What am I doing here?

Christmas Break

2010-12-18T15:29:00.003-05:00

Christmas Break is finally here! We're having a Christmas party tonight, and here's the dessert. Thank you Ashley Powell and Heather Kelly for the cupcake inspiration...they always have the best ideas.

Seriously....what was I thinking

2010-11-29T22:26:00.003-05:00

Yeah, so when did I think I would work on this blog? I don't know how my friends blog. Granted, most of them are stay at home moms, but they're just as busy as I am. Ryder is now 16 weeks old. He officially is a cool kid. He wants to walk really bad (what's the youngest boy to ever walk?), he can roll over accidentally from his back to his front, he talks to you by blowing bubbles at you, and he smiles lots when you make eye contact.

We just had some quality Daddy/Son time, as I read some books to him and then prayed/sang for 20 minutes or so. He was out cold and I put him down. I was worried that he was going to wake up because 30 seconds after I left he room he sneezed a few times and looked around...then he went right back to sleep. Not sure if I mentioned this, but he's a freak when he sleeps. Ryder keeps his eyes open just like my sister Rachel. It's really scary looking.

I'm excited for Ryder's first Christmas. This is a year of firsts, which is exciting...if you want to check out the pictures: http://gallery.me.com/rustycurry

Ryder is finally doing someting!

2010-09-18T09:41:00.001-04:00

So yesterday Ryder rolled over from his stomach to his back. Emily thought it was a fluke, but he did it three times in a row this morning. Finally!! The child is beginning to move.

Math for Real Life

2010-09-15T21:07:00.001-04:00

Dinner + Computer = Time to Post

Faculty Meeting + Open House + Tec Mentor + P90X + Ryder + Life = Super Tired

Grading = Neverending

Being an Adult is not as fun as I thought it would be. It's hard work, and really tiring.

Ryder is already a picky pooper

2010-09-01T19:13:00.003-04:00

Why is it that he won't poop in a wet diaper? I change his diaper when it's wet, and then what does he do 2 minutes later? He poops in it. I mean seriously. What's the deal dude?

CVS and Starbucks...

2010-08-31T20:22:00.002-04:00

So being able to go to CVS and Starbucks with Emily and Ryder in tow was a highlight of my evening. It was nice to just get out of the house with the two of them. Ryder slept the entire time ... big surprise there! Emily got a Passion Tea Lemonade, and I tried a Toffee something ... it was entirely too sweet.

Highlight of the conversation while on our trip, "Name your favorite Disney song." Naturally, Emily was noncommittal, but I have no problem singing about 20 songs for her to pick out. You wonder what my favorite song is? A Whole New World, Aladdin. Emily partially said that Colors of the Wind was her favorite from Pocahontas. I told her it was a tree huggin, spirit worshipin, crazy song ... but if it's her favorite, songs good to me. Then I sung it. Fun times, fun times for all. And for all a good night!

Fridays, Friends, and Belly Buttons

2010-08-28T09:01:00.002-04:00

So it's official, Ryder has a belly button, and it's a good looking one at that! They Kelly's came over for some pizza, pie, and Pocahontas. Emily, Ryder, and I watch the movie When in Rome. Ryder was sleeping on Emily's chest for a good part of the movie, but then a funny part happened...you can only imagine!!

Today we're taking Ryder up to Emily's Granny's house. We'll get another 4 generations picture. The only grandma left to get a picture is mine...hopefully we'll be able to do that sometime soon. Well I better stop and get ready. Oh yeah...I made some rock'n Pecan Waffles this morning for breakfast. Weekends are great...to bad I have an endless list of things to do!

End of the first full week...

2010-08-27T06:53:00.003-04:00

Today is Friday, and I am wiped out. I feel like I accomplished nothing all week, yet I feel like I did tons of stuff? Weird. Ryder is doing well, although I am concerned about his poopy diapers. They're yellow and thick...I thought they'd be yellow and thin? Either way, they're not that gross...yet. He's continuing to gain weight! His circumcision sight is finally starting to look right. His stupid belly button is still attached (by a thread) and I want to just yank it off! We have gotten the first round of hospital bills...ouch, but yeah for insurance! I have so much work to grade for school, but I have so much work to do around the house, and all I really want to do is chill with Emily and Ryder...I am not a fan of being an adult!

Acts 10:1-33 Okay, so Cornelius is a solid man of God and gets a vision while he's praying, and Peter is solid and gets another vision while he's praying. They sync up and Peter ends up at Cornelius's house. Does God do this anymore? I know not everyone gets "visions", but does anyone? I am sure God still comes to people in visions, but I am probably to skeptical. If someone I didn't know told me that God told them something in a vision, I think in my brain I would question it pretty strongly. At the same time, if God came to me in a vision I would probably just think it was a dream or something in my head that I made up. I am probably that dense. Or, because my prayer life and Bible reading is so weak...I am just to ignorant to recognize a vision from God. Either way, I need to have a bigger faith. I need to be ready to hear from God...from any messenger. I feel so ill prepared to be a father in that I do not feel that I represent God the Father very well to Ryder. I have so much need, praise God that Christ is bigger than my need. He can overcome all of my weaknesses as a father and as a husband. Now if I could just reflect Him a little better in my life...

Faith

2010-08-23T06:44:00.002-04:00

Acts 9:36-43 Peter's faith in God is astounding. He makes my faith look so small, and it is. My reaction to the death of someone is not to go pray and then tell her to arise. Peter does this, and God raises her from the dead. Why? I guarantee there have been plenty of people who have prayed for God to raise someone from the dead, but why does he choose to do it here? The obvious answer is for his glory. Done. Enough said. But seriously, I guarantee people prayed for God to return my grandpa, but he didn't. Were people praying for God to be glorified? Probably not. In their grief, they probably just missed him, but why is it that we don't hear of anyone being raised from the dead anymore? If we have, we probably wouldn't attribute it to God, but to science, or we'd assume that it was a hoax. This world is full of scoffers and skeptics.

I really want to know how Peter prayed in verse 40. Not that his prayer is a special prayer that brings people from the dead, but it would show me how a man of faith prays. Granted, there are tons of examples throughout the Bible, but I'd really like to here some of the New Testament prayers.

Today starts the first full week of school. I am feeling much better this week. No headache this morning. Emily and Ryder have done great the past two nights. Today is her first day alone with him; I know she'll do great. They are two of the greatest blessings God has given me, and considering how much I don't deserve them, I am that much more thankful that I have them. Emily and Ryder I love you both.

Just about 2 weeks old

2010-08-22T09:47:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe that Ryder will be two weeks old tomorrow night. It seems just like yesterday... well you know how that story goes. Seriously though, I can't believe he's been in existence for 13 days already.

Today is Mom's birthday. She and dad are coming down to celebrate (or see Ryder). I am excited that they are able to come down and see him because they haven't seen him since the Tuesday after he was born. I hope that he knows and loves my parents as much as he will know and love Emily's. It's hard when proximity makes one set easier to see than the other. Speaking of Emily's parents, her mom officially departed Friday night. I was a little worried as to how we (Emily) would manage without her, but she has stepped up to the Motherhood role and done excellent. I'm not sure I'm stepping in to my Fatherhood role very well though...all I do is sleep through the night.

Most exciting thing lately that Ryder is doing...pooping, and lots of it. Emily took a nap yesterday while Ryder and two high school guys did calculus. He literally filled up 3 diapers with poop. It was craziness, and they were all about 10 to 15 minutes apart. Dude!! Enjoy a clean diaper for a second please! He also decided to not poop during his bath this morning. No he decided to wait until he was wrapped up in his nice clean towel. It was a good one too. After we cleaned him up and were getting the diaper on him, he decided to peepee on Emily!! Haha! So far I've been lucky and avoided his sprays. I attribute that to my speedy diaper changes!

It's Sunday, I hope I can get to Church this afternoon. I miss BPC a lot. I can't wait until Ryder gets his shots so we can take him out and about to get his Worship on! Have a great day everyone!

The First Day of School

2010-08-19T07:10:00.002-04:00

Well, I leave this morning with Ryder, Emily, and Gamma (or whatever Tweedie's name will be) asleep. My head is pounding as I wait for the Tylenol to take effect. Quickly I read Acts 9:32-35 (yeah I had a rushed time this morning!) Peter healed a guy who'd been paralyzed for eight years. Immediately he was healed in Jesus name, and all the people of the town (and another town) turned to Christ.

(1) This is crazy awesome cool, but I feel like it doesn't happen anymore. Could it? Is my faith that small? Peter didn't seem to have any doubts (otherwise it may not have happened.)

(2) What was Peter thinking? How does someone just go up to a paralyzed man and heal him? Did he pray, did God speak to him? We don't know much about Peter in this situation, just that he was there and he did it and people came to the Lord. Nowadays with movies, most people would think it was a hoax.

I'm off to school. I pray that the Transforming Love of Jesus Christ shines through my teaching and how I interact with the students (even though I am tired with a headache and a cough)

Into the Real World Again

2010-08-18T07:15:00.002-04:00

The students do not come today, but I am going back to work. I have TONS to do to be ready for tomorrow. Next time Emily and I have a baby it will be at the end of the school year, not the beginning ... June 2012 anybody? I went to the Doctor yesterday because I was running a fever for two days straight. Crazy thing is that the thermometer doesn't say I have a fever, but my body (specifically my sweat glands) says I do. I've been downing the drugs, staying clear of Emily and Ryder, and hoping for the best. The Doctor said I had some kind of virus, and all I could do was treat the symptoms. So me, and my worthless father self, didn't change a single diaper or hold Ryder a single minute or wake up a single second last night. I hope I feel better soon ... I miss the little guy and his poops. Changing poopy diapers is not all to bad (right now) and it's fun to see what color they are and whether or not there was an explosion.

Acts 9: 20-31 So ... Saul is on fire for the Lord in a major way. So much so that people want to kill him. I really think verse 22 is cool because it says that Saul was "proving that Jesus was the Christ." Dude! Come on Luke (author of Acts) what did he say? I want to know what Saul said to PROVE that Jesus was the Christ. How cool would that be?!? Verse 31 is the kicker of what Saul was doing. "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied." God was using Saul to build his church. If I remember, there wasn't much about the church growing prior to this point. Saul was a mover and a shaker, and I'm glad he ended up on our side! Seriously though, BPC is a new "church" (believers are the church) and it seems that this is a good way to multiply. (1) Be at peace. (2) Someone needs to be building people up. (3) Walk in fear of the Lord. (4) Walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Done. Seems easy enough.

Aight, time for school! Year 6 here I come!

ER, Fever, Ryder, Life...

2010-08-17T08:51:00.002-04:00

Ryder is officially over a week old. Time sure does fly...not really. We've literally seen a Doctor every day since Sunday when Emily's water broke. We thought we would be in the clear Sunday, but Emily "decided" we should see some Doctors in the ER. It was definitely scary, but thankfully she is ok. Dr. Wilcox helped us out, and she gave us some medicine that will help Emily get better. Needless to say, we were/are both tired. It was an 8pm to 2am ER visit.

Monday, Ryder had another visit to the Doctor to check his bilirubin levels. They were lower which meant he was allowed to stop the phototherapy! Well, I'm pretty sure between being tired and being in hospitals/doctor's offices I picked up a little bug. I've had a fever for the last couple of days and a relatively mild cough. Emily and I don't want Ryder to get sick, so I've been given a 10 ft restraining order. I've scheduled an appointment for 11:30 this morning...nothing like seeing another doctor! I guess the Curry's are going for a world record.

I did crack my Bible open this morning. Acts 9:1-19 This passage was all about Saul's conversion. Three things that I was thinking about this time:

(1) How crazy awesome is it that he heard directly from God, and by awesome I also mean scary. Part of me would love to hear from Jesus out loud, but another part of me is super scared at what he would say.

(2) I wonder what became of the men with Saul. They heard Jesus's voice as well. What was their response to Jesus, even though Jesus wasn't directly talking to them.

(3) How tempting would it have been for Ananias to kill Saul? He was helpless and blind. After everything that happened with Saul persecuting the church, I would be unsure of a "vision" from God to go heal him. However, I guess a vision from God is super clear, and you know it is of the Lord.

So what can I take from this passage? Listen for God's voice. He may be speaking to me directly or to others. Either way, be prepared for his message. God's ways are not my ways. I should not trust myself to do the "right" thing without God helping me to do so.

PS. Emily is an amazing mother. She and Ryder are doing great! I only hope that I can be a father that rises to Emily's mothering skills...if that makes sense.

A catch up on Ryder Day 5.5

2010-08-15T03:31:00.006-04:00

Where do I begin? My life is officially different. My brain is still overloaded by everything that has gone on, is going on, and will be happening soon. Ryder was amazing to watch being born. God truly designed a remarkable way for us to reproduce. It may be one of the neatest and grossest experiences of my life. Never have I even been more proud of Emily's work and effort. Praise the Lord that his plan is the right one and the best one because she would not have made it otherwise.

