Greetings!  Yes, I realize that it has been a while since I wrote anything but that is because I have thankfully been very very busy.  During the first two weeks of the year I went through a very interesting time.  Five days before school was supposed to start I was 100% convinced that I was not going to be a student this semester.  I felt this way because, well, I felt I had been screwed over by the department and the university.  The next day, four days before class began, I get an email from the department academic advisor asking to see me.  Lo and behold I had received academic hours to cover my tuition costs.  I was a STUDENT once again!  The next day I interviewed for a graduate research assistantship (GRA) position.  The Tuesday after school began I accepted the position.  So within the course of a week I went from being an unemployed former student to a currently enrolled and funded student.

So since then I have been a busy little bee.  Between school, slowly starting research, college ministry stuff, and a few photo gigs and meetings… there has not been a lot of time for writing on here.  Luckily, I have been taking some time off.  The last three weeks I have been skiing every Wednesday night at Wisp, a local ski resort.  That is where I took the picture above.

So, in summary – 2010 is still just a baby but so far this year is going much better than last year.  Hope your new year is going well too!

Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!

As many of you may or may not know, I volunteer with an organization called Nuru International.  This non-government organization non-profit is about bringing an end to extreme poverty in the world one community at a time through the empowerment of the people where extreme poverty is defined as living on less than a dollar a day.  Now, those are lots of fancy words and phrases, so what does this actually mean and why in the world would I even think about being a part of something like this?

I am a person that believes that everything is intertwined in an extremely complex patter that we simply call life and that what may look like a simple straight path (either physically or usually in my case mentally or logically) for one person is not the same straight line for another.  Therefore, in order to understand my answers to the questions above, I have to tell you a greatly condensed story first (for full story just ask me).  Basically, all of that is saying that the rabbit trail I am on actually tangents back into why I am involved with Nuru.

Several years ago I was at a concert and during one of the intermissions they were showing a video for one of the sponsor-a-kid groups.  During the video they showed a scene of kids pumping water from a well.  What I saw was the sparkling clear water from the pump first, then that faded out to the rest of the pump, which then faded out to show the kids jumping up and down to pump the water.  Basically, in that moment it dawned on me how lucky I am to be able to go to nearly any faucet and be able to drink the water that comes out of it.  I mean think about it, while everyone is so uppity about how bottled water is better than tap water, we are EXTREMELY lucky to just have TAP WATER.  Basically, that is when I knew I had to do something, somehow, to help fix this problem, to help bring water to those who don’t have it.

So what in the world does this little insight have to do with Nuru?  Nuru has five core areas of focus: agriculture, water and sanitation, healthcare, community economic development, and education.  These are broad but interlocked areas of a community.  Think about where you live.  I am sure there are schools there (education), some type of hospital or clinic (healthcare), tap water somewhere close by – probably within a hundred feet or so – and a bathroom with a device to flush away your wastes (water and sanitation), a supermarket or grocery store (agriculture), and some type of business (community economic development).  All of these are inter-related and key aspects to the community.  Furthermore, Nuru is not about just giving anything out or going in with preconceived notions of what is right or wrong. Instead, Nuru is about listening to the community and coming up with a plan of attack with the leaders so that they can take ownership of what they are doing.  In this way a dependency is not created and the community actually does bring itself out extreme poverty.

So, if you haven’t watched the videos yet, I highly recommend you do.  I am Nuru, so why aren’t you?

Until next time, Ciao! Ciao!

“Dance, then, wherever you may be
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he
And I’ll lead you all wherever you may be
And I’ll lead you all in the dance, said he”

Sorry, no video this time around but if you click the play button above you will be treated to a very unique version of Lord of the Dance by Captain Tractor.  They are a unique Canadian band that I recently discovered and the CD that this song is off of is actually pretty good.  This song was not originally composed by them but was written in the 1950’s or 60’s and sung to an older tune.  It basically sums up Jesus’s life on earth from his point of view.  This song does not describe my life at the moment – a clamoring of anything together with the hope of rhythm and a few shinning moments of harmony and clarity would be a more accurate musical representation, but you can’t help but dance along to this rendition to the Lord of all dancing.

So I realized that it has been over a month since the last update – which means that I am on my usual par of writing.  Let me tell you, it has been so long mostly because everything else has been pretty busy.

There is the school work going on (and luckily midterms are now over), Nuru Student Org and Grassroots work, 17three activities, and a slew of other activities that have been keeping me rather busy.  Most everything everywhere is going well minus a few bumps along the way.  I will say that this past Friday, the 23rd, was an interesting day.  I had the lowest valley of at least the last three months and the highest peak in who knows how long, all in the span of 24 short hours.  The sucky part is now I am going to have to do a lot, and I mean a lot, of work to make and implement a workable solution to what brought about the low gorge.  At the same time, with a little hope and luck, maybe what brought about the high apogee will start to happen with an increased frequency.  It amazes me what God does in and through others regardless of the situations.  I have always known that I need to be conscience of His presence in every situation and I try to be – I just need to work on the reception sometimes.

Ooo.. and other random news: I am going to attempt to build a new rocket designed around breaking the sound barrier.  The name is still to be determined but it is going to be powered by the two highest powered G motors I can get a hold of – as well as learning how to cluster start motors, be as of minimal of diameter as possible, and will probably require me to learn how to fiberglass.  It is going to be interesting to say the least!

So, until next time – be it tomorrow or a month from now, Ciao! Ciao!