Laura A. Reece

Mmm... what to say... Ok, for those of you who do not know my name is Laura Reece or some call me Reece's! Like the candy!

Which I happen to like very much! Peanut butter and chocolate were made to go together! Mmm... So good! Anyway I'm the one who does not say much in class... or out of class... Unless you know me personally... Then on occasion I will talk your ear off... But I mostly let other people do that. :) I enjoy listening. :) My major at school for two years was music then last year I switched to General Ministry to get my BA, I'm also hoping to get all the extra classes for the first two years of the Bible and theology major too... I know you are thinking I'm an over-achiever... Haha! You're right... I don't know if it's going to work out like this or not but I'm trying. :) This summer has gone by way to fast! I'm in Minnesota and I love it here! :) 

What have I done? Well I got a job working in house keeping at a place called Lake Geneva, and its a "christian" camp ground. There is so much to clean there! It has been fun though and I'm glad I was able to find a job for the short time I'm here in MN. :) God has blessed me this summer! I have been jet skiing on our lake which is so much fun! If you don't know what that is, well... look it up! A group from CLC came for the weekend this summer and they got to go jet skiing so you could just ask them what it is. It was Israel's group if you're wondering...

I have played piano for my church a few times as for as ministry goes... But with work, I have not been able to help as much as I did last year... I love my church here and what God is doing. We had a little boy get the Holy Ghost the other week and another one was Baptized that day! God is moving and doing great things in our town! :) I will be sad to be gone because I don't want to miss what He is doing here! But I will rejoin you guys at school for our final year and will have to settle for just hearing about the amazing things God is doing in MN. :) One year to Go! YAY! :) Ok let's see... My favorite colors are Green, Blue, Purple, and Orange! :) 

I love to go clay pigeon shooting! It is one of my favorite things to do besides shooting my compound bow! Which is awesome too! :) Kayaking is a lot of fun. :)

Well if you're still reading this, you must be finding this to be somewhat interesting... I love to read when I have time! :) I like coffee, and chocolate, and ice cream, and cookies, and the list goes on.... And I like to draw and paint... But I'm not that great at it... Just good enough to get by... :D I have been taking lots of pictures around my house and my grandma's.

I love to listen to music and to try and play it... My sense of humor is quite dry and not everyone understands it, but I'm ok with that now... I just feel bad that some of you are left in the dark about this kind of humor... One of my new favorite quotes is "My sarcasm is an allergic reaction to your stupidity." Haha! Just in case you guys are wondering. :) Ok, well, I can't think of what else to write so if you have endured this book of a blog thing, congratulations! Hope you have a wonderful day and God Bless! :D Smiles all around! :D

Joshua D. Shalapsik

What’s good everyone?!

The summer time used to mean that I would sleep in, find something to do with my day, go to work, and all of the rest of the time I would be at church. Well, the summer of 2011 has been polar opposite of those of my high school years. This summer is even completely different than the passed two years that I’ve been out here at CLC. For the passed two summers I had been traveling around the United States with tours groups for the entirety of the summer. However, this summer I have found myself leading my own tour group of one member!

            The begging of the summer was rather shaky for me. I was unsure of what exactly was going to happen from day to day at that point. The days moved by ever so slowly with so much running through my mind, different things pertaining life and ministry. I eventually began to move out of that stage and simply tried to embrace what was around me at the time. Well the notion that I needed to embrace was that of my music internship. Being a music major I have to meet a certain listing of requirements in order to obtain a BA degree. I could have chosen to meet these requirements by either planning a senior recital, or going with an internship. I chose the internship! So here I am at CLC fulfilling my internship requirements with the CLC Music Dept. The internship has been everything I have expected and so much more!

I started the internship by simply continuing my daily office duties, and then the familiarity of the CLC scenery quickly changed. I found myself in Las Vegas for an entire week! Bro Sillimon and I went to attend the Edwin and Walter Hawkins Love Fellowship Music and Arts Seminar. 

The seminar was great, and so was the food! For those of you who are not familiar with this event, it can be simply described as form of TTCM. I sat in class listening to Donald Lawrence, Ted Winn, James Harrison, and others of their gospel music industry caliber. I also spoke with the benevolent Richard Smallwood, Dr. Edwin Hawkins, Maurette Brown Clark, and many others! 

I also sang in the mass choir for their live recording at the end of the week, and I wore all white! The Seminar actually recorded Bro Sillimon’s original piece “Who God Says I Am”, it was great.   

Shortly after returning from Las Vegas, Bro Sillimon and I flew out to Colorado. We traveled to Colorado in order to do the music for family camp. That week was fun, interesting, and exhausting, but nevertheless we made it through. We worked with the praise team as well as the mass choir. 

