April Letter- we're moving!

March 09 Prayer Letter

Feb. Prayer Letter

January Prayer Letter

December prayer letter

November Prayer Letter

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October 2008- one family's story

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September 08- good questions!

Featured: student questions that have been sent to me in the last couple months. Also, at the top is the conclusion to our car saga.

August- a divine appointment...

July- Worldview issue

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Taking a look around the world...

Florida in June

<---- click here!

(our official website may be down for a couple days starting July 22)

April and May

We're going through some big changes right now. Please read about the end of the school year and our plans to join long-term staff with Cru!

March Madness

Click on the March newsletter to read it! We had a blast over spring break...

Adventure avec les Francais

(story continued from the prayer letter)
As Thursday morning rolled around, I was a bit nervous on behalf of the students- yet excited at the same time! I got a call around 7. It was Tony. I knew he had been waiting to hear back from our national director in France named Joe.
Although all of our interactions with this news station had been positive so far, Joe had a different perspective. He told us that this station (audience similar to the WB here in the U.S.) and this show (kind of like 20/20) were notorious for trying to "expose" things. Basically, Joe was quite concerned that they wouldn't portray us well, and therefore Agape France (CCC in France), Christians, and Christ himself would get a bad rep. After all, it wouldn't be too difficult to cut a weeks worth of footage down to 2 minutes and skew it however they want. Not to mention, there would be captions involved, and that translation inevitably would loose some of the real meaning, if not skewing it, too. There was a group on the beach with signs saying "God hates _____," you know, those 'Christians' who must think judgment and hate is attractive. Please pray that this crew didn't tape those people, and if they did, pray that they didn't assume they are with our conference! (Though I trust that the Holy Spirit could have prevented all of the above)
So Joe and Tony consulted the Lord and decided that the wisest decision would be to cancel.
However, the station was allowed to use all footage they had previously taken. As far as I know, I might be the only one that they personally knew was with the conference, since I introduced myself to them that Tuesday. I know they taped several students sharing their faith--but only from a distance could they record it. With the wind and the noise on the beach, I might be the only conversation that had good audio with it. They might be forced to use this great conversation with such delightful girls who wanted to receive Christ! How awesome would that be?!
Pray that no matter what happens, whether this station tries to portray us in a bad light or not, that the Lord's Word and His Truth would go out to the nation of France! I am so thrilled (though unworthy) that God wants to use me to accomplish His purpose overseas!

(I'll keep you posted if I ever find out what the station used for their story, if anything. God is good either way!)

February prayer

prayer letter/devotional :-)


I got pretty fancy this month...

Liza

(Liza's in the green and her sis is behind her)

Cassie, my friend on staff here with Cru, was one day doing follow-ups in a dorm with a disciple. The two were trying to connect with some people who had gone to "Porn Nation" and filled out a contact card- usually wanting an article or book. One girl was just arriving home as they approached her door. She was very friendly and invited them into her room filled with beer banners and other similar advertisements. Cassie could tell it was going to be a great conversation.

Liza opened up to them right away about some of the struggles in her life. As they talked about Leahy's presentation and how Christ came to free us from such things, Cassie was able to relate completely. She did not know the Lord until late in college either. At one point, Cassie asked Liza, "Are you finding this lifestyle to be pretty empty, too?" Liza agreed wholeheartedly!

During their conversation, Liza made the decision to put her trust in Christ. Shortly thereafter, she revealed that her sister is involved in Campus Crusade here in Madison! Cassie urged her to tell her sister about this new decision. So Liza did, and the next day the two of them came to our Womens' Overnight. It was so fun to see how God had answered several of her sister's prayers in the last couple years! He is so faithful. :-)

January's update!

This might just be my favorite prayer letter yet! :-)

Guest Book

We are always encouraged to hear from you and know that you care about us! Please leave your comments here-- even just your name to say "hi". Oh, and you don't need to be a blog member to use it. :-)

Gratefully,
Trent and Tara

click here to go back to trentandtara.com



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Our brochure :-)

This is the brochure that we made this summer- it gives you an idea of who we are and where we're heading!

December prayer letter!

new website!

So you may have noticed that our old website doesn't belong to us anymore, but that's okay! We've got a new one that Trent has cleverly put together (and this one will be ours for good):

trentandtara.com

We're still adding a few things and making tweaks, but it's ready for viewing, and it now has all of our prayer letters (cause this blog is finicky about showing them). What else do you think our new site should include????
Let us know!

November Update!

suggestion? We'd love to hear it!


Story that didn't make it in this issue because this isn't a Madison student:
Written by Cheeia (from a mostly Hmong family)...

This past Saturday, is going to be a day in my life that I will never forget, and all the glory and praise goes to our AH-MAZING God. On Saturday my family had an huge family reunion/early turkey dinner/welcoming the new year get together- and there were families there from all around the states and there were roughly around 300ish people there. Earlier last week my dad had asked me to give a talk about college life and what I have been learning and give advice to anyone who would be interested in going to college. I wasn't too thrilled about it because there were going to be so many people there, but then I kind of thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to share the Gospel with the whole family. I wasn’t really serious about doing it because there would be too many people and I wouldn’t even know what to say. I thought it would just be neat, but God was serious about it! I prayed about it and I came across Jeremiah 1:7, where the LORD appointed Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations and he says that he is only a child and doesn’t know what to say. But the LORD told him do not be afraid because He will rescue him. And as I was reading that I felt like the LORD was talking right to me. So I said, "God, alright if this is what you want then speak through me" and that is exactly what He did. So I gave a 7 minute talk about college and spent the rest of the thirty minutes that I had, sharing the Gospel and my testimony. After I finished, one of my cousins stood up and started trashing me. He was really upset at me for presenting the Gospel at a family gathering and for even mentioning God. He pretty much said that I was brainwashed. My brother, Mong, who is 19 stood up and started defending me and God. Guys, my brother is someone who, in a million years, I would never imagine doing anything like that. He hates it when I talk about God, he thinks Christianity is pretty much all psychological and that men created Christianity so that the world would be a safer place to live. He started yelling at my cousin and started crying. He said that God is real and that he thinks it’s amazing that I do have something to believe in. He said that I know that I am loved no matter what, which is something he didn't have and neither did a lot of people in that room. He pretty much bawled and admitted that he needs God and then he made up his own prayer and prayed to receive Christ in front of everyone! After that a lot of people came up to me and started asking me more questions about God and this whole unconditional love thing and what it really means to have God in one’s life. From my testimony God reached 17. A lot of the people that were interested in hearing about God didn't really speak English and my Hmong vocabulary is not so impressive. But God was like "hey Cheeia, what about the Jesus Film?" So, I went and downloaded the Jesus Film in Hmong from online and twenty more people accepted Christ from watching the Jesus Film. Guys, the Jesus Film is so BOSS!!! :) Saturday night, my great-grandma, my grandma, two of my sisters, two of my brothers and 31 other individuals accepted Christ as their LORD and SAVIOR!!!!!!!! Praise the LORD 37 new brothers and sisters!!!! I just wanted to encourage you guys to just keep on sharing your faith and keep on praying for the ones that you love who aren’t believers because God does hear you when you cry out to Him. As He says in 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will hear their land.”

October

September Update!

we like comments!

August Prayer Letter

Here's our first prayer letter/update!
Click on it to read. :-)

It's been a while!

So yeah.. we're married! And that apartment that I posted pictures of is THE apartment we now live in. Yeah, #20!

I've now got a full-time job with Campus Crusade for Christ, and it's going incredibly well! Maybe I should post my prayer letters online.....

Ta-da!

Me with my hair/makeup stylist: Ally! There will be some changes from what you see (as in: the pin for my bangs will be gone-- it was only there to keep hair away as we did makeup, the wreath will be pruned, and the whole hairdo will be higher on my head.)

I'm happy! :-)

(37 more days!)

hair!

hair!

Birthday

Angel food cake courtesy of Erica and Kaitlyn. The roomies had a spontaneous party for me!

Birthday

Trent took me out for my 16th birthday. (What?!)
We went to a fancy steak place. Good choice, hun.

Lofty Goals

A view from the loft. Hi, Trent!

Potential Place

Possibly our future apartment at Whispering Oaks. Check out that snazzy yellow stove!

Trent's Christmas gift to me: A picture of us made up of pictures of us!!! It's absolutely perfect, and I need to find a frame. :-)

A close-up (where our shirts touch)

OUR WEBSITE!

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taraandtrent.com

Go ahead! It's ready!

Trent's cousin (Avery's) wedding. This was over 3 months ago (just after we got engaged!) 176 days left for us.. but who's counting?

Our talent: The first song in the medley was a-capella brady bunch theme. "Here's the story, of some godly ladies, who were living in a big house called the FLOCK....." Following this calm and dainty start, our musically incluned roomies busted out the punk.

My house (the FLOCK) did a medley of parodies for the talent show. I can't sing, but I tried... I look pretty convincing though, right?

The senior women did a tribute for the senior men (and vice versa), so I got to say some nice things about my honey. He turned red. So did I.

this is me in my dress!

Proposal Video Hits Cyberspace!

Yes, the engagement video is on the web. Go ahead and watch me do a double-take, then turn back around because I didn't know what was going on. Oh, poor Trent. It's beautiful nonetheless. Here's the link: http://71.66.232.216:24/~osp/Pictures/Tara.Swift/Engagement/index.html

Please try to DOWNLOAD IT. To do this, simply click on the movie icon, then in the upper-right hand corner there will be a download symbol. Just click on that! It might take several minutes, but it will download. Please don't view it on the website I listed above.. it will tie up our friend's server and be a huge burden for him. Thanks, guys! (Thanks, RC, for doing this!!)

(Trent or RC, do you have any other downloading tips?)

In other news, we had our first per-marital counseling meeting today. It was in a large group, just to let all the newly-engaged at Blackhawk Church know how things are run there. Their motto is: WE'RE NOT INTERESTED IN GREAT WEDDINGS, WE'RE INTERESTED IN GREAT MARRIAGES. I love that. I also felt so good about our relationship while I listened to the pastor talk. I can't imagine what I would have felt like if we hadn't been honoring eachother and God and reserving certain intimacies for marriage. I don't feel like I've missed out at all, but rather, my life IS and will be so much more rich because of the decisions we've made together. I just thank God that he and I are so aligned (and I thank Trent, too)!

The other thing I really love about Blackhawk's pre-marital program is that it's not just jumping through hoops. If you don't want to sign something, you don't have to. They're very clear about their purpose in helping us build a strong marriage, and Trent and I will be paired with a "mentor couple." They'll be a church couple that's been married at least 5 years, and we'll spend 6-10 sessions with them just getting to know them and learning from them. Of course, all the couples have been trained, but the pastor said he didn't want to "over-train" them so that the meetings remain pretty casual. This should be really fun! He said there'll be one session where this couple gets to tell us honestly who we are as a couple and what each of us needs to work on. I look forward to that so much! Trent just doesn't seem to see anything wrong with me.. lol. Well no, but I do want to know what I need to work on.

Lastly, I got my dress! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO. It's so me. I saw it online (among hundreds of others) and knew it was the one for me. So I went to the store and got it. An hour and a half was all the time it took to get my dress. Hehe.. if you want to see it, and you're not my future groom, let me know!

I have been betrothed

Pinch me, please!!! I can't even tell you how excited I am to begin marriage with Trenton John. But, before I get ahead of myself, let me tell you the engagement story:

This past weekend was the leadership retreat at Loken's Cabin. 53 of the Crusade leaders for next year were there, and it was a great time to see people I hadn't seen in months and plan for this coming year. (I'll be leading a Bible Study). Last year, before we left, Trent and I had Sarah Emerson take some pictures of us with the scenery. Trent wanted to do that again this year.

Though I thought it was a bit interesting, since the pictures would look pretty much the same as last year's, I went along with it-- clueless. We eventually made our way to the dock, where Sarah said, "I've seen this really cute picture where the girl is looking at the scenery and the guy is looking at her. Do you guys want to do that?" I said sure and Sarah told me which way to look. The video picks up here.....


We'll be getting the video on the internet very very soon. Because I don't want to type everything, I'll just tell you what you can't hear in the video. Once I turned around, Trent proposed to me in French, saying "Tara will you be my bride?" Stunned, but not shocked, I searched my brain for the word "yes," but nothing was registering in English, much less French. Finally the English came to me, I said yes through my tears (I'm sure it felt like forever to him), and then a "OUI!" came out even louder.

I slipped the ring onto my finger, not noticing it had a wedding band attached to it. I found out later that it was the exact same ring Trent's dad used to propose to his mom (minus the wedding band). I'm so glad that that's what he did! The next day we got the stone placed into a different setting just for me. It's incredibly beautiful, and I'm glad he didn't go overboard with it. I know how much he loves me; he could have given me a twistie tie for a ring and I would have been quite happy! My ring is elegant, simple, perfect.

Back to the story.... After a long hug+tears, a roar of cheers came from the cabin. We made our way up the hill, where everyone on the retreat was waiting for us. We had a little party there, and then drove to LaCrosse. His family and mine had dinner together, and it was just the perfect day. I wouldn't have planned it any differently if I had had the opportunity.

I'm excited about a lot of things.
First, I'm excited to have a wedding. Second, I'm excited for you-- you'll get to see the pictures and the video once we put it on the net! Third, I'm excited for Trent's cousin's wedding this weekend.. it'll be so fun to start the initiation process into the Schaller family. BUT, what I'm most excited about is starting a lifetime with Trent and serving the Lord along-side him. Marriage is a beautiful picture of the kind of relationship God wants with each of us. I can hardly sit still as I think about the joys and even the struggles we're going to face together. I really don't think anyone could love me more than he does, and I happen to know he says the same about me. Hey, Trent, let's get married!

 

 

Home, sweet, not-quite home

At least we're back in the Midwest.

So we took off from Orlando on Friday afternoon and hobbled into Atlanta that night. Something was very wrong-- electrical things in the car kept turning off. Fortunately we were staying with my sister-in-law's parents that night, and they took us to a Meineke the next morning. After a few hours and a new alternator, we were good to go. Trent's wallet was a bit lighter, too.

Saturday night we rolled in to my cousin's house in Illinois, got a good night's sleep, then Sunday proceeded to Platteville and then LaCrosse. We spent that night at Trent's house, then this morning we took off for Minneapolis. (we counted 31 busted tires between Orlando and Minneapolis) Trent is needed here to install a server, and I'm going to finish up a bunch of random jobs I started while in Orlando. This is the fun stuff, you know, the things that are always at the end of a to-do list. Yay!!

So after this, we go back to LaCrosse for a couple days, then to Trent's cousin's wedding in Chicago, then to Platteville for 4 days, then a day at Noah's Ark, then a 3 day leadership retreat for Crusade, then LaCrosse for 4 days, then to Trent's cousin's wedding in Green Bay, and then school starts!

If you followed all that, you're way ahead of me.

Step 1: Prepare the amo.

Step 2: Hide in fountain.

Step 3: Lure the boy.

Step 4: Soak and run.

We spent Saturday at Cocoa Beach-- sharing our faith for two hours and playing in the ocean for the rest of the time. We had the option to partner guy/girl this time, so Trent and I went together and talked with other couples on the beach. Our first conversation with a couple from England was very lengthy. They loved to chat, and the woman was totally open about spiritual things. I just love that! She didn't fear me judging her, and I did a lot more listening than normal. Because of that, I felt like I could address her theories that didn't line up with God's Word, and she responded positively. She even changed her mind about what actually saves a person! When I met her, she was very works-based. She believed, as many people do, that if you just do a whole lot of good things in your life, God will certainly let you into heaven.
Well, after taking her through some scripture about faith in Jesus Christ and what it means to follow Him, she realized that faith and love of Christ is what will prompt us to do those good works, but the works themselves are not what saves us. It's the faith. We cannot merit heaven by our own power. We must aknowledge God's gracious gift he's offered us freely that will remove the gap between us and him. What is that gift? It's his son's life- stainless and pure- that we are able to trade with our own lives that are so messed up. We pray now that Sharon will be able to share this message with her husband. Pray that he will have a hungry heart and open ears.
The second conversation was incredible as well. Trent and I got to talk with another couple, and during my conversation with the wife, she asked me point-blank: "What is the Holy Spirit?"
Wow, what an opportunity. So I asked her if she wanted me to take her through scriptures that explain it well or if she wanted my version. She asked for my version, so I handed her a "Satisfied?" booklet and recommended that she go through it later. Then I proceeded with my experience with the Holy Spirit, some fun analogies about Michael Jordan either coaching you in basketball or actually being able to play through you and your body (which is like having Jesus here in the flesh or having the Holy Spirit living in you). She, like the other lady, was so hungry. She had questions. She asked for advice.
Her husband was doing the same thing. He was asking Trent all sorts of questions about his relationship with me. The guy was stunned that we don't have sex, and I thought to myself, "well he'd just keel over if he knew the full extent of our commitment to God in this relationship." Apparently he also had asked Trent to email him the answer to a question. He didn't even want an answer right then- he wanted Trent to go do some research and then contact him on a later date. We think that's pretty cool, too. Please pray right now for this couple: Lisa and Ken.... and the other couple from England: Sharon and Terry.

