Recently, I have been going through, and am not currently completely out of, a period of slight depression, though i dont know for sure that its depression, just felt really low...lower then dirt.
But one day last week lifted my spirits when i got to talk with my sister from Hawaii! The Lord is moving greatly in her life and the whole conversation was so encouraging and amazing, God answers PRAYER!!! Please keep her in your prayers.
my angst is gone for the most part. While the Lord works out my kinks, Im trying to focus on finishing this semester strong. There is much to be excited for that is coming up in the near future such as Completing the semester, being a part of my friend April's wedding, going back to Stafford for the summer where i will be doing 2 things, sitting in on classes in elementary schools, and interning with Pillar! im thrilled to be able to work along side my wonderful church family! and i am excited to see all your beautiful faces!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Peru 3- An Awesome Jesus Moment
This picture is a favorite of mine despite how disgusting i look. It reminds me of a great day in Santa Rosa, and of an awesome God-story. The teenager in the red shirt, His name is Bladimero. to his left is (holding the kid) is Roberto, he was one of our translators.
Bladimero is a high school aged kid that we played soccer with the morning of this picture.(picture was taken around 5pm). that night when we were in his town for a Bible study with the adults, one of our teammates got to have a great conversation about the Lord with him. Bladimero is hungry for truth. you can see it in his face. He was attentive whenever we talked about the Lord or from the Bible. The Lord is doing a work in His life for real!
the next day, at 6am, we heard a knock on our door. we were not even awake yet. It was Bladimero. He came by for a Bible!
Please keep praying for Bladimero. He didn't make any confession of faith, but he has the Word now, and he is hungry for truth. He has great potential and I know that the Lord is working in his heart.
On either side of Lacie are two girls, Left is Cynthia and Right is Karen. these are also two girls hungry for the Word of God. we were only able to give them one Bible to share but the Lord is def. working in their lives as well. these three may be young, but one day they will be the leaders of their town. Please keep them in your prayers.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Mountain hiking in Peru
When a Peruvian says to you "Would you like to see the farm i work at? Its only a 10 minute walk". Please realize that ten minutes in Peru is NOT ten minutes in America.
It was about 3pm. we were all sitting around having lunch(rather late, o well). A storm was brewin outside, looked like it would be a down pour from the look of the clouds and the thunder we heard.
but our new friend Damian (who is really awesome, he has been traveling all around South America for years, been nearly everywhere, and he is actully form i believe Venezuela) asked us if we would like to see the farm he works at. He assured us it was just a ten minute walk so we set out, thinking that its just ten minutes, we can beat the storm for sure!
Ten minutes became 20 quickly. down hill at a steep angle. We should have taken note when we were asked if we had problems with our vertigo...or when one of our translators, whom damian had just shown the sorta location off yonder that we were headed to, decided she would not be continueing with us. With her we lost 2 others. 7 remained and carried on.
that 20 minutes became 45 before we made it to the farm. luckily the rain had not come and it was still pretty light out.
as we were walking, downhill, still at a steep slope, we shuffeled through our minds the concept that of "what goes up must come down", except the difference was that for us, "what goes DOWN, mus go UP!" keeping this in the back of our minds as we continued on. we crossed over little streams and through fields nestled in the mountain side, walked throught the sometimes extremely narrow farmers paths and up and over the various rock wall fences. It was a GORGEOUS walk! green hills, beautiful mountainscapes, precious little flowing streams, wild flowers everywhere, animals around. GOREGOUS!!
us 7 (Stephen, Amy, Liz, Jim, Damian, Roberto and I), i would say we were tough and rose to the challenge! we made it to the farm, met the farmer and his wife, saw thier little puppies and the donkey and pig. damian showed us the expanse of land that was a part of the farm and the chickens tried to attack once. (haha, it was funny)
It was great times, only one of us had a camera, so we do have a pic of us there.
alas, the time came to head back up. We contemplated doing a straight steep hike to the road above us a ways to be able to ease our way from there into Chavina, but Damian reminded us that there is a possibility that Matt, Lacie and Margaret were still waiting for us where we left them(30-40 minutes earlier) so we just went the same way we had come from.
It was intense. and i had to pace myself. I was in constant conversation with the Lord, in complete relience of him for even my next breath. "Lord, fill my lungs with Oxygen, help me take this next step, stop the burning sensation on my hand from that plant i just grabbed and shouldnt have!" lol those were my prayers. as silly as they sound, they were truth, honesty, and proof that the Lord provides ALL of our needs. It was a beautiful time. Not only because of the surroundings, but because of the closeness to the Lord, the fellowship with friends, the challenge, the smells, EVERYTHING! The fact that the Lord answered our prayers for the rain to not come (there were many rocks on our return, slippery rocks would have made for some danger, and possibly funny stories...). One minute the clouds were thick and gray, the next they were gone.
At the close of the walk(HIKE!!!), when i asked Roberto to help me thank Damian, Damian responded with something along these lines. "When you are given the chance to see the glory of God through His creation, you should take it, no matter what the cost. He is the ultimate artist and this world is his canvas and he has given it to us. Look how magnificant this is, this piece of art, here for us to see".
