Pre-Finals Week!

Hey guys!
On my lunch break... I quit going to Thompson Hall to eat so I could save some money. So now its burgers and deli meat for meals! lol
I haven't gotten tired of it yet!

This week is going to be crazy. I can just tell...
I have two final projects that I need to get done before this weekend, three essays to prepare for, three history quizzes to take before Wednesday at 5PM, and one final exam to study for. As well as plenty of tedious homework assignments in my stupid religion class (No. I don't think religion is stupid. Just this class!). I'm going to need to stay focused all week and stay on task otherwise I'm not going to get things done.
I'm not sure I can study in my apartment either b/c I'll become distracted with people going in and out, my roommate playing XBOX, me wanting to play XBOX, and tv...
I'm thinking I may go to The Crossing church and study there in the Studio. It has some nice couches, and I can hook my laptop up to the tech booth and get on the internet that way as well as listen to some tunes while I'm studying. Then when I take a break I can bring my XBOX and play a couple of games of halo there in Stage 46 or the Studio...
I like that idea! haha

Last night I went to Studio and got a very unexpected surprise! There was an inspirational singing group putting on their fall concert in the main auditorium!
Now I'd like to say this:
I am by no means racist. So when I say this next thing, don't take offense, because I'm not being racist about it.
The entire choir was black! The whole service was a typical Southern Gospel church setting. A lot of jumping around and shouting! If you were sitting, you clearly didn't have the Holy Spirit inside you! It was probably the single most time I've ever felt the closest to God! It was a very powerful and moving experience! I honestly can't say I've ever had an experience quite like it!
Overall this past weekend was GREAT!
I had the Gospel Choir on Sunday, and on Saturday I went to visit my sister up by Chicago. Her church was putting on this thing called 'Walk to Bethlehem' and we did that. It was AMAZING! It basically is a VERY realistic reenactment of Jesus' birth. We were even verbally abused by Roman soldiers!
Overall it was a good weekend from a fun stand-point, but from a work stand-point... Not so much! I didn't get any work done on my projects... So I've really gotta crack down on those.

Oh ya! On top of all this school work, I also got scheduled to work on both Tuesday and Thursday. These two days are my major homework days because I only have one class and I'm done at 9AM. So then normally I can spend the rest of the day doing homework. This week though... Not a chance.

Anyways!

My break is almost over, and I need to pack my bag and grab something else to eat. So I'll try and post more this week but I'm making no promises with everything that's going on!
I want to get back to posting some scripture and giving my interpretation of it... So keep checking back!

God Bless!

Tactic Squad--Take 2

First of all:
I made it into the clan. I had tryouts last night, and did a head-to-head game against CrawMan. I played terribly, but [thankfully!] they still let me into the clan.
Anyways, my avatar was approved and the emblem was supplied to me.
Here's the finished product!

Tactic Squad

Hey guys this is going to be a short blog.

I have homework today before FIRE (the campus house's college-aged ministry) tonight.
My real point in posting this blog is to show someone the avatar I created for his clan.
Tonight after FIRE and small groups, I have tryouts for a Team Objective clan in Halo3. It should be fun, I just hope I'm good enough... I skipped my History class today to get some practice in, but my games were plagued by people quitting. Either my whole team would quit or the other whole team would quit. It was impossible. So I got NO PRACTICE for my tryouts tonight! Great.

So now I have to get busy on making a flow chart for my Final Project in IDT205. My project topic is "How to become a pro in Halo3!" My professor thought it was hilarious... I'm pretty much his favorite! lol

Anyway here's the avatar for ZeeSee09's Tactic Squad clan:
(I used PhotoShop to create this if anyone was wondering...)

Oh and by the way... It's not completely done. There's going to be the clan's emblem where that text it.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it melt?!

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!..."
Well I missed the promised blog on Saturday. I'm sorry!

So the one thing I really wanted when I came back from Fall break was for there to be NO SNOW. I didn't want to walk through it at all.
I didn't get my wish...

But it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

I made a new friend over the weekend. Geoff. He's a pretty cool guy. I can't wait to get to know him better, and see our friendship grow since I've been pretty lonely lately.
More on this later.

Time to get ready for class!

Post-Turkey Day

Today was so bland. So boring. So uneventful! I honestly can't tell you one thing I did today that benefited me in one way or another.
'Anonymous Reader' posted a comment on my last blog asking if I'd given up on blogging. Well no I haven't! I am busy, but if I'm serious about blogging then I should be able to make time to post.
With that said I'll try to get on and post more often!
I'm hoping to get on tomorrow during one of my last few days of break and putting on a much more serious blog, but for now some updates:

1) My oldest sister has had her second child! My new nephew's name is Kinnick (after the Iowa Hawkeye's Stadium) Marc. He's a beautiful boy that weighs 8lbs. 1oz. and was 20.5 inches long. Congrats! He was born on 11/25.
2) Yesterday was Thanksgiving! I had a wonderful day of stuffing my face, and gorging on pumpkin...EVERYTHING! I'm truly thankful for my family, my FRIENDS[!], and that I serve a GREAT and AWESOME God!
3) Finally I may be able to realize a dream of mine since I was 6 or 7. In Fall of '09 I'm going to be traveling overseas to Study Abroad. Now--it wasn't a dream of mine to study overseas but simply to visit Europe. I've always wanted to go to England. Finally, through the Study Abroad program, my dream will be realized! I'm looking at studying in the UK somewhere, and will go into further detail when I have it.
4) Christmas is coming closer and closer!
5) The semester is almost over! I only have 2 and a half weeks left in this semester! That makes me so happy!!! Finally I'll be done with my stupid gen ed classes... I will however miss my class with Prof. Grace. She's definitely become more of a friend than a teacher to me.

That's all I can come up with right now... I'm sure more will come later!
Until tomorrow...

God Bless!

Give - Until there's nothing left.

It's kind of funny how God works sometimes...

I've been kind of struggling financially. College is so rough sometimes! I'm only 8 weeks in and yet it feels as though I've gone through so much already!

Several weeks ago I wrote about how I bought a new TV... I didn't see the harm in it. I figured I would make the money back within 3 or 4 weeks at work. Well guess what. For the 3 weeks after I bought the TV, I wasn't placed on the schedule.

So then last week I ate fast food for almost every one of my meals. Not only is that NOT healthy, but it really takes a toll on my wallet.

So in the midst of all this financial crisis, what do the two sermons from the two churches I attend pertain to? Giving. Tithing.

God are you serious?! I'm having so many problems right now, and then I start struggling with money. And NOW you convict me to GIVE???

It was just really strange. I know what God's pushing me to do... The question is: Will I give?

God Bless

Individualism

Where did I lose sight?
I've always been a very strong proponent of everyone being their own person. I myself used to be a leader. I used to at least try to be a good role model for my friends and those who looked up to me.
But lately... I've lost sight of this goal, standard, and moral of mine.

