A Goal Near and Dear: Giving Radically

Today is an exciting day for a lot of reasons.

First of all, it's the 29th of November, which means it is almost December, which means that this semester is almost over.

Second of all, it's the only time the 29th of November in 2010 will happen, so I know something crazy could happen.

Thirdly, it's Cyber Monday, so are there some epic deals available to consumers, and they don't even have to leave their homes!

Finally, and most importantly, I've got a chance for every single person reading (including myself) to REALLY make something crazy happen today, since it IS the only time today (November 29th, 2010) will ever happen. And, to boot, it's Cyber Monday, which means you're obliged to spend buckets of money via the internet that you actually already spent on Black Friday. Want to do something crazy with that money while you're spending it? Keep reading - I've got a GREAT opportunity for you...

Time for Some Openness: Small Group Progress Report

About four months ago, I posted about a life goal that I would be embarking on soon: leading a small group. If you missed it, here's the post. Basically, I was very excited, but also very nervous, to start leading a small group here at MCC. I'm here four months later with an update on this life goal that's been in progress for a while now.

A note/disclaimer/warning: I want to be very open and honest in this post. Members of my small group may eventually see or read this, and I'm okay with that. I just want to be transparent in the way that I live, so I figure that I need to be transparent in the way that I blog about my life and about the struggles and joys of attempting to fulfill a life goal. If you are in any way involved with or connected to Small Groups at MCC or my own Small Group, please read this for what it's worth and don't read between the lines, because there's nothing there. What's being said is how I honestly feel and what I'm thinking, and that's all there is to it.

The short version of the story:

Leading a Small Group has gone slightly better than I expected it to. However, I'm disappointed with myself for a number of reasons (see "the long version" for details). I'd give myself a 6.5/10 as a leader, and my group a 9.5/10 for how epic they are. I hope to do better sooner rather than later.

The long-ish version of the story:

I love my small group. I can't say that enough. However, in my own mind, things haven't been a bed of roses this first semester so far. The small groups at MCC were recently asked to evaluate their leaders, so I received a "progress report" of sorts from the members of my small group...

An Attempt to be More Intentional: This Week in Review

In light of what has been on my mind lately, I'm doing what I can to be more intentional about living and about reflecting on life. Right now, I want to focus on reflecting.

I really think that part of living the fullest life possible means taking time to stop, be still, and reflect. So, in an attempt to encourage myself to do this regularly, I'm going to steal an idea from a friend's blog (yes, I'm aware that stealing is counterproductive to the whole reflecting idea).

So my friend doesn't hate me, and because I love her blog, this is my shameless plug to her. Check out her blog at http://littlethingsbigstuff.com/ and blow her up with comments about how amazing her blog is. Because it is and because I said so. Either way.

On to the idea stealing (did you visit her blog? because you were supposed to!)...

An Ambitious Goal (to say the least): Read Every Book We Own

As you can imagine, this post is going to be about books. It is not, however, going to be about A Critical History of the Mission and Ministry of the Christian Church in Hawaii.

I know, I know. You're disappointed. Unfortunately, my fingers just don't have the stamina to type that title more than once. Plus, I don't have a clue what that book is about - I've never so much as touched it except to put it on the shelf. And herein lies the reason for a life goal I hope to eventually accomplish: I want to read every book we own...

A Snippet from School: Trying to be the best student that I can be

As this itch to blog persists, I have decided to scratch it.

Yesterday, I went to school and was, for the most part, sick. I had some nasty chills and a killer headache. However, because I worked my bottom off to finish a project/paper the night before and because we had Greek homework and a quiz (which I was destined to bomb), I decided it was in my best interest to ignore my body and go anyway. I didn't expect to learn much in my zombie-like state, but this is where God surprised me...

Almost a New Life Goal: Eat an Authentic Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza

Two blog updates in a week? Craziness. Unfortunately, I woke up 45 minutes before my alarm today, so here I am with another hour and a half to kill. So let the time-killing commence...

This last Tuesday, the 2nd, was what I affectionately refer to as the monthiversary of my relationship with Kalyn. We started dating on June 2nd, 2006, and we got married on June 2nd, 2009. Thus, the 2nd of every month gives us an excuse to spend money and time we don't have on and with each other. It's a great deal, if you ask me...

An Epic Life Goal: Late Night in the Phog

Alright, alright. Enough already. The clamor is too much. By popular demand, I have made time to blog for the first time in over 2 months.

Just kidding. About everything except the whole blogging thing, anyway.

The last two months have been exciting, to say the least. They have been challenging. They have been fulfilling. I want to share about a lot of it, and I even have a list made up on my desktop of things to blog about. Time to blog, on the other hand, is rare. Thus, instead of continuing to do dishes (what seems like an everyday affair nowadays), I am taking a break to tell you about one of the most exciting nights I've experienced so far this semester: Late Night in the Phog...

A Mind-bending Goal: Learn to Read Greek

Wow. So it's been about a year since I have blogged. Or three weeks. Depends how you look at it. Either way, it has been a while. There are many culprits to my lack of blogging, namely...

• Moving
• The start of school
• The start of small groups
• Marriage (it takes up time and I love it!)
• Sleep
• My friends

However, one culprit has slowly taken over my life in the midst of the chaos of life. This culprit will be stealing time from me for the next year (at least), and will surely haunt me for the rest of my life. This sinister thief teases me with the idea that someday I might understand it, but also with the fact that the "someday" could be centuries from now. The lousy criminal who has been stealing away my life is...

