My apologies...it's all good

I must apologize if I brought anyone down with in my blog from Monday. I was just experiencing some serious depression that night (which is odd for me). I think it was bit of culture shock from being surrounded by community 24-7 and then all alone in a house. It just got to me a bit, and I needed to vent some feelings and it came out in my blog. I praise God for the prayers though; they’re always welcomed. Since then I have been blessed immensely by everyone here. Doug and Debbie and I have gotten things from the Family Store to furnish the house a bit (well at least my room). I have gotten tons of food to cook and stuff to make my house a home. It’s still being fixed but it’s looking better. That is one thing I love about the Bangor corps: They are blessed with an immense amount of stuff in order to bless others with it. I am one recipient of only some of those blessings. I’m back to my normal consistently happy ridiculous self. I love this place and praise God that I am here.

I sort of reverted back to normal Wednesday adventure of driving the truck for The Family Store. It was fun to be doing that again. I would venture to say that I missed it somewhat. It was really quite easy. Couches, recliners, mattress, and chairs; that is all I had to pick up. That stuff is easy. It’s only difficult and annoying when you have twenty other boxes (sometimes the boxes aren’t even there) of stuff that people want to give to you that they could easily take to the store themselves (or throw it away) and you see that a lot of it is junk that will be thrown away. I still think I should get a John Deere hat and forget to shave that day so I have a five o’clock shadow; then I really look the part. I guess my Piping Hot hat (thanks Xander) will have to do for now.

In other news my bachelor pad is looking very nice. I have my dirty clothes strewn about the room and it looks very good. Actually my clothes (not the dirty ones) are still in my suit case. There is still a good bit of work to be done on the house. We will be ripping out more carpet, painting floors and the walls (I thought I was done painting for a time), destroying a hornets nest (yikes). All that needs to be finished before I can start having guests and cells and all that jazz. It will turn out nicely though. I have one roommate in line to be with me in this house and a couple other possibilities. I have found out from the owner (Charlie) that I'm living in Scripture(those are my words not his). The foundation of this house is a dirt foundation so the floors and doorways are crooked and slanted and angled. It’s actually really funny. We’re trying to fix that now by cementing the basement, but if the rains and floods come I’m out of that house; I know how the story ends. So things, here in Bangor, are truckin along with God wearing the John Deere hat, taking the wheel, never hitting the brakes and shifting gears (yeehaw).

Someone send me an update of how things are going in Vancouver.

Plans are broken again!!!!!

Has anyone ever felt like a puzzle piece that is trying to be put into the wrong place? That is pretty good at describing how I feel right about now. I was in Vancouver doing great, most things were going great. I was comfortable, happy(which could be why situations changed). Stuff was happening, I was seeing results then Bangor hit me. I took a trip to Seattle with Regan, got on a plane, landed in Portland, got on a bus, and came into Bangor. Everything was planned and ready to go until the circumstances concerning my living arrangements changed and I was homeless. Not really homeless we just had to change plans. The apartment I was going to be staying in didn’t work out, so I am staying in a different apartment that really needs a lot of work. I was planning on helping Charlie (Teen center director) fix up this apartment I wasn’t planning on living in it. The shower is almost as bad as The Empress. Nobody planned on this happening so now I have to buy all this stuff (hopefully I can just scam it all from the Family Store) to furnish this house. I don’t have food provided and everything seems to be going bonkers. I am not having fun, and I don’t like it. I'm really irritable right now because I’m hungry, and it’s raining. So I’m getting out all my frustration on my blog. I’m trying to get things straightened out here and hoping that everything with the living situation works out. If everyone who reads this can pray for me a lot that would be wonderful. Everything seems to be held together by one thread and if it breaks it’s all going to come crashing down on me and I can’t deal with that. I’m having community withdraws and I’m trying to see why God is saying all this is a good thing. God is God and I’m not. He is God I’m the man. His plans work mine fall apart. Pray that I have faith to let god be in control and that I have eyes to see a glimmer of hope…soon. Also pray that I would be working towards God's plans and not my own, and for peace lots and lots of peace. I feel so lost right now.

