Punkin' Time

It's time for carving pumpkins and drinking cider by the fire side. Up here in Athens it's about 47 outside, you can see your breath, it's amazing. I carved this pumpkin tonight after work. I miss being a kid and loving every holiday, even Halloween. I remember running house to house always trying to get the most candy out of all my friends. And bringing some to school the next day to trade with fellow classmates. There was this one house where if you passed through the "scary" haunted front yard you got a KING SIZE candy bar. It was like winning the Olympics of Halloween. Aw what great times. Well I guess I should start working on my costume for this year, I mean hay I've got to rack up all the goods, and beat all the young 'ens on Tuesday! Just kidding. Anyways, enjoy my Happy Jack O' Lantern!

lookout pics!

Ridge Haven Counselors 2006!















Praising God in His creation




















Anna and David Scott cheesy family portriat















Hangliders off of Lookout Mnt.















Anna and Rachel hanging off Cloudland Canyon.

a meeting in the mountains

Today I returned from a weekend trip to Chattanooga, TN. Caroline, Leigh, and I traveled to go visit family and friends on the mountain. However, I spent most of the weekend with some buddies from Covenant College on Lookout Mnt. The weekend started off terrible, not only was there crazy traffic on I-75 North, but I felt totally alone in Anna's group of friends. Anna is one of my dearest friends, she knows all of my sin and struggles, I truly cannot hide from her. Anyways, a lot of the camp counselors from this past summers Ridge Haven Camp in Brevard, NC came up to hang out with each other. Now let me explain why this was upsetting. Last year about this same time I was applying for a job at Ridge Haven as a counselor, I was pretty sure that I was going to get the job, but God did not will it. I'm not going to lie, it hurt really bad to be refused and also to have your best friend be accepted. It cuts deep and makes me feel spiritually inept. So being around all of the counselors and all their inside jokes and reminiscences of the past summer was incredibly hard because I wanted so desperately to have been a part of them. Anyways, Friday night I went to be crying, not just because I felt alone, but because I think I just wanted to be over it, over the self-pitying.

Saturday morning God woke me with a beautiful sunrise over the Appalachians. He is the true artist of our lives. Well I decided that I could not longer wallow in my self-pity and doubt an suck it up. We all ended up going to Cloud Land Canyon on the backside of Lookout. There we hiked down into the canyon and saw a small but beautiful water fall, it was so tranquilly. Later when we hiked back up to the ridge Brooks and David Scott broke out the guitar and bongo for some singing of some of my favorite hymns. It was so beautiful to just sit in God's wonderful and perfect creation singing His praises. People would stop and look at us funny or sit and just listen. At one point a father and young son came and sat down for a while. It was beautiful to just watch them interact and listen to the great words of truth in the hymns. Also, a group of three guys were looming a couple of yards away, at first I thought nothing of them, but when we stopped to take a break one of them approached me at first I was wondering who is this? It ended up being Chris White a guy I was acquaintance's with in high school. We never really hung out or anything. Anyways, this is where God was so great, Chris told me he was in a halfway house Lafayette for drug recovery (he had struggled with addiction and possession for a long time), but here is the amazing part. He had become a Christian. This seems so amazing because he was the last person I would expect, because the last time I had content with him he was running as far away from God as he could. It was just so great to see the redemptive power of God to bluntly, it really broke my heart. We talked to Chris and his buddies for while about the program and sang a few hymns. They had to leave quickly because one of their friends was graduating from the program that night. But we got to pray with them and for them before they left, it was the body of Christ coming together in such a real way. O man God is sooooo good.

So I guess I have learned even more so this past weekend that even when we feel like we are in the depths of woe, God turns every sorrow to praise for himself.

Fall is falling!

The weather outside is so amazing. Fall is definitely my favorite season. I cannot wait to carve pumpkins and eat boiled peanuts.

