SOONERS WIN

I can't believe OU beat OSU by ONE point for their 4th 1 point win in a row. I'm beginning to wonder if the games are rigged to end like that? Anyways... here are the pictures of my new car.


Hopefully you guys can see it this weekend... I should find out my work schedule tomorrow or wednesday. Until then...

A Week Like Any Other

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since I last posted my happenings from Enid, America and let me tell you the things that have been going on.

Work has been the usual coverage of small town assignments. I think since i've been here, I have taken more pictures of animals than I have since I picked up a camera in high school. It seems like every other day a photo of some sort of animal runs in the paper. Ranging from the new drug sniffing dog Enid Police got, to geese invading a local pond, to a $1200 purebreed dog spaniel that was put up for auction(and then taken down after local protests). This past thursday, page 1 had the spaniel, and a hog from the county fair, page 2 had an AP pic of a dog w/ glasses, page 3 had another dog and page 4 was another AP story of a 1 eyed cat. That was the front section. I'm begginning to run out of ideas of how to take pictures of pets. Other than the animal issue, the papers been giving me just what I want: an opportunity to go out and take pictures every day. I am learning something new every day, and for that, I still go back the next day.

Besides work, the other thing that has been occupying my time, especially this past week has been my truck... or lack there of. After 3 years of fond memories... I had to lay my truck to rest on Monday. Last weekend i was planning to venture to Norman before the snow storm got too bad, but on my way out of Enid, my truck decided it didn't want to go. I had been having problems with it the previous week, the temperature gauge jumping all over the place, it would hardly start one day. But on friday it was having trouble getting above 50 mph. So i let it sit for the weekend and on monday, took it into the shop. That evening, i recieved the news no car owner wants to hear... they had to put it down. J/K. but seriously, i was told the radiator leaked, the radiator cap couldn't hold pressure, and I blew a head gasket. They told me the parts would cost around $150, but the labor would be over $1000 because to get to the gaskets, they would have to take apart the entire engine. So, i began my search for a new car a couple of months before i wanted to. I was able to use one of the newspapers delivery trucks for the week while i searched for a new car. I eventually found a 2003 Jeep Liberty at the same dealership that had my old truck, so i was able to work into the deal a trade-in value of $1200 for my old truck. I really didn't want to get a new car, at least not yet, but the Lord had other plans and delivered me a very fine car for a great price. I will have pictures of it within the next day or so.

This past weekend I went on a "singles" retreat with the Emmanuel Baptist church to FreshFire ministries in Midwest City. It was very nice in that it gave me a chance to get away from everything and focus on the Lord. It gave me insight into where I am, and where I need to be and what I need to do to get there. Also, hanging out with other people around my age(most were at least 25 and up to 31) was very refreshing.

The theme from this weekend, and what jump started things inside me...

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" -Psalms 46:10

Picture Update

Ok, I'm a little more sane, now that I got a little sleep in me. I've updated my SportsShooter(www.sportsshooter.com/phoenixv) website with 2 weeks of images. It's not much, but hopefully it'll hold people over for a while.

This past weekend I had the priviledge of helping the families affected by Hurricane Katrina. A couple of newspaper photographers from Virginia traveled to Louisiana and set up a makeshift shop in a local library. They are taking photographs that were damaged by the hurricane, scanning them, cleaning them up, and making digital prints for the families. There are so many damaged memories that they can't do it all themselves. So, as word spread, volunteers stepped forward, offering their services. I received 6 images from this one family, a couple are pretty damaged. I was able to fix 4 of them, and am still working on 2. Its something that I've been wanting to do since the hurricanes hit. I wasn't able to go down to New Orleans and help out, but now I am to help return precious memories to these families. They have a website with their blog at

http://web.mac.com/fiftyeggs60/iWeb/Site/OPR%20Blog/OPR%20Blog.html

Well, enjoy the pictures. Till later.

Emmanuel Baptist Church

Ok, its late and told myself I was going to try to get to bed early, but when I was about to head to bed, I realized I wanted to post my happenings from Sunday. This past Sunday I visited Emmanuel Baptist Church in Enid. My first impression of it was impressive. It is very different than Christ the King: a lot bigger, a very large choir, a couple of video screens, a full band with electric drums(which don't sound as good as the real thing by a long shot). Now keep in mind, this is the first church I've been to besides Christ the King, and Believers Chapel in Dallas. The songs they sang were very similar to the ones sung at RUF, except with a couple more instruments than guitars and congo drums (sorry J-Stu).

