it's a lovely thing when you get inspired by someone else's simple photography. i love it. you can look at something from someone else's perspective and it gives you a fresh new one. again, i love it!

I've been trying to keep my flickr updated as much as i can... a couple uploads here and there. so if you haven't looked at it in awhile i guess now would be the time to check it out... you know... if you wanted to.

With the exception of today, the past few days have been beautiful. sunny and warm, sooo nice. so here are some photo's that i've been itching to upload. the last one is the reflection of the autobahn and our neighbors in the library window. haha, i thought it looked cool and was excited when it turned out. I'm working on some photography and becoming more and more comfortable with my weapon of choice. i'm hoping to pick up a few tricks here and there and i'm excited to try new ideas. tomorrow i think i'll take my camera and shoot the lovely leaves that are beginning to change on my walk to school. i'm seriously loving it so much out here. God is such an amazing artist!

p.s.
there's a link to my flickr under my picture over therrre... --->

God given...

God chooses to work in super unique ways... however He sees fit.     and i like that about Him. 

I know I've said it a ton of times before but God is so good! and He is so faithful... and I know that He is doing amazing things here. He is moving and dealing with so much in me.  geez, He's incredible. 

I remember praying before I came out here, just for a friend. No big deal, I knew I was coming out here on my own not knowing aaanyone really. And it seemed really intimidating. So I prayed that there would be a girl out here who I could just click with, a friend. Well, God is good. Everyone out here is amazing and sweet and cool and quirky. haha, but from the very first day Alisha (a little girl from Ohio) and I have been at each other's side,  it's been almost a month now and I know she is a very dear friend indeed. In fact, I'm pretty sure today was the first day we didn't sit next to each other in devo's only because I did worship this morning so I sat in the front row. But I hope you understand what I'm saying and don't think I'm saying this just to say this. It's funny, cause as time goes on I know our bond is growing stronger. and i love that because it's really an answer to prayer. and God was faithful in blessing me with a friend. so cool! 

God is really arousing my heart for worship, He is so worthy of my praise. But even then I'm so unworthy to be in His presence. but since I first came here He's been speaking to my heart when it comes to worship... it's personal, you know? He's so intimate and so delicate with me when in reality what I need is a slap across the face to wake up and truly love Him with all my heart... He's working on me, I just feel so insufficient  but He completes me. and that's so rad. 

Anyways, I really like the train here... I'm not sure exactly why but it always seems like an adventure to go buy a train ticket and sit there and such. it's a train! and last time I checked there's not a set train schedule in those Sandwich Islands. I'm really looking forward to outreach week and traveling. Haven't done any traveling yet, but there's another outreach that I'm going on later this semester to a different part in Germany. So, if you remember, please keep outreach week in prayer. I know God has amazing things planned. Just keep all the different teams in prayer while we're all going on outreaches in October. (18th-25th) That would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm not sure where I'm going yet... but soon I shall decide for sure. (I have 'til next Thursday) There's places like Ireland, Vienna, Prague, London, Frankfurt, and everywhere!  but as a reminder... you know... if you suddenly start thinking of trains all the time...  just remember to pray for the students here who are going to be traveling a lot next month. That would be greatly appreciated. 

cause I said I would...

here's a link to my photo's:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38767&l=3619c&id=540251451

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39616&l=cca57&id=540251451

copy and paste! The first is a link to some photo's of before i left to when i first got here... and then the second album is just some of the stuff that's been going on around here. 

anyways, i hope you enjoy them. 

i was just reminded of one of my favorite songs...

it goes a little something like this:

"Jesus is the best friend i ever had, ain't never done me nothing but good and He took away the bad... ba-ba-ba... He lifts me up when I am down and He cheers me when I'm saaad. Jesus is the best friend i ever had."

well, so far today has been a good day. I realized that a lot of times I can leave myself open to so much and not even realize it. you know, just in my thought pattern and such... it's weird. this morning we had a quest speaker in devo's and he was sharing about how easily we can judge the wrong things that people do and begin to think so highly of ourselves. We get into this thought like, "wow God, I sure am glad that I don't act like that." and "Lord, you really need to discipline that person for the wrong actions they're doing." self-righteousness... what a downfall of mine. He applied to our dorm life and how even though there are those certain people that just drive us crazy we are still called to love them... and I'm sure God has so much more reason of putting them in my life than to just bug the heck out of me. like those people i think could never be my friend or I could never get to know could be a really encouraging friend or someone God wants to use to help me grow. OR even use me! whoa. that's a crazy thought. 'cause it's in times when I'm going through all this in my head that I think, "God, how in the world can you use me effectively?" but He does! He's so amazing. I think I went into this whole "dorm life" unprepared, I noticed that the first few weeks were really hard and it was a constant battle for myself to just get over myself and "my needs". I can be so selfish at times... or all the time. But in just admitting that to God, and asking Him for more love, He's been filling me with more and more patience daily for them. And please don't get me wrong, I love my roomies and they're great!  It's just those silly little adjustments that you have to make and at first seem SO inconvenient. haha. oh, and i was just reminded of this sweet application that David made in his Revelation class... He was talking about teamwork and how if we want to stand strong together then it will require sacrifice. But that's a good thing, otherwise I'm sure we'd all be super selfish ugly people. He said something like it's the flesh taht causes division and sacrifice is the only thing that can break through that. He used the example of marriage and how it you must put your spouse above yourself and how it's the same in every circumstance and every relationship. Most of the time you're going to have to sacrifice yourself for the greater good. You know, take one for the team. So do it for others and definitely don't sacrifice for self-glorification... I'm sure there's no reward for that.

