Oh the day I've had...

This is a story about how God is good and I am stupid. Actually, it's mostly about how God is good. Me being stupid comes at the end.

6:45am saw me standing in flip flops scraping ice off my car windshield. And you thought the stupid was supposed to come later... Anyway, yes, this cold morning was RUF's ministry team meeting. We meet weekly to go over RUF things and to minister to one another. We're going through the Shorter Catechism. (No, fyi, I am not doing Doctrine Thursday without outside instigation) Today (as you will read about once I post this week's Doctrine Thursday) was all about who God is. It lead to some great discussion and I could really feel God moving. It's amazing to see how even the simplest of statements can imply and mean so much about God and who He is in us and for us.

After that I went home and did some last minute review before my exam at 9:30. Thankfully that went well and I had roughly 2 hours to grab lunch and do a last minute review for my second exam of the day. During that time I met some cool Portuguese girls (which I tweeted about...see left). My second exam also went fairly well.
 Then was my four hour ecology lab which passed uneventfully - unless, of course, you count mixing up the data and having to re-do half of your graphs...

A friend texted me and invited me to coffee to chat, catch up, and discuss the scripture we've been reading (we're both doing the same reading plan). We met up and enjoyed good coffee and good conversation. We were both so exhausted from long days that we couldn't delve into the meat of things but it was great to just discuss how God has been working in our lives, some of the cool points we've noticed from the reading, and just what's going on in our lives. It was refreshing.

On my way home an email pops up on my phone. I quickly check it at a red light and see that my boss has emailed out the February work schedule. Enter stupid me. I was scheduled for every Thursday in February. The Thursday shift has a full ONE HOUR overlap with one of my classes (yes, the four hour lab I mentioned earlier). I completely forgot to bring it up when I emailed her my availability for the month. Doh. I immediately PANICKED to say the least and quickly wrote an extremely apologetic email to my boss for such a huge mistake. I pray it goes over well and the schedule can get changed easily. God can smooth ruffled feathers, right?

So in the throes of a full blown freak out session I get a call from a truly dear friend of mine. We don't get to catch up much since he is getting married in March and is quite busy so I quickly accepted the call. Of course I told him the story and continued to freak out to him. His first response: prayer. DUH! Stupid me was too busy freaking out to even stop and pray over it. (See how small my faith can be?) So he consoled me and pointed me back to Christ and His ultimate plan. Then he shared a funny and similar story to mine. Short version: he forgot to tell his brand new boss (praise God for a new job!) about his wedding and honeymoon - only a month and a half away! Thankfully his boss was entirely accommodating and it all worked out. But anyway, in the midst of my small faith, woes, and worry, God provided. My friend called at just the right time and shared wisdom and guidance. It's no coincidence.

Further, my class tomorrow got cancelled. God really is good! =)

And since it's 11:30 - a full 17 hours since I rolled out of bed at 6:30am (yes, a mere 15 minutes before I was found freezing my toes off outside - I really like to hit the ground running on these long Thursdays...read: sleepily drag myself to the car...) I should go post this week's Doctrine Thursday and then hit the hay.

Hope you all have had a less rollercoaster-resembling day...though as equally (or more so) full of God's goodness!

Home for the holidays!

yI drove home to my parents house last night. (Note: I'm in the weird transition in life where I call two locations/cities/places "home")

In a last minute decision I ended up packing my bags and was ready to hit the road after the RUF Thanksgiving Dinner. I told myself if we got finished eating and chatting and being thankful before 9pm that I'd hit the road - after that I would wait until the morning. We had a good time (to be discussed in a future post) and were winding down around 8. I was able to help clean up some and finish up conversations with friends by 8:30. PERFECT!

I got on the interstate for my long night of driving. I turned on some music (Joshua Radin, if you were curious) and settled in. I had pre-arranged with a friend to have a phone date while we both drove to our respective houses. She called shortly after I got on the road. C and I chatted for a solid hour - well if you don't count the few times we got disconnected as she drove through the middle of nowhere. It was so good just to chat and laugh and encourage each other. We talked about what we were thankful for, how to love our families well as we return home from the pseudo-independence that is college life, and how we could be praying for each other while we were away.

It was one of those conversations that is so laced with God's work and providence that you cant help but be in awe of how God uses the people in our lives to speak HIS truths to us.

Then C was getting home (she has a shorter drive than I do) so we wrapped up and said farewell. I continued to jam out to Joshua Radin but was getting a smidge sleepy. I called my super good friend and neighbor at my parents house, L, to chat. (As you can see, I like to talk on the phone while I drive. And in case you're wondering I DON'T text and drive...well...except at red lights). We talked for a bit about how we were excited to see each other and hang out. It has been months since we've both been home at the same time.

After hanging up with her, I stopped at a MickeyD's for coffee. I opted for their mocha frappe thing. (Yes, I still drink cold drinks in winter - I live in Florida) I don't know if you have ever had this particular item from their menu. I'm sorry if you have. It was simply disgusting. It had a hint of being a milkshake made from coffee icecream - delicious, right? WRONG! They may have added dirt to it - with fresh worms! Ok, no, it wasn't that bad...but I still couldn't finish it. Blegh!

