Incomplete?

Bethany bought this book called Getting Serious about Getting Married. I've always been taught that we are complete with Christ and we neeed no one else to live fully in God's life. This author says that we actually aren't complete on our own. I haven't read much of the book yet, but she uses the Garden of Eden to support her claims. That God made us to need a spouse (except, of course, for those whom He has chosen to remain single) and that is why He made Eve. God didn't choose for him to be alone. He didn't choose for Adam to find that companionship just with Himself, or with friends, or with work. The autor quotes the scripture that it is not good for man to be alone. She makes another point that we are also meant to marry young. She backs this up with several references made in the Bible to the "wife of your youth" and also that it is the best time for having children. I have never heard anyone take this side before, so I wanted some input. I don't know if anyone even reads this, but if you do and you have an opinion, I'd like to hear it. Be blessed, seek Joy, and LOVE people!!

Weddings and such

So I fell in love today. I know my family had been to Snowbowl a time or two when we first moved here, but I hadn't been there since. Until today that is. I can't believe I've been missing this beautiful place! It's heavenly.. I was driving up the road to the wedding (more on that in a minute), and then I saw the aspen trees, and that was it for me. My new purpose in life is to find a hiking partner to go up there with me. You have to understand, it is a beautiful place, full of aspen trees and mountainsides and wildflowers.... today was perfect weather to see it in too. It was cloudy, but not stormy. The heavy clouds that sorta hang down and are very deep grey. I love it when the sky is like that, it makes everything much more green and misty. I will have pics soon, don't worry.

Now for the wedding.. Erin got married today; she's one of my best friends. I was a bridesmaid (first time) and the dresses were pretty, and-- it was at the Snow bowl. Ok I'm done now I promise.... It is a.. wierd thing when all of your friends begin to marry each other. I can't tell you how many weddings there've been this year! Well, the day started off at 9 when we went over to the Brother's house to start getting ready. (Actually it was more like 9:15 cause we had to make a detour to Macy's for chai..) I must admit, I had my doubts that it would take us all morning to get ready, but I was wrong. I think it was like 45 minutes for my hair to be done (Sara did it :)) ahhhhh! But that's not as bad as the hour and a half it took for Erin's hair. Then came the make-up. Thankfully Erin's mother is a Mary Kay consultant so we had a guide. We got to Snowbowl :D around 12. Erin didn't get there until 12:30 and she still had to get dressed.

The wedding started at 1. No one tripped while walking down the aisle, but Evelyn (flowergirl number 2, and only 1 year old) decided to attatch herself to Josh (the Groom) and had to be taken away lol. Now Josh's groomsmen were jokers, and so they came up with a plan. When the pastor asked if anyone objected to this marriage we all stepped forward. Including the pastor. It was funny. The rest was uneventful, we teared up a few times, but not so much that we needed to use the tissues we had conveniently stored in our dresses (well where else are you going to put it?) The reception was fun, the wedding party skipped in.. and didn't fall, well, erin almost did.. And so she is married now. I've realized I don't have many single friends left. They're either married, engaged, or on their way to being engaged. I'm only 19.. oy. Oh well, Insch Allah. By the way, there's a free Brandon Heath concert tomorrow at Lost Canyon :).

differences

Very full and interesting day yesterday!

I got an email from someone yesterday afternoon that a guy I know was missing in the canyon. He lives there and I've met him when I've gone to visit the missionaries and Lainee: he does not know God (yet), but he is on his way... Well we spent the afternoon praying for him and last night I called Lainee to check up. They found him, he'd fallen 50 feet and gotten a compound fracture in his ankle. They flew him here to the hospital and we're going to visit him tonight. It's a miracle that they found him, he was off the trail doing some climbing where he probably shouldn't have been, and without water or food.

Last nigth was also my very first time going out and street witnessing. The FCF people are very avid about this, and there was a youth group here doing a presentation in the Square. The first person I saw was someone I've been praying for in our prayer/accountability group. I talked to them fro a while, and they're very open to hearing about God. Pray for them and for me!

We had been given tracts to hand out, but I didn't give any out. I'm not sure how I feel about tracts... I also got to meet a homeless man who was also very open to God, and definately desirous of changing his life around. He knew that the lifestyle he was leading was empty and he was on his way to Tucson to get a job and settle down. Pat and Armando bought him a ticket there. I have to tell you about Armando some time, one of those reminds you of Jesus people...

We met back at the lighthouse and after most people had left there was a knock on the door. It was an FCF guy and two homeless men. he told us a heartbreaking story. One of the men had been sitting on the side of the road asking for change. A man came by him and kicked him, pure malice. He kicked this man so hard, his arm was shattered. Bethany "examined" him after they cleaned up some of the blood to discover that the bone was sticking out of his arm, and that's what was causing him to bleed. The guys drove him to the hospital.