Random fact from last week: Trent's car died on the way to work one day. It just barely made it there before dying... the air conditioning went out, and several other things just stopped working all at the same time. So he got it jump-started, took it in, and they said nothing was wrong. Everything has been running perfectly smoothly since then, and we thank God for that. We also appreciate the car a lot more now.

In the evening, we had a worship time on the beach where we circled up around the guitar. In the middle of it, I noticed some dolphins swimming by the shore. There were 4 of them, and it was a beautiful sight! Unfortunately my camera only caught two, and it's dark and fuzzy (though photoshop helped). I thought I'd share it with you all. I'd love to someday see dophins jump, but until then, I'm thankful the Lord brought them by our shore as we worshiped Him that night.

Now I know why "bird brain" is an insult. This feathered friend is either not-too-bright, or really brave. These shots were taken at "Gatorland" where Trent and I saw literally hundreds of alligators and other Floridian animals.

This guy was a monster. The sign by his "cage" informed us that he had eaten many a dog in his day, and that's why they had to pen him. I'd guess he was 10 feet long, and if you look at his feet, well, they're growing some tumors. The rest of the wildlife at Gatorland is in it's natural habitat (for the most part.)

At 5:45 last night, I looked out my window and saw something like this moving toward our condos. We had planned a big potluck for the whole neighborhood, and it was supposed to be outside by the lake at 6:30, but rain would totally ruin it. So I prayed. By 6:00, it was raining hard, and the weather channel said the clouds weren't moving. We prayed and prayed. The Evangelism Team had worked so hard on putting this night together! We wanted to meet the neighbors and have a good time. We had so much food, too! At 6:25, we were still sitting in the condo listening to the rain......

.... at 6:30, when the potluck was supposed to start, it was only sprinkling. Minutes later it had completely stopped. Only 7 of our neighbors came, but we had a great time talking with them. The last two people to arrive were actually out on a walk and saw us. I went over to them, and immediately noticed their French accents. THRILLED, I asked them where they were from, and the guy, Roman, was from Poland, and his girlfriend, Maria, was from Spain, but they are both fluent in French! I gestured toward my "Toulouse" t-shirt, and immediately they started talking to me in French. I'm incredibly rusty, but at least I have a good accent. They wanted to know all about what we were doing here this summer, why I was in France last summer, what exactly Crusade does, and on and on with questions. I answered most of them in English. It was just the coolest thing, and I'm so thankful for that encounter!! I hadn't SPOKEN French all summer long, and now I can leave happy (not that I wouldn't have.) I really felt the Lord's supernatural hand over the whole evening....

.....and God smiled.

The Don Townsend poster. Designer's time goes to highest bidder.

This is the front/back cover of the new student-brochure I made for OneStory. Exciting, eh? Go ahead, click on it!!

the inside! Do you know how cool I think this is?!?! If you click on it and have a hard time reading the text, go to "view" and select "full screen." That should do it, so long as your monitor is decent.

can't keep up with this thing

You know, last summer I had no problem keeping up with my blog. I think I'm even busier this summer than I was last. With 47 hours of work each week, and something going on every night, what's a girl to do?!

It's all good, though. Now let me tell you about our Don Townsend "Magic and Miracles" outreach. It happened Saturday night, and probably about 100 people showed up, which was small, but still a good number.

After lots of magic, Don began to speak about God during his tricks. It all tied together beautifully, and he posed a question to the audience: Who do you think Christ was?

I'll try to quote him now, "Many people say that Christ was a great religous leader. Some even say he was one of the best teachers of all time. While this may be true, we must consider who he claimed to be: God himself. There are two possibilities concerning this claim-- either it was true or it was false. And if it was false, there are two possibilities-- either he knew it was false, or he didn't know it was false. If it's true, then he is Lord. If it was false and he knew it, then he's a liar who led what's probably the greatest disception of all time. If it was false but he didn't know it, then he'd be a lunatic. He certainly couldn't have been just a great religious leader, though he did say some of the most profound things ever said."

Don spent a lot of time talking about the Resurrection. After all, Christianity is hinged on it. If Christ had only died for our sins, it would have just been another death. By rising from the dead (and the 3-days-later thing is key) and fulfilling the prophesys , God let us know for the final time that yes, Christ is in fact the Messiah. If the Messiah can't defeat death, he ain't no Messiah.

So anyway, Don talked through some incredible evidence for the resurrection. He went through all the theories of "they got the wrong tomb," "the guards stole him," "the disciples stole time", etc. The disciples were really the only ones who had a motive to steal the body, but check this out: if they had stolen it, that would have meant that they knew he wasn't really going to rise from the dead, which meant Jesus was lying and they knew it. They would have known the whole thing was a hoax. BUT, if you look at their lives, something is interesting. Lots of men will die for a cause that is true. Lots of men will also die for a cause that they think is true. But no one gives up their lives for something that they know is false. The disciples gave up their lives.. they were martyrs. If Christ's life isn't enough to convince someone, just look at the lives of those around him. These guys were totally sold out to God. I hope I am too!

The happy ending to my story is that 6 people placed their faith in Jesus Christ last Saturday night. It's so cool that Jesus is still making a difference on earth today, and it's no small thing. He's more alive than ever!

Friday night several of us went swing dancing at UCF. I hadn't laughed so much in a long time. No, I wasn't laughing at anyone.. it was just a really good time. :-)

We helped out at a food bank for a couple hours on Saturday afternoon before the magic show. We're just a bit tired in this picture.. no one really wanted to take it. I still had the smile plastered on my face from the wedding. heh!

If you ever get a chance to see Don Townsend perform, do it. He's the funniest and most profound magician I've ever seen.

I'm magical.... woot woot!

The newlyweds! Congrats again, Adam and Kristie! (sorry I don't have any of the pictures from the wedding or the wedding party.. the camera malfunctioned. So Krispy, if you could have Holly or her bf send me some good ones of the bridesmaids, whole party, etc.. that would be super-nice. I'll be patient until then.) :-)

me and the boys (Adam on left.. yeah he's married now.. and Troy on the right. oh, that's me in the middle.. i know.. ya hardly recognise me!)

yep, he's mine.

If I only had had a parachute...

Here's a little story from my flight home:
My flight to Minneapolis from Orlando was, to say the least, different. I had never flown alone before, but I was wel experienced at flying. I boarded, sat down in my nice little window seat, and waited to see who would sit next to me. Meanwhile, I was praying. I mean, who knows what God could do!! Sometimes he likes to use me in big ways while sitting next to a random person. I hoped whoever it was He was going to plant next to me would be a talkative person.
A newlywed couple just off their honeymoon ended up sitting next to me. Now, if you didn't know, it's said that females communicate 60% with body language. Who knows where that stat came from, but I'll just say that this new wife sat down, turned her back almost completely to me, and leaned into her husband. She didn't even look out the window, much less at me.
This was going to be a challenge. After we took off and they refused my gum offer, I asked a couple more questions, found out they had just been married, and watched as they shut me down again. The stewardess gave me an apple juice, I drank half of it, left it sit on my tray, and fell asleep.
I awoke some time later to find that my drink had spilled all over my shorts, a bit on my shirt, soaked into the seat, and was running down my legs. And that wet seat did not smell good. Stunned and stuck, I looked at the silent couple for help, but they had no tissues or anything. The stewardess brought me a couple paper towels, but frankly there wasn't much I could do for the rest of the flight except go to the lavatory and grab more paper towels to sit on.
The good news is that I got to talk just a bit with this couple. They're moving to a city in North Dakota that my Summer Project leaders from last year live in now. I got to hear the bare facts about their honeymoon, as well as what each of them will be doing in the coming year, and they asked about my internship at Campus Crusade. I asked the girl about the book she was reading, but she was far too engrossed in it to really have a conversation. Her tone told me enough. Since we were starting to decend by that point, I stopped trying to talk and just prayed for them. They really didn't seem to enjoy eachother, yet they had just gotten married!
So I took my sticky self to my next gate, expecting an hour's layover, but it had turned into two. Frustrated, since we had just flown over Platteville, I calculated the time it would take to fly to Madison and drive to Pville considering this new delay. I discovered that if I had had a parachute on the last flight, I could be in Platteville 5 hours earlier than what would actually happen.
BUT, God is still with me, and was determined not to give up. He had something planned for this time. So, I told him "hey, I'm still here, and I really want you to use me. This is me being available for your glory." And I sat down. Across from me (at my new gate with new people) was a girl talking on her cell phone. She mentioned her flight from Orlando, and my semi-dry shorts and I noticed. When she got off the phone, I said "hey I was just on you last flight!" So we talked about why we were in Orlando, why we're going to Madison, etc, and I found out that she's got a 3 month nursing position near Orlando and her grandma's getting married in Sun Prairie.
We talked for over an hour, up until boarding time, and it was kinda like we've been friends for a long time. We decided we should have been travel buddies, had we known about the other. Oh, and her name is Kimberly. She looks incredibly like my new sister-in-law. Though we weren't seated next to eachother on the short flight to Madison, i prayed for an opportunity to talk with her more.
I sat down, had a nice conversation with the lady next to me who works full time for a Lutheran Church, and when the seat belt sign was turned off, I looked for Kim. The plane was competely full except for one seat, and there was a blonde girl in the seat next to it. Raising myself a bit higher, I prayed it would be Kim. It was!!
I went and sat in the open seat, very excited. She started talking about how her bf would be on a flight the next morning. Mine too! Then she told me about how big of a computer geek he is. Oh we had much in common. She asked me some more about my internship, and I stayed in that seat until we landed. We exchanged numbers and emails, and hopefully she'll be able to come with us when we go to Cocoa Beach next weekend (this weekend we're going to a food bank to help out).

So Kim and I parted ways, but I hope to see her again soon. Troy met me at airport exit, and we had a nice drive home. All in all, those extra 5 hours were worth it. Knowing that God has a plan takes a lot of frustration out of life. At first I was upset about my national cell phone plan, too, because I wanted to use it at the airport for those two hours, but I don't have those kind of minutes. See, in all the little things God was there working things out. I could have been so frustrated by it, but instead, thankfully, I chose to open my eyes, make myself available to Him, and allow Him to move me. Time is a big deal. It's limited. I only have so much. But really, it's not mine. My time will be used according to God's purposes and not my own. I can't think of anything more fulfilling!

If I only had had a parachute, my time would have been wasted on me.

Consider this a teaser.... I'll post more pix soon! Congrats to Adam and Kristie Swift!!!

Friday afternoon we attended what was quite literally a worldwide potluck with the international students...

and there was plenty of entertainment... provided by volunteers from the crowd.

On Friday night we did an outreach in a popular public area. My partner and I got to talk with several people-- the first two girls were super friendly and invited us to sit with them. They were very interested in God and each wanted to have a copy of the "Connecting with God" booklets we had. After several more conversations, I saw the same kid in an Atari shirt that i had seen before. His name is Marcel, he's in high school, and he's super interested in learning about religions. His friend is Muslim but not super-faithful, his mom is a strong Christ follower, his Dad is an atheist, and his uncle's a pastor. His ideas are a mix of Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam... (continued below)

Swimming, Schallers, and Service

continued from above:

...but when asked who goes to heaven, he said "those who are saved by believing in Jesus Christ."
I wasn't expecting that answer. So Marcel and I talked some more, and he told me that his life goes back and fourth between the two circles. ( http://www.everystudent.com/features/gettingconnected.html Scroll 2/3 the way down to see image.) I asked him where he wants to be, and he said somewhere in between the two circles. His honesty was nice. Then I asked him what prevented him from desiring to be in the second circle, and he really wasn't sure. He told me that he likes to read a lot, and he got excited when I asked about C.S. Lewis. So I have him several book references, of course Lee Strobel was in there, too. I also had a copy of "More than a Carpenter" on hand, and he received that with great excitement. I told him a bit about the author, Josh McDowell.

The boy was super-pumped about our conversation, and though he didn't want to make any decisions right at that moment, he said he'd do more research, get more books, and talk to his uncle. I felt an urgency to get him to make a decision right then and there, and I told him about God's promise to give us the Holy Spirit when we receive Christ. It's strange that I feel if I don't see someone receive Christ while I'm on Project, then somehow I've failed, but THAT'S TOTALLY NOT TRUE! I recognized that while I was with him, and before I left I reassured him that God will allow him the dignity of making his own decision. I know Marcel is sincerely seeking truth, and God’s Word promises that “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13, and that is just what he’s doing. I’m at such peace knowing Marcel will find his maker. God is proud of me simply for being a stepping stone for a boy on an important journey.

SWIMMING
Saturday morning some of us were in the pool with our beach ball and my inner tube floatie. There were only 4 of us, and we were having a good time as usual.. nothing obnoxious or out of the ordinary. Then this security guard walks in, checks our pool passes, and proceeds to apologize for what he's about to do. He told us that the rules say "no inflatable objects" in the pool, which of course would include my innertube and beach ball. Roberto continued to tell us of more ridiculous rules, and we just had to laugh because he thought they were crazy, and yet he has to enforce them. Apparently this lady calls security all the time when she sees a pool rule being violated (ex. no children under 2 in the pool... even if a parent is holding them!). So he had gotten a call that day saying "A group of kids is making a ruckus in the pool with several inflatable toys!" So when he got there, he found us swimming peaceful with a beach ball and tube. He said he expected to find a large raft and some inflatable canoes or something. He continued to talk about how this lady watches from her "perch" and calls in several times a day. Roberto also revealed that our pool is the only one in Ventura that has these ridiculous rules. Interesting. I am so tempted to bring my deflated tube with me from now on and just leave it sit on the deck while i swim. But that would be evil.

So then we left, and half an hour later Trent's sister calls me. "Tara, Trent lost his cell phone, and some lady called us and says she has it." So we called it, she answered, and we went outside to meet her. He had left it at the pool, and as we were walking she made sure to tell us "that dumpster over there is for recycling only.. for regular trash you'll want to go over here." Yes, we've been here 6 weeks... there's a HUGE sign by each dumpster... hmmmmmm.. could this be the lady?
(Evidently, our community desired to be for retired people only, but by law they can't discriminate by age... so now there are 31 college kids there. Yikes. Thankfully the other residents aren't like this lady, though we are appreciative of her returning the cell phone promptly..)

SCHALLERS
Saturday night Trent and I went to his uncle's house for dinner and a movie. It was nice to get away for a bit, have an EXCELLENT meal, and spend some time with his family. We spent most of the evening with Trent's cousin and his girlfriend. It was so good to be able to act like a normal couple instead of being in a huge group of single people.

SERVICE (church service)
Sunday was amazing. All summer long I've been going to different churches, and none of them have been just exactly what I'm looking for. It's been good though to really think and pray about what kind of community I'd like to be involved in permanently once I get planted somewhere, and now I know that it exists outside of my home church! I'm picky, but God's ok with that.
The best part about it was that Trent liked it too. A couple weeks ago we had had a conversation that basically revealed our different preferences. There's no difference in the truths that need to be taught, just a difference in style. He liked what he was used to, and I like what I'm used to. Well, this Vineyard church somehow met all the requirements we both had!!!! I really didn't think it was possible, but God proved me wrong. We'll be going back there some more before the summer's through. :-)

SWIMMING 2
Roberto came back to the pool on Sunday afternoon. He told us about his report to the lady (I won't say what he calls her.. but it has something to do with a nocturnal flying creature). She has some type of camera on the pool, so she can sit in her living room and watch out for any "ruckus"!!!! That's so illegal! Also, she asked him about the girl in green. That's me. She asked, "Is that girl swimming in her clothes?!" I have a green halter top and a black suit-skirt. Yeah, they aren't the same color, but they're both swimming-wear. So Roberto got to explain to this lady that we are Christians, and my suit (and other girls' suits) are of the conservative fashion. I got such a kick out of that!!!! Then Roberto concluded with "That lady needs to get a hobby.. she needs to find Jesus!"

SERVICE (Ben's Story)
Ben Rivera, one of the staff from Big Break, came to speak to our group on Monday night. He preached on a passage in Mark 9:33-41. The main point was that in God's eyes, being great means serving the lowest of the low. I suggest you read that passage; it speaks so much better than I could. Keep in mind that in the Jewish culture, children were the very lowest on the totem pole.
Ben also told a story that really touched me. He has 3 grown daughters, but when they were young he'd take one out to lunch each week. When Holly, the youngest, was in kindergarten and it was her week for lunch, he told her he'd pick her up at lunch time. The kids had from 11-11:30 as recess, 11:30-12 for eating, and 12-12:30 they rolled out the mats for naps. (We really need to extend that practice through college). Ben's meeting was supposed to be out at 11, but it ended up going to almost 12:15. He got to the school at about 12:30, and when he came to Holly's room, he opened the door a crack to see a black room with mats everywhere. Then he spotted his daughter sitting on a table by a window. She came to him, and as they walked down the hallway holding hands, she said "Daddy I knew you'd come."
All the girls were bubbering at that point. Wow, that girl put all her trust in her dad and knew he wouldn't let her down. Though Ben was talking about service (and yes I was much convicted about that), this story spoke greatly of the childlike faith God wants from each of us. Do you trust Him to show up even when He's late on your timeline??

