A Photo's Worth A Thousand Words...

Post-Ireland Pup

well Northern Ireland was astounding! The scenery and climate was amazing but even more so the people. We made so many close friendships in such a short amount of time it really is incredible. It was so amazing to see how much the Lord answered prayer so evidently and so often! it really spoke to my heart personally. but i won't go into too much details about it here, jason did a great job updating our team blog if you want a more detailed description of all that happened.

anyways the second part of this post is that we just got a new puppy!!! he is a mut but his mom is a springer-spaniel, and we are assuming the father is a lab because he kind of looks like one.... but he is ADORABLE!! and without a name... let me know if you have a good one :-)

Michael

The Time Has Come

As many of you probably know, i will be leaving for Ireland on Sunday. previous to my departure i have the honor to be a groomsman in my cousins wedding, which i am really looking forward to. All summer its sorta seemed like this trip was really far away and its hard to believe its already here!! im really excited and am looking forward to see how God will use our team.

So many times when i talk to people about Christ i think of good things to say afterwards...i look back and kick myself thinking "AHH if only i had thought of these things to say DURING the conversation..." but God is sovereign, and i am sure he worked though my non-elegant conversations. All that to say is Pray for me (and the rest of the team) that I will not rely on my own wisdom, or knowledge for what to say when ministering... and that God would just come and use me and the whole team to do awesome things for his kingdom!

This is probably the last thing i will write til after the trip, but we will be updating our team blog, which the link is on the sidebar... or right here N. Ireland Team 08 blog

Brother in Christ
Michael

Ephesians 3

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family [3] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Hancock and Rainbows

My Rating:4/5


so Today i went and saw Hancock with Wil Smith. I thought it was really good. It was funny, entertaining and it kept my attention the whole time, despite the annoying little girls sitting right in front of me an my sisters.

There is kind of an abrupt plot twist in the middle of the movie that i totally called! but i won't ruin it for you people who haven't seen it. Its not a MUST SEE... i probably could have waited tol the dvd, but i feel like i got my 5 dollars worth.


Now the second part of this very spontaneous, bored inspired blog post is later the same evening when there was a quick rain burst. afterward i think we saw the fullest double rainbow i have seen in my life! in the picture the second rainbow has already started to fade because i couldn't find the camera but still...

Fourth of July

so yesterday was july 4th!! this was the first july fourth that i have spent up at our cabin in years, so it was very enjoyable. the first thing of note that happened was when i went out to the dock to just relax in the sun and listen to some tunes, i set my ipod down to straighten my towel. first mistake: never set an ipod down on a dock... yep thats right my ipod fell in the water. i jumped in the water and grabbed my ipod, miraculously it still worked!! the ipod that survived an entire winter in the snow also is tough enough to survive under water!! unfortunately i think that the water just hadn't soaked in all the way, because an hour later it died... R.I.P. i pod.... RIP....

the next exciting thing that happened was that we went out on our boat to watch the fireworks. we drove to spicer and turned off the boat.. layed down and enjoyed the nice summer breeze and realized how much nicer this was than parking 2 miles away and battling crowds in Minneapolis. after the show however we tried to start our boat.... nothing. we tried again.... nothing again. (this has happened before last year with gabby kaija aaron and ian) so here we are stranded in the middle of the night in the middle of a lake filled with zooming boats everywhere. fortunatley we found some nice people to tow us. so there it is... a very memorable fourth of july :-)

Michael

PS

it turns out that the only thing wrong with the boat was that the emergency safety button got switched... probably when emma was pretending to drive the boat....

The Return of Little Jimmy

Those of you who have ever heard or heard of "the Voice" might not know its origins.

the voice started out as a joke, a goofy voice created by Trey Gyovai. some of us here in Minnesota learned to love the voice and even tried to imitate it. Others hated and despised it *cough* weston and luke *cough*

this is a greeting from the guy that started it all.

Summer

i think that Jack Johnson, Matt Costa, Sondre Lerche, Matt Nathanson make great summer music.

i had alot of fun today with emma and abbie. what started out as a simple time to wash the car turned into a water fight filled with laughter. although there are lots of times when being with my family is the last thing on my mind... there are times when it is a blast to goof off with them. i guess you don't realize how much you'll miss little sisters until you are about to move out of the house.

Gyovais Video 1

Gyovais

so after having a blast in New York we arrived at the Gyovai's wednesday night. Its been awesome to catch up with them and to meet some of their new friends here in VA. We have been making some Videos that i am going to post here soon... there have been some storms and the internet keeps dying so its hard to upload anything... and now that the internet is working YouTube is doing site maintenance so i can't do it now when i wanted to :-(

but tomorrow morning we are going to D.C. bright and early so i need to get to sleep.

keep your eyes open for a video soon :-)

Michael

The Sojourner

our walk is full of crossings
paths that intersect, merge, and bend
a road that turns and goes off into the distance,
the sojourner never to be seen again.

