Flashback Friday!

Happy Halloween (Or not, if you can't stand the holiday)! hehe. I figured it would only be appropriate to share a sweet Halloween story for the Flashback Friday, since they do fall on the same day.

(Me at youth swordfighting with the Wiseman's daughter.)

A couple years ago, my friend, The Bert, and I came up with this brilliant idea to dress up as Nintendo characters. Naturally, I wanted to be Link (From Zelda), and my hair at the time only further supported the notion. Bert wanted to be Mario, and also, that worked out quite well. However, we didn't feel right with just the two of us doing it, so we ended up recruiting TONS of people to join our Nintendo cause. People claimed they would dress up as Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Luigi, Toad, Bowser, Mega Man, Princess Peach, Princess Zelda, Wario, Waluigi, etc. It was going to be a grand Nintendo-themed Halloween! However, this was all the people who ended up dressing up...


And not only that, April took SO much convincing, and I think ultimately, she was the least likely to dress up. However, she didn't just dress up as Princess Zelda, she hand-made her entire costume from scratch material. Not only did she end up dressing up as her claimed character, but she put so much more effort and looked 10x's better than the Bert and myself.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! Lots of love!

My Heart in Election '08

Romans 16:17-19

I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.

Reading this passage is very convicting for me as a believer. On the one hand, it's really encouraging to hear Paul express true concern for such obstacles in life, but on the other hand, what he asked to watch out for is what most Christians tend to do today. This got me thinking about the upcoming Election. Being from South Carolina, I've heard it all. "Bush is God's candidate.", "Clinton is of the devil!", "Die, Arabs, die!", "If Barack Obama wins, I hope he gets assassinated.", "John McCain is the man that God wants in the White House.", "If Obama wins, this country is going to crash!", etc. And to think, these all come from fellow believers, some of which I know really well. That isn't to say that I don't do the same thing, but for me, this whole Election season has been a hatred of both sides and convincing people that both candidates are hacks and shouldn't even be up there. One, that's my opinion, and it really should stay with me. And two, God's in control of this Election, and He'll put in whoever He thinks is best for us now (Romans 13:1 - Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.)

I've been a fool. It's okay to express your opinion about something or about how you feel, but it's a completely different thing when you try to force your opinion on someone else, especially if it has the potential of misleading a fellow believer. I've been pleasing my own appetite and reading up on knowledge that isn't going to change history. I've made it my mission to be selfish and question the authority God has laid out there for us these past 232 years in America.

The last line of the passage says, "I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil." I think some times we, as Christians, tend to relate more to the evil of the world instead of being innocent to it. People read His word less today and watch way more TV and movies. People listen to less sermons today and listen to filthy music. People do less fellowshiping today and spend too much time by themselves. There's barely any evangelism and a whole lot of turning away from Christ. These are the important issues that Christians have walked away from.

So ultimately, who cares if Barack Obama wins the election? So what is John McCain wins? In the end, it's going to be chosen by God and NOT something for us to question. Questioning it would be undermining God's authority and making your opinion more important than His plan.

In the end, God will always prevail.

Can't even make it to a month.

So I noticed I missed "Flashback Friday" this past week, due to the fact that Gabe came into town and I ended up spending the entirety of the afternoon and evening with him. That was an absolute blast! We ate at Mr Subs (AKA Senor Subs, Monsieur Subs, Subs-san) for lunch. All in attendance; Gabe, myself, Rachael, Curtis, Nancy (My mom), and Teddad (My dad). It was a really good time together, and I know I was personally blessed by the experience.

After that, my dad, Gabe, and I went to the mall to buy Tre' (My brother) a birthday present, and then Gabe and I went back to my apartment and discovered the brilliance of JellyCar (An iPhone/iTouch application). We laughed a lot between that and goofing off on Fable 2. From there, we went to my dad's house and watched Iron Man on BluRay, and it was actually better the second time. Still not as good as Spiderman 2 (In terms of comicbook films), but still a wonderful film for what it was.

Sunday was a great day as well, as Jeff preached a wonderful message about having the faith of a child. That, combined with two little girls reading something one of them wrote about us being like a Jack-0-Lantern. It ended up being a beautiful analogy, and it really does make you think twice about the almost-uselessness of complexity in Chrisian thinking. After church, we went out to eat with a load of people! I have never actually had a sit-down conversation with Travis (One of the singers in the choir), so that was a blessing to be able to eat with him, his wife, and his cousin. Also, Matt and Kinsey came, and so did Summer and her boyfriend Darrell. This was the first time I've seen Summer in about 4-ish years, so that was cool to see her again, and that she's doing pretty well.

