Does this thing still work?

Wow, hello again. Sorry it's been so long. I would say I've been too busy to keep up, but that would only be about 75% true. I have certainly been keeping busy, and usually when I'm not busy I'm trying to catch up on sleep/relax. Anyway, I apologize for not keeping everyone up to date, but I appreciate the continued thoughts and prayers.

God really has been doing some amazing things out here. I've been really getting into reading the Bible - and wanting to - for the first time I can remember, and I have found myself going to God in prayer more often.

I've been learning a lot about what I struggle with (pride, trusting in God's plan for my life, loneliness) and learning how to give that up to God and be more dependent on Him.

I've also really began to see the value of having a community of people who have the same values as me and what that can do for me in terms of feeling loved and accepted, and having people to talk to about things. I have been building so many good relationships out here and I am so excited for this upcoming school year and all the friendships I will have.

I feel like I have really been feeling led to lead a small group for this upcoming school year and I have started talking to people about if there is a need, and what that would look like, as well as talking to Nick about potentially co-leading with me. I would really appreciate prayers regarding this and just that I would know where to lead, and that I would be prepared to lead if that opportunity is given to me.

My leg is absolutely on the recovery trail. It has healed up tremendously and should be completely scabbed over within the next couple of weeks. The infection is gone and I am not experiencing any pain.

I played soccer yesterday and had a ton of fun. I'm thinking about playing intramural with some people in H2O in the fall. I scored a goal and decided it is one of the coolest feelings even at a backyard pickup game (especially when the goal is a one-timer with your left foot off a perfect cross, just saying)

I'm definitely getting excited for football season - I will get to go see the Bucks play the U 3 days after I get back to Cbus so luckily I won't have to spend a ton of time hearing all the hype without actually seeing a game. It is too bad that I won't be back in time for the season kick off, but it is what it is.

Project days have been going great. We fasted one day which was extremely difficult, but so good for me. We also made a video (like all projects) to compete for prizes at the LT closing ceremonies. The rules were "music or dance video" Here is the 2nd place finisher and winner of $100 to Dairy Queen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgiLYFfCl5U

I'm down to a 5 under 51 on the putt putt course which is only 3 strokes off the record. Pretty proud of that, and I shot -1 on the front 9 of the disc golf course, which improved my personal record by a stroke.

Tomorrow 6 of us are going to water world in Denver which should be a lot of fun. It's the largest water park in the country and I've heard good things so I'm pretty excited to go.

All of the non OSU LT people left this past weekend, so things seem a little dull around here. There is a noticeable decrease in staff, which means people are being moved around to jobs they don't normally have to accommodate the change. That has been frustrating for me since I have been getting a lot of back dish, but hopefully starting Thursday I will get to work in the prep room since that's where I asked the manager to put me.

I decided late last week that I want to try to memorize the sermon on the mount by the end of my time out here. That's Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. As of right now I have Matthew 5: 1-16 down, which is good, but also means I'm behind schedule. I'm hoping to set some time aside soon to get a bunch done. The trick is really being able to apply the verses I'm memorizing to my life and my attitude.

Project day this week we are going back to Boulder, which I'm excited about and should be a good time. I think we are spending more time there than last time and are going to try to do a "fun" activity while we are there - whatever that ends up being - I think we also may eat at Chipotle!!!

I guess that's about all I'm going to get out before I fall asleep, but I will really try to update a little more frequently for the rest of the time I'm out here. I hope everyone is doing great and I will continue praying for you all. I look forward to seeing everyone when I get back!

