I figured I should fall in line with the rest of the blogging world and end the year with a December 31st post.  I have so much I could say about the past year but I will keep it very brief, for if I began to explore the details of the last year this post may never end.  When I think over the past year there are two things that stand out far above all else in my mind. One, graduating high school and moving on to the exciting new world of studying at Morehead State University, and two, my outstanding summer mission trip to Porto Alegre, Brasil.  It was on this trip that I realized my life calling into some form of foreign missions.

It has been extremely exciting to meet several new great friends at Morehead and also to come home and share my new experiences with my best friends from high school.  I am so blessed.  2008 has, by far, been the most exciting year of my life.  I've learned and grown more than I could've imagined and I am so thankful to my family, my friends, and mostly my God for this year and all the experiences I have had.  I'd love to touch some more on some of these events in a, soon to come, future post.  But for now, I say, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

It's probably about time that I tell you all about this... so here goes...  

As you can probably tell from my previous posts, I've become very involved at the BCM (Baptist Campus Ministry) at Morehead.  For those of you who may not know BCM's are organizations on college campuses that provide a place for believers to socialize, attend Bible studies, do fun activities, reach out to the campus, etc.  They are sponsored by the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC.)  So... this year, through our BCM and the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC-a division of the SBC) I have been provided the opportunity to spend 8 weeks of my summer participating in something called the Acts 1:8 Leadership Experience.  This summer I will spend 6 weeks in Louisville, 5 of which I will be attending leadership training classes and helping with a vast variety of local mission projects, and the 6th I will be working with the SBC's Crossover Outreach.  Following these 6 weeks, my team of 18-20 will be heading to the Dominican Republic for 2 weeks to minister there and work with Pure Water for Pure Life (a division of EDGE Outreach) to install water purifying systems for people without the luxury of pure water.

Needless to say I am very excited about the summer.  I have already met everyone that will be on the team, and I think we will all get along great!  Two of my very good friends from Morehead were also accepted so I think it will be great to spend the summer with them as well!  I know that God will be glorified this summer and I can't wait to have a part in that.  However, there are several things that need to happen to make this summer possible.  First of all, I have to raise $2500.  Thankfully, that covers everything for the 2 months I will be gone.  Also, several of my teammates have to get Passports.  Thankfully I've already been through the process and my passport is good for another couple years, but that can always be a troublesome process, especially the first time you do it.  Most importantly though, we all need to be focused through the upcoming semester and make sure that God is on the throne in all of our lives and that we are seeking Him above all else.  So I would ask you... please join in on this ministry.  Become a part of what God is doing now and what He will do this summer.  Please pray...

     -for my team and I and our leaders as we prepare for this summer.

     -for everyone we will come in contact with.

     -for the hand of God to guide us and lead us through this time in our lives.

     -for us to grow closer to our Savior through it all.  

I'll do my best to keep you all updated through the blog and I'd love it if you would stay connected with me on this journey. So if you haven't already, sign up up there at the top right of the page.  Just enter your email address and you'll get an email whenever I add a new post.  Thanks so much for your prayers!

"...everything will change, things will never be the same, for the glory of it all" -DC*B

It's been a couple weeks since the last post... the semester ended, I'm home on break, and the Christmas hustle and bustle is in full swing.  Today I'd like to touch on a topic I haven't visited in a while: the tech world.  There's lots of news swirling around with Macworld coming up in just a couple weeks, and the Christmas wishlists are full of the latest gadgets on the market. 

First of all, last night I was out with the family doing some last minute Christmas shopping when I saw possibly the most pointless new piece of technology on the market.  I walked in the Sony Style store at Kenwood Town Centre and saw a flat circle table with a capsule shaped invention on it.  I was intrigued so I walked over.  Turns out, what I saw was a dancing speaker system called the Sony Rolly.  The Rolly is simply a mp3 player with 2 wheels around it and 2 flaps over the speakers that work together to make the Rolly dance to the music it plays.  I took a short video on my cell phone...

Interesting and entertaining, yes, worth the starting price of $399, not at all.  The Rolly houses only 2GB of memory (Apple's smallest iPod Shuffle is 1GB and costs only $49 and the 2GB model is available for only $20 more-Not to mention, infinitely more practical.), its sound quality is good, typical of Sony audio products, but it is nothing to rave about, it is far to big and heavy to carry in a pocket and doesn't even offer a headphone output.  On top of all that, in order to actually make the Rolly "dance" you have to download "motion files" from Sony's website. Sony's "ultimate conversation peice", while entertaining, is not anywhere close to being worth the pretty penny you'll pay.

