God continues to show up!

No specific events or pictures to share today, just a bunch of random tidbits from the past week. Over the weekend I was able to head up to Lynchburg and see my sister and Craig. We were also able to hang out with our friend Christie from home who was in Lynchburg for a ballet performance. It is really exciting to me to be able to spend time with the future Mr. and Mrs. Cooper! Rachel and Craig are growing so much as a couple and also in their relationship with Christ. I am so happy that both of my sisters how found great men of God to spend the rest of their lives with.

Saturday was a day of sports. I went to the basketball game, lacrosse game, and baseball game at Tech. The weather was really nice and made for an enjoyable time with friends. I also enjoyed all the great NCAA tournament games that were on throughout the weekend. On Sunday I led the songs at church and it went better than it had the previous two times. I am starting to get a hang of conducting. Overall a very nice weekend!

This week has been good so far. It is definitely getting harder and harder to continue the same routine as the semester goes on. On most days, I am inside, either working or at class, from 11-9. This is getting more difficult as the weather gets nicer! Sometimes I feel like I am trapped in prison, but am always encouraged by God. He gives me the peace and joy that allows me to be content, even during the most mundane activities. God has also continued to give me great opportunities to share His love with others. One of my supervisors at work started a conversation with me yesterday that she is going to start reading a book that was given to her by her church when she graduated high school. I am not sure exactly what the book is about, but I believe it is about following Christ. I hope to use this opportunity to ask her soon how she is liking the book and what she is learning. Another neat thing happened last night. A girl who graduated high school with me commented on my Facebook status last night. I would say that we were just acquaintances in school and I hadn't spoken to her in years. My status had some lyrics from a Hillsong United song and she commented that my updates were always an encouragement to her. I then come to find out that she is a believer! It is cool to know that God is using even a simple thing like a Facebook status to encourage others. I hope to ask this girl more about her salvation story sometime.

These are just a few things that God is doing in my life right now. I have never seen so many people around me begin to seek out the Lord. It is especially neat that many of them are from back in NY, where the Christian atmosphere is almost nonexistent. I just need to keep praying that the seeds that I have planted will be grown by God.

Tonight I start a new Bible study at the BCM. Leadership changes at BCM after spring break each year. I am really excited to see how God works through these new leaders. I am also pumped for a new episode of LOST tonight! Have a great day everyone!

Spring Break

I had a fantastic spring break in Florida! When I first left, I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy taking a road trip on my own. I started to wonder if I should have gone on one of the BCM missions trips or gone home. I am so thankful I didn't! I was able to have a great time with Grandma in Florida while visiting a bunch of friends and family on my way there and way back. The weather was beautiful and the week was relaxing.

My first stop was in Charlotte where I was able to go to church with my family and enjoy a tasty lunch at Red Robin. I then traveled to Charleston, SC to visit my friend Brian. He is on a ten month stint with a theater company there. I had never been to Charleston before and the little that I saw of it was gorgeous. I then drove to Sun City Center, FL and had a wonderful three days with Grandma. She was a great host, making me some great meals and allowing me to have the freedom to do what I wanted. We watched some basketball together and also went to the beach. I had not seen her since January of 2008! Thanks Grandma for having me!

On Friday I went to the Mets spring training game in Lakeland, FL. Before the game I went over to the campus of Florida Southern College because I heard it was a sight to see. The campus was amazing and is filled with Frank Lloyd Wright architecture. After the Mets game I headed up to Atlanta, hoping to see my beloved Hokies play in the ACC tournament semi-finals. Unfortunately, the Tar Heels pulled off a close one against us again. I still went to Atlanta and caught up with my friend David who worked with me at Camp Ridgecrest. I stayed at his place on Friday night and then headed back to Blacksburg on Saturday.

It was really nice to be able to enjoy some warm weather for once on spring break after heading north for the last few years. It was just the right amount of time to relax before heading back to my crazy college student schedule. Now I am back and ready to finish off the semester strong!

