Slow Down, take a deep breathe...

These last couple of weeks have been pretty heavy. There are a lot of things in which I can't blog about at this point, but it has been tough. I think in all of this though I've realized that I need to slow down, take a deep breathe, and realize that God loves me. How often do I get so wrapped up in myself and things that are happening that I forget the simple, glorious fact that it's not about me. It never was and never will be. I will for the rest of my life think that it is, until God comes down and shakes me up through different trials and tribulations and blessings.

That's all I got for now, short and sweet, and tired....

Going to Rise Up....

So it's been a while since I've posted. A lot has happened since my last post. Spring Break was a great time. I took a group of 7 students out to Los Angeles. We served in several different places including, Midnight Mission (http://www.midnightmission.org/), World Vision, and Children's Hunger Fund (http://www.chfus.org/). We got to go to the Museum of Tolerance (http://www.museumoftolerance.com), go to Hollywood, Newsong Church, and even squeezed in a trip to Disneyland and Huntington Beach. It was a packed out trip. The students worked really hard and were really great. My favorite part of the trip was definitely seeing my parents interact with the students. It was awesome for my parents to get a glimpse of what I get to do everyday as an RD. It's a difficult job to explain, and something that is hard to experience, but my parents got it and were happy to serve alongside me for a week in the ministry that God has put me in.

Here are some pictures from the week.




Last week I got to go up to Boston for Easter Break. The last time I got to go up there was for Easter last year, so it had been a while. I got to see a lot of friends from college and I was reminded of how far we have all come. I got to meet my friends Brian and Julie's baby Gracie, I got to see my friends Jay and Pamela's almost remodeled house, I got to walk around Gordon with my buddy Brian and reflect back on how awesome college was. I also got to take jumping pictures on the beach after Easter Dinner, a tradition that will hopefully continue for the next couple of years.

And for your viewing pleasure, here again are some pictures...


So, there is about one month left in the school year. There is a TON of stuff to do, and a lot on my mind. This is my song for the month.

"Rise" by Eddie Vedder

Such is the way of the world
You can never know
Just where to put all your faith
And how will it grow

Gonna rise up
Burning back holes in dark memories
Gonna rise up
Turning mistakes into gold

Such is the passage of time
Too fast to fold
And suddenly swallowed by signs
Low and behold

Gonna rise up
Find my direction magnetically
Gonna rise up
Throw down my ace in the hole

Jubilee....wow

So I've been to conferences before, and knew what to expect from them, but this one was different. I kind of knew what Jubilee was about, and my mentality going into it, was "ok, let's see what they have to offer and is this going to be useful for student leaders at Geneva?"
For as strong as my faith has been, you can never underestimate the power of God and how convicting he can be, through the power of worship, and through his people, people who are living for God everyday and doing really cool things for him.

The conference overall was a good reminder of the reformed perspective, which I think was the coolest part for me. Most Christian conferences are all about the heart, and the emotion, and the Love of Jesus Christ, which is important stuff, no doubt. But Jubilee was all of that on top of how to actually live it out. So for those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about when I say the reformed perspective...the basic gist is that we are called to be stewards of this earth while we're on it now, and make the most of it. To engage the world and its different cultures, intricacies, and crevasses...and live life for the Lord. The reason for this is because reformed believers think that the earth that we live on now, will eventually be the new heaven, and we as believers will roam the earth as it was originally intended i.e. before Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge. So we're not just waiting to go to heaven, but waiting for Jesus to come back to the new earth.

Ok, so how do you live life for the Lord on earth now? A earth that is broken, corrupt and full of sin. Good question, and I was reminded of the answers while at Jubilee.

Steve Garber who I was introduced to during the my time as a fellow, reminded me about the story of vocation. Faith shapes vocation, vocation shapes culture. We all have something that we're passionate about, injustice, starving children, AIDS in Africa, or maybe it's something more simple like music, architecture or education. Whatever it is, we're called to be a light of Jesus Christ, in the passions that we have no matter what we're called to do.

Bob Goff the CEO of Restore International who Donald Miller talks about in his newest book, is a crazy, crazy dude. I'm smiling just thinking about him because in his talk, he made me realize that he is so crazy about God and trusts him so much, that he doesn't care about what people think of him, or that he can't do anything for Christ. He truly has his identity in Christ. Bob started a school in Uganda called Restore Academy. He brought students from all over the country which has been ravaged by a Civil War and a group called the Lord's Resistance Army, which kidnaps children and brainwashes them to persecute there own countrymen. He showed us a video of the students there and I wrote the following passage in my journal:
"How do students in Uganda who have gone through so much, have so much hope? Belief? They truly believe in power of Jesus Christ. Why don't we have the joy and hope that they do at Geneva?"

Mako Fujimora, again another person I was introduced to as a fellow talked about the verse "Jesus Wept" in John 11. Jesus didn't have to weep with Mary, but he did because he loves us and wanted to be a part and experience what we go through. The pain and suffering that the Lord brings to us sometimes. Sometimes things don't seem rationale. When Mary broke a year's worth of perfume to wash Jesus' feet, it was not rationale, but it was a necessary extravagance. Mako talked about how as an artist he is sometimes criticized for spending his life as an artist, something that doesn't seem necessary to survive, but is an excess thing. But even though this excess thing that doesn't seem rationale sometimes, it is so necessary to experience the beauty of the Gospel and Jesus Christ. You know what I'm talking about, the picture or piece of art that moves you, or the movie that causes you to weep, or the song that clinches at your heart because it's exactly what you're going through and you didn't know how to express it in your own words, yup that is Jesus.

John Perkins....is the man. He is the face of racial reconciliation. He talked about 2 Cor:5. I've never looked at this passage before in the way that he revealed it to me. I don't even know how to write about it....but basically we're called to move away from what society has created, labels. The only label that we should live by is that we are saved by the love of Jesus of Christ, and to not use titles like black or white, republican or democrat, Baptist or Presbyterian. We CANNOT use labels as an excuse to not show God's love to someone, because they are "different". Why are they different? Because we make them out to be, but aren't we ALL created in God's image? And are we not called to love your neighbor as yourself? This is something I will take with me as I possibly pursue a job in Multicultural Services.

These are just some of the sweet things I was reminded of this weekend. Faith has legs, and we're suppose to live it out everyday.

So I'm back

My trip to Colorado seems so long ago. It was such an awesome time to see old friends, and catch up on life. It's amazing to see how much we have progressed in our lives, and where God has taken all of us since we were in school together. For those of you interested, I did complete my tasks that I posted in my last entry.

I have some pretty big weekends coming up that I'm excited for.

-The Jubilee Conference is weekend. I've never been and I'm excited to hear from different speakers and connect with other students and staff that are attending.

-Leadership Weekend for camp is the following weekend. Camp is always on my mind, so I'm excited to meet our Leadership team and get some planning in for this summer. It's always great to go to camp, there is just something about it (You can feel GOD's presence ).

-Spring Break: I can't believe this is almost here. I will be taking a group of students to LA, so they can serve in different ministries, and experience different cultures. They will be staying at my parents house in South Pas, so that will be an interesting element, but I'm very excited for my parents to be able to interact with students from Geneva. Get ready for a big blog entry about that....

Friends

In a few hours I will board a plane and be on my way to Colorado to be reunited with some of my best college friends. Friends have been a vital part of my life. I did not always get along with my parents and didn't communicate with them a lot growing up, and I depended on my friends for emotional support. I still do.

It's funny how friends come in and out of your life but the special ones just remain with you. The last time I saw Jamie was over 5 years ago. I get to see my friend Brian every now and then when I visit Boston, and my friend Milo I haven't seen in about 3 years. The last time all 3 of us were hanging out together must have been over 8 years ago, when I was a sophomore in college. 8 years is a long time, but I know as soon as we all get together we're going to be the stupid, crazy, moronic, idiots, laughing hysterically, those people that you look at like...uhhhh?, friends we once were and will always will be. A few goals I have for this weekend.
-Laugh till I'm crying
-Play with Grace and E (Jamie's kids)
-Climb a mountain


Friends

A sweet story of how we should Love and being Third Culture

I've been reading The Monkey and the Fish by Dave Gibbons. This is a cool story he references in the book. Enjoy!

