Thankfulness

The last newsletter I sent out listed three thing I was thankful God is doing in the ministry here.  If I had more room I would've listed this as well:

4. The freshmen class.  From the outside this isn't a class "the world" would be excited about.  There are only about 5 freshman guys and a handful of girls.  We had more upper classmen recruit for freshman studies (the primary way we attract freshman to the Navigators) at the beginning of this year, and the smallest turn out of students since I came here 4 1/2 years ago.  But I believe God has blessed us with one of the greatest classes yet!  One distinguishing characteristic of this class is their desire to be around the lost-something we've been praying for years.  One freshman brought three unbelieving floormates to his freshman Bible study.  Another brought three different friends to another event.  Another student is excited for a non-believers Bible Study to begin on his dorm floor.  

Please continue to pray that the UofA Navigators would continue growing in our desire to simply tell other "Come and see" who Jesus is.  

Top 10 Reasons why I love...

...The Mullet House!!

10.  This house runs out of many things-soap, toilet paper, paper towels, and airsoft BB's-but Mac and Cheese is never one of them.  My personal favorite is Safeway spiral noodles with a slice of pepper jack cheese melted in and chili powder sprinkled over the top.  Adding a hotdog or two creates pure bliss.

We have a lot of coffee too.

9.  Escalating ideas.  Actual situation from a few days ago when playing with a rubber band in a room full of people.  

"I wonder what you can shoot?  Lets try shooting a toothpick!"

"yeah!"

"Oh you hit Triz!  Here try to launch a sucker accross the room!"

"I bet you can't hit Sarah on the couch!"

*Louiville brings out chopstick*

"Ah that's a great idea!  If the toothpick worked and it was small, clearly the chopstick will be better because it's bigger!"

...so on and so forth...

8.  Dan Devine [or at least a picture of him, ever guarding our kitchen].

7.  At the Mullet, we apply the quickest and most efficient disposal methods towards trash.  Take for instance the Newspaper box that outlived its effectiveness.

Unfortunately, we forgot to close the bedroom window close to the burning box.  The fan in the open window sucking in air from outside didn't help much either...

6. Our newsest favorite addition to the Mullet is a Lion Cookie Jar.  It's always empty, but is prowdly displayed on our counter.  When you open it's mouth it roars at you.  

Take that scary lion!

5. Mullet Dinner.  Highlight in itself.  Though not a tradition, we generally always conclude Mullet Dinner with a YouTube video.   LEROOOYYYYYY JENKINS!

4.  Though slightly ticked off at first, I've become very accustom to the multiple alarms that go off every morning at 8am, thanks to my two roommates who could sleep through the Apocalypse.  One morning Richie's alarm kept going off and he wasn't moving, so I threw a penny at him and hit him in the head.  He still didn't move.  So I threw another one.  That finally woke him up. 

3. Breakfast of Bachelors.  One of my favorite mornings was eating breakfast with John Armstrong.  Without flinching, he put down an entire bowl of leftover pork sausage.  That was it.  Nothing else.  Just straight up pork sausage.

2. No Shave November.  I try to participate, but come on, who can compete with this:

1.  And finally, the Mullet Roof.  Providing the best view of sunsets in Tucson

Tucsonian Sunsets

5:00pm

5:15pm 

5:30pm

5:45pm

Xmas List

In typical Steven Crawford fashion (http://geezwhathello.blogspot.com), I will begin posting my Christmas list on my blog.  Then promptly printing it out so my parents will find it :) 

We just finished our Thanksgiving meal, meaning it's officially Christmas Season!

1. Comfy House Slippers

2. UofA Cat Shorts.  Not sure what color... I wear a lot of black, so maybe white would be best.  Best option would be the old white ones with CATS down the side in red.

3.  New wallet.  Black. Bifold

4.  Clothes. 

There you go.  There'll probably be some ammendments down the road :)

Fan Probs

The fan in my laptop broke a couple days ago.  Unless I hook it up to a giant portable fan it can only last a few minutes before overheating and turning off.  At least I'm not getting the "Fan: Error" message anymore.  

I tried to switch my fan out with my brother's laptop fan.  They weren't compatible.  This was probably good because out of my desperation I hadn't informed him I was taking his fan...

My only option from reading through forums is to send it into the manufaturer.  Quite unfortunate...

It's amazing how much of a crimp it puts in your day when one simply thing goes wrong.

Road Rally 08!

Two days ago I returned from our annual Road Rally, where tons of students from ASU and UofA "go somewhere with some friends to do something for someone else" (according to our extremely vague Road Rally missions statement).

