Working out your work through fear and trembling

So I'm trying to figure out my work. What is work? What isn't? My job is people this summer, so I wrestle with how to use my time effectively as well as what is work. There was a talk about Time Management yesterday at the intern teaching time and that was pretty helpful. Hopefully I can take some key principles from that and apply them to my life. My job is ramping up more and more. Our project is getting close to being completely planned for Thursday, and that is exciting. I'm also working on stuff for The Rock on Saturday. It's exciting seeing stuff slowly come together. Tomorrow there will be a big hike. I'm not sure which one the people I'll hike with will go on, but my guess is it will be awesome.

Until later...

Pirates of the Rockies

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End a couple of days ago. Long, not painfully long, and entertaining. Good action sequences and a hilarious monkey.

I also went on a hike to Mills Lake yesterday with Calvin. It was good times. We had a lot of fun and I can't wait for the next hike I go on. It will probably be Wednesday, at least the next big one will be then. Maybe something high up in the snow. That would be pretty sweet.

I start working today for my once a week volunteer job with the YMCA. I will be at the information desk answering any questions that guests might have about the Y. It is a job that I do to pay for my food throughout the week at the Y. I'm kind of nervous about it, because the woman that typically works at the desk is incredibly knowledgeable and I don't know all the ins and outs of the Y.

The first hike

So yesterday, I went on two hikes. I was about to die on the first one. This altitude was getting to me and I'll tell you what, my body wasn't able to get oxygen. But the view at the top of Eagle Cliff, where we went to, was phenomenal. Then my hiking buddy, Evan Marsh, and I sat around and read for a while. I couldn't think of a better place to connect with God. My second hike was up Bible Point with Jennee and we had fun just sitting up there and praying. God really does amazing things out here. Then we came down in the ark, and that was fun as well.
Today I finished the Chazown book for the first time and it really impresses me. Chazown, if I haven't said it before, is the Hebrew word for vision. We're out here looking for a vision to wrap our lives around and to commit to. I can't wait to start using it in our project group time.

The Rock is also starting to come together. Matt Barnes is going to be helping me with it, and our ideas together are making for an exciting service. Alright, until later...

Chazown

LT officially started today!!! How awesome is that. The snow melted from yesterday by noonish. It's a completely view outside of the windows now. I got a chance to meet my project group today. What a great group of people. They're so cool, and we got a chance to bond quickly. We came up with a name for ourselves...

We are Death By Default. It is heavily based is the verse Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is everlasting life. I'm so excited about meeting together again and again this summer. Both on project days and just for fun on other days too. My co-leader isn't here yet, so that is tough, but I can't wait for her to get here so we can start planning.

The first LT meeting was tonight too. We met for a couple hours and John Drage gave an inspiration to start the summer. I hope people really take to heart what went on. There was a time of worship, a talk, and then a consecration for the summer. We dedicated the time to God and each were given a link of a chain to remind us that we are chained to God.

Tomorrow I will be working on planning what I think I can add to The Rock, the Saturday night service I will be producing. I'll keep you posted.

God Bless!

Everybody's Here, Everybody's Here

So the majority of the rest of the LT attenders arrived yesterday. It was a time of jubilation as we got to see everybody show up ad it was soooooooo good. I got to visit with all these people I haven't seen for a couple weeks, or a couple months, or even a couple years. It's been great to see all sorts of faces around. The first LT large group meeting is tonight and I'm excited. Before it, I'm gonna get a chance to meet the people in my project group and spend time together with them over dinner and just some quality time hanging out.

It also snowed yesterday. And this time, it stuck. That's right, I'm currently staring at snow all over the ground here at the YMCA and it is awesome. It is going to melt completely away in the next day or two, but what an interesting way to start the summer....

Into Colorado

So this is my second night here in Estes Park, Colorado. My trip out was great, safe, and just good in general. I feel really thankful that the trip went the way it did. We were luckier than many animals we saw along the road that had unfriendly encounters with cars along the way, as well as an overturned SUV along the interstate as well. My friend Chuck and I drove out on Sunday after my sister's high school graduation (congratulations Emily!!) and stayed the night in Nebraska on the ground at a state park. When we arrived in Estes, I immediately was blitzed with different staff activities for the Great Commission Ministries staff. We have gotten to know each other over the last couple of days and they are a group of people I'm really excited about. I'd put pictures up here of what it looks like out here right now, but my computer isn't cooperating. It did snow today here at the Y, which is so weird. It's almost June, what the heck! I've also gotten a chance to look at the people I'll be in community with through my project group and you'll see more on that soon. It seems like a great group of people. OK, it is bedtime for me today. I hope all is going well where you all are.

New Listeners

So shortly I will have a bunch of new listeners checking in on me as I go through my summer in Colorado and I figured I should give you a bit of background into who Alan is and what excites him. That picture makes me look really angry, but I assure you that I am more fun than that.

I just finished my Junior year at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. There I study Mechanical Engineering and am very involved with Illini Life Christian Fellowship (hence the internship).

My interests include sports, video games, learning, talking to people, deep discussion, weight lifting, riding my bike, hiking, and just being ridiculous at times. I love the Green Bay Packers and Illini sports. I'm also a Cubs fan. Video games wise, I have myself a Nintendo Wii, which kicks some seri0us booty.

I love Colorado. It is a gorgeous state and I love the mountains. It really is the perfect place for me this summer.

I grew up in Clinton, Illinois. It's a small town, but it was a fun place to grow up and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

My family consists of a dad, mom, and a younger sister. She just graduated high school and is well on her way to being awesome. My parents have been married for what will be 23 years in June. We go to church at St. John The Baptist Parish in Clinton on a weekly basis.

My Catholic background, along with my current evangelical involvement, has allowed me to see a richness of Christianity from different angles than many people have been afforded. I love discussing doctrine and the church itself in general, even if I don't know what I'm talking about. I really like to listen those times and have people tell me how they feel about something.

Let me know what you think as I write through these coming months. Leave comments. This is a great forum to have discussions. Let me know what you wanna hear about. I'll try to give you more of that. Ask me how things go. I'll tell you.

I leave in a week from tomorrow. Chuck (a fellow U of I student headed to LT) and I will be leaving and driving towards Estes Park. This week I am calling people and following up letters for support raising. I'll also be packing, and cleaning up for my sister's graduation party. All of this will be at home. I'm excited to catch up with my family throughout the process.

More soon...

Alan

Dats it and dats all man

Spring semester 2007 is in the books. Now spring finals week 2007 starts in 2 days. Tomorrow is reading day....

Happy Reading Day to you all.

As I look back (because that's what we do when something ends), I'm shocked that this year is over. It's been filled with challenges (support raising, school), adventures (roadtrips to Indiana and Iowa), change (new church model), growing relationships (Jennee, current roommates, new roommates), disappointment (NFL draft, Illinois basketball), excitement (Illini football potential), music (Mae concert, Relient K concert, two U of I band concerts), late nights (conversation and homework projects), red hot steel, more cool TAs, video games (Wii!!!!), snow (2 SNOW DAYS), jumping in fountains, watching the Bears lose the Super Bowl (great for me :), bad for everybody else), God transforming me, insecurities coming to light, coming to my own as a leader, dinner at all sorts of place in Champaign, my first time being 21 years old, run on sentences, the Cubs spending more money than they ever have and being in last place, the Virginia Tech shootings, Barrack Obama coming to power so prematurely, and much more....

but now I must go and not live on the internet...Peace y'alls