highs and lows

This weekend a group of 50 college students drove to Ft Worth TX to volunteer at a homeless shelter.


I was one of these 50.


The experiences this weekend were great, amazing, stretching. and a lot of us came back on a spiritual high. just like the ones we got from summer camp, CIY, missions trips and retreats.


Which makes me think of the selfish side of service. The person that goes to serve usually ends up with a greater experience than the people that were served.


it reminds me of Bart Campolo in his speech he gave at the National Missionary Convention in which he talks about missions group coming to the neighborhood were he lives, jumping out of 12 passenger church vans in matching t-shirts and then claim to establish a relationship, bring someone to Christ and live this "good Christian's" life for the week. he didn't say not to do this, but what he did call for was a reality check in which we realize what we are able and willing to do away from home on trips, but are not even compelled to think about while we are at home, were we could make a LONG TERM investment and difference.


This is a good reminder for me. its the things i do in between these trips that should demand just as much, if not more energy than what i gave this weekend that matter or can really make a difference. its really looking at the people that live at God's Resort and Joplin with the same enthusiasm and compassion as i did the people at Beautiful Feet and Fort Worth


The thing is, a lot of times its easier to give your all during a short term trip, than it is to give it day after day after day in your "regular" life.


If we did, i do believe that this so called spiritual high would be an everyday thing. what a beautiful thing that would be. i do believe that this is possible.



One of the things that seems to be established almost immediately during trips is community. The reason is that there is no other choice, you are stuck in close quarters with these people, you are cut of from you friends from home, and well, its no so much fun being the only person on a trip that's not having fun because we don't talk to new people.


My question to you all is: how do we establish this here at home, were we can all drive separately, live separately, we don't spend quality time with each other and have easy access to stuff that entertains us, whether it be school, homework, friends, "bad" friends, family, work, sleep, etc.


The answer, intentionality, and true value to the fact that community as Christians with Christians is essential for our walk with Christ through this fallen and deprived world.





Tomorrow is a new day, I'm still exhausted from the weekend, but there is much to be done so rest will have to come later. Blessings!

new favorite TV show

I get the chance to watch some TV during my time at the radio station. I am a big fan of certain shows. Friends, Gilmore Girls, Scrubs and some others. I am quite picky when it comes to actually declaring that i love the show. my most recent favorite, is Dirty Jobs. its on the Discovery Channel.

Every week i get to watch this guy visit people at work and see how messy and complicated their jobs are.

I love it!

give it a try sometime.

intelligent conversation.

One of my jobs is at MSSU. To be able to support myself i have 3 part time jobs. The total hours between all of them are 32. ohh wait, i dont work on wed nights any more so its really starting this week only 27. yes! ahh freedom.

any way

So one of my jobs is here at MSSU. and on monday mornings i tutor spanish for students that are taking spanish classes here. For the 300level conversation the class is requiered to have 5 hours a month of conversation tutoring so as to encourage them to actually TALK more. This morning i had a group of two girls come in to practise their "impromptu" conversation with me and make sure they were saying everthing correctly.

I was sitting there, for an hour, bored out of my mind because the best original conversation they could come up with was "lets talk about getting ready for a party". and the conversation went something like this:

-"hello"

-'hey, how are you?"

-"Im good. you look cute, is that what you are wearing to the party".

-"yes it is, is your boyfriend coming to the party? "

-"no, he has to work out in the morning. he works out a lot."

-"ohh, so where is the party".

-"its at such and such a place".

-"oh, what are you taking in your purse"

-"well im only taking my ID".

-"what about you?"

-"well i dont take a purse because ill loose it, so i just take my ID and my cellphone".

-"Blah"

-"blah blah"



now you can begin to understand my pain after just reading a few seconds of the conversation. well just imagine it continuing for an hour.



after they left i had about 15 min with no one around. and then walks in THOM (el guapo esposo de mi hermana)

and i was honestly refreshed by his choice of topic for his conversation:



CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.



now, thats a conversation worth having. it wasnt anything extraordinary once it got started. Thom knows some facts to back up his argument, and i helped him with the words he didnt know.

The thing that i came away with from his choice. is that it is very simple to create excelence and maturity in what you do. you just simply have to take moments in life and choose to talk about something that will make a difference, something that has value, something that will inspire others.

because i believe that Thom is aware of how simple it is to have intelect involved in life, i believe that it is why he chooses to have "practice" conversations about something that actually matters.



my challege, can I in my daily comings and going choose to have more substance to what i think and what i talk about in my real conversations? if Thom can do it "practise" ones, then maybe i can in "real" ones
"learn something kids"

God as lover

Its february. i hard month for some. a fun month for some. for me its a
constant accountability to not become overly one way or the other. with what
people call "single awareness day" coming soon. i have caught myself several
times in the wrong attitude.
On sunday night at UpperRoom i was handed a sticker. They were passing a bunch of them out, and mine really did speak to me. it had the passage of 1 Cor 6:16 on it.

i will live with them and walk among them, and i will be their God and they will be my people

A reflection of love from God to his people. The intese desire that God expresses in this passage just overwhelmed me. i few days earlier i had been reading in Exodus. and had run across a similar passage and had been overwhelmed as well.

i will take you as my own people, and i will be your God. Then you will
know that i am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of
the
Egyptians. Exo 6:7.

I am constantly amazed at God's way of speaking to me. He is so personal, at a time when i feel alone, He reminds me that i am not, and that i am His, and only His. That He is a zealous lover of me. That i belong to Him, and that He is mine. A love that is better than i could ever imagine.

google images

i dont always remember where i get these from. but they are amazing. and i take absolutely no credit for them. they do inspire me.
this apron. i love how femenine it is. but it is still very simple.
i seem to have an obsecion with bed that have posts on the four corners. i love this design.
Because i took over katie's bed side table to use in the living room. i went to the Salvation Army to find her a nice replacement one. i found a circular thing like in this picture, i must say, the ones in the picture are a lot better than the one Katie and i attempted to remodel. ours just simply got a black spray paint job, then kind of got forgotten. this pic is a nice reminder of what it could be.
grey, gray, great. i love gray. the reason why, is because it is the perfect neutral. all the other colors in the room are enhanced by the gray.
it kind of reminds me sea coral. it kind of freaks me out a little to.

a link to a site to make your own storage baskets.
any ways. hope you have a good weekend.