God of Justice

At Harvest this weekend we sang this song. I've had it stuck in my head a lot lately. I think that someday Aaron and I might be missionaries. I love the lyrics because it actually talks about putting feet on the Christian Faith.


God Of Justice - Click here for more blooper videos

If you want the lyrics click here

Harvest . .

Is the fall conference put on by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (well the Western PA Northern WV part of it). That was this past weekend at the Pittsburgh Project in Pittsburgh. It was different returning to the conference as an alum this year and not as a student. It wasn't quite what I was expecting.

The theme this year was: Playing For Keeps: Going All In With God. It was very neat because they had a poker theme going on all weekend with some dramatizations and such. The decorations were Playing Cards and Poker Chips, and our name tags were cards also. I picked the 8 of hearts because it's my favorite. I don't know why.

Also, I realized this weekend through some of the seminars and through our speaker on Saturday night some of the things I've been holding back from God. I also realized some of the ways that I've hindered the chapter that I was a part of. I never really helped to prepare anyone to be the leader after I left. As a result the Mercyhurst Chapter is nearly non-existant. It makes me thoroughly saddened. Also, I feel like I've not only let God down I let my chapter down in that regard. Also at PSB, during InterVarsity CF (our large event on Thursdays), I usually kinda welcomed everyone and ran up and gave the frequenters hugs and ran to talk to the new people to try to make them feel welcome. I feel like that is also missing this year. Please be praying that God would reveal to me how to minister to IV and also that He would raise up leaders at PSB and Mercyhurst. There are some other things too but those are for another day and another blog.

The worship (singing songs to God) was AMAZING!!! We had multicultural worship which I LOVE! I love learning to praise God in other languages because there is a passage in Revelation that tells us that in Heaven we will be hearing songs in all languages. So it's nice to have that little piece of Heaven here on Earth. We sang one song in Haitian Creole called "Il Ma Sauve" it means "He Saved Me." I LOVE THIS SONG. If you'd ever like to listen to it let me know because I have it. It's so fantastic. It's a great song to dance to and so Molly and I were in the back when we were singing it the first time and we were dancing on the chairs in the back. It was so much fun. I'm always excited when praising God through dance is encouraged. We also sang a song I can't remember the name of it but here's part of how it goes:
Take our hands
move our feet
break our hearts
with the things that make
your heart break
(repeat)
let us be Your hands
let us be Your feet
Let us be the love that longs for those in need
(repeat)
Spirit move
across the land
we invite you
to move on earth by your sovreign hand
(repeat)
(Repeat Chorus)

I love this song. During the prayer labyrinth they had set up, they had things that we could pray about to Go all in for the Kingdom of God. One station was on justice. I wanted to cry looking at the pictures they had set up. One of them had a little naked baby of African descent, curled into a ball starving in the streets. Whenever we were singing the above song, all I could think of was this picture of this little baby. I pray that God would use me in a great way. I don't know what He wants for the rest of my life but I will continue to follow Him and his leading me.


I also had a great time spending time with those that came from PSB. We at one point were playing wheel of fortune and then decided to have a photoshoot which was lots of fun. I'll try to get DEG to post some pictures that we took during our photoshoot. We also had some pizza that day from Mandy's Pizza. It was fantastic!

I hope to post some pictures tomorrow. For now it is getting quite late and I should probably actually go to sleep.

Lately. . .

I have been missing this girl, Robin.
This was us carrying up her bags after I picked her up from the Cleveland airport my junior year of college when she came to visit us after Christmas because she was still on break! :)


She was one of my best friends in College. She's also one of the big reasons I am a Christian today. God definitely blessed me by bringing her all the way from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Erie, PA where she learned what snow was my freshman year of college. We were only together for our freshman year but oh my goodness whenever we get back together it's as if nothing has changed. We still laugh at the same jokes, she still is obsessed with Coke, she still has her uberlong hair and craftiness. She is the kind of friend you will have for a whole lifetime.

