XBOX 360 Games For Sale

Please see my previous post, "Operation Reduce My Debt," for details about why and how this works. Please let me know if you have any questions about the items for sale and I will do my best to answer. Serious inquiries only please. gL

Title	Genre	Rating	Price
Dead or Alive 4 (1-4 player & 2-16 online)	Fighting	Mature	$30
Project Gotham Racing 3 (1-2 player & 2-8 online)	Racing	Everyone	$25
Kameo: Elements of Power (1 player)	Role Playing/Fighting	Teen	$20
Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion + Official game guide (1 player)	Role Playing/Fighting	Teen	$25
Ghost Recon Advanced Recon (1-4 player & 2-16 online)	First Person Shooter	Teen	$15
Battle for Middle Earth II (1 player & 2-4 online)	Strategy	Teen	$30
Guitar Hero 5 - Game only (1-4 player & 2-8 online)	Music/Rhythm	Teen	$25

Operation Reduce My Debt

As many of you know, I am a college student at Houston Baptist University pursuing the path God has shown me for this stage in my life as a Philosophy major with a minor in Spanish. In order to put my focus whole heartedly upon my studies I am not working in order to read the numerous good books my classes requires, do the assignments, write all the papers, and just think. I, however, still have many of the trappings of a middle class American though as a poor student I no longer am of that social class. Not that I don't like having all of these things, yet, I also must eat and pay rent and buy books and pay for my gas and insurance and the like, not to mention the distraction these provide to me from my studies.

In an effort to offset my numerous bills and expenses and remove these distractions I am going to be selling some of my things, thus the title of this post: "Operation Reduce my Debt." To facilitate this I will be posting lists of what is for sale in categories such as Games, Movies, Sporting Goods, etc. These items are all used, but well maintained and of high quality. Because I am trying to pay down some of my debts there is a likelihood that you can find cheaper prices online, especially considering the used nature of these items. However, please consider the benefit you will be doing me by helping me to take care of some of my considerable and growing debts as I pursue my education.

To establish my price points I have researched each items retail used resale value, if available, and its current new price. I have set my sale prices somewhere between those two values based upon how old the item is, it's condition (usually like new or gently used), and my perception of its value. I will accept cash or pay-pal and can either give you the item directly if you are in Houston by meeting at HBU, HFBC, or my house or I can mail you the item provided you cover shipping charges. If you feel led to donate more than my asking price or just to help a brother out I would definitely appreciate your generosity. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Grace and Peace,

Greg Leach

Cuba Day 3 5/29/06

There is lots of flooding in the area so I haven't gone into the office yet, so I thought I would blog more about my trip.
Today is Memorial Day and I didn't even realize it because I am so wrapped up in what is going on here in Cuba. Morning devotionals was led by Bart and it was really impactful and focused on our relationship with God, the reward that awaits us, and the responsibility and privlidge we have to spread the gospel and further Christ's kingdom. Afterwards we had another awesome time of worship through song for the glory of God. We then went out to do our first ministry with our teams. I am on team 1 with John Beshears, Lori Lau, Brandon Neely, Blakely Robinson, Todd Richards, Laura Bell, Jody Rogers, Amy Warfield, and Catherine Donavon. We were with two girls from the ministry, Dailene (Die-lene) and Yeiner (Yeah-nair). After dividing up into smaller groups we walked around the UH campus, which is the University of Habana. I spent a lot of time with Dailene and shared about myself and heard some of her story as well as about the general campus life and what aspects of ministry excited both of us. I also got my first real opportunity to start using my spanish which has gotten very bad since I don't use it regularly. There is a frame of mind that you need to be in to speak another language and it takes time to get into that mode. It was challenging to operate because there is lots of uncertainty about what is OK and there just aren't a lot of students hanging out because it is finals week for them and many students were in class while we were there. We came back and went to eat Pizza Nova which was a couple of blocks from the hotel. They don't have any beef options and their equivalent to sausage is chorizo. The cheese is salty and a little sour, reminds me of goat cheese a little. I also had a Tu Kola which is Cuban off-brand Coke and is really good. They also have real Coke which is imported from Mexico, but it is made with Sugar instead of High Fructose Corn syrup like here in the States. After dinner we walked back and cleaned up for our evening ministry. On the bus ride over I sat next to Catherine and we got to share testimonies, which is one of my favorite things to do when on bus rides during mission trips. We finally arrived at our destination which was a Methodist church where the ministry we were working with was having their leadership team meeting. The group is interdenominational and focuses on reaching students in campuses all over Cuba. We had yet another wonderful time of worship and it was truly beautiful to see Cuban and American lifting our voices in praise to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings who is sovereign over all nations. The distinctions of culture or denomination all faded away in the presence of God's glory which filled the room. We then went around the room and introduced ourselves and told a little bit about what we did and how old we are. They were really suprised to hear that we were all single because in Cuba people usually marry when they are in their early 20's. It was amazing to see how much like us they were. Most were very intelligent and were studying for the same things we can: engineering, computers, business, law, nuclear sciences, nursing, microbiology, and journalism. Then the Lord blessed us with the opportunity to lay hands upon our brothers and sisters and to all pray together for them lifting up supplications for their ministries. We closed the evening with another prayer and lots of laughter as we continued to learn about our new friends.

