the Steadwich.

Goodbye, Blogger. Hello, Steadwich!

2009-09-07T17:00:00.001-07:00

It's time. I've moved the blog to http://www.blog.steadwald.com/ to facilitate the startings of the Stead Halstead School of Biblical Literacy. And to use WordPress, which is pretty awesome.

Update your bookmarks, notepads, address books, and RSS feeds!

On Campus

2009-08-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

I'm on campus again. Feels great. Today I'm spending two hours up here to brainstorm some ideas, passages, and thoughts on heaven for my talk next week at the INN.

Campus is quiet, but it's nice. Sitting in the skybridge, open to distractions. This is one of my favorite spots. Not really the skybridge, but the library in general. A combination of quiet, productive, and lots of free space. On top of all that, it puts me in the middle of those I'm attempting to serve.

Updates soon. And probably a blog move to a new spot because of my templating woes with blogspot. Besides that, steadwald.com has plenty of free space.

Messy Faith

2009-07-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

This is something similar to my talk I gave at the Summer INN two weeks ago. It's not totally the same though due to different audiences, and a fair amount of additions during the talk. For more details on the INN, check out our website at www.theinnministries.org or find us on twitter at twitter.com/theINN

I've been moving for the last few weeks. I’ve moved out of where I lived during the year, and into a new spot that I’m subletting for the summer. In late august or early September, I’ll be moving again to a more permanent location here in Bellingham. All this means a whole lot of cardboard, piles of stuff, and missing important things. On top of all of this mess in my room, I decided to go down to my parent’s house in maple Valley to fetch a few of those boxes that I haven’t really thought about for the last few years. They’re the things that we’ve all got, like gifts from the last few years, yearbooks, and all sorts of things.

I care about these things, of course, and they have some good sentimental value, but on the other hand, they’ve been in a box at my parent’s house for the last four years and I haven’t thought about them once. I can’t bring myself to get rid of them, but I also can’t figure out how to keep them.

The goal in having all this stuff up here is to be able to work through it, figure out what I do need, what I don’t need, and simplify a bit. I’m really getting bogged down though being in the midst of the mess in my room. I’m tired of waking up and jumping out of bed only to step on several layers of clothes, puzzles and who knows what else. Even though I’m tired of all of the stuff, I’m in the midst of this mess because I know that next year I’ll be much better off having sorted through things.

In a lot of the same ways, stuff piles up in our lives. Not all of it is bad, some is, but all of it makes life a little trickier. It's worth looking into these messes in our lives, and possibly even realizing that God could be working in the midst of them.

We live messy lives. We’re messy people. As much as we’d like to portray an image that we’ve got it all together, we get things wrong, let others down, and fail to love.

I think the summer is a cool time to be around the INN because of a lot of reasons, but I especially love that there are people here that have been going to school at western as well as people who grew up around Bellingham and are back fro the summer, and people with stories that we haven’t heard. We’ve all been in hard, messy places before and this summer is an incredible time to share this with others in the community. Things go differently than we planned, and we run into hurt and pain in our lives, sometimes that we don’t even know about.

Everything seems to get messy in our lives as some point. Relationships with our parents get messy when we don’t call or visit often enough, relationships with our roommates get tough when we don’t do our dishes or can’t pay rent, and relationships with other people get messy when we don’t love them like we should. As simple as loving God with all our heart and loving our neighbors as ourself is by itself, when we apply it to our lives, things seem to get a little bit trickier, messier, mudier.

With all this terrible realization of how messy our lives get, where does God come into all of this? What could a good, perfect, loving God have to do with people who trip and fall in their life, continuously turning to and from God? Despite the fact that we can’t get it right, God still loves and cares for us. In Romans 5, verses 6-8 Paul says this:

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

We don’t have to get it all right, and we won’t get it all right. Even though I have a long history of turning away from God and forgetting to love my neighbors, he died for me. For all of us, He died. Not because we had cleaned up the messes in our lives, but because he loved us. God died for us knowing fully how we have separated ourselves from Him.

