thank you God for sending Rev Terrance Nichols to our 2K3 retreat; part of me feels bad for him though; azns are SOOO unexpressive sometimes in worship and sermons... (someone plz say "sho, yo right!" or something :D) in any case, i hope i don't lose the messages he gave us; i hope i go deeper and am willing to leave everything behind... i know God is probably using him in such a great way...

so, without spewing out EVERYTHING into my journal about how retreat went, i'll just put down what i thought was noteworthy...

-i should never ever forget that being a christian means you need to go DEEPER with christ; if you don't, you should seriously deny being a christian in the 1st place... i won't forget nichols' reference to Alexander the Great and his cowering soldier sharing the same name; what he alluded to was so true; either change your name, or change your ways. how can we call ourselves christians in the 1st place if we can't demonstrate how much we're in love with christ and loving life, fishing for men? remember, if we don't we're just doing the "woulda, coulda, shoulda"... part of me wishes laura and lydia joined us, but i can't comment, because i didn't hear colleen wong's sermons; perhaps they were equally effective or better...
-God bless CTCC's sound system; i never realized how much i took it for granted until i plugged 2 efx pedals into a surge protector @Redwood... you could hear some buzzing noise throughout the speakers, and i had to force myself to not tune down the guitar(when i did, you couldn't hear my guitar at all) that static when playing in worship out of embarassment... all in all though, after a few minor mishaps the 1st day, i was able to settle in... ah yes; worshipping in casual clothing... on sunday... i've only done that in church, ONCE...
-i really appreciated terrance nichols' attempts to get to know us college guys during one of our discussions; it showed he cared... he sat in with us, and talked with us...
-basil was around most of saturday... dude, that guy's funny... right up there with louis, and yes, louis cracked me up during retreat as well...
-campfire was also good; giving thanks, playing songs, eating smores later(mmm... now i want some...)... only complaint was my lack of a flashlight, making it hard to see... again, being at retreat just makes me see how much justin has changed spiritually...
-laura said "chee-sze" thinking that might've been taiwanese for cheese during our church photo; i of course had to tell her that "chee-sze" was a taiwanese swear word, and that i personally found that out when i copied my mom saying that word and got rebuked for it :D
-saw mars(so bright, it was rather easy too); and a buncha other stars; DAMN! when there's no smog, the sky is BEAUTIFUL! just like God intended! indeed! the heavens DO declare the glory of God!
-bball: first off, i didn't take care of myself too well the few days prior to the retreat, so i was playing with a stuffy nose; that contributed to my fatigue; i felt it HARD when i was resting on one side of the court defensively and waiting for the others to come up... but excuses aside, the current young side of the youth group IS very energetic, calvin is going to be an even greater baller, and they won, i can't contest that... our team was a youth group-young adult team of george, louis, jon, justin and me(strangely enough, this team was comprised of 2 brothers, 2 cousins, 2 collegians, 2 youth groupers, and 1 former counselor to 2 former youth... think about that...)... it was fun, cause there were highlights, despite our loss:
1)i landed 3/4 hook shots... that IMO was huge...
2)2 blocks... on grace's friend(why didn't i ask what his name was? oh well)
3)it was easy for me driving into the lane... however, part of the reason we lost was cause right after going in, i just passed it to someone, and then it got stolen... also, on some fast breaks, i couldnt get the ball and land the shot...
4)jon was AND1 during this game... haha... i remember him rolling the ball between michael's legs, running behind, getting the ball then shooting it... that was funny...
(and also not part of the 2 games i played, but... i think maybe i can actually do a pump-fake layup... i was surprised to get it off a couple times during my practice... if i work on it, i could get a pump-fake reverse layup... work on my ballhandling and foot speed, and i might be able to do more damage on the inside... also, note to self: work on post moves, like getting the hook shot DOWN)
oh yeah, basil called me walter macarthy :D just like a buncha others did; do NOT call me paul pierce until i can get my spin move down and can throw pump-fake layups all over the place, as well as nail perimeter shots anywhere...

but yeah... i pretty much threw out all the thoughts i had in general about retreat... i like how it seems as time passes by just how much God has matured all of us; this year we did ball of course, and hard, but we were also paying attention to God when it mattered(i think)...

oh yea, part of me sees how the greater our gifts, the greater the responsibility we have to exercise; the guys stayed up LATE on saturday(going til 4:30; ack!) i had to excuse myself around 1:00(and that was already pushing my biological clock) to go to sleep; when God gives you a desire to worship and the gifts to do it, you gotta follow through...