Curled up and cozy

Here I am, computer in hand curled up in a blanket, sipping tea and grooveshark serenading me with all the songs I love. Sigh, only two more weeks till Christmas break and my concentration has taken a turn for the worse. My 'to do' list continues to grow, and my resolve continues to fade just a little bit.... sigh. I can make it I know I can! One more semester down, three more to go!

In the scheme of things that is not really so much time at all, but when you're in the middle of it, it seems like an eternity.

This afternoon I have a campus ministry meeting then meeting heather for our weekly bdubs night complimented by a bit of shopping and 'Grey's Anatomy'. It's tomorrow I'm dreading. Class and Work. Ah to be as free as a bird!

"Looking to the things that are ahead, forgetting the things which lie behind, I press towards the mark....."

Off to be productive!
<3 Me

Ecuador

Shots shots shots! Even on my day off I somehow ended up at St. James Hospital. But today that's okay with me! I just got back from the travel clinic there getting my yellow fever and hep. A shots (So glad I'm set for 10 years! ow!). Other than the slight prick of the needle it's been an exciting day. I ended up doing a bit of shopping and planning for my Ecuador trip in January and I'm getting more than a little pumped! I still can't believe I'm going and the details are just falling into place like butter.

On Monday I had a meeting with those from Trinity's nursing class who are going on the trip and we talked with Olive Fleming-Liefeld, whose husband Peter Fleming was killed  in 1956 (along with four other missionaries including Jim Elliot) from the end of the Acua (now known as the Waodoni) indian's spears. She's an amazing women with an amazing story. It's hard to imagine having to be that brave and strong, "but God gives us all grace  according to the measure of the gift of Christ..." (eph. 4:7).

I have in my hand now Elisabeth Elliot's book 'Through Gates of Splendor' and I can't wait to start the read. Only one month now till my trip!


I'll keep you updated!!!



















If you want to help in any way we're gathering health supplies to hand out while we are there by donation. If you're interested in buying some things ( like travel size toothbrushes, toothpaste, bandaids, ect.) let me know! Everything is needed.






Love love and more love!
Rachel

ok, (yeah i know I start out 95% of my post the same way...) so here I am once again overwhelmed by the amount of  things I have to do and the amount of time that I have to do them in. I have clinicals tomorrow which require me to finish my care map and drug cards and head to the hospital with in the next 1/2 hour to find out my pt for tomorrow. *sigh* I always freak out on Tuesdays. Next week I'm going to have everything done ahead of time! Oh wait! next week is thanksgiving! oh the joys oh the joys! CAN'T FREAKING WAIT!

My stress level lately has topped my previous high score. Whenever my stomach hurts I'm afraid it's an ulcer. i need to start slowing down and planning things better! I used to think blogging was just a waste of time, then I realized how glad I'm going to be to have it later down the road when I want to remember all these fun little tid bids about my life that I can't remember.

Ok... so now the really exciting news.. I'm going to Ecuador! i know, I can't believe it either! and to top it off, I'm going to the same Indian tribe that Jim Elliot was killed by and Elizabeth Elliot was a missionary to after her husband died! I watch end of the spear just a bit again and I bawled like a baby! oh my word, it's amazing and so powerful the story of these men's lives. It's unbelievable that these things happen. I thought of my Aunt Barb and her being kidnapped in Guatemala and tears just ran down my face because for some reason giving it all for Christ never seemed more real. Can i do that? Will I do that? Do I care enough that people are going to hell that I would risk my life to go and show them somthing greater? I thought about how we raise money for missions trips and spend thousands on plan tickets and costs to go to other countries,  are we being wise stewards of what is being entrusted to us! It's not a game, it's not for social reasons that we go on these trips it's not for fun, there's a serious call. If you decided to go, then you had better be ready to sacrifice, be ready to give it all.  Don't waste the money that others have sacrificed to help send you on these trips. Make it worth it.

That is all.

don't wanna miss out

I just finished reading an old acquaintance's blog and was admiring how well written, full of feeling and inspiring it was. There was only a few posts in the entire blog but it left me with the feeling of  "wow, I want my life to be like that".

There are times when I'm so inspired and full of life and energy, and there are times when I feel tiered for no apparent reason. That's how I've felt the last few weeks. Then, in moments like this I remember what makes me excited and happy and what brings me down. How I love to make people smile and give them a reason to be happy that day. I think about how much I love Jesus and how I love experiencing His love 'cause when I'm not totally and completely surrounded by these things, i feel depressed, sad, tiered, and lonely.

So now, I'm looking outside and it's absolutely gorgeous! So i'm going to go outside to experience some life. It's everywhere, all around me, and i don't want to miss out.

Road Trip!!

     Saturday! Yes, that it the day that it is today. As my first day off since since the school year started back up again I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to start blogging again. It's been a crazy summer filled with so much fun and excitement! I can't believe that it's officially over.

ROAD TRIP! 

the summer ended with a fabulous road trip to canada to surprise a friend.! it was totally lat minute and SO much fun! Some friends from Indianapolis showed up with like 12 hours notice ( go them!). We went to Annette house for the night and recruited her to go on with us to Peterborough!

