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

What a week

This all happened last week-

Monday- I was returning from a retreat in Colorado and was at ease about my hour and a half long flight back to Wichita. As we were preparing to land the pilot notified us that due to hail we could not land. Therfore we were going to wait in KC for the weather to clear. They let us off the plane into one of the gates at the KC airport. If you've ever been to the Kc airport you know that due to it's shape each gate has it's own security screening. That means once you're in the gate, you are stuck in the gate. So they let us off into a gate where there was no food or water and told us if we left the gate area we would risk losing our seat. A full plane of people locked in one area+ dinner time+no food/drinks=cranky

So we waited and waited. What was supposed to be 45 minutes turned into about 3.5 hours. At the end of the time they said that there was no way we'd go back to Wichita. That meant our options were flying back to Denver and flying to Wichita the next morning or staying in KC and flying from KC to Chicago to Denver to Wichita. Both meant finding your own hotel room with only a slight discount. I took option C: Call Ang and trav about 10:30 at night and stay at their house. So Trav picked me up and I slept on their couch. Mind you my bad was still on the plane going back to Denver. I stayed at their house until my Mom could come pick me up on Wednesday. Overall it was a good learning experience- this was the first time something like that had happened to me. And I managed to get $150 out of it for not taking their options, which none of the others who choose their own 'C' thought of. I even met a Jehovah's witness (who looked like Chandler Bing from Friends)!

Thursday- My great friend Ellen came by for a visit before summer gets crazy and she gets married (yay!). We drove to Wichita to shop and basically get out of Halstead. We were headed to dinner at a near by shopping plaza. I turned into the shopping plaza when I saw a car coming into my lane. I slammed on my breaks and reached a complete stop. All I could do was watch as this person slammed into the left side of my car. As the car approached I saw this person reaching into the back of her car, obviously not watching.

Once we crashed she got out of her car and starting yelling everyone's favorite F word. I felt bad for her because she didn't look like she was having the best day or life situation. Then she went back to her car and pulled out a baby from the back seat. She was baby sitting him. Turns our he was fussy and she was checking on him when the crash happened. The good news was the following: No body was injured. She was driving a bug which wasn't tall enough to hit my lights. Her insurance is covering all my repairs ( a new front bumper, a new tire).

After getting all the info Ellen and I went to dinner and had a lovely time. Then on the way home my tire seemed to be making a funny noise. We stopped in front of a car maintence center (it's open sign was on, but it was closed) to check it out. There was definitely some sort of bolt or screw in my tire. So Ellen and I, being the strong females we are (with Dads who teach their daughters this stuff) set out to change the tire. Praise the Lord I have full spare! We got the spare down but hit a snag when the jack would not come out of it's tiny compartment in the wall. Just then a man and his girlfriend pulled up to pick up her car. He offered to help and changed the tire in a matter of minutes. Though l was really thankful for his help, Ellen and I were a bit sad we didn't get to show off our skills.

Friday-Cold of death strikes in the evening. Extremely sore throat, head ache, exhaustion, sinus pressure, high fever. I went to bed at 10pm, which has not been my bed time in about three years. Thankfully it was short lived. I've been taking medicine like crazy though. I've been gargeling, shooting stuff up my nose, taking mucinex, and general cold medicine. I've also been taking naps.

It was a crazy week. God was faithful through the whole thing. I was dumped in a city that I knew pretty well and had family. My friend Ellen was able to help me keep calm and walk me through the process after the accident. The accident is no big deal-minimal damage, no cost to us, not hike in my insurance. The cold is almost gone!

Three cheers for life experience!

God is good!

God is good! Really, really good!
I just found this post that I had written in October and looking back I can see how God completely has led me through the entire process of going on an adventure with Him, even when I didn't realize it.
It's encouraging to see so many of my hearts longings answered so clearly (I'm sure God had a big part in putting those longings there).

If you know what my summer is like and want to know why I wrote what I did (see above)
Click here-Hungry for Adventure

Quick Update

School has been over for a week now!!!- Nate came home and we hung out at my house waiting for Saturday (see below). We practiced music, watched episodes of the TV show Arrested Development, cooked dinner, saw friends, made some fabulous watercolor creations, played softball, went for a bike ride, and played games with my parents.



