It's been an interesting ride..

I haven't blogged for a week! Last week was missions emphasis on campus at IWU.  Chris Heuertz (Word Made Flesh) was on campus for 3 days.  Monday, I went to the Globe (our campus' theatre) to watch Born Into Brothels, is a documentary which follows of several unforgettable children who live in the red light district of Calcutta, where their mothers work as prostitutes. Zana Briski, a New York-based photographer, gives each of the children a camera and teaches them to look at the world with new eyes.  It deeply portrayed the hopelessness of a life in the brothels -- very sad.  This week two student organizations, Doulous and World Christian Fellowship, are highlighting specifically human trafficking.  T-shirts, bags, and journals are being sold to support anti-trafficking organizations, and special chapel speakers have been brought for Wednesday and Thursday.  Saturday night I went to the theatre with my friends Phillip and Jay to watch Taken:: The seventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father, the retired agent Bryan Mills that left the secret service to stay near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart; she convinces the reluctant Bryan to sign an authorization to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda. When they arrive, they share a cab with the stranger Peter and Amanda tells to him that they are alone in Paris. When Bryan succeeds in contacting his daughter, she tells that criminals have just break in the spot and they are kidnapped by an Albanese gang of human trafficking. Bryan promises in the phone to kill the kidnapper of his daughter and immediately travels to Paris to find Kim and chase the criminals.  As opposed to Born Into Brothels, Taken really showed the evil of human-trafficking, and both really showed a dark evil.  Taken made it look very scary.  Very unfortunately for India, female tourists are not safe from abduction and forced sex slavery, while in Cambodia, though trafficking is very prevalent, there is little-to-no risk for "tourists" such as myself.

Also on Saturday [Valentine's Day], my friend Josh Koontz was married to the beautiful Susan Adams.  It was a wedding unlike any I have been to, because it was in the IN Capitol Building, but it was very nice.  Josh, Jessie, and I have only been good friends for maybe 4 years, but we have done a lot together.  We met at camp, when he was a district youth pastor.  Somehow, Jessie and I never managed to have youth pastors at camp so we connected with Josh and a few others.  We had his youth group convinced or an entire weekend that we were triplets.  RIDICULOUS. 

After the wedding, Jessie and I joined Mom & Dad we visited Joni and Leah.  That baby is growing so fast, I cannot believe it.  She will be crawling so soon!  We left Joni's before 7 and stopped for dinner at Chick-fil-A (yum yum!)  The whole restaurant was covered in  red, pink, and white balloons.  There were 2 waiters in suits to seat us after we placed our orders, and they gave every girl a carnation.  The tables had red table cloths, and there were roses in vases on each table, and doilies and little paper hearts.  It was so cute!  As we were finishing up, another waitor brought out free dessert!  Meanwhile, the "eat mor chikin" cow was roaming around in a suit as well, taking pictures with children.  It was hilarious!

This week we have mid-terms, which means tomorrow is my last day of badminton class!  I intend to continue going to the gym each Tuesday and Thursday morning, but it will be hard to not stay in bed, because I won't have class until 12:05.  I'm pretty busy, but not too stressed yet.  I'm realizing that I am halfway through my second year of college, which means I am almost halfway through college!  Wowie.

Yesterday, I had lunch with my friend Bonaventure.  He is a funny guy!  He is so interesting too.  He is a refugee from Rwanda, and I believe he spent most of his youth fleeing for safety, from whatever and whomever.  After dinner we were both headed to the library, and Bonaventure showed me "his office" - a desk and end table he has claimed in the corner of the 24-hour study lounge.  He leaves his books, laptop, and study material on this desk 24/7, haha!  He is a nursing major, and keeps very busy, studying very hard.  I laughed and said, "Bona, all you need is a coffee pot!"  Well lo-and-behold, he scattered a pile of books, and uncovered a coffee warmer!

A Wednesday morning started right..

Every Wednesday morning at 5:40 I pull myself out of bed to go on a prayer walk with Umfundisi. Each Wednesday 20+ students gather below the Dean of the Chapel's Office at 6:30 to commence our time of prayer. Due to the unfortunate seasonal weather, we have been confined inside the buildings for quite some time. This morning was warm enough to travel the side walks and footpaths, praying over the buildings and residencies, and for the community -- but alas, it was pouring rain. We broke off individually or in pairs this morning for 30 minutes to pray over a list of specific requests - one being a series of 1000+ interviews conducted today, on our campus, for Meijer's. The needs in Marion are huge, and I wish everyone could have the opportunity for a job and a salary, but alas (word officially used twice in this blog, and three times in my life).. this cannot be. Among other things, we also prayed over the Offices of Life Calling and Leadership, who are collecting gently used Bibles to send to Zambia, where maybe 8 or 10 (??) IWU students are studying abroad, and have expressed concern for a need of Bibles in the area. (You can follow the IWU Zambia blog here). 5:40am arrives so early, but I have realized that it is the best way to start a day, and I'm praying for the motivation and commitment to do this on my own each day, as I began to do last semester -- and DID do for a incredible 4 weeks! Waking up at 6am to spend 90 minutes in prayer, worship, Bible reading, and journaling.
Anyways.. it's time for class! More to follow...

