Let's do this.

A new year has begun, and a new semester starts.

Tomorrow starts my second semester in seminary at SWBTS. I'm excited to start back and to really dive in to my 7 hours of course (not much I know, but enough for now). I must admit that last semester was a little bumpy as I was transitioning into my new life, job, and school in Texas. But now I'm 100% ready and anxious to get started.

The new year brought some goals into my life that should have been set far sooner, but as cliche as it is the new year became my opportunity to set the goals and well, so far so good.You can check out some of my goals from an early post, but overall, the MAIN goal that links all of them together is: to practice self-discipline. Laziness is old news.

Self discipline is the key to just about every goal I've set this year. I must be self-disciplined to be the man of God that I've been called to be and so I'm going to work harder at that than ever. Even tonight I decided to get out of the house, go to Starbucks and get my head on straight for the semester ahead. My schedule is organized, my motivation in the right spot and I even typed up my testimony in Russian in preparation for my first Russian lesson with my friend Natasha tomorrow on campus. (For those of you who don't know, I've studied Russian for 4 years now. However, not having constant speaking practice has set me back a bit and I'm seeking to overcome that by meeting with a native Russian once a week to fine tune my speaking skills.)

So here's to 2011 and kicking its butt so far. I'm determined and I really must credit the One True God with my ability to make it this far. Self-discipline is crucial to the Christian life in that one must have strong discipline to stay in the Word, pray, and meditate on His Truth daily and not be distracted by the world and its flashy opportunities. This focus has helped me to focus the rest of my life and it's a whole new world because of it.

I'm not going to keep rambling so I'll close it up here. Take advantage of this year, friends. It's not too late and NEVER too late to call on God for help. He's waiting for you.

Happy New Year!

It's been a big year. How bout a quick recap of 2011, eh?

Jan-May:

- worked on Senior Thesis for UTK

- completed my last semestester at UTK

- graduated with my undergraduate degree in Russian from UTK

June:

- my aunt, Nancy (Chichi as my sister and I called her) died in a car accident

July:

- trips to Chicago and New York City

August: 

- my last month in Knoxville, Carthage, and Tennessee

- offered and accepted position as Junior High intern at Prestonwood Baptist Church

- moved to Plano, TX

September:

- started classes at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, TX

- started job at Prestonwood

Sept-Dec:

- completed first semester at SWBTS

- went home for the first time in 4 months for Christmas

So yeah, it's been a year of moving, change, loss, gain, and everything in between. I've said goodbye to many people and met many more along the way, some of which are already changing and shaping my life as I begin a new chapter here in Texas. 

Now, with a new year quickly upon us, I want to set a few goals as is custom for the new year:

1. no more sodas - as much as I love Dr. Pepper, I really do drink too much of it

2. memorize scripture - specifically the entire books of James and Titus (which coincidentally are the first and middle names of a new baby born this year who shouldn't have been born until 2012)

3. run - I ran a 5K not too long ago and it was a little more difficult than I would have liked it to be

4. study Russian - sure it was my major, but I still have plently of learning and upkeep to do and it's much harder to do when you're not in a class every week

5. keep up with friends - with Skype, there really is no excuse to not keep up with people, regardless of where you are

There they are! Goals for 2012. While I feel like not all of them are very substantial, I also feel like they are all very accomplishable. I've got friends holding me accountable so I'm actually hoping to follow through with all of these. 

And oh yeah, maybe another goal will be to blog more. I've found that if I add it to my "to-do" list, I'm more likely to do it, so maybe I'll add it a little more often. 

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!

Home For Christmas

So it's been a while since I've blogged - so long that my grandfather made sure to mention it to me a couple times before I left his house. Here you go, Granddaddy!

I'm home for Christmas. For those of you who don't know, let me catch you up really quickly. I moved to Texas at the end of August and have been living and working there ever since. I'm in my first year at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, TX but I live and work in Plano, TX at Prestonwood Baptist Church. 

This is the first time I've been back to Tennessee since moving to Texas (I only live in states that start with T). I've been away from home for longer periods of time, but only because I've been overseas. It's a little different being away from home this long knowing that I am only a short plane ride from home. But this is the life I thought I was so anxious to have all throughout highschool and college: independence, a real job, living (kinda) on my own, making new friends, etc. I do love it, but sometimes I would like to get the earlier days back and enjoy them a little more instead of wishing them away. 

