On to the next thing...

Well, my month of "down-time" at home is finally coming to a close. While I have enjoyed getting to relax and not have many responsibilities during this time, I'm thankful that I will finally have things to do and goals to achieve.
Thursday morning at 5:45, I'll head to the New Orleans airport to catch a 7:45 plane to Nashville.  From Nashville, I will go to Campbellsville University in Kentucky for a few days of specialized training for CentriKid.  If you don't know what CentriKid is, it's basically my other obsession (other than MC and Shawreth.)  This summer, I will be serving as a team leader (which leads Bible study and recreation for 5th graders, and a drama track time for 3rd-6th graders each day) and stage host (where I will host the morning and night "shows" at camp each day).
I worked CentriKid last summer and it was quite possibly the best two months of my entire life (yes, possibly even better than my time in London!).  I absolutely had a blast getting to spend time and minister to kids all summer as well as use the passions that God has given me to serve Him.  I saw God work in children's lives in unbelievable ways and He even worked in my life just as much.
I am so exciting about finally starting camp this year. This week, I'll be training for my stage host duties until Saturday when I fly back until next Saturday.  Then I'll drive to Ridgecrest in North Carolina where I'll spend my first month doing camp.
Now, I've got 8 scripts to memorize by the time I get to Campbellsville Thursday night, so I'll do a bigger post about CentriKid before I head to North Carolina.

Some of the scripts I will be getting to act out during the summer.  I need to learn my lines better by Thursday!

Oh the places you'll go!

I've been bitten by the travel bug. From what I hear, once you get bitten by it, the urge to hop on a plane and go around the world never goes away.
In the past year, I've been to some pretty cool places (see below), and I am already itching to get back out of the country and see the world!

I just got an email from Mississippi College advertising a spring break trip to Australia, and I am dying to go.  It's not going to happen, but it at least inspired me to write this blog of the top places I want to travel.

The top 10 places in no particular order:
1.) The Bahamas
2.)Egypt
3.) Paris
4.) Australia
3.) Tokyo
4.) Germany
5.) Austria
6.) Spain
7.) Costa Rica
8.) Alaska
9.) Israel
10.) California

South Africa

London, England

Edinburgh, Scotland

Rome, Italy

Kickin' it like 2007

Yesterday, I woke up super early and drove all the way down to Gulfport. I am definitely not a morning person, but I woke up yesterday in a great mood because I was going to get to hang out with my best friend from high school Grace.
I have been so blessed with amazing people in my life, and Grace is one of those. Almost 7 years ago, she and her family moved to Waynesboro (and spent the night at my house on their first night) and we have been friends ever since.  Yesterday was a big day because it was the first time we had really even seen in each other in almost three years since her family moved back to California.

I am super thankful for Grace and all the memories we have.  She's the one who got me obsessed with picture-taking. She was with me when I had my first wreck. We spent almost every afternoon in high school riding in the Jeep and getting Java Chillers at Sonice. Now it's awesome to still be great friends all these years later.
So think about someone whose friendship means a lot to you. Tell them that.

Have you lived today?

My family has this Mother's Day tradition where about 15-20 of us get together, drive out to the country, and go four wheeler riding for hours and hours. Normally, we end up swimming in a creek and getting completely muddy.
Now when I tell people about this, they normally laugh, mainly because they can't picture me on a four wheeler plowing through mud puddles.  It's true, that's not my natural environment. If it hadn't been a family tradition, I probably never would have taken the chance to do it, but because I did, I love it.  This day is one of the highlights of my year since we started doing it.
I'm big on doing things for the experience. Normally if you ask me to do something or go somewhere, I will say yes.  God has given us this life to take advantage of every single moment and do as many things as we possibly can in the short time we are here on earth. When you break out of your normal every-day routine and experience something new, that's when you are really taking advantage of all life has to offer. So, go do something new. Climb a tree, sleep in a hammock, paint a picture, do something crazy!
Challenge yourself to do something new every day. Don't ever give yourself to chance to look back and say "I wish I would have done that."  Go out and make a new life experience happen.

Happy Mother's Day!

