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. :~)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
st. peters
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Mer
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. . . .
Friday, February 26, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
The Circle experience # 2
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
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.
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.
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
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 0.017Monday, February 22, 2010
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.
MULTIMEDIA
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.
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