They grow up so fast

My little sister is five years younger than me so we didn't spend a whole lot of time together growing up. We have grown a lot closer lately since she move to my home town of Boulder to go to college. Little sisters are great, they are such a blessing. I love and am glad that she move to Boulder so we can hang out more... Just over a week ago though she left to go down to Bolivia for six months. She went down there with Youth for Christ to minister to the people of La Paz, the capital city of Bolivia. I'm so proud of her, that is a huge step of faith to go down there for so long. I'm excited to see what she will experience down there and how much she is going to grow through the process. I know she will make some great friendships through the trip as well. Some times I wonder if I have the faith it takes to leave everything behind and move to another coutry whether it is for six months or longer. It's tough to move to another coutry so far away from you family and friends and away from the customs you are use to into some foreign society. She is keeping a blog of her time down there if you are interested in checking it out. It's called Aventuras Bolivianas. You click on the link to it in my "other cool blogs" section on the right of your browser or hopefully at the bottom of this post.

Te Dios Bendiga!

New York, New York!

During our break to celebrate the birth of our Lord, kendra and I went to CT to visit her family. We had a great time, they really took good care of us. I got to know her family better and their traditions.
One day while we were there we ventured to New York city. It was a great time. I am always amazed with how large that city is and how many people there are there. We took the train into town and then walked around and bought bagels and then found our way to central park. The park is a lot bigger than I had always thought. Here is a picture of Kendra and I in the park in front of the ice rink. After this we met her family for lunch and then went to see Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway. The show was amazing! Much better than the Producers which we saw last year. After that her family left and we walked around some more. We tried to go up the Empire state building, but there was a 3 hour wait!
(Here is a picture I took of the tallest building in New York that I really like. That's a fire truck turning in the forground. The empire state building is the one in the middle that is blue and white on top.) So instead we went and got some pizza at Original Famous Ray's Pizza. It was delicious. After pizza, we walked back to grand central station and boarded our train to depart. I can't wait until I can go back to the city again and hopefully stay longer!

Blue Hole

On December 3rd and 4th, my fiancee and I went diving in the blue hole in Santa Rosa, NM. She was going to get her open water certification and i was just going for fun and to support her. Our friends Shawn and Julie went as well. The blue hole is a natural sink hole filled by a natural spring. It is 80' in diameter at the surface and 100' in diameter at the bottom. The bottom is 81' deep. The water is a constant 62 degrees all year which is pretty darn cold, hence the imobilitizing wetsuits. It was a nice 60 degrees outside on saturday, but on sunday it was 36 degrees out when we got in the water! The first day I dove down to the bottom with another diver. There is a gate at the bottom blocking off some underground tunnels filled with water that connect to another lake about a mile away. There is a tombstone in front to the gate in memory of Joe Cool, a diver that died while diving in the tunnels. It read something like...

Poor Joe Cool, his bones lie here cold and blue...

What a shame for poor Joe. This makes me realize how fragile this life can be. We could meet our end at any moment with how crazy this world is. I'm so glad that I have faith in the One who has overcome death so that I do not have to live in constant fear of dying. Not just that, but I look forward to meeting my Father, face to face.

On sunday I dove with my fiancee as her dive partner. We did buddy breathing and rescue skills. Then we got to do a free dive together at 30' down. We swam around and checked out the 5 fish that live there, the rock formations, and a crazy toy collection. That was pretty fun, but cold. However when we got out of the water it was FREEZING! I hope that we get to go diving somewhere warm for our honeymoon so I can show her just how enjoyable diving can be. Enough of this cold water crap...

Is Wal-Mart the new evil empire?

So, on Tuesday night I went and saw a free showing of the new movie, "Walmart, the high cost of low price". It was basically a movie that tries to reveal all the evil practices of the Wal-Mart corporation. I have to say, if everything in this movie is true, then Wal-mart is the newest evil empire in our world. The atrocities that this movie tried to blame on Wal-Mart were horrible. They accused walmart of drive small family stores out of business with their low price tactics, treating there employees like slave labor, using shady, if not illegal, practices to prevent unions from forming, wantonly polluting our environment, creating sweat shops in other countries that resemble the sweat shops of this country's industrial revolution, ignoring their executives' cries for justice, and taking money away from the poor and schools to fund their new stores.

