I have been gaining a new perspective on life recently. It all started when Ryan when on a mission trip to Kenya to blog about his experience. Here is his talk synced up with the pictures he took on the trip. Its about 45 minutes but its well worth it, especially to hear Eliud’s story near the end of the talk. So grab some tea…coffee or whatever you drink and enjoy!
I am going on my first mission trip out of the country to Honduras and here is a list of things I hope to accomplish on the trip.
Continue gaining a new perspective on life.
We are hiking into the jungle (about a six hour hike..give or take). I hope I finish!
I am leaving my safe place to go to place that is not comfortable. I am beginning to step out of my comfort zones in different areas of my life. I am learning to be less selfish with my time and enjoy life as it comes.
Get to know the people I will be traveling with.
Working on my relationship with God under different circumstances.
Well that is all for now… I plan on posting a new blog post everyday until I leave.
I wrote a book review on this for my survey of world views class. If you have not read this book go get it and read it… It will be tough to get through at times but it is well worth it.
Night chronicles the life of Elie Wiesel as he was persecuted as a Jew during the time of the Jewish Concentration camps. Unbelievable events lead Wiesel on an incredible journey testing his endurance, faith, and love for God. The worldview of naturalism was evident among his captors, which causes Wiesel to think those thoughts.
The story begins with a young Elie training in the Jewish customs of the day. The Germans established a presence among the Jewish communities and over time began the oppression of the Jewish people. The German troops began to relocate the Jewish people in communities called ghettos. It was not until the eight days of Passover that the “race towards death had begun.” The German’s first rule was that people were not allowed to leave their homes for three days and if broken was punishable by death. The troops wanted to establish control early so they began to confiscate valuables.
Elie and his family were transported to the second ghetto, the last stop before being transported to the concentration camps. The day arrived for Elie and his family to leave. They were instructed to head to the synagogue which acted like a train station. Eighty Jews were escorted in cattle cars, which would deliver them to the camps. They spent two days travelling, not able to lie down and in the stifling heat. The trip in itself was bad enough, but then Mrs. Schachter began to lose her mind. She was having visions of a fire off in the night sky. This went on for hours until she was beat and gagged to keep her quiet. A few hours later, they saw the flames rising in the sky that Mrs. Schachter envisioned. The smell of burning flesh was in the air as they left the car leaving their belongings behind.
In Birkenau they were sorted according to gender: “Men to the left! Women to the right!” This is the last time Eli saw his mother and sister. Elie and his father remained together, were told what ages they were and instructed to walk towards the crematorium. Two steps away from certain death; they were instructed to turn left to the barracks. The grueling process of sorting continued. They were shaved, beaten, disinfected, and prison garb were thrown at them.
Elie and his father were transferred to many camps throughout their journey. The camps were similar in operation. Elie witnessed his father being beaten many times but felt no emotion. January 28, 1945, Elie spent his last night with his father, but he could not find the tears to cry. Elie was relieved to be free of the burden his father had become. In April of that year, the detainees received word that they were going to be set free. On April 10, Elie was a free man.
The worldview of naturalism was evident among Elie’s captors. The guards had no respect for humanity. They threatened the Jews with death and suffering. The German’s who were capable of this violence had no place for God in their hearts.
One act of inhumanity towards the Jews was sealing them in a cattle car. The Germans wanted to strip everything away from the Jews. Families were torn apart and dignity was not left for anyone. One officer said, “If anyone goes missing, you will all be shot like dogs.” The Jews were reduced to animals.
The Germans succeeded in making the Jews feel unwanted, unloved, not deserving of God. Elie said, “ We were incapable of thinking. Our senses were numbed, everything was fading into a fog. We no longer clung to anything. The instincts of self-preservation, of self-defense, of pride had all deserted us. In one terrifying moment of lucidity, I thought of us as damned souls wandering through the void, souls condemned to wander through space until end of time, seeking redemption, seeking oblivion, without any hope of finding either.” A man who believes in God would not say these things under normal conditions.
The worse act of inhumanity by the German’s was the hanging of a child while everyone was forced to watch. This forced people to ask, “Where is God?” These acts that were facilitated by humans were forcing people to question their belief in God. Elie questioned God himself, “Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Because he caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves?” The violent acts committed by a human that Elie witnessed caused him to think these thoughts.
As Elie was having a conversation about his father to his commander, the commander told him that it is every man for himself; and in this place there is no such thing as a father, son, or friend. He said, “Each of us lives and dies alone.” He also told him to stop helping his father by feeding him. These comments made by the commander were void of God and with no concern for humanity. A Christian does not live alone and die alone. The commander does not see value in a relationship with God and helping humanity.
Elie’s journey diminished his faith as his soul and self diminished from the oppression of the Germans through their violence and lack of decency for humanity.
The following is copied from the official website.
