Time to celebrate

Today is the last day of classes and I cannot believe that this semester has come and gone so quickly!! Looking back it was one of the best semesters I’ve had, with much personal as well as ministry growth! We just finished our small group this week too, and the girls were all sad that we have to wait until next semester to get together! I still am so thankful that God brought us all together and how we genuinely care for and enjoy one another! The week of Thanksgiving we had a fun night and celebrated one of the girls who was turning 19 on Thursday! We went out to a tasty Italian restaurant, ate homemade (from a box, but still…) fudge marble cake with coconut frosting and then had fun taking pictures with silly glasses :)


Kaila, Samantha, Lauren (a.k.a. b-day girl), myself and Alex!


Kaila making a beautiful face for Sami


Alex, Lauren and I enjoying the ambiance


favorite picture of the night! We all had way too much fun with these glasses…

Sadly one of our other members couldn’t make it because she was punching out a 10 page paper, so hopefully she’ll be able to make the next crazy outing! And yes, I did buy that obnoxiously loud lei for Lauren and I made her wear it the whole night :)

Thanksgiving Part Deux

Now the holiday is over, I figured I’d write another post about things I’m thankful for, and this should have come last week, but things got too crazy plus our cabin in Lake Arrowhead doesn’t have internet, so there you go. But here are some more things I am thankful for!

• That I live in beautiful and sunny So Cal where the beach and mountains are just a little bit away

• That I had a pretty awesome childhood with some super cool and fun siblings!

• That I had such a great group of family friends to grow up with in The Armenian Mafia – multiple families who came together for camping and Forest Home and who each have an amazing heart for God! Seriously, they are such fun and awesome people and I feel so blessed to know them!

• That I am a morning person. I know I’ve written about this before, but I have to say it again – thank you God for making me a morning person because it makes these early mornings a little bit easier

• That I was able to find an apt pretty much right after I graduated college with 2 friends of mine! Vive la Casa de Amor!

• That I live so close to many of my friends, it makes getting together a whole lot easier :)

• That I have a big, fat Armenian family! I love how my family is huge, no, scratch that, we’re never ending and I love it! I have 12 first cousins and they are all great people! There is a pretty wide age difference between us, but it’s not that hard to get along with them because they are way fun and have deep hearts.

• SNOW!! It snowed on Saturday morning in Lake Arrowhead and I think it’s been 2 or more years since I’ve seen a snowfall and it was amazing. A light covering of snow on God’s creation took my breath away because it was so beautiful – the cold be darned!

• That it’s almost Christmas!! So excited for this time of year with all the decorations and music and Christmas-themed drinks everywhere, ahhhh how I love it so!

Thanksgiving: Part I

Seeing as how it is Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought I would post about some things I’ve been thankful for and get into the spirit of gratitude!

• That I was born in the most free country in the world and can worship God openly and not in fear

• That my rheumatoid arthritis is in remission – I cannot tell you how that makes me super happy to feel normal again and not have to walk around like I’m 90 years old

• For all the fun and free things I’ve been able to enjoy recently: Keith Urban concert in my hometown of Pasadena, Ok Go concert at USC, tree lighting at The Grove (where said hello to Gov. Schwarzenegger!!) and free frozen yogurt at 21 Choices! All in the span of 3 days too! Thanks God for looking out for me :)

• That I have a super awesome family and extended family! I am so thankful that most of us all live within a half hour radius of each other too – it makes holidays such a fun time!!

• That I had an amazing education all the way through! Great schools in Chandler (K-8), Poly (go Panthers!) and USC (Fight on!!)

• That I did not get into my first choice for college because that meant I would have been in Boston when I found out I had RA – yet another example of God knowing better than me :)

• That of the 2 serious injuries I’ve had to my head, none of them were life-threatening and I always felt safe because had an amazing family to walk me through it – plus I got some sweet scars from them!!