Next on my list... Twitter.  I'd gotten out of the habit of using Twitter for a while because I got frustrated that nearly none of my friends used it.  It felt like a waste of time.  I found out at a birthday dinner last week that one of my cousins tweets.  I decided to get back on Twitter and follow him.  I've realized since that Twitter is good for so much more than simply keeping up with friends.  Find people that talk about stuff that interests you, follow them, and a wealth of resources and knowledge will be at your fingertips in minutes... and better yet... it's constantly being updated.  I even downloaded a new Twitter client.  Tweeter is a basic desktop client that allows for posting and uploading and gives a few other options for viewing your tweets.  Combine it with Growl and it works great.  It's options are limited and I'm not sure if it's the client I'll stick with, but it's worth a try.

Lastly, with Macworld just days away, the rumor season is in full swing.   Personally I don't think there's gong to be an announcement anywhere near as big and "tide-changing" as there has been the past couple years, one, because of the announcement that this will be Apple's last year at Macworld, and two, because Steve Jobs is not giving the keynote himself.  I think if anything huge was going to be announced, Jobs would break the news.  Now, despite my personal opinions, there are some somewhat interesting rumors roaming around about what might be announced at the Macworld conference.  In my opinion, the most likely of these rumors is that of an iPhone nano.  However, this leads me to ask, what would be the difference between the current iPhone and it's nano version?  Would it simply be smaller?  Would it have less memory? (the largest now is only 16GB which isn't that big, considering the iPod Nano is also offered in a 16GB model.)  Less Features?  On a smaller iPhone, how would one type?  The on-screen keyboard is already small enough.  So iPhone nano... maybe... but I've got a lot of questions.  Another rumor thats swirling is that of a new Mac Mini.  This based on a photo seen at Macenstein.  It looks nice.  Some believe however, based on an earlier photo on the same site that resembles the side of the new macbook, that this is simply a typical case of deceptive photoshopping.  Others have suggested that instead, these pictures could be of some sort of Mac server with a mini display or maybe even a small Netbook sort of Mac.  Possibly my favorite, but also one of the most farfetched rumors I've heard is that of a 3 screen fold out Macbook: a TriBook.  This Macbook would open and then two screens (each half the size of the main center display) would fold out on each side giving the user twice the viewing area.  I love the idea of more built in display space, however, there is an aspect of this concept I don't think will ever happen.  It is suggested that the touchpad on this TriBook would be the entire length of the keyboard leaving no where to rest your hands while typing.  That is unnecessary and it won't happen.  Regardless of all this... My friend Josh, author of the Updates in the Life of blog which is linked on the side of this page will be at the Macworld conference.  He'll be blogging and possibly even streaming live from the conference, and I'll do my best to keep you updated.

Well, that's all I've got for now in the tech world... comments? news? rumors of your own?

We made a decision yesterday that we were going to climb the three mountain peaks across the street from campus before the end of the spring semester.  Today was peak number one.  We set off at about three this afternoon... we drove to the park and began the climb.  Now if you look at my last post, you'll see that yesterday there was snow on the ground here in Morehead... that snow was still on the ground.  The climb up was a little difficult and cold... but we made it!  When we got to the top... we tried to make a fire, but that didn't work out to well... apparently snow and fire don't mix.  We did have another surprise waiting for us... we stubbled upon a geocache.  For those who may not know... a geocache is some sort of container someone places out in the wilderness... geocachers then find the GPS co-ordinance of the cache and go hiking and searching for it.  Well we found it by accident.  Once you find said cache you are supposed to sign and date a notebook that will be inside, take one item from the cache, and leave one item of your own.  We took a ball with an elastic string on it... ya know... one of those that you can throw and it bounces back.  We didn't come prepared with anything cool to leave... so we left a picture of one of our friends with her number on the back and another friends cigar.

Anyway... the view was great and we had a great time, but the trek back down was the best.  We got in a line and slid almost the whole way down.  So... one down, two to go. 

Here's some pics from the trip...

snow in morehead!

well, i woke up this morning and there was snow on the ground here in morehead!  this is the first real snowfall of the year!  i might be back later tonight with another post... but i'm not promising anything... so for now... enjoy the snow!

I've mentioned this before... but this past summer I had the privilege of leading the music along with my youth groups praise band at the youth section of ABWE's Missionary Enrichment Conference.  Our electric guitar player was unable to go, and through a few phone conversations, my youth pastor, who was speaking at the Conference, found out that one of the counselors, Mykal Bradley, played guitar.  The counselors for this conference are college age ABWE "missionary kids" from all around the world.  So anyway, Mykal played with us that week and we had a great time.   We found out that he was in a band back home in Coventry, England called Being Jo Fracis.  Well, they just finished recording their first EP and have three songs up on their Myspace.  I really like their sound... check them out.  The EP will be up on iTunes very soon and I encourage you to buy it and support these guys!

from my friends at the Remedies blog

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Last night in Bible study we were talking about Philippians 2:12 where Paul tells the Philippians to "work out their salvation with fear and trembling." We were discussing exactly what Paul meant by "with fear and trembling." We all agreed that he didn't mean to literally be shaking with fear our whole lives as we live as Christians or that we have to work to attain and maintain salvation, but rather to have a sort of reverence and respect for the Author of our Salvation. Another person in my group gave this analogy... She said it's kind of like when, as children, we break something, we aren't afraid that our parents are going to disown us or hurt us, rather we are afraid that they will be disappointed or hurt by our actions. This analogy had so much truth and conviction in it for me...

