random thought

        I would start out with saying the classic, 'this isn't random but...' but this truly is so random. Once again, it's crunch time with finals coming up and what am I doing? Procrastinating...shocking, right? Yeah, I didn't think so. Well, I'm sitting here attempting to write a paper that counts as my final that is due tomorrow at 12.30 and its obviously not going so well. It's for my least favorite class (my professor is a psycho but that's a story for another day) and I am seriously lacking motivation. That's not my random thought..just some background info to get you in my mindset.
        Although I really don't like this class, some of our assignments made me do a lot of self-reflection. This class makes us go deep into ourselves and just think. Ironic that I'm writing the final for this class and I'm just sitting here in deep thought about my life. 
        I am so thankful for my life. I am most thankful for my 3 F's: faith, family, and friends. I honestly don't know where I would be without them. I have nothing but love and support coming from all three. I know I complain (example: 'why do I always have to do everything!?') but I really don't have anything to complain about. My life has been pretty grand thus far and I can only imagine that it will get better from here. Granted there will be MANY bumps along the road, but I know that the Lord has a plan for me. This makes me think of my favorite Bible verse, Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future." Whenever I am going through one of those bumps, I am constantly reminded that Jesus Christ has my back and always will :)
        There is my random thought and now I am back to writing this silly paper. Hopefully I will get it done in a reasonable amount of time because I'm trying to actually get some sleep tonight!


love yall!

8 more days..

I cant believe how fast my freshman year of college has gone. I know I'm only 19, but it makes me feel so old! Finals week is next week but two of my professors decided to make the finals the week before finals week..aka this week. I have two finals tomorrow, a final paper due thursday, and one final on friday. Needless to say, I am a little stressed.
Since I'm writing this post, I'm clearly putting off studying. Which is probably bad since I have a final in 9ish hours. but I did go to a study session with my TA and I have been studying all afternoon! so I'm not a complete slacker..
This post was pretty much pointless and was probably a waste of your time. So, sorry about that! I just cant handle the fact that this year is almost over. that means I'm one year closer to graduating and being on my own..and I'm definitely not ready for that. So lets hope this whole growing up thing slows down.

love yall :)

homesick or friendsick?

              Today I am feeling very homesick. I know it's dumb to be homesick when I have less than 2 weeks until I go home for summer but I can't help it. Last weekend I was in New York and the weekend before that I went to Radford to visit Jenny (which, btw, was the best). Either way, I haven't been at JMU and to be honest, it was nice to get away. I'm going home this weekend for Easter. I don't think I have been this excited to go home in a while. School is great and everything, don't get me wrong, but this weekend I get to see all my best friends. I have missed them all so much. I feel like this is why I am so homesick today. I feel like I haven't seen my BEST friends in foreverrrr. They are such a huge part of my life and I feel lost without them. Everyone says that you meet your lifetime best friends in college, but I met mine in high school.
              Halfway through this post I changed my mind..I'm not homesick, I'm friendsick. I miss my friends more than anything (no offense family..). I seriously cannot wait to be reunited with Caroline, Jenny, Jojo, Sally, and Bekah! Thank the Lord I saw Jenny two weeks ago or I would be completely friend deprived. This entire school year up until now, Caroline and I haven't been more than 3 or 4 weeks without seeing each other. But it's been about 5 weeks since I have seen her...I haven't seen Jojo or Bekah since we went to Charlotte for Jojo's birthday in february and I haven't seen Sally since winter break. So needless to say, I am very friendsick. When I was super sick last week, Jojo diagnosed me with 'best friend deficiency.' If you are unfamiliar with this disease, the only cure is a little does of Jojo, Jenny, Caroline, Bekah, and Sally :)
               Random side note. I was texting Jenny this morning during class and we were talking about how excited we are to come home. She just texted me saying I should blog more...I was in the middle of this post. best friend ESP at its finest :)

love yall!

I feel like this picture represents our friendship perfectly

This was taken at our farewell dinner, real housewives style, a few nights before 5 of us left for college :(

Another typical best friend picture

This was from our reunion/christmas sweater dance party over winter break

sick and not happy about it

So I have decided to start blogging about everyday life. I really enjoy writing but I'm not the best..so no judging.
For the past three and a half days, I have been real sick. I have gotten the question, 'what do you have?' about 3 million times and the answer is still the same. I have no idea. I'm going to the health center after my 1:25 class but my expectations are super low. Back in the fall when I fractured my thumb, the 'doctor' at the health center told me to ice it and take some ibuprofen...Well after not being able to move my thumb for a while, I went to the hospital and they said it was fractured. High quality health center, right?
Anyway, this weekend I'm going to..wait for it..NEW YORK! I have never been and I'm so excited! I am hoping we will get to go see a play on Broadway because that is one of the many things on my bucket list.
Off to class..joy. I'm praying that the health center will be halfway decent and actually give me medicine to kick this sickness!

day 7

Dear caroline, jenny, and evan,

Our last day in Israel..let's just say I shed a tear or two. This trip has, by far been the best trip I have ever been on and I didn't want it to end. Well to be honest, I kind of wanted this day to end because once again, the weather was awful. Cold, windy, and rainy..

