PaulPrins.net

Well I?m here, first day ever in Seattle and I?m sitting in our living room because I plugged my phone into the wrong outlet last night and it turned off when the switch when off. Eh, can?t win them all. Just being here really makes me wonder how I?m going to react to Stout again. I?ve been living in big cities all summer (Toulouse, and now 5-6 days in Seattle) and then I?ll be going back to Stout in about a month. I?ve always been a city kid and always will be. My first place will be in the city and the only reason I might leave is to raise kids, but in all honesty can?t say I?ve ever put much thought into that one.

There are just so many things about large cities that I miss, the bustle of people, the constant availability of things to do (even if you don?t always want to do them), and just the number of choices you have. In Menomonie if I want Chinese food I have to go to the fortune cookie? Though I will stand up for that little city a bit, there are some really amazing places you can walk to and be lost in the woods. It?s so beautiful and I?m not sure I could ever leave that about my school. Eh this post is titled ?Hello Seattle? so I should probably talk more about the city.

Not that I really can, I just got here last night. I?m gonna go run a muck on the metro for a while after I let my phone charge up a bit first. Not really sure where I?m going or what the heck I want to see but ya never know what might cross my eye along the way. I?ve got about 2-3 hours as of now before Ryan (older brother) gets back from work and we go and hang out. Well that?s about all I got, I?m going to check on a couple things and then take off.

Take care and God bless,
~paul

Today was the first day I?ve really had a lot of exposure to the people whom I get my Christian fellowship at my parents house. To be there and to have people coming up and hugging me because I?m home, asking how it went and longing to hear the spiritual side of it (which I don?t really write here), and to see the second part of my summer falling into place as I saw it. It?s amazing. It helped to affirm the work that Christ did through me while I was in Toulouse. Tomorrow I?m meeting with the pastor to talk about speaking in church one Sunday (probably in two weeks) and in august I?ll be leading a week of the main adult education course for the summer. I?m pretty excited about both of those actually.

New thought. It?s weird being here now. I liked Toulouse because I knew exactly what the outcome we wanted to get was. Here I only have a foggy idea, I know what it is that I want and desire but honestly haven?t sought out what the Lord would desire of the rest of my summer.

Also saw spiderman 2 tonight with papa bear. I really enjoyed it. The number of Christian themes running through it were also really nice and helped to make the movie more enjoyable for me.

One final thought: I took something like 3000-5000 photos in France, so you can bank on there being a new design to the Blog soon. Pretty exciting I know.

Take care and God bless, ~paul

————————(Something Else)————————
I wish right now that I had words I could write to make this go away. Here is my hope; that I will get through tomorrow without missing you so much that it hurts, like this. It?s so hard to sit here and feel like this knowing that you don?t know. That I don?t know how you even feel or care, but that some part of me tells me with the utmost certainty that there is something bigger then who I am when I think of you. For the longest time I told myself that I wanted the best for you and knew that wasn?t me. There?s still hope that it is, despite knowing that for so long I have let this slide past.

I wish that I could have taken you by the hand and told you what I know to be true. That time would have stopped for us, letting me express what I couldn?t any other way than with three things. Days can?t move fast enough until that list is spent and you shall know. Then all of who I am will know what it is you say. I only wish it were today?

It makes sense that after being home several days now and being over a week removed from our active ministry in Toulouse, France, that I should have a thing or two to write about. Filling in those of you who I haven?t talked to or who are just reading this to keep in the loop of what is going on with my life. There is no other place better to start with than the ministry it?s self and then talk about how this trip affected me personally.

The numbers for the trip were great. Now some of you might be upset that we kept track of the number of people we talked to or how many spiritual conversations we had. When you go out and do anything you need to keep track of your work, where worked best, where people were more interested and to be a measure of the interest in the city from year to year. This is where it gets exciting. This year we had the following:
-Initiations = 534
-Spiritual Conversations = 203
-Gospel Presentations = 39
-Additional Meetings = 66
-Friends Handed off to STINT = 24
Now for some of you this means nothing (probably most of you) so let me expand upon it a bit. From two years ago there is one person involved, last year there are between four and six, and this year we handed off twenty-four people to the yearlong STINT team. The numbers are good because they show us the interest and desire in this city. The majority of the spiritual conversations (at least the ones I was in) were started by French students who asked questions like: ?How can you know God exists??, ?How can you have Faith all the time??, and ?What about other religions??.

As for how the project affected me? I?m not sure I?ll completely understand this until later on this year though I will write what I know for now. There were three main lessons I learned this summer (of which I won?t go into much depth on). They were the importance of and living a life of humility, being obedient to authority and the Lord, and how to pray with un-wavered power and affirmation that I have what I?ve prayed for. All three of those things were on my heart before the summer and I was able to truly learn about them in my studies and enhance my knowledge in them.

There is also the question of what I?m going to be doing with my life. For those of you who don?t know, every door that this world had opened to me I have now shut. I?ve resigned from skiing, I changed majors out of the art program, turned down my job offer in Vail with Highline sports and entertainment group. Now I do know what I?ll be doing and my heart is a flame with passion for it. Will this world know? Probably not. Would anyone believe me if I told them? Again, probably not. Does it matter? Not in the slightest. The day will come to accomplish what has been set before me, and when that day comes I will. Until that day arrives I must prepare myself and do what comes a long.

While this is my last entry under the header FR: there may still be entries every now and then about france and the people from that trip. They will always hold a spot in my heart, I only pray that they continue to live for and walk with the Father in His Spirit.

Take care and God bless,
~paul