Father's Day is Tomorrow

So here it is almost Father's Day and I had no idea what to get my Dad. A friend is going to the Astro's game tomorrow and I thought, "Hey that's a great idea!" My Dad loves the Astro's and hasn't been to a game in years. Then I remembered that Roger Clemen's is making his debut on Thursday so I went to see about tickets and I found 2 gems, 20 rows up from the Houston dugout. I am so pumped to be able to take my Dad to this game because we both like Clemens and have never gotten the opportunity to see him pitch in person. Go Astros!!

Cuba Day 2 5/28/06

We had church this morning which was good though I was very hot and tired even after a nap the day before. The sermon was from I Peter 1:13-16 and he gave 5 commandments from that passage. 1. Prepare your mind for action 2. Be self-controlled 3. Set your hope on grace 4. Don't conform to the standards of the world 5. Be holy in all you do. I could go into more detail of this, but it speaks strongly by itself and there was definitly some conviction as well as lessons that will carry me throughout the week. We also got to here a few people share their testimonies, scripture verses, or just lessons learned and words of encouragement. I am continually blown away by the spiritual maturity of the people on this trip with me. They prayed over us and read psalms and encouraged us as much as we did them. Afterwards they gave us fruit and cake and then we went back to the hotel where I took another nap instead of hanging with everyone else at the pool.
Afterwards I split a burger and a cuban sandwich, which is basically a pork chop with grilled onions and mayo on a hoagie, with Lori L. and Blakely. It amazes me still that beef is accessible to us as tourists but something that the Cuban people never get to experience. After a quick shower we got into vans and went to Old Havana to visit the market and eat dinner. It reminded me a lot of Antigua and was filled with beautiful architecture. The main square is dominated by a 17th century Spanish church and surrounded by support buildings from the same era and a house of a noble which is now a resteraunt where we had dinner. While we ate a local Cuban salsa band played and a few of us even showed off some of our moves (not me though). Sometimes the locals stared a little hard but we stuck together and overall had a good time. The meal was great and the church lit up beautifully at night. At 9 a canon sounded off from a nearby Spanish fort which was startling, but cool. We came back and hung out by the pool and played games and laughed a lot.
I am actually writing tonight with my roommate and prayer partner Aaron Rodriguez. He is a really cool guy and God's sovereignty is so awesome as he is a rookie and I have done a couple of missions. It is really neat to see things through his eyes and share things myself.

Cuba Day 1 5/27/06

Well we took off from Houston after getting up at 4 am to go to Miami. After going though getting our Visa's and grabbing lunch at a pizza place we boarded our Gulfstream. When I left I was anticipating a nice private plane, but this was a prop plane from the 70's with 3 seats to a row and enough room for the 27 of us and our baggage.

