My stress level rose. It seemed like nothing was going right. Everything was piling on top of me. I had thirty things to do and no time to do it. I was swamped. I NEEDED to do something and I had no idea when I was going to do it. It had to be done that day! I had put it off way too long. I prayed to God, "God! Please help me! I need your help!" It seemed as though He already knew what ways going to happen, maybe because He did! My friend walked up to me and said, "I am hungry go get me some food." Now as soon as she said that I knew God had answered my prayer. See I was planning on asking her to the banquet and I had made her a ice cream cake. Now since it was ice cream I couldn't just let it sit out and I had no place to keep it cool. So the ice cream cake was sitting in my freezer at home. So since my friend had just told me she was hungry and I had asked God to help me because I didn't know how or when I was going to ask her, it all fit together. God had worked it all out. The stress went down and doors opened.

Having a God-centered life is very important for Life As We Know It. Without putting God in the center of your life things will be a very long and bumpy for you. But putting God in the middle and giving all your stress and problems to Him will make the road nice quick and smooth.

So how does one go about putting God in the center of all?

That is an excellent question. In the past four months I have gotten so close to God. I have been closer to Him then I have ever been before. And to tell you the truth I have no idea how I got there. But here are a few things that will help you get there.

First I think we need to accept that God is there. We need to realize that He cares for us. That He wants the best for us and watches out for us. Next we need to spend time with Him. Talk to Him. Read to Him out of His Word. Go on walks with Him. Bike with Him. Listen to music with Him about Him. Third, we need to start devoting ourselves to Him. Ask to guide a certain situation. Give it all to Him and watch Him work. As you continue to see His work and entrust more and more, bigger and bigger things with Him. Ask Him to lead your life every morning when you wake up giving up all your troubles to Him. Lastly, start being an example of Him. Shine His glory through yourself to others. Ask God to help you with this. Walk in Jesus' foot steps throughout the day. When something is not going as planned or wanted pray right there. Ask God for wisdom and guidance in the matter.

I believe this is how I have become so connected with God.

In 1 John 5:14,15 it says, "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him."

When I wake up in the morning and get in the shower and while I am in the shower what a better time then to talk to and with God. Right then and there in the shower I thank God for another day of life. I thank Him for the good nights sleep. I ask Him for wisdom throughout the day. I ask Him to guide my day and to help me walk in His foot steps. I ask that He will help me shine His glory in everything I do. That I may be a beacon of light for others. That other may see Him through me.

It is simple. Effective. And it takes no time out of your day. What else would you be doing in the shower? Singing a song? Why not do that as well?

Recently I have been in awe of the song "Hosanna" performed by "Starfield" the lyrics are so powerful and are like a prayer.

"I see the king of glory
Coming down the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes
I see his love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing, the people sing

Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation
Rising up to take the place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a new revival
Staring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees, we're on our knees

Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart for what is yours
Everything I am for your kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest"

Another awesome so that has really gotten to me is Fernando Ortega's "Light of Heaven."

"The sky is raining tears tonight
My brother
You know it's hard to sleep
So far from home
The moon has covered up her eyes
My sister
I thought I'd find you here
But I am all alone
All alone

Light of Heaven
Lord of mercy
Shine the goodness
Of your love upon this day
Till we see you
Till we know you
Till the sorrow
And the darkness fade away
Fade away

I searched the city streets today
My father
The tunnel and the train
The river and the rain
I walked beneath the harbor lights
My mother
And in the shadows there
I call your name
I call your name

Light of Heaven
Lord of mercy
Shine the goodness
Of your love upon this day
Till we see you
Till we know you
Till the sorrow
And the darkness fade away
Fade away"

Most of the world today don't really think about God and especially putting Him in the center of all and the basis of all things. But what they don't know and understand is that by putting in the center of a relationship, work, school, or family can and WILL change Life As We Know It.

--AW

I just got back from biking 4 miles. Now biking 4 miles may sound like a lot to you but I bike a lot and I usually bike over 10 miles each time I go out. But today was different. Those 4 miles have been the toughest 4 miles I have ever biked in my life. Why you may ask? Because first off it was pouring down rain and cold. But more then that I was physically, mentally, and emotionally drained. I was dehydrated and had a lack of nutrition. Why was I physically, mentally, and emotionally drained? Because of a previous 5+ hours I spent thinking and talking deeply about, of all things, relationships.

Relationships can and more then likely will be draining, not to mention TIME consuming. There is always something in the relationship that will drain you. UNLESS....you are complete.

What do I mean by complete? We need to complete ourselves beforehand. We need someone who brings out the best in us. Not someone that completes us. We need to be complete by ourselves so when that person comes along they bring out the best in us and us in them. This makes us, the couple, even more connected and one together.

