Man Alive! Its been awhile. Quick Update.

It's been a long time! I haven't posted in like forever...or at least since October 30th!

So, where does that leave us? ...a quick run down of my life recently (and not so recently): My teeth are healed up, didn't have problems with them at all after the wisdom teeth extraction (that was an answer to prayer), Dess, my girlfriend, stayed at my parents' house with me for Thanksgiving break, I went back to school for 2 weeks and now I am home for the Christmas break. I fly out to Montana New Years Eve to spend a week with her at her parents' house; and then come back home to NY for a couple days only to head back to Davis for the spring semester.

So yeah, I know, it ain't much...but it will have to do as I am short on time.

Lastly, before I leave off here:
Please pray for me: as I am going to do the most traveling in my life in one week; also pray that my acoustic guitar gets "unstolen" (since it was in lost and found and then disappeared from there); I am going to be making some big choices very soon, dealing with everything from school, life, and work. Last but not least, please pray that I remain strong in God's strength, not relying on what I can do (cause I can't do anything by myself), and that I would continue to seek God and His will in my life.

Thanks for reading, may God bless you, and remember, that Jesus is the reason for this season. Merry Christmas, and good night.

July 10th, Friday. Day 5.

Today was an awesome day. It was so cool to watch as the kids that have grown so much in this short time acting for God. Watching the “How Great is Our God” DVD. Seeing how all this that God can make something SO huge, like the stars in the sky, and care about us as people. He knows our names and knows everything about us. He has offered us life eternal and also given us a promise as children, that He will NEVER let us go! It is so amazing.

At one point Andrew was talking to some of his friends and after them telling one too many dirty jokes he said, "That's enough" and walked away. How much can God change someone in one day? A LOT!

God is good!

P.S.: there was so much more, this is just a brief overview of SOME of what happened this past week. I could not possibly write down all that I did do. If you would like to know more, ask and if I get a spare moment I will try to answer any more questions.

Please Pray for Andrew as he will be needing a lot of prayer in the future as he tries to live out a Godly life in an environment that has few Christians actually living their Christianity.

July 9th, Thursday. Day 4.

Today is the day when decisions are made. Often the bon fire is the most powerful night. Not because of what we do, but what God chooses to do. The day was spent in anticipation for the miracles that God was going to do. He hadn’t done them yet, but I was waiting on Him to. Last night I talked to one of my campers and he recommitted to reading his Bible more and being a better Christian; tonight another one of my campers recommitted his life, asking for forgiveness for what he has done, and was truly broken and wanting to live for Him. It was amazing how God works. As we walked back from the bonfire my camper asked me if we would be able to talk tonight; during the bonfire I watched as God worked on this young man and could see him fight God in his body language sitting there on the ground. We ended up talking for quite a while and he poured his heart and life out to me. I told him that all those things could be wiped away and God could restore their relationship.

I told him that either that he could pray and tell God what he wanted to say, or I could help him through the prayer. He chose to pray himself and you could tell that it was coming from the heart. Well he ended up praying himself and it was amazing; just how God works and makes everything go according to His plan.

God is good!

July 8th, Wednesday. Day Three.

I thought today was going to be a good day, it still maybe. Alex is no longer at camp because his problems are only getting worse. I feel that somehow this was Satan’s attack to prevent him from gaining a deeper knowledge of who God is. I failed with telling him how God cares about him and wants a closer relationship with him, but it just seems that all I have done was teach the kids sports. That isn’t my goal, so I failed. It is the “hill day”, half-way done. I need to talk to my kids on a deeper level and really find a more proactive way of getting through to these guys.

There is still a couple more hours (like 7) before the day is up, and I need to spend them wisely.

As the day progressed my legs started to hurt more and more, by the time chapel ended I was feeling pretty sick. I hurt and it hurt so bad I did not feel well. We played WWIII (more running) and by the time that ended I could not really take it anymore. I asked Cody to take over for me and prepared to head back to the cabin. I had to let all my campers know that they answered to Cody in my stead but I could not find Andrew. Last I had seen him he was with another kid from cabin 19 and Spidey hadn’t seen him either.

Off for another EXCITING Week at Camp Lamoka!

Tomorrow morning I am heading off to camp for another week of camp. This week was family camp and Chip Wood the director didn't need a lot of staff on campus. But this week is Sr. High Week, ages 15-19. Apparently this next week is pack out, which is awesome because camp registration in all of NY State is down; so we were prepared for God to do something miraculous. Two weeks ago at CIT Week 2 of the week for youth campers only had 60 kids each, and normally at that time they are the most filled! But God is good, because before the week was out, those weeks both filled up quite a bit, I don't know exact numbers, but a significant increase of registrants in a very short time...It’s a God thing.

So I have NO idea what I am going to be doing this next week at camp, it is most likely between counseling and security, but you never know where Chip will need me. I'm willing to work anywhere.

But please, do pray for Lamoka Baptist Camp, or Camp Lamoka. God has collected a REALLY mature group of staffers there this year! Some items of pray would be: #1 that God's will would be done on at the camp, #2 that He would use us and teach us what He wants us to learn, and #3 that we fill up the camp for all the weeks. Some might say that we should fill the camp first, but unless God's will is done on at the camp, it doesn't matter how many kids are there, because they will never have heard the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pray for Chip Wood, the director, that he would have the strength to fulfill his jobs (and there are many that he does); pray for the churches that support the camp and the kids home churches, that they would be discipled (or that they would find one!); pray for all of us staffers that are going to be working there (it's a lot of fun, but it’s also a lot of work!); also pray for the speakers that are coming to speak at camp each week that their messages would be heard and learned from by kids and staffers alike; and not lastly or least (there are MANY, MANY more all of equal importance) pray for the kids that are going to be coming to camp, those who are saved that they would grow in their walk, and those who are not saved that they would recognize their need for The Savior and ask Him to come into their lives.

CIT WEEK! (sorry it took a week to figure out all that I did...)

So much has happened in the last week.

Cit week was awesome
I learned so much that I have no idea where to start. So I guess a good place to start is at the beginning. I left to begin the journey to Camp Lamoka at 5:55 am when I left my house and headed to McGinnis’s where I loaded my bag into the Cobalt and joined Mrs. McGinnis and Jac. We then traveled to Katy’s house got her stuff loaded and left for the official ride to Camp Lamoka for CIT Week! Fun! The ride down took about an1hr and a half from Katy’s house and was relatively uneventful. Monday was spent in a variety of ways: quiet time was WAY too short! (I mean really! 45 min to spend praying and reading the Bible was NOT enough time!), we had another session in Timothy, then swim test, raking the lake swimming area of rocks, and a 5 hour hike turned 6 ½ hrs. Sunday night my bro and his wife came up from VA we were hanging out and he told me to go get my bass and amp so we could play together before I left. Well on my way back down with a bass guitar in one hand and an amp in the other, I tried to jump over a glider chair that my bro Jeff was sitting in…except I weigh about an extra 75 lbs…which I didn’t take into account…bad. So basically I broke at least one of my toes…and then walked (as the bird flies 4 miles) but as our path traveled…closer to 8-10...up and down and crossing streams, creeks and waterfalls. But it was a learning experience.

Tuesday was much like Monday in that it was more learning from the Bible and sessions but Pastor Mike was there and `the girls that rode down with me, Katy and Jac, didn’t know that PM was speaking! It was awesome o drop the news on them! But PM spoke on 2 Timothy too and helped put another spin on it. I enjoy hearing him preach because he makes it fun to hear him and often make you think that you are having a ton of fun while being in a sermon! (Yeah, I know, I said it didn't I Pastor Mike...FUN! You'll have to work on making those more boring...or not.)

Wednesday was fun too. More sessions on counseling, with pastor mike and devos, all relating to the grace that God has given us and how He NEVER gives us more than what we can handle in the power of His grace! Also Wednesday night the entire staff spent about an hour in prayer, and it was really cool. We split up into 3 groups, one group was praying prayers of praise, another group was praying that we would be good soldiers of the faith that we would honor the One who enlisted us, and the last group’s prayer was glorifying God for all Who He is. I was part of the group lifting up praise to God, the reason I went over there was because often I fall short in that area of prayer and my thoughts were, “the best way to get better is try to pray more!” I ended up praying for 45 min and I never even realized how lost I got in praising God. It was pretty amazing. After some time I decided I should head down to my cabin and do my devos…well actually do some more…and I saw my friend Kurtis and Tim outside and we just started talking about the basic things that God did for us, like Jesus coming to the earth to die for us, He didn’t have too, but He did. He could have destroyed the whole world and started over again more easily that you taking a breath…because that is given by God. But we were joined by Seth, Ben, Josh, Cody, Andy, and Spidey. It was pretty cool and encouraging to have other guys sharing there hearts and asking for prayer in sensitive areas of their lives. I can see that god has really caused this group of staffers to really come together in 3 days.

Thursday we woke up and did our routine, we watched the fun bat safety video which told us how insensitive we are towards bats and how misunderstood they are…that is literally what they said on the video; it was fun[ny] to watch. We had another session of learning and a large break while Ally put a video together of CIT week that Erik put together. It was really good to see how all these individuals came together to form a pretty cohesive group. I packed up all my stuff during the break so I was ready to go when Mrs. McGinnis would pull in. Jac called her mom and her mom said she was in a huge thunderstorm and it was hailing. We started seeing the storm coming in from the west and could hear the rain start beating the lake. Jac called again and her mom said she was at the end of the driveway which is like a mile long. Her mom pulled up and we finished loading the stuff just before the cloud burst. The ride home was hilarious because I had gotten the least amount of sleep that week and I was the only one who was wide awake for the whole trip! (and that includes Mrs. McGinnis, she had worked a double shift at the hospital.)

When we pulled into Katy’s driveway we were attacked by her family happy to see her back home. Katy actually gave me a hug for like the first time ever…she was like the only friend that I have that never hugged me…kinda funny actually, but yeah, her family was glad that we all made it home safely and there was another family staying with them that she had been looking forward to seeing. I called my dad and had him come and meet us at Jac’s house and I drive home with my dad after unloading Jac’s stuff from their car.

Just so you don't worry...

Hey! I am going to bed to wake up in 5 hrs to gear up for a trip to Lamoka. Im working at the camp in Tyrone, NY this summer. This week is Training Week and it last through till Thurs. I wont have computer access while there so I will not be updating my blog or FB. Please pray for Jac, Katy, and I as well as the kids and other staffers that will be there, for safety and openness to God's will in our lives. Thanks love you all!

Andrew

5/20 (Yes that was a while ago)

To day I worked on cleaning up the yard for most of the day. I worked on a video from some media I took on the "Anything Goes Game Night" (video clips/pics). I finished that up around 10-ish. I love making videos with pictures and stuff, it is a lot of fun. I use Windows Movie Maker; if any of you have a better (FREE, SAFE, and preferably LEGAL) version like a freeware movie maker that is better I would try it out.

Also today I figured out where I am going to college; it was between Baptist Bible College (BBC) or Davis College. I had a fleece test or two (kinda like Gideon) the first fleece was who ever accepted me first, well BBC should have because they had my information the longest, but Davis beat them out by 2 days. The second was not so much as a "test" but constantly asking for direction. One thing I learned (more like reinforced for me) was that God ALWAYS answers prayer! DUH! But really, sometimes it takes you asking (bothering) Him about it all the time. You need to prove to yourself sometimes if you are truly serious about wanting an answer. Well, this is how the second test came out: Conroy, from Davis College called up, he is a pastoral consentration who is now on staff at Davis. He was an international student from Jamaica (and he has a really cool accent and is just really cool in general). I came in from working and my mom was talking on the phone, no biggy, whatever; so I went up staires and took a shower. When I came out I found out that my mom was waiting to pass the phone off to me, because the guy wanted to talk to me...they talked for like 50 min or something! CRAZY!!! I found out his name was conroy and he just wanted to hear about my testimony and about what God was doing in my life. So we ended up talking for about another 30 min or something. The thing was though, before he hung up he asked if there was anything that I would like him to pray about; and I told him that I would like him to pray that I would make the right decision in college and I commented that I wish that God's will would be as plain and as understandable as the writing on the wall (but where is the faith in that?). But as he prayed, I felt God speak to me very simply, He said, "This is the place for you, where I want you to be." Now I am not one for having spiritual experiences or anything like that, but seriously....THIS WAS AS PLAIN AS THE WRITING ON THE WALL!!!! It was pretty awesome!

So yeah, Davis is my college.

Go with the Flow

I was talking to a friend just a little while ago, and they said sometimes you need to go with the flow...this was about a trivial matter that I was jokingly being very rigid about (I think it had to do with like a type of potato chip of something of that nature). Anywaz, it got me to thinking...in this instance going with the flow meant nothing really, but going with the flow often lends itself to destructive behavior, the kid with his new license caught street racing the family minivan; agreeing to go to the party you shouldn't be at and compromising your beliefs and morals. My mom wrote a little quote in the front of a Bible that I have, "If you do not stand for something, you will [CERTAINLY] fall for ANYTHING."

I began to think about this in a deeper way along with going (or not) with the flow: Peter (of the Bible) was called the rock, "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it." Matthew 16:1. Really as Christians we are all called to be a rock...a solid place on the foundation of Christ. But I ask you, "How can we be a solid place, where someone can stand; if we are going with the flow?" Can you hold onto a rock as it rolls down stream? NO! Can you stand on a rock as it rolls down stream? NO!

Be firmly planted in the Word of God:

"10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil...13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints— 19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Eph 6:10-11, 13-20 (NKJV).

Think on this one last question I pose, "What kind of impact does a rock on the side of a stream have on the stream in comparison to a rock located in the center of the stream?" If you want to know what I think you will have to wait; but a clue is to use the above verses...oh suspense...can't wait I bet...

Well, thank you for reading, it has been a pleasure.

What is the Reason?

I wrote this actually for yesterday’s post, but I didn’t post it for some reason. Why do we put God on hold and go off and do our own thing? God loves us yet we push Him into the corner. Why? We say we are Christians, but never change; we act like nothing ever happened. Right after I was thinking this a song came on: Empty Me by Chris Sligh. The lyrics that caught my attention was in the chorus:

Empty me, Of the selfishness inside, Every vain ambition, And the poison of my pride, And any foolish thing my heart holds to, Lord empty me of me, So I can be, Filled with you. The thing that I keep remembering is at the beginning of the chorus as it repeats the second time, “I know how I can stray, And how fast my heart could change”

God, let Your light shine through the darkness of this world, “Cuz everything is a lesser thing, Compared to you, Compared to you, Cuz everything is a lesser thing, Compared to you, So I surrender all!”

IDK...let me know what you think...I enjoy getting feedback.

Early Morning Bible Study

This morning I was sitting in my dad’s truck, just reading my Bible before class. I just opened up my Bible and it fell to Hosea. Hosea was commanded to take a prostitute at wife. As I read these verses about how Hosea was to name his children, Jezreel,

" 4 Then the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel’.”

I saw this in sorts as Hosea took this harlot, in the same way as Israel was given to harlotry with other gods. I have tried to take all that I have learned and somehow apply it to my life in some way. One way that I can see this in our daily lives is when we give ourselves to things other than God. Our fleshy lusts, which command our attention from the One Who should be getting out full attention; our “gods” that take the place of Him.

Notepad blogging. Sunday. No Half-Jobs from HIM!

April 19, Sunday:
Today was awesome, I got to lead worship with Jac and Laura; they did a really good job. We played guitars tonight, we did a couple songs that we weren't too familiar with, but I think we did a really good job. ALL PRAISE TO GOD! He saw us through. I played for all the songs and Jac and Laura switched on and off of the other guitar...half way through the main set of songs my wrist started KILLING me. It was hurting so bad I started messing up; and I thought I wouldn't be able to play the rest of the songs, but like I said, "God saw us through." I prayed that I would be at least be able to finish the songs, that God would slow the spread of the pain till after service, but the amazing happened...have you ever noticed that when God does something, He does it perfectly? Like He never does a half-job? Have you ever noticed that?...OK back to the story...the amazing happened when I was about to stop and give up, starting to believe that this was a sign from God wanting me to stop, when my wrist hurt so bad that I couldn't actually bend it...the pain stopped...not like stopped spreading, but stopped...ceased to indwell my arm, wrist and hand. It was amazing...but that's not all folks, we were playing the song "Give Us Clean Hands" and I have been experimenting with doing different bar chords from different octives to change the sound up a little bit, but none of the standard chords were sounding right at all. Generally that is a sign that there is a problem with tuning...or the player. And since I tuned the guitar with a tuner just before playing, I knew it had to be me. But once again I felt this feeling to move out of my comfort zone (...into the realm of the unknown, were Jesus is, and He's holding out His hands...) and try something I have been learning and practicing for months. I prayed before doing this change, and God blessed me once again with this ability, and IT SOUNDED GOOD! So...have you ever noticed that when God does something, He does it perfectly? Like He never does a half-job? Have you ever noticed that?

Our God,
Is an awesome God,
He reigns...

Check this video out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lvTsn32pWg

Tiring Day at Church.

I was tired today...what else is new? Like really? I'm always tired. Partly because my body clock is all messed up and I can't fall asleep until after 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning and also cause I wake up so early at 6:00 every day. The other part of my tiredness is the fact that I am STILL sick (probably because I'm not getting enough rest). I was supposed to plan out worship for this week and I forgot partly and didn't have the time when I remembered. So because I dropped the ball on this one Jac ended up helping me out and planning the whole thing (which I feel very bad about cause it was my responsibility and I messed up.).

It was pretty hard to sing this morning, I am not really that great of a singer anywaz, but with a cold it is worse. The morning service went well, Mike helped me out a ton in one of the songs that there was a guy and girl part...evening service was a challenge, I ended up running sound board and because I didn't have the songs prepared I did not know what transitions I had to do. But through it all God did what He does and despite my failures His message came through. Don't worry I'm not taking this as an excuse for not having to fulfill my responsibilities but that despite my short comings my God is there to back me up.

That was the biggest lesson I learned, not having it all together really bugs me. And I don't like it at ALL! But God is teaching me more and more to trust Him that He WILL take care of me no matter WHAT challenge we are put through; we can overcome, if we let God take control.

Just ask "Please"

I had another boringly fun day today. (That seems redundant, "day today"...idk...it is I guess.) apart from that it wasn't too bad. I woke up at 9:00 after staying up late last night. I could not go to sleep so I ended up praying a lot. The last time I remember seeing on my phone was 2:30 something, like 2:34? I watched my little sister, Midge, from a lil' before 10:00 when my mom took Jeff down to work then went to the local school here to look at enrolling my little sister into nursery school. So during this time I went upstairs and played a little Merc 2 for an hour, and Midge told me instead of throwing the people out of the tanks...my little sister told me, "You don't need to grab him, you just ask PLEASE." She is such a saint-ess...not really.

I went to Awana after spending the day cleaning up my room some more. I picked up all the clothes and put the clean ones away. I don't know how I ever ended up with such a messy room...I always used to keep it clean...but I was always in it...now I am never in it and it keeps getting messy. Anywaz, at Awana I listened to my two guys. Unfortunately they did not have anything for me to sign tonight...and we never finished anything.

