Day 451: Hiatus

So this morning I woke up to a harsh reality. All this involvement with the college hasn't come without sacrifice. Sure, I'm being part of some amazing things here at college with the creative team and I'm studying and learning so much, but being present with what's happening here has left me slowly losing grasp of the world I left to be here. I'm not proud to confess this, but it's the truth and I don't want to avoid the truth. So this is what I'm going to do: as an executive order as to preserve communication between two worlds, I will be temporarily retiring this blog (maybe permanently, pending on conditions) to focus communication to the people that matter most to me. If this isn't farewell, then I'll see you when I see you. If this is, then I want to extend a big thank you for taking time of your days to read on my adventures in Australia. This blog's ultimate purpose was to look back at how much I've grown in two year through the Hillsong International Leadership College; it's been a long way, but I've had the support of many great family and friends. So again, thank you; I said it every time, and I'll say it again:



God bless

Steven

Day 450: The Final Stretch (Colour)

The way the church sees it is that even though the conferences are over, they consider the Sunday services right after to be directly affiliated with Colour. This is mainly because of the women that come for the conference but visit on Sunday as well; the church wants them to have as good of an experience in the church as they would at the conference. It's a great concept, really; it's what connects the church to everything else they do. Hillsong aims to involve God in literally everything they do, and it definitely inspires people. This morning, I got to direct for the 8 a.m. service once again; now I'm starting to get the hang of this. I'm rostered to direct again next Sunday, so I want to be ready for it. The rest of the day was solely dedicated to getting some rest, because even on these next two days off I'll still be doing some work then. The evening was amazing; Christine Caine, a Hillsong veteran and current leader of the A21 campaign to battle human trafficking across the world, gave an incredible message on God being within the impossible. My dad would always tell me that with God, nothing was impossible; this message brought me back to those times growing up when I felt that it would be impossible for me to accomplish certain things. Even being in this country, studying at this college would have seemed impossible to me a few years ago; but here I am, standing on God's faithfulness and grace. Colour 2011 is officially over; I need to hang out with guys this whole week or I'm going to lose my mind talking to girls anymore.

God bless,
Steven

Day 449: The Lighter Sides of Colour

Last week on the last day, the city campus had the majority of the work to do, especially with the pack down of the place when it was all over. The hills students helped out until a certain time, and then they would head out to their homes early. This time around, we got the easy side of it. Today was very similar to yesterday, with some slight changes to what I did. In the afternoon, I helped Laz with his camera; the guy never really got a break, so I gave him one and worked his camera in the meantime. It was a lot of fun, and I'm happy I got to make a larger contribution to the conference. When Revelation was over and I was released until pack down, I just reflected on what was accomplished the past two weeks. I've been surrounded by well over 15,000 women in total, serving them and helping to give them the best conference they have ever experienced. I've had the privilege of seeing just a glimpse of what the creative departments of the church do for events like this, and actually being part of it myself was the highest honor. On a plus side, I never had to spend a dollar, because of the addition of lunch vouchers as opposed to last year only having dinner vouchers (that's my God continually providing for me, awesome). This conference really was something to remember; I enjoyed every part of it, and I hope that from here I can take what I've learned and seen and make this semester even greater.

God bless,
Steven

Day 448: Small Contributions, Okay

This was my schedule for today:
1. Wake up around 6 to get ready
2. Get to the church before 7, since that's when the buses were leaving
3. Arrive at the Hills campus around 7:40-8
4. Immediately mark down that I'm there and head to camera 6 where I would be assisting
5. After rehearsals, head back to the control room for a quick meeting
6. Small break before the waves of women entered the main auditorium
7. First session; did my duty, had fun doing it! Got to work with Adam, who was the camera operator I assisted at Colour 1
8. After the session, it was lunch time; from here I was basically free until 4:45
9. Go out and about, filming things for college creative
10. Return to the control room to help with Revelation, which was the pre-show the church puts on before the evening session
11. After Revelation, I'm free to film again
12. Evening session's over, and it's time to go
13. Make sure I get on the bus to head back to the city
14. Get to the Meritons, and sleep.

This conference day wasn't as hectic as the first, which was really a relief. Sure, I'm still doing all kinds of stuff all day, but I wasn't as tired by the end of the day. Pretty good, pretty good.

God bless,
Steven

Day 447: Colour, 2.0 and Condensed

Upon arrival at the Hills campus, I felt prepared to take on whatever I needed to do. I was confident, I was well rested, and I was hungry for action. Ever get those days when you come in to your work place and you end up having nothing to do because it's all taken care of? That was today for me. I found out that I'm only rostered for the morning sessions and a small intermission before the evening sessions; other than that, I'm a free man. I pretty much spent the day filming stuff and trying to find something productive to do; I even joined two completely different teams just because. I will say though, that despite not having done any work with TV, I still consider this a good day; it's only going to get better from here.

God bless,
Steven

Day 446: Oh, No Bump In?

Normally with conference work, the day before the conference begins the college bumps in all the materials we'll be needing for the next few days. This time, however, it was given to the Hills campus to do the bump in, so us city folk didn't have to go. Sweet relief. I just spent the day resting, because I knew it's going to be a tough one. Yup, that's pretty much my day.

God bless,
Steven

Day 445: Celebrating the City's Colours

So today was a win for me. Chapel overall was awesome; I got to help present a video I put together for Colour, and so far everyone that's come up to me about it has told me all positive things. I was talking about the way I make videos with a friend, and as I was explaining it, it dawned on me how genuine it is. As you would notice most of the time, whenever I make retrospective videos, I never put myself in them. The reason I do this is to represent the fact that it's not about me; it never has been about me, so why start now you know? I've always desired to serve for God's calling/purpose; my mom pulled a 1 samuel 1-2 when I was young and dedicated me to the good Lord's service, so from there on it just stuck to me. I love serving, no matter what size the job, importance, or credit; as long as the heart behind the service is good, I don't mind doing it. I wanted this video to represent how important this college family is; I wanted to capture the heart of our friends as they were serving in their respective areas. I consider it a mission accomplished =)

God bless,
Steven

Day 444: The Hero's Holding Out

I totally pulled off a record sleep in this morning. Thanks to my many years at SFC, my internal clock would naturally wake me up around 6 or 7; that was just completely normal for me. So for me to wake up at 11:20 a.m. was a shock and awe moment. I've never woken up that late, so I'm still a bit in disbelief that I allowed myself to do that. Anyways, after a bowl of cereal I finished editing a video for the Colour conference; I want to point out that this specific video was being made for the students, as in there wasn't any particular project attached to it. I simply wanted to make a video that honored the hard work that we did to help pull off this amazing conference. It just so happened that around 10 minutes after I finished the editing that I get a message from two of my oversights with a message from Mary, our creative director. She was wondering if there was any possibility for us to have a presentation for celebrating Colour; if that's not God timing, I don't know what is. So I told her that I had a video made, and after a couple requests here and there, I made two versions: my original, epic video and it's shorter, more time convenient counterpart. For chapel, a 2 minute difference between these versions makes all the difference; I just wish we could use the full one, because it really captures the fullness of how great the team was while the other one gives only a piece of it. Either way, after it's played in college, I will share it with everyone else on Facebook so if anyone missed it they can still see it. We had a family dinner with the chapel core team this evening, and it was great; our fearless leader, Toast, made curry for us, and it was the bomb.com. We talked over this coming weekend, since the first year students were going to be heading their own chapel for the first time; there's lots of preparation needed for this, so we need to have it figured out before then. My day finished by being introduced for the first time to a little show called Heroes; I've always wanted to see this show, but because of my busy church life back in the day, I never could. This show, in summary, is awesome. I can't wait to see the rest of it.

God bless,
Steven

Day 443: Next Level Directing/Gaming

So here's the thing: life is going pretty well for me right about now. I've been putting in more effort into getting solid devotional times, and the fruit of that choice has never been sweeter. This is why I chose to call this blog a journey, because I knew that even at the very end of it I was still going to be learning and experiencing new things. Well technically I'll be learning new stuff for the rest of my life. I usually have a 6:30 call time, but I ended up sleeping past my alarm and getting there around 6:50; I had to also to run against the rain, but looking back at it, that was fun! I was given the opportunity to direct for the first time in church (my legacy continues...). I won't lie, I was pretty nervous about it, but thanks to my amazing leaders helping me, I managed to get through it. After the service, I finished an assessment, started video editing for the footage I got from the Colour conference, and just rested; I needed this, and right now I feel great. In the evening, I got to hang out with my flatmates and some other great friends over a few games on the Nintendo Wii; my forearms are still feeling the aftermath of the games. Great day, great God; you know how it goes.

God bless,
Steven

Day 442: Massage Voucher, Anyone?

So just like that, Colour conference 1 is over. It's been a long, rough three days, but our team did such an awesome job at making conference an experience to remember. Today I really got to see the potential of a gathering of a people that are passionate about seeing the world change; it's like nothing you've ever seen. There's so much energy, and there's so much presence of the Holy Spirit; it was great to hear from Craig Groeschel, Jeanne Mayo, and Lisa Bevere, as well as Christine Caine and of course Bobbie Houston. This church is seriously one of the most influential churches in the world, and these kind of events make that more than clear. It was such an honor to be part of this, and to think we're only halfway there! With a whole other conference coming up this week, it's going to take a lot of rest. Starting now.

