I'm a tricky fellow to get to know, so allow me to give you a short cut regarding dancing.
After the love feast, someone put on some music. Some people danced to it. Eventually, someone tried to get me to dance. They insisted and begged. This is not the way to get me to dance. I'm stubborn enough that if I ever feel forced into doing something, I'll resist.
If you want to see me dance you must follow these specific steps.
1) Turn on danceable music.
Your definition of danceable music might be more broad than my definition. Here are some songs that fall within my definition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbSKnU5ZwJg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2J2dwFVZHsY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHuebHTD-lY
Note the well defined beat. Typically, anything you find in a club will work.
2) (optional) If you are clever enough, plan an activity where I'm standing when you turn on this music. That way you'll get the full repertoire of moves. If I'm sitting, you'll still see me groove, but it's only half as good as when I'm standing.
3) Do nothing.
This is the most critical step. If you comment on my moves or bring any attention to the fact that you see me dancing, I'll stop.
However
If you have a more direct personality, you may follow these alternate steps.
1) Invite me to a club.
2) Drag me out to the dance floor.
3) Apply liberal amounts of encouragment.
4) Repeat step three as much as necessary.
You can't force a flower to bloom, but you can trick it. ;)
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Self Update
I've talked a lot about what's going on over here, so I thought I'd give you an update about how I'm doing.
However, first I have to tell you about dinner. Friday was the Love Feast. One person thought we were supposed to eat the leftovers on Saturday night. Another thought they were supposed to be eaten on Sunday night. We ate them on Saturday, which means that we didn't have a meal planned for Sunday. Here's what we ate:
Leftover Mashed Potatoes
Leftover Rice
Bread
French Fries
I think we just killed Mr. Atkins, or whoever invented that diet.
Anyways, back to my favorite subject: me. (Just kidding. I think...)
I'm doing great! I hope I haven't given anyone a different impression through any of my blog posts. I'm excited about all the things I've been learning. I'm excited about all the things God is telling me. I'm excited about going to India. I'm a little sad that going to India means that half of my friends won't get to come with me. (They'll be over in Thailand.)
I'm excited that I serve a God that not only knows my every need, but can provide for my every need. I don't always feel like this, but right now it's kind of exciting to have lots of needs because that means that God can provide for each of them in a really cool and unexpected way.
I do have one thing I could use some help on. I'm a loving person, but I'm also a single person. How do you love someone without crossing the friendship line?
There are so many things I want to do, but I can't do because it would cross the line. Impromptu shoulder massages. Encouraging emails or notes. Hugs. Compliments. (How do you tell a girl she looks nice without any romantic connotations? I don't know. So, I can't ever tell a girl that they look nice.)
If you have any tips for me, lay 'em on me.
However, first I have to tell you about dinner. Friday was the Love Feast. One person thought we were supposed to eat the leftovers on Saturday night. Another thought they were supposed to be eaten on Sunday night. We ate them on Saturday, which means that we didn't have a meal planned for Sunday. Here's what we ate:
Leftover Mashed Potatoes
Leftover Rice
Bread
French Fries
I think we just killed Mr. Atkins, or whoever invented that diet.
Anyways, back to my favorite subject: me. (Just kidding. I think...)
I'm doing great! I hope I haven't given anyone a different impression through any of my blog posts. I'm excited about all the things I've been learning. I'm excited about all the things God is telling me. I'm excited about going to India. I'm a little sad that going to India means that half of my friends won't get to come with me. (They'll be over in Thailand.)
I'm excited that I serve a God that not only knows my every need, but can provide for my every need. I don't always feel like this, but right now it's kind of exciting to have lots of needs because that means that God can provide for each of them in a really cool and unexpected way.
I do have one thing I could use some help on. I'm a loving person, but I'm also a single person. How do you love someone without crossing the friendship line?
There are so many things I want to do, but I can't do because it would cross the line. Impromptu shoulder massages. Encouraging emails or notes. Hugs. Compliments. (How do you tell a girl she looks nice without any romantic connotations? I don't know. So, I can't ever tell a girl that they look nice.)
If you have any tips for me, lay 'em on me.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Love Feast
Yesterday we had a love feast. It was about as fun as it looked (pictures on Facebook).
We started getting ready for it at 3. The guys weren't around, so I helped the girls in the kitchen. My job: peeling potatoes. Discussion topics: the meaning of celebration. How do you celebrate? What is a celebration? What traditions should a newly married couple develop?
After finishing that, I went out to check on the guys. My job: standing next to the fire. Discussion topics: None. (We were too busy throwing snowballs at Isti's snow dog.)
I think I've just become an expert on the difference between girls and guys.
That's when I left to grab my camera so that I could take lots of pictures.
At around 5:30 we got dressed for the evening. The recommended attire: semi-formal. My attire: formal. I showed up with a dress shirt and a tie. I got some "woo woo's" from the girls, and some "OMG, you're making me look bad!" from the guys.
We ate, and everything was good. There was enough meat to feed a crowd twice our size, so naturally everyone's response was to overstuff themselves. The party turned into a dance party. It was a fun night.
We started getting ready for it at 3. The guys weren't around, so I helped the girls in the kitchen. My job: peeling potatoes. Discussion topics: the meaning of celebration. How do you celebrate? What is a celebration? What traditions should a newly married couple develop?
After finishing that, I went out to check on the guys. My job: standing next to the fire. Discussion topics: None. (We were too busy throwing snowballs at Isti's snow dog.)
I think I've just become an expert on the difference between girls and guys.
That's when I left to grab my camera so that I could take lots of pictures.
At around 5:30 we got dressed for the evening. The recommended attire: semi-formal. My attire: formal. I showed up with a dress shirt and a tie. I got some "woo woo's" from the girls, and some "OMG, you're making me look bad!" from the guys.
We ate, and everything was good. There was enough meat to feed a crowd twice our size, so naturally everyone's response was to overstuff themselves. The party turned into a dance party. It was a fun night.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Cookies
How cookies saved my day.
Do you ever have one of those days where you don't really want to do anything? You're just going through the motions? Well, today was that sort of day for me. It wears me out being around people all the time, and I need to be by myself to recharge my batteries from time to time. I was sitting in class, in need of a recharge.
Class ended, and I went up to my room to put my stuff away before lunch. I prayed this prayer, "Dear Jesus. I feel bummed out. Can you please help?"
I put my stuff down on my bed, and open up the package that I got in the mail. Whatever it is, it's pretty heavy! I lift up the flap, and there are TONS OF COOKIES! (Thanks Mandy!) Included is a very nice note addressed to "The Cookie Boy," hahaha.
She made extra so that I could share with everyone. That is a good thing because in Romanian culture it is expected of everyone to share everything. :) I took them down with me to lunch, and instantly became the most popular person in all of Romania. I wasn't depressed anymore.
Thank you Mandy for sending cookies. Thank you Jesus for adding in a dash of happiness. :)
Do you ever have one of those days where you don't really want to do anything? You're just going through the motions? Well, today was that sort of day for me. It wears me out being around people all the time, and I need to be by myself to recharge my batteries from time to time. I was sitting in class, in need of a recharge.
Class ended, and I went up to my room to put my stuff away before lunch. I prayed this prayer, "Dear Jesus. I feel bummed out. Can you please help?"
I put my stuff down on my bed, and open up the package that I got in the mail. Whatever it is, it's pretty heavy! I lift up the flap, and there are TONS OF COOKIES! (Thanks Mandy!) Included is a very nice note addressed to "The Cookie Boy," hahaha.
She made extra so that I could share with everyone. That is a good thing because in Romanian culture it is expected of everyone to share everything. :) I took them down with me to lunch, and instantly became the most popular person in all of Romania. I wasn't depressed anymore.
Thank you Mandy for sending cookies. Thank you Jesus for adding in a dash of happiness. :)
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Psalm 40:1-10
I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me, and heard my cry.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit.
Out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth-
Praise to our God, many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.
Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Many, o Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done:
and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order;
if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
my ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Then I said, "Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart."
I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly;
indeed, I do not restrain my lips, o Lord, You Yourself know.
I have not hidden Your rightousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly.
Amen.
He also brought me up out of a horrible pit.
Out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.
He has put a new song in my mouth-
Praise to our God, many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.
Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
Many, o Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done:
and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order;
if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
my ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.
Then I said, "Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart."
I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly;
indeed, I do not restrain my lips, o Lord, You Yourself know.
I have not hidden Your rightousness within my heart;
I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly.
Amen.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Mark 4:35-41
On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side." Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"
Pause there.
These guys are fishermen. They know how to handle a boat. They know how to weather a storm. Have you ever seen the movie, The Perfect Storm? There's a point in the movie where they have two options: a) stay where they're at and let all the fish they just caught spoil, or b) go directly into the storm and get home in time to sell all their fish. They choose option b. It doesn't end well for them, but the point remains: a fisherman is not afraid of a storm.
Why are the disciples so afraid? Check out verse 37, "...the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling." These guys may know how to handle a storm, but they didn't know how to handle death. Their boat was filling with water. They were going to sink! That's how dire the situation was!
Normally when I think of this passage, I think of the time I took a boat out to the channel islands. It was kind of windy, so the water was pretty choppy. The swells were probably a few feet high. I was on the front of the boat. It was fun for me. It was like a roller coaster to go up and down on each swell. That's the picture I usuall have when I think of this passage, but that's not the reality of the situation.
Hardened fishermen were fearful for their lives.
The cover of the dvd case for The Perfect Storm has a picture of a boat climbing a giant wave. http://welmantimes.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/perfect_storm_1.jpg It's a literal wall of water. If the storm was enough to make those seasoned fishermen that afraid, it might have been because of a storm like that.
I hope you have in your mind how big this storm actually was. The reason I'm putting so much emphasis on the storm is because I want to put even more emphasis on Jesus.
Let's finish the passage:
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?" And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be that even the wind and the waves obey Him!"
Do you have the picture of the storm in your mind? How big it was? How powerful? How seasoned fishermen were fearful for their lives because they thought they were going to die? Open up the Perfect Storm picture again if you want. Imagine the disciples on that boat freaking out.
"Where's Jesus?" "Oh, He's below deck asleep." "Asleep?! Well, go wake Him up! We're going to die!"
Jesus yawns, walks up to the front of the boat and in a loud voice shouts "Peace! Be still!" I know He's shouting because my Bible uses exclamation points. :)
Imagine the force a giant wave like that would have if it crashed into a city. There would be untold destruction. What would you need to stop a giant wave like that? An even bigger wall? I'm imagining a row of skyscrapers standing side by side on the beach. Except instead of buildings, it's just solid cement. A giant wall built with skyscraper sized bricks. Something like that would probably be enough.
Jesus stoped the wave with three words.
We serve a big God.
It's so easy to get caught up in circumstances. It's easy to see the storm and become afraid. But don't be afraid. Jesus is with you. He is there in your metaphorical boat. When times are tough, do what the disciples did in this storm. Run to Jesus!
Can you imagine what would have happened if they didn't go wake up Jesus? They probably would have sunk. Sometimes we have that mindset. Well, I have that mindset sometimes. I don't know about you. I think that because I'm a Christian that I can handle the storms. Nope. I still need to run to Jesus.
"Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" He is Jesus.
I love that question. I love the answer more. :)
Pause there.
These guys are fishermen. They know how to handle a boat. They know how to weather a storm. Have you ever seen the movie, The Perfect Storm? There's a point in the movie where they have two options: a) stay where they're at and let all the fish they just caught spoil, or b) go directly into the storm and get home in time to sell all their fish. They choose option b. It doesn't end well for them, but the point remains: a fisherman is not afraid of a storm.
Why are the disciples so afraid? Check out verse 37, "...the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling." These guys may know how to handle a storm, but they didn't know how to handle death. Their boat was filling with water. They were going to sink! That's how dire the situation was!
Normally when I think of this passage, I think of the time I took a boat out to the channel islands. It was kind of windy, so the water was pretty choppy. The swells were probably a few feet high. I was on the front of the boat. It was fun for me. It was like a roller coaster to go up and down on each swell. That's the picture I usuall have when I think of this passage, but that's not the reality of the situation.
