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

Roadtrip Chicago - Day One

Cruising down the interstate, listening to the Temper Trap, I've got this feeling inside of me that is aching for the adventure that awaits me in Chicago. Digging a little deeper, I think it's the excitement that stems from the end of one chapter of my life and the beginning of another.

In a little over a month I move to Ft. Worth, Texas. Trying to describe how I feel is like trying to comprehend how big the universe is - it's pretty impossible. I have no idea what awaits me in the coming months, but the anticipation is suiting me well for now.

In a month and a half, I will have been to Chicago for four days, New York for a week, and I will have moved to Texas to start seminary.

This is needed change. I have no problems with my life in Knoxville. It is simply time to move on.

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"Who wants to know? All that is gold is rusting. No one will know when seasons cease to change and.. how far we've gone how far we're going. It's the here and the now and the love for the sound of the moments that keep us moving." - Soldier On by The Temper Trap

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In Loving Memory - Nancy Carol Smith // Part 1

Three days ago my aunt was killed in a car accident. That was the worst news I have ever received in my entire life. I will miss her so much.

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For those of you who never had the joy of meeting my aunt, she was honestly the most loving person. She never married, so she treated and loved my sister and I as if we were her own. She truly loved us more than anything in the world and took every opportunity to tell us so.

My aunt was a hard worker and had just retired from her job of 42 years at Twin Lakes Telephone Cooperative in Gainesboro, TN. She was an adored member of the Twin Lakes team and was sad to leave the people she worked with, but ready to move on into retirement. She was looking forward to some of the free time she would have - time that she hoped she would be able to spend with my sister and I. Because of her retirement, she was able and excited to come to my graduation and see me complete a large chapter of my life. I'm so glad that she was able to be there.

Nancy Carol Smith was my aunt's name, but my sister and I never called her anything other than "Chichi". When we were both little, one of our favorite things to do was to spend time with Chichi no matter what she was doing or where she was. We would see her at work and she would let us push all the buttons, we would see her at the farm and she would take us for rides out the bend with the dog, we would see her at home and she would let us watch our favorite shows until we fell asleep - she would do anything for us because she loved us that much.

Chichi, Shelley and I at the farm

I will never forget Chichi, and I doubt that a day will ever go by that I don't think about her. When someone loves a person as much as she did my sister and I, it's impossible to ever lose them completely.

I am comforted to know that she is with God and that she is now made perfect in Him and no longer has any physical or emotional ailments. She is finally at peace and that makes me so happy. I'd like to think that if their are gardens in heaven - magnificent gardens with flowers and plants that we could only dream of - that she is slowly strolling through them, watering them, enjoying them as she did her flowers at the farm and on this earth.

missing the Motherland

One of my best friends is getting ready to go back to Haiti because she knows this is where the Lord is sending her and is fully prepared to surrender to His will and spend her entire fall in Haiti serving the people there with the love of Jesus Christ. Her story of how this all played out is beautiful - you can read it here.

Between reading her story and watching a Russian film tonight, I'm reminded of the place to which I feel God has called me: Russia. For those of you who are reading my blog for the first time or just didn't know this about me, I have my undergraduate degree in Russian Area Studies (language included) and I spent all of the fall semester of 2010 in Yaroslavl, Russia. (The story of how I became to be a Russian major is very much a God-story, but I'll save that for another blog post.) While I was there, I felt God calling me to serve the people of Russia and furthermore, a more specific calling to working with children, and even more specifically, orphans.

Touching the Volga River in Yaroslavl, Russia

So far, I have no idea what that will look like. Unlike Haiti, Russia is unfortunately not a country where one can just fly in, setup camp and start doing the Lord's word - there are hurdles to be jumped over, red tape to cross, and plenty of technical/political stops along the way. The good news is that God already has that figured out - it's just a matter of time.

While God placed this country and calling on my life, for now He has opened the doors for me to go to seminary at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary so that's what I'll be doing for the next 3 years - all the while looking for every opportunity to work with orphans, Russians, and everything related. I know God is preparing me for something and the excitement that stems from knowing He has a plan to use me in Russia is what keeps me going - that, and His infinite mercy.

One of my good friends asked me tonight what I missed the most about Russia. My reply was this:

I miss how REAL life is in Russia. I (we) take for granted how easy life is here in the U.S. We do this so much that it starts to feel fake - well, at least when you have had the opportunity to find out what REAL life feels like.

Honestly, I've felt like this since I've been back in the states. I love my friends and family that I have here in the U.S. and that makes life here so worth it, and if I could take them with me everywhere, I would, but I can't. But the one thing I can take with me everywhere is the love of Christ - so that's my plan.

Well that was a lot, but I've had a great day and the Lord has used it to get my heart back on track. If you don't know Him, ask me about Him. I'd love to tell you all about Him.

it's 2am, I must be lonely

I can't fight this feeling anymore...

this feeling of being wide awake at 2am despite my attempts at sleeping. 

This is unlike me - both to be awake at this hour and to be blogging. As you can tell by the date of my last blog it's been a while, but it's honestly the only thing I could think of that would be worth while at this time at night.

This is attempt number 4, 5, maybe 6 (who knows) at starting fresh in the blogosphere and being consistent. Here's my plan:


Today at a friend's wedding before the ceremony began, I happened to be checking up on twitter and saw an interesting tweet from @TheAdaL about finally finishing her 101 in 1001 list and she just so happened to be sitting beside me so I decided to ask her about it. She said she had gotten the idea from some blogs she had been reading about this idea to make a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days.

I'm not gonna cook out a 101 in 1001 list right now - perhaps that's something I'll do one day down the road, but what I am going to do is start making some lists and working on conquering these lists and telling you about the experiences along the way, one check mark at a time. The trick here is that I'm NOT going to call them "to-do" lists - those things stress me out.

So here's my first list - a list of lists to make:

• summer reading list
• list of things to do in Knoxville before moving in August
• bucket list
• short term (within one month) goals list
• lunch list (list of peeps I want to grab some lunch with)

That should do for now. That's a lot of list making, but I think I can handle it.

Finally, I really am going to make another effort at blogging more often. No promises, but we'll see.