I realize that there are certain aspects that you can not complete yourself, like a physical touch that lets you know they care, but that is not what I am talking about here. I am talking about being together not only with yourself and having you life in order but being together with God. By being complete with God that leaves even more room for being complete with yourself and thus bring out the best in the other person.

Before we even start a relationship there are some really tough and excellent questions that we need to ask ourselves.

Who am I?
What do I want?
Where do I want my life to be in 5 years?
What type of person would I want to share my life with?
What are my strengths?
What are my weakness?
What are the things that I will not tolerate in a relationship?

Write these answers down so you can look back on them.

Joseph Rudyard Kipling, an English author and poet who wrote The Jungle Book, said, "I keep six honest serving men (They taught me all I know): Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who."

Ask yourself questions before you starting a relationship. Ask the other person questions. And most importantly ask God what He wants. Both of you together ask and pray to God for His guidance. Make it a habit to come to Him first in all things. Before having a serious talk with the other person, both of you come to the Lord in prayer. It is the best and healthiest thing to do.

I am remind of what Jesus says to us in Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them."

Come TOGETHER with your problems or with the start of a relationship. Give it to God and He will be with you and guide you.

Remember that if  things don't work out between you and another person, maybe it wasn't what God wanted.

Addison Mizner, an famous architect, said, "God give us relatives; thank God we can choose our friends."

That is so true. If things are not working out between you and another person. You don't HAVE TO be tied to them. Like I said, maybe it wasn't what God had intended for both of you. But in saying that don't automatically jump to that conclusion. Go to Him in prayer with it.

And if in the end things do not work out, don't pity yourself. It is not only not health to you, but also it brings down your friends around you. They don't want to be around someone that brings them down and walks around in his or her own self pity.

It is very interesting how the world now sees relationships. It views it as a one night stand. It views it as getting all you can or want from the relationship then cutting it off at the throat. But I challenge you to not just take and take from a relationship or give and give for that matter. No, find a balance. Talk it out. Put God first. And the rest of the relationship puzzle will fit right into place and Life As We Know It will be totally different.

--AW

Lately I have been doing a lot of thinking about different things. Today I spent 5+ hours talking and thinking deeply.

I have been confronted with many different challenging topics and I plan to write about them. This is part one of, at least, a three part series called, "Life As We Know It." I am going to talk about things like racism, relationships, and a God-Centered Life.

I hope that you might gain a blessing from these topics. Also it is my goal that you will walk not only knowing more about me but also know more about God and Life As We Know It.

--------------------

My left arm and shoulder twitched. I couldn't control it. The shocking sensation volted through my neck and shoulder. The pain bit, not to mention that my arm and neck was ice cold. I was laying down, face forward, not moving. I heard a voice in the background. He was talking about how his wife was in a car accident. I was intrigued. So I strained to listen.

The wife was driving and passed this male in a legal passing zone. Evidently the male did not like this and so a little while later he passed her, in a illegal passing zone. Short after that another lady passed the both of them up, in a legal passing zone. As the lady was passing them the male slammed on his brakes making the wife collide with the back end of his car. The lady passing saw this and so she turned around to let the police know what truly happened.

The male got out of his car and started yelling at the wife calling her a "wetback" and many other names that do not need repeating. The fact of the matter was she was not from Mexico she was from somewhere else in Central America and was a United States citizen. The police gave the male a ticket but the he did not give his insurance information to the wife.

As I listen to this man in the background tell this story he said that it had been over a year and they still hadn't gotten insurance money. But he said that it wasn't the money that he wanted as much as this male to learn his lesson. He wanted that male to understand that what he did was rude and wrong. That not only was it wrong and rude driving but wrong and rude to treat another human that way, regardless of race.

Why do we treat other people, not of our race, differently? Are we jealous of what we have or don't have? Why do we tend to call all Hispanics Mexicans? Why do we make fun of Black people and make black jokes? Are we so different from them that must mock them?

The last time I check I was white, but I was also human. Again the last time I check, a black is human and same for every other race on this planet. So why do we lower ourselves and mock them? Is it because Life As We Know It always has mistreated people of different races? If so why not change Life As We Know It?

1 John 3:1 says, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him."

We are all children of God regardless of race or ethnicity. He created all of us and wants us to live in harmony together with Him.

In the opening sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence it says, "...all men are created equal..." So if all men are created equal why are we treating them differently and wrongly? Just because they have a different skin tone then us and a different accent then us is no reason to treat them differently.

Recently we had someone over for lunch on Sabbath. He was African-American as well as a Adventist minister. It was very interesting how he opened up. Someone asked him about the different Black Adventist Conferences in the South. He preceded to explain how and why they came about. Giving the whole history. Then he went into his own personal history and struggles with racism. He began to tell about different family members who were killed because they were black. He told how his uncle was out sailing and fell over board and another person with him called the Coast Guard who said, "It's just a Niger." That uncle drowned. He told how for years and years he hated every white person because of what they did to his family. But finally, by God's grace, he came to forgive them.

