Past, present and future trips

Back from one more trip and 3 more on the horizon....

The 19th of May, my best friend Rodney, his wife Maggie, their baby Hannah, Maggie’s sister Hayley, and I piled into a rented Kia Sedona mini-van to make our way to Maggie and Hayley’s brother and sister-in-law’s house in Walton, KY (just south of Cincinnati). The 14.5 hour trip seemed to fly by. Even with a 9-mo old, we made minimal stops and I feel like we made great time...even with stopping for dinner at Chick-fil-A (Hannah’s first Chick-fil-A experience)!

The day following our day-long journey, I left the house early to spend some time with some pastors/leaders at nearby churches. I spent time with Howard Megill at the KY state offices, Brett Talley and Jeff Perkins at Mt. Sterling Church of God, my cousin Jeremy Zerkle (grad student at Asbury), and two new friends from Eastland Church of God in Lexington, Dave and Marty Sperow. It was a long day, but totally worth it!

The rest of my time in Kentucky, I tried to relax a bit. It didn’t really happen all the time, but the opportunities I was able to relax were such a welcomed blessing! Now I’ve been back for almost a week and I’m planning for my next three upcoming trips.

First trip.....this Friday I am flying out to Roanoke, Va to spend the next week talking with different churches. The goal is to visit churches in the following: Roanoke, Chillhowie, Dublin, Blacksburg, Fairfax, and maybe others. I am grateful to these pastors for letting me interrupt their busy schedules.

Second trip....I will be flying to Indiana from June 24 - July 6 to not only spend time at NAC in Anderson, but also to visit with pastors/churches and to try to spend some time with my brother before I leave for Europe again. Can’t wait to see him, but not too excited about all the work that I’ll be doing! :-)

Third trip....July 11-18 I will be heading to House of Blessing orphanage in Haiti with a group of about 50. This trip is for a couple of reasons....first of all, I just was ready to do a missions trip. I’ve been in the states now for almost a whole year and I’m itching to experience something different again, if only for a week! Secondly, my church (South Lake Wales Church of God) has partnered with House of Blessing for many years now and so I will be going as a part of the Missions Task Force to see first hand the ministry that’s taking place. I am thoroughly excited about this trip, however, I’m focused on the first two first!

Silence...why are you so hard to handle?

There’s something I love about flying. I think it’s b/c it’s the stillness of it all. I’ve noticed it before when I’ve traveled, but for some reason this time the silence was amplified...and it wasn’t until about 30 minutes into the flight that I realized what was going on.

My tired mind began to drift as the muffled roar of the engines caused my head, propped up against the window of my exit-aisle seat, to vibrate. The TVs in the aisle were getting a work-out, but without paying for the cheap headphones, my attention was diverted elsewhere. I heard the stewardess as she politely asked passengers ahead of me what they wanted to quench their thirst in the dry cabin, but her voice seemed to sound like a whisper although she wasn’t whispering at all....that’s just the way voices sound in an airplane. By this point in the flight I had already browsed through the Delta travel magazine and its seat-back-pocket travel companion, “SkyMall“, and now had nothing to occupy my time but silence. Then it hit me....I’ve never felt so uncomfortable with the silence before in my life.

It was about this time that I began to question my motive for placing my carry-on bag in the storage bin above my aisle instead of under the seat in front of me because now I had nothing to do. Sure I had more leg room, but now I was confronted with the rest of my 2 hour flight with nothing to do...no ipod, no sudoku or crossword puzzle, no pen for doodling, NOTHING! Of course I could have asked my neighbor next to me to move so I could stand up to get my belongings from above our heads, but as I turned to ask him I realized he looked like he was occupied...it seemed with the way his head was dancing around in his deep sleep that he may have been dreaming about his one opportunity as an armless conductor of an orchestra, with only his head to communicate the tempo of the song to the musicians. Then I took it like a man and realized that every once-in-awhile you have to battle the silence.

It’s been so long before I’ve just been still. With everything going on around me, I haven’t found much time to not be occupied by something. Work. Global Missions. Friends. Family. TV. Radio. Billboards. They scream for my attention everywhere I go and seem almost unsatisfied when they don’t have it 100%. There’s a pull in all directions for what’s going to get my time each day. Like a game of tug-o-war, I feel the daily ‘to-do’ list pulling on my rope of attention while my Lord and Savior digs in his heals to fight back as I try to stay focused on His Word in my daily devotions. But it’s a struggle. Recently, with everything going on around me, I’ve just found it so hard to just ‘Be Still’.

