California Boy and Frenchie Girl

I Would Die for You

2006-12-25T20:57:00.000-08:00

Sitting here in a world of physical beings, physical objects and living creatures, what is a man to think? I sit and wonder, where will this all end? Every Christian, I think, wonders at least once in his/her walk with the Lord whether or not there will actually be an afterlife, and what it will really be. Every believer is tempted not to believe. That is the nature of free will in the human soul. As I sat, pondering over a movie we just watched, a movie of people of great wealth and amazing love, I wondered: What happens at the end, at the end of this life we know? And if it does all end, and there is nothing at the end, what is there to live at the moment? There is nothing to live, except to live to get everything you can possibly take. And at the end, won't I be exhausted, only to realize that I have spent my life working to achieve nothing but what was in the moment, and my moment has passed? One would assume just that. I sat there, and as I thought of the relationships we build here, the decorations we put up, the work we do to build things we could never have dreamed in our wildest--it hit me again: It's all for nothing. What's the point?

When you hit that point, an amazing thing happens in the human mind, soul, and body--all at once. Sudenly, nothing matters, and you feel as if you're starting to wonder if you should be in a higher place. It's at that point that you either go one way or the other. God or The Rest. The Rest: Relationships that will end, Sex that never satisfies, Drugs that destroy, Alcohol that makes you worship itself, Music that ends in sorrow, and Work that never achieves anything.

God is: God.

It seems so helpless on one side of the door, and nothing will ever be alright, nothing will amount to anything. One step just seems to lead to another agonizing step that leaves you striving to the wind.

But on the other side of that door, nothing else matters but that one word, that one thing, that one something that nobody can describe yet everyone desires to touch: God. The very Essence of Life.

I wonder where my food will come from when I leave the comfort of the home I've known for twenty years, and suddenly, my Father supplies it all.

I wonder how I will give my wife everything she desires in life, and when I realize I can't is the very moment I realize He can.

I wonder where my job, my career, will end--or begin--and where the fulfillment will ebb or flow, and I realize He is the only fulfillment that doesn't empty more than it gives.

I wonder, if I were to lose it all, what would happen, and I realize, I would lose my life here on earth, and be stripped of everything I had built over the core that God designed me to be, and I shall only be that which I was meant to be:

His Son and Heir in the Kingdom of the Most High.

And I know that I can find You here
Cause You promised me You'll alwas be there
Times like these it's hard to see
But somehow I have a peace...You're near
And I pray that You will use my life
In whatever way Your name is glorified
Even if surrendering
Means leaving everything...behind

My life has never been this clear
Now I know the reason why I'm here
You never know why you're alive
Until you know what you would die for
I would die for You

And I know I don't have much to give
But I promise You I will give You all there is
Can I possibly do less
When through Your own death... I live

No greater love i found
Than of those who lay their own lives down
As sure as I live and breathe
Now I know what it means to be free

More changes

2006-12-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

So you see that we have changed the blog completely. I, personally, like this version MUCH better. And you can see we put a couple new countdowns on the blog. FOr now, I can't figure out how to put titles on the clocks on the left, so I'll tell you: The digital one is Atascadero time, and the cherries are Kandern time. hehe. I'll be adjusting...

Also, you can see that I changed the name to "Preston and Alexandra" instead of just Preston.

Soon, I'll get our registries' links back on the blog. See ya soon!

-Preston

New Author

2006-12-02T13:30:00.000-08:00

Another writer is going to be blogging here soon! Alexandra Larcher will be posting events of her life in Kandern, Germany, occasionally. So this blog is no longer a "Preston" blog. It's now a "Preston and Alexandra" blog.

You'll notice a few other changes, but that's the biggest one.

New Ideas

2006-11-23T17:38:00.000-08:00

Hey, it's been a long time since I've written. Look around the site, and you'll find a few new things!

Over and out.

Life is Happy!

2006-09-18T15:10:00.000-07:00

I'm sick of how depressing that title looks, even though I haven't really had time to update the site, so...

I'm ENGAGED!!!

I have met the love of my life and I'm going to marry her! Europe isn't just a step in my past anymore; it's now part of me.

More details later, and hopefully soon, a new website. Stay tuned...

Europe...just a step in my past?

2006-06-14T21:17:00.000-07:00

Sitting here in my own pool of tears, I wonder why people love if they're just going to say goodbye someday. Everyone, no matter who you love, will leave someday. Sometimes it's just for a time, and sometimes it's for good. But either way, it's leaving. Love hurts when it's not everything you dreamed it to be. Love hurts when it IS everything you dreamed it to be.

Why do we love? Some will say it's just a chemical reaction connected to emotion. But love is not emotion. If it was, people wouldn't stay married and the world wouldn't be unfulfilled with the hollywood depiction of what love is. Love is a choice, a choice to do your best and everything FOR another person, not just to have that person around just in case YOU want them at some time. Love is a choice based on a model given to us by Christ.

Isn't it interesting, too, how at 6 oclock in the morning, with only 3 hours of sleep, someone can be sitting at the computer, typing away on a strange computer in a foreign country? Where does love get us? It gets us to strange places like this, and it gets us so many other places. Am I saying it's a bad thing that I'm up this early with nothing to do but type my thoughts away to everyone who wants to hear them? No. I'm not typing away my deepest emotion. I leave that for myself. I'm only publishing that which I feel is objective and more basic information. If you want to hear how I am or what I'm really feeling, well, you have to be my friend first, then we'll think about it.

You may have guessed I'm coming to the end of my stay here in Europe. I'm flying back to Barcelona from Kandern, Germany today. I take the bus at 10:20 this morning through Basel, Switzerland, then the plane at 1:15 from Basel-Mulhouse Euroairport in France. I'll get to Barcelona international airport and go straight to the other side of the city to Alfredo's restaurant (there are pictures in the history here), the Desvan Azul. I will be eating a late lunch there and then going back to IBSTE to pack up tonight, because I'm leaving early tomorrow morning. I don't know how I will be able to pack everything today, but oh well, it's possible, right? I have to do it, either way.

Tomorrow I leave IBSTE at 7 or 8, getting to the airport in time for my 10:30 flight to CDG. Oh, how I wish I was just going to Paris and staying in France instead. At least I would be in the same country as my girlfriend. Even right now, we're a country apart. She's in France and I'm in Germany.

Anyway, I get into LAX from Paris CDG at 3:45 Friday afternoon, LA time. By that time, it will be 12:45am, Europe time. My sleep pattern will be so thrown off by the time I get on that plane, I don't think I'll have any trouble sleeping on the plane. Not sure what my jetlag state will be once I get to CA. From LA I drive back up to the Central Coast, back home. Home.

I'm scared. I'm scared of coming home--that might sound strange. But I'm really scared. I don't know what it's going to be like in reverse culture-shock, and frankly I don't know how to deal with it. I know no one in Atascadero will understand my expereiences, because no one has experienced them. I won't be able to talk to anyone about them, because no one will want to hear. And I'm scared of a huge change of scene. I'm also scared of not being close to Alexandra, but we've already been over that one.

Thank you for listening. Tune in next time.

Alegría en Ludoteca

2006-05-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

I know I still haven’t finished my France trip story yet, but I’ll just have to leave it there in Barcelona for a little bit. I want to type this when it’s fresh in my mind.

Last week in Ludoteca (the kids’ ministry that I help out in at the Youth For Christ center here in Barcelona), I was absolutely exhausted within minutes, so you can imagine what it was like at the end. The kids were out of control, and I felt like we had done absolutely nothing that time. I left the doors last week really discouraged, wondering if it would continue to be like that the weeks to come.

Well, Alexandra just a couple days later came back from the Bercail for a day off, and she was telling me what was going on. Through our talking over MSN, I was inspired by her to refocus myself in Ludoteca (Alexandra, you played a significant part as a tool of God here). I think one of the reasons why it had been getting progressively more draining at Ludoteca (even though I hadn’t been there for very long!) was because I didn’t focus on the right person. I was focusing on myself and my emotions, thinking about how hard it was for me and how I felt like I couldn’t do it, my life was being drained, etc. After talking to Alexandra, I asked God for His help. I asked Him to help me re-focus upon Him. I asked Him to help me think of ways to keep the kids active and focused on something more constructive rather than destructive. I think He heard. J

So basically this whole week, whenever I remembered, I had been asking God to prepare me for that time in Ludoteca. Then, on the train into Barcelona today, I took active measures: I planned and wrote down games to play in today’s time. (These plans didn’t even end up being carried out, but at least it was a good effort and something that I will continue doing so that we can someday incorporate the games.) I also asked Oscar for help, since he rides the train with me to Ludoteca every Wednesday. He helped me understand the state and mentality of the kids better.

So I came with an attitude of expectancy and readiness for all that the kids would bring, and you know what? I had a blast! The first hour, spent in the “sala grande” (big room), was wonderful, because I was with the kids, kicking the soccer ball with them, playing futbolín (foosball), and catching a 3-year-old right in the middle of jumping off a 5-foot-high stack of chairs. It was fast-paced, but I felt good, because I felt like I really made some good connections with some of the kids, or at least got a little closer to them.

Then, in the sala pequeña (little room), there weren’t that many kids, and so they played a lot with the quiet toys. I tossed a nerf ball lightly with Francisco for a little bit until Rút came in. From then on, she and I were talking about the Gypsy culture (sobretodo en España), the vision of JPC and Ludoteca specifically. That all helped me a lot, because who you’re dealing with and why you’re dealing with them are two very important things to know. After that, she talked to me about missionary work, basically telling me through her experiences and testimony. I learned a lot about missionary work from that one talk there, and it was good information. It is so valuable to listen to the testimonies of people in the field where you want to be in the future.

After everyone had gone, I was feeling very good because of the talk that I had with Ruth, and after saying my goodbyes, I met Carlos & Co. going in the opposite direction to GBU, which meets in the Youth For Christ center. So I turned around and said hello again. It was cool, because right then, one of the little girls from Ludoteca came back (she’s a real sweetheart), and to keep her occupied, I sang her the “this is the way the ladies ride, the ladies ride, the ladies ride…” song that my dad did for me and my brothers so many times as a child. She was laughing so hard when I got to the farmer’s ride part!

So Ludoteca ended there, and then I stayed with Carlos and friends for Grupos Bíblicos Universitarios (the University Bible Groups), where we had discussion and lecture on the theme of life after death. That, as well, was very cool, because it involves getting to know some of the kids my age from different churches in Barcelona as well as international students.

I am really excited today. I’m excited with how the day ended and how now I have vision for the Ludoteca sessions to come. PRAISE GOD who knows everything and is willing and able to reveal it to us if we only ask.

Aux Vacances Part 2

2006-04-28T11:56:00.000-07:00

The days at the Bercail were limited, and the day came on Friday when we had to say goodbye. It was sad, because the kids left one by one during the day for their vacations, and I had to say goodbye to some kids that I had made bonds with. Finally, it was our turn, and we said goodbye, leaving the Boussole around 8:00, driving out of the Bercail and Guebwiller.

After a good night’s sleep that night (Of course, that was in SEPARATE rooms, SEPARATE beds, etc. Don’t start thinking things, ok?), we got up to do some laundry and squeeze a few sandwiches inbetween our suitcases tucked in the backseat of Alexandra’s trusty Ford Fiesta. Getting into our seats about an hour and a half late, we discovered the car wouldn’t start. We thought, well, that’s ok, we’ll just jump it, so we did, and that solved the problem…for awhile. We drove to the nearest gas station, filled up, and drove all the way to Paris on one tank.

When we arrived in front of Alexandra’s mom’s apartment, we stopped the car to get the stuff out and up to the 4th floor (which, of course, is the 5th floor according to American floors), where she lives. Quite to our chagrin, the car was dead when we returned to park it. So our temporary solution was to jump the car, asking someone leaving the apartment building to bring her car over, and then park it. Since it was too late in the day to do anything else, we went up to the apartment and had dinner with Alexandra’s mom. It was quite uncomfortable, considering the fact that I couldn’t speak French all that well (though I could definitely communicate by now), and the only other people were Alexandra and her mom at the table. We eventually made it to bed (of course, again, in separate rooms and separate beds), and slept pretty well.

We woke up Sunday morning and went to the garage where we discovered that basically nothing could be done about the car before Tuesday, since it was Easter, and Monday would be saint lundi (Holy Monday), a Catholic holiday celebrated basically all over Western Europe which renderes ALL establishments closed the whole day. So basically we were stuck there until Tuesday. Our plans were to stay until Monday, though, so that wasn’t too much of a change.

We spent most of the time in the apartment, sitting at the table, talking (which, of course, en Français, is pretty difficult for me, so I was pretty mentally tired by the end of the day). In fact, once eating in a restaurant, I had an in-depth discussion with Alexandra’s mom over whether or not little boys should be allowed to play with toy guns. I was pretty impressed with myself that I could carry on the conversation with really only asking Alexandra for a few words.

So Tuesday came, the world came back to life, and we went to the garage. The battery turned out to be not terribly expensive, and we got food for the road at Auchan, the hipermarché something in between a Wal-Mart and Target.

Thought it was pretty late, we eventually got on our way back to Barcelona. Though I had been there just a week-and-a-half before, this was Alexandra’s first time back to Barcelona since December 21. We arrived, absolutely exhausted, at 6am Wednesday morning, having driven all night long, and just about crashed into our *separate* beds (and rooms).

The next morning, awakening from the dead somewhere around noon, I went up to Alexandra’s room to see if she was awake. It was so cool, just like old times, with Alexandra back in good ol’ room 212, where I spent so much time leaning on the doorframe (not allowed to enter her room) talking about whatever subject interested us. Of course, to keep tradition, the first thing we did (even before eating lunch) was to go to the beach. Oh, that beach, La Platja de Castelldefels, has so many memories for both of us. It was wonderful to go out and feel the sand between our toes together again, walking hand-in-hand down the beach together, looking into the infinite masses of rolling waves together.

Lunch was fun, with the entire world saying, “ALEXANDRA! You’re back! How are you??” and such statements required of all friends brought back together after a time of separation. It was kind of funny, like everyone was so focused on Alexandra, it was almost as if I didn’t exist! Haha. Oh well, I’m still getting asked by everyone here how my travels with Alexandra went, so I don’t feel left out.

After that lunch, where could we go but back to the beach? So we went and bought chocolate croissants (corasanes in Spanish) and ate them on the beach, just like we had all the first trimester here at IBSTE.
**To be continued. I'm franchement too tired.**

Aux Vacances, Part 1

2006-04-24T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hello all! The time has come to write another blog. After two weeks of traveling, my mind, body, and emotions are all in awhirl. These past two weeks have been so filled with excitement and new experiences, both difficult and ecstatic, that it’s going to take a long while to process it all. I started with God, now I’ll go here.

After my extremely long train ride from Castelldefels-Barcelona, Barcelona-Cerbère, Cerbère-Mulhouse, I staggered onto the platform with my red suitcase, sleeping bag, and Obusforme backpack. I probably looked like a hurricane just hit me, because that’s what I felt like after sleeping in the same car with 5 other people and a Chihuahua. I made my way out of the station and met Alexandra arriving out the front door. That was the best sight I had seen in weeks, and especially after all this time of planning the two weeks and thinking about seeing her, it was wonderful to run up to her and hold her in my arms once again.

That morning we went and picked out new glasses for Alexandra and continued on to Kandern, Germany, where we were met by the smiling faces of the Harris family. Dropping our stuff and loading up the washer, we were on our way up the hill behind the house for a walk in the most beautiful weather I’ve seen yet in Germany. The sun was shining bright and warm. It was shining so brightly, in fact, that I got quite sunburnt. That was about the end of that day in Kandern.

We had to leave early the next morning for Guebwiller, because the first half of my two-week spring break was to be spent at Alexandra’s workplace, which sounds boring at first. In fact, it was one of the most incredible weeks I have had in way too many aspects to write down.

First of all, it was a huge learning experience about myself as well as Alexandra. I learned about my abilities with children; I discovered so many abilities I never knew I had, and even discovered more ability in areas I thought I was only slightly capable in. I also learned a HECK of a lot of French. About Alexandra, I learned much that I won’t put down here, but a lot of stuff.

The first day, I got there, and I felt extremely uncomfortable the entire day. It was Sunday, and since it wasn’t the Boussole’s (the house where Alexandra works) turn to take the kids to church, so we stayed home the whole day with the kids in the house. I had only slight ideas as to what the schedule was, and I didn’t know what I or the kids could and couldn’t do. On top of that, I only knew a little bit of French. I felt really weird. But the next day, we got to the Boussole, and I felt at home. I kind of knew the schedule, and since most of the kids went to school, Alexandra got to explain some of the rules of the game to me.

It was only the next day (Tuesday) that Chantal, the boss, asked if I wanted to stay for the entire week, sleeping there on the couch at the Boussole instead of having to go back to Germany every night. I guess I made a pretty good impression. After she said that, I felt very at home, accepted and comfortable. By the end of the week, I could communicate pretty well, so I was able to get along pretty well with the kids and around the city, as well.

The week, as I said, was incredible, and I miss it much right now. Alexandra’s vacation started that Saturday, and she had 9 days off (including the weekends), so we got to have an entire week of vacation that coincided. However, I am too tired to continue right now, so you’ll just have to tune in next time for another…

adVENture in France!

Au Bercail

2006-04-15T01:18:00.000-07:00

Bonjour!

Arrete! C'est pour Alexandra, et pas pour toi! Qu'est-que te fait?

Ugh, je suis fatigue! I am so tired yet so happy after a week full of helping Alexandra take care of the kids at her work. She works at an orphanage-like place that takes in kids from bad homes, and I have just spent the entire week there. It was really tiring, yet really fun the whole time! I learned SO MUCH French! I was excited to learn some abilities with kids I never knew I had. I changed my first diaper (exciting). And I saw lots of sides of Alexandra that I've never seen before, both good and bad. I had a lot of fun. I can't really explain in detail right now what happened and everything. In fact, that might take a week completely just to explain what happened. But I might write down in more detail later what happened. Right now I have to get ready to go. We got back from the Bercail (which, by the way, means home) and we are going to Paris in about an hour. So I should start getting ready. I will hope to talk to you later. Thanks for reading!

The New European Melting Pot

2006-04-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, walking back from a session of football (the European kind) and swimming in the Mediterranean, I asked Carlos about racism in Spain. I asked if he thought Spanish people were racist. His answer was interesting, and not until later did I understand it I believe correctly.

He said that Spain wasn’t racist, only “inexperienced” in the integration of different cultures. I didn’t understand, so he explained that the U.S. was a country built on the integration of different cultures, but considering Spain is a very old country, it has its own culture, only recently accepting immigration more normally. As such, the integration of new cultures into a “melting pot” is a different, new and even scary idea for Spanish people. He used the example of the Africans in Spain. He said that they were more recently coming into Spain, so the Spanish haven’t been accustomed to having blacks in their culture, and all of the sudden here they are. Spanis people don’t know what to do.

Well, I was just this morning talking to Fred, a U.S. missionary to the Czech Republic, and he basically said “HECK yeah, Spain is racist!” He was saying, you look at countries like Spain and France, and there is a LOT of racism. When I told him what Carlos said, he said, “well, of course they don’t like to admit it, but that’s what makes it all the worse.” Basically, he was saying that these countries are at the same stage the U.S. was at a century ago. Of course, there isn’t as much outward racism in the fact that there aren’t segregated bathrooms or slavery, etc. But there is lots of inward racism, and they haven’t realized it yet.

You see, Europe, with its “inexperienced” state as a cultural area, hasn’t had much “melting pot” experience. As such, they only have seen their own people, their own culture, and when other cultures come in, they don’t know what to do, so many times they either ignore them or just see them as below themselves. This can be called ignorant racism, which, as Missionary Fred said, can be very dangerous and harmful.

As we have seen with the riots in France as proof, the French government isn’t even acknowledging Arabs as true citizens. They are allowed to live in France, but even those born in France aren’t able to get jobs, aren’t upheld by the social security system, and because of the neighborhoods they live in, aren’t given good education. The general public here in Europe has their own culture, and they like it. If they see another culture coming in, they get scared and repulsive. They don’t want another culture coming in and “contaminating” their own, changing it. Where I volunteer here in Barcelona is a good example, too. The Gypsies and Spanish live door-to-door in one neighborhood here, yet they don’t even look each other in the eye. El Esplai, where I work (Youth For Christ center) accepts indigenous Spaniards as well as Gypsies, yet within TWO WEEKS of the center’s foundation, only Gypsies came, because the Spanish families didn’t want their children to be mixing with such “uncivilized” cultures.

Europe (and the rest of the world) complains about the U.S. being so racist, yet I think that we are maybe the country in the world that best deals with racism (while we still could do a lot better). Our country was built on the melting pot method, so naturally, unless we learn to coincide and live together with each other, our country will fall on the grounds of broken unity. We naturally have problems, because humans don’t like to accept those who are different from themselves, but at least we have our problem out on the table for all to see. The rest of the world seems to like to hide their problem with racism or even pretend it doesn’t exist.

Don’t let Europeans tell you we have problems with racism without acknowledging their own at the same time.

Us estimo molt.

2006-04-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hehey, look at that! I'm REALLY Catalunyan now! I just said "I love you all" in Catalán. Catalán, if you don’t know, is the official language of Catalunya, the Northeastern corner of Spain where Barcelona is. I hear Catalán spoken by just about 50% of the people on the streets. Everyone here knows Spanish, though, so if they’re talking to me, they talk in Spanish.

So this past week has been good, as well. I’ve been sick for a bit of it, but oh well, that’s life. I discovered that I can really read for pleasure in Spanish now. That was really cool; I really feel like I’m getting more and more comfortable now in the language. I’ve discovered that I really like Nutella, too, which probably isn’t so good.

Today I went to Ludoteca again. There weren’t so many kids this time, so instead of taking care of the children, Ana had me clean the kitchen for an hour and a half. I was kind of disappointed in the beginning, yet as I knew whatever I did there, as long as I was helping, was a ministry. And I definitely practiced the theology of work today. Just being a good worker is a huge ministry, as well; so many people commented on my cleaning, saying stuff like, “oh my gosh, thank you SO much for that kitchen; it was turning into a pig-pen.” And also, the kids came out at one point, screaming my name, “Preston! Preston!” and running down the hall, they all grouped around me and chanted, “¡Que bailes! ¡Que bailes!” which means, “Dance! Dance!” Well, last week, I had given into their chantings and had one of the girls show me how a male Gypsy dances, so I imitated her, and they LOVED me for it. Of course, they liked it because they thought it was hilairious, but hey, it’s ok; I made a connection with them. And man, did that stay in their minds!

I returned on the train studying, and here I am again, studying and blogging a bit. We do a lot of studying in this school.

In two days, I take the train to see Alexandra again! This time, though, I’m going to stop in France, where Alexandra will pick me up in her car. I’m REALLY excited about it; I can’t wait to see her!

Well, goodnight from Barcelona. I will update maybe before my trip, maybe during, but most likely afterward.

What is humility?

2006-03-30T01:31:00.000-08:00

Wow, things have been busy around here!

Monday was the first day of the new trimester. Tuesday I went to a conference on Homosexuality. It was amazing; I had actually heard the speaker once before in Moody, Mike Haley. I left school at 6:45pm and stayed out in with Carlos until the LAST TRAIN went back to Castelldefels, leaving at 12 midnight. I went to bed around 2:30am.

Wednesday, I left at 2:45, going to JPC (Youth For Christ) to do Ludoteca. This program is quite "ludicrous" (you know, Ludoteca, ludicrous...). The kids that I was taking care of were about 8-10 years old (a couple older and younger, but mostly), and they are all Gypsies. The JPC center is located in the Gypsy neighborhood of Barcelona, and as such, the Gypsies all come! So they taught me how to dance Gypsy style, and then I had to dance for them all while they played hand drums and sang the Gypsy kind of singing. It was fun. I think I might have made a good connection with them through not being afraid to dance in front of them, even though I probably did it terribly.

