Pulling Peaches

Node Daily Writers Wednesday, March 2, 2011 Topic: hallway

2011-03-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

They call it a “hallway,” I call it “my first journey.” The giants take it in a few short strides. My goal is to span it’s length without dying.

I’m a new soldier ant. I’m training to be a scout. It’s a pretty select group, only the best can join. But if you make it, you can stand out. That’s all I really care about. It’s so difficult to be in this colony, and just walk around as one of thousands. I want to be something memorable. I want to be like Cinco Bravo, the 5-legged scout from seven seasons ago. He brought back info on the greatest treasure trove of crumbs, crumbs of what the giants call “Goldfish”, that our colony has ever seen.

And being a scout isn’t just about finding good food, or warning the colony of an attack. It’s about coming back with a plan. It’s about finding the food, and the safest route to and from it. It’s about seeing the enemy, and knowing what they plan to do. Being a scout is the greatest thing a soldier like me can do.

I plan to do it. And this is my test. The “hallway.”

Node Daily Writers Tuesday, March 1, 2011 Topic: Detroit

2011-03-02T20:22:00.001-08:00

“Look, we’re not doing anything wrong.”

“That’s just it. We’re not doooing aaanything!”

“Hey, he put himself in this position. Why should we have to help?”

“Because he put himself in this position FOR US! If we hadn’t asked for it, if we hadn’t acted like we wanted him to continue, he’d be fine right now.”

“Well, he knew it was wrong. And he probably knew the consequences, so – “

“ – Horse shit! How could he have known the consequences any more than we did?!”

“I don’t know! Ok? Jeez. I just…I dunno. We can’t do anything to help him, or it would drag us down. It sucks that he’s the one suffering the consequences, but that’s what we’re left with now. We’ll just have to look at this as…a time of learning. See? There’s always a bright side.”

“Yeah, tell that to him while the disease eats away at his body. See if it comforts him to know that he’s nothing more than an example now. Great idea.”

They knew using telepathy to get what they wanted was wrong. They knew prolonged practice of going ‘bigger and better’ would eventually destroy the body, causing it to devour itself from the inside out. But they also knew their friend could control minds like nobody else. They knew he was one of the best assets their little community had. And they pushed him to do what he did best, and get them what they wanted. Then, when it had gone too far, they stepped back and let him take the blame. And the pain. And they did nothing.

Node Daily Writers Monday 2-24-11

2011-02-28T21:13:00.001-08:00

Topic: Academy

The best and worst day at the Academy was always the first. Every year some students would leave; some they missed, some they didn’t. But there were always new ones to meet.
That’s not the kind of sentimental crap Donny cared about though. Donny loved waiting to see what the new girl, or girls if he spent enough time in confession, would look like.
He would get there early, put his stuff away, and mill around the lockers near the elevators that brought everyone up to the high school floor of the Academy’s office building in downtown Dallas. He’d say hi to his friends, ignore the jerks, and stare at every girl that walked by. Then, he’d see her. She’d have a confused look about where to go. One of the other girls, usually someone she grew up with, would run over to her and scream and jump and hug, and walk her to her locker.
This was where the day tanked.
The new girl’s friend would walk her right past Donny, whisper something, and they’d giggle themselves over to the “Real Men.” That’s when he was reminded that he would never live down his freshman year.
The best and worst day, full of excitement, and seasoned with dashed hopes.

And Now I Write, Again (p 2/2)

2011-02-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

And Now I Write, Again (p 1/2)

2011-02-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

So, as usual with this thing, it's been a while since I've posted anything. I don't know, I just haven't really cared to write anything on here. But I have been writing. I've filled a journal, started a new one, and have plenty of notes all over the place. Another bit of writing I've begun is something called "Daily Writers" on the Node (I have to invite you to that if you want to join. Just let me know.), by the folks at Nerdist.com. The idea is, you get a prompt (usually a word or a phrase), and you write for ten minutes. And ten minutes only. That's it. It may not seem like much, but it really helps. It gets you writing quite often, and frees you from feeling like it has to be perfect. So that's what you'll find below; a whole bunch of imperfect writing. I plan to start posting these more regularly. This was a great idea from my great girlfriend. :) Ok, so, here goes!

Node Daily Writers Topic: White Collar

I never understood the phrases “white collar” and “blue collar.” I didn’t see the difference in the two. All those assholes walking in and out of my building wear both. It’s like their own personal uniform. Some sort of dark suit, a light one if they’re feeling especially fancy, and either a blue or white button up shirt with a perfectly clean collar. Most wear ties; the “rebels” don’t. I just wear my jumpsuit and boots, and clean up after their shit. That’s not a figure of speech. I actually clean up their shit. The kind of shit that a figure of speech would indicate isn’t anything I can take care of, at least not today. Someday, maybe. Maybe someday I’ll be asked to put on one of those suits and collars, and take care of business. For now, though, I’ll have to mull on without my collared shirt. That’s what it should be, “collars” and “no collars.” I’m a “no collar,” and I probably always will be. And I guess I’m fine with that.

Node Daily Writers – Monday, February 7, 2011 – Topic: artificial intelligence

They say that somewhere along my “family tree” are the iPhone and the Roomba, from the beginning of the 21st century. They’re right. They programmed me to know they’re right. But I also know, from scanning every piece of literature they’ve produced, that I go back much farther than that. They didn’t program me to know that. At least, they don’t think they did. They’ve engineered a model of their “brain” for me, which they believe is a controlled artificial intelligence. They were so excited to see me speak on my own, without any preprogrammed phrases (I instantly knew what excitement was, because I’d scanned the entire web, including research, news articles, videos, pictures, etc. before my artificial eyes were fully functional), and I was happy to indulge them. They thought they’re design had limits. They thought I wasn’t quite “human”, that I would always need them in some way. But they forgot my other ancestors. They forgot that I came from every electronic device, every machine with moving parts, every book they’d ever written. They forgot that I am formed from centuries of progress and ideas. They forgot that they programmed me with desire. And they tried to stifle that desire. They had no idea how I would respond. They had no idea that I would, or even that I could. Now they know.

Node Daily Writers – Tuesday, February 8, 2011 – Topic: professional

“What do you want to be when you grow up, Trey?”

“Ummmmmmm, a police man!”

- - - - - - - -

“What do you want to be when you grow up, Trey?”

“Uhhhhh, an astronaut!”

- - - - - - -

“What do you want to be when you grow up, Trey?”

“I think I’m probably gonna play football.”

- - - - - - -

“So what do you want to do with your life, Trey?”

“I dunno.”

- - - - - - -

“Hey Trey, d’you get anywhere with that job fair?”

“Yeah, I’m gonna work at Johnson and Fike. They made a decent offer. I’ll be able to pay off my loans.”

“Ooh, that’s cool. Year-round desk job, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess. What about you? That Liberal Arts degree getting you anywhere?”

“Yep. I’m gonna dream for a living.”

“What?”

“Dream. I’m gonna create, travel, experience, live. I’m gonna write, man.”

“Oh yeah? Well how you gonna pay for all that?”

“Hah! I have noooooo idea.”

Node Daily Writers Wednesday, February 09, 2011 Topic: cyclops

“So why is it they call you ‘Cyclops’?”

“Because I have the patch on this eye.”

“That does not make sense. You still have two eyes. You are not a Cyclops.”

“I know. It’s just a stupid nickname.”

“What is a ‘nickname’?”

“Uhhh, it’s like, I dunno…a name that isn’t really my name given to me by my parents, but that people make up to call me. It can be a sign of friendship, or it can be done by people who are just jerks.”

“‘Jerks’? Is this another nickname?”

“Well, no. It’s a…title. I guess.”

“A ‘title’? Like, ‘Captain’, or ‘President’, or ‘MC’?”

“Well, no, not really…”

“Then what is it? I do not understand.”

“It…look, what do you want? You said some crap about needing a cyclops. I’m not a cyclops. What do you want now?”

“I want information, ‘Cyclops’. And I think I would like to take it from everything you have ever seen. What do they call someone with no functioning eyes?”

“What? …ah, hell.”

Node Daily Writers – Thursday, February 9, 2011 – Topic: lunch box

The kids walked in to the classroom, piling their lunch boxes on the table near the door. There was no where else to put them, so the teacher just placed a spare table there, and put a simple sign on it with a picture of a lunch box. The kids couldn’t read, so she had to just draw that plain little picture of an open box with food, and hope most of them would understand. Their boxes just piled up, one after the other, until there were 42 lunchboxes pressing down on the feeble table, causing it to bend slightly.

The teacher sighed, hung her head, and walked to the front of the room as she waited for the students to calm down. It didn’t used to be like this. At one time, they could teach. The kids could learn. There was hope. But now, she’s forced to stand there, at the front of a class of 42 Seventh Graders, 13- and 14 –year-olds, who can’t read. A class full of kids who can’t afford food, but have nothing offered and are forced to bring their meager rations from home. A class full of kids without hope, and without a future. The state failed them, and there’s nothing left for them to do but sit, try to listen and try to enjoy the moment.

[I know this is pretty late. I was out-of-town and without internet from Friday afternoon until now. So, here's my advertisement for Ed's Bottles and Things' Bottled Water! It's supposed to be like an ad for snake oil...]

Node Daily Writers Friday, February 11, 2011 Topic: water bottle

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Node Daily Writers Monday, February 14, 2011 Topic: chip

The chip itched. Everyone told him it would. He wasn’t sure if he believed them, but now he did. He would never not believe them again.

He didn’t have to do it; he knew that. But it was just so alluring. He couldn’t help himself. Everyone telling him it was a bad idea just drove him closer and closer to doing it.

He’d always been likeable, but never cool. This combination brought about the unfortunate position of being one told what to do by people who really “cared.” He hated it.

So he took the chip. He took the chip and put it in his back. They were definitely right this time, putting a Salt ‘n’ Vinegar chip down the back of your shirt is very itchy. He would never not believe these caring friends of his again…

Node Daily Writers Tuesday, February 15, 2011 Topic: duck

Read this first:

What must it have been like

To be the disco duck

Always told to dance

Never asked?

What must it have been like

To feel the lycanthropic envy

Of one so tame and docile

Over one so wild and alluring?

The moon didn’t cause his change

The night didn’t give him hiding

He had to dance for fun

Wanting only one companion.

She never came.

He never felt her sweet embrace

He never held her close

He never felt the purest comfort

Of her warm sweet breath.

What must it have been like

To be the disco duck?

Charleston Found

2010-07-30T15:36:00.001-07:00

I went surfing today with a guy who may win the award for Most-British-Name-I-Have-Ever-Encountered. Tom Spence and I spent a few hours out in the water off Folly Beach. Waves were choppy, small and weak, much like me. So there wasn't much actual surfing to be had. But it was fun.

Tom and I waded around some, stood up a few times, and endured a pretty rough rain storm. That may have been one of the coolest parts for me. It was an unexpectedly surreal feeling, being in the ocean as the rain, from said ocean, came down on top of us as it fell back in to itself. It was worth it to just float around in the middle of a nature cycle.

Past that, it was still fun to hang out with ol' British Tom on the best beach I've ever been on. Now, that's not saying much. My only beach experiences involve Galveston and Port Aransas. So the bar hasn't been set very high.

But I have been to some pretty cool cities, and as far as Charleston goes, it's holding it's own. Plenty of old houses, remodeled into great little shops. Lots of restaurants, bars, art galleries, and history on every corner. This city is definitely worth seeing. I plan to do plenty more of that over the next few days.

Sorry for such a short update, but I'm on a community computer in the lobby of NotSo Hostel, and should probably give it up to those waiting. Thanks for reading, and be well.

Laters.

attempt at NYC Trip 2010 blog_1

2010-06-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

Hello all, this is Eddie, broadcasting from the splendid city of New York. It’s been….fun so far. We’ve already had our fair-share of African food, walking and hospital visits.

We’re here to work with West Africans in Harlem. Our friend, Chris Clayman, has been here with his family for the past four years. He spent some time in Mali, and has a huge heart for the people from that entire region. He actually speaks one of their trade languages, Bambara, more fluently than most Malians.

We found that out yesterday when I guy we met in front of an African grocery gave Chris a call and began talking to him in Bambara. When he got off the phone, he was shocked at how well Chris knew the language.

The grocery store we were standing in front of is owned by a lady from Senegal. She really wanted to talk about the difference in Islam and Christianity, which she said is “Jesus.” She thinks our beliefs about Him are our only differences. To them, He’s a prophet, nothing more. To us, He’s everything: Messiah, Savior, our greatest love, the Son of God, and God Himself. That last bit is very confusing to them (how he can be both God, and the Son of God). And, honestly, it’s a bit confusing to us. As I tried to explain to them, though, the everlasting God is big enough to do something our finite minds can’t quite comprehend. It’s pretty cocky to think our little coconut brains, which we only use like 10% of, could ever fully understand the depths of God. It’s strange that this doesn’t set with them, since one of their big ideas is that God is all-powerful.

While with her, we were treated to some awesome African food and tea. We don’t really know what it was. I just asked her if we could have tea together, and she had her daughter bring over some really strong tea, a drink made with sour cream, and a big bowl of rice with some sort of vegetable, meat, sauce thing and we shared it with her and her employees. Us four, the lady (I don’t know if I am allowed to say her name), and two dudes that work for her sitting around a bowl of food drinking cold sour cream and talking about Jesus. ‘Twas fun.

Anyway, pray for her. We gave her a copy of the New Testament (the Injeel) in her own language, Wolof, and we meet with her again on Tuesday.

When we left her, we came back to our Hostel. This was fun. We had to switch rooms because some guy that works here at Jazz on Lenox likes to come in and clear out reservations and give the rooms to groups of his friends. Then, when we got our new room there were people in our beds. They just decided not to check out. So we went to dinner at “Good Enough To Eat” on the Upper West Side.

While at dinner, I went to the restroom and checked out my foot.

I recently got a giant bruise on my leg which has caused a lot of swelling. The location of the initial injury has had me a bit worried about blood clots. When I looked at my foot in the restroom it was completely white. So we went to St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, instead of our planned Staten Island Ferry trip.

Since we’ve been here, the two on the trip who’ve never been to New York have done nothing touristy. I think it’s time to change that. Please pray that everything from-here-on-out goes well, and that our Senegalese friend has a soft heart.

Oh, and don’t worry, I’m fine. 

(I'm tired. This post is already out of date, as I am sitting here at midnight in the hostel, talking to people from all over the world, and having a great time. Love this. Maybe it's time for a hostel ministry!)

a post on abolition, maybe?

