For Bangor

I am leaving Bangor, Maine. I am off to a new phase of my life in Charlotte, North Carolina. One thing I really love about leaving a place is that is when you find out how much people really love you. I know that I was (and still) loved by people in Bangor but The days leading up to my departure is when it really started to show. Now I’m not talking about all the crying and praying and hugging and all that stuff. I’m talking about the free meals! I got to eat so many meals that I didn’t have to pay for; it was wonderful! One of those meals was two Maine Lobsters (that’s a whole different blog). Out of my last seven meals in the state of Maine I only had to pay for one. I was so thrilled. I actually didn’t care about any of the food (maybe a little). The best going away present I had was on Sunday. I got to listen to two members of the Corps Mary Mackay (YPSM) and Ryan Grant (spiritual and physical soldier) tell of all the memories they have of me and letting me know how much I really blessed them during my stay. The blessing goes two ways. I was so incredibly blessed by the Bangor Corps. I got to see corps officers that didn’t make a single decision in the corps without first consulting the Holy Spirit. The local corps leaders have a passion for souls and are always striving for a more effective way of reaching them. Seeing that kind of unity in a Christian body is a beautiful thing. I love that drive and I hope that one day I will see that passion filter out into the rest of the city. I love the youth that is in the city. Ryan, Chris, Cory, Cody, Charlie, Jerrica, Sam, Alice, Brandon, Tyler, Michael, Joel and everyone else that I can’t remember. I know that one day they will be continuing everything that has been started in that corps and they are the future of the army in Bangor. I will one day be in Bangor again to see everyone there and I know I will be amazed at the Spiritual progress made in that city and I can’t wait to visit see everybody again.
So I leave you Bangor with these words form Paul:
Therefore I, beg you Bangor to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love. Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, and bind yourselves together with peace. We are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future. There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and there is only one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all. However, he has given each one of us a special gift according to the generosity of Christ. Ephesians 4:1-7 (NLT)

April 1 blog

April fools!! ba ha hah a ha ha!! No blog ba ha ha ha ha. Oh man that was the best joke ever. Ha ha ha ha. Why are you still reading? Seriously I’m not blogging today it was all a joke…Go away. Jokes over go home. Hey stop looking at me.

It's the 29th

Today is my birfday…birfday what is birfday?? I don’t know that word oh well. Happy birfday to me happy birfday to me happy birfday to meeee happy birfday to me. I forgive everyone who didn’t remember and never sent me a happy birthday E-mail or card or phone call or present. You can remember next year ba ha ha ha. Steveo remembered. In normal sec fashion he sent me an E-mail with a total of four words and one was grace. It made me happy. I also had a party with like eight little kids running around and that was fun. I got M&Ms, cookies, a miniature dodge ball with superman on it, and Dayquil because I might be getting sick. I also got to see Aurora what an amazingly responsible adult she is. Keep in mind she’s the Youth Pastor here, with eight little kids watching she puts a tiny hole in a helium balloon and inhales the helium and starts talking. It was really funny but maybe not the best time to do it. I don’t know if we will ever see those kids back here again after they go home and tell there parents what they saw here. It was a wonderful birfday party. By the way I’m 22.

V for Vendetta

V for vendetta was a very interesting movie…actually that was a lie it was a great movie. I wasn’t sure if I would really be thrilled with it because at first it looked like it was all about revenge and payback and that is what the movie Punisher was like and I wasn’t thrilled with Punisher. But I watched this movie and it was really great. It’s a futuristic movie in which UK has become this huge superpower which is now run by a dictator. He is using fear to keep everyone under control and in order (Just to warn you if you haven’t seen the movie yet and want to I’m going to ruin it for some of you). Scientists are able stop this disease that has pretty much destroyed the United States and other places and they have samples of it and they purposely infect almost 100,000 people with it and they all die. So they have that fear to help keep control and they have this elite police group called the fingers to help them keep control and they do it well because people are more scared of them than they are of the normal police. There is also a curfew instituted for everyone except the Finger (I sort of got that the finger name was like the actual people doing the dirty work it wasn’t the head guy it was his fingers…maybe). The dictator in charge restricts books and music and paintings, they are all illegal to have. It’s illegal for someone to have a butterfly collection. It’s strange. I guess people aren’t allowed to think for themselves at all. That is what V (the masked characters name) is fighting for. He wants justice to reign again when it hasn’t for so long. He realizes that it’s fear that has been running this country and he wants it to stop. He realizes that a symbol is only a symbol and it has no power unless the people give it power. So the symbol that has power is destroyed, and the symbol is the Parliament building. It is a sort of skewed way of doing justice but in V’s mind it was all kosher. It made for a great story line as well. The critics Roberts and Atell gave it two thumbs up.

