landscaping, zoo, & movie

My morning started off with some hard work. Ya see, for parents of kids who either can't afford to pay completely for their kid to go to camp, or want their kid(s to take an active part in bringing in the funds to make to go; we provide opportunities for kids to get the money. I helped kids today to mulch and do some yard work. I believe there was 7 girls, and Kevin. Kevin is the kid who I just got to know by hanging out at his lunch room table, and for months inviting him/them to come to club. Well, not only did he start coming to club, but I got him to agree to go to camp, and NOW HE IS PUMPED!!The girls and Kevin really worked hard out there today. They made it look good too!It was fun. As I was taking Kevin home, he first told me that I am crazy (the good kind) and that he never thought he could have so much fun doing yard work. That is what it is all about.

Once I dropped off Kevin, I went and picked up Nicky. Then, we met up with Jared at the ZOO. It was a fun day at the ZOO, I forgot how much I love the ZOO.You can always find something awesome and fun to do at the ZOO. And we did, it was a whole lot of that stuff. Ya know, the fun stuff. I think that my favorite picture to share from this experience would be from the American alligator exhibit. Check this guy out.
Now that dude had some teeth!

After we were done at the ZOO, Nick and I went back to his place and just chilled for a bit. Then I went over to Tom's house. I am talking about the Tom that I had as an English professor last Fall semester at IPFW. He has been wanting me to come over and watch this movie called Brother Sun, Sister Moon. It is the story of St. Francis of Assisi. First, Tom cooked an amazing meal for me. Home made meatballs, and an amazing sauce with a suburb salad. The meal was "that good," and the conversation was non-stop fun and intelligent Godly conversation. I love that kind of conversation SO MUCH! It was good to just kind of get a re-cap of Tom's year, and it was exciting for me to explain what is about to shortly happen with my adventure to Arizona. Then we watched the movie. We had tried to do this once before, but it didn't work. This time it worked good, as Tom slipped the DVD into his fancy new Blue Ray machine. The movie was soo good! Now I understand why he has wanted me to watch it for so long. Everything that man went through, and the process of life events that God created to bring him to the point of accepting redemption, was astonishing to watch. I want, and will continue to try to attain what he brought to the world. Watching the story of Francesco (St. Francis) brought me closer to Christ, it also challenged me in how I love myself and others. I kept asking myself, "what does it really mean to deny yourself?" I keep coming up with real and applicable answers to that question, and it is exciting! Today was a good day, a real good day.

Merideth, location, and decisions

On Mondays and Fridays, I pick my sister Merideth (non biological sister, the one I grew up with all my life) up and take her to work. I have been doing this ever sense she got her 2nd DWI (Driving While Intoxicated). And, well she is really picky about me taking pictures of her lately. I don't know if it is because she knows I will put it on my BLOG or what. She use to love to read my BLOG. She does not read it anymore. :o(I love my sister Merideth so much, my heart just aches for her always. I wish she expressed her feelings about things. I wish I could get her to talk about things. It is so hard for me to witness to her, or anyone close. I think mostly it is because I am so afraid of failure. Ya know, like I am just so afraid that it will be something that I won't say, or maybe say wrong that will keep her from getting to know God. This way of thinking is of course lies that Satan uses to decieve us, but they work sometimes. I sure do love Merideth, and if the only way I can show it to her is by picking her up 2 times a week, and taking her to work, well so be it. I will get her breakfast while I am at it. From Arbys, like she said she likes. When I got to school to do some studying, I felt like seeking out a new study location. I did just that, not only did I go into a building that I had never studied in before, I choose a type of seat that I had never studied in before (not the exact seat, but the type of seat I am referring to). Yea, I tried it out. I even got through chapter 20, but it was loud in there, and people were just all loud and stuff. I was a fool not to go to the library. Sorry Helmke, I won't turn my back from you again (Helmke is the name of the library on campus, and i'm not really sorry).

(CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE AND READ MESSAGE)

I was really looking forward to going to BSF all day today. I had really been applying things from the lesson through out my daily life. For instance, the guy Aung that I talked to on Thursday. The gentlemen from Berma. Well I saw him again at the library, and we talked, and just tonight, he called me. It was so exciting to speak with him on the phone. Now I have his cell phone number, and it is just a good place to start. I hope to have the opportunity to tell him what is most important in my life at some point.

