Nationals! [part ? - day 1]

I wrote this after the first day of Nationals and never posted it - but then came back later and saw it, and it amused me, so I thought I'd share it with you. =)

I do declare. The fastest way to become acquainted with any building is to do a speech tournament there. Nothing throws your sense of direction off more than having absolutely no idea where you are. (that sounded redundant. anyway.) But nothing helps you to learn faster than the fact that you absolutely have to get somewhere on time.

Thus was my Monday.

Nationals! [part VI - to the attic]

I'm really not quite sure where to start, and I'm dreadfully determined to keep this short and not drawn out. Which is fortunate, because speech tournaments have a way of draining me of sounding anything near articulate and descriptive.

Nationals. It was....a lot different than I was expecting. I thought it would be a life changing, inspiring, hopefully victorious tournament - but it wasn't. It was life changing, yes, but in an entirely different way. I expected to have the Hannah-on-speech-energy-thrill the whole time. But I wasn't.

I'm rather ashamed to admit I was a bit of a jerk for the first half of the tournament. It was Nationals, and this was supposed to be my tournament. I was the speech geek, and I fear I thought I should be in the center of attention.

Towards the end of the week, I sort of regained myself, and the rest of the tournament was most enjoyable.

As for actual speeches, they went very well - and I'll pause here to say thank you all so much for praying for me. I could feel it, I really could. The duo didn't break, but I broke to semis with my IO, and ended up placing 10th.

Before he gave out the awards, Mr. Larimer, the president of NCFCA, told us that these awards - in a couple of years - wouldn't matter. No one would care who got 5th and who got 1st. That gigantic trophy? It'll end up in the attic sooner or later.

And you know what? He was right. I expected to get this thrill when I walked across the stage to receive my 10th place medal. I mean, goodness, it's Nationals. The highest level of speech competition there is. Not to mention that this is my first year in speech. But it was no different than any other stage.

But that cheap little medal is so insignificant compared to the friendships I built that week. What I want to hold dear to me of that week is not the fact that I came in 10th in the nation, but the sweet memories with my friends - in between rounds, in halls before rounds, during meals, worship - this is what is important to me.

I had a grand time giving my speeches...making people laugh with the duo and sharing the message in my IO. Speech is SO much fun, and not only have I made amazing friends, but I've learned so much...about communication, people, and God.

My IO is on the depth of God's truth within Chinese characters - and the high point of my speech is the character for righteousness - formed by the character lamb over the character me.


Lamb











Me



Righteousness












One of my dear friends encouraged me with Ps. 71:16 - way back when I first began this speech - and she didn't even know my speech was on righteousness at that time.

I will go in the strength of the LORD, I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.

This, is what my speech is about. I am here for one purpose, and one only, and that is to bring glory to my Father, the one who enabled me to go so far in the first place. My speech is His, the message is His, and I share it - so that others may see His light.

Nationals! [part V - That's going in the book]

Yes, Hannah still does author this blog. And yes, she has returned from Nationals quite safely, thank you. Yes. I'm finally posting about nationals. :) I have about 10 billion thoughts swirling in my head in relation to my trip. And I really do like it when people post thoroughly about their trips, so I'll try to do the same. But it will probably take me a month, so bear with me. :)

In my perfect little world, I was hoping to get a picture of Regent just like the one off their website that I've been using for the past few Nats posts. Except with me in it. Wouldn't that have been cool? Except that I never did. So here's one of another part of the campus. That I did take. :)

And now, for pictures of Nationals. Most of these are from my camera...hopefully my friend will send me hers and I'll have a few more to post.

It's impossible to capture my nationals experience in one post with a few pictures. And as Gray said later, "after four years of communication studies, I've still found that occasionally, music just says it better."

So here's a song for you to listen to while you look at the pictures. Yes, I know I'm obsessed with it. Listen to it for me, please? :P

This is the sign at the hotel we stayed in. I like it. And that the "W" is an upside down "M"

(at the banquet) We. Want. Breaks!!!!!!