I noticed it a little at the end of my senior year, and then it went into full effect over the summer. College is fun, but it rips you apart. If you aren't secure with who you are and what you believe in then you will change.

So now that I finally realized what I'm becoming, it's time to change. There's so much I want to say here, but is too sensitive.

I've begun to take steps in the right direction, but I'm going to need your help. If you could please be praying for me. Pray that I allow God's will to be done in my life, that he would calm my worries and extinguish my stress, and finally pray that I'll re-become my own person.

Thanks for listening guys! It's really important for me to be able to write out my thoughts because anymore I don't really enjoy talking more than I have to. Writing is so much easier. I can fix mistakes and I don't write with an impediment like I talk!
:-)

God Bless Friends!

Automatic

"I wanna love You like it's AUTOMATIC...
Make You into my Good Habit!
You're the only one that really matters!
Every minute, every day, it's AUTOMATICALLY okay--
When I make it all about You."

These words are all taken from Stellar Kart's new song Automatic. The first time I heard these lyrics I was inspired. They're so REAL. So TRUE.

That's how I want to describe my relationship with Jesus. I want to make communing with my Heavenly Father a daily good habit. I want to put Him first in my life and priorities. I know if I can let go and do that, then everything else I want of my life will come.

God is always there waiting for us. We just have to come out and meet Him. We don't even have to go far. He is more than willing to meet us more than halfway.

So what's holding me back? ...And what's holding YOU back? Why aren't you where you know you really should be? Why do WE keep staunching the convictions of God's Holy Spirit which resides inside us?

Just something to think about.

God Bless

Ketchup.

I haven't blogged in ages. Sorry!

So currently I'm [purposefully] skipping my first class of college. It was just a boring history class so who really cares. I have homework due over the weekend that I want to do now because I'm going home this weekend and probably won't ever get around to it.

I had so much to blog about when I thought about it earlier and now I can't think of what I had...

Oh! I bought a new TV a couple of days ago. A Vizio 32" LCD HDTV. It's pretty sweet! It did, however, set me back considerably in the sense of a wallet. But in my opinion the fact that Halo looks and sounds so good on it makes it TOTALLY worth it!

I've always wanted to do a daily devotional. Finally Mark and I started doing one together. I can already see improvements in my walk with Christ. Mark has been making leaps and bounds in his walk also. It's so amazing to see how God has been using Mark to impact me (even with his shady background) and how He's been using me to impact Mark. Also we're beginning to work ourselves in holding each other accountable. So, that's good.

I have one word for you: HEROES. I borrowed the boxset of Season 2 from a girl who lives in the Campus House and watched the entire thing in a day and a half! I am so pumped to watch the Season 3 premier (which showed Monday the 22nd). I'm going to rig up my laptop to my new TV and watch it on there hopefully on Sunday. But anyways... Heroes is awesome. There are moments when I was screaming and yelling at the TV and then moments when I was laughing hysterically and also those moments when I almost could have cried. Any TV show that can do that to you is indeed awesomeness!

Now I really need to get to work so I'll try and blog more often. TTYL

God Bless!

MLG - Major League Gaming

Hey guys sorry I haven't blogged recently. School has started up and I've gotten busy already!

Anyways this is going to be a short blog b/c I have to go down and check on laundry and I'm also in the process of typing a paper for my Religion class.

Mark and I are playing TONS of Halo. We stay up late like every night playing online with one of our friends from back home, Ben Tooley. We all have had this little dream that we wanted to try and go pro in Halo, but none of us ever dreamed we'd ever make it. That is until we all got together! We decided that we wanted to form a team and start competing in smaller online tournaments until we think we're actually ready for the real thing: MLG. Major League Gaming. We're hoping to be able to travel around and compete in tournaments around the States. But for right now, we're just thinking small-scale. Big-time tournaments are still a long ways off, but I'm confident.

Anyways...:
Time for HOMEWORK!

God Bless

My Apartment

I'm feeling lazy...
Just pictures tonight!













God Bless

First Day of College Classes

--FOR THE RECORD I HAD THIS TYPED UP LAST NIGHT BUT MY INTERNET WENT OUT BEFORE I COULD POST IT.--

No interesting title.
I'm TIRED. It's crazy just how tired I am...

Anyways I had class starting at 8. It was one of my three major classes. My first impression of the teacher was that he was a MAJOR GOOBER! But after I talked to him a little bit I started to think that he was pretty cool. Professor West seems to be pretty cool and he's going to be teaching me about Authoring Software. Something I've NEVER dealt with!

My second class was religion class at 9. I wasn't really that thrilled about taking this class because I've already taken one religion related class at the local community college and it SUCKED! I walked into and sat down in the wrong class room because I looked at the wrong section of my schedule. After I realized that I got to my real class and it was packed. I found a seat and waited. The teacher showed up and she was WEIRD. I'm not sure what her religious background was... But oh well... Hopefully I can just make it through the class.

My third and final class before lunch was my favorite of the day. I got to the class about 10 minutes early yet the teacher was already instructing so I figured I was in the wrong room again. It was another of my major classes so I was looking forward to it. I got back out in the hallway and checked my schedule to find that I was at the right room. Apparently the professor decided that she wanted to start early. So I find a seat once again and then I start actually paying attention to the teacher. It's at this point that she says, "I'm going to be learning just as much as you guys and FROM you guys as you're going to be learning from me!" I now realize that this professor is CHINESE and has an accent so thick you almost can't even understand her! She goes on to pronounce her name for us, BUT she loves the English word 'grace' so she prefers us to call her Grace! I basically laughed through the entire class. By the time the class was over I had decided I was definitely going to enjoy this class...

Next Josie, Mark and I went to Thompson hall to eat lunch. We had pizza, french fries and vitamin water! It was good in my opinion, but I don't know if I really want to eat there every Monday, Wednesday, Friday for lunch...

After lunch Jos, Mark and I all had the same Concepts of Leisure class. I know! It sounds like a blow-off class. However, I think it's going to prove to be a lot harder than it sounds. Anyways I almost fell asleep--it was BORING! And it didn't help that I have the class right after lunch.

After our CoL class, I headed to my final class of the day: History. I wasn't really looking forward to the class, and it didn't help when I arrived to find around 40 students in the class... I HATE big classes. Anyways the instructor went over the syllabus and then he wanted each and every student to introduce themselves... We barely got done in time to leave.

And that was it! My first day of classes was interesting to say the least... I think I enjoyed it overall though!

God Bless

Work Day

Hey!
Today was a work day at the Campus House. I equate it to spring cleaning or something like that...
Basically there was a list of all these small cleaning and maintenance jobs that needed to be done so anyone that didn't have any other obligations was supposed to come down and help.