Panicking never works

I find it strange how one event in day can over shadow almost everything that was good. It started out as a normal Thursday. Rations in the morning, lunch in the soup kitchen, talking with Aurora, waiting for Teen group to start. We were taking a trip to Bald Mountain. A hike up the mountain and back down, easy enough…or is it dramatic music dun dun daahhh). Everything was in order we had drinks we had apples we had the teens we had a van we had keys. We drove to the mountain we ran up…most of the way. It was great. We climbed to the top of the look-out-tower from where I could see my house. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do because we didn’t have a ladder to get us to the first flight of stairs and on top of that some of the stairs are a bit sketchy. I did my Sméagol impression a number of times and Ryan hid in the woods and then jumped out in an attempt to scare Aurora and a couple other people. It was worth the effort. Then we went down the mountain. There was no trouble until we reached the bottom of the mountain. It was a bit of a race. Ryan, Emily, Cody and I were all running down the mountain (not smart in the first place) I was headed straight for the van and I needed to stop. I didn’t want to hit the side of the van with al my weight on the door because then there would be a big dent in it (that may have been a better idea) so I decided to put my hand up and use the window of the van to slow myself down so I didn’t hit the door so hard. Well the window did slow me down for a few seconds and then it shattered. My initial reaction was Oh $@%&#!!! I had never broken a window before in my life ( I actually didn’t think I could with out injuring my hand neither did the guy replacing the window). I can’t remember if I had ever broken someone else’s property before that was this huge, so I panicked (no the best way to handel a situation). I didn’t want the other teens to know that I had broken the window of the van because I thought they would have thought less of me, so I asked the three that were there to lie for me (second bad step). Emily said she couldn’t lie well, so I said don’t say anything. So when Aurora and the other teens came down the mountain and saw what had happened, the story they heard was that the window was already broken when we arrived, so someone may have just decided to break our window because they could. We had a two hour drive back and I was almost holding back tears the whole time. Once we dropped off the last of the teens I told Aurora what actually happened and we headed back to the corps for a Corps Council meeting (so everyone that needed to know was in one place at one time). I told Doug and Deb the actual story (they were obviously not thrilled with the news) and because I laugh so often it sort of seemed like I didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation. I think, at first, I was more disappointed with myself than they were. I was hoping that only the two of them and Aurora would be the only three that knew the actual story, but in a small town the truth gets out fast. Not everyone knows yet but thy will after reading this, and I do need to tell all the teens and apologize to them for lying and asking three of them to lie for me. I guess I just didn’t want to leave Bangor with everyone remembering that I broke a van window, but I am human and as Doug brought out so was David, people don’t remember his faults over the fact that he was an amazing king that’s comforting to know. Someone once said "It's not the making mistakes that we learn from, but how we handel them." Anyone know who that was?? Do you think he broke a window too?

