Update!!! I know it's long over due!!

Hey gang! It's been awhile since I last posted, but amazing things have happened since then. Here's an update (bear with me, it might be a little long but amazing things have happened!)

Day 1) We left Nebraska last Tuesday (the 18th) and continued on our trek to Alaska. We'd gotten about 5 hours away from Nebraska when we started experiencing car troubles. We drove for about a mile or so to see if the problems would wear off..well, they didn't. We thought it was maybe a problem with a fan belt, so we decided to go to the next town we could get to so we could get it looked by a mechanic. That town ended up being Kadoka, SD. So we dropped the car off thinking it was the fan belt, went and played some frisbee until the mechanic had a verdict for us...well..we got it. It ended up being a melted piston!! If you're not at all familiar with automechanics, that basically means 1) buy a new car..or 2) $$$$ up the whazoo to fix it. So there we were stranded in Small Town, South Dakota. One of our project members family was so awesome enough to drive up another vehicle to us. Blessing #1!! So through random conversation with our mechanic, it turns out he'd gone to bible college with my pastor back home!!!! It was so awesome and crazy how that worked out. Later that night, he and his wife would invite myself and the four others that were with me to his church to listen a choir that was performing (the church happened to be the one that my pastor back home preached at!!) It was so awesome to meet some of the old congregation that my pastor had worked along with!! And this is only day number 1! So I ended up sleeping in a random van me and another found in the auto mechanics scrap yard, while two others slept in our van.

Day 2) We reached Canada!! For some reason, I was excited because I actually got to put my passport to use. Canada was quite interesting. We pulled many a illegal traffic violations late at night and it's by God's grace there were no police (or mounties?) around. We got lost in about every city we encountered. Edmonton, Calgary, and every which one we went through. We did so much driving that I'm in a daze about which cities we hit when.

Day 3) We hit a narly snow storm atop a mountain and had to wait it out for a couple hours only to find that it was clear as day a mile down the mountain lol. The wild-life was crazy in a small town sort of way. In the U.S. we see deer or rabbits or even a coyote standing on the side of the rode.. In Canada, you see bears, moose, elk, or buffalo just standing on the side of the road grazing. It felt like I was at the zoo but only I didn't have a protective glass pane shielding me, but only my common sense to not open the door!We're here!!! We finally got to Alaska!!! We stopped and ate an an amazing mexican restaurant with a view of the bay and mountains in the background!

Day 4) We get to Juneau and meet with out project director Robert and another staffer and they show us around a little and point out spots to where we can stay and stuff. So we're camping out and enjoying some good ole' man time (the girl who drove with us stayed with a project staffer).

Day 5) We start to explore the town Juneau and start the job hunt! The job outlook in Juneau looks quite promising. There are so many awesome places here in Juneau! I'm stoked to see which one I work at! We explored and ended up playing a real legit game of ultimate with most of the staffers, that was probably one of the most fun games I've played so far because of the atmosphere and the fact that there was a huge mountain around me every direction I threw the frisbee.
Day 6) we spent the day filling out job applications and met up with some project guys and so yea..now..now we wait for tomorrow when project officially starts..awesome..!

So thats a lengthy, but still short compared to how much I left out, update thus far. I ask that you all continue to keep us in your prayers as we set out to begin Project Golf. Thank you and have a fantastic evening!
In His grasp,
Andrew

Change in the name

So...as you may have noticed, there is a change in the name of my blog. In late May, I'll be venturing on up to the town of Juneau, Alaska and spend 11 weeks of my summer there on a project with Campus Crusade for Christ. Be praying for me as I'm trying to raise support to cover the cost of the project and any materials I may need that are necessary for my summer in Juneau.

A Healthy Response

When I was at home, I dealt with a lot of stress from some tension in the family due to an ongoing ordeal. It wasn't really towards me, but I was in the room and you could cut the tension with a knife. This caused a lot of stress for the members of the family who weren't involved in the quarrel. What I do for stress, is I go for drives to get some air and clear my mind. And then I go and resolve the problem with a clear mind. This has always helped me to remain calm and not to act out in anger or aggression when confronting or being confronted. Thats my healthy response to stress.

How I've Grown

How I've grown and what have I done? I've grown a lot in my time here at Wayne State College. In my first semester here, I really discovered myself. Before I got to Wayne, I was the kid that got picked on a lot so they just wouldn't talk much to prevent from getting made fun of. I've taken a complete 180 from that. I've grown to not care about what people think of me, but mostly I've grown to see that what the world needs is that person who doesn't care what people think. If you look at those who've contributed the most to our society, they've been the one's to stand out because they didn't care what people thought of them, they took the chance of getting ridiculed.