Mark and I sandbagged all morning and laid the sandbags around the perimeter of the sand volleyball court. That was the hardest job. Then we changed some filters, installed a wireless router, and swept the floor of this one room... Random jobs, but necessary all the same.

On another note I'm REALLY tired. I'm going to bed as soon as I'm done typing this... We have a big day tomorrow with our first church service and then there's a picnic, a meeting with all freshman commuters, and then a cook out! So we'll be busy tomorrow...

On ANOTHER note (that's slightly related to the last one when I mentioned church):
I have not been doing very well keeping up with my prayer life and staying in the Word.
I'm trying to get into a routine though... So I don't know... Anyways I'm tired. TTYL

God Bless

Excuses, Excuses...

I'm back!

I do apologize for not blogging in almost a MONTH!
I have so many things I can call up and excuse myself, but honestly:
I've just been BUSY.

As may remember from a previous blog, I went to a church camp the first full week of August. Well on Wednesday night we had BBQ Chicken for supper. To make a long story short, I got food poisoning from it, which turned into a bacterial infection in my intestines. It was PAINFUL!
I was bedridden for almost a week and then I finally, slowly became more active...

Now I'm exiting the recovery stage and finally getting back to normal.

On Thursday I finally moved out of my parents' house and into the Campus Students for Christ. Our apartment was GROSS! It was so bad... The carpet was so stained and smelly, and the walls were marked up. So we decided to paint them! And then my roommate's (Mark Vonholt's) parents said they had extra carpet at home and so they came back on Friday and laid new carpet in the living room! Now our apartment is pretty nice. We have a nice setup in our bedroom too. I'll post pictures later. Tomorrow we have a work day at the Campus House. I'm not gonna lie... I'm kind of dreading that. Then later in the day we have a bunch of Freshman activities... Who knows how all that stuff is gonna go...

But all in all everything is going GREAT! I love the RA, Kirsten. She's SO funny! And her roommate Dee is pretty cool herself! So I'm not quiet sure how everything is going to end up, but I'm excited and ready for it! I'm hoping to keep an open mind and a positive attitude in everything.

Here's to hoping everyone else is doing good! Let me know how you all are via comments!

God Bless!

YouTube Madness!

Here's some of my favorite YouTube videos:

I don't even know...

I found this very interesting:

At CIY, the major theme was the Holy Spirit. The second evening session was simply amazing in my opinion. It was specifically on the Holy Spirit: on receiving it and listening to its call.

But what I really want to focus on tonight was the group morning devotional the morning before the message on the Holy Spirit. It too was on the basics of the Holy Spirit. It had this little activity where there was a list of scriptures from the Bible in one column and a list of characteristics in another column... We had to look up the scriptures and then match them with the characteristics. One of the characteristics was something to the effect that, 'whenever you're being plagued by grief and sorrow and you don't know what to say to God, the Holy Spirit living inside you can speak for you.'

I just thought that was the coolest thing. That the Spirit of God can tell our Heavenly Father what's going on, even though He already knows. I wish I could remember the exact scripture. When I get home I'll look it up in my Move student magazine and post it. But for now just think about this:

~Have you received the Holy Spirit?
~Do you have a time each day where you commune and talk with God's Spirit?
~Do you listen to the Spirit's tug and call?
~Have you stamped out the Spirit to where the voice is so small it's impossible to hear?

Think. Think some more. Pray.

God Bless

Internet-LESS

Is that even a word?
Well we're going to pretend like it is for now.

We're in Tuscan, Arizona. Some days have been ridiculously boring. Others very bright! We arrived and I was planning on the condo having wifi. No such luck. How terrible. Then I find ethernet cables, so I'm thinking, "Ok wired is better than nothing." $9.95 for 24 HOURS! How dumb! So we traveled around Tuscan looking for a place with free wifi. We finally found this skanky Mexican restaurant in the Ghetto. I'm not even kidding. It was the Ghetto! Bars on the windows, gangsters in the streets, and high chain-link fence complete with razor wire at the top! Scary right?!

So finally I broke my parents down and convinced them to buy a connection for at least one day. So here I am. I have 23.5 hours! lol

I can't really focus for some reason. I think its because there's so much I haven't done on the internet lately...

Anyways yesterday I saw the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. It was phenomenal! I definitely suggest it!

That's all I got... I'll post a more substantial blog later today...

God Bless

Family Vacation

I wanted to try to do a video blog for this one. I finally figured out how to use the built-in webcam on my laptop and want to start v-blogging. I recorded one, but realized I was talking to softly because I'm in a hotel lobby. I might try and find a vending machine room somewhere later and record another...
Anyways, we're in Colorado [I think.]. I was under the impression that we were flying to Denver, CO and doing some sight seeing there then getting back on a plane and flying to Tulsa, Arizona. We did no such thing. We rented a car and we're driving the rest of the way to Arizona. BOOOOORING! Today we went and saw Pike's Peak and Royal Gorge. Pike's Peak was cool... I'll try and post some pictures once I go through them.
My search for a vending machine room will ensue now.

God Bless

Nightmare in Atlanta Airport

So here's my airport story:

I was flying home on Sunday. The original plan was to arrive at the Regan Airport around 12:30PM and then my flight would leave there at 2:05PM. Then I would fly to Atlanta, Georgia and get a connecting flight from Atlanta to St. Louis, Missouri at 4:15PM. Then I was supposed to be picked up by my older sister.

This is what actually happened.

I arrived at the Regan airport between 12 and 12:30PM. Good so far. I get there and I meet up with some of the students that were also flying home. The only problem is their flight was delayed. I thought, 'Oh no big deal... Mine will be fine.' I now realize that that fact was a BAD OMEN for my flight.

My flight to Atlanta was delayed. At first they said that it was just going to be an hour. Then it turned into five hours. So I boarded the plane around 7PM. Then after I got all excited that I was finally going to get to leave the Regan airport finally, we sat on the plane on the tarmac for nearly 2 hours! Finally the pilot informed us that we were going to get to take off. Everyone started clapping and cheering.

We arrived an hour and a half later at the airport in Atlanta. Obviously I missed my connecting flight to St. Louis. So I was informed I had to go to gate C21 and get rebooked. So I did that and the quickest flight I could get was a midnight flight. I booked it because I just wanted to go home. Well I go to gate C18 to wait to board the plane. Then we find out the flight is going to be delayed to 2:50AM. By this time I just don't care anymore. I just want to get away from this airport.

2:00AM comes around and I am informed that our plane was moved to a different gate. So everyone got up and moved to the new location. We sat there for about 40 minutes and then were told that the flight attendants were going to be late. So they pushed our flight back to 3:10AM. Well I immediately found this to be a bad sign. I was just telling the person sitting on the floor next to me about my gut feeling, and there was an announcement over the gate intercom. Our flight had been cancelled.

