I'm back from New Orleans, and I had a great trip. So many great stories to tell.
One cool thing about the trip was that from what I understand United Saints (the organization we worked with down there) is similar to OO in how it is operated with a few administrators, some long term volunteers and some short term volunteers, so I got to see a little bit about how that worked. I am sure OO will be much different, and I will be in the long term volunteer position rather than short term, but it was cool.
So many stories to tell. Our team did a special project on the last day. We cleared an area and put in benches and planted grass and flowers and painted a mural. It was pretty sweet. On the first work day, Monday, we worked on painting a house but around lunch time there was a shooting nearby so we went on lockdown and cleaned the church.
when we were getting ready to go out, Dave asked a few of us to help move some of Rev's boxes. so first the four of us drove over to the street of the Rev's new house and waited for a while before the Rev came with his uncle a little ways down, where the house actually was. we played whiffle ball with a kid named Montgomery while we were waiting. Then we looked at a little of the house and left to get some boxes. We found out we had to get empty boxes, and then go to the old house and pack them. Then we ate some pizza before moving the boxes to the new house. Dave took the three of us out to ice cream after it was all done and we went into the nice ice cream place with no shoes and work clothes and decided to be more conspicuous by doing a bollywood dance. Anyway, by the time we got back to the church it was about 6 hours later or something. Pretty crazy day.
We worked on several projects, including painting a house, building and painting a fence, cleaning out a shed, sanding caulkind and painting stairs, etc. When we werent working we went into town several times. We went to the lower 9th ward one time where the levy broke and everything was pretty much destroyed. It is basically barren now, other than a few dilapidated houses and a few new ones along with weeds and scrapwood and such. Igor stepped on a nail there and so we had to find a place for him to get a tetanus shot. That was a long ordeal as well, because the first place we went to wasn't going to workout so we went to another place which didn't work out and then another place that referred us to another place that had moved. Throughout all of this we got lost several times, making it take longer. Finally Nik and Igor dropped us back off at the church while they went back to one of the places and got in about 40 minutes later.
Other times we hungout with the volunteers both in the French quarter and around the church and stuff. They were pretty sweet, including Marcos, Daryl, Leann, Cory, Dave, Andre, Jessica, Adam, Chet, anybody else I might have missed.
The drive back was also an adventure with tornadoes in Arkansas and pouring rain from there to Michigan. We had to stop for about .5 hours for the tornadoes and then got back on the road. We dropped Nik off at her home in IL, Mitch and Emily in Grand Rapids, Kristen near Grand Rapids, and Igor in Lansing, ending with Michelle and I making it back to Mount Pleasant about 24 hours later.
Yup, there's probably more. I have photos (4 albums) on facebook. Feel free to take a gander.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Break
Well, I have a break now. I am done with school for the year. So, from today until Saturday I don't have much going on. Yeah, about one and a half days. Saturday I work and then go to Louie, which will be sweet. My roommate Mitch is going too. Then I will come back and pack up and go home and then pack up and go to the DR for eleven weeks or so.
I am really excited about the summer and glad to be done with school. However, I am ready to just be in the DR and not doing all the prep stuff and everything. Oh well. Death is a part of life. That doesn't really have anything to do with it, just so you know, so you're not racking your prain for possible ways that it could connect, although there are some you could think of.
Anyway, I am hungry so I think I will eat before going to His House.
By the way, soccer is a good way to have fun and stay in shape, so if possible, get some friends who like to play soccer everyday. Some people from His House have been playing almost every day lately, and I have joined them most times. It's fun. On the other hand, if you like cheesy movies and don't necessarily want to stay in shape, get friends who like Bollywood movies (That's the India version of Hollywood in case you didn't know). First of all, they are really cheesy. Second of all, most of them are over three hours long. Fourth of all, people have been watching them at our house quite frequently lately, too.
Triple peace. Duga ruqa
I am really excited about the summer and glad to be done with school. However, I am ready to just be in the DR and not doing all the prep stuff and everything. Oh well. Death is a part of life. That doesn't really have anything to do with it, just so you know, so you're not racking your prain for possible ways that it could connect, although there are some you could think of.
