Another milemarker!

Be the 2000th visitor and if I'm feeling generous I might get you whatever your favorite candy bar is or something like that. :-) Let me know if you think you were the 2000th.

Time for the update...

I promise this will not be short.....Don't say I didn't warn you! :-)

Ok, I'll start all the way back with Thursday, Dec. 9 - I got some extra hours at work because someone called in. Once I got off, our whole family went to the Indianapolis Sympnony Orchestra's Christmas program. It was really good and wow can those guys sing! I wish I could be in a group like that.

Friday, Dec. 10 - I worked from 10am-6:30pm and then I went over to the Pulliams house to watch a movie called "Finding Forrester." It was a really good movie and inspirational in many ways. The movie is about a kid who ends up being tutored by an author and in school, he enters a contest but is disqualified because his writing is "too good." The author, Forrester, comes and backs up Jamaal (the kid) and he actually ends up winning. There were a lot of neat, helpful, hints for writing better and faster.

Saturday, Dec. 11 - Today I worked from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in customer service and it was about average, but then got a bit busier. When I finally got off, Kevin and I went to see the Northwest Warriors home game against the South East Panthers. The game was held at East 91st Street Christian Church which has been our home court for several years. For some reason they decided to play the games in reverse order starting with varsity, then junior varsity and lastly junior high. Kevin and I did not get there until the last half of the junior varsity game, but we won the varsity and junior varsity games. Most likely we lost the junior high game. We left when there was about three minutes left in the game because we had to get back home. On the way, we stopped to get some buns for dinner and we finally got home at about 5:30. We ate dinner very quickly and changed to be ready for Christmas Expressions which was tonight at church. We ended up leaving at about six and got to church about 15 minutes later. The members of the choir warmed up and then lined up to be ready to walk in at the start of the performance at 6:30. The performance went very well even though it lasted a good hour. I invited Jaci and her friend Amber and her fiancée Chad, and they all really enjoyed the performance. I think that was the best we have ever done it. After the performance was over, there was a time of fellowship and singing of Christmas carols. What a great night!

Sabbath Dec. 12 - I got up at 8:30 this morning, showered really fast, and woke up Kevin who also showered very fast. Somehow everyone managed to be ready and we left at about 9:10. I do not know how we did it, but we were able to make it to Sunday school on time for once in several weeks. The sermon was really good and Pastor James Faris explained Mark 5:1-20 titling it “What Great Things Jesus Has Done For us” The only response from the sermon is to marvel; when you have seen what God has done, the only thing you can do is be awestruck. What is the response God asks of me? I must go home and tell all my friends what God has done for me. I must tell, not merely what God has done in general, but for me specifically and personally. After church, when we got home, Johanna and I were picked up my Mr. Ames and Jaci to go to the Carmel High School’s Christmas Spectacular choral presentation. It was very well done and I am very thankful that the Ames thought of inviting us to go with them. The first half was a combination of dance performance and singing. The second half was entirely singing and was done by all the choirs put together. It was an incredible presentation and I may try to go next year too! On the way home, Mr. Ames was wonderful enough to even get us some dinner at KFC, a restraint that I can not ever remember eating at before. The food was actually pretty good. After we ate, Mr. Ames dropped Johanna and I off at home. We were home for about 30 minutes then we left for the evening service. The message tonight was also very good; Mr. Johnston preached from 2 Corinthians 3 and titled the sermon “Who is adequate for this ministry?” After the evening service, CYA had its biweekly prayer meeting. It was a very good time, as it always is! Then we drove home after getting some gas for Michael’s car which was about empty.

Monday Dec. 13 - I slept in until 11:30, showered, got ready to go to work and left. I have been trying to get to work on time, but I got to work today one minute late. I worked in the office from noon to four and it was very crazy. Jeff’s one hour lunch did not help any. I finally got my break at 3:15, and then I worked another 45 minutes and I was off. I decided to stay there and read my book that I need to finish for Thursday because I can concentrate better when I am not at home. I also wanted to wait until Jaci got her break so we could talk for a little bit, but that was a secondary reason. I stopped by Target on the way home and got a couple things for Christmas and I got home at about 5:45. After dinner we left for BSF and we had another great lecture this time on Hebrews 11-13 (Faith, and how to apply it to life. True faith is revealed by the way I live my life.). When we got home, I practiced my piano, and went to bed.

