st. peters

I went to a catholic church downtown today called St. Peters. It was a unique experience. It works for many, and I respect that. But it is definately not for me.

I am dealing with many difficult things with YL kids. Being intimately in the lives of high school kids is not easy. BUT, it is very fulfilling. :~)

Mer

Today was a waste, and the curse of 'The Saturday' hit me full blast. I didn't get home till late because I was out for such a long time taking that woman home. So, I didn't get the engines running till like 2ish. I cleaned my bathroom and eventually Merideth came over to celebrate her B-Day. Mer turned 28 yesterday.

I was driving to school to finally get some work done, it was like 5ish. When I got close to school I got a phone call from Mer. She was crying, I couldn't believe it. The last time I heard Mer cry was when I was very young. I ended up going over to her house to talk. I did that, and i'm confused at what God is doing. I'm just trying to do what is right. I am confused and hurting, but seriously just trying to do what is right for Mer. To love her, sincerely love her in a way that allows her to experience Christ through me. I don't say that in a prideful way, quite the opposite actually. I want her to have PEACE in her life. . . .

It happens, and i'm glad

The day started off with me going to work as usual. Then, I actually got to go to a movie with my friend George. We went & saw The Crazies. It was a pretty okay movie, but don't see it if you wanna have a happy ending, cuz I don't think you will find it in that movie.

After I dropped George off, I went directly to Snider High school to pick up Casey. I have been promising Casey that I would take him to go out and get a bunch of applications for different places, like especially fast food places near Snider & his home. Well, mission accomplished. He got like 11 or 12 applications. And so that is a good thing. Hopefully this is all going to work towards the goal of him being able to pay for and drive a truck that his Aunt said she would give to him. "fingers crossed"

After I dropped him off at his parents place, I tried to hang out with a couple of other kids, but it was not working out. So, I texted Ryan, and he was chillen with this dude Kyle from the high school he does contact work at. They were at IPFW in the Student Union building, so I headed over that way. That is Kyle on the far end of the picture. The story gets sort of complicated because his grandmother is a jehovahs witness. And, well she doesn't want him doing anything that is not associated with jehovah witnesses. All else is worldly and not to be messed with. So, Young Life was not too appealing of an idea for her. But, I know God is working in this situation. And Kyle sure is interested. So, we will see what God has planned in all this. It will be sweet though.

The night ended with me going over to Ryans house, and we watched The Informant with Mat Damon. It was dry, but right up my ally.I left Ryan's house pretty late. The roads were pretty bad, as it had been snowing for the majority of the evening. Long story short, I was very near my house when I happened to come across a vehicle in a very peculiar position in an area that there was not a road because of a bunch of road construction. I pulled over to my bank, which was very near the car & a safe place to park. I walked through the snow over to the car and as I looked at the tire tracks, I immediately thought to myself "this driver is most likely drunk." As she saw me approaching, she got out of her car and as soon as she said her first word. I was correct, she was drunk. I looked closer at the vehicle, and knew she/we had no chance to push it out. I was also worried for her, if a cop drove by, she would get a D.U.I. for sure. I told her it would be best for her to get out of there and deal with it in the morning. I offered to give her a ride home, and on the way to her house, she sort of broke down. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe she just really needed to vent. Needless to say, it was my job to listen and comfort on that ride home, and in that driveway. That is what I did. I feel like I represented Christ in a great way, and helped her keep her nursing position as well as get her out of a sticky situation. I could say a lot more, but I think that is enough. Good day, Great God.

The Circle experience # 2

Went to The Circle again. It was once more a great experience, and I am glad this opportunity has come into my life. It is a really good thing. Really really really good thing.

