Psalm 103

103 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name!
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits,
³ who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
⁵ who satisfies you with good
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

⁶ The Lord works righteousness
    and justice for all who are oppressed.He made known his ways to Moses,
    his acts to the people of Israel.
⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹ He will not always chide,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
¹⁰ He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
¹³ As a father shows compassion to his children,
    so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
¹⁴ For he knows our frame;^[a]
    he remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵ As for man, his days are like grass;
    he flourishes like a flower of the field;
¹⁶ for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
    and its place knows it no more.
¹⁷ But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,
    and his righteousness to children's children,
¹⁸ to those who keep his covenant
    and remember to do his commandments.
¹⁹ The Lord has established his throne in the heavens,
    and his kingdom rules over all.

²⁰ Bless the Lord, O you his 

angels,
  you mighty ones who do his word,
   obeying the voice of his word!
  
 
²¹ Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
    his ministers, who do his will!
²² Bless the Lord, all his works,
    in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!

(Matt Redman 10,000 Reasons)

Art: Kandinsky

My mom came home one day with a box of stationary that was several different prints of Kandinsky's artwork. I loved his work immediately. In my art appreciation class this past semester we looked at one of his pieces of art and my interest was immediately renewed.  

Composition VII

image 1: http://www.cheryldodds.net/KANdinsky.html, image 2: http://www.glyphs.com/art/kandinsky/

Back Home at Work

This week has been my first week back home since my three week long trip to Michigan. We got home Friday afternoon, so I was able to go to church last Sunday. Driving into the parking lot of church made me smile because I realized how much I had missed community, fellowship, and the place in general. Southside Fellowship is not just the local (little "c") church that I worship at, but it is also where I work. 

This summer has been a summer of growth in my job-which I started two years ago as an intern. Earlier in the summer, my position was "upgraded" to that of  an "Office Assistant." Where as before, I was working in the copy center doing tasks to get ready for Sunday morning, now I'm doing those things in addition to numerous other things. One of the biggest things I've been doing is assisting our Director of City Involvement. This job has been so much fun for me because I'm actually researching things, going to meetings, learning how to serve the church and the local community, and so much more. 

I've learned so many more things about myself-and I feel like I've found my "niche" in a way. God has blessed me so much with my job (which I loved even before all my new work was added on)! He's blessed me with amazing coworkers. He's blessed me with work that is fulfilling. 

For almost all of my high school career, my eyes and heart had been set on going to college in Indiana until God showed me that he wanted me to stay in town and go to a school that I had always stated I would never attend. Looking over the past two years, I can see how maybe God wanted me to stay, in part, because I would have the opportunity to grow into my job. For that, I am thankful. I thank Jesus not only for an amazing place or worship and work, but for the ability to look back over the course of a few years and see that God was at work, and will continue to be at work, in my life.

Michigan Trip: Part 6-Manistee

For the last part of our trip, we headed to Manistee, which is on the west side of the state right by Lake Michigan. As a child, we used to go here a lot during the summer. My grandpa's cousins had a big Victorian house that their families shared, so sometimes we would go to the house and stay over. 

When we arrived in Manistee, we headed to the old Victorian to see my Grandpa's cousin Jim (and his wife Jan). Also, their daughter Rhoda and grandson Zack were there. After visiting and catching up for a bit with each other, us girls decided to make jewelry and the guys went to look at ball cards. After, Rhoda, Joelle, and I went to downtown Manistee to look around the shops. The downtown (the whole town in fact) is so neat and it's really pretty. It's so sad though to see how the downturn in the economy has affected the town.

The ring I made...I love it!

Later we headed back to the house to have dinner...a traditional Michigan food, pasties (I know, I know, you just read it and you're thinking "what the heck is that?" but it's pronounced "pass-tees"). Pasties have rutabagas, potatoes, carrots, and beef in a delicious pie like crust that's in the shape of a half-moon. That were so tasty. We talked and had coffee, and then decided to head down to the beach for the sunset. It was cloudy and there wasn't much of a sunset, but the clouds sure looked pretty. This has been a tradition of ours whenever we're in Manistee, to go to the beach and see the sunset. 

The clouds were so cool. 

The next day, we shopped, and then packed up to head back to Grand Rapids for one more nights at my Aunt Michele's and Uncle Duane's. On Thursday morning, we left for SC, thus concluding our three week trip to Michigan. 

I'm so thankful for what a fun time we had and all the fun memories we've made. Thankful for the time with family and specifically with Grandpa, and thankful that Joelle and I have a grandpa who is willing to do such fun things with us. 

Manistee on Dwellable

Jonny Lang's Testimony

The past few months I've been listening to Jonny Lang. Every time I listen to his music, it's like it gets better and better. I especially have loved listening to his album Turn Around...it's so good. It's an album that shows his transformation in life. You should check out the album and Jonny's testimony.

Here's part of the lyrics from Jonny's song "Only a Man" that talks about his conversion. It's an amazing song and you can hear his heart in this song. 

I grew up singing songs in church

With questions in my mind

Then turn my back and ran away

From God who gave me life

Then one night His presence fell

I wept, and shook, and knelt

I fell down and cried

Dear Jesus, rescue me again?

