New Life

I am about to start studying for my last week of college. One more week of school (dead week) then finals... I am ready to work hard and get A's! This has been a tough year for me since I transferred to University of Central Oklahoma, but I had to do it (long story). UCO has been a blessing for me it has allowed me to meet some "real" people. Okay, to clarify the people at OC were technically real and are great people, but I still felt like the school was too small and like I was in a "bubble". After transferring to UCO I was thinking people here were going to be all non-christian and rude partiers. On the contrary the people here are great and cool to hang out with. I mostly transferred to UCO to finish school and save some money, but I was hoping to get an Army ROTC scholarship which never happened. Who knew the government would run out of money for cadets? I still did ROTC and I really enjoyed my time in the program.

Along the line I met my future wife and we are scheduled to be married in July of this year! Problem with that was that she lived in California, its been hard to not be able to see her and spend time with her! I am excited to see my family in a week for my graduation! I am really going to be happy when I move back to California and I will be able to see my family and Katie anytime I want! Oklahoma was a great place to get my education and meet new people, but my real home is in sunny California! Right now I am stressed out because I have a ton of things to do before graduation and also because I still need to figure out what I am going to do to make money. Time to move on with my life and work hard to get my career going! I know finding a job is a big deal right after college and its even worse that I had to graduate when the economy has bit the dust! I pray almost everyday that God will guide me into a career that I will be able to help people and make enough to put food on the table for me and Katie. I just need to trust that God will provide for me and Katie and help strengthen our relationship and new life together... She is wonderful and probably the best thing to happen to me!

nothing

so right now I am sick and skipping church and watching USA beat Mexico in soccer saweeeet... I broke a guitar string the other day it was the third string and it was bad i had to go to a music store and buy a new set and they didn't have the type i wanted to i bought another kind and had to replace all the strings that was a bummer. i have a D league game at 10 tonight and i am going to be dead but im going to beat some butt, i plan to score 31 points tonight mark my words. sometimes i wish i was smart so i wouldnt be so dumb i got a 78 on my christian family test and i feel like a loser. more to come...

Change

Recently I was facebooking and I came across the feature that lets you see all the people who went to high school with me. I started looking and I found a few people that I haven't talked to in years. I remember last night while I was on I was watching an interview with Michael Phelps and he said that he was made fun of in school and now people who didn't talk to him or made fun of him are adding him on facebook and want to be friends now because he is famous. That made me think about my days in public school. I wasn't really a loser, but I don't think I was that cool I knew a lot of people, but not really any close close friends besides the few I still talk to. I wonder if people from school saw me and my life now would they see a change in me. Would they be able to stand out of the crowd now? In middle school I was made fun of a lot I really don't know why, maybe because of my ADD personality or the way I looked or dressed. I tried so hard to fit in!

I want to be different from who I was in high school, maybe you weren't the coolest kid in school either. Who are you now? What have you become? When I was searching old people I knew most all of them had gone to the same local college and their pictures they are still partying every weekend and still with the same high school friends, and still working at the same place they did in high school.... When I think back now if I really care about what they think about me now I would have to say not really because I have changed and moved away from that old life. It makes me so glad that God doesn't care about how I look or how I dress or the fact that sometimes what I say is completely random and pointless and I can't explain why. He doesn't think I am a loser and that is the best feeling in the world!

I ask you who are you are you still the same person? Some say that people never change, but what if its a good change? Prove those people wrong be someone be who you are and if you don't like who you are then be someone God wants you to be and you can't go wrong..

Zaba's

Zaba's is a great place to eat with the family the people who work there are really cool and make you feel welcome. I always get the steak burrito with Guacamole in it its so delicious. the burritos weigh like around 2 pounds, 2 pounds of amazingness!

I am a consumer

I don't know what it is, but having a credit card has made me want to buy things more often as most people do. I have only had my credit card for about a year and a half now and have spent almost 10,000 dollars on it with just random items such as gas and food and clothes and recently a new guitar and golf clubs and shoes. That is just my credit card I also have the other one that good ol' debit card just to switch it up every now and then. I can't stop myself from getting the things that I want this moment. I am not the most patient person in the world and I figure that if i don't get it now then I will talk myself out of it so I just got get it NOW! Don't mistake me for someone who has a lot of money I have very little and with that credit card I end up spending more that I have in the bank at the time.

