Hughes News

Brief update for December - I finished the semester alive and satisfied with my grades! Now onto chasing down books for next semester and applying for nursing school. I'm hoping to have my application submitted by January 1st, so I've been spending my Christmas break chasing down transcripts and all other necessary paperwork like a dog chases little children with food in their hands. I am registered for next semester! Another 17 credit hours and then I'm done with my prerequisites for nursing school! I did not get the scholarship I applied for so I think I'll stick to the courses I've signed up for and try not to get too involved in extra activities so that I can continue working 20+ hr/wk I've been able to work so far. I'm still helping with AWANA and I volunteered to help teach 2&3's children's church occasionally. If possible I'm going to try to continue writing for the school paper, but so far I've not had much time to devote to i...

It is well past time I should be writing about my trip to Scotland this past August. I'm sure I could think of a thousand excuses for the delay, but let me be clear that "I just didn't care much" is not one of the excuses. I am greatly appreciative of the support and encouragement I received in preparation for my trip. I am deeply aware that I am surrounded by an amazing family in Christ:) Christmas is a great time to reflect, so I hope that if you've a already heard a report on the trip that hearing about it again will only be a great reminder of the faithfulness of our God and the exciting work He is doing around the globe. As I reread my journal to refresh my memory for this report, my heart just swelled as I recalled all the things I was able to experience over there. So many meaningful friendships were built, so much growth was experienced, God's Word was readily received, and so many people's faith was reignited - my own included. When my t...

What did I say to the trick-or-treaters that crossed my path this year? Nothing! Because I dressed as a mime for Halloween.... like I do every year:) While my costume maybe demonstrates a lack of effort as it required no effort to decide on, put together, and accomplish, the rest of my life this past month has been just the opposite. Much of my time in fact has been spent on decisions, getting things together, and accomplishments. Some of the many decisions I made were about work. After 2 months of unemployment, I'm blessed to now be doubly employed! I work just 4 hours a week for Community Home Care and then several more hours Monday through Friday for Region 1 Office of Human Development, an organization a lot like Friendship Community where I worked in Pennsylvania but minus the Christian affiliation. It feels good to have an income again, especially as the school bills keep rolling in. I had to also decide to pass on a cleaning job at the hospital, but I feel really...

Time for an update. My last post shared about what God's been teaching me, this post will be much less interesting. Haha I thought it would be good to just do a quick photo/logo update of what I've been involved with lately. So, without further ado... Been freaking out a bit about keeping up with classes, but so far I'm getting at least a B in every class and one of my classes ended Friday. So I only have 15 credits to keep up with for the rest of the semester. (hallelujah!!) haha I've loved being a Sparkies leader at Awana! I'll try to post a picture of the kids & I sometime in our Awana get-up:) After Awana I head back to school to hang out at "Christian Challenge", the campus Christian club. Right now we're going through Andy Stanley's series "Christian". I've been really enjoying it. If you've get chance, check it out:  http://northpoint.org/messages/christian/ I've been running a booth at the Far...

I don't know about y'all, but I ditched the whole WWJD fad a long time ago because I thought it was only meant to make the person stating it feel pious and the person being asked it feel guilty. I'm really not about condemning people as means of making myself look awesome. --->However, today it dawned on me that there is still something really great about asking, What Would Jesus Do? Have you ever struggled with how to know whether you're walking in the Spirit or fumbling in the flesh? That is, am I acting the way I should as one who has been saved and changed by Christ or am I acting in a way that gives no evidence of His presence in my life? Think about it. What does the Spirit do? The Spirit manifests the life of Christ in us (2 Cor. 4:10-12), and produces Christ-likeness in us like the classic "fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22-23). If I'm wondering, "is this me or is this God's Spirit?", I simply think "is this something Christ w...

  I'm going to try to start up semi-regular updates again while I'm away at school. Little recap - 12 days I go I was just leaving Scotland where I spent 2 weeks encouraging our Christian friends there and working towards establishing a discipleship & mime-evangelism team with DRAMA Ministry. I could write a whole post on that experience alone. In fact, I will! But not right now. For now, suffice it to say that my mind was blown at how awesome the trip was and I am super excited for what lies ahead there. We left Scotland Wednesday morning, August 14, and, due to mechanical complications with our plane, we didn't arrive home until Thursday 11pm, August 15. I left home to drive 30 hours to Nebraska on Friday, August 16. It was an insane turn around, to put it mildly. I'm generally pretty good at adjusting to different time zones, but 7 time zones in a 3 day period was more than I'd ever done before. Classes started the following Monday. I'm glad to say th...

Hello friends and family :) I'd like to take a moment to share with y'all about a trip coming up that I'll be taking with a ministry organization that has been a major part of my life for the last 10 years. If you've heard about my upcoming trip to Scotland and found yourself wondering "what is she going to do  there?" or "why is another  trip so important?" or "who on earth is DRAMA Ministry?" or "what  kind of a ministry is DRAMA?" or "why can't I get Jessica to stop talking about DRAMA?" - then this post is for you! Or if you've not heard about this Scotland trip yet, then all the more so, please read on... I'm going to write this in chunks so that you can skip to the section you want to know the most about, since I struggle with an inability to be concise. :) - How I've been involved with DRAMA over the years and who DRAMA is  -  (at the bottom of this post I have included a link to 2 ...

Possible album inspiration? ...that is, if one were to attempt to record an album... :D

Sadly it's been over a year since my last blog update, so consider this my Christmas Letter Edition where I do a brief catch-up of the last year just to keep everyone up to speed on life. *April 2012 - My nephew Eliam Justus was born! *May 2012 - I graduated from NTBI! Other highlights included Wayumi retreat with my senior class, a day trip to Philly, a DRAMA banquet and homeschool graduation *June 2012 - Wedding season:) and back to work with Friendship Community *July 2012 - Extra hours with FC and many a Friday spent back at the Dragon (Garden of Eden Produce at Green Dragon Farmer's Market) *August 2012 - Totally refreshed and ignited by dropping in at DRAMA's teen week camp in Mifflinburg, PA, great time at DRAMA's family campout, and then began classes at RACC - working on my prerequisites for my BSN! *September 2012 - DRAMA's Training Camp and getting into the flow of classes *October 2012 - Was able to hop down to Virginia to visit my bestie Daniell...