Guess who's back, back again...

Hey everybody, or nobody I guess, depending on who's reading this. I've finally returned from the streets of Chicago and from my vacation from blogging. Not that I ever blogged on a regular basis anyway. I actually think I started this blog to keep track of stories from Chi-town and if you look through the archives, that didn't work out so well. But alas, since I have recently joined the ministry team at Loveland Christian Church, they added my blog to their website and informed me that I should probably give an update of sorts. So here it is! Even though this isn't really much of an update at all and reading this is only allowing me to steal moments of your life... precious moments that you will never get back, HAHA!
This also will allow people to come to my site and not be greeted by the ranting blog that was previously center stage.(If you've got a beef with Catholics, check it out but don't be harsh)
Anyway, God is good! Life is good! The Bengals are alright... they squeezed one outta Baltimore last night.
Oh and if you're still upset about wasting time reading a boring blog, track me down and we can discuss plenty of better ways to spend your time!

Better check the scripture on that one

Drama, drama, and a little more drama. I'm gettin a little tired of drama. My time in Chicago is slowlly winding down. But it seems a whole new list of challenges are ahead. My roomate has been having some trouble recently. Her sister convert to Catholicism earlier this year and you guessed it, in her Church of Christ home that has started, bunch drama. (Can't believe I used that.) Her family is very disturbed by the fact that one of their daughters has turned from Christianity. I just want to do a little history lesson. Now please don't start a heated debate with me because yes, I am ignorant on most of the details of Catholic History, but I do now that Christ chose a disciple to build the Church. Slowly over time, that disciple built the Catholic Church. You see, Catholics, are in fact, Christians. I know this may be hard to hear for a lot of people like my roomate's family, but the truth of the matter is that Catholics are Christians. This is a big misconception because most people think that Catholics are just a bunch of "Mary-worshippers" and they fail to realize that we are Protestants. You see, prostestants are Christians... and Catholics were Christians. In fact we were all Catholic until the leaders of the Catholic church went a little crazy and said that only certain people can read the Bible. Hence, we protested that (protestants) and started our own division of Christianity. Now you may say, "well there it is, they had stuff all wrong!" Well yes and no, they are very different in their practices of how they pray and bring praise to God. But My church in loveland has a lot more in common with a catholic mass than it does with some of the Protestant churches here in Chicago! So who's got it wrong? Yes, I don't agree with some things the Catholic Church does. And there are plenty of people in the Church of Christ group that would love to tell Catholics that they are going to Hell because they don't get baptized right because Christ said we need to be baptized. I also know that he told the rich to sell all they owned and give it to the poor if they wanted to get to heaven. How wealthy would YOU consider yourself? Just ask yourself if you have a car, Then think about the fact that over a billion people in this world live on less than $1 a day. hmmm. Scary thought. I'd better check the scripture on that one.

You'll never believe this

योयो एवेर्योने,
सो थिस रेअल्ल डेसं'त सय मुच ऑफ़ अन्य्थिंग। इत इस अल जुस्त थिस बिग प्लोत तो पिस ऑफ़ हाई स्चूल किड्स फ्रॉम ओर चर्च व्हो कैन'त ट्रांस्लाते थिस ब्लोग, सो ई अपोलोगीज़े फ़ॉर थे इन्कोन्विएनेंस बुत मय उन्च्ले ऎंड ई थिंक थिस इस थे फुन्निएस्त थिंग एवर! पास बे द जौर्नेय एवेर्य वन, ई डॉन'त एवें थिंक थिस ट्रांस्लातेस स्तुफ्फ इन्तो हिंदी, इत जुस्त उसेस थेइर अल्फाबेत ई डॉन'त एवें थिंक ठाट इस हाउ यू स्पैल अल्फाबेत, ओह वेल्ल, पास आउट।

बर्ड

Chi-Town Missions: Article one and a half

The is the 1.5 installment of my weekly adventure article. Nothing too exciting, I just wanted to mention that the other night I found a time machine and decided to use it to go back in time about 30 years and I went on some dumb kid's show about some dude named Al, mostly because I knew Dan Ponchot watched it as a child. I stole a dog costume with the plan to bark "you are beautiful my sweet sweet song" on screen for little hose head to see, but Al caught on and knocked my head off, So I sang the song and jumped back in my time machine. I haven't heard anything from hose head yet but I have heard that sometimes when you change history in a time machine, people just process the new memories as dreams. Let me know if anyone hears anything.