What is it about having things that makes us feel good? I always feel great right after I come home with a new purchase especially if its impressive and I got a pretty good deal on it. I look at my closet and say to myself I don't really have that much good clothes or they are old. But if you looked at my closet you would probably say I have plenty. I am a consumer I enjoy making purchases and this credit card is not really helping at all.

Is it bad to buy things? What do you think? God has blessed me with a life in a good country where things are easily mine if I want it I can get it! That mentality has made our people believe we are the greatest and are better than the other countries because what we have.

If we have the money why not? Think about the money you spend every week on eating out, driving around, going to the movies, playing golf, or making a trip to Walmart and spending more than you originally intended and more than you had in the bank.

I wonder sometimes what God thinks about our consumerism. Does he care if we get nice things as long as they don't come between our relationship?

I'll leave you with this from Matthew 6:19... "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

17 and Homeless

This 17 year old kid walks over to us after getting off of the Max and asks us for a cigarette. We told him we didn't have any and expected him to walk about because he didn't get want he wanted. Instead he asked us what we were reading and I said the Bible. He tells us he doesn't believe what the Bible has to say and after explaining why I knew he didn't know much of anything that was in there because he told us the old and new testaments are pretty much exactly the same and both worthless. Ashleigh and I gave it our best shot at explaining the differences and the sacrifice Jesus made, but he really didn't understand or care much about what we had to say.

We started getting off topic of God and just about life and he told us he was living with this street family and doing anything that would make him feel good. Homeless at 17 I just thought to myself, how blessed am I? I have a place to stay a good family and a car and go to a nice school. God has been so good to me! The next thing I felt was compassion this kid was really rough and his language would have made my mom cry, but deep inside this street kid there was a soul just like mine who desperately needed Jesus.

I didn't have much money, but I asked him if he had eaten today and he said no. So I took him to the mall which was right next to the park and he picked out some food. It wasn't cheap let me tell you, but it was worth it to see him eat that huge thing of chinese food because he was so hungry. We sat and talked with him a while longer while he ate his food then we had to leave him because our Max train pulled up. Who knows where that kid is now...

Its just amazing to me to see how God takes a person like me and uses me to talk to people about God I think Ashleigh feels the same way about it. We both didn't want to do what we were there for, but God used us anyways and hopefully that kid was blessed by God that day.

Not Ready...

A little over two weeks ago our group went to Portland Oregon for a camp for high school teens. I have been 3 times before in my high school days and I have always taken something great back from each year. This year it was different it was our first time in Portland and we had a very very small group of teens willing to do this camp. Our purpose is to be able to tell others about Christ. Acronym, Youth Wave stands for Youth With A Vision for Evangelism, pretty much explains itself.

Everyday we had a training session a grueling two and a half hours of session it was pretty intense and then after lunch they would send us out! We were taken to the Max station (Portland public trans) and we would ride until we reached our destination. This was really hard to do I knew I needed to talk to people on the streets about God but it was just soo hard! I really didn't know what to say. I was trying to tell people about God with out tapping into God's knowledge, instead using my own knowhow. Didn't work!

So me and my friend from college were in the park on our last day out and our group decided to give free hugs. I was not very pleased with the decision it sounded a little sketchy to me and anyone would want a hug from me when I really didn't want to hug them. So eventually our group split up and did our own thing the huggers went to one area and everyone else spread out. I thought finally now we can do God's work! Didn't happen I tried to talk to people but they seemed too busy. Frustrated and tired me and Ashleigh sat down at a park picnic table to just rest and relax. We talked about how neither of us wanted to be here it just seemed so awkward and frustrating. After a while of talking I reached a breaking point where I told myself we need to stop sitting around and do something.

I prayed a prayer for God to bring people to us instead of us finding them. Then out of no where and me being random a though burst into my mind that I should read a book of the Bible out loud. Within 1 minute a 17 year old boy came to us asking for a cigarette.


To see what happened next read next blog!