The Busyness Continues

Two weddings down one to go! After being in two weddings in one week I am down to one! This past weekend was the bachelor party, and man what a crazy time. We went out in downtown Fort Worth to Fox in Hound and Pete's Piano Bar. A good time was had by all. 

On Sunday I flew back to Charleston to spend a few days with Sydne before going back to Atlanta for our in town mission trip. Monday is normally Sydne's day off but she got called in to deliver communion to shut ins. Her being at work has given me some free time. So I thought I would go to a place Sydne talked about in her blog. She had mentioned a coffee shop that she loves going to. The place is called Kronic, and man oh man to tell you the truth if you are ever on the way to Folly Beach you should check it out. We came early this morning for coffee and a bag and it was great. So good that after dropping her off at church I came back and have been here for a few hours. They have killer sandwiches and great coffee. This place gets a thumbs up from me! 

This week in Atlanta I am leading a mission trip. This is my last duty at Eastminster. I am excited about this mission trip, but also sad that I will no longer be working. I think I will take a break for a few months from working, but will soon have to return to working as funds run low. Please pray for me as rent will be going up and I will not have an income to help reduce pressures of finances. 

After the mission trip the packing up for moving beings. I am ready and excited for my new place, but not about the moving part. As soon as this week is over it is back to Texas for the third weekend. My two best friends from college Travis and Nicole will be getting married on June 20th. These two have been dating for 4 1/2 years. This is going to be an exciting time for everyone as these two being their journey together as a married couple! 

This evening I will be going to the beach with Sydne one last time before I leave and this is where I expect to see God. In all the sounds of the beach: the waves coming in, the birds, and all the other vacationers! I cannot wait until this relaxing time. The beach is a place to relax and recharge the soul. One can truly lose themselves at the beach. It is a place to kick back and and ruin oneself for the craziness that is life. My hope and prayer is that after the beach I will be ready to face on the rest of this summer busyness I have in my life! 

Summer and Catch up

Well Sydne has inspired me! She started a blog so I figure I should start mine up again back. Lets see... where to start? Well lets begin here... The semester took off with a whirl wind and man oh man it is now already summer break (the month I have of it before greek). 

I really enjoyed my classes and have begun to get into the grove of things at seminary. I experienced a lot this past semester. To much to catch up all at this time, but I will try to cover the highlights. First of all I will be moving into the brand new residence hall in a few weeks. This is good news because I was living in the oldest dorm on campus with no kitchen. While being good news I do have to deal with moving right before I start Greek School (8 weeks 5 days a week). So not the best time to move. 

Secondly since my last post I have stepped down from my position at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. After many nights of prayer and discernment I came to the realization that resigning was the best solution. June 15th is my last official day and I am ready to move on. 

Third I have been a traveling man! After the semester ended I have been to Charleston SC (that is were Sydne is for the summer and for a wedding) Graham, Tx, Lubbock, TX (for cpm more to follow on the mess this was) and McAllen, TX for the second wedding in one week. Then it was off to Mathis, TX to see family. Then back to Graham, and then Fort Worth for a bachelor party. Then back to Charleston, Atlanta, and then more Texas for another wedding. Most of the traveling is because of the three weddings I am in this summer! The first two weddings have been great. I was communion server in the first and an usher in the second. Since seminary I have been catching myself watching and listening to different things in church that normally I wouldn't notice. I am beginning to see things or here things I want to do different or don't completely agree with. While I have enjoyed learning what I like and think is important to me and I will work on when I am in a church, I do miss being able to go to church and just worship. 

Finally back to the cpm mess. Early this year I was told to answer and submit my paper work for candidacy. So of course I waited until the last minute and got everything turned in on time. The time comes for me to go to Lubbock for the meeting. Larry my liaison and I take off. We stay at a very nice hotel and eat great steaks for dinner. All signs are leading to a great successful adventure. By the way thank God for Liaisons like Larry because he footed all the bills! Anyway that morning Larry and I get to the meeting plenty early so we won't be late. Upon arrival Larry and I are pulled aside and told that this meeting will not be for Candidacy. This comes as a shock and from no where. This meeting went from candidacy to annual consult. This was pretty frustrating and I have tired to find a reason why I was not examined. 

