When the Time is Right...

I'll have a good blog, but lets face it, I'm not as creative as my buddy Creed here!

But seriously, someone once asked me yesterday who I was predicting to win American Idol and I gave them my answer...

But I was wrong!


















O... Hello there! Are we looking for something? Do you think you are going to find it? Here?
Perhaps you already have... But then again you have no idea.

But like the title of this blog post states, "When the Time is Right" .... ;)

Nobody doesn't like Derrek Lee(Well, maybe the White Sox don't)

GRAND SLAM!!!

Cubs 11 White Sox 6

Oh, I love this!

Ted Lilly or "Ded" Lilly

I don't know, but in this picture he kind of looks like a dead old guy or a zombie or the Sith or something. You decide!

And everyone makes a fuss about this guy's age.

It's that time of year again...

...time to re-unite with some old friends! Are you ready?

CUBS WIN!!!
CUBS WIN!!!

Tents, Cedar Point, and Summer Goals

Tents
So I begin with telling you about my previous weekend. Well, I worked all day Saturday and got off around 9:30 PM. Well, I know I was invited to go down and stay with my brother Nate and his wife, but I told them I wasn't sure that I would make, because of how late I had to work. Well, When I got off, I decided I was gonna drive down to their new house and randomly set up a tent in their backyard and camp out. Then when they wake up the next morning and look in their backyard, they would be like, "What the heck is this about?"

So I drive to Fort Wayne and I get there around 11:15 PM and I see that the lights are off, so that means they are in bed, probably watching tv, so I knew that I had to be quiet. I also didn't want to alarm the neighbors. So I grabbed my tent and went to the backyard to set it up. Now, I'm not good with setting up tents and stuff and thats in the day light. Now I had to worry about setting up a tent in the dark. Some howI did it. So I open it up and i throw my sleeping bag in there.

Now, I'm not gonna go into detail about the people that live far back behind them. They are late night people and I really don't know what kind of organization they are, but they had some camp fire going and were all yelling and running around. Me, being the person I am, someone who worries alot, I start to feel a little uncomfortable about all these strange people. So I layed down in the tent, but then thoughts ran through my head, "What if they are wondering who I am and why did I just set up tent to sleep in?" I tried not to let that bother me, but then I started to worry about if my brother sprayed weed killer around the backyard. I didn't want to get sick. Those people started yelling and getting louder. I wanted inside!

So I called my brother's cell phone and I was like, "Nate, can I come inside to sleep?" He was like, "What do you mean?" I'm like, "Look in your backyard." Then he looks and sees the tent and is like, "What in the world?" I start laughing. He comes outside and we start talking. I was asking me how I set it up in the dark. Yeah, I was amazed too! We spent a few minutes outside and then went back inside where I slept on his couch. It was an adventure!

Cedar Point
So yeah, I went on the Cedar Point trip. I said I was gonna go camping, well... I didn't. I was kind of a strange trip. It was fun, but then again, it could have been better and I could have not spent as much as I did. I should have just joined The Simpsons group or something. I chose not to write about the Cedar Point trip. You will have to ask me I guess.

Summer Goals
I guess I have some summer goals to share with you.

1. To have my blog read by The Derry Prenkert
2. To be apart of the leadership of Summer Camp for my third year
3. Kickball?
4. Shed a few pounds
5. Maybe to have more of a consistant blogging schedule
6. Visit Cedar Point, Six Flags Great America, Kings Island and at least one other amusement park. One down, 3 to go

My evening in a "Turtle" Shell

After returning from the store, I drove in to the parking lot of my apartment complex and as I was driving the 5 mph speed limit, I noticed something in the middle of the drive and it wasn't a rock...

It was this little guy. A turtle.

I drove slowly around him, stopped the car, looked down and I could tell he just wanted to be somewhere safe. I felt sorry for him. His little turtle head sticking out(hehe). His little eyes. I was just like, "oh heck no!" So I parked the car, picked him up and put him in a bucket and set out on an adventure to free Willy(if that was the name I gave him). I remember when I was younger, I would used to catch these things and show them off. So I decided to stop by my parents house show my sister my new little friend.

