growing in grace

Unthreaded thoughts

Susie Lorence — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:22:58 +0000

The bridge to adulthood is not easy.

It seems everything in my life is becoming harder, more challenging, more vulnerable, more intense.

The more I give of myself, the more tense I become, hoping I don’t get burned.

Learning how to trust is a painful thing, but so incredibly rewarding.

I’m unlearning old things and learning new things everyday.

His mercies are certainly new every morning.

An update for Mom

Susie Lorence — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:53:46 +0000

For Mom: a couple pictures of Jesse and me from our date on Friday.

As promised: U2 pics

Susie Lorence — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:45:57 +0000

I almost forgot I said I’d put pictures from the U2 concert in Chicago up! Here ya go:

Waiting in line: Luke bandaging Naomi's foot

Hot, sweaty, and tired, but ready for the show!

Sarah and Brett waiting for the show

Luke and Naomi

Jared and Corinne

It was an awesome show! Totally worth waiting in line all day.

Who do I repent to?

Susie Lorence — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:11:47 +0000

I’ve been thinking lately about how much more quickly I “repent” to people I’ve wronged but how slowly I repent to the one I’ve ultimately wronged, God. It’s led me to ask the question: Who do I repent to? Who is the God I repent to? Am I worshipping and repenting to the god of people and their approval? Or do I worship and ultimately ask forgiveness from a sovereign God who sent His Son to die on a cross for all my wrongs?

I need grace to repent to God of repenting to gods I’ve made ultimate in my life.

Going to Chicago

Susie Lorence — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:04:21 +0000

This weekend I’m going to Chicago for a U2 concert at Soldiers’ Field. Jared (brother), Corinne (sister-in-law), Sarah (sister), Brett (brother-in-law), Luke (brother), Naomi (Luke’s girlfriend), Jesse, and I will caravan out of Minneapolis Saturday morning.

The show is Sunday night. Snow Patrol is opening for U2, which will be really cool. We’re going to be in line literally all day (we’ll get in line at around 7 AM) on Sunday so when the gates open we can get as close to the stage as possible. We’re all fans of U2, of course, but my brothers, Luke and Jared, are die-hards. They’re far beyond excited. Hopefully the rest of us will be able to keep up with their energy levels!

I’ll post pictures for sure incase any of my 3 readers are closet-U2 fans.

Happy birthday to my brother, Luke! He turns 24 today.

Love you, Lukie!

Start of school and the State Fair

Susie Lorence — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:41:12 +0000

Fall semester is off and running! I’ve been busy adjusting to living in a new dorm with new roommates and a new schedule. On Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I have American Civilization, Persuasion, Communication Technology and Society, and College Algebra (math class may be the death of me). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I only have one class, Human Sexuality. It’s exciting and odd to think this is my last year of school ever.

Last night, Jesse and I went to the Minnesota State Fair. He won free tickets at a raffle at his work and we rode the bus, expecting to have to pay for the ride, but it turned out to be free! We even got Sweet Martha cookies for free because we ran into a friend who works at the Sweet Martha booth. She had just gotten off work and was carrying a big bag of their extra cookies! So we got to save lots of money at the Fair this year, which was very nice.

It was fun to do all the Nelson family traditions: buying a corn dog first thing and visiting the Culligan tent for free water. I got to share with Jesse the only thing I “have to” eat at the Fair: fresh strawberries and creme. Oh, they are so good! Big, juicy, fresh, red strawberries with delectable whipped cream on top… my favorite! He liked them too.

We listened to some live music, walked till our (my) feet were about to fall off, ate cheese curds and nutella krepes, and Jesse also tried to get me to drink milk at the all-you-can-drink-for-one-dollar Kemps’ milk tent. I don’t like milk at all, FYI, and Jesse’s always trying to get me to drink it or at least take calcium supplements. I drank a couple sips of his to appease him. We also visited all the animal barns and the Miracle of Birth center. The baby piglets, chicks, and more were so cute! When we were looking at all the goats, one stood up, reached over the gate, and bit my shirt! Thankfully, it didn’t rip any of the fabric away, but that really could have been bad! We got a good laugh out of it. We also went to the Art building where there was a lot of great artwork. We really enjoyed looking at all the entries.

After the Fair, we visited our friend Jon’s new house, which is really nice and home-y. At this point, I was practically sleep-walking so we went back to Bethel and I completely crashed.

Today I’m excited to baby-sit my sweet little cousins. Today is my cousin Peter’s Adoption Day. He’s been in America for about seven years now. I and the rest of my family are so thankful to know and be able to love him. But before that, I have to work on finishing my darn summer class!!

Have a great long weekend, all!

