They got married.

Here's a photo of Matt and Lauren's wedding:














-Peace

my tragic little tale

it is nothing on the scale of world events or even national catastrophe, but i am feeling the need to share a little of my personal world with you all. bear with me. it started with a night in seattle: i had just flown back from visiting my sister in wisconsin a few weeks ago(and Abbie in minnesota!) and i had my luggage in the car. Scott and i stopped to eat some food and when we came back out to the car, it had been quite obviously broken into. everything was a mess and they had torn out my cd player. that alone was not so bad...its just that my suitcase was stolen! my Bible, my journal with my writings from the whole Egypt trip up through now, my camera, and other sentimental objects such as my scarf from Jerusalm were stolen! i know it sounds silly and little, but i have really struggled with feeling so violated and angry.
story 2: a week later my cousin who has schizophrenia overdosed on his meds and nearly died. i spent a lot of time in the hospital with him. he has been moved now to a psyche ward for who knows how long. he is really devestated and depressed to be where he is.
story 3: last night four girls from George fox were in a horrible accident. one died. she was my roomate when i returned from Egypt until i graduated. i knew all the girls pretty well. the other three are in hospitals but things are not looking good. these four girls also happen to be four of my brother's closest friends! i am hurting for him almost as much as for the loss of cara. please pray for us.
i'm sorry to write depressing things. i feel like thats the only time i ever write. i'm sorry. my heart is so heavy.

Calvin happenings

Ok so some crazy stuff has been happening here that has stirred up a lot of MESP memories and issues.

So Monday night we had this "ex-terrorist" who goes by the name Kamal Saleem come to speak at Calvin, sponsored by the Calvin College Republicans. Phil and I decided we had to go. Going in I had heard a lot of skeptical people talking about how his story didn't make historical sense, he was a fraud, etc.

So basically, he was the most exasperating speaker I have heard in my life!!! I was like jumping out of my seat for almost the whole time. He was making up crap about Islam, taking verses from the Qur'an out of context (and he couldn't even correctly pronounce Qur'an), and some that weren't even there, he was saying that Palestinians didn't live in refugee camps, Israelis didn't hurt anyone wheras Palestinians were just killing everyone, especially each other (and he supposedly used to work for the PLO!), that Muslims were out to get you and you better wake up and watch out because they wanted to kill the infidel (which is Americans and Jews). O and he showed a movie about how Arab children are all brainwashed to be violent wheras the Western media is so wholesome and unbiased. ARGH!!!

So some great good did come out of this though because a ton of Muslims from around Grand Rapids came to defend themselves. In the question and answer period, the "ex-terrorist" sounded like the idiot he was and the Muslims stayed afterwards to talk to us students (a good number of us stayed too). So anyway, Phil and I, and this Steve guy who did MESP the semester after us (who I finally met), and a few other students got some contact info for the Muslims and now we're working on setting up a panel of Muslims to come speak and an interfaith dialogue thing that would involve students going to a mosque and learning about Islam. Anyway, so even though this "ex-terrorist" tried so hard to ruin relationships between Christians and Muslims, it seems that bridges are being built anyway, thanks to the patience and understanding that is so little deserved from the Muslim community.

So anyway, I've been thinking about you all a lot lately because this was almost like MESP all over again, I hadn't been so worked up since MESP. Hehe.

And ya I just told Becca but I'll be in Cairo around mid June next year and staying at least a year, I would love company, especially roommates!

NCMSLC

Hey is anyone going to to the National Christian Multi-Cultural Student Leadership Conference this weekend at Anderson University (or College--I'm not sure)?!??! I'm going to be at Anderson (north of IWU, I hear) from Thursday to Sunday--and if any of you are going, I WANT TO SEE YOU!!! Or if any of you live near the area and would like for me to play hookie, skip a seminar and hang out with you, I'll see what I can do!!

Call me if you're around there: 517.617.2270

OH! I HOPE SOMEONE WILL BE THERE--PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE!!!

Love you all and will update soon, soon, soon!!

Cairo

Okay, Who else it totally psyched about going back to Cairo next year?!!?!? I am applying to the AUC, and also hopefully I am going to be teaching (that way I can afford to go to the AUC). If I get accepted, then I will have to leave for Cairo at the beginning of the summer. Would anyone else be able to join me? It's going to be crazy fun! hehe.

Becca.

P.S. Micah!!! I'm sorry life sucks right now. Know, that I love you and appreciate you and value our friendship! It's hard to be awake, but you can do it! Go Micah Go Micah Go!

Please pray for me

Im an emotional wreck. I cant go into details, but I am really struggling. Some days seem to go pretty well. Other days, today, just plain suck. I'm hurting in nearly every possible way. Again, I cant go into details, even in a one on one conversation. There is just too much going on to put it all into words that are constructive. So, please forgive me for this blurb without any real content. Just accept that I need prayer.
Thanks,
Micah