It's been a little while...

I just wanted to share something that I've been learning from a Bible study I did on the book of Daniel. I've been sharing with people all kinds of stuff that I've been learning because it's stuff that I really want to apply to my life. The first half of the study was about living a life of integrity and how that's not a very common thing in our world. It makes you reflect on what things we do that we know we can get away with... even the small things. Antoher thing it has opened my eyes to is that it's not a bad thing to not go along with what culture tells you. If you realize that you're the only one doing something, and it's something good, it's not a bad thing. I've caought myself thinking and overanalyzing situations where I feel like I'm thinking in a completely different way than the people around me. Then I look at what the people are doing around me and realize, I don't want to conform to any of what they're doing.

I'm pretty excited about the whole thing. This last year and a half has been full of different lessons, challenges and refreshing revelations :) Obviously the study I did went into a lot more detail but this is the super super super shortened version. I love that I'm going to spend my entire life learning more about God and learning more about myself. He's so big that we won't even get to know a fraction of Him even after following Him for a lifetime... it's pretty incredible.

Love you all!!

Big Change.

There has been a big change in our Mexico AIA family. Yost (Erica Yost) my roommate is going to be working in Xenia, Ohio at the Athletes in Action Headquarters for the next couple months. This is a huge transition for all of us and I ask that you'd be praying for us, especially her, as everything is going to be different. I'm going to miss her like CRAZY because she is one of my best friends, but I know she's going to do some really great things in Xenia. She's here in Puebla right now to pack up and say goodbyes to all the teams. Needless to say, when she leaves on January 17, it's not going to be fun.

Thanks for all your prayers!!

Short note about the teams

It was so fun to come back and see the volleyball and basketball teams!!! I know it's only been a couple weeks since I've seen them but it was still great to be able to hang out again. Volleyball is just as awesome as ever and I've spent all week at their practices. Basketball can use a lot of prayer. Recently (over break) their coach took a job in the U.S. The thing with majority of the sports in Mexico is their season lasts the entire year. So, in other words, their coachless for the second half of the season, including the Finals in May (I think). They've interviewed a couple people but so far nothing left. Their games start next week and they have yet to practice. Please keep them in your prayers both for their feelings toward the old coach and for someone to take over that will do a good job. The kicker is that it's a guys team and a girls team that he was coaching so now both are coachless. I know they'll be fine but there are a bunch of changes happening so we'll see... I'll keep you posted!

Since I've been gone....

For some weird reason the Kelly Clarkson song, "Since You've Been Gone" just popped in my head so I figured I'd title this blog, "Since I've been gone" (from Walla Walla, and been back here). It's a stretch, I know, but just humor me. :)

There's have been incredible things happening already and classes haven't even started yet!! I got back last Thursday. By Saturday, Alice had come down from her hometown where she was with her family to stay with us for 2 days while we got to talk a LOT! It was so great because she's going through a really difficult time and transition that is really confusing. The awesome part is that she's so willing to change and seek for help, that she left her vacation early to come and have a mini get-away with us. We spent 2 days, Alice, Abbey and I, talking about how to spend time with the Lord. It's really confusing and hard to be alone with God and get something out of it if there's no direction to it and if you've never done it before. There's a "5 P" Bible study that we went through that talks about
1)Position Yourself (Get away from distractions to a place where you'll be able to focus and try and hear from the Lord.
2)Paraphrase/Pour over the passage (don't just read it once. Paraphrase what it's saying in your own words so it sticks in your mind and makes sense)
3)Pose questions (Ask yourself the hard questions about what it's saying, are we doing that in our own lives...etc)
4)Pull out the truths and promises (What does God say is true and He promises in that Scripture. These are things we can hold on to and know they're never going to change or leave).
5)Plan and put a date to obey (whatever we're learning can be applied to our lives so if there's a big decision that needs to be made or a change that has to take place, plan how we're going to do it and a date we're going to do it.)

It has been such a blessing to spend so much time with her. Even yesterday we got to spend all day talking. Please continue to pray for her. She's in such a cool spot of seeking the Lord and trusting Him with something that's really hard for her and affects a lot of other people.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013!! I hope you're all starting out the year with gusto :) Any New year's resolutions? I don't think I've ever made any resolutions. So maybe that's my resolution... to not make resolutions.

I went home for 2 weeks for Christmas and New Years. I thought I was going to spend New Years in the plane since my flight was on New Years Eve BUT, I wasn't really emotionally ready to leave my family quite yet on that Sunday night and God blessed me with a few extra days! My airline called me Sunday night saying my flight was cancelled and changed to Wednesday!!! It wasn't 4 hours earlier that I was on the phone with the airline checking how much it would cost to change my flight to the next day. $800 seemed pretty steep to stay an extra day so instead God gave me 2 extra days for free :) I love how He works!

My time at home was incredible!! Spending tons of time with family and friends, playing lots of basketball and eating more than the average human. I always feel refreshed after being with the people I love and not having any other agenda. Just spend time and BE! Nothing else. It was amazing.

I loved my time there but I also love being back here in Puebla! I think it's so cool and super hard to be put in different cultures and situations and try and apply all the things that I've been learning and put them into practice. It's completely different apply different things the Lord teaches in one culture and surrounding than another. I found that out just recently (seems like a pretty obvious revelation but alot of things take me longer to learn. Good thing God is patient). Needless to say, I'm still growing and learning alot in my walk with the Lord and am excited to be back to Mexico to continue to be challenged and to grow and to see all the people I love down here too :)

Love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Promises of God

I wanted to give you an update on Alice who I seem to talk about a lot. Recently she shared with me some pretty hard stuff that she's going through. We've been meeting regularly since then and I'm so excited to see what God does through this because she is in a place in her faith where she really wants to do the right thing but above all, she wants to grow closer to the Lord! Regardless of what you're going through, if your heart's desire is to grow closer to God, you're in a good place. I ask you to keep praying for her as her faith and her walk with the Lord becomes her own and becomes REAL! I've been beyond blessed by the conversations I've had with her and have grown in my faith because of a lot of the questions she has asked and by studying Scripture together. Needless to say, it has been awesome.

Philippians 1:6- Be confident that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

God has started something in Alice that has her attention and His promise is to carry it on to completion. Keep praying :)

Love you guys!

Race update

Remember how I asked you to please pray about the half marathon?? Well, I finished it :) My final time was 1:50! I think running is a little bit addicting. My next goal is a full marathon. When? Who knows. Probably a LONG time from now but still, a goal of mine.

Thanks for the prayers! See most of you (the Walla Walla folk) hopefully in a week!

Love you guys!