Monday, November 24, 2008

God is amazing!

I have been even busier than normal these past couple weeks, as my post last night stated. School and work always keep me at a normal busy, but adding the evangelistic series four nights a week at our church, plus playing for the high school and elementary school Christmas programs, I am a bit overloaded. But God is good and I know He will give me the strength to get through. I don't think I mentioned it in an earlier post, but I was asked to play again for the local high school, for their holiday programs, as previously stated. This will be another $350 for whatever God decides to use it for. I am a bit swamped with how much music there is this time, though. There is a huge stack for both the elementary and the high school programs. 

On a different note, God has been working amazing miracles with the evangelistic series. There has been a steady, consistent group that has been attending these past four weeks, and several of them have expressed their desire to be baptized. Most of them have also been coming to church on Sabbath the past two weeks. I am continually amazed by how God is breaking down barriers and really creating a hunger in people to know the truth in God's word. It has been a privilege to get to know these people and discover how precious each one is. I am only now beginning to understand what a blessing God has given us by allowing us to be used in His work to reach people. The more I experience and take part in it, the more I love it. One thing I have discovered is this work is not as scary as I always thought it was. It is actually really fun to be able to talk to people and get to know them. The devil sure does know how to keep us from the blessings of God though, doesn't he? But thank the Lord He is bigger!

Well, I guess that about wraps it up. Hope all of you are doing well, and if I don't talk to you before, Happy Thanksgiving!

Anyways, 

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Blogging will return soon...

My poor faithful blog reader! I have been so slow on posting. The truth is that I have been flat out doing a million things in the past couple weeks, and there is really no hope of things slowing down until after the holidays, but there is SOOOO much to tell, really good things too! So I will do my best to set aside some time to update you all on what has been unfolding here in the past couple weeks as well as what is up in the future of the next few weeks. Until I get a chance, my warmest wishes to you all! Take care!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Survival Skills

Well everyone, I have made it through the first hectic week of my third term. Classes started last Wednesday: Anatomy and Physiology II and College Mathematics (officially the easiest math class in history). So far so good, but the week sure did keep me busy. Between adjusting to new classes, attending the seminar meetings at our church, being substitute teacher for Primary Sabbath School on Sabbath, and playing for the Federated Church Sunday morning, I was more than a little exhausted by the end of Sunday. God is getting me through, though. I was able to catch up with a good friend last night by chatting in gmail. Our talk lasted much longer than I expected, cause it was near midnight when I rolled into bed. But God is good, and I woke up without much trouble this morning, and was back up to normal par energy level after a good workout. 

Oh, for those big breakfast eaters out there, you may have already tried this, but I combined some concoctions that made a delicious meal: Lightly toasted whole wheat bread bread with natural peanut butter on it, Pour homemade apple sauce on top. Then top with slices of bananas..... Mmmmmm mmmmmm good!

Ok, well I guess that about covers it for now. Hope you all have a good week!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

First Snow!

So the first big time snow of the year is here! Ok, so there was a morning of snow about a week or two ago, but it didn't stick. This time, it is, and we are supposed to get 1-4 inches! Hurray!!! Not only that, but as of tomorrow night I will be officially done with school....for a whole week! Ha ha. Year round school is not for everyone, but it works well for me, and when I am having issues with it, God gives me the strength to get through. I was even able to listen to a seminar on what I can do with my degree in Nutrition. I asked the teacher some questions I had on accreditation and certification, and am awaiting a response. Mostly, the responsibility is still on me in the sense that I really need to look up people in my area that are already working with Nutrition. I was even given a name of a lady who is...and I have been lazy. Time to kick it up a gear, now that I finally have the time and momentum. ; ) Busy life. Always. 

Tonight was also special because it was the first night of performance for the play I have been accompanying. The kids did great! I think the director was even surprised by how good they did. As for me, mistakes popped up in various places, but God's grace smoothed them out and made it come together better than ever before! Praise God! After all, the pay from this is for Him anyway. ; )

Well, I hope this will be one of several posts this week since I will have plenty of time without school cracking the whip. ; ) For now friends, goodnight, and happy beginning of winter!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Myspace no more

As some of you may already have discovered, at least those of you who made friends with me on myspace, I have deleted my account. Truth be told, I originally started it because I just couldn't deal with Adam and all my friends having one, and me not. I enjoyed it immensely. In fact, many a time I found myself up late at night spying out old friends, or friends of friends I hadn't seen in years. It was highly entertaining, but not in the healthiest sense. Although I was able to contact people I would not be able to otherwise, I found myself being tempted by it more often. Towards the end, I didn't even log in that much, but I just realized that there are so many more important things in life that I was missing out on, like spending time with real people. There were definitely times when school got pushed on to the back shelf, so that needs to improve as well. Also, I realized that myspace made it all to easy for me to judge people based on what little was displayed of their life on their pages. Since this is a character flaw God is still working out in me, I don't want to encourage it. 

