Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane...

I do love that song. Well, loyal readers... yes, both of you, I am now about 8 hours from venturing out on this latest expedition. We are taking a train to chicago friday, then flying out early saturday morning. We spend 2 days in germany and then off to albania. So I won't be net surfing until we get back September 3. (And even then probably won't be on until Sep. 4 due to jet lag, haha) I had a whole blog with substance planned, but due to time quickly disappearing (due mostly to packing issues) I'm too tired to try. I hope you are all well and I'll talk at ya soon. God bless.

-The rookie world traveler

T-minus...

Alright, as I sit here just a few hours away from officially entering my third decade of life it's time to post the last installment of my walk down memory lane. I need to say thanks to everyone who's emailed me or commented on various pages reminding me of things I had not posted. Obviously there are way too many memories to accurately list them all, but the help has been a lot of fun. Also, I promise to have a much more thought provoking post shortly, but I have thoroughly enjoyed doing this whole venture. And now, the final segment...

BACK IN ARTHUR

* Mom, Dad, Nick, Kevin, Jennifer and I all living in one 3 bedroom home for a week with ALL of our stuff while we try to find apartments for Jennifer and I, and then for Kevin

* Kaylee and every "first" moment with her

* Quitting my full time job to look for a part time one to spend more time at the church, THEN finding out we were pregnant

* The trip to Chile/Peru

* Tooey, tyler's backpack/child

* driving in Chile/Peru

* the local remedy for altitude sickness, haha

* eating llama (a rather tough meat)

* the trip to San Diego

* getting to see the Matt and Suzi Marquez for a week

* watching Charlie get attacked by nature (i.e. the waves at the beach)

* seeing Charlie being almost drug out to sea... in about 4 inches of water

* learning Jack in the Box had tacos on their menu

* making the videos for the kids crusade at San Diego

* the blooper reel for the videos

* learning I have a talent for writing awesomely random puppet skits

* telling the entire easter story with puppets... narrated by a monkey and using a frog to portray Jesus (yes, we crucified a puppet frog)

* Daniel the musical (puppet show)

* puppet chucking

* the birth of Clueless the Frog

* The IR

* The founding members of the IR... some of the best young men I've ever had the privilege to know

* The Dread White & Blue

* The conditioning group

* trips to the campground in Excelsior Springs

* Being the Emcee for Desert Theater

* Being allowed to create my own character to Emcee as

* helping with plays/musicals/marching band/track at the high school

* Taking Kaylee into the parenting class at AHS to help them learn about babies

* getting to know Greg and Karen and going through pregnancy/parenthood with them

* Watching all three Lord of the Rings extended versions in one day with a bunch of LOTR fans

* Halo parties

* "Matt's"

* Getting to know Nick again after being gone for 4 years

* Getting to know Jessica (Coldwell's wife)

* Going to games at the new Busch Stadium

* CFN conferences

* being on staff at Cornerstone and being allowed to figure who I am as a minister

* being ordained

* any time spent with the Allison fam

* learning the joys of Priceline

* looking oh so cool on my scooter!

* deciding to start collecting chess sets from around the world... and getting some amazingly cool ones

* getting back in touch with so many people via myspace and facebook

* playing guitar on the praise band with Tyler, Kody, Nick (for a time) and Greg

* Working at CHI and not dying

* guitar hero (haha, I know, sad but I LOVE that game)

* date nights

* about to turn 30 and still being a kid at heart

Ok, I know that's a shorter list than some of the others... but I hedged a bit and put the kaylee memories in one ambiguous bullet point. If I went through all those it'd never end.

But as I'm about to turn 30 I'm actually not freaking out too badly. Yeah it's REALLY strange to say "I'm 30" but I'm ok with it. It's amazing how short this life is and how much we worry about getting stuff and "living life to the fullest" but for me I'm beginning to redefine what that means. And to live life to the fullest in where I'm headed, 30 is the perfect age to start, cause I certainly didn't know enough to do it before 30. I barely know enough to try it now. :D

Well, I'm off for now. I pray you are all well and I'll talk at ya soon. God bless.

