This is Home

First off I would like to apologize for not writing in six months! That is such a long time and I do sincerely apologize. My brain has been buzzing with fantastical things to share and yet I still have to search for the right words to say. All in due time, I suppose. Secondly, I would like to make a confession. I am writing this instead of working on two reflections due Friday. I guess I love you all more than homework ;)

Since the day I left Santa Barbara and began settling into new life at Seattle Pacific University (SPU), many of you began asking me the infamous question "How is SPU?!" First to clear any confusion, I would like to say that this post was not made to discourage any future conversations centered around this question. In fact, I encourage you to continue to ask me this question throughout my college years. SO HOW IS SPU?!!?!?!?! In one word. Home. SPU is home.

If you had asked me my thoughts on college prior to my current experience, I would not have associated college with home. Home is Santa Barbara. Home is where the surf is, where the weather is almost always between 60 and 70 degrees, where Mexican food is authentic, and where basically everything is provided for me. Home is comfortable and familiar. If you had asked me I would not have said home is Seattle Pacific University.

I was, to be honest, not comfortable with moving to Seattle. I was not comfortable with moving to Seattle because I was too comfortable with staying in Santa Barbara. I was well grounded in my community, my family, and my church and leaving would be completely unbearable. I was afraid that I would not find an equivalent (or as close as can be equivalents) to the three most important things in my life. I definitely did not trust that the God of the universe, who blessed me with an indescribable family (I actually do not have words to describe how wonderful my family is), a loving community, and healthy church, was going to bless me in new and profound ways. I often forget that God has poured out, is pouring out, and will always pour out his great and many blessings.

Seattle, the city I hardly know is home. Seattle Pacific University, the school I have known for three weeks is home. This is home. From the moment I moved into my dorm, met my roommate, left my parents, and began engaging in SPU culture I knew I had made the right decision. Any doubts, fears, discontentment, and discouragement in the weeks prior to my big move, immediately dissipated and I was filled with comfort, contentment, excitement, and hope. It became so clear to me that God had always been with me. All He wanted was for me to trust Him.

So, How is SPU?!?! To actually answer the "how" part of the question, SPU is absolutely wonderful and I am so excited to be here and be a part of something so unfamiliar to me. I am excited to see where God leads me this year and in the years to come.

Much love to all of you.


Note: Just because I have found a new home does not mean that I have completely moved on from my first home. Santa Barbarians (and non-Santa Barbarians!!) please write, call, text, email, Facebook, skype, VISIT, etc. me. I MISS YOU ALL. And I wish you could all be here with me during this new chapter.

CHECK IT OUT!!!!!

Many of you are already aware of this, but for those of you who are confused by the headline...

MY SISTER IS MOVING TO AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)  

My older sister, Kelly Ranck, just got a new job working with World Concern as the Communications Liaison in Kenya. She has to raise $60,000 before she can leave to start her new job in Africa. She knows more about it than I do (that's a good thing too:) so YOU should check out her blog if you have not already. I know she would also appreciate lots of prayers!

C is for Clubble

So my last post was a wee bit of a lie. Well, not an intentional lie...but I was wrong. We were not able to meet that week due to lack of leaders, however we were able to meet last week (LeAp DaY!!) and it was ____________ (fill in the blank about everything positive and uplifting and awesome and and and and simply indescribable!). Maybe I am crazy but I was stoked to be experiencing wyldlife/younglife from the other end. It was especially awesome for me to see how God has been working in the other wyldlife leaders lives through their younglife experiences. Most kids that go to younglife are have not grown up in the church their whole life, so its really cool for me to see how God has totally transformed these high school kids' lives.


CLUB was fantastic! We had club in a bubble or if you're cool you call it Clubble. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures to show you how incredibly epic this bubble was...but just imagine a bubble long enough and tall enough for more than fifty people giving piggybacks (or making human ladders..) to another fifty people. That's basically what it looked like. Hopefully I'll have a picture of our Clubble soon :D 


Anyway, club was ridiculous and crazy (when is it not?!?) even with only forty kids. I guess forty junior highers is basically equivalent to a eighty high schoolers..hah. During club we played some bubble wrap popping games; sling-shot some water balloons at Phil; smashed milk, eggs, melons, and yogurt; raffled off more bubbles; and tried to have five minutes of quiet without cellphones so Felipe could tell a story about Jesus. Each of these has a story within itself, but that would take forever to type all of it out. SO if you would like to hear more, you can ask me and I will tell you! At the end of club I was asked to take some kids home. This was a great opportunity for me to get to know some of the kids a little better..and get lost on the Eastside at night (I went back the next day to learn the streets a little better for next time, but I will probably still get lost next club.). My first club was ridiculous and honestly indescribable, but I have a few prayer requests. Please pray that kids can go to camp!, that the leaders lives' can continue to be transformed, and that I can be an excellent example as leader to the jr. highers and a friend to the other leaders.

