Saturday, March 28, 2009

Take my life

Hello family! Thanks to all who prayed for my CPC2(Clinical Process Commentary 2) yesterday! The Lord really helped with the delivery of the presentation and in answering the professor's questions (even the unfair ones), and I passed! The Lord is very kind. I've been dreading that part of my graduate program since the day I entered grad school so I'm SUPER relieved to have it done. I've been listening to a lot of hymns lately (I'm so thankful for Christian musicians who can give us contemporary music to go with those good words!), and the hymn "Take my life" has really been on my heart lately. Especially with my life changing and all the uncertainty I have about the future. So I thought I was just post the words here because they're so full of truth! I love you all, thanks for all your prayers and support (even though it sounds cheesy) with my school, and decision-making. I'm so blessed to have a family like I do. :)

Take my life

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee
Take my moments and my days
Let them flow in ceaseless praise

Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee

Take my voice and let me sing
Always, only for my King
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee

Take my silver and my gold
Not a mite would I withold
Take my intellect and use
Every power as Thou shalt choose

Take my will and make it Thine
It shall be no longer mine
Take my heart it is Thine own
It shall by Thy royal throne

Take my love, my Lord I pour
At Thy feet, its treasure store
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only all for Thee

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Correction

I mentioned on my former post that Erin was going to go to opthalmology school, and it is supposed to be optometrist, sorry.

We have a friend of Stephen's here visiting. His name is Grant and he is such a nice guy. He is in tract and field, so he is training right now. It is good to have Stephen here for this week.

Hope somebody is reading these things. :(

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Spring is in the air






Hello, everybody! It has been a long time since I posted anything. February somehow managed to fly by, and all I remember is doing taxes and putting in applications for financial aid,but then, that is normal for February. I also worked on the final touches of the translation of Justification and Regeneration. Hopefully we will have a book out in a few weeks.

I wanted to send this shortcut for those who may be interested in hearing Stephen sharing one of his songs. It was a blessing to us.
http://sermon.net/sermons-Lake_Road_Chapel-15087.html

Rosana and Andy's wedding was very special. It was great to see the Lord bringing two wonderful people together, and also be a part of it with Elizabeth as a bridesmaid and Stephen singing. (Sorry, I have no photo of Stephen yet.) Aside from being beautiful and well coordinated (great job, Deanne!!), there were special touches that made it very sweet. I really enjoyed seeing them wearing aprons and serving cake to the family, as well as the tributes given to the couple by different ones at the reception. Though the general consensus was that Andy did not deserve Rosana,(all said in good humor, of course) I beg to differ. Rosana is very blessed. Thank you to Rachel Greene for posting the photos from the wedding at http://picasaweb.google.com/rachelleighgreene/TripToKirksville#
I borrowed a couple for this blog.
In other news: Stephen is returning today for a week of vacation. Super good!! His friend Grant is coming Sat and staying overnight. We look forward to meeting him.
Andrew is flying to Texas for three weeks for his job. While there he plans to see his friends Jonathan and Randall, and together with them David Ochs, go and see two big teams play basketball. Can't remember which. Hopefully he will keep in touch with us all. :) HINT, HINT
Jennifer, Daniel and familia are coming April 4th and staying for about a week. As Erica would say: uhooo!
Grandma Gates is eating some solid food now, Wow! She takes two of her meals in the dining room.
Grandpa is having what he calls "A Rotor Rooting job" done on his prostrate so that they can remove the catherer. I hope no one fainted at the thought.
Erin lives in St. Louis and is planning to attend Ophtalmology school and be an optometrist. It will take 4 years and she will also be another Dr. Bear, though the Lord could give her a new last name by then.
Aunt Joanie had her 60th birthday, or so she says. She is the youngest looking 60 year old I know.
Well, exercise awaits, I am afraid to wait too long, or I will put it off.
Rejoice in the Lord, ALWAYS.

Friday, March 6, 2009

My post

Well I tried to post this the other day, but it wasn't working correctly for some reason. But anyway I thought I would share with you all this project that I have been working on at school in my Design Software and Processing class. This class and I generally don't get along very well, but I just recently finished a big project where we had to re-build "Our Favorite Ride" in this graphics program called illustrator. It was super tedious and I ended up turning it in late, but when I finally finished it at least i was satisfied with it! It is a Venturi Fetish......whatever that is. We also had to print it on this special paper with a special printer, and pay for it and everything. It was a pretty big deal.

A life changing verse for me in just the past week has been "Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." ~Matt. 6:33
A lot of times we look at the end of the verse and use "seeking God" as a crutch to get things done for us. When in reality it is all about the first half of the verse. When it has all been said and done, we will be face to face with God...alone, we won't have our church, our family, our connections, it will just be me and God, what have I done for Him alone, not for myself or someone else. Living life for God alone is very rewarding! Especially when you aren't looking at the reward but at the saving face of God.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

80s out

Just wanted to let you know its 80 degrees outside here. Going for long run after work. Love you all

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Life in Rolla

Hey family,
I just thought I would share some of the things going on here in Rolla. God has been so good to me. Gotta share it with you all.

One highlight has been a discipleship program I'm doing with several others led by leader's at the BSU, Randy and Zac. We're using a Navigator's book called, "Growing Strong in God's Family". It's been really good. I've been learning how important it is to know the Bible, through study and memorization.

Another recent highlight was a conference that I went to with leader's from the BSU and the worship band (since I'm in the band now). It was called "Engage". I was kind of skeptical about the teaching we'd get. But I was pleasantly surprised. One theme that kept coming up was the extreme improtance of knowing what the Word of God says. There was also a lot of emphasis on discipleship which I hadn't really thought much about before but it seems like the Bible talks a lot about it.

One of the breakout sessions I went to at "Engage" was called "Authentic Masculinity in a Feminized Christian Culture". Surprisingly it was taught by a woman. But she had a lot of really good biblical stuff to say. It was convicting and encouraging at the same time.

Also I had a great time hanging out with the BSU folk and getting to know them better. Seems like God is working in all of them that were there. Very cool. OH! and I just remembered that at the very end of the conference they gave away some prizes and my name got drawn to win an 8GB iPod Nano! I couldn't believe it. It was so crazy. I'm very thankful, it seemed like a physical token of all God's blessings that weekend.

I have been encouraged by quite a few people here at school. God has His people wherever He wants them.

Anyway just some cool stuff that's been going on with me that I thought I could share. I love you all. Praise God for His goodness.