A Halloween story I made up as I went along. (Day late)

Jason ran home as fast as his 4th grader legs would take him. "Oh, boy," he thought. "Today's the day!" As he was running down the street he was thinking on what he should wear tonight trick-or-treating. After the crossing guard had held up the stop sign in her hand, Jason darted across the intersection.
"Better slow down," said the crossing guard. "We wouldn't want anyone having actual blood on their costumes."
Jason paid heed to the comment and slowed his pace a bit. When he arrived home his mom welcomed him with a loving smile,
"Hey, Jay, how was school today?"
"Fine," he said in quick breath ignoring the poem, and ran up the stairs. He caught his breath, and shot over to his closet. He reached in under his shirts and pulled out some drawings he had done the past week. He beamed, admiring his average 4th grade art work and walked over to his bed. He had to decide between one of his many sketches. Tenderly he looked at each one, eyeing it over twice to check each detail. Jason decided he would choose one of the following, a vampire, a mummy, a vampire bat, or a ghost. He then began thinking how any kid his age would, "Which would be the coolest?"
Vampire bat, was definitely the coolest choice... but how to make it? He searched around his room and couldn't find anything that seemed to match anything in his drawing. He strolled down stairs and showed his mom the choices. Making sure to accentuate the "awesomeness" of the bat.
"I think they all look great," she said, the typical mom response.
"I know," he said. "But how can I get the stuffs to make this?"
"Um," she said, looking around, "You could always look in your sister's room"
Jason shuttered at the thought, "Anywhere else?"
"Well," she said, putting her hand on her hip, looking at the papers. "I can think of how you could make some other wonderful, just as cool, costumes."
Jason knew where this was headed, and decided to look around the house for objects for the bat idea.
Jason crawled up the stairs to his room, and through the window he saw some kids from his school already starting trick-or-treating at the house down the street.
"Oh, no," He cried. "I'd better hurry!"
He quickly ran around his room in a panic, searching for anything that might solve his dilemma. Exhausted, he slumped down on his bed and tried to think of anything that would save him from total embarrassment. As bad as it sounded, he would have to go get his sister's help. He walked down the upstairs hall and knocked on her door.
"Yeah, what do you need?" he heard his sister call through the door.
"I need," he paused, trying to think of some way to get her to let him get the stuff he needed. "I will give you some of my candy if..." Just then the door swung open.
"If what?" she said in a lighter tone.
"If I can get some supplies for my costume." Jason replied.
His sister turned and slowly started walking back in her room, "How much candy are we talking?"
Jason had to think about that one, "Some," he said, still thinking.
"OK," She said starting to close the door. "See ya."
"No wait," he cried, "I will give you all the M&Ms I get tonight."
With that, she opened up the door and pulled him in the room. "So, what do you want to dress as?" she asked him, tugging away his drawings.
"The vampire bat!"
Jason watch her scrounge around the room, every once and awhile looking at the sketch.
He walked over to his sister's window and saw the kids crossing the street heading in the direction of his house. Panicked, Jason pulled the curtains shut.
"Here," she told him, "these will have to do. Now stand still."
She pulled out of her pants pocket a tape ruler, and measured Jason's arms and side.
Jason turned in the direction of the window, "How long is this going to take?"
"Do you want your costume or not?" His sister replied impatiently.
Then his sister started pulling out cloth, strings, face paint, and other things Jason had no idea what they were out of her closet. She worked delicately but quickly, Jason stood hoping he was starting to look like his drawing. What seemed like and hour to Jason, his sister looked satisfied and Jason slowly walked over to the bathroom mirror. He had turned to the side to fit his wings through the doorway. He looked at the mirror and looked at the drawing, they looked none at all the same. Jason was about to wail when he heard the doorbell. Stunned, he slowly walked toward his room.
"Jason," his mother called from downstairs. "Some of your friends from school are here."
Jason didn't know what to do.
"Jason," he heard again.
He knew he was licked, and had to go down the stairs and face his friends. He strolled down the stairs, feeling the paint dry on his face, continued down and walked to the front door.
He saw his mom looking at him, his friends, and other kids from school all watching him come.
"Wow, you look great, sweetie," his mother said.
Jason came a little closer, he saw his friends costumes, they didn't look that great. There wasn't anything special about theirs, they were the typical costumes. Some kids were ghosts, some were mummys, there were even some that were vampires, Jason was the only one there, and that he even saw that night that was a vampire bat! After Jason waved to his mom, he and his friends started around the neighborhood.
"Your costume is awesome, Jason!" said David. "Who made it?"
"I designed it," Jason said pulling out his drawings from his pocket. "But my sister made it."
"Wow," said Caleb, "Can you two make my Halloween costume next year?" And all the other kids asked the same question.
"Sure," said Jason, "but it might cost you your candy."

