Solo Day report

It is very hard to really describe what took place during my solo day, mostly because so little seemed to happen. I rode my bike to a nearby waterfall and parked there for five hours and sat there. Or that is what it would look like from the onlooking world. At times I read my bible or the book that Rick gave me, but most of my time was spent just thinking, praying and writing. Doing nothing but this for five hours did something that I didn't expect. I enjoyed it.

If I were to say I learned one thing for sure from my solo day it would how to properly take a day off. Most every day that I have "taken off" I end up working anyways in some way or another. Not this time. Whenever I thought about doing something I remembered I was told to take a day to myself and rest before the school year kicked off. I didn't argue with the idea. I did however struggle with thinking that I am being lazy by taking a whole day to myself. I believe this what happens when I confuse American success and Christian success. 

The America in me say: business and full schedule = important and successful. On the flip side, Christian says: Unbusy, restful and peaceful soul seeking God = desire to pursue God and grow in Christ likeness - aka successful. It is a very different mindset for me, and I think one that will take just as much "work" to maintain. I am going to have to fight off the desire to work or fill my schedule with "busy" and instead replace it will pursuing God. Following Christ in taking hours, or even days to seek God in prayer, meditation, and peaceful reflection.

Pray for a friend of mine, Jack. He was put in ICU for bleeding in the brain the other day. They caught it early enough that it might not be a problem, but they are still looking for pray from the family of Christ. I could fill the page with other request, but instead I ask that you would pray that I would learn to trust God before I trust myself. May His peace fill us all with a joy that is inexpressible for that day when comes. Praise the Lord, for He alone is good.

Blessings from a pilgrim

Later

Below are some pictures that I took with my phone on my solo day. It was an after thought, so I don't really have that many and they aren't that good either.

 

Solo Day

Yesterday I met a man named John on my bike ride home. We both rode up a very long hill in town and made for a good conversation starter. We talked about work and our addiction to bikes and riding them, and whatever else came up. He told me about a management training program at his work that I might be looking into. If things going accordingly I could get my foot in the HR department of a large company. I think that would be really sweet. I think that HR is comparable to being a pastor for non-Christians. I would enjoy it I think. And, if I have large company experience I can look into other location and maybe get transferred overseas depending on who I work for. Lord willing, I will look into it and see what I find.

This Thursday I am going to take a solo day. Nothing but a notebook, God and His word, and myself in the woods. Our youth ministry team is all going to be taking a solo day at some point in the next two weeks. Pray for us as we seek God and His will for our students and our own life for the upcoming school year. Pray for me that I wouldn't waste the opportunity to spend time with God, but make the most of the time. Pray that I wouldn't get distracted with the events of life but I would invest myself in God's work.

Blessings y'all
Later

Baptism party

Believers baptism

Blessings

Later

Find of the day

Elephant

The Weekend

Over the weekend I went home to surprise some people. My family and Rachel mostly, everyone else knew I think. I had saved up enough money to get out there and see my family, I didn't have enough money on me to get back, most people thought me to be crazy. What they didn't know is that I have $100 dollars at my house that I am just waiting to use, so I guess I had more than enough. What actually happened this weekend still blows my mind - I made money going home.

I drove into my grandparents newly paved driveway (not a fan) at around 11:15pm thursday night. Spent the night and morning with them mostly eating (I don't eat when I drive) and talking about how much my dad has been doing around the house. And the driveway (still not a fan). When it came time to leave grandpa gave me his card and told me to fill up the car ($42), and this is after he sent me $50 in the mail just for the heck of it.

From there I went to my dad's office to surprise him for his birthday. He said in his sarcastic tone "I suspected that you might be coming" and then gave me a hug. I missed him so much. We talked for a long time about different books that we are reading and different things going on at home. He shared some of his books and I, being well prepared, shared some of mine. I gave him a book on spirituality and would later give him "The Robe" after my sister is done with it. He seemed really excited about reading those books, which made me excited. Then grandpa showed up and we were all excited.

Grandpa took dad and I out for lunch. Three generations at one table, it was great. And no girls either, just a bunch of guys talking about whatever. And the food was good too, but not as good as seeing my grandpa and dad at the same table. God is doing something incredible I feel. I can't wait to see the result of it. I just keep praying for my dad, and my mom too.

After lunch dad and I got our hair cut which was also a lot of fun. I haven't had my hair cut with dad in a long time. I saw him smile at this event, which is worth any level of awkwardness. But this didn't last forever because next I had to go scoop and home and see everyone else too.

Mom found out indirectly from Tim before I got to her. She was excited to see me too, but she was super busy so I wasn't able to have too much time with her. Running and ice cream shop is a full time deal. Regardless it was nice to see them, even thought I never saw them both in the same place. I think of it as living in a functionally divorced home. My whole time I was there I never saw more than two people from my family in the same room. Makes family visits a bit of a drag in my opinion.