Tuxedo, NC (10/1/06)

Selfishness

This is Snowball the kitten. I found her crying outside my apartment about a week ago. She was really hungry and tired. Now this sounds like such a cute story right? Well actually it taught me a whole lot about how incredibly selfish I am. This kitten was I'm guessing about 2-3 weeks old and could not eat on its own. I had to feed it with a bottle 6 times a day and she did not want to eat from bottle. Anyways, I guess I learned from the short time I had with her than I am:

(1) Super Selfish
(2) Hate to be inconvenienced
(3) Completely self-centered

It's amazing what God can teach through such a small and fuzzy animal. I really had a tuff time taking care of her while going to class and attempting to lead a normal life. It makes me want to wait a long long long long time before I EVER have kids!!!!!! Anyways, Snowball is know being cared for by a loving family in Thomson, GA and doing well. She showed me my own ugly selfishness.

A Cross in the Rubble

Ground Zero July 2004

May We Never Forget!

Pictorals

A Summer in Review

May:

Summer had just begun and I was not sure where it was going to lead. I longed to be one of the chosen few, a counselor at Ridge Haven, but alas God had different plans. My summer was to be filled with Steven, LYM, and time to reflect on a year at UGA.

My mother came to visit Augusta from Albequerque, NM for Steven's Senior Prom. I could tell she was really happy to see me all dolled up from head to toe and with a guy who really loved me. It was good to have her around again and to be able to just sit and talk with one of my best friends ever.

Anna was home from school. It was tough to balance life with her and Steven. Trying to figure out who to spend my time with and when. However, she would learn to hardship if this situation for herself later on in the summer. The struggle to seek balance between the forces of boyfriend and bestfriend. My so called hardships were nothing compared to the strom about to rage in Anna's family. Her Grandpa Wooten had been sick for a number of years and on dialysis. He took a turn for the worse and ended up passing right before Anna was to leave for Ridge Haven. It was hard to see her hurt, but amazing to see her faith in the Lord. My troubles were nothing to be compared.

Memorial Day weekend was so relaxing. Hanging out at the lake with the usual crowd from Westminster. Eating home made ice cream at night and munchin' one some low country boil in the afternoon. Goods times swimming around in the muddy water and nursing scorched skin.

June:

Laying sod in the 90 degree heat does not sound like much of away to start the summer huh? Well for a good profit it was. Steven and I, the ever lucrative and productive couple were are, layed sod for a man from the church. It was hard and HOT but a good time for Steven and I to get to know each other in working conditions. I proved to him that I know what I am doing most of the time. 8)

The next week it was time to pack up and start the adventure that was June. I headed up to Cherokee, NC to do mission work for the week with Westminster PCA. We had a group of about 25 inculding three families. We worked at two local Elderly Community Centers (Tsali Manor and Snow Bird) in the morning building card boxes with the people and learning about them spiritually. In general just being there to love on them and make them feel loved and cared for while sharing the word of God. In the afternoon the whole group worked at Tasli Care, a nursing home on the reservation. Here we painted a fence, lawn ornaments, and pressure washed, re-painted the building. It was my third time goint to the Cherokee Reservation and I feel that God keeps calling me back teaching me new things each and every time. This year I learned that it is okay and good to be vulnerable to any and everyone beucase you show your true heart not just the clean, procelain facade. Loving people is dirty work beucase you have to become involved in all thier sins. I guess I learned that I have to make it a point to be in someones life and continue to support them in their walk with Christ. One amazing night I asked all the high school girls if they would like to have meeting and talk about anything and everything that was on their minds. We did, everyone was apprehensive at first, but God was good and allowed them to share the struggles with one another and even problems within the group. This taught me that I can lead people and I should not continually rely on others but step up as a woman of God to lead other girls. One more thing as the week ended I wondered Why Cherokee? There are elderly people everywhere who need to be loved on and houses to be rebuilt and painted, why is this the place we go to do such things. It made me think Cherokee and the short term mission field in general prepares us for the mission at hand, home. At home everyone knows my sins and my struggles but yet it is the hardest place to be open and ready to share such things. I lied one more and then ill move on. I really bonded with Mrs. Gojda, the mother and wife of one of the families on the trip. I see her as such a woman of God, becuase she has the courage to admit her sins and struggles, seeing the amazing work God has done in her life. I admire her so much and strive to be at least half the woman she has become. In general the Cherokee Mission Trip showed me my brokeness in new ways that I would have never thought it could.

