Summer so far!

Hello ladies,

Hoping everyone is doing well. I feel as if I have fallen off of the blogging map (and I did for a bit!) unfortunately, however I am back and am going to make a personal goal to update this site at least once a month.

All right, so I emailed the Clark soccer coach about the potential job. I'm no longer sure if I will be running the intermural referee program (and to be honest I didn't want to do that right off the bat anyway) I at least will be doing my workstudy as a referee. Either way it works out I'm just happy to have a job this coming fall, especially a job where I already know what is going on.

What is going on in my life right now. I just finished refereeing all the major MA tournaments for soccer that I could do and now am in the middle of a two week time off from soccer and then next Monday I leave to go to a referee training camp which will last for about two weeks. I went last year and had bunches of fun so I'm pretty excited.

After that, I'm hoping that I join my family for a weekend of vacation in NH and then venture on to see Soulfest in NH! Soulfest is apparently one of the biggest Christian music festivals/concert series ever. I've never had a chance to go to it before so I'm super excited that I might be able to make it this year.

After that I will have some time off where I hope to complete drivers ed and work toward getting my drivers license. And then I will be a leader on a three day instate missions trip in Watertown.

All in all I feel I have a very busy and exciting summer going on. However, ladies I would love some prayer. Recently I've felt very disconnected from God. This has effected my personal devotional time (I haven't felt done my own devos in forever) and has dropped my prayer life to an almost nonexistent place. Now that I have realized what is going down I'm making a point to get reconnected with God and I am still struggling. Prayers that I would feel inspired to go to our Lord in a personal devotional time and prayer time would be appreciated.

I was also given the book "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller. I'd never heard of it before my youth pastor gave it to me as a graduation gift. I had vaguely heard of the author before other than that, nothing. I plan on reading through it this summer. I guess I'll let you all know if I enjoy it and find it helpful.

Refereeing and jobs?

This blog has been sorely neglected over the past few weeks. Our apologizes!

Work has started up for me in full force and I'm continuing to fill out paperwork for Clark University. I just finished and sent in my "Writing Placement Exam" I must admit the story was a bit confusing but my lovely mum helped me revise the essay and I think it turned out quite nicely.

I also recently got my varsity crew workout that I was supposed to start this week. I did not pay attention to the dates so I didn't realize it, so my week has been spent recovering from this weekends work and me being sick, as well as finding a gym so I can actually work out. However, today I ventured out and found a gym for a reasonable rate for the summer. It is also close to home and across the street from a Starbucks that is currently hiring so I'm going to apply there as well. If all goes well not only will I have a gym but a second job so I can save some money for this coming school year.

Also, while at refereeing this weekend I met the Clark University varsity soccer coach. Since I had a few minutes off I took the opportunity to introduce myself and upon hearing that I was a referee and also going to be attending Clark University next year and that I wasn't interested in playing at the school he asked if I was given a Work study job grant. After hearing that I had a work study he proceeded to offer me the job of running the intermural referee program for Clark University... Despite being a bit stunned I managed to say yes and now ladies I have a job for this fall. God is good!

I'm off to do more paperwork and exams. Many blessings for the end of your school year!

Success!

I have successfully made the first step of launching my devotional blog. It is called Devotional Dose and can be found at www.devotional-dose.blogspot.com I'm hoping to "officially" launch it at the Junior High youth group this Friday night with its first devotional post.

My newest ambition

As I get to know my Junior High ladies better and as our time together is fast approaching a close, I don't know about ya'lls youth groups but ours ends with the school year. I've decided to try and make a devotional blog for them to get ideas for their Bible reading. From talking with them, they often times claim lack of inspiration for doing their devotionals but when I asked if I were to give them materials would they do them they said that they would. So this, ladies and gentlemen, is my next project.

My thought for the format would be to take some verse from both the Old and New Testaments and to talk about God revealed to me about them in my time in studying them. Then after that give them verses for that day and the next day for them to look up and study on their own that also relate to what I was talking about or what I will be talking about in the future. I'm hoping to do that three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I originally tried to encourage them to do reading on their own but for most of them their idea of a devotional is opening the Bible randomly and selecting a chapter on a whim. Yes, God can definitely work through that method. However, I think that a bit a structure would do them good.