-Just Matt

"This is my life" part 3

Time for the next segment of walking the path of reminiscing, "Living in Missouri". And we're off...

LIVING IN MISSOURI

* Rooming with Kevin and fitting two armchairs and the coolest coffee table ever in that room

* Playing KGB at CBC, chasing each other until security saw us then being chased by them

* Ricky Tyler and his 1 a.m. "sermons" on the evils of women

* The impromptu song "Oh adam, why didn't you give the arm"

* Meeting one of my best friends, Luke, who even though was only there a short time, will always be family

* Learning that I could sleep sitting up during chapel

* Being a proud staff member of the Boys and Girls club

* Meeting my wife there

* Meeting a long lost brother in Kevin Coldwell

* Agreeing to let Coldwell live with me without really knowing him

* Saturday 7 on 7 Flag football

* Float trips

* That weekend in Ha Ha Tonka

* Telling Joanna (Jenn's sister) that I spent two years at Lakeland and seeing her slowing inching away... then finding out that Lakeland is a mental institute in that area of Missouri (I meant the community college in Illinois)

* Coldwell and I putting all the photos of "Doog" (Jenn's sisters boyfriend at the time) face down cause we thought he was a jerk, haha... good times

* Almost getting arrested with Coldwell the first night he moved in by giving him a tour of Willard around 10 p.m. (We had just gotten off work) in his white explorer... not knowing that someone in a white explorer had robbed a bunch of businesses a few nights before. Kevin didn't even know our address yet, and I had an illinois license... man that was hilarious

* The biscuits and gravy fiasco

* Coldwell telling me I had no chance to date jennifer, she wasn't interested... then dating her a month later

* Meeting Garry and being sure he wouldn't last at the BGC... he's now a unit director. Shows what we knew.

* Working with Matt and Suzi Marquez... two of my favorite people ever.

* Evening hide and seek games with the teens at the BGC

* The "American Gladiators" lock-in with the teens... including the events "The Gauntlet", "Score or Drown" and my personal favorite "The Staff of Death"

* Rock climbing with Kev and Coldwell

* The house

* Freaking out on our last night in "the house" before moving as we watch the flood rise to less than an inch of flooding the living room.

* Watching Coldwell confidently get in his explorer to drive in the flood waters, back out, go about five feet, pull back in and sheepishly decide it's not gonna happen

* The late night games of NFL Xtreme

* Breaking 300 points in one game in NFL Xtreme (5 min. quarters if I remember right)

* The BGC teen trip to texas

* finding out Melanie was a cold, heartless German

* Being at a Texas Rangers game with the teens, having Ashley ask (honestly) if Alex Rodriguez was hispanic, and having the (hilarious) drunk guy behind us answer (with a scottish accent) "NOPE! He's scottish, his real name is Alex McRodriguez. He has 3 bat sizes, "wee", "not-so-wee" and "FRIGGIN' HUGE!!!" (the staff was crying we were laughing so hard)

* The game going 18 innings

* "If we actually win this thing I'm keying your car!" -said joyfully by hilarious drunk guy #2

* The BGC teen trip to Memphis

* Being the only white people in the wal-mart on the memphis trip

* Almost dying in that wal-mart because of one of the kids and an ill-timed use of "cracker"

* Almost losing another kid in that wal-mart and deciding we'd rather explain why we lost their son to his parents than search for him (he showed up as we were discussing, so I can claim we were kidding... I think we were kidding...)

