Last Week's Current News

Last week could've been better.  But by Friday, things were looking up.

The dark knight got into more trouble than she ever has on Wednesday night, which is saying a lot.  She got loose from the yard and ran straight into the road and the side of a car.  It sounds funny when you say it like that, but at the time it was anything but funny.  She was limping on her left leg for a couple of days and after a few x-rays, the doctor says it's just a muscle thing.  She's on some good meds for this week and given her soccer ball session yesterday where she ran and jumped completely normal, I think it's safe to say she's on the way to a full recovery.  Now if I could just get her to look both ways. 

The Boston bombings.  What the crap was that? I was immediately glued to the TV, as I had a good friend who was running the marathon and her husband was there with her.  Luckily she is fast and had finished the race before anything happened.  Then watching all the manhunt footage was like watching a Chris Nolan movie.  All I know is that April seems to be the popular month for crazies to carry out their mass killings.  Now instead of supporting Boston and looking for some encouragement in all this, it's about to turn into some huge immigration reform discussion.  Just like the gun thing did a couple months ago that got everybody all mad at everything. I mean I get it, people hate America.  We can't help that we're the best, we support freedom, we have money.  This is my all-time argument as a Yankees fan, too.  What if your team won 27 World Series titles and bought the best players because they had the money to do it?  You wouldn't hate it.  But that's another discussion for another blog post.  You don't want to do that battle with me.

This is happily how my week ended though.  HUGE props to my community group who volunteered their help on tailgate & fireworks night. Way to serve our City, groupies!

Colombia (Part Dos)

So I went to Colombia. And the best part was that I made it out alive (if you ask the right people, they weren’t sure if that was going to happen).  I didn’t see or take any drugs. And I didn’t get robbed (ironically that happened to me in America).  But I did talk to strangers.  A lot of them, actually.  We met with people in a town called Cienaga, about 40 minutes south of Santa Marta.  Every day that we drove through that town, I was kind of ashamed to admit I’d never seen poverty like that before.  The people whose houses we visited were barely houses, everything was dirty, and most people who lived in Cienaga really had nothing.  But what Jesus taught me through seeing that every day and meeting with those people is that He levels the playing field.  It wasn’t a typical trip where I wanted to just go and build them another house or give them all my money.  Sure, I would love for every one of my new friends to have a clean house with air conditioning and clean water and food.  But I want them to have Jesus more.  I want them to have a better life after this one, because this one doesn’t take any of us very far. 

God sent six of his people, people like an engineer, a recreator, a student, a Starbucks barista to share the gospel with Colombians.  About one and a half of us knew any Spanish words.  As we walked up to stranger’s doors, really cool things happened and at least 20 people came to know Jesus in our 10 days!  The long-term missionary serving in Colombia, Jon, and I went to several people’s houses throughout the week and I got to talk to people who were hurting financially, physically, spiritually, emotionally.  I got to share my testimony probably 15 to 20 times and it was crazy to see grown men and women come to tears over what God has done in this one white American girl’s life.  One man in his probably late 40’s, (a linebacker-sized, big dude!) cried and told me how grateful he was that I shared what God has done in my life.  I was blown away by that.  Why a complete stranger who was listening to my little life story through a translator got brought to tears, I’ll never get that one.  I also talked to another 26 year-old girl, who as I told her my testimony, she had pretty much the exact same life story.  She was unsure about why she ever went to church growing up and now she just didn’t feel like she fit in so she stopped going.  We talked a lot about how our stories were similar, and I was stoked to see her and her husband come to the worship night we had at the church the last night we were there!  God did some cool stuff, by just calling us to step out and talk to people about the gospel.

It’s awesome what He taught me about missions and about myself through those days.  When Christians yell at me to care about missions, I got nervous because I used to think it meant I had to sell everything and move to the mountains of a country I can’t pronounce.  Maybe that will be the case someday.  But until then, I’ll be obedient to caring about missions in the exact way that He calls me to care about missions.  I won’t get to go on a trip like this every year for the rest of my life, and I may not visit South America ever again (although I sure hope I do!)  As I got back on the plane headed north after 10 days, I was happy to.  I have a great life here, a great fiancé here, and a great job that I believe God has absolutely gifted me for.  With that job, I’ll give every cent that I sacrificially can so that someone else can go overseas on mission. I didn’t come back from Colombia thinking that the six of us changed the world or feeling like we would when we got back.  But I did come back with a burden for people’s souls, that they know who they are because of the gospel. Jon asked us on the first day, “What would be a successful trip for you?” It was to be obedient in sharing the gospel, no matter the outcome.  That’s all we can do, and it’s what He’s called me to do with my life, in this country or in one really far away.  Ready to do it all again next year!