This movie was very one-sided and done much in the same way as Fahrenheit 9/11. After seeing the flaws of that movie revealed, I wonder if this movie uses the same tactics. One thing that made me wary was the way they presented their interviews. It seemed like they could have been taking comments out of context. In one place, it seemed as though they had totally cut and paste this woman's sentence together. Another problem I saw was their focus on the numbers of Walmarts faults such as crimes that took place in there parking lots and number of employees on welfare or dollars spent. Walmart is a gigantic company so of course they are going to have much larger amounts of these things than other companies. They didn't even compare these numbers to other companies, but I would have liked to see percentages compared to other companies. Another shady practice was while interviewing people who didn't speak English, instead of using subtitles and allowing us to hear their voice, which I think is the most honest form of journalism, they muted that persons voice and covered it with an English speaking interpretation.

So, I have to say that I'm disappointed with their journalism technique, but I think I do believe most of what this movie had to argue. I don't shop at Walmart anyways because I like to support local business and healthier food choices, and I don't think I will start shopping there any time soon. Walmart is making a rebuttal movie and I will be interested to see that.

One thing this movie didn't cover that I wish they had was how walmart uses "bullying" tactics to force their suppliers to give them large quantities of goods at very low prices which forces these companies to move their operations over sees. It has also caused brands to lose the "brand value" that they have spent so much time and money trying to establish. You can read more about this in the link below.

She said yes!

On Saturday, October 8, 2005 I got engaged to the girl of my dreams! Here's how it went down: I called her around 11 and asked her to go to lunch with me. I then drove her to the base of Sugarloaf Mtn and we hiked to the top (it's only about a half mile). I was carrying lunch on my back and when we got to the top we had a nice picnic (phase 2 friendly) with wine and everything. The weather was perfect and the view was amazing. After eating, I told her all the things I liked about her and then asked her to marry me. Can you believe she said yes?! I am so blessed. We have been dating for over a year and a half and gone through a lot. She has helped me to grow as a man and closer to God. She is perfect for me. I am so happy! Just thought I would share.

Campamiento

i just back from camp with the poblano church, familia fuerte. man, im
exhausted. we did so many activities and sports that i am completely
worn out. they did a great job of organizing everything and took good
care of us. the facility was excellent and the mexican landscape was
beautiful. i am about to go get cleaned up and then we are going to
have a team dinner together to celebrate our last night in mexico.

at first this trip seemed like it was going to last forever and was
going pretty slow, but looking back on it the time really flew by. i
cant believe that were going home tomorrow. im am definately ready to
go home, but i am also going to miss puebla and her people. i hope
that i can get back here some day. maybe in two years with the youth
group again. i really like mexico and the mexican people. and the
food. gotta run...

Outbreak

today i got up early and had breakfast while preparing to teach our team time today. it was the largest group i´ve ever taught and it was on being a servant as jesus was. it went really well, i think the kids actually paid attention. it was pretty easy to prepare too. the lord showed me exactly what he wanted me to teach.

afterwards we went to the same church again (familia fuerte) and helped to finish painting there building. well, it was almost finished but we ran out of white paint and they said they would buy some and finish it on their own. tomorrow we are going to a camp with them to play games and sing and go swimming. i am really looking forward to it as i have met lots of cool people there.

unfortunately two kids became sick today and had to go to the hospital: evan miller and brett hill. they both had a high fever. the doctors think it is a bacterial infection from some food they ate. they will have to spend the night there tonight and possibly tomorrow night as well. i pray that god will heal them quickly and not allow anyone else from our group to become sick. our leader, brian, will probably stay with them tonight and tomorrow, so the other volunteer leaders and i will be in charge for camp this weekend. uh oh.

this evening we went to two orphanages. at the first one most of the boys were gone for some reason so we didnt do much except meet the ones that were there. the second one was a pretty poor one and it was a little tough to be there. there were also some older mentally handicapped guys living there as well. they were a little creepy and it was weird to see them living with the kids. i helped on of them make a bracelet though and he seemed to really enjoy it. we also performed our skit for them and them alec, who is mostly fluent in espanol, talked to them in depth about the gospel and led them in prayer to recieve the lord. it was great. i need to go get packed for the camp tomorrow now.