On the way we met a famous Brazilian/Canadian blue grass musician! he let me hold his guitar!

Then we headed up to Vir and Jon's 

Surprise!!! We're here!

Birthday boy! 

So yeah, after the party... we just hanged

And spent the night at jon and vir's 

We had breakfast at the one and only Tim Horton's

We may or may not have been really tiered because we really didn't sleep and our necks and backs hurt (see previous picture)

And then we went home

because we were really tiered

Nothing to say really....

Well, I mean that isn't necessarily true. I always have things to say. Whether they are worth saying is a different thing entirely.

I'm currently sitting here at PASS answering phone calls, talking with the other receptionist and googling books. I'm a little reading starved. Last year at this time my mom suggested that I read a book a week. I thought it was a great goal and it lasted for almost two months! ( 8 books, encase your bad at math) I thought that was pretty good. but that was like a year ago. And when I'm in school I'm so weighed down by things I have to read that I rarely read for pleasure.

So maybe I'll head to the library later today, who knows. I started Whuthering Heights a couple weeks ago but didn't finish it before it was due. It must be good if it's Margret's favorite book from "The Proposal" right? Pathetic I know. That just shows you how cultured I am. Not very.

I am inspired easily though, and I have some great readers as friends. I'm doing a book study too, with some girl friends every other Monday night. So that gets me reading at least a chapter a week. I try and switch off from Non-fiction and fiction. Balance is good. I need more balance. My balance is really bad.

Well... I'm off to conquer whatever it is that needs conquering today!

And... She's Back!

Ok, so life has been insane! Thus, I have not blogged. Besides the fact that I got sick of blogging, and that I no longer stare at a computer screen 8 hours a day like I do during the school year.

I had such good intentions. *sigh*

I'm tiered though now and I have to get up early for work. So.... I guess this really isn't a post either. Don't know why I bothered.

Stay tuned... I may start blogging again... sometime.

Hasta!

*sigh* I'm behind

So I haven't written in forever! due to a lack of procrastination that come from having a break from school for the summer. Not only have I not finished posting about London, but I just got back from virgina and i leave for Guatemala in two weeks!

So much to post about that I might just skip it.

Off to soak in the sun... we just got a pool and my neiece and nephew are coming over. (and I'm tiered because I only got three hours of sleep last night. and my finger is broken and typing is frusterating. (thus the misspelled words and me not caring)

hasta la vista! 

London: Who came up with the term jet lag anyway?

Yes, the term jet lag is retarded, and frusterating when you only have a week in one of the most amazing cities in the world. I usually don't have much of a problem with it so I was surprised when I woke up sunday "morning" and realized I had slept right through our morning plans to go to St. Paul's cathedral and it was now at last noon. I sigh and took a shower, took my time getting ready ( I wanted to look fabulous, I mean I was in London!) and along with the rest of the family we headed out for our first day of exploring. We did end up at the cathedral, not for a service, but just to mosey around and see all it's grandure. It truely was amazing.

our first glimps

(photo by me)

view from across the street.

(photo by Heather)

and there's Paul himself standing under his cafe sign

(photo by heather)

Every cathedral needs a creepy, bird lady

Hm...

so much to write about! I realize that I go crazy when i don't have people around. I just got back from London and now, here I am going completely stir crazy in my house! I'm here for three days and I want to be busy and social and lively!

I've been job searching (not quite givin' it 100%) and working for my dad in the mean time. It drives me insane, I can never relax because there is always stuff to do. on top of that i've been doing laundry getting all my stuff unpacked since I moved back home and trying to organized my life.

I realized that i have a clothes crisis. Who knew you could have too much clothes? I've run out of drawer space and closet space ( I have two good size closets) It's a problem, and obsession and I still never have anything to wear! well, anyway my solution is Plato's Closet. I'm going there tomorrow and selling some of my cloths. After that, what they don't buy, I'm going to give to charity until I have a reasonable amount of the clothes I really like and wear on a regular basis. being the super pack rat that I am, this is a very hard task and I sort of feel like I'm cutting of my right arm.

*sigh* it's 12 somehting and I beter get to bed, big hopes for tomorrow! I'm starting to train for a half marathon benefiting Rawanda, I'm really excited, but that means I have to wake up early to run, then shower and then I'm going over to PASS for the morning, lovely day....

London: The adventure begins

I've learned so much since crossing the threshold out into this new world, it's amazing how educational trips like this really can be. 

Lesson #1: Sitting onto of luggage with rollers is not necessarily safe and may lead to the baggage swiftly falling out from under you. Needless to say, I severely damaged my tailbone. My mother, who is always sympathetic in these situations was laughing so hard that she spit out all the muffin she had in her mouth. about 5 minutes later she told me I had  muffin on my face. ewww!!!!

Lesson#2: Vacancy signs on the airplane lavatory in no way guarantee that there is nobody inside. I managed to slip out a "I'm very sorry sir" before the swiftly closed in my face. I was so glad that the other toilet opened up before he came out, I don't think I could have kept a straight face.

