<b>Jeremiah 29:11-13</b>
For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me.

Not a lot has happened since returning from the STM. I mean, it was all nice and dandy seeing everyone again and eating ramen and pho, but it didn't feel as great as being forced to worship with everything I did during the STM. It's not the ban all technology thing that forced us. It was the scheduling. I mean, no one could do anything but quiet time when it was scheduled. I wish that were true back home. It's so much harder to just sit down with God. I've been toying around with the idea of a walk with God, but it seems to get pushed aside all the time.

And now, I don't feel I'm forced to be dependent on God either. I feel like I'm just here. I want to rely on God, but I don't need to. That's the problem. I want God to force me to rely on Him, to spend time with Him. That's what I want.

Something about the above passage just spoke to me when I read it. Not sure what it was, but it was comforting.

I want a plush black mage.
<img src="http://pictureposter.allbrand.nu/pictures/blkmage/ff9-vivi.jpg">

Well then, now for the all of the super funness of my STM trip.

The day that we left for Nashville, I couldn't believe that the trip had actually crept up like that. I felt so uncertain of myself. But, nothing I could do then, right? So I got on a car and went off to Pearson International.

There, my little encounter with US customs was not happy:
- What are you doing there?
- Visiting friends
- How do you know these friends
- Church (???)
- Okay, who are you going with?
- Uh, friends
- How do you know <i>them</i>?
- Er… we're all from a church
- which church?
- Toronto Jaffray Chinese Alliance Church
- Ah, what're you doing down there with a church?
- Er, just working with them
- Are you being paid?
- No
- Where are you going?
- Nashville
- It says here you're going to be in Adams, or at least that's what I think it says…
- Yes, that's Adams…
- What school do you go to?
- West Hill
- Grade?
- 11
- Alright, have a nice trip.

Phew.
So two flights later, we were in Nashville. We drove up to Adams to the YWAM base, where we would spend three days for training. Training was a really intimidating word, seeing as how we didn't really work that much. I can see now what it was for though. First of all, we learned our dramas, and kind of learned testimony writing-ish thing. But really, the three days was for spiritual preparation. Throwing yourself right off the bat into a missions trip will kill you. The training was time to get closer to God, worship with others, focus on Him and Him alone, and discipline yourself in Him. Even though it wasn't gruelling, it was soooo important.

And that brings me to the theme for this trip:

<h1>WORSHIP</H1>
Every Knee, Every Nation
<i>All the nations you have made, will worhship You oh Lord
They'll bring glory, oh glory to Your name</i>

And matching bags and shirt to go with theme!

But yes, the theme in summary is that missions is not our goal. Worship is. But since the goal of worship hasn't been reached, we need missions. Y'see, Christ is only coming back after every "nation" has heard the Gospel. And that is why we need missions.

So yeah, for three days we met some really cool people at the base, like Bryon, BOD, etc. We learned our dramas (Decision Time!) and had fellowship with one another (pool!).

Then for the next seven days, our TJCAC crew split up. I went to Atlanta. For six hours I honed my evangecube skills because it was the most interesting thing to do.

In Atlanta, we stayed at this extremely nice youth centre owned by the Roswell United Methodist Church. Over those seven days, we did loads of stuff. Of course, I can't go through all of them, so I'll talk about some interesting ones.

First was with the Atlanta Children's Coalition at Little Five Points. Even though I'm not a big fan of kids, I didn't care, and neither did the kids there. A bit later, we met a guy who called himself the Professor. A little into the conversation, he tells us that he took theology. Of course, we were all "oooooohhh." Halfway in, he reveals that he's Muslim and he believes Islam and Christianity are the same. So then our team leader Rebecca who was with us tries to politely point out that they're not the same. We do this carefully for about half an hour at which point the guy "invites" us into this creepy bar. Of course, we go in for a few minutes, say bye and run out. That was the first "thing" that happened to me.

Monday was an amazing experience. We went to Edgewood, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Atlanta. There, we handed out bread and invited people to watch our drama. Even though the people there looked very gangster, they were really nice. We did it, and all the kids came out and everything. Just seeing how much the kids loved it and how much happened just that morning was so amazing. Of course, it sucked a lot when we had to leave and all the kids still wanted balloons.

Tuesday was working at the food bank. Sorting, packing, screwing around. In the afternoon, we went to a nursing home and talked a bit with the people there, played bingo with them, and then we did our drama thing and sung a few hymns after. There was one lady who came in to visit her parents and went on about how wonderful it was for the people here and how we <i>had</i> to go to Stone Mountain, to the point of pseudo-threatening us into going. That was also really great, and I can see how it must be hard. I had a really hard time trying to hear what they wanted to say to me in my conversations with them.

The last night was fun. Techno rave in the van! Beat Satan down! Yeah. Thanks for introducing me to Andy Hunter. Now I listen to it all day. Until I get bored of it, anyway.

I used to be deathly afraid of other people. Now I can at least talk to strangers. God has also forced me to be tons more dependent on Him than before. Going into the trip, I was really worried whether God wanted me to be on this trip and whether He was going to use me. I can see now that He has a way of getting what He wants regardless. He's in total control. Even though I didn't get to really evangelize, I can safely say that God has accomplished so much on this trip in me and working through me.

Experience? Psh, If I went and all that I got was the experience, it would have been a ripoff. No, my friends. The real prize was having God orchestrate and work through this entire thing and being able to <i>see</i> it.