Well, shiver me timbers!!

Hello everyone! I am indeed still alive and I'm excited to be greeting you all on national "Talk Like a Pirate Day!!" Aye, it it is exciting indeed!
Anyway, I haven't been able to write in a while, so this is going to probably be kind of long. Feel free to read it in installments if that would better suit your schedule. I plan on writing a novel. I'll start off with some neat thoughts that I've gathered from various classes and discussions over the past few weeks.

-In Biblical Foundations, we had a teacher named Butch. Butch is known for being very blunt. In one class he was talking about the ridiculous extremes people go to to save the trees and animals and nature. When people start yelling "Go Green!," his response is...Why? God is going to burn the trees and kill everything anyway. We should "Go Red" and preach the message of the blood of Jesus. When all people have heard the gospel, then we can worry about saving the whales. Of course we do need to be good stewards of the earth, but in the grand scheme of eternity, what is going to matter more: how many trees were saved or how many people heard the message of the love of God?

-So many times we get comfortable in our Christian ministry. So much so that we only choose to even attempt to share Christ with a select few people in our lives. Close people. Maybe relatives...neighbors...etc. But isn't it interesting to note that we offer the Bread of Life day in and day out to people who openly refuse it when there are thousands of people all over the world who haven't even been offered the smallest slice. I'm not saying that we should give up on sharing Christ with those who have heard it. Be retelling it to them, praying for them, and living in an exemplary manner, many times that can lead even the most stubborn person to faith in Christ. But we need to keep in mind those who have never even heard the name of Jesus as well. If God hasn't called you to go and speak to them yourselves, I encourage you to still be a part of that ministry by lifting the missionaries who are with them up in prayer.

Those were actually only 2 exciting thoughts because I got interrupted and couldn't continue. So much for the novel. In the meantime, I'd like to introduce you all to some of my friends.

This is Vayle, affectionately known as Vaylequa by those of us who are near and dear to her. She lives across the hall from me but she might as well live in my room because she's there all the time. She's one of the most amazing people I've ever met! Such a blessing! She's been learning the guitar. Pretty much amazing. :) She's from Texas so she talks cool.





And this is Aidy....pronounced like the number 80...or as in "Columbus sailed in 1492 A.D."...AD. Anyway, he's from England so he talks really cool. He's been showing me how to talk in a British accent. He said I'm horrible. If he spoke, it would be like the "I fink we should do somfin togever on Sa'ur'dee."






And this is Brian and Alton. Brian is from Florida so he doesn't talk cool. He doesn't look like this anymore because my roomie and I successfully persuaded him to shave his beard off. Alton lives down the hall from me. He's three and I plan on taking him home with me.








I also need to find pics of Michelle, Matt, and Christy. You all already know who my lovely roomie Kaylee is. God is so good to bless me with such an amazing Michigan family! It's funny because we've only been here for a little over a month, but we have the friendships of people who have known eachother for at least 3 months. We see eachother day in and day out, 24/7 almost. A group of us were talking the other day about how depressing it is going to be when summer comes because we will have to be all over the country for 3 months. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. In the meantime, I'm loving every minute of this. I do miss all of you and appreciate your prayers! I'll try to update this thing a little more often. :)