Life, Love, Guatemala!

I haven’t written in this blog for literally a month- geez. My bad. But I have some really great news all ‘round.

1. I’M GOING TO GUATEMALA!
2. I’M MAKING GOOD GRADES.
3. GOD IS SO COOL.

So I’m going to Guatemala for Spring Break. And for those of you who don’t know, Guatemala is my second home [possibly my first]. I honestly could not be more excited. Also, my wonderful boyfriend Rand is coming too. He’s never been out of the country, so he is going to experience a ton of things for the first time. We are going to be working with Hearts for the Children Ministries. The ministry is run by Tom and Elizabeth Allen, and their daughter Cherylleigh. They are an amazing family and they work extremely hard serving the Lord and the people of Guatemala. They are so near and dear to my heart, and I can’t believe I’ll see them in less than 2 weeks! :) We will be going to the beach, and to shop in Antigua, and then the rest of the week we’ll be working with the church and the different ministries they run. I can’t wait to see all my little children! It’s been almost 2 years… and now I’m getting to go with Rand and share a huge part of my life with him. So needless to say, we are extremely ecstatic! Our trip is March 13th-20th. So please be praying for us :) and that God will really move and work through us and in us.

The Allens, Ann & Brent, and me in Guatemala!

In other news, I am making pretty good grades. I have a B+ in English, a C in Psychology, a B+ in Legal Studies, and my Human Development grade is lacking… but I’m working on it. So overall my MidTerm grades are going good. Especially since I’ve only had like 2 test grades in each course [which I think is a bogus grading system, btw].

Finally, God is just so cool y’all! He is really doing great things and getting a lot of junk out of my life. Of course this is a semi-slow process… but still, awesome things are happening. For one, UnAshamed has been life changing lately. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it is always really good, but lately it has been so powerful. More and more people are coming- seeing God’s love and power. AT came with us last week- so that was sweeeet. Anyway, God is just doing BIG things in Tuscaloosa, and my life, and Rand’s life. Things are great :)

So to conclude: GUATEMALA IN 10 DAYS!!! Grades and school are goin good. And God is the coolest!

Oh, one more thing- Brittany and I settled on a place to live next year. University Village it is! It’s new, nice, and has tons of amenities [pools, tanning beds, gym, security]. We are glad to finally get it all nailed down and off our shoulders.
Well, I love you all! Thanks for all the prayers and support.

Y, Ellen

Gossip: I hate it.

So they destroyed juicycampus.com (a website designed for people to anonymously bash EVERYONE and EVERYTHING). People would write terrible things on there. I mean, no one was exempt. And Greek life especially was torn to shreds. "____ sorority are such sluts. blah blah." or "old row is so much better than new row". WHO CARES?! It was so immature; just a way for people who are too scared to say things outloud, to get on a stupid website and talk trash. Anyway, it was shut down either yesterday or today... I heard they were getting sued. But I really feel it was for the best.

Anyway, today was stressful for multiple reasons. I had a huge paper due today, along with 2 rough drafts, 6 journal entries, a blue book, and a definition of "Literacy". JOKES. Then I was stressed to come back to more drama. Really? How much more can I take in 2 weeks?

Why must people always gossip, always talk behind other people's backs? Why cant people just address the issues and come to the truth? I mean, that would avoid so much anger and hurt. But no, instead I now get to sit here and STEAM because all I want to do is punch a rather large hole in the wall. Oh well. Just walk it off, I suppose.

In other news- I made an 80 on my Legal Studies exam :) YAY! However, my other two exams didn't turn out so well. But atleast now I know how to study for them and hopefully I will do better in the future.

As for the weekend- tomorrow I have no classes and i'm going to see Citizen Cope @ Jupiter! :) I cant wait! This weekend is going to be really good, I can feel it. And Im not going to let anyone ruin it for me, or bring me down (THAT MEANS YOU, DEVIL.). Sunday morning may be a little hellish though- got Rush stuff to do. But it'll be fine once I get over waking up at 8am :(

Well thats it, farely uneventful- just venting really.
Y, Ellen

Xanga... old school.

Today has been rough. I had/have two huge tests and a paper due. My first test was bright and early (2pm)- for the Psychology class. My teacher looks, acts, talks like Jack Black. It’s a great class. However, there is SO much information. I talkin’ 60 slide PowerPoints for each chapter. Needless to say, the test was over 3 chapters and I was STRESSED out. But I got through it, in a blur, and we’ll just see what happens. Then it was off to the English class to turn in a (very) rough draft paper on “Literacy”… I know what you’re thinking, how do you write about writing? My thoughts exactly. But we ended up peer reviewing someone else’s paper for an hour and a half; kill me. So now I’m getting a few minutes of down time before my final test in Human Development. What I was thinking taking PY and HD in one semester, I’ll never know. A poor choice.

