Good Intentions With No Action.

So. Yeah.

For a year now I've been trying to attend church regularly, ever since No Other Name* last year. No Other Name is an annual event for grade 6-12 students on Good Friday. There is a speaker, workshops, a concert, dodgeball, a talent competition and communion among other things. It goes for most of the day and it's a lot of fun and you always walk away feeling really good.

A while back a friend invited me to her youth group at church and I went to it every week. This is where my spiritual journey began. I had never been to church except for a funeral, at least as far as I remember. I made a bunch of friends and got to know many more. I'm still meeting people... xP... I actually got to be friends with someone who was my friend in middle school again too. As the weeks passed by I learned more and my group leader gave me my first Bible.

I often forget to thank people for things, mostly because it seems awkward at first and it gets more awkward as time goes by, but I really want to thank her for bringing me to church originally.

Anyways, I went to Youth Fellowship almost every Saturday night, sacrificing movie night with my parents and sometimes my brother. As time went by I participated in a sleepover, camping, chinese new year, valentine's day, and a bunch of different courses during YF.

When I went to No Other Name, during dinner I had a conversation with AL and SB about going to church on Sundays. At the time I had work Sundays from like 10am to 2pm and english service at church was 11-12:30, so I couldn't really go unless I told my boss... They were telling me different churches I could go to that had evening services and stuff. If you don't know yet, I'm kinda shy. Okay, I'm pretty shy, but I'll do things under peer pressure. xP >.> That came out the wrong way... I just need a little push from a friend to do things that I should...

No Other Name was really great.

Anyways, I started going to church on Sundays when I didn't have work and became friends with a couple of the YA (Young Adults) who were on the Worship Team that plays worship songs during service each week. I think it was a month later I decided to finally tell my boss that I would be going to church every Sunday. My shifts after that changed to 2-10pm... I would always watch the Simpsons and Family Guy Sunday nights. It was a sacrifice, but it wasn't a difficult decision. I mean a couple cartoons on Sunday mean nothing and I finally got to go to church regularly.

In September the Worship Team had a video games night and we had a lot of fun. They asked a few people if they would like to join the Worship Team. Of course I did, but I had never mentioned it because ... ya... I'm shy, so this was when I joined the Worship team.

The first time I kida didn't follow the dress code. xP Button Shirt and no jeans basically, but I only found out after the first Sunday I was on the team. Anyways, there was no problem and now I look forward to the weekends I'm scheduled for Worship team. At first I only sang even though I wanted to play bass. Once I got to play bass Irealized singing was better, so I've been learning how to sing while playing. I've also had to improve my ability to improvise harmonies because I'm never Worship Team leader, because I'm too shy and I don't think I'm quite ready to lead the whole congregation in praising Him.

Worship team has been a great experience. I've had the oppourtunity to have more fellowship with the people on the team and I met some other people too. I'm not one to just approach people just because I don't know them...

Anyways, the week before the church moved I went to Sunday School. Sunday school is okay. The Sunday school teachers often ask the group questions and only some of the time is there an enthusiastic response... Ya, ever since then I've been going to Sunday school too.

I also have been going to the special services too, like the candle light service Christmas Eve. Me and some of my friends and the Pastor performed a Relient K song the Sunday before and it was pretty awesome, except that I was sick...

So, ya. No Other Name this year was in Stittsville and it was pretty awesome. I saw a couple people from school. Our easter service ran late though so we were late getting to NON, but the whole day was awesome. I went to the "Sacrificial Non-Conformity" and "Worship is Life" workshops. The band that was playing worship songs and a concert was Atlantic. They were awesome so I bought their CDs. 1 for 15$ or 2 for 20$ clearly I had to buy both. xP I had also bought a CD back at Engage Your World about a month earlier.

Engage Your World was a similar event put on by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Manic Drive played. There was a "mosh pit", but that's not the point. xP They were really cool. They are like my favourite band now. xP

So, actually EYW was being run without a large spending budget, so all the advertising was done by students attending it. There were training nights for how to invite people and how to tell people about your relationship with God and I ended up being a councilor at the big event on Friday. Monday to Thursday there were smaller events. I tried inviting a few people, even one I didn't really want to, but felt like I should, maybe it was God telling me to. In the end only that one person went to the event, but only on Wednesday. Friday was way cooler. Oh. I even got to help bring someone to Christ. It was a big moment finally doing something and now I'm suposed to help disciple him, but I feel like I still need to work on myself...

So. Ya, I kinda have a problem keeping "sin-free". So after I had been going to YF I learned of how sinful my life was and have made significant improvements. I stopped "stealing" food at work like everyone else does. There's actually this one guy who just walks into the bakery freezer and takes cookie dough, and it's ok. I don't think so... not anymore. I have tried to read the Bible everyday. For a while I was reading maybe two chapters a day. It turns out I can't remember that much. So now its more like 20 verses a day. I started praying before I read and before bed, but clearly that wasn't enough, especially for a time there when I would fall asleep before saying Amen... I've been doing a bible study everyweek now which takes around an hour for each study and there's always a memory verse, which I have been memorizing. I have also been doing other things, but I always end up back in the same place at the end of every week, guilty and begging for forgiveness just once more swearing to not sin again, but falling short every time.

Each time I realize that I am sinful and need His help to get through it.

Ever since I got an mp3 player I've been downloading music off the internet. It was fine until they changed the Canadian law... and then I was "stealing" music. I've decided since buying those three CDs that I wouldn't download songs anymore and that I would only legitamately buy them from iTunes or something or buy an actual CD. The problem is that I don't have a credit card. How do I get one..?

Anyways, that was pretty long too, and I am procrastinating... I have like two hours to hand-in my Physics summative progress report... I have made little progress this month... I assume these posts will get shorter once I'm done talking in the past tense, well, distant past tense anyways...

D.Fa