Ugh

So much to do! Breakaway was amazing tonight, and I really wish I could talk about it, but I've just got too much to do. It really makes me sad, but it reminds me of something my old youth pastor told me fish year, in an email. I had said that I was pretty busy, and he basically said yeah, life gets like that sometimes, where you can't do the things you want to. I want to stay up and pour out some thoughts and feelings, but I need to sleep, because I've got two tests tomorrow, and one more on Thursday. So much studying... Anyway, I could sure use everyone's prayers the next two days, and then I don't even know how many tests I've got after this week. Too many. I'm just trying to get through Thursday right now, so please pray for me in that. Thanks.

Well, this could be pretty rough...

Centennial

This is my 100th post on this blog!! *cheering and whistling* *cricket chirps* Well, anyway...

Today was awesome, and it was awesome because I received some awesome news. I'm going to be the outfit chaplain next year!! I'm super excited, because this is the position I've wanted since I found out there was one, which was the second day of pre-FOW, I think. It's a junior position, but everyone in my class had pretty much decided it would be me since fish year. It's going to be great. I report directly to the CO (Commanding Officer, the guy who's in charge of the outfit), which is really good, because I've been going to him a lot this year to talk (he's the first sergeant right now), and he's become a mentor and spiritual leader to me. He's also behind me all the way on my goals as chaplain, and for the position itself. He literally said to "As far as I'm concerned, your purpose is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ." Not as chaplain, but as a Christian. Being chaplain just makes me more prominent and gives me more influence, especially in that area. The chaplain is also something else, too: a counselor. I'm the "go-to" guy for the fish, the first person they can come talk to if they need help with anything. I was even given a first-aid kit today. I was first told this morning, by the first sergeant, and then this evening, by the current chaplain (I don't think he knew that I had already been told). When Jacob (our first sergeant) told me, he asked me a few things, the main one being that I pray, every single day, for the incoming freshman. When he gets a list of who they are, he's going to give it to me, and then I can pray for each of them by name, all the way up until they show up for FOW, and then I can personally meet with and pray for them. I've also been told about all the tough situations chaplains can be faced with. I know I'm not prepared for all that now, but I also know that God can prepare me for it before next year. I know God can and will use me to do great things in this outfit, I just need to make sure it's Him behind it all. Whenever I jump in, that's when things go wrong. So, I'm super excited about being selected as chaplain, but I also a great weight of responsibility. After all, spiritual leaders will be judged more strictly.

Jealous-C

I'm really jealous of Brian. He has this really awesome blog, and you know what it's about? His schoolwork. Schoolwork. Yeah. Well, in an effort to best his efforts, I'm going to start blogging about my engineering schoolwork. (For those of you who don't know Brian, he's an architecture major, and he had to make a blog last semester for class where he posted all of his work. I don't know if he's still required to post his work, but he still does, because it's really cool.) So, here goes... Today, my first class was Army. We talked about squad ambush. Squad ambush is when a squad ambushes the enemy.

Then I had concert band. We played music. I played music on the tuba, just like every day. Today, I was really out of tune on one note. I think my lips were broken. They fixed themselves by the end of class, so I have no idea why I was so out of tune.

The next class I had was physics lecture... The prof said he would explain a new equation. It was

but then he went on to an example problem he didn't finish last Friday. I think he explained the equation later, when I was asleep.

Next, chemistry lab. We did an experiment on chemical equilibrium. We took two clear substances, and water, and mixed them together. They turned red. Then we used a machine to tell us exactly how red they were. This is red.

This is less red.

Congratulations.

Now I have to do calculations on it. I'm procrasti - uhh, sharing my progress...

World Mandate Tour

Wow. I just went to this World Mandate Tour thing. It was pretty crazy awesome. Intense worship, and some pretty cool stories. It all really made me want to go. All those miracles and stuff in the video I saw last night. The guy said that to see the power of God moving in that way, you have to go where He is moving and working! That doesn't mean He won't move where you are, but He calls His people to go places, spread the good news about Jesus Christ!! So yeah, now I'm even more excited about Zambia, and what kind of miracles I'll see happen there, and I want to find out where else God wants me to go. Also while I was there, during the crazy worship part, I don't even know what started it, but I started thinking about my buddies. Then this guy walks up and taps me on the shoulder, in the middle of a song, introduces himself, and then says that God wanted him to pray for me. Then he says "Is there anything going on right now, is anything on your mind?" So I told him about how I've been trying to witness to my buddies, but it's hard because I'm not seeing much progress. He prayed for me and really encouraged me, and I was just in awe. Then later, I don't remember if it was during a song or someone talking, John 12:32 came to mind. That blew my mind. I just need to lift Jesus up, and He will draw all men, all people, including all my buddies, to Him. There's no way I can be enough of a "good influence" to get my buddies saved. No one confesses Jesus as Lord except by His Spirit. It's not how well I can do in reaching them, it's how much I can lift Him up for them to see, and for Him to reach out to them.

