Hey everyone! Well, the boiler isn't being nice to me. Yesterday when i cleaned it out, i left enough coals in the ring that when the fan came on it was enough to keep it going. I thought. Later that day, after work duties, Doug and i went fishing in the canal. When i got back, Steven told me that the boiler was out. Well, it was just before supper, but i went up anyway. It was out alright. It apparently hadn't been lit quite enough, and it went out. Then, trying to heat itself back up, it pumped nearly all the coal from the hopper into the boiler. So when i opened it up, there was about 500 lbs of coal in it. Well because it was just before supper, i just pulled all the raw coal out, relit it, and went to dinner. I promise i'll post on here soon about what i've been learning up here, cause it's completely and totally awesome. This week our speaker is a guy named Chris Austin. He's taking us on a hike for class. Fun fun. I have to go right now. It's almost time for Scripture meds. TTYL. God bless. Love you all!

Ok everyone...The pictures are here.
In the picture on the left, reading from left to right we have Mel (Staff), Sara (Student), and Megan (Student). In the other picture is Lindsey. That's actually all the pictures of people that i have right now. But i'll take pictures of everyone else and the base and everything and post them on here very shortly. Thanks everyone! Love you all!

Howdy all! (Howdy? I don't know...I must be tired...) Ok so i got up again today at 6:15 to do the boiler, and ended up raking nearly all the coals out (You're not supposed to do that) and having to re-light it. In the boiler, an iron box about the size of a.........boiler. It's probably 4-5 ft. tall, about 3 ft. wide and about 6-7 ft. deep. Anyway. Up on top, there are tubes (i guess that's what you'd call them) where the water comes through and warms up before going to the two holding tanks. Then under that is where the actual furnace is. In the middle of the furnace, there is a hole with a ring around it. That's where the coal comes up from the hopper in the next room and i believe that's also where the fan feeds to. Anyway, you have to leave some hot coals in the ring so that they heat the coal that is fed in from the hopper so that the boiler keeps going and you don't end up the bad guy. What i did, accidentally, was rake nearly all the hot coals out of that ring. There were enough that if i'd left it alone it would have kept going after i turned the fan back on, but i tried to light them by putting some paint thinner on it. We use the paint thinner to light it if it goes out. Unfortunately, this just put out the coals because they weren't hot enough to light the paint thinner. So i had to get some wood and some more paint thinner and nearly blow the place up and fill it full of smoke so when i came out i smelled like a wood stove, but i ended up getting it lit, taking the burnt coal outside and dumping it, finishing cleaning up, and going back to bed to get about another hour of sleep before the morning stuff. Friday though, i'm off boiler. I actually am only on boiler this week because i forgot to do it last friday saturday and sunday so i have to take it for Steven monday through thursday as punishment. So yah, i'm getting about three days off it before i have to start doing it again. By the way, i get to go to Colorado Springs this weekend! Megan and Sara are going and Megan asked if i wanted to come along. Tonight was youth group at Grace Community for Mel, Megan and i, and Cedar Creek for Steven, Sara and Dougie. That's what i've started calling him. He calls me Lucas. It seems like i come up with nicknames for everyone. Anyway, youth group was a blast again. We had a short lesson from Jason, and then we broke into our small groups. In small group, everyone in the group had a piece of paper. On one side, we wrote something that we want our life to reflect. Like....."I always tell the truth." And on the other side we wrote what it actually looks like right now. Like in the previous example, on the other side you'd have "When it's easy." On mine, i wrote "I try to be a nice guy." and on the flip-side "When it benefits me." I really do try my best to be a nice guy. And most of the time i do it when i won't get anything out of it, but i find myself wishing that i was getting something out of it. I don't even want my benefit for doing something nice for someone to pop into my head. I want to do it for