Honestly I could have cried. But I don't cry, and I didn't see the point. Well then they told me that I had to go to the Customer Service desk to rebook again. Now let me tell you about the line at the Customer Service desk. It had approximately 500 people in it. I talked to one guy in line and he told me that he'd been waiting for over 3 hours and he wasn't even close to halfway through.

So I'm getting more and more frustrated trying every avenue of hope I can possibly find. Finally I'm told that there isn't going to be a flight to ILLINOIS period (let alone St. Louis) until 10PM TUESDAY! I was close to insanity. So I hear that there are some people renting cars and driving to their destinations. I decided that that would be a surer bet to hitchhike rather than wait for a flight.

I go around the airport asking around, trying to find someone who is going to or through Illinois. Finally I find a group of people that are driving to Bloomington, IL. I give them my cell number and they promise to call me when they find a car. I decided that I should also find someone else as a back-up plan in case I never get a call from the Bloomington people. So I give my cell number out to two more groups of people, one of which was driving to St. Louis.
The St. Louis people were the only one's that ended up calling. I told them I was ready to leave whenever they were, so we took off in our newly rented Mercury Sable. That whole experience is dead to me. The ride was not enjoyable. I'm stopping at that though so I don't say something I shouldn't. I made it to Carbondale, Illinois only an hour behind my friends... Basically I hitchhiked from Georgia to Illinois! At least that's what I like to tell everyone!!! lol

This is the group of people I 'hitchhiked' with.

Final Take: Washington DC

My trip to Washington DC was fun, relaxing, and interesting. I really enjoyed being able to go out there and visit Bryan. I can't wait for him to get home so we can start hanging out again. The whole experience was GREAT! I met new people, made new friends, and developed new addictions.
First time things that happened at DC:
1) Jesse, a new friend that I met out there, asked me if I wanted to go to Starbucks to get coffee with him one day. I informed him that I had never been to a Starbucks before, and he was appalled! He did his classic, "Oh no you didn't!" facial expression, and then informed me, "that I couldn't call myself an American anymore." He and I went, and I ordered something without coffee in it, because I wanted to work myself into it. It was vanilla frappachino of some sort. It was very good! Then he and I went to this little park and drank our Starbucks while talking about church and God. I think I'm now addicted to Starbucks. More info on that later...

2) This was my first time going out of state without my family. It felt almost liberating! I really enjoyed the ride up there with Lorree, Autumn, and Courtney. It was a blast and I hope I have many more roadtrips in the future of this nature. The trip home was interesting to say the least... I'll post an entire blog about that because it was that interesting.

PICTURE TIME!


Arlington National Cemetery

Changing of the Guard - Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The Metro! I LOVED riding this.

For Monica! This was at the World War II Memorial.

Our Group with the Washington Monument in background - Courtney, Lorree, me, and Autumn

I'm not sure what memorial this is...

Abe Lincoln himself!

Washington Monument and Reflecting Pool (Forrest Gump was nowhere to be found...)

White House from the back - Wasn't really all that impressive...

Iwo Jima Monument - My Favorite
Well seeing as I just got home, I'm going to take a shower, and then a little nap. I'm going to the county fair with Jos, Mark, and possibly Lindsay. I'll post more tomorrow!

Bryan:
Thank you SO MUCH for the amazing vacation. I can't wait for you to be back home!

God Bless

Quick Check-In:

Hey guys:
I just wanted to check in with everyone. I'm at Southern Illinois University right now for a [C]hrist [I]n [Y]outh Conference...
I just wanted to let you all know that I have a nightmare-ish story for you all when I have a lot of time to tell you how my flight went. :D More on that later...

Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well and I will try and get on later for a longer blog!

God Bless

WLC: Changing Lives.

The whole reason behind my visit to Washington DC is to:

1) Visit a good friend who took a summer job here.

2) To take a vacation.

3) Just to relax and have fun!

In addition I have:

1) Went sight seeing.

2) Made new friends that are AMAZING.

3) Grown as a person.

This weekend was supposed to be a little vacation. Just get away and do nothing but hang out with my buddy, Bryan. This, however, is not what happened. I have witnessed events that can be immensely life-changing. The conference that Bryan works for is preparing teens every week to become authentic leaders that can change the world.

This may sound cheesy, but I have taken so much out of just simply standing on the sidelines.

As I mentioned I met a new friend from California. I can't even begin to describe the impact that Jesse has had on my life already. And I don't plan on losing touch with him after this weekend...

Anyways I gotta head out. I'm going to go and hang out with Jesse before he leaves early tomorrow morning to fly back to Cali.

Tomorrow I fly back to St. Louis, MO and get rested up for CIY all this coming week. I would like to ask you all to pray for me as I fly tomorrow by myself for the first time. And also be praying that God opens doors and convicts hearts next week!

Thanks and...

God Bless

Lights. Camera. ACTION!

Guys. I can't even begin to describe how much fun I'm having right now!

I'm meeting so many new people. Making friends, hanging out with old (but GOOD) friends. I'm walking ALL OVER Washington DC, snapping pictures being myself, and really just having an all around good time!

I met this new friend. His name is Jesse; he's from California. He has a real PASSION for working with kids/teens. He is really cool. He has this saying, "Everything happens for a reason." I truly believe that God put Jesse in the path that represents my life for a reason. I'm not sure what yet. I'm unsure if I'm supposed to minister to him or if he's ministering to me. Or both! I will say that he has already impacted my life.

Anyways:

I'm going to be coming away from this trip with SO MANY stories. It's crazy. But right now I want to share a quick story with you that is my favorite so far:

Ok. Picture this=the four of us have been driving in a car for 14 hours. We're tired and I feel EXTREMELY skanky. I really want to go take a shower, but we wanted to see Bryan.

So we arrive at the hotel and we go to the ballroom doors and wait there for Bryan to get out of a session. There's kids and adults hangin out outside the ballroom also. Suddenly I realize that there's this tall gangly guy kind of circling the group of us and he keeps looking at me...

I start to discreetly watch him to try and figure out what the heck is going on. Then suddenly he comes up to me and says, "Hey, I need your help with something. Can you come with me?" Well I'm tired, not thinking, and just wanted to be helpful so I oblige and follow him. I was a little panicked that I just walked away with a stranger in a VERY forgein city. Anyway, I follow him into a big room with about 6 people in it. They are all in a back corner. And there's a video camera (thus the blog's name). Well I then realized that the person who had grabbed me (who ended up being Jesse), thought I was a student partaking in the conference. The problem is that they're video taping someone so I can't inform Jesse that I'm not a student. I didn't know what to do...

So it comes my turn to sit in the chair and be taped. What they were doing was this script thing. Like one guy was reading off lines of a script and I had to repeat the line and use emotion. Then they used lines from all the different students they video taped. So I just start following the directions I was given and Bryan walks in. I couldn't help it; I just started laughing on camera. Then Bryan was like, "Guys, he's not a student. This is Jordan. My friend from back home that I've been telling you about." Then all of them start laughing hysterically. They're like, "Jordan, why didn't you tell us?!" I didn't know what to say.