Day 1 of Ryder's life was a great one. We enjoyed the company of my parents for a few hours in the morning. Our Pastor Rhett Sanders and his wife Ann were the first nonfamily members to visit baby Ryder. It was a blessing to have them. It encourages my heart to know what they will be loving on my son...his entire life! We also had visits from Uncle Snickers and Grandmother Tweedie (still working on her name). While they were there Ryder enjoyed his first photo shoot. www.lexmed.com/babies

The visitors didn't stop there. Andrea Cox came by to bring a treat for Emily. The Kelly's came by with Anna. She did great with baby Ryder. Anna was already in love with him. She was very gentle and excited to see him. I think she will make an excellent big Sister for Paige. Aunt Smash came by to give him some love. Fletch and Michelle came by too. He is going to make an excellent dad one day...despite what he says about wanting kids. Allison Coleman (Emily's cousin) and Ashley Mills (Emily's new cousin-in-law) also came by to see him a little bit. The Powell Family stopped by before dinner, and Caroline (2 years old in Nov) kept saying "hold, hold". Let's just say she was a little more than excited to see Ryder. The last visitors we had were my sister Rachel and her husband Bryan. Rachel was so hurt that she couldn't come down to be there when he was born. She was super upset at the time, but it was genuinely a blessing to have her come at the exact time that she came. Rachel came at a time when everyone else was gone, and she got some quality time with her nephew.

The next day, Wednesday, Rachel came back with breakfast and hung out with us for the majority of the day. I really enjoyed spending that quality time with her before she started her first year of teaching (which started the next day!!). She really helped us relax and enjoy just sitting around in the hospital. Unfortunately, when Rachel and I are in the same room, things tend to get funny, and Emily was in a great deal of pain from laughing. Ashley managed to swing by as well for some good Aunt bonding. Bad news today though, Ryder failed his car seat test!! Basically, he couldn't hold himself up in the car seat to get oxygen. It was a sad moment for us. They sold car beds in the gift shop for $100 a pop, and believe me I was was willing to pay it to get him home, but we wanted to be sure we couldn't find one first. We called all of our friends who had premies, but none had even heard of a car bed. Finally, Heather Kelly (friend of the year) called a friend who called a friend who had triplets. One of the triplets had to go home in a car bed. She was willing to let us borrow it for a few weeks!! Problem = Bed was in Fort Mill, SC. Solution = Heather drove up to get it. Let's just say I cried so much when she did, and I'm starting to tear up right now thinking about it. Never have I ever experienced so much love. It's screamed to me about the Transforming Love of Jesus Christ. I was unable to control it at that point. The body of Christ has been all I could think about since then, and it keeps bringing me to tears. I feel like such a weirdo for crying over it, but now every time someone gives us food, time, gifts, or anything else it makes me think of the Church and then I start crying (tearing up really).

We did get to go home that day after Ryder was circumcised. Being home was wonderful, as was a shower. The biggest struggles once we got home were/are figuring out this whole breast feeding thing. We had to go to the Doctor on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to get his jaundice levels checked. We received a light bed on Friday to help bring the levels down. Because of our feeding problems, Ashley Powell let us borrow her breast pump (Ryder has no problem taking a bottle with breast milk). Again, a few tears were shed...happy ones.

Adam and Kelly stopped by Saturday with delicious (well Emily and her mom thought that) Banana Nut Muffins (I'm not a fan of bananas). Joe and Joyous dropped dinner off for us which was amazing. Pork Loin, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, and some awesome Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares or something like that. To top it off, they also brought over ALL of Joseph's clothes. What a blessing! We will not need to buy ANY clothes for quite a while. We are so thankful for their generosity.

Last night went really well, as did this morning. Emily is resting right now until it's time to feed Ryder again. Overall the entire experience has been more positive than negative, and we have seen the Body of Christ displayed in a mighty way. We have received unconditional love from our friends and family. I could not imagine having to go through this without them.

James Ryder Curry

2010-08-10T12:27:00.002-04:00

Here is one of the few internet pictures my blog followers will see. You are a pretty lucky bunch.

Stats...

2010-08-10T07:43:00.003-04:00

James Ryder Curry

Born: 8/9/10 at 10:53pm

Weight: 7lbs 3oz

Length: 19.75 inches

Lexington Medical

Lexington, SC

Total process from water breaking to birth: 44 hours and 38 minutes. Most of which was back labor and about 30 minutes of good pushing at the end. Emily was absolutely amazing.

2010-08-09T22:54:00.001-04:00

It's a boy!! James Ryder Curry

2010-08-09T20:43:00.001-04:00

Starting to push...

2010-08-09T20:14:00.001-04:00

40hrs and 15min later...we are still in labor. Not to much more. Guessing the next time the Dr checks we'll be ready. Yeah for epidurals!

2010-08-09T18:44:00.001-04:00

Well...she was dialated 9cm about an hour ago. We've gotta be close at this point. Shouldn't be much longer...38 hours of labor at the hospital...so far

Epidurals are great...

2010-08-09T14:10:00.003-04:00

It's 2:15pm, we started at 2:30am on Sunday morning. Emily has been laboring forever and she is completely exhausted and hurting. We had to wait 48 hours from her last shot (blood thinner) before we could even consider getting an epidural. She forgot Saturday morning, so she didn't get it until 10:30am (we had to get back home to do it). That meant she wasn't eligible for one until 10:30 this morning. About 11:30 she realized she was so tired and in so much pain that she would get one. I am SO glad she did! She is sleeping soundly right now (snoring and still pregnant though!) Hopefully, when she wakes up she will be ready (10cm) and we can start the pushing process. I am so excited, but so tired at the same time. Since 2:30am Sunday I have gotten about 4 hours of sleep (which isn't bad), but I feel like I've been working out (pushing and pulling where I'm told to push and pull). My muscles are so sore!

I am so thankful for Doulas (although the first one took a chuck out of my nose with her fingernail) and I am thankful for family (we could not have made it this far without Emily's parents and my parents). This is possibly the most scary and exciting experience of my life. I feel so inadequate on so many levels. During labor I felt like I couldn't do the right thing or push the right spot. I am scared about being responsible for another person's life. I am also scared about raising him/her the right way. I know I am going to fail in so many ways. Praise God that I don't have to be perfect.

Well, I guess I'll call this one and wait for Emily to wake up. Pray for us!

2010-08-09T10:20:00.001-04:00

Started pitocin 45min ago contractions are starting to be more regular!

2010-08-09T08:15:00.001-04:00

Still laboring at 8:15...she is exhausted. where is the doctor with the go ahead to start induction?

Cramps

2010-08-09T05:03:00.002-04:00

Yeah, I have muscle cramps! It's 5am and we're still in labor. It's eased off a bit right now. I think we are waiting until 7:30 or so to see what the doctor says, but then we might add some pitosin (spelling isn't great). This should really get her contractions going...as if she wasn't tired enough at this point. We've been in the hospital for 25 hours. Hopefully not too much longer. I'm taking a coffee/fruit break. After a quick stretch it'll be back to work for me.

Trying to Get Some Shut Eye

2010-08-08T21:28:00.002-04:00

Emily is sleeping after many many hours of exhaustive drug free labor. She is a super woman for sure. I was very impressed with her ability to handle the pain. Future dads be warned, labor is really hard for the dads too!! I am so sore and tired right now from pushing and pulling to make her comfortable. I love her so much! I cannot believe we are about to parents. Hopefully, when she wakes up she will be a lot more dilated so she won't have too much more to do. I'm hoping for a 8/9/10 birthday, but not too late after midnight. Her water broke around 2:00am and we got into the hospital around 4:00am. Since then we've been contracting off and on, but around 4:00pm Emily said she noticed a change. Five hours later she was exhausted (19 hours total since water breakage!) Pray that the sleep will rejuvenate her. I'm going to try and get some shut eye for a minute or two.

2010-08-08T19:25:00.001-04:00

Still in labor...7:25pm
dialated 3cm efacement 100%
this is hard work

Labor and Delivery

2010-08-08T08:12:00.003-04:00

So the Hospital does have wifi, but apparently I only have 60 minutes total for blogging? I don't know. Regardless, here's the deal. Emily woke me up in the middle of the night saying that her water broke. Good thing she insisted we pack last week! I threw everything in the car and we headed to the hospital. We got into the Labor and Delivery section about 4:00am. Keep in mind that she's still early (36wks and 3days). We had already scheduled the induction for 7:30am on Thursday, I guess God has some other plans! Anyways, it's 8:15am right now and neither one of us can sleep. She's uncomfortable and I'm wired. My family knows, but Emily's family doesn't sleep near their cell phones! So they have NO clue yet. I hope they bring me some coffee later.

We are still waiting to see the Doctor so he can tell us what the plan will be. Emily's had some contractions here and there, but she didn't really feel much pain. Oh well, guess I'll be a good husband and help her feel comfortable.

2010-08-08T07:19:00.001-04:00

2:30 am - water broke
4:00 am - hospital
7:15 am - waiting for the doctor to see where we go from here. 36weeks and 3days...a little early

2010-08-02T11:01:00.001-04:00

Sitting at the Drs right now. Baby weights 6 lbs 5 oz with 10 days to go. Hoping the baby gets up to 7 lbs by the time it's born.

10 days to go...ish

2010-08-02T08:12:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Brad's ordination service. It was an awesome worship experience. Ashley came back to sing with John, the messages given were great, and then Brad's benediction gave me chills. It's not like anything was different about it, but it still had power about it. Scripture is like that sometimes. It's always powerful, but sometimes it just hits you a certain way. Brad started with Romans 8:31 and read a little bit.

This morning I read the rest of Acts 8. It was about Philip and the Eunuch. The passage starts off with an angel of the Lord telling Philip to go. Does God do that any more? In my mind, I picture and literal angel coming to Philip and telling him these things. Does that happen any more? It's not like an angel came to Rhett and Ann and told them to go to Blythewood Presbyterian Church, yet they still knew it was of God. Every step along the way doors were opened for them. It's the same with Brad and April. An angel didn't come to them and tell them to go to N. Africa, but they are and God is behind it. So I guess this verse is making me wonder about the different ways God speaks to us, and the second part of that is whether or not I am ready to listen.

It was cool when Philip came to the Eunuch because he was already reading scripture and wanted someone to explain it to him. What an awesome opportunity! The scary part for me is that I am not sure I could answer someone's questions like Philip did. I feel so inadequate in my knowledge of scripture. It feels surfacey to me. I have a good deal of breadth knowledge, but my depth knowledge is lacking. I guess I feel like I know a lot of stories.

The third thing I enjoyed from this passage is when the Spirit of God took Philip away and whisked him to Azotus. Where I come from we call that teleportation! Emily and I wouldn't mind that superpower sometimes. How awesome is that?!? Nothing is beyond God's power. I believe this to be literally what it says, but how do you explain that to someone who needs to rationalize things? To some with a scientific brain? There is so much of the Bible that clashes with people of science (at least it seems to), how do you share with people like that?

This morning we are headed to the Doctor for one of our last 3 visits prior to having the Baby. We'll have ultrasound #20 which is crazy considering most women have 1 or 2. I really haven't counted the ultrasounds, but she has had 2 a week for the past several weeks and she had several before that as well. I told someone that Emily had a high maintenance pregnancy, but it' s actually a high risk pregnancy. 10 days...we can make it!

The Countdown...11 more days...ish

2010-08-01T08:48:00.004-04:00

Update on my Quiet Times...nada

Update on my Exercise...nada

Yeah I haven't read my Bible in a long long time. Ridiculous! I need to figure this thing out, and quick. With the baby coming in 11 days or so my world is about to be flipped upside down. If I don't make time now, how can I expect to make time when there's a baby around? Between July 7th and now, I know for a fact that I sat down to spend time in the Word only once. I read Acts 7 at some point. Basically it was Stephen's speech and then his stoning. This morning, I read Acts 8:1-25. Saul is introduced, and he is not someone I would have wanted to mess with back then. Of course, based on my life, would he even arrest me for being a Christian? Would Saul have even noticed me, or do people just see me as a "good" person? In light of this new church plant, will I be intentional enough that people know I am a Christian, or will I do the same thing I've done for 28 years? Old habits die hard. The next part of chapter 8 is Philip

proclaiming Christ in Samaria. People listened and they were healed, even Simon the Magician believed. Simon didn't quite get it though. He wanted the power to give the Holy Spirit to people and was willing to pay for it. Simon missed the point. How many times do I miss the point though? His heart was in the wrong place. If mine was in the right place wouldn't I want to read the Word and share it with others?

The new church plant, Blythewood Presbyterian Church, has a mission statement:

"Discovering, Living, and SHARING the Transforming Love of Jesus Christ." The sharing component seems the scariest to me, but in all honesty it is all scary. It's scary because I struggle to do all three. Outside of church, or church events, how much DLS do I do? It takes a tremendous effort to read my Bible, and if I'm not in the word I could hardly say that I'm truly living the love of Christ, and I'm definitely not sharing it with anyone. Basically I need a lot of work. Prayer is a necessity for me. Both people praying for me and me praying for me. I am a broken person in a broken world.

