Sun, Sand...

That's right, I went to the beach this weekend. It was for my friend's 18th birthday! Yay! So since I don't have a car, I took the train on Friday night to Pomona, where they picked me up. I spent the night Friday, and Saturday, then went home today. We had a blast!!! We got the beach Saturday morning at around 11:45, ate lunch, hung out, sunbathed, while we waited for people to arrive. Once the first couple showed up, Shellie(my friend) and her brother Doug, went to go play volleyball(I, sadly, don't play, so I watched :) ). More people came over the next couple of hours, some of which I knew, but hadn't seen in a while, so it was nice to be able to catch up with them. And it was nice to meet the people I didn 't know. Unfortunately, we couldn't get in the water. Apparently there's been a sewage leak recently, so the bacteria levels in the water were higher than was deemed healthy by the state, so there were signs saying you'd probably get sick if you got in the water. :( oh well, we talked, and ate pizza, and just hung out. After it got dark, we lit a fire and had s'mores, and opened presents. When we walked down to the pier, we saw cool drawings in the sand, and one of the girls wrote "throw money!" with an arrow pointing to where she was standing, and on grouop of people actually did!!! it was funny. All in all it was a very good weekend, and on the waqy home today I got a chance to experience the trip from Union Station to Northridge, without being able to take the Northridge train, as it doesn't run on the weekends, so instead, I got to take the subway, and a bus. But, it was cheaper, and not at all hard, so it worked out. :) I will put up pictures as soon as I figure out how to get them off my phone. Help in that area would be appreciated, even if it means paying a little bit more money to send some in a text to a phone with internet service. :)

IVMCF

Simply Stated, Intervarsity. Yes, I finally went ot a meeting. And had a blast!!! I was a little bit worried since my friends Elizabeth, and Jackie weren't going, and since it's been going on for about a month now, but as it turned out, it wasn't awkward at all, in fact, it was almost as nice as COC. So, I might start going on Mon. nights since they don't care if you walk in late, and other people have been saying that it's a lot of fun. Also, as it turns out, my friend from orientation goes, so I did know someone. :) Now I'm wondering if I should go on the retreat to Catalina on Oct. 5-7. Hmmm, maybe I will. the only problem is cost, but they do offer $50 scholarships, oh yeah, and there's the problem of missing church...again. Or more correctly, missing going to COC. I went home last weekend to see my family, so I went to IBC, and this weekend I'm going to my friend's house for her 18th birthday, and might not get done on Sat. at the beach in time to make the train back to school, and then next weekend I'd miss it for the Intervarsity retreat. decisions, decisions. I guess it depends on weather or not I make it this Sunday, or maybe I'll go anyway and jsut stick around campus for the next several weekends so I can go to church. I don't know. Suggestions anyone?

Birthday...

Not Mine, Phillip's. Hes' 20 now. Wow, we're getting old. :) I went home for the weekend to visit him and my family and to celebrate his birthday. It was fun. Gabe and Emily came over, and brought the two little ones, Jonathan and Thomas, and we all had a good time just talking and playing with the little ones. here're some pictures:

he really like his presents :)

and here's Grandpa(my dad) showing the boys the oh so very cool train set.

and of course one more with Grandpa showing Jonathan his train. It's all Jonathan talked about during the day. :)

Amazingly precise

So, I just started working at panda express 3 weeks ago, and at the time I just remember praying "Please God, I have to wait 3 weeks to get my first paycheck(cuz I didn't start till the week they give out paychecks and it was too soon for me to get paid), let it be at least $400." I started out well, with 20 hours the first week, but then last week I only 13.5, and this week was only supposed to get 12.5. Then I went in to work today and found out that I'm working tomorrow, when I wasn't supposed to. While this was slightly frustrating, I understood that more hours meant more money. Then I was thinking bout it, and I realized that the extra 4 hours I'm getting tomorrow will give me exactly 50 hours over the last three weeks, and therefore give me exactly $400, before taxes. Since I was thinking about before taxes when I prayed, I think it's pretty cool that God provided me with exactly that amount. :) He's pretty awesome, and amazingly precise. Oh, and on top of that, I get off work in time to make the train so I can go to my friend's 18th birthday party. God does work wonders doesn't He?

Interesting...

I just recently started as a freshman at Cal State Northridge, and thus just recently started attending a new church. Now, for those of you who know me, you know that I have dealt with alot of rejection. From kids in jr. high at the church I grew up in, to the freshman class at the private school I went to for a year, to people I thought were my friends at the school I went to for most of highschool. It was really hard, and I came to believe that the best way to protect myself from it happening again was to allow the pain caused by those kids to make me angry. I felt that if I could hold on to the anger, then I wouldn't be able to let people get close, so I wouldn't get hurt again. I also spent alot of time planning what I would tell those kids should I ever see them again. Let me tell you, they weren't nice thoughts. Some of my close friends knew what I was thinking, and knew my attitude towards life basically, but they were also dealing with a lot of emotional pain, and simply encouraged me in that direction.
Most of you probably also know this, but since I was in the sixth grade, every summer I spent a week at a Christian camp through a program called AWANA. For the last several, the chapel speaker was a man from Louisiana who was a pastor. Incidentally, the first year he spoke, he spoke on forgiveness. Wow, what a God thing that was. I was able to let go of some of the anger, and was slightly less vindictive towards those who hurt me. However, I still didn't want to let go of certain pain. I felt that it made me strong, that it kept me from allowing others to walk all over me. The same man came back again the next year, and I told God, I wasn't going to let it go. I didn't care that God knew it was what was best for me, I didn't want to, and I wasn't going to, not yet, not until I was tired of being angry all the time. I did tell God though, that if He gave me one more year, I would let it go the next year, assuming that the same guy came back. He did, but this time he didn't preach on forgiveness, he spoke about being faithful to God, and one night said (this is not word for word, it's as close as I can remember it)"God went through torture, the most painful death you can experience, death on a cross, so that you could live. What have we gone through that is in ANY WAY comparable to what He had to endure? He did it because He loves us, all of us, and we take every opportunity to push Him away" (or something to that effect) Anyway, the idea I got was "you're holding on to all this anger because some stupid kids rejected you because you were different from them. You have used it to your advantage, and you have built a wall between yourself and the wonderful God who sent His son to die on a CROSS. What is the point? Don;t you realize that God will never reject you? He'll look after you, He'll give you strength, let it go" so I did.

Ok, all of that, just to say this, the college pastor of the church I've been attending said something in his sermon a couple of weeks ago that me think. He said "Write down, how God has been faithful in your life" now, looking at everything I just wrote, and knowing the pain I felt for so many years, my first thought was "Are you kidding me? God let all that pain happen. He allowed those kids to treat me like that. I know He had His reasons, but it sure wasn't fun, and I'm sure not going to that being faithful." Then, and I'm pretty sure this was God, I suddenly thought" Wait a second, He was faithful. Maybe, just maybe the reason I dealt with all of tha is because I needed to learn how to forgive." You know how they say "Don't pray for patience, cuz God will put you in situations, uncomfortable situations where you have to be patient" maybe it's the same thing. Maybe, even though I don't think I prayed to learn to how to forgive, God knew I had that flaw in my character. He allowed it to happen, so that I would learn to forgive. He knew it would be a long time in coming, and certainly gave me plenty of new times when I needed to work on it, like a different situation every year, but, it did happen eventually, and maybe that's why I needed for that stuff to happen. Not because, as my mom suggested, I might wind up living in a situation where I would have to live that daily, and I would just have to get used to it, but because God wanted me to learn a lesson, even though through my sinful human nature I made myself learn it the hard way.