This past Sunday, the 24th, was pretty awesome for many reasons. One, it's always nice to chill and fellowship with friends. Another reason, God is awesome! :) Every Sunday night there is InterVarsity leadership meetings. Usually starting at 6pm with a donated delicious meal, then moving into talking about leadership skills, and ending the night with Bible study prep/TNF prep and other "ness". This past Sunday night looked a little different. We started at 7 and ended a little after 8, instead of 9:30. What was planned was to prep for what we had to, whether that be Bible study or TNF. It was good and all, but it was after we were done doing what we usually do that recharged me AND my fellow brothers and sisters there!
We ended up sharing our hearts on the regular meetings, and just in general our hearts on how InterVarsity is supposed to be student lead, but as of right now, isn't. The passion started to rise. I shared how I was excited to finally see a glow in everyones eyes and how this was the first night out of the entire year that I had seen this! I was so excited and energized that I started to shake. :) haha. As we continued to talk, Michelle asked the important question; "What's next?" And that was definitely the right question to ask. It didn't really get answered right then and there, BUT I believe it will not be forgoten! To end the night we ended in prayer, holding hands as a united body of Christ.
Today was...um...ok. Had breakfast with Ali(which was good!), went to class, took a nap, ate lunch, went to class, went to prayer(which was also good), was bored, read some of Captivating(which was good :) ), saw Bea!, was bored again so continued reading, and then the time came for small group. I was getting a hold of people to see if they were going to come and respons? No. I do admit/confess that I didn't do my job on informing one of the girls of when it was, so my asking was really last minute, but once again I was discouraged. I felt the discouraging thoughts and lies flow into my head, and I didn't try and stop it. I felt tired of fighting the battle. I knew I did not, whatsoever, have the strength to fight against the lies Satan was piling in my head, but God did, and did. I told Gabi and the Holy Spirit totally spoke through her saying: "You are a warrior remember? Warriors don't win unless they fight w/ all their heart!" I began to cry, which was much needed. She then quoted a song we have claimed our theme song for the year, We Win by David Crowder. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS9TZxvbi9M This song also reminded me that we have already one this battle that we are fighting! We already know the outcome, we win! Satan has no hold on us, because he has already lost! :) HA! Therefore, I will press on! Jesus lead on!
Monday, January 24, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Day 6
As you can tell...Im not very good at doing this every day. :/
This weekend, including monday because we didnt have school, was awesomely fun for the most part. I didn't have any homework that I could do so sat. was semi slow. I went out with Ali to get some summer job applications and hung out with Kathryn, Jordan, Rachel, and someone new..Stephen. We played nerts and had green been casserole, which was delicious!
Sunday, I went to the covenant church with a large group of friends and after the service we were blessed with a free meal! The "sermon" itself wasn't the most exciting and I(along with everyone else I was sitting with) didnt agree with everything that was said. Rachel, on my right, leaned over during the service and said, "where does it say that in the Bible?" I was thinking the same thing! Then a couple minutes later, Molly Bea, on my left, leaned over and made some comments around not agreeing with what he was saying. After the service we all started talking about how we were going to do some research when we got home on the subject, infant baptism. I still haven't found any scripture saying that we should baptize our infants. But I also think that infant baptism isn't something to argue over. But talking about baptism got me really excited to get baptized in the spring! :)
On with Sunday. After we got back from church, Kathryn, Camille, and I went down to the laundry room to do some laundry. What came from this "adventure"? Clean clothes and a 2 hour worship jam session! :) We sang and played guitar as people walked in and out of the laundry room. Super fun! Later on in the day I went to leadership meeting for InterVarsity. I was very excited to see Kathryn and Mel at the meeting. The topic we talked about was what the outreach week was going be themed around for this semester. The decision was unanimous. The theme for this semester is going to be around depression and lonliness. It was exciting and joyous to see other students getting passionate about what we could do this semester! I was slightly saddened at the same time to see leaders sitting in the room with blank stares on their faces...as if they couldnt hear what we were talking about. BUT! God is going to do something huge this semester! He has already begun His wonderous works! After the leadership meeting, Mel, Kathryn and I went out to get two 5$ pizzas for our small movie party we were about to have. Jordan, Matt, Sami, Kathryn, Mel and I all packed into Sami and I's dorm room and watch Aladdin together on a tiny t.v. :) Once again, super fun!
