Quite a Grumble Day

It all started this morning...well, actually, now that I think about it, it started last night when I came home late from Bible study looking forward to watching The Office which my younger brother had quite willingly agreed to tape for me. The only problem was that Hunter forgot to set the channel on the VCR, so what I came home to was a lovely half hour of K-Cal 9 News. Woopee.

Then this morning, my parents had to borrow my car, which left me with their Caprice to drive to and from school. It was only a slight inconvenience, and I was happy that I was able to help my parents out by letting them borrow my car, but halfway to school I realized that I had left my parking permit in my car....no way of getting it back in time either because by that time my mom was already at work all the way in Pasadena. So that left me to search for parking on the streets surrounding my school, desperately trying to find regions where there weren't "No Parking Anytime" signs. I found a place in a two-hour parking region probably a third of a mile away from my first class which I was already late for because of the extra time spent trying to find a place to park. But, I just walked as fast as I could and tried not to think of what my teacher would think of me entering the class room eight minutes late.

As I walked, my dear green flip-flops, trustworthy to always keep me in style, began ferociously rubbing the inside of my foot. I recognized that sore pain of a blister forming but simply pushed it out of my mind.

I had to leave my second (and last class of the day) early because I needed to make sure I got back to the Caprice before my two-hours were over. So again, I walked as fast as I could probably a half mile back to my car. And on the way, my left green flip-flop gave out, as you can see in the picture. Flip-flop, I have been so kind to you over the years to continue to wear you even though I know you give me blisters. The least you could do was continue being a shoe for me during a time that I needed you most.

Anyways, I walked a long time on dirty pavement and asphalt BAREFOOT, thanks to my fashionable green flip-flop. I am now back at home with a mission of getting knew shoes and cleaning my feet before I go back to school to study with some fellow physics students.

I want to buy myself an ice cream cone. Actually, no, I want my parents to buy me an ice cream cone. Whoever reads this, please join in the petition (by leaving your comment) to have my parents buy me an ice cream cone! :)

"...when I am weak, then I am strong."

I know its been over a month since I returned from doing missions work in Ukraine and Russia, but I'm still pretty excited over what God taught me while I was there. So I thought I'd share a little bit of it with you all.

During the trip, God totally emphasized a truth that I had known before, but which had never really hit super close to home with me. In the weeks leading up to the trip I was studying a book that my brother, Harrison, got for me called Spiritual Maturity by J. Oswald Sanders. In one chapter he elaborates on 2 Corinthians 12:9 -- "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me...For when I am weak, then I am strong." In Oswald's chapter, he quotes someone (but strangely doesn't tell us who) who makes a really good point: "This is the strategy of God...that the world should know that Christianity--all the triumphs of faith in individual lives and the onward march and mission of the Church--is not to be explianed by anything in man, any human virtue, prowess, ability (for in the light of the men involved any such explanation would be absurd). Therefore the only possible explanation must be supernatural and Divine." Ok, so imagine me going into the mission trip having read that and desiring a heart that would truly want to step back in the lime-light and let God shine through my actions and words.

So, a few days into the mission trip, I reflected a bit on what had gone on during my time in Kiev so far as I was preparing to go to bed. Many relationships had been made, some old relationships had been made stronger, and there was much evidence that people were being encouraged in the Lord as a result of His work through my team. But, I also reflected on what had truly been going on inside of my heart during our time of ministry, and, as usual, was dissapointed to remember that yes, many of my motives and true desires had been me-centered, not God-centered. I kind of felt helpless like maybe I would never be able to truly conduct ministry....and then God used 1 Corinthians 12:9 to help me realize that I was absolutely right! I will never be able to truly conduct ministry, because any ministry or encouragement that is done is totally done by God. He just uses weak vessels, such as me, to carry HIS ministry. "...when I am weak, then I am strong." That phrase suddenly seemed to scream at me, "When you realize how weak your sinful heart makes your motives and desires, then you will realize the strength and the power of God that He uses minister to people through such a lowly vessel such as yourself." Sure, it was a very humbling lesson to learn, but also one that made me wonderfully excited. Its just so cool that the ministry and encouragement that God wants to get done WILL get done, not because the people that He uses are so great, but simply because He's the One who is doing it!

The Office

Oh man, I'll always remember that on September 19th, 2006, I had a super sweet afternoon. So I'm sure that everyone who reads this blog also reads Heather's, so I'm sure you know that she is a HUGE Office fan (tv show, remember?). Well, I have the same love for the show (ok ok, maybe Heather is a bigger fan). My best friend (Holly Schultz, in the picture above) is a crazy huge Office fan also, and knows that I love the show too. So, we were in luck, because her dad happens to be in the tv show business, he is a 'prop man' for various television shows. One of his friends that he used to work with just happens to be the prop man for The Office, so Holly used her connections to get my mom and I into the site of the filming of one of The Office episodes for my 18th birthday! It was so awesome.

We arrived at the set at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I was very surprised to find out that the location of the set is right smack in the middle of the valley, very near Grace Community actually. There were Dunder Mifflin Paper Company signs all over the property, especially on the outsides of the chain link fences that surrounded the studio. Mr. Schultz told me those signs were most likely used in the outdoor scenes of the show. One of the buildings of the studio actually had the sign "Scranton Business Park" on it....so cool.