SWIFT/HEIER WEDDING
is this weekend!!!!!!!!! I'm sooooooooooooo excited!!! Krispy, how you doing? We're all praying for the the family down here. My prayer for you is that you'll be able to soak up and enjoy every moment. :-) See you Friday!!!

when little things become a big deal

"... if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First, go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24)

So yesterday I did something I felt should be done. It was a pretty insignificant thing, really, but everyone in the group knew about it, whether they paid any attention or not. But one of the girls had a small problem with it. She brought it up to me, and I was stunned.

She, however, did not have all the information she needed, so I filled her in. But at the same time, I was so stunned that she probably had a hard time understanding through my shock, and I certainly didn't understand why she'd call me out on something I didn't do wrong!

But she closed the conversation by encouraging me and saying some nice things, so that was that. I felt like I walked away still feeling "I'm right," and so did she. So I sent her an email.

Though I tried really hard not to leave traces of bitterness in the email, I knew it must be there since I wrote it with a bitter heart. Thinking about the whole situation consumed me the rest of the day. And it was about something so insignificant!!!!

Last night was a Reflection Night, and I sat there thinking about this situation- how she was so uptight, picky, and untrusting of me. Was everyone out to get me? Do they all think I'm less than them? So I'm not on leadership.. why??? Did the staff think badly of me? I'm a born leader.. I've led pretty much everything I've been involved in since elementary school! (That's pretty much true.)

BUT, I needed to spend time with the Lord. So I decided to push back these thoughts and focus on Him. Okay... push!!!! Thoughts, go away!!! Focus, focus. God help me focus. I'll deal with this stuff later. So I read some chapters and other resources, and for a bit I was focused.

But then they came back. Okay, God, I have something against my sister. i remember that verse in Matthew. What should I do? Do I really want to assert my "right-ness?" I feel bad about the bitter email, even if she didn't know it was bitter. Somehow I doubt I covered it up that well. Yeah, this shouldn't be a big deal, but it's just going to get bigger if I don't do something about it.

So I went to her condo. I asked her if she'd like to take a walk. I apologised. She apologised. We talked about things. She said she totally sees what I was doing now. I said I totally understand now why you saw it the way you did, and now I even think you were right! Then we talked about other things. There was laugher. No, no one cried... but we are still girls. It was probably the best conversation I've had in a while, and instead of there being tension between us, now we love eachother even more, and I can empathize with her.


Praise God! His Word is truly the perfect direction for our lives.



(P.S. please pray for the picnic we're attending this afternoon-- it's a potluck with the international students at UCF. Also, tonight we're doing an outreach with Student Venture, the high school ministry. I'm not quite sure how to relate to high school students, but i once was one, and they think college people are cool, so this should be fun!)

caption in below text.. so there's no excuse not to read it :-)

No Hablo Espanol

So Eddie and Anna took me and Trent to a Spanish church this weekend. They said there'd be sub-titles. There weren't sub-titles.

Well, they didn't completely lie. At most services there's English. Unfortunately, we all found out that the last service is completely in Spanish, but fortunately Trent understood more than two words. However, I happened to be sitting the furthest away from the fluent Spanish-speakers, Eddie and Anna, so every 5 minutes Eddie leaned over Trent to whisper to me what was just talked about. And every time the audience would respond with something, I just said "bailemos." Thank you, Enrique. I'm pretty sure God got a kick out of it.

So next week, if things work out, we might be going to a differnt church with Eddie and Anna and their two friends. There they for-sure have subtitles and even an English speaker on the side (kind of like a signer for deaf people.. only I'm deaf to Spanish.)

So right now I'm working on the "student brochure," and then tonight the group will be learning about our spiritual gifts. Last night in Bible studies we talked about the fruits of the Spirit. It was sweet. I don't know that I learned anything new, but it was nice to connect with the other girls in my group on a deeper level. The Staff is gone now, so we feel more free to go on tangents and talk about whatever, and I like that. The fact that the conversation stems from a Bible passage is pretty cool. We talked a lot last night about miracles that some of us have seen in our lives, and I felt so blessed to have seen so many!

It's kinda crazy how easily we can forget what God's done in our lives.

Check out the picture above this post (you can click on any pix to see it larger). I'll try to keep them coming, as I'm guessing it's easier to understand my blogs when I have a visual. This picture is of everyone including staff, and it was taken in the East building here at Lake Hart. Good luck guessing who's staff (there are 13) and who's a student!

Conversations roll...

The madness continues! We had another international dinner last night, and this time we had to use 4 condos. (In this shot is my condo and at least one other combined for the magic show). The Lord provided 15-20 more people than the last one (around 70), so total there were about 85-90 people!!!!! Since there are 44 of us including staff, well, you do the math as to how many international students came. Praise God! It was such a good time for everyone. I actually got to meet and talk with some of our neighbors who stopped outside our window. Heh!

Marc, one of our staff guys (Evangeline Vergo's husband), is a professional magician. He did two magic shows last night-- each show was for two condos combined. It was a real hit with the international students!

These are the two guys in my conversation group on Thursdays (along with jenny, who ended up in a different condo). Saleh is in front, and Mohammed is rubbing his chin. Both are from Saudi Arabia and have been here 6-9 months.

and I made a new friend.. this is Chisoko- that's how you say it.. I have no idea how to spell it- and we're going to see Pirates of the Carribean with some of her friends who were also at the dinner. She's 19, from Japan, and has only been here 2 months. Though she speaks slowly, her English is already solid.

This is the Evangelism team (we still are working on a better name). back-front, left-right: Andi (staff), Evangeline (Staff), David (Papa) Roach, Shawn Bonfield, Amy Chen, me, Matt Brainard, Ryan Carlson (RC). (This was taken in my condo, not that that tells you much).

So I needed a lil break at work (i'm doing French translation today). I went outside to take these shots of the headquarters buildings. It's a real dump here, as you can see. And, as always in the afternoons, there are rain clouds overhead. (these are the twin buildings, if you couldn't tell. there's actually one more behind these two.. they form a U shape. Eventually there will be one more building where the flags are, to make a square).

This is the view from the doors of one building looking at the other. The lawn in the middle is super nice (Dad, it's real golf course grass that was donated!), and it's called the "Quad." Between the time I took that last picture and the time I took this one, it rained and cleared up (note the wet sidewalk) (max time elapsed: 3 minutes) Yep, this is Florida!

fireworks, flights, fans, and faith

Welcome back to the blog! I'm actually going to type something now (or at least I have every intention of doing so). My goal is to keep this organized, as I have a lot to share.

FLIGHTS:
So last week Trent and I were looking at flights so he could come back to Wisconsin with me for my brother's wedding (Adam's), which is now just more than 2 weeks away! After doing all sorts of searching, we found out that we'd have to get it approved first by the summer project staff directors (which we also discovered wasn't very likely).

So we prayed. I felt that i should write a letter, since they really didn't know much about what's going on. To them it might look like Trent and I just got together and now I want to steal him for the weekend even though I'm going to be super-busy. Anywho, they considered our request and on Monday granted him permission to come. Now I'll save you all the crazy details about flights, but basically I can't change what I already booked, so we have to go seperately.

BUT, my flights back just opened up a spot! So last night we were thinking about booking that for him, but unfortunately it was super-expensive. He was willing to do it, but we decided to hold off, talk to his parents, and pray. And so we prayed. And this morning the flight was still available AND it had been reduced in price by over 100 dollars. I'm SO glad God cares even about the little things. (I'm sure my family and Trent's family are glad too!)

FAITH:
If you've looked at the pictures and read the captions already, you'll know that we did an outreach yesterday at Lake Eola. We paired off, grabbed our surveys and KGP booklets, and began the always-interesting journey of trusting God with the immediate unknown. Lindsey and I approached a girl and she was so excited about what we were doing. She expressed her faith and even prayed for us right there. Pumped, we talked to another girl along the path who warmed up to us after a bit and told us that she's a really good person, so certainly God will let her into heaven. Before we left I told her (as gently as I could) that God asks us to put our faith not in our works, but into His Son. That resonated with her, and I ask you to pray for her-- Kristin.

Then we found another (Alli) sitting by herself waiting for her boyfriend to bring back some large pretzels. We were halfway through the survey when he returned, and I silently prayed that it wouldn't end the conversation. Interestingly, she touched the pretzel and complained that it was still frozen. The bf said "the guy heated it up," and then he realized his was frozen too. So Alli asked him to go back and have them heat it again. We all looked over at the long line, he sighed, got up, and we got more time with Alli! She expressed that she doesn't want much to do with God now, but after she "passes on" she might decide to "go that route." I told her that the Bible makes it clear that one must make such a decision before we die. After pointing out some scripture in the booklet, she said she'd never heard that before, took the booklet, and seemed intrigued. It was obvious that she wasn't ready to make a decision at this point, but we're praying that she'll read more of the KGP (knowing God personally). I just think God's ways are so funny-- especially with the frozen pretzels!

AND THEN I talked with a few more people, but one couple really caught my attention. They were interacting with me before I even started the survey (actually I wasn't planning on doing it with them at first). It was as if they already knew me. Their names are Eddie (from New York) and Anna (from Columbia). They're married and are believers. I sat down with them and started to talk, but soon i shut up. Eddie shared with me some amazing things God's done in his life, and when I left I was so encouraged! Anna, however, speaks mostly Spanish, and I was wishing Trent was with me. But later on, right before the fireworks started, I told Trent about them and how they wanted to meet him, but we couldn't both leave our spot or it would get taken. So I went and re-found Anna and Eddie (and some friends that had joined them), and i brought the 5 of them (two couples and the second couple's 7-year-old daughter) over to Trent. They all spoke Spanish (and some english for me). It was so great! Eddie and the young girl spoke to me because of the whole English-only thing.

After the fireworks they exchanged numbers, and they want to take us to church and lunch soon. Their church has subtitles in English! That's going to be strange for me, but I guess it will be like church in France, only this time with subtitles! We'll see how it goes. Trent's very excited, and I'll admit, I am, too. I'm just really missing my home church a lot right now. I've never found anything else quite like it!

FANS:
Our air conditioner went out again a couple days ago. Staff brought over some fans, so at least that kept it in the 80s for us. It was only out for a day. I almost didn't mention it, but it goes with my alliteration. (Oh, it's fixed for good now, not just "bandaged." They actually replaced the wires instead of taping them or something..)

FIREWORKS:
Those are the colorfully explosive things you'll be viewing in a moment. I think my typing is done for today, but you never know, there might be more! I'll try to take some pictures of the outside of headquarters soon and maybe the outside of my condo.

Quick side-note:
The staff leaves us this Friday. They'll be gone for the rest of project, and now we have student leaders. It going to be more work, I'm betting, but it'll be cool. I am being challenged right now with accepting that I wasn't asked to lead anything (since about 40% of the students were asked.) I guess I just thought for sure I'd be asked, since I step up quite a bit, but wow is that prideful. So this is humbling, as most things have been in the past year or so, and that's good. The Lord also knows that I have WAY more work to do than most other interns. A lot of them say they're not busy enough, and I tell them to come over to OneStory. :-) Did I mention that I love what I'm doing? I love what I'm doing!!!!!!

Now i should probably get back to it.

This is a teeny-tiny puny fraction of the people surrounding Lake Eola last night. Many in this shot are on project with me, and let me tell you, we had the best view of anybody at the lake. I guess that's what happens when you claim a spot 5 hours before the fireworks. (We were there for the outreach anyway!)

Just in case you didn't catch it the first time, we're back together!

We watched the fireworks last night at Lake Eola (in the middle of Orlando) after doing an outreach in the evening. Yay for freedom!!!!!

OOHHH

AHHHH

This is the front and back of the "dummy" template I made for the OneStory quarterly. It gets sent out to all the supporters, families of OneStory interns and workers, etc. I based the design, colors, and elements off the new website. Everything I'm doing will be similar to this-- to give OneStory its identity. How fun!

Here's the inside of the "dummy" quartlerly. The stories in here aren't complete, but if you can read it, they're still interesting.

This is my latest piece of work. It will become a large banner and an image that'll go on brochures, info papers, etc. The narrative in these pictures kind of summarises what OneStory's all about. If you click on it, you'll see a larger version. Can you pick out the diffferences between the people who appear twice?

So we had a womens' night on Friday.. and they took us air-boating! The men only got to shoot guns. Yeah, we totally got the better deal. So our tour guide took us down the St. John River, and we came face-to-face with the Floridian wildlife. (On Wednesday I'll fill you in on what happens tommorrow-the 4th of july).

We made a few friends..

here's one swimming away from me. *whew!* i guess there's not enough meat on me.

and then we ate alligator!

HEY! you might as well comment (my latest push for a more interactive blog)

So it's recently come to my attention that there are at least a dozen people who read this blog but never comment. Though it pleases me to know that, seriously, you might as well comment.

I've heard that several memebers of the OSP STAFF read this regularly, RACHAEL reads this, STEVE KELLEY does too, ALEXIS, AUNT ANN, OTHER OSPers (Pearly?), INSERT YOUR NAME HERE; you might as well comment.

I have questions about these people, because I have reason to believe they might read my blog, but I'd like a comment just to be sure:
LAUREN SCHALLER, STEPHANIE GOLDNER, ANNE PAULINE CREPET, ERIK KRASZEWSKI, ADAM SWIFT, DONNA PERKINS, ERICA CHRISTIE, DEANNA OLSON, ALICIA PENNING, ROB HUGHES, CHRIS DELPONTE, MARIA BLOHOWEAK, BRITTNEY OLSON, and PATRICIA GILE. (sorry if I forgot you, but it only gives you more reason to comment!)

So if you're reading this, THANK YOU! But, here's what I want to know from you:
What do you like to hear about in my blog?
Is there anything you're curious about that I haven't touched on yet?
More or less pictures?
I just want to know your motive for checking my blog, cause seriously, if I weren't me, I probably wouldn't check it! (So... what do you like/dislike about it?)

I had a great weekend. Saturday we did some team-buliding exercises, and then it rained on our beach plans, so we had a "concert of priase and prayer" inside. Sunday I talked on the phone a lot, watched some movies, and went to a really cool church where I learned that if life is boring, it probably means you're not living daily by faith (which means you take few risks). As I reflect on that, I see that God does, in fact, make himself even more evident in my life when I take risks based on faith in Him. The Bible calls us to live a life of faith, not just talk about it. Now THAT's exciting.

Love you all!
Tara


now you may proceed to the "comment" section of your visit. Thank you and come again. :-D

30 years

30 years ago today my parents made a vow to eachother that changed everything. They got married.

First I must say congratulations to them. Congratulations! And now I ponder what keeps a couple together for three decades. It's really not hard to figure out when looking at the two of them. They love eachother. Sure, Mom knows all of Dad's flaws. We witness a flag ceremony every now and again (family joke). And Dad knows that Mom will only eat half of a cookie, but I'm sure he's ok with it by now. Maybe now he eats one and a half (oh wow, i wish I had thought of that!).

But let me get to the point. They choose to love eachother each day. Never during my childhood did I feel that my parents were just putting up with the family because they had to. Oh no, somehow their enjoyment of eachother allowed us all to get along. Tension was never a member of our family. And though I'm sure my parents had their share of disagreements, right now I can't rember witnessing a single arguement. It's true. I've been sitting here trying to think about that, and I can't recall them ever arguing with eachother!

Dad's jokes may get old,
and Mom's stories have been told,
and though I roll my eyes,
my love I can't disguise.
I suppose I'm rather redundant, too.

Happy Anniversary, Momsy and Pops!

(do you like the nicknames? I didn't want to embarrass you with your real ones.)

Okay, and now to explain a 'flag ceremony'... well, I guess we could wait for a later blog. :-P

this is my friend Jenny. She's from South Korea, and each week I talk with her and at least two others at conversation hour. Last night Jenny (her real name is HyunJin) brought her husband Mihno to dinner. They're a really sweet couple.

half of my condo's contents after the international dinner. As you can see, it went really well! 31 students showed up, which is way more than any "Bridges International" event ever done in Orlando. We had to go buy more food!! We divided among two condos and the staff house, so I only had a third of the people. It was so much fun. We played pictionary. Communication at its simplest form is, of course, the way to go. Most of them spoke good English, though.

after the international dinner last night (this is less than half the people in my condo)

the latest addition to my cube. :-D They smell a bit better than I do.

last night's dinner

So two nights ago, after Bible study, my girls and I came home to find our air conditioner not cooling the place whatsoever. Yes, it blows air, but the cooling factor is lacking. We've made calls, and it will hopefully be fixed soon, but the past two nights have not been pretty.

