New Year's Eve

How we party in Menifee:

Step 1: Claim your spot on the couch

Step 2: Recline your chair

Step 3: Don't fall asleep

Step 4: Find the countdown on TV

Step 5: Wake up the people that failed step three

Step 6: Count backwards from ten starting at 11:59:50 pm

(If anyone has a Monty Python quote in their head right now, raise your hand. "...neither shall thou count to two, unless thou immediately proceedeth to three...")

Step 7: Shout some commonly used phrase. Popular choices: "Happy New Years" "Huzzah" "Bazinga!"

Step 8: Go to bed at 12:00:37

Step 9: Fall asleep at 12:00:53

Current Worries

Two things are on my mind: weather & bathrooms

So the current weather in Cluj, Romania as of this moment is 14 degrees Fahrenheit. Tomorrow's high is 26, and tomorrow's low is 10. Since my trip is ten days away, I can look at the ten day forecast.

http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/ROXX0022

If you scroll to the bottom, you'll notice that there's a 30% chance of snow on the first two days that I'm there, the 7th and 8th. Brrrrr! I spent Thanksgiving in Pioche, Nevada where the lows were in the teens, so I have a bit of a concept about how cold that is. Now I just have to remember that when I get to Germany, I'll need to find a bathroom so that I can change clothes and add the necessary layers.

This brings me to my second worry: Bathrooms

Growing up in Southern California, you take Spanish in high school. I took three years and forgot two and a half of them. I could fake it well enough if I was in Mexico, but I know nothing about German.

Well, I do know three things: gesundheit, hamburger, & Heil Hitler. Unless my plane is a 1985 Delorean, I don't think I'll need that last one.

So, how do I find the bathrooms when I get to the airport in Germany? Hopefully the signs will be helpful enough...

Money Situation

I should have enough. I'd love to give you more details than that, but the Bank of America website won't load on this computer. The last time I checked, I had enough though. I'll be sure to let you all know if money starts to run low, but I think I'm good.

You guys are all back to work today, doing your normal thing. For me, today means going through all my clothes and deciding who makes the cut to go to Romania.

Deciding factors:

Style and/or The "Do You Make Me Look Awesome?" Factor

Function and/or The "How Many Warm Things Do I Need To Pack So That My Parents Won't Worry" Factor

Bonus Items and/or The "Am I Going To Need My Soccer Cleats Or Ties On This Trip?" Factor

Menifee Tour

Here are some pics of my parent's house in Menifee. My blog will only let me load three pictures. The rest are on my Facebook page.

Since it rained pretty recently, everything is nice and green. During the summer all the green turns into brown. The house that is currently on the property isn't the house that

I grew up in. The house I grew up in had brown walls,

brown cupboards, brown paneling, and brown carpet. We had brown overload growing up in that place.

Walking home from school always presented me with a dilemma. Do I cut through my neighbor's yard, shaving 20 minutes off my walk, or do I take the long way and check the mail on the way. Shorter time, and no mail? Or longer time and mail? Usually my decision was temperature based. If it's over a hundred, screw the mail I'm going home.

Praise Report

Blessed blessed, blessed blessed, blessed blessed blessed.

Certain friends and relatives of mine have stepped up in a big BIG way monetarily these past couple days. I am blown away by your generosity, and I will never forget it. I couldn't do this without you guys. If you guys ever need anything, ever, you let me know.

Also, my dad decided to buy me a new camera, which I'm going to play with tomorrow. I hope you guys want a tour of the Petty farm, cause that's what you're going to get.

I'm starting to get really excited to go to Romania. Every time I think about it, it makes me happy.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

My parents are happy because they get to use my tv while I'm gone. Now they just need to haggle with DirecTv to get an HD receiver and HD service. Then they'll be all set.

What Christmas looks like for me:

We're not doing presents this year, so our Christmas is going to be hanging out, watching movies, playing games, and eating food. Those are the best parts of Christmas anyways.

What does Christmas look like for you? Let me know. :)

Homeward Bound

I had quite the adventure driving to Menifee.

After I finished packing all of my stuff in my car and my friend's truck, they asked me, "Where are you going to sleep tonight?" Well, I was going to sleep on my couch. Apparently, that was a silly idea so they invited me to stay at their place. Then, the next morning we could caravan down to Menifee.

They wanted to beat the traffic, which is always a good idea, so we planned on getting up at 4am. Despite that motivation, we still stayed up kinda late chatting with friends that stopped by for one last goodbye. At around 11pm I laid down to go to sleep.

