I have a Savior who loves me deeply, so much so that he lived a sinless life, underwent a brutal criminal's death,and conquered death and sin by rising from the dead for me and all those who believe and trust Him as their Deliverer. In Him I find my joy and my happiness. I want to live a life that is pleasing to Him and hopefully the thoughts posted in this blog make that desire evident.

Friday, July 9, 2010

My Summer

I can already tell that I'm not going to be a great blogger.  I've been putting off doing another post for quite some time because I thought I should have some kind of set theme to my post, but I'm thinking it will be better if I just describe what is going on in my life rather than something with a plot and a lesson--though there might be some lessons from this post. I guess we'll see what my fingers decide to type.
It has been an interesting summer to say the least.  It's been great at times and other times not so great.  I'm living in an old hotel converted into an off campus dorm for Northwestern College in Arden Hills, MN.  At the beginning of the summer I worked for a company called ACR Homes, which I have great respect for.  I really struggled at this job however. For those of you who don't know what ACR Homes is, its a company that has group homes that care for individuals with disabilities of all kinds. I do not want to get into the whole story here but this job did not fit my personality at all, I've known for quite some time that I would not be working in the medical field and this helped confirm it. But after quitting there I went through a couple weeks where I was just at a loss for what to do.  I was really struggling to be content with my situation.  I started to prepare myself to say good bye to my roommate Brieanne and pack up all my things to go back home for the summer and most likely make little or no money.  And with going home on my mind I was really confused as to why I felt God telling me that I wasn't going home when I asked for guidance.  I was like really? What am I going to do here? Start a job midsummer? I wasn't really sure what to think about this, but after awhile God started giving me some peace about it even though I didn't know what was going to happen.  A couple days later I was talking to my friend Liz and just said "hey you should talk to your boss and see if there are at spots available at you job," not really expecting anything to come from it.  And she said that there actually might be because she was going to be leaving for three weeks and another girl had already left for a trip overseas for the summer.  So that got me a little excited.  Later that night while I was praying God basically hinted to me that this job was going to become a reality, of course me with my little faith didn't let that get my hopes up.  Sure enough a week later I started working there.  So I now work on my campus doing full time janitorial work in the dorms with some really great coworkers.  God is good.  Struggling with my job at ACR and leaving was really difficult for me, it was a great opportunity for Satan to plant all kinds of self doubt and loathing into me, but thankfully God is so much bigger than any of that and when I finally put my trust in Him that peace that surpasses all understanding took over.
There's so much more I should write about my summer but it is getting a bit late so I'll maybe just add some prayer requests to the end here.  Pray that I will be able to find a church home soon and just know when it is the right one.  Pray for guidance in my education.  I love Northwestern but I've been feeling lately that I should be open to other colleges/open to taking time off to make some moolah.  I just don't know what God would have me do yet.  Also pray that I would find a way to be effective in a ministry here.  I would really love to get involved in a ministry such as Living Hope where my sister works--a ministry to inner city kids, or Writing in the Sand--a ministry for women coming out of prostitution, but I'm not sure what I'll be able to do this year without a means of transportation.  Not having a car makes life quite difficult sometimes, but God provides.  Well I will end with that.  Thanks for reading and God bless!

1 comment:

Katie Beth said...

JaNae~ I love your blog,especially the title!! Pride and Prejudice is definitely in my top five movies. I will be praying for you and your personal journey with the Lord. You may not have the complete big picture in front of you right now. A lot of questions my gnaw at your heart, begging for an answer, but the best advice I can offer is just to have a picnic alone with the Lord. Lay down everything that is on your mind and heart right in front of Him, even the desires/dreams that you dare not share with another soul. Give it to Him as a gift, letting Him have all of it, everything that makes up JaNae Danielle Stynsberg. Then just be with Him, noticing the beauty in His creation, the gentleness of His touch, remembering His faithfulness up until this point. Rest in that stillness. Sometimes I get to the point where I crave answers and forget just to spend time enjoying the Lord. I know that He is going to direct you in some incredible, mind-blowing ways. He is so good!! I look forward to hearing all of your stories, though I'm a little sad that we can't have more time to hang out in person. Who knows though, maybe sometime in the future our paths will cross and we'll have some extended time together instead of just holidays and weddings. Love you cousin :)