It's God's Gospel!

"The gospel is God's; God is unchanging and so is His gospel... I am not given the freedom to play around with the simple truths: "God You are Holy," "I am a sinner," and "Jesus is my Savior." But the culture we inhabit is constantly changing, and so the missional challenge is to take the unchanging Gospel and communicate it to an ever-changing culture."
- Daniel Montgomery

(currently reading: Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer)

Oh My, It's Wednesday...

Wednesdays stink.

Theoretically, it was a really good idea to take the two not-so-great classes in one day. A great idea, actually. I'd cross those things off in one day and be able to look forward to my other classes (I'm quite fond of all but Speech Communication and Research Writing). I just didn't consider that I'd have those other classes on Wednesday.

Something about Wednesday makes it really hard. Spiritual warfare escalates like crazy, we're more tired than usual, it's mid-week so I guess everything starts to hit, a lot of people have Wednesday night services or youth programs at the churches they've joined out here. So putting two draining classes wasn't my smartest move.

It's not THAT BAD, of course. I don't like either of the topics so I'm trying to think of the positives (beyond the fact that once I'm finished with them this semester, I'm finished forever). I'm excited to write my speech for Communication next week - it's my testimony. I don't want to give it but I'm excited to write it. I'm not really excited about anything about Research Writing. It's the means to an end and I really don't like research or long papers. Oh well, there's got to be that one pesky class in the semester, right?

Still, please be in prayer for all that's going on. Today has been a very long day. Without going into details, things are heavy on the hearts of a couple of my roommates and they're struggling to stay awake and do homework today for their Tuesday-Thursday classes before they melt in tears and exhaustion. Prayer for their encouragement and rest and productivity. Lots of things are going on... so much "stuff" that I find myself having a hard time believing it all. Power does so many wonderful things!

God's doing something here. There's too much "stuff" for Him not to be. I'm so thankful that we know that and can trust Him and run to Him all the time... especially on crazy Wednesdays :)

Edit: Wednesdays are sort of redeemed. Erica and Molly got rest before going to their youth groups at their churches tonight and Amanda got a job today! That's exciting news for ANYONE here since jobs are scarce.

Psalm 91

This is one of my favorite Psalms at the moment (Psalm 8 and Psalm 139 are my other very favorites), Psalm 91. I've been learning so much about God's faithfulness and really seeing it in the little practical details of life lately and this Psalm reminds me of that. Enjoy!

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress,
My God in whom I trust!"
For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper
And from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with His pinions,
And under His wings you may seek refuge;
His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

You will not be afraid of the terror by night,
Or of the arrow that flies by day;
Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.
A thousand may fall at your side
And ten thousand at your right hand,
But it shall not approach you.
You will only look on with your eyes
And see the recompense of the wicked.
For you have made the Lord, my refuge,
Even the Most High, your dwelling place.
No evil will befall you
Nor will any plague come near your tent.

For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.
They will bear you up in their hands,
That you do not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and the cobra,
the young lion and the serpent you will trample down.

"Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
With a long life I will satisfy him
And let him see My salvation."

Day Four... a very happy Friday

I don't know why specifically, but I have been so HAPPY the past couple of days! I've been bouncy and optimistic and smiling. There are quite a few possible reasons for this happiness:
- Very good quiet time yesterday
- My sister is coming to visit in a month
- I LOVED my class this morning
- I have a job interview next week
- I stayed up until way-to-late having a fun roomie conversation
- There was real rain (I love rain) last night
- It snowed this morning

So there have been many happy things lately. I'm kind of thinking my prayer to fall more in love with God is being answered and I'm excited about that and just excited to be more in love with Him.

About the class I loved this morning: I've been looking forward to this one since I signed up for it in October. Cross-Cultural Church Planting. I was more excited about the "cross-cultural" than the church planting but it sounded interesting and I've heard great things about the professor. When we got in the room this morning, the few students who were there had pulled up chairs so the seating was in a circle. We sat around like that introducing ourselves. He asked questions about what we wanted to do and where we were from and then talked about himself. He's been pretty much everywhere worldwide as a church planter. He recently planted and now pastors a church I visited in the first couple weeks of living out here (it's a really good church, just far away). There are nine students in the class. Since there are so few of us, we're going to our professor's house for dinner in a couple weeks (he really wants the four of us girls to get to know his wife) and we're planning a trip to visit a church plant in Canada over a weekend sometime. So I'm thinking it will be a really good class. I like the group and can't wait to get to know them.

