Yes, I'm back.

Its been a crazy past three weeks. 1. New York for NYGO. 2. The work week on steroids, and purchasing this... My new baby, a 2000 Jeep Cherokee Sport. She needs a name, so come take a ride with me to help me name her.

3. Senior/Junior High Summer Camps. with all of that done now, I have the opportunity to actually slow back down to normal summer pace.

Summer Camps were great. My favorite non-spiritual highlights were:

• Driving a jet ski for the first time in my life
• paint balling with the students
• Seeing my creation in all its glory:

492 20oz Gatorade bottles and 28-30 rolls of duct tape in the raft, 15 bottles for each of the four oars. It was an awesome view to watch the cardboard boat races.

• Finally getting to ride Maverick on my third trip to Cedar Point for the summer

Its taking me a while to process the Spiritual highlights. Some of them are:

• Be careful when praying prayers... God may just answer them (like help in not being selfish)
• Praying in the prayer room at 3 a.m. after Cedar Point.
• Remembering to play like a child every once and a while

I was reminded once again how fun it is to work with Jr Highers. I love that you can earn their respect and get into their lives through being silly and they think you are the coolest. Something as simple as a pig hat can do wonders. So can catching a bird bare-handed.

I think God is on the move in my life. I feel like a brand new person as a result NYGO and camps. I've been making some mall adjustments here and there in my life, and it feels good. I'm excited to see what God is going to do next.

random text message

I've gotten random texts messages before, but sometimes you get cool ones. Apparently to no fault of the texter, I have no concrete idea as to who it was, but they asked for a scripture verse reference. So, maybe texting isn't completely of the devil

Investigate

Investigate my life and make me clean

Shine upon the darkest place in me

To you my life's an open book

So turn the page and take a look

Upon the life you've made

Always, my days, I'll praise

Verse of the day

Today's verse comes out of Psalms with the designation 42:11... Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Encouraged

Tonight, I went to a prayer meeting for the Senior High student ministries. It was encouraging. Very encouraging. I was encouraged to see students taking time out of their Sunday night to come together as one and lift up their youth group, their friends, their families and everything else. I was encouraged by the leaders that I got to pray with. I'm encouraged to see what God is going to do at summer camp. I'm encouraged to see what God is going to do in the upcoming year in the lives of students. I'm encouraged to see what God is going to do in my life in the coming months.

An update, A soapbox, and A couple bottles of Gatorade.

Well, I'm back from New York City. Nie Go (New York Go) was an incredible trip. (Insert sentence here...)

I'm sitting here with a little Fierce Grape and Berry as i am recouping from another run/bike excursion. Hopefully I didn't try to overdo it this time. It was just me and my friend Jennifer this time around. And now I'm listening to Andrew. That should tell you I'm in a somewhat quieter mood.

I learned a few things as a result of my trip. I still don't like talking to complete strangers. I felt like I was a complete failure at times as a leader. Sometimes for good reason. I allowed myself to not stay connected to God like I should have. I don't like the fact that I think about being lonely. I feel like I am perpetually never going to figure out this Christ follower thing.

On the other hand I learned that there is nothing I can ever do on my own power to "arrive." I learned that when I am connected to God pretty cool things happen through me.

Now, all two of you that read this are probably thinking, "That's some pretty elementary stuff to be learning there, Jeff." Well... it probably is. I learn something, and then for some reason, I end up forgetting it. It seems to me that the people had that problem in the Old Testament as well. Could it be that i am normal? Hmm... The verdict is still out on that.

Anyways, my main take away from my trip is that in order to be an authentic Christ-follower and an authentic witness, I need to continually spend time connecting with God through time with Him. The best way for me to do this would be to do so in the morning. To accomplish this, I need to work on (gulp) Discipline. Along with TawG time and a habit of continually prayer, I need to work on listening better, encouraging, to name a few.

Now I feel like I want to complain or something but I can't do it. I guess I could simply use perpetual prayer. I don't know how to deal with loneliness. I could go into more detail, but I'll let you ask me. I'm going to go pray about it, since i just reminded myself to do so.

I've been tagged.

I've been tagged. You are supposed to put your Ipod on shuffle and write down the first 15 songs. So, here it goes.

1. Fishy by Philmore from Philmore
2. There Is A River by Jars of Clay from Good Monsters
3. Lonely Nation by Switchfoot from Nothing Is Sound
4. Nothing To Say by Andrew Peterson from Carried Along
5. Spinnin' Round by PFR from Goldie's Last Day
6. Take by Skillet from Hey You, I Love Your Soul
7. Love Life by Cross Movement from Human Emergency
8. Let it Rain by Newsboys from Going Public
9. Old West[Demo] by Five Iron Frenzy from The Cheeses of Nazareth
10. Easier Than Love by Switchfoot from Nothing Is Sound
11. Can't Get Away by Rush Of Fools from Rush Of Fools
12. Sure Shot by The O.C. Supertones from Chase The Sun
13. Raise a Voice by Matt Redman from Facedown
14. You Do All Things Well by Chris Tomlin from Arriving
15. You Put This Love In My Heart by Kieth Green from Kieth Green: The Ministry Years Vol. 1 - 1977-1979

I have to be honest (A) I'm not a fan of the whole shuffle concept, and (B) The very first time I hit shuffle I had three songs from the same worship compilation. Now that wasn't very shuffle like.

