Interpret!

Well I haven't blogged in a while, and I wasn't really sure what to blog about, but then I had a really weird dream so I thought I should share it. Here goes:

I'm in a little town driving around and I start to drive out into the country. I get a couple miles out and I see 3 cars in the middle of the highway: two cop cars and one regular car. The cars were parked in a sort of spread out triangle, surrounding a big pile of drugs. I stop my car a ways away from the scene, waiting for a clearance. All of a sudden, I see a guy running away from a couple of cops. He starts running over to my car when I think to myself "I hope my doors are locked." I look down, and my door is unlocked! I reach down to lock it, but the criminal was already at my door. He opens up my door, shows me a gun and yells "Quick, pull the trigger!!!" I was just like "what?" He continues to tell me "Shoot me! Hurry! Just shoot me now!" I said "NO!!!" Then a cop grabs him from behind and starts fighting him for the gun. I'm sitting in my car watching this, trying to avoid any kind of misfire. The gun then goes off, shooting me in the leg. The gun goes off again and shoots me in the same leg! I'm screaming by this point in complete agony. The gun goes off AGAIN and shoots me in the arm!!! I'm in complete and utter pain. The cop finally pins the guy to the ground and assures me that things will be ok. He doesn't say anything about my wounds or anything about getting an ambulance, so I start driving back to town. You would think I go to the hospital right away, but no, I head to some house where Molly and her family is. I walk inside really casual like and start chatting. My wounds aren't gushing blood surprisingly, but I'm still in some really bad pain. Lauren then shows up to the house and complains about something that I can't remember. I then tell her "Well at least you didn't get shot!" Molly then turns to me and goes "what?" I said "Ya, I got shot 3 times today!" She then kinds shrugs and says "Oh, well that's too bad"

Ummm, a little strange? Ya, I thought so too. So here's what I want to know. How did I dream about this? Is there some crazy, deep meaning behind it? I'll let all of you do the interpretting for me.

How bout that prayer room?

A while back, Molly and Jessica found a little purple book of prayer in a little chapel in our library saying that the little chapel room should be a prayer room. Today, that little chapel is in the transformation of becoming a prayer room! The girls went and talked to a few people on campus, thinking that it would be hard work to get the prayer room approved. However, after a few hours of talking to our campus minister and the person in charge of the library, they had the permission to create a prayer room! Crazy how fast it was approved. So after the approval was made, we decided that the prayer room needed a little sprucing up. It had some water damage to the walls and was ridiculously dusty. So one afternoon, we decided to round up our cleaning supplies and get to work. After two hours of scrubbing, mopping, swiffering, and barely being able to breathe, the prayer room was looking, and smelling, like a hundred bucks (I can't say a million because we could only clean the walls to a certain point). We are now in search of some decorations and furnishing for the room. We have asked churches if they are willing to donate some things and so far things are looking great! Hopefully we can get the stuff in soon so we can have our finished product before our big event. On November 22nd, we will be having an event of 40 continuous hours of prayer. We are hoping that this will kick off our season of prayer and grab some people's attention. God has been working on our campus so much this year, and this is adding to the fun! Please pray for us as we continue to prepare the room and get ready for our season of prayer. Go God!!!

Here are a couple of pictures. The first is the water damage on the walls. The second is Molly and Jessica preparing to fight the room's evil.

Looking back...

Today, I was looking through some of my old emails, and boy o boy do they make me smile. I read some emails from Molly from the summer, I found some emails from the family with funny videos, and I also found some old birthday e-cards. Haha now that's some good stuff right there. I had completely forgot about some of the emails that I had read. It's always nice to look back and see what you talked about or laughed at in the past. Good times, good times.

Lift up those prayers!

There's been a lot of things happening here on campus. Students are losing loved ones left and right, midterms are this week, and homecoming is next week. I really would just ask all of you to just pray, pray, pray! God knows what all is going on and will take care of things.

Crank Up the Tunes!!!

Have you ever thought about how often you listen to music? If you haven't, just think about it real quick. When you drive in the car, do you turn on the radio or put in a CD? Do you listen to music while you sleep? Maybe you listen to pump up music while you workout or before a game. Or sometimes you just feel like listening to music because....well, you like music. I tell you what, I listen to music ALL the time. I have music going when I workout, when I sleep, when I shower, when I'm chillin in my room, when I get in the car. Basically, I listen to music as often as I can and I download music like crazy. Could be the reason I have over 2,000 songs on my iPod (Yes Dad, that IS a lot of music).

