Soul Surfer Review

I decided that I really like doing movie reviews. The other week, John talked me into doing a "vlog" aka video blog of a movie we saw together called Source Code and a movie I saw with my mom called Soul Surfer. If you want to check out the vlog and the Source Code review, go to Youtube and type in TheJohnVandivier in the search box and it should be the second video.

But I won't be talking about Source Code in this post just because I think we covered most of it in our "vlog".
I would like to talk about Soul Surfer. It is a PG movie that recently came out and let me tell you, I really enjoyed it. Like I said in the video post, most PG rated movies are directly towards children, not necessarily for all ages. This movie, however, was appropriate for all viewers.

If you haven't seen trailers, this movie is about a 13 year-old girl named Bethany Hamilton who grew up in Hawaii and had been out in the water ever since she was little. She started entering championships at a very young age. At 13, she got sponsored and was going to enter the BIG championship. While out on her board with her best friend, she was attacked by a shark and lost her left arm. According to her friends and family, she didn't cry or panic at all (pretty sure I would be doing both, I am terrified of sharks). About a month after the attack, she got back into the water, learned how to surf with a disability and entered nationals.

This movie is based on a true story. Bethany Hamilton was played by actress Anna Sophia Robb. Her parents were played by Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt. I would really like to emphasize how awesome the family in this movie was portrayed. Think back to movies you have seen and answer this:
How many movies have BOTH parents, happily married, never divorced and even after so many years of marriage, they are still in love, happy and able to play?
For me, the movies I see fall under these categories:
1) Parents are divorced and fighting
2) One or both parents have died in some sort of accident
3) They are still married but unhappy

Think even to television shows, for one example: Disney Channel. Out of all the shows they run, 2 at the moment have happily married parents. But that is for a different blog, maybe someday.

My point is this:
The parents in Soul Surfer laughed, played, and went to church together. You just don't see that.

But now to my biggest point.
How many movies have Christian families? And before you answer that, I'm not talking about "hinting" christians. No, I'm not talking about Christian "references" where the movie could go either way. I am talking about church, bible verses, prayer, mission trips, and faith. All of those were in this movie and more. To me, this made the movie (Not because I'm Christian and biased, that's not my point even if it may be true) because the family gave all their struggles to God and gave Him the credit for their strength.
One scene in the movie, Bethany is crying to her youth director and asking why God would do this to her. The youth director did not give a direct answer but she told her that maybe God wanted her to see life from a different view. After this talk, she went on a mission trip and saw all the people suffering because of a natural disaster. She saw people without food and water and ones hurting from loss of a loved one. Long story short, she realized that surfing wasn't everything, it was not the meaning of life. Even through her pain and suffering, she realized she was still blessed.

I can honestly say I don't think I have ever seen a movie that was really this open with Christianity. People are standing up for what they believe in now and I like it. I know they are just actors and they may or may not believe in their character, but the fact that Hollywood would come out with a movie like this, tells me our world is turning back around.

On the other hand, Soul Surfer received bad reviews from the critics. One critic gave the movie a C rating because (and I quote) "For a movie about surfing, the focus needs to be a little less on her Christian walk"
I read that and was shocked. It is a true story, yes it has surfing, but I think that all the things she overcame was way more of a story than her surfing. The fact that she had enough determination to get back in the water and re-learn how to surf is awesome, but because she was able to grow in her walk with Christ is what really captured me.

Update

Hey guys, all 5 of you. I know I haven't written in a while. School has been getting the best of my attention, along with 20-30 hours a week at my new(ish) job at Rue! Oh yea, and I'm now engaged!! I know, finally right? I am so excited to start planning the wedding with my best friend/fiance.
So, maybe if you're lucky, I will start writing blogs on wedding planning/budgeting. It should be an interesting journey. So far what we've figured out is:
1) Weddings are EXPENSIVE, yes, even the small ones cost at LEAST $5,000
2) Agreements are possible, shocking isn't it?
3) You do NOT have to spend thousands of dollars to get the dress of your dreams. I have been eying the same dress for 6 months and it is under $500 and GORGEOUS.
4) Being engaged to your best friend is by far the most amazing thing <3
5) When you post that you are engaged on facebook, expect at LEAST 80 notifications the following day.
6) EVERYONE asks about the proposal story and wants to look at your ring.

So as you can see, I am super excited over what the coming years will bring. I can't wait to get started so that I can share my life with the amazing guy that God brought me to.

Don't think I forgot to post pictures.

Ex Terrorist Speaks Out Against Islam

A man raised in the violence of Palestinian terrorism is now speaking out against the life he used to live.

