Continuing the Journey

Well, after some thought and wondering and thinking and pondering and well, you get the idea, I've decided to officially discontinue this blog and move somewhere else. Guess, I must confess to becoming rather addicted to wordpress.com after using it during my time abroad. Yes, I know, I know! Blogger's been there for me for the past four years, but a little change in setting isn't all bad, really. Right?

The new blog that will continue to chronicle my goings on but in a different way is: http://continuingthejourney.wordpress.com

I've decided to change up a bit my reasons for posting on this particular blog. Although I will tell of some events of my daily life, I only want to do so with the hope of bringing a smile to someone's face, bringing encouragement, or provoking some thought. So, how is that different from what was before on this blog? Well, that you will just have to wait and see.

So, I sadly close "The Goings On of Moi" and smilingly look to the future of "The Quest". I look forward to seeing some of your comments on my new blog! :) God bless each and every one!

My Other Blog

With a sheepish grin the author of this blog creeps in and apologizes for her long absence from posting. She could offer millions of excuses, but wonders at the quiet and realizes that there doesn't appear to be any readers anymore. Is this so? Well, if it is, it is my own fault. hehe!

So, my main reason for posting now after uhhh....about three months of silence is to direct you to another blog temporarily. Mostly for the reason that I am in France!

Yes! You heard me right! In France!

It's been an amazing experience so far. Yet, I have dedicated another blog to writing about solely my study abroad experience. I hope to return to using this blog at a later date, but don't know. I'll see how it goes and if I feel that I should continue it. The new blog is: http://ajourneyabroad.wordpress.com/ I try to keep it updated with stories of what I'm experiencing and what France is like. So, why start another blog when I already had this one? Well, this blog has been dedicated to a different special epic of my life outside of study abroad, and I just felt that I would prefer to dedicate a blog to just discussing my time in France. So, hope all is well with everyone and look forward to reading some of your possible comments on my other blog!

A Silence Broken

Yes, I have finally posted! I kept thinking of my poor blog sitting here in its designated spot in cyperspace neglected and cold. Thus, I decided to take a break from trying to write my grueling essay for English and revive this poor blog. So..........what's been happening since July? Well, that's a little too much to try to write in one post. But, I can give you a summary in one word since August:

SCHOOL!!!!

Yes, school! Not too surprising. It's probably been one of my toughest semesters so far to tell you the truth, but it's also been a learning process outside of homework and endless lectures. I lost someone very dear to me at the very beginning of the semester and even though my heart ached and I wanted to be with my dearest friend who was hurting, I couldn't. Yet, my Lord has been there and showed me that He is my comfort and my song in the night even when I don't understand why things are happening.
I often find myself lost in thought. I've had some other issues come up mainly having to do with the hassle of trying to study abroad which I won't go detail about at this moment that often has me stressed and worried. Last night at French club, I often found myself staring out the window or intently studying the design on the table while vaguely hearing the ones around me conversing in French. I was a little surprised when one of the professors asked me what I was thinking about and I had no clue what to tell him. I just said that it was nothing really. I don't think he believed me though. I guess it's natural to wonder if what you're going through right now and what stage in life you are in will ultimately have a huge impact on the rest of your life. I feel like I have hit a crossroads, but am not sure what the crossroad is or which way He would have me go when I find it out. In any case, I shall keep you updated on my progress with study abroad and I promise, I shall relate some of the lighter things going on in my life. God bless you, who may perchance be reading this!

Pictures from My Journeyings

The Four Musketeers Reunited
Sacred Harp Class

Flag ceremony
High school/college class
Trying to keep Brother Tom comfortable so he won't send us to bed. ;)
Joseph the camp headmaster at Camp Moriah
Going in a few circles in the canoe race
Brother Abraham showing how to play volleyball
Chiggers!!!
The lake errr....pond
Emily's group
Some good visitin'
Throwing the camp headmaster into the lake! :)

Kara climbing out of the creek after an adventure looking for a missing softball Brother Chris and Sister Rachel getting a little out of hand with the water bottles
My beautiful, precious counselor group
Brother Zack our Bible study teacher

Well, I am glad to have been finally able to present some of my pictures from Harmony Hill and Camp Moriah. I'm sorry for the delay, but hope you're able to enjoy the ones I've posted. ;) Hope all is going well for everyone! God bless!

Pictures Coming Soon!

Yes, I'm back and have been back for quite a while, just keep forgetting to get on here. I will post pictures of my jouneyings soon. I don't have access to them since I'm at work (Yes, I do surf the internet at work when there's nothing to do) and I won't be home until tomorrow evening. If you have a facebook, I have posted them on there also. If you don't, I'll try to post some ASAP.

I had an absolutely wonderful time at both Harmony Hill and Camp Moriah. I think this year at HH was probably my favorite. We had several people missing because of jobs and school, but it was so sweet for those of us that were there. The theme was delighting to the will of God which was very fitting for me since I have a lot of decisions that are coming up for me to make. The singing was also so beautiful. We all really felt the Spirit there. What a sweet time and place!