Back to BSF though. I really looked forward to the lecture, the notes were awesome, and I had great discussion in my small group. BUT, I wanted to hear what Jack had to say. He of course had so much very enlightening things to get accross, and I wanted to ask his opinion on Tom once he was done with his lecture. I told him a bit about what I had experienced at Starbucks with Tom. I gave him a slight peek as to what decisions Tom was making and what not, but mostly wanted his opinion as to why I felt so sure of what "God" was telling me with Tom @ Starbucks. . . . . . . I had a complete heart change with Tom. I had to take back my affirmation, and explain to Tom today that I do not feel as though he is making a correct decision. I had to explain that he was not acting within the context of a responsible Christian man with regard to his relationship with his fiance. He started dating her 6 months ago, he wants to elope, and get married A.S.A.P. There is so much more to the story than that, but he stepped down from his position as a staff member with Young Life so he could go ahead with his decision. And, after the hours and hours of spending time with him and talking about it on Saturday. I think it could have very well drained me, and put me in the mental state of mind that detracted me from really hearing what God had to say. Why I felt those extreme feelings like I did, well I still do not fully understand. I do know God is teaching me something, and I am praying that he continues to reveal what that is exactly. When I talked to Tom today. I explained my new stance. That I believe he is acting impatiently. That if she is as important to him as he says she is, then he will practice discipline and patience. That he will respect authority, and not just justify his decisions. It was really hard to tell him, but I am not the only one, not by a long shot. He got pretty cold with me. That hurt, but I understand he needs his space now. The situation just sucks.

I hope I didn't just massively confuse everything. If you don't get it, ask me specific questions, and I will do my best to explain.

The love was thick today!!

This was the bridge that I was on yesterday when I made that video. I was coming from the other direction, and just opened my door which would have been to the guard rail to the right in the picture above. This is how the bridge is suppose to look, lol. yesterday was an exception.

Today started off slow, and that is not a complaint. I love that my winter break has been very laid back and chill. It is a nice change. The freedom to roam and do as I wish is quite nice. So, before school got over, my English professor Tom had invited me to a house party. I have much of Tom in my BLOGG, if you don't remember who he is, then just follow this link to a ~PAST POST~. Anyways, I was feeling very anxious to go to this party. It was very strange, ever sense I woke up this morning, I had this little voice inside me telling me not to go. It was totally bizarre because I couldn't understand why. I love going to parties, and I love TOM. It only seemed natural that I go. I mean, I love people, and I knew that the people that would be at a party that Tom would have would be of the highest quality of people, so I just couldn't figure out WHY I had inner tension about going. Well, I didn't have an answer until after I left. It was all clear as I walked from Tom's front door to my car. Check out these pictures, and I will share why.
Ya see, it was a great party. The people were past student's of Tom, and some of his close friends. A great bunch would be a massive understatement. I got to talking with a couple. He was a past high school student of Tom's. A very nice pair. Anyways, I shared a little bit of my story. How M/S impacted my life, and how Jesus has become the central focal point for me. Well, Tom overheard me speaking, and quickly came and asked if I would be willing to share in front of everyone. I agreed and before ya know it, everyone was gathered around the table. I started talking, and told about how M/S kind of brought me into who I am today. I talked about how through struggles I realized that I had to SURRENDER and allow Christ to take the steering wheel. It is not what Mikey wants, but what HE wants. This is why I was attacked before the party (Satan will poke at you). I am so thankful for Tom. I believe everyone in that room would agree that Tom is the definition of sincere love. It just pours out of him, and he is a true living inspiration to me. An example of what it looks like to genuinely care about people from all walks of life.After the party, I went over to my sister's house. Her fiance is going to be selling Kirby's and wanted to know if he could give me his line of bull....I mean he wanted to test out his salesmen skills on me. I agreed, and the whole time I thought to myself, "no one is going to buy one of these when the economy is good, why in the heck would they buy it now??" But, I listened and we will see. Good thing he is going back to school though. ;-)

Also, a really really good thing happened today. I am going to be taking a kid to so sking on the 3rd, and well my car is not the best choice for a trip to Michigan. It doesn't have cruise, my ski's won't fit in it, and it get's really bumpy when you go over 65MPH. Well, TOM, a Young Life staff member agreed to let me use his car for the trip. I AM SO EXCITED!! If anyone wants to pray for the trip, it is on the 3rd, and his name is Brandin.

