JT had a housewarming party today (I have to say he did a pretty good job furnishing and decorating his place for a bacehlor), and I had an enjoyable time chatting with people (chatting with jerry is *always* memorable), making up our own versions and playing with jt's magnetic darts, and eating the food. I also had the chance to talk for quite some time with a handful of people about what living a comfortable lifestyle entails and about our own desires to lead that kind of life. I have to say, it was really interesting, because I heard viewpoints that were different from my own. Someone brought up the point of the desire to live life to the fullest - that she didn't want to miss out on any experience in life, but in order to do so, she had to make xx amount of money. Her point wasn't necessarily that she wanted more money, but that she wanted these experiences, and usually, that translates to more money. I think ultimately there's nothing wrong with taking pleasure with what God has given to us, but it boils down to whether or not we are satisfied with what He has blessed us with (and in turn bless others), or whether we always want more. My feeling is that the more you get, the more you want - it's in our innate sinful nature - but how do we turn away from that kind of lifestyle? Sure, we all want to experience all that we can, and sure, we all want to live a comfortable lifestyle, but in the end, the question we need to ask ourselves is how do we glorify God through all this? How do we keep an eternal focus? Also, I truly believe that though there is so much to experience out there in the world, the experiences God has for us are so much better. One example someone brought up was going to Europe vs. going on missions trip. Sure, this person could go to Europe, and would love to go to Europe, and finances aren't necessarily the gating factor from going. But in the end, are we missing out on an absolute amazing exerpience in Europe by going on missions instead? Not necessarily. Though we may not get to experience the history and beauty of one place, we instead get to exeperience something totally different - we get to see God working in a totally different culture, and best of all, we get to take part in it. And that in itself is so sweet.

Okay that may not have been so coherent, and I may not have explained our discussion so well, but in the end - and this is where fellowship is so sweet - we were able to just close our discussion with prayer. Despite the lively chatter in the next room, despite the people playing board games and video games downstairs, we were still able to take the time out to intercede on behalf of those who were questioning, those in need.

Anyway, on to other things, on friday after fellowship, the girls had a sleepover at Crystal's house. You know you're getting old when 11:30 rolls around and everyone is yawning and wants to go to sleep. ("I had to get up at 6am for work!") Boy, we're turning into old grandmas. The only odd thing was her weird neighbor who, while we were inside the house, came up to her front door and left two boxes of expired chocolates on her front porch for us. Yeah, creepy. We just left the chocolates there.

I had the chance on Saturday to see sanj & gabe's new house and help them paint the interior walls. Who knew that a color called "blue pansy" would actually turn out decent looking? I then got to hang out with some of the old youth group canaan guys at bob's place. That sure brought back a lot of old memories. I forgot that we used to always hang out there, bored out of our minds. (Which, evidently, leads up to weird excursions like driving down pitch black Marsh Road in the middle of the night). Yeah, hanging out with eric is always entertaining, to say the least.

We had our second Mexico missions training today as well. As a supposed "leader" of the team (although Crystal is doing most of the work, esp with the precarious position I am in), I've had a chance to skim over a lot of the team's applications. It's exciting to see how everyone came to be a part of the team - different people have different motivations for going, but ultimately, for all, is the call from God. For myself personally... man, that's still a battle. A battle between my desire to go, and dangit, that desire just isn't going away ;) and between God's desire for me to be patient and to trust in His will. I mean, at this point, it doesn't look so great in terms of me being able to get the time off work to go, but yet I still continue to go to the training sessions, I still help with all the logistics, and I still do all the homework and stuff in the slight chance that I will be able to go.

Okay, anyway, that's enough rambling for now. I think I probably lost eveyone in the middle of my first paragraph. To come: alice returns to work (woohoo!) and a three-day work week (double woohooo!). :)