Sweatin' to the Oldies

So Monday night I actually went for a run. Yes, I just said I went for a run. Its amazing the things you'll do when you get kicked out of your place of residence for a while. Along with me, I had the opportunity to listen to some good old friends.


I've been having conversations with different people about the Christian music of the mid to late 90's. I don't know if I'm being nostalgic or what, but I think that this is the best era of Christian music. Argue with me all you want, but I'm sure I'm right. I mean who can be better than groups like:

Five Iron Frenzy
Poor Old Lu

Black Eyed Sceva

BleachJohnny Q. Public

... and I could go on. But I think I got my point across. Feel free to argue with me, or add other bands to the mix.

Saved by the Bell

So lately I've been on a Rob Bell kick. Since buying the number NOOMA 014, I, along with one of my esteemed housemates have been plowing through the previous installments.

I recently bought an Ipod. It took me a while to rip all of my cd's and then put them on there, but I think I'm done. This is exciting because I'm now delving into the world of pod casting. This has been something I've wanted to do for some time. I'm probably behind the time, but I just listen to Rob Bell's message on Matthew 28 from April. For some reason, maybe because of where I am in this whole being a Christian... this message resonated with me. I think its awesome how God's timing is , even when it is simply hearing a message from some guy from some church called Mars Hill.

Redneck Locksmith

Today was a busy day off. I enjoyed seeing a friend who is in the Air Force and is home for a spell.

I got to do some random running around, including picking up this. I've heard Rob speak on this at a National Youthworkers Convention in '02, I think. Good stuff.

Went out to Prairie Camp, to take some pics of the 1st and 2nd graders at Summer Camp. I tell you what... I spent a few hours out there, it felt like a few days. I can't imagine how the counselors handled it. Here are a few shots from it...

These are a pair of my house guests. It was fun to see these guys in action. From what I observed and what I heard, these guys were incredible.

I went to the parent's for a bit, then ended up going back to Prairie Camp to watch a little NMC church league softball. I got to take a few pics there as well. Afterwards, a certain senior happened to lock his keys in his truck. After an hour, two screwdrivers, a broken yardstick, and a coat hanger, we got his door open.

What a weekend

This has been a crazy long weekend.

NYGO retreat... good stuff.

Work at the church.

Accident at the intersection by the house... staying up late praying and turning traffic around.

Sleeping in because of staying up late, but not as late as others.

Church and work.

Hang with the parents.

Two open houses for graduates.

Partially attending church tonight.

Witnessing the aftermath of another probably deadly accident a mile and a half down the road.


What I've been reminded of this weekend...

God's goodness and faithfulness.

People need to be more careful on the road.

Update

Here is an update. Stop pestering me about updating... it only cheapens the pure creativity and the thrill and enjoyment of an original post. See? This is a bad post on my behalf.

Six Flags

On Thursday, I went to Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia. Its been a while since I 've been to a theme park other than Cedar Point or Kings Island, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to do so.

Superman The Escape
Deja Vu

Those were just a sample of the rides. Moat of the rides there were nothing that Cedar point or King's Island wouldn't have. However, there are two rides they have that are pretty sweet.

This is Tatsu. What is so cool about this ride is that your seat gets turned over so you are lying down as if you are flying.

This is X. This ride has seats that flip according to where the train is on the track.

Until the sun goes down over Santa Monica Boulevard...

So, I suppose I should continue where I left off... almost a week ago. After I got settled in at the Hotel Wednesday, I tried to figure out what I was going to do. I decided to head up to Santa Monica to catch a movie at the theatre. From there, I drove down the Boulevard to try to catch the sunset off of the Santa Monica Pier.
Unfortunately, I forgot a little fact; the sun actually sets behind the hills:
It still made for good pics, I suppose. I took a bunch once I got there. here are some of my favorites...

For supper, I decided to hit this joint:

Its kinda hard to take a good picture by yourself, as you can see.

It was a good little outing. What was also great was I got to do this all before watching Lost.

Home again in Indiana

Well, I had all the best intentions to keep posting, but as you can see , it didn't go that way. I was in the middle of a post when I thought my Laptop crashed. Luckily, I had realized it was only that the battery had ran out. (I plugged it into a lamp that had outlets, which was fine until I turned the switch to the outlet that the lamp was plugged into, off.)

So, I suppose I have some catching up to do in the next bit.

From K.C. to L.A.

