Monday- 8-8:45 Devotions( No class today yay!!)
HOMEWORK
5:30 Life (college group)
Tuesday- 8-8:45 Devotions
9-11 Sermon on the Mount
12-2 Apologetics
Cleaning day! (We get checks every morning, but our major condo check is on wednesday and our whole condo has to be cleaned from top to bottom! We can't have ANYTHING laying out!)
Food Run! We go shopping once a week- every other week we alternate between costco and walmart one day, and safeway the next week.
Wednesday- 8-8:45 Devotions
9-12 Revelation
1-3 Women's Discipleship (Girls Bible Study)
6-9ish Mid-Week Church Service
Thursday- 8-8:45 Devotions
9-11 Church History
12-4 M199 (we each are required 4 hours of ministry work- my job is called "green thumb", along with 3 other students, I do gardening and maintenance at the church and at our condo's)
5:30-8:30 ish Street Witnessing in Lahaina
Friday- 8-8:45 Devotions
9-11 Systematic Theology
12-2 Joshua
Saturday- Our one day to sleep in... Beach- Homework- Explore!
Sunday- 8- 9:30 Church (Yes I actually choose to go to first service!)
Usually all of the students go to "Big Beach" after second service, and then of course cram and do homework before monday!
For those of you who have lived with me, you know that I have had lots of trouble sleeping in the past... well as you can see from my schedule, I'm always busy, and am happy to say that I no longer have ANY trouble whatsoever trying to sleep at night, its usually a very exciting time of my day :)
Now for the important things- What God has been doing in my life.
Wow where do I start. He has taken me so far already. To be honest, I was struggling for the first few weeks. I didn't feel like I was really getting to know God, I just felt like I was going through the motions and trying to focus so hard on focusing...that it was all i could focus on. (Make sense to anybody but me?) It was probably the most frustrating thing i've ever experienced. I prayed through it, and little by little, God's showing himself to me. I'm learning a lot about humility- and that it's not just a humbling circumstance, or a prayer relationship with God about being humble, it's a character trait. It's something you show to God, through putting others before yourself. I've started to put this to practice, and I've already seen a change in my relationship with God. He has also been showing me the bigger picture of my life. Its hard to come to maui and see the same 40 students every day and not get distracted by the beach and activities, drama, boys, etc. Even at bible college. So you can imagine how the first 2 weeks went, it was like a frenzy of everybody trying to figure out which boys they liked, exploring the island, deciding which friends clicked... Ahhh it was ridiculous. I am sad to admit that I was a part of that frenzy. However, God has shown me a lot through that. Of course, coming to Bible College, there's a stigma of people finding their husbands or wives. So being a girl, I prayed real hard about that subject. And what God has told me and what I'm excited to say is I don't want a husband right now, It's just me and God, and I'm okay with that :) Many of you know I'm interested in being a missionary, and God has also spoken to me in regards to that life. I'm realizing the enormity of that job, and really understanding that the lifestyle of a missionary isn't some cushy fluffy life. It's dangerous, dirty, self- sacrificing, and so many other things. To be honest, when that all hit me, I was scared to death. We're studying persecution in a few of my classes, and I had to write a paper on it. I realized this isn't just something we hear about or read about in the Bible, it's something that happens right now. I had to ask myself, would I be willing to die ...possibly a traumatic death... for Jesus Christ. I would love to say that I jumped up for that one, but to be honest, I was terrified of that thought. I pictured a life with a house, a golden retriever, and a white picket fence instead, and decided that would be safe. Then I wouldn't have to go through that. But God of course spoke to me and said, "Giselle, don't compromise. I'm calling you to a life higher than that." One of my teachers was talking about the subject, and said something that really helped me. He said. "Every single person on earth is going to die for something." I heard that and realized, that having the safe life doesn't mean I'm not going to die, it just means that I probably won't die in honor of Jesus. Now i'm not saying that God's calling me to die for him, Its bigger than that, it's just realizing that this life is bigger than just bible college, getting married, and deciding what i wanna be when i grow up. It's about furthering the kingdom of Christ no matter what it takes. It's scary now, but I keep reminding myself that God doesn't tell us to worry about the future. He gives us what we can handle RIGHT NOW, just today. And we will deal with tomorrow, when tomorrow comes. What he has in store for my life, I still have no idea. Our pastor of the church here just felt the call to Oxford, England to plant a church there, and perhaps teach at the Bible College in York. He said they're going to try to have a team from the church come over this summer. I've been praying about that, and feel God tugging on my heart. Weather i'll end up going, I don't know! But its something to be praying about!
Well, for those of you who actually read through ALL OF THAT, I have one last praise report. As some of you know, over the last year God has been doing something with me musically. I started taking piano lessons, and singing- something i'd never really been able to do. Well I get the privilege of playing around on the piano between classes- its on stage for anyone to play whenever you want, and sometimes I sing and play with some of the kids who can play guitar and sing as well. All just for fun of course. Every single message at church has been about stepping out in faith, and doing that thing you feel like Gods telling you to do, even if your scared and don't know how to do it. Every time I heard that message, I felt God speaking to me about doing worship. Of course I concluded that I was imagining it, and that I wasn't good enough to do something like that yet. Well, after 4 weeks of that, God made the message undeniable to me, and I spoke with the dean of the school, and he told me to talk to one of the students who currently leads worship for our morning devotionals with the school. I talked to him, and he said that the worship team for the CHURCH services actually want to take a break soon, and the pastor had asked him if he could put together a student band. So tomorrow is my first band practice! I don't know if or when we'll start playing for real, what i'll be doing, or HOW i'll be doing it, but all I know is that God is behind it and he is stretching me so much farther than I'm comfortable with and it's awesome. However, I am still terrified...so prayer would be much appreciated :)
I'll try to update this more often so you don't have to read through a novel next time!
Day in Lahaina!
Just watching the sunset and doing homework on the beach :)
