Life is a Party!

The Halloween party tonight, was fantastic! I had so much fun decorating, seeing all the costumes, watching/playing the games, dancing, and visiting with people. I couldn't help but notice there were many people just sitting around, not doing much. If that's how they have fun then that's great! I have to be honest though if people weren't having a good time, it had nothing to do with the party. The party is what you make of it. Life is what you make of it! If you want to sit around like a bump on a log complaining about everything, then that is your choice. You can have fun at whatever you do even if it might seem "lame". The next time you feel like complaining, don't. Think about instead what you can do to make it better, and you will always have fun!

Baking

I can't even remember the last time I baked anything. So when I was asked if I wanted to help bake some cakes for the Providence Halloween party I was pretty excited. Apparently it's not like riding a bike because I could not crack the egg. Luckily Sarah was there to save the cake from eggshells. I love the smell of something baking in the oven!

Don't worry if you're planning on eating the cake I only had a small part in making it. It's going to be great! The whole party is going to be great so I encourage everyone to come out who can!

Camper Cards

Well it's that time of year, end of October, getting ready for Halloween, and the camper cards get mailed out to the counselors. I recieved 42 newsletters last week meaning I have to attach a personal note for all of the campers I had over the summer, and then mail them out before October 31. This is an extremely time consuming task, and time is something I've been lacking lately. Once I get going I enjoy writing to all the campers. I have a little bit of a basic format, telling them what I'm up to, reminding them what they did this summer, encouraging them to come back , and I try to give every girl a different Bible verse I think applies to them.
I've only written seven so far, and the huge stack of letters remains looming over me, literally; they're on the shelf above me. The work of a counselor is never finished!

Garbage Picker

I was just minding my own business, sitting in my room doing homework, when my roommate comes in panicked. She realized she had left her retainer on her tray at lunch so it had likely been thrown out. Being the empathetic person I am, I laughed. Then I suggested she ask the kitchen if who ever was doing dishes had found it. She wasn't up for that idea, but knew her dad would kill her if she didn't try to look for it. I told her we had to look, and the worst that could happen would be we'd have to dig through the garbage.

We ended up having to dig through the garbage. It was really disgusting, you would not believe how much food people waste. There was a whole slice of bread, a whole slice of pizza, and even a whole wrap amongst the lunch scraps. We started getting worried as we were able to see the bottom of the garbage can. Finally I found the retainer, with someones banana peel, spaghetti, and rice wrapped around it, but it was fine. She was really happy to have her retainer back. She put it back in her mouth right away! Just kidding; she's boiling it as I type. It wasn't too bad digging through the garbage, but I don't recommend you try this at home.

What to Wear?

This weekend my friend came to Winnipeg, and I went to meet her. She's getting married in May, so she wanted to do her wedding dress shopping. I was really excited to go with her, her mom, another friend, and one of her friends I didn't know. It was really exciting to look through all the dresses and see her try them on. There were some really beautiful ones, and they're were some straight up ridiculous ones. After a few hours, shopping lost the glamor, we were starving, and all the dresses had started to look the same. We decided we were going to look at one more store, but my friend thought she would just have a dress made because she wasn't finding anything. We ended up going in and couldn't find a whole lot. I pulled out a dress that was really different than the kinds we had been looking at and convinced her to try it on. She came out looking stunning! It was the dress for her! It was even on sale, half the price of most of the dresses she'd been trying on. I can't wait to see her walk down the aisle in the dress I picked out for her.

Costco

Who doesn't love Costco? My grandparents think its the greatest thing ever. Whenever they drive into the city they always want to take us to Costco for supper, mostly because it's cheap.

I've noticed that if you were to try the samples they always have, it's pretty much like eating a meal.

My grandparents took us out tonight to eat there, something that used to embarrass me. Most families go out for supper somewhere nice, we don't even go to a real restaurant. One time when my grandparents were visiting, my grandpa wanted to take us to Costco to eat but he didn't have a Costco card, and my parents were away. My brother and I ended up following my grandpa, who sneakily entered the wrong way, to make it past "security" into Costco. We ate our food, and then for dessert, he pulled McDonald's apple pies out of his jacket pocket. He's definitely a one-of-a-kind guy, but I love him.

Home away from home away from home!

I like being at Prov. and hanging out with my new friends, but I still miss my friends in the city (Winnipeg). I was asked at supper if I wanted to tag along and go to the city with some people. I still have homework to do but I couldn't turn down the offer. We drove to the U of M campus and I surprised my friend in dorm.
Thank goodness my friend is letting me use her computer so I can do my blog!
It's nice to be able to catch up with my friend and just have a relaxing evening in her dorm and meet some of her friends.