Well, time for more of the Journey. Last night, Anthony and I indeed got our Teahen shirts. We also had pretty sweet seats. However, we saw this for two hours longer than anticipated;Finally the rain let up. Before it did, some idiot had to play slip'n'slide, followed by being dogpiled and arrested by several police officers. He got a good cheer out of most everyone there, along with these people: I totally forgot to mention that the Sox won Monday night. They won Tuesday as well. The only other thing out of the norm was this: That's right, its Dave the Horn Guy. He did Take Me Out to the Ballgame. He got booed. A lot.

Now on to L.A.

Does this make you feel better about prices in Indiana?

Too tired to post more.... more to come.

Waiting

I'm currently waiting to board my flight to LAX here in Kansas City. Yay for free Internet. For now, here is something to ponder.

Ghengis Khan and Royalty

So, yesterday I got to eat at this wonderful establishment.Its a stir fry place not unlike The FlatTop Grill. Good stuff.


The main event for yesterday was witnessing this:

By the way, if you didn't know already, I like taking pictures. With that said, here are a few more shots from last night:
A little pre-game stretching.
A.J. Pierzynski attempting something.The 2nd baseman on my fantasy team, Mark Grudzielanek.

Southpaw Mark Buehrle in mid-throw.

Let's just say those aren't sinks.

Tonight Anthony and I are going back to catch another game. Tonight's is T-shirt Tuesday, with the promotional item being the t-shirt jersey of No. 24, Mark Teahen. Its supposed to storm tonight, so hopefully the game will still be played.

Chillin' in a coffeehouse

So, the trip to Kansas City was fun and pretty smooth. Yesterday was the first time in seven years to fly... before 9/11. I was a little frazzled at the airport. I had no clue what to do, so luckily I just followed exactly what the dude in front of me did. Its weird to see everyone scurrying to take off their belts and their shoes in order to get past the TSA checkpoint.

There's nothing like having a nosebleed out of the blue, and right before boarding the plane.

I experienced the new rollercoaster feel once again. I was completely uneasy as we were sitting on the runway prior to taking off. Once we actually starting moving, all uneasiness was gone.

The ride was actually pretty turbulent. I don't think the Captain ever took the fasten seat belt sign off.

My first impression of the KC area is that its so green. I don't quite know how to explain it, but its like the whole landscape and the area is alive.

Time for some pics:

My first rental car, the Mazda 3 (Its still new)
Sweet nectar of life at the Jerusalem Cafe. (My first in over three months)

A Bluetooth earpiece that lost its owner. (Score one for humanity.)

A small glimpse of the Country Club Plaza - a pretty sweet area of businesses and whatnot right next to the apartment complex where my good friend Anthony resides.
Scooter's Coffeehouse - where Anthony works and where this long post is originating from.

Well, I mean to post something more profound, but there is still plenty of time this week for that. Until then, happy blogging.

Hello from Kansas City

A picture is worth a thousand words... figure this one out for yourself.

Ready now.

I'm ready to be on my way... well at least at want to be. Between the desire to watch the Subway 500, straightening up the homestead, hopefully packing at some point for tomorrow, and certainly not the least of these preparing for NYGO class, I'm going to be up for awhile tonight. It seems like a fitting ending to a crazy week before a vacation.

Dang it, I just thought of something to post, but I need to work on it yet. Who knows, Maybe I'll post it from a Coffee shop in Kansas City.

Dreams.

Anyone have whacked out dreams? Here's one for you: I don't remember all of it, but I remember delivering camel sandwiches to several offices around a plaza. Later on, I noticed everybody in reverent worship, be it weeping, singing, and whatnot while that song by Casting Crowns... "Voice of Truth" was playing. I saw someone I haven't seen in 10 years who was crying, and gave him a big hug. He asked me why I did that. I told him that no matter what he had done he was loved. Probably the most outlandish part of the whole thing was that I was singing along with the song in a non-mocking manner.

Bored

Well, I had great intentions of getting to bed at a decent time, but I see Relient K is on Leno tonight.

Got the important stuff for my trip finalized and reserved, I'm a gettin' excited.

My favorite song of the latest Switchfoot album has a music video. Here it is...

The Illusionist

I finally got around to watching this movie. I've enjoyed Edward Norton in the movies that he's been in, so knowing that ahead of time, I knew it would be a good movie.

I wasn't disappointed.

The Illusionist could have been a movie by M. Night Shyamalan. Maybe its because I feel like I'm captivated by movies like this, or maybe its because I shut my brain off and was just entertained. I don't know, but I like this movie a lot, maybe more so than The Prestige.

I'm so discouraged.

While listening to Adam Sandler guest host the Late Show(which was pretty funny), I was scanning the world wide web in preparations for my vacation next month. I found a statement that just made me sad...

Due to the increased demand for tickets because of Mr. Barker’s retirement in June, there are no more March or April tickets available Online, by mail or in the Ticket Booth. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding.

Now that my life-long dreams are smashed to pieces, I'm open to suggestions for about three days of my vacation week.