And to Russia We Go

Well, it's finally here. Tomorrow a group of us from UIS head to Russia for a two week mission trip. My bags are finally packed, and now I'm just sort of in limbo waiting. I've been stressing all this past week, but it's finally here. For the past couple months I've been going to a new church called Toronto Road Baptist Church. I think what I love most about it is my talks with the pastor. He's great pastor and it's awesome to have access to someone like that. He also pointed me in the direction of a few good books in the New Testament to read through before this trip. One was the book of James. It's just great foundational stuff that you can never read enough. I think my biggest fear right now is can I love these people enough. Being a stranger in a strange land will make it very easy for me to focus on myself, what I'm going through. However I want my focus to be on the people around me. I guess right now I'm just praying for a servant’s heart.

In other news, my parents are taking another trip down to Georgia to see my Mama. They'll be gone all next week. She's taken a turn for the worse and is in ICU with pneumonia. I honestly don't expect her to be living on this earth anymore when I get back. I am happy though for the time I got to see her in the hospital while on vacation and if she does go home to be with the Lord while I'm gone, I look forward to seeing her again in Heaven.

Its times like these I realize how much it really does suck to live in a fallen world. It's also times like these that I just want to scream "Come Lord Jesus Come!". But that day will come in its due course and until it does we have to keep fighting this underground resistance we are in.

I will see you all in 2 weeks, God bless!

Vacation: Part 2

Well, it's almost been a week since I got back and I'm finally getting to blogging the rest of my family vacation. We were in New Smyrna Beach, Florida for most of the first part of the week. Up until around Wednesday or so. Mostly it was just hanging out with family that lives around there and enjoying the condo and beach. The condo was really cool. It was fairly new with all the commodities of home. We also had access to an awesome fitness center. I was sore pretty much all week from that. But it didn't matter much because between the sauna, Jacuzzi, and pool I stayed pretty loose. We also had a view of the beach:

If you look close enough between the semi trailer and the condo on the right, you can see a small glimps of the ocean.

So it wasn't right on the beach, so I didn't get to wake up to the sound of the ocean, so I couldn't watch the beach during prime bikini hours... at least it was within walking distance.

My Grandpa sitting with my Mom and Dad.

We also went to my Uncle Greg's house one afternoon. He lives out in the country a little bit, where he has 2 horses, a couple dogs, etc.

My Dad petting one of my Uncle Greg's horses.

At one point my family set out to do some driving around New Smyrna Beach to see the sites. Naturally my sister and I got bored and made our own fun with my camera.

Finally, instead of posting a ton of pictures of the inside of our condo, I shot a short little video using my camera. It's not long (13.2 MB). Actually I had originally shot it to try and run down my batteries. Also, the guy in the kitchen with my mom is my Uncle Greg I mentioned earlier.

Vacation: Part 1

Howdy,

Just thought I would post a line for you all. More or less I'm a little stressed and bored. Currently I'm sitting in a Quality Inn in Savanna Georgia with a sub-standard "High Speed" internet connection. Alot of you are probably wondering why I'm here instead of in New Symirna Beach at a Condo. It's called adaptation to an ever degrading situation. My Mama (Grandma) has been sick for the past couple weeks and it looks like she's terminally ill with cancer. We got a few good days of vacation in earlier this week and I'll blog more on that when I get home. We are still flying home Sunday. Until then we'll be in Georgia spending time with my Mama in the hospital while we have the chance. If I can send out a request, could you all pray for me and my family. I'm stressed out and I know my mom is even more stressed than any of us as it's her mother. Thanks,

Hal