Big Changes

I've been thinking lately of the big changes I'm about to go through. On Monday, I'm moving away from home for the first time in my life to go to college.

Along with these changes I've been thinking it's time to take another step. I promised I wouldn't move on until September 1st and I was able to keep that promise. Last night I began importing all my Blogger blogs to Wordpress, so yep, I'm moving my blog.

The other thing is that I'm actually starting another blog called College Daze. It's something for my family to look at to know what's going on with me I suppose.

I also don't know if I'll actually be able to beat my August record this month, but I'm getting over that fact as much as it sorta bugs me. I'll try though. I realize that it is quality over quantity, but it was just a goal I had. Maybe my combined blogs will be something.

So I encourage you to go check out these two new(ish) blogs:

Jesus Loves You!

College Daze

Sorry if this one throws you for a loop too. I know a lot of people lost me for a while when I changed the web address to this one.

Like I said before, I'm not sure how often I'll get a chance to write on these two blogs. I'll probably have less blogs for September because of school starting and stuff.

College Daze is meant for anyone wondering what's going on with my college life especially my family (I was asked by an aunt to write blogs; she didn't know I already had a blog). But College Daze is also the blog I won't get so preachy on.

Well we'll see how having two blogs will go I guess.

Back to School Bash '09

Today I got to help out with this really interesting project. A few people from my church went up to Flint Eastside Mission this afternoon to help out with their Back to School Bash. They give away backpacks and school supplies to kids that can't afford to get school supplies.

I went up to Flint with some people from my church back in April for the Easter dinner and it was really great getting to help these people.

We played this game called Bible Plinko with the kids and they got a few prizes from the game. There were long lines. It was like complete chaos all around.

Seeing the kids dressed the way they were and the parents wearing pajamas and slippers makes me realize something. I'm thankful for the community that I live in. I'm thankful for the things I have.

Too many times we take advantage of what we have. We complain that our computers aren't working. Oh my cell phone is broken. Oh my mp3 player isn't working. We're pretty lucky to have these things because some people don't and we need to realize this.

Some people aren't as fortunate as we are.

Fair Parade 2009

I was very happy today that it didn't end up raining. It wasn't supposed to anyways. Soon after writing my blog this morning, my Aunt Ann picked me up to go ride up the street on the float to get it to the spot because the float had to be there at ten. Judging began at eleven.

We finished setting up. It ended up looking great. And in the sun, it was so incredibly shiny that it hurt my eyes. This was due to the aluminum foil we covered the float in. It was a space theme, so what do you expect? Our personal theme song of the float was Shine by Newsboys. Everyone riding the float had to have something with aluminum foil on it to wear. I had a makeshift spacesuit, but it wasn't made out of aluminum foil.

We ended up getting second place in the adult float contest, which is really good. We were all expecting just an honorable mention, but we got second place! It made us all really excited.

The parade was longer than it usually seems to be. We ran out of candy (go figure because that always happens), but at the end as always, the parade participants got ice cream bars.

At the end, we tore apart our whole float. That was fun. I guess while I was walking one of my friends to meet her mom, some kids on the float that won first place asked if they could have our robots and my aunt said yes.

Do you know what they did with these robots that we took the time to make? This kills me because I made a few of those robots and I wanted to keep one or two of them. They destroyed them. And to think that these kids were on another church's float. Who does that? How rude!

My dad said that when that float passed by, they people were handing out their yearly "heaven or hell" fliers and he refused to take it. That church I guess is the type to scare you into submission. The guy probably thought my dad was going to go to hell for that. Actually though, my dad is a priest. Yes, I said a priest in an Episcopal church, so he can be married and have kids.

Other than that little issue, the parade was fun. Some of the teens are already plotting next year's float.

Fair '09

So this week has fair week in my town. It's actually been a really icky, crappy week for the fair, but I know people who go no matter what. It's been cloudy, cold, rainy, and just crappy.

I only went one day, Wednesday, with my parents no less. Because I have no friends. Nah, my parents are cool and the person I usually go to the fair with is already at college.

