Caleb's New Blog

Understanding

2010-09-19T21:49:00.000-04:00

Blogs are a curious thing. I don't know if my blog is a travel journal for others, a person journal for myself, or a showcase for other people to see what's going on inside my life. I don't even know who reads this thing besides some close family members and maybe two or three friends. But I write in it anyways, and I shall most likely continue to do so. But I think this is a post that I know I'm writing for myself more than anyone else.

As C.S. Lewis puts it, "We do not write to be understood, but to understand".

I would add that our motives for reading follow suit. Perhaps you're reading my blog right now because you want to understand more about me. Maybe you want to learn about the places I'm spending my time or the things that I'm doing or the people that I'm interacting with. Maybe you're just curious about what I'd decide to post in a blog. Whatever the case may be, here I am, writing, and here will I write further.

Somewhere in Italy, there's a man who awakens every day and breathes the morning air as if it were a sweet, precious gift from a treasured friend. He lives quietly and deliberately, ensuring that his actions are conducted with purpose and delicacy. He's hospitably welcomed countless souls when they knocked on the door of his life. Here, some have even found a permanent place to lay their head. But nearly just as often as he has opened up this door, he has stood on the doorstep beside it, stretching out his hand, offering a gentle goodbye as his guests depart. Admittedly, some of these goodbyes could not have come soon enough. But those were soon forgotten. All too often, his waving, outstretched hand would return and find itself resting just beneath his forehead, shielding his eyes as they began to moisten with tears. Tears tied to memories that will undoubtedly be the only token left behind from his now departed guests.

To be sure, his days have not been found wanting in regard to difficulty, adversity, and hardship. But throughout everything that life has placed in front of him, he has always learned. He is always learning. And never has he dismissed a lesson without first adjusting and mending his life accordingly. And his lessons have since culminated into a comprehensive curriculum from which countless others long to someday attain understanding. He's always had a certain wisdom about him--a genuine wisdom that isn't satisfied with simply learning lessons. He savors his knowledge but wouldn't think of flaunting it. He feels what he learns but only after he has learned to truly feel. These lessons have long ago taught him to be a man of action. When he learns of a need-of an opportunity on which to act, he acts on it. And oh, does he act! His skin is scarred, bruised, and darkened and his hands are worn and calloused from the labors of his years. His face is tired with wrinkles...noticeable only after looking past his soft, close-lipped smile that has greeted, encouraged, and inspired so many. But that's all only part of the story. If his wife had the chance, she would have told you about his eyes. She knew them better than he ever will. She would tell you that the color in his eyes was nothing less than the colors of life that he has partaken of so wholeheartedly in the eighty-two years of his existence. All of the things that he has seen in his life--all of the glory, brokeness, wonder, beauty, love, and heartache--it all stares right back at you when you look into his eyes. And if you're lucky...some of that wisdom that those things have taught him...his eyes might just inspire yours to someday see those things as well.

But tonight, those eyes have closed for one last time. Their wondrous color and inspirational gaze will find rest after fulfilling their purpose several times over. The sweet, fresh air that he breathed so graciously will now give life to other beings. His knowledge and wisdom will follow him into eternity and leave us in the temporary with a responsibility to learn his lessons on our own. For now, the only part of his old life that remains is that soft, close-lipped smile that reminds us that everything's going to be ok. It's fitting, I think, that a man who brought so much joy and happiness to others should leave this world with a smile on his face.

I'm not sure if anybody like that ever existed here...but man, I really hope so. It's late and I can't really write much more, but something I've been thinking about lately is the fact that we enter this world and exit this world with the hopes that something happened in between there that was good enough for what comes after. I think we should all take some time to savor the things that are in our life and try to truly feel them. To rid ourselves of the things that shouldn't be in our life and dismiss them. And to continue learning the things that need to become part of our life and understanding why we need them.

Vagabond

2010-09-17T14:25:00.002-04:00

"I'm a stranger here, and I'm a stranger everywhere. I could go home, but I'm a stranger there."

Rome

2010-09-14T06:44:00.000-04:00

Well...first I apologize that my blogging from Taiwan was an epic fail. If anybody wants to know more about how that all went, just ask me. It was a great summer and that's all I'll have to say about that for now. I'm currently studying in Rome for a semester. If the Eastern and Western worlds are polar opposites, I think that the contrasts between Rome and Taipei pretty much epitomize those differences. Just a couple weeks ago, I was in a fast-paced city with a driven work-force, ridiculous visa requirements, and bland communist architecture without any artistic or aesthetic significance. Not to mention reasonable and, dare I say it, cheap prices available for most necessities and normal products. I could go days without seeing another caucasian person. Churches were few and far between. Fashion was pretty much whatever you wanted it to be and you'd have to be wearing something pretty ridiculous for anybody to take a second glance. They spoke mandarin and even attempting to learn any of it was quite a humbling experience. The food was unlike anything I'd ever seen and, aside from the rice, was mostly fresh out of the pacific ocean.

Not in Rome.

Italian culture is much more laid back. Example: Rome basically shuts down in August so that everyone can take vacations because it is too hot. (Taiwan is likely that hot most months out of the year but with considerably more hours of work per week). Rome is full of extravagant and beautiful architecture for buildings, cathedrals, and, of course, churches, which are dispersed like Starbucks in New York City. Visa requirements were simple and easy and I'm not even sure if the customs guy even saw my passport when he stamped it. White people are everywhere because it is Europe but a pretty good portion of them are American tourists. Prices in Rome are as extortionately excessive as the fashion in Italy. The Italian language is pretty similar to Spanish and almost feels like my native tongue when comparing it to Chinese. The food is...Italian. Pizza, Pasta, Paninis, and vino.

So I'm here for three months doing a semester of humanities classes and I intend to try and make the most out of my time here and enjoy it and get involved in the community. We shall see where that leads. I'm not going to make any promises about epic or frequent blog posts during my time here but I will update it more frequently than I did in Taiwan. In the meantime, here are a couple pictures.

Taipei

2010-07-04T12:50:00.002-04:00

Well, for those of you who don't know, I'm living in Taipei, Taiwan for the summer. By some strange series of events, I'm now working for the YMCA here and leading camps for elementary students. Camps begin...tomorrow! So we will see what happens with that. I've been getting settled into Taipei and the culture is...quite interesting. Asian culture is quite unique. The food is different in almost every way. Even more so with the language. Taiwan is basically a tropical island but, aside from the extremely hot, humid weather and frequent downpours you wouldn't know it when you're in Taipei. I would say that Taipei is a cross between a burgeoning metropolis and a bustling shack town. The country is pretty economically diverse even though it's really just a small island. In Taipei you're in this huge urban sprawl but as soon as you get out of the city, the landscape is reminiscent of a tropical, developing country with green mountains, palm trees, and isolated villages.

