The Mansion.

The infamous mansion next to Beulah Beach. Supposedly the guy that lives here invented the drop ceiling tiles.

Surrender!

A surrendered life is an empowered life. An empowered life is a life that expects the miraculous.

If you are from Nappanee Missionary, you have probably heard that saying. But, what does that mean?

Well let me back up and talk about hiding from God. It was recently said by a SH Youth Pastor that when you hide your sin from God, the only thing you are doing is hurting yourself. God sees all, and he knows about it. By us bringing sin out of hiding, we are being open and honest in front of God. Only then can we experience true freedom in Christ.

In my journey in the last week of finding my way back to seeking God with all my heart, I realized something about surrendering my rights, my desires, my dreams, and my will.
Its only when we get to the point of wanting to give everything over to God, and trusting in him to provide for us that we will experience true freedom in Christ.
Its funny to me that dealing with sin and surrender can involve the same steps. But, at the same time, its so elementary. For some reason, I'm once again reminded of this passage that has been popping into my life all summer long:

Matthew 6
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We worry about our sin. We worry about our rights, our desires, our dreams, and our wills. Its time we surrender. The One who we battle with is a lot bigger than us, and He's actually on our side. Sign away everything... all of your sin and all of the things you think you need or you think God has for you. Then you can live in freedom, and fight with, and not against God.

What is holding you back? Have you counted the cost? Do you truly want to seek after God with all of your heart? I know both sides of this story. And frankly, I'm learning that this picture is were I am free.
I really need to remember this post. Somebody please ask me how I'm doing from time to time.

Why So Serious?

Really big screen + Batman = Good Stuff
Maybe I'll see it again soon.

My journey at camp.

I want to share the things I wrote down at camp. If you want to know more, talk to me in person. Its just that I don't want my fingers to fall off.
I feel like I'm one of these stones cut out of the quarry and used as a breaker. Ever so slowly as the waves beat against me, I'm being wore down. there is nothing i can do about it because I am stuck in place. I wonder if being stuck in place is keeping me from pursuing God with reckless abandon. Or is where I am where I am supposed to be so God can smooth the edges a little bit more?

Does my heart and mind purposefully focus on something I can't have? Or is it that I pervert the things that God desires for me? How do I start with a clean slate?

What is keeping me from the direction God wants me to go in my life?

Why do I worry so much? Why do I worry about what others think, what I think others think? What can I do about this?

Are there lies that I'm buying into that I don't fully know of yet? What about the lies I do know of? What do I have put in place to combat these lies?

Am I surrendering to God the things in my life I think I need? Daily? Hourly? At a moment's notice?

Am I not necessarily stuck, but not just fully aware of my role in life?

Back from camp.

Well, I'm back from Senior High Summer Camp. More details to come, but for now, a story about the trip home.
I was driving a church van and trailer on the Ohio turnpike and got slowed up by some congested traffic... rumor has it Obama was in the area. All of the sudden, I saw this:
I then got into the left lane and saw this:
I couldn't contain myself. I had to call the one and only Hoss to let him know that it was just a little way behind him. It only me calling 4 leaders to track him down.

Random thought

As we were setting up for Summer Camp in Ohio yesterday, I had a random thought... how much am I worth? I know, I know, for those of you who have the privilege of knowing me are thinking right now, "You cant put a price on that!!" To that I say, thank you, but seriously, how much am I worth if I cashed my weight in gold?

Well, to figure this out follow me back to elementary math. First of all, you need to know that there are 16 ounces in a pound. Secondly, you need to know the weight of the subject in question...I just weighed in at 185 pounds(random comment.... Thanks to the no pop challenge I'm 20 pounds lighter). Thirdly, you need to know the price of gold. As of this morning gold is around $919.77, but has been dropping, so we will round down to $900 for the sake of this experiment.

16 x 185 = 2960
2960 x 900 = $2,664, 000

I'm worth a decent amount in Gold. And by the way, those 20 pounds just lost me $288,000.

p.s. in the 15 minutes I took to post this, gold dropped to $914.40. Better buy quickly!!

Oh, Canada...

Happy Canada Day!

Fishing excursion

So, it was a pretty decent day fishing at the lake. It was eerie the at first with the dense fog; it was if I was in a whole new world. I took a few sample shots representing each of the types of fish that I caught.

I'm back.

It is so go to be back home. It was a good trip... pics and whatnot to come later.

Blogcation.

I'm not kidding anyone here... its not a blogcation, its just a time where I won't feel like posting. Reason is, I will be probably spending a little time next week here.

A mini rant.

