Boys Will Be Boys...

It's called "buck-buck." That's all I know. I'm a girl, I don't get these things. But it does make me laugh!

"What Would Bob Marley Do?"

Hilltop News

(Corban's newspaper)

[Jake Zufelt (the husband of my RA from last year!)
Freelance Writer

I made it a point this summer to become cultured. My plan was simple: listen to NPR, read a New York Times best seller, jam to Bob Marley, hang out with heathens. To carry out this brilliant plan, I picked up a weekend gig at the coffee shop. “Free coffee and culture,” I thought to myself. “Perfect.”

I was eager to reconnect with my colleagues and learn about what’s been happening at our town’s central hub. First there was Amirah, my half Middle Eastern manager who practiced a loose form of Islam and drank boxed wine on the weekends. Next was her sister, Lyla, whose father jokingly tried to sell her in Iran for a herd of camels when she was ten. She was my fellow Bob Marley enthusiast. Then there was Erika, a 6’1 lesbian who always spoke her mind and would have contributed greatly to a sitcom. Finally, there was Taylor, a seventeen year-old rebel who drank heavily and wore men’s shirts and a sign on her forehead that said, “(fill-in-the-blank) off!”

The initial conversations were basic: Joe “Dirt” and Joe “Clean” were still getting their tall Americanos, the building owner is still screwing with the doctor’s wife who works next door, and the Christian camp staff still doesn’t tip, doesn’t smile, and calls the headquarters every day if the “Artist of the Month” hangs a suggestive painting.

As the summer progressed so did my conversations with co-workers, specifically about Christianity. I learned from Erika that she grew up in church, but phased out when she didn’t comply with the teaching anymore. Taylor was content with rebelling against her alcoholic father and passive mother, and preferred drinking away her problems rather than dealing with them. Amirah and Lyla were well liked and goal-oriented; a complete life change seemed unnecessary.

My cause received no help from across the counter. Sunday mornings were filled with people who were upset because they were late for church, a group of conservative twenty-somethings would sit around in exclusivity and read their Bibles to each other, and the Christian camp staff would demand that Bob Marley be turned off whenever they were in the coffee shop. For the first time, I saw the Christian culture from the outside, and I was ashamed.

Erika and I were preparing to close when we noticed that Laura was the only customer left. She hid her face as she hovered over a weathered notebook, writing furiously.

“You think she’s okay?” Erika asked. I shrugged. As my co-worker approached the table, I noticed a steady stream of tears coming down Laura’s face. Erika listened intently for several minutes before giving her a hug and returning to the other side of the counter.

“She’s dying,” Erika said solemnly. “Some rare influenza. The doctor is giving her just under two years to live.”

“One love / one heart / let’s get together and feel all right / hear the children cryin’ / sayin’ give thanks and praise the Lord and I will feel all right / sayin’ lets get together and feel all right.”

I was challenged to evaluate my faith that night. It’s hard not to when a lesbian does the work of a Christian, and Bob Marley sounds a lot like Jesus.]

This article really challenged me too. I'm not sure quite how to respond. Or quite sure what it looks like to be authentic and real. How do we pop this Christian bubble?

"Once we have found someone whom we can love, we are nourished by the overwhelming satisfaction that brings. We glimpse in that satisfaction something that has eternal merit and is more profound than anything we have ever known. We are lifted out of our daily lives into an experience that transcends life itself."

Edward Ford

OIT Meet in Klamath Falls

"Take my feet and let them be

Swift and beautiful for Thee"

On Friday afternoon our cross-country team took a 4 hour bus ride up to Klamath Falls, Oregon, for a Saturday meet hosted by OIT (Oregon Institute of Technology) at Steen Sports Camp. This was the first meet I got to compete in and our teams first 5k meet, although they'd run a 3k meet two weekends earlier. I was nervous. The race was awful. I ran a 22:33 which I'm pretty sure is worse than anything I've ever run in high school! The course is TOUGH! It had hills, parts in thick mushy grass, and parts in sandy/dusty/powder. You couldn't settle in strong and find rhythm because the whole time you were working. The only good about it was everyone ran slow. The first place girl usually runs in the 17s and she ran a 19:01! And I did still place with the top 5 for my team! I'm ready to conquer the next race! More pictures to come!

Questions and Observations

Right now I'm sitting in a coffee-shop doing homework with Mel. It serves Stumptown coffee, supposedly the most amazing coffee ever. I think it tastes SO delicious. She thinks it tastes like cough syrup. How can we have two vastly different experiences? We even have the same drink...

This Is What I Miss...

College 101:

College is a never-ending cycle of being exhausted mentally and physically. They have a secret plot of not letting you get any sleep and of pushing your limits!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words



On Sunday was Corban's beach party at Bob Straub St. Park in Pacific City. (This is the same beach my family and I have been to several times and Jason got to join us there last Christmas!) It was a great day for being at the beach, until like 5:30pm when the fog rolled in and we had to stand in line for over an hour for dinner! All in all it was enjoyable but I REALLY missed Jason!!

On Saturday Kate and I went to the Portland Market and Voodoo Donuts with some girls. It was a beautifully sunny day and we had a lot of fun! Voodoo Donuts wasn't all that it's cracked up to be though...I wasn't impressed. That night Kate and I joined Alethea for a Catholic Mass at a church in Portland. It was an interesting experience...most of it was in Latin! And there was a beautiful sounding choir that sang Gregorian chants!

