SWITCH-A-ROO

Im switching to a new blog! Catch all my tweets and blogs at the same time on cory-matthew.tumblr.com

GO CHECK IT OUT HERE http://cory-matthew.tumblr.com/

Pictures, Quotes, Video, Experiences and FUN!!

Love you all!

Friday night adventure!

I know. I didnt follow what I said. One post a day. Ive now skipped two days. sorry!

Friday I went to Disneyland! I went with Nolan Henslick, Nick Boyd and Elise Bergerson! We all had a great time. The park wasnt very crowded and the spirit of the day was way up! The friends I was with just made my day. I love them all very much.

Here are some words that are triggers of the day:

• Dezi
• STAY ON YOUR SIDE
• tuanga tuanga
• Attaching the chain to Elise’s purse
• Trust Fall
• walking diagonally
• Sour Balls
• Bumper Cars
• Bread Bowls
• Glozell1’s cousins

SOoOo many more stories than that, but im sort of lazy and having a lot of fun doing other things right now. Maybe Ill say more some other time.

Peace and Blessings, Peace and Blessings.

ZERO capacity

So after I got home from Kenya a few weeks back, I put all my pictures on my computer with hopes to upload them to my blog, and facebook, and our team Flikr account and such, but with the 2,500 pictures that i took while i was there, my computer now has zero memory left.

I am currently sitting at my computer putting all of my 14,000 photos i have taken over the years into shared files so i can burn them all onto a disk on my mothers laptop. I am hoping that by the end of this weekend i will be able to show some love to facebook and my blog with more and more pictures of Kenya.

short and sweet today so i can get back to work on transferring all these photos.

oh and ps. there is a chance i may be switching to a tumblr account here in the near future just because many more of my friends have an account over there! stayed tuned to hear when i make the switch! cory-matthew.tumblr.com

Photo #2 Caption: This is our team minus a few who had some passport issues back in LA. We just arrived in Kitale, Kenya ready to do some awesome ministry. This was our fourth plane ride going there and it was after we spent the night in Nairobi, Kenya for the night. Doesn't the team look refreshed and ready to go? I know I was soo stoked to be in Kenya; this place I had been praying for and only dreaming of what it would be like. We had finally landed on the red soil!

8 more.. just 8

Last weekend, I had another one of those crazy realizations.

I only have 8 more HSM services left in my high school career.
I couldnt even comprehend what that meant at first just because I was just living in the moment, but that means in approximately 56 days I will no longer have the privilege to take advantage of every opportunity HSM (High School Ministry) provides for its students. Such a bummer if you ask me!
In just a few weeks time, I will be a college student at the University of California Los Angeles.


Crazy! From Mustang to Bruin. From vocab quizes to research papers. From 7am class to 2pm lectures! Thinking ahead is bittersweet. There are so many people that I will miss, but I know they will all be available to contact and talk to often even if im up at school next year.

Its going to be such a journey for me also! I have been given the privilage to work alongside the Womens Gymnastics Team at UCLA, while I am there. Could not be more excited for that! I have been able to get on the floor at Pauley Pavillion this year to help assist Miss Val (head coach) and it has been so much fun! Ive been able to get to know a few of the girls as well and its been awesome to get the chance to talk with them about Kenya, and high school life and other sorts of conversations. They are an awesome team and I cannot wait to be a part of it in just 4 quick months.

Today I have been working on scholarships that I still need to apply for. Each time i go onto the UCLA website i get more and more excited each time! Im sure you will all be hearing of my adventures while i am there!

Ps. I tweeted last night that I would post on this daily. This is the first post of the first day. So far.. mission accomplished! Also there will be a Kenya picture of the day, everyday! Here is number 1!

Photo #1 Caption: So an awesome friend Allison Hibbard made 30 "Alice's" for our team to give away to people at the different places we visited while we were there! This picture is of two school teachers at Discover to Recover which is a school for children who are affected or infected with HIV/AIDS. Our team spent about 2 hours there and we just got to hang out with the kids and play football and run around with them. They were all filled with joy and love and it was just a great place to be as one of our last places we went doing Ministry while we were in Kitale.

