The Adventures of Evan

Impacto Sau Paulo 2009

2009-08-28T21:16:00.001-03:00

A group of Mission leaders from River Plate Adventist University went to the flavelas in Sao Paulo, Brasil to do mission work for 2 weeks. After the project we went to Itaipava, Brasil; an Adventist Camp, with lots of wilderness space, trails, ropes course, etc.. Before taking the 30 hour bus trip back. More information: www.institutomisionero.com

My smaller group slept in the community center, during the day we went witnessing and doing medical checkups, in the evening we gave talks.

Down the street.

Diana with "Convites"

Parisopolis Church

400 meters from High class Sao Paulo

"I was not the electrician"

Jardim Colombo

Dra. Joicy Macedo

The group before leaving

Dr. Rigoberto Vidal

Jardim Colombo

The Group

Dan Holding the Dino back..
Rigo attacking the Dino after it threatend his wife.
The Pastor and Palentologist giving a wonderful explanation about Dinos.

White Coat Ceremony

2009-05-17T21:47:00.006-03:00

This was the White Coat Ceremony and my official entrance into Medicine. The pictures are of me and all the doctors who are making a difference in my medical career.

Mendoza 2009

2009-02-19T21:50:00.000-02:00

It has been a long time since I have posted. But thought I should add pictures of when I went to Mendoza, Argentina.

Hitch Hiking in the middle of nowhere.

Puente de las Incas

Cerro de la Gloria

Fotos del Congreso de Jovenes en Mar Del Plata

2009-02-10T11:06:00.012-02:00

Fotos tienen más valor que palabras porque están en un lenguaje que no necesita tradución. Disfruta las fotos.

Photos have more value than words because they are in a language that doesn't need a translation. Enjoy the Photos

Representación de la UAPMarce en "woodstock"

Sí ahora toco la guitarra

Alejandro el version Uraguayo (JAS)

La estación de radio

David ariba del torreFlor de Personas

Esketches Cortos (José y Tuma)

Jesús ayudando nuestra predicadora. (la peke)

Baraka Muganda

Nuestros lideres de Jovenes en la IASD

Baraka Muganda y su traductor

Pastor Ivan Rosales

El grande esketch "Mi controversio"

Cantando en la lluvia.

Cantando en la lluvia (otro grupo)

El escenario (Vivo por Jesus)

Pastor Rodrigo Arias (Nuestro pastor en la UAP)

Nathan Actuando como Jesús

Nuestro grupo de actores con Baraka Muganda

Marce, Abi, y Juli

Dima y Liana

Austin

yo arriba del mar

Grupo de chicas arriba una roca

Night Photography / Fotografía de la noche

2008-12-05T23:21:00.001-02:00

Verano en la UAP / Summer in the UAP

2008-11-08T00:01:00.002-02:00

Fotos de arboles. / Photos of Trees

Semana de Oración / Week of Prayer (part 2)

2008-10-25T15:08:00.007-02:00

Fotos del fin de semana de oracion.
Photos of the end of the week of Prayer.

Semana de Oración / Week of Prayer

2008-10-23T13:39:00.007-02:00

Pr. Ron Clouzet está predicando en la UAP por nuestra segunda semana de oración. La tema es buscando al Dios de Elías, pero el major de los predicaiónes son sobre el Espíritu Santo y su trabajo en nuestra vidas. Los cultos son muy interestante y creo que Dios esta usando el pastor para hablar a mi en una manera especial. Tenemos 3 cultos cada día 7:30, 2:30, y 8:00. Nunca en mi vida tuve 3 cultos por día pero todo bien.

Pr. Ron Clouzet is preaching at the UAP for our second week of prayer. The theme is Searching for the God of Elijah, but the most of the sermons are about the Holy Spirit and his work in our lives. They are really interesting and I believe that God is using the pastor to speak to me is a special way. we have 3 worships every day 7:30, 2:30, and 8:00. Never in my live have I had 3 worships per day, but its all good.

Puede ver los cultos en vivo: http://www.multimedia.uap.edu.ar/vivo
o escuche en la radio: http://www.uapar.edu/es/fmestudiantil_online/

you can see the program live at: http://www.multimedia.uap.edu.ar/vivo
or listen to the radio: http://www.uapar.edu/es/fmestudiantil_online/

Fotos / Photos

Camping (de Insituto Misonero)

2008-10-06T13:20:00.004-03:00

Friday about 150 students from the UAP left on bicicletas to a camping spot. we put all our bags, water, and food in a truck and headed out on the road. It was aproximately 16 km to the camp site through the fields. The area around the town over here is really pretty, lots of fields with cows and sometimes sheep.

The camping was for all the mission groups of the UAP to get together and have a spiritual retreat. Recently they released the book "Pasaporte para la mision" Passport to Missions, and the main event of the camping trip was introducing the idea of missions and the great need of it.

The camp fires were nice and it was nice to be out in nature for a weekend. we camped near a river and there was a sandy beach where we spent sunday playing before biking back to the University. Here are some pictures of the trip..

Photoshop images..

2008-09-13T15:01:00.002-03:00

I enjoy a little creativity everyonce in a while. These images are photoshoped.. the first one is a mix of Africa and Me. The second picture is taken of Dima jumping near salto.

Sonrisa para Rosario

2008-09-07T20:02:00.005-03:00

Smile for Rosario. Rosario is a city in Santa Fe, Argentina where UAP students went in their missionary groups this last sabbath to help the city smile. Some donated blood, others played with kids in a hospital and still overs shared Jesus on the street. The other thing happened was Viva con Esperanza.It was a long day because Rosario is aproximately 300 Km from the UAP, meaning a 5:00 - 11:00 day. Here are some of the pictures.

Life speeds up.. relatively..

2008-09-02T18:21:00.005-03:00

Life has increased in speed for me and as a result I have not been able to blog as much. Recently I have been enjoy a sort of partial vaction and now I am needing to start seriously studying.

Last weekend as in 2 weeks ago.. Friday was the normal Ultimate frisbee game with the guys, quite a work out but definitely enjoyable. Sabbath church and then English sabbath school. In the Afternoon we went to take some pictures in the park and test some of Chris' newly constructed lighting reflectors and filters.. Then sunday I was off to puente negro to go repelling with Dima, he enjoyed it and we shall have to do it again sometime..

Friday afternoon got to play Ultimate frisbee with the guys, it was another nicely intense game.. then in the evening Prayer seminar started.

This past weekend there was a Prayer Seminar here. Pastor Goia from Romania came and spoke.. Friday night, Sabbath Church (2 services), Sabbath afternoon till 1:30-5:00, and Sunday morning. It was really refreshing to hear a sermon in english and with the translation it also helped me learn some more spanish. I have never heard a better translator, he was extremely enthusiastic and just full of expression. Sometimes before he would translate he would say "wow" in english and then translate. I was truely blessed and was very glad to learn more about prayer.

Along with going to the meetings Chris, Dima, and I got to use a new camera and some lenses :D That kept me occupied, listening to the sermon and shooting with a sweet camera. EOS 1D Mark II with 70-200/f 2.8L IS and 24-105/f 4L IS what an experience.. with the low light it was rather enjoyable using those lenses.

Sunday in the morning I went to the prayer seminar and after lunch headed out with a few friends to the black bridge (Puente Negro). This has become a favorite of mine, to get away on Sunday afternoons and just have some fun and relax. It helps me practice my spanish on my way there and back. I took my rope along and so 5 of my friends repelled and then ascended, some for their first time. It was quite enjoyable. We got back just in time for super :) (actually late but we got food.)

This is my last week of work. On monday CLE (Castellano como Lengua Extrajero) starts and it will add another 20 credits to my 3 credits right now. It will be a rather sad change leaving work as I have enjoyed working there, but I am more than eager to learn more spanish and start Medicine.

Anatomia class today was very nice, except it was a lot of information to learn. Time to read...

[photo courtesy: Dima Ostrovsky]
[photo courtesy: Dima Ostrovsky]
[photo courtesy: Evan Oberholster]
[photo courtesy: Evan Oberholster]

Firday night and Sabbath afternoon

2008-08-18T00:39:00.010-03:00

Friday Night

Olympiades 2008 (en UAP)

Abraham on the Clavinova..

Salto

2008-08-03T14:08:00.006-03:00

Well well, there is this really nice stream near UAP that has carved its way through the rocks to make a small waterfall, quite pretty is actually. A couple of my friends and I headed out there on bikes on Sabbath afternoon, only to turn around due to low tire pressure in multiple bikes.

[photos]

Puente Negro

2008-07-27T01:30:00.005-03:00

Puente Negro is a train bridge that is not in use anymore. It is located not too far from the University where I am staying and was a rather nice sabbath walk to get to. The bridge sits about 40 meters above the water down below. To cross the brige you need to walk on some planks. Here are some of the pictures of us on the bridge. Quite an enjoyable trip getting there and a good sabbath afternoon activity.

¡Caverns of the deep!

2008-06-30T09:27:00.003-03:00

Well summer has been here a while and it has included traveling from Lincoln to Arkansas and then on to Tennesse. I enjoyed spending time with the Marters in Arkansas and was able to shadow a Family Practice doctor for almost a week. But now I am at my family's house and its been really good catching up and spending time with them. One of the highlights of hanging out here was going caving.

Friday night five of us guys crawled through a little crack in the side of a wall and shoved our bags in front of us. We had decided to take a camping trip in a cave for the weekend in order to go caving for more than 12 hours and hopefully do some major exploration after some rest.

The entrance of the cave was filled with soot turning pitch black anything that touched the rocks. For the first hour it was just walking through a tunnel with sides that were flattened out. Supposedly this cave had been used in the civil war as a hospital, that would explain the flat parts to the side of the center as being used for beds. We continued a simple hike through the cave/cavern for about an hour, climbing around drop offs being cautious not to slip.

Soon the mear hike was over and we started to climb down into one of the holes, it was only 25 feet(about 8 meters) from the original tunnel but quite a climb when the walls are wet and you have to keep from banging your head on the wall. At the bottom of the climb we were right next to the water. James (Also) eagerly informed us that it was not worth procrastinating and trying to avoid getting wet. It would just take to long if we tried to avoid the water and would have to get in later anyways. Reluctantly I started walking through the water, it was only ankle deep yet you could feel the heat being sucked out of your body.

While walking up stream in the underground river not only did we have to duck but we needed to carefully watch for the stalegtites that could jab you if you weren't careful. For the next hour and a half it was crawl/walk situation partly through the creek and partly on land. Getting the cold water up to about our knees and then having to crawl on the sand. James (Also) took a rest and showed us the markings on the wall that said "dead end", that was encouraging in more than one way(that we were pushing the limits and that it wasn't going to be easy going). Soon after some more crawling on our knees, dodging stalactites, and trodging through the cold water we came to another sign that said "The Gate".

The Gate is a passage way that is wide but not tall. To get through you must lay on your stomach and crawl because the roof touches your back while you are laying down. The Gate part itself is where the height becomes smaller and there is a line of stalegtites and stalegmites that have fused together to form columns. The gate is a break in those columns and is just large enough to squeeze through with your head turned sideways and your arms above your head. After a little bit of wiggling and squeezing you can get through.

From the gate we continued to travel up the creek, we passed through small passage ways in the water to large rooms with high ceilings. Soon it started getting small again, the roof kept getting lower and lower. After a little room there was a very low ceiling that we had to crawl under, it involved submerging our entire body besides our head in the water. This was very dificult as the frigid water caused us to breathe harder and faster, but soon our bodys adjusted to the temperature change allowing us to keep going trying to keep our heads above water. Sand started getting between my skin and my clothes. All the crawling on my belly started to rub my arms, legs and chest raw. The cold water began causing us to start to get sleepy and really tired, but we all knew we had to keep going.

All this time we were pushing our water proof bags through with us so that we could have dry clothes on when we decided to camp. James (Also) and Johnathan slid down a muddy embankment and looked around and found a place that we could camp at.

Everyone pulled out some dry clothes and food. Zak and I pumped a little water from the stream with a water filter and we all started to try and settle in for the night. We had found a sandy area that looked like it would be comfortable and layed out plastic sheets that James (Also) had so ingeniously brought along. One thing we had not quite accounted for was that the ground does like to suck the heat from you and building a fire in a cave is not the smartest thing, so keeping warm is left up to shivering and bodily processes.

Everyone except Zak lacked an article of clothing, James (Also) had shorts, Johnathan had a short sleeve T-shirt, James forgot dry socks, and I had forgotten a hoodie. We decided that we could survive by falling asleep and hopefully stay warm. It was so quiet that you could hear someones stomach growl from across the room, there were no lights except for the glow of a watchlight yet sleep was impossible. My clothes were dry, I had a wool jacket, long pants, socks, and had dput my feet in a dry bag to keep them warm. Due to shear exhaustion I fell asleep, three hours later I awoke to the sound of James (Also) and Johnathan pestering me. "Evan! Evan! aren't you cold?" "Huh!" All I could hear was Zak snoring away a clear sign that he was asleep, I just longed to be asleep and to enjoy thinking I was warm when I really wasn't. My feet were freezing and of course I was cold, do you ask a starving child if he is hungry!? I sat up, turned on my light and saw what I was afraid of. I had slid down during the night and my feet were in the water, well at least the dry bag was. So I yelled out, "Arrg.. I am sleeping in the water", this started a cackle amoungst James, James (Also), and Johnathan. I have since been picked on for sleeping in the water.

Soon I was invited to move my thin plastic sheet so that I could join the other 4 guys who were lying next to each other to stay warm. I decided to negotiate and in doing so bought some prime real estate on James' mat (he had brought a thick foam mat). So I tried to fall asleep with half my back on the mat and the other half on the ground, it helped a lot. I soon found that James' arm worked as a comfortable pillow and I used it. I was shivering and soon warmed up enough to fall asleep. Since Johnathan only had a T-shirt sohe was rather cold, to keep warm he would churn out funny jokes that would send all 5 of us laughing, this kept us warm but denied sleep. We all were trying as hard as we could to conserve heat, in James' (Also) terms we slept log-by-log-by-log.

Around 4:15 we got up and realized that it was inevitable to forfeit the exploration of the underground. Realizing that the sun wouldn't come in and warm us up :( we decided that we needed to get up and excercise to get warm. We ate quickly and started getting ready for the return journey. I had to put on my wet and sandy clothes since I needed the protection of long sleeves. This was dificult to do and took me a while, James (Also) decided that shorts wouldn't cut it for the trip back so he had todo the same.

The trip back was full of amazing climbs, slides, crawls, squeezes, and well just amazing. My flexability was definitely pushed to the limits a few times. Due to the sheer length of this blog already we shall keep it short. We made it out by 8:30, concluding 12 hours in a cave. We had wished to pull off more than 24 hours but I think that with better preparation and better sleep before going caving, it just might be doable (we watched Wall-e premier at the cinema and only got to sleep at 3:00 in the morning, then we worked that day.)

I would love to Photography the insides of caves as they are so pretty with the waterfalls and the amazing colors and shapes that the rocks take as they are slowly cut by the water. But my camera is not waterproof and so I guess it is not possible, maybe someday I will be able to do it, just maybe. Until then it shall only be described in words. But the Age of Exploration has not died, there are many caves left unexplored.

Camping in Tennesse

2008-06-22T14:13:00.002-03:00

This took place the first weekend I was here. We went to foster falls and replled the waterfall in the picture. The group was Zak, James, and Co. Quite an exciting trip, we backpacked in for about 2.5 miles and then setup camp. The hammocks were by far the most creative, along with Zak's tent and James' (Also) leento. It was an exciting experience of falling trees and cooking. Here are the pictures..

Henry Dorley Zoo - Omaha, NE

2008-04-15T12:59:00.005-03:00

This past Sunday I went with my Biology class to observe animals in the zoo. We were required to quantify our observations meaning that we had to count how often the animal breathed, how much of the it was dormant or moving as well as other characteristics.

Going to the Omaha zoo is quite enjoyable because the animals are treated well. Going to the zoo makes me miss Africa, I enjoy being in nature with animals. I am very greatful for God's creativity.

One of the most fascinating things that I learned was how African Wild Dogs are very community based. Even in a small area they seem to enjoy staying close and constantly interacting with each other. African Wild Dogs also have very heightened senses, so they may appear jittery at times.

Here are some of the pictures from the zoo.

Pictures from Moab

2008-04-06T17:04:00.007-03:00

During Spring break some of my IRR buddies and I went to Moab, Utah for some climbing and backpacking. We were there for 9 days and had a great time. Most of the nights were cold and with a warm sleeping bag some nights I still felt my feet get cold.

Moab is in the desert and so the days were nice and warm. Often the sky was clear so we got a large amount of climbing in. I learned how to lead on trad, setting your climbing protection as you go. That was a new experience and it left some good memories of climbing. The rock in Moab is Sandstone and so it sometimes crumbles and breaks, making it difficult to climb compared to granite which is rougher but tares your skin.

Arches National Park is also right next to Moab and so we got some hiking done in there. The arches are look really nice but I think that often they are overrated. The four of us guys took a backpacking trip through Negro Bill Canyon which was filled with walking through bushes and scrambling over boulders. We spent one night at the end of the canyon and then returned the next day.

Wall Street, Moab is a very friendly place where climbers like to both hang out and climb. It is so named because of its proximity to the road. It is not unusual for a belayer to be half a meter off the road and have a 18 wheeler truck come roaring by. This was a new experience for me, avoiding traffic and making sure your climber doesn't fall. We camped about a third of a kilometer from Wall street so that we could climb until the sunset pack up and walk back to camp. What a great place to enjoy a week.

Since arriving back I have had to regrow all the pads on my fingers. After climbing for a week most of them got rubbed off. Please pray for me as I am still working on going to UAP in Argentina.

Now for the best part.. some pictures.

belaying on Wall street

Negro Bill Canyon

Our depiction of the Evolution of a Saint

The Greek Banquet

2008-02-26T04:42:00.006-02:00

Lincoln is COLD.. really cold. Except for Sabbath when it was nice and sun shiny outside. A couple of us were biking in the park, slashing through the mud. Lots of fun.
But the problem remains that today was bitterly cold with the wind and the snow.

Sunday was banquet. Food was good, it was Greek :) there are some pictures below.

School remains busy but fun, there is so much to learn. Life is a continuous learning process :) So if you hate learning you are in for a rough life.

Well I am sure that most of you know that I have been praying about going to Unviversidad Adventista del Plata(UAP) in Argentina in August to take a Spanish intensive and then take medicine. I am hoping to send in my application this week. I need a lot of prayer as this will be a big change and won't even be in my mother tongue.

God's working in my life.

2008-01-26T13:56:00.000-02:00

It has been a long time since I wrote something here. Some of my friends know that there has been much I have been praying about and asking God for guidance. Especially in school but mainly I was looking for God to give me a calling in lfe. I had been torn between being an Student Missionary, staying at Union, or stepping out in faith and going to UAP (Universidad Adventista del Plata). All looked like really good options, there were issues/blessings in each but I just wanted an answer from God. I asked him to open and close the right doors so that I would feel like He was leading me one way or another. Turns out that many of the things I asked Him to work out have been coming together slowly but surely. This whole experience has reall increased my faith and its really cool living on the edge with God :)

The pictures that I added are of the Philippine Oberholsters and one of me recently walking on iced up holmes lake. We have out hopes up that today and sunday will be in the single digit degree celcius :D thats warm for us :D

The "artificial eye"

Evan on Ice (Holmes Lake Jan 07)

My Family Dec 2007

Orchid Garden, Changi Airport, Singapore

2007-12-25T00:53:00.000-03:00

Here are some of the best pictures I got while traveling.

Going home, going home, I'm a going home

2007-12-20T20:50:00.000-03:00

Yesterday(Wednesday the 19th) I left Lincoln airport at around 7:00 am and found out that most of my flight schedule had been changed due to fog in San Francisco. I was then re-routed through Seattle on my journey to the Philippines.

On the first flight from LIN-DEN I sat next to a college student, like myself, who was very eager about what he was doing. He is in college and is studying theology and going to be working in youth ministry when he graduates. We discussed mission work and the idea of living a life for God/Service to others in a world where people are constantly inward focused. It was encouraging talking with him and listening to how God has lead in his life.

The second flight was the strangest of them all. I got on the plane and sat down and there was this korean girl who sat next to me. So I asked her where she was going, where she was from, etc.. all the questions that start up conversation. I soon come to find out that we have seen each other before. She was a student in the Philippines near where my parents stay and she had visited there on sabbaths. This goes to show how very small this world is, yet how big it is at the same time.

Third flight was from Seattle-Tacoma to Narita, Japan this was the long one. I went though several random cycles of sleep, gaze at the ceiling, watch movies, and get up and stretch. Getting of in Japan was nice, I felt like I was most of the way done with the trip.

Then flying to Singapore was done business class, the first time for me to be bumped up. It was really an eye opener. People who have never traveled in economy miss out on the whole idea of having a hard time with flights. they are continuously pampered, given food that must have been cooked by some pro chefs and sit in very comfortable adjustable semi-beds. Maybe a little exaggeration but they still have it really nice. Lounges are the best and are totally worth it especially with long layovers. there is nothing as soothing as a quite and calm lounge.

Well I am writing this from Singapore, last night I slept in Singapore outside of immigration on some plastic chairs. I wasn't about to pay $60 for a hotel. I am just a broke college student. I would rather have pieces of chair stick into me all night long. Then I was woken up by people moving around and realized that the airport had opened once again at 5:00 this morning. Sat up and realized that there must have been quite a few people wondering what this guy was doing lying across the chairs snoring with his mouth open. After that I left through immigration and am now outside of Singapore in the business lounge awaiting 5:10pm Friday afternoon when I get on the plane for Manila, Philippines.

While traveling on this trip I came to a conclusion that surviving is something that needs to be done both in a rural setting and an urban setting. IRR needs to have an urban survival training exercise where they send people into an unknown concrete jungle with out the proper tools(money), without food, and without communication(celphone). This will be quite useful, I would have been able to greatly benefited from this class since I have now spent 2 nights across benches in airports sleeping there while the airport around me was closed.

Near the end once again.

2007-12-11T13:05:00.001-03:00

School is coming to a close here we are in the final part of the semester just a few days away from test week. School was closed this morning until 11:30 due to icy conditions outside and it has been bitterly cold. The snow is quite lovely to look at and realize that it blankets everything, making it look clean and pure. It reminds me of all the times God cleans out my life and makes me shine again.

I am needing a lot of prayer as I am considering going as a Student Missionary next year. Next week I fly out to the Philippines to enjoy a little bit warmer weather and catchup on life at home with my family. Those of you who know my mom, please pray for her she is having a rough time with her exams.

Thanks and God Bless,
Evan

Photoshop Fun

2007-11-26T15:09:00.000-03:00

For those of you who enjoy some art with Photoshop :)

Thanksgiving Break

2007-11-25T11:51:00.000-03:00

I spent Thanksgiving Break with the Samples up in South Dakota visiting around there and enjoying the scenery. It is a really pretty place, with a lot of climbing, caving, and hiking to be done. Jonathan, Lucinda, Corrie, and I stayed in a cave for around 4 and a half hours just exploring and enjoying ourselves. Most of the cave we had to be crawling through to get to anything because of the such tight spaces. We returned with lots of bruises and dust. Caves are really beautiful though and they are an all season activity which makes it really nice.

Now I am back at school and focusing for 3 more weeks before Christmas break. Still praying and asking God what His plans are for my life, so when you can please pray for me.

Here are some of the pictures I took over break.

Quandry's Peak, Mt. Bross, and Mt. Bierstead (Part 3)

2007-11-11T16:54:00.000-03:00

We left the camp ground from Mt. Bross and decided that we needed to go and climb Mt. Bierstead because we didn't have enough energy to do Quandry's peak again. By the third day that we were out there, we no longer had the same amount of energy. We had come to climb peaks and so we weren't going to take a rest for a whole day. We arrived at the parking lot for Mt. Beirstead at around 8:00 in the evening and tried to set up camp. Realizing that there was no place to set up a tent and because of the strength of the wind we decided that we would use Eddie's truck. Corrie got the cab. Eddie and Joe shared the the back of the truck. I took the ground in my bivy sack and tried to place all the bags around me to keep some of the wind away(it didn't work to well). It was a cold night and early in the morning I was up trying to get some warm water made. We had n't stopped and gotten water the night before and so all our water for that day had to be melted. Melting snow is not the greatest thing in the world, especially when you are thirsty and freezing. But after 2 hours of working at it we had our water melted and had eaten breakfast. We were eager to get hiking so that we could warm up. It was a clear day with very few clouds and so we knew it would be nice.

We started our hike and made it all the way up without that many problems. But once at the top I got a really bad headache and decide that it was time to head down. Eddie cruised on down cause he was just really tired and wanted to get back. That left me, Corrie and a friend to hike down together. We met this friend on the mountain and he had some interesting stories about the places he had traveled and the mountains he had climbed. It was rather enjoyable passing time with him because we enjoyed his stories. We got back to the parking lot rather tired and dehydrated and once again starved.

When driving back in the truck we noticed that everybody's breath smelt funny. Then we realized what the smell was and we laughed about it. We were exhaling ketones. Which are a by product when fats are broken down. Our bodies must have been so hungry that we started breaking down fat and muscle. Talk about undernourishment... Well we ate a really nice meal of cheese, bread and mac and cheese. We didn't have fresh water because we converted it all into Gatorade so we made Gatorade macaroni and cheese. That was an experience.

A few weeks later most of us don't want to drink Gatorade anymore. We are cured for a while, it was a good experience. We learned a lot and had a good time seeing the beauty of the mountains, something you miss while in Nebraska. Climbing above 14,000ft is really awesome, I recommend it to anyone who seeks adventure.

Quandry's Peak, Mt. Bross, and Mt. Bierstead (Part 2)

2007-11-11T16:24:00.000-03:00

We drove around for a while looking for a place to stay. We drove up to 12,000ft and found a bathroom up there. We decided to use it since it was the only facilities around. It was very very cold and there was snow on the ground inside, sitting down on it sucked all the head out of you. After driving around for another 20 minutes or so we found a camp site and decided to stay there for the night and get up early to attempt Bross. So we setup camp and fell asleep quite quickly.

We got up around 6:00 in the morning and got some water from the spring and put our Gatorade in the water so that it wouldn't freeze. Ate breakfast and headed out to find the trail for Mt. Bross. we drove around for about an hour or so and just couldn't find it. Finally we went into the town nearby and saw a light on in one of the houses. We decided to go in and ask, hopping that whoever was up that early wouldn't think we were thieves with our heavy clothing and balaclavas. A nice lady answered the door and told us that she had taken another trail similar to the one we were going to take and she said it shouldn't be to hard to find the trail, well that didn't really answer out question but we decided to pray about it and then go look for the trail again. we drove back to the forested area and started looking and soon found the road. While driving down it we came across 4 moose that were crossing the road. That was really special because who sees moose in the wild at about 15 feet from a car?

Arriving at the parking lot we packed our bags and started the ascent. It was to be around a 9 mile hike not including the 2000 feet increase in altitude. we hike for 3 hours and had to stop every few minutes to catch our breath. The wind was blowing more than the day before and we weren't so sure if we were going to make it to the top. Mt. Bross is covered with mines on it and so we found one of the abandoned buildings and used it as a rest stop to get out of the wind. Near the summit it became to hard to hike by yourself because the wind would just push you, because we were hiking near drop offs we decided that we needed t stick together more so we lined up and held on to each other and marched up the side.

When we got to the top, I felt the awesome feeling of being higher than everything else. Made me thing of the song "On top of the World". After doing my traditional moutain "Freedom Shouting". I removed my glove to start taking some pictures. as soon as I put it to the camera I saw it run blue and lost almost all the feeling it in. I started screaming for Eddie to shove my glove back on my hand cause it hurt like crazy. The wind on top of mount Bross was the worst we had ever experienced, if you jumped 20 cm in the air it would throw you back about a meter. While Eddie was taking pictures he lost a glove, it just blew away, so we decided that it was time to head down.

Going down we took short cuts and didn't take all the switch backs because we were just exhausted and dehydrated. WE had drunk all our Gatorade and were tired of eating Cliff bars. Food was on our mind, awesome food like mashed potatoes and soup we were starving.

We made it down and back to camp and ended up eating mushroom soup with Mashed potatoes. It tasted like the Dog food that you make in Africa from maize and fish, but only to me and Eddie, Corrie and Joe thought it just tasted like plain old mashed potatoes with mushroom soup.

Quandry's Peak, Mt. Bross, and Mt. Bierstead (Part 1)

2007-11-11T16:02:00.000-03:00

It has been a long time since I have written, and so I better catch up. School has been really busy and has taken a large portion of my time. Over fall break Corrie, Eddie, Joe, and I decided to go to Colorado and climb a few peaks. It ended up being winter camping and it had snowed 12 inches before we got there. The roads were slick, so we used chains, and setting up tents was a bit of a challenge.

Lincoln is at around 1000ft above sea level and our camp for the first night was at around 10,000ft at the bottom of Quandry's Peak. We got to sleep at around 5:30 in the morning and got up around 10:30 so that we could start our expedition up the first peak, without any acclimatization. For the next 3 hours we hiked through knee deep snow gaining altitude slowly and stumbling every once in a while. The wind was strong and snow was blowing every where, we had headaches and didn't feel like going any further, but we continued to push ourselves. Until we reached the ridge. At the ridge we look at the final ascent and decided that if we were going to do it, we would need crampons and for each of us to have an ice axe. The wind was howling at around 40 miles an hour and standing still was difficult, snow was blowing everywhere and it was hard to see.

Comming down was a little faster except that we kept sliding in the snow and getting in deep and having to crawl out. Snowshoes would have been nice but we didn't really have that luxury. All of us made it down safely, took down camp, and then headed off to the next camp site.

Biking into the wind

2007-09-30T20:40:00.000-03:00

This sabbath was another interesting experience of biking into the wind for 13 Miles to a park just outside of Lincoln. It was a beautiful day just a little windy. While biking I realized that my long sleeve shirt was getting rather warm. Before I even asked God to solve my problem, He did. I found a relatively clean shirt by the side of the road that worked perfectly.

Please pray for me as I am looking into a job for this coming summer

The Weekend..

2007-09-24T16:09:00.000-03:00

This will remain short since I am trying to get some studying done. Friday at vespers we heard a sermon by Pastor Sam Mckee, He comes from Silicon Valley, CA and is a pastor there.
Pastor Mckee

On Sabbath we attended church and then a group of us set out for Conestoga Lake. It was a nice adventure, we biked there(13 Mi, 28.8 Km) and spent the afternoon hanging out with friends and enjoying nature. Eddie brought out a canoe and we canoed around the lake for a while, some people decided they wanted to go swimming and so they enjoyed the cool water. They finally convinced me to jump in the water when they filled the Aluminium canoe with water. Danny Davis lead a short worship for us and then we headed back to Union. Fewer people biked back and we decided to go exploring and take a longer route (17 Mi, 27.7Km) this time most of the ride was on dirt roads and so it took a little more energy.
The Bikers
Angela and her "boyfriend".

The smaller group that I was biking with arrived at the Church 5 minutes late for V2(Second Vespers) but were still able to enjoy Kian telling us about Maxwell and her experiences through life. After V2 we went to Union's Soccer field for the Union Cup. I got to play on the EuroAfrica team, and really enjoyed it. We lost to South America 4:1 but still enjoyed it.

On Sunday me and a friend had volunteered as Swift Water rescuers for the Union College Tri-athalon. We put on our orange dry suits, PFDs(Personal Floation Devices), and our helmets and headed out for the water. We pushed boogie boards next to the swimmers just to make sure that they knew where they had to go and to pull out anyone who had problems. All went good and we didn't have the privilege of pulling any one out.
The Rescuers

Now its school time again and time to study.

Sunrise from a beautiful Saviour!

2007-09-22T01:43:00.000-03:00

Miracles in the strangest ways. That is what I have experienced over and over this week and then last night I asked God to show me a sign.. He woke me up, earlier than my alarm, to a beautiful sunrise. One of the best I have seen. If you read this and don't trust that God works in your life.. Then its time to test him and try him :D

Thank you Jesus Amen!

View from Prescott 6th

2007-09-16T03:12:00.000-03:00

A view from Prescott Hall 6th floor of the city of Lincoln. I love sunrises, they always make me think of how great God is. I hope you can enjoy them too and those people who like to stay up late and wake up late you miss so much.

Clyde Peter's Vespers

2007-09-15T03:31:00.000-03:00

This friday evening was a wonderful experience at Cylde's house once again. We had a good vespers and enjoyed a large bon fire. Pastor Rich even fell from the sky! :D

EMT2 Lab Pictures

2007-09-13T14:38:00.000-03:00

For all of those who love Anatomy and Physiology here are some pictures for you of the EMT2 Wednesday Lab. Enjoy!

Alaana at dissecting.

Andrew and his pair of pig lungs.

Bud showing off the sphincter to the group.

EMT2 Lab

2007-09-10T22:50:00.000-03:00

I am enjoying EMT 2 class. There is a lot of review and lecture but the information is really practical and useful. In the last few weeks we went over Epinephrine and Aspirin. Tonight we did a review on basic airway and started talking a little about advanced airway. Tonight for our Laboratory exercise we had the privilege of dissecting pig lungs.

The beauty of this is that the pig lungs appeared to have the same size airway structures as human adults and therefore the lab was very practical. we started out by identifying the structures and then went on to cutting away parts of the connective tissue surrounding the trachea, esophagus, superior vena cava, and other upper airway structures. Then we intubated the lungs until the carina and sealed off the trachea. We attached the Bag Valve Mask(BVM) to the end of the tube and started filling the lungs. It was rather interesting to watch the rise and fall of the lungs. After a few "breaths" we proceeded to listen to lungs, we could hear semi clear lungs. After listening for a while we added 10cc of water down the tube and gave a few "breaths". Soon we were able to hear gurgling sounds and could hear the effect that water had on the sound. After wards we started cutting away as much connective tissue away from the lungs as we could without damaging them. Then we inflated the lungs again and could see instead of just whole pieces of lungs expand, smaller pieces that looked like alveoli. It was fun dissecting.

Our instructors are awesome. Thanks Bud and Donna.

Thinking...

2007-09-03T23:11:00.000-03:00

I just had a random thought which I would really like to share with everyone :D I really miss Elvin, man that guy is cool. He helped me grow in so many ways in academy. He is just such an amazing guy! When I look at Kilimanjaro Pics I remember all the good times and I want to go back, how about Aconcogua in 2010?

For those of you who don't know, I climb Kilimanjaro in December of 2005 with Elvin, John Thomas, Lari Rusenescu, Heather Debolt, and Vallerie Robbinette. I greatly miss those moments and the times spent on Mt. Kenya!

Life goes on.

2007-08-27T13:18:00.000-03:00

This is a Monday morning with wonderful weather in Lincoln, Ne; The skies are clear and every one seems to be smiling at Union. Chemistry is an amazing class, but I have to agree that Biology is still my favorite. Its intense and I am learning so much, isn't that what school is about. Today there are many things that are going to happen, EMT2 test over Epinephrine and Aspirin. That will be rather interesting as both medications can have powerful effect on the body.

Last Saturday night Union ASB hosted the handshake, time when the whole school get together to meet everyone else. This year the theme was video games and there were many characters running around with strange costumes trying to resemble video game characters. There were all kinds of people from Pac-Man to the Paper boy, I even saw a Tetris group. Then just before the famous greased widowmaker, ASB put on a fireworks show. that was really awesome for the college students, but might have caused flash backs to World War II for the nursing home not too far away.

NREMT, just another thing God has taken me through

2007-08-17T13:05:00.001-03:00

I passed the NREMT, thank you everyone who prayed for me :) I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Sabbath.

"Things are Thick!"

2007-08-16T22:38:00.000-03:00

Today I took the NREMT. I really enjoyed it but I am glad that it is over :) "Things are thick" as Jojie would say if he were here, man I miss you man. Being an RA and trying to get to know all the new students plus getting settled into my room and writing a paper all at the same time seems to be a challenge. Shy, Kian, Kathy and Chipo are at Union. Yeah! more maxwellites :) Those of you who know David Ward, he is also here. Its strange to see so many of my friends showing up at Union, yet it is also really nice. I expect we will have a great year, even though we will miss all the cool student missionaries that are having a glorious time internationally. We will keep writing you.

Dean Dodds said this today and it really made me think...
"God would have no interest in working through imperfect people because there is nothing to change in them."

Please pray for Julie as she is going to Ukraine. Also for me as there are struggles here at College which God can help me work through.

I wanna go back to Union again....

2007-08-14T23:03:00.000-03:00

Well I have been at Union since Thursday, just under a week, and it has been filled with excitement and challenges. RA meetings are interesting, but seeing pictures of self-destructive behavior and hear about students in the dorm that are addicted to video/computer games increases the interest in the job.

I have spent the past few days moving a lot of beds around and trying to get everything ready for guys to move in on thursday. Abri and Auntie Petro came to bring Zak, my cousin, to Union cause he is going to be taking IRR. It was nice visiting with them again as I have not seen them in over 7 years. So that was great. I also got to see the Bissells that was really nice as I haven't seen them since AIIAS, which is a long time ago.

Now it be time to sleep as tomorrow is a really long day. Shy and Kian will be arriving tomorrow and I hope to be able to go pick them up at the airport :) Yeah for more maxwellites at Union.

Student Missionaries from Union for 2008 were especially prayed for in RA training this morning. Please pray for them as many of them will have some struggles and God can help them over come. Also please pray for me as a new school year starts and as I am going to be taking my NREMT, National Registry for Emergency Medical Technicians, test on Thursday afternoon. Please pray for Julie so that her visa ordeal will work out. Thanks :) Praise God cause He is amazing!

Life at Sunset Lake!

2007-08-08T01:01:00.001-03:00

Regular camp is over..

It is now not uncommon to see staff members walking around Sunset lake sporting a machete in one hand and a hatchet in the other. We are creating trails through the jungles of Washington this week, while the rest of the camp is taken over by people from a Children's hospital. They often are left staring in amazement at those of us who carry our "tools" while catching a drink at the drinking fountain. Anyways enough about that. Tomorrow I will leave in an airplane and fly fly fly away to Lincoln, NE where there are no trees mountains or hills; Just corn and more corn.

Creating trails has taught me lots of lessons, such as..

1. Don't always think there is one way; look for the other ways.
2. Looking back at where you have come from helps you be pumped for the vision.
3. If I worked alone it would be pointless and boring; other people are really cool.

All the staff are camped out in the upper meadow in tents. Camp fires are fun and lack of everyday showers creates some interesting aromas from the area. Cooking is still amazing even though its out of camping stoves, thanks Derek and Ramon!

When I get back to UC I am going to be working in the dorm as an RA and probably cleaning. Then getting ready for school and settling in. So much fun.

Jesus is cool cause he keeps me going and helps me realize that there is always something cool around the corner that He has planed that I don't know much about; surprises are fun :)

Tween Camp

2007-07-16T18:07:00.000-03:00

This week is going to be even more exciting than last week. I have 10 campers in my cabin and hopefully we will get to spend most of our nights outside. I am also getting to help out at the Challenge Course in the morning. We have the motto of "No Rest, No Rest Go! Go! Go!".

"Junior 2" 3rd week of Camp

2007-07-13T02:14:00.000-03:00

Sunset Lake is amazing and you soon forget the rest of the world if it were not for your friends that write and say hows life? Well I was recruited to teach Lego Robotics camp and so I have been rather filled with building challenges and teaching kids about robots. When you teach something you get to learn it for yourself as well :) Playing with Legos as a college student helps you feel young and energetic again, all of you should try it sometime. The staff here are an amazing group of people who are all committed to helping each other and helping kids meet Jesus. Junior campers have energy, lots of energy but they also have their own set of challenges. I have been counseling and helping out in Challenge course when I can. wow... I am mostly busy. Today is my day off and I intend to take the night and find a comfortable place to sleep in the woods. Sunset lake is really awesome and during my time off at lunch I went mountain biking with Justin. It was fun but I wrecked once, the bike is fine, but it was a little scary. Food is good, Weather is HOT!, water is refreshing... and people are caring... Special friends make life exciting... and most of all God is amazing... so I am happy. I shall shoot some more pictures so that you may see a little into our world over here.

Picture from Sunset Lake

2007-07-10T16:56:00.000-03:00

Here is a cool picture that Marlon Thorman took of me.

Counseling at Sunset Lake Camp

2007-06-24T13:27:00.001-03:00

Today is the day that the first set of campers are comming. It will be lots of fun and am excited about it. Camp is a nice place with lots of cool staff and this year will be very interesting and exciting. Everyone who reads this please pray for me as I need strength and wisdom to do my best.

Yesterday we went to the Washington Conference campmeeting it was lots of fun and it was nice seeing quite a few people that I know. A small group of staff sat down and had a good time sharing how God has impacted our lives. In the afternoon we ran around and took kids for piggy back rides, what an awesome way to get to know them.

Well its time to go.

Au reviour,
Evan

This Weekend Be Survival..

2007-06-07T22:08:00.000-03:00

Dr. Mike coined the term "Man got fire, Women get fish!" while we were learning how to make fires with our metal matches. That was the first part of our survival, since then we have learned techniques for trapping animals and what plants are edible and which are poisonous. So we are ready to go on our 3 day and 3 night survival. This will probably be a real challenge maybe more mental than physical because last night the temperatures got down to 27 degree's farenhiet. we are all hopping that it warms up as that will be really cold. we have been told that fires are not permissible because of the high fire risk in the area that we are in so it will be a lot of excercise at night to keep warm. I am looking forward to it :) Yesterday the wind was really strong and almost drove a bunch of us insane. one of my friends was telling me that Pioneer's wives used to commit suicide in the plains cause they just couldn't get away from the wind. Well that be it for now, I better get back to doing my laundry. Take care all my friends and hope that I see you some time.

Colordao is Amazing

2007-05-24T23:01:00.000-03:00

I am in Norwood, Colordao. This place is B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. but during the IRR summer program it snowed. besides that its killer fun. Just finished Rope Rescue and now are going to start with Swiftwater and Advanced Swiftwater Rescue. I feel God has blessed me with rescue and its lots of fun. After prayer and thought it seems that I will be taking the Pre-PA emphasis next year and see if I can train to be a rescue instructor. Those are plans and God is still leading in my life :)

Thank you all of you who put up with not hearing from me while I am out in the middle of no where. I got access by tapping onto someones wifi :) Thank you to that person who left their connection open :)

Snowing during the summer progam
Swift Water training (throw bagging Tony)

IRR Rescue Squad "Apollo"Ham Canyon

EMT-B Class is over...

2007-05-04T02:32:00.000-03:00

Well tonight was the Skills night final and it is finally over. All my classwork, clinicals, and skills tests are done for EMT-B. All I wish to say is to God be the glory, He pulled me through all the tough spots and opened doors that I thought couldn't be and He brought me great friends in the process. Thanks Bud and Donna for answering my many questions. I am glad for all the Firefighters and EMT's that helped me get through, whenever I see your commitment I realize that many of you are unselfishly giving up your time to help those in need. Reminds me of a verse in the bible. 1 John 3:16, "Greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends..."

Tonight Sandy talked with me and helped open my eyes to see that the PA program might be possible for me if its God's will. For right now I will just need to take one step at a time. Next I will be off to Colorado for summer rescue training.

Fire Station time

2007-04-23T19:06:00.000-03:00

On Sunday early in the morning I left for Grand Island(around an hour and a half from Lincoln). It is a little city with 7 districts. I went there to do ride time on an ambulance squad. I was stationed at Fire Station 1 for a 24 hour shift working with a Paramedic and a Firefighter. It was an amazing experience learning the new culture and learning to be on the edge with emergencies. This was a requirement for my major and has opened up my eyes to living a life more on service. If any of you awesome people ever get a chance to ride with an ambulance squad, you should do it, you will gain awesome experience and learn so much about other people. Now I am back at school and tired... But glad that God has taken care of me in all things.

by the way just so all of you are aware.. "This is not a Union College page ;)"

A whole new world of Photography...

2007-04-20T21:17:00.000-03:00

From the Campus shoot with Eric on Friday afternoon :)

I had known about HDR(High Dynamic Range) photography since academy but it hadn't really struck me how powerful 32-bit images were. Until Eric Montgomery showed me a site or two that had some amazing pictures. As soon as i could escape my busy schedule I headed out to Holmes lake at around 10:00 pm Thursday Night and got these amazing shots. The HDR Images were shot at 30 sec, 40 sec and 124 sec at f/5.0 ISO 200. Then merged with C3's HDR image tool with a little color change.Finally a picture of my cool roommate. Skau Buddy!

Pioneer's Bikers

2007-04-15T03:12:00.000-03:00

A group of us bikers set out for Pioneers Park and got to travel 14 miles of wonderful path. Nebraska seems flat to the non-biker, but as soon as you start biking around Lincoln, you come to respect the small hills. Jeff dodged a semi, Ang had to pedal faster to barely miss getting hit by a car, Joni had gear problems, Evan... well he really tired himself out. Our medic Dori(you know who you are.) was saying how she would have come to our rescue had we called. It was fun and all those who hung out with us at Pioneers are awesome friends. Eddie set up a slack line and we had fun watching them.

The Boys Next Door (Final Showing)

2007-04-08T10:51:00.000-03:00

This was an awesome play that quite a few of my really good friends were in it. The program said, "The Boys Next door follows the ups and downs of four young men, each in his own way challenged by mental illness. Living in a neighborhood group home, the four interact with each other, with their somewhat overwhelmed social worker and with the 'normal' world that surrounds them. As we witness the mishaps and triumphs of their everyday living- poignant, aggravating, joyous and often funny- we are able to see the past each peculiar exterior to the human being within." Thank You everyone who made it fun!

To all who read this!

2007-03-26T22:06:00.001-03:00

I am looking for some fun place to go explore and take pictures of in Lincoln...
Please leave me a comment on a place.
thanks,
Evan

The interesting buildings of Lincoln, Nebraska

2007-03-24T00:38:00.000-03:00

This afternoon I had planned to leave on an expedition to tour Lincoln by bike with a few friends, it never worked out. So I moved on to plan B. I headed out by myself on a photo escapade, to find interesting buildings and take pictures of them. Lincoln is a wonderful town in that all the streets are numbered, that makes navigation in the concrete jungle not that difficult. I headed out from 48th(Union College) and headed to 16th(other side of town) what a fun ride. I got to see all kinds of different people interacting with each other and just enjoying a peaceful afternoon. Here are the pictures of the buildings, I added a picture of the black squirrel that I found(it must be a rear species).

Mississippi

2007-03-17T12:45:00.000-03:00

I got back last night and have received the sad news about my wonderful academy, Maxwell and it is sad but I know that God has a plan for us. Mostly just the drive back from Mississippi has been rather long.
Here is what happened...

There were 24 of us that went, each one of us made it a wonderful experience. When we left here we had no clue what we were actually going to do, we had been told that we are heading to Mississippi and are going to help Katrina flood victims reconstruct.

Traveling there was fun, so much conversation and sleeping under the stars the first night was exciting. It brought the over whelming feeling of freedom yet protection from God. Then on Friday morning we were up again early to get back on the road and headed south.

We arrived at Camp Coastal very excited about the place and soon found out that we were actually going to be staying in grand luxury, more than we expected. the cabins consisted of wooden bunk beds built into the wall and a tin roof on top of our heads. There are 12 bunks per cabin and so we had a girls and guys cabin. Soon we settled in, pulled out our sleeping bags and tucked in for the night. The next morning we headed out to find a church where we could worship with fellow believers.

Arriving at the Presbyterian Church where the group had joined in Sabbath services a year earlier we found that there were no longer Sabbath services held there and they didn't know where the Sabbath keeping believers now met. Since we were close to the shore we just headed down to the beach and decided that until we could find some Sabbath Services we would stay at the beach.

Playing at the beach was fun and for me there was lots of opportunity to shoot pictures here and there. Some of us had prayed earlier that we would be able to find some fellow believers and worship with them. God answered our prayer and soon we went and found the church. It was another Presbyterian Church that a congregation of Adventists had rented for Sabbaths. we joined the group near the end of their Sabbath School discusion and soon realized that most of the church was volunteers. Central Vermont Academy had brought a group to the ACTS(Adventist Community Services) camp and they were doing clean up and construction.

After Sabbath School ended we were there for church and after the sermon we went and greeted people. I got to meet a Task Force worker who was working for ACTS for one year, she was from SAU. I also met quite a few people who are volunteering in Mississippi and are not being paid, they live through miracles, its pretty amazing to hear their stories, it reminds me a lot of what God can do and what he is doing in my life. I think that people who give their lives for God are really special and He really builds their faith and has an extra special blessing for them.

After Church we went and stayed at the ACTS camp for lunch, talking with people and looking at their high class trailers that are used for Disaster Response. Saturday evening we had worship and then headed to bed once again to be rested for the next day.

Sunday we contacted people at ACTS camp and got jobs. they split us up into around 6 groups and each of us got to do something different. The Job site that I was assigned to was to drywall a garage and mud it. That was a good learning experience and was really lots of fun. I had many questions in my mind still about why we were there and what difference were we actually making a difference or if we had made a mistake by comming to Mississippi. Learning the skills was good but it took a few days to see how God was leading us day by day. After a long days work at the site we headed back to Camp Coastal.

That evening Jeff, James and I got together and decided that we needed to practice our EMT skills and so we went through the camp taking peoples blood pressures. we would continue this for three nights and it really helped us develop our skills.

On Monday we went back to our original job sites and many of my questions about why we were there started being answered. Each day that we would be ready to go we had no idea what we would do that day or where we would work, it was just trusting in God day by day for our needs to be supplied. It was frustrating at times but I learned that we often need to have patience and wait for God to work. The evening was filled with fun times. Jeff and I walked around camp taking volunteers blood pressures and building up our skills for the EMT-B class.

On Tuesday we got to shovel dirt to build ramps to a house on stilts. The ramp was supposed to be seven feet wide and so there was large piles of dirt that we kept moving. The weather was warm, maybe could be considered by some as rather hot. Sweat was running off our backs and it was terribly humid. We stopped for lunch underneath one of the houses that we were working on and sat down to take a rest and eat lunch. That evening Jeff, Ginger, Ben, Becky, Marissa, and I went to the Dollar General just down the road, that was a fun walk and enjoyed getting off camp for a while. Supper was scheduled for 6:30 and we were starved, after getting our "rations" we waited till everyone had gone through line and then came back for more. The food was awesome thanks CCO!

Wednesday was filled with more dirt, this time it started to rain. Rain and dirt when mixed just happen to make mud(for all of you who are inner city kids.) and mud is can be enjoyable. This was also the day that we got delivered 60 sheets of drywall. thats a lot of drywall to carry across the lawn and then into the house. We did and soon all was inside. We had planed to take the evening off from camp and so we set out to go to the beach, while driving there we got to see a lot of the destruction that had taken place, its sad to see how much was torn apart. That evening a group of us guys played tackle football on the beach and then sat down to enjoy the wonderful meal that Jewels and Laura had so finely prepared. It was a good Seventh-Day Adventist meal... (haystacks). For worship Jason gave a talk about how we often see things in nature that remind us of God. We all shared what reminded us of God and also how we had seen him working while we were in Mississippi.

Thursday was the final day... woke up normal time in the morning, except this time we had to pack as much as we could so that when we got back all we had to do was to shower and leave. we left for the job site right after breakfast and the plan was that we would work in 2 groups, 1 dry wall group and one finishing up group(they got to work elsewhere). The dry wallers started and soon we were going like mad. we got those sheets on the wall in really short time. People were taking measurements, shouting orders across the room scrambling to get stuff done in the shortest time possible. All I can say was it was a truely amazing experience to work together, we built strong friends and learned to trust each other. One of the supervisiors for Americore came over to borrow some equipment and he commented how fast we had been working, he was surprised. After completing the houses drywall we head back to camp, while some of the rest of our group went to visit a house that they had worked on earlier. We were done and already to go by 6:00 and as soon as we were about to leave the rain hit. That was an answer to prayer cause we didn't want to get rained on.

This trip was filled with miracles, so many that I can't write them here cause it would take too much space. Ask some of the people who went and they will tell you that God is alive and still works in each persons life day by day.

Here are some more pictures from the trip.
Jeremy putting up drywall.
Dr. Abbey and the saw.
Ben and the flying shopping carts that are powered by 1 Kelvin

Dr. Abbey on his trolley adventures.
This is the group :)

Martygraw beads that we were all peer pressured into wearing. Thanks Ramona.
This is the dirt we had to move
David and Jeff dodging trains.
those guys are definitely raising the roof.
Jewels has rad construction skills

Mississippi Mission Trip

2007-03-08T11:20:00.000-03:00

Its time! time for a break.. well we will just have to call it spring break even though its still cold outside and doesn't seem springy. There is a group of us that are being lead by Dr. Abbey and his wife, we are going to hopefully be rebuilding several houses in the Waveland area of Mississippi. This will be awesome, but often I am struck with the question... Is this really how God wanted me to spend my spring break? I am just taking the easy way out? well check back in about 10 days and I should have a few pictures and stories from it...

Wanna be Eskimos

2007-02-28T17:10:00.000-03:00

On Sabbath night around 11:00 a group of friends got together and decided to do something with all the wet snow. They scurried outside into the freezing temperatures and started filling plastic drawers with wet snow. They packed snow and started building bricks, while others used their architect skills and carved the bricks to the right specs with sharp kitchen knives. 4 hours later... A few of them got to stake out the night in this awesome "structure". Thanks everyone it was awesome..

IRR Bouldering Cave

2007-02-28T16:45:00.000-03:00

IRR's new Climbing cave and its creation.. The crazy climber with blisters is Josh!

IRR Clocktower ascent

2007-02-28T16:19:00.000-03:00

IRR ascended the Union College Clocktower for a photo opportunity and to clean the mylar that had been left since Christmas Clocktower lighting.