Merely Me

Tears for Persephone

2008-10-14T07:35:00.003-07:00

The Greeks used to tell a tale of the goddess Persephone, the goddess of spring. It was said that she was abducted and became the wife of Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Because of this she lived four months of the year in the underworld while spending the rest of her time with her mother Demeter, the goddess of fertility, seasons, etc. It was said during the four months Persephone spent in the underworld Demeter refused to make the world warm and fruitful out of mourning for the loss of her daughter, which caused everything to die and grow cold.

I had to think of that story a few minutes ago as I was walking to the library. It's autumn in Indiana and the trees all around W. Laf have burst into color. Not only that, but it's breezy today, which is making the flocks of leaves take to the air like large red, yellow, and orange butterflies. Seeing the wind taking the leaves from the trees made me think of them like Demeter's tears falling for Persephone, the red of the trees echoing the flush

in Demeter's face as she mourned.

Ok, enough of that :P

So, life's been busy! Almost 2 months into school now. I never could've imagined the amount of material that they'd present us with. Sometimes you just kinda throw up your hands in disgust, trying to figure out how you can be expected to learn so much. But that said, I really am loving med school. Every day's a challenge and brings with it sooo much more to learn. Who wouldn't love that?!? My classmates really are a great group. There are just the 16 of us and we've bonded well. So far no one's broken down, though a few of us have come close. There's a general feeling that everyone else knows so much more than you and how on earth did you get yourself in such a mess. The truth is that we're all in way over our heads and hoping just to survive, which I know we all will.

W. Laf has grown on me very quickly. I love my area of town 'cuz I'm right on a heavily wooded hill. I'd argue that it's the most naturally beautiful part of town, but I might be a tad biased :P I'm just far enough away from the center of town to feel like I have some peaceful seclusion, but close enough for everything to be convenient.

Being so far away from home is definitely tough. Ooh, that reminds me of another piece of literature! And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of parting - Khalil Gibran. You don't really appreciate how much people mean to you until you don't have them around you any more. I knew that I would miss my family (both genetic and church) but this has definitely helped me realize all the ways they mean so much to me. Sundays just aren't the same without them around me. W. Laf church really is a nice place to be though, and I feel blessed for having it as my new home congregation.

To help with the homesickness, I got to see my folks this past weekend! AND they brought a whole bunch of my church family with them! :D The Phoenix choir was in Peoria/Morton and apparently moving half way across the country isn't enough to warrant be ousted :P It was wonderfully refreshing to get away from school and spend time my folks, the Phoenix people, and the IL brethren. Without a doubt the best three days I've had since moving here :)

Well, molecular bio can't be put off any more. God bless & keep!

A Whole Mess of Firsts

2008-08-17T16:49:00.003-07:00

Well, my life has been full of Firsts lately, so I thought I'd share them with you.

First Apartment: On the first of this month I did the walk-through on my first apartment! This is infinitely cooler that moving into a condo owned by someone else :P Mom and I then worked on the place for a week, setting it up as a real home. I returned a worn out, nearly broken mother to my dad when he came to take her home a week later. As good of an experience as it was, we were both glad for it to be over so we could get some real sleep! I don't know what I woulda done without Mom though. Most likely just had a very stuffed, semi-disorganized bachelor pad instead of the home she left me with. Thank you, Mom!!!

First Debt: It's amazing to me how easy it is to go severely into school debt! A couple clicks of the mouse and POOF!! I owe some people I've never met a lot of money that I'll never even see. Again, I don't know what I'd do with out them :P

First Junk Mail At My New Apartment: Ok, so maybe it sounds a lil stupid to be excited to get my first piece of general mailer stuff at my new place, but it was fun! It was like, my address is now legit cuz I'm even getting junk mail. It was the weekly mailer from Pay Less grocery and I was so happy about it that I went an bought their food :D That was fun too :P

First Non-AZ License: So, I guess I'm now an official Indianan (is that the right word?) cuz I got my title and license all switched over to Indiana and they threw my old AZ license away. I was a lil bummed about that, but it's nice to have a DL photo that was taken after I was 15 years old :P I aced the driver's test :D It was just a written one, but I guess that online defensive driving course I did actually taught me something :P

First Black Eye as an Adult: And this is the whole reason I wanted to do a list of firsts :P No, that's not all true. Only partly :) So, I was boxing with my former-linebacker cousin this weekend and he seriously worked me over! This picture really doesn't do it justice. I landed some good, solid shots to his head and face and they didn't even phase him. Frustrating. In addition to the shiner he gave me a sore nose and ear and a slightly out of kilter jaw. It was sooooo worth it :D I really had a blast at their house this weekend. Got to spend some real quality time with my cousins and I came away feeling a lot closer to all of them, which is always a nice feeling.

First White Coat: Unless you count the one that I wore during labs in undergrad, but it's so doesn't count :P We had the white coat ceremony in Indianapolis last weekend and I was given my first official white coat of my medical career, a sign of my status as a med student. It was such a rush!! Um, my mom has all those pics, so I can't upload any of them yet.

First Company In IN: Last night I got to keep Andy A. and Joel and Amber V. at my apartment. It was like a great lil AZ reunion! Unfortunately I wasn't awake to tell Andy goodbye this morning, but I think he knows roughly what I would've said if I had been. I've got plenty of room in my new place, so if you have my cell number give me a call and come stay with me some time! It'd be nice to know that the world does exist outside of med school :P

Ok, that's a pretty good summation of what's been happening in my life lately. I hope when you're reading this your lives are going smoothly and your aware of the rich blessings that God's granting you. God bless & keep!

2008-07-14T18:33:00.003-07:00

So, this is the town of San Pedro, the only town on Ambergris Caye, the island we're staying on. It is SOOOOOO stinkin' beautiful! Oh, I don't think I mentioned last time that Dad, Vlad, and I are in Belize for a week. We've dove the last three days and had really spectacular dives. Turtles, lobster, sharks, 6-foot eagle ray, big ol' moray, and just plain beautiful stuff! Our second dive today was unreal. We went to a place where nurse sharks and giant groupers are known to frequent. We chummed for sharks, which were actually already there with another group. There had to be 20 of them! From about 3-7 feet long, they were amazing! When the other group got gone they released their bait and the sharks kinda went crazy over the fish, and I was right in the middle of them. I'm now convinced that you haven't really lived unless you've been in the middle of a shark feeding frenzy :D I highly recommend it. I'm gonna sign off for now though. Storm's coming in. God bless and keep!

From the Grave

2008-07-04T21:12:00.003-07:00

Well, maybe not really the grave as I didn't die, but you probably thought that this blog certainly had. I can offer no explanation as to why I stopped posting, I just did :P Well, let me try to get you caught up on the last 18 months worth of goings-on in my life.

When I last posted I was a few short months away from graduation, I was applying to medical school, and everything seemed to be exactly on course with my plan for my life. Ever notice how God occasionally feels the need to alter the plans we have for our lives...? Yeah, this was one of those times. Well, graduation happened right on schedule, and was made better by the fact that Mayo Med School requested a phone interview with me, then invited me up to MN for an on-campus interview. Things were really looking up! So, I graduated in December and interviewed with both UofA and Mayo in January (I think). I didn't look for a job at that point cuz I was hoping I wouldn't have time for one, what with school starting and all. So, I didn't work through January or February, hoping to hear something good in March. In that time I did take up a new hobby, pen making, which I'll fill you in on later :P Soooo, March rolled around and I learned that both UofA and Mayo were both "unable to offer me a seat in the incoming class" or something like that. I'll be honest, I knew my app had weaknesses, but I really thought I was gonna get in to UofA at least. Basically, it was clear to me that the part of my app I really needed to work on was my real life experience. So, through several God-opened doors I started working at the Donor Network of AZ as an ocular recovery technician. In essence that means I drive all over the city and state and harvest corneas from deceased patients for transplant. It's really been a great job and a wonderful learning experience, one that I don't regret in the slightest.

Well, my good friend Sam bought a condo just before I started my new job, and it happened to be less thatn 2 miles from the office, so I moved in with Sam, my first time really out of my folks' house. That also proved to be a great experience that I wouldn't change :) It ended a tad prematurely then Sam for some reason decided that he needed to get married :P That happened about 2 months ago now. Now I'm splitting my time between my buddy Andy's house and my folks'.

Well, I reapplied for med school again last summer. It's hard to be as optimistic the 2nd time around, but I was determined, and tried to do all that I could to improve my odds of acceptance. I applied to 7 different schools this time around, stretching from the east coast to the west. It was a bit of a blow when Mayo (by far my top choice) didn't even want a phone interview this year. Kansas asked for a 2ndary app, but didn't take it any further. UCLA and UCSD both rejected me, I never heard back from CO. Indiana University did ask me for a follow-up app, which surprised me. I'd heard taht their out-of-state acceptance rate is super low, so i didn't think I had much of a chance at all. I filled out their paperwork with a certain amount of apathy. Then they invited me for an interview, which I went to with a certain amount of apathy :P I went to my UofA interviews and again fell in love with the Phoenix campus and put it as my preference.

After all my interviews were done I spent a few days in NYC w/ my bro and sis-in-law. The day of my return trip was a big day, cuz that was the day UofA released their acceptances. I rushed off my first plane and paid for a day's worth of internet access to check my email for the acceptance letter. I checked. It wasn't there. I haven't felt that down in a long, long time. My own state turned me down, which pretty much spelled it out for me that I was gonna go another year without getting into med school. I managed to accept that, as much as I hated it, and tried to make my plans for the next year.

Well, I came home from work one day, I think it was April 19th, and I pulled up to the mailbox outside what was still "our" condo. As was somewhat expected, there was my IU rejection letter in the mailbox. The funny thing was that it was in a big white 9x11 envelope instead of your standard letter envelope. Well, I tore it open, ready for my last little glimmer of a hope for '08 matriculation to be crushed. The first word after "Dear Mr. Langhofer," was "Congratulations!" At that point my mind pretty much snapped. I read the first words again. "Congratulations! The admissions committee has voted to offer you a seat in the matriculating class of 2008." For the next 45 minutes I wasn't in my right mind. I had to try five times before I was able to communicate my news to my dad :P It was pretty much the same for the next five calls I made after that too.

Well, LSS I accepted the seat :D I submitted my preference as to which IU School of Medicine campus I wanted to attend and I got my first choice, West Lafayette, which means that I'll be spending my first two years on the Purdue campus.

Ok, that pretty much brings us up to date. I have my apartment all lined up and I leave for IN on the 29th of this month. I'll be living on my own a lil less than 2 miles from the med school. it's weird to think about leaving my life here in Phoenix. In AZ for that matter. West of the Mississippi for that matter :P I've been here since I was 6 months old, so everything close to me is here. That said, I have total confidence that I'm going exactly where God wants me to be. Hopefully that'll be enough to make West Lafayette feel like home.

Ok, enough catching up for one night. God bless and keep!

Oktoberfest Rocked!

2006-10-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

Threw the outfit together in about 2 1/2 hours. Mom helped. She's amazing! Good food, good friends, good times. :)

Oh, hi!

2006-10-17T07:53:00.000-07:00

Fancy meeting you here! Do you come here often, 'cuz I haven't been here hardly at all for like two months. Not that I've been trying to avoid this place, mind you, it's just that things get out of hand some times. Well, how 'bout we get caught up to date on my last two months, eh?

Well, the MCAT was not at all fun. I don't recommend that anyone take it unless they want to have a very stressful day. Five minutes after I finished it I figured out the answer to a question I'd missed. That was aggravating 'cuz it might've made an entire point difference on my overall score. The after-MCAT conciliatory get together was great fun though. :) Um, I was going to wait and put my score at the end of my post, but I guess I'll just do it here. Drum roll, please... I got a 34! Generally speaking, about a 31 will get you in to your local state school, so this will hopefully clinch UofA for me, maybe even UA-Phoenix! I called my parents at midnight last Thursday to let them know (that's when I found out), but they didn't answer. I was frustrated. :P So, right now I'm working on my application and hoping to submit by the end of the week.

I started classes the Monday after the test and have been going strong there ever since. Last semester and I've filed for graduation!!!! My courses this semester, for the most part, are pretty cool. Children's Lit, Shakespeare, American Lit Survey 1860-present, Writing Family History (very sweet!), and Biochem. I walk in less than two months! I've been able to hook up with some other premed/predental students in biochem, mostly LDS, and they're all pretty cool guys. Really, I'm looking forward to working with people of their caliber for the rest of my career.

My family history course has been really cool so far. Right now we're working on a biography and I chose my dad. It's given me a great excuse to go through all the letters he sent home while he was in the service (his BC days) and get a peak into his head back then. Yesterday I read the letters where he tells his family that's he's given his life to the Lord and the weeks immediately following. It's really, really amazing, especially when you know some of what he was dealing with. How drastically his life was flipped around is an amazing testimony to God's incredible grace and power.

Yikes, I gotta get off to school, so I'll try to write more later (meaning tomorrow, not December). God bless & keep you all 'til then!

2006-09-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know I'm way overdue for a decent post, but here's this while you wait. I had some pictures that just showed Josi, but they appear to have gone bye-bye...

2006-08-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow...

2006-08-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

The cursed test is tomorrow. Seriously Scottie, how can you live with yourself after administering this thing over and over? You know that jittery feeling you get right before a test but goes away once your start it (or am I the only nut-job?)? Well, that started 24 hrs prior to the test on this one. :P Well, I gotta get busy, last day to study & all. I'll let you know how it goes, assuming I survive. :) God bless & keep!

Loose Ends

2006-08-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

First, I got a job! I guess this might not really be a loose end to tie up, but I'll still cover it here. :P I'm now working for web-based textbook sales company. Kinda fun and it brings in some money, so what's not to like?

Second, about the hair. About a month ago I came to the conclusion that I'm not so rich as to justify paying someone else $15 (after tip) every month or so to cut my hair. Since I know other guys who cut their own hair and since Mom has difficulty making time to cut mine, I decided to try my hand at it. The first on really went quite well. The second one, well you probably already read about the second one in my previous post. Really, it's fine from the front - just sketchy in the back, particularly behind the right ear. No worries Natz, I'm sure I'll still be cutting my own hair by time you come in November. Sadly for you, I think it will have grown out by then. :P

Third, it's recently come to my attention that Sam is perhaps the worst message deliver that I know. So Tracy (even though I don't think you read this), my apologies for the misunderstanding/offense the other week. I definitely did not tell Sam to tell you that I told him to tell you that I told him not to tell you hello. (Follow all that?) I couldn't believe it when he told me what he's said, though I definitely understood your response. I've now entered a period of soul-searching to figure out when I became such a rude oaf that Sam would actually think I said that. Honestly...

Well, I hope you're all doing well. God bless & keep!

Note to self...

2006-08-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

Clippers head that says "Right Ear" is dangerous. It's designed for haircuts that are short on the side. It should be used with great caution, especially when cutting your own hair.

It's a Girl!!