This weekend, including monday because we didnt have school, was awesomely fun for the most part. I didn't have any homework that I could do so sat. was semi slow. I went out with Ali to get some summer job applications and hung out with Kathryn, Jordan, Rachel, and someone new..Stephen. We played nerts and had green been casserole, which was delicious!
Sunday, I went to the covenant church with a large group of friends and after the service we were blessed with a free meal! The "sermon" itself wasn't the most exciting and I(along with everyone else I was sitting with) didnt agree with everything that was said. Rachel, on my right, leaned over during the service and said, "where does it say that in the Bible?" I was thinking the same thing! Then a couple minutes later, Molly Bea, on my left, leaned over and made some comments around not agreeing with what he was saying. After the service we all started talking about how we were going to do some research when we got home on the subject, infant baptism. I still haven't found any scripture saying that we should baptize our infants. But I also think that infant baptism isn't something to argue over. But talking about baptism got me really excited to get baptized in the spring! :)
On with Sunday. After we got back from church, Kathryn, Camille, and I went down to the laundry room to do some laundry. What came from this "adventure"? Clean clothes and a 2 hour worship jam session! :) We sang and played guitar as people walked in and out of the laundry room. Super fun! Later on in the day I went to leadership meeting for InterVarsity. I was very excited to see Kathryn and Mel at the meeting. The topic we talked about was what the outreach week was going be themed around for this semester. The decision was unanimous. The theme for this semester is going to be around depression and lonliness. It was exciting and joyous to see other students getting passionate about what we could do this semester! I was slightly saddened at the same time to see leaders sitting in the room with blank stares on their faces...as if they couldnt hear what we were talking about. BUT! God is going to do something huge this semester! He has already begun His wonderous works! After the leadership meeting, Mel, Kathryn and I went out to get two 5$ pizzas for our small movie party we were about to have. Jordan, Matt, Sami, Kathryn, Mel and I all packed into Sami and I's dorm room and watch Aladdin together on a tiny t.v. :) Once again, super fun!
On Monday I went sledding with some awesome people! Even though it was the least amount of people that have come to this event in the past three years I would claim it to be the most fun! I didnt bring my camera, so I was actually able to fully participate in the fun. After sledding was done I went to cantabria with Kathryn and then came back to spontaneously cook french toast for 12 hungry friends! :) which was fun as well. I had to quite cooking early to help phone to raise money for BreakAway scholarships. The phoning didnt go as we were hoping it to, BUT one person did say that they were going to donate, so that is most definitely a plus! And it was good to get experience for the possible future of having to do A LOT of phoning to raise support for myself and the campus. :) After all that was over I hung out with Kathryn and Camille until Kayla called to invite me to go to walmart with her. The chat I had with her was hard, but good. God is good!
Today...has been.
It sucks to get hurt. I sat waiting. At first I was excited, but then after an hour that excitement slowly disappeared and turned to sadness. I had been forgotten about. About 2 hours before this I was walking back from my class and felt "down". I knew that this feeling had come from the lack of time spent with My Father. As I was figuring out if my thought of being forgotten was correct, the pain inside grew. I had once again been let down by a friend. But this time I didn't want to try and find another friend to make me feel better, I wanted and longed for the Only One who is there for me all of the time. I had immediately thought of Isaiah 49:15-16:
"Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."
I went to my room and the Holy Spirit comforted me as I sat and cried. At the same time I was feeling the sadness, I felt horrible for the fact that this(being forgotten about) is what it had to take in order for me to spend time with the Holy God who is Jealous for me! I do very much forgive my friend! And I love her very much! And I know that Im forgiven for not spending time with My God. As Im writing this post this song came on :) One Thing Remains! So totally fits!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g4HXXi2R4
As I waited for 8 o'clock to roll around, to lead small group, Kathryn stopped by and it made me smile. Cheered me up. The time came to go downstairs for the Bible study. And I waited. And waited some more.(guess today was the day for me to wait...) No one came. I text some people and the one person that said they were coming decided to go to an auction that the school was putting on, and others didnt reply.
I felt myself becoming discouraged. But I wasn't about to let satan in the tiny crack that there was, so I decided to go around oak hall and pray, maybe even meet some new people. Well...I made around one wing and then decided to chill in the lobby area and continue praying. I didnt meet anyone new, but it was still quite nice to spend sometime alone with God.
