Welcome to the Chancelor's List Ms. Kinney

First thinks first, I need to appologize for taking so much time to update this blog. Sometimes school gets really bust and there isn't much time for the blog world (especially when one paper is 75% of your grade).

Well Finals are over and I am still in Monticello. My grades were all posted today and I have all 'A's for the first time since I have been in college.

So there you go, short and sweet and hopefully more psot will be coming during Cristmas Break

God Doesn't Make Since

I have probably had one of the hardest weeks ever-this past week.

I found out last Friday that my Grandfather had a stroke on Tuesday. This means that he wasn't going to make it to family day at UAM so my grandmother, dad and Debbie came over. The Weevils lost in a rough way and we were kind of down. I went to my dorm and stayed up playing Scatagories with some friends. I fell asleep at 1:45 am and was awakened by a phone call to get to the ER.

Well you know the rest of that Story.

This storm I am in seems to be ending, but I think that it might just be a clearing and there's another front coming through. Rob was telling us the other day that God doesn't make since in how he does things. His Word tells us that he doesn't give us more than we can handle, but I am beginning to sink. I need help.

Just be praying for me and my family.

Friends Don't Let Friends...

Something has got to change.

Saturday night, after hanging out with some friends playing scategories, I went to sleep at about 1:30 in the morning (Sunday). Then I began to live my worst nightmare.

I got a phone call at about 2:00 in the morning saying that I needed to get to the hospital, that my brother was in a wreck. I jumped up and in a state of confussion, I got in my car and drove the mile from campus to Drew Memorial where I found Adam, one of my brother'e friends, outside the hospital. He told me that Joey had been hit by a drunk driver going way above the speed limit and that he was fine (the greates words I have heard in a while). Joey broke his leg.

What gets me the most upset, it that the guy that was driving the other car had already gotten two DWI's and had his licence revoked. Yet this guy was still driving. Something has got to change in this town, in this nation. We need harsher punishments.

Next time, we might not be this lucky.

This is what Joey's truck looked like after the wreck.

My Heart...

There are certian moments that remind you how little time we all have here on this planet.

On Monday I had a friend die in a tragic car accident. My heart sank. To think about how Rooster touch my life and those around him, my heart breaks and tears fall. Within me I am sad that I will never see him again, but then a flicker of joy springs up within me because I know that right now he is in the Father's arms and there is no other place I would want my friend to be.

Whi tthis tragedy I am reminded that we are not promised tomorrow. We need to live every moment like it could be our last. Talk to as many people as we can and try to make a difference in others' lives.

Dustin "Rooster" Ferguson will be missed, but his spirit will always be remembered.

you can read a little about Rooster and the accident here

Until We Meet Again...

Yesterday I found out that one of my friends grandmothers passed away in a tragic train accident.

I met Mrs. Pat three years ago when Adrian and I helped Pastor Dan move his parents from Hellena, Montana to Olympia, Washington. Mrs. Pat (his mom) and I rode in her car the whole ten (well it seemed more like 15) hour trip back. I got to know a lot about her and she was an amazing person

My heart and soul go out to the Panter Family...Ms. Pat, you will be missed.

you can read the news article about the wreck HERE

Sorry Ryan...Not Today

There is something to be said for a come from behind victory that just make me go weak at the knees. Especially when I am the one that comes from behind to win.

Ryan and I were sitting in the center and we desided to play a little game of NCAA football 2009 on the XBox 360. He picked Nevada, so I thought that I would go easy on him and picked Idaho (GO VANDALS!!!). I started out pretty rough (being distracted by phones ringing and friends needing to talk). There was a point when I didn't even realize that he had scored two touchdowns.

The second half was mine. I was down by two touchdowns and a field goal. I was coming back (slowly but surely). With 29 seconds left I got the ball down by five points. After he sacked me (and I let the clock run to eleven seconds) I decided to go for the hail mary...the first one was an incompletion...and I had six seconds on the clock after I called time out. With one more Hail Mary (and a sould have happened pick that didn't) my reciever came down with the ball and was all alone to the end zone...and with the extra point I won 42-40.

Not today for you Ryan...