So we did some dancing like that, and then some games sitting down in a circle. First, we did a name game (of course the one that I have the worst problems with), and then we did some active games. For the most of the day, Ana (the substitute teacher that was helping today) did most of the leading and planning, seeing as though it was my first day. But also, she left me alone with the kids a few times, once when I made a race for them to do, and another time when we were in a different room. Room full of toys + 7 rowdy inner-city kids = chaos. But for the most part, I had a lot of fun. The kids, even though they’re so rambunctious sometimes, are so much fun to be with.

Today I’m leaving here at 4:45 for my church’s cell group, and once again probably getting back around 1am because the conference in Barcelona. Then tomorrow, we have three hours of class (pasturing adolescents), and I am doing one hour of Ludoteca (the JPC kids thing) again. When I get back from that tomorrow, I am going to go straight to bed and stay there until like Saturday afternoon sometime.

One thing I have definitely learned this week is how to be humble. I got lost a couple of times in the city, and I am expected to understand and speak Catalán (a language in between Spanish and French) with the kids at Ludoteca. Being with the kids taught me so much about how I am incapable in so many areas of my life. This week, I’ve been “presiding” (doesn’t that sound like I’m a judge?) in chapel here at IBSTE (meaning I basically say welcome, pray, and introduce the speaker), and I have made so many mistakes in the order of the service and excluding things that I shouldn’t have. I wasn’t able to understand a very important note, and as such, I told the congregation that our speaker of the day was going to “present” Ahmed Habenazza, whereas our speaker was Ahmed Habenazza. In all of this, as I have said, it teaches humility. There are so many times in the ministry of God’s word (in all areas) that we make mistakes; mistakes are inevitable. But as I learn more and more in life, we have to take the responsibility for the mistakes we make when sometimes it’s not our own fault or even if it’s someone else’s fault. Being able to take responsibility like that and continuing on is a mark of maturity and humility. A humble man reckognizes his weaknesses and continues on in his strengths that God calls him to use. Humility is my lesson to learn this week, and all of the above is just a fraction of all that I have experienced to learn it.

If you read this blog, please ask God to give me extra ability to understand cultural differences and deal with them with a biblical humility and internationally open mind.

Take my hand to the promise land

And on You I want to stand

Cause I cannot do it on my own

You're what I need and I need to be

Right by Your side cause I cannot hide

Lord, I know that

I need You Na na na na na na na na na,

Without You I'm so alone I am weak but You are strong

You pick me up when I'm falling down

And I am crying

Out to You inside of my heart

I need You, Lord, oh so, for the part

I want You to have my life, Jesus

--I Need You,

by Shawn McDonald

Que Dios os bendiga!

2006-03-26T12:44:00.000-08:00

Today was a little bit different at church. Well, ok, it was a lot different. They hung this black curtain in front of all the musicians, so that you couldn’t see the stage. Then they put out these rugs and pillows and paper and pens. They said it was so that it would be a comfortable place to worship for us, and so that we could try to focus on God more than the musicians. Well, I think it made people much LESS comfortable, including me—which is good.

Why do we have to have pews, or at least chairs in a row, for it to be church? Why do we even need a “church building”? The Bible never uses the word “church” (eklesia) for a church building meant for worship. We are so stuck in our traditions that we “can’t worship God” without a specific-looking place. Of course, we need to remember that God is to be revered, and thus, we can’t take meeting together to praise God as just a “hang-out” of sorts, but God doesn’t equate reverence with a church building built to such-and-such parameters and having such-and-such situated inside. God doesn’t care about the physical part—only our hearts toward Him are important to Him.

So basically, all that is to say that today was really weird for me, and very uncomfortable, but I think it really woke me up to how much I actually am dependant upon a church building for my weekly “dose” of God. I hope I can get rid of that dependency and only focus on God.

So here’s a picture of me getting my hair cut.

It was fun. Maria had offered to cut my hair a while ago, and so I took her up on it this past week. She did a very good job, I must say. Jesús had been her guinea pig, and now she was using another one (me!).

Here’s a picture taken from Parc Güell. The park is rather large, and before we were only in one spot. Today, we were in another spot, which has an AMAZING view! It’s incredible to see. You can see ALL of Barcelona from one spot! I think it’s the second-best view of Barcelona after Tibidabo. There are these three crosses all made out of stone up there, too, and you can see that in the foreground in this picture.

We finished the trimester Friday, and now we start the next one on Monday. What? Does anyone see something wrong here? Don’t we usually get a break in between trimesters? You know, a little break to rest our weary little corpus callossums? Well, at least I do get my Spring break. I’ll be leaving here on Friday the 7th of April. That’s less than two weeks away! Yes, of course, I’ll be going to Germany again. But his time will be different, because I’ll be able to stay in Germany for a week (and most likely tour around a little bit of Switzerland too), and then the next week, Alexandra and I will be going to Paris (to meet her mom!) and southwestern France (to visit her grandmother). I’ll get to see the Atlantic from the other side! After that, we still aren’t sure if we’ll be going to Barcelona or Kandern again. Maybe plans will even change more and we’ll end up somewhere else.

Tomorrow I start at JPC (Youth For Christ) doing a kids club Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:30-8:30. I am really scared, because I don’t know how impeding the language will be as far as being able to do crowd control. I know I won’t catch the swear words the kids say and stuff, but oh well. Mondays are game days (like active games), and Wednesdays are music/dancing/storytelling days. I’m not exactly sure what will be involved in all of this, but I am very excited to see what God has in store for me with these children. They’re mostly Gypsies (Gitanos en Español), and I don’t think really any of them are believers. Some of the kids are barely allowed to come, because their parents think Evangelical Christianity is a cult (this is a very common idea in Europe, actually). For the most part, taking this step is a result of me realizing I have hardly any contact with nonbelievers here in Spain, and if I really want to know the spiritual state of this country, “hay que conocerles!”

Here’s another picture of the beach in Barclona. There’s a strange face in the picture too.

And one of La Pedrera (a famous house designed by Gaudí), which I still have to enter and tour.

2006-03-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

I realized I haven’t really updated my life here actually IN BARCELONA in awhile. So I’m assisting El Lokal, a younger church, full of teens and college kids, with a feew younger couples.

Here are a couple pics of the sanctuary. It’s definitely not traditional; there are chairs set up around tables to give it a coffee-shop feel and look.

And here's a picture of my cell-group. We have lots of fun; right now, we're going through the book of James. We always meet in Alfredo's restaurant. Alfredo is on the right.

This is a strange metal structure I think made to look like a whale, near the Port Olimpic.

I hope to be able to post more later.

Germany trip

2006-03-18T05:51:00.000-08:00

According to this site, Germany seems to be where I spend most of my time; not in Barcelona. I guess I'll have to write more about Barcelona. It's just I get so excited about going to see Alexandra. Hehe.

Twenty hours-worth of traveling all paid off this past Saturday when I arrived in Kandern, Germany.

Although I knew Alexandra wasn’t going to arrive at the Harris’ house until later Saturday night, taking the night train on Friday night was the cheapest option out there, and considering what an incredible experience that would be, I decided, “what the heck?” Leaving IBSTE with a mouth full of lunch and being bombarded with questions such as, “why do you have an enormous backpack on?”, I began my journey across 4 countries, 3 borders, 2 mountain ranges, and 1 forest.

Here’s the plan:
At two fifteen, I run from lunch at IBSTE to catch the train from Castelldefels Platja to Barcelona Sants. Get one ticket there and catch the next train from Barcelona to Cerbére (right across the border, in France). That Spanish train takes about 3 hours. Arriving with 3-and-a-half hours of wait time, I leisurely explore the Cerbére station. I find that it’s not much more than a wall of brochures, three passengers in the waiting room, and a few squatty-potties in the bathroom. Very scary station. Stumbling through the little French I know, I print out my ticket and purchase a French train student card from the window. The train arrives, and getting onboard, I explore my bedspace, carefully checking for sanity; it’s pretty clean, so I take out my sleeping bag, and attempt to get to sleep. Nine o-clock pm. Despite people trickling in to the cabin where I am throughout the country, I sleep relatively well, and get up the next morning in Mulhouse (northeastern France). I get off there at 7:45am Saturday morning, a little disoriented seeing as though I didn’t sleep much, and find my next train, which brings me to Basel. I like new trains in Europe; if you have time, it’s probably the most comfortable way you can travel, especially in the winter time. That train takes about a half-hour, and it brings me into Basel, right on the French-Swiss border. Arriving in Switzerland, I purchase one bathroom pass (yes, you pay for the bathrooms there, but they’re the cleanest and most sophisticated bathrooms I’ve ever seen) and a bus pass, which gives me a ride on the tram through the city and one bus across the Swiss-German border into Kandern, Germany, four minutes walking distance from the Harris’ house.
End of journey.

I was greeted by a working Freddie-and-friend, so I asked if I could help. **Piece of advice: In America, usually you ask if you can help as a courtesy, and the people know that, so they say, “Oh, how kind of you, but no, I can handle it.” Well, missionaries don’t have this mindset; they gladly accept help in any form it arrives. However, my omniscient mind knew this, so I was in no trouble.** We drywalled for several hours that day, from 10:00 until around 4 or 5. I learned a little about metal-framing and a lot about how tired muscles can get.

Finishing that job and taking my shower, I threw my clothes in the wash and did some homework. We had a wonderful dinner that night…don’t remember what it was, but I do remember how wonderful it was after not having a real meal since the afternoon before. After dinner, I did some more homework until Alexandra got there around 10. I WAS SO EXCITED!!!!! I gave her a great big hug, we talked…and then got out of the cold, sleet-filled air. We had some good times looking up stuff online and just talking. We had some dessert, and coinsidering her fatigue, we *SEPARATED DIRECTIONS* and *SEPARATELY* went to *DIFFERENT* beds, in *OPPOSITE* ends of the house. (I write such in response to petition.) End of Saturday.

Sunday morning was church at good ol’ Black Forest Christian Fellowship, on the campus of Black Forest Academy. The message was a good one, but the coolest thing was probably the fact that they played In Christ Alone, a favorite of mine and Alexandra’s. After church was some lunch and we sat down to read. That was nice. I haven’t been able to just sit down and read peacefully like that for a long while. I read a book for school while Alexandra read Wild at Heart (upon my recommendation). That night, we went and got a couple movies to watch (surprising, huh?). One was Regarding Henry (it was the Harris’ first time seeing it) and the other was Shall We Dance?, which was an interesting, quite sad movie with a good ending. That was the end of Sunday.

Arriving at our second and last day, Alexandra woke me up at nine or so, and we had breakfast and I generally woke up. These past two visits I had gone, I had been able to get to know Rémy, the Harris’ son about my age. He is really fun to talk to and hang out with; he knows how to have fun. Monday, Alexandra and I took him to Saint Louis in France, where he caught a train that took him to Maubeuge, a relatively small city in the very north of France, on the France-Belgium border. So we went and dropped him off at the train station, and then Alexandra and I went into Mulhouse to do some shopping and eating. We went into the city center, walked around a cathedral and a few quaint shops surrounding it, and had some lunch in a Chinese restaurant. Goodness, eating Chinese food in France, when I’m an American student studying in Spain, coming to visit Germany for a few days. My cultures are all mixed up. After that, we went to Atac (a supermarket) and bought Dirty Dancing, which we put in and started watching almost immediately after we got home. The movie was fun; it had some bad scenes in it (which Alexandra knew, so we fast-forwarded), and I didn’t like the fact that it kind of said it was ok to have premarital sex, but hey, that’s all just a little poop in the brownies, right? I dunno. I like the music, though. Hehe. After the movie, we felt a lot like dancing, so…we did! We practiced a few moves we needed to work on, but for the most part, just danced for fun. I really like the fact that we are actually learning more and getting better at it all the time. Alexandra is a very fast learner; that comes from the fact that she’s done dance in the past. After having some dinner and reading a bit more, we once again *SEPARATELY* went to bed in opposite ends of the house in different beds.

The next morning, I didn’t wake up to my alarm; Alexandra woke me up around 5:30, and I went out to say goodbye to her. Aw, it’s always so so difficult to say goodbye when you know you’re not going to see each other for a long time. We say goodbye to each other a lot like that. I am just glad I get to see her this coming month again; it’s going to be really sad when I go back to the U.S. and we won’t really be able to see each other hardly at all. But we’ll figure something out when we get there, anyway.

Just talking to Alexandra on the phone about future and worries and stuff. Life has endless supplies of worries that we could concern ourselves with, but the Bible really gets it right when it tells us to let tomorrow worry about itself; I mean, today has enough to deal with as it is. I just hope I can put that into practice; worrying stinks sometimes.

NO!!!!!!!!

2006-03-16T14:19:00.000-08:00

A very precious memoir broken. I just about cried.

Historias de Alemania

2006-03-02T13:38:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a weekend! To explain all that I feel right now would be ridiculously impossible and long, so I won’t attempt.

Friday afternoon, like last time, I left IBSTE. I flew on easyJet, getting to the EuroAirport on the border of France and Germany around 4:15pm. I took the bus to Kandern for the first time (last time, Alexandra picked me up). It was pretty easy. I had a schedule, so I knew the bus numbers and places I needed to go, even though I had no idea where anything was. I just asked a lot of questions, finding the people who spoke Enlgish. I took one bus into Basel, Switzerland, from the airport, one tram through Basel, and then waited on the platform for about 40 minutes until the next bus came, which brought me to Kandern, Germany. It was quite awhile, but it wasn’t that cold, and it was only lightly snowing. Basel is really a friendly and safe-seeming city, so it was fine. I got to Kandern, Germany around 7:20pm. Then, after discovering where I was in Kandern and reckognizing some streets, it only took like 5 minutes to walk to the Harris’ house.

At first, I didn’t think Alexandra was there. She had said that she would be there with two of the Bercail children who only spoke French, but considering there are lots of international people in the Harris household all the time, I didn’t know if the teenagers sitting there were them or not. It took a few minutes, but then going into the kitchen, I saw Alexandra, and she came over and gave me a hug. It was weird, because she knew she couldn’t show affection in front of the Bercail kids, and so that night and next day was weird for that. But it was a loooooot of fun hanging out with them.

We had crêpes that night for dinner and dessert (if you don’t know, you can have crêpes filled with good things for dinner and junk things for dessert). They talked French most of the time, and it was a bit confusing, but VERY exciting to me, because I could actually understand quite a bit of it! That French book & CD is actually teaching me stuff! So then we watched the Bourne Identity in French with English subtitles. That was cool, because I learned a little more French (kind of).

When the movie was over, Alexandra and the two Bercail kids, Alexandre (the brother) & Jennifer (the sister), went back to the Bercail. Around twelve noon the next day, Alexandra and the two teenagers along with Alexandra’s boss came for lunch. We ordered pizza and after lunch, got on the road. Freiburg was very fun, and we saw other parts of it that we didn’t last time. There were a lot of people walking around in weird costumes, somewhat halloweenish-looking, because this past Tuesday was Mardi Gras, and that is a big thing in the Black Forest area of Germany where Kandern and Freiburg are. We looked in at stores mostly, and we stopped for coffee and croissants, as well. As the temperature was a bit less cold than last time, it was much easier to walk for awhile. Sooner or later, it came to 4:30 or 5, and we left, going back to the bercail.

Dinner there was fun, even though I couldn’t understand much. One of the boys seemed to think his mouth was his hand and his hand was his mouth (or, rather, the rest of his body was his mouth as well). Another boy was laughing much of the time, and the teenage boy didn’t say much. The teenage girl was NONSTOP talking, and the adults tried to ignore as much as they could to be able to have conversation. It was fun, and the food was good. After dinner was cleared, we moved to the sitting room where the adults go when they need to escape from the children. Once all but the teenagers were in bed, Alexandra’s boss let her go, and she and I took off for Kandern again.

Arriving home, we did little more than give our salutations and move as rapidly as possible to the cinema room. The video of choice was Save the Last Dance, which was wonderful, but what was the best was just the fact that we could be together and hold each other. It had been a long time since that had happened. Everyone was in bed by the time we were finished with the movie, yet we tiptoed to bed (separately, of course), and I slept like a rock until the next morning when we went to church.

Though we were in Germany, we went to the English-speaking church, and it was a very interesting message about marriage taken from 1 Peter 3. The brisk walk home was followed by a wonderful lunch made by Kandee, and after that, a talk with Freddie and Kandee about our relationship and such things. Following such serious matters, Alexandra and I went on a walk, which was SO cold. My goodness, I felt colder than I had felt in a very very long time. When we had warmed up at home a bit, we had a swing dance, and then…you know, I don’t remember what we did after that, but I’m sure it was fun. Hehe.

The next morning, we got up around 9, and after breakfast and a bit of reading the Bible, we got ready once again, and went to Saint Louis (no, not Missouri), which is in France, very close to the border of Germany. We didn’t do much there except go to lunch. It was a new restaurant, and it was beautiful. It was wonderful to be there in the afternoon, as the sun was shining in through the window. There was hardly anyone in the restaurant, and it was wonderful to be able to sit there, eating delicious French food, talking to a beautiful French girl. It was really nice. We ate leisurely, yet we only spent around 1 ½ hour there. If I’m ever in the area, I wouldn’t mind going back to that restaurant. So anyway, after driving back to Kandern, we took a walk up to a snow-covered hill overlooking the town, and then we came back, did a bit on the computer concerning Alexandra’s visa, and watched Moulin Rouge with the family (three movies in one weekend are a lot, especially when you’re used to not watching any movies at all). After reluctantly going to bed (because we knew it was the end of the weekend in the morning, we had a good night’s sleep, and I woke up the next morning to say goodbye to her at 5:40am. It was so sad (of course, how could it be happy to say goodbye to her?). I went back to bed after saying goodbye and woke up at 9, getting ready in time to make my flight back to Barcelona.

It was quite a weekend, and I still haven’t processed it, but there’s a good review. I am really really enjoying my time here in Europe. I learn something new every day! I thank God so much for my time here!

Deutschland!!

2006-02-24T03:29:00.000-08:00

I'm off again, flying to see my love! I'm leaving in about a half hour to go see Alexandra in Kandern, Germany again. I'll be there, once again, from this afternoon until Tuesday afternoon, Europe time. That means 9 hours ahead of Atascadero, 7 hours ahead of Chicago.

So anyway, I'm gonna get a lunch from Pedro right now, and then I'm off! I'm SOOOOO excited!!! Aw, can't wait to see her again! I hope she's doing well. She said that one of the kids was getting sick, and if she was sick today, she probably couldn't come until later. But we know for sure that she has at least two days off. So that's very good. I'm very happy to be going to see her again! Can you tell? Did I say I was excited?

This is the end of Missions Conference for me. I was kind of disappointed with a lot of the talks, though some were helpful. But last night was PHENOMENAL! It was all about families in missions. It was talking about the problems that missions can bring into a family, what it could do to a marriage, the kids, etc. And it gave solutions, things to watch out for, etc! I was SO excited! I really hope I can get all of this organized into my mind so that I can think about it more. That one talk was like half of what I was expecting in missions conference, and it came true! The other half didn't so much come true, but there are still a few days left that I'm going to watch on DVD that they're recording. So I hope that by watching those, I can get a good picture of missions.

The problem with the past week was that it was way way, WAY too abstract. It was talking about biblical bases for missions (which is very necessary) and ideas in missions...just so general, non-helpful ideas. Ideas won't help unless you give a practical application to them. And it's really hard for me to find a practical application to a lot of these ideas. That's the thing about Spanish thinking. They think so abstractly that you can't really understand what to DO about what you've been talking about. Same way in their teaching style. They talk and talk and talk amongst themselves, discuss, debate, etc. But it never seems like they ever get anywhere.

Some good things, however, were learning about the history of Europe. Spain mostly, but Europe in general. Considering religion, it was very interesting to learn the phases that Spain and Europe went through, and learning about the post-modernist phase right now. Very good.

Well, can't write much more; I got a plane to catch!

Visas...again??

2006-02-20T04:38:00.000-08:00

I have heard many times how difficult it is for citizens of other countries to get a visa for the U.S. Well, I don't know about work or other kinds of visas, but I just spent less than three days looking online, calling, etc., and it is MUCH less work to get a student visa for the U.S. The U.S. embassy in Paris is so helpful! You can actually call them! And they have everything on their website, and lots of their forms are online, etc. It costs money to call them, but you can actually get in contact with them!

The reason why I was doing all this was for Alexandra's visa to go to the U.S. to study. I got an appointment for her, and it looks like she's going to be able to make it for the summer semester, provided the papers go through. That is REALLY happy to me! That means that she'll be on the same time zone as I will be when she's here, and I can probably talk to her more than once or twice a week.

Ok, well, lunch time. Gotta go. This week is Missions Conference, like I said. First class is tonight, so if you could pray that I would be completely open to what God wants to say to me, that would be wonderful.

2006-02-17T12:35:00.000-08:00

FUN STUFF!

I might be getting to work with kids here in Spain! I've been looking for more places to get involved outside of IBSTE (you know, experience the culture outside of the church). Well, I might be able to be involved in a ministry here in Barcelona (downtown) with Gypsy kids! I don'w know exactly how old they would be, I know 4-7 is a possibility, and it might be possible to work with teenagers. I think I might enjoy working with the teenagers more, but I have worked with 8-year-olds in much the same environment, and that was fun; hard, but fun.

And, also, I might be getting to work here at IBSTE for a few hours (probably 3-4) a week to earn a little bit more money. They still have to see if they can do it with the budget, and we're not sure yet if it will work with the fact that I'm here as a student and not to work. But the prospect is there. It would be VERY good if I could get that, so then I could be able to do a few more things here in Barcelona.

I am going to see Alexandra!!! I'm really REALLY excited about that! I am going to be gone next weekend, February 24-28. So if you need to contact me, well, that might not be possible. But it's really going to be fun! The day that I get there, she'll come home from work with two of the kids at the Bercail. They're both teenagers, so it's not like they need 24/7 attention, but still, they're counting Saturday, the whole day, as working, because she is going to be taking the kids to Freiburg (just like Alexandra and I did a couple weekends ago) and spending the whole day with them. The cool thing is that I get to be there with them! So they're talking in French the whole time; uhhhh, hope my French gets a bit better by then! I am studying with a do-it-yourself course Mom gave me. So then, she'll bring them back to the Bercail that (saturday) night, and we'll drive back together. And THEN, we'll have two MORE whole days together! I'm so happy!! So even though I'm not going to spend much time with her that Saturday, I'll be with her the whole time, and she'll count it as work, so she can have two more days off. Happiness.

This coming week is Missions Conference. I didn't know that's what it was until just last week, and now looking at the talk themes, I'm SO STOKED! They're talking all about missions in Europe! I am totally thinking about being a missionary in Europe, so that is a HUGE answer to prayer! I am really happy about that. I'm actually going to be missing a couple classes to see Alexandra (it's ok, you only have to attend a certain amount), but they said they'd videotape all the classes. So I'll be able to see them, anyway! I am going to be in class every day, taking notes (on my computer, definitely, because it's faster), and I'm going to learn so much! Praise God for this opportunity!

Well...I guess I'll go now. Those are the happy things that are happening in my life right now. God bless you all!

Ultimate!!

2006-02-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

…Frisbee!!

I just found an ultimate Frisbee group! I played ultimate Frisbee today!!! I’m so stoked! This is the first time I’ve played since I left home in October. I was running at the beach last Sunday, and I saw an Ultimate game going on, and decided to check it out. Turns out Sunday afternoons are closed practices for the ultimate Frisbee team, but they told me Saturdays at 3pm is a pick-up game open to anyone.

So I left here today very excited, only to find an empty beach when I got there. I waited for awhile, then decided no one was going to come. I know pick-up games can usually start late, but it was already like 5-10 minutes past and no one was there. So I went running instead, and twenty minutes later, coming back to the same spot, I found a few people starting to toss the disc around. I had already run for over twenty minutes, so I was pretty sore, but I really REALLY wanted to see what it was like, so I went and met them and everything.

Well, about twenty minutes later, we were playing a full-on ultimate game. I couldn’t believe it! Well, the game went quite slow, as the point-gaining process was very slow. We played for two hours straight, I had one sub, but for the rest of the time, we were just straight playing. It was incredible. Well, at 6:00pm, I probably could have gone on playing, because they were still playing, but I decided I needed to get some homework done, and I had already gotten quite a bit of exercise—enough for the day, at least.