When I sin against God many times I simply come proudly before Him knowing he'll forgive my sin, I ask for that forgiveness and give myself a renewed, forgiven feeling.  This can no longer be the case, my sin must break me.  I have committed an act of rebellion and disrespect toward my perfect, completely holy Creator.  I must be broken over my sin.  I must feel the pain that I have caused my Father and see the depth of the eternal consequences of those actions.  Don't get me wrong, God does forgive and wash white the slate of our sin, but in order to be truly transformed from the flesh, I must come to that point where I feel the depth of my sin, where I see those actions as a complete disgrace to God.

I pray that I would come to that point where I am completely broken of my pride and I desire a life above reproach before the throne of God.  I pray God that You would show me the depth of my sin and reduce me to nothing so that my everything can be in you.

"reduce me to ashes

let me feel the depth of my sin

reduce me to ashes

undo my heart once again

I need a fresh view of you, Jesus

expose me in your holiness

a fresh view of you, Jesus

drown me in this hallowed place... reduce me to ashes

reduce me to ashes

rend my soul to see who I really am

reduce me to ashes

then put me back together again"

-Mark Jones

this is what happens when it's two hours before the halloween dance and your walking through goodwill with some friends with no idea what you're going to be.

I was talking with one of my friends yesterday through text about a band… Manchester Orchestra… they’re good. Check ‘em out if you haven’t already heard them… and if you have, listen to them some more. Anyway… so we we’re going back and forth about this band and maybe trying to see them in concert and out of no where my friend asks me this question. He says, “When you were dating (previous girlfriend) did you ever like another girl besides her?” This question kinda startled me because it literally came out of nowhere I mean it went straight from Manchester Orchestra in one message to this question in the next. But… he is one of my best friends so… I answered. I said, with complete honesty, that admittedly at times during our relationship other girls had caught my attention as attractive but none of them ever made me want to break up with her. Then, of course, I asked him why he asked me that. His reply hit me in the face because it was so full of truth. He said that he’d been thinking a lot about how a relationship between a man and a woman so closely resembles how our relationship with God usually works. This is so true. I mean, I know that marriage is supposed to be a picture of God’s intimate relationship with his church, but I’d never thought much more of it than that. Think about it! In our relationships with our Savior, many times throughout our lives, throughout our days, sin seems desirable. Temptation creeps up and grabs us. It looks so beautiful, attractive and enticing. Sometimes we even want to dive in headfirst. Sometimes we loose all sight of our current commitments. However, in the end, in a true growing relationship with our Savior we never leave Him, or should I say, He never leaves us. At least in my own life, in every circumstance, every temptation, and every sin, God never leaves and eventually I realize my need for Him. Eventually, every time, I realize that nothing else satisfies, that He is the only One. Just a thought… kinda scattered…

so this morning i was doing my devotions for my discipleship program here at the BCM and part of the days devotion had me reading I Corinthians 13:4-6. i saw this and automatically had the typical thought of any 'christian school/grown up in church' kid. this thought went something like this, "oh, I Corinthians 13, that's the love chapter. i've read this hundreds of times, why am i turning here again?" but despite the thought, i turned there anyway because i had to list the characteristics of love. so i journeyed through the pages and arrived at my destination. i started in verse 4 and as i read something awesome hit me. at the end of verse 5 in my new american standard bible it says that love 'does not take into account a wrong suffered.' now you may be thinking... "ok, so what the point? why is this so cool?' well think about it... we all know that the Bible says God is Love (I John 4:8) and if 'not taking into account a wrong suffered' is a characteristic of love, then it must be a characteristic of God. do you see what i'm saying? here is another proof that God hold nothing against us! if we come with humbled repentant hearts God forgives unconditionally. our slate is wiped clean, white as snow. just another evidence of the great grace and forgiveness of our God...

this is ridiculous

i’ve realized i need to amend my previous entry. my last post had an underlying suggestion that i need to correct. just a few minutes ago i was reading chapter 8 in the book Blue Like Jazz by donald miller. it was a great chapter. he discussed the reasons people tend to stray from christianity to other ‘religions’ or away from spirituality all together. he talked about how people try to mold God into their own wants or needs… to fit the TREND... and when God doesn’t fit into their little designer box, they give up all together. appropriate timing right? i think my previous post had the underlying suggestion that “everything is a trend.” i just want to make it clear that my Jesus is not a trend… my faith is not a trend… our relationship is not a trend. My God always has been and always will be consistent and true to His Word and my life. He is NOT a trend.