I'm a big fan of M. Night Shyamalan. There hasn't been a single movie of his I didn't like. I'm tired of hearing all these people complaining that his movies don't do what they expect them to do. This guy creates his own movies, and if you can't enjoy his creations, then too bad. I think far too often people will see a movie trailer and go to the movie with preconceived notions about what is going to happen and when they are wrong, they complain about it. How many people out there are creating something new, not a remake of a 70's horror movie, a remake of some other movie, a comic book or a sequel (to milk the money out of the franchise)?

With that being said, I loved The Happening. It definitely warrants the rated "R" status... not for the faint of heart.

Random pics from DCGO retreat

What do a bunch of guys do at 7 in the morning at Prairie Camp?

Disappointed

I miss Henschen's that used to be at the corner of S.R.19 and C.R.50. It was so convenient to have a good gas station near by. They sold to store to some other people, and they didn't keep it running. For the past two or three months, the have been closed. However, they still had the price of $3.03 on the sign. It had been regular entertainment for me to watch people pull up, attempt to pump gas, head to the door to go inside and say something is wrong with the pump, only to realize that no one is there and they are closed. Of course, I go to take a picture today and realize they took the price down.

Mountain Dew Challenge

I suppose its time for me to weigh in on this go-round. Day 44 of no pop is coming to an end. My arch-nemesis of the challenge wussed out ages ago. I have no real reason to keep going on. At this point, I would consider it an honor to lose to the other two contestants, but alas, I will press on.
Here's to another 31 days...

The Team

Here is the DCGO Team ... New Life and NMC combined:
I'm excited about this trip for several reasons:

• The personal testimonies of these kids are amazing. We've heard stories of growing up in the religion of church, stories of hurt in relationships, lost loved ones, doing a good job of "going through the motions", and battles with depression. It is so clear to see the Christ has showed up and even wrecked these kids for the Kingdom.
• There has been a difficult time securing some of the other leaders for this trip. I think God has a purpose and a plan behind it and it is going to be awesome to see it play out.
• These kids have no clue what there are signed up for... I can't wait to see God show up in mighty ways this next week.
• This is my fifth trip like this, and I have no clue what I signed up for (I do, but I don't)... each trip is different and I can't wait to see what God wants to show me on this trip about my life, my relationship with him, and my calling in life.

Ways to pray for this trip...

1. First of all, pray for Pastor Jason. Pray that he would take this time to continue to heal physically, as he won't be going with us. With that pray that he would not be discouraged as a result of not going, and that God would just take this time to speak to him in a new way.
2. Pray for Pastors Chris and Brad. Ask that God with give the them wisdom and clarity to lead this group of students. Along with them, Pray for Kelsey Bullock, Katelynn Miller, Peggy Bearss, Leslie Yoder, Craig Helfrich, Dustin Gill, and myself. Pray that we too would have the wisdom to ask the right questions to our students and to be patient with them.
3. Pray that the students will understand that success is obedience to God... nothing more, nothing less.
4. Pray that comfort zones will be stepped out of. Pray that we are put into situations where God has to show up, or we look like a bunch of failures.
   
5. Pray for clarity for all of us to realize the divine appointments that are set before us.
   

All is well

I feel as if Nappanee is complete again.


Now if we can get one of these, it would be next to Heaven on Earth.

Umm...

Wow.

Where has Jeff been in the last week?

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.
Psalm 42:11

Part one...check.

Part two...check.

Part three...Boo-Yah!

The List

Ok. Time for a list.
I've been contemplating this for a while, but there are some things I want to do this sumer and year. So, with out further ado, here are some things I want to do this year.
1. Go fishing with my boat at least six times: One of those with my dad.
2. Go golfing at least three times. If I go, its usually only twice.
3. Make it to a cubs game at Wrigley Field: never been there.
4. Head up to Chicago again to go see Wicked, Stomp, Blue Man Group, or something of the like.
5. Sell my car. I'm tired of it sitting in my drive way. As soon as I put an alternator in it, its go time.
6. Learn to play guitar.
7. Take more time to spend more time alone with God time. This one will happen. I'm tired of being shallow in my relationship with Christ. Along with that, I want to work on my journaling. I suck at it, so really there is either only room for improvement, or no change at all. I want the former over the latter.
8. Speak less. I want to be able to learn from those around me and not just say thing to say things.
9. Go wake boarding at least once.
10. Ride jet skis at least twice.

So long, Showplace

Last night I was hanging out with a couple of gentlemen, both of drinking age. We were going to go see Prince Caspian, a rated PG movie. Apparently after 9pm on Friday and Saturday, anyone looking under the age of 25 has to show i.d. I suppose we'd be ok if everyone had their i.d.'s with them, but they didn't. Still, a stupid rule.

I won't be going back anytime soon.