From Grassroots Films of Brooklyn, New York comes THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE – the story of a band of brothers who travel the world in search of the answers to the burning questions: Who am I? Who is Man? Why do we search for meaning? Their journey brings them into the middle of the lives of the homeless on the streets of New York City, the orphans and disabled children of Peru, and the abandoned lepers in the forests of Ghana, Africa. What the young men discover changes them forever. Through one on one interviews and real life encounters, the brothers are awakened to the beauty of the human person and the resilience of the human spirit.
What does it mean to live life to the fullest? This is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately. Often we think of living life to the fullest means being able to buy whatever and whenever we want. What if living life to fullest means giving up some of those possessions to help sponsor a child in another country. What if it means giving up a week of vacation to go on a mission trip.
I will admit I am skeptical of some of these programs. Ryan and Allison are over in Kenya on a mission trip with Compassion International, and after reading his blog posts with his honest look at the company and the impact they are making in kids lives, I am sold on wanting to sponsor a child.
So follow Ryan @ thisisreverb for a honest and touching look at their time spent in Kenya. My friend Kelly (who by the way is an awesome photographer, check her stuff out @ daphnephotostudio.com) posted a similar post earlier about these same feelings. Read her post titled, feeling guilty for having a good life. A lot of the same emotions she is feeling is also what I am feeling at this point in my life.
I am blessed to have great friends and I love it when I can relate to my friends because of the emotions they feel about a certain topic. I know this is what life is about… living life with each other and sharing awesome experiences with each other.
Well the basement is finally complete minus some few touch ups here and there. I have yet to move over there but after the baseboards are painted I will begin to migrate over!
First off let me give you a disclaimer about this story. I am not writing this story to say “hey look what I did.” It is about people coming together and lending someone in need of a helping hand.
Its Friday, and I was driving home from UPS at 2 am. It was snowing and the roads were getting bad in spots. I was on Ronald Reagan Highway when I noticed a car had slid off into a ditch on the right side of the road. I felt a urge that I should turn around and see if this person, this stranger was o.k. By the time it took me to slow down and turn around a middle aged woman had stopped as well. The girl was fine just a little shocked and scared. This woman and I began to push her out of the ditch and moved her about ten feet but the car was stuck again and we could not move it any farther. By this time another man and a woman stopped and we began the process all over again. That is all it took, four strangers coming together to help and we got her car out of the ditch (during this whole time I was praying but I did not even realize it, it was natural, I was asking God for help to get this car out, and He delivered).
I am amazed at human beings right now and their ability to come together and help someone in need. I am amazed at how God works in peoples lives. I laughed cause this one lady said, “this is some real good Samaritan shit.” The same lady also asked, “is she your family?” Everyone replied no. Her response was awesome, “Well we are family now!” I am not going to lie it felt good to help, but that is not why I did it. I did not do it to make myself feel good about something I did. I did it because that is what humans should do. Help each other when we are in need. It seemed like all it took was for one person to take the initiative and more people were willing to help.
This girl was crying and obviously besides herself. This girl, a stranger to us and a stranger to this city. She had just moved here three days ago and did not know anyone. Turns out two of the ladies lived where she lived! How amazing is God and how He plans stuff out. God you are cool in my book. So we escorted her back since we were going to the Colerain exit. It was a caravan and she was in the middle protected by everyone driving with her to make sure she arrived home.
Taking initiative is a huge step but can bring about some awesome results. It can be scary at times to make the first move. You will get dirty when helping people. I was covered in mud from head to toe. But I was fine with that. After all Jesus got real dirty for me and took on all my sin so I could live a life worth living. The one commandment in the Bible that Jesus was concerned with the most was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27).
Oh yeah I almost forgot to mention this girl’s name was Charity!
Here is some video I took on my iphone of the caravan approaching the Colerain Exit.
I am happy to announce I received my new battery charger (I lost the old one) for my camera so I will be back to posting more pictures.
I found this snack food that seems to be a healthy alternative to chips etc. Put it in some yogurt and I am positive you will love it. The packaging claims there is no artificial flavors, no preservatives, no synthetic additives and no high fructose corn syrup. Head on over to yogiproducts.com to check them out. As a person who loves tea I am excited that they have tea and I will make sure to report back on how it ranks.
Its Sunday night and I am preparing to go to Honduras with Vineyard Westside and something happened that I was not expecting. It was a God thing probably and I am not so sure what it meant. I was preparing my passport papers and I came across the line where I had to fill in information about my parents. When I got to the line that asked about my Dad I filled in the information and continued with the rest of the document. I began to think of my Dad and pulled a file labeled Dad (yes everything about my Dad resides in a file). If you don’t know my Father passed away in September of 2003. I stumbled across this note written to me in 1994…
Then it happened…the flood gates opened up. I lost it. I cried and I cried some more. I bawled like a baby. I miss my Dad. I am angry that you are not here to share life with me. I am angry that you will not see me graduate from college (I will be the first Hughes male to do so). I am angry that will you not see me get married and be a grandpa to my kids. I am angry I can’t play golf with you anymore. I am angry at myself for not playing golf with you as much as I could when you were here. I know its not your fault but I am still angry. I thought I had these things called emotions under control. I am writing this through the tears.
