Saturday, January 30, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 18



This is one of those moments, where you have to understand the truth of who you are. If you are from a certain place, a certain warm place where the sun shines 75% of the year (::::::cough:::::::::FLORIDA:::::::::::cough::::::::), then seeing snow shouldn't bother you. In reality, I lived in Westchester County (New York) until I was 13, and then I moved to Florida. Snow was something I would both love and hate growing up. It would be freezing, but you could always play in it. As compared to now, when I have a job, and a driver's license that allows me to operate a car to get me to that job, snow finally worries me.

I am also quite convinced that I am not listening to God enough. I had another brilliant photo op pass me by today. I have never seen a moon so big in my life. The day before it was my friend Terry's tattoo. Crazy :P....Oh well, but in other news (hehehe) I am writing my book and seriously am on track to finish the first draft. I am aiming to have the very first manuscript of the book finished by the end of this month. Here's a synopsis for those who are interested.

The book is called "THE CHRONICLES OF JUDAH"
It is about the legacy of an entire family; and they are Jewish.

The story revolves around David Goldberg, the patriach of the Goldberg family. He survives the Holocaust and later moves to London where he meets his wife Sarah, and they start a family. The rest of the story revolves around different members of the Goldberg family, particularly David's grandchildren Tanya and Kyle...

That is all I will say about my book for now.

Hope you have a great day wherever you are, and that you are keeping warm if you are cold, and keeping cool if you are warm.

PEACE!

The 365 Project - Day 17



If I had known where I was going to be tonight, I would have taken pictures. I just got back from spending 4 1/2 hours at a tattoo parlor with 3 of my friends. My friend Terry was the one getting a tattoo, it's a cross with flames coming out of it. It was pretty cool to see happen, but I just wouldn't put myself through with that again.

Anyway, the picture for today is me and my friend Justin getting dinner at Chick-Fil-A tonight. I had a pretty average day, nothing too exciting, so I am just blogging while he plays Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and I am soon getting ready for bed, I want to get some things done tomorrow for school (and for lifesong)

Until then....
PEACE!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 16



I know I have mentioned this place a great deal in the past in my posts, but it's high time that everyone saw what Pie Pantry really looked like. This is one of my favorite study spots in all of Louisville, and it just so happens that it helps with my ministry. A couple of times a week, I come to this spot to read books, use the cafe's wifi, and attempt to meet people and invite them to the church. There are alot of people that come through this cafe, so be in prayer for me, that the Holy Spirit gives me some divine appointments to talk with people and make these connections...

PEACE!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 15



This is a picture I didn't take, but I have a great story to tell behind this one. Tonight I went to church for Wednesday night services. There was a guest preacher named Tim, and he was speaking about Jupiter's moons. I know it sounds crazy, but let me explain.

Jupiter has about 60 Satellites that orbit the massive planet. However, there are about 4 big ones. The 2 REALLY big ones are Io and Gatymene orbit the planet in 10 hours. When Gatymene passes by Io, there is such a violent series of events that occur. The severe magnetism in Gatymene's atmosphere cause the volcanoes on Io to erupt simultaneously. This happens several times a year... The preacher said, that in our lives, there are people who are like Gatymene in our lives, and we have to be careful that we don't become like those people in someone else's life...

I can tell you plenty of stories where people have been Gatymene in my life, but I'm more than sure that I have become Gatymene in alot of people's lives. It's something serious to think about...

FLASHDEVO:

I'm sorry I haven't done this in a while, but right now, I'm working my way through Acts still, and the book is starting to pick up since Saul has become Paul, and he has brought his entire plethora of knowledge to the table of the church, and starts preaching with his associates and traveling around the empire winning people for the kingdom. This reminds me a great deal of what I do with my ministry, going to Japan. I am there to bring what i know about life, and ministry, and my talents that God has blessed me with, and bring people to the Lord. I pray that this blog post will encourage you today!

Good Night and look for tomorrow's post....
PEACE!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 12/13/14







Okay, since I have forgotten to do this for the past few days, I thought I would post this now, on Tuesday, before I forget to do it. I will be posting the pictures to facebook pretty soon.

The first picture (from Sunday), that is the parking lot outside of the LifeSong, the church that I currently attend. I would have waited for a better sunset-ish picture, but this was the best I could do since it was cloudy.

The second picture (from Monday), inside my dorm room. That's a tee-shirt that I probably won't wear ever again. I got the shirt because I was starting to see the desire in me to go back to Japan, and then when I finally did this past summer, that shirt is a true statement. I bought this shirt at American Eagle Outfitters like 4 years ago, so if that shirt is still there, I would be surprised.

The final picture (from Today) is me at my friend Ben's apartment. I haven't hung out with him in a while so this is great to get to hang out with him.

