Sorry for the long update.

So this morning I had a job interview with Mary Bridge Childrens Hospital. The position I am applying for is like the one I had before at Tacoma General, just in the ER that specializes only in children. I thought the interview went well and the lady seemed to be impressed with my credentials and experience. I think that I will get that job, but I won't know for a few weeks because some of the administration people are on vacation. I am excited, because if I get this job, the hours will be flexible and I will be able to work whenever I can. The other upside is that I can move up to a full time or more regular schedule over time, which would be nice.

I have been working a ton of hours here at Campus Save-me and it is going pretty well for the most part. Sometimes I feel like I live here, but that is ok. The overtime will make for a nice paycheck come the middle of January.

My Christmas was good, I got to spend more time working than I did with my family, but I think that it was ok. I also do believe that I spent more money on my parents than they did on me, but again that is ok... it is the thought that counts and they both got me thoughtful gifts which I really appreciate.

You know how sometimes people will just give money if they don't know what to get you? Well, that is my Grandma in a nutshell! She hasn't tried to buy a gift for me, either birthday or Christmas for probably 6-8 years. I did the easy route this year as well, buying my family gift cards so I wouldn't have to rack my brains to find them good gifts. I think that gift cards at least show a little thought about what the person might appreciate as a gift. I actually spent some time and thought about what kind of gift cards to give my immediate family, but whatever... I will get off of the soapbox now! I did make it through the holidays emotionally intact, though there were some moments that could have been really painful, so thank you to all who were praying for me!

Spiritually... where to start. I am in an ok place that is fast becoming a great place. One of the verses I am meditating on is Psalm 19:14,

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleaseing to You, O God, my rock and my redeemer."

It is such a fun verse to sit and think about. We all know that our words are very powerful and are the key to relationships, so watching what I say is super important to me.
I have been thinking a lot about ministry and where I go next and all that stuff, but the funny thing is, I don't think God cares about any of that! My personal times with Him have been very directed at getting my heart right before Him and realigning my emotions and priorities so that He is first in everything. It has been great.

I do run the gamut of emotions sometimes, from struggling to on top of the world. I feel like I should be a little more stable in my walk, but I need to realize that I am still very young in the Lord, less than 3 years, and that I have lots of time to be the man He wants me to be. I can be very hard on myself (and others around me!) for not being as mature as I think I should be, but I am slowly learning to lighten up.

I do wish that I was doing more in ministry, I remember last Spring when we would have prayer meetings almost every night! I felt God doing so much amongst us, it was awesome! I don't have that in my life. I feel like I am living a common life, with God thrown in somewhere. When was the last time I saw a miraculous encounter with Jesus? When was the last time I layed hands on someone and prayed with them? I guess I am learning to not measure myself by what I am doing and to instead see myself in my God given identity. I am the only person who can lose that identity, God dosen't take it away, so choosing to stand up and be a son of God is soemthing I desire more of.

So, I am in an ok place that I know is becoming a great place!!!

Merry Christmas

To all my friends and readers...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Life after PLU

I am getting settled into the life after PLU, it is weird, but I will adjust. It is weird living in T-stad without people there, so quiet and un-obtrusive. It is great to be able to spend more time with Jesus, but I find that I want to watch TV instead. Don't worry, I will be good about my time with the Lord, it is too critical a time for me. Jennifer Furumasu has been very kind and gracious in allowing me to borrow her pots and pans over the break. I need to start cooking for myself, which I don't mind, but I don't have any food to cook so I need to work on that.

Jason Hulen came up to me before church and told me that the Lord had me on his heart lately. jason was telling me that he felt like I was in a transition time, which is definitely true, but that I was to seek God's heart and not the specifics of what I am to do next. I liked what he had to say... it kind of confirms some things in my heart, because he is not the first to say stuff like that to me.

I am excited for January... I hope that it will be a great time of prayer and fasting.

