Finals Week

Tomorrow marks the beginning of finals week, woohoo!!!

Our senior design presentation went really well Thursday of last week. We worked all semester on the design of an intersection of a small road with a proposed interstate, I69, and my main role was in the bridge design department of the project.
I was happy to have a "supporters" section... some good friends and family to come and watch a lot of boring talk about calculations of equilibrium and runoff coefficients. That meant a lot to me!

One of our mentors from Palmer Engineering, a consulting firm, told me that he has been going to Africa every year for several years doing work similar to what I will be doing in my internship, though he usually goes to Guinea, in West Africa. It is extremely encouraging and helpful for me to talk with others who have had experience there and have advice for me!

I graduate in less than a week, and there are exactly 4 weeks until I leave for the internship! How are preparations for that coming along, you may ask? Well, support is now at 41%, and my plane ticket to Colorado Springs for one week of orientation is purchased, and this cold weather is making me wish I was on the equator already, though I am going to really miss being with all the special people in my life.

I was very encouraged this morning by reading Isaiah 40...

Isaiah 40:11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young...

... verse 15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

This God who so tenderly and gently loves me and leads me is the One to whom all the nations are like a drop in a bucket. Why would he ever love me so personally and intimately? I don't know, but, Oh, he does! Look at the cross! That is where I see God Almighty unashamedly being violently mocked and tortured for us, who hated and despised him. That is love.