I hate to make it seem like things are getting repetitive, so I'm here saying that it won't. I am getting through a full week of class, and taking it one day at a time, realizing that school will be over really soon. I can't wait for that day. I feel trapped in this school, and I am just waiting for the day when my name is called, and I have a diploma and can say I don't have to come back to that environment ever again.

PEACE!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 11



Here is a picture I thought would be a great touch for my blog. This is from the cover of a book that I have to read for class. The cover is of the noble knight, Redcross from Edmund Spencer's the Faerie Queen Book 1...

I want to include some artwork in my blog just to show some culture and some history, so I hope you will enjoy it...

PEACE!

Friday, January 22, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 10



I really hope my blog doesn't become mundane to people, but I figure I will show just about every aspect that there is for me to be a good photographer/blogger. Here's my workstation at Founder's Cafe (on the seminary side of campus). I have some reading to do today, so I thought I would post this quickly and then get back to work right away...

Thursday, January 21, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 9



I am honestly not at a point where I can get a lot of pictures with people in them for right now. I will have to take some pictures in classes or something tomorrow, when I will actually have a chance. Honestly, today was such a boring day, since I didn't have any classes. My new schedule has my classes completely rearranged, and that's okay with me, as long as I graduate in May, which is what I plan on doing.

I guess the reason for me picking this picture is to show people what is waiting for me on the other side. I am planning to go to see THE LION KING on Broadway, and the picture you're seeing is a plush toy of Simba. That is adult simba, and the doll is basically the concept of what the actor's costume looks like. So, here's just for your enjoyment.

Look for tomorrow's picture and post...
PEACE!

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 8



EVERYTHING HAS BEEN WORKED OUT!

Okay, so God had everything under control, and the advisor, Dr. Deklavon took care of everything. So now my schedule is good, and I have Thursdays off instead of Wednesdays, no big deal. So I was able to go to Church tonight, for the first time since October. Well the picture that you are seeing is Valley View's worship team rehearsing. I figure I get some pictures in of the various areas in which I'm doing ministry. Tomorrow I plan to do some things with friends and just enjoy a quiet day...

Look for tomorrow's picture and blog update.
PEACE!

The 365 Project - Day 7



Sorry that I didn't have the chance to write this last night, I was kind of fighting my frustration over the fact that I have to meet with the academic advisor today. My schedule has thrown me in a loop (a giant loop I wasn't expecting). I have to figure out what to do with my church history class, and we'll take it from there.

Okay, for the picture, I went out with a group of friends to go see AVATAR again, in 3D! This makes my 3rd time. I haven't exactly gotten to the point where I would be with the Lion King, seeing it 5 times, and plus I'm not 8 years old (like I was when the movie came out).

Anyway, for FLASHDEVO....
Last night I read Acts 9. Saul becomes Paul. He was breathing threats against the churches and all of the believers who were apart of it. And then Jesus came and changed Saul into Paul, and made him a powerful weapon for the spreading of the Gospel. I sincerely pray that God would do that in my life, that I would be able to make a huge difference for the Gospel, whether it be here in the US or overseas in Japan again. Lord use me.

I also pray right now for the people in Haiti, I was going on the computer this morning and saw that yet another earthquake hit Haiti, a 6.1-magnitude this time, possibly killing more people.

LORD PLEASE BRING YOUR GRACE AND SALVATION TO THE HAITIAN PEOPLE, AND GIVE THEM HOPE! The people need to know that you are with them and that you are willing to change their lives if they'd just ask it of you...

Monday, January 18, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 6



As promised, here are some pictures with people in them. Here's me with my former roommate Matt, who now lives off campus, so he was just here tonight visiting me, and we just got back from going out to dinner. It was nice to be able to be here and start connecting with people again. This day would officially mark the last day of winter break, since I start classes tomorrow. But life will go on as planned...

PEACE!

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 5



I'm back in Louisville now! I have been up since 6 am, but now I am sitting in my dorm room, which is what you are looking at essentially. Those are just some collectables I have gathered over the years, especially the ones from Japan (that I got this past summer), I am proud of the stick that you see, since I got that from climbing Mt. Fuji!!!!!

I don't know what it is but I started gathering penguins, particularly Japanese ones. I have a pokemon penguin, and one that's associated with a Japanese bottled water company, crazy, isn't it?

Well, that's all for now. PEACE!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 4



Today is the last day I will be spending in Florida well until the Spring, after my graduation. Today wasn't that much to talk about, and I just had the chance to write a few chapters out of my book. Chapter 12 ended up being 18 pages, which surprised what I thought it was going to be. I was going to get almost 100 pages written, so I will have get a move on. Basically the picture is me sitting at a desk working on getting the book written. I promise that I will have pictures with people in them once I get back to Louisville tomorrow. I should be in town by 4:00pm. So until then,

PEACE!

