Gloria a Dios

I am currently on vacation from my busy schedule - the first time for at least 7 years that I have taken a month off of work. Right now I am in La Republica Dominicana visiting my brother and some friends. I just experienced a shocking situation this afternoon so I thought I would share it. A couple of days ago, a man that my brother and friends knew died. They have 9 days of mourning in this country. Both yesterday and today we went to pay respects to the family. Today while we were there, a Haitian mother and about 6 of her children were walking on the road and came up to us and other people around the house asking for money. It was obvious that the house we were at was going through their 9 days of mourning because Domincan's hang a bright blue tarp outside for the family and friends to gather during the time of mourning. The children weren't having any luck getting anything from the people outside so we watched as the mother proceeded to enter the house. A few minutes later she came back out with some food! It was totally shocking to us that she had no problem walking into a place of mourning, past the open coffin and asking for food. We thought it to be a very disrespectful thing to do as she obviously had no shame. I wonder what Dominican's thought of this. It just boggles my mind at what people will do when they are hungry.

This experience just made me thank God for all He has provided me with. I am so blessed. It has been a real experience for me. I have seen the slums and the garbage dumps that really are towns and on the totally opposite side I have seen the resorts totally exclusive from the poverty found in this country.

I have also had the experiences to go to several churches here. It is fascinating to see these people in these small little buildings so excited about God! It was awesome to see all the people going up to the front to accept Jesus Christ into their lives. The most amazing thing was to hear the Pastor ask the congregation who wants to be filled more with the Holy Spirit and see people young and old running as fast as they possibly could to get to the front of the church!! You don't see that often in North America I find. It was really a touching thing to see the passion and the desire of these people to be totally over flowing with as much of God in their lives as possible.

I really hope that the passion in this country continues to grow and it overflows to North America as well because it really is needed badly. I look forward to the day that I will see every church with people sprinting down to the alter with such a hunger and passion for our God.

Dios Bendiga

Trees make me think of God

So yesterday I was thinking about God and trees. I was sitting outside suntanning in the absolutely beautiful weather we have been having for the last couple of days (currently 27C with a lovely breeze and clear blue skies) and staring at a couple of trees in my backyard.

I have lived at this house for over a decade now and one thing that I remember clearly from when we moved in was the size of the trees. We planted a few of the trees that are in the back to add to the ones that were already there. I remember them starting at knee height and now they are almost two stories high.

My brother and I used to collect seeds and nuts that we would secretively plant in our garden to see if anything would sprout. We have been successful numerous times with different maple trees. I remember one time we were leaving my paternal grandparents house and across from their house was this huge chestnut tree. I noticed that there were chestnuts on the grass so I decided that I wanted a chestnut tree (I'm sure in the back of my mind the thought came that chestnut trees looked really good to climb when they are big!) so I picked up one of the chestnuts, came home and planted it in the garden. A little while later, my mother noticed this strange plant in her garden and we couldn't figure out what it was for the longest time. Eventually we clued in that my chestnut tree had sprouted! When it was big enough it found itself a new home in the backyard and is now about 10 feet tall. This is my tree in the centre:

So why am I talking about trees? Trees are intelligent! Well, God made trees to be relatively intelligent. Both my chestnut tree and one of the maple trees are growing very intelligently. The branches on these trees are mainly on one side of the tree. This is happening because all of the bigger trees around them have the most access for sunlight so these trees are growing in such a way that they can maximize their sunlight capturing capabilities without being overshadowed by the bigger trees. That just made me think about how much design God put into all of His creation so it works so intricately and perfectly for what it is designed to do.

Yes I know its a bit of an odd subject but as the title says, trees just make me think about God and His creation and how awesome He is! If He took the time to make trees intelligent enough to grow in a direction away from other trees to maximize their sunlight capturing capacity, how much more thought and time and love did He put into us, His creation who are made in His image.

He never ceases to amaze me!

Ponder this

When is the last time you have asked, "God, what can I do for you?" instead of always asking for things from Him.

Happiness in God alone

So first I must say that the only true way to be happy is through God. I live by this and realize this and have experienced this. No one can find happiness in anyone but God. True happiness is found in God and nowhere else.

Sorry, I just had to type that in there and make that perfectly clear. Now onto other things.

I just wanted to share some points about a message I heard on Monday. The speaker was talking about characteristics that he did not want in his life as a follower of God. The first negative characteristic would be for people to do things their way instead of God's way. The second was that people would sin and ask forgiveness then sin again and ask for forgiveness again etc.. The third negative attribute was that of always living a life of predictability and doing the 'Christian thing' on the outside but not letting God take control of your life to take you places that you wouldn't dream of. The fourth is living a life without commitment - real commitement to living a life for God. The fifth one I can't seem to remember at the moment. Of course I am not doing a very good job at explaining it but I thought it was well done and gave people something to think about.

Ok thats enough for now. I wish I could remember that fifth point and wish I could have explained what I had heard better. If you want to hear it better, let me know and I connect you with someone who heard it too and I'm sure will do a better job at explaining.

Yes I know...

...I am indeed procrastinating. No I have not turned into super woman, at least not yet! :-P

I am on a 3 hour break, already have done some work and can't seem to focus so I thought rather than sitting and having information not sinking into my brain, I can be just as non-productive with what I have to do and actually have something to show for it.

