http://www.therebelution.com/modestysurvey/

well... i guess...

well, i suppose that an update is well past due, not that anybody really cares, because i generally talk to people anyways. these things are so weird because if i were to actually sit down and write something meaningful, it would require me to sit down and think and concentrate, which i have a hard time doing at the end of the day in the office here. but anyway, it's a'ight.

if anything, i thought i would delight you all with some FOTOS:

what's been up since the last time i've written...

kelli found her wedding dress! happy day!!

MATT'S AN OLD FART! happy birthday (a month ago!) matt!!! and congratulations to matt and jenny on the forthcoming LITTLE GOODMAN! in this picture there's me, looking rather large in the forefront, adam the meulemans, matt, abigail, jenny, the baby (although well-hidden) and fyodor.

some apples to apples action!! oh boy!!!

what could be greater than a 30 hour lock-in with 16 middle schoolers who are not eating!? not much, that's for sure!

our 30 hour famine this year was wonderful... and i am so proud of the youth!!! we raised more than $3200 for world vision!!!!

ps thanks to everyone who helped. seriously. you're my heroes.

isaac got HUGE!! he's 9 months now!!!

and, last but certainly not least... sofia showed me how she is spending the married life...

whoa, kids!

...she's due for an update!
it's APRIL!!

BUCKWHEAT PANCAKES!? we better get some milk!

ha-HA! (can you hear it?)

so really...what would happen...

if i could actually love the way that jesus loves?
if i could actually live the way that jesus lived/lives?

misty edwards wrote this song about the "inside-outside-upside-down kingdom" of our God, and it's so true. God runs His kingdom in a truly non-worldly way. It makes no sense to all the humanness inside me.

here's the words:

I wanna be with You where You are...

I wanna be with You where You are...

and You're the servant of all...

Cause I'm in love with a King who became a slave

I'm in love with a God who is humble

and you gotta go down... if you wanna go up.

and you gotta go lower if you wanna go higher and higher.

and you've gotta hide... and do it in secret

if you want to be seen by God

'Cuz it's the inside-outside-upside-down Kingdom

where you lose to gain

and you die to live

I wanna be Your lover... so show me how to go lower

For in the depths I will find You... where You're serving my brother

----
it's true, isn't it? i want so desperately just to be where Jesus is. He's my King; He's my love; He's my savior; He's my brother; He's my friend. And where will I find Him? in the depths... in the lowest places... in the places where humans hate to go... in the most hopeless and lonely places... and what is He is doing? He's humbling Himself... going low to be raised up, and to raise up the lowly with Him.

I know that to be my story--this is how He called me by my name... He came into the depths where my heart was and spoke to me. so why is it so difficult for me to dive in and join Jesus in His work? I mean, He's invited me in. in fact, He wants me to be where He is. and so often, He will call us into or in the midst of the hardest and most difficult situations... in the dirt of this life... because that is where He is working. that is where we will find Him. because He is the Healer, and He has come to bring freedom to the captives.

so if i want to be with Him where He is, and He's the servant of all, where does that leave me? why am i not selling all that i have to buy that field? sell myself out to serve others? give myself away to serve others? to show love in the form of humility like Jesus does?

WHO is a God like ours? who runs an inside-outside-upside-down Kingdom, where you have to lose to gain and die to live?
WHO is a God like ours? who declares that you must bow down to be exalted?
WHO is a God like ours? who will literally give everything away to show Love to those who despised Him?
WHO is a God like ours? who calls us to do the same...

GOD, it makes no sense to my critical, human brain... praise GOD that Your wisdom is not of this world. praise GOD that You make no sense to this world!! You're amazing. You make no sense to me. and in that i rejoice!
God, challenge us. take us to be with You where You are...

so there's this band that wrote this song called "greenport." it rocks my stinking face off. check it out here: http://www.myspace.com/bordersonclark.
ha ha.

i think it's time for a picture...

holden, what'd you do!?!

always important to remember lincoln's birthday...
thanks, michael, for the reminder.
haha.

i'll show YOU the greatest post ever! ;)

la belleza del mcdonalds ecuatoriano...