Gossip Girls

My roommate and I were talking on Tuesday night, and we decided we needed a change. We had just finished gossiping pretty harshly about someone and noticed our gossiping was getting really out of hand. That statement is really funny for us to think about because my roommate has never been one to gossip her whole life, and I am usually very careful about what I say about others. We agreed to make a complain/gossip jar (like a swear jar) and for every time we complain or gossip, put a quarter in the jar. When we have enough money we’ll buy a fish! I’m sure I could quit gossiping cold turkey, but I hope my roommate can’t, because I really want that fish!

God's Calling Me!

So I finally feel called in my life. I mean I'm always listening for God to tell me what to do with my life, or at least I've always felt I've been listening, but nothings ever been really clear to me. Today at chapel though, I felt really clearly what direction I should head.

It was really hard for me to decide what to do after high school because I didn't know what I wanted to study, or where. To be honest I don't have a clear reason for choosing to come to Providence, and I really like it here, but I sometimes question if I've made the right choice. I've always had an interest in drama and journalism, but I've also always had an interest in guiding kids (from the experience of volunteering at kids clubs and as camp counselor) and thought maybe I would be a teacher like my mom. Plus I'm a fan of the whole summer vacation deal. I wanted to do many other things too like a lawyer, doctor, astronaut, entrepreneur, and many others, so I've been having a hard time to narrow my path of interest. For as long as I can remember though, I always thought in the back of my head I would be a missionary. When I would think about what career path I wanted to follow, I would always think about whether or not it would be useful as a missionary. I've probably started thinking this way since grade 3, when we billeted a Philippino woman from YWAM, who had come to do her outreach to the native reserve beside my town. A couple years later my family ended up doing a YWAM outreach to an orphanage in The Philippines.

Today, in chapel, I felt clear as a bell that I was needed in Africa. My friends have always teased me that I'm going to be a missionary in Africa, but secretly I've always believed them. I'm a lifeguard, so I've been taking first aid courses for a few years now and it's always been interesting to me. This has played a role in helping me decided that I want to take nursing (something I've never really considered before) and work at an orphanage in Africa! I think God has always put that on my heart, but its such a radical idea it would be hard to follow; I haven't been taking it as a serious option. I can just imagine my extended family's and friend's reactions; they would think I'm crazy. But I can't follow them, I have to follow God, and what he's placed on my heart.

Failure is Not and Option

I may have quit things in the past, (like figure skating, piano lessons, gymnastics, guitar lessons, soccer, ringette, baseball, you get my point) but fail? NO! I am not a failure. So why did I completely blank on my calc midterm today? I can't fail that exam, I don't like to fail.
Nevertheless I'm pretty sure I did. I knew the stuff I blanked on too. It was the easy stuff. The stuff I waved my prof on about when I asked him questions before the exam. I knew how to do it!
The point of the exam is to demonstrate what I have learned. That wasn't an accurate representation of my knowledge. I know I know that stuff and my prof knows I know that stuff; why then do I have to determine my mark through a failed exam?

I built these walls, well I decorated them

Last night I finally reached my breaking point, I was fed up with my bare looking room. I had tried to brighten it up by putting up pictures, but there were still so many bare spots. I had meant to bring more pictures or something else to decorate my room with when I was home for thanksgiving, but I forgot. My roommate had offered me construction paper, and at first I politely declined, but eventually I gave in. I ended up using the construction paper to make a pretty border around the room. Then, because I'm a knitter, I used some yarn I have to make a big squiggle pattern on my wall I organized my pictures around the yarn. I know what you're thinking, "Construction paper and yarn? TACKY!" but I have to say, I like it!

Vintage 21

Today I was showing the vintage 21 videos to a couple friends, and I don't think they found it as funny as I did. These videos are on You Tube and I guess to some people can be considered controversial. Personally I find them hilarious. The videos are done by a youth pastor, and they're supposed to represent how the secular world views Christianity. He's taken clips from the movie The Greatest Story Ever Told, and he's dubbed voices over top to change the "Jesus story" to what non-Christians might view as the "Jesus story".
There's one part where I think in the movie Jesus is greeting all of his disciples, but in the vintage 21 videos hes telling each of them what they've done wrong since he's seen them last, "Andrew you said a naughty word when you hit your finger with a hammer, James you laughed at him when he hit his finger".
I think it's a funny way to open up non-Christians eyes to see how silly it is to think that Jesus only allows us to have fun if we're "laughing at how dumb the devil is", or we can only be Christians if we "wear a t-shirt with (Jesus') face on it". Some people think the videos are making fun of God, but i think you don't know God very well if you think those videos are how Jesus lived here on earth.