I understand, I'm only a man

And He said, "What will it be now

Will you choose Me

Or keep swimming

Upstream now"

"I've been inside your head, hearing you scream out

Well, here I am, just take my hand

And I'll take out all of the things

And all of the fear, all of the fear"

Michigan Trip:Part 5-Grand Marais

After Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island, Aunt Michele, Grandpa, Joelle, and I all headed across the Mackinac Bridge to the UP. Our first stop once in the UP was Clyde's-an old fashioned burger joint/diner. We all sat at the counter and ordered our food...a cheeseburger and chocolate malt for me! And they were delicious. We then headed to my Uncle Duane's sister and brother-in-law's (Debbie and Dave) house to get the key for her camper that we would be using for the weekend. Then, we finally drove to Grand Marais for the family reunion. 

We settled in very quickly, snacked on some Mackinac fudge, and then Joelle and I made a bee-line for the beach. This was our very first time seeing Lake Superior, and boy let me tell you, it was beautiful! It's all white sand and tons and tons of stones. Joelle and I got to collecting the prettiest ones we could find. I had to keep myself from grabbing more and more. We also grabbed enough of the larger stones and made a heart shape. 

One of the beautiful sunsets on Lake Superior

The next day we walked all around the little town. The UP is a lot less developed than the mitten (lower peninsula)-as the towns are all generally pretty small-so in Grand Marais, there are more boutique-ish places rather than large stores that are well known. Joelle and I picked up a lot of different handmade gifts for family and friends...and ok, ourselves too. Later that evening, we headed to Seney to get dinner with Debbie and Dave. It was a lot of traditional Michigan/Mid-Western type food (fish fry, roast beef, etc.). 

This was the cute art gallery in Grand Marais. Joelle and I made a few purchases here. Also, there were beautiful flowers like this all over the place in Grand Marais.

On Saturday, we had the reunion. Meeting a lot of new people is really intimidating, but I mostly hung around my cousins Debbie and Jeff that I met the day before. Tons of food was brought to eat; including the raspberry pie (with berries right off the bush) that Debbie (Uncle D's sister) made for us. What a hit that was! Everybody loved it. Every time a reunion is held, they also have a softball game, but Joelle and I decided to go down to the beach with Aunt Michele. Once again, we added to our stone collection. 

The rest of the time we were in Grand Marais, we walked around, had campfires, made s'mores, went to a silent auction, and enjoyed the beautiful weather with each other. 

As we packed up and were driving down-state on Sunday morning, we went to The Triangle for breakfast. Yum! A few hours later, we were back down-state and ready to head to our next destination.

The Marina in Grand Marais

Upper Peninsula Michigan on Dwellable

Michigan Trip: Part 4-Mackinac City and Mackinac Island

We packed up our camper, and from Harrison, headed to Mackinac City! As a side-note, Mackinac is prononunced Mackinaw. The spellings used to be interchangable, but Joelle and I noticed that on the mainland, the name of the city is spelled with a "w" at the end, while on the island, it is spelled with a "c" at the end of the word.

We got to Mackinaw City just in time for dinner and went straight to Scalawags to get our fried white fish, hush-puppies, and fries. I'm not a huge fish eater, but occasionally I will eat a good mild fish, well let me tell you, this white fish at Scalawags was excellent. The Tigers game was on TV while we were eating, so we chatted and watched the game. After our delicious dinner we went shopping in all of the neat stores around town. And of course, we had to get our fudge! Mackinac-whether the island or the mainland city-is well-known for their fudge. I personally think that it's some of the best fudge around. We got: regular chocolate, German Chocolate, Choc. Pecan, Raspberry, and Claw (which had cashews and caramel). Yummy!We headed back to the campground and prepared to go to the island the next morning.

The next morning we woke up to go to breakfast at the Pancake Chef (I thought it was awesome that the restaurant has such a huge emphasis on pancakes, as I am obsessed with pancakes). I got pancakes with Michigan cherries and whipped topping. Delish. After, we headed to the ferry. In 18 minutes we docked on Mackinac Island and we were ready to start our adventure on the island.

For anybody that hasn't been before, it is a beautiful island with only bikes and horse carriages for transportation (and snow-mobiles for the residents in the winter). The island is located in Lake Huron. The houses are all beautiful and colorful! But there are flowers EVERYWHERE and it's just a gorgeous place to be. It's seriously one of my favorite places ever.

We shopped and bought jewelry and snacked (and praise the Lord! I finally had my Starbucks) and had a fantastic time. My favorite part was going to the museum. I love art, so to see art that was special to the island made me love it even more. And to celebrate the Grand Hotels 125th Anniversary, they had a special exhibit and included local artists artwork. It was all beautiful and Joelle and I wanted all of it! (I hope to post some more pictures on here once I've uploaded them onto my computer).

Some day, I hope you will go and visit beautiful Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island...I really think you'll enjoy it!

Here's the view (and Grandpa's head) while sitting in front of the art museum.

Mackinac Island on Dwellable