photos from Mission Trip: Pura Vida

Helping to make tamales for the Azofeifa Family Reunion/our first night in Costa Rica.

Me "helping" to make tamales for the Azofeifa Family Reunion/our first night in Costa Rica.

Matt, and the awesome city workers who lent us their cement mixer.

Me makin' it look goood. (not sure why the picture came in sideways...)

The Higuito Team: Kerry, Daniel Azofeifa(our host), Alberto (the most awesome sidewalk-maker ever), me, Pastor Fernando, Matt, really good cook lady whose name I forgot, Emily.

The children's shelter in Higuito.

Kerry playing with some kids in the shelter, and apparently being very confused.

The team painting the roof of the shelter.

The view from the roof of the shelter; a.k.a. "part of why it took so long to paint."

Our host checkin' out his gorgeous country.

The 10ft concrete walls with electric fencing on top that surrounds the shelter, or "part of why I feel sad for the kids who live there."

A night view of the valley of San Jose Province from one of its many mountains.

One of the clouds we drove through in the mountains to get to Boca de Arenal and Eden.

The church at Boca de Arenal. Not far from the community center where we helped them put on a Christmas gathering for over 200 local kids.

Our girls and the pastor of Boca learning to dance from Sylvia, a 20-something from FBC Desamparados and one of our new Tica friends.

The church at Eden.

Some of the li'l neenyos in Eden, whom we did a Christmas gathering for as well.

Me playing some football americano with a cute kid from Eden.

Me surfing on Jaco Beach.

The team seeing Jaco while I surfed (there is a bit more to the city than you see here).

Going in to dowtown San Jose behind tons of people, our wonderful guide and host and friend, Lilly Azofeifa(Daniel's daughter), and a goofy-looking Matt.

Me and the lady-friend in front of one of the oldest buildings in San Jose, the Teatro Nacional.

Me half posing, half actually explaining TOMS to my friend Lilly while in the park in front of the Catholic cathedral in downtown San Jose. Every city in Costa Rica has a Catholic church and a park at its center.

Crazy Christmas lights in the park in front of the cathedral in downtown San Jose.

This has been an awesome trip. We were able to do so much work, and play! We felt welcomed, and even needed. A good combo for a mission trip. I hope you have all enjoyed these posts. I plan to write one more about the trip that will let you know about some of the things I enjoyed most. After that, I hope you continue to read what I write here. Dios le vendigan (I think that means "God bless you"...).

the weekend in San Carlos, Costa Rica

the weekend was long. we worked with children at two different missions in northern Cost Rica. sweet kids at both. looove the people here, and the country is more beautiful than any picture can tell. but alas, i am tired. i'm going to go to sleep.

tomorrow we will be going back up north, but for a little "sight-seeing" this time. i think the plan is to float down a river in a boat and look at some waterfalls somewhere. should be frikkin cool. it would be even cooler if my camera was working, so i could take pictures. oh well, i will just have to remember it.

on tuesday we will continue painting the roof of the children's shelter in higuito. then, we return on wednesday. i will miss this place.

mas Costa Rica!

So for this post, I originally intended to tell you all about the beauty I have seen here in just two days.

I was going to tell you about the first night, when we had the privilege of joining what would amount to a family reunion. We made, and devoured, tamales with about 10 Costa Ricans in their fruitful backyard. The back of the house opened into a patio area, which then opened into a yard full of tangerine trees, sweet lemon trees, mango trees, banana trees, cas trees (cas is a very sour, and delicious, fruit), and trees with pink bananas used for decoration. I could tell you how wonderful the tamales were, and I don’t even like tamales. I could tell you of the coffee, agua dulce and welcoming family members.

I was going to tell you more about the other family who has welcomed me, and my friend Matt, into their home (the girls are staying at the pastor’s house and hanging out with his daughter). I could tell you of the fantastic breakfasts and the son who told us “I speak English, but I don’t like to. But I will speak it with you.”

I could go on forever about the neighborhood we worked in yesterday and today, with its dilapidated but colorful homes. I could tell you about the surrounding mountains that stop you in your tracks every time you look up and realize “I’m in freakin’ Costa Rica!” Or I could tell you all about why my stomach is trying to find new places to put food because I have had so much savory fare put in front of me that I don’t know what to do, other than chow down.

I could go on and on about how wrong you are if you are saying to yourself “but you just told me about all of those things.”

Instead, I am going to tell you about a sidewalk, a roof, and the might of God.
The pastor of the church in Lince, which is a smaller neighborhood within the larger neighborhood of Higuito(or maybe it’s a city itself, I don’t know), which is where we have been working, took some time today to tell us about his church. They began in a house as a mission from FBC Desamparados in 1999, and have since grown into having an actual building. The pastor and the members of his church have a real heart for the people in the neighborhoods surrounding theirs.

And I have been wondering about my heart.

