Los Angeles, Turkey Meatballs, & Grandpa

My last blog was super long.. mostly me rambling on about weird things. Cool. I am at work right now, and I am super bored, so I will be writing an update and stuff...

My grandpa is doing much better than he was doing. After being in the hospital for about a week and in an in-patient physical therapy place in Midland for a little less than a week, he is finally back home and on the slow but steady path to healing and recovery. He thinks that he is going hunting this weekend even. [He shouldn't be going, he just thinks he is].

Also, I have been finding some sweet recipes online lately, and from my weight watchers meetings that I plan on trying, and if they turn out, making them for Thanksgiving dinners. I hope they are delicious.

Last and not least, because the recipes were the least, Josh and I are going to LA this summer! We decided to apply for a program call the IT Project -- It is a 50 day program that is about missions and missions history, as well as learning about the people groups of the world -- mainly the major groups in the 10/40 window. The first 25 days is spent taking a course at the Bible College where we will be staying, and the 25 days is dedicated to getting out on the town, learning about how the people groups worship, visiting their places of worship, and evangelizing to students! We will also get to go to a different church every Sunday to see what kinds of churches are there in LA.. I am super excited!!!

We are some of the first people accepted for the 2010 Project, because we applied so early. We did that on purpose, because this way, we have more time to raise support and money for the trip :) I am very excited for it!

If you have more questions about the trip or whatever, or the Traveling Team, you can go to their website, www.thetravelingteam.org

Steak is to Mashed Potatoes as Jesus is to Christmas

I feel like a lot of things have happened that have been good lately, bu really, it might just be my state of being. My attitude. My thought-process. Maybe.
First of all, this is probably going to be very random and full of weirdness. I'm going with the free-write style today, folks.

I was studying for my exam today in Small Group Communication. It was fairly interesting stuff, and one of the sections was all about nonverbal behavior. It is amazing how much we actually communicate using this stuff! We aren't able to communicate without it; everything from your body language to you facial expressions, to how you breath, to how you sit is all nonverbal communication. Even your time is nonverbal communication. I guess that's why interviewers think that you don't care much about a job if you show up late for the interview.
Anyway, that just made me think about a lot of different things. Like being in constant 'communication' with God. Prayer is our way of communicating with God, as is worship, and other things. I like to write in my prayer journal. Ever since the retreat, I have worked on my attitude toward God, and that in turn has changed my attitude toward myself, toward my classes, toward life in general, toward Josh, and toward the future. It's so cool to just be able to give everything to God.

I don't much like Christian cliches like the one I just used -- Give everything to God -- but it is a very good one, non the less. I just thought of an analogy. Josh isn't usually a big fan of my analogies, but sometimes they are good... :)

Picture yourself sitting down to eat this yummy, tender, juicy steak for dinner. Now, in my mind, steak is to mashed poatatoes as Jesus is to Christmas. So, you sit down, you cut up a few pieces of steak, you eat them, and then you bring your fork down, expecting it to slide in to this nice side helping of mashed potatoes loaded with tons of butter, salt, and don't forget the sour cream.. mmm. But ---GASP---- where are my mashed potatoes!!!?!?!?!?!? Yep, they aren't there. You get a little panicked, and you start screaming, and you may even throw something. Then Your mom kindly says, "Well, they are right there in front of you, dear. You must've gotten too caught up in the steak and forgotten to scoop yourself some potatoes!"

Okay, so where am I going with this... Well
life is the steak -- Pretty good, for the most part
God is the mashed potatoes -- the steak is good, yeah, but it is ALWAYS better with a Large heaping side of mashed potatoes. Life is way better with a LARGE HEAPING AMOUNT OF GOD
Your mom is... well, your mom. But I guess she could be that one event or catastophe in life that makes you realize that you can in any way eat that darn piece of steak without those mashed potatoes. That you can't go through this life without God.
Also, God was there all along.. just like the mashed potatoes. We just had to take our blinders off so we could focus on something bigger than ourselves.. the table... to find the mashed potatoes... God.

I think that this was one of my best analogies yet. This is how I've felt, anyway, since school has started. I think I was missing my mashed potatoes. I mean, I was getting along just fine in life, but it just wasn't as good as it could have been. And God was there all along. I realized this I think during the Fall Retreat, and then it has just been getting better and better. I am not living for myself, but rather for a bigger purpose, something bigger than I could ever hope to be. And sometimes, I don't think it feels that way, because what I possess as far as talents and such seems worthless, but I know that God has a plan for me. And I need to remember that.

