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| yeah, i don't use this...
try this:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/emilyg_123
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| "I hold the heady doctrine that no pleasures are so frequent or intense
as those of the grateful, devoted, single-minded, whole-hearted,
self-denying Christian. I maintain that the delights of work and
leisure, of friendship and family, of eating and mating, of arts and
crafts, of playing and watching games, of finding out and making
things, of helping other people, and all the other noble pleasures that
life affords, are doubled for the Christian; for, as the cheerful old
Puritans used to say (no, sir, that is not a misprint, nor a Freudian
lapse; I mean Puritans—the real, historical Puritans, as distinct from
the smug sourpusses of the last-century Anglo-American imagination),
the Christian tastes God in all his or her pleasures and this increases
them, whereas for other people pleasure brings with it a sense of
hollowness which reduces it."—J.I. Packer, God Has Spoken | | |
| i'm 18! my birthday was FABULOUUSSSS.
i woke up to my mother
telling me to go see what the birthday elves had left me outside. . .
and stepped outside my front door to see my sidewalk, driveway, and car
covered in beautiful colorful messages  by a beautiful colorful girl
(mary) (and her beautiful mom)
lynn took me out to breakfast at
starbucks, which was the perfect start to any day. i love that girl SO
much, it was so wonderful to get to just sit and talk with her!
when
i got home from that i found a screen door full of cards from some
GORGEOUS Skittles (freshman girls)! rachel, bonnie, and anna had taken
kaitlyn and keri to starbucks to buy me coffee to bring me at my house,
but i wasnt there! the thought made my life though! and it was so fun
to come home to their notes!!! what sweet girls.
the absolutely
lovely claire and caitlin came over and we hung out and spazzed about
college and they made me some seriously delicious pasta.
a
little story: before senior week, i thought i could cook. seriously, i
actually thought i was pretty good at it, because i do it a lot. this
is so sad. i'm really not exaggerating. because i can PROVIDE A MEAL,
such as stirring one of those stouffers pasta frozen things in a pot
until its done or slicing and baking cookie dough, i REALLY thought
that i could cook. no. i can not cook. maddy and caitlin and the rest
of my psycho awesome friends, can cook! they combine things in ways
that taste good, and they know how to do so. and they all laughed at me
a lot when i tried. like, apparently you pour pasta INTO boiling water,
not boil water WITH pasta in it. um??? we still ate it, ok????
so
yeah, the pasta was delicious, they SAUTEED ONIONS (who DOES that?!??
beautiful overachievers!!) and tomatoes and used like, garlic powder
and oregano and a whole bunch of stuff i never knew existed in my
kitchen cabinets. then i stopped by the ramsings, who are HOME thank
goodness, i totally love them. then claire and i went to target and
linens and things and i bought towels . AND i saw CAMERON! who was
on the phone with SUZY! who i got to TALK TO!!!!!!!!!!! it was so
exciting!!!!!!! <3 Cameron and Suzy <3
thennnn stacey lynn came over because shes home from australia!!! i love her.
mom,
allie and i went to cacoa lane (sp?) for dinner with christy and her
mom. four of my favorite ladies!!! what fun chemistry. we had a blast!!
they got me the perfect present- christy said she went to barnes and
noble to get me her fave max lucado book, but they were out. . . so she
got me a boatload of our favorite kids books!!!!! i'm SO excited. for
one thing, it was just super thoughtful, and for another. . . well, she
wrote me a note about how she bought books she knew would be good
"comfort food" and it's so true. i have gotten thru many a stressful
calculus grade (i'm so not kidding) with some quality time with the
Baby-Sitters Club (the classic series by Ann M. Martin) and the Puppy
Sister (the best-kept secret by SE Hinton, she deserves the Pulitzer
for that delightful tale of the puppy who chooses to become a girl).
anyway, she got me an American Girl one (Felicity Saves The Day), Ella
Enchanted, Dancing Shoes, P.S. Longer Letter Later, some Roald Dahl
thrown in there. . . i'm so excited. i'm totally taking them to
Wheaton. now i have an excuse to have books written for 8 year olds in
my room. . . i was wondering how I was going to smuggle a box full of
Amber Brown books in.
then mom and al and i did presents and loving, and then mary and dan (HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY DAN!!!!!!) came over and we played.
and the day was brightened even more by phone messages and texts from some amazing people!
an absolutely perfect day. thank you to all!!!!!!!!!!!!! | | |
| helllooooooooo my lovely friends!!
i'm home from LA! What an
AMAZING trip. God is SO faithful. SO faithful!!!!! we had such a great
time. the team dynamic was AMAZING. SO positive, so bonding. there were
12 kids and 4 leaders, and the kids were spread out among three grades,
which could have been really strange but instead was INSANELY
WONDERFUL. it was such a serving, uplifting team. i think every single
person felt encouraged. . . and hopefully that came out to the people
we were serving. seriously, i liked and/or loved every person on this
team before we left, but after spending a week with all of them i only
feel MORE that way. i am in AWE of the qualities i saw. . . i admire
these people so much! robyn's perseverance and jo's complete devotion
to God and cara's sweet heart (she's probably the girl i knew the least
well, and now i can only hope that we hang out daily for the rest of
our lives. . .) and michelle's cheerful servanthood and ryan and nick's
insane godliness. . . it was just a great, great week. the leadership
team was wonderful and so encouraging.
the goal was to love on
kids in an urban area, and i hope we did that. i know that we fell in
love with them. it's one of those things that starting to write about
feels a little overwhelming, because there's just so much i could say.
