MP Reflections: Joel

While doing the elliptical in the gym today, I was inspired by Leila to read. Since I had not brought a book, I listened to my ipod and read through Joel on my Bible app. Now, I was definitely distracted when I read it, so spare me of the trivial nature of these reflections, but I still found Joel very refreshing during my workout. I've been thinking a lot lately about the second coming. Anticipating it, longing for it, as if I was in a perpetual Advent season (and we all really are). So re-reading Joel and some commentaries on it seems to fit right into the way God is speaking to me this week. Joel uses an example of a recent plague to prophesy the coming of the Day of the Lord. We see that repentence is mandatory, but it is not a negative reasoning for such. Joel calls us to repent because God is gracious, patient and good! Truly!
The destruction of the people and their land is devastating. My nose was crinkled in disgust as I read and was sad for them. I am like the people of Israel who needed destruction in order to see the NEED for repentance. I find the prophesy of Joel to be encouraging. The Day of the Lord will come. I know it well. 
In Joel 2 we even see that God will "repay" us for the years of drought and lost fruit. He will multiply our bounty, but we must repent. and the reward lies ultimately on the other side of the grave.

Joel 2:12-13
¹² “Even now,” declares the LORD,
   “return to me with all your heart,
   with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
 ¹³ Rend your heart
   and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God,
   for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
   and he relents from sending calamity. 

  The Lord dwells in Zion. 

MP Reflections: Hosea

Sitting by the fire in Carter Lobby today, I spent my extra 45 minutes before Chapel reading Hosea (the first of the minor prophets) in its entirety. I've come a long way from my first encounter with Hosea in RUF last semester. I've grown more, become more self forgiving, and more appreciative of grace. I long for Heaven more every day.
I am still enthralled with the ways in which God can give us new names, new identities. He delights in our re-birth. Jezreel sows. Ruhama=loved. Ammi= MY people.
When speaking of Ephraim and Judah, Hosea 6:4 says, "Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears." I cannot stand that this is my way also. I am easily evaporated, newly formed in the morning. God's love is an ocean that will never dry up.

Hosea 12:6 "But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always."

Hosea 14: 8 "I am like a green pine tree: your fruitfulness comes from me." This says the LORD.

Palettes

   

    

All palettes from design-seeds.com

Matthew 18: 16-20

January 30, 2012

Dear Friend,

I hope that this letter finds you well! I am having a great year here at Covenant College up on Lookout Mountain, GA. Having completed my Fall semester with honors, new friends, and an abundance of life lessons learned, I am ecstatic about this Spring and all the possibilities it holds.

Here at Covenant I am blessed to be one of eleven freshmen that will be taking a short term mission trip this spring. Last semester we spent Monday evenings together learning about leadership, praying, and sharing our life stories. As a group we have grown in immeasurable ways; we have become brothers and sisters bound together by our love for Christ. That is why I am so excited to share with you that we will be traveling to the Czech Republic from May 7-25, 2012! I am so thankful to be able to travel to see this beautiful country, but also I am excited about the opportunities we will have to serve and learn alongside citizens of Eastern Europe, professors, and each other. My teammates and I will be working with the Josiah Venture, a missions group that works throughout Eastern Europe.

Josiah Venture’s Czech team writes the following about their work:

The evangelical church is tiny, making up only less than one third of one percent in a country of 10 and a half million. Most Czechs have no religious affiliation. Several cults have made significant inroads in recent years, particularly the Jehovah’s witnesses. They number close to 25,000, making them twice as large as the largest evangelical denomination.

Still, the church is growing, and there is a renewed interest in spiritual things, especially among young people. A new generation of leaders has risen up since the revolution, and their efforts are bringing significant change to the spiritual climate of the country. Camps and relational evangelism have been particularly effective, since extended time is needed to break down the barriers of mistrust and give enough information so a challenge to faith in Christ can be made. The greatest need is for evangelism of the lost while the doors of interest are still open, and for equipping a new generation of leaders for the Church.