I mentioned in the last post how humbled I have been by just being allowed to do something this amazing, although I am such a crummy sinner. Another thing that was bothering me was my heart for this trip. I was not completely certain of the call to come here. It mostly felt like a selfish “I want to see a cool country” trip.

And that’s how it began. However, I decided to see if it could be a mission trip for my Sunday school class instead, after feeling like God was leading me to do so. As our departure came closer and closer, though, I began feeling like it was just selfish again and wondering if I could even consider it a mission trip. I wasn’t sure if we would be doing enough, or if they even needed us to come.

Then Pastor Fernando spoke to us, through Daniel (the missions pastor at FBCD who we are doing all of the work with and who is housing the chicas). He told us the history, which I briefly mentioned, and he told us how grateful he was that we had come to work with them.
You see (I love the use of that phrase when telling a story), the church recently decided to build a handicap ramp at their entrance (they are on a hill, so the front is like a one-story building, but the back goes up on a hill almost like a two-story) and a sidewalk to make the city/government people happy. They thought they’d raised enough money for this, but after making the handicap ramp they had no more left to finish the work. Then we came. And, through the kindness of some well-placed and awesome construction workers who leant us their cement mixer, and the guidance of one amazing, Nicaraguan foreman, we finished what was supposed to take about a week (and be completed by members of the church after we left) in one day. This then gave us time to put a protective layer of paint on the roof of a children’s shelter so it doesn’t rot.

This has shown me how mighty God is. I wasn’t sure of His will in this, and he showed me that it is exactly what the people here, His people, needed. It was what he wanted to happen. He brought His purpose about through some crazy details and seemingly coincidental connections. He has led me, and three other Texans, to this beautiful country because He wants us here for some specific reasons. We may not even know the full extent of those reasons. We may never understand all of them, but they are there, and He is in control. Our God is so big, so mighty, that he can take care of the small things.

Ok, this is too much reading for you lot (not that you can’t do it, you just shouldn’t have to), so I am going to stop now.

Much love,
Eddie

and now, Costa Rica

We’re in the airport now. We have coffee, food, and time to relax before our plane takes off for Costa Rica! Well, Houston, then…Costa Rica! Our team consists of my lovely girlfriend, Matty McGee, li’l Emily, and yours truly. (Kerry Bankhead, Matt McGee, Emily Bennett, Eddie Looper) We are making our way down to San Jose to work with First Baptist Church of Desamparados.

Our church, FBC Arlington, has a long-standing relationship with them, but this is a new trip. Typically, a team goes during our summer, their rainy season (which I hear just means that it rains harder than it is right now), and works with their more rural missions around the country. For this trip, we will be hitting their “summer” (it’s kind of always summer in Costa Rica) and doing most of our work in their more urban mission/shelter, “Higuito.” That will be roughly half of the trip, the other half will be divided between two of their missions in the north, Morazán and Boca Arenal, and seeing a little bit of their beautiful country.

The countryside will be gorgeous, but I’m excited about Higuito. We were given a couple pictures of the mission. The first thing I noticed about the place was the large rolls of razor-wire strung across the top. Awesome. I’m looking forward to giving them a sidewalk, and spending some quality time with the kids there.

[Commercial break/we had to go get on our flight]

We are now on the plane headed out of Houston and down to Costa Rica. There was a bit of a scare on the last flight. Nothing to do with safety, we just weren’t sure if we would make this one due to delays on the last one.

But we are now on our way! We even got to do a little running through the terminal, movie style, to catch our flight. (As you may be able to tell, I am not a seasoned traveller) While that was exhilarating, I’m hoping, and quite sure, it will not compare to doing the work our King calls us to do. I’m really being humbled by this trip. Just the way everything has worked, the way we are being taken care of, is such a blessing.

What I’ve really been thinking about is God’s forgiveness. Even though our entire religion is based on the sacrifice our God made to pay for our sins, we still find ourselves getting caught up in worrying about “being good enough.” I was worried about it all the way up to the airport. I was focused on my sins, recent and past, and found myself worried about God’s willingness to provide for us because of them. I found myself wondering if he would make me unable to lead this trip, because I haven’t “earned” the rite. I’d forgotten what He did for me, for all of us, and about the finality of that act. Our sins were forgiven, once and for all, and we are now freed by the blood of Christ. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s okay. I have to stop. We have to stop. Not only have we Christians been freed from the penalty of our sins, but we have also been freed from bondage to those sins. That means we are free to stop sinning! Continuing on in those sins is a slap in the face of the One Who Loves Us. He calls us to believe, and repent, so we should honour Him and do so. Alone, this is impossible, but through Him “all things are possible.” Contrary to popular belief, that verse does not mean we can hit the ball farther, throw it farther, or dunk it harder. It does, however, mean we can overcome our sin nature, not alone, but through the power of Christ.