Anyway, the guys gave us invitations for a dinner, and it went a little something like this:

Ladies of Orlando
You are outstando
Thanks for being modest
God says it's the hottest
(And we think He's right)

You have such a gentle spirit
So quiet, we can barely hear it.
We know we'll see you in Heaven
But before that, how 'bout Wednesday night at 7?
(We'll pick you up)

Are you laughing, too? So yeah, last night at 7:18 we were picked up and escorted to guy condo #2, and there we were served salad and each given a rose. Then we were escorted to guy condo #1 (I dubbed them as such), and we had spaghetti and cheese bread. Then the other girls group (who was eating the main course at condo 2 while we were at 1) came over and we all had dessert and hung out. Isn't that sweet???? They were all dressed up with nice shirts, ties, the whole deal. I felt bad for the chef (who was amazing, by the way) because he was wearing all that in the hot kitchen-- cuffs buttoned, tie tight, long pants.

Oh shoot, I have to go. We're going to UCF for conversation hour with the international students! Pray for us! We're having them over for dinner tonight. :-)

Hope Destroyed

Before I talk about the title, let me talk about love. Love is what we discussed in Bible Study last night, and I've got a couple things to share.

1. Trust and love are quite tied together. Who loves someone they do not trust? And vice-versa.
2. A relationship cannot deepen without love.
3. Love is not just something you say; it's a verb. If a friend is not there for you when you need them, is that not grounds to question their love?
4. God's love for us (and ours for Him) can be measured by these things. Do you trust God to take care of your crazy life? Is the relationship deepening? Is He always there for you? (do you go to Him first?)
5. Love is: interacting with others in such a way that glory and honor is brought to GOD.

We looked at John 21:15-17
Three chapters ago, Peter denied 3 times that he knew Christ. Now, Jesus is risen, He shows himself to more than 500 people, and He comes back to the disciples to give last instructions before being taken up. His interaction with Peter is interesting as he re-instates him. "Peter, do you truly love me?" he asks three times, but the word for "love" in Greek increases with intensity each time. And each time when Peter says, "Yes...", Jesus tells him to take care and feed his sheep.

Who are the sheep? Jesus' followers, the young church. What does that have to do with whether or not Peter loves Jesus? Two things become clear:
1. Jesus loves the church dearly. He's attached to it. In fact, he's so attached that it's called the "body of Christ"-- unified by the Spirit who endwells every follower of Jesus. This is how Jesus lives on: he loves us so much that He gives us the option of taking HIS spirit inside us, which conforms us gradually into his likeness. Wow. That's some serious love (and, I might add, power too).
2. If Peter really loves Jesus, it will prompt him to action. Action is a by-product, just like deeds are a natural product of faith. Faith without the fruit of deeds is no faith at all. Love without action is no love at all. Jesus knew that, but he wanted to be sure Peter caught the drift.

So there's my sermon. If you learned something, leave a comment. ;-)

And now the reason for my title. This might be a little personal for some of you, but oh well. So there's this guy that's totally gotten under my skin, and I can't help but have affection for him. We dated for a year, and it was wonderful, but somehow I knew the Lord wanted us to be apart, but I wasn't convinced that the seperation would last forever. So, fearful yet confident, we broke up.
And I hoped. I hoped we would get back together (and I tried to keep it a healthy hope, if that makes sense. Thanks, Alicia, for letting me know that there is such a thing outside of hoping in the Lord's Biblical promises).

And now my hope is gone. Why?! Romans 8:24-25 says: But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Okay, so I know this verse is talking about heaven and our complete union with God one day, but it works in this context too. So if you haven't figured it out yet, Trent and I are back together, and now I don't have to be quietly hoping and waiting for it, because it's here! I'd just like to give a lil "woot woot" to God for all the amazing things he did in the past 3 months. He is truly good.

Ode to the weekend... and Dad.

This weekend was excellent, which means it went by way too fast. On Saturday morning we had a car wash at a church. I made many of the signs we held on the street, and we had three shifts from washing cars, to sign holding, to manning the snack/beverage/info table. EVERYTHING was free, and boy did that raise a lot of questions.

It raised so many questions that about 28 spiritual conversations sprang up during the day. Many people stuck around to talk and read through some of our info, even after their car was done being washed. Unfortunately I was too busy making signs and drawing people into the parking lot that I didn't get to talk with anyone. I know my job was important and all, but I'm a bit bummed about that. I'm sure it worked out the way it was supposed to, though, plus most of the people who came spoke Spanish. Yeah, I wouldn't have been much of a help there.
So by the end of our car wash one person for sure placed their faith in Christ, and others walked away contemplating many things they probably didn't expect to find while someone was scrubbing their windshield.

Then Saturday night we had a "Decades Party."
I was a hippie. I think that about says it all.


We also have a new guy on project. His name is John, and he's completely blind. His seeing eye dog's name is Hemi, and he's the most amazing dog I've ever met. Yes, he likes my hugs and belly scratches. I'm getting one.

Anyway, enough about the dog, John is pretty interesting himself. He's got a mind like a steel trap, and he's already memorizing people's voices, where they're from, what school they do to, and even last names. I don't have any one of those things down yet. There are too many of us to keep track of all that! Yesterday was his first day of work.... ever... and he said it didn't go too well. Please be praying for him. His job is with Student Venture (??), i think, and he does follow-ups on a website. When people want more information from a certain website, John will be one of the people who responds to them. His computer can read to him, but I'm not really sure how he types. He might be the best typist ever, but I'm sure if he's good at typing, it must have taken him a long time to memorize the keys.

John does not have a Bible. He has his computer read to him each day from a Bible website. I seriously think that's a problem, especially since he's dependant on having a computer with Him to hear from God's Word. Plus, what if he want's to re-read a passage over and over again. I doubt he can study it the way he wants to. So, I'm going to see what I can do about getting a braille Bible. Any ideas?

I'm working my tail off on two things: work and organizing the international dinner we're having this Thursday. Both are going well. I'll post my products from work once I actually get something done. Hehe! Check out http://ccc.onestory.org if you want to know more about this group I work with. I think the "CBS" link on the righthand side explains the reasoning for this group really well. I have so much more info I could give you about it, too! The stats on literacy are really interesting. Shall I do a blog entry on it? Let me know :-)

And now, ODE TO DAD

So because my father is a man of few words, I figure I'll get to the point here because I know he appreciates that.

Dad, you love for me has never been a mystery. Even though you often tell me you love me, that's probably the last thing that tells me of your love.
I love you, too! Happy Father's Day,
your princess

Thursday's events

For those of you who care about how my day yesterday went, here's what it included:

6:45 wakeup
7:30 leave condo
8:00 arrive at work (quiet time, check email, blog until 9ish)
9-11:45 I worked on design etc..
11:45-12:30 travel to UCF (for conversation hour)
12:30-1 training on how to talk w/ international students (from UCF staff)
1-2 talked with international students so they could better their English
2-3 discipleship with kim
3-3:30 travel back to the condos
4-6 Evangelism Team meeting (then we played games for the second hour)
6-7 make and eat dinner with my roomie Ariel
7-9 "Reflection night" time alone with God
9-9:30 roomies made ice cream sundaes (hey, we deserve it)
9:30-10:30 watched some of the Mavericks, got ready for bed
10:30 I crawled into bed

So I guess I could elaborate on the "convo hour" at UCF and the Reflection night. So we divided into groups, and my group of 4 was brought to a classroom. I was under the impression that I'd only be talking with one student, but the place was swarming with internationals! I got placed into a group that had 3 students: one girl from South Korea (goes by Jenny), a guy from Saudi Arabia (muhammed), and another guy from Saudi (I'm drawing a blank on his name, but really I couldn't ever say it in the first place.) It was a super-informal time, and we just got to know eachother, talked about what they think about America, cultural differences, their desires to have American friends, etc.

Toward the end I asked them, "If a group of American students invited you to come hang out with them, would you be interested at all in that?" They looked at me like "Are ya nuts?" "Of course!!!" they said, and then I invited them all to our "international dinners" this summer. They're going to be after the Conversation Hour, so hopefully it works out well. :-)

Reflection night was cool-- I was really looking forward to it. After all this business, I really needed to have some extended quiet time. I decided to walk and pray for the first part of the time, before the sun went down, and I traversed the length of Ventura's property. As i was walking a path by the golf course, I noticed a golfball in the road and a cart with two men driving toward it. They pulled up next to me to get the ball, kicked it, and I just had to say, "nice shot." "Is she making fun of me," one said to the other, and we all chuckled. I said, "I'm guite used to finding stay balls in our yard in Wisconsin-- we live by a course." "Wisconsin? What part of Wisconsin are you from?" "Platteville." "Never heard of it.... what's it famous for" (at this, one guy looked at the asker as if to say "Certainly nothing, we've never even heard of it!) But I told them about the largest M in the world-- the Big M, and they got a real good chuckle. Then they asked if I've got a timeshare.

So I got to tell them, "No, actually.... 30 students....internships... working for Campus Crusade for Christ... headquarters nearby." And they found it interesting, and I let them back to their golf game. As I walked away, I heard the man in the cart say, "Wow, go Crusade!" And I was encouraged.

It's easy for me to think that God rarely uses me. That most of my days are somehow a waste of time. I start to think that my time will be more well-spent once I graduate, once I'm here or there, doing this or that, once I'm married and have kids, or once I've grown enough to really be effective. BULL. None of that's true.

He can use me right here and now; where I'm at geographicaly, spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually.

I spent the next hour re-reading my journal entries, and it was amazing how much stuff I had forgotten. God works in and through me daily, whether I see it or not. I want to praise Him for everything He does, and I pray that I'm not quick to forget, either!

Insert creative title here

Gooooooooooooooooood morning! No, it's not 6 am, I just don't feel like changing the timestamp.

So today's only a half day of work. We get to leave at noon to go to "International Conversation Hour" at UCF (university of Central Florida). I'm excited to do this every week. I always learn a lot from people outside America-- it's good to hear multiple worldviews. After all, our values and behavior stem from what we believe to be true about the world and life in general.

I'm hoping to make some friends that I can talk to each week during this time. We're also going to be having several dinners for them at our condos throughout the summer. Our staff said we might get 3 people interested in that, or maybe 25. I hope it's more like 25! The staff members who've been going to Convo Hour regularly have told us that the students really want to have American friends. The international guys apparently got choked up about it (which I thought was cool cause I don't hear about groups of guys crying too often). One girl said to a staff member, "I've only got one American friend, and that's you." She went on to say how that was not good for her-- she wants to know more.

So here we come! And i'm excited!

Thanks for your prayer for my sleep!!!!! I got 6.something hours last night, but I feel incredible. Let's hope this continues. :-)

The boss just stopped by my cube and gave me 4 more assignments, so I better get going! There's always something to do, yet somehow there's very little pressure.

Let me catch you up..

Hello, all!

Hopefully the pictures below are of some help. I'm having a blast here in Florida, but wow are we busy. This week, Friday is our free night, and I'm ready for that! But, I'm not going to complain.

I love my job. It's so cool that I'm not working to promote a company, person, or product. In fact, my boss and I are both under the same God, and that's just sweet. So let me tell you about OneStory (a division of Campus Crusade for Christ) and my job.

~2.8 billion people are considered "unreached" with the basic gospel message

~More than 70% of them are not able to read, and many don't even have a written language

~So HOW can we give them the message??

~My team, called OneStory, has a plan. They train people with Bible stories to pass on to these oral cultures, and it's apparent that the Lord's beind this.


OneStory: Hopefully you got my email, BUT I made a mistake. OneStory doesn't train people in other languages for 2 years, it trains them in English (or whatever their mother tongue is). Oh, and I was wrong about the numers, too. There are about 150 people out on the feild right now, not just 12 (haha!). Still, that's not many feild workers when you think about 2.8 billion unreached people. So anyway, the most typical internship is 2 years (it can be longer or shorter), and the interns memorize 66 Bible stories in English. These stories are not word-for-word from the Bible because they're in story form, but they're still accurate. The intern's job in these other countries is to find someone who can translate (usually there's more than one person, but sometimes just one, and rarely it's necessary to have three people involved before English is understood.) Basically the task is huge, which makes prayer hugely important too. I've been told that the feild workers can sometimes tell the stories in the peoples' language after a year or more, which is pretty cool but also rare.

My job: I am the only graphic designer specifically for OneStory. That's fun. They used to have to hire out (which is quite costly). Now I'm here, and I'm actually paying a bit to be here, so they're excited. And so am I! I get to design all their brochures, quarterly updates, a new logo, a display stand, and parts of their website. I'll also get to translate some materials into French, but that's not near the top of my to-do list. They test out all their stuff on me since I'm new, and that's cool. Apparently I'm good for them because I'm young, and young design is what they need. My job is actually important because I touch all of the recruitment materials and give them a particular image. I'm glad my job matters and the Lord wants to use it!

So keep me in your prayers. I need better sleep. Maybe more sleep would be good. And I don't want this to be just a job. I need to know daily that the Lord is using this, otherwise sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours isn't worth it. Oh, I have to memorize a Bible story each week for our team meetings, so I'd appreciate prayer for that too. I don't want to do it out of obligation or to impress my co-workers. I actually do want to have this stuff in my heart, on my mind, and ready to leave my tongue. Thanks!

I have to get back to work now. :-)

Tara

My new roomies: Lindsey, me, Erin, (and in front) Ariel, and Tiffany. Sometime I'll have to show you pictures of our condo. It's pretty suite.

my cube(icle). Did I mention that I already love my job? This is a really fun place to work, but I have to admit, i'm jealous of the people who are in the pictures that i'm going through; I long to be out on "the feild," but I guess this is a new kind of adventure for me. We'll see what I think by the end of this internship.

A Beauty and the Beast show.. the poor characters in huge costumes could move impressively quickly for only being able to spread their feet 10 inches apart.

We need to wash our hair more often here since it's so humid. Oh, and yes, this was at Disney World :-D

Orlando: this was part of our photo scavenger hunt. Here we're in a mall, and the other girls are my new friends *aww* on Project.

(from 3 weeks ago) Lake Waubesa weekend retreat for Blackhawk's 5th graders-- these are my looney girls

I'm here!

So I've been in Orlando for a week now, and this is the first I've gotten to a computer. Work starts tomorrow, so from here on out I'll be able to blog regularly. :-) Things are going spendidly so far, but I'll have to tell you about it tomorrow!

Much love,
Tara

P.S. Thanks for your prayers! God's been seriously at work already!!

the now.

My address for the next 12 days:

1605 N. Water St.
Platteville, WI 53818

What Tara's doing before the long drive to Orlando:

Well, just last Wednesday I finished my last final project. Yeah, I know... school was over long before I was really done! Anyway, it went really well, I'm happy with my grades, and now I look forward to my final year at the UW!
Today I went with my mom to see many aunts/uncles/and grandpa. It was sweet! Mom recieved some gifts for her birthday (don't worry, mom, I won't reveal what summit you're reaching). Then we spent the rest of the day doing my least favorite thing: shopping. Happily, we left Kohls after 3 hours, and I had some good stuff for my internship this summer. Apparently t-shirts and flip-flops won't cut it.
So now I move on to thank-you notes. If you'll be recieving one, have another thank you: THANK YOU! I've been so blessed with people who support me in my life-- in many different ways.
Tomorrow I get my bridesmaid dress fitted. Wahoooo!! Krispy, I got the programs and banner done, too. :-) You're going to love it all!

As I think about my brother getting married, making this life-long committment, I wonder if I've yet had to make any life-long committments. What/who have I to be faithful to? Anything? Anyone?
The thought entered and left my head in about .0025 seconds (even though it took two lines of type). Duh!!! I have made a HUGE life committment to the Lord! How could I forget for even a fraction of a second? I just want to end by saying how incredibly sweet it is to know that the committment is reciprocated; He's always going to be faithful and good to me (even though I'll mess it up from time to time)!

My God bless you today and every day! (more to come..... oooooooooooh so much more!)

The Prayer Team!

Ahhh.. the prayer team. This was our last meeting, just after we had taken these signs off Bascom Hill. (I cropped this pic since I first posted it... click on it to see a larger version ; then click again to zoom in and read the signs). Left to right: Monica Featherstone, Evelyn Lam, Angie Nyhof, me, Stefan Houareau, Jon Tong, and missing from the photo is BJ.

p.s. I guess I'm back blogging now. :-)

website

I made a website!!!!!!!

Ok, so I basically copied another website, but the layout is my own. Even if you've been to everystudent.com, I really encourage you to check out the articles on every page. I've read some pretty amazign stuff, and I think we take it for granted. Here's my website:

https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/trswift/web/everybadger


ENJOY!

Taking a blogging break.

If you got a support letter and are now checking my blog, THANK YOU! I'm flattered, and I'd love it if you'd leave a comment. You don't have to sign up for a blog to do that, just enter your name (or so I hear.. my mom figured it out--no offense, mom-- but that makes me suspect it's not too technologically complicated, but I can't tell you how to do it since I do, in fact, have a blog).

