September 14, 2013

Today was mostly filled with completing and working on school work. I chatted with some friends by the dorm and we did slack line. I'm working on getting it done on my own. I really missed home this weekend. Everyone had been Skyping to people back home, while I haven't made any visual contact. It was pleasant to see a familiar face from home :)  

We saw this poster in one of the hallways. Perfectly captured the personalities of the RA and FLTs on that hall. "I like turtles" made me laugh so hard.

We went to Sonic.

They serve on roller skates!

Happy evening.

September 12, 2013

Prayer Day started at 8:30am and went till 3:00pm. We sang and prayed, heard a message from Charles Price. We took a break for lunch and then came back after. We prayed for God's goodness, the campus, the situation in Syria (God to make himself evident in it). It was pretty refreshing to praise the Lord through worship, especially when I'm missing home a lot. This event happens 3 times each semester.

My favorite part if the event was private prayer time. Me and God. God and I. It's hard to set aside uninterrupted time to spend with The Lord, even at a Christian school. They set aside time for Chapel everyday minus Friday and the weekend, and I know that is not enough. Seek out God personally and intentionally.

My favorite scripture is, "But from there you will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him."

~ Deuteronomy 4:29

Dinner was amazing.

Though we had hours of no classes, we still had to hit the books.

...maybe not too hard...

We had our first 9:17. They're freshman-only events that are scheduled a few times during the year at 9:17, to get us all  acquainted better. We were playing Nerd Dodgeball. We dressed up and played. People got pretty creative. My friend Josh brought his accordion. It was really funny seeing everyone dressed up; It will be hard to look at them again and be able to take them seriously.

After, Nathaniel and I stayed up doing homework a little longer than I should have because we had an outline due the next day along with 3 other things for English (I was mostly done). Kickstart helped me stay awake to finish.

Went to bed at the wee hours of the morning. Zzzzz

September 11, 2013

This week we have been having the "Christian Life Conference" at our school, where during Chapel, guest speaker Dr. Charles Price shares a message with us about the different aspects of the Christian life. He talked about Matthew 5.

After Chapel, I went to College 101 (still talking about spiritual formation) and we talked about our school's number one core value: Authority of Scripture.

My last class of the day was public speaking and we got together with our groups for the team speech we will be giving in November. Our topic is the 80's: fashion, music, and television/movies.

That night, I went to help at AWANA. It was very similar to the first week, but instead of co-leading a group, I took over and led the group of a leader that was absent. It was definitely a challenge and I feel like God had stretched me (even if it was in the littlest of ways) by having me deal with situations where kids (who I don't yet know very well) weren't paying attention, walking off, or talking through supposed-tor-be-quiet-listening moments. It was a fun night and I was able to have fun with the kids during playtime and listen to them to recite the night's memory verse.

Left: beginning of club night, doing pledges to the American flag, AWANA flag and the Bible. Top right: the jungle gym/indoor playground for the 'Puggles' (AWANA group under age 3). Bottom right: coloring pages done by the kids while waiting for more clubbers to show up.

Cubbie skit about how God loves us.

Craft time with Play Doh:

Top left: One of the kids wanted me to take a picture of him and his colorfully-striped shirt! Top right: he made a green Play Doh heart. Bottom: we have a set if triplets! So hard to tell apart..good thing they all wear name tags X)

I went to play some friendly games of volleyball in the gym. We did speed games with four teams. After one team got a point, the losers would rotate off and another team would come on and play the winners. Our team was pretty solid, but there definitely were some great players out there.

When I got tired, I shot some hoops and threw around a football with Jonathan. After a night of activity, I resigned to my room.

September 13, 2013

Today I got all of my five English assignments done before class! 

Kinsey left campus for awhile and came back with new flip flops for me, along with a bag of banana chips.

Went to Walmart after dinner and it was wonderful. Great music there and back. We went to a thrift shop that was closed but the woman who owned it was kind enough to open up again for us.

Beautiful early evening skies.

September 9, 2013

The morning off to a good start. French toast and eggs yeeeeee

Spotted a frog outside the library at night.

We have small groups once a week to discuss what we talked about in College 101. There are five other girls in my small group. Together we will also go the the book of 2 Timothy. During our first introduction meeting we had tea and played two truths and a lie.

September 8, 2013

Today I went to a Filipino church to attend service. It was like none I've ever gone to before. At 10, they had "Bible study" or pre-sermon message. We studied INSERT REFERENCE HERE. We did worship. THREE Sets of Songs with 4/5 songs each. You could hear the passion and dedication in the voices, I felt like I was at a FF service. The congregation was about 50 but it sounded double the size.

The did the sermon on INSERT REFERENCE HERE. After the message we got a chance to chat with the rest if the congregation. Some of them I had recognized becaus I saw them on campus because they worked there/the kids came to use our rec room after school (at the K-12 school down the road). They were so nice :D

We hung out and Lys stuck her daze in one of those kid imprint things and wanted to check out how she looked.