I am hoping this trip will be a permanent reminder of that for me, and for all involved. I am looking forward to these next few days, and I ask that all of you pray for us, the people of Costa Rica, and for your own hearts. I will keep this updated as often as possible, and I would love to hear what you think in the comments section.

Peace, love and soul train. Until next time,
Eddie

barbecue, blisters and buds

Before you begin with the cannabis comments (Bryan), I mean “buds” as in the great company I enjoyed tonight. I sat at a table surrounded by some really cool people, and me. To my right were the Crumbies. I enjoy them because they are one of the funniest couples I know, and Steve rocks a sweet beard. Further round, and mostly across from me, were Jake and Sarah. They are a couple of the most open people I know, two of the funniest people I know, and they have voices and talents that would make most jealous. Coming ‘round them and nearing my left side was a dude named Beau. This was my second encounter with him, and he still seems pretty cool. Then there was the infamous Liz Lemmon to my direct left. She has a Masters’ degree from good ol’ UTofA (my alma mater), and she ran a half-marathon this morning (and apparently had to use the restroom afterwards).

I really enjoyed this night with these people because I enjoy my friends. I like the people God has placed in my life. I’ve been rather blessed with an overwhelming amount of cool individuals to surround me, which has somehow allowed me to attain at least a hint of a “mildly-interesting” social status myself. One of these cool folk is my good buddy, Daniel. And it is for him that I received my blisters today. I ran 8 miles, without stopping, without company, and without music. Win. But why would I do that to myself? Well, the last two (wc and wm) were optional, but the first two (8m and ws) were to train my bereft body to handle a 13.1 mile run with Daniel in February. He asked me to do it with him, and I said yes. I said yes because I love him like a brother and I like doing stuff with him.

I also like doing stuff at church. Today, at church, I ate the most amazing barbecue I have ever tasted. Bill Baker, a man at my church (First Baptist Church of Arlington) spent hours cooking the most tender, juicy, delectable meats I have ever had the privilege of consuming. I like food; this was something more. It even tasted great when I burped up a little on my 8 mile run.

Before all of this, though, I heard a sermon about our God. A sermon about the new covenant created by the blood of Christ. Our Savior, our King, our Lord came down and bled so that we can be cleansed of all our faults. And even though we continue to turn our backs on Him, He continues to bless us. He blesses us with food, with health and with friends. All of us here in America have each of these to some degree. Some have more than others, but we all have some. That same God wants us to share it. He wants us to take His name and proclaim it to the nations. He wants us to help those in need. He wants us to be love.

I’m going to do this for the first time in another country on Wednesday. That’s when I and three others leave for Costa Rica. As far as Mission trips go, it could very well be considered an easy one, but we still need prayer. And we can still be used. My hope is that it will be the beginning of many more international trips for me, and that I will get yet another way to draw closer to God.

I will be taking my laptop with me and updating on here as often as I can. I ask that all you buds of mine pray for us, and for the people of Costa Rica. Also, check your heart and see where God is leading you. (I feel I could have said so much more, but I’ve already written for way too long.)

help somebody

Well, tomorrow is a fun day. I will be sending my first letter to Hawa in Sierra Leone. She is the li’l gal over there in Africa who I am now sponsoring through World Vision.

I wrote my letter to Hawa while my girlfriend wrote a letter to the kid she’s sponsoring through Compassion International. We made it like a date. We went, had dinner at Café Brazil in Dallas, and wrote our letters and talked about what we were writing. Doing something like that together is a great way to spend your time with your significant other.

But if you don’t have a significant other, do it with a friend. Even better, a group of friends! Or, if you don’t have any friends, do it by yourself. However you do it, just do it. It’s a manageable and enjoyable way to serve others. If you’re not a Christian, you can at least appreciate the idea of helping others; if you are a Christian, you are commanded to help others.

In his latest book, Forgotten God, Francis Chan says:
“It really is an astounding truth that the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. He lives in me. I do not know what the Spirit will do or where He’ll lead me each time I invite Him to guide me. But I am tired of living in a way that looks exactly like people who do not have the Holy Spirit of God living in them. I want to consistently live with an awareness of His strength. I want to be different today from what I was yesterday as the fruit of the Spirit becomes more manifest in me.
I want to live so that I am truly submitted to the Spirit’s leading on a daily basis. Christ said it is better for us that the Spirit came, and I want to live like I know that is true. I don’t want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly.”

That is encouraging, and convicting, to those of us who claim Christ as Lord. If He is our Lord, then we need to live like it. We need to live like we know what that means. That means, in part, that we have the Holy Spirit living in us. And with the Holy Spirit living in us, we can attack hunger, suffering, and injustice all around the world without fearing our time constraints, our finances, or our perceived lack of ability. As Christians, we need to lead the charge.

go, get outta here!