On a side note, I love my family and friends. It is such a joy and a blessing to have my parents and Emily's parents, our sisters and brother, our church friends, our clemson friends, and our work friends. I love hanging with them and praying for them. I am crazy extraverted. I wonder what the baby will be?

Pics from the Week

2010-07-07T06:56:00.003-04:00

This is at Mary Lee's wedding in the ATL. The bow-tie is from baby #1 for father's day. Very patriotic!

A little joyride. Dad kept the bouncing to a minimum...we wouldn't want the baby to fall out!

Routines

2010-07-07T06:36:00.002-04:00

It's sad that as soon as I go somewhere else, my daily routine gets messed up. I have not read my Bible at all since I left last Wednesday night to go to my parents' house. Granted, we had a great time up there. Emily and I relaxed like crazy. Thursday, we drove over to Clemson to eat and get some ice cream (which is the BEST in the world!) We spent the rest of the day on the lake. Friday was yucky weather until about 3 o'clock, but after that we were on the lake the rest of the day. Saturday we went to a wedding in Atlanta. I am super excited I don't live there anymore! I did not miss it in the least bit. It's too much. My county, which does not contain Atlanta, puts Columbia to shame in terms of size and stuff. We did, however, drive by the high school and my old house. I did miss the house a little bit...18 years in that house, 5 in Clemson, 5 in Columbia.

Sunday was ALL day at the lake. Emily's parents came up for the 4th and both of our families enjoyed spending time together on the water. Dinner was miserable though because the table felt like it was going up and down up and down. It took a while for my body to adjust back to normal. Monday we drove back to Columbia and cleaned up a little bit. Yesterday, I mowed the grass before Emily and I left to go look at glider rockers and cribs. The crib we thought we had we no longer had, and the chair we knew we would need. We found them both. This is a good and bad thing. Good because we found them, bad because they were expensive. Ouch!

Finally we have reached today. I tried to get back to normal and read a little bit this morning. I read Acts 6. Quick summary, the apostles couldn't do it all...so they asked some disciples to focus on serving. Makes sense to me. We do that still, have different people for different jobs. That way, the pastor can focus on preaching and praying. That doesn't mean he can't serve, but it opens up time for him to have that option. Stephen was one of seven chosen, and he was the guy who was full of the Holy Spirit. God was using Stephen to do crazy cool things, but some folks didn't like that and spread lies about him. Stephen is going to get captured and taken before the Council. Tomorrow, I'll read what he said!

Paydayoff

2010-06-30T07:47:00.002-04:00

I slept late this morning, 7:00. Am I ready for parenthood or what? I got paid for 2 weeks at camp, which I am excited about and nervous about...because I have worked 3 weeks and 2 days. Oh well, I trust that I will be paid eventually. Today is my first day off since I don't know when. I would say Spring Break, but I "worked" over the break with the youth at church. Emily and I are going to see Eclipse this morning, and then we are going to the lake for some R&R.

This morning, I finished off Acts 5 as I read verses 17-42. The apostles were very bold! They get thrown in jail for preaching the Word. Then an angel releases them to go back and preach some more. Wow! Jail! Would I have the boldness to choose faith over freedom? I hope so, but at the same time I hope I never have to be put in that situation. It's great living in America! We are free to Worship and share our faith without fear of persecution (the really bad kind). I know we can be shunned socially, but the reality is that we will not go to jail for talking to someone about our faith. I don't suppose someone is going to come and kill my family because of our faith. We are blessed in America. Does this blessing hinder our faith though? In some senses, I feel like it is an untested faith. I don't know. I just wonder what I would do in the apostles' situation.

After they are released by the angel and preaching again, they get taken to court. I love Peter's response, "We must obey God rather than men." How true is this! Yet, obeying God is hard sometimes, and I am prone to forget. I need to remember whose I am. It's hard to obey unless I know how to obey, and that comes from studying the Bible and learning from other believers. They wanted to kill the apostles, but one pharisee was smart. He realized that when they died, if they were not of God, their following would disperse. If they were of God, their following would continue to grow. He didn't think it was wise to kill them, just in case they were from God. Smart man, very logical. Needless to say, they let them go...after they beat them.

The apostles' response was awesome! "Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name." After receiving a beat down, their response was to rejoice. How many times in life do I get "beat down", yet my response is not to rejoice? I need a perspective shift sometimes. Okay, a lot of times!

Panera Fairy #2

2010-06-29T07:08:00.003-04:00

Last night was a weak night for the Panera fairy. There was nothing at Panera for me to pick up. I only got 20 loafs of bread, maybe 15 bagels, and a few pastries. Not enough to deliver to the kids at camp...so my friends were allowed to take as much as they wanted! I guess that means Panera did well yesterday and sold a bunch of their stuff. I can't complain about that.

Today is the last day of camp before our week off! I am super excited about that, I haven't had a break since spring break. That was hardly a "break" since I was taking the youth to the beach. Emily's mamma primed the nursery yesterday, and will paint it today. I am excited to have that done so we can start setting it up. I imagine that is what next Monday and Tuesday will be.

Acts 5:12-16 After Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead, the apostles were doing many other signs and wonders. I imagine people were a little freaked out still, but nonetheless believers were coming to know the Lord by the "multitudes". That's a lot of people. Multitude makes me think of a number that's too big to count. I was thinking about today's time. If there were a bunch of miracles occurring in the name of Jesus would lots of people come to know the Lord? I would think no. There would be a lot of doubt about the legitimacy of the miracles. I would probably think of it as CGI or something. Movies have really killed how much I believe things because they can make anything happen in a movie it seems. Plus, most of the stuff you see on TV about miracles occurring involves wackos or people trying to make money.

Back to the Bible, the crazy thing about these people and the miracles is that they were content to let Peter walk by and have his shadow pass over them. They believed that Jesus was powerful enough to use Peter's shadow to heal them. Jesus is that powerful, but honestly that would probably not be my mentality. I guess that shows the size of my faith. The last thing in this passage talks about "bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits." I wonder on the outside what does this look like. What is the difference between a sick person and a possessed person, in terms of outward appearance? I believe that spirits possess people, the Bible says as much, but I wonder what that looks like today. Does it happen in America? Do we just assume people are sick with a disease we cannot cure? Demon possession is real, but how does it manifest itself in a country like ours? Sick people, mean people, crazy people, murderers...I just don't know. Scary to think about people being possessed, and in the 21st century it's hard to believe when we are so science focused. When we try to explain everything with science. Even as a believer I have to work to take my brain away from the science. Science is good, but the Bible is truth. Understanding how the work together is crucial, but I will believe the Bible over Science.

Whoa!

2010-06-28T07:27:00.002-04:00

Acts 5:1-11

Crazy stuff. A husband and wife sold some property to give money to the apostles. Together they decided to keep some of the money. Peter called him out on it. Ananias (husband) dropped dead on the spot. Three hours later, Sapphira (wife) walks in with no clue. Peter asks her if they kept some money, she lied...she died on the spot too. "A great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things." vs 11

I'd be scared too! I'm not sure how I feel about this. I know they lied, and that was wrong, but death? It's what I deserve on so many levels, but I still don't die because of the mercy of God. Why did he not show them mercy? I'm going to ponder this as I drive to work.

2 Day work week today!!

The Craziest Saturday Ever!!

2010-06-27T07:09:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was crazy! First, Emily had a baby shower where we got the hook up on stuff. I have no idea where we will put everything. I'm starting to think Emily and I are pack rats because we have zero room in our house for anything belonging to the baby. I also think that if we have baby number two, then we will need to get a different car...possibly a minivan??? Ouch, let's not think about that for a while. Some women crocheted blankets for our baby, they remind me of my white blankey growing up. Emily got home about 4:30 yesterday from the shower/hanging out.

My day was slightly different. I woke up and went down to the lake to start my triathlon (sprint). 500 m swim, 14 mile bike, 5K run. 1 hour and 26 minutes later I was done. It was fun, the weather was great, and I was tired. Afterwards, I went home and showered and ate a little food because next on my agenda was a my friend Madison's 4 year birthday party! It was a lot of fun and had some great food. The theme was Triathlon because her mommy and daddy both did the tri with me. Ashley even used Emily's bike. She's a beast. She finished in 1 hour and 33 minutes. Yeah, she almost beat me her first time. I keep telling myself I need to run, but I don't. Madison had a really good time at her party, and after everyone left we started watching the World Cup match between US and Ghana. I left at half time to go home and meet Rachel and Bryan as they came by the house. They didn't stay too long, but it was great to see them. As soon as they left, I went to bed and took a nap. Emily called three times and woke me up each time...I don't think I had the best attitude with her on the phone.

She eventually got me up around 5:15 and we went to a party with a bunch of people from the new church plant. Covered dish at the Hunter's house. A lot of fun...especially since I got a nap. The Clemson/Carolina game came on and we all watched if for a while. Emily and I were pretty wiped though so we left around 8:30. Her feet were huge!! She seems to be swelling a lot lately. When we got home she showed me everything we got at the baby shower, and then we went to bed.

Like I said, it was a crazy day. Today we have church and clean up, but other than that we're resting. I only have a two day work week next week!!! Then it's Eclipse on Wednesday and then up to the lake! No rest for the weary.

30 Weeks

2010-06-24T06:58:00.002-04:00

Wow, Emily is 30 weeks pregnant! It's crazy to think that so much time has passed, and at the same time is even crazier to think that there's not much left. I'm about to be a dad! Seriously, seven weeks from today we should be in the hospital. The doctors said they're inducing at 37 weeks for those of you who know full term is 40 weeks. Regardless, it's a crazy thought and one that I'm not sure I'm ready for...but it's coming ready or not.

Week 3 is almost over at camp. We've been playing dodgeball and my arm is killing me. My team is the most unenthusiastic team ever. I just don't get it. I worry that it may be me, but I am honestly trying to get them excited about everything. My math sessions are going ok. The freshman do better than the sophomores. Yesterday we did an activity that made them text a message as fast as the could (someone timed them). We recorded the data and are going to do a statistical analysis of it. Are girls or boys faster? Lefties or righties? T9 or Keyboard? I thought it was a good idea. Of course when you want them to text, they don't want to...and when you don't want them to text, they do.

This morning I read from James to refresh my memory for tonight. At SPUR group (LIFE group) we are going through James and are at Chapter 3. The first verse is always a bomb shell to me, "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." Wow. I know it's mainly referring to teachers of the Word, but let's think about this. As a teacher, I have influence (or think I have influence) on over 100 students each year. I have taught five years so far....500 kids minimum that I have had a direct influence over for a good part of the year. Scary to think that parents let their kids in to such an environment. What do I tell them through my actions and my speech. It is such an available way to share the love of Jesus to kids who may not otherwise experience it. On the flip side though, as a Bible Study leader, this does speak directly to me. When I say something in a student that I claim to be true, most people will assume it is true. That's a pretty big responsibility. Unless is clashes with some prior knowledge, most people do not question it. I'm the same way with pastors and studies that I am in. I don't question many things, unless the clash with scripture that I've read before, because I trust the person speaking. When I lead, I try to keep my mouth shut and only say things that I can back up with scripture. But even I am not the best at this.

The rest of the verses, 2 - 12, talk about how powerful the tongue is. All I have to say about my tongue is that I have trouble turning it off. I tend to "throw up" words right out of my mouth. Now, they're not necessarily bad or evil things...they're more the overflow of my heart. But I should think before I speak many times. Thankfully, Emily is used to it and more or less dismisses most things I say. She has developed the skill of sifting out the throw up so to speak. Excited about group tonight, it's always fun to discuss the Word of God with friends.

Panera Fairy

2010-06-22T06:03:00.002-04:00

Last night, the Panera fairy struck again. I pick up Panera's leftovers on Monday nights in the summer. The camp I work at uses them for breakfast for the kids. This is super sweet because we usually have a variety of biscuits in a bag...sausage, chicken, egg and cheese. Honestly, who eats bagged eggs? Panera will be a welcome change. I receive so much that I often take it to friends to allow them to pick what they want. I probably got 80+ bagels, all of the pastries that no one buys, and all of the loafs of bread. I stopped by 3 houses on the way home...

I am finished with Acts 4 as well. Over the past several days, I have been reading about the boldness of the disciples and the lack of need that they had. Peter and John spoke before the council about Jesus. The told them exactly how it was and the council had nothing to say to them. Their argument was sound...plus the man who had been lame for 40 years was standing with them (who can argue against that?) Verses 23-31 talk about the believers praying for boldness. I need that. When it comes to sharing my faith, I don't have the boldness to just go up to a random person and just start talking about Jesus. I am much more relationship driven. This isn't a bad thing, but it's definitely not something the believers were doing in the early church. They just flat out told people about the amazing power of Jesus Christ. I should be doing that! Finally, chapter 4 finishes by describing how everyone shared everything. They sold their land and spread the money between everyone. I guess this was the early version of supporting someone in the mission field. Maybe my friends on staff need me to sell some stuff?? Nah, for now I'll stick to monthly giving...sorry Bobby and Jenna and Jeremy and Dara and Brad and April. You guys will just have to make due. I love you all though.

