Acción de Gracias

Today at Bible study as for the past week we have been meditating on Philippians 4:4-9 (4:8 is the whatsoever things... verse). We were instructed to pick two character qualities, look up the greek, study them, and be prepared to share. I chose prayer and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is where the conviction came. If you note the title again is in Spanish and for a purpose. The reason is that the Spanish word for thanksgiving, the way it sounds at least, is practicing actions of gratefulness. This post however is not about Spanish etymology so that is as far as that goes. The Greek word for thanksgiving is where we get the English word, Eucharist. Literally eucharist means giving thanks to God for grace. After my brief talk, the professor asked us how much of our prayers were spent in giving thanks to God. Ouch! Considering all that God has done for us you would think we would be more grateful. So that is the question of the day. How much of your prayer life is devoted to thanking God?

Este es mi problema

I went to a Spanish speaking church tonight for service and it was fantastic, absolutely love worshipping there because in worshipping in a different language two things often take place. First, I break down the structure of the sentences and make sure I understand completely what I am singing (same happens in sign), and second worship moves far beyond just a sing along because I am actively deciphering the song and my own response to God. We broke into small groups and of course I went with the women because I want to be stretched. So as the lady is teaching I am understanding the majority of what she says, but I have an issue. The issue is that I will not remember things if I do not take notes and when I take notes I cannot focus on what she is saying, translate, and write all at the same time so I often miss things. I decided the happy medium was to go and take notes because understanding all of it does no good if I flush it.

Tonight we talked about attitudes. Somehow we accidently said that an attitude with God is contaminated, but we all discussed our responsibility. If we live in the moment our attitudes will look like a seismogram after a large earthquake. There was a fair amount more and I do remember, it is in my half spanish, half english notes. Not spanglish, but legitimately half and half. So in the mean time as I work on my ability to understand Spanish I will have holes here and there from the bits and pieces I missed.

The Magic of the Oven

Now many of you are aware that I swore I could not cook, but apparently I was mistaken. This afternoon I had a rather late lunch and enjoyed one of the sides which was potatoes that were frankly too amazing that I did not stop long enough to take a picture, but tonight for supper before I devoured my tomato I paused to take a picture because it looked pretty. Originally I had planned to follow the recipe, but due to lack of specific ingredients and not feeling like washing the measuring cups/spoons I eyeballed it. Nothing blew up and it is edible so I consider that a definite victory. So here is what I did. I had half a tomato as seen. I grated some cheese on top (mild cheddar, though the recipe called for parmesan and perhaps when I grocery shop again I'll get some), oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper. Just eyeballed it then put it in the oven preheated to 450º and took it out when it looked right to me. Ok so maybe there might have been a better way to go about it, but I will worry about that on more complicated recipes. Sometime this next week I plan on making banana bread or something. Perhaps I will consider entertaining guests, though frankly the majority of the people I would actually allow to come over live 30 miles away. Oh well perhaps if I am decent I will lure them here.... MUHAHAHAHA. jk.

On a completely different note, officially next Sunday I should be a member of the First Baptist Church. After much prayer I will be baptized again. Oh formalities, how I loathe thee. Hmmmm... don't recall anything else happening.

Adventures in baking

So nothing spiritual or deep, just a blurb. After much fiddling and playing around I finally figured out how to work my oven. I am telling you the blonde hair is a curse, it is not a state of mind, rather a lack thereof. I am the type who will eat the same thing for breakfast every day so long as it is quick and something I can enjoy on the way to class that way I can sleep in as long as possible. So I decided I would experiment with fruit turnovers. I have neither the time nor the patience to go and learn how to make dough so I got some pre-made stuff and apples and decided to give it a try. After about 30 minutes total of prep and baking I have my breakfast for this next week.

First Sunday Home

Its great to be home it really is. First Sunday back and I was interpreting for the service, definitely awesome because I find that I remember more of the sermon that way and it is just so much fun. Difficult? Yes, especially when the pastor gets excited and starts talking fast. The excitement is that either next week or the following I will officially be a member, something for which I am incredibly excited.

First week home has been somewhere between exciting and uneventful, but not mundane. Started school this past Wednesday, witnessed God's strange sense of humor. Much has transpired this past week, but alas World Civ beckons rather commands so I will write again later.

God's humor and a blog title

Every now and again I have to say God has a sense of humor. Let me rephrase, I have nineteen years, one month, one week, and six days of proof that God has a sense of humor. I suppose I am saying I think my life is a comedy sometimes, I have to ask does anyone else find it that way. Let me tell you what happened. See yesterday was the first day of my Daniel fast (going vegan for 40 days) and there is lots to pray for right now. One of the things is a situation in my life that frankly is hurting me a bit (if you have no idea what I'm talking about don't worry about it). I had been praying for healing and such and God's answer was to not bottle it up, not keep it to myself, and, when my religion professors asked for prayer requests in class, say it not vaguely, but in its entirety. A frightening concept that I neither entertained nor fancied. This morning I woke up and started praying ironically for us not to do prayer requests in my New Testament class today. Surprisingly we did not, but then again God has a sense of humor and I should not have thought that I would escape quite so easily. I had several questions to ask the professor after class regarding the computer, writing assignments, and the exams, which made me have to follow him to his office after class, should have seen what was coming. After my questions were answered he inquired about a few things and then proceeded flat out ask the very thing I was hoping and praying I would not have to say. It was all I could do to not say, "Seriously, God?" Instead for once in my life I kept my mouth shut and conceded. So all this is to say that God is merciful, but also has a rather interesting sense of humor.

