New routine!

So my lovely roommates Apryl and Mae are amazing swimmers, and they are taking time to teach me how to swim properly! I've never really known how to ...period ... in fact I think I dropped out of swimming lessons in kindergarten lol, cause it was too hard. Anyway I've been a wimp since then and lately I've really come to think that a workout like swimming could benefit me tremendously. It's cardio, so it burns fat, but it also tightens and lengthens my muscles! I am so blessed to have these girls be so willing to help me, they are so patient. I can't wait until I get it down and I can go swim lots of laps in my own lane. :) Such an exciting adventure. It's also a great workout because it is a couple mile walk to the public pool, plus an hour swim, then we walk back to base...NICE!
So the new workout routine for me is: Monday/Friday morning walk with Alli up and down the hills, Tuesday/Thursday weight training with my favorite personal trainer ever, Mel, and Wednesday/Saturday walk to the pool with Arpyl and Mae and swim!! Sunday rest...aka swim at the beach. I am so excited because it is a switch up each day, never the same thing. Hopefully I can keep this type of routine up when I come home in 7 weeks (CRAZY) at the YMCA. Then I come back here next March and it will be back to this routine for sure. Ah I am high on life right now! :o) I'm also drinking a 20 oz iced Americano so I am able to get through my Jeremiah homework...oh goodness I will be a crazy one today.


Loves!

Photos of the Event :o)

Girls' night in!

Last night was the night I've been waiting for all quarter...girls' night at Sonja's house! It was so much fun. We had a get together there first quarter of this school -in May I think - and it was about time to have another one. Sonja and John have such a beautiful house with a spectacular view of the ocean and the SUNSET was out of this world. I'll put up some pics asap. When we first got there she gave us each little goodie bags (she's such a susie homemaker) with candy etc. and had strips of paper, enough for each of us to write something to each woman in our class as an encouragement. It was fun..I didn't get around to writing one for each lovely lady though. But I will over this next week hopefully. Then we baked cookies!!!! YUM. Us room mates have been dying to bake basically since we got here but with no oven or kitchen really, it was impossible. She provided sugar cookie dough that we decorated and then leah and I put mixed a huge batch of chocolate chip cookie dough and m'm it was perfect! After that we had a devotional time and prayed for Leah as she is still awaiting her finances. It was a lovely time!

Ah speaking of this week coming up, I'm SCARED! We are studying Jeremiah and to be perfectly honest I haven't even read the second half yet because the first half took me so long. My eye sight has gone since I've been here, from all the reading. It's really sad actually, I'll need to check into glasses when I get home. I think thats it for now, I'll put pics up lata!

Funniest person...ever?

Oh miss Alli, where would I be without you? We have the best photoshoots in the world... this is dedicated to you ;) hahaaha

Nothing in particular...

Ah I'm in a blogging mood - not really sure what to write about, but I want to write something. Today we got basically every room on campus sprayed for bugs - which was a blessing for sure. However, first they sprayed our room - so I went to the computer lab to do my homework. Then they came in the computer lab so I had to go to my classroom. Then they came into the class room so I went back to my room. Then to the computer lab. What a cycle. But I've finished Joel - now it's on to Micah. I'm not feeling to rushed though, because we have 2 more days off this week to do hw.

I am getting excited for coming hom in two months though. I'm really looking forward to going to Ohio for Christmas, it will definitely be hard with my grandparent's conditions, but it will be nice to see all the cousins and what not. Anyway I am definitely excited to go home, I'm ready for that step I'm pretty sure.

On the other hand my situation is bitter sweet. I honestly have no idea what I'll do without my 'Hawaii family.' That being all my roommates, some classmates, my school leaders etc. Especially Leah and Alli. I've gotten so close to these wonderful people, and shared more of my life with them than probably anyone else I know. It will be weird not sleeping by them every night. I'm excited to see my friend's babies on the other hand - I am pumped for that part. This blog is pretty boring so I'm going to peace out and get back to Micah. Oh and by the way...

(6:8) He has shown you , O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Hits me every time for lots of reasons....

My chains are gone!

Wow, one thing I love about weekends is no homework, which means there is more time to think upon the things God is doing in my life. I am at a beautiful peace at this very moment in time with my relationship with the Lord. The funny thing about relationship with God is that there are so many aspects to it - just like a relationship with a person. One day I may be expressing my anger to him - and he is there to listen. One day I might just want to worship and praise him - and he is there to receive it. Somedays I might have lots of burdens on my mind and heart - and he is there to listen too! But I just listened to the current song on my myspace by Chris Tomlin "Amazing Grace" which leads into the song "my chains are gone" Here's the lyrics to the whole song:

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me;

I once was lost, but now I'm found;

Was blind, but now I see....