So there I sat in the cabin of a lifeless airplane with nothing to do, and I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t have anyone to talk to, no website to check, no pastor to annoy asking for money, no task for work that I could have been completing, no new magazine to read...just me and the Lord. It had been so long since I didn’t have many other things fighting for my time, that I didn’t even know how to pray without having to force my attention one way instead of another....for the first time in as long as I can remember, there was nothing else competing for my attention. It’s unfortunate that I didn’t know how to respond in that time of silence because there are so few times when we are forced to stay silent. But as I de-boarded the plane and walked along the cold path of the Wichita airport, my eyes bounced off the bright signs in the hall, my ears filled with people talking and speakers announcing the next departing flight, i felt my phone vibrate in my pocket demanding that I pick it up, and it was then I realized...I can’t wait to be back in the air. I can’t wait to be forced into silence once again.

25 things about me...it's a facebook thing

Well, I guess I’m gonna join the bandwagon....not simply just to join the bandwagon, but this is more for me. I think it’s important to do a self-evaluation every once in awhile and trying to come up with 25 interesting things about me is making me think hard about who I am:
Here’s to jumping on the bandwagon!

1) I was a good student in high school and college, but sometimes I wonder how much I actually learned as opposed to how many times I just did the assignments to get the grade.

2) I hate to read, always have. I probably have 25 books that I’ve started but have never finished.

3) It’s been a life-long dream of mine to learn another language. I’ve started multiple times (Spanish, Swedish, Hungarian) but I’m actually gonna succeed with German.

4) I hate change yet I have a hard time staying the same. Since I graduated college (May 2004) I’ve lived (for at least 2 months) in 8 different places (in chronological order):
        Lake Wales
        Lulea, Sweden (tak sa mycket Mats och Stina)         
        Lake Wales
        Goshen, Indiana (thanks J...I OWE YOU HUGE)
        Lake Wales (sense a theme?...all different houses in Lake Wales though)
        Budakeszi, Hungary (nagyon szepen koszonom Philips family!)
        Budapest, Hungary (sziastok baratom Budapesten)
        Winter Haven, FL

5) I have a couple of things that absolutely drive me crazy. I hate loud things and/or noises (think Ty Pennington SCREAMING into a bullhorn that amplifies his voice EVEN MORE!). Because of my hatred for loud things, I dislike balloons and fireworks because they make loud popping noises at unpredictable times. Also, I can’t stand peanut butter, cheese, or bread getting stuck to the roof of my mouth. It literally makes me go insane! The last thing I’ll mention that I hate is when I’m trying to think of something specific and I can’t think of it. That’s my OCD coming out

6) I’ve never learned more from anyone in the world than I have from my good friends Dave and Greta Reames. They taught me more about love, forgiveness, missions, relationships, abiding in Christ, etc than anyone else and I am forever indebted to them for all the wisdom they shared as they became transparent and vulnerable with me in our Sunday night conversations before I moved overseas. Thanks guys!

7) There’s not a movie I enjoy watching more than Simon Birch.

8) My favorite thing to do in the world is travel. It’s more enjoyable with other people, but I’m not opposed to travel by myself. I’ve been to 35 states and 29 countries. It’s also a secret dream of mine to be on the Amazing Race!

9) I hate my name in cursive (I don’t have any letters that go up or down....nor do I have anything to cross or dot....just a bunch of small curvy letters)

10) One of the proudest moments of my life was holding my best friend and his wife’s newborn baby. Hannah you are the cutest girl I’ve ever seen and I’m so proud of you already!

11) I have one of the weakest stomach’s ever...I can’t even watch the intro to ER b/c I hear the heart monitor beep and it causes me to get queazy. Some people seem to the think it’s funny to tell gory stories in front of me to see my reaction....I struggle to find the humor

12) I’m not a birthday person. I don’t celebrate my own very much and therefore don’t make a big deal of others.

13) I’m hoping that the Lord’s plan for my life includes a great woman out there for me and that after we get married, we’ll be blessed with unbelievably handsome boys and drop dead gorgeous girls! However, I’m confident that if I don’t get married (or if it’s not until later in life) I’m gonna enjoy being a bachelor.

14) I can be EXTREMELY emotional and empathetic at times. If I see you cry there’s a great chance that I’ll be crying too. And if you throw up....GUARANTEED I’ll be throwing up after you (see #11)!

15) If I could live off of eating double-stuffed oreos, hint of lime tostitos, hot tamale candy, fresh fruit and publix subs, I would

16) I might be one of the biggest people pleasers you’ll ever meet. I want EVERYONE to be happy ALL THE TIME and it really bothers me when they’re not.