Anyway, I am hungry so I think I will eat before going to His House.
By the way, soccer is a good way to have fun and stay in shape, so if possible, get some friends who like to play soccer everyday. Some people from His House have been playing almost every day lately, and I have joined them most times. It's fun. On the other hand, if you like cheesy movies and don't necessarily want to stay in shape, get friends who like Bollywood movies (That's the India version of Hollywood in case you didn't know). First of all, they are really cheesy. Second of all, most of them are over three hours long. Fourth of all, people have been watching them at our house quite frequently lately, too.
Triple peace. Duga ruqa
Monday, April 28, 2008
Feva-G, EZ-G, and Dexy-MC
I have had some good times this weekend. We have had an extended weekend because of the days off for studying before finals. Along with finishing up volunteering for a class and working, I was able to have some fun.
Feva-G (Matt) and I have been having alot of fun lately. First of all, though, I played soccer for about 2.5 hours on Thursday, which was awesome and very tiring. Thursday night I led worship at His House with rommates Matt and Grant and others. After His House, Matt and I went to the church and caught the end of the baptisms and the beginning of the senior party. We pretty much ate and left. We went to Rachel Foss's party where we just did crazy things like throwing whole (wrapper and all) ice cream sandwiches back and forth and trying to catch them in our mouths and sticking M&Ms up my nose and dancing (if you could call it dancing) to no music. Friday I worked all day and then led Innermost with Matt. That was a really good time for me to connect with God.
After Innermost we did our traditional trip to Walgreens. This time a couple others joined us in our crazy antics. We eventually made our way home and not long after people came over and we decided to play soccer in the rain, starting a little before midnight. A little after 1 we came back and played some lightning. Matt and I had a nice collision. He was turning and coming up after recovering his ball and I had just made a shot and was preparing to catch the rebound. He ended up turning and coming up with his forehead right on the corner of my chin pretty hard. He got a nice bump and my chin is a little bruised.
After that and some chillaxin inside, I went to the Birdhouse to watch Casper, at around 3, which we soon (around 3 30) decided to watch in installments. So I came home and got to bed around 4. Saturday wasn't too exciting. Today Matt and I have been working on our Mount Pleasant Globetrotter moves. We're getting pretty good, so watch out.
I went for a walk with Amanda through the woods that I got lost in a year or two ago because she is a towny and wanted to see where I got lost. She ended up knowing somebody who used to live in one of the houses I emerged from the woods behind. And found out soon after that one of her youth group girls lives in another house right there and saw us walking through her backyard today.
I went shopping for some shoes with Bryan today because I wanted some shoes that are closed but still breezy for the DR. I ended up with some water shoes. I will test them in Louie, and if they're good, I'll take em to the DR. I am pretty excited about this summer.
I am almost done with school, only one exam, my research proposal and a few other little things.
Oh, I almost forgot. We have been playing speed scrabble lately which is pretty sweet. and tonight Derek, Matt and I decided to play the "Ghetto Version" in which we make up words that sound like ebonics or something and then explain what they mean. That is how we got the names listed in the title. Good times. I highly recommend Ghetto Speed Scrabble, or just normal speed scrabble. good times.
Feva-G (Matt) and I have been having alot of fun lately. First of all, though, I played soccer for about 2.5 hours on Thursday, which was awesome and very tiring. Thursday night I led worship at His House with rommates Matt and Grant and others. After His House, Matt and I went to the church and caught the end of the baptisms and the beginning of the senior party. We pretty much ate and left. We went to Rachel Foss's party where we just did crazy things like throwing whole (wrapper and all) ice cream sandwiches back and forth and trying to catch them in our mouths and sticking M&Ms up my nose and dancing (if you could call it dancing) to no music. Friday I worked all day and then led Innermost with Matt. That was a really good time for me to connect with God.
After Innermost we did our traditional trip to Walgreens. This time a couple others joined us in our crazy antics. We eventually made our way home and not long after people came over and we decided to play soccer in the rain, starting a little before midnight. A little after 1 we came back and played some lightning. Matt and I had a nice collision. He was turning and coming up after recovering his ball and I had just made a shot and was preparing to catch the rebound. He ended up turning and coming up with his forehead right on the corner of my chin pretty hard. He got a nice bump and my chin is a little bruised.