SO, my time will once again be devoted more to my blog and the physical people in my life (Yay for those of you who only read my blog and have been missing my inputs! ; ) ). For now, I am heading to bed, but just to let you all know, I finally finished my last test in my health care class and I passed! HURRAY!!!! That means that starting this Wednesday I have a week off from school. More time for updates! 
Farewell my friends,
God Bless!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

An Important Mission

So I have been bad about updating lately. Life has been even busier than normal, and God is the only one keeping me above the water. He did hear my prayer, because I was able to sleep for an extra hour and half this weekend! Whaa hoo!!! After three weeks of late nights and early mornings, I was on my last thread. But He knew that too, and gave me a little extra rest. 

School is now winding down since it is week 8 of 10. Or I guess I should say it is winding up. I am trying to get ahead this week since two final projects are due at the end of it. Then, next week there are two comprehensive exams....fun stuff. God will get me through it I know. 

As for more important matters of life, I have been asking God how I can serve Him here, on and off all summer. After watching an eye-opening sermon my David Gates, I believe with all my heart that we are living in the last days. Just take a look around you. The world economies are struggling, the world is endlessly becoming wicked, and just last week the people in wallstreet were seen praying before the opening of the market. It is only a matter of time before people turn their minds from the economic turmoil to the fact that "How have we sinned against God to bring about this calamity?" When this becomes a reality, I pray that all of us may be closer than ever to Jesus. The times that are quickly coming upon us are not for the light-hearted. The time is coming when it will be too late to be lukewarm. God is telling his people to "Wake up! Wake up! I don't want to lost you, but if you stay lukewarm, I will." This is where I found myself. Deep amidst the sin of contentment with the way things are. I had no desire for souls, and I certainly didn't want to make things harder for myself. But God knew this would be detrimental to me spiritually. I realized that if I thought my "ok" spiritual life was going to cut it in the time of trouble, I was dead wrong. Did I really think that my, well I guess I should give a little extra money for offering since it is the right thing to do---then hoard the rest of it for myself, attitude was going to bring me into the kingdom? No way! So that is where God started. I realized I am way too stingy with my money, and that why shouldn't I be giving all of the extra I have since it may not be worth anything in a few more months anyway. News flash people, the U.S. economy is NOT doing well. You can try to convince yourself it is all you want, but read chapter 18 of revelation, and you will see what is soon to come upon us. So, I surrendered to God. I told Him I would give much more of my own funds as well as any extra money that came from things other than working with Dad. Right then He opened up an opportunity to play for a Sunday church in town, a pay of $100. Next he decided to have me accompany a play for the local public school, a month stipend of $400! God truly is amazing! This was a test for me, but God has brought me through. Next He had me play for the Episciple church in town, another $100. God truly is turning this into a sort of ministry, all because He asked me to be willing to give. And my desire towards souls, well lets just say I don't consider this "work" so everything now has a spiritual connotation to it. It hit me that, these people's lives are on the line. Time is so short, and I want to give of all my talents for God's glory. I can't wait to see what He has done with the money I give. 

Well, that is about all that is going on now, but it is an important work. I urge all of you to prayerfully study the prophecies concerning end time events that God may lead you to be prepared in these final times. 
God Bless!!!!

Friday, September 26, 2008

A new day!


Well all, I have discovered, not for the first time either, that this blog has been a success! One of several very important people to me has been reading this blog and staying in touch with my life, even though my crazy schedule doesn't always allow me to call. Ok, so that is a poor excuse, I know. I am working on it though. I got in touch with one of my beloved friends on my birthday, so that was wonderful. : ) 

So, I realize that some of my posts have been a bit depressing. God surely has allowed me to see many sorrows in the past couple months, but He always brings me through the rain and wind to see a beautiful meadow with sunshine on the other side. In regards to my last post, God truly allowed me to see a lot of pain last week. It seemed that my character was ever being tried, and alls I could do was run straight into His arms for comfort. I don't know how many times I ended up by my bed crying and praying, but He does. My fish ended up dieing on my birthday, and that was after I was already a little gloomy on my special day. It hurt, but I wasn't about to blame God. I was a little vane though. Yes, I am still childish enough to long for presents on my birthday, and I had concluded that my parents thought I too old for such things. But God looked past my depression, as He always does, and He healed me and sent me a very special friend to talk to on the phone. It made my day! God lifted my eyes up after that and I saw beauty again. 

Later, when we had set up camp in Lake Placid, I was told to sit on the bench in the kitchen of our camper, and I was served a big ice cream cake! (Yes, I bent my vegan convictions a little, and God convicted me about that later as well). I was so excited, and thought that was it, and then my Mom brought out this HUGE bad that said Happy Birthday on it!!!! I was shocked! Inside was the jacket and sweater I had been druling over at L.L. Bean.  : ) Then, to top it all off, my dear Adam surprised me with a new little motorcycle for my Birthday! God is so good! And I have realized that I can really only see so little of what is going on. I really have no reason to complain when things aren't going my way, because God is just using it to work on my character, and He always brings an abundance of blessings afterward. 

Praise God!