So anyways, that was really funny... I don't know if it is as funny to read, but it was REALLY funny to live!!!

Linky to VIDEO

God Bless

The Arrival.

So we FINALLY made it to DC...

I have some HILARIOUS stories!!!  I don't have time right now; I'm on my new Californian friend's MacBook.

Anyways I can't wait to tell you the stories!!!

God Bless

Au Revoir!

I'm hitting the road.

I didn't have time to blog tonight sorry...

I had goodbye's to say and lots of other crap to do...

Packing...

It was Lindsay and I's three month today!



I'll blog more throughout this week... Pics of WASHINGTON DC... Then all next week I'll be without internet, a computer, and my cell.... :(

GOD BLESS

The Day After Tomorrow

I leave for WASHINGTON DC! I'm excited.

Today was boring. I worked all morning and until 3. I actually made it to work on time! That was impressive for me...

Then Mark came over and we played Swat on Live with another friend Brent. Now I'm at Brent's house for awhile typing this and then Mark is coming out here and we're gonna play some more Live!

Anyways... That was my whole day! Boring right?!

Tomorrow I have to work (in Bowen again...). Then Lindsay and I are hanging out and watching The Office before I have to leave to pack for DC and then go to bed early b/c I have to get up WAY EARLY to get on the road to see BRYAN!

Bryan if you read this I can't wait to see ya bro!!!

Sorry no scripture tonight..

Happy 7th Day of the 7th Month!

I would have said 'Happy Bungie Day' but no one would actually know what I was talking about...

So I'm back. And I'm going to try really hard to keep this going. I don't know why I suddenly decided to quit posting... I don't even think I consciously made a decision to stop. It just sort of happened.

Anyways quite a bit has happened that I haven't posted:
1) At Studio yesterday I played Ultimate Frisbee in my sandals and ripped half-dollar sized chunks of skin of the bottoms of both my feet. It's a little painful... But my team did win!

2) The message at Studio was VERY good on Sunday night. Phil, the Jr. High minister from the Quincy campus, spoke because Andy and his family were gone on vacation in Florida. Phil is pretty cool. I've played basketball with/against him after Fuel in Quincy a couple of times... I'm not very good, and I always tell the story of how Phil jumped 60 feet in the air to stuff a 3 pointer I shot... It was pretty amazing even though it was embarrassing for me! Ha. Anyways: Phil spoke on Worshiping Truly. He said how we were created with the sole purpose to worship God. And it doesn't matter how we do it. Just as long as our hearts are in the right place and we give everything to Him.

3) I went to Wes's house to see him and his family shoot off fireworks (on the 4th (Sorry to all you non-American readers...)) b/c all my other friends already had done other stuff and I was too late to go anywhere else. But Wes's house was still good! We definitely had fun shooting stuff off in a variety of ways!

4) THREE DAYS. I leave for Washington DC in THREE DAYS! I'm traveling to the nation's capital to visit a good friend of mine that took a summer job there which consists of molding young minds. Ha. You like how I worded that? Anyways Bryan is a pretty cool guy that has helped me out along my walk with Christ. Three of my other friends and I are driving there on Thursday and then I'm flying back by myself on Sunday. I'm flying into St. Louis, MO where my older sister lives. So I'm spending the night at her apartment and then I'm getting picked up there by a youth group to go to CIY (Christ in Youth). So that should be a blast. My roommate for next year is going with me on that and I really hope God opens his heart and speaks to him. He's a really good friend and just needs a little boost to get his walk with Jesus really jump-started. Prayers for safe travels and opened hearts would be much appreciated!

Jeremiah 17:7
7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him."

Isn't that cool? Like I mentioned before, God created us to worship Him. He wants us to YEARN for Him. During small group time after the message at Studio my buddy Art said it like this, "God is jealous. Like the moment we wake in the morning, He just is almost impatiently waiting for us to call out to Him and tell Him how much we need Him and how much we love Him." He wants us to give EVERYTHING up to Him. He wants us to faithfully follow Him.
So why don't we?
I'll admit I'm not there yet. I have felt SO close to God, yet then I trip up and start feeling sorry for myself and screw up even more. Satan just works like that. But those who have accepted Jesus into their hearts have something satan can never defeat. We have the Holy Spirit moving within us. We just have to listen to that small voice. We we're about to screw up the voice is screaming for us to stop; telling us that God wouldn't like that.
Jesus never said it would be easy to follow Him. We just have to actively keep at it. No matter what happens. Ya, you may mess up, but Jesus died and rose again to save you from that. He overlooks it so we should overlook our downfalls too. Live and learn. Learn from your mistakes. You will, but you shouldn't, feel shameful for your past. Just learn to live with your mistakes and move on!
I kind of got on a side rant... That tends to happen.
Don't worry. More to come. And I'm planning on packing my laptop so I can continue to blog in DC and hopefully CIY too... I'll have to think about that.

God Bless

There's no other way to say this:

I'm sorry.
And I'm even more sorry, but in approximately4.5 minutes my laptop battery is going to die so I must also make this apology quick.
I consider blogging to be very important. As important as taking a shower every day! And so I apologize for stinking!
Lately... I can't even use the excuse that I've been busy because I have not been any such thing! I would like to promise you that it will get better. If I've disappointed you... Please don't leave me!
The blogging will continue!

Camp.

So I'm outside.
I just got home and I decided it was so nice out that, at first, I was going to blog on the trampoline. However, I found that to be uncomfortable, so now I'm in a lawn chair watching the lightning! It's pretty sweet.
Today was a 'catch-up-on-sleep' day. I woke up at 7 and then again at 9 but I just fell in and out of consciousness. I got up out of bed at 11 with the idea that I was going to play some Team Swat and just do nothing all day. But I made the mistake of going down stairs and my mom told me a should put a couple of hours in at work.
My little sister had her birthday party today with all of her friends. They played in the pool all day until it started raining. Then they came inside and watched the newly finished DVD of our high school musical, Annie. Then we ate a late lunch and had CAKE! I was really excited for this cake because it was 'fun-fetti' cake. It tasted SO good. As a matter of fact I think I'll eat one before bed.
Yes, I know that's not healthy... Sue me.

The quality is bad on the pic b/c I didn't think about getting a picture until it was ALMOST too late.

After the cake I went to the school and worked for two and a half hours. Whoopie.

Then I have been looking forward to visiting camp ALL week. Bung (a friend of mine) was a camper and so I decided I would go out and visit him. I also decided to stop in Carthage and get him some DQ. He liked that, much to the jealousy of his fellow campers!
The worship was AMAZING. It always is at camp. The message was good also. It talked about the importance of the Cross of Christ. And how Christ is the only way to eternal life. It was very moving sermon.

