Church

This semester I changed churches, and I now go to Grace Community! The funny thing is I did not want to go to this huge church because it was so...huge! My mom told me I might as well try it out, and here I am! I am totally blessed to go there, and here are some reasons why:

1. Fellowship. Every Sunday I go to church with a group of friends. We sit together in church and in Crossroads, the college-age church service. I love being with them! They are a big encouragement to me and help to make a huge church a little smaller.
2. Teaching. Dr. MacArthur is a great teacher, and so is Rick Holland. They both preach the Word and challenge me to examine my actions and my heart attitude.
3. Discovery Club. I get to serve in the church on Sunday nights by co-leading a group of 4th-6th grade girls. We play the games, listen to and discuss the lesson, and worship.
4. Theological discussions. Every Sunday on the way back from Discovery my friends and I discuss some theological issue. I am a little surprised at how often we agree on things!
5. Worship. I love singing the hymns in the main service and the worship songs in Crossroads. It is great!
6. Thinking. I like going to a church that challenges me to think about the most important things in life, namely glorifying God.
7. Fireside. I also go to a Bible study through Crossroads. I have never been in a Bible study like this, where everyone is so friendly and willing to help and to listen. It is one of the highlights of my week!
I'm sure there are more things, and I am excited to see how God is going to bless me in the future through this church!

"Quotes"

I'm gonna Job your family!
-James, Bible study leader, talking about what he would do to sinners if he were God

But college is little more than a push for momentum so that you can spring into life’s activities.
-Richard Halliburton

Better to love an enemy than to snub a friend.
-Laney

Little things affect little minds.
-Benjamin Disraeli

Let not our longing slay the appetite of our living.
-Jim Elliot

Ahh, summer

My summer started as soon as I stepped off the plane at LAX...Here is my oldest brother Ross graduating from Master's!! Good job, bro!
IBEX friends, Josh Zeichik and Michelle Dueck...Yea, love you guys...
Roommate! Katharyn Shriner!
Later that summer Megan came to NorCal to go to Justin Brown's wedding and to visit friends, including me! Michelle got to come up, too, before running off to various weddings!
I took them to the Green Bridge, the tallest bridge in California...Also the site of the filming of some of the movie XXX, which I've never seen...(wow, I can't believe I originally wrote "sight" instead of "site")
I got a nice haircut...Notice the shirt and the necklace... =)
Then my older brother Scott graduated from the police academy! He is now a police officer in Placer County! Way to go!

Ahh, summer, continued

Near the beginning of summer, I got to visit my best friend Irene in her hometown of Tahoe City, California. I managed to get a really bad sunburn on the back of my legs...Ouch...
We went to Obexer's Market...Kinda like IBEX...but not...I had the best tamale of my life there...actually I had two...
I got to see my little sister Brenda a lot...She loves frogs and bugs...One day she caught 8 frogs in her little bug catcher, just from peeking in our plants...
Some of the frogs in their little prison...She let them go later...
For my birthday, Irene took me to Denny's...I then went home and had a birthday lunch with my family and some of their friends...
Later that summer Irene and I picked enough blackberries for about 4 pies! They were very good...

I really like my puppy, so I took some pictures with him before I left...
Sutter puppy!!
Coming back to school, it was Shane's 21st birthday! Happy birthday, buddy! He was very excited about the Israeli flag toothpicks, brought all the way from Ben Yehudah Street, Jerusalem

Ha Tikvah

Ha Tikvah is Hebrew for The Hope. Ha Tikvah is the national anthem of Israel. For me, the phrase ha tikvah means the hope that one day I will be able to return to Eretz Israel, which I love so much.

Ashkelon Beach

The Sea of Galilee

Caesarea Maritime

Yerushalayim

Torah

Wheat in Benjamin

The Dead Sea

The Hill Country of Judah

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.