I am working 40 hours a week now and I will be through January at Campus Safety. The only problem is that on the January schedule I am slated for shifts from 4 am til 12 noon. I was not very happy when I saw it. I work that shift Monday - Thursday and on Friday's I work from 12 midnight to 8 am. I think I have the suckiest schedule alive and I will see what I can do to change it. Campus Safety has a problem with the guy who does scheduling because he does not seem to follow the availability of us employees. He seems to schedule us fairly whilly-nilly. I guess it won't be too bad, it will only be for 4 weeks and it is speeding up my deisre to find a new job.

Now that I am working more, I will have more time to write on the blog, so stay tuned for updates. I haven't had internet access in my room because my computer is old and slow so I haven't been able to keep up on my internet stuff.

PLU Grad...

That is right, I am officially a graduate of Pacific Lutheran University. I made it through all the long speaches and processionals to receive a little diploma holder that has a note telling me I will get my real diploma later. It was really fun today, but I don't feel any different. I can't understand why. It is really anti-climactic to still have school work left to do. I have one last project to turn in on Monday and then a class social meeting on Tuesday.

After the ceremony, we had a taco feed at church for friends and family. That was a lot of fun, people meeting each other and letting the many facets of my world interact. My school friends got to meet my parents and they got to meet some church family etc... I don't feel like it was a big accomplishment, but everyone else seems to think it is, so I just play along.

To all my wonderful friends and family, I love you. You really make my life better and I am a better person for knowing you guys.

I am really tired... I think Christmas break will be nice, a chance to sleep and rest. I have had a lot of stress build up over an entire semester, so it will be nice to dissipate that.

Papers

It is going to be a very busy weekend... I have to write 2 religion papers, both about 8 pages or more and finish up my capstone. I guess there is a reason why I am getting used to having no sleep and stuff, it is so I can stay up all weekend and work on these papers.

There is so much to write about, but most of it dosn't matter and wouldn't do any good here anyhow. One thing God was telling me yesterday was about living at a higher level. The illustration I saw was like this...

When you are a kid, you can get away with certain things and not get in as much trouble about them as if you were to do them as an adult. I feel that way in my walk with the Lord, I could get away with things when I was younger, but now I need to grow up in God and not settle for being a child anymore. I want to live my life set apart and completely consumed.

24 Hours Of Prayer was great. A lot of people participated and some of the artwork and log entries are fantastic. It is cool to see God move in something so simple as getting together to pray for 24 hours. Antonio and I were chatting about it and we both think we need to do more stuff like that!

I only have 10 more days after today until I graduate. Crazy...

Happy Thanksgiving

To all the blogger world, at least the part in the U.S., I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving today. I am currently on Vashon at my Mom's house, but I will be back at PLU tonight because I have stuff to do tomorrow.

Last night at Youth Group, I made this wonderful game in Powerpoint... it was Thanksgiving Jeorpardy. I was able to create links within the games main page to other powerpoint slides so it worked just like a game of Jeopardy. It was a blast!!! I was really happy with the game and the kids played it well. If you want to see it, let me know and I can show you how to make links within your powerpoint for all your future presentation needs.

Please pray for me today, I will need it...

Capstone

I present my senior research today at 2... (why am I writing this now?) It is on Tuberous Sclerosis Complex and I am excited to present...

Oh yeah!!! Afterwards I get to go to Rainier Hills and attend their Breakaway Conference with the youth (and Nate & Cori). It should be a good time.

I have some music and book reviews to post... 2 things in particular. 1 CD and 1 book that have completely rocked my world this week and have shown me such a picture of the Fathers heart troward me, His emotions, His passion and overall His beauty. It is awesome. It is really messing with me AND I LOVE IT!!!

I can truly say right now that I love Jesus more than anything! This is just where my heart is right now... look for the reviews coming soon on this blog.

I need to run and be all scientific.

Update

What a day. I woke up at 3:30 again today, I know I set my alarm for 3:30 at least, I didn't wake up until 3:40. This means that I must have grabbed my phone and snoozed it while still sleeping, weird... Work has been good, but I left today at 6 am because I was exhausted. I went back to bed for another 4 hours of disturbed sleep.

