The road goes ever on and on...

Where is your road leading? Down a lane such at this or a hot dusty path?

Do you see the next bend or does it seem to stretch straight on to the horizon?

Are you prepared for whatever comes by on your way?

What is your help?
Where is the spring for water? Where does your food come from?
When other paths cross yours, will you turn aside?
If other travelers meet you, as they follow their paths, will you invite them to travel along side you as a welcome companion?
And when the winds come and blow in your face, will you close your eyes and smile or will you squint and complain?

What is your greatest fear along this way?

What do you hope to find at the end of the road? Why are you traveling?

M.E.D.S.
Galatians 2:20

^_^

How Can I?

How Can I Keep from Singing by Chris Tomlin

There is an endless song
Echoes in my soul
I hear the music ring

And though the storms may come
I am holding on
To the rock I cling

How can I keep from singing Your praise
How can I ever say enough
How amazing is Your love
How can I keep from shouting Your name
I know I am loved by the King
And it makes my heart want to sing

I will lift my eyes
In the darkest night
For I know my Savior lives

And I will walk with You
Knowing You'll see me through
And sing the songs You give

I can sing in the troubled times
Sing when I win
I can sing when I lose my step
And fall down again
I can sing 'cause You pick me up
Sing 'cause You're there
I can sing 'cause You hear me, Lord
When I call to You in prayer
I can sing with my last breath
Sing for I know
That I'll sing with the angels
And the saints around the throne

going where?

Where are you going? tomorrow? next month? for Christmas Break? next semester? spring break? next summer?

well...let me tell anyone who does not already know, I'm going far away! Kansas for Christmas break. UGANDA!!! for next semester. South Africa during the first couple months of summer. GFA head quarters are a good possibility for the end of the summer.....

God has great plans, and He is beginning to reveal some of them to me!!! I'm rather crazy excited...just in case you couldn't tell.... ^_^

please, keep praying for me.

Happy Birthday, Kelsey!!

Kelsey is now 21, as of yesterday. ^_^
YaY for the coolest RA on ELH3!!


btw...for anyone who didn't know, the Power Suite is broken up. Kelsey and I had to move off G2, so Rene and Andrea are the only ones in our old room.

Can't stay away

Yep, I went to the mountains again! With my Dad, Sam, Phil, Zac, and Emily. A good three day an two night backpacking adventure in the Great Smokey Mtns. Now......I have to pack and prep for returning to college....why can't east TX have mtns?

Go Daniel!!

Do you see the cool guy in the yellow shirt? Well, that would be my waaay cool little brother, Daniel. He makes up for the fact my older brother and I are not cool in the slightest. ^_^ Yes, he got a running scholarship to Tennessee Tech University; he is just that cool. Not only that, but he plans to be an EE!

If anyone who is reading this knows anything about state schools, you know what sort of challenges he will be facing, not just academically, but also particularly spiritually. Please, keep him in your prayers. Thank you!

House-sitting

This past week, I got to house-sit! I had charge of 2 dogs, 4 cats, and 4 horses (one of which is a miniature). I had the house to myself for the week, up until Friday evening when I invited my little brothers over to spend the night. ^_^ We had a good time riding one of the horses and watching Apollo 13. Here is a picture of my two youngest brothers and one of their good friends (who is like a little brother to me) at the top of the driveway.

Please Pray

As some of you may know, my uncle has ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). For the past year his condition has been degrading. We believe that he is in his last weeks of life. I am asking you to please keep him in your prayers. He does not believe in God or Jesus Christ and he definitely doesn't believe that Christ died to save him. He is very stubborn and has disregarded our attempts to share Christ's love to him. The thought of him spending eternity in hell makes me very sick to my stomach. I believe God is sovereign and that everything has a purpose but it is still hard on my family. Please pray that his heart will be opened and please pray for our family as we continue to try and reach him in his last days of life.

July 4th!

So, how did you celebrate the Fourth of July this year?

I finished scrubbing the restroom floors for the Preschool at my church! ^_^
Nothing quite so powerful as service as a way to celebrate......

