Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Christmas Break: Part 1

Christmas break has been a refreshing time for me. Taking time to contemplate on what I am thankful for this year, and spend a lot of time with my family. My brother Aaron has a girl friend, Cassandra and she has come to spend Christmas with us. Her sweet and fun spirit has added to our home. Today we both had to do errands in Gallatin, a town 20 minutes from home. We decided to venture out and walk in the older parts of it. It was fun looking at shops, finding rare items in a antique shop, admiring historical spots, and taking pictures.









Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Retreat

It's Thanksgiving Eve and I have so much to be thankful for. I returned home last night. I rode back with Amy, Chelsea, and Caley. When we drove by downtown Nashville we agreed on how we felt back home. There's no place like home, and that's where I love to be at the holidays.

This past weekend I was able to spend more time getting to know some of the girls within my department at Southern. I am in the Phi Alpha Social work club this year, and we took a retreat together in Cleveland, Tennessee. It was refreshing to get away from school and to enjoy being
out in the country.


The house we stayed at


We went on a gorgeous two hour hike!


The girls on the retreat

Joelle and I!

Kirsten, me, and Jessica




Have a Happy Thankgiving!


Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Trip to Arkansas!

This past weekend I drove 10 hours away to Arkansas for the wedding of Deborah Arakawa and Alistair Huong. It was a lovely and beautiful wedding! It was nice to see two dedicated people commit their lives together. It was also great to be together with my immediate family for the weekend.




Edwin, Norman (my brother), Alistair, and Tim have been best friends for years. They're all married now!
My family

The wedding







Tim and Sunny



My brothers and I



Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Our apartment

This year I am living off campus in an apartment with Kristi, Debbie, and Rebecca. We are having a great year. It's been so much to hang out together in the apartment and spend time getting to know each other, and laugh.

The living room

Dining table/ kitchen

Backporch


My housemates! We shot some different poses. This is one of my favorites.



My roommate- Becca and I
Suzanne is our adopted housemate and we love having her over too. One Sunday she and Debbie made us pancakes, peach sauce, and scrambled tofu. It was yummy!


These pictures make me happy and thankful for beautiful friendships

Monday, September 20, 2010

My brother Aaron


I've been having a great experience here at Southern these first three weeks. Love hanging out with my girl friends, getting into my classes, and seeing how God is working here at Southern. I will be blogging about it soon!


Last night, my brother Aaron called me and said he was coming down this way for the day. It was bright spot in my day to hang out with him and spend quality time catching up on life. We walked around the campus and he told me some of his stories while he was here. I love you Aaron, thanks for taking the time to spend time with me today. I meant a lot.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

My favorite stories from Summer of Evangelism

I can't forget to finish writing my experiences from Summer of Evangelism down in Atlanta. I shared a little bit when I was down there. God was working this summer! Our role as SEYC students was to do the lay work, pass out flyers, greeting, and follow ups at the evangelistic meetings. I worked at the Duluth SDA Church. It was exciting to see a lot of visitors coming out to the meetings at the beginning. One of the visitors, Delight was coming to the first three meetings with her friend. We noticed that she stopped coming. My partner and I went to visit her place and made sure that everything was all right. She said that she wanted to come back to the meetings but didn't have a way. It would be no problem for us to start giving her rides. She came back with us and I remember sitting with her when they preached about the Sabbath. I could hear her getting emotional yet at the same time I could sense a conviction being made in her heart. The night they made an appeal for baptism she walked down the aisle for baptism. There is no greater joy than seeing a person making a full comittment for Christ!
There are a couple of other stories I want to share.

Rick had been attending a church for a while but it unexpectedly closed down. It didn't move to another location. He was looking for a church family. A flyer came in the mail for the evangelistic meetings. What was there to lose? He came to almost every meeting and was the first person to make a decision for baptism at the end!



Gene had been studying the Bible with his brother and came under the conviction that Seventh-day Adventists were the only church who believed in the Sabbath and proclaimed the three angel's message. It just so happened that he came to visit the Duluth church while the meetings were going on. He talked to a couple of our Bible workers in the lobby and they asked if he was member. They soon realized it was his first time to come to an SDA church and made sure he felt welcomed. He came to the rest of the meetings. Praise God, he was baptized too! It was amazing to see God's spirit being poured out on Atlanta.

Remembering these stories is why I love evangelism. I love how it can bring a transformation to someone's life and helps them to find a new life in Christ. It also brings about revival to the church and it's members. I may go back to Atlanta next summer to be a Bible worker. I love to see people find Jesus for themselves and His message given to us in the Bible.


Kelly and I with Delight


The Duluth team

Saturday, August 28, 2010

A trip to New York

The last week of summer I spent some time with my Mom visiting Rochester, NY. We went to
a special dedication service of Hiram Edson's farm. It was a blessing to hear the stories of our Adventist pioneers all during the weekend.



It was also fun to spend my 21st birthday there

The Visitor's Center
People from the community have been asking what is this building about. It has given us a great opportunity to witness for our church and what we believe.

