Resurgence

http://theresurgence.com/

Philly

So I am sitting here in Philadelphia next to Josh while he beats away on the guitar singing Hotel California....

Just got home to Ohio on Saturday morning from Texas, it was a long trip, but it went well. I slept ninety percent of the trip while Dave drove. Just like old times.... Josh invited me to go to Philly with him to visit his sister. It's been good so far, we drove all night the night before last. By 'we' I mean Josh drove 6.5 hours and I drove 2.5 hours.

I am starting to notice a trend on all the road trips I go on with friends. 

The plan is to go up to New York City tommorrow. I'm pretty stolked about that. Good memories to be made, I have never been there before.

Day [one]

Departure time = 6am

Approximately twenty minutes later, we arrived on the San Diego beach, suited up in our work out clothes (the ones that could potentially be destroyed...), ready for monday morning pt. Dave Hasz proceed to lead us in some stretching exercises as we prepared for our three mile run in the sand. Immediately following our light jog, we locked arms for some team building, navy seal physical trainting...

As you can see, we enjoyed our first visit to the beaches of San Diego, California.

After this, we headed back to the hotel where we showered up, changed, ate lunch, and departed for our next training initiative for the day. 

Twenty mintutes later, we arrived at Cornado Island, home of the Navy Seal training facilities where a tour was arranged. We had the opportunity to listen to a lecture on leadership from a navy seal and tour the island. We got to see first hand a couple of teams that were currently going through BUD/S trainging. We also got to visit all the prime spots such as the grinder, the obstacle course and the beach famous for providing seals with the opportunity of getting "wet and sandy."

After touring the base, we headed for another touring opportunity of an aircraft carrier deployed during World War II called the Midway. 

Our day was concluded by a lesson on leadership with Dave Hasz and a catered dinner by Val and Amanda with Olive Garden. It was splendid. 

road trip...

Twenty Four hours later...we have arrived. Twelve people in a twelve passenger van. You would think that being made for twelve, it would fit twelve comfortably, but alas, it was snug ride. Good times though. There was plenty of reading, a good amount of laughs, and a lot of sleeping. We were in a desert wasteland for like fifteen of those twenty-4 hours. Kevin ate a lot of sour patch kids. Otis got mad because he couldn't fall asleep. Kathryn and Randy enjoyed the driving arrangements. The rest of us slept, ate and read quite freqently. 

Nate, Otis and I are chillin in our room at the Countryside Marriot hote. in downtown San Diego. The weather is nice and the city is beautiful! We ate some pizza, drank some coke and had a meeting with Randy O and D. Hasz. We scheduled to meet in the parking lot in the morning at 6a sharp for some "monday pt" dressed in closed that can "possibly" get destroyed. We're not sure what to think, in fact, we decided it would be better not to speculate. I have plenty of homework to do tonight before I get some shut eye, so now seems like a good time to end.

End.

ps.... videos to come

Cali Tommorrow

So I'm heading to San Diego, California tommorrow. I'm pretty stolked. Two vehicles + Fifteen People + Twenty-Point-Thirty-Seven Hours = Rockin' Time. More to come...

Catch up!

It's been a little while...let's recap the last month...

Tijuana, Mexico

Last minute decision landed me in Tijuana, Mexico with 600 and something other people on house building projects and relief ministry.

While we were there, some friends and I took a 6 hour hike to the mountains of Mexico and found ourselves a nice little swimming hole.

A week after returning from the trip, I graduated with the 2008 class from the Honor Academy. It was a splendid occasion. The jazz band and chocolate cake were amazing.

My mom was proud.

So was Taylor...

Friends

After graduation, I had three days to relax before starting my second year down the Executive Track of the HA. New year, new program, new people, new room...



Started college up with Oral Roberts University with online classes, started as an Auditorium Supervisor learning to run sound and going to training session after training session learning how to be an effective executive leader in a ministry.

Going to be quite a year, my schedule is packed.

Any phone calls are welcome to catch up; even encouraged.

camping extravaganza!

Kicking the night off, we arrive at our campsite at Tyler State Park and began unloading bags, tents, and that sort of thing. With three tents, and a few volunteers, we proceeded to establish our first camping memories of the year. As we opened the tent bags and sorted out all the materials on the ground, we quickly realized this was going to be a long night. We were missing approixmately seven poles to build the tent with. Oh, but we were determined. So the rest of the guys and I quickly concluded that we were going to be sleeping under the beautiful night sky, covered by a canopy of trees.

So we began setting these tents up to the best of our ability with what we had. One tent had was missing end supports, so the sides just kind of collapsed into the tent while the center was standing tall (interesting sight indeed...). Another tent - the only one without poles missing - had a broken zipper, so we couldn't close it. The third tent, we just decided to sleep on top of it at our campsite, with our sleeping bags. Needless to say, sleeping arrangements were fairly entertaining to watch unfold.

Since we forgot the food, and other people were bring it out later, we figured we'd go swimming in the lake right down the hill from us. Mud and moss infested - this lake had a rope swing! We spent probably a couple of hours hanging out, swinging from the rope (almost some near fatal swings), swimming around throwing moss in each others face and stuff. It was quite enjoyable.

After the lake we ended up eating some hot dogs cooked over an open fire with sticks too big to properly support them. We about lost a few (we did have one casualty). Mike and I decided to rekindle our conversation from previously in the day about the Church and Politics. That lasted for a while and at the end we concluded that everyone was right and I wrong. I tried.

We had a nice time of worshiping our Heavenly Father thanks to Salem, Vanessa and Rebecca leading us in some acoustic songs. It was a good time of reflection and admiration. I can get lost in the beauty of God's creation and music for hours, it just doesn't get old. I was thinking about some of the things that have been going through my head about the church lately. Inspired by the book of Acts, I just with the body of Christ held the same closeness as it seemed in biblical times. Part of getting to know our Creator is through his creation, and fellowshiping with one another. Real, deep, intimate fellowship. When you ask someone a question and actually care about the answer they have to give. Conversation about the beauty, mysteries and splendor of the God we have all come to spend the rest of our lives serving.

We just spent the rest of the night until about 2am just hanging out - some went to bed, others played guitar, other continued conversation. When I finally decided to retire on top of our tent that was spread out on the ground, I realized how hard the ground actually was. It was actually kind of refreshing. Just being a little uncomfortable makes you appreciate what you really have.

When we awoke in the morning, we ate some muffins for breakfast, packed up the tents and our bags, and each car just kind of left at their own time. We ended up being the last group to go. I met these guys across the way from us and gave them our last muffin. I hung out with them for a few just talking about the college they all went to. It was five aeronautical science majors and one history major. They all wanted to be some sort of pilot, and the history major wasn't quite sure. I'm not sure why anyone would get a degree in history.

Eleven thirty am rolled around and time to head out. Good times.