Then the fun. We did a bunch of stupid/fun dance songs and then had karaoke. I have some HILARIOUS pictures and videos of Bung singing and dancing... I wasn't required to partake since I was just a visitor, but let me tell you if the DJ would have had some Relient K songs in his mix than I most certainly would have sang!!! lol

This is Bung doing the Hoke-Poke (Spelling?!)

This is Bung doing the Chicken Dance. Ha!

This is Bung and another camper doing the Tunak Tunak Tun Dance.

Oh HAPPY Day!

So guess what today is...
JULY 1st!
And guess what that means?!
A NEW RELIENT K ALBUM COMES OUT! That's what I'm talking about!
Anyways, from what I have heard from it I like the CD so far! I've just browsed through all the songs listening to at least the first thiry seconds.

ALSO:
NINE DAYS until I get to travel out to Washington, DC to hang out with Bryan Schullian. I can't WAIT!!! Bryan is a good friend of mine that I met during high school, but never really knew him until we re-met at the Crossing in Quincy. He took a job in DC for the summer and so three friends and I decided we'd drive out there to see him! I'll be taking LOTS of pictures with my new camera... So be ready for a picture post when I get back!


Rather than scripture tonight I'm going to post a video. It's a video of one of my favorite worship songs. I LOVE this song. It speaks volumes to me every time I hear it. I hope it speaks to you like it does me:

Last minute BLOG

Hey guys. Sorry this is REALLY late. I was laying down in bed drifting in and out of consciousness texting a friend... Then he just decided he was going to call and so I decided I should get up. Then I realized I hadn't even posted yet today.
I was going to post earlier but I got a message from Tim asking if I wanted to meet KT and him at the local (local for me) ice cream parlor. I gladly accepted! I was in the mood for some LEMON ice cream!!! Thus you can blame Tim and KT for the lateness of this post.

My day was very boring. I worked. I drove to Liberty, IL to drop my dad off at a mechanic shop where his truck was. Then I drove back home and went the long way through Golden so I could stop at Suzy's and get some food, just like old times minus my football buddies.

Then I played Halo. Lots of Halo. Believe it or not today was the first day in my ENTIRE gaming career where I played for nearly 4 hours all by myself. I normally just don't play if no one is on because I hate having to play by myself. But lately I've changed. I really enjoyed myself today. I played TEAM SWAT all day. I ranked up from a 17 to a 22... Until I got matched with these two little 5-yr-olds... No exaggeration. They were like 5 or 6. And one of them didn't feel like playing so she just let her character stand still the whole game. We lost needless to say. I am now a 21 rank. BUT!: I did have an exceptional game at Guardian. My new favorite map. I had 17 kills and only TWO deaths. That is very good for me!

Anyways...
I'm expecting another phone call here real quick so I must be off...

Once again sorry for the lack of scripture and the lateness!

God Bless!

This Day in Trend.

Wow...
THREE rk songs in one day's worth of blogs.

Anyways I finished mowing earlier... It wasn't fun. It always messes up my eyes real bad for some reason.Now I just got done talking to an old friend from Central. We haven't talked or SEEN each other in quite a long time. She and I video chatted via MSN Messenger, which was VERY cool considering she's deployed in Iraq! Crystal: God Bless you for serving our country! YOU are the reason we have freedom.

Now I'm waiting on a call/text from Mark, my roommate for next year, so we can play some Halo. Then after that we're going to go to our friend's football game. He, Brent, got invited to play on basically the All-Star team this year. That was pretty cool! After the football game, I think we may go and see Wall*E. It looks good!

Will blog later!
God bless

Faking my own...

Life.
Walk with Jesus.
Friendships.
Existence.
Everything.

This is how I feel all too often. Hypocrisy is a common word that comes to mind. Ya know what I mean?

God gives us all the tools we need to be successful in His eyes. So why don't we use them?!
I too often find myself just flowing with the crowd. The problem is that the crowd isn't Christian! I flow right into satan's hands. This is so sad to admit. I consider myself to be a leader not a follower; so why in the world am I letting non-Christians influence me???

Man. Life is crazy. It has so many ups and downs; it's like one massive roller coaster. Only the theme park ride-of-life goes subterranean. Meaning it has so many more downs than ups it seems. Can anyone identify with this??? Please?

I think that I'm so alone in this a lot. I KNOW God is with me. But we're supposed to help each other out. And I feel like either there's no one else struggling like this or they're too afraid to say something... The funny thing is that if I were to find someone to finally talk to and figure things out, that relationship would boost both people involved on the up and up.

Wow... Two Relient K songs in one blog...

Anyways.
Seriously if anyone ever has anything they would like to talk about, or if my blog picks your brain... LET ME KNOW! I want to help in any way I can! Just drop me a comment here or any of the other various communities I'm involved in. I am MORE than willing to talk and help you out.

After I typed all of that (^^^), I did some praying... I just have this funny sense that someone (one of my readers) is struggling with the very subject I just wrote about. I'll keep praying. I don't know who it is, but I ask (again) that if you need/want to talk, hit me up with a message some how!

Double-whammy scripture time!!!

Galatians 6:2-3 (New American Standard)
2 "Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. 3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself."

James 5:16 (New American Standard)
16 "Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."

These are just two scriptures in the Bible that command us, as believers, to get accountability and share our struggles with one another. I have been praying lately about my blogs. I felt they weren't fully doing their purpose... So I prayed about what I should write about. This came to mind...

Accountability is SO important. I am accountable to this one guy I met at the Crossing in QTown. He and I go out to eat occasionally and just talk about what has been going on in our lives lately. If I am ever at home and struggling with an issue or feel defeated about my religion then I just shoot a text his way or call him. I'm also accountability partners with a close friend of mine. He texts me and we talk back and forth about issues giving each other encouragement.

Accountability relationships are the coolest relationships I've ever come in contact with. I can tend to not be very trusting sometimes, and so to open up to people really lifts burdens off my shoulders! God works in VERY powerful ways through accountability partners.

God Bless

Fuel.

Sorry... Another quick blog.
I just got a phone call and was informed I was going to Fuel at the Quincy Crossing. Arty Poo my buddy called and said he needed someone to go with. So I figured it would be late when I got home so I have to do this now to satisfy my readers (once again... Tim.).

Today work was boring. Not going into too much detail there... I want you guys to keep reading not fall asleep! lol
Although I saw the funniest thing EVER on a computer screen. Computers continue to suprise me:
This computer when it booted up came up with an error message that simply stated, "Something bad happened in the application." HAHA!
I was like okay...

I just got home and then Art called... So that's basically all I've done all day is worked... But now I get to go to the Crossing so that GOOD!

