sweetness

tonight i ate a serving of pixy stix. In case you don't ave a bag by to look at...that is 7 pixy stix. and i wonder why my paper isn't done..hmmmm.

when being tired feels good

So I just returned from my 5th trip with Amor Ministries yesterday evening! I still remember Craig years ago constantly counting down immediately after finishing a trip until the next one out of his excitement! This trip was not with CBC as I grew accustomed to, but instead my new family of the ASU Navigators. We went on our annual road rally with brothers and sisters from the U of A, our rival school. It was such an amazing trip. God is constantly reminding me of his goodness and providence. After a last minute issue and us needing 3,000 more than originally planned for, God paid the bill. We had an amazing team working on a double house including two of our foreman below! (Drew left and Brian right)The house went fairly smoothly. It was funny to hear the Amor staff talk about "Army tent palace Crossroads" when they heard of the church I traveled to the Juarez location with. Erica and Jose Luis cooked a meal for our entire 60-man crew one day and I got to talk with my Bible study girls among others that i truly cherish. There is only one week left until the much needed break Thanksgiving provides, and i can't wait!

just call me jack

With halloween just out of the picture an illustration came to mind as my dad was talking to me on the phone earlier. he was talking about Chuck Swindoll's radio piece for the day and how God's grace presides over our trials. But there was one thing in particular he said. He said sometimes God has to carve out of us what he wants and uses those he breaks down the most later on.

It was this concept of carving that struck a thought. Carving isn't bad. You have a pumpkin and want to make it a jack-o-lantern...so you cut off the top (or bottom in some cases) and begin to carve out the seeds. You can use the seeds for other things later on, such as, baking them to eat and nourish one's body. And then once all of the seeds are out and you think you are done, there is the excess pumpkin inyards that still have to be removed. So you take the large metal spoona nd scrape the side of the walls, sometimes accidentally taking more of the wall than the goop, and keep going until it is all cleaned out.

(this is our house's pumpkin: Dierks Groban)

I feel like this is the process God is putting me through right now. I've been blindsighted by a few things these past two weeks from my best friend moving to health to not getting into the photo program after the head of the program told me i should be fine.

One thing after another. Seeds removed and then the walls scraped. I don't know what God is trying to teach me, but i'd be happy if he sped up the process a bit! haha.

The cool thing is...once all of the gunk is removed, the masterpiece begins and you carve out a new face to the pumpkin. Letting go of its old identity, the pumpkin has a new face.

On a good note i got an "A" on my Hebrew Bible essay!


Selah.