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!

Why Worry

I am listening to All American Rejects right now and it reminds me of high school because that is when they started to get more well known. Those days I would go to class all day and get out early because I had early release. Me and my friends would cruise around in my friend Dan's old Buick it was pretty much a piece of junk but we had a great time just driving around to places without a care in the world at the time... We used to listen to The All American Rejects all the time when we drove around aimlessly to the beach and such. Listening to that song now reminds me of how things change over time. I don't ever hang out with that crowd anymore and I don't really know whatever happened to Dan, last I heard someone saw him passed out on a bench at the mall. Some people don't want to change some people want to live as if there is no worries at all. Lately I have come to the conclusion that life is really hard. Well I mean I have started knowing this years ago when I graduated from high school which was a piece of cake by the way. Then Starting college across the country I have found that I can't rely on my own ways to handle big things in my life. I have learned that its impossible to keep it together and do everything myself.

Recently I had to go home to California to get all of my nursing stuff together and it is due Today! We were gone on trips for two weeks straight and I was not here to take care of this stuff and really didn't worry about it until its almost too late which is what I find myself doing a lot. This is called "Procrastination" and its what drives me to not do anything and then do it all at the last minute. I would not recommend this at all. Do it soon get it done! Anyways it didn't really hit me until I had about 7 days to get this all done. So I frantically called a bunch of doctors in the area and they wanted to charge me 500 dollars for everything to get done because they did not cover my insurance in Vegas. So I prayed about it long and hard and gave God my worries and then I called my home doctor and my mom and they put me in a appointment the very next day! I was so relieved and everything I needed to do and was so stressed about melted away... This is just an example of the power of prayer and the power of our almighty God who takes away our burdens. So if you are troubled and have burdens on your heart send them God's way for he knows what to do with them.