It pays to seek His kingdom

I stayed home today. I needed sleep and cold sores were infesting my face. But, that is neither here nor there. I want to talk about how I had success in Christ today. As soon as I got home from working with the little kiddies I took a nap. I actually took a nap with Oliver (my moms dog). I just passed out right on the couch, and Oliver was right next to me. It was cute. But, after I woke up I started watching a little bit of T.V. Just a little bit, I swear. Anyways, I was tempted, tempted in purity. I knew I had a chance to make, seek first his kingdom or go after what I wanted. It was so cool, I just sat up, shut off the t.v. and started saying as many Bible verses in my mind as I could remember. The last one I said was 1 Corinthians 10:13 "And no temptation as seized you except what is common to man and God is faithful, he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear, but when we are tempted he will give us a way out so that we may stand up under it." I typed that from memory, so it may be a few words off. What matters is that it gave me this whole new outlook. I had this deep desire to grab my Bible study, and that is what I did. Good timing God, my Bible study lead me to Psalm 119:9 & 11 Now I had not looked ahead yesterday when I started my notes. 119:9 says ⁹ How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. And :11 says ¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Now when I read these two verses, along with the verses in my John study, I just had this grin on my face. God is a great God. He gives me what I want, when I need it. I just must choose to seek it.

Then I studied SPANISH.

I studied a lot of Spanish. Me no likey Spanishey. The day ended with Young Life CLUB. It went really good. Josh, my area director is so good at giving a YL talk. I think I can get to that point. I don't know if I will ever be good at the whole acting thing, but I can do the talk I feel. I dunno, it's whatever. Tomorrow I am super unprepared for my classes. Spanish took priority today.

study, exam, bar, ticket

Today was like this > > > > > Study, study, study, study, study. Then some studying, and some time of study, study, study, study, study. Once I had been studying for a while, I decided to take a little break and then back to studying. It just never ends. Tuesdays are killer for me.

6:00PM eventually came around though and I took my first COM 300 exam. It was an hour and forty-five minutes of essay writing. Choose 6 out of 7 essays. When it got over, well I was exhausted and feeling a little yucky. I started to feel come cold sores come on. And truth be told, I hate cold sores more than anything else in my body. Well, except for M/S. So, I guess it would be safe to say I hate cold sores second only to multiple sclerosis.

But, no rest for the weary, because at 9:00PM I promised my bro's that I would meet downtown at JK O'Donnels (Irish pub). I promised to meet there for Ryan's 21st B-Day!! Horray!! If you look back on my 21st B-Day you would see that is where I went too.

Sorry the picture is so dark, but there was not much light in that place. It was a really good time. Had a couple of beers with close friends, and enjoyed celebrating Ryan's B-Day. Really, and Ryan had a super good time too. Sitting next to Ryan is Sam. Sam is a great guy. He is a fellow Young Life leader and friend. When I look up to the married Young Life leaders I really look up to them. They have such great relationships with their wives and I really look up to them. Anyways, that was sort of a tangent.

I love these friends because they love the Lord, and it shows by how we love each other. When I left the pub I just randomly wondered, "hummm I wonder what my B.A.C. (Blood Alcohol Content) is?" Little did I know I would shortly be finding out. I dropped off Zach, Ben, and Ryan then I headed home. I went down a road I seem to go down several times every day. I was driving down St. Joe when I came up to the 3-way stop. It was probably about 12:15AM. I was driving and just wanted to get home and go to bed, to try to stop the infestation of cold sores on my upper lip, nose, and tongue. AHHHHHH!!!! What did I do? Well, I blew through a stop sign. There were no cars coming towards me, only a vehicle maybe 3/4 to a mile behind me (which I thought was a mini-van). It was not a mini-van, it was a squad car. She pulled me over, and wrote me a $215.00 ticket. I completely deserved it, and she was actually very nice about it. I knew what I did, and she knew what I did. She even made several good points. I'm an idiot. Seriously, the last time I got a ticket was for the same thing. Except it was on campus, and I just didn't come to a "complete stop." This time I didn't even attempt to. :-/ In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, DO'OH!!! Oh, and in case you are wondering what I blew after drinking 2 beers, well my B.A.C. was at a 0.017

toothbrush & a Bible study + horrible event

Today I got a free toothbrush. It is a pretty nice toothbrush too. Like a super sonic toothbrush or something. I vibrates really fast. Ya see, for the past 3 weeks I have been involved in a dental research study. There is a research center that my friend Ryan told me about half way through last semester. Well, this was my first study. They gave me $75 for brushing my teeth with some different toothbrushes for 3 weeks. It was great, I mean I brush my teeth already!!

