The Ultimate Weekend

So how did you spend your Labor Day weekend? My weekend started out with an IBEX reunion dinner! It was so much fun to have 23 of us from my semester there to eat some good food and to visit with a ton of fun people. Later that night I got to go hottubbing and hang out with Heather Zorichak and friends at her apartment.
Saturday, the day started out with none other than ULTIMATE FRISBEE! So I'm not that good, but I still love the game. Laney proceeded to cut open his forehead and Marisa decided to dislocate her pinky finger; other than that we had a great time (Laney and Marisa are fine)! Later my old roommate Katharyn and I bought peaches and had a great time hanging out. My new roommate Adrienne and I went swimming that night.
On Sunday, I went to Grace Community. This was fun, until we got lost. The funny thing is, one of my passengers has attended Grace for 3 years! Oh well...After church I played soccer. That was fun, but I was so tired I fell asleep during night church! Better luck next time...
Monday started out late. I played more Frisbee at 10:00 with a bunch of cool folks. On the way down to lunch, we decided to hop in the pool and cool off with a few rounds of Marco Polo. Later that evening, a bunch of us made taco salad and watched a movie, The Court Jester with Danny Kaye.
All in all, it was a great weekend. I had a wonderful time running, jumping, swimming, kicking, eating, hanging out, and everything else!
Please excuse my lack of eloquence on this post.

wHat thE RAndOm?!

A big thanks to Mr. Thomas Laney Stroup for fixin' my computer...A big thanks to all my friends who have stopped by my office and listened to me worry about my job...A big thanks to Leslie Davis and Jen Holmes for allowing me to switch dorms...
So I'm back in SoCal...Who have I seen? Let me see...
Sherrie, Ashley, Laney, Adam, Michelle, Heather Z, Heather D, Heather E, Tad, Colin, Carolyn, Amos, Luke, Micah, Jess, Molly, Emily, Nate, Correll, Lexi...And the list goes on...I really wish I could see...
Michelle Dueck, Megan Thomas, Austin Surls, Emily Sheehy, Brittany Good, Rachel Borders, Todd Bolen, Bill Schlegel, Becky Bange, all the kids...
Thing I wish had happened this week: Been handed a full-ride scholarship for college
Thing I wish had NOT happened this week: Being stung by a bee and having to get antibiotics for my puffed-up ankle!
Cool thing that happened yesterday: Met a girl from Zambia; I went to Zambia 2 years ago!!
So often I focus on the bad things and forget about the good...I want to complain about my financial situation, my puffy ankle, my stressful job, my lack of funds for cool books, my lack of home-town friends, all that...So often I forget that I have been privileged to travel the world, attend a great school, visit different continents, live in a free country, have a lot of siblings, have a lot of school friends, have a great job, have a good car, have the ability to read, have the ability to walk, have the ability to climb and run and catch a Frisbee, been born into a Christian family, have a great best friend, have a good camera even, and the list goes on...
Lord, thank You for this unique time in my life...Help me to accept the changes, knowing that no matter what, You are always the same...Help me to really grasp what that means............

Already?!

WoW, is it August already?! Since I last blogged, I have been housesitting, turned 20, had fun at work, seen Pirates and Superman, worked things out with the return to school, taken a cat to the vet, watched too many movies, finished a book, started other books, made blackberry pies, listened to reports on Israel, taken a few pics, washed my puppy, smog-checked my car, etc. Not too exciting, huh? I cannot believe that I will be back in SoCal in two and a half weeks! I love TMC, but I am not too sure I am ready for the campus life again. Israel was so cool. Ahhh, well, we shall see. God is good all the time and all the time He is with me...

Obscure

Obscure things I miss about Eretz Yisrael...
Kippas
Magnum bars
Thinking, "I wonder if those are the Palestinians over in the West Bank"
Having Todd get side-tracked with fun stuff before Archaeology
"This is the Mossad..bye-bye!"
Getting lots of e-mails every week
Going on Masternet and seeing that it was "So-and-so's" birthday on Friday...and on Saturday
Trying to translate shekels into dollars and vice versa
Wearing shorts to class
Wearing rubber flip-flops to class
Riding through Telshe Stone on the way to Jeru
Seeing Elvis Inn and Gimel Gimel
Seeing all the profs' kids
Daniel and Ayelet and their cool family
Shabbat brunch
Visiting four different seas: Red, Dead, Galilee, Mediterranean
Climbing things
Ugiot
Camping out
Hiking
Oily tuna
Grainy hummus
Shaaban
All the different processions in Jeru: Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Coptic
The prayers stuffed into every crack in the Western Wall
Hearing Meno get all excited in his sermons
The Foremans
Seeing machine guns everywhere
Yotvata chocolate milk...from a bag, of course
Pottery and rocks
Shimon Gibson
Roommates
The Miklat
Fiddler on the Roof with everybody
All the weird specimens hanging in the Muslim Quarter
Half-shekel Pita at Damascus Gate
The bullet holes in Zion Gate
Singing in the churches
Finding a good bus buddy
Finding a good bus buddy with good snacks...and notes
Violent rain storms at the moshav
Lightning over the Judean Hill Country
Watching people kiss camels
Sheket!!
Climbing in holes, tombs, tunnels, caves, etc.
Digging in Warren's Shaft
Hezekiah's Tunnel
Dishes
Weird boiled-egg lasagne
Chicken balls
Jackals (?)
Travel/Study Break
Work days

...we are healed

Surely He has borne our griefs

And carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,

And by His stripes we are healed.

