(re)set

its been over a year since my last update.  so many things have happened in my life and in our world in my absence from this blog; however, i won't bore you trying to recap all of those things in any depth, but here's a brief recap.

it was a great year though in a number of ways:
  -began dating my best friend (Brittany Watts) and eventually moved her back home to Louisiana where she belongs :) we've now been dating over 11 months!
  -volunteered in Joplin, MO cleaning up from the devastating tornados.. definitely a humbling experience.
  -participated in tons of events with the youth @ Live Oak (remix, vbs, camp fuego, guys retreat, q&a panel for girls' retreat, serve n ski)
  -graduated from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary on Dec. 17th, 2011, with a Master of Divinity.
  -starting Jan. 1st, 2012, i went on staff full-time at Live Oak United Methodist Church in Watson, LA as the Associate Minister/Worship Leader, leading worship for 4 services throughout the week (plus special services like Good Friday, etc.), assisting with the youth and helping with pastoral care/visitations as needed.  its definitely been a growing experience so far.

i could go into so much depth on all of those topics listed above, but i'll spare each of you the in-depth play-by-play details. if you'd like to know more about anything above, hit me up and i'd be glad to give ya the whole scoop.

obviously, i haven't done the best job (to say the least) at keeping this blog updated. it always proved difficult to find the time to update while i was in school/serving at the church, etc., then when i did have the time, i was so far behind in updating that there was so much to cover.. so we'll consider this a(nother) reset.

i've been reading a bunch of books lately, many of which i had been waiting to read for quite a while, so i'll post those book reviews soon.

to make sure this blog isn't just another boring recap, i'll fill y'all in on my current thoughts.  i'm really happy with where my life is currently.  i've got great friends and an amazing girlfriend who are all passionate about God and serving Him wherever He leads and whatever that means.  its exciting to see what God is doing in each of us and the ways in which He continually draws us to Him, while also giving us the opportunities to grow closer together as we serve Him.  even when we're just hanging out on the weekends or whatever, our conversations constantly shift back to talking about church, our youth, exciting ideas, etc.  clearly this is a passion God has placed in all of our hearts and lives.  it is super encouraging to see and helps keep me on track and motivated to continue doing His work.

i'll do a better job of updating this blog now that my schedule is more (or less) structured (as far as free time/time "off" goes). stay tuned for updates soon and very soon.

muchlove, trenticus.

We are here for You.

the banquet has now come and gone and oh what a blast it was! last year was my first year to actually play in the banquet, but I've been involved with helping with the youth for several years.. this year was by far the most fun & the most rewarding banquet experience I've had.. and from all the feedback we're getting, it seems everyone else agrees.  so many people have commented on the blessings they received from just being able to have a night away and enjoy themselves or how an event like this provided the opportunity for some of their lost friends to actually come to church finally..

this past sunday marked the 2 year anniversary of us being in the sanctuary.. Bro. Mark, during his offering "commercial" asked everyone who has become a member or started attending within the past 2 years to stand... it was overwhelming how many people in the congregation are pretty much new to the church.. it just goes to show that the church is growing by leaps and bounds.. but it also serves as a wake up call that we have an incredible task to ensure we are ministering to the needs of those in the community who are coming into our church seeking answers and seeking to connect with Jesus Christ.

God is doing a lot of great things in my life and in our church right now and I am definitely excited to see what else He has in store & see how everything plays itself out over time.  the primary focus of all of it though is that "we are here for YOU!".