this week the trend

trends are something that very much interest me. we all follow them, whether we like it or not. maybe not the most popular one, but a trend none the less. what do you think when you hear the word 'trend'? the first thing that pops into my head is clothes... fashion trends. from bellbottoms to ripped jeans, trends come and go. now, right now you may be thinking i don't wear abacrombie or pop my collar, i'm breaking the trend... are you really, or are you just following another less popular trend? another thing that has the tendency to be very trend-ish is television. 'reality' tv... need i say more? one other thing that seems to be trendy... the thing i was thinking about that made me write this post... is words. especially slang words... 'cool, groovy, tight, far out, keen, awesome, boss, etc.' get the point? as time passes trends change... these words all basically mean the same thing, but did the people of the 50's say the same things as we do today? no! why... the trend. two other words pop into my head are... 'random' and 'awkward'. seriously, how many times did you hear those words today? someone does something just slightly weird and you say, 'that was awkward!' or something unexpected happens and no sooner do you blink than you hear someone exclaim 'random!'
now i'm not at all one of these anti trend people, and i'm sorry if this post seems that way... it's not at all. in fact, i enjoy trends... maybe not the most popular, but as i said, a trend none the less. i mean when it comes to clothes... i'm not the kind thats going to spend $40 on a t-shirt or $100 on a pair of ripped jeans... but to each his own. i mean i'm sure lots of people would think i'm ridiculous for taking the time to write about this... but hey, its just how i am. well there you have it... just another RANDOM thought from my RANDOM mind.

the awkward message

well i've been in college for almost two months now and i'm loving every minute of it. i've made lots of great friends and done a lot of fun stuff already... but that's not the point of this post....
i've found a church down here i really like called Crosspoint Church and our pastor, Daniel Lucas, is the man. he's funny and easy to listen to, but most importantly, he preaches the truth. he's so real with his church. this past sunday he started a new series called "hostage." unfortunately i'm going to miss the majority of the series due to 'circumstances beyond my control' :) but again, not the point. the point of this series is to talk about different current issues that hold christians 'hostage' from truly living the free, joyful life Christ has designed for us. the topic form this past week was money. financial difficulty is one of the most common struggles among people today, and christians are not excluded from this statistic. now we all know that the Bible commands tithing... and that brings me to the point. a good pastor preaches the truth right? and the truth about christians and money is that we need to tithe... i've always felt sorry for good truth preaching pastors when they have to talk about tithing. you can tell it feels awkward for them, and i think that's a good thing. you can tell they are struggling so much because they don't want it to seem like they're asking for money, but, to a point they are (for their church)... and it's the right thing to do. now understand, i'm not talking about these televangelists who ask for money and say that all your wildest dreams will come true if you give to them. i'm talking about humble pastors who simply want to preach the truth. and again, don't get me wrong, it's true, God will bless those who give as he commands, but those blessings may not be returned financially and they may not be immediate...
so i really have no solution to this... i don't even know if it requires a solution... those we're just some thoughts that came to me and i thought i'd share.

watch this

late nights and politics

so i had a discussion with mom last night about the upcoming election and politics. i wouldn't call it an argument, more of a defense of different stances. as we had this conversation i realized how uneducated i was when it comes to the realm of politics. i thought i knew my fair share. i thought i had a good grasp on my views. i don't though. i need to learn more. i need to know what's going in the world around me, and most importantly, i need to be able to interpret it from a Biblical standpoint. that was one of the things that shocked me the most about myself... i realized i didn't have solid scriptural backing for what i believed. i'm going to get better at this. i'm going to study the issues through the eyes of Christ. what's really right?

there will be more to come on these issues...

that picture...

i logged on to the blog just to see if there we're any new comments or anything cause i haven't been on in a week or so. i looked over at that picture on the right. it was taken right in the heart of time square in nyc, one of the busiest places i've ever been. it reminded me of all the lost needy people in the world. they are out there... they are right here... everywhere... people without hope, without grace, that don't see the love of Jesus everyday. they don't wake up with the peace of having a sovereign loving Father in heaven. i do... i wish they all did. what can i... what can we do about that?

