All done!!!!! One more semester to go and then this degree is finished!

Thinking a lot this week about the new year and what that means. New Years has never been a really big deal to me because September is when I feel the "new year" begins. It has to do with going back to school and yes that makes me a huge nerd. Anyways, I've been thinking this week about really what I want from God this year in terms of what I want to see him do on campus and in my life. I was reminded this morning how much Christ loves us, with Christmas and everything coming. My pastor was talking about how all throughout scripture whenever Jesus would pray he would always use the noun Father, Abba and so on. The only time this ever changed was when he was hanging on the cross. It was in that moment that he said, "my God, my God." On the surface its not really a huge deal, so what it was a different word choice, BUT (!) his communion with the Father was completely gone, it was absolute and heart-wrenching. Think about that. God is not my judge, he's my Saviour and honestly the more and more I realize the love that he had for us, the more I realize how unworthy I am of it. But thats the beautiful thing about grace!

4 down, 1 more to go... So... 1 more final tommorrow morning, Latin American Studies 201 and then I am free for the holidays. Christmas and Winter Conference!

Its sheer craziness in all honesty. I was writing out Christmas cards this week and realized that its pretty much looking like next year I'll have palm trees and smoking hot weather to celebrate with, as well as some close friends and no family. Weird actually in a lot of ways to think about... I dunno, theres definately days it seems like it'll be no big deal to pick up and leave for a year, but in a lot of ways I'm scared and a nervous about what exactly that'll mean. I'm so excited to go and I know that this is what God has planned for my life for the next year at least, its the little details that surprise me sometimes. But (!!!) Gods got the whole thing covered and under control, theres no point me worrying about it because his plans are always better than mine anyways!

At the Campus for Christ Christmas party....

Coolest "gingerbread house" ever.. we even won a prize!

(I figured I needed a picture of some Christmas variety)

So I was thinking a lot about Christmas the last couple of days, put the tree up and everything (which for the record, is now half-lit because I didn't check the other strands of lights before I put them on the tree....) Anyways... just thinking a lot about how different it will be to be away next Christmas in Panama and how its one of those things that comes with growing up and making decisions on your own. I'll miss my family for sure, but they'll be there when I come home and I know that for now this is something that I need to do. Its comforting knowing there are people coming that I trust and have connected with this summer in Panama, so I guess we will see, we sure won't have snow and a classic Christmas tree, thats for sure, but God is putting together an awesome team and I'm excited to see how it'll turn out! It's craziness for sure!

I'm officially going to Panama! I am accepted, and pending that we have a full team of at least 2 girls and 2 boys we're good to go. I have a huge grin needless to say! PANAMA... wow!

Yesterday in the mail I recieved the letter I had written to myself at debrief in Panama. It was so cool to read, haha after I had gotten over the initial confusion of why the address was written in my handwriting. It was awesome just to be reminded of a lot of cool things that had happened both within our team but also in my own heart. I'm totally still growing from where I was and too was so encouraged to see that I hadn't fallen further away from where I was when I was in Panama. Just good stuff! I'm just getting excited to go! On the up side of things it won't be cold there.. I'll miss the snow, but not the temperature.... :)

Brrrrrr......!

The weather is intensely cold right now... like -40 with the wind chill... nutty I'm saying but oh well! Other than that, I recieved a personality test to do for my STINT application today in the mail and its cool because it's one more step to get closer to actually going! Finals are on there way, as is Christmas and Winter Conference, needless to say I'm looking forward to both... and being done my second last semester of school!

So... I applied to convocate in June today... craziness!

Alrighty... so the Lions won the Grey Cup yesterday haha right and that was awesome. Just wanted though to post a quick note. My application is being processed for STINT right now and it feels really godo to have it in and everything. God just keeps revealing his heart to me about Panama and more about who I am and why my heart is wired the way it is. I'm starting a time of prayer and fasting today which I think will be craziness but I really want to learn to be dependent on God and learn to hear his heart. So we'll see how it goes anyways! Christmas is coming up fast too which is awesome and it'll also mean I'm down to four months of school! More to come as always...

Okay, so this totally doesnt look like it, and I have no idea what kind of grin that is on my face (I was kinda excited...!) but that is my STINT application which I dropped off at the Campus for Christ headquarters in BC this weekend! Rock on!

K guys, just read this one...

