I have turned a corner

So its has been quite a week... I have been in New Orleans all week on a mission trip. It has been a very cool expereince. We spent a day in the lower 9th ward delivering hurricane relief supplies. and 3 days in the outskirts of New Orleans gutting a couple of houses. This has been a life changing week, mostly because we did this trip though a mission organization. We had two great leaders, Mike and Molly, who witnessed to us and help us through this physical and mental journey.
The weather has been ok a little humid but besides that it couldn't be better. It has been great doing God's work this week. I know that we alone can not change all of New Orleans but we can make a difference to atleast a few people.
Click here to see pictures from this week

Succesful Night!!!

So today has been focused on finding a Computer desk for my room. We went to office depot and found one that we liked. The thing was heavy (160 lbs.) to be exact. So we get it home and open the box everything looks like it is there and is going to take a while to assemble. We get to step 3 and notice a problem, they put the wrong slider brackets in the box. We called down there and the voice over the phone said we would have to pack it back in the box and bring it back. That is a lot of pieces! So we called back and asked to speak to a manager. He was more sane and just told us to come back and he would open another box and get us the right parts. So we get back home with the right parts and start assembling. From 4 till 9:30 we worked and now I'm typing here at my new desk. Im still a little angry at Office Depot because I bought some speakers today to and they don't work so turns out I will be making another trip there tomorrow. I bet they can't wait to see me again!

I keep asking myself...

I keep asking myself many of the same questions everyday...
Where am I in my faith?
Are my friends really all that great for me?
What am I doing right/wrong?
There are more but these are the main ones. I am really confused. I don't know whats going on. Everything is crazy!

Back from Ski Trip

So Im a little sore but had a ton of fun! Ski Trip was a blast. I got to hang out with some friends that I haven't seen in a while. The weather was great. We had perfect snow and a great atmosphere. I took a little time to ski down the mountain by myself. It was really peaceful. I had time to reflect on many things. Im still a little tired so I will blog more later.
J

Ski Trip is comming!!!

I'm getting pretty excited about my church's upcoming ski trip. We are going to Perfect North. The snow report is looking really good. I can't wait this is going to be awesome.
Johnathan

Prayers for a bigger turnout

So last night didn't go so well we had a total of 5 people come to our Coffee House. Im praying that tonight we have a bigger turnout to make up for all the people that didn't show up last night. The show is going to be a little bit longer. If your reading this come out tonight to HFUMC at 6:30 or 8:30. Thanks!

Coffee House turns in to Abandend Shack

So I'm backstage at the NWG Coffee House. It's not going well. We had 4 people show up this is Sad!!!

Pictures of a Cold and Snowy Weekend

Colts Pull out Super Bowl Win!

For some reason it didn't rise to its expectations. The commercials were lame and the game, full of mistakes. At least Peyton got his win.

No School Because of Potential Plague

Sumner County is out of school because of "illness" for the next two days. I really just think it is because snow is comming and they just can't stand to say that we our out of school because of snow. So whatever the reason is im super happy!
Johnathan

Warmth In Winter

I have taken a few days to reflect on this amazing weekend which I just experienced. Warmth is always a refresher, it is a great way to start off the year. I went down to the convention center early Friday to start the set up process. My affiliation was with communications. We filmed some for our videos for that night. I started to get a little stressed when I looked at the clock and I saw that I was running low on time to edit. It was ok though everything went well that night. The session went great. I figured out that life at Warmth was quite different when you are on the management team.

Funny Baptists

So the other day Gavin and I were hanging out in his office and i asked him what Clarity was. If your not from Hendersonville you probably don't have a clue. Clarity is like a "warmth in winter" of sorts. It is a convention that travels on a tour that is put on by Student Life. Now that you know what Clarity is I will continue with the story.
So i said "Why didn't we go to this Clarity event. Is it a Baptist thing? He says, "No, but it is baptistcyntric (i know that is misspelled). "I almost went with some friends from First Baptist, it was down in Alabama" I said. "I thought it was at long hollow baptist, (right down the road)" said Gavin. I said no but we got out the tour dates and it turns out that instead of going to Long Hollow that was right down the road they went to Alabama. We both got quite a kick out of it because it seemed like First Baptist was afraid that if they took there kids to another church they might lose a few. Baptists and numbers.
J

The Cornercast is a go!