My chains are gone, I've been set free;

My God, my Savior has ransomed me;

And like a flood, his mercy rains,

Unending love, Amazing grace!

We've had this song a few times for worship and everytime it gets to 'my chains are gone' I can't help but cry! It puts a new perspective on things when I look at my life that way. I no longer need to be a slave to sin, because my God and Savior has ransomed me from it! WOW. I am free to live for God - what an enormous blessing! This freedom came with a HUGE cost - the perfect son of God being destroyed for the sake of ME. Why would I ever choose to sin after I know that? It makes me sad that I still continue to sin on a daily basis, yet the important thing is that I am not a slave to those and I can turn from them and worship God with my freedom.

Thank you Lord for ransoming me! My life would be pointless if you had not saved me from the sin I was once a slave to. Thank you for this new perspective and the fact that I get to live for your name's sake. I could write about this all day Lord, I just pray you keep this fresh in my mind and sealed in my heart so I will not waiver form the amazing love and grace you so awesomely offered me! THANK YOU FOR LIFE, LORD!

Wow.

2 Kings 9:20

So I am still working on the King's assignment that I wrote about in my previous blog and it is so funny sometimes to read through the stories of the Bible. There is nothing deep or spiritual about this verse, but I just love the last part "It looks like the driving of Jehu son of Nimshi; for he drives like a maniac." haha that seriously made my day. The Bible gives some great sidenotes sometimes and I love it.

On another note, the other day my waterbottle lid broke and it was really sad / pathetic / ghetto, so I have been shopping online for a Nalgene bottle that would rock my world. So silly, I k now but when I get my mind set to something I need to know all about it. Anyway I went to walmart today and found a super cute and durable waterbottle that is like Nalgene :o) Here's a picture lol. It's good when the little things in life make me happy.

Well guess I should get back into the Word, can't get enough of it. Seriously though, before starting this school I thought I would be burnt out on reading the Bible after not too long. However, the mysterious thing about the Bible is that the more you read, the more you want to know about it. It will never get old - and it was intended for that I'm sure.

Blessings have a great day!

Sanity....please....

Oh goodness, it is about 10:30 pm and I am studying my brains out working on a detailed questionare about each king in the book of kings. Ah. I'm making pretty good progress, I think, but there's still so much to do. I'm on my 7th king out of 39 kings who ruled over Israel and Judah. I bet this blog is super exciting to everyone reading it...but I need to vent somewhere. ;o) By God's grace all this homework (cause there's still a couple of assignments besides this one and the OT timeline I did last night) WILL BE DONE BY SATURDAY AT 7PM!! Praise God.

Speaking of praising God...I really need to seek Him right now with my December + plans. I'm torn two directions. I need clarity badly.

I just went to McDonalds with Mike, Ray and Dave and I hate McDonalds, it disgusts me. But I ate a small fry which tasted OK at the time, but I am feeling like a grease monkey right about now. Ew.

So that's about all that's on my mind right now, sort of. Not to mention those 3 guys are in the room next to me doing their homework and making farting / monkey / beatboxing noises. It's pretty fabulous, I love them dearly. :o)

Pray for my sanity in this time. Thank you all who read this!

Hehe.

My outreach!

So I have been praying and praying to figure out what to do for outreach after this school is over (Dec. 19th) because we need to know by tomorrow so we can start figuring out flight stuff.

My niece Mackenzi moved in with my parents and little sis this past weekend, and it hit me ! That's what I'm supposed to do for outreach. Hang out with my beautiful 13 year old niece and try to give her some godly guidence in this crazy weird world. Here's a picture of her!

Isn't she one of the prettiest girls around? I think so! Check out that beautiful hair! Dang girl. Anyway I am so excited, and one of these days I'm gonna buy a plane ticket for December 20 back to PDX! I can't wait. It will be a nice break from Hawaii and school for about 4 months, then hopefully (I still need to press into prayer about this) I will come back here to Kona to staff SBS in April. I think God made me for missions.... :o)

ON a different note, I went to my workout class at 6am this morning like I have been the past 4 months, and either I'm getting more out of shape...or my theory is that Mel is turning it into a boot camp! haha jk but it's getting really intense. It inspires me to become healthier but its hard with all this campus food! When I go home it will all be homemade and organic foods...and lots of workouts at the Y. I've lost about 30 pounds over the last year - hallejuia - but there's still so many things I would like to work on with my body. M'm...organic food...cant wait!

Well thats about it for now. Here comes the King's timeline...wooooo!

ROOMMATE BEACH DAY!

Yay! Today me and my roomies + Amber went to Hapuna beach, thanks to Dave (who is now on outreach) for letting us use his car, and giving us $$ for gas!! It was a lovely day and I think I got some color, which was great. It was a perfect Sunday with nice relaxing...and afterward we went to Costco for some healthy food for once! :o) It was so good.