....More later.....

Merry Christmas all!

Just make sure you remember the real reason for Christmas - the celebration of Jesus' birth!
May you all have a absolutely wonderful time with your families in whatever you do! God Bless.

I really am alive....

I know most of you probably think I've been wiped off the face of the planet.....contrary to popular belief, I'm still here! :-)
I can't believe how it's been almost 2 weeks since my last post, but with a busy life and at least 40 hours for the last couple of weeks at work.....I end up with not too much spare time. Plus I suppose I kind of forgot about posting, I'll have to fill you in on what's gone on.
For now, I'm headed to bed because I worked from 1pm to ~11pm today and I have to be in tomorrow at 8 until 4:30! Two long days in a row......
Good night all!

Update...

Here's an email I sent out to some of my friends and I figured I'd go ahead and put it on here too!

"Hey everyone!

I know, it's really been quite a long time since I wrote last. Everything to me just seems normal, but to you, a lot has probably changed. They say when you are always around yourself, you don't notice the changes, but others do.

So, on to my update...

I really don't know where I left you the last time, but I'll begin with the most influential thing that has happened recently. November 21-23, Eric Filson and I went on a camping/hiking trip to a part of the Hoosier National Forest south of Indianapolis. We hiked in, found a spot to stay, set up camp and then spent the night. Monday we walked around a little and then spent "1.5 hours" (actually over 2 hours) in time alone with God. That was a truly awesome time and God showed me some really convicting and challenging things from His Word. Psalm 62:8 ("Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. Selah") especially challenged me to stay close to God. Also during the time, we read a bunch of the book "The mark of a Man" by Elizabeth Elliot. If you want to know more about the awesome time, read this post from a couple weeks ago. As a result of that time with God, I have been able to be very consistent with my Quiet Time since then! Praise God!

Another wonderful thing is the Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) study from this week. The parts that hit me the most were from the lecture on Hebrews 7-10. The application lies in Hebrews 10:22-25, and I will hopefully live that out in my life. ("22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.")

Another great thing is that recently I have been getting almost 40 hours a week at work, but the downside of that is that I don't take advantage of the time I have at home to the best of my ability and end up wasting a lot of time. The big advantage is that I can be saving more $$ for either future schooling or going back to ALERT. Keep praying for my continued witness at work - both verbally and also simply by my actions.

One big prayer request right now is that I would be able to decide about going back to ALERT in January (or even at all)- I really want to but it seems to not be working out possibly. :-( There are a number of things to consider - (enough $$ to pay for it, being done with my orthodontics (braces come off on the 20th!), deciding if God really wants me to go back, etc...) I need to decide by the 20th and let them know.

Right now, it seems as if the future as I had seen it is changing...I'm still planning on starting at IUPUI and then transferring up to Purdue to get an international agronomy degree and then intern at ECHO, but the timing of what when seems to always be getting pushed further back. Thankfully I know God knows what He's doing!

Something else that's been on my mind a lot recently is: What is love? How do you express God's love to others and "love your neighbor as yourself" but without suggesting a different type of love? What kind of love is it that we are to express and how? How do you love a fellow believer as a brother or sister? How do you show Christ's love to an unbeliever? Maybe you have answers to some of these questions. This is certainly a topic I'm sure many struggle with, I sure do!

So in summary, praise items:

1. For the awesome trip with Eric and the Fellowship with God.
2. For the lasting results from the "fire" I've begun to kindle again in my heart to fellowship with God daily.
3. Consistent QTs since the trip.
4. Good BSF study.
5. Lots of hours at work.

Prayer items:

1. That I would keep up the zeal for QTs and prayer as result of the hike.
2. That I would take advantage of witnessing opportunities at work.
3. That I would continue to get many hours at work.
4. That God would give wisdom concerning going back to ALERT or not and the future in general.
5. That God would give understanding and guidance in the area of "brotherly love."
6. That I would continue to improve how effectively I'm using the time God has given me.

Well, I guess I'll stop there, I think that's long enough. :-)

In Him,

Brian"

This is funny!

I was looking at the list of places from which people have linked to my blog. One of those places was a google search for: "pounded chicken" and "south america"
My site comes up 8th of 26 results!

So when I saw that, I decided to see what happens if I searched for: "Brian Fulk"
I found that my site comes up 1st of 142 results!