I was just looking at some pictures for this summer and trying to think about what to say tommorrow to encourage people to consider going to Panama this spring or summer on project. My heart is already there, I can't even get back to work on my paper because it honestly just aches to get back there and back to work. There is such a harvest waiting, just waiting if we are faithful and willing to go. Even simply rethinking why we're going down has totally solidified my committment to going back for STINT. My heart is already there. I know that in a tonne of ways its so hard to explain what going on in my life. But what I do know is this. As a part of the STINT team, God calls me to head down and further his kingdom, fulfill the Great Comission to the utter outmosts of my ability. I want to see relationships restores and passion reignited in the Christians that are there. I want to see people understand the crucial difference between religion and a personal and living relationship with our Heavenly Father. I want to see people become passionate about who they are in Christ and to walk in that daily, making an impact on their Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of their world. Its really not about me at all. Its about God and his heart for the lost. If I can only catch a piece of that, to get that passion and desire in my heart to reach the lost God is going to do huge things. I know and believe with all my heart that his plans are good and so good for me. They're better than everything I know or ever will know.

Scratch one of the list of things to do before I graduate... I finally painted "The Rock!" Spray paint all over my frozen fingers.. but so worth it!

So.. just remembered something really cool! Franklin Graham (son of Billy Graham) is doing whats called "A Festival of Hope" in Panama City this Febrauary!!! Thats so cool! A festival of hope is basically a 2-3 day festival with bands and the presentation of the gospel to thousands of people over the time period. I thought it was so cool to see how God is totally working in Latin America right now, the harvest is plentiful, we just need to go down and work it!

Monday morning and here at school for 8am prayer. Looks like no one else made it so I put some tunes on and am going to write down some thoughts and prayers for this time.

Father God I thank you so much for this time, that even though its just you and me.

Haha Amy and Zoe just showed up, it was the C-train. I was right on the transit note anyways. But posting this really quick because I was looking as this passage last night and it was super good.

Psalm 16:5-8 (the message) "My choice is you, first and only. And now I find I'm your choice! You set me up with a houtse and yard. And then you made me a heir! The wise counsel God gives me when I am awake us confirmed by my sleeping heart. Day and night I'll stick with God. I've got a good thing going and I'm not letting go."

This week is going to be nutty with outreach and midterms but I just really ask that as you say in Psalm 62 that you would "lead me to the rock that is higher than I," to the special place of refuge that you have for me, that I would take time this week and be still, knowing you are God.

Just wanted to post an excerpt from an email I got this morning.... because its good...

"I do pray you have a good weekend. May you have eyes to see and ears to hear what God is up to. May you treat time as a gift and not a possession. Your life is to be purposeful not purpose-driven. Yes we all need good time management skills but not the kind that make us grumpy and anxious but aware of the chaos and messiness of life, the delights and the despair, the breakdowns and the breakthroughs. The laughter and the tears. May you live full, rich lives. As Eugene Peterson writes in his rendering of Proverbs 11:24: The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.May you give yourselves generously first to God and I pray that you will seek other's blessing as well and that in the midst of that you will be blessed. I am thankful to Mark Buchanan and his book The Rest of God for challenging me with these thoughts. "

Just found out yesterday too that our STINT team continues to grow! I was praying for more women because the whole 3-4 guys plus me thing wasn't looking good. But I got an email from a friend of mine I was in Panama with last summer and she has decided to come on STINT. I'm so excited, she's awesome!! So yep, its been cool to see how God is putting together an amazing team for next year. Just people I've totally connected with already this summer, which makes it easier to fathom being away from my family and everything "normal". Just knowing I have people on the team that I trust and can relate too makes everything a little easier!

Just found out Switchfoot is releasing an album in December... party on!


Yep thats all I have for now, thought I'd share the love...

Alrighty, 4 midterms done and 1 to go. Our massive outreach for C4C is this week and its been so cool to see how God is clearing up details for the lectures and mobilizing the students in the ministry to raise the awareness of the whole thing. I was chatting with one of "my girls" during out discipleship time yesterday about time management. Looking back, its been so cool to see how God has totally worked in my life to help me utilize my time the best I can. I remember in my first year God spoke to me and asked, "are you being faithful with your time?" It was an awesome reminder that we have limited time and we need to glorify God with it. Also thinking a lot about the love that Christ has for us. Romans 8:38ish talks about that. I was thinking how cool that is that nothing can seperate us from this love, even when I screw up and make mistakes. There's that verse that talks about "Christs love compells us" (I'll find it eventually) and made the connection. Nothing that I do seperates me from his love and therefore I'm compelled to share with my friends, participate in our outreaches and seek to walk in his will and glorify him with my actions. So a couple of random thoughts but its been good.. life is good, and above all, God is good!

