Camping!

This past week has been pretty packed. Although, I will focus mainly on the weekend. A few things though during the week, I got my test back, did pretty well, but still a lot of room for improvement. I made some stupid mistakes, and on some other questions, just wasn't as specific as I should have been. Darn verbatim compliant-ness of the Navy.

So this weekend, was my church's youth (Junior and Senior High School) retreat out at Bellows AFS out on the East side of Oahu. I volunteered to work as a security person from 0200-0600. Needless to say, I am lacking sleep from this weekend. My weekend went pretty much like this, woke up Friday at 0400, went to work, got to Bellows at about 1800 Friday evening listened to the first study in Ephesians, had dinner there, listened to second chapter in Ephesians, helped prepare the fire pit and firewood for the fire at about 2000. After the fire started, hung out for a bit, but went to get some sleep about 2100, I got some unrestful sleep, woke up at 0150 and then did security duty till 0600. During that time, I watched the Perseid meteor shower, it was pretty good, but the full moon that night made it hard to see the meteors in that part of the sky. I watched the sunrise at about 0530-0600, woke up the kids at 0630, had breakfast at 0800, third study in Ephesians at 0900, drove back to the other side of the island to go to work at 1000. Got some lunch and dinner since I worked from 1130-2230. After I got off of work, I drove back to Bellows, and watched some of singing around the fire until about 2130, went to get some sleep before I had to wake up to do security again that night. Needless to say, I didn't go to bed Sunday till about 2130, so a little low on sleep.

Despite the fact of the low levels of sleep, the camp was great and I feel like the kids learned a lot. The teachings were all great and the leaders really are blessing the kids a lot. There was a water baptism at the end of the camp and there were a handful of kids that went down to get baptized. Some of the kids also went around sharing the gospel with patrons on the beach. I know I'm not giving the weekend full justice. I blame it on the lack of sleep, which I know is a very poor excuse. On the other hand, I will leave you with an amazing sunrise picture.

Sunrise Saturday 

Sunrise Sunday

Sunrise Sunday

Back to a Normal Pattern

Well last week I went back to classes, well what was suppose to be classes. My other classmates were finishing their oral board reviews and some of them did poorly, leading to the test that we had on Wednesday to be pushed off till today. I guess it was good in a way, since I had to catch up on all the stuff that I was suppose to have learned 6 months ago. Yes, it has been 6 months since I was last in class. Where did the year go? Anyways, I didn't have to stay late each day like some of my classmates. Friday was a good time though of fellowship with them. It was their one year anniversary celebration, and pretty much everyone was invited to come to it. It was a good time. We went to Side Street Inn down in town, I do have to say it was quite enjoyable. With about 22 of us, we spent almost $1000 at the restaurant, just shy though. Lots of drinks and great food. One of the awesome things was that Daniel Dae Kim showed up with his family to eat there! For those that don't know who he is, he was in the TV series Lost and most recently Hawaii Five-O. No, I didn't get a picture with him since the restaurant asked us not to bother him. It was still cool seeing the celebrity.

http://www.koreanbeacon.com/tag/daniel-dae-kim/

Let's see there was a large ship that pulled into the harbor during the week and left sometime this weekend, what wasn't really what I would call a "military" ship, but it was rather larger. I found out that it was the Green Bay and I found a picture of it online so you all can see what it looked like. 

http://www.vesseltracker.com/en/ShipPhotos/128883-.html

So Saturday, I went to the beach with friends and we barbecued out there, well more like grilling. A bit of some background, this group of friends are notorious for being late. We are rarely on time for anything and have horrible communication skills. With that being said, they ended up being 2 hours late picking me up. Yeah, I was stupid for being ready on time. During the meantime though while I was waiting, I played chess with one of my roommates. I am quite rusty at the game since I made such stupid mistakes and all. Oh well, I still won. :) 

Other news, I have hung out with my roommates a lot more this week and it has been great. I went to dinner with two of them at the Dixie Grill, where I think they have hired almost all the haole (white) females on the island to work there. Well it just seemed like it since there was a lot of them. It was some good southern style food. We also got some Thai food during the week, which was good, but I still like the other Thai restaurant that is in the area.