God bless,
Steven

Day 441: Full Contribution

So today's events were much more productive than yesterday's, thanks to finally fulfilling my rostered allocation. Because I didn't get to train yesterday, I just sat in the service and experienced the awesomeness of Colour; but before I got on the bus one of my leaders told me to go straight to my camera when I got there this morning. So I did. And it was super cool. I'm assisting a tracking camera, which basically means it's a camera that moves on a small track to bring some more perspectives during the service. This camera needs 3 people: one operator and two assistants that are in charger of either moving the fully rigged camera or constantly adjusting the cables so the operators don't trip. I pretty much had to learn on the spot on how to work the rig, but thanks be to God that I managed to pull it off, and quite well to boot. Whenever I wasn't on assist, I was walking around getting some more footage of city campus volunteers in action; always a pleasure, but since I was actually doing volunteer work I didn't get to do as much. Everything went so well today though; I even found time to just sit down with my Bible and get some spiritual food for the day. My prayer was definitely more consistent this time around, and it's sure motivating me to want to strive for that excellence every day. All in all, God was doing some work today; lots of women accepted Christ during the sessions, the key speakers gave incredible messages, and we all got to see the potential of what could be if the whole world was united under God's banner. Even just standing on the floor level watching thousands of women worshipping can inspire you; it sure inspired me.

God bless,
Steven

P.S. Can't believe it's almost over; just one more day and POOF. It's gone, like that. Crazy..

Day 440: Position Doesn't Matter

Today was great. Got a lot of filming done, and despite a rough first day on TV, God remained faithful to me. I'm just really tired and I need to get some sleep since we have an early call time tomorrow; sorry, but I gave you the smallest possible summary of the day. I don't really want to get into details at the moment...

However, I will tell you about what I learned from today. So I'm rostered to be a camera assistant for the conference. There were a lot of miscommunications throughout the day, and by the end of it I was left feeling out of place and a bit useless for not having done anything, but then I remember something I prayed: "God, no matter what I do or where I serve, I pray that I give it my best for Your glory and not my own gain." If anything, this is what got me through it all; I hope I gave Him the best of my ability today.

God bless,
Steven

Day 439: A Coloured Video

Bump in happened today. It wasn't as intense as last year's, thank God. In fact, I did very little compared to being on the logistics team last year; when you're on TV, most of the equipment is already set up when you get there so you don't have to much heavy lifting. I pretty much spent the day with my old roommate Lazaro, walking around the SEC helping whenever we could. Laz and I are the only college students in the TV team representing the city campus; I consider this a high honor. Whenever I wasn't helping with TV, I was filming for college; considering I was pretty much the only person filming, it should be fun to see an edited project filled with the stuff I got today. I'm so looking forward to this conference; it's gonna be awesome!!

God bless,
Steven

Day 438: Darkest Before Dawn

Today marked the eve of the first Colour conference; in less than 12 hours I will be on a bus heading to the Sydney Entertainment Center to help "bump in" all the equipment and set up the venue for the next 3 days. A year ago, I wasn't sure what to expect from this conference; this time, I'm super excited to see what happens. Even the fact that I get to be part of the TV team makes this conference that much more exciting; I really want to film as much of this as possible. I just don't even know if I'll be able to, but we'll see. This morning was... interesting at best. After our rehearsal we had the student/staff meeting where we got crash course training on what to expect for Colour, but the way it started was unusual and almost disturbing. So the way services usually run is after the pre-roll the worship team starts with a praise song; but this time it started with a random song being played over the monitors; turns out our campus pastors weren't in the building, but no one but the top leaders knew. So we all ended up having a random dance party instead of praise and worship; different.... but entertaining. Chapel itself was amazing today; we had a Touching Heaven chapel, where we had an extended time of worship and prayer. The rest of the day didn't involve much, but that's okay; this way I can get some extra sleep to get ready for tomorrow and the rest of the week!

God bless,
Steven

Day 437: Breakfasts and Fast Breaks

When you have an incredibly busy weekend, you look forward to having a day off to start your week right. My morning started with a nice breakfast with Aaron, catching up on life over savory pancakes; best way to start the week off I think. The rest of the day was dedicated to working on assessments; so that ended up not working out so week due to laziness, but I will say that I got a lot accomplished anyway. I found out today that I will be a camera assist for Colour; I'm not sure what that means for me, but either way I'm excited. This week is gonna be sooooo good.

God bless,
Steven

Day 436: The Cross, Not the Crutch

Tonight, Crishan spoke on the difference between taking up your cross and following Christ daily and using the cross as a crutch. He talked on how a crutch can only do so much for you despite it's limits, while the cross goes far beyond our expectations and desires. It sure made me think and examine myself; my spiritual life is one of the biggest challenges I face here in college. Because I'm serving in so many areas of the church and college, I can easily forget the why and focus on the what; basically this is me confessing that it's happened several times this semester. But this is also me realizing that my relationship with God is a growth process; I know that if I want to succeed this year, I need to spend time with Him and make sure that His voice is heard in my life. Today was one of those days where it was simply a win; everything was fantastic, and knowing that I'm forgiven and loved makes it all worth it.

God bless,
Steven

P.S. Colour starts this week; pray for me now haha

Day 435: What a Smash!

This day was an absolute success! Chapel was great; we got to incorporate another video into chapel, and it went very well; I give much props to Tommy who was working nonstop on editing this week (he did more than I did, and that's saying a lot). I also got some new team members today too; I'm very excited that I can finally put together a full roster now! Since I'm usually done after chapel, I headed home to hang out with my peeps; the ultimate start to the weekend was having our friend Nathan over. He usually doesn't come by that often, so it was a real treat to have him join us for the evening. Colour's coming very soon; I need to start preparing!

God bless,
Steven

Day 434: Always Last Minute

One thing that's funny about college is how many things are usually run last minute. Because I am now part of the Hillsong Men media team, I don't really have to be there as early; however, I got a phone call from my friend Kyle ten minutes before my alarm asking if I could play piano for praise and worship. So I quickly got ready and headed over; it's funny how I've been playing piano more than I've been playing bass since I switched my major. Working with guys like Jared, (B)ryan, Aksel, Colin, and Kyle is always an honor, because these guys have the heart of the church; when it comes to being a muso, I look up to them. Misterhood this morning was great; my fellow filmmaker Tommy finished our pre-roll video (pre-roll is the video that plays before the beginning of a service to build up excitement), and it was a huge success; I'm very proud to see that he's getting right into the culture so quickly. Around the end of Sisterhood, I was approached by Mary asking if I could help with a video project later on; more on that in a bit. Classes today were awesome; lots of great input from our teachers, as well as insight on some big assessments coming up. Now on to Team Night; tonight was the last Team Night for our creative pastor, Gabe Kelly, as he and his family is heading out to the New York church to build that up. He'll be surely missed; Gabe is such an influential leader, but we know he'll be a great addition to the New York team. Right after Team Night, I got my film team member Jonothan and headed to the garage to help with filming. We filmed a small little section of what will eventually be the opener for Colour conference; didn't quite realize how big this is until they mentioned that. To think that with a little God mixed into your passions, He opens all kinds of opportunities; I got the privilege to be part of Colour conference in a whole new way. Wow... just wow...

God bless,
Steven

Day 433: Blessed Assurance

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
Oh what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born in His spirit, washed in His blood

This is my story
This is my song
Praising my Savior
All the day long

Perfect submission, perfect delight
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love

This is my story
This is my song
Praising my Savior
All the day long

Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blessed
Watching and waiting, looking above
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love

Beautiful words, hey? This is one of the songs the band I'm part of will be performing. The challenge is to take a song and rearrange the music in the style of a completely different styled artist. In this case, it's a hymn done in the style of an artist named Jonsi, who is the lead singer of an Icelandic band called Sigur Ros. I can't really describe what this sounds like, but I can tell you that it's sounding excellent. The creative meeting was great too; we pretty much have the month of April scheduled, so it's going to be awesome. Wednesdays are one of the fuller days, but when it's this good I don't mind it at all.

God bless,
Steven

Day 432: Getting It Straight

God is so good. Today was good. Life is good. And all the time... God is good.

God bless,
Steven

Day 431: Ahead of Schedule

Today was another lockdown day; funny that I almost missed these kind of days. Basically I had to work on my assessments so I could then work on videos. I managed to finish and upload the only assessment due today before the afternoon, so I was able to simply relax and edit videos. I uploaded a few more videos from the Skillet concert (way overdue), and surprisingly they got a lot of views within the first half hour. In the evening, I picked up a couple important files for tomorrow's chapel; luckily the training I got on Friday should make the process easier this time around. I also have some big news, but I'll share that in a bit.