I had a Young Life leader meeting at 1, which I have every week. It was good. They are always good. I feel like I am doing really good personally. I am so blessed for where I am at spiritually. God just keeps making sense, and I just have this intense desire to continue to make God, Lord of my life. It is exciting because quite often I get to share that desire with a whole plethora of individuals. It seems to me that God keeps putting people in my life that desire to understand why God is so important to me. I love sharing that. Things that are school/education related sometimes make no sense. Well, quite often they make no sense. And it is extremely hard to find motivation to continue to move forward with them. And I do, I just hate it. I do really well with everything. . . everything except for Spanish. I really struggle with that.

group Bible study

Around 3ish, I picked up three sophomores from Snider high school. I then took them to a coffee shop & we started our Bible study. We are going to go through Romans. It was real good. Those guys were excited about it, and we got into some really great conversation. The cool thing too was the fact that there were 6 other people in there doing Bible studies of their own. There was one girl who I recognized from Campus Crusades (college ministry @ IPFW), and 4 high school girls from a different school doing a Bible study with a male older than me. It was just so cool for me and the guys to see that there are other people out there desiring the same things as us.

This evening I found out that my cousins husband Ken was involved with something truly horrible. A 12-year-old girl died in a motor vehicle accident this morning on Indiana 119 in the vicinity of County Roads 7 and 42, east of Wakarusa.

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Trevor Wendzonka, spokesman for the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department, said Naleta Joy Yoder, 12, of Goshen died at the scene of the crash around 7:55 a.m. The vehicle, an SUV, slid out of control on the slick road and crossed the center lane to hit a northeast-bound vehicle. The SUV Yoder was in then caught on fire.

Yoder was riding in the rear on the passenger side, where most of the impact occurred.

"The car was fully involved. Patients were laying on the ground. Bystanders tried to get her out and they couldn't," said Galen Ramer who was one of the first on the scene with the Foraker Fire Dept.

Well, one of those bystanders was my Ken, my cousins husband. He is a farmer and was taking a load of corn/soybean to the bins when he came up on the accident. He was there when the SUV burst into flame. He was there as him and others tried frantically to get the 12 year old girl out of the vehicle but couldn't. To make things even worse it was one of my other uncles niece. It is a small community, but jeeze please pray for all involved. Ken is really shaken up big time. I know the family must be so horribly worse off, but I don't know that family, I do however, know how sensitive Ken is.

I went skiing yesterday and it was a good time.

So my friend Joe invited me to go skiing on like Wednesday or Tuesday and I said HECK YES! I love to ski, and my boots have been sitting in the garage just sort of mocking me all winter long. That guy in the picture is Joe. Joe is a great guy, and starting in on the whole Young Life leader position. We (Young Life) are so happy to him in along. I am so happy to have him as a friend. He is a good dude. SO, after Joe invited me, I immediately thought to myself, "hummm, this is a good opportunity to invite a Young Life dude I don't get to spend very much time with outside of Young Life activities. So, I gave Eli a call and invited him along. He said, "HECK YES" as well, so off we went. Here is a great picture of Joe and Eli riding up on the ski lift together. You might have to enlarge the picture to see them. They are the two guys on the left though. Here is a great picture of Eli. We were both sitting on a huge mound of snow, waiting for Joe to come and unlock the car after a 10+ hour day of skiing. We were very very cold, but making the best of it and messing around with each other having fun. The ski trip was a success, and I had a great time getting crazy on the slopes and chilling with good people. Sometimes expressing God just means being a normal person doing fun stuff. The secret is being a representation of Christ while you do it.

