What happened Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Today

Sorry I haven't written in a few days. Here's a recap of what happened.
So on Thursday Ithaca has this festival called "The Ithaca Festival" (imagine that) and the parade is right near the church. So Tab gave out hot dogs and lemonade and all for the novel price of $0(AKA free). And even though we didn't give away as many as we wanted to we gave out a good amount. The Gideons(the guys who give out new testament/proverbs and psalms bibles) gave away several New Testaments as well! God is so good! That was Thursday.
On Friday, this girl named Jacquelyn(she follows this blog and is great at giving out advice) was graduating. I made a pit stop at the Bakers' house and Mr. Baker and I talked a lot about my blog and some other stuff. So at this graduation, I learned how to be a thirsty camel(don't ask) and we sang some really great hymns that I hadn't sung in a while. It was great! I got to see her and a bunch of my other pals! That was Friday.
Then, Saturday came. Saturday evening there was a dinner at the church for the missionaries that were going to be speaking on Sunday. The missionary's name was Dan Wood. He came with a part of his family: Danny(who was 15), Analis(who was 6) and Tovia(who was 5). He is ministering to Jewish people in southern Brazil. I got to listen to Mr. Wood and learn a lot. That was Saturday.
Sunday was today(or tomorrow or some other day, depending on when you read this). I listened to Mr. Wood during Sunday school and learned a lot about what he does and about his life and his family's life in south Brazil. Then, he sang this really cool song in morning service in Hebrew! It was so cool! He gave some of his family's history and preached on Acts 8:26-40. He went 10 minutes overtime, but he said some things that I really needed to hear. After he spoke, he and his family came to my house for lunch. I got to know Danny better, and we found out that we have a lot in common. It was so neat! God has really blessed me over the past few days! I am super thankful for all he has given to me!

Jail: Right or Wrong?

Fact #1: The Bible says that evil should be punished. In the Bible wrong choices are always followed by consequences.
Fact#2: The Bible says that hanging with evildoers is not good. The Bible warns people to avoid evildoers.
Fact#3: Putting people in jail for life gives them no chance to redeem themselves.
Fact#4: Putting people in jail is a form of punishment.
Fact#5: While in jail, people will run into tons of bad influences and evildoers.
Fact#6: Putting people in jail protects the person in jail and other people.

So based on all these facts, is jail a good or bad idea? Should we go back to the old "cut of people's hands if they steal"? Here's what I think...
Prison is a good idea. Wrong needs to be punished. People who have commited crimes are a potential threat to themselves and those around them. The people that a criminal is imprisoned with may not be the greatest, but that really can't be helped. Being with people like that is almost a punishment itself. So is jail good or bad? In my opinion it is for the most part good. What are your thoughts? Leave me a comment!

Pain in the Third Dimension

So yesterday was one of the most painful days in my life. Here's how it happened.
I was riding my scooter down the residential road called Westwood Knoll(or knolls I'm not sure which) when I hit something(or the front wheel went into a rut). I went flying 10 feet in the air(well maybe more like 2 feet) and the scooter launched me 5 yards (well maybe more like 5 feet). I put out my hands and took most of the injury on my right side. I was seriously hurt,but somehow I ran(as fast as a man in pain can) all the way up the hill in the front lawn and ran into my grandparent's house. They doctored me up, and with the help of bandaids I was okay...for a while.
I had seriously scraped up my right hand and right elbow. I also had minor scratches on my left hand, right side of my right knee, and my right ankle. But as I said before I was only okay for the moment. When I had fallen, I had landed and put all of my weight on my right hand. My right wrist acted like a shock absorber. Long story short I have a sprained wrist that caused me crazy bad pain all afternoon on Saturday. The pain was so bad I couldn't even the lightest of objescts with my right hand thus I was using my left hand for everything. You have no idea how hard it is to play computer games, brush your teeth,and eat with your left hand when you are a righty. I dare you to take the Feelin Lefty Challenge. Do everything with your left hand for one whole day(or if you are a lefty do everything with your right hand). Hopefully I will be able to play the piano write and such by Monday.

All the Art in my life

So this morning, a man from our church(who is a painter) came and gave my family a painting that he painted. It looks really awesome! This is the painting here below the melodious words I have typed.
The other thing with art that is in my life is this game that is pictured here below all these words that I am typing. The game is called "Masterpiece". In it you buy painting and sell them and try to make a fast buck by selling them for more than they are worth. This is Parker Brother's fourth game, and was made in 1970. It is out of print however which is probably why you don't see it in stores. Even though it isn't made anymore if you see it at a garage sale or inherit it from your grandma Ethel or you have the chance to play it, play it! It is way fun. So I have had a lot of artzy stuff in my life lately. And I guess that's about it.

