It's the Final Countdowwwwwwwn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5Ym5g3DR1M

If these guys ever make it to the US Cellular Center, I'm there!

I remembered this video because I'm sort of in a "final countdown" of my own right now. I found out my MBA program will allow me to take my final two courses at the same time (one is a prerequisite for the other). This means I'll now be graduating in May 2007! WOO-HOO! My last actual class in the program will be on April 16, less than six months from today (178 days, to be exact).

While I'm excited to be graduating seven months earlier than I had anticipated, I'm a bit nervous about these 13 weeks of class. The two courses I'll be taking are supposedly among the most time-consuming, which means even less free time than I'm experiencing now. For quite awhile now, I've wanted to get other people involved with helping to lead worship on Thursday nights for Watershed. Now it's not just a desire but a real need. I'm excited to see who God will bring forward to help out with this area of the ministry. If you wouldn't mind, I'd appreciate your prayers.

New Plans for Christmas

Today God answered my prayers in a very clear way. As I mentioned before, Heather and I were considering travelling to Kenya over Christmas to be with the children of HCI. It turns out that most of the kids will be leaving Oloitokitok (LTK) over the holiday to stay with people from HCI's social work department. I thank God that the children will have somewhere to go, but I'm a little sad that this means we will be unable to visit.

So for now, I guess it's time to start praying about the possibility of a third mission to Kenya next summer. This is another instance in my life where I will jot the plans down in pencil and hand it over to God to erase or confirm.

On the topic of Kenya, I came across a news article the other day that made me really happy.

http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=1143959454

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State to form child adoption authority
By Standard Reporter

The Government will establish a central body to handle child adoption. Vice-President, Mr Moody Awori, said many committees that deal with adoption were inefficient, adding that the process was open to abuse.

Awori said budgetary allocations and legal requirements for adoption of children, especially from other nations, should be addressed.

"In particular, I hope we will be able to ratify The Hague Convention by the end of the year," he said.

Speaking at his Jogoo House boardroom yesterday where he chaired the National Adoption Committee, Awori said the Government would ratify international conventions on adoption and harmonise them with local laws in a bid to control the process.
The Vice-President said the interests and safety of the children should be the priority.

Awori called for sensitisation of the public on the issues so that the rising number of orphans could be adopted.

"Due to HIV/Aids the number of orphans has grown to about 2 million … They need parental care," he said.

The chairman of the committee, Mr Justus Munyithia, urged the public to change its attitude on child adoption.

And the director of Children’s Services, Mr Ahmed Hussein, called for a review of laws relating to adoption to streamline procedures.
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I'm really excited to see news coming FROM Kenya that acknowledges the issues the country is currently having with adoptions. The need is so great, and I pray that God will continue to work in the hearts of those in positions of authority to make some changes!

Zip! Zip! Zoom!

I'm feeling worn out. I keep wondering lately if my life will ever slow down. Work has been hectic, my classes and serving at Watershed take up a lot of time, I have unfinished projects at home, and I just found out every weekend except for one is booked on my calendar through Thanksgiving (as are the three weekends following Thanksgiving, as these will be the final dates of my next MBA course). I'm sure everybody has felt spread pretty thin before, and that's a period of my life that I'm experiencing right now.

So, about that free weekend. I was just asked to help lead worship at Breakaway in Iowa City on those exact dates with a good friend from my college days. It would be fun to serve with him again, but should I do it? I have a hard time saying no to things, even when I know my life is already really busy. On one hand, it would be nice to know that there's one weekend before Christmas that I wouldn't have to go anywhere or do anything (the weekend happens to be before finals week, so that might make it stressful enough). On the other hand, I know that God has given me my abilities in music for a reason. This is something I'll need to pray about before making a decision.

Despite being busy, I can't complain about life. God has been teaching me some important things lately, for which I'm thankful. So, maybe life will get less busy when I finally graduate (again) in December 2007, but I'm guessing the busy-ness will fill up with something else. I just need to stop living in the future and try to "be all there" where I am today.

On a completely different note (no pun intended), I've just started taking private sax lessons again. I can't believe it's been nine years since I graduated high school and decided to fully concentrate on guitar instead of saxophone. Pastor Tye (the middle adult pastor from my church) is teaching me. We've only met twice so far, but he's a great teacher and very encouraging. Hopefully I'll get my "chops" back and even improve beyond where I was when I left off.