Recap

Wowe woo wow! I have only written once this Quarter!

We had our last Core for the year this past week. It was pretty crazy. We drove to the top of a mountain overlooking Bellingham Bay and the San Juan Islands. It was pretty sweet until it started to rain. It was still pretty epic and this year has been great.
Here is The Nash Hard-Core Core on the top f the Oyster Dome Overlook. (its missing me and one other guy) Eating dinner in the dinning Hall.

This quarter has been so fun, skiing at Baker, hiking the Oyster Dome, school, Core, pranking and being pranked, Baseball games in Seattle at Safeco Field, tour of the Lower Baker dam with Prof. Harris and the Electronics class, learning to weld, building electric cars, working for Habitat for Humanity, doing crazy competitions in our house.
All in all, this quarter has been a blast and God has been so present and real.

This Summer, by Gods provision, I am going to be taking a Project Operations Management class here at WWU and working with a Machine shop (Pro CNC). I will be around most the summer so if you are in the area, please swing by for a few days. The North Star (the house I live in) is always open and we always have a few available couches.

Spring Quarter 2010

I must apologize for my long period of silence on this blog. Spring quarter was starting so I was still trying to figure out my schedule for the quarter which is pretty much nailed down now. I am incredibly busy with 17 credits, 3 core engineering classes and 1 math class. On top of that is leading a core and activities with the NorthStar (my house). 

Also over Spring Break I went on an SSI trip (Student Spring Impact). A short term, week long mission trip to the University of Montana. It was incredible and trying to process everything that happened, all the different ways I was challenged and changed on top of starting a new quarter, has kind of overloaded me. All this to say that the last 2.5 weeks has been some of the busiest of my time here at Western. 

Even though it has been busy it has been some of the best as well. Having so little time has made it easier to see God's provision in my life. God has been providing me with just enough time to get everything done and enough energy to do it all. I feel like I have been on a three week high with God and it is so hard to describe how incredible it is. Nothing has been able to keep me down and I see God's hand all over my life and the joy from that surpasses all else. 

I have or will be posting pictures from ssi on here soon. Enjoy.

Canada Zipper

James Tomilinson, Chris King, Tori Swanson, Saylah Leu and I went up to Vancouver B.C. this past Sunday. The Para-olympics were going on but it was much less crowded. They have a free zip-line in the Olympic village that is about 3 stories up in the air and goes about a city block crossing a street, public ice rink and concert stage. The line was super long but we waited anyway and had a once in a lifetime experience!

CCF Winter Olympics

Two weeks ago was the first ever CCF Olympics, in honor of the real olympics just 2 hours north of us. 

Friday night after our service, everyone paraded down to the REC center to compete in various activities from dodgeball to capture the flag and a giant relay race at the end. Teams or "countries" were broken up by region so Nash was its own country. We were the Nash Ninjas and we wore all black (obviously). It was a blast and I lost my voice from all the yelling and cheering. 

(picture is of our Nash community. [Nash is the dorm that I lead a core in] There are 2 guys cores and 2 girls cores)

SSI

Many of you may have received letters in the mail in the last couple of days. For those who didn't receive those letters I will give a rough overview of what they contained.
This spring break I am going on a short term mission trip with the Christian group I am apart of up here at WWU. I am going with about 15 other people to the University of Montana, Missoula where we will be doing campus outreach and supporting the ministry team over there. I am quite excited as well as some what nervous as I haven't ever done a mission trip before. We will be leaving the weekend after final exams (March 20th) and driving to Montana where we will stay until the 27th. Then I get back to Bellingham and Spring quarter classes start Monday the 29th! :(
(speaking of classes, I have to still figure out what I am taking next quarter...I register this Thursday!)

So anyway this mission trip or SSI (student spring impact) trip is happening and our team has started to prepare. Many of the team members are very uncomfortable talking to strangers about Jesus and so there is a lot of encouragement in being bold in speaking about Him that is needed.
I am very excited for this trip and what God will do on it. Please be praying for me on this trip and in the time leading up to it. Prayer for myself and my team that we would be bold and seek Gods voice and for the campus that God would prepare the hearts of those he would like us to minister to. Also please be praying for me that I can raise enough support to fund this trip.
Thank you for your prayers and support (ahead of time) and I hope your February is going well.

I promise I will take pictures and post them here.

Rain

Such a strange winter. February has been blessed with early sun and lots of it. The warm weather and sunny days has brought spring early, or so the plants seem to think but Bellingham is a tricky place. The rain started again yesterday, and it came down with a vengeance. Water started falling from the sky about 2pm yesterday and by the time I got out of my Business law class at 6pm the water was falling in sheets. It was a down pour. With drains unable to handle the water, areas on campus and roadways began to flood. Not anything very serious but when you leave the house in the morning without planning for that weather it is severe.

