It's Friday!

Yay! It's the weekend again! Tonight I'm going to my first Twins game.. so that should be fun :-)

This week I worked... helped out at the after school program at a church Tuesday and Thursday, and taught a class of little kids on Wednesday night at another church! Then on Sunday I'll be going to church elsewhere, and then visiting a youth group at a different church that afternoon.. wow!

Anyway... last night, one of the international students was telling us about a sermon she heard. And I'm sure it's really hard to translate a metaphor into a different language and have it make sense, but she did a great job! It was about how we need to turn on the light for people - when you've been in the dark and someone turns on the light, you squint and don't like it - it hurts! But it is, of course, good. Just like when you see the light of Jesus! I loved that.

So... we've been studying lots of interesting stuff in class, but I need to go get my clothes out of the dryer (I finally had two hours in my day to do laundry!) and then maybe do some actual work... haha.

Being sick stinks...

I'm still sick. I don't feel as rotten as I did on Friday, but this cold majorly stinks. And my roommates are gone, so I have nothing to do!

Time for an evening of online game-playing :-D

At least there's the Bible study tonight - I'm looking forward to that.

I went to Target yesterday to get cold medicine. They wouldn't sell it to me. I had to get my roommate to buy it - they didn't want to sell it to her, either, because she's not 21, but she got disgusted and demanded to know how they expected college students to get medicine. YEAH!

RIDICULOUS. Utterly ridiculous. What is this world coming to?

Let's see... I haven't really been learning anything from the Bible lately. Does that mean I'm just getting lazy? I think my spiritual, God-is-everything-I-need self went on vacation. What's that called again? I forget. Anyway, I'm thinking I should go spend some time with God, as long as I'm all alone. There's a reason for everything, right?

It's late.......

The last few days, I've been waking up at bizarre hours, getting dressed, and leaving my room before I realize it's wayyy too early to get up! The other day it was just after midnight... yeesh!

And I'm beginning to suspect that I have tonsillitis.. I'm gonna call my mom in the morning and see what she thinks. I feel so rotten!

Work is good... today I got to grade a verse quiz the seniors took :-D

And... I straightened a guy's hair. (It was much better curly!)

And I almost slept through supper.

And that was my day. It was not a particularly good one.

Busy busy busy!

I have a life! Wow! And the days are picking up speed... I hardly have time to breath from 6am-3pm most days - and I'm trying to work out volunteering at an after-school program 3 days a week!
I love it, though! I got the job, and it's great. I've been filing and sharpening pencils and sorting mail and doing inputting on the computer... exciting stuff! Lol, just kidding.

Some of my classes just keep getting more and more boring, and some keep getting better and better. I LOVE Youth Ministry, because it's the one that might actually help with whatever career I go into! Now I'm considering going to Northwestern or Bethel for a ministry degree... and as determined as I was to only come here one year, it looks like it might end up being 2!

I'm just not sure - I have kept coming back to social work as the career I want for about 6 years... now I'm starting to wonder again. Figuring out what God wants is hard!
At least I don't have to think about it until January.

Anyway, I got on the computer to do homework, and after an hour.... nothing done. So I'm gonna get to it!

Life is good...

Life is going great! I realized that a big reason I'm not homesick at all is because at home I was stressing out all the time - particularly over leaving for school - and now that I'm at school, I have nothing to worry about at all! This could end up being the best nine months of my life!

And God being God, he's taken care of every little detail :-) I wasn't planning to get a job, since I didn't have a car, but there is a strong possibility I'll be getting to work as an office assistant for a couple of hours every afternoon... I can't express how excited I am!!
My roommate and I are going to start having a game night every other Saturday... and if I do get this job, I can bring food! Which will in turn bring people! LoL.

We are also going to get fish, at some point.

Last night we headed off to a church to check out their Wednesday night activities... and the children's ministry director put us in charge of the 1st-3rd graders! They are so cute, and it's going to be a blast teaching them (I can't figure out how serving God and doing these things you're 'supposed' to do in the body of Christ can be so much FUN!).

The first night we just watched, though, and got to know them. And I am amazed at how much being involved in a children's summer ministry program taught me... I really don't want to go back to it, now that I've realized how strict and extreme the director is, and I was skeptical that those three summers had not really been all that good for me - but watching a middle school teacher try to keep these kids under control (it did not happen!) it suddenly clicked with me how much we were taught, especially with keeping little kids quiet and calm, making stories interesting for them, etc, etc. So I can't wait to try and put this stuff into practice!

We also dyed our hair last night... it was a good time.
The boy who sits next to me in class has a crush on me, and he's driving me nuts! He was ready to dig in my pockets to find my cell phone to play with today... I pulled it out as fast as I could and gave it to him!
I'm trying to figure out how to deal with him... he is just driving me crazy. I'm afraid I might explode by Halloween! :-P
Funnily enough, two years ago, this was the kind of guy I was totally interested in - funny and cute. Now I am just majorly annoyed. I joked to a girl in the same plight as me - with the same boy... - that we "gotta get boyfriends!" but then I realized that's probably not the answer (duh!). It most likely is not a good idea to get in a relationship within a month of starting Bible school!

So now I have to try and keep that mindset, and not be in a hurry. I feel really dumb, because I'm 'doing it again'! I promise God that 'this time' my heart is all His, and I'm going to be totally focused on serving him... and then WHOMP, I meet a few cute guys and my brain goes into "must find future husband!" mode. UGH!

There's one in particular I'm having a hard time not focusing on. Whenever I take a step back, I'm horrified - I haven't said more than a few words to this guy, and I'm reading into every time I make eye contact with him! I'm already getting way too emotionally involved, so I'm trying to figure out if I have to step away completely and avoid him, or if I can just work really hard at getting to know him and not daydreaming and make it work that way.

Aghhh... again, I'm making too big of a deal about this. Time to sit back and let God do things the way they ought to be done!

I'm back!

Hi again! It's been a few days. I started at AFLBS.. and as nervous as I was, I have been FINE. It's so weird! I love it here - I can't imagine being back home. I get along great with my roommates - they know half my life story by now! - and I've met TONS of people! I've gotten to talk - a little bit - to all my distant cousins, too, so I'm glad for that. It's funny how I've known of these people forever and now, almost two decades into my life, I'm finally getting to know them!

But most importantly - I've been learning SO MUCH from the Bible! I've never spent so much time or worked so hard at studying it - I've been spending several hours a day studying it and books about it, because I want to get all my assignments done and relax for the rest of the semester! And all the stories I heard when I was growing up are falling into place... it's amazing, now I finally understand how God brought Abraham to Canaan, and promised it to his descendants - and then did end up bringing the Israelites back there, just like he said he would!

I've also been learning about inductive study... tonight I just finished a book called "How to Study Your Bible" - or something like that - by Kay Arthur. It's GREAT! I went over 2 Peter the way she says to, and it made sooo much more sense - inductive study is about studying the Bible to learn what the author was trying to say, and why God wanted it in the Bible, and not studying it just to get whatever you need out of it.

Anyway... that about sums up my first week here. Maybe pictures later!