Ya know, writing in this thing reminds me of the good ‘ol days with Xanga. Now maybe you are too old or young to remember Xanga… so let me fill you in. Xanga was the ORIGINAL blog. In middle school and high school I did WORK on Xanga. I had thousands of friends, and I’d get 15 comments on every entry. Man, I was cool. And Xanga was the best because you could add picture & those awesome little ‘icons’. I mean, if you don’t know what an icon is… you are missing out. There were millions of those things- glittery, flashing, words and pictures. There were funny ones, sweet ones, inappropriate ones. And you would find ANY excuse to throw like 50 of them into one posting. Those were the days!

I found my Xanga not that long ago. I think I stopped using it in 10th grade. So naturally, I began to read back over all my postings. I was borderline embarrassed; I was SO shallow, naïve, cocky. I would go on and on about my friends and my weekends and my stuff. Yeah, I was that girl. Straight out of “Mean Girls”- talking about how wonderful my life was, and how I loved my friends, and whoever my boyfriend of the week was. HA! What a joke. Isn’t it great how we grow up, mature, change. Thank God for all of those things. I don’t think I would have friends to this day if I acted in that way. But on the other hand, I know plenty of girls who think they are above the rest of the world. Who only care for themselves and not for the ‘little people’ they step on every day. Being in a sorority, I see it constantly, this sense of entitlement. This “Ew, is she seriously wearing that? Oh my gosh! She must be kidding!” Yeah, so we all judge others on sight… its human nature to some degree. But these days it’s taken to a much higher level. I suppose I’m merely pointing out that some people need to GROW UP. The world does not revolve around you, you are not the creator of all cute fashions and trends, and just cause you got money from your daddy-don’t make you special. [“How do you really feel?”] That’s how I really feel :)

Here are some images I found on my Xanga:

So anyway, I'm off to my Human Developement test. Wish me luck!
I love you all!

Y, Ellen

First Blog!

Wow! This is exciting. I mean, I highly doubt you personally are ecstatic, but I sure am. So I never really read anyone’s blogs; including my mother and sister’s. [Sorry, I love you both!] I just don’t usually care to read people’s opinions on life, movies, religion, politics, etc. But today I read the blog of someone I went to high school with…. on Kabbalah. Yeah. As I reluctantly read on I saw words like “karma”, “dharma”, and “reincarnation”, I read on. Hm. Those aren’t words you often hear associated with Jewish teachings, specifically those of Kabbalah. With a clear confusion of her beliefs and understanding, I began to feel a tug to respond to the post I had read. Here are my thoughts on the issue:

I urge each of you to quickly open up Microsoft Word and type any sentence with the word “Kabbalah” in it. Let me guess, Kabbalah comes up with a red squiggly line under it. Go ahead and right click it. Hm… “Kabila”? “Cabbala”? So what I hear Microsoft Word shouting to me is, Kabbalah is an unknown word in the English language. Unrecognizable. I feel as though Kabbalah has just been made famous by the rich and famous (Ex: Guy Richie, Madonna, Lindsey Lohan.)

Well let us take this a step further. Let’s continue this experiment by typing in “Christianity” or even “Buddhism” in a sentence. No red squiggly line? Shocking! Go ahead and Google Kabbalah.

“Kabbalah teaches that God is neither matter nor spirit. Rather God is the creator of both. This question, "what is the nature of God?", prompted Kabbalists to envision two aspects of God, (a) God himself, who in the end is unknowable, and (b) the revealed aspect of God that created the universe, preserves the universe, and interacts with mankind.” (Wikipedia: Kabbalah).

So when the Bible refers to the ‘Trinity’, the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”, ‘Ghost’ being the Holy SPIRIT…it was a joke? Because what I hear good ‘ol Kabbalah teaching is that God is NOT a spirit. And what do they mean by God is “unknowable”? I know my God. My God is one of love and compassion. The One that longs for a personal relationship with me. Not a god that is “unknowable”.

I just wanted to write a little on this subject and shed a little light on it. It deeply saddens me when I see people so lost in the views of the world. When people are so caught up in “what goes around, comes around” & “I do what I want”. Yeah, we’ve all said those quotes once or twice. However, the direct meaning of them could not be farther from the path of righteousness. We should wish the best for others, no matter the wrongs they’ve done us. And the theory that “you do what you want”, well, let’s instead do the things that God has for us. The amazing road ahead- that He has planned for us. The road that is far greater than any we could map out for ourselves.

“You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32)


Y:Ellen