2006-08-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

Josephine Elise Labudde! Mother and baby are both fine and I got to hold her for like half an hour. Um, the baby that is. She has her dad's cheeks. :) I'll be posting pictures just as soon as I get them. Brandon got to watch the whole surgery from behind the sheet that blocked Jodi's head. It sounded really cool, especially the part when the surgeon put the suction cup on little Josi's head to pull her out. Man, I'm looking forward to rotations. :)

Well, MCAT prep continues full steam. Two weeks outs. I've noticed that I've posted about the MCAT every post for like 6 in a row. You gotta be getting bored of it. Well, a blog's supposed to be about what's happening in your life, right? Well, my life's a little one-track right now. This week I flash carded (I'm not convinced that's actually a verb) my biology and o-chem notes. Not very exciting, but it's put tons of info right at my fingertips for quick review, letting me focus on my week areas. Since I already had physics flashed, I just need to do gen-chem and I'll have my entire summer reduced to a stack of 2.5"x3" note cards. A little depressing, but oh well. I do think I can honestly say that my scores are improving. I'm now taking a full-length practice test every Wednesday and Saturday. I start them about 9:30 and finish them about 4:30. It'll be about an hour longer on the real day, which, as I have already mentioned, is two weeks from today. Did I mention that I have a little bit of a one-track mind right now?

One very cool and non-MCAT thing I've done is for a "Langhofer's Rock!" group on Facebook. I then invited all Langhofer, Longhofers, and Langhovers (the first is the right spelling, the second is the right pronunciation, and the third is what happens when a moon-shiner needs to change his name after running away to Canada [which, of course, used to be spelled Cnd]). Well, there were twenty of us on Facebook and now 17 of us have come to the family reunion. :) Really, I'm loving this.

Well, that's about all I have for now. Feel free to check out my relatives! God bless & keep!

Coming Into the Home Stretch

2006-07-24T19:56:00.000-07:00

Twenty-six days to my MCAT and eleven days until my adopted sis-in-law has her baby! Should I explain that one? Friend I consider a brother - his family is my adopted family - his wife is having a baby - clear enough? Good!

Well, we've had some good news recently. To start with, the approval for Vlad's Green Card finally came through! That means he can travel to the States, Mexico, Europe, or anywhere else without an issue, he can basically come and go as he pleases, he can work in the State like a citizen, and do pretty much every thing else except vote! Naturally he and I had a little Green Card Approval party the other night (Me, Vlad, and Brandon [the afore-mentioned adopted brother] sitting around eating pizza, drinking wholesome grain-derived beverages, and watching a movie).

Well, it appears that spending the whole summer studying for the MCAT really is turning out to be a good investment (though that wasn't ever really in question). I took my first full-length practice test since finishing my prep book and the grade was exactly what I was hoping for! Basically, if I can get that score on the real thing I should be a shoe-in for UofA-Phx and strongly competitive for even Mayo's! Of course, I hope to improve the score even more between now and the ill-fated August 19th, but we'll see how it really goes. :) Exciting stuff!

On top of all this fun, Kory and Rachel have their Bar Exam and third portion of the CPA, respectively, tomorrow. And the fun continues... :P

Mom's finally home with the boys. Man, is it ever good to have her home. A house is not a home without a mom, particularly mine. Spencer's speech is improving well; his hearing is in the normal range, he's developing the annunciation of new consonants and diphthongs, and he's even picking up things on his own just from listening to conversations.

Well, that's about all I have. God bless & keep!

New Mexico

2006-07-14T07:52:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned how much I hate New Mexico? Now, I have to be fair and say that the most I ever see of it is I-40 when I'm on my way to KS, IN, or IL, but that part makes it quite clear why we were willing to turn the state into one big reservation 150 years ago. Anyway, guess where I've been since Sunday! The capital of the enchanted land itself! See, Vlad has a big Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: Antenna/Propagation symposium here this week and he was gonna be camping all by his lonesome. So, we decided it'd be good for me to come along & keep him company. LSS, here I am.

Actually, Albuquerque's not quite as bad as I've always thought. The down town is really nice and clean. Basically, we've been getting up around 7:30, getting cleaned up, grabbing breakfast, then I've been dropping him off at the convention center before heading over to UNM to study all day. That usually goes 'til about 3:30 or so. On that note, studying's really going well. I should be done with my MCAT review book by the end of next week, which means I'll spend the rest of my time pouring over my notes, doing practice questions, and taking practice tests. All in all, I'm feeling a lot better about the MCAT now than I was back in April. Yikes, that would've been a disaster.

Some of Vlad's U of Manitoba friends are in town for the conference as well so we've been spending our evenings with them mostly, dinner and the like. They're actually a really neat group. There's the associate dean of whatever department Vlad works in then two PhD students that Joe (the asc. dean) and Vlad co-advise. Joe's been a PhD in engineering for years but he's now finishing up a masters in philosophy as well. Additionally, he had his two students take a class or two in philosophy. The end result is that these guys are pretty well rounded and very enjoyable company. You have really different conversations around the post-grad ilk. I like it. :)

This trip has by no means been sans complications. The other day I was walking out to my car from UNM when I got a v.m. from Vlad saying that they were heading to the Ntl. Atomic Museum and I should join them, except I have no way of contacting them. So I head over to Kmart and get a phone book and learn that the museum is housed out at Kirtland AFB. I drive all the way out to the base only to be told by the guard that the museum's no longer on base, but downtown, really close to where I was. I then ticked him off with my psycho-bad turning around skills. *sigh* Not fun. Then as we were coming out of PotC: Dead Man's Chest last night (which is one of the more frustrating movies I've seen in a very long time! No one told me it was gonna be a trilogy! GRRRR!!!) Vlad looks at me and says, "Do you have the keys?" Not good. The only good news is that I wasn't the one to loose them. We're now waiting for the restaurant where we ate last night to open up so we can get the keys, pack up, and go home.

Well, I'll stop boring you. God bless & keep!

Summer Happenings

2006-07-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

Stink, I'm only gonna be able to use that nice generic title once. Or could I call the rest of my posts for the summer the same thing...? Oh well, I'll come up with something for the future posts.

So! The weekend pretty much rocked! Got to spend time with about 25 people from the Bluffton YG who came out to visit Prescott.v We went to the AZ Science Center (which pretty much rocks) and then went up to P-ville for dinner. We then went over to the Granite Dells, which are some psycho-big rocks (that pretty much rock), for Bible study & singing. Spent the night under the stars on the patio of the Knochels' cabin (which also rocks) and had a great, long conversation with Todd D. (who definitely rocks, especially at long, thought-provoking conversations). Church in Prescott, then home again.

Well, Mom & Dad are in Wichita right now with the boys, taking Spencer to a speech therapist there. Though his cognitive abilities are top notch, the therapist says he's far behind his peers in verbal communication skills. They're checking to see if he has an impedement to his hearing from an old ear infection or the like. A year from now he should completely up to par, but it's gonna take quite a bit of work. He's worth it though. :)

With the folks out of town, it seemed like a good chance to have people over to the house, so the YG came here for the 4th. :D Good times! Had about 20 people total, so it was good. Also good was the fact that everyone brought stuff so I basically only had to provide the burgers. Talk about making my job easy! 'Course, I still had to straighten up and mop and stuff, but that was minor. We played games, watched fireworks, set off all manner of illegal pyrotechnics in my backyard (sparklers being included on the "Illegal" list in AZ), and had a generally fun time. Sam brought a friend of his who will be living with us in the new house, assuming all goes as planned. The guy plays whistles! How cool is that?!? He's also approaching 40, which makes for an interesting mix in a house. I'm looking forward to seeing how that shapes up.

MCAT prep is going well. Not just tons of fun, but definitely productive. I'm studying down at Dad's office every day now 'cuz the environment there is much more conducive to efficient studying than is my house, especially w/ to little boys and two little dogs.

I've busted out my mad drawing skills (please note the sarcasm in that comment) since last posting. Seriously though, I think drawing is about the only true talent God gave me, which is pretty sad considering how I've completely let it fall into atrophy over the past years. Now I'm working through a book on portrait drawing (with has always been my favorite type) and it's introducing me to some fun new techniques, which is pretty sweet.

Well, I'd better get back to studying. God bless & keep!

Wow, time goes fast...

2006-06-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

Yikes! I didn't mean to go for two and a half weeks without posting! Sheesh, it goes fast. Well, the rest of my time at Gateway was, as always, a blessing. We had Marcy from Tremont show up to serve for four weeks and Todd Stoller arrived to serve as the summer-long school volunteer. At the end of the summer he'll be taking over Diggy's job as full-time teacher. Ooh, something cool that's happening with the school is that this fall they'll be accepting non-residents as students. Yeah, that'll be more stress for the teachers, but maybe it'll help relieve a bit of tension too.

Ok, I'm seriously thinking they spiked the punch at the last College Weekend or something. Years from now the summer of 2006 will be remembered as The Summer of So Many Weddings! I had four housemates last summer. One of them is now married and two more are engaged. *Sigh* The Truckstop I knew and loved is no more. Cest la vie.

I gotta say, having nearly three weeks away from my family's troubles was a really relief. I barely had to think about it at all while I was gone and when I did it was usually with a family friend offering their support. That blissful oblivion was pretty much shattered when I arrived home. LSS, there's really been no improvement in the situation and the realization that there might not be any sort of good closure this side of a couple years from now is starting to settle in. Vlad, the boys, and their dog are all with us here in Phoenix for the summer while Carmen's up north. She was actually here for about two days the first part of this week, but I stayed with Sam most of the time she was here. Seeing her was, well, difficult. Again, thank you all so much for your continued prayers.

Speaking of Sam, it looks like he and I may very well be housemates within about a month from now. The developers should be done building his house in just a couple weeks and they'll no doubt want to close escrow ASAP after that. Well, Sam doesn't want to live alone and my folks and I agree that it'd probably be a good thing to live out of home before too long. Something about growing up and taking responsibility, or something like that. :P Anywho, I think I'm looking forward to that. Sam & I are pretty compatible & hopefully we can help each other with our shortcomings.

Well, I am officially entirely unemployed. I was given the name of a manager of a Men's Wearhouse to see about getting a job and I called him before we left for Conn., but he wasn't there. Then while I was away I realized how much I need to study for my MCAT on Aug. 19th (which means I won't be at the Gateway sale, but you all should still go!), so I decided to spend my summer in full-time MCAT prep. So, that's what I've been doing for the past two weeks. In the first two days of study I covered more material than I did all last semester, so I think this is really going to work out to my favor. The only thing is, if I bomb this test I'll have to wait a year to start med school. I really hope that doesn't happen. :P I guess I could always teach English somewhere abroad, but I hope I don't get a bad MCAT score on my transcript. In the words of Julie B., "Stress me out..."

Well, we had our business meeting before we left for our trip and I was put in as the Assistant Song Leading Director for the next two years. I'm pretty pumped. :) The brother who was put in as the Director has a stinkin' huge repertoire of songs, so hopefully I'll learn well from him. One other thing I'll be doing with my summer is hospice volunteering. I'm doing my training right now, so I'm not sure when I'll actually start. I considered doing hospital volunteering, but the idea of actually working with the patients and assisting them as they go to their deaths seemed like it would be more personally rewarding, and hopefully I can be used for some good.

Well, that's about everything I have going on right now. Oh, I also finished refinishing my .22 rifle that I disassembled like two years ago. :D It turned out well. Also! I'm reading a collection of essays by a former surgeon and med school professor name Richard Selzer. He writes about life, medicine, and the human body. Wow. I've read some great essays, but his stuff is like nothing I've ever read before. Completely enthralling! He inspires both to write and to practice medicine! *Contented Sigh* Good stuff. :) Ok, THAT'S everything. Hopefully it won't take me so long to post again. God bless & keep 'til then!

A Bad Day of Diving is Better...

2006-06-04T04:41:00.000-07:00

Well, that didn't turn out like we expected. Would you like to hear the harrowing tale? Too bad, 'cuz that's all I'm gonna type today. :P

OK, so Nate wakes me up at 5:55 in the stinkin' morning. Have I ever mentioned that I really hate waking up? But that's beside the point. We get up and go, following his handy GPS unit that almost gives us perfect directions. It messed up right before we got to the marina and we had to try again. Weird roads. Anywho, we finally get to the marina and the place is shockingly empty. No captain, no other divers, nothing. So we wait around for a bit before calling the captain. He says, "Oh, are you already there? Ok, I'll be there soon." We're pretty shocked 'cuz the boat's supposed to leave at 8:00 and it's already 7:35. So we're waiting and waiting before it dawns on me that we're in the Chicago area (East Chicago, to be precise) and that they have different time up there. We gained an hour coming from S. Bend. Meaning we lost an extra hour of sleep. Bummer.

So, the captain eventually shows up, as do four other divers and a dive master. We get all loaded, all our gear is hooked up, and we're ready to go. Earlier the captain had ran his engine to stir up the oil, which he had changed just the previous day. We all on board and he goes to start up the boat, but all that happens is that we hear a *CRUNCH* and a *WHEEEEEER*. Then we hear the captain say, "Oh no." Not a comforting sentence. HE tries several more times, but all we get is the *WHEEEEER* sound. He tells us the problem and says that there's a shop where he can get the part, but it's gonna take about an hour to get the job done.

Now, here's where the day had a good point. The cap'n recommended to Nate that we go over to Frankie's on 169th St for breakfast. Undoubtedly the best advice we got all day. Sooooo good! Free orange juice and muffins just for sitting down. Ah, it was enjoyable. :) We get back to the boat and shoot the breeze with some other divers and the dive master for a while before the captain comes back and tells us that the boat isn't going anywhere that day. We break down our gear.

Well, once you've got your hear set on diving it's pretty hard to change your mind, so we decided to go to France Park (between Monticello and Logansport) to dive there 'cuz they've got the place all set up for diving. So we go back to S. Bend, pack up, load up, and head out.

We get there after about an hour, unload, pay our fees, sign our lives away to the people at the lake, and start suiting up. I then realize that I've left my dive boots on the boat earlier that day. Very frustrating. They didn't have any for me to rent at the dive shack at the lake, but the owner let me borrow his, though they were size nines. Oh well, they worked!

LSS, we had good times. We also learned that neither of us can take a compass heading worth a good spit. Navigation: the next thing I need to master in diving. :)

Annyway, spending time w/ Nate and Natalie was a lot of fun. I was the first Phoenix friend to get out and visit them, something I will be rubbing in to the girls back at home! :D They seem to be doing very well and spending time with them was about as natural as it could be. *Sigh* I love my brothers and sisters. :) Well, this weeks now well under way and then end of my stint away from home is in sight. Things at Gateway have been well and I meeting more new people each week, which is definitely a good thing. I'd better get going. God bless & keep!

Leo & Me

2006-05-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

, last time I posted I think I was still in New Haven... Yeah, I think that's right. Anywho, I'm no longer there. I am once again the acting Volunteer Coordinator at Gateway, though I'll only be here for like another ten days. Still, it's super-nice to be back & to see people again.

