Performance Week!!!!!!

The time has come for Spring Sing performance week at school-which is why I have been sparse in posts lately. Spring Sing is kind of a big deal here, leading up to Easter weekend. It is a show where 3-4 clubs group up and create a 7 minute show complete with music, lyrics, costumes and, most importantly, choreography. There are about 6 different clusters of clubs, along with an ensemble and 4-5 hosts/hostesses in between each club show. 

This year, our overall theme is Larger than Life. And our club show is **drumroll, please**..........

OLYMPICS!

It all begins tonight with our "Jersey Night", where each club wears their specific jersey to perform their 7 minute show. 

Tomorrow will be our dress rehearsal, then we get a break Wednesday night-for church and stuff. Thursday begins our true performances, with one during the day, one at night, a night performance Friday, matinee Saturday, and the big award performance Saturday night-where we find out the results of the show. 

The winning clubs get a certain amount of money to go toward a charity of their choice, depending on their place. My freshman year, we got 3rd, so we were given money for the Sunshine School, here in Searcy, which works with special needs people.

So stay tuned for pictures of all the madness of performance week! And wish us luck. For anyone coming to the show: VOTE FOR OLYMPICS!!! 

(even though it doesn't work that way)

Sub-Spring Break Snow

 So the Southerner in me is coming out tonight as I, along with thousands of other Harding students, freak out about the mid-March snowfall. The rumor spread all day long, but it was too sunny and relatively warm to actually seem plausible. But tonight, as we headed to Spring Sing practice, we saw the first signs of the snow to come. Halfway through the practice, huge globs of snowflakes began to fall. By the time we got done, the cars and grass were covered in about half an inch of snow.
So naturally, I called my mom to tell her of the crazy phenomenon. After sharing that news, we got back to our dorm to make hot chocolate, and listen to the thumps of people throwing snowballs in the courtyard. Needless to say, I am praying for a snow day tomorrow-even though it's a long shot.

Perfect Gifts [Eternal Threads]

If you are looking for a gift or just a little something new for you, try out Eternal Threads. They are an organization working to support sustainable living for women in third world countries who are at risk for trafficking-especially sex trafficking-through fair trade, handmade gifts. The women make these items and are paid fairly for the labor they put in, so that they can support their families.

They have everything from headbands to home decor to bags and wallets. I know where I'm getting my Christmas gifts for this year from. Absolutely beautiful jewelry and purses along with some things for guys and ways to give gifts to families overseas to help them live. 

I've looked at a few fair trade organizations that sell similar products, and although beautiful and working for a great thing, they are pretty expensive! As a college student, I just can't pay those prices. Eternal Threads though is pretty reasonably priced. 

Wow. Sorry that sounds like an infomercial. But seriously, check out Eternal Threads website and see a little more of what they are about and the different items they have in their store.

http://www.eternalthreads.com/shop/index.php?p=home

Video of the Day

I wanted to share a video for today. Just watch and enjoy!

[Nicole and Reagen] ::March 2013::

Over spring break, I had the opportunity to hang out with two of my girls from the youth group I interned with last summer. We shopped and ate and had a mini photo shoot! Here are some pics of these two beautiful young ladies. Hope you enjoy.

Via Dolorosa

I was asked this weekend to step in as a last minute chaperone for my church's youth retreat. An odd request to come my way at the end of my spring break, but I agreed thinking it would be a fun way to end my time home. Little did I know the theme for the weekend was centered around Christ's arrest, death, burial and resurrection. 
Saturday afternoon we watched a clip from a History channel special on scourging and crucifixion, a heavy topic. They showed a reenactmemt of Christ walking down the Via Dolorosa (Way of Grief) in Jerusalem. 
I was standing there a year ago this February. I saw the Church of the Flagellation. I walked the 12 stations of the Cross, some of which was on the same cobblestone that Jesus stumbled his way to Golgotha on. Our youth minister ended the afternoon session with these words-"You deserve to be scourged like he was. You deserved to carry that beam like he had to. You deserved to walk down the Via Dolorosa like he did.
But God, my Father loved me enough to keep me from that. And a year ago, as I reached Golgotha, praise the Lord! When my walk ended, I did not have to be hung on the cross like he was. It was already wonderfully, mercifully done for me. What a soboring thought! My journey down the Via Dolorosa ended in devotional reflection and not death. And I don't take time to reflect on that incredible truth like I should. But maybe thats because if I did, I wouldn't have been as affected as I was; as I am. 

Part of our group walking down the Via Dolorosa
in Jerusalem last February

At the Church of the Flagellation,
where we began our journey of the 12 stages

Praying in the Garden of Gethsemane
February 16th,  2012

Romans 7:15

"I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." 
I think I am finally beginning to understand Paul. I have loved this verse for quite a while now, but its clicking. And I am not meaning in huge, dramatic tones. But I do things I used to hate. Like having sandy feet. When I was a child, I HATED sandy feet but I  strolled along the shoreline and then slid my burlap TOMS back on. Who am I? 
And what I used to love, I now hate. Going to the mall now is next to miserable. I hate being around so much unfair consumerism. It makes my stomache turn just thinking about it. And I do not understand what I do. But maybe that's because I have been changed forever. I have grown more into the person God's calling me to be. And I'll take it sandy feet and all.