That's a rather pointless pice of trivia, but I still find it humorous!
~Brian~

Hmm, what shall I post about?

I know, a quick overview of the last couple days will work...

Sunday: Morning Service - Dr. Blackwood preached on Mark 4:11, 21-41.
His main points were:

Too many Christians do not really plan on growing even after they have been a Christian for years…..they are still being spoon fed what the Scriptures mean. 5, 10, 15 years later do you pray any better? How have you improved in the last year, do you pray the same or have you matured? Every year, the more Scripture you know, your prayers will mature

There are 3 stages of growth in us:

1 Blade Stage

2 Green (corn in the) Ear

3 Mature Ear

Application:

Where are you?

3 applications

1. Basic principle – it’s what Jesus does in us. It’s God, and God alone. We can’t cause maturity by ourselves. We still must put forth effort – eagerness, but he alone is responsible for the results

2. Our Christian growth is a lifelong Constant Conscious growth. There is a conscious effort to grow. Rom 7. Let not sin reign in your body. Christian growth can’t be taken for granted. There are those struggles to Read, Pray, Do what God wants, Share the Gospel, Share what’s written on the dollar bill “In God We Trust”

3. Dependence on the nearness of God to ourselves. Especially when you are older, you really begin to understand how important it is to know that God is right there. Christ will not sanctify us in spite of us, but God will sanctify because of us.

So, that was annother wonderful sermon! After going home and getting lunch, those of us in the choir went back to church for the last rehearsal before the preformance on Saturday the 11th. It's going to be really good, and we didn't even go through the whole thing (but we have before). After the evening service and annother great sermon, there was a group of about 15 that got together and we sang some Psalms together for about 1/2 hour! It was so much fun!

Monday: The best thing of note was the BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) meeting tonight. We discussed Hebrews chapter 7-10 and then listened to a lecture on the same section. It was really good, and I even printed and posted the most important verses: Hebrews 10:22-25. Those verses tell us what we are to do: Hebrews 10 ^"22let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. ²³Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching." After we all got back from BSF, I started working on some different stuff and then I had an absolutely wonderful time talking to Jaci. Too bad time can't just pause while you talk, instead it seems to speed up. :-)

Today: I worked from 8am to 1:30 pm. I actually got up early enough today to be on time! It's actually a bit of an accomplishment considering anytime I'm scheduled in at 8, I'm usually about 10 minutes late. Part of that is because I got a written warning about it last weekend....the first of that sort since I've worked there. How come I can't be there on time? I'm just lazy because I only live like 2 minutes away! So work was pretty normal except for the lights blinking a bunch of times and then the intercom wouldn't work (that made things interesting). I got home and unfortunately, I really didnt' accomplish much but waste time. I seem to be an expert at that! I did do my piano, which is good considering i was supposed to have a lesson tomorrow, but that got canceled. Life wouldn't be fun without last minute changes would it?
TTYL
~Brian~

I finally gave in...

Ok, I'm not going to use it very often except for commenting, but I finally decided to get a xanga site. It's here: www.xanga.com/bearer_of_Christ
So, if you have been waiting for me to get one, I have at last gotten one!
This is still my primary blog, I'm not going anywhere; I like Blogger better!

~Brian~

Why do I do these things anyway?

-- name: Brian

-- Birth date: 11/05/84

-- Birthplace: Indianapolis, IN

-- Hair: Blonde!

-- Eyez: Blue

-- Righty or Lefty: Righty

-- Location: Indy

LAYER TWO:
-- Your heritage: I don't actualy know for sure, some German and Scottish though.

-- The shoes you wore today: White 'n blue Asics (running shoes)

-- Your fears: Not many, the future to some extent.

-- Your Favorite Color(s): Blue and Yellow.

LAYER THREE:
-- Your most overused phrase on AIM: Would I ever overuse a phrase? It's got to be "LOL"

-- Your best physical feature: Hm, guess my eyes and or face in general? I really don't know.

-- Your bedtime: Whenever I get there, usually pretty late, about 2 a.m. or so.

-- Your most missed memory: Memories are a funny thing, sometimes you remember them and sometimes you don't. Right now I cant think what could possibly be my most missed, other than before I started school when I could "legaly" play all day. :-)

LAYER FOUR:
-- Pepsi or Coke: Recently, neither. Generally I like Coke better.

-- McDonald's or Burger King: McDonalds, but again, neither recently.

