Missions, Races, Seeds and Books

Without even realizing it, the past couple of weeks have been full of getting to check off a couple of my "30 by 30" items. 
#2 My Perspectives class is officially over. 
#2 With some great friends, I was about to complete a couple of 5Ks recently. 
#6 My little sunflower seeds went from something you normally just munch on at baseball games, to 15 crazy, fast growing plants. 
#28 My habit of reading lots of books at one time continues as I don't get to check off another book yet, but I did add another one, so when I eventually finish those 5, I'll have read 13 so far. 

#5 Perspectives

Perspectives is a class on world missions that takes you through the importance of how, as Christians, we are all a part of the Lord's story for reaching the world for Christ.  I had heard about this class and watched many of my friends take it since I was in college.  It was something I always wanted to take, but the timing was never quite right (or I pretended it wasn't), so I was so thankful to be able to finally take it this last semester.  If you want a class to rock your world, challenge you, spur passion within you, and drive you to a bigger picture of who the Lord is and the entire world, then take this class!!!  I honestly didn't put as much into it as I could have (meaning I did maybe 2% of the homework and basically just audited the class), but even in just attending the lectures, I was left continually challenged and encouraged by the Lord and what He is doing all over the world.  An extra blessing for me, was that my roommate and many of my Cru students took it at the same time, so it was such a privilege to sit in a classroom setting with them seeing their heart for the world and hear what they were getting out of the class.

#2 Complete a 5K

A couple of weeks ago, my friend C&A got to do the Race for the Cure 5K.  I love race settings!  This was C's first 5K, so it was exciting getting to be the one to introduce her to the excitement and energy of races.  Race for the Cure is a huge one too, so what a way to start!  After we finished that one, C got on board pretty fast of wanting to do more, so then 2 weeks later, off we were to running another one this past Saturday.  Our goal for race 2 was to go fast than race 1.  I was excited to just get rid of 1 minute off my time.  I was so proud of C, though, because I think that chica shaved 5 minutes off her time!  Not only that, she ran the entire 3.1 miles without walking.  NICE!!!!

#6 Plant a Seed and watch it grow

When I was little, I remember planting one sunflower seed and actually watching it grow into a sunflower, which is why I chose that particular seed.  Plus sunflowers are just so happy.  They remind me of the fields and fields in Tuscany and near Lubbock.  So a couple of weeks ago I went a little crazy planting an entire packet of seeds all over my yard, and in different pots.  Well who knew, those things can take root and grow so fast!  I thought I'd end up with maybe one out of the packet, but I'm pretty sure we have 15!!!  They've all gotten to the point where they can't grow much more in the pots they are in, so I'm going to need to transplant them straight into the yard ASAP.  It's so cool seeing God's creation grow so quickly!!!!  

#28 Read 30 books 

So like I said, I have a habit where I like to be half way through an extreme amount of books at one time.  Usually I'll get in the middle of about 5, then force myself to have to finish all of that round before I then quickly get back into 5 new ones.  So I'm in the "force myself to finish" section.  The beauty of my job is that often there is a week between the last week working on campus before students leave for the summer, and then when I leave for my different summer assignments.  It usually becomes a more laid back week of tying up loose admin type to-dos I didn't finish during the school year, getting ready for summer assignments through packing and printing plane tickets, and thankfully getting to spend long times with Jesus and having more time to relax more and read.  I'm in that week right now, so hopefully I'll make a dent on those books this week before flying off to CA for the next 6 weeks!