Mission's Auction and stuff

Last night I was the auctioneer for the 4th Annual Mission's Auction at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at MTSU. This was my third year to do it, so I knew what I was getting into. What's important to remember when you're an auctioneer is that you need to drink plenty of water during the auction, you don't have to enunciate every word (only the numbers to hear the bet), and level your voice so that the audience gets excited when an item for bid gets higher.

This auction broke records. Several items went over $100! Note that in a regular auction, this doesn't seem like a huge number. However we were in a room full of college students who can't even afford to pay attention (thanks John Cook for letting me borrow that joke). You know how much money we ended up raising? We raised over $850! We are over our Mission Goal for the year (which was $4500) and we are not even done with everything!

I'm still recovering a little bit. It's quite a workout to fast-talk for that long of time. It's like an ab workout. Plus I drank about 3 bottles of water so well...I'll let you figure out what happened because of that. I didn't get as much sleep last night because the adrenaline didn't wear off right away. I don't have class today so it's not that big of deal.

Other than that, there's not much happening. I'm starting, "Becoming a Contagious Christian" with my 8th grade Lifegroup. We're actually going through the book in six weeks, and I'm excited about it. It's challenging for me as well as them, but I think we'll both get a lot out of it. I also have two adults in the room with me, Phillip and Art, so it's good to have their support.

I better be going. I hope you have a great rest of the day!

Teaching the Preamble

For the first time in a month or so, I was really excited to teach. One of the reasons was because it had to do with what is pictured on the left...the Preamble to the Constitution. We started off just listening to the words. I talked about how important introductions are to any form of writing and how this set up the whole tone for the Constitution. The sad part of it all is how so many people don't even know what it says. Seeing the kids hear (some for the first time) and understand what it is saying, made me realize how cool it is that people in this profession get to experience learning. Not just knowing new facts or answering some questions, but taking what they hear and see and finding a useful application to their life. The Preamble of the Constitution is something that we can find useful and applicable.



"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

That's worth remembering.

Spring Break Mission Trip

From March 11th-15th, I went on a Mission Trip with my college ministry to Tybee Island, Georgia. There were about 8 students (including me), two adults (John and Rene'), and three kids (their kids) that all went (I like Parenthesis).

It was really cool...literally. The weather wasn't what you would expect from a beach/vacation spot. Although it was actually a blessing in disguise because we got a lot of work done and then some. What we did was we painted part of a church - Chapel by the Sea Baptist Church - and then we teamed with another church to put on a party for kids and their families during the St. Patrick's Day Parade that was in town.

I ended up scraping, priming, then painting the first day, and sweeping, holding garbage bags, and then painting with a roller the second day. For the kid's games I went with some of my fellow peers and talked to people about the party, and played some games with the kids such as corn hole and picking up rubber ducks with nets.

I really enjoyed hanging out with this group and serving. It made my Spring Break go by fast, but I think it was worth it. The only thing now is getting back into the routine of school. Of course I better get used to it because that is where I will probably spend a majority of my life :-)

Eating Lions, reading books, and Georgia

I feel like doing a techno dance right now. I am listening to my Ipod and the song is, "Rockit" by Herbie Hancock. It makes it very distracting to write. I wouldn't be the only one in the family to freestyle dance today *cough* dad *cough*

We had Anvil for guys again this year. It wasn't like other years though, it was for one night only and we joined with the girls (who had an overnight thing for their Snowball retreat). The worship and speaker were great, and it was cool to hang out with some of my guys. The fun part of these retreats for us guys is that we eat lots of meat and then smash various things (watermelons, spam, pudding, apples, etc.) The meat we ate included Ostrich, Squid, Antelope, Shrimp, and...Lion Burgers. I'm not kidding!
I got to have a piece of it, but not a whole burger.
My favorite was the squid.
Since most people don't like the texture,
I got as much as I wanted.

I am reading two different books right now. I am reading,
"The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman and
"The Importance of Being Foolish - How to think like Jesus" by Brennan Manning (author of one of my favorite books - The Ragamuffin Gospel). Both books are really good so far. I am happy to be able to read them on Spring Break.

I'm on Spring Break!!! I still have a couple things to finish for school, but I am just relaxing right now. I am actually going on a mission trip the 11th-15th in Savannah, Georgia. We will be helping with church improvements (i.e. painting). It should be fun. This will be my first Spring Break Mission Trip. Let the serving begin!

Well, I should be going. You want to know something funny? I started with that techno song, and now I'm listening to "Spring, Spring, Spring" from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers! This is on shuffle, so it makes it so much awesomer! Yes I know that's not a word...just overlook it.

Have a great one!