Leaving on a jet plane...

I don’t know if I’ll be back again…

I never thought it would be so hard leaving. I knew I would be leaving eventually, but I didn’t think I would be so much a part of a community in two weeks time that I would hate leaving and seriously almost cry over it. I almost never cry. I had to have a long discussion/almost argument with God over this. Seeing Craig cry while he’s giving me a word of encouragement form the Lord didn’t help at all. I see am impact and a memory that I made on these guys and they’ve done the same for me. I know you can never get used to leaving people you love but, someone else may need to do the driving to Seattle and to the airport, ‘cause I don’t think if I’ll want to do it. I was okay with leaving two weeks ago but I have loved this new Holy____ session of TWC that I don’t want to now. I know there is a community in elsewhere waiting for my return, but it doesn’t make leaving any easier. I also know that God has amazing plans for me in Bangor, more wonderful that I could ever have hoped or imagine and I can’t wait to get started on those things and see what the Holy Spirit has in store. See ya later Vancouver (in 2010 if not sooner). Keep fighting the good fight in Jesus name.

No Fear

Before I start I would like to say this is a milestone blog. Number 75!!!!!! (cheering, clapping, shouts, whistles and few halleluyahweh's)

I just got back from "drill". The time we have set aside for all of the War College students to get together and do something physical. It's usually either Ultimate Frisbee or Soccer. I believe they're thinking about dodge ball when winter really sets in. Running on frozen astro turf probably isn't the safest thing in the world. Ba ha ha ha. I'm usually no to crazy about Soccer, but tonight I really enjoyed it. We played against the ESL (English as a second Language) students. I think they may have just started classes (or were terrible students) because they didn't understand a word I said to them. At the beginning some of us thought we would be run into the ground, because we saw these guys play Saturday morning and they looked really good. We have like three guys, in our session, with us who have (seriously) played Soccer before. We mixed up the teams a bit but it was pretty much 614 vs. ESL. We held our ground every well. We did a three game series. We lost two out of three but the game that one game we won it was a shut out. 614-2 ESL-0. It was beautiful. i never thought I was as good at Soccer as I did. It must have been the Holy Spirit playing for me because I have never done as well as think I did tonight. I knew I could run and keep up with these other guys, but I actually made some awesome picks, passes, and sets. I impressed myself. i think if we had Steohen and Danielle Aaron and all of 614 out there we could take them down. if God id for us who can be against us? Lets do it!! Anyway, I think the jerseys may have been part of the intimidation factor they had, but they were just jerseys bought by the school for them and us to use. They weren't really a team or anything. They were still good but they were no David Beckham's.

It's interesting how un intimidating something can be when you see what's really in the core of a threat. Once all the uniformity and outward surface bulk is stripped away and you see what's really behind it all (just a short Asian guy who can't speak your language) there's nothing to fear. How much more intimidating would we be to the Enemy if we had uniforms and wore them into battle...oh wait we already do. We got the intimidation factor in the fights against the Spiritual forces in this world. Lets use it. Tunic Tuesday!!!!

We are Dead to self

The last two Holy Terror students arrived Thursday night. So they’re all here and absolutely awesome. I don’t know if the Martyrs session started out like these guys are but this should be so awesome. I’m almost disappointed that I’m not going to be here to see it all. But I know that the plans that are set for me elsewhere will be just as amazing as what’s happening here.

This past Friday we had one our first debriefing sessions which is a new idea that the leaders have started in order to beat the information overload and burnout. This first session was a time for all of us to die to ourselves. Some students this year and last year had to lay down some old identities and old labels we were holding on too. We had a funeral for everyone. Everyone came into a small room and we lay down on a black sheet we were then covered by another black sheet. Then we laid down our old identities of the things that we needed to die to in our lives and declared that we were dead to ourselves. Then it was that declared we were alive in Christ. We rose up and came into our new lives. Jeni gave everyone a new name from Christ. It’s funny when Christ shows you some things you need to lay down; it’s sometimes things that you think are essential to your lifestyle and essential to who you are, but Christ shows you how it can interfere with what he has to put in place of that. From his identity you can gain an even fuller experience with him and cause you to be a more effective tool used for his will and his plans. “but God being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgression, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in ages to come he might show us the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-7. Who are you in Christ Jesus?