From the beginning things have been different and difficult. I can definitely tell I am not in the States or even a democratic country. Oppression is almost palatable in the air. Coming through customs was a huge challenge. We brought baseball uniforms in duffel bags for a children's ministry that we were trying to help out. Because we didn't have the proper documentation and local representation they confiscated the bags and we don't really know what is going to happen to them. We had also brought bibles to share with our friends in Cuba as many don't have a bible or lack things like concordances and study references. Many of these were carried in the same bags but we were able to get those out and put them with our luggage. (A guy from our church came and was able to get all of the equipment and uniforms out a couple of days later and get them to the ministry. I pray that the Lord would use these things to make His name great!)

Already I am tired and it is very hot and humid, even worse than Houston. The A/C in out hotel isn't working all that great so our room is very balmy and stale. The food is pretty good so far though a little more expensive than I expected, actually pretty equivalent to the prices here in the US. Definitely need to be mindful of my funds that I have been provided with so I have enough for the whole week.

I'm back

I know that this won't be read for about a month, but hey there will be some stuff to read on my blog after I have dropped off the face of the blog world. I will admit that things have changed and I am challenged to even post now since so much of the blog world is about being funny or having a gimick. Well I don't have one... I am just going to be real and tell you about what is going on in my life and hope that you like it. Now if I can just get time to actually blog once a week that will be good, but shouldn't be a problem now that school is out and I dont' feel like I am working two full time jobs anymore. It is good to be back and I have some fresh new things I am wanting to share, so I pray your ready!

gL

Deepest Gratitude

As many of you know my grandfather has been having health problems. Battling both cancer and eventually leukemia along with the recent death of my grandmother has taken its toll on him. Today my grandfather has gone to dwell in the courts of the Lord for eternity. Over the past few months my friends have faithfully lifted me and my family up in prayer, interceding upon our behalf. I would like to take this time to say thank you to each of you. Your perserverance and the love that has been shown to me demonstrates your character and for that I don't have the words. I will never be able to say what it means fully, but know that I lift each of you up and thank the Lord for the impact that you are on my life.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

In Deepest Gratitude,

Greg Leach

Pictures

Just as an FYI you can click on the pictures to see a larger version. Most of these were taken with my friend Tommy's camera, but some were taken by other people on the trip and I have borrowed where I think it complements my story.

