The Obstacle in Our Path

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the kirig's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand. Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

Inspiring song of the moment....

East to West
by Casting Crowns (totally met these guys!)

Here I am Lord and I'm drowning
In your sea of forgetfulness
The chains of yesterday surround me
I yearn for peace and rest
I don't want to end up where you found me
And it echoes in my mind
Keeps me awake tonight

I know you've cast my sins as far
As the East is from the West
And I stand before you now
As though I've never sinned but today
I feel like I'm just one mistake away
From you leaving me this way

Jesus can you show me
Just how far the East is from the West
Cause I can't bear to see the man I've been
Come rising up in me again
In the arms of your mercy I find rest
Cause you know just how far the East is from the West
From one scar[r]ed hand to the other

I start the day the war begins
Endless reminding of my sin
Time and time again
Your [T]ruth is drowned out by the storm I'm in
Today I feel like I'm just one mistake away
From you leaving me this way

Jesus can you show me
Just how far the East is from the West
Cause I can't bear to see the man I've been
Come rising up in me again
In the arms of your mercy I find rest
Cause you know just how far the East is from the West
From one scar[r]ed hand to the other

I know you've washed me white
Turned my darkness into light
I need your peace to get me through
To get me through this night
I can't live by what I feel
But by the truth your word reveals
I'm not holding on to you
But your holding on to me
Your holding on to me

Jesus, you know just how far
The East is from the West
I don't have to see the man I've been
Come rising up in me again
In the arms of your mercy I find rest
(The arms of your mercy I find rest)
Cause you know just how far the East is from the West
From one scar[r]ed hand to the other(x2)

(Just how far, the East is from the West) (x3)

From one scarred hand to the other

I finally did it!!!!

I fell over on my bike while clipped in! I told my padre I was more coordinated on a bike than walking, which is still true. I was on my bike trying to get the gate open so I could get out and go for a ride. I thought my pedal was flipped over so that I couldn't clip in, but it wasn't. My shoe decided it wanted to clip in just as I needed my foot to stop me from falling. So that was the first time I fell. Then, 4ish steps later when I was shutting the gate, it happened on the other side. Pretty much same thing. So to all those that I have laughed at when they clipped out left and fell right, I still laugh at you and now I laugh next to you. Joy.

Once I finally did get to riding, it was a great ride. For once I had gotten out and back before the sun went down completely. It was a beautiful sunset! Perfect weather! I rode about 18 miles, to Belmont and some backroads of doom. So many freakin bugs!!!! Ewww! The entire time I was biking I had Hillsong United's song The Stand stuck in my head; I just didn't know all of the lyrics. But it's an awesome song! So awesome that the lyrics will be the next thing on this post of joy.

"The Stand"
by Hillsong United

You stood before creation
Eternity within Your hand
You spoke the earth into motion
My soul now to stand

You stood before my failure
Carried the Cross for my shame
My sin weighed upon Your shoulders
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I'll walk upon salvation
Your Spirit alive in me
This life to declare Your promise
My soul now to stand

So what can I say
What can I do
But offer this heart O God
Completely to You

So I’ll stand
With arms high and heart abandoned
In awe of the One who gave it all

So I’ll stand
My soul Lord to You surrendered
All I am is Yours



Love this song!!!! No matter what the circumstance is, no matter what I'm going through or dealing with, no matter what kind of junk gets brought to the table, I'm going to stand with my arms raised up and my heart open and ready for God to come in. I'll stand in amazement and awe of my Creator. I surrender my all to my God, my everything. He is my purpose, my reason for living. Without Him I am nothing. He took my fall.

A vision

While on Spokefolk in MA, one thing we did was "take 5." Basically it was a 5 minute retreat of silence. Not nearly as cool as a 3 hour one you'd take up at Cedar, but it was enough for God to speak to me. I was struggling with a few things at the moment. I close my eyes and tried focusing on God and praying, but there was this wall in the way. This wall was made up of things things pointing at me. These things were doubt and frustration and everything else that was telling me I'm not good enough and I am not a good leader on this trip. I felt worthless. But behind this wall of crap I saw a figure standing there. I verbally said "I need you Jesus" and this figure crashed through the wall like a bowling ball. Pretty sure that was Jesus.

There are plenty of other things going on in life that point their fingers and me and tell me I'm not good enough. Verbally saying "I need you Jesus" has gotten me through many of those struggles. I hope this can be somewhat of an encouragement to you reading this. Know that Jesus loves you, cares for you, and desires to crash through the wall of your issues and come in to save the day. He is walking next to you all the time. When you only see one set of footprints in the sand it's not yours. Jesus is carrying you.

Places I've been, things I've done... where am I?