This week was my grand dad's 88th birthday. We went out to Foy's Steakhouse for dinner to celebrate. Being with my grandparents is something I really enjoy, and it was at this dinner that I saw God. My grand dad and Jacque (who is my grand mother but since we were little we have always called her by her name) had an amazing glow at dinner. Both have had recent issues with health, and to be able to seem this glow in them last night is defiantly a God moment. I know they will not be here forever but to have memories like this and to be able to reflect on them will always be a treasure I will keep. 

It's about time!

Well I have been giving it some thought, and well I am going to blog for the first time in a long time! It's about time, right? 

Well first lets get everyone caught up. I have recently finished my first semester of seminary, and would say it has been a success! I loved my classes and believe it or not I survived Hebrew!!! I met girl and we have been dating for 4 months now. Some might find that harder to believe then me surviving Hebrew! I have been working at a church in Stone Mountain, while attending school, and I have enjoyed the challenge the work has brought me. 

Overall things have been going great. I have had the opportunity to see some different country. I got to go to north Georgia for Thanksgiving and hangout in the foothills with my great aunt and uncle. It is very pretty up there, but I still think Texas is the prettiest state! To many trees here in Georgia! 

I miss everyone back in Texas and I really enjoy remembering all the memories I have made with everyone. I am really sad about not being able to attend MO this summer for youth conferences:( but I do believe I am going to be College Connection! 

This January I am taking my first Theology class! I am super excited and thus far really enjoying the class! I cannot believe how fast the first semester went, and hope this next semester is as good as the first. 

I hope everyone else has had a good year and that this year brings everyone of you the best!

 

In The Beginning...

Well school has been going on now for about two weeks. I have been really busy getting settled in here at Columbia! I am having a blast! Classes are going to be a lot of work, but I am going to really enjoy them. 

The community here at CTS is just what I thought it was going to be like. I am having a great time getting to know everyone here. I can feel a strong connection with most of my colleagues. As one would guess, living in such a close community there are times when there is conflict. From time to time my personality has and will continue to clash with others. I am working hard at handling my self so I can grow closer to these people. This is something I will continue to pray about for sometime! 

Along with my new beginnings here at CTS, I have new beginnings in a church. Last week was my first week as Director of Youth Ministries at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. I am really looking forward to the opportunity I am going to have at this church. I am excited to get to know these young people and the congregation as a whole. 

I pray that I may patients grows, with myself, others, and God. I pray that through my growing patients I may have stronger relationships with myself, others, and God. I hope that as I go forward in my studies I will hear God's call clearer. 

As you may know!

Well it is official! I now live in Decatur, GA. I have been here since Tuesday. My dad and I took off on our journey on Monday to start a new chapter in my life. I really enjoyed our trip over, and will have many great memories from the trip. The first day we drove from Graham to Meridian Mississippi. The next day we drove on in to Atlanta. Once we got to town and finished putting my dorm together we got to see some of my family. A great aunt and uncle of mine live pretty close. It was great to visit and eat a meal with them. I am glad that I have some family close to me. I feel I will be visit with them frequently. 

I still cannot believe I am here. I mean it feels like yesterday I was starting at Texas A&M. Don't get me wrong I am really excited about my new experience and cannot wait tell the rest of my classmates arrive.  Class doesn't start for another two weeks. This will be nice because I will have sometime to get familiar with the area. At the moment it is pretty quite on campus. Greek school is wrapping up today with their final, and other students on campus are taking their ordination exams. 

One thing I am really excited about learning more information about is Eastminister Presbyterian Church. This church is looking for a part time director of youth ministry and I think it would be nice to be able to gain so more experience working in a church before I graduate seminary. My dad and I drove by the church on Wednesday and found that there were some people at the church so we were able to look around. The neat thing about our visit to the church was when I introduced myself some of the people already knew who I was! I couldn't believe that. 

The things I miss the most are my family and all my friends I have made over the years while at TAMU. I miss my college friends and my friends I made at FPC Bryan. These people have all helped me be the true me. Coming from a smaller town it is hard to be your true self. 

God has been all around these past few weeks. God definitely was present on the trip here. The first leg of the trip we had to drive through heavy rain in thick traffic. Thank you God for our safety. Way back at Mo TLC earlier this summer in Small Group Leadership Group we all wrote ourselves a letter. Yesterday after I dropped my dad off at the airport I read my letter. In the letter I reminded myself of the time I had that week, and charged myself to step out! To not be afraid of alone time! As an extrovert I struggle with being alone. I charged myself to grow in my spiritually and work on my prayer life. 

