update on my family in the Keys

just thought i'd share an update on my sister, bro-in-law, niece, and friends who live in Marathon, FL (in the florida keys). it had looked like hurricane wilma might not impact them much, but instead it was one of the hardest hit Keys. go figure.

little lucy butt slept thru the entire thing last night, which was a blessing. the rest of them didn't get much sleep because the hurricane was so loud. they woke up in the morning and thought they had faired pretty well. andy & shane took the truck out and drove around the area to assess the damage and the neighbors on another street warned them the storm surge was coming in quick. they went down another street and sure enough, saw tons of water coming down the road. they rushed home and had about 15 minutes to get everything they could and put it up high. the storm surge flooded their house and cars with about 2 feet of water (which also included sewage). the water has gone out now, but there is so much damage. sadie's car flooded up to the windows and looks like it is unsalvageable but they've got andy's truck running. a couple from the church had an empty condo on the 14th floor of a building that they were looking for renters for, so the 5 of them (sadie, andy, lucy, shane, and jenna) are all going to rent the condo for the next month while they fix up the house.

please pray for them when the Lord brings them to your mind.
pray for:
-peace, comfort
-sanity, as cramming 5 people in 1 condo will definitely be a test of patience (sadie & andy are married, shane heads up the youth ministry, and jenna is working in the keys for a little while longer until she joins her husband on the west coast - so obviously, they're all from different situations)
-pray for the safety of their belongings left in the house; they had to leave the house open tonight to air it out so mold won't start growing, so pray that God protects their house from looters
-pray for guidance as they decide what the best steps to take are

it is so hard knowing they need help but not being able to be there to help them.

and marissa - they did get some video, but my mom wasn't sure if they got it of the actual hurricane :P thought you'd be interested to know that.

keep it real.
please pray for them.
~jen~

drumroll, please

here it is. a new post. isn't it so like...such a let-down when you see someone has a blog listed in their profile or something and you click on it to see what's going on in their life and they haven't updated it for like...80 years? yeah...

the problem has been that i think about putting up a new post and i'm so overwhelmed with the decision of what to write about, because i have so much i've been being taught by God lately.

a lot's been going on, both good and bad. i'll be honest, it's been a rough semester :) the 2 most recent things:

1, i got a call today from a dude who's car i backed into when he blocked my car in at my house. he's one of the construction guys. he finally got an estimate on his car, and it's going to cost most of my savings to fix it. i'll have maybe $100 left, period, if i combined my 2 bank accounts. there goes all the hard work saving my money over the summer. i have no clue how fixing the scratch on his driver's door could cost $500+...we live in an expensive world.

2, sadie, andy, lucy, and shane have decided they're going to ride out hurricane wilma down in the keys. so that's just a tad bit (okay, a bit more than a tad) unnerving knowing they're down there and waiting to see what happens with the hurricane. crazy kids.

i went to Sweet Briar college (all-girls school) tonight for their chapel service. tara & laura were leading worship and tabitha was giving the message (her testimony). it was beautiful. it was one of those times where i totally knew God had brought me there for a reason. i was reminded of how temporary things are. my house, my belongings, my money, even my body. praise God thru the storms and ever-intensify your passion for Jesus.

here's the update on my house: it's not done, i'm living in the hotel still with tara. atleast i finally get to live with this amazing girl. now i've gotten to live with all my roommates separately (kristen all last year, heidi for the first month of this semester, and now tara) and i love living with them all!! which is a good thing, and i knew i would, but it's just extra enforced now :) i can't wait 'til we all live together under the same roof (and that doesn't count the hotel's roof).

well, i've finished my decaf coffee. that means it's time to wrap this up.

keep it real.
~jen~

post #71

i have broken past my 70th post on this thing! that's a lot of expelliationing of thoughts, eh? 70 posts. and here's to 71. going strong.

so i will confess, i'm a dork. i wanted to see if i had posted about the Under the Overpass book i read in may, so i went to my May archives and ended up reading all the posts from the month :) not incredibly dorky. but wait, there's more. as i read, i started laughing out loud...at my own wise cracks and sarcasm. i'm thinking, "ha ha - man, i'm funny". so, i don't know if you guys get a kick out of reading my posts, but i sure do :D my old posts, anyway. the vast majority of my recent posts have been pretty lacking on the humor side, so i'll try to spice things back up.

but not tonight. i want to go read Lamentations :D mmmmmmmm!

keep it real.
~jen~

only in the everglades

i felt i should share this with you guys, just incase you're thinking about letting your pet alligators loose in the everglades... (???)

