways, the reason for me explaining this is that Thursday night was my last day as a TA and I had a "banquet" that night. They called it a banquet the whole time until the actual night. It wasn't a banquet, there was no food. As I was leaving to attend this shindig, and with all intentions to depart for my grandmother's house in Eau Claire Wisconsin after said banquet, my plans had been thwarted only a half an hour beforehand.

In order to easy my lazy bones, I moved my car from the parking lot (which is right in front of my apartment) to right in front (as in right next to the front door) of Maple, my summer abode, to carry down my baggage to leave promptly after the UB (Upward Bound) par-tay. I oh so smoothly place Eunice (my lovely car) in park,shut her off, carried down my belongings, and came back to find my car wouldn't start. Nothing. Not even an frail attempt was made by my starter.

Great. This would happen as I'm planning upon leaving swiftly afterwards. I called my dad and he called a friend, Paul. Dad had me try some crap to get it to start, and after that had been, foreseeably so, unsuccessful, my dad said Paul would come look at it when I was done with my non-banquet, and if necessary, put a new started in it. I estimated I could be done at 7:30. I left at 8:30 before it had ended. I called Paul and he came over.

Paul is a car genius.

*Quick side note: I ALWAYS spell "genius" as "genious". Out of those two choices, I must be the latter....*


Back to my story. Living only five minutes away, Paul comes over to CSS in his big truck in case we need to tow. He walks on over with his handy-dandy-fix-it-man tool box, whips out a wrench, does some magical tiddley-winking and wha-la. Eunice fires up her engine.

Okay, I took a break from writing, as I was ridiculously tired. So as of now I've slept, worked and now it's crazy hot and I'm sweating hard core....from typing.....anyways....

So Paul fixed up Eunice, and I was leaving Duluth by 1:00 in the afternoon on Friday instead of Thursday night. After getting a wee bit lost, I eventually made it to my grandma's in Eau Claire, and we made the rest of the journey together in her sweet Chevy Silverado, listening to oldies the whole way. This one I found particularly funny :) Yes, click it and listen.

We made it down around 8:30 and visited for a bit but then we drove over to our motel in Mineral Point, WI, about a half hour drive from Grandma Stitch's. Now Mineral Point is a pretty cool little town. Back in it's hey-day Mineral Point was bigger than Milwalkee and Chicago combined. The whole of Iowa Country, WI didn't have glaciers, so the surface of the land was rich with minerals. Prospectors and miners came and settled, it was actually the first mineral "rush" in the United States. The news reached England even, and Cornish settlers came and set up their homes as well.
The town is filled with some pretty awesome houses and some really cool old buildings!! I'd like to go back one day and spend more time there!

But one of the coolest things was the drive to Mineral Point that night. Over the many (and I mean maannnyyyy) corn fields down there, there were thousands of fireflies! It was amazingly beautiful, this blog can not do it justice. I hope you get to see something like it one day! Seeing this site did 3 things for me.

1. I was yet again amazed by God's beauty and creativity. The thought that He would give us such a treat puts a huge grin on my face.What was He thinking when he made the lightning bug?? "Hmmmmm lets see here....lets give them another bug.....I know we already have a bagillion, but what the heck, why not one more....yeah! One that comes out at night! Only this time, lets make it interesting..... Let's make it's butt glow!" I sure get a kick out of Him :)

2. I was extremely thankful for His Provision. I've had car problems before, like Lee (my older brother) running my first car into a tree on thanksgiving morning and I got a new( to me) car that seems even better in a couple days. This time He provided a trustworthy friend close enough and around to help me out so I could still get to see my family (that I never really get to see). Thank you so much, Lord. May I trust more in your provision (as you've shown it to me soooooooooooooooooooooo much all my life!)

3. It inspired me to write in my blog again.

Saturday we spent time with family and had us a wienie-roast! Good food and good company. can't ask for more.

Sunday we visited some more and took off for home as I had to get back to work on Monday morning. Sunday was miserably hot and humid haha. Being a northern Minnesotan, where we are used to the below zero range most of the year, 100 and super high humidity was definitely not my definition of a pleasant temperature. Best of all, the AC in the van doesn't work haha. We had the windows open and the sweat drippin.