Colombia

You may or may not know that I’m going to Colombia (the South America one) in a couple weeks.  I’m not writing this because I have to give reasons why I’m going or to convince everyone that I’m a good Christian.  I guess I’m sharing because the Lord has been teaching this white American mid-20’s girl about foreign missions, a little something that has never happened before recently.  So let’s chat.

There was a time in my life when I let certain articles that I would read or certain people’s opinions make me believe that short-term missions weren't effective.  When I hear that, I just assume I’m out of luck because up until this point in my life, God hasn't called me to go overseas for a long period of time.  If you set aside the fact that God loves PEOPLE, little week-long trips such as this one don’t matter much. The typical short term trip to another country goes like this: a group of really rich Americans (because we are) head over to an underprivileged country, play with some kids we will never see again, those kids love us, we maybe fix a house or build a new one, we observe how dirty and poor everything is, and we return home to be changed for a couple months.  Sometimes we even get rid of some of our junk because we feel “too American” and rich and now it’s time to go live in the ghetto because Jesus has changed our standards on how we should appreciate our “stuff.”  These are the short term effects of a short term mission trip.

But that’s when we set aside the fact that Jesus loves PEOPLE.  This includes a white American mid-20’s girl and a Colombian child who don’t speak the same language.  Our skin is different, our culture is different, our standard of living is different, but we are loved the same.  I have an obligation to speak and show the Gospel.  To the nations that I get a really sweet opportunity to visit, and to my neighbors on Myrtle Drive in Rock Hill.  Sure we’ll fix up a yard or paint a house while we’re there.  We’ll play soccer with some kids. We’ll come back loving hot showers and looking at our lives as though we've been blessed with more than we could ever ask for, because that’s true.  But that’s not why I've been called to a mission trip overseas.  Jesus has been changing my heart little by little for foreign missions in a way that I've never looked at over the past year or so.  He wants me to care about the nations because He does.  He cares more about the souls of the few Colombians we’ll meet WAY more than we ever will and He wants the 6 of us to go.  He wants us believers to say yes to the nations from our couch in America by giving or praying, and if we get called to GO, then even more yes.  I’m going to Colombia because if I say I love Jesus then I have to love my neighbor, and I don’t get to choose who that is.  Those who are fortunate enough to give their life to serve overseas for several years are awesome, but they aren't the only ones who are called to love other countries.  I've been given this 8 day opportunity, so I’m taking it.  Not for a pat on the back, not for an extra batch of rewards in heaven, and nothing good that may come of it will be to our credit. I don't want God to change the way I view my stuff.  I want him to constantly be changing the way I view other people because they have souls, they're loved just as much as I am, and they're far away without the Gospel.

Also, the temperature will be in the 90's the whole week, so, that's reason enough to go. See yall in a week. 

quote of the day

Youth Council meeting.

Alex: "OH I have that tumbler too!"
Jeremy: "What's a tumbler?"
Julisa: "It's this cup."
Jeremy: "Oh black people don't do that."

quote of the day

Sarah: "I thought, 'I'm fat and ugly!' And then I took a nap."

Sarah (completely separate conversation from above): "My back muscles hurt from trying to throw up."

2013 Cute Quarterback Showdown

This Sunday, the AFC and NFC championships go down.  It has been a long NFL season for me, a Panthers fan, and I couldn't care less who wins the Super Bowl if it's not Super Cam.  With that said, it's important that I still write about sports.  It's even more important for most of my friends (who are girls and care nothing about football) that I give you this:

(1st Annual) The Cute Quarterback Showdown. Will it be the Falcons or the 49ers? The Patriots or the Ravens?  Let's take a LOOK.