I had left that morning with my windbreaker (no hood) and my trusty Razor Scooter. Now image getting out of class and you have no hood, jeans and a scooter that has 3 in wheels. I felt like I was fording the Columbia! By the time I got home I was wet, soaked, drenched. My clothes were 10 lbs heavier.

Bellingham, you have tricked me once this year, I will not be tricked again.

Goals

As you may have seen, writings on this blog have been few and far between these last few months and so I asked myself the reason. There seems to be a lack of interest in writing but more importantly it is a weakness I have. I am not very good and maintaining friendships with people I don't normally hang out with. That basically means I don't call friends who are not in the same area as I am. Sad...I know. Thus I have come up with an easy 4 goal system to remedy the situation.

Goal #1:

Be more consistent at maintaining contact with people who I don't interact with regularly.

Goal #2:

Stay in contact with friends from back home.

Goal #3:

Talk to friends and family who are not in Bellingham on a more consistent basis.

Goal #4:

Encourage other people to help me in the previous 3 goals by having them email and call me...(hint)

By following this simple four goal system I will achieve what I lack. And if you call now you could win a free poster with the 4 goal system all for your own. ;)

Okay, so I should really get going with the rest of this beautiful Friday. Sunny and warm and only 3 afternoon classes. Hope your day is going well and may the Lord bless you.

Silver Star

Wow okay...so I have not posted on this in...well a long time. I will not make excuses, just say that the desire to write here has not been strong enough to overcome the other things. Anyhow I have decided to write now but I am not going to become overwhelmed with trying to tell everything I have been doing.
Quick recap, school started this quarter. Its going well although the computer programing class is very difficult. Otherwise classes are going well. Taking engineering electronics, pc programing, business law and moral philosophy.
I'm leading a core in Nash with Will Peterson. It is really enjoyable and rewarding. It also makes me very busy.
Living in the North Star is also going well. I could say pages on the living situation but I don't feel like writing about it now so...I am really enjoying it.

This last weekend was Valentines day and Bryce Mitchell and I went on our second annual Valentine weekend ski trip. We went with two others, Britney Wight and Dan Hancock to Silver Star Canada. It was pretty sweet. There were a ton of Australians there. I skied Saturday but only part of Sunday do to my knee hurting pretty bad.
I would upload a bunch of pictures but I am on a school pc so I don't have them. Here is a link to my face book page where I have photos of the trip.



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=142586&id=649589526&l=cbd7acd20e



Enjoy

A Saturday at Mt Baker

The Mt Baker crew of Saturday December 5th, 2009.
From left to right, Ben, Trinh, Bryce, Andrea, Mark, Jhenya, Adrew, Britney, Daniel, Tatem, Jake, Levi and Alex. It was great to go with so many people. Even thought you went in smaller groups you were bound to run into other people you knew. It was a beautiful cold bluebird day. Jake and Mark on the lift #1

No shave Nov, my room and Thanksgiving

The End of No Shave November

Will Peterson and I now have our own desks and it so nice. You cant understand how unorganized your life feels without a desk until you try it while at school for 3 months.

Did quite a bit of bowling over thanksgiving break. Oh, and ate lots of pumpkin pie.

Cranberry sauce Bowl! 4 hours of soccer in the mud and rain!

Hard Core

The night started with heavy sleet, just above freezing temperatures and 14 Nash boys who were still wet behind the ears. The journey to manhood was a wet and cold one as those 14 boys prepared for the ordeal ahead of then. They crammed into two cars, 7 in each, 5 up front, two in the trunk and drove down to their destination. 8pm, Down on the boardwalk overlooking Bellingham bay they stripped down to their shorts. The freezing sleet and rain beat upon their unprotected bodies soaking them and rapidly lowering their body temperatures. They then clambered down the ramp to the edge of the dock and launched themselves into the bay. It was cold, very very cold. The temperature outside was about 36 F but that water felt even colder. The speed at which they were able to exit that water would stun even trained professionals and navy seals but then again it was cold and being cold has a way of motivating people in ways other things cannot. they shot out of the water, screaming and yelling at the top of their longs. The outside seemed warm compared to the water but then the brain freeze set in. They had never experienced such pain in their head before. It felt as if a vice made of both fire and ice were crushing their skulls between its jaws. As they hobbled back towards their clothes the ramp cut into their frozen feet causing some of them to begin to bleed. They made it back to their clothes and began to dry off. It was hard for them to move, their bodies were so frozen but now those boys are men and have shown their courage and strength. They can now call themselves a brotherhood.