Roomies in Portland!



Roomies in Portland!




The last week of August my cross-country team had a retreat/training camp in Sisters, OR.
This is the team at a lake there.



Courtney and I in the lake during the XC retreat



Anchor of My Soul

 Bear with me...this will be a long-ish post! The climax is the last paragraph, so you should at least read that! But to understand how I got to the last paragraph, you have to know the pieces that come before!

[Perrydayle Baptist Church; Romans 8:28-39]
- Refocus, don't lose heart. Rejoice, He wins! Relax, He's God!
- Romans 8:28 It's God who works; working for good. All things are not good, but all things are used for good. God doesn't trivialize the circumstances in our life. God works through all things, He brings them ultimately to a perfect end. It's God who figures out how to make all the pieces fit together for good.
- Sometimes it seems like God is crushing us. But we have to remember God is a coach who has victory in mind, and the pieces will result in that.
- Romans 8:29 His purposes focus on eternity- past (predestined, called), present (justified), and future (glorified).
- His ultimate good climaxes in perfection -- conformed in the image of Christ.
- Romans 8:31-32 His love withstands all assaults...it withstands all doubts...accusations...
- My life is surrounded by and protected and grounded in Christ. I'm good!
- When everything else fails - He is there. I am secure. He is moving me to a glorious end!
- We need depth and complexity to be made perfect. It takes some burning, some bitterness, and some sweetness. It will be perfect. We cant trust Him.

[Grace for the Moment devotional by Max Lucado]
- Don't panic. "Let us hold firmly to the hope that we have confessed, because we can trust God to do what He promised." Hebrews 10:23
- "Blessed are those who know there is only one God and have quit applying for the position."

["Desert Song" by Brooke Fraser]
"All of my life, in every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing
I have a reason to worship"

[It Is Well With My Soul]
Horatio Spafford, a Chicago attorney, wrote this song after his only son died of fever, his properties in Chicago were burned by fire, and the rest of his children (3 daughters) tragically drowned. Yet through it all, he was able to say, "It is well with my soul," no matter what.

[Psalm 130:7]
"Hope in the Lord! For in the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plentiful redemption!"

[Hall theme]
"Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness." Colossians 2:7

God has been showing me something spectacular these last couple of weeks and the lesson really embedded deeply into me last night. Each of the little notes above is a summary of the some of the different lessons God built upon and revealed to me. Between the sermon from Perrydale last Sunday, blurbs on the Christian radio, Grace for the Moment devos, the "Desert Song" in chapel, other verses, my hall's theme, and analyzing the hymn "It is Well" for my Bible Study Methods class, God has been showing me His faithfulness and my security and hope in Him. Regardless of the circumstances, I'm going to stop and say, "No, I'm not going to let this control me. It is well with my soul. My life is surrounded and protected and anchored and rooted in Christ. I'm good!" This will allow me to walk through a "desert" and still find peace and joy, because it won't come from me or earthly things, but from God. It will make my daily life more stable. It will make my relationship and (future) marriage with Jason stronger because I will not "freak out" about tiny things and be less likely to be shaken by the troubles of this world. God is my rock! When I trust in Him, I can know that it's gonna be ok!

And when you dream...dream big

"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so you shall become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil."

God is GOOD! All the time!

God is always good. This year at Corban I have been blessed to room with my close friend Kate again, and our meeting two summers ago was definitely by God's hand. Our hall is full of freshmen (only one other returner except our RA) and they are all very friendly and we have a lot of fun. My RA is very sweet and fun too! He's given me a full load of classes that'll keep me very busy, but all of my professors are very fun and my classes are interesting! I will be very busy with homework too! He has given me a great job here at the gym - last night I got paid to watch a volleyball game (and keep score)! Even with being injured this summer, I'm still running with the top 5 girls here and should do just fine this cross-country season. I'm NOT playing basketball!! For cross-country we have three 6am workouts a week...so I should be in such great shape and stronger for my season (and wedding!!)! He has blessed me so much!

Being away from my fiance is always hard cause we miss each other, but as we stay centered on God all we do is grow closer and closer! And this is the LAST year we will have a long-distance relationship!! God is so good!

Speaking of my wonderful fiance...I'm so proud of him! He is out in Wyoming seeking and serving God with his whole heart, and really reaping the rewards of faithfulness. In LaGrange Wyoming, there is pretty much the college, a church, and a restaurant/convenience store. Most kids have to get jobs in Torrington or Cheyenne or Scotts Bluff which involves gas money, mileage on their car, and dangerous roads in the winter. Jason was hired on campus, which pays almost all of his tuition each month! Then God blew both of us away...Jason was hired at the restaurant across the street! No driving, no gas money!! He waits tables there and it's going great. But God didn't even stop there... Jason was looking for a church where he could get involved in the youth group and possibly help with worship too. There was one about 30 miles outside of town that needed help with youth and worship, so he was praying about it. He knew if God wanted him there, He would provide the gas money. Well, God answered Jason's prayer a different way. A man from the church across the street from Jason's school approached Jason and said that Jason had been recommended to help with the youth group and wanted to know if he would. So starting next Wednesday he's going to be working the youth...right across the street! Wow! God is so good! I'm so excited for Jase and this ministry opportunity. God has given him a huge gift and calling in this area! And I'm super excited to spend the rest of my life with him and serve the Lord together!