My stay here got started on a bit of a sad note. Marc & Diane, one of the houseparent couples, lost their 6 m/o baby to SIDS last Monday, so campus was really somber all week. The visitations was Thursday and the funeral Friday. I couldn't bring myself to go through the viewing line to see little Marcus' body. This was the youngest funeral I've been to probably by a good seven years. A 2 1/2 foot casket... I'm glad to say that Marc & Diane seem to be holding up remarkably well, but please keep them in your prayers throughout the months to come.

The upside of last week was that Beeg was here when I arrived, so we had good times catching up & all. :) Now if only I could get the rest of y'all to show up before I head out on the 10th...

I allowed myself to be persuaded into going to Alabama for the annual fellowship weekend this past weekend. Actually, they didn't persuade me - I just had no better offers and it sounded like fun! If they'd told me about the heat and humidity I might not have gone, but I'm so glad I did! Now I can scratch off one more big AC gathering off my list. :) The best part was singing quartet with John Stoller, Tyler Stieglitz, and Ned Troxel. They have "special numbers" time both Saturday and Sunday night so the four of us sang Saturday. We then joined with ten other brothers Sunday to form a small men's choral. That was beautiful! I got to sing next to an older bass from Morton (I wanna say Fred Witzig) whose bass was so powerful that it was absolutely inspiring! He can downright nail a low D with full strength! *Sigh* I dunno, maybe I should try Nat King Cole's aproach and some a couple packs a day to try to lower my voice. On second thought, maybe I'll just stick for my E flat for now and keep wishing on stars. :)

Well, this week I have Justin (see the new link) and his brother Brandon here as volunteers. So far so good, so I think I'll let 'em stay 'til Thursday. :) Then Nate & Natalie come Thursday night & I follow them back to S. Bend Friday and Nate & I go diving Saturday & we get to see cool wrecks & we're gonna freeze but it'll be REALLY cool! Excited? Who's excited? I'm not excited.

Really.

Honest.

Shucks....

Oh well. :P God bless & keep!

Hi, All You Wonderful People Out There

2006-05-22T18:37:00.001-07:00

If you can place the quote I used in the title, you're my new hero. :)

Hmm, I haven't been posting just tons these past two weeks. Well, I've been distracted & displace. I'm currently sitting in New Haven, Connecticut, having come out for my brother's graduation from law school. Wow, Yale is a GORGEOUS campus! It's modeled after Cambridge & built to look much older than it really is. Stone structure, gothic architecture, cathedral-like designs - it's really impressive. Kinda like stepping into another world. I don't think I ever really realized (and quite possibly don't even now) what kinds of people have come through here, just like Kory. Basically, he's been equipped to be able to have a huge impact for good if he allows God to use him as He will. Should be an interesting ride. :)

I'm not entirely certain why, but I've been struck by an overwhelming sense of melancholy the past two days, especially today. It's not like I'm moping around feeling sad & junk, but I'm definitely in a much more contemplative mood. Seeing all these graduates, including the med students, seems to have made me think about what's ahead of me during the next four years. I even caught myself thinking about the long years of residency, something I usually don't allow myself to dwell on. There really hasn't been an outcome of all this contemplation yet, just that I've been quieter than normal.

I've been obsessed lately with Tamora Pierce's "Protector of the Small" series. Basically, it's total fantasy about a girl in another world who goes through knight training. Fantasy rocks. :D I'm hoping to get some work done over the next three weeks on rewriting one of my reflective essays from last semester, but we'll see how that goes.

Well, I hope this note finds you all doing well & that those of you who went abroad had a truly blessed time & came back safe & sound. Hope to see you all soon! God bless & keep 'til then!

Thank You / Official Apology

2006-05-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all of you who have offered your thoughts and prayers in the last several days. It means so much to know that I have friends out there thinking of and praying for my family. I'd like to tell you that our prayers have moved the mountain and that full repentance and restoration has occurred in my sister's family, but that's simply not true yet. We're probably looking at a long-term struggle, but we have no doubt that God's grace will be felt every step of the way, so long as we are faithful in turning to Him for all our needs. So, from the heart, thank you.

OK. It's come to my attention that the Phoenix Young Group has somehow deeply offended the Remington Young Group, or at least the Virkler family specifically. SO! To clear up whatever it is that's making them try to tear down our Young Group by taking away all our responsible sisters, I offer up a sincere apology on behalf of the Phoenix Young Group for whatever it is that we did that so ticked them off. Honestly though, wasn't it bad enough when Nate took away Natalie? Did you really have to send in Joel to get engaged to Amber too?!? We are sorry and we'll be avoiding Remington entirely in the future to avoid any further damage! Really, there've gotta be better ways of getting back at people...

Pearl Harbor

2006-05-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this week. Originally I was planning on posting what you all were probably expecting - a summary of the grand excursion to and from Peoria. However, it seemed to me that that would be like the Honolulu papers reporting baseball scores on December 8th, 1941. You see, my bomb hit right about the time our van pulled into Albuquerque.

I'm trying to decide how much detail I should trouble you with, so I think I'll just leave it at simply this: my sister has come to believe one of Satan's darkest lies and without major restoration from God the end result will most likely be the destruction of her marriage, her family, and her life. Needless to say, I wasn't too talkative during the trip from NM back home.
The news wasn't a total shock to me because I knew that something very major had been troubling my parents the entire previous week and I'd even considered the possible cause, but it still was like being slammed by a Mack truck when it finally all set in.

The affect on my parents has been really amazing to watch. My dad is usually a very confident, strong personality, but this has left him very quiet and melancholy. My mom has really become the one who's leading the spiritual charge, as it were. Her faith in God's promsises and the power of prayer is phenomenal to see and she's lost no time in recruiting as many prayer warriors as she can.

So if you could include a few sentences for my sister and her familywhen you come before God in the future, I would be very, very grateful. Basically, she needs to see the truth and be restored to her husband and her God.

Thanks for being there, guys.

God bless & keep.

My Kids

2006-05-02T05:16:00.000-07:00

These are my students! Eliziah, the one on the far left, is the only caucasian student in the entire classroom. Kinda interesting considering that the school is only six miles from my house. The difference is that it's six miles as the crow flies, over the mountain and into the heart of southside. Pretty much a completely different demographic there. They were all really good kids though, even the one where you can only see the top of his head. A bit of a discipline nightmare sometimes, but a good student when he can get his hands on what we're working with. *Sigh* I'm gonna miss them. If any of you get a chance to do something like this in your schooling or elsewhere, I'd highly recommend it. It has to have been the most rewarding course I've taken. Well, gotta keep working. God bless & keep!

My Crazy Aunts

2006-04-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

Well, they're not really crazy, they're just Langhofers. :) Basically, if you get the two of them together you're guaranteed a good laugh. Anyway, today they pulled off a super-huge surprise by flying out and surprising (that sounds pretty redundant) my dad for his piano recital tonight! It came off famously; Dad didn't have a clue. :D I almost blew it the other day when I was in my room the and couldn't shake the feeling that I was going to have to clean it pretty soon. So I go out to the landing and ask, "Why does it seem like we're having company in a week or two?" Dad didn't catch on at all but Mom started making these big throat-chopping motions with her hand that finally jogged my memory. Oh well, it all worked out. :)

Have I mentioned how ready we all are for this recital? Dad doesn't know it yet, but he's getting the award for the being the most prepared student, and Mom & I are conviced he deserves it. His teacher asked me how many times I've heard his recital songs and I could only say that I lost count somewhere around 1500. And that's not an exaggeration! But he's doing really well and I'm sure he's gonna do well tonight, so it's probably all worth it. Mom told him that she doesn't want to hear those songs for at least a week after tonight, but I'm vying never again this side of the Pearly Gates. :P

Today was my last day tutoring my 4th grade class. It's really been a good semester with them and I'm SO glad I decided to do that internship. It's been so rewarding working with the kids and seeing each one shine in there own way, even those whom most people would like to see put on Ritalin. Also, 4th graders have gotta be just about the sweetest age to work with. :) *Sigh* Good memories. :) I'll try to get a pic of my group up within a coupla days.

Grandma's been doing a lot better these past coupla days. Really, it's amazing what the difference can be from day to day. The mysteries of what all the human mind is capable of are pretty astounding. Anyway, she's been getting a lot of good rest the past couple of days and that really seems to be helping her a lot. She'd been sleeping before, but it was more troubled sleep than anything else. It's good to have her back. :)

Well, I've got more to say but I'd better get going, so I guess I'll say more later. God bless & keep 'til then!

Bureaucracy Strikes Again!

2006-04-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

Well, with May looming just over the horizon it is again time for the Phoenix congregation's annual business meeting where we vote in trustees, chairmen, superintendents, and the like. One position we elect, apparently unlike a bunch of other congregations, is that of songleader, both head and assistant positions. A while back we decided to institute terms limits to the office, so leaders can only serve two two-year terms in a row. Additionally, elected songleaders aren't able to hold any other elected position at the same time. Now, it just so happens that two of our best leaders are on the pulpit and two more (the best of all, in my unbiased, non-partisan, and fair opinion, being my dad) are coming out of their terms w/o being eligible for reelection. A handful of others are ineligible due to holding various positions around the church. That leaves only four of us as being up for the job, one not having lead for at least three years. Yes, I did say us. I really hope it doesn't sound like I'm bragging, 'cuz I'm not, but I really find the situation comical! Through the intervention and meddling of bureaucracy I stand a good chance of being put in a songleading position above my dad, and me having led barely a year! Ah, and once again we're given a life lesson that proves that, in the words of Thoreau, that government is best which governs least. Well, I'll keep you posted on the mess. God bless & keep 'til then!

Ever notice how good and bad tend to go together?

2006-04-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

Big week and weekend. I'm sooo ready for school to be done. Blech.

Grandma really had an up and down week last week. Wednesday was especially bad, to the extent that mom ended up taking her to the hospital, and this only five days after being in the hospital after she fell and hurt her shoulder. Basically, she was hallucinating. Not like reverting to the past, but more like seeing people & things that aren't there. I missed all of that day, but it was apparently as bad as she's been in quite a long time, bad enough that Grandma didn't think she was gonna make it through the night. *Sigh* Needless to say, this is pretty hard on my mom. The crazy thing is that without any medication Grandma was in top form Thursday night - laughing, making jokes, and eating a lot. It's kinda like watching a bouncy ball, ya know? Today's she somewhere in between those two extremes. Mom was telling me how she basically has to try to think of the situation in terms of medical objectivity or otherwise she wouldn't be able to handle the whole situation. Also, she hates the thought that Grandma might go on like this for years before she gets to go home to Jesus and Grandpa. Really, with her disease, there's no hope of improvement, just a peaceful end. It's tough to watch such a sweet saint as my grandmother going through this. Hmm, I'm having a hard time collecting my thoughts on this anymore, so I'm gonna move on.

Well, this weekend was as sweet a time as Phoenix has had in a while, and that's saying something! It started with communion on Saturday night. We had visiting elders Tom Klotzle, Dale Eiseman (sp?), and Ed Schwartz. Also, Nate & Natalie were back in town, seeing how her father was the one getting ordained. :) Communion was nice enough as it was, then a bunch of the YG headed over to James & Gina's for fun. Ended up doing a bunch of DDR upstairs. :D It's so different doing it on a PS2 instead of a full arcade station. The boys didn't know how to get into the setup mode, so we had to figure that out to change the speed. We also did some recruiting work for our pending roadtrip, seeing how we've lost a few of our original potential travelers.

TScott, Sam, and I topped off the night by repaying Amber and Amy for the mischief they and a few others pulled on Sam's house and TScott's car while they were at my cousin's place with me last weekend. Ah, we did well. :D Amy's still trying to figure out how we got into her car during the night, but the car was locked and her keys were in the house the next morning and Amber's basically in the same position. Unfortunately for them, those are trade secrets. :)

Well, then we had potluck and the communion service. All the ministers from Phoenix and Tucson were there, but sadly not from Prescott. I guess half of them (one, that is) were in B-Town for College Weekend. Btw, who all went? How was it? I'm really bumbed that I had to miss that... Anywho, all of the elders really did a beautiful job with their portions of the ordination service. Tom has really developed a powerful ministry and Ed's tenderness is incredibly heart-warming. Then just being there to support Herbie was a blessing.

Well, now I'm back to the blasted grind and ready to be done for a while. Got a paper due in two days, so I spent several hours in the library Saturday researching that. Eeesh. I don't usually get this fed up at the end of the semester. I probably just need sleep. Oh well, I'll stop complaining now. I sure hope you're all doing very well. God bless & keep!

Half Way Through April

2006-04-18T17:12:00.000-07:00

Well, we're making it through April, despite sunrise services that try to kill us. Seriously, I'm in no way convinced that it's part of God's plan for us to get up at 4 in the morning to worship Him. Just 'cuz Mary Magdalene couldn't sleep... (Um, please put the stones down; I promise I'll stop). Actually, the service was, as usual, very, very nice. Randy Mogler was out and had a beautiful, powerful sermon. At one point he exclaimed to the city, "He's alive!" and his words echoed and resounded over the hills, giving them all the emphasis of Nature. It sent happy chills down the spine, believe me. :)
Choir went pretty well, too. We missed an entry or two, but for the most part it sounded good! I was assigned to sing a duet last minute at our Good Friday practice, but that which had NOTHING to do with us sounding good. I got to sing with my "Aunt" Wanda, which was a lot of fun. Also, our good friends the Kelly's came with two of their three kids and a physician from Mayo's. It's really neat to see how comfortable they've become with our Easter services (this is their 3rd time to come) that they'd bring their friends & family, even though they have their own very active church. Apparently, our services have an intimacy & familial quality that's lacking at their Easter programs. It makes us feel special. :D
Pshew! The semester's almost over, too! I only have two more class periods for a coupla my courses. TWO! Basically, the only thing standing between me and the summer is two finals, one thematic unit (kinda like a series of lesson plans on one topic), and three final papers with a combined length of about thirty pages. No sweat! Actually, two of the papers even have the potential to be enjoyable, so it shouldn't be too painful. :)
Umm, I gotta run so I think I'll cut this post short now. God bless & keep!

Prep'n for the Summer

2006-04-13T16:52:00.000-07:00

So, I know several of you are wondering whether or not I'm going to be the Volunteer Coordinator @ Gateway again this summer, so consider this the official announcement. Ya ready? Yes and no, I think. Let me know if you have any questions.

Seriously though, someone else has been hired for the summer, and I think it's OK by now for me to tell you that that person is Eric H. from Bloomington. I'm so excited for him! I have no doubt that he's gonna do an awesome job, but don't get me started on how he completely forgot his lines for our skit at JH Boys' Camp back in '97. He made a rotten King Hezekiah. :P So that's the "no." The "yes" comes in the fact that he's going to be taking a two-week vacation in the first part of June and Kirk called me today to ask me to be the substitute VC! How sweet is that?!? The "I think" comes in that I haven't told him yes yet, but I really think I will. Dad definitely supports me in it and it would be a real blessing, so that's where I'm leaning. :) Fun, huh? So! That means that you all should definitely sign up to volunteer at some point over those two weeks. Seriously! I'm a great VC to work for! :)

So, at this point it looks like the midwest'll be seeing me at least twice this summer. It looks like about five of us'll be roadtripping it back for the Peoria invite. Ya know, it's amazing how enthused people under the age of 30 get when you say the word "roadtrip"... Hopefully TScott, Sam, Tyler, Amy, Amber, and I will be coming out. Keep your fingers crossed though; it's not final at this point.