Hardened fishermen were fearful for their lives.
The cover of the dvd case for The Perfect Storm has a picture of a boat climbing a giant wave. http://welmantimes.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/perfect_storm_1.jpg It's a literal wall of water. If the storm was enough to make those seasoned fishermen that afraid, it might have been because of a storm like that.
I hope you have in your mind how big this storm actually was. The reason I'm putting so much emphasis on the storm is because I want to put even more emphasis on Jesus.
Let's finish the passage:
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?" And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, "Who can this be that even the wind and the waves obey Him!"
Do you have the picture of the storm in your mind? How big it was? How powerful? How seasoned fishermen were fearful for their lives because they thought they were going to die? Open up the Perfect Storm picture again if you want. Imagine the disciples on that boat freaking out.
"Where's Jesus?" "Oh, He's below deck asleep." "Asleep?! Well, go wake Him up! We're going to die!"
Jesus yawns, walks up to the front of the boat and in a loud voice shouts "Peace! Be still!" I know He's shouting because my Bible uses exclamation points. :)
Imagine the force a giant wave like that would have if it crashed into a city. There would be untold destruction. What would you need to stop a giant wave like that? An even bigger wall? I'm imagining a row of skyscrapers standing side by side on the beach. Except instead of buildings, it's just solid cement. A giant wall built with skyscraper sized bricks. Something like that would probably be enough.
Jesus stoped the wave with three words.
We serve a big God.
It's so easy to get caught up in circumstances. It's easy to see the storm and become afraid. But don't be afraid. Jesus is with you. He is there in your metaphorical boat. When times are tough, do what the disciples did in this storm. Run to Jesus!
Can you imagine what would have happened if they didn't go wake up Jesus? They probably would have sunk. Sometimes we have that mindset. Well, I have that mindset sometimes. I don't know about you. I think that because I'm a Christian that I can handle the storms. Nope. I still need to run to Jesus.
"Who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" He is Jesus.
I love that question. I love the answer more. :)
Monday, February 21, 2011
Blog Post
I don't know how to say it, but not everyone can read my latest blog. Post a comment on this one, and I'll email it to you. (Unless you're one of the ones that can't read it. Then you won't get it.)
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Bed Time
I need to go to bed, so this will be short.
Today I went back to the Antioch church, and it was the international service. There were many Africans in the house. It was kind of funny because we put our heads down to pray before worship, and when I opened my eyes again, the first three rows of people (5-6 chairs each row) were empty. They had all gone up to sing. :)
Other than church, it was a pretty relaxing day.
A few days ago, I asked a few of you to pray for me. God was talking to me, and I wanted some wisdom about how to respond. Tomorrow, I'll give you the full story about all of that. Stay tuned. :)
Today I went back to the Antioch church, and it was the international service. There were many Africans in the house. It was kind of funny because we put our heads down to pray before worship, and when I opened my eyes again, the first three rows of people (5-6 chairs each row) were empty. They had all gone up to sing. :)
Other than church, it was a pretty relaxing day.
A few days ago, I asked a few of you to pray for me. God was talking to me, and I wanted some wisdom about how to respond. Tomorrow, I'll give you the full story about all of that. Stay tuned. :)
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Salt Mine Adventure
Today, I drove up to Turda, Romania to go to the salt mines. (Yeah yeah, I know the name is funny. Go ahead and take a few moments to get it out of your system.) We pile into the cars and head down the road. I don't know if this was on purpose or by accident, but all the guys piled into one car, and all the girls were in the other car (except Alison, she was with her hubby and Elijah in the boys car).
Dave is driving, and I'm riding in the front seat. He was pretty chatty the whole way, but all the while we're chatting I have a phrase repeating in the back of my mind. "Speed up. Speed up. Speed up."
We were the second car in a two car caravan, and the first car would be a hundred feet in front of us, then two hundred, then three hundred....then we lost them....then we got lost. Really? You didn't see them getting away? If I was in charge that wouldn't have happened.
We drive around for a while following the many signs to the salt mines, but then we stop seeing signs. Hmmm, we must be lost. We turn around and drive back to the last sign we saw, or we tried to find that last sign. We didn't find it. Instead we found a nice lady pushing a stroller. "Salt Mines?" We asked in Romanian, but luckily she spoke English. (Thank you, Jesus.) She gave us a few directions and we were back on track.
Then the phone buzzed. One missed call. It buzzed again a few minutes later. Another missed call. Then I picked up the phone, and it buzzed in my hand, but before I could answer it, the person hung up. If you want to talk, then you have to give me a chance to pick up!
As we drive along the road we drive past a familiar spot. "Hey, wasn't that the spot where we thought we were lost and we turned around?" Yep. It was. We were going the right way, but didn't even know it. It wasn't much further before we got to the entrance to the mines.
We get out of the cars, and the girl from the other car that kept calling and hanging up explained that it's cheaper if people call her instead of her calling them. So when she calls and hangs up, that's the signal to call her back. Yeah, I didn't know that.
We walk up to the entrance to the mines and it's a pretty fancy tourist attraction. I took pictures and I'll put them on Facebook as soon as my battery is charged. (My camera ran out of batteries about halfway through our visit.)
It costs about $3.22 (10 lei) to get in. We start heading down the stairs. Down down down we go. Then we get to a long carved out hallway/corridor. The first thing along the corridor is a room where people pay lots of money to just sit in. Apparently, breathing in the very salty air is good for your lungs if you have a sickness. So, people pay money to come and sit in this room and breathe. We looked at those people through the glass. (That reminds me, I haven't been to an aquarium in a long time. We should go. :) )
Then we continued down the long corridor. Our next stop was a church. It wasn't very big, and there was a very blue light shining down on a cross, but they told me it was a church so I went with it.
Next, some more stairs. Down down down. Then I see a railing. Hmmm, I wonder what's over there? I walked over to it and looked over the edge. :-0 It was at least 300 feet down! Imagine looking off of the top of a 30 story building! I took a couple steps back. It was making me dizzy. I tried to snap a few photos, but I don't know how well they came out since I was a couple feet from the railing after stepping back.
We walk down a few more steps and get to the elevator of the main cave. This place is huge! While the (glass!) elevator was going down, I took pictures the whole way down. That helped me not be so dizzy.
We get to the bottom and there is mini-golf, bowling, billiards, basketball, ping pong, and a ferris wheel! Then I see another railing. Hmmm, I wonder what's over there? Oh Wow! We're not on the bottom! The cave goes down another 100 feet or so to an underground lake.
We take another elevator down there and you can rent rowboats and row around the lake. There's four of us, so we rent two boats. Emma and I are in one boat, and Dan and Elizabeth are in the other boat. The boys are in charge of the rowing, the girls are in charge of looking pretty. Three of us do our jobs, one of us does not. (I'm looking at you Dan.) Emma and I circle the small island three times in the twenty minutes that we have. Dan and Elizabeth circle the island once. They were having some trouble. It was making Emma and I laugh. :)
We take the stairs back up to the level with the ferris wheel, and hang out here for a while. We played some mini-golf. We played some basketball. We watched the ferris wheel go slowly around. It was very nice.
Then Elizabeth walks up to me with the bright idea that we should take the stairs back up instead of the elevator. I'm game. I've hiked out of the Grand Canyon in under two hours. (Four hours down, two hours up if I remember.) Dan comes with us.
Dan goes first, then Elizabeth, then me. Dan races to the top pretty easily. Elizabeth has some trouble, but makes it to the top. I stay with Elizabeth and make sure she gets to the top. I thought I would be tired, but it wasn't that bad.
Once everyone is at the top we go back to the main corridor, and continue walking. We see some old mining equipment that was pretty cool. By then my camera had run out of batteries so I couldn't take pictures.
Then we get to a place where if you shout, you can hear 16 echos! We lean over the edge and all the outgoing people start shouting and counting. I counted 13 legitimate echos, so it's not hard to imagine that if you were really quiet, you could hear a few more. We weren't being quiet enough to hear those last faint ones.
After that we were done. It was really fun.
PS, I think Austin and I are officially the only people in Romania wearing shorts today. :) When you're used to temperatures being in the 20's (fahrenheit), the 40's feel like a warm Spring day.
Dave is driving, and I'm riding in the front seat. He was pretty chatty the whole way, but all the while we're chatting I have a phrase repeating in the back of my mind. "Speed up. Speed up. Speed up."
We were the second car in a two car caravan, and the first car would be a hundred feet in front of us, then two hundred, then three hundred....then we lost them....then we got lost. Really? You didn't see them getting away? If I was in charge that wouldn't have happened.
We drive around for a while following the many signs to the salt mines, but then we stop seeing signs. Hmmm, we must be lost. We turn around and drive back to the last sign we saw, or we tried to find that last sign. We didn't find it. Instead we found a nice lady pushing a stroller. "Salt Mines?" We asked in Romanian, but luckily she spoke English. (Thank you, Jesus.) She gave us a few directions and we were back on track.
Then the phone buzzed. One missed call. It buzzed again a few minutes later. Another missed call. Then I picked up the phone, and it buzzed in my hand, but before I could answer it, the person hung up. If you want to talk, then you have to give me a chance to pick up!
As we drive along the road we drive past a familiar spot. "Hey, wasn't that the spot where we thought we were lost and we turned around?" Yep. It was. We were going the right way, but didn't even know it. It wasn't much further before we got to the entrance to the mines.
We get out of the cars, and the girl from the other car that kept calling and hanging up explained that it's cheaper if people call her instead of her calling them. So when she calls and hangs up, that's the signal to call her back. Yeah, I didn't know that.
We walk up to the entrance to the mines and it's a pretty fancy tourist attraction. I took pictures and I'll put them on Facebook as soon as my battery is charged. (My camera ran out of batteries about halfway through our visit.)
It costs about $3.22 (10 lei) to get in. We start heading down the stairs. Down down down we go. Then we get to a long carved out hallway/corridor. The first thing along the corridor is a room where people pay lots of money to just sit in. Apparently, breathing in the very salty air is good for your lungs if you have a sickness. So, people pay money to come and sit in this room and breathe. We looked at those people through the glass. (That reminds me, I haven't been to an aquarium in a long time. We should go. :) )
Then we continued down the long corridor. Our next stop was a church. It wasn't very big, and there was a very blue light shining down on a cross, but they told me it was a church so I went with it.
Next, some more stairs. Down down down. Then I see a railing. Hmmm, I wonder what's over there? I walked over to it and looked over the edge. :-0 It was at least 300 feet down! Imagine looking off of the top of a 30 story building! I took a couple steps back. It was making me dizzy. I tried to snap a few photos, but I don't know how well they came out since I was a couple feet from the railing after stepping back.
We walk down a few more steps and get to the elevator of the main cave. This place is huge! While the (glass!) elevator was going down, I took pictures the whole way down. That helped me not be so dizzy.
We get to the bottom and there is mini-golf, bowling, billiards, basketball, ping pong, and a ferris wheel! Then I see another railing. Hmmm, I wonder what's over there? Oh Wow! We're not on the bottom! The cave goes down another 100 feet or so to an underground lake.
We take another elevator down there and you can rent rowboats and row around the lake. There's four of us, so we rent two boats. Emma and I are in one boat, and Dan and Elizabeth are in the other boat. The boys are in charge of the rowing, the girls are in charge of looking pretty. Three of us do our jobs, one of us does not. (I'm looking at you Dan.) Emma and I circle the small island three times in the twenty minutes that we have. Dan and Elizabeth circle the island once. They were having some trouble. It was making Emma and I laugh. :)
We take the stairs back up to the level with the ferris wheel, and hang out here for a while. We played some mini-golf. We played some basketball. We watched the ferris wheel go slowly around. It was very nice.
Then Elizabeth walks up to me with the bright idea that we should take the stairs back up instead of the elevator. I'm game. I've hiked out of the Grand Canyon in under two hours. (Four hours down, two hours up if I remember.) Dan comes with us.
Dan goes first, then Elizabeth, then me. Dan races to the top pretty easily. Elizabeth has some trouble, but makes it to the top. I stay with Elizabeth and make sure she gets to the top. I thought I would be tired, but it wasn't that bad.
