One door closes another door opens...

     Hey everyone! I am sorry I have not posted in a while but I have been going through a lot lately. First before I begin, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and ya'll really honored the Lord this Christ-mas season.
     Well where do I begin? I guess I will just put it out here straight forward and honest and I will try and make sense of everything that has been going on sound good? ... I decided to quit playing soccer for South Georgia College. I am going to take two classes this next semester and I already have a job at the YMCA in Waycross. And as weird as it may sound... I am completely happy and at peace.
     The reasons, without going into tons of in depth detail of every thought that I had, are simple. I got extremely stressed out this semester because I was trying to do my very best in everything and I wasn't receiving much reward at all. (Now that sounds like a spoiled brat attitude, but trust me that's not all.) I couldn't stop thinking about what I was doing, I was completely not at peace in my mind or heart at all. I have always felt that if I can look around and feel at peace with my life because God is happy with what I am doing then I need to keep on doing it. But this was not peaceful at all. I was prepared to go back and do this next semester at South Georgia but I just did not feel at peace about it. I felt like I needed to take a step back for right now. I dreamed about it at night, and thought about it all day long. But since I decided to do what I am doing, I have slept wonderfully, and everything has been going good.
     I think God threw me a huge curve ball. And I sort of feel bad about posting that I felt God wanted me to be at SGC for another year. But maybe that was a good thing because it can show everyone who has not swung at a curve ball before kind of what they are really like.
     I don't know for certain whether or not I will play college soccer ever again, I don't know if this curve ball is still curving or if it's already in the catchers glove. But I am working out and keeping in shape and enjoying everything now. And if or when I get another opportunity to play, I am going to blow the roof off.
     So the title for this blog is still very much the same. And I still am going to post and continue this. I'm going through a lot and I would really appreciate all of the prayer support I can get. I just trying to please God that is all. But I am going to end with this quote which is my personal favorite.....

     "Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." - Sir Winston Churchill

Merry Christmas Everyone!

     Merry Christmas! I hope the holidays have been going great for everyone so far! My whole family is home for the holidays and we are happy about that but we aren't so happy for the circumstances. My mother got blood clots in her right leg just after having traveled home to the states for some different meetings. So now my parents will be here for a while. She is recovering slowly, but please be praying for her.
     Make sure to thank God for everything you have and everything you receive this Christmas. We are all so blessed in ways that may not stand out to us at the moment but if we think about it they will. I know that if nothing else (which there are tons more blessings) I have been truly blessed to be an American. There are people all over the world that spend their whole lives trying to get into America but they never do. This is a truly blessed country and we can't forget that. We should all thank God every day for blessing our country as much as He has and we should continue to pray for her future because if we forget God, then nothing good will come from that.

     Btw, I have eaten so much lately I feel like I may never run again. Haha. Jk. But I have eaten a lot.

Why settle for average?

     I am trying to change myself in huge ways and one of the biggest things that I am facing is that for so long I was accepting average results on things that I was doing in my life. Too many times the thought went through my head this semester, "You know, doing just enough studying to pass is actually alright." Thinking back, that was a sad, sad way to be. I also was settling for average in my workouts. For instance I would only go to the gym three times in a week and instead of going ham like I used to, I would just do a little bit and kind of lazy my way on out after 45 mins. .. I also got average or actually less than average in my spiritual life. As sad as it is for me to admit it.. I used to try and read my Bible every night but I fell into a every other night routine or even every third or fourth night. The Lord finally got through to me one day when I was watching something about Tim Tebow. I started thinking about what an awesome guy Tim is and how I would like to be that way. I have always prayed that if I am not going to use soccer to honor the Lord then I don't want to do it anymore. Then I realized something, maybe the reason that I had not been performing at my normal "trying to do my best" way was because I was giving in too much to temptation. And I thought about Tim and how much temptation he must have every day because definitely if the devil could get anybody to fall right now he would probably choose him. This made me realize that the higher I climb and the more things I achieve and the more influence I have, the more temptation I am going to face as well. I can't let my guard down and I can't quit learning about God and trying to become closer to Him. Things have really been looking up for me and things are looking like they are going to continue to get so much better! Lord willing. .. I get so tired of seeing these guys who get on such a high platform and are honoring the Lord so much and then they get caught doing something that just tears their reputation apart and people really start to doubt the Lord and his goodness. One of my favorite quotes and I don't know who it's by goes something like this, "I want to be the type of man that when I wake up in the morning the devil says, oh crap not him again." ... I'm not saying that this is easy, and I am not saying that I can do it, but... Luke 1:37 says, "Nothing is impossible with God."

I swam with elephants... nearby.

     Yeah they weren't literally in the water with me but they were drinking from it. This is another one of my short stories because I feel bad for not coming up with some deep message lately. ... I and a bunch of my mission family were all swimming in the warm spring at the Yankari National Wildlife park and a herd of elephants came through the woods and started drinking from the spring. It was very cool to be that close to them and watch them. I kept feeling like Tarzan while I was swimming around near them. To me that was one of the coolest experiences I had because it was like something out of a movie. You never wake up expecting to swim next to a herd of elephants you know? It made me realize how truly blessed I was to live where I did.

     Thank You God for blessing me and my family and allowing us to enjoy the wonderful things that You have created.

Respect.

