Praying for Life

This weekend was pretty awesome. Saturday morning, I joined up with the FOCUS group from the University of Missouri - Kansas City, and we went and prayed at the Planned Parenthood in Overland Park. It was really powerful. We prayed for everyone you could possibly think of who is involved in an abortion: obviously, the mother and the father, the doctors, all those associated with Planned Parenthood, and the leaders of our country, that they would see the injustice that has been going on legally for the past 38 years.

Saturday continued on a great streak. I was invited to a guys' night over at the FOCUS Missionaries' house. We had some of "Grandma Manion's" spaghetti with bacon; and then we grilled hamburgers in the frigid winter night. A select group, "the best of the best of the best, sir! ...with honors" braved the cold by the side of a fire pit in the front yard. We swapped stories of close encounters with death, funny stories, and random stuff that just makes life so great.

There are some pretty special relationships developing for me through FOCUS. In fact, I am very strongly considering joining the discipleship program in which I would challenge my own faith in ways that I never have before; and, later down the road, I will lead a Bible study and begin to, as they call it, "spiritually multiply" when I will bascially reach out to other leaders whom I would also like to have join the discipleship program.

Lots of exciting things are happening in my life. The best of which I would say is being provoked by my involvement in FOCUS. I still have a lot to learn, and a lot of growth to endure, but I am striving to put God at the center of my life every day and so far the results are nothing less than spectacular.

Adventure of a Lifetime

So I took a week off here because, well, I was in Jamaica. There are just a couple of thoughts that I came away with from the experience that I would like to talk about.

The first is that this vacation with my entire family was awesome! I met a handful of really cool people down there who were all pleasantly surprised when we told them that all six kids had come together with our parents. Unfortunately, a lot of the Jamaican natives were very surprised that we were all from the same two, happily married parents. Not to say that we have it right here as far as marriage goes, but broken families are an even bigger problem in Jamaica than they are here. One of the many blessings that I too often take for granted.

The next thing that was on my mind for the entire week was this: We were at a resort, nothing even close to the REAL Jamaica. I attribute my recognition of this to my service trip to Belize in the spring of 2010. I found it very difficult that literally right outside the walls of the resort (which were barb wire fences by the way) was the real, poverty-striken Jamaica. I imagine that this is a common realization for a lot of tourists who go to visit a resort, not just in Jamaica, but in any country whose main industry is tourism. There is a very positive result of this industry however, and that is the genuine kindness of the people. One thing that I took notice of was how complimentary the men were of all the women. That has always been a challenge of mine - letting the wonderful women around me know their true identity, that they are princesses of Christ, rather than the much more degrading image that society seems to have engrained into the minds of millions.

Now onto a list of some really cool stuff that I got to do down there: We went snorkeling, I learned how to sail, I played sand volleyball with some really intense Russians, I won two stage competitions during the nightly shows that they put on, and got to spend a lot of quality hours with my family. One of the coolest things that happened during our stay was how many people gave all of us compliments on how great of a family we have. I have never seen or heard both of my parents beam and speak with more pride in my life. I can't say enough how blessed I am to have grown up in a home that has stuck together. It has, by no means, been easy all of the time, but finding strength in God's help we have made it through those rough times and it is so worth it to all of us.

Moving on to the final event of my Christmas break, FOCUS Conference. Wow. What a way to end my final weekend before classes start back up. I have never felt more confident and excited about my faith, or at least for a while. I attribute all that I am to Him. What more can I say?

In short, I couldn't have asked for a better start to the new year. If the first two weeks remains a common theme throughout the remainder of the year, this will be a year filled with more blessings and abundance than ever before. One thing that I have really come to learn though over this break is that because His blessings are so abundant and overflowing, we must always have a giving heart. If we hoard our gifts, there will be no room for Him to continue to provide them. If we keep on giving them out and sharing them with others, they will continue to flow into our lives. This can be hard because it takes a lot of trust and we all like to have our sense of security, but it is an incredible life lesson and if everyone practiced this attitude (paying it forward in a sense), gosh, I just know that the results would be unspeakably incredible.

So...all of my pictures and videos are on my brother's computer so...I will get them as soon as I can so that you enjoy some of the visuals from the awesome times.