Now, for those of you who don't know much about Taiwan and still think that I'm in Thailand right now, let me elaborate a little bit about the country of Taiwan and its history. It is actually technically called the "Republic of China" but it is more commonly just known as Taiwan...or its Portuguese name, "Formosa", which means "Beautiful Island". Most people speak Chinese, which is a crazy hard language. Although, as you get further south of Taipei, more people speak Taiwanese, which is kind of similar to Chinese, except even harder because there are 8 different tones to worry about differentiating between, as opposed to the 4 tones in Chinese. I'm guessing that I'll probably learn a lot less Chinese this summer than I did Slovak last summer. But we shall see!

So anyways, this camp I'm working at is a summer program run by the Taiwan YMCA. If you'll recall, once upon a time, the YMCA actually stood for Youth Men's Christian Association. Well, turns out that in Taipei the YMCA is actually a Christian organization and they really require that the leaders be upstanding Christians. So the camps serve as kind of a bridge between the community and the Church - promoting Christian values and lessons at a camp where parents really just want their kids to learn English in a western setting. Of the 10 or so YMCA branches in Taipei, this is the only one that runs camps with international counselors. Consequently, it's the biggest camp that the YMCA runs in the city. I'm learning more and more about the inherent value of a white face and a native English speaking tongue. It's very interesting. I'm one of four "international leaders" that have come here for the summer. Several of the other leaders are still foreigners but they've been living in Taipei for a while. The four rookie leaders consist of myself, one Jessica Neal who happens to be my girlfriend, and two girls from Finland, Virpi and Lia. I live in an apartment with two Canadian guys that have lived in Taipei for years and the girls all have an apartment a few miles South of here.

So I'll be posting interesting stories, observations, and thoughts about the time here, as well as letting anybody reading this know how they can pray for me if they would like to do that. As for now, some prayer for the camps to start well and for my Chinese language abilities would be great. And pray that we all stay healthy! The food really is very very different so sometimes it's a bit more than our stomachs can take. Any prayer for our health and learning what foods to eat would be good as well.

Please send me an e-mail or facebook message if you ever want to know anything or just want to say hi! I'll post again after camps get started.

Authenticity

2010-05-01T20:37:00.002-04:00

:Note: this is going to be a long post.

I was thinking the other day about the good things in my life and started wondering what makes them so good. Why is it that certain music inspires me to be a better person while other music frustrates me to the point of hopelessness...why do billboards and commercials bother me while I feel encouraged to see a sign for a local family business? And why do certain people just seem to radiate a peaceful warmth deep inside of me simply by being near, while the presence of other people seems to be a cry for help?

Something that kinda addressed this was mentioned at my church a few months ago. It was a quote by Henry David Thoreau, where he writes, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."

"Quiet desperation." I like that phrase. Everybody creates a concept of "the way things should be" and we live out every day trying to lessen the difference between this perfect idea and our flawed reality. What becomes our daily routine is really our quiet, desperate attempt to find...something.

Now, the Christian answer to this question is, naturally, Jesus. But what does that even mean? Why do Christians, who have found Jesus, still struggle with these same things? ---disclaimer, I'm not disagreeing with this answer or saying that I have some alternative to Jesus....I'm saying that there's some things we need to clear up (perhaps with the help of Jesus) to address some of these issues inside of us.

Before I get too into this, I want to discuss postmodernism for a bit. I don't really like to preach about philosophy but I promise this is relevant. Whether or not we admit to it, I think we all have been influenced by postmodern thought and it affects our perspectives on things even when we don't realize it. To be honest, I don't even know what postmodernism is, and i'm pretty sure nobody else does either. But in the spirit of postmodernism, it's going to be exactly what I want it to be right now (ha ha). Anyways, the other day, I ended up reading a bit from a fellow named Umberto Eco, who is some philosopher that I wasn't too impressed with, but I did like this quote:

"The postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it cannot really be destroyed, because its destruction leads to silence, must be revisited: but with irony, not innocently. I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and knows he cannot say to her, “I love you madly,” because he knows that she knows (and that she knows that he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still, there is a solution. He can say, 'As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly'."

I've decided that something we crave today can be summed up in one word: authenticity. We don't want to use other people's ideas. We want to make our own. We don't want complex, empty and fleeting pursuits. Sometimes, all we want is some traditional simplicity...a swift return to authenticity.

Consider a songwriter. He begins with something...a melody, perhaps a few words, and seeks to construct an entire song around this. A skilled songwriter will closely follow this melody and skillfully weave words and chords together to create a vivid picture in a listener's mind about the subject of the song; even as it applies to each individual listener. But an elementary songwriter will stumble across words and cliches. He will complicate the song's melodies until they are too difficult to provide the listener with any sort of aesthetically pleasing experience. No, it is not until he returns to that first melody, the original motivation and inspiration of the song, that he will be able create the work that he helplessly searched for. He is, to be sure, overwhelmed by the freedom of music. The freedom that he so desperately loves is the same freedom that prevents him from being able to create the music itself. It prevents him from finding his own authenticity in songwriting.

Now, consider our postmodern generation. Our music is life. And our freedom is having the same detrimental effects as it has on our poor songwriters. It is frustrating us with our bad decisions. It is diverting us from the things that we really want. And it is overwhelming us with responsibility -- unfortunately, unwanted responsibility. Freedom is something that we have shamelessly embraced and will continue to embrace until we no longer have the power to do so. As a certain skilled songwriter named Ray Lamontagne put it,

"Freedom can be an empty cup from which everybody wanna drink".

Now let's think about this. Freedom...such a lovely word! Here I am in America..the land of the free! That flag still stands for...freedom! and they can't take that away...

Now freedom is a good thing. But, that is not all that is. Freedom is terrifying! It is the biggest delegator of responsibility that there is. It allows us to make any decision we choose...but it also makes us accountable for the consequences. Thus begins the problem of our modern age. We unabashedly will stand up for rampant, unrestrained freedom. But at the same time, we will run away from the consequences. We live our lives and get so distracted with the temptations of fleeing passions and hollow pursuits that we forget the things that really matter. We have the freedom to make so many choices that we look right past the important things in life. This is our quiet desperation. Our freedom to make any choice...but our inability to make the right choices.

So now, we have a generation of people fed up with the way things are. Perhaps they don't want blind freedom. Perhaps, they just want originality, simplicity, and, my favorite, authenticity. We just want things to be the way they should be. We don't want there to be injustice in the world. We don't want poverty. We don't want corruption. We don't want inequality. We don't want to be judged. We don't even want to judge. We just want...authenticity.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible, I think I've quoted it here before, is Galatians 5:13:

"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love"

See, I told you freedom was a good thing. Despite its implications (Or should I say, especially with its implications). But there is another scripture verse that I think we must add...and that's found in 1 Corinthians 7:

For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.

