A New Beginning

So I've noticed that it's been a while since I last entered something in this blog thing. Between now and a month ago, many things have happened. We've had Christmas holiday, another New Year has come, time has been spent with friends, family, and loved ones, and now it's back to work, school, or whatever else it is that time is spent doing. It's crazy how quickly another year has come and gone, and how many things have happened over the course of it. I can't even hardly remember everything that I've been a part of or done this past year. There are some stand-out highlights however. In no particular order:

1) Having read Philip's blog, I was reminded of the amazing little show that the people at camp put on regarding bringing fire down from heaven, and lighting an altar that would show people the true God. In our rendition, however, God actually didn't show himself, because the fire only managed to light a small patch of grass about 15 feet from the altar. Read here, and look at the comments to get more of a view in to the show of power that never was.

2) Playing again with the guys from Harding at the frisbee tournament in Memphis at the start of the semester was probably one of the most fun activities that I was able to do. Having not played in a tournament for over a year at the time of that one, it was actually a lot of fun, and I still had a little bit of frisbee skill left in the tank. One of the best groups of guys that one could expect or hope to play and hang out with.

3) I took up playing soccer again this past year. Strange, since this was the first time in over 5 years that I played soccer. However, after the first few weeks of trying to get back in to playing and controlling a soccer ball, it got to be fun again. I even scored a few goals during the past year...

4) I completed my first year of graduate study. As of now, there's only about 6 months of graduate work left. That means I have to get my tail in gear and work hard on my thesis, and get in to the job market searching. Yay for growing up.

5) Thanks to Mandi, I attended a US Soccer game in the build-up to the ultimately dissapointing US campaign. I've always wanted to go to a game, and thanks to that gift I was able to go. Maybe one of these days when I manage to travel to Europe, I'll be able to attend a Champions League or European league game. All in all, however, a great experience.

Those are just a few of the stand-outs. There's so many other intangibles and small moments that I am no doubt forgetting. All-in-all, though, 2006 was a good year. Now to look forward to 2007.

In addition, if you guys could pray for Mandi, it would be much appreciated by her, myself, and her family I am sure. She left for Guatemala today, and will be down there for 10 weeks until March 20th. She is studying to improve her Spanish speaking ability, and will be working with some of the missionaries and other events and people down there.

I almost forgot...the word games return:

11) 100 C in a D
12) 12 M in a Y
13) 29 D in F in a L Y
14) 27 B in the N T
15) 13 L in a B D