Still Clinging To HIM...(but still missing you...)

First of all......I MISS YOU ALL!!!!!

I really hope that you are all doing well. I think about each of you on a daily basis, often more than once. I really should be working on homework at this point in time but I just couldn't help but update you. haha I have only wrote to you once...sorry! I stay pretty busy here...

Last time I wrote to you I told you that I was saying no to many things that I normally did here on campus and was having a hard time with it. Although that was really hard (and still is every now and then...) it was SO good for me. I'm so glad that I listened in that moment. I still have my moments of "busy-ness" but overall I am doing really well. I have time for things this semester that I never had time for before. I get to spend time with friends when they really need me, I have time to participate in fun extracurricular activities on campus, I have the ability to put my all into the things that I am committed to, and most importantly I have time for God! When I really think about it, it is crazy that I lived the past years of my life on this campus with that as almost a last thought...it's really sad actually...those were the times that I needed to be focusing on Him most. I obviously didn't get that. Praise the Lord for the awakening that I received while in Malaysia. I am striving right now to have Him in my mind 100 percent of the time...to be the ONE AND ONLY reason that I am living, walking, and breathing. Something that a few friends and I have started is a morning devotion everyday. Now this may seem hard to believe but I have never done a morning devotion time with God. I am NOT a morning person (as most of you know,haha) so committing to something like that always seemed crazy to me. I always did my time at night but for some reason we decided to start doing a morning one. It started with 2 of my friends from Singapore and I. We met at the football stadium (probably the quietest place on campus) at 7:00am to watch the sunrise, have devotion, and prayer for our campus and the day ahead of us. It was (and still is) the hardest thing for me to get to bed early and get up early but this has become the driving force for my days. I have missed one time and my day was "off"...it just didn't go right. I now know why people have always told me to do a morning quiet time. I LOVE it! :-) The really cool thing is that it started with just us 3 and now there are 3 others who are coming as well. We are hoping to draw more in as the year progresses. It is a really powerful time in each of our daily lives. Praise God for placing that on our hearts!

Another thing that I shared with you is that I knew that God was going to be using me here for something very important. The problem was that I wasn't sure how it was going to work out because it wasn't "like it is in Malaysia" here. Oh ye of little faith...haha That was me. Even though He isn't working through me in the way that He did during my time in Malaysia He is still using me and working through me here. I don't always understand how He is using me but He most definitely is. My heart is so desperately burdened for this campus and the people that are around me and He is using me through that. I am MOST DEFINITELY not perfect and I DEFINITELY don't have it all together but I can still cry out to God for this place and for Him to move here. That is how I think He is using me here...I am praying SO much! It blows me away how my prayer life took off during my time in Malaysia...that has stayed with and is still going. I have such a huge passion to pray for all things and people on this campus. I know that God is working through that. I am also leading one of the worship teams for our Chapel service that happens every Wednesday at 11:00am and He has definitely been using me there. I want for that time to become a "heart beat" for our campus' ministery and I think it is slowly going to become that. Alot of the people aren't especially accepting of the change that I am bringing in but I know that God is going to keep moving in their hearts and in that space each and every Wednesday morning. Pray for that if you have time!

Gosh...haha...I could keep typing and typing...more and more about the ways that I am seeing God move here but I have to go to class now. I really hope to hear from you all! Leave me some comments and share with me how God is moving in your life and how you are doing. Please! I love and miss you all so very much! Hope all is well...

Until Next Time :-)

Christie

PS:

Below are some of my pics from recent events here in Winfield and on my campus.

1.) The sunset from the top of the 77 steps that lead up to our college.

2.) A picture of me with all of outreach ministry members after an outing to a Eastern Orthodox Church.

3.) My Singaporean friend Alicia and I at Bluegrass...a really big musical bash here.

4.) My other Singaporean friend Isaac and I at a Southwestern football game...I was teaching him how to cheer! haha

5.) This is a picture of my Discipleship team at Southwestern. Yes...I'm in the pic but you probably can't see me...haha!