Physical/Emotional
So here I am at yet another uneventful week as far as fitness is concerned. I think that I'm going to start stretching more. I felt super tense this last weekend, so maybe some stretching would be beneficial to me. I gave myself a little health scare a couple days ago, as I was in the library I was passing my hand over my chin and felt a small lump under my jaw. I asked one of my nursing friends what it was and she said that my gland was swollen. My mom is a nurse so I wasted no time in calling her to find out what could possibly be going on that my gland would be unusually larger. She told me that my gland is where the blood is filtered and that if it's swollen then it is infected. That definitely was not the news that I was looking to hear. But I thought I'd sleep it off and pray it got better all on its own, and it seems to be working as it is decreasing in size. I've recently been feeling very burdened, I am not sure why or what is causing this but as soon as I find out, hopefully I'll be able to share what I've found with you.
Academic
I've done it!!! I've taken my first quiz of the semester today. It was for my Principles of Marketing class and I feel really good about it. This morning around 8am I discovered that there was a online quiz I could take to prepare for class. Can I just say how helpful that was? Many of the questions on my in class quiz where worded very similarly to that of the online quiz. So I'm just waiting now to see my score, and I'm pretty confident I did well. But there's no time to dwell on that to long as I have to start studying for my Principles of Finance test which is Friday. My course load doesn't seem too bad just yet. I've rarely had any homework besides a couple of weekly practice logs to turn in for my piano and voice lesson, but hey can't complain about having to write a log, as there are worst things.

Social
I feel like this week has been a week of firsts for the semester. I just came off of tour with "Testament" the universities men's choir. We went five hours away to some place in Indiana, I'm not sure of our exact location which may or may not be a good thing. When we travel, we generally rent a coach bus for the weekend but do to a smaller choir this year we opted to use ONU Tiger buses. This would usually not be a completely bad thing since we could occupy our time by watching some movies that a few of the guys bring to watch on the DVD player on the bus. This particular bus did not however have a DVD player but instead had a VHS player!!! Craziness indeed! I surely wasn't thrilled with that reality. So I decided to hurry the trip a bit I'd go to sleep. After making two rest stops we had finally made it to our destination. Once unpacked and inside the church we had a very brief sound check. After that we where sent with our host family's. I roomed with my fellow Testi and friend Jerry. We had an awesome family! We stayed at their in-laws home as they where house sitting and because of the proximity to the church. We watched Rambo II and played a game of Mad Gab which was great fun. Jerry and I won but the family where great sports. We stayed up till about 2am just talking and snacking. We had a service at 8:30am & 11am Indiana time which is 7:30am & 10am central time, so it was rough getting up at that time of the morning and then to have to sing, that all equals bad news. So our first service was a bit rough vocally, but we definitely recovered at the second service. The congregation received us well and seemed to have been blessed by our being there to worship with them. I returned to school at about 7:30pm Sunday evening and I was put back into action quickly as I had to host my first over-night guest of the semester. He came in around 8-ish and what a bad time to come. I had just arrived from tour and I was so tired and it was a Sunday evening after all, so most people are either in their rooms or in the library doing homework. I did have homework to do so I thought I would let him see a little bit of the campus before his formal tour, so we went to the library. I felt kinda bad that he had to sit in the library while I studied, so I let him have my key to head back to my room for the night. I probably gave a poor presentation of ONU that night but you know you live and learn, and hopefully I'll never have such a crazy day like that again. This weekend I'll be traveling with "Proclamation" the gospel choir here at ONU. We're going to Anderson, IN. I look forward to telling about that experience soon.

Spiritual
To worship God with reckless abandon is my desire, to lead others into worship is my passion. I find there is no greater way to capture the heart of God than to surrender your all to Him in pure and sincere worship. What else can we offer to such an amazing God who sent His son to die so that we can live, but our sincere worship? It is my greatest desire that it can be said of me that I lived my life in constant worship to The Father in complete brokenness and submissiveness. Baruch ha ba b’shem Adonai...

'09

Physical/Emotional
So a new year has come and it's an opportunity to improve some things and an overall fresh start. Unfortunately fitness has yet to make its way to the top of my "get it done" list. I guess the cold weather isn't much of a motivator for me to get to the gym and work on my fitness. I would so much rather be in my room eating some cookies or something ahaha.
Academic
life. Last semester wasn't horrible by any means I just know that for myself I could have done so much better. I've done this inner search to find what I did last semester and purpose to do it totally different this semester, because to get results you've never had you must do something you've never done. I'm very hopeful that this will be a great semester for me. ThiIf there is an area thats in need of a fresh start it would definitely be the academic part of mys semester I'm enrolled for 18 credit hours which consist of Principles of Finance, Principles of Marketing, Western Civilization, Musicianship I, Class Piano, Private Voice, Men's Ensemble, and Field Placement. I'm thinking that this all will keep me fairly busy. I'm also working 15hrs a week along with the other activities that I engage in here at school. May God help me...

Social
Well coming off of a Christmas break there has been much happening socially. It was just really good to hang out and catch up with my cousins and friends from home. Christmas was awesome as usual being that I got to spend it with so many family members ranging from my grandmother and her siblings to their children and their children and even their children(ya wrap your mind around that). My last week of break was pretty uneventful in that all my family and friends started to head back to school and then to make everything sooo much better my family went to an indoor water park my last weekend home and because I couldn't go I was stuck home ALONE!!! So I was definitely ready to be back at school after experiencing complete boredom. So upon my return to school some ridiculous weather hit us, and I'm talking -32 with wind chill. This weather was very bitter sweet in that we as a campus where given two consecutive snow days due to the frigid weather, which is unheard of at Olivet. During our nice snow day break I was able to go sledding which I haven't been able to do in a while. But life is good and God is good.

Spiritual

The faithfulness of God never ceases to amaze me. This can become very cliché, but the longer I live the more I find this to be true. It has been my prayer that God would give me a complete spirit of brokenness and humbleness before Him. I have went into covenant with God vowing that in this year more than any time before I would press into worship and to truly let my life be a witness to those who have yet to find Him. I understand that any victory is not won overnight but there will be pain and sacrifice before the battle is won. Of one thing I am confident, I shall be the victor! May God help me as I continue in the quest to fulfill the Great Commission.