Overly Long Evenings can be Rewarding

So tonight I had the incredible honor of attending the Manitoba Baseball Association annual awards banquet. I was nominated for Grassroots Coach of the Year. Coaching is a huge passion of mine - I simply love working with kids and love being involved in competitive sports and so the two mix quite nicely into coaching. I had the awesome opportunity of head coaching baseball in Rosenort this summer (it's my third year doing it). I coached at the Bantam level (ages 14-15). Anyways, I guess the year was a huge success as we ended up winning league playoffs, regional finals, as well as eventually the Provincials. Anyways, as a result I got nominated for this award and was at an overly lengthy awards ceremony this evening. Anyways, the good news - I Won! I'm pretty excited - it was such a fun year to begin with and now this. So anyways, here's a picture of me. I was there all by my lonesome so I had to take a picture of myself. Oh well, I got to meet some guys from Cardale (I think).



Meet Nicholas. My brother and star ace pitcher on our team (and master utility player). His hair is so cute.



By the way I reccomend two CD's to all of you:
Jars of Clay - Good Monsters - Brilliant CD from the Jars - a nice new spin on their trademark sound with a mix of fun and thought-provoking songs.

Chris Tomlin - See The Morning - Really awesome new worship CD - Tomlin is definitely my favorite worship artist - I especially like the new twist on Amazing Grace.

Ciao.

Gardening and Proposals

Life is great. More importantly God is incredible. In all things, big and small, God never ceases to amaze. I look back on the last 7 months of my life and have so many questions. Why would God have brought me through this entire experience to end up single anyways? I feel like I gave so much, and yet now what do I have? I guess God continually reminds me that first of all, as of yet I do not understand Him and His incredible perfect ways, and secondly - growth comes from pain. I think we all know this, but ignore it for fear of change. Change can be interesting - it's confusing, endless, and just plain uncomfortable. But God-ordained change is that which makes us more like Jesus. I look back and see how God has molded and shaped me in the last 7 months more than ever in my life. I feel like my outlook on life is completely rebuilt.

God is incredible. Obviously, when my break-up took place, I lost a huge part of heart; a part I would never have back. This was one of the hardest parts of everything: feeling like I had this gaping whole deep inside me. Like I said though, God is incredible. Moreover, God is the most amazing lover I have ever known. When I thought that my heart would be permanently broken and I would never heal, God loved me more romantically than any lover on earth could. He picked me up and gave me the biggest hug I had ever received and carried me all the way through one the biggest valley's I've been through. I love Him so much.

It was nice today outside. My lovely mother asked me to harvest the carrots from the garden. It was a very refreshing experience. Plus - carrots taste great fresh out of the cold earth. Even with a little bit of leftover mud on them, they are quite delightful. I don't know why I wanted to share this story - but harvesting carrots can be quite nice in the cool fall air.

I teach piano and guitar. One of my little five year olds is the most cute thing you have ever seen in your entire life. She has this permanent cute smile and giggle that leaves your heart melted for the entire half hour lesson. While in a lesson one Wednesday, my next student burst into the room and I asked him to wait for a few minutes well I finished with Jesslyn. Jesslyn then asked me if the student that had burst in was my son. I laughed and said that I had no children and that I wasn't married either. Then it happened. With the biggest puppy face I had ever seen, she looked up at me and asked if she could marry me. It was priceless. When I kindly deflected her offer, she said that maybe when she was my age we could get married. So at least now I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of a proposal.

Remember: God is loving and faithful, carrots taste good fresh out of the ground, and little children are growing up way too fast.

The Preliminaries

Well, before I go off on some rant which will become totally mysterious to you, I figure I will provide some background to what's going on in my life. As many of you know, 7 1/2 months ago I became a single man once again. The spring was very hard as I began the healing process, but once summer had began to end I was looking forward and excited for life. I've grown immensely because of this experience and see the world, myself, God, my family and I guess girls in a whole new way. It's great to be single I must say. There is a freedom here that only a single person can I have. Just me and God. It doesn't mean that I don't go through days right now in my life where I wish there was a life partner, but this is exactly where I need to be, for now.

Right now, I'm a busy man. Mondays and Tuesdays - I build homes with Gericho Builders. Wednesdays and Thursdays - I teach 31 students (ages between 5 & 45) guitar and piano. On fridays, I attempt to work on my two correspondance classes that I am taking from the University of Manitoba. During the week in the evenings, I help coach the varsity boys volleyball team and sing in the church choir. Friday evenings are filled with sponsoring at senior youth (REMC). Every 4th sunday, I have the opportunity to lead worship at REMC (a huge passion of mine). Tuesday nights I play volleyball in the winnipeg men's volleyball league. So as you can see, I'm quite the busy guy.

Anyways - there's the fairly concise update of what's gone on and is going on.