After that and some chillaxin inside, I went to the Birdhouse to watch Casper, at around 3, which we soon (around 3 30) decided to watch in installments. So I came home and got to bed around 4. Saturday wasn't too exciting. Today Matt and I have been working on our Mount Pleasant Globetrotter moves. We're getting pretty good, so watch out.
I went for a walk with Amanda through the woods that I got lost in a year or two ago because she is a towny and wanted to see where I got lost. She ended up knowing somebody who used to live in one of the houses I emerged from the woods behind. And found out soon after that one of her youth group girls lives in another house right there and saw us walking through her backyard today.
I went shopping for some shoes with Bryan today because I wanted some shoes that are closed but still breezy for the DR. I ended up with some water shoes. I will test them in Louie, and if they're good, I'll take em to the DR. I am pretty excited about this summer.
I am almost done with school, only one exam, my research proposal and a few other little things.
Oh, I almost forgot. We have been playing speed scrabble lately which is pretty sweet. and tonight Derek, Matt and I decided to play the "Ghetto Version" in which we make up words that sound like ebonics or something and then explain what they mean. That is how we got the names listed in the title. Good times. I highly recommend Ghetto Speed Scrabble, or just normal speed scrabble. good times.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
That Being Said
I guess it's a good time to write a new post. People say I don't write very often, but I am pretty sure I keep up with the Jones's, and by the Jones's I mean my siblings.
I have kind of an interesting story to share. On Monday night, 21/22 April 2008, I was up until about 6:30 working on homework and stuff. I was working on my senior research project proposal, my portfolio for psych that was due on tuesday (I started it on Monday, instead of the beginning of the semester), and studying for the two exams I had on Tuesday. So, I slept for about 2.54 hours until a little after 9, when I had to wake up to go to class.
Needless to say, I was a little tired and out of it going to class but all we did was listen to some presentations (well, some people did presentations, but I wasn't one of those people because I already did mine, so I just listened). We got out early because the prof had to go to a funeral, so I went to the bank to do some banking I needed to get done.
On my way, I saw something going on in Warriner Mall, so I decided to check it out on my way back. It was and Earth Day thing with a tent and some booths and stuff. Basically, it was a bunch of hippies with different ways to save earth, which is pretty cool because I am somewhat of a hippie myself, and my friends and I all live on the earth so it would be cool for it to not explode or die or whatever it's going to do if we don't save it.
There actually weren't too many people there the first time, but 91.5 was there giving out free CDs. Most of them aren't very good but I decided to look through them and pick out a few to try out. I took some and they are decent. I was basically going for diversity, so I added some diversity to my music collection. Then I got some free Free Trade Chocolate. It was good, and my friend Danielle was the one giving it out. By that time I needed to go to my next class to take an exam, so I did.
Now, I realize this post is becoming very long and not covering much of my life at all, but I am going to keep writing as if I am Paul or Jesus or Solomon or somebody that you would want to listen to (notice I didn't list professors).
Anyway, I took my exam and it was short so I had time before my next one and decided to go back to Earth Day but stopped by the Art gallery on my way, and that was pretty cool. Then I went back to Earth day and got some more free stuff and some more cool people and stuff. Finally, I decided I should study for my next exam since I hadn't done much of that the 'night' before, despite the late hours of being awake (most of it was my portfolio). So, I studied under a tree then went in and took the exam and we had to stay and wait for the rest of the people to get done so we could present an item from our portfolio so I went outside and talked to Kyle, a guy who has been in another class of mine and I had seen around but never talked to. He's nice.
Then I went and did the whole presentation thing which was really short and painless. Okay, so I went back to Earth Day with Mitch after doing a references page for my portfolio that I had forgotten to do, turned that in, gave guitar lessons, went to class early and hungout with Katie a little, fell asleep in class despite all of my efforts to stay awake, came home and ate and then took a nap at around 6 30 that was supposed to last until about 7 30 and ended up lasting until about 2 30 am.