Now think about this. What if there was absolutely NO music in the world. Kinda hard to imagine, isnt' it? How different do you think it would be? Hmmm. Well let's see. We would not have anymore worship in church, bands would have to find new careers, there wouldn't be background music to Monday Night Football. WOAH!!! I don't wanna think about that! I have a feeling some people would go crazy without music (me included).

Here's a challenge for ya. See if you can go one whole day without any music. Turn off the radio, mute the TV when songs start playing, just completely go without a song. Impossible? Maybe. But I think it could be interesting to try it out. Let me know how it goes for ya if you try it.

JUST some random stuff

Ok, well I felt like blogging but there were a few things I was thinking about so here goes:

• Today, I started offseason training for track. I will be lifting Monday-Thursday with 6:30 lifting on Mondays and Wednesdays. Wonderful. As if 8 o'clock class wasn't bad enough
• Football season is officially underway!!! I have a feeling this could be an exciting year. K-State will probably be about last in the Big XII North but college football is still fun
• I have done more reading in the past couple days than I have in the last couple years!!! Go me!!!
• Another niece or nephew is on the way!!! Will Todd and Melissa keep the Just tradition of all boys or will they get the little baby girl like Eric and Andrea? I'm interested to find out :)
• Adrian Peterson and Drew Brees are seriously some major studs. Brees threw for 6 TD's and Peterson completely threw a guy off him!!! Awesome!!!!
• Wednesday is free movie night!!!! Whoop whoop!!!
• The church plant that Molly has been working at, Epic Church, launched yesterday and it went great!!! Pray for them as they continue to grow and develop.
  

Milestone!!!

Well everybody, yesterday was another milestone marker for me and my girlfriend, Molly. We have now been dating for one month! WOOHOO!!!! Now, you might be thinking to yourself "What did you guys do to celebrate?" To answer your question, we BOTH forgot about it! To make this even funnier, we were together all day!!! I had stayed at her house on Sunday night and we left for college yesterday afternoon. You would think one of us remember, huh? Well, we didn't. Lucky for us, we went on a date last week so we'll just say that the date was an early one month anniversary celebration. Anyway, here's to a happy one month! You're the best Molly!!!

As You Wish

Today, as I get back into my room after a day of classes, I realize that I have a really strong urge to watch The Princess Bride. I go to the library and luckily it's still available for check out. I excitedly grab it and prance back to the room (I didn't literally prance, but in my mind I was imagining myself doing so). I'm actually still watching the movie right now, and it's still one of my all time favorites.

So what is it about The Princess Bride that makes it so great? Let's take a look, shall we?

• An amazing combo of a romance, action, and comedy movie. I can watch it with my family, friends, and even my girlfriend!
• The characters in the movie fit their parts perfectly! I couldn't replace them with anybody
• Such a quotable movie

"No more rhyming, I mean it!"

"Anybody want a peanut?"

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die"

"EVERYBODY MOVE!!!!"

"Inconceivable!"

"Bow to the Queen of Slime, the Queen of Filth, the Queen of Putrescence. Boo. Boo. Rubbish. Filth. Slime. Muck. Boo. Boo. Boo."

"Mawiage. Mawiage is what bwings us togetha...today"

• Movie that can be watched over and over. I never get tired of watching it

So there you have it. One of the all time greats...The Princess Bride. I need some popcorn now!

Back to School

Well, the summer is over and I have started my sophomore year at Southwestern College. I'm really looking forward to this year. I feel that it's gonna be amazing! At the end of school last year, I changed my major to math education. So this year for classes, I have calculus, intro to education, psychology, discipleship, and critical issues in health. And get this, my calculus class is at 8 o'clock every morning! O my gosh it's crazy. But so far I've been getting to bed decent time and haven't been too tired in the mornings. I also am done every day by noon except for monday and tuesday, so that's really nice for afternoon relaxing. It's time for me to buckle down now, and lucky for me, I have a little extra motivation to get my homework done on time. Sophomore year, here I come!

Random Thoughts

So since my dad and brother both have random thought blogs, I figured I could go ahead and join the trend as well. So here we go!