That made the entire walk worth it in my book. He was so right! It was a phenominal experience.
FYI. Peruvian 10minute walk=45minutes there, 2 hours back.
got back just in time for night to settle in.
It was about 3pm. we were all sitting around having lunch(rather late, o well). A storm was brewin outside, looked like it would be a down pour from the look of the clouds and the thunder we heard.
but our new friend Damian (who is really awesome, he has been traveling all around South America for years, been nearly everywhere, and he is actully form i believe Venezuela) asked us if we would like to see the farm he works at. He assured us it was just a ten minute walk so we set out, thinking that its just ten minutes, we can beat the storm for sure!
Ten minutes became 20 quickly. down hill at a steep angle. We should have taken note when we were asked if we had problems with our vertigo...or when one of our translators, whom damian had just shown the sorta location off yonder that we were headed to, decided she would not be continueing with us. With her we lost 2 others. 7 remained and carried on.
that 20 minutes became 45 before we made it to the farm. luckily the rain had not come and it was still pretty light out.
as we were walking, downhill, still at a steep slope, we shuffeled through our minds the concept that of "what goes up must come down", except the difference was that for us, "what goes DOWN, mus go UP!" keeping this in the back of our minds as we continued on. we crossed over little streams and through fields nestled in the mountain side, walked throught the sometimes extremely narrow farmers paths and up and over the various rock wall fences. It was a GORGEOUS walk! green hills, beautiful mountainscapes, precious little flowing streams, wild flowers everywhere, animals around. GOREGOUS!!
us 7 (Stephen, Amy, Liz, Jim, Damian, Roberto and I), i would say we were tough and rose to the challenge! we made it to the farm, met the farmer and his wife, saw thier little puppies and the donkey and pig. damian showed us the expanse of land that was a part of the farm and the chickens tried to attack once. (haha, it was funny)
It was great times, only one of us had a camera, so we do have a pic of us there.
alas, the time came to head back up. We contemplated doing a straight steep hike to the road above us a ways to be able to ease our way from there into Chavina, but Damian reminded us that there is a possibility that Matt, Lacie and Margaret were still waiting for us where we left them(30-40 minutes earlier) so we just went the same way we had come from.
It was intense. and i had to pace myself. I was in constant conversation with the Lord, in complete relience of him for even my next breath. "Lord, fill my lungs with Oxygen, help me take this next step, stop the burning sensation on my hand from that plant i just grabbed and shouldnt have!" lol those were my prayers. as silly as they sound, they were truth, honesty, and proof that the Lord provides ALL of our needs. It was a beautiful time. Not only because of the surroundings, but because of the closeness to the Lord, the fellowship with friends, the challenge, the smells, EVERYTHING! The fact that the Lord answered our prayers for the rain to not come (there were many rocks on our return, slippery rocks would have made for some danger, and possibly funny stories...). One minute the clouds were thick and gray, the next they were gone.
At the close of the walk(HIKE!!!), when i asked Roberto to help me thank Damian, Damian responded with something along these lines. "When you are given the chance to see the glory of God through His creation, you should take it, no matter what the cost. He is the ultimate artist and this world is his canvas and he has given it to us. Look how magnificant this is, this piece of art, here for us to see".
That made the entire walk worth it in my book. He was so right! It was a phenominal experience.
FYI. Peruvian 10minute walk=45minutes there, 2 hours back.
got back just in time for night to settle in.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Peru #2
These three amazing people are our translators! Left to right it is Manny(Manuel), Margaret, and Roberto. 
Roberto was very sweet, sorta shy, in love with the Lord, easy to talk to, and ready to learn and translate and love on the people! I enjoyed trying to learn Quechua with him, he def. picked up on it better then I did...
Margaret was great! I enjoyed hanging out with her and learning how to make Peruvian Tortillas. she was outgoing with the people, hilarious when being taught Ebonics from some of our team, and really did a great job translating.
Manny was very chill, easy going, had no time schedule, loved to eat, play the guitar and one thing i will remember bout him is that he was protective of us, looked out for me on the bus ride up to Chavina.
The Lord truly blessed us with them!
Peru Post 1
Here it is, 1:35am, Sunday night/Monday morning... definitely just watched the monkey video on the Garman's blog and am still laughing to myself! never a dull moment with them!
Let me just regain my thoughts here and share with you of whats going on these days...
I have returned from a mission trip to Peru, been back for a week. i was sick with the grody "d" word starting the day we flew back (Saturday) until Tuesdayish. or at least the remnants of it. FYI Pedialyte is NASTY!!! but affective (through this, i have discovered my need of electrolytes...they are quite important) Coinsidently, it was not the Peruvian food that i have to thank for my being sick, nope, in fact it was the good ole American Hamburger, granted i did get it in Peru. Ive learned through this that, though i would order a burger medium-well in the states, i should always order a burger complete and fully WELL DONE!!!! needless to say, i dont believe ill be eating a hamburger any time soon. :)
its quite ridiculous that ive begun my discussion of Peru with something so negative(infact a positive to this is i lost 5lbs, partly to do with the "d" but mostly to do with the constant mountain hikes and lack of apetite due to amount of activity, the food is phenominal there though, fresh and delicious!), but i figure, this post will be at the bottom of all my other posts of peru as i Plan to use pictures to tell of the trip. Too much happens in 10 days to capture in one post.