The story of how I got my internship has a title about "Clarity" I appologise for the interspersing about my personal life, but you know, this is my blog. I don't have much to hide, so don't feel like you're reading my journal or anything.

Lastly, this is the last blog I'll be writing for a time, and it's for someone else's benefit (you know who you are.) I'm not sure how long this no-blogging time will last, but surely I'll be back on in June, if not sooner. Please leave comments! If you don't want to comment, I love emails, (trswift@wisc.edu), but even more than that I love phone calls! 608-732-8272. I've got tons of minutes, right Mom?! Seriously, I do. So call me even if you think I might think it's weird. I like to talk to people. :-)


Oh, and if you're one of my brothers (or soon-to-be sister), you should call me soon.

May you all be experiencing life to the full!

HE IS RISEN !

!
RISEN
IS
HE

















.... and I was born 21 years ago. Yay! We celebrate my physical birth and (more importantly) the cause of my spiritual re-birth on the same day! I love this. :-) And I love being at home with my family. It's been great! Troy, we miss you.

I made friends with some unexpected creatures. (Big Break)

Sarah Emerson and I have similar styles.. (Big Break)

from my balcony (Big Break)

The gals in my suite. Whoa.. who's the white girl?! (Big Break)

This is me and Maria, who I have the privilege of discipling. :-) (Big Break)

clarity... God is rediculously awesome

My thoughts have been so shaken since the breakup. Trent and I were both planning on going to Orlando this summer for Summer Project at the Crusade Headquarters. He would be doing computer/information tech, and I'd be doing graphic design.
In making the decision to even apply, I talked to a few people and God and realised that it's something I'd apply for even if Trent weren't going. So I applied.
Well, the last bit of the application was due right after we broke up, and I started questioning if I should even finish applying, but I did. I knew that I wasn't doing it to follow him, but I also wondered if it's the wisest decision to put myself near him for the whole summer. Is that insensitive?? I don't think I'd want someone to break up with me and then travel across country and be near me all summer. Yikes.

But I also knew that we'd be living in different places and working in different areas. Yeah, we'd see eachother at team meetings, and we are still friends (yeah, for real.. it's been good so far!), so maybe it wouldn't be so bad/insensitive.

Basically I needed God to give me clarity and direction for my summer. I needed him to close doors (have my application be turned down or have no design internships available) if it wasn't in his will for me to go. And if it WAS His will for me to go, I needed it to be rediculously obvious to me.

About a week after we broke up, I saw Trent. We talked for a while at his apartment, and he casually mentioned the possibility of him not going to Orlando. He was considering taking summer classes, plus they hadn't placed him in a specific internship yet. Whoa. What was God's plan? Would just I go? Would just he go? Whould we both go? Neither of us??

At that point I recognised that I'd been placing way too much emphasis on what Trent does for the summer in determining what I do. That Thursday night I asked God to "make things rediculously clear to me" for where I should be this summer.

The next morning I got a phone call. It was a guy from Orlando, and he asked me how much time I had to talk. I said 1/2 an hour. He said we should talk later. Hm. We made a plan for 2:15. So I called him then, and we talked until 3:45.

Rob was offering me an internship with OneStory, a small subgroup of Campus Crusade for Christ that focuses on reaching the "unreached people groups" in the world. He asked me if I had any experience with that, and I replied, "yes!" France is actually an unreached people group (and it happens to be the only caucasian one). He told me about what I'd be doing with OneStory-- powerpoints, displays, borchures, and websites... nothing "rediculously me". Any graphic designer could do that.

Then I said, "Rob, there's a bit of information you should know about me, and I'm not sure if it's helpful, but here it is: I'm very passionate about the French people, and I speak it pretty well." To that, he replied, "Really?? You're kidding. Wow." And then he told me about their need in OneStory for translators into, you guessed it, French. They have a good supply of people for other languages but have NO ONE right now for French.

Then he said, "Well how is your accent?" At that, I chuckled. "C'est tres tres bien, et je pense que tu trouves le vrai personne." (It's very very good, and I think you found the right person). You see, my grammar is ok, and my vocabulary has gone down the tubes in the past couple years, but if I have the time to write out the information in French, I can then say it just like a true national. And yes, they need me to do voice-overs. Ooooh how incredibly perfect.

Rob went on to tell me about their need for a French speaker. Not only will I be doing voice-overs, but I'll be translating the websites I work on into French, using my acting skills and French-speaking in videos, and of course, doing the design work that they initially wanted me for. He continuted to tell me more about their 13-person team, and I'm so excited to be part of this! It's good to know that I have something valuable to contribute. On top of that, he said their current designer isn't actually trained in the feild. When they looked at my work they were impressed (wow! It's only my class assignments that they saw, cause that's all I've done!), and basically they're excited to have me come.

So there's my answer! Thanks, God!!! Rediculously obvious... so perfect for me. :)

And I'm also thrilled that on the weekends I'll get to do evangelism in Orlando. Maybe that'll even happen on weeknights. It's so much fun the way that we do it. People love to engage in conversation about beliefs and all the things that are unknown to us. I'm glad to have the words from the Bible because God's word speaks authority, and we recognise it as true. We were simply made that way. Like last summer, I can't wait to see what God's going to do!

Hard times

So Trent and I split up. I know it's for the best, and I know we'll both be fine, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

And now I hardly know what to do with myself. It's a good thing I have so much work to do, but yet, busying myself is only going to delay the process. Trent, if you're reading this now, you might want to stop. If you must read my blog, wait until more time has passed.. please.

For his sake, I'll try to make this short in case he doesn't heed the advice. Basically right now my head is swelling with thoughts of "what did I just do?!?!?!?!? Am I nuts?? Why would I give up such a good thing?!" But those are frantic thoughts. A very good friend of mine whose name is mentioned a few times above once told me that God doesn't produce frantic thoughts. So, the calm voice that's in my head saying "way to be obedient, your life is in good hands, and this breakup will in fact produce good things in your life" must be God's.

I'm remembering my water-wings when I was a girl. I depended on those things to keep me afloat. I felt so secure with them on. As I got older my dad asked me to take them off. He helped me learn to swim, and when in the really deep water, he held me up. He was my security. Right now I feel like God's asked me to take this step of faith, take off the waterwings, and allow Him alone to hold me up in such a scary place for this little girl. But I can't see God like I could see my dad, so I guess that's where the faith/trust thing comes into play. Do I feel a growth spurt coming on??

He can use me in my singleness. I am focused on following Him, and that's all I need to concern myself with. Now I just need to figure out where He's leading me this summer. Like I said, this is hard.

How are you doing??

sick of talking about myself

I'm so tempted to join facebook right now; this blog thing is so one-sided. I'm really glad you're reading this, though. Unfortunately, I don't have a clue who reads this anymore. (no, I won't join facebook, don't worry. I know I'd become an addict.)

So I went to Kansas City and the Onething conference over break. Amazing. I now have some motivation to draw closer to God. For some reason lately that's been hard. I haven't seen Him working much in my life either. What to do...

I would tell you more about break, but it would all be about Trent.. what he got me, where we went, what we did, how messy the calves are, how he took care of me when I hit my head; but I don't want to be one of those girls who talks about her boyfriend all the time. Yeah, he's wonderful, but I'll tell him about it. I won't make you stomach all that.

So I could tell you about school. Class is class. I have more class than ever this semester. There.

And..... other than that, I'm READING a book for FUN. "Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldrege. Yes, that was a sentence. It's rocking my world, and I'd reccommend it to anyone and everyone who wants to learn about how God views women. Yes, it's in the Bible, and that's an even better book, but this one's got good insight, too, and all of it's compiled in one place. :)

You should keep a blog. Then I could read it. I'm not having a whole lot of fun talking about myself, even though for a while it was kinda exciting. (but that was when people commented. this is a good lesson for me.... hmm.)

not just this time of year

My dad recently forwarded me an email, and it's message was so good, I decided to blog it (after editing the fluff). Sorry it's after Christmas, but actually I'm not sorry-- this message is for any time of year. :)

My son, Nicholas, was in kindergarten, and it was an exciting
season for a six-year-old. For weeks, he'd been memorizing songs for his school's "Winter Pageant." Each class, accompanied by their teacher, sat cross-legged on the floor. Then, each group, one by one, rose to perform their song. Because the public school system had long stopped referring to the holiday as "Christmas," I didn't expect anything other than fun, commercial entertainment - songs of reindeer, Santa Claus, snowflakes and good cheer. So, when my son's class rose to sing, "Christmas Love," I was slightly taken aback by its bold title. Nicholas was aglow, as were all of his classmates, adorned in fuzzy mittens, red sweaters, and bright snowcaps upon their heads. Those in the front row-center stage -- held up large letters, one by one, to spell out the title of the song. As the class would sing "C is for Christmas," a child would hold up the letter C. Then, "H is for Happy," and on and on, until each child holding up his portion had presented the complete message, "Christmas Love."

The performance was going smoothly, until suddenly, we noticed her; a small, quiet, girl in the front row holding the letter "M" upside down --totally unaware her letter "M" appeared as a "W." The audience of 1st through 6th graders snickered at this little one's mistake. But she had no idea they were laughing at her, so she stood tall, proudly holding her "W." Although many teachers tried to shush the children, the laughter continued until the last letter was raised, and we all saw it together. A hush came over the audience and eyes began to widen. In that instant, we understood the reason we were there, why we celebrated the holiday in the first place, why even in the chaos, there was a purpose for our festivities.

For when the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear:

"C H R I S T W A S L O V E"

And, I believe, He still is.
Amazed in His presence...
Humbled by His love.

I hope each of you had a Merry Christmas in reflection on His Amazing Love for us...



Okay, and now for a song:
(this is from the Onething conference I went to at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri after Christmas)

Always on My Mind

Lord, I will trust you
with my mind and my strength too
In the day, I'll dream of you
You're always on my mind

And though I'm poor and needy,
the Lord thinks about me
and though His name is holy
I'm always on His mind

Lord, I will love you
On my bed, think upon you
Waste my life searching for you
You're always on my mind


Quiz question: How many different places have I slept overnight since this winter break started? (hint: there can be more than one place under the same roof) (one bonus point for each specific place you can name)

sledding on campus

Infectious Christianity

Okay, so the event was actually called "Contagious Christianity," but now is known as "The Event Formerly known as Contagious Christianity." Heh, but before I get to that, here's a brief story from last night:

So we had Primetime, and the theme this week was missions. After it was over, two young girls and a boy came to me and wanted to know about France. I just love to talk about it, so I did. Then I had to go, but they all wanted to have my email and stuff, so 3 sets of pens and paper got shoved at me, and it was like I was signing autographs or something. Haha! Sarah Emerson said I looked like a celebrity, but hey, I just thought it was really cool that these three were so interested in France and Summer Projects. I hope to meet with them soon and show my scrapbook. Hm.. I should probably finish that thing.

So then today Erica and I went to Infec-, I mean, The Event formerly known as Contagious Christianity. We recieved some training and a pile of "Quest Surveys," and then a huge group of us got sent out onto the campus to have spiritual conversations with random people. I missed France. Anyway, Erica had to leave early, so we made a group of 3 with another girl named Maria. At a cafeteria we sat down at a table of 3 girls and asked if they had time to do our survey. They did, and we each talked with one of them. The girl I ended up talking to happened to be a Christian who attends a super-small church that one of my friends started this year. (He's a grad student in the art department.) That was really cool! The other two girls were still searching for truth, and I was so proud of Erica and Maria by how they shared with them and were good listeners.

Then Erica had to leave, so Maria and I went to a table of two girls. The one I talked to was a freshman who used to go to church but hasn't at all in college. Her friend made several remarks indicating that she drinks a lot, yet the girl seemed to be traking with me as I shared the foundation of Christianity with her. I actually don't think she'd ever heard the gospel before, even though she grew up in a church. I told her about the different ministries on campus and invited her to Primetime, then gave her my email and Student Impact website (www.uwsi.org). I pray that she'll use those. She seemed to have been touched somehow by what we were saying, and I truly pray that God would keep moving in her heart so that she doesn't forget about it.

Then Maria and I went back to Chadbourne and ate free pizza. The leftovers we took to State Street and gave away. I thought it was funny how only guys were daring enough to eat pizza from random people. I saw my friend Dani from a class last semester and gave her free pizza. That was nice. Then we went back, and Maria and I decided that we should meet together on a regular basis. She's a freshman much like Erica was- with a huge heart to reach out to the campus and grow in her relationship with God.

Now I'm getting ready to go swing dancing. Praise the Lord for an awesome day!!

This is Adam and Kristie's new house in Winona. It's got purple carpet, mice, bathroom doors that should really be locked when in use, and of course..... snow. All of those things will change.. eventually. :) Really though, the house is quite nice. And to top it all off, deer are regular visitors to their backyard.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HONEY! Um, I could be mushy here, but I think using the word "honey" was enough. (Other people read this, you know). So, I will have to reffer you to the back of your new poster. :) It's funny how long my hair looks here, but actually it's the someone's black skirt. Speaking of hair, I need mine cut. Anyone want to do it? Let me know before Saturday or I'm heading to Cost Cutters. Yuck.. I wish my home stylist would move up here... Oh sorry, this was supposed to be about Trent. Knock 'em dead on those exams tomorrow-- I know you can do it!!!

I need to go to bed

Obviously, life has been crazy. Good-crazy, but I haven't had any time to write in my precious blog. Heh. So this last weekend we had the first womens' overnight, which was the kickoff to our new Womens' Ministry. Yep, I'm one of three student leaders on it right now. It's amazing, and I'm certain that God's been planning this for a while. Part of me wonders if I take on too much, but somehow I know that this is what I should be doing right now and God'll give me the strength, energy, and time that I need.

Meanwhile, the prayer team is kicking, too. This last Friday I had one of the guys lead the campus prayer, and it was nice to have that load off my back-- though I still went to it. I think it was a good opportunity for him to try leading something, so hopefully it will become normal that I won't always lead that particular meeting.

Lastly, the FLOCK needs to sign a lease in a week! I'm in charge this year, and it is STRESSFUL. As of today, I'm not concerned that we won't be able to sign the lease in time. Praise God!!!!! But, we are already into the process of filling the house for next year, and those of us who are returning have to meet frequently. Unfortunately, the first meeting didn't go very well because there are differing opinions on what we should trust God for. How much control do we place in our own hands, and are we willing to potentially hurt peoples feelings? There's no perfect way to go about this thing, and already we are frustrated. On top of it all, there's a HUGE demand to live in this house next year, so we/I have a lot of girls to communicate with. Pray for me if you will.....

Lastly, a certain someone is having a national holiday, I mean, birthday... soon. I've been spending all of my free time working on this gift, and I don't know if I'll ever get it done. It's making a huge dent in my checkbook, too! Okay, so I'm totally kidding. Barb, I do need to talk to you soon, though. ;)

Why am I up this late? I had two huge projects due today, and it feels great to be done, but I should have gone to bed hours ago. Why must girl talk always happen at night? Ah well... I have absolutely nothing to complain about :)

Our cute Chicago picture... yeah, it was taken almost a month ago, but hey, you still want to see it, right?? (Lisa, Tara, Kati)

This hot young couple won the dance-off at this year's Fall Ball. I dunno who the judges were, but now we're on our way to the National Swing Dance Competition in Washington DC! Okay, maybe not. Our gift cards'll take us to better places... like Buffalo Wild Wings and Blockbuster!

So tonight we had a "Womens' Progressive Dinner" for the freshmen women in Crusade. Our house was in charge of desserts. Yeah, I think we had a little too much! (not all 15 of us FLOCKers are in the pic, but ya know, it's really hard to get us all together at the same time)

this is my life

At every moment in my life, I think I'm in the busiest time ever. Like, this summer I thought I was way busy. I was. Last school year I was definitely WAY busy. That's true. My freshman year I was involved in more things than at any other time in my life, and I was busy. And now... I'm busy still.

The difference is that I'm not overwhelmed (yet.) I do Planet Kid on Sundays after I go to the regular service, and then Sunday nights I always have either a house meeting or a Movement Meeting for Crusade. Mondays I have class all day and then Bible Study and then Trent and I go running. Tuesdays I have a lot of class, disciple an amazing young woman, and then I do homework all night. Wednesdays are the same story, but I go running, too. Thursdays include class, me+ Kati time, more class, then eat, then go to Prayer Team, then Primetime! Fridays consist of cleaning the house, movement prayer, discipleship time, and then this week is the Fall Ball. This Saturday I'm going to be painting all day, then I'll come home to prepare food for our evening tailgate, and then the tailgate will happen! Sunday it starts all over again, oh but this Sunday my house is hosting the Women's Progressive Dinner for freshmen. Whew! Now you are filled in on my life. Somewhere in all that time I do homework, eat, and sleep.