So we both set off to release our buddy to safey and freedom. We drove out that one place near the golf course off of CR 7. I put the little guy down in the water and just watched him. He stuck his head up a few times, looking back at me. Maybe it was taking a breath, but the way it came out and looked at me, I could tell there was a little "thank you" like stare. He was happy! Happy to swim around! Happy not to worry about being ran over! Happy to maybe find other turtle friends. It was sad to see him go, but hey, thats how it goes.

So I am 2 for 2 on leading animals to safety this year. Lets not forget the dog incident. But yeah, I guess in a way it feels good to help nature out, I don't know. Man, The Office was pretty good tonight. I love that show!

bye bye beautiful

Its what happens next!

Tomorrow night
The Office (the Best Show ever, period)


Sunday
-Mothers Day, show love to your mama
-We are all going down to Fort Wayne to hang out in Nate and Jolyn's new house

Monday
-Ohio
-Camping Here!


Tuesday
-The Roller coaster capital of the world

-But Minus Maverick

And those are probably the only exciting things that are happening this month!
Well... other than this...

and maybe this...

bye bye beautiful

Where have I been all my life?

Anyone there? I'm here! So yeah...a lot has happened...actually, a lot hasn't really happened. Hmm... I'm gonna be an uncle! Uncle Chunk! YEAH!!! So yeah...Happy Easter! So yeah... yep... yeah...

How about a link? Derry

bye bye beautiful!

Creed

We're Just here to do the Super Bowl Shuffle

Bears 39, Saints 14
Colts 38, Patriots 34

Oh yes baby, Bears/Colts Super Bowl!!! I really don't have much to say about it. I'm just happy the Bears are back to do the "Super Bowl Shuffle"! Oh yeah, watch out Colts, the Terror of the Midwest is coming for you!

Two Weeks 'til Showtime!!!

Good luck Bears!

Bears followed by the Cubs?

Bye Bye Beautiful

Gimme A Break...

There are some things in life that I will be taking a break from. I'm gonna take a break from youth ministry. At first, it was hard, giving up something I've had a passion for since high school, but then I felt that it was time to strengthen my heart, to better prepare my self for this work. Now I feel a bit of both, not wanting to sit aside, but also wanting more from sitting aside. I love working with the youth, spending time with the guys from the group, one-on-one conversations, prayer and just loving these guys.

Being a youth leader, I have many strengths, one being how well I can connect with students, listening to them, loving them, prayer and compassion, reaching out and just having fun with them, connecting on a spiritual level. However, there are weaknesses that pull me down. One being frustration. Satan really attacks and uses my frustrations to bring out unhealthy attitudes. Although those times are few, its those times that students or other leaders may see something that isn't a healthy leadership. I really hate myself at times like those.

Now sitting aside and getting involved elsewhere, like a ministry with my peers, I feel that when I do return to youth ministry, that all my strengths will be there and more. Surrounding myself with college age ministry will bring forth more accountability and more peer-to-peer relationships. Having more accountability relationships may help with my frustrations and poor attitudes, along with other day-to-day struggles that I encounter. I do understand that it is God, who will help me with my struggles, but it is God who will be providing me with the right group of accountability friends that will care about me and love me. God is awesome! I can't wait to see how it all goes and what happens in the months to come.

Also, sitting aside from leadership, I'll find a more direct path of what God has in store for my life. I already feel God calling me to work with the youth. I have the passion, but what exactly does working with youth mean? Am I to be a small group leader? A youth leader connector? Am I to be a Sunday school teacher? A youth pastor? A youth camp counselor? Woship leader? If any of these things, what age? Jr. High? Senior high? 7th grade? 11th grade? Am I to even work with my home church? Or am I to travel half way across country to work with another youth ministry? I feel the call, but maybe I made the mistake of just jumping right into being a small group leader. Jumping into what felt right, verses what God say's is right. What is God's plan for me with youth ministry? I'll be feeding on this, diving deeper in his word, spending more time in prayer and just listening. To make God the main focus of my life, He is gonna to great things and point me to where, how, and who I'll be doing ministry with.