Happy Hollows Eve

Hey, everyone, sorry my posting has decreased. But the loss of my scanner is the best excuse I can come up with. Of course my scanner gets taken away only a couple months before my art class started at the community college. But I'm not bitter...cough...anyway, here is some homework I did last week. They both got B+, I think that's why I'm making that face in the first picture. Art 80 Drawing has been an interesting experience, as it is, my first art class and actually my first college class as well. Yeah, after that sentence you're thinking I should have taken a grammar course. Yet again, not bitter.

My art professor loves Halloween, she's been talking about it since the beginning of the semester. The still life we'll start this Monday she has been drooling over almost as long. I don't really know what all the hype is. I mean, all that we do on Halloween now is dress up, go to stranger's houses, and expect them to give us candy. Originating from 'All Hollows' Even' or 'All Saint's Day', how could this go so bad? Well, looking back, its the same sort of thing that started the Marti Gras. You have to give up something, so let's eat, drink and be merry. Do all the bad stuff we can! Yay! Ok, so if you look it up, that is a very brief and opinionated version, but mostly true ...in my opinion.

So I actually have been drawing skulls for homework all month. Pretty fun, for the first two. And first charcoal one. ...well there you have it folks, my art!

Scanner, man I miss you!

2008 Mission Presentation #2

http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/image.axd?picture=missionpresentation2.jpg

The next amazing video! This is about the church in Etheopia.

2008 Mission Presentation Video #1

2008 Mission Presentation Video #1


Above is a link to this year's Sovereign Grace Mission's Presentation. Though you probably could have figured it out from the name of my post. Each year I like forward to the next mission's presentation video, and this one is no exception. So, check it out!

Sorry for my blogs un-cartoon-ish-ness... Without a scanner things are, well, difficult. So bear with me, and time will tell if my parents actually get one.

On a bit of a brighter note, I'm moving! I'm only moving a couple miles away from where I am now. Yay work! wait.....

Worship Matters

I would encourage all of you to read Bob Kauflin's book Worship Matters. Bob is the head of our worship team in Sovereign Grace Ministries, and I believe that no one is more equipped to write this book then he. On his blog Bob posted some very helpful, short talks on the subject. It is very helpful, not just to check today. But all the time. Worship is our lives!

'What is a Healthy Church member?' Introduction/Chapter 1

As some of you are aware, after Thabiti Anyabwile spoke at the Worship God '08 conference, we were all given a free copy of his book What Is a Healthy Church Member? I had been putting off reading it for many different lame, and false excuses. "Oh, I have school," "Not today, I'm busy." "Eragon? or this book?" And my personal favorite. "Well... I'm already reading 'Do Hard Things' and I don't know if I should be doing any more than that. With school and everything..." Then, I believe God brought this to my attention, "What will more glorify me?" And thus, I started the first chapter today.

Thabiti starts the book with this encounter he had. He says in his introduction,

Jenny surprised me when she started crying during our membership interview. The first twenty minutes of the interview were fairly routine. She recounted her childhood growing up in a Christian home, her high school years filled with fear, and a period of living as a prodigal during college. Then she recalled with some joy her conversion experience in a home town local church.

