Church searching

I've been looking for a church home here in Atlanta for about 3 weeks now, and I still feel the need to keep searching. The first one wasn't welcoming; beautiful building, decent sermon, but not welcoming. The second one was good worship, decent teaching, and somewhat welcoming, but the church body was quite large (to the point where 2 long-time members just met for the first time that morning. Not a great sign). Today was a church planted by a campus church at Penn. It was a nice service, but again not welcoming. I think this time it was because it was mostly students. As a student I too wasn't so concerned about newcomers, I suppose, or didn't know how to handle them. I did recognize some people from Penn, but I don't think they recognized me. I might still try the latter two churches again, but I'm not sure.

I suppose I'm really looking for something smaller with a good community. Maybe I've been spoiled by my last few churches - I'm really missing the ones in Savannah and Lansdale right now. But I would really like to have a church family to be a part of for the next few years. Dealing with the transition is of course much harder without that community around me, and it's a bit discouraging. I don't know what plagues most churches that they don't reach out to new people. Maybe it's complacency and self-focus, as plagues me too. I just wish that it wasn't there.

So yes, if you could keep in prayer my search for a church home and family, I would appreciate it very much. For me to listen to God when He says "stay" and "go" with different churches. And openness to His leading.

revoir et prevoir

I realize it's been a while, so I'll fill in on a few things that have happened over the past month. It will also be a while till I post again, because I'll be living in the woods for the next 2 1/2 months. So, here we go:

- I got to see Stars of the Lid play on Penn's campus a few weeks ago. It was amazing, transcendent, meta-music. I'd say to listen to them - which you should - but it's not nearly as transfixing as being surrounded by the music and the projection.

- I saw the movie "Expelled". Decent movie, a little concerning for me when I look at the state of scientific close-mindedness. It's largely true, from my experience, although it is a bit slanted towards being propaganda. All about how science is now closed to intelligent design, and the breakdown of intellectual freedom. It's interesting to me to see academia in the position of control and oppression - the same role the church used to have over science.

- I finished my SCUBA certification - wuhoooooooooooooooo! I also saw a hydra and either a baby snail or arthropod or something (I was supposed to be doing a skill and couldn't full investigate) during my training :D. I'm doing the advanced training in August.

- I'm working at my old summer camp again this summer. I'm going to be the staff-in-training leader (high schoolers come for 2 weeks and are semi-staff, I help lead them). I'm really looking forward to being immersed in wilderness and Christian community again. Pray for wisdom & care to be poured into me by God to be poured back out on these kids & my fellow staff.

- I'm moving to Atlanta right after camp!

le printemps

Spring has been beautiful this year. Maybe I'm not used to seeing it on such a grand scale anymore, as I was in GA last year and in the city the 4 years before that. Maybe this is the first midatlantic spring I've gotten to see since I've known God and His fingerprints. It's just amazing to see everything coming back to life after a long winter, and so refreshing to get out in the sunshine again after the cold and the rain. Spring is glorious, in the true sense of the word: give-God-the-glory-ous.

I recently finished reading "Searching for God Knows What" by Donald Miller. What I appreciated most about that book was the author's emphasis on God's passion for a relationship with us, and that it's real - not just something to make us feel better. It's hard to explain, but it does make relationship with God far more tangible and important, and less formulaic.

One last thing, I've been listening this week to Lifehouse, and find a crazy amount of hope in this song, particularly with a still-hazy future in Atlanta:

How long have I been in this storm,
so overwhelmed by the ocean's shapeless form?
Water's getting harder to tread
with these waves crashing over my head.

If I could just see You,
everything would be alright.
If I'd see You,
this darkness would turn to light.

And I will walk on water,
And You will catch me if I fall.
And I will get lost into Your eyes,
and everything will be alright.
and everything will be alright.

I know you didn't bring me out here to drown,
So why am I ten feet under and upside down?
Barely surviving has become my purpose
'cause I'm so used to living underneath the surface.

If I could just see You,
everything would be alright.
If I see You,
this darkness will turn to light.

