Finals, KimSon, Schlafly Bottleworks

I'm done with junior year! I'm going to be a WHAT? A senior you say? WOW. That's crazy.

Strangely, I had the most fun this semester during reading week and finals. I suppose its because we don't have class and study hours are a bit more flexible.

Some highlights from the week:

• ZOO! And funnel cakes & dippin' dots
• Root Beer Floats & Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
  
• Picnic on art hill
• Study session at Borders w/ free orange latte samples & Grammy Award winning cellist's Bach performance
• Alice in Wonderland, the original. Trippy stuff.
  
• Kim Soo right before closing hours
• Schlafly Bottleworks Restaurant w/ Root Beer and Portabella sandwich & FREE dessert!

Oil Spills and Car Bombs

While reading the news on CNN.com tonight, I found two pieces of news that caught my attention. First is the failed car bomb attempt in Times Square in New York. To be honest, my first thought was, "I'm going to be working a block from Times Square this summer. I don't want to die." Yes, New York is such an exciting and lively place to be, but it is also one of the most targeted cities for terrorists. I was already a bit scared of going to New York, and this sure isn't helping.

The second piece of news is the Gulf oil spill that is getting closer to shore. While digging deeper into this story, I found a very interesting video of how human hair is one of the best ways of soaking up spilled oil. Salons from all over the nation send their hair cuttings to Matter of Trust in San Francisco where they turn the hair into mats and booms.

Nashville

Junior year of high school was the first year that I went on a mission trip. Our church went to Nashville, TN for an alternative Spring Break and it turned out to be one of the most fulfilling weeks in my life. I saw a video of this year's Nashville trip on my Facebook newsfeed. Man oh man, how I desired to be there again. Eating lunch and talking with the homeless, hanging out with old people, sorting food bank boxes, chilling at Centennial Park, and living in community with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ... those were good times.

But I keep thinking about my last post, that where I am now is my mission field. Here, I have the ability to keep long-term relationships rather than brief one-time interactions with people that I'll never see again. Sadly, I'm definitely not using those relationships to the fullest. However, by the grace of God, he still works in people's lives despite how much I've done. And today, I got to witness God do that. Without my prompting, a spiritual conversation arose among the group I was with. It was beautiful. These are the moments that mean so much more with people that you have relationships with than strangers. As I've said again and again, be in the here and now.

Missions

One of my friends here at WashU gets to go on a mission trip this summer to Thailand. I was really excited and jealous for her and said, "Aww now I really want to go on a mission trip too."

"But you're on one now."

Thanks for the reminder friends. God has placed me here right now and I'm to be faithful where he puts me.

A Drive at Night

I love driving by myself. For some reason, I get a lot of thinking done while driving on the highway. So tonight as I was coming back from dinner, I decided to take a long detour. Then I started praying.

Recently, I've been very anxious about upcoming events. Initiation, my internship in New York, dinner with strangers, etc. Soon, I realized that the reason that I am anxious is because I know I have no control over those things, and being a control-freak, that's distressing.

After driving a few miles, I felt that the Holy Spirit was telling me to take down my GPS. What?! God, you know I get lost easily, why would you ask me to do that? Then, he told me to get off the next exit. Are you serious? Um, can I get off an exit I'm more familiar with? This was particularly funny because tonight at Outpour church, we talked about the Holy Spirit and how he will tell us to do strange things sometimes. That's exactly what was happening while I was driving.

So I turned on my right turn blinker and exited. The right side seemed to have more civilization, so I turned right. Unfortunately, after a quarter mile, things started getting really dark because there were no street lamps. I needed to trust the Spirit, so I kept driving for a long time. There wasn't much except for a few houses, stores, and surprisingly many churches. After a while, I was about to turn around or try to find my way back, but I saw some lights ahead so I drove a little further. Whoa! It's the Galleria! I'm in Brentwood! That was epic.

So basically, the Holy Spirit used tonight's drive to teach me that as I vulnerably go down dark, uncertain roads, I have to listen to the Spirit and trust God. His people will help me along the way, and eventually He will guide me to where I'm supposed to go. Let God be the one in control.

Stewarding Time

It is impossible to do everything people want you to do. You have just enough time to do God's will. If you can't get it all done, it means you're trying to do more than God intended for you to do. - Purpose Driven Life Day 3

One Percent Foundation

My summer "Alma mater," the Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, hosted their capstone event tonight called the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition (SEIC) which "stimulates and funds activities that leads to innovative approaches to the area’s social problems." Not only does Skandalaris serve delicious catering such as shrimp cocktails and seafood ravioli at the events, but they also bring in really interesting entrepreneurs.

One in particular is a WashU student Jonathan Kaufman who I actually met two weeks ago through the Taylor Consulting Program (consulting for non-profits). His organization is called One Percent Foundation (www.onepercentfoundation.org) which encourages young people to get involved with philanthropy.

I don't have money. That's often the excuse of poor college students, and I catch myself saying that more and more nowadays.

One Percent's business model is brilliant and very creative:
1. Donate at least 1% of your income to philanthropy (half to 1% Foundation)
2. All donations are pooled to become a grant
3. Nominate organizations to receive the grant
4. Vote on which organization you want to win

Tada! It's doable... and I think I might just do it.