A Mission Trip

Just wanted to drop in real quick and let you all know that today at 4:00 myself along with several others from our BCM here at Morehead are leaving on a trip to Columbus, IN. If you didn't know, Columbus was recently flooded and we're going to help clean up and minister to the people there. Of course, we hope to get a lot of work done, but that isn't necessarily our main goal. Our goal is to share the love of Christ with those we come into contact with, and if we would be so fortunate to have an opportunity to share the Gospel, to be bold and unashamed in our testimony. We would all appreciate your prayers as we go! Thanks!
A fellow servant,
Joseph

Doulos

Well, I’m in college now. Trying to adjust, get plugged in, and... do homework... but that’s a topic for later. I’ve just got a quick thought from our Praise and Bible Study night we have here at the BCM.
Philippians 1:1 says, “Paul and Timothy the servants of Jesus Christ...” That’s all the further i need to go for this. The Greek word used there for ‘servants’ is ‘doulos’. ‘Doulos’ means bondservant or slave. That much I already knew, many times Paul introduces his letters as being a servant of Christ. What I didn’t know was that servants in Paul’s time weren’t known by their names. They were completely identified by their masters. Basically, if I was a servant of Paul’s in that day I wouldn’t have been known as Joseph but as a Servant of Paul. It amazes me how Paul identifies himself so closely with Jesus. By calling himself a servant, a doulos, of Jesus Christ, he says I am no longer Paul, I only Identify with Jesus Christ. That’s an awesome claim! What if we as Christians could say that about our lives? What if we could say we are in such close fellowship with Christ and are so much like him that we don’t even identify ourselves by name anymore, instead, we identify ourselves simply as servants of Christ.

pointing to the Father...

This is an entry I've been wanting to write for a long while but haven't been able to because I either haven't been keeping up with the blog or I've been catching up on stuff I'd wanted to talk about during the frequent down times when I didn't write... but finally I get to write it.

Maybe this is something that's already common knowledge to everyone else that just never really hit me before, but that it did. It hit me in a big way. Ok, so one thing I've been taught a lot lately both through my personal devos and through Bible studies and sermons, is that the whole Bible, everything in it is pointing to the Gospel, pointing to the Savior, Jesus Christ. It's amazing that when you read the Bible with that mindset you begin to realize how true it is. Everything, the whole Old Testiment, The Gospels (obviously), Paul's letters, Revelation... they're all about Jesus and His sacrifice. So there's the first half... Then, one night in my devotions I read through three very common verses, verses that we've all heard hundreds of times.

"Therefore God has highly exalted him (Jesus) and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

It hit me like a ton of bricks, such a basic concept, one I'd heard a million times, but here it was. IT'S ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD!!! How amazing is that. Let me explain. I'd finally begun to grasp the concept that the whole Bible points to Christ. But there's more! "...to the glory of God the Father." Christ points to the Father. Thus, everything, the whole Bible, all the stories all the chapters, all the books are pointing to Christ and His sacrifice, who in-turn points to the Father bringing Him ultimate glory and honor and praise. All glory to Him!

My website!

Hello all,
Just wanted to take a minute to let you all know that my freelance website is up. Yep, you heard right. I'm jumping headfirst into the world of freelance videography. Head over to the website and check it out. I've got all kinds of info and 3 samples of my work already up, and there will be more to come in the near future. Calvary class of '08... the Senior Trip Video is over there so check it out!

Summer...

I didn't lie... It's tuesday... just Tuesday almost a month later. I'm really not very good at this blogging thing. Have I mentioned that before? Anyway... sorry once again.
Let's jump right in shall we? God has been doing a lot in my life this summer! It's been absolutely amazing. No doubt the best summer of my life! It started on June 5th... Brasil tirp (I like spelling Brasil with an "s" now cause that's how they do it there.) A group of 19 (16 students and 3 leaders) went to Brasil on a missions trip. God taught me some amazing things and did some amazing things in me on the trip. It all started on... I believe it was a Tuesday morning. Jon and Jenn Trott, the missionaries we were working with, shared their testimony. God broke me as they spoke. I don't think it was any one specific thing they said... just the way they shared their passion for God. After that Pastor Jeff gave us time to do a devotion that he had prepared for us. For some reason I could not focus at all on the devotion that he had prepared for that day. I just kept thinking, "God, what are you trying to tell me? I know You're speaking to me, I'm just not sure what You're saying." One thing I couldn't get out of my head was myself going into foreign missions. As the day went on, I kept thinking on God and praying and that night, God did another amazing thing in me. One thing we did on our trip, was each night a few of us would go to an english school down the street. Our reason for being there (from their standpoint) was simply to talk about American culture with these Brazilians who were learning English and answer their questions... but God had different plans for us that night. The 6 or 7 teens and adults that we were talking to just kept asking question after question. One thing led to another, and myself along with 4 others got to share the Gospel straight forward... from point A to point B... beginning to end. And it didn't even end there. They just kept asking questions about our beliefs until the teacher had to stop the class because we went past the time just answering questions they had. It was truly awesome! This experience encouraged me and impacted me and caused me to keep thinking on God and what he was doing in my life. You see, regrettably this was the first time I had ever shared the Gospel that straight forward in my life. It didn't stop there. The next day, we were supposed to go sightseeing in the morning. We were going to go into downtown Porto Alegre and walk the streets. We were disappointed to find out that there was a big protest in the city so we weren't going to be able to do that, but in hindsight I can see that God had a different plan. Instead of walking the streets, we went to a lookout on the side of a mountain that overlooked the entire city. We all jumped out of the bus and began taking pictures and admiring the sights. Then Jon called us over and began to share some stuff about the city with us. It brought tears to my eyes as he told us that in this city of about 1.5 million people, he knew of only 3 churches that represented about 1,000 people that truly taught the Bible. And since it would be foolish to believe that everyone in those churches are truly believers, we are led to believe that there are less than 1,000 Christians in the entire city. On top of that, many of the missionaries who are on there way to Porto Alegre first have to go to Sao Paulo for language school. When they get there, the find a bigger city that's easier to live in and nicer people, and many times end up staying there. The missionaries in Porto Alegre have almost no help. "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few."-Luke 10:2 By the end of the week, I knew God was telling me to go... I don't know when, or how. But one day...

