Family of God

This past Thursday I had the honor of being the emcee for Intervarsity Christian Fellowship's large group again. It is quite an experience I must say. For some reason I was actually kind of nervous even though I had done it several times before with no problems. I don't really like to prepare anything if I have to say stuff in front of people, whether it's emceeing for IV or praying with people. When I do that, I feel like I try to prepare too much, and I care more about people hearing me and judging what I say. When I talk to people about public speaking, I kind of tell them that they should just be themselves. If you're just comfortable with that, then the crowd will be comfortable too. Don't get me wrong, though. There are boundaries! But that night I felt like I had prepared too much what I wanted to say, even if it was just one story that I had planned to share with everyone. So I wasn't really myself, which tripped me up.

However! In spite of my self-consciousness, I get a flood of compliments. I don't really feel I deserve all that, though. But it is still very encouraging! ** I was really taken aback by what Bryce and Anthony Yu had said to me. They both had told me that they really see God using me. Sometimes I do lose sight in my purpose as a child of God. Although I do forget that from time to time, I am still so amazed to see that God still uses me for his will and His kingdom and that He still uses me to positively affect others.** Before I had dismissed everyone, I had the opportunity to take some pictures of the audience so that they can come to my blog/facebook and witness the sea of beautiful faces that I see whenever I have the chance to emcee. It's great to really look at God's children gathered together like that. I get the same sort of feeling when we worship together. Just hearing everyone singing praises to the Lord sounds so beautiful. Sometimes I stop during worship to listen to that glorious sound.

So I tried to make this a panorama using Windows Live Gallery, but it turned out kind of weird because the pictures were shot at slightly different positions... Anyways! Here is my beautiful family!





**This was some stuff that I feel that I should have mentioned in my first draft of this blog...

Scenes from the Week: 1 March 2009

I won't see home this spring.
I would kill for the Pacific,
But I'm paid to make girls panic while I sing.

Alright, so part of that is true. It's true that I won't see home this spring break, and probably not until summer. But I wouldn't kill to see the Pacific, though I do miss the beaches. Oh, and I'm not paid to make girls panic while I sing. That last bit was more to finish the rhyme to this verse taken from a song by Brand New. But the point is that I really miss San Diego.

Here are some scenes from my week...



The classic college student. Commonly found near sources rich in coffee which it uses for fuel in order to more efficiently attack its prey, which consists mostly of textbooks. Aaron Brown is a cool guy. So glad I met him.



On Friday I was at Trudy's in the Tercero dorm area waiting for my student manager to show up so that she could put me through orientation for my job. I waited for something like an hour and a half because I didn't check my text messages and thus didn't see that she had wanted me to come at 4. It was such a beautiful day. Coincidentally, I had my camera with me. This particular picture is of the Tercero DC. I really love the angles. I really like photography, but I wouldn't even consider myself an amateur photographer. This is a start, though.



Another view of the Tercero DC.



This is my former Bible study leader. His name is Peter Rystrom and he has been a great influence in my life. Thanks to the Lord for placing him in my life. He is also a current participant of Mustache March. It's only been like five days and his stache is already super nasty.



I woke up around noon today. I went downstairs to eat breakfast. Naturally, waffles were my first thought. Because it was noon, Scott was making lunch. He was making a burger for himself. As I took out the box of frozen waffles out from the freezer, Scott says to me, "Hey, you should make a waffle burger!"

Scott's best idea yet.