Surroundings

While working with Sterling for Mr. Bill one day, the Lord showed me an odd example of the importance of one’s surroundings. Mr. Bill owns a decent trailer park and occasionally, meaning all the time, he moves things around his property to get ready for the next project. Today, he was decorating the insides of one of his trailers. He asked Sterling and I to go grab the desk from one of his old beat up trailers, which he used to store various old used furniture. Sterling and I looked around for the desk all the while questioning the thought of putting any piece of this old run down furniture in the brand new trailer. Oh well, it is better to not question Mr. Bill. We hauled the dusty thing full of cob webs to the new trailer, Mr. Bill wiped some dust as we walked, and ordered to put it against the north wall. We set it down. I looked with wonder as I thought how the same desk in this new clean room looked so perfect.

“Bad company corrupts good character.”

1 Corinthians 15: 33

“For you bless the godly, O Lord; You surround them with your shield of love.”

Psalm 5: 12

Cigarette Testimony

On a typical warm sunny day, I sat by The Tree on the Oklahoma State lawn to journal before class. As people sit by the tree people are naturally drawn. Right as I was starting to sit down a dude said, “Hey man, can I bum a cigarette from you?” “Sorry bro, I don’t smoke. I look like it though”, I replied. “It’s cool, thanks anyway.” I began to write again, while overhearing the guy talk about finding a cigarette. At this time one of my non believer buddies came and sat for a bit. Cig dude piped up excitedly as he saw my buddy light up. “Hey man, I’m dyin for a cigarette can you spare me one?” My buddy replies, “Sure man, I understand take two.” The guy was beside himself with gratitude and I was amazed.

“If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.”

Matthew 5: 41-42

Settling in

So I have been back in the states for quite some time now. Moods, emotions, thoughts, and beliefs have been everywhere in good and bad ways. When pondering what my return would be like I considered what they call Re- culture shock. Aahh I’ll be fine. I left a wonderful environment with loving friends and family, how hard can going back be? Well, those of you who know me probably can pick up on the fact that the devil knows he can aggravate me the most within my own head. I struggled with just about everything. Not to make this return sound horrible, but I struggled and I still am struggling. I am seeking the Lord for a big breakthrough of a Holy Spirit anointing. The inner joy of my salvation has been a bit clouded. The Lord will continue to show himself faithful and I am grateful to all of you who were just incessantly welcoming of my return. Thank You.

Ireland Creation

When viewing these pictures remember, be encouraged, enlightened, or challenged by these few thoughts...

• God's glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening. Their words aren't heard, their voices aren't recorded, But their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere. God makes a huge dome for the sun - a superdome! The morning sun's a new husband leaping from his honeymoon bed, The daybreaking sun an athlete racing to the tape. That's how God's Word vaults across the skies from sunrise to sunset, Melting ice, scorching deserts, warming hearts to faith.

Psalm 19:1-6

• The mountains take one look at God And melt, melt like wax before earth's Lord. The heavens announce that he'll set everything right, And everyone will see it happen - glorious!

Psalm 97:5-6

• the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse.

Romans 1:19-20

• For as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.

Isaiah 11:9

My good friend gave me the book by C.S. Lewis "The Great Divorce" and made me read it. I am so grateful, because its a great book. Here is one wonderful scene in the story.

"'God' said the ghost, glancing round the landscape...I should like to paint this." "When you painted on earth - at least in your earlier days- it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape. The success of your painting was that it enabled others to see the glimpses too. But here (in Heaven) you have the thing itself. It is from here that the messages came."
"if your are interested in the country only for the sake of painting it, you'll never learn to see the country."

The thought of God's beauty and glory is overwhelming, especially considering I can barely handle the glimpses of Him through his nature and invisible qualities! Amazing right?! Thats something to Get excited about!!!

have fun looking at the pictures and go seek and have an experience with God today.

Ireland Adventure (Short Version)

Caleb and I booked cheap flights to Ireland to meet Laura Ahern and Chelsea Dudeck 2 days before we left. Our train to get to the airport in Italy was cancelled, so we had to hitch there.

