Colorado pics for those of you who want them

Audioblogger

iTeam

So our God is indeed an awesome God. This is a picture taken in Colorado by the way. So is the picture from the last post. I'll try to remember to include a picture every time just to show how beautiful it is in Colorado. Anyway, onto the subject at hand.

We had our first iTeam (small group) meeting tonight. It was incredible. We had like 25 people there. That's a lot especially considering 10 of them were brand new people. They're all really fun new people too and I hope to get to know all of them. They've all got great personalities and really are genuinely great people. We sort of had a fun night tonight with hanging out and just enjoying company and getting to know people. I told my testimony and it really worked well. God really blessed our evening and can I say that he is awesome in every way. He really showed me that he works in great ways. I pray that everybody there may be guided to where they belong by God. I pray that this will be a great year. I don't know what more to say that. He's gonna work in great ways and I know he will.

On a different note all together, my roomate (Andrew) just finished watching a movie called Hot Shots...and it was hilarious.

Stuff coming up

Pray for me. I've got some things that I wasn't planning on having to deal with coming up in my life right now. I know I prayed for and asked for God to surprise me this year and he's well on his way to doing so. But it's nothing to get me down, just something to use to grow in Him with.

MAJOR DEAL

Well, as some of you may know, but if I haven't explained it enough, I'm considering an major change at school. I'm on my way toward education either way and my two options are finishing my engineering and getting a master's in education or going over to education right away. I figured out that I can't go right into education today. I had a great meeting that explained a lot for me. The advisor was splendid and she really broke down what I needed to do. So I dropped one class, joined another, and I'm well on my way again. I dropped Econ 103 and picked up Psyc 100. The beauty of this is that Psyc fulfills an engineering requirement and an education requirement. Now I've just got to kick some major butt in my classes. My GPA must rise. Now that I have a solid base though, I feel like my classes will come to me easier. Thanks for the prayers, it's been great to have people and God behind me this whole time.

The final Gigantor issue

Gigantor Issue 4

House Parties

WOW...what a lazy day. I just went to class, sat there, then came back to the dorm, played some Madden, then had a sweet night of partying. Let me tell you it was great. We had music and food and karaoke. It was great. We really showed that Illini Life can have fun. I love that I was able to meet more new people too. There are lots of people on this campus :) I just hope that I have the strength to work through all of this new student stuff and focus on school somehow. Hopefully early next week I'm going to talk to an advisor and get stuff taken care of with school. That'll be great to get taken care of. I'm just so stoked by God right now. He's fueling a fire inside me that is burning brightly. Now I'm sure at some point it's going to be tough to keep that fire to even embers, but right now I'm enjoying this. I really hope the new people keep coming because they are really wonderful and unique and I'd love to get to know each of them really well. I'm also excited about the rest of the year as well. Spence and I have been talking about some sweet stuff we could organize like guys nights and fun things like paintball, etc. What else is going through my head. To be honest, I was walking into my dorm thinking about how much I had on my mind and now nothing is coming to my head other than the greatness of God. I guess that's a pretty okay thing to have running through my mind though.

OH...please pray for my friend. He is in a very dark time of his soul and I ask that you may really help him through with your thoughts and concerns for him. I love him to death and hope God guides him through.

Right now I'm listening to Chris Tomlin, it's nearly three in the morning and I'm loving it. God is so great, I don't even know how much I could say that. Although, it's pretty sad, I've yet to find a place to spend quiet time with him. I also haven't read much in my Bible recently at all. I really need to get back into that, because if I see God working like he is without my quiet time with him, imagine how much he can do if I work him into my life in special places. I guess writing on here is somewhat of a quiet time meditation. It is three o'clock and quiet and I'm just soaking in God. Praise his name. Silly me going on...I dunno, I love this though!!!!!!!!

Fall Rally

Well, Illini Life (my campus church if I haven't said so) had our fall rally tonight and it was incredible. I'm really excited about the new students we have and the contributions they could offer to the church. They're great people. And it's great to see people after being gone from them over the course of the summer. I can't wait to talk about it more as the time goes on.

On a just as cool note, I got my computer back today and it's just as good as ever. I love it. On a sadder note, my iPod isn't working and I'm starting to get frustrated. Well, that's what I'm up to. I hope to keep you up to date...Laters.

Gigantor Issue 3

I'm here

Well, I'm moved into my fancy campus now for a couple of days. It's great. I'm seeing people I haven't in some time, I'm enjoying experiences I haven't in a long time either. But to be honest, I'm kind of scared. The community I had at LT in Colorado over the summer was probably the best I've ever had. So to come here back to my i-Team, or small group, is kind of weird. It's not bad though...it's just different. I'm excited. Tomorrow is Quad Day, when every student organization that's worth mentioning gets together to show what they're made of for new students and everybody else even. So I get to work the Illini Life booth, which, if I haven't mentioned it, is my church here on campus. I'm excited and nervous. I can't wait to see what big things God has planned. I'm gonna get to follow up with some people and get to know them and really form some relationships that I hope will last. It's not going to be about me. It's going to be about God and sharing his love with them. I'm stoked about that. On a school note, I'm looking into how I can end up teaching math. I think I'm getting closer after looking at some of the stuff on the websites and hopefully soon talking to an advisor. I'll definately keep you updated.

