Hi again!

Heh, it's been almost two weeks since I last posted.

Things have been going pretty well since my last post. I've been working this week in particular on making more time for schoolwork and Bible study, and it's been working! I'm really glad that our school play is finally over so that I have more time at night to do stuff, as well.

Thanksgiving is coming up soon, so I think I'll take a little time to inform you of why my Thanksgiving is going to be very out of the ordinary for myself this year. At the beginning of this past summer, one of my friends from church and her mom came up to me after church one Sunday and asked me if I remembered this one girl that I was friends with on Facebook named Kamie. I had added her because apparently she had visited the church a couple times with my friend. I was actually planning on maybe deleting her soon because I really didn't remember her at all...but they told me that she was actually my cousin! This is where things got intense. My real parents divorced when I was a toddler, and I stayed with my mom. Apparently, Kamie was my cousin on my DAD's side of the family. Our family basically separated from theirs for the rest of my life, and I had never known any of them except for who I could remember from when I was a toddler. I started talking with Kamie online, and soon discovered that I had nearly 30 other cousins living within about a 2-hour radius of my own home...that I never even knew EXISTED! THAT was intense. Kamie got me more up to speed on things on the other side of my family, and I talked about things on "my" side of the family.

At the very end of the summer, my friend Nicki, the one that first told me about Kamie, told me about a surprise party for a couple's 50th wedding anniversary from our church, who I am apparently legally related to, and that it was going to be at Kamie's house. I ended up going, without having told my mom about ANYTHING that I had learned of my newfound family OR where I was going specifically. I hung out with Kamie and her family for a good while, and talked with them about seeing them again. They even invited me to their Thanksgiving dinner this year, which is what this post is about. I went home, and eventually told my mom later that week about all that had transpired. She told me about everything that had happened between our families back in the day, and that she was happy that I had connected with Kamie's family specifically. If you're curious about all that stuff, I don't have any problems with telling you, but I don't feel like telling the whole world about it on here.

So, with all that background information, I will hopefully be having TWO Thanksgiving dinners this year. I will probably be going to Kamie's family dinner first, since they are starting earlier in the day, and then coming to my "regular" family's dinner right afterward. I don't know how many people in my family know about this other than my mom, so it will be interesting...if you could maybe ask God to soften my family's hearts about this, that would be great!

I'll hopefully get some motivation to post again this weekend to give you all something to read in your spare time, haha.

The Michigan/Ohio State game is today. I went and watched a little bit of it at the beginning because I was excited from everyone else's excitement, and then I remembered why I don't really watch sports and left. Boring.

I think I'm going to go hang out with my Uncle Wookiee today. Talk at you later!

Journal Entry 1

So, I mentioned in my last post that I had kept a journal for a while last semester. It was basically just writing down stuff that God had shown me so I could remember it later, word for word. This is my first one; I wrote it into my journal on March 22, 2008, but it was something that God had shown me a little while before that. Here it is:

"Singleness is actually a good thing! God gave you a time to be single so that you can grow closer to Him without complicating matters with a relationship in which you are confused about where you stand with Him. The ultimate goal of a relationship should not be a relationship in itself, but to further grow in and glorify Him! If you are not ready for this, then you are not ready for a lasting, fulfilling, God-centered relationship."

Now I can add a little side note: it applies to BOTH sides of the relationship. Just because one person is ready, it doesn't mean the other is as well.

As much as I would like to be in a Godly relationship right now, I know I am not quite ready just yet. I have a difficult time letting things go and moving on, which is no good. I had a horrible time with it at the beginning of this school year, and it was ruining my life...kind of literally. I had lost joy, contentment, and much of my desire to even be at Spring Arbor, at least for a while, and my roommate was getting dang sick of it, haha. I was miserable enough to rediscover a little depression. My next journal entry talks a little about my first experience with it.

Anyways, I'm still tired. I keep getting more and more tired every day, even though my sleep habits aren't really bad. Maybe it's just the thought of our school play and lame assignments coming up. Whatevs.

I'm getting kind of tired of school, and I'm somewhat unsure about being a Worship Arts major at this point. Yay.

Goodnight.