them because it will help them, not because i'm going to get something out of it. I also got a first real look at the sound system at the Grove. Yes i said the Grove. It's their youth building. They have a decent sound board, and some nice speakers and equipment, it is just kinda confusing. They recently had a "Battle of the Bands" there, and somehow or other they got their cables and connections from the booth to the stage messed up, and so they're going to have to rewire everything. Jason said that i might get to do that because i've got some experience in that kind of thing. Don't worry dad. I'm not going to call you saying "Ummmmm......Dude can you get me out?" (For those of you who don't know, that's something Dave Ramsey said about people who come into his offices for counseling and are all chained up by car payments and credit cards and mortgages that are 80% of their take-home pay and they're nearly bankrupt. I've re-routed the wires on the sound system from the Cathedral Room dozens of times. This time it's just on a slightly larger scale. It doesn't really involved a whole lot. They've got a 24-channel board. I just want to know like what aux channels the monitors are plugged in to and stuff like that. They've actually got a lot more in the way of equipment than i've seen for a youth group as small as theirs. They had around 60 kids tonight including sponsors (Of which i am now technically one). But they've got a pretty good light controlling board, reverb, stuff like that that i never had at Trinity. The one thing that i wish i could do something to upgrade is their computer. They're running a really old projection program. But that's not really the frustrating thing. They've got a computer that has a 2.66 Ghz Pentium 4 processor, but only 256 Mb of RAM. So the computer should be really fast, but it's not because of the lack of RAM. I'm also going to try to find them a decent open-source projection program somewhere online. By the way everyone, because i'm going home this weekend, i'll be able to upload some pictures. I'll be back on a fast internet connection and will be able to download anytime without dropping everyone to Dial-Up speed. So yah, i'll be posting some pictures soon. Today when we were digging in the trench to put in a new pipeline for the water for the base, we were using a bar because we had to get rid of some rocks. Well, Steven was holding the bar and talking to someone. I reached up and touched the bar and then pointed for where i wanted him to pry, and he must have thought that i grabbed it because he just let go of it. Well, ummmm.....apparently the bar had a mind of it's own and something against me because it fell and hit me right on top of the head. Yah, ouch. Then later on when i was digging in some clay i about broke my left hand. I was down on my knees with my hand right near the head of the shovel. I put my hand on the handle, but with the pinky side of it against the back where someone would put their foot to step on it. Then i reared back and jammed it down to dig out some more of this clay, and when the shovel stopped, my hand didn't and it just smashed into the shovel head. I don't know what i was thinking. Someone needs to hand me a sign (If you haven't heard of Bill Engvall you won't know what that means). Some now i have a nice knot on my hand. And it wasn't just soft tissue. It hit and bruised the bone. For a few minutes i thought i'd broken it because i couldn't move it. It was really numb and then i got to feeling along the bone and didn't find anything wrong except that there was a big knot near where the wrist meets the forearm. So yah, i got hurt a couple times during work duties today. Major ouch. Right now i'm in the student center. I don't know why i don't just go to bed. I'm tired. When i get tired like this, i walk around like i'm in a coma and my fuse gets so short that very small things will set me off. Hopefully i can sleep a little on the drive to the Springs on Friday. We're leaving right after work duties so we should get there between 7 and 8 PM. I'm listening to a David Phelps song right now from his new CD The Voice. There's a song called "Higher" on it that is totally amazing. And some people think that Josh Groban has something on David Phelps. Ha! I'm going to go get a little sleep now. It's hot breakfast tomorrow and i don't want to miss it. Pancakes.....mmmmmm.....Good night and good luck.....Love you all! God bless!