We traveled near Rocky Point, Mexico to build some houses and play with some kids with a group of about 120 from our schools.  It was a blast!  Here's some pictures and highlights

Other highlights include:

• Fishining our foundation on the first day
• Visiting the Morrison's camp and eating delicious Michaka, quesadillas, potatoes, home made guacamolli, soda, and brownies smothered and chocolate chips with peanut butter running through the middle.  It was like I found the Kingdom of Heaven.  I wanted to go and sell all that I had for the "richest of meats and finest of wines."  And run back to our camp and tell everyone about what I found. :)
• Bum-rushing the sandy hill me and Jmo had previously gotten stuck in the sand twice on.  I rushed it at 35-40mph and plowed through the dunes in a 15 passenger van.  It was awesome.
• Having a constant morter fight with my house team.
• Hearing from Alia how she thinks it would be funny if instead of clapping for people we hit each other with chairs to express graditude.
• Carne Seca tacos on the ride home
• The ride home in general
• Not vomiting repeatidly like most of the other people.
• The family whose house we were building cooked homemade tortillas for us both days. The first day was bean burritos and the second was mexican hot chocolate and bean soup. Super delicious.  

Overall it was quite the trip.

UofA

The University of Arizona.

362 acre campus

29,070 Undergratuate Students

6,569 Freshman students enrolled

5,804 Students live on campus.

Pray for my school.

Isaiah Dump

I'm really liking these massive verse dumps. Less typing for me. Seemingly longer posts. A+ in time efficiency :)

I've been reading through Isaiah for the last several months. I try to pick a couple of verses from each chapter that best summarize the main thought. Here's my reflections from Isaiah 24-35.

24:5-6 Universal Judgement
5 The earth is defiled by its people;

they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.

6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up,
and very few are left.

25:8-9 Praise for the Future Kingdom
8 he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove the disgrace of his people
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.

9 In that day they will say,
"Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation."

26:1-2 Salvation comes from the Lord
1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
God makes salvation
its walls and ramparts.

2 Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.

27:6,9 Israel Delivered from Idols

6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill all the world with fruit.

9 By this, then, will Jacob's guilt be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles ^[b] or incense altars
will be left standing.

28:13 Consequence of the Egyptian Temptation

13 So then, the word of the LORD to them will become:
Do and do, do and do,
rule on rule, rule on rule;
a little here, a little there—
so that they will go and fall backward,
be injured and snared and captured.

29:16 A Rebellious People

16 You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,
"He did not make me"?
Can the pot say of the potter,
"He knows nothing"?

30:15 Israel Refuses to Trust in God

15 This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.

31:3 Consequences of Trusting in Egypt

3 But the Egyptians are men and not God;
their horses are flesh and not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out his hand,
he who helps will stumble,
he who is helped will fall;
both will perish together.

32:17 Effects of Righteousness

17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace;
the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

33:5-6 The Fear of the Lord

5 The LORD is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 He will be the sure foundation for your times,
a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure. ^[a]

^{34:? Lost more destruction}

35:3-4 Redeemed Mankind

3 Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;

4 say to those with fearful hearts,
"Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you."

I spent about a month on these 12 chapters. Aside from a lot of vengeance I was consistently struck with how Israel was determined to place faith in everything other than the Lord. Things like Egypt, themselves, their plans, idols, their military, treaties, you name it. God beckons them again and again to place trust in Him, and only through that are they assured what they truly longed for: quietness, peace, comfort, rest, repentance, trust, and security. I love that God won't allow us to settle for a counterfeit source of security and rest.

Hope

Some thougths on Hope.

4For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Rom 15:4)

5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, 
       and in his word I put my hope.

 7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, 
       for with the LORD is unfailing love 
       and with him is full redemption. (Ps 130:5,7)

23Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Rom 8:23-25)

23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Heb 10:23)

14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. (Heb 4:14)

Biblical hope is rooted in the Scriptures

Directed towards the Lord who offers unfailing love and full redemption

Securely believes one day our bodies will be fully transformed by the power of the Spirit

Thanks entirely to Jesus, the Great High Priest, who has gone before us.

What I do with my life

When told that I work for a rain gutter company in Arizona, the nearly predictable response is, "Arizona gets rain??"  Well, not much.  But here's some pics of what I do:

My company

Stylish work gear! (UV protection, too!)

In my profession you get to hang out on roofs a lot.

This is a gutter.  Funny story about this one in particular...  Turns out this color gutter has two sides, each a different color (both variations of red).  And as luck would have it, after running our 70feet of red I was told that we needed rosewood, the other color.  Major whoops.  Guess we'll come back to this job tomorrow...

We use ladders alot. Sometimes the metal is hot and burns my shins

I didn't realize until I started working this job that I actually am afraid of heights.  I hate them. Go figure... Probably the only thing I hate more than heights are extention ladders. Especially when you have to stand them almost vertical to reach what you need to.  I can't deny the beautiful view though. Tucson has a lot of them.

