Week one

I have now finished a full week of school.  I have lots of classes, we only have class once a week.  I'm taking 1 Corinthians and 1 and 2 Kings on Mondays, Systematic Theology and Inductive Bible Study/ Hermeneutics on Tuesdays, On Wednesdays I have worship class in the afternoons and then on Wednesday night the students lead worship for Wednesday night Church, on Thursday nights I have a discipleship class and Friday mornings I have a class on women of the Bible.  I also have to do 8 hours a week of M199's which is service hours to help the upkeep of our property and to cook meals so we have food to eat.  When I look at it like this I think to myself wow thats a lot of stuff but when I am living it day to day it does not feel that bad.  I am still getting the hang of balancing my time between doing homework and having a social life with some of the other students here on campus.  My goal for the semester is to get my homework done in the week so that I will have the weekends to hang out more and go to the beach.  Something that is hard for me is not having electricity so I am not able to do my homework when the sun goes down and that is when I usually like to do my homework, after dinner before I go to bed.  So I am adjusting to changing that so I don't have to do it on the weekends.  I don't have time to write more but when I get the chance I will!

Labor Day!

 Sept 5, 2011 

Today is labor day and also our first day of classes.  I had 1 corinthians this morning and 1 & 2 kings this afternoon.  1st Corinthians seems like it is going to be a great class!  I’m really excited to see how this book of the Bible is going to relate to our world today.  It may seem like the times now are very different from Bible times but when you really take a look at it you can see that times are very similar.  

My 1 & 2 kings class is very fast paced.  We have a lot to go through in only 16 or so weeks of class.  For our first day of this class today we went thru the first 4 books of 1 Kings.  A lot goes on in these 2 books of the Bible but it is very interesting to see how God is still merciful on His people who continue to sin and do things that are not pleasing to God.  

You might be thinking well what do your class rooms look like? Well we sit in a big white tent for every class except one, where we get to go to the pastors house and sit on couches, feel the ocean breeze and look out the “window” and see the ocean in the distance behind the palm trees and grass fields.  This might lead you to ask about my “dorm” situation.  I live in a tent about 20 feet by 10 feet. Currently the zipper to my screen is broke and as you can imagine it gets pretty hot as soon as the sun comes up and never really cools down to where we feel cold.  I have 2 roommates and we are getting along pretty well for the little amount of space we have.  We have almost the same class schedule so we are usually all there or no one is there at all.  We will have to see as the semester goes on how that will work out with the three of us.  As i mentioned before I do not have hot water or electricity and we have porta pottys for our bathroom.  We do have a shower house that has 2 very small shower stalls and 2 little sinks.  It seems to be going better than I had thought.  There are many many different kinds of bugs here.  I’m not used to that yet, I have slept with ants for the past 2 nights and the bugs seem to be multiplying.  Spiders are everywhere and they are massive!  Despite all of the ruggedness of where God has me right now I feel at peace about it all.  I’m sitting at the beach as I write this listening to the waves crash against the shore and am reminded how blessed we really are.  God is so good! 

                                                                     Babies Beach

                                                Ship Reck Beach with lots of new friends!

                                                     Jumping off the cliff at Ship Reck

                                                                                     The view from my tent

First few days in Kauai!

Aloha!
I have finally arrived in Hawaii! It is so beautiful here! I left yesterday about 6am from my house in California and landed here in Kauai about 2:30 Hawaii time.  It was a long day but I'm glad I made it safe and sound.  We started the semester off with a BBQ at one of the pastors house last night so we could get to know everyone and have a little fun with a nice homemade slip and slide, which I did not do but it was fun to watch.  When we got back to our tents we went right to bed because we were so tired and had no lights.  It's a little more rustic here than I thought, we have one porta potty for the 16 girls that our here and 2 showers with no hot water.  There are lots of bugs here, I have 12 bug bites already, bug spray is at the top of the wal mart list!  We have orientation today and tomorrow.  So far we go to the beach whenever we get a free hour or so! It's so great here! The coffee shop is closing so no more internet. I will try to write more when I get internet again!
9-1-11

summer time!

so as you can tell im still not so good about this blogging thing.  i better get in the swing of it because i leave for hawaii in 9 1/2 weeks! it is going to be here before i know it! the sad thing about that is it means that summer will be over :[  it feels like summer has hardly started but it started over a month ago for me which is crazy! Since the last time i wrote on here i have..

