my desire...

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heav'ns Son!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O ruler of all.


I long to reach heaven's joys.. I run the race so that i may receive the prize..

how to say goodbye..again.

Its early. My brother just left this morning. I just got back from taking him to the airport. I remember back in va, ppl saying that with this career/job, be prepared to say plenty of goodbyes.. within the past few months i've had to say so many painful goodbyes. im beginning to realize how true it is what i heard back in va. but its ok though.. i know as tough as these goodbyes are and will continue to be, the joy of seeing each of you all again will be even greater. so even though ive had to say goodbyes to lots of loved ones back home, and to new lifelong friends, i long for the day when the goodbyes turn into hellos. by no means do i wish i was home. i am fully committed to what i am doing here...its just that sometimes i dont know how to say goodbye.

Futbol fotos... y mas!

This past weekend there was a sports day, with 10 Baptist churches here in Quito competing against each other in soccer, basketball, and ecuavolley. My brother and I played soccer and basketball for Iglesia Bautista El Amor Construye (The Love He is Building Church..cool name huh?) There were about 300 youth there, so it was a wonderful opportunity for me meet lots of ppl. within my target focus group, as well as practice some Spanish.

Here are a few pics from the sports day as well as some from earlier in the week in central quito...the first few are from centro historico. my brother and I went to a part that is reffered to as "soccer jersey row." there are about 40-50 stores all selling practically the same stuff..


this is a sign to a soccer store in centro historico..cool name if you ask me..


not sure what this plaza is called...but it looks cool.




we actually saw a robbber running down this road being chased by the police..


this is in south quito at the youth sports day. if you look closely you can make out my little bro...


ok, so this one here confused my brother and I. This is right at the beginning of the day, and we think we are about to play soccer, then all the sudden these girls come out of no where all dressed up, and a beauty pagant breaks out! really random...maybe this is normal before soccer games here..


i taught him everything he knows...


apparently ppl here at agm think we look like twins, and a few couldnt believe i was the jman and luke was the younger brother..even with my name tag! i actually don't know why i just revealed that.


Champs! we may have lost in soccer, but we won the bball tournament..this is the youth group from el amor construye. their pastor is in the middle with the yellow hat..


this is my dog sugar...its a fact, she's the best dog in the world! (thx ginger!)

untitled...

Hey all.. has it already been over week since i've updated?? man, where does the time go. well, my brother has been in Quito 10 days and i've enjoyed every minute of it so far. we've spent a lot of time sight seeing around Quito, (which is interesting being that we both do not speak Spanish that well) watching plenty of soccer, and finding random things to pass our time with. there is a tournament going on now called the Copa Cup, which is a tournament between south america teams and the u.s. It's been fun watching the games with the nationals here. Imagine watching a soccer game with about 50-75 Graham michaels, and thats about what it is like...crazy (some of you might not get that, but those that do will laugh, go Kentucky!)

It's funny what two brothers will come up with to pass some time. having Luke here brings me back to my childhood, where you would just find random things in the house and make a toy out of it. Luke bought a little pelot gun the other day, and we had a shoot out in our kitchen...which im not proud to say that i got dominated at. then luke found some chalk outside and drew some boxes on the wall, and we played the soccer equivalent to "horse" or "pig" (or in our case "imb"), by trying to call your shot into one of the boxes. representing my company like a proud m should, i got revenge on the little guy..ha! anyways here are a few pics...


This is me at "el bosque" mall watching Ecuador lose to Chile


Finally getting my debit card to work!!


My brother and I cooked lunch last saturday. This was definitely a first for me...


The women in my family would be proud..


There is a ton of architecture like this in Quito that just makes you scratch your head... i thought my dad would get a kick out of this..