Happy un Valentine's Day

This year, Valentines was not a momentous occasion. There was not a romantic dinner for two, no moonlit walk on the beach, no beautiful bouquet of my favorite flower (which by the way are daisies), and no big box of my favorite candy. Valentines was an extremely hard, but also joy-filled day.

On Saturday morning I attended the funeral service of the amazing Jen Uwarow. We left school at 7:15 and headed to Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills. Forest Lawn is a cemetery that has I think six different churches on the lot. All of the churches are absolutely gorgeous! Walking up to the church and seeing all the different groups of people made the situation so incredibly surreal. I am not sure if I have ever lived a more surreal morning in my entire life. I have known some incredible people that have passed away, but never really thought about the fact that they are standing in the presence of God now.

As we all entered through the doors of the church there were three amazing pictures of Jen. My favorite was one of her laughing. The church seemed to just become more and more filled. There was an incredible turn out…so many people there that loved Jen and her family. Many people ended up having to stand to the sides. Jen’s twin sister, Jessica, gave the eulogy. When Jessica first made her way to the front and began to speak, I sat there in utter amazement at how much they sound alike. From far away it looked as if Jen were standing there talking about her own life. One of the best things of the service was looking around to me fellow PCC students and seeing us all come together to comfort one another and praise God for not prolonging the suffering of our sister in Christ.

Last Friday, after chapel was over, one of the guys got up and made an announcement that the guys from Room 1 had something for all the single girls on campus. When we all walked out…there was a table set up with a flower and a card for each of us! It was such a nice gesture that all of us loved.

On Saturday afternoon, Lorah, Richard (Lorah’s cousin that’s visiting from Canada), Lynnae and I headed down to San Diego for the day. We headed to my friend Lauryn’s apartment. Lauryn is a sophomore at San Diego State University. I had never gone down to see her since we both left for college. It was really nice to see where she lived. After she showed us her apartment she brought us to the SDSU campus and showed us around. It was pretty cool. When you come from a 5 acre campus, seeing a school that has 30,000 students is pretty incredible. After seeing the campus we headed to Coronado Island. Coronado was gorgeous! Unfortunately we didn’t take into account that it was Valentine’s Day and the entire Island was swarming with people! But it was okay. We still had a good time seeing the Hotel Del Coronado.

Once we were done and I had said goodbye to Lauryn….we headed back to Orange (the city that Lorah lives in) and went to Don Jose’s for dinner. It was nice to eat some yummy Mexican food. Richard paid for all of our dinner…which was a nice treat. After dinner we went to Blockbuster and rented a movie and went back to Lorah’s house, drank coffee, and watched the movie.

At the end of the day, I lied in bed thinking about the amazing God that I strive to give glory to every day. God has blessed me with so many amazing people in my life. People who build me up and encourage me with my relationship with Christ. People who commit to praying for me. People who are always there when I need a shoulder to cry on, a listening ear, or someone to make me laugh. God is good. All the time. All the time. God is good.

In His Presence

Last night at 7:25 PST Jennifer Jane Uwarow lost her battle with cancer and went home to be with her Heavenly Father. Needless to say, it has been a very emotional 18 hours since the PCC campus found out. After we let everyone know, we all met in the chapel for a time of prayer. We sat there with the lights off and one candle lit. As I sat there holding Marie, one of the freshman girls, I couldn’t get the image of Jen and her husband Pete walking across campus holding hands. They are such an amazing couple with Christ at the center of their relationship. I can’t imagine how Pete is feeling right now. We prayed for about an hour and a half and then decided to sing for a bit. It was awesome to see a family of believers singing and praise God for all that he has provided us with. Although we are going to miss Jen tremendously, we know that she is in such a better place now. She is no longer suffering…she is standing in the presence of God. It’s so incredible to think that she got to meet Jesus Christ last night! I cannot even fathom the joy that she must be feeling. I am so thankful that I got to such an amazing school with a great community of believers, my brothers and sisters in Christ. We are leaning on God first, and second on each other.

I wanted to include some pictures in memory of Jen and the tremendous impact that she has had on so many people.

Hesed Hall residents after putting up our hand prints.

Jen (right) and her identical sister Jessica (left)
Jen and Pete on their wedding day, June 5, 2004

Jen & Pete's hand prints in Hesed Hall, next to the apartment they lived in from August-December 2008. Jen decided to resign from her position at Providence when she was diagnosed again with cancer at the end of November. The words were written by Pete when they moved out.

Providence Campus flag half mast, on February 9, 2009, in honor of Jen.

