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The bedroom floor exploded with pink and green as we dumped all our purchases onto the floor. We spread out the fabric, paint, ribbon, and all sorts of crafty things that we had just purchased. The four of us club sisters in Chi Omega Pi then went to work, creating gifts for our upcoming new members - all of course in pink and green, our club colors. Each fall semester, when new girls are inducted into the club, old members pair up to become "big sisters" for each of the new members. Our purpose is to welcome them into the club, build a friendship with them, support them throughout the induction week process, and shower them with fun and cute gifts. They work hard throughout club week, and it is our joy to reward them with sweet surprises. Each day of the week, we treat them with a gift. The first night we decorated their dorm room doors with pink and green streamers, balloons, and poster board. Throughout the next five days, we leave them surprises - chocolate in their m

This week, our church hosted a missions-centered dessert night in which we heard from several speakers regarding their experiences with world missions, prayed together over the nations, and were challenged to live with God's heart for the world.   We were seated at round tables in groups, and each table represented a specific county. When the desserts were served, I began to notice that there was something deeper and significant going on.   The United States table was loaded. Their server brought a cart filled with rich desserts and just kept putting them on the table until there was no room left. Then the server started placing desserts in the hands and laps of the people sitting around the table.   When the server came to my table, which represented Russia, one person got a real dessert and the rest of us recieved a tiny cup of gummy Warhead candies. Some tables got nothing at all.   Of course, the Unites States table got up and started passing out their desserts

We pulled up to the trailhead past dark, and my headlights shone on a sign that read, "Day use only. No camping." "Hmmm, that's strange," I announced to the other girls in my car. "I was sure that we camped here before, but maybe I was wrong. We will just have to keep looking." We drove around for the next thirty minutes, only to no avail. By this time it was 8:30, way past dark, and none of us had eaten dinner yet. Our hot dogs and smores were still packed away, along with our tent, which I couldn't figure out where we were going to pitch for the night. Slightly frustrated and embarrassed at the way our girls' camping trip was starting off, I decided to drive to the nearest town and ask for directions. However, all the stores...actually, the one and only store...was closed for the evening. It was past dark. We were in an unfamiliar town in the middle of no-where-country-backwoods-Arkansas. And we were a vulnerable-looking bunch of six

I slightly panicked when I opened my card holder. It noticed right away that it felt more flimsy then normal, and then I realized my student ID was missing. I quickly scanned the ground around me, only to have the panic set in a little stronger than before. I retraced my steps to the room I had come from. I messaged my friend and asked her to check her backseat. The hosts of my Sunday night community group looked all through their house. After looking everywhere I could think to look, I admitted it. "I think I have officially lost my student ID," I told my friends the following morning. My busy schedule combined with the narrow office hours of the card-making office made it impossible for me to get a new card until several days later. The problem was that my card gets me into the cafeteria and dorm. "I don't know how I am going to eat over the next three days," I confessed. "Well, I guess you will get to practice living in need!" my friend, Emily,

I looked at my calendar and realized that the 5k that my friend, Rachael, and I decided to run this semester had snuck up on us too quickly. "Is that seriously this weekend?" I asked last Sunday night. "Yeah, we have to start running!" Rachael responded. Maybe this will be the inspiration for my next book. Sounds like a good title, doesn't it?  5k in 5 Days . We ran two miles on Monday night, three miles on Tuesday and Wednesday night, and three and a half miles Thursday night before resting on Friday and getting up early Saturday morning to race. Even though it was usually around 11:00 PM before both of us could find time to jog during the week, we bundled up in leggings and sweatshirts and jogged around campus in the dark. We don't get to see each other very much these days, so we spent the time catching up, telling stories, and laughing together as we ran. Then, Saturday morning, we drove down to the Arkansas river in the morning fog and completed o

I came across a Scripture this week that I don't think I have ever read. Even though I have done those read-through-the-Bible programs, I would not have recognized this particular verse had you mentioned it to me. I suppose I have read it before now, but I had never really read it. And when I think about it, I realize that I can re-read a verse that I've read a thousand times before, and there will come a moment when I feel like I finally read it for the first time. That's just one of the many beauties of God's marvelous Word. And this particular verse, the one I really read for the first time this week, was exactly what I needed to hear. Another one of the beauties of God's Word. In Isaiah 5, Isaiah points out some powerful "woes" to the rebellious people of Israel, who have neglected God as their first love and turned to all sorts of other things to find pleasure and satisfaction. "Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, an

As soon as we began to sing, I stood up and made my way to the front, my heart beating fast and tears forming in the corners of my eyes. I joined others as we walked down the rows together, and I met some friends in warm embraces at the front. Before us stood a large panel with a map of the world. The oceans were painted with colorful strokes of pinks, purples, and blues, yet the continents were left unpainted...but not for long. Prompted by the keynote speaker that night, we came forward to make a committment to mission work and to place our hands on the part of the world to which we were going. I watched people before me place their painted handprints on China, India, Latin America, and the United States. We were instructed, "If you don't have a specific place in mind, put your mark anywhere on the world. The Lord knows." Together, my friend Emily and I, with blue-painted hands and passion-painted hearts, stamped our hands and our love for God's world right in t

If only we beat the rain. Had we arrived but ten minutes earlier, we would have avoided the mess. But no, as soon as we parked the car and got out the ten, the heavens broke open and it started to pour. "Hurry! Set up the tent before the rains get stronger and the ground becomes too saturated," we were instructed. So we headed out to the field in the pouring rain to set up our tent for the weekend at the Global Missions Experience . After unrolling the groundcloth, spreading out the tent, and feeding the poles through the material, we discovered a major problem. One of the strings that holds the poles together had snapped, leaving us with a broken pole in the pouring rain. As a friend tried to help us fix it, we noticed a river of water running downhill toward us. It was raining so hard and so fast that you could literally watch the giant puddle rushing toward us. "Roll it up! Roll it all up quick!" we yelled as we gathered up the tent and groundcloth - covere