this past weekend!!

oh my! the time is going by soo fast. it is rediculous. last thusday meghan, matt, rebecca, and rebecca all came to visit! it was wonderful to see them and laugh with them! on friday we hit up disneyland- which was sooo much fun (people please visit dland is only 15 min away and never gets old!!!) and saturday we went to laguna and went to the beach, then alisha- megs sister took meghan and me to her house and we had tea. saturday night we went to DV8- a club in hollywood haha and it was sooo funny. it was so fun but the people were so sleesey! it was a lot of fun with them though. my friend rachel, tricia, and emily from biola came tooo! next time we are bringing along some guys so its not as bad haha.

its so nice having them here but its crazy because i have 2 set of friends now...
oh and p.s. we saw X-tina too! it was sooooooo fun seeing her. i missed that women.

as for plans this week.. its going to be crazy.
monday is all day studying to catch up for this weekend. i have 2 papers and 2 tests this week- AH!
wednesday night- i have an SOS meeting to go to. i got recommended to be a SOS leader next year, sooo maybe i'll do it. we'll see!
thursday- all hall fall festival!
friday- GYRAD. get your roommate a date. my date is paul aka so fun. and we are going to ripleys believe it or not! haha sooo random. and the theme is weirdness. soo odd. seriously. i don't know what my RA's were thinking but hopefully it will be fun.
funny story: i asked paul to be justines roommate today over a voice mail before i knew she asked him for me haha so all day he's been laughing because of the situation and i finally saw him and he was like ohh man sooo funny!
saturday- ALL day retreat for SMU. SMU is student missionary union. i applied for a staff position for missions conference, and got it- its for marketing and hospitality. soo now we have bonding time this weekend! haha.
sunday- church hopefully! and then university day and helping out with propspective students!

oh man. sooo this week will be nuts. i just read in shannons blog an amazing verse that one of my professors lead her to.

the Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. he will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing (zephaniah 3:17)

i thought i'd share it. i love you ALLL!

check this out.

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

go to this and for each word you get right they donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger.
its cool how such a simple website can do such a coolthing.

also...
by going to poverty.com you can understand more about world poverty.

FUNFUNFUN and scattered thoughts.

today i walked down to starbucks, which was wonderful. they were blasting obnoxious opera music and it was sooo funny. i don't know why. today has been a bad case of giggles. from the momment i woke up. there are just some days like that... which are wonderful.

so God's been really revealing to me to just being still and waiting for him.
which has been really good.

today at chapel we had an awesome guy come and talk about evangelism. AH it was so good. i bought this huge bible commentary thing on the culture of the new testament. i'm excited to get into it.

so the more i ponder on people i have realized my friends are sooo supportive and i've just been realizing how blessed i am to have such wonderful friends.

down side of the day: my roomie justine is leaving next semester to go back to el paso. which is such a bummer. we are buddies!!! like we hang out all the time, talk all the time, cry together, laugh all the time haha. shes my giggle partner.

i am in the process of writing a paper on capital punishment and its sooooo fun... i will post the final draft when its completed.
not fun as in the issue, but fun because i am passionate about the subject.
seriously any human right thing, throw it at me.

speaking of human rights, denver university (i must go to colorado soon... i feel like i'd love it) has a cool international studies program that deals with a lot of political issues which is awesome. its like biola intercultural studies program plus politics/international relations.
good potential MA program.

praise the LORD for branko coming to know the Lord. keep praying for his health.
also pray for the fires. i know a lot of people who are being affected by it at school with there homes.
someone mentioned it could reach here... but i don't think soo. it looks like death outside.

p.s. i just talked to stephanie and bryan and they were sooooo encoruaging about this whole biola thing. it was so good to hear from people who have experienced biola and ahh it was just so good to think about real things in a different perspective.
so thank you guys :)

good morning jesus

today's been a good day. woke up. read some cool crazy stuff in jeremiah and have just been eased by Gods peace. last night i went to a bible study and it was such a BLESSING. seriously... it was probably the first time i've ever gone to a small group where everyone wanted to be there, where everyone was encouraging, and where everyone was REAL about where they were at. it was awesome. it was so nice sharing with them and having them direct me to God's word. a verse that has been with me all day... well the 4 hours i've been up is philippians 4:6...

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

heard it a billion times right?
yup, haha, well its a good one. especially to be memorized and have hidden in our hearts.
i just need to be still before the Lord and wait for him.

2 blogs in one day yet a different mood

after being in the library for 3 hours my mood has changed haha. although i still feel the same about the blog i posted a feel hours ago, theres someone else to talk about.

i am reading about islam nations, different views on islam, shittes, sunnis, and islamist fundamentalists....
which is very interesting. everytime i read someone about a different religion i remember how much i love learning about different religions. they always catch my interest.

a couple weeks ago after my foundations of global studies i went to an arabic restaurant about 20 min away from biola. theres just about every culture and people group in LA, thats for sure. one plus for LA! when i was there i loved it. my mind was stopped in time. when i'm in a different culture and with different people i don't think about anything else but being there. its a crazy thing. its how life should be most of the time. we went on the last day of ramadan, so all teh muslims were all excited haha. the day after ramadan is there version of christmas, so they were also excited for gifts. the own of the restaurants name was Joe. he was so excited that we were there (the only white people) and that we were enjoying his food. a man from Iran was excited to share with me the differente kinds of foods at the restaurant.

I loved it.

I am now writing a paper on different names of God. I went through psalms 1-50 and found the different images of God. For ex: righteous, unfailing love, rock, my salvation. Then i read through John and did the same thing. I had to find 80 in both of these. Now i hav eto find images of God in our Culture. So I have 19. I can't think of any more. If anyone has any... let me know. Some examples of these are.... the man upstairs, King of saints, and even that God is feminine (some people do think that).

i'll try not to be so loud...

so yes. i'll try to tone down my voice. haha (now i'm all self conscious of it.. dang it!)
so this weekend my sister and her friends came down to see biola, which was tons of fun. it was a little stressful because i was so use to doing my own thing and not trying to show off biola. one of the girls dad's came as well and i don't think he was too impressed with biolas campus. oh well, what can you do. on sunday my dad picked my sister and me up to go down to san clemente (such a good place to be) and we saw our friend branko. he is dying of cancer, but hopefully he'll be healed! but hey good news! he accepted the Lord last week. he was so closed to it because he thought people made up the bible to get money. i always forget that some people think like that. i kept telling my dad "he's goign to become so lonely hes going to realize he needs something bigger then himself." the day after i said that my dad called me up letting me know branko accepted the Lord. he came to realize what salvation was all about and that the bible could only be written by God. answered prayer like crazy. the first couple of weeks i felt like thats all i prayed for and its so cool to see answered prayer... God is faithful. Another thing i would love prayer for is... direction. i'm somewhat questioning the fact if i'm suppose to be at biola or not. i love it here and its a great place to be but i'm not so sure if i'm suppose to be at a private christian school. i say this because of the whole non-christian factor (still kinda odd- but hey maybe i'll get a job at starbucks or something), money, and well LA smog and NO NATURE adds to it haha. meghan told me before i went to biola "Angelaaaa theres no nature there!" and i was like "haha it will be okay, no worries." welp i've finally realized it. i have awesome friends here, good classes, the whole thing. this is such an unorganized way of presenting my thoughts haha oh well.
i'm just not sure. maybe i am suppose to be here and its my idea. i know i am this year for sure.
so if yal could be praying for direction that would be great.

p.s. i'm in the library right now and i just had to move because this guy is snorring sooooo bad. its bad. i put my ipod on and i could still here him... crazy.

life as it is

"so peaceful"

apparently this is my signature statement here at biola. people mock me way to much, but i really don't think i say it to much. there are a number of things that are peaceful.
1. jesus, of course!
2. my room! ahhh i love it. i kind of stay in it to much haha.
3. eating outside in the caf
4. sitting anywhere outside
5. the rain
6. the sunshine
7. reading my bible
8. the prayer chapel
9. and one of my most favorites... pleasanton.

i did not realize how much i missed pleasanton until i came back to it a couple weekends ago. i REALLLY miss the bay area. like i LOVE the bay area. the last week has been a little rough. the realization of community college and saving my parents tons of money has finally kicked into my head, a little late i'd say. i love biola, don't get me wrong, and i am so blessed to be here... its just you know sometimes i miss norcal.
for all of you who think socal is better, its not haha.
attraction wise, yes it is. beauty wise, noooo way.

it never really gets dark here. no pitch black skies with stars haha which is nooo bueno.
but the bright side: cool churches- rock harbor, disneyland, hollywood, the beach...
all a PLUS!


anyways i miss you all very much. this weekend my sister and four of her friends are coming!! and my dad is coming on sunday and we are going to see branko, his buddy who has cancer. so if you could pray for him, that would be wonderful :)

WOAH YA!