God bless,
Steven

Day 430: Short Life, Long Life

Today's mission oriented day was full of awesomeness. My Sunday mornings always start around 5:55 to get ready for my 6:30 call time; I was originally supposed to be observing the director for eventually doing that for church services, but due to a roster mix-up I ended up doing CCU (it's basically making sure that the colors on the screen look good). I hadn't done CCU in a very long time, so I felt pretty rusty; but I managed to pull it off thanks to the great leaders in the room. I wanted to take a nap when I got back, but I ended up working on my assessment; I'm not done yet, but I'll get it done tomorrow. In Jesus' name. Tonight's service was awesome; pastor Brian gave a message on two main facts of life and how we can use that to live better. His two points? Life's short, and life's long. The Bible says like a vapor we're here for a short time, then vanish; sure makes you think differently about life in general. Considering I didn't get much sleep last night, I'll be going to sleep now =)

God bless,
Steven

Day 429: Outnumbered 6 to 1

Today's main event was a video shoot for this coming Friday's chapel; basically what's happening is a few girls will be performing a special item that will also support the Colour conference happening the very next week; my oversight Lauren's idea was to incorporate a video to play in the background while the band was performing; so we spent a good 4 hours getting the video together. There were 19 girls in total for the video, so it was a bit awkward being in a van surrounded by females; I guess I should get used to it since Colour will have a few thousand woman in the same building at the same time. What's great about being on the college creative team is that I don't have to do things by myself; I have my own team to assist me! We took in a couple guys from the new intake that have done video work in the past, and whenever I have an upcoming video shoot, they come with me and help film it all. It definitely brings the pressure down on my part. The even better part is that the editing is shared amongst the team too; I'm mainly focusing on making sure that College News keeps coming, and the other guys work on the college creative projects. One of the higher power students sent me a link to a website where I could get some of the biggest video/graphic design programs for conveniently cheaper prices than normal; my ultimate goal is to try to get Final Cut Express so I can start learning how to use Final Cut Pro (which I may or may not be getting for free courtesy of the college once they receive new licenses). The Express version is much cheaper than the full program, and it gives you a summarized version of the potential of the program; so far what I've seen has impressed me a lot, but I'm going to need to dedicate a lot of time to figure it out. Another week starts, and a lot of work is coming with it.

God bless,
Steven

Day 428: Making HIStory

A while back my dad sent me an email with a small note to read Judges 6:12; Judges is one of my favorite books of the Bible, so I felt comfortable checking it out. There's only one part of this verse that has the potential to uplift the spirit: "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." I've always questioned whether or not this type of word could apply to my life, especially the mighty warrior. I've certainly been raised to be a mighty warrior (thanks for that, mom and dad), but I'll admit I haven't lived like one consistently. I have at times a lazy, selfish mentality that takes over whenever I'm in a place I don't necessarily want to be; but sometimes God reels you in to show you something cool. Take today for example. There were a lot of expectations set on the TV team today for chapel; this was because we had a couple major things happening in chapel. One was a video to play in the background while an all girl band was performing a song by the Dixie Chicks (it's the one from Runaway Bride) which wasn't all that difficult to manage; the other, was a little something called College News. I was informed that in the history of college this has not happened before; there have been attempts, but they were unsuccessful. This week I was determined to make it happen; I've been pushing the idea since last semester! During the rehearsal, I dealt with a bit of technological letdown; the videos weren't playing the way I wanted them to. It was so stressful I ended up having to skip my only class of the day to make sure it was going to work. My ultimate saving grace came in the form of my good friend and fellow televisionary Hanna; she gave me a step by step crash course on how to convert and load videos onto the system, which is something I need to know for this year anyway (so double win for me). Before she came to help, I was so brought down by it all; this whole video thing was my proving ground, and it wasn't looking too good at the time. God decided to wake me up and used my friend Amy to encourage me for the day; she said that if we're not including God in all this and being task-oriented, then we don't have any use to play the videos. As soon as she finished talking, I felt so convicted; I realized right then and there how I was acting; I totally left Him out of the equation, and that was making it harder on myself. So as soon as everyone left to either class or to go home, I stayed behind, pulled out my Bible, and just talked with God. I looked back at Judges 6:12, and as I was reading I felt the words popping off the page and into my spirit. God's words were speaking right to me, and it was exactly what I needed to hear. From there on, my energy was renewed and literally everything was working almost perfectly. College News was an absolute success, praise God. It was the smoothest chapel service for TV I've had all year, praise God. And I felt such a peace in my heart from this whole experience, praise God. He was the center of the day, the main focus where everything else fell into place around Him. And it was the best day of 2011 so far.

God bless,
Steven

Day 427: Capacity

God, I would love to have more capacity in life. I'm super grateful for the capacity I have now; it did get me through this past year. But lately, I realize last year's capacity won't get me through this one; all I'm asking for is that I can get closer to You so that my capacity can expand. Don't get me wrong, today was awesome; I got to play keys for Misterhood for the first time since last year, I finished College News and got it approved, and I got to connect with lots of new people, but there were a few points where I felt like I couldn't handle it anymore. But in the end, I kew that above all else, You are good. You are for me, not against me. You are right beside me, so I don't have to worry. Thanks for that.

I'm just thinking about College News right now; it's never been done before (at least in the city campus as far as I know). God's using me to make history here; I couldn't dare take full credit for something like this, because if it wasn't for Him, I wouldn't be here. I'm excited to see this become a new medium that the college can use; there's been many people like me that started something that we're experiencing the fruit of. They had one simple idea, and now it's escalated to the big ministry it is today; Street Teams is one of those ministries that was started by a college student some years back. I just feel so privileged to be able to contribute to what's already an amazing school; I seriously can't wait to see what's in store for the rest of this year.

God bless,
Steven

Day 426: Last Minute Things

Today had a couple incidents where "last minute" pretty much defined it all. The classes today were awesome; I got so much from them, I feel empowered to see worship in a whole new way. In our music workshop, we did a great job with our rearrangement piece; I'm feeling pretty confident with the band and how we're doing. After class, I went straight to the library to work on a other project for College News; I got asked to make ads for a couple other things yesterday, and today was my only chance to actually make it possible. I started around 5:30 and finished around 7:50; the end product looks great, if I may say so myself. I also got asked while I was working on the ads if I could help play piano for worship during the Misterhood service; it's been a long time, so I'm looking forward to it!

God bless,
Steven

Day 425: Tight Schedule

Today just made me realize how busy of a person I am this year. There's so much going on, it's surprising how I haven't burned out. This morning I filmed an ad for Colour; it's going to be tricky to get this College News thing the way the leadership want it. For one, I'm limited to two minutes; one ad I worked on over the weekend was 1:34 by itself. I had to really cut it down while trying to keep it's message intact; not an easy feat. Tomorrow I have to find a way to make a few more advertisements while I still have time; it involves more stop motion, so give or take it could take me a while to make this one happen. I managed to make some time to talk with my family, but it didn't really work out; hopefully that will be fixed soon, because it was a bummer.. other than that, a great day.

God bless,
Steven

Day 424: Dark Is the Venue. Light Is a Presence.

Day off bullet points:

• slept in (needed that a lot)
• worked on my assessment, turned it in
• went to one of the best shows I've ever been to, thanks to Anberlin.

One thing I want to express about Anberlin's show is the presence of God within it. They had these other two bands alongside them for the concert, but these other bands were just off-putting; the first band was very much on drugs while on stage, and the other guys just weren't very "entertaining". Anberlin, however, was completely different; these guys were just happy. You could see the joy in their faces as they were performing; God was in that room when they were on stage. That's the beauty of bands in the mainstream culture of music; these guys are in the middle of secular bands, but they're presenting God's love to these bands when they tour with them. Anberlin's been one of my favorite bands specifically for that; they also announced that they love coming to Sydney so much, they're coming back in the fall (I hope they mean American fall though, because I saved up to go to this concert; and as much as I'd love to see them in a couple months, I'd prefer to save my money this time). Anberlin, thanks for an awesome evening; pretty much set my week up for a win.

God bless,
Steven

Day 423: Generally Specific

So God showed me something pretty cool today. It was mainly during the evening service message given by Joel A'Bell. He spoke on how God can be both general and specific with His directions; Joel used example from Jesus and Joseph and how there were directions given, but not directions that were specific enough to tell them what to do and where to go. Usually we tend to fill in the blanks with what we're used to, but obviously that wouldn't work; kinda made me think about how many times I tried to answer my own questions and got nowhere. Now that I think about it, I've asked so many times before for God to show me the way; but maybe He was giving me subtle signs and I wasn't reading them properly... but now I want to make sure it's not about finding answers for my sake, but rather letting God give me the answers when I'm ready to hear them. Overall, it was a great day; thank God for 3 day weekends.

God bless,
Steven

Day 422: Getting the Perfect Angles

Today was a filming day. A totally awesome filming day. It started a bit early for the sake of simply getting the project out of the way; I met with the guys involved at the church and then headed out to our location. We got in contact with a local barber about borrowing the outside of his shop for a video project in the name of Hillsong Men. We got four guys to play a barber shop quartet, and within a 30-35 minute period we finished all the filming. Now I just have to edit the video alongside Tommy, a new student that we've taken under our wing. Once the footage was transferred, I made it back to my place in time for the other film project. My friend Justin came by to be the lead for the advertisement of the Box, and it worked out perfectly; I edited the video in less than 10 minutes (completely normal when you've figured out how to use iMovie really well). I spent the rest of the afternoon working on a couple other videos, and before I knew it the evening arrived. I just finished watching the Others with Josh, Donny, and the other Josh from South Africa; it was very funny watching their reactions.

God bless,
Steven

Day 421: Building From the Bad

Today was quite the experience. This morning at rehearsal we had quite the scare: while we were setting up the screens and cameras for the rehearsal the power to the control room went out. In a split second we were completely cut off from everyone else in the main auditorium. It kinda felt like a scene from one of those war movies were a group of soldiers get separated and have to fight their way back to the rest of their group; fortunately, our great team made a laugh about it and had fun waiting for one of the building managers come to help figure out what happened. Once everything was solved we could finish the rehearsal right, so that gave a sigh of relief. Our Musicianship tutorial was awesome; we got to go through one of our assessments, and I was actually able to submit the first one during class! One down, many more to go.. Chapel itself was great; God really moved during the service, and it was a privilege to support what was happening from the background. After chapel, I was free for the rest of the day; I spent the afternoon working on a few things here and there. In the evening, I joined a group of great friends to celebrate my friend Stephanie's birthday; we had dinner at the Shakespeare, and later dessert from Max Brenner (I've heard a lot of hype over Mr. Brenner, but I don't think I'll be rushing there anytime soon). It was a good day as it progressed onward; this weekend should be no different.

