2010!

Hello blog readers,

It's been a while! I took a break along with my Christmas break from blogging (considering I was with 90% of my readers) and now am back!!

I also have started a blog entirely for my Egypt mission trip coming up in May with all of the updates, prayer requests, etc. This is my "personal" blog. That address is:

egyptmissions.blogspot.com

Christmas break was a great time of relaxation and family. It started off with Barbie coming down to LA for a visit and Disneyland celebration of her birthday!! We had a fun weekend, she got to meet the Aarons, and I got a lot of shopping done for Christmas!

Then we drove home to Sacramento and I had a great week with my family. It was so fun being around the kids (Evie and Chet) and baby cousins (Taryn and Hailey)!!! Babies and kids make Christmas so much more entertaining! I am truly grateful for my family and Church family in Sacramento.

The day after Christmas the fam was packed up and we flew off to Denver, CO for a Wesleyan youth convention my dad directed. We had an AMAZING suite on the top floor (although Brooke and Josh were convinced there was a secret REAL top floor ;)) and enjoyed the luxuries of being "upper class" :) What a treat! Another treat was that Jeremy was able to fly out with us and we frolicked around Downtown Denver and had a fun time in the cold!

In Denver my mom, sister and I had the opportunity to speak to about 300 high school girls on "1o Things I Hate About Me", which focused on the lies we tell ourselves and the truths about God that combat those lies. It was a great time and I enjoyed speaking with my two best friends! I haven't heard Brooke speak much since high school group and it was great to see how fabulously she did! I think we all had a great time doing that and hopefully the girls got something out if it too!!!

After Denver the fam + Jeremy flew to Sacramento and we got to celebrate New Years Eve there along with the days following. It was so nice to relax, hang out, eat leftover Christmas goodies and be able to sleep! Jeremy left on the 4th and I spent the few last days with my family and some friends.

Now I'm back at APU! Beautiful 80 degrees yesterday & a little rain today. Lovely! Seems like I hadn't left at all but in some ways it feels like I was gone forever. My classes this semester are GREAT with fabulous professors and I am excited to learn so much in the land of Communication. These are the classes I'm taking:

-Rhetorical Theory

-Communication Theory

-Conflict Management

-Intro to Journalism

-Organizational Communication

-Communication Internship

My Communication Internship is with World Vision International (worldvision.org). I am in a department called "Governance," which most people, including some even who work for World Vision, haven't a clue what that means. Governance assess all of the global offices of World Vision and makes sure what they are doing aligns with what the standards, mission statement, goals, etc. of World Vision are.

So, I started on Tuesday interning for them. My first mini project was to compile binders for the trip today to Lebanon. Some of the Governance staff flies over to Lebanon and with previous material gathered, they assess the office more and give them tips/guide lines in order to make their office even better.

Looks like it will be an adventure! :) I love my boss and the people I have met there yet. The office seems to fit like a glove! (Minus the fact that I hate heals and have to figure out what to do about my outfits- tailor my pants for flats or wear Band-Aids??? Yuck!)

Many of you have been asking about how my friend Anna is doing, as she is in Haiti and experienced the earthquake. She is ok and there was no catastrophic damage done on her facility. Feel free to check out her blog, which can be found by clicking "Anna Kagstrom" on my links on the right hand side of the page.

If you'd like to donate to the relief effort or to Anna's rescue center specifically, you can contact me and I will get an address for you.

With love from my apartment in good ol' Azusa,

Paige

Egypt!

Hello everyone!

Just wanted to let you in on a little something I haven't shared yet :)

In May I am going on a missions trip to Egypt! Jeremy and I are coordinating the trip with my mom and fellow APU students. There are 6 of us going and we are so excited to enter a new land and share the love of Christ!

You may ask, why Egypt? Originally the team was going to go to China. But since those plans were not working out the way we wanted, we decided to take a new direction and pursue helping along side family friends Pastor Gamal and Moni Hannah in their church and ministries in Tema, Egypt!

We will be leaving the 9th of May and flying into Cairo. Here we will be lucky enough to do some of the tourist things such as seeing the pyramids, going to the bazaar, and seeing the Nile! After that we will be taking a train ride down to southern Egypt into Tema where we will be spending a majority of our time and living along side Pastor Gamal and his family. We will arrive back in the states on May 27th.

In terms of safety being American Christians we are assured that this will be a safe trip and will have Christian Egyptian translators who act as our guides. We are not expecting any issues with safety.

God is Good and ALIVE in Egypt! It is 90% Muslim and we can not wait to share the love of Christ through our kind words and actions and bring hope and quench the thirst of dry souls! Friends, God is also alive in the states and people are just as thirsty for the savior.

The question is, do we care enough to share the greatest thing we know?

We are excited to stretch ourselves and learn new things with the Egyptian culture!

More to come on our fundraising, group pics, and more exciting news!

With love from my apartment,

Paige

Finals are a comin'!

Hello Family & Friends!

Thought I'd check in and say hello with you all and give another update!

Sickness: This last week I have been sick and after two doctor's visits I think I'm better!! Basically the sickness needed to pass, which it is still doing, and I got some meds for some stomach issues I have had this year.