I am SOOOOOOO sore and tired right now, I think I’m going to bed very soon, but if you guys can please pray for this, I would definitely appreciate it. At first, I was stoked to find something other than running for exercise, and it would also bring a bit of home here to Spain. But I was thinking about it, and I realized that it is just what I have been praying for ever since the middle of last trimester. I had always been looking for somewhere to find non-Christians to build relationships with, because wherever we are, we must be sharing the gospel; even though I’m preparing for ministry, that doesn’t negate the obligation to minister right now. So if you can please pray that this would be a place where I can find people open to the gospel, and then possibly even bring them to my small-group on Thursday nights, because it’s very open to unbelievers.

So basically stoked is the word that keeps coming to mind right now, and so anyway, I’m very happy and tired, and I’m going to bed.

Français

2006-02-10T10:34:00.000-08:00

It is so amazing to see how God works! I am taking a French class this summer!!!

I know this may seem strange to be giving God the credit on something such as a French class, but hear me out.

I have been wanting to learn French ever since I started taking interest in Alexandra last trimester here at IBSTE, and I thought about taking a class at Cuesta during the following summer, but I didn’t think it would turn out so well!

So when I heard that Leslie was due around my birthday in June, I booked the plane flight to leave Barcelona the day after I got done with classes. I was kind of sad that it was coming that early because I was intending on traveling a little bit in Europe after the trimester. However, money would never let me do that anyway, and I SO want to see Trago and Leslie’s new baby! And look what happened because I made that plane flight:

I called the French department yesterday and discovered that for the first time this year, they are offering French in the summer semester! So I kept down my excitement when I heard that, because I knew that there are so many variables that go into a situation before you can say “yes.” But then she continued to say that it was 8-11am M-Th, so that wouldn’t make me lose more than 2 hours of work time at K-Jons, and then finally, she said that the dates were June 19th through July 27th! I had already made my plane flight back to LAX for Friday, Jun. 16th, and the 19th is that following Monday! Moody starts in mid-August, and Alexandra was intending on coming to Atascadero the first week or two of August.

I couldn’t believe how it all worked out so perfectly! The classes are early in the morning, so I can still work throughout the day and have the nights to do my homework or even hang out with friends. If the class had started the week before, I wouldn’t be able to take it, and it’s early enough so I have a couple weeks before Moody starts again to work or spend that time with Alexandra. I just can’t believe it, but I’m really happy! I’m learning French!

Thanks be to God for His all-knowing plans.

A Weekend to Remember

2006-02-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

Sorry, guys, that it took so long to get this post made, but finally it’s here. Also, no pictures. I kind of forgot when we were in Freiburg, and we’ve already taken pictures of the Harris’ house.

This past weekend, I went to Germany once again. I got a plane ticket the week before, so I had been anticipating it a lot. I was SO happy to be going!!! Of course, you know the reason why I was going to Kandern, Germany, was because I was going to visit Alexadra Larcher, my girlfriend.

So I left right after class, and Eliseo drove me to the airport on his moto (that small version of a motorcycle you see in all the pictures of European roads; those pictures are very true, by the way). It was a fun ride, though I was freezing by the time I got to the airport.

I flew with easyJet, and man, was it easy! I went up to the counter, handed them only my passport, and in less than a minute, he printed out my ticket and I was on my way again to the gate. I almost missed my plane, because I was sitting at the wrong gate. That would have been sad.

Flying from Barcelona to Mulhouse is quite an incredible trip: I flew right over the Alps! It was incredible! I thought the Rockies were big…

When I got to the airport, it was so quiet, kind of freaky, and then when I got out of the door, Alexandra was nowhere in sight (she had said she was going to be picking me up). So after a little searching, I asked the lady at the info desk to call Alexandra on the intercom. After a little bit, she came out of a door, and oh my goodness. She was SO BEAUTIFUL!!!! She was standing there smiling, with her beautiful curly hair, wearing her furry-collared sweater underneath the long wool coat. Aw. So I yelled out, “Alexandra!!!” and ran (this was all in slow motion, of course, with violins and brass playing in the background) and wrapped my arms around her. Oh, that was the best feeling I had had in a long time!

We were both SO happy to see each other, and we commented upon that fact for a few minutes, of course, then went hand-in-hand to the car where she had a surprise waiting for me! She gave me a present: A fountain pen, just like the ones that they use in the schools in France! It’s kind of an inside thing, which made it so special. It would take awhile to explain, but it was so cool! Aw, she’s sweet.

So then we drove around for awhile, trying to find a gas station, and then ended up in a car washing station where we pressure-washed the car in 23-degree weather. That was actually really fun, and I want to do it again sometime! So after filling up the car, we had some wonderful time talking on the drive back to Kandern.

When we got there, we were greeted by Freddie and Kandee and the rest of the gang, and then went up a windy road to a little German restaurant where they sold meals for 5 euro a plate!!! Wow. And the food was so wonderful! This was really an experience, because I speak almost no German (the only reason why I don’t say no German is because of like 5 words I know). But Kandee spoke German, so that was good. We all basically ordered by pointing and using Kandee. Hehe. The restaurant was a quaint little family-owned restaurant, very quiet and very comfy. Thank goodness they have heaters everywhere in Germany. No one would survive without it.

After having a lot of fun with a fake horse and watching Kandee fall down in the snow, we drove back to the house and had some Ice cream just before settling in to watch Moulin Rouge. That was a wonderful movie, and Alexandra liked it too. It is an especially enjoyable movie if you have someone you care so much about sitting right in front of you that you can hug throughout the whole movie. Hehe. I definitely recommend the movie (well, not to all ages, of course). That night, we got to bed pretty early, around 9:30 or 10.

The next morning, we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast (my goodness they’re good!), and got ready for the day, and Alexandra and I headed out again.

All bundled up almost to the point of immobility, we squeezed our padded selves into the black Ford Fiesta that has so many memories already. *side note: There wasn’t one roadtrip we took this time I was there without getting lost at some point* So we got lost getting to our first stop, Pearl, and we accomplished 33.3% of our goal at the store. I guess that’s pretty good. We got lost again on the way to Freiburg, but we finally made it to a parking structure and stopped.

We had a little snack before leaving the parking structure, all of which consisted of snacky things Alexandra had as a child and very dearly missed. It was wonderful to be able to share that with her, getting to know a little bit more of what her life was like in the past.

Well, we got out, and thus began what you might call (at least for me) the worst part of the day. We got completely lost. We went in the absolute wrong direction, turned a corner and got more lost, until we were nearly out of sight of anything we reckognized. We were freezing (my knees almost immediately leaving the door started to ache because of the cold). We were tired and frustrated. We really didn’t know what to do. Finally, we asked a lady for some directions, and luckily she spoke English. She gave us directions, and we were about to take them until she and her husband invited us to ride in the car with them into town. I know it’s dangerous to do such things, but they had a baby with them, so when you see something like that, you almost know for certain nothing is going to happen.

Nothing did happen, and they dropped us off down town. Freiburg is a cute little town with narrow cobblestone streets and beautiful buildings (like the rest of Europe). There were so many people, cars, and buildings with heat that the downtown area was quite a bit warmer than where we had come from. It was so much fun walking around the shops in Freiburg, looking at all these different things and just enjoying each other’s company. We spent a few hours there, and we didn’t even buy anything. It was just wonderful to be there with her.

We actually didn’t get lost on the way back to the parking structure, and we left Freiburg in the car without getting lost either. We made it home in time to say goodbye to Freddie and Kandee…and to start yet another—unexpected—road trip. The predicament was that Roy needed a ride to a concert, and Alexandra volunteered, because they said it was only 15 minutes away, and we would follow the van and remember the way back. It was all perfect; then we got lost. It wasn’t our fault; nobody knew exactly where this place was. So basically, we took 15 minutes getting to *somewhere*, and then about a half hour driving around trying to find the building where the concert was, and then because we drove all around, we were pretty lost by the time we said “goodbye” to Roy. However, we did make our way home. Alexandra and I in cars just don’t make things go very well.

After that, we went back to Kandern, back to the house, and we had dinner on the couch in front of a fire I build in the fireplace. It was so wonderfully comfortable, cozy and romantic. I loved it. That few hours sitting there together on the couch in each other’s arms—talking about everything from the things that mattered to the things that don’t—was the best time I have had since I left home from Christmas, and quite possibly the best time I’ve had in a long time before then. I won’t talk about what we talked about because it would take too long and, well, I just don’t want to tell. Hehe. But it was wonderful, and that right there is what will bring us both through until we see each other again.

We went to bed late that night, in the early morning, actually, and woke up the next morning again early. We were both pretty tired but also completely content, and even though it was so sad to say goodbye, it was such a good weekend that we couldn’t be left with anything but good memories of each other.

After that, there’s really nothing exciting. I went back to the airport, and got back to Barcelona early Sunday afternoon, arriving in time to process the weekend with a good run.

It was a wonderful weekend.

Note to reader:

2006-02-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

I just had the best weekend since I came to Europe. Write later.

I'M GONE!

2006-02-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

FYI:

I'm flying to Kandern, arriving in Mulhouse, France, at 4:15 tomorrow, so I won't be available until Saturday afternoon here (you can see the time here by looking to the left above the picture of Alexandra and I. Pretty cool, huh?). Talk to you later!!!

Nuevo Website!

2006-01-30T04:24:00.000-08:00

Bueno, pues, seguramente ves que mi blog site ha cambiado. Aprendo html ahora, y estoy en el proceso de cambiar todo mi page. Gasté un poquito de tiempo hoy en cambiarlo, y luego, ¡todo me perdió! Que mal. Pero, no pasa nada. Luego era muy fácil cambiar todo otra vez.

Esta mañana no había agua caliente, ¡¡¡y ahora SÍ!!! Pues entonces, me voy a duchar ahora. Ojalá que unos de vosotros podían entender todo esto en castellano.

Verás también que abajo tengo unos fotos.

I'm going to see Alexandra!

2006-01-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true. After almost a month, I will be flying to Kandern, Germany. I will get to see my girlfriend! I'm so very excited!

So in looking at the plane tickets to go over there, I've discovered how extremely cheap European travel is--if you use the right means and right times. First, everyone thinks the train is so cheap. Well, if you're doing the two-week to month backpacking method, that is definitely true. There is no way you could beat unlimited train travel for the price they give you. Not only can you get around in Europe from country to country without paying outrageous train prices, but you can get from city to city within the countries themselves, too. And that way, you have flexibility in when you go to the city and when you leave. However, if you are just going for a few days to one spot in Europe and you don't have a eurail pass, then taking a plane is definitely cheaper. A train ticket may cost you a couple hundred euros, whereas a plane ticket--if bought on a sale day--may cost you only 30 euros round-trip! So all there is to do is to look for the good offers, and take advantage of them.

That's the biggest news since my last post. If your mind is still interested, keep reading.

I found a home church here!! Finally!! As you probably know, church-hopping can get exhausting and is definitely not good for spiritual health. I had been seriously thinking about just sticking in the next church i was to go to, no matter if I liked it or not, just for the sake of staying at a church. But just by happenstance, one Saturday night, Eliseo, Reuben, and Diana invited me to come with them to see a new church, EL LOKAL.

It's a church of mostly late high school- to college-aged kids. It does have some adults, which is good, but the adults really mostly sit back and, although they do quite a bit of the "background" leading (basically the hard work), they let the kids do the worship and many times the preaching and prayer in the service. I have rediscovered how amazingly refreshing it can be to be in a young church. Everyone has so much PASSION! It's incredible. The worship was what caught my spirit. You could fell the Holy Spirit there, in power and in celebration, because His children were praising Him with all their hearts. Last week, one of the girls on the worship team was literally jumping up and down, dancing from side to side, and HEAD BANGING throughout the whole worship set! I was so surprised! This was something I had never seen: Someone on the worship team doing such outrageous things. But the best part was that no one cared, because they knew that was her way of showing God that He mattered more to her than the congregation.

Of course, the worship wasn't the only thing that caught my eye. The preaching was definitely soldid, and that was one of my top criteria in finding a church. Also, the people there are unbelieveably accepting! The first time we were there, three people came up to me to ask me who I was and where I had come from. The second time, I felt like half the church greeted me! Everyone there seemed so interested in my life. Sometimes, being at one church for so long, you forget how incredibly much that means to a visitor. That will be something I'll have to work on.

Besides that, classes are going well. I just finished a big project, so that feels nice. Now it's on to the Christian ethics books, one of which is named, Sexo y Dios, which you probably know means, "sex and God." That will be interesting.

That seems to just about cover my most exciting points in life. Coming up will be much more exciting things. I just called Trago's friend Gabe, and he really inspired me to search out Barcelona. I'm thinking to myself, "oh yeah, I have this big huge city full of unique culture that I really haven't even searched out." So that is one of my upcoming assignments.

Peace out.

Pictures, pictures, pictures.

2006-01-28T12:12:00.000-08:00

Here's one of us having Merienda (afternoon brunch, basically) A couple weeks ago in the dining room at IBSTE. from the left to right, they are Ana Maria, Jesus, Maria, Reuben, Josep, me, Noelle, and Perry. The last two are some missionaries here, and the rest are good friends, classmates from IBSTE.

Here's Carlos, my best friend here at IBSTE, in front of a beautiful sunset at Castelldefels Playa, 5 minutes from IBSTE. This, also, was taken a couple weeks ago.

Here we are at Parc Guell again, at the end of last trimester. We're all leaning up against a wall in this cavelike structure that Gaudi designed. Left to right: Diana, David, Garlos, me, Melanie (missionary kid whose dad is the new president at IBSTE), and Alexandra (and, well, you know who that is).

This is one of the most well-known monuments of Barcelona. It, too, is in Parc Guell, designed by Gaudi. Blake, your Zippo has this engraved on it. It's a lot smaller than I thought it would be; kind of disappointing. But I like it a lot.

Mas Fotos!

2006-01-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

Hey, well I finally got to get the pictures online! Maybe later I'll put some more pictures on, because after these pictures, no more worked. The first set of pictures is from before Christmas break. We went to Parc Guell, where Gaudi, a very famous artist here, designed many of the buildings.
Here we are sitting on the mosaic benches, from where you can see such a beautiful sight of the city.

Here are the men, all three of us that went that day. Again on the benches.

This was taken from down below, looking up at the ceiling. On the ceiling are these mosaic circles that are so amazing! So we had taken this same kind of picture at Notre Dame, so here we are in Parc Guell doing the same.

And the following pictures are from after Christmas break, when we went to the beach, Carlos, Diana and I. I sneaked up into the lifeguard post (I think it's illegal, because the ladder was pulled up), and Carlos took a picture.

Because I have to go eat, I'll post some comments later.

pictures found!

2006-01-26T19:54:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I just found new pictures on the internet of here at IBSTE!

Although it doesn't have any pictures of me, http://www.godlyplayespain.blogspot.com/ is a blog about the organization that directs Godly Play, a form of teaching children the Word of God, and the pictures are of the conference I was at, in the chapel at IBSTE.

Also, you can go to IBSTE's official site, www.ibste.org, and look around to learn about IBSTE, or if you don't understand Spanish, you can just go straight to the pictures page, http://www.ibste.org/estudiantes.htm.

"Blessed are the children who are blessed by parents who know how to bless!" --Richard J. Foster

I still can't get this darn blog to post pictures. Oh, well. Right now, I have a paper to finish.

Hasta luego!

To be or not to be? That really IS the question.

2006-01-21T07:46:00.000-08:00

A comment was posted on my site, giving reasons why we should believe in the death penalty. Well, since being here, I have thought of a few reasons why not to believe in the death penalty. I don’t know what I really believe yet, but I had never thought on the against side of the death penalty. The following 6 arguments are pro-death penalty, and the boldface is my response.

1. God said in the Old Testament that murder is punishable by death.
- Are we to follow the Old Testament laws still?
+ If we are supposed to hold to the Old Testament, then we should hold to all of it, not pick and choose the ones we like. On the other hand, if we are to hold to the New Testament instead, we shouldn’t follow any of the Old Testament that the New Testament doesn’t uphold.
+ Jesus said that he came to fulfill the law. The Old Testament has been fulfilled through Christ. We don’t have to sacrifice anymore, poke out our eye if we poke someone’s out, or anything of that sort.
+ Jesus says in that same passage (Matt. 5:22) that anyone who murders is “subject to judgment,” meaning subject to God’s judgment. He says later that anyone who says, “You fool!” to his brother is “in danger of the fire of hell.” The judgment still remains, just not in the form of the death penalty, and it’s no judgment we, as men, can make in that form.
- Ex. 21:12 is the place in the Bible that talks about the death penalty for murder. In that same section (vv. 12-36, as divided up by the NIV), it says to kill…
+ A man who attacks (note: doesn’t say kill) his father or his mother.
+ A man who kidnaps someone else and either keeps him or sells him.
+ A man who accidentally hits a pregnant woman, and a serious injury results.
+ A man whose bull “has the habit of gorging” if he has been warned to keep the bull penned and it kills someone.
+ So should we kill all of the people today that do those things?
- That same section also says that if a man beats his slave, and the slave gets up after a few days, the man doesn’t have to do anything, doesn’t have to be punished, and doesn’t even have to pay anything—because “the slave is his property” (Ex. 21:21). Are you saying that we should have no punishment for beating/physical assault?
- The Old Testament also has countless other death penalties and uncleanliness laws, as you already know.
- Moses was a murderer, yet God pardoned him and actually put him in the highest position of leadership and power at the time. Why?
- Jesus prevented the Pharisees from stoning the woman caught in adultery. According to the Old Testament, she should have been stoned.

2. The purpose of the Law is primarily to let humankind know how bad sin really is in the eyes of God and to remind us as humans how bad sin really is. Therefore the death penalty is not so much to tell the murderer how bad murder is, but rather to starkly remind others how bad it is.
- Yes, that would definitely remind everyone else about how bad murder is. So then we should give the death penalty to other “big” crimes like sexual assault, kidnapping, and robbing a bank. And why should we stop there? It’s bad to steal a pack of gum out of a store. I think there would be a little less shoplifting if we gave the death penalty to everyone that shoplifted. There would also be a lot of dead children.
- And maybe we should do things like they do in other parts of the world, where they cut off the right hand of anyone who steals.

3. It is not more humane to leave a prisoner in prison without the possibility of parole.
- Ask the prisoner which choice he would rather have.
- Even if he would make the choice to die, are you upholding euthanasia? God does not approve of suicide.

4. It is not fair to burden society with the cost of housing and caring for someone who has perpetrated such a crime.
- Life isn’t fair. But since that’s such a cliché, we won’t count that one.
- It’s not fair to “burden” society with the cost of housing and caring for an unwanted baby.
+ I’m not saying that we should abort babies; I’m just saying if you use that argument in this situation, you have to apply it to all situations.
- Hitler had the idea to free society from all its “burdens” by killing all those who were handicapped and those who couldn’t care for themselves properly. Wouldn’t that be the fairest response?

5. It is certainly not fair to the victim's family to allow the perpetrator to live. We must keep in mind in these instances who the victim is and who the perpetrator is.
- Even greater a sin than murdering is blaspheming God. God pardons those who commit such a sin, along with all other sins. Should not the family pardon the murderer? No, it’s not fair, and I can’t imagine how hard it would be in that situation, but once again, if we had fairness in life, would we be going to Heaven?
- Should we get rid of someone, just because we can’t stand the idea that they are on the earth?

6. Remember, as Christ hung on the cross, He did not imply that the crminals should not die, and yet was ultimately merciful in allowing the criminal to join Him in paradise. Capital punishment does not mean that the criminal cannot be forgiven, only that he/she must pay the consequence for his/her behavior. Should we not pay traffic violations or not go to jail for drunk driving just because we are sorry?
- I don’t think this has anything to do with being sorry. The Bible says not to kill, no matter whether or not they’re sorry.

I don’t know. There are very many arguments for the death penalty, such as the fact that it should be something that the government deals with and not Christians, but then again, aren’t Christians citizens able to vote, too? There are quite a few arguments that I don’t see how to answer them, but I do know the following.

The Bible says not to kill, and that means we shouldn’t kill. No means no means no. Period.

2006-01-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

SO much to talk about, but I don't have much time, so I'll only talk about a bit. I had another political discussion the other day, and everyone was saying how imperialistic Americans are. Well, that's true for some, but others aren't like that. For example, I know that everyone at my work is of the opinion that no one should say that their country is "the best" in the world. I mean, yes, countries have their ups and downs. There are people that say that the U.S. is the best country in the world, and the rest of the countries are really "inferior," but that's not as much as the people here are saying ("90% of U.S. citicens"). I mean, I actually think that our government's set-up is the best in the world at this point. However, we could definitely do with a few changes.

All these discussions here make me think A LOT about so many different things in life. I have really been questioning my position that capital punishment is right. I mean, I can't help but consider the other option, since almost everyone over here can't even believe I would consider capital punishment being an option if I'm a Christian. Just makes me think. If you guys read this, can you all give me your input in comment form (at the bottom of this post)? It'd be nice to see what others think back home.

Anyway, so I haven't put many pictures on here lately, but the picture-loader isn't working so well, so I'll try to get it going soon, but until then, please be patient. Thanks!

Votre bagage a été retardé.

2006-01-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

Votre bagage a été retardé.

Although I don’t know how to pronounce it, that is my newest learned French phrase. I arrived in Barcelona 1.5 hours late on Friday, getting in at 9pm, because of wheather conditions. After waiting awhile at the baggage claim, I only had one bag in hand, and was informed that the rest of the baggage, if not yet found on the conveyer belt, was lost. So my baggage was lost from Friday night until today, Sunday, and since I didn’t trust them to bring it to my dorm unharmed, I went to the airport myself to pick it up. All things considered, it’s alright. But I have learned to never leave my computer in my checked-in bag and to always keep a change of clothes, underwear, and all my daily necessities in my carry-on. Proverbs says the wise man learns from others’ mistakes. Perhaps you can learn from my mistake. J

Well, It has come up to the end of the Christmas vacation. It was a wonderful one, at that, and in case you haven’t heard anything about it, here’s a quick run-down.

Alexandra and I got to my house very late Friday before Christmas, my parents driving us back. The next day we went to the beach (which turned out to be almost a daily event on this break) and the Christmas eve service on Saturday night. One past-time of this whole break is poor Alexandra being introduced to basically all of my family and best friends and acquaintances within a week-and-a-day. Here is where it started, with her meeting basically everyone at church.

Christmas morning was wonderful, spending it as we usually do, getting up Mom and Dad at 7am to oversee the ransacking of the “fireplace” and looting of the stockings. After counting out our spoils, we had a waffle breakfast, and then went to church (which isn’t a usual Christmas pastime, because Christmas only falls on Sunday once every seven years). After church, we continued family Christmas by opening up our presents and using them throughout the day, whether it be playing, reading, listening, or whatever the gifts involved. After this, Alexandra and I went to the beach, to Morro Bay. Even though it was stormy weather, it was still wonderful to be there with one you care for in your arms, on Christmas day, watching the waves roll (crash, rather) in. It was a wonderful Christmas.

Monday morning, we packed up the car and headed on up to Grass Valley, CA, to my maternal extended family. We sat for 6 hours in the car, then sat for 3 hours in a theatre, watching the Christmas Story in live-action theatre. We stayed with aunt Corey that night, and the next morning set out for San Francisco.

Our trip in San Francisco was wonderful, even though it rained a bit the first day there. We stayed two days, one night, and saw all the sights. We drove over the Golden Gate, sailed to Alcatraz, strolled up Fisherman’s Wharf and lingered in Ghirardelli Square for a bit. We went to the Cheesecake factory and Tiffany’s, though we only purchased something in the former. Driving home, most of us slept, while the driver (thankfully) stayed awake.

The next morning, Thursday, we arose earlier than the crack of dawn to drive to the snow where we went snowboarding—Dad, Blake, Alexandra, and I. It was a wonderful day all around. The weather was fine, the snow was great, and the company was even greater. We had a blast, and when the day was done and we were very sore, we went home and plummeted to our pillows.

