The time is now...

I'm out of here!!
Talk to y'all later!

It's finally here

I leave at 5:30 tomorrow morning and I can't wait!
Pretty much everything is packed by now, so its just a matter of waiting till 5:30 to roll around...then I'm out of here!
Will return late on March 6th!

TTYL

Oh, there better be at least a few comments when I get back!

4 more visitors....

and I will have had 3,000 visitors to my blog since September 10th!
Thats a lot of people!

Hard to sumarize the weekend in a few short words, but I don't have time for any more than that.

Well, saturday was a lot of fun - making cakes and then going to Jaci's birthday party at her house. Lots of good food and fellowship, what more can you ask for?

Sunday - 2 very great sermons. The first on Mark 10, the second on 2 Corinthians 7 (if I had time I'd give a quick overview of each, but I don't).

Monday - I worked and had a couple exciting things happen. First a lady fell down and then I got to call 911. I hope she's alright! Also our new manager came. After work I went to Goodwill to get some clothes to use at Nicaragua and then came home. BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) was very good tonight and a very challenging lecture.

Well that's about it...and I'm out of time anyway!
TTYL

Title? Does it have to have one?

Ok, so I went to the doctor yesterday morning and he said I probably have a sinus infection. That sounds just lovely! Well, maybe not! He gave me some antibiotic for free (hey, I'll take it!) and perscribed an decongestant or something like that. Because of my insurence, I only had to pay less than $5 for the over $30 medication. This is really cool! So I'm starting to feel better and as the stuff starts to do it's job, hopefully I'll be all better in about a week...especially because I'm leaving for Nicaragua a week from tomorrow!

As far as really exciting things going on....there's not really much at all. I did get my vacation pay today for the year though, which is really nice!
Well, I'm off to go get some things done before I head to bed. TTYL

P.S. I just thought of an idea! Everyone that reads this, try to post something exciting that's going on either today or this week sometime.

I dont normaly do these things....but this one's pretty close!

You Are 22 Years Old

22 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Funny thing is that I'm 20, so it's really close!

To those of you who haven't seen my Xanga...

I've been pretty sick for the last week, and not only me but my parents and some of my siblings too! We are all to generous!
Well I basicaly didn't do anything all week except work and sleep, so I have no clue how I'm going to get everything done that I need to get done to catch up. The bug's something like a cross between the flu and a cold with maybe a few pneumonia-like symptoms thrown in there too. It's petty bad and I'll be more than happy to get rid of it any day now...
I am however as far as I can tell, on the way to getting better. I really need to be all better before I leave for Nicaragua.....(prayer item there) :-) But just being down there will help me get better anyway, so whatever.
I'm so ready to go - just 11 days and 6 hours! But I do have some packing to do before then...
Well I'm going to go get some sleep, maybe I'll feel better tomorrow.

Letter I wrote about my upcoming trip...

NICARAGUA!

Dear Family and Friends,

God has graciously opened the door once again for me to return to Nicaragua! I will be going on a one week short term missions trip with NRN, the same organization as before (winter of ’00 - ’03). Nicaragua Resource Network (NRN) is a ministry of a church in Carmel and has an ongoing relationship with three main pastors in Nicaragua. Belcezar Gonzales is one of the pastors and has a growing ministry of about 18 daughter churches. Since my last trip in February 2003, I have had the privilege to serve on the Belcezar committee. My responsibilities have included awareness of needs, decision making and support in prayer for his ministry. Belcezar is also the pastor for whom the construction projects will be done on this trip. The projects will likely include working on a parking area as well as expansion of the school.

As part of a group of about 20, I will be leaving on February 26 and returning on March 6. Your support in prayer will be an essential part of making this a successful trip. I am asking prayer for five specific things:

1. Preparation for the trip – physically as well as spiritually.
2. That God would be working in the hearts of those who we will minister to during our time there.
3. Safety, health, and team unity in travel and on the construction sites.
4. That God would be glorified in everything.
5. That I would be open to learn the things God desires to teach me.