So my journal came in today. On the website, it looked like this

But then in actuality, it looks like this

Yeah, I know, talk about false advertising... Ok, not really. It's really cool. I like it. It's pretty thick, but it's not ridiculous or anything. Just means I'll have it for a really long time. It has a ribbon place marker, though. I don't get those things. They're so annoying. It's hard to put them in the place you want to mark, and when you do, it's hard to open back up to that place. No one uses them, and even fewer people like them. If you use them and like them, you don't count. I'm not being closed-minded; you just aren't looking at the situation the right way.


antio.ch/wm11

I have to wake up at 5 for a pt test, so...

just check this out. Go here.

http://www.fingerofgodfilm.com/

That's all :) Goodnight.

Something Real.

Jesus became real to the world when He stepped down from heaven to live life as a human. He became "More than a story," as the song goes, "more than words on a page of history..." When we pray, we shouldn't pray as to a distant god who looks down at us from some high up, far away place, because when we pray, we pray to our God who looks us in the eye, takes our hand, and our heart, and says "I love you. I love you enough to do more than reach down and lift you up. I love you enough to go down to where you were, where you couldn't get up from, and carry you up to be with me."

I

talk too much. I know it, too. I just don't realize it when I'm talking. I realize after I stop talking. I finish saying something, and then I think "Wow, I just talked a lot, and it was mostly about me." Then I try to talk less, but I always have something to say (you now have that song stuck in your head). I always ramble about something having to do with me. It's annoying. I'm sure you've gotten annoyed at me for it, and if you have, I'm sorry. I just want you to know that it irritates me, too. So please tell me if I start doing it next time I talk to you. Cut me off if you have to. Just go "Hey, shut up, no one wants to hear about you," or something like that. Just push me off my soapbox. And if I stare awkwardly, I'm not trying to make you look dumb or anything, I probably genuinely have no idea what to say. I do that sometimes, too. Ok, I think I'm done now. Have I talked enough?

Let's try...

Journaling! So I've never journaled before. The closest I've come is this blog (that should make you laugh), but that's not really a journal. I got the idea after the last Zambia meeting. The guy talking recommended that we get journals and start writing down what happens to us and stuff, so that later, like in Zambia, we could look over the journal and see what God's been doing in our lives, specifically stuff He's been doing to prepare us for Zambia. So, I ordered a journal from Amazon, even though I said I wouldn't. I've started not liking Amazon lately because, even though they've got good prices and lots of stuff and great deals and convenience and free prime membership for me and all that stuff, they're not cool. They're kind of like Apple. They're really exclusive. Take the Kindle, for instance. You can read aaannything on the Kindle... but if it isn't on Amazon or a pdf file (which are dumb to read on the kindle anyway), it has to not be CRM protected. Just about everything is. You go to any website that offers ebooks, and 99 times out of 10, they'll say in their FAQ "Our ebooks are compatible with [list of every single kind of ebook reader except kindle]... Q: Can I read the ebook on my Kindle? A: Not currently [this actually means 'No. Amazon won't let you.']." The reason Amazon is like this is because they own like 75% of the ebook market already, so there's no reason for them to open up the Kindle to stuff like library books. They make enough money that they don't have to care about the people who want to read that kind of stuff on their Kindles. They also don't have to care about the people who want to change the picture that shows up when the kindle goes to sleep [people like me]. So, that being said, I'm NOT complaining about my Kindle. I love my Kindle reader; I just don't like Amazon. It's like having an iphone you love, but hating all the rules Apple has for it. I'm one of those people who jailbreak their iphones, except I don't have an iphone, I have a Kindle, and you can't jailbreak those. All you can do is pay Amazon the price of a real book for one of their ebooks, unless it's one of the few free ones they have. So anyway, I said all that to say that I was personally boycotting Amazon because I don't like them, until I started looking for a journal. I found one I liked

It says Amazing Grace sideways, and then has the verse that starts "The Lord has promised good to me..."

but it would be a month before it came in. So I went to the website of the people that make it, but they don't sell to consumers (stupid marketing... things... whatever reason they do that...), so I googled it, and guess where I found it? Yep, Amazon. So you know what I did? Well, after careful consideration, and advice from friends, I bought this manlier one that I found on the manufacturer's website while browsing before I found out they only do wholesale

Like it? I still bought it from Amazon, but it'll be here this Thursday (because of that free prime membership I mentioned earlier). Guess my boycott kind of failed... I thought the verse was a little generic, but I like it a lot, and after thinking about it, I think it kinda fits the reason for getting the journal a little better than the Amazing Grace one. They're both really good, though. The only thing is, this one has 400 pages, so I'll probably be using it for like 10 years...

So real quick

I'm looking for a journal. They suggested at the last Zambia meeting that we start journaling, so we can look back on it and see how God has been preparing us for this trip. That got me thinking about journaling, and I think I want to try it anyways. I forgot, though, but I was reminded when I went to this site oberondesign.com for kindle covers after seeing it on an amazon forum. They're really cool, but super expensive, so I started looking elsewheres, and I found some other really cool journals, like this one http://www.christianbook.com/amazing-grace-journal-two-tone-brown/9781869208523/pd/208523?event=WL&item_code=WW and this one http://www.christianbook.com/know-the-plans-jeremiah-11-journal/9781869208530/pd/208530?event=WL&item_code=WW but the Amazing Grace one is out of stock, and won't be in until halfway through May. Hmm. Any suggestions? Here are some from the site that I liked http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/registry_shop?action=shop&registry_id=1113368&event=REG but I don't know which one to get.

So in the band...

Yeah.