I could almost hear my heartbeat.
The world seemed to fade away for a millisecond
I could not respond
Stunned silence commanded the room still
And then I buried my head in my hands as I wept.
It all started one morning after my A&P class last year.
My professor, Sue Justis, looked over at me,
"Anmol, I need to meet with you after class."
Uh oh.
As I put on my coat, I turned to Adam, the best student in the class, and expressed my fear,
"Gosh, that makes me nervous."
He shrugged, "Aaah, you're probably going to be awarded Scholar of the year or something like that."
"Yeah, right" I laughed.
"Gosh, maybe I just bombed my last lab report...."
Sue turned to me "I'll be ready in a minute, we need to go over the Scholar's Room; Ivan and I need to speak with you."
"Oh... uh, ok."
My mind continued to scramble for reasons,"Or maybe I haven't fulfilled enough service learning hours to graduate with Honors?"
As we walked across the campus to the Scholar's Room, I had no idea what to say. She asked me a few questions... and then George, my student councilor, came out of another building.
We happened to be going the same way.
As we approached the scholar's room, I saw my teacher Ruth Wrightsman standing at the door. Her's was my next class, where I was supposed to be right now. Why was she here?
"It must be a gathering of all the Scholars graduating this year."
I entered into a room filled with my faculty, staff... the president....and my family.
My family?
I glanced up at the board, which screamed "Congratulations, Anmol!"
Voices quietened to a hush as someone nudged me up to the president.
Bewildered, I removed my coat and walked up to the front.
The president began to speak of my achievements at the college, while I politely stood by, wondering if Adam's words were indeed coming true, and why my name was on the board when there were plenty of other quite incredible scholars.
After about a minute, Jane turns to me and says "Congratulations, Anmol. You are the first student of Flathead Valley Community College to be chosen as the recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship"
My mind reeled in shock.
I applied to this highly prestigious and extremely competitive scholarship in 2011, awarded every year to only 60 of the 13 million community college students in the United States. It is offered to the four year university of the students choice, and is simply a dream come true.
I could hardly believe the words my president uttered.
How something so wondrous could happen was beyond my ability to grasp.
In one swift second, everything seemed to fall into place... my doubts and fears over tuition for the next two years - all dispelled in one fell swoop.
I was discovering even more that the Rock I stood on was strong indeed. The Lord my God was my rock and foundation. He brought me here, He was going to carry me through.
He was faithful.
He was always faithful.
As I sobbed, my heart was overwhelmed beyond ability to voice my gratitude.
I finally gathered the strength to do so, but all I could utter were a few words, so miserably inadequate from expressing the emotions of my heart.
My parents had no idea.
My dad nearly dropped his camera when he heard the news. He struggled to control his emotions, and broke down into tears as he shared our story; There was hardly a dry eye in the room as my father spoke.
They had no finances to send their daughter to college in a first world nation; but being led by God, they decided to follow his lead. I was in Montana, doing a School of Biblical Studies, and the last thing on my mind was doing something as crazy as applying to a college in the United States. I certainly wanted to go to college, but it was impossible. However, I obeyed and I applied, thinking my parents were out of their minds and absolutely crazy, as did many others.
But then they were no longer crazy as I watched in wonder as the power of God come through like a flood, every single time. Every single payment. Every single job. Everything... in perfect precision.
Perfectly planned, God powerfully honored the faith my parents walked in.
and he was now teaching me to walk in that same faith.
I stood in that room, stunned at the faithfulness of God.
My parents stood there, witnessing His power once again.
That room will forever be a landmark of God's faithfulness in my life, the learning room of faith.
The faculty, staff, and professor's at Flathead Valley Community College were part of my journey since the very beginning. They witnessed miracle after miracle, they helped pave the path, they have been a blessing, an unbelievable blessing.
As we were leaving, one of my closest faculty member's hugged me and said "If there is a reason to believe in a God, you are."
I don't deserve the goodness of God, not one bit, but He has never let go.
All I can say
is
Jesus, You are so good.
"I am overwhelmed by the goodness of Jesus. Simply overwhelmed. It's undeserved, unmerited and unearned... the goodness of God for us, bought by Jesus on the cross." - a journal excerpt. August 22, 2012; written during the first semester at my four year university
The world seemed to fade away for a millisecond
I could not respond
Stunned silence commanded the room still
And then I buried my head in my hands as I wept.
