Vacation is here!

I suppose it's time for a pretty detailed update, as I've been lagging on a lot of college information. I'm officially on break. My dad and I are spending the night in a hotel, and we'll leave tomorrow morning to head back to Wisconsin. I must admit, I'm excited to be going home. This last week has been very VERY long. I had three exams--one Monday, one Tuesday, and one this morning. Monday's was easy enough, and this morning's was an essay exam (which I love to have), but yesterday's was a pain. Biology, as much as I love science, was painful! The exam was multiple choice (which wasn't too bad) but the short-answer questions required a lot of detail. It never seems to matter how much I've studied for biology, it's always really tough. This morning's exam was Philosophy...it was actually pretty fun. Just a lot of questions about worldviews and whatnot.

Aside from the constant studying that has entirely overwhelmed my life for the last week, I've had an amazing time at school. This semester, although it has gone quickly, was a truly wonderful experience. It's been great to try out my independence, and it's been wonderful to meet so many new people. I understand more and more why they say that college is the best time of your life.

But, for now, it's farewell to Cornerstone for the next 38 days. :c)

Until Next Time!!

Why yes, I am avoiding homework!!

Hey everyone!!

So, this weekend was really great! I went over to Calvin and saw a soccer game and the movie Up...then on Sunday John, his grandmother, and I went to church, and as soon as the service was over, we took off to go to Warsaw. John's 12-year-old brother, Ben, was Amahl in Amahl and the night visitors, which is, essentially, a 45-minute opera. He sang all these insanely high notes, and did an AMAZING job. Before we went to the opera, though, we had dinner with his family and helped decorate for Christmas (in other words, Mrs. Meulink and I--who are both under 5'5"--put the lights on the 10 foot tree and decorated other little things around the house), it was REALLY fun. After the opera we sat around and visited and then watched the Vikings play the Cardinals. Who is pumped for a Viking loss??? I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:cD

Anyway, I figure I won't be updating for the next week and a half or so...this week is going to be project filled, and next week is final exam week (EWWWWWWWW!). However, next Wednesday at 9:45 AM I will officially be done with my finals, and by noon on Thursday, I will be headed home--Dad is coming to get John and I for an entire week...it should be an amazing time!!!

Until Next Time!!

Sorry it's been so long!!

Happy HAPPY Friday!!!!!!! Just one more friday after today, and then Final exams. I'm not going to lie, it will be a relief to be done with this semester. It's been long and tedious, so far. And ha! I'm only 1/8 of the way through my college career. How encouraging. *sigh*

Anyway, today is a good day. Why, you may ask? Because there's snow on the ground!!! Not just a little bit of snow. There was a good two inches when I first got up, four inches after my first class, and now it's probably close to 6 inches. They're saying that by tonight we'll have 6-15 inches. I just love snow. I can't tell you how much. Well...actually I can. and I'm going to.

This is my reasoning behind snow, and this is why I've loved it ever since I was a little kid, but my understanding of it all has deepened.

So, you've all heard the saying "white as snow". Jesus has washed us all white as snow. So, naturally, I see snow and think "Jesus washed me as white as snow"! But, like I said, my understanding of this has deepened. Let me give you a little background Christian preaching for a second. My pastor has preached in the past that God's love is so overwhelming that it pours into us, and then overflows into other people. So, let me give you a little analogy.

Imagine yourself to be a cloud--good old water vapor, dust, and cold air. You're a dirty, nasty little cloud. All of the sudden, the water below you starts evaporating up. It's so cold where you are that it gets inside of you and freezes. Then, it begins to fall to the earth. All of the sudden, you notice that your normal gray color is beginning to diminish. In fact, you're starting to almost turn a brilliant shade of white. You're shocked at what the evaporating water has done to you. All of the sudden, you look below you and see the ugly ugly earth that is normally there. It's often polluted, dirty, and messed up. But when you look down this time, you notice something strange. It, too, is turning white. You're shocked. The evaporated water used you to create purity below. How incredible!!

And that's just how it is when Jesus comes into our lives. He soaks up all of our grime and gunk, and turns it into something pure. He takes our flaws and lets us use them to minister to other people. The ex-convict who has become a pastor can go into the jails and directly relate. The father who had an illegitimate child can teach his children with his experiences to back it up.

It's incredible what Jesus does when He comes in.

Until Next Time!!!

p.s. enjoy the snow while it's here...I'll post some pictures of campus later. :c)

Pranking Begins!

Well, the pranking has finally begun for the year. It's been really interesting so far. It started last Thursday when I came back to my room to find post-its and pictures all over the walls, along with twine all the way across my bed so that I couldn't get into it.

Then, earlier today Lauren went into Tess' room and hid all of her food in various places around the room.

So, when Lauren went up to Tess' room this evening, I took a ball of yarn and strung it all the way across her room. Then I took toilet paper and threw the toilet paper across the yarn. again. and again.

and again.

Oh college. :c)

Just Another Weekend!

Hey everyone!

So, it's Friday night on campus again. A friend from Wisconsin got here about an hour ago, and we're now sitting in the corum (the social "place to be") on campus, getting ready to watch a Sr. Guitar Recital. Aka a rock concert. It should be preeeeetty awesome. I love that right before the concert starts, they open in a word of prayer. That's the way things should be! :c)

Anyway, this week wasn't as bad as I thought it would be academically, but spiritually and emotionally it was very trying. I finished the 66-day challenge this evening--reading those last chapters of Revelation was much what I imagine running across a finish line for a marathon would feel like. It was really hard to stay reading 36 pages of my Bible every night--doesn't seem like that should be difficult, especially not for an English Major, but it was REALLY hard. Somehow, though, God brought my through.