I would just like to start out saying, i am the worst blogger in blog history haha. I thought I could do this all the time, but it doesn't work.
God has been rocking my heart the last couple of days. He’s been like look at me!!! I’m right here, see what I can do, and how I would love you to help me. Seriously that’s how I feel lol. It’s been cool because in my foundations of global studies class we talk about the most amazing and heart breaking things. Its mainly mission focused and we talked a lot about the unreached people in the world. 1/3 of the people in the world today do not know anything about Jesus, who he is, nada! Or have a church around them or missionaries for that matter. There is a website called: joshuaproject.net. It’s amazing, check it out. Pray for the unreached people group of the day. There are 11,000 people groups in the world who are not reached. that’s a lot of groups and more counting the individual people. we spent time praying for different people groups, hearing stories, and just having the lord transform our hearts. Matthew 28:18-20 says, "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All Authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Of all nations in Greek is panta ta ethne. Panta is all. TA is the. Ethne is nations. Ethne is referring to people groups. To share the good news not just to individuals, nations, but to people groups. We have been talking a lot about being world Christians, and how we all need to be like that. Murray (my teacher) shared with us the top 5 Christian non-negotiables. 1. Everyone should have the chance to hear about the gospel in there own language. 2. Everyone must be given the opportunity to read the bible in their own heart language, knowing that god speaks their language and hears there prayer. 3. Everyone must have access to a local Christian fellowship. The church is God’s agent for change in a fallen world. Mission efforts that do not emphasize the centrality of the local church will ultimately fail. 4. Everyone should have the basic necessities for life. Food, water, clothing, shelter, and health care. 5. God’s desire is that everyone be able to lead a productive life of fulfillment spiritually, mentally, socially, emotionally, and physically.
Anywaysssss… i could go on forever and ever.
If anyone actually read this and wants to know more. There is so much I could share!!!! Ahhhhh. I feel so blessed to be here. And to be in a major where I know God wants me. its wonderful to see that most of the people in the ICS major already know that they are called there and to serve God among the nations or even in the United States. There are so many opportunities with so many cool emphasis!! as I’ve shared I’m probably going to emphasis in international development and hopefully urban ministry. We shall see!!!
Yesterday I had the chance to talk to Meghan, which was soo fun haha. Man good best friend laughs and I’ve been talking to my sister. I miss her so much!! But school is wonderful. Good friends. God is so good and worthy of our praise.
The end.

oh myyy

sorry.
the last blog was cut off.
it pretty much starts out with the fact thati went on a retreat this weekend and just sharing about my major.

oh retreats!

i think there might be a couple more. so that should tell you a little about the major haha. so for me i think i will have an emphasis in international development. i just love the idea of supplying peoples physical needs as well as there spirtitual needs. i might double emphasis with urban ministry because i think they would be perfect together! and take an islamic class haha. like how cool would it be to work in turkey like istanbul and do some development stuff. but since its so big you have urban skills haha and then i'll be familiar with the islamic culture. i don't know just an idea! i seriously want to go everywhere. ALL OVERRRR the world. i'm so excited about life right now. i realized i've been like i want to go here and here and here!!! instead of saying i want this nation to know about jesus. there are SO MANY lost people who have never heard the name of Jesus. we have been talking about that a lot in my foundations of global studies class. if you check our joshuaproject.net you will see that. it makes me so sad to know that people will die without knowing the name of Jesus, nothing about him. all of my classes have been amazing and heart changing. the lord is changing my heart towards ministry and just glorifying him. one thing i miss is being around non-christians. i need to find a place to be with them haha. i need to find a job first of all. i've been searching, but i don't have a car. i was thinking about young life but i don't have a car for that. others do but i just don't have the time for it. i applied to be in eagles club which is a volunteer positiion where you house people who are looking at biola and its a cool way to encourage people. also i am going to apply to be a coordinator or a staff member for missions conference. you see they are all on campus things! ahh its so overwhelming. next weekend i will be here, praise the lord haha. seriously biola feels like home! and the weekend after in AZ at my RAs for a floor retreat. woah. its on a lake. with a pool. YAYYY.
anywho.
i must go.

biola biola :)

i'd like to just start out saying that blogging is stressful haha. seriously it gets me stressed just thinking about it. but i love it too so its so hard.
anyways haha
i'll give you a preview of whats been going down in la mirada.
all of last week was super stressful. so much reading!!!!
i am getting involved with a small group here on campus and i'm LOVING IT!
we had a dorm competition aka so much fun... for dodgeball! all the dorms were different colors and horton was black. we were such beasts. we didn't win, freaking hope did... but still we were so hardcore. after dodgeball all of us OLIVE girls (my floor) went to the store and bought tons of ice cream and ate it on the grass infront of it haha. so gross and fatty.
on friday we had a fashion show for the 100 year of biola. people designed all sorts of cool clothes for the centinial year!!! and there were rapperrrrs there haha SOO FUNNY... everyone like stormed near stagged and just started dancing- which is one of the things we shouldnt be doing here at biola, but i feel like they are becoming more layed back about that issue. and thennnn after the fashion show there was another band...not rapper, they were kind of like the strokes. it was so freaking fun. and then i went to downtown disney!!!
and get thisssss. i saw melanie and the whole binzoni family!!! so crazy. ah i love God's timing. i was so hungry so i walked out of espn where all my homies were... and then bamb there was melanie. i pretty much tackled her i was so excited, but still it was so overwhelming. it was so comforting too.
yesterday i kind of layed around until my mom came to see me. shes going to palm desert for a week. we went to downtown disney again and i got my disneyland passport!!! so i can go to disneyland whenever i want haha. and oh man i am so stoked about that. and then last night there was a soccer game... the girls won against oregon tech. after that i layed on the field and talked/laughed with people forever and then returned to my room to do anthropology hw (which i LOVE).
this morning i was suppose to go to church but i woke up as they were leaving. which was actually a total blessing. i woke up and holly micheff called adn was like angela i need to go to biola, i feel like god has it on my heart. and all this crazy cool stuff and we had such a rad conversation. and the cool thing was that yesterday i texted her being like holly this place is totally for you! and she was like ehhhh maybe... because her heart has been set on davis. anyways it was cool.
after that i went to the prayer chapel on campus and just had an amazing time being with God. its kind of hard being here in the sense that everyone is a christian or says that they are. i love talking to nonchristians and being around them. i just love it. and its also so important to have fellowship with christians but when you are a chrisitan school sometimes you don't realize how fortunate you are. it was cool though just reading through John adn then psalm 96. it was rocking me. just glorifying God in everything you do! thats all he wants first. for us to give him glory. and then i saw a girl playing the guitar. shes an ICS maybe too and shes from compton. anyways we had a really encouraging talk about what God was doing in our lives. ah i loved it. so it was good i didn't go to church this morning. i needed alone time with God.

things to prayyy:
a job- i'm desperate and i've applied all over the place on campus. i didn't get one of them so i'm praying about the others.

yuppp and just to focus on Christ always.
p.s. i have this rad class called foundations of global studies that is totally changing the way i feel and think about things. its crazy. i'll write a blog just on that haha.

p.s.s. i miss you guys and thanks for your prayers!

man oh man college is intense!

