I went to the library and studied

The above picture is of the the once every other week Young Life leader meeting we have. It was a really good meeting and we even had a "toast session" where we toasted to YL kids. I wanted to post it on yesterday's, but for some reason, it wasn't allowing me to. So, enjoy the lovely picture...ohh, lol. and know that the drinks are White Grape Juice (WGJ).

I started my day off as normal.....since John did not call me for work at Pathways. I really ought to make the effort to find another job, BUT I am going to be gone for almost 5 weeks this summer, starting in mid May, so that kind of makes it very difficult. If I get a job, then I just have to tell them I need almost 5 weeks off. By the way, I need this time off because I am going to be working at a Young Life camp this summer in Arizona. It is called Lost Canyon and it is going to be an amazing opportunity. The total cost=nothing. My friend is paying for my air fare with the sky miles points he has gathered through the years in his constant flying. It is going to be a great time for me to be taken out of my element and work on establishing a relationship with Christ where I am just completely reliant and centered on him. I will also be serving kids. I have no idea what exactly I will be doing, but it could be anything from doing laundry to running a ropes course or something of the sort. It doesn't matter though, I will be serving Christ through serving kid's. Then, as soon as I get back from Arizona, I will be going to a camp in Michigan with our (Fort Wayne YL) kids. It is going to be a lot of serving kids. I am pretty darn pumped!

I give my last speech in my Comm class tomorrow. I am giving a persuasive speech about being aware of Multiple Sclerosis. I have a lot knowledge of the topic, so I think I ought to do pretty good. I also have several really smart

Someone sent me this awesome video, check this out!

6 DAYS LEFT, take the POLL! Only once please. :-)

umm humm

(early morning post 10:19AM)
I was suppose to work at 8:00 this morning, but at 7:33 I got a text informing me that there would be no work. ughhh, So I went in for a meeting at a coffee shop with Josh (YL Staff) Rich (YL Committee) and Ryan (YL Leader). It was good and I walked away from it with some encouraging scripture that some of the guys have come up with through their personal studies. Starting in Mark 10:46 is the story of Bartimaeus. This is a guy who was shamed by his townspeople, yet he didn't care. When Jesus came walking through Jericho, he shouted out over and over, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" The conclusion that we came to was that this dude knew who he was, but furthermore, he knew who Christ was. In the end, Jesus says, "go, your faith has healed you." The point Josh pondered from this story was this: as Christians, why do we get comfortable where we are at? When the pastor asks if anyone is in need of prayer at the end of a service, why do we slouch down, and dig into our seat? We need to be like Bartimaeus, get over this introverted spirituality, and really live it out for God, he is really the only one we should be trying to impress. It just spoke to me, that's all.

So then I get home, and I check my E-Mail. Well, one of my friends from China posted an update on his BLOG. It kind of made my heart sink, and I am at a loss for words to try to comfort Frank. If you are interested in the situation, read it by CLICKING HERE. I met Frank (guy who lost his niece) and Rafe(writer of BLOG) while I was in China. Rafe was my next door neighbor, and Frank was his care taker. I got to be really close with them while in China. They even came to visit me a while back in November because Rafe has family that live pretty close. CLICK HERE to see the post of when they came to have dinner with us. So, here is the problem I run into. I want to call Frank, and I probably will once I think he is awake, but it is going to be difficult for me to console him. I probably have such a vastly different view of life & death and pain then they do. Especially after reading this current book, Where is God When it Hurts? It's such a nasty situation though, BUT so much personal & spiritual growth can come out of it...If you really try to see it for what it is. I dunno, Pray for Frank right now, because he is really hurting.

So in the evening after I got back from Dave Church, I took some Young Life guys to a Mad Antz game. Reggie came along as well.I had to take a picture of Reggies noggin because I thought his brother did such a good job. His brother is a self proclaimed hair stylist, and he is really good, as you can see. The other two guys who came were Nolan and Ross. They are two really great guys. Pretty super duper day.

don't let go, you've got the music in you

I listened to this old school song by New Radicals, and decided to go with that as the POST title.

I went to work today(Pathways Community Church) and I worked my butt off. I started off with jeans on and ended up cutting them into jean shorts real quick. I was hauling 60 lb. bags of quick crete up an 8ft. ladder onto the mezzanine for storage. I was wearing a beater and was pretty sweaty, of course almost every single bag had some size rip in it so when I went to shoulder it to carry up the ladder it went all over me. LOL. AHHHHH! So, I have already found out that extremely intense physical labor is really hard on my body...I wonder if I should be doing this kind of stuff....hummmm I need a desk job, but there are so many reasons Pathways has been really good for me and my situation and I can come and go as I please, and it works around my schedule. Ohh well, I will just not stress about that either. :-)Here was a LIVE ACTION SHOT of me in the parking lot walking from the Yellow Beast of a Box truck to the church. It was so sweaty in there! he he he. I had to unload this equipment from that white trailer into the box truck. It was some extremely heavy and expensive light lifts. If anyone needs some steel framed high sealing light lifts, just let me know! :-)

When I got home from work I was sooo tired, I passed out on the couch right away. I get so tired now a days. In reality, it is probably due to my M/S and I know that is something I will have to prepare for and what not.....(scrunches nose & lifts upper lip) But, I just don't want to think that I am any different than any other 21 year old.

(TO BROTHER) Hey Troy, I really wanna get that book from you that you were trying to give me a while ago. We will have to work out a way for me to get that from ya. :-)

It's a Thursday

I went to class and realized that I am very confident with my Major change. Psychology seems so abstract, I didn't put too much thought into the idea of getting into it in the first place either. So, I am really happy about that.

