Life by Grace

JOIN ME IN MY JOURNEY PERMEATED BY THE GRACE OF GOD. "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." I Corinthians 15:10

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

1 week till we leave

I know that some of you have been waiting for pictures and information on my China trip. Now that the week of the wedding is all done, I can take time to post some info for you about my trip. I leave in just about a week. My flight departs from Chicago at 7:20am next Wednesday, July 5th. Today, I did the last of my shopping for the trip. I may have a few odds and ends left to get that I may think of before then, but it is pretty much all done. This picture at the top was taken the first day of school last year at the opening ceremony they had in honor of the English teachers from America that came to teach last summer (that was us). The big blow-up red sign says something about welcoming the English teachers to their school. My classroom was on the top far left room on the 5th floor.




The University treats our entire group along with students to tours of different places each weekend. The first weekend last summer we went to Wolong Panda Reserve which is the largest panda reserve in China.







One of the last weekends we were there last summer, we went on a two day trip to Xiling Mt. All we knew when we left for the trip was that we were going to a mountain and were going to be sleeping in tents that they would provide for us. We didn't know if we were going to be hiking or what. When we arrived, it was a ski resort that they still make use of in the summer time. This was the two floor building that had tents set up in both floors. That is where we ended up sleeping. It was quite the adventure. We did all kinds of fascinating activities on the mountain like grass skiing, rolling in a zorb ball, riding hot air balloons, and mudding in jeeps. This picture below is a group of us in a Gondola or cable car that we took getting up the mountain to the ski resort from the parking lot for the travel buses. This one took us about 10 to get up to the resort. The next morning we got up and took another cable car up the mountain for about 45 minutes till we were 3 miles high. Then we walked on a trail on that mountain for a few hours. On our way back to campus on the buses, some went straight back to campus while other went on a rafting trip down a river. I am excited about what trips we will take on the weekends this summer.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Fun Wedding Day Pics

Hannah, Me, and Naomi
We had all kinds of fun taking goofy pictures
of ourselves all day.


We had to get a picture of us four older grandchildren since we were the grandchildren who started all the adventures around my grandparent's farm in the summers since I was about 5 years old. Caleb has been married for 5 years now and lives on the other side of the state near Detroit. We don't see him very often, so we all had a grand time hanging out all weekend. We were the brother/sister pairs (picture taken from oldest to youngest).

The Big Day!!!!

The wedding was wonderful. Everything went perfectly. Keturah kept saying she was having so much fun all day. That is a special thing because a bride could get caught up in the many things that must be done well for the day to turn out, and she won't even be able to enjoy her day she has dreamed of since she was a little girl.
It was also my sister Cherith's 15th birthday. She had a good day too. Skip surprised her by announcing her birthday at the reception and having everyone sing to her.
The Blaha girls with Grandma Blaha.
After everyone left the wedding, a bunch of us headed out to Camp Beechpoint where my Aunt Karla is camp nurse during the summer. We milked the goat that they have for the little campers who are mostly from the inner city and have never been on a farm.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Lessons from being a maid-of-honor

I came up a week before the wedding because I wanted to be as much of a help as I could be to Keturah. Since I live in South Carolina, I have been limited in how much I could help with in the months leading up to the wedding. I did come up for my week of Spring Break in April to throw her a bridal shower and help with wedding planning. But the week of the wedding is especially crucial in all the last minute things that have to be done. When she picked me up on Friday, she was sharing with me how it was just hitting her that up till now she has been able to put things off till the next week if it didn't get done as planned. Now, this is the only week left. It all has to be done this week. We have been doing well in keeping on schedule for what we have needed to get accomplished, but there is much more to do. The biggest part right now for her is finishing up packing to move into Skip's house, as well as, packing for the honeymoon on a cruise to Alaska.

My place as her maid of honor this week is to do everything I can to help her in finishing up details for the big day. Everytime I consider any angle of things that I need to do or she needs to do, I keep coming back to my proper place of prefering what she needs to do above anything I may think of wanting to do. This week is about her and her wedding. I keep telling her that I am free at her disposal to do anything she wants me to do. I have made no other plans but to serve her this week. As I have thought about this whole scenerio, it has taught me a lesson about who Philippians 2 tells us we are to prefer in our lives. Jesus has been my perfect example of putting a side his own reputation and prefering others as better than Himself. He tells me that I am suppose to have this mind in me as it is also in Christ Jesus. But I don't live my life like that usually. Just before I left for MI, I was blatantly told this very fact. The night before I left, my sister Cherith pulled me aside and shared concerns that were bothering her about how bossy and selfish I have been in the last few weeks. I knew that I had been like that. We talked about how we both have been struggling with the same selfish problems. I admitted I was wrong and asked her forgivennes. I also told her I do desire to give that to God more and more so His Spirit will control my desires. But she also needed to see how she has been doing the same thing that she has been frustrated with me about. I pointed out to her that sometimes I might ask her to get me a drink of water because I am too lazy and selfish to do it myself. In turn, she tells me I should get it myself and is cocky about serving me. I told her that my motive for not getting my own drink of water is selfishness, and her motive for not wanting to serve me is selfishness. I did admitted that I have not made it easy for her to want to serve me because I am asking her to do something I don't want to do myself.

