Trip to NY

Hi everyone! Today I'll be showing and telling about part two of my winter break trip.

During this part of the trip, I stayed in a hotel in New Jersey, and everyday we would travel over to Manhattan. I had a great time during this trip, and everything was just so big. The Macy's was 9 floors including the basement! There was also a Ferris wheel inside of the Toy's R Us. This was the busiest and most crowded place I had ever been.

The first night, my new friends and I got scammed into taking pictures with the people wearing costumes in the middle of the city (Iron-man). It also rained like crazy and was wet everywhere, but I still had a good time. One of the things that was hard to miss was the traffic and air. The pollution was so thick that it was hard to breath the first night, and I honestly couldn't understand how the people could stand it. Along with that, traffic was so insane! The pedestrians even more so. No one waited for the crosswalk lights, they just walked into super busy streets!

The city was great, but could boring at times, so it was a nice adventure to visit Ellis Island. I hadn't been there since I was like ten, and again everything was so different then what I remembered. We took a tour around the island and went into the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. This was our final day in NY, and it was my favorite. Oh! we also visited museums there as well (we latched onto a terribly boring tour at one point though).

Some stores visited were: Macy's, H&M, Toy's R US, Build a Bear Workshop-where I got my bunzy!, and a few more I'm sure.

Me! I didn't realize it wasn't rotated, and got to lazy to do it when I found out. hahaha

My two new friends and roomies

Me again!

And again...

Lisa

p.s. I feel like posting this is out of place after the church massacre in South Carolina. These times are so crazy, and its sometimes hard to know what to pray for. But, once you ask to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, he can fill the gap for us. (Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us in wordless groans.)

Trip to DC with pictures and a short clip

Over Winter Break, yes a few months ago when I didn't have a blog :/, I decided to go on a trip to DC, and then to NY. The opportunity was provided by my University, and ever since I knew about it, I wanted to go. I was finally able to afford it, so I figured why not.

DC was definitely an experience, and I saw the good and bad of it. I had been before since I used to live in Maryland, but I don't think I ever experienced it like this before. The perspective of children and adults are always so different (I visited as a little girl). The first thing I noticed however, was that this place was beautiful. It was like being in a completely different country. Like some awesome place in Europe (maybe Greece).

I loved my time there at first, but by the end of the second day, I was completely over it. The thing is, I had never seen so many homeless people before in life. I wondered how this supposedly great city could have so many people lying in the dirt at night. I didn't know what to do, or how to react to them, but everyone around me just seemed to ignore them easily. The experience that struck me the most was when this women came up to me asking for help, and I had no idea what to do at the time. I had never felt so useless. This city started to sadden me greatly, so by then I was glad that we were leaving the next day.

I do have great memories as well, and I did have a good time. There were so many things to do, and some were even free, like the museums. As a whole, I did enjoy my time in DC. I just can't ignore the negative aspects of it as well.

Taken by Lisa Ajala

Made out of Aluminum foil!

The Hope Diamond

In the Spy Museum, which was a lot of fun.

Hope you enjoyed!

Lisa

Learning what it means to be Christian

Since starting this blog, I have been wanting to go more in-depth when it comes to God and Christianity. However, I think it is something that I have been avoiding because I was worried about how people would perceive me. Well, I decided that I am going to let go of this fear, and just do what I want, and talk about the journey of being a believer of God and Christ.

I never really understood what it meant to be Christian. In fact I am still learning. Growing up I have been exposed to so many misconceptions about Christianity, and as I go through life, I see that others have been affected in the same way. I mean, my mom always took me to church, until I hit the age of my rebellion, and the funny thing is, she didn't understand what it meant to be Christian either.

I always did my own thing. But, I was never to much of a rebel in society's eyes. I went to school, got good grades, and did a couple of sports. Someone once described me as a "good girl"and "perfect"-they had no idea of who I really was. My life sucked, and I never got along with my mother once I hit my late middle school years. It was just me, my mom, and my sis, and I paid God absolutely no attention (not any real attention).

This started to change when I was in high school. My best friend, who I met while on the track team, invited me to go to a bible study that a group of students had one morning a week at the school. I decided to go one day, and then kept going, but still, I didn't know what it meant to be Christian. I had stopped going to church, a place that didn't teach me anything about living for God. I went to bible study in high school-that's where I gained some companionship, but still, I didn't understand. There was no one there to teach me more than just practices and rituals, and sugar coated bible stories.

Some time went by, and I got baptized when I was 16, and I think it was because a seed was planted into me by my best friend. I'm glad I got baptized then, even though I was afraid, and didn't want to walk to the front of a church with everyone's eyes on me. And even then, I didn't fully understand.

Everything changed my freshmen year of college. I had been looking for a bible study in college because it was what I did in high school. I was on Facebook one day, and saw that there was a bible study that Friday right across from the dorm I lived in. After that, I don't think I was ever the same. Finally, my eyes and my heart were opening, and I couldn't stop crying. So, this was God the Almighty. A huge being that was leading me this whole time, so that I could become His. God was more then a building I rarely went to, He was more than my routine prayers about food, and the prayers asking that He doesn't kill me in the middle of the night. He is so much more.

I actually started to read the bible on my own that Spring, and I was learning things that I never even heard before. Why in the world had I never been told this stuff before? I tried reading the bible in the past, but at that time I only found it boring. Now, it was completely real. I no longer just depended on what others had told me about God and Christianity, I searched and learned about it for myself. So, God isn't far away and out of reach? Christ was always here? What? He wants me? What do you mean I was chosen? Why?

John 1:1-5 says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

We were born in the world, and this world is full of darkness, hate, and horror. We have been in it our whole lives, but there is a way to escape it, and that is through Christ. However, so many people either don't know, don't accept, or have been lied to so much that they run away from the light that saves us.
John 1:10 says: "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him."
People do not recognize Christ even though he is always reaching out to us, and sometimes they never find him.

So, I guess the whole point of this post is to get people to seek. To not depend on what people, society, and what the media tells you about God and Christ. Find out the truth for yourself. Pray. Actually speak to God. Tell him about your day, your questions, anything. Ask him to help you learn. Do it with all seriousness, even if you feel a little silly. He answers us in various ways, and he wants to hear from you.
Matthew 7:7 says: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you."
I know God can hear me, and I know that this scripture is true because so many of my prayers have been answered.

Learning what it means to be Christian is a process, but I'm happy with my choice, and want to continue to grow.

Represents light, and those are totally not my fingers.

Sincerely,

Lisa

p.s. (I do think it is important to go to church, you just have to find the right one. I'll go into the reasons later)