My trips in the past have been a blessing to me and very successful. There are several things that I can attribute this to, but mostly it comes as a result of your prayers. To this end I thank you each in advance specifically for your prayers during this trip. If you feel that God puts it on your heart to help support me in this trip financially, your gift of any amount will be gratefully received. Please feel free to ask to me about this exciting opportunity that God has put before me so you know better what I will be doing. Thank you for your support financially, but most importantly, through prayer.
To God alone be the glory!

In Christ,
Brian Fulk

Work; a steal of a deal; Proverbs Study...

On Friday, I went in to work at a bright shiny early 8a.m. Honestly, I don't like getting up, but I don't really have a choice. Work went about like normal and as I was getting off, the next person came in and told me that there was a super good sale at Old Navy.

Once I dropped off the stuff I got for mom from MARSH, I went straight to Old Navy. I ended up finding 11 (7 pants, 2 shirts, 2 fleeces) things that would fit me or my brothers. The total bill? $23! That's it! Aparently the clothes from last year had to go and they were doing a good job of getting rid of them!

I came home and about 6, I took Johanna over to Steak 'n Shake because for Christmas I gave her a "coupon" for a meal with me. It was a good time of talking and the food was great.

Once we got home, I left to go to the Bible Study at the Faris home on Proverbs. It was a great study about wisdom - how we display it, and how we need to work on getting it. The study went until about 9:45 and until about 1a.m. we sat around and fellowshipped and talked, not to forget the ice cream! Great time, can't wait till the next meeting!

No more IM for this week

I have decided due to several reasons to not use any form of instant messaging for the duration of one week. I have lots of stuff I am supposed to be doing but I always can find someone who I would rather talk to than to do what I really should be doing! (sound familiar?)
I have come to the conclusion that my priorities are a little out of wack and I need to get them straightened out. Now is the time.
I know blogging can take a lot of time too, but recently I have not been posting anyway, so I will not at this point say that I won't do any posts, just no IM. If i discover I'm spending too much time there, I might cut that too....I really need to make better use of each of the precious hours that God gives me to live.

What is man's chief end? To glorify and enjoy God forever! (God is the first and highest priority, then family, school and then friends and computer use...)
Give it some thought, you might come to the same conclusion I have, even if it scares you to think what life will be without IM!

Really long!

It seems that I have arrived at that point where I have lost interest in posting regularly. I will do my best though to try to get something up every week.....

(If you don't have time to read a really long post....the most important stuff is summarized at the end)

Looking back at the recent posts, I really haven't said much since the beginning part of December! For that month, I was nearly constantly working 40 hours every single week and the only days I had off were Sundays. I went to several different concerts, one of which I was a part, the others were: The Nutcracker, an ICC concert, ISO Christmas concert, and I think that's it. I also really enjoyed the CYA formal dinner and then Christmas followed. We did things as a family and also at my Grandparents. Sometime in here I finally got my braces off after 2.5 years! New Years eve, my family went over to the Ames house down the street. That was a lot of fun, we watched a movie and at midnight we all gathered around and shared what the thing is that we were most thankful for in the last year. A few of us stayed until about 4 am talking with Jaci, it was a wonderful time!

So January for now: My dad and I talked about the possibility of going back to ALERT and it was decided for several different reasons that I am not going back to ALERT now, but there is the possibility of going back in July. Work slowed down and now I'm "only" working about 30 hours a week with usually one day off besides just Sunday. At work, I've been able to have some really good discussions with several different people about my various beliefs and the importance for them to put their trust in Christ. I even invited one of them to visit church. Sometime in the early part of the month, my car was having problems and ended up in the shop for about 2 weeks and in the meantime, I used another car. I managed to leave the lights on one day and killed the battery and it’s amazing we were even able to get it to start by jumping it. We almost had to have that car towed to the shop as well! I'm glad I have my car back now! Michael, Kevin and I went one night and we watched the movie "National Treasure." It's a great movie and I'd recommend it to anyone. One thing it emphasized was the importance of working as a team and also the danger of greed. (The soundtrack is really good too!) About the second week of January, both Mom and Dad were out of town. Mom went to MI for a funeral for her aunt with her parents. Dad was in VA for a business trip for about a week. One week later he left for Switzerland and was gone there for almost 2 weeks! (He just got home on Sunday the 23rd!)