Josh has been talking a lot about the Holy Spirit and how it is awesome that the Holy Spirit can intercede for us in two ways. The Holy Spirit has the words to say to God when we don't know what to say or how to say it. And, the Holy Spirit can tell us what God wants us to know. It is so cool that we have the ability to communicate with God. Communication is such a major part of our lives, and I think that it is how God wanted it to be. If we didn't have to communicate, we would never have to talk to each other, and we would never have to leave our houses. Or something like that. Basically, this world would never function without communication, and thats how God wanted it to be. Yeah, He may have made it a little harder for us to communicate with people by putting all these different languages down here, but that, to me, is just a challenge, a motivator to get out there and serve and break through those barriers to communicate the Word to all of God's people.

Think About It.

Oh, The Days

It's been awhile, so I will give some updates. Because people do read this after all!!! Yay!! :)

Okay, so last night was crazy. I definitely got to see how God works, and it is awesome.
We will start off by saying that the day was very bad for me. Work did not go well, and I just was in a bad mood. When Josh came to visit me, I wasn't the most exciting person to be around, so he talked for a while, and then headed out. I got out at six, and since Josh had the car to go to youth group (He is helping out with MMCC's youth!!), I walked home. It was a beautiful day out, so it was good for my grumpy brain to be able to walk it off.

When I got home, I was feeling a bit better, and I decided to do some physical activity. I am now learning how to salsa dance, and I think that I have recruited Josh to be my partner!!! I am not very good yet, but dancing is good for you, so I want to give it a try. I think we will be able to do it!! Youtube has some pretty good tutorials on how to do salsa dancing!

So anyway, that was kind of a tangent. After that, I took a shower and stuff, and Josh got home, and we got to go hang out with some pretty cool guys, Matt Moore and Josh Thompson (or as many people know him, Josh T.H.O). Matt and Josh played in the Towers residence hall for a program some students had set up, called tunes and treats. It was pretty cool to be able to sit down and talk with Matt and Josh, especially because I hadn't gotten to talk with Matt and just hang out for a long time.

While the four of us were sitting waiting for Matt and Josh's set to start (they were the last act), I got a phonecall from my brother saying that my Grandpa Bay was in the hospital because he got run over by a tractor. I freaked out, and told him we would be right there, and he said to come quickly. That officially freaked me out, and so I was like shaking, and speed walking to the car when my dad called me and told me that he should be fine, but they were transferring him from the Clare hospital to St. Mary's in Saginaw. I knew there wasn't much we could do, so Josh and I prayed for him, and my family ( i was crying a lot) and then headed back to hang out with Matt and Josh so my mind could be preoccupied.

My grandpa, as he was standing by the tractor outside, pushed the clutch in while he was standing NEXT TO the tractor, and it was in gear. It started moving and to escape being run over completely by the tractor, he dove under it. He kind of got all folded up under it, and because the bucket was on the back of the tractor, he got drug a little bit. My dad stopped the tractor just before it slammed in to the house, and then went to my grandpas aid. That's what happened.

We got updates and stuff, and my grandpa and mom and grandma made it to Saginaw, but didn't know anything yet. Josh and I decided to go to Clare for the night to be with my dad and brother, and that was comforting for me to be with family. You can see where the tractor ran up against the garage and also where it hit the door -- it came very close to the house!!

We came home around ten because I had work this morning. As of now, my grandpa only has multiple fractures and a bruised lung. I think he may have ruptured his spleen also. He is in a full body cast, and will be in a back brace and neck brace for the next six weeks. My grandpa is seventy years old, so it is only God's miracle that he came out of this with nothing worse than he got! God is good!!!

So I am quite tired.. I should probably go to bed because I have work in the morning at 8AM..

Does Anybody even read this???

Sometimes I wonder if I just write on here to write on here, because I don't think anyone reads it anyway.... Oh well, its fun to have a blog. It is a good distraction from homework. Josh just left for home and so I am all alone. Alicia is coming to pick me up though, to play Yahtzee with her, Leslie, and maybe Matt, so that will be nice... I won't have to be alone tonight.. But I still have to sleep here alone. It is super creepy. But it will be okay. Work tomorrow, during homecoming, should be a good time to get some homework done, and get some studying done. Also, I have realized that yogurt is my new best friend. It is only 2 points on the Weight Watchers program, so it is definitely a staple food. And, just recently, I have found that it tastes DELICIOUS if I freeze it before I eat it.. and it lasts longer that way!! WOOT. But I really need to lay off the yogurt.. I have eaten like, three of them today, and I will totally get constipated if I keep going at that rate!

A cool thing happened tonight.. I randomly saw a friend that I went to third grade with!! It was very random -- she is a friend of a girl in the drama group, and she came to visit this weekend, so she happened to be at the practice. It was super crazy. It was really great to see her, and I will get to see her more on Sunday, too. So that is cool. God is Good!

Distracted by the Worship Team

I think that I have been learning a lot in the state that I have been in the last few days. I have been pretty pulled away from God; unfortunately to say, it was of my own will. I think that I was trying to ignore what was going on inside of me, and just live how I wanted, or something like that. I am not sure.