-Adam

Some pics and a fun video

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=579978671422&subj=546340254

Rocky Mountain High

Hello everyone,

Sorry it's been so long, This past week has been kinda crazy. Last Tuesday (12 days ago) I was going to hike twin sisters with a bunch of people, but at the last second, Drew and I decided that we would just hike to Morraine Park and spend time reading the Bible and praying. On the way there we saw a rock on the side of the trail and climbed it. On the other side was a rushing stream with rocks sticking through the water, and after awhile I decided it would be cool to be on one of those rocks. We tried to slide down the rock face but realized that it was too steep for sliding towards the bottom so I decided to try and run from about halfway down and jump to the first rock, then to the second, and end up in the final location. Bad idea. My momentum carried me past the first rock and I ended up kicking a rock that was concealed by the rushing water with my shin. My leg was numb for a few minutes and I was just sitting on the rock watching my leg start to bleed a little more and a little more.

Eventually I got feeling back in my leg and made it the nurse with Drew where the wound was cleaned and bandaged, but 3 days letter it was infected. The infection has been very hard to fight - I ended up making 3 trips to urgent care and have hopefully my last one tomorrow. I've been taking 3100 mg of meds and had two shots, as well as some crazy osmosis powder that sucked a bunch of stuff out of the swelling and looked really gross. Despite all this I am very blessed in that it is in getting better and should be almost completely back to normal within the next couple of days (my medicine runs out Tuesday)

Work continues to be crazy. We have been having around 1000 people for breakfast every day and even though we have a lot of help, we don't have a lot of food so it has been a challenge trying to manage food lines. I have really enjoyed some of the relationships I've been able to build on during work though, so overall it has been good for me.

I started a workshop last Sunday called discovering God's will for your life. I am hoping that it will be really revealing to me, because as most of you know, I'm not exactly thrilled with what I have been studying at OSU and really don't know what I want to do once I graduate. We talked a lot about surrendering completely to God - almost impossible. I want so badly to control different aspects of my life because I don't completely trust God, or think I know what's best. It's something I've definitely been trying to pray about with my time here.

Despite my leg I was able to go hiking last Tuesday (5 days ago). A group of us climbed CCY - Chapin, Chequita and Ypsilon. 3 mountains in one day! It took us about 4 hours to climb all 3, an hour for lunch, and an 1.5 hours to get back. The final mountain had 13,500 ft elevation - the highest I've been since I've been here. The hike was hard but it was very cool and I touched snow in July - pretty crazy.

I've been getting pretty good at putt-putt even though the course is challenging...I'm excited for when Jon Shah gets here - I think I'll have a shot at him. I also have a current streak of 16 days straight playing euchre - and am very proud of it.

A bunch of us went into town earlier this week and had dinner at a local pizza place and it was so good. We also did some shopping and went into this awesome antique place and trading post. I bought a hoodie for $25 bucks so I was pretty happy with that.

I think tonight we may be going into a Mexican restaurant in town, and securing day 17 in the euchre streak. I also have project at 9 and afterwards we are praying for H2O's location for next year. I'm excited for the next week as my leg will hopefully be getting more and more healed and it will be less of a stress in my life.

Thank you all for you continued support, prayers and interest in my time. I will try to update more frequently. I really enjoy hearing from you, even if I don't get a chance to respond. I am praying for you all and love you all dearly.

To be continued...

Adam

Update

Happy belated 4th! I hope everyone was able to enjoy fireworks/festivities of some kind.

It was the first 4th of July that I ever had to work (I think), but it wasn't bad because I had the am shift. Work has actually been crazy this weekend. We had 1100 people come in for breakfast on Saturday, and 800 yesterday, but people coming in yesterday didn't have meal tickets so the line was well out the door even with both food lines open. It didn't help that we've been running out of fruit all weekend. It was also crazy (and gross) yesterday when a lady complained to me about another lady changing her baby's diaper on one of the tables. I didn't really know what to do so I thanked her for letting me know and then told Darryl who made an announcement saying that a wonderful part of the service provided by the YMCA is that there are changing stations in both the mens and womens bathrooms so please refrain from changing diapers in the eating room.

