Dear Blogspot...it's been too long!

When I got into blogging a few months back, I had every intention of posting frequently.  It has now been over 3 months since my last post!  Ah!!!

I do apologize.  I figured I could take just a few quick minutes to let everyone know what's going on in my life.

Life has been busy busy busy, but so amazing recently!  I am currently in Champaign, IL at FOCUS New Staff Training.  We just started our 5th and last week of training before we part ways.  I will be sticking around for an extra week with 5 or 10 other missionaries to go on an 8 day silent retreat.  I know without a doubt that it will be fantastic for my soul, yet I am a bit scared and intimidated right now.  Eight days sounds like forever to be silent.  But I know God will speak to me.

Training has been phenomenal.  I have been serving as the Dean of the College of St. Damien of Molokai.  Basically, that means I have been leading a small group of 7 men this summer and our patron is St. Damien (who is LEGIT).  We have a solid group of guys and I have been very pleased to spend my summer with them.

Training has kept us all so busy that I feel like I haven't had the time to give full attention to other important things such as MPD and campus planning for this Fall.  I know that some of this is my own fault.  I have to be prudent about how much "fun" time I am having.  It becomes extremely hard to say "no" when FOCUS Missionaries want to hang out, play sports, or go to the bar at night.  During no other time in our lives will we have such an amazing community to share so much life with day in and day out!  God has been good to me.  Well...GREAT to me.  I should re-pay him by being more prudent.

A group of my Auburn friends came to visit this past weekend.  WAR EAGLE!  We had a great time.  We danced, played music, floated down the river, and Raf and I drove to Indianapolis at 3 in the morning to take Andrew Jones to the airport.  Good times were had by all.  Oh, how I miss the south and my Auburn crew!

This summer during training, all the men have been having a big soccer tournament.  What a great fellowship time with our brothers!  It has also been a great time to grow in virtue together on the field.  Each Tuesday night before the game starts there is a talk on a specific virtue that we start putting into practice on the field.

Tonight the tournament came to an end with the playoffs.  My team made it to the Championship but lost in a shootout.  We all played great and I am very proud of each and every player.  Defense was spectacular.  Regulation ended 0-0 and then we went to a shootout.  Each time got 5 shooters.  After their 5th shooter, they were up 3-2.  I was the last shooter for our team.  I scored!  Thank ya, Jesus!

This put the shootout into sudden death, meaning they would get a shot and then we would get a shot until one team scored and another didn't.  Finally, by the 3rd shooter, they out-did us.  Great game Married men! Ya'll deserve it!

Lastly, before I hit the hay, I am reading Set All Afire.  It's about the life of St. Francis Xavier.  I am only 35 pages in but loving it!  Saints are so inspiring and I love reading about them!  I just wish I was better at reading...or at least faster because then I could read about more saints.  I will let you all know more about the book when I finish.

I wish I had time to expand a bit more on each of the things I mentioned, but I don't have the time.  Oh, and I think I forgot to mention that I will be a Team Director this year for FOCUS at Missouri State University in Springfield, MO.  I have an awesome team and I am getting super stoked about a new campus.  I will blog again soon hopefully with more details about the upcoming year and introduce you to my team.

God Bless ya'll!  Pray for me.

Goodnight.