I woke up and wondered what had happened. I was surprisingly aware of the fact that my nap had lasted way to long and it was 2 30, but I didn't know how it had lasted that long and was searching for my alarm watch. I then got up and realized I had been laying on top of the watch, meaning I had either fallen asleep while trying to reset the alarm or while trying to muster up the motivation to get out of bed.
So, I decided to get up, having slept for 8 hours, even though I still felt pretty tired and out of it. So i don't even know what I did...oh yeah, I made ramen and ate it, did some stuff on my computer, got all the recycling stuff together and put it out, then decided to go to Meijer to take cans and bottles back and get trash bags and maybe other stuff. I got 11 boxes of fruit snacks because they were 10 for 10 with the 11th one free (so really 11 for $10) and I will be travelling quite a bit in the near future. So I figured fruit snacks are good for that. I also got some other stuff but forgot to get trash bags. I came home at a little after 5 and decided to sleep until 6 30, which turned into about 7 30 and here I am writing this post, a little unsure of whether I am properly rested but decidedly awake and ready to work on some stuff before class.
Hasta la pasta (I've been working on Spanish for the DR)
I have kind of an interesting story to share. On Monday night, 21/22 April 2008, I was up until about 6:30 working on homework and stuff. I was working on my senior research project proposal, my portfolio for psych that was due on tuesday (I started it on Monday, instead of the beginning of the semester), and studying for the two exams I had on Tuesday. So, I slept for about 2.54 hours until a little after 9, when I had to wake up to go to class.
Needless to say, I was a little tired and out of it going to class but all we did was listen to some presentations (well, some people did presentations, but I wasn't one of those people because I already did mine, so I just listened). We got out early because the prof had to go to a funeral, so I went to the bank to do some banking I needed to get done.
On my way, I saw something going on in Warriner Mall, so I decided to check it out on my way back. It was and Earth Day thing with a tent and some booths and stuff. Basically, it was a bunch of hippies with different ways to save earth, which is pretty cool because I am somewhat of a hippie myself, and my friends and I all live on the earth so it would be cool for it to not explode or die or whatever it's going to do if we don't save it.
There actually weren't too many people there the first time, but 91.5 was there giving out free CDs. Most of them aren't very good but I decided to look through them and pick out a few to try out. I took some and they are decent. I was basically going for diversity, so I added some diversity to my music collection. Then I got some free Free Trade Chocolate. It was good, and my friend Danielle was the one giving it out. By that time I needed to go to my next class to take an exam, so I did.
Now, I realize this post is becoming very long and not covering much of my life at all, but I am going to keep writing as if I am Paul or Jesus or Solomon or somebody that you would want to listen to (notice I didn't list professors).
Anyway, I took my exam and it was short so I had time before my next one and decided to go back to Earth Day but stopped by the Art gallery on my way, and that was pretty cool. Then I went back to Earth day and got some more free stuff and some more cool people and stuff. Finally, I decided I should study for my next exam since I hadn't done much of that the 'night' before, despite the late hours of being awake (most of it was my portfolio). So, I studied under a tree then went in and took the exam and we had to stay and wait for the rest of the people to get done so we could present an item from our portfolio so I went outside and talked to Kyle, a guy who has been in another class of mine and I had seen around but never talked to. He's nice.
Then I went and did the whole presentation thing which was really short and painless. Okay, so I went back to Earth Day with Mitch after doing a references page for my portfolio that I had forgotten to do, turned that in, gave guitar lessons, went to class early and hungout with Katie a little, fell asleep in class despite all of my efforts to stay awake, came home and ate and then took a nap at around 6 30 that was supposed to last until about 7 30 and ended up lasting until about 2 30 am.
I woke up and wondered what had happened. I was surprisingly aware of the fact that my nap had lasted way to long and it was 2 30, but I didn't know how it had lasted that long and was searching for my alarm watch. I then got up and realized I had been laying on top of the watch, meaning I had either fallen asleep while trying to reset the alarm or while trying to muster up the motivation to get out of bed.