As we spend time with Josiah Venture’s team, we hope to share the love of Christ and the good news of the Gospel with those we meet, grow in discipleship, and worship amongst those from a different culture than our own. I am also looking forward to this trip because of the great experience it will be for me as God teaches me more about life and His people. This will be my first trip outside of the United States, as well as my first short term mission trip. I am so thankful for God’s providence in placing this opportunity before me. I pray not only for my own personal growth as I see what God is doing in His kingdom, but also for others along this journey. He has laid the path.

I am writing now to ask you to join with me as I praise God for this opportunity which I have to work alongside a multinational team of career missionaries and learn more about the diversity within God’s great Kingdom. Please also pray we will be able to bless our hosts with gracious interaction and loving service.

The cost to participate in this project is approximately $2500, including transportation and all on-site expenses. I have committed to raising this money by April 9, 2012. In addition to helping cover these costs myself and the contributions of my parents, I am seeking 20-30 additional people who will be part of my "sending team" by praying for me and contributing towards the remaining balance of my trip cost.

If you would like to be one of my "senders," please follow these instructions:1. Go to https://dlq4.donatelinq.net/qv10/Donation.aspx?MerchantID=CovenantEdu.
2. Under "Categories and Funds" you must select "Restricted."
3. In the comments section please copy and paste: Czech Republic Mac Scholars Trip.

This method will ensure that all the money goes directly to funding our team. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. All contributions to the expenses of my team are tax-deductible. Please note: checks designated with my name will NOT be tax deductible. Thank you for considering being a part of my team. I hope to keep you informed of the progress of our team’s preparation and I look forward to telling you about how the trip goes!

In Christ,

Samantha Moreland
email: sam.moreland@covenant.edu (feel free to contact with any questions!)

-Here is the link to Josiah Venture's website: http://www.josiahventure.com/people-and-places/czech-republic

Katka Vlnova is our missionary representative
Please feel free to browse around and ask me any questions.  

-I had some fears of posting this here, feeling a bit self promoting and arrogant. But Hannah showed me this article her teacher wrote, and I feel it bears relevance to the writing and sending of support letters. 

http://receivewithmeekness.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/spamming-for-the-kingdom/

He's redeeming it ALL

¹⁴ Sing, Daughter Zion;
   shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
   Daughter Jerusalem!
¹⁵ The LORD has taken away your punishment,
   he has turned back your enemy.
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;
   never again will you fear any harm.
¹⁶ On that day
   they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
   do not let your hands hang limp.
¹⁷ The LORD your God is with you,
   the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
   in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
   but will rejoice over you with singing.” 

Zephaniah 3: 14-17

 ⁵ LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup;
   you make my lot secure.

⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

   surely I have a delightful inheritance. 

Psalm 16: 5-6

Nostalgia and the Generically Pioneerish.

I'm sitting in my dorm room right now, wallowing in the fact that I have already failed a resolution. I have New Testament right now, but I completely forgot about it until 5 minutes ago, sitting in my dorm room. I guess it's not really a failure of commitment, because I love that class. But it is a failure of awareness. How did I just COMPLETELY forget that I had class? I was talking to Logan as I walked out of History and I guess that I veered off course to keep the conversation going because I was so into talking about the last class (which I will detail in a moment). Ugh I just feel so stupid.

So please allow me to take this time to make myself feel better. Feel free to skip ahead: I am the daughter of a loving God who doesn't care if I missed one class. I am taking 18 credits this semester, so it's natural to get a little frazzled. It doesn't mean I am stupid or worthless. It doesn't mean I cannot succeed. My attendance at one Bible class will not be of any consequence in the long run. I can get the notes from someone else. I can read my Bible right now. It WILL be ok.

