So, after 4 days straight of biking 300 miles, we finally made it to Calvin college Saturday night just in time for dinner! My mussles are quite sore, but the most sore part is my seat, which after sitting on a bike for 5-7 hours for 4 days straight gets really sore. Now the conference has begun and I am really learning a bunch from all the speakers - Ted Donnelly, Matthew Topper and several others. I pray that I will be able to apply all that I hear to my life when I get home.
Monday, July 26, 2004
Friday, July 23, 2004
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Bike trip day 1
Today, after only 3 hours of sleep we got up and packed the van. We left to go to Southside Reformed Presbyterian Church where we would begin our ~300 mile bike trip. There were a total of about 40 people participating in the event and they ranged in age from 11-adult. Following packing stuff into the trailer, a prayer, and a short list of what we do while riding, we started off. We divided into 6 groups of about 6 in each group. The reason we did this is so that everyone would be with others of a similar skill level, and also to make it easier for cars to pass us on the road.
I joined the first group which was led by Mr. Dinkledine, and also the fastest of them all. We started off at about
Considering the temperature was nearly 85, and the humidity was not much lower, the riding was very hot, but the worst part is that my seat got very hard after riding that long! In total by the end of the day when we finally stopped at Kokomo RP church, we had ridden a total of about 77 miles! On the last leg, I was beginning to run out of steam, thankfully we weren’t far off, and dinner was the first thing we would do.
Well, now I have to go to bed because we are getting up really early for an early start on the ride tomorrow which will be about 90 miles!
Sunday, July 18, 2004
A short quick post
Well the biggest news in my life right now is that i just got a laptop computer! I won it off EBAY about a week ago and it finally came in the mail on Friday! It's going to do all i will need from it so i'm very happy...
Also Wednesday next week i will be leaving on a bike trip up to an international conference associated with my church denomination. The bike trip will be about 275 miles and will last from Wednesday till Saturday. It will be soo much fun!
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Time for an update!
I can’t believe it’s the middle of July already! This year has gone by so fast. Another week and I’ll be headed up to Calvin on the Bike Trip!
Today I worked from 8a.m. until about 4. The worst part of the day was that the other person I was working with had to go home at about 2:15 and she had already stayed over about an hour. From then until about 3:45, I was by myself in Customer Service (normally there are 2 people at a time). Thankfully it was not really all that busy, but I sure didn’t have a spare moment! Once the people to replace me got there, I was able to go home after staying over an hour extra myself.
Shortly after I got home, I left for the monthly Nicaragua Resource Network Belcezar Committee meeting. This is a meeting in which we talk about Pastor Belcezar’s many churches that are under his supervision. Tonight we talked about several churches in particular that are not currently finished and we began to try to prioritize their needs. There is one church that was built in 1998, and has been in its current state since 2001. All it needs are windows and doors to be complete, but it has just not gotten done yet. One great news item is that Belcezar will be coming to Indiana in October!! I haven’t seen him since my last trip in February 2003! He is probably my favorite of the 3 pastors that are supported by NRN on a monthly basis. I can’t wait to see him again.
One of the major effects of attending these monthly meetings is a monthly reality check and renewal of my desire to go back to Nicaragua again. At this point in my life however, it does not seem that going back is part of God’s will, but as I seek to follow his will, opportunities may come my way.
If by reading this you would like to know more about NRN, there’s a link to the website on the sidebar. Or if you are interested in supporting this ministry, feel free to ask me for more info. There are many needs, but God will provide in his timing all that is needed! How great a God we serve!
Verse of the day:
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 “12May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”
Today I worked from 8a.m. until about 4. The worst part of the day was that the other person I was working with had to go home at about 2:15 and she had already stayed over about an hour. From then until about 3:45, I was by myself in Customer Service (normally there are 2 people at a time). Thankfully it was not really all that busy, but I sure didn’t have a spare moment! Once the people to replace me got there, I was able to go home after staying over an hour extra myself.
