Need ideas for Christmas presents?

Hey everybody,
I ran across this neat article in the Kansas City Star the other day and then found it online. If you would like to know that your gifts are fair-trade, support humanitarian efforts, or are green check out this article for links to great websites: Feel Good Gifts .

Another interesting idea you should also check out www.adventconspiracy.org

That's all!

Engagement pictures: Mushy stuff and silliness

Hey Everybody, look at my engagement photos! Nate and I had our super great friend (and member of the Bridal party) shoot our photos. She's super. We had a lot of fun just being silly (as usual) and putting all of our creative juices to work. These were all taken around campus. The sunset ones were taken about 1 mile out of town. And yes, its a real sunset.

Summer Plans

Hey guys,
My posts have been so exciting lately! Well, the posts may not be exciting, but the events that lead to the writing of the post are exciting.

First bit of news: Nate and I have set the date for our wedding: May 24th @ 5:00pm. We should send out some save-the-dates soon. We are getting married at Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Goddard (just southwest of Wichita). It is a really great place and we are excited to celebrate with family and friends there. Plus, we will have a lemur at the wedding! We are also planning on having a California Reception at some point for those that won't be able to make it out to Kansas for the wedding.

Second bit of news: Nate and I are going to Thailand!!! We are going with our school and are assistant team leaders for one of our friends and staff members at Sterling. We are going early/mid-July. We are not sure what exactly we will be doing over there. We have a couple of options: teaching English, doing teaching/evangelism in the northern rural areas, or working with girls in aftercare homes (sex-trafficking victims). We are both really exciting about this trip. As most of you who read my blog (family members) know, my cousins have been missionaries in Thailand for almost 9 years now. It has been a place that I have heard about as long as they have been there and I had always hoped to visit. The only sad thing is that they will probably be home on furlough while we are in Thailand! There will be more information about this coming out as well.

Other than those plans, Nate and I are just waiting on God for open doors and opportunities. That includes jobs and housing and the like. Pray for us!

I'm engaged!!!

Hey everybody, guess what? I'm engaged! Really! God is so good. I am amazed at God's faithfulness and kindness in our relationship and in how he has brought us together and lead us.
I know that some of you have heard already but may not have heard the story. I will now tell it to you with the help of a photo montage.
Sunday night, the 21st, Jean, one of my best friends and former roommate, asked me if I would come pray with her after chapel. She told me she had borrowed the key from our Campus Pastor for Heritage hall, the original chapel and a room frequently used for prayer meetings. I agreed. Jean and I have been long time prayer partners and it seemed normal. So I went up to heritage hall at 10:00pm, the time Jean said she would be up there. I arrived and on the front of the door was a note with my name on it. I opened it up and it said "Go to 4th floor". My heart started pounding! I returned to the staircase and as I climbed there were notes on the steps that said things like, "Keep going!", "Almost there," "A little farther". The door at the top of the stairs said "Open me." I went in and there was another sign with an arrow pointing to The Gathering Place (our super cool guest suite and meeting place. It has the most comfortable furniture on campus!). I went in and one of my favorite chairs was facing the t.v. The chair had a sign instructing me to sit there and the dvd player had a note that said "push play". I sat down and pushed play. The song "Praise you" by fatboy slim started playing. Nate had made a slide show of pictures chronicling our whole relationship along with slides narrating the whole thing. At the very end of the video, as the music died out, the words on the screen read, "And now all I'm wondering is what she will say..."
Then he came out from the hallway where he was hiding. He came to my side, got down on one knee, and asked if I wanted to get married...to him! I had already been crying, but now I was weeping! I said "YES!" through my tears and laughter.
I asked him how he did everything and if Jean helped him make all the signs. He said he had a lot of help and then got up and turned on the light. Suddenly, our closest friends burst through the door leading to the fire escape. They all came in with those party blower things. We hugged and laughed and cried. They had made some special brownies (see below), mostly for my amusement. We then had a tiny engagement party!
Ok, so I'll label the pictures a little bit, but I think you can figure it our for the most part.

Cayla, David, and Jean waiting on the fire escape.



zRight after they came in. I'm still crying. Nate is excited!
Our friend Molly coming to congratulate us!

