In Word

This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test.  This is still a test. 

• Test...
• Test...
• Test...

Finished.

January 22 marked my two-year anniversary as a blogger on HSB (a little-known fact is that I actually did blog prior to HSB, at a nifty little Freewebs site which has since been deleted).  The statistics are...

Entries written: 171
Comments written: 906
Comments received: 1114
Friends list: 156
Total visits: 7,651 (since June, 2007)
Average visits per day: 23

It's quite interesting compared to last year's stats--the number of entries has nearly tripled, comments written has quadrupled, and comments received has more then quadrupled.  The average visits per day skyrocketed to around 30 a few months ago, but now it stays generally between 14 and 24.   My first year blogging I had just over 1,000 individual visits (or maybe closer to 2,000, since the counter starts mid-year); this past year I had 6,000.

So...there you have it!

Me and Christina

I think everything is moving faster now that we're on the last half of the conference.  Some people might think that's bad news...I'm ready for it to be over, myself.  Not that it hasn't been good (most the time).  I miss my house and my little siblings and my regular life.

All the speakers have had great things to say--I don't think I've heard anything that didn't touch me somehow, or make me think.  A recurring theme has been escaping from ourselves, and the pitfalls of being self-centered and prideful, and instead turning our focus outward to others.  It's very applicable and real.  We listened to the song "Give Me Your Eyes" tonight, which was beautiful.  Very thought-provoking.

Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken-hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see.

Auditions went well this afternoon, as did check-in for the debate portion of MASTERS.  You may wonder how anything could possibly go wrong with check-in, in which case you probably didn't see me during the same event a few nights ago.  Enough said.

Toni and Brian are very studious debaters...unlike some of us.


At CFC, we played IPIA (Idealism and Pragmatism in India and America).  If we look like we're running around in mass confusion...we are.  Please don't ask what it is.  I can't tell you anything, aside from the fact that it probably annoys me more than any other activity on the planet.  Maybe I'm just not impressed by huge gyms filled with yelling teenagers.


Jonathan and Joshua, striking a pose.


Jonathon showed off his airsoft guns.  Kathryn Grace and I proceeded to give them all names--such fun.


Hope and Lydia.  They're awesome.

I think I exhausted all my profoundness yesterday.  Too much deep thinking gives me a headache.  And...my head hurts now.  So I shall stick to the basics.

The speech portion of MASTERS is officially ended.  Tomorrow, we'll visit our friends' church, head over to their house for lunch, and then off to audition for the conference's talent show which happens a few days from now.  Monday kicks off the debate portion.   Hopefully it won't involve any relapses into fits of crying and physical wrestling to avoid giving speeches. 

Also, Hannah Farver is a young lady whom I've never met personally, but I know she would greatly appreciate your prayers for her brother, Tyler, and their family.  Tyler was injured in a serious accident this morning, and is in critical condition.  Please pray for the Farver family as they trust God in this situation--I can't even imagine how I would react.

The first half of the conference is drawing to a close.  The tournament is over, my speeches are finished, and I think it's been pretty cool.

I don't think much has changed on the outside.  I'm still scared of giving speeches.  I'm still really bad at giving speeches.  Attending MASTERS just isn't my idea of fun-filled week and a half. 

But I've been thinking about weaknesses, and God using them and turning them into strengths.  Today, I performed what I consider my worst speech twice--an allegorical story, written by my mother around twenty years ago (the story itself is awesome, by the way).  Twice, my judges had tears in their eyes at the end.  Twice, they commented on what a beautiful story it was.  One of the ladies asked if I'd be competing with it throughout the year, and when I told her I didn't want to, she said she would pray for me.  "What we can't do, God can," she said.

I don't know why she said that, because it applies so perfectly to how I feel.  I don't know why those  two ladies were moved to tears, or what they saw in my speech that touched them.  The speech itself is a disaster--an enormous weakness of mine.  But somehow, when I got up and blurted out my six and a half minutes of poorly-performed story, God did something.  It had to be God, because I know that no speech of mine would ever do that on its own.  And maybe, He used my weakness, and all my inept stuttering and stumbling, to show His strength to the two ladies watching.  His strength!