Shortly after I got home, I left for the monthly Nicaragua Resource Network Belcezar Committee meeting. This is a meeting in which we talk about Pastor Belcezar’s many churches that are under his supervision. Tonight we talked about several churches in particular that are not currently finished and we began to try to prioritize their needs. There is one church that was built in 1998, and has been in its current state since 2001. All it needs are windows and doors to be complete, but it has just not gotten done yet. One great news item is that Belcezar will be coming to Indiana in October!! I haven’t seen him since my last trip in February 2003! He is probably my favorite of the 3 pastors that are supported by NRN on a monthly basis. I can’t wait to see him again.
One of the major effects of attending these monthly meetings is a monthly reality check and renewal of my desire to go back to Nicaragua again. At this point in my life however, it does not seem that going back is part of God’s will, but as I seek to follow his will, opportunities may come my way.
If by reading this you would like to know more about NRN, there’s a link to the website on the sidebar. Or if you are interested in supporting this ministry, feel free to ask me for more info. There are many needs, but God will provide in his timing all that is needed! How great a God we serve!
Verse of the day:
1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 “12May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you. 13May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.”
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
The "news" of the last 2 weeks
Ok, it has been almost 2 weeks since my last post, so I figure it’s about time to update again.
Obviously updating my blog every day is not a high priority, but I will try to make a bit of an effort to be a bit more frequent – maybe 1-2 times per week.
There is nothing really interesting that has gone on since my last post. We got an estimate on the repairs for the damage from the accident and it is about $2,000. Thankfully all we will have to pay is a $500 deductible to the insurance company. The work should begin on the 12th, or whenever we get it in.
I have been working as always just about every single day averaging about 30 hours a week which doesn’t leave much time left over when I am done. One thing I did last week was to help a friend of mine from church to pack all his (and his wife’s) stuff into a u-haul to move it to Pennsylvania. At first we were really ‘worried’ that it wouldn’t all fit, but by the time we had it all in there, we had space left over!
Though this is roughly the 228th birthday of the US, I didn’t do anything special at all. I had to work both Saturday and Monday, and on Sunday, I went to church and didn’t even watch any fireworks. What a wimpy 4th of July! Oh well!
God is soo great isn't he? One whole day set apart to Him every single week! Sunday, I was able to listen to 2 really great sermons. The first was given by Dr. Blackwood on Joshua 20-21 -- “The Lord Gave Them Rest.” The Levites were sent out among the Israelites in the Promised Land to guard/preach the gospel, so also am I sent out to let the world know of the working of God in my life. The second Sermon was given by Mr. Johnston on 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:22 on Christian liberty and idolatry. In the places God puts me, I need to make a conscious effort to be a witness vs. being sucked into idolatry (godlessness) which as a Christian, I must learn to flee from.
Yesterday after I got off work, I set to work replacing parts for the brakes on my bicycle which now works! Amazing!
Obviously updating my blog every day is not a high priority, but I will try to make a bit of an effort to be a bit more frequent – maybe 1-2 times per week.
There is nothing really interesting that has gone on since my last post. We got an estimate on the repairs for the damage from the accident and it is about $2,000. Thankfully all we will have to pay is a $500 deductible to the insurance company. The work should begin on the 12th, or whenever we get it in.
I have been working as always just about every single day averaging about 30 hours a week which doesn’t leave much time left over when I am done. One thing I did last week was to help a friend of mine from church to pack all his (and his wife’s) stuff into a u-haul to move it to Pennsylvania. At first we were really ‘worried’ that it wouldn’t all fit, but by the time we had it all in there, we had space left over!
Though this is roughly the 228th birthday of the US, I didn’t do anything special at all. I had to work both Saturday and Monday, and on Sunday, I went to church and didn’t even watch any fireworks. What a wimpy 4th of July! Oh well!
God is soo great isn't he? One whole day set apart to Him every single week! Sunday, I was able to listen to 2 really great sermons. The first was given by Dr. Blackwood on Joshua 20-21 -- “The Lord Gave Them Rest.” The Levites were sent out among the Israelites in the Promised Land to guard/preach the gospel, so also am I sent out to let the world know of the working of God in my life. The second Sermon was given by Mr. Johnston on 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:22 on Christian liberty and idolatry. In the places God puts me, I need to make a conscious effort to be a witness vs. being sucked into idolatry (godlessness) which as a Christian, I must learn to flee from.