Ok, lets start at the beginning. June 29th was the last day of the Wisconsin Spokefolk tour. I was out to eat at DQ with everyone, including Eric and Hillary. I was ready to go home and continue with the rest of my summer and wait for the last semester of college to be here and gone. Well, it didn't happen like that. Sometime at DQ I was convinced to do the MA tour. Long story short, I did it. I eventually made my way out to Buffalo, NY to catch the end of the NY tour before heading to the Boston-ish area. We picked up Dave in Albany, then went to Phil's house in Foxboro. Spent the next day wandering around downtown Boston, then did some other things, then tour started.

Again I was the instrumental director for the tour. Again I was trying to prepare myself to play every instrument possible because I had no idea what kind of talent I would have. I ended up having an amazing drummer who could also play anything else you give him, a guitar player, a bass player, and a couple keyboard players. Yay! I got to play my electric for once!! Training went a little rough. It was hard to keep in mind that everyone in the band except the keyboard players and myself were 15. They were good musicians and had a lot of talent, but also liked to get off track a lot. They were so awesome though! Definitely surprised me with their talent. Our first setup at our first church in Woonsocket took 15 minutes. After that we just kept getting slower. Something about that seems a bit backwards... Many eventful things happened on tour...

Currently I am sitting in Stoff's bedroom waiting for her to get home. I'm somewhere by Flemington, New Jersey. I've covered a heck of a lot of states in a matter of hours. Since I've been out here, I've been to Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. The majority of those states were just in the last day or two. I'm hanging out here for a couple days, going to a Yankees game on Friday, then I think I'm heading home on Sunday. We'll probably stop in Ohio to visit some other SFers on the way. Dave has to get back to Chicago, but might go up to the Twin Cities with me. I'm going to hopefully hang out up there for a day or two before figuring my way back to Platteville. It's an adventure. And officially a road trip because we got lost and someone didn't bring the GPS!

I should be careful though....I'm not wearing a helmet...

More famous people...

I went to Lifest in Oshkosh and got to interview bands. Or just hang out in the media trailer and meet bands. It was awesome. I interviewed Superchick, John Reuben, Eowyn, The Myriad, and probably some other band too. I forget. Then I got to meet Casting Crowns, John Cooper from Skillet, Everlife, and probably some more that I'm not remembering. I also had a media pass. Normally security isn't suppose to let people without photo passes go to the front of the stage, but apparently not all of them knew that. I got to go right up front during Switchfoot and Superchick. The only bad thing was I didn't have my own camera. I didn't even have a nikon! I had a stupid canon. Dumb. Really dumb of me not to bring my own camera. O well. There's always next year. I made some connections while waiting for Superchick and I might be on the photo/video team for lifest next year. Yay! K pictures! (be jealous!)

*Superchick*

*John Cooper from Skillet*

*Casting Crowns*

If you need a good laugh...

or this one...

Need some Sponsor-ness of joy

Yea! I'm going on another Spokefolk tour! This one is out by Boston. I'm hoping to bring a girl from my church. She needs some major fundage help. If you can help in that area, please let me know asap! The tour starts July 30th. It costs $375 to go on the tour. About $60 to ship a bike or rent one on tour. Then roughly $270 for a plane ticket to get out there. Please help if you can. Otherwise, PRAY!

Thanks!

See...we all had fun!!!


And we meet new friends at the laundromat...


Check out my awesome bike!!


Plenty of jamming...whether it's with instruments or peanut butter...


Yay!

Spokefolk: Days 2-12 and beyond

Well, I don't know what the beyond is...but days 2-12 were fun! The program ended up being awesome! We played at two different camps. One was for autistic kids. We had to shorten our program and amazingly we kept their attention very well. It was an awesome experience for everyone. The next day we played at another camp that was family week. We played at an outdoor camp and had to extend the program because the parents had something going on. So we added another 30 minutes onto our 60 minute program and it was a blast! We kept their attention too! It was cool. AFterwards, all the little kids chased some of the SFers. We also did the boogaloo. I think before both of those camps we were in Three Lakes (btw-don't drink the water there, something's messed up there...). We had 3-4 outdoor concerts the entire tour. I appreciate them a lot, but we were ready to get back inside. We had some spiffy churches and delicious food. Our longest day biking was 73 miles, but my bike's odometer said 76 miles.

There is way too much awesomeness to write about. The most amazing awesomeness to write about is that I am going on ANOTHER one in Boston. It's July 30-August 10. Sponsor me!! I need some fundage to get out there and I'm hoping another girl from my church will come.

