WAY TIGHT. Read on.

So this was one of the many really cool trees we saw in San Marcos. My dear friend Chris Williams got a pic of it. And then check out this tight scripture:

This is what the LORD says:

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who depends on flesh for his strength
and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He will be like a bush in the wastelands;
he wlll not see prosperity when it comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.
He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit." -Jeremiah 17:5-8

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel
of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers." -Psalm 1:1-4

And there's so much more than what i just wrote...good stuff. That tree is such a beautiful picture of scripture!

San Marcos 07!

So at the request of mr. price specifically (who has not updated his blog yet might i add:), you're about to get the 411 on Spring Break 07, dubbed San Marcos 07 by the dear Simone Watts. It all began at the rock wall a few weeks ago. Simone and I were chatting about how we loved canoeing, then it became we should take a trip sometime, and then, how about the first weekend of spring break? Heck yes! Along the way, we picked up the fantastic company of Miss Alycia Erickson, Mr. Chris Williams, Mr. Nathan Fort, and Mr. John Fox. We were set. Favorite thing about these people right off the bat: We're all very into outdoors yet VERY flexible...this comes in handy later on. The journey begins about 7pm on Friday night, packed up with 2 cars, a canoe on one, and a ton of stuff! We get there, unload, chill, set up tents, the usual. We decide to cram all three girls into my two person tent for 2 nights, which made for some entertaining sleeping arrangements! We got real tight real fast. After an early morning trip to the grocery store, we head over to TG Canoe, at the entrance of Pecan Park to get some gear! We set out with a tandem (2 person) kayak, tandem canoe, a single canoe, and a single kayak. We were set. We packed highly nutritious food like tortillas and strawberry jelly...yesssss...That day was simply gorgeous! We canoed/kayaked 7 miles down river in about 75 degree somewhat shady beautiful weather. Full of fun games like Apple Core Baltimore (where you throw apple cores at each other) and the tipping of a canoe that resulted in losing an important pant leg with credit card and drivers license, we pulled to shore. That night was a blast with exploring for firewood, climbing trees, making homemade ice cream (john fox wins for his recipe!), some serenading by some super talented guitarists (mr fox and miss watts), and quality discussion and story telling. Sunday morning we had an awesome church service with the owners who are believers. It was not very pretty at this point and looked like rain...some foreshadowing if you will. Nathan and Alycia had to peace out so John, Simone, Chris, and I start some rousing games of uno, and in the middle of our go fish game we had to move in (all 4 of us) to my 2 person tent. Interesting:) We then decided to go see a movie in town, and on the way we instead went to fazolis and seattle's coffee company to play some 42. I love dominoes! So fun! Meanwhile it's pouring and we find out we're near a tornado and we head back to camp. This wonderful group that we traded our homemade ice cream for homemade peach cobbler with the night before were gone so we moved into their pavillion. As it rained, we had our kind of leaky pavillion roof that at least kept us mostly dry...the night was great as we had a massive dance party with music we put on in the car (we got skills) followed by a sermon. The boys slept in the car and Simone and I in the tent. In the morning, there wasn't a dry place on the ground except my tent! Praise the Lord! Then Tom (the owner) tells us we have 5 minutes to be out or the river will cover us. Flooding from the rain. So we packed up and did...what else? 30 minutes away from austin, REI here we come! And yes we hadn't showered in 3 days. Beautiful. Or not. :) It was a quality trip. Good times, good people. A tornado, a flood. Enjoy the pics! We had more fun than should really be allowed!

Learning, learning, learning

Yes, that is what I'm up to. Learning! I've gotten some great learning time while at the bucks the last two weeks...I feel as though last week I had the opportunity to be the barista in the Living Hope Christmas play...first scenario-call me chelsea smith...three girls walk into the bux, being girls, not really acknowledging me at all (something I sadly am used to), and the conversation then goes something like this, girl A turns to me as I say, "Hey! how are you doing?!" and she replies..."yah I want a tall white mocha (i made that up, but that's what 80% of ppl who go to starbucks order:)." Then she turns back to her friends to continue their previous conversation..."Girl guard your heart! I know he's great but...". That was about all I could absorb on that one b/c i was pretty disgusted to be honest. God, let me treat every person I meet as if it was a permanent relationship. Even if i see them for two minutes of life... and help me love these people. I know I've been and still can be one of them. I'm not immune to this.
Scenario Two. I was making drinks on the bar and a splenda paper fell to the bottom of an empty cup for a drink I was making. Barely touching the bottom of the cup, but yes I did touch the cup, I went ahead and made the drink in that cup. Keep in mind, I had already made this woman's drink incorrectly once, and I had clean hands, so this was my mindset:to keep going and get her drink out as quickly as possible. But she saw me, and I guess in her mind, I stuck my dirty hand all over the inside of her cup. When I called out her drink, she replied with "I'll take this drink for now, but next time don't stick your hand in my cup." Well, she didn't really have the nicest tone and she also said it in front of 10 people who were waiting...so what did i do? I took a 10 minute break and cried. I'm not perfect but I do try to do everything with excellence as much as I can. But guess what, I failed. After the brief flesh outbreak of wanting to scream at this woman about how mean she was, the Lord got ahold of me and prompted me to love this woman as He loves her. So I prayed about it a lot, but it was/still is hard, because she cut deep. But she came in again the other day, this time i was at the register. I am praying for her, that the Lord would change her heart as He changes my own.
On a different note, I do love my job! These were just two instances that stood out...I have so much fun loving on people, even if it's just for 30 seconds. I just wish I could love on them for a lot longer...Currently I'm working on figuring out what happens post-summer. I still have no idea:) but we're working on it. I am officially working at Kanakuk 2nd and 3rd term, which should be tight. I've learned and changed so much since I was last there 3 years ago, I'm excited to see how God will use it all. And get pumped. That's right. A&M's Pumpfest is this weekend and I'm competing! More on that post Saturday!

*All scenarios are not written out of bitterness or anger but in effort to share some of the things God is teaching me with examples!