Laster that day, we went to Mike and Sharon Jack's house to watch the Steelers game and talk about our trip to Japan. Despite the Steelers losing, we had a wonderful time, and just walking around their house was a blessing. The stream and the dock in the backyard was enough for me to just want to come over and hang out everyday! Mike even invited me to a men's Bible study on Thursday, which was of immediate interest, so I'll be seeing him on Thursday. Both of them were extremely encouraging with their words, their ideas, and their hospitality. It was just a great experience at their place.

With all that said, we had a wonderful weekend, and God blessed us tremendously. Just continue to pray for our trip to Japan, in all areas (The fundraising, the donors, the mental and spiritual preparation, the language learning, the softening of the students' hearts, the living arrangements, etc), and we'll be sure to keep you posted as to what to pray for next. Thank you so much for all of your love and support.

What's a schedule, anyway?

As some of you might have already heard, I (Jason) am totally off of the night shift at the gym! Last week was my first official week (Although short, because we didn't get back in until Tuesday night from Colorado Springs.), and I have to say, it felt nice. Sleeping on a proper schedule, waking up between 8am and 9am (As opposed to between 10am and 2pm), and getting all my errands done in the day time is such a wonderful blessing! I don't think I need to bask in this any longer, but I have to say thank you for all the prayers.

The LORD has truly been working in our hearts this past month, and I can't help but share how He's been working! As stated before, the Summer months were a little difficult for me and Rachael, but after lots of prayer and meditation, it has been understood that God used that time to test our faith. Not only did that time of struggle strengthen our relationship with Him, but it also confirmed that our going to Japan is from Him. We have never been more confident of this mission to go to Japan than now... and it's only getting stronger! The LORD is good. Always.

I'll end this with scripture and a CUTE picture of Honey. This passage has been on my heart, because God has been showing me a lot in confidence and what to be confident in.

2 Corinthians 5:6-10, "Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."

Flashback Friday!

Okay, this is a random, short, and silly one, but still a flashback! hahaha



This is a picture of Rachael while we were visiting family in Boston. As some of you may know, Rachael and I will lock-up and semi-wrestle on occasion. At this point, I was always threatening her that I would give her a hickey on her eye. I don't think she ever believed me until she kept pestering me... so I gave her a hickey on her eye... as I promised. hahahaha. This was the aftermath of such an event. :P
(This flashback was actually approved by Rachael. hehe)

Go Tell It To The Mountain!

(I posted the pictures before writing for a change... not a good choice. hahaha. So comments will follow each picture.)
This lake is about 8,000 ft up towards Pike's Peak. As you can clearly see, the colors are gorgeous, and a whole lot more colorful than our Myrtle Beach trees. :)

This is Rachael on top of Pike's Peak, but it's really cool that you can see the weather line from the height we were at (14,110 ft).

Thought this was just a silly sign on the way up to the Peak.

We were taking pictures at the Navigators Headquarters. Standard pictures are boring... jump pictures, however, are AMAZING!

This is our fellow GO! participants. I'll give you who and a where they're going.
Top Row from the Left: H (Location Secured), D and L (Location Secured), Joe Hughes (Wife Julie in front with kids Paul and Anna; Sendai, Japan), Jaclyn Shelton (La Plata, Argentina). Bottom row (Besides Julie) from Left: JL (Location Secured), Kelly Leaver (La Plata, Argentina)

Beautiful mountain scenery from summit of Pike's Peak.

Again, Pike's Peak scenery.

Rachael and I on top of Pike's Peak. Good times.

Flashback Friday!

Okay. I'm going to begin a series of "Flashback Friday" posts each Friday where I recall a random event of the past and share it with the public. It may be significant, it may not. That's moreso for you to decide than me. Either way, it's a part of our past (or one of our pasts).

This picture is... me. hahahaha. While in Japan in 2005 with the Navigators, we played a "scavenger hunt"-style game where us foreigners dressed up like random people, and because of my long hair and beard, I was asked to be the homeless person. So, yes. That's me sleeping in a box in the middle of a shopping area.

Now for the funny part. A police officer was watching over the area and noticed me in the distance. At this point, I actually started dozing off because the students were taking so long to find me. The officer came up to me and was yelling something that I definitely wasn't able to understand. In Japanese, I was trying to calm the situation down by saying, "It's a game! It's a game!" So Mark Rood comes running down the shopping center to get the officer's attention to detail the situation and get me off the hook. The officer tried to clarify that I could "pretend" to be homeless, but I couldn't actually sleep in a box. So we moved post a little bit, and I just sat on the box instead. Once the students saw that Mark was talking to me and the officer, they realized that it was me. The reason why they didn't find me was because they were truly scared that I was an actual homeless person, and they didn't want to intrude on my rest. Out of this respect, they left me alone. The police officer even said I was scaring some of the parents of the kids.

What started as such a simple game ended up being a complicated situation and a scaring moment for half of the people in the shopping area. Good times. hahaha.