The Royal Tenenbaums ='s my sisters and I

Ah yes... The Royal Tenenbaums... I am writing not about how good this movie is, but I am opening a window that current circles of friends don't realize.
I am the oldest child of 4 siblings; I have 3 younger sister - Hannah (just turned 20 on the 21st), Abbey (18) and Charity/Kasey who is 15... My sisters and I have been blessed by God with various talents, in which, we are The Royal Tenebaums in some ways. I am blessed with the gift of writing and languages: I am currently (albeit at a slow pace) working on two books and I am writing more and more poetry, some I may publish for various anthologies who I may save them and find a publishing house to print up a lot of them. Another item of expertise for me is foreign languages; now foreign languages are easier, if not easy for me. I plan on being octolingual - and so far English and Spanish are down and only 6 remain... I am working on Mandarin Chinese on my own and perhaps Japanese in the Fall, the other 2 languages I wish to learn are French and Italian...
My sister Hannah has been the family artist; her art is known in small circles and could expand if she put more into it, she is also gifted in the area of Law, which (in time) she will become a lawyer, but perhaps a paralegal... She knows the details better than me.
My other sister, Abbey, she has been actively involved in soccer and basketball, she is the athlete in the family, even though we all do sports... She could be successful in this way, but I think she will be entering the field of child psychology or something like that.
My other sister Charity is the family musician; She learned how to play the piano before she could read, she picked up the trumpet and violin and she is wonderful in both, she was teaching herself guitar for a while... Though she is a freshman in High School, she loves horses and perhaps she'll do something horse related when she gets to college.

Even though we are gifted in many ways, I thank God that my sister know God. I rather have them know God and have such talents than to not know God and be gifted... But God has given them these various gifts, and some of them are shaping and turning into something new and different. For example, my sister Hannah is spending her second semester in Spain as a student missionary of sorts, she spent last Fall in Spain and decided to continue on for another semester! This semester has been tough for her, but God is blessing her in what she does even though the road is rather rocky at this time.

God can use anyone's gifts to help others - as I've learned in adolescent development, "recognize potential and label it positively" - how has your gifts been labelled? How have you used your talents unto God and others?

May God bless you in what talents you have,
may you use them...

Going on by God's strength alone,
[n][v]

  

  

  

 

It is not that I always feel this way, but sometimes it is the little things that trigger my melancholic moods. Tonight, I guess it stems from thinking over some things that occurring in my life, but also in the life of some friends... I walked (and still walk) in some very diverse circles of friends, some lapse into each other and some stay even keel- hmmm, what have been the circles I've tred/trod in?
*The actors - I was a mime back in '97
*The English Literaturesque people - friends from my former school, writing poetry and writing in general
*The runners - running since '87 in general, Crossroads T&F for two years and 2 years of CC at my last school
*The artists - Last school in regards to an art class I took, the teacher... made it difficult, even though it was an Intro. art class - but at least I learned some Mandarin from James and talked about God with very interesting people... Avoided life drawing as an observer, that tricky James!
*The musicians - back when I played piano, being a bandie of sorts, not in anyway bad, but I just chilled with various musicians
*The online Christian Goth community - I don't dress the part [completely], but I am a Christian Goth in some ways
*The debaters - I was on a debate team... for one week
*The questioners - I guess I am someone who doesn't always buy what is being sold, there are some things I don't question at all... But some things the question why remains upon my lips.

This is not a complete list, but I have to get back to Frankenstein,
otherwise, I'll join the procrastinators group...

Going on by God's strength alone,
[n][v]

I am not claiming to be an expert at ministry, youth ministry, Para-church ministry or any other form of ministry- I am simply writing/blogging an insight I have about ministry in general. For my Youth Ministry practicum, I am a part of Young Life Geneva/St. Charles and not for recognition/bragging rights/etc. I spent close to 20 hours involved in various ways with the teens I ministry unto this past weekend... It was awesome and I got thinking and I decided that I should pass this on...

Ministry should be about relations; Hanging out and doing things with the teens such as playing Halo, playing Risk, Frisbee golf or just sitting around the kitchen table eating cinnamon rolls and talking is ministry, 'borrowing' one of the leaders car's and driving it off and down the block with one of the teens is NOT ministry, it just makes for a great story... but back to the subject on hand.

When I worked at my church for two years, I did not do this enough: sometimes (looking back at it) it was just seeing them in the morning on Sunday and in the evening on Sunday and maybe AIMing them during the week - and that was it. Before I left for Judson I hung out and ate dinner/played video games/talked/listened with several of the guys in the Youth Group. I only wish that I did more of this back then, but I have been learning from my mistakes...

