New program new pictures

Hello all. i just got a new photo editing software....lightroom and look forward to having fun w/ it. i just edited a couple of south african friends who are originally from the Congo, if you have heard about my trip, you KNOW who they are. tell lme what u think

Weekend of Fellowship & Love

Well, this past weekend was one for the record books in bakersfield. After having a terrific night w/ jordan weibe (thejinglejanglemorning.blogspot.com) in san luis on thursday, i drove to bakersfield on friday. Friends from all over the country came out of the wood work for this weekend. He was set to propose to his girlfriend on friday night and wanted us all there to witness this love. His friends from portland as well as those in his hometown were there. he band (myspace.com/stepsonday) played at jerrys pizza and he composed a song and then popped the question. we then had an after party at his parents house and it was incredible. the pictures will prove this.



on saturday, i helped my dad w/ some drywall and then hung out w/ friends that night as well. it was just a great time for me and my friends from thursday night all the way to sunday evening. it is amazing when a single event can bring so many circles of friends together and love can be spread. There were new friends met and old ones revisted. Life is beautiful.

Some Current Thoughts (action, no sugar, and san luis)

So, through this experience in the Pink House i have had many dreams and visions that i would love to see happen. First of all, i do not know who is reading this or if it is just my friends that have blogs (ie; jordan, andrew, gene, that may be it) but i live in the pink house (http://www.fiful.org/). Because the house isn't really physically located in the nearby community i tend to discourage myself about being active in it. It just takes a lot more intentionality and i find myself thinking its too big too handle.
What i have learned through others in the house specifically my roomate Yasser is that i need to make it happen. Because i would prefer to start getting more involved w/ someone else (whcih is possible if i just ask) i need to start on it myself. Gaining passion for action will eventually stream out and hopefully encourage others. A perfect exmple of something like this would be wanting to live a more 'green' life. I can talk about it all i want and come down on people who arn't but i need to be practicing it and help inform others about it. By growing in what you are about then it will spread to others who are near and around you. And if not then i guess it will be something that you will learn on your own and will be a great experience. These are the thoughts currently through my mind. It kinda of ties into what was written on jordan's blog as well check it out (www.jinglejanglemorning.blogspot.com)

On a side note i had a very interesting occurence at the breakfast table. I opened up my cinnamon toast crunch for the first time today and began eating it. as i was eating i noticed that it wasn't as sweet as normal and it just didn't taste right. i thought i was crazy but then looked at the box and realized that it was reduced sugar and i totally didn't notice when i bought it. who the hell wants cinnamon toast crunch w/ less sugar???? not me!!!! but i ate it and it filled me up and there was ultimate satisfaction in my stomach. Then i made a pb and j sandwich for lunch and the pb seemed to have a differenct consistency. once again i looked at the container low and behold 25% less sugar!!!! can u believe that. However in this case i feel as though i have no reason to complain b/c it was one of my room mates peanut butter containers. soo....that has been my day and the absence of sugar in my life. i am excited for my lunch b/c i have some great fruit from the farmers market....i love you all. jordan and i are goign to San Luis Obispo to see Rocky Votolato play and i cant wait!!!! ol' pacific here we come!

St. Louis and the CCDA

I will soon load some pics from St. Louis and share some experiences from there. Here is a pic of a couple of my pink housemates just walking towards the bus stop. Jenny on the left and Megan on the right. They are beautiful girls and have some great experiences and lives to add to the whole of the house. The is also a pic of my roommates and i standing in front of a flippin polar bear. One of the days at the CCDA conference we decided to go to the zoo. which was completely FREE and i couldn't get over it. it wasn't just some rink a dink zoo but it was legit and it was very enjoyable for the whole house. we saw pretty much any animal that we could so desire and more!
The CCDA conference was pretty incredible. I will assume that most people don't know what CCDA stands for or what it is so here it is. It stands for Christian Community Development Association. It is basically a lot of people from all over the country who have committed to urban ministry. It was founded by a man by the name of John Perkins (look him up if you have a chance). He is almost 80 years old and was very much active in the Civil Rights Movement along with MLK Jr. (maybe not actually w/ him but at the same time as him in the South. He has many different theories and practices that make CCDA what it is. For example the three R's: Relocation, Reconcilation, and Redistribution. The Pink House went to a lot of different sessions of speakers. It was a very informative and beneficial time for the House just to get to know each other and get some excitement. We got to have b-fast w/ Shane Claiborne whcih was pretty exciting for me because of his transformation on my life and ministry. We learned about wonderful ministries that people have started which are building community in different and unique ways. Peace and Love

A Thought on my work.

So, currently i am sitting in my science class which i will be substituting. And the bell just rang. But anyways, i am thinking that this isn't a very challenging job most of the time. Usually the things that i chose to invest my time in arn't always this easy so it makes me wonder if this is something that i should be doing 40 hours a week. There is a lot of enjoyment that i get out of substituting but that tends to be with the younger kids in elementary school (and isn't as easy as doing middle school OR high school). Interacting with them and seeing how they respond to certain projects makes me laugh. Not to mention the beautiful pictures that i end up taking home!!! But i want to get into high school because this is less work...is this wrong? I am not sure, probably not. I think that i am not in substituting because i am going to change these kids lives, because there is no time for that (on the big scheme of things) but who knows what can be done in 1 hr.

Well i suppose that the answer to this may lie in my response to how i view each day of work and what i want to accomplish. As the ol' Saint Paul says in Col. "whatever you do, do to the glory of God" -amen

Yosemite

I went to Yosemite with a couple of friends on thursday. It was beautiful. I am going to try to figure out how to post pictures on here. It was my first time going there and it was absolutly beautiful. The colors were changing and it blew my mind! My friend and housemate Lucia took me, john, and daudi.

I had some beautiful things happen today

So today was a great day as far as substitute teaching goes. I started off the morning at Roosevelt High School which went over w/o any incidents to speak of. In the afternoon i went to an elementary school and had no idea what grade i would be thrown into. When i showed up i discovered that i would be w/ 2nd graders for a couple of hours. Then something beautiful happened...these three girls kept running in my room b/c my door was opened while i was waiting for the kids to finish recess. They did this 3 times and kept saying that they were mistaking my room for another one. I asked them if they wanted me to show them where their room was and they said sure. When i came outside one of the girls handed me a little daisy that she found in the grass and my heart melted. THen she offered me one of her bracelets but it wouldn't fit on my wrist so she said i could give it to my wife or kids....

It was such a beautiful gesture and it made my afternoon.

Lets see how this goes

Well i am creating this to enhance my creativity. I also tend to have a lot of free time while substitute teaching and think that it may be fun...