First I was cold, then I was hot, then I was REALLY hot. I had to kick off some of my covers. After that I was fine. However, their place was right next to the freeway, and the noise of the cars was enough to keep me up.

2:30, still awake.

3:30, still awake.

3:45, awake and waiting for my alarm to go off at 3:50.

I got bored and got up before it rang.

Once everyone was dressed and ready to go it was 4:30. Two things were on my mind: a) I hadn't slept, and b) My car was so packed that I could only really see out my front and left windows. I couldn't see out the back, or to the right. Changing lanes was going to be difficult.

We get on the road, and luckily part of my right window is uncovered enough so that I can still see my mirror on that side. That saved my life twice on our trip.

We were heading south on a three lane freeway. I was in the middle lane stuck behind someone. The person next to me in the fast lane was also stuck behind someone. I was going slightly faster than the person in the slow lane, so I was just waiting to merge over so I could pass the person in front of me. Unfortunately the giant Yukon behind me was also waiting for the same opening.

I hit my blinker and started to move over. He hit his gas and gunned into the opening. My stuff is piled high in my car, so I can't really tell if he's going to let me move over or not. When it becomes clear that he isn't going to let me in, I have to swerve back into my lane and let him pass. Yikes.

Then the same thing happened about an hour later with another giant SUV. Sheesh, I was doing 75 at 5am. You can't tell me that you were late to something. Who hosts Christmas Eve parties at 5am? Well, I suppose if there were people out there hosting 5am Christmas Eve parties, they would be the same sort of people that were sticklers for being on time.

Anyways, I finally get home, unload my friend's truck so they can get on their way, and go inside. My mom walks out and meets me in the kitchen. "Do you want pancakes?" Yes, mom. The answer is always yes. :)

Packing

I am a Tetris genius!

You guys should see my little car. It is stuffed to the gills with all of my stuff, and I still have a few nooks and crannies that I could put things in.

Phew, I'm so tired. I've been packing for the last 6 hours. Sadly, I don't think I'm going to be able to fit all my big stuff in the back of my friend's truck. That means that I'll have to drive back up here and get the rest. Oh well. It almost all fit.

It's a good thing that I've been so busy all day. I haven't had time to freak out or anything.

Oh! I see my muffin tin in the drain board. I'm going to go pack that...

It's Happening

So, tomorrow I'm packing up my entire life. Hopefully I can get most of it to fit in my car. Then the rest I can put in the back of my friend's truck.

Even though tomorrow is going to be my last full day in Carpinteria, it still doesn't feel real. It doesn't feel like I'm really leaving. The whole world is going home for Christmas. I'm going home for Christmas just like them. It's not anything special. At least, that's what my brain is telling me.

I've been wanting this and looking forward to this for so long that it became a dream. I've been telling my mind "Not yet" for so long that it might be permanently stuck thinking that it's not happening.

January 7th it will actually happen and my brain will have no choice but to accept that fact.

16 days until I leave for Romania.

Parting Wisdom

I'm leaving Carpinteria in a few days, so I thought I'd share some of my wisdom before I leave.

How to have a conversation with anyone:
Ask lots of questions.

How to sound smarter:
Always phrase your yes/no questions so that the answer is yes.

How to know if a girl/boy likes you:
Ask them.

How to make a friend:
Find out what they are interested in, and show an interest in that thing by asking questions.

How to brighten someone's day:
Be genuinely excited when they walk into the room.

How to not be shy:
Pretend that you're outgoing. If you do it for long enough, you won't be pretending anymore.

How to be good looking:
Doesn't matter.

How to be healthy:
Turn your life into a workout. Flex while you brush your teeth. Take the stairs. Park far away. When you carry in groceries or take out the trash hold them out perpendicular from your body.

How to speed up time:
Reminisce about the past.

How to slow down time:
Anticipate the future.

How to be awesome:
Always pretend that the things that happened on accident actually happened on purpose.

How to dance:
Find the beat. Move to the beat.

Life is simpler than people make it out to be. Well, I suppose I don't know what's going to happen. Maybe things get more complicated in the future.

If you have parting wisdom that you want to give to me, I'm all ears. :)

Personal Revelation

I grew up in the church. I've never known life as a non-Christian. Today, I got a taste of the contrast between life without Jesus and life with Jesus.

