@ Home - Back from UCYC

The 4^th-6^th grade camp was pretty cool. Nick, Adam and Richie were doing the musical worship this week too. Amberyly Neese was speaking again. I haven’t heard her speak in probably 3 years.  

The group that I had consisted of guys that I didn't know, which was great, but a whole ton of work. They didn't really band together either, but that's alright because I didn't expect perfection. I did my best to be a counselor that listened and did everything that they wanted to do, but this year my guys weren't really adventurous like every year prior... whatev. My 25th birthday up at UCYC was perfect. It wasn't really a big deal which was nice and there was a UCYC staff member named Julie that also had the same birthday, but she turned 19. I also spent some time contemplating and just thinking that night about what was going on in my life and it was much needed. I spent that time at night on a rock, looking up at the radiant stars that were blaring that night. Camp was magnificent!

@ Home - After Ab Ripper X

Every time I do the P90X’s Ab Ripper X program I am reminded of why I am pursuing this Kidney transplant. I have a Father, who needs a kidney. The more I think about the future, the selfish I get. I want to be normal, but the circumstances that I am in don’t allow me to be. I am selfishly afraid of the consequences of only living with one kidney. I need to provide for my family, even if I don’t have one of my own yet. God has provided for me, so I must provide for those around me. I just hope someone meets me who can understand that and still love me. I want to carry out a love revolution.

@ Home - After a quick run

Is it weird to say that I enjoy the smells that I pass through when running. I just got back from a run at 10:30pm with 86 °F air surrounding me. I guess what I think is so magnificent about running here in Arizona... at least where I run is the different experience you get from other places. There are different things about different places, like firefly's in the midwest and such... and on that subject I thought I saw one tonight and giggled, but it was just a big flappidy bug mesmerized by the streetlight. When running I enjoy the smells that the houses laundry vents blow out into the air, the cows, the trees, or the smells rolling out of car windows late at night. It's an interesting combination that I can't really describe, you just have to do it. So go out and run, it makes you feel good, you can learn a lot from the run, and even spend a quiet time with our maker, thanking him for our blessings.

@ Home - Homeless & Holy Spirit teaching

Today we served the homeless breakfast before service and it was a really neat experience. I didn't know that some of them spoke a little English, so next time i'm going to try and have conversation with them and hear their stories.

There has been a lot of learning on the Spirit lately and I really have been liking it. Relying on the Holy Spirit's power inside of ME is crucial to focusing on God. Just a quick realization that I thought as Romans 8:26 was read, the Holy Spirit takes an internal inventory of what we need, and speaks it to God.

I'm just amazed right now. There are still no job interviews yet for me, but I have been talking to people to earn extra money outside of Target doing audio and house sitting.

The challenge for this week at service was "Do something you can only do with the Holy Spirit." So basically do something that only scares you that the HS will get you through.

@ Home - What do I do now?

Can I give up??? I don’t mean giving up praying for my Dad to come around to Christ alone, but with giving my all to donate my kidney. I have arrived here in Arizona with the mentality that everything will work out. That I just need to get the medical imaging done so that we can be sure that I can donate a living kidney to my dad. The very thing that I was originally afraid of has happened; my dad has now refused to take my kidney. He told the case matcher this, so there is nothing that they can do to reverse this unless he says that he is willing to take my kidney. My dad has also not been “all” there these past few days and I am worried that has had some influence in his drastic decision. I understand giving excuses on why he doesn’t want to “take” my kidney, because he wants me to have a “normal” life. That is not who I am, I am not someone who can be selfish and say that I don’t want to have a small sacrifice for someone’s quality of life potentially being drastically improved. I want to help my parents live out their dreams of vacationing in Europe together; this is tough to do when you’re on dialysis 3 times a week. Ughh… now I must regress back to the point. What he can “receive”, he sees as a “take.” He is not taking anything from me that I am giving as a gift to him; he just has to be willing. There was a verse that cut straight to my heart more than I can remember any verse being able to do. It was 1 Timothy 5:8. It was read to many, but it immediately broke me down and I lost control. It happened in the midst of getting tested for compatibility and I believe that this verse still stands. I am willing, but my dad is not. Why?