Love Will Keep Us Together.

this whole trying to update more frequently seems as though it isn't working all too well haha.. and the year-in-review I don't believe will happen until next year haha.. I figure mid-February is a little late to do a review of 2010 but oh well. I guarantee 2011's review will make up for it! :)

the Valentine's Banquet is coming up and for all of you in Watsonopolis, you know how life-consuming the banquet can be, but it is a ton of fun and I can't wait for the performances! I'll be playing: "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain & Tennille (Tara Gourley), "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts (Dana Rushing), "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift (Kalyn Shilling), "Oh Darling!" by Paul McCartney (Mike Dougay/Purpose), and "I Got You Babe" by Sonny and Cher (Mark & Terrie). Needless to say, its going to be a lot of fun, but its also a lot of work. Oh Darling! and Love Will Keep Us Together have some pretty serious bass lines that really carry the song so I've had to work on them a good bit more than normal but.. it just means they're all that more fun to play!

this semester at seminary is going really well so far! it is going to be a lot of work staying on top of everything, especially Hebrew. it's definitely taking me quite a while to really get a firm grasp on the language.. I'll certainly be glad when I've finished all my Hebrew studies.

this post is much more outside of my norm, but it is still an update nonetheless. if I can ever get to posting more frequently, my posts will be less of catching y'all up on my life and more posting my thoughts on life, etc.

but for now, farewell friends.

I Am At Ease.

Last week, our college group from Live Oak took a trip to Gatlinburg, TN, with the intent on skiing; however, due to the massive snow storm that rolled through that weekend, we were snowed in, unable to leave our cabin for two days.  We finally got the bus down the mountain and had to hike down (0.7 miles) in order to go anywhere.  It made for quite an interesting experience, nothing like any of us had expected going into the trip.

It made it incredible though.. those are the life experiences you never forget.  Breaking out of the mold, out of the norm, and living life as it comes, without a care in the world, trusting God to meet your every need (we were in dire need of groceries, but God was able to provide).

The snow covered mountains were absolutely beautiful (click here for the Gatlinburg album or here for many of the same pictures, just with cool filters on them, in the Instagram album).  I've seen them in the snow before but this year they seemed to stand out even more than ever before.  Overall, it was definitely a great trip to get me refreshed before the start of the new semester, which starts in the morning.

Last semester, I got all A's, so after 47 hours of seminary courses, I have a 3.89 overall GPA which isn't too shabby, if I must say so myself =) This semester should be a really interesting one, but a couple courses are going to be a heavy workload.  I'm taking: Introductory Hebrew Grammar (one of the heavy workloads), Biblical Hermeneutics (the primary workload), New Testament Survey, American Denominations, and History of Christianity: Early-Medieval.  I'm excited about all of the courses though so it should be a fantastical semester.

Stay tuned. More to come later. Year in review is still waiting in the wing (the G-burg trip put a wedge in my resolution to update more frequently).

Love, Trenticus.

Reset.

It has been far too long since I have updated, which seemed to happen much too often over the past year or so.  This past semester was super crazy as far as workload went: I allowed myself to get behind in schoolwork and spent the end of the semester playing catch up the whole time.  I'm still waiting on getting all of my grades back, but I have 3 A's so far.  One of the other classes should be an A.. the other class though is what is kind of worrying me.  I'm just glad to have it behind me, regardless!

Over the semester, I started doing some book reviews on this here blog and slacked up, but I am again tackling my stack of books so be on the look-out for more of those reviews coming soon.  I'll try to do a better job reviewing them too.. My previous reviews weren't all that well written.

This past semester, I took a class called "New Testament Greek Exegesis: James" where we translated the original Greek from the Book of James into modern-day English.  The class was incredible and I got a ton out of it.. Our professor broke up James into passages of about 7 or 8 verses for us to work on per lesson, so all of our translations were completed in a course workbook.  We had some other papers and stuff due too, but at the end of the semester, I decided to take all of that and compile it down into one document for easy viewing for years to come :) I tried to find a way to just link the file on here, but I couldn't figure it out.  Anyhow, I uploaded it on Google Docs so you should click this clause and go read my work :) (btw google docs did some crazy weird formatting to the text when it got uploaded so its kinda weird when you first look at it, but thats not how it was intended haha) all of the date, author, etc. information at the beginning is very consolidated.  We did an entire research paper on that so I consolidated all of that down to make it easier to read and more approachable.

Also, on my original blog from back in the day (xanga.com/lenurd... if you ever get really bored, go have fun reading that haha), I always did a "year in review"post, so since the end of the year is upon us, stay tuned for that post as well.

Farewell loves. Trenticus.