I guess lastly, is that it has been very trying to talk to some people at church. Politics and views that differ just get in the way. One of the biggest is that the church is starting a new college and career group, since the last attempt pretty much sputtered out and died. They named the group Alpha Pi Omega. I get the whole Alpha and the Omega part, being the beginning and the end, relating to Christ. The Pi part is for, well I can't remember and I should get a write up sometime on why it was picked that. But if you look online for Alpha Pi Omega, you find that it is a Sorority, mainly for Native Americans and all. It is somewhat disturbing that the group is the same as a Sorority and when I brought it up, it was brushed off like "it doesn't matter, we (I) choose it because of ________" Anyways, the group is doing a series by Focus on the Family, Does God Exist? a TrueU series. It is close to the Truth Project, but more aimed towards college age students. I'm not sure if I really want to go, it might be me, and then the "clique" group of the Sunday Night worship team minus one. It starts tomorrow, Aug 9th, so I have a day to think about it. I should give it a try though.

The other things is that one of my friends at church is going hard core in studying the Mormon Bible and the discrepancies that are written in them. I am hesitant for someone doing that with such intensity because the last person that I knew that did that, fell away from the Christianity and converted to Mormonism. There was no dissuading him at all. It is very hard talking to him because he only wants to talk about a few subjects. The newest being the difference in the Book of Mormon compared to the Bible, the end of the world possibly on September 23 with the Feast of Trumpets and the comet in the sky, etc, the way the New World Order is taking over the world, and UFC. Yes, the last one is just a random one but it is one of the things he talks about. It's just discouraging because he only wants to ever talk about these subjects and nothing else. Sure, I can lead the conversation away for a bit, but it always come back to those topics. It is a wonder why he has very little friends at UH Manaoa. One of the last things we were discussing was that "talking" to people consisted him emailing his entire class about a topic of discussion. My point was that "talking" is actual face to face talking, or on the phone with someone. Anyways, I need more patience with him.

And Ashley, if you do read these at all, you owe quite a few burritos. 

August already?

What to report the past week......well, my last day down on the project was this weekend. My training supervisor decided to bring myself and the other guy that is in the same class as me back up to class since we were suppose to start a new section this week after the midterm that everyone else had to take. Well, I think that plan just got changed today since the test got moved to Monday. Good/bad thing now is that I will take part of the test with them, which I guess will gauge how much I remember of things that I learned six months ago.

I don't think I have much else really of interest to report. I went on a hunt to find the older covers of the book series A Song of Fire and Ice by George R. R. Martin. I am on the hunt for these because I don't really like the new covers. I know, a somewhat lame reason, but that's all I got and I'm sticking with it. I also ended up buying more books in series that I have from Borders that they still had after the initial rush of customers going to the stores to get "good" deals.

I also saw Captain America this weekend. It was actually pretty good. I dont' remember much from the comics, but I would have to say that Captain America was much better than Green Lantern. Just a better story overall and during the credits, it brought back the old fashion cartoons and newspaper feel. If you stay to the end of the credits, there is something at the end of the movie as well.

The last thing I guess I have to talk about is some questions that I have been posed and I guess fully don't know how to Biblically base the answer. One the question being about tattoos after becoming a Christian. Personally, I find tattoos fine as long as they aren't outrageous or distracting. In some ways, it is a reminder for some people they should always live their life for God. I'm fine with small tattoos, tattoos that are not worldly based or a blatant worship of the devil. The counter argument is that your body is a temple for God. True in that respect. I just don't know 100% wise if tattoos are specifically forbidden to Christians. Second thing is, I guess the next "big" event for prophesy watchers is the Feast of Trumpets that is happening I believe the 23rd of September. It has to do with that time and also a comet in the sky that aligns in a certain way. It's beyond what I 100% care about since it was mixing astrology and guessing to the maximum, but the family that I have sometimes talked about, brought it up and was going crazy about it. They spend pretty much all day reading websites that are about prophesy, watching TV and sermons on it, and I think also read the Bible. It just seems that they are "closet" Christians in that they just talk and study and not actually go out sharing the good news. The excuse is that "I just don't know enough". I personally feel that it is on par with the Pharisees trying to know everything and being experts, but not doing what we are called to do, which is to share the Gospel to the lost. I still have to think on this.

