Home at last

I am home...well my other home, good old Rohnert Park. I made it here after all day of preparing to drive here, then actually driving here. It was a long day but I'm happy to see my family, I missed them.

I've been relaxing since school got out and it has been soooo nice...no homework, tests, papers, work...nothing...I am free, for the meantime. Crocheting has become my relaxation lately...I've been doing a lot of it, mainly to make Christmas presents but it is also very enjoyable.

Sunday at the Stirring was really good. 1. We had the kids Christmas performance...they all got up on stage and sang Christmas songs and did hand motions. It was so cute, and it went much better than last year...no kids jumping off stage or fighting on stage.

2. The message was really good. It was about making time for relationships out of your busy schedule...the busy part doesn't apply to me so much because I'm not that busy...but the part about building deep friendships did. I want to go deeper with my friendships...i don't want to be a shallow person with surface relationships. I want to really connect with people and learn to love deeply. I feel like I am so self-centered and everything I do revolves around me, but I don't want that. I want to focus on other people and building relationships and pouring into people. I want to love unconditionally like Jesus loved. I find myself being judgmental and pushing away from people. I don't want to be that kind of person. I want to be broken...I want to break for other people...I want to be broken of myself...I want to have Jesus' heart for people. I don't want my selfish heart but Jesus' loving and passionate heart.

I want to be fully broken by Jesus.

FINALS have arrived...

Finals week has arrived and is now almost over. I have completed 5 out of my 6 finals and my last one is tomorrow morning. I feel pretty confident about the finals I have already done, now I'm hoping I get overall good grades.

Something I am very excited about is that I got accepted onto the Kenya summer mission team for this coming summer. I am so glad I got accepted and now I can't wait to go. I know there is going to be stress involved with the whole trip but I think it will be well worth it to be able to go to Africa. I've never been on a mission trip before and I am anxious to get a feel for it, and I'm also relieved to get out of America! I want so badly to live in another culture, and I will finally get to do that.

So yay Kenya and boo finals...but Christmas break is almost here.

School=LAME

I realized I am not doing good in some of my classes...that is not good seeing how it is the end of the semester.

I failed a test...didn't turn in a few homeworks...forgot about the take home test...was absent a lot...and had no motivation to get my work done. Aaah shoooot. That's all I can say.

The stress is just beginning! FINALS next week and I have so much to do...a lot of extra credit to get my grades up.

Oh and the fun begins...why did I procrastinate???

Even better than Thanksgiving....

Are the days after Thanksgiving when you get to eat leftovers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I think I look forward more to the leftovers than I do the actual meal. Turkey sandwiches with stuffing, potatoes, and yams piled on top and then pie afterward.....mmmmm. Sure you gain a few pounds, but it is so worth it.

I'm enjoying spending time with my family and just relaxing before the chaos begins. Next week is cram time for finals, and then FINALS. I feel I should be doing some schoolwork right now because it seems that everyone else is, but I don't think I have anything to do.....other than maybe studying for finals. I hope I didn't forget that I had something to do....that is very possible with my disorganized life. I will find out on Monday when I come to class with nothing to turn in and everyone else had been working all break. That seems to be happening often this semester.

Anyways....today I think I am going to relax...get some reading in...crochet a little bit...hang out with my mom before she leaves...and just enjoy the down time. It's a nice day outside so maybe I'll go outside too. I feel like keeping it low key....at least for now.

A time to be thankful

I love a holiday where we reflect upon what we are thankful for...negativity fades away as we focus on the good in our lives. It ultimately brings us back to God....for all good things come from Him.

I am so thankful:

• God has called me into a love relationship with Him
• That i have been blessed with an amazing family
• That I have support in my life
• God has given me a purpose and a calling
• For my community
• I have a mother who is an amazing woman
• God always provides for me
• I have a prayer partner who walks out life with me
• God has given me freedom, passion, and love

There is so much to be thankful for....we should treat every day as a holiday for thanksgiving.

A few weeks ago we had a commuter chapel where the commuters were in charge of running chapel. Since I am a commuter assistant I had to do a lot for the chapel. I spoke at chapel but I also made a video for the Handbook Wisdom. We were told that we had to inform the students about a rule from the Student Handbook, so we chose to do the Safety Whistle Program. We made a video about what the rule is and how you can put it into action. It was really fun to do, so I decided to share it with everyone.


Handbook Wisdom-Safety Whistle Program from Elisa McKeown on Vimeo.

Prayer Walks

I feel very encouraged today. A couple of weeks ago me and my cousin Chelsea went on a prayer walk to pray for our families and our family as a whole. I feel that God has called us to come together and be in prayer for our family, and so we try and go on prayer walks often. God does crazy things within our family when we start our prayer walks. Last school year we went on prayer walks every Saturday morning, and each week we would walk for an hour or more and just lift up our family and other issues to God. He was majorly at work in our family and we saw His blessings being poured out. It was really amazing.

So anyways (I just had to explain a little before I could get to the story) we stopped doing or prayer walks for a long time because I went home for the summer, and this school year has just been so busy. But we were finally able to go a couple of weeks ago because there are some things going on in our family that definitely needed to be prayed about, and so me and Chelsea did that. Right away we saw the Lord begin to work. There is something so strong about family coming together to pray for family, it is like a double bond of strength. Every time me and Chelsea come together to pray we are dangerous!! So after we went on our first prayer walk we had been on in a while, we both began to feel very oppressed. We have both been feeling discouraged and negative and we don't have reasons to be. We realized that this started after we had gone on our prayer walk, because Satan knows that we are praying the Lord's will over our family and that is exactly what he doesn't want. So he has been on the attack! We both realized this as we were talking today and talking about experiencing the same things, so we decided it was necessary for a prayer walk. We prayed for our family and against Satan's attack and took the authority Christ gave us to stand up against Satan's schemes and be strong. When we use the authority that Christ gives us it is powerful!! Satan cannot stand against the Lord's power, and that power lives within us, so we need to use that power for the Lord's glory.

It was just a great and encouraging day and I feel free from oppression, but I am still protecting myself with the Armor of the Lord.