Father's Day #1

2010-06-20T22:25:00.003-04:00

So today was the first Father's Day I was able to celebrate. Baby got me a red, white, and blue bow-tie and a book that I read to him/her. The crazy cool thing was that as soon as I started reading to the baby, it started moving around. Two possibilities here: (1) it liked my reading or (2) lunch finally made it's way to the baby. Either way I was excited. Of course the book had a lot of numbers in it. I counted the number of hugs I was giving the baby and they were all different types of hugs. Overall, a great Father's Day. Took a nap with my baby's momma, went to church, ate at Patrick's house with John and all the kids (Mom's were at a VBS meeting), went for a swim and a bike ride to finish the day off.

Summer Whirlwind

2010-06-17T07:18:00.003-04:00

Wow, so much for consistency. This morning I read Acts 3:11-26. Basically, Peter preaches the word in while everyone stares at him and the healed guy. He's got to be irritating some people talking about Jesus, but he does it anyways. Peter just spells it out for them, plain and simple.

Since my last post...the Air Conditioning went out on Sunday. The house was 85 downstairs and 92 upstairs, and that was Sunday night. We stayed at Patrick and Heather's house. Monday morning, John and I went swimming in the Lake, and then again with the girls that evening. The air conditioning guy came and worked his magic (yeah Bob Nance!!). Emily went up to the lake Tuesday evening to spend time with my mom who just had surgery. Last night, Patrick and I worked on GPS coordinates and clues for our field study to USC on Friday. And now, it's already Thursday. Time is flying by this summer. I still have much to do and little time to do it.

We're praying for the new Church, something different each day. Today, the theme is Friendly. This is one of the core values of our church.

One Week Down

2010-06-12T07:42:00.003-04:00

One week of camp is through. Six more to go! This week kicked my butt in terms of energy. Yesterday, all I did was drive a bus, and I went home and crashed in the bed. We went to Discovery Place in Charlotte, NC. We didn't exactly get the timing right because the buses took over an hour and a half to get there and then we had to eat because the IMAX started at 12:00. The kids had about 15 minutes to walk around before the movie. The move lasted until 12:45 which meant we had to leave to get back by 2:30. Needless to say, I could not park the bus at the museum so by the time I got the bus parked and got back and then ate, I had to turn right back around and go pick the bus up again. Miserable. Oh well, guess we should plan it better next time.

I didn't get a chance to read my Bible yesterday, scratch that...I had a chance and didn't take it. Well, I had a four day streak going. Start it over today!

Acts 3:1-10. This passage talks about the lame man whom Peter and John healed in the name of Jesus. When I read passages like this I have faith and trust that it is true, but at the same time, I wonder if it could still happen today. Jesus hasn't changed, the Holy Spirit hasn't changed...so if there was someone sick could I not just go up to them and heal them (I being God though me.) ? My response tends to be no. I feel like my doubt would prevent God from using me to heal. Not that I doubt His power. I know he has more than enough to use a guy like me to work a miracle. I just don't see that working with me. So what is my problem?

Reading the passage I am sure that Peter and John did the healing solely for God's Glory. I know good and well that my motives for healing someone would not be the bring God Glory, at least not the first reason. My life is backwards a lot in that department. I know everything I do should glorify God, but that is generally a secondary thought rather than a primary one. If my first thought was what can I do to bring God glory...my marriage would be better, my teaching would be better, my friendships would be better...yeah, everything in life would be better. I know Peter and John were human just like me, and they made their share of mistakes, but I think that when they were healing it was not for selfish reasons. They wanted to glorify God, and that should be my attitude in life.

I'm off to shower and then eat breakfast.

Ultrasound #2

2010-06-10T06:35:00.002-04:00

Today is the day for ultrasound #2. Last time we went to look at the baby he (or she) was being very difficult and stubborn (or super chill and relaxed). Nothing the technician could go would get that baby to move the right direction. It was upside down and facing Emily's spine. We could only get a look at a few things on her check list. So we were rescheduled for today. Last time, I turned away when she scanned the upper leg region...I just don't want to do that today. I want to know what we're dealing with here. Yes, I know it's a baby, but I need to know if I need to get a third job to start saving for a wedding in the future!! So I think I will look today, but I may get kicked out if that's the case.

Day 4 of camp is today. So far everything has been pretty good. Yesterday, we had the air on, my "lesson" went well, and it was an overall great day. Hopefully, today will be just as good or better. It sure does wear me out though! I have been about to pass out every day when I get home. Maybe it's the sun, or the lack of good food, but I'd like to think I'm working really really hard.

This morning, I finished Acts 2. Verses 42-47 were about the 3000+ believers who were baptized. A lot of stuff was going on with them.

Devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.
Devoted themselves to fellowship
Devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and the prayers (which ties into fellowship)
They were together and shared everything
Sold possessions and distributed money to everyone with need
Attended church (temple) together
Ate together in each others homes

These are just a few things that I quickly picked out. So how does this relate to me and to the new church? I doubt that I will ever devote myself to the apostles teaching like these believers did. Maybe I'm thinking of 'devote' too strongly. Surely that's not all they did. Regardless, what I can take from it is that I need to spend more energy learning from the Word. I need to read my Bible more often and study and apply it to my life. Fellowship I got down, I'm a big fan of eating and hanging with my friends. I think it is important for me to tie in a period of prayer with them though. It's easy to get caught up in the fun, and forget the importance of prayer. I suppose that sentence makes it seem that prayer is not fun...it is. You don't lead a 3 hour prayer session and not think it's fun! Still, I need to make sure to have the important (fun) stuff with the other stuff. Selling possessions and sharing everything sounds a little like Communism to me. It's just weird. My first thought was what about the lazy slugs who are believers and just mooch off everyone else. But I guess that's not the type of person we're dealing with here. And the more I thought about it, I realized that the Kelly's and the Powell's would gladly give Emily and me anything we needed (that they could give) and we would do the same. Maybe it's more about that mentality. It doesn't make sense to sell everything in today society (at least not to me), but my Bible Study Group would essentially to the same for each other. Most of what we have for the new baby has been given to us (used) from other people. And that is perfectly okay with me!

Nothing like running my mouth with my fingers! A lot of times I just type what I think, so my thought process sometimes changes as I go. Hopefully, you're enjoying reading this...all 5 of you! Have a great day!

Two Days Down

2010-06-09T06:42:00.003-04:00

So, it's official, Camp Cavaliers is wearing me out. It's great money, but I am tired. Yesterday I drove a bus around Northeast Columbia looking for shorts for our campers to try on and wear. It was just a long, hot, and tedious process. The kids were fine, I'm still wanting my break from school though. I guess it will come June 30th when we have our week off!!

Last night, Emily, Danny, Kisha, and I went to Charlotte, NC to have some dinner and hangout time. It was a lot of fun! We went to Maggiono's for dinner and Cheesecake Factory for dessert. It felt like a great way to unwind after a hard day's work. The only problem was we felt this way after only 2 days!! I can't imagine how we will feel in a couple of weeks. Seriously though, the camp is great and it's a great opportunity for these kids. I'm just tired...no biggy!

So, reading my Bible this morning...again!!...I seem to be on a roll right now. To bad my exercise is not following suit. I need to go to bed a lot earlier if I'm to get up and run in the morning. Anyways, this morning I was going to read a portion of Acts 2, but I never stopped reading and got all the way to verse 41. So to recap what happened in those forty-one verses...the Apostles receive the Holy Spirit, they start speaking in "tongues", and the Peter gives a sermon.

Some thoughts I had were:

A mighty wind came down when the Holy Spirit was given to them. Why? I'm pretty sure we do hear/feel a wind when we receive the Holy Spirit. I just thought it was interesting that a mighty rushing wind came upon them. Maybe they just needed to know something was happening, and maybe we don't need that...
Tongues of fire appeared to them. Kinda made me giggle to think about a flaming tongue showing up in my face. Either way, they began to speak in different languages. Pretty cool if you asked me. Selfishly, I could have used that in Spanish 3 in high school. My thoughts on this part were if that still happened today. I know in America, we don't see many things that other countries seem to see. Does that have to do with the faith of our culture? Sometimes it is hard to believe stuff like that, but then I have friends who have been to that dude in Argentina. The Holy Spirit reveals to him the sin in their lives and calls it out specifically and prays for them. It's hard to believe, but then when multiple people say the same thing, and it is people whom I trust, it makes it hard to deny. I suppose sharing about Jesus is the same thing. Hearing it from one believer is one thing, but when several people share about the awesome power of his love and grace...it's hard to deny.
In verse 13, people start wondering if the people speaking in different languages are drunk (at 9am). That seems like an odd conclusion to come to. They weren't stumbling, they weren't slurring their speech...they were all just speaking several languages. Maybe I am missing something, but I am not sure how people arrived at drunk. Nevertheless Peter nips it in the bud in verse 15. Did he even hear them say that or did the Holy Spirit just tell him to say it? Either way, he gets his sermon on. People were "cut to the heart" during his sermon. That has happened to me several times when Rhett preaches. Sometimes I feel like the whole sermon is preached to me, other times it is just a piece or two, but I know that the Lord is trying to get me to understand something. This is what "cut to the heart" makes me think of.
Last thing that caught me was that 3,000 souls were baptized that day after his sermon. AMAZING. One that 3,000 people were even listening or could hear. Two that they were not believers (granted I guess not many were believers at that point in history!!). I just don't see that happen at NEPC very often/ever. I don't think it has anything to do with the preaching as George and Rhett to great jobs, but more to do with (a.) who we are inviting (or not inviting) to church and (b.) the culture of Americans.

Well that's it for this morning, I need to go get dressed and get to work. Also need to run tonight. I'll let you know tomorrow morning if I did.

Prayer Time

2010-06-08T07:02:00.002-04:00

So this morning I read about the apostles and their time post Jesus pre Spirit (Acts 1:12-26). One thing really stuck out to me. "All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers." vs 14 As a preChurch, they were devoting themselves to prayer, I'm assuming they were waiting for the Holy Spirit that Jesus said would be coming "not many days from now" vs 5 The question I asked myself was, "Am I devoting myself to praying...for the new Church, for unbelievers, for my family, my friends, my job....and on and on and on." My answer was no. My prayer life is weak. No one would ever use the word devote when referring to my prayer life. That doesn't mean I don't pray. I do. I pray several times during the day (not just at meals!) but I still wouldn't say that I devote myself to prayer. I don't "pray without ceasing" 1 Thess 5:17 I guess what I'm trying to say is I need to pray more.

That being said, I feel like prayer is a daunting task sometimes. My mind as just enough ADHD that I go on rabbit trails of prayer. Praying for one person makes me think of another who makes me think of even another. Before I know it I didn't get to half the things I wanted to pray for...now is this God or just my crazy brain? Either way, I know God hears my prayers and knows my heart.

Last thing, day 1 of Camp Cavaliers went well. I was exhausted yesterday. Sixty rising 9th and 10th graders, they're all great kids...but I was BEAT at 2:30 yesterday. I do pray that the air conditioning is at least working today. It was miserable...yet another reason I do NOT want to go to Hell when I die. It'll be even hotter than yesterday at camp, and I do NOT want to spend an eternity in that kind of heat! Even lack of air conditioner can make me think of Spiritiual things. Gotta go day 2 starts in 45 minutes!

And you will be my witnesses...

2010-06-07T06:37:00.003-04:00

So apparently I am not a blogger, but I want to be. I love reading my friends blogs, and I don't see why I can't do it as well. I've decided my goals this summer are as follows:

Read my Bible daily and pray AMAP (kind of like ASAP, but the M means much!)
Exercise (I am starting to get a little on the puggy side)
Blog (It would be nice to get into the habit especially when the baby comes)
Read (I have a boat load of books I want to read and NO time when the school year starts)
Learn skills (kinda vague, but on the list right now is Final Cut, LiveType, Flash, stuff like that)
Revamp Algebra 1 Part 1 (I'm sick and tired of teaching kids to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. I'm not even convinced that it works for them)
Part of 1 and 5 get ready for this Church plant.

So I will post today on 1 and 7 which actually covers number 3 as well...then I need to go to work! This morning I read Acts 1:1-11. I figured since Acts was all about the early church it would be wise to learn from as I think about the new Church plant. The plant is still nameless, but it's in Blythewood and it's a Presbyterian Church...so until I hear otherwise it'll be BPC.

