What It Is Like To Be a Dingaling

So last night was my first bell chior practice. I think it's going to be a lot of fun! So what is it like to be a dingaling? Well you have to wear these white gloves that make you look like Mickey mouse. (I had the Lamoka ministry team 08 T-shirt on so I looked a lot like a mime. Kinda funny.) And on the music there are the letters LV and R. LV means let vibrate and R means to stop. Very cool! All the bells have a bell symbol and then the letter of the note. So I played G,A and B flat(on the lower base clef). I don't have trouble playing, I just have trouble finding where I am. I'll play the right note, just one measure too early. Hopefully I'll do better next time. But it is a lot of fun, despite the frustrations!
COMING SOON: WHAT IF? (Still waiting for Mr. Baker to email me) and DREAMS(if you have had any wierd dreams please email them to me. I would like to get lots of dreams for this post, but so far I haven't gotten any:(

My House(without the boxes!)

So these are some pics I took yesterday. I call this collection: My house, without all the boxes! Am I a genius or what? (Don't answer that.)

ESF Conference

So there are three of these conferences every year one in Winter,Spring, and Fall. This year's Spring conference was held in Yorkshire! So this is what happened and what I learned:

• Dr. Daniel Anderson(who by the way is the prez of Appalachian Bible College) talked about Jeremiah and his call to holy living in the first session. I thought when I heard that we could be holy, "We can't be holy because only God is holy." But then he said that one of his professors had said, "Holiness isn't quality, it is quantity." So in other words we can be holy, but God is so holy that we can't ever match it.
• In between dinner and the second session, the Yorkshire/Marilla choirs sang. Wow! It was way cool to listen to them!
• In the second session, Dr. Anderson talked about how Christians have become calloused to sin and to the word of God. We are more vulnerable than we think. In other words, watch out for sin more closely!
• Got to talk with Erik and Christy for a good chunk of time. Also talked briefly with Ally and Becca. Good to see them all again!
• Spent the night at the McGinnis house. Got to talk with Jordan and Jacquelyn(sorry if I spelled that wrong Jac) a little before they headed off to school.
• In the third session, Dr. Anderson talked about how we should be a reflection of God. Everyone should see the Lord through us. If we are holy then that shouldn't be as difficult.
• So after the third session there was an hour to kill, so Erik and Christie and I went around eating timbits, staring at fish, telling dreams, and secretly playing violin.(Actually Christy was staring at the fish and Erik was playing the violin secretly and I was just standing there taking it all in.) Fun stuff!
• So after all that falldy rall, Erik was on this pannel thing on purity. In other words, Erik and three other people sat in chairs and answered questions. He did a pretty good job! Way to go Erik!
• In the final session, Dr. Anderson said that We should have an addiction to the Word of God and to the Lord. And then if we have that we will seperate from wrong, suffer for right and have actions of confidence. Cool!

And so that is what happened at this year's ESF Spring Conference!

Pray for...

1. Hey, all you bloggers/blog-checkers/prayer warriors. I have a few quick prayer requests. The first is that Heather and Lauren will get better. My mom is well again, but the girls caught whatever my mom had.
2. Today I went into shock again. I was riding in the van, coming home from church. Then, my dad told me. If I had been standing I would have fallen backward and hit my head. Some one gave the church $10,000(yes, ten thousand dollars!) for the purpose of starting a youth ministry! Pray that we get youth and can use the money wisely.
3. Pray that I can get back into the groove. I've been going to bed at weird times and eating at weird times. I am exhausted! Pray that I can get my stength back and keep on going. Thanks!

Lacrosse

So today I went to my first lacrosse game. Now I can see why Jordan and others are so into this game. Two undefeated teams were playing each other: Princeton Tigers and the Cornell Bears(or Big Red). The game was cool, but some of the spectators were kinda weird. Take the first half for example. In the first half we sat beside a man who had a voice so loud it shook the bleachers(literally). Then in the last quarter we sat beside two teen boys who were commenting on how stupid lacrosse was.(Why someone would spend money to get into a game that they don't like I'll never know.) So anyway, Cornell beat Princeton 10-7. It was cool! Other than that it was a normal day!