Amazingly, I'm not stressed yet, and God has allowed me to experience joy, peace, and rest in all of these things. I get so much people-contact that I'm constantly being re-charged by them, but sometimes I get so busy that I don't have time for God. Let me tell you, my battery won't charge at all without Him! It's just so cool how He'll keep me going even if I haven't gotten much sleep or eaten anything all day. I'm learning how dependant I am and how stubborn I can be. Yeah, me, stubborn, heh, go figure!

So now I come to the end. I've got to get to the first prayer team meeting of the year. He's provided so many people to be on the team! It's absolutely amazing, and I don't know what I was concerned about. I'm expecting 12 people tonight besides myself, which is funny because I was praying for 6! Hmm.. maybe I should have prayed for 12...

Rediculocity

I'm on my way to class, right, walking down Dayton street when red lights start flashing and all traffic comes to a halt. This train pulls through the intersection going 0.3 miles/hour, and just when it's about to pass, it stops. Then it starts going backwards, and then it stops again with the middle of it in the intersection. I could barely see it's beginning and end, so there was just no way around it. It went forward and back a total of 5 times, each set taking approximately 4 minutes- I know this because I stood there for 20. I was certainly not going to follow the guy who crawled underneath the train. I got to my discussion 10 minutes late, and since it was the first day, I sat down just as the instructor said, "so I guess that's all for today!"

At least I didn't miss much.

In other news, I'm loving being in Madison. Last Tuesday Trent and I went to Noah's Ark; immediately following I got sick. The cold is almost over already, and it was totally worth it. We went on a beautiful day and the workers said it was the smallest crowd they've seen all year. I'm a big fan of the Black Anaconda, that is, when it's working. It's got belts that take you up several times, so it's full of steep drops, not to mention that it's the longest watercoaster in the world.

I love having a room to myself, but to top it off I've got 14 amazing housemates and many of my friends are literally neighbors this year. Kati is in all of my Tuesday and Thursday classes, and again I'm spoiled by not having class on Fridays! Last Friday the MOB had a party: root beer keg, live hip-hop/rapper, and over 300 people. That was awesome. Then Saturday morning the FLOCK had a tailgate, the Badgers kicked some tail, and I went to LaCrosse with Trent.

It was a great time, and it was fun to meet many members of his extended family. Also, their house is undergoing a makeover, so it was cool to see the progress on that. We also visited Trent's newly-married buddy Jeron and his wife Lindsey, along with their friend Nick.

So I'm "leading" the prayer team this year, but so far the only definite members are me and God. Yeah, of the two of us, I'm certainly not leading. He's doing all the work! That's great, though, I'm glad because I can't do anything anyway. Please join me in asking Him to get a team together, and pray for me as I talk to friends and new Crusaders about it. Thanks!

Now I'm off to my last lecture of the day...

Congrats to Adam and Kristie!

Wow... I think I recall saying about a month ago that "everyone is getting engaged," and I was right! Now my own brother is, too! My first thought was "weird.... Adam.... married?!" I just can't imagine the lanky boy who used to punch me daily (and occasionally still does) getting married. But then again I can. He's been with Kristie for 4 years now, and let me tell you, she fits into our family better than he does. Sorry, Adam, but somehow I doubt you are offended.

That brings me to my second thought: I'M GOING TO HAVE A SISTER!

This is quite thrilling. I feel I've been oppressed for too long. Yep, I'm the youngest, and on top of that I'm the only girl. Mom didn't have too much sympathy for me either since every time I'd complain about the boys she'd tell me the story of how her brothers left her on a roof for hours and she ended up watering the roof (and not with tears, either). Then she'd tell me to be thankful that wasn't happening to me. Yeah, great. Well, even though I don't need to physically fight back against the boys, the addition of another female to this family is much needed on a more subtle level. I won't go into detail on that since the enemy might read this blog.

Seriously, though, I couldn't imagine anyone else being with my brother. Kristie not only is one of the sweetest people I've ever met, but she can also beat Adam in Balderdash, which is quite a feat. Oh, and she's got great teeth, too. (Family joke: Adam's got perfect teeth, but that's, well, nevermind.) She also takes crap from Adam better than anyone I've ever seen. Okay, so I know he loves her by the way he gives her a hard time. Hmmmm.. maybe he loves me too afterall!

So I would just like to say to Kristie that we welcome you into the family. I know it's not happening yet, and it might still be a couple years, but I already consider you like a sister, and I wouldn't mind if you called me as much as you call mom. :) We are praying for you about this teaching job and the daycare situation. I pray that you'll trust God to work out all these little details. I'm also asking that He will bless the two of you and draw you closer to Him!

Oh, and if you decide not to marry him, don't worry, we will all understand.
In that situation would you please marry Troy? (Adam, I kid.. I kid! I really do love you. I wouldn't call you so much if I didn't.)



As for me... life is crazy. I'm done with work, feelings are fickle but God is constant, oh, and I painted my Madison room yesterday! Anne Pauline is still emailing me, which is great, but I am also missing France. I'm excited for the STINT team to be going over there soon, and I'm also gearing up for ministry on my own campus. Madison won't be without me for too much longer! I feel so much purpose for me there; it's great. :D

fantastic news!

I have a French friend that everyone has been praying for lately- her name is Laurianne. She came to faith as a foreign-exchange student in Richland Center, Wisconsin. Close to home for me, huh! Anyway, a few months ago she took a test to become a teacher in France, but she said that if she failed it, she'd try to be an intern for the Christian movement in Toulouse. Her parents were extremely agaisnt that idea, and Lorianne didn't have many Christian friends to support her as she pursued God.
For me, meeting her was extremely encouraging. She was one of a handful of French students who were truly on fire for God. We have been praying that if it's God's will for her to intern (she'd be the first in France history!), then she would fail that teacher's exam. Well, she failed, and now she is trying to raise support even though she only knows a few Christians. Below is an excerpt from her letter. Please read it and ask God what he would have you do. Thank you!


Dear Tara,

How are you doing? It has been three years that I have left this great place called Wisconsin and the friends I have made there. I was really sad fro me, however, I came back home with the best gift ever: a personal relationship with the Lord.
This year has been full of challenges for me. It helped me to rely more on the lord especially to share my faith.
He gave me several Christian friends (French and Americans) who helped me to grow as well. I go involved a bit deeper with Agapé (Campus Crusades in France) which was a fantastic experience.
I took an exam this year to become a teacher but I failed and I will retake it next year. In the Spring, the Lord has really put the desire in me to do a part time internship with Agapé (something that I could have done only if I have failed, well here we go!).

I’m writing to tell you about an opportunity that I have to give back in ministry. I’ve sensed the Lord calling me to serve as I reach out to French students. As you might know, around 25% of all French students call themselves atheist, 5% are practicing Catholics, and even fewer are Protestant. Among them there are also students from all over the world studying here in Toulouse. For these reasons, French students are considered an unreached people group, and yet there are very few French people reaching out to them.

So it is my prayer that as I return this Fall to serve among the students of Toulouse, God would develop a multi-national French ministry where students hear and experience the gospel in a powerful way. I also trust that our ministry will build followers of Jesus who can be a blessing to the nations, and to the Church in France. I’m excited to be a part of this vision!

I’m so grateful to have heard the gospel clearly while living in the US. As well, I’ve been discipled, developed and encouraged by the full time workers with Agape (Campus Crusade for Christ) here in France. These experiences have led me to want to serve in ministry on a part-time basis.

As a part of my ministry here, I have the privilege and responsibility to develop a team of people who will pray for me and support me for my ministry expenses. I truly consider it a joy to join with others in bringing the Good News of Jesus to those who have so few opportunities to hear.

I am trusting the Lord to raise up to $3000 to cover all of my ministry expenses for the year. As I’ll also be studying for exams to be a teacher, I have little income to cover my ministry expenses. This will allow me to be free to serve without the burden of financial concerns.

Would you consider committing to give $100, $150, $200 or some other amount for my ministry expenses? I’d love to hear from you by Sept. 10 if possible so that I can begin my work on campus.

I’m thankful that the Lord has given us the opportunity to know each other at some point. Thank you in advance for your help, support and/or prayers.


In Christ,

Laurianne Laverdet


I talked about the STINT team a lot in my other blogs. If Laurianne raises enough support and is an intern, she would be on the same team as the STINTers. There has never been a French person to do that! Even the staff in France is almost all Americans. I am so excited for this! This is what we have been praying for and why we were there in the first place. The goal is to build up French believers so that they can follow the Lord with their lives (and take over the ministry.) I feel like she is a seed that was once planted, now sprouted, and soon will be a blooming plant bearing fruit! I can't help but think "taste and see that God is good." I close my eyes and think about that, and I'm almost salavating! I know I'm weird, but God is so good!!!

If you'd like to help support her, please send me an email or comment on this. My email is trswift@wisc.edu and my address is 104 N. Breese Ter. Madison, WI 53726 . Even if it's only a couple dollars, every bit helps! I think this will be an amazing experience for Laurianne to see God provide even through people she doesn't know. Now that's the body of Christ.

Okay I had to do it... my blog is not complete without a picture of me and Trent. (We're in my living room. I'm going to be living there again in just two more weeks! Woohoo!) Anyway, isn't he a stud?

One of my roommates got married! How crazy-awesome is that?! Congrats, Becca and Ryan!

The happy couple: Ryan and Becca Mauer

Golden weekend

This weekend I went to Fort Atkinson with Trent's family to celebrate his grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. Trent has 3 siblings: Bergen, Lauren, and Cameron, so it was all of us, his parents, and Bergen's boyfriend AJ.
Until the morning we left, no one was sure if AJ could come- not even AJ! But, I'm really glad he came for 4 reasons: 1) There are 7 spaces in the van, and he was the 8th person, so Trent and I got to take a car seperately. I know this is selfish, but I got him all to myself and it was great. He had just gotten done with camp the day before, so we FINALLY got to catch up on things without being distracted by other stuff, except maybe the road. 2) I was not the only non-family member at the grandparents' house, which wouldn't have been bad if I was, but it was a small comfort. 3) Since we stayed at a hotel, the 4 boys were in one room and the 4 girls in another. Had AJ not been there, Barb (Trent's mom) would have been in the other room with her husband and sons. But she wasn't, and I'm glad cause she's awesome. 4) AJ is a cool guy, too. :)
So I was treated to an amazing weekend, Trent's gpa loved the golfballs I gave him (from our ENORMOUS collection.. anyone need golfballs? They land in our yard frequently.) I met cousins and the like.. it was good. I felt as special as I did at camp cause everyone knew my name and stuff about me even though I'd never met them before. I hope Trent feels as special when he comes to my place.

Kati- you're welcome. I'm sorry if I'm feeding the addiction.
Erica- enjoy Canada and the Bahamas (?)!
Erik- Are you back in Chicago yet? How are things going?
Rach- Yay! Class is done! Call me soon, aight?
Schallers- Thanks again! :)
mom and dad- stop reading this and talk to me!
anyone I missed- you should comment and let me know :)

Ah, the Schallers...gotta love 'em! Lauren is doing the back-filp. Her throwers are AJ and Chris. Bergen is in the water behind them, and Drew is climbing out. I have no idea who the random lady in orange is, but I'm sure she was enjoying the show, too.

Smash Hit

Top row: Jacob, Joshua
Floor: Me, Ethan, Maria
I cartooned the picture cause it seemed fitting. And no, my trumpet is not upside-down.

stories

First, I want to apologize. Not that I think anyone has been horribly wronged by me not blogging (like you all should care about me and every detail of my life), but my apology is for a different reason. I have not been blogging lately because I was trying to spite someone. I would have gone a whole week if I hadn't been so darn convicted about it. I was hurt, and this was my lame way of giving it back. Sorry this is so vague- it has to be. I just want to confess that I'm immature, so now I'm going to try and act more loving, but it's not easy at this point in time.

My Dad's side of the family had a reunion on Sunday in the Galena Territories (Illinois). I learned there that more people than I expected read this blog. It was so touching! If you're still reading: thanks! :) I brought my buddy Alexis with me, and we spent the day in the pool talking to eachother. We did it again on Tuesday at the Platteville pool, this time Beth joined us, and we're still not caught up on things. Oh, I also learned that I can play tennis. Who knew?!

A couple nights ago I read a story/journal that my aunt wrote. God has done some huge things in her life recently, and I didn't even know about it until this week. I am so excited to be able to talk with her about faith. Until this year, I never had that in my own family. But now God has opened doors with my mom, and now her! I'm amazed at how He is answering my prayers, and I am reminded to not give up praying for the impossible in my own family. It's been years already, and it might be a few more decades, but I will not stop asking God for the ones I love most to find the greatest love of all!
Anyway, I'm going to have my aunt email me the story so I can post excerpts on here. Get excited!

In other news, I babysat for 4 adorable children yesterday- the Bernhardts (see picture). Jacob was just diagnosed with diabetes, but he's handling it incredibly well. His siblings love to watch him prick his finger to check blood-sugar, so at least it provides some entertainment for everyone. I tried to not make a big deal out of it or treat him any differently than before, which turned out to be easy- he's still the same kid. It's just crazy to think that I used to change these kid's diapers, and now Joshua's got a girlfriend. What?! Well, ok when we were at the pool, his friend told him this girl liked him, and then they were "together," but I'm pretty sure by the time we left the pool they had broken up. Maybe she thought he had cooties. Or maybe he splashed her one time too many. Kids.

Really, though, it is totally weird to see these kids once or twice a year. They do lots and lots of growing while I'm gone. Maria hardly talked last time I was there, and now she's almost 3 and she will not shut up. She keeps talking even when I'm talking to someone else, and her vocabulary is more extensive than mine! So Joshua (11)'s into girls now, Jacob(9)'s got diabetes and knows how to test his own blood sugar, Ethan (5) I swear was born just yesterday (I had babysat for these kids for 3 years before Ethan was even born!), and Maria (2.5) out-talks them all and pees in a real toilet. (Sorry for being explicit.) I'm getting old, people. A girl from camp emailed me today and was just shocked that I'm 20. At least I know I'm young.

Quick kid story:
So Ethan and I are playing in the public pool (Maria's at home with mom and the two J's are on the diving boards), and this little boy comes up to him and says, "Hi Ethan, do you want to play with me?" Ethan doesn't exactly answer his question, instead he continues playing with me and eventually gives me the low-down on this Hayden character. Hayden, as predicted by Ethan, followed us around all day and every new place we went, he'd say, "Hi Ethan, I'm going to sit with you guys," or "Hi Ethan, I'm going down the slide, too," or "Hi Ethan, I can't take a clue." Wait, he didn't say that last one. The funniest thing was one time he swam over to us, and when his head popped out of the water, there was a giant snot string hanging out of his nose. I said, "Hayden, you have a booger," and like a true 5-year-old, he licked it up, smiled, and said, "Thanks. Hi Ethan, ......"

Pray for me. I'm not sure exactly what's wrong with me, but I have my ideas. You see, for the past week or so, it's been taking me an average of 3 hours to fall asleep each night. Every day I am so tired, but I don't go to bed any earlier than usual because I think "surely I'll fall asleep right away TONIGHT- I am more tired than ever," but then 3 am rolls around and my brain is still going full speed ahead.

Last night might have been the breaking point, though. We'll see. God wanted to deal with me, and I kept running away because I just wanted to sleep and not admit to there being anything wrong. Before last night, I was feeling so unloved, and I had somehow forgotten that God pursues me. I had forgotten that I can expect huge things from Him, and I SHOULD because God does not disappoint. He will never neglect me, and He always loves me unconditionally. I have no reason not to sleep peacefully tonight since this knowledge and truth is re-established in my heart. :D

UPDATE: (Sunday 8-7-05) Yep, that night was the breaking point. I found out shortly thereafter that I was missing a piece of information that changed everything. Even though the situation wasn't what I thought it was, God used it anyway- he showed me that my priorities and where I get my self-worth aren't quite where they should be, and that's good to know. Now I can work on it. Thanks for your prayers!

Myths about Comments

Myth 1) Your comment must be funny
Myth 2) Your comment must be short
Myth 3) Your comment must be long
Myth 4) You must have talked to me in the past month
Myth 5) You must have something interesting to say
Myth 6) You must have something at all to say
Myth 7) You must create a blog to comment on mine
Myth 8) You must know at least one other commentor
Myth 9) Your comment must relate to the post you are commenting on
Myth 10) There is no myth 10, but it just seems like there should be 10

It has come to my attention that there are several of you who read this every once in a while, but you are too embarrassed, shy, or comment-phobic to let me know about it. Don't buy into the myths! Try as I might not to place my self-worth on the number of comments I recieve, I inevitably fail. That's a joke. But seriously, it would be really nice to know that you're reading. On my last texty blog, I have recieved ZERO comments to date. That's just not acceptable, people. Okay I'm kidding again.

Here's the truth: you can leave me comments even if they could hurt me. Yes, the fact that you commented outweighs anything you might say in that comment. I feel loved just by getting on my computer and seeing that there's a new post. Oh, and it's also true that you don't have to create a blog! My parents figured it out, and they would be the first people to tell you they know nothing about computers (after me), so I'm sure you can figure it out, too!