Reading the card our friends wrote for us.


The fun brownies.



Molly and Jean decided to celebrate by wearing the Ugly Sweaters we made together this summer.
Whitney and Melissa!

Thanks friends!

Here is the question to the first question we are typically asked now: May 23rd, 2009. At least within a few days of that date. That is our tentative dates, it depends on our venue(s).

SGA- A look into where I work

Hey everybody,
I wanted to post this video that we made for orientation this year. Our goal was to show new students what SGA is and what we do. I hope you enjoy. Nate helped us tremendously as our head writer and director. Dustin our treasurer (the guy with the long hair) also helped edit our film.

Cast:
Melissa- President
David (lead actor)- VP of Student senate
Adam- Office Consultant (one of the drink-sharers)
Sarah- Director of Campus Activities (another drink sharer)
Megan- Executive secretary (answers the phone)
Dustin- Executive treasurer (long hair)
Sam- Student Chaplain

YES!

Do you ever read something and you feel like your heart leaps up and shouts, "Yes!"? Well, this hit me that way:

God loved you before you were born, and God will love you after you die. In Scripture God says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." This is a very fundamental truth of your identity. This is who you are whether you feel it or not. You belong to God from eternity to eternity. Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, "I love you, too."

If you dare to believe that you are beloved before you are born, you may suddenly realize that your life is very, very special. You become conscious that you were sent here just for a short time, for twenty, forty, or eighty years, to discover and believe that you are a beloved child of God. The length of time does not matter. You are sent into this world to believe in yourself as God's chose one and then to help your brothers and sisters know that they also are beloved sons and daughters of God who belong together. You're sent into this world to be a people of reconciliation. You are sent to heal, to break down the walls between you and your neighbors, locally, nationally, and globally. Before all the distinctions, the separations, and the walls built on foundations of fear, there was unity in the mind and heart of God. Out of that unity, you are sent into this world for a little while to claim that you and every other human being belongs to that same God of Love who lives from eternity to eternity.

Henri Nouwen. Finding my Way Home:Pathways to Life and the Spirit. pg 129-130. Crossroad Publishing Company.

New

Classes have resumed. Schedules have picked up. Responsibilities gladly welcome themselves back into my life.
This year is going to be good. I remember before I went back to school last year I had this feeling that it was going to be vastly different than the two previous years. It was. It was by far the hardest, most stressful year I've had ever (dramatic, i know). This year feels much, much better. For the most part it is because of my very intentional scaling back of responsibilities and activities. Goodbye, choir, highland singers, and Greek class. I am only taking 13 hours this semester. That is the smallest amount I've ever taken. At the same time add on 6 office hours a week for SGA, not including meetings, and leading the Student Chaplain group. Now things are a little more balanced.
With all this time on my hands I have had time to do things I love; I have built and strengthened relationships and had a lot of time to be enriched spiritually. I also have time to do my homework excellently. I did not have that time last year. You may recall several posts about staying up all night to finish papers. I have also had time to do something new, which inspired the title of this post.
I joined a gym. I not only joined a gym, I have been going to the gym. I have never belonged to a gym. I did some athletics in high school, but that is it. I decided that I missed being in shape and wanted to be healthier. So I started going. So far it has been good (granted I am only 3 days in), but my abs are burning!
The first day I went to the gym I was pretty anxious. There were guys there who were using free weights that totalled more than my body mass. Everyone there seemed to know what to do. I felt really aimless. I didn't know how I should work out or how to use certain machines. Luckily I had Nate, his roommate, Matt, and Allie, a wonderful girl that I have many classes with. They all showed me the ropes. Now I am just trying to set up a routine and some goals for myself.
Exciting times.
In conclusion, yay for setting priorities, sticking to them, and having time for wonderful things and people.

"Flesh and Bone make my home"

That is one of my weirdest post titles ever! It connects though. You'll see.
I was reading through my old journal that encompasses most of the last school year. I found an entry that I really liked and thought I would share.

