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.