Without Jesus:
How do I describe this? I've been having trouble sleeping. Each night I wait until I get tired, then I go to bed. A couple nights ago, it was 2:30 before I realized that I should try and go to bed. Then when I do fall asleep, it's not for very long. I'll wake up every couple of hours. I do the same thing with food. I wait until I'm hungry, then I eat. Some days I don't eat until 3:30 in the afternoon, and that will be my only meal that day. I'm just not hungry.

Every single day I'm tempted to fall back into my old ways. Every free moment I have, the temptation creeps in. Whispers surround me, "Just go ahead and sin. It'll be fun." Sometimes I fight it. Most times I can't.

Then there's that feeling that I'm all alone. Whenever people need or ask for my help, I'm always there for them. Now that I'm the one that's asking, I'm utterly disappointed in the response that I've gotten. I've sent off emails and mailed out letters to all of my relatives and exactly zero of them have responded or even acknowledged that they even got the letter.

Some of my friends have stepped up, and I'm truly grateful for them, but if you compare the number that responded to the total number of people I know, and it's less than 1%. Disappointing.

This morning it all came to a head. I tried to get ready for church, but it was hard on a small amount of sleep and a large amount of headache. I didn't have any energy to worship. It hurt to keep my eyes open during the sermon. During the entire second set of worship, I just rested my head in my hands, and spent the whole time praying.

I felt hollow, stretched thin, brittle.

Even after the first service when I was back at my apartment, all I wanted to do was lie on my couch with my eyes closed. However, I couldn't do that. I had to prepare for the children's ministry during third service. I printed out a coloring sheet, ate some food, and lied down on my couch...at least until my roommate walked out and started talking to me.

When it was time to go, I got into my car and headed back to church. I made copies of the coloring page, and waited in the classroom for the kids to show up.



With Jesus:

Jesus is always so faithful to send His Holy Spirit to help me deal with those kids.

They started showing up, and none of my issues seemed to matter. I had energy. My headache was gone. I was the opposite of alone with my three classroom helpers. Everything was fine.

What's that you say? There's no one to lead worship? That's fine. I'll sing something.
What's that you say? There's no teachers in the three year old classroom, five year old classroom, or six year old class room, and you have to send them all into my four year old class? That's fine, I can handle it. What's that you say? Now we do have someone to lead worship? Great. Everything kept changing on me, but none of it seemed overwhelming.

It was the most hectic day I've had in the last few months and none of it bothered me. We ended up having 14 kids from three to six years old, and when their parents came and took them away at the end of the service, I had more energy than I started with.

That's the difference of with Jesus and without Jesus.

Galatians 2:20
²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Psalm 73:25-26
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.


Prayer Requests:
Now is the time when things start to get sad. I'm leaving Carpinteria this week. I'm leaving the children's ministry, I'm leaving my friends, I'm leaving my church. Pray that instead of being sad and looking back, that I'll stay focused on Jesus and be filled with joy that I'm that much closer to serving Him in Romania.

Regular Request:
Send me Bible verses. I've been slacking on my reading, but if you posted some verses in the comments, then I could go look them up, and read the surrounding verses. You know what, post chapters, post entire books of the Bible. Doing that will help me in two ways. It will put my nose back into the Bible, and it will let me know that people actually read this thing, and have my back as I head off to Romania.

It's 1:20. I should probably go to bed.

Mas Cartas

I sent out the last of my support letters today...

What to pack?

Hmmm, I just had a thought. What happens if I get to Romania and someone decides to throw an 80s party? I'll be totally unprepared! Or what if they throw a "dress crazy" party. I only have normal clothes!

The stakes are higher in Romania. If those parties happen over here, I'm only representing myself. Over there, I'm representing my entire country! I don't want to let everyone down! I want to represent my country well, like in Rocky IV.

Does anyone know of any good thrift stores where I can find some things before I leave?

Countdown to Romania: 23 days

Salvation

Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23 The wages of sin is death.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
Acts 16:31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God
Ephesians 2:9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

1 John 5:9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son.
1 John 5:10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe in God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given of His Son.
1 John 5:11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
1 John 5:12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

John Piper, "God is the Gospel"
People can hear the gospel preached, or read it in their Bibles, and
not see the final aim of the gospel that makes the good news good.
What makes all the events of Good Friday and Easter and all the
promises they secure good news is that they lead us to God. “Christ
also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he
might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18). And when we get there, it is
God himself who will satisfy our souls forever. Everything else in the
gospel is meant to display God’s glory and remove every obstacle in
him (such as his wrath) and in us (such as our rebellion) so that we
can enjoy him forever. God is the gospel. That is, he is what makes
the good news good. Nothing less can make the gospel good news.
God is the final and highest gift that makes the good news good.
Until people use the gospel to get to God, they use it wrongly.