Bishop, 70's, stripper

As soon as I walked into my English class this morning, my prof handed me this book. It is a compilation of what different college students have to say about their prayer lives. Things like how they enter into prayer with God, how it affects their lives and how it is used as a relational building tool. He said he was at a book store, and the man working there thought highly of it. So, good ole Tom A.K.A. TKO got it for me. I have had time to read through the first chapter, and I am really liking it. It is put out by The Catholic Company. It's so cool, and I have never had a prof do anything for me like that. I have been extremely blessed so far with some darn cool prof's too. Well, Tom invited me to go to a mass/service this late morning/afternoon. I didn't have any thing else to do, except go work out at the YMCA, so I said what the heck. Off we went to St. Joseph Hospital, which is downtown Fort Wayne, Tom drove. It was a really good experience. I actually had time to see who the Bishop is for Fort Wayne, and South Bend Indiana. Anyways, I got a chance to go through a Catholic mass and sit down and have lunch with Bishop John D'Arcy. He is an extremely grounded individual, and quite fun to listen to and talk with. Although my time with him was brief, he gave me a good look at the role of a Bishop in the Catholic faith.Now, although I view Bishop D'Arcy as just a man. One who sins just as any other man, and put no type of significance on him any more than the next guy. I do have a better understanding, at least I think I do of his place. When he walked into the hospital, the people in Tom's Serra Club which is a group of devoted catholic men and women who want to make a difference in the community by spreading the "catholic love" if you will, jumped up and just kind of put him on a pedestal. To me this isn't the case. BUT, from what I saw and experienced, these people love the Lord. The repetitive actions of a Catholic religion may just seem like boring words and movements to me, but from what Tom told me, it means so much more and is much deeper to him, and the majority of the people in the Serra club. So, from that experience, I can say this. While it is not for me, and I can see much better ways for my own self to impact people's live in Christ, I can't say it is wrong.

Tom took me back to school, and I finished the day pretty regularly. When I got out of work, I went over to a coffee house/Christian book store where my friend would be playing a "gig." Ryan is a fellow Young Life volunteer, possibly becoming on staff here in the near future, God willing.

Ryan was great, the crowd was sweet too. Most of the people there were from different campus ministries from School. I hope to be getting more involved with these kinds of people. I thought tonight would be a good time to start. SO, I went to a 70's theme dance party. Held at someones apartment. It was time for me to step out of my comfort zone, and get jiggy with it. I went to my best friends parents house, and borrowed some clothes as well as talked with his mom and brother for a while. Here are some pictures from the parteezy. Also, this is pretty much the first party that I have had fun at, where there wasn't any alcohol. It is all a mind set. It really is. If you wanna have fun, you have to make that fun for yourself.I had some slick shoes on too. (Zach, Ryan, Tom)(Zach & Tom)

Strutting their stuff to say the "LEAST!"

It was a lot of fun. It was a lot of like minded individuals, I am super glad I went.

On my way home, I remembered a phone call I got from my friend Tony. He called to tell me he got his Liquid Oxygen tank, and has set up shop. He has started to blow some glass. I had to go over there to check it out on my way home.

Yes, Tony has got it up and running, just like he said he would. It was so strange going over there. I went from a positive up beat, Christian influence, to a place totally opposite. Don't get me wrong, I love every single person in there just as much as any Christian. It was just amazing how different the mood was, the everything. For instance, One of the girls that was over there works in a sex shop type place, that is actually inside a strip club. She politely told me about this "local" stripper who is coming to the club tomorrow, and wondered if I would be interested. I politely explained that wasn't really my thing, and that was that. I just got to see polar opposites today. Both sides are loved by God, both sides need loved by man.

That was my day.