Home!

I'm officially back in Bellingham! I got back yesterday just minutes before auditing. I had just enough time to swing by the house, drop some stuff off, and head to campus to turn in my paper. Awesome. It's good to be back, although Bellingham is much colder, and much darker than Tampa.

My time in Florida was awesome. I got the chance to meet a lot of really great people who are all very interested in providing advocacy and leadership to students within presbyterian campus ministires, colleges, and university settings. I'm walking into this all at a time where a lot is changing, so we seem to have a fresh slate to work with. I'm sure being a part of this group will cause me to learn a ton(I already have!) about the Presbyterian church as a whole, other students in this country, and how our generation can remain connected to a larger church body.

I went to Florida equipped with some great articles about our generation. It seems that more often than not, my generation is either not going to church at all, or not joining in with larger denominations(Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc.). I'm still trying to figure out what exactly this means, but I am confident that being part these larger denominations has value to offer in terms of history, tradition, and connection with other christians around the world.

I just found this on the internet:

Awesome. Sums it up nicely.

Arizona!

I'm in Arizona now, about to get on a flight to Seattle, I THINK! Awesome. On my last one, I got surprised with a stop in Atlanta. Woo hoo! That makes this my fourth plane ride in 24 hours. Oh man, that's crazy!

Delayed! Again, for some clouds and mist. Ghetto.

US Airways and other non-flying Adventures

I was going to try to tell what unfortunate chain of events has made my trip an extra day long, but, I figured a map would do it justice... here it is:


When it rains lightly in N.C., they delay things. If we did that in Seattle every time it rained, you would have to plan to be at the airport for weeks on end. It'd be crazy. I'm probably underexagerating the weather situation too. Someone used their judgement and decided it was too rainy to fly out safely, and for that I am thankful!

I met some awesome guys on the trip back. I think they'll be talked about more in the other post. They just came back from seeing some miracles be done in Florida. I'll research it more and figure out what's up.

I am posting this first, before talking about the trip on purpose. Re-pondering the trip to write it here will allow me to enjoy again the excitement about what is coming up. I don't quite have the energy tonight to do such a grand story justice. Until then, the picture of the beach a few posts below will have to work. It was a very nice beach!

Airline Check In

I think airline check in is way more complicated than it needs to be. Over the last few weeks, I've been looking at this itinerary with no identifying numbers and starting to wonder to myself if it was actually enough to get myself on a plane. I eventually got a username and password to a travel website, that showed me pretty close to the same itinerary with a few different numbers. Weird.

I figured it would be much safer if (before I traveled two hours south, got a ride to the airport, and was stranded with no way to get extra information about my flight) I called Delta to see if there was anything else I would be needing. Unfortunately, my conversation ended up with me checking in to the airport(I think), and no additional information about what I would actually need there. The website wasn't very helpful either. I found a list of things to get through security, but I've gotten pretty good at that.

All this made me realize that this is actually the first time I've flown anywhere by myself with no help. All my other flights have been group mission trip flights or family trips, and on both I have never had to worry about anything except getting on a plane at the right time with the right people. Easy!

Oh well, 22 hours of nothing now until the parade of homework begins on the plane. Woo hoo!

Youth Group

Pretty regular wednesday today. Well, most things anyway, and I sent a check to some company in Oregon for a new computer purchase. Its not that I necessarily need a new computer ( I don't), but more that my parents need one, and would like my current one. I'm ok with this generosity!

Tomorrow I venture down to Maple Valley for the night and then off to Florida for a meeting of sorts. I'm still trying to figure out what's going to happen, but I think I'm starting to understand. It's a Presbyterian thing. I expect to learn a lot, both at the meeting and during all the time I'll be spending reading some books on the plane. I would like to finish the next weeks worth of class readings, at least make it halfway through "The Divine Conspiracy" and get a good start on all my audit writing assignments. We'll see how that goes!

Some Loud Music... in the wrong place.

So, I had a surprise group meeting today at 9am. This wouldn't be a huge surprise, except that I don't have class until 12 today. Oh well. So, not wanting to endure the short walk back to my house, I brought some things with me, like my computer, books and food, to keep me occupied during the two hours before class. Its nice, so usually I would try to get a little work done out by the fountain, but today my laptop battery is dead because I didn't plug it in last night. Crap, that means I have to go sit in the library and watch everyone else enjoy outside.

So I find a great spot in the library, outlet and all. Right about now is when I forget that my battery had fully died earlier this morning, while playing music, loudly. The unfortunate thing about this is that the computer is veeery slow to start up after hibernating on a dead battery. The even more unfortunate thing is that windows won't let you mute the volume until it has started up, I've logged in, and the timing is right. I ended up blasting some third day to about 30 people for a good solid thirty seconds. Haha... its pretty funny now actually.

