Long day

Well today is finally coming to a close. I started the day by getting up at at 5:30 am and waking Justin Hamm so we could begin our trip to NYC. We were heading down to our friend Dan's funeral. We arrived at the church a lot sooner then I expected, and we walked up just in time when they were rolling the coffin out of the hearse. That's when it finally hit me...Dan was gone.
Last week I tried to help a family who lost a love one, but I think I forgot to how hard it truly is to lose someone you love. Hamm and I struggled through the service, but we had a real hard time when we had to help carry Dan's coffin out of the church.
On the way home, we were talking about what everyone had to say at the funeral. The pastors, teachers, family and friends all talked as our Dan was the greatest Christian who ever walked the face of the earth. This confused me because all though the Dan I knew was carrying and loving, he wasn't exactly the way everyone was describing him. Whether Dan tried to or not, he had some people believing he was a little better then he was.
How often do we fall into this trap. We are so worried about what people are going to think about the real me that we hide who we really are. As I think about all that we have been talking about at Crossfire, I realize that for us to stick to our commitments we need to stay away from putting on acts. We need to be real. We all have flaws and failures, and we need a lot of help. However, we can't help each other when we all think everyone is "fine." Let's stop the act as a group. Let's stand up and be real.

Love you Dan...You will be missed.

Podcast 6-20

Life is a strange thing...

Today is definitely one of those days that you can call strange. There was obvious excitement heading into the day due to the fact that Jeff and Jessica were having their second child. However life can throw curve balls at us. While Jeff and Jess were celebrating the life of a new child, I was at a family's house mourning the loss of their loved one. This really got me thinking. What is this thing we call life? It comes so fast with such joy, but it also seems to leave just as quickly with such pain.
Later I received a phone call that a good friend of mine from college had passed away last night. Dan was 23 years old... same age as me. He had a freak asthma attack and was rushed to a hospital that wasn't prepared to deal with his condition. This really added to my thoughts about what is life.
I don't know a lot, but one thing I do know is that life is not guaranteed. It can leave just as fast as it enters, however we all get a shot at this thing called life. We all take life for granted, but why? I know some people have a mentality that they will live their life the way they want to now, but they will change things later as they get older and more responsibility is placed on them. Why wait? We have one shot at this thing called life... why waste it? Let's celebrate life! Let's rejoice with Jeff and Jessica over new life, but let us also change our own. Let's not wait to live for Christ... start now!
After all, Life is a strange thing... do the best with the one you got.

Sweeping Ashley off her feet...

Or more like stepping on her feet. Ashley and I had the wonderful opportunity last night to learn to foxtrot. Yes the foxtrot. And when I say learn, I mean have someone show me how to do it and completely forget how to do it about a minute later. I had three different instructors come over and show me the same two moves throughout the night. Each one assumed that no one else had shown me how to do it due to the fact that each time I tried I looked like a baby giraffe learning how to walk. However, Ashley looked like she's been dancing for years. This may have something to do with the fact that she has been dancing for years! Ashley wanted to make sure that we took some lessons so we didn't look stupid at our wedding, so we signed up for some classes. That's right everyone, I'm taking dance lessons, but it's for the wedding and Ash so it's defintely worth it.
I can't wait till the wedding when I can break out some of my moves, and listening to people say, "Andrew really should have taken some dance lessons before the wedding...he's terrible." Can't wait...

Getting excited about camp...

The more I talk to everyone that went to camp last year, the more I find myself getting pumped up for camp. This week should be a great opportunity for all that are able to attend.

Speaking of being able to attend camp...we have an awesome church!!! I put a letter out to our church family talking about Lift Camp 08, and asked them for help to get some of you to camp. The response was amazing. Money started to come left and right! The Lord is really providing for us this summer. We need to be extremely thankful that we have people in OUR church who don't just see you as a bunch of annoying teens (which you are), but see you as opportunity to invest in God's Kingdom. That's cool. A lot of churches wouldn't do this.


So with that said, if you need help financially to go to camp, come talk to me and we can definitely work something out. Look forward to seeing you at Crossfire this week!

Thuderstorm!