Congradulations Zeb

As I sit here and post yet another entry in my blog, one of my really good friends is getting married and I am not there.

I met Zeb in Chicago, IL on June 10, 2007. We were both on a PIONEER"S Edge team heading for Greece (along with Jarred, Anna, Sarah, Margaret and Becca) for the entire summer. Arfter our orientation was over, we packed our bags (well just pack what we had used at orientation) and headed for Ohare to begin our journey overseas. Zeb and I happened to have the chance to sit next to one another on the flight from Chicago to London and I will never forget those what he just thought that he NEEDED to tell me before take off:

"Have you ever seen the movie Final Destination?", Zeb asked with a sort of mischivious tone.

"No", was my answer.

"Well at the very beginning of the movie," Zeb goes on to explain, "a guy stands up on a plane and says that hes had a dream that the plane is going to explode and tries to get people to follow him off. I think Eight did, and after that very plane took off, it did explode. The rest of the movie was them trying to excape death"

"Stop...is there any particular reason you had to describe that specific movie right before our plane took off?"

"No not really"

After that conversation, I knew that Zeb and I would have a great summer. We ended up filming over two hours of interviews that I was able to show people back home about what our summer entailed.

After getting back to the states, and going back to school, Zeb met Tammy and the two of are getting married right now.

Zeb, have a great day. I wish I could have been there. I am praying for ya'll right now.

"Ciao for Now"

Prayer for my Dad

About a month and a half ago, my father was in a bad car wrecka nd he broke two vertabre in his neck. My brother and I found out last night that he will be having surgury on Tuesday and we want to just ask ya'll to pray for him and the doctors as he goes under the knife.

Strike!!!

So Saturday night I found myself at Timber Lodges Bowling Alley with Becca, Troy and Hiram. The four of us went head to head in a winner takes all kind of thing. Game one was kind of slow (we were all trying to get a feel for the lanes). Troy and Hiram seemed to get into a groove early, Becca and I just seemed to be holding on for dear life. I ended up scoring a 99 (and I was so mad that the last frame had a hidden pin that I wasn't expecting)

Our second game started out better (at least for me). I bowled a nin in the first frame and followed that up with a strike which was followed by a spare. That in turn was followed up by another strik and another spare. After that, I kinda hit a little rut, but I did end with a 142, which was a great game for me.

And that was the end of the bowling night for me (I wanted to end while I was ahead). The rest of the crew's last game was not much to write about.

We had a great time!!!

Random Summer Memory 3.0

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Amanda. Amanda loved to go to the park at night and play on the playground, but her all time favorite thing on the playground was the see-saw. But there was one teency little problem...

Amanda had no one to play with. Which means that all she could do was see...she couldn't saw.

Amanda desided to take matters into her own hands and she whipped out her handy, dandy cellular phone and called as many people as she could think of.

all at one Amanda got really excited because...

Her bestest friend Jamie came to play with her.

Together they could see-saw, and they had a wonderful time.

Amanda finally got to see and saw on the see-saw.

and Jamie had fun too.

Amanda and Jamie were bestest of friends and lived happily ever after.

Summer Memory (2005) 2.1

So each summer, Pastor Dan and his fam take the summer missionaries to Seattle. This trip is a time to get to know each other and just have some fun. One of Pastor Dan's favorite places is Pike Place Market and that is where he wanted to take Adrian and me.

They had all kinds of stores. There was a lefty store (everything is made for left handed people) where I picked something up for my brother. There were several sports stores, toy stores, and clothing stores. But best of all there was a farmers market with every type of fruit, vegetible, and meat that you could think of. This is also the place where they throw the fish.

But my favorite placea Pike Place was across the street:

The first ever Starbucks stands in all its glory. And of course I had to go in and get a Mint Mocha-Chip Frappachino.

The trip with Pastor Dan wasn't our first to Seattle though. Samantha had taken Adrian and me to Seattle (really just to go and eat somewhere). But when we got there, we desided that we would go to the Space needle. It was a beautiful sunny day and we knew that if we waited until Pastor Dan took us we might not get such a great day. So we went and had a blast.