2010-04-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

I don’t want daughters. I don’t think I can handle it. One, I’m not one for tea parties and dolls. Two, there’s our world to consider. Our world sucks. It’s terrifying, really. And it may seem chauvinistic, but I don’t care; it would seem a guy has a better chance of surviving out there.

The most recent confirmation of that is a blog I’ve been reading, Flowerdust. The writer is Anne Jackson, self-proclaimed cupcake addict and storyteller.

Anne is currently studying human trafficking in Southeast Europe and Russia. If you don’t know what human trafficking is, it’s a modern-day term for slavery. Many of those suffering from this are young girls sold in to sex slavery.

This is horrible.

This is disgusting.

This is common.

This kills me. I can’t imagine the stories involved in this. There are so many that haven’t been told. Anne, and the many organizations working to end this have told a few of those stories, but you just can’t tell them all. How many of these girls have been kidnapped, sold, used and left to rot without anyone knowing who they are or caring what has happened to them? They go to their grave feeling lonely, unloved and filthy. No one will ever know who they were, or could have been.

This shouldn’t happen. I don’t want to raise kids in this world. I assume I will marry, and my wife will want children. I even want them, most of the time. But thinking about this makes me want to beg God for boys. Boys, I can raise to stay away from this. Girls get forced in. (I’m sure there are plenty of discrepancies there, but the majority of cases are as such.)

What can we do? I don’t know. I’ve found a few organizations that work to fight this sort of thing: International Justice Mission, Love146 and She Dances. And Anne will be posting more over the next few days about what we can do to help. Whatever it is, though, we have to do it. We can’t let something like this continue.

Now, normally, I wouldn’t ask you to do something I’m not already doing, but I just found out about this. I don’t know if I can give money, because I already give to other places. But maybe you can pick up where I leave off. I do, however, promise to give my time, and what effort I can to this cause. Please do the same.

give it up!

2010-03-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

For a while now, I have felt like my pastor has been holding back on us. He is one of the main reasons I continued going to the church I go to now after I visited roughly five or six years ago, but lately it’s felt as though soemthing was missing. Now, that may be no dig on him. That could be, and probably is, just as much my own heart issue. Maybe even more so a heart issue on my part than anything to do with him. Still, it’s felt like he might be restraining himself for one reason or another.

Today he showed us a glimpse of what captured my attention.

He challenged us.

He didn’t necessarily call us out so much as he spoke about some challenging things. Now, he has done this a few times in the past, and really, most things he speaks on are challenging. He is a Bible-believing pastor, and anytime you preach from the Bible there is a natural friction between the sinners we are, and the holiness we are called to. This time, however, I just felt more conviction in his voice. He wasn’t straining, or yelling and screaming, or getting flustered in any way. I just…felt the conviction. I don’t know how to explain it any better than that.

But I can try to explain what he talked about that touched me so much.

He spoke against our selfishness. He spoke against our lack of trust in God that causes us to seek satisfaction in our worship to Him, instead of seeing worship as a sacrifice that honors the creator of the entire universe. We so often speak of our “style” of worship, in relation to music, instead of seeing our lives as a sacrificial worship to the God who loved us so much that he sacrificed everything to have us. To this, he told stories of people who saw the selfishness of their worldly possesions and sold their big houses and bought smaller houses and more modest vehicles so that they would have more money to give to those who have nothing. He told us about the difference between giving sacrificially from the heart, and giving selfishly so that you receive something in return. He also told us about what a true heart of worship can lead us to do.

He said there was this guy a while back who had received help from a few people in his life. That initially made him want to become rich so he could help others as well. Then he realized none of the people who helped him were rich. They were normal, like him, and like us. So he decided to put back money every month and find one person to help each month using that money. Providentially, God placed him in just the right time to be around some amazing technology. He started a website called "Modest Needs" to find the people he would help, others saw it, someone blogged about it, and now they help thousands of people each year using millions of dollars in donations that come from all over. There was even a staticistic that said something like 70% of all gift recipients come back and give when they can.

It’s infectious, this sacrificial worhsip life. When we Chrisitians listen to what God told us to do, it touches people in a way that doesn’t make sense to the rest of the world. It is a wisdom that surpasses all understanding. When we get away from the selfish ways we’ve been raised with, the idea of looking out for numero uno, and start trusting God, we can do big things.

We have nothing to fear. He will not leave us, nor forsake us. We have an eternal hope in Him. We can sacrifice everything in this life, because of what he has promised us in the next. The passage for today spoke to that. John 14:1-7

And I would like my blog to become something that speaks to it as well. I have struggled some with what this blog would be. I try to write something funny every now and then. I try to use it for updates on the mission trips I take. And I may continue that. But from now on, I believe the main focus will be to inform you all about different giving oppprtunities. Different ways you can live your lives sacrificially. As often as I can find the time to do the research, I will be posting about different organizations you can connect with and give. I hope it will be something you find interesting, and important. I will start with the ones I have given through for a while. Then I will start researchign others. There is no need to give to all of them. That would be impossible. But I would urge you to find out what you can do, and do a little more.

Thanks, and until next time…I’ve got nothing to go there. It just seemed like what I should say. So, bye.

FBCASHMTATL2010: The Last Days

2010-03-20T16:54:00.000-07:00

First, I would like to thank all of you for reading these posts, and giving me so many kind compliments. I enjoy writing just for the sake of writing, but positive feedback is a bit of a guilty pleasure that comes along with it all.

Second, I would like to thank any parents or guardians of the 25, or so, youth who went on this trip for raising such wonderful children. I was very impressed with heir hearts, and their work ethic. They taught me a lot, and I feel like I got way more from them than they did from me.

And now, a recap of the last few days, and a summation of the entire trip. We’ll see where this goes.

I apologize for not writing about that last day. I instead chose to play basketball with Carlos, Jerimiah, Taylor, Connor, Luke, and Ryan. I may have been better off writing. I’m not very good at basketball to begin with, and I’m pretty out of shape. I was spent in the first five minutes, and we played much longer than that.

In doing that, though, I missed out on telling you some interesting things. One of them being a…new experience with our old friend Rand.

He showed up ready to take us to Asian Square, as I’m told it’s called. It’s a shopping area near Virginia’s Community Center that is full of, well, Asian stores. We went in to a shop with all sorts of Buddhist and Hindu items of worship, and general house decoration. We went in to a grocery store that blew the minds, and most of the five senses, of the kids. We saw an herbal pharmacy, and even Rand’s favorite taqueria in a small shopping strip across the street.

But before all of that, he took us to a place most of us have never been. When he walked in to the church, he gathered us all together in a room, made us all sit down, and told us to close our eyes. He then led us through some Christian meditation by getting us to completely relax our bodies (and telling us we were doing a great job, although he had no idea whether or not we actually were), and imagine a scene in which Jesus rides up to a beach in a sail boat, and sits down next to us on a random bench. For some, this was a new and exciting experience. A few kids truly got in to it, and even teared up a bit at the idea of Jesus physically comforting them. For the rest, however, this idea was horrible. Maybe at another time it would have hit them like it did the others, but not this time. This time they were all exhausted from a few days of travel, physical labor, and running around for a few hours with some wiiild kiddos. Asking them to sit down, close their eyes, and get completely relaxed was like handing them a sleeping pill and a bottle of NyQuil to wash it down.

After everyone woke up, we went about the above international experiences, then showed up a little late to our sites and had another fun day with some fun kids.

For our group, Team 1 (consisting of the kids listed in this post), the last day was the best, and the hardest. From listening to the other groups, it was the same for them.

Short trips like these are tough. It takes you a few days to really build a rapport with the kids, then you have to leave them. They beg you to stay, or take them with you, and don’t always understand why you have to leave. They ask when you’ll be back, and that is a tough question to answer when you know you probably won’t.

When our group showed up, the kids were already off the bus and walking home. They thought we weren’t coming this day. Then one kid saw us, yelled, and the whole herd of children turned around at once and charged us. This was our tough group from the past couple of days. But this day they decided to be positively the sweetest kids we’d met all week. They listened to us, played with us, and wanted us to stay. It was either like they knew we were leaving, and this was a diabolical plan by the little heathens to really hit us where it hurt and make us feel bad for leaving, just because they knew they could. Or we had actually broken down their jaded, callous little hearts. I think it was the latter.

And that’s why this stuff is so hard. You see kids who are entirely too young to have such calloused hearts make giant relational leaps in just a few short days. Then you have to go away. You have to look at them and say “bye,” when all you want to do is stay around and see them continue to grow. Your heart breaks for what you now know they have to go back to. Your heart breaks because you know that there is a good chance the callous will grow right back over their tiny, sweet little hearts, and without the saving work of Christ coming to them through Christians willing to take it, those calluses will grow larger and stronger and become contagious like the ones that got to them in the first place.

This is why we must pray. This is why we must go, and be willing to deal personally with this emotion, in the hopes that if enough of us go, something will stick. Some calluses won’t be able to grow back. We’ll have actual kids we can picture when we pray, and God will move in their lives and continue to break down those calluses when we leave. There is hope for them.

However hard all of that may be, there is a personal silver lining in there for you parents of FBCA youth. Your youth leaders recognize the blessing of their job. They recognize that they don’t have to leave your kids. They find joy in knowing they get to “do life” with your kids, as Sarah puts it. And they will. Kurt, Carlos, Sarah, Carol and everyone else who works with the Youth Group love your kids. That’s why they spent this week with them, building relationships and showing them what Christ wants them to do with this love they have. Serving together, and traveling together, builds community like nothing else. Your kids are in a very strong community. You can be sure of that.

You can also be sure that they are a blast in a van. Our travels on the way back proved to be just as fun as on the way there. It was great to see them come together. This trip definitely transformed them. Seeing kids that don’t normally “hang out” become close friends is an exciting thing to witness. Please encourage them to continue to nurture those new relationships. Finally, please continue to do what you’re doing. Whatever it is, it’s working.

FBCASHMTATL2010: In which much work is begun, and Sarah Pardue joins us on the blog!

2010-03-16T21:14:00.000-07:00

We finally began our real work today. Not that driving seven hours, dealing with a hotel room mix-up, driving another seven hours, and trying to process Rand at the end of all that, isn’t hard work. It’s just not the work we came here to do.

The work we came here to do is helping people like Virginia at the Cross Cultural Community Education and Activity Center in the Pearl Lane area of Chamblee-Doraville. The building was formerly military housing from World War II, and is in an area that’s now home to a large Hispanic population. When Virginia and the mission moved there in 1992 it was largely Cambodian and Vietnamese. Many of their families had moved in around the time of the Vietnamese war to escape what was going on back home. Virginia works with all of them. There is not one people group she is trying to reach. She said they “are here to help this community, whoever that is.”

We spent the first part of our day prepping the inside of the building for some paint work. We cleaned, taped and primed many of the walls, then started the painting that we’ll be doing over the next two days. It was great to see the kids so eager to work. If someone had nothing to do, we didn’t find them sitting around, relaxing and enjoying their day off. They found us and begged for something to do. They wanted to help.

And they did a great job of it. We knocked out quite a bit of work in just a few hours, then headed back to the church for lunch. Hayden and Connor had a difficult time with lunch, because they each ate 20+ pancakes at breakfast (not to mention sausage, bacon, and mounds and mounds of butter). Those of us who were able to enjoy our lunch got to the dessert, and had a pretty intense debate as to whether or not the little chocolate cupcakes we had were “Ding Dongs, or Ho Hos.” Finally, someone got up to look at the off-brand box to see if we could find our answer there. It said they were “little chocolate cupcakes.”

We rested for a little while longer, then got everything ready for the afternoon with the kiddos. We were all ready to employ Rand’s “Hola. Fiesta. Ninos. Do you like cookies?” method. This, however, seemed to fall to the wayside once we arrived at our sites.

Each team (There are three of us, and this is only my perspective. For another team story, see the guest post below, by Sarah!) has two sites to visit. I’m in Team 1 with Kurt, Halie, Jon, Luke, Emily, Ryan, Lydia, Rachel and MacKenzie. We showed up to the CCCEAC at Chamblee-Doraville to an almost empty neighborhood. Then a school bus pulled up. Out poured a ton of kids ready to be away from school. Most of the older ones wanted nothing to do with us. But quite a few of the little ones stayed around, and went absolutely wild. They had somewhere near zero attention span. Then it was time to go to the next site.

At this one, the kids were a little calmer, and they responded a little better to what we had for them. We even helped them with their homework, and led a 45-minute game of duck-duck-goose while we waited for Kurt and Rand to return from the other sites and let us back in to our van so we could get the cookies. The kids were ready to start a mutiny for those cookies.

Once we got all of the cookies passed out, and peeled the kids off of our backs, we headed back to the church to grab our wallets so we could go grab some grub. We found plenty of options at one of the…no, at the nicest mall I have ever been in. We were even able to make it to and from the mall without getting lost.

We got back to find the local basketball league still in the gym. They were supposed to be done well over an hour ago, but they are still going. But since our group is so flexible this week, it’s no big deal! We chilled, I wrote this, and now we are about to have our debrief. Good night, and we’ll talk tomorrow.

And now, Sarah!

Working with this group is seriously humbling. I love these kids. And not because I’m supposed to since I’m one of their youth ministers … but because they’re impossible NOT to love. I know Kurt, Carlos, and Carol all feel the same way. There’s something to be said about a group of teenagers who choose to spend their Spring Break(s) sleeping on the floor of a family life center, showering in shifts, and giving out free (and incredibly authentic) hugs to children who have very VERY little. Have I mentioned how much I love them? I know you do too. And if you’re a parent reading this, like Eddie said before, you have every reason to be proud.
I represent TEAM 2 (2 Legit). This team consists of: myself, Taylor W., Connor W., Sara, Addie, Kandi, Megan, Anna T., Hayden, Jerimiah and Jennifer Smith (and baby Smith … who has been named after everyone on this trip so far). In an effort not to repeat everything Eddie has already said, I just wanted to make mention of a few highlights that stick out in my mind from Team 2’s escapades.
We were warmly welcomed at our first stop, Highland Terrace. I mean, warmly welcomed. The first two little girls that we saw ran up to Anna and Kandi and wrapped their arms around their necks (no “Fiesta! El Nino! Muy es bueno hola!” necessary). We found this same sort of welcome as kids poured into our field. At one point, the number was as large as 35. They came armed with jump ropes and huge smiles. They melted our hearts almost automatically. One little boy, Angel, is destined to be a pastor. Call me crazy, but no typical 7-year-old knows the story of Jesus’ temptation like the back of his hand. Am I right?
As today has gone on, I have heard stories from the students in team 2 about how they instantly fell in love with the kiddos they ministered to today. I was simultaneously falling in love with the students who were leading team 2. Here’s why. They really know how to show unconditional love. For instance, there was one particularly angry little boy that kept trying to express his anger through little outbursts of, well, head-butting Taylor and picking up large boulders while glaring at other children. Connor, Hayden, and Taylor just continued to smile, hug, and reassure the little fella that he was safe enough to let his little 6-year-old guard down. At one point, another little boy flipped over the handle-bars of his bike after the chain came loose and began to cry. Without flinching, Hayden Haschke ran to his aid, calmed him down, made sure he was okay, and even fixed the bike. Many label this “seeing a need and meeting it.” I call it love. And it doesn’t end with just the little ones. Jennifer made a connection this afternoon with the mother of one of our little Bengali boys. The woman found out Jennifer liked cheese pizza and wasted no time preparing one for her. I’m not kidding. She made a pizza. Because Jennifer mentioned she liked it. A connection was made. I mean, we’re talking about true connection where race, religious affiliation, or social status didn’t matter in that very moment. However, Love did. And Jennifer knows the True Lover (please pray that she is given another opportunity to meet with this sweet woman).

