So today was one of those crazy days. The kind that every skater would have fun with. Though at the same time some days I feel like it would be cool to be a kid from the 60's, or late 70's. I think that being a hippie would be quite the adventure! Though due to the fact that my hippie clothes were dirty I decided to go with the 80's skating look to help out at the skating event in Cedar Rapids today and tomorrow. For the first time ever we're hosting the U.S. Figure Skating Semi National Figure Skating Championships. The winners go to nationals with a chance to represent the U.S (tickets cost $40 dollars each). Overall it was quite fun being assigned to help the University of Wisconsin's Figure Skating team with all of their questions, the club team from Cleveland, OH, and the team from Phoenix, Arizona. I really liked the Cleveland team's out fit color combos. I also thought that the Phoenix Team had a totally radical flower child theme going on. After helping them I had quite an interesting job most of the day. I ended up being in charge of over 2,000 female skaters, talking to them and explaining the rules before and after they entered the ice. So basically after each team entered on and off the ice I would also get to show them where the photographer was so they could get their team pictures taken. Overall it was a pretty great day. Kind of interesting having so many different girls ask so many different questions at once too. Other then that I ended up talking to my coach and letting her know that I couldn't do the Iowa Figure Skating Competition that I qualified for where you can qualify for nationals if you get the top 2 with the alternate. Personally, I'm not that good, but I'm in a pretty low level for now. Other then the whole skating thing I really thought that it was cool getting to hear from my good friend Laurin as he talked about what was happening in Russia as he's going to school in St. Petersburg. It was really encouraging to hear from him about how his wife (Nura) and him were able to be used by God with helping out a lady from his own town adopt a little boy. One thing that struck me about it was that before when the boy was going to be adopted 2 previous times the parents to be backed out. Personally, I think that that would be really disappointing and incredably hard on a kid. Being told multiple times that somebody wants you and then getting within a month of being adopted multiple times can feel incredably hopeless. I went through something like that when I was younger. Though at the same time You gotta give a kid credit for not giving up hope. Eventually this really nice Christian lady decided to adopt him and Laurin and his wife helped her learn more about her kid and bring them into the program at their church. That's one place that I'm looking into going to. I really like their ministry and another churches ministry that I know of from one of my old teachers. Around Feburary 1st give, or take a day I got a call today telling me that I would be interviewed about going there so pray for that. There is also a minstry in Voronezth that I'm interviewing at, and one in Moscow that I'm looking into. All have positives and negatives to them. So pray about that. Ultimately God will put me where he wants me in his timing. In the long run I thought a ton about that today and what Kurt Warner said in his interview. You should look it up on espn. He had some really good points about the subject, he came from my home town, and had the same job that I had. His family is super great and it's pretty amazing how he always draws everything back to God and how if it wasn't for him he wouldn't be where he is at now. Anyways I have to get going to bed, but before I do if you ever think about adopting consider everything before doing it. Finally, if you ever end up feeling like you're not getting somewhere quickly just keep on pressing on and in the end God will work out everything for the best. He will determine your steps!!!!

Sometimes God Works In Mysterious Ways.. Figure Skating?!?!?!?!?!

So the night started out as an ordinary night. One where I got to talk to the Russians, get my skates on, and get ready to fall... well maybe just sometimes. Anyways while I got onto the ice I did my regular warm up plus pulled off about the normal 10 or so new moves. Eventually I watched a few of the people that actually can afford to pay for individual lessons hoping to pick up a new trick or 2 to try. After awhile a lot of the public skaters started coming and that's when the fun began. Some watch me and some of the other skaters from my club. A lot of them try to shy away from different things, but I always try to talk to them and see how I can help them. Random conversations facinate me and I love talking to people in general! You never truely know where somebody is at in life unless you open yourself up to them and meet them where they're at. Anyways as I talked to more and more people I noticed that some random girls kept staring at me. This was kind of wierd because I swear that I knew them but I had no idea. Eventually some of them came up to me and asked me if I could help them. As I was helping them they kept asking me about how to do different moves. One of them could even do a mohawk. They told me that they thought that they knew me and kept talking to me. So the whole time I kept thinking well maaaaaaaaaayyyy...be! After talking enough I found out that some of them were kids that I used to work with many years ago. About that time that I had left to go to the Urussian area. So as a result we mostly just talked and they were telling me about some of the ideas that they had and things that they remembered that I had taught them. They were actually using them and this excited me quite a lot! Currently they are doing outreaches which start new churches and bringing in young college students. Also some of them wanted me to see if I could help teach them a ton more. I'm deffinatly considering it. Though at the time when I was teaching many years ago I never really thought that kids that young would listen and put things into practice. So in the long run be careful what you say and think about what you do because it could turn into something beyond your wildest dreams. God always works in amazing ways!!!!

Random Stuff

Pretty soon I will be writing more about Russia when I get closer to knowing more. At the moment I do know more things but I'm still waiting on a few people to get back to me. Hopefully in about a week, or 2 I'll have a blog up explaining all of my final options. In the mean time I have been involved in a few different things that are new to me and not so new. For instance I've been learning to play basketball smarter before the season begins by playing with one other guy on my team and taking on 6-7 other guys. Sometimes we win too!!! I also got involved in figure skating recently after coming up with a bet among some of my guy friends and it's actually quite fun. It's one of the only sports that I swear I face death daily and I like it!!! It's just one of those sports where you have to listen closely, lean in wierd angles and allow yourself to pull away from all fear, or you may never pull off the move. I think that I like it a lot becasue it's something that pushes me a ton and causes me to have to stop and think what did I do wrong after I just fell 50 times in a row. At the same time there have been so many unexpected opportunities out of figure skating that I never imagined. For instance, there was a family of adopted kids that I ran into and the parents were absolutly amazing. Personally I think that it would be hard when you already have 3 kids to take on 4 more just so you don't break up the entire sibling set. At the same time to be able to control the kids in such a way that each one knows that they are equally loved is best! It was also super cool knowing that some of the kids really young and some were in high school (which is a huge need for adoption). I've always had loving and caring parents, but I used to work at a home conseling fostered and adopted kids and many times that demografic of kids are the ones that are usually left. Those kids and their stories will touch your heart if your willing to open yours! Just think about it!!!! It's on of the areas that I was looking at in the future in Russia about 9 hours from St. Petersburg, but I can't get the right type of visa to go there yet. However, I have been developing friendships with some of the kids there and they are amazing. I'll go more into it in my Russia post! Hopefully I can make it to Russia by Januaray 2011! At the same time I know that I've been waiting to go back to the area after being gone for 8-9 very long years. Even though that may seem like a long time I think that you always have to remember that God has you in the right place at the right time and he will always direct your paths. I also try to remind myself quite frequently that in God's eyes a 1,000 years are like a day and a day is like 1,000 years in the Lord's eyes! Anyways I better get going to bed and if you want to know anything about opportunities in Russia, good books on conseling troubled youth/ working with kids with no parents, ways you can get involved with changing a kids/young adults life, or you just have a general question about the Bible just ask me and I'll see what I can do. If all else fails just stop and look around you. There are so many different people with needs if you only open your eyes and your heart!