I did a quick search in the bible for mess when I started preparing. I was a little shocked at first, when 780 results came up. I was a little disappointed though when I saw that almost all the results were not just the word mess, but usually message or messiah. I scrolled through the list anyway, but as my eyes crossed all of these “mess” words, I started thinking that maybe it wasn’t such a coincidence. Now, of course if you go look at some background, or the greek and Hebrew, I’m sure there is actually no connection, but, I found it interesting anyway that God’s message kept coming up, and perhaps the phrasing God’s message has something to do with God entering into our mess, and Messiah has something to do with Christ walking with us and helping us through our messy lives.

The ways that we are challenged to interact with others often causes some messiness in our lives. Loving God and loving our neighbors are concepts foreign to a lot of people around us. Living these things out is challenging. Loving our enemies includes loving those around us that maybe we wouldn’t associate with otherwise. It can mean uncomfortable conversations with people that you don’t know. It can mean stretching ourselves to do something for others without looking for credit. It can mean forgiving others that for largely offensive things when our culture tells us to disassociate with the person. Not only do the actions make our life more difficult or messier, but living the words of Christ gets people talking and most likely questioning what you’re doing.

My room is still full of boxes, piles of clothes and memories from the last 23 years, but I’m working through it. I have to admit though, I haven’t done it all by myself. People have helped me pack, transport boxes, move furniture and more. We shouldn’t be in our spiritual/emotional/relational messiness alone either. We know that God is with us, and it’s important to connect with others in community.

End of Season

2009-06-14T08:56:00.000-07:00

Well, the internship has ended! This week is a week off, and then the following week we start up the Summer INN. As sad as I am that the internship is over, I know that some really great things are coming up. The summer INN feels like an experiment in community that is very fluid and student driven. It should be awesome.

As much as I want to write here about the end of the internship, I wouldn't be able to give a full perspective of our team. For that, you'll have to check out http://www.theinnministries.org/category/interns/ and read everyone's final blog posts.

Perhaps more blogging this summer. Woo hoo!

2009-05-09T13:53:00.001-07:00

Phone pic number one!

Few and Far Between

2009-05-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

Too much has happened since my last post. Sorry. It would take too many words to tell about everything that's happened between now and then, so here are some pictures of a few of the awesome things I've taken part in:

We went packpacking to Lizzard and Lilly Lakes in the Chuckanut mountains. We look 35 or so students. it was awesome. This picture is me throwing my backpack over my head and catching it on my back.

I've continued making a lot of videos, frequently. I still love it. My camera has been getting some good use this year. It's about time! Check out www.theinnministries.org/videos for some of our work this year!

The next weekend after backpacking we went to do a local service project in Acme, WA. The area flooded earlier this year and there's still a lot of work to be done. We mainly raked, shoveled, and moved lots of gravel.

Some of the girl interns put our office items in jello. I found this on my desk after getting back from a meeting. This is a picture of my wooden carved name tag that I made in high school. Luckily, they put it in a ziplog bag before jelloing it so that the orange jello didn't stain the wood. Seth found his mug in jello. Jim found jello in his mug.

The INN's video editing iMac toasted. It's Christine's fault. Just kidding. We squeezed a good 4 or so year stint out of that refurbished iMac. Considering that it was used to produce the videos each week, I'm pretty impressed!

Well, that's the quick update to get me current. In other news, I applied to be the Summer INN co-director and got the job! I'm really excited. I'm still on and off sad about not going back to Alaska, but I think this summer is going to be a really good experience. On top of that, it will be a much warmer experience!

Campus Ministry: Crazy Adventure

2009-04-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Campus ministry has been a huge part of my time in school. When I started my education at a local community college, I didn't have much direction in my life or a strong understanding of what it meant to be a young adult of faith. Out on my own, I was without the guidance of my parents or high school friends to encourage my spiritual growth and connection with a local church. I spent the year lonely, confused, and frustrated about the ways my life had changed.

Eventually, a call from a friend invited me to move away from the community college and continue my education at Western Washington University. I agreed to join him, although this move didn't seem reasonable or a good way to move forward with my academic career. Within a week of moving two hours from where I was, another good friend invited me to the INN, a large campus ministry in Bellingham.

