The safest place to be is within the will of God.

God will transform you from within IF you seek Him in all things. It doesn't matter where you come from, what you have done, NONE OF THAT MATTERS. You "just" have to trust that he will provide. It is so tricky, but so simple. I love God so much. I love God more than my parents, my sister, my best friend, myself. I LOVE YOU GOD!

Sometimes prayer is such an abstract concept to me. It's nothing that frustrates me, or anything like that. Sometimes it just seems ABSTRACT: thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances: an abstract idea. I just came across this quote, I don't know where it is from exactly, but it is so good and when I read it, it just encourages me TONS! You ready for it??? God's answers are wiser than our prayers. So with that being said, it seems so much easier to pray to a God who knows what is best for me above all things. I really, really love praying with other people. It is so comforting to hear the deep thoughts given up to a mighty and amazing God.

Today I spent a lot of time outside. I worked at Pathways doing a lot of policing of the church property. This means I put on a beaterThere is something I really like about working outside in a beater. I don't know if it is my hillbilly roots, or what. But the tan lines are minimal, and I love walking around in the beautiful sun in my Aviators. I have this amazing pair of Aviators. They are the old school kind. Like what people stereotype pilots wearing all the time. THEY ARE SO SWEET!

I went to campus today to talk with a department head about switching from a major in Psychology to one in Intrapersonal Communications.This is a picture of me waiting in the communications office. I don't know if anyone can tell, but I got some sun today. I plan on getting a nice base tan this year. I know last summer I was BURNT LIKE A LOBSTER!!! In fact, if you type in LOBSTER and search it in my BLOG, you can see just how much I burnt myself. OR, you can just CLICK THIS LINK Click the link and see how much I did not learn this lesson. I put no sun screen on today. I am lucky I didn't get burnt. There is this old school Hip Hop song that just turned into PUNK music. It is so funny, but for some reason I can't stop listening to it, I really love the beat they have. I have to share it. CHECK IT

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn. C. S. Lewis

Today I directed some traffic in some B-E-A-utiful weather. It was so nice out today, I couldn't hardly stand it. We sang a really awesome song in church today that I haven't sang...or sung....no, it's sang isn't it? Anyways, it is a classic worship song, and it was so powerful, BUT I can't think of what the name of it is.....If I think of it, or someone tells me it, then I will post what it is because it made me cry it has such powerful lyrics to me. You really gotta love it when that much emotion is evoked from a worship song. Man is a fickle kind of entity. We are some crazy mammals here on this big blue ball.

I got a chance to read a bunch from my book Where is God When it Hurts? I have the old and new version of the book, I am reading the old one though. I was told it is actually better. It is a really great read, I like Philip Yancey a lot.

While I was reading this afternoon, I was interrupted by my old neighbor Heather!! She was at her parents house (right across the street) and she was sitting out on the swing in the back yard with her son Caiden. It was funny, because I remember hanging out with her way back when. I use to have such a HUGE crush on her. I remember when she was pregnent with him, I supported her so much with prayer and positive comments. I think she can appreciate it now, and I LOVE to see her little man.I have asked Heather how she was in the past, and she would hesitate and tell me "good." I would not believe her. When I asked today, I really believed her! I know that little one has been a struggle for her, but she is really making it work now. I am so happy for her and Caiden. I can say for sure Heather has really learned from experience.

I went to Collateral, and Lynn came and it was a really good night. I enjoyed the message so much, it was just very good timing, and meaningful. We dug into 2 Timothy 2, and I mean we really dug into it. I was able to see and understand things I never saw before. IT WAS AWESOME! You really have no other option but to DIG into this one. It is pointless, because you just won't "get it" otherwise.

IRAQ was a MISTAKE! We complain about losing 4,000 American soliders, do we have any idea what we have caused over there?!?!? I think there would have been less loss of life if Saddam was still in power. It is so hard to understand why.....

I will never support Barack Obama for the pure and simple fact that Oprah supports him. She is a huge voice for him, and he gladly takes the millions of dollars she raises for him, MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS! It would not surprise me one bit if she put her ideology onto him, and AHHHHHH FALLEN WORLD!!! See what Oprah is all about We must be AWARE!!!! Please be informed, and tell your friends. Please pass this on, people must know the TRUTH!

Dont Drink The Kool-Aid: Oprah, Obama and The Occult

I want to forget today

Well, it was such an amazingly nice day today, I decided to do some reading on the porch. SOO NICE! Shelby decided to join me, and she brought all of her toys, one at a time out on the porch. It was pretty funny. I am really digging this book Where is God When it Hurts? by Philip Yancey. It gives incredible insight as to why things are the way they are. I'm really liking it a lot.