God bless,
Steven

Day 420: Being Heard

Thursdays are the long days. If I don't plan my Wednesday night well, I'll end up struggling throughout the day. This morning we had the Be the Change event; usually on these days I don't serve in my regular allocation. So instead of serving with TV, I was rostered to Mums and Bubs, which is Australia's name for moms and babies. All I really had to do was offer assistance with moving the strollers in the room; unfortunately I wasn't really needed, since the moms didn't need need my help. It would have been weird for me anyways I think.... but anyways.. after Be the Change, our chapel core team had our weekly meeting to update on what's happening in the next couple weeks. I got to show Toast my stop motion opener for College News, and he loved it; basically, everyone's getting excited for College News since it's never been done before (one small part I'm privileged to contribute to the church's legacy; surprisingly enough, Laz was joking around if I should start a TV & Media stream here in the city campus. Now that would be another shicker entirely). The next 5 hours was all class; amazing classes, but a bit strenuous. With the classes over, I get a one and a half hour break until Team Night, which is turning out to be better than before. Tonight was Gabe Kelly's potential last night with us before he moves out to New York to help build up the new church there; Gabe has been the city campus creative director, so for him to leave is a bit of a bummer. Fortunately, we are now under the leadership of Dean, who is a former student but now teacher and regular staff for the church.

If I got anything out of today, it's that my plans and ideas of how this college experience would go have completely ben swept under the heavenly rug. God's placed me in areas that I never thought or considered before coming, but the things He's doing through me are so much greater than what I would have wished to accomplish on my own strength. Even now that our music classes are in full force again, I'm getting back into the habit of practicing the bass; so I'm still fitting in pieces of the dream alongside God's work. One thing I really need prayer for is the assessments; so far, we've been given a layout of what they will be looking like this semester, and all I have to say is I'm going to need a lot of support and prayer to make this remotely possible due to my busy schedule. I also need to find a way to get Microsoft Word on my computer so I can fill these assessments out right; otherwise, they would look horrible on the only other writing program that's on here. So far the best deal I've found is a downloadable one for $60, so hopefully it can work out very soon.

God bless,
Steven

Day 419: When Opportunity Calls..

So I found today to be very enjoyable. My original plan for the morning was to chow down some cereal before class, but for some reason Donny wanted to go out for breakfast. So he and I went over to ChickensPlus to grab a couple bacon & egg rolls (these bacon & egg rolls are an Australian traditional food; they sell them just about everywhere). I hadn't had the ChickenPlus version before, so it was worth a try; and now I know exactly where to go if I'm ever in the mood for a celebratory breakfast. Theology of Worship today was great; we talked about definitions of worship and their backgrounds, and to end the class our classmates Jessica and Joy led a little time of worship for the class. I'm looking forward to having this worship thing every week. Our workshops today were great; so our recent mission is to take one song and rearrange it to the style of a completely different artist. The band I'm part of has two songs: Eleanor Rigby , originally performed by the Beatles, rearranged in the style of Beyonce, and the hymn Blessed Assurance done in the style of Jonsi. Today we focused on the Beatles song; all I can say about it so far is that we're going to have lots of fun playing around with this song. The main purpose of this assignment is to help us gain more expertise in the way we compose music; by rearranging songs, we can look more into the practical things of writing and composing our own music. After this class, I had a college creative meeting, which went very well; we've got the next couple weeks planned out, so all we have left to do is to make sure it all happens according to plan.

God bless,
Steven

Day 418: Connections to Pastimes

Today was awesome, for real. It started early with chapel rehearsal and TV; I got the opportunity to train one of our new recruits with one of our cameras. After what was our smoothest rehearsal so far, I had a little bit of time before my first class of the day, Analyses. We looked over the kinds of planes that music covers: one that gets your attention, one that can trigger emotions, and one that solely focuses on the music. It was a fun class, and I'm looking forward to next week's class. Chapel this morning was so good; it seemed as if almost everything went right. Our advisor Ben gave an awesome message that was very inspiring, and it was another awesome day working with TV. Our pastoral care class was great too; Catrina gave us incredible insight on things like being active listeners and approaching situations carefully. Since that was my last class, I decided to try out some more stop motion; I used these little containers we had in our flat and turned them into minions from the movie Despicable Me; the video took a good forty minutes to finish, but it was worth it in the end. I just got back from my connect group, which was lots of fun; I feel like this semester with my connect group is going to be such a highlight of my week. The good news is I get to sleep in, since I don't have class until 11; a good night's sleep, here I come!

God bless,
Steven

P.S. If you want to see a small little video of the stop motion projects I've done, I put together a small video on Facebook; that should give you an idea of the kind of things you can do with moving pictures.

Day 417: The Song In Us

I want to focus on a particular part of today. I was writing for the monologue part of my idea for an advertisement for the Box, and God gave me some great words. This is what I wrote:

The Word of God says, "Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth."
What if we all did that?
What if we took our everyday words and crafted lyrics from a fresh perspective?
What if we created melodies and rhythms that could broaden the way we see and hear music?
What if we could write songs that would not only capture society's attention, but capture their heart as well?

Hopefully I can get the spirit of these words translated into film. It's amazing the kind of things that God implants in your mind when you ask Him for help.

God bless,
Steven

Day 416: Testimonials

Today was such a full on day, I am left here completely exhausted. I served in the 8 a.m. service, and soon after I went over to Lauren's place to prepare for the day's mission: to film testimonial videos. It was a long, hot day, but with our amazing team we managed to pull it off. I want to go into details, but I am so tired and I need sleep. So I'll try and expand on the details later. The only other thing I want to say is that Robert Fergusson is the man; his message tonight was so awesome, I love it.

God bless,
Steven

Day 415: The College News Animatic

Today was pretty much task-oriented. In the morning, I went to a nearby coffee place for the second time since I've been here (keep in mind that because I don't drink coffee I save a LOT of money) for a media meeting with a few of the guys. We took a good hour and a half just talking about ideas for Misterhood in the coming weeks, and it was a very exciting meeting. After the meeting, I had only one mission: to create the opening animation for college news. I started about 11:45 a.m. with a simple plan in mind, and for the most part it started well. As things would go with long projects, there were a few lazy periods of the afternoon; I stopped for things like lunch and mental breaks a little longer than I should have. After using well over 300 Post It notes, I made the animation video in just under 6 hours; cool part is the actual video is 8 seconds long! That's 2 seconds longer than the trial version, which is a good thing. I was very exhausted by the end, but it was worth it now that I have a finished product. Now I just have to film the rest of the advertisements and I should be ready to go. Tomorrow's an important day, so I'm going to sleep before I get caught up in editing!

God bless,
Steven

Day 414: An Unsung Hero and His Partner

Today I got a revelation. Funny thing is it came out of my mouth and didn't register in my head until later on. I was talking about something that impacted me during first year during our Musicianship tutorial, and what came to my mind was the fact that the heart of this church is found in every single area. Whether you are on stage or in a position that's never publicly seen, every team lives out the heart and vision that the senior pastors have set over the church. It's pretty awesome to see it for real; every team that I've been part of has been passionate about following the heart and vision, and it sure made me realize something about my personal pride. When I first came here, I knew it was going to be a while before I could get an opportunity to be on stage. Then again, I had a very musical vision then. Then along the way God led me to TV, and ever since then I have dedicated more of my time into that ministry. Especially now that I'm helping run TV, I tend to really be behind the scenes. And you know what? I love it. I absolutely love being unseen, because I see it as a form of personal growth. I've been on stages or in front of people serving for as long as I can remember; yet I find myself enjoying servanthood more from a place that's not visible. Plus, our TV crew is a family; we know each other so well, and we work as a team to a professional level. I've felt so honored to be part of this college, church, and ministry; I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's as if my whole life of service has prepared me for this specific season. I've never worked so much before, but if it wasn't for being part of my family's ministry projects like C.P.O.M., Operation Samuel, and other parts of church life. Today left me feeling inspired and at ease; I'm just loving life so much right now.

God bless,
Steven

Day 413: Branching Out

It's amazing the difference it makes when you wake up and just dedicate your day to God. This morning, I just stayed in my bed and said a simple prayer, that this day would be His and not mine. The fruit that came from that decision couldn't have been sweeter. My day started with Sisterhood and working with my favorite people in the world: TV. I was given the privilege to once again man camera 1, and I had such a fun time doing it. This however, was the last day I will be doing TV for Sisterhood because I have been drafted to the Misterhood media team; it's like my camera is taking me to more places than I planned! I was thinking about how I had no experience with filming when I got here; sure I've done acting before, but never actually making videos as a hobby. Look at me now: I'm head of the video creative team, and I'm being involved with so many other video outlets within the church. If I had known this was going to be my life in Hillsong college, I probably would have done things a bit differently; but then again, who am I to complain about what God's preparing me to do in this season? The classes today were phenomenal; I had Old Testament Studies, Pastoral Care, and Team Leadership, which are all so empowering and filled with practical tools to make my life easier. Sure, it's the longest day of the week, but I can handle it because it's helping me grow in every way. Tonight was also the start of Team Night; we got to hear Sanga preach on making God the most high in our lives. Great message from Sanga, as always. As I look back on what's taken place so far this week, I can't help but wonder: how will I be able to handle having every week this semester be so AWESOME??