"Cayetano. CA-YE-TA-NO. MISSY, CA-YE-TA-NO!!!"

ahhhhhhh!

ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

so, i have this thing on fridays...

about 3:00, i just kind of shut down.
and then i just kind of sit here doing nothing for about another hour--maybe two, maybe three. either way, it's unnecessary and ridiculous. i don't know why people always talk about having a case of the "mondays." i mean, seriously, wouldn't you think that having a case of the "fridays" is at LEAST as common?

you know what's lame?

flickr has a 200 picture limit!

guess what....?

apparently my thing was set up strange that not just *anybody* could leave comments on my blog....
how exciting for all of you, i've discovered the glitch, and now even you non-bloggers and comment me!
haha.
hello! :) hope you had a good weekend!

i forgot some....!

i realized after i looked at the post that omar's presence is *not* FUERTE enough! haha! this is at the AWESOME bowling alley, bolocentro!!

check out that necklace!! ooh, nice!!
omar is goofy.
at omar's on his birthday!--he's 27!
i figure everyone should see this picture ;)


this place had the BEST menestra in the city, apparently. and seriously, it BLEW MY MIND! haha.

you might notice that i finally got my post with a bunch of pictures up... it wouldn't really let me do the captions so easily. so i tried my best, but left a lot of them uncaptioned. either way, it was a sweet trip. i love ecuador! and i love guayaquil! it was a wonderful thing to get to be there to celebrate with barry & sofia on their (second-ahem ;)) wedding day, to get to hang out with the gringos & the ecuatorianos at the same time... to meet my sponsored child... and to VISIT with all the beautiful, lovely people that i have missed so much over the past 5 years. it's pretty sweet to have friends in other parts of the world, but it's kind of lame that they're in OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.
:)

you know what i don't like?

making budgets!

i bet these captions are going to be alllllll messed up....

alright, well maybe there was going to be some sort of rhyme or reason to how these pictures go, but i guess there's not.... so anyway....
it's going to be kind of random... GUESS WHO THIS IS!?


















chris attacking me and ale at the beach, as we lounge on our hammocks that are 100% pretty safe...


ale ale oxen free!



it's water, i swear!



pedro was not actually at the wedding... but i did run into him at las penas!!








cuy, anyone?

banos was sweet!!! anife (sofia's sister) and rigoberto (anife's friend) and i went. it was much further than we thought--i was expecting 6 hours each way and it was 9-10, but it was SO WORTH IT!! we went on a tour to see a bunch of waterfalls, and went up to the top of one mountain to get a view of the VOLCAN TUNGURAHUA... which erupted pretty bigtime last july/august.







whoa, sofia. simmer down!
some of us at the malecon riverwalk... yay!

fat guy in a little coat?
me with lisbeth, my sponsored child!


back to banos! i jumped off a bridge! (i'll let you guess which one!)

guess who got to fly first class from chi-town to newark?!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! let's blow stuff up!

(above) me and sofia on our way back to the states ;(

me and pedro and some of the girls from the fundacion where i worked before.... they're so BIG now!!!!

can you tell they're sisters?
menestra with hot dogs!!! yummm


me with my host "parents"--maximo and anny!

and then me with my host family--

maximo, anny, me, azael, germania, and the two little ones, emilia and juan pablo

esta foto es para uds, omar y pedrito.

LOCOS! ;)

frutabar!!

:)
david, viviana, matthias, christian

chillaxin'

grr!

me and pedro and omar! at las penas!

tuesday!

the sweet hostal with no phone!

my batido de banano!




my name is chris... i'm afraid of heights.

tuesday?








we were enthralled by the hermit crabs.

chancho!

felicitaciones, barry y sofia :)

i love you guys!!!