Support Letter

Hello,
Did you know that tennis is the second most popular sport (by registered sportsmen) in Romania? I didn't until I looked it up just now. Did you also know that Romania is the 9th largest country in Europe by area and 7th largest by population? Me neither.

"Why are you telling me random things about Romania?" I hear you ask. Well, I'm telling you these things about Romania because I'm going there!

In January of next year, I'm going to hop on a plane and fly to Romania. Youth With A Mission (YWAM) hosts a Discipleship Training School (DTS) in the city of Cluj.

"What is a DTS?" To answer that question, I will defer you to their website: http://www.ywamcluj.ro/dts.php

"DTS is an exciting time of discovering and drawing near to God. It is structured to provide Christians with the opportunity to take five months away from the pressures and responsibilities of life to focus entirely on Jesus."
"Through in-depth teaching and training, DTS emphasizes the development of a strong Christian character, not just the accumulation of knowledge. Students will learn to follow the example of Jesus in every area of their lives by focusing on intimate relationship with God, application of Biblical truth and bringing God's love to the world."
"After the twelve weeks of training, you will complete your DTS requirements by putting what you have learned into practice on the mission field. Your 8 week mission trip to another country, will include intercession, ministering, serving, teaching, witnessing, proclaiming the gospel and anything else that might be possible to share the love of Jesus."
"After the mission-trip we will have one final week back in Cluj for debriefing and finally graduation. Outreach locations and prices vary and that information will presented in the beginning of your DTS."

Doesn't that sound awesome?? For those of you keeping track at home, 12 weeks of training, plus 8 weeks of missions, equals 5 months away from California! The training is all going to be in Romania, and the mission trip is either going to be in India, or Thailand.

I am writing not only to let you know my plans, but to ask for your support either through prayers or through your support with a gift of money. The schooling is very expensive. I have earned most of it myself but I have about $1000 left to earn or collect through family and friends support. If you are able to contribute, you may send it to my parents.

33135 Merritt Rd.
Menifee, CA 92584

Please know that through your support, you will be contributing to God's work being done for others that are very far from God and in countries that do not have a bounty of information regarding God and His plan for them to live with Him forever. I want to thank you in advance for any ways that you can support me and the work I feel God has called me out to do. Thank you for all your love and care. The Lord bless you and keep you.

Today's Update

So I ran around today and did some things and figured out some things.

I can defer one of my loans if I pay a $150 fee. Doing so will let me defer it for three months. If I do that twice, that's $300 in six months instead of the $2100 that making the normal payments would add up to. I still need to hear back from the people about my other loan.

It looks like I figured out how my stuff is going to get to Menifee. Thanks so much Megan and Chris for taking a slight 3 hour detour on your way to your Christmas Eve party!

I collected a bunch of emails and addresses from my mom today. Tomorrow I'll be sending my support letter out to those people. If you want a copy of it, I'll post one here. If the only way that you'll consider supporting me is if I send you a hand written and autographed copy of it, then send me your mailing address and I'll get right on that.

Also, Mitsubishi may or may not give me $500. A while back, someone sued the company because their paint was fading. They won (really?), and so everyone with a Eclipse got reimbursed for a paint job. The reimbursement was different depending on different circumstances, but mine was worth up to $500 if I got a $1000 paint job. ("50% reimbursement up to $500.")

I had no idea what paint jobs cost, and the Maaco website I went to wasn't very specific about their pricing structure. I drove down to talk to a guy. His estimate was that it was going to cost me $1500 to paint my car. I told him that was out of my price range and showed him the reimbursement form that I had.

He looked it over, and noted the fast approaching deadline. I waited so long because I was hoping that I'd find a job and be able to pay for it. He listened to my sad unemployment story, then gave me a print out of a form that says I got a $1000 paint job. "Mail this off, get your $500, then come back and I'll work with you on the price." I'm not sure this form constitutes "proof of payment," but I mailed it off. We'll see if Mitsubishi decides to give me the money.

The guy I talked to was so nice. I totally want to give him my business, but I just can't afford it right now. Is it bad if I don't drive back there to get my car painted until after I come back from Romania, and get another job?

