Back to the Grind

I apologize for lack of blogging in the past few days but i have been sooooo busy with everything that I just couldn't make time. Perhaps if i did my readings throughout the week and not have to read like 5 chapters in a night before a test i would fair better....one could only guess lol.

So basically not too much new and fabulous goin on with me. Friday I worked, Saturday I worked but then had a work Halloween party at one of the girl's houses. It was good fun...got to catch up with old coworkers who i haven't seen since like last Christmas and just got to cill and relax. Sunday, worked did school work...the usual. OH! I got the books I ordered online on Sunday, I'm soo excited to read them...i'll probably blog about them in the future. I just finished reading Jane Austen's "Persuasion" which is a really good book. I like Jane Austen, however, I find that her books truly put the "ending" in happy endings. Like 260 pages can go by just learning about the characters and knowing that the great romance will happen at the end but seeing only 20 pages left, knowing that you'll just get the short end of it. I guess that's her style, and i do respect it. She was a great author.

Well the main point of this was to talk about a few experiences at that I've already had at Jacob but I'm no longer in the mood so i'll have to do it tomorrow or wednesday lol. Sorry to get your hopes up!

Ugh Midterms

Finally finished the last "official" midterm for the fall semester. My goodness, school is torture. So much reading, so much studying, ick Ick ICK! However, I can relax for a night (well i techically can't but I will anyway). So back to this midterm, 70 multiple choice, 10 matching and 4 "short" answers. I say "short" answers because they're really not short at all, they're practically page long answers, some with multiple paragraphs, and how they're considered short I do not know. I remember those days when short answer questions required short answers; questions where the answers required only 2 sentences, not 30 lol. Thank goodness only 1.5 years until i'm done....then another 4 oh boy. Why didn't I just wanna be a hairdresser??

Luke 22:42

He looked ahead at all that would befall him
He would be betrayed
He would be arrested
He would be denied
He would be found guilty in a mock trial
He would be condemned
He would be beaten
He would be mocked
He would be scorned
He would be ridiculed
He would be flogged
He would be spat on
He would be forsaken
And so he asked,
“Father, if it is possible, please take this cup of suffering from me”
Then he looked beyond the trials to eternity
He saw the criminal who would ask to be remembered
He saw twelve men take the Gospel into the world
He saw spiritual multiplication
He saw millions coming to him in repentance
He saw human lives changed
He saw extreme displays of love and charity
He saw people living by faith
He saw men and women returning to their first love
He saw children proclaiming their love for him
He saw people coming to him with worship
He saw the joy we could only have by knowing him
He saw the gap between creation and Creator bridged
He saw forgiveness of sins
And so he said,
“Nevertheless, not my will, not my desire, but Your will and Your desire, be done”

© October 21, 2006, C. S. L.

Sometimes the very thing we don't want to do, is the very thing that we need to do. Don't let persecution and fear prevent you from doing certain things, look at the eternal perspective and receive your strength from Christ.

Luke 22:43 -- Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. (NLT)

A Time for Laughing, a Time for Weeping...

So far this weekend has been eventful. Not really much else I can say to that. Friday night was more indoor beach volleyball action. It was great, me and a friend joined up with these random other people and ended up winning like 8 games in a row. Talk about Domination! haha jk It was a lot of fun, great times with everyone. Afterwards we wanted some Frosty's and ice cream so we went to a nearby Wendy's before it closed but alas, their Frosty machine was broken. So, me and another friend went to McDonalds cuz we REALLY wanted something ice cream like, but the nearest mcdonalds was CLOSED...even the drive through...we were not impressed let me tell you. Anywayz, we went back to join the others at Tim Hortons and we had some great convos until about 4am then it was time to go home and hit the sack.

Skip to Saturday at about 8:45am and we get the dreaded long distance phone call. My uncle, who had had the stroke a couple weeks ago, had passed away. :( So that was definitely not the best news although it was somewhat expected. I wasn't really sure what to feel; I was mostly shocked because he was always able to recover in previous times so that's how I started my day. Later on I hung out with some cousins and we ended up watchin a couple movies so that was the rest of night.

Fastforward to today and it was my first day back at Jacob. The shift was pretty good. It's great seeing friends from before and working with those fun people again. Now it's time for reading and studying...booo...

Update on Life

Well I haven't really posted since Summit and that was like 2 weeks ago so I figured I should let you all know I'm still here and alive and give you a little update on my life. School's been goin alright, had 2 midterms already, got 88% on one of them (Woot!!) and did the other one yesterday so I won't know that mark for a little while.

Other than that, life's been pretty decent. I went back to Jacob to see if they're re-hire me and they sure did. So I start workin on Sunday, 4 days a week...it'll be tough but we'll see how it all goes in the end. And a lot of the girls I used to work with before are back again so it'll be great. I'm actually kinda excited.

I finally went back to "almost" all night volleyball on Friday. Great times playing volleyball from like 9:45pm until 2am and making new friends with other "regulars" who go often and play with us most games. It's soo cool to have like an indoor beach volleyball area. I had a blast. It's always fun hanging out with friends who LOVE volleyball. Thanks guys! See you there this Friday!

I went to Ottawa for Thanksgiving. It was kind of an impromptu trip but turned out to be bittersweet. I went out to lend support to my aunt and cousin because my uncle got suddenly sick and was in the hospital so that aspect wasn't too great (please pray for him, he's not doing too well) but it was great seeing the family again and my fun "aunt" Deneise who came out from Montreal.