Last night at youth group was fantastic. Nate Boyt and I led worship together and it went so well. Nate is a great guitar player and worship leader so to co-lead with him was exciting. We also had the "big" church come in and join us, so it went well. It was fun, spontaneuos and God moved powerfully. I asked Nate and his wife Cori to pray for me before we started because my voice has been damaged from yelling at football and I haven't been able to sing very well. I can get really self-conscious about my singing voice, but God worked even in that and Nate and Cori commented about the prayer working because my voice was a lot better during the worship set than in practice. After worship, we watched a movie about the girl at Columbine High School who was challenged by the attackers, asking her if she believed in God and she said yes.

It was powerful and the kids were really touched by it, heck I was even tearing up a little bit! We broke up into small groups and talked about sharing our faith, I had a great group and we got to pray and talk very specially.

Afterwards, Nate, Cori, Nikki and I went to Applebee's and had Nacho's. The conversation quickly spiraled downwards fast, as we were all tired. It was fun though.

God is good, worshiping God is great and the future is exciting...

Ouch...

I need to be honest here. I have been going through a lot lately, most of it relational. Some of it is good, some of it is very painful. I don't need to tell any of the details, because even though this is the internet (most private place ever) and no one reads this blog anyways, details need to be kept low key. This blog has always been intended to be a place where the people who love and care for me can read up on my life and keep up with what God is doing in my life. I hope that this leads to prayer and support for me, it is not supposed to be a place of venting or mud slinging.

I do want to dwell on some of the good things. Chase and I have been hanging out a lot and we are developing a depth of relationaship where we can really share and support each other. Yesterday, after lunch, we hung out in the room all day. I was frittering around doing anything but homework and he was studying, but the conversation continued throughout the afternoon. I really appreciated it, because we were able to share our hearts without worry. I love you Chase.

Tabitha and I go running a lot. We both think we are fat (I tell Tabitha she is crazy to think that) so we need to exercise more. I find that I can run forever, but I doin't feel like I am in really good shape. I guess that I need to do more high intensity workouts where I sprint and use bursts of speed along with the cardio that we get to do. It is one of the drawbacks of being injured, I don't get the conditioning from football anymore. I need to generate the intensity of exercise for myself, I guess that is where the power of choice that we talk about all the time at football comes in huh.

I have been thinking and praying a lot about my future. The natural first question after people find out I graduate in 6 weeks (thats correct, 6 weeks) is, "What are you going to do after graduation?" People mean well, I am sure of that, but the question gets annoying. For the record, if I graduate (I am still waiting for another financial miracle) I plan on working for Campus Safety for January term. It is a good job, 40 hours a week, free place to live etc... After January, I would like to go and work at the hospital again, like I did before I went to PLU. At the hospital, I can make good money, with lots of hours and still have time of every week. I really do want to start building a financial base for my future and start correcting some of the mistakes I have made in the past.

As far as ministry goes, I am still uncertain. I would love to go straight into full time ministry, but that is not likely. I also would like to go to some sort of ministry training, like IHOP or Bethel church have. I think that a solid time of just seperating myself out and being immersed in an environment like those two places offer would be good for me. Thos are kind of pipe dreams at the moment, but who knows what God will breathe on and bring to life. I also would be happy to go to Paramedic school and pursue a career as a paramedic, but I don' t know.

There is my heart. It hurts right now, but it is full of dreams, vision and aspirations.

ANNE!!!

It is time for a new post on your blog, Anne... The last time you posted was Aug, 11th!!! I am about to delete your link and I don't want to do that!

random thoughts...

I have been downloading podcasts off of iTunes, stuff from Bethel, IHOP, Hillsong etc... It is great. I get to have some amazing preachers and ministers pouring into my life, everyday. I have also been getting a lot better about my time with the Lord, so long story short, I am getting over my spiritual apathy.