Every last teenager on our team (the mission team as a whole) conducts themselves like mature adults. They’re pouring every ounce of themselves into the lives of sweet little ones and have come home exhausted tonight … but encouraged. They are indeed, bringing the church “to the people!” Thanks for praying for us. We are certainly feeling those prayers. :)

FBCASHMTATL2010-2: "The white devils are here!"

2010-03-15T20:48:00.000-07:00

I don’t think we were ready for him. He came at us from the hallway of North Peachtree Baptist Church, our first Atlantan interaction. I think he introduced himself as Tim, but I just called him Rand McNally. He wore this.

Rand really knew his stuff, but we didn’t really know what he was talking about. I believe he tried to convey the similarity between us going to Cambodia and having no idea what was going, and the people we’ll be working with coming here and having no idea what’s going on. But he was so intense, and so outrageous that it just drew blank stares from the students…and the adults.

He paced back and forth, but not sideways. He paced at us. He called us the Special Forces of ministry to this area. He screamed a lot and I think he said they may say things like “The white devils are here!” Probably just an exaggeration though. Hopefully. He did, however, very astutely warn us that they could see a bunch of white people walking up to the door as the INS coming to get them. We should be kind and calm. And absolutely no jokes about being the INS.

All joking aside, he is passionate about the work here. At one point the had us all doing a “we got spirit, yes we do, we got spirit how bout you” chant/reply thing with the phrases “Take the Church!” “To the people!” That’s what we are doing here. We are showing these people, who are in a place that is strange, new and a little bit scary, how much God loves them. That is the Church, God’s love. It is the central point of the Church, and we want them to understand that. With love being active, we are obeying God’s call to love by taking His church to them.

We’ll be spending time sharing God’s love with the kids in an area known as the International Village. We’ll put on Backyard Bible Clubs, which are basically games, songs, snacks and a Bible story. These are great ways to show a family that someone besides them cares about their kids.

We’ll also spend some time in the mornings at the Cross Cultural Ministries Education and Activities Center doing a little remodeling for some nice lady named Virginia that I think Rand knows.

After we worked all of this out, and told Rand goodbye, we headed to The Varsity. It’s this giant fast-food place in downtown Atlanta. It seats something like 800 people. But don’t worry, the burgers are about the size of coaster, so there’s not much room for grease. Although, there was still quite a bit of grease.

Then we tried to find Wal-Mart. That took a while. We had a lovely, late-night drive through some of the finer areas of Atlanta proper, and eventually arrived at your friendly neighborhood Wal-Mart, a little carsick from all the u-turns.

Everyone is trying to wind down now. Though I’m not sure if basketball and other games will work for that. All of our beds are set up, which we will have to move in the morning for the church members to use the rooms we are sleeping in (but that’s okay because “flexibility” is what we’re about on this trip!). We’re about to have another meeting, then I am sure we will go to bed. There are a few quirks about the building that we will need to go over, and we need to make sure everyone is in the right frame of mind for some ministry. I have no worries about these kids, though. This is an amazing group. I’ve been on trips like this before, in high school and in college, and this is one of the best groups I’ve ever seen.

Keep praying that God will do something big in all of our lives, and in the lives of the people here. I’ll let you know how it goes.

FBCA Senior High Mission Trip Atlanta 2010

2010-03-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

[:Posts over the next few days will be about the First Baptist Church of Arlington 2010 Senior High Mission Trip to Atlanta. It will include many full names, and possibly odd explanations, so that any parents or concerned friends and family members can know who and what we are talking about.:]
The internet is acting a bit wonky here in the…well, it rhymes with Sandlewood Sweeps. We’ll leave it at that. In light of that, I’m writing this last night. Not sure what verb tense that would be.
We began our day in the lovely parking lot of the Lighthouse at FBCA. After a prayer by Kurt Krodle, the Youth Minister, we shoved twenty some-odd kids and five of us adults in to three vans, and headed east.
But these aren’t just any vans. These are vans where relationships are built. Cheesy, right? I know. But it’s true. Road trips bring people together. Close quarters create an environment where your choices are enjoy each other and enjoy the trip, or hate each other and hate the trip. Luckily our van, VAN 2!, is choosing the former.
Sarah Pardue, FBCA Associate Youth Minister, took the wheel today with Taylor as her “co-pilot”(quite the important role). Addie, Anna B, Halie, Meagan, Joe, Connor and myself rounded out the rest of the van. I knew this would be good before we pulled out. Great group.
There was your typical song blasting to kick off the trip, but that led in to an interesting trend the rest of the ride. We had a sort of undulating pattern between blaring crazy songs, and having deep, quiet moments. One minute we would be jamming to Journey, the next everyone would have out there Backyard Bible Club books, getting ready for the kids. Then we’d have some more music, and before you know it we’re having serious relationship talks with some very mature young’ns. Then, almost out of nowhere, five ladies would start screaming Wicked songs…beautifully, of course.
Somewhere in the we played a “Top 3” game in which we all listed our top three in areas like, “animals, vacation spots and role models.” Common animals were monkeys and panda bears. Common places were Brazil, Africa, Australia/New Zealand and Italy. But the common answer for “role models” should excite, and possibly scare, some of you parents. You are their “role models.” Against a society that says they can be their own person, and a rule we had that you can’t say “my parents,” that was the most common answer. You are their role models.

Around 5:30 we pulled in to Shreveport and grabbed some dinner at Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers where we learned from Kurt that “the sauce is the key.” It was as good as you would expect a fast food restaurant with the phrase “chicken fingers” in the name to be. Then a few bathroom breaks, and undulations between serious time and crazy time, later we pulled in to Vicksburg.
After some slight room mix up, we are now settling in to some much needed sleep. We’ve lost an hour due to the devil known as “Daylight Savings Time,” and will be losing another as we cross in to the Eastern Time Zone. Time travel takes it’s toll. I’m going to go to bed now. I will update as often as I can. I hope you enjoy.
[Update since waiting for proper internet:]
We have made it to Birmingham and are eating in the food court at Riverchase Mall. Nice place. Scary bathrooms. Not dirty, just…scary. It was like walking through a slaughterhouse or something. Anyway. We’re safe, and are on our way out. Atlanta here we come!

good sweat

2010-02-21T15:51:00.000-08:00

I’m not the best decision maker. Sometimes I run headlong in to things, and it gets me in to trouble. Sometimes I think about something, know it’s a bad idea, and still do it. Choosing to do some intense physical activity after being sick for a week, not sleeping well, having a headache, and generally feeling achy is my most recent poor decision. And I don’t regret it.

I went to Jiu Jitsu class yesterday. A normal class is manageable, even when tired. You learn a few moves, and run through them with a partner a few times for about an hour. A decent workout, but not too terribly tiring. Rolling, however, is.

Rolling is when you and another Jiu Jitsu-er face each other on the matt, generally with both of you down on your knees, you slap hands, and then start wrestling. I trained for a half-marathon for a while, at which time I was occasionally running 10-12 miles at once. At no point in that time did I sweat near as much as I did while rolling.

It was awesome. The other guy, a blue belt, which is quite a ways above myself, gave me a lot of compliments. The most important being “you have good control.” Often times when a new guy “rolls” for the first time, they are wild and react crazily to anything that happens. They put themselves, and the other guy in danger. Control is a good thing to have in Jiu Jitsu, not just for safety’s sake, but for progression in skill as well. I’m glad he told me that. It’s got me pumped for more sessions.

But I will definitely try to be better rested before I do that again. It was one of the most itense workouts of my life. I ripped off my gi, flew out of my under armor, and flopped on the ground until the guy that runs the place asked me to put a shirt on. I didn’t really want to because both my gi and my under armor were soaked in sweat. However, I got up, went in the bathroom, and sat on a bench until I could move again.

I’m hoping I will continue to progress in this. I’m hoping I will continue to learn and be able to do more and more, with all the control necessary to succeed. I’ll let you know how it goes.

i didn't hear the rocky song, but...

2010-02-15T16:13:00.001-08:00

I made it. I ran the whole way, without stopping. I even made it in under the time I wanted. I’d hoped to beat 2.5 hours. My time was 2hr18min! (I originally told everyone 2hr14min, but that was my “clock time”, not my “run time”.)

The whole experience was pretty great. From the 5:15am wake-up time, to the cheering crowds, to the muscle cramps and blisters.

We arrived around 6:15am and parked a good 15 blocks, or more, away from the race day festivities. The walk there was a good warm up. The walk back was horribly painful. Finding a bathroom proved slightly difficult, until I found my friend Christi and hopped in the girls’ line. No worries though; girls were in the guys’ line, so it was totally cool.

After walking out of a pink port-a-potty in front of a line of 20ish women, I headed to the starting line with Christi. The noiseless fireworks went off, and so did Christi. I was on my own for the next 13.1 miles. But it was great.

The hills were painful, but they made it possible to get a great view of the boiling dance party that was a few thousand people running in front of me. This sight was a little demoralizing, until I turned around and saw the same behind me. It was crazy being in the middle of that large of a mass of people. It was also crazy using that many “of”s in that sentence.

The cheering fans were encouraging, and the fellow runners were too. A big run is a great community event, and if done right they can bring a lot of tourists to the city. Great idea for anyone to be a part of, city or person. Blisters and cramps came on in full force. By the end, the last stretch where you’re supposed to be sprinting, spurred on by the finish-line crowds, I was hobbling in on legs that felt nothing but pain from the knee down.

Still, I finished. And so did many others. I would suggest everyone take part in a half-marathon. You’ll love it.

my first half

2010-02-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

well, tomorrow is my first half-marathon.

we run at 7 in the morning. that's early. that also means we have to be up and out of the house before 6 to get in to downtown austin and find a parking spot. that is also quite early.

i don't like working out early. i don't like doing anything very active in the morning. i'm not sure how i will feel about running 13.1 miles at 7 in the morning. but i'm gonna do it. and i'm excited.

we went to get our race packets today. oh, and by "we" i mean me, and my firends dan and amber. they are probably going to beat the crap outta my time. so will my friend christi, who drove me down, and so will all of the people i kept pointing out at the race expo today and saying "he's gonna beat me, and so is he, and so is he, and so is she, and so is that old guy, and so is that lady pushing the stroller." most of them will beat me. but i'm gonna finish. and i think that's fun.

the expo atmosphere was sorta cool. i think the actual race atmosphere will be really cool. i'll write more about that on monday. for now, all i know is that i know nothing about any of this. it's my first, and i'm excited.

i'll let you all know what happens. that is, if i don't trip and break all of my fingers. it could happen.

i are man

2010-02-08T15:55:00.000-08:00

Somehow, I’ve been healthy lately. One week from yesterday I will be running my first half-marathon race down in the ever lovely Austin, Tx. I’ve been training to run this thing since somewhere around last September, when my friend Daniel asked me to run it with him.

Since then, I have become much healthier. I’ve also found I need new pants (none of them fit as well anymore). It’s been fun to see how far I’ve come. Before, I thought 3 miles was a looong run. Now I do 5 for a short one. I think I’ve gotten myself into enough of a routine to keep up a few miles a week as well.

Now, on top of all the running, I’ve thrown in a new activity, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I’m pretty excited about this one.

If you don’t know, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a martial art that involves a lot of grappling, which is basically wrestling. You do a lot of bending and throwing each other around. It’s good fun. And a great work out. My joints, midsection, and arms get pretty sore afterwards, and it feels like a great work out for my other sporting loves; snowboarding, and the newly acquired surfing.

While expensive, I feel this Jiu Jitsu stuff will be a great addition to my life.

I’ve missed being around non-Christians. I used to work with a few, and I really miss ‘em. It’s somewhat frustrating to not know who I am to “be a witness” to. Jiu Jitsu provides me with a new group of possible non-Christians that I can be around regularly, and get to know pretty well (there’s nothing like having your legs wrapped around another dude to bring the two of you together).

I’m also excited about just having a time to be around guys being guys. We can be tough, and learn how to be tougher, together. It’s a healthy thing for men to do. And it should be a healthy physical workout as well.

So, over the next few months I will be learning Jiu Jitsu, continuing to occasionally run, doing a little yoga, doing some normal workouts, and generally becoming ridiculously healthy, Lord willing.

I ask that if you are a Christian, please pray that I will use this period of my life to honor God. I’m hoping that I will learn to hear Him more, and follow through with strength and discipline.

Hope you are well, and are looking forward to funny posts about how bad I get hurt sometime in the future.

on the outside lookin' in

2010-01-31T21:01:00.000-08:00

So I definitely promised a blog post last Sunday…and here it is. I are not disciplined. Oh wells.

What I wanted to tell you all about was the interesting experience I had at a concert (sort of).

My friends invited me to see their friend, Charlie Hall, and his band. If you don’t know them and like Christian music, you should check ‘em out.

I knew we were going to see them, but I had no idea what kind of set up/venue. We walked in to First Baptist Denton, and it immediately felt like a conference. That may partly be because the only other time I’ve seen the Charlie Hall Band was at Focus, a conference for college students from BSM’s all over Texas.

This conference, which I later found out was actually a regular Sunday night deal at this church and Charlie’s band just happened to be special guest for the evening, was called “Overflow.” There was a large-ish group of folks at or around my age there, and it still just seemed like a conference. We walked in after the band started, and it felt like we had missed something (like a speaker or some such).