We finally arrived in Mestre (right by Venice) and enjoyed the diverse culture. A manly man, yet so peaceful guy from Cameroon with dreads gave us directions to a park for over 25 minutes. It was great! We camped out that night in the city.

We Flew to Dublin and figured out what we wanted to do in Ireland by taking pictures of pretty places in the tourist books for sale. Dublin was pretty cool and we camped out in some woods by a monument declaring peace between Ireland and India.

We headed up north with ignorance that Ireland became the United Kingdom and thus a currency change. This again meant we had to hitch the rest of the way, but the Lord always takes care of us and really nice, cool, or crazy pick us up. Duncan picked us up and took us out of his way to Giants causeway. He offered his house for the night, but we opted to sleep outside in the pretty. And was it ever pretty, I really started crying when I saw how gorgeous it was. We watched sunset, ate our one meal of musli for the day, found a sheep barn for shelter, and had some devos.

In the morning we decided to go to this old rope bride some kilometers up the road. It used to be a bridge for fishermen. An elderly man named James picked us up, along with a girl he had met a day earlier and we went. We were about to depart, when James said get in the car and he proceeded to take us home, find us the right train, introduce us to his beautiful wife, Agnus. She made us the best meal in about 4 minutes and our tummies were very thankful. We proceeded to talk about God’s faithfulness and they had testimony after testimony that truly encouraged us and gave all glory to God. James drove us to the train station and bought us a ticket to Dairy, which is supposed to be one of the prettiest short train rides in the world. Spent the night in some guy’s front yard, cause Galway is not hospitable to the homeless.

We then made our way to the 214 meter high cliffs of Moher, which I misread and we called it the cliffs of the Mother for the rest of the trip. That’s a better name. Or for all you princess bride lovers “the Cliffs of Insanity”… Inconceivable!

That was the most peaceful place. Caleb and I thought it would rain that night, so we made little caves, but ended up spooning for warmth in a soft grassy pit.

The next day we went to Trilee the meet the girls! One of the most random cities to visit. We met a young chiropractor girl from Canada that just moved there. We went to a traditional Irish pub and watched some Irish music, and picked up the girls from the midnight train. And all slept in a B and B.

Dingle Bay was really nice. Robin showed us around, because she used to live there for 4 months. We saw the famous and solo dolphin in the bay named Fungi when we all took a walk in the rain. The hostel that night was great with one group from the states celebrating a 21^st birthday and the other walking group of older folk. They made a huge meal, drank, and sang old Irish songs together. It was really great.

Went to Galway, got a hostel for 14 euro. It was cheap, because we took the place of some guys who just got kicked out the previous night for drinking, doing crack, yelling, and jumping in bed with random girls to scare them. They ended up coming back and causing a scene, but the manager Felix handled it perfectly. Ate some amazing fish and saw and Irish Screamo band.

We said our good byes and went home… easier said than done though : )

Italy Easter

Guys if you have the chance to study abroad, do it! There is so much to say I think, so I will give you the base trip and let the pictures say the rest. Of course when I get back we can talk face to face and we will share stories.

So Caleb and I skipped class Friday and took a train to Venice. We stayed there for 1.5 hours. Enough to see there was no such thing as cars and streets. There really are boats everywhere. They have garbage boats! But I do not care for the city even though it is worth experiencing.

We went on to Freedom traveler hostel in Rome, where I woke up with a massive infection on my face. I think it was a spider bite from 2 days before, but apparently that is unheard of here in Europe. I met a nice pediatrician lady who told me to go to the hospital after I ate breakfast. Man! But it was ok, because it’s a socialist system and the hospital was free. We went on to Allesandro downtown hostel and had another Caleb Daniel date. We walked all around Rome. Woke up early and Sterling (a friend from New Life Ranch) found me and we ran the marathon together. Rachel I met your tall friend! I was looking for tall and he was looking for dreads : ) I saw the nice pediatrician lady again and got a picture with her. Sterlings dad, Brother Steve invited me Caleb, Kashion Spencer, Sarah Yeargan, and Rachel to a Mosaic concert. I got lost trying to meet up with everyone else. After that night we ended up traveling with Sterling and Brother Steve the whole trip! So cool.