Here is a picture of the 5 of us that made up SLAMR my freshman year, Sally, Liz, Amanda, Meg, and Robin.
Oh the college life that I sometimes miss way too much. I miss my roommates a lot. But I am so blessed to have even known them at all. Also I'm so grateful that through Robin and Sally all 5 of us came to know the Jesus of the Bible. Coincidence that we were all roommates my freshman year? I think not. I know that God has a plan for my life and my freshman year of college that definitly included having Robin as my suitemate to goof off with, to joke around with, to watch movies with, cause a ruckus with, hang things on the ceiling with, jump off of beds with, and most importantly, study the Bible with. She was such a wonderful friend and always will be. If only we could get her to move closer to PA. *Sigh*

Tagged by Holly

So I was tagged by Holly sometime last week to list 6 quirks about me. I'm not sure how I'm going to list only 6 but that's ok. I shall try. I guess the deal is I will also tag 6 of you so beware readers of the blog your turn is coming. I also don't have 6 people to tag so I'm only tagging 5. HAHAHAHAHAHA CUZ I STINK LIKE THAT!







Quirk 1 - I LOVE HUGS!!! I will hug very very often. I'm a very snuggly person by nature. It's very strange though because the rest of my family is like anti-touch. I think also the fact that I'm psuedo-cold blooded makes me an instant snuggler because I need the extra body heat.







Quirk 2 - I love to take photos. I've also experienced the camera becoming a part of my body although less so lately because school has taken over my life but I will always have my camera around for special occasions.







Quirk 3 - I have a hard time cooking for myself when I eat at most one meal a day at my apartment. It makes it very difficult for me to force myself to cook. As a result I throw out some of my food because I can't use it fast enough.







Quirk 4 - This is a strange one for sure. I'm very weary to try new things except when I am in situations where I have no choice. For example when Aaron and I went to Toronto with his roommate Andrew from Singapore I tried things I would never eat under normal circumstances. Let me put this into context for you: I didn't try GRILLED CHEESE until college, or any vegetables other than corn and potatoes (which most people say don't count). Anyway in Toronto I tried: Lobster, Squid Soup (I didn't find out until a week later), the nastiest thing I've ever eaten in my life: A CHINESE MUSHROOM, it literally made me gag . . . a lot, Fish with the bones still in it looking back at you, and a variety of weird looking fruits including: lychee and rambutan



Quirk 5 - I love football when I get to watch it. I would love to be able to watch a football game on Sundays with Aaron curled up on the couch. Too bad he doesn't like football. I spent a lot of time at high school football games growing up and mom didn't let me walk around during the games until at least high school because she didn't want me to get into trouble. So I learned a lot of the ins and outs of the game. I learned to love it a lot. She learned to like it from my grandpa because he drove her around to all of the football games when she was a majorette.


Quirk 6 - I love to sing. I feel like I'm not very good at it but I am constantly singing. For example I've had the song "Tears of the Saints" by Leeland stuck in my head all day long.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rC4tI3k_0w&feature=related
I constantly have a song in my head. . . all the time. Like when I'm reading my Bible, often I start singing a song inspired by the words I'm reading in the passage. I also will often hear someone say somethign and think of a song as well.

So those are my 6 quirks. I hope that you guys learned at least one new thing about me based on this. There are certainly more but that'll do for now.

So here are the 5 tagged people:

1. Sky - My ex-future Wife (don't worry it's just a joke.) I love Sky a lot she's such a cool person and I'm so happy I've gotten to know her.

2. Andrew - "Deg" Andrew has become a great friend over the past few years due to our friendship through InterVarsity.

3. Moll Moll - such a sweetheart I love her so very much.

4. Matt - Someone I just got to know recently but look forward to getting to know better.

5. Kim - My cousin who I've always enjoyed spending time with.

Gorge Hike

We went for a hike in the gorge. Im not very good at hiking though.


The roots often remind me of little steps.
dark but for some reason i like it.
looking out at the gorge

so beautiful. Too bad it was too bright :(
framing (sorta)
Aaron took this one.
one of the many waterfalls
contemplating how to get across dry
I love sepia!
court was watching aaron at work

crossing the little bridge
tiny waterfall that we were trying to cross in above photos.


Another little waterfall. It didn't turn out quite the way i wanted it to
gorgeous view as we emerged out of the woods.


just for perspective
i wished this would have turned out better they were so vibrant

Holly's Birthday

While waiting for everyone to get there I took a picture of the Peanut Bucket!

There's the Birthday Girl and daughter checking out our reflections in the light bulb! I love these two!

So happy together!. . . until the hair started to tickle Court!

Walk at Liz's

At Liz's we took a nice walk and the leaves were just amazing. Here are some of the results!

Annie's Photoshoot!

This is Annie. She's Liz's beautiful dog. She was a great subject for photos!