hello hello! so i love college but its so intense haha. last week we started class and man its much harder then HS haha. i'll say that. its lots of studying and prioritizing your time! i'm swamped with hw and reading. ah. this weekend i went to hollywood bowl for a concert, huntington with some friends, hung out, watched movies, went to rock harbor, you know how we do haha. it was very fun and i love college a ton! i really really like my anthro and foundations of global studies class. they are wonderful :) lots of reading. my english class is pretty intense on the HW load, not so crazy about it, but my teacher is nice. its weird being at a school where teachers pray before class! tomorrow i am going to see mae with JJ and Lisa for her bday. JJ actually just left my room- shes such a kick haha. i've made lots of nice friends and i'm really connecting here and making it home. i miss my friends a lot... but i know i'm suppose to be here!!! its been hard finding time to get in the word but i'm working on it. its happening---- it can't not happen! and boy oh boy. there are couples everywhere! haha. i had a little incident with someone, but now thats past haha. this week is going to be a TON of studying but i have a 4 day weekend, so i guess thats good!!
love you guys.

biola!

well i've been super busy with tons of activities but i thought i'd update yal!
1. my dorm rocks, everyone in here is awesome and i'm soooo thankful i'm in a co-ed dorm haha. i'm on the first floor so its perfect! people stop in all the time.
2. my roomies are super chill and nice, so thats good!
3. i've met soooo many amazing people and good girl friends! so i'm stoked on that. i'm meeting people left and right i tell ya.
4. my major is AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG! there are so many cool concentrations so i need to pray about that. i'm thinking international relations right now. or maybe health care orrrr maybe tesol. or why not missions and people! haha i'm not sure. but if i do international relations i can get an internship during school with IJM... aka sweet.
5. you walk anywhere and you meet someone. people are so friendly! i love it.
6. nice respectful boys!!!! met some good ones- don't worry no dating for me haha
7. i am going to the beach at 4- SOO FUN.
8. the cafe food is so freaking good, i need to start working out.
9. i'm going to get involved with SMN- student missionary union and hopefully be a leader or something because i need hours for my community service scholarship.
10. i have a job interview for a student ambassador on wednesday at 1! so be praying for me!
11. PRAISEEE THE LORD i am here. its so crazy being at a school and a new home that praises God for everything. so great!!!

yuppp i'll update yal with pictures. thanks for prayer. i miss everyone a lot and miss laughing with people over dumb stuff. well i've done that a lot but theres just something being with people you loveee a lot!

updates updates!

last week i went to maui with meghan, emily, my sister, and my dad. IT WAS SOOOO MUCH FUN! best vacation ever. we went snokeling, pool hopping, out to dinner, met people, hung out with larry and patty, hung out with meghans cousin who lives there, went on hikes to waterfalls, surfed, swam non-stop, went boogie boarding, swim with a shark, turtle, octupus, and a pufferfish, and many others! ahh it was soooo fun!!!! i love maui. its so fun how the whole point of goign there is just to have fun! my dad was such a sport and i'm so glad he took us there! we stayed in his friends condo on the beach- so legit!

alsooo i am leaving for school tomorrow. i'm such a wreck about that. on monday if you asked me if i was ready emotionally, i would of been like yaaaaa no sweat! oh baby let me tell you that changed. on monday night the 7 of us girls had our last dance party at meghans :( i'm going to miss those. it was melanie, katie, meghan, christina, rebecca, and pati. my 7 best friends. tuesday morning i woke up at 6 and went on a hike with jason at lake chabot, that was super fun and a nice note to leave on. i said bye to jenna which was sad, ah i love her!! on tuesday night i went to dinner with the 7 and then slept over at megs!! wednesday morning i said bye to people at vbc... man so sad. lynne clark is the one who made me start crying! man saying bye to rebecca and melanie was rough. then today i said bye to pati at 6 in the moring, katie over breakfast at mimis, and spend the whole afternoon with xtina. it was so nice! oh and i saw kelly at mimis so that saved me a trip. its been nice saying bye to people one on one. super sad though. tonight i'm saying adios to meghan. shes pretty much my sister for those of you who don't realize that. i spend every single day of my life with her. every vacation, almost every thought, same with laugh haha. i just love her!!!!!! ah i dont want to say bye. please me praying for safe travel and to meet new friends! i leave at 6 am love you all!

off to hawaii!

tomorrow i am leaving for maui with meghan, my sister, my dad, and my friend emily. emily is one of my dearest childhood friends and she moved when we were freshmen to Pennsylvania. to rural valley! a town of like 300 people haha so miz. but we are still best friends and she always makes me laugh... shes one of those friends that we pick up our relationship just where it was. never weird. ah i'm so excited! we are going to stay at my dads friends condo right on the beach, go surfing, snorkeling, go hiking, go kayaking, and ah so much more! have a good week. we'll be back next sunday and then i leave for school Friday the 17th!

so overwhelming!

beach day :)

i just had to add this. haha. it made me smile.




today was a splendid day. i went to santa cruz with my best friends and with youth group. such a wonderful group of people went. we started out our day by eating near mt hermon with venessa. we had the most delicious organic sandwiches EVER and then we ate in a park. so nice. then we headed over to downtown santa cruz and shopping in urban outfitters for a while. i really enjoy the beach and its always good to have good girl time. the more and more i think about it... i'm about to miss vbc a whole lot. such a big family of jesus lovers haha. but so true, its wonderful. i am really excited that charlie is going to be doing community outreach. i feel like theres so much our church could do and there is so much people aren't aware of. the church could be transformed into a wonderful thing!
p.s. heres an after shot that someone took on my camera of when charlie decided to push tony into the waves when he was doing a hand stand haha.

and something extra special... one of my favorite verses ever.
For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 corinthians 4:6 :)

a dug up essay on GRACE

today i was going through some of my essays i wrote in my advance composition class... and i really like this one and it reminded me of God's glorious and wonderful God's grace is!

What is grace? Grace means a couple things to me: something almost unexplainable, a door to which we have access through Christ, and a gift from God. Its something I will never be able to grasp the full meaning of until I meet Jesus in heaven. It's something that defines why I am able to respond to a holy God, why I feel at peace with myself, my surroundings, and others, and most importantly it's why my heart is able to love. Now to some people that might sound like bogus and a whole bunch of gibberish. To me its something I hold onto and cherish. The most important thing to understand about grace is that it's a gift, not an earned present.
Recently I've been literally going nuts on the concept of Grace. It's something that has changed my view on everything, changed my heart, changed my thinking, and is really changing my whole relationship with Christ. It's turning things upside down and bringing me closer to the one I love the most. Grace is given for a lot of reasons and the biggest is because we are sinners and are saved by GRACE. It's all because I've realized I'm a ragamuffin. One might ask what's a Ragamuffin? A ragamuffin is not someone who is not for muscular Christians who have made chuck Norris there hero. It is not hooded mystics who want magic in their religion. Its not alleluia Christians who live only on mountaintops and have never visited the valley of desolation. Its not people who are fearless and tear less. It's not for people who claim "all these commandments I have kept from all my youth." its not for legalists who would rather surrender control of their souls to rules then run the risk of living in union with Christ. The gospel of grace (gospels in the bible, and even the bible as a whole) was written for ragamuffins. It's for the bedraggled, beat up and burnt out people who don't know what they are doing in life. It's for people who feel so burdened that they feel like their heart is sinking to the depths of the ocean. It's for people who are wobbly and weak—kneed who know they don't have it all together and are too proud to accept the hand out of God's amazing grace. It's for the inconsistent people, who are unsteady disciples. It's for the poor, the weak, sinful men and women. It's for people who have no hope. It's for the bent and bruised who feel that their lives are a grave of disappointment to God. It's for smart people who know they are being dumb with their lives. It's for anyone who is willing to look beyond themselves.
The gospel of grace nullifies our adulation of televangelist's charismatic superstars, and local church heroes. It obliterates the two class citizenship theory operative in many American churches today. Grace proclaims the awesome truth that all is gift. Crazy isn't it? That all is gift. All that is good is ours, not because it's a right, but because of the sheer bounty of a gracious God. While there's a lot of things that we can earn, like our degrees, money so we can go waste it on the newest I-pod, our home and garden, and even a good nights sleep, all of this is possible only because we have been given so much. We have been given a mouth to speak out of, a mind to think up ideas and share them with others, feet to walk and feel the earth, hands to comfort others, a heart to beat with love, eyes to see the beautiful earth the lord has created, and much more! To a believer (and to anyone who wants to come along for the invitation: think about this) who is even seeking this idea of grace: god is in our souls and Jesus is in our flesh! Because of Jesus we have the power to believe where others deny, hoping when theirs despair, to love when others hurt. All of this is a gift from above. Its not because I've earned a good education at Foothill High school, because I've kissed my mom or dad goodnight, said a thousand prayers to God in one day, or even because I smiled at a lonely stranger. Our being is even a gift of God. I am confident that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and that I have done nothing to earn or deserve the love of Christ. This is called Grace. It's not only for people who love the lord, but it's already been given to all.
Lets look a little closer at what the Meriam Webster Dictionary says about Grace. Meriam says grace is charm, thanks, pleasing, grateful, a virtue coming from God, a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace, approval, favor, a special favor, privilege, his place by right, a short prayer at meal time asking for a blessing or giving thanks, beauty, and much more. Now I guess all of these things can go under the topic of grace, but it doesn't fully capture what Grace is. Grace can never fully be captured because our minds are so finite. When I asked my classmates what Grace meant their responses were a ballerina when she's moving, someone helping another, Mother Teresa, a prayer catholic people say, and something people strive for. At that moment, I knew I had to write this essay to define what it meant to me. It's something that is so important to me and something I can't even fully grasp. But its because of grace I have been saved. It's because of God's grace I have been blessed with so many things, with life it's self. Its because of his grace I am able to share the love of Christ. If any Ragamuffin wants to take one thing from this essay, all I ask is that you understand that grace is a wonderful GIFT from God and there is nothing, nothing that you can do to deserve it.