Vamos a Pintar

today we helped a local church here in puebla repaint there church building, which is inside a mall in downtown puebla. this is the first time this church has ever partnered with an american church. they started out on their own and do not recieve any money from the states. they do this because when a church is planted in mexico by americans and they provide monetary support for a while the mexicans dont think that they need to tithe and then when the american church stops giving them money, they fall apart. this church is totally self supported. we had a great time painting their church and hanging out with them and attempting to communicate. i think we did a pretty decent job too, better than sharefest. we are going back tomorrow to finish it up. afterwards we went out for tacos together and i had a delicious taco arabe and a griga pastor. yum!

this evening we went to two orphanages in a row. the first one was all girls from about 5 to 15. they were so nice and sweet. i was befriended by yolanda and she showed me around their place: their bedrooms, dining room, study room, etc... i think she was 10 years old and i was able to communicate with her pretty well. we made bracelets together with them and then showed them our skit that interprets the bracelets and then showed them part of the jesus film, we didnt have time for the whole thing. when it was over we gave them some presents and then we had to leave. when we were leaving yolanda asked me when we are going to come back to visit them again. it broke my heart and i just had to tell her that i didnt know instead of telling her that it was probably never. i think that is the hardest part of going to the orphanages.

they are playing some sweet monster ballads in the internet cafe right now.

the second orphanage we went to was a very poor one in a bad part of town. this one was much harder to go to. i havent seen much like this before in my life. the boys were pretty cool and nice. all boys, ages about 7 to 16 or so. they had three level bunk beds and the place wasnt even entirely closed in. they had some make-shift roofs and the place smelled pretty bad. we all had a bad feeling when were went in there as well. a depressing, heavy feeling. there were also a couple homeless guys that were hanging out there. our leader eddy told us after we left that there have been reports of suspected physical and sexual abuse in the place. it was pretty sad and hard to endure that place. i hope that justice is brought to that place.

Nuts and Cards with Cholula

it has been an eventful last couple of days. my atm card was lost on
saturday like i said. monday morning i went to the bank where the last
atm was that i used to see if they had it. they said that a different
company maintains that machine so i needed to come back after they
talked to them, around 3. so, i went back to the facultad de lenguas
campus with our team. there we met lots of great students. it was
brian and i with 4 of our students while the rest went to the other
campus called CU. cool name, huh. brain and i talked to some people
while we had our 4 students show the dvd to a group of students at a
table. brian and i met a very solid christian girl and her friend that
is catholic. melina, the christian, hung out with us for almost the
rest of the time we were there, skipping half of her class. we got her
contact information so that the christian group here, vida estudiantil
could tell her about there events. our students were having a great
time as well. at one point they were showing the video to a group of 9
students. they did very well and none of them can speak spanish very
well. but most of the mexicans could speak some english. after we got
back to the hotel around 2 30 i hung out for a little bit and then
went to the bank. we went to sit down at a desk to see a lady about my
card and axiously waited to here the news. they had found my card! all
i had to do was show her my passport and then sign for it. God is
great! i was very relieved to find my card and went to get cash out
immediately. the lady told me not to use their atm machine though
because it sometimes won´t give cards back. i think this must be why i
forgot to take my card since i have never forgot it before. monday
evening we went to another orphanage, all boys this time. we played
soccer with them for a while before showing our skit and making some
bracelets with them and then showing them the jesus film. they were
very cool and it was hard to leave them again as usual.

