I'm Back

Well, it's been a loooong time since I have blogged but that's ok because I'm back. Last time I wrote was in December of 2009 and man has a lot happened since then. I'm not going to go into great detail about my life since then but expect posts later this year, I will do my best to update them. To shorten things up though, I will give you a quick rundown of 2010 so far. This past semester went very well, God taught me a lot of things and revealed to me a lot about myself. In February was a Christian event called REVIVAL 2010! Some of my best friends organized it and put it on and it was a blessing to be a part of it. My semester ended great with good grades. I had the best start ever to summer, I got to serve in Haiti under Samaritan's Purse. I went with NC Baptist Men and helped build houses for those whose houses were either destroyed or they just needed a house anyway. Throughout the month of June I had the amazing opportunity to serve under the International Mission Board as an intern. It was a Nehemiah Team and I served in the Kansai region of Japan! Most of the ministry was focused in Kobe but I spent time also in Osaka. In Japan we established friendships with Japanese students and abundantly shared seeds of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the most important/urgent mission needed to be done by the Church. Like I said, this year was amazing and I left out so much so look for later blogs to delve deeper into this topics and to share more of what the Holy Spirit has been teaching me.

Yay!

This is my last academic post! And what do you know its about it being my last post. ha. For those of you who actually read this, (I'm thinking a handful of people) do not worry I will continue to blog after this but I cannot promise that it will be consistent or good. I've really enjoyed doing this, blogging was an entirely new experience for me and it was awesome. I just find that I'm not one of those people who blog very often and that's ok with me. I like the things I say to be really special and have some heart behind them so I will most likely wait to be extremely inspired before I dabble again in the world of blogging. But as I said earlier, don't fret. God definitely inspires me with stuff all the time, its just my willingness to put it online but I'll do it. I would hate for this thing to just end suddenly. I feel like I put too much into already to just drop it. If you read this Brett, I appreciate you making us do this, it has been fun and forcing myself to write almost weekly definitely makes it easier to write things such as essays and papers. This has been very beneficial in my opinion. Well like I said, I promise to keep blogging but it will be at a minimum so don't expect much. I would rather be honest with you guys than pretend like I'm gonna blog a lot. Wish everyone good luck on finals and hope everyone enjoys their break!

Finals

This is the week that is so bitter-sweet! Classes officially end TODAY!!! Unfortunately though, finals start this Friday. I know many of my friends already feel like there in over there heads and are very stressed out. Thankfully, I have only 2 real finals. In my other classes we just have papers that are already finished to count as finals. Its also this time of the semester that the library stays packed regardless of what day it is or the time of day. This is also the time of the semester that I'm sure coffee and energy drink sales must skyrocket! So many students pull all-nighters in the library or a study room in order to finish a huge paper or just study their butts off for an upcoming final. You know, its a shame really, that so many classes put such a huge percentage of a persons grade on a final. Many people work very hard throughout the semester but just freak out for finals and do horrible or just are bad at test taking in general. Its not good for many students to be put in that situation. I don't mind finals at all but when I see others freak out it makes me feel like I should be doing the same thing. Like I should be pulling all-nighters and studying every little chance I get. But I figure that most finals are cumulative and if I don't already know most of the material, then I failed at the whole semester. Sure I might study a little to refresh myself and sharpen myself, but hopefully I will never find myself studying night and day. Thankfully though, we have such a nice break after these coming two weeks. Basically a month off of school, I'll be working mostly but hey, my job is definitely not schoolwork and I appreciate that. Everyone looks forward to this amazing break and selling books, I hope I get like at least $100 back, that would make my day. Until this time ends, I will be seeing students cracked out on caffeine and people frantically studying there life away. Oh what a fun two weeks this will be!

Rodney Louis

This blog is dedicated to my friend Rodney Jean Louis. I first met Rodney my first year of high school before the school year even began. It was the hot summer and I had band camp. I don't remember exactly how we met but Rodney was an individual who everyone knew. He brought so much life wherever he went. He was such an outgoing person that loved to meet new people and welcome them into his life. He also brought much laughter wherever he went. There was never a silent moment with him. I remember that no matter how you felt or what your day had been like so far, Rodney could fix that. I remember how he could make any situation into a joke and even if it was about you, he did it in a way to laugh with you and not at you. He also was an amazing trombone player. He had such a talent for music. I participated in jazz band my sophomore year and Rodney and I had most of the solos, he was amazing at improv. Rodney and Brad used to give me and my friend Ben rides everywhere before we could drive and it is just simple memories like those that I will remember most. When I got the phone call about his death, I did not even know what to think or how to feel. It just did not sink in. His funeral was the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday. Rodney had an amazing impact on so many people, the funeral was way overcrowded and there were people literally having to stand outside for the whole thing. But the most important thing that Rodney ever did in his whole life, was know that Jesus Christ died for him and his sin and came back to life three days later. That by Jesus only, we have eternal life with God the Father. That is the one most important thing anyone can believe in their entire life. With that knowledge of saving grace, sin and death lose their sting entirely and what would be a day of mourning, becomes a day of celebration of life.

Rodney Jean Louis was born March 2, 1988 and died from sleeping at the wheel on
November 20, 2009.

We love you.