Day 1

As we landed in Guatemala I stepped onto something besides US soil for the first time. There is definitely a different smell as the air is earthy and a bit smoggy as there isn't much in the ways of pollution control here. Yet the greatest discovery is the temperature. It is so cool with a nice breeze blowing making it very comfortable with a lot less humidity than Houston. After getting off the plane we are waiting in line when one of the members of our group realized that she left her passport on the plane. After running to tell Catha I ran back to the plane and saw a flight attendant who wouldn't let me back on the plane but graciously went back and searched for us and found it. Disaster avoided and no one had to be deported. I was the last one through customs as I had lost my spot in line and got my first passport stamp. As I went through the gate someone had graciously grabbed my luggage so it was time to catch our bus... and I stepped out into one of the craziest scenes I have ever imagined as hundreds of people are pressed all together looking for loved ones, clients, and work. We couldn't take 3 steps without being asked if we would like help with our luggage. One thing I have learned about the Latin American Culture which I totally respect is that there is no such thing as a bum. Either you work or you starve, the only thing that gets me is that they travel in packs. I wonder how much success the last guy in line has after people have already said "no" 14 times to the 14 guys in front of him. So we start throwing all of our luggage on board and on the roof in a double time fashion and then cram into our bus for the crazy taxi routine as we are haphazardly driven through town to our hotel, the Marriott!Pulling up to this place after our direct shot flight on Continental and walking into the lobby where all the ceilings are done in gold leaf brought me to understand what "Suffering for Jesus" truly meant. WOW! This place was amazing, and one of the nicest hotels I have stayed at. After checking into our rooms some of us met up for our first excursion into the city for lunch. We were looking for something authentic and wondered around a little bit looking for something that was good and affordable. We finally ended up at a place called Cebollita's, which is Little Onion for all you gringos ;) It is hear that the fact that I am in a foreign country really sets in as I start looking at the menu and realize this isn't anything like Spanish class. Fortunately Victoria Salgado is with us to help with what we don't understand, which is pretty much everything. We start with drink orders, now let me explain what the mission manual we received states. Don't drink the water or use the ice in order to avoid a case of Montezuma's Revenge. Well that isn't exactly what it said, but you get the gist. Ok so back to ordering drinks Victoria orders a local drink specialty called Passion Tea I think and Stephen gets the same. I along with the others though opt on the side of the manual and get Agua Refresca. Well when our drinks came out what a surprise; they brought us Club Soda, hot Club Soda at that and since we didn't trust the ice we had to suffer. I ordered a plato tipico which had a tamale, sausage, and something that looked like a chalupa with pork and beets (which I didn't eat). To be honest not one of the greater dining experiences of my life, more to do with what I ordered instead of where I was eating. We did have a great view though of a nice patio with a beautiful fountain that let the cool breeze blow into the restaurant. It was then time to pay and get back to the Hotel for some orientation stuff. The bill came in Quetzales (Keht-zahl-es) which are worth about 1/7th of a US dollar. So after the initial shock of a $65 tab we went back and learned a little about what we were going to be doing for the week. As a way to get acquainted with the city we hopped on the bus and went to a local park and just walked up to people and started talking. This is not my strong area, but I tagged along with Dena and we started talking to a woman who was watching one of the numerous soccer matches that were going on. We learned that she was attending an iglesia de Testigo de Jehova to which we translated to Witness of Jehovah. After some encouraging words we parted ways as she went home with her family. It wasn't until later that it dawned on us that she was a Jehovah's Witness. The reality that Christians aren't the only ones sending out missionaries dawned on us and as we shared stories with the others we found many "religious orders" were at work in Guatemala. The park was closing so we got back on the bus and headed to a local mall for dinner and some more opportunities to meet people. I went to the taco inn and had quesadillas which were made from pork that was cut right off of a leg rotating in front of an open flame and goat cheese. Fortunately they nuked it in the mircrowave so I felt better about the meat being at a safe temperature. Afterwards we walked around and just observed people and continued to get to know one another. After an hour of this we met back in the food court before it was time to get back on the bus. We were all talking and being ourselves and then we left. Once on the bus we did something that would become a common practice: a head count. We were two people short! Joel and I jumped off the bus and started running to find our missing girls. Fortunately they were coming out at the exact same time. It was very unfortunate to hear what they had to say. They had missed us meeting but knew to come to the bus because the security guard had told them that the Americans had left. Yes being that the majority of us are non-hispanic makes us stick out in crowd, but I think our behavior is what really made us stand out. Our group of 45 people was making more noise than the whole food court. It would have been nice if instead the guard would have said that the Christians have already left. After getting back to the hotel some of us met for something that would become a nightly thing of group prayer. I really made some good friends there and it was nice to lift up the concerns, joys, and triumphs of our trip each night. I almost forgot about something that happened to me. I had a spider bite on the back of my knee. It wasn't looking good and being in a foreign country wasn't a huge boost of confidence. Yet I asked for healing that this might not hinder me from working in the mission field and am happy to say that the very next day the swelling started to recede and the poison runner had stopped progressing. Afterwards I went to bed as I was exhausted after a long first day.

LEEVING on a Jet plane!!

So Byron stayed over at my apartment as we had to leave pretty early, around 6 I want to say. Anyways he and I ended up talking all night instead of sleeping so I didn't crash until 2:30 a.m. Later that same morning my alarm went off WAY too early and I dragged myself out of bed and had some coffee and some eggs and finished the last little bit of packing. My friend Shelley came and picked us up and we went to the church to meet up with some of the other people from Lighthouse who were going on this trip and then Shelley and Brady drove us to the airport so we didn't have to leave our vehicles in long term parking. What cool friends I have that would sacrifice their early morning for me! So we had to wait in a pretty long line to checkin our baggage and get our boarding passes. After going through security we sat around and I got a chance to meet some more of the people who I would be spending the next week with. After a small wait we boarded and I got the chance to sit next to Catha. What a cool thing as she and I didn't really know one another prior to this. I got to share my testimony with her and actually hear how she influenced an interaction that God used to really call me to HFBC. Being in the aisle seat I couldn't see much so after talking I jammed to the iPod and journaled about alot of the things you read last week.

