It's 3:07 in the morning!

Hey everybody.
It's really early in the morning, or late at night, depending on your frame of reference. Today I had an Econ quiz...I knew the material, I thought it was pretty simple. Then I was worked in the Dining Hall for "oodles" (their specialty restaurant) as a runner for 2.5 hours. WOW! Over 700 people were served from 11am-130pm. It was soooooooo crazy. I was so exhausted! At 7pm I went to "hangout" for freshmen and sophomores in I-Life...it was fun. We played pictionary and catch phrase. I met a lot of people. It was actually really cool. Even though the party ended at 10pm....I was there hanging out with a few people til just before 2 in the morning. It was awesome though, I really got to talk to people. Afterwards, my new friend, Alan, walked me back to Busey. I wanted to go down Green St. to see what it was like. WOW! We passed by some people and one guy couldn't walk straight he was so drunk. It really broke my heart. I think that people fear reality of life. So they go out on the weekends and get drunk and do whatever to be far from reality. Because if a person comes face to face with reality and life...they have no clue where they are going and what their purpose is. If people drink they avoid facing that point when they don't know why they are here and have no idea how to find that out. I don't know...that's how it hits me. But I have Jesus, He's holding my hand leading me through my life, so I have no fear facing life and it's reality because I know why I am here, I know my purpose, and I know where I am headed, into eternity. I can just dance with Jesus through life. I need my sleep. I'll post some pictures I took tonight at the party thing next post.

Rach

"nothing significant happened today enough to be a title" title

Hey everybody!
Today was a boring day...nothing exciting. After orchestra I went to Val's apartment and we had some frozen pizza and delicious cookies and milk. And we studied....listening to Norah Jones and Usher...haha, weird combo. Afterwards I went to the lounge and studied for my econ quiz. I was bored afterwards and lonely, so Clay and Jeff came over to Busey Latenight and ate food and kept me company and we talked. Well I'm just gonna study a bit more Econ. Goodnight!

Rach

Newfound Coffee Drinker

well...tonight was my first late night studying! I started studying around 7:30pm....to no success...my room is tooooo distracting. Then I went to ISR with my roommate for their latenight. We sang "For Good" on the way back....good times. Then I just absolutely could not concentrate...so I lugged my astronomy and econ stuff to the Busey Lounge around 10pm. I was listening to orchestrial music on my iPod...until a girl came in and started to practice her piano music for approximately 30 minutes...drowning out my music. Then around 11:45pm, my eyelids were getting a bit heavy, so I went down to latenight and got a Hazy Turtle...I'm acquiring a taste for coffee...wow I never thought the day would come when I would rely on coffee. I'm so glad I can sleep in tomorrow. Yay! So I found potentially the most amazing place to be at night in Urbana Champaign: the rooftop of the Krannert Center. It's so wide open, that on a clear night you could just lay on the roof and look at the stars....wow...I really wanna do that sometime..but not by myself. Well I'm gonna go to bed and sleep in!

Rach

Everything I Do...

I wasn't gonna post anything about yesterday cause, well nothing exciting happened yesterday. But my mom told me she missed reading my blog this morning so....i'll write something. At I-teams yesterday we talked about the church and community in Acts (I'm reading Acts right now!) and we built churches out of weird things like: crayons, styrofoam, paper plates, pipewire, feathers, sponges......stuff like that. Okay, going on a tangent...I really really really like the song "Everything I Do (I Do For You)"....so if I ever get married I wanna dance to that song! That was so random. Well I really need to study right now! Hopefully something exciting happens today so I can blog it!

Rach

Astronomy Observation Session

Nothing exciting happened the rest of the day except I went to this Night Observation Session at the Campus Observatory. I had to wait a long time to look through this humongous (is that spelled right) telescope. I ended up talking with this guy who came right behind me in line. Afterwards we went outside to look through smaller telescopes. I saw the moon...it's a waxing gibbous at the moment. It is so amazing to see the stars and moon up close. Afterwards the guy I just met and I went to Busey Late Night and did the whole worksheet that we have to turn in on Monday. It turns out that he's also on my Econ class, funny. I'm gonna go to sleep maybe?