Community involves unity

Word of advice from me to you: Don’t stop blogging for a long period of time because there is so much stuff to catch up on it’s easy to fall behind. I had the opportunity to preach on Sunday morning three weeks ago. So I did. I guess it shouldn’t come as a shock when God does something that makes everything fit together, but I can’t help being amazed by it. This past few weeks Doug Burr has been trying to build a closer community within the corps family. He wants to stop this surface level knowledge of who everyone is and get deep into each other’s lives (who knows where he comes up with these crazy ideas ba ha ha ha). When God spoke to me what I was to be speaking on it went right along with what Doug has been pushing for. God spoke to me about bridging the Gap between the youth of TSA and the elders. In order to progress and keep pressing on in the fight against the enemy we need to be standing along side each other working together. We can’t fight as a divided army. The elders have knowledge and wisdom that they youth don’t have, but the youth are the ones that will be taking over as leaders, and if we don’t build a foundation for them to base their faith on then when they got to places where they face huge temptation they could easily be torn away from the church and dragged into some other religion, or they may just give up on religion all together, that’s never good. We need to be working to build up the youth in a corps so they take over the leadership and be effective in a corps. We can’t have disunity and still be effective. We can’t fight a battle on our own and expect to succeed when an entire army is needed. TSA will fail if we aren’t raising up effective warriors. A spiritual foundation is not only built by what we do ourselves, but it also comes from interaction with other Christians. I’m not talking about just sitting by someone on Sunday morning. It comes from deep conversation and having a meaningful impact on each others lives. We need to be helping each other through problems and we need to know that there are people that will stand beside us when attacks from the enemy come up. People being brought together in a church setting doesn’t happen by accident, people that look up to you doesn’t happen by accident, and corps officers aren’t sent somewhere by accident. It is spirit led and God ordained. The youth that will be following each generation is not an accident. God has a plan and a role for each person to play in the future in the church. We need to recognize that and set them up for success. It takes cooperation from both sides. If we don’t set up a precedent then the next generation will follow suit, and there will be generation after generation of surface level relationships and that is a scary thought. It’s not something I would want to be a part of. It’s not easy, it does take work but we can create community.

That’s basically my sermon. I thought everything went by really fast. It felt like I started and was done in four minutes. The recording had fourteen minutes of space used up, but it sure didn't seem like it. Fourteen minutes still seems really short but at least I know I probably kept everyone’s attention. I did a much better job of starting this time as well. I didn’t have to leave to find a lapel microphone like I did over the summer. After it was all said and done I felt like my sermon was almost JAC worthy. I know that I’m no Stephen Court, but I have my moments.

My Canadan adventures (dramatic music plays)

Warning If you don't like to read long blogs turn back now. I’m sure that by now everyone (that is 614 related) has probably heard all about Jenn and Josh’s amazing, spirit led, beautiful, perfect, wedding. If you haven’t yet (you weirdo) talk to me; I’ll fill you in, or better yet talk to Josh or Jenn Ivany…oh man that is so weird. What most people probably haven’t heard is my adventure before and after the wedding. I will tell you my tale…now. It was a dark and stormy night when we set out. If you don’t believe me ask Aurora or Alberta. We were seriously driving through a snow storm. So we all that thought it would be a good idea to not let the Floridian drive. I think I would have done fine. It was around nine thirty at night and we couldn’t see more than ten feet in front of us. We eventually found pout way out of the mess and were making good time headed for the border. There wasn’t whole lot that happened on our way up there except for sleeping, talking and switching out drivers. Alberta had the unfortunate privilege of being pulled over in New York by a State Trooper. I think he thought she was drunk because he said she was crossing the lines a bit. The lines are our friend stay in the line. He thought we were drunk ba ha ha ha. He asked us where we were going and our response was Canada. He then said you do know your going south right? We said, “Yeah, we know that’s how we get to Canada from Maine”. He was very confused and said “you’re going south to go to Canada”? We said yes and let us got with out a ticket or a sobriety test. If you ask Alberta she’ll tell you that he was driving an eighteen wheeler but I think it was just a SUV. I was told by a friend that state troopers in Massachusetts and New York drive a Dodge Viper. This shows how much those crazy Florida people know. We were on our way and after my shift Aurora took over. I put my coat over my head and fell asleep. I woke up right after we paid out last toll in New York before the border. It cost $12.60. How do those people sleep at night? I can understand a buck fifty here two dollars there but twelve sixty. That’s highway robbery. I told Aurora I would have hit the gas and gone. I was going to be in Canada in thirty minutes anyway we’d a been safe. Anyway, we crossed the border at Niagara Falls and stopped to admire the view and it was amazing. I never knew Niagara Falls was so huge it went on for miles. I couldn’t believe how awesome it was I was really tempted got but a video camera, but I’m a poor college student (no matter where you go to college at some things never change). We then stopped at Denny’s. It was really expensive there, so we left and went across the street to an all you can eat breakfast buffet where we didn’t have to pay fourteen dollars for French toast. After all that we arrived at Aurora’s parent’s house, and I got to meet her family and they were lots of fun and then we found Jaime Riefer and that was really cool. The next day we drove from London to Toronto. So picture this on a Canadian highway: Jaime, Alberta, and I all in one car Aurora was in the car with her mom in front of us. Fun stuff happens in those situations. We drove circles around them. Literally we drove in circles…maybe more of a box. First we passed them, got in front, crossed in to the far right lane, let them pass, and got behind them again. We did it like four times, and each time was just as fun as the first. I want to do it again. So Josh and Jenn need to have another wedding so I can go to Canada and drive circles around Aurora. Tell me when you set the date. Actually I don’t think either of them read my blog. So we finally arrived in Jackson’s Point and I knew we were in the right building fairly quickly because I saw Darren Hailes and I heard Tara laugh. You know that really loud laugh that will scare you if you don’t expect it. I heard that and it made me smile. I saw Rob and I didn’t recognize him at first he’s different. It was strange for me to not recognize someone. Then we had the wedding and that was fun. We met up with Sue…Ann and spent a few days with her in Toronto. WE went to The Hard Rock Café and we saw the CN Tower thing. And we went Toronto 614 service and we saw elephants and we almost went into the hockey hall of fame but time was running short and so was money. So we saw the front entrance. It was good. Then we started our trek home. We made a stop in Montreal where I couldn’t understand a single word the signs said because they were all in French and we stayed with Aurora’s cousin…whose name I can’t remember. We got lost a number of times with her in the car. Then we headed for the states. We decide to take route two through Vermont and New Hampshire and into Maine. Now you’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this. You may be sitting in your chair right now saying, “Travis why are you telling me the road you took that seems pointless”. I’m warning you if you have been driving for a really long time and you want o got to Bangor Maine don’t take route two. It takes you away from toll booths and all that business, but it is so long. I didn’t think that road would ever end I just wanted it to all be over. And it was over at sevenish at night. Most of you probably want this blog to be over as well so I will end now. I give you more details of this tale some other time. There will be another soon.