Wah-tuh-mall-uh Prayer and Praise

As a way to encourage those of us embarking for distant lands to share the gospel the Lighthouse class came together to hold a prayer and praise before we left the next day. To say the presence of the Spirit was apparent would be an understatement and to be honest it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life as I was completely overwhelmed by how blessed I was to be a part of a group of people who had such love for one another. My good friends Brady and Katie opened us in song and the 40+ people who were gathered in Nate's apartment raised our voices in heartfelt worship to our Lord. In between songs whoever felt led would share a verse that God had put on their heart. I wanted to share and started flipping through the Bible. I had no idea what to share but God chose this moment to speak to me in the book of Psalms, Psalm 67 to be exact.

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
Selah
2 that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
3 May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth.
Selah
5 May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
6 Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.
7 God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Even at that moment I was just rejoicing in how God was speaking to me reinforcing my purposes for this trip as well as articulating my own desires. After a few more songs the missionaries paired off, I being with Byron, and then those there to pray for us split into groups of 3-6. Each group would spend a few minutes praying over a pair and then would move on to the next pair. Again the work of the Spirit was apparent and I felt truly annointed by the many prayers that were lifted up in encouragement and protection over us. Unfortunately no words of mine can fully express how powerful it was, but it definitly strengthened me to go home and finish packing which I had just started a few hours before. Let me close this with me expressing the deepest thank you to each of you who has prayed for me and continue to lift me up to the Lord. I appreciate it more than you will probabally ever know, but do know that it gives me so much confidence for the Lord is faithful and the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. My life is evidence of that!! Praise God!!

Guatemala and God's Provision

I am really excited at this point about going to Guatemala except for a small matter of money. I had sent out my letters to family requesting prayer and support but had only recieved a small amount of response. I didn't ask anyone in my class as so many were already going with me and I was aware of a lot of struggles that my peers were going through. It was not because I doubted their abilities, but more because I didn't want to inconvenience them I think. However I came up with an idea to have a fundraising dinner along with Kelly Parker where the missionaries would serve dinner in efforts to raise support. Thus on Friday before First Things First we served lasagna and salad and fruit, yet the greatest thing I think we provided was our service and our stories as we shared with those present why we felt God was calling us to this particular mission. Taking anonomous donations we raised a couple thousand dollars. Thank God for brothers and sisters who were so willing to give sacrificially!! I pray that they have been encouraged that we were good stewards of that money as they heard our stories upon return and as they read this perhaps.

Guatemala The Pre-story

It's been a few months since I was in Guatemala, but it will be fun recalling all the amazing things that happened on that trip. The biggest thing I learned on this trip was God's sovereignty and it was displayed many times throughout my journey as you will see. To start it was my first mission trip and the first time I was ever out of the country. There were a couple of reasons I wanted to go: 1. I remember being so excited about all the amazing stories from India and 2. I spoke some Spanish so I thought this would facilitate communication and give me cultural understanding. So we went to the first meeting and there were a lot of people there, many of them friends, many new faces, and all of us interested in going on this trip. One of the things asked was that we make a $120 non-refundable deposit. This was a leap of faith because we didn't have an itinerary as we were waiting on the Rookie Trip and I wasn't absolutely sure that I could get the time off from work. I was going through a spiritual drought during this time, but I prayed as best I could and spoke with friends about it and felt like God would approve of my participation. To be honest the $1200 total trip cost was a huge stumbling block, yet I knew somehow that God would provide if He really wanted me to go. Being the procrastinator that I am wont to be I didn't get my money in until the last minute, but God used that to allow me time to peruse the Garden and get some books that really helped me with some of the struggles that I was having. The other leap of faith that had to be made was with my work situation. I requested the time off, but never received a response as to whether I would have the time off or not. Based off of previous requests that I never received responses from I had to assume that a lack of response was approval. This was a tough time at work with constant rumors and threats of job loss and outsourcing, yet I felt secure that whatever happened God would provide. Unfortunately things with the family weren't going much better as my grandfather was battling cancer and hospital politics and my dad had an internal infection after a surgery he had a month before. On top of all of this I was just being run ragged with all of my social involvements between leading a small group, attending a home team over Hosea, the numerous class socials, and my own inreach/outreach efforts to meet and greet people and now Guatemala meetings. My rest was never adequate and my prayer life stunk, even though I desired differently, yet by grace I continued on. At the first meeting we got our field guide and fund raising info, but there was a serious lack of a male presence that had been so prominent a few weeks before. Thus we had around 20 girls and only 7 guys and after much prayer leadership opened the deadline for a little bit longer until we got to our final number of 15 men and 30 women, 8 of them being from Lighthouse. I also received my prayer partner Todd (-atello) Richards who was a huge encouragement to me through emails, phone calls, and personal meetings in the weeks leading up to the trip. At our second meeting we learned about sharing our testimonies as well as was divided into groups for organization purposes and to have a group that we could begin sharing with as well as pray for one another. I was also at this time selected to be a part of the VBS team. We met a few times, but our primary responsibility was gathering supplies for our teams to be used in the field as well as relaying information. The final few meetings were focused on our day to day activities as well as logistics. I also used these last few weeks to learn about Roman Catholicism and how to approach believers of this persuasion about Christ as a large portion of Latin America is or was Catholic at some point in time. At our last meeting we got our roommate assignments and I was paired with Byron Richey, a good friend and obviously a divine appointment as you will see in later postings.

