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What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose name sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

Philippians 3:8-9

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"Here I am, send me." - Isaiah 6:8 

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My beautiful sisters and I at our cousins 1920's wedding!

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Grace means there is nothing I can do to make God love me more, and nothing I can do to make God love me less. It means that I, even I who deserve the opposite, am invited to take my place at the table in God's family.

Philip Yancey

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Red sox game with Bayley Weese!

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This is my prayer for the new school year....I want God to change my life and my heart drawing me closer to Him. "He (God) made no distinction between us and them, for He purified their hearts by faith. " Acts 15:9 God is willing and wanting to change our lives.

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A new season of life is starting now as the semester begins. Thanking God for the summer!

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So grateful for our Croatian brothers and sisters in Christ!

Worshipping God with our new, amazing friends! We were singing in both Croatian and English at the same time. How Great is our God! :) I really can believe how close I feel to everyone in just one week. God is good! (Taken with Instagram)

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English Camp in Croatia...in video form!!!

One of the students, and a great new friend of ours, Rachel made this video from videos she took during our week together. This is a great portrait of our week and new friendships! Please continue to pray for these students!

Password: osam 

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My scenery for the day! Praise God for the beach, sun and family!

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Rafting with the Croatian Students!!!     

                    Everyone would agree that one of our most fun days at camp, and the BEST team bonding experience a group could go through would be our white water rafting trip – talk about FUNNN! J We went rafting on Thursday during our English camp. In true traditional Croatian timing it seemed, we had figured out all the details around 9pm on Wednesday night. We had to meet early, drive about 1 hour and the rafting would be an all day affair followed by them serving us a traditional meal. Oh and one more thing…we were told to bring our passports because we would be traveling to BOSNIA for this trip. Yup, check another country off the list!

                We woke up early and prepared for a wild time – we would not be disappointed in this expectation! We all made it through the Bosnia border and to the site where the rafts took off. There we changed into wet suits head to toe, and these water boot-like shoes. We shoved life vests over our heads, tightened them up, and topped it all off with a helmet. Boy, we were a good looking crowd! Please check out the pictures above of us and some of our Croatian friends all decked out! We then received a brief briefing (haha) about rafting – 15 kilometers, we could flip potentially, if we flip, stay calm, don’t panic and don’t let go of your paddle ever. The only document we had to sign was this small memo pad and we simply put our full name and then USA next to it. Quite unlike my rafting experience on the Snake River in Montana where we had to sign pages and pages of waivers, but hey, we are in Bosnia, and we were embracing each and every moment of this adventure!!!!

                We piled into our boats and were off! Our guide spoke virtually no English. It seemed like all he knew was “Come on! Paddle!” Luckily, Luka was able to translate most of what he was saying, but the fact that he spoke no English really only added to our adventure.  Within 5 minutes we were asked to get out and hike down a hill. The skippers, as they were called, then proceeded to throw the boats over a waterfall about 70 feet and then dove after them! This definitely was impressive and built up our trust in them – little did we know how important it would be for us to trust them in the upcoming kilometers!

                The first waterfall we encountered, and I say waterfall, not rapid because it was 6 meters – approximately 20 feet was our largest the entire time – nothing like starting with the biggest to erase all the fears – or to at least put them in the back of our mind because we had no time for fear, only holding on! We made it fine and continued on.

                                However, the second rapid we did not have such luck on…we approached it fine, but at the last second another boat bumped us and we took the rapid at an angle that could only lead to one thing – FLIPPING. Our skipper sensed it and he had ditched even before we went over I think because when I came up for a brief moment before getting sucked under by the water I saw him grab one of my raft mates. During the flip, I saw Liam coming towards my body and the rock face on my right, then I was sucked under the water. Apparently, there was another rapid that 5 of my raft mates including myself went through without the boat – that would explain our inability to swim to the top of the water, and instead we were carried wherever the water took us. Only two thoughts crossed my mind after I had inhaled a ton of water and was unable to reach the surface: I am going to drown here or I am going to smash into a rock soon and break some bones. Praise God all of us came up a few hundred feet down the water, and what could only have been about 15 or 20 seconds completely unscathed. I remember reaching the surface and grabbing onto a rock, I clung to it for dear life and was just trying to catch my breath again. I then saw a group around the corner and met them and to collect the rest of my teammates who had ended up over there as well. Our guide came down, acted like nothing had happened and told us to climb back in- we first had to collect all our paddles, which were flying by down the river because as we were specifically told in the beginning – HOLD ONTO YOUR PADDLES, that rule just didn’t seem to apply when we were struggling to get to the surface and breath – priorities. Also, if we thought the wetsuits, and all the protective gear was superfluous before, we were thanking God for them now!