Through the INN, I reconnected with my faith and began learning and growing more through participation in weekly gatherings, small groups, and a mission trip to rural Maine. My eyes were opened to what it means to make this faith my own and make it a priority in my life. My time at the INN as a student ended last year, as I transitioned into being an intern at the INN and realizing that I have a passion for working with students and helping them discover faith.

Through my growth this year as an intern in a campus ministry setting, I am committed to supporting campus ministry with my time. This year's ministry experience has been fantastic. I love the way I have been able to see God move in a large group of students, as well as how God works through small details. I will be supporting college ministry the rest of my life. Either directly, as a campus minister, or indirectly, through financial and other giving.

Campus ministry faces huge challenges in the future. Campus ministry will continued to be challenged in funding. Students don't have the funds necessary to support large ministry organizations, supporting churches don't gain members or funds from college students, and parents are already struggling to keep up with the raising costs of higher education.

Campus ministry will also be challenged in how it reaches out to students. In a world where we are terrified to offending one another over religious beliefs, Campus ministries will need to continue proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At times, this will bring challenge, offense, hurt, love, care and joy. Within a campus ministry community, we walk together, causing another challenge of supporting students through changing times. We are challenged to be tollerant, without watering down the Truth.

Campus ministry is an exciting place to be. We live in a changing world, which is amplified in campus ministry, where participants turnover every 4-5 years as they finish their education and move out into the world. Despite the challenges, it's a great adventure that has been worth every dollar and every hour of time. There is no greater adventure than following Christ, and campus ministry is no exception.

Fires and Fires

2009-03-08T23:05:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been filled with a lot of fires. The first one is the not-so-great kind. Bellingham's Shangri-la motel caught on fire. Strange motel, but I suppose a bit of a landmark. It seems to still be standing, but we saw some pretty serious flames coming through the roof. We've been having some pretty cold weather (frozen Red Square --->) lately, so perhaps someone was trying to heat up their room a bit more. Who knows.

The other fire is one I experienced tonight. It's the better type. The fire down on the beach type. The kind of fire on a cold beach that rings in spring and all the great adventures to come. This particular fire was a birthday celebration.

The moon was already huge. We got down to the side of the bay, just across the tracks as the sun was setting for the day. As we traded sunlight for moonlight, the fire gave off just the right amount of warmth to keep us down there. Everyone is a friend at these things. We always meet each other for what seems like the first time, only to find that we've heard each other's names a thousand times and we're more connected than we would have previously guessed. We tell stories to our new friends over foil dinners made on the hot coals of our fire. The moon is reflecting off the bay in long streaks, and creating silhouettes of the trees on the rocky outcroppings on either side of us. As we talk, sometimes to only one other person and sometimes to the entire group, a few trains rush by. The tide slowly moves out as our conversations get more and more detailed. The scene is beautiful.

One by one, the individual conversations stop as a friend's excited words catch the attention of our ears. Eventually we are all captivated by what they are saying. The friend has been musing on how He has seen God working through him lately. Through interactions with others and being in the right place at the right time, God is doing something that could have never been planned or coordinated. This friend is excited to share, and we are excited to listen.

In this momment, I am inspired. Inspired to share my faith. Inspired to learn more. Inspired beyond my feeling tired at times and inspired to keep going. Inspired because God is doing something in this place that I see, and that God is doing somethings that I can see. The great adventure has sprung from watching God's plan develop in those that I regularly interact with, and somehow God is using my stumbling, mixed up, words to help this other person. I'm thankful for these momments of realization, and thankful as well for those that God has put in my life that have been unaware of their being used by Him.

May the plan continue to unfold, both in ways visible and invisible.

Snowshoeing

2009-03-05T22:15:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I had the awesome opportunity of getting to go snowshoeing with the INN. I've gone on the trip the last several years, and it's always really fun. Snowshoeing doesn't require much skill, and is pretty much hiking without too much effort. Very nice.

This year, our destination was the same, but I found the journey much less stressful. I blame this on a few things. Firstly, I think having to walk up a good sized hill to get home each day has made me a good bit stronger. That helps.

