Africa...Invisible Children

This quote is from the story of the Invisible Children...

"Once one has been to these challenging terrible places they're always strangely drawn back...because there's nothing that can compare to seeing the raw reality of the basic human need for survival. It disgusts and inspires." -Dan Eldon

Any thoughts? Curious?
Check out the link to the right...
Until Dukey Drops again...Much Love...

The Madness of March

As the snow begins to melt from a snow storm that came through a few days ago after many 60-70 degree "winter" days we find ourselves officially in spring. Every year around this time there are favorites and there are cinderellas among college basketballs best teams. Everyone attempts to guess who will be the Final Four and who will be the cinderella team. There are upsets that destroy your bracket and there are teams that defy their seed. My Final Four included Kansas, Texas, Uconn and Florida. Kansas sadly was that team for me that I was counting on. They ran into the MVC buzzsaw Bradley Braves. Bradley almost didn't make the tourney and they made the most of their opportunity knocking of #4 seeded KU and #5 seeded Pitt.
The biggest news now in the state is that of the Wichita State Shockers who play another seed-defying team the Colonials of Goerge Mason tonight. Both teams have an opportunity to do what many teams would almost die for, a chance to make the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament. After both teams have been knocking off higher seeded teams they have a rematch of a game earlier in the season where George Mason won by three 70-67 and they are favored to win again. It should be fun to watch.
Ok so after I posted this Wichita St. went on to lose to George Mason in what was not the best game for the Shockers who looked slow and just not on their "A" game. They were still fun to root for.
Other big news in this area is the Kansas State signing of Men's head basketball coach Bob Huggins former coach of the Cincinnati Bearcats. Kansas State I believe took a huge step toward seeing success with their Men's basketball....unfortunately.
Fort Hays State Men's basketball won their first game of the North Central regional but dropped their second to eventual DII National Champ Winona St. They ended a great season 27-4.
Coming into this the tourney everyone had expectations of a certian team or maybe of a conference. Oddly enough this made me think of the expectations we have of one another whether in a friendship or dating relationship. I'm not going to speak toward marriage because as most of you know I have no experience in that area but this is
very relevant to it.
So often we have unrealistic and very idealistic expectations of one another and this often causes problems. Granted they are good to have and help us push each other to greater things but in the event that someone doesn't meet those expectations I believe we should be honest with ourselves and see if we were perhaps a bit unrealistic. Whether we were a bit over zealous in our ideals or we weren't we should be able to let it go and not hold a grudge toward that person because they didn't meet our lofty bar.
I believe it is really important that those expectations are discussed early on in a dating relationship so that as it progresses you are aware and be open to any modifications too. The vital part in discussing these is that you yourself are able to listen to the other person and find if they feel that you do have unrealistic expectations. You also need to be honest with yourself if you are in a cosmic world of your own in the making of the mold that your friend or date needs to fit into. If your horizontal relationships around you are really out of whack and messed up it is very likely that your vertical relationship is imapcted too.
Anyway just some thoughts I had...Until Dukey drops again....Much love....

Skiing...highs and lows

Last week I drove to Rock Springs, WY to meet up with my parents to go to Park City, UT and go skiing with my old man, pops and daddio. We went to The Canyons in Park City and had a great time. The sun was shining and it was quite warm as you can tell from the picture. I chose not to wear a hat, hair, and forgot sunscreen. The results speak for themselves. Today I started peeling. Its all good though. We had a great time on the mountian. The snow and the weather were both excellent!
It was fun to laugh at my dad and he had a few chances to laugh at me. We made some jokes on the camcorder..."dad are those your panties in the tree!!?!!" LOL! We trekked across unknown territory and just brought about more laughs. We just plain and simple had a good time.
One of the times when dad did nothing but laugh was when we were headed across an open area of unskiied territory. I got up to the run we were trying to find...dad showed up later because he lost his pole in the snow...and I stood at the incline on the edge of the run checking things out and I began to slide backwards. The back of my skis dug in and I fell over backwards burring my left shoulder and my backpack two feet into the snow. It was just the sight dad needed as he skiied over to me. He demanded the camera while he laughed. He paid me $20 and he got the camera. So thats what I'm doing on my back. Just kidding about the $20. We went in to Salt Lake City one night and ate at a Brazilian place where they come around and cut off hunks of freshly roasted chicken, turkey, elk, pork tenderloin, etc. off of big skewers. It reminded me very much of Carnivore in Nairobi. Then the second night we messed around in Park City and headed home. It was also good to hear of the cool things that God is doing in the lives of those apart of their ministry in Rock Springs. Is. 40:28-31
It was awesome to enjoy the beauty of the moutians and hang with a pretty cool guy too. He's not quite the risk taker he used to be 10 or 20 years ago but I won't be the one to spoil the fact that he's not 18 anymore. It more fun to think that you are and will be for a long time...so next time take that 20 foot jump in the terrain park instead of looking at it. You may never live to get another chance to take it. Of course you may not live to tell about it either but the people watching will pass on the legend of the "Flyin' White Weasel".
While I was on the road the Fort Hays Tigers dropped one out of two games in the conference tourney and fell from #1 in the region to #2 and lost the chance to host the regional. It is sad because I was making plans for my smooth canvas of a head to show some school spirit. So many students are too concerned with looking cool and are too scared to show a little passion and excitement and have some fun...I'm not gonna get started. Anyway we dropped to #5 (26-3)in the Nation(Div. II) but that doesn't matter now. The fellas have got to go out and win. The girls didn't do so well and ended a great season at 21-7.
Well thats it for today as another beautiful early March day ends...Until Dukey drops again....Much love....