Our group (Holly, both of her parents, my mom, and me) had to be ushered in by Mr. Schultz's friend, the prop man. It turns out that we weren't able to actually be in the same room that they were shooting in, because The Office really does film in an actual office-type place, meaning that its really small and there's no room for an audience. That also meant that strangers to the set (like my group) were VERY rare...it was a very special treat for us to get into the studio. Mr. Schultz's friend, Phil, took us to a room right next to the office set where the going-ons of the taping were projected onto two tv screens that we could watch. Phil also gave us head sets that allowed us to hear not only the lines that the actors were saying but also most of the background buzz in between takes. Most of the time the only other person in the room with us was the person who had written the first draft of this particular episode, and it was cool to observe him watching every take and then hear his comments about how he liked how this person added that line via improv or he didn't like how that scene was set up so he would have to go talk to the people directing to tell them to get it right. It felt very 'inside-ish' to be watching all of the takes with him and hearing all of his comments. So cool.


In between takes, the camera would still role, so we could see a little bit of the actors being themselves, out of character. That was pretty sweet. It was hard to hear a lot of the talk on the headsets, but it looked like the most outgoing crazy person during that time was the guy who plays Kevin, Brian Baumgartner.

Ok, what happened next was super exciting. Everyone took a break because they were finished with that particular scene that they had been filming. Fortunately, the room with all of the snack food was right outside the door of the room that Phil had placed us in, so many of the actors came out to get refreshed and such. First BJ Novak (Ryan, the temp) came out, but because neither Phil nor Mr. Schultz was with us at that time, we didn't know if it was an appropriate time to approach him. Eventually he went inside the men's restroom, so no more actors outside our door. But then guess who else comes out? Mindy Kaling, the girl who plays Kelly! She looked really nice, as she passed our room she looked inside the doorway and smiled really big at us, made eye-contact and everything. Sadly, we still didn't know if it was appropriate to leave the little room we had been 'assigned' to, so we just stayed put. Then a very exciting but at the same time painful thing happened....John Krasinski (Jim) walked right past our room, but exited the snack room by another door. (It was painful because he left...he's my very favorite on the show!)

Fortunately, Mr. Schultz came back soon, after both BJ and Mindy had left, so I felt confident that the next time an actor appeared in the snack room he would know exactly what would be appropriate because he's had so much experience on tv sets. Well, the next person to appear was one of my personal favorites on the show, Rainn Wilson, aka, Dwight Schrute! He looked JUST like he does on the show...it almost wanted to make me start laughing right then and there. Mr. Schultz just went ahead and stopped him in his tracks, reintroduced himself because he has worked on the same set with him in years past, and then introduced him to my group! So we all got to shake his hand and tell him our names and everything! He's real cool, not geeky or Dwight Schrute-y at ALL. He didn't spend much time with us, but he was very friendly and told us he was happy we had come.

The next person to come into the snack room......drum roll......Steve Carell! Phil had told him there were people there who wanted to meet him, so he came and visited with us for quite a while actually. Really friendly guy, you don't feel like you're talking to an actor around him, you just feel like an old friend. He very willingly took a picture with Holly and I, as you can see above.

When Steve left, Mrs. Schultz mentioned to Phil that Holly and I especially wanted to meet Jim, and Phil said, "OH, well if you had TOLD me!" and immediately went out the door that Jim had exited previously, only to return 30 seconds later with John Krasinski right with him! When John came in the door you could see a mission in his eyes: he had been told that there were two girls there who wanted to meet him and he looked right for Holly and I and came and introduced himself. I was already smiling from ear to ear from having met Dwight and Michael (sorry, I can't really get accustomed to using their real names), but when I saw Jim, somehow a mile-wide smile became and mile-and-a-half-wide smile. He had a very FIRM handshake....and I was surprised that he had the same exact voice, intonations, expressions, EVERYTHING that he has on the show. I felt like I was talking to my friend Jim from Dunder Mifflin, not John from real life. He was really nice and friendly, but he was in a rush because they had recently made the call that all actors were needed on the set. So he had to leave, but my smile did not away with him....:)

Oh ya, when Jim came into the snack room, so did Kevin, so I did get to see him in person, but sorry, I just didn't pay much attention to him.......JIM was there!

Right when Jim hurried back onto the set, Angela came out briefly (her real life name is Angela too). Wow, was SHE friendly! Real outgoing too! Real cute, actually, too. She only got to say a few words with us, and when they called her back onto the set she said, "Oh too bad, I was just getting chatty!"

After all of those exposures, we stayed a while longer to watch the taping of the next scene, but then had to go. Holly and I were slightly disappointed that we had to leave before the next break, because John had told us that he would be back to talk to us, but I am content with what we got from them.

Super fun day. How am I ever going to concentrate at school tomorrow?

My World Has Just Been Rocked (Significantly)

I found out tonight that there's no such thing as cooties.

Have no fear, I'm still gonna be an astronaut!