Summer Memory (2005) 2.0

The summer of 2005 saw me once again in the wonderful Ever Green State, however this time I would be spending it with McKenzie Baptist Church in Olympia. As with each summer missions trip, orientation was the first stop for yours truly.

It was back ot Portland for three days of orientation (where Thursday afternoon was set aside for us to have a free day). I met my summer missions partner, Adrian, at the airpot when we flew in. We hit it off prttey fast and I knew that this summer was going to be great after only the first five minutes of hanging out with him.

We met Pastor Dan the second day of orientation and the three of us threw the frisbe around as we got the down low on what we would be doing over the summer and what our expectations were and what his were for us. Then came our free day.

Pastor Dan took us to Multanomah Falls (which are just breath taking). Adrian had never been there and this was my second trip. We had a great day of hiking and taking pictures and just getting to know each other.

This summer was going to be a blast. Stay tuned for more.

Multanomah Fall

World Changers-Florence, AL a.k.a. A Week with the Toe Nails

So this past week I was a crew chief at a World Changers project in Florence, AL. I went there because the church that I worked at for two summers in Olympia, WA was coming down and my first summer missions partner was going to be there also (and I couldn't let them have a reunion without me). So I went. I drove six hours to meet them and start working hard.

Now, as a crew chief I was going to be in charge of a crew. There is where the Toe Nails were started. The youngest crew at World Changers (I being the youngest crew cheif and having the youngest crew encourager). Our kids were pretty young too, which kind of worried me because we were going to be doing a roof and you have to be at least 16 to get on the roof.

Sunday was when we met and we went to Parkview Baptist Church in Tuscumbia to worship together. After church was over and we visited the site of our home owner, our driver took us to UNA to see the lions and we got our first crew photo.

Gareth, Katie, Mitchell, Hannah, Leslie, Me, Ashley, Briteny, and Caleb were the nine Toe Nails on our little adventure. We rode around on "Old Faithful" (well at least for part of the week until we deemed it unsafe to drive, thats a story in itsself)

Along wit hreplacing the roof, we also got to tear down and build a porch in the front of the house we were working on.

The roofing crew did an amazing job and we got alot done in a short amount of time. This is all of them (minus me) and I think they deserve a standing "o" for the amount of work they did put in last week.
And then there were my grounds crew (ashley, hannah, and caleb). They did some amazing work. You already saw the porch, but another job of theirs was to pick up the site and keep it clean (and find tools that we happened to misplace)
I think that my favorite part of the week was teaching the roof girls how to smoke a nail instead of hitting it thirty times to see it go in.
And needless to say I had to try and stay out of the pictures (Aren't I hiding pretty well?)
With one side done and the other in progress we wan'ted to have a little fun during one of our breaks (which is where this picture came from)
On Monday my crew encourager got sick so I had to ground her (literally). She was a good sport about it though.
And there we are on the tip top of our roof, however I think that this was taken on Friday and Leslie was not supposed to be up there (don't tell anyone)
Mitchell was a work-horse. He was the one who wanted to put the cap on the top of the roof and then...
...we were finished.
Hope you enjoied a little recap of the week I spent in Florence, AL as a World Changer. One last group picture of...The Toe Nails' toenails!

Sojourner Memory 1.2

The week after Reata Springs, we went to a church in Hermatige, OR. The difference this week was that we would be joined by the team of Laura and Hannah (Hannah is the one picking her nose). We were so excited to be doing VBS again for a different church (but it was still the same theme-Rickshaw Ralley).


We got to meet the new youth director (who had only been there for like two weeks and he and his wife had moved from TEXAS). They were so much fun. Lupe was pregnant, about 2 months, and Jeff was just loving being in Oregon. They are both teachers, and they both love working with youth and children. It was their job to get VBS rolling and they were the ones who assigned the jobs.

And then there was Troubador. He was probably one of the wildest kids that you will ever meet. A true handful he was. He fell in love with Hannah and so they were hard to break up when it was time for us to leave.

Fun time all week on the Far Out, Far East, Rickshaw Ralley Racing to the Son.

Sojourner Memory 1.1

After our first week of orientations and odd jobs here and there, it was time for our group of eight to split into our teams of two. Erin and I were teammates and our first assignment...Reata Springs Baptist Church. This was one of my favorite weeks of the whole summer.

