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| I am starting to get excited for my summer trip to Costa Rica. 7 Years ago, when I first went, I called it a mission trip, but since then, lots have changed and sometimes I feel guilty because it is so nice now. Future Leaders Conference 2007 will be from June 30th to August 8th. It will be in San Jose, Costa Rica. Here are some of my memorable moments of when I went to Costa Rica for Missions/Conference 1. One year we were in Upala, and did not have enough room in the tents for everyone. Jay and I sacrificed our bodies and slept outside. Keep in mind that it was about 85 degrees at night and full of mosquitos. We both woke up with our clothes soaked in sweat, mosquito bites all over our faces and it was really fun. It was like Survivor. 2. Another year, there was a bridge called bridge of faith in Upala. I took Hong Koo along with me to see this bridge. To this day, he keeps crying about "how he almost died because of me". He has no faith.....That trip was good. Before that trip, I have never hugged and prayed with a man for an hour. It was weird but in a Christian brotherly way..... 3. During the first FLC conference, I was a small group leader and I was in a room with couple of the guys. In the middle of the night, we decided to have a water balloon fight war when everyone was sleeping. We were running around the Mission complex with no lights, throwing water balloons at each other....its was pretty funny. We could not laugh or yell too much because we did not want to wake up the missionary and his family or others. 4. Last year, at the FLC conference, we were getting ready to go to church and someone decided to clog the toilet. I am not going to say who because no one admitted who it was. So, as people were getting ready for church, someone clogs one of the toilets and we know that in Costa Rica, you can't flush toilet paper down the toilet. No one would admit so we had all the participants in their Sunday outfit doing push ups as a group (men and women) until the guilty person confessed. Couple of the staff member ended up cleaning it up with some rubber gloves and that mystery was never solved but it was funny.... 5. One year, the bus ride up to Upala was about 5 hours from San Jose. It was not a smooth highway like here in the US. It was full of pot holes and the roads were curvy. We took two buses and I was in a bus with one of our Pastors and he wanted to pray though out the 5 hour trip. The only think I remember was falling asleep after the first hour and even our pastor fell asleep praying....even when I think about it, it makes me laugh....God is good and brings laugher into our lives... If you are intersted in serving as a staff member or helping out, give me a call..... | | |
| I was at this fancy restaurant where Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, & Vice President Cheney ate at. It was very up scale. I was with coworkers and the meal was picked up by another person.When I get a chance to go eat at a really fancy place, I try to pick out something from the menu that I normally will not order. So I was looking at the menu and I saw an appetizer that I wanted to try. The description was mostly in english and it was a dumpling with roasted duck inside. But in the description, it said that it was topped with FOIE GRAS. I did not really ask what it was but I was just interested in trying the roasted duck dumpling. When my appetizer came out, I saw this thing on the top of the dumplings. At first, it looked like a Portobello mushroom, so I cut a piece and put it in my mouth. It was gross. It was slimy and undercooked. As I started to cut into the "thing" and it was red inside and was definately not a mushroom. I said, "what the heck, this is not a mushroom". People around me were laughing and asking if I was OK. I said, "I don't know what this is but it's nasty". So the waitress comes back and I ask, "excuse me, what is this?" She says, "Its Foie Gras". I said, "What's that". She said, its "duck liver"....... I guess chef wanted to use all the duck for my appetizer. I have to say that I did not finish my duck dumplings and I could not get the taste of the duck liver out of my mouth. So what is my take away from this dinner..... I should always stick to what I know. It happens all the time when I try to be fancy and try fancy name foods. I guess it proves that I am simple and need simple tasting foods.... Also, since I was not paying, I was looking for an interesting and expensive appetizer but I should know by now that because its expensive, does not mean that it is good (at least for me) | | |