Stop number 1 was the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock. It's kind of hard to miss because of the big gold dome..slightly obnoxious but pretty at the same time. It makes a nice addition to the background of all our pictures overlooking the Temple Mount! Muslims believe that this is the site of Muhammad's night journey to heaven. This is also where the Jews believe the 3rd Temple will be built.

Dome with the fam..oh look, its raining!

While at the Temple Mount, we did something that could have gotten us in BIG trouble. Of course the leader of this little adventure was..my mother! Who knew she was such a rebel! We wandered around and went to the back side of the Eastern Gate aka where Jesus will return to earth! Where the spring will burst and wash out all the graves outside the gate. While we were taking pictures of it a lovely middle eastern man was watching us very closely..and when I say lovely, I mean he was super creepy and he did not like us!

my beautiful roommate Eve in front of the backside of the Eastern Gate

Funny/nasty story. Today for lunch we went to this little restaurant that seemed a little sketch since we had to go down an alley to find it..Apparently people had eaten there before and it was cheap, so we gave it a try. We should have walked out when we could..I had packed my lunch that day and was going to eat later on the bus, so I didn't get food but I got coffee. MISTAKE. Scott, Don, Russ, and I got coffee at our table and we had a little surprise in our coffee..

yummy..bugs!

Yes my friends, we had bugs in our coffee..I was fortunate enough to not have the whole bug in mine, just some legs and pieces of wings. Russ and Don both found whole bug in their coffee. I wanted to cry because it was so funny and so nasty all at the same time. Oh and after Russ fished the bug out of his cup, he drank the rest of his coffee. GROSS

Russ LOVES bugs in his coffee!

After an eventful lunch, we arrived at the Western Wall or better known as the Wailing Wall. This is the holiest place for Jewish people because it't the remnant of their last temple that was destroyed in 70 AD. There are separate sides for men and women to go and pray. I wrote some prayers down on a piece of paper on the bus and stuck them in the wall!

me and Eve at the wall

i couldn't pass up taking an artsy pic

After we put our prayers in the wall and met back up with the guys, we went underground to the tunnels under the Western Wall. In the tunnel, there were several rooms, halls, water tunnel, a pool, and a Second Temple road. These tunnels were super small and if you are claustrophobic, I would NOT recommend you go down there!

as you can see, we were pretty far underground

To finish up our last day, we went to the Garden Tomb. The weather had cleared up just a little bit which made this a little more enjoyable! It made perfect sense to end our trip at the Garden Tomb because this was where Jesus was buried and rose on the third day! The tomb was in a beautiful garden and I got lots of cute flower pics. 

chillin outside the tomb with the fam...nbd

heard thattt!

After taking our pictures inside the tomb, we went to this little chapel in the garden for a final service. He had a little music, a good talk, and then took communion!

Jeff prechin the Word

Sadly, this is the end of my wonderful trip to the Holy Land. I would go back in a heartbeat. I highly recommend anyone and everyone to jump at the chance if they ever get the chance to go. It is so life changing. One of the guys on the guys on the trip put it perfectly, "it turns the Bible from black and white, to color." I have never heard a truer statement in my life. Now every time I'm reading the Bible and it mentions a place that I have been, I can picture it and the Bible really comes to life. Jesus is da bomb. the end

love yall!

Sarah

day 6

Dear caroline, jenny, and evan,

Hmm...let's see how much I remember. I did cheat and call Sus and get a little recap of each day but to my defense, I remembered more than I thought! I see it as using my resources ;)

Day 6, hello horrible weather! The weather had been perfect until today..it was freezing, raining, and super windy. Wonderful..Despite the bad weather, we still had a great day! We started today on the Mount of Olives. The road down the Mount was real steep and the fact that it was raining definitely did NOT help..I'm pretty sure I slipped about 1203982395 times. embarrassing, I know.

fam at the top of the mount! 

you can see how bad the weather was by looking at my hair...

Along the road to the bottom on the mount, there were several churches we stopped at. The first one was the Dominus Flavit, which means the Lord weeps. The church is shaped like a tear drop in resemblance of Jesus crying over the doom of Jerusalem. 

Dominus Flavit Church

After that pit stop down the mount, we stopped at the Garden of Gethsemane. This is where Jesus and His disciples got together after the Passover meal to pray. The night before Jesus was arrested, he prayed here! I have prayed where Jesus prayed, heyyy! We got some time to ourselves in the garden to just go off and pray/have some personal time with the Lord. 

creeper pic of my precious brother praying in the garden. 

doesn't that just melt your heart?

There were tons of olive trees in the garden that have been there for centuries! 

