First Day of Classes

Tomorrow is my first day of classes of my sophomore year here at Purdue University. Their isn't much of a difference between this year and last, but this time, all of my course numbers start with a number 2 instead of a number 1.

This weekend, I have not had a whole lot of time to recharge.  I spent several hours on Saturday working through some relationship issues with a friend of mine.  On Sunday, I was helping out in the nursery for the first church service and then went to the next church service with a few people that I had invited to come with me, as it was their first Sunday on campus.  I definitely enjoyed worshiping next to people that I have grown up with and have become close to over the years.  One of my friends snapped this picture of the worship.

After the small crowd at church during the summer, it was pretty cool to see the crowd of people again, as everyone is back on campus and no one is distracted with schoolwork yet.  The sanctuary was full and the overflow area downstairs was packed as well (they have the service on monitors downstairs). After the second service, we all had pizza together.

In the afternoon on Sunday, I had another event to attend that took another 2 hours of my day.  Now it is late Sunday and I am headed into this new school year with a full heart.  I pray that God will continue to reveal his path for me this year and that He will teach me to love all of those around me.

Mark 12:29-33

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo

Rainy and Refreshing Roadtrips

I've been a bit busy, so this blog is a summary in pictures of my last weekend.

I recently went on a trip with a couple of really good friends of mine, Emma and Jamie.  It started around the time of a sunset, as we all had to meet up after we got off of work or got done with our regular workweek lives.  Emma had planned this and had decided to make it more of a surprise trip for us.  We had some pretty heavy rain on our way to where we were staying that night, but we got through, and the clouds and sky are always pretty if you ask me. 

On our first fantastic stop, we enjoyed a video tour of the Jelly Belly warehouse and ate some delicious jelly beans.  We weren't allowed to take pictures during the tour, but they had a cute sign.

We then proceeded to Mars Cheese Castle where we bought some Wisconsin cheese and made some lunch in the minivan.  Wisconsin cheese is delicious.  

On our way to the next location, it rained a lot.  This is a picture of my window that I thought looked pretty cool.  Of course, our next location was to our campsite, so we were all hopeful that it would stop raining soon.

We only had to sit in the van for a little while before the weather cleared up and we got to see this gorgeous view as we trekked around the campgrounds after the tent was set up.

 The campgrounds had an amphitheater, so Jamie and Emma put on a play for me.  Jamie has a stick in her hand, by the way.

Later that night, we overheard some women talking about a church service on Sunday morning at the amphitheater.  We ended up going to church with a little group from a local church that happened to be camping in the same campgrounds as us!

 We climbed 2 observation towers and were amazed when we reached the top of the second one.  It was pretty cool to see this weather happening so far away.  I was amazed at the contrast that you could see from that distance.  It made me think of about the fact that God is with you, even when you can't see Him working and don't feel Him.  The people that were stuck in that storm were probably not all that happy about having to get wet in order to do anything outside.  Children in the storm may have felt trapped inside.  But the sun was still there.  It was still warming the earth around them just like it has been for a very long time.  They just couldn't see it.  

And on a good note for the three of us, it didn't rain on us for the remainder of the trip.

On Sunday, we headed to the National Mustard Museum.  I had no idea there were so many kinds of mustard, but there are!  Some of them are weirder than others, like Cranberry Mustard or Chocolate Mustard.  

Next to the Mustard Museum was a cute, local diner so we grabbed lunch from there before heading back to Indiana to plunge back into our 'normal' lives.  The diner had some pretty delicious looking carrot cake, but was known best for it's pie, which was delicious!

One last picture of all three of us together at the campgrounds!

On the way back to Indiana I just kept thinking about how grateful I am to have these awesome friends.  These women of God have continuously pulled me back to God through my various highs and lows.  This trip was super refreshing for me.  From laughing at our ridiculous level of silliness together to singing Psalms with made up melodies while sitting on a hill overlooking gorgeous views of God's creation, I am more than happy that these girls decided to get together with me this weekend.  This weekend-long expedition has finished but my friendship with these amazing people has only begun!  

One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo 

Growth

The top picture was taken by my mom while the bottom picture was a picture that I found somewhere on the internet when I decided that I wanted to sketch that day.  Both of the sketches were drawn by me.

This weekend, I took the time to clean out my room at my parent's house so that moving into my apartment this weekend could be as efficient as possible.  While cleaning out my desk at my parent's house, I ran into a couple of sketches that I had done previously.  I was amazed at the different skill level represented between the two sketches.  Both of them are far from perfect and I can definitely see areas where they could be improved, but you can also see that one is done by a better artist.  The one of the bottom has better shading and is less choppy.  Her nose is still a bit crooked, and her eyes aren't drawn right on the line, but in the top one, her forehead is drawn too small and the pencil strokes are much more individual rather than united.  In the top one, the sketch is drawn with her face too wide.  The texture of the top girl's shirt are drawn too dramatically, so they appear more as stripes than as wrinkles.

A lot of people have asked me how I have become reached my current skill level at sketching, and my response is always the same.  I practiced.  This was abundantly clear to me while I looked through my old artwork this weekend.  I have some pretty terrible sketches that I did when I was younger.  The thing is, if I had never drawn those terrible ones, I would never have been able to draw the better ones.  If I had given up and been frustrated with my inability to draw more than sticks with circles to represent a tree when I was 5, I would never have been able to paint a tree on my wall when I was 16.  

This is applicable to many areas of life.  I was not naturally good at very much when I came out of the womb.  I could do the normal baby things pretty well, like sleeping, eating, and pooping.  I was not born with an inherent knowledge of Calculus or how to sketch people.  But I did work at those skills.  I practiced.  I pursued that knowledge.  I ran after them, wanting to become good at them and become one of the best at those things.

I also have to make a very intentional effort to follow God.  Just as I was not born with an inherent knowledge of math, I was not born with natural wisdom.  God is teaching it to me every day as I make an effort to learn what it means to be wise.  I have to work for it.  God is pursuing me, and all I have to do is turn around and ignore the distractions in my life.  I am learning what it means to live a life of faith.  

"Persistently perfect practice procures perfect progress."~Mark Marshall

Only through consistently continuing on this journey of faith will I become better at following God.  Only by the grace of God will I be able to continue on this journey of hope and growth in my spiritual life.  

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To him be glory both now and forever! Amen

2 Peter 2:18

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo