November Update

Happy November everyone! I know that November comes an anticipation for the Holiday season. We have Thanksgiving coming up, a holiday that gets forgotten in the midst of Christmas. I mean most retailers already have Christmas stuff out and its still 6 weeks away. November also brings cold weather for most people, unless you live in Florida where temperatures still reach the 90s! But it seems to be cooling off, so I am definitely looking forward to that.

November also brings the annual National Missionary Convention, this year being held in Peoria, IL. The NMC is a convention of different mission organizations from all over the world. It is from November 19th through the 22nd. I will be up there for part of that recruiting with NMSI and YouthHOPE. I’ll be meeting with some of you while I am there, but if you are going to be in the area I would love to catch up and get some coffee or lunch with you while I am there.

I also wanted to take this time to highlight some of the internships that YouthHOPE will be offering for the summer of 2010. We will be having 5 separate internships from all different parts of the world. The first will be in Myanmar, where will be following after their first national youth conference and some holistic youth development. The second will be in England where we will be doing relational youth ministry and helping to launch an alternative worship service. The third will be in Chile working on missions retreats and sharing in public schools. The fourth will be in Malawi working with agricultural community development and youth conferences. Finally, there will be one in Ft. Myers at the CGO where you can learn about short-term missions and global youth awareness projects. If any of those interest you or you know someone that would be interested, feel free to contact YouthHOPE at info@youthHOPE.com or call 239-337-4336 and ask for YouthHOPE.

Don’t forget about the Isaiah 61 youth conference that will be in Orlando on Jan. 22-23 at Journey Christian Church and in Boca Raton Feb. 12-13 at First Christian Church. More information can be found at http://www.youthhope.com/i61.htm. If you guys are able to, I would strongly recommend you get some youth together to learn about clean water and what they can do to help people who have no clean water.

The last thing I wanted to bring up in this update is that I am hoping and praying to move down to Ft. Myers at the end of January after the conferences. I am excited to begin my ministry but also trusting in God’s timing and provision. In order to do that, I am looking for 100 friends, family or churches to support me at 25 dollars a month. I would ask you to pray and see if God has laid it on your heart to support me. I also ask for you prayers that God would raise people up to partner with me in ministry this way. Thank you and I look forward talking with you all about this. God Bless.

Praises:

For everyone who is partnering with me prayerfully and financially.

For YouthHOPE being able to have all these internships all over the world

For the Isaiah 61 conference expanding to Boca Raton and Orlando

Prayer Requests:

For God to raise up more prayer and provisions partner with me so I can start my ministry at the end of January

For God to be in the planning of the Isaiah 61 conferences and that the eyes of youth would be open to the issues of unclean water

For myself and YouthHOPE to continually be seeking after the wisdom of God

The NBA playoffs

So for those of you who don't know. . . I am a huge NBA fan! The season can be kind of long, but there are still plenty of great games and moments (like Devin Harris' half-court shot to beat Philly). But nothing compares to the playoffs, it's where anything can happen and where some of the best basketball is played. It's where stars are born and you find out who the best of the best is. It also brings you great series like Bos-Chi and Phi-Orl. The Phi-Orl series saw 3 buzzer-beaters in six games. There were some great games, but they were overshadowed by the better series: Bos-Chi. 

Seven overtimes (OT) in Seven games. One game went into double overtime and another into triple overtime. That's 35 extra minutes of play, almost making it an 8 game series, I just wanted them to keep playing, make it like a best of 20 series. That's how great each game was. Game 1 saw Derrick Rose, a rookie who wasn't supposed to have a good series, rip the Celtics for 36 points and 11 assists on route to a game 1 victory for Chicago in OT. The next game saw Ray Allen come alive and drain a 3 with 2 seconds left for a Boston win. Game 4 saw 2 OTs with Allen making a shot to force OT and Gordon making one to force double-OT. The bulls prevailed and the series was tied 2-2. Game 5 had just one OT where Paul Pierce took over as Boston took a 3-2 series lead. Oh and by the way, a guy I haven't mentioned, Rajon Rondo, is averaging a triple-double for this series, something only four other players have done (Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Jason Kidd, Oscar Robertson). Then we come to Game 6, which gave us 3-OTs and possibly the greatest first round game ever. There are too many big shots to name, so I'll just go over some stats: Allen had 51 points, Rondo had 19 assists and ZERO turnovers. Rose had an 28 points-8 rebounds- 7 assist night. John Salmons had 35 points and Joakim Noah (who I have never been a fan of) stole the ball from Paul Pierce for a breakaway  dunk and foul that essentially won the game for Chicago. Game 7 saw Boston prevail, all in all this turned into one of the best series ever. I loved watching every minute of it. 

And that is why I love the NBA playoffs, because of series like those. Hopefully it will be exciting the rest of the way through.

Random Thoughts

So I know I haven't blogged in awhile so I thought I would update with some random thoughts I have had the past few days. . .

