Even little things make a difference.

Mr. Raymond had asked me if I would do the vespers for this Friday night. Being a spiritual leader as Senior Pastor, and want to share something with the students, I agreed. That was Wednesday. I thought about it all Thursday, but I didn't feel impressed on any topic to really talk about. I usually don't have long talks, which I should work on, but nothing came to mind.

Having pastoral experience, I knew my dad would have some ideas. I called his cellphone because he was in Idaho for an AACP meeting. I talked to him a little bit and got several ideas. I decided on one, and began to think about it more on ways to do it, and interesting things to do. Unfortunately due to extra school work that needed to be done, I didn't have a whole lot of time to sit down and work on it. But I had some time after supper and sundown before vespers to gather my thoughts for what I would be doing that night.

Upon arriving at the church, where we would have vespers, I was informed that Mr. Baker, our principal, needed to talk to me. Directed to where he was at, he explained the situation. "Uhhh. We have a problem. Mr. Raymond already had a speaker come in, and he is here now." Uh-oh. "How long is what you were planning to do?"

I then told Mr. Baker that it was fine, and the speaker could go ahead and speak. Mr. Baker persisted and said, "Well if it isn't too long, we could have both of them." I told him it would be alright, I didn't mind if the guest speaker went up and did his thing. Mr. Baker kept being sensitive to the fact that they could still fit my presentation in. He said didn't want me to feel bad for doing all this work and then not presenting what I had worked on. I assured Mr. Baker that it was perfectly, I wasn't worried, and I could just do my worship another time.

Afterward, I was actually relieved. Though I had spent time prepared something, I really didn't feel ready nor prepared enough. I was just really hoping that God would somehow bless my feble efforts and make this work in some way. But now with the guest speaker doing the talk, that burden was lifted. Not only that, now if I have the honor of doing a worship, I can now be more prepared for the next time round. (While the guy was speaking, I showed my sister my notes, and she said it looked more interesting than what the guest speaker was doing at the time. Go figure.)

It became a lot funnier when David told me he talked to Mr. Baker, David said he was all like "He was working all afternoon on it, and was working hard to get it ready." I had a good laugh when I recalled Mr. Baker was really trying hard to not hurt my feelings for not having my worship because David told him that I had really been working on it. (That is semi-true...Though I was trying to make it interesting.)

God blessed me twice this Friday night. It is great to be reminded that He is on my side. I have nothing to really worry about. All I can say is that He is just totally awesome.

How exactly does turkey = family time?

Once a day of thanksgiving for the little things one may own has become a National holiday to where people get time off work and school to spend time with their families. How turkeys relate to spending time with your family. I have no idea. The only clue I have is if the turkey is in the stomach. Well we had soybean turkey. We left the turkeys outside to find their own way across the road. Maybe they were chasing the chicken, who knows. To be honest, I'm not even sure if we even had veggie turkey. Well none the less, family time was spent well.

As become the Whitlow custom of my house to we travel on Thanksgiving to visit my mom's side of the family. This year we went to my aunt's house in Michigan, Barrien Springs to be more precise. (Last year, the party was at my house. Most likely, next year will be at my Uncle's) Due to issues with our main traveling vehicle, we pushed, shoved, and squeezed all of our stuff and selves into our Buick. Fitting was definitely easier for we were missing 160lbs (Minus a couple ounces for lack of hair) of family down in peru. (For those that don't know, that's my brother. Andrew, sorry if I miss-guessed your weight.) But somehow with all our stuff we find in the house that we think might be fun to take along fit in the car, and we had reasonable space.

The 10 hour trip started on a Tuesday morning started about noon, and good travel time and not so bad traffic allowed us to arrive a little shorter than expected Tuesday night. Happily greeted by my aunt's puppy golden retriever, Cooper tried to greet us all at the same time, spinning in circles and wagging his tail hard enough to start a tornado. My cousin was already there. She had a head start on everyone since she is getting her doctorate in Physical Therapy at Andrews University. She also greeted us with warm smiles, not quite the tornado Cooper had started. The rest of the family arrived the next day; Uncle Terry and Aunt Terri with Derek, Traci's less than 6 month husband. Tressa (my other cousin) also arrived with Ben and their two daughters, Sherri and Larisa (pardon any misspelling). Larisa had been born not to long and was only a couple months old by this time. Adorable she was. We made sure that Cooper also didn't admire her cute nature at close range.