God bless,
Steven

Day 412: College Creative, Go!

Today was probably the best day so far. For one, I don't have class until 11 a.m. (which balances out the fact I get out at 5:15), so I could sleep in a little more. I got to show a few of my TV crew my progress on the advertisement, and so far every single reaction was more than positive; I've got some golden here =) Our classes today were Theology of Worship (which I totally love) and Musicianship 2 (which will probably grow on me as we get more involved musically). So far every class has been so much better than first year classes; I love how the courses are set up that way. It's like first year was oriented around being a team player while giving you practical ways of living a God-centered life. This year focuses more on being a team leader while empowering you with personal ways of living a God-centered life. Putting it all together is what makes the ultimate difference in how you do life; it's awesome. We actually got out of class almost a half hour early, which was perfect since I had a college creative meeting at 6. Basically, the college creative team is made up of students that specialize in a certain area of college/church life in Hillsong. As you would know, I am assisting with the video side of things, and the rest of the team is certainly among the best of the best. We had a 3 hour meeting, just throwing out ideas in preparation for the next two months; forward thinking as Relient K puts it. This meeting got me excited about this semester in a whole new way; if I had any doubt for this year, I'm pretty sure it's gone now.

God bless,
Steven

Day 411: Let's Punch It.

Today was the first day of the rest of my life. Just kidding, it's only the first day of the rest of the semester. Chapel rehearsal was so much fun; sure there were the occasional slip-ups, but the ultimate highlight of the morning was filming the advertisement for TV. We've been planning this video for quite a while, and today we finally got to make it happen; it was an absolute success. What I have edited so far is looking amazing, and I can't wait to get this ready for college news. Our first class was Analyses with Matt Capper, where we're going to be learning what it takes to analyze and make great music. I'm excited for this class =) Chapel was awesome as usual; nothing much else to say. My last class was Pastoral Care with Catrina Henderson; I have a strong feeling this class will be a semester favorite. The rest of my day was focused on getting a few other video things done; I really got to see the kind of appreciation I ought to have more of for God blessing me with the abilities I have. Dad, sorry I never got into sports; but at least I have the arts!

God bless,
Steven

Day 410: Videos on Valentine's Day

Today was literally all about videos. It started in the morning with me and Josh meeting with our former TV oversight Vanessa. She's been wanting to meet with us for a while to check how we've been doing with the whole TV thing; she even went as far as to make breakfast for us. We thanked her by washing the dishes; it was literally the least we could do. Right after the meeting, Josh headed to work, while I went back to my place to get some video work done. My mission was simple: upload the last of the Future of Forestry concert videos as well as my New Year's vacation video, start editing the Skillet concert videos, and put the video of Saturday's Valentine's mission on DVDs for Luke and Toast. How did I do? Well, I definitely finished the Future of Forestry videos and uploaded the vacation video too, but I didn't start on editing the Skillet videos; as for the DVDs, I'm in the process of getting the first one finished. I "celebrated" Valentine's Day by hanging out with Donny, Josh, and our friends Alexis and Kappa sharing pizza and discussing movies and television. It was fun! I have an early start to the day, so I will be going to sleep now, so good night!

God bless,
Steven

Day 409: Sugar and Other Fuels

Today was quite interesting. Not much happened, but I did get to hang out with my flatmates which was great. We discussed readings in the Bible, played The Legend of Zelda (both the Ocarina of Time and The Wind Waker), and just caught up on life. It was a nice, relaxing day, and I'm looking forward to having these kinds of days in the future.

Acts is a great book; I read the first four chapters this morning, and I'm definitely going to keep reading during this week. I got super inspired about the story of Pentecost and how God took the number of followers from 120 to 3,000. It's amazing the things that happen when people are doing life; I got homework to do.

God bless,
Steven

Day 408: Love and It's Accomplices

Today, there was a mission. Only a mission. Nothing else. Last night, I was recruited by my amazing friends Luke and Sean (Sean is famously known as Toast here in college; trust me, long story) to help in a Valentine's plan for the special women in their lives: Julie, Luke's wife, and Kat, Toast's girlfriend. Josh was the main glue between the whole thing; we both gave ideas and stuff, but Josh was the driving force behind the large part of this plan. Basically, we all put together a scavenger hunt kind of thing for the ladies to be part of for the afternoon; there were four main challenges, and at the end of the adventure they would meet the guys at a fancy restaurant. We made our flat the location for the first challenge, which involved the ladies playing Mario Kart. It was pretty entertaining, considering neither of them had ever played it. As soon as they went to find their next clue, Josh and I had to change and beat the ladies to the next location; it was hilarious, that's all I need to say. The second challenge involved them having to beat Josh and our friend Dan in a friendly arm wrestling competition; they won, just so you know. At this point it got a bit tricky, because Luke hid the next clue somewhere in the courtyard for them to find while Josh and I headed out to the next building. We managed to beat the ladies there and awaited their arrival for the third challenge: writing a song for the guys. The thing about Julie and Kat is they've never written songs before, and they aren't musicians in any way; so in logic this would normally have been impossible. Luckily they managed to write a really silly song that Josh volunteered to sing to the camera; I can't describe in words how funny that experience was. This last challenge was the toughest, mainly because Josh and I almost didn't make it to the next location in time. For the fourth challenge, the ladies had to go inside Coles and find specific food items that Luke and Toast would love. After maybe 15 minutes, they managed to get all the items (but we didn't buy them, because there was no need to). Our final clue was attached to two bus passes, and the instructions were for them to go back to their flats and get ready for a nice dinner at a restaurant just a bus ride away (the men were already there waiting for them). Once Julie and Kat went to get ready, me and Josh's mission was complete. Now I get to edit all the footage we got of the event!

God bless,
Steven

Day 407: Leadership 101

Second year focuses on giving you the tools to be able to lead a team. With these intensives, we've been getting a lot of input in such little time; I'm honestly surprised I caught up as well as I did. Our intensives were all led by our college vice president, Mark Hopkins; it's always a treat to have Mark around. He's one of the more genuine people I've ever known, and he definitely knows what he talks about. Chapel was awesome this morning; one of my good friends from last semester, Aksel, played bass on stage for the first time. Aksel is one of my favorite people in college, so it made me proud to see him up there; he definitely works hard enough to gain that privilege. TV was interesting today; in the early morning rehearsal, there were a few complications along the way. Although we didn't figure out all the problems, our amazing team kept it together and made it work until the end. Sometimes I can't help but wonder how Josh and I are so blessed to have people that are legit, trustworthy, and passionate about the world of TV. I'll make it up to them somehow. Intensives finished around 3:30, so after that, it was a lot of winding down and hanging out with my flatmates. This weekend is already shaping up to be fantastic, and I'm just so relieved that the internet in our flat is working again. Seems like good things do come to those who wait.

God bless,
Steven

Day 406: Plans, and Their Potential Change

Today's schedule was a tiny bit different. Usually there would be Sisterhood in the morning, but because there wasn't, our intensive schedule was changed. We started classes at 9 a.m. and finished at 3:30 p.m.; not too bad for originally having our last class end at 5:30. It was mainly Ministry Safety classes, and at the end of the day we had an exam covering everything we learned over the past two weeks. Fortunately, this one wasn't as difficult as last year's Christian Doctrine exam; that one was tough beyond belief. On the upside, our last day of intensives is tomorrow; after that, is freedom.

Also, Josh and I have been in a Zelda phase lately. We've been playing through The Legend of Zelda: the Wind Waker with our good friend Luke for about 3 weeks now, and we are just hooked. It's all we can do until our internet comes back, really.

God bless,
Steven

Day 405: Small World, After All

Wednesday was simply time to relax a bit. I did a tiny bit of filming, which was cool (I pretty much have to get a lot of random footage for abstract videos I'll be putting together soon). In the evening, I managed to train one of the new students in how to be an events assistant; since my video responsibilities are priority, I really needed to step down from Powerhouse duty. I'm a bit relieved, to be honest. My new replacement is named Melissa, and it just so happens she's a former youth pastor at Jubilee church in San Jose; talk about a small world... she's very experienced in this whole thing, so I'm grateful for that. Life in college is getting both easier and harder at the same time. Go figure.

God bless,
Steven

Day 404: Head To the Hills!

Today was a Hills day. I wasn't completely looking forward to it, but I knew either way it was going to love it in the end. Our classes were pretty much all led by instructors from Hills, which was a nice twist to the usual, but at times it was hard to catch up (especially when Aran Puddle was teaching. He's a loose cannon, talking about everything at the same time). The student/staff meeting was awesome; I got the opportunity to film bits and pieces of it for future videos. Leadership Vision Night was amazing. Then again, it always is; but this time was especially amazing. Pastor Brian spoke on the most recent developments, including the announcing of the new church plant in Germany, the school project in South Africa, and the new campus building for the city. They Skyped with the pastors of Hillsong Germany (of which the husband actually went to the college back in 2001) and Phil Dooley (one of the most respected pastors that moved to South Africa to pastor the church there), which ended up being hilarious. If there's one thing I appreciate about Brian Houston, it's that he's genuinely himself. In fact, it's the spirit of the whole church: that you're genuinely yourself wherever you serve. I believe this is one of the biggest reasons Hillsong church is so highly respected.

God bless,
Steven

Day 403: Well.... Nah...

Today was another one of those random lazy days where you have things in mind to do, but you end up not doing any of that. Funny how I find myself in these kinds of days a bit too often. At least I have a roof over my head, food on my plate, and good friends to keep me company. God IS my provider, after all.