Hey,

So its been another crazy week, middle of midterms, but at the same some really cool things have been going on. We (Campus for Christ) are bringing in a guest lecturer named Michael Horner for a series of lectures in November. I'm in charge of booking rooms and it was not looking good at all. There were new rooms at all that would work for the lecture and the lady at the university I was working with was honestly hard to work with. I realized this weekend though that too often I walk in defeat. I kept trying and trying to get rooms booked but expecting that nothing was going to come from it. Sunday at church I was reminded that Gods already got us covered, he's already won the war, or whatever battle we are fighting. Monday morning I called the room booking lady and ran into another brick wall it seemed. But, God is totally faithful she emailed saying there were three rooms available for out lecture, and one that is going to work beautifully. Its so cool to see that God is totally taking care of us. He has huge plans for my campus, I know this to be true and sometimes I just need to claim the massive victories that Christ has already won. More later.. gotta run!

Alrighty... so thoughts. Its been a crazy week and I haven't had any time to work on my application, although its constantly been on my heart and mind. Work has been absolutley nutty, I apparently picked one of the busiest restaurants in the city and therefore the nights are getting later as I'm up studying. Through all of it though its been really cool to see how God is continually giving me patience and strength as I go about the day and totally blessing me with some awesome conversations. Totally encouraging! Our ladies leadership discipleship group has been reading a book called "the discipline of grace," (by jerry bridges) and its been such as good reminder that on bad days (and even on the good ones) we are never beyond the reach and never beyond the need of Gods grace. I know thats true in my life for sure!

Alright, so the pile of papers that is my STINT application is printed and ready to be filled out. Lots of questions so the whole task is daunting, but I'm ready to get rolling and mail the whole thing out by November 1. Seems like its a lot of time, but I know I need it with everything else going on! I'm excited though for sure!

Here we go again!

October has come and its crazy that September has come and gone already! Panama project was amazing and things still remind me of there all the time, the people and the places. Something happened (actually a lot of things happened) in my heart and I've made my decision to apply to go on STINT next year in Panama City. What that means exactly is that I want to go back and invest in the ministy, by lending manpower and support for a period of 10-12 months. Details still need to be worked out, I still need to actually pull together my massive application and get that rolling. I feel like something was left unfinished when I came home and it took my a while to pinpoint thats what I was feeling. So I want to go back!

Hey-oh!

Okay so our second night of showing the Jesus film got rained out... Boo hey! But in the same way it was alright because we got to meet the church people and a bunch of people from the community and we are going back there Saturday night so I am excited. We have showed the Jesus film for kids 12 times in the last couple of days in local schools so other than the lack of sleep it was awesome! We woke up this morning to an absolutely beautiful day with a gorgeous blue sky, so we´re praying the rain stays off till at least 11 o clock tonight. Tonight we´re showing in the community we´re staying in so I´m excited to get out and invite the people we´ve been seeing, or have been seeing us every day. Also, 2 of the students I´ve been discipling over the last month are among a group of 6 students that are coming to join us on the film tonight so it´ll be awesome to see them sharing their faith with others. All in all its going to be awesome! Thanks so much for all your prayers, the best things you can do is pray, and pray it doesnt rain!

Luv you! Lins :)

Alrighty... so R&R has ended but it was amazing! We headed out to an extinct volcano and took over an absolutely beautiful hotel which was awesome. Saturday morning we literally climbed a mountain. The tour guide named Mario that took us actually worked on the Survivor Panama crew so apparently he´s pretty famous. But the view was amazing once we finally got there.

Sunday night our team transported back to an area of Panama city and showed our first round of Jesus film showing. I got to share my testimony sunday night at the showing and it was really cool to be a part of that. The kids were adorable and we taught them "duck, duck, goose" although in spanish goose doesn´t translate so it was duck, duck, chicken, "pato, pato, pollo." We´re all being billeted out to families in the area and Laura, one of the Panamanian students and I are staying with an older gentleman named Luis and his mother. They´re a riot and because I don´t speak a tonne of Spanish we´re having fun figuring things out, oh, and the shower has one temperature, cold... but at least it wakes me up in the morning.