Silent Song Devotional

Here is a post I just completed for our You Own the Weekend Series happening this weekend in the High School Ministry! Check it out!

___________________________________________________________________________________

Hey Friends!

In this crazy busy week, we need to just take a step back and listen to God.

For the service we will be showing a silent song. A silent song is a bunch of thought provoking words, verses, phrases, thoughts, and questions, that will challenge the congregation to dig deeper into the lyrics of todays worship music.

With the song below, have your own quiet time with God while you listen. What comes to mind? What is God doing in your heart through this song? How does Unity with God, the church and the world pertain to this song? How does this song make you feel? What verses come to mind? Any Bible stories that you make think of? Write them all out in the comment space below and we will compile them all to assist in the silent song presentation for this weekend.

Listen to the song, Surely We Can Change, by David Crowder. The song is in the Youtube video below so we know we are all listening to the same song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuV5btFoZas

Really take this to heart. Think about the congregation and how this song can impact others.

Love you guys. Thank you for all your hearts on this serving opportunity. Cannot thank you all enough.

Cory

2 minute brain matter!

Here I sit, just contemplating what the next few weeks have in store for me. I see so many different opportunities, tasks, friendships, and so much more. I leave for Kenya in 2 days and 10 hours almost exactly, and I am just sooo stoked. I seriously cannot describe my excitement!

Im trying to start gathering all of the things I need to pack before I leave and its just ramping up the excitement more and more every minute I take something out and lay it on the floor! I have decided to only t-shirts that I will be leaving at Oasis of Hope. I will be donating them after we wash them on the last day! I thought it would be just a small thing I could do for the people who are in need of some clothes on their back.
Pastor Steve sent us an email today, because he is already in Kitale, and he was telling us that rainy season has already hit Kenya! He said it has rained every afternoon so far while he has been there and it is pretty chilly at night. It is summer there, so there will still be a lot of sun and hot weather, but he told us to remember our sweatshirts, ponchos and umbrellas when we are packing.
I got to get back to work, but I thought I would stop in and spill some brain matter! So stoked for Kenya on Thursday! Love you all!
K
E
N
Y
A
:)
Photo Caption: This is a picture of the new Oasis of Hope building in Kitale, Kenya that our team will be doing our summer camp at! These are just some of the kids that drop in each day and hang out! I took this photo from a blog site of another woman who has gone to Kitale recently with Saddleback! It makes me excited just to read her stories that she has posted about Oasis!

Busy Busy Weekend!

My Weekend is definitely a busy one, but I am hoping to be able to fill in everyone on a lot of things before I venture off to Kenya in 6 days!

YES!!
JUST 6 DAYS!!!

Here is the plan for the weekend:

Friday:
French Club Luncheon at THHS.
Lunch with Amy Narramore.
Coffee with Taylor Shanton.
Hang out with the B-day girl JORDAN GUNDERSON!
CSUF for the UCLA vs. CSUF gymnastics meet!

Saturday:
Winter Formal with Jordan Gunderson! :) Pictures will be up soon after!

Sunday:
Church in the morning. (Sean McDowell's Q: series)
Lunch with Julianna and Elise.
Family time/Packing for Kenya

That there is my weekend! Im excited for all of the awesome things to begin!
Hopefully I will be able to get to the computer to update you on some awesome things that happened this week! Cant wait to tell you all!

Picture Caption!: This is me and my little buddy Jadin Griffin, son of my mentor, who I got to go to Disneyland with a few weeks back. I was there with his big sister Lexy and his dad! It was a really fun time! Love this little guy!

Weekend Service Inspiration!

Here's a little note I wrote to some fellow students at my school who are student leaders in the High School Ministry with me! We are starting to plan a weekend that is completely led, and put on by students from Trabuco Hills High School. We are hoping to make it big and better than last year! I will keep you all updated on the planning and execution of it all!

I think we have a lot to convey to Trabuco. We are a group of student leaders at our church who need to live out what we are going to speak of on our weekend. Don't just prepare for this weekend materially but try your hardest in the next couple months and weeks leading up to really let your light shine in all parts of your light.