Spokefolk: Day 1

Technically for the counselors it's day 2, but officially for tour it's day 1. It already feels like we've been here for a while because people have bonded quickly. Usually we don't become this close until day 4 or 5. God is going to do some awesome stuff these 12 days! There are 18 people total; my second smallest tour. A lot of people are from Florida. One guy said it's like a culture shock being here compared to Florida. They aren't used to green and hills.

I've been keeping pretty busy these past couple days too. I never really had a whole lot of time to prepare for tour and the time that I did have I spent watching tv. I enjoy not having a tv in Platteville. I am the instrumental director. I've been trying to setup the entire sound system and instruments since we got here yesterday and I'm not quite done. Today I spent a few hours in Wausau. I bought an electric guitar. Who does that?!? Ok, well, me. I've been torn between saving up for a new lens or an electric guitar. I'm split right down the middle between photography and music and I've just been waiting for the decision of what to do. I went to an awesome store in Wausau and the people there were very friendly and helpful. You don't find much of that at the stores in Madison. I got to play around on some pretty fun guitars. Eventually I'll post a picture of the one I got. It's a Hamer. I've never actually heard of that brand until today. I plugged it into a Marshall combo amp (which I also considered buying) and the guitar sounded right and fit me well too. The guy helping me also gave me a huge discount on a hard case. The guitar itself was a discount. I guess originally it's $650-$700 and I got it for $300.

Anyway, enough about the guitar. Tomorrow continues our training. After we wake up and eat breakfast I'll be getting band stuff going while non-band people practice singing. Then, after lunch, we have a 10 mile training ride, followed by an ice cold hose shower. Yay!

Prayer requests:
-Safety while biking
-Grow close to each other
-We learn music fast
-God's presence would be strong among us

It's Official...*Update*

I have a newish phone! Yay! That means you can call me! And you should cause I don't have my contacts anymore. Call me or email me so I can have your number. Then I can call you. I'm leaving tomorrow for Spokefolk and it's gonna be awesome!!

ALSO, more cool stuff. I entered a photography competition thing. Go here and vote for my stuff. You can vote once in 24 hours. Tell everyone!

San Francisco #5

This is a picture of a bumper sticker I saw while Lauren and I were walking around in SF. It made me laugh. Of course I had to take a picture of it!



(...still no cell phone....yay!!?)

It's Official...

...I lost my phone...

CFW #3

Today's post is dedicated to numerous things:

1. The Swan Dive



2. Various aminals you will find at Cedar (we also saw a porcupine while driving back to north shore. It was spiffy)



3. And Eric

CFW #2

Today's post is dedicated to the fujifilm point-and-shoot camera. It was there for me when the real camera couldn't be. It was a sad day, but luckily it saved the day.

Here are a bunch of random shots from the trip to Narnia...

Pretty! I took this because I like how clear the water is (unlike the lake I'm used to in Lodi...)...


Like I said...Pretty.


SURPRISE!!!! Am for to good, yes?


Yay friends! And a fill flash! Always good to make me look whiter than I really am. It's ok though. Just look at everything else but me in the picture. I suppose by saying that you're going to look at me then. Well stop it! Look at Zach instead!


John get a haircut!


Amazing sunsets!!!! (the crooked table just adds an effect of ...(fill in the blank?))...


And then lots of driving...it was a good time though.


Like I've said, CFW this year was awesome! God showed His faithfulness to me. I got to know a lot of new people, which was cool because I usually go into something like this knowing a lot of people to start with. I think I knew like 5ish. I also just reminded myself of books I need to get. O no!

CFW #1

Chapter Focus Week was awesome!!!! I'm still trying to put it into words. I have over 260 pictures. Maybe by the 260th post about CFW I'll have it put into words. I love going up to the UP. It's beautiful!! It wasn't the best weather that I've experienced there, but it was still good. UWEC challenged us to a game of ultimate. We totally killed them! I only hurt my shoulder, wiped out, and scraped up my leg, but at least I scored a point and had plenty of assists. Friday I went sailing. I want a sailboat! No, I want ice cream!!

Spiffy!

That's a neat word! It can be used to describe something. For example: look at my picture, it's spiffy!!



Yea, I am awesome.

Ahhh!!

Almost done!! I have a paper due at 0900, followed by a weekend full of work, and a photo project due by 1500 Tuesday. I have an idea for that project but you don't get to hear about it because I don't want you stealing my idea. However, if you would like to be involved, that would be most excellent. It involves portrait photography. I've also decided that I'm a documentary photographer.
The end.

Random picture!



Interesting...

The Beginning...

...of my movie-making career. I directed, produced, and even provided the guitar for this music video.

Go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uRlEtXsjNI

Famous People #2

Added to the list:

Grant Imahara and Kari Byron from Discovery Channel's Mythbusters.