I can Blog again...finally

Okay guys I’m seriously bogging this time. I’m sitting down at a computer typing and I’m going to push post when this is all done. I finally have found some time to sit down and blob about stuff that has been happening in the mind and life of Travis. I think I just finished my personal longest stint of not blogging ever. Granted I haven’t even had this blog running for a year yet but almost. Besides being busy with work and going to Jenn and Josh’s wedding and other random stuff I think one of the reasons I haven’t been blogging so much is that I stopped doing my rations for a few weeks. This week and last week I have been on task but managed to push them out of my mind and do my regular life without my daily rations. I know it may sound odd but I really think that my blogging ability usually go hand in hand with my rations. I thought I just had writer’s block for a while. It’s really weird that something that should be automatic by now can still be pushed to the side by other stuff in my life, this should not be. I blame McDonald’s. Please pray that I reestablish that discipline again so that I don’t try to “fit it in” my day, but that it's a constant in my life. My spirit is willing but my body is weak. I hate it when that happens.

Sleep is overrated

I decide it’s a good time to blog considering it’s been over three weeks. This is a quick note to the two people leaving me a comment telling me to suck it up: It must be nice having a car to ride around in when it’s snowing. Besides I wasn’t even complaining I was just trying to be funny and I think I did an amazingly good job. Of course you two wouldn’t know funny if it side swiped while you were driving IN YOUR CAR!!!