So what have I been up to? Well I had a great weekend! :-D Tons of fun, food, dancing, surprises, finger prying, more food, steaming, laughing, exploring and lots of other cool stuff.

I can now say that I have been on the bridge to nowhere! I even have the pictures to prove it, I should have typed this when at home so I could actually attached a couple. Maybe I'll do that later. Now everytime I enter 410 I laugh at what I can still see and will remember for quite a while!

After today I have 2 more days of class before exams begin and before commencing again in May. So I'll enjoy the small break that I do get. Very much looking forward to the summer!

Yesterday it was 28 degrees on my deck! So for those that know me, I did the very predictable thing: suntanning!! I spent about 2 hours baking outside and actually got a little red but it's faded nicely already into a lovely tan. I was actually not procrastinating by tanning though, I spent the whole time that I was out there studying. Multi-tasking can be very helpful.

Tip of the week: If you think someone is following you, do not stop, wait for them to pass and then proceed to follow them. That is a very unintelligent thing to do!

This weekend brings the second of the 4 competitions that my girls are competing in. That means Friday, Saturday and Sunday I will be in a gym - thankfully not all day on those days but a minimum of 7 hours each day. It could have been worse though!

I have a test to write today. It's the last test for the course. It's only worth 5% and I have already done some studying. I just really don't feel like doing more studying. Ooooo only 1.75 hours left of my break!

Yes I realize this is a very random blog about all sorts of stuff. I am a random person and my brain is also very random so whatever comes to my head is what I have been typing.

Easter is coming soon! I wanted to go see KRT's Easter production on Sunday but I have to work :-(

I have decided that the month of April really isn't going to be much of a vacation before starting again in May. I have multiple tasks that must be accomplished on top of studying for my finals which are only occuring in the last 1/3 of the month. One thing that I really have to get on is booking my flight to the DR.

Well I think that I have accomplished a fair amount of procrastination! Let's see how many times I procrastinate on here before my exams are done. Until next time I dilly-dally and decide to practice my cunctation and dilatoriness skills...

<3

Happy Spring for yesterday!

Well, 2 weeks left of class and I will be one semester closer to being out of this place. It really isn't a bad place tho I don't think. It passes the time nicely while I try to figure out what to do with my life. And I can really use all the time I can get!

I really should not be writing this because for the next month and 4 days, I will be incredibly busy reviewing, studying, preparing, writing, choreographing for the last few assignments and finals. So if I am posting on here before April 25, then I am not using my time too wisely...or I have developed super human powers and have done everything I need to study for that day and I know all the previous material perfectly.

Spring commenced yesterday at 8:07pm! I like spring. Spring means that summer and warm weather are coming. I like summer too. Summer means warm weather and tanning. I'm not a big fan of fall and winter because fall means that coldness is coming and winter means coldness is here. I think I need to move to a warmer climate.

It was a good service Monday night at church. I just was reminded how incredibly blessed I am to have God choose me to give me His mercy and grace to which I sooooo incredibly do not deserve. I should not be where I am today. I should be far from where I am today. But I am not and that is only by the supreme and awesome nature of God, my Father, the creator of the universe who loves me, who has called me His own child. Wow! It just boggles my mind.

Dios es bueno!

I'm so amazed with how You love me

Well, I survived our first competition of the season! Haha, I was never worried about me surviving, but some of those parents -wooo! Let's just say we have a very interesting group of parents!

It was a very interesting weekend indeed! My girls did well. We took 19 girls to the competition, 18 of them got at least 1 medal and the girl who didn't she got quite a few fourth places which is a huge improvement for her from last year! Turns out in that category, they combined a bunch of age groups so if they hadn't, then she would have gotten a medal if not a few of them easily. A few of the girls got 5 medals - that is the maximum you can get - one for each of the events vault, bars, beam, floor and one overall medal.

I must admit though, although we came back with a fair number of medals, some of the girls didn't do as well as they should have and the competition wasn't too stiff. Our next competition is a tough one tho in Orangeville. And that is in 3 weeks!! But out of all the competitions I have gone to, this one is the most well run and organized one. It actually stays on time!!! That is a very rare thing for gymnastics competitions I have found. People aren't very good at time management and estimating for how long these things will take. And gymnastics competitions have been going on for how long?!

So after our meet at Twisters in Orangeville, we will hopefully have two more after that: one in Bramalea on the May long weekend (how stinky of a time is that!!) and then one at the beginning of June at our club. We also have another meet at the end of June at our club where I might get to dance in it but we won't go there yet. I might have to make up a dance for coaches to do but I'm hoping that I'll actually get some good dancing coaches for it. It is a very challenging thing to choreograph a dance for people who can't dance! Ah well. I should start on that soon. The toughest thing is finding music. If anyone has music suggestions, please let me know!! Last year I choreographed the dance to the song I Believe. It is by Yolanda Adams and is heard in the movie Honey during the last dance/showcase thing.

Total change of subject. I have this song stuck in my head. And it is very difficult to sing and type at the same time I have just discovered! Yes I am sitting at school singing out loud but I am in a room with only me and 50 computers so its all good! The song is called Amazed. I am going to type the words and attempt to sing them as I type, this should be very interesting!

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You dance over me while I am unaware
You sing all around but I never hear the sound

Lord I'm amazed by You [x3]
How You love me

You paint the morning sky with miracles in mind
My hope will always stand for You hold me in Your hand

How deep how wide how great is Your love for me

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God really is truly amazing!