Long time no blog

Susie Lorence — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:00:57 +0000

Well it’s been quite a while since I last blogged. I’ve been up to a lot. I was on Summer Beach Project with Campus Outreach for all of June and July as a group leader of 3 girls, Nina, Whitney, and Amanda. It was, to put it simply, a wonderful experience. I saw God work in so many ways; He grew passion in me to minister for His glory on Bethel’s campus and beyond. I don’t know why I ever doubt Him. He is so good.

Now, I am in a kind of limbo period between Beach Project and school starting. I am attempting to finish an online class, Gender Communication, before school starts on September 2nd. Does school seriously start that soon?? Wow. I will be living with some girls in Heritage (the mainly senior dorm) whose names are Sarah Dernlan, Tia Franks, Kelsey Simmons, Christel Rock, Cori Steppe, and Maddy Furlong (some of them have blogs you can link to on the right of this page). Amazing to think I’ll be done with school in another year and a half and on to the rest of my life…

I’m super excited for especially Kelsey and Christel to get back from being in India for the last 6 weeks. They return the 15th, but they’ll be so jet-lagged that they probably won’t be coherent for a couple more days! I hope you’ve been able to check their blog every so often to see how the India team’s doing over there (as I noted in a previous post).

My blog entries will (hopefully) get more interesting when the school year starts! I won’t bore you with posts of “I’m living at home and taking a class this month” so…

‘Til then!

Spring Banquet

Susie Lorence — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:30:34 +0000

We went to Bethel’s 2009 Spring Banquet last night, which included a dinner in the Student Rec Center (SRC) and a dance in the new ”Underground.” Here are some pictures (I couldn’t figure out why they’re so small!)…

Katie, Sarah, me, Kelsey, Maddy, Christel

Most of our group

Kelsey, Christel, me, Katie

Jesse and me

Maddy and Christel

We sat at Table 1 - woo!

Crazy dancing!

Getting some quality time with Bethel's president, Jay Barnes... kind of

Some friends and me

We ended the night with Applebee’s and watching “Taken,” which was really good! All there’s left to do now is finish finals week, then… Beach Project!

Dangerous prayers

Susie Lorence — Tue, 12 May 2009 06:25:09 +0000

A short post by Jon Bloom from the Desiring God blog:

Do you ever feel reluctant to pray “whatever it takes” prayers for fear that God might actually answer them? The fear is misplaced. The real danger lies in settling for less.

Project & Prayer

Susie Lorence — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:42:49 +0000

It has been way too long! I’ve been gearing up for finals week and the last thing on my mind has been blogging. Many apologies to all my faithful readers (ha!).

Once the mayhem of finals is over, I’m going to be leaving for Garden City, South Carolina for 2 months. I’m going back to Beach Project, where I’ll be leaning on Jesus to help me lead 3 or 4 girls. To say I feel overwhelmed by this task would be a huge understatement! I am definitely praying a lot of prayers like the following lately: “What the heck am I doing?? I don’t know how to minister to people, God!!”

Last weekend, I went on a Leadership Retreat for the Project. Some of the Campus Outreach staff gave encouraging “talks,” including one by Ken Currie in which he said those who think “Oh, this summer will be so easy. I’ve got this in the bag,” and those who think “Crap!! I can’t do this!!” are just as self-absorbed as the other because neither thought reflects a heart rooted in Christ. Both are saying “it’s all up to me,” just at different ends of the spectrum, which is not at all what Jesus says.

I felt really convicted by that and am fighting to trust that the Lord will be working in our room, not me. That makes me feel so incredibly free… I am merely an instrument for God; I cannot say anything wise or point anyone to Christ successfully unless He is working in me, which He promises to do, so why would I worry?

It was so awesome to spend time with the other leaders who will be down there this summer. I know most of them already, but I really valued the bonding time.

I really want a prayer team this summer because I know I’m going to be stretched and grown in ways I never dreamed. I am so incredibly thankful to have a jealous God who pursues me, eager to sanctify me. He won’t let me settle for anyone/anything other than Him and that means putting me in hard situations that force me to fall on my knees before Him. Please, please, please pray for my summer!! I want to think through specific prayer requests more thoroughly, but expect them to be posted soon!

I am going on the Beach Project this summer, but there is another one as well called the Cross-Cultural Project. This project entails a small group of students going to India for six weeks. They will spend time at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi (the equivalent of our Harvard or Yale), building relationships with students and holding Bible studies almost every night. They will spend 10 days in SC with us before leaving in July. There are 2 Bethel students on this team, Kelsey and Christel, and I’m so excited for them! I’m eager to hear about all their experiences when they get back in August. Join me in prayer for this team too!

Well, there’s a little update for ya. More to come…