So, I decided to get up, having slept for 8 hours, even though I still felt pretty tired and out of it. So i don't even know what I did...oh yeah, I made ramen and ate it, did some stuff on my computer, got all the recycling stuff together and put it out, then decided to go to Meijer to take cans and bottles back and get trash bags and maybe other stuff. I got 11 boxes of fruit snacks because they were 10 for 10 with the 11th one free (so really 11 for $10) and I will be travelling quite a bit in the near future. So I figured fruit snacks are good for that. I also got some other stuff but forgot to get trash bags. I came home at a little after 5 and decided to sleep until 6 30, which turned into about 7 30 and here I am writing this post, a little unsure of whether I am properly rested but decidedly awake and ready to work on some stuff before class.
Hasta la pasta (I've been working on Spanish for the DR)
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Praise God
I know this title is similar to my last one, but I think it is justified in many ways.
The main reason I titled this post that way is because of some recent news from my Dad about my Dominican Republic support. I talked to him on Thursday before going to His House, and he told me that the Board of my church in HB decided to provide the remainder of the funding for my trip after other people have been given a chance to send in their support. This is really exciting for me. I have been trusting God to provide, but I must admit my level of trust needs some work because money for the trip was still something that burdened my mind sometimes. He taught me some good things about trust lately and I had been excited to see what he would do to provide, so now I am excited to see what he has done to provide and I am also thankful for my HB church and greatly appreciate the way they support missionaries, not just for my sake but because I think it is something many churches need to do more of. Anyway, praise God. He is awesome. A verse that fits pretty perfectly with how I am feeling is Psalm 28.7
"The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in him and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."
Thanks for your prayers and other support. I love you and so does God.
The main reason I titled this post that way is because of some recent news from my Dad about my Dominican Republic support. I talked to him on Thursday before going to His House, and he told me that the Board of my church in HB decided to provide the remainder of the funding for my trip after other people have been given a chance to send in their support. This is really exciting for me. I have been trusting God to provide, but I must admit my level of trust needs some work because money for the trip was still something that burdened my mind sometimes. He taught me some good things about trust lately and I had been excited to see what he would do to provide, so now I am excited to see what he has done to provide and I am also thankful for my HB church and greatly appreciate the way they support missionaries, not just for my sake but because I think it is something many churches need to do more of. Anyway, praise God. He is awesome. A verse that fits pretty perfectly with how I am feeling is Psalm 28.7
"The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in him and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."
Thanks for your prayers and other support. I love you and so does God.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Yay God
Well,
I think my relationship with God has been improving recently, which is good because it has kind of been rocky this past year.
One thing he has been teaching me is to trust him. He has been really teaching me that with the whole DR thing. I haven't had much time to raise the money I need for this summer, but God has reminded me that nothing is impossible with him and gotten me excited for what he is going to do. I have had some pretty good response to facebook messages and letters I have sent out reecently. I am still pretty far from my goal, but it is good to see God working.
Also, today I read some verses that were really applicable to the situation. Actually, I didn't even apply them to the DR situation at first but thought of other things, which I think shows the work God has done in me to keep me from worrying about that. The verses were Psalm 34.8-10. I will let you read them on your own, but what I got from them is that we should expect God to lead us if we are listening to him, and not only will he tell us what to do but will help us along the way. This applies to the DR thing because not only do I need to listen to God leading me to the DR but also realize that he isn't just going to leave me to raise the money I need and everything but will be helping me out along the way. What I got from the next part is that we should not wait for God to pull us along but should follow the slightest whisper from him, which is very hard. Then the last part is about trusting him and being surrounded by his love. It's pretty sweet stuff.
Another passage I read today, as part of a section coach meeting was James 1.27, which says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
To me, this seems to be saying, if you do these two things, you will be fulfilling God's purpose for you, which is pretty sweet. I mean, it is more complicated than it seems, but still, it is nice to have it in simple words. What I get from it is that there is basically an external and internal purpose for our lives. Outwardly, we need to be loving and serving others. Inwardly, we need to be keeping ourselves set apart and pure.