Anywho - it's been a great holiday at home. Short, but great. I fly back to Texas tomorrow (Wednesday) and go back to work on Thursday. I'm excited to be back to my Texas friends (I miss you, J-High team!), but of course I will be sad to leave Tennessee and my family and friends here as it may quite literally be NEXT Christmas before I'm home again. I'd like to go to Russia at some point during the summer and that will take up most of my vacation days. 

Well, it's getting late so I'll say peace out for now. Tomorrow I'll need to pack, figure out how I'm getting my winter clothes to Texas, and then get some lunch before heading to the airport. I'll try to touch base on the blog more often for those of you who read this (assuming that more than just my grandfather reads it, that is). 

Peace.

GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLL!!!

My favorite part of watching the world cup, or really any pro soccer match, is when one of the teams scores and the announcer yells, "GOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!" and holds it out forever as if the excitation must last as long as the anticipation that led up to the moment. There really is nothing like scoring a goal, even just the figurative ones.

I've set a couple for this week and I'm hoping that I can score on both of them.

1. Reconnect with friends that I no longer see due to the recent move to Texas.

2. Go without meat for this week (with the exception of fish).

So far, so good. I accomplished a lot today between school work and goal numero uno. I was able to do quite a bit of work for my New Testament Greek course - work that will prevent me from having to go into intense cramming mode in a few weeks. At the same time, I was able to get some messages out to friends I haven't talked to in a few weeks or months.

It's good to reconnect. I've already heard back from a couple of people and it's refreshing. I care about my friends from here and there, I'm just bad about keeping in touch with them. There's really no excuse with the technology of today.

As far as diet goes, no meat (except fish) today. I'm kinda giving this a try just for the heck of it. But at the same time, I could lose a pound or two of the stomach. With less time to be as active as I was in the college days (Did I really just say that? Man, I'm old.) I find myself storing up more than I'm burning off.

Whatever.

So yeah, I'm blogging for once. If your amazement has worn off by this sentence, then it's probably time I give you fair warning. No promises that this will be a common thing, as much as I wish it could be. My usual routine for the day-to-day is gym, work, homework/hang out with friends, bed. Rarely do I find this precious time to sit down and blog about life. I enjoy it, I really do, but it's always towards the bottom of my priorities.

But maybe I'll try to find more time more often.

That's all I got for now. Maybe an update on Texas life in the next blog post. Here's some pictures of Texas life to whet your appetite.

Canaan, Allison and I - gangsta pre-lunch pose

the koi fish in the pond at SWBTS

sunset at PCA football game

a night in FW at the Stockyards

a typical day at the office (w/ Ikea jellyfish)

stopped by the fair one evening

student ministry staff picture/model poses

What it is. What it is.

Texas: At Least the Sky is Bigger Here

So, I moved to Texas. Not on a whim or anything, so don't get excited. I moved here for school.

I love it. Texas, that is. (School hasn't started yet.)

Everyone knows the saying, "Everything is bigger in Texas." I think I know why they (the Texans) think this: the one thing that is undeniably bigger is the sky and perhaps that is why everything else seems to follow suit.

credit: granvillehouse.blogspot.com

I've never seen quite so much blue stretching in such an unfathomably wide area. It's overwhelming, not to mention when there are 7 different types of clouds in the sky at one time and 70 bajillion different colors coming and going during sunrise and sunset. I'd say it makes the whole believing in God by simply seeing His creation a bit easier.

Ok, my bragging on Texas is over. Don't worry. I still think the rolling mountains of east Tennessee are magnificent, but this is a nice change.

Now a quick update on what I've been doing since I've come to Texas. I drove down from TN to TX (I only live in T-states) last Thursday - about a 13 hour drive. No big. Since then, I have been getting used to the area and have also started my internship at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX.

For those of you who didn't know or I simply didn't get the chance to tell, I was offered and have accepted a position as an intern for the junior high ministry at the central (main) campus. There I will be doing a variety of things from making sure everything runs smoothly on Sunday mornings, to making follow-up calls to new students visiting the student ministry, working on video editing for events and services, having lunch with the junior high kids and attending their various sporting and school events at local schools, and doing pretty much whatever the junior high minister needs me to do. Today, for example, I started binding the junior high devotionals for the fall semester (well, at least running the machine that binds them). Not the most exhilarating job, but this is it: this is interning. I know I'm going to be given much more opportunity to do much bigger stuff, but for day one it kept me busy.

