The Willem

My life is hilarious

// January 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Holy Random Batman!, Life

Jen and Richie enrich my life. I’m so thankful for them. Enjoy the video.

Robot Hilarity

// January 22nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Holy Random Batman!, Life, video

Yakima Happenings

// December 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // I just started writing and..., Life

Well, it has been a bit too long since I last updated. In the future, I’ll be establishing a regular schedule for postings, but I’ll get to that when I know exactly what my weeks are going to look like back in Guadalajara. For now, I’ll just give a few bullet-points concerning everything that has happened during my time in Yakima.

• My first Sunday back in town, I spoke at Solid Rock Family Worship Center, where I have friends and a new section of my church family. They listened intently as I spoke for about ten minutes about our established ministries, our Hell House event, and what we hope to accomplish in the coming years in Guadalajara. God truly is moving in Guadalajara and it was evident that this church now has a heart for the “heart of darkness.” They gave a very generous offering, covering an entire month of my budget. Additionally, several people declared their intention to give regularly over the coming months, which is how most of my funding works anyway. One woman even offered to send Christmas presents to all of our El Colli kids. I was very blessed to spend time at Solid Rock and I am looking forward to giving them regular updates

• Also in that first week, I set up a new email system on the website so people can auto-subscribe to the monthly newsletter I’ll be sending out. If you’d like monthly updates, please enter your name and email on the right side of the page.

• On December 9th, I finished my first semester back in college. I cannot fully describe how good it feels to be done with semester number one. About a week later, I got my grades: a 3.25 gpa. While that isn’t as good as I’d prefer, I suppose I’ll keep in mind just how much I was adjusting to. I expect higher grades in the future, but I’ll be content for now.

• I have a girlfriend for the first time in over four years!  The young woman I am now dating is named Anna. She’s a beautiful and compassionate daughter of God who is a teacher at a local Christian school. I am absolutely beside myself with joy at having found her. Obviously I could go on forever about her, but I’m keeping all of these updates brief, so I suppose I should stay consistent. I’ll post a picture of us at the bottom of this entry.

• I went swing-dancing last night. I never expected to enjoy it as much as I did, but I think I want to pick it up when I come back to Yakima permanently.

• I’ve had dinner at the houses of two prospective Engage students. Both were wonderful dinners filled with poignant questions, great laughs, and gregarious stories. I think both would be excellent candidates for Engage and recommended strongly that they both seriously pursue the program. Honestly, I would recommend this experience for just about every Christian high school graduate. So many aspects of it are beneficial for the age group and it’s a phenomenal learning environment.

• I had my first Reuben. It was delicious. I did not expect to like it, since I’ve never liked rye and never tried sauerkraut, but I was blown away. That’s a delicious sandwich.

• I’m buying a Mac. It just makes too much sense when I’m moving into graphics work, starting musical composition, and potentially doing video editing. I know, I know. I never thought I’d make the switch, but I’m in.

• I discovered that I lost inches while I was in Mexico. I’m actually noticeably thinner. I guess that’s a good start, but I’m still not where I’d like to be.

• I learned how to do drywall. I know, this isn’t exactly something you’d normally write about, but it was actually pretty exciting. Over the last week I’ve been working with a friend who is a general contractor and I’ve learned a lot of things that will come in handy when I have my own house someday, since repairing things is one of my favorite things to do and doing it myself is way cheaper than hiring someone else.

• I miss speaking Spanish. I never thought I’d say that. I’m very much looking forward to picking it back up.

• I received some very exciting news regarding my future as a pastor. It’s confidential for now and in the very very infantile stages, but I’ll be praying on it constantly and looking forward to whatever develops.

• Tomorrow Anna and I are driving over the pass after church to be with the Diehls for a few days. I’m not sure if I’m speaking at church at all, since nobody ever got back to me on that, but I would love the opportunity if it presents itself, since my funding is terribly low and nobody really knows what we’re doing or how to help. I’ll be praying about that tonight as well.

I think that’s it for now. As promised, the picture of Anna and I: