I want this to be for God...

Well today I finished making my initial round of talking with adults and leaders that I look up to concerning about this mission trip that I'm looking at through Go Now Missions. After talking with Bobby, he reminded me or helped emphasize on not to get my hopes up too quickly. Sure God could very well hand picked me to go on this mission trip that I'm considering, but in the past I thought that God had planned for me to be in top concert band back in high school or at Texas A&M for college. Back then I would knock on one door and hope that God answers on the first try. Now I'm learning that I need to be patient on knock on several doors by seeking information and doing my research until God answers. Sure I realize that if God intended for me to go on this mission trip that He would continue to open doors for me. But like I said, I don't want to get my hopes up too much. Sure it would be awsome to be able to go into another country to play my trombone or sing for the pleasure of God and spreading His word.

Looking back, I kinda did this with First Baptist Choir and Orchestra when we went to Seattle and Victoria, Canada during spring break. We held a concert just about every day at a different church during spring break, and every day I saw God's presence appear by the way people reacted as we sing. It was just a wonderful sight to see and hear the little children in the crowd sing with us on "Jesus Loves Me." Hearing their little voices singing along with us just brought a smile to my face every time. Also every church that we went to had a different song that impacted them the most. At one church, the song "Season of the Soul" really touched the pastor and church members because they have been going through a rough patch since their church had a split in members. From our stand point, we hoped that the song helped encouraged that church with the thought that even though they are in some hard times now, that by putting their faith into God there will be much grander times ahead. Another church there was a song that talked about sunsets, and as we were singing the sun just so happen to be setting. Now that was a sight to behold.

If this mission trip in Europe is going to be anything like the trip that I just described, I just can't wait to go Europe and be where God is. I'm trying not to put the thoughts that I will be going on this trip for sure right now, but I know for sure now that I have several friends and family encouraging me, praying for me, and willing to help me for this cause.

We have a name!!

Well earlier this evening my oldest brother gave me a call letting me know that him and his wife has come to a conclusion on what to name their son-to-be. And the name is...Ethan Bradly English. Now I could have misspelled the official name, but hopefully this gives you the idea. As I start to think about it more and more, as well as saying the name more, the name is a good choice. It just rolls off the tongue and sounds like that the name will be a good fit. Now the next thing I can't wait for, is my future nephew to be born!!

As for everything else in life, so far so good. Classes been keeping me busy, and like I said in a previous post, I don't have much of a social life right now. So when it comes right down to it I don't have much else to say other than I have been keeping up with my school work. However I realized and starting to count down the days (15 days as of Tuesday) till I order my class ring. Here on October 10th and 11th, I'll be checking out the designs and be placing an order on my class ring. Then on December 8th I'll be getting my ring at a ceremony that my university will be holding. So I suppose ordering my class ring, looking foward to seeing more pictures of my future nephew, and figuring out the next opportunity that I have to come home are the few or only things that I'm excited for.

Sunsets...

I've come to realize that whenever I take photos I much prefer to take ones of nature than of people. Here are a few pictures that I have taken:

What is in store for our lives?

A couple of weeks ago at the BSM I was scoping out the Go Now Missions packet as to what all mission trips they are offering this coming year. One trip that caught my eye was this mission trip to Easter Europe for musicians. Here is the trip description as of right now:

Musicians are needed in coffeehouses, drama clubs, sports events and making
relationships. Come and join the AGPG Teams and be a part of changing
the lives of students village to village!

This trip is calling for 5 students and will take place on June 1-16. When I first saw this I thought that musicians in coffeehouses probably means that they are looking for guitar players or something along those lines instead of a trombone player. Then that weekend when I went to the Focus conference, this trip came back to my mind constantly on the Saturday night service. I thought it was kinda weird, but I was glad that I had my journal with me so that I could empty my thoughts that night. If God is calling me to go on this trip, I just want to make sure that my heart is in the right place as well as that this trip is going to be for God and not myself. With something to this magnitude for a mission trip, I want this to be for God. After mentioning this trip to family, friends, and pastors majority of them seems supportive and will be praying for me. However, when I first mentioned the trip to my mom it seemed like that she doesn't want me to go on it. I'm not quite sure why I got this impression, maybe that since I'm her youngest son that she still sees me as her baby and worries that I'm looking into doing thes kind of trips. I really don't know. But in the end I hope that she is supportive and encourages me on this matter.

What have I gotten myself into...

Well, week four of the semester has past and I'm still here. I think I'm starting realize how much work and effort it takes to do this semester of 18 hours. Yeah, alot of people feel sorry for me when I tell them the number of hours that I'm taking, but all my effort and time has been going into only 6 of the 18 hours of classes that I'm taking. I believe I'm starting to the realization of the time and effort for one senior level math course, but I just didn't want one I wanted to go for taking two senior level math courses. Actually wanting to go for two senior level math courses isn't quite true, that's just how the semester fell. In a sense I'm glad though that my homework assignments are due one week later from the date that it's assigned. So far I've been able to keep up with things, but in the process I haven't had much of a life. However I'm not quite sure if that's a good thing or not. There's this girl that I would very much like to know better, but the past week whenever I tried to look for her she isn't around. Then on Friday when I was focused on going home, I came across this girl as I was heading out. I suppose that moment that I was heading out was a prime time for me to talk to her, but I was really focused on going home. Hopefully as I seek a bit more of a social life that my school work doesn't suffer.

It feels like it's the end of the semester instead of the beginning...

Usually the first week of classes reveals the easiest week for the class. If that's the case then by the end of the fall I will be wishing that I'm graduating this December instead of next. The way my schedule is set up, Mondays and Wednesdays are going to be the busyest longest for me since those days I have my education classes. Also with being the music intern at FBC, my Wednesdays are even longer. This past Wednesday I was non-stop from classes and at FBC for 13 hours. This then made me realize how important it is for me to have my homework done on Tuesdays instead of wait till Wednesday to work on it. I'm just hoping and praying that I'll have the strength and endurance to survive the semester.

Classes wise, I'll be busy doing homework for my Advance Calculus I and Introduction to Probablility Theory. As for my education classes, one of them is a continuation of the education course that I took in the summer and I'll be doing pretty much the exact same type of outside activities for the class. The other education class is just going to require a good bit of reading to do. Then lastly for my music classes, at this point I'm enjoying every minute of them and treating my music classes a scape goat from the other classes. Don't get me wrong, at times I enjoy my other classes, but they get so cummbersome and I need something to keep my interest in school (fortunately that's where my music classes come in). I'm excited about Trombone choir because there are 13 of us right now and we recently played a piece that calls for 14 trombones. Even though we were unable to fill the 14th part, but the piece sounded like a pipe organ with the tone quality of trombones. Along with that, Dr. Scott is looking at taking the trombone choir on tour to play at some high schools in the Houston area. Who knows, the trombone choir might be playing at my high school alma mater.

I think that brings ya' up to date on what's going on with me. I hope that you are having a blessed week.