Remember how I was supposed to take some really big nightmare of a test called the MCAT in less than two weeks? Yeah, well, I'm not gonna take it. No worries, I'm still gonna go to med school, it's just that I'm in no way ready for the darn thing at this point so I decided to take the summer to study for it (since I won't be VC-ing it should work out well) and take it August 19th. So that relieves a lot of finals-time stress. I really should have gone for the August date to begin with, but you know how it goes. Stupid waste of money though...

Anywho, that's about all for right now. I housesitting for my cousin & his wife right now, so for the next couple days I'll be rather bored, lonely, quiet, and preoccupied with movies on the projection wall. Not healthy, but it pays well. :D God bless & keep!

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is in pre-production!!!

2006-04-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

It's coming out December 14th, 2007!

Of course, I'll probably be busy enough in med school that I won't have time to enjoy life, but maybe I'll be able to read a review, eh?

Luke Knapp Is My Inspiration!

2006-04-05T14:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, that miiiight be going just a tad far, but The Mighty Blogger's current "Brain Teaser" post gave me waaaaay too much enjoyment so I thought I'd pass the fun on to my own blog! My forte of brain teasers is riddles, so here's a faily simple one for you all to ponder.

He who makes me doesn't need me.
He who buys me doesn't use me.
He who uses me doesn't see me.
What am I?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that I won't post again until someone gets it right, which I don't think'll take too long. Um, I'll answer yes/no questions via comments, but I don't think they should really be needed much. Good luck!

What doesn't kill ya...

2006-04-03T14:37:00.000-07:00

Phew! I survived the wedding weekend! Actually, it was a really, really amazing weekend and I have no complaints about it whatsoever. It just left me nearly comatose. I'm really starting to see my dependency on sleep...

Anyway, it all started Thursday night at Freeds'. That night didn't actually go horribly late, but we had a great time. I'd forgotten that Al & Johnny would be there from Francesville! What a treat! They convinced me that I needed to ask Dad for the day off on Friday (easy sell) and he did, so I only worked for about an hour then spent the rest of Friday with everybody else. Tempe Festival of Fine Arts, Knochels for dinner, Jester'z twice in one night (not my idea, but sooo worth it), and Rula Bula. Wow! I could barely drag myself out of bed to meet everyone for breakfast the next morning. After breakfast Saturday morning and getting supplies for the pranking of the couple's getaway car, T-Scott, Al, and I were assaulted by the Johnny and a swarm of waterballoon-throwing girls. Johnny got caught up in the moment and well, my cell phone appreciates all prayers and well-wishes as it didn't enjoy its trip to the bottom of the Freeds' pool while attached to my waist. It's still catatonic...

Then the actually wedding festivities commenced. Oh yeah, did I mention who was getting married? Nate & Natalie. It's such a neat experience seeing two of your good friends get married. Anyway, being with the friends and family at the rehearsal dinner was really special. The love that was expressed for both Nate & Natalie was really beautiful. I'm still not entirely certain how it happened, but both the best man AND the groom spent the night at my house. Good times to be sure, but I don't remember the last time 5 people slept in my room at the same time.

Well, Sunday came around and what a day it was. Church, of course, was full as it's been in recent memory, an usher's nightmare. However, things really went quite smoothly. Herbie had a beautiful service for his daughter. The reception was gorgeous and the creme brule divine. One goof up on my part came when I was practicing for my song with Natz & Bethany. Suddenly I noticed, "Huh, it sounds like the choir's singing." Then it occurred to me, "I'M IN THE CHOIR!" Down went my guitar and off I ran for the nearest door back into the banquet hall. The good news was that I came in right where the choir was standing. The bad news was that EVERYONE in the room saw me "sneak" in. Oh well. The song where I played guitar went really well though! I didn't stumble over words while introducing, I only botched about 2 chords, and Bethany & Natz sang beautifully!

The high point of the reception came right after dinner, when we "decorated" the getaway car. Ahh, not since my first summer at Gateway have I been able to do such a great car job. :D Truly, some of my finest work. Well over 1000 feet of saran wrap, just under 150 balloons, window paint, spray paint - it rocked! Of course, we left them a scissors and some hair pins so they could actually get into the car. Honestly, I'm not sure how I'll top this in the future without going overboard... Oh well, I'll think of something.

Sadly, people started leaving the Valley right after the reception. Johnny & Al headed out right away and Dave, Natz, Bethany, & Kaitlyn took off a couple hours ago. *Sigh* Cest la vie, I guess. Especially when you live in Arizona... But you know what they say - absence makes the heart grow fonder. With that though in mind, I can only look forward to the next I'm reunited with all my dear friends. I love you all! God bless & keep 'til then!

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the flowers is?

2006-03-29T12:02:00.000-07:00

It's spring!! Anyone in Phoenix will tell you that spring is the most beautiful week of the year, so I'm enjoying it to the fullest! For example, this morning when I went out for my jog I saw seven Gamble's quail (those are the really pretty ones with the colorful wings & the plume coming out of their foreheads that that we only have in this part of the country) and a cottontail, all between my house and the main road! Pretty cool stuff! Now if I could only see those same quail when I go hunting for them...

One other really cool thing about spring is the position of the sun. I can hear you all getting bored even as you read that previous statement, but hold on and you might find it interesting. Ok, most of you have been to my house at one point or another and might remember that as you come over the last hill before you reach the valley in which my house sits you get a pretty awesome view of the area. Way off in the distance, past my neighborhood, past the golf course, past the village on the reservation, lays a mountain range, the Estrellas, that covers the horizon. Most of the year when you come over that hill and look up at the Estrellas you can only see their blue silhouette looming in the background. Don't get me wrong, they're a beautiful backdrop for the scene, but that's all they are - a backdrop.

Well, when I'm coming home this time of the year I often have a chance to see something much more beautiful because the sun is at the proper angle to shine down on the near side of the Estrellas and reflect the light back to me. This is really pronounced after a good rain because the mountain literally shimmers! Friends, when this happens those mountains come to life in a way that can barely be imagined at other times. All the foothills, ridges, and ascents light up, giving the mountain true presence and depth. They call for you to come to them and climb them, reminding me of C. S. Lewis' The Last Battle when the character's are making their way to the city of the King (God) and keep crying, "Higher up and deeper in!" Really, it's breathtaking.

As you might've guessed, I got to see that sight this week and when I did I thought about how it's the light that reveals the true depth and body of the mountains. This then led me to the real point of this post. You know how you can read something (maybe a passage in your Bible?) over and over and not really see a lot there? But then light is shed on it and it comes alive for you in a way that you never would've guessed and you suddenly realize how it affects your life? Let me give a brief example, though it's probably gonna be one of those times when you're embarrassed for me in how I just don't get things a lot of the time...

You know how in the Sermon on the Mount Christ said if our right eyes or hands offend us than we should pluck them out and chop them off because it's better to loose a hand or eye than have the whole body burn in Hell? Well, I've always interpreted these verses as applying to our eyes and hands, meaning if we're seeing things that cause us to stumble or sinning with our hands (theft, violence, etc) then it is better for us to get rid of those body parts than to keep on in the sin they are causing. It's a powerful idea, but I'm not sure it's one I can apply to my life every day.

Technically that is the accurate, literal message of the text, but it occurred to me that at no other point in His teachings does Jesus advocate dismemberment as a valid practice of faith, nor do the writings of any of the apostles agree with such an idea. That made me think that there had be more something else that this passage is trying to say. I

t occurred to me that the eyes and hands possibly the two most important things to a person because they are how we perceive and do things. Also, Jesus talks about the right members without the lefts even being mentioned. Surely the chopping would apply if my left hand offended me, right? But of course we know that the right side was considered the more important side (he sits at the king's right side, etc), so the idea of importance came to me again. Because of this recurring thought it seems to me that the true message of Jesus words is that if anything, even something really important to us, even our right eye and hand, is leading us into sin then we must eliminate it from our lives for the sake of the health of our soul. And that is an idea that I can apply to my everyday life.

Perhaps at this point I should put a disclaimer saying that I'm not trying to draw attention to my insight, especially since this concept really is something I'm sure most people realize without having to read my blog. I was just struck by the beauty of the mountains the other day and this was my train of thought. Praise be to God, the giver of all true light.

Well, enough of my sermonizing at ya. :) God bless & keep!

Pardon my brain lapse...

2006-03-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

How is it possible I failed to remember my church's cause for celebration this past weekend?!? We had five provings & baptisms- 3 young sisters and a married couple. No one I talked to could remember the last time Phoenix took up five people at a time, so it was really a treat. The testimonies really were beautiful all around; God's work really was evident in their lives. We had the sanctuary maxed out, but it's not even gonna compare to the wedding this coming weekend...

One last thing we were rejoicing about. Bro. Jon announced that another of my old VBS students has started repenting! I know you should never be surprised when a person gives their life to the Lord, but I really kind of was with this girl. She's the oldest child in her family, meaning she has no converted siblings, and she's really not spent much time with the Young Group. Basically, she's not "typical" of our recent converts. Good thing God doesn't let what's typical define how He works, eh?

Anyway, just thought I'd pass on the good news. God bless & keep!

Back-Pedaling

2006-03-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

It suddenly occurs to me that I've forgot to mention that the person who told me she'd visited my blog wasn't freaky in the slightest, I was just taken back my the thought that I might meet someone who's been here. Kinda dumb on my part since I've done the same to other people. No, quite the opposite. She was a ton of fun to have around for the weekend, especially when we watched my dad try to have a conversation after taking two Ambian. Fun times, let me tell ya! :D So Kara, sorry I failed to clarify that. You're welcome here any time (both on my blog and in Phoenix) and I'll try not to let the fact that someone surfs the web weird me out next that happens!

Kent

2006-03-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

Kent came to Gateway as a resident this past summer, coming from the juvenile corrections system where he'd been locked up for a while. He'd also undergone treatment for alcoholism. He wasn't even 16 years old.

When Kent first got on campus he was loud and confident. He started coming to the Bible study that Kelbs, Hez & I were doing, only to announce that he could never be a Christian. I don't have to tell you that such statements aren't the most encouraging thing to hear when you're trying to lead a Bible study. In spite of this, Hez took a really personal interest in Kent and spent a lot of time with whenever he was on campus or they were both at church. It was really neat to see Hez reaching out to Kent and the other guys on campus, and the boys really soaked it up, sitting with Hez during every service they could.

At the end of the summer Kent gave his life to Christ. To be honest, such conversions are met with certain amount of scepticism on campus because we know that the residents may very well just be pandering to the staff. However, Kent seemed to be genuine and hung in there even things on campus and in the courts didn't go how he hoped. I kept in touch with Hez over the months and got status reports on all the boys, especially Kent.

A couple months ago, less than three weeks from when he was set to leave Gateway, Kent was confronted with something he'd done to break the campus rules. Instead of dealing with the issue as we'd hope he might, Kent ran away. He was on the streets for five days before the cops caught him, whereas most residents I've heard of don't make it even one day. He's been in the lockup ever since, awaiting resentencing. Hez hasn't been able to see him and we really have no idea how he's doing. One thing that is known is that he may be tried as an adult this time.

You know, I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to be Kent. He's dealt with more crap in his less-than-17 years than I'll probably ever go through. The really sad thing is that he had a real chance to break whatever cycle it was that brought him to Gateway, but wasn't able to do it. Who knows where he'll end up now.

Anyway, I don't want to ruin your day with a sob story, but this really kinda hit home. This is the kind of stuff that Gateway houseparents have to deal with on a daily basis and the truth is that even though I've worked with them for over five months I don't know how they manage. But for the grace of God, to be sure. This is why I'll continue to support Gateway any way I can for as long as I can.

The Balmy, Sunny Beaches of the Frozen, Indiana Cornfields

2006-03-14T12:40:00.000-07:00

Let's hear it for Spring Break! I'm sure you're all livin' it up like the party animals I know you to be. So basically, you're either on work teams, recovering from colds, or spending time with your families. Nice to know we're reliable, eh?

Well, I just got back from my Spring Break trip yesterday, though this whole week is actually my break. And where did go for sunshine and warmth? Good ol' Fort Wayne! Sure, I only saw the sun twice in four days, but what's really important in Spring Break? The annual Gateway Representatives' meeting was this past weekend so I went back for that. Actually, I even ended up giving a presentation to the rest of the reps. See what I get for having friends in position to plan these things? Seriously though, even speaking was nice. The presentations were all nice and we broke ground of 4th House, which was really sweet!

Better than any of that though, I got to see nearly all my Ft. Wayne friends from the summer! Andrew, Kristi, and Jenny were already on campus when I got in on Friday and then Hez, Dan, and Zeke showed up for a singing later. Then we went over to Marliese Stieglitz's house, intending to stay for 1/2 hour to be polite. We left three hours later after several extreme fits of laughter. Jenny & Kristi were my primary chauffeurs for the weekend since I didn't have car & they also took care of getting me to and from campus on Saturday.

I was supposed to go to the Winter Jam on Saturday night, but all of the performers just sounded like they were going to be loud and obnoxious and after a full day on campus, that sounded like as much fun as eating meatloaf (meaning really, really terrible). Fortunately, my cousins from Bluffton were in town & took me back down with them to spend the evening with the family. That was good times! Then Todd took me back up to the Truckstop and spent the night, going to church in Leo the next morning.

That afternoon was nice & quiet, giving me a chance to get some good reading done for school. :D Always a good thing! That evening though Derek, Abo, Jenny and I headed over to the Lounge, joining Kristi, Julie, and Leslie for pizza & games (or game, technically). *Sigh* Good times. :) I ended back at TS2 only to find it invaded by the newbies who live there now. Talk about being a different place from when I lived there... The good thing was that I slept through those 116 tornadoes and got like 11 hours of much-needed sleep. It was beautiful. :D

Well, Jenny picked me up yesterday and drove me down to Indi and from there I made my way toward home. Long flights, seats that didn't lean back, but at least we made it. Though I look forward to going back to the area soon, as always, it's good to be home.

1500 hits and counting...

2006-03-04T17:25:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so this past weekend I met a person who says to me, "I've been to your blog." Yeah, that's just kinda freaky. Of course, I've gone to total strangers' blogs, but it still wierded me out a bit. Just a tad...

Hey, speaking of personality tests, I was taking another one when I thought it would be interesting to try and "role play" as a couple of my more faithful readers; I tried to become them and then answer the test as I felt they would. Ok, here's the outcome of the most interesting one, which I thought fit very well. The question is, can you (the reader who I made this for) recognize yourself, and how well does it fit you? Yes, I'm talking to you....