How often do you see a car full of beautiful girls ridin on the highway in Hawaii blasting worship music raising our hands outside their windows to praise God? It's rare I tell ya. Well it was a ton of fun. It was a very blessed day. Thanks roomies for being so wonderful these past 7 months...I will miss you when this special season of our lives is over in a couple of months! You all have truly been a God-send and my life would NOT be the same without you. Mwa and blessings.

Iced Hazelnut Latte

M'm Alli bought me a yummy drink at the Aloha cafe just now and I want to give her a shout out! Alli!!! You are a blessing to my life! You are so generous with your time, money and abilities. In fact right now I am using her computer because she is willing to sacrifice a few minutes for me to write a blog...and she has bought me more coffee drinks than I can even remember. So thank you girl for being so generous and selfless with the things God has given you. You would drop anything to pray for or with me no matter how you may feel. I LOVE you (1 Cor. 13), and I want to love you more. Keep up the good work. Hazelnut has been my flavor the last week or so...it's funny how that changes from time to time.

So tomorrow is the Iron Man here in Kona. I forgot to sign up to volunteer, but my roommates will and it will be good to hear how it goes. I got to do security in 05 when I was here for my DTS, it was a great time! But now with all the homework in SBS I think it will be best not to be too focued on Iron Man. This weekend Hosea is my iron man! haha no but he has quite an amazing story...God told him to marry a prostitute to represent God and his relationship with Israel who had basically prostituted themselves to idolatry. What an amazing man to follow that call despite what other people thought about him. Food for thought....

Well Alli's in a talkative mood right now so I better get off the internet and chat it up! Peace.

Charting the Prophets...

So this week is pretty intense..it is the beginning of 3rd quarter for SBS (woo hoo!!) but its sucking the life out of me. We are learning a new method of charting for the prophets (Sorry, sbs lingo is crazy - its basically another language) and my brain is very overwhelmed. My neck is very sore because I have been getting stressed and it's all going there! But God is still good, and I know that studying the prophets in my last 3 months here will be life changing, it will bring the rest of the Bible into perspective.

So about the whole missing autumn (I just realized I spelled it wrong in the last blog!) I am doing better today. Currently I am in the computer lab on work duty and I am sitting under a freezing air conditioner (one of the only few on campus) and I am actually cold! All I want is a warm latte from either Starbucks or the Aloha cafe to enjoy...hazelnut or pumpkin spice? Also all morning in class all I could think about was "I want to walk down to a close beach and get some color today" how would I be able to do that if I were at home especially this time of year? Thats a nice epiphany for me...even though there is no time in my schedule to go to the beach.

Wow I write a lot. I am seriously excited though to be able to look back at these one day and remember how I felt at a certain time. Sorry if it bores whoever reads this! :o) OH and another thing that came up today is that the possiblity of me going to Mozambique for outreach is unlikely right now, which means I need to spend some time with God to find out where the heck he wants to send me. I think I have a good idea....

Until next time,

The Britster

Ahh autmn...

So I live in beautiful Kona Hawaii, and I am super blessed with God's marvelous creation that I get to enjoy every day...too often I take it for granted.

However, I really miss autmn / fall! It is my absolute favorite season and I just adore the beauty of it. I know it seems silly to live in paradise and to want cold weather, but that is how I'm feeling right now. In fact, it is a bit of a struggle for me because it makes me homesick, which I know only God can take away from me. I miss the smell of baked goods, pumpkin spiced candles (we can't have candles in our rooms here on base) and homemade hot apple cider with cinnamon sticks! Yummmm. The closest I can get to autmn is to go to Starbucks and get a pumpkin spice latte...which I am definitely not complaining about. Those drinks are delicious. It is just hard sometimes being away from the things I love. Also for me, I am a moutain / lake person rather than beach / HOT weather person..that's just how I am. I really miss that I can't go to the pumpkin patch this year...that is one of my favorite things EVER!! Last year I went with Chad and his fam and we had caramel apples, a haymaze frenzy, pumpkin ice cream, and fresh squeezed apple cider! YUM. I miss bundling up in layers and looking cute. I think I need a Jesus attitude makeover....but before that I just want to declare "THANK YOU LORD for creating the beautiful seasons! Thank you for fall and all that entails and that it really touches my heart deeply. You have created MANY types of beauty in this world, part of which I am living in now for the past 7 months. Thank you that I get to experience different culture, and that my true home is in heaven. If my home was only my house in Oregon, I would never be satisfied."

Welcome to blogspot!

Yay I am really excited for my blogspot! It'll be easire to express myself than a myspace blog that not many people read anyway...not that too many will read this. But hopefully I will keep this site for a long time so I can remember how far I've come. I'll be posting one shortly if one of my lovely roommates lets me use their laptop so I can put some picture up. Adios!