'free' days.

here on smsp, sundays and mondays are our free days off work. however... sundays are filled with church in the morning, band practice in the afternoon, maybe a couple hours to chill, then finding dinner and prayer and outreach at night. mondays always have some sort of social during them. today consists of hiking, tacky bowling, roomy dinner, movie time, then band practice.

yesterday was busy but chill at the same time. church was good. then took a nap and had some lunch. got to talk to rachel, that was good. then chilling (ended up alone in the room again, so i started reading Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell). then food. then prayer time in the conference room. then we went to do outreach to the internationals. my group went to a hotel where a bunch of them are staying. we got there and it was rather dark and creepy and abandoned. but people started coming. a lot of them work late into the night. we got to talk and share american candy with them and invite them to the pancake dinner we're having next week. there were some times where it was fun, and others where it was scary and kinda intimidating. it was heartbreaking to hear some of them talk, unhappy with the little work and wages they're getting and the fact that they work til midnight, then drink until 5, sleep a couple hours, then go back to work for the day. we didn't get back til like 1130, but then the band practiced until 1 and i didn't go to bed til 2.

was reading in the good old Bible this morning and came across this:

we try to live in such a way that no one will be hindered from finding the Lord by the way we act, and so no one can find fault with our ministry. in everything we do we try to show that we are true ministers of God. we patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamaties of every kind. we have been beaten, been put in jail, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. we have proved ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, our sincere love, and the power of the Holy Spirit. we have faithfully preached the truth. God's power has been working in us. we have righteousness as our weapon, both to attack and to defend ourselves. we serve God whether people honor or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. we are honesy, but they call us impostors. we are well known, but we are treated as unknown. we live close to death, but here we are, still alive. we have been beaten within an inch of our lives. our hearts ache, but we always have joy. we are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. we own nothing, and yet we have everything.

-2 corinthians 6:3-10