I got home and my brother who is married called. I talked to him for a good half hour or so about his modifications that he is making to his guitars. He is the one who got me into making my own. I had some good times talking with a couple of my very good friends tonight...and late into this morning. (As it is currently 12:30a.m. as I write/type this.) But after the neutral day I had today (referring to Wednesday) this morning (Thursday) I have had a good lesson. Talking about relationships, and who is first in them...is it the other person...or is it God?

Yorkshire!

Man, it was so awesome to see everybody at Yorkshire tonight. We had a double service at my church which includes, Sunday school, service, a lunch (we are good baptists!), and then another service. This was our associate pastor's last Sunday before going to pastor a church in Ithaca. So our afternoon/evening was free. Our pastor's oldest son wanted to go to see our friends in Yorkshire but we had planned not to go untill the 22nd...which happens to be long after they leave. To solve this problem, our good friend came up with a solution that worked pretty well...we would go down on their last Sunday here! So we did! It was awesome.

The trip over was pretty bad because the fog was so thick and the lovely driver in front of me from my church didn't have her lights on..."they are automatic." she said with the helpless bat of the eyes..."Well, your taillights arn't, and I couldn't see you." I said firmly but not angrily. We did arrive 4 minutes late, but not bad because the lights were off and they were watching the movie about Mark Zook and his missions with the Mouk people in Paupa New Guinea. We all shuffled in and sat in front of 3 of my best friends from that church, one of them was actually leaving that Sunday night to go back to Appalachian Bible College. It was awesome to see how God worked that out so we could hang out with all those awesome people there!

A day off and STILL lessons to be learned.

Today, Monday, was a very average day with nothing happening out of the ordinary, involving very average people to whom nothing ever extraordinary ever happened too....but since THAT is INCREDIBLY boring, I will tell you about my day...which is just as boring (besides, I don't know what happened to those people anywaz!)

Today I did not have college, so I stayed home to help my dad finish the floors. We spent from 12:30 till about 3:30 finishing the floors...after a while the smell doesn't bother you. Its actually kinda bad...but still. My dad edged everything and I coated the large areas. We worked pretty fast and got the first coat on quickly only to have to wait...again. So...my mom, brother and sister left to stay at my grandparents for the week and I am staying here at my house with my dad to work on the floors.

The smell finally died down about 6-ish and the floor started drying. They look really good. We have a few more coats to put on before it is complete. My dad wants at least 4 coats...that way we can at least use up the extra finish we have.

I did have the privilege to talk to some of my best friends today. Two of them are siblings and are like family to me. It was good talking to them. We ended up talking about how the standards of today's teen generation have declined; how the standards have lowered so much as to say, "God wants us to have fun." That is sad...sad and sickening. My one friend, who I call my lil' sis', was sad because of the state this "Christian" teen population seems to be no different from the world.

Tell me what you think. I want feedback on this. Please leave me a comment, it may help me...it may help some one else.

Recap...busy 3 days!

the last three days I have done NOTHING at home. Really, I have come home to eat and sleep...pretty bad...I'll start on with the first day I didn't blog.

Friday.
I had my art class today, from 12:30 till 4:30; the roads were pretty bad and I was surprised that school wasn't canceled at all (it should have been!). I handed in 3 of the compositions I made and got an A-, B, and a C. The one I got a C on was kinda lame...but I still handed it in. I bought the game Mercenaries 2: World in Flames and its a pretty cool game. It is a 3rd person, free-roaming, shoot-em-up; that lets you pick from 3 different characters. I played that game for an hour or so before going to hockey at the church with my friends at 7. By the time hockey was over the weather actually got pretty good, and other than a hockey stick to the throat and the ball hitting me just below the ribs in my stomach...I think I did pretty good not getting hurt. That was all I did on Friday because by the time I got home my brother Jeff had been playing Mercenaries 2 for the whole time I was gone and then late into the morning...keeping me awake might I also add.