In telling this he said that one evening he was with several other ministers. The wives were in the kitchen and the men were in the living room. The topic arose about racism and one elderly minister said, "You see how the women are in there and us men are in here? We are separated. But when it is time to go home we all go home together."

That is so true. We may be a different race than someone else. We may be separated by a different culture. But when it is time to go Home to Heaven, we all go together.

Don't get caught up in this world with the things of racism and mocking others of different race. Turn the other cheek and treat them with respect and kindness and you can change Life As We Know It.

--AW

P.S. The opening story about me laying down and in pain is true. Although I was getting a massage. lol. I had to get you interested.

George Bernard Shaw:

    A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.


Havelock Ellis:

    It is on our failures that we base a new and different and better success.


It's a Wonderful Life:

    Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.


Jessamyn West:

    It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.


John Dewey:

    Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures as from his successes.


Lloyd Jones:

    Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try nothing and succeed.


Paulo Coelho:

    But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for.


Samuel Smiles:

    It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.


Samuel Smiles :

    We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.


Theodore Roosevelt:

    It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.


Thomas Alva Edison:

    I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.


William Saroyan:

    Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.


Winston Churchill:

    Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

So camp was pretty much amazing. I wish I was still at it. I am kind of upset that I had to leave early.

I am looking forward to next year already. I can't wait!!

Here is what I did on my days off by week.

1. Staff Training
2. Went to Yosemite Valley for a photo class
3. Hiked to Mariposa Grove (About 14miles)
4. Went to Oakhurst with Nancy, Got X-ray and other stuff for camp
5. Hiked Half Dome with Fernando (slept on top of half dome) (16miles)
6. Hiked Mt. Hoffman with Brandon, Whitney, Brea, & Nancy (About 12-14miles)
7. Climbed Half Dome with Jeff, Ann, & Karen (About 13-14miles)
8. Flew back home

So that was my awesome summer.

--AW

Date: June 18, 2007
Time: 10:34 PM
Where: Camp Wawona, CA Yosemite National Park

Day 2

Well last night about 10:30pm this guy came in my tent and joined in my tent.

Then this morning I turned over and in the bunk next to me was this guy there in his sleeping bag looking at me. It really freaked me out because I didn't hear him come in.

Well the day went ok. As the day progressed, it got better. I am coming out of my shell. I am an introvert so it is hard for me.

I found out what I am doing here this summer. I am a counselor and assisting with gymnastics.

The girl that is in charge of gymnastics is on Southern's Gym Masters team. It's only the two of us teaching the class.

Later on after we got out schedule worked out for gymnastics we helped clean out the old photo lab. It was Anthony Handal (Asst. Director and Pastor Albert's bro), Donnie Keele (Videographer), Jessie Turner (Counselor and Gymnastics Director), and myself.

It took us a long time because it was a real mess. But we finally got it all taken care of.

After supper I hung out with a bunch of people at the ropes course/climbing wall.

Then we had the evening meeting in which a group of us created a skit.

After we had out worship we had a improve. The very last ting was the Dating Game. Someone yelled my name, so I was one of the guys.

I came back to my "room" (tent) after the meeting. And now I am writing this.

Well until next time.

--AW

P.S. Pray for me. I will need it as I step out of my comfort zone. Also leave some comments and actually send me some mail. Go to campwawona.org for the address.

Date: June 17, 2007
Time: 9:30 PM
Where: Camp Wawona, CA Yosemite National Park

Day 1

Today for me started on Saturday June 16, 2007

I woke up in Jackson Hole, Wy. We have been staying there since Tuesday June 12, 2007. It is located just south for Gand Teton National Park. In anycase, I woke up and we, my father, mother, 4 of our friends, and I went to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park for church. Thay have church amd sabbath school services for Adventist during the summer there.

So after church was over we went somewhere and ate and then drove around that park looking for animals. We saw tons of bufflo, deer, elk, ground hogs, anda mother bear and her two cubs.

After a while we started back for Jackson Hole,Wy. We finally got there at about 10pm and my father, mother, and I packed up to leave for here, Camp Wawona. A 15 and a half hour drive.

We finally left Jackson at 12am. My father drove for quite a few hours while my mother slept. Then they swapped. This continued the whole way. After almost 16 hours, 900 miles, and two food stops we arrived at Camp Wawona at 4pm.

It took a while but I found out where I was to stay. My parents also were able to get a room at they coud stay in for the night.

Another thingI quickly learned is that there is no cell servce here! Well at least not for cell phones that only have digital instead of both digital and analog. So much for having people call me. You guy's better leave me comments here on myspace because there is wireless internet. Woohoo! lol.