Each new church we went to meant a new host family for Erin and Me. At Reata Springs, we had our favorites, Mark and Tammy. They were amazing. Both of them grew up in Mississippi. One went to the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) and the other went to Mississippi State University (MSU). Both of them work at the Wal-Mart distribution plant right outside of the Tri-Cities (which is how they got to Washington in the frist place). They are a couple of great people.

Mark was like our stay at home dad all week. We did VBS every morning and handed out flyers for the block-party in the afternoons, but nights were full of fun. MArk and Tammy would take us to get ice-cream, mark stayed up and watched a "chick-flick" with us (which turned to be a straight sports movie with like a guy and girl talking a total of three times in the whole thing, which to Mark constituted a "chick-flick"). Mark even took us to the distribution plant one afternoon and we got to go into the freezer.

Mark and Tammy were great and I will always remember them. I wonder what they are doing right now?

Coming soon Sojourner memory 1.2 and look for Olympia Memories.

Character Goes a Long Way...All the Way to Home

The top of the second inning, Western Oregon senior Sara Tucholsky comes up to bat with two runners on. She swings the bat and the ball sails over the left field fence. The first homerun of her career (well the first of her lifetime) Sara is so excited that she misses first base. As she turned to go back she fell to the ground and crawled back to first. She had just torn her ACL and couldn't finish her trot. If anyone on her team was to tend to her, she would be called out. If a pinch runner were entered (as the umpires said on that day) it would be ruled a two run single.

That is when the greatest act of sportsmanship began to unravel. Mallory Holtman, a Central Washington Senior playing in her last home game, asked if here and a teammate could carry Sara around the bases to award her the homerun that she had earned. And that they did, stopping at each base to allow her to touch it with her good foot. The three run homerun wound up being the game winner, but the character of the girls from Central Washington will be what is remembered by the crowd of almost 100.

I have always heard that you only have one chance to make a first immpression. Your character is what people will remember.

When we just forget about ourselves and start thinking about others, that is when our character will begin to take shape. All Mallory had to do was stay quiet and the outcome of that came might have turned to her favor. But she didn't! She said that she did what she would have wanted someone else to do for her. Sara will never forget Mallory and Mallory will never forget Sara. This first impression was priceless.

So our lesson today is to build good character, it lasts a lifetime.

To see the ESPN clip click here.

Sojourner Memory 1.0

My first summer mission trip took me all the way to the tri-cities of Washington state. along with eight other missionaries, I was stationed in the Columbia Basin Baptist Association. We were split into teams of two and went to different chruches each week to help them run their VBS, we were counselors at youth camp and my partner and I got to go to Jericho 2004.

These eight girls made my summer. Although during the week we were separated, the reunions ath the white house were the best weekends ever. I hope you enjoy as a take your through memory lane this week in the CBBA.

Front: Sarah, Amy. Jenna

Middle: Hannah "Bessie", Kelly, me

Back: Laura, Erin, Amanda

An Idea I Had

With this being the beginning of summer (and with me having not posted in like three months) I thought that I would add a new section to my blog. I have been on a summer mission trip every summer since I graduated high school and this will be my first one at home (well at school rather).

I will go through memories from the previous four summers and try and take you on an exciting journey from Kennewick and Jericho to Olymipia and World Changers to Greece and Porto Astro. I hope that you will enjoy my memories, but also learn something that helps you a little more.

Coming Soon: Sojourner Memory 1.0

The Excitement of the New

So I have this friend. I promised that I wouldn't name this friend when I told this story. So just for now, this friend will be named Egg.

Well, Egg got a new phone for Christmas. And like anyone does when they get something new, Egg started using it. And not just calling people, but texting them as well. Well when Egg's parents got their phone bill after that first month, it was the size of a phone book. Egg had sent over 5000 messages, in 28 days. That averages out to about 200 a day.

Isn't that how we all get? We get something new and we ware it out when we first get it. Like it is gold and we have to latch on to it. But then what happens? It gets old and we gradually lose that flare for it, and eventually it winds up in the box in your attic and you forget you even have it.

