Currently Reading Max Q for Youth Leaders By Andy Stanley, Stuart Hall see related

How is everyone doing?  I am doing well.  I have been doing a lot bette since I decided to get a little exercise every morning.  It really helps with the old energy in the morning.  It is a good thing.  I start back to work today.  Sounds fun.  I guess we all have to work every know and then.  The house starts today.  They are putting the blocks up and getting the foundation ready to poor.  hopefully after this it all starts running pretty smooth and quickly.  We will talk to you later.  Have a great week.

Rough

Currently Listening Arriving By Chris Tomlin, Steven Curtis Chapman see related

Two posts in two days is the fever starting up again?  It may be.  Anyway, I thought I might continue a little more on what I started yesterday.  I wrote a few things down that I learned from the trip in my notebook and I think that I will share a little bit of them.  I learned Humility and saw how it stacks up to pride.  I thought I saw this in several things that I did on the trip.  It is weird where pride will show up.  Looking back on my trip I felt a little ashamed of the pride that I showed.  Very big learning time for me in that area. Second, I learned that you have to be on a mission in your life.  I am not talking about figuring out what you want to do or something along those lines, but that if you truly want to know God' will then you have to be on a mission to become more like him.  When you can work to become like him everyday then knowing what he wants you to do is going to be easier to spot.  May not be easy to do and it may not be fun to do but you will know that is what he wants you to do and will be something that you will strive to do so that he can have glory.  I learned about perceptions that people have about themselves and of other people.  I learned this from myself and from others. This is something is hard to explain.  It makes more sense in my mind that it does on paper. 

I got to know Caitlyn and Ashley better.  Good girls they are.  Keith I got to know better.  He is a pretty smart guy.  I learned a lot from him.  Don't be surprised.  You just have to go on a 2 week long trip with him to get the good stuff.  Below are again more pictures from camp and the places we visited.  One of the themes of the trip was "You gotta learn"  this came about because one day in camp I went to tag a kid out with the ball as he was going home and I touched him a little hard and knocked him down.  Caitlyn got on to me and my reply was He's gotta learn and so that was repeated many times on the trip when things wouldn't actually go right.  We got a laugh out of it.  The kid was alright.  I think he came back and hit a home run off of me, so stop whining.  You gotta learn!!

WHen you leave the hotel in Debrecen this is what you walk to.  It is the city square.

Our hotel is on the right and the building on the left is the Reformed church of the city.

This is the Parliment building in Budapest.  Pretty sweet!

This is me serving up a homerun shot on gameday which was Saturday!  Keith and I were the pitchers.

This is the Chainlink Bridge that connects Buda with Pest

This is Nichole helping the shortest and smallest kid we had at camp.  He hit the ball hard off of me a few times.  Don't let his size fool ya!

This is a rock sculpture of Christ at St. Stepehens Church in Vienna, Austria.  I like this picture a lot.  It was an awesome old Catholic Church.  I could have stayed there longer just taking it in.  Very Beautiful!

Currently Reading Understanding God's Will: How To Hack The Equation Without Formulas By Kyle Lake see related

Well, it has been a long time since I posted and in that time I have been overseas and returned.  I went with a team over to Hungary to work with kids in a town called Puspkladony.  I am pretty sure that is how you spell it.  What an awesome time.  I worked with Kilgore in a getting a baseball camp going.  Ashley, Caitlyn,Dani, Pete, Nicole and Keith Walters help put on a vacation Bible school.  I enjoyed the work part of it.  We would teach baseball and then at the end we would give a devotion of some kind to the kids.  I really think by the end of the week that some of them were really thinking about what we were saying.  I should say God was beginning to work in their lives.  The Bible school and baseball camp was able to share the gospel with more people in that town in 5 days than had been the past two or three years combined.  That is awesome.  Like I told Kilgore, roads have been cut in that town.  They are dirt now, but I believe that the Lord will pave them in the near future and that a community of believers will start a church there and it will flourish.  That is my prayer anyway.  I learned a lot about humility not only from the camp but some of the people on the trip.  Very eye opening to me.  I missed my family a great deal and the Lord just emphasized even more how important they are to me.  I learned that there is no formula that you can work and that will show you God's will for your life.  It takes living and conforming to him each and everyday.   I also figured out that I don't know if I want to go on another mission trip unless I am doing a sports camp of some kind.  It made my time productive and really made me feel like I was doing something for the Kingdom.  Not sure if that is the attitude to have but that is the way that I am feeling right now.I also learned a few more things but I will write about them more at a later date.  Great experience, but I am a U.S. boy all the way.  They do some neat things over the pond but they are not home.  Thank you Lord for the opportunity to go.  Below are some pictures from the trip.  I will post more later.

