1st Weekend

-The past few days have been great!!Saturday I literally walked around the city all day. I watched a movie be filmed. That was neat. And pictures......

-

-

Saturday night my host family decided to have a little dinner picnic with me and their family. Well... it's like the south here.. when you grill in front of people.. people join you. The neighbors joined us. It was fun. AND I just want to make it clear.. I do not have a bad "southern" accent. I mean.... have you talked to my brother....

Sunday morning I went with Jeff and Craig to a church plant near Seattle called The Commons. We got back about 4 that afternoon. At 5 I went to Jeff's house for The Crossings weekly service. I'll be honest.. I stinkin loved it! It was good!! Great discussion, great community, and tacos!! I'm excited about next week! I love this team!

-

Sunday night I hung out with Mike Vickers (one of the coolest people on this planet) Johnny and Craig (who are both also super cool). We went to a Switchfoot concert. It was ROCKIN! After the concert Jon Foreman went to the back alley and played a solo concert for about 15 of us. (If you don't know who that is... then never read my blogs again) It was a fascinating experience. If you ever wondered if Jon Foreman loved Jesus or not.. I'll answer that for you.. he does.

-

-

-

-

-

-

I would like to dedicate these last two pictures to Mr. Brett Pickle.

-

-

And just to vent... putting these pictures on this thing is not easy. And for some reason my font is blue.. and I can't fix it.

Go listen to Jon Foreman.... GO!

42nd

---I don't plan on doing this everyday.. but I had to today.

Very interesting day...

This morning I decided to go down to the sea wall and spend some time with Jesus....I promise you, God has a sense of humor. The moment I finally get the the place it starts raining. I'm not talking about the kind of rain that gets you wet and leaves. I'm talking about the kind of rain that Noah saw.

I got soaked!!

So.. I found a coffee shop.

After the coffee shop I decided that I would explore the city and walk around. This city is beautiful! ( Here are 2 pics) The top one is the olympic torches.

-

-

-NOW THE CRAZY PART OF MY DAY

I walked around and listened to some music. (I felt like a city person) I grabbed a quick lunch and kept walking... and I walk up on.......

BILL CLINTON!!! The stinking President of AMERICA!!!!!!! ( Don't hate me for the poor picture quality.. I was excited!...... and you didn't get to shake his hand and say "Mr. President" so SHUTUP)

Anyway, I got to shake his hand. Pretty cool moment.

Later today I helped Scott Grisham and his wife move into their new apartment. It has a marvelous view. (See below) (also.. I said marvelous for Stephanie B)

-

-

This evening I decided to give going back down to the sea wall another shot. It was very peaceful. THE SUN CAME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's a big deal here.

But....... it started pouring down rain again... and again.. I got soaked.

Here are some pics from where I was... before the flood came.

Pictures

-- Jeff and Ty playing Hockey.. Ty won.

-City Picture

-

-

- Team Meeting-

- Johnny's awesome house-

-

- The Sea Wall-

-

-

- City-

-

- Washington State Gas Prices-

Back to America

Today was good. I think I'm finally adjusting to the time change. I had to be at Jeff's at 7 this morning... and when I woke up.... it was bad.

I am adjusted.

Jeff invited me to the crossings team meeting this morning at Johnny's house. STINKIN AWESOME PLACE!!!!-- Incredible meeting.

These people really care about the people of this city. This is more than another church. They love this city and it's people. I'm honored to serve with these guys this summer! PRAY FOR THEM!!

After the meeting Jeff and I drove to Seattle. We didn't actually go all the way to Seattle, we stopped about 50 miles short. We picked up Jeff's friend who's name I can't remember at the moment. (I suck) Anyway.. this guy has got some jammin gospel music. We were jammin that stuff all the way back to Vancouver.. the HOLY GHOST was in the car!!

Ate dinner with my host family tonight. They are awesome! Oh.. and a bird attacked me today. It was a great day!

Gonna put some pics up soon.

Up to this point....

So I've finally got a second to talk about everything.

I've planted myself in a coffee shop in downtown Vancouver.. I feel awesome.

I feel like Rob Bell.. so I will type normal now.

I arrived here around 3:30 on Monday. Jeff Phillips, Mike Vickers, and some other guys from the Crossings team picked me up. Super cool guys. I went straight to Jeff's house for a few minutes and then me and him went to the the place where I will be staying. I'm staying with an incredible family. Dennis and Mistin Wilkinson. They are also church planters here, and they (and there 4 super cool kids) just moved here from America. I'm having a hard time remembering the kids names. They have one boy whose name is Darby..... so you get the picture. Anyway, the house I'm staying at is sick nasty awesome. It's 3 stories (counting a basement). I'm on the 3rd. My room is awesome! (I'll put pictures and all that stuff up when I take them) ha...

Monday night I ate with Jeff and his family. It was really good to see them again. Ty and Emma are stinkin awesome kids! I basically was a zombie by 10 o'clock Vancouver time. I'm 2 hours behind Brandon. So I went to my house and I was out.

Tuesday.

I awoke to fire.... screaming.. and loud noises of fear and frantic children.... seriously.. this happened. -- Side note, I woke up Tuesday at 6am... BUH!! but thats like 8am our time.. so I guess thats cool.-- Lesson for the day, the sun sets here at 10pm and rises at 5am! It's freakin sunny at 6 in the morning!! The sunshine is climbing in my windows and snatching my zzzzs up by 6am!!!!---

Anyway, back to the fire... YES. It happened. Apparently Mistin had accidentally left the stove on and while she was eating breakfast with her kids stuff caught fire. So I woke up when her and her kids saw it and chaos ensued. Needless to say, I threw clothes on and ran downstairs. But, Mistin got the fire out and life was good. So I ate Cheerios with the kids. I got to walk with the family to school, that was pretty cool. -- Brandon Schools.. you need to step it up, Vancouver schools got it going on..--

After all of this I went over to Jeff's and we planned out my summer here. To make a 2 hour meeting short... I'm excited. Lots of things to do, to learn, and to experience.

I ate Lunch Tuesday afternoon with Jeff and Sarah and we watched friends. Actually.. it was funny.

Jeff coaches a 5th grade basketball team, and a 5 year old team (with a Smallville producer..... I'm a nerd). So I went with him and helped out. It was a lot of fun. Of course, right across the street from where we were having Baseball practice the tv show Psych was being filmed.

That night I ate with Jeff and his family, and with another team member named Brian (who may be funnier than Nathan Goss... for real) After dinner we watched the Canucks game. They won.. and this city went insane!! It was really cool to stand out in the middle of the street and yell and not fell stupid.... but anyway.

Today has been a school day. Tonight Jeff and I are meeting with a guy named Ed and walking through Romans 6 and 7. Pretty cool stuff.

Tomorrow we are off to Seattle.

http://maps.google.com/

-To see the house I'm staying at

- Type in 951 Nicola Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

- Get to a street view (By clicking on the tap that pops up)

- Find the grocery store on the corner

-Go 4 houses to the left

- There is a lady in front on the house walking her kid

-Thats where I'm at

-Pretty cool huh

- Be Jealous