Hey all, sorry it's been so long since i posted. Been a long weekend. But it's over now...Anyway, so i accidentally let the boiler go out yesterday...Yes...So i was the bad guy for the day. Doug had to take a cold shower, and Megan...ha ha...she didn't want to take a cold shower so she ran water through her coffee maker and used that as hot water. The hot water actually came back on about a half hour after i re-lit the boiler so it wasn't that bad. But i was still the bad guy. oh well...We went to youth group at Grace Community on wednesday night to help out, and i had a blast. It'd been too long since i'd been around people that age. Made me think of my old youth group in Colorado Springs. I wonder how it's doing...anyone reading this who goes there, tell everyone i said hi ok? So people, what do you think of my blog so far? What do i need to change? By the way, could you all be praying for a guy named Doug? He's a long-term volunteer up here who's going through a crappy situation that i wouldn't wish on anyone. Not even Barack Obama. And that's saying something. I almost got into an argument about experience, or rather his lack thereof with someone here yesterday. They said that David was just a Shepherd boy when he became King. Well, i said that that's true, but times were different back then. And she said "No, they weren't." I had to nearly staple my lips closed. Times weren't different back then? Amazing...I didn't know that they had abortion, terrorism, global warming propaganda, immigration, tax problems, and the media back then. Wow...The Bible must have left a lot of things out. And then she said that David was just following God and doing what he says. Well, that's true and well and good and everything, but does anyone here think that Barack Obama saying that the first thing he would do as President is sign a bill legalizing abortion everywhere and having the government pay for it is following God? Sounds more like cold-blooded murder to me. Isn't that one of the ten not-so-subtle suggestions? Hmmmm.....Give me a break.....Times were vastly different when David was king than they are now. The office of President isn't something you can just learn about as you go along. And has anyone heard about the Democrat Attorney who says that Barack Obama isn't a U.S. Citizen? Just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside doesn't it? To think that maybe he's playing a charade and knows it is just a wonderful thing to think about...And by the way, did you know that Barack Obama only had 143 days of actual WORK in the Senate before he decided to run for President and has no executive experience? None. Zilch. About the only thing that you could possibly say is executive experience is that he served on a board of some kind with William Ayers (Domestic Terrorist who declared war on the U.S. and is a personal friend of Obama's.) Sorry if it seems like i'm rambling...I haven't been able to talk politics intelligently since i got here except with Alan and Ian. And Ian's in CA right now. So yah, i'm voting for McCain and i would encourage all of you to do the same...

Hey everyone, sorry i haven't posted in a while, but it's been a little crazy up here lately. First of all, we had a very interesting Physical Training activity the other day. Lindsey and Charity took us about 3 or so miles down the road and dropped us off to walk back. Not only that, but she tied us together at the wrist. Fun stuff. We were walking back, and if someone said something that was negative or anything like that, they got a punishment of some kind. Megan was the first. She said something and was blindfolded. Then Sara said something and was turned around backwards. Then Megan did something else and was turned around backwards. Then Sara was blindfolded. Then Steven and i, who were still the way that we started, turned the entire line around so that the girls could walk forwards. Then, Sara and Megan and Steven did something, so Lindsey tied all of our feet together. Mind you, Steven and i are still walking backwards. So we walked for a while that way until i got the idea for me to get behind Sara, Megan behind me, and Steven behind Megan. So we turned into a line and all we had to do was move the same feet at the same time. That worked very well. We went about 50 feet that way and Lindsey untied our feet. So then, she put us all frontwards, and said to just walk back to camp. Well, after they drove off, Sara and Steven and Megan decided that as long as the leaders weren't there, we could untie. And i'm not saying it was just them because i don't want to look bad. I didn't want them to untie. The leaders had said to stay tied and whether they were there or not that's still what they said. That's really the definition of character. "How you act when no one is looking..." Anyway, after they'd untied us, we looked up, and there were Lindsey and Charity coming back. Needless to say, they weren't thrilled that we'd disobeyed their orders, and they drove us back about a mile in the direction from which we'd just come. Eventually we were walking back, and they said get in because we were going to be late for supper. I have to go. But also, our rooms were inspected and so we got a consequence. I have to change the oil in Lindsey's truck. Consequence? Hmmm....I probably shouldn't tell her that it's fun...Oh well. TTYL. Love you all!