Also, I think this year's trek was easier due to using much better equipment than I've ever used before. My parents gave me an awesome pair of snowshoes that worked great, as well as some new layers of clothing for keeping warm. I was more than comfortable heading up the hill. Amazing.

In 2.5 weeks, we depart for Monettery, Mexico. It should be a great trip. We've got 26 awesome students going with us. While we're not fully sure what the organization has planned for us down there, we trust that God is already preparing us for the work that He knows is to come.

All in all, things are going well. This quarter remains busy, but I'm still getting a lot of good reading in and a great amount of sleep. This year has been an awesome adventure so far!

So quickly!

2009-02-22T23:28:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure where time has been going this quarter. Things are moving so quickly. The todo list has been getting long, I"m meeting with more people, and things are going. It's been an awesome adventure so far.

The last few weeks have brought a time for us to start recruiting people to take our places next year as interns. This is pretty strange. It means I need to start thinking more about where I'm off to next.

In a lot of ways, I'm grateful that I haven't been thinking too much about the next step. It's meant that I can relax, focus on right now, and keep going. On the other hand, I could use a little bit of panic so that I would actually do a little bit of planning.

I had the opportunity to speak at our student leader training meeting a few Mondays ago. I had a great time. Speaking is usually something that I dread a bit, but this was different, and better. I had a good time preparing, and actually talking it that day. I talked about the mysterious transition to adult faith that a lot of people talk about. I blogged a little about it at the other blog on http://www.theinnministries.org/interns

That's all I've got for now. More "later", whenever that is!

Back again

2009-02-05T22:53:00.000-08:00

As I lay in a different place tonight, I'm reminded of living here before. It's a little different (I'm on a pretty old hide-a-bed) and a little more cramped (I'm in a hall way), but still good. The value of this place makes the physical discomfort totally worth it.

As I lay in bed, eventually drifiting off to sleep, I'm listening to two guitars strumming in the living room. The music keeps changing from not really anything to a random worship song, back to nothing, and eventually to some top 40 hit. I can hear bits of conversations too, the left overs of the small group bible study that met here several hours before. One friend is studying the human body in his room, and another has already drifted off to bed. Each person seems to individually be at peace with wrapping up their days in this place.

This place has a culture with it. A community that continues to grow and expand. It's strange, and changes, but is good at the same time. That's my random thought for now. That's what I've got.

Road Trip!

2009-01-30T11:07:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a while since I've posted (again). I figure this should do the trick Two weekends ago we took the roadtrip I previously mentioned to a mysterious hobbit trail and the Oregon Coast. If a picture is worth a thousand words, and one second of video has 30 frames, I figure this little 7 minute recap must be worth a bout 12,600,000 words. Lets be honest, that's more than I would have written anyway.

Remember, this is a speed recap, as in, most of it was edited in the car on the trip as we went. Don't expect too much in the quality department, or the narrative to be excellent. With that disclaimer, here it is:

Oh, Hello.

2009-01-16T22:29:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while. I guess I don't really need to preface with that. You either know that, or could know it by looking at the post dates. Whatever. I'm still posting this.

Things have been busy, but great the last few weeks! We're two weeks into Winter quarter. Our talk series this quarter is "God of All", meaning we're discussing each week how God is God of our finances, realtionhips, technology lives, etc. It's a very cool talk series. I'm sure I'll be posting more about it as the quarter goes on. There's really a lot ot talk about in each topic.

In other news, my visit home was very nice. I was home for a week and half, and really did nothing my whole time there. I visited a few people here and there, but I really didn't wan tto do anything except read and sleep. It was probably good for me, but I'm glad to be back in the state of constantly doing things. I get little breaks here and there though, so don't worry too much about me.

Speaking of breaks, tomorrow morning, Zach, Tim, Brooke and I are heading to Oregon for the weekend! We're visiting some friends from Alaska, then continuing on to see some kind of "Hobbit Trail" that Zach found on the internet. The trail is somewhere over on the coast. I agreed to come along on the roadtrip on the condition that we'd stop by the AstorColumn in Astoria on the way back. I'm not sure why I like it so much, but it really is cool.