Why I'm glad I watched "I Am Legend"

Hey, I thought I'd post too... just to shake things up a bit. :-) Just to cover my bases, I'm doing well this summer, working at an animal hospital and loving it, seeing my friends, teaching Sunday school to 4 year olds, and reading fun books (the tally now stands at 11).
But now for the real reason that I got on: I Am Legend. Those of you who know me and have watched this movie may be a bit surprised that I watched it. For those of you who don't know me, I hate scary movies; I'm so jumpy even in slightly intense scenes. Granted, this movie is not a horror movie; it has a good story line and a good ending. It's not even technically scary, but it's so intense that it's pushing it. In fact, it's about one step too intense for me, and if I had known what it was going to be like, I don't think I would have watched it. In retrospect, however, I am glad I watched it (as stated by the title of this post), and here's why:
Ok, so I'm sometimes just a little weird. I often think in allegories. This is not just now and then, but quite often. In fact, if I have known you for any length of time, I have probably considered a conversation that we have had, or something you have done, alagorizing it into something having to do with the spiritual life. As I thought about I Am Legend, it struck me that there is a powerful allegory in the movie. Now understand that no allegory is perfect, and you will of course see many short-comings in this parallel, but the power of allegories is that they bring big things down to the level at which we comprehend. So bear with me if you please.
For those of you who haven't watched the movie, a virus had been tailored to cure cancer, but then it mutated and either killed or crazed its hosts. It became airborne and so infected almost everyone in the world except for a very few who were immune.
When I watched this movie, I was completely appalled by the people infected by the virus. They are disgusting, horrible, pitiable, and terrifying. They come by night and kill everything they can get a hold of for food. They posses horrible brute strength without any mental capacity. They are ferocious and merciless. They are terrible monsters. By the middle of the movie, I was sick to my stomach. I was almost in tears, not because any part of the movie had touched me (my sister is more sensitive to that) but because of how much I did NOT want to watch the movie any more. However, I went a head and finished it because one, I had promised my sister I would watch whatever movie she brought home, and two, you always hope that the end of a movie will bring closure and give you something nice to think about instead of the scary parts. After the movie, I was thinking over it, as one tends to do, and the thought popped into my head: "That's me." Guys, that's what we look like before a holy God. We are completely depraved. We were made to be people, beautiful images of the glory of God. But we were infected with a horrible disease that we COULD NOT stop. This disease took over our entire bodies and minds. We lived only in darkness, shunning the light. We did not know wrong from right, only the instinct of self preservation.
There's another part of the parallel. Will Smith plays a research doctor who is the lone survivor in New York city (and for all he knows, the world). He is immune to the virus. He goes around the city collecting food for himself and his dog, and attempting to find a cure for this virus. At the end of the movie he finally does, but in order for the cure to have any chance of helping anyone, he must sacrifice his life. Hopefully no one will accuse me of blasphemy if I observe that these attributes are very like Jesus'. Jesus was perfect. The despicable virus of sin could not reach Him. He could have gone His merry way and helped only Himself. But He didn't. He chose to walk among us, those self same dirty, despicable, disgusting creatures because He knew what we were supposed to be like. He new how beautiful we could be and so came to give us a cure. But this cure did not come easily. Jesus Christ "devoted His life to finding a cure, and... gave His life to defend it."
This parallel comes to its epitome near the end of the movie when Will Smith realises that he has found a cure for the virus. He looks desperately at the crazed, murderous creatures through a pane of bullet-proof glass and shouts, "I can save you! I can help you, just stop!" But of course they can not understand him; they are just animals. They begin to violently thrust their bodies against the glass, slowly cracking and eventually breaking it so that they can come through to kill him. Again, this is us. We desperately needed help. Wallowing in our sins, despicable, terrible, but the most awful part was that this virus had so effected our minds that we didn't know we needed help, and we could not even recognize the Holy One who could give it to us. What a tragedy!
But praise the Lord, Will Smith is not Jesus. Please understand, I do not mean a discourtesy toward the man. I simply mean that Jesus did not have to look helplessly at people that He knew how to save. Jesus is God, and he did not have to cower before our brutish selves. He walked among us, touched us, healed us. Yes, He died to save us, but He didn't stay dead! Jesus saved us from our deplorable, wretched state, and He stands ALIVE to prove it!!!!
Now just in case, I have lost anyone in my ramblings, let me summarize: "I Am Legend" gave me a better (not perfect) understanding of my own depravity, of what exactly it meant for Jesus to come down to be with us. Truly that kind of Saviour deserves all of my devotion! "I Am Legend" has helped me to love my Jesus more, and that's why I'm glad I watched "I Am Legend."

(BTW, props if you actually read all of that!)

My Sin, Oh the Bliss of this Glorious thought,

My Sin, not the part but the Whole

Is nailed to the Cross,

And I bear it NO MORE!

Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Oh my Soul.

