[insert your life here]

last one for the night/morning...

From: "Chad Falkenberg" Save Address | Headers
To :
CC :
Date : Fri, 6 Jun 2003 10:51:32 -0700
Subject : Accepted!
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Congratulations!!! You are accepted to Study Abroad Lithuania (SALT) for Spring 2004!

We are excited that you will be part of this adventure. And we are confident that the relationships that you build in Lithuania will transform your life.

There are several details to work through before your plane lands in Vilnius on January 6th! Natalija Zacharova is the Associate Director of Study Abroad and she will be helping you every step of the way. Over the coming months you will be working on:

1. Getting a passport - do this soon since it takes a while
2. Booking flights
3. Selecting courses
4. Applying for a Lithuanian Student Visa
5. Purchasing medical insurance

Natalija will send you an email very soon that outlines exactly how to do all of these things. In the mean time, take a look at the handbook on our website.

Welcome!

Chad

Chad Falkenberg
Director, Study Abroad
Lithuania Christian College

www.lccbc.org/studyabroad

*.*.*

I think my heart skipped a beat! breathe... breathe...

AHH! I am SO excited!

posted by lalbe  # 2:15:00 a.m.

Travis, Mitchell, Ryan, and I did a crash tour of the wonderful Fremont after watching yet another AMAZING sunset from Gasworks with friends...

I have quite the odd habit of collecting odd things. Be it my thrift store photo collection or my random signs found by golf courses, a little bit of randomness sprinkled on the day will not only make your own day brighter but maybe others' because they can laugh at you and your idiocy

[insert picture here]

I found this computer in a trash can by a communist dictator...

[insert other picture here]

then I found chewed gum on the handle and put it back where I found it.

*.*.*

I wish we could've taken it to some high and lofty place and smashed it to bits... next time.. whenever we have The Great Seattle Monument Hunt. Fun times ahead...

(and something in some wirey place decided I don't get to post pictures here from Ryan's site... so GO there and see the whole show!)

the joys of odd "noises" that come together and make "weird" music.

A word spoken to me tonight: in brief form

I've been in that place where I've been holding on to somethings that have brought me down.

Don't wait to give those weights to God.. Let it be today!

How cool is God? He wants to give us joy; He wants to help us through. We need only to accept His hand.

let that be today

that makes me happy.

*.*.*

CRU barbeque today: Lots of fun in the sun! Several of the CRU skids got to share their testimonies and we all got to just serve our campus (and I can call it mine again because I am taking a class there this summer with my favorite Carly Bishop). I have been thinking about evangelism a lot lately mainly because God has been bringing it up more and more and making me hang out with e-crazy skids, and it has been SO good for me. Usually I don't feel like I can offer anyone anything in the form of gospel sharing but last night I prayed about it and today God gave me an opportunity.. not to really share the gospel but to encourage some fellow believers. I didn't even know either of them and actually was preparing to share some good news with one lady when she told me about some Bible studies she was involved in and then I told her CRU was putting on the barbeque and she was soo encouraged and her happiness encouraged me and God just works in rad ways!

Lauren, Ryan, and I had a great conversation about non-boyfriends/girlfriends. Good to know there are people out there who can relate and encourage eachother. God is extra good that way!

and tonight I attack the beast to rule them all: moving out of my pseudo bedroom into my next pseudo living space!

rock!

(old school salutations..)

what did he eat today?

I love starry nights.

We did worship night out at Picnic Point. God had a lot to say to me and I don't think He is quite done yet.

But that is not what I have come to write about. This is just an observation, but: doesn't everything seem taller on clear days? Perhaps it's the fact that the clouds aren't closing everything in, but I swear as I was driving home from work I looked up at the trees amidst which I live and they just seemed twice as tall as usual. Maybe I never look at them like I did today... they just seemed grander.

Tonight I looked up to the blue as the sun was slowly dipping behind a dark island... I couldn't see the top, it just went on forever. Then the sun dropped, the sky gradually darkened.. and I saw these:

I have been telling myself for days to just sit down and write. It's been weeks since I sat down to enjoy a poem or create my own and I miss it terribly. There have also come up subject after subject during the course of a day where I say to myself, "write this down so we can discuss it later," and promptly I ignore the impulse and move on. Do you ever feel like you are cheating yourself? Or robbing yourself of enjoying some gift that has been given to you? I guess that's nearly how I feel right now.

Pot holes: There was a time this past year when I took a gift for granted, not using it for its proper purpose. A middle-aged man was sitting in front of me in a junior high gym during the worship service of North Langley Vineyard. At the conclusion of the service we got ready to leave and he turned around and complemented me on my singing. I said thank you and have since never seen the man. His comment stuck with me and engrained deep in my head. I have a tendency to replay certain moments again and again in my head, and this was one that always came back to my head when I would sing. During times of worship I would listen to myself singing the words; I wasn't focusing on God or praising him with the words. I was disgusted with myself and my lack of focus. I knew something had to change in my heart because I was not using God's gift properly.. I was using it to fill a selfish hole in my own heart not to worship or bless my heavenly father. For some time I just didn't sing--but then I remembered a time in highschool when I stopped singing for wholy selfish reasons and I lost the gift alltogether. I had to build my voice back up--not singing was also the improper use of God's gift. So I prayed about it and asked God to change my heart: to make the sounds that ripple from my chords pleasing only to him, and that I would use them only to bring him honor and praise. And when I saught after his desires he filled that void I had tried to fill on my own. But it is like the pot hole at the head of 185th street: every so often someone comes along to fill the pot holes, and the corner his whole for sometime, but days and months of wear and tear and the pot holes resurface. Days and months of wear and tear and I fall on my knees again pleading for forgiveness, wholeness, and a broken spirit. And the pot holes are filled again.

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." 1 Peter 1:6-7

*.*.*

In other news: A praise! I am the official "landscaper" of a lovely Bellevue home with a view. I am quite excited for this job.

.*.*.

Daily Media Review
Media news highlights: Monday, 06/02/03

Further Media Consolidation is 'Probably Inevitable'
Despite last-minute protests, lawsuit threats and a doomsday op-ed piece by Ted Turner, the FCC today is expected to approve a dramatic deregulation of American media, said the Chicago Tribune.
FCC chairman Michael Powell said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that he has "no doubt" that the media ownership rule changes will go through on Monday, reported CNN.com.
Further consolidation "is probably inevitable," noted a Washington Post editorial Sunday, "and reflexive opposition might be tilting at windmills."
Republican FCC commissioner Kevin Martin is expected to provide the margin in a 3-2 vote along party lines, according to Bloomberg News.
In spite of all the controversy, the media-ownership debate "has really had the inevitability of a James Bond movie," said Blair Levin, a former FCC official and now analyst at Legg Mason, quoted by Bloomberg News. "You know from the start that 007 is going to get the girl." (continued...)