Perseverance, Hope.

Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 5:18

On of my biggest and often most disappointing flaws is my unwavering optimism. Negativity drives me crazy and I always, always, always assume that things will turn out for the better even in the worst of situations. Unfortunately life usually has different plans and reality often punches my optimistic self in the throat. It's not at all pleasant and it happens way too often for my liking.

Last night, a family friend from when we lived in Guam, lost his long and youthful battle with cancer. It was a battle by optimistic self for sure thought he had, thought he could win. God, obviously, had other plans. I know that Robby was a man of Christ and lived out his faith in the Lord exceedingly well during his fight. By all the sweet posts on his Facebook page I can tell that he inspired all those around him with his unwavering smile and positive attitude toward life. In my eyes he personified Romans 5:2-5 And we boast in the hope of the glory of the world. Not only so, but we also glory in our suffering, because we know suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Instead of letting his sufferings plummet him into depression and despair he chose perseverance and hope.

I hate that his was taken too soon. Deaths like Robby's are one's I will spend my entire life trying to comprehend but will never be able to. In an Intervarsity worship meeting that I went to tonight we sang a song called "Heaven Song" by Phil Wickham and the amount of joy this song filled be with literally brought me to tears. It talks of singing with angels and rejoicing about coming to live with the Lord; knowing that this was the song Robby was singing yesterday, and will be singing for the rest of his life brought a small amount of peace to this tragedy, and thank the Lord for that.

xoxo,
Abby

James.

Being away from home is A LOT harder than I expected in all honesty. So much has changed since I graduated from high school that sometimes I can't believe it. One of the biggest changes in leaving my awesome church community back at the beach. And not only that, but my youth pastor and his wife (my small group leader) packed up their lives and moved to Florida to work at his parents' church, so going home to Trinity just isn't the same and that's rather depressing at time.

But of course God is awesome and places things in our paths to reassure us and encourage us as we live for Him. The Younglife bible study that I joined started up two weeks ago and we spent our first meeting together discussing what to dive into this semester, to no avail might I add...And at our meeting last night our leader told us the verdict: JAMES! I almost wanted to cry. For me and the three Trinity girls in our group James holds a special place in our heart because it was our youth pastor's favorite book in the Bible. Getting to explore and dive deeper into a book that is so familiar and so special to me is really a true blessing, I can't wait to discover my own reason to love what James has to say.

xoxo,
Abby

P.S. My youth pastor started a blog about pursuing Jesus, it's really awesome so you should check out because it's a super awesome topic written about by a super awesome man! http://keeponpursuingjesus.wordpress.com

The Power of Pancakes.

It's been exactly one month since Rene and I moved into our dorm, and exactly one month that we've spent eating our lunches alone and Friday nights curled up asleep in bed at 10 because we have no friends. It was something that kind of sucked, but it forced us to grow closer and become pretty good friends which is totally awesome. And although we weren't really fans of being loners we were starting to come to terms with it.

But behold, the power of pancakes!

Last week our AWESOME RA decided to organize a pancake night for the hall, and living right across from the kitchen we naturally volunteered to help out. It turns out that our RA doesn't know how to make pancakes, so Rene and I took the reigns. We spent a solid 30 minutes mixing, baking, and flipping two boxes worth of pancake mix. And this week, we did it again, and made some friends along the way. We actually had more than "Thanks for the pancakes" "You're welcome" conversations with FOUR people on our hall! And have dinner plans with three of them!

I am always amazed at how the Lord uses the situations we're in. If Rene and I had made a ton of friends right away we would not be so willing to converse with these sweet girls for so long tonight and make plans with them. It is really refreshing to watch Him work even if His presence feels on the verge of dormant. I cannot wait to see what else He will bring along for Rene and I! (:

xoxo,
Abby

P.S. If you go to Tech and are ever craving pancakes we make them every Sunday night!! (:

Back to School = Back to Football.

To be completely honest Hokie football was a huge reason why I chose to attend Virginia Tech over South Florida. There is just something about being in Lane Stadium during a game that is totally magically. I've been coming to Hokie footballs games since I was barely a year old, and as the guy next to last night put it "You're born into fandom."He was completely right in saying that, and you're either a Hokie fan or you're not there's no in-between.

Last night was my very first night attending a Tech football game and cheering on MY school. I don't know about you but there isn't much else around that is cooler than feeling concrete shack under your feet as 66,000+ fans jump to Enter Sandman and yell LET'S GO HOKIES! I'm a firm believer that everyone should attend a football game in Lane Stadium before they die cause it's just that much fun.

My roommate and I also got the immense blessing of not only being at the game but also being able to sit with the Corps of Cadets (10 rows from the end zone) for the last quarter. And while just being in Lane Stadium is exhilarating, sitting with those guys is even more so! So excited for the rest of football season and the crazy experiences that come along with it (:

xoxo,

Abby

Georgia Tech warming up for their defeat.

The view from our first set of seats (didn't get a pic of how close we were at the end).

Roomie love in Lane Stadium.

College.

Right now I'm sporting a maroon shirt that simple says "COLLEGE" on it in orange letters. It's been just over a week now since I moved into my dorm and its amazing how much meaning has already been put into the simple word of COLLEGE. In the past week our room has already been set up two different ways, we've managed to make messes and clean them up too many times to count, laundry has been done, studying has been attempted (mostly by my roommate), and we've managed to take part in something different every night. 

One of my favorite experiences so far took place over the span of Thursday and Friday. In Squires Student Center there's a room called Colonial hall. On Thursday afternoons I sit in that room and listen to a sociology lecture, Thursday night it hosts a Cru worship service 400+ strong, and this Friday night it became a temporary home for an exotic animal exhibit where I held a python and a parrot. What I absolutely love is how much this one room symbolizes the entire college experience. How so many seemingly different things and people can share such a common bond, and that bond is college, Virginia Tech in this case. 

I've still got one week less than four years ahead of me, but seeing how well this first one went I can only imagine the greatness that is to come (:

xoxo,

Abby