On Anonymous.....

This is for all those folks who post offensive or challenging comments under the name "Anonymous": You are cowards. I think of you as a person who wears a paper bag on your head and walks around pointing out faults in people. No one knows who you are- but they don't like you. If you have something to say. SAY IT. And leave you name. And if you think that the comment is so taboo that you don't have the guts to say it- YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T SAY IT ANYWAY. A pretty accurate parallel would be for you to insult someone to their back, then run away when they ask- "who said that?". So stop, because you're accomplishing nothing.

Youth Sunday, Being a Pastor, & Deep Fried Cheeseburgers

Well it’s been a while since I last blogged. I've been spending all my time getting ready for youth Sunday, which finally went down yesterday. It was awesome. Genuine worship, powerful testimonies, awesome witnessing. A pretty sweet weekend overall. We went to Claypools for British deep fried cheeseburgers...ohhhh, they taste better then cookie dough, mountain dew, and bacon combined. Speaking of bacon, Bob Madden is back on the meat- Amen. In other news, spiritual warfare broke out at my house Saturday night. As I was putting the finishing touches on my testimony, I read through it- and it sucked. I got really depressed & doubted if I could give my testimony at church the next day. I was going to forget it completely, because it seemed so stupid. I thought, "How could I ever be a pastor, if I couldn’t even write a 10 minute testimony?". Basically the devil put all these thoughts of doubt into my head, and it was really really depressing. So I shut all the lights off, went to bed, & prayed. But I tried something new, praying with my hands open. It’s really sweet. It just seems that there is a physical contact with the Spirit that way. Anyway I prayed that God would speak through me, and the others on Sunday, and that our names would fade away so that only Christ would shine through. All this time I still had some doubt. And then it happened. It felt like a finger touched the palm of my hand. It was if an angel touched me or something, and instantly I felt this awesome affirmation as if God said- I chose you to speak tomorrow- so do it. Instant spiritual high! All my doubt fell away. It kinda reminds me of when the bleeding woman touched Jesus' robe & was immediately healed. That's pretty much what I felt. It was SO COOL. Sunday morning, I gave the testimony at the 8:30 service & was really nervous up there. My legs shook behind the podium and I thought I'd pass out. The only thing I can think to compare it to is how a groom must feel when the bride comes down the aisle. Anyway the 8:30 service was an awesome crowd. They actually interrupted me with an applause when I told them I was considering ministry. That was a real nice warm feeling of affirmation up there. It was the first time I'd ever seen life out of a Presbyterian congregation during a talk, sad but true. Anyway it felt real good. So thanks to everybody who worked to make the service happen, Ben, Ben, Bob, Cam, Gu, Phil, Stax, Sarah, Steph, and everybody else who spoke or ushered or whatevered, God worked through us yesterday, and it was real good.

100 Simple Pleasures of Life

This is a list of 100 things in life that I love in no particular order. It only scratches the surface so maybe more will come later. I encourage everyone to make their own list because when I look at mine, I realize how blessed I truly am.

1. Steelers
2. Backpacking
3. Black Coffee in the morning
4. Mountains
5. The Honda Civic
6. Sailing with the wind at your back
7. Sailing so fast that the boat tips over and you go for a swim
8. Swimming
9. Lake Chautauqua
10. MLUPC
11. Kayaking
12. Dr. Pepper
13. Manual cars
14. Rock music
15. Retreats
16. Family
17. Christmas
18. Snow
19. July
20. Stars
21. Driving
22. Toddlers
23. Mechanical Pencils
24. Doing well on Math tests
25. Ham barbecue
26. Manual Labor
27. Fixing stuff
28. Tinkering
29. Sleeping in
30. Airplanes
31. Chocolate
32. The smell of gunpowder in the morning
33. Reading
34. The Nalgene Bottle
35. Praying in the woods
36. Praying in secret
37. Hot Showers
38. The Holy Spirit at work
39. Funny people
40. Walking home after school
41. The Kitchen
42. Fire
43. Bacon
44. The Who
45. U2
46. Genesis- the band
47. Yes- the band
48. Coldplay
49. Mellow tunes
50. The Bible
51. Naps
52. Thursday Night Football
53. Friday Night Football
54. Sunday Night Football
55. Monday Night Football
56. Football
57. Baseball
58. The Winter Olympics
59. ESPN
60. Saturday
61. Couches
62. Short Hair
63. Ice cream
64. Shade
65. Mowing the lawn
66. Sunrise
67. Sunset
68. Pramanti's
69. Oasis
70. Rockets
71. Mint Gum
72. Garlic
73. Spaghetti
74. New car smell
75. Diesel
76. USB sticks
77. Worship
78. Finding peace in God's presence
79. Fresh air
80. Nature in general
81. Mullets
82. Running downhill
83. Rain
84. 5:00 A.M.
85. Bathroom fans
86. Cookies
87. C.S. Lewis
88. Oswald Chambers
88. Servant minded people
89. The Well
90. MLUPC Youth Group
91. Cooking
92. Humble People
93. Eating Doritos off your chest
94. Honest, Straitforward people
95. Grandma's cooking
96. Relaxing
97. Christian friends
98. A Job Well Done
99. People who love the Lord with all their heart
100. Laughing