Alright, on to the real reason I am sitting down and writing. Intro to History with Dr. Green. It is slowly changing my life. Today we were continuing a discussion on "social memory" and Presentism. The second distortion of social memory is nostalgia. We spent the entire class discussing the phenomenon of longing for the past and remembering it in romanticized ways. Nostalgia sees history primarily as a narrative of decline from "the good old days." Dr. Green asked us to jot down where and when we would want to go back to. I said I'd want to have traveled the Oregon Trail and have made it to a homestead with a cattle raising husband. He asked for an exact year and I couldn't give him one so he called it the nostalgia for all things "generically pioneerish." and I'd say he hit that nail on the head. Other people longed for the places of their youth, or their parents' and grandparents' hometown. I didn't even think of anything in my family at first. However, now I do. I long for the time of my Grammy, a dietition in the US Air Force where she met my Pop-Pop, a bomber pilot in WW2. I long for Washington and wish that I could have been 19 there with better understanding and freedom. I'd go back to the Olympian fountain, camp at Ocean Shores, visit Pike Place Market, have lunch with a friend in the Space Needle, so much more.
Talking about Nostalgia made me see how close the past really is. "Memories are fragile possessions." Dr Green read. It scares me and excited me all at once. I want to remember as I get older. But, then moments like the one I had before writing this, where important things slip my mind, scare everything out of me. I feel like I am getting closer to the possibility of Alzheimer's like my Grandma. Is it going to trickle down and skip a generation? What will I do? And then, the echo in my head of "Am I memorable?

A Present and Perfect God.

Have you ever heard 900 people singing the Doxology acapella as it echoes to the highest points of a vaulted ceiling? The room feels smaller, warmer, and fuller. Everyone knows the words. I raise open hands, my voice mingling with the rest of those around me in a prayer for God's spirit to move in us.

Have you ever walked through an incredible thunderstorm slowly, eating an apple glazed in wet, cool rain and found your hood too constricting, so you shake your hair free as you taste the crispness and freshness of your delicious morsel?

Today in Cultural Anthropology we were discussing the difficult topic of Evolution and the Origins of Man. At the end of the class, my professor gave an analogy that spoke deeply to me and my heart. He talked about how wine is made. The perfect breed of grape is grown in the most fertile soil in foreign countries (Napa Valley, Italy, Spain, etc.) with lots of sunlight. When the grapes are mature for plucking they are squeezed and pressed and mixed, and put into barrels made of specific types of wood. They are bottled with certain types of corks and left to age and ferment for decades. The perfect wine is one that has been aged. Yet, at the wedding, Jesus turns water to wine in an instant and the father calls it excellent. Jesus gave wine all the qualities of age within an instant. So why couldn't God have done that with the Earth in 6 days? It then becomes a question of whether you believe the infallibility of Scripture and the power of God, and not whether we evolved. Soak that one in.

John 2: 1-11On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;

The rest sit around it and pluck blackberries.

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

Les points d'interrogation

1. As I walked out of Carter Hall this evening, I looked up at the large glass lantern-esque light swinging in the wind on the underside of the arched walkway. In my head I wondered how much wind would be needed to knock it down and have it shatter on the ground. Who would be the first to find it? What would they do? Ha, ridiculous.
2. What is my cousin Sandra up to tonight? At the family Thanksgiving dinner she found out we live on a mountain and told me to breath in some good mountain air for her. Every time I inhale deeply, I let the mountain air fill my nostrils and linger as it creeps to my lungs. I think of her. Say a prayer. I'm breathing it in for you Sandra!
3. For Ashley's 3D Design project she had to think of a theme and take pictures relating to each of 9 elements of design. She chose security. And for one picture she did a shadow on the sidewalk, put there by a street lamp. The security is in seeing the shadow, to be able to watch for any other shadows. It's so true! In the dark it's creepy to walk alone, and visions of masked villains sometimes flash into my mind. A shadow tells you what's around you. 
4. Had dinner with Erin tonight. We talked about life and self and the different meaning words have over time for us. We related stories of our adventures (Restoring Honor Rally for me, Communist gathering in NYC for her). Our lives are so different, but I love talking to her about our mutual and defining love of Christ. I realized something in our conversation. I agree with almost everything. I read books for school and don't find faults with them on my own, but jump on the band wagon when others do. My likes are many, my dislikes are few. Is it better to be a picky person? I sometime wish I could be.
5. The Great Hall has been adding flavors to the ice cream machine this week. Today they had Chai Tea ice cream. So I broke my dessert rule (hey it's Saturday, ok!) and it was delicious! Why is chai in any form so good?!?!
6. Walking across the green back to Founders, arms spread, eyes open, wind whipping, ice cream cone in my hand..... I can pray that way. I am SUPPOSED to pray that way. Dr. McElrath told us in class today that the pictures of prayer in the catacombs show people with their eyes open, arms wide. Pray without ceasing.
7. Can getting a tattoo honor God? I think yes. Others say no and that it lessens your moral character. Grace is sufficient for me.
8. Praise spontaneously. In community. With men who love God too. It's wonderful!!!!