Sold Out!

FHSU Tiger Basketball had a big weekend in some ways and others not so much. The Tiger Men's team has been ranked #1 in Div II for a few weeks now and came in to Sundays game against Nebraksa-Kearney 25-1 and 18-0 in the RMAC. Sundays game was the first in school history to sell out in advance. The official attendance was 7,187. The place was packed and loud!!! It was awesome to see over 6,000 already there for the start of the womens game. The Lady Tigers(21-6) deserve a big loud crowd. They played well and beat the Loper ladies 60-52. The guys had established a 31 game home winning streak and had won 18 straight games. The men just had a tough time getting shots to fall. Free throw and 3 point shots were not dropping as the Tigers shot 55%(12/22) from the freethrow line and 17%(4/23) from 3-point range. Still they battled but in the end we all went home disappointed with a 70-66 loss to our bitterly disliked rival Nebraska-Kearney. The conference tourney starts on wednesday and continues on the weekend as the guys are the #1 seed and the women are the #3 seed. The women have got to possibly win the conference tourney or make it to the championship game to have a shot at making the national tourney as their region is very strong. The guys will have a NCAA DivII tourney bid locked up and should host the regional being #1 ranked in our region. Should be a lot of fun. Hopefully they will rebound from this loss and realize they have got to play better because now it becomes one and done for the season. I'll continue to enjoy rooting for the Tigers as long as the ride lasts.
Speaking of fun, this wednesday I am leaving for Park City, UT as my dad and I are going to go skiing Thursday and Friday at The Canyons www.thecanyons.com one of the top 15 best places to ski in North America. I am really excited! It will surely be a lot of fun. Its been a long while since pops and I have just kicked it so that will be really cool. I'm sure I'll have some good pics from the trip.
Thanks for your prayers for my mom as she had surgery about 4 or 5 weeks ago. Its been a kind of slow process as healing from surgery is but she is doing better and getting healed up. She had a bit of cabin fever but is back on her feet and getting in to a routine again. So thank you to you all...all 3 of you who read this. HA!
Monday nights I have a bible study and we are reading a book by John Piper called "When I Don't Desire God:How to fight for Joy" and I think its going well. If you haven't read Piper before he can be quite philisophical and I can't say it has been real smooth all the time for us all but tonight was really good. We talked about how joy is a gift and it is ultimately a gift that stems from God's grace and love for us. God's grace just is humanly very difficult to comprehend. (Eph.2:4-5,8-9) Why does He still love and pursue us when we repeatedly do stuff wrong and hurt our relationship? (Rom.7:13-23) I have no clue why in human reason to be justify or make sense of it. Thats love. We also talked about how we rank sins. In our eyes murder, adultery, rape, and homosexuality are among the "worst" but in God's eyes even though the bible says those things are wrong our "small" sins of gossip, lies or lusting are equal because they are sin. So if God loves us the same no matter our sin why the heck can't we love others whether they are homosexual or not. We should exhibit the same grace and love God gives us to others. Good stuff. Gotta be Sold out!
For those who may be wondering I will not be going overseas this summer. I know its became a trend for the last 3years but I am stateside this summer. I've got my sisters wedding on July 8th to celebrate and I know that God has got other plans for me this summer only not in Kenya. It is possible I could return there because I would most definitely like too for a longer period of time but thats down the road a bit. I am trying to search and see what this summer and next fall will bring aside from the knowns that I'm graduating on May 13th and my sister is getting married on July 8th.
Well I think thats it for now.....Until Dukey drops again....Much Love..........