I don't ride the rides anymore. I just don't think it's worth spending a lot of money on a bracelet or tickets to ride a few rides that get boring after a while. I haven't rode the rides at the fair in a few years.

I'm just content to walk around the barns and stuff looking at the cakes and animals and such. So that's exactly what I did with my parents. First we walked through the barn with all the vegetables and cakes and other things entered into that contest. My mom and dad like to criticize the vegetables and flower arrangements because they grow their own veggies and my mom does her own wonderful flower arrangements. We also walked through the barn containing all the people who try to get you to buy their products.

Then we went down to watch the demolition derby. There was a lot of mud flinging. It was pretty intense. We watched the van demolition derby and the featured car demolition derby.

Then we walked through the bunny and bird tent. We like to joke around with the bunnies especially the ones that look like my rabbit. My rabbit, Clover is supposed to be a miniature dutch rabbit, but he's huge. He's apparently defective. He also has two different eye colors and one eye is possibly blind.

My mom was being mean to the birds saying they were someone's dinner. Poor turkey! Oh and I love the chickens that have feathers on their feet. They're pretty sweet looking.

My poor mom has hay fever and allergies, so walking through the animal barns was a little harsh on her allergies. We walked through the horse barn and the pig barn. Then went to look at the goats and sheep and some cows too. I guess that day there had been a baby cow born.

Then we went to get our one elephant ear of the year. Mm, it was good. I also saw two friends. One of them I talk to a lot, my friend Lauren, and the other, Sam, was in my practical law class and I'm not the only one missing that class I can tell you that.

Today is the fair parade. I'll report back on it later. Last night though I had a dream that the fair packed up and was ready to leave town on Saturday (today) even though there was a parade going to the fair. Anyways I was just remembering that and it freaked me out for a second because I thought it really happened in reality, but as far as I know it hasn't.

Toothpaste, Space, and Bad Words

These things all have something in common. Do you know what it is?

Have you ever squirted out too much toothpaste while brushing your teeth and didn't know what to do with it? Or maybe there was a lesson that someone wanted to teach you and they just squirted out the entire contents of the toothpaste tube out. Then they wanted you to try to put it all back into the tube.

That happened to me on a mission trip. The group I was in decided to cut the bottom of the toothpaste tube off and scoop all the toothpaste back in. What? They never said we couldn't do it that way. Some groups used a straw to suck up the toothpaste and shoot it into the tube. How ever you try, it's not really easy to get the toothpaste back into the tube if at all possible.

Did you know that once you say something, you can't take it back and basically it's somewhere floating in space? There's no sound in space. Space is like a vacuum. There's basically nothing out there, yet our words are likely floating out there somewhere even though we can't hear them again.

When we say bad things to people or just swear at things, for one it's hard to take those things back like putting toothpaste back into the tube after it's been dumped out, and two, you have the guilty conscience of knowing your words are likely floating around somewhere in space.

Jesus said, "I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." Matthew 12:36-37

So not only are the words floating out there in space, God is also keeping track and when judgment day comes, you'll have some explaining to do. God forgives though.

So why even get started with these hurtful bad words? I know I've had my problems with it. I think everyone struggles with it from time to time. It does happen and when it does, I think we all need to look to God and ask for His forgiveness. We should also go to the ones we have hurt and ask for their forgiveness.

I have a story about the toothpaste and that mission trip. I don't know if I was in a bad mood or what, but I had been mouthing off to this one adult (does that sound like the Chelsea you know?) on the trip, so then when she taught the lesson, I was even worse especially with my complaining. But then after the lesson, I understood things a little more and I apologized for saying the things I shouldn't have been saying in the first place.

So toothpaste, space, and bad words do have something in common. They're not something easily put back or taken back. Remember that the next time you go mouthing off to someone.

The Good Samaritan and his Compassion

Ok, so you know how I said yesterday that I hadn't really been listening to the sermon? This was when I was thinking about Basement Bible Study.

