New York

So back in October, Southwest listed a bunch of cheap flights that you had to purchase within 72 hours, so I convinced a few of my friends to come to New York with me January 21st-24th. What seemed like a long ways away is now here and I just completed day 2 of our trip. New York is one of my favorite places on the planet; I had been here previously when I was a Junior in high school with my choir. This trip has been quite a bit different because my choir trip had everything planned out for us and this one is kinda just.. we're here - let's go with it!

So I'm in New York having spent $140 on a round trip ticket (flights regularly at least $400 and on top of that we got a free hotel for the weekend, story on that for another time). This has been such a great trip so far. I just got back from watching the Lion King which was INCREDIBLE and I am absolutely worn out but wanted to write a little bit about what has gone on during the course of our travel. We woke up this morning and ate breakfast in our hotel and set off with a subway map and our 7-Day Unlimited MTA cards towards the Brooklyn bridge. The bridge was pretty awesome, from the highest point over the East River, the view of the city in the background with the sun reflecting off of the water and peering over the skyscrapers gives yourself a good reason to wake up and explore.

After crossing the bridge, I went to go find some broadway tickets for cheap but unfortunately did not want to see any of the shows that they offered tickets for at the TKTS booth; so I called Disney to get prices on the Lion King. After a 14 minute phone call, they told me my card got declined for absolutely no reason... thanks Bank of America. So I took the subway back to Manhattan to Times Square and got cash from the BofA ATM and bought the tickets with cash at the ticket booth and then was hit by the fever that caused me to walk a few more blocks and get tickets to go see Wicked tomorrow - both shows by myself because the rest of my group is into Museums (lame) and not Musicals. I then took the Subway back down and met up with the rest of the group at an Italian restaurant called Vapianos. We then explored several shady shopping spots throughout Chinatown being asked to purchase fake I.D.'s, Raybands, Gucci purses, Rolex watches, and pretty much anything else you can rip off/steal and try to sell someone. Then we toured Little Italy and hopped back on the subway towards Central Park.

Central Park was covered in snow and beautiful. We took several pictures and watched people who chose to spend $15 iceskating, fall - I love people watching, especially in NYC (I've had my fair share of great laughs so far this weekend). Then we checked out a huge Apple Store with a circular glass elevator, then FAO Shwarz which had a the huge Piano from Tom Hank's BIG that you could stand on the keys and make music. Then we headed to eat at the Carnegie Deli and while anyone who has been famous in the past 50 years has an autographed picture there, going there was our first and only mistake of the trip. We spent way too much money on way below average sandwiches that we were conned into buying under pressure. Although between watching Hayden eat Liverwurst, making fun of our food, and admitting our being owned by the fame of this restaurant, and totally getting Tourist'd - it was a memorable experience that I will laugh about with these five guys many more times.

After that I went back to our hotel to change and watch the Lion King which was seriously incredible. On my way out of the theatre and all the way home I got to talk on the phone to a beautiful girl named Molly Lane Mynster which was such a blessing because I really, really like that girl =). Anyway I'm off to bed and can't wait for another day in the Big Apple tomorrow!

Memphis!

What a week! This summer is going to be incredible, God has blessed me with an incredible opportunity this summer to work at Sycamore View. I'm so blessed to be learning from Jim Hinkle; and also be alongside Justin and Emily. I have been excited about this internship from when I first got a call from Jim in early November. At the time I was talking to him and several different churches including my home church and also where I worked last summer in Conroe. After much prayer, I made the difficult decision to come here, but I am already so glad that God guided me to Sycamore View this summer.

There are so many neat things going on at Sycamore View and also the city of Memphis. On Monday, Jim drove us around the city sharing with us what God is doing in this city - it is so exciting. I hope I one day have the faith of families like the Hinkle's and Ross's and so many others who are constantly seeking out God's call even after they discover it isn't an easy one to follow. Tuesday we started planning classes for the summer and also had a staff meeting. There are so many amazing ministers at this church to look up to, I hope I soak in as much as possible from them.

Most of the teens are finishing school this week so I am excited about getting to spend more time with them soon. It has only been a week but I have learned so much and had so much fun just being in the presence of an awesome God working through people who have devoted their life to follow him! I am so insignificant, yet God can do incredible things through anyone for His Kingdom. So often I rely on my own strengths and abilities to reach people to bring them closer to God - how unfaithful is that? It is so easy to look at the things that God does through us and get prideful; but it is all Him working through us.

Jim told us that one of the ministers that he interned under when he was in school had a plaque on his desk that said, "now performing for an audience of one." We don't need to try to impress others with our abilities that God has blessed with. It's not about us, it is all about him. I can only do so much; but with God all things are possible. I am so excited to see what God does this summer at Sycamore View. I try to dream big and pray that God will do things in these teenager's lives that I never thought were possible.

Summer

God has blessed me so much. I drove home Saturday and was greeted by a dinner with my parents, grandmother, Amy, Sarah, Jason, and my nephew Aidan! It is so good to spend time with family, especially when you are a Willis because then you have an excellent family =). In all seriousness, I could not be more blessed with the parents and siblings that God gave me. This becomes more and more evident to me today as I grow older and realize all that they mean to me.

