New sister in Christ!!!

The beginning of the semester started out as I was feeling a bit down. Like I had already tried to visit many students last semester, and I didn't have anyone left to go to their rooms, or whatnot. At least not new students. But I realized there are over 5,00 intl students at MSU, and surely I hadn't talked to all of them. Plus there were many students I would see in the dorms, that I knew I had never met before.

I decided to knock on some new doors, people I didn't have a card for, but I figured it was worth a shot. One of the doors I knocked on belonged to a girl named Wendy. I started talking to her and doing a picture survey with her, but halfway through she had to run to meet a friend she forgot about, but she really wanted to finish our conversation.

So the next week I came back, and we got into a conversation talking about God, and I was able to go through our short booklet called "Knowing God Personally." In it there are 4 main points that are basically the meat of the Gospel. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. But because of our sin (choosing to go our own selfish way and not choosing God) we cannot experiencing this love and plan. Jesus is God's only provision for our sin so we can know Him personally and experience His love and plan. We must individually receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord and then we can experience God's love and plan.

After sharing this with her, and a little of my own personal story, she

wanted to pray right then and there to have God come into her life so she could know Him personally and experience His love in her life. I was so excited! Here I was not very ambitious about talking to new people, and one of the first people I talked to was interested in God!

I am so thankful, and am excited to see how God uses Wendy and helps her to grow more!

It was cool too that we had a game night shortly after, and We

ndy was able to come and meet some new people, as she doesn't have too many friends on campus still. Over 40 people ended up coming to the game night, and we were able to build some new friendships!

Here's a picture below!

Believer's Overnight

At the very beginning of January, we had an overnight just for our Chinese friends who are Christians. We wanted them to all meet each other (since many didn't know each other) and have a time of fellowship and growth in their Christian walk.

It has been so hard getting any of our key students to attend conferences with Bridges or CCC. We have tried many things, and so having just a short 24 hours seemed like a great way just to start the ball rolling this semester and get students started on the right foot.

Six of our 17 believers were able to make it! This was a great turnout and we were excited that we were able to get that many students together at one place at one time (our bigger parties are all nonbelievers from all over campus, and about 1/3 to half of the students invited usually come)

We started the night with pizza and getting to know one another, talked about the worthiness of Christ, to help fix their eyes on the Lord for the weekend, and then played some games and shared stories and laughter. I missed part of the games and such because I was still getting over my terrible cold I had the week before.

The next morning we had to pull students out of bed to get them to help make breakfast, and start our first session of the day. It turned out the girls (two to a room) all stayed up talking into the wee hours of the morning. It was great they were forming friendships and such, but not so good if you want people to be awake to learn stuff. :-)

Our first session was how to spend time with God, and we gave them time to spend reading their bibles. Then we talked about how to share your faith with friends, family, and others you meet on campus and at work. we then took a break for lunch and some sledding!!!! Most students had never played in that much snow before ( about a foot and a half) and LOVED it!

Afterwards we warmed up with hot chocolate and talked about the importance of fellowship. Overall it was a great 24 hours, and I think the students were greatly encouraged and built up by this time!

Libya

So I have a new update about some of my Libyan friends. So there are 35 Libyan students all at MSU. They are a part of a special program designed just for them. They are sent here by their government to learn English, and politics, so they can return to their country and be diplomats and ambassadors. 6 of the 35 are women. I know 5 of them.

One of the women, I met briefly last year, but this year, I have found she hangs out in the same place during lunch time every day. She is 4 months pregnant and wants to see a doctor, but because of communication problems, and her own stubbornness, this has been quite a difficult process. So I have been helping her over the past couple weeks to call different offices and to figure out the details to help her make an appointment.

As I spend so much time with them, I know I am not sharing the Gospel verbally, but each day I am able to share the Gospel through my actions, and my patience and just in small ways as I help her and make friends with another girl that hangs out with her. I feel so privileged to be able to meet with them, and I keep praying that God will use me in their lives to show them the love of Christ, and that their lives would be changed by Him.

broken vessel

So last night, I faced a difficult night once again. I feel like I get to this point each night, where I am just down and out. Like nothing is right, and I don't know what's wrong. I realized last night I just needed to face the Lord with some of these things head on.

Even though it was 11pm, and I really wanted to just go to bed, I knew I had to just hash it out with the Lord. I feel like I had just been putting a band-aid on a gaping wound. I would spend time with God ( I've spent more time with God this semester than ever before), but at the end of the day, I still just felt empty/wrong... like something just wasn't right with me.

I've been better since I recognized I've been facing a bit of spiritual battle, and been fighting against Satan, but I realized I had some of my own personal demons I needed to deal with. As I started to work it out and journal about it, and get to the root of my problems, it was as if God was ripping the band-aid off my wound. It hurt, I was crying out to God, but I knew I needed to work through the matter, and not just seek someone or something to soothe me.