| This year, me and my brother cashed in by standing in line. Actually, if you add up our total savings, combined, we saved about $510 dollars.... its a lot of money and was worth it.... here is how we saved this much.... On Thanksgiving Thursday morning, there was a sale a Meijer. My bro and I stood in line on Thursday morning (day before black Friday) to pick up some stuff. We were at Meijer at about 5:00 AM. Then when we got out, went home, watched football, ate turkey (1st time for our family) then at 7:00 PM drove out to CompUSA and stood in line until 9:00 PM when they open their doors for 3 hours of shopping. We picked up some stuff there also. Then about 10:00 PM, me and my bro drove back over to Meijer and sat at the electronic counter from 10:00 PM until 5:00AM Friday morning to pick up more stuff. Me and my bro were the first in line at Meijer. During the wait, 4 cops came just in case the crowd became violent. There were some angry people due to people cutting in line. So at Meijer, after 5 hours sitting in line and 2 hours before the sale begins, the late night store manager says over the intercom that there is "no line". So the people in the back of the line starts to move up and there is tension and people started to yell at each other. The cops had to come and control the crowd. It was interesting. Then after Meijer, I went to Radio Shack and my bro when to Target and we waited in line until 6:00 AM to pick up more stuff. We came home about 7:00 AM and went to sleep. So was it worth it all, staying up for 26 hours straight to save $510 dollars.....YES. Its the thrill of the discount and the thrill of getting a good deal that someone else can't get. This past Black Friday was the most productive..... I got to spend quality time with my bro for 7 hours at Meijer and we saved lots of $$$. Most of the stuff we bought was for ourselves.....so don't think you will be getting anything from ME......Merry Christmas....hahahahaha OK so if you are asking how good can the deals be...well I picked up a nice Bluetooth headset for $10 buck after mail in rebate. Orginally it is $40 bucks. Thing like that. You save $30 bucks here and $50 bucks there and it all adds up. | | |
| I have been talking with some folks about mountain biking...and am very excited to go. Its a hobby of mine. When I lived in Milwaukee, I used to drive down to Kettle Moraine South State Park to go every other weekend or even every weekend. I have to say that for me, the best part of mountain biking is coming back with scratches and bruises....it tells you that at least you tried to have fun.
For me, the worst injury was when I hurt my neck. I ran into it a tree with my head. Thank goodness that I wore a bike helmet or else, it would have been real bad. I flew over the handle bars and speared the tree. I think the tree won that battle.
This one time, I took a group of youth group kids with me and he ended up spraining both of his wrist when he was going down hill and ran into a tree. The funny part was that we saw it happen....I laugh about it because the whole time we were yelling...hit the brakes....but that is what happens if you don't listen.
Another time, I took another person and it must have rained couple of days ago and the trail was really muddy. I turned this corner and yelled back saying to slow down because the trail was really muddy and slippery....I am not sure what had happened but all I heard was a big "thud". I stopped and turned around to see this person laying on a log and was in pain. They slipped and fell off the bike and hit their back on the log. It was really scared because the person was seeing stars and had a hard time breathing.
Every time I go, there are always good memories....I like to go mountain biking....
If you are interested in biking, here is my advice...most bikes, no matter what the brand is, uses the same components and the frame is built out of the same alloy. Look for the one that you like. Pick the one that catches your eye because of the paint job or design. Then go from there. No point in buying a bike for $300 to $600 dollars that you don't think that it looks "cool". | | |
| I came back about 3 days ago from Costa Rica on my conference/outreach trip. It was a blessing time for me. I spent 10 days with other brothers and sisters from Cali, NY, Colorado Springs, Wisconsin, and Costa Rica. The outreach time at Upala was great. I just want to say that God is awesome. He had put together all these random people in San Jose, Costa Rica for 10 days and it became a bonding/sharing/blessed time.
I have personally learned a lot about what high school students face these days and how they think. I am definitely OLD school or just OLD. Thanks to the sisters that helped me understand your generation. I also learned that my smile does go away...when I get upset. In the beginning, it was all smiles but as the conference went on and our staff in a positive way had to work on some rule violation, I realized that can lose the smile when needed....hahahaha
What I gained out of FLC this year is that we are put here on earth to spread the Gospel. It does not make a difference if we are in the nice mission center or in hot, bug infested Upala. Sometimes I think that I can bring someone to Christ by what I do or say or give but its not by our doing or will but all in God's timing. All I need to do is be a faithful and humble servant of our Lord Jesus Christ and just DO it. Just do it for God.
I am looking forward to 2007 and see what God has planned. For the people who attended this year, I'LL BE BACK. I hope all of you or many of you that attended this year would pray about coming back next year. I have taken pictures that I will post on the FLC website (www.casadegracia.net). Please check the website in a week or two for updated pictures as well as any info about FLC 2007. Missionary Mike has told me that FLC 2007 will be the first week of August.
Thank you to all who prayed for me, all who participated in FLC 2006 and to all who helped in making it a success. | | |
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