so excited!!!

One of the most exciting events happened to me yesterday! i received a letter from Elisabeth Elliot Gren!!!! Oh my goodness! a little over a week ago i finally decided to write her a letter. you know she's getting up there in age, and a couple of years ago i tried to write a letter to her, but like so many other times i just chickened out on sending it, but this time i did it. and i got a response!!!! it was just a short one page letter typed out (i went through this thing in my head about if i was going to type out my letter to her, or if i would do old school hand writing, old school won, i wanted it to have more of a personal feel to it!) and the top part was kind of a news letter, and the bottom was a letter written to me!!!

each topic of my letter was addressed in a very simple matter and was very warm too. wishing the best for my hopes and dreams, you know, things like that. she even gave me a book referral, which i will purchase just because it was a personal recommendation from one of my heroes, and two other poems in closed. one was by an anonymous author and the other one was just sweet. so i've posted both of them below. i hope you enjoy them as much as i do/did.

Child of My love, fear not the unknown marrow,
Dread not the new demand life makes of thee;
Thy ignorance doth hold no cause for sorrow
Since what thou knowest not is known to Me.

Thou canst not see today the hidden meaning
Of my command, but thou the light shalt gain;
Walk on in faith, upon My promise leaning,
And as thou goest all shall be made plain.

One step thou seest-then go forward boldly,
One step is far enough for faith to see;
Take that, and thy next duty shall be told thee,
For step by step thy Lord is leading thee.

Stand not in fear thy adversaries counting,
Dare every peril, save to disobey;
Thou shalt march on, all obstacles surmounting,
For I, the Strong, will open up the way.

Wherefore go gladly to the task assigned thee,
Having my promise, needing nothing more
Than just to know, wher’er the future find thee,
In all thy journeying I go before.

- Anonymous






He knows
He knows it all- the winding path,
The sky o’ercast and gray,
The steepness of the mountainside,
The roughness of the way.

He knows it all- the haunting fear,
The doubtings that distress,
The wond’rings and perplexities,
And all the strain and stress.

He know it all- each troubled thought,
Each anxious wave of care,
And every burden, every grief,
Or cross that thou dost bear.

He knows it all- thy weight of woe,
Thine often tear-dimmed eye,
The stabbing pain, the slow, dull ache,
And sorrow’s broken cry.

He knows it all- you are His child,
Thy wounds He takes by choice.
He gave Himself to bring you home,
So trust Him, and rejoice!


- E. Margaret Clarkson

starting c25k

well, it's been 4 months since i've blogged. ouch... nothing really blog worthy to write about though, but last night i started something new. the couch to 5k running program.

i would like to use the term "start" rather loosely, because i didn't get off to a great start. however, i did start. i just keep trying to tell myself "if i can just start running, i know i'd fall in love with it".

a friend of mine said she was going to start this program, so i thought i would check it out and thought that it didn't look that hard, so i'd give it a try. i have to do something. i just keep gaining weight and getting more and more out of shape, and if i ever want to be a missionary in a remote place, i guess i'd better be in shape before i go.

so, this program is designed to teach you how to run a 5k in 9 weeks by interval training. you go 3 times a week with a day of rest in between your workout days. it's a 20 min workout. you warm up by briskly walking for 5min and then jog 60 seconds and brisk walking 90 seconds, and continue until you have reached 20 min.

i set out thinking this was going to be a breeze. jogging for 60 seconds is like nothing right? WRONG!!! the first interval wasn't to bad, and neither was the second, actually i did okay until the 4th, so i cut that one a little short, then the 5th came and i only did 1/2 of it. then i walked the rest of the way back to the house. my hair was plastered to my head, my chest was aching, and i was sure i'd done almost the whole 20 min. i took off my nifty arm band for my ipod and checked the time, and only 10.5 min had past! i'd only done half of it and thought i was going to die!!!!

i was still panting and gasping for air and was just gross when i walked in the house. by the looks of me you would have thought i'd already did my 5k! but i didn't.

this morning i was sore and stiff! we calculated how far i'd gone and it was a mile and a half in 10.5 min, so it wasn't all that bad. i plan on going again on Monday night after class, or again on Tuesday. i want to post each time i go so maybe it will keep me motivated? it's worth a shot!

if you want to check out this program, just google it!