That...is incredible.

Well, I'm sorry I don't have anything less introspective to share today.  Congratulations and many thanks to any of you who took the time to read it!

Day 2 is complete!  Today we had our final classes for the speech portion, and tomorrow we'll be competing in a one-day tournament.  My classes today were actually enjoyable (*collective gasp*), since they dealt with photography and were quite informative.  It was also great to be going to the same classes as my friend Lydia--I have this immature fear of going places alone, even if it's in one facility.  Call me weird.  I am pretty weird.

As for the tournament tomorrow...that will be a stretch.  Thus far, I've felt good about the whole thing, probably because I haven't had to stretch myself too far past my comfort zone.  Tomorrow will be a whole new level of growing, since competition has always terrified me.  Like, seriously terrified. 

A few pictures from the past two or three days:

Mrs. Moon talks about the conference's theme, "Lead the Escape."

Katy looks pretty happy in the car on the way to the church.

Dueling cameras!

A partial shot of this year's RAP graduates (I was sitting too far forward to include everyone).  Actually, I managed to get all three ARC students--Toni, Kathryn Grace, and Christina.  Congratulations to them!

Justin Louis lectures on the importance of visual communication via mediums such as photography, film, and art.

Christina draws a connection between bananas, and...lightbulbs.  Get it?  Get it?

Avery looks cool in sunglasses.

The final event of the evening was the "Dinner Theater," put on by the CFC interns--a play that had everyone laughing over the course of the evening. 

Every good comedy has to include a proposal scene. 

So, that was my day.  Still a long ways to go...

As you can see, my blogging efforts failed me yesterday.  We do have internet access at our host home during the conference, but last night, blogging just didn't make it on my list of things to do.  There wasn't much to say, anyhow.

So, in summary, I've just finished my first day at the MASTERS conference.  I survived, contrary to all my forebodings, and I'm trying to let God use it to my benefit.  Only crying once thus far is an accomplishment.  But all in all, it hasn't been as bad as I feared--the classes have been interesting, and it's nice to be here with lots of friends.  It doesn't rank as a particularly enjoyable experience for me...but at least it isn't sheer torment.

Hopefully, this week will help me learn to trust God even in my worst moments, when I feel like...hiding in the car. 

"For Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, [...] in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong."  -- 2 Cor. 12:10 

I wish I was a better example of that verse. 

Just a quick entry today--there's lots of preparations going on for the conference, so I need to get busy.  I'm about as ready to go as I'll ever be, with the exception of packing clothes. 

Over the weekend I busied myself sewing a costume for the conference's costume banquet.  It's a dress I've wanted to make for some time, and the deadline was a handy motivation for getting it done.  Here's a rather blurry in-the-bathroom-mirror shot of the finished product:

It's a Scottish dress, complete with plaid skirt.  I absolutely adore it--I wore it half the day yesterday, just for the pleasure of it.  One can never be too old for dress-up, right?

Well, I'm off to get packed and ready to leave tomorrow.  More later.

Blogoweek originated at Christina's blog, and the invitation has since been extended to anyone who cares to take part.  The challenge is simple:  blog every day for a week.  Write about the insignificant, the significant, or something else...just blog.  Sounds fun, right? 

I'm giving it a go, probably because the week ahead promises to be difficult and if I don't write I'll probably implode.  I'll be attending CFC Masters, a huge conference that's supposed to help students learn to communicate their faith to the world.  Public speaking scares me to death...so if you think about it this week, prayers would be appreciated.  (And if my posts start sounding morbid...bear with me.)

That said, my Blogoweek aspirations may be put on hold depending on whether there's internet access at our host housing.  I certainly hope there is.

And now, I've got to go--my apologies to all of you who have been neglected in the way of comments lately.  I really do love hearing from you, whether your comment recieves a reply or not!  Eventually, I'll get un-swamped with real-life happenings and back into blogging etiquette.