The God Who Is There

My book for July was "The God Who Is There" by Francis A Schaeffer. I chose to read this because I had read another book by him titled "How Should We Then Live" in January 2007 as part of a class for school & it was really good. This book was similar to the writing style of his other book- DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND! At times it was boring because as always Schaeffer writes so one must think a lot about what he is saying. He uses a lot of big words, or words in a context other than what we are accustomed to. He covers topics such as philosophy, music, art, theology, and explains how after a point we are under a line of despair looking for meaning. He tells us how this happened then leads to what it means for the Christian, and how to utilise this in evangelism. His point was that the first part of evangelism is not about Christ, but about "God is There."
The book overall can be good, and probably should be read by Christians, but the context of the book is very deep. I suggest reading this book with a dictionary and taking your time reading it. It would also help to read this book with a group and discuss it to get more out of it. The book will be hard to understand in quite a few parts if you have nothing above a high school education, and due to its level of difficulty is why I have to give this book two stars.

RAYE

The American Dream!!

I know that people do not even really READ this blog much since few exciting things ever happen to me. So I just decided to write this for fun... Just a few thoughts I have.

I have often said the American Dream does not exist, which for the most part, it doesn't! People never reach their dreams. But maybe its nothing more than a dream because people are too afraid if they persue it, the dream will die if they fail... But what is life to constantly yearn... GO FOR IT!!!

I came up with my own "American Dream" to share if I decide to stay in the USA! I want to go to dental school to study to be a dentist/orthodontist. I want to get a house in the mountains (I really like Estes Park, CO... the town I have spent most of my time in Colorado at- also the town pictured- in a photo I took when I was there in 2005). I want a large home (but not too large cos I don't want to spend ALL my money on a house...) I wpould hope to commute to Boulder or Denver to work (long commute, but for the wages I can expect, Its WORTH IT!!! And not uncommon to travel that far to work... :) I would like to have a family and send my kids to really good private Catholic schools in the city. I want to take regualar holidays with my kids and family as well to Europe & on cruises etc... At my house I want a hot tub and tanning bed (not as expensive as some thing) and other "expensive" toys... and by expensive I don't mean TOO expensive... maybe a billiards table?! haha. If I'm with Chad he'd like that! I even want a nice auto (mostly for looks haha) maybe a Corvette or something... those are dropping drastically in price. My dream car is actually a Mercedes Benz SL600 but I REFUSE to spend 127K on an automobile no matter WHAT I make haha. I also think a beach house in Malibu or something would be nice... or in Florida... that I can go to a few times a year & the rest of the time rent out to tourists :). I would like to write books and publish them for fun (which I hope to start on as soon as I get a new computer)... and sell music I write as just hobbies :) But I also want to donate to charities... like Compassion International, Cancer Research/St. Judes Hospital, Animal Enviornmental programmes etc... & missions projects with a church... I still think regardless of ANYTHING we have we need to give back to others regardless of how much we have. My lifelong goal is to be an orthodontist and do general dental work. :) Life is an adventure That I hope to live out fully & this is just a picture of my bigger dream... Eh, I can dream can't I?!

RAYE

I eat as weird stuff as the weird things I do =P

Hahahaha... By an "american" standard, I eat really weird things according to Chad. This past week I have had insane addictions to Indian food. I discovered this store not too far away that sells imported foods (mostly from India) but also from the UK and Iran :) The place is called India Emporium. I quite love it. Between that store and Amazon.com I am sure I can get plenty of my Imported British goods as well as Indian foods. I got a Crapload of British Chololate Bars that I loveeee as well as Horlicks, Marmite, Vegemite (from Australia), and of course I have the hugest tea cupboard!! :)

I am starting to recieve things I bought for my apartment, I just really need to get the patience to clean it... and I really don't have that sort of patience. Chad fixed the internet (go figure... CHAD fixed it... he knows NOTHING about computers haha) but now I am just FAR more interested in my computer than cleaning. Chad is currently in St Louis for a Pearl Jam concert. He saw them last night in Kansas City, MO as well but he wanted to see two concerts so he got tickets to both. I am staying at his apartment these two days and taking care of his cat.

The two of us have been discussing the idea of taking a holiday together this summer in late August to really early September to go camping in New Mexico (White Sands National Monument), Arizona (Grand Canyon), Utah (Salt Lake), and the four corners... It should be pretty cheap since the majority of all we are looking at doing is camping and hiking, the most expensive thing would be the cost of petrol!! I still really want to go to Africa as well, but even after fund raising I will probably have to find a better job in order to go all the way to Uganda!!

I am thinking of getting a new iPod and a MacBook Pro tho as a birthday gift to myself since I can get such a great financing plan on it... So I hope to do that in a little over a month when my Birthday comes :) Until then I want to download wayyyy more of the music to THIS computer so I can more easily transfer it later... Once I have a new computer I can finally start working on my writing too...

Well I think thats all I have to say for now... I still have to post the April book blog, & still waiting to recieve a book in the post to read as my May book... so I will keep you all posted :)

RAYE