I had an epiphany while writing my last blog, and really - it's something I've known my whole blogging "career". The reason I don't blog more, is because my life just isn't that exciting. But in an endless attempt to keep you entertained (tee hee), I will try to keep blogging.
This weekend was really chill. Ash and I spent most of it watching some football. As a die hard Viking fan, I feel like it is my duty to root against any NFC North team once they make it into the playoffs. It's kind of a futile effort though. Since I am a Vikings fan, any team I root for is bound to lose (Yes, this is me playing my own tiny violin). I should know that by now. So, since I was rooting against both the Packers and Bears - of course they both pulled out impressive victories, and now I must watch one of those teams in the Super Bowl, ugh.
Also this weekend, Ash and I decided we would try a detox diet. Not to lose weight, but to get rid of all the Christmas junk from our bodies and try to eat better. Instead of jumping right in and go all out, we thought we would just try it one day and see how we felt about it, and if it would be something we would want to continue. This is the diet:
* 2 tablespoons lemonade
* 2 tablespoons pure grade B maple syrup
* sprinkle of red pepper (cayenne pepper)
* 8 oz water
Drink 6 - 12 of those daily for 10 whole days! (no solid food or anything else but water)
Yeah, that evening, we wanted to kill each other and every food commerical looked like the best food ever. We are still mulling the idea of picking it up again, but definitely gonna think long and hard before we jump back in.
I feel like I start my blog posts the same way, "I'm sorry..." I haven't blogged since last year - late last year. Since my last post, I guess you could say a lot has changed, but in some ways, they are still the same.
The big thing we can get out of the way is that I got married on July 25, 2010! After 6 years of dating the most beautiful and wonderful girl to ever walk this Earth, we finally tied the knot! It has been the best thing to ever happen to me, and everyday it is a blessing to walk out life with her.
I am still working at Adventures In Missions in the IT department. My role is changing a little bit, which is always a good thing. I have been actively involved in the "Help Desk" role. Helping with computer problems, setting up office phones, emails, etc. But AIM is expanding at a CRAZY rate, and those things are bogging down my days like you wouldn't believe. In lue of that, we are hiring someone new to take that role, and I will be working strickly with website development - really what I want to be doing. It's an exciting move, and I am ready for the challenge.
In most recent news, I actually had 3 1/2 days off of work this week due to 5 inches of snow. I know, right! Throughout my whole school career (at least middle school and high school) I only had two days off of school in Minnesota - and one of those days, I had to drive into school, only to find out it was cancelled. So to have 3 1/2 days off in a row due to five 5 inches was pretty wild. The problem is, they don't have any plows and really rely on the sun to melt the snow. But when it's below 30 degrees everyday - it just stays around and turns to ice. We decided before the storm hit to stay at our friends, the Rocks house for the duration of the storm. What we expected to be one day, ended up being 3. It was a great time with friend, even though cabin fever almost set in.
I will continue to try and update this on a more regular basis. Ashley has started up a new blog, and we both will be blogging on that. You can check it out here: http://lifesimonsonstyle.wordpress.com
Please continue to pray for Ashley and I as we continue to work at AIM and discover what God has planned for our lives!
I'm
back in Gainesville! Unfortunately, when I got home, I became super ill and
have been on meds for the last week. Thankfully I am back to feeling a bit
better and will be able to resume my normal life again. Thank you for your
prayers. Puerto Rico was so beautiful! We had some great days of ministry and
some days at the beach that were unforgettable. A few of us even got to swim
in an underwater cave with the fish and coral around us! I had a team
of 20 wonderful young women, 5 amazing dudes, and 2 other great co-leaders.
Like always, the Lord really showed up and did some amazing things in the lives
of the participants! There are so many stories, but the articles from the kids
are the best. To read through them, check out the blog page.
On the 3rd of
July, I will begin my adventure to Puerto Rico. Like last year, I am going to
be leading a team on a mission trip. Instead of being a one-month trip though,
it will be two weeks, or technically, 10 days. Although it's not as long, I
know God has amazing things in store for the high school students. The students
will be arriving in Gainesville, GA for a 4-day training camp. Please pray that
these kids will come with a heart ready to be used by God. That they will be
ready to get real with their team, to be open and vulnerable with each other.
