summmawr!

i may have told some people but i was going to go on a STM to china to teach english in the summer but in the end that got cancelled and i was ... quite disappointed because i really wanted to serve God in China because i felt like i had a passion for that. but i trusted that God would use me in another way and surely he closed that door but he will open a new one for me elsewhere :) and SURELY HE DID!

i think God is teaching me a lot this summer just through preparing for devos i'm learning so many of the lessons myself that i'm sharing with others. through trying to be a good governor to my softball team i'm learning a lot about what it means to put Jesus first. and trying to be a big sister as well to "kids" younger than me really pushes me to develop my own relationship with God so i can be a good example to them. and God has blessed me with so many opportunities to learn more about Him, about how to serve and i really really hope that i take everything i can away from this summer and not lose it in university.

i feel like i should mention one of the most affecting events that happened to me in China since i feel like i shared nothing about my China trip on my blog. i signed up for a sea turtle conservation/mandarin learning program because the missions trip got cancelled. when i got there i found out the "leader" of the program was an atheist and he believed strongly in science, conspiracies and power hungry people being evil and part of that meant people who claim to be Christians. he was also very well researched. when he found out that i was a Christian and that i believed in God he got pretty... heated up i guess becuase he was so shocked because he believed that i was "smarter than that"... i have really never ever been faced with such criticism for my belief but i tried to be loving towards him and i agreed with some things that he said about people being abusive with power but i tried to get the point across that the bad actions of people should not reflect on who God was. i only got to talk to him twice about Christianity i guess though he dominated the conversation mostly with conspiracy theories and stuff.... but one thing i tried to challenge him about was "what is love?" because i think science might give you some answer about... molecules or chemical reactions but if anyone has felt love... it is definitely more powerful than just that. :) and i also got to share my faith with anotehr "leader" of the program. he was a lot more respectful but his belief was that nothing should be done in life unless it goes towards benefitting a purpose and for him his purpose was helping the sea turtles and he said that social events are pointless unless it's for a purpose so it made me think if he was just.. being my friend for the sake of the turtles... and not really because he cares about me? well anyway i got to share my purpose in life and about my faith and what i believed in and i think... i did a bad job =( but it's not about always about what how good we did it but just that we did it. and hopefully the spirit will work in their hearts :) so in the end God gave me an opportunity to serve in China anyways. GOD IS AMAZINGGG