Interview with Jenn Gaylor

Jenn is one of our delightful admission counselors here at Grace ( and I love working with her!). Here's a little bit about her....

Q. How long have you been working in admissions here at Grace? I have been working in admissions at Grace for 1 year.

Q. What is your favorite part about the job?

I really enjoy the incredible team I get to work with and being a part of impacting students through their journey of choosing a college.

Q. What do you do for leisure? Where to start : ) I enjoy spending time with my husband and dog Bruiser, running, boating, shopping, conversation with friends over a great cup of coffee, movies….just to name a few things.
Q. Are you currently reading any books? If so, what? Currently reading: Good to great, Cold Tangerines, Pagan Christianity, 10 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, and Romans (oh gosh…just realized I need to finish these, lol)
Q. What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your life? Make sure you always have Home Field Advantage! You will not be successful in life, if you are not “winning at home”.

Inteview with Zac Hess

We're starting a new little segment this summer...instead of just my commentary on life! We will be taking a look at several different students as well as admission counselor's here at Grace. Hope you enjoy!

Zac Hess:

Q. What year will you be this fall at Grace and what is your major?
Senior

Major: Biblical Studies with a minor in Youth Ministries

Q. What are you spending your time doing this summer?
Pastoral Internship at Southview GBC in Ashland Ohio

Q. What do you do for leisure?
I have been doing a lot of golfing and fishing so far!

Q. Are you currently reading any books? If so, what?
The Glory of Christ by John Owen, it's pretty sweet!

Q. What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your life?
This is a difficult question to answer because I have received a lot of good advice, but something that sticks out is, you take care of your character and let God take care of your reputation.

Thank you Zac!!

Beautifully Broken

This weekend was absolutely glorious! The Masterworks festival is in town until the middle of July. They are a performing arts festival of various musicians and theatre and dance. They have free performances over the weekends, Friday through Sunday as well as others throughout the week occassionally. This past weekend, the faculty performed all three evenings. On Saturday night there was one piece by Beethoven which was incredible! The piece had random segments in which the music seemed slightly off, slightly out of place, slightly wrong! The first time this interruption came, I was taken slighlty aback by it, and was honestly, rather embarrassed that the faculty would make such a mistake. By the third time, I realized that the composer had written the piece like that! By the end of the piece I had come to appreciate this brokenness in the midst of the beautiful sound. I don't think I can quite put into words (an unfortunate and common personality trait! :)) how and why I transitioned from finding the bits of brokeness embarrassing, to finding them beautiful. But something about it reminded me of the way in which God composes the music of our lives. There is an obvious beauty to it, a reflection of the Composers own beautiful nature intermingled with the sporadic broken keys. I guess I felt that the more I heard the broken notes the more beautiful the rest of the composer's piece sounded to me. As though those moments served merely to enhance the beauty of the rest of the piece. So in a rather big way, Beethoven's piece, served the purpose of reminding me of our Heavenly Father's work of composition in my own life!

I look forward to attending more of the performances put on by the Masterworks! This group in comprised of absolutely incredible and talented musicians, dancer, and thesbians dedicated to the glory of their God through their gifts in music.

Forgiving When it Hurts

There are so many times in life when someone hurts you. It can happen when you least expect it or even when you think you are carefully guarded against hurt. At those moments it is so hard to extend forgiveness to someone who 1. has not asked for it 2. in our minds doesn't deserve it 3. has repeatedly offended us.
Our flesh is so strong. We very naturally protect ourselves and defend ourselves when someone has recently hurt us. For me personally it is so hard to be humble and apologize especially if I feel the other person has done more wrong in the situation then me. However, God keeps us accountable for ourselves. Do you remember when Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive?
"Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?'
"Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times'" (Mt 18:21-22). Jesus was not specifying a numerical limit of seventy-seven, so you have no excuse for telling someone, "Okay, that's seventy-six times. You only have one more to go, so watch out!" He was using numbers to make a contrast that is easy to remember. Love "keeps no record of wrongs," so a tally of someone's offenses is out of the question (1 Cor 13:5).The whole point that Jesus is making here is to continue to forgive, in spite of your own feeling, no matter how many times you have had to extend forgiveness.
Quiet honestly we can’t do this in our own strength. The only way we can forgive someone is when we remember how much God has forgive us. That should be our motivation for forgiving others – what Christ has done for us. Because if we look at the cross and say, “wow, God did that to forgive my sin? How can I not forgive another?”
It does not make it any easier, but it does make it possible for us to do it. Because at that point our focus is not on ourselves…it is on the greatness and kindness of God.