Matt Ryan vs. Colin Kaepernick

To quote Jermaine Dupri: "Welcome to Atlanta where the players play."  Matty Ice is the Boston College grad who got picked third overall in the 2008 draft.  He doesn't know what it's like to not be in the playoffs, but hasn't gone to a super bowl.  He's the good ole American boy type, stays mostly out of the media (trouble), and has no visible tattoos.  Now on to Kaepernick.  This guy came out of nowhere (literally, he's from Wisconsin) and straight stole the starting QB spot from Alex Smith. He was an even better baseball player in his day and was recruited by the Chicago Cubs first, but chose football.  Smart move, pre-Super Bowl champ.  I guess the entire sleeve of tattoos on both arms hasn't taken away a bit of his arm strength.  If it's a tight game, I call Colin's number to get that rushing TD.  If it's a Friday night, I just give Matt my number.

Tom Brady vs. Joe Flacco












If you are a human, you've heard of Tom Brady.  If you're a sports fan, you're tired of him.  If you're a male, you're jealous of him.  And if you're a super model, you've dated him.  Let's look past the fact that when you google image Tom, you get more pics of him in scarves than his #12.  The dudes got major game.  That's why he's got Super Bowl rings for days.  It's also why he'll beat the Ravens on Sunday.  Joe Flacco aint half bad either.  Looking past the fact that purple really isn't anyone's color and ONLY Maryland natives will ever pull for these birds, I would want him as my QB.  But not more than Tommy fresh.

To make this post more reliable and less like an episode of the Bachelorette, I pick the 49ers and the Pats to finish out the road to Super Bowl Sunday.  The Niners are too good and the Ravens just aren't good enough.  I'm not sure the last second field goal win in Atlanta will get them through another game.  Maybe I'm wrong about these game predictions.  But if I'm wrong that Matt Ryan isn't the HANDS DOWN winner of (1st Annual) The Cute Quarterback Showdown, I don't want to be right.

Incase you missed it

Just some highlights as they relate to nothing, really.

 Movie Review: Les Miserables. The Christmas day debut movie/musical/cry fest was fantastic. That goes for the cast as well, however, maybe they casted it so that Joe Smith citizen would go see it. I think they could’ve found more musical talent and it would’ve been just as good (if not better) than hiring all the hotshots to give their best go at it. Do Wolverine and Cat Woman have great voices? YES. And not that I know that much about the pool of musical talent available (let’s be honest, I think Glee kids are crazy talented) but maybe some better voices with just as pretty faces are out there somewhere? I did cry when Anne busted out “I Dreamed a Dream” because it’s ridiculous and death was looming. I’m pretty sure I heard a few sniffles from the male audience as we left too. So bravo, Mis.
Side note to Russell Crowe: stick with action films. Love you though.

 Football Review: The Miserables. The BCS National Championship game turned out exactly how none of us planned. Of course we all expected Alabama to win, but we at least expected Notre Dame to give themselves a fighting chance. I don’t think anyone would argue that it was a pretty big embarrassment given all the hype that Notre Dame was given throughout the whole season. Eddie Lacy for Alabama rushed for 140 yards and McCarron threw for 264 yards, right past the apparently best defensive player in the country, Monti Te’o. A game like that just isn’t good for ratings either, as I was probably in the majority who stopped watching it at halftime. Not the best way to end a pretty good college football season when even I gave Notre Dame the benefit of the doubt. Oh well. They dreamed a dream.

 TV: Pretty Little Liars. The winter premiere of PLL debuted this week, giving various tweens and 20-somethings purpose in life once again. This review will be short, as ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED. We are no closer to finding out who the total A is, who killed Allison, how many teenagers Aria’s Dad actually hooked up with, and why Spencer even thinks #Toby is cute. I’m going to need the writers at ABC Fam to kill some storylines, or kill some people off, and let’s move on. Too many lies inside of lies inside of secrets inside of hot tubs. Straight Inception crap.

 The issue of BBQ: After extensive research, Kansas City BBQ is better. But let’s not compare apples and oranges, folks. It’s just different. It’s all about the sauce out there, which is cool. Here in SC, sauce is one of those “it’s on the table if you need it” type deals and it’s really all about how it’s cooked, which is also cool. Don’t assume I’ve been brainwashed or question my salvation. Just trust that I know good food.
Note about the Midwest (and anywhere other than the south): When you fire up the grill (say on July 4th for example) put some hamburgers and hotdogs on it, and go out on the lake….this is called a “Cook-out.” Others call it a “ Barbecue.” This isn't right. BBQ is a type of food you eat. A cook-out is an event (can also be a restaurant). The south will always be right on this.