Today's thoughts.

Tomorrow's my last day at home before I leave for my final semester.

I'm excited to leave and focus on my relationship with Jesus. I'm excited for a new season and everything God has prepared for me. I'm excited to see my College family again and meet a lot of new people. I'm ready for God to reveal another step of His plan for me.
I'm feeling emotional leaving my parents and my sister because I have no idea what will happen in the next 4 months.

It's my dad's birthday today. 53. Not a big number, even though he thinks it is. My mom bought them a cruise on a boat for 8 days. Italy and Greece. I think they'll love it and I'm excited for them to spend some time on their own, away from home.
I gave my dad a book, The Shack. I heard it's not good to give it to people who aren't Christians because they might understand the picture of God in a wrong way. I kind of agree but I also think every case is different and I think The Shack might give my dad a perspective of God he needs right now. He'll read about a personal relationship with Him, about forgiveness, about judgement... When I wrote him a card with the book I wrote the book is fictional but there's a lot of truth in it. I wrote him that I was confused when I first read it but that I understand it better now and that he can always ask me questions about it - if there's anything that doesn't make sense.

I just watched Soul Surfer. A great movie! I didn't know the girl was a Christian!
I cried a bit, of course... but it made me think about what's important in my life. What if I would lose an arm right now? Or a leg? What if I would lose my sight?

I never think of these things but I should be SO grateful for all I have!

Under stress? No worries!

I've been feeling a bit down in the past week... not being able to sleep, having physical problems, dragging myself everywhere, thinking about things I don't have control over... and whenever I'm under stress and feel overwhelmed, I bake. It relaxes me and makes me busy in a good way :)

What did I bake today?
Peanut butter cookies and oreo cheesecake.

Gotta love food! :)

Performing Arts Camp 2011

 

The past couple of weeks

After the internship program finished and we had everything prepared for Performing Arts Camp, I went to the seaside with my parents. We spent 5 days at Croatian seaside, enjoying the sea, the hot weather, and playing card games with especially my mom. She loves them and I love them as well; I must got passion for it from her.

They took me to Ljubljana on Friday and I jumped straight into Performing Arts Camp! It was an amazing week of hard work, having fun, learning new things, being stretched out and loving each other. We really became one big family, and students were able to see and feel God's love through us. We had our first performance last night and we have another one tonight. It was so much fun but also nerve wrecking! God (and Katka :) really challenged me this year since I'm acting in a Slovene sketch. This is my first time acting and I must say I'm enjoying it, even though I resisted it at the beginning. I also sing a duet with one of the students, in a song called He Still Loves me by Beyonce and Walters from the movie Fighting Temptations.

God did a lot in my heart during the past week. Every morning our team had a devotional time and one morning Chris, our choreographer, spoke about dreams.
We all have dreams and we all want them to come true. Some of us want to finish school well and get a good job. Some of us want a family and a calmer life. Some of us want to serve God no matter what.
I have my dreams as well. They're nothing special but they are to me and I want them to come true. To get married, have a family and serve Him. God knows them and it was really hard to think about them because I want them to come true so bad, and it's way easier just not to think about it.

It all comes at the right timing because God is in control of all of it. He knows best, He sees the big picture that we don't. It's not easy to trust Him but it's so worth it.

What are your dreams? Do you believe God has the best for you, even if that's not what you want? Do you trust Him?

Ending and continuing.

Every good thing has to end and so did the summer internship.

For our last couple of days together we (interns crew w/ Johnny and Brooke) decided to go to Bovec, a place in the mountains that's, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful places in the world.

 Waterfall Virje - this is where Terry took us - fairytale!

We went to spend some time together and to debrief all that happened in the summer. It was pretty intense, deep, and neccessary.

We all went to the airport on Friday morning (after sleepong for only 4 hours) to say goodbye to Margaret, Evan and Danny. It was a sweet and sour goodbye but I know it's probably not the last time I saw them.

I've been back at home for 2 days now and it's been busy. I met some people yesterday to catch up since I didn't see them in a long time, and I also had a meeting for Performing Arts camp that's coming up in a week! I'm excited but it's kind of weird to jump in a camp with people from Ljubljana.  I'm super excited, though.

I'm leaving for seaside with my parents tomorrow; 5 days of laying on the beach, doing nothing. I'm hoping to rest, debrief the whole summer on my own and spend some more time with the Lord.

Just a bit more and the summer will end, and the time for College will come again.
Oh, how I like my life :)

A time to say goodbye.

Today was our last day as interns in Slovenia. It officially finishes on Friday but we're going to Bovec for a debrief and then straight to the airport on Friday morning.

It's been a good summer. We had some ups and downs, some good and amazing times, and also some collisions and some missunderstandings + some really hard times in our backgrounds. I really got attached to people I was involved in ministry with and it's going to be hard to say goodbye. Maybe not for long... but only God knows that piece of information.

My day was packed today. I went to Velenje where I met a student. After our morning coffee and breakfast she went to work and I went to Slovenj Gradec where I met another girl that I connected to at camp. She's a sweetheart and I'm super excited about our friendship. I caught my bus for Velenje a good hour later, grabbed lunch at McDonalds and went to the train station where I went on a train back for Celje. There were 2 girls from camp on that same train so I got to talk to them for a while as well. Came back to Celje and met another student and had a great conversation and even decided about a Bible study with her! Later on we both joined a goodbye party we had at church - it was a good party and more than 10 people came (which is 1/3 of our campers).

We leave for Bovec tomorrow afternoon and I'm super excited. Bovec is one of my favorite places in Slovenia, probably because I spent 13 summers there at hiking camp.

Even though my internship is almost done the summer continues and there is a lot more things waiting for me in the next month. Exciting, exciting :)