AZ, roommate, and thoughts.

it is so weird being back from Arizona. i miss it a lot already. i love the stillness of quiet places and being surrounded by people i love. and instead i'm cleaning my room and going to the doctor today haha. but still the Lord is continuing to confirm things to my heart that i've been trying to figure out. today i was just thinking about loquita, kristy, Juanita, and JJ. i slept with them a couple nights but one of the nights i was feeling kind of down and i walked in.. and they were awake. they asked if they could pray with me and they were so excited! they shared bible stories with me and why jesus died on the cross for us. they were telling me about Jesus! it was so wonderful. my heart just melted and i really feel like the Lord uses children a lot for me to learn things about him and to realize things about myself.

p.s. i found out my other roommate who is from san leandro.. is actually from turkey haha. so i guess she has some family member whos in san leandro. it should be very multi cultural in my room. really exciting.

back from AZ!

hey everyone,
it is late! i got home and rushed to my computer to read lauren wallace's blog. i've been so anxious to read it all week... so i decided to write about our wonderful arizona outreach! we left last friday morning and well we just got back from 10:30 tonight! it went by soooo fast and it all seems like a dream to me for some reason! it went by faster then any mission trip i've ever gone on. it was very chill and very very fun! never a dull moment and always fun. this year i served on basketball camp again, which was delightful and challenging. the Lord was completely at work and blessed our time there. i'd say this was one of my first AZ mission trips where i was seeking, focusing, and being real with God. in return he blessed me. something i find miraculous was that i wasn't tired barley at all! i prayed for strength daily and the lord answered my prayer, and for those of you who know me know i get tired SOOO easily. basketball camp was so fun because i got to see all the kids i saw last year and form new friendships. all the people on basketball staff were super fun and it was such a good group. irene, meghan, chris, tony deblasio, muriel, tony santoro, dan bowen, darlene, chad, and rachel howden weer all apart of that! well thats just a tid bit for now and i'll keep updating this with what God did there and is continuing to do here... and with some fun stories.

college update at a very late hour

friends friends friends.
i have found out my classes.
my dorm.
and my roommateS. yes thats plural.
haha.

okay lets start out with cool stuff.
i have 2 roommates. i thought i had one all along but i searched the portal website of biola and found out i am living in a triple. one roommate is Justine from El Paso, TX! she seems rad and is majoring in intercultural studies as well. the other girl is grace and i have no idea how to contact her (i haven't gotten my housing packet yet, i found this all on the portal website... and its all true haha)... so hopefully i can contact her soon. she is majoring in music composition! exciting! i hope it will work out living with 2 other girls, not catty, but i'm sure it will be fine! since i already know one of my roommates is AMAZING, i can't imagine the other one being any different.

next up i am living in the best dorm ever! its smack dab in the middle of biola...
and drum roll please...
its horton! a couple years old and so freaking nice!
i am on the first floor! ya ya!!

and then my classes are freaking awesome. only 13 units for me 1st semester. i have to prove to biola i can get good grades haha.

okay so
first semester seminar: intercultural studies
english: crit thinking and writing
general anthropology
foundations/global studies
foundations of christian thought
and college skills: excel haha a tutoring thing

how wonderful is that! and no classes on fridays! none that early, except for monday morning at 8... and none to late so i can sleep haha.

ahh oh the blessings that God has given me! seriously thought. God is sooo good!

today i woke up and could not get out of bed. i got to church 45 minutes late and well i still got to listen to what mark porter said, which was wonderful. and then we went into big service and did a little thing for AZ... and it was so encouraging! people just came up to all of us and let us know they would be praying for us. so nice. after wards we had dance practice haha which was hilarious... and hard. lets just say i am not coordinated. now i'm off to mels for a BBQ. man i love my friends.


man laurens leaving in 4 days.
so sad
so exciting
and soooo sadddd.

hello mid summer!

hi everyone! yesterday i went to the wonderful city of san francisco to talk to homeless people where tony reminded me that i had a blog. haha so its time to get back on it!
this summer has been really exciting and thrilling, but very very busy! i'm amazed by how fast time goes by and theres no stopping it haha.
so i'll give you a summmary of my summer haha.
week uno: my wonderful cousins, patrick and jenny, and my uncle bill came out to CA to surprise me! oh and they are from texas and drove here! i was surprised at meghans grad party haha. that week i went to yosemite, worked (waterslides- aka really fun job/super easy)... and did many other fun things.
week dos: i had my graduation party! which was really nice and fun. i loved seeing family friends and just hanging out. it couldn't of gone better! the next day i went to lake sisikyou with the micheffs, the gross family, and the o'mallys. it was sooo much fun and northern california is sooo beautiful. and when i say northern i mean shasta area. ah love it.
week tres: finally i got to relax... hung out with friends, worked a whole bunch.
and now its
week cuatro: i worked this week, 4 days, found out i wouldn't be able to go to biola but through a TONNNN of prayer- thank you all who prayed, i am able to go! short story: i had about six thousand in grants from biola and they were taken away because of my moms tax form. pretty much she owns a house in palm dessert that was added to her income.. so it looked like we didn't need the grants haha which we did. so yess monday was such an aweful but exciting day. i turned right to the lord and i knew he would work it out and i just want to follow his will. he totally blessed it and my dad figured a way to make it work. i am soooo blessed to have parents who are so willing to sacrifice money and let me go to a wonderful school! okay soo also this week bought things for college, went to SF to talk/pray with homeless- made a rad friend named frita- be praying for her to get back up on her feet.. and tonight we are having a bbq for my dads birthday.

on friday i am off to AZ for a mission trip, and then august 5th i am going to hawaii with meghan, emily, my sister, and my dad. and then i get back the 12th, and leave for school the 16th or 17th.. i haven't decided yet. soo a lot of time at all! there are so many people i still want to see and i still need to get college stuff!