Hey all, this morning went pretty good. We had another lecture, and we answered the question that was asked of us for our homework from yesterday. It was, "What do you look like according to God." Well, i went second, and then after i gave my answer, David had been asking everyone else what God was telling them about the person. Well, it turned into kinda a discussion about my stuttering. Our theme verse for this school is Exodus 33:18: Then Moses said "Now Show Me Your Glory." I believe that during this school, God is really going to show me His glory like i've never seen it before. Plus, i believe that God is going to heal me of my stuttering, i said that in the last post somewhat because Moses and i had the same problem. He stuttered too. Anyway, one thing that Megan said was, "One thing that i've struggled with with my mom being sick is that God asked me "If your mom never got better, if nothing changed, would you still serve me?" And David asked me the same question when Megan finished. Would i still serve God if i never stopped stuttering, even if it got worse, and if i struggled with it til the end of my days? The answer to that question is yes. I've had this problem for over 18 years, and it has never hindered my relationship with God, and has actually strengthened it on a few occasions. Anyway, then we had a time of prayer over me. During that, Steven asked for healing for me, Megan asked for healing for me if it was God's will, and David used the words "Set his tongue on fire." So i really think that i'm going to be healed of this horrible malady. It would be so awesome.....One idea that they had was for me to go off in the woods and read the Bible out loud. When David got to YWAM, he couldn't read the Bible outloud and have anyone understand anything that he said. So he took his Bible out in the woods and read it out loud to himself. Now, he can read fine. So i think i'm going to try that. I'll ttyl. God bless. Love you all!!!

Hey everyone, i just wanted to let you all know what happened tonight. We had community meeting, which is basically just everyone comes and we worship and then David talks. Well, during the worship, i was really really hearing from God very clearly and i believe he told me that He is going to heal me of stuttering and that it will be sometime before the end of this week. After the service, i talked to David for a few minutes and asked him about being anointed. Well, he said that he thinks we should just really seek God's heart regarding that. So yah, i'm pretty excited about that. I'll let you all know what happens. TTYL. Love you all!!!

Hey everyone! This time i'm gonna have to cut it a little short. Today was good, we went to church this morning, and then to walmart, and then home. I did my creative journal, watched a video from an earlier DTS, and watched the Broncos game. Crazy ending. But lucky for the Broncos. Also, i found out that someone had anonymously put two $20s in my mailbox here. That was really a blessing because i'd like just run out of cash. So yah, that was cool. By the way, could all of you please be praying for something? Tomorrow night, i'm giving my testimony. Everyone else gave theirs the night i got here and the night after. I had talked to Charity and asked if i could pass on it, citing my stuttering as the reason. Well, she said that i didn't have to give it in front of everyone, but that her and David wanted me to give it for my team and the staff here. So that entails David, Charity, Lindsey, i think Mel, Doug, and Ian, and my team. So yah, could you all be praying? I'm also going to ask David soon about perhaps being anointed for my stuttering. If you guys have been reading the comments on here you'll know that my Uncle Steve had the same problem when he was little and he was anointed and healed of it. So yah, if i do get anointed, and i do get healed, you guys won't have to wait to read it on here, you'll be able to hear my screaming from here...And everyone here will be saying "Please, come get him, no one here gets a chance to speak anymore....." So yah, i'm going to post pictures as soon as i can. I'm going to try to come down here tonight at 1 and post them, but i don't know how that will work out. I'm trying not to get too much sleep but not too little either. I find that my stuttering is increased when i do either one. Yah, i guess that's about it. I appreciate all your prayers. God bless you guys. Smile!!!