And there you go!  A day in the life of a gutter-guy.

A few words about rest

Refuge.  Peace. Calm. Shelter. Protection. Strong Tower. Shade. Relief. Quietness. Confidence. Security. 

My favorites are Relief and Confidence.  What's yours?

9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;10for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

44 The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD handed all their enemies over to them.

 4 You have been a refuge for the poor, 
       a refuge for the needy in his distress, 
       a shelter from the storm 
       and a shade from the heat. 
       For the breath of the ruthless 
       is like a storm driving against a wall

17 The fruit of righteousness will be peace; 
       the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.

 18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, 
       in secure homes, 
       in undisturbed places of rest.

 19 Though hail flattens the forest 
       and the city is leveled completely,

 20 how blessed you will be, 
       sowing your seed by every stream, 
       and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; 
       the righteous run to it and are safe.

1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: 
       We have a strong city; 
       God makes salvation 
       its walls and ramparts.

 2 Open the gates 
       that the righteous nation may enter, 
       the nation that keeps faith.

 3 You will keep in perfect peace 
       him whose mind is steadfast, 
       because he trusts in you.

 4 Trust in the LORD forever, 
       for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 

Google rocks my world

Two reasons this is a great week for the world.

1. Google released its web browser named Google Chrome.  It's awesome.  Significantly faster and simplier than both Internet Explorer and Firefox.  So innovative you merely need to think it and Google makes it happen.

http://www.google.com/chrome

2. Google also released the third rendition of Picasa, the simplest and most awesomest picture organizer ever.  Now with more photo editing options than ever.

http://www.google.com/picasa/

Yahweh Shalom

We are one week into the school year here at the UofA. Last week was a crazy time of Bible Study recruitment, catching up with friends, and figuring out what on earth my roles are this year. I've never lived off campus before, and always seen the University as my "home," but this year having graduated and living off campus things are a bit different. Instead of me being exhausted trying to balance school and social life and freshman recruitment I watch all of my friends struggle through balancing these priorities and running all over the place. And the current state of their lives is very much like mine consistently was the first week of school: exhausted and drained.

Surely there is a better way to survive freshman recruitment than this.

I was encouraged this week by a sermon from my paster on the name of God Yahweh Shalom, from the call of Gideon in Judges. God says of himself he is peace. The word Shalom doesn't simply mean tranquility but also completeness, wholeness, justice, etc. I feel like my mind has been racing the last couple of nights reviewing all the problems we are up against this year in Navs and in the lives of my friends. It is encouraging to remember that God is my peace and Sovereign over our lives. He works in us even when we fail.

To Lim Tin

Safeway-the grocery store closest to my house-is offering 10 cents off gas prices for every $100 you spend in the store, as I'm sure they do across the country. Little known fact, however, is that I believe you can compound the savings, meaning if you spend $200 you receive 20 cents off every gallon of gas you pump, so long as you use it in the calendar quarter. Safeway also is the seller of gift cards to virtually every store in the Tucson area. Said giftcards count towards your $100 of purchases...

So what if, needing to buy a computer, clothes, food, and whatever other merchandise you need to purchase, you instead buy giftcards from safeway to the individual vendors, thus quickly accumulating thousands of dollars on your safeway card, causing you to be eligible for, say, $3.00 off your next purchase of gas per gallon. This brings your total cost per gallon to roughly $0.48 (price as of 4:15pm sunday as I'm looking out the window of starbucks at the safeway across the street). The pump shuts off after $100 on your credit card, meaning you could pump a total of 208 gallons of gas before the auto shut off. So take your closest fourteen friends (provided they have gas tanks roughly 15 gallons in size), and line them up behind your car charging them half of what you save with your discount. Benefits: you earn $289 of free money ($1156 annually I might add) and your friends get crazy cheap gas. Cons: You're banned from shopping at safeway for life.

Anyone in?

---------------------

In other news, I was meditating on Eph 5:25-27 and stumped when pondering to what benefit did Christ received for himself by his unconditional love towards us. Thoughts?

Free Book

Apologies for the title being slightly misleading. It should probably read "I received a free book," not interpreted "I am going to give away a free book." :)

Every so often I receive Navigators corporate emails which are usually handeled in much the same way campus Navs emails are handled. As an incentive to read the corporate emails, however, a note was posted at the bottom saying the first person to respond will receive a free book called "Making Disciples." Turns out I won.

