smacked in the face with a 2x4

I think there are only two constants in life. Two things that never change no matter what comes their way. The first is the love and grace of Yahweh, and the second is the beautiful weather in Monterey. Wow. What a gorgeous day (view insert of our parade field on base).

I have finally broken down and bought a cell phone. I am back in the loop (view insert).

I visited a new church today called Shoreline Community Church. It's located within Monterey, about ten minutes from base, and it reminds me a lot of GCC. They have core classes 101 through 401, they have parking lot ministry, a great children's ministry, a praise band that rocks, and the message presented by the pastor is amazing. I feel extremely blessed to have found this church because there were no ads for it in the yellow pages (weird huh?). Someone told me about it on Friday night and I researched it online.

Class has been going very well, considering I study all the time just to get by. I have never (literally, NEVER) studied this hard for anything in my life. That includes when I came through DLI four years ago for Serbian-Croatian. The Lord has been faithful though. I have an increased energy during class and I find that I can concentrate at night when I need to study.

Speaking of class, I have also been blessed to have a great section. There are ten of us in the same class from all areas of the military (Navy, Air Force, etc) and we have grown close just over these past few weeks. Eight of the ten went with me to the Joneses house last night for some dinner and a study session (surprised?). It was a blast. They are great to have in class and bounce Arabic off of.

Happy Birthday Laurakaga.

I had a mandatory APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) this past week. The way it's set up on this base is, if you score high enough you are exempt from the mandatory company PT (which is every Mon, Wed, and Fri). Well, the mandatory company PT was getting really old because it wasn't really working me and it was taking up a lot of my time. This only motivated me more to get a good score on the APFT. And YES! I achieved a high enough score to be exempt from company PT and do my own physical training during the week. I figure it will save me about four to five hours a week.

I have been praying, for over a month, for someone who I can consistantly pray with. About a week and a half ago one of the guys in my class just walked up and asked me if I wanted to pray with him three times a week before school. Have you ever been smacked in the face with a 2x4 from God? I am excited just writing about it! What an answer to prayer!

I don't think I will be able to keep my five a month Starbucks commitment. I'm sorry to those of you who will now take me off of your top 8. I'm at four and it's only Feb 5th.

Tomorrow on base there is a DIA briefing. I think I'll go just to see what they offer. I'll let you know what I find out.

I was running through downtown Monterey (view insert if you forgot how beautiful it looks) and listening to Blessed Be Your Name. What an awesome song. It gets me pumped up everytime I hear it. Especially on warm beautiful days. "Blessed be Your name, when the sun's shining down on me..." Oh, and it's cool that I can amaze the Lord with my faith.

When Jesus heard this, He was amazed...
~Matthew 8:10a