So I did not expect her to sob at the question, "How was that church for you spiritually? Did you grow there?" After pausing for a moment, she explained, "I expected that after my conversion someone would have helped me to grow as a Christian." She continued with a distinct trace of confusion and anger: "But it was as if people put me in the corner somewhere, as if they expected me to figure things out on my own. It was a terrible and lonely time."
How many Jenny's have you met in your lifetime? Perhaps you are a Jenny. Perhaps you have spent considerable time in a local church, or several churches. And perhaps your Christian life is not too dissimilar from Jenny's. You came to the faith bright eyed and bushy tailed, bouncing with energy and zeal to do great things for the Lord. But soon you found yourself wondering, "What exactly am I supposed to be doing a member of this local church?" If so, this book is written for you. And if not, this book is written for you, too.

Thabiti then recounts a story where a woman in his church came up to him after a service one Sunday and started to,
"...complain of her dissatisfaction."

..of things that were that were changing in the church. So, Thabiti said this in his introduction,

When she paused in her litany, my first thought was to ask her, "So what exactly would you have me to do about these things?" But in a rare moment of insight I thought better of asking that question. Instead I asked her, "So what are you going to do about the state of the church? How will you become a better member and contribute to the health of God's family in this place?"

In chapter one he talks about a healthy church member as an ex-positional listener. Which he describes as: listening for the meaning of a passage of Scripture and accepting that meaning as the main idea to be grasped for our person and corporate lives and Christians. (Wow, what a mouth full!) And what the benefits of being that listener are. And thirdly 'How can church members cultivate the habit of ex-positional listening? He lists these examples:

1) Meditate on the sermon passage during your quiet time.
Thabiti says this, "Several days before the sermon is preached, ask the pastor what passage of scripture he plans to preach the following Sunday. Encourage him by letting him know that you'll be praying for his preparation and preparing to listen to the sermon. Outline the text in your own daily devotions and use it to inform your prayer life. Learning to outline Scripture is a wonderful way of digging out and exposing the meaning of a passage. You can then use your outline as a listening aid; compare it to the preacher's outline for new insights you missed in your own study.

2) Invest in a good set of commentaries.

3) Talk and Pray with friends about the sermon after church.
-I think this would be really great to do these Saturdays. I know we do it sometimes but it should be regular.
Thabiti gives this example: "Instead of rushing off after the service is over, or talking about the latest news, develop the habit of talking about the sermon with people after church.

4) Listen to and act on the sermon throughout the week.

5) Develop the habit of addressing any questions about the text itself.
"Jonathon Edwards resolved that he would never let a day end before he had answered any questions that troubled him or sprang to mind while he was studying the Scripture. How healthy would our churches be if member dedicated themselves to studying the Scripture with that kind of intentional effort and resolve? One way to begin is to follow up with your pastor, elders, or teachers in the church about the questions triggered by the text."

6) Cultivate Humility

He gave examples and helpful advice on all of these, but for the sake of time and plagiarizing I will stick with this for now.
What a God we serve? Isn't he good? He has provided us with all we need, and his blessings are unending!

Nice, CA

Hey guys, it's me!! I just decided I would post a few of the pictures I took on our way to our family reunion. Yeah, this is actually a real picture. I thought I would get some photographic evidence so you would actually believe me. But I guess with computers and technology these days, it doesn't really matter. For all you know, the city could be called 'Sweet' or 'Fun' or 'Goody-2-Shoes'. Wait, now I'm starting to get confused...

On our way to the unclassified, named-city, we stopped in another town with another name.

What? You wanted to know what the name of the city is?

If you couldn't guess by the trolley, we went to Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood, Wait, I mean San Fransisco. You should have been able to get the real name from the clock though, right?

The cousins at Goody-2-Shoes. You know, I'm really proud of myself. For the first time in my life I am the only one looking the right way.

My, don't we look happy? Haha, this is everyone that went. And from the looks of it, we set the camera's timer on ten minutes instead of ten seconds. Click on the picture to enlarge it, and you'll see what I mean. Hahahaaa, just look at Joey's face.

On the way back from Glad, we stopped at California's Capitol.

So wait, tell me again why we picked a male-model to be the Governor? But I guess he matches the kinds of people in the state. He's not been too bad thus far... Well, that's all I have for now. It would have taken me hours to post all the pictures I took. But I'll save that for the next post. Thanks again for reading you guys!