• Wireless internet is really nice to have (even though it can be a pain to get going)
• Cantaloupe stinks when it sits around
• My windshield gets COVERED in bugs on long road trips
• Football has started!!! Pre-season is pointless but still fun to watch
• I have a lot of songs. I mean a lot!!! I have over 2,000 on my iPod!
• Everybody Loves Raymond is a pretty funny show. And I can watch it with my parents haha
• MOSQUITO BITES DRIVE ME CRAZY!!!!
• K-State is going to be on College Gameday for basketball!!!!!!!!!!!!
• I love watching the guys on PTI argue. They go at it!
• I'm hungry ALL the time
  

The Big News

Alright, alright. So my last blog had mentioned some big news but I hadn't said what it was yet because I had to get permission first. Well here you go, the big news.

I LIKE PIE!!!!

Haha JUST kidding. I really do like pie, but the real news is that I now officially have a girlfriend. As of August 7th, 2009, I started dating the beautiful Molly Komlofske. Now I know what you're thinking, "Weren't you guys already dating?" Here's your answer. Molly and I were never OFFICIALLY dating throught the summer. We had decided that with me working at Project Transformation and her working at a church plant, we would concentrate on our relationship with God, then start dating when summer was over. So the summer is basically over and we are now officially dating. You all can put away your pitchforks and knives now. No need to threaten me for my big news. A congratulations would work out JUST fine

Not in Texas Anymore? Strange

Well, my time at PT has come to a close for the summer. I got back to Mulvane on Friday at about 5:30. Only had a 5 hour drive which was really nice because I was exhausted!!! Urban Camp completely took it out of me! I had a great time with our youth and older elementary playing football, swimming, worshiping, staying up late, and just enjoying each others presence. I was able to bond a little more with our youth which was nice since I only saw them every now and then during day camp. Camp was a blast and went by super fast! I didn't think a week could go by so fast! But it's nice to be back in Kansas once again. The weather feels nicer, I got to see my family again, and I even got to see Molly on Friday and Saturday! Awww, life is good. I get until the 22nd to relax at home until move in day. Wow, college is coming up fast! I'm looking forward to this year though. I feel that it will be another great experience for me. I do have one other anouncement, but I'm not sure if I'm able to post it yet. I need to make sure I have permission. So as of right now, let's just say that there's something new in my life right now :)

O How God is Good

Wow, this last week of PT before urban camp has been absolutely AMAZING!!! It all started on Tuesday when we had a messy/water day at our site. We had a peanut butter bread fight, where the kids and interns took a few pieces of bread with peanut butter layered on it and had a big ol battle! Then we had an egg toss which didn't last that long, but we had some leftover eggs so we broke them on the kids heads (the kids wanted it). So now, the kids AND interns have peanut butter and egg all over them. After that, we decided to award the kids with the most points for the week. We made whipped cream pies for them to pie an intern in the face. We each got a pie in the face and the kids absolutely LOVED that part. Then, go figure, we had leftover whipped cream so we decided to run around throwing whipped cream at the kids and rubbing it in their faces. We finally ran out of time so we sprayed off the kids so that their parents wouldn't be so unhappy about the mess. The kids left, and at that point, I noticed a weird smell. I was wondering where the heck it was coming from, and found out that it was me!!! I had peanut butter, egg, whipped cream, and water all mixed on my body and boy o boy, let me tell ya, I'm pretty sure I basically smelled like puke. It was disgusting!!! So we all cleaned up and got back to campus for a nice looooooooong shower. Man it felt good!!!

After cleanup, we had our last chapel service for the year. I wasn't expecting a whole lot out of it besides speakers and singing, but boy was I wrong. A few of the interns shared their testimony for the summer and everybody had a little different perspective of it. It was really interesting. We had our usual songs, which is always really great. However, what was next really hit me. A group performed the Everything skit with the girl being loved by Jesus but then falling to sin. I have no idea why, but during the skit, God started tugging on my heart like no other and I started balling my eyes out. I was completely broken down. I have seen that skit so many times before but for some reason, this time it was sooooooo much more powerful! The skit was finished and I was still really teary eyed. We then went into a time of prayer and I just really had a good prayer with God. I basically thanked Him for EVERYTHING. I thanked Him for the work He's done this summer, for our kids, for the interns, for the staff, for food, shelter, family, friends, role models, just anything I could think of that has been in my life. The worship team was playing a song and I was really listening to the words which made me break down even more. I cried my eyes out that night. I was so touched by God and really had my eyes opened.