Well last night as I lay in bed, I began thinking about the sermon. The thing that stuck out to me the most was the story of The Good Samaritan. Of course that was the sermon scripture. I never really think I'm getting something out of one of my Aunt Ann's sermons anymore, but let's see what I can get out of it today. I also might take it to other places too because that's what usually happens when I write about a sermon I've heard.

Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan because an expert in the law asked who his neighbor was. You know the story right? If you don't, I encourage you to check out Luke 10:25-37.

When all the other men came and passed by the injured man, there was one guy who stopped; the samaritan. A priest and a Levite had also passed by, but didn't stop. Now it could be that the priest didn't stop because the man was unclean and he wasn't supposed to touch the unclean because that would make him unclean.

The one guy that did stop to help the man was actually a hated foreigner according to the notes in my Bible. Being hated didn't stop him from doing the right thing.

Now my Aunt Ann told us about a study done in the 1970s (I think). Two groups of seniors in seminary were to go to this building where one group would tell of what they were going to accomplish or such as pastors and the other group would tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Both groups had to go through a dark alleyway to get to the building.

In that alley, there was a man dressed in very little clothing who was coughing. Oh I forgot to mention that it was below zero outside when they did this experiment. So he may have been pretending at first to cough, but then actually started coughing.

Of the many people who went through the alleyway, no one stopped to help them, but some of them when getting to the building told someone in charge that there was a man out there coughing who needed medical attention.

What gets me is that these soon to be pastors didn't stop and talk to this guy. They didn't help him. But it could have been fear of what the guy might have. Maybe they were being self-centered. Who knows?

While listening to the sermon, I thought that was horrible that no one would have stopped to help the man. I thought to myself that yes, I would have asked the man to come with me.

But then last night when I was going to bed, I realized, I would have been like the rest and just tried to walk by quickly most likely out of fear of what he may have and whether or not it's contagious.

Jesus told the expert in the law to go and do like the good samaritan did. We need to be showing compassion to everyone, not just those who are friends of ours. We need to be showing compassion to those in need. We need to show compassion to everyone because we were called to go and make disciples of all nations. We're supposed to go light our world.

So go light your world. Be a good samaritan. Go out and actively, creatively, and powerfully share God's compassion.

Bad/Happy/Sad Dream

This morning (as in Sunday morning) before I had to get up for church, I had a bad yet somehow good yet somehow sad dream. If that makes sense.

So I guess I may have been a little freaked out that I was gonna over sleep practice again like I did last week, so that probably explains this dream. I had to be at church really early this morning, earlier than usual, 8:30 in the morning. Ok, that's half an hour earlier than usual, but still, it was early.

I got up at 7, but fell back asleep and had this dream.

So in my dream, I arrived late to church to find the pastor already set up to play piano. I saw two of my friends that have already left for college. One of them, Hannah, just left this weekend and the other, Chris, left a few weeks ago. I thought it was weird seeing them, but nonetheless I was happy to see them.

Unfortunately it was just a dream and I wasn't really seeing them, which made the dream sad.

So during church, while the pastor was playing piano, he asked me if I was ready to play and I said yes, so I went up there and I think I messed up on a song or two.

And that's all I remember of the dream.

Now back to reality. I was not late for church today. The pastor's family was not there because they were taking Hannah to college. I had to play piano today much like my dream said basically because normally if you didn't know it, I play flute.

I got to intro on a few of the songs, which wasn't as scary as I initially thought it would be. Then on the last song that I hadn't realized I was doing the introduction to, I really messed up on that one, but it didn't freak me out nearly as much as I thought it would. My practicing all week apparently paid off. Practice does make perfect. Of course nobody's perfect, so why practice? Haha. Seriously though practicing is a good thing.

We were missing a lot of people at church today. Plus it was rather icky outside weather-wise. It was kinda a sad day. I'm getting hit hard with emotions these days. I'm really starting to miss my friends. I haven't started crying yet, but it's likely that I will any day now.