Friday night, Alexandra and I went to Trago & Leslie’s house for dinner. The food was great, and we had a fun time having Christmas with them (considering we hadn’t seen them on Christmas). The next night was, of course, New Year’s Eve, and I had a HUGE party at my house, with many of my friends, and of course, Alexandra had to meet every one of them again (like I said, the poor girl must be exhausted).

We drove down to the LA area on Monday afternoon, staying until the next day. We went to Newport beach and Balboa Island, and had dinner at Todd’s with all of my Paternal extended family. The next morning, we drove to the Consulate and I FINALLY GOT MY VISA!!! TOTAL “YES” IN ANSWER TO PRAYER. I have my speculations on why God waited until Christmas to allow my visa to get through, but any way, it doesn’t matter; He has His reasons, and I need not ask why.

The day came when we were to leave. Thursday. That was an extremely sad day. I knew that at the least it would be three months before I would see Alexandra again, and more than 5 months before I would see my family or anyone else at home again. I had a hard time with that. What’s more, the flight was a very long one, especially sitting next to a quite smelly woman for 10½ hours. But I finally made it here; Carlos picked me up, and we went straight to—McDonald’s. Yes, my first half-hour back in Spain and I went to McDonald’s. After that, he took me back to the dorms at IBSTE where I stayed the next two days, reading the Chronicles of Narnia. That brings us to now, Sunday night, and I am about to go have my first dinner back at IBSTE, starting of the trimester well.

Thank you for reading. I hope to post sometime within the next week or so, provided internet holds up.

2005-12-16T07:49:00.000-08:00

Finally, my internet got working, so now I can post my blog about our vacation!

FRIDAY
After school, Alexandra and I left at 12:30 and drove for 12 hours, all the way north, across the border into France. We followed the Autoroute (the fastest freeway in Europe at 130kmph max.) all the way to Paris. Arriving in Paris, we came around a corner, and there was the Eiffel Tower! I was so amazed! It’s so beautiful! So then we stopped by Alexandra’s old job and her old apartment where she lived and worked for one year. Afterwards, we arrived at our final destination, and slept at Alexandra’s brother’s house, Franck. He only speaks French, and that was hard not being able to talk to my host. We got to sleep at 4am that day, because Franck doesn’t really go to bed before then.

SATURDAY
We woke up at 10am, packed up everything we would need for the next two days in one backpack, and took my sleeping bag with us, and headed out to Paris!

Note: Not including the roads, the transportation system of Paris is incredible. They have three types of trains: Metro (city train, 14 lines), RER (suburb/city train), and the “Train,” which is the train that goes from and to the Suburbs into Paris. We bought tickets for only 3.40 each for an entire day of travel on all the trains and busses of the city. Alexandra knows the trains and buses incredibly well, so that worked out very well.

First stop in Paris was Notre Dame, the famous church of the Hunchback which is located on one of the few islands in the middle of the Seine, the river running through Paris. This church is absolutely amazing!
This is the front of the church, probably the most famous. I love the round stained glass that's on three sides of the church.

And here’s the back, less famous, but I think it’s much more beautiful! You can see flying buttresses, and they’re amazing!

And we stood on the center of Paris. Whenever a sign says such-and-such miles to Paris, it’s measured to this brass circle. We were right in the center of Paris!

Then we went from there to see Maxime, Alexandra’s friend. It was amazing to see her speaking in yet another language, sign language! French sign language, of course, so even if I did know ASL, I wouldn’t have understood it.

After taking a couple more train rides, we arrived at the Louvre, which is the famous Paris art museum with the pyramid. The pyramid is made out of glass, and it’s the entrance to the museum; you can see right down into it! We didn’t go into it that day.

That's alexandra wearing the pyramid as a hat.

There’s a whole walkway that’s all lined up: the Louvre, the Carousel, the Obelisque de la Concorde, the gardens, the Champs Elysées, and the Arc de Triomphe.

You can see all of those sights in is one picture, all in order, starting closest to the picture-taking spot, ending in the Arc in the distance. We walked to them in that order.

Then that night, after it got dark, we went to the Sacré Coeur (the Sacred Heart)
It’s like Tibidabo in Barcelona, a tall—yet relatively small horizontally—church. It’s up at the top of a hill, so you can see a bunch of Paris, with all the lights, and the Tour Eiffel in the distance. After that, we walked a short distance to Laplace des artistes, which is a quaint little square where many artists sit and paint or draw portraits of the passers by who ask them.

Taking the train once again (we took the train in between almost every sight), we met Alexandra’s sister Jennifer, going to get her food at Quick, the European McDonald’s. We all went and got drinks from the Paris Starbucks (yes!), although sadly, I forgot to take a picture, so I have no proof that I went there.

At this point, we were absolutely exhausted yet so content, and done for the day, we went to Virginie and Ronnie’s house, two of Alexandra’s good friends from college. Virginie speaks Spanish and Ronnie speaks English, so I could talk to them. After a good meal and lots of talking to Ronnie about politics (quite interesting) we went to bed for the day.

SUNDAY

Saying goodbye to Virginie and Ronnie, we went to the Louvre once again, and this time went in. It was amazing! There is SO MUCH inside, it’s overwhelming. I saw a few paintings I reckognized from school learning about the different artists and famous paintings. And of course, we saw the Mona Lisa.

Get ready. Are you ready? No, I mean are you REALLY ready? We went to the…Tour Eiffel!!! It was so so beautiful! Se três jolie!
I took this picture waiting in line to get in to climb it.

We climbed all seven hundred some steps to the second floor, as far as you can climb without taking the elevator. It was an amazing sight from that floor.

This is the most beautiful picture from that floor.

Then when we climbed down, it was close to dark, and we walked a ways from the tower, and when we turned around, it started to sparkle! There are strobe lights all over the tower that make it shimmer for ten minutes every hour. Três jolie!

And here we are in front of the tower. I think this is the best picture of them all. Yeah, the tower is beautiful, but man, do you see the girl I’m hugging!? Oh, so romantic.
We even danced in a little gazebo-ish thing in front of the tower. I really like to dance.

Walking under the tower and over the Seine, we took the train again to the same island on which is Notre Dame and ate a couple of Greek gyros walking around a little town called Saint Michel. Then it was back to Franck’s house, where we had another good dinner and went to bed at a relatively good hour.

MONDAY
I heard a creak in the floorboard and I thought, “you’re kidding me, it’s NOT time to get up yet.” We got up at 5:38, which is 38 minutes after my alarm went off but we still only left ten minutes past our destination, starting up the Ford Fiesta at 6:10. I was so excited; I was going to see where Alexandra grew up!

Although it was still dark, we drove to Alexandra’s childhood area, Eaubonne, a suburb of Paris. First, we saw her high school (and drove on her high school bus route J). It was all closed up, so we couldn’t get inside to see the courtyard and stuff, but oh well. After that, we drove to her family’s apartment, where her mother still lives, though we didn’t go up, because it was still very early. Right over the fence, we could see the elementary school where Alexandra and the Harris children went. A few blocks away from that was Freddie and Kandee Harris’ old apartment, and we saw the outside of that, as well.

Getting in the car for the third time that day, we drove to Alexandra’s old university (Paris XIII/ Villetaneuse), where we just happened to run into Jennifer again, Alexandra’s younger sister who I met on Saturday. So, taking the opportunity, she invited us to coffee and crackers. After hanging out with her and some of her college friends (all of whom were speaking French), we got in the car, and thus began our very long journey.

After getting to the freeway that circles Paris, we drove around it once (accidentally), and then took the correct exit. We got SO completely lost that our trip ended up taking much much longer than we had supposed. But por fin, we arrived in Kandern, Germany, at 9pm. It was cool; almost like being at home again, because I had gotten to know that house pretty well the last time I was there. Oh but was it cold there in Germany! It was definitely colder than Paris, though not quite as cold as Chicago.

TUESDAY

We woke up at 8:30, and took an afternoon walk after breakfast (yeah, we are strange). For lunch, Alexandra made us some crepes, which were very good. We were all rested up by the time Freddie and Kandee got back from sus propios trabajos. We then went to the Marché de Noël in Strasbourg, France.

Since Kandern is right on the border, it didn’t take long to get back in France, and then it took about an hour to drive to Srasbourg. Strasbourg is the capital of the European Union, but that’s not what was important that night. What was important was that we got to walk around and see all the great shops and stands and stuff. It was incredible how huge that market was. We were wanting to find the ice rink that was supposed to be there, but the stands all closed at 8 o’clock, and we didn’t get very far. But it was cool. We got to have some hot wine there! It’s so wonderful: It’s red wine that they heat up with spices in it, so it’s warm in your hands, warms up your mouth, and then continues to warm you up inside your stomach because it’s wine, and that’s just what wine does.
Here’s Freddie and Kandee with Alexandra in front of one of the stands.

We got back and had ice cream! Oh, how long it had been since I had real American ice cream.

WEDNESDAY

Bon Anniversaire, Alexandra! December 7th is Alexandra’s birthday, and I introduced her to the Wallace birthday morning traditions (at her request). So the night before, I taped up a bunch of 24s around the house and made pancakes that morning. Waking her up at 7am to the birthday song, I brought her down to the table and put birthday candles in double-stacked pancakes, and of course her present was waiting at the table.

That morning, she called the Bercail, the children’s home where she worked for a year, and they said they were short-handed at the time and were wondering if she could work. So we went to the home to see if she actually wanted to do this, and so after staying there for lunch, Alexandra decided it would be impossible with school, so after doing a little bit of shopping at a mall, we went back to the Harris’ for the night. But while we were there, I decided that it wouldn’t be too bad to miss one day of class for such a cause as the Bercail, especially since it would be my first missed day of the whole trimester. So we stayed until Saturday morning.

THURSDAY

This day, Alexandra left early to work from 9am to 9pm at the Bercail, and I stayed at the house and did homework. I went to the Black Forest Academy, too, for a couple of classes, just to see what it was like. The BFA is a boarding school in Kandern for missionary children. I think it’s a middle school and high school. The teachers were very good, and the caliber of the students was amazing. I was very impressed.

That was pretty much all we did that day.

FRIDAY

And Friday was a homework day for both of us. We got a lot of questions done for Evangelios Sinópticos. Ice cream was good that night, too.

SATURDAY

We got up around 7, said Alfidacen to Germany, Bonjour to France, and Hola to Spain. We arrived at IBSTE at around 9, and after dinner went to bed, absolutely exhausted, mais três contant.

The Great Omission

2005-11-26T07:04:00.000-08:00

MSN Today just posted an article entitled School's out: Keep the kids entertained. Now, I appreciate the fact that the article gave parents ideas of good ways to have quality family time instead of just sticking them in front of the TV or video games. However, I believe the title really tells us a lot about how our culture views children and school:

School is just a place where parents can send their kids to be babysat, and if you're lucky, you can find a good daycare center where you can leave your kids so that you can have a few more hours of tranquility.

Children aren't a joy; they're a nuissance. I mean, yeah, they're cute time to time, but for the most part, they're dirty, they complain, and they break things. You have to explain EVERYTHING to them, and they never give in. You thought they would be fun, but you realized that they were just too much work and took too much time. Now you can't wait until the day when they leave the house.

---

So wrong. So sad.

Here in My Castle on a Cloud

2005-11-25T02:48:00.000-08:00

Since two weekends ago:

LOTS of homework, but that’s really boring, so I won’t talk about that.
Classes:
- Took one midterm and one final. I’m beginning to understand that European tests are a lot harder than the ones I’ve taken all my life. The short-answer questions are much more abundant, the tests are usually all subjective, and the ones that are “objective,” multiple choice tests, are like the SATs: If you miss one, you get points reduced, but if you leave it blank, you only miss the point you could have gotten if you got it right. I don’t like that.
- Did a few homeworks. I got back one of my projects, which is a sermon on Genesis 37:1-11. I got 100%!!! I was SO happy, because here in Europe, their grading system is so much different, and unlike the states, it’s almost entirely impossible to get 100%. Their point system is much different, too. It’s really hard to get an “excellent,” like an A in the States.

Fun: This is much more interesting.

I went to Carcassonne! It’s a town in southern france all built within the walls of a medieval castle! This thing is huge!
So that’s the castle in its entirety from one side, taken from a bridge quite a ways away from it.

This is my favorite shot of the castle; what you see are a bunch of the towers surrounding and on top of the keep. The keep is the place where the royal family lived, kind of like a palace inside the castle. It’s got higher walls, and the highest tower of the whole castle. It’s the last form of defense if the enemy has already breached the walls (which, I believe is why it’s called the keep, as in “keeping” the royal family safe).

So there are two walls, one outer wall, wich some of which is surrounded by a moat, and then higher up is the second wall further in. We walked around the entire castle in between those two walls. This castle is huge! It must have been a mile and a half around the whole thing. So we took a few pictures of ourselves in the parapets, such as this one:

And there was this stairway inbetween the walls that seemed to just go down, but then it turned, and we found ourselves outside the outer walls. This castle has so many cool little things to discover! Here's Alexandra in the stairway leading out.

Then we went inside. Inside the walls is a quaint little town with cobblestone streets and back alleys, and all the shops are so well made.

This is one of the back alleys. Cool.

And this is a random stoplight mounted on a wall.

That was funny, seeing cars driving in and out of a medieval castle, across the drawbridge:

We had a cup of tea (well, Alexandra and Perry had coffee) at a little coffee shop:

Then after awhile of walking around, we left and drove on back to Spain and IBSTE. It was a great day!

Finally, after quite a lot of hours trying to convince and looking at plane tickets, Alexandra is finally coming to Atascadero for Christmas! I’m so excited! It’s going to be so fun, bringing her to my hometown, showing her around everywhere I went when I was a kid, schools, and maybe other towns and such. So yeah, I’m excited. She flies on the same day (almost the exact same time) as me, both of us getting into LAX on the 23rd of December, and she’ll stay as long as I will, until January 5th. So yeah, that’s how it’ll go.

Tonight we’re having a thanksgiving dinner here! I’m so excited. Noelle, one of the missionaries here, is making dinner along with Melanie, the new president’s daughter. I’m going to help if I can. So here we are. I’m extremely tired right now, but I have to wait till after lunch to take a siesta, because that’s when everyone else does, and everyone’s so loud any other time.

My favorite sign at Carcassonne.

That’s all for now! I’ll try to be more consistent with blogging now. Ok, goodbye.

Viajes por Barcelona!

2005-11-10T10:12:00.000-08:00

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand
But the waves are calling out my name And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you'll never win!""You'll never win!"
Chorus: But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
Oh what I would do to have
The kind of strength it takes to stand before a giant
With just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound of a thousand warriors
Shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand
But the giant's calling out my name And he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy you'll never win!""You'll never win!"
But the stone was just the right size
To put the giant on the ground
And the waves they don't seem so high
From on top of them lookin' down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
When I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
Singing over me

I WILL CHOOSE TO LISTEN TO THE VOICE OF TRUTH!

I was struck with that song today. Man, that hurt.

The reason why I haven’t posted in an entire week is because my computer went Ka-Plutz, and I haven’t really been able to use anything ever since like Friday. So I actually had to spend a fair amount of money getting a hard drive to backup my computer onto so I could reformat the hard drive. That was fun. So I’m almost done re-doing my computer, but anyway…

I just had my first test today, 36% of the final grade for Hermenéutica. It was actually not that bad, but because Spanish is still hard for me and his language wasn’t exactly easy to read, it took me really really long to read it, so I didn’t have that much time to actually respond to the questions. I think I’ll do OK though. Lots more homework to do, too, it’s all piling up, but hey it’s the middle of the semester, so that’s normal; I’m in college.

This past weekend, Nathaniel and Danielle came to visit! Man, it was crazy being in Spain, where I know very few people, in EUROPE for heaven’s sake, and here are two of my own family coming to visit for two days! Very weird, yet very cool. They were supposed to get here on Friday night, but that didn’t work out, so they arrived on Saturday morning around 11am. They called and I gave them directions where to go while I ran down the road to meet them at the train station. When I saw them, they started running toward me, too, even though they had huge backpacks on. They’re so cool!

So when they got to their room here at IBSTE, they took a nap, ate, and we were off by 3pm. Alexandra drove, and I *tried* to navigate. We did relatively well. We got to Tibidabo by taking a wrong turn, but it was one of our stops anyway, so we stopped. After taking a short jaunt up the hill, we caught a furnicular train up to the cathedral. It's crazy; it's like double-layered and built into the hill, so it's literally the top, the point of the mountain. At night time, you can see it because they put these huge lights on it and stuff. Crazy cool.

So then after Tibidabo, we got back in the car and drove (with difficulty) to Las Fuentes Magicales, in front of the Palacio Royal. They weren't going yet, but started while we were there. My goodness, I don't think I've ever seen a fountain show like that. The colors in it were amazing! The fountains danced to the music and everything! Yeah, so that's on the southern edge of the city whereas Tibidabo is on the northern end, and both are on mountains, so it's like they're right across from each other, and you can see the whole entire city from Tibidabo, yet at Las Fuentes it's more beautiful at night, I think. Crazy cool.

When we got back to the school, we were all pretty tired, so we went to bed, and got up the next morning to go to La Iglesia Evangelico de Castelldefels for church. It was fun, Alexandra and I interpreted for Nathaniel and Danielle, though they did understand some of it. After church, we had a SWEET american meal: Hamburgers. Mmmm. By the time we got back to touring, it was pretty late, so we just ran really quick to this park that has a bush maze in it, but it was already closed. Oh well. On the way to our next stop, we happened upon La Sagrada Familia. This church is amazging! The architechture is like nothing I've ever seen before. It really is best described, in the words of Nathaniel, "a drippy castle." If you don't know what a drippy castle is, too bad.

After that was La Rambla, which is like the big tourist road of Barcelona. We even heard someone speaking in a southern accent in English there! We walked down, bought a few post cards, and at the end, saw the monument to Cristopher Columbus.

After that, we walked back in the other direction and got in the car to go to the other end of the road to see the Casas Pedereras that were designed by Gaudi. Those houses are so so so cool! Yeah, after that we just got back in the car and went back to the school.

The next morning, we (as in Alexandra, Nathaniel, Danielle, and I) went to the Arc de Triomf (which is Catalán, if you couldn’t tell and wanted to know). This thing is so huge!

After all that, we took them both to the train station, and they left for gava or something like that, in the south of France.

It was fun. We imitated statues, saw sights, and laughed. That was last weekend.

Since then, I've been basically studying and trying to fix my computer (which I succeeded in doing), so it's too boring to write about.

Preston: World-traveler Extraordinaire

2005-11-03T06:36:00.000-08:00

Adios! Au-revoir! Hallo!

We left IBSTE after lunch and got gas and a map of Spain.  We left from Alcampo (the Spain version of Wal-Mart) at 3:30.  We got lost for awhile, and then found ourselves again, and got on the road going north in Spain.  GERMANY OR BUST!!!!

In about three or four hours, we said “adios” to Spain and “bonjour” to France.  We stopped a few times in France, mostly just driving straight through.  We saw the coast when we just got into France and then headed more northern.  After about 11 hours of driving, we crossed the France-Germany border!  It was crazy driving on the road and knowing one minute I was in one foreign country, and then the next, in another.  Neither country do I speak the language!  Good thing we had a native French speaker in the car along with a native German speaker.  Haha!

We arrived in Kandern (15 minutes from Bassel, Switzerland, on the South-Westernmost tip of Germany) at 3am on the 29th, Saturday.  I crashed on the couch in my sleeping bag, and the girls went and slept in Alexandra’s room.

I’M IN GERMANY!  I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!!!

This house is HUGE (I’m taking pictures), and it’s amazing.  It was built in the THIRTEEN HUNDREDS!!!  That’s the middle ages!!!  It was all old and stuff, and then they renovated it when they got here, because it was an old mill, and was just like a warehouse when they got it.

So we woke up today, Saturday, and after breakfast, got back on the road at 2pm, driving to Colmar, France.  It’s an hour away from Kandern, Germany, and we got there by 3 to start ice skating!  I couldn’t believe it.  I’m halfway across the world, in France of all places, in the autumn, inside a building where it’s below freezing, skating while there are only two people on the ice that I can understand!  So it was fun.

Oh, yeah, on the way there, we stopped at a stop sign and got rear-ended.  Not a pleasant sound.  The car behind us hit us pretty hard, and at first, it looked like nothing happened to the car, so we just drove off without getting even a phone number of the lady (she was really rude, didn’t even say sorry or anything, obviously wanted to get out of there as fast as possible).  Later we realized that the back trunk didn’t open, because it had jammed somehow.  But the next morning we fixed it (we think).

Next, we went to the downtown area of Colmar, which is SO much like Solvang in the style of some buildings, but it was so so so much more beautiful.  There were cathedrals (one that was AMAZING with flying buttresses and huge stained-glass windows), cobble-stone streets, and Little Venice (which is this one little canal that looks just like Venice).

After that, we drove back to Kandern, Germany, and had crepes for dinner and dessert.  I have never had crepes before…they were good.

30-10

ENGLISH CHURCH!!!!  We went to the Black Forest (name of the area in Germany) Christian Fellowship, which is an “international church.”  I’ve discovered here that “international church” really means “American Church.”  Haha!  Anyway, this has been the first English church I’ve been to since I left the States, and it was SO refreshing!  I love to go to Spanish church to learn the culture within the church and everything, but it gets so draining without being able to understand all the idiosyncrasies and sentiments.  So this turned out to be really encouraging.  It was a huge church, built almost completely with American money, and having about an 80% missionary body. It’s amazing that there are that many missionaries in the area!  It’s been really really cool staying in this house, because like last night (Saturday), we got to hang out with some English-speaking friends, and it was so refreshing to hear English expressions in the conversation, like, “nasty” or just all the English nuances that I hear around my friends or high school age kids.

After that, we came back to the house, where we had one of the longest lunches I’ve ever experienced.  They first brought out the salad and drinks, and we had salad with bread.  At this point, I thought we were done, so I ate a lot of salad and was ok with that, though quite hungry still.  But then they brought out the noodles, and I said, jokingly, “whoa, multiple courses!?” and they responded completely seriously, “yes, French people know how to do things right.”  So I didn’t know that that was the way that they did it, but it’s common of pretty much all Europe.  The lunch is definitely the biggest meal of the day, and they have an appetizer and at least two, maybe three main courses, and then they have a dessert.  They sit there for a long time eating, and after dessert, they have coffee, and then sis there talking for a loooooong time.  (I thought you would really really like that, Mom, considering that’s why God created meals for us, so that we would talk to each other).  So anyway, that’s a very European thing (even in Spain, though since we’re at an institution, they eat quickly like we do in the U.S.), to have long, big lunches and stay for at least an hour and a half, sometimes two or three hours (today was three hours, a little more).

When the sun was going down, I walked with Alexandra up to the top of the hill behind Kandern (the town we were in), and we got there just at the right time to watch the sunset from a gazebo on the top of the hill.  It was such a beautiful walk, with hills covered in green and trees scattered about.  When we got back, Alexandra and I played speed for awhile, and then after dinner, we all played Dutch Blitz, a lot like Hell (well, Nertz, for all you Christian people ( ).  I had a lot of fun!

Then we played some boggle, and man was that crazy!  There were three French-speakers in the group, and that made it SO unfair!  Because we could use foreign languages (considering some of the people were native French-speakers and native German-speakers), and French words have like a minimum of one silent letter apiece, and like maximum of fifteen.  So they got huge words all the time.  I used Spanish, but those words aren’t as long.  After that, Alexandra and I watched Tuck Everlasting, which I really liked, and then got to bed at…well, really late.

31-10

All Hallows Eve – Good thing people in Europe aren’t as festive about this holiday.  I haven’t seen hardly ANY decorations for Halloween!  I was so excited!

We went to the mechanic’s this morning, and Alexandra dropped off her car to be fixed and checked up.  Afterwards, I commenced piano lessons with her (I’m teaching her piano).

Other than that, we did a little homework, but not much else.  We were going to get to bed early that night, but that didn’t exactly happen.  We got to bed around 12am, and then, well, let’s move to the next day.