Yesterday after I got off work, I set to work replacing parts for the brakes on my bicycle which now works! Amazing!
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Can anything more go wrong?
Today proved to be one of the most interesting days of my life, and that's not particularly a good thing.
I started off the day pretty good by sleeping in a couple hours, but that’s about where it stopped. I went to J. Everett Light Cosmetology School and got my hair cut for a whopping $2 (Which in case you don’t know is a 200% increase over what I normally pay – NOTHING! My mom is so nice to normally cut it for me). After I got my hair cut, I came home washed the hair off my head, ate lunch and left to take my brother to school. He can’t drive himself because he broke his arm/elbow yesterday and he is doped up with too much ibuprofen to be safe on the road....
So, I’m driving him to school in his Chevy Blazer, I’ve got my turn signal on and I’m slowing down to make a turn and some idiot (apparently he must not have seen me slowing down, or he just didn’t see the car, I’m not sure which one ) comes barreling up and rear-ends me!! This being the first time in my whole life that I’ve been involved in an accident makes it rather unnerving. Thankfully God was right with us and protected everyone in both cars from injury! The Blazer is just dinged up on the rear bumper which will have to be replaced with an estimated repair cost of $2,000-$3,000. The other car is pretty much totaled – the radiator was leaking all over the place and the hood looked like a dromedary camels’ hump!
And all this only gets worse!! The guy that was driving walked to our car and talked with us for a little while, telling us that he was fine and hoping we had insurance; he said he did not (which is against the law). We went over, looked at his car, and talked to him a little more, then we went back to our car to get a pen, paper, and our insurance info. When we went back to talk to the guy, he had left! So now this becomes a hit-and-run incident (also against the law). So we go looking for a license plate and there isn’t even one on his car!! So basically we have no information whatsoever about the guy and for all we know the car might have been stolen!
To top it all off, when we called the police shortly after it happened, they sent someone out. He drove by and didn’t see anything so he went to his next place! We called again about an hour later since we hadn’t seen anything of the police, this time the police officer was diverted to an emergency situation and then must have forgotten about coming to us afterwards because he never came either. We called again and finally after waiting for about 3 hours we finally got a police officer that we could file the incident with!!! So, in review.....this guy crashed into me and we have no contact info at all so we pretty much have to pay for repairs by ourselves.
Our car is still plenty drivable so I took Trevor to school and by that time I was late for work too. I finally got home at about 5pm, put on my work shirt, and went to work. I was 35 minutes late, thanks to our troubles with getting the police to come.
Oh well. What a day! My first car accident, and I didn't even cause it!!
The most important thing is that God protected us from injury! What an awesome God.
I started off the day pretty good by sleeping in a couple hours, but that’s about where it stopped. I went to J. Everett Light Cosmetology School and got my hair cut for a whopping $2 (Which in case you don’t know is a 200% increase over what I normally pay – NOTHING! My mom is so nice to normally cut it for me). After I got my hair cut, I came home washed the hair off my head, ate lunch and left to take my brother to school. He can’t drive himself because he broke his arm/elbow yesterday and he is doped up with too much ibuprofen to be safe on the road....
So, I’m driving him to school in his Chevy Blazer, I’ve got my turn signal on and I’m slowing down to make a turn and some idiot (apparently he must not have seen me slowing down, or he just didn’t see the car, I’m not sure which one ) comes barreling up and rear-ends me!! This being the first time in my whole life that I’ve been involved in an accident makes it rather unnerving. Thankfully God was right with us and protected everyone in both cars from injury! The Blazer is just dinged up on the rear bumper which will have to be replaced with an estimated repair cost of $2,000-$3,000. The other car is pretty much totaled – the radiator was leaking all over the place and the hood looked like a dromedary camels’ hump!
And all this only gets worse!! The guy that was driving walked to our car and talked with us for a little while, telling us that he was fine and hoping we had insurance; he said he did not (which is against the law). We went over, looked at his car, and talked to him a little more, then we went back to our car to get a pen, paper, and our insurance info. When we went back to talk to the guy, he had left! So now this becomes a hit-and-run incident (also against the law). So we go looking for a license plate and there isn’t even one on his car!! So basically we have no information whatsoever about the guy and for all we know the car might have been stolen!
