Last Day

*I don't know where these green unlines came from, but don't go over them because something will pop up and it gets annoying =P

During this time I like to go through my journal entries that I've written and see what God has done this past year. The beginning of my journals for this year started with a prayer for sanity and balance- haha little did I know how much I would need it! Going through my journals, these are some sentence I wrote that stood out to me, and maybe they'll encourage you or just make you smile:

• "God is God. your view of Him, your emotions, circumstances, and the world cannot change that. God is God" -3/15
• "Today I took my IMC children to the beach. Some of them had never been to the beach before and they absolutely loved it! It was so much fun showing them the different things God made here at the beach and drawing the pictures in the sand! Love looking at the world through new, fresh eyes :)" -7/10
• "May I run the race before me, strong and brave to face the foe; looking only unto Jesus as I onward go!" -10/9
• "The best way to show your appreciation of a gift is to use it to its full potential. Show the giver that you love the gift by using it, not by storing it away somewhere. We have all heard the saying 'Today is a gift from God', so how are you going to use today for Him?" 10/18

I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember Your deeds from long ago.
I will meditate on all Your works
and consider Your mighty deeds.
~Psalm 77:11-12~

Look to the Lord and His strength; seek His face akways.
Remember the wonders He has done,
the miracles, and the judgements He pronounced
~Psalm 105:4-5~

Shepherds, Sacrifices, and a Savior

Day of Discovery has done a wonderful short on the city of Bethleham and I want to share it with you. My favorite part is the last 1/4 section of the video, showing how these shepherds that the angels appeared to were probably priestly sheperds- meaning the lambs they raised were offered as sacrifices. How amazing is it that these priestly shepherds were told about the Perfect Lamb for all the sins of the wolrd?
Watch the video when you have a free half hour, it's pretty interesting and very applicable for this time of year :)
Merry Christmas, all!!!

http://dod.org/Products/Bethlehem--Beyond-the-Christmas-Story__DOD2165.aspx

Culturous Food Adventures of the Week

And so it begins...

Graduated as of 5 days ago!

Now what?

Glad you asked that ;-)

As of today, I now have a Wycliffe Bible Translator email account. That's right, I'm official. The steps that started off small are getting larger and Larger!

Hopefully starting Wednesday I will be cleared to do the online courses for Wycliffe, and then in January I will be in North Carolina for training. At the moment, there isn't much going on, just all the paperwork and the people on the other side doing their thing with signatures, background checking and whatnot. Wednesday will be the day, Lord willing, of diving farther into in process and I'll keep you all updated as to how that is going :)

With this new area of life opening up, I'm thinking it needs a blog all to itself. A blog for books (this one) and a blog for Africa (updates on Wycliffe). Either way, I'll keep you updated as to what God is doing :D

For those of us who are C.S. Lewis Fans :)

Performance!

It's playing in January here in Los Angeles and San Diego! I just might be going to one, the student discounts are $25 :)
For more information on, click here.

Color Scheme of My Life

Never noticed how Fall-ish I was until I folded my clothes today! haha :)

52 Hours

My Library Boss and I accidentally miss-counted hour many hours I'm working in the library, and this week we found out I have 52 hours to make-up if I want that money to go to my college loans!!! Needless to say, I am now living in the library nearly 24/7 for the next week... which means much more reading and probably blog posts, haha :)

Speaking of reading, I just finished some books on William Cameron Townsend. This man was amazing! At age 14 he and his family visited relatives in Fresno and Cam nearly drowned in a riverbed. From then on, he dedicated his life to the Lord and was willing to follow Him... though he wasn't quite ready to become a missionary.

While he was in college at Occidental, he met a vibrant young man named Elbert Robinson- aka Robby (don't really blame him with a name like 'Elbert'). Robby was the campus' YWAM (Youth With A Mission) leader and was involved with SVM (Student Volunteer Movement). Robby often spoke to Cam about missions work, and Cam politely listened, but wasn't interested in it until the Leader of SVM came and spoke at the campus. From then on, he was dedicated to the Lord's work through missions.

I'm not going to tell you all about his life, just the stuff before he became a missionary. This is what caught my eye: when he told his mother that he was going into missions in Guatemala, she said "Cam, aren't there enough challenges and things here for you to do?". I personally have had that asked of me from family members, and it makes following what the Lord has for you a little harder. Doubts spring up in your head of "Well, what if He does want me to stay here?" or "How do I let my family know that this does not reflect how much I love them?".

Cam went through the same thing I sometimes think! When he told his father, it was a little more stressful. His father was deaf from a construction work accident years before, so Cam had to write out everything for him. Mr. Townsend kept pressing his son for detailed information, which Cam didn't have. He just knew he was supposed to go. After many notes written to his father and then crumpled up, his father finally understood when Cam wrote "The greatest need is where the greatest darkness is".

He lived by this. His life, dedicated to reaching people who didn't have the Bible in their language, serving them physically and spiritually, loving them in everyway he could. It was a hard life- but a well spent one in the Lord's work.

