Thailand was phenomenal!! I'll post more details later, but thank you all for your prayers and support. 

Well, it's mid-terms.  I'm actually studying for a test right now, but decided to take a break and write.  Last week was just a week of blessing.  I got an email from our youth pastor from my church back home saying that they were sending me an early graduation present.  I thought cool.  Wednesday I checked my mail and loe and behold there was a Dell box for me.  I thought at first "Oh...a care package...cool."  But no, it was a new laptop!  I was soooooo shocked and astounded and certainly excited.  My last laptop died in October of 03 --- and that was tramatic.  But now the Lord has blessed me with a new laptop and I love it!  

There was another blessing last week.  For the last year and a half I have been battling the Department of Veteran Affairs for my education benefits. I was denied and since then, I have been making my case for my elegibility.  It has been a huge battle. Anyway, my long battle ended in victory on Friday when I received a letter saying that I was eligible for my benefits.  It took them a year and a half to finally rule that my dad's death was service related (long story).  So anyway, the Lord has indeed blessed me this week and is truely showing his faithfulness to me.

Graduation is 74 days away... and it's pretty scary, but definately exciting. I preached today in my preaching class about Moses going before the Lord on behalf of the Israelies (Ex 32-33).  The Lord said that He would go with Moses, but He wouldn't go with Israel because of their sin. For the most part Moses says that if the Lord doesn't go with "us" then it's not worth it at all.  In my next steps my hearts desire is that I don't make one move without the Lord's presence going before me.  That means filtering out the "opinions" of others who mean well with their "widsom" and instead looking to the Lord for direction.  It means that I won't make a move if He's not going with me.

I am so thankful for the support that  I have had all my life from people who love me and support me and who have seen me through everything.  There is a picture on my nightstand of my dad and I on my high school graduation day  and sometimes I can't even look at it without almost crying because the biggest supporter of my life, the one who brought me into this world won't even be with me on my graduation day. It's hard, and it's harder to think about it as graduation approaoches.  But God's grace is sufficient.  I just wish so much that my dad was still around to see his granddaughter, my graduation, to someday walk my sister and I down the aisle and  to have a rich old life as a goofy old man.   

You know, one of the joys of living in So. Cal is that it's not the Northwest.  Here, it's WARM, DRY, and HOT!!!!! However, the last couple months would say otherwise.  What the heck is up with all this stupid rain???? I hate the rain.  I seriously do.  I lived in rain 18 years of my life, and so when I moved to So. Cal I got away from it.  Anyway, as we are being battered here with crazy weather I can only look into the future into the next couple weeks where spring is just lurking around the corner.  The summer is coming...and eagerly anticipating its arrival.

Speaking of heat --- I guess I should be thankful for the rain at this moment because in 2 weeks I'll be in Thailand ---- Hot and humid!!! I like heat, but I never said I liked humidity.  I hate humidity.  Peru was soooooooo humid!!! But either way, Thailand is going to be amazing.  Though my hearts desire is to be in Ireland during spring break -- I do anticipate what God is going to do in Thailand.

In regards to Ireland, three of my friends are going to Ireland for spring break.  Yeah, I'm jealous, but they are brining me back stuff.  My time will come soon.   I wrote a song about St. Patricks Day (Coleen, you know how awesome this song is).

So far the semester is going good...it's very light and smooth so far.  We'll see how things turn out after spring break....I mean by now I should be use to some kind of catastrophe that takes place at the end of the semester.  I guess I have to brace myself for any "potential" circumstance that should arise.  Story of my life --- people get sick and die. (not to be offensive, but this has been the pattern since 2003).

Three months.  Three months from today the Fourquare world will be watching me enter into a new arena of my life.  It's crazy to think that in three months I will be walking across the stage of Angelus Temple and will be handed a diploma certifying my completion of Biblical study and training.  It's in that moment where all eyes are on you because now you have "graduated Bible College" and now you are somehow qualified for ministry. 

I remember the day I went out to lunch with some lady's from my home church.  I had just graduated from high school, and was just a few weeks shy of entering into LIFE for my freshman year of college.  One of them attended LIFE back in the late 1950's and she said to me: "Rach, this is going to be the time of your life. Take it for what it's worth."  In my mind I thought "yeah right...what fun can I have in college when my life will consist of homework, papers, and all the stuff that goes with it?"  I really didn't believe her.  Now I look back and reflect upon the years I have spent here, college has been the time of my life.  I've built life-long relationships here, and have memories to last me a life time. 

You know, I often have to ask myself, why I'm really here.  Am I really called into full-time ministry?  And each time without hesistancy, the Lord reaffirms my calling with a soft and suttle "yes." I had to think about when I knew for sure that I was called to ministry.  I heard the call at the age of 12, the call to come to LIFE when I was 12. People throughout that time had confirmed my call through various prophetic words and such.  But I  hadn't really thought about my calling before, or gave question to it until 2003.

What's going to keep me in ministry years down the road is my calling.  The world may be in shambles around me, but one thing I know is true is God's promises, His word, and the call He has on my life.  In 2003 my calling was really confirmed as I held my father's hand on his death bed.  When you lose the biggest cheerleader and influencer of your life, you can either choose one of  two directions.  I could have either chosen the direction that says "screw this ministry crap...if this is what it's going to be like, then forget it!" Or I could choose the path that says "God is calling me out and bringing me through this, and this experience is what will keep me on my face before God crying out for His grace because I can't do this alone."

I've chosen the latter. As I watched my father inch closer each day to death, inside I had to know what I believed. My family was looking to me about what I believed.  All I can say is that God is faithful.  And it remains true. As I  watched him slip away, I knew then that God had really called me.  It's the weirdest thing, but there's no greater peace than knowing that I am walking in His will.

There is more to write....but I need to do some homework.