To celebrate the 4th a bunch of us were going to hike up Twin Sisters to see the fireworks from the top of the mountain - apparently you can see 7 different cities' fireworks from the top. However, a really large group (33 people) and questionable weather led to a change in plans. We (with the exception of 3 people) decided to hike up Eagle Cliff instead, which meant we wouldn't have to drive into the national park and that it would be a 3 hour hike round trip instead of 5. I wasn't feeling that well, but I decided this was something I couldn't miss out on so I went up anyway.

So worth it.

The hike was really cool - the first "real" hike I've been on here. It was definitely a steep climb and we took lots of breaks. It was actually really cold up on top of the mountain, but most people had packed accordingly so other than me wishing I would have brought gloves - we were fine. Another really cool part of the night was worship. Brandon brought his guitar up the mountain and while we were waiting for the sun to set he just played and everyone sang along. It was so awesome praising God on a mountain peak with clouds floating through and around us.

The way down was really intense. Most people had flashlights or headlights, but it was still hard to make it down in the dark. I slipped and fell a couple times because it was almost impossible to tell where secure footing was, but we were in small groups, which made it easier and we helped each other. Overall, it was one of the cooler 4ths I've experienced.

Last week I had my first project and small group. Great. John Drage ( the LT director ) taught us about evangelism. Going in I was pretty nervous/suspicious of it because I have always had this negative view of evangelism of being intolerant and condemning - which it definitely can be. But John talked a lot about just loving people and getting to know them and build relationships. Things I absolutely agree with and want to be able to do. After John's talk, our project group gathered and we all shared how things had been going, which was encouraging to hear how people were doing and also hear how a lot of people were experiencing similar frustrations as myself.

Small group was pretty good. I'm in small group with Joe, Greg, Mark, and Dan - all really cool guys. We spent the whole time just sharing about our lives and basically how we got to where we are. Definitely cool to learn about everyone's lives. I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer with them.

Thursday was school spirit night at LT. Of course OSU won. :) We had already done face painting stuff, but we did it again and on top of that organized a couple of cheers. The first cheer was the "oh oh oh" chant to the White Stripes' song "Seven Nation Army" which then went to the Buckeye classic "OH" - "IO" During Seven Nation Army we thought it would be cool to add a little extra flair so I crowd surfed (or crowd bobbed) which was pretty sweet.

Other than LT stuff and work I've been playing a decent amount of putt putt and a lot of euchre. Greg and I have been dominating euchre, but I'm still not so great at putt putt. I've now played 11 of the disc golf holes here and was -1 through those 11.

I really appreciate all of your continued support and interest in my time out here and I will try to keep updating as time allows. I am praying for you all.

Here is a picture of a few of us from school spirit night...

To be continued...

-Adam

Blame it on the al al-al-al al-al titude

Yesterday was the first day that I actually wanted to come home. I was just feeling really stressed with everything - work, verse memorization, reading in general, my inability to focus, being tired, etc.

I had breakfast with Kyle and Dan and got to talk about some of the stuff going through my head, which was great. One of the things we talked about was a quote I heard a few weeks before coming to LT.

"You only love God as much as the person you love the least."

Wow. That's actually a pretty discouraging thing to think about because there are lots of people that I don't love like I should - lots of people that I don't see through God's eyes. I selfishly value and love friendships with certain people more than others because my relationship with them brings me greater happiness. What's worse is that I want to value certain relationships more - I like the idea of having a few friends that are closer than most and naturally that means I will love them more.

I think it's human to (more or less) rank friends - at least value certain relationships more than others. I think we love ourselves and generally like the people that are most like us the most.

This is the first thing God has really put on my heart this summer - that I need to be loving everyone how God loves them, even if I don't get along with them, speak the same language as them, or know them. It's easy to act nice and friendly, but to actually love them and care about them is another step. I'm really going to praying about that and working towards that as the summer progresses.