Papa Johns, Papa Ross, and Mr. Philip

Here are some pics from the Papa John's Pizza Showdown on Thursday Feb 2nd at the halftime of the #2 ranked Fort Hays State Men's Basketball game vs Metro St. The first(at the top) pic you see all the contestants in 4 teams of 2 with their partner standing behind them. The guys on the far left of the group pic and in the background of the 2nd pic were the winning team...They called themselves "Team Mexico" and are on our cross country team here at FHSU. They ate 9 pieces of pizza in 3minutes, crust and all. I've heard a lot of people say they could do better but we'll see next time if their talk is walk. The one girls team pictured in three of the pics finished 2nd with 7 of 8 pieces in the given time. Sedera(left) and Heather(right) represented well. I knew them from Christian Challenge and knew they were savages and could hold their own. I wasn't disappointed. They got game.
The picture below is of my dad at Christmas time that I promised to post on here. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. He got in the fridge to get some OJ and got excited and wet himself. He really likes OJ. LOL! Just kidding...the lid wasn't on very well and he dumped it all over himself. I chased him around to try and get a picture and he wouldn't let me. Finally he gave up and took this beauty! Thanks Pops!
And Finally to Mr. Philip(not pictued...maybe later) and his wife Sandy, whom we worked with the last two summers in Nairobi, Kenya, were at Challenge last night and they shared with us. It was GREAT to see them. They have been such a blessing to know and work with. They are currently stateside on furlow for the next 6 or 7 months. Maybe I'll have to make a road trip to go see them? It was awesome to get to see them once again! I guess thats it for now. So until Dukey Drops Again......Much Love...........

Woooohoooo!!!(except homework)

The Fort Hays State mens and womens basketball teams are doing heating up! Currently the men's team(18-1) is ranked #2 in Div. II and is playing great basketball. Its the highest the Tiger men have been ranked since the 96-97 season when they went 34-0 and finished as national champs ranked #1. The women are 16-3 and playing well also. Both have big games this Thursday as we host Metro St. from Denver who are in the top three in the conference for both the men and the women. Thursday will be fun for me too as I have been doing some marketing for Papa John's working with FHSU and we will be sponoring the game on Feb. 2nd. At halftime there will be a pizza eating competition where in teams of two, four teams will compete to see who can eat the most pizza in 4 minutes. It will be like a tag-team deal where only one person can be at the table at a time. It should be fun and create a little halftime excitement for both Papa John's and the Tigers. The winning team gets a $100 gift certificate from Papa John's.
As far as the Jayhawks go they are playing well...of course last time I posted about thier success they went and dropped two in a row to lowly KSU and Mizzou. Sad. So (knock on wood) I hope it doesn't happen again. They are in the thick of the BigXII race.
As for me I am busy with reading way too much stuff for class. Its been nuts. I average about 100 pages for one class, 2 chapters for another, chapter for bible study and I'm on hold for any reacreational reading. I can understand it for my leadership class that is my "capstone" class for my degree but I have a gen-ed, basic 100 level class that is killing me like its a capstone class too. I don't get some professors I guess. Oh well life goes on.
For those of you that were aware of my moms health thanks for your prayers. She seems to be doing well and healing from surgery. I guess she has to be home for the next two weeks but I'm thinkin' what crazy stuff she's been dealing with she needs as long as she needs. It was cool as my mom was in the hospital I had emailed Peter, friend of mine from Kenya, to ask for prayer and his father had just went into the hospital and we got to specifically pray for similar situations dealing with our family and their health. The situation itself wasn't cool but to meet eachother through prayer a world away was great. He sent me Phil 4:4-8 as encouragement and I really stopped and looked at it in many more ways than usual. We have no reason not to rejoice. No reason.
Well homework awaits me so I'd better run...Much Love to you all...Until Dukey Drops again......

Happy New Year!