                We continued on, thinking, but never really knowing how our skipper thought of us after that…did he think we were idiots? Was there even a boat that bumped us and caused us to flip or was it just our inability to raft? So many questions…hahah

                About 20 minutes later, we come to this cliff where many of the boats had pulled over and people were jumping off. It was about 35 feet from the water. Our skipper gets out and tells us “now we are going to jump off.” It wasn’t a question if we wanted to jump, just like a direct command which was probably good because I don’t think I would have done that under normal circumstances. And the fact that my entire boat almost drowned really added to the adrenaline pumping through our bodies I am sure! This was another instance where God took away all my fear to allow me to experience and bond with my peers through this crazy experience – we were jumping off a crazy high cliff into one of the coldest rivers in BOSNIA.  So while I was jumping it was so high I actually thought “when am I going to hit the water?” It was fun, although I’m not sure I would chose to do it again!

                The rest of our trip was quite usual for rafting and for that we were grateful! We did stop at this natural spring where we literally cupped our hands and drank from the earth the tastiest water I have ever sipped! We enjoyed swimming occasionally and some good joking around. We bonded as we were tired and hot but encouraged and loved, and especially for our situation comforted each other. Everyone would agree that we would re-do that experience again even though we experienced some crazy scary things. We sat around that night retelling our stories and just laughing together – that trip will be memories that we will be able to re tell our entire lives – and this experience was HUGE for the trust factor and bonding with the Croatian students. As I like to say, nothing brings people together like an almost drowning experience!

                The meal that we were fed following rafting was called Chevapchichi and was so so delicious! In Bosnia they make it with beef and in Croatia they make it with pork. They were like little sausage links served on a huge piece of bread with a side of raw onions and this red dipping sauce! SO SO SO SO good after our long and hot day of rafting! J

                This video link is the company we went with, not our group specifically, but you can see a little bit of our experience through the video if you want! Around 1:08 is the rapid we flipped on near that rock and then where we ended up going over the second without the boat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ql5PSZsck&feature=player_embedded#!                

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Family Time relaxing at the beach! 

Each year, my family tries to get away and spend time together at the beach. Its one of the best times of the year for us. For the past 12 years or so we have gone to Chincoteague Island in Virginia. One guy who works at a bike shop here said to us a few days ago, "Why would you come all this way from New York? There's really not much to do here." This is EXACTLY why we come - we just want to relax, forget about our crazy lives back home and spend some real quality time together, it is truly blissful. 

For the past few years we have come, its definitely in our minds that we are growing up and moving onward, and this is bittersweet. It's not like we are little and we will be back together again next year for sure to do similar things, we are moving on to college, and careers within the next few years. So to have these family vacations that many people our age just simply don't get to go on with their families each year is a true blessing. 

In a few weeks, my family will enter a whole new situation. My younger sister, the baby of the family is heading to college. Haley will be with me in Boston, which will be a change for me (and exciting!), and my parents will continue to watch their "nest" empty. I have been praying for Haley for a while now about this transition for her leaving home, youth group at church and adapting to school. I have been seeing this summer the vast amounts of Gods blessings on His people through the book of Acts, and I have been praying for God to be providing for her every need. I know He knows each one of her needs, even though I feel like I have no way to read her sometimes. I also have been praying for the rest of my family, my mom, dad, and kathryn who will be missing Haley's presence in the house starting this fall. This is a good time for us, we are growing up and becoming more of who God desires us to be, but it is also a time of challenge and new experiences. Please continue to pray with me for Haley and the rest of my family in this new situation this fall; pray that we would turn to God and He would provide for our every need. 

"He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in season; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your heart with joy." Acts 14:17 

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    English Camp!        