My Favorite Word

I have a favorite word. Is that weird?

nevertheless - adverb - In spite of that; nonetheless; however

Whenever I hear it, it always reminds me of Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane. "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will but Yours be done." Luke 22:42

Jesus expresses Himself pretty succinctly here, but do you know how stressed out you have to be to sweat drops of blood? If I were praying, it would have gone a bit differently.

Hey God it's me. I know You must be pretty busy up there with that whole omnipresent thing You have going, but if you could spare a minute I'm having a bit of a situation down here. I don't know if You noticed but I lost my job. Yeah, the reason they gave me was "skill set mismatch to position." Really guys? "Skill set mismatch?" Don't tell me that. Don't tell me that I can't do the job that I've been doing for two years! I know I can do it. I've been doing it! And I can't get a new job because whenever I tell them that I'm planning on serving You in Romania, they tell me that they can't hire me. They want someone that's going to be in town, and will never take risks and leave the country. Ug. Oh, now that I have no job and no money my car broke down and it's going to need a hundred and fifty dollar battery on top of the oil change that it needs. And I thought You were blessing me with a nice parking space that one day I came home late and there was one space left, but it turns out that the next morning was the one day each month that they do street sweeping in front of my apartment. So now I have this $50 ticket which I can't afford unless I don't eat for a month. Okay, okay, okay. I cut all the fat. I have a budget that I can live off of. As long as I only spend money on food, gas, and bills, and I ignore all social activities that cost money, and I throw away all my plans to have any hobbies ever, I should be okay. It's a very sad existence to live off of peanut butter and honey for three meals a day, but I will survive. What's this? An unexpected $500 car insurance bill?? Argh! I can't take this anymore! lkajsoihepa niuniusnpoiejranv;aks;a
;lkanpoirvn a;lks jpoieyslkfjh glksiusn oiun sun lskjnf iunber iubajhfg

NEVERTHELESS

NEVER

THE

LESS

Not my will, but YOURS be done.

There's power in that word. It's like it takes all of that garbage that you were stressing about and throws it out the window. It completely reverses the situation. It says, "Look, I know you're dealing with stuff. We're all dealing with stuff. But in spite of all of that, I choose Jesus."

I think of that every time I hear the word. It doesn't matter what I'm dealing with. It always succeeds in putting my focus back onto Jesus. As long as it does that, it'll always be my favorite word.


PS, defenestrate is my second favorite word.

Countdown to Romania: 26 days

Welcome

Greetings and salutations.

This is my blog, your one stop shop to get information about all of my Romanian adventures. I'll do my best to post here as often as I have something to say. That could be as often as every day or as little as once a week.

If there are specific things that you want to know about, then feel free to ask lots of questions. If I can't answer them, then at the very least I'll make up a fictional story about why I couldn't get the answer.

For starters let's give you some dates.

December 20, 2010
This is my approximate move out date. The plan is to move back into my parent's house for Christmas and New Year's, and then to fly out to Romania from there. I'm not planning any big fancy good bye parties, so make sure to let me know if you want to hang out before I leave.

January 7, 2011
This is the date I fly out of LAX. I leave Los Angeles at 7:55am. From there I head to Washington DC, then Munich, then Cluj. I have no idea how early I'll have to get up that day. LAX is at least two hours from my parent's house, and I have to get there a couple hours early to make sure security has enough time to properly invade my personal space. Does that mean I have to wake up at 4am? Ug.

Next, let's give you a picture of what's going on in my head.
Normal.
Normal.
Normal.
Normal.
Normal.
FREAK OUT!
Normal.
Normal.
Normal.
Normal.
Excited!
Normal.
Normal.
Excited?
FREAK OUT!
Normal.
lower case freak out.
Normal.
Normal.
Normal.
Speria! (Freak out in Romanian!)

And to wrap this up, let's give you some prayer requests.
1) I could use some prayer about my college loans. If I can't find a way to pause my payments while I'm in Romania, then that is going to add an extra $3,000 to my expenses. Yikes.

2) I could use some prayer for my support letter. I have this terrible feeling in my gut that I didn't write a very good letter, and no one is going to support me.

3) General prayers are always welcome.
Pray for wisdom to recognize Satan's attacks. (See #2.)
Pray for strength to call on Jesus continually, both when I'm weak and when I'm feeling fine.
Pray for everyone else that's going on the same trip I'm going on.
Pray for the Romanian team.

Countdown to Romania: 27 days