• Thankful that nothing is too big or too small for God - I can come to Him with my seemingly impossible problems as well as my stupid ones and He cares about them both

• That I can go to the gym and have it not hurt – yes, another one about my RA being in remission, but it is seriously the best thing in the world! I am able to be active and go surfing and go to the gym multiple times a week! And I can RUN!! I used to not be able to and now I can use treadmills, ellipticals, whatever and it doesn’t hurt!!!

I think I’ll cap it right there and come back later for Part II :)

So excited for Thanksgiving around the corner and looking forward to making some delicious food too!

Peanut butter jelly time!

Okay so I know the title of this makes no sense, but it makes me laugh and thus thought it'd be a good beginner :) In keeping up with the last post, wanted to share some more photos of what I've been up to this semester. One of the best parts thus far has been being able to see the U2 concert when they came here in October (the 25th to be exact). Why am I talking about this? Well, U2 tickets went on sale today for their second run in So Cal and I thought it'd be appropriate, plus, my blog's official title comes from one of their songs!

Basically I got to see U2 at the Rose Bowl when they came out and it was amazing, oh, and did I mention I got to see them for free? AND get paid?? How did I accomplish that feat you might be wondering? Well, a friend on staff with me forwarded me some info the week before the concert, as in, the Monday before their Sunday show. He said a friend of his worked the concert for Blackberry, the main sponsor, in Oklahoma and they needed more people for the Pasadena show! Ummm, yes I will try out! Had to send in my resume, a head shot and body shot (yeah I know...) and then if I seemed normal enough I'd get a group interview and hopefully be selected to work the show! Through God's grace I was chosen for an interview, got selected (!!!!!) and worked about 12 hours that day! (and sadly my friend who told me about the opportunity didn't get chosen...) So I got to the Rose Bowl about 12:15 and was a "brand ambassador" for Blackberry and got to wear a cool fedora:



That was me with one of the girls who was there, Amber, and we were doing our best impression of Zoolander :)

So I worked the VIP area for a little bit, which basically meant I walked the VIPs to their respective tents, a whole 10-20 feet. I was enjoying that job because gave me more face time with the other people working there, but then I got switched to work the actual arena and tell people as they were walking by about the new U2 app on Blackberrys. Incidentally, if you have a Blackberry phone, I can tell you how to download U2's newest album, for free, on your phone :)

Once that was done, we finally got to go into the show at about 9ish, once U2 had already been on stage for a bit. We walk into the stadium, with "Beautiful Day" playing, and we were on the floor! Ironically we were too close to the stage at times because it was hard to see the band unless they came to the edge, but it made for some good pictures!!



Yes, that was Bono and The Edge chilling and singing along!! It was a great night and I am so happy I got the chance to do it! I told God that if I could go I would love it, but if not it's not a huge deal. Thankfully God was gracious to me and gave me the chance!!



The Rose Bowl was full to capacity, as in, FULL. So glad I didn't drive there but my awesome brother picked me up. The "parking lot" (a.k.a. golf course) was a horrendous maze, but in the end, made some friends!



That was definitely a highlight of these past couple months!!

Random note: I am thankful I am a morning person. As Thanksgiving is coming up, it's always a good idea to think through things you're thankful for, big and small, and one of my small things is that I am thankful I like the mornings. Why am I even talking about this you might ask? Well, the reason is that I go to the gym on campus at 6am Monday, Wednesday and Friday with some girls to work out and get some good face time in. Yes, it is early and most of the time it's still dark out when I leave at 5:40am, but once I'm up I'm up, I don't need coffee or anything, just a glass of OJ and I am good to go. And it's kind of fun to see all the "regulars" at that insanely early hour at the gym, seeing as how there's only about 20 of us. I usually come with 1-2 girls, that is, if they wake up in time. This past Monday the girl I was supposed to work out with, Jane, texted me while I was on the way and said she couldn't go. Well, I was already driving, so went by myself and when I was stretching, one of the "regulars" asked me where my friend was. Ha haaa - I had to laugh that people actually pay attention to everyone else in there. And while getting up and being on campus by 6am can make for some long days, I wouldn't trade it now because not only is it good for me physically, but it's really fun to work out with these girls and talk while we're standing awkwardly in front of the mirrors with our weights. We call it "partying at Club de Lyon" to make it sound more appealing, because the name of the gym here is the Lyons Center. So, once again, I just have to thank God that He made me a morning person who is able to be awake and alert, even when it's 6am.