One last thing before I go. My last post talked about the greatest basketball game I have ever seen. Well tonight was the best game I have ever seen in person. I went to the Virginia Tech/Duquesne game at Cassell Coliseum and watched as the Hokies triumphed in double overtime to advance to the second round of the NIT. Five Tech players scored 15 points or more and Duquesne's best player, Aaron Jackson, scored 46!!! Incredible game and another great moment in my six years as a Hokie fan.

Have a great rest of the week everyone and Go Highlanders! Can they shock the world and knock off UNC? Probably not, but I will keep my fingers crossed.

At the pool in Sun City Center

Palm Trees!

We headed to the beach on Wednesday

It was a beautiful day

Florida Southern College

A house on the campus

A unique building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

My favorite place on the campus: The Water Dome

Another neat part of the campus

Daniel Murphy!

Jerry Manuel signing autographs. Unfortunately, HoJo was not there for this game.

Freddy Garcia

Joker Marchant Stadium: Home of the Lakeland Tigers

The Mets won 9-3!

The Single Greatest Basketball Game I Have Ever Seen

I know a lot of my posts have been about sports lately, and for that I apologize, but it has been justified lately. Tonight I was planning to simply watch the Syracuse vs. UConn game and then head to bed before midnight, getting ready to travel back north in the morning. MY plans were sort of changed when the Orange and the Huskies decided to battle it out for six overtimes! The game lasted over 3 1/2 hours, which for football is normal but for basketball is absurd. They almost played the same amount as two full games! Amazingly, the game could have ended in regulation after Eric Devendorf hit a shot at the buzzer for the apparent victory. Unfortunately for the Orange, the clock showed triple zeroes just before he released the shot. This sent the game into the first of six OT periods. The players were exhausted and could barely dribble in the sixth OT period. Jonny Flynn, Syracuse's point guard, showed an incredible amount of guts and determination, eventually leading the Orange to a 127-117 victory. The Orange didn't even have a lead once in the first five overtimes and had to battle back each time to extend the game.

What made this game even more amazing is my rooting interest. Before attending Virginia Tech, I grew up a HUGE Syracuse fan. I can actually remember my freshman year at Tech, before the Hokies were actually competitive, when Syracuse lost to Alabama in the NCAA Tournament. I was furious! I have since learned to bleed orange and maroon (and now red and blue as well), but still have a soft spot in my heart for the 'Cuse. The funniest part was that I was watching most of it alone on a small tv in my grandmother's house in Florida; doing my best to not shout out after each big play so as to not wake her up! Simply amazing.

Anyways, Tech had a nice win today as well and will now play UNC tomorrow at noon. Sorry Tennysons, but I will be rooting hard against you tomorrow! Hopefully the Hokies can contain Psycho T and the rest of the Heels. I have really enjoyed my spring break in sunny Florida. Grandma has been a wonderful host and the weather has been perfect. Tomorrow I will head up to Lakeland to see the Mets and Tigers play and then will head up to Atlanta to catch the ACC Tournament Semi-finals on Saturday. Hopefully the Hokies will advance to that point! The week will then be wrapped up with a tournament selection show party at Radford with the team and a bunch of Highlander fans. I am so blessed!

God has been so good to me this year. Really, He is always good to me! I have stumbled a lot this week in my pursuit of Him, but He has welcomed me back into His loving arms each time. Praise God for our Savior Jesus Christ who has rescued us from the grave. Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I will have pictures up from this week when I get back!

Devendorf celebrating after the apparent game winning shot. No one knew that six OT periods were ahead!

UConn's Kemba Walker after a miss that led to the sixth OT

Paul Harris controls the tip for the Orange at the start of the sixth OT

Kris Joseph and Jonny Flynn embrace after an exhausting war of attrition.

'CUSE WINS!!!!

(All photos taken from ESPN.com)

Big South Champs!

