spring break

My last spring break! What better way than to head to Nashville, Tennessee! 40 of us went up to help with flood relief. We got to move supplies to warehouses so they'd be more accessible to the communities that need them, pray for the city, and do some surveying in a neighborhood hit by recent storms. Not to mention non-stop games and fun! Spicy Uno, Nertz, Bananagrams, around-the-world ping pong, Settlers of Catan, Egyptian Rat Slap, and of course Bible trivia--the game where trivial is not trivial--need I say more?!

Plenty of bonding time during the car rides...

a splash of country in downtown Nashville and at the Grand Ole Opry...

...and even some aerobics to warm up for moving lots of

insulation, doors, windows, and mattresses.

the twenty first

This February 28th brought lots of birthday festivities! This year I celebrated with a trip to Wauberg with my mom and sister, dinner with friends + pizzookie afterparty, a roof pow-wow, and an afternoon with my brother! This is shaping up to be a grand year.

enjoying some "hippie mexican" food

a little excursion to the roof!

adventures on the roof

Roommate fun taken to a whole new level!

roll out the red carpet

Second annual Red Carpet Valentine's Day Event! Good food, good friends, and lots of laughs!

netflix

When I'm at school I don't watch very much television, but when I come home the couch is just so comfy and the options are just so abundant! My family is talking about replacing our cable subscription with Netflix, so we have a free one-month trial. Tonight while my mom and sister were out I got to take the new system for a spin. So impressed! I got to watch Babies (a documentary about the first year of life of four babies on different continents), another documentary about the effects of the Chinese one-child policy and a family's journey in adopting two little girls, and an Israeli movie that I had previously seen in my Hebrew class. Maybe a little excessive, but it's not often such cool stuff is available right in my living room without me even leaving the house!

spring conference

Such a great weekend! We heard from Tom Yeakley on walking by faith, prayer, and the promises of God. What a challenge.

Hebrews 6:12

We do not want you to become lazy but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.

How I love these ladies!

a little Scripture memory never hurt anybody!

the whole family together! :)

every language

"...you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9)."

This past summer I spent two months in Mozambique with Wycliffe Bible Translators. During those two months I lived with real-live missionaries and did cool linguistics research I could only dream about in the classroom. I swam in the Indian Ocean, rode in buses with live chickens, saw a well built by Vasco da Gama, and even got to speak Portuguese. I saw God at work in the lives of people halfway across the world and made amazing friendships.

But more than anything, I saw the reality of people living without the Bible in their own language. I saw the need for people who are willing to go. People who are willing to give up plans, comforts and conveniences. People who are willing to obey Jesus' command to go and make disciples of all nations. People who are looking ahead toward the day when people from every nation, tribe, people and language will stand before the throne and sing praises to our Lord.

The Bible is priceless. It is the living and active, infalliable Word of God. It is the sword of the Spirit, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. It is the spiritual milk by which we grow in understanding. This perfect, pure, everlasting, sweet book revives the soul, makes the simple wise, causes the heart to rejoice, enlightens our eyes, and most clearly tells us all about the creator, lover, and savior of our souls.

And there are over 300 million people living without the Bible! How can we not do everything in our power to give this precious book to the people of every language? My air-conditioning, Starbucks, comfort foods, aspirations, and fears seem silly in light of this question. Acts 2:39 says that "the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself." Without a doubt, I want to be part of taking God's promise to those who are far off. How can I not?

hosea 6:3

Let us acknowledge the Lord; .
let us press on to acknowledge Him.
As surely as the sun rises, He will appear;
He will come to us like the winter rains, .
like the spring rains that water the earth.

shocking?

You hear a lot about culture shock and it's counterpart reverse culture shock, but I never expected to have trouble remembering to flush my toilet paper!

This past year has been a whirlwind of cultural experiences for me and now I'm back to "normal." But normal isn't quite so normal anymore!

When I was prepared to expect something different, it was never that shocking. What got me the most were the things that I never even imagined could be different. That's when I realized what is truly ingraned in me by my culture--the things I never even considered could be done more than one way.