Then it dawned on me… I am not in control, God is. God knows my emotions and he knew I needed to cry for whatever reason. God is teaching and loving me a lot lately. Not that His love was not always there, its that my heart was not open to receive it.
Despite all these angry feelings I am happy that my Dad is with God and Jesus. I hope he is giving Jesus a run for his money in a round of golf (I don’t even know if there are golf courses in heaven, but if there is my Dad is playing). I know this is probably not biblical but I don’t care.
I am happy God is urging me to go on a Honduras trip at the end of April. I am scared and excited all at once. I am trusting God to help me raise the money and keep us all safe.
I am happy I am part of a Church with genuine people who want to live life to the fullest. I am happy I will get to know more of them on this trip to Honduras.
Wow… I just gave all the people who read this blog a glimpse into my life that I am not comfortable sharing. This was not a post to gain pity from anyone. I have kept my feelings bottled up inside for a long time and I needed to confess them.
I leave you with this journal entry I wrote shortly after my Dad had passed:
The phone call still rings in my ears. It probably always will. Before we left the hospital they said, “no news is good news”. Then the call came around 5:00 in the morning. I knew before I even picked it up that my dad was not going to make it. I don’t know how I stayed strong. Between my mom’s cries and words I could not understand because she was so shaken by the news. The streets were lonely much like my life was going to be without my dad. I felt like I was in a dream world. The lonely empty streets beckoning me to go farther to hear news I did not want to hear.
We arrived at the hospital that was also empty besides the people working on my dad. We walked down the hallway and I heard them working on my dad. The machines were going crazy and the nurses were running back and forth. The surgeon at this point was pumping my dad’s heart with his hand. I had to pull my mom back from seeing my dad. This day I will never forget. It will be etched in memory as one of the worst days I had to experience.
Amongst all of this I wonder how I stayed so strong. Of course I cried and shed my fare amount of tears. But I had to ask my self am I normal cause I don’t feel anything about what happened? I did not cry all day at the funeral home. I guess I was at a peace. A peace only God can bring. I knew my dad was alive today as he’s ever been. He is where we all as Christians wish to be. His life on earth has ended but his life continues on in a much better place. This is my desire to be where he is. Not only to see my dad again but to be with God and Jesus.
These are the 10 things I would like to accomplish in 2010. I put some thought into this list on goals that are actually attainable so hopefully I will make good on my promise to myself.
1. Reach my target weight of 180 and switch to an all organic eating lifestyle. I wasn’t sold on this until I watched this documentary –> Food Inc.
This is a short excerpt from the movie. I recommend renting this it might change the way you eat forever.
2. Go Green!
Living a better life is not just what we eat but how we live and treat the environment we live in. Here are some of the projects taken from this article that I would like to pursue this year.
Build a clothes line. The dryer is one of the most energy guzzling appliances we use, so I plan to air out my laundry staring in the spring/summer.
Insulate hot-water pipes/hot-water heater.
Install a programmable thermostat – I can check this one off the list!
Build a small garden
Build a compost pile/worm bin- Worms eat your garbage… and leave you with rich healthy soil.
Make a rain barrel collection system like the one below.
If your not into diy projects check out the many rain barrels collection systems at rain-barrel.com. That should keep me busy for awhile… and even if I complete one of these it is still a step in the right direction.
3. Spend more time with God. I fail miserably at this. Its amazing when I devote time to God how everything else falls into place, yet I don’t seem to devote time to God knowing that it will make my life easier (sometimes).
4. Complete at least 3 computer certifications. I want to start with my CompTIA A+, CompTIA Networking, and finish with CompTIA Security.
What is A+ Certification?
The A+ certification is vendor-neutral and consists of two exams. To pass, you must demonstrate knowledge of installing, configuring, upgrading, troubleshooting and repairing desktop systems. Updated in 2006 is the ability to choose the second exam from a list of three specialist exams that highlight one of the following roles: IT Technician, Depot Technician, or Help Desk Technician.
5. Take steps to become debt free. It is not possible for me to become debt free in 2010 but I want to take steps in doing so.
refrain from using credit cards. I can’t tell you how many times I have fallen into this bad habit. I am ashamed actually of how debt I have accrued because of the ease of obtaining a credit card.
give money to the church. I have always struggled in this area. I want to give but to be honest I am selfish, which leads to number six.
6. Be less selfish and become more involved with church. One reason I have a difficult time giving money (besides the selfish thing) to church is I don’t attend enough. If I become involved it would be easier for me to give.
7. Be more open-minded about making new friends, life, love, women, God and church.
8. Read more books.
9. Buy a kegerator and drink lots of beer from it. 10. Spend less time wasting time. Facebook your a big time waster and I hate you but I find myself spending countless hours reading other people’s status updates that I don’t care about.
10. Spend less time wasting time. Facebook your a big time waster and I hate you but I find myself spending countless hours reading other people’s status updates that I don’t care about.