Not long ago, a story in the news enchanted people around the world. Every night, Julio Diaz, a thirty-one-year-old social worker, ended his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early so he could eat at his favorite diner. But one night, when Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and into the deserted station, something unexpected happened. He was headed toward the stairs when a teenager suddenly apperead and whipped out a knife.
When the assailant demanded Julio's money, he calmly handed him his wallet. Nothing so unusual about that. But as the young robber turned away, Diaz called out to him.
"Hey, wait a minute," Diaz said. "You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."
The boy was dumbfounded. He looked at Diaz with a what-in-the-world look and asked, "Why are you doing this?"
Diaz told him, "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money."
Diaz told the boy that he was on his way to get dinner and said that if the boy was hungry, he could join him. So they went to diner and plopped down in a booth together, and when several employees came by to greet Diaz one of the regular customers, he kindly introduced the boy to them.
Stunned by the evening's turn of events, the robber asked Diaz how it was that he knew everyone there and remarked on how he was nice to everyone, "Even the dishwasher."
Diaz asked him if he hadn't also been taught to be kind to everyone. The boy told him he had, but he didn't think people acted that way in the real world.
The conversation turned a bit more serious when Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life.
The boy didn't express much of an answer.
When the tab came, Diaz told the teen he was going to have to pay the bill, since he had taken his wallet, unless he wanted to give it back, in which case, Diaz said, he'd be happy to pay the whole thing, his treat.
According to Diaz, the teen "didn't even think about it" and handed over the wallet. Besides treating him to dinner, Diaz gve him twenty dollars, just something to help him out.
In return, Diaz asked for his knife, and the boy, who'd threatened Diaz with that same knife not long before, quickly surrendered it.
Afterwards, Diaz said that treating people right, regardless of how they treat you, is the simplest and most promising prescription he knows to bring people hope and to make the world a better place.

2010

A game that I would play with my Fellows friends during the end of a year and the beginning of a new one was to sum up the year that just ended in one word, and use one word that you hope to describe for the upcoming year.
I think the word that describes 2009 was "growth". I think I grew in several ways this past year.

I grew in my academic knowledge. I have never been an academic and always hating thinking philosophically. I always wanted black and white answers, but the more and more I live my life, the more I realize that it's pretty rare that things are black and white, there is always some sort of gray and in order to respond and be prepared you must always constantly wrestle within the gray. For the first time in my life I have enjoyed reading the texts assigned to me in classes, I have enjoyed going to class and discussing, and after writing a paper I actually think to myself, "wow, that was actually kind of fun." Yes, what is the world coming to, Scott Hwang said he just liked writing papers.

I grew in my relationship with my parents. A big part of this step was having them come out to Summer's Best for a term. As usual it was not all peaches and cream and for most of the first week that they were there, I asked myself why I had asked them to come. But in the end I am so thankful for the experience. My parents got a first hand experience of the ministry that has changed my life. A ministry that I have been a part of for 5 summers and counting, where I have grown spiritually, physically and mentally. A place where I have met some of the greatest people in the world, and where God is so present. I feel like the experience my parents had, gave them a better understanding of who I have grown into, and that would not have been possible if they had not been able to experience it with me at camp.

I grew spiritually. My trust in God is a daily battle and it is hard to wake up everyday and try to use it to advance God's kingdom, especially when you are dealing with (fill in the blank). For me this past year the blank was often, not getting enough sleep, dealing with discipline issues, not being grateful for the many blessings I have been given, issues in relationships with friends and family, and so many other things. But when I look back, I can honestly say that the good outweighed the bad in 2009 and I grew from all the trials and tribulations.

I can laugh and smile at the many good times I had. Some of my favorite times in 2009 were in no particular order:
-AK 2009 Spring Break mission trip
-Trying to kill wasp nests in main assembly with Rocco
-"Yelling" at Dougie Fresh for leaving mountain bikes unattended. "If this was LA Fresh, those bikes would be gone in 10 seconds!"
-Easter in Massachusetts (Jumping Pictures on the beach)
-Watching U2 live and seeing so many awesome friends in C-Ville
-Rediscovering the joy of leading worship
-Playing Halo with a random group of girls
-One on one's with so many sweet students at Geneva
-Hearing David Gibbons speak at the Leadership Summit
-Chilling on a beach in Carpenteria with old college friends

As for 2010, I think I want my word to be "intentionality". I want to be intentional with my time, my money, my energy etc. I think I get too caught up in the grind and do things in habit rather then slowing down, taking a step back and really trying to make the most of all situations. We'll see what God has in store.