Keep walking through the garden and you will run into the Church of All Nations. The inside of this church was gorgeous! The ceiling and walls were blue and gold and had symbols of each nation that helped build it. There were twelve domes in the church and each nation has their coat of arms on a dome. The church was built around the Basilica of the Agony, aka the rock where Jesus prayed so hard he sweat blood. crazyyy!

The dome that has the United States coat of arms

the rock of agony with my two favs :)

From the Church of All Nations, we went to the Pools of Bethesda and St. Anne's Church. The church is named after Mary's mother, Anne and the church is supposedly built above Anne's house. Inside the church there is a lovely statue of Anne and Mary!

Anne and little Mary

The Pools of Bethesda are two cisterns that date back to the 8th and 3rd centuries. King Herod turned this area into curative baths and the waters were believed to have healing powers. This sight was believed to be where Jesus healed the paralytic in John 5. There were three people in our group who had various surgeries 4 weeks before the trip and it was such a blessing that they got to go. Since this was a place of healing, we prayed over each person recovering from surgery. It was very powerful. 

Pools of Bethesda

Next we went to the shepherd's cave and had a little concert from the one and only Michelangelo Caggiano. He did all the worship on the trip and of course, it was fabulous! I have one of his CD's and yall can borrow it if you want! When I say we went to the shepherd's cave, we legit went underground in a dusty, dirty cave. There were lots of little tunnels inside and we went exploring..probably not the smartest idea but hey, you only live once, right? 

angelo and john rockin outtt

On the way to the next stop, we drove through Bethlehem and saw what we thought was a Starbucks..but we were seriously mistaken. Check it out...

bahahaha how ridiculous

Our next destination was the Church of the Nativity. Part of this church was Greek Orthodox and let me tell ya, they aren't shy with the gold and decorations! Everything was brightly colored and there were things hanging from the ceiling. This is one of the oldest churches that still has services in the world. This is supposedly where Jesus was born. 

that church was blingged out!

Next, we went to St. Jerome's Chapel. I had no idea who Jerome was before this trip, but he is pretty important guy if you ask me! He translated the ENTIRE Bible from Greek to Latin. Do you know how long that must have taken? I'm thinking along the lines of..forever!

This mosaic was in Jerome's Chapel

I think that is all for today!

love yall!

Sarah

day 5

Dear caroline, jenny, AND evan,

So I have been back from Israel for about a month or so and I am just now finishing the descriptions of the last few days. Can you say procrastination? my bad yall...Looking back through these pictures just reminded me of how blessed I am to have gone on such an amazing trip. Since it's been so long since I was in Israel, I don't exactly remember every little detail, so cut me a little slack :)

First stop on day 5 was the southern steps of the Temple Mount. These steps lead up to the temple and we know for a fact that Jesus climbed these steps! So cool, right? I didn't get a good picture on my camera, so I stole one of Sus's pictures!

Southern steps with the whole crew

David's tomb and the Upper room were next on the list. The building they were in was built over where they think the tomb is around the 11th century. When the Muslims invaded Jerusalem, they didn't touch this building because the consider David to be a 'true prophet.' This site is one that is shared by Christians, Jews, and Muslims. And there aren't very many of those..

This is a statue of David outside the building where his tomb is located

The Upper room is where Jesus had the Last Supper with the disciples. This isn't the exact location or building, it's just a replica! The real site of the Upper Room is on Mt. Zion.

This is a picture from inside the Upper Room

After the Upper Room and David's tomb, we went to Caiaphas' House on Mount Zion. The view from the top was gorgeous! You could see all around in the valley and you could see the Dome of the Rock in the distance. It is now the site of St. Peter in Gallicantu and under it is the pit where they think Jesus was held after his arrest. 

 This is one of my favorite pictures from this day. 

It was such a beautiful day!

The door leading into the church had the coolest door! It was a picture of Jesus, His disciples, and a golden rooster. Jesus is holding up three fingers and pointing to Peter and he is telling him that he will deny him three times before the rooster crows. Check it out in Mark 14:27-31! I love the expression Peter has in the picture. He is probably thinking, 'who me? uhh..yeah I don't think so!'

There was lots to see at Caiaphas' house..He must have had it going on back in the day, so many things happened at or near his house! Outside the church we went to the steps that connected the Kidron Valley with the city. These are the steps that Jesus walked after he had be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The steps are in ruins, obviously, so we couldn't walk on them..major bummer

Our final stop of the day was at the Israel Model City Museum. By this point in the day, it had gotten so cold and windy that we just wanted to get back on the bus. I loved our guide to death but..he could talk for HOURS. I'm not kidding. It felt like we were there forever and it was right before dinner and it didn't help that we were all starving. It was a lovely model, dont get me wrong, this stop just lasted a little too long in my opinion..We were there around sunset and the rays from the sun were coming through the clouds. Oh it was so beautiful!

this is probably half or a third of the whole model..exciting, right?

 absolutely breathtaking 

oh heyyy Jesus!

Love yall!

Sarah