Wednesday came along, and that was our last day at site. Everybody really wasn't looking forward to leaving the kids but we wanted to enjoy our last day with them. We had another water day in the morning and then basically let the kids pick between going to the gym for games, doing arts and crafts, reading, or playing board games for the afternoon. We gathered them up for the last half hour off the day to say our last goodbyes. We received homemade cards from some of the kids that which was really hard for us. The kids started leaving, and by the time the last one had left, it was kinda one of those feelings of "wow, I can't believe they're gone." It was hard letting them go, but we knew that we couldn't do anything more. We had done our work and knew that it was done. I felt as though I had done what I needed and had no feelings of "why didn't I do this/that?" Camp was over, and we had finished our work. It was time to let them move on.

So we are now finished with day camp and urban camp is just around the corner. God has really been at work this summer and He has accomplished great things. We have one last week to make a difference in the youth's lives. I know it will be a great week and we will have an absolute blast. O how God is good!!!

Coming to a close

Goodness, this is nuts! I'm getting ready to begin my last two weeks of PT! We are running the church service tomorrow, I have 3 days left of day camp with the kids, site cleanup day, the Celebration Banquet (end of the year banquet), then Urban Camp with the youth. It's gonna be a busy, yet very exciting last two weeks.

We had our last Friday experience yesterday, where we all came together for a instructions for the next couple weeks and for some reflection. The reflection part was pretty cool. We had a few different stations set up for us to go to and we had an hour to either use the stations, or just have some time for prayer. I went to the four stations, which were a couple of prayer stations, a station that had us write down how we saw our summer, and a station that had us illustrate how God had used us this summer. I felt that the station that allowed us to write about our summer was really cool. I began writing, and had a good full page worth of reflection. I read it over and realized how much I've grown over this past month. I feel that God really took me to PT for a reason. God has used me in so many ways with the kids and has helped me grow through it all as well. I guess in a way, you could say I'm becoming more "mature."

So as the last couple weeks take place, I just ask that you would pray that I be able to finish on a strong note. I have 3 days left with the kids, plus 5 days left with the youth. I'm definitely going to need strength and patience to get through it all. So here we go! The last two weeks!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Where is it going?!?!

O my gosh!!! It is July 14th and I am over halfway done with PT! Where is the time going? It seemed like just the other week I was in training! I only have this week to finish, plus three more full weeks until I'm officially done. Wow, it's crazy!

I really couldn't have asked for a better summer job. This has truly been an amazing experience! I have made such a connection with both the kids AND my fellow interns. I've heard that people pretty much ball their eyes out on the last day, so I'm pretty sure I may tear up a bit.

So as I'm finishing out the summer, please keep praying for strength, patience, and guidance for me. I appreciate the prayers from all of you! I know that God has worked through us in many different ways, and I want to be able to finish on a strong, positive note. In the words of one of our house pastors, "GO GOD!!!"

4th of July Weekend

So for the 4th of July weekend, I was very fortunate to be able to spend time with Molly and Lauren! I had missed them sooooooooo much! They came down on Thursday to hang out for a few days. I didn't have to work on Friday so that helped out a lot. Thursday, I met them at a Mexican restaurant and then headed to Lauren's cousin's house to stay. We basically just caught up with each other and hung out. Friday, we went to a water park, where we all got a nice sunburn on our shoulders. Wonderful. It was a lot of fun though, chillin in the lazy river and then going on some sweet water slides. After the water park, we went and cleaned up for the Rangers game! We were very lucky to be able to sit up in one of the suites which was super amazing! The Rangers ended up beating the Rays 3-1! It was a great game. Saturday, we slept in a bit then went to a plaza of shopping places, such as American Eagle, Aeropostale, and many others. We looked around, bought a couple things, and then headed back to the house once again. Jen and Joe, Lauren's cousins, had some neighbor friends that invited us over for food, games, and fireworks. It was pretty hot and muggy that night, which wasn't too enjoyable for outside, but whatever, we watched some colorful fireworks. Sunday morning, my amazing weekend was finally over. The girls left at about 10:45 a.m. for Kansas. We once again had to split up and go back to our summer jobs.

I have realized how blessed I really am. I have some AWESOME friends that I could never replace. I really appreciate Molly and Lauren and all that they have done for me. I really don't know where I would be without them. I'm really excited for this coming school year, as we reunite for another exciting year of college that includes concerts, late night mcdonalds, uno flash, and much more.

But for right now, I'm still enjoying my time at PT. I've had such a blast with these kids and we're really connecting. It's always a pleasure seeing them in the morning and having them come to me and say "Hi Mr. Kyle!" Awww, such a good feeling. I really enjoy working with these kids. I only have a few more weeks with them though. It's going to be weird going from seeing them everyday to possibly never seeing them again. Gosh, it's crazy. I just hope that I make an positive impact on some of those kids' lives, that's all I really want to do.
So I just ask that you pray for me as I need patience, wisdom, and high tolerance for these kids. I thank you all that have supported me with PT. This has truely been a wonderful experience for me!