* Playing blackjack in the guys room on that trip, using pillows, blankets, bed spots (2 beds 6 guys) and the all-important toilet paper as "winnings"

* Someone having 5 pillows at the end of the night and Kody only having a hand towel and washcloth to cover up with

* Involving the girls the second night and taking all their pillows by having Garry (the dealer) deal me off the bottom of the deck... so much fun

* KILLING the other clubs in the staff softball tournament

* Hitting a home run in said tournament

* Garry and I making fun of volleyball as a "non-sport" only to totally antagonize our respective girlfriends

* Riding in the back of a truck IN a refrigerator box... standing up

* the teen Tribe wars at the BGC

* Fight Club (not what you think)

* stickball

* The best Halo gaming at Hanh and Anthony's with the best group of guys

* Brian Rollins and his friend (who I cannot remember the name of for the life of me) having a personal vendetta against me in Halo, and me DESTROYING them every time

* Making smoothies at the apartment (they were terrible)

* the sandwich parties at the apartment (they were not terrible)

* The trip to Arkansas to see Jessica (who woulda thought that would actually end up working well)

* the texas road trip (Left springfield, mo at 2 a.m. Saturday, went to six flags and a rangers game got back 2 a.m. Monday)

* the infamous STD Flea Market joke (yes that's really what they are called)

* The Chris Highfill-Shelby-nose incident

* Every single one of the kids I met at the BGC

* The BGC staff

* getting Coldwell to bet that he could drink a gallon of milk in an hour

* Watching Coldwell try not to puke in a staff meeting during that hour... and trying not to bust up laughing

* Being told in a BGC training session we should respond with "that must be hard for you" instead of qualifying a statement... and Barry asking if "Sucks to be you" is non-qualifying enough

* Watching Jeff try to jump on an inflatable raft in the pool

* paintballing at Ozark paintball

* paintballing at that professor's farm

* my paintball gun breaking and going from semi-automatic to automatic and painting jeff from head to toe accidentally (oh so hilarious)

* Coldwell having a huge crush on Ashley, the hot teen intern... hahahahahahahahahaha

* Being known only as "Shrek" for 2 years at the BGC

* perfecting the white man dance in the teen center

* going to a royals game and a husker game in one weekend

* almost getting beat up at the husker game for wearing Illini colors (Nebraska was playing Iowa, and Illinois was playing michigan... but I didn't have a free ticket to the illini game... still wore orange and blue face paint though)

* All those trips to Lee's Summit

* My car being broken into and having my GLASSES stolen... dorks

* putting the sofa in the dumpster when we moved out (so much more involved, but I'm leaving it at that)

* being introduced and falling in love with Chinese restaurants

* all the awesome people I worked with at Kohl's

* helping security chase down shoplifters in the parking lot

* messing with the paging system with the help of Rob in men's

* messing with rude customers at customer service with the help of Kevin

* Trapping Hanh in customer service by holding the door shut (she was too short to see through the peep hole)

* scraping car windows in the parking lot when it snowed just for the fun of it

* late night runs to IHOP

* THE PALACE!!! ($2 movie theater... thx sound, stadium seats, 8 screens, the works)

* Cici's pizza

* Andy's frozen custard

* every moment dating/being engaged to/married to Jennifer

* but most specifically, asking her out, her saying no, later kissing me, then not speaking to me for a week or so (she will deny this account of the events, but it's my blog so it's my account that shall be posted, hee hee)

* The smoke alarm going off right before the wedding was supposed to begin, me being in the pastor's office having no idea what's happening and only hearing Garry announce "There's no fire!"

* Having Babe Ruth, Abraham Lincoln and other celebrities attend the wedding... or at least sign the guestbook (Thanks Marquez)

* Getting lost with all the groomsmen and an usher the day before the wedding (we were like 2 hours late... NOT a good idea... but again hilarious)

* the moldy biscuits that traveled with us each time we moved... then replaced with the brownie mix

* the little house in lebanon

* getting first dibs on red ticket items at kohl's (hello leather jacket for a buck.... hello 7 dollar reeboks, etc.)

* racquetball and making up our own rules :D

* Lambert's, home of the throwed rolls... nuff said

* Eddie's apartment....

* Eddie's parents

* the greatest restaurant with the greatest cheesecake ever, blackbeard's in Corpe Christi, TX

* the birth of "Namnoc"

* one day realizing that "Namnoc" is conman backwards... freudian slip perhaps???