But, my day today started off sore. Man did my skiing muscles get a work out! I went to church, studied at school for a bit, and then went to another Young Life leader meeting. After that we had campaigners (Young Life Bible study).

Here is a picture I snapped from that action. It was good, and I love talking God with these guys. It does me so much good too. It is 10:00, and I need to go to bed. My body is still super sore and ready to gather some much needed sleep.

P.S. I hate Spanish. That class is huge thorn in my foot. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!! I don't know how i'm gonna get through it. . . .

Tangible Tysabri

It was time to get me some TYSABRI again today. My monthly infusion happened this morning after I left Snider high school; welcoming kids as they walked into school. So, today was my 21st infusion of the drug TYSABRI!! I can't believe next month will be the 2 year mark?!?!?! That is just crazy to me. That means I have had 2 years of good health. I am so thankful. I sure hope there is not going to be some horrible downside to this medication, but I suppose it is still to early to tell. And, whatever the outcome, it truly is in God's hands. So, my pastor gave me this book. It is called The Tangible Kingdom. It is amazing how they present the heart of church reality in America today. It is good, how about I just say that.

Okay, so after I got my infusion I went home for a bit and tried hard to study. Dang, studying is so difficult these days. lol, where the heck is my motivation. I just wanna read the Bible, not read about the emotional tendencies of persuasion. But, I suppose it is just a step forward. It's all good. I'll get'er done. I said I would do childcare in the afternoon back at Lincoln Elementary. The place I worked at all last year.

It was good to be back at Lincoln. Not only for the two lovely ladies I worked with all last year, but to see all the kids again. So many of them are growing up so much. WOW! It was neat to get so many hungs. Some of them acted like I had never left. Spencer, this little "emotional" 3rd grader had a rough day and she came to me and gave me a big hug and was crying and explained all her problems. I was just like, "awwww." It was precious. I am going sking tomorrow, so I am gonna sleep and wake up early. I will be taking a YL kid with me and my friend Joe. It'll be sweet! I can't wait to go sking.

God, you blow me away, over and over and over and. . .

Okay, so today was great, just great. . . . well, I guess I didn't get very much work done, but God did some work in me and i'm like woooow. I could tell you about all the boring stuff, but ima get right to the meat of the day. So, towards the evening, Steasha (lady I work at the YMCA childcare in the morning with) texted me and asked if I would be interested in coming to "The Circle." The circle is a young adult gathering that gets together on Thursday nights downtown at this church building thing. Check this out.
Steasha is in the yellow to the right. My skin color had no worth there. And Ben (YL leader) and I were the only white guys. I honestly felt like we were all brothers and sisters in Christ though. It was so much fun too. We played that game where you have to act out stuff in a time limit and get the team to guess what yo1u are acting out. . . what is that called? And then this guy came, he is the pastor of the church apparently. I don't think he regularly speaks there, but he was tonight. The topic was "RELATIONSHIPS." Check out this list he gave us.

6 things to look for

in that "SIGNIFICANT OTHER or
MAKE SURE YOU ALREADY HAVE"

• Is the relationship moving too quickly?

1. Flee from sexual immorality. (1 corinthians 6:18) This is all kinds of sexual issues, from thoughts to the physical touch.

• Is your significant other KIND?

1. How does she treat the waiter at a restaurant when he/she messes up the order?
2. How does she act in traffic?
3. How does she love people?

• Is this person a teammate?

1. Will she go to spiritual battle with you?
2. Is she an individual who will protect you? ** Maybe this just means keeping things in confidence. You know, protecting your privacy.**

• Is this a person of integrity?

1. The pastor gave the "milk jug" example. If your significant went to the grocery store and forgot to put a couple of milk jugs on the bottom of the cart and the check out person didn't see them, and your significant other didn't realize it till she got to the car, would she take them back in because it was the right thing to do?

• Is this person a quitter?

1. When the going gets tough, does she get going, or is she likely to fold under pressure?
2. Does she have a "forever" view of marriage (NO BACKING OUT)?

• Is God my & her most important priority?

