opportunity left a voice-mail

  late December 2012:  our church bulletin announced there would be two mission trips to Haiti coming up.  one in summer 2013; one in winter 2014.  at that time, I had to tell myself "no" because of what was currently happening in our family: my dear grandpa was dying of cancer and living with us.  there was no chance I'd be able to think about it with all that was going on.  so I told myself "no" and forgot about it.

  early June 2013:  I emailed our church secretary about the winter 2014 trip to Haiti.  there was no new information, but I asked to be placed on the email list when they knew something.  I wasn't committing to anything, but I did want to consider this opportunity.

  last Wednesday: my mom and I are in the kitchen.  talking about different opportunities that God's placed in my life.  opportunities which span the next year and a half.  which do I take?  which do I put on the side-lines for now?  which do I say "no" to?  I mentioned that timing-wise, the trip in August, which I had missed the opportunity of going on, would have worked better than February.  I'd still consider February, though.  I knew a three people on the August Haiti team - two of them I'd gone to Brazil with last year.

  Friday morning: I got an email from our Brazil team leader who also was leading the August Haiti team saying "I just left a message on your phone, please check your voicemail.  I have something I'd like you to pray about."  I didn't know what it was...but I went to check my phone.  as I was listening, tears started welling up as I realized that I was being handed an opportunity of a life-time.  Christine invited to join the team!  I couldn't believe it.  I finished the message, hung up and called my mom.  she knew about it since Christine called her, first for permission to ask me.  apparently, one of my fellow Brazil team members asked if I could join the team.  Christine approached the whole team to ask if I could join.  she called the ministry to see if they had room.  she called the travel agent to see if there were more seats on the plane.  she called my mom to see if she could invite me.  and then she called me and made my day!

  on August 13th, I will be flying to Haiti with six others from my church to work in orphanages, schools, a church, etc.  exactly what we'll be doing there is not yet determined, but I can't wait!  this is so exciting for me!  the ways God blesses me is sometimes more than I can handle and I honestly want to break down and cry.  my parents told me they would pay for the trip as a graduation gift - what's a better graduation gift than traveling and doing missions?!

  there are other missions opportunities that I have on my plate which I'll need to decide on over the next several months.  I'm hoping that my time in Haiti will maybe help me make decisions on some of those opportunities.

  God is good! don't forget it!

  Sierra

no more training wheels!

  Saturday, June 29, 2013, I officially graduated from high school, although I finished high school work mid-May.

   Sunday night, after everything was cleaned up and finished after my grad party, I told my mom, "Now that I'm officially graduated...now that it's final...I feel like a real adult."

  It's true.  I feel like a lot has changed in my attitude in the past four days.  But in a good way.  God has opened several doors of opportunity within the coming year and a half, and it's going to take a lot of prayerful consideration to find out just where He wants me.  But I know that He'll show me and I'm just looking forward to taking this one day at a time.

  These will be days full of school...of work...of intense Bible study...of a lot of prayer...and discussion...full of fellowship....of getting involved in new places...of school...of making adult decisions.  It's gonna be crazy.  I know it will be.  But as I am transitioning into full-time adulthood (finally - I'm an actual college kid!), I am ever-so grateful for my parents who are willing to give me advice and help me make the right choices.

  When you are really small, your parents probably stuck you on your first tricycle.  Then you moved to training wheels.  And finally, you could pedal all by yourself, but your parents still ran along with you just in case you fell and needed help back up.  And eventually...you and your parents could go on mile-long bike rides together, always there in case someone fell, yet you were fully capable of riding by yourself.

  I feel like this past year and a half or two years, I've had my training wheels.  And as of Saturday, they were taken off!  For the first time, I'm on my own, but I still have my parents there to guide me and help me when I need it - and I will!  I have a feeling which I can't explain: scared...excited...nervous...joyful...confident...unprepared...sad...responsible...Spiritually strong...Spiritually inadequate...purposeful...indecisive...and the list could go on.  It's all mixed in one.

  But I have to say, as I've said before.  This "new unknown" makes me pretty excited.  And I have full faith in God that any struggles I face, He'll be my shield.