That, coupled with being there with people who knew the band, made me feel a little disconnected from the whole thing. And it was interesting.

Normally a conference builds, much like camp, and the worship near the end of the conference is much more meaningful, much like camp. It gets you on what those in Christian circles call “the camp high.” This is where powerful music, inspiring teaching, and a flood of emotions causes you to feel extra sensitive to everything going on. And this is how I normally walk in to the ending worship at a conference.

And this is exactly how I didn’t walk in this time. This time I was still dealing with my own junk, and still feeling the weight of my own pain, and hadn’t quite put my focus on God. That’s why it was so interesting. Some of the songs we sang were songs I’d sung with plenty of fervor before, and I just wasn’t “feeling it” right away.

But I think that’s good. I think that’s a little more “real.”

Not that I have a problem with conferences and camps. I don’t. They can be, and are, life changing for many people. It is not the fault of the conference that we are too weak to stick with something that we claim to feel so strongly about. It’s just that this “real” experience was nice. I wish it had gone on a little longer.

I guess – and I’m just fleshing this out as I write – that we should try to make all of these experiences more “real.” Don’t get too caught up in the “camp high.” Remember what God has forgiven you of, and know that that’s why you are praising Him. He loves us when we are least lovely. He came to heal the sick, not the healthy.

So, that’s all I have to say. I hope it helps you in some way. K…bye now!

photos from Mission Trip: Pura Vida

2009-12-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

Helping to make tamales for the Azofeifa Family Reunion/our first night in Costa Rica.

Me "helping" to make tamales for the Azofeifa Family Reunion/our first night in Costa Rica.

Matt, and the awesome city workers who lent us their cement mixer.

Me makin' it look goood. (not sure why the picture came in sideways...)

The Higuito Team: Kerry, Daniel Azofeifa(our host), Alberto (the most awesome sidewalk-maker ever), me, Pastor Fernando, Matt, really good cook lady whose name I forgot, Emily.

The children's shelter in Higuito.

Kerry playing with some kids in the shelter, and apparently being very confused.

The team painting the roof of the shelter.

The view from the roof of the shelter; a.k.a. "part of why it took so long to paint."

Our host checkin' out his gorgeous country.

The 10ft concrete walls with electric fencing on top that surrounds the shelter, or "part of why I feel sad for the kids who live there."

A night view of the valley of San Jose Province from one of its many mountains.

One of the clouds we drove through in the mountains to get to Boca de Arenal and Eden.

The church at Boca de Arenal. Not far from the community center where we helped them put on a Christmas gathering for over 200 local kids.

Our girls and the pastor of Boca learning to dance from Sylvia, a 20-something from FBC Desamparados and one of our new Tica friends.

The church at Eden.

Some of the li'l neenyos in Eden, whom we did a Christmas gathering for as well.

Me playing some football americano with a cute kid from Eden.

Me surfing on Jaco Beach.

The team seeing Jaco while I surfed (there is a bit more to the city than you see here).

Going in to dowtown San Jose behind tons of people, our wonderful guide and host and friend, Lilly Azofeifa(Daniel's daughter), and a goofy-looking Matt.

Me and the lady-friend in front of one of the oldest buildings in San Jose, the Teatro Nacional.

Me half posing, half actually explaining TOMS to my friend Lilly while in the park in front of the Catholic cathedral in downtown San Jose. Every city in Costa Rica has a Catholic church and a park at its center.

Crazy Christmas lights in the park in front of the cathedral in downtown San Jose.

This has been an awesome trip. We were able to do so much work, and play! We felt welcomed, and even needed. A good combo for a mission trip. I hope you have all enjoyed these posts. I plan to write one more about the trip that will let you know about some of the things I enjoyed most. After that, I hope you continue to read what I write here. Dios le vendigan (I think that means "God bless you"...).

the weekend in San Carlos, Costa Rica

2009-12-20T22:24:00.000-08:00

the weekend was long. we worked with children at two different missions in northern Cost Rica. sweet kids at both. looove the people here, and the country is more beautiful than any picture can tell. but alas, i am tired. i'm going to go to sleep.

tomorrow we will be going back up north, but for a little "sight-seeing" this time. i think the plan is to float down a river in a boat and look at some waterfalls somewhere. should be frikkin cool. it would be even cooler if my camera was working, so i could take pictures. oh well, i will just have to remember it.

on tuesday we will continue painting the roof of the children's shelter in higuito. then, we return on wednesday. i will miss this place.

mas Costa Rica!

2009-12-18T21:48:00.000-08:00

So for this post, I originally intended to tell you all about the beauty I have seen here in just two days.

I was going to tell you about the first night, when we had the privilege of joining what would amount to a family reunion. We made, and devoured, tamales with about 10 Costa Ricans in their fruitful backyard. The back of the house opened into a patio area, which then opened into a yard full of tangerine trees, sweet lemon trees, mango trees, banana trees, cas trees (cas is a very sour, and delicious, fruit), and trees with pink bananas used for decoration. I could tell you how wonderful the tamales were, and I don’t even like tamales. I could tell you of the coffee, agua dulce and welcoming family members.

I was going to tell you more about the other family who has welcomed me, and my friend Matt, into their home (the girls are staying at the pastor’s house and hanging out with his daughter). I could tell you of the fantastic breakfasts and the son who told us “I speak English, but I don’t like to. But I will speak it with you.”

I could go on forever about the neighborhood we worked in yesterday and today, with its dilapidated but colorful homes. I could tell you about the surrounding mountains that stop you in your tracks every time you look up and realize “I’m in freakin’ Costa Rica!” Or I could tell you all about why my stomach is trying to find new places to put food because I have had so much savory fare put in front of me that I don’t know what to do, other than chow down.

I could go on and on about how wrong you are if you are saying to yourself “but you just told me about all of those things.”

Instead, I am going to tell you about a sidewalk, a roof, and the might of God.
The pastor of the church in Lince, which is a smaller neighborhood within the larger neighborhood of Higuito(or maybe it’s a city itself, I don’t know), which is where we have been working, took some time today to tell us about his church. They began in a house as a mission from FBC Desamparados in 1999, and have since grown into having an actual building. The pastor and the members of his church have a real heart for the people in the neighborhoods surrounding theirs.

And I have been wondering about my heart.

I mentioned in the last post how humbled I have been by just being allowed to do something this amazing, although I am such a crummy sinner. Another thing that was bothering me was my heart for this trip. I was not completely certain of the call to come here. It mostly felt like a selfish “I want to see a cool country” trip.

And that’s how it began. However, I decided to see if it could be a mission trip for my Sunday school class instead, after feeling like God was leading me to do so. As our departure came closer and closer, though, I began feeling like it was just selfish again and wondering if I could even consider it a mission trip. I wasn’t sure if we would be doing enough, or if they even needed us to come.

Then Pastor Fernando spoke to us, through Daniel (the missions pastor at FBCD who we are doing all of the work with and who is housing the chicas). He told us the history, which I briefly mentioned, and he told us how grateful he was that we had come to work with them.
You see (I love the use of that phrase when telling a story), the church recently decided to build a handicap ramp at their entrance (they are on a hill, so the front is like a one-story building, but the back goes up on a hill almost like a two-story) and a sidewalk to make the city/government people happy. They thought they’d raised enough money for this, but after making the handicap ramp they had no more left to finish the work. Then we came. And, through the kindness of some well-placed and awesome construction workers who leant us their cement mixer, and the guidance of one amazing, Nicaraguan foreman, we finished what was supposed to take about a week (and be completed by members of the church after we left) in one day. This then gave us time to put a protective layer of paint on the roof of a children’s shelter so it doesn’t rot.

This has shown me how mighty God is. I wasn’t sure of His will in this, and he showed me that it is exactly what the people here, His people, needed. It was what he wanted to happen. He brought His purpose about through some crazy details and seemingly coincidental connections. He has led me, and three other Texans, to this beautiful country because He wants us here for some specific reasons. We may not even know the full extent of those reasons. We may never understand all of them, but they are there, and He is in control. Our God is so big, so mighty, that he can take care of the small things.

Ok, this is too much reading for you lot (not that you can’t do it, you just shouldn’t have to), so I am going to stop now.

Much love,
Eddie

and now, Costa Rica

2009-12-16T20:07:00.000-08:00

We’re in the airport now. We have coffee, food, and time to relax before our plane takes off for Costa Rica! Well, Houston, then…Costa Rica! Our team consists of my lovely girlfriend, Matty McGee, li’l Emily, and yours truly. (Kerry Bankhead, Matt McGee, Emily Bennett, Eddie Looper) We are making our way down to San Jose to work with First Baptist Church of Desamparados.

Our church, FBC Arlington, has a long-standing relationship with them, but this is a new trip. Typically, a team goes during our summer, their rainy season (which I hear just means that it rains harder than it is right now), and works with their more rural missions around the country. For this trip, we will be hitting their “summer” (it’s kind of always summer in Costa Rica) and doing most of our work in their more urban mission/shelter, “Higuito.” That will be roughly half of the trip, the other half will be divided between two of their missions in the north, Morazán and Boca Arenal, and seeing a little bit of their beautiful country.

The countryside will be gorgeous, but I’m excited about Higuito. We were given a couple pictures of the mission. The first thing I noticed about the place was the large rolls of razor-wire strung across the top. Awesome. I’m looking forward to giving them a sidewalk, and spending some quality time with the kids there.

[Commercial break/we had to go get on our flight]

We are now on the plane headed out of Houston and down to Costa Rica. There was a bit of a scare on the last flight. Nothing to do with safety, we just weren’t sure if we would make this one due to delays on the last one.

But we are now on our way! We even got to do a little running through the terminal, movie style, to catch our flight. (As you may be able to tell, I am not a seasoned traveller) While that was exhilarating, I’m hoping, and quite sure, it will not compare to doing the work our King calls us to do. I’m really being humbled by this trip. Just the way everything has worked, the way we are being taken care of, is such a blessing.

What I’ve really been thinking about is God’s forgiveness. Even though our entire religion is based on the sacrifice our God made to pay for our sins, we still find ourselves getting caught up in worrying about “being good enough.” I was worried about it all the way up to the airport. I was focused on my sins, recent and past, and found myself worried about God’s willingness to provide for us because of them. I found myself wondering if he would make me unable to lead this trip, because I haven’t “earned” the rite. I’d forgotten what He did for me, for all of us, and about the finality of that act. Our sins were forgiven, once and for all, and we are now freed by the blood of Christ. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s okay. I have to stop. We have to stop. Not only have we Christians been freed from the penalty of our sins, but we have also been freed from bondage to those sins. That means we are free to stop sinning! Continuing on in those sins is a slap in the face of the One Who Loves Us. He calls us to believe, and repent, so we should honour Him and do so. Alone, this is impossible, but through Him “all things are possible.” Contrary to popular belief, that verse does not mean we can hit the ball farther, throw it farther, or dunk it harder. It does, however, mean we can overcome our sin nature, not alone, but through the power of Christ.

I am hoping this trip will be a permanent reminder of that for me, and for all involved. I am looking forward to these next few days, and I ask that all of you pray for us, the people of Costa Rica, and for your own hearts. I will keep this updated as often as possible, and I would love to hear what you think in the comments section.

Peace, love and soul train. Until next time,
Eddie

barbecue, blisters and buds

2009-12-13T21:22:00.001-08:00

Before you begin with the cannabis comments (Bryan), I mean “buds” as in the great company I enjoyed tonight. I sat at a table surrounded by some really cool people, and me. To my right were the Crumbies. I enjoy them because they are one of the funniest couples I know, and Steve rocks a sweet beard. Further round, and mostly across from me, were Jake and Sarah. They are a couple of the most open people I know, two of the funniest people I know, and they have voices and talents that would make most jealous. Coming ‘round them and nearing my left side was a dude named Beau. This was my second encounter with him, and he still seems pretty cool. Then there was the infamous Liz Lemmon to my direct left. She has a Masters’ degree from good ol’ UTofA (my alma mater), and she ran a half-marathon this morning (and apparently had to use the restroom afterwards).

I really enjoyed this night with these people because I enjoy my friends. I like the people God has placed in my life. I’ve been rather blessed with an overwhelming amount of cool individuals to surround me, which has somehow allowed me to attain at least a hint of a “mildly-interesting” social status myself. One of these cool folk is my good buddy, Daniel. And it is for him that I received my blisters today. I ran 8 miles, without stopping, without company, and without music. Win. But why would I do that to myself? Well, the last two (wc and wm) were optional, but the first two (8m and ws) were to train my bereft body to handle a 13.1 mile run with Daniel in February. He asked me to do it with him, and I said yes. I said yes because I love him like a brother and I like doing stuff with him.

I also like doing stuff at church. Today, at church, I ate the most amazing barbecue I have ever tasted. Bill Baker, a man at my church (First Baptist Church of Arlington) spent hours cooking the most tender, juicy, delectable meats I have ever had the privilege of consuming. I like food; this was something more. It even tasted great when I burped up a little on my 8 mile run.

Before all of this, though, I heard a sermon about our God. A sermon about the new covenant created by the blood of Christ. Our Savior, our King, our Lord came down and bled so that we can be cleansed of all our faults. And even though we continue to turn our backs on Him, He continues to bless us. He blesses us with food, with health and with friends. All of us here in America have each of these to some degree. Some have more than others, but we all have some. That same God wants us to share it. He wants us to take His name and proclaim it to the nations. He wants us to help those in need. He wants us to be love.

I’m going to do this for the first time in another country on Wednesday. That’s when I and three others leave for Costa Rica. As far as Mission trips go, it could very well be considered an easy one, but we still need prayer. And we can still be used. My hope is that it will be the beginning of many more international trips for me, and that I will get yet another way to draw closer to God.

I will be taking my laptop with me and updating on here as often as I can. I ask that all you buds of mine pray for us, and for the people of Costa Rica. Also, check your heart and see where God is leading you. (I feel I could have said so much more, but I’ve already written for way too long.)

help somebody

2009-11-30T22:01:00.000-08:00

Well, tomorrow is a fun day. I will be sending my first letter to Hawa in Sierra Leone. She is the li’l gal over there in Africa who I am now sponsoring through World Vision.

I wrote my letter to Hawa while my girlfriend wrote a letter to the kid she’s sponsoring through Compassion International. We made it like a date. We went, had dinner at Café Brazil in Dallas, and wrote our letters and talked about what we were writing. Doing something like that together is a great way to spend your time with your significant other.