tomorrow I have "James for Women" class with Inga-Lill. Probably one of my favorite classes. She's a great teacher and has been bringing us healthy snacks... it's so nice. like last week she brought these tiny little grapes from her vine, sooo good. I'm trying to finish up my homework for that class before the night is over. so far so good, i really like her style. it causes me to dig deep to find the answer to whatever questions she's asking and not rely on head knowledge (not that i really have a good amount) cause they're mostly subjective questions. Anyways, I'm loving it here and I'm so glad I have this time away from everything that's familiar to me and I get to press forward and see and experience new things. It's very exciting. 

i really want an american coca-cola...

So Germany life is going swell. I'm really loving it here and enjoying this time that God has set apart to reveal more of Himself to me in every day life. For the past couple weeks in Guest Lectures they've split up us guys and girls and we had the opportunity to hear Shannon Woodward teach (my Revelation teachers wife). She has an amazing testimony and a ton of stories about the million different ways God has blessed her in subtle but ginormous  ways. She's an amazing woman and full of godly wisdom and truth. 

Last week she taught on not dwelling on the past but always looking to what's ahead... somewhat cliche' but so true. A quote she said was something about a man who was faced with a brain tumor and he had to go into surgery risking loosing his eyesight or part of his memory. When the doctor asked which one he would rather have the man said, "I would rather have my sight... I want to see where I'm going rather than where I've been." There's good reasons to look back, like to remember God's goodness and hand in my life. But there's time when I look back and hurt when I should just forget about my past and turn my eyes to Jesus and what's ahead... or even right in front of me. 

Anyways, that's something God's been reminding me of over this weekend and it's been good meditating on it. Soooo... I just thought I would share that with you all. 

on the move...

God is so good. it's just fact. He's showing me so many amazing things here and it's still pretty much the first week. it kind of feels like i've been here for a month already... it's a strange feeling. When I first arrived it was like everything was so... foreign? i thought it would take forever to try and get used to how everything works around here but it doesn't seem to be taking very long at all.

i love the land around here, everything is so green and beautiful. i went on the most beautiful bike ride last Sunday... and at the end we came to the edge of the river and it felt like i was right back in Hawaii... on the swinging bridges hike or something. it was simply amazing. AND THE TREES HERE! oh, they are so beautiful and different and not palm trees. it's nice... but there's a lot more spiders about. pro's and cons i suppose, but in the end God is good.

update much?

alright, so this whole updating thing is a lot harder than i thought it would be... i always forget how busy Bible College keeps me. but the classes I'm taking are soooo incredible. I'm enjoying them all so far. :)

I am taking the following.

Revelation with David Woodward

James with Inga-Lill Guzik

NT Survey with Jeremy Kirby

Women's Discipleship with Hannah Berry

and Apologetics... but I forget who the teacher is. It's on DVD and I haven't started that class yet.

Oh! aaand Guest Lectures with Nick Long and other various staff members.

My schedule's a bit crazy right now, it's kind of all over the place cause my M1 (practical Christian Ministry) changes a lot too. Life in Germany is amazing though! and even above all the craziness of school and being on time i'm finding a lot of free time to just be with Jesus. So far it's all been a great experience... no bad one's yet. haha. The staff here is AMAZING, they really show that they care about the students and make us feel loved. 

sorry no photo's this post. but i did take a ton on my home from school a couple days ago. So i'll try and upload those sometime.

-sharon-

here it is...

the blog you've all been waiting for... I'm in Germany.

woohoo.

it's really strange being here, but i'm beginning to like it more and more... and yes, i know it's only the first day.

like all bible college's everyone plays the guitar. haha, it seems pretty chill though. all the staff is amazing and super nice.

the students seem cool... but we all know how that can be... haha, juuust kidding. here are some pictures from on the plane... and then the villa where I live!

mmm, flying in.

"banana bread"   ...hmmm...

driving to Siegen.

the villa. i live on the 3rd floor... it's a long flight of stairs.

so yeah, it's raining outside and I'm inside sitting in between those corner windows on the bottom floor... sitting on a really comfy couch and sipping on a cappuccino  my new friend Michal made for me. it's reeeally good... my feet are cold. 

and i miss you.

hello, how are you?

Welp, I did it! I'm sitting in the Denver airport feeding off of the free internet they provide... how generous of them. 

Anyways, I already miss home and everyone there. Before we left the house I went through and put a letter on each person's bed. So I hope they all found them and read them... aaron probably didn't see his so now it's like crumbled up in his bed somewhere. haha, anyways, i just thought i'd update you on that. 

sorry, no photo's this post... next one for sure.