 Lesson#3: Crisis situations don't necessarily require panic. After arriving we were sitting down deciding what to eat when a very kind, polite hostess slowly walked  to our table with a big smile and said calmly in her charming British accent, "Excuse me, but I believe your menu is on fire." I glanced to my right and sure enough, my menu was directly over the centerpiece candle and was definitely on fire. My lack of observation has hit a new low. after I frantically put it out and apologized a million times she took the menu and laughing said, "don't worry, it happens all the time." Yeah right.

Lesson#4: Respect the voltage converter. Apparently if you don’t use one, your curling iron goes from 0-250 in 5.3 second. My poor lock of hair does not live to tell the tale. I hate the smell of burnt hair!

 Lesson#5: Cobble stone streets and high heels don't mix. The fall wasn't as bad as Heather's public announcement, "It's okay folks, SHE'S ALL RIGHT!"

Summer Time!

So, the semester is coming to a close, and so is my resolve and motivation. I'm so ready for this week to be over. Basically, I've mentally checked out. With one more paper to write, one more presentation, and one more final exam, I'm at the end of a marathon of a year. How did it go so fast?

It seems like it was just yesterday that it was September and I was moving in. But now instead of excitement and adrenalin, I have bags under my eyes and 24 hours of studying, cleaning and packing left to go.

*sigh,* It will be over soon.

Then I'm going to sleep on the plane, and I'm only going to eat salads and fruit cause I'm so sick of greasy caf food, and I'm going to drink coffee sitting on a cobblestone walkway watching the people pass by.

...and I will update this blog because writing relieves my stress.

I'm tiered, but i can't bring myself to sleep, because when you sleep, that means you have to wake up, and when you wake up, you have to face the world.

So I stare at my computer screen and hope that the migraine that i have will be gone in the morning.

I just watched "The Other Boleyn Girl" while sleep avoiding. I've been really interested in Henry VIII lately, It's interesting from the church history aspect of the Church of England breaking from the Catholic church as well as reading the stories of each of his 6 wives. It's really tragic.

It's going to be cool to be in London next week and see where all of this took place. I still can't believe that I'm going! There's so much to see, learn and experience!

It's amazing how we can read stories in history books so callously without thinking of the real people who had to live through those experiences. I can't believe how lucky I am, I have gone through my life with such little pain and grief compared to so many.

I give up so little, and sacrifice such small, menial things.

I hope that if I was ever called to sacrifice in a great way to God, my family, or my country, I would have the courage and boldness to do so.

London!

Wow, time goes so fast! three months ago I was finishing up the fall semester getting ready to board a plane to Thailand (click to read about my trip) and now here I am a week away from finals packing for London!

i'm so excited! If you have any suggestions and/or comments of restaurants, plays, or shopping centers please let me know! I really want to make every second count.

Well, as many of you who know me or follow my blog know, I am currently avoiding homework to write this post. So it's back to Chem... sigh

Love, love, love!

More posts on Thailand

half hour till go time

I'm not ready for this week! for today, or tomorrow or Thursday! ahh!!!!! 

I have my TEAS test on wed. (I think it's really disturbing that it's called a teas test, are they teasing us? is this a JOKE!) I thought I'd just wing it.  If I have to take one more standardized test I'm going to lash out irrationally! 

Time to get out that trusty number two pencil and hope my brain is as full as I like to think it is. 

April Flowers

 The flowers are starting to bloom and they look so pretty that I couldn't resist taking some pictures.

                                       

Is Theology Replacing The Bible?

Today in theology lecture  my professor talked about the American Revolution and how after the war there was a movement among churches to reject the two main creeds of Protestant Christianity, the Nicene creed and the Apostle's creed. They rejected these creeds on the basis that the bible should be the main source of our Christianity, and that only the bible should be the foundation of our beliefs as well as the plumb line to guard against false teachings.

Some of the main leaders of this movement included James O'Kelly (1793), former methodist minister, Barton Stone (1803), formerly Presbyterian, and Alexander Campbell (1809), who had connection with the Baptist church. These 'restoration' leaders wished to have independent churches unaffiliated with any denomination. Although these groups had many errors in beliefs, and couldn't agree even amongst themselves, the idea that birthed their movement triggers questions in my mind.  Are we (all denominations in general, but also more specifically the CRC and RCA) replacing knowledge of the bible with knowledge of theology (possibly because we see them as the same)?  And if we are, what effect is this having on our faith?

This comment made by my professor inspired this posts:
     " The bible is so big that it is hard to know what is in it, if we memorize the creeds, we can know what is false right away."