For us, Wednesday was a day of rest and relax after a day of travel. Thanksgiving day was almost the same with the exception of a bigger, more sophisticated meal, a Christmas celebration, and of course, All American Football. There was a threat for rivalry of teams among the house and a chance of a challenge game of two-on-two football came forth. Unfortunately, chance of rain was also challenging us. We decided our clothes looked better than our pride and strayed away from the pickup game and enjoyed the games put on for us on TV. Now if your some-what comprehending, your most likely still stuck on the thought: Christmas at Thanksgiving? Well to explain, I will also tell you, reader, that at Christmas time, the Whitlows have another tradition: Travel to Colorado. My grandparents are there, and it has become annual routine tradition to do so. It was really difficult for us to travel two places completely opposite of the country. Thus came for the Christmas party at Thanksgiving. It really keeps me happy, because then I get 3 Christmas celebrations with a birthday thrown in between. Christmas with: the Carmichael Family at Thanksgiving; immidiate Whitlow family sometime before Christmas when the schedules align; and the Whitlow Family actually on Christmas. Then also my birthday on the first of December. The placement of all this really proves to be a party month.

Now some people really enjoy getting up really early, even stay up the whole night to spend money. That really isn't for me. Sure there is great savings, but you've gotta have money to spend money. Which I really don't have money. Though I do get money for Christmas(/Thanksgiving), nothing is really special enough for me to buy. Except for today. I bet you were thinking that I woke up at some insane early time to go shopping. Just kidding. I slept in a bit and woke up at wonderful 10am. We ended up heading to go shopping, or look at sales at noon. My dad and I ended up getting stuck at Best Buy for quite some time deciding whether we should get it. "It?" you ask. "It." I say. After it was said and done. With a combination of me paying $450, and birthday and Christmas from my parents, I walked from that store with a brand new Cannon EOS Rebel T1i. For you people who know nothing about technology, it is the newer of the semi-professional cannon cameras, new enough to also have HD video on a SLR camera. And so far, I absolutely love it. We didn't travel much else to go shopping. I got something I liked, and my sister got lots of what she liked, and of course, my mom had to buy some stuff too. My dad just looked through his old apps on his iPhone. I had a camera to try out.

Oh wow. This is getting long. That's pretty exciting. I just hope it is staying interesting for you guys. And continuing on....

That was pretty much the tale of Friday. Sabbath was restful, but tiring at the same time. We went to the Pioneer Memorial Church there in Berrien Springs. Of all the people that I know in the area, we figured we'd see someone, and we did. Emily Knott and her family had came to Andrews for their thanksgiving. That was pretty fun to see someone we know amidst such a big church. We went to first church then Sabbath School so that we could eat lunch sooner and get an earlier start for heading home Saturday night. Sitting behind us in a pew, Aunt Jan's friend had her grandson there, Jeffery, and he joined Amanda and I for our hunt for a Sabbath School. Wandering around a bit, we found the pastor that had spoke at first church (Who is Esther Knott, a relative of Emily.) She directed us to the youth room and she introduced us to her daughter (Which I can't remember her name....). After introductions, she (the daughter) explained that she started her own Bible study, though she wasn't the leader, she invited us (My sister, Jeffery, and I) to come with her to the basement of the Cafeteria where they met. It was actually a really good group. They had a lot of discussion there, and was led by two seminary students. The topic for that Sabbath was finance, and what it is really about of giving something to someone, and whether we should be public about it. We ended a little after second church started and figured my parents would be looking for us. We didn't see them on the way back, so I posted Amanda at the back entrance to be spotted while I went and looked around. I kept seeing the pastor's daughter as we passed in different places, and she was like "Hey again" and I was like "yeah." (I promise I wasn't stalking.) Really weird, but still I didn't find my parents. At a round trip loop after looking, I checked back in with Amanda to see if Mom or Dad was there. I was telling Amanda that we should just walk back, or call my dad's cell. At about that moment, my dad showed up, and we were saved. Happy ending, right? Of course.

The meal was a very filling meal that makes you happy after your done eating. There isn't any reason to bore you with the rest of the details of packing up and waiting to go. We were able to leave around 3:30. Not to bad time, but we were hoping to leave a little earlier so that we would be home from the 10 hour trip a little sooner. The car ride was about as car rides go, especially on the way home. Napping, and boring your mind out at late hours of travel, or so it seemed like with it being so dark so early. But we did end up arriving home safely close to 1:30am.