I went on my first hike today. 11 of us went into the national park and hiked a trail called Cub's Creek. It was ok. I really enjoyed walking and talking with everyone, but the hike was semi lame. We would go up a few feet then down a feet for about 2 miles. We finally got to a lake and had a picnic on the rocks around the water. We got about half way back and saw some rock faces off the trail so we decided to spice up the hike and did some climbing. We ended up climbing a few hundred feet up and got up on a huge boulder that overlooked the valley where we had been hiking which was awesome. Definitely worth the effort, although it was the first time I noticed the altitude from a out-of-breath-from-physical-effort sense.

I still have a hard time sleeping here, but the last couple of nights have been noticeably better. My appetite is fluctuating and I still feel light headed from time to time. It really is amazing how much 8000 feet of elevation can affect the body (and how 10% humidity drys you out.)

It was really good to have the day off today and get a break from the kitchen and dishes. Tomorrow is my first project day. I'm excited to see what we learn/do. I'm hoping it will be challenging and encouraging. I'm also excited for small group and getting to spend time talking with some guys.

I'll try to update again soon and add some pictures (now that I found my camera). I hope everything is going well for all of you. Thanks for your continued support and interest.

To be continued...

-Adam

Hello from Estes Park!

Well I'm finally here. I've actually been here for about 2 days now but just now feel like I have the time to update, and even now I don't have all that much time.

Monday was pretty laid back. We got checked in and got our staff badges, had dinner, and had a meeting just for OSU kids where we met the director of LT, pretty cool. There was a lot of confusion about work responsibilites for Tuesday, but we finally figured out that food service was supposed to show up at 10. We met the a.m manager and he showed us around the work area and divided us into am and pm shifts (I'm on am for now woot) and we had lunch and then left. Pretty easy.

The first LT session wasn't until 9, so I was able to spend some time hanging out with the people in food services. We went to the craft and design place and made necklaces (and friends). It took me two hours to hemp my necklace, but I feel like it turned out pretty well.

After craft time I relaxed a little and did some reading. We also took a trip into town to get adapters for our rooms (the outlets are only two pronged and the minifridge needs 3!). I also stopped in at safeway and got a little bit of pop and some hummus. We went to a crazy weapons store that had a bunch of swords and such. After about 20 minutes Dave bought a plastic samurai sword and a knife and the cashier was like..."that's it?"

After shopping, we had dinner and went disc golfing. 11 of us in all...so we divided into 4 teams. We got through 8 holes in about 2 hours and realized one of the girls had lost her key so we retraced every hole and somehow managed to find it! At this point we had to go back though cause it was time for the first LT session.

Apparently tOSU's arrival had been pretty hyped up, but A&M was still convinced they had more school spirit. To prove them wrong we decided to paint our faces which I must admit turned out extremely well. The session was good - covered Phil 3 and talked a lot about focus. A good message for me to hear at the beginning of the summer. After the meeting I was pretty tired so I came back and went to bed.

Ok, the main reason I went to bed was because I got up at 5 am this morning for my first day of work. Wow. The job isn't hard, but it is constant work and very monotonous. I spent 8 hours doing dishes :(. The great thing was talking to people. I got to talk a lot with a couple people that I already knew (OSU) but got to know them a lot better, and I met a couple new people too, which was great. The girl that was showing me the ropes is Russian and has a pretty thick accent, which was a challenge, but she's nice and made work tolerable at times.

After work I did some more reading (memorized 4 verses) and relaxed. At dinner we planned to go see Toy Story 3 instead of the hike. Crazy right? Well food service people were all so worn out that a hike just didnt sound that appealing. Actually, 6 people went, 4 from food service, one from guest service, and a guy we met working who we invited to come with from Texas A&M. He's a pretty cool guy and the movie was really good.

I'm a little discouraged because I feel like between being busy and tired I'm not going to have the opportunity to do as much as I want to do out here this summer, but hopefully as I get used to the schedule a little more, somethings will open up. We have 8 hour orientation tomorrow, which is supposedly really dumb, but it can't be worse than dishes.

It's also been a struggle getting used to the altitude and dryness. I'm drinking about 10 glasses of water a day and I'm still getting headaches and lightheadedness from dehydration, but overall the first two days have been really good. I'm tired now, so I'm going to get some sleep, but I will try and update again soon.

