My Time In Kenya

Ah, the joys of summer. Time for a quick catch-up (not ketchup) time, a'ight? So, first I went to Kenya for two weeks. It was warmer and wetter than last year, which I thought would be a plus until I woke up in the middle of the night to "ZZZZZZZZZEEAAAAUUUWWWWW" flying by my ear. I wacked myself in the head many a time trying to get those mosquitoes, or "maussies", as Gavin Audognotti, my roommate while I was there, called them.

I preached/taught three times. The first was on "Superpowers Through Christ", where I focused on the right heart and mindset when you go about prayer and working in the supernatural. One guy came up to me later and told me that it would change his life.

I preached at our youth event on "Christianity on the Offense", where my main comparison was a soccer analogy. Unfortunately, I didn't think to repeat the analogy, so I ended up sounding a bit off. I also accidentally said, "Offensive Christianity", which confused the translator.

The only message I had completely written out and prepared was about being heard by your authority. When you write a message at three in the morning the day you're leaving, most of the words just might end up being more God than you. I taught it for sunday school, but most of the people there were teenagers, who, like me, get bored pretty easily.

Oh, I almost forgot; I'm a celebrity in Kenya. Every kid at the G.C.C. (the place that houses all the AIDS and HIV kids) and the school nearby recognized me and yelled out my name as soon as I got there.

While on safari, I ran into some punk tribesman that thought they could jump higher than me. I beat the first Masai, but then they sent out their best, and frankly, I didn't wanna embarrass them with my skills.

If you wanna hear more, I'm making another scrapbook-type thing with Publisher, and that will have whatever journal entries I had time to do.

Back From Keny

One of the greatest new things I learned while in Kenya was about the life cycle of the hippo. Their whole lives are just swimming and eating. They die because they're too fat to get out of the water to eat more, so they die of starvation.

That's the dream.

BurfDoy

I had a great birthday, mostly spent hanging out with Jordan. Here's a tiny piece of it.



I've been typing up Kenya sermons for like an hour, trying to make them look good, but it's tough. Even though I have the lessons down alright, I haven't even thought of prime examples from my life to throw in, which is what makes it go down smooth.

"The first shall be last" is a fun justification for procrastination.

INCOMING BIRTHDAY!

Senior's Night Out is tomorrow- MY BIRTHDAY IS ON FRIDAY- One more Kenya meeting on saturday- I leave for Kenya on sunday.

God has been blessing me a bunch financially, both personally and for Kenya. I'm doing a lil' online work, and since I work cheap and fast, people like me on there.

Tonight at Paradigm, God showed me stuff to pray for during pre-service prayer, and I started getting convicted during worship, so I wrote it down, then Pastor Nick preached on it. Oh prophecy.

Oh Dreams

I haven't been updating much 'cause summer is lazy/busy...

My One and my brother are dating. Weird? Yes.

Then I had a "real" dream last night, which is where I learn what my subconscious is thinkin' about. From what I remember, Josh Newman, Pasha, Jordan, Elinor, and I were all in a van with an African guy driving. I remember wanting to tell Newman about Elinor and Preston dating, but we couldn't find a time when everyone wasn't around. Then I made a comment about it to Elinor, and she got a lil' mad.

I learned from this that I need to give my brother's new relationship to God and not think about it, find time to hang out with Newman, and go to Africa to have an African drive me around in a van.

Littler Me To Bigger

I seem to have become the person I wanted to talk to years ago. I've learned what I wanted to. Kudos to littler me for becoming bigger me.

What Went Down

Since my last post, I pulled a senior prank, graduated, spent loads of time at the lakehouse, and helped make a music video.


Well, we'd been doing annoy-a-trons (electronic thing that lets out a high-pitched noise every 2-8 minutes randomly) for a few weeks, but people were already making fun of us for having such a wuss senior prank. So our valedictorian, my One, and I (great team, right?) got the security code and broke into the school an hour before it started. We set a chicken loose in one of the bathrooms, and it freaked out one area of the building before being chased out. We also filled up one bathroom to the brim with some plastic junk from Tyler's work at Brookshire's. We also put sardines in the ceiling... On our way out, the clever valedictorian, instead of pushing the "Empty House" button on the security code thing, he pushed the "Ambulance" button. This is how we ended up with all-day detentions (although they were caught first period, and I wasn't caught till third) and a $25 fine. Now our lil' prank will be remembered.

I also graduated on friday, which was handy, 'cause I'm a huge fan of graduating from high school. I stood out a lil' bit as the only one who decorated their graduation cap, and rather extravagantly at that. I read "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" at the event, and although I was spewing stage fright left and right, everyone else seemed to think I did fine.

Saturday was the lakehouse. Many times, everything just seems to come together, but it just wasn't the right combination of people, so it stunk loads.

Sunday had a Kenya meeting with some of our core people (Danae, Angela, Spring, and I) where we all planned our messages and things, and we came to grips with what exactly we were dealing with. I worked with kids almost exclusively last time, so I didn't get an idea of what the youth there deal with. That meeting was followed by small groups, and we finished up our Holy Spirit series with Tongues. There are a LOT of different takes on that, by the way. Lauren KP, Katie, Michelle, and Renee all came over to the lakehouse that night, along with a few stragglers (the Morrises and Megan Wood), and that was a good combination of company. But it only lasted till noon the next day, which kinda dampened it.

Today, monday, after I left the lakehouse, I joined the graduation party for Jordan and Josh Newman. It was pretty hap'nin, and was followed by a music video for Nate James filmed at my house. I must admit, I'm a camera hog.

The future is too far to think of. I've got a summer to think about, and all the loads of stuff God has for me. And believe me, He has PLENTY of junk for me to do.