Relaxation

This week was pretty mellow considering everything. Well, my chair that I was using in my room broke today, but I didn't get hurt so everything is good. I was attempting in trying to find another chair from either Savers or Goodwill, but to no avail. I ended up getting a pretty comfy, and a much needed upgrade in chair for my room from Costco this weekend. Work is going well, working first shift though. In some respects it is awesome and others it is not so much. The down side is that I have to be at work at 0500. Good thing is, I get out at 1330 which means I can go work out, go to the beach, and pretty much enjoy the rest of the day.

So another thing is, Borders is going out of business :( Yes, this is very sad for me, since I liked them much more than Barnes and Noble. I went to visit Borders by my house, let's just say it was insane and that was the most people I have seen in Borders at any given point, well except for releases of books such as Harry Potter.

Crazy people in line. Anyways, I ended up buying a few things from Borders. Seriers book: The Voice in the Wind series that David Addy suggested, and then the Circle Series that my friend Luke suggested. Overall, they are both good series and all. I was trying to find the George R. R. Martin books, well the not new mass market covers (I like the old ones better), but I couldn't find them. Oh well. 

Other than working and going shopping at crazy Borders, I also went to go see the Green Lantern at one of the movie theaters on base. The movie was alright, nothing spectacular. I also learned how to change my oil and reset the maintenance light. I never knew it was so easy to reset that warning light. Really only a couple of easy steps: 

1. put your car odometer to "ODO" setting
2. turn your car off
3. while holding the reset button turn your car to "ON" (there should be about 6 dash lines slowly disappearing)
4. once all the dash lines are gone, it should be reset and you can release the reset button 

I also wanted to show you a lovely picture of a rainbow and of the outside of the house in where I live. I live in the house to the right with the Prius and the Pathfinder in the car port. 

And lastly, I wanted to make you all jealous at the wonderful weather I had this weekend and a place where I spent most of the weekend. 

Back to Day's

So last week, I found out Thursday when I went into work that some of us that were down on the project were going to go back to class. The bad thing was, I was planning on seeing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 at midnight and one of the two was going to have to go to day shift. Well with that being said, we figured it out, I was staying on the project with the relief of the 4 that were going back up to classes. I was also switching to day shift but I did a gradual shift, came in early on Friday and then fully early today.

Midnight showing of Harry Potter.....well lets just say that it was crazy and there were more people there than I was expecting. The news crew was there and same with the paper taking footage and pictures respectively. The paper representative took our photo, but I went to the website and couldn't find us :( very sad day. I don't know why she didn't put up all the photos. Probably because it is Hawaii and they don't know how. But, the theater needs better planning for big releases. No real plan. They had people outside on the stairs and everything up till 11:30p before they were let in. Well some people didn't get in till probably close to midnight. Most of the theaters were empty since the movies that were in them got out early, why not start seating people in the theaters? You can get them inside and start spending lots of money on popcorn and other junk food. The theater definitely lost money in that respect. It was sold out though....all sixteen theaters.

The movie was really good I thought. It brought the series to a good end, although some of the things that were in the book didn't make it, and the directors had some creative changes, but otherwise it was really good. The two hour movie didn't really feel like two hours. Well, you can read the more in depth reviews if you want a better review. I do have to say this, the 3D version isn't much better than the 2D version. I also liked how they tied stuff from all the other movies.

Anyways, I'm back to possibly doing things with a group of friends that are very last minute planning which at the same time is quite frustrating since it is last minute and they normally plan something in town, which for me takes ~30 min to drive into town. Yes, I know that was probably a long run on sentence. For instance, yesterday, they planned on going to the restaurant, Mexico (Mexican food) and the guy that text me didn't know what time, where it was, etc. Yeah didn't find out until ~1.5 hrs before they were going all the info. I actually didn't go, although they said the food was pretty good, the best Mexican food they have found on the island. That isn't saying much since there are so few Mexican restaurants here.

