Missions

I do not know how many times I have posted about missions. If you have not guessed it is something about which I am passionate. Up until about 45 minutes ago I believe that after I graduated from Wayland I would spend the rest of my life in missions in Nicaragua... Oh no, see tonight as I was sketching the life cycle of bread mold I was only about halfway focused (I know) because I was thinking and praying about Nicaragua and missions. Then out of nowhere I felt God saying, "I have a much bigger plan for your life then what you have planned." Well ok initial reaction (please no judgements) can we please save the epiphanies for after I am done with biology, a little irreverent? yes. Minorly sarcastic? have you met me? Of course I thought about what had just happened and started to realize, yes I will be going to Nicaragua, yes I will be ministering to the deaf, but that is not the rest of my life, that is just the beginning before going to the "ends of the earth" Not entirely sure where else God has planned, but I know that His plan is a lot more elaborate and a lot more extensive then just one place.

Nicaragua... again

Not sure how frequently I have told you about this, but I will say it again. I know that I am called to deaf missions in Nicaragua likely to church planting (sort of new still praying it out). After much email communication I finally got to "meet" (via skype) two missionaries who live there and are part of a school for the deaf there. Not only that, but in March there is a possibility that I may get to travel there and meet them and work with them for an entire week. How incredible would that be?!?!? I am consistently in awe of the ways that God works things out, assuming of course that the outcome will be what I am anticipating, which it likely won't because God is so much more awesome and bigger then I am.

I have also decided that I want to be fluent in 5 languages by the time that I graduate from Wayland. English of course is at the top of the list, followed by ASL, Spanish, and ISN (sign language of nicaragua). Well that is only four, so I want to toss an idea out there and get feed back. Through one of my amazing advisors at Wayland I have the opportunity of getting my hands on a Swahili Sign language book, which includes the pictogram of course, the Swahili word and the English word, so of course that would mean I would learn the two simultaneously. Just a possibility that I am tossing out there. Let me know your thoughts

On the road to Canada

Well as many of you know I will be once again spending the summer in Canada, so let me give you an update. The formerly shy girl is speaking for an entire week up there and yes she is nervous and unsure as to why she is speaking in the third person. I do have what I am speaking about picked finally. I will be speaking about forgiveness both extended to ourselves from our loving Savior, and ourselves extending it to our brothers and sisters. The theme of the camp this year is Acts 4:12 (Dr. Shaw if you are reading this, I figured it out shortly after your departure from the caf) which says, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Or to put it simply, "The difference is Jesus." So in each story or parable I will be illustrating how God's love and mercy is unlike any other. Also this summer I will inevitably be one of the cabin leaders which, while incredibly rewarding, is also incredibly tiring. With the countdown at about 35 days I am beyond stoked and nervous all at the same time and fear that I may do permanent damage to my psyche, who am I kidding that was fried a long time ago. Joking of course.

Now to switch to much more superficial things I am so glad for the almost 7 weeks I am there, I will not be checking anything. I do need to get a location on some garlic, and b- vitamin complex pills to ward of mosquitos. Just realized that 5 weeks from tomorrow I will be in Canada assuming all goes as planned. After last year I will definitely not be taking that for granted. In the meantime I must study for my classes. Praise God I am almost all the way done with sciences (as of this coming friday). I have to of course continue preparing sermons which should be good fun. Then survive the 3 weeks of English awaiting me in June... Here we go. Of course it would be awesome if you prayed for me and probably the country of Canada (not sure of the seriousness of that statement). Things are well underway, the only thing left is I need a back up journal for the journal I currently have will undoubtedly be filled quickly

Yes, I do live under a rock!

Apparently there is a lot of hype about the world ending this Saturday, all I can say is , "Score no frog dissection," just kidding of course. Anyways I find it a little sad that I am just hearing about it in the past couple of weeks. Let me tell you the story it is amusing, at least for me. Right as the semester was coming to a close I heard a few of my classmates talking about the end of the world. So of course I told them that in some sick twist of fate the world would end on December 22 2012 (it won't don't quote please, thats all we need is another doomsday prediction). Well, they just sort of stared at me and asked what the heck I was talking about. I explained that the horrible irony of the world ending at about the same time everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They laughed and asked, "Do you live under a rock?" By this point I was completely confused. First they told me that I was dork and that the 2012 theory was so old. They then proceeded to tell me about the latest theory.

So what did I learn in college this semester you ask?

1. Always keep up to date with the latest doomsday theories
2. When living under a rock make sure you have a good cell connection for updates on when we are going to die.
3. Ya'll is the only proper way to address a group of people
4. Finally, in NV the method for studying is SQ3R in TX its SQ4R, and that right there explains so so much.

But seriously, there is no way to know when the world will end because Matthew 24:36 says that no one knows the day or hour. So yes God willing I will be in church Sunday morning, or at work whichever way it works out because I dont know the future.

The random thought for tonight.

It did not occur to me when I created this blog about a year and a half ago, that as of July 2012 the name nonconforming teen would be inaccurate, though I suppose if the world ends the following December, besides spending my entire life in school, it will not matter too much. Alas I am now on the market for a new blog site name. Any suggestions?

Ok so on to other things that have depth and meaning, at least too me. I will spend a few minutes now talking to ya'll (yes i know) about forgiveness. It seems to me, as I watch other people have similar experiences with it, that forgiveness is key not only in getting you out from under the control of hatred, bitterness, etc..., but it seems to really help in having victory in other areas of your life be it depression, anger, or addiction. It is incredible, I have seen people go from generally gloomy to happy all the time, but not a feigned happiness, real honest to goodness joy. So just a thought, if you are having trouble forgiving anyone and seem to be stuck in a rut in other areas, perhaps it is time to surrender it to God and live in real freedom.

Not the way I pictured....

Somehow I never thought

that would be the way that God would answer my prayer.

You see about a month ago I prayed that God would provide some way for me to become more open I never dreamed for Him answering so quickly. Sometimes I will pray for something and then I begin getting impatient.

However, I had no such opportunity.

You see, if you have not guessed I like to write, but I am not always the hugest fan of people reading what I write. I know what you are thinking,

“Why do you have a blog dimwit?”

So let me clarify that I do not like people reading certain things I write, especially poetry.

Something about it that makes the existence of walls pretty much impossible.

So now I am preparing so more poetry to turn in to the professor.

I will think about posting them once they are properly edited and such. If I get published I may inform you. I decided to experiment with weird formatting.

Missions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTVpyUOR_fI

You know I am really getting more and more frustrated here. I live in the Bible belt, roughly 30 congregations that claim Jesus as Lord in my town of 3000. I am not only frustrated that the body of Christ is dismembered into 30ish segments in this town alone, but I am also frustrated that the Great Commission "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." which was the last thing Jesus said to his disciples does not seem to be carried out anymore. I see churches whose focuses seem to be on reaching those inside the church or else those with the city. There are occasions when they support a single people group that is considered unreached, but why do we only focus on one group of people. If there are 3o congregations in my town, it is probably safe to assume the number reaches somewhere close to 100 in a larger town 30 miles from here. What if every single church in America that had a congregation of lets say 150 or more chose to train and sponsor missionaries to unreached people groups? What if people instead of focusing on making the church bigger, better, or prettier, started moving, started denying themselves and went into the world and reached those people?