Winding down just to start it back up again...

So I have five days left of my sophomore year at Hampden-Sydney. Tuesday I am done with exams and my sophomore school year. Just as school winding down my summer is packed full of activity. My parents and I are going to Boston for vacation before I start my internship at the Museum of Confederacy! I am really excited about working there this summer. I am in the library so I get to look at 19th century documents and either transcribe them or simply help patrons with researching their projects or possibly their family.

So I think this blog might become a retelling of my adventures at the Museum of Confederacy and what I do this summer. This will not only keep a record of everything I am doing it will inform y'all as well.

Cleaning the Past

So it might be the historian in me but I loved digging through my grandmothers files today. Not in a stalk-ish sketch way, but she passed away a few weeks ago and today started the process of cleaning up her possessions in her house.

Just my mumma, dad and I were there today I had the task of starting on her filing cabinet. I think I looked through thousands of receipts from 1980, but it was really interesting to see the elderly keep as important information. But what the real find was, was letters from the 1940s between my grandmother and her boss about her leaving the telephone company for another one around 1943. This is history, and it's my family history. I wish I could keep everything we have been finding but unfortunately we don't have any room for it all.

I'm getting the bookcases, which will be nice since I think I have an addiciton. The first step is always addmitting the problem so here it goes: My name is Nathan Ryalls and I am a book-a-holic. There that's doen now. So hopefully one day they will be filled with all my books in my Hampden-Sydney themed office!


well I'm writing to procrastinate my Roman History homework so I guess I should go ahead and start that.

By His Wounds

So another week has gone by and I continually gain more assignments and work to complete before this semester will end.

Today is Good Friday, the celebration and remembrance of Christ's death upon the cross for our sins. I want to share a video of "By His Wounds" written and sung by Mac Powell. I think it simply says it all.



Remember Christ came to save and died upon the cross for us. My friend Megan, speaking at Encounter, ended her talk with asking "He made salvation possible for you; what have you done for Him lately?"


Well what have you?

4th Day

So this past weekend has been filled with so many emotions. First my grandmother died last Thursday and that evening I went away to Camp Bethel for Encounter with Christ 165. It was exactly what I needed at this point in my life. I meet so many amazing people with such a fire for Christ it is unreal. They have helped me through this time so much and I thank each and everyone for being a part of my life.

The theme was Rocks and how Christ is the rock Eternal. I really had mixed feelings about going on the retreat but being there was the best thing for me. The picture is the foundation of rocks we made Sunday morning after I left for my grandmother's funeral, but know that so many people were praying for me helped me through that tough hour.

So thank you everyone and lets continue to live the fourth.

Habitat for Humanity

So this Spring Break, instead of lazying around the house, spending time doing absolutely nothing I hammered more nails than I can count, I've installed five windows, shoveled more pounds of dirt than I would care to mention, and help build a house for a single mother and her daughter. It was a rewarding experience to work alongside the homeowner, Ashley and to meet her daughter Deja. The joy on their faces as their house was being build before their eyes is the reason I joined Habitat for Humanity. This great foundation helps house millions and to give them affordable and decent places to live their lives.

Five Hampden-Sydney students, myself included, ventured down to Pickens County in South Carolina staying on Lake Keowe and helped to build a house in Easley 30 minutes down the road. This idea of building a hosue is something I would have never done in high school aka hard labor. That was never in my forethought. But now I have been hanging off ladders stretching into weird contortions just to hammer a nail into the wall. This was all new to me. Over a year of working with Habitat and I finally get to actually work on the hosue. I've painted a closet, cleared land, laid the floor bases, and helped to open a ReStore, but now I feel like an accomplished Habitater.

March For Life

Today I gathered with thousands of my fellow Americans to stand up against the murder of millions of innocent lives.  Our cause is to fight for those who cannot speak.  The unborn, who live in thousands of mother's wombs and who are killed by the thousands daily.  

This was my first March and though I might have only been a small voice sanding up for what I feel is wrong, but I hope that Congress, President Obama, and the Supreme Court heard our voices today at the Mall.  I hope they realize that we will not be silenced.  

The Freedom of Choice Act is nothing but a radical atrocity saying they stand for Woman's rights, but what about the thousands of women who live inside their mother's womb where are their rights?  We say that abortion is a choice in this country, but we don't allow murderer's the choice to kill their victims, and frankly that is a double standard.  Abortion is MURDER no matter which way you dice it.  It kills a life before it gets a chance to fully live.  

God tells us that he knew us in the womb, he knitted us in the womb.  Why mess with God?  He will prevail in the end.  

My favorite poster stated "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." 

President Obama

So we have a new president and it is exciting time in American history.  However, I don't think we needed all the hype for it. Yes, Obama is black, but does that really matter.  NO.  He is an American first and foremost.

Though I didn't vote for Obama I am willing to give him a chance.  I did enjoy his speech today, the history nerd it me liked all the allusions to past conflicts, presidents, and struggles in our history.  

PS i think $150 million might be a tad pricy for an inauguration during these "tough economic times" but hey that is just me.

Will write more later