#jenap

R I D E  F O R  W A T E R

People are important; clean water changes everything. There are millions internationally that do not have access to a basic necessity - clean water. We have decided to take action and do something about it.

I am one of the members of the 2018 Ride for Water team alongside 13 other tenacious college students from APU, following in the footsteps of 5 years of past teams that have gone the year before us and paved the way. This summer, we will ride our bikes 3,200 miles across the United States to raise money and awareness for the global water crisis. Today over 663 million people live without access to clean water, but through our partnership with charity : water, we hope to change that. This year, we aim to raise $100,000. Over the past five years, previous Ride for Water teams have raised over $240,000, bringing clean water to Malawi, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. Through just one Ride for Water campaign, 1,996 people were given access to clean water and we hope to increase that this year.

It sounds wild; it is. We are willing to do something crazy in advocating for something we are passionate about. Eager, thankful, and inspired, we are so appreciative of the support thus far and bringing Jesus into every step of our campaign. 

To find out more about the Ride or the Cause, read on here. Updates on the campaign coming soon!

Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving! We received a whole week of break off this season; definitely seemed to come at the right and needed time! Amidst this season, there is so much to be thankful for and I love how the spirit of thankfulness seems like to brim over around this time every year.

Thanking Jesus a little extra today! For one, I am thankful for an incredible home team of people in my life- people that show me Christ, offering listening ears and encouraging words, teach me how fun life can really be, love me when I am feeling unloveable, and keep me grounded in my faith. These relationships and friendships carry the most value- I can thank APU for leading me to most of these people. Secondly, I am grateful for my education and for a place like APU that has made me feel so known and has Christ at its center and forefront in everything they do. I am thankful for a place that has been so transformative in my faith walk, and in my life as a whole. Lastly, I am grateful for rest. Break is so good for the soul, and for time to step back and regain perspective for these last three weeks!

Let us practice hearts of gratitude and spirits of thankfulness like this today, and everyday. What are you most grateful for this year? 

Golden Moments 

Senior year is full of these sweet, sweet moments that I am learning to savor more than anything.

This past weekend, a handful of us hopped in the car, drove down the 57 freeway, grabbed some blankets and some tacos, and chased the sun beachside. Our friend, Kami, has an incredible knack behind a camera, so she snapped some pictures of us that are out of this world. The light was delicious; the hour was full golden. We indulged in good conversation about our lives, about our futures, about our hopes and our realities. For a second, we were at a complete sense of contentment with knowing that everything was going to be just fine.

I'm learning to hold relationships like this close. APU has gifted me with some of the sweetest friendships- those that are God-centered, supportive, life-breathing. Those are the most golden of them all.

Hello, all!

My name is Jena Postma, and I am back once again - excited to return as my last year of sharing stories, words, and experiences with you. I’m from the Pacific Northwest, you can find me in the mountains or near the ocean, I have a love for Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon, and I’m a Marketing major/ Graphic Design minor with a whole lot of dreams and questions of what to do with it post-grad. Being my senior year, I am in the home stretch of my last laps at APU; and what a sweet and wild ride it has been. I am eager to savor all of the last bits of what this season has to offer, and I’ll do my best to share that with you.

APU has gifted me some of the best times and friendships of my life. It is awesome to reflect over the past four years and see how God has had His hand over all of it. This final year, my heart and hands are open for all that God is trying to show me. Let us remain open, ready, eager, and faithful.

Cheers to new seasons (and in whatever season you are in),

Mind the Gap

Spring breaks seem to come at the perfect opportune time: right when you need rest and rejuvenation. My spring break felt like a really, really good dream. My friends and I found some extremely cheap tickets to London back in October and so we hopped on the chance.

We got to do all of the typical London sights and then some that weren’t so typical. We got to visit some friends that were studying abroad in the Oxford program, and seeing their spaces where they are thriving was unbelievable. A highlight of that day was getting to do the same walk that C.S. Lewis did when we was thinking, praying, processing, going through all of his great thoughts and as he was converting to Christianity. That was honestly a spiritual experience and there are no words.

London was out of this world. I am thankful for experiences through travel; I feel like you continually learn more about yourself, about others, and about God when you are exploring the world He has created. There is something about being in places that make you feel small that remind you that God is so big. I am grateful to times that I get to learn more about the world’s dimensions and its people, lessons that are only grasped through experiences traveling.

Retreat to the Mountains

There is an office on campus called the Office of Discipleship Ministries, in which fosters Discipleship groups on campus (practically small groups) in which people can learn about the Lord and grow more in Him together alongside a firm community yearning to learn more about Christ. There is much worth in doing life aside one another. This office provided a retreat to Lake Arrowhead this weekend, a space in which cultivated rest and chance to get away. God's timing is impeccable because it seemed all the more needed at the right time.

There was a good friend that passed away from home this past week, and never has the definition of "community" reigned so true to me. Endless people have reached out, checked in, and cared for me in ways that were hopefully needed and much conversations were had with people I know and trust well that have helped process everything as well as offer a listening ear. It makes me ever so thankful the type of people APU holds amidst this specific situation.

Life is real and raw and doesn't make much sense, but I know the Lord does, and there is so much hope in that. Life's fragility is a harsh reality; I know there is stability in Christ. We are not alone; there are people there to walk along side us. The mountains this past weekend spoke of this.

And on the 8th day, God created ice cream.

Life is full of goodness, I am a firm believer is maximizing that and yearning for that and attaining all that it has to offer. Harsh reality is, life is not good all the time. It really isn’t. This past week, there were a handful of people on my staff for residence life that are dealing with very real, very hard, very terrible things. During our staff meeting, a space was created in where the ones that needed to share, could share, and we were fully behind them ready to listen. Prayer was true and said, we were there as one body; in a sense it was this beautiful space of brokenness, but beautiful in the way that we were together and united through it. 

I think that is what community is for. It is for the easy time when it is feasible to be weird and fun and about happy, light things. But mostly it for these times: these times of trial, and realistic emotions, and times where it seems dark. It is through this that the divine definition of community comes to be. We are made to lift up one another and to help pick up the broken pieces. It is through this that we acknowledge: we will be just fine. 

I think it is one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind: relationships with other humans.  We are right beside each other, right along with others in their walk. It is through these that we tangibly see the love of God, and it is through these that we remember God’s goodness. God’s people are steady reminders of this type of goodness. And that, deserves another scoop of ice-cream.

One Year.

This past week marked the one year anniversary of studying abroad in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, just one of the many incredible opportunities through APU that allows you to spend a semester internationally. As this sacred annual reminder comes along, sweetness and goodness of that past season surfaces along with reflection on life since then. 

South Africa was one of the most transformative seasons of my life. Words cannot accurately depict how much I learned and grew there: about myself, about God, about loving others, about being a servant, about being kind, about seeing the world through the eyes of God, about growing up. God was everywhere. He was in the views, He was in the experiences, He was most definitely in the ocean (I think about those waters all the time). He was especially in the people. People that were full of the Lord and taught me kindness and gave so much away and showed me love.

Although I get immensely sad thinking about that time, I also am incredibly thankful that it happened. It is healthy to reflect back on meaningful seasons of our lives, remember God working through them, and applying what you gained from them. South Africa, I am thankful of you.