Reminds me so much of my childhood.

The day was pretty mellow, a good end to the week.

September 7, 2013

Beautiful snapchat drawing I got.

Lucky charms (not mine)

Brushing your teeth gives you a white smile.

Beautiful skies :)

Toe got caught under a door, oops. Prayers please <3

September 5/6, 2013

Good game for the Rams, though we lost 3-0. #wasinthecheersection We won the game the night after.

On Friday, after winning 5-0, we went by redbox and picked up Snitch (2013 movie) and watched half of it in a tv theater room. 

It was a good time :D

September 4, 2013

After class, I went to watch the callbacks for the school's fall play called 'Play On'. Lys, Kinsey, Jonathan, and Kyle tried out and were called back.

Lys hadn't had any acting experience but her outgoing personality prepared her for this time.

Lys got casted as Geraldine and Kinsey got casted as Smitty.

That evening, I went to help out at AWANA at my friend's church. Praise The Lord that 29 Cubbies were enrolled to be in the club this year. They're really fun to be with and it brings me joy that they are excited with the opportunity they have to be a part of it.

These children are part of the next generation that carries out the faith and the saving message of Christ. I'm so excited to work with them at this young age and look forward to see what Hod does in them for the years ahead (if It is in God's will that I get to serve there for more time to come).

September 3, 2013

We had classes and I came back to my room and heard this melodious tune on the way to my room. It was coming from Kinsey's room! It was Lys being taught by Kinsey how to play the dulcimer.

Look, the inside of the hole..ooh artsy!

Tyler pretending to type away on his makeshift package box computer.

Snapchat from one of my best friends!

It was great several of my friends too actually. Communication from back home always brings me a smile.

It was a great day because everyone came back from vacation, even though classes started up again.

All Fun and Games

On Labor Day morning early enough to eat breakfast and wake up to the beautiful view of this sky at 7:45am.

There were two squirrels that were chasing each other around. So cute.

I snuck up on them really quietly to catch these pictures before they scampered out of sight.

Kyle was being a master at juggling the cue balls.

Nathanael was showing off his card tricks!

Day of The Lord

I went to CCNE for church and it made me think about home. I was so excited to find that there was one near me and the first thing I did when I had the chance was to look up where it was and then I went! The worship style is very similar to back home.

They did one set of songs for regular worship and then a second set that transitioned us to our taking of communion. They have a guy playing the acoustic guitar, two singers, and a drummer on stage. They sang worship songs that we sing back home, of which some had became my favorite during different parts if my life: 1Heart of Worship 2How Deep the Father's Love 3Jesus Messiah 4From the Inside Out (my all time favorites^^). 

The people there were very friendly and welcoming during greeting time (10 minutes) after the first set of songs. The southern hospitality is real.

During communion, they played instrumental worship music and the trays were passed down each row and we were to eat/drink as we felt led. The "bread" consisted of the communion breas shown below, served with a little plastic cup of grape juice.

On our way to Five Guys for lunch, we drove by a "Nestle Toll House" building and I thought it was really cool so I took a picture of it for you guys. We didn't go in so I have no idea what I would see there.

I felt like sharing my self-painted blue tipped nails. I have a new respect for people at nail salons though they have tools and such to make it easier than it was for me, but it was still relaxing nonetheless.

I was chatting with my friend Abe and he told me that the soccer game was on and I decided to watch with him. I had never before stayed on a sports channel and watch the entire game, so I wanted to give it a try.

The game was between Barcelona and Valencia. I stayed to watch for 70/90 minutes in the game. Barcelona won 3-2.

Below is the group of soccer players that were watching the game + Sofia & Julia.

We have brother-sister halls, which mean there's a group of guys we have a hall of the opposite gender to hangout with together in self-organized events (games, meals etc.) My FLT took pictures of each of the girls on our hall "mugging", made copies and stuck them all in our brother-FLT's room (they're good friends-and we had requested each other's halls to buddy up with). If you look closely, I'm framed.

I found a good verse that was posted on the wall of one of the hallways.

I went to a college worship night/service at Midtown Church. We sang some songs I didn't know the words to but it was really easy to catch on. I think we sang May the Words of my Mouth by Tim Hughes.

We played music from Daniel's iPod & danced in our seats/sang to the songs. It was great. It makes me think of the FF Dance Party.

Today was a blessed day of The Lord.

Welcome to Labor Day weekend

Despicable Me movie night cupcakes. Too bad I didn't go.

Newest food obsession.

Dinner made my day :)

Me and some of the guys played apples to apples and there were about ten of us and it was really fun. We hungout from after dinner to midnight.

So I found this really funny, he climbed up the bunk bed of a bed in his hall and no one noticed till he got up there..sneaky sneaky.