boy from camp

This is Evelyn from camp

Ashley, Pete, and the translator share the gospel through "Salvation Bracelets"

The one and only

Currently Listening Anything Worth Saying By Aaron Shust see related

Greeting and Salutations (What movie is that from?)

It has been a long time since I have updated this thing.  I have had a lot going on in these past few months.  Cut me some slack.  Not a lot going on here.  I am trying to finish up this year of school which will be over in the next few weeks.  THen it will be off to Hungary to do sport camps and VBS.  I think I will be doing more of the sport thing.  I am not a good Bible story guy.  I learned that in Poland.  THen when I get back from there I will be home for a month and then it is off to Baltimore, Maryland to see Joe and Nicole.  Evie is going with us so I am going to take her to Washington D.C. one day.  She may not enjoy it but I will.  Alright, I am going to D.C. and Crissy and Evie are going with me.  They better be ready to get around.  D.C. is an awesome place to visit.  I loved it the one time I was there.  Anyway, We should be starting on our house in the next few weeks.  I think it is going to be awesome.  I need to cut firewood, but everytime I have the chance it starts to rain.  I am glad to get the rain but it is making it difficult to get some things done.  The Delphon children are over right now and Lydia loves being around them.  She has friends now.  Speaking of Lydia, she is growing like a weed.  There are pictures below.  Hope everyone has a great weekend.  Hope to see some of you college folks in the next few weeks with school ending.

Money and/or the lack there of.

Well, I wrote this once and they said it was too long.  technology can't hold everything and obviously it didn't like my thoughts.  The man is trying to keep me down.  I have a feeling this won't be as good as the first time I wrote.  Ayway, we shall see how it goes.

I was looking at the Boston Globe as I do everyday, mainly to keep up with any moves the Red Sox might have made, when I came across the news story  talking about the richest people in the world.  I had to check this out.  They listed the top 15 and out of those 15 billionaires, I believe that 4 did not graduate college.  That's right, they dropped out.  So, when it comes down to it when teachers say that  you have to have an education to be successful that might be one of the greatest lies ever told.

Look at this man that has over 50 billion dollars to his name, he only graduated high school.  Many people who go to college and get a degree and then go on to get a master's degree won't even make a billion dollares in their lifetime, let alone 50 billion. I should know I am one of those people.  50 billion dollars that is amazing! If only I would have thought of something that could basically think for itself, be used to talk to people all over the world, and make it to where everybody would want one.  Piece of cake.  Some people have just been blessed with that type of thought.

Unfortunately for me, I have been blessed to state the obvious.  Not much money in the obvious.  But there is a good thing to the obvious.  With a mind that can create something crazy and 50 billion dollars, there is some resonsibility that goes with that.  It says in the Bible that "to whom much is given, much is required." I wonder if all those billionaires ever think about that?  Why should they wait for the government to help people when they could do it.  The government wasn't created to support people with cash, but to govern them and to make sure the laws of the county were upheld.  No money is involved in that. 

I believe that I will have to stick to stating the obvious.  It is a little easier to do, still resonsiblity goes with it, but the main thing is that is what I am blessed with.  I must use that for the Lord.  It won't be much but imagine what would happen if all those billionaires used their blessings given to them for the Lord?  Wow!  It could be pretty awesome stuff. 

Well, those are my thoughts.  Not as good as the first ones, but them none the less.  From the parking lot out behind rightfield, have a great day.

Rough