YEC

On Friday our church hosted a Youth Evangelism Conference at Christiansburg High School. This event was many months in the making and God did some neat things through it. We had a good crowd there to worship in song and hear Ben Glenn, the "chalk guy," deliver a great Gospel message. I know that lives were impacted for eternity through the efforts of those who organized the event. God truly blew me away when I saw one of my former students from Pulaski there! I was walking around and heard someone say, "Hi Mr. Dunham." I recognized her face right away but the name escaped me. I eventually remembered and we had a nice conversation. She told me an awesome story of how one of my other students, and her best friend, accepted Christ recently! This was such a blessing for me because I have been thinking of my students for so long, wondering how the class finished up when I left. I never really got to know them like I wanted to because I was always so anxious and wound up. Sometimes God touches your life in ways you would never imagine. This was one of those ways and a special moment for me. The rest of the weekend was awesome and I will continue this update later. For now, it's off to work!

Surprise!

Val and I decided to drive up to New York for the weekend to surprise mom and watch some lacrosse games today. We left Lynchburg at 3:30 and pulled in to Pleasantville around 11:30. Mom was very surprised to see me at first and then Val came in and she couldn't have been happier. It is great to be home. God has blessed me so much with a great family and a wonderful girlfriend who is willing to drive a total of 16 hours in the span of 4 days. What a year it has been so far!

Word of God Speak

Val came in for the weekend and yesterday we sang a duet together at my church. God has blessed both of us with the ability to sing and we want to use that ability to praise Him. I chose the song Word of God Speak by MercyMe. It is one of my favorites and really speaks to my heart. Sometimes we just need to shut up and listen to what He has to say to us! It was a blessing to be able to serve alongside Val through music. That's all for now. Have a blessed day!

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

~Psalm 46:10

Val's 21st Birthday

Slowly but surely I will be caught up on posts! The good news is each weekend that comes and goes is full of fun times to write about. Better to be behind on posts because of too much to write about than to not have anything to write about at all!

Val’s 21st birthday was February 5^th. I decided that I would go visit her at Liberty and have a party with her closest friends. Her birthday was on a Friday, but I planned to have the party on Thursday night. Val shares a birthday with another friend at Liberty and therefore shares her special day each year. I really wanted her to have her own night with just her closest friends, so Thursday night seemed ideal. When I made up these plans I was still only working at Huntington and had Fridays off. Well once I got the Salem job, Fridays were a work day again. Thankfully my boss gave me the day off. This also gave me a great excuse to tell Val I would see her Friday after I got off work. The get together on Thursday night evolved into a surprise party, making it all the more fun!

Kelsey, Val’s roommate, was magnificent in being a spy for me during the week leading up to the party. She was able to find out what Val’s favorite cake was and also invite all of her friends. The best part of it all was there was a big snowstorm oming in on Friday. Of course Val thinking I was coming Friday evening was left to believe I would not be able to make it due to the road conditions! Kelsey kept texting me about how disappointed Val was that I would not be able to make it. She had no clue! To top it off, my sister Rachel had invited Val to come over her place on Thursday night to catch up, thus setting the stage for the surprise.

Of course things never go completely smoothly. I left work around 6 on Thursday and got to Liberty in plenty of time (the party was to start at 8:30). Problem was I needed to go by Wal-Mart and grab some food and some pictures for Val’s present. Well with the big snowstorm coming, the place was packed! I was starting to stress but thankfully made it over to Rachel’s just in time. All of us went upstairs into the guest room and waited until Val arrived. Rachel brilliantly informed her that she had left a shirt upstairs the last time she was there. Some of her friends gave me the idea to hide in a separate room and come out after the initial surprise. It worked like a charm and Val couldn’t believe it!

We had a great time hanging out and playing some games. Pit was a huge hit among Val's friends. Eventually we brought out the cake and sang happy birthday. My first attempt at cake decorating was a mild success as I baked a double layer yellow cake and decorated it Liberty style! What a fun night filled with God's blessings!

The rest of the weekend was fantastic. The best part of it was that Friday felt like Saturday and Saturday felt like Sunday after which I still had Sunday to head back to Blacksburg and relax! We played some train game, watched a Liberty basketball game, and played some indoor soccer. The indoor soccer fields at Liberty are awesome! I would be in there every day if we had a facility like that at Tech. I eventually got around to giving Val her birthday present: a scrap book titled Life According to Matt and Val, a play off of the Adventure Book in the movie Up. Each page features a different activity that I hope we get to do together including attending a baseball game, hiking the Cascades, seeing Wicked on Broadway, and eating at The Homeplace. Her main gift was located on the page entitled Rock out at a Porcupine Tree Concert. On the page was an envelope containing two tickets to a PT concert in April. I can't wait! You know you are blessed when your girlfriend is a Porcupine Tree fanatic!