Give Me Strength!!!

Alright, well this week was definitely a tough one. I got sick this past weekend with what started out as a day flu, but then turned into a bad cold that just completely DRAINED me. I didn't have any energy at all from Sunday until Wednesday. It was horrible! It also didn't help that my kids weren't on their best behavior during the week. Lucky for me, with the power of prayer, some extra sleep and some medicine, I was able to get my energy back for Thursday aka Messy Day. We had some interesting activities planned for the kids including a noodle relay, paint target practice, and bowls full of gross food that they reached into with blindfolds on. They really enjoyed it and so did we!

But what really got me through this week was God's strength. Tuesday, one of my teammates gave the morning devotion and he talked about needing to rely on God's strength instead of our own. A lot of us were sick so this devotion was perfect. He went on to speak of how when we are in situations like this when we are sick and tired and not wanting to work with the kids, we need to ask God for His strength to get us through day by day. I was listening pretty hard to this talk and thought to myself, "You know, Kodi is one hundred percent correct! That is exactly what I need to do to get through this week." So the past few nights, during my evening prayer, I would just ask God to give us all strength to get us through the next day. To help us not to rely on our own strenght, but on His. I asked for a healing touch over each and every one of us too.

The morning after I began praying for strength, I wasn't really too tired and when I got to the church, I felt like I would be able to get through the day with more energy than I had started with. Everyone else at the site was doing pretty well too! We seemed to all have our energy until the last kid left, and then we were exhausted. That was what we needed though, strength to get us through the day with our kids. God provided us with His strength, and we wouldn't have been able to get through these past few days without it. Amazing what the power of prayer can do, isn't it?

The New Baby and PT Update

Alright everybody, here she is, Adelyn Anne Just! I actually stole the picture from Gramps but I didn't have any of my own so I should be ok.

Well, today was my first day of our actual day camp. We had a TON of planning to do before we were ready for the week, as we included recreation, arts and crafts, reading, then afternoon enrichment. I will say this, the kids wore me out!!! It took them a little while to warm up to the interns but when they started to participate, they were VERY energetic! I admit, when we got back, I had to take a nap. Besides the fact that they were normal balls of energy, they actually behaved very well. We had a couple of rebels in each group but we never had a big problem, which was nice. I just hope that carries through the entire summer. O well, I guess we'll see what happens!

An Uncle Once Again!!!

So I just found out today that I am now a proud uncle once again! Eric and Andrea had a baby girl today, Adelyn Anne Just. She was 8 pounds, 6 ounces. I haven't had a chance to talk to either the the proud parents or grandparents yet but as far as I know, the delivery went well and both Andrea and Adelyn are doing fine. Unfortunately for me, since I'm in Dallas all summer, I won't be able to see Adelyn until the fall. But until then, I will find out some more information and maybe I'll have to steal a couple of pics from gramps haha. Congrats Eric and Andrea for the new daughter and congrats to Brayden as well for a new sister!!!

Training

Ok, so I'm barely halfway through the our first week and I'm already pretty exhausted. We have been doing a lot of training, which consists of starting our day at 7:15 a.m. and listening to different people talk about what we are going to need to know for PT. So far we have gone over situations with the kids, first aid, child abuse, CPR, and even thank you letter training(I thought that one was funny). We have had a lot of fun and I am learning quite a bit but I must admit, I'm not exactly that awake when I wake up before 9 a.m. I'm trying hard to stay awake, but it's not really the easiest task when I can't really move around or anything. O well, this week is almost over and then the real fun begins! So just pray for me to be able to stay awake and get through the week with the knowledge I need for the rest of the summer.

On a side note, in case you were wondering, I AM going to bed at a decent time every night, probably around 11. So no Dad, it's not because I'm going to bed super late or anything.

Summer Beginnings

Alright, so I finally decided to get on the same page as the family and start up a blog. Plus I thought it would be helpful for anyone wanting to keep up with me this summer. In case you don't know, I am working at Project Transformation in Dallas, Texas for the summer. Project Transformation is a non profit organization that helps underprivileged, inner city kids in their spiritual lives. Basically, we will be doing a summer long vacation Bible school with these kids. I feel very privileged to be able to help these kids out for the summer. I'm really looking forward to the challenge. I will try and post about once a week but no guarantees.