Friday, January 15, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 3



Okay, so here is Day 3's picture. I wanted people to see my iPod while it is still my iPod, since I am going to be selling it. I can't wait to buy a 32 GB iPod Touch. I was waiting for the right time, and I feel this could be my pre-graduation present to myself. YAY!!!! Anyway, that's inside my brother's car. He's been in Texas since last Thursday, and he comes home tomorrow night, which totally sucks because I am leaving the next morning to go back to Louisville, KY. School starts on Tuesday for me. I may have said this before, but being away from school for this long makes me feel like I am out of touch with reality, so I hope that being back in my old environment helps me to feel reconnected.

FLASHDEVO

Okay, so I didn't post it yesterday, because I had attempted to do it, but then ended up going to bed, when I was staying up really late, trying to get a bunch of different things done, so I managed to read this morning before taking off. I read in Acts about Ananias and Saphira, and how they secretly held back on everything they gave to the Apostles, and when the Apostles confronted them, they dropped dead because of their sins. So amazing how powerful God is...You cannot keep things from him.

Right now, I am also getting my book started again. I am currently in Chapter 12, and hopefully will finish the actual writing of the book in another month or 2...It will be epic!

More tomorrow when I write again...

PEACE!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 2


Day 2 : Pasta Fagiloi - This is an Italian dish, my mom makes this a lot, and so does my aunt. I have had this dish ever since I was a kid. I thought it would be a good idea to start taking pictures of food. I am currently watching a movie, Julie and Julia...

Julie Powell started a blog about going through Julia Child's cookbook, cooking 524 recipes in 365 days. I won't be doing all of that, cooking something each day for a year...

So I decided that I would actually place the pictures in the entries of the blog itself. I had way too much trouble posting them to Facebook, so I thought I would keep things seperate for once. This is a first for me, because I am so used to having my photo albums on Facebook, but here's the reality. You'll see the picture I've added to the blog when I post the link on my profile page. So I basically just contradicted myself :P

I am enjoying this movie. Cooking is a big hobby of mine and it would be simply great to do what Julie Powell did. Someday that would be wild to try. However, I wouldn't exactly copy the same idea as Julie Powell, I would choose one of my favorite chefs like Bobby Flay or Ina Garten. Let's also be honest for a second, I wouldn't seriously try that, maybe a couple or so, because there would be way too much criticism and people would be thinking, "Wow, you totally ripped this off from Julie Powell's book" which totally wouldn't be true, but people would still think it anyway. Oh well...

No FLASHDEVO to report today I'm afraid.

Look for my next entry tomorrow.

PEACE!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The 365 Project - Day 1


Okay, so now I am going to start a brand new thing. My friend Katrina, she was on the internship with me in Tokyo this past summer, and the other day, I'm looking at her Facebook page, and she decides to start this project (on October 1st) in which she takes a picture every day for an entire year, and I seriously got inspired to start doing the photo journal for myself. Honestly, I feel like my life is being put on hold (well, the idea of going to Japan), so I have something to talk about, and something to do in the time being, so now here I go. I probably won't be going back to Japan at least for another 2 years (I will have to spend some time in Seminary for a while) So here we go! This is day 1! Today, I am talking about this picture. This is the backyard at my parents house (West Palm Beach, FL). Since I am leaving to go back to Louisville on Sunday morning, I should at least give you an idea of where I've been. I should have really started this blog a lot sooner, but I like the fact that I chose to start one, even in the time frame that I did. The house in the picture, I have spent the past 6 years there. After I graduated from high school in 2004, my family moved from Delray Beach to West Palm Beach, and settled down into that house so we could be closer to our church. In that time, I spent 2 years doing ministry at FBC of West Palm Beach (our home church), and then (after getting accepted to Boyce College), I would spend breaks there, working and spending time with family. It's sad to me now, because although my family is there, I have no connection to that place anymore. I'm not married, I have no prospects of a girlfriend, but I do have a desire to make something of my life, and I need to put that all behind me. In another 6 months, I'll be moving into my first real apartment, and starting a Masters degree, working on getting ahead in the ministry. I will be moving to a bigger, new state. You know, when I was getting ready to leave for college, I made this big deal, saying that everything would change, everything would be great, and it was. It was great, it was incredible, but now, the excitement, the thrill of growing up, this is all shocking and scary to me. However, if this means that I will have a serious impact on my ministry in the future, I will go to the ends of the earth and beyond to do what God wants for me.