Anyway, God has been teaching me a lot about fear. Actually, He has been teaching me that although I know about fear, and what it's definition is, I do not understand it at all. In any way, shape, or form. So, God is teaching me that I cannot do life alone, and that fear will control my life if I try to do it. (the worship team is talking and I can't really concentrate right now...)

But I think that it is cool that ****again, distracted by the worship team...***** Maybe I'll finish this later.. yeah, for sure..

Talking, Planning, and Paying Bills

Those are kind of the three things I have been doing this week. Mainly the first two, but that's okay.

The last two weeks has been pretty sweet. I think that God has been teaching me quite a bit. Last week, I worked at Clare High School's marching band camp with Dave Shepherd and a guy named Eric. It was a lot of fun, and it was cool to build relationships with the highschool kids. I think that it was a remider for me about what highschool was like. It helped me appreciate college quite a bit more. :)

For the first day of the camp, which was five hours a day, we taught the kids the music and also some marching basics. The next three days consisted of fine-tuning the music, learning the drill on the field, perfecting marching technique, and then learning how to play and march at the same time. (The last one proved the hardest of all............) On the last day, Friday evening, the band parents put together a potluck, and a whole bunch of relatives and family and friends came to watch the kids perform what they had learned so far. Even my family showed up to watch :D

On Tuesday, Amy and Dayna and Drew came to Mt. Pleasant to go tubing down the Chip River with us, and afterwards we got Slurpees. Amy's car that really wasn't hers was acting up, but luckily they made it back to the cabin in one piece, with Josh and I following to hang out with them that night and have dinner too. We ended up playing volleyball and Aggrivation, and other things. While they were playing aggrivation, I went down to the lake and just observed, noticing the sweet silence that hovered over the water, and the cool breeze in the branches of the pine trees and the full moon. It was a great time for me to spend with God, and just talk and then listen. Then Mom Hill came out and we talked a while about this and that, then talked a bit about the planning for the reception.

The next day, Amy and Mom came over to our apartment in Mount Pleasant and we talked and did more serious planning for the reception. Josh had to go to a volunteer thing, so it was just the girls planning, until Dad Hill showed up. We did some more planning and they did some car stuff, and then we went to the cottage (Josh had come back by then). At the cottage, we played some three on four volleyball (mom and dad hill, me VS amy, josh, Dayna and Drew).

Then, on Thursday, we ended up going to Clare, and just kind of hung out. I got to have a nice talk with my dad, and that was really nice. When mom got home from work, we ate some burgers, and the went over to the grandparents house and saw the baby kittens then came home and hungout for the rest of the night. The next day, Friday, Josh and I went to the Amish store to do a little discount shopping and then headed to the field for the performance.

I think God has taught me to be more patient, and to listen, especially to Josh. So often I find him as a threat, or someone that I have to prove right, when really, when I listen to him, and then think about what he says, I can process more easily what he says. Its been a good week of being able to talk for the two fo us two. We've had some really good conversations and God is definitely working through that. It is cool how once we give the relationship to God, He just kind of takes over and shows us what needs to be done.

The sermon at church last Sunday was cool too, because it was about the walls that we build that keep us away from God, or turn us around when we are going toward God. It really made me think about walls that were put up in my path, and walls that I constructed myself. Like my wall of fear, for instance. I am sure that I went out, bought the bricks, and the concrete, and all the tools to make the wall, then worked long and hard to put it up so that I couldn't knock it down. But I am slowly learning to let God just kncok it down, like the walls of Jericho, and it is cool to listen to what He tells me to do.

This is pretty long now. And I still have half an hour until lunch time is over....

Drama Time

I have tons of ideas in my head for dramas and stuff for the drama ministry next year. I am pumped to be able to serve the community by using drama and skits and stuff. I can't wait. I feel like I am repeating myself, but I wanted to write a blog and I didn't have much to write about, so I decided to tell you how excited I am to lead drama. It is definitely a place where God has put me, because all these ideas are not ideas from my own mind, but from His. I don't really have much else to write about, besides Josh's awesome bookshelf that he just made out of old dresser drawers. He is very creative. It actually looks like it might be able to be a bookshelf too.

I am starting marching band camp next week at Clare -- helping out the band director, Melissa, who just recently had a baby girl (YAY!). It will be pretty fun, because I get to work with my old drum major from the Central Michigan Marching Band. He was a student teacher at Clare last Spring, and that is where I graduated from, so it's pretty cool. It will be lots of fun, and I get paid to do it!!! Dave (my old drum major) put me in charge of the flutes, clarinets and alto saxophones, so I will be helping them with music as well as finding their spots on the field during drill practice and what not. Sweet! I wasn't expecting that much responsibility, but then Dave handed me a packet with the scores in it and a CD with the music on it, and told me what he wanted me to do. So thats cool that he trusts me with all three sections!!!

Alright, I am going to look at that music now, I think.