Hey, Everyone!

Hey,everyone! (Wait I just said that,if you read the title. But if you didn't; Hi everyone! There now. I said it twice or threee times, but if you didn't... ah forget it...) So I am now somewhat famous. Katy Case has allowed me to write on her blog. If you want to check out what I wrote(maybe you already have) here's the link:
http://110surrendered.blogspot.com/2009/05/whats-it-all-about-another-special.html
By the way I would also highly recomend checking out the rest of her blog,because even though it doesn't have anything to do with me it is still awesome.
PS PLEASE VOTE!
(Thanks to the one person that has voted so far.)

Fooling around

So I was fooling around with PowerPoint today and made these cool(in my opinion) pictures/posters. Tell me what you think.

PS Please Vote!

My Testimony(and my life after that)

So today I had to share my testimony with the deacons at TAB. And I thought, "I'll bet not too many of my pals probably know my testimony." And so in my ingenuity I have decided to share my testimony and what God did after that, because probably the coolest part of my life comes after my salvation. So here goes...ahem...
So I was raised in a Christian home. (My dad's a pastor and my mom is a pastor's wife(imagine that).) My mom was always was telling me about God, but as a three or four year-old I didn't give it a lot of thought. God really started working on my life one summer at VBS. Every day at the end of Bible time, the teacher(who happened to be the senior pastor's wife)gave the plan of salvation and asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus into his/her heart. I thought a lot about that in my five year-old peanut butter brain. I thought about it even a week later. Then, one night after prayer meeting, my mom told me and my sister to clean our room(we shared a room at the time). So while I was picking up the toys scattered around the room, I was still thinking. I said to my mom(and I quote), "Mom, could you tell me more about that...Jesus thing?" My mom and I went into her bedroom, and she explained it to me again. And so that night(August 8,1999) I accepted Christ. That in itself is AWESOME! But to quote a wise man, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"
So after I got saved I went to a new believer class where I got taught 1 on 2(there was another boy in the class with me). We learned all about fruits of the Spirit and communion and baptism and cool stuff like that. When I first heard about baptism I was a little hesitant, because I couldn't swim. Years later after I came to Wyoming...NY(I just love doing that to people) I decided that I needed to be baptized. I must have been 9 or so when I got baptized. I don't remeber the date of my baptism or how old I was, but I do know that I was obeying Jesus in what I did.
So after that my spiritual life just sort of bumped along the road and not much really happened with me spiritually speaking. When I was 10 I reaffirmed my salvation.
The really cool part of my life happened after that. I started going to Lamoka Baptist Camp.(If you've never been there you are really missing out.) There I really grew closer to God. But that isn't the awsomest part. No, the awesomest part was when I went on a missions trip to Lamoka. There I really,really grew closer to God. I got to share the gospel. And if that wasn't enough I made some really godly friends. So that is my life in Christ.
(If you would like to share your testimony, email it to me and I will put it on my blog.
Thanks to all you few that voted on my poll. The answer is Taylor Mason. He is a really good Christian ventriloquist. By the way the other comedians are really good too, and you should really check them out.)

What I think

So yesterday I was going to get around to the computer to write this, but I got side tracked. But I'm here now. So yesterday the big thing was(at Yahoo!, anyway) that a kid went to his girlfriend's prom and got suspended. That is the short version. Here is the fuller version. The Christian school he attends has a no dancing,hand-holding(unless your a kindergartner),or kissing set of rules. The guy (we'll call him Joe, because the guy seems so nondescript),Joe, was going to his girlfriend's prom that was at a public school. Obviously the prom involves dancing. So when the principal got wind of this he told Joe, "Joe if you do go you will be suspended." So Joe(the immature nucklehead that I think he is) went to the prom anyway. The school suspended him, and he has it in his head that he made the right decision. And for the icing on the cake he is suing the school.

Let me just tell you my ideas on this situation. Some of them are my personal beliefs, some are straight from the Bible.