Chi-Town Missions: Church Invite

Hey everyone! Yeah I know it's been awhile! I can't wait to see everyone soon and fill ya in on all the crazy happenings here in Chicago. But till then I've decided to try and put out a weekly article highlighting one of my adventures each week. So strap in tight, it's gonna be a bumpy ride.
In recent weeks our team has befriended a girl that lives a few blocks down from us. She's 30 something and is deeply involved in drug use and prostitution. We've had amazing discussion with her about that fact that she feels God has been coming at her from all directions and she feels he's really calling her to another lifestyle.
On one such night, after dinner(spaghetti and meatballs with donuts for dessert, she really loves donuts) my roomate and I walked her back to her house. She lives in a house FULL of random people, mostly other girls in her business and her bosses. She joked about us coming up to say hi to everyone and I jumped at the opportunity. Not as crazy as it sounds because I do know a few other girls there because many come to the food pantry that I manage.
Our dinner guest kept joking with us asking if we had "ever been to a real live crack house?" In actuallity I had been in there before looking for her when she dissappeared for a month.
The inside was definately rough, but it was also humorous to see our friends suprise when everyone started saying "Hey! whattup Brad!" I think this concerned her because until that point, she had assumed that I was just another christian kid who was totally out of place in this neighborhood. But the thing I tried to tell her and the thing that I am beginning to understand more and more for myself is that, christians will always be out of place in this world. We are called to walk in this world as a light. I've heard people say that it just takes a special kind of light to shine in such a dark place, and while that sounds somewhat correct, if everyone is equally fallen, than it is just ask dark back home in our high school halls, office buildings, and, dare I say it, church lobby's. The truth is, it can be hard to let Christ's light shine, no matter where the setting is. Anyway, back to the story.
So there I was standing in the midst of pimps, prostitutes, and drug addicts. And suddenly something became sadly clear to me. The reason why our dinner guest was so distraught that I was friends with other people in the house.
I'm on the streets alot, I know a ton of guys that run the streets in my neighborhood and a lot of them seemed like pretty good guys despite their "career choices". But suddenly I was faced with cold truth, the guys that I hang out with on the street, joking and offering prayer for, are the same faces in the stories our dinner guest tells about rape, exploitation, or even the faces that shake her awake and make her go out on the streets to sell herself.
It's sobering when so suddenly the oppressed become the oppressors. So much confusion. Some would say that being friends with the men who seemed to be in control is a blessing. That since I have that relationship would give me a little power to speak Christ into their world and promote change from the top down. I would agree and believe me, I've prayed hard about direction from here, I will appreciate any who pray with me. But still the doubts run wild in my mind. Thoughts of things going wrong. And if this wasn't enought to process as I stood in this smoky 3rd floor crack house what happened next would keep me up thinking for many nights to come.
I stepped into another room to find another friend of mine. He was sitting on a couch while an older woman helped in stick a vein to shoot heroin into his blood stream. I suddenly realized that HE was the face in some of the stories our dinner guest told us about the beatings she had recieved.
He saw me and looked up smiling, " Alright Brad, Whattup."
"hey whattup bud" I smiled back down at him before he leveled me with his next question. He closed his eyes and leaned back as the heroin found it's way into his arm. Then he looked back up at me," Hey Brad I been meaning to tell you, you should take a Sunday off from your church and come with me to my church down the street on Francisco."
Take a minute, and think about everything that question implies and we'll talk during my spring break, April31st-March9th.

Round 1: Brad's lack of undershorts -1, Dan's wedgie wake up-0 What will round 2 offer?

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, of all ages... LLLLLLLLLLLet's get ready to rumbllllllllllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

For many of you that don't know, there are som personal problems going on with my family back in Cincinnati. I recently found out that I'm going to have to extend my Christmas break by one week. Pushing my return to Chicago back from January 8th, to January 13th... Which means that Fiji might just be available for something I like to call and LCC youth group overnighter. I will be holding a small vote on this post to decide whether my presence is desired. Please leave a message voicing a yay or nay vote. If you say nay I will call you a horse and punch you in the face.
Love you all and can't wait to see you! I'll be in Cincy starting on December 23rd!

Thanks

Thank you God for today.
Thank you God for the opportunities you've put in my life.
Thank you for supportive family and friends.
Thank you for strength and wisdom.
Thank you for love, from Heaven and on Earth.
Thank you for opening my eyes to new things.
Thank you for hardening my mind against bad things.
And thank you oh, thank you for Canadians.

Thank you for a weeks worth of thanksgiving leftovers,
Thank you for the guy that calls me a "vice lord" down the block.
Thank you that most of my neighbors can't pronounce "Langdon"
and once again, thank you, oh thank you for my Canadian

You may have just laughed a little, but with thanksgiving ending remember that we have everyday that we should thank God for. All the blessings that I've just listed truley mean more than I can explain in a blog. Thank Him daily.