I am listening to Jeremy Camp's "There will be a day" . . . It gives me hope and encouragement to get through tough days when I know what the finish line will look like . . . check out this story on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/04/26/iraq.christian.attacks/index.html . . . it makes me sad, grateful and humbled that I am blessed to live in a place where I won't die because of my beliefs . . . I pray for those who lost loved ones and I pray for the extremists that killed them . . . I pray for a Saul moment for them, that God would show them The Way . . . I pray that good would come out of this tragedy . . . I am up way later than I should be . . . Support raising has been discouraging of late, which has made me want to give up (if I am honest with myself) but I won't . . . that would be the easy way out and I am tired of taking the easy way out . . . the more I am in Orlando, the more I know my heart and call is in Ft. Myers . . . which doesn't make leaving Orlando any easier . . . I love the NBA playoffs, it's the best part of the year . . . when Isiah (my oldest nephew) is old enough to drive, I'll be 30 . . . that's scary . . . He'll be playing football and baseball in high school by then, which will be cool . . . he's a good kid (along with his younger brother) and I wish my sister would see that more often . . . I love lamp . . . I don't have a high value of myself . . . I'm working on changing that . . . one of my favorite shows is Real World/Road Rules challenges . . . it's like watching a train wreck . . . you can't stop watching it to see what happens next . . . I miss dad . . . I am excited for what the rest of the year holds for me . . . I think it will be great . . . I hope Kris Allen wins American Idol and Melissa and Tony win DWTS . . . I think I should go to bed now . . . have a wonderful night!

Greetings from Bulgaria

So I have been traveling a lot these past two months. When I return from Bulgaria at the end of the week, I will have been gone 29 days out of the 59 days in February and March! That is crazy to me! If you told me I would be in Bulgaria this time last year, I would have said that you are crazy! But here I am. . . and I love it. It has been really hard and really encouraging to be here. I have struggled trying to figure out my job and how it looks like on the field, but it has been filled with things that have been very encouraging and good about how my job looks. Oh it is also cool that we got to stay a day in London on the way here and back. So all in all this have been a great trip and I look forward to telling  you all about it soon. I am right where God wants me to be. That is awesome!

So it is time once again for the best festivities of the year. . . the NBA All-star weekend! This is my favorite weekend of the year, and as I get ready to watch the second half of the all-star game (72-67 West) and thought I would recap the weekend. First of all, I will say that while this was a good all-star weekend, it was a step down fro the past two. Two years ago it was in Vegas, which was a place it had never been before, and it was fun. The dunk contest became relevant again, and the other contests were good as well. Dwayne Wade lit up the skills competition.

Last year it was in New Orleans, the first time since Katrina hit, so everyone stepped up their game some. The skills contest featured amazing guards like Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Dwayne Wade and champion Deron Williams. Jason Kapono, last year's champ, put on a clinic shooting 3s, he just destroyed the competition and has one of the best shots in the league. The all-star game was great too, but the highlight was the Slam dunk competition. Dwight Howard was absolutely amazing! Look up his superman dunk, among others. The best dunk contest of this decade, even better than the 2000 competition with Vince Cater.

So now onto the highlights of this year's competition. Kevin Durant dominated the Rookie Sophomore game this year. He also was great in the HORSE tournament. Everything else was down this year. The Slam dunk contest was good, but not great. Howard had some good dunks, but the dunk of the night belonged to Nate Robinson.

And as I finish the score in the 4th quarter is 124-108 West, so all in all it was a good All-star weekend, but not great. Still love it though.

Dwight Howard dunks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKSUTyndjJQ

Nate Robinson dunk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjDmyW4RJ64

CNN Report

So I recently watched a video on CNN tonight and it really upset me. Watch it and let me know how you feel. I mean seriously?? How can this happen?? I suspect that Saudi Arabia is not the only country doing this, just the one that got covered. I would love your opinions on this. Thanks.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/02/08/robertson.saudi.child.bride.cnn

Greetings from DC!

Hello my friends. I hope you are all having a good day and have a wonderful weekend planned, whether that be relaxing or full of fun activities. I am currently residing in one of my favorite cities, Washington DC. Maybe its because I love history, but you can not beat DC or Boston, there is just too much history to ignore. I am visiting the city tomorrow with my good friend Andy, so I am excited about that. I have been here 5 times now, and each time I have found something new to enjoy. Plus I love seeing Andy and Janet, so it's a win-win for me. 

However, this is not the only reason I am here. I also am visiting with two churches and a few friends for support while I am here. I'll be honest and say that support raising is stressing me out, and I am wondering about what the future holds. I decided tonight, after freaking out for the last couple of days, that this is all in God's plan and that I need to prepare the field, aka continue on the support trail, and trust that God is going to do what he has planned to do. I'm going to stop complaining to God and start trusting him more. I'm going to trust in the plan he has for me.