As many of you may know by now, CIGS stands for The Community Involvement Growth Strategy.  The CIGS strategy is a business plan development and special events management model I have been using since my days in the military and entertainment industry.

The CIGS strategic organizational growth model (as it is officially called) is a fusion of all of the logistics based functions I served in my jobs as a logistics supply and maintenance clerk for my transportation terminal unit in the US Army and my role as an A&R Business Administration Assistant at LaFace Records.  Over the years, I continued adding and perfecting the model as my career blossomed through experiences with the production pools at Coca-Cola USA, the C-Level General Management team at Burrell Communications Group, and the award winning Atlanta Multi-Housing Team at CB Richard Ellis.  Top that off with a one year detail with the Planning and Environmental Accountability Branch at The Environmental Protection Agency, one could easily see how my passion for logistics, marketing, community/economic development and environmental activism has developed and strengthened.

Right now, I am currently working on several key projects that allow me to fold all of my talents under one umbrella.  Thanks to the philanthropic interests and goals of ProFast Development Group, I will be spearheading several marketing initiatives over the next two to five years.  They are:

• ProFast TRENDS Golf Tournament
• Adamsville, GA Master Plan Development Project
• 2010 TRENDS R&D Forum (based on the ITEST Grant)
• NEXT Steps Youth Entrepreneur Program Initiatives
• 2010 TRENDS Summer Internship/Jobs Program

All of our initiatives and programs will have a common thread tying each program’s goals and objectives into the other.  Through ProFast Development Group and ProFast Marine Group, our goals are to support students, teachers and community groups that have expressed significant interests, created innovative projects and/or inventions, and have discovered unique trends or occurrences that could benefit or further advance their participation and contributions to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics industries.

Through funding, collaborative partnership efforts, and the CIGS strategic organizational growth model, ProFast can help these groups utilize and maximize the resources  available to them “in their own backyards”.  In return, each partner walks away with the ability to create and complete measurable results,  future development projects , and potential avenues to extend community, workforce and economic development opportunities that benefit their groups and communities overall.

Even though it’s cold, wet and muddy these days, we spent a couple of hours in the garden this afternoon clearing as much as we could in preparation for next spring.  In our garden the word “clearing” still refers to clearing concrete, rather than the aftermath of this year’s growing season.  This is because we knocked down an old workshop in the autumn to make way for a greenhouse and there’s still a lot of mess to clear up. 

The photo below celebrates another skip load of rubbish ready to be moved off site – making way for greener ambitions to our own design and taste.  We were pleased to see the back of the workshop, since it was about twenty years old, had a leaking roof, and two of its walls were made of asbestos.  However, its biggest crime was that it took up a lot of space that we want to use for crops.

Well, when I say a lot of space, I mean that it occupied about 12 square metres.  But in a city garden like ours this is very valuable and our “Master Plan” for next year is based on using every inch of space that we can get our hands on.

Future “Master Plan” posts will show us lifting sections of the block paving in the front garden to make way for four largish beds that will be used for the more ornamental vegetables, mixed with edible flowers such as nasturtiums and calendulas.  Having an allotment in front of the house is fairly eccentric in our parts, but it’s a quiet street and it’s what we love – which is the most important thing.

After all, what could be better than looking out of your lounge window at crops you can eat?  Or popping out in your slippers with a pair of scissors to snip off some fresh herbs?  All of our neighbours have gravel or block paving in front of their houses.  Whilst ours will be an edible paradise.

Meditations in Romans : 2 :  Living in the Plan

Rom  1:1,2 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God– the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures

I sometimes wonder how many of us really have a sense of being part of God’s great master-plan.  I get the impression, as I listen to people, that few of us genuinely have a sense of being part of something bigger, of having a real sense of destiny.  Yes, we do in church services perhaps, when God is clearly speaking, but in the day to day humdrum of life, the pressures of twenty-first century living seem to squash that sense.  Maybe we need Paul to remind us about this.

Perhaps that was what marked out Paul from the rest of us, for a reading of Acts reveals a man utterly dedicated to the big plan and purpose of God. But what about here; what about in these first two verses of Romans, before we read into the depths of this book?  We pondered on him being a servant yesterday.  As we move on we see him telling us, his readers, that he has a calling.

We talk about missionaries having a calling. We sometimes talk about nurses, doctors or teachers having a ‘calling’. It’s a vocation, we say, a calling, otherwise we probably wouldn’t do it. Paul’s ‘calling’ was to be an apostle. Now depending on where we come from in the church, we may have different feelings about apostles, but for the sake of these verses we need only focus on Paul.  To the Corinthians he asked, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?” (1 Cor 9:1) For him at that time, the criteria for being an apostle was that you had met or known the Lord and were able to testify to him, and that the fruit of your ministry proved what you were – there were churches in existence because of you!

When you have a calling you are set apart TO something – to be a missionary etc. – but you are also set apart FROM other things.  If you are set apart TO one thing, it means you are set apart FROM a lot of others things, the things others are called to.  It is in fact a separating off to something and a leaving other things behind.  Elisha is a good example in the Old Testament of this happening: “Elijah went from there and found Elisha …. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. … He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate.” (1 Kings 19:19-21).  Elijah did this as a result of an instruction from the Lord and Elisha recognised this as a calling which meant that he would leave his present occupation and go and follow Elijah to do whatever God gave them to do.

Thus we find Paul telling us that he has been “set apart for the gospel of God.” His role as a servant of Jesus was, in fact, to serve Jesus as an apostle and go and take the Good News about him, produce converts, and form them into visible expressions of the Church.  But of course this wasn’t some latter day emergency fall-back plan of the Lord’s because all else had failed with Israel. No, this was an outworking of His plan that He had spoken about, “through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures”, i.e. throughout the Old Testament.

In fact we can go further.  A number of times in the Bible we find references to God’s plan that had been brought into being even before He has created the world.  The apostle Peter, referring to Jesus wrote, “God chose him for this purpose long before the world began.” (1 Pet 1:20).  Paul himself wrote to the church at Ephesus, “Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ.” (Eph 1:4) and to Timothy he wrote, “that was his plan long before the world began—to show his love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim. 1:9).  Thus God planned for each of us to find salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ, even before sin came into the world.

Yet, it goes even further.  Paul wrote, “we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph 2:10).  Our being ‘born again’ (Jn 3:3) is a work of God (see also Jn 1:12,13) and we have been brought into Sonship because of the work of Christ on the Cross and been empowered by God’s Spirit to be new beings who are to express the love and goodness of God through our lives.   How He does this is unique to each one of us for He has gifted us with grace uniquely (Rom 12:6). He has given us the gifts, talents and abilities that we have, and we use them as we live out these lives expressing His love and goodness.

This is the ‘calling’ that each Christian has. Some He calls to be leaders, some not. Some He calls to very clear and distinct ministries, others not,  but whoever we are, we ARE part of His master plan and He has a specific part for us to play which becomes gradually revealed to us as we let Him teach us through His word and guide and empower us by His Spirit.  With Paul, we are in God’s plan. We may not have realised it or we may have forgotten it, but we are!   Live in it and enjoy it!

After six months of nearly round-the-clock work by consultants and campus planners, Nebraska Innovation Campus’s final business development strategy and campus master plans were presented and approved today by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents.

Lincoln, Neb., November 20th, 2009 —

(read more UNL News Release)

For more information about Nebraska Innovation Campus and to view the most up-to-date versions of the plans, go to http://innovate.unl.edu.

Former politicians weren’t the only notable visitors this week. Consultants from Perkins+Will (the firm helping develop UAF’s new master plan) visited UAF to get input on the the plan. They hosted a couple of sessions to show off possible plans, and met with quite a few different groups about various aspects of planning.

The plans address a wide-variety of issues: housing, classrooms, research space and even little purple boxes meant for meeting space and areas to foster collaboration. One plan tries to create more of a spine along Yukon Drive, while another focuses on emphasizing the area around the Wood Center and centralizing things in that region. Although the plan won’t affect UAF immediately, it will guide decisions as to where buildings are built in the future and how people can access them.

I attended one info session (as a participant, not a reporter), and spent some time looking at the various plans in the Wood Center. They’ll be set up in the Wood Center for the rest of the day, and you can use sticky notes to comment on each panel, but I’d recommend setting aside quite a bit of time to look at them – they take a while to digest. Or you can go to the blog where they’ve posted information about the plans and comment with your suggestions.