Once everyone is at the top we go back to the main corridor, and continue walking. We see some old mining equipment that was pretty cool. By then my camera had run out of batteries so I couldn't take pictures.
Then we get to a place where if you shout, you can hear 16 echos! We lean over the edge and all the outgoing people start shouting and counting. I counted 13 legitimate echos, so it's not hard to imagine that if you were really quiet, you could hear a few more. We weren't being quiet enough to hear those last faint ones.
After that we were done. It was really fun.
PS, I think Austin and I are officially the only people in Romania wearing shorts today. :) When you're used to temperatures being in the 20's (fahrenheit), the 40's feel like a warm Spring day.
Friday, February 18, 2011
My Prophecy
So, the guy with the prophetic gift spoke about me today. Here's what he said: (Followed by my commentary in parenthesis.)
I have the gift of discerning the spirits. I can tell which things are from God, and which things are not. (I agree a little with this. The devil talks to me as much as God does, so I know when he speaks. "Pssst, Mike. You need to sleep in instead of going to church. It's going to be boring anyways. You already know all that stuff." "Leave me alone. I like church.")
I'm very good at seeing patterns, and seeing order out of chaos. (I have this, but I didn't think it was a gift.)
I have the ability to see God's hand in the middle of small details where other people don't necessarily think He's involved. (Yep. http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/02/outreach-teams.html)
He told me that I was going to be a teacher, but not a math teacher. I would be a teacher of God's word. (We talked for a bit earlier in the week, so he knew about my math background, and he asked me if I wanted to be a teacher in that conversation. I told him that I was headed on the teacher track in college, but I quit because it didn't feel right.)
He asked me if I had read the Bible, and I said yes. (Two years ago, I did one of those read the Bible in a year things. I'm doing one again this year.)
He told me that was good and that I need to emphasize the Old Testament when I read the Bible because I'll be able to see the patterns in the Old Testament in how it points towards Jesus. (God has been pointing me towards Isaiah for a while now, so I'm going to start reading that.)
I'm able to explain things really well. I can take big concepts and explain them in a simple way such that even children can understand. (Yep.)
I'm able to see illustrations, pictures, and teach in parables and object lessons. (Yep. http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/02/metaphorical-shopping.html)
I can see strategies of the enemy, and I can see strategies on how to fight the enemy. I can see strategies of warfare, and how we can move forward as a body of believers. (I agree with that. The devil isn't very clever. He uses the same tricks over and over.)
I can see strategies on how to reach certain people groups, and dark areas for a local congregation, cities, regions, and nations. (Cool. I haven't really done this one except for when I thought my church in Menifee had too much emphasis on spectacle in worship and not enough emphasis on Jesus.)
Then he prayed for me. He prayed that the colored plastic over the window of my soul would be removed and peeled away so that I would get clear revelation.
Then he said that my name, Mike, is like Michael. Michael was one of the angels and the angels were messengers of God. He said I would be a messenger of God.
After that he moved on to someone else.
None of it blew my mind. It was like hearing from an old friend that knew me really well.
Dear Jesus, thank You for speaking to me so often that none of this was new stuff. :)
I have the gift of discerning the spirits. I can tell which things are from God, and which things are not. (I agree a little with this. The devil talks to me as much as God does, so I know when he speaks. "Pssst, Mike. You need to sleep in instead of going to church. It's going to be boring anyways. You already know all that stuff." "Leave me alone. I like church.")
I'm very good at seeing patterns, and seeing order out of chaos. (I have this, but I didn't think it was a gift.)
I have the ability to see God's hand in the middle of small details where other people don't necessarily think He's involved. (Yep. http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/02/outreach-teams.html)
He told me that I was going to be a teacher, but not a math teacher. I would be a teacher of God's word. (We talked for a bit earlier in the week, so he knew about my math background, and he asked me if I wanted to be a teacher in that conversation. I told him that I was headed on the teacher track in college, but I quit because it didn't feel right.)
He asked me if I had read the Bible, and I said yes. (Two years ago, I did one of those read the Bible in a year things. I'm doing one again this year.)
He told me that was good and that I need to emphasize the Old Testament when I read the Bible because I'll be able to see the patterns in the Old Testament in how it points towards Jesus. (God has been pointing me towards Isaiah for a while now, so I'm going to start reading that.)
I'm able to explain things really well. I can take big concepts and explain them in a simple way such that even children can understand. (Yep.)
I'm able to see illustrations, pictures, and teach in parables and object lessons. (Yep. http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/02/metaphorical-shopping.html)
I can see strategies of the enemy, and I can see strategies on how to fight the enemy. I can see strategies of warfare, and how we can move forward as a body of believers. (I agree with that. The devil isn't very clever. He uses the same tricks over and over.)
I can see strategies on how to reach certain people groups, and dark areas for a local congregation, cities, regions, and nations. (Cool. I haven't really done this one except for when I thought my church in Menifee had too much emphasis on spectacle in worship and not enough emphasis on Jesus.)
Then he prayed for me. He prayed that the colored plastic over the window of my soul would be removed and peeled away so that I would get clear revelation.
Then he said that my name, Mike, is like Michael. Michael was one of the angels and the angels were messengers of God. He said I would be a messenger of God.
After that he moved on to someone else.
None of it blew my mind. It was like hearing from an old friend that knew me really well.
Dear Jesus, thank You for speaking to me so often that none of this was new stuff. :)
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Prophecy
This week we've been learning about the person of the Holy Spirit. It's been really interesting because I've never really studied the Holy Spirit. We took a "whirlwind" tour of Luke and Acts and highlighted each verse that emphasized the Holy Spirit. I've never put that much emphasis on the Holy Spirit before, but seeing the emphasis that Paul, and even Jesus, put on needing the Holy Spirit, I'm going to go forward with a new perspective.
Our teacher also has the gift of prophesy, and throughout the week has been revealing prophetic words about each of the students, and a few non-students. I've talked to a few people after they've received the message and most of what he says is confirmation, but there are also new things. One person he revealed had the gift of healings. Another was revealed to have the gift of joy. Another was told that God alone is their judge and that they shouldn't worry about the bickering they have with their family members. Another was told that he is like an alarm that is going to be used to wake up people from their drunkeness and revelry.
Everyone received a very unique message. About half of them, I completely agreed with. One guy he said was a mighty warrior. I agreed with that one. I also saw him as a mighty warrior. The girl with the gift of joy has a smile that brightens your day, and it was easy to agree with him on that one as well.
I haven't received any prophecy yet, but I'll let you know if he speaks over me. I don't mind if he speaks over me, or skips me because God already speaks to me, and reveals to me different things. (Email me privately if you want to know what God has been showing me. It might make me prideful if I share them publicly.)
Our teacher also has the gift of prophesy, and throughout the week has been revealing prophetic words about each of the students, and a few non-students. I've talked to a few people after they've received the message and most of what he says is confirmation, but there are also new things. One person he revealed had the gift of healings. Another was revealed to have the gift of joy. Another was told that God alone is their judge and that they shouldn't worry about the bickering they have with their family members. Another was told that he is like an alarm that is going to be used to wake up people from their drunkeness and revelry.
Everyone received a very unique message. About half of them, I completely agreed with. One guy he said was a mighty warrior. I agreed with that one. I also saw him as a mighty warrior. The girl with the gift of joy has a smile that brightens your day, and it was easy to agree with him on that one as well.
I haven't received any prophecy yet, but I'll let you know if he speaks over me. I don't mind if he speaks over me, or skips me because God already speaks to me, and reveals to me different things. (Email me privately if you want to know what God has been showing me. It might make me prideful if I share them publicly.)
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Metaphorical Shopping
So I was talking with the teacher this week, and he asked me what I plan on doing after the DTS. It's a simple enough question, and for a long time my plan has been to move back to Carpinteria, get another job, and resume all the things I was doing before my DTS.
However, my one on one leader challenged me to go to God with it. That's what I told the teacher I was doing (or planning on doing, since I hadn't done it yet). Then I started talking about all the destinations that I could go to, and all the things I could do. He stopped me and gave me a good reminder that God likes to give me from time to time.
Never look past where God has you. Yes there are destinations out there, and places God wants you to go, but never get so focused on those things that you lose sight of where you are and what God is doing today.
A picture formed in my mind of a shopper at a grocery store. This particular shopper was sent by God to go to the store to get a list of groceries, but he was so destination oriented that when he got to the store, he went directly to the check out. His cart was empty! When he left, he wasn't going to have any of the metaphorical foods that God put on his list to go get, which meant that he was going to be malnourished.
Sometimes, God has me wandering up and down the aisles. I'll get a glimpse of the check out, and want to run to it and just move on to the next thing. But God is faithful to remind me that I still need to put some eggs in my cart, or some milk. He's got a recipe in mind that He wants to cook up, and I need to get every thing that He's put on my list before I rush to the check out.
Before I get too hurried to finish my DTS and move on to the next thing, I need to take hold of every fruit that God gives me during my DTS. God does things with purpose. He created each day with a purpose in mind.
So often I go through life without that in mind. I'll let a week or month pass by unnoticed. What was God trying to tell me that month? I don't know. I didn't really pay attention. Who did God introduce me to that really needed some encouragement? I don't know.
It's going to be hard to live each day with a purpose. I know I'll probably fail at it more often than not.
Lord, remind me of your purposes. Remind me that when I get to the dairy aisle, that I need to pick up specific things. You don't bring people to the dairy aisle to get bread. You bring them there to get eggs, milk, cheese, etc. Open my eyes to Your purposes. Don't let my cart be empty when I get to the check out because I was in too much of a hurry to get to the destination. Amen.
However, my one on one leader challenged me to go to God with it. That's what I told the teacher I was doing (or planning on doing, since I hadn't done it yet). Then I started talking about all the destinations that I could go to, and all the things I could do. He stopped me and gave me a good reminder that God likes to give me from time to time.
Never look past where God has you. Yes there are destinations out there, and places God wants you to go, but never get so focused on those things that you lose sight of where you are and what God is doing today.
A picture formed in my mind of a shopper at a grocery store. This particular shopper was sent by God to go to the store to get a list of groceries, but he was so destination oriented that when he got to the store, he went directly to the check out. His cart was empty! When he left, he wasn't going to have any of the metaphorical foods that God put on his list to go get, which meant that he was going to be malnourished.
Sometimes, God has me wandering up and down the aisles. I'll get a glimpse of the check out, and want to run to it and just move on to the next thing. But God is faithful to remind me that I still need to put some eggs in my cart, or some milk. He's got a recipe in mind that He wants to cook up, and I need to get every thing that He's put on my list before I rush to the check out.
Before I get too hurried to finish my DTS and move on to the next thing, I need to take hold of every fruit that God gives me during my DTS. God does things with purpose. He created each day with a purpose in mind.
So often I go through life without that in mind. I'll let a week or month pass by unnoticed. What was God trying to tell me that month? I don't know. I didn't really pay attention. Who did God introduce me to that really needed some encouragement? I don't know.
It's going to be hard to live each day with a purpose. I know I'll probably fail at it more often than not.
Lord, remind me of your purposes. Remind me that when I get to the dairy aisle, that I need to pick up specific things. You don't bring people to the dairy aisle to get bread. You bring them there to get eggs, milk, cheese, etc. Open my eyes to Your purposes. Don't let my cart be empty when I get to the check out because I was in too much of a hurry to get to the destination. Amen.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Outreach Teams
So today they revealed the teams that will be going on outreach. I was looking at the teams, and something didn't quite feel right about them. So I started praying. God was nice enough to show me something cool.
There were some people that needed rearranging, but no one needed to switch teams. One team just needed to be listed differently. After rearranging the list, I noticed that both teams were perfectly balanced.
Team 1, Team 2, Roles (as I see them)
Stacey, Emma, Leader
Lia, Mike, co-leader
Austin, Isti, mature, strong
Alison, Zsuzsa, wise, supportive
Ovi, Cipri, takes charge & gets things done
Cristina, Dan, brings joy and energy
Alex, Timmy, adaptable and capable of most anything
Brook, Ionut, quiet strength
If anyone switches teams, then they'll be unbalanced! There was (still is) some drama with Brook. She is having some kidney issues. She wanted to go to with one team, but since Alison is a nurse, it was smarter for her to go with the other team. Now that I see the teams we have, I think God used that kidney issue to put her on the other team.
