"when the wind blows..." oh wait, that song goes "when the rain comes" not "when the wind blows"! :) ha ha!

VERSE OF THE DAY!!!
(because it was so windy i almost blew over!)

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
-John 3:5-8-

there is something wrong with me

i need some serious medication.
i just fell off my bike AGAIN!!
guess who won't be biking tomorrow!?!

i fell off my bike today.
i think i may have permanently damaged any hope of having children...

excellent

wanna hear something excellent?
I FIXED MY COMPUTER!! whoo who!! all by myself! :) now i can check my email and blog on MY computer and not have to use alli or rachel's. to celebrate i'm adding some extra pictures to the few i have from the rest of the weekend at gospel choir.
this first picture is from last spring. that's me, whitney, kristi and rachel trying to all jump at the same time. whitney looks amazing!!
this is my very FAVORITE picture from spring break. it's my momma... roller skating. you go mom! :)
and then these are from the concert saturday night... i didn't get any taken "of" the choir so hopefully someone will email me or facebook me some good ones of the choir. i'll of course share them with you laters. the concert was amazing by the way.
i've really been struggling with my attitude towards the choir and haven't been able to really worship with them in a while. in my devotions that morning God showed me these verses in a passage where Jesus was talking about the pharisees...
"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men. They have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men."
and i stopped and thought about my attitude. i don't want my worship to be in vain, and if i'm just singing with my mouth and lips because it's tradition, and not getting my heart involved then my worship is in vain. i shared this passage with the choir during our prayer time before the concert encouraging them not to let their worship be in vain... and you know what? it WASN'T in vain!! God really moved in my heart and it was one of THE best worship experiences i've ever had!! sunday night then too! :)
my good buddy sarah johnson came to the concert. she's studying "abroad" in chicago this semester. and boy oh boy does i misseth her!!

linzers and i after we sung our hearts out!

this is emily foxworthy. she's awesome. and it's really kewl... her grandma and my grandma were and are best friends. crazy, huh?

this is my incredible r.a. chelsey mckay!! i can't wait to get to know her better this summer! she's in the olivetians traveling group. :)

and here we have the choir sunday night at kankakee first church of the nazarene. amy slonecker and i stood in the back row, to the left... behind courtney on the end in green.
and thus ends my blog for this morning. see you on the flip flop! :)

figuring it all out... :)

so this weekend was a blast singing and being with the choir. i have a few more pictures to share with you but i'm not in my room right now so i can't post them at the moment. i also super cleaned and did my laundry and PUT IT ALL AWAY!!! this weekend. praise the Lord. cleanness is soooo wonderful!!! (yes mommers, i just said "cleanness is wonderful" ha!)

registration is today and this whole next week and lately (well, all year... no, actually for as long as i can remember) i've been really praying and seeking direction about my life. i'm a social work major, and i love it... but i have room for something else. i want to study abroad next year in the spring and there are two places that i am trying to decide between going to. one would be latin america. if i went there, then i could add spanish as a double major because i would have enough credits to do so. or i'm thinking about the middle east. not only would i have an opprotunity to learn arabic (although not sure how much i would be able to learn), i would learn about the history of my faith as a christian, and about muslims and jews and their beliefs. then i would possibly have an international buisness/ missions/ something minor to go with social work. i really want to be a missionary. there is this desire deep within me that just wants to go... and i feel like God has called me into the mission field, but that he's also using me as a missionary right here in bourbonnais. it's really scary to think about... but i am going to be praying and seeking his face and you know what? if God wants me to be in latin america then i believe my passion for spanish will return and he will make it clear that he wants me to go. and if God wants me to go to the middle east, then he will continue to call me and pull me in that direction. that decision is really scary for me... it's dangerous to go there... and i won't go unless God calls me, but i know that if i seek him now that he WILL clearly lead me and not forsake me no matter what i decide.
here are some pictures of the middle east and then of latin america. i ask you, my blogging family, to lift me up in prayer as you have time or remember. pray that God would reveal to me his plan for my life... not the whole plan, but that he would guide me in my decisions about education, classes and studying abroad. and pray that i wouldn't get off course or distract myself with the excitement of going somewhere new, but that i would focus on being a social worker and desiring to find where God can best use me as an agent of his love and life.

there are several choruses i'd like to leave you with that i keep singing over and over and over again. i love you. be blessed! :)

tell me why
i don't understand
tell me why
or show my your hand
tell me why because i can't see my way through
what now, should i do?

i will go where you want me to go
i will do what you want me to do
yes, i will go! where you want me to go
i will be who you want me to be
anything for you...
every step i take
every move i make
you are by my side
and i will be strong
my strength is in you!

you lived!
you died!
and you rose again on high!
and you opened the way
for the world to live again
hallelujah!
for all you've done!

Jake Randall's CD Release!!

so tonight was jake randall's cd release party. he concerted it up and the gospel choir chimed in for a few bars. it was really fun. here's some shots from the night.

we start off with linz and i looking hot as always... ha ha!... and then we had beth take a picture so i didn't cut off my head. ;)

here's jake singing his heart out. it all sounded really good. and he had a great turnout.

here's my half of the choir.

and here's linz's half.

I LOVE THE CELLO. that's all there is to it. i love it when allison plays the cello. i love it when melissa (my favorite girl ever!) plays the cello, and i love it when this amazing girl amanda plays the cello. it adds SO much to the worship experience i think. i wish i could play it. such a beautiful instrument!! keep up the playing ladies!!

here's a shot of the stage.

this is lindsey. she has THE most amazing voice i've ever heard. i love it when she sings with jake. and that's nick in the background. he's awesome.

another shot of mr. jakey. ;)

so i've decided that i make really REALLY weird and funny faces when i sing. AND i almost lit myself on fire. check out my skirt in proximity with those candles. yeah, it was close. rach said she would have taken my skirt off me if it caught on fire. can you imagine that!?! AH!! :)

and this is my rachel. she drove me home. i love her.

hope you liked the pictures!! our gospel choir concert is tomorrow night so be sure there are way more pics to come. oh, and the klines are coming tomorrow night so you bet your buttons there'll be more!! have a great night... see you laters!!

*those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength!*

the week past

yeah... so i've gotten out of the blogging habit this week. i've had a kinda rough week i think, and i don't really know why... not a lot of homework, i only worked tonight... i think i've just felt rather stagnant. like i'm not moving forward at all. weird.
this week was kewl in that i'm planning for co-leading the Sister 2 Sister mentorship program here on campus next semester.. it's for freshman and we hook up freshman girls with upperclassmen female mentors to help them out around campus, get to know them, and develop relationships spiritually. it's a really exciting program. well this week we put into action a plan to get the women of this campus who are faculty and staff involved in sponsoring the mentors... they'd pray for a small group of upperclassmen and then meet once a month and just hang out. i'm sending out letters to all the women tomorrow and we have a meeting with them in two weeks on tuesday the 4th. i'm super excited about this new aspect of the ministry. i'm praying God will make it happen and that it will be awesome for not just the mentors but the sponsors as well.
but yeah... so it's been a good week, i've just felt kinda down. paul johnson's little girl brooke needs some prayer if you think about it and prof olney's sister took a turn for the worst this week... so hold them up if you have a chance.
gospel choir concerts this weekend.. and lindsey's parents are coming!!! yay keith and jana!! :) hope the weekend rocks. i'm sure i'll get some pics to share later. welpers, i love you. peace out.

molly taylor just emailed me this quote...
"Never let anything so fill you with sorrow that you forget the JOY of Christ risen!"
amen. :) he is RISEN!!! praise Him!