There were some problems with the scheduling for our team and we actually don´t have more showings of the film until Thursday night. So yesterday we struggled with feelings of uselessness, but God is good and we´re going to a school to show the Jesus film to students and then to a prayer meeting at night. I am so looking forward to the showings of the film this weekend. Whats really cool is that we have 12 Panamanian students joining us throughout the week. A lot of them our people we saw come to Christ on the campus cycle and they´re now taking the step of faith and coming to share their testimonies and their faith at the shows. So keep praying for us as we push forward until the end. Gods answering prayers though, as Mark (one of our team members) was really sick but now he´s rejoined us, and I was actually able to get some sleep last night, which was such a blessing!

I love you all as always and will see you all so soon!

Time for some R&R! We are a lucky group!!! In about a half an hour, we are all heading to the crater of an extinct volcano for some rest. We have the entire hotel booked just for us and there is horseback riding and hiking and all in all a blast.

Our big going away party was last night and it was awesome just to see how many Panamanians are excited about everything that has happened over the last couple of weeks. We are leaving an awesome group of students here and I am so excited to see whats all going to happen in the next couple of years! Keep praying for us this week as Sunday night begins our Jesus film cycle in the local churches. My team is staying in the Panama city region but its awesome because 10 or so Panamanian students that are joing us for a couple of nights this week!

I love you all and I will see you soon!

Lins

So a group of us woke up at 5 am to watch the sun come up over the ocean, and it was absolutely beautiful! I am always amazed at the show our Creator so lovingly puts on for display every single morning!

Sorry this took so long to get posted, the last couple of weeks have been nuts but such a blast! Yesterday (saturday) I coordinated a training day for the canadian and panamanian students. It was awesome to see so many of them come to be trained and equipped to go out, sharing their faith and developing their relationship with God. So many things have been happening in the lives of the students and its been amazing to see how God continues to work in the lives of everyone that we come into contact with. Eric, the faculty leader for the architecture faculty has connected us with some of the other leaders on campus in an effort to put together a leadership lunch next week. I had the opportunity to meet with a guy named Fidel from the economics faculty. My friend Jon and I had lunch with him last week and got to share the gospel with him. It was awesome to see how he was thinking his way through it and really taking the time to understand what we were telling him. He prayed to recieve Christ right there and it was so encouraging and exciting to see.

I think that one of the major things I have been learning this trip is took take every opportunity to share the gospel when I am presented with one. Thursday, I had a break for about half an hour and was planning on going to work on a session that I had to present on Saturday. Eric pulled me over to introduce me to a group of his friends and we got talking about nothing in particular. All of a sudden I had a thought and whipped out the 4 Spiritual Laws booklets that we use to present the gospel. None of them had ever seen it so we went through it together and the entire group of 5 prayed to recieve Christ. It was nuts you guys! Nothing planned and I was heading to do something completely different, but I believe that its moments like those that God has planned for us to step out in faith and live a life worthy of the calling that he has placed on our lives.

Tuesday night in all-team training, we put together a list of mature Christians and new believers in preparation to pass all of our contacts over to the Panamanian staff. There were over 100 contacts of mature Christians we had been meeting with to do discipleship and vision casting and probably over 150 new Christians, but that statistic will be way higher than that now. My friend Eryn commmented that we were handing them over a Crusade (for Christ), and she was totally correct. We came to Panama to start a movement by turning lost students into Christ centered laborers, and we have seen this prayer answered in so many ways. From scratch we started, and at times it was scary to think that maybe everything we had worked on would end once we left. But, the more and more that I prayed about, the more I relaized that it is so much out of my control. God, I believe with all my heart, knows the specific plans for each and every student on the university campus here and at home. He has big plans for all of us and I'm starting to see that becoming revealed in my life.

There is so much I want to tell you all, but I think those are the highlights. I know that for some of you reading this, this might not make complete sense. But, I've been learning over the last weeks that as a Christian, God commands us to go and make discples, by giving us the Great Comission. So many students here ask us whether we have to be sharing our faith or why we came. I think that we've all come to the conclusion, I know that I have, that this is something that I want to do. The greatest thing I can do for those around me to show them that I love them is to share the love of Christ with them. He has great and loving plans for each of our lives, we are seperated from him through our sin and sinful nature BUT because he loves us so much, he paid the price with sending his only son Jesus Christ to die for those sins. Think about it, a god that loves us that much. I still can't even begin to comprehend this love, but as I sat by the ocean this morning watching the sun come up, I was reminded how special and how precious I am to my heavenly Father.