Hello, all. I just sent out a fun email regarding a mission trip I’m going on. Me and some folk from my church are headed to Costa Rica to work with a church down there that we have a pretty strong relationship with. I don’t even know how many years our church has been working with them, but it’s been a while.
We (my church, I’ve never actually been) normally go in July-ish. This time we will be going December 16-23, and we are going to see a lot of what this church does. They have four or five missions they have started across their beautiful country, and we get to see like three of ‘em in one trip! It is going to be a great chance to strengthen our church’s relationship with theirs, and for those of us going to get a good introduction to international missions.
Missions is what God wants us (Christians) to do. He tells us we should be going and making disciples, and that we need to go all over the world. The whole world needs Him. And if we want to be a part of what He is doing, then we need to go tell them all about Him! It’s the best thing we can do in our life. He is the greatest gift in the world, and He offers Himself to everyone freely. And while it is Him that does the seeking of the lost, and the offering, and the saving, it is us that gets to be a part of that when we obey. If we love Him, which we should because He loves us, and if we love them, which we should because He loves them, then we need to tell them. Everyone.
And we do that through missions. We go to Costa Rica, we go to Africa, we go next door, we go wherever God asks. But no matter what, we go.
I will be writing about this trip, hopefully, and I hope everyone will enjoy the reading and that God will use it for His glory. Peace, love and soul train! Psalm 116:7

readers be ware

oh yes, my keyboard is now working suffciently. after an hour on the phone with dellsupport, i have full use of my letter-studded pad here, and can once again write! of course, now i have no more excuses.
my plan? to write more about charities n such. i want to tell you all about the options out there and tell you about the ones i know of through experience. and believe me, there are waaaay more out there than i am actually a part of. so, there is plenty of material. ;)
my most recent experience is sponsoring a child in sierra leonne. i will tell you all more about that over the next however-long. but as a brief overview:
her name is hawa mama (i know, awesome). she is a little gal in sierra leonne, a country recovering from some horrible civil war violence. if you have ever seen "blood diamond", it was a lot like that. only worse from what i hear. i adopted her through world vision, and have been very impressed so far with the amount of info and support i have recieved from them.
i will end this entry here, but there should be plenty more soon!

just do it

This was a good weekend. If you follow me on twitter (@los_lupe) then you know I went to something called the Right Now conference. It was a great experience with like a thousand (I am bad at estimates) other Christians listening to speakers like Kay Warren, Francis Chan, Matt Chandler, Donald Miller, Anne Jackson, and Tim Ross (those are the ones I heard, but there were more). We were also led in some great worship by Kari Jobe. She was a bouncy gal with a big voice, and she sure seemed to love her some Jesus.
As did all of the speakers. God put some great words on their hearts, and used them to get those same words to those of us at the conference. That’s what God does, he works things out so that the right people hear the right message from the right mouths. From Kay I was reminded of the pain out in the world, and that I need to set aside my own personal kingdom and serve His. Franky Chan reminded us that we can’t do anything, but God can do anything and he does it through us. He made us His righteousness, and offers us Himself. Read 2 Peter 1:1-5 (where Chan’s sermon came from), it’s good stuff. Then Chandler made us laugh occasionally, and hard, as he reminded us of the Resurrection and just what it meant. He reminded us how God took our sins on the cross, all of them, and rose victoriously from the dead. He reminded us that nothing we do surprises God and that he took care of it all a couple thousand years ago. He reminded us just how amazing the Resurrection is; not just in how it happened, or that it happened, but what it accomplished. Sin lost. When we look to Jesus in his life, death, burial, AND resurrection, ,sin loses it’s grip on our lives. Donald Miller took us to school and explained how the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet is an analogy (or metaphor, I can never remember) for what it means to become a Christian. He pointed out that this is a relationship. That we give up ourselves to take on a relationship with Christ, and we are made new in this relationship. Tim Ross (I know, out of order) reminded us all that the Bible says we need to die. He says that people who are still alive aren’t living. It’s when we die to ourselves that God begins to use us. Finally, Anne Jackson is why I am writing again. I listened to her talk on using social media to spread His word. She talked about the importance of a blog in reaching others with Christ’s message through the art of storytelling. With a blog, or twitter, or whatever, we followers of the One True God, can tell others of the work He is doing all around the world. We can use blogs to inform each other of the pain in the world. We can use blogs to mobilize Christians to do what Jesus told us to do, love others! But we have to actually write. And we have to do it well.
I’ve not done a very good job of telling the story of this weekend. And I don’t know if I will in the future with other stuffs, but I’ll try. I’ve said this before, and I may have to say it again, but I’m gonna try once again to keep at this.
One thing I would like to say is, help someone. Help someone in need. That was the cool thing about this whole conference. I have been to plenty where we talked about the importance of assisting those in need, but then we all go home and go back to our luxurious lives (if you live in America and have a job, you are living a life of luxury compared to the hurt around the world). At this one, we took a break from listening to put together equipment packages for World Vision to give to caregivers of AIDS victims. There were representatives from different organizations that go and help those in need. They did some great recruiting to find people to give and to go. Compassion International got sponsors for nearly 200 children around the world. You can do the same for like 40 bucks a month. I am about to sign up with World Vision to sponsor either a child, or even a whole family. Just do something! By eating a few sandwiches instead of an expensive meal, we can keep a kid from dying. It takes so little effort from us in America to do so much around the world. As Christians, it is our responsibility.
This wasn’t the best post, but I meant it. And it’s getting a little long, so I’ll end it. Maybe I’ll be able to come back and be a little less rusty and tell a much better story, but for now, go do something!

