Jenna's visit:

first i had to pick her up in chicago.






















here's us walking in front of navy pier in chicago.











it rained one day - so we played in it.






on her last night here we went out to dinner.












then we killed some time at the river front.

iowa, dish, room-mates, and a strange girl named jenna.

well, as many of you know i'm currently in iowa and my time here has been educational. it hasn't been easy, by any stretch of the imagination, but it has been good. about a week ago i was having a hard time. selling door to door, to me, is a very emotionally demanding job. but as i was thinking one day before we went out, philippians 4 has somethings to say about being anxious - which was exactly how i feel.

(6) Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (7) And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (8) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

it wasn't the 'don't be anxious' part that was groundbreaking, it was the understanding that all three of these verses are back-to-back. this is not a lofty observation, but rather a very simple one that until now i had never grasped. the way i understand these verses is that when i give my anxious heart over in prayer, i should replace those worrisome thoughts with the things in verse 8 (true, noble, right...) then the peace of God will guard my heart and mind.

on a lighter note, a girl i met at bible college and i have started dating. her name is jenna and she's great. you can find out more about her by visiting her blog. the link is jennaturner.blogspot.com

these are some of the many things that i have been thinking through recently. what has been on your mind? i'd be curious to know what's been happening in your life, so fill me in.

hey,
as most of you know i'm now in iowa, but before i get into what i'm doing now - here's a picture storyline of what's been going on to get me here.






my favorite picture of my dad.













one of my teachers in class.







the last week of school












cleaning our room at the end of the semester.










then i went home to california for a week.









then it was back to michigan for a couple of days on my way here to iowa.







so, that how i ended up here in iowa. i'll be here all summer selling dish network and directv door to door.


so that's my life, what's yours been like? leave a comment and let me know what's been going on for you.

3 Days Left!!!!

today, saturday and then 'd-day'. sure i won't be landing on omaha beach - but i feel like i'll be in a firefight.

i finally have a topic to talk about, after about 2 weeks of tossing and turning. i'll be sharing out of John 6:68-69 where Peter makes a great profession about Jesus. i'm not going to tell you what that profession was, in hopes that you'll be curious enough to look it up yourself.

my friend matt is speaking today at his old high school, and this is a great opportunity for the word of God to go out. be praying for him as well as the kids who will be listening.

the question for today is if you could pick a song to sing that speaks of the word of God (it's power, awesomeness, grace, influence), what song would it be?

feelin' the heat

i feel the darkness closing in around me....

five days left until sunday and man, i'm already nervous. i worked on my message yesterday, but lots more work needs still to be done. i'm sitting down with pastor byron on wednesday night to go over it with him, so hopefully that will help ease my anxiety. please keep in prayer - that i would be diligent in compiling the message and that most of all - that i'd be learning to trust God and rest in the supreme power that He has to accomplish what wants. it's Christ in me.







this is pastor byron preaching on sunday, with debbie our music leader sitting in the back










here i am, with ryan on the drums and mitch on the bass, playing music one sunday morning




(by the way both these photos were taken last christmas, thus the tree in the background. i misplaced one of the cables for my camera, so i can't upload any photos from it until i find that cable - which, knowing me, could very well be in 13 1/2 years.)


so todays question is:
1. if you could talk to a bunch of people and tell them whatever you wanted, what would you say?

this week was crazy, but i'll keep it short.

on wednesday i had the opportunity to sharpen my oratory skills as i gave a 10 minute message in my oral communications class. it was a little stressful, since my fellow classmates were evaluating and critiquing me, but despite that, it was a good thing to do. i have the recording of the message, and i'll try to put it up here so those of you who are interested can hear it.

then this last saturday i went climbing at Grand Ledge a spot about an hour north of my school here in Jackson.the wall were a little on the short side, about 35' - 45' depending on the spot, but we all had a good time climbing and hanging out.




here i am repelling down a wall after i set the anchors at the top.







here i'm working on a 5.10b route that proved to be a little bit to hard for me - this time....






my friend joel climbing one of the few boulder problems.





we had a great time though. the weather was nice and the company was amazing. hanging out all day sandwiched in between a beautiful river and a sandstone cliff with great friends is one of my definitions of paradise.

post-spring break

this has been a good week. we've been off from school this past and i had the opportunity to do some traveling.

(sun-mon)
i first headed up to Bath, MI with a room-mate of mine to hang out with his family for a couple of days. it was awesome up there. his dad built their house himself, but the coolest part is it's a log cabin. it was quite possibly one of the coolest houses i've ever been in.
(tues)
after that i came back home and did a little bit of 'work' - and by work, i mean the YMCA paid me to play lazer tag against a bunch of 8-10 year olds. i have an awesome job. truth be told, when that day was over i was so sore from running around and evading those little punks i could barely get up and down the stairs.
(wed)
ahhhh, my day. i didn't have any plans or things i had to do - it was awesome. it was truly the one relaxing day of the break since there was nothing on the schedule. i did get to go bowling that night with a guy from the youth group and i had a good time.
(thurs-fri)
chicago. we drove from jackson to chicago to visit some friends at moody and check out the school too. i liked the school for the most part and the people there seemed really friendly. we walked around downtown (and it was freezing) and did a little shopping (where i bought my first v-neck shirt). later we picked up some chicago style pizza (a must) and hit a basketball game (not the bulls unfortunately).
(sat.)
i watched the final four. (north carolina's looking mighty strong)

some things i've been thinking about recently:
1. can someone's standards for marriage be too high?
2. how i wish i understood my need better.
3. how i'm going to pay for school.
4. why do jeeps retain their resale value? (because i want one and they're stinking expensive)

let me know what you're thinking here