  As I went through my graduation cards after my party, I found two common passages referenced: Proverbs 3:5-6 and Jeremiah 29:11.  However, I found three cards which each offered a different verse from each other and from any other card I'd received.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desire of your heart."  ~Psalm 37:4

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."  ~Romans 12:12

"But be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you."  ~1 Samuel 12:24

God bless,

   Sierra

PS: coming soon...graduation party pictures.  (happy)

this is the first day of the rest of my life

today, i finished high school.

i'm excited - who isn't when they reach this milestone, right?

but more than excitement for reaching the milestone,

i'm excited for the future.

i'm eager to find out what the future holds.

i'm anticipating something...

yet i don't know what.

what's out there?

what does my future hold?

what will my life look like in 5 years?  10?

heck, what will my life look like next year?

there's so much uncertainty, it makes me so excited!

i'm not a flexible person - i like a plan.  i like a schedule.

but the unknown of the future is...exciting!

i want adventure.  and uncertainty is adventure.

i want to travel.  now i can.

i am earning my college degree.  i get to finish.

i want to develop and grow my discipleship group.

with high school out of the way, i can.

i don't know what i'm waiting for

but i do know...without a doubt...that i'm here for a reason.

i have yet to find that exact reason.  but God has a plan for me.

and knowing that He knows even though i don't...is exciting.

~sierra

three doors -- only one left open

I gotta start with a little background first before I go into this really cool story about how God has been working in my life.

 In January, I started cleaning for a homeschool family twice a month.  Since it wasn't all that often, it worked well with my school and my schedule in general.  It left me worn out, but I enjoyed talking to the kids as I cleaned and hearing their stories about Tonka trucks, camping trips, and forts.  This family has four children, but the mom's parents lived with them, also, due to health reasons.

 At the beginning of March, I "accidentally" stumbled across an internship opportunity at the Target Corporate Center in Minneapolis.  It was an internship for the job as a Business Analyst.  Long story short, that job had always sounded very interesting to me and for a really long time, I'd wanted to work at the Target Corporate Center (and truly, I have no idea why...).  So after long nights putting together a resume that actually mattered, a high school transcript, and filling out the application form, I applied for this internship.  I knew that whether or not I got the internship, that whole applying experience was good for me.

 When the middle of March rolled around, my dad took me out for breakfast and told me of yet another opportunity.  First, let me say that he is the co-owner of a small business that builds elevators - nothing electrical, just "the box".  His company builds custom elevators and you can see their work in Chicago, Santa Monica, even Dubai in Abu Dhabi!  Anyway, his two sales men have been asking for a "third person" to deal with emails and some phone calls and handle other odd jobs to help them so they can focus on the bigger things that may (and do) come up.  My dad's co-owner has a son who is my age, and they were thinking that together, this summer, we could fill this position for these sales guys.  My dad told me at breakfast that morning that they were only just considering opening the position but wanted to know if I'd be interested.  I said yes, I'd be interested.

 So when I got home from breakfast that morning, my mind was reeling with questions like, "If I got the internship, what would happen with the cleaning job?" and "If I got the internship and my dad's position, I'd still have the cleaning job - how do I go about that?".  I was worrying about having to make the decision of which job I would have to keep, because I could only take one.

 Well, the week following breakfast with my dad, I got a phone call from the mom of the family I clean for.  A position opened up and she was able to put her parents in a nursing home.  Due to the fact that this opened up a lot of time for her family to be able to keep up the cleaning duties, she didn't need me any longer to clean.  Although I was kind of counting on that extra income, I knew that it was probably for the best, and I wasn't upset or even disappointed.  I had a peace about it.

 Last week, when I was in Virginia, I got an email at 1am as a group of us were sitting around the table playing games and talking.  I could see it was from the Target Corporation and it said that my status had been updated on my account - I had to log in to see it.  So I tried.  Due to several reasons, such as the fact that I was on my phone, plus, it was one o'clock in the morning, I was unable to remember my account information, so I had to wait.  The next morning, I still had no luck, so I texted my sister back home and had her get on my laptop and find my account information.  Finally, I was able to log in!!  What I saw made me almost sigh in relief.  I had not gotten the internship.  My heart barely sank, I was totally fine with it.  Yes, it would have been completely amazing had I gotten the internship, but the months leading up to this summer would have been stressful, I would have been nervous, and I would have been commuting almost an hour and a half each way every day.

 I called my mom and told her.  She said she agreed - it was probably a good thing I didn't get it.  I called my dad.  He didn't answer.  When I got a hold of him 30 minutes later, he said he had been in a meeting.  He had been meeting about that "third person" position (I'm going to have to find a title for that position).  They decided that I could start at the end of April!!!

