Ok, so I'm going to try something new this time.  I'm just going to write about what is on my heart right now instead of how and what I am doing.  If you would like to know that IM me at Fuchsia03 and let me know who you are when you say hi if you haven't imed me before.  So here goes...

I have a question-- which I'm probably only thinking more about now due to a book I had been reading and recent conversations-- why is it that we avoid the two subjects that we care the most about- religion and politics?
For starters, let me define what I mean by politics- I do not simply mean democrate, republican or what ever party, I am refering more to the individual issues that shape politics in genreal.  Most people care about politics, it determines who we will vote for, what we want our world to be shaped like, where we want our money to go, what causes we fight for, and as for religion, it is not only religious people who have an opinion about it.  Whether they are Christians, atheist, pagans, Jews, Muslims, or simply non-believers in anything, they have a reason why they believe what they do and what they disagree with about others.  As a Christian, I believe that I have a lot that I could learn about from non-Christians whether it is how we can be more open and loving toward them or simply advice about problems I have in the church.  If I'm having a problem with a brother, sister or group at my church, it is very similar to having a problem with any other friend.  Think about the problems we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ- I know for me a least it is because I am not patient enough, kind enough, and that I do still judge people.  It is a sin and I will admit that, but even if you do not follow a religion of some sort, these are things that are viewed as not polite and disrespectful of other people as well.  I have a minister friend who during a class he was teaching on "Friendship Evangelism" that there was a non-believer whom he often sought advice from about problems going on in his church.   And what’s more is that he often found this advice to be beneficial.  It can happen, it should happen.
So anyway, religion and politics.  Taboo- but why?  If these are the things that we care about the most why don't we talk about them?  Why must we think about these conversations as stifling conversation that will automatically end badly?  They don't have to.  We must simply listen and converse with an open heart and open mind.  By this I am not saying that we must accept other people's views but simply listen to them and tolerate them.  You can learn a lot about a person by finding out what they think and believe, yet we are always content to simply scrape the surface.  I do it to.  So if you are reading this and thinking why is she complaining to the world, I'm not just doing that, I'm ranting about myself as well.  So anyway rant over.  Feel free to comment if you wish, I'll respond if needed.

Currently Listening Carried Me: The Worship Project By Jeremy Camp see related

So… I believe that I took so long to update this thing that I may have forgotten some of the things that happened during the last almost two months.

The first and most awesome thing that has happened was that my friend Brent was baptized!!!  After studying the Bible with Shaun, he decided that that was what he needed to do.  It was really awesome being able to see him make a public commitment to the Lord like that, I was so proud to have him as a baptized brother.  He did it the night of our year end shebang for the campus group so most of our college group was there; my friend Brandon and Brent’s parents were also able to be there.  I don’t think they quite understood why he was doing it, but hopefully it will provoke questions and they will further pursue answers to them.  If you would like to see pictures, go to http://mycampusministry.com, click on pictures, year end shebang and scroll down to see brents baptism.

I’m really going to miss being immersed so much in the campus group over the summer.  I can already tell.  There is just something missing from the worship at St. Tim’s but I hope by being there I will be a good role model to my sister and an encouragement for my mom.  But what I miss most about Brooks is the uplifting, encouragement and accountability I get from being in the campus group.  I’m looking forward to our Leadership Team meeting on the 11^th of June so that I can be with them and catch up and stuff. 

So, what else happened?  Well, toward the end of school, things got busy- as they often times do.  I helped out the concert band with their spring concert because they had very few brass and no French horns.  The Wind Ensemble concert went great.  I absolutely loved being in that group, I was able to play very high quality music and stretch my abilities as a player.  Hopefully that will encourage me to get my horn out occasionally during the summer and keep fresh.  Exams came and went, I did not do as well as I was hoping to in my classes but I did a lot better then I had in any past semester.  I came out with a C in organic chemistry which will not help me switch into the college of education, but its honestly better then I thought that I would do.  I actually got an A in a class that wasn’t just one hour long!  I got an A in EMS 203 which was my teaching class.  I really think that this is the major for me.  I believe that God has lead me here and he is just showing me how much more I was made for this by allowing me to be much less stressed out and able to enjoy what I am doing.  Fun stuff. 

This summer I will be working for the YMCA Child Care as a day camp counselor for the Central Y here in Winston.  After many repeated trainings- and by repeated I mean they said the same things over and over- I have found out that I will specifically be working with kindergartners and first graders.  They will be fun and I’m sure will test my patience at times but I’m looking forward to it.  Tomorrow is the last day of school for Winston and so I will start actually working on Tuesday with a trip to the Zoo.  Please be praying for me and my fellow co-workers because we will be taking this group of small children we will meet for the first time to the zoo which is an absolutely huge place to take a group of unknown kids.

Oh, and, I turned 20 last Monday!  I’m now in a different decade- not that it’s much different then the last, but that’s ok.  And in righting that I just realized that my license is expired!  Oh no!  I’m going to have to get that taken care of tomorrow!  But, anyway, my birthday was fun.  On Saturday Michael came up to Winston and we all went to Bonefish Grille, it was so delicious, I had way too much to eat, but it was still most excellent.  Afterward, I opened gifts and people laughed at me for asking for kitchen supplies for my birthday.  I was still excited about it, so I didn’t mind at all.  Shelly got me some shirts and Michael got me the soundtrack to the Broadway version of Phantom of the Opera- which is definitely one of my favorite movies now.  But he got the Broadway version because the singing is much better in that.  But it was a lot of fun.  We had a fish fry after church and Mom made me chicken parmesan for dinner.  Michael left on Monday.  I miss not being able to see him as often as I do at school but we talk a lot on IM and call 2 or 3 times a week so that’s ok, not great, but we deal.  He is really a great guy and treats me very well which is really awesome.