Well... if you made it this far, thanks so much for me keeping me in your thoughts and prayers. We have 4 more days on campus and if you're praying, pray that I can push hard until the end. I love you all so much and I will see you in less than 3 weeks, craziness I tell you!

Hey all,

So another week on campus has come and gone and simply awesome! There are so many crazy things happening and God is simply working everything out perfectly! Our team is in the Architecture faculty at the University of Panama, its the national university and... they only pay 27.50 (!!!!) a semester for school.

The student faculty president, named Eric, accepted Christ on Tuesday and he is awesome! Well first it was crazy that it happened because he has every single connection and knows every person in the faculty and he is such a great guy! He has become such a friend and although my Spanish is so little and his English is little too, we have become good friends. And now onto my favorite story of the week..... and probably my favorite moment so far on this trip....

Last Thursday we did some talks on integrity in a couple of classes and I met a girl named Estefania, I also ran into her the next day at the cafeteria but we did not know if my team was going to be in the architecture faculty so we swapped contact information and left it at that. But (!!) my team is in the faculty and so I connected with her and her friends on Monday. My friend and sharing partner Heather shared with Estefania and her friend Ana the 4 Spiritual Laws and they both said that they would think about it which was really cool. Wednesday I ran into Estefania and she did not look like she was having a great day. I did not have time to talk but prayed for her.. then I find out she talked to Heather and asked if she could meet up with us on Thursday to talk. Thursday we talked and I was absolutely blown away, she told us that she wanted to know how to be close to Jesus and that she didnt want to live her life all by herself ever again. I was so choked up and teary that I could barely lead her through the sinners prayer, but we said it and in that moment I knew that I could go home happy. God had such a hand in working in her heart and drawing her to him it was so amazing to see!

In other amazing news...
1. We had our first weekly meeting today on campus with all the Panamanian students and it was packed out, which was amazing to see!
2. We saw the Panama canal Saturday and it was honestly smaller than I had imagined it!
3. We are heading into the rainforest tommorrow...
4. I went to an elemnetary school this morning to help with showing the Jesus film to some classes and the kids were so cute! I wanted to pack them all home with me, haha I talked a bit to them in Spanish and then they all decided I knew the language and started yelling at me all at once, I laughed so hard!
5. God is amazing!!

Love you all so much! Keep me in your thoughts and more importantly your prayers, I will see you all in a month or so... sorry this was so long!

Lins

Hey all!

The first post I tried didn´t work at all so this one might be shorter!

Panama is absolutely amazing! I was thinking yesterday as I was walking back to out hotel that "I absolutely love it here!" The people are amazing and the traffic is absolutely insane. I think that I´ve sweat more in the last four days than I have in my whole entire life.. maybe I´ll acclimatize soon. We´ve been in training and team building exercises for the last three days but finally got onto the National University yesterday and it was great. The students are so open to talking and although they laugh at the small bits of Spanish I´ve been picking up, we´ve been able to communicate amazingly well! I met a guy name Elizier, Ali for short yesterday and he was a Christian. I introduced him to the Panamanian Campus for Christ staff and hes going to be helping us with an outreach on campus next week! It was just so cool to meet someone so passionate about Christ on the first day! The students are just so cool, I´ve enjoyed getting out on campus and simply talking, I forgot how much I loved being out sharing my faith until yesterday!

Last night we had a pool party at the hotel and were able to connect with the Campus for Christ Panamanian staff and volunteers. It was a blast! Tanya, one of translators shared the other night her heart for campus and what she desires to see happen on the universities and in her country. Last night too, even in prayer and although we couldn´t understand the language and everything that was happening, we were able to agree with them and really support them, they are such an amazing group of people! Guitars got pulled out and everyone just starting praising God. I honestly can´t even begin to explain how beautiful of a sound it was. Some in Spanish and some in English but all just glorifying God! It was a late night but oh so worth it!

Next week we start more evangelism and getting organized for outreaches. We´re still not sure whihc campus our team will be on but my team is amazing. It´s such a great group of people! I´m going to be in the role of special events manager and am so excited to get going on planning outreaches campus wide and in our specific faculties!

So please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers, both for our team and just too that God would continue to work in the hearts of the students that we come into contact with!

Love you all!

Lins