A Gangling Epoch Fated

First off I would just like to say that I love the thesaurus! It's amazing! I love it =D

Now for the important stuff. Sorry for being in between so long, but I've been ridiculously busy, and richly blessed as well. So I'll give you the short version update of Pueblo and my life... as short as my short posts ever are at least. I'll be leaving a lot out, but I'll touch on the particularly important parts =)

Ready? Here goes...

Hurrah! I'm 22 years old! Whoop-whoop! I had a splendid birthday with my family and boyfriend. We pretty much just hung out and watched movies, which was perfect. It was really good just to be together, especially when considering that next year I won't be with them during my birthday, God willing. That was the last truly restful weekend I've had in almost a month now. It will be over a month by the time I get another one. So I'm very thankful for that time =) Yay for 22!

The Monday directly following my birthday started an intense week of prayer, which was lovingly titled "Prayer Week"! Isn't that title original? I spent hours slaving over a perfect name for the week and came up with that 100% original, never been used, and certainly not obvious title for it. I think I might get a patent on it ;) Prayer week was phenomenal! We had a lot of people come and pray with us over the campus. The first two days we had about 12 people show up on both days and the rest of the week went from around 10-8 people depending on what was happening on campus during that day. We got to prayer walk each section of our campus and really invite the Spirit in to come and change things. I think it's been a good thing, and I'm looking forward to hearing how the next one goes.

After our week of prayer the prayer team go together Saturday to have a mini-prayer retreat, which was really wonderful as well. The team got to really connect with each other and talk about prayer, what it is, why it's important, how we should pray etc. It was a really unifying thing I think. The biggest complaint I've heard about the prayer team is that we aren't really much of a team, so we're trying to get that happening and give people individual responsibilities to take care of. Which is great for Anthony and I because then the weight of the prayer ministry isn't all on our shoulders, and our team of people get to practice leadership in a greater fashion.

By the end of the semester I hope to have a prayer seminar/work shop day with Crusade where each member of the prayer team will teach on a different aspect of prayer and then apply it to our lives. My goal is to get Crusaders interested in prayer so that they can do a 24/7 prayer room ministry next year some time. 24/7 prayer is a major thing that's sweeping the nation and campuses all over the place so that students can intercede for the lost and the nations. It's really, really exciting, but right now we just don't have enough interest in prayer to get that kind of movement going on our campus.

Also this last weekend the Serbia Xperience '08 team got together for their training weekend. Russell is going to Serbia over the summer, so I took him up to the Springs for the training and hung around the Springs doing my own thing. What I did get to see of the team is really exciting. There are way fewer people going this summer, and I think that they're a little nervous about the numbers, but I think it's a good thing. What ran through my mind is that maybe there isn't as great a need for lots of people to go because the Serbs themselves are going to be stepping up into leadership in ministry there. Isn't that an exciting idea? At any rate, things are definitely changing for Serbia, if you've been reading the news I'm sure you know about it. And I think that God is really going to be working through all the changes there. The team looks good, I'm excited to see how things go with this group of people. So far there are only 3 guys going who are students, and two interns that are guys, and there are I think something like 7 girls going and 1 intern girl, plus the staff leaders. So significantly fewer numbers, especially where men are concerned.

As for me, I've gotten my application to go on Stint in. Yep, still planning on going to Serbia in the fall for year. Despite all the press about unrest in Serbia, I'm not nervous at all about going and I still feel like that's where I should be. I'm really excited to be going, and rather jealous (not gonna lie) of the summer project team because they get to go a lot sooner than I do. Sad moment! But I'll get to stay for a year, so I still win out ;) I'm terribly anxious to find out whether or not I've been accepted. I believe all the men who are Stint now are applying to re-Stint for the fall, and I think one or two of the women there are also applying, and possibly another woman who is currently Stinting in Hungary. I don't have any confirmation about that, but I've been praying that the Lord would assemble the right team for Stint next year. And to tell the truth, the media has really skewed the way things are going in Serbia. The rioting has not been nearly so bad as the American media has made it look. There have been many peaceful protests and the 'mob' of people who took out the US embassy were only a small group. The Stint team has said that they feel safe and unthreatened. Just an FYI in case you think I'm crazy for wanting to go over there. And besides, I am a little crazy anyway.

As for the rest of life, things have been busy and exhausting. God has been really good and kept me going, although I have had a couple weeks of just feeling dry and distant from everything and every one. But things are much better now. Presently I'm fighting hard against a cold and losing the battle. Which leaves me rather cranky and feeling much like I don't want to do anything, not even sing, which for me is a big deal. I've been writing music like mad over the last week. I finally got some manuscript paper and I'm just as happy as a clown, but not as creepy as one.

The Lord has been really good about reassuring me in my relationship with Russ, and giving me strength to trust Him in our relationship which is really, really hard. You go through a lot of life and find something that good and then something happens and it's taken away, and you get to a place where you start to expect it and you put your heart in a box and try to keep yourself from feeling anything too much for fear of being hurt when the good is suddenly gone. I think that's a pretty universal thing that happens with people, especially in relationships. So that's been my struggle, keeping my heart out of the box and in God's hands and trusting Him with this wonderful thing. Because what God is doing in this relationship is way better than good, which makes it all the more risky to put myself out there and be real with this man, not to with hold who I am or hide it, but also not to just put it all out there at once too. I have been richly blessed to get to know Russ more and spend time with him, and have the greater blessing to have been drawn closer to God in the process as I allow Him to love me and heal me through this relationship. It's rough trusting Him completely, but it's been really good and rewarding to do so as well. As I was walking around this weekend the Lord was reminding me that every good and perfect gift comes from Him, and I was able to take comfort in that and rejoice in it. Because this is a good and perfect gift, and if it's from the Lord, it's worth trusting Him with too =)

Ok, I think that's all for the time being. I pray that you are blessed indeed! I'll try not to be too long between posts again, but no promises. Things are so crazy right now. *hugs* all around!