Walid Shoebat is a former Palestinian terrorist who believes that the truth about Islam is widely misunderstood and misleadingly presented throughout the world.

In his youth, Shoebat joined the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). As a member he was involved in attacks against Israel and was later imprisoned in the Russian Compound.

“I planted a bomb in a bank in Bethlehem called Bank Leumi, I got involved in many of the riots in the Palestinian areas, in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, I nearly beat an Israeli soldier to death, and stonings. So from bombing to stoning and fundraising for terrorism, I did it all,” said Shoebat.

Shoebat was trained by Jamal Said, who is a colleague of Sayyed Imam Al-Sharif, the Godfather of Al’Quida. After his training Shoebat was involved with the Muslim Brotherhood in Chicago, Illinois.

“The main goal of the Muslim Brotherhood is to destroy the West from within, take over the American government, and replace it with Shariah Law, otherwise known as Islamic Law,” said Shoebat.

After coming to the United States Shoebat became a counselor for the Arab Student Organization in Chicago and continued his anti-Israel activities.
While in the U.S Shoebat met a Christian woman named Maria and they fell in love. He attempted to convert her to Islam and she attempted to convert him to Christianity. They compromised by exchanging challenges. She would read the entire Quran and he would read the whole Bible. After studying the Bible for six months Shoebat converted from extremist Islam to Christianity in 1993.

“I have challenged everything in the bible, I have hated God’s people, I have persecuted the Jewish people, and by reading the bible, I have found that it is an amazing manuscript,” said Shoebat.

In the middle east, questioning Islam can be punishable by death. Because Shoebat has chosen to speak out against terrorism, his family is constantly faced with security issues.

“The question I always ask myself is why are the Muslim Movement and the terrorists able to give their names and the Islamist movement in the West has no problem giving their addresses, but I have to be in hiding? It is because Christians don’t kill the Muslims, it is the Islamists who kill the Christians,” said Shoebat.

Since his conversion Shoebat has spoken at universities across the country. He has appeared on FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and has been interviewed on countless radio stations. Many of his views are controversial. He even claims that deception is a regular tool of Muslims.

“When I was disseminating Islamic dogma and revolutionary causes for the PLO in Chicago, I would invite Americans to come to a ‘cultural party’ when indeed it had nothing to do with a cultural party, it had something to do with collecting donations for the PLO for the cause of Islam,” said Shoebat.

Shoebat warns westerners to observe things said in Arabic rather than English. For example, the invitations to the ‘cultural party’ were pamphlets which stated in Arabic, “We are conducting a Jihad expedition against Israel in the west. Bring your friends so we can raise the funds.” In English it was an invitation to attend a cultural party.

Shoebat surmised, “During my terror days, I lied to the westerners and they believed me. Now that I am telling the truth, I am called a liar.”

Shoebat believes part of the reason for America’s denial is the news they are fed.

“The reason you are denying this is because the media that you have. It is not building the American’s confidence, it is building the enemies confidence,” said Shoebat, “We have a War on Terrorism, but terrorism is working.”

While Shoebat speaks to a majority of the media, there is a minority that agrees with him. A member of this minority, conservative talk show host Ben Barrack, has done extensive research on Walid’s story. Barrack opposes accusations of fraud made by Christopher Hedges of the New York Times and Jorg Luyken of the Jerusalem Post.

Through his research Barrack has corroborated the identity of Shoebat’s mentor, Shoebat’s bombing of Bank Leumi, and the fact that Shoebat beat an Israeli soldier.

Barrack says“He knows what he is talking about, so maybe people should start listening.”

Evolution

Ever since my first year of biology back in the 10th grade, the idea of evolution was nothing but a joke to me. Looking at a picture showing the development of man starting out from monkeys did nothing but make me shake my head and say "no". Aside from the fact that it has no correlation with the bible, the whole science of it to me just did not make any sense.

During my year at Tarleton, one of my biology professors would go on and on about how evolution was everything scientists ever needed to know about life.

Well recently, archaeologists have found a 4,000 year old tooth that resembles that of today's man, otherwise known as a Homo sapien. Some people would read that sentence and say "big deal" and shrug it off, but this ancient tooth rules out the whole theory of evolution.

Evolution only dates back about 2,000 years before humans were considered to be "monkeys".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_ancient_teeth

The Continuous Development

It is now 10:24 pm and Okaloosa Island Beach is being closed off. It is now considered hazardous to your health due to the aroma of the oil. Tar balls are continuing to wash up onto the beach, just like I predicted that would be during high tide. If you look out onto the ocean, you can see the oil coagulating on the top. Hopefully, tomorrow morning I can get one last look at how the oil spill is developing.

