Wednesday, July 26, 2006 

BEACH!!

We all had one last weekend before leaving training and scattering to the uttermost parts of the earth, so what better way to spend the time than to hit the beach?




























We all grouped up and carpooled down on Friday afternoon. After talking about it a lot, I got my first exposure to culture shock just going to the beach. To be fair, we had been living in our own little bubble. We slept, ate, learned, and played all on this one secluded campus, with an occasional trip to WalMart to break up the monotony. It was quite a jolt just to head down to the beach and see the people and the bars and all along the strip.





After getting in, we ate and checked into our hotel room. When I say "our", I mean the 18 people that had come down Friday night. The guys wisely found another room to stay in, so it was 9 guys in one room, 9 girls in the other. It was a little squished, but at least we saved our honor.



It was a good weekend. We spent Friday night and Saturday morning at the beach, then hit the tourist traps Saturday afternoon.

Body Surfing!!
We also played some beach volleyball and beach soccer, but all those pics have people's faces in them, so they'll stay in the vault.











Friday night ended with an exciting trip to "Waffles 'N Things" (Whatever happened to Waffle House?) and a restful night's sleep on the floor.



Saturday we all hit the beach again, then split up to hit the town. I'm pretty cheap (actually, I'm very cheap) so I just window-shopped. It was your run-of-the-mill beach tourist shops, but there were some pretty good wares for sale.






We all headed back to the beach before leaving Saturday evening. In what would prove to be a bad decision, I decided to run along the beach for a while. It was going pretty well, I was having fun. I ended up running along the coast guard truck tracks so the sand wouldn't give way so bad. I was running right along having a merry old time when the sky started turning black. I was running away from the storm, but I was also running away from the people I knew. So, I turned around and ran into the eye of the storm.


I felt pretty brave and cool and manly as I ran through the rain, running straight toward the storm. That didn't last long, though. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I felt hail coming down. (Does it hail at the beach?) It was either hail or hard raindrops and I'm not as manly as I thought =). Anyway, once the boulder-sized hail started coming down, I turned aside into the Holiday Inn.

There I was with no cell phone, no way to find anybody I knew, no shoes for crying out loud. God worked it out, though, and I found a couple of girls I knew in the lobby. They had just popped in to use the bathroom, so it was cool we ran into each other.

Well, from there we crammed back into the cars, made a quick stop at Chik-Fil-A (not quite Waffle House, but it'll do), and headed home.

Thus ended the great American Beach Adventure of 2006.

8:21 PM | |

Monday, July 24, 2006 

D.C. Pics

Here's some pics from the July 4th D.C. trip! I can't show any pics with people's faces on them, so you'll miss out on the best ones. But, here's the best of the rest:







Well, in hindsight, the pics without faces kind of stunk. Sorry about that, but I guess this is better than nothing. Maybe the beach pics will be better...

8:58 PM | |

Sunday, July 23, 2006 

Home Again

Hey all, as you can probably tell by the abundance of new posts, I'm back home from training. I came home last Thursday, and I'll be around until August 5. I hope to catch up on posting from the last few weeks before I head out. I should probably pack too...

6:16 PM | |

 

An Opportunity Not Wasted

I figured it'd be good to tell of a time I didn't blow it =). I was at the beach a few weekends ago (more on that some other time, it was a trip to remember), and I found myself sitting on a park bench a little ways back from the sand with a lady. I figured I better not waste another opportunity so I started up a conversation. She didn't have a relationship with God, but thought it was nice that I had one. To make a short story even shorter, I got to tell her my story some, and got to pray for her. She didn't repent and believe or anything, but at least she thought about it some.

I'm not sure why I posted this, but it made me feel better about the last one. Maybe that's good reason enough.

4:24 PM | |

 

Jesus as Our Example 2

Yeah, I'm still going on about this. Maybe I should cut back on the Bible posts, they tend to get preachy and rambly. Anyway, here's some verses that point to Jesus as our example:

Hebrews 12:1-3
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.


Hebrews 13:12-14
12So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.


