Spain

This last week I was at Campus Crusades' mid-year conference for STINTers. It was great to be able to see the sunshine and wear flip-flops! The first day I was there I went out to a view point above the mediterrianian. I climbed over and walked out to the edge and sat there for over an hour watching, listening, and praising God for His amazing creation! It was a great comfort to my heart because it reminded me of my time at ECOLA and where I fell in love with the Lord. Now I am back and ready to hit the ground running with the coming semester. I believe God is gearing up to do something big and I am excited to see what that is.

Christmas was a beautiful day with sunshine which is a rarity so we decided to take advantage of it! We had ourselves a little photo shoot.
Christmas was good, but it didn't feel like Christmas. We hung out, played games, ate, laughed, and had a great time of fellowship, but it just felt like any other team night. It amazed me how I can know the true meaning of Christmas, but what makes Christmas feel like Christmas is familiarity. The pattern or practices that I associate with the event of Christmas. The congnitive content attached to the event is how I determine it's reality to me. I thought a lot about this during Christmas Eve and Christmas. I realized that I get caught up in the experience of Christmas that I don't meditate on the reason for the day. The conclusion that I came to is that I got to celebrate Jesus' birthday not Christmas the event.
It was hard to be away from my family and the traditions of Christmas with in my family, but having to spend Christmas away I couldn't have asked to celebrate it with better people! I praise God for the blessing this team is and continues to be!