That's all I've got for now. I'm liking web design more after doing a lot of it over Christmas break. My next task is to work on developing my creative eye for websites and things like that. It's alright, but sometimes not so much. We'll see. With that said, have a great week and long weekend!

Woo hoo! Fixed!

2008-12-28T17:51:00.000-08:00

Check out the column to the right -->

Notice anything?
Good. You shouldn't. It's right where it should be, and not spread all over the page.

I expected to write much more here over this break, and I'm not sure why I haven't. I suppose I've been a little busy getting ready for the launch of pcusacollege.org (still a work in progress!). That consumed week one of break, with a lot of emails back and forth to friends on the east coast.

Working with people from the east coast takes up a LOT of time. I would wake up at a good early time, find 10 emails that they had written (because it was already noon there!), we'd chat a bit on the internet, then I'd spend the afternoons and evenings fixing those things, send some emails, etc. Sometimes I would even read other things for fun. Anyway, then it starts all over the next day. I'm not sure if it's more efficient yet to work with people at a distance. I think I'll call this concept "Time Zone Productivity Leverage".

It's been fun attending Maple Valley Presbyterian Church this week. I"ve had a lot of great conversations with old friends. It's a good place, and I get the feeling that they are in the middle of a transition. Feels like they're trying to work out a little bit more about who they are/are going to be in the next 15 years. That's good.

The card to the left was a little project of mine I worked on for the family. Pretty quality family picture, eh?

Also, I've turned on comments for anyone. Try it out. Click the "1 Comments" button right below this post and leave one. Of course, it might say "2 Comments", or "10,000 Comments", be prepared. You don't have to sign into any account anymore. I realize this will probably allow some random robots to post garbage, but it'll be nice to hear from those I usually wouldn't.

Leave a comment, right now.

New Template

2008-12-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

This is a new template I wrote today to match the new look at steadwald.com

I like it... but templating for blogger is a little weird, so this is a real jumble right now. Oh well, I'll get back to it tomorrow!

Oh, one of those.

2008-12-14T00:39:00.000-08:00

It's one of those nights. Cold, winter feeling. All that. The day started out just like so many other Saturdays this quarter. Laying around, not really wanting to do anything. I'm fine with that. Eventually I did get some stuff done (like packing all my belongings).

But then the temperature dropped. My plans of walking around in the afternoon, or even the remove possibility of going out for a little run faded gave way to my desire to stay healthy (ha, by not running...) and visit friends. The cold air didn't change my day too much, but it had an impact.

But then it started to snow. As the tiny sandgrain sized flakes began to fall to the streets in the cold, Bellingham rapidly took on a different look. Usually snowfall is eagerly anticipated by thousands of Western Washington University students. I remember being in that place; the anticipation of whether or not classes would be canceled, the excessive calling of the snow line, and the eventual caving to play late into the evening and early morning in the snow with friends whether there was school or not.

This snowfall is different for me. I'm not a student anymore, so I'm not really waiting for anything to be canceled. Most students have returned home by this point after finishing their finals, so I don't even feel the spillover from them. This snowfall, it's just me. Just me and some friends.

3 inches, maybe less. That's all. But that's also all that it takes. Snow has always had a strange power to change a community. Pre-existing plans and obligations get canceled, people come outside their houses and play, friends stop by to see if you'd care to join them. Complete strangers ask if they can borrow your sleds for a quick run down the hill, and you let them with no hesitation. We find ourselves in neighbor's houses later on that we hadn't met until this point. Community looks different when our ability to transport ourselves and build schedules is hindered by a mere 3 inches of white snow.

I realize that I keep saying it looks "different" which I think has something to do with my training in foreign countries that things are "never bad, just different". I've repeated that with people, used it to help myself be open to other cultures, and heard it said a thousand ways.

But for today, I'm willing to say that having the snow on the ground was better. I was in better, more complete, community because of it. With that said, it wouldn't be healthy to have the snow on the ground all the time. I'd probably become some kind of hermit.