We drove back up through La Crosse, WI after driving along the Mississippi river. Wow was that beautiful. Actually, all of southwest Wisconsin is gorgeous. I'm talking beautiful hills and valleys, amazing trees, cute little old farms and all that jazz. Really beautiful. (Not that Northern MN isn't beautiful, mind you, it's just a different beautiful :) )If you get the chance, take a nice drive down there on a hot summer day in a convertible :D (although not as hot as it was!!!)

We stopped at Goose Island Campground, where two sets of my great aunts and uncles were camping to see them for a bit. While we were there, my sister and I walked over to the edge of the Mississippi to stick our feet in and maybe cool off a bit. Well it was super muddy haha, but there was a treat as well! There were HUNDREDS of frogs!!!! They all would jump into the water when we walked by, and it was fun trying to catch a few. :)

I returned from my grand trip around 8:30 and was convinced by my roommate, Selam, to go see the last Half of Harry Potter. If you haven't seen it yet, and want to but don't want to know my opinion, look away...don't read this next part.....are you still looking???? Stop it....okay, here it is.

I was pretty disappointed. This was their final chance to live up to the book, and they fell flat on their face. That could have been the most epic ending in a movie since The Two Tower in The Lord of the Rings series. You missed your shot.

All in all, cars sometimes break, I'm emmensely blessed with God's provision, Family is good, God is great, and Harry Potter....well I was expecting it to be bad anyways.

I wish you pleasant dreams, happy days, a joyful heart, and God's love. :)

God is so Good!

I so wish I had more time to write all the things that have been happening within the last school year, and I wish I had taken the time to write all along. But for now I'll keep it short and sweet. God is so good. He is raising up leaders and calling people into his service and his ways. He is moving on our campus, and not by our will or effort, but by his amazing power and love for St. Scholastica, Duluth, and the world! I can't wait to write more about the journey I've had so far this year, but for now this shall have to suffice.

With InterVarsity, we've finally gotten the momentum to try out a large group and I can't wait! We are discussing the issue of human trafficking, so we hope it will be one that will draw many to stop the injustice! I can't wait for the opportunity to write more about all the events leading up to this, and the emotions and experiences I've gone through leading up to this point, but alas, I have not the time. For now, we will just pray.

Pray for transformed hearts; in the lives of St. Scholastica students, faculty, staff, in those being trafficked, in the traffickers, in the family of those trafficked. May we all have opened eyes, minds and hearts to this real issue, that we burn for the justice God wants here on Earth in this.

Pray that we know the goodness of God in the midst of such atrocities, and that his hope and love endures through it all. That we be reaching out to those who have been trafficked to show the hope, love, and peace there is in Jesus Christ. That God be calling on us for our time and possessions to stop the injustice. That we forgive with the amazing mercy and grace God has shown us, even to the most atrocious people, because apart from Him, we're considered the same.

Pray that through this issue people can come to know our one true and beautiful Savior Jesus and all the great things he has planned for our lives to prosper us. That people are wrenched to their very core at the thought of human trafficking and it leads them to realize that that disgust for injustice is the very thumb-print of God's character manifesting itself in our flesh and it calls people to know Jesus and his redeeming power.

Pray that even though we are just single people and this issue will be a lasting one, that we have a God who is eternal and all-powerful and he is bigger and stronger than any lust, any greed, and any sex trafficking ring. He will bring justice to those who deserve it.

I pray for broken chains of addictions to pornography through learning about human trafficking. I pray for freedom in the name of Jesus Christ for those trafficked and those who traffic, that they come to know the one true God and the goodness of his ways.

I pray for sincere repentance and groveling at the feet of Jesus and I pray all over the world an echo is made sounding the Glory of God. I pray for a generation that will stand up and fight the injustices in this world and do so in Jesus name.

Praise God for his redeeming power and that in the end he will make all things new and clean. Praise God for his righteousness and holiness. Praise God for his transforming power in our lives, Praise God for his captivating and intoxication love.

Thank you Jesus!