brief update

i'm happy to let you lovely readers know, i am officially writing for that online thing now! it's called the examiner, and it is an online news-type source for local information. they have sites for a little over 100 cities, and seem to be growing. my title is dallas coffee shop examiner, and i will be writing everything i can on as many coffee shops in the area that i can get to and taste a bit o' joe.
in other eddie related news, i have decided to run a half-marathon. the austin half-marathon, to be exact. that means 13.1 miles of moving my legs. i've never gone that far on anything without wheels.
lately, i have been pre-training training. i am getting ready to begin a training regimen by doing lots and lots of training!
so, i'm tired and am going to cut this post short. but i will end by telling you the wierdest run i had. also, i'm not going to go in to detail. basically, i saw a heineken bottle in front of my house(we live in a nice, clean neighborhood and there usually isn't any trash, much less alcohol), a butterfly knife(that one was in the neighborhood next to us, which is even nicer), and a demolished armadillo. it was just a strange run.
k, bye.

glancing through a keyhole

not sure what you lot've been up to, but i've been taking over the world one clutch of human infestation at a time...
also, not sure where that came from. for some reason i momentarily channeled killface, from one of the greatest animated shows of all time, and couldn't help but put my thoughts down.
it's like that with good thoughts. sometimes you just can't help but get them out there. like, Jesus loves me, and you. and i may be getting to write soon for an online news source. and the school year starts soon, which means i get to sub. it's not a whole week in a classroom, only a measly day, but i'll take what i can get. i'll also continue to be rather annoyed at all the teachers who don't want to be there. if you don't want it so much, give me your job. i do want to be there. but whatever.
i'm excited about the writing thing. still could be a tad sketchy, but we'll see. i'll keep you all informed on that bit of me.
well, i'm off to other things. enjoy this taste of my life, and pray i'll do this more often. huzzah.

zombie prevention

you may have heard about the recent grave robbings in chicago. it's a despicable act that should definitely be punished. but i am not sure why people get as worked up about it as they do.
i recently read an article in usa today by a writer for the paper who had no connection to the grave robbings, other than the weird fact that he enjoys stopping at cemeteries when he sees one just to walk around. he was all worked up about how horrible it is that this happened, and saying how much it would bother him if it happened to someone he loved, but also how much it bothered him that it happened to someone he doesn't know.
now, i say it is despicable because it is just such a cowardly act done out of greed and disrespect for other's feelings. but why is it so much worse than a regular robbery? the bodies are no longer inhabited. there is nothing else there but flesh and bone. there is no one inside the grave any more. i'm pretty sure the deceased aren't bothered by it. so why are we? the answer is probably somewhere along the lines of "the dead are...sacred...or whatever." i guess i can kinda see that, but only because i can understand why you would believe something that everyone else agrees with. but still, i think it might be a little silly.
i tried explaining this to my mom some time after my dad died. i was intrigued by her insistence on taking gifts and such to the grave, and visiting it and whatnot. everyone does that. but why? they aren't there. either you believe they go on to some afterlife, in which case they don't care what you do with their body, or you don't believe they go anywhere, in which case there is no one left to care what happens to the body.
now, i believe the truth is that we go somewhere. one of two places; heaven or hell. i believe any other thoughts are wrong. God created us, we rebelled and are still rebelling, He came to earth in the form of His son(Jesus), suffered a horribly painful and undeserved death that should be reserved for us, rose from the grave (no one in history has come up with a valid explanation for his empty grave...interesting), and is seated at the throne of God in heaven, waiting on us to believe on Him and accept Him at His word so that we might spend an eternity of bliss and joy and love with Him in heaven. if we choose to reject Him, we go to hell for eternity and suffer etrnal torment, most notably the complete absence of all hope and joy and comfort and peace and love, namely; God.
and, either way you go, heaven or hell, you won't give three rabbit pellets as to what happens to your body. welp...that's all.

on chastising

well, i was chided today by one bryan e. wallace. again. he is always making fun of me for having a blog and not writing in it. although, i am fairly certain that i completely own him as far as who posts to their blog more often.

but he does have a good point. i should write more. and i want to. it’s just that I keep myself busy and have no discipline, so it’s difficult to sit down and write anything worth a read. i also get hit with never knowing what to write about, but that’s no excuse. writers have always said the best way to become a good writer is to continuously write, even when you have nothing to write about. just put something down on paper (or the world wide webs, interwebs for short, if you will). which means i guess that’s what I need to be doing. at least every other day or so, i should just post something.