One of the songs that was taught and sang was an original from myself “So Great”! Long services, roughly 12,5468,124 songs, long dinners, Rev. Jerry Jones, and not enough sleep was the culmination of that particular excursion.

Next stop, San Jose! Bro Sillimon and I traveled down to San Jose to put on a music clinic for the music department of the East Valley Pentecostal Church. 

The time that I spent in San Jose for this music clinic will never be forgotten. When we arrived I was amazed at the size of the church, it was very large and the décor was phenomenal! Anyways, as soon as we arrived the pastor took us to eat and then we had an immediate band rehearsal followed by a vocal rehearsal. The next morning came and we tried to find a McDonalds and failed in our attempt, so we ate a random Pilipino coffee shop. I was very skeptical at first, and then I ate the absolute best breakfast sandwich I had ever eaten! We arrived back at the church at 10 and began our band rehearsal. After we finished with the band we grabbed a quick bite to eat and prepared for the vocals. During preparation I was in charge of the band and ended up teaching them all of their parts for the song we were going over. I was completely unassisted at this time and went for it! It was amazing because the musicians had so much confidence in my musical ability that they followed my direction with such trust and assuredness even though some were way older than me! That particular experience was priceless! So as I had said, we arrived at rehearsal that morning at 10, and we didn’t end until 6:15! It was a powerful day! The next day was Sunday and that meant that all of our hard rehearsal time was about to be showcased before the entire congregation and God! All of the songs went very well, including the songs I played keys for; it was an awesome experience. After service the pastor took us to Santana Row, which is absolutely the ritziest area I have ever been! Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s were rolling down the street left and right, and just about every female had a tan, sunglasses, and a pocket dog! To say the food was excellent would be an understatement, so instead of trying to describe it I’ll just have a moment of silence for it...____________, Thank you. Oh, and I need to mention that I had my own room to stay in! Other than staying in a presidential suite at the Riviera in Vegas for a night, my own room was the second closest I got to fulfilling literal “Rock Star” status this summer! Oh, and I need to mention that the room I stayed in for three nights was the former President of CLC Samuel Ankarcrona future place of residence!

Well that does it for the traveling so far! Bro Sillimon and I will be traveling out to do another music clinic before the semester starts, and I’m sure more opportunities will await me there as well. However, activities here at CLC have been going on like crazy! We just sang at the state fair this past weekend, both Covenant and the Choir, and then we will be singing out this coming Saturday in downtown Stockton. My summer has been nonstop! So whenever I have been traveling, I’ve been here in Stockton doing office work at 8 A.M., playing keys for Wednesday night service, directing on Sundays, playing drums when needed, practicing piano, eating, gaining weight, having Jesus time, and trying to prepare mentally for my last year!

Believe it or not there is much more I could tell you all about, but Ill save it for later conversations. I hope all of your summers have been a blessing to you as mine has been for me. I love and care about all of you Senior Class of 2012!

-         Much Love, Joshua D. Shalapsik 
o       8/1/11

Christian Life College SENIORS!!!!

As I mentioned before, this blog is going to have a LOT to do with my classmates from Christian Life College because I want this blog to be a keepsake for my senior year.... so.... some of the following posts will be posts devoted completely to an individual from my senior class! They are going to write about some things they have been doing this summer- fun things, ministry things, boring things (ha!) Hopefully they will include some pictures of what has been going on and who they have been spending their summer with! I am apart of an incredible class- I am looking forward to seeing them in just a few short weeks!

Tuesday's Truth (Joel)

Here we are again- it's Tuesday! What a wonderful day of the week! :) This week's truth comes from the book of Joel. I hope you enjoy this book like I did!

“A call to repentance” is the theme of Joel 2:12-17. The people of Judah were in a severe famine, and their nation was quickly being destroyed before them. Because of such harsh judgments on the land, they soon realized how desperate they were for God. God was calling His people back to a repentant heart so He could pour out His abundance upon them again. God longs to show off His greatness to those that oppose you, but He requires that you repent before He will do anything.

Repentance is such an intriguing concept here because God commands the people not to try to tear their outer garments, but He wants them to “tear” their hearts. He is asking them to come before Him with humility and brokenness, not outward sacrifices. He wasn’t concerned as much with how they expressed words and emotions on the outside, as He was with the condition of their heart on the inside. God does, however, recognize that what is shown on the outside is a reflection of what is on the inside (Matthew 12:34). We must realize that our outside reactions begin with inside motives.

Just as God called the people of Judah to repentance, God calls each of us to repentance. This story was one of complete desperation and fear for God’s people, but God wants us to come to Him before we even reach that point. Every day we should be careful to come before Christ with a heart of repentance. Although we do so not expecting anything in return (except a clean conscience and "fast pass" to Heaven when the rapture takes place) we can freely partake of the abundance of God. God wants to bless His people with abundance, so don’t give Him any reason not to do it! Live every day with a clean heart, and become confident that God’s favor will soon follow you!

