A new look.

So I thought I would try something new for a while. In spirit with the upcoming holidays I have changed my background. Soon it will be Christmas which will warrant another change. I love Christmas it is my favorite holiday. I am proud to say that I have already started my Christmas shopping and what I haven't bought I know what I am getting.

I am really excited for Thanksgiving this year. I am going to TN with my friend Kelsey to her grandmother's house. I am looking forward to sleep and peace and quiet and time to reflect. No deadlines or group projects or curfew checks just hanging out and helping in whatever way I can. Just over a week to go and then I am home free!

Tell me what you think about the background, I would love to hear!

Love from Liberty,
Peggy

Swimming

Having been a lifeguard for over 6 years now and on swim team since I was in the sixth grade I have a problem. I don't know how to just be in the water without actually swimming. People will say lets go swimming and I automatically think they mean swimming laps. The problem comes when we get to the pool and I realize that they meant just stand around in the water and talk. I don't understand this. I mean if I am going to have to wash my hair we might as well be exercising. If we were going to just talk why didn't we just go get coffee or something? Something that wouldn't require me to change and require a shower afterwards.

On the other hand I have been teaching swimming lessons for so long and getting in the pool with people who want to "go swimming" that I think I had forgotten how much I actually enjoy swimming laps. It is true that it takes a lot of energy and time but somehow I always walk away energized from it and in a happier mood. I used to use swimming as a stress reliever, a time that I could clear my head or truly focus on a problem. Tonight at work we swam 500 meters. Which isn't a lot but when you are out of shape and practice it takes quite a bit if energy. But when I was done I felt good like I had accomplished something. I think I was also a little prideful that I finished 4 lengths ahead of our "head guard" when we started at the same time. So my goal for this week is to go swimming at least once and then at lease one more time next weekend for at least 20 min. each time.

P.S. in case you didn't know swimming is the best form of exercise because it works every muscle in your body simultaneously and it is easier on your joints than running. I also feel that it is very peaceful and empowering knowing that you can survive with out your feet on solid ground and in something so powerful. It gives me a greater respect for the Lord as he walked on the water and was able to control the waves with his words. Knowing that God is in control even of the things we can't grasp in our hands. Just some thoughts.

Love from Liberty,
Peggy

Lessons from the Lord

I have a tendency to get very emotionally involved in things very quickly. I can't help it. I am a crier. I cry at everything. And I don't think people really believe me when I tell them this because I try really hard not to cry in front of others mainly because they think I am ridiculous for crying at something so silly and two because I am not a pretty crier. You know what I mean. Some people cry and they shed a few tears and they get the look of a lost kitten and they are cute when they cry. I am not one of these people. When I truly cry I hyperventilate, I can't breath or talk. I will try but it really doesn't work. I get red a blotchy and worse of all I can't stop. I will cry and cry and cry until really I am over whatever it was that I was crying about in the first place but I will continue to cry because I can't make my self stop. I thin this is the reason that I hate goodbyes so much is that I am so emotionally involved that I start to cry.

Anyway the point of this post is that sometimes when I hear God telling me to invest in someone who I know is not making good decisions I hesitate because I know that very soon after I begin investing into them I will become emotionally involved and when this happens you instantly make your self valuable. This summer I became very invested in the lives of one of my campers. She was dealing with a lot of hurt and past issues that had led to current bad decisions in her live. The Lord really burdened my heart for her and really broke me when I was listening to her story and trying to know how to minister to her. Ever since this I think that I have held back a little in getting involved in the lives of girls that I know are going to become more emotionally invested to the point that will cause me to be vulnerable.

Yesterday and today I have had the honor of listening to two different girls pour out their burdens to me. And as a sat listening to them my heart melted and I felt my self beginning to soften and to want to fix all their woes. It is a scary feeling to mourn with those that mourn, to bear one another's burdens, to have your heart broken with the things that break Gods. But this is what the Lord has been teaching me the last two days. To stop worrying about the things of the world and to instead invest in the things of the Lord.

I have been interrupted several times during this post and so this is not accurately conveying what I am trying to say. I guess my point is that the Lord has been opening my heart again to be emotionally invested in people that I know may not be receptive to in instruction that I have to give but that perhaps more than them being broken I need to be broken with the things that break God's heart. And by sharing in his heart I will continue to see then need for Him and his love and the gospel even in a Bible saturated place such as Liberty or the US. My prayer is that I will soon be able to rejoice with those that rejoice.

Love From Liberty,
Peggy

Campus Serve

This year I have been getting involved in campus serve. It is where Liberty students meet each Sat. morning and go out into the community to show that we care. There are 8 inner city sites where you can play with kids, there are also 2 nursing homes where as you may have read from an earlier post was not the place for me. Campus serve also has a group called respond that goes to the different inner city sites and disciples the adults and does more door to door evangelism. And the last group is called helps. They go around helping with practical needs such as painting, building, picking up trash, etc. The site that I have really invested in is called the Meadows. It is a newer site just started this year and I like it Beckie it is a chance to make a fresh start. Some of the other sites have had the same people going for four years so the kids are already attached to certain people and you can kind of feel left out but the Meadows just started.