 Now, if you didn't catch the exciting thing in all that, I will say this:

I had three very open doors.  And one by one, God shut the doors until there was one left open.  And it happened to be the door that I would have felt most comfortable walking into; the one that is more likely to lead to bigger possibilities; the one that I get to work for/with my dad! 

 Only God could do that.

I thank Him I only had to wait in the hallway for a little while...

 I just had to share that with you.  I don't believe in coincidences.  I believe in a God who orchestrates everything according to His purpose.  You probably hear a lot of people say, "we just can't see the bigger picture yet".  Sometimes, in life, people have to wait a long time to see just a glimpse of the bigger picture.  This time, for me, I didn't have to wait very long.  Only three weeks.  But what would have normally been disappointments, got me more and more excited that God had something better in mind.  I didn't have to make that decision.  It was made for me and set before me.  I couldn't ask for anything more.  

 In my Bible study group last night, we read from Ephesians 3.  This is what verses 20 & 21 say, which I believe fit very well with all that I just said:

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!  Amen."

To Him be the glory forever and ever!  AMEN!!!

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."     ~Romans 8:28

God bless,

  Sierra

Virginia CollegePlus Gathering

 Where to start, where to start...

 Last week was one of the best weeks I've ever had.  I never ever imagined I would have so much fun.  I was honestly kind of nervous before I went.  But I am ever so glad that I went!

 I flew into Virginia for a CollegePlus student gathering hosted by a CollegePlus family.  By the end of the week, we had about 19 students total - a great sized group!  I stayed from Monday to Saturday - a total of six short days.

 Flying by myself went smoothly, and in fact, my plane landed early on Monday afternoon.  When the "R" family did pick the airport people up, we all hopped into their vehicle and drove to their home where others were already there throwing around a frisbee.

 There was the first five minutes of introductions and unloading, and the gathering had officially started!

 On Monday, it was mostly hanging out.  A group of six of us played Settlers of Catan.  It was very fun and interesting to see the differences in house rules.  After games, everyone started pulling out their instruments.  Oh.my.word.  I told my mom that I am going to take piano lessons next year again.  I used to play, but quit.  Everyone played different instruments and were amazing, and it was so fun to hear the pianists play songs such as: Downton Abbey - The Suite, The Piano Man, Pirates of the Carribean theme song, etc.  We then dove into our Bible study of 1 Thessalonians led by Mr. R.  I believe it was around 2:30 by the time everyone went to bed that night.

 On Tuesday morning we all enjoyed one of my favorite meals of the week: Jenn made delicious baked oatmeal. :)  After that, we all headed out to go on a hike at Great Falls National Park.  It was a beautiful day to hike!  It was sunny and cool - a temperature that was perfect so no one was cold or too hot.  The hike went along the Potomac River.

This was only some of us.

(photo credit: Mr. Joe)

 Jenn led us up the trail to the top where we ate lunch.  We all hiked back down, jumped in the vehicles, and examined our blisters. :)  When we got home, we worked on our skits which were to be performed on Thursday night, listened to more wonderful music and played several games.  Apples to Apples and The Family Game.

my turn judging cards for Apples to Apples

(photo credit: Mr. Joe)

 Wednesday morning brought a windy day, which had been assigned to playing Ultimate Frisbee.  Now, I did not play Ultimate.  I stood watching and shivering and chatting with Emily. :) When we'd all warmed up, we spent the rest of the day playing more games.  Four more drove in on Wednesday afternoon, which was fun.  We played The Character Game, Party Quirks, 2 Truths and a Lie, and card games.  After Bible study, music, and card games, Star Wars Episode I was started, however, I only lasted about 20 minutes (at the most) before I was falling asleep.  :P  But it was 1:30, I think...

 Thursday was Mount Vernon Day.  A great day!  We all made the trek to Mount Vernon and spent half the day there.  We toured the house and the surrounding grounds and spent time in fellowship together.

view from the Mount Vernon mansion of the Potomac River 

the beautiful Mount Vernon home 

our lovely group 

us ladies walked around the grounds of Mount Vernon while everyone

else went down to the farming part of the plantation

Spring was evident with all the lambs running (or laying) around 

beautiful gardens

Cassie and I

  Thursday afternoon was spent preparing for skits and getting all dolled up for Jenn's college graduation ceremony.  The graduation was super fun to watch and afterwards, we performed our skits.  There were four groups, therefore, four skits: CollegePlus-ers Anonymous, Changes to Facebook (a Messy Mondays skit), Phobias Workshop, and The Council (I think...) - a skit from LoTR.  The skits were pretty much epic and will forever be remembered.  We played cards after that, and I turned in early at 1:30.