The amount of reading I have to do has increased with the new homework from this class, so I'm off to do that. So excited it's the weekend!

Day Three

5:30 came quite early this morning. I had my shower and quiet time in a very quiet house since no one else had classes at all this morning. Left at 7:00 for the bus. It was quite cold outside and a little windy too! The puddles I crossed were completely frozen over. Brrr... it was nice to be inside the warm bus.

Got to school fifteen minutes before class began so I checked my email in the newly remodeled computer lab before finding my seat in Hermeneutics class. Jacey slipped in next to me just as our professor began to start class. He seems nice, has a little smile on his face all the time. He's been here 8 months - was in Southern California all his life until then so this has been quite the adjustment for him. He introduced himself, had us introduce ourselves, went over the syllabus and then went into his first lecture. We took a LOT of notes. Hermeneutics will probably be one of my most-liked classes but NOT because it's easy. I'm excited to get to know the Bible better. Quite a bit of the things from this class are things I learned in Frontlines but I'm excited to really study them.

Class was followed by another chapel. The worship was as good as it was yesterday and the speaker was funny but pointed. It was the pastor of a local church and he talked about the importance of prayer from Exodus 17-18. After that, I bussed home again. Folded laundry, did push-ups (we're doing this thing where we do 100 push-ups every day for the month of February) and cleaned the kitchen when I got home. Haven't done much homework so I'm going to attend to that right now. There's a lot of reading this semester!

For your enjoyment though, here's what my living room is looking like this semester, complete with commentary (you can read it if you click on the picture to make it bigger). It looks so much more lived-in than it did back when we first got here!

Day Two

I promise not to write about every SINGLE day of the semester but for the first week I may as well. You know, in case you were wondering what I'm taking or what I think about each class.

So today I had Speech Communication at 7:45 (I was an idiot and have 7:45 classes Tuesday - Friday... don't make this mistake!). Molly, Erica and Dustin are among my good friends in there. The professor is nice, from Southern Mississippi and has the accent to go with it. He shared his testimony and talked about the class for the first half of class. It seemed like forever though (the "beauty" of a 7:45 class) and I thought for sure the three hour class was over when it was just time for break. Oh well. We're going to have to speak in that class (shocking) but I don't think it will be too bad. He said if we run out crying he'll make fun of us but won't take points off. Good to know.

We were excited about having the first chapel of the semester today. Good worship and a good speaker in there. He talked about his passion and advertised for a mission trip this summer he's going to be a part of. It was funny to think how different the first chapel of the Spring semester was compared to last semester's first chapel when no one knew each other and we were all really shy. None of that today!

After chapel came lunch and then class at 12:15. Research Writing, one of two that I looked forward to least (the other was Speech). It's the first female professor I've had in person (I had a female for Lit my freshman year) so that part might be a little different. She seemed a little nervous but carried on as if she wasn't. Passed out a million papers and had us go over the elements of a story. We found out that we have papers just about every week but they're really short (a page to a page and a half) and that our actual research papers will be only 5 and 10 pages (we only have two of those). There's a lot of reading and a lot of random homework but my only real concern is that I get it all done and don't forget anything, not that I'll have research papers every week. Whew.

I came home and took a three hour nap. I feel a little lame for admitting this but I'm not used to being at school from 7:45 until 3 every day. Plus, I'm still sick and get really tired out doing nothing vigorous whatsoever. I can't WAIT to be over this!

So anyway, that was day two. Now it's off to bed again, I'm exhausted!

The First Day of School

Today was the first day of school!

I had Intro to Discipleship at 7:45 this morning. I think I'm going to like that class - our professor is really good! He's friendly and welcomes discussions/debates. His goal seems to be for us to take the material and really run with it. I think it will be a challenge but very good.

Computer came at 12:15 and was really... not great. Three hour lecture on how to turn a Word file into a PDF. I just finished dropping it, actually. Nice professor but something more than niceness is required I'm going to stay in a class like that.

My roommates had three classes today. They're doing their reading for New Testament together in the living room right now, each alternating between reading different paragraphs aloud. Since they're first-year they have all the same classes this semester.

Speaking of roommates, you haven't yet seen them this semester and that needs to change right now:

(Amanda, Me, Molly, Erica... yes, we often look like this)

We have already done more roomie things this semester than we started out doing last year and so I'm really looking forward to the things yet to come. I love them so much!