Jackson

So, this evening, myself, Ben Rupp, and Daniel Eads took a trip out to Jackson (and no, we weren't going to Appleebees OR Wal Mart!). We just went and walked around town and asked God to give us opportunities to serve and share the Gospel. We ended up praying for an old lady out on her porch, and left a note for a guy at a diner. We also went out to the Interfaith Shelter, but apparently it was too late at night for us to pick up a shift and help out. We also got kind of threatened and yelled at once or twice from passing cars...and decided it might be better to do this in the day next time. It was a good time.

I could really use prayer for strength and perserverance, by the way. If you want to know anything more specific than that, ask or something.

I have officially reached the age where I can say that I see some of my friends MY age getting MARRIED, and yet I am completely single. Woot. God has given me some wisdom on singularity in the past that's really sweet. I wrote some stuff down in my journal last semester...wow, last semester was the only time in my life that I've really ever done any journaling, and it was good stuff...maybe I should work on that.

I'm tired. Go figure.

There is a Bingo chip sitting on my desk in front of me...I haven't played Bingo in years.

Goodnight.

Construction Zone

So, lately God has been working on my heart in a different way than I have been expecting or even praying for. He's been putting things on my heart, like giving and serving, that I haven't been giving much attention in my life as of late. One of my good friends here at Spring Arbor is struggling with some financial issues right now, and God has REALLY put it on me to help. God has been giving me a growing desire (and joy in that desire) to give more of my own resources more often, and has been helping me to worry less and less about money. However, I know that I still have a long way to go with that, especially since I haven't faced any REAL financial struggles yet. Right now I feel like a construction zone, which is a really good thing. It hasn't only been in these areas (not by a long shot), but these are the things that have caught me a little more off-guard, and I wanted to share them.

I am ridiculously tired right now. This past weekend at camp was sweet, but I didn't sleep much, and now I'm paying for it. This week is also our school's production of "Baptist," so I really need to get caught up on my sleep if I'm going to be playing guitar for it.

Night all.

In preparation for the upcoming weekend

Well, I've been to two practices so far for the upcoming play, and now I understand why my other friends who are in it have no lives. It kind of sucks your life away. Lame.

The busy week is almost over. I've finished an audio project, sang for the Board of Trustees, and practiced for the play next weekend. Tomorrow I am singing in a vocal music lab, and then WE BE GONE! That's right, tomorrow is Center Lake Bible Camp's annual staff reunion, and I'm driving up a bunch of my homies in the Man Van. I won't be posting anything until at least Sunday evening, so this is my last for now.

I'm tired.

Postponed, for now

Well, I seriously lack motivation tonight to write a long story about last summer at Center Lake. I've been writing a lot today on peoples' notes and statuses about politics and the Bible and it's worn me out. Ugh. Too many people are way too freaked out about this right now. I got tagged in a note that talked about how this pastor was told by God before the election that Obama would be the most ungodly president yet and persecution against Christians would start and that there would be "horrible negative effects on the Gospel throughout the world." I wrote out this big ol' discourse about why I disagreed strongly with some stuff that he was saying, and then accidentally exited off the page and lost it...of course. Didn't bother to rewrite it; it was dang long. Obama may or may not be the most ungodly president yet...so what? Persecution against Christians may or may not start happening...is that a completely bad thing? Horrible negative effects on the Gospel...really? You mean, like in countries like China and others where Christians are persecuted, and the church is GROWING because of it? Ugh. Do we really think that just because we live in America we will be able to escape it forever? I have friends who are just waiting for the persecution to come, haha.

UGH. I am justdisappointed in peoples' attitudes. A bunch of my other friends have already addressed this issue, so I won't make you listen to more.

Blah. Let's live for the kingdom coming. Anyone with me?

Busy Week

Man, I will be very happy when this week is finally over, and not only because of the STAFF REUNION at camp this weekend...although that is a large part of it, haha. I have a lot to do this week before that. I think I am officially "in" as the acoustic guitar player for our school's production of "Baptist" (ask me about it sometime if you want to know what it's about), which means I'll have to be at a lot of their practices these next two weeks. I'm also singing a solo for a Board of Trustees meeting this Thursday...still kind of unsure how that's going to turn out....AND I have to do a project for my radio production class, which I am not happy about, because the audio lab hours are weird...anyways, enough of me being selfish and complaining; this will just help me to manage my time better.

Politics: I love Jesus. The end.

Anyways, short post tonight; I need to spend some good time with God and in His Word before I go to bed. I'll hopefully have time to post the third part of my Center Lake story tomorrow.

Night.