I won't get into why this week was trying emotionally. It just was. Things happen, and God holds everything together in the end. Sometimes we just have to let Him guide us as we wander blindly through life. In fact, that's probably the way it should be...us being led blindly through everything.

This weekend I have a LOT of plans. Tomorrow I'm going to the mall with John and Tyler--we're going to people watch and just chill together. Then we'll come back to the high school and go see an art show in the library. After that I'll make dinner for them and my friend Lauren, and we'll go see a Midsummer Night's Dream. Then maybe we'll come back to my dorm and watch movies, or something. It should be a good time. :c)

Sunday will be a lot of "chill" time and homework, then around 9 will be Evensong (which is the all-music worship service on campus. I love it!!). Then classes start again--another week of exams, papers, and speeches. But hey, the week after that is only 2 days long, and then I'll be back in Indiana for Thanksgiving. THAT will be nice!!!! To top it off, after Thanksgiving, there will only be 3 more weeks of classes until I get home...and technically it will only be two more weeks, because that last week will be final exams. Awesome stuff!!!

Alright, that's about it for now!!

Until Next Time!!

<3

Hellloooo!

Well, this week is going to be AWFUL, so I thought I'd post on my most relaxed day of the week.

This weekend, I went to Chicago with my friends Rebekah and Hope--it was pretty much the best thing ever. We stayed up late, laughed a lot, ate AMAZING Greek food (because we stayed with Hope's family, and they are very Greek), and, most importantly, we were away from school and thus all of our stress dissipated. It was just a really relaxing God-filled weekend. I guess we didn't really do anything specifically fun--it was just overall wonderful.

But, getting back to campus was a little tough. I mean, I loooooooooooooove it here so much, but I know how hard this week is going to be. I have to start working on a ten page paper for bio, work on a paper about the morality of war with a focus on the laws of war based on a movie entitled "The Fog of War" and with 10 supporting sources (oi!), and I have an exam in Biology and an exam in Philosophy. To top things off, I have to give a speech in about an hour.

Ohhhhh college.

But, if I've learned anything at CU, I've learned that if I buckle down and trust in God, He'll ultimately carry me through. Duh, I have to work on it, but He'll give me the strength to do so.

Finally, I read most of the Corinthians last night, and I'd encourage all of you to read them...they're really upsetting to me in some ways, because Paul is very opposing to a lot of the ideas that have been instilled in me (namely my feminism vs. his view of women not being able to speak out in churches), and it's really hard for me to analyze what's wrong and right. But I'm sure, after time has passed, I'll come to terms with it all. :c)

God is good.

Until Next Time!

Paul, Silas, Joy

So, if I haven't mentioned this previously, on September 9th I took up a challenge presented by one of the leaders of Spiritual Formation at our school. This challenge was to read the Bible in a mere 66 days. If everything goes according to plan, I will have completed this task next Friday. How does this pertain to tonight's entry? Well, tonight, I was reading Acts 16. It's a story I'm sure you're very familiar with--Paul and Silas get thrown in prison; they praise God; there's an earthquake but they don't run away; the jailer becomes saved; everything's good.

But that's not all there is. Let's review the days of Paul and Silas leading up to prison, okay? So, we start out hearing that there's a slave girl who has a spirit inside of her that enables her to predict the future. This girl follows Paul and Silas around, shouting, "These men are servants of the Most HIgh God, who are telling you the way to be saved". Not only that, but Acts 16: 18 says "She kept this up for many days".

Wow.

She's following them around for DAYS, yelling. I'm going to be frank for a moment: I'm the kind of person who gets annoyed when someone is yelling for a few minutes. Paul and Silas put up with this for days!! But Acts goes on to say "Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!" At that moment the spirit left her". There's power for you.

Alright, back on track. So. Paul and Silas probably have headaches, because this chick has been following them around, yelling for days. But THEN the owners of this slave girl realize that now their source of income (oh yeah, they used her "demonic" prophetic skills to make money) has been destroyed. The owners decide they're going to drag Paul and Silas to the authorities for a trial. Then, because they're in a marketplace, the CROWD decides Paul and Silas are jerks, and they "joined in the attack against [them], and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten"!!!

Quick review: Yelling girl, casting out of demon, trial, attacked by crowd, and now flogged.

After all this the jailer throws them in the prison and fastens their feet in stocks. This means they're literally sitting on the floor with their feet stuck in these wooden holes (for picture, google "Paul and Silas stocks" under Google Images). My Bible has a note that says, "used not only for extra security but also for torture".

Yeah, so, at this point, I probably would have just laid down on my back, cried a bit, and gone to sleep. Oh no. Not these two. It says, "about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God". Midnight. They were probably thrown into prison hours and HOURS before midnight. Remember, they'd also been flogged. And they were praying. and singing hymns. Not only THAT, but the other prisoners were listening. Now, these two were in the inner cell singing. The other prisoners could hear them. This means they were singing fairly loud.

Okay, Ash, we get it, this sucked. A lot. So what's your point?

Here's my point: It sucked. ANd they were singing. They were joyful, and happy, even when they didn't sense God. So what if they weren't overwhelmed with His presence? So what if everyone around them was cranky with them? They were joyful. They were still SEARCHING for Him. It's not as if this was a once in a while occurrence, either. There are multiple stories of them being in awful situations and still rejoicing in God.

Now, granted, Paul and Silas aren't perfect. But I found myself envious of their faith and trust in God tonight. When I get cranky, I don't feel like talking to God. So, generally, I don't talk to Him, and if I do magically talk to God, it's not praising Him. I guess, what it comes down to is that as tough as it is, we need to be joyful as much as we can. To top it off, when we're in a tough spot, we need to let others now. Paul and Silas had each other--we need to realize that other people around us are there for us and possibly even going through the same thing.

Anyway...enough from me :c)

Until Next Time!!