This first section of Acts dealt with the promise of the Holy Spirit and the Ascension of Jesus. What stuck out in these 11 verses was Jesus's last words before he ascended, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Most of the time I think of the second part of this verse about sharing about Jesus. It's an ever expanding model of how we should tell others about Jesus. Where is my Jerusalem? It is my neighborhood, Blythewood? Judea and Samaria would be Columbia or even SC. The ends of the earth would be everywhere else. Like I said, most of the time I think about the part of the verse and how I don't even try to do it. I am sure God uses my life to minister to others...hopefully others know I am a Christian and see how I act, but I sure don't go out "sharing" my faith. I have no problem developing a relationship with someone and then letting them know about my faith, but I am not about to just share it with strangers. The funny/sad thing is that I am pretty exclusive about my friends through. It is hard for met to just come out and become friends with someone. I don't know why. I feel like I can be friends with a lot of people or great friends with a few, so I choose great friends and ignore the rest. But enough about the second part of the verse, this morning I was contemplating the first part. I will receive power from the Holy Spirit. What power? I'm not healing people or doing any "cool" stuff like that. What is the evidence of that power in my life? Or is my faith so small that I make the Holy Spirit's power small in my life. Don't get me wrong, I know that God the Holy Spirit has limitless power. But in my life...what does that look like? How is God using me? I know there are ways, but in my small faith I have a limited view of what it is. Just some stuff that I will think about today.

Change of topic before I go. There are so many things that I want to do with BPC. The top three areas I want to help are Youth Ministry, Helping with the tech side of the Worship Service, and helping with the Website. The problem is they are all three in different areas of the church launch: Church life, Worship, and Administration. I am torn as to where to devote most of my thought and energy. I want to tinker with Flash to create some cool graphics, but at the same time I want to develop my skills with LiveType trying to do the same thing. Oh well, so many things to think about over the summer.

All this is in light of my being a father in less than two months!! Crazy times!

My child will not go to prom!

2010-03-28T21:31:00.003-04:00

Prom, short for promenade: a formal ball held for a school class toward the end of the academic year. In so many ways, this definition no longer applies to proms. First off, formal was no where to be seen for a lot of people, and it's March...I would hardly classify that as the end of the academic year.

On Saturday, Patrick Kelly and I went to fulfill one of our wonderful duties as teachers. Our shift was from 10pm - midnight. It was held at the Convention Center in Downtown Columbia. It was nice, not to hot, the food was amazing (catered by our culinary program. Thank you Chef Turner!), and for the most part I had an okay time. Of course, there are a thousand other things I would have rather done, but it was good to see some of my students "dressed up" having a good time.

So let's get to the good stuff. First, dress length. I will be dress shopping with my daughter (if my unborn child is a girl) or I will be dress shopping with my son's date (if my unborn child is a boy). There were some dresses that were shorter than some shorts I own. I literally had to divert my eyes for fear of seeing something I did not want to see. Skanky Ho comes to mind when I saw these girls in their "dresses". They were completely inappropriate. If that wasn't bad enough, some of these girls were hiking them up as they "danced" with their dates. There was nothing formal about some of these dresses.

Second, dancing. Really, so you think you can dance? These kids have no clue what dancing is. It was one big grind fest on the dance floor. Now I understand, it is packed and people are all crammed together, sometimes you just can't help but do a little grinding to the beat of the music. How else are you supposed to dance to the crap they're playing on the speakers? It's a difficult balance to figure out. Frankly, I'm a big fan of having fun on the dance floor, not simulating sex. Some of the guys were standing there letting girls rub their butts up and down on them. Who decided that was dancing. What self respecting girl would do that to a guy, especially in public? I will be teaching my children to dance at a very young age and we will learn to have a good time doing it. My sister and I have had random dance parties and we had fun. I'm actually convinced that half the people don't have fun at prom. They enjoy the before and the after, but the during is miserable.

Third, hats. I understand the occasional top hat, but even those should be taken off inside a building at a formal event. People were wearing baseball hats and skull caps with their tuxes. You could pick out the rednecks just by scanning the room for camo hats. You could spot the thug nasty wanna be Richard Winn boys who were wearing their ball caps with the stickers still on them. Hat policy anybody? They need to learn what is formal and what is not. Has formal changed?

I must be getting old, but I swear they didn't do that sort of thing at my high school's prom. It's sad, but this May will be 10 years since I graduated from high school. Times have changed a lot. I have changed a lot. I can only imagine what prom will be like for my child 16 years from now. Will they have prom still? Will it be the same, worse, or better?

Highlight of the prom: Mr. Price (the principal) cleared the dance floor and started singing/dancing to Vanilla Ice: Ice Ice Baby. Then the entire student body rushed the dance floor to join in with him. That is a very brave man.

Coming Soon...

2010-02-24T08:34:00.002-05:00

So I haven't blogged since October. I have so much stuff to talk about that I don't have time to talk about it. In addition, certain things I'm not allowed to talk about. Go figure. I will try to get back on board with this, but I am just super busy...definitely the hardest Spring of my life to date!

So...coming soon...

End of Another Triathlon Season

2009-10-18T21:15:00.003-04:00

Season 2 is done, no more training for a while! Right, like what I did was training. This weekend I competed in the last Triathlon of the South Carolina Triathlon Series. Emily, John Powell, Ed Farnell, and I competed in the sprint version which was a 500m swim, 10 mile bike, and a 5K run. It was probably the coldest water I ever swam in (70 degrees Fahrenheit!) The air temperature was 55 degrees...so for a brief second, the water actually felt warm. Oh, and when John went to the bathroom in the water next to me...that was warm too!

Here's the break down of times:

Rusty: 14:52 swim, 36:09 bike, 30:19 run

Emily: 17:15 swim, 46:21 bike, 41:34 run

John: 13:04 swim, 33:51 bike, 24:28 run

Ed: 11:17 swim, 31:11 bike, 23:01 run

Yeah I'm slow. I need to run when I train. That will make a huge difference. I also need (want) a wet suit for the cold swims. It really scares me when 100 men are swimming around you with out a life jacket on. I got kicked in the head and stomach and I was swam over a couple of times. Not fun. When I was getting out of the water, a woman...yes she started four minutes after me and caught me...pushed me out of the way. I'm also pretty sure I didn't kick much when I was swimming. Something else to work on.

The biking was great until my calf cramped up. And until I saw Emily on the bike, I was worried that she froze to death in the lake. After that I could focus on the task at hand, not that I'm making an excuse for my slowness. I attribute that to my training, or lack there of.

I was just happy that I didn't walk this year in the run. My time last year was 34:20 so I took a 4 minutes off just by jogging the whole time and not walking. Imagine the possibilities if I actually trained. After I finished, I went to get my sweat pants, and then I walked to wait for Emily. When I didn't see her, I went down the course until I found her. Then we jogged to the finish line together. That was fun.

It was a great experience. Hopefully Emily and I will do several more together. Next season!

Pictures

2009-10-15T07:34:00.002-04:00

Last night was quite the adventure as Emily and I went to church dressed up for our photo shoot. The church (Olan Mills) is taking pictures for the new directory that they will print for the members. The cool thing about it is that you receive a free 8x10 just by getting your picture taken. It was crazy though, the photographer makes you turn your head, tilt your head, stick out your chin, make your eyes look one way, and smile all at the same time...it's not natural!

Emily and I decided ahead of time that we would not be purchasing any pictures. After our photo shoot, they showed us all of our pictures and we had to pick one for the directory and one for the 8x10. After that though, the lady went crazy showing us all of the different ways they could print our pictures. I must admit, they looked good. She even showed us a Christmas card that we could make. After all of the showing, I asked about prices...

The first package she threw out costs $495!!!! Was she crazy? I could take my own picture, print it off, and then keep the other $490. I about lost it, but I maintained my composure. I told her that was far from our price range, but I did give her another chance with the Christmas card picture. I figured we would print them this year so why not get them from Olan Mills. For 60 cards the price was $120. I said that was ridiculous because I could take my own picture and make 60 cards for $12 (that's $0.20 a piece for you non-math folks reading this!) Emily hit me when that comment came out my mouth. She said I could have a CD of the pictures for $125 with all copyright privileges. Can you say rip off!! That's about $14 per picture. I said no thank you and said we'd just be getting the FREE 8x10. After that, her attitude toward us was not as perky...I don't blame her. She knew reality had set in and she was not going to make the sale.

As we were leaving church, I was going on and on about how ridiculous that was. I asked Emily who in their right mind purchases those things? Then I realized my mother used to. What was she thinking? I'm sure she had coupons or something, because if prices were the same then as they are now I would get in my time machine and go talk reason to her.

RIDICULOUS

I'm an Imaginary Teacher...

2009-10-01T13:57:00.002-04:00

A teacher in the district had to have 3x or 4x bypass surgery. Ouch! He teaches AP Statistics, and is VERY good at it. Needless to say, the district needed someone to cover his classes for a while. I HATE statistics, but I took one for the team and taught it this year (I wanted our school to at least have a statistics program). They asked me to do it, and I said yes. I know 3 kids in his class and I know the teacher personally, so I felt compelled (is this the right word?) to say yes.

A Virtual class takes out all the fun of teaching. In fact, there is no teaching required...all I do is grade their assignments. I HATE grading more than I HATE statistics, but it's one of those things you just need to do as a teacher. Maybe the Lord is teaching me something in the process? That's usually the way it works. Also, He is providing (Jehovah Jira?) financially through this opportunity. About $2000 and it's just a semester course. Emily and I will be able to use that on our trip this summer.

Well, Blackboard is working again...back to work!

Vision

2009-09-28T21:57:00.003-04:00

What is God trying to tell me?

Last Thursday, I went to a "Leadership Academy" run by Dr. Washington (#2 in command of the district). It is for teachers who want to learn more about administration. Since I work/teach in a bubble I thought it would be good for me to take one evening a month to learn about administration. It was a great class! The thing that stuck out to me that night was a good leader needs to have vision.

Last Friday, Mr. Price caught up with me during my planning to inform me that I didn't get the job I applied for at the school. Yes, the Friday before, I applied to be a lead teacher at Blythewood. It was a great experience...the interview, not the worrying leading up to it. Mr. Price said I did great in the interview, which I'm sure he tells everybody?!?! Nevertheless, I felt better after he told me that. The one thing that stood out to him that I could work on was having a vision for where I would take the job. The second person that week that said I needed "vision".

So, on Sunday, we had a guest preacher...Dr. Michael A. Milton...and of course what is in his message. Having a vision...Reaching Up with a Vision that is Out of this World. So maybe it seems obvious to you and it's obvious to me...I need a vision (on several levels). But what is my vision. My ministry's vision, my family vision, and my work vision???

I'm open for suggestions. Wait, am I allowed to let others tell me my vision? Scratch the suggestions part...comments? questions? concerns?

Thiller Dance

2009-09-28T21:49:00.002-04:00

Here's the video from the dance last Friday. I'm one of the bald guys. The quality is pretty low, but you get the picture!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB15cpEYefg

Homecoming Week is Over

2009-09-25T19:50:00.004-04:00

Possibly the longest week...ever. I am so incredibly exhausted. Monday I was a Pirate, Tuesday I was supposed to be a kid, here's a pic.

Wednesday was "Show your dark side" Day. I looked good in my black/grey combo with the black hair.

Needless to say, I was tired of the beard by Wednesday afternoon. So I shaved it off. Emily decided I needed a hair cut too. We cut it and it looked horrible with certain parts dyed more than others. So we buzzed it. I still looked like a zebra or a snow leopard...not sure. So we removed all the black...with a razor. Here is the final product.

Emily actually likes it, but I am tired of the shaving required every morning...so it's growing right now. Friday we had a homecoming carnival, and Saturday I went to Clemson with Nic. Today I am playing the amazing game of catch up (the question is should I catch up on sleep or school work?) So there you are, that's me last week. Fun times!

The Pirate in Me

2009-09-21T21:42:00.004-04:00

Today was day 1 of Homecoming Week. The theme is Thriller..."go back to the original Neverland and seek Thrills on the high seas a with Captain Hook and his crew"...stupid I know, but an excellent excuse to dress like a pirate. I dyed my hair black (not the washout kind, and I used Just for Men hair coloring for my beard) I'm not sure if I looked awesome or not, but it was fun. It's amazing how many people were surprised I use permanent dye. I'm a boy...when I get tired of it I will just cut all of my hair off...duh! Here are a few pics from today.

Isaiah 5

2009-09-10T07:36:00.003-04:00

I haven't read my Bible in a while. Life has caught up with me and I got t0o "busy" with other things that I didn't make time to read it. I think it shows in my relationship to Emily. It bugs me like crazy when she asks if I love her...why do girls do that? At the same time, something must be a little off with me for her to ask that. There's definitely a pattern in the past that relates my relationship with God to my relationship with Emily. They match each other.

So I decided to take a little time before school today to pick up where I left off in Isaiah. I've gotten ALL THE WAY to chapter 5. It starts by describing someone with a vineyard (aka God). He does everything for the vineyard: planted it on a fertile hill, planted choice vines, built a watchtower in it, cleared it of stones...he took care of his vineyard. Here's the kicker though. It didn't yield the grapes he was hoping it would. Why do I not yeild grapes? He blesses me completely, I have everything that I will ever need, yet I don't produce fruit...or at least I feel like that sometimes.