I couldn't decide if I liked this one or the next one better.

stupid but perseverant fishie

I forgot to post this last week but Goldilocks decided she didn't like the container she was in and flopped out onto the floor I came home later one night (probably like 11 ish) and picked her up with a paper towel and decided for the heck of it to put her back in her bowl and see if she was ok. Here we are a week later and a little less tail and she's swimming around. Stupid fishie! At least she survived. Anyway yeah she's a brat she dislikes me muchly like any time I come near the bowl she's like, nope swimming away now. And she won't eat if I'm anywhere near the bowl which can sometimes be a problem. goofy fishie. I wish I could have a real pet in a way but I'd really rather not have to take care of it right now and I'm not home often enough to take care of it well. :( I wish I was. Hopefully by this time next year I'll be a lot more experienced and able to have a pet (which will take convincing my landlord of course.)

Anyway yeah this week has also been rough in school. One student was suspended. Last week he was having very bad rages and Thursday I left crying because he literally flipped my room upside down. I was so afraid he was going to hurt himself. I didn't care if he hurt me I just didn't want him to hurt himself. He was such a sweet kid when we started school. I'm not sure what has happeend. He doesn't care about consequences anymore. He actually tells me he wants to be suspended and things. Well he got his wish yesterday he was suspended because he kicked another student. The suspension came as a result of a lot of things he had done in the past two weeks. It's just very sad because he's only 8 years old. I just don't understand how these kinds of things happen to kids so young.

Update on Mr. Rebellious: He's been so rude to all of the students in the class lately ie. calling their moms names, pushing them in the halls, literally tripping over them; cheating in dodgeball (and he's a big kid); not doing his work and the like. He is no longer allowed in my class until his behavior changes. He gets off the bus and goes straight to the office, and then we take his work, breakfast and lunch in to him. He's not allowed to leave the office except to go to the bathroom. I'm not sure when he'll be allowed back in the classroom. I don't know what to do with him because nothing seems to be working. I mean this morning he snuck past the people walking the kids to the classes and was in my classroom and almost got decked by another student because he was calling said student's mom names again. MR. REBELLIOUS WAS IN THE OFFICE ALL DAY YESTERDAY BECAUSE OF SUCH BEHAVIOR!!! It's just so frustrating that I don't know what to do for him. He also has a tendency to lie . . . A Lot! I've caught him in so many lies it's unreal for a 6 year old. He never thinks anything is his fault. He also thinks his nanna is the authority at school and has the ability to tell me what he's allowed and not allowed to do. Blah! Sorry I'm ranting. I just wish I could somehow reach this kid because he's so intelligent but chooses to act poorly all the time!

On the up side: Sunday is Friend's Day at church and I get to see Aaron's Mom Holly for Friends day and her birthday! AWESOME! I love her so very much! I also get to see Courtney, Aaron's sister which is awesome because I love Courtney as well. The only one missing will be Sarah. (you will be missed Sarah). I'm excited for this weekend. And I'm kinda excited to NOT have a wedding this weekend. But having so many weddings right in a row does NOT make it easier for me to wait to get married.

Mark and Brenda's Wedding

So yes, Aaron and I have gone to a lot of weddings lately, as a matter of fact it's been 4 in the matter of four months. One a month for four months. Anyway, Mark was a great friend of mine in college. He was literally like the big brother I never had. We joked around all the time and I could really trust him to confide in him. When we were in school together he was a few years older than me and he was praying that God would give him patience to wait for the one person God had picked for him. Then about a year ago Mark and Brenda got engaged. I was so excited. Then on Saturday they invited Aaron and I to spend their special day with them. What a blessing! I love Mark so much and Brenda seems like such a sweetheart! I hope God really blesses their marriage.


Wedding ceremony-ness. I couldn't get very good pictures because I had a lot of people in front of me.

Brenda's dad officiating.

Cute :)

my appetizers. . . i know, like you care right?

First dance as a married couple.

pretty cake!

look at the layers of chocolatey ness

I'm a bit obsessed with Calla Lillies like seriously my favorite flower ever! SO PRETTY! Even when made out of icing!

It sparkles

Brenda was laughing because she just gipped her friends out of taking a picture of them kissing.

Cutting the cake

Father Daughter Dance, I loved her dress btw, well the top not so much the bottom!

Father Daughter Dance

Mother and son again!

This was only about the fourth time I tried to take his picture and he still didn't pose nicely.

Much better!

Andrew and Scott, old buddies reunite!

Why do I always look about 12 years old?