I think it is interesting that a lot of us, especially in leadership has been going through some really tough life issues, but I hope that we are turning the corner on some of that. I do feel that breakthrough is still needed and that we will only get through with unity and persistence in prayer. Bill Johnson, from Bethel Church, talked about unity and the annointing for miracles. He siad that he has never seen a child be healed when the parents were in conflict. The breakthrough (healing of the child) was prevented by disunity (parents in conflict). I think that we are experiencing some of the same situation right now, we have a good thing going at Ignite, but it could be a lot better!!!

The Lord showed me a picture the other day, it was like an archer shooting an arrow, but it was a flaming arrow. The arrow was shot into the pitch black night sky and it tore it apart. The Lord was showing me that my life is like the arrow, shot into the night sky on fire. I do not need to slow down and go at the same pace as everyone around me, because the worlds pace is actually backwards going away from God. I look to my friends so much for acceptance and love, so much that I can forget to run to God. In being an arrow shot out, I can forget about frustration, fears and failures, because they slow me down and will not help me do what God is calling me to do.

I am reading Corinthians right now, 1 Corinthians was really good, but 2 Corinthians is even better. So many nuggets, so little time. The one I want to share with you all today, because it will illustrate where I am at right now.

2 Corinthians 6:4-10

"... but in everything commending ourselves as servants (ministers) of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by th weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.

I love the part where it talks about the power of the word of God and the Holy Spirit and the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left. It is really good, such goodness, ummm...

Here we go...

Sorry that it has been a while since I have been on here, but life has been hectic. Last week I had two papers and two presentations to do. Along with working 20 hours, Ignite and football school can sometimes seem unimportant. I have been the most studious of all my semesters here at PLU, too bad it is my last one that I finally figure it out!

It is cool how the Lord will give you strength for things. In fact, he will prepare you for a large challenge by giving you smaller ones to build you up. Last week was tough in the fact that I had a lot of work to do, but this week has been as tough or tougher with a large midterm (tomorrow in fact) and my capston being due. The capstone is a senior research project that everyone at PLU does, no matter the major. I have to write about my project for 10-15 pages, not really a problem, but it is such technical writing and I cannot use flowery language to stretch the pages. Good thing it is only the rough draft that is due tomorrow and I can e-mail it at any time tomorrow.

I realize that I put people in front of God, and I do it alot! I know that sometimes, especially when I am in charge of something, I seem to put people second to getting a job done and to some extent I do that, but I love people so much. It hurts me a lot wehen the people I love feel that they need to come to me and confront me with issues regarding how I treat them. I have had a few conversations with people the last few weeks about some stuff and it all boils down to how I communicate with them. I need to get better at communicating and being humble. Oh, well don't we all!!!

Long story short, I never mean to ride roughshod over people and I do actually love you all, so much that it hurts sometimes.

Ministry Glaze

Ever been so busy and done so much work in a short amount of time that you feel exhausted and just tired deep down in your bones? I am sure you have, so that is where I am at right now.

Sean Smith came to PLU and God did some amazing things. We saw about 10-12 people give there hearts back to Jesus and some amazing miracles of healing and people being set free! It was great... but it can tend to wear you out, no matter how much time you have with the Lord. Mark Wolbert calls it the ministry glaze because you get that look in your eye that readily identifies that you don't have much left to give.

So let me tell you the chronological story of my weekend, that ended on Wednesday night! I started fasting on Saturday and seeking the Lord for annointing while at the PLU-UPS game (we won 32-28). I really damaged my voice in the process by screaming so much. On Sunday, played bass and Sean spoke. It was a great time and it ended with me at the altar being prayed for during the ministry time and that was sweet. We had a lunch meeting as an Ignite staff and then I had to jet to N. Tacoma to my brothers 21st birthday. Even though I was late, it was still a cool time to hang out with the family and see people. I left the birthday party and got back to campus to tie up some loose advertising ends. I left to go back to church at about 5:15 and I helped set up for the next service with Sean at church. I also played bass that night and I got to talk to Mark about some stuff and was able to have him cover me in prayer for the rest of the week. Sunday night was more of a ministry time and a lot of people got very touched by God. On Sunday night after church, we randomly decided to drive out to Westport... at midnight. We all crammed into Tabitha's car, Emily Hockert, Nikki, Anne Syvertson and I. We made the drie out there, stayed on the beach for a while and then drove back. Long night, I didn't sleep because I had to be at work by 4 am. It was great, we all prayed for each other and we all just got met by Jesus. Tabitha got baptized in the Spirit and we all had an absolute blast. Monday was great, Sean spoke at our regular Ignite meeting and about 8-10 people accepted the fullness of who Jesus is. Tuesday we did a big all campus event and about 80-100 people showed up for it. The night went well and God really moved. We now have a large group of people who will need discipling and care so we need to plan for that and be ready to provide for the need. God is good.

