I'm more excited about Micah's graduation than I was about mine

Last night Joy and I went to a banquet for the seniors. Micah got a bunch of cool awards. The art teacher really likes him so he got a whole bag of art stuff. If you've been to his site you can tell he's a good artist. This morning I went to his graduation rehersal, since I'm going to be handing his diploma to him tonight. It's all so exciting.

I really like Real Live Preacher. Check out this article.

Road Trip

Joy and I drove through the night and came to this wonderful town in Colorado. We made it in 13 hours. Then we took some nice naps. Looks like we're gonna be pretty busy with all my little brother's graduation stuff. I'll post when I can. I'm so tired.

The Past Few Days

At work, many people have been coming back after taking a leave of absence. One such person is “John the Baptist.” I have heard a lot about him from other people. They say that he is very dogmatic, if you don’t believe the same as him, then you’re wrong. They say that he is condescending. I haven’t had a lot of interaction with him, but I don’t think he’s that bad. People said he tries to start theological arguments with people, but he hasn’t started any with me though I almost wish he would. I would rather not hear what other people have to say about John. I want to get to know him myself. What I do know about him is that he attends a small christian college, the name of which I do not remember. He tries really hard to push the products that we are supposed to be pushing. “We have these cookies on sale for 99 cents. You should buy at least one.” He is a preacher, not a pastor. He made a big deal about it when I was in the service office. He’s taking Hebrew. When he mentioned that, my manager told him that I know Hebrew. I hadn’t told the manager that, I figured Ben must have told him, but he said he was just saying that and didn’t actually know that I knew Hebrew (did you follow that?). So anyways, John asked me if I knew what my name means in Hebrew. I told him it means “the LORD saves.” He asked me the same question several times in various ways, I tried to give him the answer he wanted giving him the answers Yehoshua, Yeshua, Yaweh saves, Jehovah saves. Then he asked me what my name is in Greek. (He doesn’t know that I also know some Greek). And I finally figured out what he was wanting me to say, and I decided to make it difficult. I said Iesous. Then he said, “Now say it in English.” Then I said, “Joshua” (hehe) pause... “or Jesus.” There ya go. He just wanted to hear me say that Joshua is the same as Jesus.

The other night I got an extra roommate. Jacob is from Kansas/Oklahoma. He’s interning at a Spanish radio station down here. Ben’s been out of town for two weeks. It’s kind of nice having someone else in the apartment, especially at night. Jacob’s cool. We went driving the other night so that he could find his way to church and work. We took a detour through Dallas. And he was just flabbergasted at the big ole buildings. He was like a little country boy in the big city (I guess he pretty much actually was).

Last night I saw Lemminy Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was one of those that I kind of liked but kind of didn’t. It was sort of what I expected. I like the style, but the story could have been better. It seems like they tried to pack too much in, but left a lot out. Okay, enough of my critique of a little kid’s movie.

Wednesday night I leave for Colorado for my li’l brother’s graduation!

Catch Up

I was going to post friday, but Blogger was down for the 45 minutes that I was on the net that day.

I've been listening to early Beatles. Great stuff.

Sunday my fellow torah people and I celebrated Shavuot (The Feast of Weeks/ Aka Pentecost). We had fajitas and stuff. It was fun times. So on Shavuot, Jews commemorate the giving of the Torah. As believers in Messiah, we rejoice in the Torah as well as in the great things LORD did by his spirit after Messiah's resurrection. Shavuot has all kinds of meaning for the past and the future, but I'm not going to go into that right now, but Shavuot is the completion of what was begun at Passover. The two feasts are linked in many ways. Passover is celebrates our freedom from slavery to the world. Shavuot celebrates our freedom in slavery to LORD.

You know about the manifestations in Acts 2. Exodus 20:18 says the people saw the thunderings and lightning and trumpet and smoke. Nearly everywhere else the word for thunderings is translated as voices. Nearly everywhere else the word for lightnings is translated as torches. The Rabbis have a teaching (that goes back who knows how long) that "voices" plural means that God spoke in the 70 languages (tongues) of the 70 nations of the world. 70 is just the number they use, but the point is that they taught that God gave the Torah in every single language, so we can assume that the Torah is for everybody. Because of the word "torches" and the fact that the verse says the people saw voices, the Rabbis say that God's voice broke into sparks or tongues of fire that rested on the head of each person at Mt. Sinai. I just think it's interesting how the rabbis' description of the first shavuot and the apostles' experience at the first shavuot after messiah's ascension parallel.

Onto a different subject. My car got broken into on sunday night. When I left for work monday morning I found that a little window on the back door had been broken out and my stuff was thrown around, but nothing was taken. this morning i saw that my door lock had been messed with a big rectangle's knocked out. But I'm OK. It'll be alright.

A Whole New World (not really)

I'm in my new apartment. I have been for a few days now. I found this really cool library surrounded by a nice big park about 10 minutes from the apartment. It almost feels like home. So I'm at the library. My next big feat will be to check out the laundry room at the apartment complex.

Graduation on Friday went well. It was surprizingly exciting walking accross the stage and getting my diploma. I was a zombie through the whole day because I was on Benedryl so that I wouldn't sneeze through the entire ceremony. Some of my family came down to see me graduate. We all had dinner at my apartment afterwards. The ceremony was just at the wrong time. If we had eaten before, it would have been lunch. By the time we ate it was 9 pm.

I went grocery shopping this week. I spent way too much money. I'm the only one in the apartment for a while since Ben is back home with his family for the week.

Unpacking is crazy. I have so much junk.

Moving Day

I got the key to my apartment this morning and started moving in. I have my very own bathroom. After days of wetness the sun came out this afternoon. I went to mapquest today and found libraries and stores in the area around my apartment. I don't know what my internet connection is going to be. But I will blog somehow, for all 3 of you who sometimes read this. Tomorrow, my family comes down, and tomorrow evening I walk accross the stage and graduate. Fun times. Write ya later.

Did You Check Aisle 14?

Today a Dallas police officer walked in the store and asked me, "Where do you keep your shoplifters?"

"Excuse me?"

"Where do you keep your shoplifters?"

I directed him to the office of the managers and he eventually made his way upstairs where there were two forty-something women who had been caught shoplifting.

On a different note, I decided that I really like Jones Soda. From the creative labels to the great tasting flavors, I just really like it. And it just so happens that, like so many cool things, Jones is based in Seattle, WA.

Packing

Now listening to Philmore "In My Boat"


Last night and this morning I've been packing. Ben and I should be able to move in to our new place on Thursday. So I've got boxes, bags and junk. I found a paycheck from the achievement center last night, so that's cool.

I went to today, and it turns out that today is national teacher's day. cool. Have I mentioned that I want to be a teacher?

And I'm having serious deja vu right now. what's up with that?

I don't have any more schoolwork. I graduate friday evening.

I thought I had something to write about, but this will do.

The Greatest in the Kingdom

May is Older Americans Month. I wanted to write something about the elderly last week because of a verse in the torah portion. But I'll write that later.

Read this Real Live Preacher article about children and worship. I especially like the part about Natalie.

It was refreshing to read that article tonight. It expresses part of what I dreamed about this morning at the Oaks where the "worship time" is a big production, and it is easy for people's focus to be on the performers on the stage, and where everyone doesn't know everyone.

Just so you know, I really do want to be more loving and less judging, and more worshipful and less critical.