And I will walk on water,
And You will catch me if I fall.
and I will get lost into Your eyes,
and everything will be alright.

drumroll please....

..........

it's official!

I will be headed to Atlanta to study sea slugs at Georgia Tech for my PhD starting in August!

WOOOOOOO!!!!

If you're in the Philly area, I'd love to hang out before May 30 (since I'll be at camp this summer).

Regardless of where you are, you should come visit me in Atlanta (just take a really long layover because we all know that you've got a good chance of flying through there no matter where you go in this country) - once I get there of course.

It still seems unreal - I ACTUALLY get to do this! I'm ACTUALLY going to grad school! I'm ACTUALLY going to study my slugs! Wild!

I'm very excited to see all my friends in GA though, and settle down, and make some new friends, be in a new church, and live in a new place where I can live for more than 6 months. Oh, and go square dancing again. And regain my drawl. And wear Phillies, Eagles, and Flyers jerseys with the added bonus of being "that irritating Philly fan" in a mildly antagonistic city. Oh, and I'm glad I'm not moving to Dallas.

I'm excited to see what God's got for these next 5-6 years in Atlanta.

future stuff

Summer plans:
SIT leader at Spruce Lake Wilderness Camp (where I counseled for 3 summers).

Grad school:
Turned down by: William & Mary, Univ. of Calif. Davis
Likely to be turned down by: UNC-Wilmington and Univ. New Hampshire
Waiting to hear from: Georgia Tech & Univ. of Georgia

In a horrid mental/emotional/spiritual mess over:
guidance, life direction, and goals/identity at cross-purposes to where my life is currently headed (which may be nowhere if grad school doesn't work out). feeling like Jonah because I either don't hear or don't listen to directions and/or God keeps changing his mind. And fish guts smell bad. hating that i have to be "strong" and "functional" and "composed" in interactions with, well, everyone, due to societal compulsion to have a facade of wholeness and contentedness no matter what's going on.

jaw-dropping amazing excitement !

.




I found the sea slugs at work today.




!!!!!!!!!

Escapades at work

My new job has been going pretty well. Although I'm primarily kept in the reptile department and haven't gotten much experience at all with fish, inverts, or aquarium set up yet, I'm still having fun. Handling snakes is way better than folding clothes. Working with hundreds of reptiles leads to some interesting happenings, though:

- I had 3 snakes snap at me one night. I was wearing gloves, so they couldn't have bit if they tried. I think they also realized that I was bigger than them so latching on wasn't a good idea. It was still interesting, though.

- A blue gliding tree frog leaped out of its cage onto my hand when I opened the door to the cage. The next night he latched onto the water bowl and stayed there while I took out, rinsed, and refilled, the bowl. Adventurous little guy.

- I got impaled by a large iguana's lovely claws my second night at work. Blood running down my arm and everything. To date that's actually my only injury, surprisingly.

- Last week I got bit by a caiman (nasty little alligator relative, worse temperament than gators). I was wearing gloves, so it didn't hurt, but I'm not eager to find out what that bite would feel like without gloves.

- Last night I lost a frog. I was supposed to move him from "inventory" to the show room and had to clean his cage first. Most frogs at work are slow, sedentary, and nocturnal - you open the cage and they don't go anywhere. Not so with this guy! (Actually, I think the throat was white, it may have been a girl). Anyway, so when I opened the lid to reach for the water dish, the frog shot out of the catch and leaped behind the freezer. Ohhh, boy. So, I moved the freezer a foot out from the wall, as far as it would go, sat on top of it, and started rummaging around in the random crud that had fallen behind it over the last year. Tried to catch the frog with a little net, numerous times, but unsuccessfully. After an hour of on-and-off looking, I eventualy gave up, cleaned up behind the freezer, and had pushed it back when: there's the frog, sitting in the middle of the floor. Surprisingly, he let me put a net over him, and I got him back into his cage. I put a different lid on it and a VERY heavy rock to keep him from getting out. It was quite the adventure!

Lots of other interesting and random things happen at work. Most people think I'm slightly crazy for it, but I think it's a fun place to work.