F.L.F.

Fancy Lunch Fridays! My friend Miquel Hanks and I eat lunch together everyday. She noted to me one day in conversation that I eat almost the exact same thing for lunch everyday. HA! I had never thought about it before she pointed it out to me! You see, my personality type is Phlegmatic-Sanguine. Definition of Phlegmatic. Definition of Sanguine. (To find out your personality type, you can take one of the numerous online tests [HERE] ) It's my belief that my phlegmatic side wins when i pack my lunch everyday. :) Anyhoo... in case you were just dying to know, my lunch consists of a burrito (from the freezer section at a local grocery store) some fruit, and a crystal lite strawberry flavored water drink. Although it does not sound as appealing in written form, I assure you- it gets me through my day. :) In light of this new revelation, I chose to do something "out of character" and bring something *gasp* different for lunch on Fridays! I even have this special lunch bag that I carry on Fridays =)   

 

Since today is FRIDAY, I brought rice, sausage, broccoli, and frozen grapes for lunch!! That sounds pretty fancy, right?? :) Ok, so it wasn't a steak (yum) or anything, but the whole point of F.L.F. is for me to get out of my box and try something new! Basically, today I was gettin' fancy! :)

Tuesday's Truth!

It's Tuesday- I know Monday's always get a bad reputation for being the worst day of the week, Wednesday's get noticed for being "hump day" since it's the middle of the week, and Friday's get the good name for being the end of the work week. I can't help but feel a little sorry for Tuesday's and Thursdays... So to help out my Tuesdays, I am going to share a Truth! It shall now be Tuesday's Truths! :) Here is this week's Truth!

In Jeremiah 1:1-2, it mentions two men associated with Jeremiah. These two men are Hilkiah and King Josiah. Hilkiah was Jeremiah’s father, and also the priest. It appears that from the time Jeremiah was born, he was fortunate to have godly influences in his life. The King during Jeremiah’s early life was a righteous ruler who was leading the nation back to God. While reading about how Jeremiah had these godly influences in his life, it caused me to wonder about the rest of his nation. While Jeremiah was being raised by his father the priest, and being lead under a righteous King, what were Jeremiah’s peers and family doing? It states in Jeremiah 12:6 that Jeremiah’s brothers “dealt treacherously” with him. The boys were raised in the same house, with the same father; yet only one is recorded to have fulfilled the call of God on his life. I am uncertain of the reasoning why Jeremiah’s brothers treated him poorly. It could have been jealousy, or perhaps they were embarrassed of their socially awkward brother. Whatever the reason may have been, Jeremiah held tight to the calling that God had placed upon him. I am certain the godly influences were a blessing to Jeremiah, but there was still a decision he had to make for himself. He had to decide whether or not he would choose the life of loneliness and persecution. It would have been easy, and certainly convenient, for him to live a “normal” life, but he chose to cling to God instead of culture.

We have the same choice as Jeremiah. God has called each of us to do great things for Him, and to be individuals that reflect His image to this world. We have godly influences all around us. We sit under some of the same teachers and preachers. Will this be the time we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ treacherously like Jeremiah’s brothers? Will we allow jealousy or our “cool” reputation to cause us to look down on fellow believers and students? I am convinced that this is the time we shall fully immerse ourselves in the calling of God like Jeremiah did. We should be willing to do whatever He asks, in spite of what others may say, or how our culture accepts us. I issue a challenge: strive to live a life not based on what people in your life think, but what God has called you to be.

The Thirteenth Chapter

As so many others have created blogs (for various reasons) I too decided to join in with the mix of cyber exposure. This will be a simple blog- nothing fanshy shmanshy. I want this blog to be a little "keepsake" of my senior year of college. This blog will contain a lot about me as an individual, but will also feature things regarding my class, my school, my friends, my family, and my church. The name of this blog came from a thought I had while thinking about my previous years at Christian Life College. To see some information about my  college, click (Here!) or you can also see what's going on with us on facebook by clicking (Here!) This year, I will be ending such a beautiful chapter in my life. I have grown, learned, experienced, and done so much. It seems as though I am a completely different person than who I was at the beginning of my college journey! Although this previous chapter of my life has been fun and exciting, I am very excited about what God has for my future! I titled this blog as The Thirteenth Chapter, because chapter 13 is only the middle of the book- there are so many more chapters to follow! To top it off, the further along you read in a book, the more intense and exciting a book seems to get! So as I embrace this new chapter of life, I am expecting new twists in the plot and working on a beautiful ending. I would love it if you were one of the "good guys" in my life's book! ;)