FLASHDEVO

This will be my new word to describe some of the things I read and found important during my quiet time. I'm going through Luke and Acts, Dr. Luke is such an inspiration to me. One of my teachers at Boyce (Dr. Kerns) talked about this in church history a couple of times, what of all the people in the New Testament (particularly the gospels) knew the people? I mean, Luke isn't mentioned other than the fact that he wrote 2 of the most significant books in the New Testament. He interacted with the Apostles, he knew who they were, and worked along side of them. Who else could have known the people in the story? Who else could have had a story to tell. There are 500 accounts of people who saw Jesus alive after he rose from the dead, so what would be their stories? Shock! Excitement! Overjoyed! I would love to know their stories, but you only get to hear the very specific details. Jesus has left earth, and has left the Holy Spirit with the apostles, so the miraculous things start happening. In Luke 3, a crippled man asked to be healed, and the Apostles respond "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." They didn't have to physically touch the man, it was great, all they had to do was say, "IN THE NAME OF JESUS" and someone would be healed. Naturally, there were people who opposed them and said to stop what they were doing, but the apostles lived their lives as if Jesus was coming tomorrow! i want to live my life that way, live as if Jesus would come back tomorrow and tell other people about his resurrection. I have made several commitments for the Spring 2010 semester, (and technically for 2010 altogether) and the biggest one I've made is to lead someone to Christ. So wish me luck...This is going to be an incredible year!

Friday, January 8, 2010

Rerun on AVATAR....

Tonight me and my dad are going to see AVATAR a second time. Can I really break a movie record and see the movie more than 5 times. The only movie I have ever done that with is the Lion King. When it came out in theaters in 1994, that slowly became my absolute favorite movie, and I just kept seeing it over and over again. Now, 16 years later, I still enjoy it, and I am preparing to see the broadway version in June. I enjoyed AVATAR so much, I would just want to keep seeing it, and trust me when I say, I plan on buying it when it comes out on video. Trying just to get an idea of when the cleaners at my house will be finished so I can go back.

Will write again.

PEACE!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

T Minus 1 week and counting...

That is the amount of time I have until I leave for school again...Well, just about that time. Sunday will officially be a week. I still have to go to the dentist yet. I am dreading it like the plague. I haven't been to a dentist since I left for school 3 years ago; I am worried that I will have a number of cavities, as most people do. My friend Doug went to the dentist a few months ago and said he had 8 cavities in all. EWWWWWW.....

Anyway, I am sitting, enjoying my day, and just watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (6th movie). Me and some friends have come up with the idea to watch the existing 6 movies, and have a "marathon" as it were...Plus, I still have another 8 weeks worth of ministry to finish with the Nehemiah Internship with the North American Mission Board, that should be good.

I will write again soon.
PEACE!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

After the Show

So, last night, I went with my mom to go see SOUTH PACIFIC at the local theater. I was impressed with the show, but also, there was some disappointment. I had never seen the show before, so naturally, there was this "I don't know what to expect" feeling the whole time...But still, theater is a big obsession of mine, and being able to go see a show on stage was great. The seats were also great. I felt like being in a fancy opera house. They were box seats. It was overall a great experience, I just couldn't get over how cold it is these days. I live in South Florida, I thought it was supposed to be warm the whole time. You know, no coat weather....This is just so unexpected to me...

PEACE!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

A new decade begins...a new season of ministry too...

Okay, so it's officially 2010. Ten years ago, I was sitting in the living room with my mom and dad, 14 years old, thinking the world was going to end because of that Y2K thing....Now look at society, everything is on the internet, we can share pictures, videos, and all othr stuff too. If you had told me ten years ago, I would know over 1000 people on Facebook, typing a blog, I wouldn't know what in the world you were talking about (but probably would have wanted to know more). Now it seems like my life is going to go beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Now I'm getting ready to cross over into the REAL WORLD. College is seriously just a bubble. People can choose not to go to college and just get a job, but I decided I still had plenty that i needed to learn, so I went through and spent the last 6 years of my life trying to figure out what i was supposed to do. Here's what it boils down to...

A few days ago, I heard from Makoto Onozuka, (one of my friends in Japan). I spent part of the summer getting to know him at his university, spending time having lunch and getting to know him. I had sent Makoto a Christmas card, telling him about the gospel inside it, and he told me that he was "considering" what it said. I inspired him to think about Jesus. I was getting through to a devout Buddhist. That was inspiring to me, even after all of the time I have spent being away from my beloved Japan, I am still making a difference. Please keep Makoto in prayer.

Now then, about me. I still have a long way to go, and I need to start seriously losing weight. I have to make myself right and get my body into a good state in order to journey back to Japan, and I am hoping that this year, 2010, is the year that I make this change and I do what I have always planned to do.

And with that, I'm out. (I will write again this week)
PEACE!