Last thing, we had two guest speakers speak this weekend at church. In the morning we had the LA Lakers Chaplain, and in the evening the Sunday morning worship team drummer. Both were great talks and messages and didn't rush through the sermons. I'm also seeing if I can go back to learning to run a soundboard. Some of the people that I talked with thought it would be a good idea. I will have to start wading the political waters at church again....

Simplicity of Jesus

So it hit me yesterday while I was sitting in church on how unsimple the notion of Jesus has become. Churches make other things priorities other than Christ. Whether it be numbers attending, how many become Christians at altar calls, or how great the music is. What has become the focus of the church. Was the message good? Was it too long? Was it too short? The question that should be asked to each one of us, did the message lead me to God. That is the key, everything that we do should bring our worship to God. If it goes somewhere else, then it is totally worthless.

The other thing was that I should be happy with where God lead me to. Sure, I wanted to work somewhere else, and not for the government that takes forever to do anything. Sure the government spends money on fruitless things and we don't understand what the rational behind it is. But for me, I should be seeking more on why God brought me here. That should be my focus and then once found, I should expound on it and make the best of the situation that he has brought me into until he moves me somewhere else.

So the simplicity of Jesus is as the name portrays: Quite simple. The gospel, the good news, the Bible all leads to Jesus. Whether in the old testament or the new testament, it all points back to the man named Jesus Christ who came to save us. We were sinners, he died for us, he bought us with his blood, he was buried for our transgressions, and he was resurrected to give us a power over death.

4th of July weekend.

I know this is a bit of late post from my normal routine. Only excuse is that it was a holiday and that I was travelling. 

First off I went came to Colorado/Wyoming for a wedding of a good friend from college, Michael Deal. He and his now wife Laura Deal (formally Laura Burke) had an amazing wedding up in Casper, WY where they both grew up. I did not know this, Laura's family is huge and they can be a bit overwhelming at times. You either have to gradually get involved with the family or just get them in small doses. They also had this amazing dog named Solomon who was a white mix. Good thing, I didn't wear black too much because he was shedding everywhere. 

The wedding took place at St. Anthony's Church which the building was pretty amazing and rather old. The acoustics in the church were interesting as well, and the PA system just bounced off of the walls and high ceilings at times. 

I didn't take any pictures during the wedding, that would have just been a bit weird during the wedding. They did have a professional photographer and videographer capture their wedding though. I was also a part of their wedding, in that I walked down with some water from Golden. Mike and Laura wanted to mix water from the six major parts of their life symbolizing a new start with their mixing of the water after saying their vows. 

The wedding reception was at the Casper Petroleum Club. Nice old building with some heritage to it. Funny thing is they post the current prices of oil, coal, and uranium when you come into the building. Below are some pictures of the cake, the grooms cake and glasses with the bride and groom's name engraved. 

For someone that can't really dance, or that I didn't know that he could dance, my friend Mike did a really good job dancing at the reception. Also, I do have to say that Laura's dress was amazing.

Besides from pictures, I had to get evidence that Mike danced at his wedding with his beautiful wife. 

After coming back from WY, I got to spend a short few days in Colorado. I went and visited Golden and looked at the new construction of the place. I just ended up taking two pictures of the new Brown Building expansion and the street demolotion of 16th street. The webcam pictures on the Mines website doesn't give good justice I think. There is suppose to be a fountain in the cul-de-sac area as seen in the second picture. Hopefully it looks good in the end. I believe that the expansion of Brown is already getting moved into. I should have taken some pictures of the new dorm, but I didn't. 

I also saw fireworks at the Aurora Mall with some friends. Overall, it was a good time in Colorado. Dry heat is pretty amazing, but the allergies are a killer. I just wish I could have stayed a bit longer in Colorado.