Throughout the next weeks God continued to grow me closer to him. He continued to bless and teach me in ways beyond description.

This past week, myself, Emily, Chelsi, Kayla, Chaz, and Jason got to minister at a camp run by ABWE for missionary kids. Pastor Jeff has spoken at this camp for several years, and this year they asked him to bring his praise band... that's us! It was an awesome experience meeting all these kids and hearing their stories. Our electric guitarist wasn't able to go, but we were blessed to have one of the counselors, Mykal, play with us. We had a lot of fun playing and worshiping together. Trust me though, we were ministered to a ton this past week to. God just used this week to confirm in me what He has been teaching me all summer.

Well, 23 days till I leave for college. Jason and I will be living right in the middle of a huge mission field with plenty of distractions. Pray for us to stay focused on the goal, to fight the good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith.

This has gotten really long, and there's still so much more I could write. Hopefully you'll read this, COMMENT, and I'll be back in a couple days with another post... but we'll see what happens... For more info about our Brazil trip visit our blog. We updated it almost everday. Check out the videos too. Love y'all. Peace.

way to long

Well hello to the faithful few. It seems like this happens a lot, but I am going to once again apologize for the lack of blogging over the past couple months. The life of a person at the end of their senior year gets pretty busy and forgetfulness doesn't help either... but you can expect me to be back with a blog of decent length on Tuesday or Wednesday. I've gotta run for now but hopefully I'll be back very soon! Once again, sorry for the... inconsistancy.

iPhoto '08

Just installed iLife '08 on my MacBook Pro and I got a chance to play around with the new iPhoto a little bit today. Love it! Simply the addition of Events greatly improved this program. Events are a new way to organize your photos. It's kind of like creating a folder to store your photos in, only it's all built in to iPhoto. When I used iPhoto '06 i used the album feature to organize my pics. At first this worked well, but the list began to get long, and with no preview of the photos in the album, it got confusing. With Events, you get previews of the photos in the Event and you can even scroll through small thumbnails of all the photos in the event by simply moving your mouse slowly over the Event. The album feature is also still present in iPhoto '08 giving yet another way to organize your pics. Another nice feature is flagging photos. This is just a quick way to mark a photo which you can view later via a "Flagged" photos tab on the sidebar. The new iPhoto has tremendously improved organization and accessibility. I'm sure i will find many more new features as i continue to use it.

Well this is just my first look at iLife '08... Hope you enjoyed...

Thoughts TV

Check out my new UStream show.

I'm back

Well... I'm back... As I said before, It's been absolutely too long since I've had a chance to post here, and there's so much I could talk about. I made a couple changes to the blog, out with the old, in with the new, hope you like the new look!

Funny thing, after I finished the post yesterday I headed over to the jsquared podcast blog to see if they had updated, and it just so happened that a new post had come up just a little bit before I finished mine. Head on over there for a good review of the new Facebook chat, and some other catching up with jsquared. Anyway, while reading through their post, a learned about a new Twitter client. I had previously been using Twitterific. I really didn't have any problems with it. It's features were limited but I figured I couldn't complain for a free app. All that to say, I found out about Twhirl. Twhirl is a similar app. It puts a fairly small box (a little bit bigger than Twitterific) on your desktop that displays the tweets of people you follow, and allows you to post tweets of your own. It has a lot more features than Twitterific, and also makes some of the same features easier, such as messaging and replying. It also has built in URL shortening, and instant access to your friends/followers. The best part is, it's absolutely free! Needless to say, I'm already a big fan of Twhirl, and I've only had it for a few hours. I'm sure there are more features I haven't even found yet!

On to... politics. The Democratic party just can't find a winner. As of now Obama holds a slight lead over Clinton.

