Sorry I haven't written something reading on this blog site in a really long time...

You know how it goes: you have GREAT thoughts to write! Then something comes up...then you're too tired to do it...then you want to post up pictures but you need to edit them first...later...more later...man, it's been a long time. Can't write it now. People are like, "you never write blog entries that are up to date..." Man, I suck at this...etc. And the list goes on and on...sigh...

In any case, with all that said, I do want to write more often and hey, this is a start.

Summer project is in full swing and Young Isaac is doing well. Lindsey, our lead singer is experiencing some vocal issues, so you can please pray for her. She has not been feeling up to par, so it's been a frustrating thing for her to be in practice and feel tired and unable to sing as well.

What can I say about my team? They're fantastic. No, they're not perfect as no group ever is. But they've been such a huge blessing to me this summer. I'm so thankful for them and I'm always filled with joy and when I think about them.

The summer has been refreshing so far with all the new blood around, though it's been a tiring time and I'm really lacking the sleep!

I can't believe that we're already halfway through our second week of rehearsal though! Talk about FAST! GEEZ!!!

We just finished bible study not too long ago and had a great time going through Timothy 2. As a team, we talked about ways we can practically keep Christ in front of us as we rehearse and prepare to witness to people on the road.

God has been teaching me to daily commit to Him to remain pure in body and thought, and I encouraged my team to commit themselves to walking in the Spirit daily. I know I need it, though I don't do it, as we all need to do it. Just saying that I commit to walking in the Spirit today, to recognize sin right away and confess before it God, and then to receive and apply God's promises and forgiveness for those sins, is huge. It makes such a difference in my life and I intend to hold to that at least for this next week as I continue on project.

Summer project is such an interesting time. It is the most intense spiritually because students' lives are being changed everyday. The enemy is at work over time and I feel him doing it. He is distracting me as much as possible, diverting my focus from Christ to petty things and blowing the conflicts in my life way out of proportion to the point of being swayed and controlled by them. Christ should always be at the center, grounding me in my thoughts, helping me to view these problems and issues in light of the Holy Spirit. But I know I am having a REALLY hard time doing that.

You can certainly pray that I would be filled with the Holy Spirit each day, trusting and relying on His strength to get through each day and be able to do all that I need to, regardless of the situation. And you can also pray for me to have grace for my brothers and sisters. I need to forgive and let go. Holding onto those things only embitters me and contribues to a critical spirit. Life is certainly too short to hold onto these things and let them eat me up inside. I need to let them go, apply God's truth, and move on.

Tuesday was a very encouraging day however; a breakthrough if you will.

I had my spiritual development time with Dave, who is my spiritual development coach, and dialogued with him about a lot of the conflicts and struggles I've been dealing with.

To have a person outside the situation give me fresh perspective on what I was struggling with was so freeing for me. It was a release, a way to "let the bad out." That is something I need to continue to learn how to do in the context of a supportive group or community. Only there can I really begin to change and continue to grow in these things.

Anyways, I'm a lot better. Praise God. I want to continue to get better and not be so stuck.

Tomorrow is a new day. I gotta get to bed...need some more sleep. Things are going great though overall!

Please pray for the remainder of our rehearsals-we start full day rehearsals on Friday! We need all the prayers we can get. We're coming along but need to really press forward. Thanks everyone. Good night!

Click on the link below to view my photos of Israel!

I finally had time to post them on ofoto.com, so please check them out!

Enjoy!

Photos of the Holy Land

Just letting you know I've posted up my April and May 2006 newsletters

Just click the link on the sidebar to view them!

Night!

Finally! My photos are here!

The link below is to all my Albania pictures. I've split them up by city where our concerts were. I spent a lot of time on it, so I hope you like it! Enjoy! Feel free to leave comments and feedback :) Have a great night!

I'm still working on the pictures...story of my life...always late and needing more time to finish a monumental task that seemingly does not lend itself enough time for me to complete it in a timely manner. Sigh...alas, the great time conundrum. Even in ministry we are so consumed with doing!

I wish I had a Mount of Olives to retreat to and a Kidron Valley to pass as I walked there each day. Life would be a lot simpler. But we each have our lot in life as Jesus did. Three years...three years to save the world. HOW DO YOU DO THAT?! 'Cause He's God. And to think we have Him living in us...then why don't we have the same type of life impact ourselves?

So many times, as I'm learning about living the Spirit-filled life, we simply don't want it. We resist and rebel. We immediately harden our hearts to Him or brush off the notion of always walking in the Spirit, quick to think it's not possible. But it is. The question is whether or not we will submit to Him and allow Him to live through us and take control of our lives?

We have the gift of free will. And unfortunately (or fortunately, for those who don't really care about doing God's will) we can choose to not do His will as often as we like. The hope is that we won't, but gosh we still do. And to think that Satan was once an angel of light, the right hand "man" of God and he STILL fell!!!! Even seeing Christ in His eternal glory there! And managed to deceive 1/3 of the angels to fall with him! Man...there are just no words for that.


Anyways, I can ramble on and on about theology, but it's past my "curfew." I've been giving myself an online curfew of 11p.m. for various reasons I care not to divulge publicly, but some of you can guess why... Preparations for summer project are going well so far. I just wish I had more time to do things! GAH! But I'm so tired day in and day out and can never get the proper rest that I need.

Perhaps even when I'm sleeping I'm not really resting. It's interesting to read Jesus' words that say, "come to me...and I will give you rest for your souls." He never said He'd give us sleep or help us sleep better. He said He'd give us rest. And I think there is a huge difference. I need to learn how to rest.

I can nap and sleep often while my mind goes round and round over things of ministry and work and life like a constant spinning top. But I don't think that was God's desire for us as we serve Him. He does not want us to be anxious, He does not want us to worry. We need only to think about today and God will take care of the rest. It's a principle of trust-I need to trust Him. Help me to trust You, God.



Pray for my summer project team Young Isaac. I am excited to have the opportunity to disciple these students this summer.
















Jeffrey Chin will be playing violin (from NY!!! He's the guy on the left :) ),
















Lindsey Thayer is on lead acoustic guitar and vocals (from So. Cal. West Coast!)







Brandon Carpenter is on guitar,















Josiah Washburn is on bass,
















Josh Weis will be our sound tech (no, he's not the frog),




Laura Piscitello (staff intern) is on vocals, and I'll be playing drums. Lindsay and Benton Cole will be our team directors (they're both from the Keynote HR department) and Dan Bongard will be our music director.


I'm really excited to be working with this staff team. This summer I'm looking forward to being refreshed in my relationship with God and in ministry fulfillment as well.

I've shared some of my struggles with my full-time band in past entries, so you can understand. Stepping out of that situation and being in another that is different will help tons. I feel our personalities and general character types are very similar and generally very moldable and able to get along well. That is a HUGE blessing and will take "less effort" ya know? It'll be nice to not have to stress out so much about conflicts and such on the team. I really hope for a great time with them. Please please pray for us!

I'm way past my curfew now.


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I will have my pictures ready VERY soon, I PROMISE!!! Again...it's the story of my life that I'm super late on this when I said I'd have it done a few weeks ago. I want it to be great and ten million things got dumped on my plate before I was able to finish this, so yeah...there ya go. Not to make excuses, but I think you can understand. Keep checking! It'll be up soon :)
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