Nicaragua Reflection

    Wow, I don't know where to begin.  The week of April 9-16th has once again been a great experience.  Last year in Puerto was amazing, but this year was even better. 
    One of the things I was struggling with at the end of last year's trip was that it wasn't challenging enough for me.  It didn't take me out of my comfort zone.  My prayer for this year was that I would be taken out of my comfort zone like you take out chinese food.  
    When I first heard that we were going to a place with all girls, I was nervous that I wouldn't have that much to do. But God surprised with an abundance of things to keep us busy.  We didn't spend as much time at the Villa Esperanza as I thought we would.  And when we did it was fun to hang with all the girls.  
    The theme of the week was God making beautiful things out of dust. Over the summer i worked at the school painting and doing maintenance work.  I hated every minute of painting all day, all by myself.  On the 5th day of the trip we spent 9-3 painting church class rooms.  Because of my experience I was able to be a leader and a hey-i-need-some-help-with-this person.
   When we did a park ministry, we had like half an hour before we started.  So us boys went and played soccer.  A little 7yr old boy, named Esteban, played goalie with me and we became fast friends.  When it was time for us to leave he came up to me and asked when I would be coming back.  It was soooo hard for me to have to tell him that I would not be coming back.  Just seeing the disappointment on his face brought tears to my eyes.  But I knew that God would turn his sadness into happiness and that I touched his life in some special way.

Spiritual Emphasis

Truth Project Reflection

Roger Erdvig

Mrs. Landry/ Bible

3/25/11

I really enjoyed this past week of working through the Truth Project. Before this week I have watched it with my family, a little every morning. It was good to watch it a second time and to pick out new things and to reinforce the truths that I had learned before. I do think that cramming it into one week was a little to much to handle. It made me very tired and weary.

My favorite two tours, which have been so since when I first watched it, are Science and History. It is so amazing to me to see how you can see God's handy work in the smallest things. In History we can see how He laid the framework and has His fingerprint in all the laws and governments.

Because we were made in His likeness we can't help but to do things that are aligned with God. But there are also times when man's desire for power and stubbornness get in the way and go against His will. It is disappointing to see how far our nation is straying from God and Is a challenge for our generation to take up the fight of turning it back.

Over all my favorite parts were the small group discussions and Thursday night prayer. I felt that the small groups were most productive because you didn't have all of the big argument people all together. I felt that more people contributed in the smaller groups.   

February Blog

     "What goes around comes around."
This is a statement that many people use, as say a watch-what-you-do sort of saying.  When someone does something bad and then something bad happens to them, people make the rude comment of, "Well, what goes around comes around."  I do agree with this statement in a different way than the world does.  The world looks at it as a supernatural curse of something.  As if it's getting what was coming for you.

The Bible talks about this subject in Galations 6:7.

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."

This in the sense that God will bless those who bless others and curse those who curse others.  When we look at the world as say to people that they are getting what they deserve, we are placing our judgement onto them.  It is not our job to judge like a jury and condemn people.  That is God's job.  When we die, we will sat in front of God and he will be the judge and expose the sins we have committed.  If we excepted Jesus into our heart and accepted his forgiveness then we will be saved.  If we reap evil then we will sow eternal death.

So yes I agree with the statement. But I believe that it is not our job to use to condemn people.  We can use it in a loving caring way where we are trying to help them.

January Blog

   This past year has gone by so quickly and it is only picking up pace.  With college up ahead in only 8 months it scares me.
   Last year I felt like I took time for granted.  I'm going to mature this year alot in the way that I use my time.  Instead of messing around, I'm going to use my time wisely and do productive things.  Even with my homework and schoolwork, I haven't always been the most frugal person. (Extra credit for the vocab word.)  With my family I should be spending my time being with them as much as possible before I leave and don't have this opportunity to hang with them, like a coat hanger. (Simile) I want to build the best relationship with them as i can before i leave.
    My quiet times at night is another thing, instead of having a lets-get-this-over-with attitude, I need to be open and totally undistracted.
    God has gifted us with time and it is the most valuable thing we have.  We can either waist it or use it productively.  I pray that He will help me to take advantage of it and use it for the improvement of myself, relationship with others, and my relationship with Him.

Worthy of Sacrifice

   All throughout history there are stories of people dying for others or a certain cause.  Many of our legends or fairy tales are about a certain person laying down his or her life for another.  That person would be considered a hero in my definition.
    I believe that a scenario of when I would lay down my life would be if someone who is unable to defend themselves and is in danger.  As in a woman or a child.  I would lay down my life for any of my family members and actually any defenseless person.  If someone was in danger of getting injured or being attacked i would step into action.  It is easy to say this now, but would it be in the actual situation.  I would also with out question lay my life down for Christ and the spreading of his word.

Blog 2

The story of the three little pigs is one that all children were told as youngsters.  It has been handed down from person to person.  There are many many different versions.

Once upon a time there were three little swine that wanted to go off into the world and build themselves a home.  So they headed out to stake their claims.  The first little pig saw a pile of hay stacked 4 stories high and set himself to work.  The second one came along a pile of sticks and thought that this would be and easy way to build his house and he to set to work.  The third one wasn't as lazy and wanted to be safe.  So he got himself some bricks and as hard as an ox and sweated like a pig to build a strong safe home.
Now there was a hungry wolf roaming along, when he spotted the first pigs house.  He walked up to the door and yelled, "Little pig, little pig let me come in."  With a squeal the pig replied, "Not by the hairs of my chiny chin chin."  So the wolf took in a huge gulp of air and blow down the straw house.  The pig ran shrieking to his brother's stick abode. The wolf, satisfied with his destructive acts, moved on to the next victims house.  "Little pig, little pig let me come in." He taunted.  The pig replied, "Not by the hairs of my chiny chin chin."  So the wolf huffed and puffed and blow down the house of sticks. The two piggies sprinted to their last brother's house and begged to be allowed in.  The wolf calmly strolled up to the last house and rapped on the door.  "Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in." The brothers yelled out, "Not by the hairs of our chiny chin chins."  So for the third time that day he took a huge breath and let lose.  But to his dismay nothing happened.  After several more attempts he scampered away extremely embarrassed.

Smile Face-----figurative language and repetition

Senior Blog 1

What is a good leader?
      It all depends on what your definition of good is.  According to Dictionary.com, good means morally excellent.  But good could also mean how he leads and caliber of leading capabilities.  No matter what the definition of good is the leader part is the same.   A leader is one that can get people to follow him and stay with him.  Hitler had rose Germany from the ashes and started the Nazis.  Jesus had disciples that left their jobs and families to follow Him.  George Washington lead the American army to victory against the British.  John Smith of Jamestown whipped the lazy gentlemen into shape and got the colony up and running.  History is just stock full of leaders.  Even now people are following Obama.  Not all of them were morally good leaders, but the all were leaders who got people to follow them.  So back to the main question. 
     A good leader is one that takes his followers forward for the right reasons and treats them fairly.  He also would be willing to do whatever he has his followers do.  He controls his mouth and never blows up at his followers.  In the above list I think that the following were morally good leaders: G. Washington, John Smith,  and Jesus.