What Happened?

This is kind of a depressing & frustrating topic for me, and its been on my mind a lot in the past weeks. As I've grown up at MLUPC, I've noticed that... well I'm one of the few left from my grade. From what I see, I've met a bunch of people my age through the church, from the dozens of kids I went to preschool with, my Sunday school classes in elementary school, all my friends from middle school youth group, the 15 or so kids in my conformation class, and the kids that stuck with it through high school. If you total them all up, it probably adds to around 50 of my peers that have walked along with me to this point in my faith at MLUPC. Of those 50 or so folks, I can only count four people who are still strong in their faith. Four. Sarah Haddad, Stephanie Smith, Phil Swaney, and Me. Its so sad. What happened to the other 46? Where are they now? Why have they turned their backs on God, even after some seemed to have grown so deep in their faith? Ahhh! Did they ever get it in the first place? Did they build their house on sand? Some of them have even become mockers & slanderers of the faith. Nothing breaks my heart more. Ahhh! Cant they see what's happening in their spiritual lives? Wake up guys! Sigh. Well, for the ones that have kept their faith solid all these years: I thank God for you. You are awesome. So pray with me for those folks struggling to find Christ, that they might find him and that he use them in awesome ways.

Kayaking

So we got sea kayaks for my uncle's lake house in New York. Dude, Kayaking is the hit. I was the only one with the guts to brave the cold- wimps. It was really windy, but the boat cut through the water easily. The wind generated a bunch of waves on the lake that I could surf. That was awesome, you get going like 10 or 15 mph when you paddle real hard and you're right in front of a wave. It makes you feel like a Native Alaskan walrus hunter. For all of you who've never tried it, kayaking pretty much the aquatic equivalent of backpacking- the perfect combination of water and human.

NEED GOOD BOOKS

Sorry about the LEBO STREET GANG videos folks, I tried but they won't work anywhere, so I give up.

In other news- through a lengthy discussion/lecture/debate/argument with my mom, it was decided that the TV will not be on all summer because it makes me lazy or fat or something. Therefore I'll have quite a bit of time at home & I'll be really bored. So I decided that I'll read. A lot. Right now my book list includes the Bible, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers (not the whole thing), and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. So if anyone out there has any other life changing books or absolute must reads, leave them. (No Cam this doesn't include comics).

Lebo Street Gang

Ok, I gotta explain this one. A few months ago, my cousin Jordan came over for a few days and we got bored of playing N64. So Jordan, Kevin, and I busted out my christmas present, a digital camera, and made what we like to call the LEBO Street Gang . This is episode I & II. Before you watch these, you gotta know that they were meant to be a satire of LEBO in general, and in no way to I claim to be cool kid. The sound is kinda hard to make out, because I'm too cheap to pay for a better videohost. I think its hillarious, mainly because my cousin is one of the funniest people I know. So enjoy.

(let it load for a minute or two before you play, sorry the site stinks)

LEBO Street Gang I
LEBO Street Gang II

Academic Extremes

Well, I've hit the end of a period of academic craziness. Its weird, my school work comes in waves. I either have so much work that it is physically impossible to finish, or none at all. Right now, I'm in one of those "nothing to do at all" periods. Its great. Now that I've come out of my crazy academic purgatory, I've noticed the world around me here at LEBO. From what I can see there are 3 types of people in my grade. The kind who work, the kind who complain about working, and the kind who complain about not working. I guess this is the whole senioritis debate. I don't know where I fall among these folks, but I do know that the complainers get to me. Maybe its a lack of compassion on my part, but if you complain about being bored, I think much less of not only you, but anyone you associate with. Find something to keep your mind from wasting away. If you think life sucks, it will. So change your perspective. And stop whining while your at it.