Hey all! Well i had an interesting day yesterday. I got up early (Twice actually. See previous post). 4:30 A.M. As my Uncle Ronnie once said, that's an 'UnGodly hour.' Anyway, we drove into town and helped set stuff out for the sharing ministries garage/yard sale. When we got there, Doug was immediately like a kid in a candy store. So many things to look at and peruse. Well, we got everything set out that we were supposed to, and i picked out a couple of movies to buy. I got "Support Your Local Sheriff" and "Support Your Local Gunfighter" for $1 combined. Good price. Support Your Local Sheriff is a really great movie. Support your local gunfighter is not nearly as good, but hey it's only a dollar right? I'm just gonna leave them here in the library when i leave. Anyway, so after setting everything out for the sale, we went and picked a truckload of watermelons to sell. That was pretty fun. I got to use some knowledge that my mom imparted to me when she sent me to SafeWay for a watermelon one time. If you knock on the watermelon and something knocks back, you've got a good one. Yes, that was a joke. But if you knock on it and it sounds hollow, you've got a good one. Rather backwards if you think about it. Anyway, so we got back, i payed for my movies, and we left. We were just getting out of town when Sara called. She wanted to know if we wanted to come hang out with her and Megan. So Tim dropped us off and Megan and Sara came and picked us up. We spent the day going to garage sales, a barber shop so Doug could get his hair buzzed, and walmart and the dollar store and stuff. Fun, fun, fun. Anyway, when we finally got back, Alan wanted to know if we wanted to go fishing. Well i hadn't gone in a long time and so i thought it'd be fun. So we went. Now Alan is a really good fisherman. In fact, he teaches some classes on fishing. He incidentally is also my only real defense against the people here who are democrats. He's a conservative republican like me. Anyway, we went and i caught two fish and he caught two. Fun stuff. On the way back to the base, we saw the horses that had gotten out of a local pasture because of a broken fence. Well we decided we'd better try to get them back in, and so we tried. Unsuccessfully. We got them very very close at one point, but then one of them bolted and nearly killed himself. Anyway, we decided to quit fooling with them because they weren't ours and if the owner didn't have anyone to contact in such a situation, that was his fault. Well we got back to the base and found out that we knew the combination to his gate. So we went back, easily got the horses inside the gate (We'd been trying to get them back through the broken place in the fence), put them back in the pasture they'd been in, and repaired the fence as best we could. So that was kinda fun. But kinda freaky too because it was night and these horses had decided they were wild again. Which is weird because they are trained show horses! So yah, fun stuff. I have to go to church now. TTYL. God bless.

Well thursday morning i got up in time for the morning lecture, and discovered that i had missed hot breakfast! And it was biscuits and gravy!!! I'll just have to remember from now on that hot breakfast is on tuesdays and thursdays. Thursday night i had a conversation with my roomie for quite a while about all kinds of things. I also discovered that my team members are all part-conspirator. Let me give you a little background for what had been going on first though. Ok, all of you who know me and who have talked to me at least once in person know that since i was born (Except for a few wonderful occasions when it just ceased) i've had an affliction known as stuttering. Well, because of that, i tend to run from speaking in public at all and specifically from speaking in public in front of a bunch of people. Well, here at YWAM, we have a lecture every morning. And every morning, someone prays for our speaker before he/she speaks. Well, my team, a guy and two girls, had "decided" that i was going to pray for our speaker friday. When i heard that, i froze. I knew that there was no way out of it other than making myself look really bad, and so i just accepted that i was going to have to pray for this guy named Ben Statements. Well, friday morning came along, and at about the time for the lecture to start, i was laying in bed fast asleep, having turned off my alarm clock when it blared in my ear. Well, Steven came in and said "Luke, we're starting." So i jumped out of bed, hurredly dressed, and while i was brushing my teeth, he came in again and said "Come on, we're waiting for you to pray for him." Well, it was morning and so i was in a much better mood and so i just gave him the thumbs-up. So i walked out there, and after a few minutes, was called forward to pray for Ben. It.....was......awful. It took me probably two minutes to say a prayer that would have taken anyone else about 20 seconds at the most. Well, i finished it, went to my seat. We sat through the lecture, and did all the other stuff for the day which entailed husking the rest of a pickup truck-load of corn, and picking a bunch of the most beautiful wild rasberries known to man out of the garden. Yes i say wild because the plants were all transplanted down here from where they were growing in the wild (And Megan says they were tamed and converted to Christianity. And in case you're wondering, yes she's a little crazy.) Anyway, later that night, after the bon-fire, i was in my room and Ben came in to say goodbye to Steven and i because he's leaving tomorrow. The last thing he said before he left was "Thanks for praying for me this morning, it made all the difference." You could have knocked me over with a feather. I still don't understand what it was i did, but i guess i did something right. Anyway, now comes my request to all of you guys. I haven't ever asked someone to pray for something like this that i can remember, but i think its appropriate considering the circumstances. I want you all to pray that God heals me of stuttering. I am so sick of it. You have no idea. Imagine that you're standing at a door with a massive treasure on the other side, and you have the key but you can't put it in the lock no matter how hard you try. That'll give you an idea of how i feel when i'm trying to say something but it's not coming out. I'd just really appreciate it if you guys'd be praying for that. I'm sick of stuttering, i want to talk like everyone else. Well, i think i'll go back to bed. I'm tired and i have to be up early to go to the garage sale thing in Montrose. Check your cell phones for text messages. My fingers will be smoking from the minute i get service. Love you all. God bless. Smile!