Do I treasure my relationship with God? Wouldn't one physical way that shows is reading my Bible consistantly? Shouldn't I pray about everything? Seek his will and not my own?

I feel like Paul...only not as cool.

Labor Day

2009-09-07T10:37:00.006-04:00

This has been a great 3 day weekend. Emily and I went up to Clemson Friday night to spend the night with my folks. Saturday morning, Emily and I went on a 12 mile bike ride around Clemson. It was a lot of fun...and Emily survived it!

Eventually we went to tailgate in our spot in Lot 2. Tons (10) of former/current high school students came to visit our tailgate. Well, there wasn't much for us to offer them so they left.

As always, it is good to spend time with family. Rachel and Bryan ended up making it to our tailgate, and eventually Dad got off work and got there. One of the highlights was seeing my friend Jeremy Adams with his wife Dara and their baby Olivia. It was good to catch up and see the baby. They are on staff with Campus Crusade in Slovakia.

Emily and I were really into watching the game. Seriously though, we have the best seats. It started to rain and we didn't get wet at all. Clemson won, but they'd better get their act together or GA Tech will run all over them. It was great seeing Jeff on the sidelines. The program had an article about Jeff and Mr Brad coaching together. Sadly, I started to tear up reading it.

Well, that's about it. It's Monday...Emily and I went on a bike ride this morning. We're going to get FREE Chick-fil-a at 11:30 with our friends Patrick and Heather Kelly (and Anna too!). Later today, we're getting together was some more people to have Low Country Boil. Gotta love Labor Day.

Texting to my blog at a Clemson Game

2009-09-05T19:31:00.002-04:00

I decided i need to write a math song to the tune of the Boom Boom song by black eyed peas and yes I am at the Clemson game

Unit Price

2009-09-02T22:39:00.003-04:00

So I'm teaching my 9th graders about Rational Numbers...aka fractions or any number than can be written as a ratio of two integers...and I decided to do a shopping activity. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I spent $80.99 at the grocery store for these kids. Basically they're going to calculate the price per ounce of several items of various sizes. For example, comparing the unit price of a big can of peaches vs. a small can of peaches.

You'd think that the bigger item is the best deal.

Of the 13 types of items I purchased, it's better to purchase the smaller for 5 items:

Cool Ranch Doritos...

18 oz family sized for $4.99 vs 14.5 oz bag for $3.99

Gatorade...

32 oz bottle for $1.00 vs 8-20 oz bottles for $5.50...duh on that one.

Campbells Tomato Soup...

26 oz can for $2.39 vs 10.75 oz can for $0.89

Tostitos Scoops...

14.5 oz family sized bag for $4.99 vs 12 oz bag for $3.99

Tuna Fish...

12 oz can for $2.49 vs 5 oz can for $0.79

Who would have thought it cheaper to buy the smaller (in oz) sized item of the 5 items above. Craziness! Anyways, hopefully tomorrow goes well. I will probably try and return as many items as possible to get my money back from the grocery store. Is that cheap?

9 Days Down, 171 To Go

2009-09-01T20:54:00.002-04:00

So I've officially been teaching this year for 9 days. I figured by this point I would have tons of funny stories to tell you about my classes. Well I don't...

They are completely normal human beings. I have been truly blessed with GREAT classes this year. I am not even sure how to handle my ninth grade students. Never have I ever had students so polite and well behaved. Several of the students use sir on a consistent basis.

This past weekend, Emily and I chaperoned the swim team (I drove the bus) to Myrtle Beach. I definitely think swimming would be an excellent sport for my future children (if Emily and I get around to having them...) It was very exciting to watch and cheer for all of the students. After the meet and lunch, we went to the beach and played in the ocean for practically three hours. I felt save because the majority of the swimmers were also life guards.

Well I guess that's it. I'm super excited about the Clemson game this weekend!

Beach Vacation

2009-08-17T07:34:00.007-04:00

Emily and I went on our annual beach vacation. It lasted about 14 hours, but we made great use of our time. We went to Sullivan's Island for the day. The weather was perfect, and after all of the sunscreen we used (seriously) Emily still got burned.

We took down Publix subs (best you can buy!) and fruit and drinks. Emily destroyed me at Bocce ball, yet another activity where my wife is better than me. We threw the frisbee around, but the wind was windy.

Eventually we decided it would be a good idea to shower before the wedding (Ashley's...a woman I ride bikes with and work with). Thankfully Ruthie saved the day by providing showers, and we got to the wedding in enough time to stand up in the back. It was outside at Hampton Park, near the Citadel. But that wasn't the best part...the reception was on Shem Creek at the Landing. It was great! Emily and I spent a good bit of our time just sitting outside. The food was amazing: shrimp sandwiches, crab cakes, shrimp and grits, mashed/sweet potato bar, beef, and pork...I was too full for cake.

Needless to say, it was a great vacation...unfortunately it was only for a day.

Two Days Down...188 More to go...

2009-08-14T15:54:00.002-04:00

Well, it's Friday afternoon, and I still don't feel like I'm ready for school to start. I just finished tweaking my syllabus for each class. I am going to be more organized this year (right!).

Yesterday, I was talked to from 8:00-4:00, needless to say it exhausted me. My brain hurt from the lack of use. Then I came home and offically won the award for worst husband of the day. And it happened to be Emily's birthday...good timing to get the award!

Today, I actually got a decent amount of work done amidst constant interruptions. Syllabus for each class...done. Plans for the first few weeks...not so much. I have three more days. We'll see how it goes.

Jury Duty Round 2

2009-08-11T13:35:00.002-04:00

So I called back yesterday at 5:00pm...the message said to call back at 10:00am

So I called back today at 10:00am...the message said I was done with Jury Duty!!

Hopefully I won't be called for a very long time. Now I can work on school stuff, which oddly enough I am excited about. I think I'm ready for my life to be back on a schedule.

By the way, this is a huge answer to prayer. I know...who doesn't pray to get out of jury duty? The issue with me was that I needed to be at school tomorrow for inservice (I'm in charge of a portion of it) and then Thursday is when I offically needed to be back. It would have a been a rough start to the school year if I missed those days.

Jury Duty

2009-08-11T07:01:00.002-04:00

So I have Jury Duty this week. Yesterday I went with a book, Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People, and sat. And I sat and I sat some more. It was miserable. I got there at 9:00am and left at 1:00pm with instructions to call back at 5:00pm. Basically as a juror, you sit and then tell then who you are and what you do and who your wife is and what she does. I'd say about 50% of the people there were separated or divorced. There was one person with a partner. After that, the judge went through the list of qualifications and exemptions (needless to say I did qualify but not for an exemption!) If there was anyone who needed to speak to the judge personally, he gave those people a chance as well. 50+ people got in line to speak to the judge, he let about half go. After sitting on the hard wooden seat...my butt is still sore...they transfered us to a jury holding room. We sat in there for about 2 hours. Finally I was given my pink call back slip and allowed to leave. It was a rough day. I never knew my civic duty would be so tiring. I am definitely praying that the cases will get settled outside of court and I will not need to return to court. That would be the ideal situation.

Back in the Grind

2009-08-06T08:17:00.002-04:00

Back in the states and I am already back in my routine...

Tuesday and Wednesday was spent at Blythewood talking about Freshmen. Always a fun topic. I did come up with one idea that might be used...Bengal Hot Seat. The students pick a teacher to put on the hot seat. They then ask you lots of questions about yourself. It is an idea that will help the students get to know their teachers. We'll see how it works out. I'll let you know when I'm on the hotseat and what questions I am asked.

Today I'm spending all day at the adult ed center for my Tec Mentor meeting. Basically I help other teachers at my school with their technology needs, and I also incooporate technology into my lessons. It's pretty easy to do and I get a laptop in the process. Hopefully Danny will get here soon. He and I have a little too much fun at these meetings.

Home

2009-08-04T06:25:00.003-04:00

Wanted to let everyone know I am home. I tried to stay up late last night, but I was crashing about 8 o'clock. I woke up at 5:30 with no alarm. Hopefully my body will adjust. Thank you for praying for me...if you don't mind, continue to do so. School starts in about a week!!

London Day 9

2009-08-02T16:25:00.004-04:00

Today was our last day, and since we got rained on yesterday we were not able to see everything we wanted to. This morning we traveled back into town with the intent of shopping and seeing the palace. We also wanted to spend a little time debriefing about our trip.

We got to London around 10 o'clock. Guess what time everything opened...noon. We decided to go to Buckingham Palace and then debrief and then shop. On the way to the palace, a few people (12) wanted to shop in possibly the smallest souvenir shop ever. I took three people on ahead so we could walk and enjoy our time a little more. It was nice because we had time to relax. Unfortunately, Brad got lost on the way and didn't get everyone to us until 12. It was not to fun waiting, but we got some fun pictures in.

After meeting up again, we all grabbed sandwiches and talked about our trip. What is God doing in us because of this trip? What have we learned, and how will we take it home? My biggest thoughts at the time was how it would impact my teaching. It made me think about my students of other nationalities and beliefs. I feel like the trip two years ago helped me in that regard as well. The other thing that really stuck out to me was how people bow down and worship idols; they worship with such passion (they didn't care a lick about what anyone thought about them). I need to have that passion when I worship the God of the Universe. I care way to much about what people think of me when I am in Church...or I think too much about other people while I'm in church.

We split up one more time so the girls could do their shopping and the guys could do theirs. We went to the Apple Store...amazing!! Two stories...a beautiful building. We also went to Hamley's Toy Store. It was huge...5 floors. I was stunned and the craziness going on inside. I purchased a few things and held back on the rest. I am pretty sure most of it I could get online cheaper.

We got back in time to go to church at New Life Suwarta Sangat. It was very interesting to worship in English and Gujarati. Afterwards we had a vegetarian meal. After fellowshipping for a little while we went back to our hotel to pack...

Pray for us. The taxis pick us up at 4:00 our time. We need to be at the airport by 4:45am for our flight. I am looking forward to being home and seeing most of you (so of you I won't see for a while.)

London Day 8 - Late b/c Getto Internet

2009-08-02T16:18:00.003-04:00

We got to sleep late today. Today was our tourism day. After making our way down to London, we hopped on a double decker bus with no roof. The bus showed us around London, stopping at various places where we could get off and look around. We stayed on the bus until we got to St. Paul’s Cathedral. At that point though, we were a little bit hungry. Before we “toured” the cathedral, we decided to walk across the walking bridge to a pub on the River Thames.

The bridge was the same one that was destroyed in the new Harry Potter movie. I’m not sure how they rebuilt it so fast?!?! For lunch, I had fish and chips...except for the little bones that I had to pick out every once in a while, it was very good. Unfortunately, it started to rain while we were eating lunch. I used this opportunity to order a coffee, and then we walked back to St. Paul’s. The rain did not last very long.

To be honest, the only thing I wanted to do was climb to the top of St. Paul’s so I could use my new camera to take pictures. I told Lindsey that the pictures I was taking seemed to be the same as two years ago...she agreed. Aside from the pictures, I did have one incident at St. Paul’s. When we got to the top, the lady told us to go left when the majority of people were going right. We did, and we got to the downstairs area fairly quickly, but we (Brad and I) kept on going around because we wanted a complete 360 view. There was one British lady that was not happy with me. She told me I was going the wrong way, and that it was dangerous to be doing that. She then told me I had a “precariously dangerous umbrella”...apparently it was sticking out of my book bag at an odd angle.

Of course, in NEPC mission trip fashion, we had a mishap when meeting up after St. Paul’s. Two years ago, we gathered everyone (minus one) and left. We didn’t want that to happen this year, so we made sure we didn’t leave until everyone was in one spot. Unfortunately there was confusion as to where that spot was. Half of the group waited in one place while the other waited in another place. Needless to say, we sat around for each other for quite a while. At least no one got left!!

It definitely started to rain while we were waiting. I decided we should take a group coffee break, in hopes that the rain would let up before we started touring on the bus again.

It did, but it didn’t. The rain was not pouring, but it wasn’t misting either. Thankfully the tour bus company provided ponchos. They were a life saver. We continued on our bus tour until we got to the Towers of London. By this time, the rain was pouring down. In buckets. That didn’t stop us, and we went towards the River Thames for the last part of our tour...the boat tour. The good part was the boat was covered; the bad part was the boat was covered. You stayed dry, but you couldn’t see anything. Thankfully the rain stopped again and they slid back the roof.

We ended the boat tour at Big Ben, which is really just the name of the bell not the tower itself. We walked past Big Ben and Westminster Abby, but then we had to leave for a Kung Fu show that someone gave us tickets to see. Now if you thought it was raining hard before, let me tell you that there was not a dry part of my body that was outside my poncho. It was crazy bad rain. We made it to the London Coliseum with about 10 minutes to spare. The show was called Chun Yi. It was absolutely amazing!! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. It was a little bit of dancing with a lot of kung fu. They had weapons and breaking things and acrobatics and more. I can’t tell you how crazy good it was. On top of that, my seats were in the front row!! Front row!! It was so much fun. I’m not sure everyone shared my enthusiasm, but I was pumped up after the show.