Another area I feel God has called me to, is missions. Wow, do I have a passion for missions work! I've seen God do pretty amazing things during mission trips. When I went on my first over seas mission trip to Peru in June of 2001, I have never seen God work like what He did the week I was down there. I know it was culture shock and everything, but the moment we walk into the church we were gonna be working with and meeting the people, I had this feeling inside that I've never felt before, my heart just broke for these people. I've never loved so much! Standing around, looking at all the this 3rd world poverty, a passion was filling me. "It is true that down in Peru(ville) that the Chunk's heart grew 7 sizes that day!" The first church service(while we were there it was during a celebration week and they had a service each night) our mission's team all stood up front and I'll always remember what happened next. Every member of that church(the small and the tall) formed a huge line and walked through welcoming us with love, hugging and kissing us, telling us "thank you" for coming down. There were probably around a hundred and everyone was so happy. Wow, I hated myself for what I was, a selfish American, so worried about what I needed and didn't need in life and then coming down to people who had nothing, but just filled with the love of Christ...I will continue this story later!

Wow, I just feel like writing about my first mission experience and I think I should continue, but the main purpose of entry was to let you know what's going on in my life right now and that it is best for me to just take a break from youth ministry and build more confidence and focuss for what God has planned for me in youth ministry and missions. Be in prayer for my life!

Thank you and Bye Bye Beautiful!

Who let the dogs In?

So today, I was at the local supermarket and this old lady comes up to me and says something like, "There is a big dog walking through some of the aisles in the back of the store." I kind of laughed, but then I looked back and sure enough there was this German Shepherd just walking around as if it were just peacefully shopping for eggs or something. Being the hero I am, it was my job to get him out. I noticed the tag on him as we walked out of the store together. I couldn't find his owner, so I went back in and we called the police to come and get the dog. The dog however, just kept walking in and out of the doors. It was kind of funny. He would just stand and wait for the automatic door to open and then he would come in and come in and then he would walk around the front and then he would stand and wait for the door to open to go back outside. The police finally came and picked him up. It was sad to see our new friend leave. Turns out, some guy had his dog in a pickup truck and had the back window slid open a little bit. The dog opened the window and got out to venture into the store to find his owner. Though, I don't know why the guy didn't see his dog in the store, but oh well, its a story for me to tell.

So yeah...

Bye Bye Beautiful

"Is there a Dr. In the House?"

Ok, I'm gonna write about something that's really been bothering me lately. Ok, I don't mean to complain or anything, but this is something I do not understand and I do speak for a few others out there who share this same love as me. Maybe someone can help us out and maybe explain to me why the world is like this. Do we deserve to suffer? Is it a punishment? Why? Why? Why? Ok, you are probably lost, but that's ok. Here, let me just throw it out...

Ok, this is something I've noticed for a long time and now is the time for answers! HOW COME EVERY TIME THERE IS SOME SORT OF PARTY OR GATHERING OR YOUTH EVENT, YOU CAN'T FIND DR. PEPPER? Well, actually you can find Dr. Pepper, but it is Dr. Pepper with cherry/vanilla or Dr. Pepper berries'n cream. Including diets of both. Seriously though, why not just regular Dr. Pepper? is it a sin? What's the deal? Is it that hard to just go along and get the ORIGINAL flavor, the "23" itself? Now I am speaking for a lot of Dr. Pepper fans who sit and ask the same question. Is it so hard? Why the others? More people like Dr. Pepper than the other flavors!

Take a look at this little segment...

Justin Blackwood: Hey kid, I'm glad you can show up to my party! Would you like something to drink?

Kid: (excited)Yeah, that would be great! Do you have any Dr. Pepper?

Justin: (blank look on face) Dr. Pepper? Like just regular Dr. Pepper?

Kid: Yeah, but if you just have Diet Dr. Pepper, that's good too.

Justin: Um, well we don't have either of those, but we do have Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, Berries and Cream Dr. Pepper, Sour Apple Dr. Pepper, Chocolate Dr. Pepper with Caramel. Dr. Pepper 1, Dr. Salt-n-Pepper, The Red Hot Chilli Dr. Peppers, and Dr. Pepper Lime. Would you like any of those? We have them all in Diet too!