We have freedom. But we do not have rampant, blind freedom. God knew that we couldn't handle that. Instead, he provided us with the only true freedom there is in making us slaves to Christ. This one, authentic freedom is a freedom that drives us toward the way things really should be. We begin to strive for what's important instead of swaying toward what's convenient. We seek to end things like poverty, corruption, injustice, discrimination, selfishness. Here, and only here, with this authentic freedom in our slavery to Christ will we be able to overcome the quiet desperation that most men take to their graves.

Back Home - Final Post for the Slovakia Edition....

2009-08-12T07:50:00.006-04:00

And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

Ezekiel 11:18-20

I've never been particularly good at articulating what's going on in my mind or evolving thoughts into words, but I'm going to try to paint a literary picture of my summer in Slovakia, what happened, and what I learned. Before I get too far into this, I want to say d'akujeme vel'mi pekne to everybody back in Trnava for the hospitality, witness, and encouragement that you guys provided me. You are all in my thoughts and prayers every day. And I miss you all like crazy!

Alright. So a question I got a lot before I left for this trip (and maybe even more once I got there) was, "Why Slovakia"? Probably I've never given the same answer twice because, quite honestly, I didn't really know why. I didn't know anything about the country, nothing about the language, and I didn't know a single person in the country. However, now that I've come back and had a chance to reflect on the experience, I think the answer is quite simple...It was God's will. I think that this is the first time in my life that God has given me such abundant assurance that I was where He wanted me to be. And I'm sure that this feeling of assurance of God's will is something that I will continue to strive for for the rest of my life.

One of my favorite things about my time in Slovakia, aside from all of the incredible people I met, was the dynamic of the team's ministry. It was so encouraging for me to be part of a team so set on keeping God first in all the aspects of their work there. From the "prayer walks" through Trnava or Spacince to the "Family Lunches" to the abundant number of meetings, it was all for God's glory and those have really been eye-opening experiences for me.

Another thing that impacted me (and countless other people in Trnava) was the power of prayer. I know that I had a lot of prayer support back in America, and...wow. Probably this trip would not have been nearly as successful if it wasn't for the shower of prayers that kept us soaked in God's providence. He graciously and generously answered your prayers despite several setbacks that could have really hindered our efforts. God blessed us with 3 successful English Camps where either the Gospel was presented or relationships were formed so that there will be more opportunities to present the Gospel.

So I want to finish by saying that I feel a little strange posting a blog about myself and my experience in another country. That's not the point at all. If you remember anything from this blog or my first experience in Slovakia, remember this. God has a plan and we are the instruments he uses to carry out that plan here on earth. Each of us was created for the sole purpose of glorifying God, and every person carries out this purpose in a different way. This summer, God used his instruments in Trnava, Slovakia to bring glory to himself in heaven and bring his kingdom here on earth. Now I pray that God would have us all realize how we are to be His instruments wherever we are now in whatever we are doing so that we can work towards that same goal. Amen.

The Home Stretch.

2009-07-29T16:29:00.001-04:00

Well, the Jr. High Camp, Extreme Week, went really well. When I first came here, we were a little worried because nobody had signed up for the Junior High camp. And this didn't change for basically the whole month of June. So we prayed for 20 kids to sign up. Sure enough, we had about 20+ kids every day last week. God has really answered a lot of prayers over here in more ways than I can explain and it has been such a blessing. This last week is going...well. Last week my job was to help with the sports during camp and, despite a few small cuts and bruises, it all worked out great. I am hesitant to post anything right now because I don't have enough time to write about all the things that are happening/have happened in these past few weeks but it has really just been an incredible ride over here. Life-changing, if I may be so bold. But anyways, this week has been interesting. It's the elementary camp, so it's really fun to hang out with the little kids. My job is to help out with the music this week so I spend my mornings singing and dancing with 8 year olds. And it is awesome. After camp is over, around lunch time, I usually have the rest of the day to just hang out with the people here. I've gotten to know some of the staff kids at the building really well. They are mostly my age or a little bit older and they all have really amazing testimonies. It is going to be very difficult to leave them all in a few days. And that is a pretty big understatement but I'm trying not to think about it ha. Well, time to go again. I will probably not be able to write again until I get home but hopefully I'll have time for one more post before I leave.

God Bless,
Caleb

Pictures from Prague

2009-07-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from Prague yesterday. I have a bunch of pictures from the High School Camp in Lovichovec and I will post them some time this week.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=132128&id=653064545&l=5924295b31

3/4

2009-07-15T08:38:00.000-04:00

Hello everybody! Sorry about the long delay, I've been away in Lovichovec for the High School Camp. It was an amazing week and the camp went incredibly well. Prayers were certainly having an impact there. I will try to post some pictures in the near future...a few are up on facebook already. Until then, I'll explain a little bit more about what the camp was like...

6:15 - Wake up to take a nice cool, cool, shower. Heavy on the cold.

6:19 - Try to catch my breath after realizing that I had subconsciously stopped breathing while taking that cold shower.

6:20 - Dry off, get some coffee or tea, and go find a nice peaceful spot to do some reading. I read The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis and Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Both very highly recommended.

7:15 - Daily prayer meeting with all of the staff that didn't sleep in.

8:00 - Go wake up the guys in my room for breakfast.

8:45ish - Watch a video clip with everybody that illustrates the theme for the day. (The theme for the week was "into the Daylight", so every day had a subsequent theme like twilight, dusk, starlight, dawn, etc....)

9:00 - Break into English Classes! My English class was an intermediate English group and it happened to be with 5 high school girls, so that was interesting. Nika, Zuska, Lucia, Ivka, and Dajka....you guys were a great class!

12:00ish - Finish up with classes, get ready for lunch.

12:30 - Eat a lunch prepared by Boska, our cook for the week. Mmm Mmm Mmmm....

1:30 - Split up to groups and play sports or make crafts.

2:30 - Electives!! This was usually pretty fun. Students could sign up for any number of electives. I led three electives during the week....Jam Session, Firebuilding, and Ultimate Wilderness Survival.

3:30 - Hmm I don't remember...I think this was when free time started. Oh! Yeah, it was free time on some days, and then other days we had "Video Companies". During the week we were all split into teams and given time slots to use a video camera. Without any editing, each group had to make a 5 to 8 minute film with a storyline, no words, and complete use of a set of props and various tasks. Friday night, we had "Oscar Night" where everybody got dressed up and we watched the films and had our own version of the Oscars. Not to brag, but my group pretty much cleaned up the house that night. My group got the Oscar for "Best Tree Scene", "Best Costumes", and....Best Film!!!. It was an emotional night for the whole cast.