After my first class (psychology) I went over to Snider to talk in a class about Suicide. One of the teachers, Mrs. Honig asked if I would come over and speak to one of her classes. It is a health class, and they were covering the topic of Suicide. Well, I pretty much just shared what was on my heart and this one kid really opened up. It is so neat that it was this one specific kid too. Remember that Snider High School has about 2,000 kids, so to even run into the same kid in the hall way on more than one day is "unlikely." Well, I was going through this LARGE lunch room a while back and my heart directed me towards this kid. Shaggy blond hair and kind of chunky. Well, we started talking about calculator games, and this and that. I just wanted to keep a line of communication open with him. We would see each other in the hall, and I just felt compelled to seek him out the following weeks. Well, before I spoke in Mrs. Honig's class, she briefed me in the hallway. She told me about this kid "Chris" and his situation. "Chris" is the kid I was seeking out. When he was 6 years old, his brother killed himself. It really changed him, and it was just a horrible situation. Well, after I spoke, I just kind of opened it up to the class. Chris just talked from his heart. He told me the whole story right there in class, and he really sounded mature. I gave him the typical YL invite, but I also said I would love to take him to go get coffee or a bite to eat, and just talk with him. He said he would think about it, so I will have to remember to continue to seek him out. I know it was a God thing though.

(previously taken picture)

I talked with Reggie at school today too. I am disappointed in myself for not continuing with him. He needs a male figure in his life so bad, and I feel like I may have let him down the past couple of weeks, because I just kind of slipped away a bit. Spring break may have tripped me up a bit, and Ga$ prices have had an impact as well. Most of these kids live on the other side of town. It is so hard on my already minuscule budget to be able to go to them with any kind of frequency if I am not working a lot.

I got done @ Snider and went home to find 2 of my Aunts and my Grandmother. They were in town because my Grandpa had to go to the VA hospital in Fort Wayne. We were chillen and talking in the living room with my mom and her sad broken foot. :-( When out of no where we had some visitors pop in. Check it out BELOW.Right in our back yard, 6 deer pranced in and were checking us out. It was so crazy to see. They just came right on in like it was perfectly normal. I know they were here first and all that, but it was just so strange to see them so close. You can only see 4 of them in this shot, but there was one little guy off to the left, and one just out of the picture to the right. It was awesome!

the name that's running the game

I went to the dermatologist this morning first thing to get some stitches removed from my upper chest. While I was waiting I couldn't help but laugh at/with this old timer. The first thing he said was, "there sure are a lot of big women in here." It kind of caught me by surprise, so I couldn't help but laugh out loud. He is in the far back corner, the lady directly to his right is his wife, and I am not sure who the lady is sitting next to her. Some women were offended, but for the most part they knew he was just a fairly deaf old man with no manners. He kept me rolling though. It was like the kind of laugh you do when you are just so taken by what someone says, and it's not that is is so super offensive that you have to say something. You just kind of get the, "WOW" effect.

After I got out of the dermatology office I went over to Snider High School to chill with my homies and see what all they were up to over spring break. I got a chance to talk with Dijon (D) for a while in the hall. It was really cool because he opened up about certain things. He said he is going to let me take him to the Mad Antz (basketball NBA D League) with me and some other Young Life guys this weekend. He sounded very sincere, but I guess we will just see how serious he is this weekend. His cell phone is shut off, but I got his home phone #. My prayer request is that I have the perfect opportunity to persuade him to agree to go to camp this summer. It would be so so so good to get him out of his element and give him a chance to work on "himself."

I am taking 2 kids from Snider who have never gone to Young Life, they don't really think it's "for them." BUT, they have totally agreed to go to the B-Ball game this Saturday. I am pumped to see what comes out of it. I am taking 4 kids from Snider. Please pray for opportunities and strength. I need wisdom in regards to handling certain situations that could possibly come up. I am only excited, but I know how powerful prayer is. Please keep me in mind. As far as I know, I am taking Dijon, Clint, Adam, and Nolan. Prayer for them would be SWEET!

So, after Snider I hiked by butt on over to IPFW for a serious study session. I did a lot of reading, note taking, typing, and studying. It was amazing!This is a picture of me taking a 15 second stretch. Ohhh man I could have stretched a mile, but I would have had to gone and picked myself up. HA! That's funny!! I am in a really good mood, and I did some work on my persuasive speech for Comm 114 on Tuesday. The thesis is "Something as simple as awareness can help to motivate change." The speech is over Multiple Sclerosis. I am going to inform, and make people aware of the disease and what it can do. Not so that they go out and start fund raising for the National M/S Society, but so they are aware of what the disease is. This way in the future if M/S ever comes up, they can talk about it intelligently, and understand what it is all about. I think awareness is how change really happens. That's just my opinion though. :-)

Good Night!

another beautiful day

It was so so so so nice outside today. They called for rain, but it held off just like good weather does.
When I looked outside I saw a man in a tree. Now I know this picture isn't very good or clear, so I should have circled him. BUT if you look closely there is a man in that pine tree cutting it down from the top. He was quick and very good at what he did. I just don't understand why my neighbor wants to cut it down. Anyways, My beautiful and talented sister Merideth came over for din din.I love this girl so much, I don't even know how to put it into words. It seems like, though, when I do put it into words how much I love her, it pushes us apart. So for the pure and simple fact that I want to be a part of her life, I will keep it minimal.

I feel I must give an update.

Sometimes I see stars. My whole vision field just fills up with these tiny shiny particles in my vision. It usually doesn't last longer than 30-45 seconds. It is really strange though. Also, some times my body has these short bursts of tremors. It is mostly contained to my upper body and arms. I am confident in saying my strength is back 100% Tomorrow I get these stitches off my chest, and I am going to get back in the weight room @ IPFW! HUH!

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