Saturday.
My Saturday consisted of cleaning my room a lil bit, playing a lil more Mercenaries 2, and going over to my friend's house to watch the Buffalo Sabres take on the New York Rangers. There was probably 10 of us there including their fam. and we just kinda hung out till everybody get there and the game to start. The game was pretty good...no fights though. Sabres 4 Rangers2 final. Miller got hurt cause of Gomez there...so should have been a penalty for hitting the goalie...rvthw. I didn't get to leave till real late cause some of the girls who had come, blocked me in and wouldn't leave...SOOOOO irritating! I went out of my way to go to the bank to activate my debit card, so I could buy gas for the truck. So I get it activated at the ATM and take like $20 out of my account to make sure it works...then go across the street to buy gas at the 24 hour pay at the pump station...and it denies the sale! I could NOT believe it. I drove home praying that I wouldn't run out of gas...and I didn't. God did provide! In fact I never saw the gas gauge move at all...and it is at least a 45 min drive, going an average of 55 mph. I ended up getting home Sunday morning.

It is kinda funny about me driving around at midnight with no gas...because previously to me living at my current house, my parents owned a farm that we all worked on. One day I was sent out to mow hay with our 4250 John Deere and an International disk-bine. I didn't think to look at the gas gauge...well actually diesel...before I left the farm...I drove to the field I needed to cut and looked at the gauge only to see the gauge pinned to "E" and the "Need Fuel" light was on...being young...I didn't know what to do...should I continue and finish mowing the hay and then return home...or go home and refuel. Well I thought my dad would be made at me if I went home without finishing the work, (money was VERY tight and we couldn't afford burning anymore fuel than he absolutely NEEDED to) so I tried to finish the work. Now the field I was mowing was pretty good size. It ended up taking me about 2 and 1/2 hours to finish it. I was praying the entire time for God NOT to let me run out of fuel. Well, I finished the field, got home, drove to the fuel tanks and turned off the tractor, and went to pump fuel in the tank. I looked in to not only see it empty...COMPLETELY empty, but also dry. BONE DRY! The way it gets because the fuel is gone and the engine heat is warming up the tank and evaporating all the moisture...there was no fuel in the tank...it was empty...and had been...probably for about an hour and a half. This was not the making of the John Deere, engineers...THIS WAS GOD. He made it possible for this stupid little 16 year old to make it home running on prayer.

Sunday.
Like I said, I got home early this morning, and got up at 7...to take my bro, Jeff, down to work at the store. I went to church and it was very good...but I forgot to ask Pastor Mike for the sermon notes...rats!...I'll ask him some other time I guess. But anywaz...we, me and my fam, went out to eat after church, and got some stuff at Lowe's before going home. After I got home I played a lil Merc 2 before picking Jeff up from the store and then heading over to church to play Lacrosse and hockey again with some local kids. We all ended up staying till evening service were I ran the sound board and al that fun stuff.

Snow, skiing, falling,...and God?

Today I had another fun day of skiing with my friends at Holiday Valley. Having only been skiing a total of 9 times in my life, I have been able to land pretty big jumps and the such. Quite fun really. I must have gone down the terrain park next to Cindy's Run a dozen times or so...each time getting a lil better at the 3 big table-tops there. Overall skiing was good...not too cold, the snow was good too, and we skied most of the daylight away.

I fell many times in my attempt to hit those jumps and go places...but just like real life; we fall before we succeed. Sometimes we never succeed at that one thing we really want to do; but that means it was never to be.

After all I did today, I was reminded about how in life, we don't succeed. Yes, I know, I kinda covered that, but stay with me. Today I was reminded of a friendship that I have with one of my old schoolmates. He hates me...plain and simple. For the longest time I have tried to repair this friendship with him, and every time I think I have it right...he cuts himself off from me, and alienates himself. I see that if I want a change in him; I cannot make it. I need to rely fully on God to make the change.