Mark asked me to lead worship last night at youth group and it was my 5th worship service in 4 days. That is about 4 hours a day (average, some were a lot more) doing stuff related to worship; getting set up, practicing, playing and then tearing down. It was great, don't get me wrong but I was ready to be done playing my guitar last night after worship. Worship last night was great because the kids realy bought into it and began to encounter Jesus in a way I have never experienced before with this group. I was not at my best musically, but Jesus showed up and ministered to kids.

So I am tired. The ministry glaze is characterized by physical and mental exhaustion yes, but also by spiritual exhaustion as well. Please pray for me that I will allow the peace of God to sustain me and to carry me along these next few days.

I love the Ministry Glaze for one simple reason. It usually means God moved in a powerful way.

Sean Smith, before

In the pre- Sean Smith mayhem, life is pretty hectic right now. It is really cool to see God coming through in real and tangible ways right now. All of the advertising is done and paid for, and all of the results of it so far have been amazing.

We made these cool T-shirts that say, "Are you b.l.u.e?" on the front and the time of the event on the back. Jennifer Furumasu, Emily Hockert and I were up til about 4 am making the shirts and the look really cool. People have been asking a lot of questions about them and it is getting a great response. We have about 21 shirts and hopefully we can have 21 people wearing them on Monday and Tuesday.

Sean Smith is speaking at church this weekend and then he will be on campus for 2 nights. We will be short of money, but the Lord will provide.

We are really looking forward to what God is going to do. It will be a crazy night... and I have to work at 4 am the next morning.

Colossians

I love the book of Colossians... It is a wonderful read for me right now in many ways. I am super busy and I get really good at not spending time with the Lord and Colossians is all about the person of Jesus and how He is Lord of everything.

Colossians 2:9

For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.

Such great passages are in this book, I am really getting blessed by meditating on them. It has been a rough emotional few weeks and this book provides so much comfort for me right now because of the centerpiece of Jesus. If I can look to Him and let all other things fade away, then I will be doing better.

It has been a healing week for the most part. I sometimes think that I am hurting more than I know and it is just a matter of time before it all comes out, but I also know that I have amazing friends and confidants to help me through this. I drove coaches and trainers to the airport yesterday and it was painful to leave them at the airport, I wanted to go to California with the guys so much. But God is so good and so much better than I can even know.

Colossians 3:3-4

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

The song Blessed Assurance comes to mind.

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight; angels descending bring from above echoes of mercy, whispers of love.

This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.

Perfect submission, all is at rest; I in my Savior am happy and blest, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with his goodness, lost in his love.

This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long; this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.

Update on life (hot off the press!!!)

I am warning you all now, this might be a long post. I guess that is what happens when you don't write for a while, it all sorta builds up and then comes rushing out. Well, I guess I'll just get started.

To bring closure to some things that may be still open... I got my stipend back from Campus Safety and along with it I am now working 20 hours a week, the maximum I can work during the school year. I will be making $8.50 an hour and I am going to be talking to the boss people about promotion to supervisor which would pay an even $9. The one down side is that I have almost all of my hours between 4 am and 8 am. I am not sleeping much, but I will manage. I wake up every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 3:30 am and shower and dress for work. I get to work and I make some tea and put it in my PLU mug that I have. It is amazing how grown up I feel because I drink tea in a mug!!!

