A hard rain's a-gonna fall

Monsoon has begun. Not the horrible all day for weeks rain, but it has begun to rain every single day at least for a little while each day. It's nice because our clothes still dry quickly, and the temperature has cooled down a lot. Praise God for that! I was getting ready to die of heat stroke.

It is the final week of SBS. There are exactly 3 days left until I graduate! Time has flown by faster than I ever thought possible. It is quite humorous and of course completely a good idea to end this SBS with three wisdom books. Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Proverbs. Yes we've learned a lot and studied historical backgrounds galore, but that is all knowledge. This is wisdom. Practical things to do in order to apply that knowledge we have gained. When we finish this school we must go back into the world making wise choices. We must set an example like Paul did for Timothy and so many other young disciples of Paul. Like the Israelites did for all the surrounding nations, but also not like the Israelites did when they constantly worshiped other gods and idols instead of the one true God. When I leave here and come home, I want to be an example. I want to be passionate about what I've learned and pass it on to people at home.

There also seems to be a running theme this final week of SBS which is marriage and life partner. This is a huge thing in India. Everyone looks forward to getting married and a common question to be asked is when you want to get married. People really say "in two years I will get married" or "in one year I'll get married" however, they at that time, do not have a significant other. It's so crazy how heavily ingrained marriage is in these people's minds. It mostly has to do with the fact that most marriages are arranged here in India. Even Christian ones. It's rare to hear of a "love" marriage, and when I do hear of one I get very excited. However, it's a bit overwhelming most of the time when people keep talking about marriage, love, etc. That is not what life is all about.

On Friday for graduation I am going to wear a tribal skirt from Nagaland instead of a Sari. I would have loved to wear a Sari, but since i already wore one for Christmas, I thought I'd choose a different type of custom dress from the Northeast part of India. It is a beautiful skirt with green and pink stripes on the top and bottom. The skirt itself is black in color, and the tribe it comes from is called Angami. I'll be sure to put up pictures in a few days!

I will soon be home and am anxious, nervous, sad, excited, and ready to come home for a season. Pray that the transition won't take too long and that I can catch up on my sleep quickly. Also, pray that I find a full-time job very soon after getting to Minnesota. Pray for wisdom and discernment for some big decisions in my life soon, but also pray that they don't overwhelm me or seem so huge. God is bigger than these decisions.

Love you all! See some of you soon!

Litte did I know that I almost let you go until I caught a glimpse of life without you

Judah was ridiculous. I mean, they saw Israel spiral downwards until they eventually were exiled to Assyria and mixed with other people groups so that they eventually became the Samarians that Jews hated! Can you imagine! Even though Judah saw their sister Israel end up in such a horrible wreck, they followed in her footsteps. They even took it a few steps farther and ended up making Israel seem like a saint compared to Judah's sin and idolatry. Ezekiel sees a very clear picture of God's heart for the house of Judah in his book. Not just once, but many times over and over again. Especially chapter 23 talking about Oholah and Oholibah. The two adulteress sisters. God makes it very, very clear in the Old Testament that when we have idols in our lives it's like we are prostituting ourselves. We're being unfaithful to God. It's graphic, but it gets the point across I think. It is serious when we put things before God.

I am so thrilled to be done with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. The major prophets. The big books. We have no more big books left for SBS! Just some minor prophets and the wisdom literature (Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and Song of Songs or Solomon, whichever you prefer). And of all 66 books in the entire Bible we have 7 left. Seven! The perfect number. Ahhh. What a wonderful place to be in. We will be studying Daniel and Haggai this upcoming week. Daniel is one of my favorite stories. Not only because of the lion's den, but also Shadrach, Mechach, and Abednego.

I can tell you right now I think that I won't miss Hindi music for a while after I go home. That's for sure. Music is bigger here than in the States if you can imagine that. Music is the defining factor for everyone's life. They use their phones as music players like no other nation I've seen. We use iPods even though most of our phones now are fully capeable of holding and playing music. Yet here, they constantly have music playing from their phones in their pockets while they're walking down the street, or riding their bike, or on the local train (at least they'll use headphones on the train). Every store has music blaring, coffee shops, everywhere. Rickshaw drivers have music playing, taxi drivers, weddings are constantly going on with huge groups of people dancing in the street to a giant speaker sound system playing music loud as anything.

I am ready to go home, but excited for the next chapter of my life. Keep your eyes open for a full-time job for me when I get home. One that does not involve children preferably.

I don't know exactly what I will do with my time after SBS. I might go insane, or I might actually sleep for one entire week straight to make up for the endless hours of sleep I have lost these past 9 months. The date of my return is not being released to the public cause I want time to refresh and renew before I see people, so if you ask I most likely won't tell you.

My brother, Jonny joined the marines a few months back and went off to boot camp on Monday, please keep him in your prayers as the Marines has one of the toughest trainings.

Pray for my last three weeks that I'd focus on school work and not on distractions and it's hard to spend time with homework when I'm leaving in three weeks and just want to spend time with people.

I miss you all, and cannot wait to see you very soon! Within the next two months I'll be home.

Love, love, love.