I was almost to the three month mark. Bummer.

I am writing this from Jakarta, Indonesia. I am staying at a boarding school here, with my friends that came to America in July. It has been an interesting last few days. I'm here until Sunday. This is an English speaking school, but outside of class everyone converses in Indonesian so I'm lost 90% of the time. I spent most of the day in the gym today, playing basketball and soccer. Then I went swimming. Wow, it felt so good and refreshing.

Banda Aceh, where I spent the previous week doing tsunami work, was a great experience. We spent most of the day working in a fishing village. We went on a couple tours of "Ground Zero", where the wave hit. It was... mind numbing. Just pure destruction. And this was 9 months after the fact. We also got to talk to people who had experienced the wave. That was really interesting. One village came back to 4000 bodies piled on their land. The village next to the one we worked at was entirely destroyed. They were too far from the mountain, and were caught running. We cleaned the well of a man who lost his entire family in the tsunami. What do you say to him? We couldn't speak his language anyway, so it didn't matter. But still...

Anyway, I'm off for now. It's currently study period in the dorm, so I'm going to go crank my iPod and read. Later folks.

- pp

WAZZUP. It's been almost a month. Life has been very full. I have a few seconds, so I'll try to give you a quick run down of everything. Tennessee was so relaxing, wonderful, beautiful, etc. I really enjoyed myself, and got a lot of time to relax. The countryside is so beautiful there... I also finally made a final decision about what I'm going to do next year. I accepted the position as manager of skyQ. I was officially announced on July 1. I'll be in Sacramento for the next few years of my life. Being manager is pretty cool. Lots more responsibility, but also lots more freedom and power. Productivity has really increased. It's making me step outside my comfort zones and do things I'm not used to doing. Telling people to do things, not being as sympathetic or worried about hurting their feelings, etc. I love it. That same Friday, Andrew and Audy showed up. They are two teens from Indonesia, part of a group of 7 teens coming to check out the States for three weeks. Andrew and Audy are staying with our family. It has been so much fun hanging out with them and getting to know them. I'm flabbergasted at how similar we are to them. They are better than me at most computer games also. Did I mention it's also been a humbling experience? This week has been running at full speed ahead. Up early for work, events every evening, etc. But it's been so much fun. Next week my dad and I are taking our Land Cruiser on the Rubicon, a trail from Georgetown to Lake Tahoe. *woot woot* We are going with my dad's cousins and their sons. Oh, we also installed a roll bar on the Cruiser last weekend. :)

Anyway, that's all from here. I can't believe summer is half over.

VACATION TIME

I am sooo looking forward to the next two weeks. I'm done with work, and I won't be doing ANYTHING work related for two weeks. I'm going to try to stay off my email, I'm not answering any phone calls from them, and I'm not going to worry about it. *sigh* I need that, lemme tell you. I am so utterly exhausted from the past month... It's getting pretty bad. Mostly my fault, however.

Have a safe time, y'all. I'll see ya in two weeks!

- pp

Currently Playing Chuck By Sum 41 We're All To Blame see related

Alright, alright, I'll post. I'm going to Indonesia next year, for an extended period of time. More to come on that... Not many details yet. Work has been very busy. I actually feel like I'm working now. I mean, I have programming projects with deadlines, constant end user feedback, all that stuff. It's rather fun, but stressful at the same time. :)

Oh, I graduated. Yeah, forgot about that. hehe. I graduated first in my class. (First being I was first across the stage) IT WAS ENTIRELY RANDOM SEATING. I swear. No one believes me, but it's true. ;) 480+ kids graduated. However, I went to an elementary school graduation last night, and the ceremony for the 13 kids took longer than mine. Go figure. lol. Oh, another surprise of graduation day: I got a medal. Apparantly it was for having a 4.0+ GPA through high school. I think they read the wrong transcript. hehe. When the administrator read off what I was doing next year, she said something about me going "on a mission"to the Suni region... It wasn't very clear. I had people afterwards ask me if I was going to Somolia. Yeah. It was rather funny, actually.

I just got back from a run. We are fortunate enough to have a quiet (and relatively safe) park in our neighborhood. Anyway, I ran for awhile, then walked through the park. I lay down in the grass and stared at the cloudy sky. As I was there, I just started talking to God. It's amazing how quiet nature can make it so easy to talk to Him. It was weird. As I was talking, I started saying things I wasn't saying. I was talking, but not thinking about the words. It was a cool experience. There was something that I "learned" or was impressed with, how ever you put it. It really challanged me. Living for God means 100%. You can't live for God in your occasional quiet time, or at youth group when you are in the front row. You have to live for Him everywhere, all the time. There are three areas that I am sorely lacking in: work, family, friends. I am no longer working for my boss Charles. I'm working for my Boss. Yes, Charles may be the one giving me assignments, but I'm no longer working to impress him. If I can remember this throughout the day, it will shape how I deal with customers. How I deal with my co-workers. How I deal with my work. See, if you let God shine through you it will impact your world. As Ghandi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."

The same thing applies to my family and my friends. I need to treat them with the respect they deserve, which I'll admit I haven't been doing very well... 1 Timothy 5:1,2: "Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity." That is one tough cookie. One VERY tough cookie. But if you start there, it becomes so much easier to love everyone and to be kind and compassionate and caring.

Problem: I know you are all thinking that this sounds so grand, Philip must be some great holy guy. But this isn't the first time I've heard this verse. I tell ya, God is one patient dude. I can't tell you how many times I've failed to uphold this verse and shoot, my relationship with Him in general. But that's the thing: God is patient. It has nothing to do with me. I shoulda been zapped 18 years and 5 months ago. God is so awesome. He knows I'm gonna fail, yet He's still there waiting to pick me back up and point me in the right direction everytime. Not only that, but He surrounded us with others to help us out. Yeah, the good ole "a" word.

Accountability.

I'll be the firs to admit that I need your help with this. Keep pestering me, asking how I'm treating my fathers, brothers, mothers and sisters, cause I have a tendency to forget things, especially ones that I need to remember. 

Anyway, I've got to take a shower and get some sleep tonight so I'm worth something tomorrow. God probably wouldn't appreciate me sleepin' on my shift, ya think? ;) I'll leave you with the song I currently have running through my noggin. I first heard this song at Aquire the Fire, and it still has the same effect on me now that it did in that arena surrounded by 10,000 teens worshipping. Tremendous song of worship. Download it and crank it up. Enjoy, folks! Have a great weekend. Respect each other, ya hear? And try to spend some time alone in nature. It's flippin' sweet, I promise.

(Aunt Kerri, don't pass out because I just posted twice within a couple days of each other! hehe)

WRAP ME IN YOUR ARMS
There is a God who loves me
Who wraps me in his arms
That is the place where I'm changed
A place where I belong

Take me to that place Lord
to that secret place Where
I can be with You
You can make me like You

Wrap me in your arms
Wrap me in your arms
Wrap me in your arms

Download it at http://www.michaelgungor.com/mp3/wrap.mp3. You can listen to Lisa's version at http://lisagunor.com, in the Music section. I have Lisa's CD. Awesome song...