(In clarification this comment was aimed toward laypersons, not pastors or clergy)

Does this statement bother you? I'm sure it depends how you view faith. From the time that many conservative Calvinist's kids are able to read (maybe before) they are already memorizing the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Apostle's Creed is recited almost every Sunday. Although these same kids as adults could most likely tell you the main points of predestination and why babies are baptized instead of adults, they probably could not quote you many verses other than John 3:16 and Psalms 23. Not only that, but if you ask them about their personal experience or relationship with Christ, the answers that they give you will probably be cliche'.
(I realize that this is definitely not true across the board, but I'm using extreme situations to stress a point) 

Is this right? Where is the fire, the passion, the excitement and life? It's our love for God and our hunger for Him that inspires us to read, know and explore the words of the bible and not only that, but to let them renew our minds and change our lives. It's the Holy Spirit that shows us what is false teaching and alerts us to  what does not line up with the character of God. How are we to know that by a creed, a statement of believe or catechism? It's not an academic exercise that will lead us from death to life but a relationship that is so deep that nothing on earth, in heaven, or even in hell can ever separate us from it.

 Most of my life there has been a strong importance placed on bible memorization in our home, and family devotions were a daily occurrence. Three years ago I was encouraged to look at the bible from a different angle then I ever had before. I felt like the world suddenly went from black & white to color. I began to see all the promises that God has given us, the lies that I was believing about who I am, and the authority that I have in Christ. All those verses that I had memorized as a child suddenly became what Eph.6 talks about, they were a sword in my hand.

I recognized where the theology of my denominational background did not line up with what I was seeing and reading on the pages of the bible, and started to realize that there was so much I didn't even know about! My prayer life took off, and where before I could barely pray 5 minutes, I now can spend hours in prayer with others and by myself. Worship is no longer singing one hymn from the psalter and then siting down in a methodical, formal manner, but it's raising holy hands before my God, opening my heart and dancing before my Lord. Instead of empty platitudes I can encourage others with real, substantial truth and pray for them with a heart that truly believes God has a miracle for that person and wants to show them his manifest love.

God is no longer a distant imagination, but a present reality. A creed cannot do all that.

So in conclusion my challenge is this, open your mind and heart and explore God's word in a new way. Don't believe something because you were told to believe it or because your church reads it on sundays, believe it because you know it's true.

I'm in no way trying to undermine the importance of studying theology, nor am I saying that creeds and statements of belief aren't good things. I very much recocgnize the place and importance of them. My point is that they should be a tool, but never take the place that the bible has in our lives or in our relationship with God.

I want cool skin!

So I've spent the last two hours trying to learn a whole new language. The language of HTML. It's horrific. I go on these web sites and people are like, "yeah, i was bored so I made this crazy cool skin."

yeah, right, and i was bored and cured cancer.
AND solved world hunger
cause that was easier than trying to learn html.

Anticipation of summer

The semester is coming to an end, and with the anticipation of summer come exams, projects and papers. The result is little sleep, crazy behaviors and basic insanity. (off to take an exam)....

Okay, I'm back! whew, glad that's over! On my way back I grabbed some lunch to go and rushed back to my dorm where I currently sit enjoying a relaxing hour before stats and theo. Then, this afternoon I have a SI session for Chem ( plus hours of studying ahead of me) a class preparatory writing for phil. and bible study (come by the way, tib 27 8:00pm)

22 days to go!

The countdown continues

United

Hillsong united concert last night!

 pictures and video to come

Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/

Let the colors of the world paint your soul

I've been studying the book of Ezra lately. Until about 2 months ago, I didn't even know the story, now, I can't get enough of how life changing this book is! My Aunt Barb gave me some good advice the other week when she came to visit. She said that so often we rush over chapters/book of the bible to get onto the next thing. But if we just stay in one section for awhile and really let it sink into our hearts, God can really use it to change our lives.

Rom. 12:2 says to renew our mind daily -- renew it with the truth the truth that God loves you, cares about you in such a deep way that he would never, never do anything that isn't the VERY best for you, not just ok, or semi good.

He takes care of the birds and the flowers -- how much more will he take care of us?

Lesson for the week -- be patient. open my heart.

The world has so much color, let it paint your soul.

SUNSHINE!

Woke up to a very sweet voice and smile that I recognized as my mother :-) I love being home, even if just for a few days, not only do I have more space to pace if I find myself bored, but there's a softer bed, a nicer more decorated room, it's quieter, and I haven't even mentioned the fact that the food is so, so, SO much better (and to me it's free!)

This morning, I made myself a million dollar smoothie! I had EVERything in there from mango, pineapple and coconut to acia berry juice, strawberries, banana's and peaches. I also put honey in it because I like things sweet :-)

Now, I'm going to work outside in the yard with my mom till this afternoon. I have a very important birthday party tonight at Chucky Cheese's.

Word of the day

or·thog·o·nal


Pronunciation: \ȯr-ˈthä-gə-nəl\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle French, from Latin orthogonius, from Greek orthogōnios, from orth- + gōnia angle — more at -gon

Date: 1612

1 a : intersecting or lying at right angles b : having perpendicular slopes or tangents at the point of intersection

2 : having a sum of products or an integral that is zero or sometimes one under specified conditions: as a of real-valued functions : having the integral of the product of each pair of functions over a specific interval equal to zero b of vectors : having the scalar product equal to zero c of a square matrix : having the sum of products of corresponding elements in any two rows or any two columns equal to one if the rows or columns are the same and equal to zero otherwise : having a transpose with which the product equals the identity matrix

3 of a linear transformation : having a matrix that is orthogonal : preserving length and distance

4 : composed of mutually orthogonal elements

5 : statistically independent

According to Erin Kate McCormick DeBoer, it's cutting edge in Attorney Circles. So if you want to be considered intellegent, I suggest you learn how to use it.

Everybody

Spring Break x2

YES I love Easter! and not just because of the yummy cholocate eggs and the fact that it's probably the most significant Christian holiday besides Christmas, but for more shallow reasons.  I HAVE A 5 DAY WEEKEND! I'm so very excited! Even though i have a stack of homework to accomplish and a "to do" list the length of well.. a really long thing.

So yeah,
Off to the races!

Live your dream.

Monday Morning

It's 10:41 and I have 15 minutes till my next class. The good news though, is that I only have three more sleeps to a weekend starting on Thursday.

Weekends... they always go so fast! It was so fun to have Stephen and Erin out this week, even though it went by so super fast! on Friday night we had pizza for dinner (Virgina is definitely lacking in the pizza department, but then again.. who could beat Chicago?) and went to P&C's to have some sibling chill time, and followed that up with Applebee's hotwings and sangria! yum! so yeah, it was good

Saturday night was Nick's wedding, we  were all tiered and sweaty from a long night of doing the twist and throwing our hands up and shouting.. haha, can't believe nick's married! Seems like yesterday we were building forts in the wood's behind grandma's house and  waffleblock houses in the the basement... time sure flies. I'm so happy for him, the wedding was beautiful! After that I made a midnight chocolate cake from Trey's birthday and went to bed after a relaxing bath.

Sunday was church, Dinner at Uncle Marks, sending off Steph and Erin, writing a paper, walk with heather and another relaxing bath and early night. whew.

That brings me to today -- another paper, assignments, studying, bible study, 3 more classes and yeah.. that kind of stuff.

so I'm pretty sure this post is the most boring ever. I've been writing really boring posts lately. I need to F5(refresh) my life. I need some refreshing.

Statistically (absent)minded

    So I'm studying for a statistics exam and as usual I'm taking time out to write down all the thoughts that i'm thinking that are TOTALLY unrelated to any form of math.

    I'm thinking bout a friend that I miss, and wondering why I just can't have all the people that I love around me all the time? I wonder why life can be so difficult and how I try so hard, yet I seem to have so many broken relationships in my life.
    I'm learning though, learning how to confront things instead of just letting them slide under the carpet, hoping that one day they would just disappear. I wan't to be honest about what I'm thinking and feeling. I have a right to express my opinion and thoughts and I have a right to tell people when I've been hurt. Sometimes I just want to yell, scream and get it all out. But that doesn't mean that I don't love the person. Just that I want to be understood, is that wrong?
    I want to be free to be me, all of me, everything that is me. I am still in process, still learning how to breathe in and out some days, but others, I feel like I can fly and I'm so glad that I have a God that never gives up on me, but keeps teaching me and loving me and giving me courage and grace.
     So here I am, looking out the window, knowing that nothing but God's amazingness can be enough. But then, at the same time, realizing that it is enough, It always is enough. and when i choose to know that truly in my heart, that's when I experience true life, when I can give up every selfish desire, plan, and purpose and trade them for a lifetime adventure, even if it is unknown.

Thinking, feeling, laughing, crying

     It's been quite a weird 24 hours. I woke up with a start from a dream about a quiz in Heath Concepts that I forgot about ( I left it at home and had to drive 45 minutes each way to get it before class [sometimes my subconscious can be very helpful!]) and went to bed late last night after waiting in a hospital ER for my dad to get x-rayed after a very scary car crash.

  I slept at home last night and drove back to school early this morning. I am so thankful for God's protection. I still feel tiered and emotionally a little shaken up, i felt like I had 10 shots of caffeine I had so much adrenaline pumping through my body.

Thanks all who knew and were praying.

Little Women

*sigh* It's almost 2 in the morning, just skyped my close friend Athena from NZ. Our new thing as of tonight is to read together! we just started "Little Women." How fun is that? And it's one of my favorite books anyway. I can't wait to read chapter two. But right now, it's time for some good ol' sleepy time.

I love you teeny! and i love to sleep, but I love teeny more. hehe.

and i miss NZ.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

It's Wednesday morning already. (whew, how did that happen?) I'm laying in bed enjoying the sun streaming in my window and listening to Ihop prayer room.

Already my spring break is half way gone. :-(

I have been so happy to be home! I love spending time with my family and sleeping in my own bed! It's wonderful. I love the spring weather and the birds chirping crazy style out the window. It's truly a beautiful thing.

Today I have a kick back morning just doing laundry, filling out this application thing, cleaning my room/car, and going for a run.

no stress, no stress, no stress.

Spring Break!

