REPORT! Here's what's been going on.

Here's the deal. I've made a web album of many of the things I've experienced over the last 2 months... well, except one REALLY important update, that is... I'm Engaged!  I'm so very pumped about this.  Please pray for us!  It is not easy to plan a wedding, and all that when we're so far away from each other. OK, enjoy the web album!  I will also be uploading this album to facebook here.

Blessings, and thanks to so many of you who have helped me out spiritually and financially for this journey that God had me on.  I'm VERY excited for the new pages that he has written for me, and where its all gonna go from here.

Earthquake, Tsunami, .... man, I've got to go!

So, I do have some blog-posts milling around in my head, and I'm so frustrated that I have not been able to stick it down on paper (mmm... punch it in on a screen.  Is that the right description these days? )  But Jesus has had a whole new thing in his mind.  This post is basically about that.

The first thing that probably comes to your mind at this point in time when I say :"Japan" is probably Nuclear crisis.  Well, fair enough, but lets not forget that there are tens of thousands of people still living in School Gyms all across north eastern Japan.  These people aren't being affected by the Nuclear plant, but rather, the place they used to call home does not exit anymore.  There are literally thousands of houses waiting to be rebuilt, and most importantly, millions of aching broken hearts, weeping over their loss, and really needing some hope.

When people say "they lost everything," I think it doesn't quite encompass enough.  Think about it, the first thing you may think about is their earthly possessions. But the fact is, houses can be rebuilt, cars are probably insured, and cities will get to reorganize their streets as they rebuild.  What is not being addressed in the news is that there are so many crushed hearts.

In the numerous video's posted on Youtube,  you can hear the screams and groans in the background as the big wall of water comes and flushes away a town. The comments people are making are cries of help that reaches spiritual levels.  They are pleading to something to stop the water. I can't stop but thinking that their heart was flushed out together with their cities and communities.

I believe God is imploring his followers to get down to the nitty-gritty, and be muddied to the neck.  Both literally and spiritually.  I heard this call after a week of seeing the tragedy unfold on the news.  I had to go.  I could not deny it. It seemed so impossible, but as time passed I realized that I was supposed to be in this battle.  Not to just join and give money to people who are called.

A month later, its been a hard time for me waiting for the right time, but in a couple of days, its that time. I'm going. I will be working with an organization called CRASH (crashjapan.com).  They come alongside local churches in affected areas to be the light in the broken world around them. I am so excited for this opportunity!  Its amazing!  My plan is that I'll be back in 2 months.

All that to say, maybe some of you are reading this, and know that you are supposed to be apart of my journey, and I would love to let you in on it. I need people around me to keep me accountable.  I need to spend every day fully stepping into this plans.  There are a couple of ways to journey with me on this one:

>Follow me on Twitter!  I'll probably not have much time for emails and blogs, but I'm planning to update my folks about what I'm doing, and what God is doing there.
>Encourage me! :)  If you really do care about this stuff, let me know!  I'll try to keep you updated in how you can help, and how you can pray for me while I'm in Japan.
>CASH!  hahahah... I'm not afraid to ask y'all.  I'm not gonna have any income for these 2 months, and obviously there will be expenses. Will I be in trouble if nobody wants to help me out financially? No, but it is a big sacrifice for me, and I think some of you know that you want to share in that sacrifice.  You can empower me and put your heart out there through me. I literally feel empowerment every time I receive gifts, because it is a tangible thing that lets me know that this person really does care, and they're willing to sacrifice for it.

With all that said, I realize I'm leaving in just a few days. If you can't meet me up, I've set this nifty little thing online where you can give straight to my bank account.
Here's the link: http://goo.gl/3AAQF

Snow, AGAIN!? Yes :)

I love it. There’s is nothing more I can really say about all the wonderful things that Snow does to enhance my life. Now, I’m not so stupid to believe that everybody has the same opinion as me about snow. This winter in Kentucky has seen unusual amounts of snow, and it seems like everybody is complaining. Here are some common emotions/ reactions that other people may have about snow... i think:
-Cold
-Dangerous
-Annoying
-Work (if you shovel snow for a living)

Speaking of shoveling snow, not too many of you may know that I’m a well experienced snow shoveler! Well, at least I was when I was in grade school.  I would jump to my feet every winter morning at 5 by the rumbling sound of the snow plow passing by our house (My youngly ability to wake up from my warm bed onto the ice-cold floor astounds me).  I would throw on my snow suit, and 3 minutes later I was outside with my snow shovel. Our neighboring grandpa’s and grandma’s would be out there before me, bent back and all, clearing a pathway for the school children to walk to school.  I joined them every morning.  I loved it.  It was one thing that I had full control over. Nobody in my family cared enough about how I did it.  It was one place where I was allowed full decision making responsibilities. For once, I was not the “baby” of the house. That narrow pathway that I carved out in the waist high snow in front of my house was a great source of pride.

