The hardest things in life are usually the best things...

I am in the process of writing a paper right now for the Christian Foundations class we are taking.  The topic I chose out of the numerous options we had was one on doubts.  Basically, you have to choose a spiritual area in which you have experienced/are experiencing doubt, and write about it. 

I chose this topic because I knew I could relate to it, and because it seemed like less research than some of the others :-)  So I'm writing in on my doubts about God answering prayer.

Now this an area that is so fundamental to our faith that it sometimes seems almost heretical to admit to having doubts about it.  But I think it's something that we've all experienced at some point or another, and we may as well admit it.  We pray hard for something that we believe should be right, and it doesn't happen.  Why?  I've struggled with this so many times, and it still doesn't make much sense.

So in that way, this paper is ending up to be a lot harder than I thought.  I have to look into the Scripture and see what the Bible actually says about God answering prayer, and then wrestle with this versus my own experiences.  Is He always faithful, or are there times when He just simply remains silent?  What about when we ask for things the Bible tells us to ask for, like wisdom or guidance, and we still don't seem to be any closer to an answer than before?  Why does God sometimes heal in answer to prayer, and other times not?

So these are some of the questions I'm dealing with in order to write this paper.  I can't say that I've necessarily found the answers.  In my heart I firmly believe that God is faithful and that He does want to answer our prayers, but maybe sometimes we need to be willing to admit that there are things we don't understand, instead of pretending to have it all together when we don't.  I don't know.  Those are my thoughts.  The rest, I guess, is up to Him.

I got pranked!!

Soooo...I love the girls in my dorm.  I really do.  We have become like sisters throughout the last half year, but dare I say...they are an interesting bunch!  Amy and I in particular have a very interesting relationship.  Our personalities are opposite in a lot of ways, but we also have numerous traits in common, one being that we both have a mischievous streak! 

Amy was on the opposite tour team from me, and I was in the dorm by myself for numerous days while their team was gone.  So one day I went into her room and pulled all the socks out of her drawer and hid them in random and varied places around the room!  She came back, and very quickly guessed that it was me.  Our team then left for tour, and she texted me halfway through that she was still finding socks!

I had a feeling that this was not going to go without retribution on her part.  I got back from tour fully expecting my room to have been sabotaged in some way, only to find out that it hadn't.  However, she told me to be expecting something.  Oh dear. 

Two days after we got back, I woke up Wednesday morning and left my room in the dark.  Attempted to, that is.  I opened the door, only to nearly run into a wall of toilet paper rolls that went halfway up the doorway!  A multitude of other rolls lay scattered across the hall.  Yeah. 

I carefully removed a couple of rolls so I could step over the wall, then went to have devotions in Charis' room like I do every morning.  Her mischievous smirk told me that she was not completely innocent, either.  Turns out she, Danica and Amy had stayed up till twelve the night before to make sure I was asleep, and then stacked 118 rolls of toilet paper in front of my door.  Apparently the wall had once reached to the top of the doorway, but at some point during the night half of it had toppled over, fortunately for me.  This is what it looked like when I found it:

Yeah.  So I was forced to clean up 118 rolls of toilet paper, while being threatened with extra work detail for hucking a few of them at Amy as she came out of her room.  She will be paying for this at some point.  Oh, the joys.

Back from tour...

We just got back from tour!!!!!!!  Well, I don't know whether it's really as exciting as all that.  I had an amazing team and an amazing trip, and being back means homework.  Bummer.

But let me explain a little of what we did.  The student body was divided into two teams that went out into different areas to perform a children's production called "The Disappearance of Dr. Withers."  Since both teams were using the same set and the same van, we had to go out one after the other.  So the first team left end of February to go to Montana, Idaho, Washington and B.C.  They got back on March 4, and our team left March 5 for Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

The production was geared for children, with a very strong salvation message.  We had so much fun!  I got to play the part of Mrs. Hopewell, a strict, stern school principal who has a bit of a fun side to her as well.  I had a blast getting to develop that character and show her funny little quirks.  It was awesome, and....I have pictures!  Yay!!

This is our set, with most of the characters during a scene.  Dr. Withers, Mrs. Hopewell, Dawn, Terri, Randy(yes he is a giant raccoon) and Tony.

This is me having to dance with the giant raccoon...yeah, don't ask :)

This is Arthur the Scottish mouse who lives in the wall of the school, and his random fuzzy wall-dwelling friend...I did say this was a children's production, right?

This is Dr. Withers leading Harry, the Australian school custodian, to Jesus.  Yes, the puppet does get saved...

So those are a few clips of our production.  The other aspects of tour were pretty awesome too for the most part.  I was constantly being bugged about the flatness of Manitoba by my Albertan and British Columbian schoolmates...yeah.  Didn't have much of a defense for that one.  I did, however, take a valiant stand for the honor of my province!!!  :)

Here are a couple other random tour pictures:

This is a shot I got of everybody--and I mean everybody--except Jill and me in the front seat and the two drivers, completely zonked out.  I thought it was pretty cool. :)

Our leader Sean had a birthday while we were on tour, and one of the girls had packed and brought along a cake for him.  He wanted to have a piece, but couldn't very well fork it himself while driving.  So Jill, who was sitting behind him, took it upon herself to fork-feed him.  This is a shot of the interesting scenario this made...

Phil and Lance had a lengthy conversation via banana-phones...while sitting right beside each other...is this what tour does to you???

One of the tour highlights for me was getting to stop at Cornerstone, my home church.  Sean had Matthew, Karissa and Amanda completely enthralled with his little magnetic balls...I thought it was so cute!

This is our group plus a bunch of church people from Ste. Anne, MB, our last stop.

So yeah, that was tour.  We had an amazing time, and our team actually still liked each other by the end of it!  We definitely sensed God's presence and protection with us all along the way, so that was pretty amazing.