live the light

Venisa Darlene Troyer, Happy 20th Birthday to you! We have been celebrating our birthdays together for years and now that we are both going to different schools it's alot harder to do that. But no matter what I will always be so thrilled for her birthday if we are apart or not! Nisa is such a beautiful woman of the Lord and she is so encouraging and loving to anyone she meets! I am so thankful that she has been such a big part of my life! She has helped me through tough situations and awkward ones, and she always helps to create amazing eventful memories! I love her so much and I would not be fully me if she hadn't been there. Nisa you are always loved by me and our wonderful God:)

I'm 20! I'm getting so old!  This year I felt so completely and incredibly blessed by my God and my friends. I had been trying to plan a little something for my birthday this year and I was excited about it but it really just hadn't felt like my birthday yet. Little did I know that my friends had something different in mind.  We just got back from Intervarsity's Fall conference, which was incredible by the way. So I was already feeling blessed by God because he yet again showed me how great he is, how awesome his love for me and that I am apart of his amazing plan for us! So I was just hanging out in the afternoon and my roommate Kelly had to leave for work super abruptly, and I so I decided a birthday nap would be good. I then headed over to my friend Krystal's house to paint nails and have some girl time. Dara spoiled me and did me all up, Steph gave me the best present as always and the girls all got excited with me before we were all about to head out.  The...

The start of the year always brings new neighbors, new classes and new fallen leaves. It's been exciting moving back into the dorms again, seeing old friends and being apart of a great community. Langley, B.C. As much as I love getting to know new people, I dread one certain question. It's probably one of the most asked questions ever and I think I get asked it almost everyday. So here it is, "Where are you from?" It drives me crazy because my answer can't be explained by a word or even one sentence. It's complicated and I guess you could say I get frustrated explaining it all the time. However with that, here is my typical answer. "I'm kind of from Corvallis. I graduated from Santiam Christian. Tacoma, WA But wait that's not all, my parents just moved to Tacoma, WA a year ago but I've never lived there. You see my dad is a pastor so my family moves around alot. I was born in Salem, raised in Albany and then I moved to Canada when I...

"Have faith in me, and you will have life-giving water flowing from deep inside you, just as the scriptures says" John 7:38 {white rock, b.c.)        I can't tell but I think that maybe God has been hinting something at me this summer. Perhaps he's been hinting with the longing I have for water on a hot, hot day, or for being soaked during a water fight at work. Maybe it's been in the beauty of the pudget sound or the beautiful lakes and the ocean I laid by on vacation. With every drop of water, God has been catching my attention.                  My family takes walks often by the pudget sound and I love the calming and peace that it brings me. It always captivates me and I continue to stare out at the never ending waters for far too long. My entire summer vacation was wrapped around water. My family went to visit Canada, which was amazing by the way, and we camped at our fa...

 

First off I want to thank all of you who supported me financially and prayerfully. You all made a huge effort in getting me to summit and I can't thank you enough! Without you and Jesus of course, I wouldn't have had such an amazing and life changing experience.  If you couldn't already tell summit was amazing ! Not only did I gain amazing new relationships with my friends in IV(Intervarsity Christian Fellowship), but I gained an entire new perspective of how I look at the world and how I want to live in it. We studied in Acts and learned how to live in a community that eats together, prays together and does everything else together. We learned to live simply and realized that we actually can survive with the bare necessities and that we don't really need the things that we want. Who seriously needs to have every new material possession? If you think about it you will be able live without it, I promise you. We spent our days at work cites as we served the homele...

Summertime has finally come and the books have been closed.  It's time for my brain to take a break and for my skin to bronze. It seemed like this term was never ending and that finals week was taking its sweet time to leave me waiting in anticipation to be free from school. But good news today was my first day of summer! I'm so happy that my first year of college is over and I'm looking forward to the next three! I love OSU and God has got some great plans for me coming up, I just know it. Tomorrow I'll be heading out to Summit for my Portland mission trip.I'm a bit nervous and honestly don't feel rested of prepared for it but I know that God has something up his sleeve. I will be there for two weeks without phone or my family but I'll have my friends and God's amazing love, which is an exceptional trade if you ask me! I'm going in without much information of any expectations and I'm going to commit it all to God. I'll be updating you ...