Wedding!!!- Some of our best friends from school got married this weekend! Congrats to David and Whitney!!! We were honored as they chose us to lead worship and play some other music at their wedding. We had a great time! It was a beautiful wedding and was a lot of fun too!
Did I mention that I caught the bouquet and Nate caught the garter? We did. I don't have pictures of that, but Nate does, so I'll post them sometime.



















So now I'm at home. I've got a pretty good to-do list:
Un-pack from school
Throw away stuff I don't need (preparing to move in a month)
Start packing

A Psalm/Prayer

O God, my God, You are the God of
Death to life
Chains to freedom
Brokenness to healing
Guilt to forgiveness.
You are the God who brings breath to dry bones; hope to a people without hope.

Lord, come and bring Your divine exchange to my life.
Awaken things within me that have been sleeping.
Let me wipe away the dust of complacency from my eyes.
Rinse away that which tricks me into thinking I can't come close to you.
Instead give me urgency, vision, and boldness.

Breathe, breathe, breathe into me!
Fill me with Your breath of life.
Let hope saturate my blood and flow through my veins;
always multiplying and bringing life to dead and broken places.

O God, My God, You are the God of nothing into something;
Come and bring Your divine upside downs into my life.

I want to be awake and alive!!!

I'm smitten...well, more than that actually

I've been dating a wonderful, funny, talented man who loves Jesus (!!!) for almost 10 months now and yet some of you don't know anything about him because I don't write about him that much.

Well, I think it's time that I write about our relationship. I've held back in the past for several reasons:

No one wants to hear mushy relationship stuff all the time.

I'm not one of those people who stake their whole personality and life off of another person and wouldn't want to worry anyone.

I'm busy.

With that being said, here I go... complete with timeline appropriate photos.

First, here's some basic info about Nate:

He's a junior theatre major/ religion and philosophy minor who recently discovered his natural ability to interpret Greek and his love of Biblical studies. He's been a camp counselor tons! He's from Norco, CA. He plays drums and guitar. He's tall. He's awkward like me!

Nate and Sam: The Abridged Version

Nate and I had been close friends for two years before we started dating. We dated very briefly freshmen year (about 2 weeks) before I decided that the constant nauseous feeling I had was because I didn't have peace about being in this relationship. We broke up and I said, "I still want to be friends." Which was TRUE. I knew that though I couldn't be in a relationship with him that I had found a really great friend.

After about 2 days of post-break up awkwardness we couldn't handle it and forged ahead in our friendship.

From that point onward we had lots and lots of DTR's (the Sterling term for 'define the relationship'--this means going for a walk or sitting on park benches and talking about where each person is at and how they feel about the other person). Mostly they were caused by Nate really wanting to date me, me liking Nate but not liking Nate, me not wanting to be in a relationship, Nate respecting that, us remaining at our 'just friend' status. The DTR's varied between being hard, annoying, stressful, hilarious, and great.

God used that year and a half or so to draw us closer to Him and mature us. We also grew in our friendship.

In that time we:

Made up lots of inside jokes

Went on Choir tours together (see left: Nate and David-my two favorite guys. Enacting a scene from Baywatch in CA)

Won a swing dance competition

Played in praise band together

Had late night talks in the union

Hung out with my family

Hung out with our friends.

And just had fun!

And the best part is that the core of our relationship is our friendship. This past June we decided to date(there are so many different terms people use-courtship, dating, etc. I think the best way to explain it is that from the start we took our relationship seriously. We felt strongly that it could head towards marriage but still wanted to enjoy 'dating' and getting to know each other even more.) It was amazing to see how God prepared us to be in a deeper relationship with one another.

Nate is a huge blessing in my life. He is a confidant, someone who understands and shares my random sense of humor, and a wild man; he strives to be who God made him to be and won't be tamed by others.

Nate is also a great spiritual leader. He reminds me of the truth when I need to hear it. He prays for me and with me when I am discouraged. He constantly reminds me with his words and actions of God's love and mercy. I'm excited for whatever God has for us! As the famous line from the 80's said it, "The future is so bright, I've got to wear shades."

Here are some more pictures of us: