i really need to get outta my office, but i thought i'd leave this little nugget of an update:

one new thing i have: a motorcycle. HUZZA!! it really is quite awesome. if you remember, it once belonged to cami, who left it in the care of some fairly careless people. so, i inherited it, spent way too much money and time on it, had to give it up for a while when i used it as an illustration for a talk on idolatry, but finally and recently got it going. a week ago tomorrow was the official reinstatement of "deathtrap", as the bike is (aptly) named. including all the licensing, registration, a years insurance, and all the repairs, i threw down about $450- which is not a lot for a bike like that, but is still kinda a lot in general.

i rode said motorcycle out to the boonies on monday for a nice little hike, since it was blazingly sunny, and it was my day off, after all. i think me and cami will have to have a conversation when we next see eachother-the challenge of hiking fast and hard can in fact add an element of enjoyment. we argued about that for like 3 years. and he was sorta right. as i was hiking, i was keeping a catalogue of all the wildlife i had seen- one butterfly, 2 sparrows, and 2 woodpeckers. which, if you've ever been hiking in japan alot, which i have, you will realize is both pathetic and a surprising amount of nature to see when out in nature in japan- usually you don't see any animals at all. then, in all seriousness, just as i was thinking about writing this blog entry, complete with sarcasm, something rather large made a rather large noise to the general front and left of me as it bolted.

a deer.

i was in total shock. it happened so fast that by the time my brain was able to match the shape and color of the animal to the word deer the bushes it had been standing in had stopped moving. don't get me wrong- i've seen deer before. in fact, in kyoto they have this park in the city that is overrun with deer, and they'll come up to you and eat from your hand. or they'll eat your hand, if you've misbehaved or offended them. but to see a wild deer in the not-usually-very-wild woods of japan was a complete shock. in the probably thousands of hikes i've done in this country in my life, we usually don't even see a bird. i thought that was cool. and i had to watch my time, since i hadn't brought a flashlight (or anything else useful, really), and i ended my 5 and a half hour hike exacly 1 minute and 30 seconds later than i had planned- i wanted to be back to the road by 6:00, and i was there at 6:01:30, which is also really random. it's not like hiking's an exact science or anything.

as to the possibility or my re-establishing contact with you, things are looking up. my computer was seriously retarded-it would take obscene amounts of time for it to do the simplest tasks. so, not really knowing what else to do, i took it all apart and put it back together- and now it works swimmingly. except any time i try and access either of my CD drives, i experience a rather complete and instantaneous system failure, followed by a rather pathetic attempt to pacify me by rebooting as though nothing has happened, much to my EXTREME frustration. but at least i can surf the internet and write stuff again.

off to bed with me. it was POURING earlier. i was not looking forward to driving my bike home in that, but now it's stopped, and now it's just rather damp.



ps- all satire and personification in this entry is courtesy of the insidious effects of reading terry prachett. thanks for the corruption, ro. and i still don't like him.

apologies-

my compy's being silly. and by silly i mean freakin' retarded. which is why i've been unable to access internet for like 3 weeks, which is why nobody's heard from me and i haven't updated. it's the truth, i swear!! i'm still working in it, so it might randomly light on fire again or something. if you don't hear from me for a while again, have no fear. not much fear, anyways. when things are a little more stable around here, i'll continue with my merry little updates.

So much has happened...


...in the last few days. well, not SO much, but a lot. and when things happen i sometimes think "i'll share these moments with my anonymous online group of stalkers!!" especially since i think you all hate me for updating an average of like once a month. i've really been convicted about communication lately, which is silly, since i have a degree that says that i studied communication and am a com-STAR! but, turns out, i'm not. which i've known for a while, but it's starting to sink in that being a bad communicator=being a bad youth pastor, (thanks pastor TJ for that insight) and i'm not ok with that. my problem now is what to communicate. well, here goes a little something to whet your appetite.

Good ol' incan. we had then incandescence meeting (high schoolers that lead the middle school group) at the bergs on monday, which was awesome- i didn't have to plan food, for starters. and the bergs and i really want the kids to know the pastors of the church the kids work in, so this was the solution. and i meant to talk to the kids about me, and apologize for being a bad communicator, and ask for their grace and help, but i never really got around to it. we talked about how the retreat went, and stuff that we learned from it. i really should have planned a debreif time with questions and stuff, but it was pretty much impossible to meet with them the week after the retreat. stupid sports/play/extra-curricular things. DON'T THEY KNOW THEY MESS WITH ME?!?! so we debriefed a little, then prayed a little, then went into the kitchen for dessert, and the kids had a chair in the middle of the kitchen they told me to sit in. and then they took turns washing my feet and telling me how i encourage them and am a good example to them and all that. (sigh) they have no idea what that meant to me. i'm not really convinced they know what it means to wash someone's feet, but i appreciated the sentiment. i really wanted to switch places with them and wash their feet, actually. i mean, it' s my job to look out for them, to make sacrifices in my own life so they can grow spiritually, to serve them no matter the cost to my body, emotions, time, money, etc. - which is something i try to do, but often fail at. still, it's my goal to live with enough discipline in all areas of life that i am able to spend as much time with them as i can. it's not their job to serve me, which is what i think foot-washing signifies. they (well, one of them specifically that put this thing together) were just looking for a way to encourage me, and that fact alone encourages me more than the foot-washing, although that was amazing. all in all, it was a very humbling experience.

and they gave me like 10 boxes of apollo, which was also awesome and made me want to cry. so many apollo....

and if you guys could actually take the next like 30 seconds to pray for one of my leaders, that would be awesome. her name is lara, and she's been growing a lot. she kinda had a crisis at home a few days ago- her parents are divorced, and her relationship with her mom is kinda rocky right now. and by kinda i mean really. and it's hard for me to see one of my leaders going through this- i worry that it will be too much, and she'll turn her back on God, that she'll just give up. just pray that she will be close to God, and He will give her the strength she needs to be a leader and example to her classmates and the middle school kids. and that her relationship with her mom will get better and they will give eachother a little slack. pray. NOW!!

i'm gonna keep this one short, for my benefit and for yours. so....THE END!