October 5th, 2007

So I did my Bible study last night (On the theme of Immanuel seen throughout the Bible) and it went well. The Bible study was about the temple Solomon built and how God had a promised, designated place for people to worship, sacrifice, pray and repent. We then talked about the new covenant implications found in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17:

"Do you not know that you are a temple of God

and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

If any man destroys the temple of God,

God will destroy him, for the temple of

God is holy, and that is what you are."

The first thing is that we are a new temple. We don't need (or want!) a geographic location to go to if we need to pray, worship, repent, etc. God has found a new dwelling place inside every believer. What is so beautiful is that first, though God chose to not be boxed in to one geographic location, He chose to make His dwelling place, His temple, even in my walls of flesh. What is amazing is that, just like in Solomon's temple, God has made a promise to be there 24/7. There aren't visiting hours in this temple. It doesn't have vacation days.

What stuck out to me is that God chose to make His temple within the human frame. He is there, and we are still His temple, now matter what we feel. Whether we feel lost, doubting, ashamed, fantastic, on fire, so-so, persistent, or any other emotion He is there.

When God chose to build His temple this time, He chose not brick, stones, fancy tapestries, fine gold pieces, elaborate altars or lamp stands. He chose walls of flesh, altars of physical and emotional brokenness, the decoration of our uniquely made hearts, souls, minds, and spirits, and the worship, the songs of an in-process, renewed people.

He chose to make His dwelling place in the weak, broken, sinful, needy human frame.

He promised to hear, forgive, restore, show mercy, and accept sacrifice and praise and that is what He is doing.

"But will God indeed dwell with mankind on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You; how much less this house which I have built." 2 Chronicles 6:18

Happenings

I haven't posted much recently...except the post I just posted. But I thought I'd catch you up on what is going on.


Enjoy my photo montage.


About one week after I visited Nate and my Sterling friends and Camp friends I knew from last year at Westminster Woods. The whole staff was part of my prayer team for the trip so I went and talked about my experience and hung out. It was great!





For the first two weeks in July, I was in California with Nate. We went for his sister Katie's wedding (which was beautiful). I went to meet his entire family. They are all really wonderful. They love me and I love them.

While in California Nate and I also spent time at the beach,
I'm Ariel!
Fixed a gnarly flat we got on the way back from the beach,

and hung out with Nate's Filipino brothers. We also spent a lot of time with Nate's parents. That was great since neither one of us gets to see them much!

Katie and Arash's wedding was a blast! It was really neat as they designed the whole ceremony themselves and all of their bridal party members were involved in some way. They also mixed in traditional Iranian wedding traditions as Arash's family is from Iran. Did I mention their wedding was on a cliff overlooking the pacific ocean? Needless to say it was gorgeous, and their decorations were beautiful as well. We also had a rad dance party consisting of Nate's side of the family and Arash's mom (who was sweet and a whole lot of fun)! The only problem with weddings is that you hardly get to see the bride and groom (and the bride and groom don't get to eat much). Thankfully, Katie and Arash planned a beach day the day after their wedding for the families to hang out some more.

After I came home I had a few days before I went to Manhattan for Ellen's Wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony that was perfectly 'Ellen and Tony'. Ellen is by far the most beautiful bride I have ever seen. I am not exaggerating. It was a small wedding with a reception at the trendy coffee house where Ellen works.

.

This past weekend the parents and I went up to KC to visit the family. Ang also wrote about it on her blog .
This is my niece Zoey. She is beautiful and very different than Jackson. See Ang's blog for more.

Right now I am getting ready for school. My responsibilities this year have shifted slightly. I am still the SGA student Chaplain, but now I have the added responsibility of leading a group of 20 other student chaplains. I proposed a new Student Chaplain structure at the end of last year and worked with our campus pastors to develop it further. This year I am seeing what was once on paper take on flesh and bone. I'm excited to train, encourage, and lead this team throughout the next year. It will be challenging. I've never done anything like this before and never really thought I would.

Just for fun, I am finally posting the picture of my bouquet-catch from David and Whitney's wedding.

This is me thinking, "Is that really coming to me? Really? I don't even have to move. This is hilarious."