5:30 - Dinner

And then I'll just explain what happened for the rest of the evening because I usually just kinda went with the flow and lost track of time. After Dinner, we'd do a bunch of silly and embarassing activities because hey, that's what people do at camp. Next, we had the "evening talk". I mentioned before that this wasn't exclusively advertised as a "Christian camp". So the talks in the beginning of the week were mostly about how...something is missing. They stayed in line with the themes of those days: Darkness, Twilight, Starlight, Etc. After the talks, we had discussion groups in Slovak and English where the students had an opportunity to talk about what they heard on a deeper level. By the end of the week, where the daily themes were Dawn and Daylight, the gospel was presented very directly to the camp in the evening talk. It was very apparent that a lot of the kids were really interested in learning more about it. I was able to have a few really good spiritual discussions and I'm really confident that the Spirit was working through that. Definitely an answer to prayer.

And just as quickly as it started....it was gone. Everybody was sad that it was over. Needless to say, many new facebook friendships have originated since the conclusion of that camp. But, time to get started on planning for Jr. High Xtreme week camp next week.

Oh, and I got a chance to go to Prague yesterday. A day trip to Prague is kind of unconventional because it's so big, but we had a really great time. It is an amazing city. And I saw my first puppet show....Mozart's Don Giovanni. It was interesting.

I do have a few prayer requests. First of all, a Praise that Ryan was able to come to camp for the full length of it. He is, however, going to get treatment in Vienna at the end of this month. Lordwilling. Also...we have a new member of our team! Hosana Grace (previously presumed to be James Armstrong) was born into the Gregoire family on July 5th at about 4 PM. That was good, but also Dan Gregoire was not able to attend the camp so that was kind of a bummer. It all worked out though! Anyways, please pray for everybody this week as we prepare for next week's camp. We are all pretty darn tired and most of us are sick with at least a cold, some worse. So, prayer for that would be great. And also I'm realizing that my time here is coming to an end. It's kind of depressing to think that I'm 3/4 of the way done with being here. Pray that the last few weeks go as well as the first 6 or 7 did.

Oh, and I've done a little bit of photography and you can see some of the pictures here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=131389&id=653064545&l=e34312521d

I have a few more photos that I'm working with and I'll post that album too.

D'akujeme,
Dovi.

Caleb

Update

2009-06-29T17:38:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone, please pray for my roomate, Ryan.

Last week one of his feet started swelling up and he thought it was a staph infection because he had one before in high school and it felt the same. But a few days ago, it healed up. Now, the same thing is happening to his other foot. Only now, his legs are starting to get numb and he's feeling a lot of pain in his legs. We don't want to take him to the doctor in Bratislava because the treatment there isn't really dependable (he already went to a hospital in Trnava once and they told him to put some cream on it and go home), but he also is having some problems with his insurance if he wants to get treatment in another country. Lordwilling, he will be able to go get treatment in Vienna early tomorrow morning. If his legs get worse and if he can't get treatment in Vienna, he might even have to go back to America. This would be a very big letdown both for him and the team, especially since camps are about to start. Pray, pray, pray.

Going the distance.

2009-06-28T08:27:00.003-04:00

Well, June is leaving and July is at the doorstep. Which means that English camps are starting very soon. It's going to be off to the mountains for about 10 days for high school english camp, then another week for preparation, and then two more camps here in Trnava. This past week has definitely been even more busy than usual. We have been packing up a lot of things at The Building so that we can take it all to camp. We've also spent a lot of time preparing lessons and activities for the students during the week. I'm going to be teaching a group of students at an intermediate level-they know some english, but it's only on a casual conversational level if they can hear the language clearly. I will be teaching with Paula Lundgaard, so I am looking forward to that.

Friday night was milkshake/smoothie night at the building. It was another great friday night and it was good to spend some more time with the Slovak students here, but it was also the last Friday night at The Building, which is pretty tough to think about. The Building will be closing after this summer and there are a lot of details that are still unsure and the situation is demanding a great deal of prayer from the team. The ministry through MTW in Trnava will continue, but a lot of the team will be moving into Poprad, a city further East in Slovakia. I was actually able to visit Poprad a couple weeks ago and it will be interesting to see how the ministry develops there.

On Sunday night, we had a goodbye gathering for the Lesondaks and the Frederes because they are both moving to Poprad within the next few days. And, like good Presbyterians, we followed the meeting with ice cream sundaes, so that was nice. I actually had a chance to have lunch with the Frederes on Sunday afternoon and that night I was also able to listen to John Lesondak talk about the plan for Poprad. It is really exciting to hear both of them talk about their willingness and openness for following the will of God for what he is doing. It's really difficult for the Church here to see them go and there's no doubt that it's difficult for them to leave...especially the Lesondaks who began this whole ministry 12 years ago. But God's plan is sovereign and good things will come from it.

Other than that, a few of us went to Bratislava today because it is our last free Monday. I guess I have time to write a story about how that went.

Since we've been traveling on trains a good bit and are learning more Slovak, we decided that this was going to be more of an independent trip than usual. So basically, Ryan (The other intern who I live with) and I headed off to the train station this morning at about 10 AM. We didn't see anybody else so we just went off by ourselves and bought some tickets to Bratislava. We get on the train and have some good discussions about mission work and then get off on our stop about an hour later. We quickly realize that this was in fact the wrong stop so we look back to the train and ask if we are in Bratislava. The Slovak man working on the train replied with some Slovak words that we didn't understand so we just figured we'd get back on the train and wait and see where the next stop takes us. Well, I step back on the train just as it starts moving again and the guy shoves me back off and closes the door. We decided not to get back on that train.

So...we figure we can't be that far from Bratislava so we'll just go down into the station and ask for help. Well, turns out the lady working at the station spoke some English. We asked her how to get to Bratislava and she replied, "I'm not from Bratislava, I don't know. You probably should take a train or bus or something". This was slightly discouraging seeing as we thought we were basically in the city.

So we see that the next train for Bratislava doesn't leave for another 45 minutes. We didn't want to wait that long so we walked down to the road and found a bus station. I was actually pretty proud of my translation because I figured exactly what bus to take and what time it was coming. So it comes and we realize we are on the wrong side of the road so we cross over. We walk up to the bus and it just started moving as we got to the door but then it stopped at a red light. It probably moved a total of 1 1/2 to 2 feet. So I start knocking on the door so I can get on the bus. The lady waves me away and tells me to go away in Slovak. Geez, ok. So Ryan and I decided we would be adventurous and just walk the rest of the way to Bratislava instead of waiting another half hour for the next bus. Besides, we saw which way the bus went and we could just follow that direction. Roughly 4 kilometers later and after a series of lucky turns, we made it to our destination and got to experience much more of Bratislava than the average tourist ever does. It all ended up working out and we had a fun little adventure, haha.

