Small Groups

Once again, it took me a week to blog. Sunday, we had our last media meeting, where we previewed the promos for Small Groups. Here's the one that features me.

It convinced Priscilla to join the media small group. Anyway, that went well. The Williams' grandfather was barely hanging onto life all week, so Michelle wasn't as apt to become cheery when I talked to her. I'm saying that 'cause it took me so long to figure out why.

Monday was a day of discouragement, what with having done too much homework in one class, and forgetting to do a report in another. But Mondays they tend to be, 'cause the devil don't like it when someone works on humbling themselves and God sees fit to stick 'em with a small group, and all of a sudden, the devil sees a threat, and he starts hissing and growlin' up a storm, but a Christ-follower knows that if a snake hisses, God has given him a heel do crush his head with. I've asked around, and I'm pretty sure that God pulled a few strings for me in order for me to help lead a small group. All I remember about that day is that the night that followed was a late one.

Tuesday was similar. But I've noticed a change in my Bible reading. I use one line in my notebook every day, just jotting down what I read, and whatever sticks out to me. But ever since I finished the Old Testament, I've found that the New Testament is full of the goods. You don't have to dig around for some spiritual sustenance. Plus, I've got a small group to pastor, so God has been giving me revelations and teachings to work on for our small group. The only problem is, it takes up a large paragraph of my notebook and 30-45 minutes of my valuable time. Tough? Yeah. But so worth it.

Wednesday, I was late to school due to a stupid printer malfunction. I talked to Renee and some others about their expectations for their small groups. Renee's main concern was converting the old "Black Hole" crowd from being "not bad", to fruitful. It's a bigger step than I had thought. Anyway, that night, I talked to Shayna about our group, then it was time to show our stuff. My Dollar Tree light-up batons were a huge success, and so was my flute action. Also, our picture advertisement was the best. That night, I went home and collapsed while attempting to attempt to do homework, much to the disappointment of Mr. Harber.

Thursday, I came to the realization that Mr. Harber is on a slow downward spiral towards not allowing ANY movement or noise in the classroom. I'm dreading the day when I accidentally drop a pencil. That day, I sat in class, ignoring Mr. Harber for the most part (I like reading out of the book more than listening to him), when, suddenly, Mr. Harber said something that I thought was funny. So I let out a lil' giggle. Nothing much, nothing disrespectful. "London, there's only so much I can-- go to the office and sit at the table until you can calm down a little bit." That's the first time I've been sent out of a classroom. I'm thinking that it might not be the last. All's I know is, if I get a detention in there, I'm gonna go straight to Mrs. Horan and fight it, 'cause it'll probably be for my stomach growling or me thinking too loudly.

Friday, I went to the Texas State Fair with Jordan, Hiro, Pasha's family (Jessica, Joanna, Joseph, and his parents), Alyssa, and the rest of the Woods. It was loads of fun. I lost my voice cheering on the pig races (pig number 3 won 2/3 'cause of our cheering) and then I lost more of it by singing the Russian national anthem, very much impressing Pasha's parents. His parents were rockin'-awesome, talking about fasting on the way home, and how it's putting death into your flesh by not eating, so you're putting your love for God above your love for your flesh. Good stuff. That night, after the fair, I drove all the way to Canton.

I did little jobs for my mom at Canton, bought food for Emmy and kept her company, then went on my way home. But, having left my Bible at Jordan's house, I decided to make a pit stop over there. Unfortunately, I got lost, and then Jordan remembered, just as I was pulling up, that my Bible was in his mom's car, which was with her at work, and she wouldn't be back until midnight. So I decided to spend the night, which was plenty of fun. I learned a lil' more about Japanese culture.