A couple of girls on my hall and I have really started to get close to 4 of the little girls at the site. We took them to a football game at Liberty one day and they were so well behaved that then next week we decided to take them with us to our brother / sister dorm event of pumpkin picking. They are such good listeners and don't complain so it is easy to take them places.

Unfortunately, I haven't been in two weeks and I must say that I am beginning to miss them. They just look at everything so differently and everything is so exciting and new to them. It gives me a fresh perspective and a more positive attitude toward what ever we are doing. I think maybe next week we will take them to the Nature Zone downtown. They have all kinds of crazy animals, I think that they will really enjoy it.

The Windy City

So back in the day when I first started on this collegiate journey we went to school from August to November with out any breaks. I think that so many students and teachers were on the brink of going off the deep end by the time Thanksgiving hit that they decided to throw in a fall break. Now as a student body we enjoy a long weekend at the beginning of October at the very point where you are about to kill your roommates, have a panic attack because of how much school work you have, and have an emotional break down due to stressful relationships weather with friends or a significant other. This year as it is my senior year Meghan, Regina and I decided that we should go all out on a major road trip. Conveniently Meghan's music minister and his family just took a position at a church right outside of Chicago. Although a 12 hour drive is significant for a long weekend we decided that it would be worth it.

Regina, Meghan, Meghan's sister Amanda and I all piled into the car on Wes. night with plenty of junk food, a GPS and an IPOD ready for an adventure. We left at 7:00pm and took three hour shifts of driving. In the course of the trip we almost hit a deer (Meghan and Regina), almost went off the side of a cliff (Regina), and got pulled over (Meghan). Luckily we did not get a ticket and at 6:00am the next morning made it safely to our destination.

After getting coffee and sleeping for a couple of hours we took the Metra (yes, I spelled this correctly it was the Metra not the Metro) into the big city. Before I begin my overview of all that we saw you should know that Meghan and I are very economical when it comes to traveling. We love free things and if it is not free than we have a coupon for it. First on the list of things to see was the Sears Tower ($2 off per ticket coupon). It was a very clear day so you could see pretty far and it was Thursday so it wasn't overly crowded, which was nice. After enjoying the view from the top we headed to Millennium Park, where we saw the bean and the fountain and spent some time walking around and ate our picnic lunch of BP & J that we had packed. Then we went to the Art Museum (free on Thursday nights). Finally we headed back to the McMinn's to get some much needed rest.
(Sculpture at Millennium Park)

On Friday we drove into the city and parked at Moody Bible Institute where my friend James goes to school (parking = free) and met up with him. At 10:00am we arrived at the Chicago Cultural Center where we met our private tour guide (free) who showed us around the city giving valuable information about the buildings and the history of the city. This is an awesome service that they provide and I would recommend it to anyone. After the tour we went shopping on Michigan Avenue (window shopping = free) where James ditched us girls. The Navy Pier (free to walk around) was next on the list of attractions and so we walked across town admiring the architecture along the way. We also stopped at the Lake Michigan beach front (free) to take some pictures since it was close by. This week just happened to be Macy's fashion week in Chicago and we were able to get reservations to a fashion show which was really fun. After the fashion show we met back up with James at his apartment to play Nerts, which James won but we was also the score keeper. Last time I played with him he also won and was also the score keeper I think this is more than just a coincidence.
(On the walking tour: the bean and the water tower one of the only buildings that survived the Chicago fire)

Sat. we went on a tour of the church and went and saw the house from Home Alone and then visited Northwestern and shopped in downtown Evensdale. That night the McMinn's took us all out to dinner in the city at a very nice Italian place.
(At the water front near the house)
Sunday was church and then a quick lunch in the city to say goodbye to James and then a long drive home. We left at 2:00pm which was really 3:00pm with the time change and so it should have been a 12 hour trip but the interstate to Indianapolis was shut down. I love GPS but it does not account for road construction. So in Gary, IN we spent about an hour trying to follow the detour provided which lead to a dead end. Every time we would try to take a different road the GPS would tell us to do a U-turn to get on the interstate that was closed. After about the third time it told us this we shut off the annoying electronic voice and got out the atlas that Regina had in her car. Thanks to Regina's map skills we were able to find our way old school. This set us back about two hours though so we finally arrived back in Lynchburg at 5:00am.

Although I felt like I got hit by a bus on Monday, it was completely worth it. As Meghan said, "at least it was a fun bus". Four and a half days with good friends and no school, what more could you ask for? So take a road trip and see how much you can do on a budget. Make some memories and live a little.

Love From Liberty,
Peggy

P.S. Check back for more pictures later.

Girls Night In!

Sometimes you just need a night in with the girls. Food, friends, and fun are all essentials to a good girls night. Luckily I live on a hall with great friends who are always entertaining so all we needed was the food, which our prayer leaders provided. The night was a huge success with a spa room, a game room and later that night a chick flick.

A Picture Date

I love going on photo dates. Recently I went to downtown Lynchburg with one of the girls on my hall Jess and we spend several hours experimenting with F-stops and shutter speeds. It is a good way to get to know people. One if is free of charge and two you can talk while doing it and three if you go with someone then you always have a model to pose for you. Here are some of the best shots of the day.

It is officially autumn and the leaves are starting to reflect the beauty of the season.

I love her expression, like she just got caught in a hiding place.

My attempt at being creative.

I love the contrast here between the historic and the current culture.