My new friend Christiana, whom I met at the beginning of the year. We had a fun time at Nats. :)

Audrey! :)

The crazy guys of our group. X)

I always wanted to do a feet picture.... :P

If they don't announce breaks soon.....

This is what we're gonna do!!!

Oh, no, we're not nervous for breaks AT ALL....

Okay, maybe a just a *little* nervous....

Not quite sure what Sophia and I were thinking here. I have a feeling Rebecca grabbed my camera, said "make a face", and...uh. We did. :P

BREAKS!!!!!!!!! (note the 2009 banner. Yeah. Fail, NCFCA.)

After the banquet, with the joy of having broken to semis putting a skip to my step, we went dancing in the pouring down rain. In our speech clothes. It felt better than I can describe. ::sigh of contentment::

Friends. Forever. :)

And geeks forever too. 8)

Now we fast forward through all rounds, panic, running-around-in-dress-shoes-and-80-dgree-weather, turmoil, meals, sleeping, (or lack therof), getting lost, frantic food cramming, breaks, getting lost, breaks, getting lost..... to the awards.

Mr. Larimer and a bunch of gigantic trophies

After awards.

We walked to Shoney's for a ballot party - and were rather amused by the uh....descriptive nature of this sign. :P

I love these girls so much.

This is a cool picture. =]

A lot of laughing went on that night....

This is it! The end. NCFCA year is over. Yes. This was the best part of the tournament; the only ballot party I ever went to; with some of my best friends ever.

Charlottesville [part I - we're bored, tired, and need something to do]

}:D{

=]

8*{

@:-(

[];{[]fghjmgjehghjhegfghjfhjd;dhfgjdskal;fsgkj!!!!!!

PS Matthew wants you to know that Charlottesville isn't boring.
and he's right. it's not. the end.

PPS Matthew is my friend in Virginia.

Nationals! [part IV - hotels, beaches, and humidity]

I'll spare you any pre-flight turmoil and get straight to the trip...sorry the pictures are so small. They all uploaded in "small" and I forgot to change the size.

Day one: fly, walk, eat, sleep, fly, walk, eat, sleep......

Chicago Midway airport - don't you love that half of us wore our NCFCA t-shirts? :P

On ze plane.

Day two: Navigate strange city; make GPS work; shop; eat; visit beach; walk; eat...eat...eat...

I loved this beach, because it was like the beaches you see in movies. Big, long, beach with soft, tan sand....not anything like the rocky grey beaches the northwest has.



Earlier today, we found this smoothie shop called "Tropical Smoothie Cafe", and really liked it, so when we found another one in VA beach, we didn't hesitate to go in there for dinner. They have REALLY GOOD food. Especially their flatbread sandwiches. The Chicken Pesto one. mmmmmmmmmmm. :)

Ryan playing around with the sunglasses

Love this face on Rebecca

Thus completes days 1 and 2. :)

Nationals! [part III]

Yep. I leave tomorrow. I'm super excited and super nervous and 10 other things rolled into one.

Slowly, it's becoming a reality now.

It's sinking in.

Anyway! ::comes out of cloud::

I would really appreciate prayers over the next 2 weeks during the tournament...and today as we try and pack everything and make sure we haven't forgotten anything and all that.

I give speeches on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.....and Thursday and Friday are up to God! He's done so much in the past 4 tournaments I've been in, and I'm excited to see what He has to teach me through this, whether I do well or not.

I have no idea whether I'll have access to the internet or not, so you may or may not hear from me for the next two weeks.

Oh. In case you've been wondering, the picture I've been putting up at the front of all these nationals posts is Regent University, where the tournament is being held.

AAAHH!! Virginia, here I come!!

1 2 1

Just off of I-5 onto 45th street, there is almost always a homeless man standing on the side of the street with a sign.