This blog is dedicated to the amazing Laura

So it's seven weeks into the summer and I feel like I have already done a summers worth of things. I've been to North Carolina and back and to Lima, Peru and back. Both trips were fantastic. I started working at Cessna on May 27th. I'm working in the Material and Process Lab. You know all that stuff I learned in Materials class? I do that and get paid for it. This internship should be the lab for that class. So pretty much I get to break things and hopefully prevent them from breaking on the airplane. I currently have two projects that take up most of my time at work. One I'm working on the tempering and heat treatment of aluminium to hit in certin hardness range. This has been challenging because we're using a very tempramental oven and we need it to be a very percise temperture for a percise amount of time. In the end I have to take Rockwell Hardness tests and compare it to Webster Hardness tests. My second project is working with laser cutting and how it affects the material. You should google laser cutting to learn more...it's pretty cool. So I feel like my job is my life. I go to work, come home from work, eat dinner, and go to bed. Luckly, I am really enjoying my job. I like the people I work with and I am learning a lot.
I'm supposed to be learning to fly as well, but I have yet to have my first flight. I have an instructer and a flight time slot for about three weeks. Every time I'm supposed to fly the weather is bad or there isn't an airplane available. Summers are really busy for the airplanes and the instructers. I guess everyone wants to learn to fly in the summertime. My instructer has be working with me but he is going out of town for two weeks. So, I'm trying to find another instructer, with little luck. Everyone seems to be booked. I know that if I get started this late in the summer i'm not going to finish...or even get to my solo. I'm debating on whether I still want to try and get as far as I can or just say it wasn't meant to be. We will see. Maybe I'll have another opprotunity in my life. It just doesn't seem to be working this summer.
Happy summer!

.......

So, it's June....and I really wish one of the other contributors to this blog would post......

Little Wonders

Aren't God's little creatures so delightful!?! We found this small salamander next to the creek up in the mountains and named it Alec.

Beauty of the Earth

Hurray for beautiful mountains!!

    For the beauty of the earth,
 for the glory of the skies,
 for the love which from our birth
 over and around us lies;
 Lord of all, to thee we raise
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

 For the beauty of each hour
 of the day and of the night,
 hill and vale, and tree and flower,
 sun and moon, and stars of light;
 Lord of all, to thee we raise
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

 For the joy of ear and eye,
 for the heart and mind's delight,
 for the mystic harmony,
 linking sense to sound and sight;
 Lord of all, to thee we raise
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

 For the joy of human love,
 brother, sister, parent, child,
 friends on earth and friends above,
 for all gentle thoughts and mild;
 Lord of all, to thee we raise
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

 For thyself, best Gift Divine,
 to the world so freely given,
 for that great, great love of thine,
 peace on earth, and joy in heaven: 
 Lord of all, to thee we raise
 this our hymn of grateful praise.

Text: Folliot S. Pierpoint
Music: Conrad Kocher; Arr. by W.H. Monk

Spring Flowers

Psalm 92
A Psalm, a Song for the Sabbath day.

1It is good to give thanks to the LORD
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
2To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning
And Your faithfulness by night,
3With the ten-stringed lute and with the harp,
With resounding music upon the lyre.
4For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done,
I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.
5How great are Your works, O LORD!
Your thoughts are very deep.
6A senseless man has no knowledge,
Nor does a stupid man understand this:
7That when the wicked sprouted up like grass
And all who did iniquity flourished,
It was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.
8But You, O LORD, are on high forever.
9For, behold, Your enemies, O LORD,
For, behold, Your enemies will perish;
All who do iniquity will be scattered.
10But You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox;
I have been anointed with fresh oil.
11And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes,
My ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me.
12The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree,
He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13Planted in the house of the LORD,
They will flourish in the courts of our God.
14They will still yield fruit in old age;
They shall be full of sap and very green,
15To declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Alum!

Jester is back for the weekend!!!!
Liz is visiting!!! ^_^

and Auk's parents are flying in tonight!!
YaY!

Mexico Trip!

back: Kyle, Andy, Colin, me, Seongmi, Benaiah, David
front: Joel, Naomi, Hank

The team who went to Fresnillo, Mexico over spring break!!

God blessed us so much! I truly wanted to stay, with our whole team. We got along splendidly; I can honestly say we are all friends now. ^_^

Spring

I think spring is here. Even if it decides to get cold again, since this is Texas and it changes it's mind all the time, I am enjoying evidence of spring. I love the way God makes me smile in the mornings with His creation. Every morning as I make my trek to Glaske I probably look asleep or drunk because I weave in and out trying not to step on the flowers growing in the field. They make me smile. Even when I'm tired and don't want to be awake going to dynamics. The tall white flowers, accented with the shorter yellow ones. And if you look really close you can find the tiniest white five peddled flowers. But my favorite is the occasional purple flower.