So the saga of my life continues... I made it through mid terms! whew... what a relief! only one more class away from a whole week of almost completely educational freedom. What am I going to do? I have no idea, but some lovely options are (drum-roll please)

- Decorate my room! I'm still finishing it and it's been over a year

- Work! it's a negative option.. but a needful one. I need some moola

- Run! I want to start training for the chicago half marathon ( Can she do it! YES SHE CAN!)

- SLEEP IN! yes, yes yes yes yes! that's totally happening

- Hang out with my two favorite girls Katie Lauren who is in from california, and Karissa Joy

(Monday night -- the girls hit the town!)

- POSSIBLY make a very random roadtrip to a place that is too secret to disclose at this current juncture.

So yea, that's my week. It's gunna be a great one!

oh and I'm going to London....

WHAT!!!!!!!

yes... it's true, after the semester ends I'm taking off to the land of 500 dollar shoes and corner cafe's, beautiful castles, and men with funny, big red hats.

It's offical.

I love my life. (ya know, with the exception of midterms)

Some People find it hard to believe, that Jamaica has a bobsled team" HeHe

Sometimes life is about coming together to do something impossible. There is passion, pride and fulfillment in making a dream become a reality.

hehe,

I love impossible stories, I love them even more when they're true!!

(& I want a cool Jamaican hat)

Fourteen years ago the first Jamaican Bobsleigh team made history in the Calgary Olympics Winter Games. They warmed the hearts of many worldwide in their first attempt at Olympic glory and was even immortalized in the popular Walt Disney movie "Cool Runnings". Since then the team has been a mainstay in the Winter Olympics and now have their eyes focused on bringing back a medal to Jamaica.

In the first games (1988) the team was seen as a novelty as they had many technically difficulties, injuries and crashes. In the second games (1992) the team had drastically improved. They had practiced hard for 4 years and were confident and focused. The 4-man team came in 14th ahead of the US, French, Russian and Italians teams. This was just the beginning. In the 2-man event the Jamaican team shocked the world by beating the Swedish national champions and coming in 10th place.

The team has continued to improve and took in 2000, and took gold at the World Push Championships in Monte Carlo in three events and posting the fasted start time at the World Cup.

The determination and hard work of the Jamaican team has paid off as they sent a teams to 2002 Winter Olympic games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Theteam placed 28th in the 2 man bobsled race.

The Jamaican team: Mark Hill, Winston Watt, Lascelles Brown, Garnett Jones, Stewart Maxwell, Clive McDonald and women, Porscha Morgan, Winsome Cole, Taniesha LcLean and Dukelyn Barrett.

_______________________________________

http://www.jamaicans.com/bobsled/, Author unknown, Last accessed March 1, 2010

Unfortunately, Jamaica didn't qualify for this years Olympics... but there's always next time!

High Heals & Chocolate Cake

Some of the best things in life come straight from the oven,

& straight from

Macy's shoe department

Ok, so not really, but they definitely make life way more fun!

Audrey was modeling shoes and I was baking a cake

Sometimes It's just way more fun to be a girl <3

A New Fun Website!

It's the blog of a really cute newlywed couple who cooks together!

(how sweet/cute/adorable is that?!)

Basically it was the Oreo brownies with white chocolate that got me hooked.

http://twopeasandtheirpod.com/

Flexibility at it's best

Take a non-ideal situation and

make everyone jealous because you look so freaking cool.

My life would suck without you!

CANADA! so far in january 2010 I have been to three countries. Thailand, US. and Canada! YAY! ok, so it's not that big of deal, but this year I'm gunna see if I can hit a personal record! I'm really wanting to go to Hatti this summer, but we'll see... hmm...

So anyway, total good times with my Annetty spaghetti!

It's someone's birthday today! YAY! who's I'm not exactly sure, but i can hear them signing through the walls, lol. Sound travels well through cinder block apparently.

So yea, once again I should be writing an assignment and I could be up till almost 2 getting it done. Psh, life, life, life.

I'm sitting here wondering if I have taken on to much this semester. Then I realized that as long as I stay on top of things and don't go to bed @ 2 -- I should be fine.

Went to canada this weekend to visit annetty!! love her! Miss her. Basically, my life would suck without here.

ok, ok, ok I'm starting my homework.

la de da -- I love you! (yeah I know you feel generalized, but since there are like 2 or 3 people that actually follow this blog -- it's really still speical, and true!! whoo hoo. )

God is amazing,

Life is amazing,

My homework assignment is dumb

DId you know!

Did you know that I.H.O.P. ( not the pancake house hehe) has prayer rooms 24/7 with praise and worship constantly being played?! AND you can tune in @ IHOP.org??

I just realized that yesterday and have been listening on and off all day!

Check it out

Kids Club!

Yesterday was awesome! so much happened oh my word! I felt like I lived two days by the time I went to bed. I had classes all morning which makes time go Super duper slow anyway, but then I left with some girls from my building to do Kid's Club @ Restoration Ministries.

Talk about a great time! The kids were so full of life and energy I just could barely stand how cute they were! We helped them with their home work and drew picture, then we went to the gym and they played tackle rachel, lol.

One of the boys fully kneed me in the stomach -- whew, took me a few seconds to recover from that one! Good thing I was prepared by my ultimate beatings in Thailand (not by the goverment, mostly by New Zealanders)

Lol, here are some pictures of our fun afternoon!

Just being lazy

Not much going on today, Just sitting here enjoying a Cinnamon roll and some juice watching "August Rush" and wondering what to do with the rest of this lazy Saturday.

I have a stack of homework as usual so I figure I should chip away at that for awhile, maybe grab some coffee, call my sister.... whatever tickles my fancy at the moment :-)

Annie on broadway was so good on wed! The girl that played molly ( one of the orphan girls) was phenomenal! I guess that she's in some commercials and an episode of CSI Miani. i want to google her because I think she's so awesome! She started performing when she was four. Her name's Mackenzie Aladiem

Anyway, I think I'm going to go take a shower, clean up this place a bit and get some reading done.

<3

Back to the books

It's Wednesday and I'm sitting in my living room staring at my computer knowing that I will spend hours and hours in this exact position for the next 3 months. YES!

I'm actually waiting to leave for the city to see Annie!!! I'm so excited :-)

Then, tomorrow, I start classes.

"Good Morning Rachel DeBoer, This is America!"

I'm back! Yes, it's officially official. I've slept in my own bed twice, took two showers, went to Starbucks and ate at Harold's chicken. How much more official can you be?

So since I've been home it's been adventure after adventure! (not really but sometimes if you word it right you can make ordinary experience sound really exciting)

My plan landed @ 5 a.m. Chicago time and I was picked up by my lovely sister and Father and after a breakfast stop I got home around 7... woo hoo! It was so good to be home! It was especially good to find that I had a new (to me) car waiting for me in the garage! yeah!

My plan was to stay up all day so that I could kick my jet lag right in the booty and start off with a bang! I did good till about 3:30 ( i had been up for about 42 hours at that point) I unpacked, gave my fam their gifts, played the guitar, went to target and starbucks, at lunch, ya know, things to try and distract.

Well, all good things come to an end and once I fell asleep it was all on! I slept till 5 when my niece came into my room to say hello. It took me 5 mintues to realize that I was at home and that she was not a figment of my imagination. then at like 6 my brother decided to write loser on my face. ( I woke up ready for a fight!) I at some din. and then decided to take a bath. I woke up to heather pounding on my bathroom door -- I had fallen asleep in the tub. Then I barely made it from the bathroom to my bed and konked out again. I finally woke up for real @ 7:30 a.m ish. ( hehe, I just realized that a.m. ish, spells Amish...) Whew... I don't think I've ever slept that long.

on the flip side, it's 7 am and I've been awake for 3.5 hours already. Watched a movie, took a shower and got ready for the day, looked at all the pictures that I could find on facebook, and now I'm writing a rediculously long post about nothing that anybody is interested in reading. but it fills my time so I will continue to write shamelessly.

This week I have a good amount of things to do including going to see annie down town! woo hoo, so excited, I love plays. I'll hopfully post some pics or somthing up for Thailand soon. I have to wait for them to come in the mail though, or some peeps to put them on facebook... la de da, can't they hurry!!!

anyway, untill next time my faithful readers

Ps. Watch cloudy with a change of meatballs :-)

Taipei!

So I just wrote a big long post and the computer ate it. I'm in an airport and it's supper frusterating because the computer keeps changing to manderin.... oh well, I'll write later.

Can't wait to sleep in my own bed and eat a mean not involving rice.

Found my draft!

Well, I'm currently in Taipei, Taiwan sitting in the airport enjoying free internet access... and a free meal pass since my flights were rearranged. My Thailand experience is offically over and after a touching goodbye I have begun my jounrey headed back to the world of ice and snow.

The last few days we just sort of hung around Chaing Mai, Shopping, eating and watching movies. Avatar was showing in the theater in 3D so we took advantange and went to see it. Great movie! I really liked it.

Anyway, yeah so last night we went to some missionaries house for dinner and oh it was so great to bite into a lasagna! I am all riced out that's for sure! I don't think I will look at another asian meal for months!

We had a great time just talking with the family and playing with their kids and just chilling. After we got back (like 10:30 pm or so ) I thought I'd check my ticket to see when I flew out and realized I left a day earlier than I thought! So last night I quick packed and tried to get everything done and headed to the airport this morning.

The team was great and got up at 8 to see me off at the airport. After emotioally scaring every person in the terminal, they all left I boarded the plan.

I hate that feeling of saying goodbye to great friends... but I loved the time I got to spend with them and man, what a month!

I'm not quite ready to start school and get back to regular life yet, but I have a 15 hour flight to sleep so I might be ready to take on my world when that's through.

My camera bit the dust on the flight over here, so I'm gunna have to wait to collect the teams pictures before I post any, but they are to come!

Can't wait to tell about all my sweet times in person and show pictures!

SNAILS!!

So it appears that Mai Chem is infested with snails.. I find them everywhere, in my clothes, in the dirt, on my sleeping bag, and well, yeah I guess their not everywhere, butI never thought I'd roll over in my bed and crush a snail. Oh the experiences....