• completed my Sign Language Interpreting program at Golden West College
• worked in a Juvenile Hall as an interpreter
• volunteered at a middle school helping in a deaf classroom 
• went to San Diego with the Herd
• hiked to the Hollywood sign at night
• watched my brother win 1st place in tournament of champions in baseball
• gone to the beach several times 

im defiantly keeping busy and still have many more plans for this summer! this is probably one of my very last summers i can enjoy without having a grow-up job and no school.  so im going to live it to the fullest.  summer is my favorite time of year, BBQs, the beach, warm summer nights, hanging out with friends, swimming all day long, camping and road trips are some of the things i love and summer is the best time to do them! i can't wait for hawaii, but i also don't want to let this summer pass by me, so im going to live in the moment and enjoy it! 

if you REALLY knew me, you would know that...

i want to do something a little different than what i have been writing.  i have been thinking lately about what people know about each other, to put it simply.  there are always things that people dont know about you.  i think its fun to learn more about each other so here are a few things that you might not have known about me... i like to call it "if you REALLY knew me, you would know that..."

so, if you REALLY knew me you would know that...

1. I FULL HEARTEDLY LOVE JESUS CHRIST
2. i really like the LAKERS
3. derek fisher is my favorite player
4. i secretly love country music
5. if i could go bare foot i would 365 days a year
6. i don't like small cars at all
7. i LOVE my family
8. i hate being alone
9. im pretty sarcastic
10. i cant stand it when people chew with their mouth open

that is just a few things that you might not have known about me.

technology

what would happen if you had NO technological devices right now?  would you be able to finish your conversation? would you miss that e-mail? would you not be able to get to where you are going? I think in this day and age we, including myself, relay on our cell phones, computers, ipods and what ever else we use on a daily basis too much.  if all of that was taken away for just 24 hours without any notice that it would be gone would you be fine with that? or would you feel disconnected and not know what to do with yourself?  cell phones are great, but i think we depend on them more than we might think.  we dont even realize that we carry it around EVERYWHERE we go.  with the technology now, we dont need anything else, all we need is on that one device.  but, what happens when you suddenly dont have that device anymore? our world gets turned upside down and we dont know what to do with ourselves.  we let our mind wonder if you are missing out on anything because you cant text anyone back if they texted you.  or you have to actually go onto your computer to see if you have any new e-mails.  eventually we wont need to leave our house because you will be able to do ANYTHING if you have access to the internet.  its kind of weird to think about. so think about it! how attached to your phone are you?

moving day!

it feels so nice to be able to get back on the internet after not having it for about 5 days.  we did not have internet or TV or anything of that matter because we MOVED!! 4 years in waiting and it is finally here! we officially moved in 4 days ago so we are still living in boxes but slowly we are unpacking everything.  this new house is such a blessing, and only the Lord could have made this happen.  we have been looking and looking at different houses over the past 4 or so years. we looked at this house over and year ago and had to let it go because there was no way we would be able to swing the deal.  a year later the Lord is still so faithful and the deal was going to work this time! so after praying and praying, here we are! it feels like we are living in a dream or on vacation. it does not seems real yet.  im sure that will wear off but for now we are all loving it! it is a little bit of a bummer that i will only be here for another 5 months but im happy that my family is able to have more space and we no longer have to live on top of each other.  the Lord is faithful to answer always, we just need to be patient to wait on HIS timing and HIS answers.