You have a strong need for other people to like you and for them to
admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great
deal of unused energy which you have not turned to your advantage. While you
have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them.
Disciplined and controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure
inside, At times, you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right
decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and
variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restriction and limitations.
You pride yourself on being an independent thinker and do not accept other
opinions without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in
revealing yourself to others. At times, you are extroverted, affable and
sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary and reserved. Some of
your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic.

Lemme know whatcha think, 'k?

I hate change...

2006-03-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

Can anyone spot the template change? I'll admit my blog is MUCH less complex than Beeg's, but I think this one still might take a bit to catch...

Baseballs of the World

2006-02-23T16:55:00.000-07:00

Comparison of Religious Theory in the Late 20th Century - Baseball Version

Calvinists believe the game is fixed.
Lutherans believe they can't win, but trust the Scorekeeper.
Quakers won't swing.
Unitarians can catch anything.
Amish walk a lot.
Pagans sacrifice.
Jehovah's Witnesses are thrown out often.
Televangelists get caught stealing.
Episcopalians pass the plate.
Evangelicals make effective pitches.
Fundamentalists balk.
Mormons are in left field.
Dunkers are down by three. (I so don't get this one...)
Adventists have a seventh-inning stretch.
Atheists refuse to have an Umpire.
Baptists want to play hardball.
Premillenialists expect the game to be called soon on account of darkness.
The Pope claims never to have committed an error.

Voraciously Vindicating Valentine's Day Vanities

2006-01-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

Now, you loyal readers will realize that I'm not the creative genius behind today's catchy title. You die hard readers will also remember that Valentine's Day is not what I call the 14th of February. To you I say, "Happy Singles Awareness Day!!!" (Kudos to those of you who caught the acrostic...) Also, I'm not sure which vanities I'm going to so voraciously vindicate... Hmm, maybe girl who painted her toes pink & then painted little silver, glitter hearts on them? That was pretty cute, ergo valid for voracious vindication. So then! Let's move on!

I won't begin where I should because that would bore you for an hour, so I'll just talk about one experience I had today and then fill you in on the new love of my life (fitting for the day, eh?). So, I walk out of my ENG 241 class today (btw, the prof reminds me so much of you, Natz, that it's not even funny) and I head over to the Hayden Lawn to get some reading in. As I'm walking I see a guy about my dad's age sitting in a camping chair with a sign that say "Bible Study" next to him. I park myself near him and kinda watch him for a bit before asking him which passage he was studying today. He said the parable of the sower in Mat 13 and we spent about 1/2 hour talking about it. It was really, really neat. No doctrine, just looking at the Word and seeing what it had to say and how we might apply it to our lives. The man's name was Gary and he really had a gentle spirit about him, not at all like the loud, abrasive, confrontational "ministers" we get on campus a couple times a year. We talked about a number of things, but what stands out to me is the thought of what the fruit in Jesus' heart must have been like to spill out in the beauty and truth that it did. That thought kinda came from scripture that says that our mouths simply reveal what's in our hearts (horrible paraphrase). It was a wonderful time, especially for being on the memorial lawn!

As to the love of my life: sorry, Babe, you've been replaced! She has a voice like an angel, silky smooth skin, gentle curves, and only speaks when I want. I speak, of course, of my new guitar! Last week I got a new very lightly used Larrivee L-03R. Of course this means nothing to most of you (which is not a bad thing) but suffice it to say it's a huge improvement over any of my old guitars. So when I go home and sing my Singles Awareness Day Blues tonight, it'll be a duet. God bless & keep!

Christmas Creates Quantifiable Chaos

2005-12-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

Not really, but it was a catchy title. So! Christmas week is here! Unfortunately, not everything about the week is good.

This past Saturday morning we got the call that Ruth Vaughn, one of God's sweetest creations, went home to be with Him. Ruth and her sister, Toni, have been my surrogate grandmothers all my life in Phoenix. When I was younger I would go over to their house with Toni's real grandson and spend the night, driving over their shrubs with a mini-jeep. They always made sure they got to me every Sunday. They were always my favorites. They've lived together for the past 35 years, both having been widowed quite young. The funeral will be this Wednesday and I, for the first time in my life,will be a pall bearer. If you think of it, please say a prayer for Toni. She's alone now, and her own health isn't that great.

Well, Thursday we're taking off for the midwest! Central Illinois, here I come! Actually, we'll be heading down to Francesville Friday morning, staying 'til Sunday afternoon. At that time we're heading up to Bloomington and will be there 'til Tuesday morning. Anyone up for getting together? Let me know if so.

I'm really excited about the trip cuz my whole family is going to be together again! Carmen & Vlad are meeting us in Chicago with the boys and then we're all driving over to pick up Kory & Rachel in Indi before heading F-ville. Yeah, the geography's pretty screwed up, but it should work out ok. We'll have the full Huber Christmas on Saturday with all the remaining siblings and all the cousins. Should be great!

Well, I hope your Christmas is as good as I forsee mine to be. God bless & keep 'til then!

The End is Near

2005-12-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

The end of the semester, the end of finals, the end of the year, the end of me waiting for New Years... Oh yes, it's a good time. :)

Three finals down, one to go! Man, things have been busy lately! The Young Group's got stuff going on every weekend this month (which, for us, is atypical) and that's been really good so far. The first weekend we had our Christmas gift exchange, but changed it up a bit. For as long as I can remember we've just been doing a grab bag, but this year we did a Secret Santa (aka Mysterious Magi), coupled with keeping your person in prayer. It was really cool! That Sunday Elder Bros. Ed Schwartz & John Lehman were in town to put in a deacon for Arizona. That was one of the most encouraging times the Phoenix church has had in years! Herbie Knochel got the vote with a 99% vote of approval.

This past weekend we had our monthly supper/singing at the Villas. The other leader wasn't there, so I led solid for like forty minutes. Fortunately, the voice squeakage was kept to a minimum. After that, Andy, Natalie, Tyler, Sam, two other friends, and I all headed over to catch the 10 o'clock show at the Jester'Z. :D They were in top form! Without a doubt, the best I've seen so far. BTW, did I mention that that was the fifth show I've been to in the past three weeks? Addicted, no...just obsessed. We also had the Christmas Program last night, which was really nice. The Sr. Bible Class sounded better than they have for quite a while!

This week the YG's comin' over to my place for dinner, caroling, and random bits of fun, which, since we're also having company on Saturday, means I have to get my Jester'Z fix on Thursday. Fortunately, that was the plan all along. :D I'll be introducing my Little Brother to the place this week. Should be fun.

Hey! I sold my first tweaked whistle on eBay last week! Granted, I barely made enough to compensate for my time, but it was still really cool! I've got another one ready to list, so I should get that up this evening or tomorrow. Yeah, that'll happen right after I make my bedroom look a little bit less like the Phoenix Municipal Junk Yard... God bless & keep 'til then!

Skirts, Skateboards, & Snowflakes

2005-11-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

None of which are things with which I'm personally familiar...

Anyway, I saw one of the craziest things ever on campus yesterday. Um, I'd tell you to close your eyes and picture what I'm describing, but that would mean that you wouldn't be able to read anything, which really would be counterproductive. Oh well, just keep your eyes open, read on, and use your imagination. Imagine someone who could easily be a young AC Sister. Floor length jean skirt, modest long sleave knit blouse, modest hair. You could take this girl and plop her in any college weeken or invite and she'd appear to fit in perfectly. Ok, now imagine this girl skateboarding across the ASU campus! I kid you not, when I saw her I stopped in my tracks and stared after her with my mouth hanging open. Looking back, that probably wasn't the best response I could've given, but it was all I could do at the moment!

Lessee, that takes care of the skirts & skateboards, now on to the snowflakes. Simply put, there are snowflakes on the foothills that surround my neighborhood. Now why, you may be asking yourself, is he talking about snowflakes instead of just snow? Well, no one in their right mind would claim that there was snow on the ground in Phoenix in November. However, to appease those of us who think that the holiday season should somehow look different than the rest of the year, someone once got the great idea of putting dozens of six foot high snowflakes, covered with little white lights, all over the foothills. On top of that, there's about a 1.5-2 mile stretch of road where every tree and cactus is covered in the soft little lights. There are little clusters of lights in the trees, kind of like light-fruit. It all comes together to make a very magical drive home every night and shout "IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS!!!!!"

Fun in the Sun

2005-11-21T12:37:00.002-07:00

You know how you'll be trying to plan something fun to do with your friends on a Friday night but you can't think of anything cool to do? Well, I'm convinced that this is a problem no matter where you live, especially if you're a Christian. Sure, Phoenix has plently of good clubs (or so I've been told), but who wants to subject themselves to such a spiritually edifying and morally uplifting experience?

Well, this is exactly my I found myself Friday afternoon. I was trying to get a group of friends together (the only ones you'd probably know would be Sam & Andy, my two perpetual partners in crime). We were fairly low on ideas until Same suggested going to a comedy club. Now we have our shar of non-Christian-friendly comedy clubs in town (The Improv, The Comedy Club, etc), but Same had heard of one that was family friendly, so we went. What did we get for our $10? 90 minutes of sheer hilarity! This was some of the greatest fun I've had in a very long time! The whole thing was improv, basically just like Who's Line is it Anyway?, based off of audience prompts. It was great!

Moral of the story? Well, I guess it probably doesn't have one, except that if you're ever in Phoenix I now know one more very fun thing to do! Ohh, maybe those who'll be in town for New Years could hit up the Thurday night show... :D That's a thought! Anyway, God bless & keep!

Life keeps on coming

2005-11-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

Kinda a lame title, huh? Well, that's 'cuz I'm not sure what I'm gonna write about yet, but since we're approaching my 1000th hit, I figured I should do something to make people want to keep coming! So, how's an update of my life sound? Come to think of it, that's pretty much all I every write...

Well, let's go with the whistles to start with. I'm still having way too much fun with them, and am gradually improving. I'm to the point that I can play the soprano G without making everyone in the room cringe. Well, most of the time. The D is much easier to play 'cuz it's larger and lower. At Bible study this weekend I played for probably over an hour with Franz Hoerr while he played guitar. He's my "sidekick" for all our praise & worship but is well on his way to being one of the best guitarists in all AC-dom. Anyway, that was a ton of fun, possibly even for him!

That night was one of the most enjoyable evenings I've had with the Phoenix Young Group in as long as I can remember. We're doing a series of Bible studies right now called "Seeking Him" and they are realy powerful. It's all focused on personal revival through self-confrontation and repentance. Then praise & worship was really nice. Well, it ended nice. For the first time ever I encouraged the YG to quiet down while praising (meaning stop chatting with the people next to them), and they responded really well. That's something I was encouraged to do over the summer, tried, and saw real benefits from having done. So overall, it was really a great evening.

Now, what would be an update without a brief (or not brief) mention of my bending exploits? Well, we started work on our 3rd & final paper for my reflective essays class which means that we were given a lot of invention activities to drum up potential topics for our papers. Once we'd compiled our lists one of the questions we were asked was "Which topic probably would generate the most interest from your readers?" and I looked down and saw Metal Bending staring up at me. When we started doing topic-specific invention work my prof asked me what I was doing mine on. I told him and had several people come up to me after class to talk about my bending abilities, most saying that they really wanted to see it.

Yesterday we were presenting our topics and I knew that I'd probably get the same reaction I'd gotten before, so I made sure that I had some silverware with me. Well, I was wrong about the reaction being the same - it was even greater, so great that they wanted me to give a demonstration to the entire class if we had any time at the end of the period. The last four students were, um, "encouraged" by their fellow classmates to speed things up a bit. SO! I performed in front of about 25 peole in the front of class. My knees were shaking for a full minute afterwards, but it was SOOO worth it! It was great!I only did have the bends, but they went well and I got great feedback. Some have even claimed me for the peer review session so they can read my paper! Now I want to start placing myself in situations like that more often so I can get my body used to the adrenaline rush and learn to control it. I'll let you know if I make any progress on that. God bless & keep 'til then!

Blessed be His name.

Whistles & Lunch

2005-10-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

So, I've taken up yet another hobby - making and playing tin whistles! FYI, tin whistles are instruments that are very closely related to recorders. They're also very prominent in Celtic folk music, which explains why on earth I'd care about them. Also, they're a ton of fun to make! I was going to take up the bagpipes, but my parents threatened to take back the whole "You can live at home for as long as you'd like" offer if I starting playing the pipes. Therefore, it's the whistles for me! Ironically, one of the best sources for whistles is The Whistle Shop in Bloomington, IL, which is owned by a guy who plays in a band whose CD I have. Small world, eh? I'll have to throw up a pic of the whistles I've made sometime soon.

I've got another essay due on Tuesday. The assignment this time was to write about a community or place that has influenced me. What better community than the AC church, wouldn't you say? I ended up focusing specifically on scenes from my life that I've spent in the kitchen at church. I'm pretty pumped about the way it's going. The only thing is that I wonder how many people can actually relate to the paper. I know that anyone who was raised in the church would get it perfectly, but I'm not sure about others. First, they have to get over the fact that "Brother so&so" isn't a Catholic cleric!

Oooh, speaking of my varied hobbies, I had a great chance to do some more bending this weekend! I finally got to try some key bending and it worked pretty well. My presentation wasn't just incredibly dramatic, but the effect was none the less very cool. Well, I'll let ya'll go now. God bless & keep!

College Weekend

2005-10-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

Really, what's there to tell since most of you were there to see it? Hmm, maybe I should just end now... Nah, that wouldn't be any fun. :)

So, we got into O'Hare at stinkin' 12:30 Saturday morning and were met by Mr. Pants, Megan, and Erin. I'm still floored that they were willing to come all the way up there to pick us up. We got back to Champaign around 3:00, which gave us about 7 hours of sleep until we had to be up to go to CW. I got to see most of my volunteers from the summer, which rocked so much! Also, I didn't even come close to passing out this time when I gave the Gateway announcement! I got to see all of my roommates from this summer too. I'm standing out in the parking lot when I hear, "Morgan!" I turn to see them parking, five guys spilling out of the sedan. Then they walk to back, pop the trunk, and let the sixth guy out! He'd been in there for three hours, only getting out at rest stops. Crazy...

Sunday I was in Bloomington. Eventually. Natz lent me Melvin (thanks again for that!) & I tried to get to church, but apparently I didn't quite understand the map Scottie drew for me, so I got to church at 11 instead of 10. Ouch, that hurt. A lot of gas too. The good side was that the IL countryside is really pretty this time of year. :) Anyway, Clint got married just fine and I got to see a whole bunch more of my cronies, including Nate and Joel. Have I mentioned that Nato just got dive certified and we're gonna go on a dive trip just after New Years? Should be pretty sweet!

