Talk Thursday // 5 Questions You've Never Been Asked

Like a car runs on gasoline, this blog runs on thievery. I'm not so creative, but I know how to read and listen. And I've been reading and listening over at Tyler Stanton's freaking hilarious blog. He makes me laugh; I want to make you laugh; so I thereby give you....

5 QUESTIONS YOU'VE NEVER BEEN ASKED, Talk Thursday ed. (done also in part by a ridiculous conversation between Jenna S & myself)

1. If you had to trade your face with any kitchen appliance, which one would it be?
(Things to consider: the noises your face would make, the fact that you'd have no eyes, and how often people would use your face in the process of making themselves something to eat that they couldn't share with you because you would also have no mouth)

2. What song would you choose to sing if you were required to sing it every time someone asked you how your day was going?
(Things to consider: your pastor asks you this question, your vocal range, the frequency of this question being asked in a day)

3. How often would you like to see Michael Bolton do the worm?
(Things to consider: really, there is nothing to consider. The only appropriate answer to this is "all the time!")

4. Which would you rather have stapled on your forehead: your thumb or my gym sock?
(Things to consider: swimming, first dates, the chance of being tickled)

5. If you had to lick some item in your room every time you passed by it, what would you choose to lick?
(Things to consider: the chances of you having to touch it, the chance that someone else will touch it, the looks you'll get from people who see this happen)




This has been 5 questions you've never been asked.....and probably never will again. =)
(Thanks to Tyler Stanton and Jenna S!!!)

Talk Friday // Passion

I like the beach.

I like ministry.

I like people who like the beach and ministry.

These things put together made for an excellent last few days. Our administrative coordinator/collegiate student minister invited me to accompany her to Cannon Beach for the Northwest Baptist Collegiate Ministry Conference. I'll be real: I was skeptical. I'm not a collegiate minister; I've never done collegiate ministry (SBU does not count); and I don't know anyone.

However, it was fabulous. The people were kind, they accepted me without any collegiate background and I made some wonderful connections, not just for myself, but also for our church and the community we serve.

And it got me to thinking: what was it that made these people come together? Why would they take three days out of their schedules to come to the beach and hang out? Ok, ok...that question just answered itself. =)

The answer to the first question, though, is PASSION. Those collegiate ministers had passion. Passion for their work, passion for their collegues, passion for their Lord, and a passion to do what they know they were called to do. Their passion for growing closer together as collegues, gleaning ideas for how to do their ministry better, and passion for how to help college students get to know Jesus better was evident the whole time.

So, what's your passion? Is there something in your life that you are deeply passionate about? That you would give up three days for? That you would change your life for? If there's not, there should be. I can't imagine living life without a purpose. And passions enable us to have purpose.

What's yours?

Summer Goals: UPDATE!

It has officially been summer in the Lewis/Halpin house for 2 full weeks. And I have added and completed several goals for myself and my summer.

So without further ado:

Sarah's Super Spectacular Summer Schema!

Veritas:
* Write training materials for the Orchard
(outline accomplished)
* Pre-write one month's worth of lessons for Orchard
(accomplished with 3 months to go because of her super awesome BFF Adina and the generosity of Central Baptist Church!)
* Inventory Orchard materials
* Create Orchard budget

Multnomah:
* Start Comprehensive Written Report for internship class
* Review Hebrew & Greek (likely closer to August)
* Read Genesis-Song of Solomon
* Translate Galatians
* Read ahead in textbooks (if possible)

Personal:
* Reorganize bookshelves (they are not in alpha order and it's driving me NUTS) (accomplished)* Finish The Coffeehouse Gospel, All-Star Missions Churches, Crazy Love and all the Dean Koontz books that have been sitting on my bookshelf for the last 3 months
* Go on a road trip (or several)
- Cannon Beach #1!!: 5/18-5/20
- Cannon Beach #2!!: 6/4-6/7
- Wyoming!!!: 7/21-7/25
* Go to the drive-in movie (accomplished: Iron Man 2)
* Go on a date (but not like the two blind dates from last summer...those were BAD!))
* Ride bike to Flaming Geyser & back (14 miles)
- Ride bike to SR-18/Auburn-Black Diamond by end of May (4 miles)
(accomplished 5/15)
- Ride bike to Mosby farms by end of May (6 miles)
* Get a tan
* Upload all pictures to Facebook
* Make Rachael’s graduation present
* Lose weight (it's an every summer ordeal)



You guys are keeping me accountable. And I appreciate that. =)

Homepage

I have two computers: my work computer (Jack) and my laptop (Alex). The default homepage for Jack is the GroupHealth Cooperative intranet page. I can't change it (try as I like) and I don't need the intranet for much. So when I want to get online I usually opt for opening the shortcut link to my iGoogle.

For those of you who don't know the gloriousness that is iGoogle, it contains the Gmail inbox, the weather, chat, news clips, the Google function and I even have a Tetrus game on mine. I love iGoogle. And I would love if Jack's homepage would be iGoogle instead of GHC.

*Segue!!*

Our church is going through a sermon series on the Fruits of the Spirit. We spent last night at our community group kind of recapping the last couple: kindness, goodness and faithfulness. After discussing the nuances of each of those, the main point became that all of these things boil down to love. You can't be kind without love; you can't be good without love; do you really want to have faith in something (or Someone) that you don't love?

The illustration was made that love should be our homepage. It should be what we default to. Once we're in the love 'homepage', we'll be able to "link" to anyone of those other fruits: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

However, for many of us, love doesn't seem to be our go-to; it's typically something else. We discussed Ephesians 4.31 that says, "Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice." One of these is more than likely what we default to.