Rach

Learning To Be Silent and Serve People

Hey y'all!
I was so determined to go to bed before 11:00pm that I forgot to blog last night! Sorry! Yesterday I went to Quest...Andy's message was amazing. God is teaching me about silence. First at Upper Room Friday night Chris had us all be silent for 10 minutes...and then Andy talks about how we need to be silent to hear God's voice. Here are some things I picked up from his message:
--Is there a connection between the amount of noise in our own lives and our inability to hear God?
--If I am not still and don't listen, how is Jesus going to give me rest?
--God WILL show up in silence.

Wow, how amazing! Then I went to Dos Reales with Quest people (my brother had something else going on). Anne and I went to Wal-mart to go shopping. Anne is a high school math teacher...I am going to be a high school math teacher...how cool is that! I worked out at CRCE and then ate dinner (I had a waffle, yum!). Then I went down to the Busey Lounge to study...it's quiet down there...so I think I found my official study place. At 8pm I went to Laura's apartment and played "Settlers of Catan" with Ty and Laura. The game is a mix between Risk and Monopoly. Ty won. Darn. Afterwards I talked to Jared and Yvonne...they rock...and Matt, he called. I love my siblings! They are amazing. Everyone should meet them...and my parents...they are amazing too!
Have you ever heard of Facebook (www.facebook.com)? It's pretty much a way to meet other students at universities. if you have an email that ends with ".edu" you can have a profile. Anyway, you can search people and "add them as a friend" however the other person has to confirm that they want to be friends with you. If you are, then that person is listed on your "Friends List." well I saw Dee Brown (the cool illini bball player) so I added him as a friend...and guess what...he confirmed me as a friend too! So Dee Brown and I are facebook friends. So I could technically talk to him through facebook. This morning I got up at 6:30am and worked from 7:15am-9:45am. After ECON at 10am I realized that I had a lot of time on my hands since I didn't have math class this week so my next class wasn't until 2pm...so I went down to the Busey Dining Hall and worked from 11:30a-1:45pm. The first shift I was runner (refilling hot food). I love working in the dining hall, so I was really enthusiastic about it, and just had fun. My supervisor (Gina) noticed and said something to my boss Bill. I guess Gina is gonna write me a commendation letter (goes on my dining services record for if I wanna apply to be a supervisor--it's a good thing) and Bill told me that I did a good job and that he was proud of me. Wow, that made me really happy. I was just having fun...serving people. Well I'm gonna work out now at CRCE. I'll blog the rest of this day later. So I'm having a good day!

Rach

i am limited, but He is limitless

The pastor of Illini Life shared a pretty powerful message, and I took notes. These are lines from his message that really captivated my heart:
-The gospel is about passion and adventure
-That which touches my heart and my soul is a part of God's glory and beauty.
-Every pain I feel is a result of being cut off from my Creator
-Spiritual death is not what God designed for me--He created me for a relationship with Him.
-Jesus paid a debt He didn't owe.
-I can't earn eternity
-I was made to live in freedom
-Do not replace the core of the gospel with the fruit of the gospel.

Those are thoughts that really got me. After SNG Erin, Mike, Matt M., and Laura came over to my dorm room and ate my cookies while I put gym shoes on. Then we walked over to the Krannert Center to play capture the flag. It was cool...the way that the Krannert center is designed, you'd think it came from a James Bond N64 game level because there are many outdoor levels. We started around 10:15ish and we didn't finish til 12am..but the team I was on won! So I just realized this: I cannot describe God, because if I start to describe Him I compare Him...and one cannot compare God because he is infinite and limitless. Wow! God is soooo big. I don't think I really can comprehend God's hugeness because my mind is so limited.

Rach