Kid: (walking out the door)

Ok, so its probably not like that. I mean its just odd to see all the pop choices and you've got your usual Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Coke and then you look for Dr. Pepper and its not there unless its in a pink or purple box and with berries on it. Those flavors are just not right! It's like if you were going to watch Saved By the Bell on DVD and all the selections were Saved by the Bell: The College Years or Saved by the Bell: The New Generation or whatever it's called. I mean, who does that? Why not just Saved By the bell? The ones with Zack and Screetch and the rest in their original series? Is that a good example? So yeah... Ok, I'm not saying that I don't like Pepsi or Mountain Dew, cause I do and I drink a lot of Dew, but maybe the Mountain Dew people can suffer next time, when the only selections is are Diet Caffeine free Mountain Dew or Mountain Dew Pitch Black! But yeah, thats how I feel! Next time, I'm bringing the pop...bringing the Dr. Pepper to the ones who feel the pain of not being able to drink less than 25 flavors. Kid, i'm talking to you!

Ok, this was my venting post about how things should not be! Ok, I don't want you to read this and think, "Wow, he is mad!" No, this was a for fun post, maybe I'll get some answers, maybe not. But seriously, it doesn't really make sense just leaving out regular Dr. Pepper! But yeah...whatever!! Have fun!!! Later!!!

Bye Bye Beautiful

Episode 7: The Return of the Truffle Shuffle

Ok, I'm back and I'm ready...well, I'm not ready for something right this minute, but I have internet now and I assure you that I will get this thing up and running the way a ChunkMan would!!! I hope I can attract some readers. I'll try to be creative for everyone to enjoy. For now, tell your friends...

"CHUNK'S BACK BABY!!!"

Bye Bye Beautiful

I'm Thinking Arby's

I'm officially moved! Expect posts to be monthly for I do not know when and if I will have internet at my apartment. It should be great though! Anybody wanna come and visit? Give me a call on my cell! Alrighty!

Bye Bye Beautiful

Copied and Pasted

I'm lazy so I just decided to copy and paste my latest xanga post. Enjoy!

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Currently ListeningParachutesBy Coldplaysee related
Greetings again, Xanga natives. Feel free to actually visit, www.jeremyingalls.blogspot.com Eventually that should become my home for blogging and stuff, but don't worry, I will still share some stuff on here because its more of a home for me posting stuff. I kind of what to make my blogspot a little more serious then this xanga site. Don't worry, it will still have some fun stuff with it, but I think its just gonna be a better thing to use. I'll probably just use this for stupid stuff or something...actually, I think I'll post a little news for you...
As of this Sunday, Oct. 1st, I will be officially all moved out of apartment 9 in beautiful Wakarusa. The three of us all went separate ways, but don't worry, I'm sure somewhere down the line, we'll plan a reunion tour.(i'm speaking as if we were a band). So over the week I have been moving stuff back in with my parents and just being prepared to live here for a few weeks. Over the past few weeks I've been worried about what I'm gonna do? Where I'm gonna live? Twan is off doing a church plant in Kansas City. Simpson's moving in to one of the church houses. All of this kind of left me alone, searching for a new roommate(s) to move into another apartment with. I wasn't having any luck and I knew living at home for a long time wasn't gonna be the best option. I prayed and I finally found one that I could move into alone. Well, actually my parents found it for me. They went there while I was working, talked with the manager, took a look at the room, picked up and application and started filling some of it out. I came home from work, in a hurry to get dressed and off to small groups, my parents tell me that they found a place for me. I became happy and wasn't worried as much. They told me all about it and I was getting excited. All I have to do is finish the application and turn it and hopefully start moving stuff in sometime in the next two weeks. I went to chuch happy! Terry spoke tonight and it was a good message. I've always liked the "EO-REO"(Each One REach One) cards. Its basically just writing down a few names of unsaved friends and committing to praying for and reaching out to them. It's pretty cool! After church I went to Hacienda with David Miller. He's a pretty cool guy, graduated a year before me. He works with freshman guys. We talked a lot about what God has in store for our lives in the future. It was nice. He's actually got a job interview in PA this weekend. But yeah, he's been just a good friend over the past few weeks. He even says the same about me. It feels good to actually a friend the same age as me. I'm not saying I don't have friends my age, but they're all off at college and busy with stuff. Dave graduated college and is back and kind of feels the same way me. Trying to find some peers to hang out with. So yeah, back to the apartment. If that all works out, my life should be pretty good. I just might have to find a better job somewhere down the line. So yeah, I guess I can just copy and paste this over at www.jeremyingalls.blogspot.com. Well, at least everything but the intro! Yeah!
Bye Bye Beautiful

Unfair!

