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
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
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
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
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
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!
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!
Sunday, September 2, 2007
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!!!
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!!!
Friday, August 24, 2007
Roadtrip Insanity
Well... We are finally in Michigan after an incredibly long five days. The trip was fun (I guess?) but also incredibly... eventful, to say the least.
I shall explain:
Day number 1: This was the only day that went smoothly. Hooray Utah!
Day number 2: This is where things got interesting. We left early the next morning. The woman at the resort we stayed at suggested the scenic route. Oh, it was scenic alright. It was about two hours of extra driving time filled with scenery (she told us thirty minutes). We managed to find a Subway where they told us we were 8 hours away from Denver, which was our destination. We thought it'd only be three. THEN one of my family members had to go to a medical clinic for reasons I shall not mention. It was a dinky little place in some hodung town in the midde of nowhere. We were there for a couple hours and then were on our way.
Day number 3: We woke up and it was drizzling. We tried to turn on my windshield whipers, only to discover one of them was stuck because the nut was stripped. So we went to the car dealership to get it repaired. They didn't have the right nut, but they put on a temporary one. It was a good thing, because later that night a massive storm came across our path. By massive I mean... Buckets of rain, cats and dogs if you would like to put it that way. Lightning... HUGE LIGHTNING. My mother was frightened. And thunder. It was interesting. But we made it to Nebraska.
Day number 4: We left Nebraska and headed for Chicago. It wasn't too bad in the beginning, but at night it started storming again. (FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NOT ACTUALLY READING THIS BECAUSE YOU'RE BORED, THIS PART IS MORE INTERESTING). My dad needed to figure out what hotel we were staying at, so we pulled off and went into a McDonalds. While we were in there, the storm worsened, and about five minutes later we hear "The tornado sirens are going off! GET IN THE BASEMENT!" So, we went into the basement and waited for the sirens to go off. It was only about fifteen minutes, and then we were finally able to make it to Chicago.
Day number 5: After a nice day of sight seeing in the windy city, we were once again on our way, this time to GR. Well, once we got on the highway, we noticed there was an abnormally large amount of traffic. As in, it wasn't moving. At all. So after two hours of waiting, we had moved about one mile. We finally managed to get to an exit. We went in a Burger King and asked what the hold up was, and discovered that the highway was flooded for about two miles. In other words, we couldn't get through. So we pulled out the grand old atlas and figured out an alternate route... but of course that took us about an hour. Then the alternate route didn't go as planned bc the street we were on was closed bc of flooding. BUT a couple hours later, we finally found our way and got past the flood.
So... I am now sitting in our hotel at the Prince Conference Center at Calvin. I am alive, as is all my family and Steph (who a man in Nebraska thinks is my adopted twin, thanks to my mother). My car also survived the tornado. Hooray!
Cristina, I think your trip went slightly smoother than ours. Haha.
I shall explain:
Day number 1: This was the only day that went smoothly. Hooray Utah!
Day number 2: This is where things got interesting. We left early the next morning. The woman at the resort we stayed at suggested the scenic route. Oh, it was scenic alright. It was about two hours of extra driving time filled with scenery (she told us thirty minutes). We managed to find a Subway where they told us we were 8 hours away from Denver, which was our destination. We thought it'd only be three. THEN one of my family members had to go to a medical clinic for reasons I shall not mention. It was a dinky little place in some hodung town in the midde of nowhere. We were there for a couple hours and then were on our way.
Day number 3: We woke up and it was drizzling. We tried to turn on my windshield whipers, only to discover one of them was stuck because the nut was stripped. So we went to the car dealership to get it repaired. They didn't have the right nut, but they put on a temporary one. It was a good thing, because later that night a massive storm came across our path. By massive I mean... Buckets of rain, cats and dogs if you would like to put it that way. Lightning... HUGE LIGHTNING. My mother was frightened. And thunder. It was interesting. But we made it to Nebraska.