Everybody wants to go to Heaven

Why are people uncomfortable with Christianity? Why aren't non-Christians searching for God? Why don't they worry about what happens after death? I think they are searching for God on some level, but they're scared of what they'll find.

I asked my dad how people could believe in aliens or ghosts, but they couldn't believe in God. He told me it's because ghosts and aliens don't require a commitment, believing in them doesn't change your whole life.

I was at a party over the weekend and my friends boyfriend (we'll call him Jim) asked what I would do if one of my friends was gay. Because he was intoxicated I told him my friend wasn't gay and shrugged him off. He continued to follow me telling me I would be really sad because my friend would go to hell and I'd never see him again. I told him that just because he would be gay didn't mean God wouldn't forgive him if he asked. Jim responded by telling me it says gays can't go to heaven in the Bible. I finally recognized that Jim wasn't trying to bug me about about some friend being gay or just talking nonsense from being intoxicated; he was curious about heaven and hell.

I quoted Romans 10:9 to him and I explained the best I could that being gay was a sin along with pedophilia, murder, stealing, and lying, and that we've all sinned. All sin separates us from God, but through Jesus we can be forgiven. He argued with me saying he didn't believe that God could forgive someone as evil a murderer. I told him" God knows your heart and knows if you honestly want that forgiveness. If you truly do ask for that forgiveness you'll want to live your life to honor Him, which includes abstaining from a gay lifestyle, if you were gay, and therefore you would go to heaven."

His girlfriend and a few other friends had come up to us and started begging for him to shut up. My friends know I'm a christian, and because of it they act like there's an unwritten rule not to talk to me about God because I'm going to condemn them to hell. I wish they would understand I'm not trying to condemn them to hell just because I'm helping them to recognize they're not living for God; I want them to go to heaven. I get really excited when I am able to talk about God to non-Christians, particularly my friends. I just wish everyone else wasn't so uncomfortable.

Prodigal God

Over the weekend I was able to go home. So of course I had to bring homework, and of course I didn't start it until Monday. As I was sitting in my room trying to focus before I had to head back to school, I could hear my dad put in a DVD in the next room. I'm not really sure what this DVD was for; my parents host a young adults group every other Sunday so it could be for that. Nevertheless I found myself distracted listening to a lecture called the prodigal God.
Every time I heard the parable of the prodigal son, I've always found myself more curious about the older brother. I felt he was never really explained well enough to me. This DVD talked about that story of the older brother. The older brother is supposed to represent those who are seeking to receive their inheritance from their father by following all the rules. This older brother could be called a christian, or someone who is living for the lord. The older brother could be compared to the Pharisees as well when Jesus told it.
In all of the the other parables about something being lost, there was always someone to find it. In the prodigal son no one goes looking for him. This is because it is assumed that the older brother's job is to look for his lost brother. It is his responsibility to look for him no matter what the cost is to bring him home. It was his job to bring him home just like it is our job to bring our lost "brothers and sisters" to Christ.
Jesus is our big brother. He earned his inheritance by following all the rules, but at his cost, he came to look for us, so that we can share his inheritance in heaven.
I had never had that parable explained to me like that, it really makes me look at the whole parable differently.
Too bad it distracted me from homework.

Karaoke Night!

For this blog entry, I was asked to observe a particular scene and to describe what was going on. I started out in the student lounge center, but I didn’t notice too much activity. Later on I attended the student Karaoke night, and I realized that is what I wanted to describe.

The hosts looked nervous as they began warming up the eager crowd, who were still awkwardly filing into the room. The audience continued to watch attentively as the hosts gestured to the sign up sheet, begging someone to write their name and choose their song for karaoke. One of the hosts improvised a commercial to entice the audience to help themselves to the refreshment table. To demonstrate how great the food was, he shoved a handful of popcorn into his mouth and slurped some juice. While the other host offered a corny joke to encourage the crowd, two brave boys crossed the room to sign their names.