My favorite quote from Bittersweet today: "I'm a big believer in for-no-reason parties -- last-minute parties, where the house is less than squeaky clean, where the guest list is 'whoever could come with three days' notice,' and the menu is 'whatever I could think of and whatever goes with feta or chutney.'"

Ground Coffee and Cold Apple Juice

I woke up on the first day of classes ready to start anew. I brewed a pot of Starbucks Pike Place Roast and left some for Adrianna to have before breakfast. The evening before I had laid out my outfit for the day. Great fitting skinny jeans, a floral print button down shirt, a yellow cardigan, and my grey flannel booties. It was bits and pieces all day that made me realize how closely childhood and adulthood will always be linked, not only in adolescence. Drinking my coffee was a symbol for me of growing up, the morning pick me up. But it also reminded me of visiting Pike Place in Seattle as a little girl and calling it the "Flying Fish Market." For one existential moment that cup of coffee symbolized the past of my childhood, the present of my adulthood, and the future of my potential. And it was delicious. Then I thought about how I had put out my clothes the night before the first day of school and I was back in Elkton at Cecil Manor Elementary. I couldn't sleep the night before and woke up energized and giddy. That's not only a love of learning, but a link between the past and present. Looking around my room are objects that reflect my purgatorial adolescent state. I have a very adult looking french press mug, a pocket knife in my drawer, a file folder dedicated to important documents in my desk. But alongside all of that sits a sand dollar I picked up on the beach in Washington, my feet in the Pacific Ocean, a stuffed reindeer that is supposed to be a moose sleeping with me each night, and a package of Mr. Sketch smelly markers in my box of stationary. Growing up is part getting better at remembering and retaining, I've found.

So while I'll more often drink hot coffee these days, I still enjoy a good glass of cold apple juice.
As a side note, I've been reading Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist this week and loving it. Also, my go to playlist is Jon Foreman, JJ Heller, Sara Groves, and the Atonement Soundtrack.  Candle being warmed today is Yankee's Midsummer's Night. A rich midnight blue that smells like it looks.

Endings Are Just New Beginnings

I finished Passion and Purity tonight.
I haven't finished packing yet, but that will be left until morning.
I think every person in the world should read this book. I've cried, laughed, been angry, jealous, resentful, and then thankful throughout. Men and women alike are in need of the words of Elisabeth as she candidly speaks of love and life in Christ.
I'm crying and I can't tell if they are tears of joy or sorrow.

Tomorrow I go back to school...worn out and restless.
But it'll be wonderful. This semester will surely challenge me in new and harder ways. But I trust in Philippians 4:13.
It's like driving at sunset and the sun is a giant ball of amber light in your mirrors, lighting your face in a most flattering way and making the road ahead look beautiful. It's like living.

Expectations

I always expect the world to revolve around me on my birthday. It never does. In fact, on my birthday I often feel less appreciated than the rest of the year. That's what you get for having high expectations. This year an unwritten resolution of mine is to be more humble and less boastful. So today when Angela forgot that it was my birthday, I didn't say anything. I wanted to avoid my usual "Look at me" attitude. It's a work in progress.
Today is the first day of my last year as a teenager. I'm going to bed early. Happy Birthday to me.