1. If I ever put my significant other before God, or she ever puts me before God, He will remove his blessing from that relationship. Simple as that.

Wow, this message really hit me in a place where I needed to be hit. It was really good for me to hear, but also a little difficult. Hummm, did God bring me to this place for a reason? More than just the message though. I have been desiring to bring diversity to Young Life, maybe this can become a place where I will learn how to make that possible. Who knows what God has going on. I'm excited to find out though. :o)

I did my best

Today was the first CLUB of 2010. It was amazing. My skit idea didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but, it was pretty friggin funny still. I horribly failed my Spanish quiz or exam, I don't know what it was. I just know I bombed it. Bombed it horribly. Bombed it something horrible. I just don't care. I don't know how I am going to make it through 2 more semesters of this. I would rather have my pinky finger cut off than learn Spanish. I have no motivation to learn/study it any more. It sucks. . .

Back to CLUB though. It really was amazing. Check it out.

I was taken by how many kids showed up tonight. There was diversity too. Kids from all different walks of life, nationalities, and all. There were freshmen, and it was so good. Dang, I am just so pumped for what God is bringing to YL Fort Wayne.

I gave the talk tonight. I shared from my heart, but don't feel I did very good. Who knows though. If it touched one kids heart, it was all worth it. I just don't know though. Maybe i'm too hard on myself. LOL, one of my signs though for doing good is a leader or multiple leaders will come up to me and mention something about my talk. No one mentioned anything about my talk tonight. Maybe I didn't prepare enough. . . I don't know. I am super tired, and tired of thinking. Janice is pretty stuck in my head right now too. I wish life was simpler. Or, maybe I should say I wish I allowed myself to allow life to be simpler. Seriously.
Check out the final cut of the characters. Pretty "SHIBBY!"

I should be sleeping, not posting

I seriously should be asleep. I have to get up early. . . . . I love this BLOG too much to let it go though. I am drawn to it. Some force attracts my finger tips to the buttons, all else just flows out.

This picture was taken at the daycare this morning. I thought this was a cool picture. Aaron (kid in background) is just putting the ball up, and Triston, kid closer to the net is trying to block. Hee Hee. Little kids take B-Ball time seriously. It's all good though.

So much happened today. I needed to do so much more than what I did too. But, that's life. You get so many hours, and if you don't squeeze everything in, well, too bad.

God is amazing though, and I have amazing people in my life. Seriously.

active, busy, nonstop, going

From the second I woke up, to me sitting on the couch right now @ 9:30'ish pm, I have been on the go go go.

Work (childcare)

&

working out (downtown YMCA)

&

school (studying for COM exam)

&

Young Life Student Staff meeting!

I love these meetings. They are so good for my soul. Being with these two guys Josh & Ryan, who so love the Lord, encourages me greatly. I love surrounding myself with these people who share the same desires as me. We get a lot accomplished too.

&

meeting with my OLS partner to work

on our big project.

&

Spanish Class

&

BSF

& then . . .

I went home and laid low. It was time

for me to eat some dinner. I WAS SO HUNGRY!!

And now it is time for me to go to beddy bye. Seriously I need a good sleep. I tossed and turned till like 2:30 in the morning yesterday in bed. I need a good sleep badly tonight. And that was my day.

Austin's baptism

What an opportunity. Dang, seriously what an amazing opportunity. I feel so lucky that God allows me to be a part of something so beautiful. I am constantly learning so much from these kids I get the chance to hang out with. Seriously I feel so blessed that God allows me to see his work first hand. It is a powerful thing.

After I got out of church, I went to Austin's church to do this baptism, it is Grace Gathering out in New Haven. Sweet church, and a good fit for Austin. There is a great tight knit community of his friends as well as Young Life leaders.

After church let out, I ended up at school battling my way through Chapter 5 in my persuasion class. Once that was accomplished I headed over to our first leader meeting for the year. It was amazing, both for the leaders, but for our overall moral I think. It was a very powerful meeting. People were vulnerable and it paid off. It is amazing what being honest and admitting your sin can do for your soul. As I grow, I find more and more that it is an essential act for Christians seeking to be healed.