The next big event was the CYA Winter Conference: It started on Friday the 15th and went through Monday the 17th. Ok, I don't want to bore everyone with all the details so I'll try to just give the highlights...

I was really challenged and encouraged by the 4 messages by David Reese (from Colorado) on the topic of Holiness; what it is and how to achieve it. Probably the one point that will stick with me is that as a Christian, I must always be striving to live a more holy life, even though God is the one who does the work of sanctification (holy-fi-cation) in my life.
In our free time we played things such as Taboo, Mafia, Soccer, Set and many other games.
On Saturday there were 2 workshops that I was able to go to - "Deepening our time with God" and "Answering the World's lies." Both of those were very helpful and encouraging.
The meals were absolutely wonderful! Thanks cooks!
Sunday we got to go to Kokomo RP church. The message that Mr. York gave was very convicting in the area of righteousness and zeal. For lunch we stayed at the church and had a pitch-in prepared by the church. Thanks so much for the food, it was great!
The "stump the pastors" session that afternoon was very helpful. It answered some important questions that I had on some topics.
The last message by David Reese struck very close to home - I need to learn how to reject the small voices telling me to sin and quit believing the lies of the world because God has the power to keep me from falling, I do not have to sin! The remedy is Christ himself! Personally I have no way to be holy and to obey Christ; all I need to do is believe in and be consistent with the truth.
After dinner, about 6 of us got together and sang for about an hour and a half! That was very much a highlight for me!
Later on, we stayed up and then eventually watched "Minority Report" - one of those movies you have to think about! We kept on talking and fellowshipping until the last of the group finally went to bed about 7 a.m.! That time was an awesome time that will remain in my memory for a really long time!
When I got home on Monday, I found out that one of my guinea pigs had died - Spaghetti. I was rather surprised! I suppose though animals only have a short life normally though. He is the 5-6th one I have buried.

This week since the conference:
I've done a fair amount of work and other miscellaneous stuff. On Saturday the 22nd, I had my first experience with a flat tire. I was driving home so I could get ready for work and be there on time at 5 p.m. Unfortunately, I managed to hit the pothole that I thought I had missed and the tire went flat in a real hurry! Kevin and I got out and started to get the spare tire and jack out. Very quickly we realized we were in a bit of a pickle! The spare tire was flat, and the jack was rusted shut! Thankfully Kevin had grabbed the cell phone on the way out of the house and we called Michael. He came and brought an air pump with him to fill up the spare tire. We used his jack and changed the tire, and I left for work using his car. I stopped by home very fast, changed clothes and got some dinner to take with me. In the end, I ended up about 45 minutes late for work, but it wasn't too busy thankfully! What fun.....!
Dad was able to find a replacement rim for only $30 which is a steal of a deal! So now my car's finally back to normal!

Biggest news recently:
I have now gotten my passport back (which cost almost $200! to have processed faster) and I'm officially signed up to go to Nicaragua again! I will be leaving Feb. 26th for one week; I can't wait!
Wednesday or Thursday I picked up a cold but I'm starting to get over it thankfully.
I then got my first flat tire on Saturday by hitting a pot hole. :-(

Prayer items:
Get better from my cold. (Already by now over it)
Preparations for the trip to Nicaragua.
Wise use of time.
Better prayer times.


Sorry this was so long....bonus points to anyone who reads the whole thing. :-)
God bless you all.
Signing off for the night...
~Brian~

(post started on Jan 25, not actually posted till Feb 1)

Don't worry...

I havn't totaly forgotten about posting!
I'm working on a really long one that will include a short description of December, January, the CYA Winter Conference, a little about the upcomming Nicaragua trip, getting my passport, and my experience with a flat tire on Saturday...
It will even have a short summary of the most important stuff at the bottom for those of you who can't read it all.
Well TTYL
~Brian

What an awesome conference!

I don't have time right now to do a full explanation of the whole conference, but it was a wonderful time of felloship and learning from and about God! The messages about holiness (of which I didn't get a single picture) were absolutely wonderful and were both a challenge as well as an encouragement.
I figured I would let you all know that the total 27 of my pictures are now up and you can see them by clicking right here!
TTYL
I promise I will give a more detailed description, just not today. :-)

I'm off....