     Once again I have been trying to come up with a new moving blog but I really can't think of anything. So I am going to just tell a little bit of what has been going on in my life since I last wrote.

     We are entering our last week of the semester and so I have four exams to study for which has really been stressing me out. I have also been working out at least three days a week. And I have applied for two different jobs. Hopefully I will be able to make a little money because the economy has been looking rough these days. Especially if you're a college kid.

     One thing that I do want to share is that I was quite proud of myself when I was applying for these jobs because it was easy for me to get references. I'm not saying this to brag but I want to point out that being respectful at all times and being a nice person to people goes a long way. You might have a tough job, or struggle with a sport, or just get stressed out by family stuff but it will really benefit you in the long run if even with all of that going on you remember to be respectful to people. You can't make everyone happy and for some people no matter how much respect you show them they are just not going to ever give a care about you but it will pay off in the long run if you stick with it and don't give in to anger and hate. Last night I was reading my Bible and I read this... Romans 5:3-4 "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope..." I think Paul was more talking about suffering for Christ and becoming closer to Him through it, but it makes good sense this way too I think.

Every little kid aspires to be a big kid... The trick is to never grow up...

     Today one of my best friends Charles Jones (CJ) and I had the honor of going to First Babtist Church, Folkston and do a skills demonstration for the kids who were playing in their Upward soccer league. It was their last day and the church staff thought it would be a good idea if we came and showed off a bit hopefully to keep the kids interested and show that they could also go far in soccer if they worked at it. This was a truly big honor for me because I was always one of those kids growing up that looked up to high schoolers and college people so much!
      I remember being little and getting so crunk on Fridays because that was the day that the Ware County Gators played and I looked up to them so much! And it's funny how when you grow up those memories of how awesome everyone was that was older than you, stay with you. You can still think back and be like, "Man, I remember watching Fred Gibson play for Ware County and the stadium used to be packed out every game!" (Even if the stadium was only half full it still felt like it was packed out.) I do remember one time while I was attending Williams Heights Elementary they brought Fred, and two other Gator Football players to our lunch room all decked out in their pads and jerseys... Pretty much every kid in the lunchroom tackled them and brought all three of them to the ground. It was quite intense, and to be honest I don't think they were ready for the whole 3rd and 4th grade, pads or no pads.
   Even to this day, Fridays hold something special to me. And I doubt that will ever change. Today, we got to  be a part of that whole "kids looking up to older people" scenario. It was great, I don't ever remember doing something like that before. As we did tricks on the field and played some 1v1 I could hear the kids on the sidelines shouting and saying, "Wow! They are so good!" and do you know what? Hearing those words from the kids meant more to me than anything a coach has ever told me. It was great, and it made me feel like maybe we really did help these kids to want to play the sport even more. I hope that they saw that these older guys are Christians and they are still playing soccer and loving it. I have always prayed that if I am not going to use soccer to honor the Lord then I do not want to play it anymore.
     After we finished up our skills demonstration a bunch of like 9ish year old girls came and asked us to take pictures with them which was pretty funny. And then this one younger girl and her mother came over to get our autographs which was really humbling because I don't know that I have ever given a serious autograph before and it was cool to think that to this little girl I am really something special.
     So for me, I am going to continue to remember this day. When I am down on myself for having a bad practice or game I won't give up. If someone that truly matters to me tells me that I can't make it anywhere, I am not going to listen. I am going to remember these kids and know that to someone, I matter and those someones are the ones I am going to play for. I am going to play for the little kid inside of me and love life and live it to the fullest and try and honor God in all that I do.

Never grow up.

What is it with me using the bathroom and random animals being involved??

     Hey everyone, I haven't posted in a couple of days because of being busy with school. I hope to come up with some moving post over the weekend but we will see, whatever the Lord lays on my heart I will do my best to share... Tonight I figured I would just tell another story from when I was in Nigeria and coincidentally it has something to do with me trying to use the bathroom on shrubbery again.
     In my sophomore year of high school I and quite a number of my friends went to Yankari National Game Reserve. For those of you who have not been to this place, if you ever get the chance I would take it. Anyway, some of my friends and I were out walking around way too late at night for being around wild animals. We had seen a bunch of water bucks standing together and eating, or doing whatever they do at night, and we decided to be brave and walk over to them. They were not afraid of us at all, in fact one of them walked within arms reach of me which was pretty exciting and scary at the same time because these water bucks are not small and they have two very big horns. After hanging out with all the "8-points" we decided to move on and keep looking for animals... I had to pee. So I started over to the nearest tree away from everybody. When I had gotten about twenty yards away from the tree I was greeted by a large black animal. This animal jumped down out of the tree, faced me for a second, and then ran off into the darkness. My first thought was that it was a bear, but that idea was shot down quick when I remembered that we don't have bears in Africa. Then I realized that it was in fact a leopard. Needless to say I did not continue on my quest for a bathroom but I went back and convinced my friends that we should probably do the smart thing and call it a night. It was a very cool experience and thank God nothing bad happened. ... So what's another lesson we can learn from this? Well I have two... 1) If you let James Bowman drink a lot of water and follow him out into the bush there is no telling what animals you might see when he begins to take a leak. 2) Always, always, always check the shrubbery that you are about to pee on.

   
And yes, that is a water buck. Sorry I don't have a leopard picture... But google works well if you want.