At 8:15 am the day after I got back from Cherokee Steven, my brother Billy, and I left from ATL airport to meet my parents in Denver, CO. We were going to go hiking for a week in Rock Mountain National Park (RMN) with my parents. The Lloyd family hikes are commonly referred to as Death Marches beucase we never know if we are going to make it. The week started off great everyone in good spirits hiking with no problem. Each day we would average about 7 to 8 miles and gain about 2000 feet of elevation. This was a strech going from 7 miles above sea level to 12,000 feet at one point. We made a two day backcountry trip to Lost Lake in the Western part of the park. The first day we hiked 7.2 straight miles to Lost Falls, fly fished the stream and them slept the night. The next morning we had to wake up really early and run up the 2.2 miles to the summit in order to claim a campsite that was not covered in snow. It turns out Lost Lake is truely a lost cause beucase the whole lake did not have a single fish. So we passed the time by swatting mosquitos on each other and each freeze-dried meals. The in hindsight was awsome. I mean not many of my friends can say that they have read Hemmingway sitting on a boulder, overlooking a glaicer lake, surrouned by breath taking mountains. Like me mom says, "these trips are like child birth, you forget the pain until you are in it again!"

Finally, I made it back to the Casa in NA, SC woot woot and slept for a whole day!

July:

Things began to slow down quiet a bit in July. I was able to hang with the Lakemont Crew at little bit more. I was hard though beucase I am not in on all the things they are I felt kind of like an outside when I was around them this summer. I was not trying to play the whole hay I am the cool college kid role. I just did not know where they wanted me or if they even did. I guess I can see how I've grown up some over my year away at UGA which is also kind of sad beucase I am losing my youth AHHHHHHHH! Anyways I just had hoped for more but I think I am just out of place.

We took an awsome trip to Six Flags over Georgia with some of the kids in the youth group and their friends. It was wierd to be the second oldest person there. But O MAN the GOLIATH is awsome, literally my most favorite coasters ever. It was just so smooth on the track, fast, and soooooo HIGH! the trip went well except for the whole locking the keys in the thing, but hay it's in the past right. . .?

One unexpected and challenging event happended this month. Some issues happened between Ridge Haven Camp and Westminster and one girl was left behind who was signed up for camp that week. So somehow I mustered up the courage to face my fears of seeing the job I wanted first hand and not being able to have it. I ended up gong to RH to take Ceclia Price to camp and worked in the kitchen for a week. Im not going to lie it was soooo incredibly hard to stand behind the counter and watch my bestfriend do the job I wanted so badly. But God was soo good to me, I needed t confront what I had suppressed deep within. RH was good but hard in general.

The Summer was one that changed my views on how I am and how I should be in light of what God has graced me with. Now here I go back to Athens, and UGA let the good times roll. . . GOOOOOOOOOOOO DAWGS! Sic Em' Woof Woof Woof!

a semester drawing to an end tonight...

August 15, 2005: The day I moved into 317A Brumby Hall @ The University of Georgia. That day I thought my whole world was about to come crashing down. I remember I did not know how I was going to get through a year in Athens in a room with a stranger. I felt like I had been sent to boarding school and would never make it out. Of course my first night I was very alone and longed to see Anna, Krystal, Steven, my parents, and everyone else back in Augusta. I did not want to socialize with my hallmates and lived weekend to weekend when I would make the hour and a-half trip home. It was great to see my parents, Steven and everyone else, but I was missing out on college, because I clung to what I knew.