yesterday was our free day so we put on our tourist hats and went to
cholula to see their aztec pyramid. it was a very cool pyramid, but it
was still buried under ground and had a catholic church built on top.
i enjoyed the mayan ruins we saw in belize more than this one. we did
get to see their altars though next to the pyramid where they used to
perform all their human sacrifices. cool. after we were done sight
seeing we went to go get some food. some of our group had bought a
little loaf of bread from a street vendor and ate it. it had some nut
in it very similar to the peanut and one of our girls is very allergic
to peanuts and had a reaction to it. normaly it would be no big deal
but she left her medicine in our hotel, a half hour away! some of our
guys rushed her to the doctors office while the rest of us waited at
the restaurant we had already sat at. all we could do was wait and
pray. she was able to get some medicine, but her brother said it was
the wrong kind so they went back to another doctor and he gave them
the righ medicine and it started to clear up. we were about to leave
when she started having another reaction and then they rushed her to
the hospital. the rest of us went back to our hotel and waited. the
crusad staff here, eddy, went to pick them up from the hospital. at 7
last night they finally arrived back at our hotel and she was back to
normal. the drama never ends here! i wonder what god has in store for
us next. today we are painting a church and then going to 2 orphanages
in the evening.

Found... and Lost...

Last night we showed the jesus film to the kids that we did the vbs
for yesterday morning. we arrived a little early to pass out flyers to
people before the movie started while other setup the screen and
projector and dvd player in the open air square they call the
esplanada. almost everyone that we talked to sounded excited and like
that wanted to come watch the movie. once we headed back to the
esplanada to start the movie, there was a large thunderstorm
threatening to come rain out the movie showing. several of us prayed
that god would hold of the storm until the movie was over, trusting
that is was his will to show the movie to these people. we started the
movie and some of us kept praying. during the movie there was
lightening flashing all around us in 3 directions, but we could not
hear thunder or feel any rain. when the movie was almost over, a few
drops started to fall, so the leaders stopped the movie before all of
the mexicans could run off (they don´t like rain). Santiago, the guy
in charge of the jesus film project here, summarized the end of the
movie over the microphone and then talked more intimately with a group
of older mexicans. later i heard that about 15 of them prayed with him
to accept jesus as their lord. during this same time barry and i were
talking to a few teenage girls and went through the 4 spritual laws
with them, but they seemed already know all that stuff. it was truly a
miracle that the film didnt get totally rained out and so many people
came to believe.

this morning we went to two different local churches. brian preached
at one of them. i went to the one brian wasn´t at and listened to a
sermon in spanish. we also sang songs in spanish. i met lots of
wonderful people there including Israel, who did a lot of translating
for me. during the sermon, alex, the youth minister, asked me to come
upstairs with him and teach the kids how to ask questions in english
and help them with their pronunciation. there were a lot of kids, but
it was a lot of fun. after that he went and got trent and brett to
come up and have his kids practice asking them questions in english.
(they dont speak any spanish). it was a great church with only 60
people. it was called Familia Fuerte.

the current drama right now is that i cant find my atm card and all of
the teams finances are in my bank account! i pray that god will bring
me through this...

--
Jason
<><

Amazing One

on thursday night we visited our first orphanage. it was a lot easier than i expected. the kids were so joyful and playful. i thought that my heart was going to break more for them, but they were just so happy and joyful that my spirit was actually lifted some. its amazing to see children be so happy with so little, not even a family. i could really learn a lot from them about being content with what i have and also about enjoying spending time with people, especially meeting new people. they were so happy just to be with us and enjoy our company. yesterday (friday) we split into two groups and went to two different college campuses. i went with brian, trent and mikodo to the facultad de lenguas while everyone else went to a different campus. most of the students there are studying english and french. actually, it wasnt just for college students, there were a lot of high school aged students there as well. we started off by talking to one group of students and showing them a short dvd that is an illustration of the prodigal son story. we talked for a little longer and then they all had to go to class. after that we walked around a little, got some coffee and then found another group of students to talk to. they were very interested in watching a video with us on our portable dvd player so we went to a larger table and invited a couple more students. afterwards we started talking about what the video represented and how we can all relate to it because we have all been prodigal sons in some way or another. (keep in mind here that i´m doing all of the translation because im the only one with any spanish abilities and those arent very much. some of the girls can speak some english so that helps.) that led us into more spiritual conversations and brian asked them if they wanted to hear about the 4 spiritual laws. luckily i had a little booklet with me on the four spirital laws in spanish with me from when i was in spain so i was able to read to them from the booklet as they looked on. they said that they understood everything that was in there and agreed that they needed jesus in order to have a relationship with god. so, we asked if they would like us to pray with them to accept jesus as their lord and savior. they said that they would so i led them in a pray in spanish out of the booklet that i had. 4 of these students gave their lives to christ! praise god! (i think one of them might have already been a believer though). i cant believe how god uses the weak and unexpected to work his miracles. this was the first time i ever helped somebody pray to recieve christ and it was with 4 people i just met and in spanish! god is amazing. we invited them to come to church with us on sunday and they said that they wanted to. we may also see them again when we are on campus again on monday.