But good or bad, different or the same, this is one of those nights. A day that started out as completely ordinary and was transformed into something I couldn't have forseen. I couldn't have forseen it because the start place seemed an unlikely place to start for such an extravagant ending, and on top of that, the end was something different than I could have arranged on my own.

In a bigger way than my musing about snow changed communities, this is a season about the ordinary and unlikely becoming extrordinary. Advent is a time that we sit waiting in expectation for the coming of Jesus Christ, a new king, that would come into this world in the most ordinary, unlikely, way for a king.

This is one of those nights.

PSALT - 2008

2008-12-06T19:31:00.000-08:00

Well, a month+ has passed since my trip to Louisville, KY, so I guess it's probably about time to write something about it...

This year's fall PSALT (Presbyterian Student Advocacy and Leadership Team) meeting was great. The most exciting part of this meeting for me was being able to get to meet the people that we had elected to PSALT from their applications just a month prior. We picked some awesome people to serve students across the country through this team. I'm excited to see how the work will continue in the coming years with these enthusiastic young members (haha, that makes me sound old).

The first night we spent getting to know each other, because the team had been pretty depleted over the last few years. Actually, during our get to know you games, only Betsy, Rick and I had met before out of the 10 or so of us.

The next morning, I led a brief (so brief!) devotion about our unity in Christ. During our time together, we realized we were going to encounter many different viewpoints on social and theological issues. I think the devotion set us on the right track and helped us keep our focus on what was important.

Of course, we couldn't get to work before taking a little historical tour around the PC(USA) Presbyterian Center(headquarters). The building is amazing, historical, and very cool. The tour was interesting, and it was neat to see where all these people work that are behind emails, phone calls, websites, governance and more.

Over the rest of the day, we broke down what college students need and categorized them into a few different areas. Out of the weekend, this was the best thing we did. Not only did it help us figure out where we were starting from, it also got everyone excited for our team and trying to help students fill these needs.

For now, PSALT is working on a website. I know, I know, a website is only kind of cool. Another goal is planning several mission trips for smaller college ministry groups, or individual students to attend if missions wouldn't be available to them otherwise. As soon as we get the website rolling(and it's getting there!) we'll start collecting info on resources, ministries, and anything else. What should be included in all of this... We're not sure yet. Through surveying students and asking questions of people we know, we hope to figure this out more.

We took a little time the next morning to visit the Louisville Seminary. A pretty nice place, beautiful campus. After that, we took round one of departures to the airport and the rest of us headed off to Churchill Downs. Awesome.

I love our conversations about where the church is going. At times it feels overwhelming. Where is the PC(USA) heading? Is it right where it's supposed to be? What gets changed? Visiting different churches in different parts of the country has given me a bit more perspective on this and its become a bit of a fascination.

I'm excited to see PSALT moving. I have full confidence that the people that are on this team have a great vision for how we can start connecting with college students and providing resources. We've got a huge task in front of us, but we're moving forward. Excited to see what comes of all of this, and how it shapes the Presbyterian Church(USA) in the future.

Nearing the End of the First Quarter

2008-12-06T19:19:00.000-08:00

It's almost here. The end of the first quarter. I can't really believe it. I posted on the INN's intern blog the other day about how it feels like we just started. With the whirlwind of activity, blogging here has fallen a little by the wayside.

Over the last few weeks, the things I haven't told you about are crazy adventures in ministry of things like building wooden frames for 25 feet of Christmas scenes, helping plan an alternative worship gathering, lots of hanging out with students, late nights building timelines about my life, or seeing Peter Rollins speak at Mars Hill Graduate School (not the church). All good things, but those things alone deserve a book and something more than a little blog post.

I work with a lot of awesome interns and staff. As this quarter comes to a close, I can use prayers to help me keep service in mind and keep myself mindful of their needs. Also, to end the quarter strong, and begin planning Winter quarter.

This post may have not informed you of anything, but it helps me feel like I've blogged, and removes all of the above items from things I feel like I should write about. I'll be able to write more frequently because of this. It's weird, but you probably get it. Right?