Well after Radford's victory on Thursday, I decided to stick around for the Championship game on Saturday, and what a great decision it was! The Radford Highlanders are your 2008-09 Big South Champions and are heading to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in over ten years! Most of you know I am a huge sports nut, so to be able to experience this in my only year at Radford has been pretty special. This was like winning the Super Bowl for Radford and I was right there in the middle of it all.

Radford played against VMI in the Championship game and quickly found themselves down 13-0. VMI looked like a team on a mission and would not miss in the opening minutes. Thankfully, Coach Greenburg called a timeout and allowed his team to regroup, and they battled there way back to take a 50-46 halftime lead. There were many lead changes in the second half, but Radford was finally able to take control late in the game, eventually opening up a 12 point advantage. VMI fought to the last minute, but Artsiom Parakhowski and the rest of the Highlanders were just too much for the Keydets.

As the last minute was ticking off the clock, you could see the smiles on the faces of our players. The juniors and seniors have been through some really bad seasons. Last year they finished seventh in the conference with a record of 10-21. This year they finish on top with a 21-11 record. What a turnaround! All the credit in the world has to go to the 2008-09 Big South Coach of the Year, Brad Greenburg. He has taught this team how to play together and trust each other on the court. The addition of junior college transfer, and 2008-09 Big South Player of the Year, Artsiom Parakhouski, certainly didn't hurt! What a season! Watch for Radford in the NCAA Tournament. Perhaps they can pull off a miraculous upset in the first round over what will be a top ten team in the country!

I think the success of the basketball team does wonders for the University. A lot of students have been unhappy with the Dedmon Center no longer being a public facility. While I can understand their frustration, I they will consider how much publicity and funding the athletic program, and especially the basketball team, is bringing to our school. It is always hard to accept an athletic team getting preferential treatment at an academic institution, but just reflect for a moment on how many more students will consider coming here in the future and how much more revenue is coming into the University due to the fabulous job done by Brad Greenburg and his players. Bravo men, a job well done indeed!

I had to paint up for the big game

"Big Art" winning the opening tip

Coach Greenburg congratulating our point guard, Amir Johnson, on a great tournament

Myself and Amir

Myself and Philip Martin. Philip is a member of the 2008-09 Big South Academic All-Conference team. I have had the pleasure of running into him a few times in Peters Hall and he is a real nice guy.

Philip cutting down a piece of the net

The whole team celebrating the Big South Championship!

Final Score: Radford 108 VMI 94!

In honor of Radford's big win, I have changed the colors of my blog to red and white. By no means am I throwing my Hokie pride away. I still bleed maroon and orange, but right now have to show my school pride as a graduate student at RU! Hopefully the Hokies can right the ship and pick up a few wins in the ACC Tournament and make it to the Big Dance as well.

Anyways, I am currently in Tampa, Florida enjoying the beautiful weather while visiting my Grandma. It has been a great Spring Break thus far, and it is only getting started! God is so good and redeems me everyday from the sin that so often entangles me. I hope you all have a great week in the Lord and GO HIGHLANDERS!

One Step Closer to a Big South Title!

Being a sports fan sure has its ups and downs! Last night my beloved Hokies lost another close one, this time to UNC. I told myself all day that I wouldn't get emotionally involved in the game. Of course, I was lying to myself, and I was going nuts the whole time. It didn't help that I was watching it by myself in my apartment with no one else home. It was hard to see A.D. Vassallo lose his final game at Cassell. Needless to say, I was not too pleased afterward and went to bed earlier than usual. This was a blessing, as I prayed to God to calm me down and allow me to wake up fresh the next morning. Praise God for his mercies are new every morning!