God is so good and has surrounded me with incredible people. Val you are so special to me and I am glad to call you my best friend! I can't wait to set out on these adventures together!

More to come soon!

Me and the birthday girl!

Happy Birthday Liberty Flames haha

Make a wish!

A very happy couple

Rachel and Coop

Val's roommate Kelsey and her boyfriend Ethan

Cooper is the best!

The former roommates

All the girls

The whole crew that came to celebrate Val's 21st!

I was waiting for Val to come over so I decided to make a snowman!

We stopped at Sheetz for a quick bite to eat and Kelsey bought Val her 21st
birthday drink: Belly Washers!

At the Liberty basketball game. Go Flames!

Two Weekends with Val (Part 2)

Man, I am way behind on posts again! Picking up where I left off, the next weekend I went to Liberty to see Val. A big snowstorm was on its way so I had to make sure I got there before the roads got too messy. I arrived on Friday night around 7pm and we went to Chic-Fil-A for some food before heading to the Liberty hockey game. Apparently LU really likes their hockey because Val and I had to park really far away from the arena. At first thought, a nice walk together seemed like an enjoyable occasion. This thought lasted until we stepped outside and realized how cold it was! That weekend was one of the coldest I have experienced in a while. We eventually made it to the game and sat with Val's roommate Kelsey and her boyfriend Ethan. The game was very entertaining. Unfortunately, Liberty gave up a two goal lead late and eventually lost in overtime. Despite the loss, it was a good time and I also got to experience one of my top sports moments of all time. Towards the end of the first period a Liberty player checked an Oklahoma player into the Plexiglas in front of us so hard that it shattered! My favorite part was the PA announcer stating, "Due to a crushing hit by #26 Greg Jensen, the remaining 2:32 will be added on to the second period" haha. After saying goodnight, I stayed with some of Val's friends in the dorms. It was fun being back in that atmosphere again, seeing a bunch of guys playing X-box and hanging out in each others rooms.

At the hockey game. The guy in the bottom left was sitting next to me. Interesting fellow to say the least! He definitely loves LU hockey.

Yes they fight even at Liberty!

The result of a crushing hit by #26

When we woke up Saturday morning, there was already a few inches of snow on the ground and more was falling with no stop in sight. My original plan had been to head back on Saturday at some point, but I quickly realized that would not happen! We ate some lunch at The ROT (dining hall) and then had some fun playing in the snow. After playing in the snow for a while, Val and I decided to watch the season 5 finale of LOST since she had not seen it yet. This is where our weekend got really interesting! See, Liberty has these rules where you cannot go into the dorms of the opposite sex and also cannot enter the student centers if you are not a student there. Therefore we had no place to actually hang out together. My sister lives in Lynchburg, but we didn't want to bother her because Craig, her husband, was off from work for the weekend. Our only place of refuge was supposed to be the basketball arena, but even that was closed! After realizing this Val said, "onto plan B" and nothing else. I asked her where we were going but she just said, "You'll see!" A few minutes later we were moving a table around in the laundry room to watch LOST on her computer haha! I guess the laundry room is a big hangout spot for couples at Liberty. So anyways our conclusion was that it was just one big adventure and we had fun with it!

One of my favorites

Enjoying God's artistry

It was cold!

Brandon, Val's friend, tackled her into the snow. Unfortunately, she lost her phone in the process...

Me, Brandon, and Justin

The rest of the day consisted of watching episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" (awesome show that Val now loves!), playing some train game, and driving through the snow in Val's beastly Jeep trying to find someplace to eat. We packed 9 people in her Jeep, most of them guys, and one poor girl from Val's hall squished in the back! Nothing was open so we had to eat back on campus. That was an interested car ride to say the least!

Train Game! Justin scored 134 on his first try! Not as good as Kelsey Hooke though a few days later. She scored 164!

Val and Jenna. Jenna was a brave soul for putting up with all the guys that night!

The weekend concluded with watching the Hokies play on Sunday at Rachel's house. Unfortunately they lost, but it was a great weekend nevertheless. The roads were finally clear by Sunday afternoon and I headed back to Blacksburg. Once again I was reminded of how good my God is and how blessed I am to have a girl in my life who loves Jesus! I will hopefully be updating again soon about Val's birthday weekend and Valentine's Day weekend. Until then, peace in the Lord Jesus Christ!