Open Doors

So recently I have been really blind to the fact that God has been opening up evangelical doors in my life. In pretty much every aspect of my life, there have been many opportunities to just share my faith and the truth of the Gospel. From work, to class, to hobbies, He has been just opening opportunities for His glory. Tonight at bible study we had a special night that focused on just evangelizing and being preparing to share the Good News whenever to time arises. It was really cool because it just opened my eyes to all the chances I have pretty much daily to share my faith. I think though whats even more important is the chance we have as disciples of Christ at representing Him with EVERYTHING we do! That includes actions, words, and reactions to others. This all has to do with our integrity as individuals. The world is always watching who we are and what we do. Personally one of the things I need to work on is my example in the classroom. I don't cheat on work or anything but even something as simple as being late to class or talking to my neighbor shows what kind of person I am. Its a work in progress for everybody but as Christians we need to be conscious of who we are and what we represent. I'm really thankful for all the doors that God has been opening lately. I hope I take full advantage of those opportunities and fully represent Christ with my life. I hope doors keep opening and that they remain wide open!

A Day of Thanks

So this past Thursday was the much loved holiday of Thanksgiving! I was originally not going to go home because of work and the such but I decided that I needed to spend some quality time with my grandmother because my mom was traveling to Ohio to see her family. Well I woke up at about 9:30 and got on the road at about 10:30, traffic wasn't bad at all. The drive went well and I saved some gas by using cruise control. I got in at about 1 and my friend Ben joined my grandma and I because his parents were out of town as well. It was absolutely delicious!! After wards Ben and I decided to go fire off some ammunition and I took one of my Mosin-Nagants with us. That thing is a beast. The bullet went straight through and 1 1/2 ft. diameter log. Then I decided that I really wanted to go offroading since my truck has 4WD. BIG MISTAKE!! I went on a trail I never had seen before and was just winging it. I was almost through and with 200 ft to the next road over I suddenly fell into a hidden irrigation ditch. That thing was covered with brush, weeds, and grass so it came out of no where! My first reaction was just pure shock. I couldn't believe what just happened. It was good and stuck too, I had no weight on the rear anymore so I had no traction to reverse it out. I had to leave it there overnight in the middle of practically nowhere. It was actually hard for me to sleep that night because I was worried for my truck. The next morning, I headed out there to try and get it out again and luckily some hunters saw me and helped pull me out with their truck. The whole situation just had me really upset, especially since my truck was fairly new to me. But out of all my frustration, the Holy Spirit made me realize, HOLD UP! I should be thankful for getting it out and I should be thankful for even having a vehicle in the first place. Then that thought led to all kinds of other thoughts. I should be thankful that I have a friend who is dumb enough to go with me off roading, I have a grandmother with whom I got to enjoy an awesome meal with, I have a job which put the gas in my truck to get me home, and most of all I have a loving Savior who cared enough to die on a cross so that I could live with Him for an eternity. So often we don't give proper thanks for all the good things in life. "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:17 There are a lot of amazing things in my life that I fail to give thanks to God for and I'm sure everyone can say the same. A lot of times God takes horrible situations and uses them to humble us so that we can worship Him with fearful reverence. He deserves everything we have to offer because He already gave His life for us...

B90X

So, these past couple of weeks have been pretty exhausting with a lot going on! This blog would have came earlier but better late than never right? Well, on Oct. 30th I finally finished reading the entire Bible from cover to cover. It was amazing! I have wanted to do it but never had enough motivation before. It all started when I saw on Twitter that a pastor in Charlotte was challenging his staff to read the Bible through B90X. NOT P but B! As you can imagine, the B stands for Bible. When I first came across this I was very interested and thought it would be extremely cool to do but then immediately dismissed the idea because I knew it would take a lot of time daily and I did not think that I was capable of it. Later that day, my friend handed me a printed off B90X guide and said your doing this. He had no clue that I was considering it just earlier that day. I definitely took that as God wanting me to step up to the challenge and just as encouragement that I could do it. Let me tell you, at some times it was rough! Some books were just so informative that I had to drag myself through them but I learned a lot. But I really enjoyed reading a lot of the Old Testament and re-familiarizing myself with the storied and learning some for the first time. I had never read much of the prophetic books and just being able to see some of those prophecies play out through time. The most important one being the coming of the Messiah, JESUS CHRIST for the redemption of Israel and the rest of the nations!

Then diving into the New Testament was very refreshing. You can never read the Gospels enough, or any part of the Bible for that matter. But the Gospels are all about Jesus, from who He is to what He did and what He taught. As a Christian, we are called to imitate Christ, we can't do a very good job if we are not very familiar with Jesus in the first place. Particularly though, I really enjoy the writings of Paul, the Holy Spirit gave him much inspiration and intellect and I just love reading his letter because they tackle every issue of the Church and the individual Christian. They are just so thick with knowledge that you can re-read them the rest of your life and learn something new everyday! And finally, Revelation. I love that book. We have such a great promise and hope to look forward to. I can't wait for heaven and earth to be one and for God to live with man! It will be absolutely amazing. Christ tells all the churches to conquer in His name and that has definitely left an impression on me. When my final days near, I want to say that I did the best I could at conquering in the name of Christ for His glory and kingdom. I want everything I am to be for the Lord's service. I want to change the world by His salvation!