~Isaiah 53:4-5

July 4th, 2004

I had forgotten how loud fireworks actually are, and how pretty they are, too. **Why is that? I wondered to myself...maybe because for the last few years you have only seen the fireworks from your porch or from a boat on the lake or from your uncle's yard...or maybe because two years ago you weren't even in the country! hmmm, good excuse...**
Actually I was in Zambia, Africa on a mission trip through Awana Club's MIT program, Missionaries In Training...My team and I traveled to orphanages, schools, churches, and even Victoria Falls! It was an awesome 2 weeks...
While we didn't have fireworks on the 4th of July, we did have fireworks on the 3rd of July...Our team had enough money left over to spend on a few things...One thing we bought was a bicycle for Joseph Mbange, the native missionary, to use...Some other things we bought were, of course, fireworks!!! Our American host missionaries, Matthew and Manda Payne, bought smaller versions of American fireworks and we had a show after our little going-away party from our new Zambian friends...It was really fun until some other Zambians showed up...They kindly asked that we stop out of respect for a funeral that was going on down the street!!!

That has to be my most memorable 4th yet!!

Victoria Falls, Zambia
Kamanga Compound, Zambia
One of the many orphanages in Lusaka, Zambia

Both mercy and grace

Ever since I read this on my friend Ry's blog, I haven't been able to get it out of my head, which is a good thing...

From Awana, I learned that mercy is "not getting what I deserve." Grace is "getting what I don't deserve." Thank God that He overflows with both mercy and grace.

Here's to you

So I have been working at an indoor fruit stand/market, and I have come to realize how much I miss the values of my Christian guy friends...Sure, my co-workers are nice and funny, but they definitely do not have the integrity of "my guys", especially "my" IBEXers...

Tim waiting for everyone else to go eat before he would eat
Ry and Nate insisting that the girls sit before they did
Austin bandaging Colin's feet on the Dead Sea Hike
Luke and Tad passing out encouragement
Ryan Moore treating Sarah with kindness and gentleness
Jer creating entertainment and being willing to help
Paul being willing to tutor half of IBEX
Correll helping organize things
Chris playing with all the kids
Laney being ready to answer any questions
And the list goes on..............

To all "my" IBEX guys and "my other guys" (Garret, Nic, Adam, Shane, Kaleb, Paul, etc.), thanks for your integrity, humor, kindness, and maturity...I'm sure at times it feels like no one cares or recognizes your hard work to be men of God, so this is simply a thank you...

A man's steps are of the LORD...
-Proverbs 20:24a
What is desired in a man is kindness...

-Proverbs 19:22a

The righteous man walks in his integrity...

-Proverbs 20:7a

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches...

-Proverbs 22:1a

The Return of Mr. Twain

So I've gone a little crazy on Mark Twain...He is a great writer, being not only entertaining but eloquent as well...I found more quotes in The Innocents Abroad that relate to IBEX, so bear with me as I repeat them here...

Jerusalem

To us, Jerusalem and to-day's experiences will be an enchanted memory a year hence - a memory which money could not buy from us.

We paused on the summit of a distant hill and took a final look and made a final farewell to the venerable city [Jerusalem] which had been such a good home to us.

The Moslems watch the Golden Gate with a jealous eye, and an anxious one, for they have an honored tradition that when it falls, Islamism will fall…

Travel

…I knew then what I had sometimes known before – that it is worth while to get tired out, because one so enjoys resting afterward.

One must travel, to learn. Every day, now, old Scriptural phrases that never possessed any significance for me before take to themselves a meaning.

Jericho

Ancient Jericho is not very picturesque as a ruin. When Joshua marched around it seven times, some three thousand years ago, and blew it down with his trumpet, he did the work so well and so completely that he hardly left enough of the city to cast a shadow.

Elah Valley

We crossed the brook which furnished David the stone that killed Goliath, and, no doubt, we looked upon the very ground whereon that noted battle was fought.

Aijalon Valley

This was the plain of which Joshua spoke when he said, "Sun, stand thou still on Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of Aijalon."

My Buddies and How I Met Them

*Mish: Mish was the crazy ARA on my wing...We would ride around Santa Clarita in her red 4-Runner, pretending to row as we drove down the road...She let my roommate and I dress her up, and she would tell us bedtime stories...Mish is always willing to admit her faults, and not only admit them but work to fix them...

*B: B was my roommate from Moody...She loves photos and all colors (except brown and black)...I had to be careful with dark chocolate around, or it might be gone when I came back into the room...She was one of the crazy ones who took 5 classes...B pressed on when things were the hardest...She lived the phrase, "God is good all the time"...
*Meg: Meg was the awesome Frisbee player at Master's...I actually slapped her in the face (on accident) while reaching for the Frisbee one Saturday morning...She played a big part in my being so excited about IBEX...I was so excited for her to be the volunteer...Meg is very loyal to her friends, and loves learning all she can about the Lord...
*Em: Em was my roommate from Wheaton...I really liked her short red hair...She was always enthusiastic about something, whether it was something she had learned in class, a package from a lady in her church, or hummus in the caf...She always played interesting music...Em made sure that her words were true...She loved to gain new insight into Bible passages...

I love you all!!!!

Ketef Hinnom

Melyndee, Nate, Brooke, Ryan Moore, Ryan Heathers, Luke, Heather, Ryan Correll, me, Gracie, and Brittany checked out the bone repository that used to hold bodies and burial objects. Good times...

Puppy dog tails

This is Sutter, aka Sutter Puppy or Sutter Boy, my six-month old Golden Retriever.
Isn't he cute!