Peru was AMAZING!!!!
Let me just regain my thoughts here and share with you of whats going on these days...
I have returned from a mission trip to Peru, been back for a week. i was sick with the grody "d" word starting the day we flew back (Saturday) until Tuesdayish. or at least the remnants of it. FYI Pedialyte is NASTY!!! but affective (through this, i have discovered my need of electrolytes...they are quite important) Coinsidently, it was not the Peruvian food that i have to thank for my being sick, nope, in fact it was the good ole American Hamburger, granted i did get it in Peru. Ive learned through this that, though i would order a burger medium-well in the states, i should always order a burger complete and fully WELL DONE!!!! needless to say, i dont believe ill be eating a hamburger any time soon. :)
its quite ridiculous that ive begun my discussion of Peru with something so negative(infact a positive to this is i lost 5lbs, partly to do with the "d" but mostly to do with the constant mountain hikes and lack of apetite due to amount of activity, the food is phenominal there though, fresh and delicious!), but i figure, this post will be at the bottom of all my other posts of peru as i Plan to use pictures to tell of the trip. Too much happens in 10 days to capture in one post.
Peru was AMAZING!!!!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Exciting News!!!
As many of you know, i react to things with extreme emotion most of the time! Sometime loud, well actually, always loud, or at least extremely!
Today, I was prevented from reacting in my normal manner to some really exciting news.
If you didnt know already, I have been praying and waiting and seeking the Lord and working toward being Resident Director of my dorm when my current RD graduates next Fall.
This doesnt come easy, my Geography Professor is actually the head of Student Services and will be my boss if this happens and he typically doesnt hire anyone he doesnt know or like. Ive not really been sure that he knew of me or would consider me for the position even though ive been a part of the Dorm Council in my dorm since my second semester and have been the RA this year and will be for Fall semester. Ive just been trusting the Lord and that He knows whats up and that it will be His will that comes through in the end, all still unsure of where i stand with Professor...
Today, my RD was sitting by me in CHAPEL and decided to slip me a note. She had something to tell me and had to leave early but wanted to tell me, so in comes the note.
this is what it said "Dear Becky Castle, I am pleased and honored to tell you that I have been instructed by Dr. Richards to tell you this thing. You are being highly considered for the position of Resident Director of Napier Hall begining Spring of 2011. He will most likely wait until Fall to approach you. He said this is your time to become familiar with all RD duties and our girls. Congradulations"
I was so shocked and excited and about to burst!!! but i was in CHAPEL!!! so i had to freak out internally for the next 10 minutes!
It was one of those WOW moments, like i have been hoping and praying that he would even consider me, but i wasnt sure if he would or if he would even think i deserve it....
Though its not official yet, im still excited! from now until next Fall im in a testing time. there is much to be looked at in this time. and Im praying andseeking the Lord on a few other matters as well that have to do with work. so without stretching myself too thin, I hope to glorify the Lord in all i do and I pray he shows me what the heck im supposed to do!
God is so good!
Today, I was prevented from reacting in my normal manner to some really exciting news.
If you didnt know already, I have been praying and waiting and seeking the Lord and working toward being Resident Director of my dorm when my current RD graduates next Fall.
This doesnt come easy, my Geography Professor is actually the head of Student Services and will be my boss if this happens and he typically doesnt hire anyone he doesnt know or like. Ive not really been sure that he knew of me or would consider me for the position even though ive been a part of the Dorm Council in my dorm since my second semester and have been the RA this year and will be for Fall semester. Ive just been trusting the Lord and that He knows whats up and that it will be His will that comes through in the end, all still unsure of where i stand with Professor...
Today, my RD was sitting by me in CHAPEL and decided to slip me a note. She had something to tell me and had to leave early but wanted to tell me, so in comes the note.
this is what it said "Dear Becky Castle, I am pleased and honored to tell you that I have been instructed by Dr. Richards to tell you this thing. You are being highly considered for the position of Resident Director of Napier Hall begining Spring of 2011. He will most likely wait until Fall to approach you. He said this is your time to become familiar with all RD duties and our girls. Congradulations"
I was so shocked and excited and about to burst!!! but i was in CHAPEL!!! so i had to freak out internally for the next 10 minutes!
It was one of those WOW moments, like i have been hoping and praying that he would even consider me, but i wasnt sure if he would or if he would even think i deserve it....
Though its not official yet, im still excited! from now until next Fall im in a testing time. there is much to be looked at in this time. and Im praying andseeking the Lord on a few other matters as well that have to do with work. so without stretching myself too thin, I hope to glorify the Lord in all i do and I pray he shows me what the heck im supposed to do!
God is so good!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)