Now onto my day:
I had my first Bible Study ever with my very own mom today. It was way cool, and I am so glad we did it. We started in Exodus and then bounced around all over the Bible. It was also my first Bible study in my pajammas (although I did wear slippers to one freshman year). That was pretty sweet. Praise God for mom/daughter/Jesus (and Moses) time!

Work is getting better, too. Last night I was only supposed to work for 4 hours, but then one guy got hurt at his other job, so I took on 2 of his hours. Then a girl wanted to go home badly, so I took on her last hour. I had kind of a debate in my head about that. I wanted to go home, but I knew that I could do her last hour, and it would be a great way to serve her, so finally God got to me. Those last 3 hours went by so fast! Because I was doing it for other people, it no longer became work. Weird. Way cool. God taught me something through that. I've heard a million times that we should serve others as though we were serving the Lord- it's right in the Word- but I learned it well last night. I was able to directly compare "work" followed by "service," and let me tell you, the latter is much more fulfilling and fun!
Today I was not at work; I was serving the Lord.

Have you ever got a lesson in that? Tell me about it! (This is my new plan for getting comments... I'm going to ask questions.) Oh, here's a random but good one: what's your favorite Bible verse and why? Or, tell me something about your summer. We're all friends here, so don't worry about what you post. And if you post a super-long message, then you can be safe in knowing I'm the only one who will read it! Since you made it all the way to the end of this blog, type "41685" at the end of your comment (or that could be your whole comment), and I'll give you brownie points. Big incentive, eh? nudge, nudge

Nine (out of 14) FLOCKers from this past 04-05 year.

I'm a dreamer

So I had a dream last night that I was in a musical: The Wizard of Oz. It was opening night, and an hour before we went on stage, I found out that I was to play Dorthy. I'm not sure how that knowledge could have escaped me, since surely we had rehersed, but I found myself frantically trying to memorize my lines anyway. I performed the entire musical with my script in hand, yet no one seemed to notice. I also did not do any of the songs, well actually I'm making that up- the music portion of the show was edited from my dream completely. Then the second night I played the Wicked Witch of the West. Hmmmmmmmm.

In other news, I worked today. Wow. My life is so interesting now. What is interesting is that work suddenly became awful. My attitude took a turn for the worst, and time drags by. Before I went to camp, time at work just flew by! I think I'm in withdrawl. I either want to be back at camp, at school, or in France. Sorry, mom and dad, it's nothing against you. I just feel aimless at home. I don't feel productive, and it's never easy to motivate myself. My purpose in work is to make money, and that doesn't sit well with me. That doesn't seem like a very good purpose to me, but I know that my purpose at work COULD be something different if I would just look at it that way. I mean, I could talk to my customers more than I do. I could talk to my co-workers more. I could do a little less yawning.

The summer's almost gone. I should make the most of it. Yeah, I can complain about anything, but really I have nothing to complain about since God's given me everything I need and more. I talked for hours and hours on the phone yesterday to a few different friends. Heh, probably the only people who are reading this are the ones I talked to! Anyway, so many of my friends are feeling very alone this summer and are going through some challenges in life. I feel for them, and I just want to reach my arms across the state and across the country and hug them all! I don'tfeel BAD for them, though, because I know God is using this time to test them, grow them, and make them stronger. France was not easy for me. I felt alone. I was homesick. Talking through a language barrier was never easy. I'd say the cultural barrier was thicker. But I am so glad it happened. In a similar way, I have to believe that my lonely friends will thank God someday soon for their situations this summer, and I know it will bring them greater appreciation for their friends and family when they do get to see them again.

On a totally different note, I got pied on the last day of camp. It was so great! (although my hair was a total greaseball until i shampooed 4 times.) I knew the whole week that 4 people were going to get pied, but I didn't think I would be one of them since the campers didn't know me very well. I was just a cook. But, Trent somehow pulled it off to convice a group of boys to choose me (they first wanted to pie him, then he said "wouldn't you rather get someone who's never been pied before?" They were all for that, and then he said "maybe you should choose someone who's only chance is this week," and that eliminated everyone but me.) Thanks, Trenton! That was very crafty; I am impressed. I felt very special, too. Actually I felt extremely loved the whole week, so the pieing was the icing on the cake, errrrr, the cool whip on the pie tin.

Erik Hill and me before we both got pied. And could it be.... oh yes, I think it is..... the culprit himself is in the background!

everyone at the camp of Bible

Meet Afton- she's one of the campers I fell in love with. Aren't we cute? Well, except for my greasy pie hair...

We make those hairnets look tough. Don't mess.

Burn Victim

Yep, that's me. Victim of burnage. Before you feak out (mom), I'm fine. For some reason I took it upon myself to be in charge of all 9 jumbo pizzas we made yesterday, and convienently there are 9 racks in the giant oven. To get to the bottom rack, one must squat down to practically be on the floor, yet to get my arm level with the thing, I would have had to lie on my stomach. Well that certainly would not have been safe! So I did the next best thing- I squatted down and reached in the oven with my giant mit covering most of my lanky arms. Unfortunately my bulging muscles are too much to handle; my left bicep practically popped out of my skin to smack the rack above and send me backwards in instantaneous pain. Don't worry, the pizzas and the oven are fine. My muscle did not do any permanent damage to it.

Actually, I'm fine, too. I really haven't felt anything except during spilt second when it happened. However, there is a huge scar forming on my bicep; it's purple and looks like a worm crawling around my arm. Yep, it moves and wiggles. I'm sickly proud of it. The other cooks think it's pretty hott, too. I don't have too many scars, so now I've got a good one in a great place, and I feel rather tough. Obviously I was tough to begin with. HAHA.
I guess I don't need to take pictures anymore since now I have a great memory of Arrowhead Bible Camp. :)

3 goods and 1 bad

So day 2 at camp, and I have good news and bad news. The three items of good news first:

1) It rained last night, so now the grass is green again AND we didn't get rained on during the day. Actually today was incredibly nice; we did not roast and I even turned the fan off in my room. Praise the Lord for working out the weather just as we had hoped for!

2) I got to spend some quality time with Trenton this afternoon. It was superb :) . It's hard to believe I was gone for half the summer, cause things really haven't changed much. We're trying not to do too much PDA in front of the campers, since we're so big on that anyway. (hah! sarcasm.. if you didn't know...) It's kind of funny to always be on the lookout for campers while we're together, and then when we see one, we drop the others hand. It's so dorky, but kind of fun.

3) I got to take a nap today. Oh, and yesterday too. 'Nough said.

The bad news:
I'll have to leave here at the end of the week. Now I understand why Trent likes this place so much. At least I can come back easily... it's not like, on the other side of the world or something...


So anyway, I need to get going cause people are doing fun things right now. I just want to say that I'm having a great time and it is really cool to see God working in these kids' lives every day. Also, I have been so encouraged by the girls in the kitchen. There are 3 of us cooks, and some maintenance/service people, and all we do is talk and cook, talk and cook, and then sometimes we throw water on eachother. Life is good.

Arrowhead

July 17:

I'm no cook, but that's what I'm doing this whole week anyway. Let me back up. I went up to LaCrosse on Friday to see Trent.... FINALLY! Seven weeks is a long time to be apart. His house is a construction zone right now, and it's really cool to see. Barb, I'm amazed at your patience and good attitude! Anyway, so we got some quality time together, and now I barely get to talk to him at all.

After a wedding yesterday, today camp started here at Arrowhead. I've been in the kitchen and hanging out with the service team, while Trent is busy dealing with his cabin-ten 6th grade boys. We went to chuch this morning- Laura Rogers was there and she's engaged now! Then after some staff meetings and canoeing with Ella (another kitchen worker), the kids started pouring in. Life has been crazy ever since, but I'm having fun. I knew going into this that I'd only get about an hour a day with Trent, but wow is that hard. I mean, I was just across the ocean, so I certainly couldn't see him then. But now we're in the same place, and I see him around, but we just can't spend more than a minute or two together. Campers are top priority here. I'd appreciate some prayers about this. (Trent just popped his head in the door and said "HeyTaragoodnight!")

Meanwhile, I'm getting to know some brand new people. I think this is going to be good, once I get over my neediness. It's funny because all the staff comes up to me and says "You must be Tara. I'm ____. I've heard all about you!" And then they tell me what Trent has told them. It's great. I feel special... haha!

I've never really "cooked" before, especially not for 75 kids, so this is going to be an experience. I'm just hoping I don't cut a finger off. As long as the food is edible, I'll be okay with it. Actually all the cooks this week have never done it before. What were they thinking?!?!?! Well, it's a good thing God is here. Otherwise, we'd be in big trouble.

Sorry, Anne Pauline, I just had to post this. It's too good!!

We were once aquaintances, but then...

Eiffel and I became buddies

going bananas (and adjusting)

This is life in a nutshell, followed by highlights (and lowlights) from my week:

Wednesday was my first day home, and I spent it sleeping, talking on the phone, and hanging out with friends (we made delicious homemade pizza). Thursday I worked 10 hours and then went out to eat with my co-worker Jenna and a couple of her friends. We went to get cheap tacos in New Diggins, but they were out of tacos. This town is only 10 minutes from Platteville- I had never heard of it, but that's probably because it has 3 bars, one restaurant, and only one house. That must be a big family! Friday I hung out with my mom and worked at night, then Saturday I worked another 9 hours. That night I went to praise and worship at church- it was sooooo nice to be back there, and then I re-connected with my friend Brini. She went to high school with me, but neither of us knew the other was a Christian until college.

Sunday I went to church, and boy it was refreshing to have a live sermon in English! Pastor Mike always has a great message that applies directly to my life, and I can't say that I've ever walked out of there not feeling convicted about something. That is so good; it's from God, and all things from God are good! My ex-boyfriend's mom was happy to see me back in the country, and she invited me over for lunch. I knew Dan wasn't going to be there, at least it wouldn't be too awkward, so I agreed to go. So much has changed since I last talked to her, and I wondered what she would think. I wondered what Trent would think about me going over there, but I knew he'd be fine with it. She just wanted to hear all about my trip.

So I went over there and ate brats with the family members that happened to be around. I talked all about my trip, and she told me about their move to a new home. It was good- slightly awkward- but good. I told her a bit about Trent, and she was happy for me and said "maybe you'll be a farmer after all!" (They own a farm, too, and frankly it's the last thing I ever imagined myself doing, so I guess we'll just wait and see!)

I don't know if I'm going to go back to my church again this summer, and here's why: my mom wants to go to the E. Free church with me, and that's something I've been praying about for a while. I'd really like to connect with her on that level, so it's got to be at a place she's comfortable with. She knows a lot of people at this church, and so do I (for example, Brini). At my other church, there are hardly any college students there in the summer, and also the E. Free church is much like Blackhawk in Madison. It may sound like I'm trying to convince myself that this is right, but I know it is. It's just hard to give up something, especially the place where I first believed. It looks to me though, that God's got this laid out plainly. It won't get any easier than this to make the switch, and I value my relationship with my mother and her relationship with the Lord more than my own comfort and routine. I pray that He will honor this sacrifice that I'm making and strengthen my family- starting with me and my mom.


Monday (highlight!):
As I drove into Madison this morning, I felt normal again. France seemed like a dream- like it hadn't really happened, and I had to quickly remind myself not to think like that. I need God to fix my thoughts CONSTANTLY. Since no one in my life now experienced what I did, and I'm in a different country alltogether, it is easy to forget that I spent 6 weeks watching the Lord do amazing things. All that I have to remind me of it are some pictures and this blog. THANK GOD FOR THIS BLOG!

The first person I saw was Kati, and we went to get breakfast. On our walk to the doughnut shop, she asked me specific questions about France- she read every bit of my blog. WOW! I come home, and people know everything that happened, and I don't have to feel alone in my experiences. It was almost as if she was right there with me the whole time, and that made me feel soooooooooo good! How can I forget about it when my friends are there to remind me? We grabbed our doughnuts and headed to a park. It was pleasing to the core to catch up on things with her, and I realized how much I missed her, my other roomies, and friends.
Rachael then came to pick me up, and we went to lunch. I was still full of doughnuts, but I had Panera soup anyway. Again, it was like she had been to France with me, but not quite. I told her how hard it was to come back, but now I am realizing how much harder it would have been had YOU not been reading this. Thank you, my friend. I am so blessed by the people who love me!
Rachael and I then went to Trent's apartment. We hung out with Jordan and Tim. Dudes, a lot of people are getting engaged, and it's really freaky. Schultz and Beth are engaged now! That's awesome, and I know of another one that's going to happen this weekend, but unfortunately I can't say who. Ask Jordan... haha! It was good to hang out with them, but it made me think about Trent too much. I miss him, and Jordan was like, "well at least you get to see him in a couple days!" Trent, your boys miss you a lot! It was touching, really. Jordan bought this giant plant, and it's dying already. I gave it a nice haircut and told him to water it more. That poor thing.... I hope it stays alive until I come back. If it's not looking better by then, I might have to intervene.
I hung out at the FLOCK a while more. I got to see Jovi, Jen, Melissa, Kati, Amanda, and Annylise- a girl who's subletting at our place and lived in my dorm freshman year.
When I got home, I showed the Paris pictures to the 'rents. Unfortunately they will not be online until Nate gets back from Europe and does something to the website. I'll post something when that happens, but until then, you can just come to me if you want to see awesome pictures. :)


horror story from work:
So this elderly man comes through my line with a bag of frozen cherries, a half gallon of milk, and a bunch of bananas. We have two kinds of bags- small and large, and usually we try to bag cold things together. (Bananas should never go with frozen things since they make bananas go brown.) So in my mind, there's only one good way to bag this order: bananas in a small bag by themselves, and the milk and frozen cherries in a large bag. I put the milk and cherries in the big bag and then weighed the bananas. As I pick them up (to put them in a small bag), the man says sternly, "put the milk in a seperate bag; I don't like it leaning on my bananas." I say, "Sir I was going to-"
"PUT THE MILK IN A SEPARATE BAG!"
The whole store falls silent, I remove the milk from the big bag and put it in a small one, and then I place the bananas on top of the frozen cherries in the big bag. Flushed, I ring him up, he gives me money, and then I calmly explain to him that the frozen cherries will make the bananas go bad quickly. He says "That's fine. You have a nice day." and walks away.
Let's just say I got some sympathy from my co-workers that day. None of them had ever heard anyone yell like that, so I guess I got to be the lucky one. Heh, I was trembling for 3 minutes after that. I wasn't going to lean the milk on his bananas anyway. Hrumph!

the trip home

Finally.. here's the update:

PARIS, day 1 (July 2):
The train ride to Paris was interesting, but not that I would know. Apparently I was providing a lot of entertainment to my teammates as I slept the whole 5-6 hours to Paris. Yeah, there are pictures.
Anyway, we got to Paris and our hotel, then we split into groups to conquer the city. Sharkey, Laura, Chelsea and myself went to Notre Dame and the St. Chappelle. Check out the pictures- they say more than I could in text. We also hit up the Eiffel Tower after getting some ice cream. We didn't go up it, since we figured the group would do that later, but we took the metro to view it. I got some creative shots of myself with the giant metal thing. Definitely framing some of those.....

Just a side comment on the metros: wow are they great for getting you wherever you want to go, but wow are they scary too! Paris has an intricate system of dozens of metro lines, but every other time I got on, a homeless person would come into our car and make a long speech asking for money. One of them stole Casey's nalgene bottle, which wasn't a big deal, but it was an interesting experience. I'm rather glad that the person now has a container for water- it's better than just giving them a drink. I think about the saying "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime." Now we are actually glad that she stole it!

Back to the story-- so then after the Eiffel Tower, we were dead tired and it was only 8. The 4 of us went back to the hotel and watched French tv together. There was a super-funny gameshow on, and we had a great time improvising what the people might be saying. I'd say that was the best part of our day, even though all the touristy stuff was good.


Day 2 (July 3)-
As I was leaving my room in the morning (to go to Versailles), I tested my door to see if it had locked. It hadn't. Our hotel doors each had a punch code, so I tried a few things, but nothing would lock the door!!! Sharkey and I debated on whether we should even tell the front desk, since it's generally not wise to trust the French hotels, but we decided that they needed to know that one of their doors didn't lock. After locking our valuables in our suitcases (I locked mine in someone else's suitcase in another room), we told the front desk and went on our merry way to Versailles.

Um, yeah, Versailles was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Sure it was man-made, but the gardens were incredible. Again, I'll reffer you to the pictures.

We took the train back to Paris and went to the Arc de Triomphe. After that I went back to my room to discover that the WHOLE STINKIN PUNCH THINGY WAS REMOVED FROM MY DOOR, and it was still LOCKED! Now there was no way to even TRY to get in. What the...????? So I go down to the front desk, and the dude says, "Yeah, we're going to have to give you another room for the night." And I was like, "All of our stuff is in there!" He apologised and said it would be open in the morning when the lock guy comes. I figured they must have a master key, and he said they did but it wasn't working in our messed up door. I thought this was really fishy. No one could get into our room. Then I remembered that my valuables were locked in another room, and that made me feel a bit better. They could steal my clothes if they wanted to. Heh!

