Its been a while since I have been on here...where to start? I finished the fall semester of sophomore year on Friday. It seriously just about killed me! Never again will I take so many units. Though...I did say the same exact thing last year....maybe writing it here will hold me accountable.  Another great accomplishment: I celebrated my 20th birthday this month! The joy I felt at leaving teenagerdom far behind was immediately eclipsed by the relization that I'm twenty years old and really have no idea what I'm doing with my life. There is hope however...a speaker I heard recently reminded me that God's purpose for my life is that I glorify Him, and it is His will that I pursue that end relentlessly. If all I am really 'doing' is seeking his will in my life day after day, that is exactly what I should be doing. So I'm caught between the mystery and wonder of constantly learning more about God's nature and his will, and yet relizing that I will never completely know these things either. But it will take a lifetime and more to truely know and understand the things He has made known!

For now, I am on a six-week break from school. Only yesterday did I relize that Christmas day is in little more than a week, and then the New Year, and then? Then, I am going on an interim class/field trip to Baja. I get three units of biology credit and get to spend 2 1/2 weeks camping, hiking, tidepooling, flower watching, sleeping under the stars, and just experiencing the exciting new environment of a place I've never been before! Adventures are almost certainly going to abound.  I've never been quite so cut off from communication with civilization before...I know that at our base 'field station' which is in a small town, there are exactly two phone numbers in the entire village- emergency only. It will probably be hard not to be in contact with the ones I love, but I'm kind of looking forward to the emotional/mental testing that I will have to deal with.

Time flies! It will be interesting to see what the coming year holds, and if I will ever return to post again.

Love Song for a Savior

In open fields of wild flowers
She breathes the air flies away
She thanks her Jesus for the daisies and the roses
In no simple language
Someday she'll understand the meaning of it all

He's more than the laughter
Or the stars in the heavens
As close as a heartbeat
Or a song on her lips
Someday she'll trust him
And learn how to see him
Someday he'll call her
And she will come running
Fall in his arms, the tears will fall down
And she'll pray

I want to fall in love with you

Sitting silent wearing sunday best
The sermon echoes through the walls
A great salvation through it
Goes to the people who stare into nowhere
Can't feel the chains on their souls

He's more than the laughter
Or the stars in the heavens
As close as a heartbeat
Or a song on her lips
Someday we'll trust him
And learn how to see him
Someday he'll call us
And we will come running
Fall in his arms
The tears will fall down and we'll pray

I want to fall in love with you

Seems to easy to call you savior
Not close enough to call you a god
So as I sit and think of
Words I can mention to show my devotion

I want to fall in love with you

I have a paper to write and reading I need to catch up on this afternoon, so this is a perfect opportunity to update here, don't you think?

So today chapel got out a little early (...it was the weirdest message ever about Valentine's day and how we should 'settle' because everyone is in fact a blue plate special in one way or another...it wasn't the most encouraging message ever and I was glad to have it over quickly...) so I decided to stop and get a frappachino since I didn't really have breakfast. It took forever to get my coffee, and by the time I left I had three minutes left to get to Rose Hall for English. I stepped in the door just as the proff was taking attendance and sat down in the front row because all the other seats were taken. Got out my books...put the coffee on the desk and made a mental note not to knock it down. Mrs. Joshua began with saying we should be sure to take careful notes this class to prepare for our paper...at this point I bent down to dig a pencil out of my backpack. As I looked up, my frappachino seemed to hang in mid air just in front of my desk for a terrible moment before exploding on the floor. It covered the floor in front of Mrs. Joshua's feet in a six foot splatter and the entire class looked at me in wide-eyed shock before exploding in giggles. I would have been embarrased but I was laughing too hard...the guy sitting one desk over ran up the stairs with me to grab some paper towels. In the end, the mess looked worse than it really was...

I suppose everyone has to do something clutzy and embarrasing from time to time...this semester, I think I've been doing double duty.

I'm home again, and it has been amazing.

I don't think you can appreciate fully the things you have have until you go away. I've never experienced anything else as sweet as coming home to find these blessings from God, here, just waiting for me. I've always had them...the people I love, a place to belong, the ability to spend a whole day without feeling lonely...but I think sometimes I kind of forgot. God is so good...always.

This has been the best Christmas gift ever.

All you who fear to go beyond the doors of the Alpha Lobby have been saved from a terrible sight.... 

Girls
+
cookies
+
ice cream
=

THE ALPHA TROUGH