another Monday for ya

Yeah, the day started off with Geology. I have my fourth Exam on Wednesday, which I need to study for a lot tomorrow. Maybe not so much study, but write up my one page of notes. It will be no big thang. Ohh, and I went to Spanish today, and I got an 80% on my last Spanish test!!! I was so amazingly happy and surprised! GO ME!

I went to Snider today and talked with the wrestling team about Young Life. It was good, at least I think it was good. We will see come Wednesday. The kicker of my day was BSF. I really love going to BSF. I feel so grounded there. I really belong around that setting. I love learning about my Lord. I love being around men who love learning about my Lord. It is a really healthy atmosphere and I love everything about it.

Muy bien domingo

Okay I had big goals, I wanted to knock out my Applied Leadership study guide, check the difference between Mercalli & Richter scale for Geology, continue to go over the massive amounts of Spanish I have to memorize for my Spanish Oral exam (which I haven't been diligent on at all), then meet up with Ryan to go over campaigners (Bible study) @ 6:00 for tonight. I had a lot to do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I hardly touched the Applied Leadership. No matter though. Suppose I work good under pressure. . . Yeah, suppose I do! ;o)I thought campaigners went so amazingly good tonight. These guys are being real. Both with themselves and with each other. It is so insanely encouraging to see where they are at. And where they have already come from. I am super proud of every single one of these guys. The very very end of the day ended with me at a Fantastic Mr. Fox with 4 other male YL leaders. It was super fun to be with "the guys" and the movie was amazingly good. If you love well made intelligent films, then you will love it. I did for sure!

amazing hot coa coa

Today I had 9 high school guys come to my parents house and hang out. Around 1:30 A.M. We started making about 9-11 gallons of Hot Chocolate. We then drove it to Best Buy, Kohls, and Old Navy to pass it out to people standing in line. I got into one really good conversation with a guy. It was a God connection. And the guys I took all got a great picture for what it means to serve Christ. The kind of serving it talks about in James 2. It was really good. Really really good. I have more pictures, but I don't think i'm going to upload them right now. THANKS FOR READING!!!

-Grace&Peace

my 1,000 BLOG!!!!

This is monumental, this is earth shattering, this is a first in so many ways!! I have blogged ONE THOUSAND TIMES (1,000)!!! This really says something about how I view BLOGGing. I mean because seriously, I don’t usually stick with anything. My BLOGG is my baby though.

With that being said, I wanted to do something “special” for my 1,000^th post. I did a little documentary called. . .

THE TRAVELING BEARD

As I was cleaning out my car, I found a beard that belongs to one of my Young Life guys. I decided to wear it. . . the rest is history.

The beard looks and feels natural. The beard brings family together, both young and older. The beard motivates an individual to CLEAN! The beard brings supernatural strength.

The beard also likes to travel. While the beard and I were

out and about. We traveled to many different locations but

one thing stayed the same. We (the beard & I) would walk

into a location, not say a word, snap a picture, and leave. This

left many confused, but that is part of the beauty of the

TRAVELING BEARD!

First stop, Wallgreens. There was a lady in line who just started laughing. I of course said nothing and showed no emotion. I let the beard do all the talking. The woman behind the counter was very confused. Next stop was Arby's. And for fairly late at night, it was packed. I heard several individuals say, "What the he** is this guy doing?" And many snickering. This did not stop the beard though. The guy behind the counter said, "Wait, why are you trying to take my picture?" He got no response. This confused gas station clerk simply waved.

Next stop was Starbucks. Now, there was a very loud police officer in line. He immediately started asking me what I was doing, and where I got the beard from. I stayed quiet, took the picture, and left. On to a random Hotel. The guy walked up to the desk, cocked his head to the side and said, "How may I help you this evening sir?" I looked into his eyes, turned around, took the picture, and left. It was beautiful. Next I went to a roller skate rink. This old lady was the only individual who did not react at all. She simply looked at me, and kept perfectly quiet. I took the picture and left. The traveling beard went into the liquor store. As I started to pose for the picture, he made some kind of gesture. Then, just as I walked in, I started to leave. On my exit, the guy said, "Wait, are you serious? That's it? You're not going to give me any more than that? Common man!"

I took all of the above pictures on the North side of town, I wanted

to get a mix of both socioeconomic parts of town though. So, to the

South side I drove.

