four weeks!

I have now been at Glorieta for almost four entire weeks!  I honestly can't believe it's going by so fast.  I am having a blast.  The people here are amazing, and I love my job, even if it's hard a lot of the time.  The international people are still the ones that challenge me the most with their faith.  Even as I write this, a woman from Germany is praying over one of the girls who's having a hard day.  It's such a great thing when people aren't afraid to openly act on their beliefs.

Next week we're having 500 more students come than we've had previously, bringing our numbers up to about 1600.  It's really daunting, but I know God will provide for everything we need--strength, hands to work, grace and kindness, etc.

Tomorrow I have a day off!  I'm going to go do some laundry, maybe take a walk around campus, and hang out with some other people from work who have some time off.  I'm excited. :) Also, my dad is coming home this weekend!

I finished reading "Then Sings My Soul" about a week ago, and I've been working on writing a verse of a hymn to every person on staff here.  There's about 60 of them, so it's taking me awhile, but I'm almost done.  I hope it will be an encouragement to them.

I love this part of a verse in "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" by Horatius Bonar.

I came to Jesus as I was,

Weary and worn and sad;

I found in Him a resting place,

And He has made me glad.

Everyday's Thanksgiving, Part #39

photo credit

I'm thankful for:

0761. almost being done with my first full week of work.  I never worked fulltime at McDonalds, but after tomorrow I'll be done with my first week working fulltime!

0762. getting paid today!

0763. giant dish washing machines that are amazing

0764. getting the weekend off

0765. spending time with new friends

0766. reading a good book while I wash my clothes

0767. getting to know some of the Fuge staff

0768. getting to go to one of the Fuge worship sessions last night.  The music was awesome, and the speaker was pretty good too!

0769. staff worship

0770. covenant groups

0771. kayaking

0772. the "Encouraging Note Wall" here at Glorieta for all the staff.  It's so fun getting notes from everyone!

0773. places with wifi.  I was never thankful for that until there wasn't wifi where I lived.

0774. refrigerators

0775. clocks that chime the hours and every quarter hour

0776. sweaters with zebra prints

0777. Scrabble

0778. all the little kids here

0779. singing happy birthday

0780. comfy couches and chairs

from my point of view...

...this is what I'm seeing right now!  I'm facing a window, and there's a perfect reflection of the Holcomb chapel steeple behind me.

I hope nobody's getting sick of me blogging so much lately; if you are, leave me a comment to let me know, and I'll try to cut back on it!  I just feel like there's a lot of new stuff going on lately that I want to write about, and hopefully someone's interested in hearing about it.

This week I finished up my job training, and on Monday I'm starting full-time, full force!  I'll be working five days straight this next week, 8 hours a day, but that's just for this first week.  After that I'll only ever work four days straight.  My job training ended up well; the only thing is that, since we rotate through chefs, we're getting a new one this next week.  Not only will it be a whole new ballgame feeding thousands of people, rather than a few hundred, but we'll also have a new chef to work with.  It should be a learning experience!

On Tuesday night we had a lake competition where some people raced across the lake in canoes, kayaks, etc.  I didn't have a chance to participate, but it was fun to watch!

James and Shaylyn

Sarge.  I think he was the lifeguard.

This is Moose, aka Kurtis.

There was this huge ball thing that you filled with air and then tried to walk in it.  It looked like a lot of fun!

Kara and Heather

Megan and Danny Ray

Today we did some stuff with the CenterFuge staff by helping them practice their track times, which are their game times.  We able to choose two out of five activities to participate in.  I chose zumba and soccer.  It was a lot of fun!

My dad left for Cameroon yesterday; I can't wait to hear how it goes for him!

Have a great weekend!

seasons like these

Do you ever have those times in your life where you are just overcome by the continual surprising blessings and goodness of God?  It might be a specific day, or it could continue over weeks or months, but it's just one of those times where your eyes are continually opened to His greatness.

That's where I've been over this past week.  As I adjust to being here at Glorieta, living away from my family, God continually surprises me with blessings.  I wrote about how He led me to read the mercy chapter in "Attributes of God" here.

On Monday I was feeling pretty nervous about going back to job training the next day, and was just really having a hard time resting and being at peace in God.  Every morning I read a daily devotional from "Edges of His Ways" by Amy Carmichael, and am always so encouraged by it; it's like it's perfect for every day, no matter what's happening.  Anyway, it was the 4th, so I opened it up to that day and began to read.  Here's the excerpt:

*John 16:33:  That in Me ye might have peace.

   These words have brought peace to me this morning.  Sometimes our circumstances are so peaceful that without knowing it we slip into finding our peace in them.  Then something happens to disturb them and our peace is disturbed.  Sometimes those bout us are so dear that our hearts rest in them, and this is good, but it is not enough, for what if one in whose love we trust should disappoint us?
   Our Lord did not say, "These things [the things of John 16] I have spoken unto you that in your circumstances ye might have peace"; but He did say, "These things"--things of wonder, joy, sorrow, preparation--"I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace."  "Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord;...if they have kept My saying they will keep yours also."  Is there any surprise of grief that our dear Lord has not foreseen?  Is there any wound to love that His love has not suffered?  "These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace."

I was amazed at how perfect the devotional was for what I was feeling, especially since I had just prayed that God would bring me some encouraging word about having peace in Him.  I had a much better day because of this.

The thing I think is the coolest, though, is that yesterday when I came to read in "Edges of His Ways" I realized that it's not May anymore; it's June!  And it was then that I realized that I had actually read the excerpt for May 4 the previous day, rather than the one for June 4.  The one for June 4 was actually about patience, which was also a good devotional, but what I really needed for June 4th was the excerpt on peace from May 4th.  It was just amazing how God worked that out so that, even through a mistake like that, I was given the exact word I needed for the day.

    Now bid me run

And I will strive with things impossible,

Yea, get the better of them.

* excerpt taken from "The Edges of His Ways" by Amy Carmichael, page 89

weekdate #008

Like I said a few posts ago...these probably won't actually be weekly.  But I'm going to try!  We'll see how it goes.

1. Today marks one week of being in Glorieta!  To say it's been kind of overwhelming would be an understatement, but overall this change is good.  Praise God!

2. On Tuesday I started my job training, and did that for three days.  Next Tuesday through Thursday I'll have my final job training before a couple thousand students start arriving. :E

3. Yesterday my family came to visit us!  It was so great to see them.  It was our last time to see our dad before he goes to Cameroon (!!!).  So now we have a car for a few weeks, which is awesome.  Freedom!

4. Also yesterday most of the staff went to the challenge course here at Glorieta.  I went on the giant swing twice, and I actually went all the way to the top!  I've never done that before, and it was terrifying, but it was a lot of fun!  I also went on the zipline, which is always great.

5. Also yesterday, we had a campfire by the lake at night, except there's a ban on fires here, so we just gathered around a stack of wood. :) It was fun though; we sang a bunch of funny songs and danced around to some of them.

6. Today we had "Campus Beautification".  Rachel and I raked leaves for most of the day in the prayer garden, but I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful place to rake leaves at!

7. Tomorrow we have the morning off, so we're going to church in Santa Fe!

8. I started my first education class last week.  It's really fun so far!  The book is called "The Developing Child", so basically throughout the semester I'll just be learning about how kids grow up.  Right now I'm learning about prenatal development, birth, and early infancy.  I've never taken such a fun class!

9. We have to walk everywhere here, so it was kind of scary today to actually drive on the highway.  It felt like we were going so fast!

10. While raking leaves today, I saw more centipedes at once than I've ever seen in my life! Blegh.