Thankfulness

2008-11-23T18:16:00.000-08:00

//Some variation of this shared at First Presbyterian Church of Bellingham today, twice//

My name is Stead Halstead, and I’ve been asked to share a little bit with you today about thankfulness. This year I’m working at the INN as an intern, a mission of this church to the students of Western and Whatcom in the area. I help coordinate small groups, financial matters, electronic publicity, and various other areas. So far, the internship experience has been great. I’ve learned a lot, grown a lot, and had to do a lot of new things to help make the INN happen.

When I look back over my short life, I realize I have a lot to be thankful for. Starting out at a community college, I’m thankful that I have parents that were willing to keep me around for a little bit longer. While during that time in my life I struggled to find a Christian community, I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to go to school and learn things that have helped made me who I am today.

I have a great family to be thankful for. Throughout my childhood and my college years, they have been supportive of all my random adventures and activities. I spent this last summer driving a tour bus in Alaska. After spending four years in school and having a job offer from the Fred Meyer headquarters, I predicted the last thing my parents would be interested in me doing would be running away to Alaska. For myself, I thought that giving tours in Alaska would be a great opportunity to practice public speaking, relationship building, and patience. As well as have a great adventure. When I brought this plan up to my parents, instead of the confusion that I expected when they heard the news, they responded by asking if they could drive up to visit. I was still a little skeptical, but at the end of July, my parents made the 1700 mile trek to spend a few days with me, and get a little adventure in for themselves.

I’m thankful that even during my time at community college when I had essentially walked away from my faith, that friends, family members and people I had never met had been praying for me that I might come back. The result of their prayers was a seemingly random phone call from Drake, a great friend from High school. Drake encouraged me to move to Bellingham, while having full knowledge that none of my current educational or career goals could be met up here. As weird as his phone call, if not weirder, I accepted his offer to leave home.

I’m thankful that the INN and First Pres are communities of friends that encourage connectedness and growth. In my first week to Bellingham, I was invited by another old friend to attend the INN. Searching for something to belong to, I visited a few times. I joined a small group, that I reluctantly attended. Even with my resistance to being in the small group that I signed myself up for, my leader pursued me and eventually eliminated all of my excuses for sitting at home on Sunday nights. The more I attended the group, the more I enjoyed having a place to connect with other people, build friendships, and ask questions about faith that I either hadn’t yet asked or hadn’t thought about before.

This year, I’m also incredibly thankful for the support that this church gives to the INN. Week after week, you allow lots of students to flood through the doors of this beautiful building. I’m thankful that the Hamiltons have been generous in sharing their home with me. This congregation has shown incredible support to the INN.

Through the INN I have been a small group leader, local service planner, and student leader. This year, serving as an intern has also helped me grow in ways I never could have imagined. This has been an amazing piece of the Body of Christ to belong to, and I’m excited and thankful for the future opportunities to learn, grow and serve.

All Languages

2008-11-20T18:30:00.001-08:00

It's always good to remember that some things need no translations and are universal across all cultures. The last half is the best!

Old Friends,

2008-11-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I got the chance to have lunch with a former intern. We chatted about how things were going, and I told him about how much I've been enjoying it. It was great meeting up with him, and the breakfast was really fantastic.

Before breakfast, it had been pouring down rain. We were totally soaked in just the walk between the parking lot and the restaurant. After breakfast though, the skies had almost totally cleared and we had quite a bit of blue! It was aweomse to see, very energizing. Sometimes in the winter months, people get pretty bogged down here because of all the gray. I took the chance to take a quick picture of the chuch in the light, very cool.

In other news, I was walking to the office the other day, minding my own business when I ran into(well, almost) a deer. I was probably a good solid 3 feet away when I looked up and saw the deer infront of me on the sidewalk. If I wouldn't have looked up, I totally would have tackled the poor deer and probably gotten a swift paw to the face. That would have made a pretty crazy story.

The last week has been pretty fast paced for me. I'm not sure if I've just been unproductive, or my todo list is getting longer, but I'm working on it. Thursday I accomplished quite a bit actually, and chopped tons of things off the list. Very nice.

