April 10, 2000 3:57 pm

Wow. This is one of the longest gaps between updates, ever, I think. Practically two weeks. I have lots to talk about, too. Most of it has to do with this past weekend.

The reason I haven't updated in ages, in case anyone is wondering, is because I got sick just over a week ago, and it leveled me good. I mean, it took me out HARD. It was probably the flu, and it took almost an entire week until I felt halfway normal. And even now, I'm still not quite 100%. A little drainage still, which in turn results in a little irritated/sore throat. Oh well. It was the first illness where I had to go into Health Services and see Dr. Jenkins. I thought that was pretty good. I've done a decent job of taking care of myself.

Yeah, it was a bear, but I'm ok now. I think.

I really wanted to make sure I was well for this past weekend because my parents and sister came to visit for the first time since first semester freshman year. That's a LONG time. My friends have sorta changed since then, and more importantly, I have a girlfriend now.

My parents finally got to meet Lisa this weekend, and it went wonderfully :-) They met Lisa on Friday night, and met her family on Sunday afternoon after church, and both Lisa and I thought things went very well. I'm very happy and thankful that things did. It's always weird when this introduction happens first. Such a difference from the way things were in my last relationship. It's so hard to describe the differences, since they're so great, and so many. I guess I'm a very different person than I was then. A much wiser one, for sure.

I've also been spending a lot of time hanging out at the SFC BBS, the message board for my college group back home in CA, SFC (which stands for Souls For Christ). We're having some interesting discussions there about different things... Lots of it is inside jokes that even I'm not aware of, being in Texas, but there's also some good discussion about some issues that we perceive within the Church, as in the Church Universal, and culture, and stuff in general, in the Christian Discussion Stuff Forum. It's pretty cool. It's a pretty busy board too :-)

I really enjoyed the visit from my parents. I didn't realize how much I miss them until they left, since they never really were here to be involved directly with this part of my life until now.I mean, I would always tell them about all the stuff that happens here, and my friends, and stuff, but now they have faces to match with the names, and so on. It makes a whole world of difference to me to know that my parents really KNOW what I'm talking about when I talk about Ricky, or Courtney, or Erica, and so on. It's really different. It was also just good to see them, and show my sister around, and stuff like that. It's just really cool. I love my family. Now it's just Andrew, and he's coming in September, I think :-)

Well, I gotta go now, but I think I'll try to update again a little later today. I need to take my POLI take-home portion of the test tonight too, so I may or may not update again, so check back tomorrow if you don't see anything tonight. :-)

Just thoughts.

April 13, 2000 1:21 am

I just wanted to write some quick thoughts about the power of God. We discussed this somewhat in our Bible study tonight with the freshman. The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead is the spirit that is in us now. And that is the the spirit of God.

We have the power of God. Not the power that comes from God. But the very power of God. To steal from Oswald Chambers, "eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift of God."

That is, the very power that dwells in us is the very power of God. The Life we live is not ours, but the Life of Christ in us, and through us. That means we have more power than we know what to do with. And yet we feel like we're not able. And we still come up with excuses why we can't serve. Why we can't preach the Gospel. How lame can we be? We have the power of God!

Just thoughts.

April 16, 2000 7:35 pm

I'm just procrastinating. And trying to get back into the habit of updating every couple of days. Lately, I've been less than good at it.

Last night, Lisa and I went to see Oliver! at the Miller Outdoor Theatre. It was actually very good. All the shows at Miller are free, so that was a major plus, and having known the story, and actually seen the show before, I knew it was going to be worth it. The only thing was, there were these two ladies who were chain smoking just to the right of us. And they were also upwind. So we got to smell it the whole night.

Tower Party was also last night, as well as the Baker Kicker Party. I was going to go to Baker Kicker, but when I got over to Lisa's to pick her up, I just fell asleep. For some reason, I was really really tired yesterday.

Oh yeah! Owl Weekend was also this weekend. I had a GREAT owl. His name was Sebastian, and he was from Maryland, and he'd actually already been to Rice before, so that made things great. He was able to take care of himself, and I didn't have to babysit him. He didn't get drunk, like my owl freshman year, and for that, I was VERY thankful. That experience freshman year just sucked. [shudder] Yuck. Anyway, he was just a great guy. Easy to get along with, fun to talk to, and just all around a nice guy. Not a Christian though.

Ahhhhh. This week is also supposed to be Rez Week here at Rice, and I'm not quite sure what that means. For me, I guess it's a time to concentrate on spreading the Gospel. However, I've been working and praying about that all school year, so I guess it's not that much of a change. Although I do hope to get some of my friends to go hear Dr. Tour speak later this week. Whenever that's supposed to happen.

I also found a very interesting article from Harvard regarding the "evangelical Christian" groups there. You may want to check it out. Again, be warned. It is a non-Christian's view from the outside, and he's definitely a little harsh.

Oh yeah. And tomorrow's my 21st birthday :-)

Just thoughts.

April 21, 2000 12:22 am

Man, it's going to be along two weeks. However, in two weeks, I will be ALL DONE. So I'm looking forward to that. :-)

Rez Week was pretty low key this year. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, or neither. Maybe it's just an observation. I do know that I had a good conversation with a freshman here, and he even went to hear one of our profs give a little talk tonight on why he believes in Jesus. This prof is simply amazing too. One of our Nobel Prize Winners in chemistry said that he is the smartest man he knows. And this man is simply one of the most on-fire guys I know. He is amazing. He makes it a point to sit down with one professor a week, and have lunch with him, and share the Gospel with them during that lunch. And he does it.