Pics of Tab

So here's some pics of where I go to church now. The church is called Tabernacel Baptist. Tab for short.

1. This top picture is a picture of part of the sanctuary. The photo I took of the whole thing didn't come out too good.


2. The second picture is a picture of Heather in the very dark lobby/ entryway/the place where most everyone comes in.


3. The third picture is of the college kids' classroom. Usually it is full, but since I took this on a Wed. night, it is empty.


4. The two sylish 15 passenger vans are used every morning to go to the Cornell campus and pick up the college students who want to go to church to church. Usually the vans are full. But again it is Wed. night so they are empty.


5. Seeing as we have so many older people and disabled people that come to church, Tab has this really cool elevator with doors on both sides.


6. This is a picture of the outside of Tab.


7. And this is the sign with the stylish logo that sits out front.
8. Ok, that was wierd. I forgot to put this picture in, and somehow it ended up at the top. So number 8 really is the pic at the top and number one is number one on this long downward list of pics. So anyway, this is the youth room. It is empty because it is Wed. night. Although, it wouldn't matter what day/night it was because, there really aren't any youth.(Well, there's me. But that's not saying much. Oh yeah, and Heather.) So if you want something to pray about pray for teens. So that is my church. Hope you liked the pics!

Two Too Cool Videos

My dad found this video while he was setting up his office at church. The video was taken by Mike Mitzel in the summer of 2004 at Camp Lamoka. The video says that it goes for about 4 minutes,but it really only goes for 1 minute and 44 seconds. Enjoy!

This is a video that Sean Conner put together. It was filmed by Sean,Jordan, and me, a little over a month ago. It stars Me(of course, no film would be complete without me), Jordan, and Sean. Thanks goes to Mr. Conner, who took the pictures and was a background extra. Good job Sean!

Check it out!

So I was making my internet rounds yesterday(you know, check out all the blogs, check email, read my Calvin and Hobbes comic strip online(I love Calvin and Hobbes. Woohoo! Sorry.), and checking out Erik's website.) when I came across something on Erik's website.(Do you know Erik? If you don't he's kinda hard to describe, but he follows this blog,has a lot of hair,and has his own website(which by the way has this really cool set up and super cool background). So anyway I was checking out his website. And on the updates it said that he put somethig new on. So I thought cool. And then when I go and look I see that there is like a ton of stuff. So what better place to begin than the begining. So I read it and it turns out to be this really awesome language that he came up with. It is Incredible with a capital I and that rhymes with pie and that tastes really great! So check it out! The adress is http://www.erik.comoj.com/kaejdim-grammar.php CHECK IT OUT! I'm thinking I will try and learn it so I can get used to learning new languages. Again CHECK IT OUT!

Calvary by Scott Paris

Three men on the crosses
Of Calvary died.
Two are dead,
Yet one is alive.

Thinking

Thinking. I don't know of a better way to sum up the way I feel right now. I watched this show about 1968 and it's events. The program started out explained about the elections in that year and the Vietnam War(Some people call it a conflict,but I don't think that is the right word.) . The show then showed the events of the Chicago riots. They showed the protesetors raising the VietCong flag in the park. That immeadeatly made me angry. How could they desert their country like that! Raising a Communist flag, an enemy flag, the flag of the country that America was fighting against. I felt as though... How I felt was that I wanted to make them pay for their rebellion. But then I saw the the police come and yank a man forcefully off a statue in the park where the protestors were gathered. Then in the next few minutes I watched the police picking up men and women and tossing them into police vans. Jeeps with barbed wire pushing people backwards, tear gas being thrown into the crowds, blood on peoples faces. I will never forget it.

Then, I went on the internet and for some reason thought I would look at information on the Chicago riots. I found a video on it. I watched in BW movie the riots all over again. In the middle of the movie. A voice over of one of Richard Nixon's speeches came on. And when he got to the end he said, "...This is America" On the video as the film still rolled those words repeated over and over. "This is America. This is America. This is America. This is America...." I turned off the sound. I couldn't take it any more. Those words over and over again and the footage. When it finished I just sat in scilence. I wasn't for raising an enemy flag and defying my own country. But the way the police took people into custody wasn't maybe right either. I'm not sure what to think. It only happened about 40 years ago,but it happened when my grandparents and other older people were young men/women and or teens.