@ Home - After my first day at the Gilbert Super Target

Today was neat. Tyler Rice , Chris Gutierrez, Drew and I went for sushi at this place that has a conveyor belt to distribute it. I thought it was really fun. And tried a ton of things, Most of the rolls had the seaweed wrap in it, but it was always rice on the outside so it didn't hit my taste buds right away. It surprised Chris and Tyler that Drew and I tried so many different things. It was actually pretty good. It's nothing that I would ask for by name, but maybe some day I will.

It was an interesting day at work today. They have a much different setup than any of the others that I have seen. One of the first major differences I noticed is that they have music playing. It is because they are not attached to the Target Cafe, and are in a standalone part of the store.

I made this dude's drink wrong because I didn't see the letters correctly in the boxes and announced it like I saw it. Well he didn't think that was right so I got told "well lets get going, remake the drink, chop chop" and I looked at our team lead. It ended up being fine and he took it and left; Arizona people can be downright rude.

The Team Leader is a stickler and very nitpicky about certain things but I'm sure I can get along for now. There is a lot of change that I need to adapt to, so we'll see where I can go from here.

@ Home - VBS Day 3

VBS has been amazing the past few days. The first day we talked about Simon, and Jesus calling him whilst fishing (Luke 5:1-16). Jesus gave him a new name "Peter" and made him someone unique, while feeling accepted. The second day we talked about Peter walking on the water (Matthew 14:22-33) and about having faith. We did water games to fit the topic of the day, and it was pretty sweet. Tonight we talked about Peter's denial of Jesus 3 times (Matthew 26:31-35; 69-75) and I'm not sure if it was good... more so strange that when I came back into B200 after eating some food that the speaker was leading ALL the kids in the Sinner's Prayer. I look at Angela and she looks back at me, and we are just in shock of what is actually going on. This was not right for the speaker to do that, so she got up after that happened and said that she agreed with what the speaker was saying but that it was their choice and they can talk to the leaders or herself, or Pastor Chris about what it means to follow Jesus. She went on to say that at Chandler Christian Church we believe baptism is the next step so there is a class for that as well. She gave me the wide eyes when she was talking about that... it was so strange to have the lesson end with the speaker leading everyone with the Sinner's Prayer... Well that was quickly offset by the mention of the pudding games that we had tonight. It was totally Awesome! I was all puddin'd up.

As we were walking to the field us male leaders were discussing how we were going to take down a kid if he wanted to dive into the pudding pool. One of the mentioned take downs was the "tickle them until they pee take down" I immediately laughed and thought that was a great idea. I don't know why law enforcement don't use that one :) Twas a good night for all, because there was much fun to be had. I mean who can say they had a pudding all over themselves from a pudding war. There were many cans of chocolate, vanilla, and tapioca used to make the pool full of pudding.

Also I got the job transfer to the Target Starbucks that I wanted, which is 4 miles away from my house... all freeway. And sadly tomorrow the Coquillard family (Joe, Lisa, and Traci) is leaving to Indiana for Joe's new Senior Pastor job. They will be missed here locally very much.

@ The VanEaton House (Shreveport, LA) - Digressing from the exciting day

Last night when I arrived at the VanEaton residence I was invited to go with them to their small groups on Wednesday nights. I went and had a good time and we went to Chick-fil-a. It was different than the one I had went to the day prior because they had a VIP Spicy Chicken sandwich section roped off with nobody in it.