You can follow our team blog here: http://09pr0630yi.myadventures.org/
On another note, life is
going great! I am continuing to learn so much about website design and HTML. The
new blog look is a small taste of some of the things I am learning to do.
I am also looking into some changes in the
upcoming future, but we can wait to talk about that later, when things are set
in stone a bit better. :) Love you all!
Yo! I know this is a random post, seeing that I haven't updated in a couple of months, but this is a fun one! Yesterday I went skydiving with my buddy Don Rock for his birthday. It was unreal! Check out the video!
Hey friends and supporters! Sorry for the lack of blogging lately, I am alive and well. So much has happened since I blogged last, but I'll just give you what is going on now. Since Thursday, I have been helping with the Real Life: College (1 to 3 month trips for college-aged participants) training camp, by filling in as the leader for the Swaziland team. Their leaders are in the process of moving from India to Swaziland, so they couldn't make it back here to be the team. It has been a sweet time and God has really been moving in the lives of the kids here. The Swazi team is just great, and their hearts for each other and the Lord is huge! They were originally signed up to go to India, but because of the recent bombing in India, they were asked if they were willing to go to Swaziland instead. The team, of only 5, decided that they would all go to Swaziland. They are sold out for the team and continue to go deep and be vulnerable with each other. God always floors me during these training camps! I just love watching broken people come together and minister to each other through their own brokenness. It will be hard to see the team leave tomorrow without me, but I will be waiting for them at the hotel when they fly back home in 3 months to help with their team debrief.
Immediately after they leave, I will be heading down to Guatemala with Ashley, Don & Connie Rock, and a couple other people to help with a 10 day setup trip for future teams going to Guatemala through AIM. We will also be helping local doctors and loving on children and the people of Guatemala while there. Being able to go is actually quite a story in itself. The Rocks, who have become very good friends of Ashley and me, told us about this trip to Guatemala in October and asked us to come along. The cost was at $1,300, so it was pretty apparent that we were not going to be able to raise that much more. In December, we were asked again and it felt right that maybe we should try to raise the amount and go. It was clear that God was going to have to do something amazing for us to go, so that is what I prayed. I pretty much told God that if I was supposed to go, he was going to have to supply the money. Over Christmas, I got a phone call telling me that $1000 was put into each of our accounts by an anonymous donor for my trip to Guatemala! God is good! Please pray for our team as we head to Guatemala.
Just a quick update of Brodie! He is about 24 weeks old and is a huge blessing to have around. He is still adorable and super smart. But he is still a puppy...so he has a lot of energy.
Thank you for your constant prayer and support! It allows me to keep doing what I love!
Ashley and I drove 3 hours to Byron, Georgia to pick up this little guy. It is a 8 week old, pure bread Shih Tzu and his name is Brodie. We got it because Ashley has really been wanting a small dog for awhile now. We gave him his first bath today...I don't think he liked it :-)
New people come in and close friends leave. This seems to
be the cycle of things around AIM. Driver,
who has been a spiritual role model for me over this last year, is heading off
to Kenya today. My intern team from last year, three of the girls are here in Georgia, getting ready to leave for Africa for 9 months. Others are heading off on The World Race, and some are finding
the Lord is calling them to other places around the world. It has been such a
blessing to get to know all these new people over the last year, and being
accepted into this community. It's a total change of lifestyle, and I would be
lying to you if I said it was an easy adjustment for me, I think I am still
working out some of it. It really only works too if your all in. If your confused
at where I am going with this, let me back up a bit and catch you up.
After last year working at AIM as an intern, I had the
feeling that God really wanted me to stay here and work on staff. It was a
great opportunity and I would get to work on web development and marketing, two
things I have a passion for. After leading a trip to Swaziland, I came back to
live with my new roomie Jimmy. He is a World Race alumnus and is now the main
setup guy for the World Race. He is an awesome dude and is really a great role
model to have around the house. After thinking it was just going to be him and I,
one of the new "interns" needed a place to stay and we offered our house for
the year. His name is Barton and has turned out to be a great guy as well. We
all live really well together and complement each other a lot.
