the walk

Tonight, as I headed back to the dorm after the Senate meeting and school work, I encountered three different groups of students doing a prayer walk around campus. Witnessing this touched my heart and filled me with peace. I know God heard your prayers. Thank-you.

will you come and follow me?

we sang this song in Church In the Box last night, the words really struck me.

Will you come and follow me,
If I but call your name?
Will you go where you don't know
And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grownin you and you in me?

Will you leave your self behind
if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
should your life attract or scare,
will you let me answer prayer
in you and you in me?

Will you love the ‘you' you hide
if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you've found
to reshape the world around
through my sight and touch and sound
in you and you in me?

Lord, your summons echoes true
when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
and never be the same.
In your company I'll go
where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I'll move and live and grow
in you and you in me.

treasured moments of my 19th birthday

- surprise trip to Niagra Falls
- Steph and Mat coming down to visit
- hearing my family sing happy birthday over the phone
- getting a hug, kisses, and wise words through mail from my family and Opa and Oma
- realising how much my family means to me and how much i will miss sharing my birthday with them
- the phone call from Robyner
- Jessicer hiring the three "tenors" to serenade me
- french toast breakfast
- not doing my paper, but not feeling guilty
- eating deer meat
- 10 bin bowling, even though i think it is the one thing that i am the worst at in life
- being surrounded by people whom i love
- becoming a legal drinker
- markers that i can draw on windows with
- all the wonderful cards that people made me - beautiful
- singing with Rex in the car

thank-you to all who made my 19th birthday one to remember. it was so special and i am so grateful that i am surrounded by such great people that i can share my life's journey with.

night

A couple of summers ago a girl on my baseball team confronted me with this question, "You are religious right? Why do you need to have a God? I don't and my life is fine." Unfortunately, at that time in my life I did not have an answer to her question, but this has stuck with me and has forced me to reavaluate why I believe what I believe and realise why this world needs a Saviour.
Tonight I read a book called "Night" by Elie Wiesel. This is a powerful account of a Jewish boy who lived through the German concentration camps. Once again, through this book I was reminded of how devesatingly sick and evil human nature is. When we pushed to the limits we are capable of much evil and destruction. I don't know what could possess a man to torture another human being, burn little children, laugh at the pitifulness of a dying man, kill for a scrap of bread, or even turn against one's own father. When we fell as a race, we did not trip into sin, we plummeted. God's heart must break when He watches us, we have fallen so far away from what He intended us to be. This is why we need a God - this is why we need a Saviour, because truthfully we are not fine without Him. I will never understand God's unconditional love for His people and His commitment to us. It baffels my mind. This is one of the reasons why I believe what I believe. If God is able to love despite how much we hurt and abuse Him, I believe in that love. Also I couldn't imagine a life without His redemptive hope.

merci beaucoup mes amis, je vous adore

Tonight my weak heart was put to the test. All week Angie, Liz, and I have been planning on having a girls night tonight... going out to Websters Falls, coming back, watching chick flicks, doing eachother's hair, nails, facials ect... Little did I know that I was being tricked, but I definately don't care.
So after class Ang, Liz and I got in her car, and started to drive to Websters Falls... except that I kinda got a little suspicious when we kept driving and driving and I saw signs to Niagra Falls. So as you probably already guessed, they surprised me with at trip to Niagra for my birthday, and I was totally in the blue... especially considering its not my birhtday till March 25th. And that is not the end, it just so happens the guys (Steve, Willem, and Matty) were following us the whole way there and appeared randomly out of nowhere. It was increadible guys, no one has ever surprised me with such a nice gift. I am so blessed to have friends like you.

march madness is officially here.

Every year around this time, there comes an epedemic that sweeps every basketball fan... March Madness. I am a March Madness junkie, if I were at home and had the March break, you would find me parked infront of the tv watching the games, with the occassional trip to the internet to see how my pools are doing. So right now I am missing satelite tv... or infact any tv at all. This year I entered three different pools, all with the same bracket. Yesterday, it wasn't looking too good, but as of this morning I am pretty pleased with where I am sitting. This year I am bringing Duke, Gonzaga, Connecticut, and Villanova to the final four, with Duke and UConn in the finals. All I can say is that UConn is going to destroy Duke. I have one rule, and it is this: Never will I predict that Duke will win, due to my deep seeded hatred for them.
Ultimately, my favourite team is North Carolina. If they are able to pull it off this year, I won't even care about my brackets.

pride and prejudice

As most of you probably know, well maybe not, Pride and Prejudice (the 1995, 6h version) is one of my all time favourite movies. So, tonight when I was offered to watch the lastest version of this movie I did not hestitate. Although, I was to be bitterly disappointed; the new version of Pride and Prejudice doesn't even come close to holding a candle to the real one. It might have been the fact that Darcy, whom I love for his dashing intense looks and character, was played by an actor who was a pansy - nothing like Colin Firth. Actually, in general, the cast was weak. Maybe I am being unfair, because of my huge bias towards the first version... but no. I even stopped watching it to study for my Enviro midterm - enough said.

we live in a broken beautiful world

As Coldplay says, we live in a beautiful world; I think that this is why it hurts so much to realise the corruption that overshadows the beauty. The other night I watched the movie Constant Gardener - definately recommend it. It is a thought provoking movie to say the least. Without giving the plot away, the movie is full of grief and horror. It portrays a very cynical view of international politics and commerce. I would love to be able to say that this portrayal is an over exageration, but I am afraid that it isn't. After watching the movie I was overwhelmed with the capacity of humans. I was digusted with our greed and and ashamed of how we take advantage of the weak. It is accounts such as this that leave me with a broken heart for mankind. I don't understand how we can be able to face others all the while knowing that we will allow and cause them to die. The part in the movie that struck me the most was when a little girl was escaping from a raid along with two UN workers towards a rescue plane. Once they were on the one man told them that the little girl could not come along with them. The girl seemed to understand that she was not wanted and jumped off the plane and just ran beside it. The reason why this struck me so hard was that it emphasised the reason why most of us do not react against the injustices of this world. I know for myself it is increadibly overwhelming to dwell on the social injustices of this world and I feel that it is impossible to fix it so I am tempted just to give up. We use the excuse that there are millions of people who all need our help and we can't involve ourselves in all their lives. What we forget is that we there are individuals that we can help, even though we can't save them all, we can save a few. And by doing so bring back hope to this broken world, proving that we are still "human."

why?

Over the last day this one word question has been all I can think of.
- Why?
It is increadibly frustrating to not know the answer...

I wasn't there the day you filled up the oceans.

I didn't get to see you hang the stars in the sky.

So I don't mean to second guess you,

Or criticise what I don't understand.

- Clay Walker

katrina for secretary

March 8th and 9th - Redeemer Senate Elections - cast your vote!

too much work... it brings out the best in everyone