Atlanta City Councilmember Kwanza Hall and Poncey-Highlands community leaders unveiled the neighborhood’s new master plan, which will be voted on by the Poncey-Higlands Neighborhood Association in December.

You can learn more about the master plan here.

2009-11-18

Pedestrian Primacy

In the current election, all Seattle City Council candidates elected pledged to “support war on cars”.  The Bus has you on tape.  We don’t need a war, we need Pedestrian Primacy.  Pedestrian Primacy means putting the interests of pedestrians ahead of automobile drivers.  The Seattle Pedestrian Master Plan does not seriously address  obstacles to increased walking or the primary impediment to improving walk commute times – systematic preferences for automobile traffic.  Targets in the plan that identify ‘increase’ or ‘decrease’ are giveaways (there are no numbers that allow anyone to be held accountable) and the plan allows ten years to establish pedestrian education in all schools!  Do I detect a lack of urgency?  This is not the kind of planning that built the interstate highway system.  We need a new pedestrian plan written with gusto and verve and measurable outcomes.  Fourteen disparate ideas to consider:

1.  Convert Streets to Exclusive Pedestrian & Bicycle Use

Convert a small measurable fraction of residential streets to exclusive pedestrian and bicycle use each year to create a dense network.  Provide exceptions for residents.  How about a goal of making 5% of our streets auto-free by 2020?  Conversions could be, in part, by local election.  What homeowner wouldn’t like the street in front of their house reserved to pedestrians, bicycles and their own vehicles?  In some cases these streets and paths can be shared with transit.  Converting streets without sidewalks to pedestrian and bicylce use would eliminate the need for new sidewalks.  Widespread conversion of residential streets to pedestrian and bicycle use will free up space for hundreds of acres of trees and permeable surfaces.

2.  Expand Auto-Free Zones

We already have auto-free zones at parks, schools and other property.  We should expand these zones by converting adjacent streets to exclusive pedestrian and bicycle use with exceptions for residents.  We should increase the number of streets closed to cars for recreational use and very gradually increase the frequency of closures until some of these streets are auto-free.  Closing streets adjacent to shorelines should be the number one priority.  Identifying the streets to be closed long before the closure is planned will allow people who want to live on closed streets to migrate there and reduce the impact on residents when closures become permanent.

3.  Measure Walk & Bicycle Commute Times

Real travel times for walkers and cyclists must be studied, recorded and improved – just like we do for autos.  If we are serious about walking, we need to maximize the speed of walkers rather than drivers.  We need to measure how fast a normal person can walk from place to place legally. With the current auto-oriented stoplight system, the closer you get to centers of employment the slower you have to walk – unless you jaywalk.  It is very likely that the only solution is to make jaywalking legal.

4.  Improve Pedestrian & Bicycle Street & Path Quality

Pedestrian and bicycle streets and paths need to be built to a higher standard than streets for cars.  Small bumps and holes are much more problematic for pedestrians and bicyclists than for cars and trucks.  The idea of not reinforcing sidewalks is an old idea.  Nondestructive testing can prevent the sidewalk collapses that prompted the strange policy of building inferior sidewalks whose deterioration makes them a constant hazard. The cracked and warping asphalt bike and pedestrian paths in our parks force runners and cyclists on to the streets.

5.  Automate Traffic Signals Singapore-Style

The Seattle area is home to software giants and primitive traffic signal systems and our traffic signals seem to be run by punch cards.  There is no reason why we can’t monitor and remotely control our traffic signal system in real time.  The savings in pollution alone is enough to justify this investment.  The resulting increase in pedestrian, bicycle and even auto commute times will just be a bonus.

6.  Designate Pedestrian/Bicycle Streets Vancouver Style

Create designated pedestrian/bicycle streets parallel to arterials with preferential signals for the pedestrians at crossing arterials.  In Vancouver, where pedestrian/bicycle streets cross arterials, walk buttons  stop auto traffic immediately (unless auto traffic has been recently stopped for pedestrians).

7.  Eliminate Walk Buttons at Traffic Signals

Except for buttons that stop traffic immediately, walk buttons at traffic signals should be removed.  A walk button that ‘allows’ pedestrians to cross at the next green light is an insulting example of current auto primacy.  Why should every pedestrians be required to wait?     Where installed, walk signs  should operate at every signal change.