These last few days we've been working at a local youth hostil doing some good ol' manual labor. It's been fun and pretty lax... most of the time. We've been digging trenches and poring concrete and landscaping and those kinds of things. It's run by kiwis (I'm completely surrounded!) and thus we enjoy the privilege of morning tea -- I totally think we should adopt that tradition in the u.s.

dispite the relaxed pace I still have blisters on my hands and a huge splinter in my arm that is too deep to dig out and is a little festery. I prayed for it last night though and woke up with alot less pain. Chocolate helps too. And the fact that we have a pool @ the place we're staying. I love thailand.

At night we've been going to meetings of a couple differnt hostils, the one that we're working at and another one about 15 minutes down the road.

Those meetings have been amazing! The kids are amazing and on fire for God. Last night we split up into to groups, ya know, divide and conqure, lol. us girls ( & benji) went to one hostile and the boyz went to another.

Bianca sang some songs she wrote and I talked on prayer, then we broke up into groups and had the kids pray over each other and we encouraged them to use the gifts of the spirit. The missionaries that run the hostil are just great, spirit filled, sweet people (they are americans, what can I say :-) It was an amazing night of prayer and worship and God showed up in exceptional ways! The night before this was just as good, the interpreter was finding it hard to interpret because she was holding back tears. We prayed over the kids, and a couple of them were healed, as well as just enveloped in God's love..

I felt so on fire and totally pumped up after that experience! It was definately a highlight for me. We're going back there on Saturday to go to some unreached villiages with them, and then on sunday morning we're teaching sunday school and things like that. I just love those kids! they are so precious!

The current tally is over 80 people healed, and over 400 saved... wow! God is amazing

God's power is flowing hard core! But there is always more. Press in for the good stuff! The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure, like a pearl... seek it out, want it, thirst for it, don't settle for less in your life!

Mai Chem

Well... I'm in Mai Chem now, we just came from a pastors house in the outskirts of the town of Mai Chem and now we are staying at a "Hotel" (the word is used very lightly). We're going to be doing some service projects and manual labor things here.

It's been a very adventurous, and lazy last week, just sort of taking in all the sites and sounds aroud us. We traveled to this mountain villiage on the back of a toyota pickup truck with 11 people + a drvier + all our luggage... it was definately an experience. At first I was just slightly terrified at the though of almost dieing, but now, it doesn't seem to bother me as much, lol :-)

After we arrived we played with the kids in the village and then drove even farther up into the mountains to pray over and bless a couple that had just got married. They were 17, and seemed so much younger than that. They were extremely shy and as it's not socially acceptable to touch the opposite sex in public they didn't touch each other but just looked at one another and blushed the whole time. It was kinda cute.

Once we prayed for them, sang some songs, and all that sort of stuff we ate a very interesting meal which included stomach juices from a cow... yum! Other interetsing things that have found their way into our food is clumps of coagulated blood and oh I don't even know... lots of other things.

The scenory is absolutely breath takeing here, we drove up to some waterfalls yesterday and swam around. the water was quite shocking! It's been awhile since I've been in such cold water!

The accomodations have been quite interesting and I got a shock a couple of times when I moved a cup and a cockroach scurried out from under it. or when I felt something bitting my feet to find I'm stepping in a pile of ants, or when some one moved their bag to find a spider as big as a fist hidding under it.

The other morning I woke up to a light massage on my back, I was wondering what the heck was softly walking all over my back. At first I thought it was a friend being stupid and then realized that if it was a person they would have smacked me, then I thought of the possibility of a cat, and realized that our hosts didn't have a cat. Out of options i opened my eyes to find a chicken staring me in the face. I screamed partially out of shock, and partially to tell the thing to get the heck out of my bed! Appartently the chicken was just as surprised as I was and went crazy. Stupid chickens! they drive me crazy.

Now I am sitting at this internet cafe, listening to Michael buble' having just finshed a breakfast of a local market pastry (not near as good as it may sound) and a cup of coffee from a local 7/11. It's a rest day, which really isnt' needed since i've slept like 12 hours ever night this week. But I'll take it anyway.

I can't believe that we only have 10 days left of the trip. Time has just flown by! I have been totally amazed how God has showed up with power and might, healing and saving and delivering! I prayed for a lady the other day who had a miscarriage awhile ago, and from what I could tell, she had developed an infection and was in lots of pain. I prayed for her for 30 minutes and kept asking if she felt any better. Finally, after a while had past tears started falling down her cheeks. I stoped praying to see what was happening, she looked up at me with her big brown eyes and smiled, all the pain was gone. She was touched by God that night and a I pray to God that she will never forget how much he loves and cares about her.

No matter what may be happening in our lives, God is always and forever by our side. He cares so deeply for each and every one of these dear Thai people and wants them all to know his love and to experience his power in their lives.

I know that the next 10 days will be even more full of miracles and God's supernatural power.
Miss you all and hope you have such a great New Years!