So I'm thinking. About what to think about this situation that happened awhile ago. I'm not sure what to think. I guess I'll have to think some more.

A 2nd Look at the Story of the Good Samaritan

Was looking at the story of the good Samaritan on Sunday, while my garndfather preached. Decided to do a PowerPoint presentation like the ones I have done in the past for SS opening. Noticed a few things.

1. The Bible says "a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho..." Jerusalem is on a hill so he would literally have to go down the hill to get to Jericho. Just something I found interesting.
2. The Bible says that the robbers stripped the man. Probably to make sure that they got every bit of moola the guy had on him.
3. A priest would be like a pastor. The first person who should have helped the man.
4. A Levite would have been like a deacon or elder or whatever. The second person who should have helped him.
5. The Samaritans were probably the last people who would have helped the Jews. Jews and Samaritans didn't get along too well.(That's the understatement of the year.) In fact Jews would go all the way around Samaria and vice versa.
6. The Samaritan sacrificed personal comfort to help the man by giving him his donkey to ride while he walked.
7. The Samaritan took care of the man even after he left. The Samaritan was willing to pay for all the man's expenses.

Try looking at stories that you think that you know everything about. You might be surprised and find something new or something that you never noticed before.

Pray for...

My mom has been under the weather. She didn't feel too good Sunday night. And it has gotten worse from there. Advil and other stuff doesn't seem to help. We think it's the flu. So if you could pray for two things in particular that would be great.

1. Pray she gets better as my cousins are coming on this Saturday.
2. Pray my family and I don't get it. I don't like getting sick like most of you don't.

Reach the World

Made this video a while ago. Would love to know what you think. PLEASE COMMENT!

Palm Sunday at TABernacle Baptist

Today was a pretty cool day. A lot of things(most of them cool) happened today.

1. First off we had a Palm Sunday breakfast at church at 8:30. And bing the baptists that we are everyone brought good food and ate a ton.
2. Oh yeah, today was my Dad's first sunday attending! That was cool.
3. Bell chior played special music. It was awesome to listen to the bells sound and watch the people who played.
4. We sang this hymn in church, and the words of the third verse really made me think. The words to the third verse of Love of God say:

Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skie of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quil and every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched across the sky.

Wow! God is so incredible! The words we use to describe him don't even scratch the surface of what he is really like. That is the God we serve!

5. After church the bell chior ringleader(that was a feeble joke) asked my mom and I to be in the bell chior. And so starting April 28 I will be a dingaling(not that I'm not already)! I'll probably be ringing one of the bigger heavier bells(using my huge and athletic muscles(another joke:)).

All in all a pretty good day. And tonight I'll go to church again! And after that I'll go watch a Dickens movie(that guy writes some really confusing stuff)till late at night. Fun,Learning, and growing; that's my Sunday in a nutshell!

Toilet Trouble

So I was in my room minding my own bussiness when I hear a noise. It sounds like dripping. I go to the wall and feel the rug. Wet. I look up at the sealing on the ceiling. There is a long stream of water running from the where the ceiling meets the wall. I run upstairs and there is this thin, long crack on the toilet tank's side. The floor is covered in water. So I quickly grab towels and inform my parents. They bailed out the tank so all is cool. Not sure how we're going to find a blue toilet again. But at least the problem is solved for now.

Cryptid of the month

What is a 'cryptid'? Simply put a cryptid is an animal that may or may not exist. The study of cryptids is called cyrptozoology. Every month I will post a new cryptid. I would really like to get feed back as to what you think.
AHOOL:
Monkey with wings, or bat. Covered in gray fur wing span of about 10 feet.
First reported in 1925 in Indonesia by Earnest Bartels, an ornithologist.
Evidence:
Near dusk Earnest Bartels heard a loud AHOOL,AHOOL in the Javan rainforrest. He went outside and saw an animal covered in fur with a huge wingspan.
YES: Earnest Bartels saw it
NO: North Javan Owls with a wingspan of 4 feet whick give a HOOH sound,it was at dusk(couldn't see well),panicked account(exaggeration).
Final Conclusion: Probably just an owl.

(Thanks for the picture,Andrew!)