A little after 9, Kathryn had come back from visiting another friend and we continued to hang out. We went to the C3 to get some food and I ended up getting some cookies! :) delish! Kathryn and I sat in the kitchen and waited for the cookies to bake. We were going to play cards, but Kathryn thought of something better to do :) We took turns reading Psalm 119 and 39( I highly suggest taking time reading and meditating on them!) The first batch was done and we each had a cookie...soooo tastey! While the other batch was baking, I asked Kathryn if she wanted to go around the floors and give the others away, and she replied with excitement. So that is what we did for the next 30/40 min. We met some new people and chatted with our brothers on 4A. This definitely topped the night off well!
"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." ~Deuteronomy 31:8Thursday, January 13, 2011
Day 1...and 2...and 3...
So, Sami, my awesome roommate started this daily blogging thing...so I decided that I would try it as well. At the beginning of my Junior year in college I decided I was going to journal everyday until the college year was over. Yeah...I made it only until mid fall semester. So lets try this again, electronic style.
These past few days have been, to say the least, awesome! :D They have been filled with new friendships, laughter, games, dancing, amazing conversations, prayer and worship, and so much more! But the top of them all!!...a spiritual birthday!
This new semester has come with excitement and a thick presence of the Holy Spirit. Change is coming, revival is near, it is now! There are visions and talk of unity, of revival, of change, of great things, of break throughs, throughout the students, staff and community members of Bemidji.
Tuesday, I sat down with Brittany and Adam to talk about what we wanted to see for the oak small group and the conversation consisted of a stomach turning statement: "we are going to split entirely into three seperate small groups, meeting all together once a month." When I heard this, like I said, I wasn't to thrilled about the idea. It made me uncomfortable. But I wanted to and did trust the decision that the two of them had made about the split. The time of night came along and small group started. The majority of the main members were there and as the night went on my heart was starting to change. As I saw the unexpected reaction of all of the small group members there, I started to become excited along with them. Excited to reach the lost. The passion was rising within me once again. I left my freshmen friends that night, not only seeing the full potential each and every one of them have had from the time I first met them, but also seeing the desire in their eyes to reach out to those who need Jesus!
Wednesday was good, but I'm skipping to Thursday. I'm continually being blown away by the fearlessness of one of my closer freshmen friends. How she goes up to complete strangers and a few minutes later has a new friend! k....skip ahead to 8pm. TNF. Last semester we would go around and attempt to gather people to come along with us, but as the semester went on, sadly it eventually ended up being just Adam and I walking to TNF. What happened? Well, to move on from the past, I will tell you what happened this past Thursday. After walking past the lobby area with Adam and Steph(a wonderful freshmen) sitting and waiting I went back to my room to grab something. When I walked back out into the lobby, who was waiting for me? Probably about 12 freshmen along with Brittany and Adam! I was most definitely caught off guard. But praise God! The night goes on and God truely did speak through Terry, the speaker for the night. The passion inside continued to grow, not only in me, but in many others as well!
Now Friday! After I was done with classes, I hung out in the union with my friends, of course. :) As we sat and ate, we discussed our thoughts and excitement that we had from TNF, the night before. We then started to pray, crying out to God, praying that He would move in us, through us, and around us, stirring up the hearts of those who know Him and of those who don't. About an hour later I saw one of my closest freshmen friends(the one I was talking about in the beginning of the previous paragraph) up at the coffee shop, so I went up next to her. She was excited once again about the new friend she had made, and invited me to go and meet her new friend's other friends. We ended up sitting with them and getting to know them for about an hour or so.
Later on that night was the big game night we had planned for an outreach event. I wasn't really sure what to expect for the night, but God totally showed up and the 50 some people (the majority of them being new faces!) that came had a rockin' time!! There were board games, video games, music, laughter (a lot of it!), prizes, spontaneous dancing, and new friendships! The game party started at 7 and went until around midnight, with an awesome spiritual birthday starting shortly after! :D Might I mention that the majority of those 50 some students stayed for almost that entire 5 hours. A couple of my friends had planned to do some musical worship right after the games and we had originally thought it was going to be maybe 5 people, but it ended up being about 13 or 14 people worshiping and it most definitely ended with a bang! :) Like I've said a million of times in this post, we all got to welcome a new sister into the family of God! And we ended up going to perkins from 12:30am - 3am to celebrate. Awesome times!!
So what have I learned from this past week? That God is faithful! When we pour out the love from within us, He will fill us right back up, so we can pour it out to others again! That there is never a better time, than now, to make new friends, to love people. What is the worst that could happen when you go up to someone and introduce yourself to them? They say hi with an awkward expression, oh no! That's so scary... Think of the impact you could make in their lives, the way the Holy Spirit could work through you to bring them closer to the Only One who can save them. That we go through our day and make choices, choices we think aren't that big of a deal.(for example going to worship after the game night, instead of going to bed or watching a movie...we can play the what would have happened game; would we have a new sister in Christ?) The point I'm getting at though is that God uses the choices we make in His plans for us. How honored are we that He would do that! I could go on, but those are just some of the things I've learned and thought about this past week.
