AHHH I've fallen behind :O

So mad at myself because I haven't been updating this, but I started and then hit the end of the semester crunch. Which wouldn't have been to bad, but I waited til the last possible minute to finish my 20+ page senior thesis!!! It's all done now though :) (BIG sigh)

So I was doing a countdown to Christmas and well missed a lot of days, :( But I'll start a week long one with some more verses! :)

Today is 7 days (one week) until Christmas!!! WHOO HOO
The verse is Luke 2:25-38 (NIV)

"Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. ²⁶ It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸ Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

 ²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
   you may now dismiss^[d] your servant in peace.
³⁰ For my eyes have seen your salvation,
 ³¹ which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
³² a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
   and the glory of your people Israel.”

 ³³ The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵ so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

 ³⁶ There was also a prophet, Anna, the daughter of Penuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷ and then was a widow until she was eighty-four.^[e] She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. ³⁸ Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem."

Isaiah 9

"For to us a child is born, 
   to us a son is given, 
   and the government will be on his shoulders. 
And he will be called 
   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
⁷ Of the greatness of his government and peace 
   there will be no end. 
He will reign on David’s throne 
   and over his kingdom, 
establishing and upholding it 
   with justice and righteousness 
   from that time on and forever. 
The zeal of the LORD Almighty 
   will accomplish this." Isaiah 9:6-7


I don't know much about the context of this verse, but still wanted to share it with you guys! This guy wrote about the verses so go check it out! :) 
http://revbickers.blogspot.com/2010/12/isaiah-96-7-coming-king.html

Malachi 3:1 and the Trinity?

23 days left until our Saviors birth! :)
 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty." Malachi 3:1 NIV
Here God is talking about sending John. Although this is in the Old Testament we find that God is saying there is someone to be sent to prepare the way for HIM, to announce the coming of God. In the New Testament we find out this is John and God will come as Jesus. Later Jesus will proclaim in Matthew 11:10-15 that John is who God was talking about in this passage. Isn't it wonderful that God can make promises and covenants with us that we will never see but in the future it greatly helped people! What is God saying to you now that may be used in the future?


I know this is not what the verse is getting out, but I currently relate to one part. See I'm in a History of Christianity class and we have discussed the Trinity and different views on it. I'm still confused about what I'm supposed to believe. I KNOW that it's God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and I truly believe that! But how do you wrap your mind around 3 people all in 1? I mean to us it may seem impossible! In todays verse God says 'prepare the way before me' which is the Savior he promised Adam and Eve, Jesus who came many years later. This is just one verse we can look back on and see the connection between God and Jesus, God was his father, but God was Jesus as this verse I think clearly points out. 
I never questioned how the Trinity worked before my History of Christians class this fall, but since we've discussed it I continue to think about it. How does the Trinity work exactly? With children's missions this is especially hard when kids wonder about this! One way my mom has explained it to me is that God is like my dad: he's my grandma's son, my moms husband, and my dad BUT he's still ONE person. In one article we read for class we discussed one opinion of God being a person who wears 3 different hats: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit. And sometimes he wears one, others two hats, and at times all three. This makes it a little easier to understand the complexity of the Trinity, but it's still not a full explanation because God's not more one than the other...
How do YOU view the Trinity?

Christmas Countdown: 24 days

I'm going to do a countdown to Christmas, my favorite part of the year! I found a site that has verses for each day and I wanted to share them with you day by day. Here is the verse for today:
"Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. ¹³ But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. ¹⁴ He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. ¹⁶ He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:11-17 NIV


How wonderful is our God? He blessed Elizabeth with John! Our Lord blesses you with many things as well! What things has God blessed in your life? I know it's hard to think of things when we are living our everyday life...there are bills to pay, work with people we don't necessarily want to work with, school, all those extra clubs and meetings we have, and trying to have a social life...but God is in all of these things with you and he is BLESSING YOU!!! Please take a minute and think of the wonderful things God has blessed you with...
God has blessed me with A LOT!!!
*I have a wonderful fiance who supports me in everything I do
*I have a job! As hard as it is to go to work after a long day at school, I HAVE a job, I can pay my bills, I have a place to rest my head and food to eat!
*I have amazing parents that although it was probably a pain to raise me, they have continually supported me. They were at all my school events, this meant they canceled their own things to be there for ME!
*I have my grandfather in Heaven watching over me! Although he wasn't here to see me graduate and won't be at my wedding, and never got to hear me play my clarinet, I know he is looking down and smiling at me.
*I still have my wonderful grandma with me! Although she's been sick a lot the past few years, she's still with us and she (if the Lord wills) will see me walk down the isle for my wedding!
*I have a close knit family...although we all have our differences there's no separating us...people think I have a large family, but it's just cause we are so close I know all my 2nd and 3rd cousins! 
*I have 2 wonderful brothers and though we may fight and have our difference, I know if anyone ever hurt me, BOTH would be here in a heart beat
*I have TWO adorable nephews that amaze me everyday how much they are growing!
*I have a wonderful community of supporters!


There are SO many other things I can list here...but I want to know what blessings you have in your life! Please leave comments :)

Called!

