A Powerful Pastor

What is the most annoying thing to you? Mine right now is this cut on my lower lip that is split because they're chapped. Ergh! Why do these odd things always seem to happen to me?

The past couple of days have bee slowly mushing along without much change. I saw on the weather channel that Richmond has the possibility of snow! If this happens, my week would be awesome and somewhat complete. Gosh, I sure hope it snows.

My favorite highlight of the past week has been hanging out with Liz as much as I have been able. Last year was a conglomeration of many odd work shifts and boredom. Now though we ave been able to maintain a somewhat groove of things that really fits our personality. We look forward to our backgammon games and Starbucks study sessions. In fact, if we don't do one in a week, it begins to feel odd without it.

I've been listening to Kris Vallotton a lot. He is a pastor from Bethel Church in Redding, California. Every single time he preaches, it seems as if God is talking about my exact situation I'm going through via his sermon. Whenever I hear him speak I can't help think of Crush the turtle preaching (you know, the sea turtle from Finding Nemo? he has a surfer accent in my mind). Anyways, I love what Bethel Church is doing and the scriptual/spiritual message they are spreading. My faith has quadrupled since listening to this church. You can find their weekly message on ITunes, and I suggest you do.

Kris, if you ever end up reading this, my fiance and I are actually planning on flying from Virginia to Redding for our honeymoon just to see Bethel and to see if you won't pray specifically with us. If this is possible, please get a hold of me through this or my facebook. You're awesome, dude!

Anyways, May God keep you in His ever-abiding love my friends. And may your day be fruitful in love and life!

The Brighter Side of Things

Through all of the papers, exams, sleepy days, London fogs, unsweetened iced coffees and Arsenal matches, I have found time to be able to come back to the solitude of a nice blog to write. I miss the clickity-clack of my keyboard as I write what I'm thinking and feeling at any given moment.

As in previous posts, I have mentioned a complete thirst for Toni Morrison. So now I feel inclined to inform my friends and readers that God has truly blessed me with an amazing opportunity that I've never heard happen before. The head of African-American Literature here at VCU (Dr. Bassard) took me on as an independent study based on ALL of Toni Morrison's novels. But wait! There's more: She's teaching the same curriculum to a graduate-level class. So logically, guess who gets to sit in and talk amongst graduate students!? ME! What a great honor! And on the first day of class, she introduced me to the rest by saying that I am one of the brightest students she has ever taught. Talk about a great compliment. This opportunity is something I'll cherish forever, even though the course load includes all 9 of her novels, a book with her interviews, and copius amounts of criticism. I'm so excited to start on all of this. Btw, if you haven't read her newest novel, "A Mercy", be sure to check it out it's a quick strong read.

Nonetheless, not much has been happening. Arsenal isn't doing too well, I could care less about the Super Bowl, and the Wedding planning is mostly finished.

I guess the cooles situations happening at the moment are the prospect of going to Canada for Spring break and a day trip soon to visit Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald's gravesite. I know it sounds morbid, but I really want to see it.

I'm glad to be writing on here, especially since many of my family use this as a way to find out what is going on in my crazy world. Know that I will be doing this more often than the past few months. Till then, may the Lord keep you and bless you.

Quick Note

Hello fellow friends and readers,

It has been way too long since I last wrote. It is in no way because I don't enjoy blogging anymore. It's actually because ever since I came back from Jolly-old London, I haven't even found time to sleep well. I have been running everywhere, working, researching, writing for classes, studying for GRE's, and then the eventual self-berating following the test taking.

Be that as it may, I promise I will be blogging on London, Obama's victory (WOOO), and what I have learned in life because of everything that has been going on lately. I will say this right quick though: If you did vote, I'm proud of you! I will be back to further my bloggin' very very soon I promise.

'Till then, I give you a photo of me in The Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford, England. This pub was a pivital meeting place of the famous C.S. Lewis and J.R. Tolkien where these two writers compared thier drafts on "The Chronicles of Narnia" and "The Lord of the Rings" respectively. It is also, if my sources were correct where Tolkien became a Christian thanks to Lewis' talks and love of Christ. Liz and I must have walked for an hour around this beautiful town until we found it with much joy!