Anyway, my friend is pretty open to talking, and wants to talk more, and that's very encouraging. Sometimes, it's hard to get people to talk about these things, even if you're just asking them. I'm not sure why that is. Maybe people don't have an opinion, or don't really know what they believe. Maybe they just don't want to share. Maybe they're just shy. I don't know.

Dave Wang, my Bible study leader from last year, is also back in town, because his fiancee is having her shower this weekend. It's really weird to think of my Bible Study leader as getting married this summer. Wow. That's one of those things that is just too weird to think about, but you know it's going to happen. Man. Whoa.

I'm procrastinating, in case you guys are wondering. I should be studying for my Chinese test tomorrow. But I'm not really doing it. Oh well :-)

Just thoughts.

April 22, 2000 5:35 am

Today has been a good day, even though I've gotten very little schoolwork done. The better part of my day was spent hanging out with Dave, and a bunch of us guys. We went out for brunch at IHOP, and just hung out and talked. We caught up with Dave, and how he was doing out at Duke Med, and heard about Matt, Corbett, and Colby's run this morning. It was some 5k run, called the Resurrection Run or something like that.

Then, after that, we went out to Dave and Buster's, an amazing place. It's a Chuck E. Cheese for people 21 and up. I mean, they have some of the COOLEST video games... and they have pool tables, and a restaurant, and lots of other cool stuff like that. They have those video games where they're full out deals, like 8 seats, where you can play/race against each other, and cool stuff like that. It was pretty darn cool.

It was just cool to hang out with the guys, and just talk, and joke, and just be guys. We also got to make fun of Dave, since he's getting married in just a couple of months.... In July actually. That's just really weird. The next time I see Dave, he'll me married! And maybe even a father! :-) [hehehehe]

It was a good time, though. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him, and just hanging out with him. And most of the guys from our Bible study last year made it, too, and that was really neat. It was cool to hear how God was shaping him at Duke, and how he was growing and serving there. I think it truly is amazing the bonds that are formed between people in small groups. I mean, our Bible study had a pretty wild mishmash of guys, and we bonded, and gelled (sp?). I think it had a lot to do with our effort with Who Is Jesus? Week last year. That really gave us a single purpose, a single mind. A solidarity.

More international hits: 2 from Finland (.fi), and 1 from Italy (.it)

April 27, 2000 4:58 pm

I've definitely noticed that I update less now that the SFC bulletin board is around. Oh well.

I've just been thinking lately about what sort of Bible study I want to lead next year, as in do I want to lead sophomores or freshmen. There's pros and cons to both sides, obviously.

For the freshmen, well, I've always thought that that time in a person's life is definitely one where there is often a lot of openness, and the chance to at least plant seeds, even if they do not immediately respond positively. Heck, even if they respond negatively, at least I know they thought about what I'm saying. It's definitely more outreach oriented. And I like that part of things. I like to hang out with the freshmen, get to know them, and maybe influence their life a little bit...

Sophomores, on the other hand, are a little more dedicated. They're at least in it for another year. They've been through a year of Bible study already, so they know what it's like, and they like it, and want to take it to the next level. And I like that part of things. I know I can push my Bible study with them, and I know I can take the discipleship times to the next level. And I know that they're also in it a little more than the other guys.

I also just got the Rich Mullins Live Lufkin Video. I haven't had a chance to see it, but I can't wait to see it. But I gotta go right now. I'll update more later tonight, when I need a break from studying/paper writing.

Just thoughts.

April 27, 2000 11:51 pm

Tonight, at the Crusade leaders' meeting, we started to plan some stuff out for next year, and it was pretty interesting to see all the potential leaders we have. It's not like they're all going to agree to lead, or that they all want to lead, but it's just cool to see that there were people and names that we thought had some real promise/ability. That was just encouraging to see.

I still don't know what I'm going to do. I would just like to follow the guys up and lead the sophomore study, but at the same time, I want to be involved with the freshmen. I guess it's just one of those things to keep on praying through.

At the request of Lisa, I'm going to talk some more about my birthday. :-) Well, it was pretty boring until dinner, and then we went out to Chuy's on Westheimer for dinner. I did order my piña colada, and I also finished it over the course of the meal. According to my friends at the table, I turned kinda red. :-) I don't know that there are any pictures of that or not.

Then, after that, I thought we were just going back to school. Well, I was sorta right. I thought it was kinda weird when they didn't take Kirby back down to Rice, and instead, going all the way out to Montrose. So, yes, I got tossed into the Mecom Fountain. Nasty water that is. Gross. My clothes smelled something rancid. Yech.

After that, I took a shower (of course), and then we had pineapple cake and vanilla ice cream. That was pretty darn good cake too. I took the leftover cake to my room, and Ricky, Scotty, Jacob, and I made sure that the leftovers didn't go to waste. We took care of it rather quickly, I thought. Two days, I think. And I just returned the cake pan to Lisa yesterday. :-)

And so anyway, that was my birthday.

I'm also trying to revive my message board, the front porch, in case anyone wants to help. Resurrect from the dead, I guess, since this is Easter time and all. If you have time, or even if you don't, and just want to procrastinate, go and check it out, and maybe post a random message or two, and reply to a couple messages.

I'm almost done with everything for the year. I just finished my POLI paper on the drug approval process and the FDA/CDER. I have a Chinese test tomorrow afternoon that I have NOT studied a bit for yet. It'll be a long night. Then there's that STUPID cumulative p-chem final on Monday, and the SOCI test on Wednesday. Not too bad. The p-chem test is the bear. I really am worried about the difficulty of that test. Oh well. :-(

There's also some cool stuff possibly in the works for next school year. We may be having monthly joint worship times, if we can get the logistics worked out. :-) We'll have to see. It would be pretty cool to see it happen though, I think.

Just thoughts.