intomybrain

Finally took off my wristband from the Waveland trip tonight. I dont know why it took me so long. I just couldn’t do it.

The title of this post is a quote a heard the other day that struck my fancy. Although…in light of the past couple of days, it should really say…”Coffee often seduces me in the road to my bed!” This semester Jingy and I have a coffee maker in our room, and Starbucks House Blend coffee…it really is a beautiful thing…except for when I don’t actually want to be up as late as it keeps me.

I’ve been writing some more songs. I’ve been feeling really inspired through certain friends of mine. Some of them don’t know it, some do, but either way…God really knows how to speak through people! At this point you may be saying, “well, duh Andrea, He’s been doing it for quite a while now. Of course he’s good at it.” Yes, yes, I know…I’m a little slow to catch on sometimes.

The other day I used my copy of Google Earth to find all the places I saw while I was in Waveland, MS. It was difficult to find things since the images on GE were from before the hurricane hit that town. So most of the buildings that would normally be landmarks on a program like GE aren’t actually there any more, so I never saw them.

And lastly for tonight, I’ve been thinking about next semester already. This semester was rough/interesting because Dan no longer is a student here since he graduated. The good thing is that I still have Jingy and David around. But after this semester…they are both graduating, too…and well…I’m not. They’re my two closest friends I have left here. They aren’t my only friends here, but, as I just said, my last two close friends here in Newark. It’ll be weird without any of them. I’m going to need to start learning to find other ways to cope and other ways to make friends.

Speaking of college and semesters and whatnot (I know I said that my last point was my last point for this post…I guess I lied…), I don’t know what I’m doing in college any more. Or with my life for that matter. There are so many things that I want to do, and so many places that I want to go…now…not after college…now. But I know I need to trust God in where He leads me. And for right now, I’m in college, and that’s where He wants me. Maybe I’m just getting restless.

Traveling for fun, traveling for purpose, spending way more than a week in Waveland doing disaster relief stuff…it all is so much more intruiging to me than being where I am right now. But I guess that brings us back to the title of this post… Hmm…circles are fun…

So, today, someone, whom I’m sure Jesus loves very very much, backed his big, fat SUV into my lovely little nembat (a.k.a my car, for those of you who were probably confused). The damage isn’t that bad (at least I don’t think it’s that bad, I know nothing about cars so I could be wrong…I don’t think I’m wrong, but we’ll see I guess…), but it’s still damage.
But on second thought, considering I’ve lived in Newark for 3 years now and this is the first time my car has gotten damaged…statistically it’s not really all that bad.
I know, I think I’m crazy, too.
I wrote some more songs. I was having a bit of writers block for a long time, but since I’ve been back from Waveland, I’ve been feeling like it’s just been pouring out of me. I like it. Now, I just wish it would happen more often when I have access to a pen and paper and less often when I’m taking a shower.
Deuteronomy 10:21 has definitely been the verse of the week for me. I found it for the first time the day after I got back from Waveland, and ever since I’ve been putting it everywhere. Half of my emails have had it, it’s in the blog somewhere in a previous post, and David read it during the service on Saturday night.

Yeah, I love that song.
But anyway, today officially concludes my first week of this semester. Granted, it wasn’t a full week, but let’s not split hairs.
I’m just in a really good mood. I like smiling…I should really do it more often.

To be honest, I thought that this week was going to be really bad. Last week was so good, but there were some rough spots to say the least…and then in coming back home, I thought I was going to go through the whole “I feel like I’m rolling backwards down this big mountain that God and I just spent all week climbing.” But when it really comes down to it, I did nothing, God carried me the whole way, and there’s no reason why I should have ‘rolled backward.’
The new semester isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, for the first time since…well…ever…I think I’m actually going to enjoy most of my classes. Some will just be fun to be in, and in others I met new friends, and yet in others I think it’s just going to be fun to learn the topic…or at least attempt to!
So yes.
o o o…good song…

I saw the li-ii-iight, I saw the li-ii-iight.
No more darkness, no more night.
Now I’m so happy, no sorrow in sight.
Praise the Lord! I saw the light!
Yee ha!

So I tried to continue some of my song writing last night, because I haven’t really been putting time aside to do it lately and not as much was getting done in that area as I would have liked. So I tried writing something… and, well, my best response to how well it went would be, “not so much.”
So I fell asleep, woke up a couple of times, had a pretty restless night, and finally really got up at10 or so. Checked my email…took a shower…and lo and behold…I’m in the shower for like 5 seconds and all these ideas start flooding my brain like I’m never going to make it out of the shower (I did make it out safe and sound, btw, just in case you were wondering). So, long story short, I basically wrote a song in the shower this morning. And I’m quite happy with it. I mean, it’s not done, but I’m happy with it. Ok, and just in case you’ve never done it…writing a song in the shower is not an easy thing to do. You’re basically just thinking of things and putting them together in your brain and then trying to find ways to remember it all. It’s not like you can grab out a piece of paper from behind the shower curtain and start doodling all your ideas down with the handy sharpie pen you happen to keep next to your razor on the shelf. Ya know? I mean, I guess you could use the shower curtain itself and use the razor to ‘write’ down your ideas…but you can’t really make any mistakes or erase that way…and don’t slip because if you do that song could really hurt.
It’s still a work in progress…but isn’t everything?

Well, I’m back from Waveland, MS (< - btw, that's Mississippi, not Missouri....Missouri is MO...Montana is MT...Minnesota is MN...Michigan is MI. And just so they don't get left out, Maryland is MD, Massachusetts is MA, and Maine is ME)
It has taken me a couple of days to start writing this, I've had a lot to process and deal with since then.
It was such an amazing week! Just mind-blowingly (not a word) amazing.

I understand unconditional love ten times more now than I did a week ago. I've learned so much more about love; romantically, brotherly/sisterly, for enemies, for strangers, for myself...for all of His Creation. I used to think that I am not yet capable of knowing this love for people, and that most Christians are not only currently incapable of this same love but will not truly experience it until we reach the hand of our Saviour and Redeemer in Heaven. But this week proved me wrong. I already have the capacity to love this way; it already exists on this Earth. We have the capacity to love all, because Christ IS the capacity to love all.

And to think that a few days before I left for MS I almost decided not to go. As a matter of fact, the night before I left I almost backed out again. Now that I've experienced last week, at Camp Katrina, I can't imagine what my life would be like without it. Everything I've learned, everything God spoke to me while I was there, all the new friends I met and am growing to know more about, all the old friends I got to know better than before, the lives our group touched, the lives that touched our group, and every moment I was given to serve the friends that I love so dearly...none of it would have happened if I didn't go.

Eris, Laurie, Steve, Dan, David, Rachael: Isn't it amazing what God can do?

Thank you Eris for being our loving leader, without you none of this would have happened.
Thank you Laurie for being an inspiration. You're an amazing woman and I'm so glad I got to know you more.
Thank you Steve for letting us get to know you better. You can no longer call yourself 'the new guy.'
Thank you Dan for being supportive to everyone you of us no matter how you felt and for caring about me even though I'm an idiot.
Thank you David for being such a good friend and brother in Christ and for leading us all so humbly in worship.
Thank you Rachael for being my sister. I've got your back, and I know you have mine.

"He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen. " Deuteronomy 10:21

So...when can I go back?

I'll post again soon with more about my journey to the Land of the Wave, but for now, this is what has been on my mind.
Check out our group's pictures here.

Well, hello everyone. This is my blog for now. A new design and more to come soon.