             Upon arriving in Zagreb on July 14, we all packed into 3 little cars and drove south of Zagreb about 2 hours to Plitvice, specifically, the little village we lived in was Korona. On the ride down, we tried our hardest to carry on conversation with Dick Fischer, a missionary who served in Croatia for 30 years, but the lack of sleep was so intense, I felt myself drifting in and out of consciousness in the back seat of the car! As we drove down, the countryside of Croatia was incredibly beautiful. And as we pulled into the little village we were living, there was this incredible little river running right through with the bluest, clearest water I have seen in my entire life. And it was super hot out, so swimming in there was really the ONLY thing on our minds!

          We settled into cute little rooms where we would be spending the week. There were a bunch of houses that had different rooms rented out to us. It appeared that people rented out different parts of their house to make some extra money. After all, tourism is the biggest industry in Croatia. We had some dinner and took a swim, and prayed for 9pm to come fast so it would be acceptable to go to bed!

          Sunday we talked a lot about the camp in the upcoming week. We also talked a lot about practicing the presence of God and what that could mean for us in the following week. The idea of simply being in connection with God was not a foreign idea, but something that was going to be challenging. It was nice though that many of the barriers to God had been removed from the formula while in Croatia: TV, computers, phones, etc. The lack of internet where we were staying was such an unexpected blessing to us the entire week. It meant we were always spending time together in community, both as a team and with the Croatians, which was good since our team was only fully assembled for the first time that Saturday night. So not only were we going to be meeting 10 Croatians, some of us hardly knew each other! God was going to take care of all of this though.

          In the afternoon, all the Croatians arrived! Diana, Ivan, Ana, Fran, Dora, Mateja, Marijana, Rachel, Filip & Luka. We spent time eating dinner with them, and just having fun at night playing games and chatting. We shared living spaces with them too which was a really great experience, because we got to know the people we were living with even more. I was living with Ana, Diana &  Marijana. Each morning we would wake up and eat breakfast together. They would take instant coffee and turn it into an amazing drink, which was quite different from what us Americans would do with it, which was turning it into a sludge of plant grinds basically. Our goal was that by living life with these students that we would start to develop relationships with them. That first night, I was praying for God to bring peace to my heart, to settle it. I was praying that He would take care of the relationships, and just use me to love these students.

          Monday morning, we started our English Camp activities. We had a short presentation on American culture for example, sports, food, or the regions of the United States followed by a presentation of the topic for the day. We chose deep topics that we hoped would stir conversation amongst perfect strangers. We also kept the conversations secular until religion was invited in- this especially happened towards the end of the week. We wanted to be open with the students, we didn’t want to offend, only love and spend time together building relationships. We then split into small groups to discuss further with guiding questions. This is where the relationships really took off within our small groups. In my small group, we had great conversation, and by Thursday, we were sharing our testimonies with each other.

          It was truly incredible what God did with our relationships with each other. I don’t know any other relationship of mine that I have formed that started as strangers, and 4 days later, we were sharing how God had transformed our lives. It was such an answer to our prayers. We were really getting to know each other and share deep parts of our lives with each other. We were laughing together, praying together, and reading the bible together. Catholicism is the dominant religion in Croatia, and the Croatian students in my group, as well as some of the other students are Charismatic Catholics. This was so interesting for our team to see these Catholics who are just pursuing God wholeheartedly. The church that they go to is proactively raising students to be disciples of God who are spreading the word wherever they are. It seems like in the Northeast of the United States, many Catholic churches are portrayed as being more cultural, and not as spiritual, so it was really cool for us to see how God is using the Catholic church in Croatia.

          Much of the relationship building was done through FUN! Yes, we had a ton of fun with these friends. By day 2, I was journaling, and simply praising god for the pure joy that He had brought to our entire group. It’s not often back home do I find myself praising God for the joy He brings. It was convicting to think about how my attitude here was really different because I was thanking God for joy and fun. On the second day, I even read in Acts 2 verse 28 “You will fill me with joy in your presence.” Well that was really, really true for us.

