over the hill

You are reading my 50th post on this blog, which means that I am now a veteran blogger! or not
I may as well do something profitable with this post, so I will report on Tuesday at the conferance. Usual prayer and breakfast. Ate with Eric and we both decided that stale doughnuts do not taste good. Pastor Donnelly preached on "Called to Freedom" about the freeing freedom of Christians vs the bonding liscense of the world. Rich Holderman (sp?) from Bloomington addressed the college group. We were supposed to have a trip to Lake Michigan but it started sprinkling so it got postponed. Instead I had lunch with my P&A group. We had an almost awesome time of fellowship and catching up with each others lives. We also made some changes that will require more time from all of us, but I think are worth while in exhortation towards our call to be saints. Dinner was okay at best, but we had some great Psalm singing and a moving sermon by Pastor Long for dessert, so it was good. After Pastor Long gave a direct call to serve Christ wether it be right where I am, in a new work, in the pastorate, or all the way to the ends of the earth, the college group did some Irish dancing. Stacey and I both had really great partners (mine even had some Irish blood) so it was a lot of fun.
P.S. Pastor Long gave us five minutes of silent prayer and contemplation after his sermon. An act I would recommend to any and all pastors who are reading this. If there are any. If you are a pastor and are reading this, you have not commented yet, so I don't know it.

Quick break

Here is a quick beak on my conferenc report to get back to my normal life. At work on Thursday, I found out that I have to be employed by my company for at least a year before I can transfer to another store. Ironically I was counting on earning at least something up at school, so now God is making me trust Him for either a job or some extraordinary means of support. I have just been thinking how much I hate to trust everything to Him and take a wild leap forward, but how every time I do, I end up praising Him for His everlasting care and mercy. Trust, such an easy word to say, such a hard word to obey.

I got my cast off yesterday, so I am now in a removeable brace that looks a lot better. (It smells better too, because i can take it off and wash under it.)

Monday

Prayer meeting, breakfast, sermon by Pastor Donnelly. He spoke on called to be saints. He gave exhortation to live up to the continuing challenge to live holy lives, to understand the fact that we are all called- a saint is not a spiritual giant as the RC church believes, but is one who follows Christ as even the Corinthians (who were not without problems) were called by Paul. What struck me most was when he emphasized the plurality of saints. We are not an army of one. We CANNOT fight alone. This point hit me because I am usually a loner, and would rather sit in a corner and read instead of going out with other saints to encourage, strengthen, and fight our battles together. For the college class, we had Jan Buchanan give us her testimony of how God called her to Senegal. Lunch with Eric, then ultimate frisbee. My team won our first game, but I had to leave in the middle of the second to go roller blading with Eric. Dinner and then the entertainment night. We had tremendous performances by the Carr brothers, the Gamble sisters and the Calamari brothers. After the entertainment, Geneva college hosted an ice cream social where Heather taught some of us the T-Rex, Old Lady, and Grocery Cart. Then a bunch of us hopped over to the dorms to see Signs. Got to bed really late.

The Lord's Day

What a glorious day! Got up at 6:20 (5:20 our time) and went down to pray with a group of believers from all over the world. There were a few people from Japan, some from Ireland, Toronto and Ottawa Canada, and three of four of the states. After the prayer time we went to breakfast composed of scrambled eggs, overcooked sausage, and biscuits'n' gravy. I have been seeing more old friends about every fifteen minutes and it has been just wonderful catching up with them. At 8:45 I headed over to the morning worship service which started with Psalm singing and prayer. Pastor Ted Donnelly spoke on "Called by Grace." He asked "Who?" (God) "What?" (Calls), "Whom does He Call?"," Why does He Call?" and "How does He call?" One of the points that really impacted me was when Pastor Ted said that God is not a hard man, who calls for the pleasure of seeing us bow beneath His power, but is a loving God, who invites us to feast with Him. Of course you wouldn't wear rags to a wedding feast, so He provides the knowledge and power for us to cleanse our rags and beautify ourselves through Christ. After a quick break, the college group gathered in our little room for a sermon discussion and a testimony. I had a salad for lunch. I don't know why. Maybe when a body takes in so much spiritual food, there is not much room left for physical. Anyway, after lunch I went to another Psalm sing and saw Audrey as I was coming out. She introduced me to Laura and her friends from Atlanta. Nice people. So I caught up with friends all afternoon and got another salad from dinner. I am already grateful that I did not come to the conference for the food. For the evening service we had more Psalm singing (can't get enough of it), a sermon on "The Power of Congregational Singing" by Anthony Selvaggio, and a concert by New Song. The college guys had a deep talk on fidelity. The Spirit moved very visibly through all those in audience.