8.  Use All-Way Walk Signals

All high-pedestrian-traffic intersection should have all-way walk signals.  A high-pedestrian-traffic intersection is one that has even a few people waiting for the light in the busiest times of the day.  All-way walk signals are especially helpful for five-way and other complicated intersections.  Crossing two or three streets at once is a real boon to the pedestrian.

9.  Help with the Hills for Walkers and Cyclists

Walkers and cyclists need help getting up steep grades such as First Hill – something faster and more frequent than buses.  Think ski lift or funicular – Portland has one and we don’t.  If the objective is to get people from downtown to First Hill for instance, it isn’t necessary to build a streetcar through the International District to get there.  The streetcar is great – but it is not the most efficient route to get from the Ferry Terminal to Harborview.  That would be Yesler or an unused street alignment (see below).

10.  Grid Restoration for Walkers and Bikers

We need bridges that provide shortcuts for walkers and cyclists (and not autos) across highways and waterways.  Streetcars might also share these shortcuts.  There are many available street alignments for non-auto crossings – they just need a bridge.  I-5 offers many examples. A pedestrian/bicycle bridge connecting Stone Way with Dexter Avenue would be a minor miracle for many commuters.

11.  Prioritize Waterfronts for Pedestrian, Bicycle and Transit Use

All waterfront needs to prioritize transit, pedestrian and bicycle use.  Not having to deal with cross-traffic benefits travel times for walkers, cyclists and transit.  Some of our waterfront, such as that in Southeast Seattle, is barely served by bus service and that what service is available is typically point-to-point rather than extending along the waterfront.  You can’t take a bus from one area of our Lake Washington waterfront to another without first going far inland.  This is no doubt a legacy of discrimination.  The waterfront should be quiet place so transit should be electric or natural gas powered.

12.  Corner Grocery Stores

A city is not walkable if you can’t walk to a corner store for essentials.  The fight with NIMBY interests will be legendary but return the corner stores we must.  There are ways to do this without upsetting too many people.  For instance, the City should set a maximum distance to a corner store and then ‘auction’ the right to change zoning for a store location or two in each un-served area.  The application with the most neighborhood support (property owners and residents) would be the winner – and the auctions could be weighted so that the closest residents and property owners would have the greatest impact on which site wins.

13.  Walk-Around Business Districts

Many of our business districts were designed as auto-oriented strips.  Districts such as Columbia City would benefit from business district zoning two or more blocks deep.  People like to walk around blocks – not up and back the same way.  In Columbia City it would make sense to extend the business district to the nearby light rail station.

14.  Awnings that Keep Pedestrians Dry

New and reconstructed buildings in areas that are designated as pedestrian-intensive should have large awnings that keep people dry.   These awnings should extend the entire length of the building and should be glass.  The awnings should be required to be maintained for the life of the building.

This is a continuation of the previous thought. This is more impossible one than before. What if we could enter everything that is happening to us and be able to connect the impacts on other events? Every little thing on a huge and complex database. Then wouldn’t we be able catch “God” or fate in the act? We would have the vision of all the nuts and bolts of this world or life at its work. We would have the “God’s” vision. We would see what he or she is seeing. We would see the “master plan”. We would start to see a pattern, hopefully, and crack its code, if there is one. Correction, if there is one we can wrap our heads around. Crazy thought, wouldn’t you say?

Haha, here is even crazier or problematic thought. If this is somehow possible, and we accomplish it, would that have been an intended “script” of “God” or fate or whatever it is? (Might be an alien, for all I know

WE STARTED HERE   

Welcome to the City Smallholder.  We hope you enjoy these pages and invite you to follow our journey as we endeavour to chart the difficulties met when seeking a self-sufficient and supermarket-free lifestyle in an urban environment.  Our own journey began in the summer of 2009 with the smallest of plots – approximately 30 square metres of land running along the side of the bungalow we are renovating.  The ground had suffered years of abuse by the “concrete it over” mentality of the previous owner and our early gardening sessions involved hour upon hour with a sledge-hammer, wheelbarrow, and skip before there was any hope of the crops shown below.  But the success we felt by turning our tiny urban corner into useable growing space spurred us on to our much larger “grow your own” plans for 2010.  Yes, bigger things are on the horizon since we plan to use all the land we have (less than 100 square metres) to feed ourselves all year around.  Is this possible using the gardens that surround our tiny two-bedroom bungalow?  Maybe, if we stick to a potato-free diet.  The coming year will tell.  Is anyone else short of growing space?

