The World according to Lauren

2005-03-10T21:13:00.000-08:00

Walter & Lisa

2005-03-10T21:10:00.000-08:00

Here's some pictures of Wlater, the guy that me and my partner (Lisa) lead to the Lord.

Lessons in Grace

2005-03-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

So Tuesday night as I was leaving campus at 11:30 p.m., I get pulled over for speeding by Campus Security. I was clocked doing 61 in a 40 zone. A $160 ticket. Ouch!! But the officer that pulled me over is a friend of mine, and shows me grace and lets me off. Yes (see Napolean Dynamite). So, I know that it has been a while since I updated this blog. But, in my defense all I can say is that since the return from Costa Rica, life has been a big whirlwind. Now that I have a few days break between assignments and projects I'm taking the time to update the blog. I really haven't had much time to stop and think, since I got back. However, a month and 13 days until 3rd yr is done.

Dios te Bendiga
Lauren

2005-03-07T16:13:00.000-08:00

Picture me in Costa Rica

Crazy Times in Costa Rica

2005-02-18T23:40:00.000-08:00

Hola to God's Frozen Chosen! As I sit and feel the sweat run out of my pores, here in semitropical Costa Rica, there is this crazy architect hottie blowing bubbles in her tea, she's trying to make me snap and lose it. (Just kidding Lisa). Overall I give this trip on the scale of 1 to 10, a 45. The ticos (what Costarricans call themselves), have been having cooler than usual weather, and they have been blaming it on us Canucks. (Ha!) I tell them they haven't seen cold. So tonight, was our last offical outreach, we showed the JESUS film for the second and last time. We saw 12 people come to Christ tonight. So far that makes 20+ people so far, the architect hottie is in charge of keeping stats, apparently math is not big for architects. So Lisa, is hassling me to get off and since I am a perfect gentleman, I will sign off and let her do her stuff.

Adios, see you Sunday
Lauren.

Hola from Costa Rica

2005-02-17T08:22:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody! Sorry I haven't been posting here as regularly as I wanted to. Just been busy and sick. So Monday, we went out to the University of Costa Rica. Some of the staff members on the team gave a talk on the 7 habit of highly effective people and shared their testimonies. After that we went out sharing on the campus. Then Monday evening we had an outreach talking about maintaining purity in dating & relationships. Tuesday, we were on campus all day, my partner Lisa and I led a guy named Walter to the Lord. Which was very awesome. So far we have seen eight people come to the Lord on campus. Tuesday evening, we showed the JESUS film in a suburb of San Jose. I don't know how many accepted the Lord that night. Then later that night I got food poisioning, vomited my guts out. That was fun. NOT!! Then Wednesday, now don't hate me for this, but we went to the beach. Spent the day there. Then last night went and had another talk, this time with the men's and women's volleyball teams. So, for today we are going back to the campus, tonight we are going to the evening market. Tomorrow, we are going to a volcano, and showing the JESUS film. And Saturday, we leave.

Hasta lueago
Lauren

Greetings from Costa Rica

2005-02-14T10:29:00.000-08:00

Hola Everyone!
I am finally here in Costa Rica, about to go to the UCR (University of Costa Rica) to do sharing and some set up for a event to tonight on dating and relationships. Yesterday went to church. Had a blast. Played football (soccer), held our own (we think). Things to pray for: Courage, and that God would would break down the walls of denominationalism.

Got to go,
Lauren.

Curses

2005-02-12T00:10:00.000-08:00

Well I'm off on the missions trip, I'm overnighting tonight in Toronto at a hotel, and I'll be on my way to Costa Rica in the morning. The last 24 hours have been very strange. I went the to the dinner theatre "God's Favorite", which was very good and I highly recommend by way. But i degress, there is this lady that was st my table at supper and right next to me during the show, I am serious when I say that she did not shut up during the whole time right from supper til she left at the end of the show. Then I go to drop off the last 200 dollars of my support, then I go home thinking I'm going to finish packing, and go to bed early for once, and get a good nights sleep before my midterm today, and I have to leave. I get home but find out that my house has been broken into, and I some of my stuff is missing, like the spending money that I had for the trip, my bank card, my MP3 player, my DVD player, some movies, my backpack, and my graphing calculator, and my mom's laptop. Sufice it to say, I did not get a good nights sleep. And I don't know about the midterm, it seems from an sfter test analysis I may done alright, either that or the whole class screwed up royally. So please pray for my mom, her nerves are starting to get shot. It seems that there is least a meth dealer in the neighbourhood, if not a meth lab. So, crime has been up in the neighbourhood. And me, well... I want to go hunting right now.