We had a late dinner and then made our way back to the hotel. The internet once again does not work so I am forced to post at another date (I’m typing this now and then copy/pasting it onto my blog. As much fun as I have had, I’m looking forward to seeing Emily and being home. Thank you all for your prayers and support! Hope to see everyone soon.

London Day 7

2009-07-31T18:04:00.003-04:00

Sometimes words just seem to come pouring out of my mouth like throw up. I have no control over what I say, and I just wish I could say them differently. It is frustrating when I think something in my head, and I feel it is appropriate to say, but it just comes out all wrong. Someone was concerned that they haven't done anything worthwhile on the trip so far. Instead of disagreeing (which is my typical response to most things...I like a good discussion) I said, "Well, you still have 3 days!" This basically confirms the original statement, and this was not my intent at all. Frustrating. Plus, I try to compliment people, and they just don't take it as such.

Anyways...today was the last day of Kids Club, which was both exciting and a little sad. We flip-flopped sports today and put it at the end (in case people got wet). The entire morning, Kyle and I filled up water balloons for the sports time. Wet rubber wrapped around your fingers (say that 5x real fast!!) tends to rub you a little raw. I quickly removed a chunk of my flesh as I tied balloon after balloon. It hurt, but I figured the cross hurt a little more...so I kept the complaining to a minimum (Philippians 2:14). Needless to say, the balloons were a great way to end the camp. We gave each kid one and had them circle around the orange people (volunteers). They bombarded them in a...who am I kidding, I have no good way to describe the chaos that ensued.

After lunch, which was leftovers from the previous night, we prepared the church for Sunday's worship...aka we cleaned it up. I am excited to see how they worship at New Life Suwarta Sungat.

For a celebration with the teenage volunteers, we had the best milkshakes in London at Boomshakes. I was pleasantly surprised. After shakes, we went to Harrow for some shopping. I got a few things from the church's Asha shop. They get clothes directly from India and sell them at a fairly cheap price. I hope Emily likes them...if she doesn't I have a back up plan in Flip.

Dinner was delicious Italian, but the highlight of my evening was our time spent at Harrow on the Hill (literally this big hill/park in Harrow). We had time to set alone and process our week. I read a little bit from 1 John (reading currently for my quiet times) and listened to some songs on my iPod. Afterwards, we sat and shared some things on our minds as a group in the park. It was good to hear how each person was processing their trip. God is/was/will be working in different ways for each person.

For me, I shared how I enjoyed working with Hindu teenagers and getting to know them. I love interacting with "high schoolers", and I believe God will use these interactions to impact my teaching this year. I also was impacted by the way in which Hindus worship...aka on their faces...in front of statues/idols/nothing. The main thing I took from this was my lack of passion and reverence to worshiping the God of the Universe.

Well, it's over. Kids Club is done. I cannot wait to see how God uses this week in the lives of everyone involved. Guess I'll find out later...maybe Heaven? Tomorrow we're sight seeing. Hopefully we'll be able to sleep late, but I doubt I can do that. I have woken up before our alarm everyday.

Did I mention that my favorite chips (crisps in London) on this chip were Prawn Cocktail flavored. I'm going to try and find some in the store so I can bring some home to my dad.

London Day 6

2009-07-30T18:40:00.003-04:00

Another beautiful London day!! The Lord has been good to us with the weather. They were predicting rain all week and all we got were a few sprinkles for 10 minutes. Kyle and I attempted to teach the older kids how to play adventure ball during the sports time today. It is more or less like capture the flag, but a lot more fun. The kids did alright with it, although they didn't follow the rules all the time. One rule they did follow was when you are tagged you have to go to jail. They were great about that. At Cove (NEPC Youth Retreat) you have to escort your person to jail...otherwise they probably will not go. After adventure ball, we played a variety of tag games. In terms of sports, it was probably the worst day we've had so far. The kids enjoyed kickball much more.

The discussion time went really well. We just talked about their week, and what they've enjoyed. I let the kids know my last name today. They thought it was the funniest thing in the world. They couldn't believe that my last name was a spice. One group (7 yr olds I think) kept saying over and over again that they were going to eat me! After our discussion, we played a game called "Magic Carpet"...I made it up, the title that is. The goal was to get everyone in their group to stand on a bed sheet. Each time they were able to get their entire group on without touching the ground I folded the sheet in half. They had a good time, especially when they had to start getting on people's shoulders.

This afternoon, I worked on pictures for an hour or two. I kept 300 pictures from the past three days, and I deleted 1100+ pictures. It took a little bit of time, but it was worth it because I think the parents and kids appreciated the slide show (it wasn't your typical show). I took a nap for about an hour before I was woken up by our new British-Indian friends. We then took the bus to the church where we helped set up for tonight.

The food was homemade and (very) delicious. I will no doubt smell like curry tomorrow. I had Sam on my back (185 lbs), and then Stephen jumped on Sam (145 lbs)...I had no problems until Tom jumped on Stephen who was on Sam who was on me (145 lbs). Totaling 475 lbs with forward momentum from the jump I collapsed to the ground...which happened to be cement. Needless to day it hurt.

We did kidnap Mary Brickle (it was her 18th birthday...drinking age in the UK) and took her to Baskin Robbins.

We have one more day of Kids Club. Continue to pray for good weather for us. We will be doing sports last tomorrow, and it will involve water balloons...

London Day 5

2009-07-29T18:08:00.003-04:00

The day started off a bit rainy. I was worried that I would have to figure out what to do with 70ish kids inside this building. It is not a large area at all. Praise the Lord that the rain stopped, and we were able to go outside and play kickball. This kids had a good time playing "rounders" with your feet. It's amazing how different their language is. They speak English better than our kids, but they have certain words that mean different things. Examples:

English to American

Biscuit = Cookie

Crisps = Chips

Chips = French Fries

Lift = Elevator

Trainers = Tennis Shoes

Pants = Underwear

Trousers = Pants

Starters = Appetizers

Mains = Entrees

Fanny = Girl Part (so Fanny packs are out of the question)

Cue Up = Line Up

Football = Soccer

Rounders = Baseball

We did our normal deal for the rest of the day. The game in my station was similar to yesterday, the only difference was the tubes were in the air and the kids were trying to get balls though them. Kyle and I got hit several times in the...well you can figure it out. Other than that, the day was fairly typical. The majority of the NEPC kids went to the park to play cricket with the same guys that we played soccer with yesterday. Brad and I went to the hotel to sleep. I was running at 5% of my maximum energy level. Before I crashed though, with the blessings of technology I was able to video chat with Emily for about 50 minutes. It was great!! Seeing her face and talking to her is 10x better than chatting on the phone or sending an email. Google Talk rocks!

After talking with Emily, I took a 2 hour nap. Is that supposed to happen on a mission trip? Shouldn't I be doing something "missionary-like"? Sorry supporters if I let you down. We went to dinner at a restaurant called Blue Ginger. It served Indian and Oriental Cuisine (both veggie and non-veggie) We ordered several things that we all shared. I was the garbage disposal that finished much of the uneaten food. I definitely tried everything. I think I really like Indian food (meat or veggie). The student volunteers joined us for dinner and we were able to get to know them better. The young man at my table was a Jain and a vegetarian. He has never had meat a day in his life...this is pretty hard for me to imagine.

The team came back to the hotel, and are resting for tomorrow's activities. In addition to the typical kids club, we will be having a parents' night. So far 100 parents and 70 kids are signed up. Please be in prayer for our space and the weather. It is hard enough to fit 70 kids, but we have an addition 100 people to cram in there. Not to mention we are feeding everyone (vegetarian Indian food).

Also, huge answered prayer!! The Ed and Allison Farnell (friends in our SPUR group) got a contract on their house. We have been in prayer for a while about this. Praise God!

London Day 5 Tired

2009-07-29T09:38:00.003-04:00

Are you allowed to be tired on a mission trip? I already feel like I don't do that much, and then I get exhausted from it. I feel like I should be going all out for Jesus, but right now I'm crashing in the bed (it's 3:30pm). Shouldn't I be some sort of evangelism right now? Well, I'm not...so I will nap until dinner, and then I'm going to let you know about day 5.

Until then...

London Day 4.9

2009-07-28T18:00:00.002-04:00

Some final thoughts about day 4.

We went to Harrow (downtown) to have some dinner. It was not a hopping place...meaning there was no one there...at all. We went to two pubs, but they both turned us away because we had minors (less than 18 years old). They both also looked like they had stellar food. We ended up a place called Freddy's. 75% of the kids ordered pizzas. I had spaghetti carbonara, or something like that.

After we left we went back to the bus stop, but there wasn't a bus that would take us home. We had to walk a decent ways as we searched for one. FYI. On the way I saw the outline of a naked man in his window. I happened to look up at some apartments, the window was wide open, and he had a light on...he closed the curtains pretty quickly after I saw him. I guess he thought I was a creeper.

Anyways, we found the stop. I flagged down a bus, but it didn't stop. Possibly because Kyle was on top of the bus stop overhang? Anyways, I started getting crabby and sleepy. We caught the next bus, and headed home. It's 11:10 England time, I'm going to bed...unless I play spades, but right now I don't want to. I'm hoping the internet will work so I can talk to Emily, but I'm not holding my breath because even as I type this I have no internet.

London Day 4

2009-07-28T11:38:00.004-04:00

Today was the first day of Kids Club. We had a little over 70 kids. My team left to go set up the soccer stuff, and did not get to participate in the "opening ceremonies". We were supposed to have 45 minutes for sports (soccer today), but by the time they got there we had 20 minutes to play soccer. We had the little kids with two fields and a four team tournament for the big kids on the third field. Well, because of a lack of time we decided to just play 20 vs. 20 with the big kids. It was not the best idea in the world, but the kids had a good time.

After the sports time, we had four stations that the kids rotated around. My station was snacks/discussion/games. Basically it meant that I was eating for 80 minutes. We had cheese and grapes as a snack, and I asked them each to say their names, # of brothers/sisters, and what they enjoy doing. One kid had 10 siblings!! Most had a normal number though, and they enjoyed watching TV, playing video games, or playing sports. The typical sports were football (soccer) and cricket...although we had a very basketballs in the mix.

It didn't take long for them to share and finish their snacks, so I had to make up a game on the fly. I got three inner tubes and our bag-o-balls (McDonalds Balls...sorta). The goal was to toss the balls in the tubes. You were standing in a line, you get one toss, and then you go to the back of the line. After two minutes, the record was only 11 balls. Every time they got one in, it would bounce back out. You either had to bounce it in or have it roll around the rim and fall in. It was more difficult than I thought it would be!! That was a good thing, especially for the older kids.

After camp, we had lunch and debriefed. I began the job of importing photos and editing them (most of the editing is just deleting). I think tomorrow we will introduce them to the world of kickball (Adam [a spur group friend] would be proud!!). After everything was cleaned up, we went with a few teenagers (Hindu kids that are volunteering at the camp) and played soccer with them in the park. It was the Americans vs. the Brits (plus Tom Walsh). We handed it to them. Between myself and Brad Jones, we had a lot of size and speed, but we also had McKenzie and Kelsey (play soccer for Spring Valley). We played for almost 2 hours. I am beat! Dead tired. Brad is laying on the bed napping right now. I'm about to hop in the shower. I think we are going to a pub for dinner tonight...fish and chips anyone?

Hope all is well back home. I am thankful for the internet, although the time difference is a pain. It stays light here until 9:45ish and then gets light before 6. Please continure (I left it spelled that way because it reminded me of Madea) praying for us. Emily, thank you for letting me borrow your laptop. It is the only one that consistently gets internet access, although last night it was giving me trouble. We are also using it at Kids Club to project words for songs, and I'm using it for the slide show we will be showing later on in the week. Could someone email me or post a comment about the score of the ultimate frisbee game from Monday?? Brad and I would like to know if the Grey team pulled it out.

London Day 3

2009-07-27T16:30:00.002-04:00

It's day 3 and I'm still pretty tired. Brad and I stayed up chatting about effective youth ministry practices. After breakfast we went to the church to prepare for Kids Club. Matt led us with a devotion and his testimony. It was pretty cool how he arrived in the ministry in London.

At some point, either this morning or yesterday, he talked about some verses that stood out to me. I know you may be thinking that if it stood out to me yesterday I should have wrote about it yesterday...well I forgot if that was the case, but I remember now.

Isaiah 44:9-20

"All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit...The carpenter stretches a line' he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man...He cuts down cedars...Then it becomes fuel for the man...No one considers or has the knowledge to say, 'half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I hall down before a block of wood?'..."

