Summer Plans?

Matt and I are really struggling right now trying to figure out what we are going to do this summer. We are praying that God will shut and open doors to show us exactly where He wants us to be. We have really been praying that He will do that. However, as of right now, we still have a few different options. We have basically narrowed it down to two places right now, but neither one has officially offered us the position yet. That is where we are hoping that God will make it clear where we should go. If both places offer us the position then we will have a very tough decision to make. I will try to share a little bit about each place.

Dry Bones is located in Denver, CO. Matt and I would be serving alongside around four other interns as well as the Dry Bones staff. Youth groups come in during the summer. They spend the first part of the week on the mountain and the second half of the week on the streets ministering to and loving the homeless youth of Denver. This would be an amazing, life changing experience. We would raise our own money for the summer and can raise anywhere between $1500 and $4000. We would live with families from churches in Denver. You can read more about it at www.drybonesdenver.org

Our other option is working as youth interns in Glenwood Springs, CO. It is a church of under 200 people. They do not have a youth minister so Matt and I would basically be in charge of all youth activities. We have been told that they have a “generous budget” set aside for the youth group and that it is ours to use. We would be allowed to plan and lead mission trips, service projects, classes and whatever else we felt would benefit the youth group there. It is a recreational city and looks to be a beautiful and historic place. We would live with families from the church and get paid $4000 each for the summer.

Obviously as far as money is concerned, Glenwood Springs seems to be the best choice. We also tend to lean towards Glenwood due to the fact that we think we may be the only applicants for the job. If that is, in fact, the case then the youth there will not have any kind of “youth minister” for the summer if we don’t go there. Dry Bones has many more applicants and could easily fill our position if we chose to go with Glenwood Springs instead. However, something about Dry Bones still really calls out to us. It is such an amazing ministry. We know it would be life changing. (We HAVE discussed that we could even plan a Dry Bones “mission trip” with the “generous budget” at Glenwood Springs.)

We are just really struggling with what to do. Glenwood Springs seems to make the most sense as far as a “job” is concerned, but we also feel very called to serve in the way that Dry Bones is serving. We are still praying that God will make it clear to us where He wants us to be. We both want to ask for your prayers as we try to figure things out. We should be hearing back from both places in the next week and a half regarding their decisions.

Keep us in your prayers! I’ll keep yall updated on what we find out. Any suggestions?

Still Here

I'm still here! I know its been a while since I have posted. Things have been super busy here at school and I have kind of neglected the blog lately. However, I DO have things to share and I will start working on those soon! :)

Things to come:
- Spring Sing!
- Summer options for Matt and me
- My trip to Athens
- Spring Break plans
- etc., etc.

Here is a new picture of us from my trip to Athens last weekend...


You should all listen to this song... its a good one. :)



Adios!

Boiler Room Pictures

Here are a few pictures from when the band played at the Boiler Room in Sherman...

Nashville

I asked Matt to do a short write up on their trip to Nashville. Thank you to everyone who sent encouraging emails such late notice! I know they appreciated it. Here ya go...

"We had a good trip. We were happy with how we played, but won't hear anything for awhile seeing as this is the first stage. As for Nashville, we loved it and didn't want to leave. It's such a cool city. Seeing all the music buildings and driving down Music Row only makes me want it more (even though it seemed there was a huge barbed wire fence around all of those buildings making it impossible for us to ever get in!!) We didn’t do too much that was going to cost us money—WE’RE BROKE MUSICIANS! We still got to experience the town in our own, cheap way. On the drive back to Texas, we spent some time in Jackson, TN where the tornadoes recently went through and basically ripped apart the city. For the most part, the part of Jackson we saw wasn’t too bad. We did, however, drive past the college and you could see the path the tornado took. Some buildings were still standing and untouched, but right through the center of campus it was total destruction. We had plans of stopping to see about helping, but it was raining that day and not much work was going on, so we decided to stop at IHOP and get our free short stack (yay for National Pancake Day!) and drive on. We arrived in Little Rock about 4:30 and made a stop at Mac and Jill’s house (they offered to take us out to eat—did I mention we’re broke??). We had great conversation and amazing food at Dixie. About 6:30 we started our final leg of the trip back to Sherman and made it in about 12:00 a.m. All in all, we had a fun time in Nashville and hope to make it back someday!"

Nose Update

Because I know that all of you have been sitting around all day waiting to hear what my nose looked like today, I will now tell you... it looks like my normal nose. :) It is still pretty sore and it has bled a little bit throughout the day, but it looks just fine!

So you can all continue on with your evening now that you know the "nose update"...

:)

My Poor Nose

I had two basketball games tonight. We dominated the first one (the one that counts for playoffs) and GOT dominated in the second one. Luckily the second game didn't count for anything at all. The second game was way intense and the team we were playing (freshmen) were way too aggressive. I got elbowed HARD in the nose twice and had to go out both times. It was ridiculous. It took everything inside of me to keep my cool.

So anyway, after about an hour, I finally have feeling in my nose again, but I'm not sure that that is a good thing. It hurts pretty bad. As of right now, its not red or anything so hopefully I won't wake up with a blue or purple nose... :) Even though it would make for some funny pictures. :)

You might check tomorrow just to make sure I don't have "nose pictures" posted. ;) Haha!

Goodnight!

Prayers

My roommate Jessica's grandpa passed away last night. She is doing pretty well but I know she is having a hard time with it. She will be driving home this weekend to be with her family. Sometimes it is hard for me to know the right words to say to her in this situation. I DO know, however, that it never hurts to pray. :) I just wanted to let yall know about it and ask all of you to keep her and her family in your prayers.

TONIGHT

Check out the Matt Porter Band TONIGHT at the Boiler Room. The Boiler Room is a coffee/sandwich shop in Sherman, TX. It's FREE! :)

(and look at that cool flyer that they have!) :)

Texas Plates

Click on this link to vote for the new Texas License Plates!

http://apps.dot.state.tx.us/services/vehicle_titles_and_registration/vote_plate.htm

Maximus

Well we have a new edition to the Cox family. On my way home on Friday I stopped in Ardmore and picked up our new puppy! Or maybe I should say, MOM'S new puppy! :) She didn't know she was getting one (though she said she suspected that we were up to something!) so she was surprised when she got home from work. I think she pretended to be upset for about two seconds before she picked him up and started cuddling with him. He is a VERY cuddly little puppy and he is so cute! His name was changed quite a few times before they finally decided on one, but his name is.... [drum roll please] ..... MAX! (aka maximus) :)

Here are some pictures of Max...








Click on this link to see a whole album of pictures of Max! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12508&l=e052f&id=718869035

New Song

Matt has a clip of a new song up on his myspace. It's not the "final cut" and it is just the chorus. You should check it out anyway. It's called "You're Not Alone". They have also added "Esperanza" so you can listen to it as well!

www.myspace.com/mattporterband

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THEM! :)

I Don't Understand...

I changed the layout of my blog so that you could click my pictures and get a larger version. However, I noticed today that most of them still don't work! Yet some of them do. I don't know what makes the difference, but I would really like to know.

Well, I am officially 21 years old now but I don't feel much older. :) Unfortunately I will be up for probably another hour trying to study for my two tests that I have in the morning. I have been studying literally all afternoon and evening, minus the hour or so that I took to go out to eat to celebrate with my friends. Exciting, huh? It's a great way to kick off my birthday, I know. Luckily I get to go home tomorrow after classes and relax for a couple of days. I'm looking forward to it.

Goodnight everyone!