I love vacation. We met up with my parents in Denver to hang out. Yesterday, we went to Pikes Peak. It was amazing. So beautiful. Then we ate at PF Changs. Oh the sweetness of vacation.

Today we're going shopping then seeing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Hurray!!!

Christen

Mexico was cool. You have no idea how tired I am. I've done so many stupid things today at work. Earlier I sat in the bank drive thru waiting for a deposit slip. I was growing very impatient when I realized it was sitting there. Who knows how long. I keep wandering into rooms and can't remember why, and I have a splitting headache. Am I complaining? No, I just thought you'd like to know that I feel like an idiot today because of my tiredness.

I'm excited about Fine Arts next week, but I can't believe I'm going out of town another week. I'm so tired of traveling. sigh...

Christen

I'm tired...
Tamales aren't always everything they are cracked up to be...
I have never appreciated showers more...
"Hot" is now a very relative term...
Mexico really will let anybody in...
The US border is no better...
I, for sure, have the coolest brothers ever...
I hit an all-time low in appearance today...
Mexico- it is finished...

Christen

Hurricane Emily is in full force. We are currently 100 miles from Brownsville, TX where the hurricane has hit. I turn to look out the window and see trees whipping around and bending over. It's pretty crazy. Parents are freaking out. It's great! We're on house arrest. We aren't allowed to leave the church. It's understandable because we're also under tornado warnings. I'd be freaked out, but I'm just not.

Christen

How life is changing, my thoughts are changing, the things I have always believed are changing.

I still believe absolutes like Christ died for me, God created the heavens and the earth, etc. But our "Christianese" is many times wrong. For instance, my whole life youth camp has been: Monday-opening service, Tuesday-salvation night, Wednesday-Holy Spirit night, Thursday-called into the ministry. My issue is with Thursday. I remember growing up and feeling that tug on my heart and exclaiming, "YES, I'm called into the ministry. YES, I want to see people's lives changed for the Lord. But no, I don't want to be a youth pastor or a pastor." But the leaders never allowed that to be okay. There were two catagories: called into the ministry (meaning full-time, paid by the church) or a layman (every other profession in the whole world). I didn't understand. So for years I have been confused. I didn't understand why the Lord would place such a strong call on my life if he didn't intend for me to be a pastor or youth pastor.

Finally, I have realized that it hasn't been me that was wrong. It's our whole Christian society. I CAN be called into the ministry. WE ALL ARE! But we're not all intended to be pastors. True or False: The strong Christian guys in our youth groups are almost always encouraged to become youth pastors. Why can't we just let them be strong leaders elsewhere?

I never understood my friend Kory. He loved the Lord so much but always said he didn't want to be a youth pastor. I couldn't understand why he was letting such talent and influence go to waste. But he's not!! He's going to be one of the most influential people for God that I know, and he'll never be a full-time vocational minister.

What do you think? Am I wrong? What are your thoughts?

Christen

I'm home from Camp Del Lago! We had a blast. A couple of girls got sick, but other than that, no problems. The Lord did some awesome stuff in my kids and in my life. The whole week was about taking risks, which was exactly what this group needed to hear. I'm relaxing today because on Monday we leave for Mexico. Crazy!!

Thanks to all who responded to the last entry. It's cool to see what people think and like.

Christen

Do you ever find yourself really liking something? Last night I made a list of some of my absolute favorite "things" right now. I thought I'd share and have you tell me some of yours while I'm gone at camp. Yes, that means you will not be hearing from me til Friday.
I will explain some and some are divided into catagories. And here we go:

Music:
-John Mayer - I like his voice the way I've liked Dave Matthews for years. It's unique and I love it.
-Howie Day - I've only been listening to him this week, and I'm in love with his song Collide.
-Coldplay - oh, you understand.
-Gavin Degraw - I'm scared to see a picture of him because if he's not cute, I'll be so sad. His voice is awesome.
-The radio station Mix 96.5 - It's amazing. They play everything new (Green Day, the above listed) and old (Alanis Morisette, No Doubt, The Cardigans). I like almost every single song they play.
-Pop music in general - this is huge because if you know me at all, you know I've been a Country devotee for years

People Magazine
Watching movies alone
Text Messaging
Cool kids that joke with me
Driving

These are just a few, my friends. Tell me some of yours and I'll think of more later.

Christen

PS I just visited MySpace for the 1st time. I kinda felt like I was cheating on Xanga. haha

Yeah, two in one day, there's been more shocking things.

GUESS WHAT I DID TODAY!! I put bright red streaks in my hair. It's on the underside, but I went a little crazy. It's AWESOME!! I am so rebellious. I never do crazy stuff. I have never done anything "weird" to my hair before, so it feels good. hehe It's one step closer to what I ultimately want to do...red streaks all over. :)


The rebel

Sorry I haven't updated in so long. Life is really busy right now. It's camp and mission trip season. The next 4 weeks of my life are like WHOA! We have camp on Monday, Mission trip to Mexico the following Monday for 10 days, then 3 days back in the office, then we leave for General Council (a big Assemblies of God meeting with all the US) for another week. Wow, I'm not stressed, just tired already. :)

The 4th was awesome. We went to my grandparents' Sunday after church, and I schooled everyone in Shang Hi. hehe Then Monday we had another Beast Feast. For those unfamiliar, my family (myself included) is quite country. So, between my uncles and cousin, they killed, and we ate, deer, elk, wild hog, wild turkey, dove, quail, and catfish. Yes, my friends, that is 7 different kinds of meats that we ate. :) It was really good!

Have a happy week.

Christen

Dearest Xanga,

Have you ever noticed that even though this is an online journal, and I write so many different things about myself and my life, that it's actually very guarded? There are so many things that I do not share: personal thoughts, fears, life dreams, hopes. Today is one of those days where I do not share what I most want to say.

I watched Hotel Rwanda this morning. How ashamed I was to be American at that moment. I know I was only 10 when the genocide took place, but what happened? Why did our government stand by and watch 800,000 people die like that? Wow, I was so gripped by the movie that I hardly cried, but the tears poured down when it ended. How is it possible that I NEVER heard about that? There were several parts of the movie that rang so true to me. When the Americans, Belgians and French were being rescued from the hotel, a reporter said, "I'm so ashamed." He knew what was happening and knew his government was doing nothing to help. Also, a UN official told Paul (a Rwandan) that he was dirt in the world's eyes, not even a ni**er. He was an African. How true is that still today? The US cares about Europe, Asia, South America, but not Africa. Africa is finally getting some publicity because of actors like Angelina Jolie who work over there to end poverty. What callous, uncaring American we can be. I'm so ashamed.

Christen

Last night I got to hang out with one of my favorite people who I had not seen in a whole year...Ed! We met in Lake Charles which is just across the Texas border in Louisiana. It's a casino town and a scary little town, let me tell you. We met at Chili's (or should I say, I waited forever at Chili's....haha...that's for you Ed) and ate. He brought one of his Army buddies with him. It was so fun! Our poor waitress, we sat at that table from 6:30 to 10:15. I felt a little bad, but there was no where else to go in Lake Charles. We really got to catch up and tell countless stories of Master's. Anyway, I'm so glad we got to hang out. :)

Christen

Go check out my little brother's site: Chuck1291