sometime this week i find out my roommate... i just hope i find out before friday haha or else thats not going to be fun! anyways god bless :)

graduation thoughts

oh baby. let me just tell you this week has been an emotional roller coaster. i've been so sad, so empty feeling, and full of anxiety. i've also been super happy and embracing the moment. i am so sad to graduate! i LOVEDDDDDD high school. every single year i loved. i can't get over how much i loved high school. and then this year, oh man! it was filled of fun. i wish i didn't stress so much about college, but still. applying to colleges, homecoming, Christmas break which i completely forget what i did haha, going to chicago, senior events, belize/guatemala, senior ball, sadies, dances, plays, new classes, meeting new people, embracing being a senior... ahhh to many things to say! but this week is the first week in my whole life where i have FINALLY understood the true meaning of cherishing every moment. i am such a go getter kind of person that i am looking forward to everything in front of me, which is good, but i guess i don't always embrace whats right in front of my eyes. i'm not even kidding i cried soo hard on tuesday and told meghan she'd always be my best friend, hugged mrs. mac and told her how great she was, and cried to melanie about how much i loved high school. its the first time where i am cherishing every SINGLE moment. i thought i already did that, but something hit me and i'm embracing it so much more. i have th ebest friends anyone could ever ask for. we went to sweet tomatoes today after finals.. our tradition haha and haven't broke it all of high school ahh it was our last, and we were just laughing sooo hard about all our fun memories and sharing stories that some of us never knew, and i was looking around at tables of people and i realized how blessed i am to have friends where we get along SOOO well and have fun ALL the time! no matter what. man i'm skipping around. but this week has also been sad because everyone has been pulling the "its the last time i'm going to..." kind of lines. soo sad. and my teachers were so good! ahh so sad. anyways tomorrow is graduation. and thats going to be exciting and sad too. and then grad night! i'm so glad we are having grad night to finish it off @ clubsport, oh baby, so fun! i have been so blessed in high school and to be apart of foothill. i am SO glad i was involved and made sure i got to know lots of different people. i love the class of 2007!!

senior ball!!!!!!!!!! and other fun things.

man i haven't used this in soo long, but a lot has happened!!! okay so all in the beautiful month of may i had the oppertunity to go to NYC, which was amazing! i went on senior adventure weekend which was a blast.. i'll post pictures! and then june came along and it was senior ball! oh man! senior ball was the time of my life, no joke. it was soo much fun. i went with matt terres, who was such a good date haha. man he loves dancing. the day started out by waking up, going on a run around 11,
getting my hair done at 1, pati doing my makeup around 3.. and then matt getting me and busting to pictures around 4! it was not stressful at all! when we went to melanies to take pictures, i could not stop laughing! for some reason pictures were so much fun and me and matt looked so good haha jk.
but we matched good and rebecca made a really good corsage for me! my dress ahh i loved my dress. it was so fun wearing it because it felt so me. lauren, deej, tony, laura, and lynn came to take pictures of us too! we went to the school, and took pictures and i really hope our picture turns out alright haha because i'm sure i was laughing when he took it. then we went to tiffanys got in the limo and busted to san fran! once we got to the galleria i was in awe! it was sooo beautiful!!!! the food was so freaeking good and we ate on the 3rd level. there was a buffet on every single level. after we ate we danced the night away! one word to describe it all: EPIC. it was epic haha. every song was so good and high top was sooo fun! we loved him. hes the best dj hands down. matt loves dancing, everyone in my group loves it, so therefore it made it a trillion times more exciting. the class of 07 was all united and everyone was just dancing with eachother. we swing danced, went dumb haha, and just had fun. i say we danced for a good 3 and a half hours. at the end of the dance i was really sad because i wanted it to be longer haha. but around the last song they dropped all the balloons from the ceiling and it was sooo exciting! best dance ever. then we went to senior breakfast after ball, which was good! then we went to brads and went hot tubbing/swimming/hung out/watched a movie. over i had a blast and will never forget it! it went perfect! the lord totally blessed that night beyond belief!!! the next day on sunday we had the awards banquet at VBC. it was so encouraging. i already felt the tears coming once i walked through the door. it has been such a blessing to be apart of the vbc high school ministry. everyone is my second family. its nuts.
i am going to miss everyone so much when i'm at school next year, but good thing friend ships last a life time haha... well the ones i have better haha. the letters were super encouraging and sometimes i wonder if people know that i don't always laugh, haha because everyone wrote that. but it was great!!! the lord is good and man he just has overflowed joy into my heart!! and now for some pictures haha.

hiii friends. so i've been learning some rad stuff in comparitive religions recently, about islam. its blowing my brains out a bit. i just posted something about it... A LOT of stuff about it and what stuff says in the koran if you actually read it. i have some notes that andrej made that are AMAZINGGG about it. i posted it and then i deleted it because i felt weird/not right about posting stuff about it on here. if you want to see them, its great stuff and i'd love to share.

NYCCC

i just got back from nyc last night! i left on wednesday evening- took the red eye, and got there on thursday morning! my mother, sister, friend allison from san clemente, and her mother came. it was so much fun! we stayed in the marriot marque i think its called in times square. thank goodness for free hotels thanks to having time shares. anyways i fell in love with it! i know everytime i come back from a place i say i want to move there... but man if i have a good job before i am married i am going to move there. some highlights: we saw phantom of the opera, statue of liberty, went up to the empire state building- such a typical tourist thing, went shopping like crazy, found my senior ball dress!, went to st. patricks for mothers day service, saw rod stewart in central park, took a carrage in central park, and just had lots of laughs. and man oh man. i loved it. i have no more money in my bank account. i stoked up on clothes. the whole time i was watching the phantom of the opera i couldn't stop thinking about how long they had to practice and all there life stories.. kind of distracted me from actually watching it, but it was soo good. times square is a blast. i tell ya, i feel real safe in new york. maybe thats because i was in manhattan and not the outside bit of it. but i wasn't worried at all, which is very unusual for me. the people were really nice too. all in all: i loved it.

senior trip and grad thoughts.

this weekend was a blast and i am soo thankful for all the leaders who put it together and were there for us. we had the wondeful oppertunity to go up to yosemite and go white water rafting. we had time to spent together and reflect on high school... and it was super fun and got me thinking about a lot of stuff. i had a really hard time with my asthma while i was there. but it was cool because i felt like God was just telling me that he will take care of me during the whole time, and he totally did. i'm in a bitter sweet place right now i must say. i was SO excited to get the heck out of high school but now i'm so sad. i am so sad to leave all my friends from donlon, to hart, and then to foothill. even if i didn't hang out with them in hs i'm sad. its so odd. and then tonight we had a salt meeting with all the leaders and i am SOOO thankful for all the leaders who spent time with me! like it means the world to me. its also a very cool time because i am just realizing how thankful i should be that God has put so many amazing things infront of my eyes and has blessed me in so many ways in high school. man i am just so thankful. heres some cool lyrics from phil wickhams song always forever.

You are the hand that catches my fall
You are the friend that answers my call
You are my day, You are my night
You are my love and all of my life

You are the love I need
You are the air I breathe
You are my love my life always forever
I would lay down my life
Just to be by Your side
You are my love my life always forever

You are the grace that covers my sin
You’re everything the beginning and end
You have my soul, my heart and my mind
You have my love and all of my life

Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, forever

EXCITED!

i am excited for...
1. seeing spiderman @ midnight tonight! thanks to quest!
2. finding out i DIDN"T break my finger but just sprained it.
3. that i get to sleep until 8 tomorrow and have tim make us senior breakfast!
4. having a super easy schedule tomorrow!
5. senior trip this weekend in yosemite and WHITE water rafting!
6. going to NYC next wednesday!
7. and i am PUMPED to be graduating soon!

man. that is an exciting list.
and speaking of graduation. heres my senior pic.

finger madness.

first off i'd just like to say i really like this blog thing. i don't think anyone actually reads this, which is kind of funny, but i still like it.

so i'm pretty sure i broke my finger. or maybe its sprained of something. on saturday night we went to cheesecake factory in the city for xtinas bday. and a lady in the bathroom slammed the door on my poor little finger haha. and she didn't even say sorry! oh well. anyways it didn't hurt until yesterday during SALT when nate darnell told me i probably broke it. last night i couldn't sleep it was a night mere. and i didn't go to breakfast because of it haha so lame. and i didn't even have to work! YES! anyways i went to the doctor because at lunch melanie told me they would have to cut off my finger if i didn't! so dramatic. of course i believed her. its so funny how serious doctors can be. Dr. Wang was so serious! he had to use this blaze thing to cut open an infected area on my finger and i kept saying "ahh is it going to hurt?!" and side note: isn't it nice to have a doctor who is super caring and reassures you it's going to be okay? yes! but nope, that did not happen with this doctor. anyways he did it and i got through it. and then got a x-ray and the whole bit. kind of ridiculous just for a finger. now its feeling much nicer. afterwards i went to tullys to get free ice tea from my sister. and i saw nate darnell there and got to show him my finger again haha. he should be a doctor or something. anyways its going to be okay!

this weekend if senior adventure weekend at yosemite. i am pumped. i'm hoping that people can get work off and such to go. common white water rafting, why wouldn't someone go?! i'm excited. i think everyone should go.

well i hope yal are having a great day :)

rich

Heres a super short clip of "Rich" by Nooma/Rob Bell. I wish there was more of it. There’s a popular bumper sticker that reads “God Bless America,” but hasn’t America already been blessed? It’s easy for us to fall into a mindset of viewing “our” world as “the” world, because it’s all we generally see. We’re constantly bombarded with images of the latest styles and models of everything, and it can easily leave us feeling like what we have isn’t enough because we see people that have even more than us. But how does what we have compare to what most people in the world have? Maybe what we have is enough; maybe it’s more than enough. Maybe God has blessed us with everything we have so we can bless and give to others. -Rob Bell

think about it.

