Wednesday, May 25, 2011

I haven’t written in awhile, and so much has happened.

Right now I am sitting by a window, cracked open about a foot so I can feel the cool storm breeze. A siren was blaring, but faded and now just the drizzle of the rain fills my ears. Lightening flashes for a moment, and thunder is rolling deeply through the clouds. I find the storm relaxing, even calming as I sit on my bed and write.

I just moved into the north townhouses, which actually are male, but girls like me are living in them for this week. Tomorrow I will wake up at 6:30 am and go to the TV Station to work. We are covering the NAIA Track and Field Nationals, which my college is hosting the rest of this week. The majority of the next three days I will be outside (most likely in the hot sun!) operating a large TV camera at all the various events. I’m actually looking forward to it a lot. Not only do I get paid, which I need money right now, but I also get to work with some really awesome people (including one of my best friends) on TV crew, and then possibly God will open up opportunities to talk or pray with the athletes/people at this huge event. God has given me such a desire to see people physically healed, so maybe I will get to pray for some of the athletes if they have an injury. I just want to see the Holy Spirit moving through me, even if I’m working TV crew.

During May I was taking a 4-credit class, Environment and Society, and I can check off my required science lab. My professor was great. He had a fun sense of humor, told us stories, and has traveled all over the world. Even though the class was four hours long, I enjoyed it. For some of our assignments, we blew huge bubbles (out of bubble gum), made animals out of clay, looked at stuff under a microscope, drew, constructed bluebird houses, ran all over campus in teams; we visited a sewage plant, went hiking through beautiful woods, and we went geocaching. There was a lot more that happened, including my birthday! I turned 22 years old, and my friends threw me a surprise birthday party (I mentioned it in this post).

Group Bible Study

One of the most incredible things about May Term was that God put it on my heart to have a Bible Study again (my friend Jason and I had led one last year, and I just remembered how God really showed up and blessed it, so I wanted to do it again), and God showed up in amazing ways. The Lord just told me not to do it just once a week on Fridays, but twice a week, on Tuesdays as well. At first I thought, this is going to be to much, right? And then I realized that we would all only have several weeks together anyways, so we should meet more often. God provided my friend DLH to lead worship and it was so anointed. On my birthday he couldn’t come so I led worship on my guitar (which I have never gotten to do before!). Our second-to-last Bible Study, I felt like we should focus on commissioning, so we prayed specifically over each person with the focus of sending them out and blessing them for this summer where God will be placing them. It was so encouraging and powerful!

The last Bible Study was so fitting. About five of us met up and went outside to an open grassy area on campus, my friend Aaron played my guitar, and we worshipped God as the sun set, it’s golden rays highlighting all of nature around us. It was truly beautiful and awesome to worship God while surrounded by His creation.

The vision for the Bible Study was rooted in Hebrews 10:23-25

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

This is so vital to us as believers, that we stay in community, that we meet together so we can focus on God, worship Him, share testimonies and praise Him, encourage and build up one another, challenge one another in the faith and being much-needed support. Every time I left Bible Study, I was in awe of how the Holy Spirit ministered and how the presence of God was so evident. I could go on for a long time with testimonies about it, but I will just say God did amazing things, and I am still praising Him for it!

Looking ahead to what’s next, I am going to Kosovo this summer. I am studying abroad and doing a journalism internship for the two months I will be living there. Because this post is really long already, I won’t go into it right now, but if you would like to know more about it, I share about it in this video. In less than three weeks I will be in Southeastern Europe! Wow! These plans have tested my faith so much. I am trusting God as my Provider, all the finances will come through! I will be writing about the trip a lot on this blog, with travel journals, and updating with videos and photographs, too!

Upcoming Posts: I am reading Ephesians 4, everyday for forty days. The first day it convicted me and was just what I needed to read, so I look forward to writing a post about that. I also want to share with you about what God did through my class during May Term, because He revealed Himself in a mighty, new way to me through it. I hope it will encourage and speak to you, too.

Thanks for reading my blog and updates. Let me know your thoughts, and especially if you want to pray for or give to my Kosovo travels.