For real this time.

I stand (figuratively) before you with an announcement. As of this morning, I have accepted an awesome job as Student Ministries Designer at Kensington Community Church in Troy, MI. And I'm pretty excited about it! I have been praying, along with much of my family, that something perfect would come along, and here it is! God has really come through! I don't know when I start yet, but it will be amazing. I have my own cubicle! I'll also be either sharing an apartment with someone else from the church or getting one of my own- but it is a for real career! If you want more details, let me know!

In other news, I've been busy Nannying for my brother/sister in law in Grand Rapids. They've been trying to get a Home Daycare ( http://www.sweetpeadaycare.org/ ) set up for some time now, and it is finally coming together.

I've also recently picked up Sailing a little bit. At the end of last summer (2009), I was given a small sidewinder sailboat from a friend at camp. It needed a little cleaning up, but it is a great little boat. So my dad and I have been working together on it in our spare time, and just this Labor Day we took it out- for our 3rd time on the little lake. The wind was stronger than our first 2 encounters, and at first we were doing well, really moving across the lake, then disaster struck and we tipped over. Everything was fine, we got it righted eventually, but it was certainly an experience! I'll post pictures soon. So much has happened, I'll do what I can to be better about regular updates! More to come soon!

Okay, FINE.

So it has been a month since I updated. My bad. I've been planning on putting some pictures up, but haven't gotten around to it, I'll get to it soon though! Be ready for a sizeable update as well. I have not forgotten you, dear blog, so calm down.

Reason to celebrate

I was in Grand Rapids last weekend, spending time with my dad and brother mostly, working on "the Labyrinth"- it is a sort of experiential thing we've done at my home church for Easter- Dad and I were helping my brother set it up at his church (which was pretty cool- check out my other blog for details on that- http://natewoods.wordpress.com/)

ANYWAY- we also celebrated a little, because my niece Anna had just accepted Jesus as savior! (A pretty big deal : ) )

It was great just to see Anna! Note her cheesy smile with the cake. She also loves taking pictures, I let her take a few with my d200 (I helped her hold it, but she aimed and pushed the button)...

...I think she might be a better artist than me.

Recently my friends from around here and I decided to watch the movie Zombieland. Now, I'm not a zombie movie kind of guy generally, but I'd heard a lot of good things about this movie, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Now, we decided to have a "make your own pizza"/Zombieland night. Let me preface my opinion of the movie with this: It had a lot of profanity, a fair amount of zombie-gore and some violence. But it was HILARIOUS! And there was no sex- which is huge in my opinion. So, since the first Zombieland/pizza night was so great, we decided to make it a tradition and held our second one just the other day.

The pizza was delicious, the company was great, the movie was good- what else could you ask for?

What else can you ask for? Twinkies. That's what. If you've seen the movie, you'll get it : )

Here's to you, Tallahassee. You've got to enjoy the little things.

And one last thing... My friend Daniel has this awesome Indiana Jones-esque jacket... It is a little small, but I couldn't resist...

So I feel like kind of a chump, because it has been almost a full year since I updated this! Sorry guys! But, I'll give you a quick recap of the last year:

I graduated last may (or walked at least), then worked at Center Lake Bible Camp for the summer (my 5th summer there) as the Media Director (I did photos and video along with a little of this and that). I had a wonderful summer, and I kept in touch with a friend I'd met at SAU throughout. After the summer was over we dated for a couple months but it didn't last. So I have been substitute teaching since summer ended and haven't actually had a lot of luck getting sub jobs lately. So a couple weeks ago I worked out details with my dad (worship/comm pastor at my church) to be a "Creative Media Intern" at the church- doing a lot of different "media-oriented" things. Sadly this is an unpaid internship, but I love the experience! I'm really enjoying it. (I'm also doing a blog specifically for that- http://natewoods.wordpress.com/ follow me if you'd like!)

I've been hoping to do design/video/art stuff for a church as a career, but they're hard jobs to get, and most churches can't afford to pay a guy for that kind of thing. After getting shot down quite a few times, I decided in-church real experience would be a good idea- so the internship materialized.

So now I have the problem of having a part time internship that doesn't pay, and a part time job that doesn't pay. So I recently applied (and have been hired- paperwork on monday) at a shoe store here in town. It isn't my dream job for sure, but I can handle a job like this since I'm doing the internship- otherwise I'd be pretty ticked to do a job I could have done in high school.


So... Life is good! I'm certainly not where I want to be right now, but I'm becoming content with my situation. God has been good.

This is whats up.

Alright, surprisingly, there are a few updates in the last month. Still seriously thinking about film school- but haven't decided yet. I wanted to go to this one here in Michigan, but they don't do personal tours anymore I guess- kinda lame.

And- ready for this? I think I'm working at camp again this summer. Again. This is my 5th year- the 4th year that I said "I can't afford it", and I still probably can't, but we'll see what happens right? God will provide if he's for it. Can't even believe it. Sam Tan is kinda upset about it, sorry Sam. Didn't expect it to happen! I really didn't. I'm having trouble keeping focused to be honest. I've got a lot on my mind lately. This summer just won't be like last.

I was supposed to go to camp with Laura and Kris the other day (then Kris backed out- she has to teach sunday school) and Laura called this morning to let me know that Sarah (at camp) has a fever, so we won't be visiting. Rough day.

Why does life have to be so complicated? God is good.

I'm 24 now, thats different. Well, a quick update on the film school idea. I've put a lot of thought into it (though not nearly enough, I'm still way off from making a decision). I talked to my parents about it and really got a much better response than I expected. They just expressed concern for financial aid. Who knows how that'll work. But, as I'd anticipated, my dad said "I told you that 6 years ago", which he did. But who knows what is to come?

Here is what's new

Figured I'd update, its been almost a month. School started up and I'm feeling pretty good about this semester, I have one class a day (all but monday) and wednesday I also have a guitar lesson. I'm finding myself deep in thought a lot lately wondering about the future, reflecting on the past and wondering what is to come. I'm almost done with my graphic design degree and have been planning on finding a job in a church after graduating. I've wondered about a lot of ideas- living abroad for a while, doing a variety of things that I won't be able to do later in life. My experience in Greece has me wondering if living out of the country for a while would be good for me.

I hesitate to even type this next part out, because I know how dangerous this idea can be (and how upset it might make my parents...haha) but in the last few hours, I've started wondering (again...) if I should think about a career in film. Before I started school at Spring Arbor, I seriously considered going to a film school and getting a degree in "video production" of some sort- directing or writing or everything. Suddenly I'm wondering if that is something I should still consider. I'm in no shape to pay for anything right now, so financially its a ridiculous thought, but somehow I wonder if its something I was born to do- cliche as that sounds. A lot of these film programs are a little over a year to 2 years, so it wouldn't be another 4, but more school debt is not something I'm enthusiastic about. I just don't want to be 10 years from now, thinking "I should have gone for that". Anyway, its just a thought, don't put it in stone, but somehow its working its way into my mind. I'm going to be praying about it, I'd love it if others would join in.

Life is pretty good right now, no real complaints. My mind is so wrapped in this film thing that I can't even think about what else I was going to update on. Maybe later.