But if you don’t have a significant other, do it with a friend. Even better, a group of friends! Or, if you don’t have any friends, do it by yourself. However you do it, just do it. It’s a manageable and enjoyable way to serve others. If you’re not a Christian, you can at least appreciate the idea of helping others; if you are a Christian, you are commanded to help others.

In his latest book, Forgotten God, Francis Chan says:
“It really is an astounding truth that the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. He lives in me. I do not know what the Spirit will do or where He’ll lead me each time I invite Him to guide me. But I am tired of living in a way that looks exactly like people who do not have the Holy Spirit of God living in them. I want to consistently live with an awareness of His strength. I want to be different today from what I was yesterday as the fruit of the Spirit becomes more manifest in me.
I want to live so that I am truly submitted to the Spirit’s leading on a daily basis. Christ said it is better for us that the Spirit came, and I want to live like I know that is true. I don’t want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly.”

That is encouraging, and convicting, to those of us who claim Christ as Lord. If He is our Lord, then we need to live like it. We need to live like we know what that means. That means, in part, that we have the Holy Spirit living in us. And with the Holy Spirit living in us, we can attack hunger, suffering, and injustice all around the world without fearing our time constraints, our finances, or our perceived lack of ability. As Christians, we need to lead the charge.

go, get outta here!

2009-11-18T21:50:00.001-08:00

Hello, all. I just sent out a fun email regarding a mission trip I’m going on. Me and some folk from my church are headed to Costa Rica to work with a church down there that we have a pretty strong relationship with. I don’t even know how many years our church has been working with them, but it’s been a while.
We (my church, I’ve never actually been) normally go in July-ish. This time we will be going December 16-23, and we are going to see a lot of what this church does. They have four or five missions they have started across their beautiful country, and we get to see like three of ‘em in one trip! It is going to be a great chance to strengthen our church’s relationship with theirs, and for those of us going to get a good introduction to international missions.
Missions is what God wants us (Christians) to do. He tells us we should be going and making disciples, and that we need to go all over the world. The whole world needs Him. And if we want to be a part of what He is doing, then we need to go tell them all about Him! It’s the best thing we can do in our life. He is the greatest gift in the world, and He offers Himself to everyone freely. And while it is Him that does the seeking of the lost, and the offering, and the saving, it is us that gets to be a part of that when we obey. If we love Him, which we should because He loves us, and if we love them, which we should because He loves them, then we need to tell them. Everyone.
And we do that through missions. We go to Costa Rica, we go to Africa, we go next door, we go wherever God asks. But no matter what, we go.
I will be writing about this trip, hopefully, and I hope everyone will enjoy the reading and that God will use it for His glory. Peace, love and soul train! Psalm 116:7

readers be ware

2009-11-15T20:13:00.001-08:00

oh yes, my keyboard is now working suffciently. after an hour on the phone with dellsupport, i have full use of my letter-studded pad here, and can once again write! of course, now i have no more excuses.
my plan? to write more about charities n such. i want to tell you all about the options out there and tell you about the ones i know of through experience. and believe me, there are waaaay more out there than i am actually a part of. so, there is plenty of material. ;)
my most recent experience is sponsoring a child in sierra leonne. i will tell you all more about that over the next however-long. but as a brief overview:
her name is hawa mama (i know, awesome). she is a little gal in sierra leonne, a country recovering from some horrible civil war violence. if you have ever seen "blood diamond", it was a lot like that. only worse from what i hear. i adopted her through world vision, and have been very impressed so far with the amount of info and support i have recieved from them.
i will end this entry here, but there should be plenty more soon!

just do it

2009-11-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

This was a good weekend. If you follow me on twitter (@los_lupe) then you know I went to something called the Right Now conference. It was a great experience with like a thousand (I am bad at estimates) other Christians listening to speakers like Kay Warren, Francis Chan, Matt Chandler, Donald Miller, Anne Jackson, and Tim Ross (those are the ones I heard, but there were more). We were also led in some great worship by Kari Jobe. She was a bouncy gal with a big voice, and she sure seemed to love her some Jesus.
As did all of the speakers. God put some great words on their hearts, and used them to get those same words to those of us at the conference. That’s what God does, he works things out so that the right people hear the right message from the right mouths. From Kay I was reminded of the pain out in the world, and that I need to set aside my own personal kingdom and serve His. Franky Chan reminded us that we can’t do anything, but God can do anything and he does it through us. He made us His righteousness, and offers us Himself. Read 2 Peter 1:1-5 (where Chan’s sermon came from), it’s good stuff. Then Chandler made us laugh occasionally, and hard, as he reminded us of the Resurrection and just what it meant. He reminded us how God took our sins on the cross, all of them, and rose victoriously from the dead. He reminded us that nothing we do surprises God and that he took care of it all a couple thousand years ago. He reminded us just how amazing the Resurrection is; not just in how it happened, or that it happened, but what it accomplished. Sin lost. When we look to Jesus in his life, death, burial, AND resurrection, ,sin loses it’s grip on our lives. Donald Miller took us to school and explained how the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet is an analogy (or metaphor, I can never remember) for what it means to become a Christian. He pointed out that this is a relationship. That we give up ourselves to take on a relationship with Christ, and we are made new in this relationship. Tim Ross (I know, out of order) reminded us all that the Bible says we need to die. He says that people who are still alive aren’t living. It’s when we die to ourselves that God begins to use us. Finally, Anne Jackson is why I am writing again. I listened to her talk on using social media to spread His word. She talked about the importance of a blog in reaching others with Christ’s message through the art of storytelling. With a blog, or twitter, or whatever, we followers of the One True God, can tell others of the work He is doing all around the world. We can use blogs to inform each other of the pain in the world. We can use blogs to mobilize Christians to do what Jesus told us to do, love others! But we have to actually write. And we have to do it well.
I’ve not done a very good job of telling the story of this weekend. And I don’t know if I will in the future with other stuffs, but I’ll try. I’ve said this before, and I may have to say it again, but I’m gonna try once again to keep at this.
One thing I would like to say is, help someone. Help someone in need. That was the cool thing about this whole conference. I have been to plenty where we talked about the importance of assisting those in need, but then we all go home and go back to our luxurious lives (if you live in America and have a job, you are living a life of luxury compared to the hurt around the world). At this one, we took a break from listening to put together equipment packages for World Vision to give to caregivers of AIDS victims. There were representatives from different organizations that go and help those in need. They did some great recruiting to find people to give and to go. Compassion International got sponsors for nearly 200 children around the world. You can do the same for like 40 bucks a month. I am about to sign up with World Vision to sponsor either a child, or even a whole family. Just do something! By eating a few sandwiches instead of an expensive meal, we can keep a kid from dying. It takes so little effort from us in America to do so much around the world. As Christians, it is our responsibility.
This wasn’t the best post, but I meant it. And it’s getting a little long, so I’ll end it. Maybe I’ll be able to come back and be a little less rusty and tell a much better story, but for now, go do something!

brief update

2009-08-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

i'm happy to let you lovely readers know, i am officially writing for that online thing now! it's called the examiner, and it is an online news-type source for local information. they have sites for a little over 100 cities, and seem to be growing. my title is dallas coffee shop examiner, and i will be writing everything i can on as many coffee shops in the area that i can get to and taste a bit o' joe.
in other eddie related news, i have decided to run a half-marathon. the austin half-marathon, to be exact. that means 13.1 miles of moving my legs. i've never gone that far on anything without wheels.
lately, i have been pre-training training. i am getting ready to begin a training regimen by doing lots and lots of training!
so, i'm tired and am going to cut this post short. but i will end by telling you the wierdest run i had. also, i'm not going to go in to detail. basically, i saw a heineken bottle in front of my house(we live in a nice, clean neighborhood and there usually isn't any trash, much less alcohol), a butterfly knife(that one was in the neighborhood next to us, which is even nicer), and a demolished armadillo. it was just a strange run.
k, bye.

glancing through a keyhole

2009-08-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

not sure what you lot've been up to, but i've been taking over the world one clutch of human infestation at a time...
also, not sure where that came from. for some reason i momentarily channeled killface, from one of the greatest animated shows of all time, and couldn't help but put my thoughts down.
it's like that with good thoughts. sometimes you just can't help but get them out there. like, Jesus loves me, and you. and i may be getting to write soon for an online news source. and the school year starts soon, which means i get to sub. it's not a whole week in a classroom, only a measly day, but i'll take what i can get. i'll also continue to be rather annoyed at all the teachers who don't want to be there. if you don't want it so much, give me your job. i do want to be there. but whatever.
i'm excited about the writing thing. still could be a tad sketchy, but we'll see. i'll keep you all informed on that bit of me.
well, i'm off to other things. enjoy this taste of my life, and pray i'll do this more often. huzzah.

zombie prevention

2009-07-29T21:39:00.000-07:00

you may have heard about the recent grave robbings in chicago. it's a despicable act that should definitely be punished. but i am not sure why people get as worked up about it as they do.
i recently read an article in usa today by a writer for the paper who had no connection to the grave robbings, other than the weird fact that he enjoys stopping at cemeteries when he sees one just to walk around. he was all worked up about how horrible it is that this happened, and saying how much it would bother him if it happened to someone he loved, but also how much it bothered him that it happened to someone he doesn't know.
now, i say it is despicable because it is just such a cowardly act done out of greed and disrespect for other's feelings. but why is it so much worse than a regular robbery? the bodies are no longer inhabited. there is nothing else there but flesh and bone. there is no one inside the grave any more. i'm pretty sure the deceased aren't bothered by it. so why are we? the answer is probably somewhere along the lines of "the dead are...sacred...or whatever." i guess i can kinda see that, but only because i can understand why you would believe something that everyone else agrees with. but still, i think it might be a little silly.
i tried explaining this to my mom some time after my dad died. i was intrigued by her insistence on taking gifts and such to the grave, and visiting it and whatnot. everyone does that. but why? they aren't there. either you believe they go on to some afterlife, in which case they don't care what you do with their body, or you don't believe they go anywhere, in which case there is no one left to care what happens to the body.
now, i believe the truth is that we go somewhere. one of two places; heaven or hell. i believe any other thoughts are wrong. God created us, we rebelled and are still rebelling, He came to earth in the form of His son(Jesus), suffered a horribly painful and undeserved death that should be reserved for us, rose from the grave (no one in history has come up with a valid explanation for his empty grave...interesting), and is seated at the throne of God in heaven, waiting on us to believe on Him and accept Him at His word so that we might spend an eternity of bliss and joy and love with Him in heaven. if we choose to reject Him, we go to hell for eternity and suffer etrnal torment, most notably the complete absence of all hope and joy and comfort and peace and love, namely; God.
and, either way you go, heaven or hell, you won't give three rabbit pellets as to what happens to your body. welp...that's all.

on chastising

2009-07-24T22:40:00.000-07:00

well, i was chided today by one bryan e. wallace. again. he is always making fun of me for having a blog and not writing in it. although, i am fairly certain that i completely own him as far as who posts to their blog more often.

but he does have a good point. i should write more. and i want to. it’s just that I keep myself busy and have no discipline, so it’s difficult to sit down and write anything worth a read. i also get hit with never knowing what to write about, but that’s no excuse. writers have always said the best way to become a good writer is to continuously write, even when you have nothing to write about. just put something down on paper (or the world wide webs, interwebs for short, if you will). which means i guess that’s what I need to be doing. at least every other day or so, i should just post something.

well, what is today’s topic(other than the above, of course)? the arrest of professor gates. obama used the right word, “stupid,” but he applied it to the wrong thing. he called the police stupid, but it’s the entire incident that’s stupid. the police were called about a break in; they arrived at the house and found a man walking around inside; they questioned him; he gets angry. sorry, mr. gates. the police were not aware that 50 yr old black men never rob houses.

if the police had not believed him once he proved he lived there, then yes, this would be a race issue. but they arrested him for becoming beligernet at being asked to prove he lived there. would he have rather they just let him go? what if there had been a 50 yr old black man, dressed well, well spoken, who had broken in to his home and was wondering around when they got there; then, when he tells them he lives there, they just let him go, and he begins to steal everything in mr. gates’ home? would mr. gates have preferred this so that it did not seem like a race issue? i doubt it. he doubtless would have sued the police force and taken who knows how much money from tax payers because the police did what he claims to wish they had done in his case.

too frustrated to continue. whatever. stupid.

the no-post post

2009-07-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

props and thoughts

2009-07-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

no one cares what i think. so, i do not often choose to write about anything important. i am a little too irreverent and informal to handle the real issues of the day. such as the murder of Natalia Estemirova, a fearless human rights activist from russia. she was kidnapped from her home in chechnya and found in the woods of neighboring ingushetia with gun shots to the chest and head. there is nothing funny about that, or the fact that this is apparently the norm for brave, outspoken activists in russia. props to them.
but who would i give props to for something that is funny? obama. i give him props because i think i know why he’s our president. ridicule.
think about it. if you were a young boy growing up in hawaii (he may have kenyan blood, but he was born in hawaii; making him an american; end of story), where island after island is loaded with surfers and beach babes, you would hate being called names too. there is no way he went through life without hearing names like “slobama”, and “nomama” and “bakack!”(like a chicken). but while lesser men would balk at this kind of ridicule, our fearsome little slobama turned it in to fuel.
making his way to the mainland and conquering columbia and harvard universities, two schools i could never get in to, and successfully dominating the illinois and u.s. senates, two things i would never want to get in to, he became our first black president. i am sure he is now thinking to himself, that’ll show ‘em. that’ll show ‘em reeeaaall good(because that’s how he talks without a teleprompter).
but hopefully that’s not all he thinks about. he has a difficult term ahead of him. he is currently still pro baby murder, and he is playing a game of craps with our economy. hopefully he wins. he is only about an eighth of the way through his term in office, so there is still a chance for all that hope and change to work out for us, and him. we shall see. but to our friend, slobama, i wish you luck. maybe all the ridicule you are receiving will just be more fuel to your fire.
(haha, like he will ever read this. or like anyone else will ever read this, besides kerry and bryan, my two faithful readers. thanks guys. and i hope you enjoyed my political post. totally unintentional. this is just where the keyboard took me.)

addendum to "rant"

2009-07-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

Dear mechanical overlords of our inevitable future,
I apoligize for my ignorant and unwarranted disapproval of your functionality. My falsehoods are rampant throughout my recent post.
If you can find it in your mainframe to restore my good graces with you, please do so. I understand if I must be made a slave to fan your motherboard; it would be an honor.

