Hey guys! I forgot; I read this passage from the book "The Fuel and the Flame Ten Keys to Ignite Your College Campus for Jesus Christ by Steve Shadrach yesterday and it was pivotal for me, and I wanted to share it.

"Pride: We're Always the Last to Know
The marks of pride are usually evident to everyone--except ourselves! It raises its ugly head in the forms of defensiveness, prayerlessness, comparison, and unteachability. We need to ask ourselves this question: Can I follow well? Most Christians are part of the 'Loners for Christ' club and are against leadership unless, of course, they can be the leader! You might say, 'Oh, I really don't need any spiritual leadership over me. I"m being discipled by God.' Really? The reason Jesus was the greatest leader of all time was because He was the greatest follower of all time and 'only did the things He saw and heard from the Father.' If the Son of God felt the need to humble Himself to spiritual authority, how much more should we?
You'll never become a great leader until you learn how to be a great follower, and if you don't have someone discipling you, it's probably because you don't want anyone discipling you! If that's true of you, why don't you stop right now, turn to the Lord, and let HIm search your heart for any pride or independence. Pray about which individual you could go to and ask them to encourage, disciple, and yes, even rebuke you when necessary. Become a humble, teachable disciplee and God will honor you someday with young disciples who will seek you out in the same way. Rarely have I met anyone who was discipling others who hadn't themselves first been discipled."

Great passage huh? I put it up there because my life has been transformed by discipleship, by becoming a follower first, by becoming a servant first. By realizing that others have things to teach me about God and myself. If it weren't for the many people who have discipled me, I wouldn't be gung-ho about Jesus, I would just be mediocre. Lukewarm....the yuckiest thing to be, in my opinion. Sooo....go out there and get yourself a mentor or disciple-guy (whatever you wanna call it) okay? We need to be humble, teachable servants for this upcoming year. Pray up! I love you all.

Hey all! Wassup? Yesterday Paula and I went to San Francisco for an adventurous day! It was so fun! We got up at 8 and walked to the Marguerite, Stanford's free shuttle, and too that over to the CalTrain Station, which takes one to and from destinations all along the west side of the San Francisco Bay. We got our tickets and rode for about an hour. When we got to the station in San Fran, we decided to walk a couple blocks to try and find the bus that would take us to Union Square. Well, we ended up walking the whole way there, which was about one and a half to two miles. The diversity was already extremely apparent by the time we got to the square. We were gonna meet Paula's college roommate, Rachel, at the square, but she wasn't there yet so we waited for a call from her and looked around for a place to eat lunch. We stopped in the Westin hotel and talked to the concierge. At first we came upon this lady and asked if she was the concierge, and she was like,"NO!!! I'm not, but I can help you find what you're looking for, and if I can't find it, I will direct you to her!!!" with a huge, enormous smile on her face. As she was taking us over to the concierge desk, she was like,"So! How are you guys enjoying your stay?" and Paula goes, (since we weren't staying there) "We are really enjoying our trip to San Francisco." "OH!!! Well, there it is, right over there! Enjoy the rest of your st--time here!!!" he he. We were looking for this restaurant that Abby told me about. Didn't find it. So the lady directed us to some really ritzy places, and we didn't end up eating there. We met up with Rachel and went to this place called Cafe Mason. It was superb! After that, we said bye to Rachel and went window-shopping at this huge Levi's store and then Niketown (heaven for me!) Then we went to a Birkenstock store and then we got on the old school trolley to go to Fisherman's Wharf. We wandered around for a bit, stopping to look at the sea lions, (who were soooo cute and silly) and then look at Alcatraz. We walked through the middle part of the pier, looking at cheesy San Fran memorabilia, marveling at huge fruit produce at the farmer's market, and even getting a strawberry and Ghirardelli chocolate-filled crepe, which was spectacular! That crepe goes down in history as one of my favorite desserts I've ever eaten! Then we walked along the boardwalk and watched a street performer get himself out of a bunch of chains. We walked to the bus stop to get back to the CalTrain station and people watched and stuff. It was great! We were really tired and walked around a ton, and so my upper calves (?) are really sore. We got back in time to get some pizza from Pizza My Heart and go to the Stanford theatre, which plays old movies, and watch the old "The Time Machine." It was pretty good and funny. I had a long but fun, superb day! Thanks Paula. Well, now it is Saturday, so yesterday (Fri) I got to see the Golden Gate bridge and drive over it when Paula took our friend Elizabeth to a job interview. We looked at the marina and got some smoothies (yum!) while we waited for her, and when she came back, she showed us the Army Corps of Engineers' (where the interview was) Bay Model, a huge model of the entire San Francisco Bay Area used to measure the effects of currents and all sorts of other stuff. It was pretty darn cool. Then we just drove home and had a lazy day. We watched "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" and "Sweet Home Alabama" which we both good. I got to talk to Logan, yay!!! That rocked! I also got a letter from Wayne and several other little notes from people yesterday, and that was way cool, made me super happy, made my day! Thanks guys! I don't know what I am going to do today. I know I need to go running cause I didn't yesterday. Prally clean up the house a bit. Mebbe go swimming. Do I sound like a slacker to anybody? I wish I could have gotten a job! Oh well. This summer rockes anyways. Okay, gonna go!

"No!...Oh...oh, it's not cephilopods..."~Nathaniel during TriBond, trying to figure out the connection between snail, octopus, and mussel. (Mollusks)