Do you see this abuse?

Do you like my new pink lip stud?

No.. these are not posed!

Ok.. maybe they are slightly posed. ;D

Love is in the air! लव इस इन थे एयर!

Saturday was beautiful and today has been absolutely gorgeous! I love it. The snow has been very pretty, but I am ready for the warmth and colors that come with Spring. I love walking across campus and seeing everyone outside studying, playing frisbee, or walking the slack line! I haven't seen it yet this semester, but this weekend has given me hope that I WILL live to see it!

This post in Hindi (for all my international readers ;D ): सतुरदय वास बेऔतिफुल एंड टुडे हस बीन अब्सोलुतेल्य गोर्गेओउस! इ लव आईटी! थे स्नो हस बीन वैरी प्रेत्टी, बुत इ ऍम रेडी फॉर थे वार्मथ एंड कोलोर्स ठाट काम विथ स्प्रिंग। इ लव वाल्किंग आक्रोस कैम्पस एंड सींग एवेय्रोने ओउत्सिदे रीडिंग, और प्लेयिंग फ्रिस्बी, और वाल्किंग थे स्लैक लाइन। इ हवें'टी सीन आईटी येत थिस सेमेस्टर, बुत थिस वीकएंड हस गिवें में होप ठाट इ विल लाइव तो सी आईटी सून!

ClustrMaps

The picture below is a blown up image of a map which logs the location of visitors to lagringajoya.blogspot.com, since July 2008. The largest dot represents 1000+, the small 100-999, the second smallest 10-99, and the smallest represents 1-9 visits. I was impressed to see how many international hits my blog has received.  In six months I have received twenty hits from each Mexico, Bolivia, Germany, Japan, and France; forty from Canada and the United Kingdom.  I have hits from Italy, Turkey, Colombia, India, Costa Rica, Sierra Leone, Iran, Poland.. over 65 countries!  I have 7 hits from Ecuador and I would like to believe they are from Pastor Geovanni y Christine, I doubt they are reading this (though I know they did while we traveled through Kansas together.)  Anyways, I think it's pretty sweet.

You can get your own ClustrMap at http://clustrmaps.com/

WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS

My last seven months have been poo, BUT I have learned a lot. A lot. As hurt, and angry, and now frustrated (though I know this is more temporary) as I am, I am learning to look for the good things, to realize the big abounding blessings in my life. Sometimes I simply can't see through the black blinders of these emotions, but when I am able to rip through, I can see awesome things - like an indescribable 6am winter sky (which is worth waking up for!), or true sincerity in a friend who cares, or an awesome promise in God's Word, etc. I'm reminding myself...

Lamentations 3:19-25 says: I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him..

I'm reminding myself... I'm encouraging myself to remember where God has brought me and what He has taught me.



For example: I'm forgiven and free!

The harvest is plentiful!

I've been thinking mucho about where I will be in the next 5-10 years (or even sooner!) and wondering where God will send me. If God were to give me an option, I don't think I could even choose! I love Cambodia and I have a passion for the needs there... however; I love Spanish, and I love the hispanic culture. So... I don't know! I have started doing a little research on areas and ministries (for my own curiousty and interests' sake) and I found this incredible proect called Joshua Project. Their purpose and mission is a research initiative seeking to highlight the ethnic people groups of the world with the least followers of Christ.

If you cannot read the key, Green represents Signifcant Church (Greater than 10% Evangelicals); Blue = Established Church (Between 2 and 10% Evangelicals); Yellow = Formative or Nominal Church (Less than 2% Evangelicals andGreater than 5% Christian Adherents); and Red represents the Unreached/Least Reached areas (Very few, if any, known believers.)

The statistics on their homepage:
Total People Groups by Country
# People Groups: 16,302
# Unreached People Groups: 6,620
% of Unreached People Groups: 40.6%


So I say this::
Luke 10:1-3 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves..."

At the President's House

With the amazing hospitality of President and Mrs. Smith, I threw a Superbowl party at their house on Sunday.  I arrived at 5:30 to help Mrs. Smith set out all the food, and light 30 various candles around the "guest area"; then guests started arriving shortly before the game started.  I had eight friends there, and those friends brought other friends - so there were 22 of us total, including the Smiths.  My friend Bonaventure Dusabimana came and I tried to help him understood the rules of "this American game."  Chaiwon Chang (S. Korean pictured above) came, and after talking with the President and then being invited to a luncheon for a potential IWU-Korean Nazarene University student exchange program, Chaiwon was offered a job the very next day - so he is very glad that he came to my party!  I was really glad that my friends Philip and Jay came (Phil in grey; Jay #7).  ALSO, my cousin Hannah called me randomly Saturday night we she ended up going to church with me, then we went out for lunch, and she came to the party as well.  She is also from Gas City, but goes to college an hour away - so I haven't seen her since the summer, and we haven't hung out like that in years!

Everyone was really into the game, and the crowd was split pretty 50/50 as far as cheering went, so every play there were people cheering.  I was surprised that President and Mrs. Smith gave a few hoots and hollers too!  I wasn't sure what to expect, being at the President's house, but everyone was comfortable and it was so much fun!