Well anyways, it has been quite a long day and I am starting to get a headache. A good night's sleep should help. Please pray for God to be glorified through this High School camp. The staff will be going there on Thursday, July 2nd and and It will officially start on Sunday and continue through Saturday. I am lookin forward to reporting how it goes. God Bless, Hope everyone is doing well back home, or in Ireland or Kenya or wherever you are reading this blog.

Dovidenia.

Fotografie!

2009-06-20T08:09:00.009-04:00

Hey everybody! I got a new cord for my laptop so I can actually use it now! Hallelujah. In order to celebrate, I've decided to post some pictures. Things here at The Building are still pretty busy as we are preparing for camps next month. Pray that God would help ease some of the anxieties of the team regarding camps. Fortunately for you guys, I'll just be posting pictures of all the fun and exciting things we are doing. If anybody wants to see some action shots of the administrative work going on here, I'll be happy to post pictures of that too but I have a feeling you'd rather see these:

These first pictures are from the Third Day concert that was put on by the Catholic Church in Trnava the day I got here. Note the 3 nuns...they were dancing together.

This is a picture of the town square in Trnava. I walk through here every day to get to The Building. I was here this morning at about 6 AM to buy some fresh fruit and what not from a farmers market that they have some Saturday mornings. And some bread. Sometimes I'll just buy a loaf of bread and eat it plain because it's pretty much delicious here. Mmm.

This is a picture from one of the Friday nights that we spent at a ropes course with the high school group:

That was from the low ropes activities we were doing, not the high stuff, haha. Here is a picture of a Castle in Trencin, Slovakia. The team has Mondays off in June and we've been using that as somewhat of a "travel day".

Aaand here is a picture from last night, another Friday night at The Building. It was game night. That is a water balloon launcher.

Okay, I could probably post pictures for hours because I've taken about 1,000 so far, but that'll do for now. Let me know if there is anything that you want a picture of, I'll take one and post it if I don't already have one. There is a lot to see here in this beautiful country. And I'll be going to Budapest tomorrow until Monday evening so prayer for that would be great. Also, Ryan, another one of the interns, has a possible staph infection in his foot and he will be going to a foot doctor on Monday. Please pray for him.

All the time.

2009-06-13T11:02:00.003-04:00

God is good. Thank you all for your prayers. God is hearing them. Keep them going! I've had somewhat of spiritual awakening over the past few days and the only way I can explain it is by saying that God answers prayer and the holy spirit is a very powerful being!

My slovak skills are progressing as well...I'm beginning to be able to communicate on at least some level in the language and understand how it works. I still want to learn as much as I can while I'm still here. And I have quite a ways to go.

Not too much time to write but I wanted to at least update everybody a little bit. Things at the building are going well, we are preparing for the camps and practicing music and baking and doing all sorts of things like that. A few days a week we have what is called "Brigada" where campers are able to come help out around the building to help lower the cost of coming to camp. It's also been a good opportunity to meet some of the campers so that I know them before the camps even start next month. And I can never complain about spending a little bit of extra time in the kitchen. I've also met a few people in the town of Trnava and have had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with them. Pray for the spirit to work in these relationships.

Last night was guys night at The building. We stayed up all night and we also watched the Pens win the Stanley cup!!!! I met somebody in Trnava the other day that knew Miroslav Satan when he lived over here before he played for the Penguins. So that was pretty cool. Also I haven't slept for 36 hours and I'm going over to Dan and Rebecca Gregoires for some chicken pot pie followed by some Floor Ball with a few local guys.

Before I go, my friend Marek who was in the video I posted last time, showed me another video...this time by John Piper about what he calls the "prosperity gospel". If you are from America, pay close attention....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTc_FoELt8s

Isaiah 25:8-9

2009-06-08T15:07:00.001-04:00

The Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day,“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation."

Abiding and Following

2009-06-04T16:33:00.007-04:00

Greetings. I hope that this post finds you in good spirits. If not, I hope it helps you towards that! Things are going well in Trnava. If anybody has been keeping track of my blog before this post, you may have noticed a few changes to this site have taken place. If this is the case, don't worry, I just made a few changes of scenery and I hope that this new design is a bit easier on the eyes. I will post some photos from Slovakia as soon as I can. I can't promise anything soon because the power cord for my laptop stopped working and it will be a few weeks before I get a new one. In the meantime, however, there is really great video that my new friend Matt just made for MTW and their ministry here at The Building. You can watch it at http://vimeo.com/4898099 . Matt is currently in Bulgaria and he is traveling Europe this summer to help MTW make videos for their various programs.

One of the Slovaks on staff here, Zuzana, is helping me to learn some of the Slovak language. It is tough! But it is really going well. Remember to thank God for Zuzana in your prayers; she is really a great woman and is doing a great job teaching the language to me and the other interns, Ryan and Laura. Also pray that God would help me while learning it.

I've been able to meet the Lundgaards, Gregoires, Lesondaks, Frederes, and Miriam Grady and Gina Medairy. What a tremendous team. We went to the Lundgaards' yesterday to celebrate Ethan's 14th birthday and I had the opportunity to meet a lot more of the people on the team and I'm really excited about the people I'm working with.

This morning the nurture team at The Building met for a prayer meeting and we focused on Psalm 23. (interesting note: the clocks here have military time and when I typed "Psalm 23", the clock said 23:23. Hmm.) Anyways, we read that Psalm this morning and applied it in our prayers during the meeting and it was really interesting and inspiring. When considering "the Valley of the Shadow of Death", what does that really look like in our lives? Where does the Shadow of Death fall in our own lives? I think that often times we look at the scripture as a broad and irrelevant book, even on a subconscious level. We need to constantly be asking ourselves why God inspired those words for our eyes to see. On that same note, consider how God "leads us into paths of Righteousness for His name's sake". Wow. How many of us can say that we are following God down paths of righteousness? What are the paths of righteousness in our lives? Where are they going? These are more practical questions than we realize and it is so important for us pray and dwell on them.

Well, whoever is reading this, I pray that God will bless you richly in all that you do. I need to get some sleep.

Dovidenia.

Ahoj zo Slovenska!