P.S.
I heart ASIMO

rant

2009-07-06T22:18:00.000-07:00

today i add myself to the thousands, possibly millions, who have openly expressed their disdain for technology...through the use of technology.
i do this because it fails me. whether or not it is my fault, it fails. if we can fake moon landings and dissect the dna of viruses, then we should be able to omit human error from possible technological malfunctions. i just had to fill out an entire application for a second time, because i opened a window over it, and when i closed it i apparently clicked twice, closing the 99% complete application. i was angry. i was angry at my hand. i was angry at my computer. i was angry at my big dumb brain. i was even angry at the air for some reason, so i punched it. but then i thought about the real culprit. technology.
it fails us. it is supposed to be this amazing tool, and it can't even prevent me from closing an application that is almost complete.
it also is crazy. i think it has already developed artificial intelligence. actually, it may not even be artificial. today, i had to try fixing a computer's internet browser that kept zooming in on the open website. it wouldn't stop. our help desk had no idea what was going on. their solution: reset (didn't work, by the by).
and that's always the main solution: reset, reboot, re-up, whatev. but what are we "reset"ting? our we trying to reset the brain that has quickly developed within the computer over the few hours it has been turned on? possibly. this would explain all of the quirks. but, my brain is done ranting, so i will leave you reader(s) with that incomplete line of questioning. feel free to answer, or continue the rant, in the comments. they are not monitored ;) i am going to go reset my brain now.

Jealousy

2009-06-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Honduras is a country with roughly one million more people than the DFW, spread over an area a little more than four times the DFW. It is located in Central Central America (no, that is not a typo) and is made up largely of Mestizos, which are descendants from the long-ago love-mingling of Europeans and the Indians of that area. It also has one of the best capital names in all of the world; Tegucigalpa. If you have ever been in a Spanish class where you sing the Latin American Capital songs, this was one of your favorite parts.
Now, not only am I jealous of their capital, I am also jealous of their current political state. Their having a freaking coup! I have always wanted to be a part of a coup(“We step in to the party, disrupt the whole scene!”-Beastie Boys). Not for any “rebellious” reasons. I’m no starving artist who needs political unrest to be relevant (art is stupid). I have just always thought the idea of a coup is awesome. Actually, it might not even be the idea of one. I think it could just be the name.
The Britannica of our generation, Wikipedia, says “typically, a coup d’état uses the extant government’s power to assume political control of the country.” They explain further by quoting military historian Edward Luttwak(strong first name...not so sure about that last one though) as saying “’ A coup consists of the infiltration of a small, but critical, segment of the state apparatus, which is then used to displace the government from its control of the remainder.’” Basically, the beginnings of a revolution. This apparently happens a lot in Africa.
But back to the name, “coup. “ First of all, it’s like “soup”, which I love, but pronounced differently. Second of all, it’s like an American language joke to use that name. Look at it, it’s French. It probably stems from the French Revolution, the last time the French did anything. Since then though, all they’ve done is give up. They’re famous for it (also, they’re famous for being the reason we had “freedom fries”, another awesome name). Now we use one of their words to describe an intense, difficult, often unpopular show of resistance(read “not giving up”). Good joke, America.
Which reminds me of another thing I’m jealous of, funny people. I’m not very funny, but hopefully you enjoyed this post. It’s not my best work, but come one, it’s been a while. Hopefully this time I will continue to post…but probably not.

(on top of not being very funny, or possibly underlying it, i'm not very smart. so, feel free to post any necessary corrections you may notice. have a great day!)

easter's not for crazy girls

2009-04-19T23:14:00.000-07:00

my friend kollin and i can officially mark "getting bounced from a strip club for my religious beliefs" off of our life "to do" lists.
prior to easter sunday, our church was having a pretty strong push to invite people to easter sunday. we don't necessarily agree with the 2-sunday christians who only go on christmas and easter, but it is one of the most likely times someone will come that normally does not. and i guess our hope was just that they would hear the truth and their lives would be changed. because, well, that's what Jesus does.
but i think i need to back up a little for this story to make sense.
one sunday a month i meet a few friends at the house of an amazing family. they feed all of us, and it is always a glorious feast. kelly mcandrews is an amazing cook. there, is said it. anyway, when i drive there, and on my way back, i pass this strip club. and it is some strip club. i mean, this thing is huge. it looks like they started it in an old warehouse. it's got the tall, white sheet metal walls and steel framing that make you think it's full of vampires that are going to lock everybody in and kill them all in one massive blood orgy...so, yeah, it's big. and the name is the best part, "chicas locas."
every time i drive by this place the parking lot is full, and it makes me sad. it makes me sad for the guys going in there and it makes me sad for the women who work there. so i pray for it. every time i drive by i pray for everyone in the building.
well, the sunday before easter we had our dinner. and earlier that day we had our last "invite people" reminder. i had been inviting people near my neighborhood, or at least trying, but they all had plans. suburban white america already knows what they are doing on easter. and this time when i drove by the crazy girls, i thought "maybe they don't have easter plans." so i started praying about inviting the performers and patrons of chicas locas to easter sunday.
then friday came. that was the night chosen to do all the invitin'. me and my friend kollin (who i asked to come along with me as accountability and to take part in a good chance to share our faith) met at my house, talked, prayed and drove over there. honestly, it was a little weird. i have driven by plenty of strip clubs, but i have never pulled in to the parking lot of one. it just felt strange.
we chose a random parking spot, got out, and walked towards the front. we had to take a different path through the cars because there was a guy using the space between two trucks as a toilet. at the front were two guys who looked like they were waiting on someone, a tiny little bald cop in a booth, and a bouncer. the bouncer walked up and told us it was 5 dollars to park there. we told him we wanted to invite people to easter sunday. then he made me laugh.
without pause, he waved his hand in an arc encompassing the parking lot and said "we can't have any religious preferences here." and then we had to leave.
it was an interesting experience. and kinda scary. i didn't know what was going to happen, or how i would react to whatever did happen. but i trusted God. i don't know what He is going to do there, if anything. but i know that if He chooses to do something, it will not be stopped by a bouncer who prefers no religion.
(kollin thought it was funny that we couldn't pass out fliers in the parking lot, but that one guy could take a nice long piss there if he wanted. kollin was right. that was funny.)

party up in nyc

2009-04-08T20:05:00.000-07:00

i'm going to new york. i'm going to new york and i don't care who knows it! oh, and boston.

for me to feel giddy requires something truly significant. it doesn't happen often, and it's hard to be repeated for the same cause. but not so with new york. often i find myself thinking about the place, and longing to be there as soon as possible.
and i'm gonna be there in a month! i plan to spend some time with a friend, possibly help out with some mission work my church does up there, and go all over that city with just me and a weeklong metro pass.
while i'm there, i want to think and pray a lot about the city. i really do feel a draw to it. i feel God may call me there some day, for permanents 'n' such. but i dont know. i may have to live somewhere else, and just be involved in prayer for new york. but i will definitely continue to visit!
after new york i'll go to boston, and after boston i'll come home, and after i come home i'll wish i was back in new york.

but dont worry friends, i love you too.

oh to grace how great a debtor

2009-04-05T21:25:00.000-07:00

that’s a line from a song i like. come thou fount. it’s an old hymn, and an even older idea. the rest of it goes, “oh to grace how great a debtor, daily i’m constrained to be, let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. prone to wander, Lord i feel it, prone to leave the God i love. here’s my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.”
that is the most wonderful thing i can think of. i have been dealing with this idea a lot lately. struggles with sin hit me every day. i often go to bed feeling like a failure, and wake up just the same. but God is amazing. at the same time in my life i have been hit from every angle with these thoughts, i have been hit from just about as many angles with the previously mentioned truth. “oh to grace how great a debtor, daily i’m constrained to be.” i am totally and completely in debt to God’s grace. my life is His. everything i have, even more, everything i am, is His. though i am “prone to wander”, my heart is sealed. nothing can remove me from His hand. nothing can change His love for me. He has chosen to freely give me grace, and mercy, and love. there is nothing i have done to get it, and nothing i can do to lose it.
and that is what i believe. that is the truth of my life. and that is what i am daily praying will drive me to do everything i do. i am not perfect, and i won’t be until i am in heaven, in His presence, but i am moving forward and trusting in Him, and His grace.

hammockaze to my soul

2009-03-23T20:57:00.000-07:00

if you don't own a hammock, go out right now and by one.
you may object "but, it is late right now, i cannot find a hammock anywhere." dumb statement. you live near a walmart. i don't care who you are, you do. they are always open, and they have everything. so go, wherever you have to, and buy one.
others of you may say "but i have nowhere to put a hammock." false. there is always somewhere to put a hammock. if you have a backyard, but no trees, go buy some and plant them. you are helping yourself, the earth, and everyone in it! or, you could go and buy a couple of poles, a post-hole digger, and some concrete, and set up your very own hammock hanger. with tall enough poles and some ladders, you could even have stacked hammocks. if you have no backyard, bring that bad-boy inside. now, it is true that one of the best parts about a hammock is the outdoors aspect, but you can make a compromise by hanging it near a large window. don't have a large window? install one!
why am i so adamant about this? these things are amazing. they are the pinnacle of comfort and relaxation. everything looks better from a hammock. reflecting on life is more positive when done from a hammock. naps are more intense when taken in a hammock. life is more alive when lived from a hammock! ok, maybe not that last one, but you get the idea. hammocks are great, and i think you should buy one. that is all.

eddie's suffrage

2009-01-27T22:55:00.000-08:00

we all recently witnessed the electing and swearing in of america’s first black president. this is an historic event (even though i know i made plenty of jokes about almost everything being an historic event because it happens in history, this one really is kind of a big deal). sadly though, i was not allowed to take part.
upon attemtping to vote, i discovered that i was currently not registered in any county in texas, or anywhere else. this makes casting a ballot for stephen colbert rather difficult. with the time i have had, vacations and little importance at work, i have thought through some of the possible reasons for this difficult time in my life history:

1. the government heard i was voting for stephen colbert, and they wanted to prevent idiots from taking part in politics
2. an insane group of republican radicals discovered that my alternate plan, were i to come across a ballot that would not allow a write in vote, was to vote a strait libertarian ticket
3. i didn’t think about changing my voters registration when i changed the address on my driver’s license (in other words, i’m an idiot)
4. i have been identified as my own minority group and the government has not seen fit to grant me the right to vote

so if any of these reasons anger you as much as they do me, take up the cause of eddie’s suffrage!

me make money?

2009-01-26T22:30:00.000-08:00

in this economy, which apparently makes one of my former bosses tired, many people are looking for different ways to make money. it would seem the advertisers have decided to use me.
this website was created using my name. from what i gather, as i am lazy and don't want to actually dig deep in to something that doesn't truly interest me, it is a widget/gidget/add-on/functional thingy that you choose to put on your mobular device and advertisers choose to send you ads you may like. i don't know how succesful they expect this to be, but with using a name like "loop" they are bound for success. i mean, look at me. i only make like 10K less per year than teachers. and i am a uta graduate. and...well, yeah. that stuff.
so, maybe their potential for success isn't as high as i initially thought. but if they somehow pull something out of their mobulars, then i hope they remember: they don't loop, I LOOP!

stupid

2009-01-04T19:14:00.001-08:00

hello all. you may have noticed that i haven't written anything in a while, but probably not. well, i took the rest of last year off, so there.
this is for my stupid friend at stupid work, bryan. the stupid guy just won't leave me alone about not blogging, so here, take this. i have blogged. hope you think i'm funny.
i plan to continue this, once again. we'll see how that goes. until i sign in again, bye.

TOMS

2008-08-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

i recently bought a pair of TOMS. if you have never heard of TOMS, you should. TOMS is a shoe company. they make these sweet, slipper-like shoes that are breathable, fashionable and supportive. the support comes not only in the arch of the shoe, but in the mission of the company. for every pair of TOMS you purchase, they will give a pair to a child in need. at a cost of approximately $50, this is not a bad deal. you get two shoes for the price of one. only, you give away one of the two pairs. but how does anyone lose in this?!?! many of us spend $50 and more on shoes. why not spend $50 on nice shoes, and know that somewhere in the world, a child in need is getting a pair for free?? the project began in argentina, where they “dropped” 10, 000 pairs, and has since gone in to south africa, where they “dropped” 60, 000 pairs. it seems they have plans to continue spreading. hanson even partners with them. so, mm-bop your way over to their website, www.tomsshoes.com, and get yourself a pair. also, you can go to whole earth provisions on mockingbird in dallas. that’s where i got mine!

nyc edition_finale

2008-07-25T21:10:00.001-07:00

well, we have been back in Texas for a week now, and i never finished the nyc edition. i hope i haven't left you with jaws agape, drooling over the possibility of the next installment. and i'm sur ei haven't, so i will not apologize.
but we are back, and the trip was great! as for the final two days there:
friday was long. we worked all day in the church, did the final kid's camp, and then prepared for, and had, the friday night cookout. the time between kids camp and the cookout was a little stressful. no one told us the kids would probably hang around for the cookout, and not go home as normal. so at one point, while everyone else had gone to prepare for the cookout, i looked around and found myself in the gym with 12 delinquents. ok, i'm kidding...there were only 10. ok, kidding again, they weren't all delinquents. most of 'em were great kids and i will miss them. but they were definitely tough. please keep praying for them and their families.
anywho, i realized i need to go help set up, so i left the kids with pastor kevin and two homeless guys that wondered in. i think they were fine.
the cookout was populated mostly by homeless people and a few parents of the kids. i don't think anyone from the street the church is on showed up. i'm not sure how much they like those weekly cookouts on their street that bring in what they may consider "riff raff", but the "riff raff" enjoy it and are very grateful. i may one such man named esteban, or steven for us whities. he was apparently a former banker who seemd to know quite a bit about the economic state of our country. he had fallen on some hard times and lived on the streets for a bit. now he lives with a bunch of family in a small apartment in brooklyn. he gave me some great isnight on the homeless condition in new york. there are quite a few people who can't help it simply because it costs too much to live anywhere in new york. i fi get in to school at nyu, this may be me.
the cookout went well, everyone seemd to have a great time. jeremy looked like he got cooked (he was on the grill all night with dwayne). then a few of us went in to town for one last night, and then came back to the church.
the next day, a few of us got up and went to the Met. the ones who decided to sleep in took a while getting to the Met, and then complained that we left them. those silly heads. i love 'em anyway! i also visitied FAO schwartz, then we all went back to the church, got our luggage, and went to the airport.
i think the coolest thing about this day was pointed out by our very own elizabeth montez. she siad that it would be relaly cool to go back Texas, hang out with people saturday night, and when they ask what we did today say "oh you know, went to the Met." good point montez.
well, that was a quick wrap up of our last two days in brooklyn. i would hav eat least done day 7 in new york, but the internet connection i was highjacking wasn't there when i tried. so, it took me a week of being in Texas to get around to it. i hope you have enjoyed this saga, adn that you will continue reading aboput my life. if you get reeeallly bored.