It was awesome though because there were lots of interesting people there that we didn’t know… namely Pentecostals (who apparently to Courtney and Brielle wear skirts/dresses, and wear sandals and don’t believe in cutting their hair) and other folk. But Courtney’s friend Brielle is a stinking hoot. She is a really funny girl who said I reminded her of her friend Taylor. Well anyway, the Chick-fil-a in Shreveport wasn’t releasing the spicy chicken sandwiches. Another thing that was interesting was that right when we left I saw a swarm of bugs around the lights outside. I asked if that was something that normally happened and they said yes. But the flying bugs were everywhere. We didn't realize until we started walking to the car that they were all over the ground too. It was like a graveyard of the bugs, but some were on the ground twitching and getting back up and flying around. It seemed like they started trying to fly into us the closer we got the vehicle. It was really freaky and weird. To say the least, this was not normal, and they quickly retracted their "oh yea the bug swarm at night is normal" statement.


Today I spent a day with the VanEaton family and it was really neat and relaxing.



It was neat, because I learned about crazy bands today and Trevor VanEaton gave me one of his 42. He asked which sport I liked and I replied Baseball, so he gave me a baseball player throwing a pitch.



We just lounged around all day and then ran some errands and came back to make dinner. Susaan and Robbie made their famous breakfast (but for dinner) consisting of homemade biscuits and gravy. It was exceptionally good, and that is something that I will miss in Arizona.


Today was also the season premier of Burn Notice and Royal Pains, which I was anticipating for a long time. I ended up missing Burn Notice and only watching the Royal Pains, but whatev...

I am reminded that God is faithful. Nothing makes sense to me when it comes from God. He is the Good that is in everything. He provides me with much more than I need, even through the VanEaton's.


I’m excited to leave for Amarillo Texas tomorrow and to make a trip to Microcenter in Dallas along the way. I’m so weird, and I love computers so much that a trip to Microcenter is like a dream come true. Then I will roll into Arizona on Saturday June 5th. Then it will be the same as when Max says in Where the Wild Things Are “let the wild rumpus begin.”

@ Trevor's House - full of hope

Oh my Gosh! Today was a crazy day. I revised my plans at least 2 times. I originally was going to leave for Louisiana today with the end goal of Arizona. I am headed to Louisiana to visit the VanEaton family in Shreveport. Then I called Leggett and Platt this morning and asked about the application process timeline. I ended up talking to Jim, who would apparently know about the process more than the HR people. He and I started talking and he said they were still collecting and reviewing the Application and Career History forms from the candidates. I asked him the about the process and he told me that there is generally a phone interview with HIM, then someone else, then they filter good choices for a face to face interview. He asked if I would have any time conflict, and I told him that I was planning on leaving today but could stay a few days to see if I could hang around for a face to face interview. He asked where I was headed and I told him Chandler Arizona, and he told me that he was just there last week in Mesa visiting family. He said something about the “immigration” stuff that has been going on around there, and I told him I was just told about that today at a bookstore : ) So we just chatted a little bit and he told me that he would put a priority on my application and review it with another person and get in touch with me later this afternoon to let me know what to expect. I then decided I couldn’t leave until he called me with more news. He ended up calling when I was at Trevor’s place in Mt. Vernon, MO and told me that he and the other lady had realized that they were not far enough along in the screening quality applicants for them to do a face to face interview. So they were going to just start the phone interviews in about a week.

I’m just excited I got to small talk with the first person that the phone interview is with. So he knows my interest and tried to shoot for me to get an interview before I left. We’ll see what comes of this, but If I get a phone interview which leads to another, which leads to a face to face interview, I will make every effort to come to Missouri to do it. I’m so greatful for everything.

So now the plan is to leave tomorrow for Shreveport, LA to spend the night then head to Amarillo, TX. From there head home to Chandler, AZ. But it was to leave this morning, then to stay a few days, then it's back to leaving again for home... perhaps just to visit.

While Jordan Starkweather, Kevin Bryant, Trevor and I went to Joplin we had Chick-fil-a and got free everything. Thanks to Jordan who’s dad owns the store that we all went to. Spicy chicken sandwich, free drink and a free cookies and cream milk shake. Man o man I am blessed. Today was another good day.