School: Almost done! After tonight's presentation, this week's work is pretty much done and it will all turn into studying for finals/writing papers for finals week.

And when am I supposed to do Christmas shopping!?

Life is good though. God is still God. I'm still kickin'. Being blessed in many ways. Can't WAIT to be home!!! (If you haven't been able to tell) :)

With love from my LAST Church History class E.V.E.R!

There IS justice in this world! ;)

-Paige

Dear Blog Readers,

I am going crazy. Not actually, so no one worry. But this semester is sooooo over in my mind and I still have to gear up for big papers and finals to come.

I don't know how that will happen. I am ready for December 19th- Disneyland with Barbie! I'm ready for Christmas shopping and Denver convention and New Years Eve... I'm ready to see those babies! They're growing up and are the cutest things in the world! I want to give them kisses and sneak them candy and be a fun auntie!

Evie wearing my mom's boots:

Chet ready for some Nebraska football!!!

I guess it will come soon enough. 2 weeks. :)

Even though I'm kinda going crazy- I still had the greatest and most relaxing Thanksgiving with the Aarons!!!! We went to the Mojave desert and camped out in their motor home! So. much. fun! Mrs. Aaron treated us to the most delicious food and Traci supplied great desserts! Jeremy taught me how to ride a quad and I got to go on a few group rides once I got the hang of it! Here are a few pics from our time:

My transformer:)

Me and Jeremy before a ride:

The kids:

Gooooooood morning!

Everyone made fun of my and Jeremy's outfits. In our defense, we weren't expecting a picture to be taken.

Our quad/motorcycle ride! I'm on the far left with Jeremy standing next to me. So fun!

Below: Traci, Josh, Jeremy, Myself, Mrs. Aaron, Liz, Mr.Aaron

Boys packing up the motor home before we headed out!

With love from my second to last Church History class! WOOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!

Paigey

Arizona Weekend & Internship

Hola familia y amigos!

I had a wonderful weekend in Prescott, Arizona with Holly and Kalie! It was so great being in a cold town because hearing Christmas music in LA just doesn't feel right! Here are a few pics from our time :)

An exciting thing is that I received an Internship position with the Governance department with World Vision International!!

World Vision International is a Christian non-profit organization that helps people in need, such as sponsoring Children around the world, disaster relief, etc. etc. and through all of this sharing the love of Christ!

I will be working with Governance, which is the department that assesses and evaluates each World Vision office around the world. The department will go into an office and see how it is lining up with the missions statement, how successful it is, etc. I will be organizing this information, doing administrative/data work, marketing, budget reconciliation, and other projects like that. I start in January and have my first formal meeting next Wednesday.

Tonight I go to the Aarons and tomorrow (Wednesday) we leave for the desert! I'll be out of communication until Sunday.

Have to pay attention to class!

With love from Church History,

Paige

Almost Thanksgiving!!!

Ah I'm sooo excited for Thanksgiving break with the Aarons!! But before that I get to go to Arizona this weekend with my friend Holly to see our friend Kalie!!

Saturday after a busy busy day I headed out with Jeremy's roommates and some friends to the beach! They made a great bonfire and we ate hotdogs and smores!! Yummm!!!

Below: Tatiana, Saleena, Josh and Simi

Below: Kyle(Bo), Dave, Lorna, Jeremy

Below: Micah, Catherine, Holly, Nick

Me and Cath!! She's transferring at semester and going back to Oregon :( Yey for her but sad for us!

(: Me and Jeremy :)

Thursday night a bunch of us from South Africa got together at Kari's house and hung out! It was so great to be with some of the group again! :) Here are some of the girls:

Friday night Corinne (right) and I went out for Britainne, a girl in my discipleship group's birthday! We went to Old Spaghetti Factory and it was sooo good :)

So this weekend I'm going to Arizona and next Wednesday I leave for the desert with the Aaron family! Oh yeah, and I have homework :) We will see where that fits in!

With love from Interpersonal Communication,

Paige

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Well it's ALMOST that time! For now I still have papers, tests, deadlines, etc! But I'm surviving and doing well :)

Luckily Jeremy is well and no longer has the Swine Flu! It was sad he had to be quarantined for a week at home and it was soooo good when he came back to APU! We had a pretty relaxing weekend and got to spend some time together, watch some movies, and just not be distracted by homework! Unfortunately, he is having the busiest week ever since he was out for a week. I'm ready for this semester to be OVER and us to have "normal" lives!

Here are some fun upcoming events:

-A week and a half: Thanksgiving Break! Going to the desert with the Aaron family! Excited about that!!!

-Three weeks after that the semester is over!!!!

-Dec 19 Barbie and I go to Disneyland for her BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!

-Dec 20 we drive back to Sac!

-Dec 25 Christmas!

-Dec 26-31 Youth Convention in Denver, CO. Jeremy is coming! Mom, Brooke and I are speaking in two seminars to the girls. Woo hoo!

-January 12- First day of school for 2nd semester!

And that's my life for the next two months! I'm sure there will be plenty of things to report on in between :)

With love once again from Church History,

Paige