Well, we left Champaign Monday morning at 4 AM to catch our 7:25 flight from O'Hare, but the freeways were a total disaster. Cars broken down, construction, on ramps closed, you name and it probably happened. We missed out flight by about 15 mins. It actually hadn't left when we got there, but they told us that there wasn't time to get ticketed and get there, etc. So we went on standby for a day full of completely over sold flights. The first plane we tried to get on was over booked, but it got delayed 7 hours due to mechanical difficulties and a bunch of people decided to try other planes or whatever. So, we got their seats! End result: we were 11 hours later than we were supposed to be. Oh well, the ticket still only cost me $40. :) One good thing that came out of the delay was that I had a chance to write my midterm paper that was due the next morning! God works in strange ways, eh?

Speaking of midterms, I got 'em all back and they look pretty good! It's amazing how GPAs tend to increase when you're not taking O-Chem... God bless & keep!

Chris

2005-09-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, I've been in Big Brothers Big Sisters for almost three years now. My little brother, Chris, and I get together every week and just spend time together. Now, Chris has had no real religious training whatsoever in his life. His mom was a Jehovah's Witness when she was young, but completely fortunately rejected that, unfortunately only to follow New Age practices such as Reiki (healing engergy) and Tarot (unfortunately). This is the extent of his spiritual background, now taking Reiki "lessons" himself.

Last week we were sitting around the dinner table with my parents when Christ asked them about how they felt about "under God" being in the pledge of allegiance. This lead to about a half hour - 45 min conversation centered entirely around things of God and Christianity. It was entirely done to answer Chris' questions, which continued to pop up during the discussion.
I'd like to say that Chris was incredibly open to what my parents and I shared with him, but that wouldn't really be the truth. He's entirely skeptical about all things pertaining to God. I don't know how I'm supposed to address this issue in our time together, but I pray that he will come away from our relationship with at least a decent appreciation of God, Christ, and His love for us.

Still single but managed to forget my anniversary!

2005-09-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Talk about not getting off to the right start! I just completely forgot even to mention the occurance of the one year anniversary of my blog! Shame, shame on me.

SO! in honor of this momentus occasion, and of my 600th hit, I'd like you all to do me a favor. You see, the hits on this humble blog continue to rise at a rate a shocks even me, but I get so few comments, I'm just wondering who all comes by. Just go to that little "Comment" link and leave something. It doesn't have to be long, not even a complete word.

Thanks for identifying yourselves. I'm looking forward to the more fun we're sure to have in the second year!

Poetry in the key of Adidas

2005-09-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

Here I am, all hot and sweaty.
Gotta run, but am I ready?
13 miles in past my power,
but I just ran for half an hour!

Yes, horribly cheesey, but I was pumped. I running again last night in order to start prepping for the 1/2 marathon I'll be running in January. I hadn't run for 9 months and didn't know if I'd still be able to run at all. To my delight, hence the "poem" I composed while still running, I was able to run for a solid 1/2 hour, meaning that I should be ready to hit the training without needing any remedial training! Anyway, I'll scram now. God bless & keep!

Blessed be His name.

Reflection

2005-09-06T21:49:00.000-07:00

"There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance

We're working on an essay that focuses on our identities in my reflective essays class. I'm doing mine on Mr. White, the single most influential in my life, barring family members. He did a lecture on this quote once, and it quite literally changed my life. I'll try to keep you posted on the progress of the essay (maybe a few excerpts), but I thought I'd just share with you the thing that's been going through my head a lot lately.

Week 14 +2

2005-09-05T20:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, so my original plan was to keep you posted on a week-by-week commentary of my activities while they unfolded. Then I got busy. So I thought I'd play catch up, which probably would've been horribly boring. So, I'm gonna end the Summer '05 segment of this blog with a wrap up. I'll try to keep it concise, but you know that I pretty much stink at that...

Let me start by shutting down one question. No matter how many people ask me, I cannot choose which summer was better - '04 or '05. That's kinda like asking a parent to choose their favorite child - an impossible question. Both summers are precious to me for their own unique reasons. Last year it was the friendships I made, particularly the Fab 4. However, Gateway itself is enough of a reason to make any summer spent there incredibly memorable. Obviously I feel this way, or I probably wouldn't have gone back.

The things that made this summer special were much more broad. It was an intriguing experience going back to Boys Camp eight years after I'd been there as a camper. It so incredibly encouraging recuiting and working with brothers and sister from all around the area, being lifted up by their various strengths. It meant the world to me to be able to serve the houseparents more directily by being the VC. The staff of houseparents at Gateway has my unbounded respect and admiration and it was an honor to be able to serve them. Also, the friendships I made this summer were much more varied than they were last summer, which made for color and vibrance that I never would have expected nor for which I would've hoped.

I'm gonna headline a few areas of the summer and then comment about them...

Greatest Blessings:
Serving the houseparents (as I've already mentioned) and preparing/fascilitating the Bible studies for the young group. I now can perfectly understand why a person would want to go into full time ministry; it's truly more blessed to give than to receive.

Greatest Difficulties:
I doubt that I'll ever have a career in HR, because I'm not sure that I'm the best at handling some of the associated stresses involved with Human Resources. There were a couple times when I really wanted to strangle a volunteer or two, and I'm afraid that I've seen how bad I am at simply communicating my concerns and working them out. However, it was much more often the case that I was overwhelmed with pride as I watched my volunteers work, serve, and interact on campus. Overall, they made my job much easier than it should have been.

List of New Friends:
Lavonte, Joey, Jason, Scottie, Neal, Natalie S, Samantha, Kristi, Katy, Julie, Derek, Zeke, Brad, Todd, Hez, Kelby, Brian, Jeremy, Bethany, Andrew, Beth, Darren, Joe, Lil' Rigg, Amanda, Charla, Vince, Abe, Jeff, and Peter. I now realize that the danger of a list like this is that I've probably forgotten someone. Just post a comment and I'll add anyone I missed! Also, please don't take it personally!

Biggest Thanks:
To the Lord for giving me the chance to go, the houseparents for having patience with me, Kirk and Ed for the same, the Head Truckers for putting me up and putting up with me, the Schlipfs for graciously and repeatedly letting me impose on them (the whole family really belongs of the "Friends" list), and the small IPFW group for taking me into their frienship.

Best Volunteers:
And the award for Best Male Volunteer goes to Jeremy! Not to be outdone, the Best Female Volunteer award goes to Samantha! The high quality of their work, their wonderful dependability, and the warmth of their friendship was an incredible breeze of fresh air.

Well, that'll wrap us up. I'm pleased to report that my transition to "normal" life is going well and that, unlike last year, I was smiling by my first day back. Oh yes, and Leo appears to be doing fine as well. In two months we'll know if he's a boy or a girl! God bless & keep 'til we meet again!

Blessed be His name.

Week 2

2005-07-19T18:44:00.000-07:00

Week 2, Milford:

This was Memorial Day weekend and Kristi and Katy Schlipf invited me up to Milford for the weekend. Fun was had! First off, I got to see Milford’s famous Memorial Day parade. The stinkin’ whole town was there! Did you know that they still throw candy at parades in small towns? I was so excited to see that people still do that! We also got into a stimulating conversation that included us expounding upon the longest vocabulary word in the English language – floccinoccinihilipilification. I was also once again able to spend time with Nate. Also, I learned how to play botchy ball. Ever play it? Kinda like a cross between horseshoes and bowling. I highly recommend it.

But all these things pale in comparison to the vision of loveliness I met while there. Friends, the love of my life has been found! Granted, she’s less than a year old and she’s not exactly a homo sapien, but she still counts! Babe (my girlfriend) is a beautiful little Maltese puppy, soon to be a breeder one of Kathy Schlipf’s breeders. Sadly, it doesn’t look like Kathy will be giving Babe up any time soon. So, it’s looks like I’m still in the Bachelor ‘til the Rapture Club. Fortunately I have a remembrance of Babe that might not be leaving me any time soon. At one point she was showering my face with kisses and she accidentally bit me, actually breaking the skin! So I’ve got a very light Babe-scar across my nose. I’m actually pretty happy about it :D

Week 1

2005-07-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

So, why did it take me 7 weeks to get to Leo for Sunday church? Well, therein lies the tale. Please join me now for a week by week scoop on my activities, especially the weekends. Here we go!

Week 1, Francesville: The first weekend I was here we had a Mexico reunion/wedding for a friend in Francesville. It was really nice because I got to see so many of my friends and family. Got to hang out with Nate & Joel Virkler quite a bit, which is always good. Oh yeah, and Brit walked down the isle pretty well. :) The only down side was that I missed half of the reunion ‘cuz I had to go to a CPR/1st Aid class. The good part of that is that I can FINALLY turn in my rescue diver papers! I had to split early ‘cuz I had to make sure I was ready for my first two volunteers to arrive the next day, as I’ve already mentioned.

The Volunteers

2005-06-28T18:28:00.000-07:00

The first two volunteers to arrive were Samantha and Stephanie (I'm gonna exclude last names just 'cuz this is still the internet), Sam being from IL and Steph from MI. Steph'll be here the entire summer, while Sam will be leaving us on the 15th of July. Paula joined us at the start of June and will be leaving after this week. Charla just came in the midle of June and will also be here for the course of the summer. Samantha, Stephanie, Paula, Charla... Seeing a pattern here? More on that later...

Sam and Steph are regular grounds volunteers, meaning that they are always under my direction, spending most of their time working on grounds maintanence and the like. Paula is a sort of counseling intern, so she spends a lot of time helping the head counselor and helps us when she's free. Charla is a teaching volunteer, so she tutors kids while their in morning summer school and then works with us in the afternoons.

Well, we pretty much hit the ground running as far as getting to work. When Sam & Steph first started I basically kept them busy with the jobs that were the easiest for me to organize for them, seeing how I was still trying to get myself up and running. They did a lot of cleaning and organizing, scrubbing and squeegying. Fortunately we're getting jobs that are a bit more engaging now. They also spends two half days a week taking care of kids in our foster programs, which serves as a nice diversion for them.

Well, short term volunteers we've had include Amanda, Kyann, Heidi, Chalise, and Grace, their stays usually being about two days at a time. You might've noticed by this point that we only have female volunteers. Well, that's not entirely accurate, but it sure feels like it from time to time. I'M DYING FOR MALE INTERACTION!!!! Not that are girls are obnoxious or anything, but a guy just needs guys every now and then for support. Tyler comes and volunteers for a day every now and then, and Darren came and spent 2 and 1/2 days with us. This week Brian is here and is spending 4 days, the longest term for any short termer yet! Also, Jeremy will be coming this weekend and will be here for the whole month of July, so I'm pumped about that! Still, the summer is shaping to be dominated by members of the non-XY gender.

Umm, I think I'll move on to my next posting at this point, but it probably won't arrive for a day or so. God bless & keep 'til then!

Blessed be His name.

Getting started at Gateway

2005-06-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well, finals ended on Wednesday and I took of Friday morning for Indiana. I stopped by Kansas on my way, allowing me to spend some time with a cousin that I haven't really seen for several years. Friends, it's amazing what the Lord has done for this boy. I won't go into the full details for sake of time, but I'll sum it up. Trent experienced great pain at the hands of his birth father and responded how a lot of kids do - drugs and the like. Basically, his life was in pieces. About six months ago God got ahold of Trent and turned him around; now all you see is the love of Christ in his face. It's really a beautiful thing.

Well, I took off from Wichita on Monday morning and arrived into Fort Wayne Monday evening. I'm living in a house owned by a few brothers from Bluffton and there are currently four of us occupying the place, but by the start of the fall semester there will be eleven guys there. Thankfully, I'm not gonna be one of them! I'm living about eleven minutes away from campus, but near enough to the Fort Wayne group that I'm able to spend quite a bit of time with those who are in town to attend school at IPFW.

My first week was nothing but me trying to get myself ready for volunteers arrive the following Monday. Basically I got set up with the computers (mine broke on the trip out), get established with the house parents (most of whom I already knew) and went through my own orientation. That seems like a lifetime ago, but just yesterday at the same time. I also tried to get my recruitment efforts up and going. They ended up taking the form of an html-based email which directed people to this webpage. That email was sent out to about 200 people.

Well, volunteers showed up my first full Monday and have been here ever since. At last count we have had fourteen different people volunteer from all over the country. California, Illinois, Bluffton, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and of course me from Arizona. :D We pretty much hit regular schedule after that first week, so I'll stop now and go on to my next section: The Volunteers!

He's Alive!!!

2005-06-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

And even though my Lord Jesus Christ IS alive and ruling in Heaven, He isn't the "he" that I'm referring to. No, that would be me. So, with finals and everything accompanied therewith, I had like zero time for blogging during the end of the semester. The end was of course followed by my leaving for Gateway Woods, where I am at this moment. Rather than bore you with an INCREDIBLY long post summing up all my recent activities, I'm gonna break everything up my categories and let you read the individual parts however you desire. This may take a few days, but I'm OK with that if you are. Well, let's get started!

An interesting diversion

2005-04-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

I was wandering around, found someone else's blog by mistake (typed in the title of my blog instead of the handle), and came across a personality test, my results as follows. Isn't it interesting how they never say something like, "boring, stuck up, arrogant, hopless?" I mean, it's like a tailor made fortune cookie! Of course, fortune cookies tend to make you feel good about yourself.... Maybe that's why I ended up posting it, eh?

Your Top Ten Traits

1. Religious
2. Conservative
3. Traditional
4. Intellectual
5. Stylish
6. Romantic
7. Athletic
8. Adventurous
9. Shy
10. Wealthy/Ambitious

My week in review

2005-04-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

Well, my week began like too many of them do - with me studying for an O-Chem test. Actually, it was only the third one of the semester, but they still seem to come waaaay to frequently. Ya know, I'm not exactly a pretty picture by time test day Wednesdays come around. I haven't shaved since Saturday, I'm running around in my "grungies;" not a pretty picture. Well, after studying my butt off I took the test that would determine whether or not I go into the final with an A or a B. I started last semester with an A and lazied my way down to an A- going into the final, which resulted in a B for the semester. SO AGGRAVATING!!!! However, I started this semester with a B and have worked myself up to and A! So, lots of studying in the next three weeks should lead to me coming away with an A for O-Chem! What is it James said, "But He giveth more grace...."? Yeah, pretty applicable here.

So, last night I came out of my one year long retirement and went to a concert! Todd Agnew, Barlowgirl, and Warren Barfield; pretty good stuff! Todd had a ton of great things to say, as did Barlowgirl. I came away pretty pumped. :)

I'm working now to get volunteers signed up for Gateway this summer. It's coming fairly slowly. A decent number of people are in the works, but communicating with them via email can REALLY drag on. Which reminds me: Tami, have you had a chance to talk to Tommie about the CW registration list? Could you let me know either way? I really need to get on that.

Well, you've just been caught up on my life. School, work, looking forward to Gateway. That's pretty much my life right now. Well, hope you're all doin' well & holdin' in there. God bless & keep!

Blessed be His name!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

2005-04-15T14:46:00.000-07:00

Today, April 15th, is the happiest day of the year! Ok, so that's a lie, but it is my mom's birthday. In honor of her, I thought I'd pass on the card I wrote for her. C ya!