well, what is today’s topic(other than the above, of course)? the arrest of professor gates. obama used the right word, “stupid,” but he applied it to the wrong thing. he called the police stupid, but it’s the entire incident that’s stupid. the police were called about a break in; they arrived at the house and found a man walking around inside; they questioned him; he gets angry. sorry, mr. gates. the police were not aware that 50 yr old black men never rob houses.

if the police had not believed him once he proved he lived there, then yes, this would be a race issue. but they arrested him for becoming beligernet at being asked to prove he lived there. would he have rather they just let him go? what if there had been a 50 yr old black man, dressed well, well spoken, who had broken in to his home and was wondering around when they got there; then, when he tells them he lives there, they just let him go, and he begins to steal everything in mr. gates’ home? would mr. gates have preferred this so that it did not seem like a race issue? i doubt it. he doubtless would have sued the police force and taken who knows how much money from tax payers because the police did what he claims to wish they had done in his case.

too frustrated to continue. whatever. stupid.

the no-post post

props and thoughts

no one cares what i think. so, i do not often choose to write about anything important. i am a little too irreverent and informal to handle the real issues of the day. such as the murder of Natalia Estemirova, a fearless human rights activist from russia. she was kidnapped from her home in chechnya and found in the woods of neighboring ingushetia with gun shots to the chest and head. there is nothing funny about that, or the fact that this is apparently the norm for brave, outspoken activists in russia. props to them.
but who would i give props to for something that is funny? obama. i give him props because i think i know why he’s our president. ridicule.
think about it. if you were a young boy growing up in hawaii (he may have kenyan blood, but he was born in hawaii; making him an american; end of story), where island after island is loaded with surfers and beach babes, you would hate being called names too. there is no way he went through life without hearing names like “slobama”, and “nomama” and “bakack!”(like a chicken). but while lesser men would balk at this kind of ridicule, our fearsome little slobama turned it in to fuel.
making his way to the mainland and conquering columbia and harvard universities, two schools i could never get in to, and successfully dominating the illinois and u.s. senates, two things i would never want to get in to, he became our first black president. i am sure he is now thinking to himself, that’ll show ‘em. that’ll show ‘em reeeaaall good(because that’s how he talks without a teleprompter).
but hopefully that’s not all he thinks about. he has a difficult term ahead of him. he is currently still pro baby murder, and he is playing a game of craps with our economy. hopefully he wins. he is only about an eighth of the way through his term in office, so there is still a chance for all that hope and change to work out for us, and him. we shall see. but to our friend, slobama, i wish you luck. maybe all the ridicule you are receiving will just be more fuel to your fire.
(haha, like he will ever read this. or like anyone else will ever read this, besides kerry and bryan, my two faithful readers. thanks guys. and i hope you enjoyed my political post. totally unintentional. this is just where the keyboard took me.)

addendum to "rant"

Dear mechanical overlords of our inevitable future,
I apoligize for my ignorant and unwarranted disapproval of your functionality. My falsehoods are rampant throughout my recent post.
If you can find it in your mainframe to restore my good graces with you, please do so. I understand if I must be made a slave to fan your motherboard; it would be an honor.

P.S.
I heart ASIMO

rant

today i add myself to the thousands, possibly millions, who have openly expressed their disdain for technology...through the use of technology.
i do this because it fails me. whether or not it is my fault, it fails. if we can fake moon landings and dissect the dna of viruses, then we should be able to omit human error from possible technological malfunctions. i just had to fill out an entire application for a second time, because i opened a window over it, and when i closed it i apparently clicked twice, closing the 99% complete application. i was angry. i was angry at my hand. i was angry at my computer. i was angry at my big dumb brain. i was even angry at the air for some reason, so i punched it. but then i thought about the real culprit. technology.
it fails us. it is supposed to be this amazing tool, and it can't even prevent me from closing an application that is almost complete.
it also is crazy. i think it has already developed artificial intelligence. actually, it may not even be artificial. today, i had to try fixing a computer's internet browser that kept zooming in on the open website. it wouldn't stop. our help desk had no idea what was going on. their solution: reset (didn't work, by the by).
and that's always the main solution: reset, reboot, re-up, whatev. but what are we "reset"ting? our we trying to reset the brain that has quickly developed within the computer over the few hours it has been turned on? possibly. this would explain all of the quirks. but, my brain is done ranting, so i will leave you reader(s) with that incomplete line of questioning. feel free to answer, or continue the rant, in the comments. they are not monitored ;) i am going to go reset my brain now.