Changes to Facebook skit

(photo credit: Emily Kn.)

 Friday dawned bright and early and we left for Washington D.C.  We drove a while to the Metro station, hopped on the Metro, made several changes to the day's schedule, and headed out.  We first made our way around the monuments.  Our first set of monuments were: Washington Monument, WWII memorial, and then the Lincoln memorial, where we had lunch.

 We then all walked to the Korean memorial, where we then split up.  Half the group went to the Library of Congress, and the other half went to look at more memorials.  I went with the memorials.

the Korean memorial

the "memorial group" at the FDR memorial 

 the Jefferson memorial

 After the Jefferson memorial, the group split up again; one to go to see the Cyrus Cylinder, and the other to go see the First Ladies' dresses at the American History Museum.  I went for the dresses. :)  Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures. :(   I do have to include this picture of this beautiful Cherry Blossom tree.

 After D.C., we went to dinner at Chipotle (which is WAY to spicy for my taste), and then went to the R family's church's prayer meeting.

 When we got home, time was spent packing as much as possible, and that's when the night began. :P  A group of 7 of us watched Princess Bride which is a favorite of a lot of CPers, so if possible it's a must at gatherings.  The rule was: if you didn't like people quoting during the movie, you weren't allowed to watch it.  Maybe that's why we had such a small group. :P  During the movie, the rest of the group were upstairs swapping SD cards to copy onto their computer.  After Princess Bride, several went to bed.  However, 8 of us made the decision to pull an all-nighter.  :D  We played Apples to Apples (although that didn't last long), and then played The Ungame.  The Ungame was perfect for this group since we were full of caffeine, extremely tired (due to the time being 3:00am), and eating lots and lots of Skittles and Twizzlers.  Each of us got asked questions such as "What is your ideal home?", "What is your idea of a perfect marriage?", "Describe each person in the room with one word", etc.  The second question I listed had several similar ones which were the most hilarious since none of us are even in a relationship! :)  Four went to bed around 4ish, and the rest of us kind of sat around for a while.  There was a bit of Google+ hacking, which followed with an extreme amount of commenting.  We all ended up falling asleep for at least 50 minutes.  At six, we said goodbye to several people and finished up our packing.  The rest of the "all-nighter group" who hadn't left already were walking around like zombies the rest of the morning.  Needless to say, lots of coffee was drank.

 Starting at 10am, I said my final goodbyes.  I was brought to the airport, and Josh helped me get my ticket and find security.  Thank goodness, because being in a strange airport made me nervous!   After a layover in Chicago, I landed in Minneapolis where my dad came to pick me up.  We met my mom and siblings at a restaurant for dinner, and I headed home.  When I got home, I found out my family had been painting my bathroom for me!  That's been a project I've been wanting to accomplish for a while, and never have gotten around to it.  After being awake for over 40 hours, I slept for 13 last night!

So the following pictures are just pictures of people that I wanted to include.  :)

this is the group of us that were left on Saturday mid-morning

(photo credit: Mr. Joe) 

 Emily and I

I got to meet Emily at the MN gathering in August.  It was so fun seeing her again!

 Kaitlyn and I

another Emily and I :) 

 Here is a list of fun memories (mostly inside jokes - for those who attended) that I remember:
   ~ "are you lovely?"
   ~ "maniacal powder"
   ~ watching (helping? :P) Kaitlyn hack Drew's G+
   ~ running outside to greet Cassie, who happened to come 1+ hour(s) later...
   ~ "I thirst"
   ~ Josh shutting the TV off before the last 1 minute of Princess Bride (if you're a girl, you know that's a very important part! :D)
   ~ Dutch Blitz
   ~ playing Liar
   ~ ZOOM
   ~ Organization Leadership
   ~ "at the next gathering...."
   ~ frog milkshakes
   ~ drowning in Jello

 Honestly, that's all I can remember right now.  Once I post this, of course, I'll remember everything else.  :)

 Overall, it was an amazing week, and I wouldn't trade last week for anything.