26 mile bike ride.

if brad reads this he's going to say i'm bragging but i frankly don't care haha. so today after church brad and me decided to ride our bikes all the way to danville. to the yogurt shack. anyways we did it and it was a 26 mile ride. it was awesome. we bought lemonade from little kids, acted like robots, pretended to ride backwards, and ate really good and really expensive yogurt. haha get this. it cost 11 bucks for both of us to get yogurt haha. they freaking make you pay like 50 cents per ounce haha. we were laughing for like 20 minutes over that for some reason. anywho go on bike rides. they rock.

i thought this was funny. jenna drew this a while ago. like sophomore year. and i just found it.

funny funny stuff.

today was work was very different then any other day. now i know i write about work a lot, but its because i do spend a fare amount of time there. so for those of you who don't know i work at American Swim Academy in dublin. today was by far one of the funniest/grossest things thats ever happened at work. so today i was on deck and i had to watch kids and make sure that no one died. elli- (another girl at work whos super cute/fun) was also on deck. super funny people were working today, mark being one of them. mark is a big football player from san fran state and hes just hilarious. everything that comes out of his mouth is supper witty. meghan was also working and was in a jolly mood. so i walked over to this girl nicole and her class (she was in a corner class) to ask her about her prom dress (keep in mind that nicole is super bubbly and fun!) So she had two kids haha this little girl and an indian boy who was about 4. so all of a sudden i started seeing all these little brown/orange pieces of things floating all around nicole!!!! then i looked at the 4 year old indian kid and saw diarrhea coming out of the top of his shorts! and everytime he laughed hahahhaa its making me laugh just thinking about it... more watering poop came out. haha so gross. i feel like a boy right now. i apologize but it was just so darn funny. so nicole was freaking out at this point. i was laughing hysterically with Elli. Mark (the fb player) was like "Common guys! someone has had to see CaddyShack here! Come on! this is so the time to talk about it!" Nicole was freaking out because she was swimming in poo pieces hahaha. So i told her to put the kid out of the water. so all the diarrhea literally no joke like shot out like a fountain hahahaha behind him when he sat down. it was the GROSSSSSSEST thing i have ever seen. at this point Elli was dying. i ran inside and told our boss and he told me to clean up all the pieces of di with the leaf picker upper thing for the pool. i gagged nad all the parents saw... and i couldnt stop laughing. we were way dramatic. and all the kids had to get out! and we had to call all the classes and cancel them telling them a kid had diarrhea in the water hahaha. and mark wouldnt stop listing the things the kid ate like curry and carrots hahaha. and oh man. i felt like it should be been on an SNL episode with Will Ferrell.
anyways thats how my night went. it was hilarious. i can't get over it.

hugs hugs hugs.

i thought this was happy and i really admire that guy. good reminder to me to love ALL people.

today was an interesting day to say the least. it was a good day and odd. i'll go ahead and list the way the day went.

1. ms. andrade made andrej sing a frank sinatra song in front of the class for wanting to go on a field trip.
2. lauren, chris, and myself taught mrs. barker how to tread water by sitting in a chair. haha that was rather amusing.
3. we had FISH club and had nothing prepared, except for FISH club application forms. which i made like a hundred typos haha so i apologize to anyone who got one. FISH was just weird today.
5. read the newspaper all during 6th period and found out that abortion is now legal for any reason that someone wants one... in Mexico City. very sad.
6. had a sub who was part of the CIA.
5. i babysat isabella and we danced the night away- that was just cute.

and now i am off to write a 3 page persuasive essay on abortion.

Save Darfur!

today the brilliant people of Ms. DiJobis class (not so sure if i spelt that right) had a wonderful, informative, a hit home presentation for the school. each period about 285 people came and watched their presentation. for those of you who don't know so much about darfur i'll give you a copy-pasted version from savedarfur.org.... here it is folks.

Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly conflict for over three years. At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad; and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter.

Since early 2003, Sudanese armed forces and Sudanese government-backed militia known as “Janjaweed” have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stated political aim of the rebels has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of the region. In response, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed – largely composed of fighters of nomadic background – have targeted civilian populations and ethnic groups from which the rebels primarily draw their support – the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa (notes about our use of ethnic terminology).

The Bush Administration has recognized these atrocities – carried out against civilians primarily by the government of Sudan and its allied Janjaweed militias – as genocide. António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has described the situation in Sudan and Chad as “the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe.” The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias are responsible for the burning and destruction of hundreds of rural villages, the killing of tens of thousands of people and rape and assault of thousands of women and girls.

With much international pressure, the Darfur Peace Agreement was brokered in May 2006 between the government of Sudan and one faction of Darfur rebels. However, deadlines have been ignored and the violence has escalated, with in-fighting among the various rebel groups and factions dramatically increasing and adding a new layer of complexity to the conflict. This violence has made it dangerous, if not impossible, for most of the millions of displaced persons to return to their homes. Humanitarian aid agencies face growing obstacles to bringing widespread relief. In August 2006, the UN's top humanitarian official Jan Egeland stated that the situation in Darfur is "going from real bad to catastrophic." Indeed, the violence in Darfur rages on with government-backed militias still attacking civilian populations with impunity.

On July 30, 2004, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1556 demanding that the government of Sudan disarm the Janjaweed. This same demand is also an important part of the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in May of 2006. On August 31, 2006, the Security Council took the further step of authorizing a strong UN peacekeeping force for Darfur by passing resolution 1706. Despite these actions, the Janjaweed are still active and free to commit the same genocidal crimes against civilians in Darfur with the aid of the Sudanese government.

International experts agree that the United Nations Security Council must deploy a peacekeeping force with a mandate to protect civilians immediately. Until it arrives, the under-funded and overwhelmed African Union monitoring mission must be bolstered. And governments and international institutions must provide and ensure access to sufficient humanitarian aid for those in need.

(((sorry i didn't realize it was that long)))
anyways they did a wonderful job! jenna did great! man i love her to pieces. meghan should of just done the presentation, she watched it about 4 times and knew everything. they did a great job of having it be real. imagine alameda, walnut creek, dublin, livermore, pleasanton, danville, san ramon all having a genocide. all those cities add up to 400,000 people DEAD. thats not even the 2.5 million who have fled to refuggee camps, are missing, and ill. so crazy. i hope people who didn't know about it and people who didn't want to know about it... hearts were opened. theres a lot we can do. go to savedarfur.org... and you can just support them with money, by calling congressmen, lobbyists, writing letters, educatiing others and so on. FHS set up an account thats been raising money for savedarfur. http://www.savedarfur.org/page/outreach/view/dollarsfordarfur/foothill.

gracias and buenas noches!

oh and p.s/random note. today at work this kid in my class ate like 5 of his boogers. it was so gross.
and p.s.s. today the mormon speaker came in to comp. religions. ask me about it if you want to know.

world religions and rambling.