I had a great thanksgiving break and enjoyed seeing my family and meeting some people at church. Its really funny though, because my aunt sent an email to my sister and I telling us that Jeffery stopped by her house Sabbath afternoon to ask for our emails, so she gave the emails to him. What I find so hilarious is that I really doubt that he was looking for my email, but my sisters. I'll have to tease Amanda about that.

Well everyone, thanks for reading. I hope your Thanksgiving breaks was awesome. Have a great month of December!

Oh, and happy birthday me on December 1!

Such excitement. (Its crazy that I'm practically 18....well I am now.)

Going....going....SOLD!

This past weekend we had a Senior Benefit night at Parent's weekend. It seems that us as a Senior class do have a little difficulty settling on things to do. For a while, we discussed to have grillers and french fries. When several parents caught wind of this, they immediately shot down the idea, due to amount of cost and un...appealingness of the meal. We agreed on Cherokee and old-union springs famous; Mrs. Boyd meatballs, and spaghetti, with various other play-along foods.

Figuring out entertainment for the night also took some work but it finally was situated. Adam and myself preformed a classic Abbott and Costello "Who's on First"; Mackenzie rode the unicycle; JoDee sang "Somewhere over the rainbow"; Amy sang "Please be Mine" from the Jonas Brothers, and I accompanied her on guitar.....and also back up sang, which I wasn't so sure about. (Though I heard that it sounded good.); and all the girls in the class had a "sleep-over skit" played out to a song, which I'm not sure about what song they are. In between all these "talents" if you may, there was an auction of one to two people.

Well I was the lucky person to go first, and as people who have been to auctions know that there are several important things to have: Good bidders, big spenders. Also, you know that the first couple don't start well...and well. I was only sold for $25. Though I was thankful that my mom did buy me. It was good for us that for 11 people, we got a little above $1,100. (Which didn't include the meal). It was an overall good night. (It helps that homeleave came afterward.)

People are natural to wonder what in the world a tiny class of 11 people (not class of 2011, ech) would do for a class trip. Well we have really explored it and are trying to find some mission trip ideas. Things came up for Puerto Rico and Alaska that we have looked into. But money is really limiting us. We have to stay in country because we have two Karen ladies in our class. We just really aren't sure where we should go, but we know we want to do something ministry minded. If you think you might have a lead on something, that would be awesome, but your prayers are just as awesome.

(Tuesday, Nov. 24) My family and I (minus Andrew) have made it safely to Barrien Springs now, and will enjoy a Thanksgiving/Christmas with my mom's side of the family. Santa is coming a little early for this year. Thanks for reading.

Another Day, Another Time

Oh wow. I am doing absolutely horrible at updating these regularly. I greatly apologize to all who might be reading. I don't see anyone following, so I don't know if anyone actually reads these or not. No one has left a comment either, so these are the options: (1) No one is reading. (2) My writing is so bad people don't want to follow or comment. (3) People don't care. Well for whatever reason, maybe if I knew more people were reading, then I'd try to keep them updated. Who knows. For the reader, you do your part, I'll do mine.

This past weekend I attended an Atlantic Union Leadership Conference which was set up by the union youth and education department. Getting there was a chance with my life period. Mr. Baker is a cool guy, alright principal, and a horrible driver. I'm surprised he hasn't been in more automobile crashes. I mean, no offense to this guy, but he swerves, BAD. Thankfully, I had my eyes closed most of the trip attempting to run time quicker by sleeping. Adam told me that he got pretty scared in the back.

Regardless, we made it alive to Winnakeg (spelling?). In previous years, I've stayed in what they call the Pathfinder Lodge. But this year, the academy kids were stuck in the regular cabins. If you haven't been to Winnakeg, their cabins has two joined together. On one porch, there is two doors leading into divided parts of the cabin with a counselor quarters in the middle. The first major thing that I noticed about the cabin that I walked in was that Northeastern Academy was next door. Joy. I'm going to have fun trying to get to sleep. Second, there was an outlet next to every bunk-bed. Talk about promoting cell phones at camp. Third, on the counselor's room door, it had a lovely sign that said to not enter. Curious why, I took a step closer to the door. I noticed that the door was partially open, and didn't see anything particularly wrong with the door. I take hold of the handle and push on the door. Instead of the door opening like a normal door, the whole door just fell over. Thankfully no one was in that room at the time, otherwise they might have ended up with a headache later. It also saved me from embarrassment. It was weird, because the door didn't have even hinges, it was just propped against the frame. Whatever, its not my camp.

