Splash Gum, Michigan Winter, and Zebras

First off, I would like to start by saying that Trident Splash gum is absolutely amazing. It's like, SPLASH! And then a burst of fruity goodness.

Also, Cristina and I have officially discovered that the Fish House (which, contrary to popular belief (actually not popular, I'm the only one who thought this) does NOT serve fish). Iced Zebras and Michigan Winters are delicious. I'm drinking a Michigan Winter right now and it's mmm mmm good!

I also realized that out of my three pairs of jeans, two are sort of tight and one is way too big. Maybe I should buy a new pair.

Well anyways, classes are going pretty well. International Development gives a crapload of homework, but other than that, my assignments are mostly reading.

This weekend is my dorm retreat. It should be interesting because I'm not super tight with anyone on my floor yet. I mostly know people in NVW and KH. But alas, i'm sure it will be a good time... just so long as they don't try to get me involved in any games of Ultimate Frisbee cuz the last time I tried that on a dorm date it was disastrous.

Hope everyone else is doing wonderful!
:D




It’s the song of the redeemed
Rising from the African plain
It’s the song of the forgiven
Drowning out the Amazon rain
The song of Asian believers
Filled with God’s holy fire
It’s every tribe, every tongue, every nation
A love song born of a grateful choir

It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns

Let it rise above the four winds
Caught up in the heavenly sound
Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals
To the faithful gathered underground
Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation
Some were meant to persist
Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples
None rings truer than this

It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns

And all the powers of darkness
Tremble at what they’ve just heard
‘Cause all the powers of darkness
Can’t drown out a single word

When all God’s children sing out
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns
All God’s people singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns

A message from Jever (my friend from South Africa)

This is a message one of my friends who I met when I was in South Africa sent me on facebook. It was really special to me because I'm going through a lot right now (like... a lot a lot) so it made me feel better. It's cool how God gives people the perfect words to say to you, especially because I hadn't even told him anything that's been going on.

Don't Quit
When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and debts are high,
And you want to smile but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit…
Rest if you must—but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he might have won if he’d stuck it out.
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup,A
nd he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are.
It may be near when it seems afar.
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit,
It's when things go wrong
That you mustn't quit.

with love
Jever

With the windows down when this is guiding you home

Sorry I haven't really posted a lot lately. College is kicking my butt.

I basically drowned in IDS homework last night. It was horrible. But now that I've finished that, I'm slightly more relaxed and hopefully tonight I will get more than three hours of sleep. Yay for sleep.

So... the past week was a little hard bc two very special people in my life died. The first I was not very close to, but he was a member of my church community and I worked with him some in Little Lambs. Tyler Verkaik died earlier this week. I believe the funerals tomorrow. I know it must be extremely hard on his parents and on a lot of people in my church/high school bc I know everyone was really pulling for him. Also, my grandma died yesterday. I guess it was for the best bc she suffered for many years but it's still really hard. She is part of what inspired me to travel and she was just an amazing, funny, kind woman.

Yeah... the past few days have been pretty rough. BUT my mom sent me a plant to remind me of my grandma today... and CHOCOLATE. Yes, it was very exciting. I also found out that pretty much everyone in my IDS class had a really hard time with the assignment (some people even moreso than me) so that was pretty comforting.

I am just freaking exhausted.

Hope everyone is doing well! there should be a video tour of my room on here tomorrow. Hooray!

College?

Well, I've been here for a while now (but classes haven't started yet) and so far it's pretty awesome.

Passport was kinda boring. I guess it was sort of fun though? Well after passport, we had Quest. Quest was pretty interesting. We got split into like fifty groups. GO GROUP SIX! Anyways, our group was pretty cool. We played lots of get to know you games, got lost many many times, played the great ball challenge, had a cook out, and did many other things.

Calvin is a pretty cool school. I really miss California though. And Corey.

Today I went to Mars Hill. For those of you who don't know, that is Rob Bell's church. It was very very amazing. He spoke about having child like faith and had all of the children up on stage coloring for the entire sermon. It was a very good sermon but I'm too tired to go into much detail.

There is also a lot of other stuff I'd like to talk about here, but I'm tired and we're going to the beach tomorrow so I'm going to end this now.

I hope everyone in California is doing wonderful. I miss all of you!!!