Saturday

Got up early. Loaded car. Drove to Filson's. Helped Eric load car. Tested radios. Left for Calvin. Eric only had a few hours of sleep so he started out in his van with Carrie and Angie, and I took Stacey in my car. (Dad's car.) (That I drive.) After a scenic route through Indy, we finally got on I-69 and headed North. Eric was worn out after the first few hours of driving, so we parked at a rest stop and put Stacey in the van, with Carrie driving, and Eric tried to get some sleep in my car. I say tried because he just finished reading a great book (ask me about it later) and he had to roll over every ten minutes to tell me something else he remembered about it. Well, we finally got up to Calvin, after a good five hours, and we stopped off at the registration tables to settle our accounts. After that we unloaded all of our gear and headed off to dinner. Then we attended the opening ceremony which was mostly just formalities and info, but it started out with a Psalm sing, and with nearly 1,500 believers singing God's praises up to Him, it was a wonderful experience. As I was standing there, I couldn't help but think about the time in Acts when twice the number of people at Calvin were saved in a single day. We had a college meeting, which was pretty much an introduction, icebreaker, and a bunch of games. I met Chris deVos, a Canadian citizen from the Seattle congregation. Went to my room, met my roommate from urban NY, and went to bed. (Which is what I am going to do now.)

Wow! (@ Calvin)

What else can you say after such an awesome week? And those of you who know me can tell that I am serious because I take that word very seriously. But God's presence was very much felt, at least in me, and that was truly awe-inspiring! I am having trouble deciding whether or not I should write about the conference because it will take up so much space, but I really want to share the Lord's work in me, so I think I will. I will try to keep my posts short so when you get bored and log off, you can find your way back easily.

weirded day

Yeah I know I spelled it wrong, but it was just that weird. I talked to my manager about getting vacation time for Calvin, and he was like "No, you submitted your request late." So I was like "Okay." Then we were talking about scheduling around getting my cast off, and he changed my schedule so I do have vacation time!  Only Eight More Days to Wear This Cast! We also had a meeting at work tonight, and I had to lead the cheer because I was the only one who knew it besides the managers, and there was no way they were going to lead it.

Amazing Animals & Wild Blogger Changes

Blogger made some major changes to blog formatting options! Now it is about as easy and unique as any word processor! I caught a beautiful moth today. It was one of those Luna Moths with the massive four inch wingspan and soft green wings. I ate my lunch during fifteen minute break at work today, so for my lunch I sat outside and read my Bible. I was thinking about how great God's creation is, and He brought this moth over just for me! :) Well I've messed around enough for tonight. I might work on my other blog before I go to bed though.

Sorry

I haven't posted in a while. But you knew that. While I was gone I was mostly working on the latest men's style (reported by my friend Eric as being >>>STUBBLE<<<) and going to work. I decided that stubble didn't work, so I shaved. I got to hear Mr. Wether's testimony at church today. I believe he is one of the few "Good and faithful servants" that most us aspire to be. I went back to one hand typing and ... something... I am not really in the mood for thinking now. Maybe I will go to bed. Goodnight.

Lazy days

We made a lot of progress on Stacey's room today. Well actually, Dad made a lot of progress, and we made little attempts to help. He let me drive a nail! It was my day off today, so I tried to get rested, but my arm usually got in the way. Caleb found out that we are having a contest, I guess he didn't know, and decided to cheat right away to stay ahead. So I was forced to make a rule to nullify his craftiness. Now comments by the owner of the blog do not count unless they are responding to a former comment. As you can probably see by now, I don't really have anything to talk about, so I will shut up and let you all go.

Comment!