I love to see God at work in the small details like this! I'm so encouraged to find out that God created the perfect teams, that are perfectly balanced. We created these teams so haphazardly. We were asked where we wanted to go, and somehow, God spoke to each of us and created the perfect teams!
Thank you Jesus. :)
Prayer requests:
Please pray for Brook. She has kidney stones. :-0
Please pray that God will continue to reveal the works that He is doing. It's so encouraging! :D
There were some people that needed rearranging, but no one needed to switch teams. One team just needed to be listed differently. After rearranging the list, I noticed that both teams were perfectly balanced.
Team 1, Team 2, Roles (as I see them)
Stacey, Emma, Leader
Lia, Mike, co-leader
Austin, Isti, mature, strong
Alison, Zsuzsa, wise, supportive
Ovi, Cipri, takes charge & gets things done
Cristina, Dan, brings joy and energy
Alex, Timmy, adaptable and capable of most anything
Brook, Ionut, quiet strength
If anyone switches teams, then they'll be unbalanced! There was (still is) some drama with Brook. She is having some kidney issues. She wanted to go to with one team, but since Alison is a nurse, it was smarter for her to go with the other team. Now that I see the teams we have, I think God used that kidney issue to put her on the other team.
I love to see God at work in the small details like this! I'm so encouraged to find out that God created the perfect teams, that are perfectly balanced. We created these teams so haphazardly. We were asked where we wanted to go, and somehow, God spoke to each of us and created the perfect teams!
Thank you Jesus. :)
Prayer requests:
Please pray for Brook. She has kidney stones. :-0
Please pray that God will continue to reveal the works that He is doing. It's so encouraging! :D
Monday, February 14, 2011
Home
I grew up in Menifee, and that was my home. Then I moved to Santa Barbara and later Carpinteria, and that was my home. Then I went on a prayer tour of San Francisco, and I could easily envision that being my home. Now I'm in Romania, and I could see this place being my home.
At first I was confused by this, but then I realized the common link between each location. It's where God was. I am home as long as I am in His presence. :)
This week we are learning about the person of the Holy Spirit. Last week we learned about family relationships. If either of those subjects interest you, let me know and I'll do a full post on them. :)
God is stretching me, and growing me so much. It's a little uncomfortable, but I've been comfortable for a long time. It's about time God take me out of my comfort zone.
At first I was confused by this, but then I realized the common link between each location. It's where God was. I am home as long as I am in His presence. :)
This week we are learning about the person of the Holy Spirit. Last week we learned about family relationships. If either of those subjects interest you, let me know and I'll do a full post on them. :)
God is stretching me, and growing me so much. It's a little uncomfortable, but I've been comfortable for a long time. It's about time God take me out of my comfort zone.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Cooking: The Sequel
So someone in their infinite "wisdom" (or perhaps humor?) decided that I needed to be in charge of cooking again. I don't really know if they liked my food, or just wanted me to blog about it again. In any case, here is the story of tonight's adventure.
Last time, we ran out of gas for the stove, so everything took longer to cook. We had wished that we started earlier. Then we might have had more time to finish. Today, I granted my own wish and showed up at 3:50 to start cooking for our 6pm dinner.
No one was there.
Hmmm, looks like I'm on my own.
I walked over to the menu: chicken.....stuff & mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes?? I'm a mashed potato genius!
I don't remember when it started, but somewhere along the line, it became my duty to make the mashed potatoes every Thanksgiving. My other brothers had jobs too. One was in charge of the Pillsbury croissant rolls. Step one: open package. Step two: roll out croissant rolls onto pan. Step three: put in oven. Step four: take out of oven. Four steps, 20 minutes, 15 of which are waiting for them to cook in the oven. The other is in charge of the canned cranberry sauce. Step one: open can. Step two: dump onto plate. Somehow, I think I got the shaft in these work assignments.
I'm in charge of peeling and boiling and mashing and adding salt and adding butter and adding milk and tasting it to make sure it's just right and adjusting in case that it isn't and it takes me quite a bit longer than the 21 minutes that the other tasks combine to take.
Anyways, I've been doing mashed potatoes for years, so I set to work on that. How many potatoes? Twenty? I can do twenty. I walk back to the pantry and find three bags of potatoes. Two look very nice, but the third does not look so nice to me. (Is it just me or should food not have things growing on it?)
I grab a nice bag of potatoes and there's about 18 in the bag. I get started with those, and figure that by the time my helper shows up, she can give me a second opinion about if we need more or not. I scrub them, and peel them and start putting the peeled ones in a pot. I get most of the way done and my helper has not shown up yet. She went to church and probably hung around in town for a while. I hoped that she didn't forget that she was on dinner prep with me, or we would have only had mashed potatoes tonight. ("So Mike, you're on dinner prep again?" "Yep." "What are we having?" "Mashed potatoes." "And?" "And what? Just potatoes.")
Thankfully she showed up, sufficiently erasing that thought. I kept going on my mashed potato masterpiece, and she started the chicken......stuff. She is a rockstar in the kitchen and is in charge of dinners from Monday to Friday. She knows what she is doing, so I'm very thankful that she is in charge of the chicken.....stuff. (Don't ask me to describe it to you.)
She gives me another bag of potatoes (the gross bag) and I set to work cutting off all the gross stuff growing on the potatoes, and peeling them and putting them into the pot. (As you read this and wonder about the potatoes that are sitting in your stomach, know that I turned on my perfectionist mode and made sure that each potato was a picture of delicious perfection before I added it to the pot.)
She also gives me some carrots and something else that has a normal sounding name, but I don't remember it at the moment. They looked like carrots, but were white. (Maybe my helper will comment on this and tell me what they were. :) ) I scrubbed and peeled and chopped those like a champ. (Someone even compared my skills to a knife infomercial where they chop really fast. I wasn't going that fast, but it was a nice compliment. :) )
Soon the potatoes are on the stove, next to the chicken........stuff. I designate myself as the potato watcher and just stand by the pot and watch them boil. My helper is very clever and gives me a bunch of useful tasks to fill my time with. I filled up the salt shakers, I put out the plates, I put out the bread. Then I noticed some dishes that needed washing and putting away. By the time those things were done, it was time to take the spuds off the stove and start mashing. Zero time spent being unuseful. If there were such things as cooking efficiency ratings, ours would be very high.
I take the potatoes and put them in the biggest bowl I could find, and start mashing. I followed very precise steps:
1) MASH MASH MASH
2) Add random amounts of sour cream, milk, and salt
3) MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH
4) Taste
Perfect! I'm a mashed potato genius!
Actually, I added a bit too much salt, and probably a bit too much milk and also a bit too much sour cream. :-p Luckily, I was only working with half of the potatoes. I went and added the rest of the boiled potatoes to the ones that I already mashed and repeated the precise steps I had previously followed, omitting step two:
1) MASH MASH MASH
3) MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH
4) Taste
Even more perfect than last time! I am a mashed potato genius!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately, I had forgotten to turn off my perfectionist mode, and as I stared at my perfect potatoes, I wondered how they could be better. Maybe I should mash them some more. Maybe I should add some more milk. Maybe I should use a different utensil for mashing, or perhaps a different technique. Before I could start wondering if there were any ancient Chinese mashing techniques, someone grabbed the bowl and put it out to be served to the masses. I felt like a parent sending a kid off to college. "Goodbye, I hope I've prepared you enough to face the world on your own."
Then I walked over to my helper (I keep calling her "my helper" when actually, I was her helper), and asked if I could help with anything. Nothing comes to mind, so I go and get some water to drink. I come back and she has found some peppers that we couldn't find earlier.
Me: "Is it too late to add them?" I ask, not wanting to ruin the masterpiece that is being stirred in the pot.
Her: "Nope, just chop them up and I'll add them." She responds a little too non-chalantly, not fully grasping the seriousness of adding such a flavorful ingredient so late in the game.
Me: "Okay." I say, silently wondering if Picasso ever non-chalantly splashed green paint on any of his paintings right before sending them to the museum.
I start chopping them, wondering if the nose is going to fall off our sphinx if we start chiseling too much. When I'm done, I go and get more water. When I get back, she has already added them to the pot containing the chicken.........stuff. Oh well, I guess we'll find out.
Last task: Find a thing so we can put the pot on it so it's not directly on the table.
I know she means a rectangular oven mitt, but they are nowhere to be found. I find a glove shaped one. Not good enough I guess, as she walks over to the secret (by secret, I mean in plain view) location by the side of the room and grabs one from the stack that is sitting there. Oh, I didn't see those.
She sets out the chicken..........stuff, we pray and now it's time to eat. My perfectionist mode is still turned on, so I'm nervous as people approach the food. Is it going to be good enough? What if it's bad? What if it's so bad that people die?!?! The next thought was going to be about growing facial hair and changing my name, but people just sat down like nothing was the matter and ate the food. I guess it wasn't bad. (That's the nice thing about a perfectionist serving dinner to a bunch of non-perfectionists.)
I grabbed some and sat down too. It was far from bad. It was actually really good. Green beans, and mashed potatoes, and chicken...........stuff, and bread. Mmmmmm, I wanted to take a picture, but I had loaned out my camera to a friend.
Each bite was better than the last. I was quietly having a religious experience while everyone else conversed about their days. Not only was the taste perfect, but it was also perfectly portioned to exactly match my hunger needs. I had created a magical dinner! I quietly declared my helper and I to be champions of the kitchen, and started daydreaming about how the crisis in the Middle East could be solved with a giant pot of chicken............stuff. It was a good day.
Last time, we ran out of gas for the stove, so everything took longer to cook. We had wished that we started earlier. Then we might have had more time to finish. Today, I granted my own wish and showed up at 3:50 to start cooking for our 6pm dinner.
No one was there.
Hmmm, looks like I'm on my own.
I walked over to the menu: chicken.....stuff & mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes?? I'm a mashed potato genius!
I don't remember when it started, but somewhere along the line, it became my duty to make the mashed potatoes every Thanksgiving. My other brothers had jobs too. One was in charge of the Pillsbury croissant rolls. Step one: open package. Step two: roll out croissant rolls onto pan. Step three: put in oven. Step four: take out of oven. Four steps, 20 minutes, 15 of which are waiting for them to cook in the oven. The other is in charge of the canned cranberry sauce. Step one: open can. Step two: dump onto plate. Somehow, I think I got the shaft in these work assignments.
I'm in charge of peeling and boiling and mashing and adding salt and adding butter and adding milk and tasting it to make sure it's just right and adjusting in case that it isn't and it takes me quite a bit longer than the 21 minutes that the other tasks combine to take.
Anyways, I've been doing mashed potatoes for years, so I set to work on that. How many potatoes? Twenty? I can do twenty. I walk back to the pantry and find three bags of potatoes. Two look very nice, but the third does not look so nice to me. (Is it just me or should food not have things growing on it?)
I grab a nice bag of potatoes and there's about 18 in the bag. I get started with those, and figure that by the time my helper shows up, she can give me a second opinion about if we need more or not. I scrub them, and peel them and start putting the peeled ones in a pot. I get most of the way done and my helper has not shown up yet. She went to church and probably hung around in town for a while. I hoped that she didn't forget that she was on dinner prep with me, or we would have only had mashed potatoes tonight. ("So Mike, you're on dinner prep again?" "Yep." "What are we having?" "Mashed potatoes." "And?" "And what? Just potatoes.")
Thankfully she showed up, sufficiently erasing that thought. I kept going on my mashed potato masterpiece, and she started the chicken......stuff. She is a rockstar in the kitchen and is in charge of dinners from Monday to Friday. She knows what she is doing, so I'm very thankful that she is in charge of the chicken.....stuff. (Don't ask me to describe it to you.)