2009-06-01T05:02:00.003-04:00

Dobre Den!
I'm writing this post from The Building in Trnava. I'm so homesick that...just kidding! I love it here. Slovakia is amazing. The first night here, the Christian music group, Third Day, played a free concert put on by the Catholic Church in Trnava. Thousands of people were there. It was kind of random to see a nationally (internationally, I suppose) renowned American music group in Slovakia. They played a show that was very focused on evangelism and had a translator present the message of salvation to the crowd. He emphasized the fact that there's nothing we can do; we can never go to church enough, we can never read the Bible enough, and we can never pray enough to earn our way into Heaven. It's only the love and saving grace of Christ that provides us with that gift. The team here was really excited to hear that from the band because works-righteousness is a really big problem in the Slovak culture. The thousands of people in the crowd gave a very positive response as well. Whether they just wanted an excuse to scream or if they actually agreed with what was said is yet to be determined...
I'll be sure to post some pictures of that show when I get a chance.

I'm pretty much over the jetlag so that's nice. It's about 5 AM back in the states. I'm meeting with some of the team in about an hour for lunch. We'll be discussing the plans for the week and have somewhat of an "orientation" session. I went on a tour of sorts yesterday with some of the team members after having church at The Building...well, also after going back to my apartment and taking a much needed nap. Trnava is a very interesting city and there is a lot of history behind not only the city but also the entire country of Slovakia. I'll have to post some pictures of that too. Sorry, I forgot my camera back at the apartment or I'd post them now. I'm staying in an apartment with two other guys...one of them is Ryan who is another intern who has been here before and is here for about 5 more months. I've been spending a lot of time with him and he's been showing me around. The other is a guy named Juraj who is a really neat Slovak and the apartment belongs to him.

We walk pretty much everywhere so it looks like staying in shape will not be an issue. I know you're probably relieved to hear that. I'm starting to learn my way around this town but it's a lot to take in. Pray that I am able to get fully situated here and remember where everything is and how to get there. Your prayers have been working more than you know and God has blessed this whole process in so many ways I can't even describe it. So thank you and please continue to keep the whole Slovakia team here in your prayers. Also pray for my health...I woke up with a bit of a sore throat this morning but I had a cup of hot tea this morning which has alleviated it pretty well. Probably not a big deal but I don't want to get really sick this week. It probably has something to do with the rainy weather. Oh well. The tea here is phenomenal.

Answers to Prayer, Getting Prepared, and Requests to Share.

2009-05-28T21:47:00.003-04:00

By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy."
Psalm 65:5-8

Hello everyone! Sorry about the long delay since my last blog posts; this blog here marks the beginning of frequent blog updates throughout the summer. As most of you know, I will be going to Slovakia this summer. As a matter of fact, I'm leaving tomorrow morning. I would like to take a moment to thank everybody that has played any type of role at all in making this ministry possible, whether they are the people at MTW or my brothers in sisters in Pennsylvania who helped support this trip financially. God has been extremely gracious in his providence regarding the preparation for this internship and it is so encouraging to see the care and generosity of that becomes evident when there is a need in the community of Christ.

I'm writing from pre-field training at Ridge Haven camp in North Carolina. I flew into Atlanta to meet up with several other MTW interns and we all came here on Tuesday evening. Your prayers for safe travel have been answered thus far and I ask that you continue to pray for safe travel as I leave for Slovakia tomorrow with Laura, the other intern that will be serving there.

There are about 50 other interns here at the pre-field training. It has been such a blessing to meet so many incredible people with a shameless love for the Lord. It's been great getting to know them, but also somewhat bittersweet to realize that after tomorrow I probably will never see them again. I've been spending a lot of time with the interns going to Thailand, Ireland, and Kenya especially, but people are also going to Ecuador, Senegal, Greece, Mexico, Sweden, Japan, India, Ukraine, and probably more but I forget. Remember these interns as you pray for my travels because they will be traveling tomorrow as well.

I also want to ask you to pray for the people of Honduras as they recover from a magnitude-7.1 earthquake. At least six people have been killed, mostly children, and the death toll is expected to rise. Over fourty have been injured and many homes have been destroyed and damaged. You can read about the situation here. The quake was big enough to affect the neighboring countries of Belize and Guatemala. Our church has had a lot of missions participation in some of these countries and it is important for us to keep the people affected in prayer.

My flight leaves from Atlanta at 6:05 PM tomorrow (Friday the 29th) and I will arrive in Germany 9 hours later, then fly to Vienna where I will meet with some of the Slovakia team and head to Trnava. Prayer for safe travels and a smooth adjustment into my home for the next two months. I will be looking forward to writing about how everything works out.

Oh, and you'll notice that I have commenting disabled on the blog. If you ever want to respond to any of my blog posts, please e-mail me! I would love to hear from you personally. My e-mail is calebrc@aol.com and I will be checking it a lot this summer.

God Bless.

Skutky tela a ovocie Ducha

2009-03-03T14:15:00.002-05:00

Milovaní bratia, Kristus vám daroval slobodu. To však neznamená, že by ste mali teraz užívať a konať všetko, čo sa vám len zachce, ale v láske si navzájom pomáhajte.

-Galaťanom 5:13

Where is my mind?

2009-02-11T21:50:00.001-05:00

So...it's been a while since I've last posted. I guess apologies are in order since I recognize how much my loyal blog readers value these entries. Anyways, I was thinking about blogging today and my lack of recent participation in this particular activity and I decided that I'd write a post tonight. Then I started thinking about what to blog about. I could blog about my thoughts on social issues, books, politics, or life in general; but I decided against that. To most of you, my thoughts on those things are just about as interesting as the price of tea in China (which is actually about 6 Ren Min Bi per bag), and even less relevant. So I decided to post something a bit more enthralling, and that is an explanation of how my mind works. A form of "metacommunication", if you will. While most blogs are collections of thoughts about certain topics or issues, this post will be a collection of thoughts about thinking. So this should be a bit different than normal. It is in my mind anyways, and that, of course, is the matter at hand.

In my mind, my life is a movie. Scenes and settings are constantly changing. Stories are constantly developing. New characters are always being introduced and often old characters are excused. There is always conflict. New climaxes always arising. And several main characters are always there helping the plot progress. I choose the soundtrack. God, of course, is the screenwriter, director, and producer. I like to think that he leaves a lot of room for improv in his script, though. Why my mind came up with this, I have no idea. I think it originated with the fact that I've always wanted to be in a movie, write a screenplay, and produce a movie. Eventually my mind started kind of applying those things to real life. And the idea stuck because I realized that it's actually helpful because it makes me consider the meaning of a lot of things in my life. When I meet somebody new, I now ask myself, "why is God introducing me to this person?" or "why has God brought me to this location and this setting?"..."where should the story go next?".... "shouldn't I have a stunt double for this?" You know, things along those lines. Beneficial thoughts for the most part. And I am, of course, always acting, after all.