As far back as I can remember I was going to be a nurse, most likely an ob/gyn nurse. This was my dream and I worked very hard towards it. In high school I took classes to prepare me for this and even my first year and a half of college I worked towards this goal. Then something changed...

I had done summer missions with the organization CEF for 2 summers teaching 5-Day Clubs. Child Evangelism Fellowship, CEF, is an organization based on presenting the Gospel clearly to children who may have never heard it before. CEF is a world wide organization working on getting in ALL the countries by 2017! We are almost there! :) A 5-Day Club is one of CEF's many outreaches available. A 5-Day Club meets Monday-Friday for an hour for a week. During this hour we tell Bible stories, missionary stories, sing songs, play games, learn memory verse, and interact and play with the children attending. These can be taught in churches as VBS's, in a park, or a person's backyard. I was involved as a teacher of these for two years, the summers of 2008 and 2009. 

In April 2010 Beth (State director of CEF) asked if I would be the Summer Coordinator of my chapter. I'm part of the Iowa Great Lakes Chapter extending from the Storm Lake area up to the boarder. ( I honestly don't know the width of it off the top of my head) I agreed, knowing it'd be fun but I was nervous because I didn't know what all this would entail and if I would be good for the job. My chapter committee also gave me the chance to go to the National Conference and I accepted. This is when things REALLY started to change. I found out more about CEF as a whole and something happened inside my heart. I started to wonder about the jobs available in CEF and what I could do to reach these children that need to be reached. Through teaching the clubs this summer I wanted to know more and more about the organization and wondered what a director does. See, my chapter currently has no director and I thought maybe I could do that. A director of a chapter has many things to do, but it's an outreach. Part of the time is spent raising money while the rest is spent teach kids and telling others about the organization. I thought this might be for me BUT I really needed to finish up the next 3 years of nursing school so I always have that degree to fall back on. I started my sophomore year at Morningside and I couldn't stop thinking about CEF! During classes I found that nursing really wasn't for me and that God knew this all along...he had this crazy plan for me and as I prepared for nursing school he was preparing me for CEF! 

I had a TERRIBLE time with this, I felt I was letting Kenneth and my family down and I felt like a failure not being good at nursing classes. This was my plan and how could I not go through with it? I felt like I was giving up something huge. With a lot of prayer and consideration I dropped my nursing major and added religious studies to my minor (I already had a major of counseling psychology). I knew I wouldn't get through the next years of nursing school because it wasn't for me, but I figured I could do 1 1/2 more years of counseling to get my counseling degree! See, my dad works at BVU on the maintenance team and through him I get free tuition at any of BVU's sister schools. WHAT A DEAL & STEAL! I knew I couldn't give up that practically free Bachelors degree, so I decided to finish Morningside to get a degree in Counseling Psychology. I was going to let God lead me from there, but as many of you know I'm a planner and I couldn't just let it be.

After many talks with Beth I had everything all planned out! Everyone understood me finishing at Morningside and I decided to go into CEF right after Morningside. There are some requirements I have to fulfill before I do this, I have to attend CMI, take 1 year of Bible courses, and complete a 1 year internship. Children's Ministry Institute or CMI I have applied to Calvary Bible College and been accepted! Calvary is in Kansas City and they have a partnership with CEF so I get college credit for CMI and then it'll take me 1 1/2 years and I'll have a second Bachelors in Children's Ministry! :) After I go to CMI for 12 weeks (August 2012-November 2012) I will come back home (Alta) and start my internship while taking online classes to get my degree from Calvary. 

I NEVER thought I'd be a person to go into ministry. I would pray that God could use me, but like others I gave him conditions, which made me think I couldn't do missions. When I thought of consecration it scared me cause I didn't want to go to some other country, although they need a lot of help, that just isn't for me. Summer of 2010 when I felt this call I realized God will equip me with the things I need in order to do this job and he will take care of me. 

I mentioned above that I struggled with this decision. It took me a LONG time (3 months) to tell anyone that I was even feeling a call to CEF. I was SO scared! After I finally admitted it and changed my plans my whole world changed! I had a better outlook on life (happier) and I realized how important it is to reach these children that haven't heard about Jesus! We are blessed if we know Him and have been saved from our sins, but we must remember that there are those out there that don't even know about his saving grace and I can't wait to start working with CEF full-time to reduce the amount of children that don't know about him! I never thought that God could use ME of all people, but I've realized he does not call the equip but rather equips the call! I'm so excited to grow stronger in my walk with God and share the good news with everyone! 

Remember always, God CAN use you! (Especially those of you who don't believe it) He's got something special for each and everyone of his children! 

Welcome!

Okay, so I've been debating starting this for a while. I think it will be a fun way to keep everyone updated on things going on in my life (and Ken's). I fear after a while I won't have enough to blog about, but I'm going to try. I hope this is a blog that I can grow into for many years to come. Right now it'll focus on ideas I find for the wedding and everyday things that happen. In the future...well I know, but we'll just wait ;). Thank you for checking this out, if anyone is even reading?