Learning God's Language

Today I watched a movie called Post Grad that showed a young woman who had just graduated from University with all the hopes in the world. She was determined and optimistic. However, as time went by, and her job search proved fruitless, she became defeated. She had to move back in with her parents and felt like her degree hadn't helped her at all. At times I feel very much like this young woman. Although I am not living with my parents, they are helping me to get by as I am struggling to find the right fit. I currently have two jobs (hostess at Milestones and Student Enrolment Advisor at Rocky), but I am not yet covering all my expenses, thus the search continues. My dream job is also yet to be found. Many friends and family have been giving great ideas and suggestions for what I should do, but I do feel like God has me where he wants me and I am waiting for my perfect job. However, my biggest desire in life right now is purpose. Purpose. I want to be used for God and all around

Well the summer has finished. I am now back in Calgary wondering what's next and feeling as if CanIL never really happened. But I finally saw my course marks today thanks to all your prayers and support my lowest mark was a B (I can only believed that this happened through God's grace, strength and intervention). Looking back it is so strange. I still have a fb page that I am involved in that we started at CanIL to communicate and a few friends on the internet and in my phone, but for the most part this summer has been cut off. A completely different part of my life that I have no idea what to do with. I cannot yet see where and how God is going to use this in my life, but somehow I feel like he will. Looking back, it seems as if the summer was only good and not hard and I that that is due to God's grace and love and because I don't want to remember the stress, long nights and lack of sleep! However, the friendships, lessons learned and growth that I expereinced I am

One week. Three exams. One paper. Written like that it seems so easy. So quickly over. So exciting and yet so sad. Everything I have learned academically, relationally, spritually. How can it all be over in one week? How can I measure the value of learning to persevere? How can I measure the value of all that I have learned? How can I measure how much I have learned how to rely on God? God has gotten me through. Yes this has been so good, but it has been incredibly difficult. Yet I wouldn't give it up for the world. Would I do it again? Ask me another time. When I broke my feet I knew that I would see the benefits of that and I did. I thank God for the lessons I learned through that experience and I thank him for growing me. When I look back on my summer at CanIL I hope I can do the same. I am already done one course. Phonetics. One of my favorites. I got to learn all the sounds of all the languages in the world. It was so much fun. I had three exams this week. One on Product

Life is so crazy... For so long I looked forward to coming to CanIL. I loved it here the first little while, and then when the work started getting harder and more frequent and my marks began to drop my love for this slowly deteriorated. Besides , I thought to myself, I don't even know how this fits into my life. Why am I applying myself so much and stressing so much? In some ways, this was a good realization. Realizing that stressing myself out is not why God brought me here was good. But he also didn't bring me here to slack off or give up (besides I'm a Reimer and we DON'T give up and we DON'T slack off- we work hard and persevere through all). James has been on my reading list lately and he says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

I have just realized that I am being a horrible blogger (reminded by reading a friend's blog) and I am sorry for my absence. Life has gotten crazy and the amount of processing and working that I have done is not equal to the number of hours in a day and the number of hours of sleep that I need. I don't know if any of that made sense. Anyways, as I am procrastinating on finishing a paper (only 1 page left), I sit here thinking what to say. How do I sum up almost a month of daily struggles and weekly panick attacks (mostly on thursday nights before all my grammar homework is due friday morning). How am I to explain how God has been pushing me and challenging me to grow more? How do I begin to explain the good and the bad, the high and the low? I am now half-way through the program here at CanIL and I have figured somethings out while bcoming even more confused on other subjects. What I do know: - I do not want to do Bible Translation - I hate grammar and don't like phon

This week has been a tough but interesting one. One in which I have really learned to rely on God. Lets start at the beginning... Exactly one week ago I was on top of the world. I loved my life, my relationships, my classes and jsut all around felt completely loved by my Father and by those in my life. But Monday brought this all to a crashing hault. I received an email from BUGirl (a program which young adult women speak to teenage girls about their value and that they are loved by a Creator), telling me that one of their interns had dropped out. Now let me pull you up to speed on this. I had applied for this internship earlier in the year and they had told me that they were all full and that I should apply again next year. So anyways, I heard about this and was so excited! My dream is for young women around the world to know that they are valueable and that God loves them and this was my perfect job! But a few mins after I read this I realized that I was now in a relationship and th

Well I have officially been here for a week! I cannot believe it! In some ways it feels like it has been longer and in some ways I am overwhelmed it has been a week already(but mostly the former). God has been so gracious to me in my life here and showing me that this is exactly where he wants me, but more than that, he has helped me to really grasp concepts faster than I ever imagined. In one week of school I have already learned so much I should be overwhelmed; but I rarely am. God has been so present in my readings, studying and in class quizes. However, I do have an exam tomorrow that I am a little nervous for (and which I should be studying for right now...). Its crazy to believe that after 1 week of school I already have an exam, but then again, there are only 9 weeks in my semester. Another thing that God has been gracious in, is community. A big part of living here is the work and homework, but living in community is something that I am struggling with (yes I am struggling wi

I find myself in awe. In awe of God, in awe of what I’m learning. In awe of where I am living and how perfect my roommate and I get along. In awe of how much I am learning in only two days and in awe of God. (I know I said it twice but it needs to be said twice). The people that I have met here (at CanIL) have completely blown my mind. I do not know how I have been so fortunately to meet such amazing people who are all completely living for God. I am challenged by my fellow students and love being surround by people who are not from around here. People have come from all over the world and it is so incredible! I don’t know how God has orchestrated this all but he has, and he brought me here. I am so thankful for this! School has been incredible! I know it has only been two days, but what an incredible two days it has been. I have been challenged and have already learned so much (already learned some phrases in Indonesian, how to recognize and dictate approx. 10 IPA letters, and ho