To top it all off, when we called the police shortly after it happened, they sent someone out. He drove by and didn’t see anything so he went to his next place! We called again about an hour later since we hadn’t seen anything of the police, this time the police officer was diverted to an emergency situation and then must have forgotten about coming to us afterwards because he never came either. We called again and finally after waiting for about 3 hours we finally got a police officer that we could file the incident with!!! So, in review.....this guy crashed into me and we have no contact info at all so we pretty much have to pay for repairs by ourselves.
Our car is still plenty drivable so I took Trevor to school and by that time I was late for work too. I finally got home at about 5pm, put on my work shirt, and went to work. I was 35 minutes late, thanks to our troubles with getting the police to come.
Oh well. What a day! My first car accident, and I didn't even cause it!!
The most important thing is that God protected us from injury! What an awesome God.
Friday, June 18, 2004
If you insist.....
This update is especially for Josh, who told me I had to update before I went to bed.....
Today I worked for the majority of the day (10a.m.-5:30p.m.) then I went to a Bible study at church!
The CYA group had a study about Joy which was led by Sean Bird. He went through a whole bunch of verses that show how we are to enjoy God and thus be filled with Joy. When he was done, we watched a movie called "The Truman Show" it was none the less a rather thought provoking movie. It's about a guy named Truman who has been on live TV his whole life (literally) and the creator of the show is trying to keep it going as long as possible. There are many Scriptural paralells which makes you really think. It makes you think about what is really the truth? Do I really know the truth or am I just making it all up in my head? Thankfully God answers all those questions for me in the Bible! I don't have to worry at all about what is true. I'm a Christian, I live life to God's glory (at least I try), and when I die I'm going to Heaven to be with God!!! Now how cool is that?
Today I worked for the majority of the day (10a.m.-5:30p.m.) then I went to a Bible study at church!
The CYA group had a study about Joy which was led by Sean Bird. He went through a whole bunch of verses that show how we are to enjoy God and thus be filled with Joy. When he was done, we watched a movie called "The Truman Show" it was none the less a rather thought provoking movie. It's about a guy named Truman who has been on live TV his whole life (literally) and the creator of the show is trying to keep it going as long as possible. There are many Scriptural paralells which makes you really think. It makes you think about what is really the truth? Do I really know the truth or am I just making it all up in my head? Thankfully God answers all those questions for me in the Bible! I don't have to worry at all about what is true. I'm a Christian, I live life to God's glory (at least I try), and when I die I'm going to Heaven to be with God!!! Now how cool is that?
Thursday, June 17, 2004
Busy, busy, busy
Did you ever notice that there's never enough time in a day? Well I sure have!
I work maybe 7 hours then I come home and eat dinner. Then I work on some stuff for a little while and bang it’s time to go to bed. Repeat the same the next day. So I just don’t have time to update my blog very often at all!
Maybe I just need to figure out how to use my time better.
Well, none the less, I’ve been quite busy this week and that’s my best excuse for not updating more often.
Time just goes by way too fast for my liking. It's like life is on fast-forward!
Just a thought.
I work maybe 7 hours then I come home and eat dinner. Then I work on some stuff for a little while and bang it’s time to go to bed. Repeat the same the next day. So I just don’t have time to update my blog very often at all!
Maybe I just need to figure out how to use my time better.
Well, none the less, I’ve been quite busy this week and that’s my best excuse for not updating more often.
Time just goes by way too fast for my liking. It's like life is on fast-forward!
Just a thought.
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Finally I'm feeling a bit better
After sleeping basically all day on Wednesday, I've slowly begun to feel better, but maybe that's because of the ibuprofen I'm on! Thursday I slept pretty late then thankfully I feeling good enough to be able to go to work even though I was still a little out of it. Friday I was feeling even better, but still not normal and had no problem with going in to work. The only problem was that I worked until a little after 10p.m. yesterday and then I had to be in again this morning at 8a.m. It’s not nice when they schedule me like that, but oh well, I’m getting some hours at least. Today I have felt the best I have since Wednesday, but I know I’m not totally over the bug; whatever it was. It’s soo nice a day outside, maybe I’ll go try and enjoy a little bit of it!!