Then after the meeting, I headed off to campaigners (YL Bible study). We had it at my church, where my pastor ended our 3 week discussion on purity. He wrapped things up for us. I believe it was good. We will see what the guys thought about it next week.

Jump Tomorrow

So today was the opposite of lazy. Accomplishments abounded around every corner. Yes, I got up, took a shower, and headed to the library.
Yea, this is where some of the magic (studying) took place. But, what I would like to focus on is the fact that it did in deed take place; studying that is. Yep, I studied till about 6pm. Then I went over to Ryan's house. Twas a good thing. We (Ryan, Nate, and I) chilled for a bit, then eventually headed over to the local Cinema Center where we watched Jump Tomorrow. The three of us didn't really know what to expect. We walked into the Cinema Center not even knowing what was playing, but then saw this sign I read about 6 or 7 sentences from a piece of paper telling about the film, and well we all unanimously knew it was the movie for us. And to make things even better. Apparently on Saturdays movies only cost $2. The movie was really fun. It was a cheesy, awkward love story. It is just one of those independent movie that I just really appreciate. It was really good. But, even better to enjoy with my friends.

A Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon,

Where there is doubt, faith,

Where there is despair, hope,

Where there is darkness, light,

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grand that I may

not so much seek to be consoled,

as to console;

To be understood, as to understand;

To be loved, as to love;

For it is in giving that we

receive--

It is in pardoning that we are

pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

ohhhh crap, lazy again?

I thought these days weren't suppose to be common place. . . . .

I talked with Janice yesterday evening, very late. I reached out to her.

I shouldn't have done that, but I got weak, and missed her so much. I don't even know what I expected to get from her. But, what ended up happening was she was very honest with me, via text message, but honest none the less. Reality brick wall. I built up this brick wall. I could have left things the same, but it would have only been worse, I know this has to be true. Darn though. It ended with me sulking around and feeling sorry for myself. I just need to hold on to what I know is right. Nuff talk about that.

Anyways, I laid around the house all day today. I mean, I went to work from 6:15 to like 8:45. But, then I went home and just laid around like a big lazy bum. What a lazy bum I can have. Big and lazy it is. Yep. So, I am glad I talked about my butt in this post. Don't think I really need to accomplish anything else.

We got something good here today

Here is subject number one. I got to play all morning with this little guy this morning. There was a two hour delay so I was off to Franke Park elementary school to hang out with the kids. It was a good time. Looks like I will be spending a lot of time here, at least for the next 90 days anyways.

And here is subject number two. This little girl has more personality than a whole bus full of little kids put together. I love it too. I walk into the gymnasium at Franke Park elementary, and she just comes up to me and puts her hand on her hip and says, "hello, wanna play?" I say, "sure." Then she just gives me a big ole hug. I love little kids. Even when they have attitudes and are really difficult. Okay, so get this last part of the Thursday equation. I needed a partner for my OLS class, and last Tuesday we had to pick them. Well, I knew that this girl (above) was supposed to be my partner, but she was not in class. And hadn't been for a little while. Well, I still felt like I should move forward, and put her down as my partner. My partner for a project that is going to count for like 30% of our final grade. She was in class today and we decided to get coffee afterwards to talk about the project. Well, we did do some talking. But, the project got minimal attention. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that God set up this appointment. I look forward to see what God has up his sleeves.

My day today was alright I suppose

I woke up late. I slept in; looking back I wish I wouldn't have slept in. The days I wake up early and get things rolling, no matter what i'm doing, as long as I get up and get going, I get so much accomplished and I feel my day was worth while. Alas. . . laziness can take over, especially when the weather is crap, and I am extremely tired.