The two boys excitedly chose their song and did some warm up stretches while the host invited them on stage. The crowd cheered, showing their support. As the song began to play the boys moved their bodies to the beat. They belted out the song loud, humorous, but good. Reacting to their audience the proceeded to ham up the song with dance moves and even a kiss on the nose from one boy to the other. The audience ate it right up, and other people began approaching the sign up sheet.

Two girls performed a Beyonce song, which included some dancing. Then two boys sang a harmony to a James Blunt song. Two STUCO leaders dedicated the Carrie Underwood “Before He Cheats” song to all the males in the world. The performances were hilarious; the audience was clapping and singing along to the songs. The atmosphere was light as nervous audience members would volunteer to perform the karaoke, and find themselves going up second and third times. It was quite amusing recognizing some of the people and watching them perform.

All of the performers had talent. Whether it was their singing ability, their dance moves, or their ability to captivate the audience with their ridiculous behavior. The laughter from the crowd poured out of the room.

After awhile, another event was announced to be taking place, and the crowd began to dwindle. Some left for the event and some people had just grown tired of the songs. Others, didn’t know when to quit. I was apart of the clean up committee, so I was there until the bitter end.The room, which had been so clean to start with, was covered in popcorn, and juice stains. The audience had moved in and out of the room like a hurricane.

The evening was a fun community event that had everyone laughing together and sharing his or her talents with each other. It didn’t matter if you couldn’t sing, or dance, no one was judging. Everyone was welcome there, and that’s how a community should be.

At what point is someone your friend?
Is it the moment you remember each others name?
The first time you laugh or share a sad moment together?
Is it the moment you have each other on Facebook?
What makes someone truly your friend?
Because I have moved a lot I feel like I know quite a few people. I have definitely had some good friends in my life. There are some people who I've never shared a struggle or sad moment with, I still consider them friends. There are others where its felt like everything they've been there for is the hard times, I still consider them friends. There are those who I've just hung out with at school, but I still consider them friends. There are some people I have on Facebook who I wouldn't really consider my friend. A true friend should be someone you can share your entire self with and be totally comfortable with them. If you don't share your entire self with someone are you still true friends?
I guess friendships have levels, its hard to share everything about yourself with someone else, because everyone is different. Not everyone will support or understand every single thing you do. That doesn't mean you should change yourself so you can have a "true" friend.
That's what I like about Jesus, he's the one person that knows my true potential and encourages me to change myself to live up to it. He knows what will make me happy. He's a true friend.
A few weeks ago my friend and I were changing our pants in the back of her car while some other friends waited outside in the parking lot for us. When they came in, one of the boys asked "isn't one of you religious?" (he was assuming religious people are against changing their pants in the backseat of a car in a parking lot). Everyone pointed at me.
"I'm not religious, I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!" I responded, and everyone burst out laughing as though I told the funniest joke.
Some people don't know what it means to have that true friend. I feel sorry for them, that's why I try to be that true friend for people. That they can understand through me what it means, and hopefully that will lead them to Jesus to have as a true friend.

This weekend I got to go home to Winnipeg. It was great! I got to babysit my little cousins on the Saturday morning. They are twin 2 year olds named Ashley and Julia and they're the cutest little girls. They adore my 15 year old brother and watch him constantly. It was cute because my brother had taken off his shirt to show them how big his muscles were, so they decided they wanted to take off they're shirts too, to check themselves out. They can be pretty loud running around screaming but I don't see how you could ever be angry with them. It's funny how I got to visit a lot of friends over the weekend and went quite few places, but the best part for me was hanging out with my family.

This is the video I was talking about on Tuesday that my roommate and I made. We had so much fun doing it. I figure it has something to do with communications and media being a music video and all. Lets compare the real music video to our video in words.
First of all if you don't know this song, which is probably normal, it's called one time by Justin Bieber. He's a fifteen-year-old kid from Ontario Usher chose as an "apprentice". Don't ask me how I know any of that.
His video communicates to me, that he is in love with a girl, and all the other girls call him, but this girl is the one he chooses. He's going to be her "one guy" she'll be his "number one girl". To me he's communicating he's popular with the ladies.
In our video, we didn't have a specific goal we were attempting to communicate with the audience. We definitely didn't want to communicate the same message as Justin because; we're not interested in having a number one girl or being popular with the ladies. To prevent that from being shown, we tried to include a few boys in there which may have just been more confusing to the audience. I guess the purpose of our video was to entertain us, then to entertain an audience.

Hopefully this video works for you! If it doesn’t I’m uploading it to You Tube, so you should be able to find it if you search my name.