The end of a chapter...

I seriously should be banned from blogging, considering how awful I am at writing regularly! However, I just read my blogs from Germany (the few I wrote) and really enjoyed them! I'm glad I wrote what I did. I'm so seriously almost done with college! Next week is my last week of classes and I have 2 presentations and 2 papers to write. Yikes! I can't wait to turn in the last paper!

I'll have time to read all the books I want and study all the languages I've been dying to learn (Farsi, Arabic, Somali). I'm gearing up to return to Germany in September and go through waves of excitement and apprehension. I still need to find sufficient funding, but I know that God will provide. I simply have to surrender. I am so bad at that! I like to control and plan. Well, somethings just take time and that kills me! I think for me surrendering and simply resting will forever be a battle and a lesson to be learned again and again.

I've recently been examining my heart for refugees and where it comes from exactly. It was a process, beginning when it was small and flourishing in Germany. I remember always loving having people from all over the world in our house and how normal it was. But the real core reason of my passion, where does it come from? It's hard to describe I guess. It's almost as if I lose myself when I am with my refugee friends. I just kind of fade away and I don't care about anything else but the person right in front of me and how much they have value and are loved. I just want to be a light in their life, someone who offers them a smile and friendship.  Simple friendship means so much and its so easy to give. It's amazing too how God works through friendship. He shows himself through the way you love someone. You may not always see the effect of your friendship but it definitely makes a lasting impact. I guess this is a prayer of mine - to become a better more Christ-like friend. Sometimes I think that I myself, Abbey am good enough and kind enough to love someone on my own. Then I am always brought low when I realize, in fact, it is only when I invite Christ to be part of the relationship that I can truly love someone. On my own, I can be a good friend but with Christ I can be a friend that changes someone's life, which is because Christ actually does it...not me.

As I graduate from college, I am closing a chapter of my life that in a way was planned for me. I guess what I mean by this is that in the past all of my decisions were basically structured and I knew what was expected. Now, the future is a wide open canvas and I can paint any map and direction on it that I want. This is daunting, exciting and overwhelming. I am becoming an adult and I have to make real adult decisions. After May 20th, I will officially be a college graduate. I am excited to see what this next year holds and all the things I am going to learn. I can't help but wonder though, where will I be headed in a year?

Some Things I learned Today...

I tend to forget things easily or talk off the ear of someone when I learn something new, so I am just going to record interesting bits of information I collect during the day (it will probably often involve things about languages):

1) Tamil is a Dravidian Language, and we borrowed the word "curry" from Tamil into English.

2) Book in Hindi is "kitab," just as it is in Arabic, Farsi, Turkish and Swahili (except in Swahili it's "kitabu").

3) The name Farsi is derived from the Arabic pronunciation of the original name "Parsa." This probably occurred because /p/ does not exist as a separate phoneme in Arabic, but /f/ does and the two sounds aren't so different.

4) Somali is part of the Cushitic language family.

5) The name "Amish" is derived from the name of a man named Jakob Amman. He was the leader in a separatist movement within the Anabaptist Church, which claimed that the church was becoming too secular.

Okay, I need to sleep now! Good night!

So it begins...

Tomorrow I begin my first day of my last semester as an undergrad! In just four months I will be finished! I wonder what these four months will bring? I'm so excited to learn new things, meet new people and slowly begin to plan what I will be doing next year. There are so many exciting things happening in my life at the moment. Church today was awesome...it reminded me so much of what is important in life. When I remember that we were made to serve God and love others everything else seems so small in comparison. Life is so good, because God is so good!

I have some goals for this semester:

1) Pray more for specific people and specific needs.

2) Learn more about God's promises and share them.

3) Make time for and be intentional with others.

4) Exercise at least 4 times a week.

5) Get good grades.

6) Figure out grad schools and begin applications.

I better stop now or I will make it impossible for me to keep all of my goals! Okay tomorrow, bring it on. I'm ready!

Deuteronomy is Awesome :)

"For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt." - Deuteronomy 10:17-19

I am reading through Deuteronomy right now and I expected it to be a bit boring, but I am being blown away by the amazing things that happen in this book! This verse just made my day! As I read the Bible throughout the past year, this characteristic of God as the defender of orphans, widows and "aliens" has just been jumping off the page at me, especially in Ezekiel and now again in Deuteronomy. Ironically, these were two books that I thought I would have to struggle through! Just so everyone knows, the Old Testament is NOT boring! :) More and more I'm beginning to understand God's heart and our purpose to love and serve those who suffer.

God's Commands Mirror his Beauty

Today I read Ecclesiastes 12:13, "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man."

I pray that I will never forget that my purpose, our purpose, is to fear God and keep the commandments he has given. As I learn more and more about the character of God, he becomes more and more beautiful.

In Micah 6:8, he requires us to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with him.

In James 1:27, his expectations are that we look after orphans and widows in distress and to keep ourselves from the pollution of the world

In Luke 9:23-24, he calls us to take up our cross and follow him, losing our lives to find true life

In Matthew 28:19-20, he commissions us to go into the world and make disciples, teaching them to obey his commandments that are hope and true life.

These are only a small amount of the commands given to us by God but each one is so beautiful and so full of goodness and righteousness. God gave us commands not because he wants to restrict us or punish us, but because he loves us and wants to protect us. His commands bring our attention to the things in life that are important - mercy, justice, humility, orphans, widows, the poor, and the Gospel that brings hope and true life.

I have by far not listed all of the commands and teachings that God issued to the prophets or that Jesus gave to his disciples, but each one only continues to show the beauty of the God we serve and his heart for mankind. I desire with my whole being to obey his commands and to take up my cross and follow him. My prayer is that I do not lose focus on the purpose and passion that God has placed in my heart.

The Final Stretch

So, this blog will reflect my last semester at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I am excited for May to come! I can hardly believe that I am able to finish in 4 years with a double major (German & Linguistics), even having spent a year abroad. God is so good! As I look back on my life, he has been so faithful, guiding me to UWM, pouring out so many blessings and bringing many wonderful people into my life. I can't think of a better place to have spent the last four years. However, something else I have learned is that any place can be wonderful if you focus on serving God and others around you. I don't think there is a really a wrong place to be, because God is everywhere and he is all you need.

Over the last couple of weeks, I have not been grounded in the Word of God and have felt so lost. Why do I continually let myself drift from the purpose Christ has given, when I know he brings so much joy? But the amazing thing is that he never lets me get too far before drawing me back to himself. We serve such a mighty God who does not leave us as we are. There is nothing more beautiful than remembering we were made to glorify God and that his promises are true.

This Christmas I was reminded so strongly that Christ was born to die in order to restore us to God. It is so humbling to imagine that God, the creator of all the earth, would reach out to us and restore us to himself. I feel so small, yet so loved at the same time. My prayer for this next semester is to be known as Christ's and be bold for him. I pray that Christ's love will pour out of me into the lives of others. I just want to serve him, to learn more about him and to live like him.

I will need all of his strength to survive until May. As always, I have chosen the challenging road instead of the easy one. I could have taken an easy 3 credit German class, but I am doing an independent study for the last 3 German credits I need. I know that I will be stretched but am also excited to grow and learn how to do research. I think it will really prepare me for graduate school, which reminds me...I am supposed to be researching the GRE and grad schools at this very moment. So, that's my first post...the beginning of the final stretch to completing this chapter of my life. How exciting!