As I figured out exactly what my problem was, what the root of the issue was, it made sense. I kept feeling like I am the only one experiencing feelings like these, but then as I cleared up and pinpointed what was wrong, I realized I have heard story after story of others facing this same road. Some didn't figure it out until they were neck deep in a big mess that was about to suffocate them. I am just happy that God does love me and cares about me enough to help me to figure out what actually was causing this gaping wound in my soul, and then helped me to at least start stitching it up one little bit at a time.

I know I will continue to deal with this, and it's not unusual, many other women walk this same road as I. But the difference is what I turn to. Will I turn to the things of this world to make me feel better? Or will I open my heart to God and let him pour salt in my wound to help disinfect it, and cleanse it before it can heal?

Last night I chose God. and he showed me that I am a broken vessel. I am a jar of clay, easily breakable, and has many cracks already, but I am God's exact work of art. He has a purpose for each and every single one of those cracks, and will use me for His purposes. He doesn't need me, but He chooses to use me in a way infinitely more than what I can do on my own.

On my own, I would try and fill myself with water that keeps pouring through the cracks, getting me frustrated, and settling for stagnant junk floating on the top of whatever water is left in me. But God wants to fill me with His living water. A spring that will overflow, even though the water will pour through the cracks in my life, God will keep me filled, and continue to fill me if I let Him.

Praise be to Him. The author and perfecter of our faith.

new eating habits

So one thing I wanted to do this year was start eating healthy. Right after I returned back after my conference, my roommate announced she was going gluten-free again. She gets sick from it sometimes, and after a bad winter break, she decided she needed to cut the gluten out again.

My mom has cut almost all simple carbs and sugar (besides fruits) out of her diet. I'm not sure I could go quite that extreme but I know it's healthy. When I was sick, I stumbled upon a newsletter and some other healthy eating tips and guides. I was intrigued and thought about implementing some of these things into my own diet and some maybe slower than others.

Since all I could really eat when I was sick was juice and eggs, I thought it might be easy to make changes to my eating habits since I had a few days head start with no cookies, breads, sugars or other foods I get attached to. I knew it would be hard to cut all gluten and sugar out at the same time, so I thought I would start with gluten, with the help and support of my roommate and then possibly cut out sugar as well.

As I started though, I was still pretty congested from being sick, and milk products were making it worse, so I cut all dairy out too. Then I read about how dairy really isn't that good for you anyway, even the raw milk and such! Then I read about how soy and soy products are really bad for you. One lady suggested throwing out all processed foods in your house. Basically anything that has ingredients you can't pronounce. These mostly have high-fructose corn syrup or soy derivatives. I knew the dangers of high fructose corn syrup and she made a good point, that if your health is really worth it to you, then why not get rid of $10-25 of junk sitting in your cupboard. the $1 mac and cheese I hold on to really isn't worth it when you think of it as eating glorified plastic.

Plus I really wanted to make these changes really to help me to eat more vegetables. I like veggies, and I eat them all the time. I just don't like buying them ( they usually go bad) and cooking them ( I think it takes too much time, sometimes).

now that I don't have pretzels/chips, baked goods, and breads and pastas to fill up on, I fill up on veggies instead, and I know it's good for me, but I just needed a little help. So cutting gluten out, really helped me to make these changes. I might not keep gluten out of my diet forever, but just this semester at least to get used to snacking on healthier things and filling up on the good stuff, not the junk stuff, or whatever is "quick" and "easy"

sick at beginning of year

So my first weekend in January I had a conference in Dallas, TX. This was to help prepare me to co-lead a summer project in the Middle East this summer!!!! :-)

I was super excited when I found out about helping lead 5 weeks of reaching out to Muslims with a couple that are really awesome (on my staff team at MSU) and their 7 month old daughter. I got to fly with a Bridges friend of mine from MSU who is also helping lead a project overseas this summer. So it was nice not having to travel alone. Usually I go to all these conferences and travel alone, but our plane tickets were paid for, so it didn't matter which airline I had miles with or whatever, but we picked the most convenient, but not too expensive flight.

It was a very encouraging weekend and I got a lot out of it, but the last day of the conference I woke up not feeling so great, and as I started my day, decided I needed more rest. By noon I had a fever. I had to skip the rest of the seminars and training sessions. What made it worse was knowing the next day of travel home started at 6am and ended at 7pm. :-(

Dayquil and Ibuprofen we my best friends.

After my third day of fever all day, I went to the doctor's and they said I didn't have flu or a sinus infection, but some kind of infection. So much for a day off. I spent all day sick! Thursday I still wasn't up for more than walking from my kitchen to my bedroom. By friday afternoon I finally felt like the fever was going. 5 DAYS! I haven't had a fever for 5 days in a LONG time. but everyone was getting sick. At the conference, of every group leading a trip, at least one of the members got sick. Even when I got back, it seemed this illness spread through many not just on our campus, but many of my friends across the country seemed to get this same or a similar illness. yuck. what a way to start the year