Return of the Blogger

Well it has been a few months and good intentions and trips aside I haven't blogged in awhile, thus stay tuned for a brain dump of things like Guatemala, Tijuana, San Diego, and a lot of things in between.

Guatemala here we come

Well it is the day before we leave so this will be my last post for a while. Since I haven't packed yet and still have some last minute stuff to do this is going to be short. I am real excited about what I know God is going to do and wanted to give you a list of the people who were going so that you could be praying specifically for us.

Nancy Aquino, Joel Bain, Laura Bell, Lisa Caffey, Clay Collum, Betsy Contreras, Catha Duck, Crista Duck, Dara Flinn, Jill Flowers, Jennifer Fong, Meagan Galbraith, Allen Howard, Carolina Jimenez, Lisa Karabatsos, Robert Kenderdine, Kelley Kirby, Lori Latham, ME, Dan LeNeveu, Patricia Martin, Steven Murray, Amy Nyberg, Kelly Parker, Erik Peterson, Kyle Powell, Dinah Quintero, Jessica Ramirez, James Rannik, Dena Reagan, Todd Richards, Byron Richey, Alyssa Ross, Melody Ruddell, Victoria Salgado, Stephen Statham, Alison Thorpe, Taylor Tran, Karla Turner, Erin VanVolkenburgh, Greg Wassel, Sarah Williams, Dan Williams, and Melissa Zindler

I plan on journaling and taking lots of pictures so hopefully I can get some good material to share with you guys. Well I gotta go so in closing I pray that God would bless you this week and watch over you in all that you do. May it all be to His glory.