For my Mother,

When the quiet moments steal over me,
like a cloud upon a mount,
And my thoughts turn to the deep things in life,
Then do I stop and wonder why,
like warmth from the sun,
God has showered blessings upon my life.
I stop and think of all He has given me,
the things of which so many in this world are deprived.
In these quiet seasons, I thank my God for you.
It was you who taught me what it meant to love,
Not merely through words, but through your touch.
It is you who shows me how to love others,
And in you I find the source and object
of my deepest affection.
Though often I stumble and allow my
foolish pride to cast a shadow on a day,
Never has there been a moment when
I have not loved you with all of my heart
And thanked the Lord for the gift of you.
May He make this day special,
And may my love be a blessing to you.

Eleven Years Past

2005-04-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

          Monday, April 11th, 1994 - Mesa, Arizona. Eleven years ago today, five hundred seventy-four weeks in the past, even on a Monday. That was when I gave my life over to the Lord in repentance, more than half my life ago. Wow. You know, it's so crazy to think back over all that I've experienced since then. So much has happened in the church, the Young Group, and me.

Back then, I didn't even know what to say when I was at a Young Group function.
          Now I lead the singing.
Back then I was the youngest in the group by a good three years, right behind my brother.
          Now I'm the oldest.
Back then everyone seemed so old,
          Now they all seem pretty young.
Back then the Phoenix Young Group and church were nearly torn apart with division,
          Now we stand united.
Back then I'd never messed up in my spiritual walk,
          Now I stand covered in bruises, but clinging to the cross.
Back then I really had no comprehension of the incredible love and grace by which man may stand before our Lord with the hope of salvation.
          Now those things are the only thing worth living for.

I never would've guessed that I'd have seen what I have, but I thank Him for each step along the way. Gotta wonder what will happen between now & the next Monday, April 11th, which will occur in 2011. I sure don't know, but I'm looking forward to the ride. God bless & keep.

Blessed be His name

Morgan the Mesmer

2005-04-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

Apparently I'm psychic. No, not psycho like you thought, psychic! Wanna hear the story? Thought you might. :)

Ok, so I might've mentioned a few posts ago that I do a fork bending routine, meaning that I can do a series of effects that truly make it look like I can deform metal with my mind. I'm sure you've heard of people who claim they can accomplish this feat by using nothing but their minds. Well, if they're bending metal with their minds then they're doing it the hard way! Let me state hear and now that I have ABSOLUTELY NO PARANORMAL ABILITIES!!! However, if you ever see me perform I'll try to convince you differently. :D Anyway, my lil brother Chris & I decided to have some fun & go video me bending for people in public. So I tell my sister, "We're gonna go convince people I'm psychic!" Oh, what an ominous omen....

We headed over to the mall & quickly found some gullible-looking teenagers to help me. I'm about half way through my routine when a lady with a thick accent says, "You're better than Uri Geller!" Now, Uri Geller is the most famous metal bender in the world! He has made his living for the past 30 years by convincing people that he's psychic. He's also a total fraud, just like me. Sadly, not all people realize that.

It turns out this lady had seen Geller perform some years ago in Hungary. She was a very friendly lady, wanting to talk & share her experience with Geller. She told me that the bending hadn't worked for her, that you must just have to have "the gift." Then her little girl asked if I could teach her how to do it. Of course, I said "Nope." I mean, I'm a performer, right? You can't just pass around your secrets like candy! Then the lady says, "I don't think it's something you can learn, it's just a gift you have." Well, I was kinda in the middle of a performance and wasn't exactly ready to break out of it. So I just kinda ignored her comment, finished my routine and we were one our way.

Ok, it wasn't until a bit later that I started feeling really weird about the whole thing. I mean, that lady woke up this morning more convinced than she was yesterday that there really are people out there who have nutzo abilities, when really all they are is charlatans. She really believed. I guess I'm gonna have to come up with some way of handling situations like that w/o coming out and confessing. Oh well. Pretty crazy. So, the next time you're starting to believe in someone's strange abilities I want you to remember my Hungarian friend. :)

Right click here and save for a sample

Attention all units!!!

2005-03-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

Consider this the OFFICIAL announcement. Ya ready? No really, are you? Hmm, I don't think you are.... oh well. I got the job at Gateway this summer!!! I just received permission a few minutes ago from Kirk Plattner to go ahead and tell people, so you all are, basically, the first to hear! This then explains my last-minute purchase of a ticket to College Weekend. You can't imagine how blessed I feel that God has seen fit to allow me to work in this capacity over the summer. Hopefully everyone who works at Gateway this year will come away feeling at least partially as blessed as I did last August. Well, I better get some studying done. God bless and keep!

Blessed be His name.

Goodwill

2005-03-27T23:18:00.000-07:00

And now for something on the lighter side...

Ok, so I remembered that yesterday was the biweekly half-off sale at Goodwill so I decided to see if I could find some jeans that fit. I to Goodwill for the first time on my own earlier this semester because I was trying to find a good place to buy forks for my fork bending routine (which is a post in itself. mentalism: all sorts of good stuff). I get to Goodwill only to find that all the jeans are pretty much gone; I guess I came too late. However, I found this awesome pair of Roundtree & York (Dillard's brand) cords for $3! Believe me, I was stoked. Moral of the story: if you (like me) have managed to be a college student who doesn't shop at the local thrift store, it's time you started. That's where you'll find me every other Saturday now. :) C ya!

Greater love hath no man than this

2005-03-25T17:49:00.000-07:00

This being Passion Week, I am reading through Luke's account of the crucifixion of Christ. I know my observations on things like this aren't exactly deep, but it's nice to express them anyway. Ok, here we go:

Scene: Garden of Gethsemane
Time: The First Good Thursday (?)

Christ has been thinking about his death a ton in the time proceeding this night. He's repeatedly told His disciples that He will soon be dying, that He is going to be killed, but they don't get it. Mary seems to be the only person who understands that something terrible is getting ready to happen. Jesus has just spent one final evening with His disciples, even the one who will get Him killed. Knowing that this was really the last time that they would have to spend together, Christ has tried to teach the disciples as He can, going so far as to wash their feet as an object lesson as to what Christian love is to resemble. After reaching the garden Christ cries out to the Father, "Father! Please don't make me do this! I don't want to have to suffer this way!" And He doesn't have to, but chooses to submit to God saying, "Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done."

After gathering Himself to the point that He is ready to continue with His purpose, He rises and goes forward to meet His murderers. Judas walks past the sleeping disciples and sticks a knife in Christ's back, disguised as a kiss. Suddenly a mob of people swarms towards Christ to arrest Him. Peter jumps up and swings a sword at the head of one of the men rushing towards Jesus, cutting off His ear. Now this is where things really become interesting. The man deserves to have his ear taken off. I mean, he’s coming to kill Jesus, for crying out loud! This man is helping to bring about the suffering that has been weighing our Lord down for so long. Christ could ignore the man and be completely justified. But He doesn't. Instead He says, "Peter! Put away your sword!" Then He stoops to the ground, picks up the bloody piece of flesh and puts it to the now-trembling servant's head, completely healing him.

THAT is the love of our God. That is what we are called to do to those who hurt us. So I was forced to ask myself, "Do I love like that? When I'm suffering do I stop to care for others who are in pain, even those who are hurting me?" The answer, sadly, was no. Not yet. I get the feeling that this is part of that thing we call "The Walk." We walk toward this mark, pressing toward the high calling of Godly perfection. But until we get there, Christ has left us a picture of the view from where it is we're heading, just to wet the appetite. Thanks be to Him for showing us the same love and compassion that He showed to the servant so many years ago.

Blessed be His name.

Divine Deductions

2005-03-18T18:24:00.000-07:00

I was recently struck with an idea for a paper focusing of the methods of Sherlock Holmes that I hope soon to compose. While researching the topic yesterday I came across a quote from The Adventure of the Naval Treaty that was so striking that I knew immediately that I must pass it on to you. Being one of Doyle’s' stories, it is in the words of Dr. Watson, describing the actions of Mr. Holmes.

"What a lovely thing a rose is!"

He walked past the couch to the open window, and held up the drooping stalk of a moss rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects.

"There is noting in which deduction is so necessary as in religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its colour are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers."

How beautiful is our God who loves us so much that even before we existed, in the time of Creation, He thought to put flowers on this earth to serve as beautiful "extras," pointing us to Him.

Blessed be His name.

Update

2005-02-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

Well, my poetic musings were a bust until Saturday. Then, after an exhausting week, I headed for the local coffee house, partook of a wholesome non-coffee beverage, and worked on some long-forgotten pieces. Ahh, I really needed that creative diversion! However, I didn't finalize anything, so nothing is post-worthy. NOW! on to the update!

In case you didn't know, I turned in my application for the summer Volunteer Coordinatorship at Gateway several weeks ago. Kirk and Ed are now going through the selection process to pick the right man for the job. They've graciously offered me a tele-interview option to save me the time and expense of traveling out to Leo, and my interview is set up for Wednesday afternoon. SO! If you happen to have some spare prayer time, I'd appreciate it if you could remember the three of us, and most of all ask that His will would be done in the matter. I'll be sure to keep you updated!

Warning!

2005-02-12T19:19:00.000-07:00

Careful where you read, I'm waxing poetic tonight and that's rarely a good thing for those who have to read my ramblings. Yes, you've survived my poetry thus far (though you mightn't have realized that it was mine) but will the next one kill you?!? Hmm, we'll see if I feel like posting anything soon. In the mean time, check this site out. http://www.mysticalball.com/ First few times I tried it it actually occurred to me that the site might be possessed. Forunately I got over that and am now performing this in group settings. It knocks 'em dead. :D See ya soon!

Love is in the Air

2005-02-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

Calm down. You didn't miss any anouncements, nor are you likely to hear of any for quite some time yet. :) However, given what infamous day is coming up on Monday (Singles Awareness Day, that is), I thought that this would be an appropriate attention getter for my post. It even goes with the idea!

Before I try to wax profound, let me dispell some rumors. First, contrary to popular opinion, I am still alive! In the words of the great cynic Samuel Clemmens, "the report of my death was an exageration." No, the marathon didn't kill me, and I even finished it in under five hours! Four hours, fifty-eight minutes and twenty-eight seconds, to be exact. Secondly, I am still a blogger, I've just been taking an unexpected and unplanned hiatus. Anyway, I'm back and sitting here, I'd forgotten how much I liked posting! Now! on to love being in the air!

Turn with me now (mentally or physically) to 1 Corinthians 13 - the "Love Chapter." Before we go there, flip to 1 John 4:7&8, which says, "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Familiar enough verse; basically says we HAVE to love or we're not walking right. Now back to 1 Cor, specifically verses 4 & 5, which states, "Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own."

Ok, so we have a description of the type of love that we are supposed to be showing in our lives, and this of course should apply to EVERYONE we meet. Does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, and does not seek its own. Well, now you get to hear why these lines have found signifignace in my life lately.

I'm sure most of you have had at some point or another noticed that my sense of humor frequently tends toward sarcasm. Nothing too sour, but a whole lot of “Makes sense if ya think about it”s and stuff like that. I'd argued in favor of sarcasm, claiming that it isn't the lowest form of humor; it takes a quick wit and tongue in order to pull it off well. I was glad to know that I was perfectly able to pull off "good" sarcasm.

A few weeks ago I apparently pulled one too many one liners on my mom, and she decided to set me straight. There's no need to go into the content of the mini-lecture, because I'm sure you've all heard similar ones from your moms at some point in your lives. Basically, "If that's what you do to everyone, then you're gonna have trouble some day." Now, at some point in your lives you've probably also almost completely dismissed something your mother said to you. Ok, now you know where I was two weeks ago. It was the first real day of O-Chem lab and the TA was explaining some stuff to me. Well, he messed up and I harassed him about it. A few minutes later he told me, "Try not to be a smart*$$ about it. I don't have to help you." Friends, you can't imagine how much that slammed me. It was all I heard in my head for the rest of the day and half of the next.

Now, I have since apologized to him and he seems perfectly fine about the whole thing, but it really affected me. My mom's words came pounding back in my head, and I eventually thought my way over to 1 Corinthians and things kinda fell into place. I realized that sarcasm isn't the lowest form of humor because it's the easiest, but rather because of what it does to both the sender and receiver of the sarcasm. When we're operating with an attitude that allows us the arrogance of sarcasm we are parading ourselves, puffed up, behaving rudely, and seeking our own. Hmm, why am I saying we? I, period. The love that I'm supposed to be showing to the world has NO room for that kind of attitude. In essence, a big hand came down from the sky and smacked me upside the head.

Well, that's enough bearing of my soul for today. I hope you're all doing wonderfully and haven't been smacked lately. God bless & keep!

Blessed be His name.

New Year

2004-12-30T13:15:00.000-07:00

I know it's been quite a while since I've posted, but considering what time of the year it is I'm sure you can understand. I've been reading a collection of letter written by General "Stonewall" Jackson to his wife, and it has been enlightening to see just how all-encompassing was his faith. I'll probably post a quote or two from the book sometime here in the future, but hopefully this prayer will suffice 'til then.

Dear Father, Thou who created time and days, we come before Thee to ask Thy continual presence to be with us as we set foot into a new year. Lord, we confess that in past times we have not kept our focus on Thee, that we have allowed our own temporal interests and desires to crowd Thee out of our sight. Father, forgive us for our wandering attention, for our dissatisfaction with Thee. Lord, turn our eyes again to Thee and make us to find full contentment and fulfillment in the fervent pursuit of Thee and Thy will. Let this pursuit be the burning passion of our lives in the year to come, that we may stay ever in the center of Thy perfect will. In all things, Lord, we pray, let Thy will be done in our lives. We pray these things in the name of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, know that if we ask it shall be given unto us. Amen.

May this prayer be realized in every aspect of your lives throughout the year to come, that we may close 2005 being closer to Him then we are today.

Blessed be His name.

The Harvest

2004-12-06T08:02:00.000-07:00

Großer Gott,
Laß meine Seele
Zur Reife kommen
Ehe sie geerntet wird.

Great God,
Let my soul
Come to fruition
Before it is harvested.
-Selma Lagerlöf

WooHoo!!!!

2004-12-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

CHECK IT OUT!!!! I finally got an mp3 streamed onto my blog!!!! I had much more trouble than I should have. :| This means that I can now put up longer clips; actual music. This current one, you might remember, is my own recording. What will be showcased next? Who knows!?!?! You'll just have to come back and see. :)

A Vision of God

2004-12-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

God says we need to have a vision. So we must ask Him for it. But getting a vision from God for out future doesn't mean He is going to reveal all the details of what's ahead. He only promises to revel Himself to us, when we seek Him. That's because He doesn't want us to know the future - He wants us to know Him, He is our future. When we know Him, He guides us into the future He has for us.
- Stormie Omartian

The Prophet

2004-12-01T14:12:00.000-07:00

I've got this Lebanese friend who astounds me. Sadly, he died back in 1931, so he never gets to hear how I respond to what he has to say. Here's a transcript of our conversation earlier this morning, and of course, he did all the talking.