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Who likes being sick?
Let me just say it this way, I sure don't. I got up this morning, took a shower and then took my sister to her piano lesson. When I got home, I ate lunch then slept for the afternoon. When your head hurts, you really don't feel like doing anything but sleeping. To make it worse, my back is really sore too! I wish I had some idea what I did to it; it just started hurting yesterday. So if you are in the mood to pray for something, you could pray that I get better, otherwise I might have to miss work, in addition to feeling miserable.
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
The 1st of June!!
Ok, so does anyone else out there agree that this year has gone by WAY to fast? I know the older you get, the faster everything goes by. I'm only a measly 19 years old, but even now things start to fly by!
Thankfully God is in charge of everything from the weather to the seasons and the TIME. Imagine that!
Since Sunday, a bunch has gone on. To begin with, I went out to the Calkins' (a church family) farm Sunday night after church and we began to get a few things out for the Memorial Day picnic at their house yesterday. The weather for the picnic was perfect and about 11 a.m. several families from church arrived and we began getting things ready for lunch. After lunch, the "kids" that were there (including me) went down to a field and started a game of soccer. It ended up being pretty close teams which made it quite fun, even though my team lost 3-4! After our game of soccer we all went to the pond, some went swimming, others went in the canoe. I stuck to going in the canoe, untill someone tipped it over! Since I was wet I swam for a little bit, but then had to go inside, shower, change clothes, pack all my stuff and hi-tail it out of there because i had to be at work in an hour and it's about an hour drive! Never the less, I made it with 5 minutes to spare! After I got home from work, my parents got home from Colorado! They have been gone for a week so it's nice to have them back again!
Thankfully God is in charge of everything from the weather to the seasons and the TIME. Imagine that!
Since Sunday, a bunch has gone on. To begin with, I went out to the Calkins' (a church family) farm Sunday night after church and we began to get a few things out for the Memorial Day picnic at their house yesterday. The weather for the picnic was perfect and about 11 a.m. several families from church arrived and we began getting things ready for lunch. After lunch, the "kids" that were there (including me) went down to a field and started a game of soccer. It ended up being pretty close teams which made it quite fun, even though my team lost 3-4! After our game of soccer we all went to the pond, some went swimming, others went in the canoe. I stuck to going in the canoe, untill someone tipped it over! Since I was wet I swam for a little bit, but then had to go inside, shower, change clothes, pack all my stuff and hi-tail it out of there because i had to be at work in an hour and it's about an hour drive! Never the less, I made it with 5 minutes to spare! After I got home from work, my parents got home from Colorado! They have been gone for a week so it's nice to have them back again!
Sunday, May 30, 2004
Even more....
Friday was a day gone bananas. I got up at 6 a.m. and drove Kevin all the way down to South Side RP Church because he is participating in the first high school age ECHO trip to Florida this year. There were about 25 others going down and I think it will be an excellent group. I am quite saddened that I’ll not be able to go to ECHO this year at all . I have gone to ECHO for the last 4 consecutive years, so this will be a different year for me. They left at about 8:30 and had about 10 hours drive to go on Friday, then Saturday they would drive another 10-12 hours before they would finally be there! So after I dropped him off and watched them leave, (I think I’m going to miss him at least a little bit) I drove up to Second RP Church where 2 of my other brothers – Sterling and Adriel - were while Mrs. Turner worked on graduation cakes for the graduation yesterday. I took Sterling and Adriel with me so she wouldn’t have to worry about taking care of them while she was trying to get something done. (Sterling and Adriel are at the Turners’ house while mom and dad are gone) We went first to the zoo, looked around at the new exhibits, then drove to the Children’s Museum and ate lunch. After looking around the Museum for several hours, Mrs. Turner called and told us that she was done and we went back to the church. As soon as I got home at around 5 p.m, I got ready for work, then worked until about 10:30 p.m. Getting home and sleeping for a few hours was wonderful, but then I had to be in to work again Saturday at 8 a.m.