Who am I

once upon a time there was a freakin genious that wrote, " everyone is simply a product of the relationships that they have held." That genious was of course, me when I wrote my final paper for "theories of psychotherapy" at CCU. Living with 5 strangers on the west side of Chicago definately supports this theory.
It amazes how a group of Christians, even ones that have taken their faith to this extreme, can have such different view points. It's led me many time to ask myself, "who am I?"
You see, it's hard for people like me. People that see past a lot of the "other stuff" People who see past the cultural significance of certain things and strive to see correct way. Today many of us have "pet peeves" or what not that we attribute to rightiousness. But most of the times we just like things done a certain way because that's what we like, that's what we're comfortable with. This year I've seen that God finds MANY things pleasing, he has created a vastly diverse world so that he can recieve ALL kinds of praise. My encouragement to everyone that if you see some one who is doing things differnetly than you, don't shun them. Don't try to correct them or force them to conform to your style. Just remember that whether they seem legalistic and closed-minded, or whether they seem like a rebel without a cause, they may be just as pleasing to God as the rest of us. Just in a different way. Respect God by respecting those differences.

Have you bought yet?

so the other day I'm on my way to STAR Gyro's, God's gift to greasy Chicago eatery's everywhere, when I see a teal crown vic. driving past. Suddenly I hear a screeching of tires and turn to see the car hop the curb and come barreling toward my roomate Langdon and myself. Then it went between 2 trees and popped back onto the road next to us.
A man motions us to the car and asks," Have you guys bought yet?" Yet another undercover cop...
It has become a daily event to be stopped by police officers as I walk through my west side neighborhhod. Police assume that the only reason a white guy would be walking down my street is to either buy/sell drugs, or worse.
This particular under-cover officer was trying to get us to let him mark the money we were "buying" with so he could nab those %*#&!*@ guys. he swore that we could keep our rocks if we just cooperated. Eventually, like always we got him to leave us alone by just explaining we are new in town and live around the corner, I doubt he beleived us but oh well. Just another day in my neighborhood. Cops think we're dealing drugs to our neighbors, neighbors think we're cops. Yesterday a guy followed me down the street saying" yeah right, I know who you are...Who you fittin' to lock up tonight." Just another day.

guess who's back....back again....

Howdy everyone, I have finally been plugged into the Chicago public library system and can blog at will again! Sorry It's been awhile but things have been pretty hectic! Chicago is treating me well! Be sure to stay tuned for up dates from Fiji's neighborhood!!!! I love and miss you all!
god bless
fiji

Are those your real eyes???

a few days ago I was sitting on my front porch when a few neighborhood kids walked past. They asked if we needed help with anything around the house. I said no but struck up a conversation with them. Tavell and Deon, both about 11 years old, were pretty cool kids, but there was one thing that amazed me. As tehy met the rest of my roomates they kept getting in real close and asking,"are those your real eyes?"
Most of my team has blue eyes. It amazed me that these boys had lived in an area that was so segregated for so long, that they had never seen blue eyes before except for colored contact lenses!
Since then I have met more of their friends and we've started a playin a little after school footbal in a vacant lot on my street.
Today I've recruited some kids to help clean the lot off. They seem to have no problem playing football in a small lot with tall weeds, giant holes and tons of empty wine and hennessy bottles. But today we're going to at least get rid of all the trash and glass. Don't think that this is some noble plan that I thought up to help the community, I didn't think to do it until yesterday when I got a nail stuck in my foot while completing a touchdown pass. But guess what....I still got the Touchdown!!!!!! Hope to up date with pictures of our clean up project soon!! God bless!

Let's get this party started

Well home doggs, It's time. T minus 7 hours and 30 minutes till my departure for Chi-Town. Big shout out to all my LCC friends(yes that means you students) Thank you guys for an amazing experience in the past year. I've learned so much from you guys. I hope more than a teacher or goof ball you see me as a friend. That's how I see you. If I didn't I don't suppose I would care so much about see you guys strengthen your relationships with God. But don't you worry, this is by know means goodbye! I'll be sending plenty of footage, pics, and letters to keep you guys up to speed with my life. And even though I'll be away, I'll be posting my address (street address and email) in Chi-Town so you can keep me up to speed on your lives! And trust me I'll have plenty of stupid stories that push the boundaries of anything stupid I've ever said before when I return in December! So let's get this party started, and I'll be talking to you hose-heads soon!

I'll miss you the most

I know there's been times when you didn't think I loved you,
Times when you've burned me,
times I've just wanted to bite your head off.
but through our ups and downs,
my love for you has only grown stronger,
You fill me up, leave me satisfied.
you don't have to say a word,
You just have to be there,
I'll remember your sweet smell,
your golden-yellow curls
The way your golden brown buns feel on my lips.
your spicy chili warms my heart.
your mustard drips off my chin.
I love you.
Just remember, when I'm gone in Chicago,
It's you, cheese coney, I'll miss the most.

dedicated to skyline cheese coney's everwhere.