A-N-N-A

Another from Anna!

"Dear Friends,

It has been a few weeks since I have last wrote and my what a wonderful time we are having here at school! The time is literally flying though and I can't believe that it is October already! Thats crazy, It seems like we just got here, but we are actually almost through with the first half of the semester.

God has been teaching me a lot about his patience recently. I have had an incident over the summer that I honestly had thought was over and done with. But this past week I was struck with some serious personal strife and I wasn't sure what God was trying to teach me. My cousin Dan's girlfriend was able to talk to me about it and she was able to help me see that my trauma, if you will, was a direct result of bitterness that I had built up toward an individual over the summer. I thought that things were fine, but upon the question "are you praying for that individual?" the response was NO! That was a big break through for me. I think that often we try to go on with life and when a situation occurs you are quick to ignore the issue and try to blot it out, when in reality you should be on your knees before our HOLY and AWESOME God!

I have continued to struggle with my Bible Doctrines class, but I know that the Lord is teaching me through it. I had a test in my Home appliance class and got a B which was exciting! My textiles class is going strong too! My teacher for that class use to scare me to death the first semester I had her, now I feel as if I have her wrapped around my little finger;) Things have clicked and we are moving on now. Lauren and I are in Physical Science together, and if it wasn't for her I don't know what I would be doing with that class. We have been able to stick together close through it and we are going to make it out alive I hope! Last week for lab, we were determining the quality of our shampoos. It was quite interesting and the results were, if you were interested, you get what you pay for. The cheap stuff was not all that the comercial says that it is. That was for free;)

Weekends are spend at the soccer games usually. Last week Amanda(my cousins g-friend) and I were at a game with Josh and Brandon (Laurens cousin) and my oh my did we have some good laughs. I thought I was goign to stop breathing I was laughing so hard!

Today is my little brothers birthday and I have to miss it! It is kinda hard and I must admit I am a little homesick this weekend. But I will be over it soon... I can't believe it though, he is 17! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh where has time gone???? My family celebrated it by going to Boothbay harbor and looked at the boats getting packed up for the winter. Then they went to a restaurant called "Townsends" isn't that neat????

Ok well I have about written a book here so I must depart. I have a few things that I would like to mention though for prayer,

1) my personal growth in the Lord

2) our housing situation in Maine

3) a paper that I have to write for Tuesday

4) Unspoken

Thank you soooooo much for all your prayers and support! I love you all soooooo much and miss you Ohio peoples very much! I hope that everything is going well for ya'll;) Have a wicked good week! Love to all!

Anna Banana

Psalms 32:10-11 (ESV)

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord! Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous and shout for joy, all you upright in heart."

Anna's last name isn't Smith

A post from Anna Townsend!

"Dear Friends and Family,

greetings from the place in the country with the most beautiful weather this time of year!!!!! I can't believe how beautiful it is and Gods goodness to us in blessing us with such a nice location for school!

It has been a few weeks since I have last up-dated you, and hopefully, I won't forget anything important.

Last weekend was Lauren's birthday, and I took GREAT pleasure in making the most of it! I went all out with party hats and kazoos and the whole bit! She was thoroughly embarrassed, and I enjoyed every moment of it;) Then, later that evening I brought a couple of gallons of ice-cream over to the games, and we all helped in celebrating that event;)

Classes are going ok . . . I had a Bible Doctrines test last week that was a killer! Its is so frustrating because I really enjoy the class. It is suppose to be one that I can take and grasp the most from, but in all honesty, its hard. I want to be able to know this stuff so that I can be most effective for our Lord, but the book learning part is very difficult for me to understand.

Physical Science I am managing to stay afloat in still... That is hopefully going to be the class that I excel in as the semester goes by, where at first I thought that it would be the hardest . . .

