Love Your Neighbor (and your enemies)

Well with 2 weeks of school, we are winding down the semester and getting primed for finals… We finished a final group presentation today for our Teaching Process class, which was fun to be able to do together. Our presentation was about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, when he says to "Love your neighbor" AND "love your enemies." When we think about how we treat the difficult people in our lives, we don't tend to act in the appropriate manner and we investigated how we act and how we as a church act towards those difficult people.

I spent last week up at my parent's house in North Dallas---hanging out with my brothers while my parents were living it up in Washington, DC. (Dad actually had a conference, but between that they were getting private tours of the West Wing, etc, compliments of my cousin Adam who is working in DC). The Washington Nationals (the new MLB team) had their first game ever as a ball club, but unfortunately mom and dad couldn't go. But, the boys and I had a great time just chillin--and I definitely got to see my FAIR SHARE of movies.

We're excited about having all this beautiful weather and have been taking advantage of it before the smoldering summer heat comes creeping in. We're looking forward to finishing up the semester…as we start our summer classes and look forward to serving in Mexico!
--Lindsey and Brad--

Tarheels #1

ITS AWESOME BABY! THE TARHEELS ARE #1 !! In case you don't know by now the UNC Tarheels (Click on the team name to view the article on The Daily Tar Heel website) have won the NCAA Basketball Championship. Today was truly a day to remember. Last night at around 1am my two of my brothers call me from Chapel Hill where they described the scene as COMPLETE CHAOS (due to 45,000 Carolina Fans celebrating on Franklin Street). Today I put a Carolina shirt on the podium for one of my professors when he came into the class (he's a Maryland Fan). "Nothing sweeter than to be a Carolina Tar -r- r Heel".

Also I am very thankful that my throat is feeling better. So for those of you who were praying for me thank you very much because this really has been one heck of an ordeal trying to get well for the past couple months. Isn't it amazing how much we take for granted the fact that we usually lead pretty healthy lives without medical problems. It is really a gift of God that each day we can wake up feeling well and able to move around so much. If you haven't thanked God today for your health and all your other blessings, I encourage you to do so. I know the past couple months I've felt convicted about how little I thank God for health, safety and so many other things. Praise God from Whom ALL Blessings Flow! -- Brad ---

The Pope

After a long week of once again fighting this persistent sore throat that I've had, hopefully I'll be rid of it by the beginning of the week and able to attend classes again. Lindsey I must say has been the best wife, friend, nurse, etc in the world. This really has been one of those weeks that I look back on and realize how little I deserve a woman such as Lindsey to be my wife. But I thank God daily for her and the great woman of God that she is.

Tonight my beloved Tarheels are playing in the Final Four so hopefully they will win and we will all be extremely happy. I just hope that Sean May can continue to dominate and the guys on the perimeter will be able to drain the three pointers. If so then the Heels will have no problem tonight.

They are saying that the Pope is going to die soon. I found an awesome quote about him posted on msnbc's website that said "He's not just an icon, he is the incarnation in his whole life of the message of Christ."(click the quote to view the entire article accessed April 1, 2005). Aside from whatever thoughts we might have of the pope, isn't that quote a great motivation and challenge for how we should live our lives. We all should strive to live out the message of Christ so that others might come to know Christ as well and so that those who are already believers might be encouraged to live for Him (God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) as well. -Brad-