so i am taking this rad class called comparative religions. which is also known as world religions. so far we've learned about judaism inside out and Christianity. we've had an orthodox rabbi come in and a SUPER liberal jewish rabbi come in. as for Christianity we've had 2 Jehovah witnesses and today tim came! i can't even begin to share what a blessing it was to our class. i know God's at work in some people lives in my class and its SOO great! its so wonderful to see God at work within people and sharing his love and his message. the truth about who he is, justice, mercy, grace, stories that affirm faith, and how what we believe isn't just because we want to... its because its truth. today at SALT we talked about Julia Dechong (Da Wata Fountin, Punta Gorda, Belize...not returning though after 4 years), Bodi (missionary in Ukraine), and Joseph (missionary in India. Dalitnetwork.org). it was so encouraging praying for them and for the amazing things that they are doing. i feel like its the talk of missions recently. dan bowen, gary, and chris just got back from hungary and ukraine. and in salt we just heard trippy stuff about how babbies are treated there. i wasn't even aware of it. and then lauren went to germany and slovakia. i am so excited for her and for what God's going to do!its getting me so excited for college and for the opportunities that will be there for me. even right here at home, i need to keep in mind theres always people to minister to and to love everyone. if anyone is actually reading this haha and haven't taken a comparative religions class in a secular environment i highly recommend it. it will make your faith stronger, you can share what is truth, and you will be rocked by questions people ask you... that you'll have to figure stuff out. its awesome. its been such a blessing. and side note. tomorrow jenna and the save darfur crew are speaking at school. hopefully it will enlighten people that theres more then just pleasanton.

rock you presents BELIZE/Guatemala pics.. and some of us girls.

weird work

work work work. usually i work on tuesdays and thursdays at american swim academy.. but this week i had to work friday and saturday too.. because i was subbing for people. anyways. this whole week at work has been so weird. tuesday i dont even remember. thursday i was working in the office... and then i walked outside with mark (i made someone come out with me because there was a weird man lurking around) and dave (someone i work with and is a little creepy at times) popped out from behind my car with a scary man mask on and chased me down the street! and mark just stood there! and dave didn't even work on thursday. so weird! haha. and then on friday i was subbing for this one class. and let me just tell you the pool is infested with boogers. i should just say i work at booger swim academy. its so gross. anyways there was this one girl and she had the fattest booger ever. we were doing humpty dumpty and i was like "hey sophia you have a fat booger... wipe it off and put it outside or something"... so i continued to let other kids have turns. anyways i looked back at sophia and she took her tongue to her nose and i saw her eat it! i gagged. i almost barfed. and was yelling eww for atleast 2 minutes. kids are so gross sometimes. and then one time my friend pablo told this kid he had a booger... so he whipped it off.. and it was somewhere in the water. and then he took the next kid to swim and the SAME booger was on the other kid! sooo gross. this is such a gross blog. work today was okay. dave was a little cranky. mark was funny. my voice was gone. but all the kids i had were pretty sweet. its so fun when you have students you've already had before. welp thats all for now. good day.

missing belize and other thoughts.

-->random. but this is a peak preview of biola. i havent even been there for more then 5 minutes haha but trisha and dave took this for me over spring break. theres also a picture of tim and me. cute aren't we? haha just kidding. and then a picture of jenna, chaden, jamika- my fav, and myself in punta gorda, belize.

i think i left my heart in Belize. figuratively speaking obviously. haha how weird would that be if you could. okay besides that weird thought, i really miss it. although i miss it god is working so much at home too. sometimes when i get back from a trip it seems like everything over. well that only happened once. i didn't go into mission trip looking for a high. i went into it wanting to serve him and showing his love. which is what happened. Jesus is my high. and should always be. its been very cool because people at school keep asking how it was. i share with them what god did while we were there. and then what we did. its been awesome because the people who keep asking me in classes are non-Christians and really want to go on a mission trip now! heres another advantage of being a FISH club leader... today the 6 girls from FHS who went to Belize/Guatemala got to share our experiences. i had a sideshow playing, which was fun so people could see the beauty of God. we shared what we did, how God worked, answered prayers and such. every time i think of the answered prayer of having jenna being able to go on belize i cry. and of course i did. it was actually really embarrassing. everyone was starring at me with blank stares and tears welling up. God works in so many ways! his love is overflowing my heart. his love is unexplainable.

besides belize. its been cool hearing about other peoples trips. i keep reading dan bowns and lauren wallace's blogs. but laurens back now, so i really want to hear about her time. be praying for dan and gary! tonight at OC we are going to be sharing about belize again. love it!
as for exciting plans... i am so pumped for college. biola is going to be amazing. i received the community service scholarship. i found out once i got back on sunday. i am pretty stoked! its going to be a great way to meet people, not that that will be a problem. anyways. thanks for everyones prayers. again.

belize&guatemala!