17) I decided my first trip out of the country that I was going to start saving barf bags from planes as souvenirs from trips b/c they are the cheapest souvenir one can find. I can’t even begin to tell you how many I have. I actually stopped accepting them from other people who brought them home for me b/c I have too many!

18) Thanks to my bro, I’m a big fan of celebrating Cinco de Mayo

19) One thing I love to do more than anything is to laugh. Someone that makes me laugh more than anyone is my best friend Rodney. He has a special gift to make even stressful situations humorous.

20) Out of all the places in the world I’ve been, my favorite things I’ve seen or done include: spending a night in the IceHotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden; riding a camel in front of the great pyramids in Egypt; standing in awe on the train tracks in Auchwitz Concentration camp in Poland; driving a reindeer sled in Kiruna, Sweden; attending a Bryan Adams concert in downtown Budapest with my brother; waiting in the hospital waiting room and finding out that Hannah was born (see #10)

21) I hate answering the question ‘what do you see yourself doing’ or ‘where do you see yourself 5 years from now.’ Seriously, as if 5 years ago I had ANY clue that I would be BACK in the Lake Wales area after living overseas for 2 years and planning to move back? I have NO CLUE what I“ll be doing in 5 years!

22) I’m a huge fan of people watching. Not just in airports or malls like most, but in life. It may not make sense, but I I think everyone has something that they can teach me so I try to learn from everyone as I stand back and observe. One person that I enjoy observing right now is my boss b/c I feel as if he is one of the most Godly leaders I’ve ever met. He inspires me to be more just by the way he lives.

23) My most embarrassing moment in life came when I was a first grade teacher and I mixed up the ‘Ch’ in the name ‘Chucky’ with the ‘F’ in the name ‘Fabian’ and asked ‘What’s a F#(*y doll anyway Chabian?’

24) I feel as if I had been deceived by every weatherman I had ever watched on tv growing up until the great weatherman Steve Jerve enlightened me about 3 years ago. Did you know that when they say ‘there’s a 20% chance of rain’ it DOESN’T mean that there’s a 20% chance that you’ll get rain today? It really means that 20% of their viewing area will get rain today. And I don’t care what you say....THOSE STATEMENTS ARE NOT THE SAME THING!

25) If the only thing that was on TV was college and NFL football, college basketball, The Office, 24, Lost, The Amazing Race, and Jeopardy, I would be VERY happy!
25b) I love playing ”Jeopardy! ” while watching the show...in fact, I actually keep score while I’m watching with friends. Thanks guys for putting up with my idiosyncrasies!


There you have it...now you know me 25x better than when you first started reading!

Bible in a year

I’ve tried to go through the bible in a year many times. It’s usually a new year’s resolution, but I’ve rarely had success with it. This time is different though. This time I actually have a plan and have a guide that tells me what to read each day. It used to be where I just started in Genesis and tried to go all the way through the bible. Now, I’m focused...and now I’m excited! And I have partners doing this with me. Thank you Tam and Maggie for your dedication. I pray God’s continued blessings on you as you go through His Word this year!

It started off in John then jumped to Genesis. Halfway through Genesis it moved to Job and that’s where I’m at now. As I read through some of Genesis I decided I wanted to be like Enoch. If you look at Genesis 5 it gives a detailed lineage of Adam all the way to Noah. What caught my eye is that for each person (Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah), it says how long they lived before their son was born and then whether or not they had more sons or daughters, and then finally how long they lived. Enoch is different though. It doesn’t just say that he had a son, then more kids, then died....no, he stands out because it says ‘Enoch walked with God’.

This really got me thinking. I wonder what people say when I die. What will my legacy be? If I’m written about after I die, will it just be about the formalities (Aaron was born ___, he got a degree from ___, lived overseas, worked as ____, had x-amount of kids, and died)? I hope that’s not it. I hope that people see that I walk with God. I hope that I stand out in the lists of people. I pray that as I go through this year of reading the bible, people begin to see that not only am I living, but that like Enoch, I’ll be known to walk with God.

Then, each of Enoch's ancestors before him ‘died’. However, in Enoch’s case, ‘he was no more, because God took him away.’ He didn’t die...he didn’t experience death like all his ancestors before him. God took him!

I’m living my life different from today's cultural norm. I’m determined not to die. I’m determined to be taken by God. Don’t misunderstand me...I’m gonna die at some point, but because I’m walking with God, I have more promised to me after death. I’m not just going to die. I’m taken somewhere else. Praise be to God!