Obama 1,724 (Super-delegates Included)
Clinton 1,589 (Super-delegates Included)

From my viewpoint neither of these candidates are going to give up. Why? If Clinton looses this year, she's done. In 4 (or 8) years, one, she'll already have this loss going against her, and, two, people will begin to talk about her age, her capabilities, etc. Obama, on the other hand, simply has nothing to loose. Worst case scenario for him is he continues as a Senator. However, if he drops out, it would diminish his chances of winning if he runs again in the future. Looking at this, I see a brokered convention coming up, however, the Democrats aren't talking that way. Why? I don't know. Any ideas?

Well, there's so much more I could say, but this post is getting to be pretty long, so I'll end it for now and hopefully be back in the next couple days with some thoughts on other issues. I'd love to hear your comments. Check out my links, stories, and all the other great stuff provided here on the blog! Talk to ya later!

Catching Up & Jott

It's been a while... Sorry about that. Hopefully I'll be back on in a few days with some recent thoughts I've had, but for now I've got a quick review.
Jott is a free web based voice recognition tool. Basically, this is how it works... first you sign up for a free account at jott.com. Then, it will ask you to verify your email address. Simply check your email and click the link to verify. Then, it will ask you to enter your cell phone number. It will then give you the Jott number to call and verify. Once verified, you are ready to use Jott. Jott can be used in various ways... to send yourself reminders, to update Twitter (another awesome tool), to update blogger, etc. All you have to do is call the number from your verified phone, tell Jott what you want to do, say your message, wait for Jott to say, "got it" and your done. Jott is quick, practical, and very easy to use. Not to mention, the voice to text recognition is almost error free... I said ALMOST.

Vantage Point

What up?  So I just saw Vantage Point last night and I absolutely loved it.  EXCELLENT!  Great story line, great original "story-telling" method, good perfomances, just an all around  great movie!  Basic plot:  The President of the United States is shot at a global anti-terrorism rally in Spain.  We (the audience) see the event take place from different peoples vantage points (a Secret Service agent, a man in the audience, the President himslef etc.)  Throughout the rest of the movie, as the whole city is in chaos, the Secret Service search for the shooter and seek to figure out how this could've happened.  This movie is filled with action, suspense, and even a few twists in the plot.  See it!

I've decided also to add something to my movie reviews... my own personal 1-10 (10 being the best) ratings in three different categories: Entertainment quality, Storyline quality, and Directing/Production quality.  So...

Entertainment: 10
Storyline: 9
Directing/Production: 9


For more reviews and info:
IMDb
Rotten Tomatoes
PluggedIn

Divine Day

Here's another new band I just heard of. Divine Day is a young band based out of the Cincinnati area. Their self-proclaimed influences are the likes of John Mayer and Maroon 5 and I have to say I can hear a similar sound. Check them out on MySpace and go see them compete in the finals of the Battle of the Bands at the Underground on March 8th.
Divine Day on Myspace

OneRepublic

I recently discovered a young band... OneRepubic.  They have a really cool unique sound.  They are probably most known for their song "Apologize" that they recorded with Timbaland.  Check them out:
onerepublic.net
Myspace

Blogged with Flock

Cloverfield

-SPOILER WARNING-

Ok so... I know I told some people that I was going to write a review on this movie a long time ago... and I didn't lie... it just took me a while.  Sorry about that.  Anyway...
So I went to see "Cloverfield" shortly after it opened.  I'd seen the previews for this movie and I was really excited about it!  It looked sweet.  The CGI looked amazing and the movie just looked like it was going to be sweet!  I heard some different rumors about what the monster was leading up to the movie... and I was almost hoping that if it was simply just a monster, that it was going to a new Godzilla flick.  All that to say, I walked into the theater with pretty high expectations for this movie.  After about the first ten minutes I began to have doubts, and by the end I was extremely disappointed in this movie.  First of all, the back story of the movie is that the government has found a tape recording the incident of the attack and is playing it for the public.  The video the government supposedly found was there because a guy was videotaping his friends going away party while the attack happened and he left the camera on.  All that to say, the entire movie was filmed from a single hand held camera.  As the characters run, jump, hide, and climb throughout NYC one of them is holding this camera.  There were literally times I had to look away from the screen to avoid getting motion sickness...  I really liked the idea of the single hand held camera but it was simply too much.
My second beef with this movie was the motive of the monster... Why was it attacking?  Why then?  Why NYC?  To may loose ends.
Third, what was it?  It wasn't Godzilla.  It kinda looked like an alien lobster... anybody know what it was supposed to be?
Fourth... the ending was terrible... those of you who've seen it know what I'm saying, maybe you disagree, but I think it was terrible.  I'll just say it was kinda like "A Perfect Storm" on steroids.
In summary, it seemed to me that "Cloverfield" was basically people who had this good, original idea, and rushed to get it out there without really thinking about it and developing a good story.
 

Blogged with Flock

To read more reviews on "Cloverfield" follow these links:
IMDb
Rotten Tomatoes
PluggedIn

Catching Up

Wow... It's been a while since I've written anything.  I've missed it.  A lot has happened since then, so I thought I'd take a couple minutes and catch up.  First, in reference to my last blog, I got the August Rush soundtrack and it's excellent.  I never found that iTunes gift card though... that's disappointing.  Anyway, the cd is great. It's everything I expected.  Also in the way of music, Passion and Six Step Records released a new album live from the regional tours.  I bought it as soon as I found out about it and it's great, everything I would expect from the Six Step guys.  It includes six never before heard (as far as I know) songs by Tomlin, Redman, Hall, and Stanfill, as well as 8 other new live versions of some of the greatest praise and worship songs of our day.  These are two albums to definitely check out.

A lot more has been happening in my life than just new cd's, however.  My dad has been selected as the chaplain of the year for the entire US Air Force Reserve!  This is a huge honor for him!  I will be in DC the first part of next week with him and my mom for him to receive his award.  He is also going to be the first chaplain of the year to receive the honor of opening the United States House of Representatives in prayer.  On Tuesday at 2:00 PM  he will be live on C-SPAN presenting the opening prayer at congress.

Winter Advance is coming up for our high school youth group and the prep is going well for that.  I'm so excited about this weekend.  I have literally been looking forward to these three days for about three years.  Since my first Winter Advance (Sacred), I have been looking forward to the opportunity to lead the music at a Winter Advance.  Also, the praise band found out that we will be taking a trip to PA over the summer to lead the music at a camp for teenage missionary kids.  God is giving us amazing opportunities and I would ask for your prayers in these things. (Also, those of you coming to Winter Advance... be ready to sing.)

I've applied and am hoping to take a trip to Brazil this summer with my youth group.  I love traveling, but most importantly I'm excited about the opportunities that wait there where we can serve.  So, if you would, pray for me in that as well.

A couple more prayer requests... please pray for my family in the loss of a close family friend to cancer.  The layout was today and the funeral will be tomorrow.  Also, as many of you may already know, please pray for the Smith's.  Mr. Smith passed away earlier this week and I'd love it if you all would pray for that family.  One last request... a friend of mine, Abby Samples, is having some very serious surgery due to fluid on her brain tomorrow.  Please lift her up, that her surgery would go well and that her recovery will be smooth.  Most importantly, pray that the Lord's will would be done in all these situations.

Hope to write again much sooner than later...

Blogged with Flock

August Rush Movie Review

I saw August Rush Friday night and I was extremely impressed.  This movie is great!  Freddie Highmore (The Golden Compass & HBO's "A Good Year") was excellent as the star of the film.  On top of the solid storyline and excellent acting (also Robin Williams, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, & Terrence Howard) the music in this film floored me.  Grant it, the boy music prodigy August Rush wasn't actually playing the  music... but someone was... and it was excellent.  Being a guitar player, I very much respected the music in this film, and wish I could play like that.  I'm currently waiting to find my $25 iTunes card I got for Christmas so I can buy the soundtrack... It'll be well worth the money.  August Rush was excellent, family friendly, and definitely a must see for all you moviegoers.



To read more reviews on August Rush, follow these links:
IMDb
Rotten Tomatoes
PluggedIn

Blogged with Flock

Craziness...

Life's seemed kinda weird lately.  I don't really know why.  It's been great... things have been going really well... but it's just been kinda confusing... mixed emotions and stuff.  It's been a while since I've written about something serious and I've missed it.  I've realized that it really helps me to write out my thoughts, to "think out loud" if you will.  It helps me sort things out and figure out what I'm really thinking.  Anyway, things are just weird...  It seems like there's something I'm missing, some target that I'm flying right past without even noticing it.  It just seems like I'm not doing enough... like it's time, in the midst of the daily step by step life, to jump... to reach out... to change a life (maybe mine) somehow.  Even as I write this I think... in the past month or so has my life been outstanding for Christ, or have I simply been cruising along?  I'm afraid the answer is that I've been cruising.  I think that's where this confusion is coming from.  I feel like I need to jump but I don't know where or how high.  I want to see lives changed, people touched, Christ simply working through me, but I feel like I'm just taking one step after another without any thought or action.  I feel lazy by just sitting around and waiting, but waiting isn't always easy.  I believe the Bible and I believe that sometimes that's what you have to do.  So I guess right now all I can do is pray, study, get to know my Savior more and more... and wait.

Isaiah 40:31

"but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
   they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
   they shall walk and not faint."

It's time to wait.  To pray.  To say, "Here am I, send me" and see where I go.

All this so that, "All the earth will sing Your praise, the moon and stars, the sun and rain..."

Blogged with Flock