Grace Like God: May 2013

Well after a full fun packed 9 months I am back home to Alaska for the summer.

This year at Ecola has changed me and my perspective on life in a great way. I have a new found love for Jesus. He has shown me so much in life and I am so grateful that he took me down to the beautiful Oregon Coast to Cannon Beach to attend Ecola Bible School. I am one it is on he coast so who wouldn't want to go there. It was a nice break from Alaska and out of my comfort zone enough to rely on God for my strength. He blessed me with what we call our Ecola family. There are a handful of Alaskans in the mix so we all know what it is like to live here and how it is a snow machine not a snowmobile, or what a real Mountain is, it is not a hill... Anyways, I was blessed with wonderful people to come up along side of me and help me along. From day one Joelle and I became friends and stuck it out all year together, through it all. Then there is my RA Lindsey and all the girls in my dorm, we were just our own little family within Ecola and bonded so well. I couldn't have been blessed any better. And next is my Mom AKA Danielle my prayer group leader. We got to spend friday mornings together talking about our week and what our prayers requests are and spent time in prayer for one another. I can't leave out mine and Joelle's "big brother" Chad. He was just such a blessing to have around, our protector and we did lots of stuff together. There are so many other people that I love so much, but don't want to bore you all with. So I will just say I miss my Ecola family dearly and know that I will see them again one day.

So the classes we had a total of about 46 different classes this year, and about 44 different teachers come in this year. Yes that is a lot. It comes down to two classes a week with two different teachers each week. You never get bored with a teacher or a class thats for sure. They were all great classes for sure and I had my favorites and my not so much my favorites, but all in all the classes were loved by all of my classmates. Everyone always asks, so what is your favorite class. And I would have to say from Fall term it would have to be James, the teacher was new this year and just had so much love and passion while teaching us, and I love the book of James. From Winter Term I would have to say Personal Evangelism, also another first time teacher, but he did so well and couldn't have described it any better. He explained how there is not one way to evangelize, but it depends on the person doing the evangelism and the person they are evangelizing too. And for Spring Term I would have to say Youth Ministry really stuck out to me. Our teacher was so passionate about it and we started off each class with a game, what better way to teach Youth Ministry than to get us involved and acting like we are in Youth Group again. To wrap this up it is so hard to pick a favorite class they are all so good.

As students we also got the opportunity to go on a Mission trip over spring break, I choose Alaska, but as next year comes to mind, I am planning on applying for Haiti or the Philippines.

As the year ended it was hard to say good-bye, but not to hard since I will be going back next year for the SOM, School of Ministry. A second year at Ecola. I am super excited to have to chance to go back and learn so much more. The classes will be more in depth and as second years we have a larger responsibility. I get the added of being a girl RA next year. I am so excited to have to chance to be so involved in the lives of the first years and just pour into them as we all got poured into this year. My whole class is excited.

Huge prayer requests as the school needs a high enrollment, due to my class being one of the smallest they have had in years. We want more people to experience Ecola and our class would love a challenge of large class, what better way to stretch us and have us rely on God for our strength.