* taking a picture of steak n shake in the middle of traffic (don't ask me to explain)

* playing ncaa football for micah's enjoyment

And that's the list for today... I do however have to add one to yesterday's list that I can't believe I forgot...

* water skating on the linoleum in the back room at Yoder's... and watching David about break his arm doing so

Ok, tomorrow will be the final chapter of this little trek down memory lane "Back in Arthur". Hope you are all well. God bless.

-Shrek

On with the memories

Ok, well, we're back for the next installment of my "turning 30 memories" And contrary to the declaration of my brother-in-law, I am not posting my eulogy, haha. This is just an exercise in enjoying memories from my life. I certainly plan on adding to this list in the future. Alright, on to today's segment:

PRE-MISSOURI COLLEGE (again, in no particular order)

* floor hockey at U of I

* literally learning how to turn on a computer my freshman year at U of I

* 2nd floor Quake, Starcraft and Warcraft matches

* U of I games

* Becoming a manager at Yoder's at the wise old age of 19

* getting mom and dad a hotel room so we could have all-nighters at the house

* Chris DeFrancisco (the coolest suitemate ever)

* All of the HH guys

* Being an over-the-top Illini Fan with Schmidty

* The great Toilet Paper clean-up of 99 (and everything that goes with that)

* "God has NOT smiled upon us!!!" hahahahaha

* David and I catching the carpet on fire at Yoder's

* David covering the dishwasher room with trash when the bag broke

* 14 guys running into the theater to watch Mission Impossible 2, being late, and being very confused as to if we were in the right theater

* The Spirit-Filled Donuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* David trying to "golf" a can off the stump at the Youth House and about breaking his hands

* Working at Wal-mart for a summer and becoming a "go to guy"

* Being in charge of taking 7 kids to the Alive music festival in Ohio at the tender age of 19

* Being in charge of taking 22 kids to the Alive festival the following year

* Seeing the Supertones for the first time at Alive and being very frightened until we figured out what was going on

* Learning about the Waiting and Burlap to Cashmere because of Alive

* Carpooling to Lakeland with Jason and Brent

* Madden tournaments at Brent's house

* Late night runs to Meijer on Wed. at U of I since none of had class on Thursday

* Playing with bouncy balls in the Meijer parking lot and staying up all night playing hearts until breakfast

* the corner suite... nuff said

* Quad Squirrels

* Pick-up games at WIMPE

* Each and every character who lived on Hendrick floor 2 (whoever thought it was a good idea to put 90% of the freshman in the building on the same floor was an idiot... and I am forever grateful)

* Fidel Castro having lunch with Jesus in the coffeeshop one day at Yoder's

* Being the only manager at Yoder's when the tornado sirens went off, and then again when the power went out

* Playing football on the engineering quad

* Playing frisbee football on Sunday afternoons

* David playing drums during hymns at church

* Burning old cd's and covering Sando's in thick black smoke while killing the ozone over Arthur at the same time... sure not my best idea, but it was fun

* Kevin and I teaching ourselves guitar

* Snow Sumo Wrestling

* The great I Love Spam vs. SIOS club snow wars

Tune in tomorrow for the "Living in Missouri" list. God bless.

-Mateo

Please pass the dentu-cream

Ok... Yes, I'm having a mini-crisis. On Tuesday I will celebrate the one year anniversay of my 29th birthday. Alright fine, I'll be 30. Now I have many friends who have already passed this particular milestone of life, and I honestly don't consider any of you "old". But to be turning 30 certainly makes me FEEL old. In order to help cope with this quite horrible of events and put a much more pleasant aura upon it, I have decided to partake in an act of self-indulgence and reminisce over my 30 years upon this planet. Obviously, this is mostly for my benefit, but feel free to read along. For sake of length I will break this up into 4 categories and post each separately. Those categories will be: Birth through High school (since I am old, much of the memories of this time period have become fuzzy or forgotten), Pre-Missouri College, Living in Missouri, and Back in Arthur. And I should warn you, a number of these will only be understood by a select few (if any), that just how it is. So on with the show...