Today was a great day. I woke up refreshed and headed to work at 11. God was just awesome today! He gave me energy in everything I did. Work was actually really busy, which is always nice. Next up was my Ed. Tech class, basically my favorite class everr. D. Dunleavy is a great profesor and gives us the tools we need for a fantastic learning experience. I have now produced two video tutorials that will be up on Youtube by next week. To top it off, Dr. Dunleavy knew I wanted to go to the Radford game, so he let me leave 30 minutes early after I had finished my video. I got to the Dedmon Center with only 4 minutes gone by in the first half. The place was packed and the fans were going wild!

For those of you that don't know, Radford won the Big South regular season title with a 15-3 record in conference play. This earned them the #1 seed in the Big South Tournament and meant that the Dedmon Center would host the final three games. Tonight we played UNC Asheville for the third time this season, with Radford winning the first two games. It is really hard to beat a team three times, and tonight was a tough one. We led by 15 at one point, but Asheville was on fire from 3 point range and cut the lead to 2 with around five minutes to play. We started to get nervous in the stands, but were able to exhale as Radford pulled it off in the end, 94-86. Kenny Thomas led the way with 35 points, adding another chapter to his terrific career at Radford. We will now play VMI on Saturday at 4pm for the Conference Championship and the right to play in the NCAA Tournament! The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 so look for me on tv! GO HIGHLANDERS!!!

Big Art Parakhouski at the line

Looking to put some points on the board

Defense!

Coach Brad Greenburg

Radford Wins!!!

A crazy stretch of back and forth action!

Game over! Bring on VMI!

Snow in Blacksburg!

Starting on Sunday, it began to snow in Blacksburg. Little did I know that the biggest snow storm since freshman year was in the works! This was the most fun I have had in the snow in years. It started on Sunday night with the annual Civilians vs. ROTC snowball fight on the drillfield. I had actually never attended this epic event and let me tell you, it was intense! Hundreds of students gathered at the center of the Virginia Tech campus to draw up the battle lines and declare war. Thankfully I escaped without any injuries!

Beautiful Burruss Hall in the distance

The battle lines were drawn and the war began!

David nailed Allyson in the face

After the snowball fight, a group of my friends and I watched "Gran Torino." What an incredible movie! I would like to see some more of Clint Eastwood's films now. The movie ended a little after midnight, and as people were getting ready to go home, we all saw how much snow had accumulated outside. There was no way we were going to give up an opportunity to play in a half a foot of snow, so we all bundled up and started running up and down the streets, throwing the football around. I even got tackled a few times unexpectedly. We went from the road to the playground for some swing jumping until eventually some folks were so cold that they had to head back and change. Maria lives on campus though, and with the roads as bad as they were, we decided it was best for her to just crash on our couch instead of us drive her back. David, Maria, and I chilled outside for a while longer, enjoying the beautiful scenery, and eventually went to bed around 5 am. I am loving this final semester of freedom to stay up really late and be a ridiculous college student!

Me, Thomas, Donny, and David

Maria and Karin

Get off my lawn!

Karin and Donny

Thomas and Thomas

David jumping off the swing

To top it all off, I woke up the next morning to find that Radford was canceled for the day! I had not had a college day canceled since freshman year and knew I had to take full advantage. I drove over to Christiansburg to purchase a few sleds and then headed over to the Foxridge hill to enjoy the snow with my friends. We had a few wipeouts along the way, including Allyson taking out a little girl after David and I pushed her down the hill. Thankfully the girl was ok!

Snow train!

That thing was fast!

Maria and I

Getting ready for one final snow train!

Maria, myself, Allyson, and David after a great day of sledding!

In the end it was a glorious 24 hours. It's days like this that I thank God for great friends and his beautiful creation. I hope you all got to enjoy some time in the snow as well! Only a few more days and spring break will be here, whoo hoo! I am heading down to Florida to see Grandma Dunham, with stops in Charlotte and Charleston along the way. It will be nice to be in warm weather for once on spring break, as opposed to cold New York and even colder Toronto, Canada. I will be sure to post pictures along with an update when I get back. Have a great week everyone!