Anyways, we drove down into town, or 17 miles away, to go eat supper. That is my parents and I.

The thing is that things don't start until tomorrow, so...yea and I just found out. There are only a few people here.

In any case we drove back to camp and I marked where I an get cell service. It's 7 miles down the road. Look's like I will be hiking aways on my day's off. JK. But I may go down there every so often.

Well here I am not writing this out. I will type and post it later. I am in this big tent, 12 ft wide by 14 ft long, and so far I am the only one in it. More will probably come tomorrow. There are 3 bunks in here.

Well this has been Day 1 of camp. Check back for updates. I will try to write a blog at least a couple of times a week if not more.

Until next time.

--AW

P.S. Less then a week I have been in...

6 States
3 National Parks
6+ National Forests'
1 Indian Reservation
Driven 2000+ miles
And a bunch of other junk I can't remember

To Say I Have A Lotta Bottle Would Be A Lie!! means...

To say I have no fear would be a lie!!

To say I have no fear of going to camp would be a lie. I am nervious and excited both at the same time. I have only hours until I fly out West. I can't wait and at the same time dreading it. I think though I am more excited, no I know I am more excited then dreading.

Again my name, "To Say I Have A Lotta Bottle Would Be A Lie!!" is a British slang.

--AW

Well, I was planning on writing a blog the other day but never got around to it. Well now I will.

Lets see, it was Sunday May 27. I woke up at about 6:15am and got dressed for a morning "ride." If some of you don't know. I love to go road biking. I have this route that I take. I leave me house and head down the road. After doging some thrill seeking dogs that love to attack anything that moves, I am on my way to GCA. I take the back roads and in the process I take on some pretty challengeing hills. It is exactly 5.2 miles from my house to the drain in the road behind the cafe at GCA. Once there I was not feeling good at all. So I told myself to just chill and take a breather. As I was wating there I just watched the dead quite campus. It was about 7:30am and I just thought how amazing it was that a little over a week ago students were out there going to classes and going to work. It just amazed me how quickly the campus transformed.

While waiting there I observed this crazy squirrel. I am serious when I say this squirrel could star as Spiderman (Spidersquirrel) in Spiderman. I watched this squirrel move across the parking lot and then procede to scale the wall of the gym. I hung there upside down. It climbed all the way to the windows in the top of the gym and down. I watched and the squirrel peered through the girl's locker room and i thought to myself, "What a bad squirrel. Good thing school is out and there is not PE."

Finally I was about to go and I noticed that something was wrong with me bike. Just then Mr.Sterndale drove by. What great timing. He let me borrow some tools to fix it and I was off. I made it back to my house and fell over. 46minutes and 17seconds. Totally biking time. That is not including the time I rested.

The day went by farily quickly. Later that night I went downstair to see if I had anything I had recorded on my DVR. And I had "Fools Rush In." Now if you haven't watched "Fools Rush In" you are truely missing out on something. That is if you liked "A Walk To Remember" and "The Notebook."

So my father was there with me and we began to watch it. In the end, by the way this is my favorite movie, my father was crying. I didn't really think my father would like it. Although I think he was crying more so because the movieis kind of about our family. You seethe movie takes place in Los Vegas and New Mexico. And it has to do with this White guy and this Hispanic girl who lives in New Mexio. Well in the end this white guy and girl fall in love. Well my father's fahter, my grandpa, was stationed in New Mexico in the Air Force and he met my grandma, who is Mexican. So, not giving away thi movie details, this movie was like our family.

After the movie was over and we went upstairs, I over heard my father tell me mother that, "it wasa cute movie." In anycase, that day was a great day. A great bike and a great movie. Mmmm....couldn't ask for more.


Today, Thursday May 31.

Today I am at camp meeting in Collegedale, TN. I have been here since Tuesday afternoon. And I will be here until Saturday night.

Well today was great. Got lots of sleep and went shopping and got 10 books. I love books. And got to play some soccer. And now I am exhausted and can't wait to sleep. So without further ado, goodnight and until later.

--AW

Some of you may not have understood my latest profile names. That is quite alright. In fact, unless you were British I wouldn't expect you to.

 

You see I have gone into the British mode where all my names are British English slang. Stuff that to us Americans it means something totally different. For example. My first one I used was, "I Shouldn't Have Arsed Over Elbows For That Judy." It basically means, "I shouldn't have fallen head over heals for that girl." But it does use British English slang.

These are the ones I have used so far but, expect more to come.

I Shouldn't Have Arsed Over Elbows For That Judy.

The Fact That I'm Nutter Doesn't Make Bob Your Uncle!!

I'm Gormless, Gobsmacked, Gutted!!

I've got to revise hard!!

That Is So Ace! Oh And Best Of British!!

You Would Bite My Arm Off For Where I'm Going!!
 

--AW