As most people know, I'm sort of a Mama's boy. Okay. I AM  Mama's boy.   It's hard not to be when you've had a mom like mine.  I can't even begin to describe how blessed and thankful I am for being the son of Belinda Walley.
 It is unreal what all she has done for me. For example, she spent almost every week night and Sunday afternoon for a few years driving me back and forth 45 minutes to the theatre company I was performing at. She gave up almost every Saturday during show choir season to either play in my show choir band or just watch me. For so much of my life, she was my spiritual leader and the person I always went to for advice.  She put up with countless hours of me complaining about my high school and any other little thing.  Any crazy idea I came up with or thing I wanted to do, she has always supported me 100%. She never discouraged my creativity, even if it meant that a few things in the house got destroyed or painted on. Even when I told her I wanted to spend three months of my life in another country, there was never a moment where I doubted her support. She has always encouraged me to put my all into everything and try to reach goals that may seem impossible. I love the way that I can look at my own life and my own quirks and sometimes see her in what I do. I love the way that she and I can laugh about something stupid and can sometimes have a conversation in public by just looking at each other. I love the way that when I bring friends home from college, they feel welcomed and like she could be their mother too.  Yep, she's the best.
The love that my mom has shown me and continues to show me now that I'm older and spend most of my time away from home is the greatest human love I have ever known. It is absolutely the closest love to the love of God. In my life, God has shown me through the sacrifice that my mom made for me just how much the sacrifice Christ made for us means.
Happy Mother's Day to my main woman!  You're the best and I love you!
"I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my mama you'll be."

Getting ready to leave for London

 Christmas 2012

 This is where I get my white-boy moves from.

 My high school graduation.

 In Central Park for my senior trip

My mom, Granny, and I in Times Square

 Show choir dinner theatre my senior year

 She was even the mom of a big chicken

Chicago in 2009

My Mom is my main theatre date

"Apart from me, you can do nothing."

Have you ever been reminded of something cool that happened to you and you just want to tell someone about it? That's what this blog post is.
One thing that was life-changing for me last summer working CentriKid is that it was the first time (well, first several times) that I ever recognized when God spoke to me. Sometimes it could be through other staffer's encouragement, verses, and even one time I heard him prepare me to meet a kid coming down for the invitation one night. Actually being able to recognize that God was speaking to me was a big deal.  I want to share one of those times.
It was July 17 on a Sunday night.  We had been doing camp about seven weeks at this point. I'll admit, as a team, we were really good at camp. As a staffer, I had gotten pretty good at leading Bible study in an interesting way, I had my actor's lines completely memorized, and I could even get the kids pumped for recreation.  In other words, all that reliance of God that I had been doing to achieve those things at the beginning of the summer had now turned to auto-pilot. For a week or two before that, I don't know if I asked God for guidance or strength one time.
Then that night, we had a staff worship like we did every Sunday night.  We had a guest speaker, Brandon Hembree (who just also happens to be an MC Alum and a former Shawreth president...instant bffs).  His message to our staff was one of the hardest things I have ever listened to in my life. God used it to speak to me right where I was weakest at the moment. I have it written in my notes that Brandon said "You can do good camp without the Holy Spirit...(but) your relationship with God affects your ability to bring kids to Christ."
Woah baby. Ever felt like God drops a grand piano on your head? I did then.  We each could have chosen to leave staff worship that night and continue camp the next day or as normal, but Brandon challenged our team to make things right with God that night.
I walked out the back of the auditorium in Maryland to our recreation field that was right behind it.  The open field was lined by a forest on two sides.  I went out to the very middle, and just sat down. I started telling God what I wanted and eventually just felt like I needed to shut up and ask him to speak to me.  So I said it, "God, speak to me. Tell me what you want."
That very second, a massive doe and her fawn came barreling out of one side of the woods within feet of where I was sitting and into the trees on the other side. I haven't had many near-death experiences, but I felt like that was one of them.
Now I don't have any cool illustration on how the charging deer relate to faith or anything, but I know without a doubt that those deer were God speaking to me. I understood that night one thing He had been teaching me all summer.
He gives each of us talents, abilities, and skills to use for His glory.  But unless he is in it and we allow Him to be in control of it, it's kind of useless. There is no point in running "good camp". or a "good business", or a "good club" unless you are constantly asking God to lead and be in everything you say and do.
Our team's verse for the entire summer was Exodus 33:15 where Moses tells God, "If your presence will not go with us, do not bring us up from here."  Basically, if you're not gonna go with us, we don't wanna go!
In John 15:5, Jesus tells us "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing."
So there. We can do nothing unless we are abiding in God through Christ.
When is the last time you allowed God to be in control? When is the last time you stopped whatever you were doing and truly checked if God was in it?  If we do nothing without first seeking God's leadership and presence, I think our lives would look completely different.