Camp was also incredibly blessed. We had a lot of people come this year. The theme was the attributes of God which I really enjoyed. It's just amazing learning about all the different attributes of this awesome God we serve! I also had so much fun with my counselor group. I had the 6-8 year olds this year again, and although it was kind of tough to keep their attention at the beginnning of the week, we ended up having a wonderful time learning more about our Heavenly Father. I still find it amazing to find out how much some of those youngsters really do listen to sermons and have some mature questions. One little girl asked me while I was talking to them about the wrathfulness of God if God hates the child of God that hasn't been born again yet. I was rather surprised to hear this question from a seven year old, but tried as best I could to answer as well as I could so that she could understand. I still stand in awe of God and His majesty. He is just so far above us and we in our feeble minds can hardly even comprehend Him! I think though one of my favorite times was that night we sang "It Is Well With My Soul" because it was just so powerful! I wonder what it was like for Andrew B. leading to stand up in front of those three hundred people singing that song and feel the power full force.

Of course, I also loved getting to fellowship with friends and family at both places. If you go to Camp long you find out that most of the people there are related somehow. Though I can't claim everyone there as a cousin, I can say that I'm related to a large number of folks that usually come and I find that to be a great blessing. It's always a blessing to see even those in your extended family following the Lord and teaching their children to do likewise. A lot of my friends and I had a wonderful time getting to catch up and had several laughs and giggles. Come on, what are friends for but to be there when you need them and also help you laugh. :)

To more recent history.....

I am glad to say that my room looks a lot better right now though it's not completely cleaned up yet. I took my long weekend last weekend since I had the 4th off and just worked on cleaning and sorting. I now have a lot of stuff moved to Shanna's house and have a few more things to go through when I get home. I mostly just have a couple of suitcases and some bags to sort. So, I am making progress. The main thing I'm waiting on right now is finding a chest of drawers (generally known around my household as chester drawers) at a cheap price to be able to put clothes in. Once I get that I can take the huge suitcase and unload it at Shanna's and that will take care of some of the mess. I did find a computer desk that I bought for $10 from a member of our church! That was quite a blessing, and I'm praying that I'll find a good price for a chest of drawers also.

Well, as far as pictures go, I might actually try copying some from facebook on here. Hadn't thought of that. I might try to tackle that this evening, so be patient, I'll get to it. Talk to you soon and God bless!

It's That Time of Year Again!

Ah, yes, summer.......

Well, as my little six year old nephew Samuel pointed out after I told him I was out of school for the summer, "But, Stacey, it's not summer until June 22! How could you be out for the summer?" while giving me a very confused look.

So, I guess technically it's not summer, but you know what I mean....... :)

Yes, I'm more than ready to start hunting up the old bug spray from last summer, the sunscreen, the cot, the sleeping bag, the shower flip-flops, that old faithful Mexican blanket of mine, a good notebook for taking notes, and all of those other necessary articles for going to Harmony Hill and Camp Moriah. We're hoping, Lord willing, to be at both, but we'll have to see how things go. Mom's been having some trouble with cellulitis, so we'll just have to see if it's healed enough to go by a week from Sunday.

I really feel a strong need to take a break from work and go have some fellowship with other believers and try to get some of my sanity back. Work's going great, don't misunderstand me there, I just need a rest from it. I've had a tough couple of weeks with some things that have happened and some of my own struggles that I'm dealing with. Yet, even I know that my troubles are very minimal compared to others, but I'm glad I have a great God to help me through my problems also even if they are rather small compartatively speaking.

Well, I must admit that my room at home is still a mess.........

I haven't been home much since I moved back, and most of my problem is that I don't know where to put most of the mess. I'm thinking of going ahead and moving a lot of it to my friend's house where I'm presently staying most of the time since I'll be moving there at the end of the summer anyway. I'll continue to think on it though I have the feeling Mom's probably going to want me to do something about it soon understandably. Oh, well, it's just part of being a college student living in two places at once which is quite an interesting experience, I must say, though it can be rather inconvenient when trying to remember at which place you left a much needed article of clothing or that missing hairbrush or those nice flip-flops. Keeps my life interesting that's for sure!

Well, until next time which possibly might be a while depending on whether I can get on here before we leave if we do indeed leave, I hope all of you are doing well and walking with Him each day! God bless!

Yes, it's been a while....

Okay, sorry, I must admit that facebook is taking up the time I would have normally spent posting. I've even got facebook open at the moment. I guess now I understand what happened to all those blogs that haven't been posted on in forever. Everyone got facebooks and forgot about blogs. That's kind of sad.......

Don't worry I'll try to keep posting, just forgive me if posts are sometimes slow in coming. ;) I am now out for the summer. That also includes being out of the dorms for good!!! Yahoo! I can now happily live off campus! :D Finals went fine. My only problem was feeling so weak that I had to pray for the Lord to give me strength to get there. I had had a reaction to some antibiotics I was taking. I won't go through the whole story since it's long and you probably don't really care to know all of it. Anyway, my doctor needed to run some tests and had to take some blood. That weakened me terribly and has taken me a while to get over it. Yet, it taught me how much I have to lean on the Lord to give me the strength for each day. It greatly humbled me.

I'm now staying at a friend's house while I'm working. I'm missing being home, but my room's a mess right now from moving out, so I must admit to not really wanting to return home to sort. ;) I'll get to it though. I'm not one to leave a mess for long.

Well, I shall post soon, I hope, now that I don't have school to worry about. Oh, I did get my grades back and I did excellent! Praise the Lord! :) Hope everyone's week is going well!