That time again...

So, it's about that time again. Dun dun duuunn....the new year's resolutions post!

Today in Breakthru, Joe Skillen gave a very challenging sermon on this idea. He talked first about how he has tried to make a Spiritual, Intellectual, and Physical goal. I liked this idea, and the tips/suggestions he made for reasons why we should make these goals really drove home to me. More than anything, I was really challenged by his comment that we should "Do something that cripples you so you must cry out to God." I'm so often unwilling to attempt anything at which I might fail.

I spent some time really praying this afternoon about what he spoke on, and here's what I've come up with. He said make them public, so here I go. The four of you who read this: feel free to ask me how it's going!

Spiritual: Spend 30 min/3x/week being still and learning to listen for God's voice.

Physical: Run 1/2 mile/4x/week with the goal being able to do a consecutive mile by graduation and 2 consecutive miles by Christmas 2010. Not much to some people, but a big goal for me!

Intellectual: This one is an either/or goal. I either want to finish The Collected Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer or spend the time to go through each book of the Bible and really understand each books overarching purpose. Hopefully, God will help me accomplish both!

So that's mine. What about you? Let God challenge and push you this year. May Jesus be your impetus and the Spirit be your strength!

For Jazz

Here is a new post for my dear sista Jasmine. She checks my blog every day and I never have new posts up.

So here's to you, dear Jazz. New post duly put up. :D

LOVE YOU!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Update?

So, for the five of you who read this little bloggy thing of mine, here's an update on my life!

I'm 4 weeks from the end of my last semester of college classes! Holy cow, it seems rather unreal! Next semester I will be living in Rochester on a futon in my professor's attic while doing a 336 hour internship with Interpretek, a sign language interpreting agency. Then I graduate the last weekend in May!!!!!!!

Last week, I started a new job at a bookstore in town. I love it! Totally my kind of gig. Also, it's a wonderful blessing because they'll give me weekend hours next semester so that I don't have to work part time during the week on top of my internship. This also means I'll be back on campus over each weekend and get to hang out with Jazz and Jane, my "sistas".

Other than that, I hope to head back for one more summer at Summit after graduation. Not sure what I'm going to be doing job-wise post-grad. God knows, though! I'm praying for revelation in His time. Same story with plans for Rob and me. We've started discussing wedding stuff, but we're not ready to settle on a date yet. Still just praying for His will!

That's the life here in NY! God is good, I am blessed, and this is the day the Lord has made!

A Good Reminder

I've been working my way through Exodus, which has begun to get a bit tedious as I've arrived at all the laws that were lain down for the Israelites. I hate feeling this way about the Word. I want to eagerly look forward to opening it! I want to consider it "my old friend" as one sermon put it. Today I opened up and simply asked the Lord to teach me something, anything, through the chapters on how many sheep it takes to repay for a stolen one, etc. He is so faithful! I came across this verse:

Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.
Exodus 23:7

I was struck by this verse as the Lord showed me the power of the New Covenant. This explains the very root of the New Covenant that Jesus made for us on the cross.

Before His coming, only the guilty party could truly pay for a sin. Our world today has taken the idea of guilt and responsibility and twisted it into something that says that as long as a wrong is paid for, we're satisfied. Who cares if the wrong person is in jail? What matters is not the guilt of the punished but that the "debt to society" has been paid by someone...anyone.

Here, the God of the Hebrews was saying that even if an innocent person were punished with death for the fault of another, that guilty party would still face God's wrath. However, when he sent Jesus, he did the exact opposite of this. He put to death an innocent and honest person and now refuses to hold the guilty responsible. We have been acquitted!

We praise you, Jesus!

Engaged!!!

So I realize that this is going to come as a total shock to most of you, but......I'M ENGAGED!!!!!!!

I know most of you didn't even know I was seeing someone, so I decided to write a detailed account so you could have all the details. If you have ANY questions, please feel free to call me! (cell 316.303.2041)

This past weekend, Jazz (my roommate/best friend) and I headed to Canada for the weekend. The purpose of the trip was to meet my "boyfriend" Rob. Though we have never officially decided to date, I've been talking and/or webcamming with him for hours every night for the last 7 months. Rob and I met online in a Christian chat room in early February. He's an incredible man of God--I can't describe to you how I've grown in these last months! God has used him to challenge me and change me more into the woman He created me to be! Of the hours we spend together online each night, usually at least 2 of them are spent in the Word of God or in prayer. It's such wonderful fellowship and encouragement! Over this time, I've grown to love him first as a friend, then as a brother in Christ, and finally as the man God has created for me! So, God recently led Rob into figuring out a way to come out and meet me in person! Jazz has also gotten to know him well online, so she and I headed up north.

We picked him up at the airport in Toronto in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Rob lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Jazz and Rob had reserved a couple rooms at a hotel there, so we spent a short night there, then headed back south to Niagara Falls. We stayed at a hotel about 2 miles up the river from the falls--the hotel rooms had a view of the Niagara River! It was beautiful!!

This weekend was so full of God's providence it's hard to even describe. I'd say everything went perfectly according to plan, and it did, but not ours--God's! First off, I left my dress in my closet, and Rob was bringing a suit to wear on our date Saturday night. So, Saturday morning we hit the mall! Yikes--you all know how much I love to shop for clothes....NOT! Jazz was amazing and Rob was patient, and we found a gorgeous dress! Rob makes me feel like the most beautiful girl in the world anyway, but this dress was AMAZING!