1 Chronicles 16:25
"Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; He is to be feared above all gods."

I chose this verse because I'm going to the Crossing. I LOVE worship at the Crossing. When you worship God you should feel so empowered and close to Him! The Crossing is one of the few churches where this happens to me.
Also another thing that bugs me:
I don't care if you don't think you can't sing. PLEASE just try! The Bible says 'make a joyful noise.' So for goodness sakes! Just sing! I guess I'm musically inclined so maybe I'm being harsh, but honestly I wouldn't mind if you were right next to me just yelling. If that's how you worship then so be it! God doesn't care either! So just give Him what He deserves!
Steve Fee is a worship leader from Atlanta, Georgia. I have had the privilege to listen to him in person and he always starts off with a little rant about singing. He has all the people who think they're bad raise a fist in the air and then start yelling. Then we go straight into song. It's a powerful thing.
And honestly I don't understand why you wouldn't want to praise the Master of the Universe!

God Bless!

Baseball, RetroGaming, Mullets and more...

Hello. Sorry if you were waiting on me to post this (Tim). I just got home from my girlfriend's house.

So today work was boring. I dusted and vacuumed out CPU towers all day. It wasn't hard by any means. But let me tell you those computers were FILTHY! Then I started helping my mother put together the Annie DVD of our school musical... I lost track of time and was late for my g/f's little brother's baseball game.

Alex (Lindsay's little brother), plays center field for the Domino's Little League team. They won 3rd place in their division. Alex didn't hit very well, but he had a really nice catch that I saw...

After Alex's game, Lindsay and I went to the Crossing because they were having a RetroGaming night. They were bringing games like Pong, RBI, and PacMan to life with the K-6 graders. It was neat, but boring for Linds and I. We left and went to eat at McDonald's b/c we were both starving. When we were leaving I took a drink and then Lindsay said, "Oh no! He shaved his mullet!" Well any of my school mates can tell you that when I have a drink in my mouth, don't make me laugh. I spit lemonade all over her car and myself. Not fun. And she was pointing at some random guy with a buzz cut and a broken arm... She didn't elaborate due to her suprise lemonade car wash.

Then we went to her house and hung out with a friend of her's from Montana that she hasn't seen in a very long time. Allie (her name) was very funny and all around pretty cool.

1 John 2:17
"The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

Honestly. The Bible continues, to this day, to amaze me. I don't know why... It IS the Word of God!
Anyways, lately I've been trying to focus on letting God take control. I want whatever is in His will. I have been focusing on prayer, because communication is so important. And obviously this verse tells us that following our Father's will is very important too!

Who wouldn't want eternal life? Everyone is in a constant search on how to live forever. Well here's the answer! This reminds me of those make-up commercials on TV for the anti-aging creams... What a bunch of bologna. Here's the real anti-aging formula:
Reliance on God + Prayer + Baptism + Following God's Will = Eternal Life
There may be a few other variables I forgot to throw in here... I'm tired. Sorry.
If you would like, you can comment and make up your own version of a formula for Eternal Life.

God Bless

[Insert Blog Title Here...]

Ummm...
I just got done watching an amazing movie!
Jumper. It was phenomenal! Anyways I definitely suggest it...

I also got on Halo after the movie hoping to play with Mark, TImmAH, and Nathan but we can't play together for some reason... Our connections conflict or something. Since I couldn't play with them I played a couple Team Swat games by myself until the lag got REAL annoying. But the first game I played I did REALLY good. It was normal Team Swat on Swat Guardian. I ended up with 20 kills, 10 deaths, and 2 killing sprees... Not too shabby I thought.

So lately I just been feeling really Neutral. I don't like that feeling at all. I want to feel God. I've been doing pretty good on focusing just on a single day. Just taking it day-by-day works! Anyway I've been feeling poetic lately for some reason so the scripture is from Psalm tonight:

Psalm 143:1-4 (New American Standard)
1 "Hear my prayer, O Lord,
Give ear to my supplications!
Answer me in Your faithfulness, in
Your righteousness!
2 And do not enter into judgment with
Your servant,
For in Your sight no man living is
righteous.
3 For the enemy has persecuted my
soul;
He has crushed my life to the
ground;
He has made me dwell in dark
places, like those who have
long been dead.
4 Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed
within me;
My heart is appalled within me."

I thought this verse did a good job of describing how I've felt recently. Also I have a friend that would very much be able to identify with this passage. David wrote this. King David. He wrote this after his heart was broken; after he committed murder and adultery. The great King David.
David is pleading with God here. Often how I find my heart pleading for forgiveness from God. He delivers. Always. He is faithful to those who are faithful to Him. Often after I screw up there's the moment of happiness. There always is. The two milliseconds of happiness. Then the shame and guilt come flooding in. I think this is what David is describing in verse four where he talks about his spirit being overwhelmed and his heart being appalled.

Finally I would like to finish this blog with a [very] small prayer. It's actually Psalm 143:9--
Father:
"Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; I take refuge in You."

Truth - Part 2

Jacob and Esau.
Do you know the story of these two twin brothers?
Jacob was the younger of the two. Esau came out of his mother's womb first, making him the eldest. However when it came time for Isaac (their father) to give the birthright to Esau, Jacob deceived his own father into giving him the birthright that was truly Esau's.

I think I did a poor job of telling that story, but the short version is that Jacob was a deceiver. Jacob's name actually means "heel grabber" because he came out of his mother's womb clutching Esau's heel and it also means "deceiver."

Later in the Old Testament, Jacob figures out how foolish he was. Jacob is then given a new name (a recurring theme in the Bible). He is renamed "Israel." Which is a big deal considering God's chosen nation ends up being named after him...

My whole point of this story:
I often lie to myself. Telling my mind that I'm right with God. Slamming the door on the Holy Spirit and just thinking to myself, "I'm a good kid." WAKE UP. If this is you, then you're so wrong. Being a good kid, where does that get you? And by what standards do you even consider yourself good?

That would be correct. You consider yourself good by the WORLD'S standards. These such standards are DRAMATICALLY different than God's. His bar is set so much higher than that of the world's. But I don't want to scare you. Yes, honestly, God's standards are scary. They're set high! But:
EVERYTHING is possible through Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour. (Philippians 4:13)

Never give up hope. God is always right there for you. Pray to Him and tell Him what you're thinking. He'll hear you. Trust me.

God has been kicking my butt lately. I've been delusional lately thinking I'm right where I need to be. But there is ALWAYS room for improvement. I had been deceiving myself. I had been telling myself that everything was okay. This however was not and IS NOT the case.

However, just like Jacob got a new name, I can (and YOU can) get forgiveness for your shortcomings.

FINALLY!

The tech work from the office part of the school I work for is FINALLY done. We've been fighting with it for almost a week and at long last it's complete.
AND:
The best part about it is the fact that we only lost e-mail address books for two computers. After fighting with trying to recover those for a several hours I just simply gave up. I informed the superintendent and the payroll secretary that they would just have to re-create their address book. Tough luck.

I'm looking forward to seeing "The Happening" with a friend today. After work we're going to go and see that in the theater. So that is exciting!

