Do I begin with....or do I begin with....
Or do I begin with the fact that I'm staying in school until next May? Or that I'm praying so hard about going to North Africa this summer?
I guess I'll go in order =)
First of all the tattoo. I've wanted a new tattoo for a while. This one makes my 3rd and I do believe last. It says "Freedom" in Greek. elef̱thería-"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."~Galatians 5:1
I believe this summer was a testimony of the freedom that I received in Christ. I've been trying to talk myself OUT of getting this tattoo and I kept wanting it. So I finally did. It's on my wrist, so it's quite visible but I can also cover it quite easily. I'm in love with it because of the meaning it holds.
Secondly...the hair. Wow I got a lot cut off. A lot a lot. Haha. And I got it because I, as I do every year, got tired of my long hair. It's shorter than I wanted, but It's growing on me (not literally haha). So there's another change.
Hmmm for the school one. I met with an advisor after my Upper Division interview last Monday and after talking with her about options, crying in front of her out of frustration, I finally came to a conclusion that I shouldn't stress myself out trying to finish just because I WANT to finish. I already passed my deadline for myself, so why stress out? There are two classes I haven't taken yet, and I need to take them, but I would have to petition to take them together. Well they are not recommended to be taken together unless your GPA is about .5 higher than what mine is....meaning if you don't do well in one of the two classes your GPA will still be okay for Upper Division. As much as I'd like to have faith in myself that that wouldn't happen, I truly don't want to take the risk of taking those two classes together and having to go through the whole Upper Division process again. SOOOO I am indeed in school for another 3 semesters besides this one. I will do my Upper Division classes next semester, start my senior one in the fall of 2011 and graduate in 2012...and I'm okay with that. I have two prospective roommates for next year. I have more opportunities to serve Christ on a college campus....and more opportunities to lead as well.
One opportunity given to me is going to North Africa this May for two weeks on a prayer journey. CCF has done it twice and I've never had an interest but just within the last few months God has placed a desire on my heart to go over seas. What makes this even more fun is that Kellar said it is imperative for us to have the blessing of our families to go. I got home last night for Fall Break, talked with my parents, and they give me their blessing. My Dad really is having a hard time with it, but has accepted that it's something I feel led to do. So I'm continuing to pray about this possibility for the summer...
Besides the summer however I know that God has me AT ECU for a purpose IN THE MOMENT meaning I need to not only pray about opportunities for the summer but also for opportunities DAILY while in school.
So this is where I am. A lot of changes have hapened not only in my life, to my body, etc but in my heart.
Changes are hard. Accepting that God has me at school until 2012 is hard. Accepting that my heart is changing for missions further than the American borders is very scary. But God is great and He's bigger and I adore my heavenly Father enough to know that He has greater plans than I have for myself.
So now, for my friends who follow my blog, who don't have facebook, I have attached pictures from fall retreat, etc.
First of all our fall retreat consisted of three wonderful ladies and their birthdays so we celebrated the Friday evening of.
My dear Campbell grad friend, and I, Rachel Flowers.
Of course, Connie and I =)