Jealousy

Honduras is a country with roughly one million more people than the DFW, spread over an area a little more than four times the DFW. It is located in Central Central America (no, that is not a typo) and is made up largely of Mestizos, which are descendants from the long-ago love-mingling of Europeans and the Indians of that area. It also has one of the best capital names in all of the world; Tegucigalpa. If you have ever been in a Spanish class where you sing the Latin American Capital songs, this was one of your favorite parts.
Now, not only am I jealous of their capital, I am also jealous of their current political state. Their having a freaking coup! I have always wanted to be a part of a coup(“We step in to the party, disrupt the whole scene!”-Beastie Boys). Not for any “rebellious” reasons. I’m no starving artist who needs political unrest to be relevant (art is stupid). I have just always thought the idea of a coup is awesome. Actually, it might not even be the idea of one. I think it could just be the name.
The Britannica of our generation, Wikipedia, says “typically, a coup d’état uses the extant government’s power to assume political control of the country.” They explain further by quoting military historian Edward Luttwak(strong first name...not so sure about that last one though) as saying “’ A coup consists of the infiltration of a small, but critical, segment of the state apparatus, which is then used to displace the government from its control of the remainder.’” Basically, the beginnings of a revolution. This apparently happens a lot in Africa.
But back to the name, “coup. “ First of all, it’s like “soup”, which I love, but pronounced differently. Second of all, it’s like an American language joke to use that name. Look at it, it’s French. It probably stems from the French Revolution, the last time the French did anything. Since then though, all they’ve done is give up. They’re famous for it (also, they’re famous for being the reason we had “freedom fries”, another awesome name). Now we use one of their words to describe an intense, difficult, often unpopular show of resistance(read “not giving up”). Good joke, America.
Which reminds me of another thing I’m jealous of, funny people. I’m not very funny, but hopefully you enjoyed this post. It’s not my best work, but come one, it’s been a while. Hopefully this time I will continue to post…but probably not.

(on top of not being very funny, or possibly underlying it, i'm not very smart. so, feel free to post any necessary corrections you may notice. have a great day!)

easter's not for crazy girls

my friend kollin and i can officially mark "getting bounced from a strip club for my religious beliefs" off of our life "to do" lists.
prior to easter sunday, our church was having a pretty strong push to invite people to easter sunday. we don't necessarily agree with the 2-sunday christians who only go on christmas and easter, but it is one of the most likely times someone will come that normally does not. and i guess our hope was just that they would hear the truth and their lives would be changed. because, well, that's what Jesus does.
but i think i need to back up a little for this story to make sense.
one sunday a month i meet a few friends at the house of an amazing family. they feed all of us, and it is always a glorious feast. kelly mcandrews is an amazing cook. there, is said it. anyway, when i drive there, and on my way back, i pass this strip club. and it is some strip club. i mean, this thing is huge. it looks like they started it in an old warehouse. it's got the tall, white sheet metal walls and steel framing that make you think it's full of vampires that are going to lock everybody in and kill them all in one massive blood orgy...so, yeah, it's big. and the name is the best part, "chicas locas."
every time i drive by this place the parking lot is full, and it makes me sad. it makes me sad for the guys going in there and it makes me sad for the women who work there. so i pray for it. every time i drive by i pray for everyone in the building.
well, the sunday before easter we had our dinner. and earlier that day we had our last "invite people" reminder. i had been inviting people near my neighborhood, or at least trying, but they all had plans. suburban white america already knows what they are doing on easter. and this time when i drove by the crazy girls, i thought "maybe they don't have easter plans." so i started praying about inviting the performers and patrons of chicas locas to easter sunday.
then friday came. that was the night chosen to do all the invitin'. me and my friend kollin (who i asked to come along with me as accountability and to take part in a good chance to share our faith) met at my house, talked, prayed and drove over there. honestly, it was a little weird. i have driven by plenty of strip clubs, but i have never pulled in to the parking lot of one. it just felt strange.
we chose a random parking spot, got out, and walked towards the front. we had to take a different path through the cars because there was a guy using the space between two trucks as a toilet. at the front were two guys who looked like they were waiting on someone, a tiny little bald cop in a booth, and a bouncer. the bouncer walked up and told us it was 5 dollars to park there. we told him we wanted to invite people to easter sunday. then he made me laugh.
without pause, he waved his hand in an arc encompassing the parking lot and said "we can't have any religious preferences here." and then we had to leave.
it was an interesting experience. and kinda scary. i didn't know what was going to happen, or how i would react to whatever did happen. but i trusted God. i don't know what He is going to do there, if anything. but i know that if He chooses to do something, it will not be stopped by a bouncer who prefers no religion.
(kollin thought it was funny that we couldn't pass out fliers in the parking lot, but that one guy could take a nice long piss there if he wanted. kollin was right. that was funny.)

party up in nyc

i'm going to new york. i'm going to new york and i don't care who knows it! oh, and boston.