Here are some words written by Jen herself:

"I want to say I'm a woman who is willing to model honesty and brokenness--serious casualties to a social life. I realize yesterday was the last ordinary day and we shall soon exit to eternity and hear the long awaited whisper...welcome home. I am interested in being a difference-maker. That means doing good, but to do good we must do His work. Only the Shepherd of the Sick can make us better. I am inspired by truth. It takes seriousing one's mind to rethink life and see that true happiness always supercedes human beings."

There is also an article written about Jen on the Providence website. This is the link: http://www.providencecc.net/jenuwarow.cfm

I ask that all who read this will keep Pete and their family and friends in your prayers through this difficult time. The funeral is on this Saturday, February 14, at 9.

Jen & Pete Uwarow

As I write this, it is 2am and I am sitting here in the hallways of my dorm. Right before Thanksgiving break my Resident Director, Jen Uwarow, was diagnosed with cancer for the third time in less than five years. This time that cancer was found in her bones and liver. After Christmas, Jen & her husband Pete (who also lived on campus) decided that they were no longer going to continue their position here. Jen had been struggling tremendously and didn’t feel that she would be able to fulfill her duties any longer. The chemo treatments that she was on were taking too big of a toll on Jen, so Jen & Pete decided to forgo chemo treatments. This was about a month ago. A few days ago Jen was encouraged by her doctor to go to the hospital because her liver looked like it had blockage and may need surgery. The doctors at the hospital found out that there wasn’t blockage and that the liver was beginning to suffer due to the cancer. Tonight we got an update on her caring bridge site that read:

“The liver doctor's opinion is that 95% of Jennifer's liver is not functioning. The oncologist said that she has at the very most two weeks to live. She will continue to want to sleep more and more and then eventually will fall into a coma for about 72 hours, not experiencing pain Jennifer will meet Jesus. She'll be at the hospital for at least the weekend. I personally would rather people not come and visit in the room but if you'd like to come to the lobby I'm sure one of us in the family can see you.
Please join the family in praising God for His mercy toward Jennifer, since being in the hospital this week she hasn't experienced any itching (which she told us a number of times was actually worse to live with than cancer and cancer treatment) and from what all of us can tell hasn't been in too much pain.
Pete”

This was not an easy update to read. This morning in chapel we spent time in small groups praying for Jen & Pete. This was before we knew this recent news. Pete had called Mr. K (Dean of Student Life) and told him that they had felt peace this morning and that he and Jen knew it was because of our prayers. This was amazing to hear. Although this news has been very emotional, I am comforted to know that Jen will soon be with her Lord and Savior.

There are so many different verses that have stood out to me in the past two hours. One of them is John 14:1-3. I recently came along this verse and have found it very encouraging.

John 14:1-3 (ESV)
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

I ask that you keep Jen & Pete Uwarow in your prayers.

Super Bowl XLIII

Did you know that more food is consumed on Super Bowl Sunday than on Thanksgiving. I guess when you think about it, most people will eat consistently all day long during the Super Bowl, bit on Thanksgiving, most people will sit down and have one big meal. As I sat here on a couch, in a room filled with about 20 other people, watching Super Bowl XLIII, I see the difference between girls and boys. Most of the boys scream and shout and the girls just kind of sit back and watch and cheer when something good is happening. The majority of us have our fingers crossed for the Steelers, hoping that they can pull through to win their 6th Super Bowl and become the only team to ever win six Super Bowls. There are also a few Cardinal fans, which makes for an interesting afternoon of friends battling out and hoping that their team will win and they can rub it in the others’ faces. As the game continues and the Steelers are up 20-13 in the 4th quarter, the Cardinal fans are growing more agitated. A rather funny thing about watching the Super Bowl, is hearing people that don’t know much about football, ask a bunch of questions as to what’s going on. I don’t understand every little call, but I understand the majority of it.

After the game is over, there’s a special 1 hour episode of The Office with quite a few guest appearances. If you don’t already know, I LOVE The Office. In fact I own the first 3 seasons on DVD, which makes for a pretty good procrastination tool. Hehehe. Shhh…don’t tell my mom I said that.

This last week was pretty good. My tests went pretty well. I got my Spanish grade back and was somewhat happy with my grade. This week I have a huge Educational Psychology test. Although it’s gonna be pretty difficult, it is my most interesting class, so I actually enjoy studying for it.

I can’t believe that it’s already February and midterms are coming up in about 3 weeks. It’s so weird to be walking around in 80 degree weather and not being able to see pretty blossoms and have a little rain. Oh well, I guess I should probably be thankful for the warm weather. Farewell for now.