So this, ladies and gentlemen, is currently what is next for me. My goal is to get in to the habiting of posting three days a week before I start Clark University next year. I think this will not only benefit my Junior High girls but it will also encourage me to study God's word more as I help these beautiful young ladies navigate the teen years.

Rose Ellen

Isn't interesting how God can bring together three people who have never met and give them fellowship through Him?


I'm sure all who are reading this have different views on women going to college: some along the lines of they should stay at home and work from there and learn how to be a homemaker and prepare for their future husbands. Others think that Christian colleges are the way to go and that's where they have been called to attend. And others like myself and my parents are all for any university, christian or not, that at the very least has a strong christian support group.

God calls young women to all different paths after highschool. Here you have the view of the three mentioned above. I have no doubt that there are many more out there and I wish we could have all of their stories posted here for you to read however as it is you the readers will have to be contented with ours. =P

To begin, my name is Rose Ellen. I am an exiting homeschooling senior in highschool. I live in Massachusetts and have been here my whole life. I row and I referee soccer. I also am a volunteer at the Junior High youth group, which I love dearly. As an exiting senior college is the next step for me. A very small liberal arts school, liberal in both senses of the word, called Clark University.

I applied to eight secular universities was accepted to four and ended up making my decision to go to Clark University based on the financial aid offered and the atmosphere of the school. I also applied to Syracuse University, University of MA Amherst, University of Rhode Island, University of Vermont, Rochester Institute of Technology, Boston University, and Fairfield University. I was accepted to URI, RIT, Fairfield, and Clark. I never got a decision from Syracuse (New York has very strict homeschooling laws so be careful when applying to schools there they want extra paperwork which is a pain and if they aren't clear about what they want it tends to muck up the decision making process for everyone involved.)

I'm going to be very honest with you all and tell you right off the bat that I really didn't even consider applying to any Christian universities (besides Gordan College but they didn't have any of the majors that I wanted). Where I am from, and perhaps this is true or not true else where, Christian universities are very little known and if they are known the academics are not highly esteemed. Even though I am not a straight-A student I knew I wanted to be challenged academically as well as spiritually (Please note that I am not intending to bash any Christian schools with the above statements it is just the general opinion around here. I have the highest respect for Christian universities academics and spirituality.)

Why Clark? Besides giving me the best financial aid offer Clark University seemed to be the best fit for me on many levels.
1. It is a very small school, the smallest I applied to, with combined total of 2,200 undergraduate and graduate students. Small school means smaller more intimate classes, being homeschooled the largest class I have been in on a regular basis was a co-op class of about 12 people. I am an intuative learner and for the most part learn things slightly differently from the majority of people. Smaller classes means for me that I will be able to get more individualized attention from professors and TA's which will be great and will hopefully help the transition from highschool to college for me.

2. It is close to home, I've been homeschooled my whole life and even though I am a very social, independent person I love my home and family. And to be honest have been known to get very homesick when away for extended periods of time. Where I am in Worcester will make me about an hour and a half train ride away from home and fourty-five minute drive which I think is the perfect median.

3. It has the sport that I adore. Lets face it, everyone has something that they really enjoy doing and want to keep doing for as long as possible. Crew is one of those things for me. Infact it actually helped me get into Clark. I contacted the coach and told him that I was a rower and wanted to continue in college and thought that Clark would be a good fit for me academically and rowing-wise.

4. Since it is in MA I will be able to continue working as a soccer referee very easily. Also, two people that i have refereed with before go to neighboring schools in Worcester so I should be able to get rides to work until I can get my own car. God is good.

5. It has a small but seemingly might Christian group which includes a women's ministry. I have already contacted them and they have wonderful plans and activities planned for the coming school year that I can not wait to be involved in.

6. When I went to a homeschooling conference I actually met two different people who are both at different, but wonderful sounding churches in Worcester and near where I will be attending college. I got both of their information and will be contacting them for locations/times when I get to Worcester. Again, God is good!

7. This is an interesting one and my last for now. I may come back and edit this, who knows. Clark is very liberal in thinking, it attracts liberals from all walks of life. There are people from all belief systems and nationalities there. I believe God can use me in peoples lives and also God can use all these people in my life to constantly keep me striving after God as He teaches me how to minister to these people.

All right, its my bed time now. Nighty-night. I hope what I said still makes sense in the morning. If not its back to the editing process.

In God's love.
~Rose Ellen