She gives me another bag of potatoes (the gross bag) and I set to work cutting off all the gross stuff growing on the potatoes, and peeling them and putting them into the pot. (As you read this and wonder about the potatoes that are sitting in your stomach, know that I turned on my perfectionist mode and made sure that each potato was a picture of delicious perfection before I added it to the pot.)
She also gives me some carrots and something else that has a normal sounding name, but I don't remember it at the moment. They looked like carrots, but were white. (Maybe my helper will comment on this and tell me what they were. :) ) I scrubbed and peeled and chopped those like a champ. (Someone even compared my skills to a knife infomercial where they chop really fast. I wasn't going that fast, but it was a nice compliment. :) )
Soon the potatoes are on the stove, next to the chicken........stuff. I designate myself as the potato watcher and just stand by the pot and watch them boil. My helper is very clever and gives me a bunch of useful tasks to fill my time with. I filled up the salt shakers, I put out the plates, I put out the bread. Then I noticed some dishes that needed washing and putting away. By the time those things were done, it was time to take the spuds off the stove and start mashing. Zero time spent being unuseful. If there were such things as cooking efficiency ratings, ours would be very high.
I take the potatoes and put them in the biggest bowl I could find, and start mashing. I followed very precise steps:
1) MASH MASH MASH
2) Add random amounts of sour cream, milk, and salt
3) MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH
4) Taste
Perfect! I'm a mashed potato genius!
Actually, I added a bit too much salt, and probably a bit too much milk and also a bit too much sour cream. :-p Luckily, I was only working with half of the potatoes. I went and added the rest of the boiled potatoes to the ones that I already mashed and repeated the precise steps I had previously followed, omitting step two:
1) MASH MASH MASH
3) MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH MASH
4) Taste
Even more perfect than last time! I am a mashed potato genius!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately, I had forgotten to turn off my perfectionist mode, and as I stared at my perfect potatoes, I wondered how they could be better. Maybe I should mash them some more. Maybe I should add some more milk. Maybe I should use a different utensil for mashing, or perhaps a different technique. Before I could start wondering if there were any ancient Chinese mashing techniques, someone grabbed the bowl and put it out to be served to the masses. I felt like a parent sending a kid off to college. "Goodbye, I hope I've prepared you enough to face the world on your own."
Then I walked over to my helper (I keep calling her "my helper" when actually, I was her helper), and asked if I could help with anything. Nothing comes to mind, so I go and get some water to drink. I come back and she has found some peppers that we couldn't find earlier.
Me: "Is it too late to add them?" I ask, not wanting to ruin the masterpiece that is being stirred in the pot.
Her: "Nope, just chop them up and I'll add them." She responds a little too non-chalantly, not fully grasping the seriousness of adding such a flavorful ingredient so late in the game.
Me: "Okay." I say, silently wondering if Picasso ever non-chalantly splashed green paint on any of his paintings right before sending them to the museum.
I start chopping them, wondering if the nose is going to fall off our sphinx if we start chiseling too much. When I'm done, I go and get more water. When I get back, she has already added them to the pot containing the chicken.........stuff. Oh well, I guess we'll find out.
Last task: Find a thing so we can put the pot on it so it's not directly on the table.
I know she means a rectangular oven mitt, but they are nowhere to be found. I find a glove shaped one. Not good enough I guess, as she walks over to the secret (by secret, I mean in plain view) location by the side of the room and grabs one from the stack that is sitting there. Oh, I didn't see those.
She sets out the chicken..........stuff, we pray and now it's time to eat. My perfectionist mode is still turned on, so I'm nervous as people approach the food. Is it going to be good enough? What if it's bad? What if it's so bad that people die?!?! The next thought was going to be about growing facial hair and changing my name, but people just sat down like nothing was the matter and ate the food. I guess it wasn't bad. (That's the nice thing about a perfectionist serving dinner to a bunch of non-perfectionists.)
I grabbed some and sat down too. It was far from bad. It was actually really good. Green beans, and mashed potatoes, and chicken...........stuff, and bread. Mmmmmm, I wanted to take a picture, but I had loaned out my camera to a friend.
Each bite was better than the last. I was quietly having a religious experience while everyone else conversed about their days. Not only was the taste perfect, but it was also perfectly portioned to exactly match my hunger needs. I had created a magical dinner! I quietly declared my helper and I to be champions of the kitchen, and started daydreaming about how the crisis in the Middle East could be solved with a giant pot of chicken............stuff. It was a good day.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Evangelism
Today, after lunch and work duties, Emma taught a short lesson on evangelism, and prepared our hearts to go out into the city and actually do some evangelism.
This was the first time that we really got a chance to practice what we learned. This opportunity was met with mixed reactions. Half of us were scared to go out into the city and just walk up to people and talk to them about Jesus. The other half were tired from a long day. (I was both.)
We paired off into teams and jumped into taxis and went off into the city. During intercession, earlier in the day, we prayed for the evangelism that we were going to do. I had the Israelites leaving Egypt on my mind at the time so I prayed that God would go before us by a cloud during the day and by a pillar of fire during the night. As I looked out of the window of our taxi, I saw that the whole city was covered by a giant cloud. It was overcast, and it was so thick that it snowed on us a bit. (Sorry guys! Next time I'll ask God to lead us by pizza or something. :-p ) I thought that was a good sign. No matter where we walked, God was going to be with us.
I was teamed up with Ovi, and when we got out of the cab in downtown Cluj, we started walking. I didn't really know where we should walk, so we just kept walking. We passed by a homeless guy. I asked Ovi if we should start with him. He told me that we probably shouldn't. It can be dangerous to approach shady characters like that. I was a bit shocked. In Santa Barbara, you can talk to homeless guys if you want to. I used to do it with Adorn (the Friday night college ministry at my church). Once a month we'd go out and pray for and hang out with the homeless guys. I was a bit discouraged that this guy wasn't going to get prayed for, but I did want to be safe. We kept walking.
Then Ovi saw a guy selling some wooden things. He went up and started talking to him. It was all in Romanian, so I couldn't really understand what they were talking about. When we left, I asked Ovi if he talked to him about Jesus. Nope. He talked with him about his family, and the wooden things he was selling, and he found out that it takes about 30 minutes to hand carve each thing, and Ovi was nice enough to buy one from him for 5 lei. I was disappointed again, and felt like we missed another opportunity. Ovi told me he thought about it, but he didn't want to force Jesus down anyone's throat. I agree that we shouldn't do that, but I was still disappointed.
We kept walking, and I kept asking God to open up opportunities for us, or to lead us down some random side street, or to lead us into some random shop. I didn't really hear anything, so we kept walking straight. We came up to the ice skating rink, and I thought we should go and pray for someone there. I didn't say anything though. Now I was disappointed in myself.
I reasoned in my mind that we couldn't just go out onto the ice and pray for the skaters. They wouldn't stand still for long enough for us to say anything. I thought that maybe we were supposed to talk to someone standing next to the rink, but as I looked over at the people that were around the area, I didn't really see anyone that I felt called to like the homeless guy. We kept walking. :-/
When we got about thirty minutes away from our starting point we turned around and headed back. We had an hour and I didn't want to be irresponsible, and show up late. On the way back I kept praying that God would lead us, and give us one last chance to talk to someone, but it didn't happen. We get all the way to where we started and we waited for the other teams to show up.
Argh! I was ready to part the Red Sea! I was ready to preach the sermon on the mount! And all I did was shy away from all the people that we passed.
One of the staff came back and asked me how it went. I was so discouraged by everything, but for some reason I didn't tell her that. Instead my response was, "I don't know how it went. I mean, I know how I thought it went, but I don't know how it went overall. Maybe from God's perspective it was a huge success to have a couple guys walking around praying and carrying a Bible." She nodded and as the othe teams approached, and asked them how it went. They talked and eventually we walked over to a restaurant to eat and debrief. None of the other teams found as much discouragement as I did. They were all hugely encouraged and blessed by their experiences.
One of the teams: Cristina and "Timmy" (we call her Timmy, but her real name is Cristina) went out and talked to a girl. "Hi, my name is Cristina. What's yours?" "Cristina." "Wait what??" Timmy chimes in, "My name is Cristina too!" Hahaha, Cristina and Cristina went out and found Cristina. Nice one, God. They spent some time talking to her about God and got to know her pretty well. It was a very nice time. (If Cristina puts the full story on her blog, I'll link to it.)
Another team went out and met a lady with a dog. The dog didn't have a leash and was running all over. Ishti was talking to the lady in Romanian, and Austin didn't speak Romanian so he was watching this dog run around. As Ishti was talking to this lady, he asked if he could pray for her. She wanted to, but not if her dog was going to run away. While they were talking about this in Romanian, Austin prays for the dog to come back. It's a half a block down the road, and it stops in its tracks and turns around and runs toward the lady and sits at her feet. Ishti prays for the lady, and the dog that was once hyperactive is now sitting patiently. Haha, God. Nice again.
Another team talks about how they found this homeless guy and they talked with him and prayed with him and even got him to do some praying. It was the same guy that I had seen earlier!
Another team talked about how they met a guy that carved his own wooden utensils. It was the same guy that we had met earlier! They actually did talk to him about Jesus, and were able to tell him that God loves him and they prayed for him.
Lord, I apologize for my meekness, but I thank you and praise Your name for accomplishing Your work anyways. You wanted to speak into each of these people's lives and just because I didn't do it, didn't mean that it wasn't going to get done. That actually encourages me. I'm not so full of myself that I need to be the person in the center of what God is doing. I'm just happy that those people got a taste of Jesus. It was a good day.
This was the first time that we really got a chance to practice what we learned. This opportunity was met with mixed reactions. Half of us were scared to go out into the city and just walk up to people and talk to them about Jesus. The other half were tired from a long day. (I was both.)
We paired off into teams and jumped into taxis and went off into the city. During intercession, earlier in the day, we prayed for the evangelism that we were going to do. I had the Israelites leaving Egypt on my mind at the time so I prayed that God would go before us by a cloud during the day and by a pillar of fire during the night. As I looked out of the window of our taxi, I saw that the whole city was covered by a giant cloud. It was overcast, and it was so thick that it snowed on us a bit. (Sorry guys! Next time I'll ask God to lead us by pizza or something. :-p ) I thought that was a good sign. No matter where we walked, God was going to be with us.
I was teamed up with Ovi, and when we got out of the cab in downtown Cluj, we started walking. I didn't really know where we should walk, so we just kept walking. We passed by a homeless guy. I asked Ovi if we should start with him. He told me that we probably shouldn't. It can be dangerous to approach shady characters like that. I was a bit shocked. In Santa Barbara, you can talk to homeless guys if you want to. I used to do it with Adorn (the Friday night college ministry at my church). Once a month we'd go out and pray for and hang out with the homeless guys. I was a bit discouraged that this guy wasn't going to get prayed for, but I did want to be safe. We kept walking.
Then Ovi saw a guy selling some wooden things. He went up and started talking to him. It was all in Romanian, so I couldn't really understand what they were talking about. When we left, I asked Ovi if he talked to him about Jesus. Nope. He talked with him about his family, and the wooden things he was selling, and he found out that it takes about 30 minutes to hand carve each thing, and Ovi was nice enough to buy one from him for 5 lei. I was disappointed again, and felt like we missed another opportunity. Ovi told me he thought about it, but he didn't want to force Jesus down anyone's throat. I agree that we shouldn't do that, but I was still disappointed.
We kept walking, and I kept asking God to open up opportunities for us, or to lead us down some random side street, or to lead us into some random shop. I didn't really hear anything, so we kept walking straight. We came up to the ice skating rink, and I thought we should go and pray for someone there. I didn't say anything though. Now I was disappointed in myself.
I reasoned in my mind that we couldn't just go out onto the ice and pray for the skaters. They wouldn't stand still for long enough for us to say anything. I thought that maybe we were supposed to talk to someone standing next to the rink, but as I looked over at the people that were around the area, I didn't really see anyone that I felt called to like the homeless guy. We kept walking. :-/
When we got about thirty minutes away from our starting point we turned around and headed back. We had an hour and I didn't want to be irresponsible, and show up late. On the way back I kept praying that God would lead us, and give us one last chance to talk to someone, but it didn't happen. We get all the way to where we started and we waited for the other teams to show up.
Argh! I was ready to part the Red Sea! I was ready to preach the sermon on the mount! And all I did was shy away from all the people that we passed.
One of the staff came back and asked me how it went. I was so discouraged by everything, but for some reason I didn't tell her that. Instead my response was, "I don't know how it went. I mean, I know how I thought it went, but I don't know how it went overall. Maybe from God's perspective it was a huge success to have a couple guys walking around praying and carrying a Bible." She nodded and as the othe teams approached, and asked them how it went. They talked and eventually we walked over to a restaurant to eat and debrief. None of the other teams found as much discouragement as I did. They were all hugely encouraged and blessed by their experiences.
One of the teams: Cristina and "Timmy" (we call her Timmy, but her real name is Cristina) went out and talked to a girl. "Hi, my name is Cristina. What's yours?" "Cristina." "Wait what??" Timmy chimes in, "My name is Cristina too!" Hahaha, Cristina and Cristina went out and found Cristina. Nice one, God. They spent some time talking to her about God and got to know her pretty well. It was a very nice time. (If Cristina puts the full story on her blog, I'll link to it.)
Another team went out and met a lady with a dog. The dog didn't have a leash and was running all over. Ishti was talking to the lady in Romanian, and Austin didn't speak Romanian so he was watching this dog run around. As Ishti was talking to this lady, he asked if he could pray for her. She wanted to, but not if her dog was going to run away. While they were talking about this in Romanian, Austin prays for the dog to come back. It's a half a block down the road, and it stops in its tracks and turns around and runs toward the lady and sits at her feet. Ishti prays for the lady, and the dog that was once hyperactive is now sitting patiently. Haha, God. Nice again.
Another team talks about how they found this homeless guy and they talked with him and prayed with him and even got him to do some praying. It was the same guy that I had seen earlier!
Another team talked about how they met a guy that carved his own wooden utensils. It was the same guy that we had met earlier! They actually did talk to him about Jesus, and were able to tell him that God loves him and they prayed for him.
Lord, I apologize for my meekness, but I thank you and praise Your name for accomplishing Your work anyways. You wanted to speak into each of these people's lives and just because I didn't do it, didn't mean that it wasn't going to get done. That actually encourages me. I'm not so full of myself that I need to be the person in the center of what God is doing. I'm just happy that those people got a taste of Jesus. It was a good day.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
God's Provision
God put it on Paul's heart to take up an offering. There are some students here that were having trouble raising the money to pay for the lecture phase of the DTS. The total amount needed: $3300.
We prayed and took up an offering.
After they went and counted how much money we raised, we had $3300 exactly.
When we heard that we just started weeping and praising God for how good He is. There wasn't a dry eye to be found. Who would even begin to think that 13 poor students and a few poor staff would be able to raise that kind of money? Only God could make something like that happen.
The staff was telling us about how finances are always the most troublesome thing during DTS's. They are always praying and asking God about who to let into the DTS, and often God will tell them to let people in that can't really afford it. Then they trust God to provide. He always does, but it's so very stressful for the staff.
They were telling us, through wet tears, that this might be the first time ever that they've had the lecture phase paid off after only five weeks. God is moving in this DTS. He is moving in our hearts. He is shaping our minds. He is empowering us with His authority to go forth into India and Thailand. (Today we learned about authority. :) )
After this we just bowed our heads and praised God through our prayers. Some were in Romanian, some were in English. I just prayed and wept silently.
Lord, imprint this moment on our hearts and on our minds. Let us never forget that You have authority over our troubles. All You need is to speak a word and it will be done. We love you, Lord, and we praise Your name for this provision.
I often feel close to God when I praise Him, so I know what His presence feels like. There was an outpouring of His Holy Spirit in that place. He reached down and filled the room with His gentleness. We were overwhelmed, and all we could do is weep and praise Him.
I want to take this time to thank each of you. You all contributed to this moment. You have supported me with abundant prayers and exceeding finances, and I was able to give out of that abundance.
Today, the Lord has used you. Today, God used you to mightily bless all of us here at the DTS. If you don't think that God is using you, I just want you to know that He is; and He did it today.
You are special treasures to God, and He involves you in the works that He's doing. Today, you were part of a miracle, and I just want you to know that. :)
We prayed and took up an offering.
After they went and counted how much money we raised, we had $3300 exactly.
When we heard that we just started weeping and praising God for how good He is. There wasn't a dry eye to be found. Who would even begin to think that 13 poor students and a few poor staff would be able to raise that kind of money? Only God could make something like that happen.
The staff was telling us about how finances are always the most troublesome thing during DTS's. They are always praying and asking God about who to let into the DTS, and often God will tell them to let people in that can't really afford it. Then they trust God to provide. He always does, but it's so very stressful for the staff.
They were telling us, through wet tears, that this might be the first time ever that they've had the lecture phase paid off after only five weeks. God is moving in this DTS. He is moving in our hearts. He is shaping our minds. He is empowering us with His authority to go forth into India and Thailand. (Today we learned about authority. :) )
After this we just bowed our heads and praised God through our prayers. Some were in Romanian, some were in English. I just prayed and wept silently.
Lord, imprint this moment on our hearts and on our minds. Let us never forget that You have authority over our troubles. All You need is to speak a word and it will be done. We love you, Lord, and we praise Your name for this provision.
I often feel close to God when I praise Him, so I know what His presence feels like. There was an outpouring of His Holy Spirit in that place. He reached down and filled the room with His gentleness. We were overwhelmed, and all we could do is weep and praise Him.
I want to take this time to thank each of you. You all contributed to this moment. You have supported me with abundant prayers and exceeding finances, and I was able to give out of that abundance.
Today, the Lord has used you. Today, God used you to mightily bless all of us here at the DTS. If you don't think that God is using you, I just want you to know that He is; and He did it today.
You are special treasures to God, and He involves you in the works that He's doing. Today, you were part of a miracle, and I just want you to know that. :)
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Stats
As a math major, I love to look at the stats for my blog. :)
Page Views by Country
US and Romania make sense, but I didn't know I was so huge in Canada. I know one Canadian that's reading my blog, but 137 views? That is one dedicated Canadian! :)
Check out some of those other countries. I have no idea how these people are finding my blog, but they're welcome to read it.
The top five most read blogs are as follows:
Traveling Adventure (long): 54 page views
http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/01/travelling-adventure-long.html
Cooking: 26 page views
http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/02/cooking.html
Is That Really You God?: 23 page views
http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/01/is-that-really-you-god.html
Needs: 22 page views
http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/01/needs.html
Gift: 20 page views
http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/01/gift.html
Maybe you don't find this as interesting as I do. :-p
Page Views by Country
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US and Romania make sense, but I didn't know I was so huge in Canada. I know one Canadian that's reading my blog, but 137 views? That is one dedicated Canadian! :)
Check out some of those other countries. I have no idea how these people are finding my blog, but they're welcome to read it.
The top five most read blogs are as follows:
Traveling Adventure (long): 54 page views
http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/01/travelling-adventure-long.html
Cooking: 26 page views
http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/02/cooking.html
Is That Really You God?: 23 page views
http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/01/is-that-really-you-god.html
Needs: 22 page views
http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/01/needs.html
Gift: 20 page views
http://mikepettyromania.blogspot.com/2011/01/gift.html
Maybe you don't find this as interesting as I do. :-p
Monday, February 7, 2011
Everyone Remembers the First Time
First of all, get your minds out of the gutter. Second of all, I apologize if they weren't in the gutter, but as soon as I said "gutter" they went into the gutter.
This is a story about a summer job I had back in the day. It wasn't my first job. I think it was my second job. (My first job was to stand on a street corner in a busy intersection and hold a giant arrow that pointed in the direction of a new housing development. So yeah, if anyone ever asks me if I know how to work a street corner, I have to say yes. ...Now I think my mind is in the gutter...Sorry about that...)
Moving on.
A traveling group came to my church for a week and taught soccer and Bible stories to the local church kids. My little brother was all about soccer. So he wanted to go. I had zero other options for uses of my free time, so I went and helped out. This was back in high school, before I enjoyed playing with kids. I was a typical high schooler that was utterly convinced of the twin truths of my own genius and my parent's stupidity. (Don't worry, they're a lot smarter now. :) )
When I say I "helped out," what I mean is that I stood in the back while they did all the songs with the embarassing hand motions. And when it came time to play soccer with the kids, I made sure and taught them a lesson in humility by dominating them.
One of the fun games we'd play would have us split into two teams. One team is lined up on the sides of the field with their soccer balls. The other team is in the middle and has to run from one end to the other without getting hit. The last to get hit, wins.
Of course I was the best, and of course it was because of my skill, and not the fact that I was a 17 year old playing against 7 year olds. They thought they were hot stuff, and I was doing my part to teach them some good humility. As it turns out, God thought I could use a lesson in humility too, so I got blindsided by a soccer ball to the face. Pow!
According to the rules, you're only out if you get hit below the waist, but after that hit I voluntarily exited from the game.
At the end of the week, the team goes around and gets the names and contact information for people that would potentially make good future teams. I'm not sure why, but they asked for my name, so I gave them my info.
A few weeks later it was the end of summer, and I got a call. They didn't have enough people to fill out the teams for all the churches they still needed to travel to, and wanted to know if I was interested in going to San Diego for a week.
From my house in Menifee, that's a couple hours away. I still had zero other options using up my free time, so I said yes.
I get down to San Diego and just have the most incredible time. The team bonded immediately. There were two girls, two guys and a head coach. The two girls taught cheerleading, and the three guys taught soccer.
I'd get up in front of the kids and suddenly the hand motions weren't so stupid anymore. There's even a picture of me and my team in front of a crowd of kids doing hand motions on the cover of one of the company's newsletters. I saved it. :)
It was so amazing being in that group. We spent the week and memorized Romans 12. I don't know it anymore, but whenever I see that chapter, I think back to that team. During the week, we even snuck down to Mexico for a day trip. It was the head coach's idea, and he came with us, but when we tried to come back to the US, they wouldn't let us. One of the girls on our team was Mexican and she didn't have her paperwork on her that proved she was allowed to come back to the US.
Our thing at the church was starting soon, so half of the team headed back to start without us, and I stayed with the girl while she made some phone calls. We weren't delayed for more than an hour, but I've never been stuck like that before.
She got the right people on the phone, and the right paper work got faxed over and we're allowed back in the US. We call the team and one of the guys drives down to get us while the head coach and the other girl start the evening's camp. We run and jump into the van and the guy is flying through traffic. We pull into the parking lot and sprint to the church.
When we turn the corner we see everyone just starting the first song of the day, and everyone cheers as we arrive. Phew. The whole week is filled with memorable moments and even more memorable people like that.
At the end of the week, we give the kids a chance to accept Jesus into their hearts. Each of the team members splits off and takes a section of kids. I had my section. We had been practicing this speech all week, and we were armed with our "Evange-cubes."
http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/images/evangcube.gif
They're pretty cool. They flip around and show pictures of Jesus' death and resurrection. I get in front of the kids and set my brain to auto-pilot while I go through this speech. I flip the cube around, just like I practiced. When I get to the end, we all bow our heads and pray to accept Jesus into our hearts.
The end of the speech has me ask if anyone prayed that prayer. If they did, they need to go see an adult to tell them so they can do some follow up. The speech was supposed to end, "Did anyone pray that prayer for the first time." I forgot that last part.
When I asked if anyone prayed that prayer, everyone's hand went up. You know when you're standing on the beach and a wave hits you and nearly knocks you over? That's how I felt in that moment. Everyone prayed that prayer?? I couldn't believe it! You mean you were actually listening?? You mean I just led a crowd of kids to Jesus?? I got this picture in my mind of this guy furiously writing all these new names into the Book of Life.
I told them to go meet with the parents, and I went off by myself. When I was out of sight, I wept. For the first time in my life, I had led someone to Jesus. For the first time in my life, I had done the Lord's work. God used my imperfect speech and goofball actions throughout the week to eternally affect the lives of those kids. It overwhelmed me, and I wept.
