In the summer of 2004, I went to Ensenada, Mexico with a group of teens from various churches in our conference. The main part of our mission there was to help a local church put on a VBS program. One day, when I had been out playing futbol in the street with some of the boys at the church, one of them, who was probably twelve or thirteen, asked if he could see my Spanish to English dictionary. After flipping through the pages for a few minutes, he asked, "You...love...woman?" I kind of laughed to myself, and replied in my hesitant Spanish, "Only as my sisters in Christ."
"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Mat. 6:33-34
God has really used these verses over the past year to help me learn to trust Him regarding my situation at school. But believe it or not, they're also related to the first part of this post.
Sometimes it's tempting to start wondering who I'll end up marrying. I mean, what if the girl I'm supposed to marry gets away because I'm not paying attention now? But of course, if God wants me to get married, the right girl will be waiting, seeing as He's in charge. For now, I'm simply not in a position to even think about getting married, and won't be for quite some time. For one thing, I won't come close to being able to support a family for several years. Beyond that, though, I'm simply far too immature. God has years of work to do on me while He can still have my undivided attention. As Paul said in I Cor. 7:32-33: "But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife."
For these reasons, the issue of who (and if) I will marry falls into the realm of tomorrow. God will take care of everything in His own time. Prov. 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight."
All this being said, I want to thank all of my hermanas en Cristo for being just that. It's such a blessing to be able to truly be friends with you and love you as my sisters, in all purity.
God bless all of you.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Practical Impracticality
Way too cool. As Ben A. put it, "It's not very versatile, but at least it's practical for what it is (meaning an impractical sports car, but hey)." I think the Tesla Roadster is like me. It can't decide whether it's more important to be practical or cool, so it tries to be both. Let's hope the car has better success than I've had so far.
Monday, August 07, 2006
Life--seriously!
Well, in keeping with the New Posting Policy, I will now attempt to give you some idea of what's going on in my life (in case you happen to have some strange desire to know).
So, camps were incredible. Incredibly exhausting, but nonetheless a wonderful experience. All of them were learning experiences (some more than others), and all of them were a blast.
The other counselors were amazing. I can think of only one other time in my life when I have had the opportunity to become so close to a group of people by working together for a relatively short anount of time. The other counselors hepled me do my job while doing their own, and pushed me in my spiritual growth as well. So Lindsay, Joey, Erin, Angela, Carmen, Dominique, Jessica, Lisa, Megan, Caleb D., Caleb Q., John, Nick, and Tom: thank you. It was a privilege working with all of you.
The first week was debate camp, which meant that I spent two weeks trying to help kids learn about something which they already knew more about than I did. Still, I think it worked out all right, since I was able to give them some sort of common sense advice and refer them to better instructors than I for questions I coudn't answer. Rachel and Rachel, you guys did an amazing job.
After debate came the camp that, coincidentally, turned out to be my favorite: journalism. They were learning about things I knew something about, there were fewer of them to watch (only 14 guys in the entire camp!), and they were just all-around great kids. The guys who were in the wing I co-counseled with Caleb D. ended up winning the best newpaper award and the overall point competition. The only bad point about that week was something that would have been very funny if it weren't for the fact that it made a few people temporarily upset with us. Throughout the week, we had newsworthy events taking place for the kids to practice writing articles on. These included a drive-by shooting and a hostage situation. The last scenario was one of the counselors (Nick) falling from the second floor in Founders' and going to the hospital. Of course, we couldn't have him actually fall, so he laid down on the floor while everyone was in the dining hall for supper. They got a makeup artist to put some fake blood behind his head and make his arm look as if it was broken. Well, apparently the makeup artist did a little bit too good of a job. Some of the kids weren't sure whether it was real or not, until the ambulance came, and most of them were convinced he had really fallen. Well, anyway, some of them were pretty traumatized, but I think they all forgave us in the end.
OK, well that's a summary of the first half of the summer; I may write another post on the second half later. For now I'm home, enjoying family, good food, and sleep. We have some friends who are missionaries staying with us for a few days, and it's good to see them again. And I've been doing all sorts of things with my brothers; today they were calling me a "Virginian" because my feet are soft (I couldn't take the black pavement barefooted in the 100+ degree weather). Oh, and did I mention the food? The other day we had some of my dad's ultra-amazing burgers, and Sunday we had his unparalleled bbq pulled pork sandwiches along with roasted corn on the cob, followed by some incredibly delicious fresh watermelon. Anyway, I'm feeling very spoiled, but I'm also starting to get excited about getting back to school. Almost.
So, camps were incredible. Incredibly exhausting, but nonetheless a wonderful experience. All of them were learning experiences (some more than others), and all of them were a blast.
The other counselors were amazing. I can think of only one other time in my life when I have had the opportunity to become so close to a group of people by working together for a relatively short anount of time. The other counselors hepled me do my job while doing their own, and pushed me in my spiritual growth as well. So Lindsay, Joey, Erin, Angela, Carmen, Dominique, Jessica, Lisa, Megan, Caleb D., Caleb Q., John, Nick, and Tom: thank you. It was a privilege working with all of you.
The first week was debate camp, which meant that I spent two weeks trying to help kids learn about something which they already knew more about than I did. Still, I think it worked out all right, since I was able to give them some sort of common sense advice and refer them to better instructors than I for questions I coudn't answer. Rachel and Rachel, you guys did an amazing job.
After debate came the camp that, coincidentally, turned out to be my favorite: journalism. They were learning about things I knew something about, there were fewer of them to watch (only 14 guys in the entire camp!), and they were just all-around great kids. The guys who were in the wing I co-counseled with Caleb D. ended up winning the best newpaper award and the overall point competition. The only bad point about that week was something that would have been very funny if it weren't for the fact that it made a few people temporarily upset with us. Throughout the week, we had newsworthy events taking place for the kids to practice writing articles on. These included a drive-by shooting and a hostage situation. The last scenario was one of the counselors (Nick) falling from the second floor in Founders' and going to the hospital. Of course, we couldn't have him actually fall, so he laid down on the floor while everyone was in the dining hall for supper. They got a makeup artist to put some fake blood behind his head and make his arm look as if it was broken. Well, apparently the makeup artist did a little bit too good of a job. Some of the kids weren't sure whether it was real or not, until the ambulance came, and most of them were convinced he had really fallen. Well, anyway, some of them were pretty traumatized, but I think they all forgave us in the end.
OK, well that's a summary of the first half of the summer; I may write another post on the second half later. For now I'm home, enjoying family, good food, and sleep. We have some friends who are missionaries staying with us for a few days, and it's good to see them again. And I've been doing all sorts of things with my brothers; today they were calling me a "Virginian" because my feet are soft (I couldn't take the black pavement barefooted in the 100+ degree weather). Oh, and did I mention the food? The other day we had some of my dad's ultra-amazing burgers, and Sunday we had his unparalleled bbq pulled pork sandwiches along with roasted corn on the cob, followed by some incredibly delicious fresh watermelon. Anyway, I'm feeling very spoiled, but I'm also starting to get excited about getting back to school. Almost.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