1-11

First of November!  We just couldn’t wait to experience November, so we got up at 4am.  Well, it was actually because we wanted to get on the road early.  So we ate breakfast, said goodbye to Fred and Kandee, and because we were moving slowly, we got on the road finally around 5:45.  It was a very safe drive back home: No cars rear-ending us, no crashes head-on.  We went straight on through.  We stopped at an orphanage where Alexandra worked over the past two summers, and so that was really cool to see all the kids she worked with (of course, they all spoke French, so we couldn’t understand them).  We had a quick snack and then got back on the road.  We arrived in Barcelona around 6:30pm, and I unpacked and had dinner.

That night I was sitting in Alexandra’s room as we were studying together for Técnicos de Estudio, and it was amazing to think back over the whole weekend.  I learned so much!

Just by staying in Fred and Kandee’s house, I was taught a lot about hospitality. They will never stop going the extra mile to make guests feel at home. It was the semblance of family, I felt so accepted.

I learned a lot just by listening to Fred’s life story. He taught me so much about relationships with family, priorities in life, and how unless you let the information you gain from studying sink into your heart, it doesn’t profit nothing. He also taught me about the fact that you can’t let life become a performance. I had learned that this summer a lot from Pastor Mike, as he always said, “die to performance,” but I saw it in a whole new light here. He said that the reason why you can’t let your ministry be a performance is because then your value is placed on whether or not you’re performing well enough. Then if you start performing badly, you get down on yourself for no reason at all. If I put my value in Christ, two things will happen: I will hold my standard at God’s level, yet at the same time I will no longer feel like I’m failing, because Christ is accepting and gracious.

It was amazing to hear the story about how the Harris family was used as a tool to change Alexandra’s life. If their daughter hadn’t become friends with Alexandra’s younger sister in school at the age of 6, Alexandra probably wouldn’t know the Lord right now, wouldn’t have gone to the U.S. and gotten Biblical training, and wouldn’t be here at Ibste to learn more about the Word and be a smiling face to all of us all the time. ( Once again, it was amazing to see how God worked in her life to accomplish His goals.

Finally, I discovered the incredible need for the Word of God here in Europe. There are three seminaries in Europe. Three! One of them is Ibste, one of them is in Switzerland, and I’m not sure where the last one is. There used to be one in France, but that one fell through. Alexandra (if you didn’t catch it, she’s French) was telling me about how in France, there are very few people who actually know the Word of God, and those who do know it don’t stay in France but rather go to a “more needy” place, basically Africa, because it seems like everyone thinks of Africa when they think of missions. I’m not at all downing Africa for missions, and I know that it is definitely more physically needy than Europe. All I’m saying is that Europe needs missionaries too! So this is definitely something I am praying about. PRAY FOR EUROPE!

Hehe, this is pretty minor, but I discovered that I actually do have the ability to teach piano! Just something nice to know for the future if anyone ever asks me.

2-11

The only reason why I still haven’t posted my blog is because my internet hasn’t been working ever since last week.  Of course this weekend didn’t matter so much, since I wasn’t here.  I don’t know what’s going on, but I really would like it to start working again.

I know it’s really really really late right now, but I can’t get these thoughts off my mind, and maybe if we can’t stop thinking about something, it’s time to make sure we remember the thoughts.

I was hit hard today with the idea of death.  So our little dog Leia died choking on a piece of meat the other day.  That doesn’t sound bad, but you know, you get attached to your dogs.  I think one reason why God made animals was so that we could experience the life and death of a living being before the life and death of a human being.  Kind of like practice.  It’s always a reminder that every day we live, we move closer to the end, and when I think about it, many times I’m scared, yet there’s nothing to be scared about.  It’s a step-up, into a new world of amazing wonders.

Tito here received a prayer-chain message that a pastor Ferdie Flores is going to be executed tomorrow by stoning in East Timor.  I was so shocked when I heard that!  Think about it.  Someone preached the good news about Christ, trying with all his might to help people on this earth gain the best thing in the world, avoiding the worst suffering ever, and when he preached, they imprisoned him and incarcerated him, to be stoned later.  They’re going to throw rocks at him until his body can’t take it anymore and he dies.  I couldn’t imagine going that way.  It makes you realize how incredibly important it is to spread the gospel to all the world.  At least, it makes me realize that.

That’s all for now.

fao vieo

2005-10-25T23:22:00.000-07:00

¡Fao vieo! I just spent over four hours straight last night studying, because I didn’t know we had Evangelios Synopticos today, and then I got to class and the teacher was sick, so we don’t have class! I know it’s kind of a GOOD thing not to have class, but I still can’t believe I stayed up all night to do homework, and then we don’t even have class. Yeah. Well, anyway, I just discovered how to make the upside down exclamation mark and question mark really easily. In word, you type Alt+Ctrl+!, and it makes it. The same with the question mark: Alt+Ctrl+!. But I decided that was too hard still, so I just went in and made my own shortcut. No more Spanish mistakes! Sweet. Now I can actually type in the language.

Well since I only got like three and a half hours of sleep, I’m going back to bed. Goodnight!

p.s. fao vieo is basically the same thing as jolin, an explitave

I'm tired

2005-10-23T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well it’s been awhile since I posted last.  Sorry I haven’t been here in awhile.  The first few days of this week I was really busy, and then the last few days I haven’t had internet on my computer for some reason.  The wireless internet is really weird around here.  Anyway, I’m back.

This past Thursday, I sang I Can Only Imagine in chapel for everyone.  It was the first time I’d sang and played at the same time.  I practiced it for a long time, haha!  But afterwards, everyone said that they loved the song and complimented me on both my piano playing and on my voice.  I felt so honored!

This week, we got a BUNCH of homework piled on.  I have all these assignments for the Synoptic Gospels class, a lot that have to do with the library, so I need to go there a lot.  But I just discovered that there are a lot more commentaries on Esword than I thought before, so I’m going to be using those more.

I just went to church today at La Iglesia Evangelica de Castelldefels, which is in…you guessed it, Castelldefels.  Yeah, so it was really good.  Eugenio, definitely my favorite professor thus far over here, preached there.  I could actually follow what he preached on, and I could write an outline of his sermon.  It was really cool seeing someone preach exegetically instead of topically.  I guess it’s the common thing to do around here, preaching topically.  Not only is it a dangerous way to preach consistently; it’s also really hard to understand if you don’t know Spanish completely, haha!

After that, I went back to IBSTE for lunch and a lot of studying in the afternoon.  In the evening, I played ping-pong for awhile and guess what…I DID MORE HOMEWORK!!!  Wow, what an exciting day.

Nevertheless, tomorrow is going to be an exciting new day, because…well, I just have a good feeling about it.  Maybe I’ll beat Carlos at ping-pong.

Que Dios les bendiga.

Spanglish Hermeneutics

2005-10-17T15:08:00.000-07:00

I just had my first big experience of one difference between studying the Bible in Spanish and studying it in English. I have a big assignment to turn in tomorrow (yikes!), and I’m halfway through it, but anyway, I’m studying Ephesians 1-3. I’m actually using the English version of the Bible, since I’ve spent a lot of time in the Spanish Bible and it was just getting too frustrating, but still, the homework is explained in Spanish. So those of you who know Spanish know that there are many more past tenses than there are in English. In English, to say “I lived a bad life” and to say “I changed my life” is using the same tense, when in reality we might be saying, “I USED TO live a bad life” (as in, I lived a bad life for an extended period of time), but “I changed my life” (like instantaneously). Anyway, not to give you a Spanish lesson, but basically in Spanish there are the Preterite tense and the Imperfect tense, but in English, you usually use the same past tense for both of those Spanish tenses.

I was studying Eph. 1-3 and came to 2:1-10. In English, he says, “you formerly walked according to the course of this world…” and then says, “But God…made us alive together with Christ…” Showing the difference between the two lives. But the question in my homework says, “Has notando el tiempo de los verbos en los vv. 1-3?” Basically, “have you noticed the tense of the verbs in verses 1-3?” And then he goes on to ask about the tense in verses 4-6. It’s amazing! In English, you just use the past tense to describe them both, but in Spanish, the first, describing our old sinful life, uses the Imperfect tense, one that describes something that USED TO happen continually, but uses a different tense, the preterite, to describe Jesus’ changing of our lives INSTANTANEOUSLY, yet still in the past. I was so confused when the homework asked me to note the difference in tense, because in English, there IS no difference in tense. In this case, the passage is so much more powerful in Spanish. Craziness. I wonder if the tenses are like that in Greek…

Disco dis way, Disco dat way!

2005-10-16T16:40:00.000-07:00

I was asked, “How’s the Spanish-speaking going?”  Well, I was told that I’m a lot better now than I was when I arrived.  I can understand more now, gradually more and more every day, but the frustration level is still pretty high.  It’s so hard when you want to say something funny or intelligent, and you just can’t because you don’t know the language that well.  I’m learning a lot of slang words, too, which is fun!  Some of them are…

Jolin! – basically an expletive of surprise, like when I told everyone that I stayed out until 4:45am last night, they all went, “JOLIN!”  Yeah.
Ostras! – another expletive, literally “oysters!” the same use, except I think this one is a little worse, kind of like “crap” as opposed to Jolin is more “dude!”
Aseo – toilet (also “cleanliness”)
Tirar un pedo – to fart
Dime! – Literally “tell me.”  But like if you start talking and you stop because someone interrupted you, then it’s like, “you talk, not me.”  They also say that when they answer the phone, like saying, “talk to me.”
Raca! – honomatopoella
Perder aceite – To be gay
Mariquita – Gay guy
Mocos - Boggers
Guay – Cool (like, “man, you’re cool”)
Melones – large breasts
Frio – Cold (it can be used to describe a person, just like in English)
Que feo – Literally, “how ugly,” but used when someone says something that you don’t like, doesn’t sound very good.
Un borracho – A drunk

I’m beginning to understand just what people were talking about when they said Europe loves night life.  Lots of the stores and especially restaurants stay open until at least midnight in the middle of the city, and there are still lots of people up walking around at that time, too.  In Chicago, people usually go home around 9 or 10.  So yeah, last night we stayed up very late.  First, we drove to Barcelona, leaving around 9pm, and we parked and walked around in the rain for a few hours, trying to find a discoteca (basically a dance club, but they aren’t ALL bad, though many can be).  We finally kind of gave up and waited for some of Carlos’ friends, and when they met us, we went to the MareMagnum, where we had gone before for a buffet dinner and stuff, and there are a few discotecas on the roof of the building.  So we went to the SunSet discoteca (which was free!), and danced for a couple of hours.  It was kind of boring because it was just house music, and I would have liked other kinds of music to dance to, like salsa and stuff, but I guess we’ll find another one later.  So we got there around one in the morning, and MAN, this is where I learned about the night life in Europe.  First of all, the discotecas usually stay open until around 5 or 6 in the morning, but people don’t even start to crowd the place until around 2 am!!!  I was amazed!  We got there at one, and I mean there was quite a few people, but it didn’t get to the dance feeling, where there are a bunch of people all crowding, until around 2am.  Crazy.  So we stayed until 3am, and then we said, “It’s time to go—there’s church tomorrow morning.”

After finding our way back through the small streets (there are a bunch of small streets with one-way roads, very confusing), we got into the car and drove back to Castelldefels Playa, to IBSTE.  When we got there, we sat in the car for two seconds and Carlos said, “let’s go to the beach.”  We all agreed, and then we went to the beach.  I was so tired, but we walked on the beach for awhile, and then drove back to IBSTE.  I walked in my room, brushed my teeth and fell into bed.  I slept like a baby…for 4 hours, cuz I had to get up at 9 for church.  Haha.

So I am writing this, and I just now discovered a homework we were supposed to do that I didn’t know.  I hate not understanding everything; you never know if there might be a deadline you didn’t know about because you can’t understand everything in class.  It’s like falling asleep every once in awhile when the prof is talking about something important.  Anyway, alfidacen!  I mean, adios!

U.S. = Dictator? I didn't know!

2005-10-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

Wow!  I learned a lot today!  I was sitting at the table at lunch, and I don’t even know how it started, but we started talking about politics, and I discovered a lot about politics.  First of all, my worst fears were confirmed: I was told that pretty much all of the world thinks that the U.S. is a dictator that thinks it owns the world.  Also, I got quite insulted when someone said that all the churches in America want war.  Yeah, that was awful.  So I’m not feeling so accepted right now, since people think I’m a war-mongering dictator who thinks I’m better than everyone else.

Then I had a big, two-hour talk with one guy here about politics and the whole Iraq thing and Bush and U.S. government, and I’m exhausted.  I discovered, though, that there is a BIG difference between people in the U.S. and Europe in one regard: If someone in Europe is against someone else in politics, then they won’t even talk to them.  I mean, in the U.S., there are Republican-Democratic debates, but here, the political parties don’t even associate with each other.  They don’t debate.  Weird, huh?

So anyway, I think I’m going to do a bit of homework and such right now.  Chiao!

Preston's Neoeuropean Ethics

2005-10-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

I sat down to lunch today, and JOLIN! There was a bottle of red wine on the table! At a seminary??? THAT was weird! I did have a tiny bit, but I don’t know about it, it’s really strong. Whoo, and I guess the first time you have some is kind of shocking; well, I can believe that. Don’t know if I’ll be so much a regular connoisseur of wine. Guess I won’t have to worry about that going back to the States, since the drinking age is three years after it is here.

We took the school photo today, which obviously wasn’t very big, with a school population of like negative five. Haha!

I was asked if Europe’s morals are the same as the United States, and I’ll respond.

It’s different here. In general, yeah, I would say they are less moral here, but that’s a big generalization. I thought it would be a LOT worse than it actually is. I only see a little more promiscuity in the ads (but like I said, that’s prolly just because I don’t see many ads, and I don’t watch TV here). I have heard that the discotecas are really bad, but I don’t know, maybe they’re just the same as the rave parties here and we just don’t see the two as the same. Also, they have their differences, say, in dating. There’s no such thing as taking someone out on a date unless you’re “dating.” You cant just go out for coffee with ONE friend of the opposite sex. It’s not accepted as a ‘friends’ thing. It has to be either dating or more than two people. So their opinions of the American people are very low in that regard, because they see us go out with multiple people and think we’re players. Also, they see tv and celebrities, and wonder why “people get married so fast” in the U.S.. So I mean, it totally depends on how you look at it. They might say that we are less moral than they.

I mean, we’re really getting into grey area here, because the Bible doesn’t say anything about how low shirts can be or how many people you can go out with in one year. In such cases, it’s hard. Consider the following.

Moral - of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior : ethical (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2003 ed.)

So what is right and wrong? Moral is definitely absolute, but what IS right and wrong? I mean, can we deduce from the Bible that it’s ok to go out with more than one person, even if we’re not “dating” either one? Does the fact that Europe has their drinking age at three years younger mean that they are immoral, or does it just mean that they view alcohol as something to experience with friends, something they respect more than Americans do? I thought it would be clear to see that Europe is much more immoral than the U.S., but it’s not as easy as I thought to decide whether or not this is true.

So my answer is, “I don’t know,” because it wasn’t much of a shock coming here, although the clothing is tighter and less present. But like I said, the more I get to know the culture, some of this doesn’t matter as much anymore, and some things that didn’t seem to matter in the States do now.

I danced again tonight! I taught Alexandra how to dance swing a lot better tonight. It’s so difficult teaching the girl’s part. But you know, it helped me fix some problems I had with leading and the basic footing of some moves. That’s good. And we’re supposedly going dancing tomorrow night. Don’t know about that one, though…Carlos seems to be a bit sketchy. Well, he has a busy schedule, too.

I LOVE EUROPE!!!!

IBSTE - we don't screen for heretics

2005-10-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

Europe really makes you appreciate screens on windows. Nobody here has screens. It’s crazy. They have shutters on the outside (though IBSTE doesn’t), windows that open, and curtains on the inside. I haven’t seen any blinds, and I haven’t seen any screens. But they would be helpful, because at night, I need to close the windows because the bugs come inside and fly around and around the lights.

Mi Dirección

2005-10-12T04:58:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, I now have an address! It’s just the same address as IBSTE, but you put my name first. So it’s the following

Preston Wallace, IBSTE
Apartado de Correos 48
08860 Castelldefels, Barcelona
Spain

So now you have to send me mail! Haha.

Personality Type A-positive

2005-10-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking. At Moody, all the rooms were always really dirty, papers, clothes, and everything all over the floor. But not here. I noticed right off that everyone here keeps their rooms extremely clean, and I know why. It’s because we have girls and guys all in the same building, and all the girls want to impress the guys, and vice versa. I mean, the guys here that I would think would be extremely messy guys (considering their personality) mop their floor like once every other week! I thought it was funny.

a viajar!

2005-10-11T06:22:00.000-07:00

I was just looking at the Eurail stuff.  Well, it looks as though that will be the route I’ll be going about during Easter.  I discovered some amazing things:

-The pass covers you for 15 days,
-There are obviously trains that don’t accept the pass, but basically, you can get anywhere you want in the 17 Eurail countries on this one pass.
-There are some ferries that you can take in between countries (e.g. Italy to Greece, which I will most likely be taking.), and the crazy thing about it is…you’re not going to believe it, but they put the WHOLE TRAIN aboard the boat!!  The rails actually run right up to the rails on the boat, and the train drives up into the ferry.  They put the cars like three across and I don’t know how many deep.  But that’s SO crazy!

The hostels look pretty good, too.  I looked a few up on StudentUniverse for Rome, and the website describes it, and they looked pretty clean and safe for $30 a night.  So I’m stoked about that, too.

Right now, I still am nowhere near sure what I’m doing, but I would love to spend a couple days at least in Rome, I’d like to go to Venice, visit Greece (not sure where), and possibly go to Germany to see a couple of missionaries that were here at IBSTE.  I’m pretty sure Italy, Greece, and Germany will be the only countries I’ll go to, because in December I believe we are going to be visiting Paris for a few days, and I would assume a few days is quite enough to tour a city (Paris is really all I want to see in France).  I’ll probably visit Granada (southern Spain) this month, and I don’t know about Madrid.

But right now, I am doing homework and studying a TON, because it takes to long to understand in Spanish, and then to memorize, it’s even harder.  But it’s going alright.

TOMORROW IS A HOLIDAY here.  I think it’s the Day of the Race in English, but it’s only a Latin holiday, because it’s celebrating the Hispanic race and culture.  I don’t think I’ll do much more than call people, do homework, and read.  Maybe we’ll go into town.

The Real Test

2005-10-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

Today was the "real test." I went to Barcelona alone, met up with someone, and went to church this morning. I left Ibste at 10:00 in a car with four other people (pretty cramped; it's a european car), and they dropped me off in Castelldefels while they went on to Barcelona to a different church. I bought a ticket with 10 rides to Barcelona on it, and I took the Renfe, kind of like the Metra in Chicago. It's a commuter train, bigger than a subway train, and it comes less often, but has more seats. Then I got to Clot Estacio (it's in Catalan, not Spanish), and Tito (Titus in English) met me there.

We went to his pentecostal church. I liked the music a lot, and they embarrassed me in front of the whole church because I was new, and I didn't understand much of the details in the sermon, but it was basically about how we need to be unified as a body of Christ. It's a small church, and everyone knows each other; it's probably about half the size of Berean. I'm going to go back next week and the week after to see what it's like week to week, and I think I'll make it my home church here for this schoolyear, but I don't know for sure.

It was crazy. After the service, ALL of the females did that two-kiss thing like they do in South America. They each gave me a kiss on each cheek. That was weird. I wonder if it's common here in all the churches or just that one, because it was pentecostal...? I dont know. Anyway, a few of us college kids in the church went to a Chinese restaurant (imagine that, going to a Chinese restaurant when you're in Barcelona). It was o.k., but I like the Golden China better. It was crazy, though. I guess in Spain, you order really really fast, and I was taking a long time (I take awhile to order anyway, and then since it was in Spanish...), and the waitress was getting really impatient. She wasn't very happy with me the rest of the meal.

From there, I went to the metro with Tito again, and he gave me instructions, but it was so confusing. Here I go:

I went south on the Red Line only one stop, got off, and went down to get on the same Renfe that I took into town, but I took the wrong train; it was an express train that only went to Sants Estacio (again, Catalan), and so I had to get off at Sants Estacio. MY GOSH that place was HUGE!! It's smack dab in the middle of Barcelona, and it has TWELVE tracks! That's twelve regular-sized, side-by-side, underground tracks. I was totally lost when I got off. I thought it would be just two tracks and it would be as simple as getting off and waiting for the right renfe train. But no, I had to find my way up the right escalator to the ticket counter where I asked a guy how to get back to Castelldefels. Of course, he talked really really fast, and all I caught was that I was supposed to go to track 5. So I went there, assuming it'd be only the right line, only the train I wanted. But I asked around, and everybody was waiting for a different train. So I finally found someone who knew which one went to Castelldefels, and I waited, and after a few trains, got on the train I wanted. On the way back home, I found out that the train only went to the city of Castelldefels, and not the beach town where IBSTE is, so I had to get off in the city and walk about a twenty-minute walk. I got back to IBSTE at 6pm. That was a hectic trip.

God's way is best.

2005-10-08T04:53:00.001-07:00

I was reading in Matthew today, about Jesus' temptation, and I decided to go back to the verse he quoted from Deuteronomy, "man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord." I was amazed at what I discovered.

I discovered (rather, my previous thoughts were confirmed) the reason why God made me wait to go to Spain.

Deuteronomy 8:1-5 says:

Deu 8:1 "The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers.
Deu 8:2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
Deu 8:3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Deu 8:4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.
Deu 8:5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you.

So basically, God did promise them the land of Canaan, and it was His will that they would arrive there, but He tested them. He led them through the desert to see if they would stay faithful to Him. He "disciplined" them, not because they did something bad, but only to make them see that they survived on God, not on anything from this world.

Just like that, God promised me going to Spain, but He wanted me to see that it wasn't the going to Spain that was the good part, it wasn't the only thing that sustained me. It is God that sustains; I live on God, not on a hope to do something in life. And He disciplined me, not because I did anything bad, but only to teach me that, because He loves me.

I was amazed when I discovered this passage and its application to me. Maybe there's an application to you.

God's way is best.

2005-10-08T04:53:00.000-07:00

Barcelona!

2005-10-07T16:22:00.000-07:00

Today, I went to Barcelona! It was, SO much fun! Here we all are, on a road trip to the big city! I'm in the front passenger seat, that's Evelyn, Tito, David, and I don't remember the other three (one's hiding).

This is one of the best views in Barcelona. You can see the entire city from here. It's amazing. The ocean is in the distance, and that big thing on the left is a homosapien.

A random beautiful building (there are lots of beautiful buildings!) that we passed by.

After parking near there, we went and saw the soccer stadium, and then got back in the car and went to Les Rambles, the Michigan Avenue of Barcelona, the biggest tourist and shopping street in the city. It was beautiful, with a bunch of fountains and such architecture. Tons of street performers, too.

Yes, I went to a Starbucks in Barcelona. A taste of home. But man, it was an expensive taste! I guess Starbucks has to pay shipping too. Oh, David wanted to be in the picture.

Walking down the street, we ran into the statue of Cristopher Columbus, and here's a picture of me looking good.

Here's a better view of the backside of the statue.

After leaving Les Rambles, we went to a buffet place, kind of like the Suplantation or Fresh Choice, which was good. Then we got in the car again and drove to...

This is one of the other really good views of Barclona. This was taken from the front steps of the Royal Palace in Barcelona. It's not where the royal family lives; it's simply a museum now, but it has an amazing view. We hung around there for awhile. I can't describe in words how amazing this view was. It's just incredible. Yeah.

So basically, that's today in pictures and words. The trip to Barcelona was amazing, and I want to go again as soon as possible (I might be going dancing tomorow night in Barcelona). Maybe tomorrow I'll post some regular pictures. I'll post some of the flight here, and then of some of the school and friends.

God bless you all!

SPAIN!!!!

2005-10-06T07:32:00.000-07:00

October 5
Well, I just went to the city of Castelldefels (I guess we’re only in the "puebla," the beach town), and I had a blast just walking around the city, seeing all the ancient architecture and just seeing the city life. It’s not even a big city, according to Tiago, with whom I went. I thought the city was fascinating and beautiful, but he said that it was NOTHING compared to the city of Barcelona. I guess there will be a few people including him that will go this Saturday, and I’m going to go with them.