          The largest part of our fun at camp came from swimming! Just 10 minutes walking from where we were staying was this beautiful swimming lagoon! It had a waterfall which we jumped off, and a tree swing. It was clear blue water and the sun was shining down on us. Every day we intentionally had a lot of free time, just to hang out and spend time with our new friends. What better way to do it than braving rushing water to jump off a waterfall? Nothing really beats that! Or climbing up a tree to swing off into the water? Looking back, I am confident that God took away all my logic or rational fears of swinging on tree swings and jumping off waterfalls. It really allowed me to spend time just having fun, true fun.

          Also, one day we went to hike at Plitvice Lakes National Park. Pictures do not do this beautiful place justice. I have been out to Yellowstone National Park, and Grand Teton, and boy the beauty in the water at Plitvice is unlike any other beauty there is! The waterfalls cascading into different lakes and then down more waterfalls is just an incredible work of God. So much beauty. We had a great time hiking around with our Croatian friends – most who had been there before and were good tour guides. One friend though, Ivan told us about a “shortcut” which ended us out on a road outside of the park. We decided that the best part of our week were actually the adventures we took that turned into misadventures because we simply had the most fun. We didn’t give Ivan a break about those shortcuts of his for a while after!

          As the week came to a close, we had a bonfire on Friday night. It was an incredible way for us to end our time together. We gathered around, ate s’mores, sang songs and just enjoyed each other’s company. The sky was so clear and the stars were so bright. We took about a million pictures together, and held each other tightly into the wee hours of the night. It was truly a God designed evening that none of us wanted to end. While standing up around the circle during some songs, I was praising God for these new friendships that had formed. It was just an amazing time where it felt like the whole world had just stopped and the campfire was the only thing that really mattered, these new friendships were the only thing that mattered – it was really wonderful just to BE. To take it all in and praise God for it all – what a wonderful first week we had in Croatia. I was thanking God for our new friends, and praying that they would continue to move for God radically in Croatia. 

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Relaxing on the rooftop with the Word of God. I love the end of that verse " whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." acts 13:22 now that is the holiness and power of God.

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You can find God...just about anywhere

I know, I know...what about the Croatia posts! Well, I am working on those, I was actually working on one this afternoon, but its hard to capture all of that experience in words, since we could sit down and talk for hours about it! For now, I want to share another story. 

One of the things I have been praying about this summer is long term missions. God has put this idea into my mind and heart - there was one week in June where I could NOT STOP thinking and praying about it. I took that and decided it is something that God wants me to continue praying about.... a month and a half later, I'm still not sure what it means exactly. I get this yearning feeling and joy in my heart when I think and pray about it, but I get this anxiety when I try to think of the timing of it...I am a full time student I thought! As much as the idea excites me, I feel so anxious and almost dreadful of the idea that God may decide to interrupt my school plans- this is something I am also praying about. I want to be ready for what God is calling me to WHEN He is calling, not when I feel like it would be convenient for me. I want to be like the disciples in Acts, that are asked to go live somewhere for a year just spending time with people and preaching the gospel without hesitation. 

So as I was running today, the song "Never Let Go" by David Crowder Band came on my iPod. My favorite part, and the part where God was really speaking to me during this run was: 

Oh, what love, oh, what love  Oh, what love, oh, what love  In joy and pain  In sun and rain  You're the same  Oh, You never let go 

Ever faithful  Ever true  You I know  You never let go  You never let go  You never let go  You never let go 

So here I am, a sweaty mess running up Elm Street my hands held high in the air worshiping my creator. For He never lets go, He is always the same - in my joy and in my pain. In my anxiety, in my doubt. He is there. 

What a reminder, for something I need to be reminded of. He is there, He cares, and He will deliver plans for me when the time is right. For now, I will continue to pray about this idea of long term missions, and see where God leads. I am confident He will deliver.  

On another note, I spent time with my college roommate today. We spent the day buying pots and pans for our apartment we move into in a month (!), which in my opinion is tremendously boring task, but time together is always wonderful! She is someone who I am truly thankful God brought into my life (the first day at BU actually!) - when I am around her, I am constantly reminded of how good God truly is. 

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Top: Our team enjoying time in a park in Zagreb

Bottom Middle: Macy cuddling a kitty

Bottom Right: Flying out of Zagreb thanking God for all of the experiences and hearts changed. 

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We toured Zagreb with the BEST tour guides - our Croatian friends from English camp! It was wonderful reuniting with them the 2nd week and having them show us the beautiful city of Zagreb!