I haven't updated about my job in awhile so I figure I probably should. It has been quite the rollercoaster ride at work and in my life here. I'm finally on a break from housesitting for awhile which is good, I've been hanging out with people from counterculture with some regularity, I joined the bell choir, I'm playing my guitar in the contemp worship on Sunday and I'm also playing at counterculture on Saturday night. I've come down with a cold and crave the comforts of home because of that. I'm missing midweek worship a TON and I'm trying to figure out where I can fit in and use my skills. I'm still looking for a car which is not going terribly smoothly.

I went to the state fair on Sunday which was pretty fun. I had a chance to get to know some of the counterculture folk better which is a good thing. I found out some of the history behind their ministry but there are still giant gaping holes in the formation of it.

As far as my job goes, we moved in 4 families last Tuesday and Wednesday and started their orientation today. Tomorrow is some more orientation but I'll miss some as I have to go and open the offices to have a desk delivered. Our offices are really funny right now because our case manager has a desk and everything else is on the floor. I find myself out there about once a day just sitting on the floor doing things. This afternoon we met with phone companies so hopefully we'll be able to move out there soon. My desk right now at the church is pretty funny. It is a file cabinet. My desk had to go out to the offices for our case manager.

Once we get all set up I'll be able to start working on more of what I'll be doing for the majority of my stay out here. I'll get to start planning recreational activities, looking for resources for the residents and various other things. Right now I'm playing the role of doing everything everyone else can't right now and just sort of checking in on people. Sometimes that's pretty boring but I know that I'm doing it all to help these families out.

Well I need to get back to practicing my guitar, but I am still around and hopefully will be able to update a bit more.

I often have songs that touch my soul. It all started when I was on summer staff at Mountain TOP. We often found ourselves listening to the Counting Crows and there were a few songs on Hard Candy that just plain touched our souls. Holiday in Spain for sure. We also had our fair share of Third Day played around camp, and the one that touched our souls there was Love Song. Off and on since then, I've come across songs that absolutely touch my soul. Saturday night at counterculture, I came across just that, a song that touches my soul. I figured I would share it. I find that in the times we are in there is a struggle for really good songs that fit well in worship. Hymns often have really powerful lyrics but the music is well... dated. Newer songs tend to have really upbeat music that makes you feel warm inside, but they often don't reflect where our hearts need to be in order to bow before Christ. This song sort of exemplifies the way we all feel sometimes. Broken, battered and lost and in desperate need of forgiveness that we can only taste through the things offered to us through Christ. It is in this way that this song truly touches my soul.

Tasting Forgiveness
by Robbie Seay Band
I'm pleading my innocence here
Exposing my arrogance all the while
Hoping that nobody sees
Especially You

I've yielded to all that has cost me
And thrown to the side what is free
And I'm lying if I say that I've figured it out

But maybe this time
The bread and the wine
Will be more than food on my lips

I'm tasting forgiveness
And drinking of mercy
I feast on redemption
Tasting forgiveness

I would venture to say that I had fun this weekend. Friday was the wedding of the Christian Ed director and one of our secretary/technical guys. It was a beautiful wedding and I got to sing in the choir which was great.

Sidenote: I'm really enjoying singing in a choir which I haven't done in a very long time but this is really quite fun and surprisingly enough I am no longer the youngest one in the choir. There are 2 others that are younger than I am which is quite the consolation.

So Saturday I did some apartment cleaning and then headed to counterculture. It was a truly interesting service. It was like normal with some talking then some singing then some talking etc... but the talking was devoted to going over the Psalms. Especially hitting ones that you see joy, struggle, pain, love, as well as anger. It was so great to let the words just speak for themselves.

So we headed out to the Flying Star to grab a bite to eat but didn't get there until 11 and unfortunately that's when they close. So we hung out with some of the people there for a bit while they ate then I headed to Frontier Restaurant with this girl Leah who is great. It was quite the experience. Frontier consists of like 5 different buildings, each decorated differently. They always have a line, and even have signs like rollercoasters (7 minutes to the front) which cracked me up. What I got was pretty good but what was funny was that there were high school students all dressed up in this crazy restaurant post-homecoming. Of course I got something with green chile on it. There is one word for green chile, and that is AMAZING.

Sunday I just sort of lounged around and did nothing. It was great. Yesterday I had a bbq to go to for counterculture which was quite fun. I'm so not a big crowd person but luckily was able to just hang out with small groups of people and really start to know them. My only problem seems to be that the further they go on and on about talking about their faith, the harder it is for me to relate to them. I even find myself having to rethink things that they say so that I don't get too bent out of shape. The hard part is that these are genuinely nice people. I know that God is expanding my boundaries with this though. In high school I was pretty active for awhile with a group called Campus Life, and these people tend to remind me of that group. There are both good and bad things to that statement. Campus Life helped me a lot in high school, but there came a time where I didn't agree with the tactics or strategies used to get people to come. For the first year it was a great thing, as I started to move up in leadership I was shocked at the mentalities and hypocrisy that came out of that group. I pray that this experience doesn't come to that, but it is hard to get out of the back of my mind.

Well I should get back to doing some work. I'm in a lull midafternoon but the rest of the week and next week will have plenty of stories for me to throw out there. It should be an interesting week so stay tuned for some craziness!

Once again, I must say that my prayers go out to those affected by Hurricane Katrina. No one should have to be without food or water in the United States or elsewhere and the violence and lack of control down there is really hard to watch.

This is me. I spent oh... about 8 hours making this board. For those who know me, I am not very artistic whatsoever so even accomplishing something that has mostly words on it is a task in and of itself. The one major thing I learned from making this? Sticky letters are of the devil. To get those things perfect takes time. Lots and lots of time.

I have a post formulating on the book "Blue Like Jazz" by Donald Miller but it is going to wait until I finish the book and perhaps re-read it and take notes.

In other news, I was in a wedding tonight. Well really I sang in the choir. It was beautiful and something I was really glad to be a part of. The ceremony was beautiful, and I can only hope that when and if I have one it will be put together with as much thought and care as this one has. I suppose you never know what God has in store for you as this couple only started dating back in January and both had not ever imagined getting married as one is mid 30s and one is early 40s. It was great to see them both so happy and witness a ceremony that was so tied into scripture. (With the bride being Christian Ed. director with a degree from Garrett it was definitely rooted deeply in Christian imagery and you could certainly tell that God was in that place.)

Well I suppose I should get some sleep soon. I pray that all of my friends and family are doing fabulously and give a shout out to my US-2s and MInterns who are basically all at their sites now. Love you all and have a blessed Labor Day weekend!

This is the view from my desk. People who live just west of here use this road to walk to the University of New Mexico. I get to see all sorts of interesting people walking by. Notice the green. Haha they knew I needed to have something to remind me of home I guess. My apartment is about 100 feet to the left of where I'm looking. Not a bad commute to work eh?

This is my messy desk at work. This was taken just after finishing my poster mentioned in my post above. As you can tell... I like piles. Perhaps that will change now that I have a file cabinet 

This is the view of the Sandias from the house that I was housesitting at last week. This is just before sunset. The Sandias take their name from the spanish word for watermelon as the sun setting reflecting off the mountain makes them this beautiful red. It was a little early to get that in the picture but they are pretty nonetheless. Though the wires are pretty ugly.