Mmmm i guess its high time we come out with a little time line to keep track of our wedding preparation’s progress :

Lets see what we have done so far…..

Wedding Bands - Purchased at a premium during a discount at Soo Kee Jewellery

Wedding Photo Shoot – Signed up with a Taiwanese Agency for it..Aimed to go there in April 2010 to take the photos…

Venue - Decided we want Outdoors away from restaurants, hotels..because we want unconventional

Lets see what are the outstanding things that we will need to do and its approximate timeline:

Lately, my dormant interest in RPGs has had a violent resurgence. This is mainly to blaim on a few games and a lot of podcasts. So… This will be a post directed towards gamers and others interested. If you’re not a gamer and thus don’t understand what I’m talking about here, I just don’t think I give a shit.

I’ve been a dedicated gamer (and we’re talking non-electronic games here, folks!) since I was around twelve years old. My first game was a kind of low-on-rules fantasy game my mom got for me. This was before she knew that RPG’s were Satan’s games.  I played it with my new classmates and we did what any normal bunch of twelve-year-olds would have done with a tabletop RPG: some fucked up shit.
That old guy stuck under a tree? Pretend to help him so he tells us where his magic sword is hidden and then kill him. Another PC not following your lead? Curse him to attack himself until death occurs and let the looting commence! Come up with skills and make a huge hassle of being thorough in it, as long as the skill is not pertinent to what you’re playing… at all.

Of course, we can do this now, but it would be done with a motive or as some kind of tongue-in-cheek thing. Back then, we were twelve and that just makes it weird.

Later I, of course, moved on to D&D and Swedish equivalents. But growing out of these games I found myself drawn towards the more free-form kinds of games. The ones where the exploration of the character and the group was the focus got my attention and still do.

This summer, at a con, I got a hold of a copy of Luke Crane’s ‘Mouse Guard’, an RPG based on the comics by David Petersen. I had been told that it was unlike most of the games you’ll find on the Swedish RPG scene and that many Swedes would have trouble playing it. I know a challenge when I hear one (even though it might just be in my head) and I checked it out.

Since I’m a podcast/audiobook/lecture junkie I gathered together some RPG podcasts, primarily those featuring Luke Crane talking about Mouse Guard (and those podcasts nominated for an Ennie), and started walking, started listening. The last few years I’ve had some trouble with broken rules and broken groups sometimes taking the fun out of playing, but with these shows I came to remember what I actually like about RPGs. The exploration, the investigation, the questioning, the social aspect (RPGs are, after all, a social acticity and just because we don’t want to play with YOU doesn’t mean they’re anti-social as has been claimed in the past). They also opened my eyes to some stuff I’ve never even bothered thinking about before; RPG theory, social dynamics, play styles, agency and how the story comes about.

Before I give you some links I’d like to thank these podcasters for this pleasant curse of addiction they’ve put on me.

The following links are written in no particular order so just feel free to check out all of them according to your own strange systems, follow the tide, count the days until the next full moon, use kabbalah… I don’t care.

I’ll only bother writing about the three shows I’ve been listening to the most and find most enjoyable. The other ones will just be links. Ok? Go!

Theory From The Closet – Clyde L. Rhoer

A podcast focusing on the theoretical parts in RPGs. Clyde walks us through GNS (Gamist, Narrativist, Simulationist) theory and things related to the Big Model. Mixed with a lot of interviews and a relaxed punk attitude this makes for a great show. At first I was put off by the slow pace of the host, but that does not bother me at all anymore and I kinda like the almost cautious and humble tone Clyde uses.

Master Plan – Ryan Macklin

A very hands-on podcast on game design. Ryan talks a lot about designing his own games and also does some great interviews.

Have Games, Will Travel – Paul Tevis

HGWT does not only revolve around theory, but also includes reviews, general thoughts on RPGs and, of course, interviews (No waaaay? Way.).