Hip Hip Hooray!!!

Praise the Lord....I called a church today and found out that they will be sponsoring me. Thank you County Line Church of God (Auburn, IN) for allowing God to use you to bless me!

Thanksgiving

This being the first Thanksgiving I've been in the states in 3 years, I'm pretty pumped. Here's what I've done so far...

I flew up to Detroit, Michigan last Friday to be in attendance, along with all my other extended family members, at my Aunt Patty's college graduation! (Congrats Aunt Patty....we're all proud of you!) Since I was up here for that, I decided that I would take advantage of the time I had to visit some churches in the area. My Uncle John pastors Pennway Church of God in Lansing so I enjoyed hearing him speak this past Sunday.

Today I visited Pastor Greg Capsel at Millington Church of God in Millington, MI (about 1.45 hours away from Lansing). I'm telling you, if I wasn't on staff at a church and didn't live so far away, I would be attending his church. The building itself is beautiful and is used for all kinds of ministry...including housing the local high school's basketball practice 4 days a week. No better way to serve the community than to allow your resources to be used. Then spending time with this intellegent man of God was such an honor. I left after about 35 minutes wishing I would have had a tape recorder in order to replay all that he said. Thanks for your time Pastor Greg.

I'm hoping to visit more churches tomorrow and then this coming Sunday, but I'm really looking forward to just taking some time to relax this weekend with my cousin Christy. Christy and I are like peas in a pod. Whenever our families are together, we are inseperable. Obviously since I've been out of country the past couple of years, we haven't had much time to hang out, so I'm really looking forward to her coming back up to Michigan tomorrow night!

Obviously I'm a bit behind

I just haven’t gotten the hang of this blogging thing just yet. I feel like if I write about everything I’m doing, you readers will get bored. So then what I do is write about nothing. But today I have a couple of updates....(work, Global Missions fundraising, and personal).

Work (South Lake Wales Church of God)...I can honestly say I don’t know that I could enjoy work more. I LOVE IT! I love my boss, my co-workers, church people. My big projects right now are to work with our new LifeGroups starting up. We have some GREAT leaders of LifeGroups and to be honest, if I wasn’t leading a group, I would have a hard time picking out a group to go to.

Last weekend, Nov 9, I had to preach at South. I’ve preached before, but it’s a bit different here. First of all, it’s different b/c there are two services. So just at the point you think you’re done, here comes a whole nother service that you have to be ampped up for. The second thing is that I was preaching in front of people that I’ve known for about 16 years now. That can be intimidating b/c they know me so well, but then at other times it was encouraging b/c I could think that no matter what I did, they would still love me. Long story short, I spoke on ‘calling’ and told them about my calling. The scripture was from Judges 6 and 7 with the story of Gideon and it followed my train of thought of going in to war with a trumpet and jar. Overall I felt like things went well and I’m glad that I don’t have to do that again anytime soon!

Global Missions....God’s doing some good things. I just spoke with a church a church last Saturday that I think is going to help with my start-up funds. Also, I turned in an application to a church in Olathe, Kansas last week. My brochures from the Global Missions office went out last weekend too. That’s gonna help get the ball rolling I hope. Now I just have to do a lot of follow-ups. If you haven’t received a brochure and you would like to receive one, just let me know.

Personal....Things have been a bit crazy on that front. I find that I get so wrapped up in work and GM stuff that I don’t concentrate tons on my personal life. Then, I realize that some of my relationships with friends have been effected by that. Some of the work and GM stuff I can change and then regret later on the ways that I have hurt some friends in the process of not making time for them. Other things I can’t change and that means that my friends need to be understanding. Hasn’t always been the case, but that’s okay. I still value those friends’ relationships.

In other news, I go to the doctor AGAIN today. I’m still waiting to hear back the results to my x-rays on my wrist. Last Tuesday night I was playing Church Softball when I slid into second base. I guess I must have put my left hand down incorrectly, b/c now it is soooo painful to even try to move it. I’ve gone to the doctor and radiologists and now I’m just waiting to hear back from my my doc. I don’t really care what they tell me...I just want to know what’s going on and what I can do to make it better. I guess that’s the problem with not having health insurance....you have to go to cheaper doctors and radiologists who take longer to get results to you.

Last bit...this week I’m going up to Michigan to see my aunt and uncle and to do some fundraising for GM. Not really excited about the fundraising part, but the rest of it I’m PUMPED about.