So Saturday night we went out to Tony Roma's all dressed up--it was a blast! :D Then we headed back to the hotel to grab a jacket and walk the Niagara River. On our way out, we decided to stop in the empty restaurant on the 2nd floor and talk for a bit. Rob, after a few minutes, said, "I have something for you, but you have to turn your chair around first." (we were facing the windows that looked out on the river.) I turned around and he got down on one knee. He said, "Stephanie Lane Wittich, I love you so much.....will you marry me?" Of COURSE, I said YES! He then pulled the ring out of his pocket and slipped it on my finger--it's a PERFECT fit!! For the next 30-45 minutes, we sat on the floor in that dark, quiet restaurant and poured out our thankfulness and hearts to God in prayer.

We headed back to the room, and when Jazz saw my finger, she literally body checked Rob out of the way to give me a hug. Speaking of Jazz, she was amazing. All weekend, she just let the Lord use her to bless me and Rob and let us have some time together. She's incredible! Definitely a great "sista".

After calling my immediate family (PS...shocked my little brother speechless, if you can imagine that!), we drove down and looked at the falls from the car--it was pretty chilly out, and we didn't feel like getting soaked by the mist from the Falls. That night, the brakes on Jazz's car started to act funny, like a brake line was going. We prayed over the car and entrusted it to the Father. He knew we needed to drive 2 hours north to Toronto and 4.5 hours back south to Keuka!

The next day we checked out of the hotel, prayed over the car one more time, and headed to lunch. the Applebees where we ate was just up the road from the falls, so we walked down the hill to actually tourist it up! It was a GORGEOUS day--God was so good! Jazz was a regular photographer!! She got about a kajillion amazing pictures of us/the falls (the best are attached). We drove up to Toronto and had about 3 hours to kill, so we found a park near the airport. We spent time reading the word and praying (not the first time it happened this weekend). It was an awesome time of fellowship. We then took him to the airport--quite possibly one of the hardest things I've ever done!

God was faithful--the car got us home with only one moment of complaint! It was an incredible display of God's sovereignty and power! Also, the border crossing into Canada took 20 minutes--coming back, less than 10! It was amazing.

So long story sort of short, I just had the most amazing weekend of my life (thus far :D). I love Rob with everything God has given me. He constantly pushes me toward the Lord and challenges me to keep growing and seeking Him. And he's INCREDIBLY handsome, if I do say so myself :D Again, I know most of you are not quite sure what to think about all this...please just know that God has been the center of this entire relationship, and he will continue to be so for many years to come!

So now the questions I'm sure you have are: have you set a date? what's next? Where will you live? When will we get to meet Rob? The answer to all of the above is we don't know. God has only made clear that engagement is where he wants us right now. We don't have any other answers--we're just going to enjoy this for a while, and God will lead us further when He's ready!

Love you all!! Enjoy the pictures!!!
MUAH!

The Word in its Entirety

I have been learning and growing so much, and the majority of what I've learned, what has really "come home" to my heart, is stuff that would make most believers say, "DUH!" Yet I think I am not alone in having times in my walk where the Lord must teach me his simple yet very profound truths.

Most recently, I've been relearning what it means to really love the Word of God. I had fallen into the trap that is often found in our pews of reading only the parts of Scripture that I like. You know, the Psalms are always good, and you gotta love Romans and Ephesians. Proverb-a-day mentality runs rampant, and I had definitely jumped on the bandwagon. So I've gone back to the beginning--literally. I've started in Genesis not with the intent of reading the Bible in a year, or even in three. I've started at the beginning with the intent of reading a really good book, diving into an awesome story. I'm not reading things delineated by chapter and verse. I'm holding in my hands a beautiful narrative, outlined by Creation, the Fall, and the Redemption of the world.

At Summit, one of the speakers commented thus, and I paraphrase: "If you were to pick up one of 'the Greats', say Pride and Prejudice, would you read chapters 1, 8, bits of 14, and the second half of 20? Of course not! The parts cannot make sense outside of the whole narrative! If we read, in this way, certain parts of the Bible without the greater story, how can we ever understand how God is working in us and through us? Instead, we read the Bible as we would Aesop's Fables, a tale with a moral. Is it possible that the Bible, ALL of the Bible, is bigger than the simple applications we can glean for our day to day lives? It is epic! Read it as such!"

This really hit home for me. So it's back to the beginning, with the goal of fleshing out my bare-bones understanding of much of the Word. I'm getting to know the characters, learning their humanity, their faults, their triumphs. This is one story I never want to put down!

Summit Sadness

Hey, all. PLEASE be keeping Summit students in your prayers. Satan does not like what goes on here, and nearly ever session something happens that causes students to have to rush home. Here's what's going on.

--Two students here, a brother and sister, got word this morning that their dad had died, very unexpectedly. Their cousin is also a student here. The two are flying home about now, and the cousin has yet to find a way back. One of the friends they came with is in my small group.

--Also, another student heard a few hours ago that her best friend's father had shot his daughter and his wife to death. The friend who was shot was an athiest.

Pray for comfort for all involved in these events. Please pray for continued protection--we know that God is sovereign and still in control! Also, please pray for the staffers, especially the small group leaders of those involved, that we would have wisdom and compassion to handle these students with love.