Ryan and Liz's Big Exodus

It is about that time my fellow Americans. Liz and I shall embark on an amazing journey to London. The trip will be long, arduous, and full of awesome British stuff. I wish you all much love and I can't wait to come back and show you all pictures!

Love,
Ryan

P.S.-I'm turning off my phone because international minutes are a nightmare, and I want radio silence for the first time in my life other than when I am hiking.!

CHEERS!

GOALLLLLL!

And the crowd goes wild!!!

That was how the air felt the entire time I was at RFK stadium in Washington DC. The US national soccer team played Cuba for World Cup qualifying. The fans were ridiculous, and my friends were even more outrageous. It was the best game I have ever seen in my life...Even though I will probably be saying this again a week from now when I see Arsenal play Everton at North London.


USA 6 : Cuba 1

This game my friends was not just a win, it was a definite stomping! Here's my pics proving I was there:

The Pain of Ignorance

The ebb of life flows on in my life! Earlier today I learned about the Treaty of Versailles (You know, the one that stopped the intolerable trench warfare of World War 1?). Anyways, what I came to learn about it was that it was merely an armistice: a cease fire if you will. When you get down to it, the Germans didn't even have a chance to negotiate. The Allies (mainly the Italians, French, Americans, and the Brits) drafted a treaty behind closed doors, handed it to the Germans and practically said, "sign this and end the war or reject this and keep on fighting [insert 'you bastards' here]".

I find this a bit disconcerting, especially since this was the same time that President Wilson was trying to spread the ideals of his Fourteen Points. From the get-go, it was a total corruption of what the US was trying to do democratically; we held out on a peaceful negotiation with the Germans.

*The image is a picture from the trenches at Verdun...to this day one of the bloodiest battles in history. More than 250,000 dead and about a million wounded, in not even a year (February 21 1918- December 18 1916)*

This type of prejudicing (and other factors) will be a nice paved road for the rise of Hitler, but that is beyond what I want to say about this... I hope that this type of carelessness with the German people will be the last time this happens. In World War 2 they learned their mistakes and tried different forms of justice.

But what about this Iraq war? And what about the ongoing battle for National recognition for an Israeli state? It seems as if Total Domination is the only key to getting what we think is "right". I hope that we can always keep the interest of the people whenever we settle foreign matters, in order to subvert another catastrophe like both of the World Wars...What do you think?

The Current State of Ryan Matthews Esq.

I was supposed to have travelled to Rockville, Maryland today to visit F. Scott Fitzgerald's grave... Unfortunately, the writings of Hemingway that I have to read for class have hindered me from this voyage. I think Hemingway would have liked to hear this though, seeing as they both had a bumpy friendship. However, it is my goal to visit the grave before I move out of Virginia.

There are tons of cool events on the horizon! This coming Saturday I get to be the soccer fanatic that I am! I get to see the US National team play Cuba for a World Cup qualifier. Then, as if one game was enough, I get to see Arsenal a week later in LONDON! God has blessed me more and more as I walk with Him.

It has been a running joke at my store that if somebody wants to find me I'm in either of three places: My Apartment, My Bathroom (and essentially therefore my Apartment still), or my Starbucks. I really do love it here though. The combination of fresh coffee, a multicultural base of customers and partners (we call our co-workers partners), and comfy chairs. This store is one of the first things that to my mind when I think of Richmond. It'll probably be the one thing I miss most though when Liz and I leave for Grad school.

I just recently made a new friend named Josh. Have you ever met a person and thought that you must have been twins and switched somehow during childhood? Well, that is what it feels like between the both of us. No homo... Here's a list of odd similarities:

-both are obsessed with Star Wars, Chris Thile, and Jesus

-we both lied to our significant others when we first met them (I apologized to Liz afterwards though, for my family readers out there)

-and other odds and ends that seem to go on forever. He is a great friend, and I think we will stay that way for a long time! It's good to find a Christian bro to lean on and hang with.