It all started one morning after my A&P class last year.
My professor, Sue Justis, looked over at me,
"Anmol, I need to meet with you after class."
Uh oh.
As I put on my coat, I turned to Adam, the best student in the class, and expressed my fear,
"Gosh, that makes me nervous."
He shrugged, "Aaah, you're probably going to be awarded Scholar of the year or something like that."
"Yeah, right" I laughed.
"Gosh, maybe I just bombed my last lab report...."
Sue turned to me "I'll be ready in a minute, we need to go over the Scholar's Room; Ivan and I need to speak with you."
"Oh... uh, ok."
My mind continued to scramble for reasons,"Or maybe I haven't fulfilled enough service learning hours to graduate with Honors?"
As we walked across the campus to the Scholar's Room, I had no idea what to say. She asked me a few questions... and then George, my student councilor, came out of another building.
We happened to be going the same way.
As we approached the scholar's room, I saw my teacher Ruth Wrightsman standing at the door. Her's was my next class, where I was supposed to be right now. Why was she here?
"It must be a gathering of all the Scholars graduating this year."
I entered into a room filled with my faculty, staff... the president....and my family.
My family?
I glanced up at the board, which screamed "Congratulations, Anmol!"
Voices quietened to a hush as someone nudged me up to the president.
Bewildered, I removed my coat and walked up to the front.
The president began to speak of my achievements at the college, while I politely stood by, wondering if Adam's words were indeed coming true, and why my name was on the board when there were plenty of other quite incredible scholars.
After about a minute, Jane turns to me and says "Congratulations, Anmol. You are the first student of Flathead Valley Community College to be chosen as the recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship"
My mind reeled in shock.
I applied to this highly prestigious and extremely competitive scholarship in 2011, awarded every year to only 60 of the 13 million community college students in the United States. It is offered to the four year university of the students choice, and is simply a dream come true.
I could hardly believe the words my president uttered.
How something so wondrous could happen was beyond my ability to grasp.
In one swift second, everything seemed to fall into place... my doubts and fears over tuition for the next two years - all dispelled in one fell swoop.
I was discovering even more that the Rock I stood on was strong indeed. The Lord my God was my rock and foundation. He brought me here, He was going to carry me through.
He was faithful.
He was always faithful.
As I sobbed, my heart was overwhelmed beyond ability to voice my gratitude.
I finally gathered the strength to do so, but all I could utter were a few words, so miserably inadequate from expressing the emotions of my heart.
My parents had no idea.
My dad nearly dropped his camera when he heard the news. He struggled to control his emotions, and broke down into tears as he shared our story; There was hardly a dry eye in the room as my father spoke.
They had no finances to send their daughter to college in a first world nation; but being led by God, they decided to follow his lead. I was in Montana, doing a School of Biblical Studies, and the last thing on my mind was doing something as crazy as applying to a college in the United States. I certainly wanted to go to college, but it was impossible. However, I obeyed and I applied, thinking my parents were out of their minds and absolutely crazy, as did many others.
But then they were no longer crazy as I watched in wonder as the power of God come through like a flood, every single time. Every single payment. Every single job. Everything... in perfect precision.
Perfectly planned, God powerfully honored the faith my parents walked in.
and he was now teaching me to walk in that same faith.
I stood in that room, stunned at the faithfulness of God.
My parents stood there, witnessing His power once again.
That room will forever be a landmark of God's faithfulness in my life, the learning room of faith.
The faculty, staff, and professor's at Flathead Valley Community College were part of my journey since the very beginning. They witnessed miracle after miracle, they helped pave the path, they have been a blessing, an unbelievable blessing.
As we were leaving, one of my closest faculty member's hugged me and said "If there is a reason to believe in a God, you are."
I don't deserve the goodness of God, not one bit, but He has never let go.
All I can say
is
Jesus, You are so good.
"I am overwhelmed by the goodness of Jesus. Simply overwhelmed. It's undeserved, unmerited and unearned... the goodness of God for us, bought by Jesus on the cross." - a journal excerpt. August 22, 2012; written during the first semester at my four year university
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