This evening my friend Ryan and I went to an art gallery at Lynn's school. The art gallery was awesome! Her friends were not. I acted like a total hypocrite, and actually verbally assaulted one of them out of pure frustration. I immediately felt horrible, and didn't even appologize. It's just that this guy friend that she frequently talks about in such high regard was a complete Jerk, extremely prideful, and swore like a sailor. I was so disappointed, because I wanted him to be mature, and likeable. I'm such an idiot for the way I treated him, I told him he wasn't intelligent because of the way he spoke, and that it offended me. I couldn't believe the words coming out of my mouth as soon as they exited......but I said it, and then I was chastised by him and his friends for saying it. Once it got completely awkward, Ryan and I left (Ryan and I took our friendship to the next level tonight though, WHICH WAS AWESOME!). This all took place in her dorm room by the way. I called her and apologized, the whole time she was telling me she was sorry for how Matt(her friend) spoke. I'M AN IDIOT! I bet he holds Christians in real high regard after that one. What a way to share the love of Christ......(deeply disappointed in my actions which were pushed out by frustrations) I would like nothing more than to forget today completely, but I need to learn from this so that is what I need to do.

Evening..instead of Good evening, because it was not that good, it was...."i'm an idiot"

Another movie, a different day

I started off my day at IPFW taking a Spanish placement test. It was so old school, like it came right out of the late 60's. The paper was even really really old. This may have been the first test that I missed EVERY SINGLE QUESTION... ohh well, I could have told them I needed to start over in Spanish anyways. So, the day continued on. The day continued on and I got to spend a lot of it on the couch, which was awesome! In the evening hours I went to see the movie JUNO with a bunch of male Young Life leaders at the dollar theater. It was a really emotional movie for me because it brought up a lot of raw emotions that had to do with adoption and the whole situation. I really thought about my biological mother, and how insanely difficult it must have been. Then I thought about my real moms situation and how horribly difficult it must have been for her as well. It was just really pressing for me for some reason.

We went back to Starbucks for some coffee and had some great talks. I think I freaked them out when I shared my thoughts on the government, and politics. I don't know if they expected that out of me....well it's out there now!

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER!

What a day today. I went to Psychology class and as soon as I got out I got started on some work for my communication class. It was cool because I was in "the study mode." I made it HAPPEN! I got a 3 page paper done, an outline with parenthetical documentation of my sources. I am good to go! My speech is gonna be a breeze! After I got all my work done, I got a phone call from one of my old high school friends. We have stayed in contact pretty well, but it wasn't until lately that I have been really interested in rekindeling that bond we use to have. Ya see, the only reason we use to hang out was to smoke dope or drink. WELL, he told me about 1 1/2 to 2 months ago that he is going to quit smoking. HE HAS!! Not only has he quit smoking, but he has revamped his friends. He has an amazing girl friend, and life is "working out" slowly but surely. We met up and saw the movie 21. It was a pretty good movie, or maybe a "so so" movie. Anyways, the good part of the night came when we went to a Starbucks that Nate's (Nate is my friend) girl friend works at to chat and get caught up on things. I snapped this picture, I am so sneaky.Nate was honest with me and he said some pretty amazing things to me. He told me on the way to Starbucks that a while ago when we would hang out spiratically, he would be motivated to change and better himself. He said that just being around me would change his outlook on things. I was fighting back the tears as I hear this, and of course our conversation was lead to Christ. He kept saying that "I" have been making some amazing changes in my life, and that he really respected me for it. I reminded him that it is Grace by Faith, and it is nothing that "I" have done. We had some really good and healthy GOD talk. Such an uplifting and encouraging thing for me. Also, @ 10:55, right before Starbucks closed I got a phone call from Dijon (D) and we talked, he said the reason he didn't come on the morning on Tuesday was because he went to the funeral of a young man who was recently shot and killed. There have been many homicides down in the ghetto lately, all gang related. It scares me because D lives right in the middle of all of this. I wish so badly I could just protect him....but it just doesn't work that way. I have to remember to be diligent with my prayers and just love the heck out of him.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner was a quote from the movie 21, in case ya'll didn't know. :-)

NIGHT!!

Geo Cashing anyone?