P.S. I'll be posting some pictures on here very soon. Just be patient. You'll be able to see all the lunatics i've been hanging out with and the funny farm where i'm staying.

So yah today i slept in a little more because it was cold breakfast meaning that i didn't have to be down here on crew. We had a lecture this morning on Worship and Intercession from a guy named Luke (Great name by the way. If you don't have it you ought to get it) Weaver. He talked for about an hour on worship and then we took a half hour break. Well the night before i'd stayed up til after three because i couldn't sleep because i'd had a Dr. Pepper just before i went to bed. Bad idea. I just figured that because i was going to be watching Apollo 13 i'd have time for it to wear off. Unfortunately, that gave it just enough time to really take effect. Anyway, we actually have a TV in our room now. They had an old one in the guy's end of DUDA and Doug said we could have it so i happily obliged. By the way, DTS students are only allowed to watch G and PG movies. A bit of a drag because i brought all three Bourne movies but i won't squabble. Charity (DTS Director this year) has a bunch of movies in her house. Last night we watched Over the Hedge. Great movie. One of the families up here actually has Satellite TV and they said that they could maybe let me watch some Avs games or maybe tape them. Woohoo!!! Oh, by the way, Sarah, could you please tell Travis i said BuYah! in regards to the game between the Broncos and the Raiders monday night. Ha ha ha. Well, i miss you all. God bless. Smile!!!

Hey all, sorry it's taken me so long to post on here, but it's been a madhouse since i got here. Anyway, i got here at around 11:00 AM on monday morning, and we talked to one of the leaders for a while. Then it was time for lunch and so we went over to the kitchen for lunch. We ate, and then i found out that i am on kitchen crew this week. so they had me washing plates and all that jazz. Fun, fun, fun. Later on, after some training and some other stuff, i got back to my room. My parents had left and i found myself sitting on my bed alone in our room thinking to myself "What have i gotten myself in to?" I was experiencing homesickness for the first time. I actually took a nap for a couple hours which really helped me out a lot. I woke up, and the next morning when i was doing my quiet time, God gave me a chapter of the Bible that he's given me quite a few times when i've been lonely and feeling sorry for myself. Ephesians 2. Don't ask me why, but that's one verse that has the power to calm me down. Strange things. Anyway, today i woke up finding that i had set the time on my alarm clock backwards and the alarm forwards. i.e. 10 AM instead of 10 PM...So naturally my alarm didn't wake me up. I then discovered that i had forgotten to bring a towel or washcloth, and so when i showered, i used my dirty shirt to dry off (Don't freak out mom...). So yah, but i found out that there's a place over by the guys end of DUDA (Name of our dorm building) where there are a bunch of things that other DTS people have left there. They have all kinds of things. But i could use a little more money so i could buy a few things at wal-mart. Bleach and a few other things. Anyway, today they told us about our work duties. ha ha ha. One of my favorite ones is cleaning the boiler. Fun stuff. I'll have Steven (My Roomie) take a picture of me after i clean it one day and i'll post it on here. But i've got some really cool pictures already. Right now we're waiting around for supper. We're having chicken. I'm on kitchen team for this whole week actually. You guys ought to send me some mail. Anything. Even if you don't have a clue who i am. Something from home would be very welcome. The address is P.O. Box 158 Cimarron, CO 81220. Please, send me stuff. Anyway, i'll post on here later. Feel free to comment. Love you all! TTYL.

Ok, so here's the deal. I got sick. Not a really enjoyable prospect, but it happened. Anyway, i got sick on the thursday before i was supposed to leave for YWAM. I was sick for the next few days and so rather than leaving for YWAM today(Sunday), i am leaving tomorrow morning. After i get there and get brought up to speed on everything, i'll take some pictures and post them on here! Til then, i'll appreciate your prayers. TTYL (For those of you who aren't up with all the texting and chat vernacular, that means 'talk to you later' and i use it a lot.)