Since our talk, I have started reading the book Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney that Ricky gave me for my birthday (he knows I need to read it too). I called Cherith one day and told her we should both read it and be able to encourage each other in what He teaches us through it. So it has been good for me to live a week that is intended to be focused completely on someone else to realize I need to start practicing prefering others before myself everyday in my life. I am to reflect Jesus in my life, and this is exactly how he lived his life on earth. Life is not about me...even though I live like it is more times than I live like it isn't. Life is about God's glory. Part of reflecting God's glory and true character in my life is to live for others and not myself so that the world will see the way Jesus lived and died for me. Then when I tell them that He did that for them and Christians are suppose to be like Christ, they won't see a contradition to that truth in my life.

Monday, June 19, 2006

Father's Day

Yesterday for Father's Day, I joined Keturah and Skip at her parent's house for lunch. My Uncle Dan cooked the steak... and it was GOOD!

I'm sure this plate of food is making you hungry about now. Skip was making fun of me as I was taking pictures of the meal. I did it so that I can take pictures to China of what a typical meal in America is like and what the setting of the table is like. This meal was a great one to capture on film.






Here is the happy couple who will be Mr. and Mrs. Skip Lake this Saturday, June 24, 2006.
They love to have fun together. The more I watch them together the more I am excited about
what I see that Skip brings out in Keturah. He brings out the kid in here. She has always been the type to enjoy life but still has more of a serious and orderly side to her. One fun line that he always says is, "Everything's a race." They love to race to get to the car, get to his house when driving seperate vehicles, and anything else that comes along in life. He makes her laugh. Even though I don't know him personally very well, all that I know about him I like.

Planning for the wedding is coming along well. We packed and moved some of her things into his house today. Tomorrow, we are working on putting together centerpieces for the reception. Sometimes she does get overwhelmed, but I just keep reminding her that it will all get done. We balance each other out well, too. She keeps things in order, and I help her not to stress her out too much with details and all there is left. We make a good team. 4 days left.

BORED

I was bored last night, so I decided to have fun with the timer on my camera. It was a good time.



5 days left


Good Morning!!! It is a gorgeous morning here in MI. I arrived here Friday and it has been great fun. My friend, Aimee, and I left for the glorious Midwest on Thursday following my eye exam for contacts. By around 10:30am, we were off like a herd of turtles. If you didn't know already, I LOVE ROAD TRIPS ! There is so much adventure to be had by all involved....and we had our fun. We talked a lot (I know you are surpised that I would do that) and we listened to two sermons by John Piper that provided an abundant amount of food for thought and discussion. We ended up extending our trip into an overnight stay in a hotel because we stopped at an awesome outlet store in Ohio. Friday night we finally met up with my cousin, Keturah (the bride...in the red in the picture above), and finally arrived at Aunt Karla's Hotel. I say that because "Nurse Karla" spends her summers as one of the camp nurses at Camp Beechpoint here in town. On the weekends, she has counselors over to her house to stay the weekend and hang out. They all showed up a little while after I had arrived. Well....back to my ultimate reason for being up here now....the wedding.

We had our bachelorette party last night....and it was fun (sorry for my weakness in spelling). The bridal party consists of Keturah's sisters (my cousins), Hannah (in the blue above) and Naomi (in the green), her sister-in-law, Melinda, and I. Melinda and Caleb (Keturah's brother) live on the other side of the state in Detroit, so she wasn't able to make it. Our night of fun started off at "The Shiver Shack" for ice cream (see picture above). From there we went down on the boardwalk by the river in Allegan and had our photo shoot of us goofing off (see picture to the left). After our photo shoot, we went back to the house where Keturah is staying (until next Saturday) and watched a chick flick. Since we started out so late for our party,we didn't get to go to the lake and watch the sunset. Instead, we decided to star gaze. After much discussion on where we could look at the stars without the police kicking us out of our star gazing location, we finally ended up in the back of their church parking lot on a blanket having girl time. It was a fantastic time that we will cherish and remember always. Now starts the mad rush till the wedding on Saturday. But we are anxious and ready to charge ahead with excitement and great anticipation.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