The last few weeks have been interesting. I’ve been watching the Olympics which are always fun, working lots of hours and smelling like lots of grease, and plowing lots of ground and seeing lots of breakthrough. Last Sunday night we had a Teen Group sleepover. Aurora and I had a great idea to do a sleepover at the corps. So we did and it was fun. All of the guys had great dreams of playing Halo 2 until 5:00am and then going home and sleeping but it never happened. No one really mentioned Halo2 the entire night. There were a couple other PS2 games happening but no Halo. Aurora had a few things planned which put Halo out of the guys minds for a few hours but it never resurfaced. I was very surprised. The pudding drop/fight started it. We had two people lay on the ground and someone else stood on a chair and drop pudding into the person’s mouth on the ground. As you can guess it got ridiculously messy and Aurora decided to try to put a little bit f pudding on someone else’s face and then the trouble started. Everyone was fair game. Pudding was on everyone’s hand and they were going for the face. Chris Burr and I were the only ones who escaped but I decide to go to a different place to get away and I got caught…my hair and hoodie may never smell the same again. Then we did hide and seek and Sardine’s in the dark for about three more hours, that was tons of fun. Some games we never grow out of. Every guy talked about drawing on the face of the first person who fell asleep, but they were all talk. No Sharpies appeared at any point in the night. I thought about it a couple times but I figured they would remember and this probably won’t be the last sleepover before I leave. Near the end of the night we had decide to entertain ourselves by watching The Olympic ice dancing competition. Rather than watch it I enjoyed laughing at the costumes. Some of them looked absolutely ridiculous. One girl looked like she had the top part of a cake scraped off and put on her as a dress. It was all flowery and bright like a wedding cake. I guess some things seem funnier at three in the morning. It was all down hill after that. Even though we inhaled an immense amount of soda, chips, ice cream, pudding and other not healthy stuff we consumed, eventually we all fell asleep (even if it was only for a few hours) and woke up to the infamous three minute outgoing message on the Bangor Corps answering machine. Although I was wrecked during my whole six hour shift at McDonalds on Monday I think it was worth it. More sleepovers still to come.

You might live in Maine if...

I have noticed that there are number of things that I have seen happen here in Bangor that I believe only happen in Maine, and i have decide to tell you about it all. Most of this has to do with winter because I’m still really cold.

You might live in Bangor, Maine if…
…you need to scrape the ice off the inside of your car windows as well as the outside.
…at twelve degrees with three inches of snow everyone says hey this is a mild winter.
…there are seven foot tall snow drifts in every store parking lot.
…your teeth feel cold after being outside for only a few seconds.
…the number of cars on the road doesn’t change when it’s a bright clear day and when there’s a foot of snow on the ground.
…when people talk you here an h sound where there should be an r.
…Canadians travel back north to a warmer climate.
…you find a pale pasty white Floridian.
…part of the daily news segment tells you how the snow on the mountain is for skiers.
…you would rather deal with a hurricane than this weather.

Ba ha ha ha…Jeff Foxworhty ain’t got nothin in me.

Super Bowl Sunday!!!!

Okay so I was wrong in my Super Bowl score prediction but that’s okay because I was right about the winner and that’s all that matters. First of all Sunday morning was great we had a guest speaker by the name of Rob Bell. Doug pulls this guy out to do the sermon sometimes. He talked about discipleship. In biblical times it was a compliment if some one said to you “may you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi”. A disciple follows every move and does everything the same way his Rabbi does so he can be just as good as or even better than his rabbi. Maybe that’s what Sting is talking about in the song “I’ll be Watching You”…probably not. I wonder how many people watch the way our Spiritual leaders do things. How can we ever try to be as good as (or better than) them if we don’t follow the lead that they give. Almost everyone looks up to some one and if we follow the lead of that person eventually it’s going to end up showing that we’re following Jesus and that is what we need to strive for isn’t it? Aren’t we supposed to try to be like Jesus?

After the Sunday morning worship we went hom and then camp back of the mother of all Sports event…SUPER BOWL XL!!!!! Woo Hoo. I supplied every one with cheez-its and Doug and Deb did the rest. We had a three foot long Subway sandwich, tortilla chips with salsa, cookies, Pepsi and a number of other food stuff we didn’t really didn’t need but we ate anyway because it was there. I swung my terrible towel and I rooted for Pittsburgh, and I laughed at commercials and I laughed at Nick and the comments he made and I had fun. It was cool beans.

Just in case anyone hasn't heard yet
Final Score: Seattle 10
Pittsburgh 21

Super Bowl XL prediction

Just for the record: this is the first bolg that I out up that thas anything to do wiht football. I think that's a great accomplishment for me. As I've been saying for the past two weeks the Steelers will beat the Seahawks. No it's not a wrod form the Lord I asked him and he told me to guess.