After making it back to the cars they piled in and drove back to campus. Not to the dorms, no, that would be to simple, they drove to the rec center. They walked inside in soaking wet shorts and damp t-shirts while the rain poured and the wind howled outside. They went in and and went Hot Tubing! Oh yes, that is right, they lowered their chilled frozen bodies into that hot water and soaked, for a long time. It was a good night!

This is Nash Core, 2009-10 and this is what we do!
Nashites, the few, the Strong, the brave.

(sorry no pictures, to wet for cameras)

Wind

It has been incredibly windy these last 2 weeks. Winds gusting over 50 MPH with a steady wind of about 30MPH nonstop. We had class canceled last Wednesday do to power outages and a lot of windows got blown out on campus. Our house is still standing but I will need to go check the roof for tiles being blown off after it gets to be nicer weather. These photos were taken about 2 weeks ago, right before the wind started. It is now calm and gray outside.

Late!

Well, I dont have any great photos of what is happening up here but these were on my phone and they made me laugh. Jordan is epic in all his photos!

CCF Fall camps

Here are some picture from Fall camp. I have to wait for people to post them on face book so more may come. It was a great time and we had a blast. Our core dressed up as Nash Bachelors. We had newspapers, bath robes, v-neck tshirts and chest hair. ;)

We had the most people I have ever seen at fall camp. 284 people from campus! (I am front middle in a mustard colored sweatshirt, along with my core.)

Fast update

Looooooong Time
The idea of getting on and writing or updating this blog, or more importantly the action of getting on and doing it is getting harder and harder. Its not that I don't care but more that so much is going on and there are people around me all the time I don't have the desire or focus to write.
So here I am writing but I really don't know what to say. So much has happened there is no point in trying to catch up. But I'll try.

School is going great, not very time consuming this quarter, Core is amazing this year and is super fun, the house is wonderful and God is pouring out blessings upon us. Went to CCF Fall camp last weekend, it was a great bonding time, car wouldn't start on Sunday and so stranded at camp for 2 hours. Halfway through quarter, midterms went well. life is really busy but fulfilling.

Class in 10 min so I have to go. I am sorry about no pics. you can look on face book or wait until I can find my camera. Still haven't unpacked my stuff, still don't have mattress, still only have one desk between two guys. But, I do have a bathrobe now!

Mom and Dad have been a huge blessing and they were up this last weekend helping finish one of our bathrooms. It works great.

Okay, TTFN

They posted on facebook!

Here are some pictures from our start of the year kick off BBQ. We had over 200 people come!

My Camera is Missing

So I must say that having Jordan now at school and having his own blog is good competition. I am definitely loosing as of now due to his prolific writing and posting of pictures. But, in my own defense I am still not unpacked and am living without any of my normal things unpacked. I have clothes set up and I have deodorant out but that's about it. All my supplies are still in boxes and my toiletries kit is stuffed away somewhere. I am having to use other peoples shampoo and sneak their q-tips, if and and when I get around to showering (not often). Anyway, all this to say that I don't know where my camera is. It is either still packed up somewhere or I left if at home on accident. So that is my excuse for not a lot of pics. I have to wait for other people to post them on face book. Anyway, i do have some pics from my phone, so here you go...
House initiations! You had to drop down to get an apple but only standing on one foot. Much harder than you think.

Walking home Friday night after CCF, found a box...boxes are fun...

My stylish father

Dinner this last Monday, enchiladas and Mexican rice. I am eating better at the house than I have in the last 5 years of my life. Well, mon-thurs dinners that is...

First Friday of the year. Campus Christian Fellowship (CCF) it was packed!

Some picture of our house.

Dinning room and kitchen, Half of the living room and our house emblem, at least for now. We are called the North Star.

School is starting!

Wednesday, the first day of classes for the 2009-10 school year. This quarter my classes are entirely engineering, except for a badminton class. I just looked tonight to see if I have classes tomorrow and to find out where they are. I have spent no time prepping for school. No books, no prep, I haven't even opened my school supplies up yet. All this to say that as an upperclassmen I am not prepared. Or maybe its just that I understand how things work and figure that I can just do it later. The real reason is that I have not had time. I have been going non stop doing work on our house, setting up things and doing core stuff. Well, since I haven't unpacked, I don't have my camera and I am missing quite a bit of other stuff so I cant post any pics. Ill try to get something up soon.