Like Grant said, I would love to start hearing some of your guys ideas. Ill list some of the components that we need in a service for those of you who aren't very familiar:

1) songs: think based around the theme and also just a fun opener song that we could do!

2) teaching element: pray about ways that we can best convey the message we want to convey the most clear. It's very important that we make this the strongest piece of the service as it will be what we leave people with as they leave the refinery.

3) videos: any way we can help further drive the teaching element home is best. Also any fun videos to use as a hook into the service. A countdown video? a re-make of the alma mater? all ideas are welcome!

4) skit: (this is totally optional) I have found in the past that the congregation will adapt and relate a lot to a visual representation of the subject we are focusing on. Many times people get lost in videos and start becoming distracted and use a video to pull out their phone and zone off. Skits have really dug deep. Think back to the Lifehouse Everything skit El Toro did last year, or the I'm Broken skit that a group of students performed during the happy series in HSM, Crave, & the main sanctuary. If we can get a deep, powerful and meaningful skit together, I think it can do awesome things.

5) announcements: these are provided by the HSM team, but we for sure will need two maximum, students to deliver them. start praying about if this is something you could take the lead on once we all begin to delegate.

6) take away: last year Trabuco owned those bracelets. I still have mine on, and i think a lot of others do too. Think into our theme and try to find a take away that we can give students as they leave. Meaningful, nostalgic, and long lasting.

Please shoot up any and all ideas up on this wall! Ill keep taking down some of the ideas together and at the next meeting we can all narrow some of them down. No idea is a bad idea. Who knows, maybe parts and pieces from each idea will be used. One thing though guys is don't become too attached to your ideas. We cant do everything in the hour and fifteen minute service. I know we can be a great team and hopefully this will even spark more friendships within our own school!

Love you guys, and girls!!
CT

Kenya Prayer Guide!

HSM Kenya Prayer Guide 2010

Please pray for health, strength, and safe travel for the team

The HSM Team:
Leaders: Katie Edwards, Josh Griffin, Jaime Bertran, Becka Holley, Phil Chenery, Chip Bragg, Jessica Powers
Students: Dorsa Fahami, Erice Hutchinson, Maddie Mallory, Taylor Shanton, Joe West, Julianna Marraccino, Dakota Biggs, Sarah Olson, Cody Fields, Julianne Bolls, Mariah Crane, Amanda Gleason, Hannah Grady, Ryan Hacker, Nicole Johnson, Mackenzie Jones, Daley Pecaitis, Alex Phillips, Ariana Spunt, Michelle Tietzer, Cory Tomlinson, Brooke Tsuyuki, Maddy Vujnov, Chase Webster, Jennifer Winfree

Day ONE & TWO: (3/4/10 & 3/5/10) Travel to Nairobi, Kenya…and then on to Kitale
Pray for safe travel to Kenya. Pray for rest and the preparation of our hearts for ministry. Pray that all goes smoothly with thelogistics of travelling with a group our size.

Day THREE: (3/6/10) Travel to Kitale and ministry at the PRISON
Pray for our team as we minister to the prisoners of the Kitale prison. Pray that these prisoners would hear and accept the message of Jesus Christ.

Day FOUR: (3/7/10) Church and Tu Maini Orphanage
Please pray for our team as we experience “Kenyan Church” Pray that we are an encouragement to those ministering each week to the people of Kenya. Pray that we find new ways to partner with these churches. Pray for our team as we minister to the prisoners of the Kitale prison. Pray that these prisoners would hear and accept the message of Jesus Christ. Also, pray for our ministry to the boys in the Tu Maini orphanage.

Day FIVE: (3/8/10) First Day of Camp
Please pray for our team as we prepare camp for 200 kids and teenagers. Pray for good connections, good conversation, and for camp to go according to God’s plan. Pray for our partnership with Oasis of Hope. Pray for the kids at camp to have open hearts to the message of Jesus Christ. Pray for the students on our team who are teaching, singing, leading and counseling the kids. Pray that we would be open to ministering outside of our comfort zone. Pray for another student on the team today.

Day SIX: (3/9/10) Camp
Pray that God would give opportunities to our students to share their personal faith with a camper. Pray that we wouldn’t miss any opportunities to share Jesus. Pray that God would make an impact on lives through our team. Pray for your student today.