Ignite is going great right now. We are really building momentum and I love seeing what God is doing. I got to talk to Chad Johnson today about a lot of things (more on that conversation later) and we chatted about Ignite. One of the things he told me was that it is all about intimacy with Jesus. I know this, but I forget so easily because I am so easily clouded by the things I am doing. I get to handle a lot of the administration duties for Ignite and I feel like that is a full time job in and of itself. I am super busy with a lot of things right now and one of the first things to go is my time with Jesus. I am challenging myself to put that first before anything else. Lance Powers, who spoke at Ignite last night and was so annointed, said that God does not want to be #1 in your life. If He is #1, that implies that there is a #2 and a #3 and so on. God wants to be the ONLY thing in my life and I need to let Him be that for me.

Sean Smith is coming in 2 weeks to Ignite and I am getting excited. I want to make some T-shirts that have a cool phrase on them and have some key Core people wear them for a bit before the event to build some energy about it. God we need about $200 to make this happen and do it at a top notch level with the T-shirts. We also need about $800 on top of all that to defray the cost of Sean and his wife staying here and eating alot, etc... We have the venue all lined up and even though I am still working on the gear we will use, it should be fine. Conferences and Events told me today that we cannot use the sound equipment from the church, because we are required to rent from Media Services. This is frustrating, but I will see what I can do about all this.

I am really happy about the transition at PSCC with Lance Powers coming in as the new senior pastor. He is a dynamic guy in love with Jesus and I can't wait to see what God does in my church. Also, bringing Nate and Cory Boyt along with him is a huge plus and I can't wait to work with them either.

So now to the depressing portion of the update. I will never play football again.

I have a, "...moderate to severe compression of my spinal cord in between my 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae." Long story short, if I get hit the wrong way, I could become a quadraplegic or worse. Heck, if I get in a bad enough car wreck, my odds for serious spinal injury are way up. I saw the neurosurgeon today and we talked about my MRI that I got and he showed me a portion of it that showed a very clear impinging on my spinal cord. I told Scott our head coach and David one of our line coaches about it today, so the team will know soon enough.

I have been struggling with Stingers as they are called for about 3 weeks now. When I was playing, I would get 1-2 every practice at least. Our training staff wisely decided to sit me out for a bit and to have me see the Campus health center. I met with them and they decided that I needed to go and get X-rays of my neck. I did that and showed them to Dr. Mariani, our team physician. He also examined me and found that I was weaker on my left side, the arm I would get stingers in, than I was on the right side. He decided that an MRI was needed to see if there was any structural damage to the spinal column. Because Dr. Mariani sees more knees injuries, hes a sports medicine specialist, than neck injuries, he sent me to a specialist, Neurosurgeon Dr. Anthony Harris. That is where I went today and I saw Dr. Harris and he told me the news about my football career.

He said that I could have surgery to fuse the C4 and C5 vertebrae, but because I am not having symptoms for the most part, he said that was probably not the best idea at this time. If symptoms do come back, then surgery on my neck is something I will probably have to get.

I am not really sure how to feel right now. I am ok for the most part I think, but I don't handle trauma and pain very well. I tend to bottle everything up and not let it be expressed. I feel the same as I did when Eric Fergen died, kinda numb I guess. Maybe it is the Lord's gracious mercy not allowing me to experience the full depth of emotion about this. I came to PLU to play football and football at PLU changed my life. I would not know Jesus the way I do today if it had not been for men like Frosty Westering, Chad Johnson and others who have gone through the PLU program or been around it. The program is very special to me and I don't want to leave it, but that is the beauty of PLU football, I can do other things that don't include playing and still be a part of the family.

I got back from the doctors today and went out to practice. Dr. Mariani was there and we got to talk for a bit and turns out he knows Kaj pretty well and is a believer so he prayed for me, right out there on the field and everything. We talked about a lot of things and he has been such a great resource to me it is incredible. Dr. Harris gave me some things to do to strengthen my neck still and to maybe relieve some of the pressure on my neck. That will be my competition, seeing how hard I can work to get well and put myself in a position to not have any long term effects from this.

