Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
More ASB Random Pictures
Thursday, March 19, 2009
More ASB People Pictures
Alternative Spring Break 2009
Here is what I learned that week:
1. Friends of your friends will most likely be wonderful people - Diana Tinlin, who is my friend Molly's roommate, is such a wonderful person. I was blessed to work with her in a group.
2. Angry man does more bad than good - When pouring a self leveling substance onto our floor, this man came to our house (he was the site mgr) to tell us how all we did was done wrong. His attitude made one of our team members cry, two of us were trying to comfort her, and the result? All the leveling stuff in our bucket hardened. This man was still determined to use it all and after his attempt to pour this now quite thick stuff on the floor, it became even more uneven than before. Way to go. Here is what happened to the rest of the substance - it became rock hard :)
3. Don't try to wash an oil based primer from a brush or bucket with bare hands - mine became very white for several days after this attempt.
4. Razor works surprisingly well for removing oil based paint from your hands - this I found out after #4 happened.
5. Southern accent rocks!
6. It is possible to miss someone other than my family while being on a trip.
7. When God is in people's hearts, they are beautiful - the man whose house we worked on was so wonderful. You would expect him to be bitter after having everything damaged by the storm, but he was so grateful and happy man!
8. Envy is quite unappealing - we had this small dispute over some groups going to New Orleans and others not going. I so wanted to go, and now I feel bad after seeing how some people can react to having less than others.
9. I can kick soccer ball with either foot and get the same result :)
10. God was there with me - when I watched the sun set and rise, spent time alone or with friends, He was there.
11. I want to go back and also do more service here on campus.
So, how about some more pictures now?
My group's leader Kris
Here is my 'podmate' and friend Jena
Doug’s story – Pathway to Love
Today at IVCF, a man called Doug (some people had a terrible time trying to remember it ;) came to speak to us about love. Doug actually works in the mailroom at Behrend and so I was quite surprised to see him. Listening to him was definitely worthwhile.
First he started by telling us about himself, his life, but mostly, I was struck by the loving way he talked about his wife. It seems almost unbelievably nice that after 34! Years of marriage, people still can love each other so much. Doug began with a question asking, what is the most important thing I found out about life so far. It really was a great question. If I was to list one thing, it would most probably be ‘Don’t trust anyone but God.’ It may sound strange, but God has taught me this lesson many times over and over again.
I was curious about what Doug learned – his thing was love. And to tell the truth, the answer matched his personality. Then he went on to talk about the purpose of our life to learn how to love God, others, and ourselves. I never thought about things this way before! It was amazing.
Life is like a maze with lots of turns, dead ends, but also a pathway that one has to follow to get to the end. When we keep Christ as our focus, Doug said, we should see our ‘maze’ from his perspective and find the path easier. He will give us the sight and light (guidance) we need. God will help us find balance in life – another wonderful thing – by getting us through the trials and tests that we go through. God will get us through them and guide us because – guess why! – He loves us, very much. The closer we are to Christ & to God, the closer we are to being a loving person. I have to agree with that. I would not want to be my friend when I didn’t know God… I just wasn’t very loving at all (not that I would be now, but still I can see minor improvements).
Here are Doug’s pathways to love:
1. Daily Prayer – whether you just sit silent & listen to God, meditate on a Bible verse, pray with others, or alone, prayer is the 1st base in communication with God.
2. Daily Bible Reading – I’m trying and honestly, this step has shown to be a great one. Reading about God and his works & about Jesus is so encouraging.
3. Finding a balance in life – balance between the spiritual, emotional, and physical part of us.
4. Practicing what we have learned in the Word – Sometimes very challenging, but overall rewarding. Forgiveness is probably the biggest part of it. Forgiving others is hard, but not forgiving is just as pretending that I am not a sinner. There is also forgiveness to self, which reminded me of what Buddy once said during dinner down in Gulfport. He was talking about forgiveness and how even though God forgives us, we still have hard time forgiving ourselves which later on becomes a burden on our hearts. I see here an area I can definitely work on. J Of course, there are many other things we can and should practice.
5. Test ourselves on what is learned – God tests us and we should be as good students and let ourselves be tested. Patience was one example Doug gave us.
6. Be in a community of believers – Churches (btw. I love my church family) offer the community and the body we are to belong to. We are to support each other, help each other, pray together, etc… you can’t really do that without having a family of wonderful Christians around.
7. Serve others – self explanatory.
8. Recognize that we have been saved – I think this comes back to the forgiveness and self-forgiveness. Also accepting the fact that I did not do anything that would make me be saved (on the contrary) and that without Jesus, I would literally go to hell.
9. Believe that we are loved by God – Yes, what a wonderful thought. God is the only one who actually loves me even though he knows everything about me. Amazing. J
10. Strive to do God’s will in daily life and die to self-interest – the more selfless we are, the more we can serve and love others. Being selfless makes the world much better place.
In the end, I think that Doug’s message was very good – he should be a pastorJ. Wow, what a wonderful person that works at Behrend! I am very thankful for what I heard tonight. Maybe, one day I will also be this wonderful loving person, who is amazing, selfless, and godly…
Here is a song that Doug mentioned, it has very pretty lyrics (this is an excerpt):
Life’s a Dance by John Michael Montgomery
Life's a dance you learn as you go
Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow
Don't worry about what you don't know
Life's a dance you learn as you go
The longer I live the more I believe
You do have to give if you wanna receive
There's a time to listen, a time to talk
And you might have to crawl even after you walk
Had sure things blow up in my face
Seen the longshot, win the race
Been knocked down by the slamming door
Picked myself up and came back for more
Life's a dance you learn as you go
Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow
Don't worry about what you don't know
Life's a dance you learn as you go