Day SEVEN: (3/10/10) Camp - Pray for protection from exhaustion and the enemy as we wrap up our last day of camp. Pray that our team would have courage and be bold in sharing their faith with the kids of Oasis of Hope. Pray for the team leaders today. Pray for the teachers of Oasis of Hope that they would continue the mission of bringing kids to Jesus Christ.

Day EIGHT: (3/11/10) Ministry at Discover to Recover
Pray for the strength and the spirit of our team. Pray that God would help us to be bold in our conversations with the kids affected or infected with HIV Aids.

Day NINE: (3/12/10) Work Projects at Oasis of Hope
Pray for our last day of ministry. Pray that we would stay focused as team and that fatigue would not set in. Pray that we would make the most of our last day at Oasis of Hope.

Day TEN & ELEVEN: (3/13/10 & 3/14/10) Pray for safe travel back to Nairobi and then back to America. Pray that we adjust well spiritually emotionally, and physically. Pray that God would continue to work in our hearts after we return. Pray that we would continue to remember and reflect our journey in Kenya. Pray for protection from sickness and fatigue.

Dland in January!

Got to ride Toy Story Mania with my little JUJU! I beat her butt in that game! Probably one of the best rides at California Adventure. Well worth the wait.


Sorry guys, didnt get the memo that we were pointing at our "I'm Celebrating buttons". I was too busy trying to act like I was attempting to escape!


Soooo, it was Elise's first time on the swinging gondolas of Mickey's Fun Wheel. I guess you could say she really had fun? ... she was terrified. But it was sooo funny to watch her. Later on this ride we spotted some friends of ours on the ground and we started screaming and wailing violently approximately 200 feet above the ground. They heard us after 3 minutes of non sense.


It was really Tiffany's birthday. Not one of those times we fool the tortilla factory into giving us 5 free corn tortillas just because its Archies Birthday.. True Story.


We realized that Monsters Inc. is a great backdrop for pictures at California Adventure. So we utilised it. They are very photogenic. What can I say.

Pictures of Baptism a while back..

Kenya! Here's the low down!

43 days from today, I will be boarding a plane and headed off to Kitale, Kenya for 10 days! Not, that I am counting or anything. HA! I cannot begin to tell you about my excitement for this trip. People keep asking me what i'm so excited for, but the truth is, I cannot pin point the answer to this question. There are sooo many things I am excited for that it is beyond words!

The team has had two classroom meeting with the adult medical team that will be there at the same time as us, and they have been very informational meetings. Its awesome also for the team to just be all in the same place at once and getting to know each other before we embark on this awesome adventure! Its awesome to hear the stories from the adults also because some of them have been to Kenya more than five times and they are soo knowledgeable about the culture and just Kitale in general. I am trying to absorb as much of it as I can.

This Saturday we have our packing party which consists of all the students going to a warehouse over by Oakley and we pack 50 pound tubs full with all of the supplies necessary to run a successful summer camp. We will be flying with these supplies so they are our second piece of luggage while checking into the airline! This packing party will be the first time that the student team will be separated from the adult team so we will completely get a glimpse into seeing how the team will work together! Super stoked to see what God has in store for this team!

The next thing on the agenda for the team is the team dinner on the 30th! Super stoked for that! Anyway that we can get the team together is great! Cant wait to see friendships fly while we acquaint ourselves with one another!

Prayer would be appreciated for some of the things below if you feel led:
>> Relationships within the team to stay tension free and totally surrendered to God!
>> The summer camp planning would be super awesome and plan with the kids best interest in mind, not our own.
>> Our hearts to be completely opened to whatever God wants to be done, to be done.

Thank you all so much for following my adventure through life! You all mean so much! Comment back and just say HI! so that I can get an idea of who is following me on this journey! I'm praying for all of you as well, and praying by name would be super sweet, so let me know! Love you guys!

New Years on Colorado Blvd!