Augusta 18 - December 13, 2005: First semester I would have been expected to go to all the Bulldogs Football games and have fun with "86,520 of my closest friends" rooting "goooooo DAWGS, sic 'em woof, woof, woof...." But let's just say I sold every one of my tickets, yeah that's right I sold each and every one of them, that sounds absolutely outrageous all you Bulldog extremists out there. I guess it was my way of bucking the system somewhat, because it is what I was supposed to do. School was okay I really did not feel overwhelmed by my classes or the size (35,000 students) of the school. I was just in my own little world living week by week and trying to become too involved. The one organization I was involved in was RUF(Reformed University fellowship) this was a group that I knew about since high school and it just seemed natural to go the the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) organization. There I found a group of kids that I could relate to and be able to talk to about my beliefs. Now this brings me to another point. Sharing my faith and belief Christ saving power should MOST DEFINITELY NEVER be reserved for other followers. That is something that I felt like I always knew but it has become more relevant here. I finally starting making new friends in Athens, Laura Waldrep lets just say she is the pink I never, Sarah Jarell a fellow giant, Lauren Wells the girl who you just have to break out of her shell, and others kids as well. I have been very fortunate to be surrounded with these girls and for them to be Christians. As for my roommate, Liz, she and I were total opposites. She was an extremely smart Asian/Irish who always did things that just did not make sense. I think I have learned how to love people and serve them even if they do not agree with your beliefs, because it is what I am made to do. Another crazy moment was when my parents moved out to Albuquerque, NM in October and at the same time I had to drop Chem 1211 because I made a 47 on my second test. That may have been one of the most stressful times first semester. I went from majoring in Animal and Dairy Sciences to not knowing where I belong. Finally the end of the semester came around, I had two exams. Pre-Calculus and poultry(Chicken) Science. Neither was very challenging, once I was finished I went back to Augusta and later flew to New Mexico to visit my parents. This portion of the year left me wondering where I belong in college and where life migh go, but I still knew that God was sovereign over everything and had to rest in his unfailing grace.

Janurary 9 - May 9, 2006: After a restful winter break it was on to second semester woo hoo! I did not really want to come back to Athens after my crazy first semester but of course I did anyways. I came into second semester not knowing what I wanted to do with my major so I took many general courses o yeah and my PE, Basketball yeah buddy. This period had to be different than first semester or else I was going to drive myself insane. I became even more involved in RUF and forged relationships with many of the older kids there. Going through the Gospel of Mark was good because I had never gone through one all the way in a study. Rob Edwards might very well be one of my favorite people ever and I cannot wait to be a part of RUF in the comming years. This semester was not as challenging as the first school wise, however spiritually I felt worn and dried up at times. My faith had become something to repeition and Steven and I had started fight over little trivialities. Once Spring Break came around I knew something had to change. I decided to go down to Waveland, MS to help with relief work on the Gulf Coast, during which Steven and I were on a break for the week and those following it. Down in Waveland I learned that the hurricane not only brought physical waves onto the land and tore the people's possessions, it also brought a wave of spiritual need. The people down in Waveland are in need and eager to hear the Gospel. I am thinking about taking a trip back down there this summer. Anyways, I also connected with my team on the trip and became good friends with Lora Bergstrom (LB, Bergy) who is actually working at Ridge Haven Camp this summer. She is such an amazing girl and so easy to talk to. (I love you Lora if your reading) So comming back from Waveland I felt a change in my heart and spirit, although I most definitely could not wait to be done with school for the summer. Now I am at the end of this year that I thought would last forever and be terrible. I can say that God has brought me through it and taught me that the life that he has given us is worth every second that good and the bad.

Reflections: I guess I have learned a lot this year and not all of it was from a textbook. I've started to understand that you can only give yourself to others if you show them that you are not different. That you have to embrace your college experiences or else you will miss so much. And that Athens, GA is not all about Drinking and going downtown, that there is much more and that the Gospel is needed among the students. Also that by God's grace I am able to endure things that seem insurmountable and not to be afraid of the future because I am never going to know what I am going to run into next.

give me Christ or else i die.

