My sorrow

No, I am not sad. I have actually been incredibly happy this past month. It all started with PASSION 07. I thought the fire I experienced listening to Francis Chan, Louie Giglio, John Piper, and Beth Moore would subside over the following weeks... but to my awestruck surprise, it has not!

I am still praying every day for the residents of South Dakota, Melbow, Leanne, Elizabeth, Hannah, CB, and Mikity... to name a few.

Instead, my sorrow comes in the form of friends who walk away from a situation without wanting to discuss what is wrong. When I disagree with a statement you make, and you decide ignore me... it makes me wonder why I am still your friend.

For those of you who are confused, let me give you an example without names -- although, Mike knows exactly who I am talking about:

A girl makes the following comment to Mike: "Looks like Hillary is running for President. How does it feel to be a man now?"

To which I respond: "There's no way she will ever become President. People will come out of the wood-works to stop a woman from running this country."

Now, in my own defense, I think my statement is entirely accurate. People would turn out to vote if it meant keeping the status-quo. The same could be said if a black or gay man tried to run for the office of President.

However, this person took my statement as an attack against all women, and basically decided to punish Mike and I by ignoring us and walking away. I'm sorry, but that's not how friends should act towards each other.

So while I am not directly sad that this girl stopped all communication with me... I feel a deep sorrow towards her. I wonder what happened in her life to make her blow up over the simplest of words. To immediately take offense and pull out the vagina-card whenever a "man" says something she disagrees with.

I will be praying that your heart softens and you will take the time to talk things over with me...

In other news: GAME NIGHT @ Juliana's on Friday! I am co-hosting a board-game-filled evening where everyone is invited over for some good clean fun (with sugar free Red Bull and food to boot). The following weekend is the Aquarius Birthday Party -- for all Aquariuses out there who want to celebrate his or her birthday with good friends. I am still working out the details of the event, but I will post the information soon(tm). Promise.

My favorite picture

This is probably my favorite picture of all time. Firstly, it lets everyone know that "I'm a Keeper" -- which is true if the ladies ask, but refers to soccer if a guy makes a comment.

After you read the shirt, you'll notice Kristin making her "YEAH!" face, holding Catie's hand. Following the picture down to Catie's ever photogenic smile, you notice Leanne giving us the surprised "Are you kidding me?!" look.

Which of course leads us to the best part of the picture. Mike and Jen getting ready to TACKLE each other in the background! They eventually ended up rolling around on the floor... which is what usually takes place whenever they are near each other.

Good times all around!

In other news: Cirque du Soleil was amazing. Picture's from Dana's party are forthcoming. I rock at picking out wine. D#2 was better than the first. And kids... coke is bad for you.

My iPhone enV

Just when I purchase a new phone from Verizon, the LG enV, Apple announces the long anticipated iPhone! I watched the keynote from Macworld 2007 yesterday, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed. Sure, the phone a giant touch screen, and Apple products have been known to scratch easily, but it just looks so cool!

Not only is it a phone, it also dubs as a widescreen iPod (also going to be released later this year). You can set any photo you have as your background image, and songs can be spliced up and set as ringtones. No fee involved!

It has a full fledged Opera web browser and apps like Google Maps and Gmail are already built in. The only sad part about the iPhone is that you can only use it if you're on the Cingular/AT&T network. But I'm hoping Apple will allow other carriers to sell the phone in a year or so.

In the meantime, check out this video for a 10 minute high quality demonstration of the new iPhone!

My PASSION

This past week has been, in a word, amazing. I attended PASSION 07, hosted by Louie Giglio and team. You may have known someone who attended, or heard about the event on TV. Imagine this: 24,003 people age 18-25 gathered in one place to make a difference in the world for God.

Every person was to bring a new bath towel and a pair of socks, to donate to various homeless shelters around Atlanta. In addition, there were many wonderful organizations gathered together that allowed everyone to "Do Something Now" -- primarily to help put out the fire in Africa. You could help build wells for clean water, put an African student through college, or help translate the New Testament for a people-group that does not have access to a Bible in their language.

Not only did we accomplish all the goals we set out to accomplish.. we well exceeded them. Instead of raising enough money to build 11 wells, we raised enough to complete 38 wells! We completed the translation for the Dela people... AND also raised enough money to complete the New Testament translation for the Rikou and Lole people-groups! If that is not God's hand at work, I do not know what is.

I learned so much from the main sessions; we had a different speaker each time. Beth Moore about humility -- how to get rid of that pride and ego, which can bring so many of us down. Francis Chan spoke about not automatically giving into the safety and security of that which is "the American dream", but instead pray for God to lead you through life -- so that we may follow his will, and not just ours. Ben Stuart told us how being single is not always a bad thing because it can lead us to have an undistracted devotion to God. You may end up following His will, look over your shoulder one day and see someone else running alongside you. And they could be pretty cute.

Anyhoo, the entire experience was almost indescribable, but I have been trying my best to explain the experience to anyone who asks. I spent 3 days at the event with my friends Melanie and Leanne -- waking up at 7am and arriving back home at 2am. I know we all got something out of the conference, and I'm SO glad they decided to come with me.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My picture is officially on the wall with the plane diagram. Thank you two for encouraging me to do that! Keep praying for me, and we'll see what happens over the coming year.

In other news, I purchased the new Verizon enV phone this week (basically an upgrade of my old phone). It's slimmer, can hold 1000 contacts, and has a better camera on the front. So now I can take "decent" pictures in case I forget my Canon Powershot. I have all the ringtones set up for everyone!

Standard: Wholly yours (David Crowder*Band)
College Crew: Up with the white & gold (Georgia Tech fight song)
Family: A gift of a thistle (Braveheart Soundtrack)
Hot Girl: All that I am (Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20)
Reserved: Hey there Deliah (Plain White T's)

I couldn't find a sonar ping for the text messages, so I picked up the sound of an old-school canon firing. It pretty much freaks me out everytime I hear it.

SHINE!