This may never happen again, so I needed to write about it while I have the chance. Back in May both of the roommates I’d had for the previous eight months left, one because he got married and the other because he was going to be working in Tennessee for a few months. Before leaving, they each found a guy to sublease for them. Since these new guys moved in with me they’ve both become bloggers! (They’re also both using WordPress.) So, in an attempt to drive a little traffic to their new sites I thought I’d tell you a little about their blogs.
Archive for the 'Life' Category
On the first Sunday of May two of my good friends, Kyle Kozloski and Nicki Nedelisky, got married in Ocala, Florida. Now, I know that I’ve been to a lot of weddings in the past eighteen months, but this one was special. No, I wasn’t in it, but I felt as much apart of this wedding as any other, including the ones in which I’ve had a role.
You see, this past year Kyle was one of my two roommates and Nicki one of my three next-door neighbors. On top off all that, all of us were campus ministers with The Navigators. When we all moved in to the respective sides of our hole-in-the-wall duplex in August ‘07 Kyle and Nicki weren’t even dating, much less thinking of marriage. In short, I got to witness these chapters of their love story unfold from a very unique angle. Before I become too far removed from it, I’d like to try to tell some of that story.
I only blogged once in May (and, technically, I wrote that post in April). That’s a record low for any month since I started blogging over four years ago. Honestly, though, I’m not at all upset about it. The spring semester was one of the most intense four month periods of my life. As such, I spent the month of May recharging my batteries.
In an attempt to spice things up a bit I took a break from many of my regular activities and commitments and began some new ones. I started sleeping in, which for me means waking up between 7:00 and 8:00 AM instead of 5:30 AM. I stopped running to rest my bum foot and started weight training with my friend James. I’ve been cooking more and eating out much less. I spent less time one-on-one with students and instead put a lot of energy into leading a Bible study on 2 Timothy. But most significantly, I barely did any writing in any form all month. I’m hoping the result will be a freshness in my blogging and journaling that I think it disparately needs.
I have a few topics that I’m really looking forward to writing about here over the next couple of weeks. Keep checking back for updates.
I have a story to tell you. I promise it’s all true. This is one of those rare moments in my life when I wish I was on a reality TV show. It would have been awesome to have captured all this for future viewing.
I write this to you from the Orlando airport, where my long layover has just turned into an even longer layover thanks to a half hour delay. I arrived here from Tallahassee at about 3:30 this afternoon. I won’t be taking off from Orlando until 7:55, assuming their current estimate is any good. And I’m not even flying into Hartford. It was cheaper to go through Boston. So when my next flight touches down I’ve still got a long drive home ahead of me. It’ll be well after midnight before I get to bed tonight.
So here’s the long overdue recap of my fund raising trip down to North Palm Beach and Lakeland last month, as well as some of the events since then. I know it’s been over a month since I’ve last blogged. The week after that trip was an emotional roller coaster. I felt depressed, jealous and bitter a good bit of the week, and when I get that way I don’t do a lot of things I enjoy, hence my lack of blogging despite having more than my fair share of time on my hands. Since the end of that week, as you’ll infer, I’ve been very busy and haven’t had any time on my hands, hence my lack of blogging.
I left for North Palm later than I hoped on the morning of Thursday, August 16. I was going there to make a final fund raising trip to raise support for my ministry with the Navigators at FSU. When I left I was at 40% of my funding goal and couldn’t start working until I hit at least 75%. It’s a six hour drive down, not nearly as long as I remembered it being. When I left I really didn’t know why I was going. A part of me felt like it was going to be just like my Connecticut trip all over again. When I left for that trip I didn’t have too many face-to-face fund raising appointments made before arriving and I ended up not having many during the trip. The same could be said for this trip (though, once again, not for lack of trying). Many people were out of town or otherwise unavailable. Many I just hadn’t managed to talk to; I could only get their message machines. But I had a lot of peace about making the trip. I’ve learned to trust that feeling of peace a lot more in recent months. There’s something to it.
This morning I will be driving from Tallahassee to North Palm Beach for the weekend. I am making the trip in the hopes of being able to sit down with a few people I used to know well and tell them about my ministry. This is really the last place I have to travel to that I haven’t already been that has a fair number of people who may be interested in supporting me. Already, however, I’ve had my fair share of troubles.
I don’t know if this post is going to boast my usual eloquence or tact. I’m just not in the mood to play all the games it takes to achieve that. The last two weeks have been pretty awful, all told. I’d like to tell you about them.
Last night at around 10 PM I got back to Tallahassee after a ten hour travel day. I had been in Connecticut since last Wednesday night to see my family, to visit friends and to fund raise for my ministry with the Navigators. Now I’m back at work and have nearly nothing to do (a tremendous blessing, I assure you). I’m trying to process and digest all that went on during my whirlwind trip. It had its share of highs and lows, not to mention unexpected happenings. I’m trying to decide if it was a success or not. Maybe I’ll let you decide.
I’ve been raising financial support for my upcoming ministry with the Navigators for about six weeks now. This is, without a doubt, one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. When I was at fund raising training in early June I really didn’t think it was going to be this hard. In fact, when it comes to making the calls and the presentations I really don’t find fund raising to be much of a challenge. Most people have been eager to hear about what I’m doing. But there are far more subtle things that have been fighting for my spirit.
