so is been awhile since i've posted..life got a little crazy & much has happened since my last update. i'm a college grad. so wierd-when graduating from highschool it was almost a thought that the Second Coming would take place before my college gradutation, but alas, we're still here & i'm going on 23. my life for the past week has been driving buses, working at the daycare and watching people slowly trickle out of the greater bryan/college station metroplex. its been hard because while everyone was experiencing the same emotions moving out, uncertainty, fear, leaving friends & roommates, knowing loneliness is coming; i'm staying in College Station, have no roommates & have friends that will be in town in the fall & yup, the folks are still next door. While i know this "emotional turmoil" isnt pleasant or welcomed, theres that longing in me that wants to experience the sweet refinement that our precious Lord will bring enduring through it--but with that mindset i realize there is other refinement and humbling that is going on in my life, that i am going to experience change, have different fears & even in the fall have to let go of many expectations that come with serving on Ministry Team with three other girls who i dont know very well.
tomorra i leave for Brenham. i'm not working at Blue Bell-while that would be a flippin' sweet job, i'll be a camp counselor at a day camp for innercity kids. i really dont have any idea what do expect and cant really give you any details cause i dont know them :) get excited about flexibility!! that will go until the first week of august! sundays are my day off so i'll be making trips back home for the day-so gimme a shout out or find me at Freedom :)
fun sidenote-last weekend i took a surprise trip up to ft. worth to surprise miss laura ashley rodenberger: theres only one word to describe it-fabulous! the ride up therer was great fun, carn-dog (andrea) rode up with me (she was able to go home to see her family & we met back up on sunday). we chatted away..it was sweet times. back to the surprise-the look on ash's face was classic going from freaked out to confused to so excited all in about 4 seconds! Turned out I was some great "saving grace" for awkward moments throughout the weekend has i not shown up. Saturday we slept in & then had waffles for brunch the rounded out the afternoon with a Rangers game, dinner at Billy Miners in downtown ft.worth and then hung out with some cool kids (Chris Ernst & Carrie Teichleman) in Arlington. Sunday was restful-filled with church, washing her car, a spin in the famous Cougar & an afternoon movie before i left to head back home. Such a fun random roadtrip!!
more important business--school is out and poor No. 33 didnt make it guys. she died a slow and painful death kids. it all started with a busted back window and ended with her just plain stopping in the middle of the road, having to be towed back to the barn. (apparently the transmission is dead). hopefully they're gonna retire the poor old girl, otherwise i see a pretty rough 2005-06 school year looming. for the full account of "Alisha's Bus Drama" during the last week of school, gimme a ring, i'd love to fill you in-but otherwise its pretty long. i'm telling you-a reality tv show about school bus drivers would work, i think the ratings would be great...did you hear about the incident in Florida??
thats all ive got for now. i dont know how often i'll be updating, most likely on sundays, cause i probably wont have access during the week. its back to cleaning and packing kids.
i love you guys & miss the ones that are away from me. please send me emails and phone calls & letters..i'll post my address when i get it!
yall are in my prayers & hearts :)
lish
well, its official, as of 10:38 Tuesday morning, I, Alisha Marie Lombardi, am finished with my college education at the fine university of Texas A&M. finishing my last paper isnt a huge monumental feeling like it i thought it was going to be..but its exciting nonetheless.
this past week has been a fun one, spending time with friends-everybody and their grandma's dog had a birthday this past week-so we were dancing/partying it up like it was 1999. its getting a little be weird thinking about leaving-or rather everyone else leaving College Station. i mean it seemed like yesterday i was a freshman and stepping into All Faith's on a Thursday night for the first time to go to Upstream-who knew that most of my closest friends would come out of this group..only our precoius Lord. When thinking about this college experience I've had here at TAMU, I can only praise the Father for His mighty hand for guiding me..giving me freedom & then sometimes having to shove me hard in His direction.
I'm looking forward to the summer and the fun/crazy time i'm going to have at camp..in Brenham..after my adventure last summer, i'm kinda glad i'm staying stateside-its always good to get away from this bubble I live in, but at the same time my family is extremely important to me. Caley and I havent gotten to hang out a lot & that makes me sad. shes gotten a job & with me finishing up everything with school we just dont have the time..hopefully this next couple weeks we'll have quality sister bonding time!
This innercity thing kinda scares me a little bit, but i'm ready for the challenge. I've never done anything like this before and i think this is really gonna teach me a lot about being in the mission field; I got this book that the director gave me to read before camp. Its about this guy and the innercity ministry he started in Brooklyn, NY..it looks really good-i'm excited about starting it..so continue to check the blog..i'll be updating it throughout the summer.
thats all for right now, i'm trying to keep this pretty light & cheerful seeing as in about a week it will be full of posts about loneliness, how sad my life is since i'll have no friends in College Station, this & that-really my life isnt & wont be that bad..but we all have that subconsious need to make our lives seem more dramatic than they really are; why do we do this? i realld dont know...get back to me about that
anyways,
grace & peace, lish
so its been a couple days since i've posted..why you may ask, because somehow the concept of no class creates the need for more activity and i've been absolute ingulfed with running errands, driving field trips, writing papers, cleaning & randomness for my parents....so today was a pretty amazing day...thats all i can say cause its way past my bed time, but i've honestly had 3 wonderful days, so i'm hoping Thursday and Friday will be the same...i'll write more later at an earlier hour and expound on my great days, but i leave you with this: I may think i'm the biggest dork & failure, but my Lord thinks I'm beautiful & precious; I was made in HIS image & likeness & what He sees is what matters..
grace & peace, lish
This weekend was my first Women's Retreat. we (ashley, tracy and i) travelled out to camp tejas and spend friday night, saturday and sunday with some amazing godly women. the theme was "bloom where you're planted" which turned out to be just perfect for where the Lord has brought me this semester & is taking me for the future. This weekend was so refreshing, to just be able to sit back, soak up good fellowship, learn about vulnerablity and be quiet with the Lord was a blessing. Time and time again the Lord showed me how all of the women struggle, their lives arent any easier if they are empty nesters, single, divorced, widowed, mothers of teenagers or preschoolers, which every stage of life-these women had incredible faith and joy in the midst of their trials. Most precious out of all of them was Alice. Alice Nelson is 84 years old and is kickin' like shes 50! She, no lie, had just gotten back from a mission trip to West Africa working with orphans. Funnystory: we (the young'uns) were eatting dinner saturday and miss nelson comes up and says "Ladies, I just had a 2.5 hr nap, any one want to challenge me in a footrace?"-hysterical!
Today was the 1st Annual Central Baptist Talent Show/Icecream Social-it was a HUGE success...it was so neat to see our beautiful church body fellowshipping and supporting each other. Mad props to Tracy and the Service team who did a great job putting it together...Winners were the 10th Grade boys & their lip sync/dance routine to a JUMP 5 song ("spinning around" i think)-i was almost on the floor I was laughing so hard. Almost as funny was Club 7-Matt Brown, Michael Williams, Chris Hiesy & Ryan Wayson, flowin' Christian stlye-all ghettoed out as only 4 white boys can be....
thats it, if you want to hear more about the women's retreat, ask me, id love to tell you about it!
grace & peace, lish