This is the gist of the section. It was crazy to think that Hindus worship wooden idols (I guess their made of wood) and then they use wood to burn. How can something be used to worship and be destroyed (for warmth/food). I don't know. It was a pretty powerful verse at the time, especially after seeing people (some in business suits) laying on the ground face first. Just thought I would share it with you.

We prepared for Kids Club for several hours. That involved blowing up balls and setting up a volleyball net. Not too difficult. Not really sure what we did the rest of the time, but we sat around and chilled for a while.

After hanging...about 5:45...we went to deliver some Jesus Videos to people in the surrounding neighborhoods. A few weeks ago, people went and did surveys, and some of those surveyed asked for Jesus Videos. We delivered. Of the four houses we went to, two were not home, one accepted the video reluctantly (she must not have thought that they would actually bring it to her), and the last was on holiday (his mother ((who didn't answer the door for a long time)) accepted the video.

After we went to all of our homes, we were supposed to go do surveys at houses they hadn't been to yet. The first was not home, and the second said he wasn't into that stuff...surveys?? I think the fact that I am a Jesus-follower scared him away from the survey. After that, we had to start walking back to the van.

We had Portuguese for dinner. Chicken and sides. Pray for us tomorrow, as it is the first day of Kids Club. I think the first day we will play soccer...the entire time...during sports. The internet is spotty so I'm going to post.

London Day 2

2009-07-26T16:55:00.002-04:00

What a day! This morning we had breakfast at the hotel. Toast, yogurt, cheese, and some coffee for me. At nine o'clock, Matt came and picked us up to take us to his church. I was not there very long because a taxi met me at 9:45 and took me back to the airport to pick up Stephen. He was flying in exactly 24 hours after us. I got to the airport at 10:30 and Stephen's plane landed at 10:13. I figured he would be to me by 10:45, but I did not see him until 11:30. I was nervous because I did not know why he was so late. When they took his flight off the arrivals board I started to get nervous. Unfortunately, he was detained at immigration. They asked him why he was in London and he said, "sightseeing." The customs agent asked him what else he was doing, and Stephen told him the about the "spiritual retreat" he was attending (according to the script we were given ahead of time.) It was not a fun time for him.

After Stephen and I connected we bought Tube passes and traveled into Central London to meet up with our group at a pup, "The Kings Arms." They were supposed to meet us around 12:30, and they did not get there until 1:15. I realized how much I appreciated having a cell phone to check on people and their location. Stephen and I sat around and talked while we snacked on a "starter."

For lunch, I had the "pie of the day" which contained chicken and a p-word (bacon-ish)...it was very delicious. We hung out a Hyde Park for two hours after lunch. It was cold, windy, and overcast. Every Sunday, people come out to Speaker's Corner and "speak" about anything they wanted. Everyone (each speaker) was pretty heated. The "Christians" were morons. My favorite speaker was the Anarchist. He didn't care what other people said, he just wanted to talk. My favorite part was:

Speaker: You can't smoke in my meeting, no black lungs allowed.

Smoker: [blows smoke]

Speaker: Cigarettes are the ultimate consumer product. You buy some, and then set them on fire, and then buy some more.

Another crazy that happened was that Justin Brook was at Speaker's Corner. He and I went to Clemson for a few years together. I know him through mutual friends, but mainly because he sang in Jeff and Sara's wedding (I was in their wedding.) I just goes to show you how small the world is, and you'll find Clemson fans anywhere.

After Hyde Park we made our way back to Matt's house to clean out his attic for him. Me made a human chain to clean it out. As I was passing things down the stairs, I caught a whiff of myself. My BO smelled like curry. It was awful. We had spaghetti for dinner and then sat around for a while before we walked back to the hotel. I'm wiped, more from worrying about Stephen than anything else.

London Day 1

2009-07-25T17:27:00.002-04:00

Today (Saturday) we went to lunch at an India restaurant. The food was good, nothing off-hand that stood out. It was just typical Indian food to me...granted it was all vegetarian. We ordered too much food as a group. I did my best to clean off (eat) people's plates, but the task was just too daunting. We did not want to appear to be wasteful Americans.

After lunch, we visited two Hindu temples. It was crazy how devoted people were to false gods. I guess Americans are the same way. The only difference is that our gods are money and sports and stuff like that. The second of the two temples is/was the largest Hindu temple outside of India. To be honest, I did not think it was that large, but it was beautiful. The entire temple was constructed out of marble and limestone...nothing else. It was built in India and shipped to the UK in pieces, and then they had to put it together like a puzzle.

After our temple visits, we went to Matt's (missionary) house. He ordered pizzas for us, and we relaxed for a bit. I do miss Columbia, SC and its water. We predominately sat around and rested as we ate pizza and talked. Ashley (and others I presume) got on a kick saying that I am metrosexual. Here are a few of the reasons:

(1) I cook and like cooking

(2) I showered (we had 10 minutes at the hotel before lunch and I took advantage)

(3) I talked about flowers (I'm sorry that I pay attention to things that my wife enjoys)

(4) I shower with a lufa (spelling?)

(5) I like chick flicks (given a choice I would probably choose action/adventure, but chick flicks are ok too)

(6) Her list goes on with nonsense...

After dinner, I had the privilege of chatting with Emily online. Unfortunately, I did not get to video chat, but at least we had some time to "talk".

It's 10:43pm London time...I'm out. Please be praying for Stephen Gregg as he is traveling right now. I will pick him up from the airport tomorrow morning and then meet the group at a tube stop some where else. All without the use of a cell phone. Prayer!

London Traveling

2009-07-25T08:13:00.002-04:00

Where do I begin with my Friday. I went out to my car on Friday morning and everything in the front two seats was scattered about. Some one ransacked my car. That person stole my wallet, 2 pair of sunglasses, and a car converter. It was not a great way to start my trip to London. Emily and I spent the morning canceling credit cards and deciding what to do about the situation.

The thief did not steal my brand new $50 starbucks card, so I treated Emily to a morning snack. While at Starbucks, I get a call from Blythewood High saying that a parent found several of my cards!! I went to the school and retrieved most of the contents of my wallet. While I went to the airport, Emily went searching in the same area, and found the remainder of my wallet (except two gift cards...one of which was for Emily as a present...and the actually wallet itself)

The wait in Columbia was not that bad, but we had a 5 hour layover in DC. I wouldn't say I accomplished much. We did play a lot of Bananagrams (thank you MOM!)...for those that do not know, it is like Scrabble on crack.

The flight was good. I had a second dinner, and then I went to sleep. I was in and out for the majority of the flight. Unfortunately, Ali accidently broke my glasses. So I am in London with no way to see except for one pair of contacts...pray that I don't lose one!! I may go to an Eye Doctor down the street and get a new pair of glasses, just in case.

We're here at the hotel. I showered real quick and we are going to get some lunch. It's 1:23 pm right now, and it's 8:23 am back home. I miss everyone...especially Emily.

Washington DC - Day 3

2009-07-15T22:28:00.005-04:00

Pray for me. My strength is running thin. I am exhausted...but here's the day. We started off visiting the US Capitol. Joe Wilson met us on the East side of the building. I am pretty sure he shook everyone's hand and gave them all a business card. We talked for a while about the finer points of a Clemson Education (his son will be a senior next year).

Here is a sample conversation with a student after touring the Capitol:

Curry: What building are we in?

Student: The white house.

Curry: No, the US Capitol...look at the sticker on your shirt.

Student: Oh

Sample coversation after gift shop purchase:

Student: Mr. Curry! Mr. Curry! Look what I bought. A Declaration of Independence.

Curry: Awesome! What's the Declaration of Independence?

Student: I don't know.

Curry: Declartion of Independence...we Declared Independence...do you know who from?

Student: No.

Curry: Do you remember learning about Paul Revere riding through the towns saying, "the ____ are coming! the _____ are coming!"

Student: Yeah the British are coming.

Curry: So what country are British people from?

Student: Britian?

Curry: No and Yes, we call that country England.

Student: I knew that!

After the Capitol we went to the Pentagon City Mall. It was the highlight of most students' trip. They were looking forward to this more than anything else. They were bored within the hour. I went to the Apple store to play for a while. Afterwards we went to the Holocaust Museum. It gets "better" (not sure if that's the right word) every time I go. I learn more each time and get something different out of it each time I visit. When I finished, most of the kids were sitting around bored. "Mr. Curry, where have you been? We've been done for 25 minutes!" "I was reading the informatin!" Another student asked why there was nothing on Anne Frank. There was a whole section devoted to her. He must have missed it in the whirlwind tour.

We went to Union Station for dinner. Very nice train station! I sat around most of the time I was there. There was a shooting at the Capitol while we were eating dinner, very exciting!! We finished the evening with a luminated tour of the WWII Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial. I am tired, and very much looking forward to seeing Emily tomorrow. I really hope I don't fall asleep on the bus, but I'm sure I will since I don't want to.

Washington DC - Day 2

2009-07-14T23:26:00.002-04:00

Pray for me. I was, am, and will be tired. After going to bed late last night, Danny and I woke up early to take a kid to the airport to catch a plane home. It hurts your heart to punish kids sometimes. We started the day off with a trip to Arlington Cemetary. The students really appreciated it and respected the atmosphere of the cemetary. Arlington lasted for the first half of the day and we went to lunch afterwards. Next on our list was: the White House, Einstein's memorial, the Vietnam memorial, and FDR's memorial. I think the kids appreciated the bus taking up to and from the different memorials. Funniest part of the afternoon:

Curry: What can you tell me about the Vietnam War?

Student: My grandfather faught in the war.

Curry: Really who did he fight for?

Student: America.

Curry: Ok, and who did he fight against?

Student: Germany

WOW!!

After touring, we went to a mystery dinner theater. I was skeptical. It was kind of cheesy and took a long time to get our food. Possibly because the kids kept making noise (not in a bad way, just disrupted). My friend JD met us for dinner. He is a marine on duty at the White House; I am not sure if he was more entertained by the theater or by the students. Part of the show was having 5 kids participate in a "I'm a little teapot" competition. Needless to say only one student of the five knew the song. It was funny. I was chosen along with JD to go stand inches apart. The challenge was for one of us to say "I love you" with out smiling or laughing. I finished the task in about 2 seconds. Figured I should take the heat off of JD. It was a good day, and I am praying that the evening goes better than last night.

That's it...

Washington DC - Day 1

2009-07-13T23:22:00.000-04:00

Pray for me. Taking 60 kids to Washington DC is a challenge. The tour bus was freezing cold, and I was the genius who was wearing gym shorts and a t-shirt. Needless to say, I didn't get very good sleep. We got to Washington around 10am and started walking. Kisha and I paired our two groups together as we went to the Washington Monument, Burea of Engraving, American History, Air and Space, and Natural History Museums. It was a long day, legs were tired, kids were falling asleep on benches. I told them that they looked like homeless people. Kisha and I went to see the 3D IMAX about the ocean. It was good...really...but I fell asleep. I couldn't focus on all of the jellyfish swimming at me and then all of the sudden Kisha was telling me it was time to get up. Don't let her fool you, she fell asleep too. We ate dinner at a less than mediocre restarant, and then went to check into the hotel. As Danny, Jarvis, and I did room checks we smelled something funny in one room. Figures that we can't get a decent night's sleep the first night. We caught a kid with weed (possibly two). Good bye. $425 plane ticket...mom says she'll drive up to get him. So much for the spotless camp. I'm glad I have professional teachers to work with. They handled it oh so well. Pray for me, day 2 starts when I wake up. It's 11:30pm and we're still trying to figure out if student two had any involvement. I am looking forward to London a lot after today.

Best Indian Food in Columbia

2009-07-08T22:32:00.003-04:00

The London team went out tonight to eat Indian for dinner. Was it bad that I at 3 plates full? We wanted to give the London team a taste of things to come (literally). The owner was a nice Hindu man who didn't mind telling us about his faith. It was crazy how he thought that Christianity and Hinduism were similar. A "do good things" philosophy. I pray that God will use me to have good conversations with folks like this guy while I'm in London. How do I share the gospel with him? Is it just my role to love on him? I guess the Lord will lead me depending on the situation. The interesting thing was that he was having family problems that he shared with us (well, he shared them with Ashley), and he asked us to pray for him...so Brad did right there. Well that's it, I'm going to bed...

Test Post from Email

2009-06-29T12:05:00.001-04:00

I wanted to see if I could email directly to my blog. That's it!

Blogs round 4

2009-06-29T11:56:00.003-04:00

So I've tried blogging, and it didn't work out. I tried again, and it lasted two months. Then I tried to tell Emily that I loved her on a private blog from me to her. I think I got done with one post. I will try this one more time. All my friends are doing it...well not all of them, but some of them are doing it. I want a way to share my mission trip to London with my supporters. Second, I can't remember half the funny things my students do on a daily basis. This blog will document the insanity. And last, Emily and I are planning a cross country trip to celebrate her graduation from USC, and you can share in the planning and the trip with us.

Well that'll be it for today. I have too much to do around the house and Emily's list is growing. Frisbee tonight vs. the Black team.