so apparently i'm a slacker and havent updated my blog in months.
sorry.
life has been crazy and i guess i just havent had time, or when i had time there were other things id rather be doing. but i said id do it this week so to be true to my word here it is.

for starters, in april we had our service project to poland, it was great. deej, tony and lauren clarkson were able to come out and join us for that and it was so great having them here. our kids loved them and they did a good job of loving our kids, it was fun to kind of see my two different lives meet up and how well it all fit together. we ended up taking 20 kids to poland (last year we took seven) for a week of serving while teaching esl, building benches and playing lots of soccer, it was a blast and God radically changed the lives of some of our students that week. we had two kids come to know the Lord for the first time (kirk and kayla, pray for them, they are strugging to work out their salvation and cling to Jesus in the midst of a lot of peer pressure) and thee kids who had walked away from their faith rededicate their lives to the Lord (chad, katie and derek, pray for them as well). it really was an amazing week.
then the morning after we got back from that tony and i were off to the airport with my friend roger (he runs the hospitality house and his wife is my mentor, sheila) to pick up the vbc crew. to be honest i was so exhausted from the 20 hour bus ride the day before that i was pretty out of it. it was fun seeing some familiar faces and getting to meet a lot of new people that i guess have started being around since ive been gone. they came in on a saturday and that day my volunteers and i shuttled them along with like 10 of our students to trier (the oldest city in germany to explore the town) it was pretty chill. then sunday vbc led an easter service at the hospitality house for about 60 people (its a lot of people to have in a house), people here were really encouraged by the drama and message. then i managed to get all 19 of them signed on to base and brought them to chapel with me for the evening service i attend, i think people were a little shocked to see 19 new people show up but it was fun to see vbc interacting with my community here. then monday and tuesday they did different work projects, half the crew was babysitting kids of parents with deployed spouses and the other half were doing work projects at roger and sheilas. what made that so fun is that some of our students here got their parents permission to skip school and spent the day working along side those doing work and roger and sheilas. on tuesday night we brought all the vbc people to our high school club (the ministry i run here) and ended up having 70 people up in the little room we meet in, it was crazy but a lot of fun to show everyone from home how much God has blessed the ministry here. then on wed we went to a tour of a pig farm (i guess we all narrowly missed swine flu) and then vbc left. i'm glad vbc came, i wish i wouldnt have been so tired the entire time (it was a lot of going at full pace especially coming right off of our big mission trip) my favorite part was just how well everyone interacted with one another and the connections that were made.
so the day after vbc left i got on a plane and went to italy to be a part of my friend jocelynns wedding. it was such a fun wedding, and in such a cool location (cinque terre, one of my favorite places in europe).
between the time getting back from the wedding and until i went home for chris and ashleys wedding my life was pretty much dominated by soccer (i coached at the high school) we had practice five days a week and games on saturday but i loved it. it really was the highlight of my day each day.
going home for chris and ashleys wedding was kind of a whirlwind. it was a lot of travel and i dont think my body handled it all that well as i got quite sick and although i was on enough pain meds to have a blast that night and make it through the wedding (it really was such a fun wedding), i spent the entire night afte the wedding puking. and was sick the rest of my time home, not so fun. but i loved getting to be with my family, especially my little sister. and really got things nailed down (Lord willing) for my move home in jan, and getting Young Life San Ramon Valley up and running (i'm stoked).
when i got back here i had like a week before i left for Rome which i spent coaching soccer and watching the girls play in euros (its the soccer tournament for all the military schools in europe).
Rome was fun minus losing my camera, fortunately my friend Brent had a lot of the same pictures i did so i was able to get his. it was the first time that i felt like i was able to stop going at a million miles an hour and i think i really needed that.
coming back from rome was good, soccer was over so i was able to focus on finishing out club and the school year well and finishing up my 6th out of the 7 classes i take as part of my intership.
our last club was this last tuesday, we had 48 kids which is more than we've ever had before (about a sixth of the school). i spoke about living out our faith and how we should look different from those around us. and then we went outside for some crazy messy games. it was so much fun, basically a giant food fight. it was such a fun way to end the school year.
now that club is over i'm just working on that 7th class (its a seminary class on theology) and trying to be present at all of the crazy senior activies (bacclauret, gratuation, monte carlo night, banquet, etc). i really love my job.
so thats my life. well the good parts at least.
there are tough things, lots of my friends have deployed in the last month, lots of people are gearing up to pcs (move), and my car died. but its hard to complain a lot when i see all the other ways the Lord has blessed me.
please keep praying for me, i need it more now than ever, i feel like God has really been showing me some tough things hidden deep in my heart that i didnt even were know there...but i'm clinging to Jesus and He's meeting me where i'm at.
life is good. God is good. and thats the update.