Today, I choose....LIFE!!

"You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever."
Psalm 16:11

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. "
Psalm 28:7


"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life...'"
John 14:6

"Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him."
Colossians 2:6

Just a few verses that have been encouraging and challenging lately...along with one of my favorite pictures of Terri, enjoying the fullness and joy of life, I thought it fit well:)

A Little Side Note in Jen's Life:
So, due to the large amount of encouragement by Mr. David Moore (my boss during the summer), I've taken the initative of joining the Trinity Western Novice Rowing Crew. Who would have ever guessed that I'd be trying that out? Especially since it means 4:45am mornings...now that's early. So far, I haven't been killed by the early hours, thankfully I can come back and sleep for a bit before class. So it's a new adventure that I shall keep you updated on... (and no, that's not our team in the photo)

The Past Week....

So last week we had a Superman party to say farewell to one of our dorm gals who decided to commute. Hannah made a sweet cake, which was pretty much a giant cookie in cake form, very tastey.

Then on Friday night, Hannah and I were trying to somewhat study. We weren't getting much done - I mean, who really studies on a Friday night anyways? Then the phone rings....and Connor has called to save us from our madness. So being the good guy he is, he took us off campus for a bit, with the promise that he would return us somewhat early to study some more. So we hit up starbucks...mmm quite nice, and then he surprised us by taking us on the ferry to ride over to Maple Ridge and back. I have to admit, it was so refreshing:) It was like one of those moments when the Lord knows exactly what my heart needed and I didn't even see it coming. Then Connor saw a beaver, which he was pumped about - so that finished off the evening with lots of laughter.

Saturday some of the girls played sand volleyball, so I joined in on one game. Rachel, Han, Candace, Sarah and myself then headed off to Vancouver to serve at an ACTS dinner. I haven't really explained to much about ACTS - silly me, so here ya go. It stands for 'Africa Community Technical Service', and they mainly focus with helping to provide clean drinking water for Ugandans, along with other projects to help improve their daily life. I had the honor to work with them this summer, which was an incredible blessing to see some of the Lord's work in a different area of the world. Ruth, Jacquie and David (who I worked for) are amazing people, with big hearts for the Lord and for the work that they're doing. So, they invited to come to the dinner anyhoo (you can check out more their website - www.acts.ca). So our adventure into Vancouver was hilarious as we found ourselves lost numerous times, but we made it:) The food was amazing! And the ladies who were catering were really neat. It was much more of a blessing to be there than I had expected.


Then Sunday, we had a dorm open house thing, which we were suppose to prepare for, decorating like Rome - but we hadn't done a lot of prep work. But we were given all the left over food from the dinner, and our fridge was packed! So basically, people loved the food and that made up for the lack of the decorations. As Rachel Fulmore stated, "It's not about the presentation, it's all about the food."

So a busy, exciting and somewhat refreshing last few days. God has been so good to provide little gifts for my heart lately. He blesses me with things that I don't even deserve or expect. It's a peaceful feeling to be able to rest in who He is, knowing that He is faithful. I don't always 100% reflect those feelings in my life, but in those moments where I truly believe that He is my all - there's peace in looking forward to tomorrow.

"Jesus Christ in the same yesterday and today and forever!" Hebrews 13:8

Life with my roomie......

Well, Hannah and I are very similar, and enjoy getting up to our own little fun.
For our friend Jade's birthday, we had planned to write him a song. As we strummed the guitar, no good lyrics came to us - so we decided that becoming super hero's to attack one of our fellow dorm gals would be a superb birthday present - so we captured it on video. All in all, it was a success, and I think it was a swell present. Plus Hannah loved the cape and outfit so much she wore it to her meeting later that night.

Last night our dorm took an excursion through the forest for a late night slurpee run. It was quite nice, minus all the sugar highs late at night. Han and I layed awake in our beds until she kicked the bottom of my bed and jolted it off it's bunkbed posts. Needless to say, when she jumped up later to lean on my bed, it shifted more and fell half off, shattering her bedside lamp. We were hysterical with laughter as I slowly climbed off the bed so it wouldn't all come tumbling down. We cleaned the glass, fixed the bed and then were tired out enough to fall asleep. Oh the life we live....

I've arrived at Trinity Western...

Well hello everyone! So I'm officially a student at university heading down the road of becoming a teacher. So I'm rooming with my most wonderful friend Miss Hannah dePutter, who's in her second year and is our Dorm RA.

So I've added a few pictures of our little dorm, or as Han would call it, 'a shoebox'. It's a little tiny, but I definitely have more space here than I did at Capernwray. It's working out well.

So this is the view as you walk through our door.

And this is looking from our wall to our door. My bed is top bunk, and Hanbanan is on the bottom.

And this is our our little work station. We have a nice view of trees, but the highway is right outside, so it gets a little noisy - but it's not unbearable.

But the first two days were pretty hard, tougher than I expected the transition to be. It was difficult stepping into a university setting after living in a close community Capernwray style. But it's been such a good reminder to know that God is constant, even amidst all the change around me, and He is faithful to provide all I need to get through each day. A gal pal who stopped by today shared with Hannah and I, something along the lines of this: "If things never changed, we would never appreciated the unchangingness of God." So it's been a good, but challenging lesson to learn. Ah hey, I was looking forward to something exciting and new and the Lord provided it, sometimes it just takes me a while to clue in that He gave me what I prayed for. I shall keep you all updated!

Jen

"And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me."
2 Corinthians 12:9

The Last Night

So I'm in the midst of a whirlwind of packing, preparing to spread my wings once again trying something new and heading off to Trinity University. I must admit, I'm not too pumped about day one - with meeting a whole whack of new people, a rush of new stuff flying my way and wandering around figuring out where to go.
I realize how much of a dork I am though, because when I stop to think about this new experience, I see what a blessing it is from the Lord to be able to be heading to Trinity. And what a work of His hand it has been that He has guided me there for this fall. He is so good. I'm psyched to be rooming with Hannah, and I'm excited for what the Lord will do in our friendship, as well as with all the other gals in our dorm.
I was chatting with my friend Lindsay, and we were remembering back to the end of last summer, thinking and pondering what the year ahead of us would bring. Again last night, we did the same - and it's such a cool thought (and scary as well) not knowing what God has in store, in ways we will be stretched and new lessons we will learn.
So with that, I can breath a little easier, and face tomorrow with confidence - because God has a plan and my job is to walk obediently in each moment.
Pray if ya can, it would be most appreciated, and I'll keep you updated on my life:)
In Him, Jen