. . if you want to hear more stories, please let me know, because i
could go on for hours. let me just say that this team was AMAZING with
kids. we had "encouragement boards" in our rooms and pretty much under
ever single person was written "Great with kids!!!!!!!" and it was so
true. it was especially cool to see how much a lot of the guys bonded
with the kids. many of them don't have father figures and i know that
the guys loved loving on them. there was this one kid, miguel, who
carlos just HARD CORE bonded with, and the two of them chatted away in
spanish all the time, it was awesome. miguel basically wanted to be
exactly like him in every way (not a bad idea, carlos is pretty great).
this 5th grader, hannah, LOVED reading, and the camp had a great
library (well, it was a hall with bookshelvs, but they had some AMAZING
kids books!!! including some really obscure stuff which i read and was
surprised to see), and every morning when the other kids would be
playnig she'd come in and find a book and read. she was reading a book
which id read, and we talked about it and got all excited and from then
on a lot of times she and i would each pick a book and sit and read
together. aahhhh joy. she was adorable.
God was just so good.
i'd been really anticipating being homesick and unhappy, due to leaving
in 2 weeks, and id prayed about that a LOT and had other people pray
(thank goodness! and thank you if you prayed!), and it was INSANE. now,
i get stressed out. not as much as i used to, but i wouldnt exactly say
INfrequently. let alone on missions trips when im tired and there are
you know, dynamics. but God gave me SUCH a spirit of peace and it was
SO from Him. i mean SO from Him. i honestly can't remember ever feeling
that like, calm, for that long before. i was just not worried about the
stuff that normally i get worried or insecure about. i just felt GOOD.
and i KNEW it was from God so i didnt try to like DO anything to "keep
it". i just learned so much that God gives us emotions (to some extent
anyway, i guess thats a debatable fact, but i mean we cant force gifts
of the Spirit), and we do what we can to serve Him the best we can with
what we have/how we feel, no matter if we feel good or bad. there are
times when i've been trying to serve God and keep my eyes on Him and
feel HORRIBLE. and i think that a lot of the time God allows me to feel
that way to teach me things, and/or because for whatever reason that's
just where He needs me to be. . . and i guess this week He wanted to
use me in a peaceful place, and enabled me to do things with that that
i couldn't have otherwise. my point is that God chooses when He allows
us to feel certain things because He knows how we need to serve Him and
how we need to feel in order to do that. and "good" feeling or "bad"
feeling that is fine with me. it was just cool because there was just
no chance that Emily Jeanette Miriam Goldberg could ever have felt like
that on her own and it was SO God and THAT just made me HAPPY. and
willing to go whatever place He wants to take me because it's so clear
that He is so good and capable.
"They were helped in fighting
them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to them,
because they cried out to Him during the battle. He answered their
prayers, because they trusted in Him." 1 Chronicles 5:20
"Yet
[Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God,
but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully
persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised." Romans 4:20-21
"O Lord my God, i called to You for help and You healed me." Psalm 30:2
AND. . . (drumroll please)
I got my roommate assignment for Wheaton!!!!!!!!
i'm
in the dorm I wanted, Smith (yeah community bathrooms!!!!!), and my
roommate's name is Amy Martinez, and she's from Irvine, California!!!
I have a roommate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That
just makes college seem so REAL. Anyway, I'm going to call her
tomorrow. I'm SO excited! I really hope that we bond well. One of the
things I liked about Wheaton is that they do a really good job matching
up roommates- the girl I stayed with when I visited hadn't ever met
hers before the first day, but by the time I visited in February they
were basically best friends, and hadn't even questioned whether or not
they'd room together again. I'm not sure how rare that is, but several
people who I talked to mentioned that they'd loved their roommate and
that it had been a great experience. And not to be a nerd, but her
name's Amy. I really like my Maryland Amy, so I'm taking that as a good
sign!!
Speaking of which, Christopher's room looks AMAZING.
PS- pray for the Cameroon team!!!
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| <a href="http://community.webshots.com/photo/550336681/2203772490060568712NutpCF">Mary and Wolf's</a> <a href="http://community.webshots.com/photo/550336681/2921440290060568712wxZFJ">wedding rehearsal</a> was tonight! It's going to be so beautiful. I can't wait. After the rehearsal Kat held the dinner at her house- it was really fun. It seems so unbelievable that Mary's getting MARRIED tomorrow- but then also, it doesn't. This relationship just has God written all over it (probably because it was written BY Him), and it has progressed so beautifully and naturally and with so much submittance to His will and so much joy and love. so yeah, it's weird that they'll be married, but. . . not really.
Tonight they're <a href="http://community.webshots.com/photo/550336681/2441640500060568712BFoMdZ">they're</a> engaged. . . tomorrow, they're married!!!
On the way home Emilie and I had an awesome conversation for a long time.
I'm one lucky kid.
LA in 2 days. Pray for that, please. | | |
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