In my mind, my life is a book. This probably is not normal, but I often will take scenarios in my life and analyze them with a third person perspective. Kind of a "third person limited omniscient" author's perspective, if I may. For example, say I have a conversation with somebody. As I walk away, thoughts in my head might sound like, "He (me) walked away from the encounter with a grim smile on his face, not thinking twice about the clearly apparent tension in Susan's obscure tone of voice." Or if I'm just walking alone somewhere, my mind will start to wander and it'll be like, "The curiosity in the young undergraduate's mind was beginning to get the best of him, so he decided it best to sit back and find solace in some familiar music". Haha, very weird I know but it's fun and you probably should try it sometime. I like doing this because I have always been very interested in the fact that other people perceive me completely differently than I perceive myself and this kind of gets me a chance to see things in a different light. Maybe not exactly the light that other people see me in, but its still kind of a "reality check" of sorts and it really helps me to see the big picture in things. Which brings me to my last little facet.

In my mind, my life is a jazz piece that is constantly continuing, or an unfinished painting. This is where a lot of the uncertainty in my mind plays in. It's a constant flow of decisions where each small choice adds to the big picture, but at the same time, there is no taking back a decision once it has been made. Sometimes I make good decisions and I view those as good notes, or the right color paint. Other decisions are bad and I equate those with sour notes or poor color choice. But at the end of the day, everything contributes to the final product. This might sound nice but it's extremely frustrating. It makes decision-making a very difficult process for me because I'm constantly thinking about the end product and what my decisions will ultimately lead to. A lot of times I'll think of a certain chain of events that would all happen in the right "key" or the right contrast of colors. Other times I wonder if I'm bending the notes too far or maybe shading a bit too dark. It actually gets really complicated and I get frustrated just thinking about it because my mind gets wayyy too carried away with this one. But anyways, that concludes my relatively brief summary of the way my mind works. Enjoy.

"And there you have it, the mind of Caleb Crawford", he thought proudly as he leaned back in his chair. It was getting late. The Cannonball Adderly song in the background was making his eyes grow heavy. "Maybe I'll go watch a movie before I get started on the reading for tomorrow", he thought as he closed his laptop and suavely headed towards the bedroom. It was going to be a long night.

Cheer up, sleepy Jean.

2008-11-11T22:27:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day so I thought I'd post a blog about it.

Woke up on time this morning.
Took a rejuvenating shower in the shower that I cleaned over the weekend.
Man, it feels good to feel clean again after taking a shower.
Listened to some Snow Patrol, The Shins, Shawn McDonald, and Simon and Garfunkel.
I didn't want to scroll my iPod away from the 'S' artists.
Finished my outline for my persuasive speech on why the RIAA should legalize file-sharing.
Went to my one class today.
Listened to a classmate give a speech on why people shouldn't drink energy drinks.
Laughed a little bit when she offered free energy drinks to the class after her speech.
Drank my free energy drink.
Ate lunch.
Worked on my application for MTW.
Submitted my application after working on it for weeks.
Listened to some Wilco and Panic at the Disco.
Played Daydream Believer on guitar.
Watched the Penguins beat the Red Wings in overtime.
Got all registered for my classes next semester.
Read this article.
Now, I have to go study.

Caleb's Blog: Election Edition

2008-11-07T01:29:00.000-05:00

Apologies for the delay. I just figure everyone will be able to cherish these blog posts even more if they are posted with a more volatile regularity. Maybe I'll post another one tomorrow...hmmm. Anyways, big news: on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008, Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park and creator of the trendsetting television series, ER, died. I didn't think he was that important until I read at least 12 facebook statuses declaring each person's belief that the USA is no longer going to be able to function as a nation. Honestly, I can't say I disagree. Without the option of turning to such attention-demanding medical dramas as ER in times of boredom I'm not sure what American citizens would do. Without being able to view such box office hits as Jurassic Park and Twister (another one of Crichton's works), where would our feeble minds be able to turn to when they lack inspiration? I rest my case. Speaking of feeble minds.... In other news, Barack Obama was elected to become president of the United States on Tuesday after defeating his opponent, John McCain. It seems to have been a good choice, because after the results came in, McCain had this to say: "I would not be an -- an American worthy of the name". Phew! Just kidding, in lieu of the whole election thing being over, I thought I'd just take some words out of context for old times sake. But anyways, it comes to my attention that a lot of folks (as good ol Barry would say) think that the sky is falling and America is now becoming the Evil Empire that Reagan talked about. Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking and I'm not as upset as I thought I would be. Probably because I've had a hunch that Obama was going to win since I first visited his website almost a year ago.
I'm probably going to butcher the methodology that I have thought out in my head but bear with me. George W. Bush has been our president for the past 8 years. I'd venture to say that there has never been a president who has been so battered and pummeled by the media in all of America's history. America's negative image of their own leader has inevitably led other countries to despise our country. Example: Timmy's parents buy him a new Mercedes for his birthday and he hates them because he wanted a BMW. Meanwhile, Johnny over here isn't even allowed to have a birthday and sees Timmy and is appalled. Americans are blessed with arguably the best country in the world to live in and we disown the men who love it most, the men who we ourselves elected, as soon as they make decisions we don't agree with. Meanwhile, other countries, whose citizens are grateful to even be allowed to live, see our country and, naturally, are appalled. Our own self-image is directly correlated with the image of our country through the rest of the world's eyes. Along comes Barack Obama. He sees the examples, shortcomings, and successes of George W. Bush and proceeds to formulate a plan for presidency with a simple, direct message: Change. Obviously anything different than the oh-so-forbidden ways of Bush are going to be A-ok with the media and obviously the 70% of Americans on the other side of his approval ratings were looking for some change too. This also seemed to appeal to something like 80% of countries in the world who were backing Obama. Long story short, Americans are going to have a leader that they believe they can trust and that they believe will bring what this country needs. Whether or not he truly is what the country needs doesn't really even need taken into account, so long as the people believe he is. As a result, more Americans will be happy and the USA will be back on the world's good country list.

Now, this wouldn't be a balanced perspective if I didn't bring in the 'bad' side (or the "reality" side as I'm sure many of you are thinking). Well, chances are, terrorist countries will still hate the USA and try to bring it to destruction. Just the way it is. Whether or not Barack will have to experience this first-hand before he does anything or just plays defense right from the start is yet to be determined. Not too optimistic on this point, but hey, prayer works. Second, I would like to point out that a lot of Barack Obama's policies are really Biblical. The whole redistribution of wealth and universal health care thing especially. Only problem is, that's not the government's job, it's the Church's! So maybe this presidency will help wake up the American church which has definitely grown way, way too complacent in my opinion. Third, liberalism in America is going to skyrocket in the next few years. We're going to become more like European countries where morals and ethics are simply things to joke about, not compasses from which to guide the decisions of our lives.

