Adjusting back to school is hard. I kinda feel like I am adjusting back to a different culture. Not that Alabama was a super different culture or anything, I guess just the atmosphere of the trip was so drastically different than my life here. It doesn’t help that I have 3 test this week, a project, and tons of homework. My heart has been hurting today. I am sure it will get better soon, I just have to get back into the swing of things.

Man oh man…

What a stinkin sweet trip. God definitely surprised me with this one. The day we left I was so reluctant and so unexcited. But, God kept reminding me that this is the trip he called me on and I “sucked it up”. I ended up getting to know 5 amazing girls and having such a blast. This trip seemed more like a road trip with friends at times, but we were also able to serve various people in the south doing various different things. We didn’t get what we bargained for when it came to what we were actually doing down there, but it worked out great.

God is so faithful. He has been so faithful to our team and to the people we encountered this week. This week has reminded me of Ephesians 3:20.. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever”. God was able to do immeasurably more than we asked or imagined this week and I am so humbled by his faithfulness.

I miss this trip already and it has only been a few hours. My mind and my heart are not here at school and that is making the transition rather difficult. My mind is south of here.
I could really go on and on, but I’d rather talk about it in person or via some other communication other than a blog.

Head over to the Flickr site and check out the pictures.

click here——-> FLICKR <-------click here

My missions team is leaving for Foley, Alabama this afternoon! Please be praying for us! Get ready for an enormous picture party when I get back.

Until the 26th…

PS: the midterm was great

This week should be really crazy. I have one of the hardest midterms I will have ever taken in college so far and I leave for a 8 day Mission trip to Foley, Alabama.

I spent the majority of today preparing for both these events and my anxiety is rising. I am both excited and weary about the trip to Foley. I am sure it will be fine, I am just a little nervous about certain things.

On a lighter note, I have decided to teach myself Greek and in one day’s time, I have already learned a lot! Last night, after a very interesting Fun Day Saturday, I went to Barnes and Noble and got a book on New Testament Greek. I spent 3 hours in the store doing the first exercises. I translated over 30 words, memorized the alphabet and got a good handle on very basic pronunciations. When I came back to Bethel, I found a Greek New Testament online and I started writing out and translating John 3:16. I found an awesome website where you can listen to mp3s of the Greek translation so I ended up phonetically writing out the verse and learning how to speak it.

It sounds something like this: HOOtas gAR aye-GAH-pey-sehn ha they-os tan Casman, hoce-te tan huYAN tan manageeNEH Erookin HEnah pas ha pisTOO-ohn ice OWtan may apOleh-tie al eke zuwAYN iOnian.

I put all the accented parts in caps. Pretty cool huh?

I know.. I am the biggest geek in the entire world.

Last night I was inspired to take a fast exposure shot of a drop falling into a glass of water. I was browsing around Flickr Explore and I saw that a brilliant “drop” shot was taken with my camera model. “If this guy can do it, so can I”, I said to myself. At 8:25pm, with under 30 minutes to get it done, I set up the scene. I filled up our flower vase with water and used an empty contact solution bottle (which Meg and I used for squirting water through Christin’s door’s peep hole.. haha) to provide the drops. I propped my camera on our microwave and got a pretty good angle. I needed better contrast so I had to tape a black shirt of mine to the wall behind the vase. This is probably as ghetto as photography gets. I played with several exposures and got a pretty good shot at 1/400 with the Continuous shutter opening setting (not the actual name, but that is what I have named it). Sadly, there just wasn’t enough light. I adjusted the lighting with adobe after the fact, but it wasn’t enough. Stay tuned for more attempts.

Not to mention, its totally off center because I bumped the camera..

Xanga.com is blocked by Panera’s filters for “adult content”. That made me feel dirty.