I didn't get any pictures though. I had to work the event. I was in the back at the light board the entire time. It was good though. What you see on the show is pretty much who they are, very cool and hilarious people. And Grant is a Mac user.

I Need Some Ideas...

I have a photography project due in a couple weeks and I need some ideas. It's about photojournalism, which shouldn't be too hard. There are three parts:

Part 1: Event Coverage
I'll need to submit 2 photos of some event with captions for each. This shouldn't be hard. I just have to find an event. I don't want to do a typical sport-type event.

Part 2: Photo Essay
"Using 4 photographs, convey the story that you want to deliver. You need to provide a short caption as well for this part." Yea, I have no idea what to do for this part. I have access to three little kids though, if that means anything.

Part 3: Photojournalism
"Photojournalism can be very broad area in photography discipline. For instance, landscape photograph can be a photojournalism image to tell us some story about certain places. I want you to come up with 1 'powerful' photojournalism photograph with a strong rationale. In critique, you will be asked to explain why you chose that particular frame." I guess if I can come up with some good caption pretty much any picture could work for this. But again, i don't want cliche.


Any ideas?

Happy Christmas

This is a mini M&M thingybobber I got last Christmas from someone. I was trying to figure out what to shoot for my catalog photography assignment. I set up my own mini photo studio in my room. I guess the good thing was my room was warm once I was done.

Random *edit*

7. I now have my bike with me in Platteville.

San Francisco #4

I'm tired. I've gotten 4 hours of sleep over the past two nights. I had to work at 5:30am. Boo. Here are more random SF pictures...

Random

Some things that have recently (as in today) been decided in my life:
1. I'm not graduating until December 2008
2. I'm good at Sudoku puzzles
3. I'm going on the Massachusetts Spokefolk tour and Corissa better come with me
4. I have a place to live as soon as I want it and for as long as I want it
5. I still hate winter and snow
6. I'm going to Lifest in July
7. I forgot to bring my bike back to Platteville
8. I don't like lists


Yay!

San Francisco #3

Mmmmm! Chocolate!!! This whole place was filled with great chocolate and ice cream and coffee and goodness. And this is the picture from it! I must have been too busy consuming chocolate. And apparently it's good for you, or something like that. So I guess I'll eat more of it then.



Speaking of eating, here's one gator that you can eat! There was a bakery on Beach Street that had a big window. I'm pretty sure the dudes inside were just showing off with this. The gator is made out of bread. It's pretty cool. There were some other cool things but freakin tourists were in the way. Seriously! Tourists! Geez.



This is Grace Cathedral, a huge church. It was on the way from Chinatown to our hotel, so I decided to test my night shooting skills. As you can see, I'm still working on them.



Here's another shot of that big bridge thing we went and visited. We learned about public transportation that day. Well, I think Lauren learned. She was holder of the map and I was holder of the camera. We got on a lot of random buses. Mostly just to see the city. We took them to wherever we thought it looked cool. Or something like that. It was fun. You meet a lot of interesting people riding on public transportation. You also don't see this kind of diversity in Platteville, or even Madison, I don't think. I was reading somewhere and it said San Francisco is roughly 44% white, 31% asian, 14% hispanic, 8% black, and that's where I stop remembering. Those are just rough estimates and I probably have some of those numbers messed up anyway. But I just enjoyed being in a place that wasn't completely dominated by whites; though some whites we saw were tourists from other countries.

San Francisco #2

We walked a lot...



Who takes pictures of the things that hold up a bridge? Weird!



Ummm.....

San Francisco #1

Well....the flight was long and we went over a plethora of mountains and sat by weird people and didn't get any peanuts and played lots of sudoku....



Visited Chinatown and got some cool things...



And saw the Golden Gate Bridge...



At the other side of the bridge there was something going on. Lots of cops, an ambulance, and something under a yellow tarp with a shoe next to it. Umm, o no!

Next is Union Square and the other side of Chinatown that we didn't get to. Maybe. Well, k bye!

My Dock

A working man's garage...

Also known as my dad.....or maybe brother's mess? I don't live there anymore.

Stuck

Ya know...

First off, I just like this kid. She's cute. Content. Smiley. And I like her! Second, I can't decide which one I like better. I like them all. They each kinda say something a little bit different. And that duotone color is amazing! B&W is fun too. And color, well, it's color. So I think I'm leaning toward one of the other two.

Check this out...

Studio Photography

I've been learning a lot of random things about photography lately, specifically studio photography and portrait photography. Thanks to Deborah and Naomi for the fun studio times. And the AMAZING pictures of Naomi!

More Funny

O yea...

and happy singles awareness day. I hope all your dreams come true.

If you need a laugh...