I brought my guitar to play along with Pastor Harry (no, I can't spell his last name), the youth director from Northern New England, which he and I have been friends for a long time. We arrived in the middle of supper and ran to the cafe to make sure we got food for the eating, not really having a good meal all day. (Meals at the school cafe isn't a meal, its scrounging for something that is edible and tastes somewhat good.) Thankfully, the food at Winnakeg is really, and it eased our hunger pains for the night.

The first meeting is always the awkward feeling of "I don't know you, you don't know me" and puts extra space between everyone. After the main session, there would be groups that would go to different AUC presenters on an aspect of leadership. In order to split the groups, Pastor Bill had everyone choose an M&M out of a bowl, and the color that you picked, that was the group that you were in. He began describing where the groups go (according to the chart he made up and everyone had), when he realized with the help of the kids that he was missing a color. It turned out that he had 5 colors of groups, but there were 6 colors of M&Ms in the bag. Oops. After that was all sorted out, another problem was found at the group session. The groups were greatly uneven. It seems that around 30 people liked, and picked the color blue. While other colors such as yellow (as which I picked), had about 8 or 9 people in it. (Though really only about 6 constantly showed up to all the group sessions). This really caused some groups to be huge, and some, not so huge.

The presenters were good, some better than others. The main speaker was Alex Royce, a pastor from a church in the Southwestern conference that specialized in leadership. The overall weekend was good. I got to see friends from other academies that I met in conferences such as this. They also gave us this really nice leadership bible. Its a hardcover, and has the extra thin pages and stuff. It's really nice. In my time there, I talked with different people, one was Alex Royce. I shared with him that I had an interest in becoming a pastor. He encouraged me, and told me about a book called The Next Generation Leader. I didn't write it down, and so later when I thought I should write it down, I didn't exactly remember the title. After the closing challenge, I asked him the name of the book again, and he ended up having it in his hand. He looked at it for a second in his hand, then handed it to me. It was really cool that he gave me his book. Considering that it had all his notes in it. I had to chuckle at that. But with a person devoted to what they do, and they strongly recommend a book, usually their notes are good. Hopefully anyway. It will be another book I'll read in my personal time to see how I can better serve God.

The trip back was similar to the trip over. Only this time, I was awake a little more. Mr. Baker would switch lanes without intending to. Which is why I think he doesn't use his blinker, because otherwise, you wouldn't know. We made it back to school in fairly good time, but it was still late to be getting back. From leaving at 5:45, we got back at midnight. Normally that isn't too bad, because you can sleep in on Sunday mornings, normally. But this morning, our assistant dean/coach decided that 0600 would be a great time for basketball practice. Getting to sleep about 0100 or 0130, amazingly, I still woke up in fairly good time, and made it to practice. Nevertheless, I was still rather wiped out for the rest of the day.

This is what is new and different in my like in the more recent. The near future holds a faculty family, which sounds fun, and I hope it is. I will make more attempts to keep whoever unnamed person is reading this updated on the life of a crazy person.

Oh, and leave a comment, lemme know how I'm doing at these things.

Stars fall, but the moon still shines....

So many times, it seems that we just set ourselves up for disappointment. This came definitely true for the Union Springs Eagles soccer team in the one and only playoff game for the change to get into the playoffs. Positioned second in the league, we had an overall good season with a record of 5-1-2. Though towards the end of the regular season, it became noticeable that we weren't preforming as well as we did in the beginning of the season. Even a few weeks before the game, my mom mentioned something to me about the championship. I chuckled and said we had to get their first. I never lost the felling that we might not make it. Still giving my best at ever game, my team didn't play together, resulting the last game of the regular season a tie and loosing in the playoff. I think they over looked the playoff game and didn't see the importance. We were a different team in the first half, not playing like we should, but it was too late by the time we started to play. Causing us to loose the game, and the chance to play in the championship. Though it seems bad, all is not lost. The championship was going to be over homeleave, but before homeleave came, most of the school became sick. I even became sick after I came home. By Saturday night, I was in no position to play a soccer game. Though a loss in the playoff, did in a way, turn out good.

((Yes, I know this wasn't posted on the 19th, my apologies...))