Week in review...could have been better

This past week is definitely a week that I will remember for a long time after it's gone, though I may not want to at times. I did a lot of painting, and it wasn't prophetic art either. It started at The Command Center. I primed and then painted the doors, frames and window frames all white...not the most exciting color in the world. That was easy. Then we moved on to the Balmoral Hotel blahhhh. I don't think I could stay a year in a hotel that stinks as bad as that place does. The Empress only stank when our neighbors were getting high (which is why our hotel is also known as the Hempress). The occurrences of that has decreased quite a bit since we have been there. There were three rooms in the Balmoral we needed to paint and when we did that we also changed the smell form rotten cheese and old socks too, paint and old socks...It was an improvement. We also ended up painting the carpet as well but I think it looked better when we finally finished. The hotel managers were planning on changing the carpet for us anyway. Well, I don't know if they were planning on it, but after we asked them, they agreed to change it for us.

After that we had to start cleaning the rooms at The Shaldon Hotel. This hotel is actually a nice slum hotel. Every room has it's own bathroom and shower and there are community kitchens. I don't think TWC students will be doing much cooking, but the kitchens are there. It's more than what the Empress has. The rooms we got were really nice except for one room. This must have been a storage room for the hotel over the years. It was filled with junk. No mattress, a few chairs, clothes everywhere. I don't think anyone was ever planning on cleaning it up they were just waiting to rent the room out to some one and have them clean it out. We had that privilege of doing this Jesus job. All we could really do was bag the clothes and take them and the other stuff worth saving to the basement and throw everything else in the dumpster. Among the clothes I found a crack pipe and a box of used needles. Needless to say the manger was not impressed but oddly enough very surprised. Anyway, that took a few days and I tried to have as much fun as possible but between sneezing and being disgusted by almost everything in the room fun was very scarce. On top of all that we had problems with credit cards, War Van insurance, getting a van towed( shhhh don't tell anyone), and some of the few Martyrs left were sick, but we persevered and made it through the week without having any stressing our selves out to the point of burnout.

After every improvements we've made in these rooms I can't help but wonder if we're making it a little too much to help out the next session. It's not supposed to be easy for anyone. This is the War college not the Tea Party College. That's just a random thought I had.

614 vs the couch

I never knew a couch could be such a beast. I have moved plenty of furniture in my lifetime but this couch was the first piece of furniture that I spent over an hour moving. It's not that it was ridiculously heavy; it was just a really fat couch. I don't mean just large I mean this couch needs to lay off the twinkies for a few...years. The large love seat was difficult but we were better and smarter, but this couch out up a fight. Aaron, Rachel, and I were able to maneuver it down the hall (that was a challenge by it self). Then came the doorway. If we had two more inches in width it could have been a walk in the park (then again if the couch was one more inch wider it would still be stuck halfway out the door). We twisted, turned, pulled pushed, lifted, and bent this couch every way possible. It wasn't moving. When we originally got it in The command Center we had to put an enormous hole in the wall to make some extra room. The hole was patched up three days earlier, we didn't want it to be a waste of time and a blessing. Finally we sent Robin on a mission to get some tools. The butter knife wasn't working for us. So armed with a hammer and a flat head screw driver we were able to knock the door off it's hinges, get our extra three inches, and slide the couch right on through. It was like we gave the door some ex-lax and it passed a couch...ewwwww. Anyway, it was a walk in the park...on Hastings Street after that. As we carried the couch to it's new home I mentioned to Aaron that in another city seeing this would be really strange, but the people here have seen stranger things, so we fit in...almost. We actually had a guy walk along side of us and give us tips to make it easier to carry. No furniture will ever defeat me!!!! 614 wins!!!!