Long deserved update

It's been a while so I thought I should give a quick update on what has been going on in my life this past week. I doubt anyone reads this anymore but it bugs me that it has been so long since I have updated :)

Last Wednesday my sister and I competed in the St Joseph County 4H fair youth talent competition. (picture to the left) I sung a Bebo Norman song and got 3rd place ... I was happy with myself since this was my first year although I was also kicking myself for messing up towards the end. I never messed up during practice and I wasn't even nervous ... that figures.

This past Tuesday I filmed a music video for a Shawn McDonald contest. Took a total of about three days to complete the video including writing/planning, shooting, and editing. Three days for a three-minute video ... never ceases to make me appreciate any kind of technical art ... it is not as easy as some may think. It was a lot of fun working with my new video camera shooting in downtown South Bend (and everyone staring and asking what we were doing ... ha-ha) and of course getting some good sun.

Past couple days I have been at a leadership conference at church. It has been greatly beneficial to me and the nuggets I have taken away from the past couple days will last me a while. Some very good speakers with some very good things to say ... much worth the time investment.

Well that's all for me from the past two weeks. Hopefully I will update again sooner rather than later ... if you are still reading feel free to leave me a comment and motivate me to update again :)

An update

As we approach the Easter weekend, the word from one of the Hospice nurses is looking like it might be tomorrow sometime. Of course, in her words, "We aren't in charge" We all know that God has His perfect timing in this whole situation. Thanks to all of the prayers I know are being prayed for this situation. Everyone seems to be holding up pretty well, on the outside anyway. Just trying to stay focused on the task at hand and not think about anything else.

Been looking at old pictures of Grandpa. It is really nice because it helps me to remember him how I want to remember him. I just really pray for my Grandma because I know this has to be really hard on her, and I just pray for God's divine comfort to be on her through these coming months, days, hours.

Thanks again to everyone who has been praying for our family.

Prayer Request...

I could really use your prayers for my Grandpa. As many of you know he has Parkinsons and has been struggling for quite a while. Well, the way he is looking now, he may not be around for much longer. He really is ready to go home, so it is a bittersweet moment as I know that he will be in a better place where he won't have to struggle with his fallen body. However, I could really use your guys' prayers that God will be with us all as we continue to go through this situation. And also for my grandma that she would be able to cope well with losing him.

"Yet I still belong to You; You are holding my right hand. You will keep on guiding me with Your counsel, leading me to a clorious destiny. Whom have I in Heaven but You? I desier You more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; He is mine forever." -- Psalm 73:23-26 (NLT)

My third media...

This week I produced my third media for GCC on the India mission trips. I only had a week to work on this one as opposed to several months on my first one and two or three weeks on my last one. However, I think it turned out pretty good. Clocked in my total time at around 20 hours from start to finish.

Watch the Media

(Note that the media may seem a tad out of proportion ... this is just because the media was produced in 16:9/widescreen and apparently YouTube only shows videos in 4:3/fullscreen)

I used the song "All We Need" by Charlie Hall

How to spot mad cow disease

Have you ever wondered how you can spot mad cow disease? This should help ...

If your cow sound like this ... ... then fire up the barbecue!

If your cow sounds like this ... ... may we suggest the fish.

Good quotes

Came across several good quotes recently that really spoke to me. I picked out several of the best ones and am putting them here. Read them slowly and thoughtfully...feel free to comment on them!

If we seek to manifest love by utilizing our inherent abilities to serve others in whatever we are doing, we find the greatest opportunity for development, for then we are giving expression to our love for our neighbors and ourselves.
- David and Bruce McArthur

True love does not come by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.
- Jason Jordan

If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was, and always will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with.
- Unknown

To fall in love is easy, even to remain in it is not difficult; our human loneliness is cause enough. But it is a hard quest worth making to find a comrade through whose steady presence one becomes steadily the person one desires to be.
- Anna Louise Strong

This is awesome!

You may have seen this video on a lite beer commercial...it is truely awesome and I found the full length video (a full three minutes) Yeah, I know the holiday season is basically over but this is just a fun video to watch. A truely creative use of stop-motion animation...too bad you couldn't really get your house to do that. Your neighbors would FREAK!

Click the icon below to watch the video (you'll need DSL)