Christmas Magic

There was a ton of awesome things that went down in the past week. Unfortunately, New Year's wasn't one of the memorable nights...I didn't get off of work until 12:30am. On a positive note, I the restaurant was only a block away from where they did a huge fireworks show in downtown Denver. I was running because I was working as a valet. Felt like I was in a war! Barely made it out with my life.

The day before New Year's Eve was great. There is an ice rink in downtown Denver that is free admission but you have to rent skates. Unless you own a pair! Check! It was perfect. There was a really slow snowfall that just made the whole experience magical. I love skating. I love snow. Put the two together with a great mix selection of music. Awesome. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if we could have kicked all of the little kids off the ice, got a couple of nets, sticks, and a puck and thrown down an amateur Outdoor Winter Classic. Maybe next year. Sidenote, the Civic Center is awesome every year!

Sunday was our annual post-Christmas family Christmas party. It's really interesting how the dynamics have changed. Maybe it's all of the big gatherings that naturally happen during the holidays that just wear out an introvert like myself. I can certainly hold my own in social situations, but I much more enjoy smaller get-togethers - impossible when both of my parents are from families of eleven children; and their children have children. If my math is correct (counting on my fingers and toes) I think there are fifteen great-grandchildren on top of an estimated fifty grandchildren. Not all of them were present, but a good number made at least an appearance.

Top story of the week: I was listening to KLOVE and they were talking about New Year's resolutions. In place of the usual "I'm going to get in better shape" or the like, they made a suggestion to pray about and choose a word on which to focus in 2011. That was a few days before December 31st. Well, on my drive down to work on January 1st, after I had thought about it for a few days, the word that came to me was "Service." Later that night, I got the opportunity to utilize my word. I was really upset because I was expecting to get off work at around 10pm; long story short, I didn't get off until about 10:45. In the grand scheme, not a huge deal. Beside the point. Anyway, about 2 minutes after I got on the interstate, I saw a car on the shoulder with its emergency flashers on. I was in the far left lane, and didn't decide to stop until I had already passed him. I was able to get over and parked on the shoulder about 100 yards ahead of him.

I ran back and asked him if I could help. As you may have guessed, he needed my assistance. He had a flat tire and was having trouble getting the spare out from underneath the car. In his defense, I had a lot of trouble myself as there was very little light to work with, it being 11 o'clock at night and all. I had to get under the car and guide the tool while he pushed it through the hole to hook it up to lower the tire. That alone took us 20 minutes because it was such a small space and, again, not a ton of light to work with. Our second obstacle came when we began working with the jack. The tire was so flat that the jack was too tall to fit under a strong contact point. I had to get the jack from my dad's car and put it under the axle (not an ideal spot). We used that one to lift the car up a couple of inches in order to get the other jack into a more stable position. Success! I included a picture of my shirt as a metaphor for how dirty and adverse this situation became. The rest of the process went along smoothly and we successfully switched out the good for the bad. Great teamwork between complete strangers. So awesome. A little icing on the cake, after the tire was back on, he got in his car, and the battery was dead. This was a much easier fix. I grabbed my jumper cables, hooked it up, and she was up and running in a matter of seconds. No problem. The man thanked me, "God bless you." He offered me his business card, saying that if I ever needed anything.

As I reflected on the occurrence on the drive home, I realized that all we had done together, there was no way he would have been able to do on his own. And it was COLD! So many people had to have driven past him without a second thought. I'm not gloating or self-righteous, but that is one of the problems in this world. I am guilty of it many times myself. We all ignore other people and the problems that they endure. After all, we have our own problems, right? Here's the thing: We all want other people to help us, whether or not some of us will admit it or not - guilty - well that's a different story. That's an important life lesson. People need to help each other out, and be humble enough to admit when they need help. None of us can do it on our own.

It was not until I was pulling into my cul-de-sac (which is an altogether too complex word to spell) that I realized the connection between my recent experience and the word I had chosen just 10 hours prior to define my 2011. Shivers up my spine. And it wasn't because of the cold, I had the heat on the entire drive home. In addition, the homilee at Mass the next day was about the Holy Spirit working in our lives. "There are no coincidences." There is not a doubt in my mind that my helping that man with his car was the work of the Holy Spirit; there was a reason that I chose my word to be service. I'm sure that my helping with that man's car was the first of many opportunities for me to serve the people around me - strangers or friends, no matter.