Back to my original point, after last year, living with 3
guys, I really was ready to not share a room and kind of live on my own-as much
as I could. So, when hearing that I was going to be doing this again, I was put
off a little bit. Every day that I came home after work, the apartment was full
of people all hanging out and sometimes I just wanted my time to myself. After
praying a lot about it, I realized that this was much more than hanging out, it
was community. People that come and just live out life together, whatever way they
can. I get the opportunity to have
people over, with two other God loving men, and just love on people. It's was a
hard adjustment at times, but once I put my selfishness to the side; it really
is a beautiful thing. I think it is so hard because society doesn't really
express this community as a good thing. I've always felt that once I get on my
own, I don't need community as much. Turns out, I do. They keep me accountable
in my walk with the Lord and challenge me daily with new things. Jimmy and I
have started the book "The Shack," which if you haven't read this, I strongly
recommend it. It is about a grief-stricken father in mid-life about to have an
extraordinary experience with God. His great sadness began four years
ago on a weekend camping trip, when his 6-year-old daughter, Missy, was
murdered. What he couldn't know then, but is about to learn, was God's
purpose for Missy's death. I am only 80 pages in, but already it has hit me hard. I am
planning to do a little recap of this later on.
A new season begins at AIM, with new people coming and
close friends leaving. I am excited about the chance I have to get to know
these new people and grow more in community with them. This is so much more
than just a job; it is becoming a way of life. I am so grateful that I get to
be a part of their lives, and they can be a part of mine. Thank you for your
prayers and support, it allows me to be where I am and experience all that is
happening around me.
The past 2 weeks I have been home in Minnesota getting ready
for my move down to Gainesville, Georgia for another year! While I was home, I
got to see some friends, spend time with family, and relax from my trip from
Africa. I miss Africa a lot and hope that I will be able to go back again
someday. I learned so much and built lasting relationships with my team. I miss
them a lot and wish that I could be back, being a leader and watching them grow
in the Lord. It was a blessing to be able to be apart of that. Here are some
pictures that I took from Africa:
Swinging around a Swazi kid
Sitting under a tree on a hot day
Sabelo put stickers all over me, so I returned the favor
The guys eating out at a nice restaurant our last night
An awesome zebra walking in front of us
Chris & I with our two boys
All of the guys with Swazi boys on our shoulders
On
Thursday, Ashley, my sister, my mom, and I drove down to Indiana, and then
finished our trip to Georgia on Friday. Over the weekend, we put together my
apartment that I am staying in and actually made it look like a nice place. My
roomie Jimmy will be moving in after the World Race training camp in a week and
then we will get another room mate, Joshua, a new intern (what I did last year)
who will be here in September. It will be good to be on my own but still have
people in the house to build me up and be there for me. All of a sudden it is
all real though, life on my own. I went out and bought groceries with my own
money and everything...just weird to be totally on my own. Sunday morning we went to church and I got to see all of the boys at the youth group! It was great to get a bunch of hugs and just get to chill with them! I can't wait to continue to pour into them and have them pour into others!
Today
is my "first" on AIM staff day, even though I have been working here for the
last 10 months as an intern. Right now they are renovating AIM, so I am sitting
at a desk in the middle of now where. I am ready for the office to be completed
so I can settle in and know exactly what I will be doing. But I am open to
everything and really enjoying life! I feel like this is where God wants me
right now, which is why I am here. I am excited to see what God has in store
for me here and all the awesome things I am going to be learning. Just a reminder,
I am working as the Web Design/IT & Marketing guy around here. I am really
excited about getting to redesign the AIM website completely this time, not
just pieces here and there, but the entire deal! Plus, I can learn about
marketing and continue to grow my strengths in that. Like I said before, I am
just really excited about what I am getting into! Also, I quick support update;
I have $1,500 in my support account, which means I have 3 months already taken
care of. My support goal is $500 a month, the rest of my expenses are subsidized
by AIM. If you can find in your budget, please prayerfully consider partnering
with me. Thank you!