Steelers 31
Seahawks 24

Will & Grace

It’s been a long time since Sunday, (almost a week) but I am finally blogging about what was said that day by Aurora Borealis (Atell). I would have done this earlier, but I decided to wait a few days rather than blog Sunday night. By Tuesday evening everything was just a faint memory. Luckily for me and all my faithful blog readers (however few they may be) Major Doug Burr is a genius. It’s taking every bit of energy I have not to hit the backspace button. He records every sermon so I listened to it today as a refresher course. Aurora was on the program to deliver a sermon to us and she did very well. It was all about Will& Grace. Before you ask the answer is No (maybe) she doesn’t watch too much TV. Our God id a god of grace not will. When Jonah finally got the idea that he can’t run from God, after being inside a nasty fish for a few days, he went to Nineveh and they repented and God had Grace. When the Israelites attacked Jericho (as God had instructed) there was grace for Rahab and her family because they helped the Israelite spies. She was guilty of Espionage and was spared. So does that mean she was like the first James Bond?? God is not a GO of Will which is stagnant and never changing he doesn’t have keep everything the same and never change. He is a God of Grace and a God of love. Hallelujah.

FIGHT ON!!!!!

I realize this is long but please read it all.

I just finished watching a movie that I hadn’t watched in a long long long time: “The Never Ending Story”. The Power House Teen Center had a movie night held here at the Bangor Corps. I don’t know how many of you have actually seen it recently or remember it that well, but there is apart of the movie where this mysterious Nothing that is sweeping across Fantasia is described. This part really stood out in my mind because of the way things are described, it made me wonder if it was put this way for a reason. In the movie where Atreyu (the hero of the movie) is confronting this beast that has been coming after him for a good portion of the movie and he asks the beast what he knows about the Nothing that is sweeping across Fantasia? It’s leaving behind…nothing; the land is being destroyed into non-existence. The beast (G’Mork) describes the Nothing as “It's the emptiness that's left. It's like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it…people have begun to loose there hope and forget there dreams so the Nothing grows stronger”. He is then asked why and this is his response, “Because people who have no hopes are easy to control; and whoever has control has...the power! I am the servant of the power behind the Nothing. G’Mork basically says he’s a demon serving Satan and helping him bring people into this sense of hopelessness and despair and depression so they can be controlled.

I see it as a message for Christians. We have to be guarding ourselves against this sense of hopelessness that comes after us. It creeps in on us at times when we least expect it and when we’re most vulnerable. If we don’t combat against this feeling it will overtake us and take us out of the fight for Christ and render us ineffective. I have seen this oppression take its toll and work on people here in Bangor. That has got to be one of the saddest thoughts in the world: a Christian who can’t fight because they feel it’s too hard, and it’s pointless to try. Yes, there are times in our lives when sadness comes and grieving is, at times, a very good thing, but we can’t stay in that state. We need to fight and work through stuff that is trying to pull us down so that we can do everything in our power to win the battle’s that are we find in our daily lives that are on our battlefronts. When we fight we know we can have victory because Christ made us more than conquerors. We're on the front lines!!

Ephesians 6:13-18 (NIV) Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

I have a question

I watched History in the making last night when (that's what the guy on TV said) a different political party took power in Canada's government. All that I got from watching CBC was that Conservatives had a larger number than the Liberals. Aurora was not happy but couldn't really explain to me what was happening either. Is there a Candian that could please clarify exactly what happened? That would be great. I thought a new Prime Minister was being elected, but I didn't hear anything about that at all for the hour and a half that I watched...whatever was happening.

Christmas Party!!!!

I went to The Salvation Army Family Store Christmas Party this past Sunday. I thought it was odd that they waited until a moth had passed to do the party, but it seemed like Christmas all over again when we opened our presents form our secret Santa’s. Unfortunately for a lot of people a secret doesn’t stay a secret for long around the Family Store. We had a summer type theme so most of the people dressed up in beach type or warm weather type clothes. I put on my Florida gear (swim shorts and a sleeveless shirt) and then my Maine gear (two pairs of jeans, two shirts, one hooded sweatshirt, a hat and a parka) on top of that. We played volleyball for a good hour and a half and never bothered to keep score and we ate and opened our presents and left. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t seem like everyone was enjoying it as much as a regular Christmas party. I couldn’t understand why people weren’t talking and having a great time just spending time together like people normally would. Chris (Burr) was counting the minutes until he could finally get out of there but he’s always like that unless he’s snowboarding paintballing or doing anything that has nothing to do with TSA. Everybody just seemed to be waiting for something to happen and it never did so they all went. Maybe they were hoping for another volleyball game or some other game to play but there was nothing so it seemed like an awkward ending to the party. When we got our presents the party was pretty much over. I know most of you have never been to Bangor, Maine much less the Family store but if any body has any insight let me hear it please.