 Ok, well I believe that I will wrap this up now and try to write more often so I don’t have to do marathon updates.  I wish you all a very wonderful day!  Goodnight!

Currently Reading PATHWAY TO PURPOSE FOR WOMEN : Connecting Your To-Do List, Your Passions, and Gods Purposes for Your Life (PATHWAY TO PURPOSE) By Katie Brazelton see related

**Great reading for procrastinators**

The first round of the NCAA brought Michael and me to Dallas, Texas with the women’s team.  We had an awesome time in Dallas, until the game- which was just bad.  But Dallas was awesome.  I would like to be able to go back some time and see more of it.  We mostly went to malls and stuff, but the West End where we went to dinner two nights was really cool, it was a restaurant district near downtown with brick streets (at least partially brick anyway), horse drawn carriages and sidewalk rose vendors.  It was really neat.

Spring break was at the beginning of March, which was not very springish.  I even saw snow!  Anyway, what happened was I went down to Mobile, Alabama and to Mt. Airy, NC during this week for a mission trip.  For the first 6 days of break, we were in Mobile doing evangelism work for the Mobile Intercity Ministry.  They are a ministry group working through the Church of Christ and through a clothing drive we were able to make contacts that we or other groups who would come down would follow up on after.  The evangelism and ministry team leader of the group down there went by the name of Big Chuck, and it was very fitting.  A rather large guy, who always wore Big Daddy shirts, who had a huge heart for serving the Lord showed us what we were doing and sent us out to do it.  It was really neat just being able to go up to people’s houses, ring there bell and ask if they wanted a bible study or a ride to church.  The other people who were with the church who came out to help us were also really great to get to know as well.  During this portion of the trip, I was baptized!  Michael had brought it up to me several weeks before and asked that I pray and read about it.  And so I did, I prayed to God that he help me to make this decision and show me what he wanted me to do, I had been confirmed in the Episcopal Church in 8^th grade, but with prayerful thought and in reading I came to realize that this was not the same kind of commitment as choosing to be baptized (by choosing, I mean I was baptized as a child, but through reading this too is not the same).   In the studies before being confirmed, I was taught more about how to be a good Episcopalian, not as much how to faithfully serve God and his will for our lives.  Once I began to study about baptism and the reasons why we should, it was amazing how much verses dealing with this exact thing would come up in rallies, lessons and devos.  The verse that came up most frequently was Acts 2:38 “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  It didn’t take very long before I decided that this was something that definitely needed to be done, however, I waited because I wanted to ensure that I was doing this for the forgiveness of my sins and not doing it  because it was what was done or for anyone else but God.  It was very great, and there is not like there is a tremendous difference after going under the water, but it is a public commitment that I have made to God that I will serve Him faithfully.  I really thank all the people in the campus group for their help in this and for helping to strengthen me more and more spiritually, they are a really great group of people and I am very blessed to have them.

            The last part of the week the group went to Mt. Airy to put on a youth rally for the church there.  They were a good group of kids and Chris and I got to teach 3 kids in I believe 4^th grade.  They were cute.  We also met the pastor and his wife who work at the church.  Rob and Lara are really cool people to get to know.  Danae and I stayed up till 4 in the morning just talking with Rob.  He was so excited to get to spend time with college kids, he had come from an environment where he was reaching out to college students in Wisconsin and missed the conversation, lifestyle and energy.  So all in all—Spring Break ROCKED!

             I finally got to go home during Easter break.  Before that, I had been at home for like an hour and half total all semester.  I needed to go home badly.  I was really starting to snap at Michael and others a lot and they really did not deserve that kind of treatment.  It was really great to go home and spend time with my parents and Shelly.  Once again, Mom and Dad were both really sad to see me leave but I had to come back, my public speaking teacher had us giving speeches on the first day back, and I had to go.  Not much fun.  Oh well, had to be done.

            Classes are going to well I suppose, I am really ready for them to be over, but that will come with the end of April.  I enjoy the music that we are playing in Wind Ensemble a lot and encourage everyone to come hear us play April 27^th for the spring concert, it will be good. 

            Michael and I are doing well.  We are reading a book called Boy Meets Girl by Joshua Harris and are realizing that there are things in our relationship that need to be restructured some if we are to get out of our relationship what we are supposed to and also so that we may be faithful through out it.  Nothing bad, just needs some tweaking.  We celebrate 7 months on Thursday, kind of seems strange- but in a very good way, like that time doesn’t seem correct or something.  Yep.  Good times.

            So I think that I will leave it at that for now, I just wrote a whole lot and the rest can wait till next month or possibly sooner if I think to do something about it.  Oh and by a lot I mean a page and a half in MS Word in 12 pt. font times new roman.  Sorry, but I’m sure you’ll either enjoy it or get over it.

Currently Reading Boy Meets Girl : Say Hello to Courtship By Joshua Harris see related