Thinking Differently

well, I had a relaxing day for once. Was able to walk around campus and take pictures. Was very nice to not have any responsiblities.

I also took some time to finish applying to colleges, finally. I have applied to College of the Ozarks, Messiah, and University of Wisconsin. I still need to pay the application fee to UW, and still owe money to WOLBI, but I will wait and see what God does. He will pay for me to go where He wants.

You can see some of the pictures I took by visiting my Flickr site (See link on side)

Peace out yall.

So we have this “Snow Camp” every weekend. Campers come to play games and be challenged spiritually, and the whole experiance revolves around snow. Trouble is, there isn’t much snow by Friday when the show up, cause it has been warm most of the week. On Saturday it usually tops out around high 40’s, creating water and ice and slushy snow. On Sunday afternoon, when the campers leave, or Monday, it usually snows like crazy into Tuesday. It then warms up and the snow melts again.

Kinda takes the snow in “Snow Camp” and changes it to “Wet, Icy, Muddy, Slushy Form of Precipitation”.

Anyway, I got my two boxes from PNG, which means I now how the other 40 books in my collection! I can stop reading Moby-Dick, Dune, and Star Wars over and over again. Not that those aren’t some of the best, but I am starting to memorize them. Now I can read classics like the Counte of Monte Cristo and Timeline.

I also was able to get some other things I have been missing, like my hand-carved chess set my dad gave me for Christmas and ANOTHER leather jacket (I now have 3).

Rediscovering music is fun too. Was able to rip those CD’s I didn’t bring with me. I know have a music library of 5000 plus songs and sermons. Pretty amazing. Unfortunately, this means I have to buy an iPod 60Gig rather than the 30Gig model. Oh well.

the weekend was definitely too long, but it is over now. Praise God.

Take care and smile at your waitresses (and waiters)

everything becomes new
Darkness lifts in the dawn of a new day
Prisoners liberated, squint at the harsh and beautiful sun
A river, frozen and cold, runs freed of ice again in the warming spring
A prodigal returns, fortune spent and dirty, to home
After winter’s grip relents and ground warms, a seed forces a tender plant to earth’s surface
A bear, undernourished, lumbers from his den, hungry
A sinner, liberated from sin, finds a joy in life that only Yeshua can bring
everything becomes new

I have undergone some interesting, trying, and unshackling experiances here. Someday I will tell you about them.

I am physically MUCH better, praise God!

About to start week 3 of snow camp, over 100 decisions for Christ over the past two weeks. I have served working outside at sledding hills, inside in dishpit, and snowshoeing up mountains. This week I should do more of the same, and for the next weeks of camp.

In class we have finished a two week course on Acts and have started Revelation chapters 1-5, as well as a study on Christ, the GodMan. Amazing lessons to be learned, primary among them the preeminence of prayer and total surrender to Christ.

In the dorm, we just pulled a surprise birthday on a friend. Starting early morning to late night we celebrated his 19th. We had girls singing at lunch, pizza, cake, LAN games, and ice cold water/snow in thrown into the shower! What an awesome day. God has blessed with the best guys I could have in my room.

My family in PNG finally received the Christmas package I sent via the Campbell’s, Benji and father.

Great things are happening, my life as it has been, though many little awesome, funny things go down every day.

Peace and grace of God unto you.

Phil the StormRider

“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” – Will Smith

“For the Lord of Hosts has planned, and who can frustrate it? And as for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?” Isaiah 14:27

“If you want a religion that makes sense, I suggest something other than Christianity. But if you want a religion that makes life, then, I think this is the one.” – Rich Mullins

“The least of learning is done in the classrooms.” – Thomas Merton

“The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn’t commit when he had the opportunity.” – Helen Rowland

“It is only by risking our persons from one hour to another that we live at all.” – William James

Quote for the Day:
    “Nothing in life is more funny than a shoe. It begins its life by being sewn together and strapped to somebody’s foot. It then proceeds to be stepped on day after day untill it is worn thin. No care is given for it’s comfort until the day it becomes so worn out that it no longer keeps your socks white. Then the laces are tied together and it is tossed over a telphone line out in the country to spend the rest of its days bound to its mate, swinging through the air. Lucky bugger.” from Andrew Ferris’ blog

My face hurts, alot.

I think my sinuses are so full that the pressure is causing it. I blow my nose all the time, but there is still always more to give.

So much for the gross stuff.

Snow camp weekend one almost over. I am supposed to work again today, but unless I have a fever, they won’t excuse me from work. Maybe I can convince either the nurse or my supervisor that I really do feel really lousy and get excused anyway. I hate this place. One doesn’t need a fever to be sick.

I have agreed to work tomorrow painting up at the Inn, but given how I feel, I don’t know if I want to. We’ll see how it goes.

This is turning out to be a weird winter quarter.

Do not ever sit and read “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” for very long in any one sitting, or have those sittings close to each other. IF you do, your thinking becomes very weirded. You will start thinking quite alot about infinite improbablity, pan-dimensional objects, races of killer robots, depressed robots, cheerful robots, and towels. It’s all very strange. And if your head already hurts, this won’t help much. just FYI.

So, have a good day, I am sure I will only by a highly improbable accident.

Quote for the day:

to Marvin: “What’s up?”
Marvin the Manically Depressed Robot: “I don’t know, I’ve never been there. You can tell, can’t you?”

Peace

I get back to school and getting sick! At first, it was some flu thing, with fever and achy stuff, and now it is a cold and stuffed up head and cough.

And to make it worse, the temperature has been fluctuating around the low teens. Snow is everywhere and sometimes it has the audacity to fall from the sky. And, btw, it hurts, a lot, when the sun shines off the snow and into sensative eyes.

But school has started. So its not all bad. Starting this week is Acts and then Survey and Theology as always.

Haha, sidepoint, Ravi Zacharias is a funny man. He has two podcasts on iTunes, so I have a bunch of sermons by him. Listening to him now….

Anyway, this weekend is the first for snow camp. Pray for me, cause half the time I have to be outside in the cold. I don’t want to, but that is rather beside the point. So, I really just want to get better.

Sigh. Big Sigh. Big Big Big Sigh. Ok, whatever.

Bye.

Well, I am back at Word of Life.

Two days and I am feeling marginally better about being back.

In the end, the girl that was supposed to be giving me a ride lost my number, so I didn’t know I had a ride, but Wayne and Maggie drove me half way, and my brother met us there and took me the rest of the way. Spiffy.

So I am back, have a relaxed schedule this week and the WOL missions conference this weekend, so it will be interesting, but at least I will have time to sleep and prepare myself.

Peace.

Later Y’all