Thoughts from Jeff

This is just a quick blog. Here are some thoughts that I got from my roommate(Jeff) (not a Christian…yet) a few days ago. These thoughts stemmed from me being very cold. His words: “This winter has actually been much warmer than what it usually is. I know last night I said it was because of global warming but I don’t think that’s it at all I think it’s something more than just that. I think that it’s a sign of the Apocalypse. Armageddon is just around the corner. If you think about what’s happened recently with ht Tsunami is South East Asia, the thirty straight days of rain in Seattle and unheard of number of hurricanes this year…there’s only one explanation for it. I really think that The November 11th attacks and Hurricane Katrina were all judgment from God. I have been in the WTC and it was just filled with greed and power, and then in New Orleans with all the sexual immorality and gluttony and adultery happening, it’s no wonder that God sent judgment on them. Then there’s the war happening in the Middle East and I know that that the Bible has to say something about that stuff. I really think that the Apocalypse is just around the corner. There have been all these unexplainable things happening in the weather, and I think more will be coming along, but multiple fifty degree days in January in Bangor, Maine are just another sign.” I was stunned that all that had just come from a man who has in no way before shown any interest in talking about God and was also just getting over a hangover.

“He replied, "When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went away. Matthew 16:2-4 (NIV)


God is speaking to us and to the people that don’t know him yet Hallelujah!!

LOST

I just finished watching a show that I got hooked on over the summer: “Lost”. It’s a show about these people who were in a plane crash and are stranded on this remote tropical island and they are realizing there is more than just a random normal deserted island; typical Hollywood plot line. I have been enjoying watching this show but it seems that the further they go into this show the more plot twists they throw in. Pretty soon it’s going to be like a ball of yarn that they unraveled and have it going in so many directions it’s going to seem almost impossible to bring it to an end. This last show they showed one particular man’s secret that really is reminiscent to real life situations. He is a recovering Heroin addict. On this island, that everyone is stranded on, they discovered another plane that crashed a few years ago. It’s a much smaller eightish person plane. As for cargo on this plane they find small statues of the Virgin Mary. In side on these statues is hidden Heroin. This recovering addict is one of the four people that found this plane. He decided to take a statue. He hasn’t used any of the drug, but he has it with him. In this last episode the girlfriend of the recovering addict discovered what was in this statue that he has been carrying with him all this time. His explanation is that he is carrying it with him just to have it not to use it. So he just wants to know it’s there? His intent isn’t to use but to have it? Why would you want to keep something around you if you had no plans for it in a place where it serves no viable purpose? At the end of the show it shows him with another statue that he is hiding in a hole in some rocks with about seven other statues. That really show’s how strong bondage can be. This man is thinking ahead to his future when he gets off the island. He has no plan to continue his recovery. He just wants to go home and get back to doing what he knows best. He’s in a situation that he can’t control, and he is reverting back to something that he knows he can do, something he is comfortable with. I do realize that this situation was from a Hollywood script but there is some truth init. No matter where we go temptation finds a way to get into our life. Whether you’re comfortable in your home or stranded on an island in the middle of no where temptation is there and it needs to be combated. “Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, and fix your hope on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”. 1Peter 1:13

Did anyone else realize that if you take one L out of Hollywood it becomes HOLY WOOD. It’s kind of like my souldiers idea. hmmmm...