BIRTH THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL: (in no particular order)

* Digging snow tunnels in the church parking lot

* going to my first cubs-cards game

* winning the grade school spelling bee as a fourth grader, and then making it to the regional bee

* trying to see how many times Amy and I could get on tv at the science olympiad

* Show Choir/Marching Band trips

* Prank calling the freshman at Onalaska my Senior year

* PRINGLE!!!!

* Dad, Kevin, Nick and I pretending like we don't know Mom at the Calgary Airport, embarrassing her and making the people around us laugh

* watching kevin learn to ride bike and ride right into the hydrant at a speed slightly above standing still... the best live-action slow-motion crash I've ever seen

* Summer camp at Menno Haven

* Ozzie's Nature game

* Playing Buck Buck at youth convention

* Getting saved when I was 5

* Playing Bari sax in marching band

* Pep band

* Learning the art of "not playing what is written, but what sounds AWESOME!" for pep band from Adam Johnson

* Show Choir practices with Travis Fleming

* Plays/Musicals (especially the Odd Couple with Ed Coller)

* All of my Mr. Jones classes (say what you want about him as a teacher, I had fun in there)

* Having the opening solo for our show choir show my junior year and getting to perform it on the main stage at Epcot at Nationals

* Being the first (and last that I know of) actual knight mascot for one playoff football game against Arcola (in which victory was stolen by the referees... grrr)

* Being one of the original 3 members of the Amish Mafia

* Doing really well on my ACTs

* playing one on one football with kevin

* hitting fireflies with a big red plastic bat

* having parents who love to travel

* understanding how to have fun when your family is dirt poor

* being the official "horn" for amy's vw bug... since it didn't have one

* summer baseball

* junior high youth trips to Yoder's Cabin

* flicking puzzle pieces at people in Mrs. Owens 6th grade class

* Mr. Corum's junior high history class... it was the best ever. I remember more from that class than any other I think

* Our basketball/show choir rivalry with Sullivan

* Playing football in the backyard with Kevin and creating the "Grandma" passing route

* G.I. Joes

* Legos

* Kicking butt at Scholastic Bowl my senior year with Ed and I being the best 1-2 punch in the conference

* Mutilating the cat Amy was supposed to be dissecting, but not getting in trouble because we could make Mrs. Weissing laugh every time

* Lifesavers weekends at Allerton Park

* Parties at Amy's house

* Trips to the Wisconsin Dells and Noah's Ark, the greatest waterpark anywhere.

* Scoring 1000 points in a season on Madden on the sega genesis. Kevin + Me + the Cowboys = Unstoppable

* Going out for a pizza with Dad and coming home with a new TV

* Travel toys

* Down In Front mens acapella group

* Playing a dead body in the High school play as an 8th grader

* Velcro ball


Ok, I'll stop there. There are a lot more things I could write, especially the trials and low points that helped shape who I became. But these are simply some of my favorite memories. Tomorrow I'll post the next installment "Pre-Missouri College" God bless.

-The Old Man

And how my soul aches...

I had planned on posting something entirely different and much more light-hearted, but I came across this video on a blog I frequent, and it pre-empted the other post. (Though I will post that one either later tonight or tomorrow...) Here's the video which was filmed at the entrance to the Cornerstone Music Festival this summer.





I cannot put into words how much this pains my heart and how sad this makes me. Now you may hear some less than friendly comments from passengers in the vehicle, and if you go to the actual youtube page you will see all kinds of comments. I do not wish to be or have anyone become the other side of the same coin. What I mean is to turn and rail against the protesters about how "unchristian, horrible, evil, etc." for their view is just as bad as the stance they are taking. Instead I just wanted to say how sad it makes me, how I wish the Body of Christ could actually work together, and how much we need to love and pray for this type of believer. Do they have to rock out to Reliant K and the like? Of course not, they are not wrong in their choice of christian music, just as those who love loud screamo christian music are welcome to that choice. But instead of spending our time reaching the lost with Christ, we are allowing them to fall through the cracks from all of our petty arguments. Anyway, I just needed to share before it consumed me with sadness. Feel free to comment, but if your comments are hostile in nature, there's a good chance they won't be posted, just a forwarning. God bless.