Are people really so cruel?? As if being homeless made this man less of a human, that he could treat him that way. How utterly brutalistic. It is a trajedy that humans treat one another with cruelty when they think other people are worth less then themselves. We've seen it with slavery, the POW's in Iraq, domestic violence. And don't we do it in ways more subtle in every day life? Not only with homeless people, but with those dressed differently than ourselves. I know people my age who are afraid of walking into a church because they've been snubbed before for the way they dress. Because they are different. AM I wrong? Do you remember seeing anyone in your church who had tattoos, peircings, and dark makeup on? I don't.

Can this change? It would take a makeover of the heart. I fully admit to having preconceptions about people all the time, and yet those whom I have met have shown me full acceptance, of my beliefs as well as my style.

I was afraid to talk to the kids around the Square last night because I looked differently from them (vice versa). I hid that fear behind a mask of "Well, I don't want to push them away from Jesus by pushing things on them", but really, it was selfishness. It was fear, and it was denial of the story I have to tell. I have to apologize for that.

Well I'm off to get ready to go back to work. Be blessed and seek Joy!

indecision indecision

I was just reading over some of my old blogs and trying to remember who I was then and figure out if I am much different now. I didn't like myself much today, but probably because I was in a selfish mood (sorry mom). It seems I am in a constant state of indecision now about one thing or another. Does everyone feel this way, or is it just a college age thing? I hope it doesn't last too much longer, I hate being so indecisive. Or maybe it's not that I'm indecisive, I have actually made plenty of decisions, they just seem to change all the time due to circumstances beyond my control. The decision to stay in Flagstaff for example. I had been going to take a semester off and try to go to Mozambique.. then it didn't work with school.. but now I'm not even sure what school I'll be going to. SO was I wrong to decide to stay n Flagstaff? As much as I want to live with Julie and be with the people I know there, I want to go to Mozambique. I feel like something's not quite right... Oh how I wish God would write a letter and tell me what decisions He wants me to make. On the other hand, I know that I want my degree in Social Work, it's just not very convenient with all of the other things I want to do haha. If they would just let me take off any time I wanted, and didn't take all my money and let me study what I really want to study life would be good. yeah right. Buckle up, take responsibility.

Ever since middle school I had felt the weight of trying to get into a good school. Sometimes I couldn't sleep with the stress of it. All through high school. And then came the day that we realized those schools we were looking at weren't even possibilities. Disappointed? Very, but willing to accept that God must not want me there. Then I went through the Well why am I even here stage. In my mind I had worried all those years about getting somewhere without thinking about why I was trying to get there. And then I lost my scholarship (goodbye pride lol), and it was about that time that I realized why I wanted to be in school. Isn't it ironic (don't ya think)? And that is where I am today. Lord only knows where I'll be tomorrow. Indecision... hey it can't last forever. After all, tomorrow is anothah day...

Praise God for all the things He uses to teach us! Be Blessed, Seek Joy of Him!

granola among other things

I am at home getting some much needed peace of mind and waiting for my mom to find a recipe so we can make some granola, mmm....

I have decided the weather has decided to taunt us all summer. When I wake up, I look out the window, and what to my wondering eyes should appear?! Clouds, beautiful clouds.. and I happily get in the shower with hopes of a cool day, and then I get out. And the sun is shining, mocking me with its bright burning face, and not a cloud in sight. An hour later it's once again cloudy... You can see where this is going. For all you who doubt my veracity, you've obviously never lived in Flag.

I was at the coffee house the other day talking to Nick (fellow barista) and Pastor Steve. We got into one of those deep-waitgivemeaminutetoprocessthat discussions.. I love those. I couldn't help thinking, isn't it wonderful when people of different backgrounds and "religous personalities"-for lack of a better word- can share with each other the different things God has chosen to share with each of them about Himself! Pastor Steve is an extreme charismatic, Nick, so I am told, is an emo-hippi (Yea, I didn't know they existed either..) and I am.. whatever you would choose to label me. That's how it should be.. why the segregation?

God has so many different aspects, there is always more to discover, and a huge way to discover more of Him is through what He does through other people.

Lol, my mom just found a site called Our Daily Granola.. Amazing..

Well folks, it's time to do something.. read a book, watch a movie, make some granola, etc. Be Blessed and seek Him!