Narrative Control
The Independent Insurgency
The Voice Of The Revolution
The Walking Eye

For an extensive directory of RPG podcasts check out: RPGpodcasts.com

Some games I’ve come into contact with because of all these shows:

Dogs In The Vineyard
Kill Puppies For Satan
Polaris
The Drifter’s Escape
Mouse Guard
Burning Wheel
Burning Empires
Don’t Rest Your Head
Death’s Door
Prime Time Adventures
My Life With Master
Zombie Cinema
Breaking The Ice
Shooting The Moon
Under My Skin
The Mountain Witch
A Penny For My Thoughts
Silence Keeps Me A Victim

Lastly, If anyone writes “TLDNR” as a comment, I’ll find ya, and I’ll kill ya…

Advocates of Plan to Redevelop Downtown Columbia
Launch Political Advocacy Organization – NEW CITY ALLIANCE

COLUMBIA, MD (October 19, 2009) – Four leading advocates of the plan to redevelop Downtown Columbia announced the formation of a bipartisan political advocacy organization today via an interactive teleconference.

The group’s leaders, David Yungmann, Lin Eagan, Michael Davis and Phil Engelke, are all well-known advocates of transforming Downtown Columbia into the economic, social and cultural heart of Howard County and the region.

“After five years of hard work by our community to create a plan, it’s finally in the hands of the County Council and time for the citizens of Howard County to fight for its passage,” said Lin Eagan, a local business owner and resident of Harpers Choice. “The lack of a plan to create a vibrant Downtown is the key failure of Columbia,” she added.

The primary land owner in Downtown, General Growth Properties, has worked with the community and County for the past several years to create such a plan. The General Plan Amendment and Zoning Regulation Amendment that support the plan are awaiting County Council approval.

Co-founder David Yungmann explained, “We started New City Alliance to talk directly to voters across Howard County, to explain how important this plan is to them and to actively campaign for its passage.”

New City Alliance will use traditional campaign vehicles like direct mail and neighborhood canvassing to connect with voters. The group has also launched a large scale internet campaign focused on specific issues addressed in the redevelopment plan.

Not only will New City Alliance campaign for the plan’s passage, it will work to keep the process moving forward so the plan doesn’t fall victim to delays or unwarranted compromises.

Michael Davis, longtime resident of Wilde Lake warned, “If we delay we will lose our competitive edge to other communities who already have similar projects underway such as Konterra just 15 minutes away.”

Phil Engelke of Oakland Mills added, “I worry that the plan will get diluted by public officials trying to appease the special interests of the folks who routinely oppose all development.”

New City Alliance is a bipartisan 501c4 political advocacy organization led by four longtime residents of Howard County and Columbia. NCA supports the redevelopment of Downtown Columbia as a walkable, vibrant and sustainable city with density and economic viability. NCA believes timely passage and implementation of the plan to redevelop Downtown is essential to the long-term success of Howard County.

It’s unfortunate that i’m writing my first “real” post in light of a friends death.  Recently a good friend of mine took his own life, he shot himself the week before thanksgiving. The first thoughts that come to mind are how could i have changed that? Or what could i have done?

Another thought though that popped into my head is, where am i in my own life? Where does Jesus fit in, if at all? It made me really take a good hard look as my life as one who loves Jesus.

What i realized was that  even though i love Jesus and profess to be a christian i wasn’t really living for him, reading my bible and praying to get closer to him. Even as i write this i’m convicted that i need to take time to get into the bible more often. Even the thought that were supposed to share our faith, our Jesus with people hit me hard to. Ironically the only people i talked to Jesus about were my christian friends and family.

Which is dead wrong we should be reading our bible, reading books by people who love Jesus and have a better understanding and knowledge then you so you can learn from them. We should be in constant daily prayer with Jesus, in community with christian family and friends but also talking about Jesus and living for Jesus in a way that is not preachy or over bearing but a life that makes non christians asking whats different with you, why don’t you party? Why don’t you have sex before your married? It’s better to work with those created openings that Jesus gives you then try and create your own by preaching at people.

Even though i lost a good friend Jesus can still take a terrible situation and work it for his good, his master plan. Jesus is ultimately the answer the one we should be running to and living our lives for and by.

My hope in this blog is to bring Jesus to the front of our minds and our hearts so we can realize where he belongs. If you feel or have felt the same way, if you have comments, questions, good, the bad, the ugly post a comment i’d love to talk to anyone further.

Micah 4:2(NIV)

Many nations will come and say,

“come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.”