These past few days have been, to say the least, awesome! :D They have been filled with new friendships, laughter, games, dancing, amazing conversations, prayer and worship, and so much more! But the top of them all!!...a spiritual birthday!
This new semester has come with excitement and a thick presence of the Holy Spirit. Change is coming, revival is near, it is now! There are visions and talk of unity, of revival, of change, of great things, of break throughs, throughout the students, staff and community members of Bemidji.
Tuesday, I sat down with Brittany and Adam to talk about what we wanted to see for the oak small group and the conversation consisted of a stomach turning statement: "we are going to split entirely into three seperate small groups, meeting all together once a month." When I heard this, like I said, I wasn't to thrilled about the idea. It made me uncomfortable. But I wanted to and did trust the decision that the two of them had made about the split. The time of night came along and small group started. The majority of the main members were there and as the night went on my heart was starting to change. As I saw the unexpected reaction of all of the small group members there, I started to become excited along with them. Excited to reach the lost. The passion was rising within me once again. I left my freshmen friends that night, not only seeing the full potential each and every one of them have had from the time I first met them, but also seeing the desire in their eyes to reach out to those who need Jesus!
Wednesday was good, but I'm skipping to Thursday. I'm continually being blown away by the fearlessness of one of my closer freshmen friends. How she goes up to complete strangers and a few minutes later has a new friend! k....skip ahead to 8pm. TNF. Last semester we would go around and attempt to gather people to come along with us, but as the semester went on, sadly it eventually ended up being just Adam and I walking to TNF. What happened? Well, to move on from the past, I will tell you what happened this past Thursday. After walking past the lobby area with Adam and Steph(a wonderful freshmen) sitting and waiting I went back to my room to grab something. When I walked back out into the lobby, who was waiting for me? Probably about 12 freshmen along with Brittany and Adam! I was most definitely caught off guard. But praise God! The night goes on and God truely did speak through Terry, the speaker for the night. The passion inside continued to grow, not only in me, but in many others as well!
Now Friday! After I was done with classes, I hung out in the union with my friends, of course. :) As we sat and ate, we discussed our thoughts and excitement that we had from TNF, the night before. We then started to pray, crying out to God, praying that He would move in us, through us, and around us, stirring up the hearts of those who know Him and of those who don't. About an hour later I saw one of my closest freshmen friends(the one I was talking about in the beginning of the previous paragraph) up at the coffee shop, so I went up next to her. She was excited once again about the new friend she had made, and invited me to go and meet her new friend's other friends. We ended up sitting with them and getting to know them for about an hour or so.
Later on that night was the big game night we had planned for an outreach event. I wasn't really sure what to expect for the night, but God totally showed up and the 50 some people (the majority of them being new faces!) that came had a rockin' time!! There were board games, video games, music, laughter (a lot of it!), prizes, spontaneous dancing, and new friendships! The game party started at 7 and went until around midnight, with an awesome spiritual birthday starting shortly after! :D Might I mention that the majority of those 50 some students stayed for almost that entire 5 hours. A couple of my friends had planned to do some musical worship right after the games and we had originally thought it was going to be maybe 5 people, but it ended up being about 13 or 14 people worshiping and it most definitely ended with a bang! :) Like I've said a million of times in this post, we all got to welcome a new sister into the family of God! And we ended up going to perkins from 12:30am - 3am to celebrate. Awesome times!!
So what have I learned from this past week? That God is faithful! When we pour out the love from within us, He will fill us right back up, so we can pour it out to others again! That there is never a better time, than now, to make new friends, to love people. What is the worst that could happen when you go up to someone and introduce yourself to them? They say hi with an awkward expression, oh no! That's so scary... Think of the impact you could make in their lives, the way the Holy Spirit could work through you to bring them closer to the Only One who can save them. That we go through our day and make choices, choices we think aren't that big of a deal.(for example going to worship after the game night, instead of going to bed or watching a movie...we can play the what would have happened game; would we have a new sister in Christ?) The point I'm getting at though is that God uses the choices we make in His plans for us. How honored are we that He would do that! I could go on, but those are just some of the things I've learned and thought about this past week.
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