Maybe you’re starting to see why I am so fond of snow. If you’ve not caught on yet, check this.

Let me list a few other reasons why I like it so much when the world turns white:

1. Its dangerous to drive.  I have many found memories of how my father’s eyes would sparkle whenever he got to drive in snow.  I’ve inherited that same DNA, no doubt.
2. Hot Chocolate tastes better than ever (If you need help understanding this concept, read THIS).
3. Ski/Snowboarding, and Snow monsters.
4. The beauty, and meaning of it all.

Lets start with Number 4.  Actually, let’s just ONLY talk about number 4.

You wake up in the morning. You realize that the light leaching through between the curtains is brighter than usual. You stare at your alarm clock until the time comes into focus because you are sure you are late to work. Actually, you woke up earlier than usual; weird... You pull back the curtains and look out the window in squinting amazement that the whole world has turned white. No longer do you see houses and cars. They’ve turned into bumps and mounds in the white-scape.

I can’t help but think of how it covers everything shamelessly, and relentlessly.  And for a moment (usually a very short moment, in Kentucky), everything is clean.  Covered in the one color that symbolically represents purity.  

There’s a lot that could be said about the whiteness of snow. I walked to church this morning in my white shoes I got recently. Snow doesn’t have chemical white coloring or anything to help it be so white and yet, my shoes looked yellow compared to the half inch of snow on the ground. Its so freakin’ clean, fragile, potent, Shameless in its radiance.

There are no spells you can cast to keep snow from falling on you. When it snows, it snows. When it decides to stick, it sticks. It falls like a blanket over hummers and tricycles, tree tops and black tops, over Mansions and Shacks. Have you ever ‘heard’ snow falling? I have no scientific documents for you, but in Yonezawa, Japan, where I’ve spent my childhood years I swear you can actually hear the snow falling on a dead silent night; Big, hefty, silver dollar sized snow flakes stacking on top of each-other. When you catch one of these mother-flakes in your hand, you can almost feel the weight of it before it melts into a puddle in your palm. This results in the most beautiful winter blanket, covering the whole world. White is all that there is. None of the actual earth can be seen through this blanket. It is relentless in its coverage.

Change the topic a little bit.  When you see a piece of art, or some crazy invention, you can start to see some of the characteristics of the person that created that thing.  For example, The Cheeze Shovel.  You’ve might have seen those before, but this little nifty thing was invented by a Norwegian. Let’s see what the cheese shovel tells us about Norwegians.  They must eat cheese.  They must like cheese to be thinly sliced. Maybe they like their cheese to be evenly spread on their bread... etc...  And all this is true... well, at this point I’ll claim my Norwegian heritage and tell you that those things are true!  I’m am a proud owner of a few cheese shovels myself.

If we look at the invention of snow, I believe we can see a glimpse of who the inventor of it is like. Kind of like how we can see who God is through Jesus. He comes to earth, naked and shameless. His potency rattles the hearts and minds of every one he comes in contact with. His relentlessness puts him on death-row. He overflows with passion and love as his fragile human life is tortured to a bloody pile, and left to die. He was vulnerable and risky;Unashamedly exposing all the emotions where it can so easily be trampled, muddied, and shoveled away, just like snow.

Truth be told, the magnificent view from your bedroom window does not last long. By the time you’re done with your breakfast coffee, plow trucks have re-exposed old mundane black strips of road so that we don’t need to miss a beat in our commute. Sidewalks are shoveled quickly to avoid legal trouble with a unsuspecting walker who might slip on a piece of ice. Before you know it its back to normal life, crowned with its own empty productiveness, marked with heavy sins and addictions.  We till the land unswervingly, and the snow doesn’t stand a chance.

The stale old piles of leftover snow is really nothing to look at.  But its a reminder that once, everything was blanketed, and nobody could do anything about it except cancel school.  So, next snow day, why not enjoy it to the fullest? Instead of complaining about its inconvenience, why not accept that His purifying work covered everything, and thank Him for the reminder? And when it comes time to shovel it away into dirty little piles, remember that our own work to clean everything up is futile. In fact, isn’t it part of what turned our savior into a ugly pile of blood?

...and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.  -Isaiah 64