Isn't that how we are with our faith? When we first accept Christ into our hearts, all we can think about is telling others about our life change. We ware our faith out. We go to every conference, camp and we can't stay away from church. Our bible is the only book we read, and prayer is like breathing. And little by little we stop telling people. We might miss this conference or that camp.
We might crack our bibles open every once in a while and prayer only happens when we need it. It's like we pack our faith up and put it in our hearts attic and kinda forget that it is there.

We need to get back to the faith that we had at the beginning. We need to tell everyone and anyone that we can find about what Christ has done in our lives. We need to pray like there is no tomorrow. We need to read like there is no other book in the world. We need to unpack our faith from where we've tried to hide it, dust it off and put it back into action.

WE NEED TO BE LIKE EGG!

To Catch a Train

We've all seen that famous scene in like every old western movie. The hero, to save the damsel in distress that was just kidnaped by the bad guy, ride his galliant steed and catches the train. Just in time to jump from his horse to the cabbose.

Now, what would have changed if the hero would have waited by at the next check point and as the train sped by, just jumpped and tried to land on the Train? I don't know about what is going through your head right now, but I think that certian scene wouldn't make it to print because it would have failed.

When you are going the same speed as the train, it is easier to jump on.

Too often new believers tend to jump when they are not ready, which usually leads to a huge fall. The Holy Spirit is moving at a great speed and we just can't jump on, we have to be going the same speed before we can leap.

Lately I have been looking at the small things in my walk. I have started reading and studying a lot more. I want to be going at full speed so that when I jump, I can land on what I am suposed to and not end in tragedy.

Out of the Valley

In our walks with Christ we tend to find ourselves on mountians or in valleys (or somewhere in between). When we are on those mountians, we feel that we are as colse to God as we can get while on this side of eternity. And when we are in those valleys, we feel so far away that we might not ever get picked back up.

Now over the past couple of weeks I have been in a very deep valley. I have felt so distant from God. And no matter what I tried or how hard I climbed, I could never find myself on the upward slope of the next mountian.

This past weekend, I sought the cross and I clung to it. And now I think that I am finaly on an upward climb, and it feels great. I just hope that I don't stall out on a ledge. I want to make it to the peak of this one.Something is about to happen.

Wisdom From Hitch

So I am alone on another weekend, but hey I am used to it. So what else would I do with my alone time but watch movies.

I was watching Hitch. Will Smith plays a match maker who gets this nerdy guy and this actress together. Well in his montelogue athe the very beging of the movie, Hitch says something that we can all learn from.

"Life is not about the number of breaths we take, it's about the moments that take our breath away."

That is a great line. Let us really break that one down.

Breathing is an involuntaty action that we just do, we don't have to think to ourselves "breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out". Too often, we tend to concentrate on those small things that happen to us (that we really have just as much control over as out breathing). We focus on what we should have done to avoid it, what might have been, and how to fix the whole thing. But when we focus on the small things, we miss those things that take our breath away, we miss the big things.

This weekend I was supposed to be in Dallas at the Passion Conference. So many little things came about to keep me from being there. And I have been focusing on the small things about it. "If I would have only done this" or "If I hadn't done that". I was focusing so much on the small things, I think that I have missed that moment that was meant to take my breath away. I know that there is still tomorrow, but I know now to stop focusing on the things that I can't control and to look for why I am here.

DON"T FOCUS ON THE SMALL THINGS, GO AFTER THE BIG ONES!

Its All About Perspective

So when I went to Greece, my team and I visited the Acropolis. On top of the Acropolis is the Parthenon. Well I handed my camera to Anna and asked her to take my picture. From where I was and the angle of the camera, the parthenon looks so big.

Well Zeb then asked me to take his picture. From where he was standing and the angle of the camera, the parthenon look small (almost like he is about to push it over).

It is all about perspective!

When we start to look at our spiritual leaders, we tend to think that their faith is so big. That they have the closest relationship with God, and that their prayer life is incredible. But maybe it isn't that theirs is as big as we think, but maybe it is that ours is so small. When we start comparing ourselves to others, we always tend to find something that we aren't doing as well.
I want my faith to withstand comparison. I don't want to be small spiritually.