As of yesterday afternoon, mine and Cat's ENTIRE trip is paid for!!!  And our team as a whole is a little under $4,000 short - which is still a lot of money, but considering that we started out with a total of $35,000 to raise, it seems comparitively small.  Thank you so very much to those of you who gave, and I would also like to thank God for putting it on the hearts of people to give (literally) thousands of dollars anonymously.  May each donor be blessed by Heaven for their giving.

Sunday July 15th at 8am we will board a plane at DFW for Thailand!  We will be gone for 3 1/2 weeks telling people about the love of God and building relationships with Thai university students by teaching them English.

Please pray for us.  This trip will have its difficulties and I believe that God wants His children to ask for His involvement in their lives.  Please, please pray for this trip.

Honest - I tried to log on a couple of days ago but Xanga wouldn't let me.  I was hacked!

Today it decided to be nice.

THAILAND

Cat and I are going on a mission trip to Thailand this summer!  Neither of us have ever been to Asia before, so we're pretty excited.  The trip will mostly consist of us being in Hat Yai (southern Thailand) and another city closeby working with university students in English classes.  There may be the possibility to do ministry with prostitutes in Bangkok, but that is kind of up in the air for right now.  It will cost $5,000 for the both of us to be able to go.  If you would like to help send us, please leave me a message (feedback) and I will contact you.

IN OTHER NEWS...
Cat is only 8 days away from being on her first summer vacation as a 4th grade teacher, and I am in the process of getting finished with everything from my Mentorship.

An update...finally

 HAPPY EASTER!!!

I've got to get better about updating.  Feel free to let me know when an update is due - I seem to be lacking in this area.

ALLERGIC REACTIONS

So, just over a week ago we went to Rodgers, TX to visit our friends Michael and Ashley.  They live out in the "country" and we try to visit or have them visit us on a somewhat regular basis.  Michael and Ashley got a new dog and I played with it a lot (puppies are a weakness for me - so cute and easy to throw around!).

The next day, Palm Sunday, I felt a little weird and noticed that I was beginning to have some dots form on my wrists.  I took some Benadryl, went to church and felt fine.  That evening, the "dots" began to turn more into hives.  This isn't a picture of my arm, but it accurately describes what my arms, legs, chest, and feet looked like for the next couple of days.  The weirdest thing is that the hives would "travel", meaning rarely would they be in the same place for more than a couple of hours.  I went to the doctor and they gave me medicine that I just finished taking today - we shall see if the traveling hives reappear.

I'm not normally allergic to things.  Maybe it was the fresh air, maybe the puppy got into to something, maybe there was a lot of pollen in the air...who knows?  If the hives come back then my doctor is going to send me to an allergist to have me tested for specific allergins.  I just want to not have to deal with this any more.

JUAREZ PHOTOS:
To see pictures from our trip to Juarez, click on these two links - it's hours and hours of fun!!!

http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2094394&l=2d624&id=9211928

http://baylor.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2094420&l=ade7e&id=9211928

Currently Reading Financial Peace Revisited By Dave Ramsey see related

  So, the internship has been going quite well.

Here's my desk

Here's what I look like on a regular basis when I'm at the church

My desk is in the senior pastor's office (because there wasn't any space in the rest of the building), but I'm usually in the computer room researching, emailing different ministries about stuff, and meeting other people who are working on different projects in the computer room.  The rest of my time is spent in meetings - all kinds of meetings.  I think my favorite meeting is the all staff meeting every other Tuesday...it isn't like a typical staff meeting.  Recently I've started meeting with the individual associate pastors about what their ministries consist of and why they are in church ministry, etc...and that's pretty cool, too.

I had a picture of my "make-shift" name plate...but that one didn't turn out too well...shucks.

Next week Cat and I are going to Juarez, Mexico on a mission trip with our church.  All of the money has come in (thank you soooo much to those who contributed) and we will be headed out this Saturday!  Arribba!  Arribba!

Oh my, has it really been that long?

MENTORSHIP

Well, my mentorship is going pretty well.  I've been sitting in on meetings, taking notes, picking up food for the office, working on a prayer book, researching stuff for sermons and reading, reading, reading.  In fact, I'm fairly busy.  Part of that is this weekend's upcoming event: World Mandate '07.  World Mandate is our church's student missions conference, and it's pretty huge.  In the next couple of days I will find out if I will be doing anything during the actual conference as a member of the production team, or if I'll just be a regular person attending the conference.

Alright - that's all the time I have right now.  Perhaps next week?