Inside the center it was exciting to look at keepsakes of Hiram Edson. The focal point of the room was a cherry table that he had built. There were also letters he had written framed on the wall.








The barn on the farm

It was good for me to be able to spend more time to learn about Adventist History. It was at this location that the key doctrines of our faith were decided upon. I knew that I was at a special and important place.

We were reminded that the lives the pioneers lived in hastening the second coming of Christ should be our model to follow today. I am glad that my mother and I were able to take this trip together. I always want to remember what our pioneers did for our church.






Sunday, June 20, 2010

In honor of my Dad


Today is Father's day. I thought about my dad throughout the day. It isn't the same without having him around here. There are many a time when I would like to ask a question, or seek guidance from him. I miss having the friendship that a Dad and daughter share. He was intelligent, hard working, and most importantly a godly leader in the family.


One of the happy memories I have of him was when we took a family vacation up to Niagara Falls, Canada. He was evangelistic minded and had all of my brothers distributing Spirit of prophecy paper books in the telephone booths. I was a young one, still being pushed in a stroller, yet these were some of my first memories of my dad. When I was around five or six I conducted my own musical Fourth of July program and made my dad listen to all my rehearsals and songs. He had some patience to do that. We both worked on a duet and sang a song about a Kangaroo (it was hilarious). The last years when he was working as a doctor, he was faithful to his job and his patients and co-workers loved him. I remember all his prescriptions,and papers lying on the back seat of his car. I won't forget his sense of humor and how he could make me laugh. Dad was an amazing person and things have changed since he passed away. I can't wait to spend more father-daughter moments in Heaven.


Maybe later in the summer I'll post some more pictures. I'm sharing this picture to honor my Dad.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Witnessing to others



So a lot has been going on since the last time I blogged a post. The classes have been so useful and practical for my experience. We have been learning how to give Bible studies, Biblical Spirituality, and about our key Adventist doctrines.

One of the most rewarding parts of the program has been helping out with the evangelistic series at the churches, and talking to people out in the community. I love working with the visitors who come to the meetings. It has been neat to see their excitement for truth and what the Bible has to say. We've had about 10 visitors coming out regularly.

Kelly and I have been outreach partners. It hasn't always been easy knocking on doors and getting a lot of negative responses. I want to share an experience. One evening, we talked with a man who seemed to find an excuse to everything we tried to share with him. Finally, he shared that he had some bitter experiences with the churches he had been to and wanted his children to be able to know God and grow up in a Christian environment. He took one of our Bible study interest cards and was grateful for our visit when we left. It makes me think about how there are people out there in their homes who are thirsting for the truth. If more laborers would go out seeking for them than they would be won for the kingdom,
This past Sunday the Sabbath message was presented to the visitors. We prayed for them. I could see the expressions on their faces about hearing it for the first time. For some it was harder than others.
I have a week and a half left here. If there is one thing I want to take away from this program would be souls won for the kingdom. I'm excited to see the change that others can experience. I've also appreciated all the tools I've received for digging into my Bible better, giving Bible studies, and witnessing to others.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Evangelism in Georgia

I've been down here in Georgia for a week and a half.


Evangelistic meetings are going on at 15 sites. I'm excited about the visitors who have been coming to the meetings at the site I am Bible working at. We had 22 visitors the first night! The sermons are on prophecy and Revelation. It's a message we need to hear for the times we live in.



Here is a picture of the team I'm with. They have been great to work with!







Blessings,

April

Friday, May 07, 2010

Summer!

I want to share some pictures from the end of the semester.






Ashley, Emily, and I had breakfast together while working on a school project.


And maybe we had a little too much fun...


A group of friends put on a surprise birthday party for Bethany and Lindsey

Lindsey and Debbie water painting


Some of my classmates from this semester




Suzanne, Debbie, Ashley, and I had a girls smoothie night





I love these girls and will miss them this summer




Taking a walk on the Greenway

Last Sabbath at Southern


It has been great spending time at home this week. The first day back I was at the kitchen table eating breakfast. My Mom said, "Would you like any more strawberries or cantaloupe?" I told her no thanks, but just to hear her soothing warm voice at breakfast left me satisfied. I wasn't my usual self the first couple of days. I had hayfever and felt irritated with some allergies. Finally, I took some Claritin and it helped me feel so much better! It was nice to have some long mother- daughter talks. I miss being with her while I am school. On Friday, I drove down to see my brother Aaron at work in the conference office. We went out to eat and then went to Best Buy to check out some computers. It was simply beautiful to be with my immediate family for a week.


It was a long process to unpack everything from college. Now I am packing again to spend five weeks of my summer in the program, SEYC Summer of Evangelism. I am so excited! We will be getting some intensive Bible work training, memorizing Scriptures, and studying Bible doctrines. Pray for us as we reach out to the people of Atlanta who need to hear God's message.
I will be updating my blog while I am there.