Slavery

I just finished reading a book called Escape From Slavery by Francis Bok. It's very good. He is one of the victims of the genocide in Sudan, something that too few people actually know about. I've been learning about the Sudanese people for a couple of years now. I heard one of the Lost Boys speak at Acquire the Fire 2 years ago, and that was the first I'd heard of the atrocities being committed in that country. if you do not know their story, you need to. Francis Bok was 7 years old on the day the "soldiers" attacked his town. It was his first trip to the marketplace to sell eggs without his mother. He saw smoke rising from his village and then heard the tapping of bullets zipping through the market. He was forced to stand there until all of the men were killed. The women and children (of which he was a part) were forced to begin a long journey to slavery. He saw people get the legs cut out from under them if they cried for their families.

He was taken to be the slave of a man and his family. The children played a game with him. It consisted of beating him with sticks and taunting him with names he couldn't then understand.

He eventually escaped and was chosen for replacement to the United States and now he speaks out against slavery around the country. There are 27 million slaves in the world today, and many of them are here in the U.S. We know about the terrorists in the middle east, but the intense genocide and slavery issues of Africa have slipped by unnoticed. Only now are we beginning to learn about the Lost Boys, and the Invisible Children. The website http://www.iAbolish.com has more information including a journal and photos from a trip made to Sudan. It's very good, and I would encourage you to look at it. God bless!

Blessings

Is my life changing before my very eyes? Yes it is. When did it change? Oh.. a couple days ago.. Ok so it's not ALL changing, it just feels like it is. It's changing just enough to satisfy that wanderlust I get sometimes.

I was offered a job by someone I know this last weekend. He and his wife work in a real estate office which is actually his business. They need someone for about four hours a day doing office work, and here's the best part: 9 dollars an hour. It's a lot better than what I'm making now, and it's way less stress, and my boss is a christian. I told my boss at the preschool today.. thing is, I'm the third girl who'll be leaving after this summer (and another girl has been considering it..) So I felt kinda bad, but it had to be done. I'll miss my kids, but they are almost all leaving anyways to go to kindergarten.

Other big change (probably..): I'm leaving NAU for CCC. It's soo much less expensive! The education is not much different, most of the professors there are also professors at NAU; it doesn't make any difference job-wise after I graduate, and if I need to go back to NAU all of my credits will transfer. I feel way at peace about it in a way I've never felt about NAU.

I'll also be moving into the townhouse in about a month (of course, this isn't really a new thing). I'll be living by myself for the first time.. kind of looking forward to it, kind of apprehensive, but mostly excited actually. It's a much nicer place, two bedrooms as opposed to none, and it's in a MUCH nicer neighborhood :D.. AND it's much cheaper! woohoo!

Ok, switching gears now.. I turned 19 this week. not a whole lot different from 18, but it does sound a little better. My friends threw me a "surprise" party last night (totally knew about it..) and it was fun. I got a scrapbook from one of my friends and I am very much looking forward to becoming a scrapbook junkie (if that's what it's called).

Well it's been fun, really it has, but I must be off. I just have to say.. OH the weight that is off my shoulders! This is good...

this week

There is an older couple who come sit outside the coffee shop every once in a while. The man is blind; the lady reads him a devotional and they sit and talk for a while. I just thought it was the sweetest thing.

The coffee shop where I work is owned by a church/ministry. I haven't actually been to the church yet. It's very different from what I'm used to; even at work I've been out of my comfort zone a few times, not that that's a bad thing at all. Today the pastr came in for quite a while and some kids were there hanging out so they were all talking. Pastor Steve decided we should all pray, and we did it in a way I don't think I've ever done it before. He just asked us to think about what was going on in our lives, and then to believe that God would take care of it. After a minute he prayed aloud and thanked God for taking care of it. I liked that.

I can't help but think that the world would be a completely different place if only christians would believe that what they ask of God will be answered. I can't think of any place in the Bible where someone prayed that they would see God's will. There probably are several that do, but it seems like more often than not they already knew God's will.

We went to Williams for the fourth of July. The parade was very long this year. It started off with the now traditional skydivers (4 this year) which was pretty fun, and then the procession began. There was something new this year: the classic tractors association. About 20 tractors (20!) rolled past us at a rate of 2 miles an hour... oy. And what's really funny about that is Williams is not even close to being a farming type place. The other outstanding thing in the parade, the Dancing Grannies. Yes, they are grannies, and they dance (while wearing costumes). pretty much fantastic.

After the parade we had dinner (at the newly remodeled Pine Country) and of course we had their world-famous pie as well. Then we walked around downtown for a little while, and stopped in at Scott's camera place to see Buff. You may remember my blog about Buff the mayoral candidate. He now has his own shirts, and a local artist painted a portait of him in a suit. Buff is a dog. (people in town are rather cynical about the small town politics there...)