(Marine animals are suffering in the picture below)

(The picture below is from nwfdailynews.com)

53% of Americans disagree with the way Obama is handling this and I do not doubt that that number will continue to rise if no actions are taken. Cleaning up the shore to make it look more appealing does not mean that it is not there, it doesn't make it just go away. It has gotten to the point where announcements are being made about calling 311 if you see any animals in danger. By tomorrow morning, I would not be surprised if the beach is covered.

The news team stopped by around 5:30 pm, which made sense as to why the beach was cleaned by the time my mom and I dropped by after dinner. Once again, this proves that Americans are being uninformed about what is really going on. The only thing that news video showed was dime sized tar balls with a clear ocean in the background. Does something seem wrong with the fact that they are so willing to clean the beach up before a news team comes by for a story but they are not willing to clean this up to save the living conditions of the fish, animals, fishermen, and homeowners?

About 2 hours before the beach was closed due to its condition. The link is attached, pictures are provided from 5 miles out.

Start praying.

http://nwfdailynews.emeraldcoastphotoswest.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=1025615&CategoryID=28208&ListSubAlbums=0

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/okaloosa-30053-villani-island.html

Okaloosa Island Pier

One of the things you must do when visit the beach is visit the pier. All the different types of fish you see are just amazing. On our visit, we were able to see large sting rays eating fisher's bait, barracudas lurking in the water waiting for fish to be thrown back in, dolphins jumping in the sunset, and little sharks. Or should I say, things we thought were sharks, we were in for an awakening.

My family and I overheard a woman telling her children that there were sharks. So of course, we hurried over to where the woman was and looked over the edge. Sure enough, there were 'little sharks'. In my opinion, I would not have said they were little. Anything over 4 feet is considered a big fish to me. As time went by, we stayed there watching the 'sharks' and people came by to see what we were looking at.

One of the fisherman, who spends most of his days on the pier fishing, came over to ask what we were looking at.

I pointed down near the pillars and said that we were looking at the group of 5 or 6 little sharks. He looked over the edge and laughed. I looked at him a little confused at what he thought was funny. I looked at me and said "honey, those aren't little sharks, those are the little fish that STICK to the sharks". If you look closely to the pictures below, you can see them.

That thought scared me. I looked back over the edge at the 4 foot long strange fish and remembered the old days of watching Discovery Channel. I pictured the sharks with those so-called 'little fish' attached to the bellyside of the shark. They did not look quite that big when I saw it on television. I looked back over the edge, and come to my surprise, a huge shark was next to all those fish. I called the guy back over and he looked down. While pulling his hat back, he assured me that those were the sharks he was talking about, the Tiger Shark, which can grow up to 16 feet in length. That thought made me shiver and I decided to go to a different side of the pier. Come to my attention, they were not that easy to get away from. The further down the pier I went, the more I saw them. I was also informed by an air traffic control man that sharks swim closer to the shore than people think.

I found a group of fishermen and decided watching them would take my mind off of the sharks.

I wound up next to a young man and things seemed pretty calm. I was looking over the edge and found myself looking at long, slick fish. I asked the man next to me what they were and he told me that I was looking at a group of Barracudas and that they like to wait for people to unhook a fish and throw it back in.

Moments later, the guy that I originally came to watch was surronded by a crowd of people and reeling in with all his strength. About 15 minutes later, he finally reeled in a fish called the Cobia.

All in all, I must say that it was an interesting visit and you never know what you'll learn or the things you'll find on your visit.

Clean Up Clean Up Everybody Everywhere

So, in response to my earlier post, I must say that I am impressed. The beach was covered in tar balls when we walked back up to our condo around 2:30 and by the time we were dressed and ready for dinner on the local beach hotspot, the oil on the shore was cleaned up and people were back to swimming. If you looked out onto the ocean, you saw 3 or 4 boats sucking up the oil from the water, and some even pulled out the dolphins from earlier and cleaned them up.

We ate dinner at Floyd's Shrimp House right on the beach. The food was delicious! I had shrimp alfredo and you could tell that the shrimp was fresh. And of course, my family had to order a dish of their fresh sushi, which was also to die for. If you ever visit Okaloosa Island, stop by for a wonderful dinner.

My brother and father went back to the pier to fish while my mom and I walked along the beach. There were still quite a few tar balls but not near as much as there were earlier in the day. I have to admit, I am afraid to walk down to the beach after high tide tonight.

Luckily, the shores were clean enough to take family pictures, and since I love photography, I also went to the liberty of taking a few pictures of the beach. I am just happy that things cleared up for out last night. I went ahead and posted my favorite pictures. Hopefully, I will have some more photos in the morning.