I can't help but feel let down by this. I never really got my chance to play for PLU on the field. I was either injured or there was someone starting in front of me. I love competing and I love working with others to achieve a goal, two things football offers in spades. Never getting that chance hurts a little bit. Also, realistically looking at it, what if I had never earned a starting spot this year, how would I have felt about myself later. I can at least say now that I was injured my entire senior season and never got a chance to suit up. I love football, I love this team, I love the program at PLU, I love the guys... the question I am facing is do I love God more?

I think that I do. I will get through this, prayeras and hugs are always appreciated, but I will get through this.

classes

I was looking at my class and reading schedule for this semester and the thought hit me,

"WHAT AM I DOING!?!?!?"

I am taking 2 reading intensive religion classes on top of my writing and research intensive capstone class. I am being good, I have started to get ahead and hopefully I can stay that way. I also do not have classes on Fridays, so that will be a good homework day.

My religion classes will be interesting and challenging at the same time. One of them is examining the life of Martin Luther and the process of Reformation. I am going to enjoy this class and I have some cool friends in the class that can help me if I get stuck. The other class is an Old Testament class and we will be looking at the Old Testament in many different ways, like Source Criticism, Rhetorical Criticism and Form Criticism. The goal of the class is to gain knowledge of the different methods of literary criticism and we will be using the Old Testament as our text.

My Capstone class is the senior research everyone at PLU has to do within their degree field. I was going to do mine on the relationship between early childhood exposure to antigen and the relationship to the occurence of allergies later in life, but I found out that I cannot do that because I already did a major project on that topic for another class. They want us to do some original work that we have not already done before. So I need to find a topic to research and fast, because my proposal is due at the end of this week and my outline and bibliography is due in two weeks.

I chose a science major for one of the added benefits of not having to write as much, and now I will be spending long hours in front of my computer typing away.

Football is going good, I am very excited to have our first game this Saturday and I know that the offense will be ready to handle business.

Wow...

I haven't been here in a while. Posting on my blog that is... Football Camp officially broke last night after our scrimage. I will be starting class this Tuesday at 8 am!!! The scrimage went well, as a team we looked decent (the defense looked awesome, but they always do in the scrimage). I did not play very well and I ended up having to sit after two series because my back hurt pretty bad. The trainer and team doctor told me it was a muscle thing, and since it is right next to my spine and it hurt, they didn't want me to go back in and risk further injury to other parts of my body because I would be guarding my already hurting muscle. It is frustrating to sit and watch when I should be out there competing, but what could I do?

Church was fantastic today, I am sure Pastor Tom had a message for us, but he never gave it becasue we spent the whole time in worship. It was really great... Worship rolled straight into communion which was fun and meaningful. I am treasuring every time I get to spend with him because after Lance comes on board, he won't be around as much anymore.

We have a meeting for Ignite tonight and I hope that it will clear up some questions I have been having, like, "what is my role?" "Where are we going this year?" etc... As of right now, I will give everything I can to this ministry until December and then I will look at it in light of my being a graduate and see what God wants me to do after that.

We have our first game this Saturday at 1:30 pm at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup. The Puyallup Fair will be going on then as well, so get there early and enjoy the free BBQ by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans that starts at 11 am. Let me know if you are going to come and need tickets, because I can get 4 free on my own and then I can use other peoples free tickets they are not going to use to get more free for my friends and family (students get in free). Even if I am not getting any playing time, come experiene PLU magic for yourself.


I will have more time to post as the year settles into a routine for me.

last blog for a while

I will be starting the last football camp of my life, so I won't be posting for a while.

We will have a week of practice and then we will leave for Breakaway on Friday morning to return on Sunday afternoon. Next week is another week of practices and then we will be helping out with All-Campus move-in day. School will start after the second week of camp so the schedule gets a little easier, from a football sense. We will be having a scrimage on Sat. Sept. 2 at Sumner High School (I think) and our first game is at home, Sat. Sept. 9, Sparks Stadium at 1:30 pm.