He is the one who must stand strong,
when no one is around him to catch him fall
but the horizon is too high for him to see
there's no one to lift him, neither you or me.

consumed by the shadow that dwells in our depths
the sojourner stumbles struggling for breath
then out of the darkness the light breaks through
it started small... but slowly grew.

Graduation

I got a pretty funny card from JoJo for graduation. The front of the card read:

wake up. take a picture. put on gown. Take a picture. put cap on head. take a picture. Meet friends and family. take a picture. take a picture. go to ceremony. take picture...

etc. you guys get the point :-)

Its over exaggerated, but not that much!

the 2 weeks before my open house getting ready, to last night pretty much drained the energy from me, in a good way i realized! Last night when i got home from the Baccalaureate service at church i threw on the spectacular mix that gabby gave me and started going though all the cards and congratulations that i got. i realized how blessed i am to have such loving family and friends!

so thank you everybody soooo much! i don't deserve any of you.

much love,

Michael

Coldplay

coldplay is coming to town july 8th. tickets are 75.00 for upper level seats $95.00 for main seats..... ridiculous.

*sigh*

Warewolf Boy

So i don't think i have ever done a blog about a news article... but this one i just couldn't believe, and so i thought i'd share it with you all.

The boy above is named Pruthviraj Patil and was born in India with a disease called "hypertrichosis", or called warewolf syndrome. Its extremely rare disease that only about 50 people in the world even have. The people of the village that Patil was born in, thought he was some sort of God or some strange creature that came to earth.

to read the whole article click here

Subway Etiquette

Contrary to popular belief subway sandwich artists have feelings to, and there are definately dos and don'ts when it comes to your behavior when ordering a sandwich. These tips will not only make you look savvy and cool when it comes to your subway behavior, but will make the sub making process smooth and easy for your local, friendly subway sandwich artist.

Subway Behavior 101

1. Get off your cell phone!
2. when ordering multiple subs tell the SA (sandwich artist) what kind of bread and what size all the sandwiches are on. Then you may proceed to tell them what kind of sandwich it is.
3. when just ordering a single sub do the same thing. you look like an idiot when you just say "uhhhh...i'll have a feast!!". You may not know this but, we need to know what kind of bread and what size it is before we can put the meat on.
4. Learn how to pronounce words like "Monterey" and "Marinara".
5. if you are in a big group and are paying together let the person who is paying order first. then he can go and pay... makes sense right?
6. don't order sandwiches that don't exist, or that existed 20 years ago.

so there you have it. 6 simple things that will make you look suave. :-)

Lost in Contemplation

picture by Jozefm



What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

-Langston Hughes


(a poem we read in English Literature today that i liked for some reason)

Battle of the Sexes!

Alright so this is a response to the Blog Gabs just wrote about Scott commenting on some quirks that girls have. From the girls I know, lots of them make the occasional comments about how hot some guy is or how they want to marry some guy because of this or that. The whole genre of chick flick movies just spur this emotion on. Now, i know that when they say these things they are joking, and i have no problem with joking like that at all! (nor do i have a problem with chick flicks :-P). But i do find it interesting that when a guy makes the same sort of comments about women lots of the time girls somewhat freak out. like gabby said in her blog entry about: her mom was speechless when she saw the picture of Natalie Portman and scott.

i just think its an interesting topic of discussion, and has some interesting sociological significance (woot i am learning about gender identity in my sociology class right now!)

so I think that perhaps maybe scott (and the rest of us guys) are trying to figure out this somewhat double standard that you females have :-P

anyways let me know what you think.

..mjnels..

God is Good!

As some of you may know, i am wanting to go to Bethel University next year. Fortunately i was accepted there, but due to complications i received NO financial aid. My dad has been calling and petitioning for at least some, and this morning i just found out that i am getting $16,000 from FAFSA! what an answer to prayer! That much on top of what bethel has given me makes Bethel affordable! So that is where i probably will be attending next year. Either that or the U of M, but only that if they give me simply amazing financial aid.

Spring Is Here!





These pools that, though in forests, still reflect
The total sky almost without defect,
And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver,
Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone,
And yet not out by any brook or river,
But up by roots to bring dark foliage on.
The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods---
Let them think twice before they use their powers
To blot out and drink up and sweep away
These flowery waters and these watery flowers
From snow that melted only yesterday.

~Robert Frost

walking along the beech, i came across what i thought was a red flower.... much to my disappointment it turned out to be a nasty red pepper...

as usual some random thing got me thinking, and i started coming up with all sorts of analogies.

i guess sometimes things just aren't what you think they are....

Michael

check my Deviant art page for some pictures I took while in Florida