Love,
   Sierra

Peaceful Chaos

 Life lately has been sooo busy.  I feel like every minute is flying by without my noticing it, and all of a sudden, it's midnight and time to go to sleep again.  Life has been just routine lately.  I wake up, do school, and then go where I need to be.  I've been reminding myself of this quote:

 I've been studying for the Biology CLEP test for the past several weeks.  There are days when I feel discouraged, and there are days when I feel like I could take it now and ace it (which would not happen.  ever.).  Science is...not my strong suit, so it gets stressful.  I've been absorbing so much more than I did when I was doing science for high school.  The scariest thing with taking these tests is that you don't know what's going to be on it.  You can get tips and suggestions from other students who have taken the test, but CLEP has several different variations of each test, and you never know which one you're going to get.  Anyway, I'm taking the test on the 29th, and I am confident that I will pass.

 Last weekend, I had some college friends over.  They are all from Minnesota, but drove quite a ways to come hangout for a while.  But it was so much fun!  We played Spoons, the Family Game, and a new game I had learned over my birthday.  It was just a fun time of fellowship with awesome people.  :D

 I'm counting down the days before I leave for Virginia.  Only 16!!!  I'm so excited!  I get to meet, in person, a couple of really good friends, some new friends, and I believe there may be a couple of people I had the privilege of meeting at the gathering here in MN.  We're going to tour Washington D.C., Mount Vernon, laugh a lot, go hiking, play games, watch movies, laugh a lot, sleep a little, and have tons and tons of fun!!!!!!  Eeeeeeeeep! :D

 Today I had my second degree consultation.  Yes, I have joined the ranks with countless other indecisive, college students: I've changed my major.  Today I went from being an Economics major (which really doesn't interest me) to being an Organizational Leadership major (which, if you know me, totally describes me).  My degree template looks so different now, but I have a feeling these courses I'll be taking and even the tests I'll be taking will be a lot more fun for me than the Economics courses and tests.  Now I can't wait to talk to my coach and decide what order I'll do them all in!! :D

 LIVE has been going well, praise the Lord!  It's been growing - from 16 to 18 girls (and to think we started with 5)!  We have quite the full house when LIVE days come around.  Yesterday, after singing three energetic songs, I was asked to open the windows because it got so hot downstairs with everyone dancing around!  The Lord's been good to our group; I just can't believe it'll be April before we know it and then we'll be going on summer break!  But I'm praying about several things right now to grow and develop the ministry next fall since I'll be graduated from high school (yay!).

 Besides those bigger things, I've been busy finishing high school Latin and Economics (almost.done!), attending a Bible study every Tuesday night, cleaning at my two cleaning jobs, planning my graduation party (which just got bumped up 2 weeks) and trying super super hard not to be distracted by my excitement for my upcoming trip.

 What's new with you?

Love,
  Sierra

Comparisons

 How often do we compare ourselves with other Christians.  We may look at them, think they are stronger Christians than we are, and compare our lives to theirs.  Our church to theirs.  Our convictions to theirs.  Our Bible version to theirs.  We worry what they will think when they find out what movies we watch.

 God has given each one of us different convictions.  Different convictions than our friends, than our pastor, even different than our parents sometimes!  But it's not up to them (or us!) to decide what is right and what is wrong.  That is God's job.

 When we compare ourselves with others, we often put ourselves down.  We tell ourselves we aren't as strong of Christians as them.  We don't go to the right church.  We need to go buy a new Bible.

 Sometimes, comparison stems from judgements made against us.  It hurts when people are judgmental against us.  But Who is the ultimate Judge?  Who is the One Judge who really truly matters?  God!  God sent His Son, Jesus, to be the example we are to follow.  We need to to follow His example.  Whatever our pastors, teachers, spiritual leaders say, it is our job to compare that to the Scriptures and then live accordingly.

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to to the Father except through me."       

~John 14:6

Other times, when we compare ourselves to others, we are the ones judging them.  We may look at the books they read or the shows they watch or even the clothes they wear and come to the conclusion that they aren't Christians.  But, really, is that the way we are to live?  Even if they aren't Christians, they don't have to hope that we have and it's our job to show them the love of Christ.  It's our job to be positive examples to them.

"...[He] said to them, 'Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.'"
~John 8:7

God bless,

  Sierra