This past week has been really good, minus us losing out in the Maurepas Tourney. Not so good, but we'll have all of our guys back tommorrow night for Centerville.

Like i said i played some basketball games, ate some seafood at Val's with my family and tori and her family. they took the whole crew all the way out to maurepas...very nice and greatly appreciated. We watched Nacho Libre which was pretty good...I thought it was better in the theatre, but it's not really...

WEll this week at school, in my english class our teacher has assigned us to write a five hundred word autobiography about ourselves, obviously...well i decidided that that was a wonderful ministry oppertunity and opted to give my testimony...i then came to the conclusion that i've never really shared my testimony online before so here it is...straight from the digital dropbox...

Where do I begin? There is so much that I want to say. I guess I’ll just start from the beginning. Roughly at the end of my eighth grade year, my parents decided to switch from the Catholic religion to non-denominational. This decision didn’t sit well with me. I liked the Catholic religion; it was easy and the masses were a whole lot shorter. At the mature age of 14 that was all the mattered. In the Catholic religion I had to only be a good person to get to heaven, but in my new church they were saying that I had to have a personal relationship with Christ to get into heaven. “What’s that?” I would think silently. I certainly wasn’t going to ask anyone; I was too cool for that. I remember I use to sit with my arms folded and make fun of everyone. They would raise there hands in worship and I remember thinking they were all hypocrites, just raising their hands because that was what the person beside them was doing. I had a lot to learn.

A few months passed and I began to warm up to this new form of Christianity. I found that, however reluctant I was to admit it, church was actually fun. I began to enjoy going to church. I still didn’t understand everything that took place, and I still had a lot of questions, but I started looking forward to going church, or at least Refuge, our youth ministry.

I guess it was the summer after my ninth grade year that things really began to change in my life. If you know anything about protestant churches, most of them have a summer camp every summer. My new church was no different. It was called “Oasis”, and the speaker was none other than Pastor Dino, the lead pastor of my church. Prior to this summer camp I remember praying that if God was real, He needed to show himself to me in an almost tangible way. I wasn’t settling for anything less than speaking in tongues. I mean I had heard about it and had even heard people speak in it, but I didn’t really believe it. It was definitely something I needed to experience for myself.

So there I was at summer camp having a good time because, well, it was fun. It was the last night of camp. Again if you’ve ever been to a camp, you know the last night is the most powerful; God really shows up strong. Well, Pastor Dino began talking about being empowered by the Holy Spirit. I didn’t know much, but I knew that that meant speaking in tongues and stuff. I knew this is what I had been praying for. As he continued to speak, my hands began to shake and my lips began to quiver. I wasn’t sure, but I thought God was about to reveal Himself to me. As Pastor Dino made his alter call, I found myself standing. I don’t remember walking to the alter, but I definitely remember what happened at the alter. I was standing there shaking and quivering when I felt someone put their hand on my shoulder to pray for me. As they began to pray, I began to convulse. I felt like there was something inside of me trying to come out. I didn’t know what it was, but I surrendered to it. I don’t remember too much of what else happened, but I can honestly tell you that God showed Himself to me, just like I prayed.

That night changed my life forever. God gave me a new, fresh passion for Him. He gave me a passion for my school. God stirred something inside of me that can’t die. Before I had always put my hope in temporary things, but now I found something that would satisfy me for all eternity. Yes I still had ups and downs in my life, but God has stayed faithful through everything. Now some two and a half years later, God has continued to change me. He changed my views on dating and relationships. He changed my views on who I am. He has revealed things about Himself to me and has convicted me on things that hinder Him in my life. He has changed and is continuing to change everything about me. I am by no means perfect or anywhere near what God has called me to be. I screw up more times than I succeed, but I continue to strive to more like Him each day and less like me. I want Him to have complete control of my life. I want my life to be a testimony of His love, and mercy, and grace. I can honestly say that my decision to accept Christ and live a life totally abandoned to Him has been the single, most life-altering decision I have or will ever make.

i hope you enjoyed it...that's all for now... :)