When I remember to check them, I really enjoy the biblegateway.com verse of the day(VOTD). From time to time, I might reflect on them a little. Today's strikes me as very appropriate, considering the fantastic weather:

“For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”- Romans 1:20

The complexity and beauty of people, the trees, sky, hills, and dirt allow me to catch a few more glimpses into who God is. Despite all these things that are around me that scream out that there is a God, there are times that I just miss the things placed in front of me. The verse goes on to talk about how even though these things have been made clear to us, sometimes we miss the point and do nothing with them.

I'm going to attempt to keep these questions in my mind today between classes, meetings, friends, casa and the INN. What has God put in front of me? What am I doing with it? If I'm so convinced that my surroundings are screaming that there is a God, how do I show that to others?

Classes Again!

The trip back up from Vancouver was a success! After waking up on sunday morning and working on a little homework, we visited City Harvest Church. Zach's parents have been going there for a few years. It was a great service with a message about disturbing the present to change the future. Awesome.

After that, we all went to pizzicotto and enjoyed some good barbecue pizza. We said some goodbyes and headed out. Overall, good trip. It was nice to see everyone and see Portland again. More adventures to come!

Vancou - Day 2

Well, we've made it through day two almost now! Woo hoo! The weather continues to be strange though. I woke up with about an inch of snow on my car. What the heck!

Still not too bad though. After spending some time admiring the snow, Zach's dad(Zack!) made us some eggs and fantastic sausage. My goodness. It was sweet. We spent some time sharing about the mission trips that Zach and I just got back from. Very awesome. It was good to hear more about Zach's trip to Vancouver, BC.

Our breakfast conversation ended with a discussion about how God has perfect timing. We talked about mission trip projects and Jr. High kids. Sometimes you just don't know if you're doing anything. Especially true with Jr. High kids! The conversation flowed to the truth that God calls us to keep doing these things sometimes that we have no clue why we're doing. Our job is just to plant the seed, and God will take care of it from there. Zach's parents are both so knowledgeable about the Bible. It was very encouraging.

Zach and I took off into Portland a little later to see everything. As we drove in, I began remembering random facts and stories from my time in Portland this last summer. Especially the community that I was able to be a part of at red sea church. It wasn't a community of college students, but rather college students, adults, children of adults, and more. Incredible.

We visited Gift & Mail Solutions, my aunt's store. It was great to see her, even though it was quick. She had some computer questions, so I helped her with those and we went on our way. We found parking downtown for only $1.25 an hour(?!), which absolutely beats whatever Megan, Mike and I paid in San Francisco this year. We walked to Powell's and I was in awe at the enormity of selection. We probably spent an hour in the Christianity section, which was a good three aisles. I couldn't bring myself to buy anything though, and I think this is because I've become too addicted to amazon.com's book recommendations. Maybe that's smart, but I also wish I could just buy a random book and enjoy it.

We then walked to the farmer's market. We took a quick pass through and then walked along the river back to the garage. We drove out to St. John's and enjoyed Burgerville, a great classic. Afterwards, Zach and I drove to a starbucks and met up with Tori to catch up. Tori was part of the small group I joined last summer and had a huge role in making my summer the growth experience that it was. Looking back, this year has been fantastic, probably largely due to the time I took away in Portland.

We visited a huge WinCo, see below. Now its games and dinner, with a side of Mike Ylinen tonight if he makes the trek out from St. Helens, OR. What a day!

WinCo?

New winco in van. So big!

Bus Driving!

While I'm at this blogging thing, I forgot to share that I got my bus driving license( Class B CDL with air brake restriction lifted and Passenger(1) endorsement)! Woo hoo!

Fake picture, but good interpretation anyway!

Travel Blogger!

Well, I'll be honest. I've always wanted to be a travel blogger. You know, one of those people who travels the world, and tells people about it in a beautiful combination of words and pictures during the trip. Something like a newsletter, but more real. More current. More exciting. Something that allows friends, family members, and random people on the internet to enter into the sights and sounds of wherever I happen to be. Not that they would necessarily be interested.

So, today begins it. I am going to be a blogger once and for all. No guarantees on post quantity(or quality), but a greater attempt at using this fantastic internet tool while I'm out and about.

Here it is:

Today Zach and I left Bellingham for Vancouver. He was originally supposed to sing at sabbath tonight, and I was looking forward to going. Unfortunately, he hasn't been feeling so great, so he wouldn't be able to sing. On the upside, this allowed us to leave bellingham a little earlier.

Traffic was terrible. The whole way down through everett to tacoma was stop and go. The only thing that made the drive bearable was some good conversation about the next few years, small groups, INN stuff, life, and a few comments about the weather. The weather was especially commentable because it snowed on and off. Just lightly, but just enough to be strange too.

About 7:45, we arrived at Zach's brother's house where his mom and dad live. It's a beautiful house with a great view. On the weekend agenda is see my aunt, visit portland, have coffee with Tori, see the Wells family(and baby Wells!), and hopefully squeeze in a little racquetball. More pictures to come, as we see more! I left my camera cable in bham, so we'll see if I can rig someway to get pictures up!