-Okay. So here's how it all went down people.-


I guess you could say that I spent my New Years Eve and New Years Day homeless about the streets of Pasadena because that is exactly what i did.
Before I say anything more. I don't regret a single minute of it at all.
I wont be able to shoot out the play by play because that is far to long of a single blog post but i'll try to spit it out as authentic as I can!
12/31/09 9:30am. Tomlinson's arrive at the scene. Trailer and all. Colorado Boulevard was just calling our name. After we drove up and down the side streets for awhile we found a great spot for the trailer to house itself for the next 24 hours. It did just that.

12/31/09 11:00am-8:00pm After arguing our way to saving our spot on the street, we finally placed the blanket and chairs down on the street. The crazy New Yorkers to the right of us, and Moses, the young Hispanic man next to us quickly became our friends when we broke out the two heaters and the fire pit. Fire Department came and filmed a quick NBC segment on how NOT to have a fire at the Rose Parade. It was awesome. Courtney, Taylor and I creeped into the frame as much as we could during the segment. After all it was our fire. We roasted hot dogs in our fire later like s'mores. They helped create really awesome "That's what she said jokes". Some great conversations happened as we people watched and viewed cars pass with silly string, shaving cream covered tortillas and marshmallows completely covering them. It was magnificent. A very drunk/high/who knows man walked by us at one point and spotted Courtney's leopard print snuggie like it was the newest invention since the assembly line. He then proceeded to ask us to play Catch Phrase with us for about 20 minutes (mind you he was cussing and screaming and laughing hysterically while we played this ever so amazing game). Parted ways with the man by him asking if we would be there all night so he could come back. .. .. he didn't.

01/01/10 12:00am HAPPY NEW YEARS!! It was soo funny to experience thousands of people screaming that sporadically because no ones clocks matched. It was great. When the clock struck twelve on our part of the curb, we celebrated. Courtney and I celebrated by walking on our hands down Colorado blvd. in a street with cars. It was super great! Mother provided everyone with the poppers and the party hats, but those beads you see.. someone threw them at me. I didn't know Mardi Gras was early this year.

01/01/10 1:30am-4:30am Mama Tomlinson, Mama Charters, Bethany Johnson, Bekah Holley, Papa Charters, Taylor Seitz, Courtney Shannon, Tiffany Charters, Bonni Rojas and I decided it would be fun to go and see the parade floats staged on Orange Grove Blvd before the parade. Let me just say i am glad we got some Starbucks beforehand because we walked for a whopping 5.95 miles. Never again. You see that red line on that map. Yup. That's where we walked, in the depths of downtown Pasadena. Such a great idea! This trek took us a long haul of 3 hours. The sun was about to come out by the time we got back to our campsite. Lets just say when we got back to the curb, I then decided there was no use in sleeping. I snuggled up in my sleeping bag while seated in my lawn chair and talked with Bethany until the parade began at 8:30am.

01/01/10 7:30am-11:30am Late arrivers began crowding behind our space on the curb. Many people who decided to sleep that night woke up to some strangers in their face. It was hilarious to watch them wake up. The sunrise that morning was gorgeous though. Bonni captured an awesome shot of it that morning. The parade came and went and it was gorgeous as always! It was interesting to see the floats we had need earlier that morning now on the parade route coming to life with people on them. Its amazing what a smile can do to changed the meaning or subject of a float. As for my favorite float.. it was definitely a toss up between the Jack in the box brazilian themed float with really awkward-diverse-belly revealing dancers and the Dog-boarding float that was a large mountain that the float operators sent bull dogs down on skim boards down this large hill aboard the float. I think you can understand why this was such a toss-up!

Well there you have it. A long 2 days. But a super fun 2 days! Remember that was just the smallest of small descriptions of that great evening and day. There was so much more that went down! It was so great to be able to spend it with people I love and enjoy! New Years TEN AMEN!

first week back..

Monday came. Monday went.
Tuesday came. Tuesday went.
Wednesday came. nothing new.
I was really hoping something exciting would greet me back from break. but nothing has happened. I heard there was a "rumble" in the quad today.. but i was already on my way to quesadilla Wednesday at the Holladay residence. So much better. Nothin much else to say.

Upcoming posts:
-New Years Review
-Kenya Trip Preparations
-Chi Alpha and Baptism prologue