So, in closing, I guess I'd like to say what this means for us. First, 'America' is going to become a lot more like 'the world'. From a Christian perspective, Americans have always been kind of the kids that were always raised in a Christian family and just assumed that their Christianity was hereditary and never took it seriously but would be the first to tell you that they are going to heaven. Now, America's stepping down from that religious pedestal and true Christians are really going to have to grow a backbone and stand up for their faith as America becomes more of a godless nation instead of a nation under God. This is almost good for Christians if we look back in history...Where were the stronger Christians, under Nero or under Constantine?
With that said, my second point is that whether we like it or not, Barack Obama is the next president of America. If you're an American, he is your commander-in-chief, and you are to support him, pray for him, and accept him no matter what he does. We definitely do not always (maybe even 'ever') have to agree with him, but blindly hating him is going to help nobody.

It's a hard song to sing, but I will rise to that tune.

She ki shohoj gaan, Shei shurete jagbo ami.

Minor Major Eleven.

2008-10-04T22:25:00.000-04:00

So I titled this blog after a chord that I think defines this week. Just, everywhere. The whole week has kinda felt like the feeling you get when you have to second-guess yourself on an assumption that you'd normally take for granted. Probably not helping this feeling is this book I've started reading again called The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. He's a crazy guy:

"Christian scholarship is the Church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can be good Christians without the Bible coming too close."

And that's just one example. Obviously Christian scholarship isn't some thing somebody came up with one day to make their life easier, but it certainly seems to have become that way. How often do we use "Christian scholarship" to excuse ourselves from doing what may really be right. Just something to think about. Anyways, besides reading that book, it's been a crazy week with meetings, tests, projects and homework up the wazoo. And I'm getting sick for the second time since college has started. I literally sneezed 30+ times in about 5 minutes this morning. Which normally I wouldn't care but I have to lead worship at a church tomorrow morning and that could end up being not good if I'm sneezing the whole time. Ah my. Just sneezed again. Ok. So anyways, back here at the apartment, things haven't changed much. People get annoyed a lot easier, but at the same time have become increasingly more adept at ignoring people too. Just depends on timing I guess. Most people went home this weekend so I think that will help everybody to get along. I need to go makes some tea.

UPDATE

2008-09-16T00:21:00.000-04:00

Turns out Jeff is currently wearing one of my socks and one of Josh's socks right now. At the same time. There is conflict in the apartment once again.

easy living, your not much like your name.

2008-09-15T23:16:00.000-04:00

Soo, week number four is here. Sorry that I haven't updated this thing for a while. Classes are in full swing and tests are up the wazoo this week. This was kind of a depressing weekend. Mostly because I spent the majority of the weekend studying for accounting which I finally feel I may be starting to grasp. Would have been nice to have this feeling before the test but hey, no complaints. On a brighter note, I have been enjoying my business classes. One of my professors was talking about the relationship between business and missions, and how that they can basically be the same thing. I thought this was an interesting perspective and I spent a lot of time fantasizing about this idea when I was trying to do my accounting homework today. I ended up thinking of some cool ideas so I wonder how that'll develop. It was kind of reassuring to think about this because lately I have been pretty much clueless about what I want to do with my life and I've never been able to say that up until this year. Just kind of ironic I suppose. I guess that's the way God works sometimes.
Anyways, for those of you who don't know, I'm living in an apartment with 6 other guys. It is...interesting. I think we're all learning a lot. Jeff is learning that he should ask before taking things. Josh Anderson is learning that he doesn't like guitars. Josh Lawyer is learning that it's a losing situation when you have too much stuff and other people don't have enough. Steve is learning that he spends about 14 more hours per day doing homework than the average person, and about 18 more hours than the average person in this apartment. And I'm learning that I need some time alone every now and then or I'll go crazy. And also, you can't wear socks in the bathroom when people don't know how to close the curtain when they take a shower. And also, you can't let people watch you enter your room code or you will be stuck with weird creepers who just come into your apartment and creep. But other than these few life lessons, things have been going pretty well in the apartment. Josh got mad at Jeff one day for stealing his socks. But that conflict was resolved and right now we're not having any problems. Tonight is the first week night in a while that we haven't had the whole apartment together to watch a DVD length's worth of the OC. But anyways, I told Jeff that I mentioned him in this blog and he's anxious to read it so I think I'm gonna wrap it up. Hopefully it won't be too long til the next post.

Longboards and Blackboards

2008-08-26T21:00:00.000-04:00

Well...classes have started and the real college experience has begun. I must say I enjoy the added free time much more than I enjoyed the constant obligations of orientation week. I went out longboarding and skateboarding with the roommates last night...it was fun. I find it kind of amusing to think how a lot of people's first impression of me at geneva is going to include me on a skateboard. haha. I went to a skatepark two nights ago and tried dropping in on the halfpipe. My side is still incredibly sore and bruised. No pain no gain! Aside from the skateboarding antics, not a lot has been going on. I bought most of my books, fixed my broken headlight, and have cleaned up the apartment a bit. It's going to take a while to get used to this free time thing. Still looking for a job. I was going to apply at a bank but you have to be 18. And the coffeehouse isn't hiring so they told me to apply at starbucks. Needless to say, I declined the offer. One of my professors said that we are probably going to be different people by the time we go home for thanksgiving break. Kinda made me wonder how true that'll be and if so...what needs to be changed about me right now? Obviously there are things about me that need changed, but is it going to be me identifying a problem and fixing it or am I just going to gradually "mature" throughout the year? Hopefully both I guess but we'll see. Pray that I find a job soon.

My first steps into the blogosphere

2008-08-22T00:05:00.000-04:00

Well, as most of you reading this know, I'm just starting my freshman year of college. This is actually orientation week and I think Geneva's orientation week could use some changes. And by changes I mean orientation week is a waste of time and tuition dollars and should be optional. But anyways, a lot of fun and exciting changes are happening so I decided that I'll start a blog and tell the world about it. Actually that was mostly sarcasm but hopefully it's not too far from the truth. The main motivator behind this decision was the fact that, as my parents will vehemently attest, I suck at maintaining communication with anybody so if anybody really cares to see what's going on with me, they can just check up on me here. Not quite sure what my posts will be like or how often I'll post, but I suppose that's the beauty behind the concept of blogging. Hopefully it won't end up being a bunch of political or philosophical rants or anything like that. If I ever get carried away I think you can leave me comments and calm me down or cheer me up or whatever properly coincides with the post. Hopefully it will just suffice for me to talk about things that interest me whenever I have moments of deep thought or something. And for some reason right now I feel like the letters are getting bigger the further down the page I type. It's getting late, I've had a long day. Hopefully all of this orientation nonsense will be over and I'll have more of a normal college experience here in the near future.