Jen - Will -Sam - Gus Oconnors, Rochester, MI 5.7.05

Recentyl, Jen and I had the privilege of sharing a couple of weekends with one of my closest friends from overseas - Sam Whittington. Sam made the trip across the pond on an all expense paid trip to a conference to Mosaic Church in LA. The organizers of the trip set it up so his weekends would be spent in Michigan. Above is a grea shot of us eating out at a local pub one the last full day he was in town.

On the trip with Sam was also Bram pheonetically said "Bruam." He was a pleasure to meet, get to know and was a fan of Comerica Park - Go Tigers? Anyway, Bram is Dutch and studying theology in Amsterdam, which is not something you hear of everyday. I got a chance to get to know him better one afternoon and continue to pray that God would raise him up to lead within the Zolder50 community.

ONE

My heart is always pulled on by the needy, the fringe of society, no matter where they are. Check this out and see what a little change can help do around the world. Help make poverty history. Buy the bracelets, make a donation and tell your friends and family, and the guy who bags your groceries and the person you sit next to on the train and your co-workers and your boss who makes 2x as much as you do. Change the world? - no; be part of the change in the world? - Yes

Vacation




* A 1960 Lark crossing over to the Island on the old ferry.



Ok, so I need a vacation badly... I can't even begin to tell all of you how much. And over Memorial Day I will get a break. I am taking Friday off of work to head up to the cottage to work and couldn't be more excited! I honestly never thought the day would come where I would be more excited to work with my dad on our cottage than to "crunch numbers," but I am. And just to you all can see my little piece of heaven... where I'll be over that weekend.

If you want to see where we are check out the link on the title vacation above then to see the cottage in sattelite imagery click the satellite link in the upper right hand corner next to MAP. Our cottage is almost directly south of Point A shown on the map on the island in the center of the lake. Just to the east of the North center of the island is a point and at this spot is the very place I will be dangling my feet in the water playing guitar and thanking God for all of the wonderful things He's blessed me with over my life.
* these things will only be occuring in the midst of breaks and after long days of slaving away laying tile and mudding drywall with my father of of course - so as not to make you all jealous

Enjoy and wish me luck at getting motivated while on a mini-break from the real world!

Funy Stuff

Ok, so I love to laugh, and sometimes I have days where it's a bit uncontrollable and maybe even to the point where I'm laughing at things that aren't that funny. And well if you know me you know that sarcasm and satire are my typed of humor so while catching up my "the Onion" (which is a website that does satire on news and headlines) desk calendar I stumbled across this day.



"Kmart's Woes"
- Kmart, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, recently announced the closing of 283 stores. What is the retail giant doing to improve its situation?

• Combining everyday low prices and friendly service in previously unthought-of ways.
• Aggressivley touting Kmart as "The Place for Shotguns, Soda And Sweatpants"
• Finally allowing smart-ass teens to ride coin-operated horsey outside entrance.
• Instituting two-icee minimum.
• Diversifying product line to include things people would want in their homes.
• Replacing "K" in Kmart sign with more appealing "Wal".
• Burning down entire chaing of insurance money.

Just a little humor I found on behalf of a store I grew up being dragged to by my parents and grandparents alike. Funny stuff.

Losing

I find myself constantly without the very thought I had only a moment ago. And this is a prime example of my affliction in action. As I was waiting for the web page to load (less than 3 seconds) I misplaced the very inspiration of blogging which led me here. So I will ramble only about my still small life.

In a milestone of Will's world, I celebrated (with Jen) our 2 year anniversary of dating. It's quite an accomplishment in my own opinion and if you know me and my history you will probably agree. Even so in this two years of dating one person, I often find myself looking around, unable to grasp where I am and where I am heading. I am often stunned that I've shared 2 years (albeit through mass geographic separation for some time) of my life with someone and am still this happy and excited about a future with her. And for me it is inspiring to see that as our lives become more innertwined, we are unafraid of the closeness that has often frightened me in the past. This life I am now living is probably less volatile than any 2 year period in my past. And so we celebrate.


In an effort to be Americans celebrating a milestone like last night we found it appropriate to head to a nice restaurant, and have seafood. The food was wonderful and the company spent remembering the past and discussing the future, but what was displeasing was the service. For such a nice restaurant, we often found ourselves straining to see if we could find our server, and while we could see the other tables' servers moving to and fro, we rarely caught a glimpse of ours. And had it not been for such stimulating conversation, the 3 hour long meal may have dragged on and on, but instead we enjoyed the time alone and the memories we've made and those to come. A celebration - even for someone who may not remember it after he's done writing about it.

Sincerest Apologies

So I really have a good excuse for not having blogged for nearly 2 weeks. I have been sick. And what initially started out as either food poisoning or the flu - erupted into a massive chest cold and the ingestion of way too many zinc pills and swigs of "Tussin" cough/cold syrup. That kind of makes me living proof that "using your medical insurance when you have it" - priceless. Not really super fun, and not even a really great topic for discussion. But I figured I owed my faithful blog readers some sort of explanation.

I hope to have some good posts from this upcoming weekend as my friend (who I met through Jen) Sam is coming in the town for a 3 day layover on his way to LA. What a glorious day to hang out with my favorite Britt (in other words he's from England originally) and another Zolder 50 leader named Bram. We shall show these two Europeans the meaning of the word ghetto and also the finer things in life, like American hamburgers - perhaps blimpy's and Bell's Beer. Yep, it will be a weekend of indulging in great conversation about deeper things while feasting on what the conservative among Christian hastily call "Satan's Syrup" - referring to the alcohol. The life of a hypocrite in the eyes of many. I guess I'm lucky that God only sees the heart.

Cheers mates!