Weekends around here are so much fun, but they are soooo exhausting. Friday night is spent at the games, usually. We have a group that is practically inseparable, and boy, do we have some good times. Josh took great pleasure in one of the kazoos from Lauren's party and has taken it apart so that just the mouth part is in tact. He had it at the soccer game Saturday night and was cracking us all up. Every time we would all be cheering cause a goal or something, he would be squeaking through that little blowy thing. It was sooooo funny! My friend Amanda and I were laughing soooooo hard!

Sunday's are such wonderful days, but they are also long days! Back home, our family usually takes Mondays off to recover from the business of a Sunday, but here at school, there is not really a day off for me. Between working 15 hours a week and taking 18 credits, I am pretty busy. So usually by Tuesday I am exhausted. But God is good and I get to sleep in on Tuesdays and make up for the loss over the weekend.

My family in Maine is continuing to do well. Ryan is in full throttle with drivers ED now, and he is enjoying it. He actually started driving Monday with his instructor. He is also looking forward to his 17th birthday which is on Friday this week! I am sad that I have to miss it, but that is the way it is I guess;) Mom is recovering from a nasty cold that I think I gave to her through the phone a few weeks ago;) She is still working at the museum and loving it to death! Dad, wow there is so much I could say about him, but that would take a whole long e-mail in and of itself... The Lord spared him from what could have been a serious injury with a chain saw a few days ago. We are still working on the property, and the Lord has been gracious to us so far!

Prayer Request for this week!

That I would have a continued passion for what God is teaching me

That I would have a genuine LOVE for people even though it is hard to love them.

My Bible Doctrines class

Financial situation for next semester

My health, I have been having stomach problems again this semester

An unspoken regarding my future plans

Thank you all sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much for all your prayer and support! It means sooooo much to all of us here! I can't wait to see more of you here soon! IT is and AWESOME place to be!

Love to All, Anna Banana

James 1:5-8

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given to him. But let him ask in faith nothing wavering, For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in ALL his ways!"

Da jia, Ni hao.

Here's a post from Josh.

"Da jia, Ni hao.

Well, what a full two weeks I had!

I began my last update, commanding you to come down to visit us. It
has been two weeks since that post and I know for a fat that you
haven't. For that, I am disappointed. I expect to see you soon.

We are in choir now. I really enjoy it.

I sold my iPod for $140 last week and I bought the iPod touch three
days ago. It will be here in a week and a half. Rumor has it that the
IT guys are about to switch to wireless in the dorms (Everyone knows
that it is just a matter of time because they installed all the
necessary hardware last year.). With the installation of the wireless
comes the ability to use my iPod in my room. Obviously, I won't be
able to listen to any music because I won't have headphones, but I
will be able to surf the web.

My computer came early last week, and I am typing this post with it.
I love it so much. It has this really cool feature that lets you
teleconference with other Mac owners. Unfortunately, it doesn't work
outside the BJ network because there are like a trillion firewalls.
If I ever go off campus with it, I will try to teleconference with
Liz. I am really excited about that.

I had my first Japanese class last week. The professor was a
missionary's son, so he speaks Japanese, Spanish and English. If any
of you know anything about Japanese, you know that it is very close
to Chinese. I knew this, too, and I thought that I was going to have
difficulty with keeping the languages separate, but it is really not
that hard. Japanese uses the chinese characters in one of their
alphabets (yes, they have more than one, four actually), so as I
learn Chinese, I am learning Japanese. There is a guy in my Chinese
classes who is taking Japanese with me, and we think it's really easy
because we are used to characters that have over 10 different
strokes, but most Japanese ones only have 2.

I recently got an email from one of my teachers informing that there
is a job opportunity at the Bob Jones University Press in the
editorial department as a proofreader. I took the qualifying test and
am waiting for a callback. I really want this job because it would
look good on a resume, it would be really fun (to me), and I would
gain a very helpful skill for my college years.

Prayer Requests:
I would find a good extension that I could really use my talents for
God.
I would get that job as a proofreader.
I would continually be in God's Word and prayer.

I love and miss you all, but now I am going to take a nap."