P.S. While I was writing this, I found a picture of our Clubble (I am really good at multitasking;), from start to finish.

photo courtesy of Felipe

WYLDLIFE

Wooo first Wyldlife club tomorrow!! SO EXCITED. Please pray for me because I am fighting a cold and I have barely enough energy to sit through class (I guess I don't have a ton of energy in class as it is, I'm barely surviving senioritis ;) and I will definitely need a lot A LOT of energy tomorrow night. I've heard the junior highers are stoked on life (aka crazy). So if you think of it, please pray for an abundance of energy :)


Also, thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting on my blog. I appreciate you and your comments :D

hi I'm back and my life is CRAZY

HI I sincerely apologize for not blogging. I have been so busy...but even that is not an excuse since we are ALL busy ALL the time. So I guess that means I have no excuse. Welp. Anyway, I'm really stoked on life right now. I have a lot on my plate already and a lot to look forward too. This semester I have been engaged in some really tough classes. AP Government is tedious and has been self-depreciating of my knowledge of the United States government. BUT I am learning and that is a pretty good start, especially seeing as I will be able to vote this coming November (whoa...) and I should probably know something about politics;). As for my other classes I am taking AP English which has definitely been my favorite English class that I have ever had. For one thing it is by far the smallest class I've had in all of high school--seventeen people!!!!!!!--and for another my teacher is incredibly WEIRD. I think that's probably the best part of the class. He is very though provoking and blatant about everything. It's awesome and I'm glad to be in his class for a semester. Woooo...I think he has already influenced me too much haha. SO my last class is Journalism or King's Page, as the San Marcos students call it. I was originally in yearbook but I randomly decided I wanted to try something new. I have never taken Journalism and I think it will be a great skill for me to have later on in life. I LOVE TO WRITE (as you may or may not noticed from this blog). I have thoroughly enjoyed learning a new form of writing and I hope to write more than one article this semester (you may be thinking that is a pretty weak goal, but I say that because I have only written one article as of now:). If you have any article topic suggestions, please feel free to comment below :D I am very happy about my schedule..however my classes are not the real reason I am so stoked on this semester. Starting very soon I will be taking on the awesome role of being a leader for Wyldlife (Younglife for Jr. Highers). During a Wyldlife meeting all of us potenial Wyldlife leaders were given the option of serving at the La Colina Club or the club on the Eastside. Almost immediately I felt God pushing me to commit to the Eastside club; I felt like he was telling me to take a risk and try something new. Working with boys and girls club has been on my heart for awhile, but I never fed my desire. Fortunately, God was looking out for me; He has provided the opportunity to hang out and teach Jr. Highers about Jesus and I AM STOKED. Of course, I will keep you updated. I will. And if I do not, you have been given permission to ask me about it :D This post is becoming very long. So out of the goodness of my heart I will save the rest of the exciting ideas that I have in my head and down the road for another post :)..To be continued...


In case your brain has melted from so much reading, please ponder these photos from my life

airplanes

this is SO legit. even the flight attendant is enjoying it (4:00)!

http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2011/10/25/mat-kearney-plays-in-flight-concert-for-southwest-airlines/

happiest day of my life!

So on the happiest day of my life (two days ago) I stumbled upon the best blog known to mankind belonging to the one, the only, THE DAVE BARNES. As you can imagine, I jumped for joy (and dave) when I saw this and immediately proceeded to bookmark it :) I have found, today especially, that dave barnes is the best remedy for a bad day (or any day really). If you don't know dave (heaven forbid!), you will certainly understand why I love him so much after reading his blog.

http://davebarnesmusic.tumblr.com/post/903220990/ifun-part-deux