God bless,
Steven

Day 402: New Vision, Classic System

Vision Sunday is a big deal for the church. Every year Vision Sunday shares with the congregation the vision that the church wants to carry for the year, and it tends to be an amazing experience. This year, the theme was the church as a tapestry and a scarlet thread as the blood of Christ. My favorite part is the video presentation; they do such a great job in expressing the heart of the vision, and it definitely leaves me inspired about my filmmaking. I found this year's Vision Sunday to be a real empowering time; Robert Fergusson's message on the costs of living as a Christ follower opened my eyes. The main point that got me was the cost of leaving; he was speaking about how whenever we move to a new and different place, we have to leave some things behind. This whole college thing came with the cost of leaving my family, my friends, and the world I was so used to; I've lived in San Francisco almost my whole life, and living in Sydney never crossed my mind. It's amazing how God works; but then again, I'd rather have Him guiding me through all this than trying to do it myself. Just saying...

God bless,
Steven

Day 401: A Record 85 Years In the Making

So today was recorded as the hottest day Sydney's had in over 85 years; wanna know how hot? Try 108º F. Even the shade wasn't enough to cool you down!! The summer weather's biggest weapon is the humidity; sure the sun is hot, but the thick humidity and warm winds can really hold you down. So how did I manage to live through this day? By going outside only once! Thank God for whoever he gave the idea of air conditioning; it was the hero of the day. On a lesser note, the flat is looking a bit cleaner now that the guys that lived here previously have more of their stuff moved out; now we can start rearranging the place for better convenience.

God bless
Steven

Day 400: The New Guys

This morning with TV, we were a bit shorthanded. We had 5 people for a 9 person task, so we were a little worried about the situation. However, we got the surprise of new recruits; two of the new semester students, and a friend from my intake; it was my first time seriously training people, so it was interesting and fun. Intensives are just amazing still; I'm really looking forward to next week's. Chapel was intense; there were a couple technical difficulties in the studio, but our awesome team pulled it together to make it work. Right after chapel, I met with a few of the college creative "big guns" about plans for bringing more creative media into college life; let's just say I have a lot of work coming up very soon. In the evening, I got to help out with Wildlife TV; usually whenever I serve as a camera operator, I don a ninja outfit to blend in the darkness (as well as have some fun while it's happening). Sure, I got a lot of weird and humorous looks from people, but the fact of the matter is this is what youth is all about: being fun, creative, and giving the youth of Australia an awesome environment to encounter God. How can it get any better? Maybe some more ninjas would be cool...

God bless,
Steven

Day 399: I Am Sisterhood, Again.

Sisterhood's back! One again I have been placed to help with TV, and I honestly can't wait to get started next week. Intensives are just awesome; couldn't be happier with the knowledge flowing with each session. Today was the longest day, since we ended at 5:30, but at least my evening was relaxing. I got to hang out with some great friends and try garlic salt; I pretty much dropped two chicken breasts on a grill pan, covered both sides with garlic salt, and prepped some rice to go with it. It's scary how I'm getting better at this with practice. If only my mom could see this...

God bless,
Steven

Day 398: Passing the Torch

Because of intensives, I get Mondays and Wednesdays off; I figured I could take advantage of this to just wind back and chill (literally due to the heat). The only thing that happened was that I was asked to help with Powerhouse again; just in case I didn't mention this at any point, I informed my superiors that I couldn't continue helping with Powerhouse this year because of my new responsibilities with college. However, my replacement needed training, so I pretty much had to save the events department this evening. Seeing all the new students visiting PH made me look back at how I came to find PH as not the place for me; I just couldn't find it personally enjoyable. I don't know what it was, but for me, I didn't enjoy being there. Serving there was much better, but I'm just relieved that I don't have to be there any more. Then again, they might need my training services next week...

God bless,
Steven

Day 397: Team Leadership, Part 1

Intensives began today. Last year it wasn't the most memorable parts of my HILC experience, but they're there for good reason. This year, I wasn't too sure of what to expect; it could go in so many directions. For the sake of time, I'll just say that the intensives were awesome, and it's looking to be one of the best parts this time around. I will also mention that chapel was epic; every team was on target, and it made us super excited for what comes next.

God bless,
Steven

Day 396: Core Teams Rule

Today was the first day off of the college semester, and for the remainder of the semester, Mondays will be my day off instead of Wednesdays. Wednesday had the advantage of being a halftime break for the week, but Mondays have the advantage of being a three day weekend (win-win situations). The best part of today was the chapel core team meeting. Here's the roster:

Sean AKA "Toast" is our second in command overseeing all of chapel
Lazaro (my old roommate) and Aaron are overseeing the musicians for chapel
Jared and Joelle are in charge of the backup vocalists for chapel
Liz oversees the worship leaders for chapel
Anja is in charge of the events/stage managing side of chapel
Yana (our only core team member from first year) will be overseeing the choir
Leon will be in charge of items, which are special performances
and lastly, Josh and I are heading the TV department (and myself with videos)

This team together could very well be unstoppable; we're all full of energy and ideas to make this semester more than awesome. I don't doubt at all that it'll be exactly that.

God bless,
Steven

Day 395: Commitments

Sundays tend to be one of the best days of the week. Today was no exception. Last night before I went to sleep, I got a message from one of my leaders asking if I could pull a last minute rescue for the TV crew since they were shot on people. So naturally, I accepted. I couldn't ever really turn down an opportunity to work on TV, so it was awesome to do that. I then served with choir, which was so much fun doing again; it's nice to be back in action like this. After the service, I went to pick up a cable to connect my camera to my computer; the reason why is because I recently got a 30 day trial for a stop motion program. It took a good 20 minutes to put a two second video together, but seeing how simple the program makes the process makes me want to strongly consider getting the full program. The evening service was awesome too; we got to hear from Sanga (always a blessing, this guy), and all the college students got prayed over. This is just the beginning of the week, but I can't wait to see how it unfolds.

God bless,
Steven

Day 394: Dr. Seuss's Lair

This day was awesome!! It started late due to sleeping in, but once I was out of bed, things got rolling. I just relaxed through most of the afternoon, and around 4:15 I headed to church to help with the evening service. I was asked by my friend Hanna to sub for her since she was at the Powerhouse Retreat; I'm nothing if I'm not flexible. This time, I got to reacquaint myself with the prez desk; to be honest, it's not necessarily my favorite responsibility in the studio, but someone's gotta do it. I pretty much had a crash course on how to operate prez, and fortunately I was trained by Rob and James, two of the best in the crew. The service was very good; Julia A'Bell gave a fantastic message on selfless living. TV is becoming more natural to me now that I'm getting more involved; I definitely stoked to see what gets accomplished this semester. When I got home, I found this massive fort constructed in my living room; turns out the guys finally got the chance to do what we wanted to do in 223. We were messaged by our friends Katherine and Caitlin that they wanted to have a big dinner with us (Caitlin is my roommate Michael's girlfriend, and Katherine is one of our good friends that finished college last semester. They actually made dinner for us, and we ate in the fort while watching Louie Giglio's Indescribable. It reminded me of when Alison and Becca would make dinner with us, so it's like nothing really changed. Boy, do I miss my mom's cooking...

God bless,
Steven

Day 393: From Rookie To Not Rookie

Right now, a lot of people from college are currently at the Powerhouse Retreat, a 3 day thing far from Sydney where we get another opportunity to have a full out God encounter. Things is, Powerhouse and I haven't really gotten along for the past year, and based on the testimonies I got from friends about last year's PH Retreat, I figured I would be better off not going. So I didn't; benefits did come of this though. For one, I got to be one of the last people to say goodbye to my friend Celeste, who is on her way back to Texas for only God knows how long. We all fought the urge to get all teary-eyed, and fortunately we succeeded. In all seriousness, Celeste was one of my best friends in college; we helped each other out in so many ways we were practically brother and sister. That's my favorite part of this college; it isn't just a studying environment, but more of a family environment. Especially here in the city campus, being so close to one another makes it so easy to build strong, lasting relationships with people; I could go to every building here in the Meritons and visit a friend of some sort. Now that second year is here, we see how many of our friends from last year have gone forward in their lives, and those of us that remain have the opportunity of building our friendships even further. Today, Donny and I got to help out a new student, a South African named Josh. He's in the same situation I was in last year, where everyone in my flat went to the retreat and I was alone in an unfamiliar place with no one to hang out with. I refused to let that happen to him, so we took him out for lunch and walked around the area to help him get familiar with Sydney. He's a cool guy, and I hope this year will be as much of a blessing as it was for me; one thing us veterans have noticed is that this new intake of students are considerably younger. Many of them are straight out of high school, so their young mentality shows in the way they act around here; so far, I've heard at least 4 people in the Meritons tell the kids to be quiet when they're out in the courtyard making noise while people are trying to sleep. I know I wasn't THAT loud a year ago, but I understand the situation completely. All I know is that I need to start filming, and soon. College News won't put itself together.

God bless,
Steven

Day 392: Game Time, or TV Time

Today marked the first real school day of my second year of college. It started at 5:30, since our rehearsal time was 6:15; as a result of that, I am very tired as I'm typing this blog. The rehearsal went alright; there were a couple delays, but we kept it together on time anyway (at least TV was ready; the others, not so sure). TV had such a strong team today; we even got help from our old leaders, Logan and Vanessa! Our first session was awesome; we got to hear from our college vice president, Mark Hopkins, as he gave an intro to college life for the new students. The other sessions featured Julia A'Bell and Catrina Henderson, our principal; it's awesome how God put such an amazing team together in this church. Every single leader in the church is an expert at what they do, so naturally we can consider it an honor to be taught by them. The rest of the day was dedicated to my dear friend Celeste; this was her last night in Australia (at least until she can have enough funds to come back), and thank God she had a blast. we invited a bunch of her closest friends to come and celebrate her time here in HILC, and we all hung out and munched on all kinds of snacks while listening to music. I found this day to be an awesome one; the next two should be interesting, since most of the college is away at the Powerhouse Retreat. Ah, the memories...