So I started off my day working for Pathways. I tried to pick up 21 computer monitors, but when I got there the guy said he couldn't release them...I turned around and did some work around the church building. I did some lawn clean up and stuff of the sort, this was a "LIVE ACTION SHOT." When I was working, I was thinking about what was going to go on this afternoon the whole time. Tom (Young Life Staff) and I were going to take a group of kids that stayed home for Spring Break Geo Cashing! I was expecting a fairly good turn out of people, so I was nervous about having too many kids in my car. So I stepped out of my comfort zone and asked John (guy I work for) if I could borrow the Church van for the evening. HE SAID YES! So extremely motivated to get going I set out to the High School parking lot to meet up with Tom and let him know what all was going on. I had spent a while getting things printed off, so that it could be fun for the 2 groups of people to find and work towards these Geo Cashe sites. I have gotten "VIBES" from Tom right from the get go that he wasn't going to really be into the activity, but I suppose he was trying. Let's see, 8 kids ended up showing up, 5 girls & 3 guys. My team was composed of 2 guys & 2 girls. 1 of the guys on my team was Ray, who is a guy I have been bringing to Club a lot. He doesn't quite fit in with the "usual" crowd, so it was awesome to see him treated as an essential part of the group. Both teams had 6 potential sites on their lists. My team found 4 out of 6, Tom's team found 1 out of 6. My team couldn't find one because the area was under water from flooding. The last item on our list we had some difficulty because of a creek some of us fell into & other reasons. I kept a really positive attitude the whole time, and it really motivated the kids to FIND THE CACHE!Once they found the first one, they were hooked! We would find little trinkets & stickers and all sorts of fun stuff in the boxes. We had a clip board and everyone had like a designated task. I had so much fun doing this!This last picture was taken at the site of our hardest Geo Cash of the day. It was in a commentary, and we could not figure it out for the life of us! I had mis-printed one of the clues on the paper that held all the information (coordinates, story, hints, clues, etc.) for the "CACHE" or item. This is when one of the girls said, "can't you look it up on your phone?" I said, "umm i'm not sure if the internet on my phone would work correctly on that site." But I tried it out anyways, AND IT WORKED!!! Now the only thing I need to go Geo Cashing is my phone and a GPS system! I LOVE LEARNING NEW THINGS ABOUT MY PHONE!! So anyways, I got onto the site and found this specific Geo Cash information for the one we were on. Below is what I opened up from my phone. This was the extra help we needed in order to find the CACHE

This cache is located in a cometary, please be courteous of the surroundings.

You are looking for a very well hidden ammo can. Please be very careful with the cache and it's hiding spot, and put it back exactly as you found it so that other cachers can enjoy the cache as well!

Any pictures that give away the nature of the cache will be removed promptly.

Have Fun and Good Luck!

Additional Hints ( Encrypt )

Decryption Key A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M ------------------------- N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z (letter above equals below, and vice versa)

You do NOT need to climb the fence to get to this cache!

I had everything printed out on the paper, EXCEPT for the "Additional Hint" which was just what we needed in order to find the item. It was so cool too, we searched high and low and were starting to get frustrated when one of the Girls, "Ashley" was standing by the fence, she was probably thinking, "humm it can't be outside this fence, and we have looked everywhere except on this fence, so maybe....." AHH HA! She lifted up the cap to one of the steel fence posts, and there it was! You can see her proudly holding it in the last picture posted! It was so neat, and we all were so excited to see it. VICTORY!!! What a great day I had today. Also, my best friend Jared got me 5 free tickets to see the Mad Antz play on Saturday the 12th. I can't wait to see what Young Life guys I am going to take to the game with me....hummmmm who should it be?

mature decision today

I went to class, where I was able to write my own notes. This is amazing because everything except for my right middle finger is completely back to normal. I notice it isn't back to the way it was when I shift. My middle finger slips to the right of the shifter. It is just one of those odd things that I notice. After class I tried to pick up Dijon (D) from his house to take him out to lunch. We had this all planned out yesterday and he promised me that he set his alarm and would be up and ready. Well I got to his house.......all the way on the other side of Fort Wayne, and called him and he was no where to be found. It was super frustrating, but God has it in his grips.


I met up with Josh (Young Life district leader) at Chipotle to "talk." We covered all kinds of information. Lots of really good stuff, and he ran some things by me that really opened my eyes. The biggest one was about Lynn. I came to the decision, with a little help realizing what I already thought from Josh. I need to ssslllloooowwwww down. There is no race, anything good relationally is done through patience and perseverance . I really want to know who Lynn is as a friend, and that is what I spoke to her about. The conversation went amazing, and we can just start with the basics, and a lot of group activities. It's not about doing what makes me happy, it's about doing what is relationally correct in Christ. There can be no rushing this.

Tomorrow Tom and I are taking a bunch of Young Life kids GeoCashing! I am going to borrow the van from Pathways and this is going to be amazing!

I'm really happy. I feel like I could be close to an organized balance of life for right now.