Back At School

I am officially back at school and almost through the first week of my sophomore year.

I'm still not sure exactly how I feel about that...

First, the summer went fast. As in, too fast.

I felt like I was finally finding a routine and it was time to pull up stakes and move back to Chicago.

Plus, I enjoyed time with my family.

Second, I'm really glad to be back with my Moody friends. 

I missed having them in my life everyday and I missed the community of the floor.

Third, the floor has changed and with that means not all my friends are back on 10 North. 

That makes me sad/excited for them/weary of having to learn new faces and introduce myself again.

Forth, I'm excited about my classes and the new subjects I'll be studying.

My profs are all great and I'm reminded again what a privilege it is to be here at Moody.

Fifth, I have new jobs to acclimate to.

Both are exciting jobs. One is as a TA (teacher's assistant) and the other is working the desk in the Missions Dept. That one will be full of new things to learn, as I will be putting a lot of time and effort into helping with the logistics of Missions Conference and the ESL conference. 

(I'm not exactly sure what ESL stands for in this case...I have a lot to learn!)

I feel like life is increasingly complicated the older I get. 

When I was little I was either happy or sad but not usually this mix of emotions.

I don't want to go backwards in time, but I do wish things were a bit more straightforward.

I sometimes wish God would deal with me a bit more like a child, in the sense that there would be clear right and wrong decisions (and only between two things!) and so that I could know I am on the right path.

Not that I really doubt that I'm on the right path, but it's more that I wish the future weren't so nebulous.

I know, that's kinda a duh wish. I'm sure everyone would like the future to be a bit more clear. :)

Ok, that's my feelings about this first week, and enough complaining. 

Now I have to get going to supper.

Easter

First some spring break pictures...

I babysat Levi the first weekend I was back, and as you can tell, he thoroughly enjoyed the mac and cheese we had for lunch. :)

Some incredible clouds one afternoon

The budding lilac bush

I planted these from a pinterest idea...they bloomed the day I left to come back to Chicago

The lambs are growing up fast, and it was fun to watch them romp in the pasture

Now, Easter...

I had been so busy since coming back from spring break that I was worried I wouldn't be able to give this Passion week the focus it deserved, but I found some time on Thursday to really dig into the Scriptures about Maundy Thursday.

My observation...this was a day of denials and betrayals. Almost every prominent character in the stories of the Last Supper and Jesus' arrest said "no" to Christ or denied him in some way, or betrayed him in some way. The whole world was saying no.

However, Jesus said yes. 

He said yes to loving and serving his weak disciples, he said yes to doing the Father's will, and he said yes, he is the Messiah to the Sanhedrin.

It was a contrast I hadn't seen before. 

But today I'm rejoicing in the fact that Jesus chose to say yes to the Father, because it gives me the chance to say yes to him.

Praise the Lord...He is risen!

Learning

I've been challenged and stretched in the past few weeks in ways I hadn't thought I would be.

They have been good, although hard, weeks.

I have a lot of thoughts to share, but the most recent one is foremost...

last week I started my new job, which is great because I really needed a job, but it wasn't great timing homework-wise. I had/have a lot on my plate to finish up before spring break.

And so the demands on my time of work, schoolwork and also wanting to be at home now and not in two weeks brought a lot of stress.

I was worried about how everything would get done and worried about doing well at my new job and thinking about things at home and it caused my mind to whirl.

Not a good way to get rest I found out. :)

So, anyway, I started work, was trying to figure out how to do all my assignments and then my managers made it sound like I might not be able to take off the entire spring break, besides being given almost 30 hours of work!

So, finally, after a couple more days of stress, I talked to my managers, got permission to be gone that long for spring break, and the load lightened a bit. 

When I got back from work that afternoon I, almost in passing, thanked God for working that out for me. 

And then I heard a whisper...

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed."

And it hit me that it wasn't just working too much that caused Jesus to lovingly rebuke Martha. 

It was worry.

It was being upset about not having everything under control. 

And that is exactly what I was doing.

"Erica, Erica, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed."

That is what led to my Rule for Life

(a spiritual discipline...I promise!)

Every morning and every evening I want to lay down my worries and lift my gaze up to Christ.

Already the shifts in my life are amazing.

I got spring break off.

A huge paper I wasn't finding time to complete got pushed back to after spring break.

A couple co-workers took some of my shifts at work to give me more time to do homework.

Worry is still causing some stress in my life. 

But I'm determined to not let it control me again. I want to pursue the one needed thing.

Jesus, Have Mercy

Life's ups and downs and twists and turns are sometimes more than I can fathom.

Yesterday as an example...

I had a job interview and got the job! :) 

At 11 am I was on top of the world, excited for the future.

At 2 pm that world came crashing down with a phone call.

"Mick* has died in a car accident, Erica" Mom sobbed. "And Julie is in bad shape."

Before the evening was over, Julie joined Mick in heaven, leaving behind four precious children.

