Sad, Hard Day Yesterday

Yesterday was a sad day for me. I found out at about 2PM that my cat, Ashes, had died. She was 16 years old and her health had been going down pretty steadily for the past six months or so. My parents had taken her to the doctor a little over a week ago and a few days later, they diagnosed Ashes as having hyperthyroidism. She was given medicine that was supposed to help her, but it did not. My parents said that she had stopped eating a few days before the Saturday doctors appointment. After she stopped eating, she went down hill fairly quickly. This has been harder for me then I ever expected. I always thought that I wouldn't be affected very much when Ashes died because she was just a cat, but it has been hard for me. I think a lot of this is because I never got to say good-bye to her. The last time I saw her was over Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. I am going to miss Ashes a whole lot. She was a great cat to me and my family for almost 17 years. I will never forget the many memories I have of playing with her and watching her do funny things. I am very thankful that I was able to have Ashes for this long.

Summer Job Interview

When I attended Urbana 2006 I found out about a summer job opportunity to work at a camp for children that is put on by Salvation Army. I very quickly got online and got the application so that I could fill it out and bring it to the Salvation Army before I went back to school after Christmas Break. About a week later, my mom informed me that someone from Salvation Army had called me, but she couldn't remember what the person's name was. The other day I decided that I would call Salvation Army and talk to the person who was hiring people for this camp. I got to talk with this person and it sounds like I have a good possibility of getting the job. I am extremely excited about this because this is my dream job, working at a summer camp for children. I love the outdoors and love working with children. Earlier this year I had spent hours on the Internet trying to find summer camps to work at that were not very far away from my house. I never really succeeded. I am very glad that this opportunity has arisen. I am going to meet with this lady during my Spring Break. I will know at that meeting whether or not I will be offered the job. I will let you know what happens.

Stuck at Home

I came home for the long weekend. I always do this because the town that I go to college in becomes a ghost town on the weekends. A lot of people that go to my school are from places that are close to the school, therefore a lot of people go home on weekends. This is especially true on long weekends. Anyways, I ways supposed to go back today, but I couldn't because the weather was so bad in Warrensburg. I will be taking a train back tomorrow morning. I guess I am somewhat excited to go back, but in a lot of ways I am not very excited.

This is an update on my church situation. Yesterday, I had the wonderful privalege of going to church twice. In the morning church went very well. After the morning service I got to talk to my pastor and he mentioned that he was begining to feel encouraged about the future of the church. This was very encouraging to me. It is good that he is somewhat encouraged. Last night, my church commissioned a family to missionary work in South Africa. In a lot of ways, this was very encouraging. It was neat to see us send out missionaries even though my church in general is still a big mess. Whenever we commission someone, the elders and missions committee lay hands on the family and pray for them. Last night when this happened, I visually saw the impact that the church split had had on the number of elders at our church. There were very few people up there compared to how many used to do this. Even though this is still hard, I know that God is going to bring good out of it somehow. I am trying to just trust in God and know that this is all apart of His perfect plan for my life. Once again, I will keep you updated on this situation.

Back to School!

Well, I am back to school after a great Christmas break. Classes start Monday. I am somewhat excited to be back at school, but I am not very excited about having homework to do again. This semester I am taking Ecology, Spanish, Contemporary Math, a writing class, and Education of the Exceptional Child (which is the one that I am most excited about). It is very exciting to start taking an education class. Hopefully, Education of the Exceptional Child will help me figure out what exactly God wants me to do. I look forward to what this semester brings. I will keep you all up to date.

Urbana 2006

This past week I attended a large global missions conference that was held downtown in the America's Center and Edward Jones Dome. I joined 22,ooo other college students who were from 140 different countries, every state in the United States, and every providence in Canada. I joined them to worship God, learn more about His word, and most importantly learn more about His world. This week I have been encouraged, inspired, and challenged to fulfill the Great Commission. During the week, I attended Bible studies, prayer groups, large group meetings, seminars, and Global Connections (where I was able to get information from many different missions agencies). In addition to learning a lot and being challenged, I was able to make some new friends and see some old ones that I haven't seen for a long time. I was able to see one of my previous youth pastors and his wife. This was awesome. I had not seen them for a year and a half and missed them a lot. I also had the opportunity to see a girl that I was friends with at church in High School. I have decided that God is definitely calling me to be a missionary some day. I do not know when or where I will go yet, but I know that God will reveal that to me when the timing is right. I am very glad that I went to this conference. I will never forget the experience and what I learned. I will post more about what I learned in future posts.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to everyone, even though it is a little late. I hope you all had a great Christmas. I did. On Christmas Eve I went to my church's traditional Christmas Eve service. This was a lot of fun. I always very much enjoy this service. Many traditional Christmas carols are sung and the service is ended with the singing of "Silent Night" while we light candles. On Christmas Day, my family and I got up and opened presents. Then in the evening my brother and his wife came over and we all hung out together. This was a lot of fun as well. Santa(aka. my parents) were very generous this year. I got a guitar, several movies, a sweater, several gift cards, some jewelry, and a few other little things. I very much enjoyed Christmas. I hope you all did too.

Home for Christmas Break!!

I am now home for Christmas!! I am very glad that I am home. I have already enjoyed spending time with my family and friends. I went back to my home church yesterday, which was both exciting and somewhat sad. I got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen for a long time. This was the exciting part. The sad part was that it really hit me yesterday how much my church is really struggling. I don't think I ever realized how much my church was struggling. We have lost a lot of people and a lot of staff. This part of yesterday was very difficult for me. It is very hard for me to see the brokeness and sadness of the whole situation. I will keep you updated on the situation at my church.