A journey complete

My journey back home (to Bangor) started with my Dad waking me up at 4:15am. Although I may have already been up in a way, sleep walking, because I vaguely remember not being in my bed fifteen minutes earlier. It may have just been a very vivid dream, or it could be the fact that I was waking up at 4:15 in the morning. I think most people would feel strange waking up that early in the morning. I had some doughnuts and orange juice (freshly squeezed) for breakfast and I was off to the airport with my dad, two suitcases, and a guitar. Forty-five minutes later I was at the airport. Then the plane ride, not really a bad ride, only one hour. Then I was at Atlanta International Airport for a very long, long, long, long, long, long, long, time. I had a three hour and 58 minute wait for my next flight. Then my flight was delayed another thirty minutes. I slept for a good hour and a half. I had never slept at an airport before. I wouldn’t suggest anyone trying it at all, for any reason or for any length of time. I was very uncomfortable and I kept waking up checking my watch and my computer bag. I got onto the plane and the captain started to tell us why there was a delay. The plane had some maintenance issues. That’s so comforting. They finally get us on board, shut the door, fire up the engines, and then tell us we are on a plane that had maintenance issues. A very sobering thought. The captain assured us that it was fixed and we would by in the air soon (as long as the duct tape holds). We landed in Portland and as I walked out of the airport I noticed that it was snowing. For a few seconds I wasn’t sure what was happening because I had been in Florida where snow is considered a myth to most people there. It’s only happens in movies, in Alaska and to penguins. Bah ha ha ha ha!!! It took me a few seconds but I got over the shock of seeing snow and Captain Frank Nataluk and his family spent a few hours together eating talking and waiting and just chillin (yes, I just said a TSA officer was chillin). Then came the last leg of my trip, the bus ride (duh duh dunn). Not so bad. I got a chance to watch most of the movie “My Best Friend’s Wedding”. When I took a short break form the movie, I over heard a conversation between two people one seats behind me and across the aisle. So I listened (a.k.a. eaves dropping, though I didn’t have any eaves so I probably wasn’t dropping anything). I think it was the word Christ that caught my attention. I heard the argument that they had for why they thought he was a savior (they did believe he existed) and what there religious beliefs were (some weird Tibetan stuff). As I listened in I had my own arguments running through my mind. My brain automatically went into offensive mode and I could think of truths to prove them wrong. I was having a battle with them in my mind and I had the upper hand. I never actually talked to them but I could put up a strong case for Christ had I been bold enough to speak up. I thought that just popping into the middle of a conversation with apologetics flowing might not be a great idea, but we were on a bus so it’s not like they could get away from me. Sooner or later I’ll get them (and there little dog too). It was after the bus ride I realized that hearing that conversation was an attack of sorts on me and it failed miserably. I just got back from a time of rest and reenergizing and that’s the first attack I get thrown at me by the enemy. I can’t believe that’s the best he can come up with. It was nothing. The battle here in Bangor is going to be a route no contest. The war is on and my battle cry is NO COMPROMISE!!!!

A revolution is brewing in Florida

Happy New Year everybody!!

I just came back from Camp Keystone. We had a New Year’s weekend Camp Staff Reunion. It was amazing. We had our former DYS Major Willis and Barbara Howell as our main attraction. It was wonderful being with them again. There the type of people that you can’t be around without catching some of the fire that they have and then be compelled to do something. Major Howell has a way with words. When he speaks he gets the points across in a way that can make it sound exciting to anyone. I think he could make watching ugly paint dry sound interesting. Two ideas that he talked about (and actually did with us) were openness and accountability. He wanted to know how we had been since he and his wife had left, but he also asked us how we were as far as our spiritual life was. He wanted to know how we were really doing. It was awesome to hear some of the things that were happening in the lives of some of my friends that I hadn’t seen in about a year. I had real conversations and we talked about real issues that we normally wouldn’t bring up, not because we were afraid too; I just don’t think we ever thought about it before. It was great getting back with friends and actually getting to know more about them when I thought I had already known almost everything there was to know. We also talked about accountability. Something that hadn’t been brought up much before, but was very much needed. I’m really excited about what’s happening in the Florida division. I think God has key people set in place that are going to start making changes to take this division further into the Revolution that has already started. I’m very eager to see what comes out of all of this in the next couple of years. It’s going to be good.

For our New Year celebration we watched fireworks stayed out until two o’clock…maybe three, drank sparkling apple cider and Gabe acted like he was drunk for the rest of the night. It was good stuff.
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