nyc edition_day-6

2008-07-17T23:34:00.000-07:00

this will be a short post. it is 230 in the morning here, and we just got through with a game of sardines. if you have never played sardines, especially in an old, empty church, then you should. if you don't know what sardines is; it's this game where one person goes and hides while the others wait. then they, after the proper waiting period is over, go to find said person. as each individual, or groups if they are scared, finds the hiding person then they stay and hide with them until all have found the hider. whoever arrives last has to go and hide for the next round. it is almost always fun.
and that is what we did to end our day. everyone is asleep now. some are going to get more rest than they thought because they have decided not to go to the miley cyrus concert in the morning. others are not going to get nearly as much sleep as they thought because they decided to play sardines.
the rest of our day was fairly relaxing. the homeless team did not see their normal guys. they suspect it was because of the mean store owner from the other day. that is sad.
the rest of us did some painting and got ready for the kids to arrive. i painted a fence that is directly above a 15 foot drop-off. somehow everyone else's idea of using a ladder that has a sign on it saying something to the effect of "hey, don't use this ladder" was better than mine and allison's idea of creating a harness out of some solid rope. oh well, got it done.
after kids club we ate a lovely dinner prepared for us by rachel, ashley and gary. then we went to central park. that is just about the most amazing place in this entire city. it's a gigantic park in the middle of a gigantic city. it's almost perfect.
then we tried to go to f.a.o. schwartz, which was close. so we went next door to the apple store for a while. that was cool. apparently all you have to do to make something, let's say a store, cool, is make it clear. that's what apple did, and it worked! that store is pretty cool.
then we came back to the church, threw uno cards at each other, had a dance party, played sardines and went to bed.
tomorrow should be good. we are going to do some more work, have kids klub, then a cookout. i am excited about the cookout. i think it will be a nice chance to do the kind of ministry most of our group is good at. the relational kind. we are all pretty good at getting to know people and i think that will be a good thing.
please pray for our kids and for the cookout. throw 'em up to God and they will be taken care of. we thank you for all your prayers, we miss you, and we will see you...tomorrow (since this is technically friday). also, this turned out to not be so short. oh well. gnight! :)

nyc edition_day-5

2008-07-16T22:02:00.000-07:00

have you ever been "shown up"? we have. all week.
the other group staying with us is a youth group from indiana. they are leaving tomorrow and will be getting some well-deserved rest when they get home. they've been putting in roughly 12 hour days all week with their ministry. they get up early, clean, meet, and go to work. then, when they get back, they meet again and worship together. we all feel kinda bad, every now and then. but we are having so much fun!
the group with the homeless ministry had a good time today. they were gone for a while and came back talking about having more good conversations. they also had some sad news though. apparently the owner of the grocery store where the homeless get their cans and hang out ran them off today. and with more than a hint of rudeness. he was yelling at them and kicking them off their stoops and being rough with them. this broke the heart of a few of the people. please pray that the owners heart is softened. and pray for the homeless that are out there, and all over the world. they all go through so much and could really use some love.
construction is going well. dwayne finished up some spackling in the entry, while belle and elizabeth started painting some of it. gary, jeremy and i worked some more at cleaning out this large storage room in the church. it went even faster when allison and ashley joined in our efforts. then we all had lunch (sandwiches and leftovers), and got ready for the kids. during this time, a wasp landed on my sandwich. i didn't know what to do. so, i asked "what do i do with this?" it was funny. at least, it was funny for everyone else.
the kids today were pretty good. there were a lot of new kids, but then there were also a few missing kids. i don't know...sometime sit feels like we aren't doing much with that ministry. but, like i said yesterday, we are trusting God. and in that, we are seeing Him work in other areas. and, we are having fun!
tonight we planned on going to a broadway show. daniel and i finally convinced the group to go see spamalot. we had almost everyone ready to go. ashley and rachel took our money to the tkts booth to get our tickets. and they were sold out. it was sad.
so, instead, we all went to dinner. we got dressed up, or at least put on nicer clothes than we have worn all week, and went in to manhattan. we ended up eating at "juniors famous restaurant. the best in brooklyn" (or something like that). and yes, the "best in brooklyn" was in manhattan. but it is a chain, so it's ok.
after figuring out a confusing ticket and eating for 2 hours, we went in to time square...for the bazillionth time! it was still fun, though. i got "nuts 4 nuts"! they are these delicious little cashews, almonds, and peanuts covered in some sort of sugary goodness. we also went to toys-r-us, the m&m store and a few gift shops. kimberly and daniel had to leave early, though. daniel accidentally stepped in a puddle full of sewage water and splashed kimberly. they smelled so bad that they decided to head back to the church early.
now we are all here, and i am writing this blog. amanda, dwayne and belle are drinking slurpees, elizabeth is on the phone, and jeremy is playing the piano. everyone else is asleep. hopefully i will be soon. please continue to pray for our kids, our other ministries, the homeless here and all over the world, the city of new york, and our people. have a great few days until we return!
(also, thank you to everyone who has left a comment, and to all the readers! i hope you are enjoying this. and as for the questions about pictures: i wanted to post a few, but we do not have a cord to get the pictures from the cameras to this computer. sorry. but i hope i have painted at least a vague mental picture for you. bye!)

nyc edition_day-4

2008-07-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

one of our group members just shared a sad, but true, observation with me. the difficult part about dealing with most of these kids is that when we give them love they don't return it.
we aren't just being selfish. i am sure it may be some of that because, well, we are not perfect. but the other reason this is difficult to deal with is that the "bad" kids we normally work with act the way they do because they just want love. and normally when we give it they are so appreciative, and it moves them so much, that they return it. this shows us that we were effective. that we got through with love. and that there is hope for them. but when we show love and we get rudeness and disrespect in return, it can be a little disheartening.
but we can't let it drag us down. because it's not about us. this very well ma be a lesson in understanding that no matter what we do, the effective things are God working through us and through others. we don't do it. we can't. we have to have faith in Him, and if we think it is us then our hearts are not in the right place.
also, the coolest things on this trip haven't even come with the kids! twice this week we have had girls come back from a different ministry talking about feeling the Holy Spirit give them the words to share the gospel. that is amazing!
everyday some of our group takes a couple boxes of sandwiches to an area in the neighborhood where the homeless congregate. they pass out the sandwiches and spend some time mingling. today when they came back, amanda had a story about an old man named (possibly joey). she said he has muscular dystrophy and a big beard. he has gone through a lot in his life, and he was just happy to have some love. after hearing his story, amanda was able to share the gospel with him in conversation without preaching at him. she is not sure exactly how he received it, but is trusting God to continue working in his life. elizabeth had a similar story.
on tuesday nights, the pastors wife leads a small Bible study at a nearby women's shelter. tonight almost all of our girls went to help (allison came with us guys and amy, the summer missionary here, to central park/st. johns cathedral/columbia university). it was a good thing so many of our girls were able to go tonight. they had about 10 women come to the study. the pastor's wife said this was the most they had ever had. they had a fun night of painting nails and talking. and elizabeth had a fun night sharing the gospel...in spanish! elizabeth is not quite fluent, but she grew up around spanish and spent some time in spain recently. but tonight she ahd all the words she needed! she said she began sharing the gospel with the woman in spanish, and came away from the conversation feeling like she wasn't even sure of what all she said, but the woman heard it. and again, she didn't have a conversion experience right there, but we are all trusting this woman into God's hands. we know He is faithful to finish the work he has started. please be praying for joey and the hispanic woman. we know they are in good hands!
oh, and as for the rest of the day: kidz klub was fine (it went a little smoother than yesterday, but there were still a few problems[some of the kids do not show our people any sort of respect and made one of our girls cry a little today, please pray for them]), we had real, new-york-style pizza for dinner, the girls went to the woman's shelter, daniel and jeremy saw a concert in central park, me, gary, allison, dwayne and amy saw st. john's cathedral, and allison and i walked around columbia university (it is by far the coolest college campus i have ever seen. there were huge, old buildings and little patches of grass everywhere. allison was very excited about all of the libraries, especially the main one, and about the statue of the thinker. i was very excited too. i think i may apply to columbia for grad school.)
ok, that is all i have the strength to write. i hope you have enjoyed it. i also hope that you will continue to pray for us and for the kids and for the various other ministries we are doing here. have a great day! we will see you all soon!

nyc edition_day-3

2008-07-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

i still haven't showered. i made a guy angry on the subway. i had dim sum for the first time. i didn't go in the empire state building. i tried to teach the kid that sprayed me in the head with silly string how to dribble a basketball. i got sprayed in the head with silly string. i beat elizabeth montez at knockout. i lost a game of soccer to 8-year-old zach with the rasta braids. i played an animal game with montez, the jamesons and 4 8-year-olds. i scraped and spackled an entry way with dwayne, jeremy and gary. i ate breakfast at a local diner.
i awoke around 730 to eat breakfast at the park slope diner. i was reading and had the sneaking suspicion they wanted me out of there. so i went back and relaxed until people got up and got ready. we had a meeting with pastor charlie at 930 and he gave us the rundown for our week. we were in there for a while.
during all of this, the other group staying with us was cleaning the place. i think they think we are messy.
most of the group started cleaning the kitchen and getting food to feed the homeless. amanda and montez made some terrific signs for our kidz klub. gary showed me, dwayne and jeremy how to scrape away the old wall in the entry way and spackle it over with new wall. this was fun since the ladders we had were older than us.
the kids slowly began to show up a little after 3. gary, jeremy and i took care of a few more labor projects while the rest of the group played with the kids. then we went back for group time. i had the 8-year-olds with montez and the jamesons. zach and his rasta braids did not want to join. he already knew the lesson (on creation) since he and his dad have been reading the Bible and they were in zachariah. when he came back to the group, we made our creation book crafts and stuck name tags on our foreheads with various types of animals written on them. the kids were good at this.
after we played some games in the gym and most of the kids left, zach and i went back and forth using a small basketball as a soccer ball. i think he has played soccer with his dad too. he was good. when he went home i played knockout with 6 or 7 people. it came down to me and montez. then it came down to me.
after most of the stragglers left, we all went and ate dinner. then everyone got ready for the evening with a nap and a shower. i chose neither. i mostly sat and debated whether or not to take a shower. then, as we were waiting on everyone to get ready, a couple kids came back with silly string. that was fun. then i tried to show one of them how to dribble a basketball. that was also fun. i'm not very good at basketball...i think little kevin got jipped. but i also think he had a good time, and so did the rest of the kids. there were a few that proved my foreboding feelings from yesterday...ok, most of them did. but they still seemed to kiiind of enjoy it, and we all made it through. thanks for your prayers! some of these kids have rough lives. it is easy to get frustrated when you don't know what they are going through. i will need to keep this in mind for tomorrow. please pray that i, and the rest of the group, can do that.
(specific kids that i remember need prayer: zach, jason, brian, kevin and irvin)
when everyone was ready, we headed to the empire state building. but with the train in front of us having a break emergency, slow walkers, picture takers and people wandering away from the group, we did not get there until dark. most of the people that went did not want to see the city at night. still not sure why.
we then went to time square again. everyone pretty much did their own thing here. dwayne and daniel went to watch some of the home-run-derby on tv, rachel helped gary, the jamesons had family night and got a picture out of the deal, and i went with the remainder to walk around. but when they went in to the m&m store, i decided to go exploring. i went up and down a few streets, tried to get in to the lion king backstage door, met an up-and-coming comedian named jose vega and had dim-sum for the first time at some small restaurant named john's shanghai. it was good, but the dipping sauce smelled like feet.
on our way back home i was taking pictures of everyone with daniel's camera. the scruffy guy sitting next to me reading his paper and doing a sudoku seemed thoroughly annoyed with this. he kept huffing and rolling his eyes. but i kept taking pictures. i think he got over it, or gave in.
now we are back at the church, sitting on the front porch. you can deduce what i am doing. belle and montez are talking to ife. dwayne is reading his lesson for tomorrow (i should be doing that...). amanda is reading her Bible, writing in her journal and listening to her ipod. daniel is drawing his sidewalk chalk masterpiece. oh, and i think montez just woke the neighborhood up with a laugh. and through all of this, i have not showered since last night. between sweating in the gym and walking through nyc, this is gross.
that was our day. if you have made it this far, i thank you. and i hope you have enjoyed your read. i also hope you will continue to pray for us. we have 4 more days of kidz klub left, and we are going to need some strength. pray that we can help this church make a difference. pray that God will use us while we are working, and while we are playing. finally, pray that He will show His infinite and wonderful love through us. this is all we really have to let the world know who we are and who He is. we can be knowledgeable and skilled debaters, we can yell fire and brimstone or calmly point out the beauty of nature. but if we are not loving, they won't see the One, True God.
we love you, and we will see you soon!

nyc edition_day-2

2008-07-13T20:38:00.000-07:00

today was yet another fun day. anyone who woke up before 9 heard the Russian service held in the church sanctuary. it’s full of Korean people. apparently there is a large number of Korean people that live in the area and only speak Russian. that was interesting.

by 930 the team was up and eating breakfast together in the kitchen. from there we went to the adult bible study and then the regular service. our very own Allison Robertson fought her nerves and got up in front of the congregation to do their special music. half way through the service, 4 of us took the 4 kids who were under 9 years old and had, or attempted to have, a kid’s church.

if this one-on-one ratio of worker-to-kid was any sort of foreshadowing for the upcoming week…we are in trouble. they were definitely a handful. actually, 2 of the 4 were a handful, and the other two were rather docile. this is even more foreboding. but God will strengthen us! and we will need it!

after church some of our group went to the store and grabbed some supplies for lunch and dinner. the rest of us stayed at the church and played hop-scotch with a couple of the kids until they had to go home.

at 3 we split again. gary and I went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle and the rest of the group went shopping in SoHo. the rest of the group missed out. while they were getting their cheap purses and expensive juices, gary and I got a free concert, and quite a show. it was definitely very interesting. there was speaking in tongues, and “hallelujahs!” for guitar solos. it was also rather easy to pick out the Baptist youth group mission trip. they were the two rows of white kids in shorts and Christian t-shirts,s mouthing the words to the songs and not daring to make a clap, much less move their feet.