We drive into Seattle every week for church, and each time, my heart goes out to these people on the streets - and yesterday, there were about 10 of them crowded just off the street where we exited.

"Wow, dad, look at all those homeless people. I wish I had twenty H2O bags to give them right now."

Let me go forward a little now, and tell you another story before I tell you about church.

After church, we went to Pike Place Market to get a few gifts for some friends. Dad dropped mom and I off, we found a store, made our purchases, and then went outside to wait for dad where he told us to. As we were waiting, browsing through a clearance rack set just outside the store, a voice, calling to passing shoppers, caught my attention.

"ANYONE GOT A DOLLAR SO I CAN SMOKE SOME POT?"

I turned to look at him from behind the clothes rack. I've never heard homeless people shout such things to people. But there he was, with a sign I couldn't quite see, calling out to people to give him a dollar so he could smoke.

Now I really wish I had one of those H2O bags to give out.

Almost just as soon as I had noticed him, another guy came walking along down the sidewalk, tapping random people on the shoulder.

"Hey, do you have any change so I could get some food?"

Most people said no and hurried on - swinging their designer-store purchases in their bags. I so desperately wanted to give them something besides money. It saddens me how people can just walk on...keep moving...like they weren't even there. Because behind that sign, under the dirt, messy hair, and torn clothes is a person, created in the image of God, just like me.

Then dad drove up, and we got in the car and left. Later I kicked myself for forgetting that I had 5 Gospel tracts I had put in my purse just that morning, thinking to myself, "I should always have these, because you never know."

We passed shoe stores, designer clothing stores, sports gear stores, and so many more. And I kept thinking...How can we have so much when these people right in our midst have so little? And not only do they have nothing, they don't have Christ.

Now let me go back, and tell you about church.

We had a short message from a 90-year old man named Phil Smart, as part of the service they call "Witness to the Working of God", where someone comes up and tells you about a ministry they serve in and what God is doing in their lives and in the lives of others through their ministry. I don't remember all of it, but his testimony was very inspiring. Most people I talked to afterwards said we could have just ended the service right there.

One thing he talked about was a little card that was in our bulletin. Here was what the front of the card looked like:

He explained that there are 24 hours in the day, divided into 8-hour segments. The first 8 hours are for school and work ("or retirement, but I don't like that", he added) and the second 8 hours, right next to it, are for sleeping; resting up for the work you have to do. And then, the last 8 hours are for you to do however you please. Then, he told us about the 8 different pains that people have in the world, and how we should use those 8 hours to reach out to people. He told a very touching story to go with it, but if I try to repeat it, I'll probably ruin it. But it was inspiring.

Next he showed us the other side of the card:

Each of the letters represents the 8 pains, he said. The Hurt, the Hungry, the Homeless, the Unemployed, the Young, the Old, the Illiterate, and the Drug users. And the way that we reach out to them, he explained, is One-to-one.

After this, we had the sermon, which was extremely inspiring. Here are some things I gathered from it, in light of a lot of other things that I heard in various messages during the past week or so.

How would Dorothy live once she got back to Kansas? How would the scarecrow live with his new brains; and the tin man with his new heart? In the same way, how will we live, with our new life in Christ - the grace, the forgiveness, the joy that Jesus has given us? We should live the life God created us to live. Love as you want to be loved. You can be you, and still reach out to a hurting world - use the gifts God has given you. Respond to God's grace like the scarecrow would to his new brain.

Don't tell them what they should believe. Tell them what you believe.

Do you feel called to full time ministry? The answer is - yes. Jesus calls each and every one of us to be full-time lights for Him. Whether it's serving others through an organization or right around you - we should always be looking for an opportunity to bless others.

Just think what you could do to change a homeless person's life. A simple act of kindness could make their day - show them they do matter in the world, and most importantly, that they matter to God.

Nationals! [part II]

That's right. I leave a week from tomorrow.

This is unreal.

::runs off to practice speeches::