1 Peter 2:21-23
21For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

4:13 PM | |

Monday, July 17, 2006 

Jesus as Our Example

I read Isaiah 53 the other day, and tried to read it with the mindset of this man being my example to follow, and the one to emulate.

Two things stuck out to me:

1. Jesus suffered
2. Jesus never opened His mouth

Anybody who's read the Bible would see that Jesus suffered more than any other man ever has, and I believe He suffered more than any other man ever will.

First, verse 2 seems to say that God didn't give Jesus much in the way of natural looks or charisma, or things like that. (This is my opinion, and I might be completely wrong. Just a thought) It says that people weren't attracted to Him because of looks or anything like that.

Next, Jesus was despised and rejected by men. How many of us strive to be accepted and approved by others? Jesus didn't strive for that, and didn't get it from many. He was who He was, and didn't try to be made much of in the eyes of others. Not only was Jesus not accepted, He was despised. People hated him.

Jesus was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. All in all, did Jesus lead a happy life? I don't think so. He walked around, taught people, healed people, was misunderstood by most, and was later brutally, brutally killed. He did nothing wrong, and suffered a death most (myself included) can't even imagine.

On top of this, Jesus suffered for what others did. His whole purpose in coming to Earth was to pay the price of other people's disobedience to God. All the reproach He bore, all the pain He suffered was put on Him because of what others had done.

Jesus suffered more than any other, and did so because of others. He was despised, beaten, slandered, and killed because of other's actions.


In all this, He never opened His mouth, He never complained or retaliated.

When people slandered Him, Jesus took it in stride. When they falsely accused Him of all sorts of junk, He never shot back. When they beat Him, whipped Him, and crucified Him, He never stopped them. He could have, very easily. He could have called down a bunch of angels to put those people in their place. He could have at least let them have it verbally, but He kept His silence.

Suffering more than any other when He was less deserving of it than any other, Jesus never took matters into His own hands, but trusted God.

What do I get from that?

1. Expect to suffer, and don't expect life to be a bouquet of roses all the time
2. Expect people to treat me like trash, either deservedly or undeservedly in my case
3. Do not complain. About anything. If Jesus never did in all He went through, how much less should I?

3:28 PM | |

 

Belated Post on July 4th

This past July 4th was pretty good, I think my friends and I really made the most of it because we know it's the last one we'll celebrate for the next couple of years. I think my friend Captain Redbeard put it best:

1. We saw Abraham Lincoln (in D.C.)
2. We watched a baseball game
3. We yelled at Canadians
4. We watched firewords blow up right above us
5. We drank Freedom Juice (No, it's not alcoholic)
6. We ate half a pound of beef

Basically, we ran around like American idiots all day and night, knowing we wouldn't have the opportunity for a while. I must say, it was pretty fun.


If you want the boring details, you can find them below:

So after the D.C. trip (which was pretty cool) we went and saw the local triple-A baseball team play a Canadian team (USA won!), only the game was sold out by the time we got there. We had to stand outside the stadium which was pretty dumb, but we did get to yell at the Canadian bench. Then we realized the fireworks were set up right beside us. It was the closest I'd ever been, we were lucky not to be covered in firework ash. Then it was off to Wendy's for the beef and more American revelry...

3:17 PM | |

Friday, July 07, 2006 

A Wasted Opportunity


My friend and I found ourselves talking to some Indian students from NC State sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. (It was a good July 4th, I'll have to post about it sometime). We wanted to share with them what Jesus Christ has done in our lives and what He can do in theirs, how He has taken away our guilt, how He has worked inside us to make us better than we could be on our own, how He gives love, peace, strength, and a million other things at His own expense.

We told ourselves, though, that we wouldn't "force" Jesus into the conversation (What kind of a dumb thought is that?).

We sat there and talked for almost two hours with these guys about temporary, superficial things. Where are they from, what are they studying, what sports do they like, what's home like, and any other stupid thing we could think to talk about. All the while, Jesus never naturally came up, and we never brought Him up. A while later we left them on the steps without saying one word about Jesus Christ. I'll never see those guys again, and I left them no wiser and no closer to their only hope.

That is a wasted opportunity.

11:27 AM | |