Here is a quick synopsis of each book that I read on him

• Cameron Townsend (Janet and Geoff Bange)- This couple does an amazing job on each missionary they write about. Their writings are geared toward teenagers, but are enjoyable for any age to read. Full of facts from Cam Townsend's life and history of the times he lived in, this book is a captivating and easy read.
• Wycliffe in the Making 1920-1933 (Hugh Steven)- This book has amazing indights to the thoughts of Cam Townsend. Hugh Steven has taken Cam's journals and memoirs and written almost straight from them- about 90% of the book contains excerpts of Cam's journals.
• Doorway to the World: The Mexico Years 1934-1947 (Hugh Steven)- Same review as the previous. I want to look into these books and see if there are any more of them. Cam Townsend died in 1982, so there might be more books like these out there.

William Cameron Towsend and friends from the Cakchiquel Tribe Guatemala

... I think my posts are too long...

Bookaholic

Out of all the posts that I have written so far, I haven't said anything about the books I'm reading! You would think that with a blog title like "Book Hugger" I would write more about the books I'm reading! haha

The book that I just finished reading is "Thinking Spiritually" by John Owen. Owen was an amazing man of the who had a rough and hard life but kept his focus on the work and hope of Jesus Christ. To learn more about him, listen to John Piper's presentation on him here.

I really enjoyed this book and was convicted as I was reading it. The first sentence that caught my attention was this "Just because someone listebs to good preaching doesn't mean they are thinking spiritually". When I saw that sentence, I was like "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on here! Please explain to me where you are going with this, Owen, because I'm not sure I agree". But as he unfolded what being spiritually minded is not which shows then what it is. I began to understand and to feel really convicted because I was realizing that I, myself, am not so spiritually minded as I thought I was.

So here is the list that he wrote of what thinking spiritually is not like:

• Is Not- people who enjoy listening to good preaching. Anyone can listen to good preaching, but it can go in one ear and out the other.
• Is Not- people who can pray fluently. Eloquency doesn't mean that their minds are filled with thoughts of God.
• Is Not- talking with others about spiritual things. Conversations with others shouldn't be the only thing initiates spiritual thoughts; they should spring up from within, not from without.

Here is what spiritually thinking looks like:

"Do Spiritual thoughts flow in those times when we are quiet and free from our usual activities? We can test oursleves by asking whether our spiritual thoughts are like guests visiting a hotel, or like children loving at home. There is a temporary stir and bustle when guests arrive, yet withina little while they leave and are forgotten. The hotel is then prepared for other guests. So it is with religious thoughts that are only ocasional. But children belong to the house. They are missed uf they don't come home. Preparation is continuallybeing made for their food and comfort. Spiritual thoughts that arise from truue spiritual mindedness are like the children of the house- always expected, and certainly enquired for if missing." ~John Owen

Silence is Golden

I decided this week to go one day without speaking. I've been wanting to do this for a while, but what made me decide to do it this week was when I taught a child who couldn't speak and a friend of mine wasn't talking because her throat was so sore. So I did it out of interest and empathy. But having to work everyday with kids made it hard, so when I worked with the kids I talked, but every other minute of the day I kept silent.

This experiment was two-fold:

1. To quiet my mouth and mind, remaining still before the Lord as much as possible and listening to Him
2. To understand (to some degree) what mute people go through so I can see life through their eyes a little better

In a way, it was like fasting from food... but with your voice. I have fasted before, and I must say, it is a lot easier to hide that from people than not talking! Everyone thought I lost my voice, and I got tired of writing it down and explaining it to them, so I just let them think I lost it. The hardest time to remain silent, for me, was in the little, mechanical responses that you would say- "God bless you" when someone sneezes, or "Excuse me" when you need to get past a group of people, or singing a song that was playing on the radio. The things I saw and learned though, were worth those little hassles in the day.

Throughout the day a verse rang in my mind "As a sheep before it's shearers is silent..." (paraphrase Is. 53:7). Now, I wasn't falsely accused of anything the day I remained quiet, but I did want to speak my mind to people now and then. But instead of telling my thoughts to people, I brought them up before God and talked with Him about them. I'm glad He's patient, because if I had talked with anyone else like I talked to Him today, I think their ear would have fallen off!

Another verse that came into my mind was "Let no corrupt speech come from your mouth, but only that which is edifying to the body" (paraphrase Eph. 4:29). I must say, I realized how much I talk in one day! Wow! But how much of what I was thinking was worth speaking for other to listen to? Sadly to say, not much I don't think. From not speaking for one day, God instilled in me a stronger desire to have my words seasoned with His grace.

Those are things that God showed me about myself, as for experiencing the world like someone who is mute, here's what I found myself doing:

• I looked people in the eyes more often. I wanted them to know that even if I couldn't verbally communicate with them, I was still actively involved in what they were saying.
• My hands wanted to keep busy if they weren't motioning what I was trying to say. Every now and then I would write a note to someone, crochet, or twirl my hair, just to be doing something. I think I did these things to fill in that empty gap where I would usually talk.
• People are loud.
• I discovered that my head voice is A LOT lower than my speaking voice... interesting...
• To get people's attention, I had to stand right in front of them. Sometimes very inconvenient.
• I was more attentive to other people getting my attention and was constantly aware of my peripherals. This is probably more like something that someone would do if they were deaf, but apparently being mute made me subconsciously think of doing it too!

Some day I would like to go a whole day being "deaf" (ear plugs) and another day being "blind" (don't know how I'll pull that one off inconspicuously...). I like doing these things because it helps me get into the mind of someone who really is mute/deaf/blind and I might be able to understand them better.

So with that, I am grateful that all of the Five Senses that God has given me work perfectly fine right now :)