I jumped in front of a line, and snapped this picture. Again, complete silence. People laughed. It was hard to not smile. Then I finally got to the Wall-Mart on the very Southern most part of town. There were so many people shopping at 11:00 at night. And they were all staring at me. This was the only time I thought to myself, "Maybe this isn't such a good idea." I continued anyways. The girl check out girl gave me a pretty big smirk once I left. The last stop of the day was a BP gas station. The clerk looked at me and said, "Is that your beard, or did you take it from a friend?" I wanted to laugh pretty badly, but I kept it in, and left silently.

That is the story of the Traveling Beard. And I am proud to post it as my 1,000 BLOG!!! Horray for me!

what a day, what a day in deed

Okay, so the evening was good. But I cannot let go of what happened in my Applied Leadership class. So I have been pretty down because of my recent reality attack of M/S and it's impacts in my life. Maybe not the physical aspect of it impacting me right now. But, I have been feeling all the emotional crap mixed up inside ever since I read the most recent news about Tysabri and what not. It made me really think about my future, and how my M/S doesn't just impact me. . . . Well, in my Applied leadership class. I need a new text book for the last 3 weeks of class. I really didn't want to get it, but knew I should probably at the very least check out the book. I looked all over the class to see if anyone with the needed text book. The only individual I could find was a lady named Jana. She is 38 years old, and has always seemed to be a really nice lady. But, probably one of the more unlikely individuals for me to speak to. Nothing personal, just nothing in common that would bring us together. . . Or so I thought. As I approached her after class, I asked if I could look through her book (which by the way I was worried I would have to purchase) to check out if I was in deed going to have to get it, or if I could get by just checking through one in the book store. As I was looking through it, Jana said to me, "Ya know, I could scan the pages you need and e-mail them to you." I was like, "Really, that'd be AWESOME!" She then told me that she really struggles with the tests, that she freezes up when taking them. I explained to her that I really understand how that is. I explained that I take my tests in the SSD (Student Services with Disabilities). She asked why I take my tests there, I said because I have M/S and have some cognitive impairment. She said, "You have M/S? I have M/S, and have had it for 18 years!" We talked about how small of a world it is, and after much more discussion, I found out that she is currently on TYSABRI and has been for the past year. Okay, reality check. There are only 60,700 people in the WORLD on Tysabri, and for sure under 15 on it in Fort Wayne. It turns out that the one lady in my Applied Leadership class that I was the least likely to talk to, just so happens to have the book I need, and not only does she have M/S and a back ground story extremely similar to mine, but she IS ON TYSABRI TOO! Not only does she have M/S and is on Tysabri, but she loves the Lord and God used M/S to bring her out of a lifestyle she needed to get out of, JUST LIKE ME! I felt God through this whole experience. You can call it a complete coincidence, but I know better.

Tonight, we had a Campus Crusades thanksgiving. It was so much fun. But, I ate a lot of Jell-O and then right before I left, I was sort of dared to drink a large amount of Orange juice. I swear there was a half a gallon of juice in there. I downed it in one solid chug. It was amazing, but I felt like I was going to puke like crazy. Worth it? I think so.

yep, you gotta take what get's thrown at ya

Today brought to my attention my m/s. It brought to my attention that not only does it impact my life, but the lives of those who are closest to me. It is interesting to think that it has almost been 2 years since I started the Tysabri (drug that has kept me completely symptom free). But, I can not be ignorant to the fact that my future ahead is unknown. Super unknown. So much so that I couldn't even try to guess what it will look like. I had some really healthy conversation with Janice about it. It is rough for both of us, but we truly love each other. God will guide us where we need to go, and will place in our lives what needs to be there in order for His will to be done. I am well on my way to being perfectly okay with that. ;-)

Tony and meeting

I had to drive out to Grabill to drop someone off that came to church. Since I was out there, I decided to go to my friend Tony's house. He just bought a house, and called me last weekend to see if I wanted to come out. I told him I would, and we are friends and use to be really close, so I wanted to stay close.

Tony is still Tony. Except now he has a girl friend. We talked about times of past, and just hung out. It was a good thing. Later on I went to a leader meeting. It was super good, we talked about so many awesome topics. Every time we have a leader meeting, they just get better and better. What a great and amazing team we are building. GOD IS WORKING BIG TIME!!! Lives are being transformed, and as a leadership team we just keep getting stronger and stronger. So cool to see God directly impact the lives of our friends (Young Life kids) like this. It is super encouraging.

On December 20th I will be going to California to be with Janice for 20 days. Something I am so looking forward to. I found out on Friday that I will be in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for 10 of those 20 days. Janice's family has a house down there. My trip to visit Janice has turned into a full blown winter vacation. I am extremely blessed and fortunate.