There is a sort of unspoken (until now) contest between Stacey, Caleb, and me as to who can get the most comments on their blog. Since Eric was afraid to use up all my precious (said jokingly) comment space, and Stacey got on late, Caleb took the lead within the his first week of blogging. And since I can't write anything worthy of comment I will try my last tactic of supplying a question. Where is your favorite place in the world (somewhere you have actually been) and why? I am typing with two hands for the first time in a long while, and it has been very difficult getting my right back into motion. But I did get to go to Bible study tonight (although I was wondering about a freak tornado) so I am feeling pretty good. Hooray for sleeping in, which is what I do tomorrow because it is my day off. Please forgive my randomness, I am just in withdrawal from my Vicodin XS which I have not taken for three days... I think... I don't know... maybe it was two... or four... please comment now, and don't forget to leave your name unless you really want to be anonymous.

weekends

I had a long and eventful weekend, so I can't go into much detail here. On Sat I went to the Calkins for a CYA meeting. We swam (or boated for those with casts) and played Ultimate Frisbee! Lot's of fun. Then we roasted hot dogs and listened to pastor Johnston talk about faithfulness. He had a really good message. Sunday, Mr. Treese continued his talk about missions. He gave out a funny, yet challenging paper called "10 ways to avoid becoming a missionary." One of the ways was something like "Get married and settle down into a traditional lifestyle as soon as possible." For the service, pastor Faris preached on Joshua 22. Just hearing the passage read gave me a thrill, because it was an amazing story of accountability, and how the church should deal with possible sin. Today I went to work, came home, and started helping Dad build a bedroom for Stacey in the basement.

CYA

Worked from 7 to 3, went straight to CYA came home, time for bed, write more tomorrow.

Casting and trolling

I got my cast on this morning! It was really weird when they unwrapped my arm and I saw two little rods sticking out. They took some x-rays and I found out that the pins go all the way through my radius. Kind of nauseating. Anyway, I got a short cast. Yay! But the Doc said I could not fly. Boo. :`( My arm is really stiff from unuse right now, and it kind of hurts a little, so I will be trolling around the house for a while. >;{ On the bright side, Doc told me to come back in three weeks instead of four and I have full finger and elbow movement again. :)

Check it out! I found it on Becca's blog.

Shiver me timbers you know loads about pirate
vocabulary matey so Splice the Mainbrace and
celebrate!yoho!{please vote}


pirate vocabulary
brought to you by Quizilla

Here it comes!

It was an unusually normal day at work, so here are some freak accidents that could happen to me.
While some of these may be quite disgusting, they are at the request of Eric, so you can thank him.

The computer explodes while I sit here.
The tree next to my bedroom comes crashing down on me in the night.
A soccer mom smashes her suv into me on 38th St. While I go to work.
An angry customer takes his wrath out on my face.
A forklift knocks a pallet of any heavy object on my head.
A forklift goes wildly out of control and knocks a whole shelf onto me.
An angry customer throws me in the wine racks and I drown.
I get sucked into the box compressor while it is in operation.
My car explodes when I start it.
A logging truck loses its load while I am next to it and I get smashed by a few trees.
(replace logging truck with any oversize load or car transport truck)
I fly into a flying squirrel and lose my prop.
I hit a goose and it knocks a wing off of my plane.
I get bored to death in physics class.

Now we get into the really extreme so weak of heart stop reading!

I get sucked out of a 1 inch hole in my plane during an explosive decompression!
I get some chemical (ask Ross, he uses it) in my eyes and they wither up and sort of steam away.
While we are on eyes, an ogre could make jelly out of them. "Actually it's quite good on toast."
A semi cuts me off while I am riding Ross's motorcycle over an overpass and severs my head off, causing to fall into a passing convertible which causes the driver to lose control and start a major chain reaction accident during rush hour, while up on the bridge, the blood squirting out of my neck blinds the next semi driver, causing him to swerve through oncoming traffic and over the other side of the bridge, spraying his load of acid all over anyone that wasn't already involved. (Fortunately Ross's motorcycle was not scratched so he still came to my funeral after they found my head.)
Tyrannic extra-terrestrial beasts invade America and decide to slice me into millimeter thick pieces starting at my toes.
I am in a nice house (In Scotland) with beautiful floor length windows, and pull the famous puke'n'slide, but I go shooting right down the hallway, through a window and into Loch Ness, where the monster turns out to be real and eats me the way Smeagol ate the fish at the opening of the third LOTR.
That's enough for now. I will probably have nightmares, and die of fright.