To be continued....

Adam

I wish we weren't in Kansas anymore...

Surprise! Post number 1 on day number 1! Were not even out there yet and I'm getting an update in thanks to the wonderful wi-fi of the Super 8 in Salina. Here we go...

What a trip. We got about 13 hours of driving under our belts today. Left osu around 7 30. Had lunch about a half hour or so past Indianapolis at a Subway in a Wal Mart. Then some of us got slushies at Sonic to wash it down (myself not included). We put in another good 2.5 hours or so and stopped to get gas and a Snickers blizzard for me :) Then we headed out for about another 200 miles before we stopped to use the restrooms about hour away from Kansas City.

It was here that we decided we would push on for Salina and wait to eat dinner there and also where I noticed cheap gas, thought about suggesting we fill up, but then decided we would be fine, all in my head. <- Important for later.

So we continue driving, get into Kansas, which is not QUITE as boring as suggested, but pretty darn close, and are making good time. Speaking of scenery, two of my favorite sites on the way out so far have been Lucas Oil Stadium, and wherever the Kansas City Royals play. Both stadiums looked awesome from 70, but maybe I just appreciate them more because I love sports so much. ANYWAY, were in Kansas, about 80 miles from Salina and Brandon gets a call from the girl's car about them needing to get gas. Problem: exits off of 70 in Kansas are dirt roads that lead to who knows where. It took us about 30 miles to find an exit with gas but we did. We then decided that we would go to the next exit and go ahead and eat dinner because we heard that the food selection in Salina was not so great.

We get 70, about 46 miles away from Salina to eat and instead of getting fast food, decide to be adventurous and eat at Family Buffet. Food wasnt that great, but I did have a nice warm dinner roll. As were leaving, we notice some storm clouds in the distance and some lightning but don't think much of it.

About 20 miles down 70 things start to look really nasty and within the next couple minutes we are driving straight into a violent looking storm. Radical lightning (sky to ground bolts) and heavy rain hit. It's also really windy and I start thinking...hm...Kansas...tornados. Well we find the weather on the radio and sure enough there is a tornado warning and a couple minutes later we see a funnel cloud illuminated by the lightning flashes off to the right (distance from car unknown)

At this point were pretty freaked out and conflicted between driving faster to get there and driving slower to avoid hydroplaning. I decide on the latter thinking that if a tornado really sucks us up it was just our time. Finally we get into Salina about 9 30 local time and get checked in to the motel. Turns out there were 50-60 mph gusts of wind that we were driving through, but we were lucky cause about a half hour before we drove through the storm the winds were 90-100 mph.

Anyway I'm going to get to bed now so I can be rested for the final leg of the journey out to Colorado, but just thought I'd get down the first story of many and let you know that despite some challenges I made it to Salinas.

To be continued....

-Adam

Anticipation

In about 35 hours I will be leaving for Colorado for 11 weeks. I'm finally feeling like it is upon me and I'm anxious to get out there, start working, and get "settled in." I don't know how much of a routine I will actually be able to establish out there, but that's ok - this is a summer about stretching myself and enjoying myself, as it is probably my last "summer" that I have come to know and love.

We're leaving at 7 am (yikes) and driving to Salina, Kansas where we will stay the night. Then another 9-10 hours of driving on Monday and I will be in Estes Park. The nice thing about the car ride just being Brandon and me is that there should be plenty of room in the car for anything I might need - I just hope I remember to pack it.

Speaking of packing, I haven't exactly done that...at all. That's ok though, I have a pretty free day tomorrow so packing will give me something to do. I made a checklist of all the things I need to get done tomorrow, and all the things I need to remember to bring, so that should help.

That's really about it for now, I don't have a lot to update about yet since I'm not there. I'll be sure to update once I'm out there and moved in. Thank you all for your love, support and prayers, and I am looking forward to a great summer. To be continued...

-Adam