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

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