Back in America: Another Life Goal Complete

I've missed blogging the last week as I've been running around like a baby who has just found his legs. As you can also see, I miss THOGL, Taiwan, and everything about the place I just left. But alas, this post has nothing to do with anything you've read so far. For that, I'm a little sorry - mostly for dropping your IQ a point or two. And although the title of this entry sounds like it has potential, it is also very misleading on almost all accounts, except for the fact that I did accomplish another life goal recently...

Life Goal Completed: Visit Asia

Disclaimer: I want to get off on the right foot here as I begin to post about visiting Asia. In order to do that, I need to address the fact that, although I've spent the last 9 weeks in Asia, I've only been in one country, with basically one type of people group, and heck, I've haven't even been to the mainland; I'm on an island! However, this is still Asia, and I've definitely had a life goal for a while to spend time on every continent, so even though I'll make generalizations about Asia, know that they don't necessarily apply all over the continent, just like any other generalization isn't always true.

Now that we're clear on that...

First of all, I'm blessed that God has allowed me, at the young age of 20, to have already spent time on four continents. I'm especially thankful for the last two months I've been allowed to serve here and fill a need for a time...

Some More Water in the Bucket: Visit the Pacific Ocean

I can feel it when I sleep, when I wake up, when I walk, when I shower, when I eat, when I hold babies, and even when I blog: we got to go to the beach yesterday!

Getting out is quite a feat around here. Kalyn and I hadn't seen daylight for 3 weeks as of yesterday, so getting to go out was almost the highlight of our month. Even more exciting is the fact that I accomplished another life goal: visit the Pacific Ocean!

In Progress and Done: Care for Orphans

I'm thankful for my school, Manhattan Christian College (MCC), for a number of reasons, but namely because of our professors. I'm thankful that 95% of my classes are about things that I want to learn about, even if they bore me at times. I'm seeing more and more as I get older that the "basic" classes I took were some of the most important and some of the "busy work" given in those classes has taught me a lot...

Another Forever in Progress: Be Kind to Every Person I Meet

My time here at THOGL and in Taiwan has taught me a lot of things that you usually learn when you go overseas for an extended amount of time, whether to do missions or study abroad, or whatever you may be doing. Mostly, though, I have learned to appreciate the little things. Naturally, I'm thankful for a refreshing swig of Coke in the middle of our shift, just as I am thankful for the family who left us with an abundance of Macaroni and Cheese. I'm thankful for cold water, because it is sometimes hard to come across. But what I find I am most thankful for is this: kindness...

More than Just a Life Goal: Visit a Buddhist Temple

A few nights ago, as we were taking care of the babies, Kalyn and I talked about how we were getting cabin fever from not being anywhere outside of THOGL or our apartment here in Taiwan. We were a little frustrated and not sure what to do because, well, we work at night. There aren't a lot of places open around midnight here, we can't just abandon the babies, and let's be honest - nobody wants to pick up a night shift and then work again the next day. We figured out a solution to our "sickness", though. We decided to visit the Buddhist temple that hovers over the lake on the way home in the morning (after our shift was over)...

A Long-Shot: Go to the World Cup

With all of the World Cup frenzy winding down, I figured I'd touch on the subject a little.

First of all, I'm excited at how the U.S. fan base has grown this year. Sadly, this was the first year I have ever actually watched the World Cup, so you can count me in as part of the "new" fans, but I really enjoyed watching my country and others play on such a large stage in South Africa, even if I did have to find some "bootleg" streams to watch it on while working the night shift in Taiwan (ABC doesn't stream their games!)...

A Random Act of Accomplishment

Tonight, as I sat down toward the beginning of shift at THOGL, I didn't expect much to happen outside of hearing a lot of babies cry. Little did I know that I would be accomplishing a life goal before the night was over...

A Goal Forever in Progress: Be(come) a Good Father

This year, June 20th passed without much fanfare in my life. I spent the day sleeping, because, by then, I had switched to the night shift with Kalyn here at The Home of God's Love (THOGL). I woke up around 5 PM, and the day progressed as usual. We didn't eat dinner, because dinner never sounds appetizing right after waking up, and we took care of babies for the remainder of the night. Later on that night, while the babies were sleeping, Kalyn and I Skype'd (is there a "proper" way to spell that?) with her family because it was June 20th - Father's Day...

Goal in Progress: Lead a Small Group

Alright, here's the deal. This is the first goal I'm posting about that I haven't actually completed. However, I'm posting because I'm looking for some input...

Ride a Passenger Train: Another Life Goal Completed!

So, as you can see from the picture, I rode my first train! A few days ago we traversed from Luodong, Taiwan to Hualien, Taiwan via train, and I couldn't contain my excitement. Turns out it was pretty awesome!







Entering the train, I wasn't really sure what to do, seeing as how I am in a foreign country and hardly understand 10 words of Chinese. However, our fearless leader, Ted, made sure we found our seats...

Start a Blog (That Doesn't Belong to Xanga): The First Drop in My Bucket

Alright, so here I am. I'm taking on a task I've been avoiding, but a task worth doing. I've started a blog.

Of course, you knew this already because you're reading this. Obviously, nothing groundbreaking to you. However, it's a different matter for me...