That was the last day of camp, and the next summer I signed up for a full summer with that company. We had a new team and tons of new amazing adventures, but I'll never forget that first one. There's nothing like being in the center of God's will for your life.
This is a story about a summer job I had back in the day. It wasn't my first job. I think it was my second job. (My first job was to stand on a street corner in a busy intersection and hold a giant arrow that pointed in the direction of a new housing development. So yeah, if anyone ever asks me if I know how to work a street corner, I have to say yes. ...Now I think my mind is in the gutter...Sorry about that...)
Moving on.
A traveling group came to my church for a week and taught soccer and Bible stories to the local church kids. My little brother was all about soccer. So he wanted to go. I had zero other options for uses of my free time, so I went and helped out. This was back in high school, before I enjoyed playing with kids. I was a typical high schooler that was utterly convinced of the twin truths of my own genius and my parent's stupidity. (Don't worry, they're a lot smarter now. :) )
When I say I "helped out," what I mean is that I stood in the back while they did all the songs with the embarassing hand motions. And when it came time to play soccer with the kids, I made sure and taught them a lesson in humility by dominating them.
One of the fun games we'd play would have us split into two teams. One team is lined up on the sides of the field with their soccer balls. The other team is in the middle and has to run from one end to the other without getting hit. The last to get hit, wins.
Of course I was the best, and of course it was because of my skill, and not the fact that I was a 17 year old playing against 7 year olds. They thought they were hot stuff, and I was doing my part to teach them some good humility. As it turns out, God thought I could use a lesson in humility too, so I got blindsided by a soccer ball to the face. Pow!
According to the rules, you're only out if you get hit below the waist, but after that hit I voluntarily exited from the game.
At the end of the week, the team goes around and gets the names and contact information for people that would potentially make good future teams. I'm not sure why, but they asked for my name, so I gave them my info.
A few weeks later it was the end of summer, and I got a call. They didn't have enough people to fill out the teams for all the churches they still needed to travel to, and wanted to know if I was interested in going to San Diego for a week.
From my house in Menifee, that's a couple hours away. I still had zero other options using up my free time, so I said yes.
I get down to San Diego and just have the most incredible time. The team bonded immediately. There were two girls, two guys and a head coach. The two girls taught cheerleading, and the three guys taught soccer.
I'd get up in front of the kids and suddenly the hand motions weren't so stupid anymore. There's even a picture of me and my team in front of a crowd of kids doing hand motions on the cover of one of the company's newsletters. I saved it. :)
It was so amazing being in that group. We spent the week and memorized Romans 12. I don't know it anymore, but whenever I see that chapter, I think back to that team. During the week, we even snuck down to Mexico for a day trip. It was the head coach's idea, and he came with us, but when we tried to come back to the US, they wouldn't let us. One of the girls on our team was Mexican and she didn't have her paperwork on her that proved she was allowed to come back to the US.
Our thing at the church was starting soon, so half of the team headed back to start without us, and I stayed with the girl while she made some phone calls. We weren't delayed for more than an hour, but I've never been stuck like that before.
She got the right people on the phone, and the right paper work got faxed over and we're allowed back in the US. We call the team and one of the guys drives down to get us while the head coach and the other girl start the evening's camp. We run and jump into the van and the guy is flying through traffic. We pull into the parking lot and sprint to the church.
When we turn the corner we see everyone just starting the first song of the day, and everyone cheers as we arrive. Phew. The whole week is filled with memorable moments and even more memorable people like that.
At the end of the week, we give the kids a chance to accept Jesus into their hearts. Each of the team members splits off and takes a section of kids. I had my section. We had been practicing this speech all week, and we were armed with our "Evange-cubes."
http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/images/evangcube.gif
They're pretty cool. They flip around and show pictures of Jesus' death and resurrection. I get in front of the kids and set my brain to auto-pilot while I go through this speech. I flip the cube around, just like I practiced. When I get to the end, we all bow our heads and pray to accept Jesus into our hearts.
The end of the speech has me ask if anyone prayed that prayer. If they did, they need to go see an adult to tell them so they can do some follow up. The speech was supposed to end, "Did anyone pray that prayer for the first time." I forgot that last part.
When I asked if anyone prayed that prayer, everyone's hand went up. You know when you're standing on the beach and a wave hits you and nearly knocks you over? That's how I felt in that moment. Everyone prayed that prayer?? I couldn't believe it! You mean you were actually listening?? You mean I just led a crowd of kids to Jesus?? I got this picture in my mind of this guy furiously writing all these new names into the Book of Life.
I told them to go meet with the parents, and I went off by myself. When I was out of sight, I wept. For the first time in my life, I had led someone to Jesus. For the first time in my life, I had done the Lord's work. God used my imperfect speech and goofball actions throughout the week to eternally affect the lives of those kids. It overwhelmed me, and I wept.
That was the last day of camp, and the next summer I signed up for a full summer with that company. We had a new team and tons of new amazing adventures, but I'll never forget that first one. There's nothing like being in the center of God's will for your life.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Cooking
People keep asking me, "Can you cook? Can you cook?" My response has been, "Yeah, sure. Give me a recipe and I'll follow the instructions." Finally the person in charge of scheduling work duties wanted to see if I could actually cook, or if I was lying. (Why would I lie?) So she put me on cooking duty for Sunday night.
On the menu: Chicken, french fries, cabbage salad.
Ready? Go!
Umm. Uhhh. What do I do?
When I showed up to start cooking, there was a girl there and a guy there. Neither one of them knew very much english. I couldn't ask questions. I couldn't offer my help. I didn't know how the chicken was supposed to be prepared. I saw her chopping cabbage, which I thought I could do, but I had no way of communicating that to her. What hand gestures do you use to say, "I'll do this because I'm too dumb to do anything else. You go do something more important"?
I did see some dirty dishes, so I washed those.
Then another girl showed up. She speaks English and Romanian, so I was able to ask her what I needed to do. "Chop two onions." Okay, I can do that. I got started, chopping onions like a champ. She looks over, "Umm, you're supposed to take off the outer layer first." Oh my gosh, I knew that! Why didn't I do it?! Oh well, moving on.
I kept going and she looks over again, "What are you doing??" "Chopping the onions." "Oh, I meant slice the onions. I need circles." Woops again, but it's no big deal. We can just use the chopped ones.
Next instruction: "slice two carrots." I did this perfectly, or at least well enough that she didn't have to correct me.
While I'm doing the onions and carrots, she is preparing the chicken. She's cutting away all the bad stuff, and seasoning it, and putting them in the pan, and adding spices, and oils, and it's very fancy. I would have never been able to do that without very specific instructions.
Next instruction: "put the onions and the carrots on the chicken." That's easy. I build up some confidence by doing that successfully.
"Get out the french fries from the fridge." It's a good thing I knew they were in the freezer, or I would have failed at that task. I pulled out the french fries and set them on the counter. I look on the bag, and there are no instructions on how long these fries need to be baked, or at what temperature. However, there are instructions on how to deep fry them in a professional deep fryer. That only takes 3-5 minutes. If only we had a professional deep fryer...
"Fill a couple of frying pans with oil." Okay. I do this slowly and with her watching so that I know how much oil to put in.
"Put the fries in the oil." She opens the bag, and I take it and start to dump some fries into the oil. "Woah, woah, woah. You're supposed to put them in a handful at a time." Really? Okay, whatever. Maybe she's worried about splashing, although I'm confident I could have done it without major injuries or necessary trips to the emergency room.
I take the fries and put them a handful at a time into the oil. By now, she is adding oils and sugar and salt and spices to the cabbage and finishing that up. So now the chicken is in the oven, the fries are on the stove, and the cabbage salad is done. Let's check the scoreboard while we wait for them to cook.
Things I did:
Chop onions (incorrectly)
Chop carrots
Put fries in oil (incorrectly)
Things she did:
Completely by herself prepared and seasoned 30 chicken legs and put them in the oven
Add spices and flavoring to the cabbage that the other girl chopped
Watched me as I did the fries.
Are you getting the picture? She's doing 85% of the work, and I'm failing to do 15%.
Now things are cooking, and she'll check the fries every once and a while. She'll check the chicken every once and a while. I'm doing nothing at this point. When the fries are done, she'll scoop them out and put them in a bowl, and put the pan back on the stove.
Oooo oooo oooo! I know how to put fries in the oil now, so I do that! Then I'm back to doing nothing. Forty five minutes passes, and that's pretty much how it goes. She does everything, and when there is a pan with no fries in it, I put fries in it.
It gets to a point where I run out of fries. We've cooked them all, so there's not going to be any need to put any more fries in any more pans. At this point she tells me that I can go eat. She'll finish up the fries, the chicken and everything else.
I go eat because I'm pretty much only in the way at this point.
Conclusion: I'm a liar when I say that I can cook, and I will no longer tell people that I can cook.
[Unless, of course, you want any of these things: Betty Crocker brand cookies (with instructions printed on the package), Jiffy brand muffins (with instructions printed on the package), or peanut butter and honey sandwiches.]
On the menu: Chicken, french fries, cabbage salad.
Ready? Go!
Umm. Uhhh. What do I do?
When I showed up to start cooking, there was a girl there and a guy there. Neither one of them knew very much english. I couldn't ask questions. I couldn't offer my help. I didn't know how the chicken was supposed to be prepared. I saw her chopping cabbage, which I thought I could do, but I had no way of communicating that to her. What hand gestures do you use to say, "I'll do this because I'm too dumb to do anything else. You go do something more important"?
I did see some dirty dishes, so I washed those.
Then another girl showed up. She speaks English and Romanian, so I was able to ask her what I needed to do. "Chop two onions." Okay, I can do that. I got started, chopping onions like a champ. She looks over, "Umm, you're supposed to take off the outer layer first." Oh my gosh, I knew that! Why didn't I do it?! Oh well, moving on.
I kept going and she looks over again, "What are you doing??" "Chopping the onions." "Oh, I meant slice the onions. I need circles." Woops again, but it's no big deal. We can just use the chopped ones.
Next instruction: "slice two carrots." I did this perfectly, or at least well enough that she didn't have to correct me.
While I'm doing the onions and carrots, she is preparing the chicken. She's cutting away all the bad stuff, and seasoning it, and putting them in the pan, and adding spices, and oils, and it's very fancy. I would have never been able to do that without very specific instructions.
Next instruction: "put the onions and the carrots on the chicken." That's easy. I build up some confidence by doing that successfully.
"Get out the french fries from the fridge." It's a good thing I knew they were in the freezer, or I would have failed at that task. I pulled out the french fries and set them on the counter. I look on the bag, and there are no instructions on how long these fries need to be baked, or at what temperature. However, there are instructions on how to deep fry them in a professional deep fryer. That only takes 3-5 minutes. If only we had a professional deep fryer...
"Fill a couple of frying pans with oil." Okay. I do this slowly and with her watching so that I know how much oil to put in.
"Put the fries in the oil." She opens the bag, and I take it and start to dump some fries into the oil. "Woah, woah, woah. You're supposed to put them in a handful at a time." Really? Okay, whatever. Maybe she's worried about splashing, although I'm confident I could have done it without major injuries or necessary trips to the emergency room.
I take the fries and put them a handful at a time into the oil. By now, she is adding oils and sugar and salt and spices to the cabbage and finishing that up. So now the chicken is in the oven, the fries are on the stove, and the cabbage salad is done. Let's check the scoreboard while we wait for them to cook.
Things I did:
Chop onions (incorrectly)
Chop carrots
Put fries in oil (incorrectly)
Things she did:
Completely by herself prepared and seasoned 30 chicken legs and put them in the oven
Add spices and flavoring to the cabbage that the other girl chopped
Watched me as I did the fries.
Are you getting the picture? She's doing 85% of the work, and I'm failing to do 15%.
Now things are cooking, and she'll check the fries every once and a while. She'll check the chicken every once and a while. I'm doing nothing at this point. When the fries are done, she'll scoop them out and put them in a bowl, and put the pan back on the stove.
Oooo oooo oooo! I know how to put fries in the oil now, so I do that! Then I'm back to doing nothing. Forty five minutes passes, and that's pretty much how it goes. She does everything, and when there is a pan with no fries in it, I put fries in it.