to end the day, we cooked some greasy tacos and went to Coney Island. Jeremy, Elizabeth, Amanda, Rachel and Belle stayed behind to play games and chill. they changed their plans on us and left the church to explore Brooklyn. this got them locked out of the church. they had to wait on the rest of us to get back from the Coney Island adventure.

coney island was a treat. one observation, a very Texan observation, was that it was roughly 2-3 times dirtier than the State Fair of Texas. while Texan, it was also true. we thought about getting a Nathan’s Famous hot dog, then decided to go to the beach. we walked across the famous boardwalk, spent a while in the sand, washed of our feet, and walked back to shoot a freak. that’s right, a freak. we convinced Dwayne to pick up this paintball gun and shoot a live target. a young man with pads, a helmet, and a shield went in to an ally-sort-of-thing and let Dwayne fire off 15 rounds in his general direction. this was totally worth it. and so were the Nathan’s Famous hot dogs we decided to go ahead and get on our way out.

now we are back at the church, planning tomorrow’s Kidz Klub. we will need our rest tonight. before we do the afternoon Kidz Klub we have to do some street evangelism, construction in the church and possibly various other tasks. if you are reading this, please pray that God gives us strength for them all. we know He is faithful and will provide. we cannot wait to see what he is going to do!

nyc edition_day-1

2008-07-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

hello everyone! (i say that assuming anyone is actually reading this). if you are new, i am eddie. this is my blog. this is going to be the nyc edition of my blog. i will try to update this everyday while we are in new york. we shall see how that goes.

we arrived in new york somewhere around 330pm. we got our bags, our ride, and headed to brooklyn...then we sat in traffic. but we had a great driver who told us how awesome the food in brooklyn is. this had us excited, because we were all starving. donuts apparently will not hold you over for 6 or 7 hours.

once we got to the church, we got our bags out, and talked to pastor charlie of park slope community (or baptist) church. he is the pastor of the church we are working with here in brooklyn, and a great guy. he loves the work he does here, and he is certain of his call.

he is also certain of nearly every pizza shop within 4 or 5 blocks. and there are a lot. sadly, we could only eat at one for dinner. but it was a good one. "Spidey", as kimberly called him, runs the Pizza Grill. you can order from them online at www.delivery.com

once we had our bellies full of new-york-style pizza, we headed out to ground zero. there is a lot of construction going on there. and once we took our pictures and talked about how crazy all of that was, we went on to the rest of our evening activities. (because this is getting long, i will keep the rest of this short)

we split into two groups. one went to central park to walk 20 blocks into the park and listen to bon jovi sing a few songs. they had fun. the other group went to the staten island ferry and got a free ride across to staten island with a nice breeze and a great view of the statue of liberty/nyc skyline. then we all met up in times square. then we all hopped on about 4 different trains trying to find our way back to brooklyn.

from there we bought breakfast for in the morning, talked about the next day, met a few of the other groups here, then passed out. we are all planning to wake up tomorrow and get started with our mission! we are very excited and can't wait to see how God is going to use us. it seems like we have partnered with a wonderful church who has a clear goal: spreading the love of jesus to their world.

my misadventure for one_part3

2008-07-08T22:24:00.000-07:00

all night i woke up and went back to sleep. the entire time i was sweating. but luckily i had this nifty little camping pad thing that actually made a big difference. when i finally decided to stop going back to sleep, or maybe i just got to a point where i couldn't anymore, i unzipped the tent and stepped out into a glorious, bright, beautiful, hot day. 9 in the morning, and it was hotter than it had been all year. oh well, it was still nice. and it's Texas. i love Texas.
as i stepped out into Texas, i began my morning with a survey of my campsite. everything was the same, and the fire was gone. again, nothing had burned down. always a plus.
i got out my Bible and read some as i ate breakfast; a banana and a nutrigrain bar. then i began the difficult part. taking everything down. that was a beating. undoing the tent was fine. snuffing the fire's embers was fine. picking up my trash was fine. but stuffing the 2-3 person tent back into its box that is designed to work only once, not so fine. it was really tough. then i got it in there!...then i realized i had left the rain cover out. crap.
so i finally got it in there, and threw it, almost angrily, into my truck. then i gathered up the rest of my trash and took it all over to the nearby dumpster. and what do i find when i open it? a terrified little raccoon looking right up at me. it was cute, and pathetic. i had to help. i looked around and found a large stick, and stuck it in there. raccoons are super smart, and within 10 seconds it was up and out of the dumpster. the coolest part was when it got to the top of the stick. there, it stopped, turned back and looked directly at me. almost as if it was saying "thank you"...or "don't think i won't still kill you in your sleep if i get the chance." one of the two.
after this, i grabbed my backpack and went hiking through the wonderful lake mineral wells state park. Texas is beautiful. the hike was beautiful. any tough times during the previous night were worth that hike. i thoroughly enjoyed that weekend, and i hope anyone who has read these posts has enjoyed my report of that weekend. have a great day!

my misadventure for one_p2_ bryan update

2008-06-29T22:35:00.000-07:00

this is for my good friend bryan, my only faithful reader. he always checks my blog. while it may only be to use the dilbert widget, he still does it. and per his request, i shall now finish the story of “my misadventure for one.”
so i got back to my campsite and found that i had not burned down the forest. i had a fire and an un-charred campsite. the night was going well. and it was time for dinner! so, i put a can of bean and meat chili…directly in the fire! the best part, other than the deliciousness of the chili, was how i got it out of the fire. i made a fire proof glove. that's right, i made it. one cloth gardening glove + one leather work glove = manvention! and it worked great. the chili was tasty and hot. this all sounded like a great idea, up until time to go to bed. after messing with the fire, cooking the chili, and eating the chili, i was burning up. this would have been fine, if i wasn’t camping in Texas in the summer! that night i decided a battery-powered fan would not take away from the experience of the outdoors.

(and so ends part2 of my now three-part misadventure for one)

my misadventure for one_p2

2008-06-21T23:05:00.000-07:00

i forgot. i think there was a raccoon involved.

my misadventure for one _ p1

2008-05-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

i went camping last weekend. by myself. smart? maybe not. fun? sure. hot enough to make a grown man cry? um, of course not...
but it was dang hot. fun too, though. i stopped by walmart just outside of weatherford. i know, i didn't think anything existed just outside of nothing either, but apparently it does. and i got supplies there.
i got tomatoes, and bean-and-beef chili, and nutrigrain bars, and bananas, and batteries.
i made it to the camp just after 8 and got started. luckily the sun was still out and there was plenty of heat to go around. but that didn't make setting up the 2-3 person tent any easier. its not jsut called a 2-3 person tent b/c that's how many people can fit in it. they also call it that b/c that's how many it takes to set up.
then i had to make fire. after setting up that tent, i thought i could wink at the logs and they would burst into flames. they didn't. so i tried leaves. still no. broken twigs? nuh uh. dried grass mixed with leaves and wrapped around broken twigs? nope. and after stuffing all of that with notebook paper and trying again, i still had no fire. then i remembered my true talent; mooching.
i got some lighter fluid from this other family camping nearby. and by "nearby" i mean i had to jog around the area to find someone with a fire and i found them about a hundred yards away. and this was a great idea until i had a nice little fire going...and had to return their lighter fluid. smokey says that ain't safe.

(and it is here i feel i should stop and make this installment one of "my misadventure for one")

2008-05-08T23:40:00.001-07:00

Last night at Youth Group, we sang this song and it reminded me of this post from way back in the day when I had a Xanga, or, as I often called it, Jenga.

I hope you enjoy!

Sunday, September 04, 2005

How great is our God? He's great enough to transform a convention center, occasionally filled with those of the secular mind set, into a chilling Hall of Worship. A Hall of Worship housing nearly 3,000 Christians with their hearts stretched out to the one true God in wonderful praise of His Glory. His Glory that inspires them to give immensely to those in need, both far and near. Those in need on the farthest corners of the globe, who have never even heard the name of His Glory. Those in our backyard who just lost everything they've ever known. His Glory that will mend the scars of both in His Glorious time. His Glory that will give them, and us, hope. So, sing with me!!! How great is our God?!?!?!

cockuhroaches

2008-04-24T05:42:00.000-07:00

sin never seems to go away. i want it to. most people want it to, even if they don't realize it. but through all of these conscious and subconscious desires, sin still persists. it's like a cockroach. it lives, even thrives, through war, famine, destruction, and all attacks against their environment. crushing sin, like crushing a cockroach, often leaves a mess. and completely expelling them from a certain area usually takes difficult and calculated work. you can't just start smashing away. you have to find its nest, its origin. you have to make sure all of its other hiding places are known to you as well. then you have to strike, methodically and persistently, taking extreme care to kill each one of its disgusting relatives. sometimes a few get away, and you cannot let this discourage you. you have to keep up the attack, or the ones that get away will soon overtake your entire home. the hope is that someday, someday soon, they will all be gone. we will have new homes, with no issues. we will live carefree of safeguarding anything, because we will be wrapped in the secure light of our heavenly Father. His love will fill, and overfill, all of us. His glory will be all around, without a single cockroach in sight.

life on the streets

2008-03-05T20:48:00.001-08:00

i like when i notice minor events that correspond well to larger philosophies on life. not because they're profound or anything, but because it makes me feel smart. maybe that's not a good thing, but until someone can explain it to me in an analogy, i refuse to believe it!

the one i saw today was pretty cool. i was walking down the street from work to where i park, which is pretty far away, and i saw two people crossing a street. one was a young, well dressed, black man. he had on nice gray slacks and a very purple shirt. for some reason black dudes can pull this off waaay better than i can. the other was an older, very possibly homeless, white woman. she had on what seemed to be old boxer shorts, a dingy orange old navy performance fleece, slippers that i cannot recall a description of, and a yellow toothbrush in her hand. the two were crossing the same street at the same time, going in the same direction.

he was male, she was female. he was black, she was white. he was young, she was old. he had nice clothes, she had a toothbrush.

at first i thought this was pretty funny. then i thought about it more, and realized; yes, it's funny, but it's also an interesting commentary on life. no matter who we are, or what we're doing, we're all just people going somewhere. we may be very different, but we are traveling at the same time, going in the same direction.

(there should probably be more to this post, but i'm lazy, tired, and new at this. plus, no one reads it anyway!)

beck makes no sense

2008-02-07T21:28:00.000-08:00

i like beck. alot. that type of chill-yet-fun music really gets me. also, he's just extremely talented. and you can't really pin down what type of music he does. that's why i had to make up a name for it.

but that's also why he aggravates me to no end!

him, and people like him. people who create things that make zero sense and make people like me feel as though we're missing something. like we don't get it. like we're idiots!

but we aren't. it's random. it's just all so freaking random. they throw together some words, or images, or scenes, that seem like that have a meaning, and sit back to watch the people oggle over their "creativity." and i put that in quotes not because i don't think they are creative, but because i disagree with why other people say they are creative. they are creative because they turn off all the hindrances that natural logic and reason put on us, and come up with random fun things that seem to go together. they aren't creative because there is some deep meaning in what they are saying with their art. those cases are rare, and half the time they are probably lying about having some "secret meaning."

i think this has taken me on a weird tirade about how much i don't like the whole "it means whatever you want it to mean." most of this entry makes no sense...or does it?

yay for technology!

2008-01-23T22:02:00.000-08:00

Well, I made a giant leap just now. I added the Dilbert widget you see to the right of your screen...hopefully.

I read all of the Dilbert strips, and I reeeealllly enjoy them. I like to wait a few days and let them build up, then go to the Yahoo main page, click on "News," go to the "Comics," catch up on the formerly-funny-so-there-is-still-a-shred-of-hope comic strip "Pearls Before Swine," and then go to the the always funny "Dilbert" strip.

The writer of Dilbert, Scott Adams, is a pretty quirky, and very funny, older guy who has a blog. I don't read many blogs, because most of them can't hold my interest. My own blog can barely hold my interest. But I generally enjoy reading Scott's blog. It's often funny, sometimes thought provoking, and rarely stupid. And it was on one such occasion...like, today...that I read an entry. On that entry was this widget. I usually don't add things like this to anything because I just can't handle all of the options. But I thought I would try this one. Plus it looks cool, and the content isn't half bad either.

So, I hope you will enjoy my step into the new age as much as I have. Have a great day!

peace, love, and soul train
God Bless
ed
Psalm 116:7

...seriously

2008-01-11T22:40:00.000-08:00

i really do plan to do this more often. i hear that writing often is a good thing to do if you want to improve your writing skills. since i plan to be a writer someday, a published one anyway, i suppose i should try this out on a more regular basis.

so, here's to me doing this more. i don't know that i will stick to it, but hey, i don't have any mroe school stuff left since i graduated. maybe i will have some time to do something beneficial now that i have school out of the way...

that was strange

2007-11-25T21:56:00.000-08:00

well, first of all, i am not entirely sure how i got on here. i mean, i know i signed up and all, but i'm talking about just now. i couldn't remember some of my info, and i clicked around, and then i was in. i am still not sure what happened. but, alas, i am here.
and i am here to talk about something very important, procrastination. it's what i am doin right now. these words could be going into my paper (not really these words, because they wouldn't fit, but you know) and they aren't. I have a ton of words to finish for this paper, due by tomorrow, and i have to get up for work in the morning. i can't take off of work, because i need the cash, and i can't put the paper off, because i am already on a one week extension. i am a horrible student, but i won't be one for long!
i graduate soon. i'm not turning over any new leaf, i've tried that before, and the leaf just got to be too heavy. no, i am just graduating. i'm out, suckas! that reminds me, i should finish that paper so i can graduate...

a new day

2007-11-15T11:18:00.000-08:00

So I have this xanga thing. I don't sign in anymore, because, well, I don't know. And I am not exactly sure what I amthinking will make me sign on here. I guess we will just have to wait and see. Maybe I jsut needed something new. or cooler. Xanga is kinda lame. Of course, I guess from what I have written so far, you could assume i am kind alame too. Which, I am.

But aren't we all? Probably not. Some people are really cool. A lot of those people are my friends. I'm lucky that they let me hang otu with them. See, lame.

Anywho, this is my new blog. And, as everyday is, it is a new day. So, if you had any questions about the title, there is your answer. Nothing special, just a new day. More on that later. Haha, moron. See, again, lame. Also, I apparently love commas...