Just a quick update because I have no time but really want to share the last couple days with you. On Thursday we got a tour of Swaziland and what all AIM is doing here. We got to see 5 of the 19 "care points" that AIM operates in Swazi. Care points are places set up around Swazi that feed children and allow them to get basic education. Right now, the care points feed around 3000 children a day. It was awesome getting to stop at them and just having these beautiful children jump up in my arms and want to feel affection. It breaks my heart to see the condition they live in. After, we got to go to go to a market and then out to a really nice restaurant and eat pizza, I forgot how good it was :-)
Yesterday, we got to go to a 4th of July party, which was super fun. All the AIM teams got to meet up there so I saw a bunch of people that I work with! It was a great time to relax and they actually had fireworks as well! Not gonna lie, it was really weird celebrating it is Swaziland but it was fun. It was hard being away from family though, I really have never not been with them. But, on Saturday we go to the airport and fly out that evening. I can't believe I am at the final week! Can't wait to see everyone back home and show you pictures! Love ya!
This weekend was really chill. Ash and I spent most of it watching some football. As a die hard Viking fan, I feel like it is my duty to root against any NFC North team once they make it into the playoffs. It's kind of a futile effort though. Since I am a Vikings fan, any team I root for is bound to lose (Yes, this is me playing my own tiny violin). I should know that by now. So, since I was rooting against both the Packers and Bears - of course they both pulled out impressive victories, and now I must watch one of those teams in the Super Bowl, ugh.
The big thing we can get out of the way is that I got married on July 25, 2010! After 6 years of dating the most beautiful and wonderful girl to ever walk this Earth, we finally tied the knot! It has been the best thing to ever happen to me, and everyday it is a blessing to walk out life with her.
In most recent news, I actually had 3 1/2 days off of work this week due to 5 inches of snow. I know, right! Throughout my whole school career (at least middle school and high school) I only had two days off of school in Minnesota - and one of those days, I had to drive into school, only to find out it was cancelled. So to have 3 1/2 days off in a row due to five 5 inches was pretty wild. The problem is, they don't have any plows and really rely on the sun to melt the snow. But when it's below 30 degrees everyday - it just stays around and turns to ice. We decided before the storm hit to stay at our friends, the Rocks house for the duration of the storm. What we expected to be one day, ended up being 3. It was a great time with friend, even though cabin fever almost set in.
I'm
back in Gainesville! Unfortunately, when I got home, I became super ill and
have been on meds for the last week. Thankfully I am back to feeling a bit
better and will be able to resume my normal life again. Thank you for your
prayers. Puerto Rico was so beautiful! We had some great days of ministry and
some days at the beach that were unforgettable. A few of us even got to swim
in an underwater cave with the fish and coral around us! I had a team
of 20 wonderful young women, 5 amazing dudes, and 2 other great co-leaders.
Like always, the Lord really showed up and did some amazing things in the lives
of the participants! There are so many stories, but the articles from the kids
are the best. To read through them, check out the 
Guatemala with Ashley, Don & Connie Rock, and a couple other people to help with a 10 day setup trip for future teams going to Guatemala through AIM. We will also be helping local doctors and loving on children and the people of Guatemala while there. Being able to go is actually quite a story in itself. The Rocks, who have become very good friends of Ashley and me, told us about this trip to Guatemala in October and asked us to come along. The cost was at $1,300, so it was pretty apparent that we were not going to be able to raise that much more. In December, we were asked again and it felt right that maybe we should try to raise the amount and go. It was clear that God was going to have to do something amazing for us to go, so that is what I prayed. I pretty much told God that if I was supposed to go, he was going to have to supply the money. Over Christmas, I got a phone call telling me that $1000 was put into each of our accounts by an anonymous donor for my trip to Guatemala! God is good! Please pray for our team as we head to Guatemala.
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