Kayaking

I have mentioned once or twice just how much I love living in Austin :) This weekend was a true case and point. Saturday, the non-profit that was started by elders of my church (Music for the City) had a neighborhood BBQ in the oldest housing projects in the country. They're called Santa Rita Courts and are located in Austin. We had food, live music, games and face painting. Tons of neighbors came out and enjoyed the beautiful day with us and each other. There was laughter, smiles and lots of chatting. The afternoon weather couldn't have been better and we all felt really blessed to be witnessing such a feeling of community. Colin and I then headed over to the Green Eco-Convention that is in town for Earth Day. We got to see all the newest equipment in the fight to save the earth from the disease that is human consumption. From there, we met up with a few of Colin's friends at the Thai Festival in the Buddhist Temple. We watched Thai dancers, listened to a karaoke singer and sampled an array of ethnic food. Just as we were ready to head out, a friend of our group led us into the temple itself and we got to pray and burn incense. What an experience!! It could not have been a more eclectic, Austin type of day!!

Sunday after church, I headed back to get Colin and we met up with another friend of his to go kayaking. We enjoyed time out on our portion of the Colorado River and made friends with turtles and a swan. We watched an odd game of water volleyball via kayaks (still unsure how it worked) and people watched as is a norm in Austin. We topped off the Austin Weekend Experience with lunch at Chuy's...an Austin Tex-Mex staple.

I love Austin!!!!!

Music and Beer and Bikes, oh my!

As with most Austin past-times, my last weekend consisted of a couple of planned events, a few unplanned ones and was brought together with a ton of laughter. Saturday was the block party that my city group has been planning since the night I joined them. We got to set up an event that allowed all the neighbors to come and enjoy each others' company! There were musical acts who volunteered their time to come, everyone brought food and even in what turned into a crazy storm people came out and enjoyed each other! Friendships were made, conversations were had and lots of smiles were seen. Katie is a young up and coming singer-songwriter. She is from Alaska originally and like me is new to Austin. Her voice is ethereal and her sweet nature can be heard in her words. The fireman's 4 beer is a local favorite and the rain barely slowed us down!

Sunday after a great service, a group of us from church had lunch and then went to cheer on a fellow church member who was completing the ridiculous bike race from Houston to Austin. It's a 2 day event and we were able to watch her cross the finish line!! I snapped this photo of a group of bikes along with some of their crew. It was an exciting time, with tents of bicyclists getting massages, families laughing and everyone just enjoying another Austin day.

Easter Weekend

Friday

After getting off work early to get my car back (hooray!), I scored on a parking spot downtown and hung out at Starbucks. I perused online and chatted with the friendly staff until my friend Amy came to pick me up. We headed over to Walton's for some grub, which is always a good time. We got done just in time to get into Momo's, where we were meeting our other friend Sarah to listen to a fun swing band. The place has a rooftop patio, which made me happy! We listened to the band and watched some people dancing. Amy wasn't feeling great, so we left a bit early, but I still didn't get home until after midnight!

Saturday

Sleeping in is really an awesome ability. I got sleep, lounged around, made brownie cookies for my date later that night and then went to the mall with my roomie, Michelle. We shopped for needed items and each got what we went there for, which makes for an excellent shopping day! The weather was gorgeous, so we decided to lay out (each in our new tops) as soon as we got home. I am now a professional lay-er-out-er, so I stayed out for over an hour. The breeze was just right and the sounds of the day were relaxing.




I finally decided I should head inside and get ready for my date, which I did. As soon as he was done with his fun work day, we met up downtown and saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D!!! What a movie! I never liked the first Alice and was prepared to be a bit bored (save Johnny Depp, whom I adore). On the contrary, I would even have enjoyed it without Johnny (although I do prefer it WITH him!!!). The plot is different and way more interesting than the first movie and the visuals are perfectly Tim Burton. Johnny's random scottish accent is pretty fantastic too!

When the movie was over we tried to have Wahoo's, which apparently closes at 10 on a saturday night. LAME. We went to Opal Divine's instead...which is also pretty fun. I had a Pecan Porter and pulled port sliders. Yum. After that we walked around downtown and tried not to get stepped on by the huge crowds in town for the Austin Relay.

All in all, a pretty great evening.

Sunday

EASTER!! I awoke early and headed to church to help the children's ministry set up the crafts. We correctly anticipated a larger attendance for this particular Sunday. There was standing room only in our cool church venue of the Highball (a bowling alley/fun zone type place) and everyone was having a great time. Jonathan's sermon was about the difference between Jesus' death on the cross and the death of all Jewish martyrs that were crucified. Namely that Jesus is the only to have risen!

After helping to tear down, a group of us went to one of the families' homes to have a potluck and enjoy each others' company. We ate and laughed and drank and held babies and shared stories and swapped info and just really had a great day together. The sun kept peeking out at us, but the rain stopped just in time for us to set everything up outside AND allow the kids to play out back (thank God). The food was yummy, the company was fun and the weather was warm. A pretty awesome afternoon!

Easter evening was 4 1/2 hours of doing my taxes. No comment.

Salvation Point 5

The final point of the argument is about who remains saved. Preservation of the saints to a Calvinist is guaranteed. For an Arminian, because you must choose Christ of your own accord in order to be saved, you must remain choosing him until your death in order to remain one of the saved.

One of the main questions amongst our group was this: if Calvins are correct, then how are there people who are saved (or claim to be) and then live really sinful lives, appearing to have "fallen from grace"? The Calvin would answer that one of two things has occurred. Either the person was never saved to begin with or they are indeed saved and will come back to Christ after going through whatever turmoil they got themselves into. If you are one of the chosen people, you will eventually come back to Christ before your death. It may be at the last breathe, but the chosen are never lost.

I would say after these weeks I have realized I pull more to the Calvinistic perspective. I do believe (as does my pastor) that we have free will when it comes to our lives and decisions we make; but I believe that when it comes to salvation there is no way to "earn" it. For the most part, we are all God's chosen people...we are human and will sin often, but that is what humans do. We can see proof of our salvation when the desire to follow Jesus' lead is stronger than our desire to sin. Sin will still win sometimes, but if we feel the pull in our hearts to do better then eventually we will!

I have really loved each of the classes I got to take. The last class, my pastor came in to do a Q&A session and while naturally it wasn't long enough, he was able to clear up several questions. I really got to see why I love going to this church so much and the real love of all people that he has. It is such a refreshing feeling to get to belong to a church family AND have all of my beliefs supported. THAT, to me, is a true Christian. Christ loved all. So should we.