...to the CYA Winter Conference. It will last through Monday, and I'm sure it will be a lot of fun!
I will plan on taking a bunch of pictures and I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes....
God Bless,
TTYL

Time for some new news!

The biggest thing is that at this point, though i'm not going back to ALERT untill maybe July, I'm signed up to go to Nicaragua at the end of February!!!
I can't wait!....the last time i was there was in February of 2003 (a very long time ago!)
One thing that immediately had to be taken care of was getting a new passport (my last one expired the end of last year). I got my pictures on Saturday and then went to the post office today. It cost me $55 for the passport application fee, $60 to expedite it so i'll have it back in time, and $57.30 for the Post office fee and the postage!! That's like a small fortune right there!!
Well Lord willing all the details will work out just perfectly and I'll have a good trip....but theres about a month i have to wait, that will seem like forever!
So, I'm working my behind off till then....Got to go!
TTYL
Leave some comments .... i'm getting lonely on here! lol

Please Pray

A friend of mine (Nathaniel Pockras) who lives in Bell Center, OH called earlier today and asked for prayer concerning his family and the ice damage.
There is a lot of ice and as a result, there are lots of trees and limbs down. They lost their power at about 10 pm on Jan 5 and aren't expecting it back on until this weekend. One of the problems is that they have no heat now, and also have a considerable amount of water in their basement. To top it all off, the family all have colds or the begining of the flu.
Pray for health, electricity, and that the damage wouldn't be too extensive.
Thanks for praying!

Time goes too fast!

I know, I used to be in the habit of updating every day...well I soon came to the realization that there are more important things in life. But I will give you a quick sentence recap of the last....say, month.
Lots of great family time, wonderful times with friends, tons of work and toss in a few misc. things here and there.
Ok, there's my summary!

One quick thing that I know many of you are wanting to know....I'm not going back to ALERT this month due to several reasons. Hopefully God will work it out for me to go in July, and I really want to go to the graduation for my unit, I cant wait to see everyone again!

Prayer items:
Johanna (my sister) is having eye surgery on Friday - successful operation and quick recovery.
Mom's trip home from Michigan tomorrow - she is there with her parents because her aunt (Grandma's sister) died this last weekend.
Dad's buisness trip - getting stuff done and working out a way to be home for Johanna's surgery.
Me - figuring out what to do this "semester", relying on God to show the path to walk, better use of the time I have.....there's so much more I could add!

Anyway, off to bed...TTYL

Have fun:

One more thing thats pretty much pointless but fun none the less! :-)

Spell Your Name

A-You can be very quiet when you have something on your mind.
B-You are always cautious when it comes to meeting new people.
C-You definitely have a partier side in you, dont be shy to show it.
D-You have trouble trusting people.
E-You are a very exciting person.
F-Everyone loves you.
G-You have excellent ways of viewing people.
H-You are not judgemental.
I-You are always smiling & making others smile.
J-Jealousy.
K-You like to try new things.
L-Love is something you deeply believe in.
M-Success comes easily to you.
N-You like to work, but you always want a break.
O-You are very open-minded.
P-You are very friendly and understanding.
Q-You are a hypocrite.
R-You are a social butterfly.
S-You are very broad-minded.
T-You have an attitude, a big one.
U-You feel like you have to equal up to people's standards.
V-You have a very good physical and looks.
W-You like your privacy.
X-You never let people tell you what to do.
Y-You cause a lot of trouble.
Z-You're always fighting with someone

B-You are always cautious when it comes to meeting new people.
R-You are a social butterfly.
I-You are always smiling & making others smile.
A-You can be very quiet when you have something on your mind.
N-You like to work, but you always want a break.

C-You definitely have a partier side in you, dont be shy to show it.
I'm not going to spell out my whole middle name (Christopher) - it's too long :-)

F-Everyone loves you.
U-You feel like you have to equal up to people's standards.
L-Love is something you deeply believe in.
K-You like to try new things.

Ok so most of those are true.....but not all of them!

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.