It gets to a point where I run out of fries. We've cooked them all, so there's not going to be any need to put any more fries in any more pans. At this point she tells me that I can go eat. She'll finish up the fries, the chicken and everything else.
I go eat because I'm pretty much only in the way at this point.
Conclusion: I'm a liar when I say that I can cook, and I will no longer tell people that I can cook.
[Unless, of course, you want any of these things: Betty Crocker brand cookies (with instructions printed on the package), Jiffy brand muffins (with instructions printed on the package), or peanut butter and honey sandwiches.]
Friday, February 4, 2011
I found blogs
Tonight I found two blogs. (I hope they don't mind that I'm bragging about them.)
http://brook-lend.blogspot.com/
http://awakenromania.wordpress.com/
These two women have been a huge blessing in my life so far with their gentle spirits and bright smiles. Check out their blogs. If anyone deserves to be famous, it's these too, so make sure we give their blogs lots of hits.
Life update:
Tonight we did some manual labor. I'm no stranger to it, but I am a stranger to doing manual labor on the ceiling in 20 degree weather. (My shoulder muscles, a.k.a. the muscles you use to lift your arms above your head, are easily the weakest in my body.) The drilling in the cement was filling the entire room with dust, and all I could think of was Zoolander. "I got the black lung, Pop." *tiny cough* *tiny cough*
God update:
If there is one thing that has been overly emphasized recently in my life it's "calling." A book I'm reading is urging me to find my calling. The spiritual gifts teacher was talking about it in his teaching, and we even talked about it in my one on one this week.
So I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying about it, and today I might have found it.
During a presentation on Thailand, they started talking about doing children's programs. Immediately my mind started to plan and think about how I would lead something like that. I could do Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego, and I could have some of my friends act out the parts, and if I had a white board I could have my friend play the guard and draw a firey furnace, and when he gets near it he could pretend it's really hot, and when the king gets angry and tells the guards to make the fire hotter, I could have my friend draw a bigger fire, then fall over dead because it was too hot, and then I could send the people playing the three main roles over to stand in front of the picture of the fire, and Jesus would show up with them...
Then, once my mind was done planning that all out, a second thought popped into my head. Why would a shy guy like me be so eager to jump in front of a crowd of people to do a presentation? I hate public speaking. Whenever I have to do it, my hands shake uncontrollably, and I can't stop shivering from nervousness. Yet somehow, being in front of kids is different. I love doing it. It excites me to try and be animated enough to keep their attention.
The only reason for this has to be Jesus. Is children's ministry my calling? That's what I think. Is it my only calling? I don't think so. Will I be called to it forever? I don't think so. Noah was called to build an ark, but once he was done he didn't immediately get started on a second one.
http://brook-lend.blogspot.com/
http://awakenromania.wordpress.com/
These two women have been a huge blessing in my life so far with their gentle spirits and bright smiles. Check out their blogs. If anyone deserves to be famous, it's these too, so make sure we give their blogs lots of hits.
Life update:
Tonight we did some manual labor. I'm no stranger to it, but I am a stranger to doing manual labor on the ceiling in 20 degree weather. (My shoulder muscles, a.k.a. the muscles you use to lift your arms above your head, are easily the weakest in my body.) The drilling in the cement was filling the entire room with dust, and all I could think of was Zoolander. "I got the black lung, Pop." *tiny cough* *tiny cough*
God update:
If there is one thing that has been overly emphasized recently in my life it's "calling." A book I'm reading is urging me to find my calling. The spiritual gifts teacher was talking about it in his teaching, and we even talked about it in my one on one this week.
So I've been doing a lot of thinking and praying about it, and today I might have found it.
During a presentation on Thailand, they started talking about doing children's programs. Immediately my mind started to plan and think about how I would lead something like that. I could do Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego, and I could have some of my friends act out the parts, and if I had a white board I could have my friend play the guard and draw a firey furnace, and when he gets near it he could pretend it's really hot, and when the king gets angry and tells the guards to make the fire hotter, I could have my friend draw a bigger fire, then fall over dead because it was too hot, and then I could send the people playing the three main roles over to stand in front of the picture of the fire, and Jesus would show up with them...
Then, once my mind was done planning that all out, a second thought popped into my head. Why would a shy guy like me be so eager to jump in front of a crowd of people to do a presentation? I hate public speaking. Whenever I have to do it, my hands shake uncontrollably, and I can't stop shivering from nervousness. Yet somehow, being in front of kids is different. I love doing it. It excites me to try and be animated enough to keep their attention.
The only reason for this has to be Jesus. Is children's ministry my calling? That's what I think. Is it my only calling? I don't think so. Will I be called to it forever? I don't think so. Noah was called to build an ark, but once he was done he didn't immediately get started on a second one.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Gifts & Personality
So Monday and Tuesday we spent learning about spiritual gifts, and the rest of the week is going to be spent on personailties.
I took a test on spiritual gifts. The test was a series of statements, and I rate the statement from 0 to 3. 0 is it never happens, three is it happens all the time.
For example, "I like to bargain with vendors to try and get the best price." Zero. I just pay what they ask.
Depending on how you answer these, it tells you what your spritual gifts are. (Note, mine's not bargaining.)
Here are the scores I got.
People Abilities: (Scores from 0-9)
I'm good at:
9 Coaching/Teaching
9 Showing Compassion
9 Emphathising
9 Including
9 Writing
8 Advising
8 Helping/Serving
8 Valuing Individuals
8 Nurturing
8 Relating
I'm medium at:
7 Motivating
6 Negotiating
6 Overseeing
5 Convincing/Persuading
I'm bad at:
4 Commanding/Taking Charge
4 Networking
4 Public Speaking
0 Bargaining
Mental Abilities
I'm good at:
9 Analyzing
9 Structuring/Organizing
9 Being Responsible
8 Calculating
8 Focusing
8 Memorizing
8 Planning/Strategizing
8 Visionary Thinking
I'm medium at:
7 Problem Solving
6 Achieving/Doing
6 Deliberating
5 Adapting
5 Contextualizing
5 Imagining/Thinking
5 Learning
5 Researching
I'm bad at:
4 Deciding
4 Improving
4 Initiating/Pioneering
4 Synthesizing
Physical Abilities
I'm good at:
9 Playing Sports
8 Precision Work/Dexterity
8 Entertaining
I'm medium at:
7 Building
7 Cooking/Baking
7 Repairing
6 Dancing :-0
6 Using one of the senses
5 Decorating
5 Playing music/Singing
I'm bad at:
4 Drawing/Painting
4 Photography
4 Sculpting
3 Acting/Drama
3 Operating Machinery
3 Using Modern Technology (??)
0 Working with Animals (haha)
Spiritual Gifts
I'm good at:
9 Serving
9 Mercy
8 Faith
8 Encouraging
I'm medium at:
7 Pastor
7 Missionary
6 Teaching
6 Leadership
6 Evangelism
5 Administration
5 Giving
5 Intercession
I'm bad at:
4 Prophecy
3 Wisdom
3 Knowledge
3 Healing
3 Discerning of Spirits
3 Apostleship
2 Miracles
0 Tongues
0 Interpretation of tongues
Mostly I knew these already, and I should mention that maybe I was hard on myself in some areas and easy on myself in others, which means that some of these should be higher and some of these should be lower. :)
Then today we did personalities. there are CORE ones and opposing traits.
Controlling/Supportive
Outgoing/Introspective
Relaxed/Urgent
Exacting/Generalizing
I'm Supportive, Introspective, Relaxed, and Exacting, but you probably knew that already. :)
At the end of class we took a quick test to see which of the CORE traits was the most dominant, and mine was Relaxed. If I want to see a full report, it'll cost $40.
I like studying personality. It's fun to see what everyone's results are.
I took a test on spiritual gifts. The test was a series of statements, and I rate the statement from 0 to 3. 0 is it never happens, three is it happens all the time.
For example, "I like to bargain with vendors to try and get the best price." Zero. I just pay what they ask.
Depending on how you answer these, it tells you what your spritual gifts are. (Note, mine's not bargaining.)
Here are the scores I got.
People Abilities: (Scores from 0-9)
I'm good at:
9 Coaching/Teaching
9 Showing Compassion
9 Emphathising
9 Including
9 Writing
8 Advising
8 Helping/Serving
8 Valuing Individuals
8 Nurturing
8 Relating
I'm medium at:
7 Motivating
6 Negotiating
6 Overseeing
5 Convincing/Persuading
I'm bad at:
4 Commanding/Taking Charge
4 Networking
4 Public Speaking
0 Bargaining
Mental Abilities
I'm good at:
9 Analyzing
9 Structuring/Organizing
9 Being Responsible
8 Calculating
8 Focusing
8 Memorizing
8 Planning/Strategizing
8 Visionary Thinking
I'm medium at:
7 Problem Solving
6 Achieving/Doing
6 Deliberating
5 Adapting
5 Contextualizing
5 Imagining/Thinking
5 Learning
5 Researching
I'm bad at:
4 Deciding
4 Improving
4 Initiating/Pioneering
4 Synthesizing
Physical Abilities
I'm good at:
9 Playing Sports
8 Precision Work/Dexterity
8 Entertaining
I'm medium at:
7 Building
7 Cooking/Baking
7 Repairing
6 Dancing :-0
6 Using one of the senses
5 Decorating
5 Playing music/Singing
I'm bad at:
4 Drawing/Painting
4 Photography
4 Sculpting
3 Acting/Drama
3 Operating Machinery
3 Using Modern Technology (??)
0 Working with Animals (haha)
Spiritual Gifts
I'm good at:
9 Serving
9 Mercy
8 Faith
8 Encouraging
I'm medium at:
7 Pastor
7 Missionary
6 Teaching
6 Leadership
6 Evangelism
5 Administration
5 Giving
5 Intercession
I'm bad at:
4 Prophecy
3 Wisdom
3 Knowledge
3 Healing
3 Discerning of Spirits
3 Apostleship
2 Miracles
0 Tongues
0 Interpretation of tongues
Mostly I knew these already, and I should mention that maybe I was hard on myself in some areas and easy on myself in others, which means that some of these should be higher and some of these should be lower. :)
Then today we did personalities. there are CORE ones and opposing traits.
Controlling/Supportive
Outgoing/Introspective
Relaxed/Urgent
Exacting/Generalizing
I'm Supportive, Introspective, Relaxed, and Exacting, but you probably knew that already. :)
At the end of class we took a quick test to see which of the CORE traits was the most dominant, and mine was Relaxed. If I want to see a full report, it'll cost $40.
I like studying personality. It's fun to see what everyone's results are.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Happy Birthday Paul
Today is Paul's birthday, and I learned that it is Romanian custom that the birthday person will serve everyone else on their birthday. Interesting.
For his birthday we had cake three different times, we went bowling (pictures coming soon), we bought him presents (a basketball signed by everyone, and some chocolate), and we sang happy birthday in three different languages (English, Romanian, Hungarian: Romanian is the best).
It was fun. I haven't been bowling in a long time. I was the second best with a score of 80-something. The guy who won had 16 points after four frames, then made a furious comeback getting four strikes in the last 6 frames.
In class, we learned about spiritual gifts. I took a quick test to help identify some of my spiritual gifts. Tomorrow I'll order the list and let you know what I'm good at and what I'm bad at (according to one imperfect test).
Tomorrow we're going to be learning about our personalities. Should be interesting.
For his birthday we had cake three different times, we went bowling (pictures coming soon), we bought him presents (a basketball signed by everyone, and some chocolate), and we sang happy birthday in three different languages (English, Romanian, Hungarian: Romanian is the best).
It was fun. I haven't been bowling in a long time. I was the second best with a score of 80-something. The guy who won had 16 points after four frames, then made a furious comeback getting four strikes in the last 6 frames.
In class, we learned about spiritual gifts. I took a quick test to help identify some of my spiritual gifts. Tomorrow I'll order the list and let you know what I'm good at and what I'm bad at (according to one imperfect test).
Tomorrow we're going to be learning about our personalities. Should be interesting.
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