Home!

It's been a couple of weeks; work with the 4-H is getting super busy as we gear up for the fair in a couple of weeks! This past weekend I had the opportunity to go home for a few days. Home for me is Pennsylvania, so it was a little drive to get there but TOTALLY worth it!! I never thought I would come to appreciate home so much, but it's such a refreshing place. As I get older, every time I go home I find that there is something new that I rediscover and cherish. My family is one of the biggest things; I have learned a lot about loving them well these past few years while I've been away at college and it's really neat to go home and spend time with them. Additionally it's amazing to go home and see my home church family. These are the people who have helped form me into the person I am today- they taught me in Awana, mentored me through high school, supported me with money and prayer when I went on trips, and they upheld me in prayer when I went to college. This past Sunday I wasn't able to stay for church but was only able to attend Sunday School and I realized how many people in my church have poured into my life. Person after person wanted to see me between services just to find out how everything is going and it's really cool to see the Church functioning like that. It really is a spiritual family. How about you? Do you have relationships in your home church where you can see God forming you? Are you getting to know people from different generations? I sure hope so :-) It's such a huge blessing and encouragement!!
I hope you have an amazing rest of the week!

Rain, Rain Go Away

It's rained all day. I shouldn't complain. It has actually been quite nice to watch it fall, its just making me sleepy! I love how the rain makes everything so green and refreshed.
Today we sat down in a meeting to plan some things for the fall. The students have now been gone a month and I too am starting to feel refreshed (give it another month or so though!). Not that the students are exhausting, but when they are here it signifies the extra busy time around campus. Its is neat to see during the summer how everything here at Grace is getting a deep cleaning and freshened up. The dorms, the classrooms, the professors, and the staff. Summer is a nice time for us to reflect and also look forward as we re-energize. I guess it's like the cool rain for us!

Walks and Reminders

The summers here in Winona Lake are simply beautiful! There's been quite a bit of rain these past few days, but the weekend was lovely and I was able to take a couple walks around the park and Village. I don't think I can quite put into words how refreshing it is to walk, take in the beauty, bump into friendly, familiar faces, spend time in the presence of the Lord?! It refreshes the soul in an inexplicable way!

So, I watched the video that Mark posted for the first time today. Wow! Katie's right, it's worth taking the time to watch! Being a graduate student, I hadn't been in chapel that day. Watching the video reminded me of everything that I loved dearly about Grace and being a student here. The fact that all of us have a story, a story that has molded us into the people we are today. Some parts we want desperately to hide in a locked room in a dark corner of an abandoned basement, away from us, and away from others. Some parts, we can’t wait to share with the world and hope that the world will jump up and down in excitement with us! I had almost forgotten the extent to which Grace had been that to me. A place where my story could be heard. Where there were people to gently usher me into the basement, encouraging me to welcome my Heavenly Father there and allow Him to illuminate the darkness. Where people cried when I cried, and laughed when I laughed! My story was heard! And perhaps one of the most beautiful things of all? My story collided with many other stories! What a blessing it is to have had that!

Weekends and Work!

Summer is definitely in full swing around here! At my job in the extension office we're hurrying to be ready for the fair which is coming up beginning July 6th. We have LOTS of preparation left to do, but it's so fun working with the families of Kosciusko county. It's a really unique chance to get to know a lot of people in the communities around Winona Lake. My weekend gave me plenty of time to relax though and not think about work :-) Friday evening I was able to have dinner with a wonderful lady from my church here before I played the game "Settlers of Catan" with some friends from Grace. Then Saturday I went shopping with my roommate, Jillian. It was a good day of girl-time! Sunday I was able to go to church and help with the 3 and 4 year old Sunday School class. That age just never ceases to amaze me! They're so independent and tell you about everything. Their faith in God is so innocent and unwavering- it makes me really think about how easy it is as an adult to worry and stress over details instead of unquestioningly trusting my Savior. Those kids certainly set an example for us as adults...I should probably take a hint from them! Enjoy the rest of your week!