-Matt

This week on RAC...

lots of stuff runnin through my head, so we'll just hit em all in quick snippets...

* Jennifer and the team made it back all safe and sound from India. Well, I guess sound. They got back to town about 1 a.m. Monday morning, and when Jennifer finally laid down to sleep at 1:30 she said it was the first time she'd laid down in a bed in 48 hours. So that plus the severe jet lag and we're still trying to get back to a "normal" routine. So yes they are safe, but the sound part is still up for debate. :D

* I get to go visit Nick on Tuesday and I'm VERY excited. I love Nick, he's one of the coolest people I know. It's funny, I was at college while he was in high school, so he's the brother I didn't get the privilege of watching mature and grow up. But man I love who he's become and that I get to call him a brother.

* One of the coolest things I heard about from the trip to India was this. The people pretty quickly found out that Dad was a "senior pastor". He said that after he prayed for people, they would kneel, touch his feet with their hands, then kiss their fingers. He then found out that it was because they wanted to take the blessing/annointing that was on him back to their families. Wow. How powerful is that? One, I know that reaffirmed to Dad the responsibility we have as ministers to reflect Christ, but also, how sad is it that we in the "civilized American church" don't have that same respect or desire for the annointing God has placed on his children. We are so spoiled.

* Jennifer and I went and saw "The Dark Knight" this week. (I wasn't allowed to see it without her so I had to wait a few days.) LOVED it. I love the new interpretation of Batman anyway, and any movie with Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine is always good, but Heath Ledger was amazing as the Joker. He just personified insanity. However, it can't help but make me wonder how much of that played a part in his death. I know (from articles) that Ledger was the type of actor who totally immersed himself in a character both in front of the cameras and behind the scenes. We'll never know how much, but that has to wear on your psyche.

* Here is my "spiritual awakening" moment for the week. I love movies. I love theater. I love dramas. I love watching the "unlikely hero" type roles. You know, the ones where a person isn't a superhero or anything, but finds himself/herself in a situation where bravery and conviction are called upon. I love to watch the person stand in the face of danger or death and coolly look it in the eye and not flinch. I know I have a bit of a "Messiah complex" in that I want to save everyone and fix everything (not my job, God is helping with putting that desire into proper perspective) and I have a desire to be a "hero". I know it. It's why I like those movies, it's partly why I love sports. And as I'm watching a particular show and watching the guy stand confidently and unwaveringly with a gun in his face, I felt that adrenaline rush of "ooh, that's awesome"... but suddenly I heard that still voice in my spirit say "Is that how I want you to react?" and it kinda threw me for a loop. There was a LOOOOOOOONG process of discussion with God on what He meant by that, but I'll give you the summary. When we face persecution in our lives is it better to stand and stare it down with confidence and stoicism or to look with love and tears in our eyes? Just a thought. (there's a lot more I could say, but I'll stop there for now.)

* We are still prepping for our trips to Albania and Mexico in the coming months. We should have all our flights for Albania taken care of by tuesday next week (which will be a huge relief) but there are still lots of details to work out. Please pray for us, we would love it.

* Stupid Cardinals... get my hopes up and then forget how to win. I've decided to quit my day job and become a reliever/closer for the Cards. I can give up runs just as well as they can and I'll come with a MUCH cheaper price tag. You wait. It's gonna happen.

* Illini Football is just around the corner! Woo hoo!

Ok, that's all for now. Hope all is well with you, I don't know how often you'll get updates in Aug. It's gonna be an insane month. But I'll do my best. God bless.