I pray that I may open myself up and listen to God while in this new place! I pray that I will be lead in the direction that God has set out for me! Amen 

Personal Legend

I just finished the book The Alchemist. If you have not read this book I highly recommend it. This book is about a boy who travels around from Spain to Egypt to find his treasure. Along the way this boy learns a lot about himself and about what it is he is meant to do. During his journey he learns how to listen to the world around him to help make his decisions. 

This book was a helpful reminder for me. I feel that often I set the cruise control of life and do not really pay attention to what is going on around me. I forget about all the beauty in the world. An expression once heard "stop and sell the roses" comes to mind. This is a great idea. One that in our country we need to be shouting from the roof tops. We to often set our personal cruise controls and forget that we are here to live and not just pass the time by. 

A scripture I was reminded of while reading The Alchemist is the story of the good Samaritan from Luke 10. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.

In The Alchemist the boy suffered many difficulties as he was searching for his treasure. He lost all his money twice, was near death several times, and was in a foreign land without a friend. This boy, while searching for his treasure, had many Samaritans helping him along the way. People who he did not even know lending him a helping hand.  Many of the times we are searching for people to help and don't realize we are the ones who need the help. We try to fix others problems when ours are the ones needing to be fixed. I am not saying not to help others, but to really look at yourself and realize who you are. Pay attention to the world around you. What your body is telling you, and the signs you see. 

This has been a very good week for me. I had more free time for myself then I am use too. I journeyed to DFW for a psychological evaluation to prove I am sane for seminary. The jury is still out;) on that, but it was a good experience. While in the DFW area I got to see some friends I will not get to see in a while since of my move. I went to the Rangers game on Wednesday night, and had a good time even though the score was not what I wanted. Along with getting to do all this I had lots of time for myself. I arrived Monday and checked into the hotel and was able for the first time to dive into my new prayer book I received as a gift. This book is going to be great for my spirituality. The prayer book follows the church calendar and has daily reflections. On Tuesday I spent several hours in a Barnes and Noble and read part of two books. This is when I found The Alchemist. This was a great time to find so new readings. I really enjoyed the time I was able to escape and have this only time. 

I have been thinking for sometime about my grandparents, and I have enjoyed getting to spend this time at home with my grandparents. Today I was feeding cattle with my Granddad and got to learn more about my Granddad's past. I defiantly think these moments are God moments. As a young child I always wanted to know things about my Granddad, but it never seemed as though he wanted to share. Now he is sharing without even me asking question. God has been present at these times. 

Building for the future!

This past Sunday, my home church had me do the service. I for one Sunday was the preacher. I really enjoyed my experience. I had lots of friends and family there supporting me. If you would like to listen to my sermon you can find it on the web at http://www.fpcgraham.com/Podcasts/07-27-08.mp3 

Life has been at a little slower pace. I have been going out to the ranch in most of my free time. Working feeding the cattle, and doing some chores for my grandparents. It has been good to see them, and get to spend some time with them. 

I have also been spending some time with my old friends. I have been hunting, fishing, and visiting about old times. It has been good getting recall all the old memories. 

I talked to one of my old youth group members today. It was good to talk to them. I learned that they had broken their arm, and didn't seem to let it bother them to much. This was the first time that I have really talked to anyone from my old youth group since I have moved. It is starting to sink in that I am really gone and I am no long there with them. 

As I get closer to moving I am getting evermore excited. I am ready to get to ATL so I can get settled in. A church there has talked to me a few times and is interested in hiring me to work with their youth. I am really interested in finding out more details about this church, and will keep you posted on any news regarding this issue. 

I have begun to miss lost of people! Ones I met this year at Mo and ones I have know for a really long time. It is hard to believe that I am going to be so far away from everyone. I am really afraid I will not be able to go to any of the Mo conferences next year. I cannot believe that I have been to Mo every summer since sixth grade. That is 10 years straight. 

The place I have seen God lately is in the stars! Here in Graham you can see so many! Sitting on the front porch talking with my dad I have seen so many shooting stars. Also while talking with my dad, he has finally been comfortable enough to open up and talk about his beliefs. This is truly a God moment as he has never really talked about these things before. 

Tonight I leave you with this passage from Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thought from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down' you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.