-- Single or Taken: Single for now, till God brings the right person along, at the right time. :-)

-- Adidas or Nike: Nike, only because they usually fit my feet better, but it's been years since I've had either. Now I prefer New Balance - where else are you going to get a 14B?

-- Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Neither.

-- Chocolate or vanilla: Depends.

-- Cappuccino or coffee: Don't drink either.


LAYER FIVE:
-- Smoke: No!

-- Sing: Of course! God gave me a good voice, why not use it?

-- Take a shower everyday: Yes, Why not? 5 minute showers....I could take a couple a day. LOL

-- Have a crush: Um, maybe.

-- Do you think you've been in love: Yes, at least once, and one of those is with God, hopefully that one will last a good long time!

-- Want to go to college: Yes, planning on IUPUI, then PURUDUE!

-- Like(d) high school: Not particularly.

-- Want to get married: Yes, but only if it's God's plan for me.

-- Believe in yourself: On a good day, yes.

-- Get motion sickness: Nope.

-- Think you're attractive: Not really.

-- Think you're a health freak: NO!

-- Get along with your parent(s): For the most part, yes.

-- Like thunderstorms: Yes! Lightening is soo cool!

-- Play an instrument: Piano and can't forget the voice box. LOL

LAYER SIX:
In the past month...
-- Drank alcohol: No.

-- Smoked: No.

-- Done a drug: No.

-- Gone on a date: Don't do dates.

-- Gone to the mall?: Nope.

-- Eaten an entire box of Oreos: Even for me, that's a lot of Oreos.....no!

-- Eaten sushi: Yuck

-- Been dumped: No.

-- Gone skating: No.

-- Made homemade cookies: No, but I did help Kevin with them the other day.

-- Dyed your hair: No, nor do I plan to anytime soon.

-- Stolen anything: No, stealing is bad.

LAYER SEVEN:
Ever...
-- Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: Nope, not in my plans.

-- Been caught "doing something": No.

-- Gotten beaten up: No. The closest would be a friendly brother to brother disagreement.

-- Shoplifted: Once or twice, but that was when I was about 5 and "I didn't know any better," but I had to take it back and make it right.

-- Changed who you were to fit in: No, but I'm almost allways the odd one though.

-- Numbers and Names of Children: Um, 3-5 or so. No idea on names right now, though over my life, I've thought of some good ones.

-- Describe your Dream Wedding: Hm, anything that God is honored in, probably at church, with my family and friends.

-- How do you want to die: However God decides. Idealy in my sleep or something.

-- Where you want to go to college: Purdue.

-- What do you want to be when you grow up: Depends on your definition of "grown up" lol. When all is said and done, a missionary in South or Central America, using the agriculture knowledge that I will hopefully learn from Purdue.

-- What country would you most like to visit: Nicaragua! To see all my friends from the (4) mission trips that I've done to there.

-- Blue or Green: Blue.

-- Best hair color? I like blonde or brown, but anything's fine with me.

-- Short or long hair: On me - short (the shorter the better to some extent).

-- Height: Me? I am roughly 6 feet.

-- Best weight: What kinda question is this? Preferably something in general relation to the size of the person (basicaly average / normal)

-- Best articles of clothing: Well, I really don't care, anything that fits well and keeps me warm. :-)

-- Best first date location: A date? And what is that anyway? LOL

-- Best first kiss location: Um, at the front of the church on my wedding day.

-- # of drugs taken illegally: Zero!

-- # of people I could trust with my life: Not very many, maybe 1-2; Ultimately God.

-- # of CDs that I own: Music CDs? About 35, plus about 5 or so computer CDs.

-- # of piercings: Zero.

-- # of scars on my body: A whole bunch! Some more obvious than others.

-- # of things in my past that I regret: I have to honestly say that I really don't regret anything, except the way I applied (or didn't) myself to my years in high school (homeschooled). But as Romans 8:28 says: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

*The End* Yay I finished it! :-)
~Brian~

Time Flys!

Wow, it's already been since Monday and I haven't posted.
This week has been rather hectic and considering I have nearly 40 hours at work, a lot of my time has been spent there.
I'd really like to tell you all the multitude of things I've been doing this week, but I had to pull an all-nighter last night to get my stuff done for Mr. Pulliam's class. The result = I'm tired, and i'm going to bed! Especially because I have to be at work tomorrow morning at 8a.m!

TTYL