Serbia May 26-August 1st

I am going to Serbia very soon. For those of you who are following my progress, I have raised about one fifth of the money needed for the flight and room and board (total needed is $4100)I have met (on facebook) two of my teammates who live in N Ireland and I am starting to get excited! :)

NEW BLOG same Mary

Hey everybody,

I figured I should change my blog name since it isn't Lindy and Mary's Slovenia blog anymore. This is going to be my blog for everything, but will also follow updates for my trip to Serbia for all of my supporters out there. :) I hope I don't loose anyone in the shuffle.

Mary

New!

Wow! It has been a long time. Here are some picts to represent the new things in my life right now...

Newly a Senior in College (School's out!!, here's some friends at graduation and the last one is of our Greek group with our Greek prof, Dr. Derrickson)







New Boyfriend, Tim (I met him at school, he is wonderful)



New Jobs (Starbucks and Bath and Body Works)





New (to me) Car (This isn't my actual car, haven't taken a pic yet)




I am excited about these new things in my life. I am excited for a new season too. Welcome Summer!!

Mary

Overwhelmed

Wow! Have you ever had a day where you felt the presence of the Lord in every event? Today my soul was fed and my heart rejoiced in the Lord. It was a rich and full day.

I began the day by remembering Christ's sufficiency for me and asked for His strength and that He would walk with me throughout the day.

In my first class I remembered the powerful impact of mentors in my life and my own passion for mentoring.

In Chapel, I worshipped the Lord singing

"All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live."

Surrendering to the Lord the struggles I have been facing and recognizing my need for Him, I sang,

"Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name"

and read part of Jeremiah 17 which says:

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man...but blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit."

Then I went to my next class and remembered how blessed I am to have so many great friends and classmates here. All the reunions today were so fun. We also talked about the importance of keeping our eyes set on eternity while still working to live well and make a difference here.

Last I read an e-mail from a mentor/friend that reminded me that if God is sovereign and also good we can trust His hand in our life. He works for our good and in Jeremiah 32:41 God says of His people,

"I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good."

It all rounded out with a gripping description of crucifiction from my friend who just came back from Israel, and a strongly preached exposition of the gospel by Mark Driscoll (Marshill Church, Seattle) that I listened to while I worked out.

Who am I to be loved this way?

I truly have joy from the Lord and am rejoicing in Him today. I am overwhelmed by all the reminders of God's love and His many blessings in my life. That I could even find joy in offering up my pain and trial to God is another reason to praise Him. He is so worthy of my praise.

Well friends, let me close out with this song. May you draw nearer to the Lord as you remember His awesome worth.

All My Praise
Words and music by Audrey Hatcher
I will follow You through green pastures
And sing hallelujah to Your Name
I will follow You through dark disaster
And sing hallelujah through the pain

And even in the shadow of death
I will praise You
And even in the valley I will say

Holy, my God
You are worthy of all my praise
Holy, my God
You are worthy of all my praise

You are seated on Your throne in heaven
And You see all of us down here
And You have promised You will not abandon
So I shall not fear

And even in the shadow of death
I will praise You
And even in the valley I will say

Holy, my God
You are worthy of all my praise
Holy, my God
You are worthy of all my praise

You made every star
And You taught it how to shine
You knew my name before there was time
And all this was just part of Your glorious design
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

APOLOGY

To both of my faithful blog readers :)

I am sorry for not expressing any of the many lessons God has been teaching me or any of the great lessons I have gleaned from my classes on this blog. I assure you that there are many blog posts in my head which will eventually be recorded here too. To make up for it here are some pictures from the last few months.

Me playing one of my Original songs for my hall!

The girls that have been up to Nightstrike (Ministry to the Street Community in Portland) with me this semester

Me and good friend Gasper from Slovenia at Stumptown Coffee, Portland, OR

Me and my dear dear friend Michelle who visited me in Oregon before heading to a year of ministry in the NY ghettos see her blog
http://brooklynmichelle.blogspot.com


Me and R/A friends Reena, Amanda and Ryan (three on far right) and friend David at Corban's Winter Formal

Me and my beautiful sister Bekah on a date in P-town (Eating yummy Lebanese food!)

More posts to come!

Rest Part II

Praise our good God for showing me truth and teaching me. Through prayer I came to see that by not resting in the Lord I am routinely rejecting a good gift from my Father, ignoring my need for restoration and pridefully carrying on on my own.

No wonder Sabbath is such an important concept in Scripture! God knows that we need it and it is a reminder of our need for God!

I have a confession to make, I am not a good rester.

I desire to become a person who knows how to rest well. Not just for my own health and sanity (though God surely had these in mind when he set up the Sabbath mandate) but in order to practice humility. I desire to practice rest (giving my worries to God and accepting renewal, strength, peace and rest from Him) in order to more fully trust God and in order to live a life that communicates "I really need you God" rather than "I don't need rest, I can do this!" In order to communicate to God "I desire to give my struggles to you recognizing that you can give me wisdom and grace to face the, not ignore them."

I want to trust God and show Him with my life that my hope and stability are found in my knowledge of who he is and what he has done not in who I am and what I can do.

God teach me to rest well. Help me to humbly express my need for you in the way I rest. Help me recieve the renewal you desire to offer to those who come to you. Forgive me for my pride, I need you and can't make an impact in this world without your strength and direction. Help me resolve to work on this and give me the humility to remember this lesson often especially in a world that gives value to self sufficent people who pride themselves on how much they can do without stopping.

Praise God for His work in our lives. I pray that I will continually ask God to transform the weaknesses in my life into opportunities to show His grace and strength.

Rest Part I

It's been a month exactly since I wrote about rest and how I desparately need to learn how to build it into my life. I was in the middle of the craiest week of the semester as far as assignments go and as I sat in our chapel (which was open for prayer and set aside for students to stop and rest before God)

I prayed "God if there is anything that is keeping me from knowing you more or living my life as you want me to please show me and change me."

It is amazing to me how faithful God is when I honestly and humbly pray for him to show me my weaknesses. I am amazed at how specific he is and how loved and not condemned I feel when he puts his finger on something I need to change. When God speaks to me this way and when I experience his love and holiness in the light of my own weaknesses and failures how else can I respond except by humbly wrestling before God with my problem and seeking restoration through him. I have a deep desire to change that I might serve and know him better.

The area that God specifically put on my heart that day was that I often try to live my life in my own strength and then I come to my end (which doesn't take long) and am exhausted (which happened often last semester). I love my work and my life as a student but don't love feeling tired all the time (emotionally and spiritually as well as physically).

God brought to mind a few conversations in the last few months in which I basically told people "I don't rest." I was just resigned to the fact that I have a crazy busy life and that I don't need to slow down.

CONVICTION!! What did I just say that I don't need rest?

I certainly live my life that way sometimes. It is obvious that I need a whole lot of things in my life. It is obvious that I do not have everything under control. But somehow in my pride I was able to convice myself that I'd ask God for strength when I ran out of my own. Ugh! I hate that that was part of my thinking for so long with out me acknowledging it. How arrogant and how dead wrong. I gladly repent of that and chose to accept my utter inability to serve God and live a godly life outside of His strength.