Upgrade today was less great, 'cause some guy from our church talked, but he wasn't a very great public speaker, and I got incredibly bored really fast, but it's a leaders meeting, and you aren't allowed to try to distract your neighbor for fun. I went home after church, called my Small Group guys, and then headed back to the church for a Kenya meeting. A certain Sarah was there, but so was a certain Daniel Lewis. I am feeling more and more that God wants me to go, but I don't really wanna go. After this, I had small groups (spent like twenty minutes getting lost on the way there), which was fantastic. On the downside, there were only three guys. On the plus side, there were like 12 or 13 girls. So we have a big group. And, from what I heard, we had one of the more successful first meetings. Those guys are loads of fun. Anyway, it's almost 2:00 AM, which, of course, is when I find time to make a blog. Blogs away!

iTunes has flaws. Does this mean that Macs do?

Wednesday night, I had bought that video game, so I spent Thursday after school being a geek, playing the Wii since I had no homework. I beat the game that night. What a waste of cash! Maybe I can sell it back for a good price since it's still new? So, Friday was a pretty average day, except that during break there were doughnuts for everyone (no explanation as to who or why). Following that, I went home and wasted time, then, when it was time to go to The Sociables (a geeky men's discipleship group), I was dead tired, so I went to sleep at 7:00 PM.

I woke up at 9:00 AM (is this a record for me?), and spent the majority of the day looking at various colleges online. University of Washington is lookin' pretty good to me (GC might be an influence). At around 5:30 PM, Cameron called me up and told me he was in town, so we went to Ghost Town, which was good. I haven't hung out with Cameron enough lately, 'cause the first thing he said after the movie was that it wouldn't have been any good without that lead actor (who was the same as the boss on the British Office). This was true.

The following day, we had an Upgrade meeting where we talked about the structure of our small groups and Paradigm and such, and then the SLs who were picked to help with small groups were asked to stand up. His words were "We also asked a few of the older SLs to help lead, too." I was pretty bitter about it, knowing that I was the oldest of the SLs, but I also had the voice of wisdom in my head telling me to shut up. I talked with Newman (second time in a row) during the prayer time, and it turns out that just about everyone is having a hard time with their Ones, so there's some encouragement. I went to WaffleHouse with Cameron after that, then to Wal*Mart, where I bought a new bandanna (but I haven't been sporting it 'cause people have been complimenting my hair too much lately). On my way home, I demanded answers for why I wasn't picked to help lead a small group (demanding of God, not pastors or anyone like that). Unhappy with the sensible replies, I continued to be mad at God, and ended up taking an angry nap until our media meeting. Of course, the media meeting was glorious, and we made what looks like a potentially fantastic promo for small groups (no shifting gears in cars this time). I talked to a few people, namely Sarah Massie (still don't know if I'm spelling that right) and Katie about my God-anger, and, naturally, they both gave me sound advice, which I halfway accepted as I went to sleep.

This morning, a Monday, I patched things up with God on the way to school ('cause Mondays can be crap if you don't have God there helping you). Ol' flappy mouth had horrible allergies today, so his eyes were flappy too. This kept him out of class more, which made my time more endurable. I asked my One (through calculator, of course) if she could come on our retreat, but she is gonna be at A&M that weekend, so I'm gonna have to try to get her back to Jesus without a huge retreat doing all the work (I know that that's exaggerating, but still). Then, just as my study hall was ending, a wondrous thing happened. I FINISHED THE OLD TESTAMENT! All the way through. I have read the entirety of the Bible now. Time to refresh on the fun parts. In the Connect class, Mr. Pryor told me that I could teach for three weeks while he was gone, and I immediately volunteered. On my way home, I texted with my One about Heroes, then I texted about God, and didn't get a reply. When I got home, I got my lil' bit of homework done, then watched Heroes, which was pretty dern good. Besides the bits of inappropriate things. Then Alyssa Kay-- or, should I say, Claire Bennett, and I talked for awhile about dating, my God-anger-problems, and the like. Lastly, iTunes said that I had $1.05 left on my account, so I went to buy a song, but then it tried to get me to put in credit card information, and now my iTunes account is gone and my $1.05 is missing. I wanted that song. I emailed them about it. Maybe hope is on the horizon?