Youth Group has started this new thing called the cornercast. It is a bible study podcast. Last week we tryed it but we only managed to fool around with it and get a feel for everything. Im almost done with the editing part of it and it will be up on itunes a little bit later. I hope you all enjoy it!
Johnathan

Challenge Day

I heard about this from Oprah, no, I do not watch Oprah. A teacher showed me a segment today. It was an experiment called Challenge Day. The point of it is to help break down social groups in schools that help decrease bulling, racism, and general hard life that comes with high school. They went to a school in Boston and the responses that came from the students were quite surprising. Deep sercrets were told, barriers were broken down, and friendships were built. It was a life changing day. We have thought about doing this at our school and I think it would be great. I don't think that we have as many problems at our school that some others have but it would be a great way to bring people closer. We do have many different social groups, racism isn't that much of a problem though and niether are fights or gang activity. If we do do this activity I am curious to see what would come out of it.

Testing My Limit

Tonight I played in another one of our church leauge basketball game. By no means are we the best team out there. We played Merrol Hyde's Hawks (the person not the school). When we arrived we realized that we were in for a tough game. Not because the team was undefeated but because of why the team was undefeated.
Since Merrol Hyde is one of the big time guys in Hendersonville, what he says goes. He has rigged almost all of his games. Now the question is how. Well, it's very simple.
1. He picks his refs, then gives them insentive to call the game in favor of him.
2. He stacks his team with the best players that signed up to play under the parks department.

Let me take you to tonights game. 10 people on the court, 2 refs, and lots of anticipation. From the first wistle the calls were bogus. We were called for a foul that didn't happen. Then we didn't get a foul when it was obious and instead got a technical. Things escalated and were soon getting pretty heated. 3rd quater, one of the refs winks at the other coach and tells one of the other teams players that he can't call everything because the game is already one sided. Lane violations were also called because the other team missed a foul shot. It just wasn't a good night.

If someone wants to win that bad to say that they are champions of a church/parks team and get a slightly bigger trophy then I guess you have to do what you have to. Were I get tested is when the other team starts talking smack and showboating. If I wasn't wearing a church jersey then things might have been different. I realize things aren't always fair, but its church basketball. We must move on.
-Johnathan

I'm Heading in a different direction.

We all have a group of friends that we hang out with on a normal basis. To say it simply, I fell like I am falling away from my group. We have different interests and on different maturity levels. They are great guys don't get me wrong, but I feel like are priorites are in different orders. Maybe this is just one of those growing up things. I feel like I'm always the guy that takes control, and sometimes I don't like that. Sometimes I know my way is the right way but the others don't want to follow it because it might be to "safe" or "gay" as many of my age group would call it. Alough, maybe this is why we are all friends, we all have something different to bring (athletics, music, smarts, etc.). I guess I'm the guy that tries to make since of it all.
Johnathan

The First Day Back

It was a little bit harder to wake up this morning one because it was 6am and also because I had to go to school. Once I got there though it wasn't so bad. My classes aren't going to be as had as I expected. My teachers all seem pretty nice. Coach Rob seems like his class will be the most interesting. Although, Ms Moss really knows how to make learning fun. This is already a better semester than last.
The ball once again didn't drop our favor... again. We lost 54 to 6. I was leading scorer though, thats a plus. We did hold them though for a good 4 min. After that it was they just keept putting it one. At the end of the game they hit a fast break and jumped off one guys back and dunked it. Rediculious!

Keep you updated,
Johnathan

Great New Years Break!

My New Years/ Christmas break was very pleasant. Did a lot of hanging out with friends and just relaxing. I have to say that I'm bummed about going back to school. I hope that this sesmester will be better than last.
I rang in the New Year over at Sydney's house. It was really fun. Sydney is always a great host. I also did some bowling to, just because we got so bored I guess. I am alright I average in the 140's.
I thought there would be more to this blog but I guess not. I'll tell you how school goes tomorrow.
Johnathan

To My Friend Trent.

So half of me feels bad for writing this but the other says that it desereves to be said out loud because we all are thinking it. A couple broke up about 2 weeks ago. It was kind of a bitter end. For some reason they didn't work. We find out that it didn't work because she was intersted in another guy who quote "didn't have to try" well they got together and at the moment, still are. We all know that this kind of stuff happens but its not right. Trent the guy who was "bagged" has written poetry and even a song about her. It's Not Christmas. I hate to say it, but I'm on his side. It's just plain hurtful to know that the person that you care about, doesn't care enough about you to tell you the truth. Yes we weren't the best friends by keeping it from him, and I will admit that. I am sorry. I hope everyone else is to. I support you Trent. Keep making those great songs and amazing poetry. For purposes of the other two people that I have talked about. I will not reveal there identity.
Happy New Year,
Johnathan

From Holiday to Holiday

Now is a fitting time to get back into the blogging mood. Just thought that I would wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.