We all went on to Florence. It is a really beautiful city in the valley of some mountains. I hung out with Sterling and we got kicked out of places. One time we got kicked out of a place and then locked inside. If that makes any sense at all. There was a beautiful sunset and we ended up getting lost/ exploring by night. Caleb was so awesome that night. I have never seen him so joyful and crazy! It may have been the 3 Gelato’s he had : )
Sarah randomly ran into a girl she knew from OSU too.

Anyway we left Florence and our train stopped in Pisa for a little less than an hour. So we saw the leaning tower for 10 minutes and speed walked back to barley catch our train. Oh yah, sterling and I are still very sore at this point. We got to Cinca Terra that night. This is a place that means 5 cities. It is in a national forest, so the cities can not expand really, but there are within 18 Kilometers of each other (12 miles) and it has amazing trails right by the coast. The lord also blessed us with a beautiful day. We hiked them all, spent the next day there, went to Venice for 1.5 hours on the way back to Ljubljana, and spent the day with the girls and the end. The best thing about the trip was being reminded of what the true body of Christ feels like and learning from them. Trip of a lifetime.

Love

Like the measles, love is most dangerous when it comes late in life.
~Lord Byron~
A person finds joy in giving an apt reply-- and how good is a timely word!
~Proverbs 15:23~
I Love all who love me. Those who search will surely find me.
~Proverbs 8:17~

I have been forced to learn a little bit more about love. It has been a little difficult for me to love people lately. My reason for this is, I have not been feeling much love. I have been spoiled by Christ’s love and the way He shows it to me from my family, friends, and the cross.
I have not been feeling it and intern has been more difficult to show. From this experience it proves Love really is contagious. If a child grows up in a home of hate and disrespect, how can you help him? Show him love. If someone gives you something other than this virtue, swallow your pride, show Love, and pray.

Why Love?
“if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”
~1 John 4:12-13~
When walking according to this Spirit we will see the fruit. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, and Self Control can not be helped.

London Part 2

1-2-08
We woke up in the beautiful park, but it was freezing! I could barley put my sleeping bag away. We walked a mile back into town and found a subway to get some breakfast (coffee and a cookie). Then we headed back to London and still had some time before we met lacy at the British museum. We headed for a little place called Camedon. It was crazy! It is known for all the punk/emo styles there and if defiantly upheld its reputation.
After the museum we decided to go back to the clink hostel, even though we were not really planning on staying there that night, to cook some pizza. We found out they did not have an oven, so we managed to make it on the stove. Quite fun.
This is where the real story begins.
We wanted to sleep in the hostel that night, because of the poor sleep we got outside. I went to reserve the room, but it was ridiculously expensive, because it was the weekend and the only room available was the single room. We said we would just go find the people sleeping outside for peace right by Big Ben. That would be fun! On the underground ride there with all of our things I read in the paper that is was supposed to be below freezing with some freezing rain. Not fun, but we kept on, because the Lord has not failed us yet : ) little did we know what was in store for us.
We got off at the wrong station and just started walking somewhere, when we asked a girl where Big Ben was. She laughed and said, “You are going the wrong way”. We got on the bus and again got off somewhere random and started waling. We walked past this homeless looking man on the freezing night and about 30 feet past us he turned and yelled, “Free food!” We did not think he was talking to us, but apparently we looked homeless and hungry. He yelled again, “free food”, so we turned and caught up to him. We walked to a group of people. It was some missionaries giving out food to the homeless and creating relationships with them! So cool. Caleb continues to talk to the homeless, while I talked to the missionaries (Wayne). They were a group called CORE (City Out Reach and Empowerment) the people from Christian Revival Church had to leave, but Wayne nonchalantly slipped a piece of paper to me and said call me in 30 minutes.
Long story short we ended up meeting him at midnight at Big Ben and he took us to his friend’s house. They were also from this church and made us feel so welcome. Over the next 3 days they planned events for us, gave us food, shelter for 3 nights, washed our clothes, washed us, let us use the internet, try to call home, prayed for us, took us to a South African barbeque, took us to church, and became good friends with us! It was so great.
The Lord is totally faithful and will protect his children. I have found that if I just listen to his direction, have a little faith, and obey he gives us the most adventurous life!
It is good to have a stable life, but what do you find your stability in?