Shucks though, days like this are rare. So, I suppose I am okay with this. Also, because of the weather, our first Young Life club of the year was canceled. This was a disappointment because me and some of the other leaders had some really sweet ideas planned for characters and some other things. See this picture over to the left. Well, that is part of one of the character ideas I have. It is going to be brilliant. . . . I JUST NEED TO HAVE CLUB to make it all happen. . . . soon enough though, soon enough. :-}

funny pic

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, my brother forwarded this picture to me. I laughed. Then I really asked myself, "I wonder how they thought this picture would be effective in motivating people not to drink?"

-I miss someone today. I really super wanted to text/call/contact this person, but did not. DIFFICULT!!

Brooks & some video. . . with other stuff

Okay, so this is great. I have so much fun in my life. I can't imagine having anyone else's life. Mine is pretty darn great. My day started off at Brooks's apartment. I helped him get his 'student loan' stuff configured and all set up. It took a long time and patience with his little kids running around, BUT, we eventually got it figured out and completed. I really love hanging out with Brooks. Today I got to talk to him and his wife about life back in Liberia. It is amazing what some people have been through. It is amazing to me what they miss from their life in Africa. Not only does it help me to appreciate my situation better, but it helps me to appreciate my family and connection with friends better. There is so much wisdom here to be learned.

Later on after I got out of BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) International, I went over to my friend Ben's house. Ryan came shortly there after and we all worked on a video. We also thought up some amazing ideas for CLUB SKITS!! All I can say at this point is that CLUB is going to be amazing on Wednesday. . . . . heh heh heh. . . .

super bowl

We had a Super Bowl for the Young Life guys. It was really good. Well, the food was amazing, the game could have had a way better outcome. But that is neither here nor there. Good stuff though.

food, canceled Leadership summit, and other things

Well, I was supposed to leave this morning at 6:30am to go with a bunch of other Fort Wayne Young Life leaders to Baghdad, Kentucky for a Young Life summit conference. Because of all the snow we got, the roads just got too bad. It had to be called off.

Anyways, here are a bunch of pictures to share what has been going on the the past couple days.

The donuts got passed out at Snider high school on Friday morning as the kids were entering into school. I love being there in the morning. They are always amazed at the energy I have. Both the kids and the teachers. But, that is me. I am high output, loads of energy. That is just who I am. And the cookies, well, those were for the Friday night Varsity B-Ball game. My friend Synda and I made them, and me and fellow Young Life leader Ben passed them out. IT WENT WELL!! HORRAY! This is from when I was at Wall Mart with some YL guys. I was helping Eli get some pictures for his photography class. And Austin and Ryne were there just chillen.

Ohh, I also made a funny video. Our attempt was to try to make a video that conveyed what exactly Young Life is. Ya know, maybe tell a little bit about club and stuff like that. It did not turn out exactly how I had envisioned it to, but I still like the final product. But, it appears I only uploaded it to Face Book, and not to YouTube. . . . . So, I cannot share it here on my BLOG.

I am doing good today. A couple of curve balls, but still moving forward. Trying so hard to seek Christ in all I do. Truly I am. It's all I can do. "Try to give Him all I can."

wall-mart express

Today I was pretty lazy. It happened mostly cuz right off the bat this morning my tummy was not feeling too hot. But when I got around to doing stuff (maybe 11:30) I was rocking the Spanish like a rockstar. . . . . . I loathe Spanish homework. But then, before you knew it, it was time to go to Spanish. I picked up my friend Synda (I have 2 classes with Synda), and we rocked out to Español. I hate studying the subject, but I actually really like the class. I can tell Synda is going to be a good friend. We have 2 classes together, but already we show signs of strength in friendship. It is good to have that.

So you are probably wondering what is up with the picture above. Well, that is my friend Synda and her roommate Katie. I went shopping with them at Wall-Mart. I don't know why I said that in past tense, I am actually still walking in Wall-Mart with the 2 girls and it is 1:08AM. There are all kinds of unique people in this place at this time of day. We are checking out now. . . . . so I am just gonna say G'Night Oh, and just a little update on Janice and how I am doing with all that. Well, I am doing really good. Every time she comes up. I go directly to God in prayer and ask him to clear my mind of her. At times I pray for her, but usually I ask God to clear my mind of her. It works really good, and it is making me rely on Him in a big way. . . . k k G'Night for real this time.

