california

redding was amazing.

if i had to describe my experience there in one word it would be overwhelming. i was overwhelmed in so many ways... by the beauty of creation, by God, and in ways i can't even describe... redding is in a valley surrounded by mountains. driving there was incredible. i spent most of the day driving from nevada to california in tears, overwhelmed both by the presence of God with us in the car and the majesty of His creation.

and then there was bethel. i have never been at a church like it. nor heard teaching that left me so utterly speechless. bill johnson and kris vallotton = whoa. it's so good though. bill says that if we don't leave an encounter with God with more questions than we came with, then we haven't really encountered God. and i think it's so true. God is so beyond our comprehension or imagination. and that he wants us to know him... that he chooses to reveal himself to us... astounds me. it was amazing to experience that culture for a week. i can't even tell you what happened... it's too much...

so while i was there, e and i stayed with three guys. e knew caleb from college, but i didn't, and i have to admit i thought it would be a little bit weird, 2 girls staying in a house with 3 guys. but it was so much better than i could have imagined! caleb was really nice, and let us stay in his room while he slept on the sofa bed. cole is a guitarist/singer/songwriter who just got some nice recording equipment. david was an actor who just moved to redding and is going to seminary (and taking greek!). i felt like i had known them for so long after just a couple days. it was really great for me to be around guys who love God and love things that i love, like theatre and music! it's that creative thing in people that draw me to them. but one thing i realized on this trip was that i can be attracted to something about a person and not have to have a crush on them. i obviously wasn't aware of that before... like when i went to oklahoma a few weeks ago... it would have been helpful information. :)

anyway... it was a great trip... and i'm home now... and ready to go back... or to go somewhere. it's time. deciding is difficult, but california left a mark on my heart. the end. or maybe, the beginning.

illinois missouri kansas colorado wyoming utah nevada

it is 8am here at the holiday inn in nevada, the casino state (it's actually "the silver state," but i really think they should consider a name change). e is still asleep... i woke up at 7 and gave up trying to get back to sleep at 7:30. i think i'm still on eastern time as far as waking up goes. our trip has been good, but we're tired of being in the car. thank the Lord that today we make it to california (hopefully in time for the evening service at bethel).

so, last night we spent the night at YWAM Denver, where i did a dts four years ago. seems like forever. it was so interesting to be back on the base and realize how much i had changed since then. we had a roommate for the night, who was also interesting - she's traveled a lot and told me i should come to a ywam school she's leading in Germany next summer. hmm... ;-)

the night before last, we stayed in kansas city with e's sister. didn't get much sleep though because we went to ihop's prayer room and it was incredible! i'm really considering going back at some point to just be there. at least, i'll probably go to onething in december... and hopefully i'll have some friends going with me!

it's time for me to do something productive so we can get on the road soon. sorry this post is kind of lame. i'm just trying to get back into the habit of blogging. maybe it won't work.

indiana

we made the first bit of our journey yesterday and arrived at my friend's (we will refer to her as e) parents' house just after 6p. a lovely dinner of salmon, potatoes, vegetables, bread, and salad awaited us. e's parents are great, and i only felt slightly awkward (some degree of discomfort is to be expected in new situations). :)
e was very busy last night (and will be this morning) unpacking and repacking all her things, so i, being rather exhausted due to insufficient sleep the previous night, relaxed in bed and perused the online world until e and her friend came in to chat. and then we were tired, so we prayed together and went to sleep.
i slept very well, other than waking up 3 times this morning and having a strange dream about maggoty bugs crawling all over my clothes/room. that was because i found a little wormy insect on my towel when i opened my bag last night, and then i kept thinking that maybe there were more... i remember one time there was an infestation of maggots in the x's bedroom because he had left a container of birdseed sitting open while away at college. it was really gross. i went up to get a t-shirt and when i opened the drawer and picked up the shirt, there were little dead bugs all over, and some live ones... it could possibly be labeled as a traumatic experience. although not more traumatic than the incidence with the spider... which explains why i'm afraid of spiders now. i'm not afraid of maggots, i just don't want them crawling all over my things.

and now it is time to move on with the day... lots to do - eating breakfast, packing, going to starbucks, waiting for the GPS to come in the mail, and then... driving! to e's grandma's house near st. louis - the city of my dreams. ok, not actually, but i have been wanting to visit there since june. unfortunately, that will not happen on this trip. but since my discovery of megabus, it could be sooner than you think.
i love travelling! i love traveling! (why can you spell that however you want? like, worship(p)ing... did either spelling become acceptable because no one could ever remember if it had the double consonant or not? or is there really not a rule governing the grammatical interpretation of these situations?)

california

i'm going to california. driving across the country. i have seriously always wanted to do this. it's going to be fast (only 5-6 days of travel) and like 9 hours of driving almost every day. but i'm still excited about it. my only sorrow is that we probably won't stop in st. louis long enough for me to see the amazing people i know there.

anyway, my friend is going out to bethel church for their school of supernatural ministry, and i'm driving out with her. i can't say that i might not stay out there. ;) but as of right now i plan to return... but to what? i still don't have a job or a direction. i'm trying to seek God first, because he promises that "all these things will be added" but it's hard, feeling confused and frustrated with where i'm at, and feeling like my heart is being pulled in different directions yet unsure of the correct path.

i'm content to push my thoughts off for another 2 weeks for this trip. but life would be so much easier if i just knew...

so long summer

many moons have past since i last posted. much has happened, but i shall not recount all those details here. by months, the summer was bad (june), then it was good (july), then it was okay (august), and now it is over (basically).

i am currently in tulsa, oklahoma. i flew down last thursday, and have been sleep-deprived and exhausted ever since. sleeping on the floor isn't conducive to a good night's rest. however, most of the time here has been very lovely. one of my good friends got married on friday night and it was lovely (although a bit surreal). it's been a weekend of hanging out and laughing and meeting a few new (very cool) people and shedding some tears and trying to stay cool and sharing an apartment with 4 other girls and wondering if i'll ever get married and thinking about how faithful God is. the best part of the weekend (besides the wedding, of course...) was probably saturday night when i was able to play piano for a few people. it put some life back in me. so, if anyone ever wants to hear me play/sing or do a show, really, seriously, contact me. there are a few things that make me feel really alive - being in the presence of God, performing music, being on stage (acting), and sometimes being outside, breathing deeply, basking in the beauty of creation... on a beautiful day, or during a thunderstorm.

speaking of weather, it's been pretty HOT down here. expectedly. i don't think i could ever live in the south. even if they do have sweet tea. i'm thinking maybe i'd like to migrate... live in the north for the summer and go south for the winter. or else just find a place in between.

there are so many places i want to visit... i wish i could take a road trip across the US. or across the world... except i guess that wouldn't be a road trip. :) it would be cool to travel and live somewhere for a year and then go somewhere else for a year, and just be exposed to different cultures and languages and people... maybe someday....