I've grown to be comfortable with a loud personality because 1) it's fun to be loud and be known and 2) relating to what I said above, I know I'm making a difference here at Wayne State, maybe not in the lives of everyone, or even a tenth of them, but I know that I have impacted at least one; and if I can just keep sight of that, that I've made a difference in a life, even if just one, I know I've succeeded more than a wealthy person who's famously known.

I've grown to love being loud, but I've also learned that I love leading. Whether it be the leader of a small group, leadership of a major campus organization, or in Wayne. I've grown to reach out to those who are looking for a hand, to learn how to keep my eyes open so I can be that "hand". I've also been intentional with people. Instead of holding a door open for a stranger and letting them go without even getting their name, I've become more apt to use that to "open a door" later on to get to know them, to build a relationship with them, and be their friend.

Really, I think that's how I've grown the most. Thanks for stoppin' by!

The Difference

This isn't my post for the assignment we were given to blog about, this is just something that I was thinking about tonight thats just apart from the assignment and felt like being constructive and put it down somewhere for whatever reason, so I chose to blog about it.

Today in class, we were split up into groups. There where maybe four or five groups all having one common stand point, in which the student chose which one they'd like to work on ie. health and fitness, spirituality, nutrition, etc. Honestly, I wasn't aware and chose to go with the spirituality and religion because I feel it's one that I can closely tie to being a follower of Christ.

I'm not judging, I'm just observing. I noticed alot in my group that alot of the members wanted to start being more religious again. That's great. I was intrigued because there is a fine line between spirituality and religious. Defined, religious is basically to be superstitious and to follow a religion. While spiritual relates more so ones walk with Christ, learning to walk the Lord, to live our lives under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

You see, they're not the same thing. In my small group, I heard a lot of sayings like "I need to be more religious". Ok...well...being religious is good, but it's not going to help you with more than a temporary "pat on the back" feel good feeling. Anyone can be religious about anything, I can be religious in playing my roommates Xbox 360 if I put enough time and effort into it and hold it on a pedestal over something else..*poof*..I've just become a religious Xbox player.

You see, it's the spiritual side that you need to become connected with. Without a connection to Christ, going to Church isn't going to do a lot for you. It's complete submission to Jesus Christ that is what's going to do it for you. To be connected with the Holy Spirit. I didn't say anything because these are my classmates and I didn't want to offend them by calling it as I see it like I am now. So....I guess thats all that was on my mind. There's a fine line between religious and spiritual. Religious is more about the practices while spirituality is more about the relationship with a higher being (Jesus Christ). Alrighty world, well thanks for listening. Have a good night!

--Andrew

“Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are”- Kurt Cobain.

I like this quote because it encourages you to be your own person. Your not going to discover who YOU really are if you keep dwelling on who you COULD or WANT to be. You can either make it happen or discover that you're not that person. We all have our own unique attributes that no one else in our surrounding can make up for, so in losing sight of that, you're already wasting your character, your talents, you attributes that you put into your friends and society.

For before I got to Wayne State, and even a little bit after, I wanted to be someone else. I wanted to be "that guy" because he had it made, I wanted be someone else right away. I saw that and said that I can be someone totally different. In our situation as college students, we may not know exactly who we are, but thats whats so fun about these days in college, instead of lingering and wanting to be someone else, we can discover who WE really are. You can linger on who you WANT to be, or you can grow and realize that you already ARE someone.

So go, discover who you are instead of wasting time lingering on who you want to be!

Horribly inconsistent

I feel I've neglected blogger. This is an assignment and I feel like it's one I've really neglected or spaced off because blogging isn't really one of my hobbies and it feels like an untraditional assignment, so the responsibility of it kind of goes in one ear and out the other because of the unconventionality of it. I guess I'll start blogging from here then-
- This is a new semester, new major, new roommates, but for some reason it feels like a major transition has taken place. I think it's because the this is my third year here at Wayne State and the thrill of a new surrounding has burnt out. I feel likenow I'm the only one out of my friends who's always up for a thrill or an adventure. A quiet night won't do it for me anymore, like it does for them. I remember the times we'd get in a car and just drive for an hour and see where it takes us. But now that our college career is at it's midway point, that spontaniety and excitement has kind of died because the final 2-2.5 years is crunch time to make sure we get noticed when we start to look into prospective careers. I don't feel this is a bad thing, I feel it myself. I just think that it's ok to take a break and go for a "breather" once in awhile. Put school, organizational, and work obligations aside for a day and go do something that you'll be able to tell your kids about later on down the road.
I'm not trying to sound like I'm complaining or discontent, I'm just calling it how I see it. Anyways, thanks for listening.
-Laters