I now have Skype. Search for JHoll13. :)

I know I told everyone I'd update this more as we got closer to Moving Day, but the fact is, moving is a lot of work! But it's a good process, because it forces you to go through everything you've ever accumulated in your 24 years on this earth and really evaluate whether or not you really need it. Also, it makes you realize that you have more pairs of shoes than years in your life.

Now that I'm moving, though, I realize that I've missed out on a lot of the practical education one needs to survive in this world, like basic car maintenance and knowing that Wal-Mart has boxes littering their floors for the taking if you go after 11 pm. To be perfectly honest, I've been keeping my window open in the hopes that Peter Pan would come and take me to NeverNeverLand. But the sad reality is, we all have to grow up sometime.

And it's really not so bad. I've been exploring this strange new world, and it can actually be quite exciting. Like buying furniture - that's always an experience when you realize your primary means of transportation is a 1/2 ton hatchback with questionable acceleration under duress.

But there is no better Guide for navigating the storms of life than mine, and through Him, I can do all things.

My, things are moving along rapidly! I'm down to about $200 a month that I still need. I spoke to the housing director at OMS this morning, and they have an apartment all set up and ready to go for me. I'm trying to figure out the logistics of moving and when all of that will take place. Meanwhile, I'm working quite a bit at Hallmark, and we just had our closing program for Kid's Time. We held a mini carnival for the kids, and they had a great time, though the adults were a slightly exhausted by the end of the evening. My parents are going on a trip starting Sunday, so I'll have the house to myself for a little while, which will be good practice for Greenwood. I just can't believe how quickly things are happening. A lot of the decisions I have to make are contingent upon things I don't know yet, like whether or not I need a new car. The one I have does okay on short trips, but anything longer than a couple hours makes it unhappy and uncooperative. Plus, I have to decide what to take when I move. I have about 400 books that will need a home. And I had no idea how much work it is to be an independent adult! I've also been working on some pre-training exercises for OMS. Oh, and my computer has been out of sorts lately. All of this to say...

God amply provides!

Please pray for my friend Jill. She's in a very difficult place right now.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! To be honest, I was asleep for most of it. Those sunrise services take a lot out of you, you know?

You should have all received your letters by now. Furthermore, if you go to a UB Church, your pastor/mission director also received one. Since then, a few things have changed. I'm still moving to Greenwood at the end of June, but the training will now encompass the entire month of July, so that should be an interesting experience. Several people have sent in donations, so the total needed at this point is below $4000. My church has been incredibly amazing and generous in this process, both individuals and as a whole. I can't thank them enough for their support these past few months.

I'll be posting more regularly as time goes on, so be sure to check back in. Also, if you'd like to be put on a particular missionary's update list, let me know.

Enjoy the sunshine!

To those of you who understood anything from the last post: Bravo! You're definitely in the minority. :) I think it's one of those cases where I knew what I wanted to say, but said it all at once and in no particular order. Ah, well. Such is an example of how my writing is going these days. I'm never quite sure what is going to come out.

My e-mail inbox is finally showing that there are no new messages, so for the moment, I'm left with only a few things left to do. I've been working for the Census Bureau, which has turned out to be the quintessential government program. Half the time, I think they are making it up as they go along, and the other half is spent twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to give me something to do. But, I am meeting new people and finding out some things about my community that I never knew before, so I suppose it will all balance out in the end.

Otherwise, I continue at Hallmark and with activities at my church. We had four kids accept Christ on Wednesday night, which is incredible, because sometimes I think they aren't even listening to what we tell them. It just shows that we can never really know the influence we are having on someone.

I had the opportunity to speak to a couple new groups, both very rewarding experiences with lots of good questions asked. At one, there were several former missionaries present, so I was able to get some good advice about traveling in foreign countries and gathering information. As the time gets closer, I alternate between feelings of excitement and feelings of extreme doubt. But if I really believe God is in control (and I have to, because what other alternative is there?), then I know everything will work out for the good.

We were discussing Logos in Bible study the other day, so I'd like to leave you with this thought.

Remember: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Logos = Word = Christ

10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11 so is my WORD that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55: 10-11

My Sunday School class has been reading unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity...and Why It Matters by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. We finished it this past Sunday, giving me the opportunity to reflect on the book as a whole. There are six essential points: that 'outsiders' see Christians as too hypocritical, too focused on the get saved mentality, antihomosexual, too sheltered, too political, and too judgmental. For the most part, I agreed that Christianity does seem to have a bad rap in society today, though I'm not sure how much of that is our fault, and how much of it can be ascribed to other forces.

What really gave me food for thought, though, was the final pages in which the authors printed responses from several notable Christian public figures on the question of where they saw the Church and the Christian image in thirty years. It wasn't something I'd considered before. Like many who have grown up in the church, I have lived in a fairly safe bubble. Not a great deal has changed within that bubble in the past few years, and though I can see a general decline in people's views of Christianity, it has yet to affect me in a major way. Despite that, however, I can say with all honesty that I would hate to be someone's example of what it means to be a Christian.

Anyway, I was thinking about where Christianity might be in thirty years, and I started thinking about where we were thirty years ago. Did anyone expect the changes we've seen from 1980 until now? I don't think anyone could have predicted any of what we've experienced since then.

I don't really have a point with this, I guess, except to recommend that you read the book for yourselves and tell me what you think.

Next book: Answering Islam by Norman Geisler