I may have some free time in the evenings, so call me and we will see about that.

If you are praying for me, then you can pray that I will not only survive camp, but I will thrive in it. I hope to avoid injury and I want to perform well. Pray that I will total release every pratice and that I will continue to get better.

Most important, pray that I will continue to seek Jesus in a dark environment and a busy schedule. I need Him more than ever.

Thanks for a great B-day yesterday (sorry for falling asleep).

See you in the school year.

23

It is my birthday today, In case people haven't noticed. This is but one more step until I am over the hill, 23/40 = 58% over the hill. If you really want to get me the best gift ever, you could find a Taylor 410 CE and buy it for me (list price of about $2000).

I got back from Alaska on Wednesday night (after a 2 hour plane delay) and I have noticed some really interesting things. In Ketchikan, I feel like there is an abundance of faith. People believe that if they pray for their friends, they will get saved; if they cry out to God long enough, He will step in and alter the situation to His glory. I find that I lack that here sometimes. I tend to look more toward the thing I am doing and less to the thing God is doing. I feel that there are many things that God will ask me to do for Him, but instead of saying to God, "Look at what I am doing for You" I should be saying, "I did what You asked, what is next?"

The place of waiting and trusting the Lord is where I need to be and where our ministry needs to be.

The Lord showed me a cool picture (I know how you feel sometimes Joy, because this is hard to convey properly). We were at the prayer meeting in Ketchikan on Tuesday night and about 80+ people were there. We listened to this cool soaking prayer thing, I don't know who it was by but it was very cool. There was a part where he talked about the room of intercession in the heavenlies and it floored me!!! I was standing in the back and I saw a picture of a person in the spiritual armor of God. This armor was very functional and well used. The armor was in really good repair and the person was ready for battle and experienced in warfare. The armor was customized and was perfect for the individual, allowing them to move freely and effectively. I am reminded of a verse in Song of Solomon 3:7-8. The people who wear this kind of armor are people who have been in the wars and have seen things most people have not.

Compare this to other people who just went to the store and bought their armor yesterday. It is shiny and new and it is strong enough, but you can tell it has not been used much. You can always tell the people who are just getting into a new activity, say hiking or fishing etc... They always have really new gear that somebody at the store told them was good or they are using the outdated gear from their grandpa. They have not taken the time to make the gear perfect for them. You can always tell the duffer or the weekend warrior by the gear they use. In battle, improperly working gear could be the difference between life and death.

I want to be a person who has the fully functional armor and who is ready for battle. I don't relish battle or wake up thinking I need to crush some demons face in order for my day to be a success, but if it come to that, I am ready to do that in gear that has been fitted and tested and well used by me.

Are we Christians who have the overriding faith that God is bigger? Just because we have been called to ministry (Ignite leaders) doesn't mean that the work is done. We are like the people who have been issued our armor, now we need to get to work. The spiritual battle here in Tacoma is huge and we cannot back down. The weekend warrior won't go out and fight if it is raining or if they feel a little pain (from an old war wound, to be sure). The seasoned professional will battle through any odds. We are called to a full time ministry here on campus, whether we know it or not and we need to press through the little things that hold us down and rise up to the big things that God is calling us to.

Pastor Terry in Ketchikan said it very well when he talked about C (or Sea) level Christians. They can get by with living in a compromising situations and compromising their faith, God has grace and forgiveness. But when you get to the B level or A level, you will have to make some serious commitments. If we rise to this level and we don't begin to clean our lives up, we begin to take His grace and forgiveness for granted. We also allow a door to be opened for satan to come in and have his way in our lives and in our ministry. We have been chosen to be a higher level of Christian than we were and I know that is our heart. Lets go for it and not hold back or be held back...

Much love to everyone.

No really I mean it, I love you all

Happy Birthday to ME!!!