I hope you are/were able to gain some insight or found that God spoke to you in some way through these things. As always, continue to give glory to God as he continues to bless you.
I think my relationship with God has been improving recently, which is good because it has kind of been rocky this past year.
One thing he has been teaching me is to trust him. He has been really teaching me that with the whole DR thing. I haven't had much time to raise the money I need for this summer, but God has reminded me that nothing is impossible with him and gotten me excited for what he is going to do. I have had some pretty good response to facebook messages and letters I have sent out reecently. I am still pretty far from my goal, but it is good to see God working.
Also, today I read some verses that were really applicable to the situation. Actually, I didn't even apply them to the DR situation at first but thought of other things, which I think shows the work God has done in me to keep me from worrying about that. The verses were Psalm 34.8-10. I will let you read them on your own, but what I got from them is that we should expect God to lead us if we are listening to him, and not only will he tell us what to do but will help us along the way. This applies to the DR thing because not only do I need to listen to God leading me to the DR but also realize that he isn't just going to leave me to raise the money I need and everything but will be helping me out along the way. What I got from the next part is that we should not wait for God to pull us along but should follow the slightest whisper from him, which is very hard. Then the last part is about trusting him and being surrounded by his love. It's pretty sweet stuff.
Another passage I read today, as part of a section coach meeting was James 1.27, which says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
To me, this seems to be saying, if you do these two things, you will be fulfilling God's purpose for you, which is pretty sweet. I mean, it is more complicated than it seems, but still, it is nice to have it in simple words. What I get from it is that there is basically an external and internal purpose for our lives. Outwardly, we need to be loving and serving others. Inwardly, we need to be keeping ourselves set apart and pure.
I hope you are/were able to gain some insight or found that God spoke to you in some way through these things. As always, continue to give glory to God as he continues to bless you.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Well, here it is
Right now I am sitting at Katie Bennett's apt, at nearly 2 am, procrastinating on the homework I don't need to do until tomorrow night. Last night I was up until after five doing something similar. I worked on homework for a while. Then I went to Wal Mart to get envelopes for support letters. I was there around 3:15 am and saw a friend who had just decided to go on a walk in the middle of the night because he had woken up and couldn't get back to sleep. Then I went home and ate a little and worked on addressing the envelopes and went to sleep. I like staying up late. I do not like sleeping in, nor is that a good option due to morning classes. Thus, I often end up getting few hours of sleep. However, I am usually able to get good sleep for the majority of the nights in a week, so it's all good.
If by now you haven't realized that I am just writing this because it is 2 am, and I am unmotivated to do homework, then...realize it.
Anyway, life is pretty good. I have to do volunteering for one of my classes, which is awesome but has kind of added to stress lately because I haven't done much and I have alot of hours to do. However, God, of course, is awesome. So, first of all, I didn't get many hours for work this month, without even saying anything about needing time to volunteer. Also, I went to the Salvy on Monday to sign up for hours. I had gone there near the beginning of the semester after calling and setting up that time to go in, but then the guy said he didnt want me but I could sign up the next day for hours for the next week. So, I didn't go back. But, as I was saying, I went on Monday to sign up for hours since I am becoming desparate, and the guy told me that since I am a volunteer and not doing it for community service I can go in whenever, and I just have to sign in and out. Praise God.
I am leaving now
If by now you haven't realized that I am just writing this because it is 2 am, and I am unmotivated to do homework, then...realize it.
Anyway, life is pretty good. I have to do volunteering for one of my classes, which is awesome but has kind of added to stress lately because I haven't done much and I have alot of hours to do. However, God, of course, is awesome. So, first of all, I didn't get many hours for work this month, without even saying anything about needing time to volunteer. Also, I went to the Salvy on Monday to sign up for hours. I had gone there near the beginning of the semester after calling and setting up that time to go in, but then the guy said he didnt want me but I could sign up the next day for hours for the next week. So, I didn't go back. But, as I was saying, I went on Monday to sign up for hours since I am becoming desparate, and the guy told me that since I am a volunteer and not doing it for community service I can go in whenever, and I just have to sign in and out. Praise God.
I am leaving now
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