Why I'm not mad waiting for Lex.

Right now I am sitting in the bottom of a dinghy parking garage at Michigan State, in the middle of a snowstorm, waiting for my sister. And actually I am pretty happy to be sitting here.


Let me explain.

My lovely sister Lex is a freshman at Michigan State University and she has been planning on coming home for a long weekend (MLK day Monday) this weekend. I volunteered weeks ago to come up to East Lansing and get her on Thursday night. I came up after work (through the snow storm – in our awesome Explorer), and because of that snowstorm I texted Lex and told her I didn’t want to dilly daddle around East Lansing, like we are known to do. I didn’t want her to go to Real Life – Campus Crusade’s weekly meeting- that I just wanted to get headed home. She texted me back that she is so sorry but could I please wait for her to go to Real Life. Ugh. But then she explained, not just because she is awesome and loves Jesus and wants to see her friends and worship. Nope, because she invited a girl from her teaching class last semester, and this was going to be her first time coming, and that she didn’t want to ditch her. That she wanted to help her new little friend get plugged into this awesome ministry, and hopefully come to know Jesus, and that makes me excited. I am not sitting here waiting for my little sister to get done with thirsty Thursday (where I am sure a good chunk of the campus is), but to get done with worshiping Jesus and sharing life with other college kids smack dab in the middle of this (very) secular University.

To see her thrive, and grow in huge ways in her relationship with Jesus is such a testimony. I see so many high school Christian’s not want to go to a big, pagan university like MSU, because they fear they would not grow as Christian. That makes me sad. Mark and both grew more in our relationships with Jesus at MSU through campus crusade than I think any other four year period of time in our lives. We were both discipled by strong, faithful leaders, and taught so much. We learned how to worship, serve, share the gospel with others, have an intimate relationship with God, date for the glory of God, our identity, theology, how to live our lives in non Christian environments and most importantly more about Jesus. We both met some of our best friends, and MSU is where Mark actually made the decision to follow Jesus. I look at my sister Lex, and right now she has one roommate who is Indian, and never heard the gospel, as well as a roommate (and another girl on her floor) from Vietnam. Those two girls both came right from Vietnam and will probably go back there after they graduate. They have never seen a bible, heard the gospel, or been to church. Lex gets to share Jesus and the gospel with them, as well as show them love and grace each day. She got to buy a bible for both of the girls who had never seen one, teach them how to look up verses, and bring them to bible study. God willing, they will come to know Christ and be able to go back to their countries and tell people about Jesus.

So, no, you do not have to have a jaw dropping testimony on your application to get to into Michigan State University, and yes, there are a lot of parties here. But, God is moving. God is using Christ followers in this place to rise up future leaders, and change people’s hearts for Jesus. And now I have to go pick up my little sister Lex and hear of the awesome things God is doing in her life.

-Brittany

Christmas Traditions

Here is a little peek into all the fun that was had at the Sheets (/Immink) house this year for Christmas break!

Actually this is from my birthday, Mark decorated our room while I was sleeping (I'm a heavy sleeper) and this is what I woke up to!

This is the cake Mark made me...its a bowl. The whole bowl is cake - pretty amazing.
 And pretty delicious!
 This is further proof of my love for Lucky Charms.



Sweet little elf Amy



Working on some crafts

Anna and Amy before Christmas Eve service

My mom and I playing some Christmas carols - this has been one of my favorite things since I was old enough for my mom to teach me a couple of notes to play along to "Do you hear what I hear?" and we play each year.

Matching Santa socks.

Lex and I making truffles. Which we then preceded to eat half of.

Jenna and the girls

Decorating cookies! (Its very early morning here which is why Mark looks so happy and in to the festivities)

Finished product!
(Please excuse my fleece cheetah pants - they are so comfy which overrides the ugliness of them)

The whole caroling team!
(Mark sits in the chair, with a beer, and kinda mumbles along - which is exactly what my dad used to do and I love it)

This is a horrid picture of me,
but its hilarious because Jenna is in the back ground trying to ruin it - which she loves to do)

This was our present to my mom. We have have like 4 dollars between the four of us and so we decided a craft would have to do this year. The melted crayons are suppose to look like rain and its an outline of a picture that we have of us four outside in the rain. We put it with the quote something like its not surviving the storms but learning to dance in the rain. Which we thought described our life pretty well. And turned out she loved it!

Christmas break is on of my favorite times. I love how everyone comes home and just the excitement of Christmas and the music and the food (obviously I love the food). This year I worked in the ER at Pennock  hospital and was able to arrange my schedule to be home for Christmas. I was able to work 11-11, and both my sisters were home and so they were still up when I got home which was just perfect. I could tell them all the cool/gross things I got to do that day, and we could eat snacks and chat. Mark started working, and worked a couple 80 hours week, so I didn't get to see him much, but we are so thankful for the income! Now he is down to 50-60 hours a week which feels MUCH more manageable and we feel like we are getting back on our feet a little.

This past weekend we got to go to our apartment in Detroit, which feels like a hotel, and spend the weekend. We spent Friday-Sunday there, and it was literally the most fun ever. We celebrated our 2 year anniversary (today!) with a lunch at Buco di Beppo (with a gift card we got for Christmas) and had such a great time. We rented some movies from the library and just ate (delicious) leftovers all weekend - and had a gas card to get us there, so we even felt a little more like we could relax and enjoy it because it was pretty much free. Praise God.

Last week we also had some friends over. Mark got a free ham from work (thank you Graphic Packaging), and my mom said she would buy some wine and beer and leave us alone and we could have people over. It is a little weird having a social life when you live at your parents house - maybe I will write about this more later, but we decided everyone knows we live with my mom so its not like we are inviting people over and being like "surprise you have to come to the 'rents". Anyway, we had some college friends over, and my sisters were there and we all ate dinner together, chatted, and played games. It was actually REALLY fun. I get in the funk a lot of times where it feels like I don't have any friends (because most don't live in the area, and I am terrible at keeping in touch), and I just feel lame for living at home. Our little get together was such a fun, encouraging, and refreshing night for both Mark and I! And my sisters have both commented on how much fun they had! Praise God for awesome friends that you can just pick up with where you left off with.

Speaking of that, I also got to hang out with Alyson and Michelle (my two bffs from high school). It was so nice to just catch up with them. Again, I am terrible with keeping in touch, but we can always just sit down and chat and it feels perfectly fine.

I am starting my elective this week at Promed family practice, and I literally cannot wait. I am working with Laura, a PA, and I absolutely love her and we have a lot of fun. I worked with her some of the time this summer and we have kept in touch, so it will be really fun. She lets me do a lot and she does a lot of mole removals and biopsies and other fun things like that. Yay. And I will be working 8-6, and Mark is working 7-7, and so we will ALMOST be on the same schedule for the first time in a year in a half. Praise Jesus.

Love,
Brittany