So far this weekend my time has been filled with coffee shops, friends, farmers markets, and some great dinners. My challenge for this next week is to hang out with more students, seeing how things are going for them at this point in the quarter, hearing how God is working in their lives. These walks and coffee times do more for me than just encourage me and hopefully help me keep up with what is going on in their lives, but also provide a great time to slow down for a few minutes and enjoy some relaxing momments with some friends.

INNferno

2008-11-07T23:11:00.000-08:00

There's nothing quite as beautiful as lots of people gathering for late night worship things. I realized this as I walked through a swampy grass field near lake Samish on a warm, dark rainy night. Trying to avoid the deeper puddles, I couldn't help but keep my eyes looking down towards the ground, which was too dark to see anyway. In the middle of my trek though, I did manage to peer up accross the field towards my destination. The dining hall of the camp was glowing in the middle of the dark, muddy field that I was in.

The candles and fire illuminating the room cast tall shaddows accross the field of people sitting, standing, and supporting each other. I starred at the building for another few seconds and through the sound of the rain drops falling all around me and on my waterproof jacket came singing. The voices spread accross the field, seeming to fill the dark empty space.

Entering the building, I was greeted by a roaring fire, warmth, and many friends. The singing kept on coming, even louder as I stood in the crowd. Another opportunity to witness students connecting with God in various ways. Some ponder, some sing, others pray with friends.

These were good momments.

It's good.

2008-11-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

In most every conversation over the course of the last month, students, parents, family, friends, Alaskans all ask, "So, how's the internship going?"

I usually answer something generic, like, "Oh, it's great!" or maybe, "I'm having a good time, and learning a lot!"

Yesterday in a conversation with someone I would consider a good friend as of recent, I stopped to think about my response a little. I wasn't lying to other people, I just hadn't actually thought about what they were asking. I haven't paused until yesterday for this question. The internship has made me pause for lots of other things, but this question hadn't made it there yet.

As I responded in the car, in an honest momment, I said that I loved it, but this time really, really meant it. I wandered to why I love it, and further.

I love that I get to see people connect with God, and make their faith their own after growing up with what their parents may have(or may have not) believed. Students land in this same place and understand that they have a chance to try new things, think differently, and discover more about who they are. I get to be a part of this and I'm loving it.

I love that I get to work with caring people. People that will tell me when I do well, people who will help when I don't. People that are very family to me.

I love the flexibility, because I think it mirrors the flexibility that the Kingdom of God demands. We operate in a stream of ideas that sometimes don't fit what has been done before.

This is a great year. Not just because I'm learning a lot for myself, but because I get to be a part of a community that is living and growing that meant so much to me as a student.

So when I'm asked how the internship is going, and I respond, "Oh, it's great!" these are the wheels that start spinning that makes me smile, and most likely chuckle, at whoever I'm talking to.

Fall!

2008-11-02T10:22:00.000-08:00

The leaves are falling. Every day that I want to drive my car, it seems that I have to scrape off quite a few leaves til I can even think about driving anywhere. I think I've been doing a pretty good job of not driving too much, and I'm really enjoying all the walking I'm getting in.

This weekend was my frist real weekend to not do anything. I got in some good sleep, visited some great friends, and relaxed. Much needed!

I'll be writing about it more later, but my visit to Louisville was awesome. I'm really excited about the team that we selected and how well they all work together. We're working on a big website and working to make it useful for students.

A rainy day today, but not all bad. This week is going to be a little busy with working on the mission location announcement video. I think the idea for it is really cool, it'll just be up to me to pull it off technically. I know all the locations of the 2009 trips, and I wish I could say what they are. I'm really excited for all of the trips, and especially my own. We're going to a great place, and I've got a great co-leader! I've said too much :)

Featured on Blogger.com Front Page

2008-10-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

I was flipping through stats tonight and noticed a rediculous point on October 20th, where the daily visitors to the blog went from a usual 4-5 to about 100. Wow! After thinking for a few seconds that I had become very popular on the internet, I researched a little more and found that all but 3 of those visitors were refered to me from blogger.com. This means that my blog isn't still at 100 vistors per day, but it is pretty sweet that I was randomly featured! And also interesting to think that some people(97!) actually click on those links.