Now as far as a blog title is concerned some of your are aware that I only have ten and a half months left of being a teen and am therefore on the market for a new blog title. One option is something to do with formerly knitting and crocheting like a chain smoker... I would love some feedback and I want to know what you think a good title would be. Let me know

Reflecting on the past 7 weeks

It has been nearly a week since I have been at camp, so, I have had a lot of time to reflect on my time there and offer you a recap. From the very first day of the trip I knew God had something crazy in mind for the summer, and a reason for having me personally there. That first day (see the post from June 28th) I had little doubt that God wanted me there. I missed my plane because I misread the reservation, I know it does not get much blonder than that. I did not know why that was important immediately perhaps for humbling before camp started, but on the last plane ride I found out why. There were two hurting people going to Saskatoon they had lost a family member and another was missing. I had the opportunity to pray for them. An opportunity I would have missed if I had not missed my flight. Staff training I was reunited with some old pals and got to see the beginnings of an awesome staff that was truly hand picked by God. Teen week was well a stretch at best, but interesting. We (my co-counselor Brittany and I) had some great conversations with our teen campers, though they were not convinced completely about why dressing modestly is important. I also got to have a continuing conversation with a girl who I had as a repeat camper. Teen camp was, hmmm... unique. The first week of kid's camp was stressful, but definitely a worthwhile week. Halfway through the week I prayed that God would give me a heart like His, I did not fully understand what I was getting myself into. When our girls wanted to all accept Jesus into their hearts I found myself giddy with excitement, however, when two of our girls left that Wednesday I cried over them (even though one of them had been a nuisance). The next week was what I hoped would be a welcome break, but it was quite the opposite. The first morning three of us prayed dangerous prayers. I prayed for our faith to be strengthened, Brittany prayed for an amazing and unforgettable for the kids, and another girl, Julianne, prayed for God to show His power. That afternoon God answered. A storm came there was a funnel cloud, hail, and lightning, but after we gathered in prayer again, we saw God remove the storm from us. Sounds like an amazing day, but it was not over. One of the girls also on the dish washing crew wanted to go home, but when we offered to pray for her she turned and ran. We followed her in the car, eventually I got out and walked with her, and what can be only attributed to the fear of God (no joke) she got in the car only to go home the next day. The third week I was unwillingly placed in a cabin, but it was an awesome week. The last night our girls came to us asking for us to show them how to become Christians, not all of them accepted Jesus that night, but I know the ones who did were sincere. The last week of kid's camp was stretching in more ways then I could imagine. That was the week I spoke for chapels, and the week that God decided to really teach me what reaching the unreached people groups would be like. There was a deaf boy there who knew no American Sign Language, apart from the alphabet. Worse still was that he knew nothing about Jesus, a few of us got the opportunity to work one on one with him via pen and paper (as he could read and write) and teach him about God. He did not accept Jesus, but our job as Christians is not to "save people" our job is to sow seeds. The last week was discipleship week where God shoved me out of my comfort zone yet again during devotions. The girls went to the basement for devotions and God put it on my heart to share with them about my 4 and a half year struggle with purity, that was the first time I had ever said the entire story out loud in front of anyone. I am still not entirely sure why that needed to be said. On the way home, reflecting on the trip, God revealed an issue that I think many of us have whether we know it or not. The issue is tunnel vision. Many Christians are so caught up on a small perspective, a narrow view if you will that we miss important things. We may be stuck in the current circumstance that we fail to ask, "How can God use this for His glory?" or we may be stuck focusing on our own issues that we fail to see the hurting people around us. If I may be blunt with you I would like to point out that our current hurts, struggles, and sufferings are minimal in comparison to eternity Paul wrote on that nearly 2000 years ago. God gives us the opportunity to love other people fully by allowing what we are going through to matter less. This is something I struggle with daily. I find myself saying, "Because of this hurt I am incapable of loving someone else." In essence we are self-absorbed at times. I have found that often times God will allow us to go through some tragedy and gives us the opportunity to share with others the good news because we have not lived perfect lives. A recent event in my life should have been traumatizing, and I suppose at first it was, but because I have not and will not allow it to define the rest of my life , and there is crazy joy that is still in my heart despite it, I have been able to reach out to other people going through the same thing. I still wish it had not happened, but I am grateful for the opportunities to share God's love that have come from it. So this is my challenge to you, a challenge given to me this summer. In the morning as you are going through your routine, perhaps having your alone time with God, pray and ask for an opportunity to share God's love with someone. Also look beyond your circumstance.