Here's some great insight from the book on the chapter I was reading today about how to motivate Christians to become disciples:
-Motivation is defined as the force, either external or internal, which stimulates the spirit, soul, or body to respond.
-We motivate others not for personal glory or power, but for that person's highest good and the glory of God
-The individual whom we work with is on infinite worth in the Kingdom.
-The disciple must feel certain we care for them whether they sink or swim
-Let the person learn from his misteaks (Matt 14:23-31)
-Get the person in over his head to create a need inside of them (example: Jesus taught about having the "faith of a mustard seed," then just after that told them to cross the lake in a boat, whereupon a storm freaked them out. After Jesus woke up at told them "have you no faith?" I bet his words from earlier that day sunk in much better).
-We need to make the disciples as independent from the disciplee as possible.
-People may not do what we expect, but are usually more likely to do what we inspect (work related)
-To motivate effectively we must understand people and have the willpower to force ourselves to do what we have determined should be done.
-We will never motivate others until we pray for them, their goals, objectives, and their needs.

A closing thought is Romans 15:30:

I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

Pray hard this year for what God will be doing at the UofA. Pray for the guys in my study. There names are: Micah, Daniel, Jon, Reed, David, and Enrique. Pray Joshua 14:8 for them, that they would grow into men who wholeheartedly follow after and obey God.

Day... 2? Psalm 61:2

Well so much for the consistency idea... Just goes to show you that no amount of motivation is enough for something you really don't like doing. Like blogging. :)

Psalm 61:2 says:
From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Have you ever come across a verse that God brings up so many times that you realize you've memorized the verse without even trying? This is one of those verses for me.

God first put this verse on my heart half-way through my final semester at UofA as I was furiously job hunting. Through this verse I heard God promise to me that He would take me to a place I could never get to myself. I did not want (and still do now want) any ordinary job that I could claim I acquired myself through sheer talent. My faith is in God to provide something to lead somewhere I could never have gotten to myself.

Over the last several months the first half of the verse has become ever more real to me. I call as my heart grows faint. Maybe God won't come through and I will be left installing rain gutters for the next several years. Maybe installing rain gutters, working part time on campus, and laying a good foundation for my first year of marriage will be to much. Maybe Ariel and I won't be able to pay back our student loans after two years like we are praying for. Maybe we'll never make it to Japan to labor among the lost there.

And so I will call to my God increasingly louder, as if from the ends of the earth. I will continue to have confidence that He will never forget about his children. Lord, by faith would you lead me somewhere I could never get to on my own, both during this season of life and every season that follows.

Day 1 - Heb 11:1

Today begins my two week adventure to post a blog update everyday. The theme will be FAITH, because I believe God has been teaching me a lot about that lately.

I will start with Hebrews 11:1, because it is the best place to start with faith, and has continued to speak to me many a time.

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Faith requires me to answer "yes" to two questions found in Heb. 11:6: Is God good, and is He near. I used to ask God to grow me in faith. But now coming to the end of a summer where God has done just that I believe instead that no one truly wants to grow in faith. A lot of people say they do. But when it comes down to it who wants to willingly enter into a place of trusting that what we hope for will come to be. We cannot see it, but are called to cling to it with certainty.

I do want to grow in faith. So far I have applied to more than 30 positions and have not received so much as an interview. I have visited two career advisers, allowed them to pick apart my resume, reworked my "system", and continued to move into rejection and failure. Though God has blessed fundraising, it too is not without obstacles that are out of my control.

Having faith with my finances is believing that, although there is no way I can envision Ariel and I being debt free in two years, I can be sure that the Lord can do this, and certain he will act on his promises.

Background trouble

I'm having trouble finding a background I enjoy. Most of the ones I like render the pictures transparent and make them look funky.

Maybe I'll just change it weekly.

MO

Since feeling convicted about my lack of photos on my blog, I decided to publish a blog almost entirely of pictures. These were from the 10 day work period my family and I spent in Missouri fixin up my grandma's house.

We ripped up the pee-soaked carpet and threw down some hardwood

It took a couple of days

My mom and I hard at work

Dad cut his finger, so we thought it'd be funny if he put his initials in blood under the floorboards :/

When it was finished I called it the "Pride and Prejudice Room"

Next we tackled Grandma's bed room

Ya never know what you will find under the wallpaper... Dad swore it wasn't mold. I just nodded my head and wore a gas mask the rest of the time :)

painting
And done! You can't tell but it's really yellowish green

We called this the "George Washington Crossing the Delaware" room

Some of the wallpaper was peeling off so I stapled it back on. Turns out that was a bad idea...

Primer

Room #3 finished!

Next was the Bathroom

Someone from the '60s thought gold butterfly wallpaper was in style

'nuff said

We had to move the toilet to the front hall. Grandma didn't like that very much. It stayed there three days.

Nice new tile and paint.

We also spraypainted the furniture outside

I found a German leatherbound Bible in the basement from 1850. It was pretty sweet.

We filled a commercial dumpster with stuff from the basement. There's an Atari in there somewhere, but at this point we didn't really care to find it.
Dad's office. One of my favorite memories was him sawing wood with an earpiece in listening in on some meeting he was supposed to be supervising.