After an extremely busy semester filled with papers, readings, exams, social club events, ministries, friends, work, and everything else I pour my time into it is great to have a week to do absolutely nothing besides enjoy the people that I am with. Home is quite different than I remember it growing up. I wake up and Dad is already solving transportation issues, Mom is making her co-worker's jobs easier, Amy is teaching in Dallas, Sarah is being a mother, and Aaron is working at Loews in Searcy. So I am home alone and get do things that I love - watch Seinfeld, watch movies, read To Kill a Mockingbird, or play Xbox. It is so nice to just relax.

I look forward to the afternoon when my parents get home and I get to spend time with them. On Monday I got to spend the night with my Dad. We went and visited a couple that has been visiting our home church and our goal was to just make them feel welcome - it was great getting to know them as well! After that we went and visited a man that we look up to in the Hospital who is not doing very well and wasn't very coherent. I am thankful that I got to see him; it was a reminder that I am entitled to absolutely nothing in life, even health. Experiencing things like this encourage me to dream big and pursue those dreams because I can't waste what I have been given and among the things that I have been given is great health. There will be a day when I am completely dependent on the people around much much like I was when I came into this world. So why not bless people with the health and energy that I have been given today?

What was great about this night was the opportunity to drive around Houston with my Dad and be in conversation with him. He is so wise. Whenever we get to spend time together our conversations are never simply surface level - we always end up talking about the deeper meanings of life and our relationship with the creator. I experience God's love when I spend time with my parents; they have the purest, most genuine, and loving relationship that I have ever seen. I know that anyone who gets to spend time with my parents walks away blessed because of their profound and deep relationship with God. I can't wait to find someone to love as deeply as my parents love each other.

I think the best part of the night was coming home and my Dad showing me a thread on TexAgs.com that was hilarious. One poster had us laughing to the point of tears about something highly inappropriate but hysterical - just face it we've all been there and these moments are generally the most fun and memorable.

I am enjoying this week at home, but I can't wait to go to Memphis on Saturday and start working at Sycamore View! I know God has big things planned this summer with the teenagers there and I can't wait to be apart of it. Please pray for me to pursue God and God alone this summer. If God is the center of everything we do, especially our relationships, nothing in this world should be able to get us down for long because he is Joy!

Whew

What a relief... Have you ever been working on something with everything you have, for an extended period of time? It can be extremely difficult to persevere through set backs or any type of discouragement during the process. For ten days starting 10/24, I was pledging a social club at Lipscomb University... but it's over now, what a relief! It was one of the most difficult yet rewarding experiences of my life. Pledging was a mere ten days but felt like it was lasting for all eternity. Now that it is over it is almost hard to believe that I made it through because it is so surreal, because it had taken over every single hour of everyday these past ten days. I was able to grow so much as a person throughout the pledging process.
My second full free day of pledging was yesterday, and what an awesome day it was. I appreciated my time so much more, and I walked around campus a smile on my face all day. It was so easy to see what awesome things that the Lord has given us such as friendship, joy, and love in which I was surrounded yesterday.

The Way I Was Made

I want to live like there's no tomorrow
I want to dance like no one's around
I want to sing like nobody's listening
Before I lay my body down
I want to give like I have plenty
I want to love like I'm not afraid
I want to be the man I was meant to be
I want to be the way I was made

This is the chorus to one of my favorite Chris Tomlin songs. Its been something that has been on my mind throughout this summer. I was made by a God who created everything and yet still wants to have an intimate relationship with me, one of his smallest creations. He has given me so many personality traits, talents, and other various things that I often overlook. Yet he gave me these for a reason, what a comforting feeling. Today's world is constantly broadcasting that we need to be like this or that, but God has his own plan. The beginning of Jeremiah 29:11 says "I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord." My God has something so different planned for me and my life than what the world says. The world wants me to conform to accept everything, while I agree I should respect other peoples opinions, by no means should I ever accept any lifestyle other than the one my Lord has made me for. I hope I can completely ignore man's opinion on how I should conduct my life, and only listen to the creator. I hope and pray everyday that I can live the way I was made.

Final paper

I just wrote my final paper of the year, and the beginning section of it we were asked to write about our personal theology of ministry. I came up with a mission statement that I feel is very accurate in describing my outlook on ministry: "My mission, as a follower of Jesus Christ, is to have a positive effect on the lives of everyone I meet, letting Jesus' love overflow out of me and into their lives." It is something that is very easy to say, but hopefully God will help me actually put it into practice.

Freshman Fun

Freshman year has been so awesome, I have met so many unique and exciting people. I especially have come extremely close to all of the people on my floor of the dorm. So today someone came up with an awesome idea while they were at the store to buy a blow up pool. So we brought it into the lobby on our floor and it took about 30 minutes and alot of lung capacity to blow this thing up, because it supposedly holds up to 195 gallons of water. We finally get it blown up and are about to fill it up with water but our RA tells us it would probably be a better Idea to put it in the shower room. So we drag the thing over there and had a blast just sitting and talking in the pool and hanging out for a couple of hours talking about all year long. I'm glad to see that it is finals week and the fun has still not died up here, and we can still goof off and have fun doing anything together.