Playing "DD"

I don't understand life sometimes. Tonight I decided to play "DD" for my brother and some of his friends. It's hard to drive your own brother to a party where he will inevitably become highly intoxicated and then leave him. I just don't understand how he can walk through life living from one beer to the next, it's such a tragedy. And here I sit unable to do anything about, unable to change his actions. I guess I am starting to understand that I do love my brother deeply, but it is better off that I at least know he is not behind the wheel of a car careening into a tree or any other object. I've learned that the fleeting pleasure of this life fill people up because they are instant. Dropping my brother and one of his friends downtown to "Last Call" I saw so many kids my age, yes kids that is what we are regardless if we are in college, vugularly dress doing obscene things. It is so heartbreaking to know that they are flying head first into a brick wall but continually bash themselves against it because it is "fun".
I DON'T BUY IT!!!!! I never will! Looking at the whole downtown Athens situation for a far one might see a College lost in drunken stupidity, but I am in the midst of these fools and I can say that there is light in Athens, GA. It is the light of the Gospel and it is on the move no doubt. I am ready, ready to stand up against the giants, the frats and soroities, the partiers, and the junkies. Someone has to; we as Christians can no longer hide underneath rocks, we MUST get out of our small protective circles and show the world that this life is not enough and never will be. I can no longer lead a sheltered life running away from the things that are deemed "bad" I must face them and conquer them in order to show that life is not made up of the frivolous trivialities that are easily captured.

Group stays blind to temptation

Aricle from the Red & Black (Student Newspaper at The University of Georgia)

Group stays blind to temptation
Contributed By Julie RiggsPublished , April 20, 2006, 06:00:01 AM EDT

A small sign hangs on the prayer room door quoting Acts 9:6, which says “but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what to do.” Members of the group Pure Life gather together in the room to pray each Thursday night before hitting the streets to witness. (Kat Netzler - The Red & Black)
Fifteen University students gather in a downtown prayer room, five floors up from the strip club Toppers. The men are preparing to descend to the street, where they will cover their eyes with blindfolds that read “Pure Life” and begin their weekly protest. They pray that God renew their minds and protect them from temptation.
In the strip club below, a 27-year-old dancer leans close to a new customer and invites the middle-aged businessman into Toppers with her signature phrase: “I’m Harley, and I’m here to lead you into temptation.”
The protests have been going on for five months. It’s an example of what happens when sin and salvation bump up against each other in a college town.
“Condemnation is not the goal of the protest, salvation is.” said junior Jonathan Hansen, a protester.
Some students feel they are being judged. The protesters disagree.
“I am definitely no better than anyone else,” Hansen said. “We are all sinful and broken. By me standing here, all I’m saying is ‘Thank God I’ve found something that saves me from my sin, and I want to share it with you.’”
Protesters hope students will stop and talk when they see them on the wall.
“I see these people walking downtown thinking what they are doing is going to make them happy,” Hansen said. “But it’s so fleeting. You live for this moment you don’t remember, wake up with a headache and then do it again, and your life gets slowly wasted.”
One night in November, Mike Satterfield, campus minister and overseer of the downtown prayer room, stood alone outside Toppers and read from his bible. A week later, the first student joined Satterfield. Today, the weekly average is seven.


Zack Stepp stands outside Topper’s earlier this year as part of a group that meets outside the establishment to pray and read the Bible. (Kat Netzler - The Red & Black)
“Every great awakening and spiritual revival in this country has originated in the college age group,” Satterfield said.
On the street this evening, one man will stand with his eyes uncovered, scanning the chapters in Revelation, the last book of the Bible. He will read aloud to passersby. There is no shouting, just a voice that speaks passionately of the words that have changed his life.
The students do it out of gratitude as well as a desire for revival.
“We are out there because of the change that has happened in our own life, and we’ve seen God work in so many ways in our lives,” junior Zack Stepp said.
The reactions to their public displays vary.
“There is always a good mix of people who are extremely angry, cussing you out. Sometimes people start something physical, take the blindfolds off, slap you around. I’ve seen a guy get punched once,” Stepp said.
Hansen has been slapped around — and kissed.
“With the blindfold on, I had no way of knowing it was coming,” he said.
He realizes that opposition comes with any public protest.
“There are just as many people who are encouraged by us as there are people who are offended or discouraged by us,” he said. “You’re going to find that no matter what you do for Jesus.”

A different view
Inside the club, dancers counsel their customers between sets on stage. Although a few customers linger around the stage waiting for physical interaction, other men sit at the dimly lit tables and wait for a dancer to saunter over.
Despite the lounge atmosphere, Toppers owner Darnell Gardner said dancing is one of the most emotionally demanding jobs possible.
“The highs are too high, and the lows are too low,” he said. “You have to hear every guy’s best pick-up line and every guy’s problems. A lot of these girls have guys who come in and talk to them every week about problems they have outside.”
Gardner doesn’t disagree with the protesters’ intentions.
“I believe in the power of prayer,” he said. “I just don’t subscribe to it.”
Gardner’s main problem with the protesters is they only target his establishment and not the other alcohol-serving bars downtown.
He said he doesn’t have an adversarial relationship with the protesters, but he wishes they would move around.
The protesters feel no need to move on until their purpose has been fulfilled at Toppers.
“We long to see that space, which is a place of wounding and a stronghold of darkness and sin, to become a place of healing and restoration and ministry,” Satterfield said.
For Harley, the job has begun to take its toll.
She has thought about quitting for months, “But not today,” she said.
“I try to focus on the good things about this job,” she said, like power and money. “But I can’t do this forever because it’s exhausting. I want to do something that makes me happy. Deep down inside, this doesn’t make me happy.”
If the protesters prevailed, Harley would get to move on.
Although it is not their only goal, the protesters would like to see Toppers shut down.
However, it may not come from a decline in sales. Gardner said his revenue hasn’t changed much since the guys started standing outside.
“Looking at the numbers, some weeks are up, some weeks are down,” he said.
The prayer protesters know the result is not in their hands.
“If the strip club closes down, it won’t be because of our power. It’ll be of God’s power,” Stepp said.
Their passion to share seems to know no limits. When informed of Harley’s signature invitation to lead her guests into temptation the moment they enter the club, Hansen responds, “That just leads me to pray more.”

© 2006 The Red and Black Publishing CO., INC540 Baxter St., Athens GA, 30605

homeless but not lost

my parents moved to albuquerque, nm this past october. i guess i have not realized how much it has rocked me, i have been totally emerged in my school work this year. what happens when all the places that feel like home are gone? no more familiar smells or inviting smiles. dorm life has cut me off from all possibilities of a home life. going home to augusta it nice, but i miss just sitting in my house with one of the dogs and watch tv or just being alone. there really is no place like home, as dorothy would say. i miss my parents more than i would have ever imagined. when ever i get to go and visited them i get so much pleasure just cooking with my mother or bickering with my father about some stupid subject. it is the little things that i miss. i know that i will always have places to call home in augusta, but its not the same.
however, one place i will always feel home is at lakemont presbyterian church. they took me in at a time in my life where i did not know where i was going. my life drastically changed i saw heard the truths of the Gospel for the first time and learned to weight of Christ's crucifixion for the atonement of my sins. my hope is that everyone at lpc would know that they have earnestly contributed to my testimony in Chirst. even though i miss my house and the people in it, i know that my place is within the household of God.

give me Christ or else i die

One of the Many Sheds

Hay Ya'll,

My camera broke while I was down in Waveland, MS over Spring Break. So I am just now getting some pictures from others in my group. Anyways, here is a picture of the shed we built on our second day of work. It was very hot, muggy, and full of biting gnats, but we got it done.
From left to right (Patrick Ennis, Meghan Lloyd, Mrs. Garcia {owner}, Andrew Snyder, Chip Milner, and Cat Ward)

LAGNIAPPE

Spring Break '06: my first one in college. Lets just say I learned more than I could ever imagine. I hit the beach and soaked myself in 40% Deet to keep away the biting gnats. This past week I ventured down to Waveland, MS with UGA's RUF (Reformed University Fellowship). I am still processing the event that took place and trying to understand the eternal consequences of the trip. However, I know that I felt for one of the first times in my life alive in Christ, seeing the work of my hands giving glory and honor to God.