One more thing: I think I’m going to be able to find a phone card here. I think it’s going to be a card phone, one that you buy the phone and minutes, but not a regular monthly plan. Anyway, just thought I’d tell you guys that.

October 6
Good news! They say we’re getting wireless internet here soon! One of the administrators here put a router on this floor, and he’s going from computer to computer, configuring each to the internet. So I’ll be able to use the internet soon and talk to you guys on Skype and MSN. I’m so happy!

So today I had my first day of real classes. The last two days were really just a two-day class. So I understand Jim Fasold, the teacher of my classes today, a lot better than the other guy. That’s really good. So anyway, I understood him well, so I’ll be able to keep up in that class pretty well, I think. I just reviewed the syllabus, and I asked a few questions to some of the students, and I apparently missed a few things in class, but I think it’ll be fine. I just can’t fall behind. I need to keep on reading and doing the work consistently, asking questions ALL THE TIME, so I don’t miss anything.

In one of my classes, hermeneutics, 85% of the grade is dependent upon two tests, one being 35%, and the final 50%. It’s crazy! I am a little bit worried about that. But I guess the grading scale is different here, too. They have a ten-point scale instead of a 4-point scale. 90-100 is like an A+, and the Dean of Students said that literally nobody ever gets that kind of grade here. 70-89 is like an A, and 50-69 is like a B. Anything lower than that is failing, and all of the above is how it will transfer to Moody. But he said you have to try really hard to fail here, and most people get around 60-80. So I’m not worried about the grading scale. What I am worried about is the tests and such. The dean also told me I can write my papers in English if I need to and if the teacher can correct in English, which is nice, but I think I’m still going to at least try in Spanish.

So Hermeneutics was hard, but it’s going to be good I think. Also, I had the Synoptic Gospels today, and I think that’s going to be a good class. I’m looking forward to having a good grasp on the entire life of Jesus. The tests in that class don’t count as much as they do in Hermeneutics, but they’re still worth a lot, something like 50-60%.

I’m pretty tired today. I think the majority of the jetlag took awhile to set in. I was kind of sick to my stomach yesterday, a little better today. But I think the tiredness and sickness is mostly just from jetlag and nothing more.

The food here is SO GOOD!!! My gosh, I love it so much! It’s so healthy, too; the carbs aren’t overloaded, and everything isn’t deep-fried.

I went to Castelldefels today again, but this time in the car, so I didn’t get to see any cool architecture. I had a good time, though. We went to a mall. There were SO MANY clothing stores there! I got a huge box of laundry detergent for washing clothes, as well as a pad of paper. Ok, I discovered something crazy: They don’t use three-ring binders here! They don’t even have them! They use FOUR-ring binders! Most people don’t use binders at all, but when they do, they use the four-ring binders. And they don’t have three- or four-hole-punchers here, either. They only have one- and two-hole-punchers. You have to use the two-hole punch twice to punch a four-holed paper. That’s gonna take some getting used to.

I´m In Spain!!!

2005-10-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

Here are my blogs for the past few days, since I was in the U.S.:

12am October 2nd—Friends at my house. We’ve been having a blast since 7pm the previous day. The completely final going away party has been going well. Lots of people came. We’ve watched Tyler break, TJ move his hips and lips to MJ, and I’ve been running away from Kristi all night, avoiding her deadly blows from the side of her pelvis. The party’s starting to wind down by now.

1am – Friends leave—time to finish packing.
3:45am – Finally finished packing, very tired, time to go to bed (well, it was time for that a long time ago).
7:15am – I drag myself out of bed; Dad made the traditional Sunday morning waffles.
7:20am – I’m starting to realize it’s October 2nd now, starting to realize it’s Sunday, that I’m going to Spain.
7:50 – Dad leaves for worship practice, Blake, Mom, and I all get ready for church.
8:50 – I’m freaking out, making sure I didn’t forget anything at home (so far, I haven’t).
9:10 – We leave for Sunday school.
10am – Sunday school’s over; Dad says goodbye for the last time, and I leave with Mom for LA.
10:45am – I get a call from Air France, saying that my flight is delayed by over an hour. I calmly consider the fact that my flight number has changed along with my flight times, and I didn’t tell the man who was picking me up that I was connecting in Paris. Dang.
11:15 – We arrive at McDonalds (I know, I’m sorry), and I get a cheeseburger and fries to hold me over until lunch. I call the school in Spain while sitting in the parking lot. Problem is, eastern Europe is a mere 9 hours ahead of us, so it was 8:30pm Sunday night by the time I was calling. Nobody was there.
12 noon – I call Dad, and give him the information to email the president of the school (who was picking me up), so he emails the president, and I feel much better.
12-3:15 – My mom and I listen to Switchfoot and 1 Peter on CD, and stop at Baja Fresh for lunch and Starbucks for….an afternoon snack. This was the best part of the day so far. I got to talk to my mom a lot and just have a lot of fun. It’s always cool talking to my parents for a long period of time like that—I was stuck in the car; what else was I gonna do? (Just kidding.)
3:15 – We show up at LAX International Airport, and I get out of the car in a flurry, grabbing up things from the car that had fallen out of my bags, and mom goes and parks the car.
3: 30 – I’m waiting in line to get checked in, and mom comes from parking the car to help and stuff.
3:45 – This is the hardest part. This is where Mom and I both cried. This is the last goodbye. I know, I’m coming back for Christmas, but it’s still sad. It’s just so hard. I tell Mom I love her, and she does the same, we hug, and we part ways as I go through the nobody-without-a-ticket-beyond-this-point gate.
3:46 – I realize I still have my AMERICAN cell phone, and I freak out, and try to call Mom. I leave her a frantic message because she’s in the elevator at the moment, and I think I was a bit short. Sorry Mom, I was just frantic, thinking I’d have to send my phone back to the U.S. in a 100 euro box or something.
3:47 – Mom calls back, she’s out of the elevator, and she comes back to that point and I gave her the phone, and of course, we cry all over again. Ok, ok, don’t laugh, you’d do the same. And even if you wouldn’t, I don’t care because my family means more to me in this world than anything else besides God. So anyway, I go through the whole process again, and this time there are more people in front of me. This turns out to be no problem at all, however, because…
4:15 – I get through the second checkpoint, where you walk through the metal detector arch thing. I didn’t beep, so I made it through all that in 1 hour.
4:30 – I sit here typing all this out, wondering why in the world I left at 10am when I could have slept 3 more hours and still gotten to my flight on time. Oh well, you can never tell what’s going to happen at the airport.
5:40 – I go wandering about, searching for a rentable cell phone for Europe (or just Spain). I finally finds someone who knows something about that, and they tell me I have to go to a different terminal to get the phone. Luckily, it’s only two terminals away, a 5 minute walk. So I go back out of security (this is my second time exiting security), and walk down to the other terminal, only to find that the phones are RIDICULOUSLY expensive. I call Mom and Dad and tell them the scoop, that I’m not getting one. Oh well; maybe, just maybe I’ll find one in Spain that is less ridiculously-priced. After that, it was back to terminal 2, my original terminal, back through security, and back to my spot next to the window with the outlet on the carpeted pillar. This French guy asked me to watch his laptop for a few minutes. I was honored.
5:50 – I watch this little 8-year-old girl crawl around, smiling at everybody. She talks with a British accent, which is funny from an 8-year-old. She says, "well, I must go to the toilet, Daddeh, so please set here and wayt foh meh…em, until I get bawck." Her face is the spitting image of Veruca Salt.
7pm – I board the plane, a Boeing 777, a quite large jet with two aisles and nine seats across total. I switch seats with a guy who wanted to sit with his friends.
7:45 – We’re all seated and ready to go, and they give us these sweet packages! They have those sleep-blinder things, earbuds that you can keep, and these little towelettes for "refreshment." They have those really cool screens on the back of the seats in front of you, and you can see where you are at all times. I look at the magazine and discover European advertising and style. Their style is SO much more appealing to me than any style in the U.S. And of course, their advertising is much more seductive than ours (and you thought ours was bad).
8:00 – We take off. I love takeoffs!
8:25 – We pass over Las Vegas. Man that was quick!
8:40 – I sit typing again. I feel like sleeping, but they’re going to serve dinner in a little bit, and I don’t know which is better: Sleep or food. Sleep would probably be a better idea right now. They serve a "light breakfast" in the morning anyway. I feel pretty comfortable right now, with "My Maria" playing (my new favorite country song) and sitting with my pillowette, blanket…ette, and shoes off. I CAN’T WAIT TO GET TO SPAIN! I hope I can see Paris when I get there, though. I’m in the aisle seat (I love the aisle seat, so I can get up). We’re flying over Richfield, Utah right now, going north-northeast.
10pm – I start trying to go to sleep. Since at this point it’s already 7am Euro time, it would be good to get a head start. I can’t sleep at all, except for a few 5-minute increments here and there, and one hour right around 3 or 4 am. In between those times, I got up, went to the bathroom, *moved my ankles*, and tried to go back to sleep.
4:30am – I finally give up sleeping, since they turned the lights back on. We’ve made our flight over a good portion of the U.S., over Ontario, the Hudson Bay, the Hudson Straight, Iceland, Greenland, and Great Britain. We passed right near Belfast, and in a few minutes, we’ll be passing near London. It’s so crazy that we didn’t NEARLY make a straight flight. I still don’t understand how it’s faster or more efficient to fly the way we did, instead of just staying with the same latitude. They changed the time to Paris time (which is the same as Barcelona time), so it’s now 1:40pm. However, I don’t feel like it should be 4:40am, and that’s good.
3:30pm – I arrive in Paris, and it’s so strange, because everyone is speaking French. I really feel foreign now. I was banking on Spain, not France, haha! I didn’t know I was going to be speaking in French!
4 – I call Mom and Dad from the airport after sending a couple of emails.
4:30 – The absolute worst moment in the entire trip. I sit down to my computer at a computer station, and I realize that I don’t have my folder in my bag, and after searching, I realize that I left it at the payphone station.
Now, this wouldn’t be so bad, except for the fact that it has every important document for my entire life inside of it. I have my birth certificate, my abstract certificate of birth, my Social Security Card, and my old passport, along with my flight information and all the documents from IBSTE. I was FREAKING OUT! I knew I had left it at the phone booth, and I feared the worst: Someone had stolen it, yet I prayed as hard as I could that someone turned it in. I searched high and low, asking everyone around the phone booths, asking the lost and found people in the terminal, and asking security. Finally, I got to a security girl, and she referred me to a man in a red coat, and he asked me what my name was. When I told him I was Preston Wallace, he got this little smirk on his face, with his hands folded behind his back, kind of rocking up and down on the balls of his feet, and he said, "you’re lucky." I just about died with happiness, as I was thanking him over and over again. He gave it to me after I signed a little paper to say I had received it, and it had everything in there that had been there before, all in the same order. I don’t have any doubt in my mind that God had His hand on that folder the whole time, and He knew what He was doing. He just wanted to throw my world off balance just a little bit more, so that I would lean on Him more heavily. Well man, did it work. I now know beyond the shadow of a doubt that my life is by NO MEANS in my hands anymore. I have learned over the past week especially that God is the one in complete control. He gives us control of our lives, yet we don’t even realize that we aren’t even in control, though we like to think so. He is the one that makes things happen, and nothing happens without His knowing and allowing. Once again, Praise God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords.
5:00 – I board the plane to Barcelona.
7:45 – I arrive in Barcelona and meet Jim Fasold, the director of the school. He is really nice, and he takes me to the school. There, I meet a lot of people like Reuben, Alexandria, Miguel, and others. I have discovered that language will not be that much of a problem with the students, because they’re really nice about it. I don’t know about the teachers yet. I eat dinner there with them, and they show me my temporary room (I guess I’m getting another one very soon). I discover that there are no phones in the dorms, and only one phone per floor. The problem is that you can only use coins in the phone, not a card. So I’m really going to have to get to an internet café soon to email people (by the time this is posted, that will be the case) and use my Skype internet phone.
8:30 – I go with two missionaries that are here, Alexandria, and *I think* Reuben. We go to the beach, and we just walk around. I saw the train go by. GOODNESS that’s fast! It’s WAY faster than any train I’ve ever seen in the U.S.
10 – I come back to the dorms, and Reuben is kind enough to show me a way to the internet (it only worked for that one night though; you’re usually not supposed to do this), and I email my family to tell them I’m safe and I love them.
11 – Back to my temporary room. It’s ok. The bathroom could do with some dusting; looks like it hasn’t been used in awhile. Two things I need desperately: A blanket and a pillow. I have sheets, and I think they provide blankets, but by the time I realized it, everyone was in their rooms and stuff. I’ll ask later. I get things ready for tomorrow; gotta be at breakfast at 7:30.
I think this is going to be a great year. I can already tell it’s going to be fun. There are a few things that need to be worked out before my nerves can let off me, but after they’re taken care of, I can relax a little and enjoy school and the totally different environment.
One main observation of Europeans: They stink! They don’t use deodorant, and that’s a bad idea.

October 4
I woke up today to Evelyn knocking on my door, and calling my name. Thank goodness she remembered me. I met her the night before, and being from South America, she gave me two kisses on the cheeks. She’s been really nice to me, helping me with the schedule, to know where to go.
Anyway, I had set my alarm for 6:45 to get up and eat breakfast at 7:30, but my alarm didn’t work. So it being 8am, time for class, I had to jump out of bed and throw on some clothes, chewing a piece of gum on the way to my first and pretty much only orientation class. So I feel pretty bad at this point, since I hadn’t taken a shower since I left Sunday morning from home. This is Tuesday morning, and I still haven’t taken a shower. Oh well.
8:00 – Orientation
9 – Tècnicas del Estudio – A class basically teaching you good study habits.
10 – Capilla – The incoming new president of the school gave his testimony at chapel.
10:30 – Cafè – a little bread and coffee while we socialize for about twenty minutes.
11 – Back to class until 2, taking a ten minute break at the top of each hour.
2 – Almuerzo – This is the biggest meal of the day, I’ve discovered, so by now I want to eat a lot in order not to be hungry. It’s so much fun talking with everyone, talking in Spanish and English, though most everyone has a really hard time with English.
2:30-8 – Free time. Now I do my chores. Everyone has 4 hours of Servicios each week. They’re basically cleaning chores, as well as 2 hours of library supervision. My job is to keep the three hallways of floors 1, 2, and 3 (that’s European levels. In the U.S., it would be floors 2, 3, and 4), as well as the three classrooms, clean. It’s pretty easy, just sweeping twice a week and mopping once. After that, it’s off to clean my own room, because it was pretty gross when I got here.
8 – La Cena – Dinner is lots of fun, too. It’s the last obligation of the day, and after this, I finished cleaning my room, and went to bed.

October 5
6:30 – I went running with Tiago and Marcus (I think that’s his name). We ran up and down the beach boardwalk for 25 minutes, and afterwards, I took a shower and went to breakfast at 7:30. Tiago, Marcus and I are now going to run every Mon, Wed, Fri.
8-9 – More unpacking and finishing touches on cleaning my room.
9 – Tècnicas del Estudio – Back to class again. This is only a two-day class, so tomorrow I’ll start the regular classes, with Hermeneutics being the big one of the semester.
10 – Capilla – This time in chapel, three guys were interviewed: the Cook, the maintenance guy, and a professor.
The rest of the day went pretty much like the previous, except after class, I started reading the orientation packet, and now I am typing the blog. I’m going to the city of Castelldefels in a half hour from now to get a few things for my room. I discovered that Castelldefels (where I am living) is only about 20 minutes south of the center of Barcelona, driving distance. It’s a city all of its own, and it’s right on the beach. The name means, in Catalàn, the primary language of Barcelona, "Castle of the Faithful Ones." There’s a castle on the hill next to the school called just that, and it was really the only Catholic church a few centuries ago, and that’s why it was called that. So they named the pueblo ("town") after it.

I am having a lot of fun. I’m really tired all the time, and today I was a little sick to my stomach, but besides that, I am doing well. I still need to put a few things away in my room, but then I’ll be all set, and after reading the orientation packets tonight, I’m all ready for school tomorrow.
One more thing: If you haven’t heard, my visa was approved Monday, the day after I left for Spain. Yeah, pretty disappointing, yet very very good that it’s approved. It means I’m most likely staying for the full 9 months.

I don´t think I´ll be able to get to the computer very often, so´I´ll be posting prolly every few days. God bless!

Praise God!!!

2005-09-30T02:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted.

I don't want to wash my hands right now, because they smell so wonderful. I just got back from the Grad, where I went line dancing for my last time this summer, probably the last time for nine months (though I might at the Christmas break). I was sad to say goodbye to a few people there, but it was lots of fun, the last time. I still don't want to wash my hands, because regardless of the fact that they've been touched by tons of different girls, they smell so GOOD, so much like girl! I love the smell of dancing hands.

I need to explain what happened over the last two days, and why I've been so frantic and freaked out. Maybe I need to back up a little.

You all know that I go to Moody Bible Institute. Well, this year, I was planning on going to a school in Spain that Moody is afiliated with, called the Spanish Bible Institute and Theological Seminary (IBSTE) as an exchange student. At the beginning of this week, the chances of me going were looking very bleak, since I hadn't received my student visa yet. So I started relentlessly calling and emailing the Consulate of Los Angeles. However, they don't ever answer the phone, and it takes forever for them to answer your emails. So I was at Wednesday (yesterday) when I finally got tipped off to fax them….

-------------------------------------------------

This entire time, especially the week leading up to all these events, I had been bathing this whole situation in prayer. I knew that what would happen would be God’s will, and I would accept it, even if it meant I couldn’t go to Spain at all. God’s way is always best. However, it’s still so so hard not knowing what His will is, and not knowing what’s going to happen in life. Anyway, time slowly crawled by, and I asked more and more and MORE people to pray for the situation, mostly that my visa would get approved. And pretty soon, I lost count of how many people were praying for me. It got to the point where everyone in my church was praying for me, along with extended family and even friends in Chicago and obscure people I only really knew when I was little. I even had one obscure muslim friend praying for me. I felt so BLESSED! So many people encouraged me, telling me they were praying and saying they knew that what would happen was God’s will, and I shouldn’t worry. God blessed me so much.

As it turned out, I still don’t have my visa, but things were just about to unfold.

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….I got a call from the LA Consulate a few hours after I sent them the fax. The consulate told me that I would be able to go into Spain for three months without a visa, come back at Christmas, and have them stamp my passport with the visa, so I could return for the next six months. Problem was, I was supposed to leave the next morning (7am Thursday, today), and though I had everything planned out, I needed to get my passport from the consulate in Hollywood before I left, and there was no way to do that. So I had to call the travel agency to change the plane flight.

I was looking at flights, and the only one that was affordable was one for Sunday night through Monday night. I knew that it would be really hard to miss three days of orientation, along with the first day of classes (class starts on Monday, Oct. 3rd), but I really really felt like God was saying, “see, Preston, I have a plan for your life, and THIS is part of it,” so I made the reservation for the flight.

Then, since this was the only way to do things, I got up at 3:45am along with my father, and we drove down and picked up my passport and drove straight back. That was an incredibly tiring start to the day. I took a nap after taking care of a few things, got up, took a shower, ate and went to the Grad for my last line dancing night this summer.

I look back at this, and I don’t really have a definite answer to the question, “why did God make you wait until now, why did He make you change the plane flight?” I have my theories. Maybe God wanted to test my faith that He would follow through. Maybe He wanted me to come to Him in prayer over this fervently.
Maybe it was the Bible study Crystal invited me to last night, where God spoke to me exactly where I was. Maybe it was to get to know better a few new friends so that those friendships wouldn’t die while I’m in Spain. I would like to think it was a lot of different things. I can see how God has used this already, and I thank Him so much that His will is so much greater and better than mine. I can’t imagine what life would be without God’s will done.

I choose to accept the fact that this was God’s plan all along, and that He has the best for me in Spain and right now where I am.

-------------------------------------------------

Tomorrow I have nothing to do but continue packing and make sure I have everything in order. I am looking forward to sleeping in for once. I’m looking forward to sleeping, period.

I can’t believe I’m going to be on a plane Sunday to the place furthest from home I’ve ever been. I’m going to a country where they speak Spanish and their culture is completely different. I’m overwhelmed right now. However, it’s a good overwhelmed.

I’m going to have a party, either tomorrow night or Saturday night, to say goodbye and have one last hurrah.

God is good, may He be praised.

Gah!

2005-09-15T01:38:00.000-07:00

I don't like it when people post an anonymous comment, and then they don't put their name at the bottom. The reason why I allowed anonymous comments was so that you didn't have to be a Blogger user in order to post a comment. However, it would be nice to have people post their names at the end, like a letter, you know?

So POST YOUR NAME if you aren't using your Blogger account.

Went and saw the Exorcism of Emily Rose tonight. That was a scary movie, yes, and it was very real, because I could believe all of that happening (except for the cross burning the girl's neck thing). However, I have a few things to say.

It was definitely divinely appointed that my scripture reading for the day would be Matthew 10, the first verse of which states, "He [Jesus] called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness." Also, I've been reading Psalm 91, which is talking all about how God is our protection. The first verse goes, "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." Famous verse, but not so famous yet more comforting to me at this time is the 5th verse, which ends with "You will not fear the terror of night." It's amazing to know that "If you make the Most High your dwelling--even the Lord, who is my refuge--then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent." That whole Psalm is filled with spiritual encouragement for especially Christians.

GOD REIGNS ON EARTH AND IS THE ALMIGHTY CONQUEROR! No one, nothing can come between me and God. God is here with me to the end. Not even I can come between He and I.

That's awesome. Thank God for His protection!

Prayer and Passion

2005-09-13T23:29:00.000-07:00

I was just listening to “Don’t Take the Girl,” by Tim McGraw. It’s a really sad country song, and it’s a good song too. But I was listening to these lyrics, when the guy is talking to God, asking Him to please save the life of his wife who is most likely going to die:

"Take the very breath you gave me, take the heart from my chest, I’ll gladly take her place if you let me make this my last request. Take me out of this world. God please, don’t take the girl."

It made me realize that no matter how much we think we’re cheated in this world if we have bad times in our lives, those times are put there by God so that we will call on HIM for help. Otherwise, how would He get our attention? God wants to be talked to. He wants us to have relationship with Him. It’s what we’re born to do, yet so many people go through life never even once realizing God even wants them to talk to Him. So many people use God as a hospital, a piggy bank, or a last resort. However disrespectful it is to treat God like that, for some, it’s the only time that they’ll even acknowledge that there is a God. It’s amazing how even atheists—faced with a problem that they know nothing in this world can fix—will call on God, just because they think, “why not? What can it hurt?”

God wants us to want Him, and He will do whatever it takes to get us to look to Him.

Great quote:

"The goal of the Christian life is not simply external obedience to the written commands of God. The goal of the Christian life is to obey God from the heart."

It’s time for the church to regain its passion for Christ, not just it’s devotion to Him. No matter how much we say, “it doesn’t matter what you feel, as long as you’re committed to God,” feelings still matter quite a bit. God wants us to LOVE Him from our hearts, not just obey from our minds.

Redneck Republican vs. Deranged Democrat

2005-09-09T01:33:00.000-07:00

I stopped by the *obviously democratic* "Separation of Church and State" booth at Farmer's Market tonight. I was intrigued by their sign, because as you know, the phrase, "Separation of Church and State" is not in the Constitution anywhere. I told the lady this, and she agreed with me, and then continued by telling me all about what they're about. She told me that she wanted religion of any kind OUT of any government building. She wanted our kids to be taught to use condoms "because they're 100% protection" (interesting, because I looked at the condom box, and it said that it wasn't 100% protection...) instead of abstinence--and she said she was a sex ed educator.

She told me that Atascadero High is taught abstinence in their sex ed (hm...) and that AHS is "one of the most Christian campuses on the central coast." Now wait a minute, I went to AHS for two years, and I NEVER felt at home as a Christian.

I told her that condoms didn't work and abstinence does. I told her that the founders of our country wanted a "separation of church and state" ONLY for the reason of PROTECTING religion, not persecuting it. I told her that we should be allowed to practice our religion anywhere on U.S. soil, so long as it's government property, and that includes government buildings. I told her all this in a calm and collected manner (when not being interrupted), being as polite as possible.

