My Roaring 2013!

My Roaring 2013!

From pelting friends with snowballs to roller skating with my sisters, my year has come to an end. And I must say, it was a beautiful year, especially for this 22 year old. And yes, I did take the wonderful opportunity to sing Taylor Swift’s song when I hit that wonderful number. Now I must set my goal on finding all the other wonderful songs about other numbers and what we must do or feel when we hit those ages.

I’m taking this post to reflect on my year and praise God for what He’s done! I’ll probably write another post later for what I’m hoping to do next year!

1. Senior Year Spring Semester

I think it can be honestly said that many people envied my last semester of my senior year. I basically finished both my major and minor at this point and was just taking classes that actually interested me. I got the chance to take some business classes and enjoyed them! School wasn’t a chore and I felt free to enjoy my time with friends and other things I wanted to do.

base

I remember chilling so hard that I would go snowboarding after class on Fridays and come back before Real Life, all day on Saturday, and sometimes even on Sunday. I got to hang out with not only my friends in Cru but also catch up with some friends I haven’t talked with in a while. I also got to spend time and develop relationships with friends in BASE Productions, my dance team.

2. Friends

bro bean

I’m so thankful for all the friends I’ve gained in my time at Cornell. First of all to the dudes who’ve been blessing me year in and year out. It’s truly been amazing how God has used them in my life to shape me into who I am right now. They’ve been able to shine light on so many areas of my life that I need to grow in and constantly provide inspiration and are models to me as I grow in my faith.

cru snow

I’m also thankful to all the seniors in Cru who’ve been a part of my life. We always talked about how we could have done more at school and in Cru, but we did exactly as much as we were supposed to. I’m just glad I had friends to goof around with and be myself. Thanks guys.

In this pic above we had a random night of sledding and snow fights. Can’t really say snow ball fight because we just ended up tackling each other into the snow haha. Good times.

cru camping

We also got to go camping together for a day or two! Went hiking, fail whitewater rafting, cooking steaks over a fire, singing songs, and peeing in the forest.

3. Graduation

cru graduation

4 years of Cornell University. The good and the bad all rolled up into one and smoked like one blissful experience. I never really doubted that I would graduate, but then again I never thought too much of school either. Looking back now, Cornell was less of a place to build up my brain and more of a place to build my life. What you get out of it is not the degree but the experiences and friends. Was it worth the pain, suffering, and ridiculous tuition? Yes!

graduation

There are so many people who supported me throughout my entire life. The top two have always been my parents, who pushed, encouraged, and cared for me. God has blessed me with the best support team for life ever! Other than my parents there are just too many people to name, but they know who they are!

4. Roadtrip

This was the first roadtrip in my wholeeee life. And hopefully not the last. We went from Chicago to Colorado and back. We initially thought of Europe but that’s way too pricey. Then we thought of doing a coast to coast trip but that would be too long, so we ended up doing this weird rectangle in the middle of the states but it was still great. Lots of ups, down, and arounds.

bro rabbit

A little story about this picture. If you want to get people’s attention in the middle of nowhere South Dakota, put up giant signs advertising your store every quarter mile for 30 miles and you’ll get people to come. People meaning guys like me who get curious about random signs about 5 cent coffee and a giant jackalope. So I bugged the guys to stop and we found the giant jackalope. I was happy like a kid who got his dessert and gets to eat it too, so we took a picture.

5. Interning with Cru

I would say that this is something I’m definitely glad I did and would happily do again. It was in no way easy and in all ways a trust experience in God. I had to raise funds for my whole salary and more within 2 months! When I first tell people that I had to support raise for my job, they would first wonder what I’m doing and secondly, where is all that money coming from? It truly is a wonder but God provided through many different people.

cru staff

God has taught me to have faith in Him and how He will provide if we allow Him to. Coming back to Cornell, this is the first time I believe in our ministry’s history at Cornell that we have had 3 interns! I’m so blessed to be working alongside my mentor JW and his family as well as Mercy and Kelsey, the other interns. I hope to continue to learn not just about myself but also more about Jesus and how I can better live for Him.

cru CG

Another blessing has been working with the guys that God has placed in my life. I’ve been blessed with two small groups of guys, half of them who are returning from the small group that I led last year. This picture above is with a few guys who attended our Cru Christmas Party this year.

One thing I’ve learned is that ministry is in no way easy. Personally I’m a very results oriented person, and I can also be very motivated to actively participate in ways to get immediate results. In ministry, no matter how much I do, I can’t change the hearts of people, only the Holy Spirit can. So what do I do? I pray and continue to preach the gospel faithfully to the best of my abilities.

There are some days when God gives me that special grace to share in His victories. Such examples include days when guys challenge each other to talk to their friends about Jesus or when they ask to pray for a desire to read their Bibles. It’s those moments where I feel that peace and joy talked about in the Bible and continue doing my job, which is talking about Jesus.