God bless,
Steven

Day 391: Team Building Missions

I'm a bit concerned about how my inner nerd can break out on occasion. I don't mind it, since some of the best parts of my life growing up were consumed by nerd-dom, but I wonder if that affects the way people see me. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but one can still wonder. Take today for example; the nerd I know I can be truly shined today. I found myself reliving the glory days filled with comic books, video games, and music that no one around me listens to; but it's these kinds of days that make me appreciate what I've been through to be here at this present day and age. Checking my email I received a newsletter update from Marvel, since I signed up for it way back when I was all about Marvel comics. They were advertising some big Fantastic Four news in an upcoming series, but what really got my attention was something I had a small phase of a while back: wallpapers. Instead of trying to describe them, I'll just post them to see for yourself:



You gotta admit, this looks pretty darn awesome. I love how these superheroes that have been around for decades are getting a proper introduction to the rest of the non-comic book reading world.



Josh and I want to plan an event where we get as many Americans as possible to invade the local movie theater to watch Captain America: The First Avenger while wearing red, white, and blue; seems like a good plan to me. But until then, I only have to wait a few months before this one is unleashed:



It should be great. The afternoon, as much as I hate to say it, was consumed by something called Phantasy Star Online; Donny, Josh, Kappa, and myself went through an entire four player game from beginning to end; fortunately our gaming skills made it possible. I know that seems like a waste of time, but I found it to be something memorable; if anything, it showed me what connections I have to people in college. Sure, lots of people went out to the beach or in the city; but we enjoyed just hanging out in a living room sharing laughs and incredible game experience while trying to complete these massive quests across many worlds. We celebrated by having a rather large dinner (since it's actually Australia Day, similar to the 4th of July) and watching a few movie classics. This was our last real day of vacation; kind of glad it got to end with a bang.

God bless,
Steven

Day 390: Enrollment 2011

This morning was one that gave a little deja vu to my brain. Last year, I went through this incredibly long process of enrolling into college; from payment, to student ID, fieldwork, accommodation, and eventually enrollment, I was there for quite a while until everything was settled. This year was surprisingly shorter; the only thing that took a while was the line for getting in. Because God provided the money to cover my first semester, I didn't have to go through the payment section which was the longest line the whole morning. I was pretty much done within 15 minutes, so it was relieving. In the afternoon I went with Celeste to Eastgardens so she could get a couple things taken care of; I just realized I haven't mentioned that here. My good friend Celeste will be heading back to Texas on Friday because of financial struggle; probably the roughest news I've heard in Australia so far. God's in control though, so we know she's coming back soon. Tonight, we had connect group with our new group leader Damien (to whom I credit recommending the 50mm lens for my camera). We pretty much just had a barbecue/farewell party for one of our good friends, Bart. Bart came from the Netherlands to intern in Australia for two months, so now he will be returning home; he's a really cool guy, and I'm glad I got to know him. After connect, Donny, Josh, and I went out for a "flat walk", just walking through Moore Park and talking about life and other silly things; I seriously couldn't imagine college life without them. I feel so blessed to have them as flatmates, and with our new flatmate Michael, things are even better. I'm telling you, this year is going to be good!

God bless,
Steven

Day 389: Good Friends, Good Pizza

To be honest, I had things planned for today, but I just didn't do many of them. However, did pick up a couple shirts I ordered before my break; very pleased with them. I remembered that Threadless has this deal that if you take pictures of you with your shirts, each picture goes towards store credit. I'll probably being doing that sometime soon, but we'll see. It's really cool seeing so many new students around, but I feel like I won't be connecting with many of them. That doesn't bother me though, so it's all good.

God bless,
Steven

Day 388: We Meet Again, TV

This morning marked the true beginning to my return. A few days ago, my former TV oversight asked if I could help in the Sunday 8 a.m. service, since it seemed to be shorthanded. There was honestly no way I could pass on this opportunity, so I almost instantly agreed. Upon arrival, I set up a few cameras and was on standby; what happened later on was I had to switch from 1 to 3 since our original camera 3 operator wasn't going to make it. We managed to have a great team, including a German named Johannes who I'm getting better acquainted with. Johannes is one of the best camera operators I've ever seen; he knows his craft, and I always consider it an honor to work alongside him (I learn quite a bit too). After the service concluded, the guys of 236 decided to invest the afternoon in rest; it's been a crazy past few days, and we really just needed to wind down a bit. It was cool to do that, because I don't feel as exhausted (despite not having done much lately). Tonight's service was awesome though; we got to hear from Louie Giglio once again, and it was an absolute blessing. It's so cool how many connections Hillsong has to other amazing churches and pastors; throughout the year, there will be people from different nations coming out here to speak to the Australian congregations. I honestly can't wait for that.

God bless,
Steven

Day 387: Going Back to Church

This morning I reunited with my flatmate Josh; it was like one of those bromantic movies where the friends see each other after a long period of time. We went out for breakfast, and after that we stopped by church so he could print out some papers. We met up with Donny and headed to the city; Josh and I decided that we need new phones (since the one I had last year is basically retired, and his was lost) so we visited Vodafone to see if they could help us. We ended up getting these Nokia phones for a reasonable price, and now I only have to pay $29 a month for credit (compared to $30 a month last year; that dollar I save could make all the difference, I think.) Afterwards, Josh and I went to Saturday night church, where we had the honor of seeing Louie Giglio preach on speaking up about what we believe in; since it's a two part series, we get to hear the second part tomorrow! The whole time we were listening, I couldn't help but think of the DVDs my dad got me; Louie has been one of my favorite communicators, and to see him in person gave a whole new light to how God is using him. I pray that God will use me to a similar degree; probably not in preaching, but in whatever calling I am given.

God bless,
Steven

Day 386: The Last Night

The only thing you need to know about today was the fact that I got the privilege of seeing Skillet in concert tonight in downtown Sydney. Even the fact that the line for the concert went all the way down the street and around the corner showed how big of a fanbase they have in Australia, and they certainly put on an epic show. Fortunately, I got to use this opportunity to give my stereo microphone a final test (because I don't think I'll be in a louder situation anytime soon), but I'll get back to you on that soon. The highlight of my week, hands down.

God bless,
Steven

Day 385: Dark Alliance

Today, there were only two missions: to welcome my new roommate to flat 236, and to help Donny find a video game that means the world to him. Around 11, Michael (new roommate) came to the flat to drop off his stuff; at this point he's the only one with a girlfriend, so he has reason to be outside more often. Around noon, Donny and I headed out to Eastgardens to find this game called Balder's Gate: Dark Alliance 2; after a long time of searching and searching, I eventually found it. To quote Gabriel Iglesias, "The look that came over his face was like he got a gift from God.". He was almost at the point of tears, which was kind of funny. After an amazing lunch at Oporto's, we came back home; I can honestly say the rest of the day was invested in this game. Pretty much against my will. But it matters to him, so I'll oblige and play along. I also got to see Laz again; he flew in this morning, and seeing him again was awesome. Things should be better with all of us this year; I just hope we'll be as excited about Josh coming back tomorrow.

God bless,
Steven

Day 384: Reunions are cool

I spent the majority of this day trying to organize my room in preparation for my roommate, who is coming tomorrow. Lots of cleaning and sorting of things, and then lots of saying hi to friends I haven't seen in a long time. At one point I tried to see my creative oversight Mary about the video team, but she was out on an important meeting so that's gonna have to wait until Friday. Things are moving a bit slow at the moment, but very soon it will all be in top gear once again.

God bless,
Steven

Day 383: Sydney, we meet again..

So the past 3 days were all part of my return to Australia. It started on Sunday, where I went to the Garcia's church to say bye; it was nice for them to pray for me, because Lord knows I need all the prayer I can get. After that, we went home so I could pack the rest of my stuff/hang out with my dogs for the last time until December. Once my sister and Derek came to the house, we went to have dinner; saying bye to the little guys tends to be the hardest thing for me, even when I was there with them all day. Sausage was the one that knew what was going on; he gave me a goodbye lick and watched me go (one of the most emotional goodbyes in my life. Not kidding.) After an awesome dinner at Benihana's, we headed to the airport; I said bye to my family and headed to the gate. After 17 hours of travel (including not having a January 17th), I arrived in Sydney. I got picked up by Alison and Becca, since Donny was working at the time. So I headed to Toys-R'-Us and reunited with my good ol' flatmate; he's extremely happy I'm back. It's felt as if I never left, really; the only difference is that I haven't really done anything so far. I am still in need of finding my phone in my room, as well as building my new bed frame before my roommate flies in tomorrow. God's been so good to me so far; not to mention it's nice to be back. This next week will be a bit low key, but that's cool; that should give me enough time to get used to 70-85 degree weather.


God bless,
Steven

Day 380: Gettin' Murried

So I haven't written in my blog for the past few days... but I have an incredibly legitimate reason: MY SISTER IS MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!



It's about time, really. I am so happy for her and her new husband/my new bro-in-law. I couldn't even try to describe how it all went down, so I'll just say it was a massive success and we're all overjoyed/extremely tired from how long this day was. And to think all this has taken place the day before my return to the land down under... this should be interesting..