China Update

It is getting closer and closer to the time I leave for China. The anticipation is growing every day. I know that many of you have been given this blog address for information about China. I was trying to post some more pictures of friends from China, but it wasn't working for some reason. But I will get them on soon. I did want to post a brief entry for those who may be curious about more information concerning my trip. I leave in just about 3 weeks (July 5th). I am going for a month with a group of about 45 people from my college, Northland, to teach conversational English. I did go last summer to the same place, Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, and did the same thing. I loved it and was so excited about the opportunity to go again. I thought you might enjoy knowing a little bit about some of the people I met last summer so you feel like you understand a little more about who I will be working with. That is why I have and will be posting pictures of people and things from my trip last summer. Hopefully I will be able post some more information within the next few days. There are some more posts that are probably in the archives that were previously written about China and people. Check those out too. I will be leaving home Thursday to go to Michigan for 2 1/2 weeks before I leave from Chicago for China. My cousin, Keturah, is getting married and I am the maid of honor in her wedding. I am so excitd about that as well. Stay in touch and hopefully I will have more pictures and information soon. If you do have any questions or offer any help for the trip, feel free to contact me and ask more questions.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Change

The last few months have been challenging. Towards the beginning of the year, Stephanie, a friend from church happened to mention in a conversation that she and her husband had been thinking about renting out the apartment area they have above their "barn" that they lived in while they were building their house. She and her husband, David, had talked about offering to let my brother Ricky and I rent. Ricky decided to stay home until he finishes college next year and save money. I was very interested.That started a long process for me in pursuing moving out of the house at the end of the summer and getting a job out in the Spartanburg area where they live. I was so excited about it because I would be closer to my church and be able to be more involved in the lives of families in my church and the community where my church is located. I have been limited in that because I live half an hour away from my church and have been carpooling with my parent's vehicles since I have been home. The transmission went out on their car that I had been driving, so 3 adults have been sharing 1 van for a few months now.

Until about 3 weeks ago, I had only 2 options for a possible interview, but had no job secured. I was getting overwhelmed with the fact that I had to have a job secured in a month before I left for the summer. From the beginning, I didn't want to push or manipulate my way into moving out. But I felt like that God was leading me in that direction, so I was going to pursue it until He clearly showed me otherwise. But 3 weeks ago, I just wanted to know what God had for me so I could plan accordingly before I left. It was about that time that Stephanie and David talked with me after church on a Sunday night and proposed a plan to see if I would be interested in it. They are very wise with money and wanted to help me out in that area. They had become very concerned me being in debt when I was planning on moving out. They knew I have a $4,000 school bill and didn't really have the money to afford a decent car. They wanted me to be ahead in my finances before I moved out. They proposed that I stay at home and at the job where I am at for the next year. I can work hard at paying off my debts, being able to get a decent car, and have some money saved up in an emergency fund. I have wanted to be wise with my money when I move out and not start off in debt, but I didnt' really know where to start. I was so excited that they genuinely cared enough about me to help me with this. I was also disappointed. I have practically lived on my own for 6 years during college up until this last year. As you know, I very independent and have looked forward to living on my own again. But God had been preparing me even for this. When the decision was made to stay home, I was at peace with it. I am not looking forward to what God has for me staying where I am. I was very glad to be able to continue with the students I have been teaching for a year and continue what progress that has been made in their lives. I will be staying at Mauldin Middle in my special education classroom as an aide for at least one more year.

Looking back, when I first moved home last May, my reason for coming home completely changed between school finishing and moving home 2 days later. But I knew that God wanted me here. I had no job and didn't know why God wanted me to move back home and in Greenville. Once I was here and had a job, I thought it would be wise to stay home for 2 years and at the job I have to get established before moving out. When this possibility came up of moving out a year earlier, I was so excited. But the plan actually hasn't changed now that I will be staying home for at least one more year. Next summer, I will have been home for 2 years and at the job I have. But God didn't want me to stay where I was in my spiritual life. He had much to teach me. He didn't have to have the possiblity of me moving out come up. But through it all, I have grown so much and learned so many things I would not have learned if I this whole scenerio had not developed. I never cease to be amazed at God's wisdom so clearly being played out in my everyday life. For those of you who knew me in college and knew how strongly I detested ever living at home or in Greenville about a year and half ago, I want to assure you that God has transformed my heart since then and I truly enjoy living at home and love being exactly where I am right now. God has given me a whole new circle of friends and people I am with from when I lived in Greenville growing up, and I am so blessed to have them part of my life. Keep praying that God will continue to reveal Himself to me so that I will continue to become more like Him. I know He has much prepared for me this summer. I am so excited about it and I know you will join me in your hearts from home in what God has for me this summer.