I am devastated, along with the rest of the Kalona/Wellman community.

Why God!? Why would you do this?

My heart aches and my tears continue to trickle.

And then this morning I read the oldest two children's Facebook statuses and notes. 

Oh Jesus!

They are so strong and precious and mature. Such a picture of resting in God's grace.

I can only plead with God to use this tragedy somehow.

In our congregation.

In the larger community.

In their children.

I don't understand. This doesn't make sense in my mind. 

These two people were such an example in the community, a rock within our congregation.

But hope remains.

Along with the hurt and pain.

Come Lord Jesus. Be present in our midst.

*Mick was the associate pastor at my church, and Julie was his wife.

Random...Tuesday?

This is going to be a bit random...I have some serious and not serious thoughts going through my head.

First the not so serious...

We finally got a significant amount of snow!! As in, it stayed on the ground. :) My roommate would definitely not agree with me on the excitement factor this should produce.

Here are some pictures from last Thursday.

The Plaza from the roof of Houghton

A great thinking spot when it's nice, but not so great when it's snowing...

Coming back from Walgreen's with Krystle. Notice how white her coat is? We literally had only walked a block and a half. :) Isn't it beautiful!?

Unfortunately it warmed up yesterday, melting a lot of the snow.

For the more serious thoughts. (only serious in the sense that they're causing me some processing time)

For my class we have to read the book "Radical" by David Platt, and although I'm only two chapters in I am really enjoying it, and better yet, it's causing me to think.

The thought-provoker today? 

"God's Word is enough for millions of believers who gather in house churches just like this one [he talks about a house church in Asia he had visited] His Word is enough for millions of other believers who huddle in African jungles, South American rain forest, and Middle Eastern cities.

But is his Word enough for us?" (26, Platt)

I've been challenged the past couple weeks about my awe of God's Word, or rather, my lack thereof. This book, as well as another class, have been specifically challenging in this and I don't want to ignore  what the Holy Spirit is trying to teach me through all this.

So, that is my goal/challenge for this semester. To build up my passion for God's Word and for studying it.

Pictures

Here are some pictures, going all the way back to October.

These are some wonderful ladies from my floor: Marcy, Krystle and Ashlen.

The Chicago marathon runners going past Moody the first time. One of the girls from my floor ran it and I had so much fun cheering her on.

For fall break, Krystle came home with me, and we went to an Iowa football game. This was at the tailgate party before the game.

Lovely Iowa fall weather

We also took a couple of hours and had a photo shoot. :) More of those pictures are on Facebook though.

At the end of October we proudly cheered on some of our brothers and Becca, from my floor, in their North/South bowl win. (Becca played against girls, not with the guys, less there be any confusion :) )

L to R: Abby, Johannah, Moriah, Becca, Carley, Brittany, Ashlen, Janelle, Marcy and Krystle

The North/South bowl is flag football between the two main guys dorms. The biggest sporting event of the year and it's intramurals.

A beautiful sunrise the day after Thanksgiving on our way up to work.

The German Christmas Market near the school.

Sunset, I think on Christmas Day. The sunsets were amazing over break.

The long tables required to fit the entire Hostetler family around, which still didn't hold all of us.

Some of the cousins playing Dutch Blitz before supper.

Basketball at Highland. Reg is the one drinking out of the water bottle.

Reg is on the left. I'm a proud sister and I enjoyed watching him for the first time as a high school player.

And that is an overview of the past half year in pictures. I hope I can remember to take my camera out more often this semester. We'll see...

Merry Christmas!

What better way to get back into blogging than to update on Christmas.

This past semester flew by and I am one semester closer to graduating. But that feels a long ways away yet. Finals went well, although I haven't seen the grade yet for the one class. 

I've really enjoyed this past fall...the friends I'm making are amazing, and I've enjoyed the classes too. 

I'm so grateful to be home for Christmas and the holidays this year. I don't regret last year at all, in fact quite the opposite, but it was definitely a sacrifice to be there at times, especially during this time of the year. It just makes me even more grateful for the time I am allowed to have with my family now. 

The only slight imperfection...no snow. :( But I'm sure I'll get enough of that in the months to come.

My classes for next semester include: New Testament Survey, Studying and Teaching the Bible, Christian Missions, Research Writing and Intro to Disciplemaking. I ended up with 8 am classes Monday through Thursday, but thankfully the only Friday class I have is a one hour one at 11 am, so I almost have a 3 day weekend, which more than makes up for the earlier mornings.

I still don't have a lot of pictures to put on here...my camera never makes it out of my drawer. But I am making a goal to be more consistent, so we'll see about that. I definitely will update this more, at the very least.

And now it's time to go back down and re-join the family.

We're missing only 4 members from the Hostetler extended family at the moment, and they'll be joining us before too long, so that we can eat together and exchange some gifts. The real blessing is the chance to be together however, at least for me.

Merry Christmas to everyone!