Tidbits from my mind: Culture Shock

Before I went on my trip this summer I read up on working in cross-cultural contexts. All of those books warned me about re-entry or reverse shock. Wikipedia describes reverse culture shock as:

" Returning to one's home culture after growing accustomed to a new one can produce the same effects as [culture shock experienced when entering a different culture] "

I was plenty prepared to experience culture shock going to Asia, but realized on the plane coming home that I wasn't as prepared coming home from Asia. So far it hasn't been too rocky but I have experienced many of the symptoms of reverse culture shock.

Here are a few things I've thought or experienced recently:

Choices: While I was shopping at Target, I was overwhelmed at my choices.

10 different kinds of Cat litter.

ailes full of different chips, coffees, candies, butter, cleaning solutions, frozen dinners.

I found myself thinking, "Why do we need so many choices!"

Waste- It is amazing how much food we throw away.

Immigrants: Americans treat immigrants (from any country), especially those in service-related industries, like they are sub-human.

Shopping: Those who know me know that I've never been a big shopper. The mall was never my favorite place. Now shopping trips of any kind have become guilt-trips. I go into clothing stores and see the labels say Made in 'insert any Asian country'. I've been there. I've met people like the people who sewed this garment/put together this table/assembled these shoes. Some of the kids I worked with could end up in factories sewing clothes for me. More than making me want to become someone who has their own garden and sews their own clothes, it has made me more aware of where my money is going and makes me question why my money should go there.

Crying: I am more sensitive to things. Every time a commerical about orphaned children who have to take care of their siblings at a young age comes on I can't help buy cry. I am ok with that. I want my heart to stay tender towards those in need and acute to how God would have me respond.

Opportunity: I feel like I have new eyes for seeing opportunities that God has given me. I feel that my prayers, words, and actions have real weight and potential. Little things can make big differences.

These are all things that I am working through with God. I do not want to withdraw from culture here, nor boast that I know or care much more than the average person. I want to find that balance and make the changes that I need to make.

Vulnerable

The other day I was thinking about vulnerability and what that really means, particularly in the life of a Christian.
I realized that it is those who we love and trust the most that have the greatest capacity to hurt us. Why? Because we have opened ourselves up to them: to be loved, rejected, surprised, disappointed, affirmed, encouraged or ignored.
I am not talking about abusive relationship by any means. I am talking about human relationships: parent-child, husband-wife, friend to friend.


Love makes us vulnerable. God-fueled love enables us to remain vulnerable without being victimized or becoming vengeful.

"For God so loved the world" - God truly made Himself vulnerable beyond our capacity of understanding by giving us His Son. Though Jesus was rejected, betrayed, slandered, hated, conspired against, and killed, He remains open, available, and vulnerable to us.

Jesus, who has so completely given of Himself and loved so passionately, has not only paved the way for us to experience His love, but to experience the love of the Father.

No matter what we've done, where we feel we've failed Him, how we've hurt others, God has shown us love and given us mercy if we ask for His forgiveness.



Tidbit of note: the word vulnerable came from a Latin word meaning 'to wound' or 'wounding'

More Pictures from Asia

Sightseeing on the weekend


The whole gang from the first center we visited


Some of my favorite girls!


Craft time at the 2nd center





One of my favorites- it took me two days to say her name to her satisfaction- Hong (pronounced Hom, with a descending tone)


Some of my favorite guys


Craft time at the first center- symmetrical painting


Teaching the cha-cha

I am home.

Hey everybody! I'm back from my three weeks in Asia.

Everything was great. God was answering mine and everyone's prayers for health, protection, and learning about His world.

For now I'll post some of my favorite pictures. Just a few snapshots of life in Asia. More will come when I have more time.






Ladies working out near the lake (notice the masses across the street)


























Praying to confucious


































Laundry


















Cross at your own risk!

















Yum! Tofu, shrimp, squid, eggs, cucumber, rice, fish, spring rolls.
















The Fantastic Four: Amy, Kim, me, Kelly.











Kim and Amy are excited to eat eel soup.


















A woman's bike














Fruit. Limes, Cong cong (cum cum), Lycee (our favorite), lemons, watermelon.














Motorbikes