I have to admit that mine is slander. When I'm frustrated, when I've lost control over something, when something doesn't go my way or I can't get what I want or I'm hurt, I default to slander. Whatever the situation, it's never my fault, something else made me drop the ball or caused me to be late or hurt my feelings or made me feel little. I want to deflect any responsibility and throw someone under the bus.

But what if rather than opening my homepage to slander, I opened it to love? How would that even look?

When I can't complete something on time, what if rather than complain, I worked to get it done more quickly?

When I lose control over some situation, what if rather than assume the other person has it out for me, I find something else to do?

When I get my feelings hurt, what if rather than talk bad about them to others, I stop right then and pray for them?

I think it might look like love. Like the love of Christ coming out in my life. And helping others to see Him more clearly in me.

I can't change the default setting on my work computer. It's always going to be GHC. However, I've gone straight to my shortcut enough that I rarely open the Internet Explorer icon. It's muscle memory. And I think if we do it enough, if we practice it enough, we can make our default settings remember love, rather than what we'd rather go to, be it anger or malice or bitterness or self-pity or judgmentalism or whatever.

iGoogle is awesome.

Love is awesomer.

Talk Thursday // Love Languages

Unless you've spent the last 8 years living under a rock in the Mojave, you've likely heard of Gary Chapman's book The 5 Love Languages. I personally have never read it, but more times than I care to count, I have been asked to take quizzes, answer questionnaires, and engage in EXTRAORDINARILY long conversations to determine my love language and how those love languages interact with other peoples. It's like signs of the zodiac for Christian love.

And while, yes, I feel like it's a little cheesy, knowing other people's love languages has really helped.

When my BFF and I were living together in college, we struggled for a long time to understand each other because she didn't want to cuddle and I was never home. She was (and I'm fairly sure still is (you can clarify if I'm wrong, 'Dino)) quality time and acts of service. Once we finally vocalized those things, it enabled us to figure out a way to satisfy one another's "love tanks" as it were (hey, I didn't make it up, I just took it from Gary). We didn't always work towards loving one another in the way that we should have, but at least we couldn't say we were ignorant about them.

So anyway, this week's Talk Thursday is pretty simple:

What's your love language? Is how you receive love also the same way as you give love?

PS, the options are:
* Gifts
* Quality Time
* Physical Touch
* Acts of Service
* Words of Affirmation

Alrighty Sports Fans!

Well, I bought my first set of Discs yesterday. No no...not compact discs or clay discs...Disc Golfing Discs. I've officially joined the ranks of those who would rather spend their sunny afternoon tramping through a forest so laced with the scent of marijuana you get a contact high from a tree rather than those who would rather spend their sunny afternoons getting a tan in the backyard. I'm not sure yet how I feel about that...contact highs or melanoma....


Anyway, I bought 3 discs - a Fairway Driver (Leopard), a Mid-Range (Shark!!!), and a Putter. I'll be real with you fine folks: I'm not good, but I'm FAR from terrible. So there's hope yet.


Jon Acuff says that Disc Golf (or Frisbee Golf) is God's favorite sport. Which would make a lot of sense since it was played all over our small Southern Baptist college campus. Or not a lot of sense....? But everyone in our church plays. And we're only Southern Baptist by affiliation, not practice. Maybe Frisbee Golf isn't God's favorite sport, but rather it was Dwight L Moody's? (I know I get those two confused sometimes too.) =)





So let me ask: do ya'll play disc golf? Do you even care about disc golf? Are you going to slap me in the face for interchanging the words Frisbee and Disc?





Happy Spring, kids!

Talk Thursday // Summer Planning

Since Monday I've been contemplating what my summer will look like and how I will try and spend almost four months of not being in class (wooooohooooooo!)

Well, I've devised myself a little "to-do" list for the summer and I'm going to share it with you. =)

1. Ride bike to Flaming Geyser & back (this will require building up stamina)

2. Reorganize bookshelves (they are not in alpha order and it's driving me NUTS)

3. Finish The Coffeehouse Gospel & All-Star Missions Churches

4. Go on a road trip (or several)

5. Start Comprehensive Written Report for internship class

6. Write training materials for the Orchard

7. Pre-write one month's worth of lessons for Orchard

8. Go to the drive-in movie

9. Review Hebrew & Greek (likely closer to August)

10. Get a tan

(Bonus #11: Go on a date (but not like the two blind dates from last summer...those were BAD!))

I'm excited about this summer.

So I'm asking: what are your plans for the summer? What do you normally do? What do you want to do? And when are you going to come visit me? =)

Cinco de Mayo

¡Hola amigos! ¡Cinco feliz de Mayo! Espero que sea todo bien y disfrutar de este el miércoles encantador. Celebraré este Día mexicano de Independencia trabajando. Sin embargo, cuando el reloj golpea cinco, disfrutaré de pastillas, salsa y un chimichanga. Porque cocina mexicana es ya mi favorito, yo utilizaré simplemente este día como un día para comerlo y beber un Strongbow. Si tengo suerte, yo también miraré "El Tres Amigos".

¿Qué es sus planes para este Cinco de Mayo?

(If you can translate this, you get a Cinco de Mayo prize!)

School is out and there's kind of a buzz....

Oh Fresh Prince, truer words have never been spoken.

As of 12.05 pm today, I am officially on summer break. No classes, no homework, no weekly commute to Portland - I'm free!!

What will I do with all my free time?! And by free time, I mean those few hours in my day that will no longer be property of Multnomah professors, but are disconnected from GroupHealth and Veritas Church children's ministry.

For now, I'm going to stay up late, watch TV and not read anything that isn't strictly fiction or someone else's blog.

And can anyone tell me how to get the weather to cooperate with the current season? This is more than a little ridiculous up in WA.

Summa' summa' summa' time....time to sit back and unwind...