We are human beings, not human doings - From this, I recognize how sometimes I guilt trip myself in Young Life about playing Halo instead of going back to campus and doing some homework, but sometimes I just realize that I'll have to stretch the evening a bit longer... It is the being part that makes me hangout in the kitchen of my site supervisor's house when the singing part takes place during Campaigners; Why? because there are some people who avoid the singing part like the plague and they just sit upstairs and sometimes step out for a smoke, I usually accompany them outside, just so that the being part can continue without break. They do the Bible part and I usually am with them in the particular group they chose to sit in on. I find it wonderful just to sit back and be instead of do, it is something that needs to be done in different forms of ministry...

Balance out talking and [active] listening - With the teens I minister unto, there are people who will talk and those who will listen, in both cases, I take time to talk and actively listen to what they have to say. Sometimes it is off subject or just random, DON'T WORRY! this is how adolescents act and behave, we as ministers (those who minister) need to realize and recognize that this happens, our goals and reason is because of God and even though it won't always go as planned, keep it about God and make sure you can roll with the punches - because they definitely be thrown your way!

Hang out with those you minister as yourself and someone else - this may seem like an odd thing to say, but sometimes I catch myself being someone that is not truely me. Don't let your whole self hangout to those you minister unto, but don't come into the scene acting like 'uber-Christian' - someone who has it all together and that you never sin, you never have bad days: no such Christian exists, so don't act like it. I've noticed two things with those who act this way - 1) Kids/Teens today can sniff out a fake and 2) There may be a wall that is set up between you and those they minister unto, as if we who minister can do no wrong! Be real and honest amongst those you serve and also those you work along with in your ministry... It can be hard, I know, but this is something that needs to be done.

I have some other things to type out,
but not at this time... School demands my attention.

Going on by God's strength alone,
[n][v]

*Friday*
What made Friday a wonderful day were the following: In the evening around 7:30ish I went to the Hammond's house because of 2 reasons; 1) Shine-FM was broadcasting from their house live and 2) Ben was going to be there...
Now I have considered Ben Hammond to be my best friend, I've known Ben for close to 11 years! Until Friday, I have not seen Ben for 10 months or so - He was in Thailand as a missionary for 6-7 months and now that he is back, I am in school... So that is how our paths have not crossed for so long...
It was wonderful to talk to Ben and hear about ministering to the people of Thailand, in particular the prostitutes in the red light districts... Probably was fascinated me and horrified me in the same instance was how LOVE is pretty much just a four letter word which does not have a strong emotional/physical/etc. meaning, just because it is used so flippant and wrongly, because... Well, the prostitutes and their 'job' have you.

After that I went to Brent's house for a Halo Tournament amongst other things... That was great too, and even though it was Halo, I decided I didn't like all the basic character names for who I could be and so vegetarian became a Halo Character - Got some kills to pay the bills! yeah, good times...
Later on when it was Guys Only, we played 1 1/2 games of Risk - This being that around 2:30ish... Yeah 'When stupidity attacks 1' could be seen as the show made about what happened...
Played some more Halo and around 4, back to another FULL game of Risk, this game went by smoothly, even though Chris was backed into a corner and... well... He Lost! mwahahahaha...*sigh*
I continued on and conquered Africa! But at 6:30 I lost and I didn't care too much, I just spent around 20 hours being up and the only thing on my brain was SLEEP

I woke up at 12:30ish and I stepped outside to enjoy this wonderful springlike day and I also helped some with the things occuring outside... Later on when Zach and Pocci woke up, we ate some cinnamon rolls and proceeded to head outside and chill - one of the bizzarest things Zach and I did was when Raeann when inside, she left her car running... So Zach and I 'jacked' her car for half a block, parked it and took the keys and ran back... She was a little angry, but... She shouldn't have left her car running!

The last part of my Saturday that was great was playing frisbee golf - now I haven't played in a while, but after 2 rounds of 9 holes... I want to play again even though I sucked!

And that was my Friday and Saturday!
"Lasagna is like a good wine, with age it becomes better!" - Tom
"Anti-Clockwise" - Chris

[n][v]

to those who read this blog...

yeah, you know who you are...

Well, it goes like this - as much as I like blogging off of www.blogspot.com I am actively involved with www.xanga.com/nathanaelv as well, and since I find that adding html items and the various blog groups including my school's one makes it a bit better in my opinion.

I am not going to stop blogging here, but the posts may be not as frequent as they once were... I will do what I can to continue on this blog, but I like xanga...

Yeah,
enough said on my part.

[n][v]

Best kept secret of my spring break...

Well...

I searched Google previous to coming home for spring break. I looked for a tattoo place in my area and before I went home I went to Ronin Tattoo - http://www.ronintattoo.com/ and, well... I picked out this one here!

It is Kanji for Family, as shown below...
It took over 2+ hours! They did a real good job with the realistic broad strokes. Well I showed my family this the other day and there was a 'shock and awe' scenario in my house, but even though they disapprove (a little) they still think it is cool, in which they're glad that it isn't something nasty. I also received the "tattoos are perminent" spiel, in which I know.

Yeah,
my first tat.

[n][v]