11:47 PM

this is what i like to call...


freaking awesome. dad and i saw the most glorious rainbows - two of them - on our drive from atlanta to charlotte (post-RUF training, pre-move-stuff-to-dallas). i have never seen such vibrant rainbows, or such complete ones. you could see almost the entire arc!

dad took a lot of pictures (since i was driving), but i like this one the best, even though the apparent sky-color-change is actually due to the tinting on my windshield. ;)

rainbows are such great reminders that God keeps His promises, and that He has decided to take the blow for us, His people. after all, who do you think that arrow is aimed at, given the direction the bow is pointing?

1:42 AM

andrew peterson plug

...i believe He is the Christ
Son of the living God

all i know is that i was blind and now i see
that though i kick and scream, love is leading me
and every step of the way His grace is making me,
every breath i breathe, He is saving me...

resurrection letters, volume II is a brilliant piece of work - the songs are good (some of them are better than good), but together the album is stunning. lyrical and musical motifs are woven throughout (as andy p is wont to weave). right now, this portion of "I Believe (The Good Confession)" is what is stuck in my head, especially the line "every breath i breathe, He is saving me." knowing andy p's body of work like i do, i think what he is getting at here is not that Jesus needs to keep saving me all the time, but that my need for Him and His grace is ongoing. i need Him now as much as i did at 5 years old when i "prayed the prayer," but i also HAVE Him now as much as i ever have or will.

we never stop needing Jesus. we never outgrow the Gospel.

[also, i just bought north! or be eaten today and started it. looks to be even better than it's predecessor.]

7:50 PM

a bit of excitement


so a few days ago my poor car nearly missed being taken out by a toyota. so did the house. thank you, random rock in the yard.

not so lucky: a tree.

some poor girl who a) is new to the country, b) is living away from her family, c) had just recently lost her brother, and d) had only gotten her license to drive a week ago wound up getting herself into quite a crash in the yard of the house i am staying at.

i feel dreadful for the poor girl, but am very grateful that shelly is still in one piece.

8:20 PM

i'm on my way, just set me free, home sweet home

so the summer has been positively loco, but not in a bad way. just in a crazy way. i am kinda ready for it to be over, and to be in one city for more than a month!

RUF staff training was last week, and it was most excellent. i really enjoyed getting to catch up with the other folks in my intern class and learned some extremely helpful things in the sessions. i also got to meet a bunch of other interns and campus ministers and got to spend some great time with billy and ashley, my new campus minister and his wife. they are pretty much fantastic.

next week (on the 12th, to be precise) i will be moving to houston!!!!!! freshmen show up on the 16th. here we go - i can hardly wait! i even got a necklace with an owl on it to get into "rice mode."

i am so excited to be moving to a ginormous city with fantastic food and old trees and an awesome home church that is so close to home. i know, i know - 4 hours isn't exactly around the corner, but it beats 17 any day!

we had this crazy adventure when we moved my stuff out of charlotte and to dallas that i will have to tell you about later. suffice it to say, none of the four of us (mom, dad, me, and kj) got a complete REM cycle in that night.

in other news, i seem to have entered a new life stage. a few years ago, it seemed like my facebook newsfeed was full of weddings. now it's full of babies.

sorry it's been so long! now that my life will be normalizing some, i expect i will be posting much more regularly.