for me to feel giddy requires something truly significant. it doesn't happen often, and it's hard to be repeated for the same cause. but not so with new york. often i find myself thinking about the place, and longing to be there as soon as possible.
and i'm gonna be there in a month! i plan to spend some time with a friend, possibly help out with some mission work my church does up there, and go all over that city with just me and a weeklong metro pass.
while i'm there, i want to think and pray a lot about the city. i really do feel a draw to it. i feel God may call me there some day, for permanents 'n' such. but i dont know. i may have to live somewhere else, and just be involved in prayer for new york. but i will definitely continue to visit!
after new york i'll go to boston, and after boston i'll come home, and after i come home i'll wish i was back in new york.

but dont worry friends, i love you too.

oh to grace how great a debtor

that’s a line from a song i like. come thou fount. it’s an old hymn, and an even older idea. the rest of it goes, “oh to grace how great a debtor, daily i’m constrained to be, let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee. prone to wander, Lord i feel it, prone to leave the God i love. here’s my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.”
that is the most wonderful thing i can think of. i have been dealing with this idea a lot lately. struggles with sin hit me every day. i often go to bed feeling like a failure, and wake up just the same. but God is amazing. at the same time in my life i have been hit from every angle with these thoughts, i have been hit from just about as many angles with the previously mentioned truth. “oh to grace how great a debtor, daily i’m constrained to be.” i am totally and completely in debt to God’s grace. my life is His. everything i have, even more, everything i am, is His. though i am “prone to wander”, my heart is sealed. nothing can remove me from His hand. nothing can change His love for me. He has chosen to freely give me grace, and mercy, and love. there is nothing i have done to get it, and nothing i can do to lose it.
and that is what i believe. that is the truth of my life. and that is what i am daily praying will drive me to do everything i do. i am not perfect, and i won’t be until i am in heaven, in His presence, but i am moving forward and trusting in Him, and His grace.

hammockaze to my soul

if you don't own a hammock, go out right now and by one.
you may object "but, it is late right now, i cannot find a hammock anywhere." dumb statement. you live near a walmart. i don't care who you are, you do. they are always open, and they have everything. so go, wherever you have to, and buy one.
others of you may say "but i have nowhere to put a hammock." false. there is always somewhere to put a hammock. if you have a backyard, but no trees, go buy some and plant them. you are helping yourself, the earth, and everyone in it! or, you could go and buy a couple of poles, a post-hole digger, and some concrete, and set up your very own hammock hanger. with tall enough poles and some ladders, you could even have stacked hammocks. if you have no backyard, bring that bad-boy inside. now, it is true that one of the best parts about a hammock is the outdoors aspect, but you can make a compromise by hanging it near a large window. don't have a large window? install one!
why am i so adamant about this? these things are amazing. they are the pinnacle of comfort and relaxation. everything looks better from a hammock. reflecting on life is more positive when done from a hammock. naps are more intense when taken in a hammock. life is more alive when lived from a hammock! ok, maybe not that last one, but you get the idea. hammocks are great, and i think you should buy one. that is all.

eddie's suffrage

we all recently witnessed the electing and swearing in of america’s first black president. this is an historic event (even though i know i made plenty of jokes about almost everything being an historic event because it happens in history, this one really is kind of a big deal). sadly though, i was not allowed to take part.
upon attemtping to vote, i discovered that i was currently not registered in any county in texas, or anywhere else. this makes casting a ballot for stephen colbert rather difficult. with the time i have had, vacations and little importance at work, i have thought through some of the possible reasons for this difficult time in my life history:

1. the government heard i was voting for stephen colbert, and they wanted to prevent idiots from taking part in politics
2. an insane group of republican radicals discovered that my alternate plan, were i to come across a ballot that would not allow a write in vote, was to vote a strait libertarian ticket
3. i didn’t think about changing my voters registration when i changed the address on my driver’s license (in other words, i’m an idiot)
4. i have been identified as my own minority group and the government has not seen fit to grant me the right to vote

so if any of these reasons anger you as much as they do me, take up the cause of eddie’s suffrage!

me make money?

in this economy, which apparently makes one of my former bosses tired, many people are looking for different ways to make money. it would seem the advertisers have decided to use me.
this website was created using my name. from what i gather, as i am lazy and don't want to actually dig deep in to something that doesn't truly interest me, it is a widget/gidget/add-on/functional thingy that you choose to put on your mobular device and advertisers choose to send you ads you may like. i don't know how succesful they expect this to be, but with using a name like "loop" they are bound for success. i mean, look at me. i only make like 10K less per year than teachers. and i am a uta graduate. and...well, yeah. that stuff.
so, maybe their potential for success isn't as high as i initially thought. but if they somehow pull something out of their mobulars, then i hope they remember: they don't loop, I LOOP!

stupid

hello all. you may have noticed that i haven't written anything in a while, but probably not. well, i took the rest of last year off, so there.
this is for my stupid friend at stupid work, bryan. the stupid guy just won't leave me alone about not blogging, so here, take this. i have blogged. hope you think i'm funny.
i plan to continue this, once again. we'll see how that goes. until i sign in again, bye.