This is a picture of me and my lovely novia (girlfriend in spanish) Rachelle. And this is a blog dedicated to her. Recently (last monday actually) I had arthroscopic knee surgery to repair some damage that I sustained playing soccer with my crazy friends. She has been absolutely amazing the past 9 months but especialy the past few days taking care of me. She has been over at my house early in the morning to help make sure that I was taken care of, she has mopped my apartment and taken out my trash, she has filled up my ice machine that I keep on my knee, she has been my physcial therapist and helped me do my rehabilitation, she has been a movie watching partner and my back massager! I don't know what I would have done without her and I am learning to appreciate and love her more every single moment that I get to spend with her. Her service and love to me has been an awesome picture of the mercy that Jesus has on me and I have only simple words to express how much I love Rachelle. Thanks be to God for her in my life!

Morning Time...and reflections about last night

Its about 10:30 in the morning and I'm sitting in the RA office waiting for the girls basketball campers to turn in their keys and get the heck out my building :) It really has not been bad at all, besides the false lockouts.....I got a phone call this morning about 2 a.m. from a friend who needed to be picked up, she called and she was crying about things that had been said to her by an ex-boyfriend and his family. I called Rachelle and she came with me because I didn't want to go by myself to pick up a crying girl (covering myself just in case something crazy would have happened) It was good to do this thing, to be the hands and feet of Jesus to this girl who doesn't know Christ! During the conversation their were some opportunities to bring the Gospel to her, but I think I was scared, or it just wasn't the right time. Now, though, I wish I could have asked her if Chell and I could have prayed for her......God help me to share your glorious gospel with this woman.

Fallen yet Forgiven,

Joshua

Late Night Musing

Every Monday Rachelle and I pitch in and make dinner for the Ra's, whoever is interested. We've done Chicken Spaghetti, Salad with Chicken in it, and tonight we did BBQ (burgers, hot dogs, and chicken.) The reason we do this is to serve the Ra's to give them a picture of Jesus and God as giving and generous. We don't know how they see it, but that is our goal and what I prayed for tonight before we ate. In that same vain, something really remarkable happened tonight. As we were eating Jian, my Chinese friend and staff member, came up to me and started telling me about what he had been reading in the bible about the life of Jesus. I think he is reading Matthew, and he said that he has been reading it in his spare time. He told me he read from Jesus being born to Jesus dying and came tonight with questions about why Jesus was killed. Jian was confused as to why they would kill Jesus because He had been doing so many good things (healing people, feeding thousands with not much food, curing leprosy) And for me it was hard to explain in a way Jian would understand that Jesus died because that was the plan of God, and it was the reason Jesus came to the earth, to be a sacrifice for the sins, the bad things that people do against God. And that reality really blows my mind as I think about it, and really doesn't make sense in an awe-struck kind of way. I believe it and I have seen the power of the Cross and the power of the Resurrection, but it still puts me in a place of reverent fear. I hope that I will be able to talk with jian about this more and more and i hope and pray that he will put his hope and trust and faith in Jesus and become a washed in the blood follower of the King of the Universe!!

God is Glorious,

Joshua

Surgery Looming :-)

How can you smile about the prospect of surgery? For me I can because I trust God that he will take care of me and that after the recovery I will be able to do some of the atheletic things that I really enjoy doing again. I want to be able to train for and run another marathon, this one with Rachelle, I want to be able to play racquetball with Dr. P in hopes of sharing the Gospel with him, I want to be able to hike in the mountains so as to see the beauty of the Creation of God. So I'm trusting God with my knee and trusting Him to guide Dr. Barnhill's skilled hands.

Listening to the Words of Jesus,

Joshua

The Start of Something BiG!!

Writing is something I really enjoy....not so much the actual writing by hand with pen and ink (I get hand cramps) but the thoughts going down on paper or on a computer screen is exciting to me. The problem is my mind is so jumbled up and disordered that I don't know what to write or how to express, necessarily, the thoughts that are stampeding around in my head. But I want things to be different....I have a desire to write, to express myself to let people see what goes on inside of my head and what goes on in my world. So hopefully this blog can be a daily thing, like a twitter on steroids :D and if anyone chooses to read it great, and if not I can just be content in seeing my world in a new way and in a different light.

Walking with Jesus in the Light,

Joshua