She got so mad at me that she started knocking things off her display table and yelled, "we can't even teach any sex ed. in our F***ing schools! You know what? Leave. Just LEAVE. I can't talk to you!"

I wonder what the Governator would think if he knew that a high school educator dropped an F-bomb on me and couldn't even continue a collected debate about simple political matters.

I wonder what God would think if He knew that the government is trying to push Him out of the country...wait. He does know.

I wonder what that lady will say when she approaches the Pearly Gates and God asks her why she made it her life goal to remove from her country the very man who offered her salvation.

The Exorcist

2005-09-05T02:23:00.000-07:00

Watched the Exorcist. THAT was a freaky movie. Now I have to try to go to sleep. That will take a lot of prayer and focusing on Who has the power: God. With that said,

GOD RULES, and there's nothing Satan can do about it! Take it.

Lata.

I BRUSHED!

2005-09-03T23:56:00.000-07:00

Finally, I got to brush my teeth. I first washed out my mouth with salt water (gross), then I brushed my lowers *vigorously* because I didn't have any work done on the bottom, then I brushed my uppers very lightly. I even got to use mouthwash tonight!

My day was pretty boring. I woke up around noon, ate breakfast, and then basically vegged the whole day except for worship practice. Read a little more in my book, but it's so uninteresting that it's really hard to get through.

Teeth pulled. Mouth hurt.

2005-09-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Katrina has been the worst nightmare for this country since 9-11. There are people dying, people stranded. Still, I still can't understand how the people of this country are blaming the GOVERNMENT for a NATURAL disaster. I was readin on CNN's website, reading through emails sent from U.S. citizens, giving their opinions on the government's response to the hurricane, and I FINALLY found someone who actually understood the problem.

"I sit and watch the terrible images on CNN and other news shows and everyone is screaming the government is to blame and George Bush is to blame. The people were told get out they didn't listen just like Andrew in South Florida. I'm very sad for the people and their suffering but stop blaming the government and start looking at who is destroying the city. The people need to start working with government officials and get their city back from the scumbags who are terrorizing and looting."
--Charles, Hollywood, Florida

In a government drill for a category 3 hurricane that was supposed to hit New Orleans one year ago, the government took polls on New Orleans citizens and discovered that even if there was a hurricane warning/evacuation, one third of the people said they wouldn't evacuate. AND THIS IS THE GOVERNMENT'S FAULT!? Why does everyone in the U.S. blame the government for THEIR mistakes and shortcomings?

And then there's the "race issue" supposedly taking place. Sure, there are lots of blacks stranded in New Orleans, but the fact that they are black has nothing to do with the government. The reason that many black people are stranded as opposed to white people is because they're poor and couldn't get out, or didn't heed the warnings. And nobody can tell me that this is the government's fault. I lived in Chicago for nine months. The government is NOT at fault for the poverty-stricken areas in America. The reason why many black areas in big cities stay poor is because the kids are raised with a survival mentality, and not an achievement mentality. They are essentially trapped in poverty. If they truly saw the light and tried hard to get out, they could climb out of the deep hole they are born into, yet many of them don't because they can't see that they are in that hole. I know it's not the peoples' faults, becuase they almost can't get out of their own situations, but it's not the GOVERNMENT'S fault! The government has housing projects, issues welfare checks, gives free medical care to the poor. You can't say the government isn't doing anything for these poor people of America. IT'S NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S FAULT THAT THE BLACKS WEREN'T EVACUATED BEFOR THE STORM CAME.

--moving on in life, to my day yesterday.

I had surgery in the morning, from 11-12. It was really crazy being put under. This time, it took a lot longer for me to go to sleep. I felt like I was floating up to the ceiling once the drugs kicked in....and then it was all over, I was getting up out of the surgery chair and walking, very wobbly, over to the recovery bench. It was crazy. Then I drove home with mom, and I sat in the living room recliner changing my bloody gauze every 15 minutes and watching the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (hence my angry speech above).

But at 2pm, all the loopy-inducing medicine went away, and I was in very little pain, only taking Motrin, a strong Ibuprofen drug. My parents thought I would be completely out of it, so they had planned to go out to eat with the Moreys, and when they left, I was all alone, so I invited a bunch of friends over, and we watched Mars Attacks and then hung out for a couple hours. After that, late at night, I played Halo 2 with Blake online with Jared and Stephen. That was fun. And then Blake and I started The Man Who Knew too Little, but Blake went to bed in the first half hour of the movie, and i finished it. I took another Motrin and went to sleep around 4am.

THEN, at 5 or something this morning, the dogs started going crazy, and I got up to calm them down, but then I heard footsteps outside, and I saw four girls TPing the truck. I burst the door open and stomped a few times outside, and they all ran off screaming down the street. It was funny. They drove by a few times in their mini van, taking pictures, but after that they left. I went back to sleep. Didn't sleep very well last night, due in part to the dogs barking a lot after that incident, and due also in part to the fact that I went to sleep around 4am. Got to sleep till noon, though.

Anyway, I'm kinda bored, but I have a few books to read, and I can always watch a movie or something. I'll post later.

Dancing Again

2005-09-02T02:07:00.000-07:00

Heel, toe, dosey-do, come on baby let's go, boot scootin'. Cadillac, black jack, baby meet me out back, we're gonna boogie. Get down, turn around, go to town, boot scootin' boogie!

Went line dancing again tonight. Looks like I'll be doing this for the next few Thursday nights until I leave for Spain. It was so much fun tonight, too! I knew what I was doing on most of the stuff, though a lot took a couple of tries to refresh my memory of it.

I am getting my surgery tomorrow, and I'm not happy about that, but hey, I planned it right: dancing is on Thursday nights, and my operation is Friday (tomorrow) morning, so by next Thursday I'll be totally fine. Actually, I think I'll be having my post-operative check-up next Friday.

Anyway, I gotta give it to TJ, Jenna, Irene, and David tonight, because they were really tired, but they stayed because I wanted to stay, so I got to get my dance in before doing nothing but sitting and watching movies tomorrow and the next day. Thanks guys!

I had this weird nightmare that started out good last night. I dreamt that I flew to Moody, and I was hanging out with everyone there, but then I realized that I had to get back to LA before I needed to leave for Spain. And then I was thinking about the extra money that I needed to put out to get there. Anyway, that was a sad dream.

Post later (hopefully tomorrow, if I'm not completely out of it with Vicadin [or however you spell that]).

Links

2005-08-31T23:11:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I have to go to bed, so I can't post more than a bit, just a few thoughts.

Painted the youthroom tonight, helped out putting the last finishing touches on it. Ok, so pastels DO look very feminine, but hey it's ok, because we'll have lots of stuff on the walls, and the colors are the only thing that look feminine, it'll look great when it's all done, the colors are great.

After that, I went to the Zaldfam's house to see Melissa's new jacket, and hung out with her. Melissa=The Coolness.

Katrina should have been killed. ...the hurricane, that is.

Tomorrow=LINE DANCING! And I get to meet Evan's new GIRLFRIEND! Ooooo, who has a GIRLfriend? Evan does. Evan Beckett, that is. And so we're meeting in the Rite Aid parking lot at 6:30 to go to Farmer's Market first and then the Grad to dance. But if you're reading this site, I'm almost 100% positive that you're going to already know that.

Worried to heck about my surgery Friday morning, and it's not going to be any fun. The stinky thing is, too, that I can't eat OR drink anything past midnight the night before, and that means I can't have WATER while I'm dancing! AAHH! So I'll call the surgeon's office tomorrow and plead with them to let me extend that rule till 1:00am. It'll be ok. But it's going to be a lot of pain on Friday morning. Please, if anyone reads this before or after or during that time, please please pray for me. I'm going to be in so much pain. Maybe I can get back to my computer during that time. Hopefully....

Lastly, I want you to notice my links on the lefthand bar on this page. I've added The Early Bright, the band of Josh, Andrew, Amy, and Jon. They have an amazingly cool page!

Well, that's it for tonight. So long and farewell, good readers!

Why do the gay guys have to claim COLORS??

2005-08-29T00:03:00.001-07:00

I bought a really cool, comfortable polo from Express Men, upon the recommendation of a good female friend (I thought, you know, can't go wrong if the girl says it looks good...besides, it's comfortable). But she didn't tell me that PURPLE IS A GAY COLOR! So I went to work, and Erin asked (jokingly) if I was gay, and then proceeded to tell me that purple is very widely known a gay color. When I was reminiscing with my family upon the fact that I just paid 15 dollars for a shirt that labels me as a gay man, my mom said I had to get rid of the shirt. I agree with her, but I haven't gotten the gumption to get rid of it yet, so it hangs on my bed in my room, awaiting its fate.

*I even went on a date with that shirt on.*

Baptisms and Family

2005-08-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

Just thought you might appreciate this Far Side comic. I did.

Here's Kristi and Laura, when they came over Friday night. They set up Kristi's myspace account (her link is listed in my left column), and reminisced over old pictures and new. It was fun, though I didn't so much participate in the "oh my gosh! That's SOOOO CUUUUUTE!" If you know what I mean...

And here's a pic of David Morey from my church being baptized at San Simeon State Beach. Very cold.

We all threw the frisbee around to prepare for tonight's game, at 6 (the usual Sunday Ultimate Frisbee game). By the way, that game was extremely tiring today. We only played two games, but it lasted for two hours!

Basically, it was lots of fun, and we hurt our feet on the rocks and wood on the sand. Oh well.

After Ultimate Frisbee today, we went to Nathaniel and Danielle's housewarming party for a couple hours. They're my brother and sister-in-law, and lots of fun to hang out with. It was cool going over there. We got to see the house all decked out in Danielle's antiques, and we listened to Nate play his new piano (which is really old, but new to him). Lots of fun.

Now I'm really tired, and I need to get to bed so I can wake up for my last meeting with Mike, my pastor, tomorrow morning.

I'm still sad that I'm not with all the Moody kids, but I'll see them in a year...and besides, I get to dance COUNTRY here, and I get to dance in the discotecas in Spain! But I still miss all you Moody-ites. I still get to talk to you, though.

I'll post later.

LINE DANCING!

2005-08-26T01:33:00.000-07:00

One advantage of not being at Moody: You can dance, and I had SUCH AN AWESOME TIME tonight! I'm really sore, tired, thirsty, and I can't hear, but I had a blast!

At the grad (our smalltown version of a club...not even really a club...kind of a bar and a dance floor with lots of lights and huge speakers. Ok, it's a club.), it was country music night tonight, and I never knew that I liked country music that much until tonight.

There were so many people there! They were all college age or older, since you had to be 18 to get in, and it was just straight-up dancing the whole night! It wasn't even dirty! I was so happy! We did all kinds of country dancing, like the two-step, ten-step, cha-cha, electric slide, and a ton of other line dances and partner dances. There was even a good bit of swing in there, so I got to show off. Anyway, I thought Tyler Strickler might be thrilled to know that I went line dancing...or he might just be weirded out.

For all you Moody-ites, THIS is as good as it gets here on the Central Coast, back in SLO, A-town, Templeton, and Paso. Fun at its greatest, at least for me.

Oh and one more plus: my hands and arms smell wonderfully like girl--of course, that will wash off in the morning shower. *sigh*

p.s. I'll post more pictures soon, promise!

Warts, Friends, and Family Reunions.

2005-08-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

Optivisor, lamp, Swiss army knife, nail clippers, tweezers, q-tips, napkin, paper clip, and a stove burner.

These are the instruments used to operate on a planter wart on the heel of my left foot. And I did it all right in my home! And after a half hour, lots of pain, blood and pus, what do I have? Instead of a planter wart, I have a blackened crater the size of a pea in the bottom of my foot.

Next step is to duct tape it up (they say that helps) and put my foot in near-boiling water in the morning (warts cant take heat) for a long time, and pretty soon, I'll just have a huge scar instead of a wart. Of course, a scar is a lot more manageable than a planter wart, because a wart hurts a LOT on your foot.

Now I'll get on to other, less disgusting topics.

We had the Rodriguezes over tonight, and that was lots of fun. There was no Jessica, however, since she's at Biola already. Sad.

This past weekend, we went down to Orange County to visit family, and that was a lot of fun.
Here's a picture of me rolling up cousin James in a pool lounge thing, as he screams, "I've been taco'ed"

And this is a full family picture.

Here's William, Rachel, Blake, and me eating after a time of swimming in the pool in the background.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and you should all have family reunions. Bye.

Witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses

2005-08-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

Talked to a couple JW's today. It was amazingly eye-opening. They just kept changing the subject every time they got stumped--seriously. I'd always heard of that, but that's exactly what they did. Some of the verses I brought up they responded to, but most of them, within seconds, they had changed the subject with far too many if's and's and but's.

Washed and thoroughly cleaned the car today, it was SO stress-relieving. But ate up a big chunk of my time, so now I am just getting into bed at 12:30am when I have to get up at 5:30. Anyway, talk to yall later, bedtime.

Links!

2005-08-20T00:53:00.000-07:00

Hey, all, if anyone who reads this has a website or a blog or anything like that, please post it in the comments box; I'd love to put you on my links bar! Ok? ok.

Pictures

2005-08-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

Hey, I just discovered that I can post pictures a lot easier than I had thought before...but I don't have any to post.

But I'll just post a random picture of Blake, my younger brother, instead.

Or what about a picture of me on the phone at Moody?

Here's Tyler, my ex-Mormon, pre-Christian friend who is extremely strange.

So there are some pictures, and I'll post more as soon as I take some.

Right now it's time for bed.

The Three.

2005-08-18T08:06:00.000-07:00

I was at our college group at church, and one of my very good friends, Tyler Renelle, told us about a dream that he had, and it was so crazy, I have to tell you about it:

So there were three little girls who had happy lives all except for the fact that their lives were terrible: Their father abused them often, beating them multiple times a day. Their lives were nowhere near normal; how could they be?

He also schooled them, or at least his version of schooling: He locked them up in his library for four hours every day, expecting them to learn from the literature inside. There was definitely a positive end to this: Whenever they were in the library, they were away from their father for that four hours. So they resorted to reading fairy tales and stories of people with good lives; it was their own little world. However, their father continued to beat them, and they couldn’t deny that fact of their lives.

One day, though, all that changed.

One of the little girls picked out a book on Psychosomatism and got a great idea: she would hypnotize herself into thinking that she was happy the next time her father beat her. So when he let them out of the library and started abusing that daughter, she went into this sort of happy trance where she just stood there with her face all in a smile and such, while her father beat her.

It worked so well that she told her two sisters the next time they were in the library, and they learned it too. Soon, this was becoming such a good thing for the girls that they started doing it every time they were confronted with an unhappy situation. They did it so much, in fact, that they got to the point where they were constantly hypnotized; they never left the hypnotic state. They were trapped inside their own minds, but they didn’t feel trapped, for it felt very wonderful being happy all the time.

This wasn’t all that was happening, though. The next time their father beat one of them, their psychosomatic powers were so great that they actually hypnotized him without even knowing it. So he all of a sudden saw his daughter as a mutilated corpse with stitched up eyes and mouth, hacking him with large knives. Even though the girl was standing there smiling in real life, the powers of Psychosomatism were so strong that lacerations appeared where he thought she was slicing him, and his bones started breaking where he envisioned her pounding him with her arms.

Within minutes, he was dead, killed by his own mind.

The girls didn’t have any clue what had just happened; they continued to be eternally happy, but in their subconscious they knew what had really happened, so, believing that all men were like their father, they went out on a mission to destroy all men. They went skipping happily down the roads, and women saw them as such, but the men saw deranged zombies appear in front of them, slicing and crushing them to death. Soon the entire world of men was destroyed, all but one: Tyler Renelle. And at this point, Tyler was running for his life, but he wasn’t fast enough, for the girls could appear anywhere without even walking, and just as they were upon him.....
He woke up.

My summer.

2005-08-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

The biggest thing was my sermon. First time preaching, and I preached to my own church, because I’m interning there. It was really really nerve-wracking like the few weeks building up to it, and especially the day before and morning of. But once I got up there, I was so NOT nervous; I was so comfortable. It is probably because I love public speaking.

I always knew it was a lot of work putting a sermon together, but this time, I actually experienced it. I was so exhausted that Sunday, yet not really as exhausted as I’ve heard people sometimes get. It was just so amazing to know that I was being held accountable to God for the lives of the people in the congregation, because I was teaching them what I say is GOD’S truth!

But it went well. I used my younger brother Blake in the sermon as an example of fighting the good fight, and the congregation loved that (don’t worry, I didn’t fight with my brother on stage or anything). To make a long story short, I preached and I’m pretty sure God spoke through me, because a lot of people came up afterward saying how encouraged they were and how that came at just the right time and such.

There was the Dodgers game. The men went to a Dodgers game on July 16th. It was a great game; the Dodgers won at the last minute…ya had to be there.

I’ve lead worship all four times so far, and all of those times, I’ve loved it. People keep telling me I should be a professional worship leader *as in music pastor*; I would love to do that, and maybe God is actually calling me through all these people, but I still don’t know; I don’t think I’m as good a musician as I should be. Maybe that’s what I’ll find out at Moody these coming few years.

I’ve been to TONS of meetings; if I’ve learned anything from my pastor this summer, it’s that pastors go to A LOT of meetings! Gosh!

And this past Wednesday (not today, last Wed.), I spoke to the high schoolers at youth group. It didn’t go as well as I had thought, but it’s alright; I think they still got something out of it.

Tonight was amazing. Laura Zaldivar, a senior at MBI, spoke at our youthgroup, and she talked about reverence and love for and of God. It was so amazingly deep; I got a lot out of it, also. I hope some of the high schoolers did, and I think they did…

That is basically the highlights of my summer in a nutshell. Now that I’m done with the internship (all except one Sunday school on the 28th), I will have a lot more time to post, so I’ll be giving a lot more fun little details to my life, one of which I’ll tell you tomorrow.

Time to post again.

2005-08-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

Wow! I haven't posted in a long time! I apologize, guys. Well, there's been a lot that has happened this summer since the fourth of july. I'm at work right now, however, and I can't type for very long, since I only got a ten minute break. I'll have to catch up later tonight or tomorrow.

Basic outline: I preached, I led worship, I turned in my Spanish Visa application, I spoke at our hs youthgroup, We went to the Mid-state fair, I've been working, going to college group, playing Ultimate Frisbee, and much more. Well, time's up. Gotta go. Post later.

FIREWORKS!!!!

2005-07-04T23:24:00.000-07:00

"Today is the best day of the entire year!" --Tyler Renelle

So that was one of my friends describing, in a nutshell, today. It was so cool! I worked on the car in the morning with my bro and dad (which I love to do), and then we had an afternoon party, where Tyler came over and told us stories about his morning fireworks adventures.

So, all of us...we're pyromaniacs: We love fire. And this afternoon one of our neighbors gave us some really cool fireworks! And I lit alcohol on fire, poured it on the ground, on fire, from a bowl, all kinds of stuff. It was so cool! I love fire, explosions, etc.

This past week was really cool too! I was a leader for VBS, and I made friends with a bunch of the kids from the apartments next to the church, which is really cool. NINE kids came to know the Lord from that VBS. I couldn't believe it! I was so excited, and now some of those kids are coming to Sunday morning services and sunday school. I'm so excited for them and even for the future of the church.

I preach this coming Sunday, in less than a week. I'm so nervous. I've been working on my sermon for awhile, and it's not even half done. But I'm going to review it with the pastor on Wednesday, and he'll critique it then, and I shouldn't have any major problems. I've spoken in public before, and I love it. I've spoken in front of the youthgroup a few times, and I loved that even more. So I shouldn't have a problem.

I led worship yesterday, and I just realize each day I lead worship how much I love leading others into a passionate time of worship to God. I love making the way for the Spirit to move in the hearts of the people in the congregation. It humbles me and excites me and motivates me all at the same time. It's so cool.

Well, I gotta work on my sermon now. Talk later!

Choir is back!

2005-06-07T00:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, the Moody Men's and Women's Collegiate choirs are back from Australia, hopefully no worse for the wear. Zi said a few people were getting bronchitis...which, if you haven't noticed, is quite a detrimental thing to a voice. But they arrived in Chicago sometime today, don't know when. I'll have to call people tomorrow. WELCOME HOME!!!

I met with my pastor this morning, and it was really cool. He told me how he used the verses we had been memorizing for his counseling sessions; he used each one in a different way to help the people he counseled. So that was really cool to figure that stuff out.

Work was cool; learned how to retip prongs on a ring, and I also polished a ring for this girl at my brother's school...kind of a weird connection, but it's true. true story...

Then tonight I put together the worship set for Sunday morning (I'M LEADING WORSHIP!!!) and sent it to my older brother, who is playing guitar. This will be interesting leading a congregation from the piano. I'll have to sit facing one side of the stage, looking at them from the side. But it will work, and I am so excited about it!

After that, I went to my youth pastor's house, where the college group was having a movie night. I didn't like the movie that we watched so much--Dodgeball--it was such a high school movie, and it was dirty. But i liked hanging out with the people there.

Tomorrow, I get to go to work again (I like working at a jewelry store), and I'll finish up the job bags I was working on today, start some new ones, and hopefully Fred will come home from vacation soon, so the benches can have some life and mischief back in them again. He's a trouble-maker!

Please Pray for Laura Zaldivar. She's in Uganda right now, ministering to the africans and the missionaries there. Pray simply that she would be able to look at the people and love them as Christ did.

Alissa goes off to Turkey soon! I'm so excited for both of them. It's so cool to have friends going out on the mission field, even for short-term trips. I feel like we're actually fulfilling the Great Commission. I'm looking forward to Spain in October.

Well, it's time to go to bed. I'm not tired; I'll have to read more Harry Potter. I'm reading the book to evaluate it, because I've always said that they were bad books, but I never actually read them. So I thought I'd be fair and read them.

On that note, God bless you all, and have a good half-week. I should post then.

Jr High

2005-05-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

I skipped work today (of course I called in and asked permission, but they're really nice about that), and I spent the whole day writing my talk for the Jr. High youthgroup. I spoke on Communion, and they all took communion today.

It was so much fun! I love that youthgroup. They're in Jr. High, yet they still can get so deep it seems. My talk was only 15 minutes long, but I loved the whole time I was there. The kids are so fun to hang out with. Maybe that says a little about my personality...no, I just like the kids and their energy, and the fact that at least a few are interested in a deeper relationship with Christ.

Anyway, I just had to share that. Other than that, this sunday and Monday was cool, hangin at the beach on Memorial day. So exhausted now, though. So I'm going to bed before I don't get enough sleep for my staff meeting at 7:45 tomorrow morning (yikes!).

God bless!

p.s. Alissa, thank you for your input on the whole music pastor thing; I'm still confused and seeking God's will.

Music?

2005-05-30T01:07:00.000-07:00

So I was at home today and the bass player from the church worship band was there, visiting our family. He is extremely musically talented (though he can't sing), and he's just cool to have on the team. Anyway... he was talking to me and he asked me why I'm not going to become a music pastor. Ok, did you know that's the fourth adult to tell me I should be a music pastor? And every one of my friends here in A-town thinks I should be, too. I don't know what is going on here. Is God trying to tell me something? I don't know. So I need to pray about it.

I mean, I really want to be a music pastor, but I just kind of think that my musical talent isn't at a competitive level. I know that the first qualifications of a music pastor AREN'T musical ability, but to apply for jobs, you need to have that ability above others, right? Maybe I'm looking at it wrong, and they all have it right. I LOVE leading worship. I feel like I can connect with God even better sometimes when I'm leading worship; I'm not sure why that is.

I'm reading The Unquenchable Worshipper, by Matt Redman, and I love it. It's such a small book, but it has so much in it. I agree with most everything in there, and it just makes me want to worship God. Worshipping Him is what we were put on the earth to do, and I love it, especially in song.

If any of you have the time, please pray that I would have discernment in this area, that I would be sensitive to the Lord's leading, to listen for an answer. I don't know what to do. Do I become a music pastor? Do I try? There are just so many people saying this to me, I feel like I can't blow it off as just people and need to start calling it a call...

