A lot of you may not know what's been going on in my life recently so I thought I would give you some highlights.

After getting home from the Race, I was really longing and praying for community while trying to keep my hands open. So God did one of those God things and randomly gave me great community in San Diego, CA. God called me to San Diego and He has been so good and faithful in the change. He put me in a house with six other guys that are seeking the Lord and striving to live as He has asked us to. I've also been so blessed that my roommate is Brandon again and just up the road live Christi and Shiloh. I'm part of a spirit-led church and it has been great to continue seeing God's hand in the miraculous! A few weeks ago one of our small groups prayed for a woman that could not walk and well now she can!

God has been teaching me so much out here. First, He has been stretching my faith so much. He told me He was going to blow me away with how He was going to take care of me and He has. He gave me a great supportive community and the other day I was feeling down and He gave me a pet chicken. He has not given me a job yet, but He is asking do I trust Him? If so, don't rely on my own strength, but He will take care of it.

The other thing He has been doing is transforming my identity. I thought He did that on the race, but it turns out pulling a country boy out of the country and putting him in San Diego is a much larger stretch. It's so easy at home to be who I am by what I wear, how I talk, and how I act. But is that really who I am? All those things are just skin deep and why would I be that when I should be striving to be not country, but rather be just Christ.

Some of the other highlights of my life now...

I have the privilege of courting Miss Christi Johnson

I'm working with the youth at my church (All People's Church)

I have a few fish, two of which are going to explode with babies soon (no, not eggs, some fish give live birth)

Sorry I have not blogged......

So I have got to tell you God is here. I have been here back in America for almost 2 months and I have seen him here with us.  It is hard to still live as kingdom without my community but when I get over myself I see God still working.  There are so many of my friends and family that have so much worry in the world. They only need to be reminded they have a God, a father who loves them and that cares for them and when I lay hands on them and pray for them, peace will overwhelm them.

I got to see the Lord come through in so many ways just in the last week while I was hunting with a group of guys in western Colorado.  There was one day that I had a few bad shots at some animals and so I just started praying that the Lord would just give me a bull elk that I would not have to shoot, but that he would just do that for me.  A little later in the day I was walking on the edge of a big meadow and about 400 yards away from me laid a dead bull elk. I don't even know how I saw it from that far.  That really reminded me that even thought I'm off the race, God still loves me and still wants to give me good gifts.  Later that day one of the guys hurt his knee and so I asked to pray for it. He said it felt better right after, but the thing that got me was when he said, "No one has ever done that for me, that's really cool."  People here want and need kingdom. 

I don't know where the Lord is calling me next so if you could help me in prayer for that, it would be great.  Thanks.

It's been hard to come up with a blog right now. My head seems to just be spinning, there's so much going on up there. It seems that this is strange place on the edge of yet another change. Change: something that you would think I'd be good at by now
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So my team this month has been working and living at a Christian center/home. Some youth live here and others just come after school. The youth are learning a lot of different things. They lead a lot of different programs for younger children and also pretty well run the church here. Where the center is right outside of a barrio (slum area) that we have been going into to ATL (ask the Lord), helping wherever we can.

The Lord has blessed me so much this year in so many ways. He has taught me more than I ever thought I could learn.  I know I'm not done with the race yet and I haven't experienced central america yet,  but I want to tell you a few reasons why I had to get out of my comfort zone away from my home, family and friends to experience God.  So I thought I would make a list of all the reasons I know of so far.

1.  If I'm comfortable I am not learning anything. As my old fitness teacher would say, "Your only building muscles when it starts to hurt."  

2.  God and Satan work differently in every part of the world and we don't see the real threats in America.  A lot of the world's Christians see the Lord heal and demons cast out in their normal life and American Christians don't think those things happen.

3.  Traveling with people I don't no yet makes me turn and trust God.  

4.  Being out of phone range of my family and friends makes me ask the Lord who am I in his eyes.  I have learned and still am learning to only to ask for Christ's opinion.

5.  Hearing what people are having to go through and seeing it are two different things.  Some people really don't have clothes, food or water.  

6.  I would have never learned to be undignified  before the Lord if I never went to Africa.

7.  When you are stuck with a group of people you have to learn to be patient .  I could not just hop in my truck and leave when the girls wanted to go shopping.

8.  I also could not run from my problems. The team would call me out as soon as I would try to put up a wall and hide. 

9.  You learn its not about understanding the words, but recognizing the actions.  I did not know what people were saying when they prayed for me all the time but it was just as meaningful.

10. And last but not least........I learned how to use a squatty potty.

I'm sure there are a lot more, but this'll do for now. There has been a year full of growth that I would not have gotten if I didn't listen to the call to come on The World Race.  

Something that I have loved learning on this trip while going around the world is what family is.

I wish I could say this is all, but this is just MOST of my immediate family.

And the cousins and Jay.

  We meet all of these different people from all over, but it is as if we are family before we ever meet.  I had never realized the bond we have in Jesus, which is all because of his blood.  It's great to walk into a church in Kenya or Romania and feel the same love and care that I get at my home church in Loveland, Colorado.  Even though we have never met, we are all parts of the same body.  You can tell the body by their love, just like the song, they will know we are Christians by are love and it's true.  When we follow Christ he gives us a piece of his heart for the body.   We are able to love others like he does. We love because he loved us.

In Tanzania we had the Sangas who opened their home to us and loved us just like we were their kids.

Ukraine we were with the Ferdon's, and Forest became a brother, his kids could have been my niece and nephew.

In Romania we worked with two people from New Zealand for a few days, and working with them was not "Americans working with kiwis with Romanians," but a body of Christians.

Just the other day one of my sisters told our parents that my family was going through a hard time, and one of our family friends  wrote me an e-mail of encouragement. I've never met this person, but we are united in one body. 

Thanks for all of your support!  

If you could all keep my family in your prayers we lost a cousin last week to suicide and hearts need mending.