An end and a beginning

School is out and, to steal a McDonald's slogan, I'm lovin it! I have not been doing too much with my time off, but that is what you are supposed to do with a break from what I hear.

Since I have been off I have gone to visit some friends, ate out with my parents, visited some other friends, taken some prom pictures for some friends, gone to church, led a jr. high youth group, worked a day and had dinner with my grandparents! I've only been out since Thursday too. I don't know how so much is able to fit into such a short time, but it did.

Hopefully I will get some of the prom pictures to put up and show everyone, but I don't have them. I co-took the pictures with Jenn, so they were on her cameras and she has all of the pictures.

I am starting my camp team extravaganza tomorrow. Well, training is tomorrow, then we get a week off then the big adventure starts! I will be touring the country and doing what I do best... I actually don't know what I do best, but I will basically be doing whatever I am told to do by the camp. I could be doing everything from leading a small group to leading worship to preaching, who knows what I'll be doing! I will hopefully be blogging a lot though so all ye faithful followers will know what I am up to!

Before tomorrow comes I have a lot to do, sort of. I brought home a lot of my stuff from school and all the farther it made it was to my room, not put away, just in there. So my mission for the day is to clean all of the mess up asap and get packed and ready for our 3 day mock week training thing. Well I hope to hear from everyone. Have a great week and a great summer.

Again?!?! No Way!

Yes that is right ladies and gentlemen, I am writing twice in one week! 

Finals are coming up this next week, so the late nights have begun, along with Saturday study times... ugh. I would like everyone to know that I have successfully only had one Saturday that I can recall where I did homework or studied on a Saturday, but today will be the second day.

One nice thing that has come from  late night studying was last night my friend Matt and I rented a couple movies to have on while we were working. We rented "Marley and Me" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." We were going to go to the Reds game last night, but it was raining pretty hard the whole time, so we just rented movies. I decided that I would watch Marley and Me and then would start on my homework during Benny Button. Well I will just say that I wish I had something to distract me from the first one, Marley and Me made my eyes wet. I never cry during a movie, but this one really got me teary-eyed. The film was beautifully done and I really felt like I was a part of the family. At the end of the movie as I was getting teary-eyed I was trying not to let Matt see me, but then at one point I hear him say, "Stupid dog has me cryin all over the place, dangit." I look over and he had tears flowing down his face, then I didn't feel so bad for getting a little teary-eyed. It had to have been a funny scene to watch if you would have walked into the room: a couple of guys on a Friday night, in a little guys dorm room, watching Marley and Me, and sobbing. We felt pathetic!

So for the Curious Case of Benjamin Button we called our friend Taylor and went up and watched that one in our "Student Life" area, that way we didn't feel so pathetic and I did homework during that one to keep me distracted if it got too emotional. It was a good movie, but it was extremely long (2 hrs. 40 min. long)! It was interesting though to see how the cycles of life are sort of similar whether we go from young to old or old to young. You still have to learn to walk, bend over and be able to tie your own shoes, feed yourself, and eventually you grow muscles. At the end of life you basically unlearn everything you have learned if you live long enough. I just thought this was an interesting observation. It just goes to show that you have a certain period of time when you are very capable of a lot of things and should take full advantage of it. All of us are in that stage right now, not dependent on anyone and able to get along just fine and remember everyone we come in contact with. There really isn't any reason to complain about what we have right now.

Other than my sob stories there isn't much going on. I was thinking, since I go to a Christian College, maybe I could just pray for a good grade on my exams? Just kidding, I will just be grateful that I have a capable mind to try and comprehend the glory of God. I hope all of you have a marvelous Mother's day too, do something special for your mother, and for those mothers that are reading this, have a great day and know that you can really have an impact on your child, more than what you think you have probably. 

I love you all.

Slow Poke!

That would be me! I know that I apologize every time I write an entry, but I really am sorry I want to keep my followers informed about my life, but I just forget sometimes.

Not a ton has been happening in my life lately. I was at a jr. high retreat two weekends ago and led a class about not living in the past but learning from it and looking forward. I didn't expect much response from it, but the kids really did seem to get something out of the class, I know that wasn't my doing. The retreat in general was pretty cool, it was called A Letting Go and they were talking about letting go of the things that hold us back from a relationship with GOD. It was pretty interesting. I forgot how easy it is to get jr. high kids to do the stupidest things for the smallest reward. We were playing this game where the students received rocks as a reward and at my game I made a rule that if someone would go off a rope swing that went out over a creek and landed face first in the mud that they would receive 20 additional rocks! I couldn't believe how many kids would do this for something as simple as a few rocks. It was so funny.

Last weekend I was a part of a 30 hour famine and I was asked to lead worship for it. So, I asked the best pianist I know, Dave Searle, and a very talented vocalist, Kara Clutter, to assist me in this. We ended up with an amazing worship time, we had the amount of songs to go for about a half hour, but ended up with close to an hour of worship. Needless to say it was awesome! 

I don't really know what else to talk about. One thing that I have been noticing more and more is the continual need for service, especially in the church. That is mostly what we talked about during the famine and then we talked about it tonight in our dorm devotions. The main passage we looked at was Isaiah 58, which talks about true fasting, and then tonight the song we listened to was The Tears of the Saints. If you want to hear a great song look it up, it is by the band called Leeland, you won't regret it if you have to buy it. I just thought I would like to share a little something that has been on my mind and in my heart lately. I hope you all do something with it and I will try to keep up a little more on my blogging, but as usual, no promises. Take care everyone.