I Made it to Bible study!

And boy am I glad to be alive. That news aside, I saw the most horrid thing today. I was at work, taking some boxes back to the compactor (a very cool machine) and the bakery lady was throwing away three cartfulls of bread, cakes, muffins, and all other kind of beautiful and wondrous products. I started pleading my way up the chain of command to see if I could get high enough to get someone to let me take at least one little cake home. When I got all the way up to the top manager in the store, he told me that they used to donate all that great food to charity until someone sued them because they had some stale bread! (The court system is soo stupid. I can't wait until I graduate and get to leave the country.) Anyway, that is why they have a policy that all old products must be completely wasted. I decided to write the president of the company and see if he would let me save the poor little darlings if I signed a letter stating that I (and my family) would not sue them even if we got food poisoning and died. My manager said it would not work, but I can still try can't I?
>>>>>>STOP THE DESTRUCTION!!! SAVE THE FOOD!!!<<<<<<

Bible Study

I have been sitting around the house all day today, afraid to go out and get injured. Just a few more hours until Bible study. I was all excited because a certain friend aka "Bill" told me he would go with me, but he called me at lunch to tell me that his family takes priority over studying God's Word, so he really couldn't go. (Note to other readers: Bill is really a great guy, and his family was doing something extra-special, so I completely understand and have no hard feelings against him, we just like to harass each other.) (Bill even took me to the hospital after one of my many adventures.) That's it for now. I think I will go sit in my room and pray that a tree doesn't fall on it.

Door Man

I was the door man (Satisfaction Quality Manager) all day today. During lunch we talked about resume boosting names for our jobs, like Cart Relocation Engineer and Register Operating Technician. At my old job I was a construction engineer, but Mom wouldn't let me write that in the "Positions Held" portion of my applications. Yay! I get to go to Bible study tomorrow. (Unless I am the victim of another freak accident.)

It's Saturday!

And that means I will be working until 10 tonight. In better news, I finally got my post average up to one per week. Stacey also got a blog at staceys_spot.blogspot.com. She already has links and stuff in it and I still can't figure out how to do one. *sigh* I am sooo behind the times. In a desperate attempt to draw more comments, please answer the following question: Should the government require bikers and skateboarders to wear helmets or other safety gear?

Praise the Lord!

Tonight my manager told me that I was a good worker even with just one usable arm But that is probably because I don't work for him. I work for God, and He has blessed me so much this summer! As I was sitting in the hospital a few days ago, thinking about all MY plans and wondering what God was about to do with them, I decided to just praise Him for what happened to me and wait to see what came next. He has certantly showed me His control and planning in my life. At the end of school I was thinking about going to Africa on a construction mission trip, but God led me to decline the offer because He knew this would happen and wanted another person on the trip who would not be injured three days before departure time. Also, the big old cast on my arm has given me an open door to declare to the world (at least the part that shops at my store) how He had His hand about me and protected me! So, while flying and operating normally may be out for a while, my Father has certantly given me enough to do with the rest of my time.

hospitals

After my arm broke, I went to a very nice hospital, were they got me x-rayed and into a bed really fast, and then decided that we would have to wait until at least eight in the morning for an orthopedic surgeon to come in. Mom and Dad had arrived and we discovered that the surgeon on call for that hospital was Dr. Midla, the guy who fixed my finger a few years ago, and who is biased at the Healthplex which is right down the street from us. So we decided to take me down there instead of having him come up here. We got my arm all wrapped up and hit the road. That is when the pain came. My hand started to swell inside my bandages and it felt like it was being totally crushed. But we finally got home and Mom unwrapped me, and I took some pain pills that made me want to throw up and started to feel better. After a gruelingly slow and sleepless six hours I was finally called into Westview where I waited for two more hours for a doctor to come. And their service was terrible, but that just might be my opinion because I was having a bad day. Anyway, they got my arm fixed (I hope)(It is in a really thick wrap so I can't tell), and I went home and had to miss Bible study for the fourth or fifth week in a row (That was the biggest bummer of all) and I am now healing and have gone to work the past two days! (Praise the Lord for that) So now we are back up to present.