Praise God!!…My incredible and generous friend came to me tonight and blessed me with some amazing stuff for my Sara’s Goin’ to Seminary Garage Sale! But you’ll  have to bear with me on this list.  I was never that big into gaming so as I attempt to list them below I know I’m gonna make a fool of myself here so skip the part where you make fun of my ignorance and get straight to salivating over these awesome vintage finds  :)

Two Sega Genesis Consoles with 25 games (including but not all: Captain America, Sonic 2, Hard Drivin’, Krusty’s Super Fun House, X-men, X-men 2, The Pirates of Darkwater, Soldiers of Fortune…trust me the list goes on!)

Sega Nomad (plays same games as Genesis)

Sega Game Gear with 7 games (Bartman meets Radioactiveman, Sonic, Sonic 2, Sonic Triple Trouble, X-men: Gamemaster’s Legacy, + cleaning cartridge)

Sega Saturn with 1 game (Virtua Fighter)

GameCom with 5 games (Duke Nukem, Metal Slug…)

NeoGeo Pocket Color (Blue Camo) with 3 games.

Check out the video below that shows a bit more!

I’m an excitable person. But I would like to stop looking forward to things so much so that it depreciates the present moment. And sometimes in order to be my best in a future moment – to be early or to rush to finish a project – I’ll cut corners on the current moment.

It’s important to me to live every day to its maximum potential, but it’s less like painstakingly squeeze every grape, or trying to juice a lemon to the very last drop. Living full is more like taking a big bite out of a juicy apple and taking the time to chew, tasting all of the flavors it has to offer. Even appreciating all of its colors and smells!

I’m so glad that God has given me creative curiosity and He’s teaching me day by day one of the primary reasons I am here is to be here for people. To listen and learn and love them. And through all of this I am able to remember that God has placed me exactly where I need to be, right now.

I’ve been learning to slow down. It’s really a form of trust… to trust God with my time. It makes me flinch just to think of giving that up to Him, because the value of my time is more precious then gold! Time is work, accomplishments, money, relationships… but it’s all His. And when I give over to Him my prized possessions, tangible or intangible, He won’t let me down – I won’t be stressed out, nor will I be unhappy because I have to work instead of being somewhere else – He knows what is best for me.

I am exactly where I need to be.

-B

I’ve had a couple people request info for my garage sale coming up this this weekend.  Not wanting to disappoint, here ya go!

What do you do when you go home to visit your family? What traditions do you have? Big dinners, long conversations, fights? We stay up late and watch three DVDs until we zonk out and then in the am we all run and jump on Dad and Jeanne’s bed (Tip for success: avoid the lumps in the bedspread) It’s not polished but it’s what we look like as a fam in the am.

First attempt at a video blog… still learning how to talk without repeating myself or smacking my lips so loud that the speaker crackles. Patience my young padawan learner. Good news about being a bad video blogger: I can only get better at it.

-S

Check out the video below that Mike Sanchez of Guarding Light Media made for me:

Update:

Thursday afternoon I wire transfered $3,000 American dollars to pay my tuition and fees to Hillsong! I’m so excited and amped about the months to come but I’m not there yet.  An Australian visa requires a minimum of $12,000 AUD (which with the exchange rate as of today is $10,866.90) but they suggest closer to $16,000 AUD to cover living expenses in Sydney for one year.  So I’m up against quite a financial challenge.  I humbly ask that you consider helping me reach my goal of getting to Hillsong’s seminary program.  If you’d like to contribute click on the button to the left.  You’ll be taken to a secure web-link through PayPal, where you can use most major credit cards… or you can post a check the old fashioned way to my address below:

442 Lorna St., Unit 1, Charlotte NC 28205

Also, I’m having a garage sale, a silent auction, & hosting Mary Kay online parties in order to raise funds.

If you have any questions about ways to help and/or contribute you can e-mail me at sara.colee@yahoo.com or comment below on this post.  I’m prepared to whatever it takes to see the Lord’s will done.  But I can’t do this alone.  I need your help to get there.  Thank you in advance for any support you can give.

-S

Mr. Spaceman, you’re looking kinda pale.
What went on out there?
It was thumbs-up to Houston when you first went outside,
But you came back real shaky, lookin’ like you lost your mind.

Oh… did you?

Mr. Spaceman, you’re lookin’ kinda green…
Please tell us what you’ve seen.
Did you breathe the air? Or was it something else?
Someone Else out there? Someone Else out there?!

(Spaceman:)
“Oh the wildest… the wildest things
I’ve seen the wildest, I’ve seen the wildest things…”

Mr. Spaceman, now’s not the time to cry.
We’re getting pretty close now, judging by the satellite.
Won’t you tell us more about this planet?
Our time is running out, we’re going to have to
LAND. THIS. SHIP.

Oh the wildest, the wildest things
We’ve seen the wildest, oh the wildest things

The foam on our lips tells a story of where we’ve been
You won’t believe
(We can taste you already)
We’ve lost who we are, we’ve been taken over
By a being that no one has discovered
Disease has taken over me
We’ve lost our sanity in seeing our home
So far away, like the sun…
Where the sun should be…

Away… like the sun…
Where the sun should be…?

Tonight was amazing.

There is a prayer house renovated by Renovatus church on the corner of 15th and North Davidson that Sara took me to. (Not before we loaded up on some tea from The Common Market!) It’s one of the most creatively beautiful buildings I’ve ever seen – I can’t wait to get a better look at it during the daytime. Just looking at how much work has been put into it and the words and Scripture all over the walls is so touching. And inspiring!

After a slow day at work, my mind was racing. I had a lot of empty time to simply think. God’s timing in my life has been so amazing in the past few weeks, and I’ve just been thinking about where I was last year at this time. October 2008 was the turning point of my faith. I was lonely and just at the end of a deep bout of depression, and thanks to Sara and Elevation, the movement of God completely revived my faith and me again. I haven’t stopped growing since, praise the Lord.

I want so badly to write about all the things that have happened… all of the steps that I have taken and keep taking – all the trials and troubles that I’ve overcome and now use as learning experiences. (Everyone has their own stories of trials and troubles, but I also believe that everyone’s experiences are so unique and full of equally unique power to speak individual truths.) I want to look back and write about what I learned from being in an unhealthy relationship, I want to write about spending New Years Eve alone in an attempt to outreach during Single Cell’s production of Purgatory, I want to write about attending Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out” conference, I even want to write about things me and Sara have FOUGHT about!!

And I intend to write on all of these things, but for now I would just like to reflect that last year my stomach had just stopped turning at the thought of going to church. October was the season where my heart was put back together. And I realize, though my heart will ache at times, it will NEVER break again! Not now… now that my joy comes from the Lord! It comes from knowing that we never EVER have to be alone again! We never will be!

There are so many things we talked about tonight in that quiet little room… I don’t want to type all of these moments up, but I do want to say that it was a wonderful personal time of amazing prayer and revelation. We went over Ruth and Jesus and tiny proverbs from a leadership book called “Axiom”. I am so thankful for Sara, because she has been such a devoted shepherd to so many people, but I am most thankful to her for shepherding me this past year. I cannot wait to see what that is like.

By the way, Sara says hi and that she plans on blogging again soon.
For now, I’ll leave y’all with a bit of rhyme:

“Sometimes there is sorrow,
And sometimes we may cry.
But in faith we’ll walk atop the streams that flow out from our eyes

For there’s an everlasting hope
Above the surface of our lives
There is insurmountable joy and LOVE in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Peace out,
Brij