Encouragement

I just want to share something that happened to me recently. It started a while ago, a few weeks, a month, a few months, I am not sure exactly.

I think quite a bit about my job and what I like and what I don't like and what I need to spend more time doing and what I need to spend less time doing and how I can do certain things better and so on...

One of the things I thought might be cool to try is a jam band. I thought it would be cool to get people together who like to play music and/or want to learn to play music and just jam and learn from each other and stuff. I was thinking it would be a cool outreach/discipleship time in Cass City with middle/high school students.

I talked about the possibility to Kassie who thought it might be neat and mentioned it to a Cass City highschooler who I thought might be interested, but didn't really talk to many people about it.

Then one day I was at lunch at CCHS and a couple girls mentioned a Jazz concert that evening. Kassie and I decided to go to what was a Jazz Lounge/Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser Thingy (not the official name).

At the jazz thingy a couple came and introduced themselves as the parents of one of the students I talk to regularly who comes to breakfast club. They go to the church across the street from the school, so I told them that I had been thinking about doing a jam band and was thinking their church might be a prime location.

The woman told me the church has actually been praying for more ways to use the church building and/or to reach out to the community and that the church building was actually built across from the school for the purpose of ministry similar to what I want to do.
She also informed me that her husband is on the board at the church, and he told me he could pretty much guarantee the board would give me approval to do the jam band there and he would call me to let me know.

I wasn't sure of the idea at first, but it seems like the more people I tell, the more positive responses I get, and it seems like God is behind this idea too.
Please be praying that this will open doors for relationships with Cass City students and that we will get approval to jam at the church across from the school.

Trying to Understand Women

For Men Only by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn gives explanations and tips for men to better understand and relate to women, specifically significant others.
Based on a seemingly large amount of research, the quotes and figures offer interesting insight into the thoughts and feelings of females.
Written from a man's perspective, this book offers the information in a way that is able to understood by men on common relationship topics from listening to sex.
There were a few things I didn't like about this book, but mainly in the formatting and writing style. For example, every page or every other page has a certain sentence that is given emphasis by repeating it in its own little paragraph in the middle of the page, much like in many magazine articles. To me, this is distracting and not helpful in any way.
However, overall, the book could be life-changing. I wish it could be life-changing without any work on my part. However, many of the tips require intention on my part. Of course, marriage isn't easy, and this book is actually written to make it easier. Rather than fighting an uphill battle, the insight and tips from this book offer things the reader can do that will take work but will ultimately make life easier.
It was a quick read, and hopefully I will remember to put some of these things into practice.
I would recommend this book for any married man and probably some who aren't married.

This book was provided free for review by Waterbrook Multnomah

Music

I enjoy music.
It seems God often reminds me of this gift he has given me.
I am not sure what to do with it.
So far, I help lead the worship team at church.
I am thinking about starting a jazz combo with some people from church.
I am also thinking about starting a jam band with people from Cass City.
I like playing guitar and singing. I also like playing bass. Recently, I have really wanted to play drums in a band or at least with other people.
Tonight the Sunday worship team had our first Wednesday night practice and I'd say it was pretty sweet.
Today was also my first shoeless day in several months.

Identity

What is it like to have no identity? To feel like having the identity of ugliest boy in the world is better than no identity at all? To only know and be known by somebody who lies for a living?
Most of us, fortunately, do not fully know the answers to those questions. But in the book I recently read, The Charlatan's Boy by Jonathan Rogers, the main character, Grady, knows exactly how it feels.
This boy, not remembering his birth and early childhood, must rely on what Floyd tells him. Truth from Floyd, however, comes about as often as a jackpot from a stingy slot machine. Floyd makes a living as a showman, by "skinning" the kind citizens of each town he passes through.
He shows off Grady as a real live He-feechie when there is a feechie scare on the island. When the people stop believing in feechies, Floyd decides to make money by showing Grady as the ugliest boy in the world. After getting cocky and going to a larger city where there is an uglier boy than Grady and losing all of his money, Floyd angrily takes Grady back to a place frequented by showmen, where he can win the tools of another show trade from a "friend" in a poker game.
After several different types of hoaxes, Floyd decides to create a feechie scare of his own, to bring back the feechie trade. This works quite successfully, although, the feechie trade it calls for is different than the previous one. Floyd ends up abandoning Grady in an angry mob where his only help comes, at first, from a beautiful young lady, and then from another unlikely person.
Through all of this is woven a tale of identity, loyalty, trust and the lack thereof. Grady wrestles with a desire to be useful or talented in some way, to be loved, even to be known. He struggles with the question of leaving Floyd to trek on his own or stay with a bartender he has met a few times or to stay with the only person he has ever known, even though he is a selfish liar.
I enjoyed the book. I enjoyed being taken to another time and another place, to a life that is so different from my own, yet has questions and concerns we can all relate to in some way or another.
I enjoyed the book, but I don't know that I'd recommend it to many. I would possibly recommend it for those who are looking for a relaxing fiction novel. That is exactly what I was looking for when I requested the book, so I am happy.