That's about it for now. I won't tell you everything so that I have something to blog about tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow. I've been consistent with my new workout routine, so I'm going to try to be consistent with blogging too. We'll see how both of those go. (And I'll never hear the end of it from Chelsey if I don't start blogging more often.)

Shalom and good night friends.

Long time, No blog

I keep checking my blog reader for new updates and blogs from my friends but no one seems to be writing this week so I thought I would.

Today was refreshing. Here's why: I started off the day with the kind of "quiet time" that I rarely get to do all in one sitting. I read the Word, had a time of worship (not so quiet), and then prayed for a while. I usually have my time with God everyday, but more often than not, should I try to have a quiet time such as today's, I am interrupted by someone or something on my schedule. So it was cool for once to be able to take as long as I wanted with no meetings or errands to run that would interrupt my time.

Another quenching time of my day was to be back at the church in which I grew up and to see old friends and hear a good message. We studied Paul's last Journey from the Holy lands to Macedonia and back (Acts 20).

I long to have the "freedom" that Paul did. I put freedom in quotes because Paul was never free from persecution, but instead found his freedom in the Spirit and followed its direction no matter what - even when his friends pleaded with him to hang around and avoid going back to Jerusalem. How AWESOME it must have been to go from city to city sharing the Gospel and practicing his own trade of tent-making in order to fund his travels.

Paul's testimony gives me great courage and excitement to go out and share the Truth with everyone. I'll admit that I need to get myself a little more organized before I do so (or else I'm just all over the place trying to explain the Gospel) but I'm anxious and excited to move to Texas and start there. Then on to Russia, maybe the Ukraine, and who knows where else!

The truth is not out there to find - I've already found it! Now it's up to me and you to go and help others find the Truth - the One, the Only, Jesus Christ.

Good night for now.

Check the twitter feed and blog for updates about my adventures in Plano, Texas and Prestonwood Baptist over the next few days. I'm in the final stages of hopefully being hired for an internship with the Student Ministry there and am very excited about the opportunity should it be in His will. Prayers would be appreciated!

Location:Jackson Ave,Carthage,United States

Roadtrip Chicago - Day Two

Day two of our roadtrip was day one in the Windy City. With ambitious attitudes and willful hearts, we set out for the city at 8 in the morning. We found our train stop and rode the Metra into the city where we found her waiting for us, true to her name.

With the wind in our faces and daunting clouds blocking the sun, we headed straight for Millennium Park where much more than a simple walk through was already waiting for us. We saw the famous fountains with the faces that blink and appear to be spitting water out as a fountain into the area between the two faces - they were a little creepy, but interesting for sure. After that we saw the bean and then the large pavilion where concerts are held.

Ada at "The Bean"

What happened next was unexpected, but awesome. We walked toward the main Millennium Park monument and came across a simple wedding in progress. There was a man and a woman in wedding-like clothes (he was wearing a shiny vest and she was wearing a simple white dress) and a priest having a very informal wedding ceremony with literally no wedding party or guests - until we came along. We watched after they read their wedding vows from their phones, said their "I do"s and then kissed. We clapped and congratulated them then snapped a couple pictures on their cameras. It was kinda cool to be a part of these random people's lives at a pretty important moment!

Anyway, then we moved on to the gardens inside the park which were unexpectedly pleasant.

Amber and Nicole in the Gardens

From there, we walked the pedestrian bridge and then headed on to Taste of Chicago. This part was pretty cool. For $8 one can purchase 12 tickets and then spend these tickets to buy "taste portions" of different types of food from restaurants in Chicago. I ended up getting some popcorn shrimp and some delicious cheesy bread and it turned out to be a good choice.

From there we did a lot of walking up and down the Magnificent Mile. Chicago truly is a beautiful city with spectacular architecture and fantastic views of Lake Michigan.

To keep a long afternoon/evening short, we simply walked around for a while, took a nap outside of the John Hancock building (where we were the subject of one odd man's dialogue about "the youth these days"), then enjoyed Transformers 3 before going out to Gino's East for some VERY good deep-dish pizza.

We ended the evening inside the 96th floor lounge of the John Hancock building. We bought some desserts and enjoyed the incredible view. There's something about a city at night that makes one feel that the city is very much alive, even as it sleeps.

Chicago by Night