for starters this blog is going to be very hard to write. no words can do this trip justice, but i'll try my best! man belize it was absolutly crazy and so much fun. God did wonders while we were there and there are no words to explain how wonderful he is. his majesty and power worked out some amazing things. so i'm going to give a shortened version of what w edid. i wish i could write more, but its hard to put it into words! so on thurday night we got on a plane to start out journey to belize. we flew to atlanta and decided to get some breakfast while we were there. you'd think that atlanta was warm right? wellp it wasn't. so we took marta. which is pretty much bart, but called marta in atlanta. all of us had our backbacks by our sides. in our backpacks were our passports, camera's and such. we all got off of marta and as we got off the doors closed. and we saw marta going before our eyes. and no joke a lady held up deej's backpack as it was leaving us. his backpack had his passport and a hundred other things he needed. but the passport was key. because without it, he wouldn't of been able to go to belize/guatemala. he thought that it wouldn't be that hard to get. well marta security was on it in a second. all of our stomachs were in knots. and we instantly held hands and prayed for his backpack to appear. we all thought it was the end of it when the backpack wasn't returned or foundw within a couple of hours. but to make the story short... the backpack was returned and delivered to the airport 30 minutes before our flights. we don't know who returned it, how they knew to return it to the airport or anything. TOTALLY answered prayer. it was crazy how faithful God is. what a miracle that is within its self! atlanta was a fun place to be. the restaurant we went to for breakfast was so cute. on the way back i tripped and ate the ground. probably one of the funniest things. cars stopped and laughed, pretty sad. i had a huge disgusting scar on my foot, but it was well worth it. annyways... so we returned to the atlanta airport and flew to belize city. flying into belize was so pretty. it was filled with trees and jungle. so exciting! man this is so hard to write haha. i can't give it justice. anyways we got off the plane and it felt like hell hit us in the face. hell as in heat. haha. but it was so exciting. totally different airport then we were use to. we waited in the belize city airport for our next flight to punta gorda. the plane we took was so small! it was so funny/scary! it held like 15 people. haha it was so funny. i sat infront of deej and sarah and they had such funny commentary. the whole time i couldn't believe i was in belize. it took months of preparation and we were finally there. we arrived in punta gorda. it was so hot and we were exhausted but so excited!!! we met up with Julia. Julia is a girl from our church who is 26. she has been living in punta gorda for the last 4 years. she has an amazing ministry in punta gorda called da wata fountin. we colllected our luggage and walked to the nazarene church, where we stayed in punta gorda. the church was run down and so dirty. but i loved it! we had bunks for the girls and guys. we slept on these littlle foam mattresses. jenna slept above me. the toiletes were gross but it was all good. cold showers, i loved. it would of been disgusting to even think about taking a hot shower. that night we walked around putna gorda to get the feel of it. we ate chinese food haha so random. punta gorda is filled with all different kinds of people. mayans, garafuna, and well others. but i just don't know the names haha. on saturday we did a scavenger hunt with the kids all throughout punta gorda. the scavenger hunt was to find different people that Jesus touched. the main goal was to find Jesus. also on saturday there was the market so it was supper busy on front st. for the scavenger hunt we were all divided up into teams. my team was jenna, ed, kristen... and oh man i already forget! we had the cutest little kids! its crazy what a different life style people in developing countries have. kids wonder all around teh streets. the kids we were with are called walk abouts. one of the key girls of my trip was jamika. LOVED HER. she is 5 years old and garafuna. garafuna is a mix of nigerian and costa rican people. i loved her so much. she lives in an abusive household where her mother is a prostiture and her dad is an alcholic. she has a 10 year old sister Jam, who is always at da wata fountin as well. she has a brother mikey, who is 7, whom i love just as much! her brother jermaine is always there too. hes a doll. and then she has a 16 year old sister who is always with a lot of boys. she never comes though. anyways saturday was a great time to spend with the kids and get to know them. we had to walk so much and we backed them so much. they always said back me. which meant hold me on our backs of shoulders. we loved it. but we were sooo sore. haha. i made charlie hold a ton of kids. man we got to know so many kids that i will never forget. each night there was such loud music! and they would always play don't matter by akon. haha i didn't even know that song until they played it probably 20 times during one devo. sunday was easter! we woke up at 4am to have easter service on the dock. we watched the sun rise! it was so beautiful. a girl played the guitar and we just worshipped. we had breakfast and the whole shabang. later on we went to the most beautiful caves i have ever been to in my life! we had to hike into them and it was rather hard since i wore flip flops haha but we got a lot of laughs out of it later. and let me just tell you.. i don't remember one time on the trip where we weren't laughing. there was always something to laugh about. we all had so much fun. when we got to the caves we swam in them. the more you swam into them, the darker it got. tim took some of us to swim into the dark of the cave. i felt like i was on pirates of the caribbean! i dont think i spelt that right, but oh well! haha. it blew me away to think that God created such a beautiful place. there weer waterfalls and we acted like mermaids. haha. i loved it. later that day we swam with the kids in PG. or maybe it was saturday i'm not sure. and clayton, jermaine, and some other boys put mud all over my feet and were massaging them. it felt amazing! then we sang and had worship. i cried like crazy! the kids were so pure, free, and just worshipping God. they were jumping around and it brought such joy to my heart to see them singing!
okay here is the point where i am goign to start shortening things haha because this could end up being an essay.
monday: dental clinic- steve chew, leah, conner, meghan, and i did hte dental clinic. me and meghan were in charge of flouride. keity was the only one who didn't like his flouride haha. so funny. every monday night da wata fountin has the night where all the walk abouts join together and meet. we had worship and gideon spoke. it was SOOOOOOO MUCH FUN. God worked in so many ways. we did our dramas. sin chair and that one drama that ryan pleau and lynsey macklin did a couple years ago haha i forget what is called. tuesday: we departed from PG and went to guatemala. we went to a disgusting water fall haha. it was sooo dirty in guatemala. spanish was teh fluent language now. so no more english. and not veyr many people undertstood or could speak spanish. we went to tim's brothers house. soooo coool. wednesday: went to el rico and visited a missionary there. el rico is a very ghost like town. not a lot of people. it was so cool to see him. went swimming in a river there and i met my novio. haha he was like the kid from the jungle book. his name was edmund. so cute he was haha. we went back to ronnies house. the missionary. and he spoke to us in spanish. ed translated everything for us. it was so amazing. probably the highlight of a lot of our trips (theres a ton of things we did all these days its just way to much detail!) thursday: we visited disabled kids at the pool. awesome time. very humbling and we just loved on them. then we went to an orphanage. very sad, but cool how God was present. friday: rec day. we went to some water falls before we went to the resort. i got so sick on the bus. we traveled to TI Jaks. a resort there. we slept in bungalows haha. janet lide and me had the honey moon suite. we thought that was hilarious. we went swimming and such. saturday: my sisters bday. tim, meghan, rebecca, and me woke up at 4:30 AM to kayak to an island near by. we saw howler monkies right above our heads. it was awesome! there were 2 people per kayak. so lucky for me i was with tim! that was def one of the cooles things. we took a boat to go back to PG. ate in livingston. said goodbye to some friends who were flying out of guatemala. that night when we went back to PG, it felt like we were at home again. it was such a homie feeling. i loved it. i missed it so much. the kids knew were coming back so they were there. jam was there all the time. on saturday people got baptised. rebecca, zakk, the chew kids, cait, gideon, and my mom got baptised! oh yeah just incase i forgot to say... my mom and my sister went on the trip too. it was sooooo COOOL to see my mom got baptised. theres a big story for that one. sunday: we got on the plane and flew home! it was so sad getting on the plane from PG to belize city. i cried when i saw jamike, mikey, and jam waving goodbye. i love them so much.

in all the trip was absolutly amazing. God was watching over us like crazy. it was so cool because there were only a few of us who got sick. God used us to love on other people because he loved us first. one of my best friends Jenna came on the trip. i've been praying for her for over 2 years now. shes been going to church with me on and off, and i've just been loving on her. she came and realized God's beauty. shes on her way to knowing him. shes on the journey of being saved. its a progress. i am so thankful for her and for her open heart. the holy spirit did so many wonderful things to her. thank you so much for everyone who kept us in there prayers. we had an amazing time. every single person who came with us was meant to be. its crazy how people dropped the trip and people were added. if someone else came on the trip it would of been so different. if someone didn't come who was part of our group it would of been different as well. we all were so encouraged by eachother and got along SO WELL. not clicky. the guys were so good to us and said it was easy to serve the girls. it was so evident that God was answering our prayers and the prayers of others. there was not one time where God felt absent. i know this blog isn't filled with detail and stories... but there are way to many to be told. if anyone would like to know more about our ministry in belize and how God used us, let me know. this experience will always stay with me. i won't let it go. for the world down in C.A. is real. the world here is fake. peoples lives were changed and God's love is never changing. i fell in love with the kids down in belize. i am praying about returning this summer for 2-3 weeks to help out at da wata fountin.
i'll put some pictures up as soon as i upload them!!

thanks for reading and for your prayers!

and here is the theme song of our trip. haha something we heard 20 times during devos, something we slept through, and a dear song that children sang to me over and over and made me cry when i was on the hamock in PG.

[Yes this is don't matter by akon. you better belize it haha]

Konvict Konvict
Oh
Ohoohwooe
Oooh
Ooohhwooe

Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe
Cause we gon' fight
Oh yes we gon' fight(We gon' fight)
Believe we gon' fight(We gon' fight)

Fight for our right to love yeah
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you

Nobody wanna see us together
Nobody thought we'd last forever
I feel I'm hopin' and prayin'
Things between us gon' get better
Men steady comin' after you
Women steady comin' after me
Seem like everybody wanna go for self
And don't wanna respect boundaries
Tellin' you all those lies
Just to get on your side
But I must admit there was a couple secrets
I held inside
But just know that I tried
To always apologize
And I'ma have you first always in my heart
To keep you satisfied

Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe
Cause we gon' fight
Oh yes we gon' fight(We gon' fight)
Believe we gon' fight(We gon' fight)

Fight for our right to love yeah
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you

Got every right to wanna leave
Got every right to wanna go
Got every right to hit the road
And never talk to me no more
You don't even have to call
Even check for me at all
[ these lyrics found on http://www.completealbumlyrics.com ]
Because the way I been actin' lately
Has been off the wall
Especially towards you
Puttin' girls before you
And they watchin' everything I been doin'
Just to hurt you
Most of it just ain't true(Ain't true)
And they won't show you
How much of a queen you are to me
And why I love you baby

Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe
Cause we gon' fight
Oh yes we gon' fight(We gon' fight)
Believe we gon' fight(We gon' fight)

Fight for our right to love yeah
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you

Oh oh oh oh oh
Cause I got you
Cause I got you
Ooooh
Cause I got you babe
Cause I got you

Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe
Cause we gon' fight
Oh yes we gon' fight(We gon' fight)
Believe we gon' fight(We gon' fight)

Fight for our right to love yeah
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe
Cause we gon' fight
Oh yes we gon' fight(We gon' fight)
Believe we gon' fight(We gon' fight)

Fight for our right to love yeah
Nobody wanna see us together
But it don't matter no
Cause I got you babe


this could be the worlds longest blog. but i just had to let you know all the people who went.
mark pine, becky pine, conner pine, matt pine, ed bongiorno, david youngblood, cait piekavance, cathy o'callahan, julia johnson, janet lide, cathy farrar, angela blake, christina blake, anita blake, meghan marell, jeremy fraass, jenna hahn, lea hansen, kristen ludt, rachel howde, rebecca howden, dan gillette, charlie meng, tim barley, steve chew, kim chew, lauren chew, micheal chew, stephanie chew, zakk uhler, sarah burns.
all of these people were so spectacular. we were a unit. it was clear to me that God wanted all these people to go on this trip. a tons of laughs, cries of joy, and love.