• My personal belief on dancing is that some is OK(like waltzing and square dancing), while others is wrong(like jumparound the room,bang your head against the wall). So I'm not sure what kind of dancing there was at this place,but depending on what kind of dancing they were doing,it could be either right or wrong. I'm inclined to think it was the second kind of dancing. Thus, wrong decision.
• The principal tells him he will be suspended if he goes to this prom. Basically he is saying not to go. Joe goes anyway. That is outright disobedience to authority! You can hide around the excuse, "He didn't say not to do it.",because really he didn't say he could either.
• In 1 Corinthians 6:7 it says,"The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?" In other words: suing is stupid. Stupid may be a mean word, but it descibes some people pretty well. Me included at some times.

So those are my veiws on the situation. If you have other thoughts let me know and leave a comment. PS Please vote!

Cool Quotes

So I came across this quote in literature class today.
"It is our business as readers of literature, to know what we like. It is our business as Christians, as well as readers, to know what we ought to like. T.S. Eliot
That made me think. Shouldn't this apply to everything we watch on TV or listen to. We should know what we ought to like and do that instead of reading/listening/watching the stuff we like that doesn't match up with Scripture.
My science teacher was talking about how he thought that listening to rock music was wrong. He said that rock music can damage your hearing. So if your body is the temple of the Lord, then you're ruining the temple of the Lord. Hmmm? Casting Crowns,for instance, doesn't always have blaring songs that make your ears bleed. But they're classified as a rock band. Does that mean that we shouldn't listen to that? Again, hmmm?
I was reading my Bible, and came across a very cool quote.
"Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." John21:25 ESV
I thought about that for a while. Wow! Our God is an awesome God!

Happy Mother's Day!

I found this poem by Bill Watterson(the really cool guy who writes Calvin and Hobbes comics) in the "Lazy Sunday Book". I thought it was fitting considering it is Mother's Day.

__________________

I was going to but a card

With hearts of pink and read,

But then I thought I would rather

Spend the money on me instead.

__________________________

It's awfully hard to buy things

When one's allowance is so small,

So I guess you're pretty lucky

I got you anything at all.

____________________________

"Happy Mother's Day to you."

There I said it Now I'm done

So how 'bout getting out of bed

And making breakfast for your son?

_______________________________

Happy Mother's Day!

A Funny Thing Happened While I Was Mowing...

So a funny thing happened while I was mowing today. I was going long minding my own business when, "CHUNK!" The mower stopped. No biggie. I pulled the mower backward to see what I hit. I couldn't see anything. So I started the mower up again...that is I tried to start it again. The cord wouldn't pull. Come to find out the Mower blade was bent! My grandad and I tried to bend it back, but to no avail(Not sure what that means, but they say it a lot in books when someone is trying to do something, but can't). So I will probably be paying for a brand new mower blade quite soon. If you want to help me and make a donation to my cause, please call the toll free number on the bottom of your screen. But wait call in the next 5 minutes and you'll get a Danny show mug, compliments of "The Danny Show".
I learned something out of all of this: Don't ever bend the mower blade! It is bad doojoo!

Pizza and Walking With God

So tonight I was eating pizza. I love pizza!(But seriously who doesn't. If you don't I pity you.) I had two pieces of pizza and two glasses of Mountain Dew. After which, I felt extremely sick. So I was thinking. Piazza tastes good. Yet it makes me sick, and isn't healthy. Vitamins are disguting.(Well, except vitamin C. That tastes good. But I had to take these chewable vitamins when I was little, that(no joke)tasted like flavored grit. Blech!) But disguting as some vitamins are they are healthy, and I have less chance of getting sick. Are we in our Christian life bogged down with pizza and mountain dew? The stuff in our life that really isn't good for a christian to be looking at/listening to/doing, but we do it because it feels good or satisfies us(for the time being). But when we go to read our Bible or go to church(the stuff that is awesome for our walk with Christ) we whine and say, "Do we have to?" or "Oh, OK." or "*heavy exhale* OK, come on let's go."? We have to stop eating the pizza of life, and eat the vitamins of the Christian walk! And eventually the vitamins will stop tasting like flavored grit and be like vitamin C. So that was just something I was thinking about today. So it is super late, and I better get to bed. Hopefully I won't ever post this late at night again.

Trampoline Fun(Take 2)

So yesterday, I had more time than I thought. So I took a few pics along with the help of an unnamed photographer. I have a tendency to jump extremely high. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how high. Probablymy feet are about 4 feet above the trampoline. That makes my head about 9-10 feet off the trampoline's surface and even higher off the ground!

This is yet another photo of me jumping. Unfortunately, the unprofessional photographer cut off my head.

And this is me doing a flip. It isn't as easy as it looks and it doesn't look easy. Translation is: it is difficult.

