Contest Time!

Well, it's that time of year again: music contest. This is probably the busiest time of the year for me, but it's also my favorite time of year. It's the time I have the opportunity to accompany many awesome music students, and I'm able perform many awesome solos. I love the chance I have to build relationships with the students I accompany. Man, I am so excited for this! Wish me luck on March 27th and 28th!

Wow, This Has Been A While

Well, I'm actually still here on the earth...I didn't disappear. Just so I can catch up a little bit. First, I had my senior pictures taken at the beginning of November with Abby Nelson, and so here's one of them. I absolutely love her pictures she took: she is VERY talented. Also, I am very close to being finished with the first semester. It is hard to believe that my senior year is already half over. Also, this past Friday I had my college audition at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, MO and it went amazingly well. Dr. Richard Smith and Dr. Mia Hynes, the piano professors, both listened to my audition and thought that it was very good. They promised me that they would try the best that they could to cover the rest of my tuition expenses and any other expenses that the college will allow them to do. From that I have decided that I will attend UCM in the Fall of 2009. I am so excited about going to UCM because I will be there with so many friends I know: Dakota Fletcher, Megan Wake, Taylor Finley, and Paul Kugler. Well, that's all for now, more to come....when I get the urge to blog.

Yes...I'm Still Alive

I know that it has been a very long time since I last posted anything, but just to verify to the blogging world....I am still alive. Ever since school started back up I have been even busier!!! First of all, this year I have some harder classes: College English, College Algebra, Anatomy, Psychology, and some others. Also, I am working my fingers to the bone on my college audition music. Yesterday I believe that I practiced for 3-4 hours on one piece!!!! I apologize to my parents for having to hear some of the same parts literally hundreds of times. I am getting so excited about college! My first scheduled audition is on December 5th at UCM in Warrensburg, MO. I am fairly sure that my best scholarships will come from UCM because the piano professors there have known me for three years now from piano camps I've attended there. Well, I am going to get finished getting ready for school. Please pray for me as I practice my audition music...that I don't burn out too quick!

New Galati Plan Website

Over the past few weeks I've been working on a new project; the Galati Plan Website. This was a project I started and offered to Troy. This main purpose of this website will be to help future teams prepare for a mission trip to Romania. Also, all Galati Plan and Nation Bible Reading Campaign material will also be posted here, in English and Romanian. As of right now most of the website is under construction, but it will be finished by September 17th, 2008. Here are some screenshots of some of the completed pages. Once the website is fully functional it will offer all the materials, an interactive map of Galati, videos, a blog, chat, and much more! Please pray for this as Troy, Randy, Teresa, Justin, I, and others work towards our goal of completion by September 17th.

Playing It Cool At Cool Crest

Tonight the youth took a trip to Cool Crest Mini Golf in St. Joseph, MO. Before Mini Golf we ate at CiCi's pizza. Afterwards we took off for golf. Fortunately the rain stopped just long enough for us to golf.

Like I said, anytime I can get a picture with Lanny, I just must.

After we finished Mini Golf, I suggested Ice Cream, so we went to Baskin-Robbins. Lanny was so proud of his Sundae. And of course, Casey finished off every last drop of his ice cream.

World's of Fun

Today, the youth from FBC Cameron went to World's of Fun for HeartFest: a christian music concert including MercyMe and David Crowder Band. Since I am still tired from traveling home from Romania I decided to go separately, later in the afternoon. I arrived around 4:00 pm and met up with them. I soon found out that tickets for the concert had sold out even before Cameron arrived early that morning, so no concert for any of us. Outside it was blazing hot and muggier than a sauna. Instead of frying in the sun, many of us went into shows, such as the one in the first picture.

Here we saw a show called "35 Years of Music." It was really just an escape from the heat, but it ended up being a neat show. I was next to Lanny, so I got a lot of commentary.

As always, if Lanny is close by, I must get a picture with him.

Zone 8

Today I was with Lanny in Zone 8 as we prayer walked. We worked our way through the tangled mess of apartment buildings to find the best places to hit tonight. As we were walking we would occasionally say hello to some people in Romania. However, when we said hello to this woman in the picture she started talking to us in Romanian. The only problem is that it was just me and Lanny...no translator. We were trying to explain to her that we were from America an spoke English, not Romanian. Every time we would try to walk away she would say something else in Romanian. Soon a young man came by, and Lanny shouted "Hey dude, do you speak English?" and he said yes. We found out that his name was Steven, and through him we found out that her name was Catalina. Steven became our translator to Catalina and we shared a few verses with her and gave her a Bible. Here we are in the above picture using Steven to speak to Catalina. She was very friendly and loved the Bible we gave her.

After we finished speaking with Catalina, we then shared with Steven. He was very open to what we shared. However, he said that he didn't have enough time. He also kept talking about how he wanted to go to America because it was so much better. He is 18 and is hoping to go to college in England for Science and Math to possibly design cars. We gave him a card to contact us, and we asked him to talk to Bogdan. He kept talking about how poor the conditions are here, but we explained to him that Bogdan is a living example of how God can change a life, no matter how bad we think it is. We pray that we will see him again tonight, and that God will be working in his heart.