Anywayz, that's about it for now. Oh my sister got her full license so she's driving now...Yikes! haha jk. It's all good. Kinda miss my family but I guess that's just normal...being away from what u've known for 18 years. 2 more months till I'm home again! Until then...i will continue in this space i've made for myself lol.

Less is More

Jesus, I pray
Take all my mistakes
Throw them away
Destroy them for my sake

Jesus, I call out 'cause I'm sorry
Because I fall so short of your glory
To the best of my ability
I'm practicing humility
And I lay myself before
'Cause less is more

All that I have
I lay before
With my pride on the floor
Cause to you less is more
All that I have
I lay before
With my pride on the floor
Cause to you less is more
I pour out myself
All that I am
You love me so much
That you fill me again
And may these words on my heart, on my lips
Somehow mean so much more than this

Jesus, I pray
Know what I'm trying to say

All that I have
I lay before
With my pride on the floor
'Cause to you less is more
All that I have
I lay before
With my pride on the floor
Cause to you less is more
I pour out myself, before you oh Lord
I hold nothing back, 'cause to you less is more
And may these words on my heart on my lips,
Somehow mean so much more than this

Jesus, I pray
Just know what I'm tryin' to say

Jesus, I plead
Please purify me
Make my heart clean
Drench me with your mercy
Jesus, I pray
I love you, I need you
For the rest of my days
I swear I will seek you
To the best of my ability
I'm practicing humility
And I lay myself before
'Cause less is more.

-- Relient K

SUMMIT

I am back from Summit! It was such an amazing time I’m not sure if I’m completely happy being back but I am enjoying a heated house. Why you ask? Well I’ll let you know

Friday:
Basically slept in, washed some clothes and made the 2 hour trek to school (somehow it took a LOT longer than normal) Anywayz, made it to school and all that jazz that has to go on until bus time. Go Bus #2 haha. So yeah, on the bus, met some wicked cool people (I won’t name names because I’ll get myself in trouble) and we got our war paint on for the battle of the campuses that were to happen that night. Let’s just say, Switzerland would be SOO happy to have me in their country, my face was a magnificent Swiss flag (lol York colors are red and white). Me and Andrea, we ‘represent’ Switzerland. And yes, I am away that Canada’s colors are also red and white but our flag is just soo much harder to draw. So yeah, we arrive and register and get our cabins (not winterized OR insulated but we were able to manage) and all that fun stuff and then off to Friday night session where there was some P&W (praise and worship) and the speaker (Alex) came up and told us a bit about his life and what we could expect out of the weekend. Then it was off to the dining lounge for snacks and some healthy (and loud) University Spirit Competitions. I had heard about these…but you NEVER quite know until you experience them. WOW is really the only word I can say. I must say that the skools did a great job. My hearing doctor may not agree (Just kidding!) Afterwards was bedtime, except I got no sleep cuz it was too cold to sleep. BRRR I never thought that temperature could totally keep someone awake until this weekend. I’ve been so hot it was uncomfortable to sleep but never too cold that it was impossible to sleep. Oh well, first time for everything and it was definitely worth it (somewhat)

Saturday
Well today was the only full day at Camp White Pine…started with a 7:30 wake up call for prayer and then breakfast (mmm pancakes and sausage) at 8. Of course, more campus rivalry went on at breakfast; congo lines, soccer cheers, the whole shebang. Great times though. Then we had the first session of the day with more P&W, some cool video clips, and a great talk by Alex on why we are in university, he linked it with Joshua 3 and 4 and it was absolutely incredible (maybe in a next blog or ask if you wanna know). Then we had some quiet time where me and my amazing God had a great time together. I learnt so much in that short 25 mins. Next was a training session on ways we could enhance ourselves and our purpose. Then lunch…mmm, a great combination of hot dogs, pasta, French fries, soup, salad, you name it, they had it (well not quite) but it was great. Then was free time with the Summit Game (we had trivia questions in the morning session and the number you got right determined the number of water balloons gotten) which basically was sling-shotting water balloons into a tarp that the teammates were holding. York didn’t win but it was tons of fun to watch. Afterwards was the T.O. versus everyone else football game with T.O. won. Teeeeeeeee Ooooooooooooo! Dinner, followed by another amazing session where Alex spoke on how offensive sin is to God (that will definitely be in a blog) and then we had some extended P&W time. After that, the Dutch Blitz Showdown began….great times with Dutch Blitz and I was sooo sleep deprived that I got crazy excited and super hyper as always (Camillia knows what I mean) and now everyone else does too! Lol. I definitely crashed that night in bed and slept rather well and with more layers on than the first night.

Sunday
Morning started out at 7:30 again, with some breakfast, a morning session on discipline and what it means to us (Alex truly did amazing this entire weekend and he was SOO funny) then we had campus times where we got together as York (and the other campuses did the same) and discussed what we liked about the weekend, prayed with each other and made up some wicked cool cheers lol. We then went to lunch where we demonstrated, and dominated, our cheers with our own “chug-a chug-a line” haha. Afterwards was packing up and sadly, leaving the great Camp White Pine to head back to Teeee Oooooo where life went back to normal.

All in all GREAT WEEKEND. Totally worth every penny and I’m soo glad I made it. If anyone wants to know more (cuz this was definitely the short version) JUST ASK!