michelle jeannette

I got to be my family's counselor at Family Camp this summer! LOOKING BACK 2017 was a whirlwind of a year for so many people, myself included; but, that's not a bad thing.  I have been busy since January 1st, and I loved pretty much every second of it.  The year started off with me spending 6 weeks in South Africa and a week and a half in Israel with a wonderful group of people who I love dearly, and I ended my first year of college in April.  Then I spent a few weeks at home packing up for college again and I worked as a counselor at a Lutheran Bible camp until 2 days before I moved back into college as the Secretary of Student Government!    My first semester of sophomore year, however, was not how I expected it to be.  I started off the semester feeling very anxious and withdrawn, as if I was living in a strange haze of someone else's life.  I loved my jobs, enjoyed my classes, I had friends and an amazing boyfriend to be with, but I still f...

This is a post I've been planning on doing for awhile, but I haven't had the chance to really sit down and think about it until now! Update on my life: I have now graduated from the PackYourBags program and it has been an incredible year.  I have learned so much and made amazing friends that I really will keep forever.  At least I'm planning to!  Our last trip was a week and a half spent touring Israel and learning about the history while seeing the sights where Jesus lived and taught. One highlight: On April 1, 2017, I recommitted my life to God and got baptized again in the Jordan River.  I really wasn't sure I was going to do this until I showed up to the baptism sight that day. But God had been working in my heart and I knew that this was a perfect opportunity to show how much my relationship with Him and consequently, other people, had changed.  Israel was an amazing experience in itself and seeing where Jesus walked and taught and where all the Bible...

I just got back from South Africa where I lived with my PackYourBags team for 6 weeks.  6 whole weeks of my life were spent in another country! How crazy.  It seems like a dream and settling back in to regular life has been strange, especially because I am woken up every morning at 6:30, wide awake, and I have been falling asleep between 7-9 almost every night, because my body is still in South Africa and I am exhausted. I have been asked by multiple people what the biggest thing I learned in South Africa was, and although I do have an answer, that is such a loaded question.  My life picked up and landed in South Africa for a month and a half, changed dramatically by the grace of God, then plopped back down in rural North Dakota for me to reel in the aftershock. God did so many amazing things while we were in South Africa and lots of those things were works in the people on our team.  We all have grown so much and God did incredible healing in our team.  We ...

Tomorrow is January 1st, the start of 2017, a new year.  And even though this is not an original idea, I am going to post my New Year's resolutions, if only so I can look back at them and see how I did. I believe that people should always be bettering themselves and working towards becoming more interesting, caring, God-loving people, but the fresh beginning of a new year is a great time to start new habits and break old ones. Announcement! Something a lot of people do not give themselves when starting fresh is grace.  If you are trying something new this year or are already having trouble even thinking about doing it, do not lost heart!  Slip-ups are totally normal, and if you mess up one day, try your best the next day.  You are completely alright, and any attempt to do better in life is a valiant effort.  <3 My 2017 Resolutions Devotions every day!  I have loved making that a part of my daily routine during the past semester, but I want to ke...

Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Today is the eve of the day where we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  What an exciting time of year! I was looking at the gifts under our tree today, thinking about what they might be  (because what else would I be doing), and my mind kept drifting to the gift that God gave us in Jesus.  Our salvation is the best, most important gift we have, and if Jesus had not been born on Earth, we would not have it. Another thing I was thinking about was how amazing the gift of giving is.  I thought about our greatest gift, Jesus, and in turn, thought about how, because of the love of this gift, we have the opportunity to give to each other. I am so thankful this season, not only for the gifts I receive, but for the chance I have to give to others.  I live in America, have a beautiful family, a house to live in, food to eat, a warm bed to sleep in, friends that care for me, and I also have the ability to go buy small pre...

Today, I am one month away from my golden birthday and I have been thinking about some things. Sometimes when I look at my current life, I think about younger, maybe, 12-year-old me. "Would 12-year-old Michelle be proud of the Michelle I am now?" I ask myself while looking very critically at my mistakes and my accomplishments.  Today I looked at my life a little differently. Baby 12-year-old Michelle has not experienced the life I have. She knows nothing of the joy, the pain, and the adventures I have had in my almost 19 years of living.  I know that 19 years is not that long on this lovely blue planet, but I still know so much more now than I did almost 7 years ago.  I still want many of the same things that I did then, but still, so much of my life has changed dramatically. I can only hope that my younger self would be proud of the person I have become, but I think in all honesty, she would not understand me.  There is so much life she still has yet to live...