Day number 4: We left Nebraska and headed for Chicago. It wasn't too bad in the beginning, but at night it started storming again. (FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NOT ACTUALLY READING THIS BECAUSE YOU'RE BORED, THIS PART IS MORE INTERESTING). My dad needed to figure out what hotel we were staying at, so we pulled off and went into a McDonalds. While we were in there, the storm worsened, and about five minutes later we hear "The tornado sirens are going off! GET IN THE BASEMENT!" So, we went into the basement and waited for the sirens to go off. It was only about fifteen minutes, and then we were finally able to make it to Chicago.
Day number 5: After a nice day of sight seeing in the windy city, we were once again on our way, this time to GR. Well, once we got on the highway, we noticed there was an abnormally large amount of traffic. As in, it wasn't moving. At all. So after two hours of waiting, we had moved about one mile. We finally managed to get to an exit. We went in a Burger King and asked what the hold up was, and discovered that the highway was flooded for about two miles. In other words, we couldn't get through. So we pulled out the grand old atlas and figured out an alternate route... but of course that took us about an hour. Then the alternate route didn't go as planned bc the street we were on was closed bc of flooding. BUT a couple hours later, we finally found our way and got past the flood.
So... I am now sitting in our hotel at the Prince Conference Center at Calvin. I am alive, as is all my family and Steph (who a man in Nebraska thinks is my adopted twin, thanks to my mother). My car also survived the tornado. Hooray!
Cristina, I think your trip went slightly smoother than ours. Haha.
Monday, August 20, 2007
YOUTAW!
Yes, I am currently in Utah at a resort about five minutes away from Zion. It's amazingly beautiful here and so awesome to see these canyons which God so perfectly sculpted. But driving here... through the desert... reminded me of Africa, AND the fact that I need to post about it.
So everyone keeps asking me about my trip. I don't really know where to begin, or how to respond. It was not what I expected, but at the same time more than I expected. It was not what you typically think of when you hear the word "Africa." Yes, we had electricity. Yes, we had clean water and showers. No, the food was not gross, in fact I think I gained weight. No, we were not staying in grass huts in the middle of nowhere. We were in a city fairly urbanized city, which resembled the states once you got past the electric fences, panic alarms, lock down gates, and watch dogs which accompanied every house. It was really dangerous. Stealing is huge there, smash and grab is huge there... Yeah, one of our combi's got stolen. But it was amazing. The children were amazing. The work we did was amazing (yes, even filling the ginormous container). Visiting the squatter village was amazing in a very sad way. It was all perfect, because it was God's plan.
I miss everyone I met. Especially Nafe and Jever and Ben and Cindy. They inspired me. Their hope and joy taught me a lot.
It's nice to be home, but at the same time it's incredibly sad. I can't wait until I go back to Africa.
The pictures aren't working right now, so I'll post them later.
I miss everyone in CA already. :(
So everyone keeps asking me about my trip. I don't really know where to begin, or how to respond. It was not what I expected, but at the same time more than I expected. It was not what you typically think of when you hear the word "Africa." Yes, we had electricity. Yes, we had clean water and showers. No, the food was not gross, in fact I think I gained weight. No, we were not staying in grass huts in the middle of nowhere. We were in a city fairly urbanized city, which resembled the states once you got past the electric fences, panic alarms, lock down gates, and watch dogs which accompanied every house. It was really dangerous. Stealing is huge there, smash and grab is huge there... Yeah, one of our combi's got stolen. But it was amazing. The children were amazing. The work we did was amazing (yes, even filling the ginormous container). Visiting the squatter village was amazing in a very sad way. It was all perfect, because it was God's plan.
I miss everyone I met. Especially Nafe and Jever and Ben and Cindy. They inspired me. Their hope and joy taught me a lot.
It's nice to be home, but at the same time it's incredibly sad. I can't wait until I go back to Africa.
The pictures aren't working right now, so I'll post them later.
I miss everyone in CA already. :(
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Home
Yes, I am finally home and settling down (a little).
Africa was amazing. I'll have to post more later.
I miss everyone there SO much. SO SO SO SO MUCH.
:'(
Africa was amazing. I'll have to post more later.
I miss everyone there SO much. SO SO SO SO MUCH.
:'(
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