Waveland, MS was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. It received the brunt of the Strom, and was on the northeastern side of the eye. The beach front mansions are gone, the once sunny beach seems so dark, and there is devastation everywhere. Images from CNN or any other news stations cannot capture the true chaos of the Gulf Coast.

We arrived late Sunday night, and as we drove closer and closer the damage began to increase. First just a few trees, then a gas station, then houses, then nothing. Where once stood houses that families had worked so hard to keep up and manage were gone, completely obliterated by Katrina. It gave me an erie feeling to be driving past a wasteland filled with bits and pieces of lives.

On our first day we all met with Jean Larroux, a minster from Independent Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN. He is originally form Bay St. Louis which is not far from Waveland, MS. He has come back to start a PCA church named appropriately, Lagniappe Presbyterian Church. Lagniappe means "a little something extra" in Creole or Cajun dialect. The name is so true beucase God has GRACED us and we are not deserving, giving a little something extra. Jean also spoke about us not thinking we were there to be the heros who have it all together to come and help the devestated, but that were are also devestated ourselves. It put so much into perspective.

The work was hard and o boy was in muggy. But in the same way so incredibly rewarding, not for myself but for the building up of God's kingdom. Each day a team of 5 or 6 would go to a site where a person's house once was and now stands a FEMA trailer and build a 8 X 10 shed. These were Sheds of Hope, meant to not only provide a place for the storage of stuff but to represent the love God has for each individual. I remember thinking on night and pardon my FRENCH, "I dont want to builing another damn shed," but how selfish is that!!!!!!! But I knew that no matter how tired I was or how bad smelled the work I was doing meant something it had eternal weight!

The iCare Village where we stayed was sponsored by the Morrell Foundation, was not filled with Christians looking to glory God. But mainly kids on Alternative Spring Breaks from all over the US. If you asked any of them why they were there it would be to "do good" but nothing more than that no meaning behind it. I had a reason to be there to extend the love God has extended to me through Christ. I can't even explain how that makes me feel.

Well thats it for now i'll probablly have more later. If you want to know more about Lagniappe Presbyterian Church go to http://www.lagniappechurch.com/ and watch the video it is amazing.

Give me Christ of elese I die!!

Jesus I long for thee........

"Jesus, I long for thee,
And sigh for Cannan's shore,
Thy lovely face to see,
and all my warfare o'er;
Here billows break upon my breast
And brooding sorrows steal my rest."

"I pant, I groan, I greive
For my untowrd heart;
How full doubts I live,
Though full of grace thou art!
What poor returns, I make to thee
For all the mercy shown to me."

"And must I ever smart
A child of sorrows here?
Yet, Lord be near my heart,
To soothe each rising tear;
Then at thy bleeding cross I'll Stay,
And sweetly weep my life away."

Reminders

It's funny how our senses inform us of the minutes past in our lives. I am sitting here drinking a Wheat Grass Smoothie and Listening to Third Lobby. These two items remind me a of time where there seemed to be stability in my world. It is like the taste of the sweet wheat grass and the sound of the fiddle ringing in my ears takes me back to a summer where life seemed simple and I saw my future waiting at the doorstep. However, I am quickly brought back to the present by the ever gnawing sound of "Family Guy" blarring out of the small TV set in my dorm room. Life is unaviodable, but I have to look back on each and every moment and see the beauty in the play that is existence.