So my roommates borrowed money from me for the evening, and we borrowed shampoo from everyone else. I just prayed that they would actually have our door open in the morning. I wanted to leave for the Louvre at 8:30!

Anyway, then a group of us went to the train station to wait for Tim. He, our project leader, had left his passport at the convent in Toulouse, so that day he missed out on Versailles and took a 6 hour train back down there. Well, no big American named Tim got off the train, so we called Lorianne. Miraculously, Tim was right beside her in Toulouse about to board a train! He had missed his, and now was getting on a sleeper train. Casey, his wife, was so relieved, especially since he had found his passport (and Nate's converter that he'd left there too!)

Then our group went to the Eiffel tower at night. It was gorgeous, and we went halfway up. Unfortunately the top was already closed since we got there so late. Things at the train station took a long time. Pretty much everyone at the Eiffel Tower was American. I met people from all over, and that was fun. It was also good in easing us back into America. Coming back to the states wasn't so much of a culture shock since we had been in Paris (and in the summer, too, when 90% of the natives are at the French Riviera!)

Then I went to bed in my stinky clothes- thinking about my pajammas locked in the room 4 doors down. Oh what a night!


Day 3 (July 4):
After another toasty night of little sleep, I got up at 8. A group was leaving at 8:45 to go to the Louvre (only the largest art museum in the world!) I've been there before, and actually it's probably one of the biggest buildings in the world, too. I walked down the hall to my old room, and there it was with the door proped wide open! What the..?????? All of our stuff was still in there just the way we had left it. Thankfully nothing was stolen, especially since our door had been propped wide open for who-knows-how-long! Thanks, monsieurs french hotel peoples. Anyway, I decided that I was too tired to be up that early, and I didn't want to go to a museum even if it was the biggest art storage place in the world. Had I not been there before, it would have been a different story. I just wanted to sleep (and give my feet a rest.)

So I went to the front desk again to ask when they were going to have a new punch thingy in our door. There was still nothing on it, so we couldn't even close the door or we might have locked ourselves in- we didn't know. The dude said that someone would come around 10 to install a new lock. After talking with Jill and Tim to get my day planned out, it was already 9. I got in the shower so I could be all ready well before 10. I certainly did not want to be surprised by the repair man.

I read some Bible while I waited for my new lock-- I did not want to be sleeping when he came either-- safety reasons you know. I was hoping he'd come at 10, be done in 15 minutes, and then I could sleep til 11:30 when Tim and I were going to figure out t-shirt business for the team.
Mr. Fixit came at 10:30 and left at 11:20, so I got a good 5 minute nap before Tim came knocking on my now-locked door! Crap! I got up at 8, didn't go to the Louvre, and I still didn't get my nap in!! Oh well.

Tim and I ate a good lunch (I had a strawberry tart for dessert), talked about t-shirt stuff, and pretty much figured that we couldn't do anything until we talked to the t-shirt people and got prices (in America). So since I had an hour before discipleship with Jill, and Tim and I are both big picture-takers, we headed to the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. I got some more creative shots of me and "Le Tour Eiffel," and then we did some very quick souvenier shopping. The girls who didn't go to the Louvre were going to shop all day, and I KNEW I wouldn't be able to handle that!

Discipleship with Jill was great, and I realised something: I was so concerned about my pride issues during the trip that it affected how well I got to know my teammates. In my head I was subconsciously thinking "I'm so prideful; I really suck," and I didn't think I was worth getting to know. The Spirit told me these things as I talked with Jill, and I can see now that I was on the road toward depression and NOT humility. It's funny... during the trip at any given time I was thinking one of two things- either "I'm awesome" or "I suck." God doesn't want either of those. He wants me to know the truth about myself, which is that I am not perfect, I'm hugely dependant on Him, but through Him I am made complete and I am loved just the way I am.

That night, the last night in France, we went to the Sacre Coeur, which means "Sacred Heart." It is a giant church on the top of a hill, and it's got 3 white domes. It was way better than the fireworks in America. Sorry, I just had to rub that in.....


Tuesday, July 5:
It was another 5 am morning. We called a shuttle to take us to the airport, and on the way we watched the sun come up. On my first flight, my seat was not near anyone I knew. The guy sitting next to me was about my age, so we made idle chit-chat, and as we passed over some mountains, I commented on how beautiful creation is. By the way, this dude grew up in Turkey, lived with his Dad in America for 3 years, then lived in France through high school, and now was on his way to Britain for college. From my mountain comment, somehow we started talking about God. He grew up in some type of church, but he said he was looking for something real. Then he pulled out a book called the Celestine(?) Prophesy and raved about it. I happened to have "The Case for Faith" in my backpack, so I got that out and he read the table of contents. His name is Matt, and he said, "These are great questions! Wow, does this guy answer all of them in this book?" I told him about Lee Strobel, how he was an athiest reporter trying to prove Christianity wrong, and after interviewing all these top Christian PhD people and asking them the really tough questions, he actually came to faith. I explained that although Lee did not answer all the questions for you, he lays out both sides of the case and lets the reader take it from there. Matt looked at the publisher and mumbled "wonder if I could get this on Amazon," and I told him he could have it- it was a gift.

After a great debate about it, and convincing him that I had more copies at home, he took it. We landed in Munich 25 minutes late, and I wondered to myself if we were going to make it onto our next flight. Since we were in the very back of the plane, I said to Matt, "Oh man I wish they'd just open the back door and let me out!" Two minutes later we were being let out of the back of the plane. Weird!!! As we decending the stairs in the rain, Matt said to me, "Who would have thought when I got on this plane that I'd meet you, have this conversation, and recieve this gift." I told him he's very welcome, we parted ways, and I pray now that he would search even harder for truth and KNOW that it can be found. He believes he can, now I pray that he does indeed find it.

The team got into the airport in Munich, Germany, and the lady who looked at our passports told each of us that we'd have to run to make it to our next flight. So, there was a steady stream of crazy Amricans running from one end of the airport to the other. What a sight. We went through security faster than ever before, and once on the plane, it immediately took off. I slept most of the flight, but when I woke I had some reflection time with the Lord. He spoke to me about a few things, but mainly this: I had been feeling down about leaving France because I felt like I was leaving full-time ministry. How can you compare 6 weeks of sharing Christ with 6 weeks of working at a grocery store? Coming home life looked much more plain and pointless, but God reminded me of something using Matt. He reminded me that my life can be full-time ministry wherever I am if I choose to live that way. Trent said this when I talked to him about it, "Your mission ground is between your feet," so basically, wherever I am, God can and will use me. I am so thankful that God put Matt next to me on the plane and encouraged me before I even left Europe. There is no reason to feel down and DIScouraged, but rather I should be ENcouraged!

So quick 2 stories:
1) So it was great that we barely made it onto our flight from Munich, but apparently our luggage did not. We waited for our things at the luggage claim in O'hare, but none of us found our stuff. They were still in Munich! After filling out some forms, they said my luggage would be FedX-ed to me. (I recieved it on Friday, and one of the bottles of grenadine syrop I had bought for a gift had shattered and got all my clothes covered!)
2) O'hare was not our last stop, we still had another flight to Minneapolis. I was checking through my carry-on, and the lady pulled mine out of the Xray machine and unzipped the front pocket. As she pulled out a jar of applesauce that barely had anything in it, my thought was, "Oh no I forgot to eat the rest of that and I didn't declare it!!!!) Oh no, that was not the problem at all. She then pulled out a giant razor knife. Yeah, it was one of my art supplies that snuck to the bottom of my backpack and I necer saw it since it had a black case. Wow, that got through Minneapolis, O'hare, Munich, Paris, then Paris and Munich again on the way back. What crappy security! Then I started to get scared. Were they going to handcuff me and take me away? I told the lady she could throw it away since it was completely rusted over and covered in charcoal, which it was. So she did, and everything was fine. I was not even reported.
Heh... and I was worried about applesauce!!

did I really say "final thoughts"? There's nothing final about this!!!

Ok, so Sunday between 1:30 and 6 I have free time. Blogging is number 1 on the priority list right now. It just barely beats out sorting through every article of clothing I own and deciding if I want to keep it or not. Yeah, pray for me about that one!!! So I guess I'll have the update on here tomorrow afternoon sometime. Toodles!

For now, I just wanted to let you know that I lot of crazy things happened in Paris, on the planeride home, and now even at home God is doing some mighty cool things! I'll tell you all about it, but right now I'm going to crash. It's 7:30 am in France, and I'm still up! It's really a good thing I don't have much of a body clock......


Oh, and I'm flattered that you're still reading this! That's awesome, and you should post something so that I can give you frienship points in my head. How's that for motivation, eh ehh??

final thoughts

JULY 1, 2005:

The past two days have been different. Yesterday looked like this:

10-noon: de-briefing (sharing what we learned, stories, reading the Word...)
12-4: free time. I packed, sent some emails, and cleaned my room
4-6: more de-briefing and planning for Paris
dinner at a fancy restaurant until 9:30
then I gave Sam a haircut and learned how to play "squeal," a card game I had never heard of until this trip. I am happy to say that I was the first to make it to 100 points! Well, negative 100...

Today is going something like this:

10-3:30: debriefing ( we wrote tons of thank you cards, organised our information to pass on to the next STINT teams, each ministry team wrote advice to next years Summer Project, had lunch, figured out our phone bills (mine is the highest- yeeeeehaw! oh by the way, the nuns shut our phones off this morning, so I couldn't even call Aaicha. I'll have to email her my appologies.), got our activities/food/spending money for Paris (90 euros), and wrote down stories to share (I wanted to write "check my blog!", but I didn't.)
3:30: the girls all went to a bead store- we were each going to buy 11 of one bead of our choice, and then come back to the Foyer. Each girl would then keep one bead and give one to each of the other ten girls, so that we'd all have 11 different beads- one representing each of us. And then, because we are females, we'd make pretty little bracelets to remember the trip and eachother. It's a cute idea, unfortunately the bead shop did not seem to understand that we didn't want THEM to make our bracelets, which would have taken hours. What's funny is that Sandra, the girl that Susan and I talked to in my blog entitled "the fields are white," works at the bead shop!!!!! It's just this tiny little shop in the middle of this huge city, and we got to talk to her again on our last day here. Is God not rediculously funny?!

She understood what we wanted to do with the beads, but still it wasn't going over well with the rest of the salesladies, so we left. I was so glad to get to say goodbye to Sandra. I've called her many times, but she always had to work during our parties and picnics. Now I know what she was doing! Haha... that just made my day. The girls are going to do the bead thing still, but we're going to mail eachother our beads when we get back to the states. I think that will be really nice- I love getting mail, and it will help us stay connected but also have closure to the summer.

One thing we've talked about a lot in the past couple days is what an adjustment it's going to be when we go back to the states. We just had an amazing experience here as a group of 20, and now we're going to go back to people who have not shared that experience. You guys might not think my pictures are as funny as I do. You might not even care to hear every single story of every day I was here. Well, maybe YOU do since you are reading this, but most people aren't going to have 5 hours so I can tell them about my experience. And that's ok. Apparently it's normal to get the "post project blues." I hope work gives me a lot of hours when I get home so that I'm not moping around all day. I am definitely going to miss this place, but I am encouraged because my French friends are emailing me alreaday! I hope it keeps up, and I hope I keep in contact with the other people who've been on project.

oh, back to my day:
at 7 me and some others are taking Hamptaro around town for some goofy pictures. I'm reminded of the commercial with the gnome.
at 9 we are having a pictures slideshow of this trip. Yes, we're definitely at the end here. Are you even going to read my blog anymore? Oh man... people will stop caring about my life!! Just kidding.... sort of. I'll keep bloggin if you keep reading, but certainly not every day.

There are TONS more pictures on the web if you're interested, so I'll paste the address here for those of you who are too lazy (eh-hem...) to scroll down and find the last time I posted it:
http://www.natehines.net/photos.php?path=France for all pictures
http://www.natehines.net/photos.php?path=France/Tara for just mine

We leave the Foyer at exactly 4:45 am today/tomorrow to catch a train to Paris. We'll be getting on the very first subway of the day after walking all of our luggage down miles of cobbelstone. It will be interesting, and we're going to be tired, but somehow I think this trip is going to go out with a bang!
Paris, here we come!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A NEW SISTER- PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

June 28, 2005 (continued), Tuesday:

Before I get too excited, I'm going to calm down and tell you about yesterday: Tuesday.
Kyle and I went to the theater, and Samuel was going to meet us at 4:30. The movie was starting at 4:40, and that's when Samuel got there. Again, I had been a bit worried that he wasn't going to show up and would have no way to contact me, but God brought him. The sky was very dark at that point, and we prayed that it would not rain on our picnic that night.

We got into the theater, and the seats were absolutely amazing! You have tons of leg room, and the seats themselves are almost like recliners, though they only recline a bit. I think we need an upgrade in the US. Wait, no, that would only encourage more watching of movies, and I think we have enough of that. Stop the nonsense, we must (as Yoda would say). So the movie was in French- it was good, but I don't really know what happened. Thankfully it was full of action.

Then we went to the picnic. The sky was brighter when we got out of the theater- praise the Lord! Our picnic was fantastic. We got 6 huge pizzas, a party sub from Subway, lots of other food, and we had American games. We did a water balloon toss, cherry seed spitting contest, a 3-legged race, and chubby bunny. I came in second place for the girls in chubby bunny. YES! Anne Pauline had a hard time catching the water balloon. Poor girl. She was quite wet, but not as bad as most people. I'm happy to say I stayed dry, but only at Anne's expense. :( Samuel, Anne Pauline, and Sophiane were my friends who came. I feel bad that I forgot to call Celine and Sylvie. Ah there has been so much going on in the past couple of days! Toward the end of the picnic I got to talk to Audrey, a new French believer. She's got a lot of energy, and we always have a good time together. She came to me with many questions about relationships, and wow was that cool. I got to share things that God has done in some key relationships in my life. I think she just wanted to know what it looks like to have God in a relationship, and I was so glad to have some specific examples to share with her. Thanks to you who are reading this, as you've helped me similarly to how I hopefully helped Audrey. Please pray that she would be able to trust God fully, even though she does not feel safe trusting people.

I also got to talk for a while with Samuel and Marion (?), a girl who has known the STINT team for 2 years. That was very cool. The three of us had a good conversation at the end of the party when it was dark. Then I said goodbye, and it was kind of sad, but not too much. I know I'll be in contact with Samuel for a long time after this trip. Sophiane got to talk a lot with John Hutton at the party. He's in charge of the STINT team and will be here again next year. I'm confident they will re-connect when John comes back to France in August, oh by the way, Sophiane said he reads the Bible sometimes!

Then we came back, and about 5 minutes later, it started to rain. I'm quite glad that God controls the weather and he heard our prayers for the picnic! Then I watched Anne Pauline and some others play squeal, prayed late into the night, and went to bed. Even though I only got a few hours of sleep, I awoke early, and I was refreshed!

Wednesday, June 29:
Anne Pauline was leaving at 1, but I had Bible study from 10-12 and a date with Adriana at 12. So, since I was up early, I highlighted some of the verses that have impacted me most and gave the Bible to Anne Pauline (it was in French, of course!) She was so thankful for it! She said she would read it and has been wanting to read it for a while. I asked her if she had one already, and she said "no." With a smile, I suggested that she start in John-- I've heard many times that it's a good place for new readers to start. She said she'd rather start at the beginning and read the whole thing that way. Haha.. that sounds just like me! When I started reading the Word, that is exactly what I did (even though I got halfway through Genesis and then decided to read the New Testament first.) This morning was an awesome start to my day. Why on earth was I worried about it?!

After Bible study, I gave Anne one last hug and walked to meet Adriana. The plan was to spend an hour and a half with her, then get back in time to take Aaicha's call and go swimming with her and Mya. Well, Adriana and I went to a cute outdoors eating place near the Foyer. During lunch, somehow we got to talking about God, even though I had never shared my faith with her before. She just knew I was Christian. So we talked about God and the Bible, and then I got out a French Bible that I had in my bag. She grew up in an Orthodox church, so she had a basic understanding of things, although she was just shocked that Jesus had a brother. I told her she could keep the Bible, and after convincing her that I did not need it (I have others in English), she thanked me PROFUSELY. Wow.

It was 1:15, and we were walking back to the Foyer. I did not want to leave her, especially in the middle of such a great conversation! The clouds were dark again, and I told God that I needed him to direct the afternoon. Maybe it would be too cloudy to swim and I could keep talking with Adriana. We got to my room, the phone rang, and Aaicha asked me to call her tomorrow since it was too cloudy to swim. Allright!!!!!

Adriana and I talked about faith until 6:30.

God had been preparing her heart for a long time. Most of the 6 hour