creepy.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9600151/

flooding produces more patience :)

who ever thought the remnants of a tropical depression that came across northern florida could produce so many problems way up in central virginia? atleast 1 of the LU dorm buildings flooded, lightning hit a tower so LU had a power outage friday which canceled all friday classes, and jodi & jess's basement apartment has flooded. (well, not flooded-flooded. i don't know what you call it. but water's soaking thru the walls and the carpet and some places when you step on the carpet, water comes up over your foot :P ). there's mold growing already and apparently it smells horrible in here (notice, i said "apparently"). since all of the carpet will have to be replaced and a couple of the walls torn down and rebuilt, they're going to move to an apartment for the rest of the semester at least. so, probably early this next week we'll be moving all their stuff and my stuff (well...the stuff that's not in my storage unit) into an apartment. this is move #4 for me this semester. and i still haven't gotten to move into my house. :) it's been a crazy, testing semester, that's for sure.

i find with each move, i'm less and less phased by it. my dad said God's teaching me how to be flexible. well, it's sure working. :) that's the only good thing i can find that's come from this semester so far. i think He's teaching me how to live a more simplified life, too. i have a feeling by the time i move into my house, i'll want to give away (or throw away) a ton of the little knick-knack things i have, just because i've lived this much of the semester just fine without them and all they do is take up space.

i'm a pretty firm believer that everything happens for a reason. and no matter what the circumstance, we are able to bring glory to God regardless. but i'll be honest, it's been really hard to find out what the point of all this craziness has been. maybe i'll never know. or maybe (more likely), i'll find out the reason farther down the road.

oh!! i finally am getting some hours at j crew this week! that's a big answer to prayer (isn't it awesome when you pray about something and can see the prayer answered right before your eyes??). i just have 14 hours scheduled, but i am so thankful just for anything. a little income is better than no income, eh?

i've been going to Redeemer Presbyterian church the past few Sundays. i went once last semester and loved it and went to the Monday night college Bible studies. i'm pretty sure i'm going to make Redeemer the church i attend regularly while i'm here at LU. i love going, i'm challenged by the message each week and there is just so much love and joy that is evident in the church body. what's been really cool for me to experience is going to a church where the worship style isn't my preference, but yet i can still worship and fellowship and be challenged. the worship style is traditional and they mainly sing hymns and laid-back choruses, but the ones they pick to sing have beautiful lyrics that you can sing and truly mean because you can understand what you're singing.

it made me a little nervous last semester to think of going to a, dare i say it? presbyterian church. because i was raised in a Bible church, then in a baptist church, visited among the non-denominational churches. but never went to a presbyterian church. what i've learned though, is that many presbyterian churches are right on, doctrinally speaking. i've never been crazy about labeling myself as a specific denom.. what matters to me is that the church is a Bible-believing church, a church that is pleasing to God and seeks to glorify Him. that the messages are from the Word of God and not just some preacher's "ideas". i'm not a baptist. i'm not a presbyterian. i'm a follower of Christ.

keep it real.
~jen~

a new post!!

Sorry for the lack of updates people. I moved out of my wireless-internet hotel room this past weekend and am living once again with jodi & Jessica. It should only be for a week and then hopefully this weekend we can move into our house. But I really don’t plan on anything these days so we’ll see if it really happens.

I’m watching the televised broadcast of the Super Conference going on at Liberty right now. I decided to stay home tonight and watch it on TV instead of actually going to it. Just for kicks and giggles. And it does in fact make me giggle. See, there’s these 4 massive screens hanging in the 4 corners of the arena that the conference is being held in (which is also where we have chapel and campus church, among other things). Anyway, it’s always so funny when a choir will be singing and the camera zooms in on a certain person singing. They’re just singing along and then they catch a glimpse of themselves on one of the huge screens and rarely can they ever keep going on like normal. They get this smile on their face and sometimes they even start laughing and pointing (okay, so the only ones who’ve done that were the little kids who sang once, but still - it was adorable). It’s just funny, ‘cause you know if it was you you’d probably get that goofy grin on your face too. Now falwell’s speaking. I’ll stop there. :)

One other thing that makes me giggle is when ensembles are performing and at the same exact point in the song, they extend their hands out in front of them (not lifted up - extended straight out) in praise(?). I am in no way against people expressing themselves as they worship our awesome Lord. But it just doesn’t seem as like…genuine and sincere when you see a singing ensemble do the same exact thing at the same exact time, all while looking out at the crowd. Hey, they could be as sincere and genuine as ever - but still, it just makes me giggle. :D

Here’s an item for discussion that I’d like to hear anyone’s thoughts on. What do you think is the appropriate dress for church and why? Does it matter to you - and why? If you do think there is a certain way to dress for church, what do you think when you see someone wearing attire that doesn’t represent what you believe is appropriate?

If nobody responds, I’m never going to post again (yes, that’s supposed to be a threat - not a reward). :D

Keep it real.
~jen~