Sunday, January 20, 2008


So I've decided to blog once more.
Lets recap Ryan's adventures since his 2005 post.

Summer 2005:
In May of 2005 I went to Belize on a mission trip with the Wesley Foundation to Corozal, BZ.
Afterwards, I lived in Conroe, TX and ran the summer youth program for First United Methodist of Conroe. I roomed with a retired lawyer whom is the subject of my 2005 post. I learned a ton!

Fall 2005 - Spring 2006:
I was a Junior at Texas A&M. I traveled to David, Panama during spring break with E3 partners in ministry.

Summer 2006:
I moved to Texarkana, TX and worked at Cooper Tire & Rubber Company. Shortly after I moved in I volunteered at Williams Memorial United Methodist Church with their youth program. Little to my dismay, I found that they currently had no youth director, so I became the youth intern who was interning for no director. It was quite interesting, but God was so good in the situation.

Fall 2006 - Spring 2007:
Senior year at Texas A&M. We beat Texas after Thanksgiving. Finally.
I organized a backpacking trip to Big Bend of New Years and had a great experience.
January 2007 I began leading the International Bible Study at the Wesley Foundation. I had been involved with this group for over a year and was blessed to see the Grace of God win souls to Christ. This bible study has forever changed who I am and just as importantly, who I strive to be.

Summer 2007:
I went with the Wesley Foundation to Belize to the same Pastor we worked with previously. It was affirming to see the fruit of the ministry of "Russevelte" (sp.). The fields he plows for Christ are very rocky in Corozal. There aren't get-to-know-you's, convenient mass communications, or 18 holes of golf to aid in the pastoralization.

Afterwards, I moved to Houston, TX to intern at BP as a Health Safety Security and Environment intern. I basically learned a lot about what I did not want to do after I graduate.

Fall 2007 - Now:
I continued to lead the International Bible Study. I said farewell to a dear friend, Ichyun. I completed my Senior Design project with Fujitsu Network Communications. It was an inventory forecasting improvement project.

Over New Years, I organized our second consecutive backpacking trip. (That makes it a Fighting Texas Aggie Tradition.) We went to the Guadalupe Mountains. I had a rather close call the first night from near hypothermia. After climbing 2800 ft, we were met with 70-80 mph winds. My thermometer read 20 degrees F at 2PM. I'll let the meteorologists out there calculate the wind chill and estimate our sleeping temperature... It was very cold. My Gatorade bottle froze solid and I was sleeping nearly on top of it.


During the Fall semester I interviewed with 26 companies. I now am employed by a Norwegian company called Det Norske Veritas. DNV was originally a Maritime ship classification company that was founded in 1864ish. In other words, they were really good at knowing the strength and capacity of ships in rough seas. They moved into the energy awhile back and that is now where I work, DNV Energy. I manage Risk for the energy industry. Ryan, what does that mean? An example project is to model the consequences of every possible explosion or leak in a system. After modeling the consequences, you determine the frequency of each event and do a quantitative assessment of the overall risk of the system. Anyways....


I live with Reese Hopkins, a friend from A&M who also was hired on with DNV. We live .26 miles from the office but drive anyways. I am getting plugged into The Table at Chapplewood United Methodist Church off of I-10 / Voss area. I've decided to blog again due to lack of close relationships around me to share these things with. Also, I think it is going to just be healthy for me to actually think life through on a regular basis. Ha. I've been getting to work at 7:15, so it is definitely bedtime!
Forever Forwards my lads!
Ryan