Other than that, I don't have much else right now...
I'll blog later!

today was Good

Sorry I missed my post yesterday. I don't even have a viable excuse. I just kind of neglected to get online and post. Which also means I didn't get into the Word.

Yesterday was a "let's have a new experience" day. I figured I might as well act as though I'm living on my own since I was for the weekend and will be starting this fall. I cooked myself a meal (which I made up my own recipe for...it wasn't bad). Then I did my own laundry (and I only had to call my mom once!). And lastly I did a little cleaning (emphasis on the little).

Today was a good day speaking from all points of view. Spiritually it was especially. I went to The Crossing church for morning service. The message was very unique and delivered very well. It was about making sure your heart was in the right place, trust, and apathy. Kind of an odd combination, but it was still good. Worship was...AWESOME! My favorite was when they did the Christy Nockles "Hosanna". I love love LOVE that song.

Then this afternoon I watched Bourne Ultimatum, which was very good. I'd been waiting to see it when I could watch the first two again, but I figured if I kept doing that I would never get around to watching the final installment of the Bourne series.

Finally I loaded up my car with Ham and Bung (my two gamer buddies) and we all went to Studio (youth group at The Crossing). It was great. The studio was PACKED tonight. The worship once again was phenomenal. Andy (the youth pastor) preached a very good sermon on being real. Not proclaiming to be a Christian and then not acting like one. Usually I've heard this type of a sermon so much that I tune them out and don't get much, but I was convicted tonight. I asked to set-up a meeting with Andy sometime this week to talk to him about some of my problems. I just felt so convicted tonight by the Holy Spirit.

Here's a verse from the sermon from the morning service that I thought was blog worthy:

2 Timothy 1:7 (New American Standard)
7 "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline."

This verse I think goes along with the apathy part of Jerry Harris's (senior pastor at The Crossing) sermon. God doesn't want His people, who love, trust, and worship him, to just sit there during their free time twiddling their thumbs. He wants us out there in this BROKEN world proclaiming His name. He wants us living the life of Christ. Living with and showing the true faith. This verse hits home, because too often I find myself in a perfect situation to witness to a non-believer and I let it slip by. I do nothing. God gives us this situations to grab and use to further His kingdom. So why don't we?

F-to the-E-R-G-the-I-the-E

Not the song artist Fergie. This isn't a blog about Fergilicious...
Missy Ferguson. The chorus teacher for the Elementary and Jr. High students at the school district I just graduated from just called my house. I just got off the phone with her.

Mrs. Ferguson was the teacher who I grew up with. Since I have such a passion for the music arts, I learned so much from her. She is also a very strong Christian. I not only learned about music, but of God from her. Her husband was the director of the Campus Students for Christ organization that has an apartment building on the campus of the Uni I'm attending in the fall. I applied there and got accepted. I was thrilled. Well her husband, Charlie, resigned from being the director of CSC. I was sorry to see him go, but understood all the same. They are a pretty old couple. I'm not going to disgrace them by taking a guess, but they're older.

Why am I telling you this?

Missy Ferguson just called to tell me that she resigned from the chorus department at Southeastern School District.

She said that, and I was speechless. I just figured she would teach there until God called her on home to heaven. I can't even begin to describe how awful I feel. I feel terrible! But at the same time I'm happy for the both of them. She told me the reason was that Charlie took on a pastoral job at a church that is too far away to commute. I understand her situation, and I understand that God has HUGE plans for them. They're a great couple. God did good when He worked in their lives.

No one will every be able to replace Fergie at Southeastern. Her legacy of molding young minds with music knowledge and SPIRITUAL knowledge will live on.

camp out!

well...
i did it!
i made it through the indiana jones scavenger hunt.

we had a youth camp out at a friend's pasture. now if you need to know anything about me, it's the fact that I have OCD. I'm a germ-a-phobe. So, needless to say, I'm not exactly an outdoorsy person. But we had this wicked sweet scavenger hunt in the woods that had clues and everything. It was pretty cool. My group won of course and the other group had a 15 minute lead on us!

Then we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows on a camp fire. It may be a very odd skill, but people were calling it a skill nonetheless. I guess I'm very good at roasting marshmallows. I know how to get them the perfect shade of golden brown. So I roasted them for everyone else that tried (and failed) to match my roasting ability... I never knew that other people couldn't roast them like that... lol

Now things are winding down. I don't know what to do. I'm starting to freak out because I'm realizing how dirty I'm actually getting... No one knows that I sneaked into the house to blog. But I better get going soon before they come looking.

So the scripture:
I got this from a comment Ian left on my previous post:
Ephesians 3:20-21 (New Living Translation)
"Now all glory to God, who is able, through His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think."

I just think that is such a powerful statement. Everything we do is only because our Father in Heaven allowed to or gave us strength to do it. He can do everything. I mean, He IS God after all... He's perfect. And He can give us the strength to accomplish everything in His name. He wants us to have the kind of faith to believe that we can go out and get everything done. But we must remember, after we've accomplished and won and achieved all these things, that all the glory goes back to Him.

That's all for tonight. Sorry its not that great of a post. I have the weekend to myself, so hopefully I can spend some of that time bettering His kingdom. Thanks for tuning in.

I serve...

a POWERFUL God.
Wow. I had the worst and best day of my life! It started off terrible and ended with a brilliant flare of self-affirmation, confidence, and a blossoming friendship.

Work sucked. End of story. I'm not going there! :)

After work I toured my apartment for next year. It was a mess and not very appealing due to the fact that three very non-OCD guys are still living in it. lol
I then got to hang out with Lindsay (my g/f) who was on the campus of my uni for a chorus camp.

Then I got home finally and chatted with a friend. God brought the two of us together for a purpose, and he and I figured part of that huge canvas out today... Ian is a young man from the UK who has a die-hard servant's heart for Jesus. He working to spread the name of our Lord just like I am. And he has struggles just like I and every other Christian have. Check out Ian's blog: http://thwtd.blogspot.com/.

Romans 8:28
"We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

Wow. I just thought that verse is amazing. God reaches out and calls us, touches our lives, and works through us with His Holy Spirit every day. We just have to hear Him, feel Him, and learn to listen to Him who dwells within our hearts. Once we become receptive to Him, He'll do great things in our lives! He'll also use us to do great things in others' lives. If you love God try spending a little bit in prayer asking God to work through you. Change your ways and surrender your life to Him. You won't regret it. I promise. I know I haven't!

oops

tonight's post is going to be short.
I had a rather disappointing day from the spiritual standpoint...
I think I'm going to change things up a little bit, not quite sure what I'm gonna do just yet... Gonna spend awhile in prayer about it here in a little bit.

work today was dreadfully boring. tomorrow is going to be EXTREMELY busy. oh well.

Psalm 27:14
"Wait for the Lord,
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord."