Paul Prins

As much fun as RA training was, I’m so glad it is finally over. The first three days were a lot of fun because they were smaller settings. There are only 17 new RA?s for this semester and so it was fairly personal. I really enjoyed being able to joke around and make the time go quicker (at least for me anyway). It was sweet that they took us out to eat. Turns out that it was cheaper to take us out to eat for three meals a day for the first three days then to open the commons. Now I’m not going to complain about eating perkins, china buffet, el patio, quiznos, jeff n’ jims, culvers, and the depot. Though the depot has very poor service and all my mad skills got me to dump my pop all over the place at quiznos (missing everyone and not hitting any food). It was more or less a bunch of eating mixed in with a bunch of sitting. Nothing really revelation came out of training, more or less just a refreshing of what I already knew.

It’s now Sunday afternoon and the residents are starting to move in. I don’t know what to expect but it should be a good semester. We went through and did our duty schedule yesterday, I work every other Tuesday, and six/seven weekends of the semester. I?m a little overwhelmed by all the weekends I need to be working near the end of the semester, kind of bummed because it would be nice to be able to spend some time with Jordan then before we part ways for the summer. I am probably going to have to move some around though because of spring retreat. I’ll worry about that once we have a date for the retreat.

In other news yesterday was far to long. Started at 7:30, training from 8ish until 11, paperwork from 11 until noon, off to the All Day meeting w/ Cru from noon until 7, and then from 7 until 2 I was doing more RA stuff (door decks, Bulletin Board, Sorting Forms). I don?t think I should have another day like that in a long time. So many meetings and so much time spent.

To be honest it’s quite surreal to be here as an RA knowing that nine months from now I’ll be living in Europe. So weird. I love it though, God is so amazing and I can’t wait to see what He desires to do here in this dorm. Time to sit here bored out of my mind. 122 Hovlid!

Keep letting God bless ya!
~paul

New Address:
Paul Prins
122 Hovlid
121 Third Ave W
Menomonie, WI 54751

Phone: 232-1087

We hear it so often, people dream of being to change the world. Every once in a while you meet someone with a bit more realistic goal of changing the world for a group of people, or maybe just a couple person. While it is true that changing life for them does change the world, you understand the difference. It?s become increasingly obvious that if you want to make any difference at all you must have one thing, and only this can change anything at all.

With hope you give more then anything else in the world. Think about it, money, company, health, and even love is nothing without hope. What good is wealth if one has no confidence and hope in its use? It would simply sit and torment with such potential yet causing no real change. The company of others is only as good as that which it is kept by, to a dying person the company of loved ones would be nice and at the same time show them the most tangible change they?ve made in the world. Their offspring can be likened to their change and impact for future generations. Those at their funeral will represent the direct effect they have had on changing the world (with some minor exceptions).

Being able to heal someone will do nothing if when they are alive they have nothing to use that life for. What a tragedy to regain the life you should have lost only to realize how squandered what you already lived was. At least people would be given the chance to correct some of the wrongs of their life and change themselves to appreciate everything so much more. One must wonder if living a life hoping to do better in your second chance is really hope worth grasping onto.

Love, it?s something we all live for and desire in our inner most core. All me ignorant but in all the times I?ve been in love it was so exciting because of her and my feelings for her. I desire to be in love because it would mean that I would not be single, that I would have a companion, have someone to help me through life, and she would be someone I could take pride in. For the moment I have hope that I will be in love, and with that love how will that hope change, will it rest in her? or maybe in what we could do or be together?

You can offer nothing more then who you are. With money I can offer no more then how I am able to see it?s use, my friendship is no greater then the hope I can show you for life, my health is worth nothing more then the work my hands can do while I?m healthy (metaphorically of course), and my love is only as good as I am as a person. Hope allows people to smile in the midst of horrific tragedy, to love the unlovable, give more then they should, and travel to all corners of the world.

If you are the hope you offer the world your change will be miniscule, if your hope is from God (because your hope rests in Christ) then you can give them the best gift of all, eternity praising God. This is why it?s so important to reach out to those around us, we forget the blessing this hope is and how it allows us to see the world. I?ve witnessed God do amazing things because of hope in Him alone. Help us change the world; it?s as simple as talking to your friends and loving on them. Love them by telling them of the hope nothing else can match in all eternity, the love of Christ.

Please let God bless you because He wants to so much,
~paul

They are on earth only to please God, and when He is pleased, they are also pleased. The Lord takes them farther and through more pain and conflicts then other men. Outwardly, they often seem ?smitten of God and afflicted? (Isa 53:4). Yet to God they are His beloved. When they are crushed, like the petals of a flower, they exude a worship, the fragrance of which is so beautiful and rare that angels weep in quiet awe at their surrender. They are the Lord?s purpose for creation. ~Francis Frangipane

It makes no sense yet all the sense in the world. Why would God?s chosen people, those who choose to follow after Him, go through and suffer through so much adversity. How could such a loving God do that, because he is also Righteous. Those who are truly worshiping our Lord with every action and movement of their essence will only worship and praise Him more in times that are harder.

As my worship becomes more complete my life becomes more purified and refined by God. The worship that I exude becomes even more rare and fragrant, even more pleasing to the Holy of Holies. I?m sorry for always desiring the easy way out, for wanting this divine path that would somehow keep me from harms way. Always reminding myself that you your plan for my life promises to ?not harm? (jer 29:11) but yet I am still thinking so worldly.

My body means nothing, for it will pass on, and my soul is here to worship you. Harm to my body can?t harm my soul if I am in worship to you. I pray that I am able to not only be in never-ceasing prayer but also worship. That my every action, situation, conversation, pain and sorrow would also be an act of worship to you. It was a notion that used to be understood by so many people, that is understood by those who are persecuted, Father allow my heart to understand. May the times of most pain in my life be the strongest points of worship and praise to you, they are far from that now.

As I?ve prayed so often for others…

Father break me so I may worship you more,
~paul

TCX was amazing, not that the speakers were so spectacular? but just that I had been ready to learn something new and they provided that for me. I learned more about how I approach God, knowing that I want to weep before Him more often, that the news I hear would sometimes draw raw emotion from me. Another is that I would stand in awe of God more often, just praising his attributes and helping myself remember who is who and how amazing it is that I can talk with my Father as openly as we can. I?m just in such awe of that.

Other then the spiritual side of things, TCX was a great time to just chill with friends and enjoy downtown. I was also able to get my foot caught in the revolving door of the Hilton? The carpet slipped as I was jumping into the quick spinning door to head to mens time and next thing I knew my foot was jammed between the door and the glass wall. 45 minutes later the firemen had gotten me out (after a failed attempt with the jaws of life) by breaking through the safety glass with an axe. The only damage was a bruised foot with a good scratch on the top and an out of order door. So exciting I know!

The conference was awesome though, 1300+ other college students from all over the upper Midwest (ND, SD, IA, MN, WI and some of NE), amazing praise time, and great fellowship with tons of people. My roomie came over for a couple days afterwards that was fun. I actually just got back from going to Wausau that was really sweet. I hung out with Chris for the morning and saw most of the exciting parts of town, including the plane at the VFW!

After meetings the neighbors dog I went over and figured out where Jordan lived thanks to some excellent phone navigating. We hit up some dinner, el something, and afterwards went to this really cool coffee shop, somethings brewing, downtown. I love spending time with her, we just seem to understand each other and get along so well. Spend most of the time laughing or just joking around with a couple serious conversations mixed in there. To get to the point, I’m super excited to say that we’re dating. It’s a little hard to know right now that there will be over a year where we aren’t able to see each other, but we both decided that we still wanted to start now. I’m just really excited! It’s this weird excitement, I have this relaxed calm exterior while my insides just keep smiling and bouncing around.

Well I’ve gotta get some rest, have to play catch up most of the week with my writting stuff.

Praising the Lord for His blessings,
~paul