And speaking of being thankful and going to the gym, just had to voice another note of gratitude for my rheumatoid arthritis still being in remission!! There is no way I could go to the gym otherwise, so thank you Jesus for giving me a break from it! It almost makes me want to jump up for joy....


And I did!

What are some things you're thankful for as we come near Thanksgiving??

The final push

I cannot believe that there are only 3 weeks til the end of the semester - and one of those is a half week due to Thanksgiving!! Where did this semester go?? It has been a great year so far and I am so excited with the people that God has brought around and allowed me to cross paths with. I have seen His hand over and over again, especially in the different types of people I've been able to meet. And the cool thing is that I can feel myself growing this semester, mostly with not being afraid to meet people and share the gospel with them. The first couple of weeks I was meeting people left and right and loving it!! I met a girl at a carnival the Saturday before classes even started and now she is one of the girls I am closest to! I love how God sets up divine appointments like that!

Seeing as how it's already towards the end of the semester, I thought I'd put up a few pictures :)



This is our Christan Challenge tailgate before the first home game against San Jose St. (which we thankfully won!) This is the director of Challenge, Neil, with myself and Anya who is also on staff. We were the illustrious servers of pancakes and sausages that morning!



This was from my birthday party this year - we definitely had fun trying on crazy hats!



And again with the crazy hats, this time with another girl from USC and Melinda, Neil's wife! :)



This is a shot from our annual Fall Discipleship Conference, with 2 of the USC freshmen enjoying the beautiful view of Big Bear minus the smog!

Could today get any better??

Good afternoon blogging world!! I didn't think I would post again so soon but today was too good to pass up :) I had lunch today with a girl in my small group, Alex, and she decided right then and there to give her life to Christ!! WOW! She said she knew she needed to re-commit and actually walk the walk instead of simply talking the talk and I asked her if she wanted to pray right there at the table or later and she wanted to do it then! So we prayed together and now I have a new sister!! So exciting how God can change hearts - Prov. 21:1!! And the amazing thing is that once we come to Him and give up our own selves, we become a new person - 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

The cool thing is that I've been praying for this day to come for quite some time! She is exactly how I was when I first came to college - being that I had grown up learning stories about God but they were never real to me. Then I found out that I could actually know Jesus personally - totally new thought for me at the time - and I decided the same thing as Alex, to finally start walking the walk and not just talking the talk. I am so excited as she starts this new chapter of her life and I will update with more news later!







PS. just some fun daily trivia: on this date in 1922, English archaeologist Howard Carter finds King Tut's tomb in Egypt :)

Aloha blogging world!

I decided to begin a blog to let others know what exactly I'm doing and how God is working on the USC campus here in sunny Southern California. I most likely will not be blogging every day, but I will update frequently and have photos for all to see :) I hope you enjoy what you read and give all the glory and praise to God, because He is the one who makes it all happen!!

Before I sign off, thought I should mention the reasons behind the url and title of this blog. The url is "His strength, my strength," which points to the fact that God is my strength and the reason I can do this thing called life. Paul says in Colossians 1:28-29 that he can only be successful as long as it's God's energy and strength, not his own, that he leans on. I find it rather appropriate that he uses the word "struggling" when talking of God's energy, because it is a constant battle to give up control to God and not do life my own way.

The title of this blog is "I will follow," having a double meaning of saying that I will follow God wherever He takes me and also a reference to the U2 song "I will follow" because I love them and thought it fits :)

Aloha.