The Moody Blues

2005-05-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

I'm really missing Moody right now. I just talked to Zi. He's in Australia right now, and it's like almost 4 oclock in the afternoon there. That's so crazy!!! But anyway, I miss him so much, and all the other guys on the floor too, that I won't see for a long time, and some of them that I won't ever see again. I know I'm coming back to Moody, but that doesn't mean it's not sad.

I miss laughing at the table with everyone from C4 and H8N. I miss the conflict between North and South side, I miss getting rasberry vinagrette in my lap because Kieth decided he'd turn my tray over. Hehe. I miss making fun of Amy, "reading" Laura, discussing deep theological issues with people at the SDR table (right!), I miss Mike Zurek... Oh! He got married today!!!!! They're on their honeymoon now! That's so crazy. He's a married man now, soon to be in Chicago again, in all the hustle and bustle.

And I'll be in Spain...I'm so excited to go, yet I'm so sad about leaving so many people for so long. But this is how I felt right before going to Moody, and that was the biggest and best decision of my life besides trusting Christ.

You know, life is full of so many good-byes. It makes it so sad, yet it makes it also so crazy interesting, because you meet new people all the time. Think of it, if I had stayed in A-Town becuase I didn't want to say goodbye to everyone here, I wouldn't have met all those amazing people at Moody. But now, to think, if that was such a blessing, what kind of people am I going to meet in Barcelona? Just to think of all the things I will learn...it blows my mind.

But for now, I'm here in the North County in California, and that's definitely fine with me. I just went to the beach today! We went with Alissa, Amy, Gem (from Turkey), Dimitri (from Russia), Kristi, and Tyler (who is 7). We body surfed, body boarded, skim boarded, and froze our toes off the entire time. We laid in the sand and talked, and it was fun. But Amy goes back to Biola tomorrow after church...

Last night, the same group of people plus quite a few hung out at Alissa's house. We watched the Incredibles (the best movie since Phantom of the Opera...can't really compare the two, though), played Taboo, and discussed the Miraculous gifts and their use today. That was SUCH an interesting conversation. Oh my gosh.

Well, I wonder how everyone else is doing right now, people from Moody. I know a couple of people read my blog. I know a lot of people are on tour in Australia, but a lot of them are back home, at least for part of the summer. I wish I could talk to them! Hey, if you're from Moody and are reading this, post a comment and tell me what's going on back where you are, ok? This will be fun, so post something!

God bless!

Second Week

2005-05-27T00:09:00.000-07:00

Since last Wednesday night...

STAR WARS was definitely the best of all three first episodes, but the movie was so sad, so dark. It truly made me see the entire philosophy of eastern religion and why it is such a failiure (besides the fact that it doesn´t get you anywhere!). The jedi in Star Wars are much like eastern religions in their philosophy. They believe that you gain power or peace by maintaining balance, control, and absolutely NO PASSION! The reason why Anakin, the most powerful force for GOOD, turned BAD, was because the jedi told him he had too much passion. If they had just let him fight the Sith, who are obsessed with passion (though passion for absolutely the wrong reasons, me, me, me!), then he would have saved the galaxy. But of course, they said he was too passionate and too dangerous. Because of this, he turned to the Sith, who strove for passion, even though their passion is for themselves and any evil power to do something for themselves. This brought to my mind a big problem in the church today. So many times, I feel like church is a place where we shun passion, a place where we say, "that's ok for the charismatics," or "that's just foolish youthfulness, and once that passes and we let wisdom set in, then he'll truly know God..." And on and on. If we just GUIDED the youth (and others) in their passion, maybe even encouraging it a little, instead of shunning it, then maybe we would have an evangelistic church, maybe we would have a contagious church, maybe we would have a church that STROVE FOR GOD! Let the church never poo-poo passion. We must NEVER lose our passion for Christ.

I was very tired the next day, so I went to work late (they let me do that...they're so cool). The rest of that day was pretty normal. I hung out with Kristi and Molly at Farmer's Market in SLO, and that was fun.

Friday, we watched Phantom of the Opera after going to the Convalescant home here in town. Us Wallaces dot that every friday...did I already say that? So Phantom of the Opera was AMAZING!!!! We actually bought it.

Saturday, we went to Ultimate Frisbee again, and this time, I HAD CLEATS!!! That means I could actually change directions and run fast! It was so much fun. Later, we set up a little pool we got from the store, one of those easy-set-up pools, 14 feet by 14 feet. Good thing, because...

SUNDAY IT WAS BURNING HOT. After church, we played Ultimate in the middle of the heat, so SO hot. But it was so much fun nonetheless. Later that night, we had a worship team meeting, where I learned how things will work for me: I'm leading worship 4 times, leading the team scheduled for that Sunday. So exciting.

Monday morning, I met with my pastor for our weekly internship meeting. We talked about devotional time, worship leading, and preaching, to list the main points. Then I got to sit in on a premarital counseling session, which was so cool to be able to see Mike at work.

After work that night, I went to college group, which was really cool: We got to send off Laura in prayer, who is going to Africa for three weeks starting this Saturday. I love praying over friends that we send out, I feel a lot like the early church, so evangelistic in nature.

Yesterday, Wed., I stayed up reading Frank Peretti's newest book, Monster, for three hours straight. I finished it, but I couldn't stop until I did. That was a good book.

Today was my mother's birthday, and we woke her up with the Splashdance Birthday Song, a Wallace family tradition.

MY BIRTHDAY IS A MONTH AWAY!!!! JUNE 26TH. Not like it's that special, i'm turning 19. But I actually like the idea of being nineteen. It's so much cooler than 18, though I don't know why.

This concludes this week's post. Sorry for how long it is, hopefully next one won't be as long.

SUMMER!!!

2005-05-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

Well well well, since I at least got one reply to my emails saying someone will be looking at this site over the summer, I´ll update.

I left Moody at 10am on Friday, the 13th (freaky, isn´t it?), and I headed home, got delayed, met Jeannie Luthi, an old acquaintance, in the airport, and got back to good ol´ A-town at around 9:30 and went to sleep with my room a total mess at midnight. I was pretty exhausted.

The next morning, I got up at 6am and packed the car, leaving with my father and two brothers by 7:30am. We strapped a huge kayak on the top of our car, along with the cartop carrier, went to a men's breakfast at church and then to play Ultimate Frisbee at Cal Poly, a college close to here (I sucked, didn't have cleats).

We left there at around 11am to go to Refugio Beach to go camping!!!!! We met up with the rest of our family, eight in all, including the two sisters-in-law. Refugio Beach was beautiful, not a cloud in the sky, and perfect temperature, just a little hot so that you can get cooled off in the water. It was wonderful. We surfed with the kayak, made drippy-castles in the sand, body-surfed and played bacci ball. Back at the campsite, we reminisced with old friends that met us at the campsite for a day, roasting marshmallows and making s'mores. That trip was so much fun and relaxing. I slept an average of nine hours each night, which is amazing when all you have below you is a sleeping pad and all you have for walls are thin sheets of...tent material (whatever tents are made of). We ate so much junk food, I think that could last me for the month.

After we got back, I went to my college group and saw a bunch of my friends from A-Town (oh yeah, that's Atascadero, California, by the way). We made a quick stop at Starbucks on the way to nowhere and then went back to college group and left to go home. It was fun. It was Monday night.

I fell asleep on my Frank Peretti novel somewhere in the smaller hours in the morning that night (if that makes sense) and woke up on Tuesday at 1:00. I totally meant to wake up at 8:00 to call my work to see if I could go in, but it worked out alright, because my pastor called me to say that he wanted me to come in to his office. We met at 2 and then went to counsel a family of one of the elderly that died in our church a couple days ago. **I must explain something: I am interning with my pastor this summer, basically shadowing him and teaching high school a couple times, preaching once, and leading worship a few times.** That was a learning experience. I didn't even know the lady in our church, but just seeing the sorrow on those peoples' faces told me what a wonderful person she was. Friday will be the viewing and graveside service, where I'm singing Amazing Grace as an a capella duet with one of my friends. Tuesday passed.

This morning, I woke up on time at 8:00 (it's so nice to wake up at eight now, not 6 or 7 to get up for classes) and got ready and went to work. I work at K-Jon's Fine Jewelers, where I do small repair jobs helping out the master jewelers that are there. My boss said he'd give me a raise this summer, but he still hasn't mentioned anything yet. So I'm not sure if I should ask someone or him or what... But today was fun at work, seeing everyone again and working on jewelry. I got home and ate dinner, and now I am going to see the midnight showing of STAR WARS. It will be sweetly cool.

So there you have it. A quite detailed outline of what happened since I left Moody. The following blogs won't be NEARLY as long as this one, and probably will only be there to announce big things in life, updated once or twice weekly.

Goodbye and God bless you all for reading my life!

Three finals done, two to go.

2005-05-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

One more day, three finals down. I feel fairly confident in all my finals so far. I definitely did much better on my spiritual life and community final than I did on the midterm. I'm not sure about Church and its Doctrines, but I think I did about the same as on the midterm, somewhere in the nineties. New Testament Survey went well; I whizzed through the first half of the test--had a little trouble on the second half.

So right now, I'm gonna take a nap and then study for Christianity and Western Culture, definitely my hardest final. I got a 79 on the midterm for that class; he gave us a study guide, so I can definitely do better than that on the final.

Well, I gotta go now, see y'all.

juries are over!

2005-05-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

That's pretty much it. I didn't freeze up, I remembered my piece. I didn't really do exceptional, but who ever does? I did pretty well. I think I might get a B.

After juries, I went to the Spanish Consulate, and found out that I'll have to make TWO trips to LA this summer to get my student visa, which really stinks. Oh well.

After that, I went studying at the 9-floor Chicago Public Library, and after that, went to dinner and played ULTIMATE! Actually, we didn't even play Ultimate, because there weren't enough people. We tossed the frisbee around and then played three flies up. At the end, Tyler and I jumped in the lake fully clothed. It was fine, though, cuz today it was something like 70 or 80 outside. But on the way back, it was crazy! It downpoured! It was like, one second it was dry, the next, we were all drenched! There was literally no dry spot on any of us. It was so much fun though, we all went and jumped in all the puddles, some of which were more like small ponds. It was so so so much fun! Some of the girls were whining about it, but they were just party poopers.

I'm going to study more for my THREE finals tomorrow. Goodnight.

the end is near, and I can see the beginning

2005-05-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I practiced for a couple of hours on the piano, and I feel pretty good about my pieces right now. We have juries tomorrow, but I'm not all that worried, becuase I'm pretty confident in my pieces. I mean, they'll never be perfect, although there are those times that I almost believe I play them perfectly....

So I have five finals besides my jury. I don't know if I said that, but that's a lot of finals. I've been studying for my spiritual life and community final and trying with CWC, it's just so hard to remember everything from the entire semester. I don't know.

Looking forward to coming home soon. I'm gonna take my last final thursday, online. After that, I won't have school until October third, and then I'll be in Spain! You know what? I was thinking, a certain someone asked me to think about some things I wanted/needed possibly for Spain, because my birthday is coming up...Well, have I got a list for you all.

- A digital voice recorder (any kind, doesn't have to be fancy, as long as it'll last for at least a year).
- CDs. You guys know a lot of what I like, but there's a ton left to get. If you think of any groups you think I'd like, that would be cool, but I have a few ones that I'd love: Libera (any one of their newer cds, not "free."), Switchfoot (not "the beautiful letdown" or "learning to breathe"), any delirious or matt redman cds, any good latin dance music you know of, latin worship music, Ultrabeat, Disctronica, the list goes on, but I think that gives you a good idea.
- Any literature (i.e. tourist literature :)) on or maps of Spain (especially Barcelona or any of the east coast), any bordering countries, and whatever African country(s) is across the Strait of Gibraltar.
- Any of the following books:
->Deere, Jack. Surprised by the Power of the Spirit
->Edgar, Thomas. Satisfied by the Promise of the Spirit
->Grudem, Wayne, editor. Are Miraculous Gifts for Today?

So, I hope that's enough...

And I'm looking forward to the beginning of the summer, hanging out with family, Refugio Beach, hanging with friends, playing ultimate! interning at the church! Yeah!

so, I dunno if I'll post another one before the end of finals week, but I hope this is enough to hold you through.

God bless!

Today

2005-05-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day. I didn't get much sleep last night, but that's partly a good thing, because I practiced my Mendelssohn piece a lot. So I performed it today, and I did really well! I played in a "performance class," which is performing in front of a bunch of piano majors. So it's not stressful in the fact that there are only like twenty people instead of like a hundred or more, but it's intimidating in the fact that they are ALL piano majors who know exactly what to look for.

But it was good, because afterward, a bunch of the people came up and said, "hey you did really well," and some people said, "that was really musical." That second comment is a really good one, because it means I payed a lot of attention to all the aspects of the music: The dynamics, the emotion, the pedal, and the balance of the melody with the accompaniment. I was very encouraged.

Other than that, today was a rather uneventful day. I didn't have oratorio, though, so I had a little time to sleep.

Now I work on one paper and practice a little bit tonight. Tomorrow is a quiz in New Testament Survey. I gotta study for that, too.

The end is near! And I'm kind of sad that I'm leaving my friends all here and stuff, and I won't see them for over a year. Oh well, life is life. And I get to go home! So I'm excited.

The lord bless you all for taking interest in my life to read this.

Finals Approaching

2005-05-02T01:12:00.000-07:00

Due to recent requests, I decided to write a little something.

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted last, but I think everyone who reads this knows the following

-I am interning this Summer at Berean.
-I am going to Spain next year, though I still need to get my visa and passport.
-I am loving Moody.
-I am exremely exhausted.
-I have finals coming up in a couple of weeks.
-I am taking a summer class, lasting for about two weeks after finals, taking me to May 24th.

And if you didn't know all that, now you do.

Ok, so I'm really stressing out over my jury, which is my piano final. I play two pieces (short), 6 hymns, and a bunch of scales and chords. Doesn't sound all that bad, huh? Well, yeah, except the fact that it's in front of three piano professors who are writing notes and giving me a final grade, determining most of my grade for the semester in my Applied Music class. Yeah, I'm scared.

But Oratorio is over, so tomorrow (well, today really), I don't have any practice at night. That opens up that hour and a half for STUDYING!!! In the library, because I need to for this Hermeneutics paper that I'm writing (or attempting to write).

But despite the stresses that comes with school, I am blessed beyond belief to be here. I was talking with Mike (my next door neighbor, my new good friend) this morning, and it was just so cool to be able to talk about what God was teaching us out of the Word and how we need to rebuke each other and get going on some things in life. It's just so cool to be able to talk like that with people right next door and literally all over campus. We are so blessed here to study God's Word for 4 years, FULL TIME! Praise the Lord.

I'm all done with my reading for the semester, so all I have to do as far as assignments go is write my huge Hermeneutics paper, two tiny Christianity and Western Culture papers, and one 5-page Church and its Doctrines paper, and I'm all done! I have been pushing myself so much lately because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I can't resist!

But hey, I need to go to bed and get at least three hours of sleep tonight. Goodnight and God bless you all!

Fun Times

2005-04-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

This past week was spent mainly with Rebecca Hines and Laura Zaldivar. Yes, REBECCA HINES CAME TO CHICAGO!!!!! We hung out from Tuesday night to Saturday afternoon. It was so much fun! We went to Portillo's, Lou Malnati's, and went shopping at the GAP. Everything else was basically on campus, going to classes, hanging out at Joe's, and stuff like that. It was really really cool!

Then, today, I went to Moody Church with Laura Conklin, and after that, I cleaned up my room for OPEN HOUSE!!!! So that part of the day was relaxing, just cleaning my room, listening to music. But THEN....I went out with Beth Thompson from my sister floor, and we had a really fun time at Bucca di Beppo's. It's a family Italian restaurant with pictures all over the walls. So since it's a family restaurant, the orders are for more than one person. So we got a seafood-ish pasta dish. It was an adventurous choice, with shrimp, clams, mussels, and calamari. It was crazy, they had an entire end of a calamari on the side of the plate, with all the tentacles and stuff. It was crazy cool. We talked about what we're going to do in the future; since she's leaving next semester, I wanted to talk to her one-on-one at least for one time. We had so much fun.

Then after that, we had OPEN HOUSE!!! Once Beth and I got back, we played DDR for an hour and a half (the rest of the open house). At first the girls were all, "I don't want to do it, I'll make a fool of myself! But then they backed down and did it, and after awhile, they were like, "This is so much fun! We need one for our floor!!!" It was a hit.

Tomorrow, I go to the Red Cross Headquarters of Greater Chicago to take my CPR/AED/First Aid class. That will be cool, and I'll get credit for Moody (of course, only if I pass the test).

Blake comes into Chicago on Thursday! We're gonna hang out for a few days, go to dinner, probably play DDR, and do other stuff. I'm so stoked! I miss Blake so much! It's gonna be so much fun, I can't wait.

Signing off for now. That's my week/end...

I FINISHED MY TAXES

2005-03-26T23:40:00.000-08:00

I did finish my taxes, and it was a long laborious process, and it took me all the way until two in the morning, but hey, i FINISHED it!

I have to tell you guys this, because it's crazy cool: I went to work today, and they've been complimenting me very much there for how well i "engage with customers," meaning I talk to them and build a sort of relationship with them. That's really cool to get that kind of compliment. But TODAY I was working and the head manager on the women's floor called down to gap kids in desperation, saying that all of her sales associates were standing around, talking to each other and folding clothes when there were a million customers waiting to be helped who werent being helped. So she asked if there was anyone on the kids floor that was a good engager that could come up and show all the sales associates how to engage with the customers, and Patrick sent ME!!!! I WAS SENT TO BE AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TO ENGAGE WITH CUSTOMERS!!!

So I'm excited. I do like that job.

But now its time to go to sleep. Goodnight and God bless!

HAPPY EASTER

God is Good

2005-03-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't posted on here for a looooong while! I have so much to say!

I had a wonderful spring break, spending time with my family and friends, going snowboarding, working at k-jons, etc. It was a fun and relaxing two weeks. The past week, however, wasn't so relaxing. I got to the airport and realized the airline had voided my ticket, so I had to buy a new one. So I spent a very unnecessary $250 for a new one-way ticket to Chicago, but at least I got there. I got to bed at three oclock on Sunday night (or Monday morning), and then got up for classes at seven.

I went to class and everything, all very normal until Tuesday night, when I was studying for my Spiritual Life and Community midterm. It was really late, but I still needed to study more. I started feeling really nauseous, and I threw up all into a pot I had in the room. I felt a lot better after that, but not enough to keep studying, so I just went to bed, hoping for the best on my midterm. I woke up the next morning feeling just as awful as I had the night before, but I took my midterm anyway, then cancelled everything else for Wednesday and Thursday. I slept for the better part of those days, only really being awake for a few hours from Tuesday night until this morning. I feel a heck of a lot better now, but I still can't eat much, and I have a big headache and still feel a little stomach sick. But at least I can start back on homework again, since I have a ton piled up now.

Bottom line, though: God is good, and life is a gracious gift from above. I have a much greater appreciation for the ability to walk around without feeling like I'm going to lose my lunch any minute.

I'll put in a few more updates a little later, when I get a little more homework done.

God Bless!!

No Computer

2005-02-26T21:55:00.000-08:00

So guys,

I sent away my computer after staying on the phone with hp until 4am last night. The problem finally turned out to be exactly what I thought it was all the time, and I had been telling them that was it...I dont really understand. Oh well, I guess I can look at the bright side: I don't have to pack it up and bring it home, because they're shipping it to my house instead of back to my dorm, since

SPRING BREAK STARTS NEXT FRIDAY!!!!!!!

So that's really exciting. And so I'm also kind of discouraged, because I still haven't found a church to go to tomorrow, so I'm going to Moody Church again. At least I'm going with Michael Zurek. That means I'll have companionship.

Well, time for bed. Night, all!

i can't help but think how big God is and how small i am

2005-02-24T11:53:00.000-08:00

Wow! I haven't posted on here for awhile! Sorry guys.

So much going on! I just gave blood today. That was so much fun, even though I hate needles. I was laughing so hard while giving blood, because Michael, one of the new students this semester, was giving blood next to me, and he and I just really click. We make each other laugh so much. But anyway... So I was laughing so much that one of the nurses kept asking me if I was ok, so I decided to tell her that my face was burning and asked if that was a good thing. She got all freaked out, so I told her I was just joking. She said she'd put me on their "special donors" list. I can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing...

I FINALLY finished my application for Spain! So the lady in the Registrar's office is sending it to them on Monday. I hope it doesn't take long. She said there isn't like a date when they tell us whether or not we'd get in, but she seemed pretty positive about it.

So now that leaves 2 applications to go: Youthworks and Springhill, both possible summer positions. I'm so anxious about all these things! I can't wait until I know! Oh, it's all so exciting yet frightening, since I'm going to be somewhere new all summer, then in a different COUNTRY all of next year. Please pray if you can, that God's will would be done.

Well, this is crunch time. Coming down to the last week before spring break. Next week, I have a quiz, a couple of papers, a book to read, and three (maybe four) midterms. Crazy.

My accountability group met this past wednesday, and it was so awesome, because I think we finally got to the point where we're now going to be seeing a lot of fruit coming out of it, so that's exciting.

It's snowing right now, just really lightly.

I gotta go, maybe finish one other application, then take a small nap before I go to PCM, then straight to the GAP to get my schedule all figured out.

God bless you all!!

2005-02-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

We have wireless internet in the commons and ASC2 now, so I'm typing from here.

So i was talking to Meredith tonight and now i really want to do one of two things over the summer: Be a counselor at a Christian camp (possibly hume?) or be one of the leaders for Youthworks! or something. I want to do some sort of leadership in ministry this summer. I don't know about this, but I really want to, and I'm really excited to do it. Meredith said that a bunch of different camps come to moody in like a couple of weeks and all gather in asc2, where i am right now, to talk to students and recruit and stuff. So I'm pretty pumped about that. Please pray about that in my life.

Well, i need to sleep now, see ya all.

FOUNDER'S WEEK

2005-02-01T20:26:00.001-08:00

OH MY GOSH!!! So much is going on right now!!! It's all so exciting, too!!!

So, first thing, God is awesome! I had a wonderful time in His word and in prayer this afternoon.

Second thing, Founder's Week is on here at Moody! Tonight was awesome! Jim Cymbala (sp?) from the Brooklyn Tabernacle spoke, and it was just incredible.

Third, our new president was announced! His name is Michael J. Easley, and from what went on tonight, I can tell, he is going to be an awesome new president. He quoted Napoleon Dynamite IN HIS SPEECH!!! Yeah, that was amazing. And, what was just dumbfounding was that he spoke on the very passage that I had been studying in my quiet time this afternoon. It was great. So yeah, there it is.

I gotta go, sleep is good. God bless!

2005-01-28T23:21:00.000-08:00

is this picture on the side good, mom?

Floor open house!

2005-01-28T23:12:00.000-08:00

hey!!!

Tonight was fun!! We had an open house, and a bunch of the sisters came. We hung out and talked, drank matè, and listened to Luke play his smallpipes (small bagpipes). So that's the extent of it.

Good weather over here, this coming week is supposed to be mid to upper thirties, so that's good for Founder's Week, which people say is awesome. So there you have it, I am good, God is gracious and amazing, and it's time for bed.

Peace out.

2005-01-28T23:11:00.000-08:00

A few other sisters: Jayme, Katie, Stacie, and...Well, that last one isn't a sister, she's Stacie's friend. Dont really know her.

2005-01-28T23:10:00.000-08:00

a few sisters: Amy, Kelly, Bianca

2005-01-28T23:08:00.000-08:00

Here are my crazy brothers and sisters, from left to right: Nathan, Nathan (yes, there are two of them), Tyler, Luke, Amanda, Jayme. I especially like Luke's face in this one...hmm, maybe Jayme, kind of a tie for the weirdest. Nathan (the one on the left) didn't really know I was taking the picture...

2005-01-28T23:04:00.000-08:00

This is my brothers and sister juggling pins in Culby 2. They had FOUR people juggling all at once! It was so cool!!

2005-01-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

To God be the Glory