Yesterday (Saturday) I worked like a mad man per se until 1 p.m. when I got off, drove home, changed my clothes, and drove to church. The church held a home school graduation which went off seamlessly even with 7 graduates (my “class” had 10). After a bit of cake and looking at the displays of the many things that the graduates have done over the years, I drove home. I changed into some work clothes and mowed our neighbor’s grass. Coming inside, I had a quick shower and got ready to go to dinner at Ruth Chris’s because I had been invited by a friend of mine whose dad had won $100 for a meal there. It was a totally wild experience! There were servers filling your water every 3-4 minutes and I’ll just say that the food was exquisite and the general atmosphere was very formal. I came home from dinner and started typing this gargantuan post!!
Yesterday (Saturday) I worked like a mad man per se until 1 p.m. when I got off, drove home, changed my clothes, and drove to church. The church held a home school graduation which went off seamlessly even with 7 graduates (my “class” had 10). After a bit of cake and looking at the displays of the many things that the graduates have done over the years, I drove home. I changed into some work clothes and mowed our neighbor’s grass. Coming inside, I had a quick shower and got ready to go to dinner at Ruth Chris’s because I had been invited by a friend of mine whose dad had won $100 for a meal there. It was a totally wild experience! There were servers filling your water every 3-4 minutes and I’ll just say that the food was exquisite and the general atmosphere was very formal. I came home from dinner and started typing this gargantuan post!!
There's more....
Saturday began with mom and dad leaving here for a week in Colorado Springs, CO which means that I’m stuck here with my 3 oldest brothers, which might or might not prove to be safe! Thankfully I was off from work again (how wonderful and it’s only about my 5th day off since I got home a month ago!) and I went to an open house for a friend from work. I then drove all the way out to Belle Center Ohio to Nathaniel Pockras’s open house. Kevin (my brother) and Zachary and Allen Blackwood rode along with me and after we got there, we had some cake - yum. We stayed over night since it’s a 3 hour drive and then went to Belle Center RP Church for their service. Nathaniel really appreciated being able to see some of his friends, some of which he had not seen for almost a year ~ me . Following a quick lunch, we departed and came back to Indy.
Monday and Tuesday are a blur of work.
Wednesday morning I went over to Mrs. Costons’ home to pull more weeds and put some extra dirt in low spots in her flower gardens. In the afternoon, I drove Kevin up to Noblesville for a writing class and on the way home, once he was done, we stopped at the brand new MARSH store on 37. It is really, REALLY cool! It’s organized by category of food and is formed almost like a mall with a “room” being assigned a category and pathways all through the rooms. The produce section was filling the whole middle area. Needless to say, I would love to work in a store like that!! Once we got home, I turned around and left again, going up to Carmel library to meet with Rutledge Etheridge for our every other week meeting referring to Bible study, prayer and the daily disciplines a Christian needs to have in place in their life.
Thursday morning I went to Mrs. Costons’ home again to finish the job I began on Wednesday – pulling weeds, leveling flower gardens, and also I picked up sticks through out her whole yard. Finally it was looking good and I got to come home, but not for long. After a shower and lunch I headed to Marsh for basically the rest of the day.
Monday and Tuesday are a blur of work.
Wednesday morning I went over to Mrs. Costons’ home to pull more weeds and put some extra dirt in low spots in her flower gardens. In the afternoon, I drove Kevin up to Noblesville for a writing class and on the way home, once he was done, we stopped at the brand new MARSH store on 37. It is really, REALLY cool! It’s organized by category of food and is formed almost like a mall with a “room” being assigned a category and pathways all through the rooms. The produce section was filling the whole middle area. Needless to say, I would love to work in a store like that!! Once we got home, I turned around and left again, going up to Carmel library to meet with Rutledge Etheridge for our every other week meeting referring to Bible study, prayer and the daily disciplines a Christian needs to have in place in their life.
Thursday morning I went to Mrs. Costons’ home again to finish the job I began on Wednesday – pulling weeds, leveling flower gardens, and also I picked up sticks through out her whole yard. Finally it was looking good and I got to come home, but not for long. After a shower and lunch I headed to Marsh for basically the rest of the day.
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