Sorry its been so long since I've posted. Its been a busy but good break. Classes are started up again and its gonna be a real busy semester. I guess I'm gonna have to be extra disciplined with my time. That likely means few postings on here. We'll see.
Anyways Christmas was really good as I got to see my bro Tyler, visit my parents out in Wyoming and hang with my sister and her fiance. Yes she got engaged on Christmas eve. Don't ask for details about a wedding because at this time there really aren't any. So it was a great time with the family. My dad kills me. I had some good laughs at his expense like he spilled a half a jug of O.J. on his lap and it looked like he had an accident(pic to be posted later) and one of the times we played racquetball I hit him in the head twice!! It was so painfully funny! It was a coincidence that I had been hit twice the day before...it wasn't revenge. I had tears flowing and was in pain because I was laughing so hard after we got done playing.
I came back to Hays and my grandpa had put two new tires on my car. Merry Christmas. He also put these awesome hubcaps(see pic) that I'm sure he stole off of some HUGE '72 Olds cruiser and thought they would look nice on my car. To put it mildly they have gotten some attention. I mean they had a photo shoot with Porfirio as you can see so they're famous. He clown too much. Grandpa has out done himself again. Its funny stuff.
New Years was good. The cops showed up at Micah's house because the guys across the street were shooting off fireworks and Micah got his out as the cops showed up. So naturally Micah standing in the street with a roman candle in his hand held high above his head caught their attention. All of his fireworks were confiscated. Thankfully the cops showed up before I could get mine out of my car or I would have been in the same boat and I would have been mad because as some of you know I am a 4th of July savage.
Jan 2-6th we went to LifeImpact in OKC, OK. It was really good. Its awesome rub shoulders and talk with some awesome and incredible people who are seeking God in all they do. We took 45 from FHSU and had a great time.
We had a Christian Challenge leadership retreat this last weekend in Salina at WCC. A lot of stuff in less than 48 hours but we had a blast and I was able to connect with some people I maybe didn't know so well. This semester I am only going to be leading a small group. We're gonna go through the book "When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy" by John Piper. I am excited about it and it should be good and a great chance to grow a little closer to a few guys.
This weekend I will be going to Kansas City to help move the new pastor of our church to Hays. Micah, P, myself and two other guys from our church are gonna be the moving crew and tackle it all on Friday. I know theres gonna be a great way to help out and I'm sure it will be fun too.
FHSU basketball update: Men are 15-1 and ranked #8 in the latest Div.II polls. The women are 13-2 and playing better and better each week. It shouldn't be too long before they get some attention.
KU basketball update: Its sad times right now as a Jayhawk fan as KU has dropped two straight and to the two worst teams they could, Mizzou in overtime and K-State by 4(You happy Heather?). Things are really looking doubtful for an NCAA Tourney bid setting with a record of 10-6.
And yes its true I am planning on graduating this spring with a degree in Organizational Leadership. This is my last semester taking undergraduate courses here at FHSU. So there will be a huge celebration of grand proportions to mark my perserverence. Ok so maybe not but I will be done this spring.
Happy New Year to you all!
Until Dukey drops again.......Much Love...

Winter is here...

The last week winter showed up after weeks of 60 and 70 degree days. It blasted us with 60mph winds and snow. Interstate 70 was closed from here in Hays west on Sunday night to Denver(eventually closed to Salina 90miles east of Hays) and didn't open back up until Tuesday morning.
The next morning(Monday) I went outside to put salt down on our stairs and sidewalks around our apatment building and my neighbor got stuck on the ice in her Camaro. I helped push her car back in the driveway and gave her a ride to work. I went back outside and my rear driverside tire was totally flat. So as the snow was blowing at 60mph and 25 degrees warm I put the "donut" on my car.
I decided since the weather was bad I would go ahead and go to campus. So I drove to campus and I get out and my donut is flat(little bit of air). I just laughed. So I got back in my car and drove across town for air. I get there and the hose is plugged with ice. After 10min I finally got some air out and filled the donut up enough. I get back to campus and I decided to check to see if I have class and I don't. Its cancelled. A not so great start to what was a good day...seriously.
Today its snowing, as it did last night and we have maybe 3"(guessing) of snow on the ground and its a balmy 7 degrees(high of 8) with a light wind at 17mph giving a windchill of -14. So given this today and the blast we had last week I'm going to make it official...WINTER IS HERE! I'm still wondering where fall went but thats the past.
So the winter means college basketball and bowl games among other things. I'm excited to see the Jayhawks being bowl eligible...granted they are playing in the Fort Worth Bowl thats more than K-State, Taxas A&M, OSU or Baylor can say. The Jayhawk baskeball team(3-4) is young, talented and struggling. They have tons of upside they just have a lot of maturing to do. Besides their 12 point loss to Arizona, KUs other three loses(by a total of 6points) are all by less than 3points.
The Fort Hays basketball teams(men 7-1; women 4-2) and wresting(ranked #10 Div. II) are doing well and all three should be fun to watch as they are all very talented this year. www.tigersportszone.com You can see whats going on here.
I'm doing good. One final down and finals week is not here yet. Great news. Its next week.
I'd better get to work. Until Dukey drops again.......Much Love......