And this is me!

This just shows how high I am. Compare the size of the flipflop in picture 1 to the size in picture 2 when I am at my highest point. WOW! If I do say so myself.

Trampoline Fun

So I am a dingdong(there I admit it). And as a dingdong I tend to do dorky stuff, like what just happened a few minutes ago. I was looking at my blog, and I noticed I hadn't blogged in a while.

"What can I write about?"

"Why not take a bunch of dorky pictures of you on the trampoline?" Heather said in joking

And then I had an epiphany! I could take pictures of me on the trampoline! I was a genius. But I didn't have a lot of time to do that. So I'm posting pics I've taken in years past(it is sort of a hobby of mine).

So this is me in all my trampoline jumping/launching glory. Notice the way I have my mouth open at an exact 45 degree angle. That's talent.

So this is one of my favorite hobbies: Golf ball throwing. We dingdongs enjoy these things psycotic as they are. Unfortunately...

...this hobby is also quite dangerous. Searing pain can ensue when, the proper safety precausions aren't taken. A helmet and mouthguard are useful tools in this odd dingdongish hobby.

This is one of my favorite things to do. Flips cannonball style are way fun. If you have not experienced this you are quite deprived.

Sometimes things don't turn out right. Well, left. At least I think it is my left. You don't always get the perfect picture. But sometimes you get a funny caption:)

What Happened Today

So what happened today. First, I woke up(no surprise there). Then, I had breakfast and listened to FLN(Family Life Network) until about 9:00 AM Eastern time. Then, I helped Mike Smith pull up all the electric lights(they all had wiring which were a pain to pull up) and put in solar lights. (I'm talking about the garden lights in the front beds by the way.) After that was done Mr. Miller and Mr. Apthorp showed up and we did a little trench digging. When it rains all the water comes down the hill and pushes against my grandparents home. So we dug this trench(about 4 inches deep and 6 inches wide) that went to a natural drain in our lawn. Then, we put heavy cement blocks over it and created a walkway. Next, Mr. Apthorp brought out his chainsaw. That's when the fun started. We cut down limbs and vines that might fall on the house. We had a huge pile by the end. Before it looked like a mess. And now it still looks like a mess, but you can tell someone has been there. After everyone left Mom and Dad headed off for Ron Miller's installment at Dryden. And while they were gone we had all the neighbborhood kids come over and jump on the trampoline in the back. Fun! So other than that nothing else really happened.

Cryptid of the month

The AGOGWE:

Biped, about 1.5 m tall( a little under 5 feet), reddish hair, rounded forehead

First sighted: Captain William Hitchens in about 1900 spotted the animal on a lion hunt in East Africa.

Other names: Orang Pedenk,Sehite(Ivory Coast)

YES: Surviving primate said to be extinct "millions of years ago"(we know it definitely wasn't that long!), gibbon walking on two legs, multiple sightings

NO: Gibbons rarely walk on two legs and what is more they can't do it for very long, no photos

Hmmm? Real or fake?

If I Had 10,000 Dollars...

If you were in charge of Youth Group, and some one gave you $10,000 to help out with your youth ministry, what would you do with it? Mr. Baker and I were talking about it on Sunday afternoon. What are you supposed to do with ten thousand dollars? One of Mr. Baker's ideas was to pay kids $5to come to youth group or to listen to some one preach.(He was kidding of course:) But think about it. If you had all that moola and you gave people money to come listen to some one speak, for an hour to and hour and a half, would they listen? Would they really take to heart was said? Would they come even if there wasn't moola involved?(Don't you just love the word "moola". Makes me want to jump on the tramoline.)
Mr. Baker said that quote "Someone said they would put up a big banner. Interesting but why not grab a paint brush and a large piece of flat surface and do that now. I'm certain it would not cost anywhere near $10000."
Some of my ideas were to use the money for ministry trips. Not like going to Zimbabwe and using all the money to pay for one person to go, but like going to Arkansas to help a church with VBS and useing the money to pay for gas to get there. Or to use the money to go to a Baptist camp(like Lamoka(which by the way is just about the coolest place ever!)) and pay for the gas to get there. Or using the money to help pay for supplies on a ministry trip(like hoola hoops, bubbles, water guns. Cool and totally fun stuff like that.)
Another idea is using the money to do something similar to what we did in NYC. Give out hotdogs(after all who doesn't like food!) and do music.
So what would you do if you had all that moola? Leave a comment to tell me your ideas.