The book was provided free for review by Waterbrook Mulnomah. Check out their site for some great books!

Aurelia Jane

She's cute; she's cuddly; she's learning 3+ languages; she can jump, fly, and dance; who is she?
Aurelia Jane Hill!

I figured you would rather read about Aurelia than about another book I recently read, or even about me, personally. So here's what's happening:

First of all, she's been cute and cuddly since she was born. I sang her a song last night while burping her about her being the best baby in the world because she's the cutest. I tend to make up a lot of peculiar songs when spending time with Reli (I like this nickname, pronounced RAYL-ee, but am not sure about the spelling. I like nicknames whose spelling comes directly from the original name like Matt from Matthew as opposed to John from Jonathon or something, but Reli looks more like rely than raylee...also I am not sure if I like Reli more enough than Aurie to bother with the spelling.)

Okay, enough babbling.

I have been talking/singing to Aurie in Spanish as well as English and have been teaching her my complete knowledge of Arabic, which consists of approximately 5 words. Also, I talk (I don't really know this language so my talking is more gibberish than anything) to her in that clicky African language so that she will be able to learn it easier when she gets older if she needs to.

I like to make her jump (really I just lift her up high and bring her back down, with little to no effort being made from her). If nothing else, this offers a brief distraction from whatever she has been fussing about (constipation, lately). Her eyes open wide as she tries to take in the sights that are flying past her field of vision. She then sits there getting reoriented for a few seconds before getting back to her fussing, which sometimes she forgets about altogether, at least for several minutes.

Well, maybe there was enough babbling before, but I seem to be good at producing more.

Flying is very similar to the jumping except that I walk around the room and sometimes roll her over and stuff like that. I am not sure if she enjoys it or not.

You may have seen the very popular facebook video of Aurelia dancing. If not, check it out. Kassie posted it, and you should be able to find it more easily than I could provide a link for you.

Bonus: Gracie (the cat) seems to be afraid of Reli. Gracie doesn't always run away or stay away from Aurie but has been known to do so on occasion.

As far as the boring stuff like how much Aurelia's eating and pooping and her height and weight and everything like that, I guess you'll have to ask her mom for more details. I'll just sum it up by saying she's progressing sufficiently.

Finding Who God Created You To Be

Lately, I have been doing some thinking about my job and whether it is where I am supposed to be, what I was made to be doing. Honestly, I think the answer is yes and no. I think that this is where I am supposed to be now, but I don't think it's permanent.
With these thoughts and questions going through my head, I picked out the book Soul Print by Mark Batterson.
The subtitle to this book is "discovering your divine destiny." It is meant to make you look into your own life, your meaningful experiences, your abilities, etc. and figure out who God made you to be.
I will discuss the ideas of the book, but first there are a couple things I don't like about the way it's written. First of all, it seems to me that it could have been organized better and written more succinctly. Since it is a small book, anyway, I am led to hypothesize that maybe Mark wanted to write a whole book out of little information. This seems to have led to him saying the same thing repeatedly, over and over again, redundantly. At least, that's how it seems to me.
I would say there should be more focus on God, but I think the author made a good effort to keep the focus on God. Instead, the problem isn't a lack of focus on God, it is just too much fluffy writing (which goes back to the writing style problem).
Overall, I might have found some of his ideas useful and intriguing, but I don't think this is a book I would widely recommend.
Honestly, I didn't have high expectations for the book before reading it, and I was neither pleasantly surprised nor disappointed after reading it.
On a positive note (also a sort of disclaimer) this book was provided free for review by Waterbrook Multnomah.

New Perspectives

The Chasm by Randy Alcorn is a book of imagery and symbolism. It is obvious imagery, at least to a believer. I found it interesting and maybe a little enlightening. Overall, though, it did not really give me much insight or new understanding.
I think this book might be good for a new Christian or a non-Christian. I am not really sure of the effect it might have. For me, it did not have much effect. That may be due, at least in part, to the time during which I read it or something.
I am not very good at judging who a book might be good for or what a person's reaction might be, but I would say this book is worth reading for anybody. It is interesting enough and short enough that whether a person gains understanding or perspective from reading it, they should at least be entertained.

Okay, so what is the book about? The book is a fictional story of a guy who is in another land, which is really a parallel to the world we live in. There are many paths before him, all but one of which meander through nothing but meaningless pleasure and eventually lead death, eternal death.
He is led along parts of those paths by a person named Joshua who tells him to choose whatever he wants, whatever makes him feel good. Through these journeys he sees himself in places of neglecting his family and taking part in the meaningless pleasures.
Eventually he sees Joshua for the evil he is and allows himself to be led by an old man who takes him down the red road, the only road that leads to the chasm before death.
The imagery and parallels continue with the man eventually believing in Jesus and joining other Christians on the path to eternal life.

As I said, I would recommend this book to anybody. I hope you enjoy it.

I received my review copy for free from Waterbrook Multnomah as part of the blogging for books program.