During the sermon, the pastor seemed more concerned with preaching to the camera which was projecting onto 2 large screens on either side of him. I don't know where else the sermon was being telecasted, but I would have preferred if he had been talking to the large audience that was right infront of him, rather that trying to reach everyone through the camera. It was weird watching him in person but listening to him through the screens. I guess that's something that I need to accept from a larger church.

The other thing I was a little confused about was the sermon itself. Now, I am no expert on the detailed beliefs of the Baptist church, but this one confused me a little bit. The reading was from Genesis 7:1-10 when Noah built the Ark. One of the big themes that was repeated throughout the lesson was that "when you feel the call of God, don't look at the clock"(Pastor Wade) It was said during the sermon that the Lord waited for Noah to finish the ark before He brought the floods.(1 Peter 3:20) and that God waited for Moses to be ready before He lead the people out of Egypt. Now I got this to mean that the Lord waited on the lives of these individuals before He acted. If the Lord waits for man to decide when the time is right, then how can man follow the Lord? Am I miss-interpreting what is being said? It seems like in this example, man is being held as high as the Lord, in that the Lord doesn't decide when things happen, man does. I see this as man saying I'm not ready to do something, and so it won't happen. But shouldn't it be the Lord saying man isn't ready, therefore it won't happen?

James 4:13-16 says to me otherwise. Specifically, in verse 15,

Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that"

Is this one of the difference in beliefs of the Baptist church? Am I miss-interpreting the message from Genesis?

While at the church on Sunday, I filled out one of their visitor cards and there was an option that I checked to have them call me to make an appointment to get to know me better. This will probably be one of the things that I ask him then. Any feedback on this issue is most welcome.

Anyways, the paper is still going well. I'm setting a deadline of tomorrow night for getting more pictures from the past 2 weeks up somewhere for people to see. I'll post where tomorrow. Bed time. Chow.

Past vs Present

I am still trying to get the hang of this blog thing. I thought once I set it up, it would be easy to update it every day or so. Well, my last post was over a week ago. I am half way through my 3rd week here in Enid, and things are beginning to fall into a groove.
I have unpacked as much of my apartment as I can with the furniture I have. I have a bigger apartment and I've run out of places to put stuff. It's amazing how many things one person can accumulate over time. I still have random things in a couple of boxes, but I kinda don't want to unpack them, at least not right now.
Being in Enid these past 3 weeks has been a little bit of a culture shock for me. I didn't think I would have much trouble going from Norman to Enid, but even though I constantly thought there wasn't much to do around Norman, there is way more than here. I guess this post will be a list of the things I took for granted while I had and now I miss(in no particular order):

-The Daily Grind: while one of the things I love about working at a newspaper is that I never know what assignment i'm going to be sent to that day, it was the predictability of knowing what classes I had each day, who I was going to have lunch with and when, what I was going to do after classes and who I was going to hang out with at the end of the day. Now, most of my day is a mystery when I wake up in the morning. I know a couple of assignments that I have to go to each day, but it's never for certain. Like yesterday, we got a call in the afternoon that a farmer found a dead body in his cattle field just east of Enid. Apparently it had been there for weeks, if not months. It was so decomposed, as of the end of today, they still aren't sure who it is. Today it was a 98 mph car chase through the wheat fields that ended with the driver trying to run out of the hospital while he was being treated.(he was caught)

-Friends: don't get me wrong, i consider a lot of people friends. But when the friends you have made the past 4 1/2 years are no longer a cross town drive, and are all still continuing on with their daily grind without you, you feel a little lonely. Talking to some of my friends who are in Norman, going to class, RUF, church, the Newspaper, etc., it definately makes me feel isolated from everything I know. How does one move on and start the next chapter of their life when the previous chapter is still going on without them?

-RUF: I knew it would be hard to find something like that up here in Enid. Stillwater is more than an hour east, which would make it pretty hard to be active in their RUF, plus it's OSU(whose influence i am surrounded by up here. luckily there a few loyal Sooners) There is a church, Emanuel Baptist Church, that has been reccomended to me, and I hope to attend this weekend, but from living in the town for a couple of weeks, there is a severe lack of college aged people. Most early 20's adults who are in Enid are either already married, close to being married, or in the Air Force(due to Vance Air Force base being right here).

Anyways, I've just been going off reminiscing of the past. As with all change, it is hard to adapt to my new surroundings. If you haven't already, a gallery of pictures from my first week at the paper can be seen on my Sportsshooter page (www.sportsshooter.com/members.html?id=1961) I hope to get another gallery up either on my site, here through the blog or back on SportShooter. I think I am going to be able to get into this blog thing a little more now that the first couple are up. I hope everyone's doing well with their own pursuits and feel free to comment/drop a line if you have some time. Thanks.

"Therefore do not be anxious, saying 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' for the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you."
-Matthew 6:31-33