Ushpizin

Summer is going to go by so fast, I can already tell just by how fast this week has flown by....there were so many things that I wanted to get done...most of them are still as of yet, undone. Anyways.....HCCH graduation was on Saturday. Yes, i cried. Yes, i went home and looked through gazillions of boxes of stuff from high school, and I was retrospective. Yearbooks, notes, mementos of stuff I had, sadly, forgotten all about in the two years since high school ended. Crazy how fast time flies by. And how yes, some things change....even if you don't want them to.....and then also, how some things never change. :) You know, certain people you just have a connection with, and even time apart doesn't change that....and other people, it definitely does.

Anyways, enough of the sentimental stuff. God is doing something big. I haven't figured out what it is....but it's going to be incredible. That's all I gots to say on that, but even though I am still slightly apprehensive about this summer, I am EXCITED! I leave for training on Saturday, and then the 30th I'll be flying out of S.A. on this grand adventure that the Lord has in store.

*Random, or maybe not so random, side note*
I am one of those individuals who firmly believes that we learn the biggest lessons in unexpected places. There are new things to be shown all around, and today, I got a big spiritual lesson from a foreign film. If you get the chance, rent "Ushpizin", a Hebrew film (don't worry, if you aren't fluent, there are subtitles). Ushpizin is an Aramaic word which refers to holy guests. Used in this instance, holy guests during the celebration of sabbach, remembering the exodus from Egypt. Anyways, there were some very pointed lessons that were drawn from this film.....so yeah, watch it. Random lessons from today:
*We have a God whom we may fully expect to perform miracles. And even seemingly little things that a busy person overlooks are miracles, things to be on your knees thanking the Lord for, or things that we should be dancing around shouting praises to Him for.
*Tests, or difficult people, are blessings. Revolutionary thought, huh? One which I definitely need to learn.

Anyways.....on a closing note, I won't be writing on here for awhile. Please pray for me during my trip, and for my team, and the people that we will encounter. If you want email updates during the six weeks I am gone, and you didn't already tell me, let me know and I'll get your email address on the list. Love you all.

Dying inside....and nobody knows it but me...

Ok, that's a totally emo title for a post, but country music lyrics randomly popped into my head. anyways.

Sorry for the grouchy post below, hopefully this one won't turn into anything too terribly grouchy. Except that it is the start of my one week of finals/papers/stress. I seriously feel like I could die of a heart attack at any moment. Part of the problem is that everything feels like a bigger deal when you're sick, which I am, of course. It was bound to happen at finals time.

Second big stress: For once I am attempting this new thing called studying hardcore for anthropology, and I CAN'T. The lectures are online, and my comp is too slow, but the computer lab at the apartment doesn't have headphone jacks....so yeah. Failing an online anthropology course is not going to make me a happy camper. Neither will getting evicted from my apartment. The one downside of getting your hours cut at work (which is nice for the study time) is that then you don't have money for little things like, oh, your apartment payments.

so, sorry for the negative tone. I am trying to prepare myself for East Asia, but it's not going so well....someone please just shoot me.