Take These Dry Bones.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been exhausted. I've been bogged down with tests and projects and assignments. I got a bad test score (in the midst of three awesome test scores, but of course, I had to focus on the one negative.) I had been going to bed late and getting up early. I hadn't gotten to spend time with my family in-depth for a long time. I missed (and still miss) Hayden terribly. I had friends going through things that were just tough.

This weekend I was so thankful for the chance to get to come home and have a time of rest. However, I was greeted with news that a girl from my home youth group had lost her father to a terrible virus that killed him in two weeks. As my family was watching "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" last night, my dad got a phone call saying that my grandpa was in the hospital again. We found out today that my grandpa most likely has an infection somewhere around his brain and they will be performing a spinal tap sometime today to help them find more answers. He is currently in Intensive Care.

These are just tough things. However, in the midst of all this trouble, there are still incredibly happy things going on around me: babies being born, couples getting engaged and married, churches being planted, salvation to the lost, and opportunities offered. What I've been experiencing made me think back to a passage I read a little while ago for the first time ever. It can be found in Ezekiel chapter 37 verses 1- 14. You can read it if you would like, but I'll give a quick synopsis. The Spirit of the Lord causes Ezekiel to have a vision. In his vision, he is taken to this valley full of dusty and dry bones--literally filled to the brim with death. God asks Ezekiel a simple question. He asks, "Ezekiel, can these bones ever experience life again?" Ezekiel is probably dumbfounded by the question and simply responds by saying that only God himself could know that. Then God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones and tell them to hear the word of the Lord and that He will give them life. Long story short, by the end of the passage, the valley full of dry bones becomes a valley filled with an army of strong men: men into whom God breathed life and flesh, and muscle.

All that to say, today as I was sitting in my parents' Sunday School classroom, the teacher was talking about the passage that we use over and over again: Romans 8:28. "For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose." God is sovereign over all. He is able to take a terrible situation and use it for good. As followers of Christ, absolutely everything in our lives can be used to further God's Kingdom and to bring us closer to Him. He makes all things new. He gives dry bones the breath of life. He can build an army from a pile of skeletons. When your spiritual life is dry, when things come toward you that you fear will shatter your dry bones, and when your faith is small and your heart is calloused, look out over that valley. See the strong army that came from dry bones. That's what God has been teaching me lately.

Until next time,

Jess

Viva Las Vegas!

Hi, friends!

It's been so long since I've written last. I apologize, but things have been so incredibly busy! I just got back from a four-day weekend full of adventures! I can't believe Fall Break is over and I have to go back to normal life...and a week full of midterms and projects. BUT I am so thankful that I got to go on an amazing trip to Las Vegas, Nevada! My boyfriend, Hayden will be there all semester with his aunt and uncle, who have a ministry called Safely Home, to Bhutanese, Burmese, and Nepali refugees who live in the area. You can read more about Safely Home here. I got to stay with their family and see the sights as well as meet some of the refugees.

Day 1: I flew all by myself! I was so proud of myself. Nothing went wrong and the Lord took care of me. Hayden and his Aunt Cynthia met me at the airport where I gave both of them big hugs! They then took me to eat at a Mexican restaurant where we met up with Hayden's cousin Alicia and Uncle Tom. From there, we went to the mall and Hayden got his very first pair of TOMS shoes. Then we drove down the strip to see all of the lights.

At the airport!

Day 2: We had planned to go to the Grand Canyon, but the night before, it had rained and there were flash flood warnings, so that was a no-go. Out of the six days that it rains a year in Las Vegas, I got to be there for one of them. I feel honored? Instead of the Grand Canyon, we grabbed some lunch from In-N-Out Burger and headed to a beautiful place called Red Rock Canyon, where we looked for wild burros, saw some amazing desert landscape, and ate our lunch in the car as a storm blew through. After this, Hayden, Aunt Cynthia, Alicia, and I all went to see inside some of the elaborate hotels and casinos. I was amazed at how much money goes into these buildings. From the ornate decorations to the insane amount of gambling that goes on...Las Vegas is a very money-oriented place.

Red Rock Canyon

Me and Alicia

Me and Hayden

New York, New York Hotel and Casino

Inside the Venetian. Amazing.

Blown glass chandelier in the Bellagio

Water fountain show at the Bellagio

Day 3: This was my last day. We started out at Tropicana Christian Church, where Hayden teaches his Sunday school class of 3-5 year-olds. It was neat to be able to see the church and help Hayden with his Sunday School lesson! After that, we took a van with several other people who were interested in helping serve with Safely Home, to a refugee apartment, where we were shown a short film and served a meal. I was a little bit nervous, because it is required that you eat when you are at the refugee homes, and you must eat pretty much everything, or else it is considered very rude to their families. However, the food was actually pretty good! The people were also incredibly hospitable. After this, we headed to another refugee apartment, where there was a birthday party for a 10-year old boy. Birthdays for their children are especially exciting, because this is the generation that will not have to grow up in a refugee camp. And...we were served yet another meal! Across the hall, there was another refugee birthday party for a little 3-year-old girl. She was all decked out in a sparkly princess dress and it was adorable. After we left the apartment complex, we were able to go to the top of the Stratosphere, which is at the end of the strip. It was amazing to see the vast amount of lights in Las Vegas, and how they completely stop when you get to the mountains. We ended the night with some pie from Marie Callender's restaurant, before I had to be at the airport at 5 am the next day.

Hayden showing off his craft closet

One of the refugee women who served us

The first meal that we were served.

Hayden and I at the Stratosphere 

It was a wonderful weekend! I got to see Hayden and meet the family he is always talking about as well as the refugees he goes on and on about. And it was interesting, because I found that the lights on the Vegas strip were nothing compared to the way that the refugees' eyes shined as they served us and fellowshipped with one another. Nothing man-made can ever compare to what God has made, no matter how glitzy and glamorous it is. In the words of Jon Foreman, "The first star that I saw last night was a headlight of a man-made sky, but man-made never made our dreams collide." I saw many different faces this weekend. I saw the pained and empty faces of gamblers in casinos. I saw the passionate face of my missionary boyfriend. I saw the caring face of Hayden's aunt as she sacrifices so much to be with these refugees. And I saw the face of joy in a refugee believer.

Until next time,

Jess