Blogging and Friends

I have so much fun posting and reading other peoples blogs and that is what really inspired me to do this site. Recently I have been reading Ryan's emails from when he was in Australia and England and I am just blown away constantly about the way he describes the scenery or tells me what is on his heart or what God is showing him. Then I read Leslie's site ALL the time, some days I think I check it more than she does. Hopefully she will post some things while she is away in New Mexico, otherwise I may have to do boring things like work and stuff. I also like checking Joel's page because he gives so much insight in a casual pragmatic way. Todd's page gets checked daily as well because I love his goofy humor and I see a side of him that I don't really know even though I consider him a good friend. This very thought leads me to my second point. What is a good friend? I had this question posed to me by someone I consider a good friend, but it really made me think about what levels of friendship there are in this world and what they mean to me. I think they can be broken into 4 categories: aquaintances, friends, good friends and best friends. I think everyone realizes what an aquaintance is, but for definitions sake I will say that it is somebody you know, but don't really hang out with, perhaps a friend of a friend or something of that nature. Second we have friend and probabally the largest category. When I think of friends I think of people that I see frequently and who I know some things about and hang out with once in a while. This could probabally be fleshed out more, but I think the point is made. We then have good friends. I think this category is hard to define, but I will make my best effort. I think a good friend is someone you care about and who cares for you. You make efforts to hang out with this person, call them on the phone, lift them up in prayer and maybe even know their family and at least know their story. These people are in abundance in my life, one of the perks of being a part of a very active singles ministry. Finally we have best friends. These individuals are rare and have your confidence and I think a bond exists between you and that individual that is very sacrificial. My best friend is Robbie. I would do anything for him, even die for him. I think that God has put some amazing friends, of all levels, in my life and I am so thankful for the impact that they have had on me. Some of you know my story, but I didn't have a lot of friends growing up. I was the kid in the corner that got picked on and didn't have friends because people did not want to be associated with me otherwise they would be ridiculed as well. At the time I was not walking in the paths of the Lord so I had no hope and it was eventually one of the things that broke me completely. How amazing is our Lord and Savior that He would listen to the pleas of a broken man and pick him up out of the darkness of despair and lift him up to a place that he doesn't deserve to be in. A place where I am surrounded by others who are seeking God and know friends in numbers I could never have imagined. I thank God for each of you and pray a special blessing upon each of you, wherever you may be, yet most of all I thank God, for what a friend I have in Jesus.

How Wide?

Well I got to looking at my blog and decided that it was too narrow, thus causing a need to do a lot of scrolling, which I hate. Therefore I took on the task of editing the template to get what I wanted. I like the final result, but man did it take forever. I had to go and save all the pictures and then edit them in Paint and then post them on a fileshare site and then paste that link into the html. The font got a lot bigger after that so I didn't gain anything, so I had to go change all of those because instead of putting a font size they did it by percentages... ugh. I finally went and downloaded the code for recent posts because I hated scrolling all the way down just to see if someone posted on one of the older topics. I also added a bunch of links to some sites I like as well as a link to Ryan's site that is finally containing something besides a construction sign and an email address. I recommend checking it out, it has got some cool posts. Well anyways, I think that is about all for the day so let me know what you think of the new changes. You can use pretty much any other blogspot site as a comparison since they are all about the same demensions. Blessings!

iPod

Well I just ordered my iPod mini 6GB from Target using this really handy 10% off coupon from dealcatcher.com. I can't wait till it comes in on Wednesday (I got 2 day shipping so I would have it for sure before I leave). I normally don't like Mac products because I am a PC kind of guy, but this has nothing to do with computers... well not really. So anyway I am excited!!

What a Weekend

Well this weekend was really interesting, and long, and I am glad it is over ... kinda . For some reason Satan was on the prowl and I started having a lot of spiritual warfare yesterday morning. This is something I am hearing a lot of lately, especially from people that are going to Guatemala with me, so please be praying about that for us. Anyways I went to R.O.A.M. and it was so awesome. I really look forward to having some time to go through the material in more depth with my friends. I then went and led class prayer and then went to service. I had to sit downstairs because they blessed the us since this was the last service before we leave for the mission field. After that I went to class and then to our class vision meeting. I felt bad because I was tired and after being out in the sun and not shaving for a few days I looked horrible. So I decided to run home and shave and get into some clean clothes. I then had to go back to the church for the last Guatemala meeting where I got my plane ticket and last minute details. After that I went over to Jay and Ashley Brown's for dinner with them, Leslie and Casey. It was really nice sitting around just chilling after all the business of the day. Unfortunately I had to run quick because I was meeting some friends at the theater to watch the final installment of Star Wars. But Ashley is so awesome, she sent cookies with me for everyone else... hmm chocolate chip! So star wars... What an awesome movie!!! I really enjoyed myself and thought that Lucas did the final film of the prequel trilogy justice by including huge battles, and amazing lightsaber duels with minimal corny jokes and bad romance plots. Once the movie let out I finally made it home and once the excitement wore off I realized how exhausted I was. So I finally slept in my own bed which was so nice (no offense to Robbie's couch) ... unfortunately the alarm went off and now I am here at work.