Day 250: Parting Some Water

Today was another full day. It started at 6:30 with chapel rehearsal, which went awesome. I got to try out camera 4 this time, and even though I need some more practice with it, it went well. After a powerful Personal Evangelism class talking about how to talk the gospel, we had chapel, which was so good; we got to hear from the one and only Sanga, who I think is one of Hillsong's best speakers. After an hour break, I had my music workshops, where we were assessed on learning songs in an hour; I had so much fun figuring out bass lines without using song charts. The band just went all out today, and I think it showed. The best part of the day hands down was the chapel workshop; we got to learn one of the new songs and try them out as bands. Apparently, the workshop was epic, because I broke a nail in the process (I don't mean that in a feminine way at all.) It was... interesting. Tonight was nothing but connect group, which went great. It was awesome hanging out with some amazing guys, and I feel encouraged being in the presence of such strong men of God. This was one of those days where God was just at work, and I can't wait for tomorrow. Oh, and praise report: Donny has a job interview tomorrow morning. Pray that the interview goes well!

God bless,
Steven

Day 249: Still Waters

Back home, there's a place called Lake Merced; it's your average, everyday park environment surrounded by city life and ducks. I remember walking around the river with my family a few times, and despite the exhaustion I felt afterwards, I had a great time. For the past few weeks, I've been working on a song called Still Waters; it was for a song submission as part of my songwriting class. It was the second time I've ever co-written a song with someone (the first being with my friend Kazemi when we wrote a song about our last year at Competition in Santa Maria), and this time was WAAAAY more difficult. Probably because it was a worship song. If there's one thing I learned from this whole experience, it's that worship music can be the hardest stuff to write; especially if you want to avoid using recycled phrases and such. Fortunately, the song was successfully written and submitted, so I can finally take that burden off my shoulders. Despite a day full of classes with absolutely amazing teachers, the best part to me was having a devotional time. At Hungry Jack's. Accompanied by a couple chicken wraps, fries, and a drink (and all for just $4.95!!). I was reading some more from Isaiah, and I was reading chapters that spoke of God's redeeming of His people. That's the kind of thing that's been on my mind for some time now; I'm glad I read this part of Scripture today. I felt relieved after this day; you know how you have those days where you just get refreshed? Well, that was today for me.

God bless,
Steven

Day 248: Father's Day?

So September 5th is Australia's Father's Day. Quite the interesting twist from the American Father's Day I'm so used to. However, I can say I enjoyed it. Hillsong's advertisement for Father's Day was a mustache; therefore, I found it appropriate to wear a fake mustache for the day (you can see it's awesomeness on my Facebook profile). I served in the 12 p.m. service, which was awesome; the best part was seeing a rap video featuring some cool dads talking about their lives as fathers. Seriously epic. After an encouraging word from Brian Houston, the rest of the afternoon was composed of working on assessments. I finished and submitted 2, but I still have one more left to finish. My evening was hanging out with the guys, eating some amazing pizza and ice cream and then saying bye to a few of our good friends that are heading back home to Sweden. They sure will be missed, because they are such amazing people. It won't be the same without them. If there's one thing I really got out of today, it was a revelation of God's mercy. I was thinking about it a lot for the past two days, and it's just inconceivable how great it is. We couldn't exist without it, and that's what makes God's mercy far beyond what we could imagine. Think about it.

God bless,
Steven

Day 247: The Way Things Were

Have you ever been in a situation where you were taken away from a place you love, and when you get to come back you realize how special that place is to you? That was this morning. Street Teams has been dear to my heart ever since I started, and I absolutely love how it's a piece of home to me. Because of the video I was working on in the previous 3 weeks, I wasn't able to go to the Towers, but today was the day I got to return. Boy, was I happy about that! I got to return to the Lawson and visit a couple of my friends. The first one was Edmund, a Lebanese man who we actually found out is 80 years old and seemed more like he was in his sixties. The Australian aging process is so intriguing... We got to vacuum his place and chat with him. It was awesome. Our second visit was to Rina, a sweet Russian lady who I heard had a heart attack during my absence. Fortunately, she had an operation and had a pacemaker put inside, so she's feeling better now; I was still super worried when I received the news. All we did was clean her bathroom and talk about books; it was nice. When I really think about it, this is all that I needed to have a good day. God has a heart for these people, and I'm honored to be part of placing value on them.

God bless,
Steven

Day 246: Stepping Up To the Camera. Again.

My whole day revolved around cameras. How normal haha. This morning I was supposed to get training on being a producer (fancy name for running TV), but due to a lot of mix-ups during rehearsal I ended up not getting of that. After an amazing Christian Doctrine class on Creation, I was supposed to assist my team leader, Vanessa, with producing, but because of a missing director and another person getting nervous before trying out camera 1, she ended up directing and I ended up using camera 1. It was an awesome morning though!! After that, I had a small break before my last class of the day, which is my songwriting lecture. Today we had Nato, one of the guitarists, talk with us about rhyme and all the technical things behind a good rhyme. After THAT, I had another small break before my call time for camera operating for Friday Night Live (so September 5th is Australia's Father's Day; therefore on Sunday there won't be church in the evening. and since Sunday Night Live was supposed to end then, it was moved to tonight.) I got to use camera 2, and it was so much fun. I'm just glad the day is done; I could use some more sleep tonight.

God bless,
Steven

Day 245: What an apple

Today was great; it's amazing when you think on how God's mercy is so great. The only thing I wish I had more of was sleep, since I ended up working on the Misterhood video until 2 a.m. It was worth it, so I heard; I couldn't see it because I was running a camera for Sisterhood. It was different this time around because I had to work around some random bench with a mannequin that was set up in front of the drums... but other than that, it was loads of fun. After that, I went to a chapel meeting (which will now be weekly) where we gave updates on all the parts of college chapel; so far, things are going great. After the New Testament class with Duncan, I went back home and worked on the co-written worship song; it's fully written, and now all that's left is to record it. After that, there was a little bit of time before Team Night, and I will say that Team Night was awesome. The ultimate highlight was seeing Christian perform a bass solo; that totally made me look at the bass in a whole different light. There are times when a bass can be overlooked, but now I don't see how I could EVER overlook the bass! Christian is such a legend. Now I'm watching Law Abiding Citizen, which is a surprisingly good movie; loads of suspense. That's all for today.

God bless,
Steven

P.S. If you haven't seen the new line of iPods, I recommend checking it out. They are just too epic for words. I can proudly say it was worth waiting 2 years, because now the iPod Touch is WAY better than the ones before it. Now it's just a matter of saving up little by little..

Day 244: On the Couch

Today was full of plans. Most of those plans didn't go through as intended, but it was still a good day. I got to talk with my dad AND mom (which was AWESOME), and I got to go to the city with Donny to bug the manager of the store he wanted to work in (unfortunately, they already filled the position... he's not so happy about that). The only lame thing that happened was getting a call around 9 asking about the video for the men's group tomorrow morning. They forgot to remind me it was for THIS Thursday and not NEXT Thursday, so right now I'm frantically working on putting it together. Lord, help me...

God bless,
Steven

sorry for the small blog today, but I just really need to finish this vid!!