last night we went to an all girls orphanage for girls ranging from about 4 to 15. they were very sweet and much more well behaved than the last place that we went. some of us sat around in circles talking while others played with the younger girls. some of the older girls (13 to 15) to a liking to me and wanted to show me their casa. they were very proud of it even though they all had to sleep in a very large room full of beds. each bed had its own unique stuffed animal on it though. i was again amazed at how happy these girls seemed. after this some of the kids perfomed a skit for them that explains the gospel and then we helped them make their own bracelets with leather and beads. after this we showed them the jesus film for kids and they seemed to like it very much as well as understand it. once this was over we went outside and played kickball until the girls wupped us and then they started flirting with our high school boys until we had to leave. it was very hard to leave them though as they didnt want us to leave.

last night for dinner i had some mole poblano. que delicioso! most americans don´t like it, but i though that it was very good. today we went to a very poor neighborhood to put on a vbs. those kids were really cool as well. we played dodgeball for a while and then sang songs and played musical chairs before performing our skit again and making bracelets. tonight we are going back to show the jesus film and told the kids to come back and invite their families and friends. i cant wait to see what god is going to do tonight! he is amazing.

Puebla, Mexico

I made it to mexico! everything is going great. the flights were pretty smooth. no major mishaps or anything. our hotel is awesome. we have a sweet courtyard and a pool. the town is pretty cool too. last night we had delicious tacos and today for lunch we went to a mercado and bought fresh fruit. yum! breakfast was good too, its included in our hotel everyday. i had an omelet with cheese and black beans and toast and fresh squeezed orange juice. i think the kids are having fun, but they are complaining a little too much and asking TONS of questions. last night they kept me up until 12:45 in the morning. brian put me in the same room as trent, brett and shawn! tonight we are going to an orphanage and performing a gospel skit to explain the gospel to them. the kids are all practicing right now. the orphange is for the very poor so we should be in for a bit of a social shock. i hope the lord has prepared me for that. i am sure that i`ll learn a lot. being in charge of the finances for the whole group has been a little stressful. there was no atm at the airport when we arrived so i wasnt able to get cash until we got in to town and found an atm that actually worked. the first one didnt. luckily ken and eddy (the campus crusade staffer) were able to cover the taxis from the airport for us. this morning i was finally able to change my dollars and withdraw some more cash so i am all caught up on our expenses and have some cash ready for tonight. last night i had to put everyones dinner on my credit card since i didnt have enough cash yet. i already saw april. she is doing great and barry really surprised her. i got to talk to her a little more today and really hear about how her trip is going. it sounds like they are having a great time and god is really blessing their time here. i cant wait to see how god is going to work in and through our group while we are here. i know that all of these kids are going to grow up a bunch and i know that i will grow a lot too.

Flatirons from the Boulder Roubaix race course 

cycling

I raced in my first ever cycling stage race last weekend; the Boulder Stage Race. It was a lot of fun, but really hard work. Cylcing is very competitive in category 4 in colorado and I think that they should race cat 5 seperately form cat 4. Having such a tough "beginner" category makes it very hard for beginners to get into bike racing.

I had a blast at the race though, and placed 29th out of 77 who started the race. I performed the best in the event that I though I would perform the worst in: the road race, on dirt roads. I performed worse in the events I thought I was more suited to: time trial and hill climb. I'm looking forward to trying more cycling races. I will post a more in depth summary of how my race went later.

My first blog ever!

This is my first blog ever! I feel so cool. I hope that I continue to post cool stuff.