I'm sorry for complaining, but I think some things are just unfair! Just because of this, they can do this and leave others out of it!

When will it be my turn?

-Caramel Apple Milkshakes from Steak'n Shake are amazing!

-Leader retreat over the weekend = Awesome!

-Billy likes to drink soda


Bye Bye Beautiful

Shall We Start?

Ok, I feel like it is time to give you a real post. To tell you the truth, I'm a little nervous doing this, I mean, does this mean there will be no more ChunkManYeah xanga? If that's what needs to happen, so be it! Will people read this? I hope so! So yeah, seriously, let me give you some of my thoughts and info and stuff about how life has been going lately.

To start off, I would just like give you some thoughts I have towards my role in small groups this year. Some of you might know that I was a Freshman guys leader last year and I loved it. I really enjoyed just investing in the live's of my small group students. I really connected well with a lot of guys and just spending time with them talking, praying, laughing. It was a really good year, but unfortunately, small group time just felt like a "mininum" or something. It's not that they were bad or anything. It just didn't feel like it went deeper. Sure there were some pretty awesome times of just diving in Spiritually, but for the most part it just didn't go anywhere that I was hoping for. It wasn't all my fault and it wasn't the student's fault. The group did however connect very well and it felt like a small group and it was. Maybe I just had high expectations. The group started out big and I was scared(not a big fan of talking in front of a big group. Sure there were just like 10 guys, but still, 10 freshman guys), but it soon averaged out to about 4 or 5 guys a night and I felt comfortable. I work really good with that amount and most of our good nights were with about 4 or 5 guys.
See, the number one thing that I enjoyed about small groups, were nights that I would take one or two of the guys out to T-Bell or Hacienda and just talk one-on-one. Those were some of the time I really enjoyed when I was in the youth group. Times when a small group leader would just take some time to invest in my life. Sometimes those times were just time of fun and joking around and sometime they were serious, maybe involving just confession or prayer. So when I started with small groups, I knew it was time for me to just do the same for the students, spending time with guys like Carter, Austin, or Bufkin. I can do that great, but just leading a group alone...maybe not so great.
So that gets me to this year. I don't like to think of it this way, but I stepped down from being a "Small Group Leader" to being a Small Group Leader Assistant, but not to be confused with Assistant to the Small Group leader(if any of you are fans of The Office) I had a talk with Derry Prenkert about it and just the role I can play. I thought it was awesome. A good thing for me to just get a chance to work with another leader and just invest in the student's lives in a different way and I would just feel more comfortable with a bigger group, knowing that its not just me, but me working along side of another leader. At first, when time came, I was a little unsure. I was getting a whole new group to work with and not quite ready to leave working with the group I had last year. I started praying about it and just thinking and even talking with Cindi Lantz and I can now say, that I'm ready and that I'm very excited. God is gonna is just do awesome things in these students' lives. He's gonna change lives and I can't wait to see it. I can't wait to just spend time taking these new students out to eat or out to play Kickball or something. I don't know why I didn't mention God before in the this post. I'm sorry! God Is awesome and He's gonna do great things with this youth group! Am I right? Small Groups 2006-2007, BRING IT!!! Craig, we are doing this...YEAH!!!

So yeah, thats it for my first post...well...I have some more thoughts about different stuff in my life, but that can wait for a new post. Can it? It's boring stuff, maybe. I hope not!

Can I get a Bye Bye? Like a Bye Bye Beautiful?

Goodnight!

I'm going to sleep now!

Goodnight Beautiful

So Easy...Or is it?

I guess this can happen. I'm not sure though. Derry Prenkert's is cool!! But here will be my first post for this blog place.