I also got to hang out with some cool Illini Life people last night. These are people I barely knew existed, but I have a feeling this year will be very important to my life on campus. They're great people and they're a huge group of sophomores, just like me. That's what I need is a community that is the same age as me. Last year was great, but I had a lot of senior friends who are all gone now. So, I guess God is really blessing my situation and filling in those holes rapidly. I just hope he doesn't fill them too much that I don't have space for all the freshman coming in...he'll work his ways though.

He will be strong...

Thursday=good day

I had a sweet day on Thursday. Got to visit with a friend from high school just about our summers and our coming school years. It was really a blessed time. Then I got to lift with another friend from high school and we talked and just caught up. THEN...I got to talk to another really good friend of mine. Thursday was a great day to catch up with people that I really care about.

Moving in etc.

Well, the school year is upon us and I have little time for turnaround from my summer. In fact, last night I moved most of my stuff into my dorm room. It's sweet. We've got like a living room setup and we've got all our video games etc ready to be played very often. I'm also excited to be playing quite a bit of basketball this year. I also plan on getting into a routine of lifting three times a week. Gotta keep the physique :). Enough of that though. I'm definately excited for my roomate this year. He's a great guy I've known for many years and I'm excited to really get to know him more this year.

Another thought as I jump around sporadically; I know about nobody reads this as of now because I just started it and not many people are too concerned with my life. But for those of you who have checked it...if any, keep a friend of mine in your thoughts. She's having a hard time with stuff and I pray for her that she has the strength to work out what needs to be worked out for her. Just keep her in your thoughts and prayers too.

Oh, there's also some disease going around. If you get it, let me know who you got it from and we'll see if we can trace it back to Colorado LT. Peace

ps. no Gigantor for a while. Issue three must wait as my computer is being worked on so I'm on somebody else's for now.

ISSUE 2

issue 1.2

the rest of issue 1

Gigantor Issue 1.1

I saw this on my family's computers forgot that I made it. It's a comic book I made in high school. Then I scanned it onto the computer so it'd be saved for a long time Here's a look at the genius... issue 1

Check this out

Cold Steel CoLT

This is Cold Steel, my project group at LT. We are a sweet bunch of folks, let me tell you that much. Everybody is very unique just like the people I work with. We were called Cold Steel, because we were named after a knife company. How cool is that? Now, you might not know what a project is, so I'll tell you. We're a group of Leadership Training people at the YMCA of the Rockies who happen to have the same day of the week off each week, so we get together to study our faith and really see God cat through eachother. From the left the people are...Julie, Megan, Amy, Johan, Sydney, Jeff R., Lori, me, Colton, Ross, Carl, & Spence. Not in the picture are Bill, Lezlie, & Smitty plus assorted others who hung out with us. We did lots of amazing things together to the point of really becoming a family. We worked for a marathon, helped a family move, worshipped the Lord together, supported eachother, opened our hearts to one another, went camping, went to the rodeo & many more things. I love these people and would lay a lot on the line for them.

CoLT review one

Well, I'm gonna start to break down my summmer & give you some great stories from time to time. I left for the great state of Colorado late in the month of May. I honestly was pretty scared to go. Saying goodbye to my best of friends that I've known for years, if only for a summer, was hard. But as I got into the car to head out my apprehensiveness turned to excitement. The ride out to Colorado was great. The people I rode with were hilarious and really got me prepared for a spectacular summer. We rode & rode & rode, stayed the night in Nebraska, then rode some more. When we got to Loveland, CO, things got really exciting. We drove through the Big Thompson canyon. It was spectacular & really whet my appetite for the mountains to come. When we got to the YMCA of the Rockies to the south you could see Long's Peak towering over the park, to the east is a range of mountains with ridiculously expensive houses lining it's slopes, to the west is Bible Point, a small short hike that offers an exciting view of the national park, and , I was definately taken aback by the beauty surrounding me everywhere. Lookininally to the north is the mountain lion laden Eagle Cliff & a few peaks of the Mummy Range.

I showed up to training for work the first full day there. It was definately interesting. There I was in a small room with 70 some new people that I've never met before. There were some very special and crazy people there. We got to learn some songs that I thought were ridiculous, but by the end of the summer I was loving them. We continued training for the first week & I got myself certified for CPR & Basic Wilderness First Aid. During that week I really got to start to know my co-workers. Norm was the senior citizen who came to the Y after retirement because he loved to work with children. Ross Ferraro was the other guy who I worked with who was in my age group. Kristen was the quiet girl who slowly blossomed into a loud exciting person by the end of the year. Lezlie was the girl from Texas who didn't get excited when any reference to the state was made. Julie was the Wisconsin girl who pronounced things like bag as "tage." Jenna was the girl from North Dakota with crazy pep and excitement for the coming year. Jackie was the crazy girl from Ohio who'd spent some time from every summer of her life for 14 some years at the YMCA. We were a ragtag group that meshed better than you could ever imagine.

Now, my computer decided to be dumb and shut down my web browser, so I'm sorry to say this, but I definately had more written, but what I have so far is all it recovered. So I suppose I'll finish some more later.

this is me, Cobi, & Ross @ the staff variety show at the YMCA of the Rockies

Back Home

Well, as I start my time of blogging, I guess I'll tell you a bit about myself. I just got done with Colorado LT, which was the most amazing summer of my life. That picture is some friends & me on top of Long's Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. LT was amazing. God really worked in my life in many ways. I can't wait to reflect on all of it for you guys...

First post

everybody else is doing this, why not me