fall retreat

This retreat was really good, but quite different. As usual it started with a pang of lonlieness for me the first night. I always miss the people who've moved away. It was totally weird not having Isaac there, he's always one of the first there and in the middle of everything helping set up. I miss Carlos, David, and all the Lius. Mostly I miss my family who used to be part of the church a few years ago. I always feel a little displaced with out my sisters being around.

It was really different talking about the Moravians the whole time. At first I wondered if it was going to be effective. However, I think it turned out really good. A lot of people seemed to be touched and challenged by the story. Overall, I'd say this was the most sober retreat I've been to. Not in a bad way. I think it was because people were really thinking and being challenged, especially by the Moravian's level of passion for Jesus and the way they heald each other accountable.

Mohamad came and lots of people reached out to him, I think he had a good time. He signed up to go to France. Interesting..... he told Jeri that his purpose in coming was to evangelize us. He also told her that though he doesn't believe that Jesus is God's Son he feels very close to God when we are worshiping. He's never been in any Christian gathering other than the Thursday night housechurch.

I took Isaac's wonderful dog, Jobi, for a long run/walk/run we had fun exploring the ranch. It was such a beautiful time of day. I lost track of time till I noticed the sun getting lower. The woods were so beautiful with the setting sunrays streaming through the branches. God spoke to me a lot on the run through His beauty. He put such care into painting the woods like that. Sometimes it's easy for me to forget that He loves me and it's not just because He feels obligated (who could obligate God?) He also likes me for who I am, for who He made me to be. I don't know how, but running just has this way of clearing my head and helping me see stuff like that. However I ran waaay too long; we were out two hours and most of it was running and now I'm pretty sore. ; )

first shot

Today is a milestone in my life. I gave my first shot today! I gave it to my supervisor. It was waaay easier than I thought it would be.

I'm also excited because Immanuel's fall retreat starts later today. It's such a good time for comunity and hearing from God. I've had a rather hard couple of weeks for some odd reason. I'm really looking forward to stoping everything to be with God and the church.

first picture post

my very short hair

Here's the picture of my hair. I've been meaning to learn how put pictures on my blog for awhile and not really gotten around to it. Wow, that's short. It's making me more careful to dress girly. :p

hair cut

A few months ago I donated ten inches of hair to locks of love. I only had about two and a half inches left. I really like it so I’ve kept it that short. Well, yesterday I went to get my hair cut again before the wedding and what do I find? Mandie, the person who’s been cutting my hair quit. So the owner did it. She wasn’t very nice (no wonder Mandie quit) and on top of it she cut my hair way too short. It only comes halfway down my forehead! Ugh, it looks too boyish. Actually this is even shorter than I like it on boys. Grrrrr.....

marshal's wedding

Marshal, a friend of mine, got married today. It was a cute little outdoor wedding at the Breakenridge pavilion. There was snow on the ground but it was relatively warm for this time of year. However, I was kicking myself all night for not bringing a jacket.

(Matrix: there is no cold.)

I don’t really know the bride but they both looked sooo happy and cute together. I was impressed with how kind their families were to the bride and groom and to each other. It was really sweet.

soundboard mishaps

This week was my first time setting up the entire soundsystem for our Sunday Celebration. I was the only person at set up who knew how to do any of it. I've been in training for about a month. Naturally I wasn't exactly feeling qualified for the position of "expert" last night as we set it up. :S

I had to call Josiah, the real expert who is gone, and ask him how to set up the stage and the soundboard. Funny, he's taught me how, but the longer I stood there looking at it, the less confidence I had that I could actually set the whole thing up by myself.

Well this morning at practice it mostly worked. I had done something right. However, during worship I couldn't get Becka's bass turned down enough to keep it from being slightly overwhelming. I also couldn't hardly seem to get the reverb low enough to make it sound normal. Then during the (very) short break before the teaching I couldn't get the translation up and running. That one everyone noticed and of course curiously turned back to see what the problem was. We ended up just sitting someone beside those who needed translation and doing it that way.

Tell me again, why did I volunteer for this....

test score

I got the results back on my biology test today. The class average was over 90%. Yipee! We all did great. I got 105%! Double horray. :D :D

Also, it started snowing during class today! It started snowing hard. Then the power went out and this lady came and told us all to leave the college. It's still snowing and the ground is covered. Winter is coming to Summit. Triple horray. :D :D :D

training

Today I started training to be a nurse's assistant. Upon hiring me the children's clinic did promise me they would train me as an NA. They taught me to take all the measurements like height, weight, and head circumference. They also taught me to take a pulseox. That's a little thing that you wrap around a baby's toe, it shines a light through and reads both the pulse and the oxygen.

The baby I did the pulseox on was quite happy to be in the doctor's office and wasn't bothered by the fact that I had to do it over and over to get it right. That was nice. Working at the front desk with a near continual background noise of screaming I am quite aware that most of the time being a nurse's assistant will not be quite so pleasant.

The best thing by far though was learning to time the respirations and heartbeats. This is done by listening to a child's chest with a stethoscope and counting the heartbeats or breaths for fifteen seconds. The great part is that I got to do it on a two-month-old. He was born after I started working at this clinic. I've never listened to a tiny baby's chest before. His heart beat so fast! I counted forty beats in fifteen seconds. Listening to that teeny little chest I felt some of the same awe for God that I feel when I look at the stars.

christian success

Today after sneaking away from one of the tree people during an otherwise nice run (he was also trying to hide from me, scary) I went to Brianna's house for lunch. We had an interesting talk about......for lack of a better description, Christian success.

I, like most other people, think of success as really doing something notable with your life. It's making your name worth being remembered, right? Right. However, not if you're a Christian. Then, if you're a Christian success is furthering God's kingdom and making His name known. That's the way I tend to see it anyway.

Brianna and I talked about people who really love Jesus but are held back by something in their lives that is not their fault. Their spouse, parents, children, health, or a financial burden they somehow obtained without creating it themselves. However you fill in that blank it seems tragic. All their dreams drowned by this one thing. I find myself saying, "If only this or that were different that person would really be able to do something great for God." I think it a lot actually.

She challenged me today. "How will that mould their character?" Brianna asked if maybe God is more concerned about purifying His bride than He is about everything else. He's big enough to do whatever it is He needs done with or without ideal circumstances in our lives. Could it be He allows those things to happen because His idea of Christian success is completely different from ours? Because He knows He can hold us through rough times and use the impossibly bad to do something impossibly good? Could that do more for His name than any amount of striving in our own strength ever would? Is the shaping of my character more important than all I could do on my own as I am now? Is it possible for God to both work in me and through me at the same time even if I don't feel like I'm useful and can't see it? Maybe I've made the mistake of grossly underestimating the Creator of the universe......