The other thing about spring is the mocking bird. I haven't decided whether I like this bird or not. It can be really annoying and loud when I'm trying to take a nap. But sings beautiful songs to me in the morning waking up and walking to saga. And if you don't like the tune it's singing one second wait for a second and you'll hear something else. I also like it when it leaves it perch and shows off its white racing stripes.

Exegesis Papers

i think being a perfectionist and writing exegesis papers and not being good at writing and being very slow all combined are not nice. i would know. i've been spending nearly all weekend having tons of fun in such a situation.........

Wonderful Monday!

Praise God!!!!!
as of this morning, we have a staff sponsor for our mission trip to Fresnillo, Mexico!!!! and I have been rather enjoying this stormy weather! puddles!! ^_^

March!??!!

Ahhhhh!!! Yes,i t is March already! and we are half way through the semester. rather hard to believe.....
So, I just wanted to put a picture....this is Gilbert, a little friend who visited us last spring. ^_^ random, yes, I know...

Joy given by 41!!!!!!

Brothers are great!!!
41 is the best Brother Floor ever!!!
the guy Power Suite is the way most best!!!!
Thank all y'all for giving us a wonderful day!
Thank all y'all for blessing us!!
^_^

Safe and Sound in Amsterdam!!

I seem to remember a certain promise I made to some certain amazing roomates of mine... about updating. Well, I am safe in Amsterdam for 3 days now. I doubted my safety on my first bike ride yesterday. European bikes don't have our kind of brakes and I definitely ran into a poor dutch man. I feel so blessed to be here- though I definitely miss you all. Here at the Shelter so far I have met Dutch friends, Germans, Americans, and yesterday I went shopping with a South Korean friend of mine who has a friend who works at Handong. Small world!!!! I just got my new roomate today. She is from minnesota and is a photographer. I am excited because she is very different from me. I find that even the Americans are very different from each other. We had a fild discussion the other day in the Shelter (where we show a film, invite guests, and then try to pull out Gospel themes in a discussion afterwards). The movie was Batman begins, and it was pretty good. I was sitting next to a cool kid from CA, who doesn't shower often. He is kind of a hippie, but he loves everyone and thinks out of the box. He had been having issues with bed bugs( he thought - turned out to be chicken pox) and he turned and asked me if I would scratch his back.... Well, of course.
It's just very funny how liberal people are here. I am learning. Not necessarily changing my beliefs, but trying to see why they believe the way they do. I can be WAY too close minded and judgmental. So, that is the lesson right now. That and vanity- because I didn't bring very many clothes-at Dr. Mays suggestion. And everyone in europe dresses incredibly fashionable. But God is trying to teach me to not care so much. Good stuff.
Every night after dinner, we read something from the Bible and last night one of the managers read a portion from 2 Chron. She also talked about how the things in front of the temple were symbolic and have meaning for our lives today. One of the things that stood out to me was the bowl, I am not sure if it was for ceremonial cleansing. But it was made up of mirrors. The mirrors are normally used to reflect our own image, but there they helped point believers to focus on God. How cool is that. So, as Christians we should be pointing people to God, not ourselves. How many times do I shy away from telling it like it is (in love of course) because I am too afraid of what someone will think of me. Yuck. So that if lesson 2 that God is teaching at the moment.
Anyways. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I will be posting the exciting story of my travel here on the newspaper blog soon.
www.news-journal.com/amsterdam
ps: Laura, I am learning some German from the people around me. Yay:) Thanks for giving me a head start.

Song for a Cold Day

So, I get songs stuck in my head randomly, and here is the one for this afternoon:

Lord Have Mercy

Jesus, I've forgotten the words that You have spoken
Promises that burned within my heart have now grown dim
With a doubting heart I follow the paths of earthly wisdom
Forgive me for my unbelief
Renew the fire again

Chorus
Lord have mercy
Christ have mercy
Lord have mercy on me

I have built an altar where I worship things of men
I have taken journeys that have drawn me far from You
Now I am returning to Your mercies ever flowing
Pardon my transgressions
Help me love You again

I have longed to know You and Your tender mercies
Like a river of forgiveness ever flowing without end
I bow my heart before You in the goodness of Your presence
Your grace forever shining
Like a beacon in the night

- Michael W. Smith

Saturday night

I like feeling like a secret agent for a good cause. ^_^

Happy New Year!!

Welcome to 2008! ^_^


So, I've been experiencing culture shock of late......I'm not sure how that can happen in a country I've lived in my whole life.....is it just me? or do other people ever experience this?