In the Beginning to London

I was blessed to have some of my friends see me off in the Tulsa airport on 27-1-08. That means a lot and is fun to see them one last time, for now. Then I realized that I had forgotten my camera charger right when i was supposed to go through security, so my heroic dad raced back home to get it while I went through security.
He made it back and I was off...for a couple feet, because my plane to Dallas was delayed for an hour. It finally came and got there in time to run through the airport and when I got to my terminal they said, "are you Daniel Clutter?" and let me in at the last second. sigh. Lacy Clark and Caleb Kirby met in the airport, because Caleb was worried and lacy kind of recognized him from pictures, so they met : )
we made it to London and Lacy did an awesome job of getting us to her Dorm. It was very high security, so needless to say Caleb and I found the clink hostel near by.
(this was one of the best trips of my life already, just so you know)
The next day Caleb and I just did our typical style of travel; we just walked wherever. We like to observe the every day life and talk to people as we go along. we ended up going to the London bridge, the monument, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, some cool cathedrals, and a huge sun dial. we ate some carrots and peanut butter in the park for lunch. we were able to bring up the Lord on 2 occasions that day.
The next day we decided to go to Oxford and try to fit in with the really smart kids ; ) it was beautiful there, with a nice small town and scenery around. we found a massive meadow/park in which we would sleep that night. we went to a really famous, extravagent cathedral and attended the service. On the way back we talked and tried to judge that really traditional kind of church. The Body of Christ is supposed to strengthen and sharpen each other (prov. 27:17) and it is the churches role to judge those inside it and God will judge those outside the body (1 cor 5:12). http://www.crosswalk.com/
oh! and it was freezing cold that night and of course I did not have a jacket, but the Lord totally provided a sweet homeless looking(but coming into style) warm jacket in the trash!

Intermission... you are probably tired of reading, so ill tell you the rest of London in a bit.
I love you

Wow my first post! I better make it a good one.

hmmm. I want to be pretty transparent with my thought on this thing, so maybe i will ramble a bit. ask Caleb i have gotten good at that. Do not feel like you have to read this if you do not want to, but you are invited to know some of my thoughts. Also creative writing, not my thing. talk to Jo Reese, James Firestone, or my brother if you want that.
I really enjoy pictures, as i have trouble paying attention sometimes. Also a picture is worth a 1000 words right? But I have been having fits with learning how you can see them easily without copy/past or downloading some program. so I half way figured it out. go here and hit slide show. http://picasaweb.google.com/zildjian777/LondonJan28Feb4 any advice is welcomed.
Im sitting here in my dorm with my roommate (who is not here too often, but i really enjoy him. he likes outside) who is reading a book, drinking my Lady Grey Tea from London, Enjoying some of Scott Goodners music selection, and pretty happy with the life the Lord had given me.
Another thing. I do not mean to be preachy, but most of the time I just love to express some things about the Lord and give Him the credit he is due. sometimes I do not like those bubbly kind of people who you can not really tell where their motivation lies when they speak of God, but then I stop and think wait,...where are my motivations? I am no better than anyone, because we are all sinners. When I turn my thought process what they say becomes an encouragement and not a discouragement. after all rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.
Caleb Kirby and I have had a pretty crazy time getting here. We still are not fully here due to some residency permit difficulties, but it will just create a good story and a trip to Italy : ) I wish you could really see my smile right now, because chances are if you are reading this you have a special place in my heart and I miss you. If you want to see me my name is daniel.clutter on skype (keep in mind if it is 1 PM there it is 8 PM here)
so some general news and then I am off to bed. Caleb Kirby, Lacy Clark, and I met in the Dallas airport and went to London, where Lacy is studying this semester. Caleb and i spent a week there, but that is another story. we made it to Slovenia, had fun in orientation, met some other people from around the world, got our dorm. we found out all the other exchange students were already enrolled. hmmm probably should do that, but we did on the first day of classes and we are in Statistics for Business Descision Making, International Marketing, E(meaning internet)-Marketing, Globilization and International Trade, and Strategic Management.
Thanks for reading
chao