in him is the fullness of all things

...in the Father's hands we know that a lifetime's not too long to live as friends. (If you're truly a child of the K-LOVE 90's era, you should have immediately recognized the fact that this is a Michael W. Smith HIT simply by reading the title. But just in case you're not, you can see what you were missing out on and listen to the cheesy touching song HERE ) It has been an amazing couple of months here in the lovely PNW, but alas, the time has come for me to leave. I will miss everyone dearly but I also know that He who called me to Chicago, has good things for me there and I am excited to experience everything that he has for me. Here are some pics so you can get a little taste of my Oregon summer. beach day with these lovelies my best friend graduated from college! introducing mrs. sara brubaker! baby Esther was all about Bethany's sunnies. Two of the most amazing women I know. I love me some hard pear cider! ...

Sometimes, making one friend makes all the difference. This girl is one of the first girls that I connected with at my church in Chicago. I don't know if you can ever fully understand the importance of reaching out to new people at church until you yourself are a new person at church. Michelle and I connected initially because we were both fellow suburbanites who commuted to church every week. Not only did she express interest in hanging out with me, but she followed through! After she got my number, she called me within a week and invited me over and so it started! From the beginning of our friendship, I have been exceedingly blessed by Michelle's heart for Jesus. She loves to talk about what he is showing her, what he is doing in her life, and she truly has a desire to grow in deeper knowledge of him.  God used this girl powerfully in my life during my first year of school. It was terribly difficult being so far away from so many friend and family back home, ...

Hello! I know it has been a while since I've updated this blog. Sometimes life just gets in the way, ya know? In the last couple of weeks I've: Completed my first year of pharmacy school Moved off of campus Moved (temporarily) back home for the summer Changed my hair Become employed Got back in touch with my country dancing roots Got a list of books to read for the summer Upgraded from the Crackberry to something Steve Jobs would approve of Seen Josh Garrels perform in Portland Finally experienced some sunshine Long story short, it's been a wonderful, relaxing time back in the Willamette Valley. But strangely, it doesn't quite feel complete. As much as I love Oregon and all that it has to offer, I find myself longing to share it with the people that I've had the immense pleasure of doing life with in Chicago these past several months. When ever I gaze at the horizon interrupted by mountains and trees, I find myself wishing that my Chicago friends w...

My sister and friend, Bethany Canfield . Have you ever seen someone and thought "that person is really cool--I want to become friends with them!"? Well, this is exactly what happened to me with Miss Bethany Canfield. I had been in a season where I was not feeling satisfied with my relationships with girls my age and was finding this growing desire for fellowship with older women in the church. I felt like God was highlighting Bethany as someone that I could possibly find that with, but I was kind of scared to approach her because I hadn't really talked with her before and in my mind (and also in reality!) her cool factor  was just way off the charts. Long story short, God led me to her and her husband's house church and our relationship began to blossom and grow. It's cool because when I was praying about getting to know Bethany more, I was asking God to give me a mentor. But what he had in mind was far greater (duh!). He gave me an older sister. Beth...

yesterday was just one of those days. it was just a gift. dead week begins tomorrow so a bunch of us thought that this weekend would be the perfect weekend to get out of town, just for a day. God's hand was tremendously present over the whole day. We left at the crack of dawn (so, 9 o clock) and made our way up north. On our way we asked that God would cement budding friendships and strengthen old ones, that He would be present in every aspect of the day, and also that there would be no hiccups during the way(I would like to say that though there were no metaphorical hiccups, there were plenty of literal hiccups courtesy of one Crystal Stewart) When we got to portland, we stopped by Matt's house and had breakfast that his parents so graciously prepared for us! Our time in Portland was just so perfect--the weather was nice (aka the torrential downpour of the previous days had let up just for us), the conversation was everywhere from stimulating, to mind-numbingly funny, to who k...

I just wanted to take a moment to just reflect on how blessed I was to have such an awesome roommate last year. So many times the Lord just reminds me of how he has been faithful in the past and after seeing Alli today, I'm just so aware of what an answered prayer she was. I came into college with the expectation of becoming best friends with my roommate, an expectation that I was warned against because I might be dissappointed . Alli and I had met eachother through the roommate matching profile, which, by the way said that we were only a 23% match. SO WRONG. Anyways, we hit it off so incredibly well the very first time that we met, I knew that we at least would be friends. What really astonished me was just how much we really had in common. Neither of us really cared too much about the state of our room--I never got mad when her side was messy, and she never got mad when my side was messy. We both had science related majors so we were able to study together for some of our hard c...

Just read it. A friend of mine and I have been trying to get into the habit of memorizing verses from the bible and I came upon this passage the other day: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been j...