Oh what a night...

God is so faithful...
And speaking of God's faithfulness, thank you so much to all those who have donated money to help me get to Prague. You are a huge blessing in my life, and I pray that the Lord will bless you tenfold in return!

I still don't have my address in the Czech Republic yet, but as soon as I do I will make it a permanent fixture of this site. And now for something not entirely different...

Yesterday, particularly the evening, was absolutely amazing. It was Ella's and my last night at church, and so it was a little sad, but so encouraging. We talked to pastor David, and he prayed over us powerfully. God spoke to me in some amazing ways through that prayer, the least of which is that I will live up to my name. Andrew means "manly, valiant, and courageous," things which I don't feel I always am. But last night God encouraged me and called me and enabled me through David's prayer to be that which he has named me. He also prayed that godly leaders would be raised up in the Czech Republic through me, and so please pray for me, all ye who read this, that I can walk forward in boldness and trust in God's word for me.

As if that wasn't enough, afterwards we went to Enrique's for dinner and $1 margaritas, and who did we run into, but Adriane Savage. I haven't talked to her in ages, and she just happened to be leaving for Dallas tomorrow. She got a job as an artist for a civil engineering company and is doing very well. We got to catch up, laugh, and pray for each other. God's timing is always amazing to me.

After that we went to the Bean Counter to see Homer Hiccolm play one last time, and who should we see but 1) half of the people that work at Starbucks, 2) Alaina Bearden, and 3) Jennifer Nissen, newly engaged/married. Apparently she eloped! God is so good. I was hoping and praying that I would be able to see people or at least get a hold of them before we left Abilene, and they all pretty much showed up in one night! I will definitely look back on my days in Abilene with love and thankfulness to God for all he has shown me and made me while I've been here. Praise the Lord!

CH. 3-The Sanity of Little Black Dots

I sit at a desk that is not mine, typing on a computer that is not mine. I am exhausted after several days of opening the store at 4:45 am. My mind has been in dark places these past few days, but Christ is bringing me new light. Holst is blaring in the background (screaming quietly at the moment) and I am content. Music continues to be one of the driving forces of life for me, a constant source of renewal, excitement, and challenge. God give me the grace and determination to continue in it.

After work today I fixed myself a full breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and orange juice. Mmmm mmm mmmm. It was delectable. For the rest of the day I plan to (finally) read some. I'm currently in the midst of many books (Othodoxy by Chesterton, The Poe Shadow by Pearl, Neil T. Anderson's Victory over the Darkness, and Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer) but getting bogged down. A Starbucks customer gave me the new "God's Man" series book called "Risk." After reading the first chapter and skimming the rest of the book, I have come to the conclusion that all "men" in the author's mind read in a puffed up, machismo-driven way. Or at least that's the way it was written. I'm no longer reading it. Not that it didn't have good points, but I got tired of reading "dude" and "blam" and "awesome." I mean, give me a break. Yes, we're men, but does that really mean grunting and acting like we don't have the brain cells to read and write intelligently? I think not. I'm sure it'll reach a certain demographic, but not this one (hyper-sensitive, intelligent, white, 20-something?).

Speaking of masculine stereotypes, I've been watching the Rocky movies over the past few weeks, and I was surprised to find how good they actually were. Yes, Stallone's voice and manner of speech in the films can get old, but the message behind the whole thing is really quite remarkable. If you haven't seen them, or have and judged them as meat-head material, go back and watch them in light of life in the Kingdom of God...some pretty cool parallels. I think out of all of them, II and V are my favorites. But they're all pretty amazing...and patriotic (IV was quite funny to watch...all the Cold War stuff).

Thank you Lord for another day to discover you and love others. May I use the hours for your glory.