Oh, I wanted to post this from the other day. But, I forgot. Check it out.

I read this in my Bible study notes this morning, it was an "eyebrow lifting moment" for me. A super good reminder. The essential words are in RED.

To go with John 12:25-26>>>
When I receive Jesus through the person of the Holy Spirit to be within me and I am "in Him," there is a sense in which I also become a "kernal of wheat," for His own life is now the "kernal" within me. His thoughts become my thoughts, His emotions become my emotions, and His will becomes my will IN PROPORTION as I am UNITED to Him. This also means that His desire for fruitfulness, for the reproduction of the life of Christ in others, which animated Him, also pulsates within my own soul IN PROPORTION to my SURRENDER to Him.

Me: As we die, we too produce many seeds, well J.C. does through us anyways. This stuck out to me because there is a sort of cause & effect. As we continually choose to give in to Him, we are blessed by the outcome; LIFE, both in & around us. This makes me excited!!

-Mikey

sooooooo tired

I am so tired. I am not going to be able 2 post tonight. Seriously, I am laying in bed just trying to keep my eyes open just long enough to finish typing. . . . . p.s. this picture was taken while I was driving to the YMCA to work out @ like 7:30am.

A real sweet thing happened today

Okay, so I was lazy at the start of the day. But, around noon'ish I got around and at 1:15 I met with my Young Life area director and we had ourselves a good little meeting. Really setting the tone for the semester. I am excited to say the "least." And this meeting went to about 2:30'ish. As I left, I remembered that I was going to meet up with Austin & Eli to practice his presentation for something he and his friends call, "Young Young Life" or "Real Talk." It is really pretty amazing, it is a handfull of high school guys who get together every week at someones house, talk about God, and end with a verse. It is student lead, and YL leaders are not allowed. It is totally legit, I am freeking proud of these guys. After I hung out with Austin & Eli, I took Eli home and then went to Spanish class. Spanish class got over and I headed off to BSF. I have to hurry to BSF now because this semester Spanish class starts at 5:30 instead of 4:30. And it is not on campus, it is at an elementary school kind of on the other side of town. So, as I am driving to BSF ("Bible Study Fellowship") I am kind of hurrying. And, well NPR wasn't cutting it as far as what I wanted to listen to. 88.3, the Christian station wasn't cutting it either. I just felt like listening to some hard base. So, I put on the hip-hop station and what happened? Well, I heard a song that so completely reminded me of Janice that I broke down a little bit, you know like the icky feelings in the tummy kind of remembering.

I got over it though, and went to BSF. BSF is a really great thing

in my life. I am so grateful for the men who make it up, as well as

the teachings I walk away from daily while taking part in it.

I took this picture during prayer time. Maybe i'm not supposed to take pictures during prayer time, but I did. I love this picture because it is hundreds of Christian men bowing their heads in reverence to the God of the universe. It is a powerful thing. Seeing all these men coming together to seek God. Powerful in deed. John Chapter was good for the past week. It was real good.

Once I got home I was sitting with my dad eating Ice cream. I got a text message from Janice. It said, "Hi Mikey." What ended up happening was she needed clarification on what our "break up" actually meant. I ended up calling her, and it was very difficult to hear her voice. But, it was not something I could do over the phone. I stuck to my guns, and even though I wanted to be there for her and comfort her, even in the midst of that, I still felt peace. Knowing that I made the right decision. And though it is still a very difficult situation, I know it is the right one. Even though at times I want to scream a little bit, I know I made the right situation. Truly I do.

Ohh, and one more great thing to add to the listing of the days events. Austin asked me if I would be the one to actually dunk him under the water when he gets baptized!! :-O I felt so blessed!! I can't believe God keeps allowing me to see his power and might at work in the lives of the people he loves so dearly. It is an amazing thing to be a part of.

G'Night!