So I carry on, jammin' out to my tunes. I'm getting closer to home when all of the sudden I'm in stand still traffic. SAY WHAT? It's pretty late by this point and I can't imagine how traffic can get this backed up at night. Turns out they're doing construction or redoing the road and 3 lanes went down to 1. Awesome. It wasn't too terrible though, only stuck for 10 minutes or so.

I carry on, now singing loudly to keep myself alert. At this point I was glad I was the only one in the car - I really do belt it out when I'm singing on my own. =P

Finally I get to my exit and make my way to my house. The neighborhood is quiet and dark. I turn into my street and get all excited - you know, the kind of excited that makes you do a little dance...or maybe that's just me. I'm home for the holidays! Ok, well, just Thanksgiving for now.

My Daddy waited up for me and my parents' dog ran circles around my feet as I drowsily dragged my bags inside. I fell into bed (yes, my bed from childhood) and I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

What have I been up to lately?

Despite being on a rollercoaster, I've been doing quite a few things recently.

Like going to the Florida/Georgia game and spending a lovely weekend in Jacksonville with wonderful friends!

And spending the weekend at home with my little brother - going to my old high school's rival football game.

Playing in the clouds...I mean...co-piloting an airplane. =)

RUF Fall Conference

Last weekend was the RUF Fall Conference. It's where all of the Florida Universities (those with RUFs) come together to camp, hang out, learn about God's word, and worship. There were 6 schools there: JU, UNF, USF, UCF, FSU, and UF. UF (my school) had by far the most people.

We drove to Florida Bible Camp which was about 45 minutes away. My car happened to get a little lost but that was mostly because we didn't go far enough down this very bumpy dirt road. So we turned around, still didn't see it, turned around again and went back, then finally found it. I'm surprised Cecilia (my car) survived. I half expected the engine to fall out or something.

We got checked in - got the schedule, small group assignments, and our awesome new T-Shirts. I got all of my stuff settled in the tent and set off to find friends. We all hung out and chatted, mostly around the candy bowl =).

Beautiful Senior girls on the left and again on the right with Steve, our campus minister. =)

Then it was time for the first large group of the night. Our speaker was John Stone - if you're familiar with RUF, you should know that he is pretty high up in the organization and we were very blessed to have him ALL WEEKEND! Steve, my campus minister, went to college with John so we had the "in" which was great!

Steve, of course, spoke very highly of him. I didn't know how accurate these words of praise were until that Friday night. I was floored. The mini sermon series for the weekend was on Incarnation: Living like Jesus. I can't even aptly explain how well he flipped the gospel on it's head and made it seem new. It seems silly to be so floored considering he spoke on Luke and Daniel - two books I've read before and have had taught to me. I highly recommend checking out the recordings if you get the chance. Maybe it will rock your world, as it did mine.  (Don't forget to check out any other recordings on there, too. They're all great!) God was really working in my heart all weekend.


My small group was wonderful. We had a good group of girls - a mix of quiet and talkative. There weren't too many awkward silences which is good - those always make me nervous as a "leader." We had some good conversation, delved into some deep discussion, opened up about our lives, and enjoyed each other's company. It was beautiful.


Next was a good old fashioned square dance! We even had a real caller - a really old guy who was baffled at just how bad college kids are at listening to directions. We were all just too busy laughing and having fun to take it too seriously. At one point I was laughing so hard I was crying. Do you know how ridiculous line/square dancing is?!? My partner at that point in time - a guy whom I didn't know, from another school - probably thought I was crazy but lead me through the weaving dance without getting too many toes stepped on. I'm thankful for that.

My beautiful friend A rockin' the overalls and braids look! 

Free time ensued as we all became tired and worn out. That much goofy-ness takes a lot out of you! A bunch of UF kids grabbed some snacks and played mafia in the gazebo. I'm a huge fan of that game and love playing it but on this night, I just wasn't into it. When I got killed off I just chatted with a new friend.

My new friend, C, and me.

At some point after mafia and chatting I got ready for bed, climbed into the tent, and crashed. Saturday morning was chilly, which was AWESOME! Breakfast was scrumptious - thanks Craig Carter! I helped with worship team which was fun - I don't usually do that. It was definitely a God thing because I didn't even get stage fright! The message, again, was ground shaking. Can I reiterate that God was really just working in my heart all weekend!

The weather was beautiful so many of the senior girls spread out blankets and took a nap in the sun.

Love God, love friends, love life!

In the afternoon a sister of an FSU student came and showed us the documentary she made about child trafficking in Benin, Africa. It's called Shed No Tears. She worked through the organization, Unseen Stories. It gave me goosebumps and made my heart ache for Haiti and the restavek children.

After the evening service, the UF/'Bama game was on. It was a sad excuse for a game on our part. It's hard to to have a rough rebuilding year after so many years of awesome football and national championships. It was a little unfortunate, also, because we were watching the game with students from other schools - schools that typically don't like us for beating them in football year after year. There were some belligerent students who blatantly cheered against UF but we took it in strides.

There was a bonfire outside during/after the game and I enjoyed chatting with some friends. I was going to hit the hay relatively early but in the tent I ended up sitting up talking with another friend. It was a Christ-centered conversation with a cherished friend so I don't regret staying up way later than I had intended.

Sunday morning we had our final service. We cleaned up the camp - I swept the "mess hall" room. So. Much. Sand. Then all of the schools took group pictures and hit the road. It was bittersweet, knowing this was my last Fall Conference of my college career.

Fall Conferences all four years!!