     And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."
     And he answered, saying:
     Your friend is your needs answered.
     He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
     And he is your board and your fireside.
     For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

     When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."
     And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
     For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
     When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
     For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

     And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
     For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

     And let your best be for your friend.
     If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
     For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
     Seek him always with hours to live.
     For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
     And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
     For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

Family

2004-11-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

What is a family?
Is it a distinction,
A collection of genes?
Is it a line of descendents,
A memorial to an ancestor?
Is a family a group into which you are born?
It is so clearly cut as to be defined?

What does it mean to be related to someone?
Do you share a complexion,
Or laugh with the same gusto?
Do you each own a branch of the same family tree?
Do you migrate to the same reunion?
Were you each kissed by the same crazy aunt?
Do you know today who all your relatives will be?

Let me tell you what a family is.
It is a flock traveling toward the same goal.
It is a collection of souls.
A family is a line of memories,
A memorial to an emotion.
It is an embrace into which one is drawn.
It is an symphony being played on the heartstrings of its performers.
It is far too ethereal to be defined.

And what of being related?
It means to share an experience,
To laugh with the same understanding.
It is planting and watering a sapling.
It is being drawn together in blissful communion.
It is to reach for the hand and touch the heart.
It is to realize that you are a family,
And to smile.

Immer zusammen, immer mit Gott.

It's beginning to look

2004-11-22T16:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, when you think of the word "desert," do you think of a snow covered plain? No, neither do I. Well, I've seen it. Let me explain.

In case you didn't know, this is my favorite time of year - the holiday season. Call me a grown up kid, but I love the family, the lights, the cold weather, the sweaters, the carols, the cider, the fires, the shopping... I could go on, but I'll spare you. One aspect in particular, the cold weather, does amazing things to the climate here in the Sonoran Desert. As the temperature approaches the dew point, it's not uncommon for me to wake up in the morning, look out towards my mountains, and see their peaks completely covered in clouds. It's a sight that recons back to something from Olympian mythology. Sometimes rather than obliterating the peaks, the clouds will settle low and let the summits poke their heads out as the lights from the towers flash their warm, red signals.

Last I week on was on my way to my early-morning O-Chem lab. It turns out that I left an hour early because I forgot my schedule, a phenomenon that seems to plague my friends. The road on which I drive is the very southern border of the city; on one side there is city and on the other side lies the desert. I was coming down a hill towards my road when I saw one of the most awe inspiring (not just awesome or incredible) sights I've ever seen. Snow-white dew covered the entire desert floor for as far as the eye could see. The hills, mountains, trees and cacti seemed to spring from a thick bed of pure snow. My friends, it was stunning - the kind of scene that would cause Wordsworth and Shelley to immortalize the moment in verse. Had I not thought I was late for class I could have sat there and just stared at the scene, watching the mist dissolve away into the cool morning air, running to hide from the sun's warm rays. It was one of those moments when I'm truly stunned by the beauty of God's creation and I marvel at how he saves these perfect moments, waiting for just the right time to reveal them to us.

Blessed be His name.

Aeolian Meditations

2004-11-10T17:28:00.000-07:00

For never guiltless may I speak of him,
The Incomprehensible! save when with awe
I praise him, and with Faith that inly feels;
Who with his saving mercies healéd me,
A sinful and most miserable man,
Wilder'd and dark, and gave me to possess
Peace, and this Cot, and thee, heart-honour'd Maid!

From Samuel Colderidge's The Aeolian Harp

Blessed be His name.

Relating

2004-11-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

Do you ever find it hard to relate with your parents? Don't get me wrong, I'm blessed with strong relationships with both of my parents, but at times it's still hard to remember that they were at one point young, single, and not my parents! You know what I mean? Well, I had (and am still having) an experience this weekend that is helping to fix this.

While helping my dad look for some paperwork, I came across a box full of old envelopes and letters. After a few seconds of snooping I realized that my dad had written the letters to his family while stationed overseas. In addition to the letters I found a few audio tapes. Anyone who knows me has no doubt realized that I have an insatiably strong sense of curiosity. Well, the inevitable happened and I grabbed a couple of the tapes and ran up to my room to listen to them.

Wow! Talk about a blast from the past! The tapes were audio letters that were sent to my dad while he was stationed in Thailand. Let me set the stage. The first Langhofer grandchild, now a married veterinarian, had some bad diaper rash and was crying a lot. Uncle Bob, now married w/ three sons, was eight year old "Bobby." Aunt Mary was getting ready for here ninth grad party, where she was known as Mary Beth. My dad was unconverted at the time.

Most of the content was simply comical to hear - Bobby wondering if Dad had a girlfriend yet, Mindy thanking Dad for the birthday card and five dollar's he'd sent her. What really touched me were the messages from my grandparents. Their content spanned from the insurance claims from a recent hail storm to the death of Great-uncle Chet, a warning to Dad to quit smoking, to the news of one of Dad's friends’ recent conversion.

Throughout the tapes you could hear the concern my grandparents held for my father, for his safety as well as his soul. Hearing them not as elderly grandparents, but as parents barely older than my own really made me see them in a different light. Hearing my grandparents speaking to Dad when he was younger than I am now also helped me to gain a new view of him. It helped me to see that what he was going through in his life really wasn't much different that what my siblings and I experience. It helped me to see that my parent's worries are exactly the same as those of their parents. Profound? No. Important? I think so. I feel like my little tale is lacking closure, but that's kinda how I feel about the whole thing right now, so I guess that's fitting.

Ecclesiastes 1:9:
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

Hebrews 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

G Improv

2004-10-31T21:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I wasn't as productive this weekend as I should've been. Here's part of the reason http://www.geocities.com/scubavintner/GImprov.mp3. I spent a few more hours dabbling with this tune than were expedient. Sorry for the poor quality, but it's been sampled down for your convenience. Hope you like it, 'cuz I know I'm pleased with it. God bless!

BTW, this weekend's long run results are as follows: 11 miles, 1 hr, 41 mins!

Dare to be different

2004-10-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes you're thinking that things are going quite well for you? I mean, you're communing with God, spending time with Him, and everything thing seems to be flowing down the right stream. Then suddenly God says, "Hey, here's something really simple that you've missed your whole life!" Man, I hate that. Actually, I love it. I think you know what I mean. Let me give you a recent example...

We now have 11 converts in our Young Group. 11! That's the most we've had in a seven years. Exciting times! I remember when I was a convert. I remember one time one time I was visiting another Sunday School and the teacher asked me if I was repenting and I said, "Yeah, I'm a convert." It's a good title to have. I had a good experience this summer with the word "convert," or at least a derivative of it. I was at a series of provings and the end of each one the home elder asked the traditional question of all the ministers in attendance, whether or not they had anything to add. Most of them gave the standard, "I'm well satisfied." However, one retired elder, I believe it was Joe Breaker, instead said, "It is clear that _______ is a converted person." I thought, "What a beautiful way of putting it!" Basically, he was saying that the "convert" had been changed from what they were into a new person. Makes sense, right?

Ok, so this past weekend was the Semiannual Apostolic Christian Church of America College Weekend!! *trumpet fanfare* The theme: Transformation, aka changing or converting. Starting to see the ducks line up? You might be thinking, "What ducks? Everyone understands this!" Well, that's probably true, but for some reason I'd never thought these things as being so closely related. So, I'll try to cut to the chase. In my church, a convert is a person who has taken the "first step," as it were, to becoming a member of the congregation. Though a person's repentance is a truly wonderful occasion about which I do rejoice, I think I often celebrate that a person is converting to my church, instead of being converted. There's a big difference. Converting does not matter a bit to God, while being converted is the entire point of Christianity.

C.S. Lewis stated this by saying "this is not one among many jobs a Christian has to do; and it is not a sort of special exercise for the top class. It is the whole of Christianity. Christianity offers nothing else at all." He also talks of us becoming "little Christs." Interesting way of putting it, no? Notice that Lewis mentions nothing about obeying dogmatic rules. You see, being converted, experiencing conversion, going through a transformation - these are the whole sum of what it means to be a Christian.

This is what exactly happened to the disciples; on the day of Christ's crucifixion they were scattered to the four winds, only to be changed in a matter of mere weeks, preaching with great boldness in the center of Jerusalem. This is also what Paul experienced; he built a reputation for himself as a persecutor of the Church, only to be converted by Christ, and immediately began preaching the Word around the world. This is the way we are sure of our salvation, because we can look back on our lives and say with confidence, "I am not the same that I was, due only to the saving grace of my Lord Jesus Christ." This is that which I cling to in my walk with Him, and this is now what I will be pondering when I hear that a new soul has started their conversion.

Blessed be His name.

2004-10-03T15:56:00.000-07:00

Last year on the Imuris trip we went for a hike the evening before we left. Though I didn't make it to the top of the mountain, I did stumble across a picture perfect pasture with these two horses, and that made the whole summit-attempt worthwhile.

A lifetime's not too long

2004-09-30T11:11:00.000-07:00

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
– Proverbs 27:17

It would be nearly impossible for me here to express how much this principle has come to mean to me as of late. When I think of how much I feed off my brothers and sisters for edification, encouragement, correction and inspiriation I have no choice but to stop and thank God for the incredible assets he has given in my friends. We share our mutual woes, our mutual burdens bear... How true. In honor of my companions down this road of life, here are a few thoughts on friendship:

My friends are my estate.
- Emily Dickinson

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival.
- C. S. Lewis

I count myself in nothing else so happy as in a soul rememb'ring my good friends.
- William Shakespeare

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
- Kahil Gibran

Dear friend, my friend, give me your hand,
We’ll walk this road together.
And though the storm may crash and blow,
We will survive this weather.

For you and I were made to be
Two bodies with one soul.
And though we struggle here on Earth
We have a celestial goal.

Now since we have this conjoining force
I feel your tears on my cheek.
My laughter springs from the joy of your heart
And only your pleasure I seek.

So take my hand, dear friend, my friend
For two are better than one
For I will lift you when you fall
And we’ll reach our celestial home.
- Jay Lang

Blessed be His name.

Shine, Jesus, Shine

2004-09-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

I think all Christians would agree with me if I said that though Christianity seems at first to be all about morality, all about duties and rules and guilt and virtue, yet it leads you on, out of all that, into something beyond. One has a glimpse of a country where they do not talk of those things, except perhaps as a joke. Every one there is filled full with what we should call goodness as a mirror is filled with light. But they do not call it goodness. They do not call it anything. They are not thinking of it. They are too busy looking at the source from which it comes. But this is near the stage where the road passes over the rim of our world. No one's eyes can see very far beyond that: lots of people's eyes can see further than mine.

-C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Romans 8: 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. 14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God

Father God, Thou who didst call me into the newness of life with Thee, I pray that Thou wouldst change my view on this life that I call Christianity. Lord, help me never to see it as simply trying to do what is right, what is proper, but rather help me to see it as a chance to glorify Thee; an opportunity to reflect the light of Thy Son. Let the transforming of my life, the taking on of Thy likeness be the one consuming desire of my life, and in this may I find true peace. Let Thy will be done in my life, that I may bring honor to Thee.

Blessed be His name.

One more way technology corrupts...

2004-09-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

Yeah, this woulda been a great picture of the ray, had the camera not been set to put this stupid time stamp in the middle of the pic!

Have you hugged a yawper today?

2004-09-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. - Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, stanza 52.

Ok, let's start with our good-ol' Merriam Webster daffynitions.

barbaric, adj: marked by a lack of restraint; having a bizarre, primitive, or unsophisticated quality; wild.

yawp, n: a raucous noise; squawk; rough vigorous language. Ok, imagine how you want to scream in anguish when you learn that terrorists have murdered 200 school children or you discover that Satan has gotten a 14 y/o boy addicted to pornography. This is the force of emotion that Uncle Walt's describing, but he's using it in a celebratory manner.

Now, where on earth did Whitman find an inspiration that required such coarse, rudimentary language? Well, for Whitman the source of unsophisticated, unrestrained emotion seems to have been himself. The title of the poem, "Song of Myself", then the following stanza combine to sing only the praise of the Walt himself. It doesn't take a profound theologian to realize that we fallen beings are not worthy of praise. Even Whitman seems to have realized this when he wrote in O Me! O Life! "Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)." Well, if we come to the conclusion that we cannot sound our wild yawp due solely to the inspiration of ourselves, what can we use to summon that primitive raucous? Unrestrained, bizarre, primitive, unsophisticated, wild - what is there in our life that fills the bill for all these adjectives? I could only come up with one thing that will suffice, and that is the unbridled passion of my Lord, Jesus Christ.

Unrestrained - God left the glory and splendor of life in heaven to come down and walk among us, to touch our afflictions, go to our weddings, serve our meals, and wash our feet. This kinda goes against the "watch-maker God" concept that says God has nothing to do with our lives anymore, but rather shows Him to be very intimately intertwined with our lives. No, there is no limit whatsoever on how close God can be in our lives.

Bizarre - Isaiah 55:8, 9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. What's bizarre is that our God still loves us even though we are so totally incapable of returning His love. We fallen humans are not bred with an ability to really appreciate a life form that is so completely beneath us that we can't relate to it, but God is able to appreciate us so much that He sent His Son to die for us.

Primitive - adj; of or relating to the earliest age or period (thx again M-W!). Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. From the very moment that Adam and Eve ate the fruit God knew that you and I were going to require saving, and He had a plan of how He was going to accomplish it. Before we were born, before we sinned, from the earliest age God loved us enough to die for each and every individual one of us.

Unsophisticated - John 3:16 (not over used, just really, really good!) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's it. Not too complicated, eh?

Wild - Well, this word could be taken many different ways, but let's go with "off an intended or expected course." You know, no one expected the Messiah to come as a carpenter from Nazareth. No one expected Him to forgive His enemies instead of destroying them. No one expected Him to die. Thanks be to God that He is not what we expect, because I expected Him to give up on me when I turned my back to Him, yet He stayed as close as ever and lead me back to Him.

Ok! Now we have every reason to yawp, all that's left it to start yawping! Now, you might feel foolish the first time you try it, but you can trust me when I say it's worth it. When you're driving down the street let out a barbaric YAWP, then praise God for what He has done for you. YAWP! Blessed be the name of the Lord, for He saw me in my darkness and led me into the light! YAWP! Praise Him for He loved us too much to leave us out of communion with Him and died so that we might once again walk in the newness of life with Him. Yawp, for He continues to love me, though every day I prove that I am unworthy of that love.

Go forth fellow yawpers, into all the world and yawp, yawp over the roofs of the world! Remember, mice squeak, but lions yawp!

Blessed be His name.

Gen.1.1

2004-09-15T14:26:00.000-07:00

In the beginning, God.

That's really all that would've been necessary, but we're blessed with so much more, not only in the Bible, but in the book of humanity and the text of our lives. Ours is a story of betrayal, rebellion, hatred, and murder. His is a story of love, purification, redemption, and sacrifice. Sound like a book worth reading? Yeah, it's the greatest story ever told, and we praise Him with our lives for the wonder of what He has done for and in us. Blessed be His name.