God bless,
Steven

Day 377: Tales and Tuxedos

So today was fun! I got to catch up with Hannah while hanging out at Stonestown and Westlake, sharing stories of the past year. It was great to hang out with her, considering we were trying to find some time to do so since I've been here. Just traveling in that area of the city made me realize how long it's been since I was home; my sense of direction was out of whack. I did, however, manage to not get completely lost, so it's all good. After that, my dad, Derek, our friend Brian, and myself went to the Men's Wearhouse to pick up the tuxedos for the wedding; I know the guy from the commercial said "You're gonna like the way you look, I guarantee it.", but... I would say it's ALMOST accurate. Don't get me wrong, it looks nice, but if the pants are supposed to be that large feeling, then I guess I'll let that one slide.

God bless,
Steven

Day 376: 3D, Oh the Mystery

I saw Tron: Legacy in 3D this afternoon with my dad =)

God bless,
Steven

Day 375: The Pursuit Completed

Today, through the grace of God, I worked alongside my good friend Johnny to make my vision for a video project a reality. My intention was to take two days to film everything, since I figured I might not be able to get all the shots in one day. My dad accompanied us so I could show him exactly what I'll be doing in second year. With my trusty Canon Rebel T2i and 50mm f/1.8 lens in hand, I was ready to make this happen. It's amazing what happens when you put something to prayer; I was actually blessed with getting ALL the San Francisco footage today, and completely on schedule. I got to take the images in my head and place them in my hands, and very soon I will be editing this video in preparation for the Exchange Film and Art Festival. This day was fully blessed; thanks for everything God.

God bless,
Steven

Day 374: Kitaro FTW

In exactly one week from today, I will be on my way to Sydney to start the second half of my journey. How quickly time has gone. I was just starting to get accustomed to San Francisco life again, and I'm already having to get ready to leave. But this week should be good; lots of people to visit/hang out with, working on my video project for the Exchange, and eating lots of food for hibernation (just kidding, I won't be doing that). Church today was nice; it's good to be in the house of God, isn't it? I feel that way. After that, my family took me to my favorite sushi place in the world, Kitaro. I loaded up on all kinds of sushi, and I'm still feeling the satisfaction now. I also found time to watch a movie called Hachi with my dad and also edit the video from my family's vacation. Now I'm finishing the evening by watching Are You Being Served? with my sister; tomorrow's a big day, so I'm gonna need sleep.

God bless,
Steven

P.S. Sushi rules.

Day 373: Family Matters

I love my family. I couldn't ever think any other way about them. God gave me incredible parents that are more than a blessing, and I have a sister that's awesome at life; plus I can't forget my dogs who bring all kinds of joy to the Gomez household. We spent the morning with my grandma, who I'm also grateful for having in my life; when I was little she helped raise me, and now that we're here for her we can show appreciation for that (I certainly can). My sister decided to steal me for the day so we could hang out, which was so much fun. Our afternoon was pretty much hanging out with our dogs, taking her to see Tangled for the first time (which she ended up liking; not surprised at that, it's an awesome movie), and getting some grub at In-N'-Out; nothing's quite like the double double. I just finished watching a disc of Are You Being Served?, a British comedy that I watched with my sister growing up but never really understood until recently. When you're a Hispanic kid, hearing British talk can be confusing, but now that I've been so well exposed to that sort of dialect, I found it much easier to understand. In less than an hour, the countdown to my last week of break here in the States will begin; may God have mercy on my soul.

God bless,
Steven

Day 372: Out In the Field

Today was a special father and son day. My dad took me on a trip to his office, since I've never seen where he works. We made a stop at IHOP for breakfast, just sharing random stories from the year that just ended. When we got to my dad's desk in the office, I saw that he sticks to his tradition of keeping pictures of our family from way back in the day (like when I was a chubby bunny); that made me smile inside. On the way back, we contemplated seeing Tron: Legacy in 3D, but I think we'll save that for sometime next week. Most of the afternoon was spent at home, which was unusually colder than normal. I mean you know it's bad when you can see your breath in your living room despite having all doors and windows closed, right? It sure was intense. Around 4:30, the men (as in dad, Sausage, Albert, and I) headed out to pick up my sister from work; upon return, I decided to try out Lego Star Wars for the Wii (Derek frequently brings his Wii over, and we play often). Let's just say my inner Jedi truly shines in this game, and I'm looking forward to wasting a couple more hours of my life playing it haha.

God bless,
Steven

Day 371: A Half Family

So as you would notice, there's a lot of posts today; this is because due to a lack of internet access in Disneyland, I couldn't update it. The last several posts were a culmination of what I could remember without being way too vague. But now that I have caught up with the system, I can tell you about what REALLY happened today. Let's begin, shall we?

I've had little experience with family reunions. When they happen, it can be either straight up awkward or full on fantastic; it's a shame that with my real relatives, most of the time it's awkward. The main reason for that is my Spanish; it's not exactly up to par with every other Hispanic in the Bay Area, but I am doing the best with what I've got. It's weird how being in Australia helped improve my Spanish, considering I've been surrounded by Spanish speaking people my whole life; THAT'S awkward.... anyways, back to my point. Today was indeed a reunion, but with someone I consider family, even though they're not. Sure, we share the last name, but we're not actually related (it just so happened that we would share the Gomez title I guess). I was invited to visit my "half sister" Adriana's youth group, called the Unit. I commandeered my mom's car for the evening and headed to san Carlos (I brought along Family Force 5 to keep me company and lighten up the mood for the trip; perfect choice). This youth group is definitely one of the most solid I've seen in a while; I was glad that I got the chance to check it out. Another super big highlight was reuniting with my mini me from the New J era of my life, Cristian. We both didn't recognize each other at first; for me it was due to his new haircut, and for him it was my new hair style (leave it to the hair to confuse us.... man.... "I whip my hair back and forth, I whip my hair back and forth [just whip it]..") Once he recognized me, he gave me a big hug; I have missed his hugs. He was just like my little brother, and to this day I see him the same; hopefully I can hang out him sometime soon. Oh, and it was also great to see their mom too; looking back at how much our families used to hang out, it's amazing how quickly time flies by. Worship was cool, and the message was spot on; it was on activating your anointing (study David's life pre-Bathsheba, and you'll learn how). Afterwards, we went out to chill, and it was great to catch up on things with Adri. I'm strongly considering visiting next Thursday, but we'll see for sure. Today, a success? I think so.

God bless,
Steven

Day 370: A Day With Ma Dogs

Today was all about the dogs. Well, not literally, but you should know what I mean. It was mainly chilling with them in the morning, using a penguin huddle to stay warm in this cold winter weather (kind of contrasting that I used "chilling" with "staying warm"). In the afternoon, my dad and I took them out for a walk in Brisbane (pronounced "Brisbayne" unlike Australia's "Brisbin"), but for some reason Sausage wasn't really in the mood for the big walk; probably because of the cold weather again. A reflective part of this day was the walk; I noticed that most of the time the little guys would stay close to me and my dad, either next to us or behind us. Every time I glanced down, they would up at me with happiness; those are the moments that make me realize how much I'll miss home when I return to Australia. Even something as small as missing out on two years of my dogs's lives makes me a wee bit sad inside, but I know that regardless of what happens I have a God that is mighty. I find myself in a place that's secure thank to His grace; life for me isn't as hard as others in the world. I have everything that's considered an essential: a roof over my head, food, clothes, a bed, and other material things that people of today can't live without. I am blessed to have a life that's "easy", where most of everything is already taken care of for me; but that won't last for long, since soon I'll have to take care of the big things on my own. So I shall enjoy the easy life while it's still here.

God bless,
Steven

Day 369: Doctor, PLEASE!

Today was all about appointments; literally. In the morning I had to visit my orthodontist, Dr. Fred Warren. So near the beginning of last year, my lower retainer got seriously damaged, and near the end of last year, they wouldn't fit on my teeth at all. Seeing as how I was halfway around the world, I couldn't get them fixed, so it had to wait until today. At first, they seemed to be repaired, but when Fred was readjusting the wires, he discovered a massive crack on the front. Turns out all the times I was trying to get them to fit made the brokenness even worse. So now I have to wait until they get my retainer fully repaired; at least my upper ones are fine. The other thing is I have to make contact with a dentist/orthodontist in Australia so I can stay in procedure with my orthodontist here. After this appointment, I had a little bit of time before I had to go to my regular doctor for a physical/shot check. The perks to this visit is now I know my height and weight, and I only had to take the standard flu shot. After this trip, I could head back home and enjoy the rest of my day with my dad. Father and son days are the best =)

God bless,
Steven

Day 368: Well.. =)

Let's just say that this was a chill day. Very little happened on my part, but it was a God given day, so it was blessed either way. Sometimes I feel like I can take these days for granted; like, I won't do much that's progressive, but I can disregard the fact that every day of our lives is a gift from God. Do you ever think about this? I tend to a lot when these days come up. If you've never seen it that way, try it out; you just might get a whole new outlook on life (see what I just did there? That's a Grinch reference!!)

God bless,
Steven

Day 367: Homeward Bound

Today was the big trip back home to San Francisco. We headed out around 6 a.m., since there are some big things coming up that we have to get ready for. We made it home around 1 p.m. (I think?), and the rest of the day was half rest and half prepping for my sister's wedding. I know I'm generalizing quite a bit with this entry, but.... I don't mind ;)

God bless,
Steven