I finally made it home and saw my other sisters, both where excited to see me. Sheen was so stressed out from mom that she didn't want to stick around, so I went to find her later and we talked a while and exchanged stories and books. Dara and I played with her dogs for a while and then talked about life for a little bit. The weekend at this point is nearly half over with and it is only 4pm.

That night I spent at a good friends house where I finally got some rest and refreshed. I love my family and my house, but it is not place to get rest or find encouragement. My friend and I talked about what we have been learning lately, different books we have read over the last months. He shared his latest craz about the gospel in the stars and I told him about my new favorite book, "the robe". It was just a good time to hang out without having to worry about... anything. I understood why Christians would gather in homes together, because they needed too. Fellowship with other believers is just so necessary for healthy life. Short of picking up Rachel the next morning, that was one of the more valuable times that weekend. Seeing my dad is still on the top though.

Rachel was a sight for sore eyes, that was for sure. She came through the camp door and everything was okay then. My heart was racing, but calm at the same time. The smile on her face made me smile, I missed her a ton. After the campers left we took the day to drive to the airport. Normally a 2 hour drive, took us nearly 5. Not because of traffic, but just because we wanted to take our sweet time. I took her out for lunch to a nicer restaurant and walked around holding hands... because we could. It was good. Once I dropped her off at the airport I drove straight back to Cleveland and ended my weekend right around 9:30pm.

That is how it is done.
Blessings
Later

Life as an intern

One of the students wanted to ride his bike while attached to my car.

Here is a picture of Rachel and I after I went to surprise her in Michigan

Life as an intern - week 12

This update is much over due for more than one reason. First because it is now Wednesday when it should have been up by Saturday or Sunday. secondly it is long overdue because of how much has happened in the last 72 hours.

We finally got the second intern here! He came in on Sunday. We were looking for housing and something finally came through just last week and now he is here. It is more than a blessing to have someone else in the office to do ministry with. I think I am going to learn a lot from him though. Jim has been a youth director for two years and has a lot more experience than I do, he was able to jump right in and start, whereas I still am having a hard time with all this. It is going to be fun working with him and hopefully a valuable experience for both of us.

I got paid for work on Friday for my work at the temp agency and worked again that this passed Saturday. More important that how much I got paid or what I worked is what happened to the money. Since I had a little more than I needed to survive the week I decided it would be okay if I bought some things other than gas and food. So I went out to Applebees with some friends Sunday night, and bought some new breaks for my bike Saturday afternoon and did my normal grocery shopping on Monday. Everything was still well in my budget with lots of room to spare, but then I got an email about an automatic renewal charge I had forgotten about that put me into over draft. In the end I ended up spending over $50 and nearly 6 hours fixing something that could have been done for free in 5 minutes. The moral of the story is pay attention to automatic renewals and make sure you have enough money before they come.

Throughout all of this God provided a way out, it cost me something, but I still had a way out of my overdraft situation. When going through this I thought of two stories in the bible, the first as you might have guess is would Paul is teaching the Corinthians that God never gives us more than we can handle, but will always provide a way out from sin. The second is the parable of the talents. The story goes that a master gave talents to his servants to be responsible for and rewarded them according to how they handled them. In my situation I would have been the wicked servant that wasn't responsible with the resources that he was given. And so, in response to this realization I am going to meet with my dad at the next earliest convenience and talk over my financial situation and get a budget together and talk about anything else I don't know concerning money and such. Honestly I am looking forward to it.

I called my friend Duane last night and found out that around the same time that I crashed my bike, him and his wife crashed their bikes. His wife isn't doing super good either, pretty beat up. She goes in for a check up tomorrow to see if they will have to do any surgery or not. She broke some bones and got a few stitches on her face. Pray that her bones recover and she doesn't have to get surgery.

Rachel flies home this weekend to be with family before school starts back up. I wish I was going with her. I like it here in Cleveland well enough, but I wouldn't mind seeing some friends from school or getting out of the city for a while. I don't think I am made for the city I am finding out. Yet, this is where God has me and I need to do my best to serve Him here. I have to think passed the machine aspects of ministry - doing retreats, playing games, etc - and think about how to use those to teach others and bring people to know Jesus. Because that is the goal after all. To "bring many sons to glory" and have one good time in heaven when we all get there.

My family is alive from what I know. I talked with my dad on Monday he seems to be doing okay. I haven't talked with my Mom in a long time, over a month I would think. The rest of the family other than my older sister are doing good. My family isn't as close as I would like, but they are doing okay. I pray that they would come to the Lord or at least their sense. It breaks my heart to see them so broken

Blessings
Later

Exit

God always provides a way out, even when we are over our heads. He is gracious!

Cheese!!!

Cheese party at impact

Life as an intern

So... this is what interns do...

New bike

New bike