Off to Cost Rica
Lauren

And Life marches on... Redux

2005-01-30T13:28:00.000-08:00

So once again I relize that time has passed and I haven't posted a thing to my blog. Life has been the daily grind. I starting to feel the stress of the combination of homework and prep for the missions trip to Costa Rica. Finally got my travel itinery to Costa Rica.
Leave Feb 11 @ 2:35p.m. from Saskatoon to Toronto
Arrive Feb 11 @ 7:55p.m. in Toronto
Leave Feb 12 @ 12:24p.m. from Toronto to Alanta
Arrive Feb 12 @ 2:44p.m. in Alanta
Leave Feb 12 @ 6:19p.m. from Alanta to San Jose
Arrive Feb 12 @ 9:21p.m. in San Jose
and coming back is basicly the reverse. As for a intnery while I'm there, forget that. This is Latin America, they don't make schedules. That is why we have the two team leaders going down, two days before to consult with the national staff.

Talk to you later,
go to go code
Lauren

And Life Marches On

2005-01-20T16:35:00.000-08:00

I just relized today that its been almost a week since I posted. Finiancal support for my trip is starting to roll in, which is a relieve. Although for mission trips I suscribe to the philosphy of "If its God's will then its God's bill.", not too terribly respectful but the point gets across. But it is encouraging to see that people are supporting your efforts, and it gives proof to your faith, although you should not need proof for faith, there are times when you need it. And referencing some comments from the previous post. I whole heartedly agree with Don. Even if there were no credible proof of God outside of the Bible, faith would be all that we had to go on. But to me science should not be search for proof of God, but rather a further exploration of this incredible creation that God has given us. Take a look at Beth's blog, the post entitled "Bio-awe" for further reading. So in more recent news, today is the first time that I went out evangelising on campus. Didn't get a chance to talk to anyone, the people that my partner and I approached, didn't want to talk, which is ok. The purpose of this is get some practice in preparations for the trip. Right now everything is good. Extremely busy but good.

Lauren

Here comes the Bride

2005-01-15T13:27:00.000-08:00

Right now, I am sitting in the sound booth at church, waiting for this wedding to start. It gets me thinking about life and death, and will I ever find someone and get married, all those crazy thoughta about life and the future. So, anyways on Thursday night Brendon showed this amazing video at the Journey, dealing with science and religion. The speaker Lee Strobel, was talking about that most of the time when we think of creation vs. evolution, we tend to think more of science vs religion, but Lee was showing that now with new evidence from biochemistry, and cosmology, and other areas, that it no longer a case of science vs. religion but of science vs science. Leaving all that scientific proof behind, to me it has always been a case of are you an evolved monkey, a cosmic accident, or a created being, which means that you have a purpose, a reason for living, that you are not some sort of accident. My school work has come crashing down around my ears this week. Finding time to do my school work and time for preperation for Costa Rica and a million other things that I have to do or get done, has left me feeling kinda stressed.

So, goodbye for now.
Lauren

The Butterflies are a Hatching

2005-01-11T16:07:00.000-08:00

As I filled out this application form for my Costa Rica trip last night, I relize once again how much my beliefs and experiences are different from other people that I know (I want to say unique but I know thats not true). For example one question that was asked was "When were you saved" for me the answer is unkown. I literally do not remember asking "Jesus into my heart" part of the reason for this is that I grew up in the church, and being involved in Sunday School, and Youth Group in my teens, so what is normally an event for most people, is actually a process (taking years) in my case. Another question involved my relationship with my parents, how do you put that down, with all its negatives and positives, on to paper and at the same time make sound churchy? And there were other questions that led me to think about what I believe about certain Christian doctrines. And it made me relize that my beliefs do not fall into any dominational doctrine or theology. My beliefs are not totally Baptist doctrine or Pentecostal doctrine, or whatever doctrine, and it is those beliefs that caused friction between me and other people (including leadership) at my previous church. Filling out this application, has made me relize just how truly unique I am, and it has made me be very thankful for that.

Post ya later
Lauren.

A Tale of Two Passions

2005-01-07T15:35:00.000-08:00

To start off with, I have these two big interests in my life, theatre and missions trips, especially those that are going to Central America. This is the first time that I can remember having to choose between two passions. You see, the deal is that Tom (my director) called me up about being involved in this year's project, I said sure, whatevber you need me for I'll be there, then my interest in this missions trip started getting piqued. I then made my decesion to go on this trip but then Tom phones me up and tells about this year's project and what we are doing, I ask him the dates of the performances and guess what? They are on the same dates! I relucntly (very and extremely relunctly) had to tell Tom that I couldn't be involved in this year's project. Never have I had this conflict between any of the things that I am passionate about, well not to this extreme, not to the point were I had to choose between one or the other, where to choose one was to deny the other. So, as I sit wondering, I think that there has to be some sort of grander plan that I am playing a part in. Didn't Sheakspere(?) say "That all the world's a stage and we are merely actors upon it"? or something close anyways.

Ciao,
Lauren

Introduction

2005-01-04T23:56:00.000-08:00

Hi all! My name is Lauren McDonald, I'm 30 yrs old, and I am a 3rd yr Computer Science Student at the University of Saskatchewan. The main purpose of starting this blog is to track my preperations for my missions trip to Costa Rica in Febuary. More to come...