Big Sandy Love

I love church retreats, I always have. But this weekend was very special for me. I had the opportunity to plan a retreat with the help of my senior class of '09. We planned everything from crowd breakers to the worship. But I had the unique opportunity to speak to the 72 other students that attended.

This was something I felt I needed to do, and knew immediately what I wanted to talk about. I had the chance to share my heart about being 'hot' in your faith in your life. My personal experience and growth, and how that's influenced my life. I shared four ways to get hot, and stay hot for God.

I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to speak, but also to have some fun with the others in the youth group. Getting tackled by Nelson, or getting snow in the face from Olga on the tubing hill, it was a great weekend full of great fun, fellowship and spiritual growth.

The True Nativity Story

Merry Christmas to everyone!
May we remember the one gift, the reason we celebrate.

Luke 2
The Birth of Jesus

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.

4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ^[a] the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

John 1 The Word Became Flesh

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.

3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood^[a] it.

6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.^[b]

10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of natural descent,^[c] nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,^[d] who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

What is twitter?

Some people have noticed my facebook status always being set by twitter, other people have heard me talk about it. But I've been asked again and again, "What is twitter!?".

The simplest way to explain it gives it no justice, "Facebook with nothing more but status updates." However true in its simplest form, that isn't close to the ability that twitter has to offer.

First- Twitter is a status update. When you update your twitter with a 'tweet' you let all your subscribed friends know what you are up to. You can update from the main site twitter.com, or if you are a veteran 'tweeter' you can use one of many tools. TwitterFox, and Mobile Device are two simple ways to be more hip with your updates. A small feed of your followed few (or many) are listed by update time and keep you up to date with your friends.

Second- Twitter is a way to share more then status. Using twitter sites, such as twitpic and twitterfeed you can upload pictures and blog posts directly into your status update from a mobile device. Also, if you like beta software twiddeo is a video importer from a media message. It's not a live picture/video, but a link to a image hoster of your choice (from the list). Twitterfeed is a dynamic RSS scanner and will post a update when it detects a change in content of the site it's following.

Third- Twitter is a way to stay in contact. Although we're a real facebook generation, twitter is a quick thing you can do from anywhere. Staying up with old friends is easy with twitter direct messages (@username) as well as PMs or personal (private) messages.

Forth- Twitter can update your Facebook. What more could you want? If you have Tmobile, there is no possible way to do this other then a third-party extention. By adding the twitter application, twitter will automaticly update your FB Status with your twitter status the exact second it's recieved.

Last- It's a good way to know find out how someone is doing. By 'nudging' someone, they'll be notified via text (if they have a mobile device setup) that you want to know what they are up to.
This is a great way to know what people are up to, without being a creeper...

In closing, twitter is new myspace of texting. It's becoming more popular, and why not? It's easy to do, easy to learn and has so many benefits (as listed above). Add me on twitter, and let's get 'tweeting'

That time again

With the holiday come many great things.
Start of a new relationship, reforming of old friendships, the holidays and something no one else would celebrate but a small few. Time off of school for a particualr event known as Killer Bunnies.
For those of you unaware of this glorious game, let me fill you in. You can spend anywhere between $27 and $185 (such as myself) to have hours of enjoyment with your friends and family. BUT don't let that hang you up. Best money I've spent on a game.

Basic run down...You have bunnies, which in short are your playing pieces, with out them you can't do much. Once getting a bunny into play via your 'run' you can then start to collect and attack. The goal of the game is to collect as many carrots as you can, in hopes of having the randomly selected Magic Carrot at the end of the game. Carrots are received by purchasing them , or playing a card that gives them to you. Carrots aren't the main focus of the game though, it's the other players! Weapons, hunger/thirst, viruses and CyberBunnies from space are all things to worry about, or use on your foes. Staying alive is half the challenge!

KB is a great game, and would be a great gift for that hard-to-shop-for on your list. (Granted, I haven't met many women that enjoy the game, but that's just what I've experienced) What I've explained is just the beginning, the board game came out recently and I haven't had time to look into it further. Happy shopping. And Bunny Brothers? We'll be playing soon.

Winter Break is the time for Killer Bunnies.

Supportive Support

Having supportive people in your life is great.
Not just your parents and family, but people outside of that.

Right now I have a lot going on. Between college, highschool, work, friends, family and everything in between I have tons to manage. I've really been feeling the stress. Last night it was really hitting me hard. But thanks to a few very supportive friends, I'm feeling much better. It's so comforting to know people got my back. Being able to just talk with people, who genuinely care with what I am saying, is rare. I thank God for those people.

Family, friends, pastors, coaches and everyone in between:
Thank you for your support. I hope I can return the support in a time of need. May God bless you, and our relationship for His glory.

Relax.
You're taken care of.

Thanksgiving 'Hunger'

This year I'm really looking forward to Thanksgiving, for more then one reason. First off, the family, food and fellowship. That's an obvious one. It's nice to have Sarah home for the weekend and to just hang as a family.
However
This year marks the second annual camp out of BestBuy. I'm being ditched by my previous counterpart and one of my best friends is joining me. I am looking to buy a laptop, for personal use (Coding/Office/Internet Use) as well as for college.
I've had my eye on laptops for a while, but the Day After Thanksgiving Sale, also known as Black Friday has the deals of the deals.


I'm excited, but it's going to be freezing. Last year was -14degrees so I guess it can't be that bad.

OCC

Operation Christmas Child is quite the gig.

My family is in charge of it at Grace Church, and we we're the most involved we have ever been his year. We spent all the afternoon, and much of the last week, packing the shoe boxes


. . . Into cartons to be delivered to the processing center in Bloomington.

It took a long time, but is well worth it for the amount of joy it brings to the little kids who receive the presents. I'm also visiting the processing center on Tuesday with a group of friends at school to sort through the boxes and prepare them to go overseas. It'll be a good time.

For those of you who don't know about it, Operation Christmas Child is a program from Samaritans Purse. They collect collect shoe-boxes full of toys and hygiene items for kids in third world countries. These are kids who have never dreamed of getting a Christmas present, let alone a present of any kind. They knowledge of the joy those kids will experience is hear warming.