To all who are following the 2012 election... CHECK THIS OUT!

eliaswittenberg.wordpress.com
I don't necessarily support all of the view expressed, but it is fascinating...
Enjoy

An Exciting Sunday

 Five o'clock AM the alarm went off, but it actually didn't wake me up. My body had just awakened me two minutes before. Let's just say I was excited. The plan for the day was simple. Matthew, Melissa, and I were going with Mr. West to Whistler and were going to spend the day skiing (me snowboarding...). Shower was taken, long-johns put on, backpack was packed, and we boarded the car.

The roads were wet but not icy and we made good time. A light rain was falling, but it didn't dampen the sense of excitement in the car. We laughed and talked about the blast that we had had the previous year when we had done the same thing (with a little bit bigger group). Soon the excitement calmed and we found ourselves taking personality tests and laughing at the validity (or the lack thereof) in the outcomes. After about an half hour, the personality testing became more sporadic. It wasn't because we were falling asleep; we were just watching the road for the rocks that seemed to be everywhere. We would round a corner to find the road littered with rocks between the size of small pebbles and the size of cinder blocks. Mr. West would skillfully maneuver through the maze and, just when the road seemed to be perfect again, we would hit another rock slide. Each time, there seemed to be a larger and more formidable supply. Finally everything seemed to be good. We had past the sections of road that were known for rocks and personality tests were in full swing again. Mr. West had just started the arduous task of giving his answers on Matthew's personality when we rounded a corner to find a rock about a foot cubed right in our flight path. We swerved to left. I thought we had missed it but no... Bang! For the next few seconds we crawled slowly forward in silence, but soon grasped the reality that the front right tire was flat.

“Practical night was last,” I said. “But this is practical morning,” said Mr. West. So there we were, lit only by a small headlamp and the ominous flashing of our hazard lights. Liss searched the shoulder to find a rock to hold the back tire. But the resource that had been in abundant supply just seconds before had vanished. Eventually she found one, then in less than half an hour we were back on the road again. The car manual said that under no circumstances were we to go over 50mph on a spare tire. That was kind of a bummer, but we soon realized that we wouldn't want to go any faster than that anyway. It was snowing and the roads were icy. At one point we were coming up to a bridge at probably 15mph and the car just started sliding sideways. Not a good feeling. Mr. West pulled out of the slide and we crawled on.

After about an hour of this, we finally dropped off the high road and headed down into the valley. The closest town was Pemberton, which was 45 minutes from Whistler. Our plan was to stop there, change the tire, and grab a bite to eat. As we drove along in the rain, we passed a hitchhiker. We figured we could take him to Pemberton so we turned around and picked him up. His name was Melvin and he looked like a Melvin... (I'll leave that up to your imagination.) He was a local and was hitchhiking to church because the insurance on his car had run out (At least that's what he said). He worked as a night-shift janitor ad a couple grocery stores in town. We explained to Melvin our predicament and he bluntly told us that there was no tire place in Pemberton that would be open on a Sunday morning. “But”, he said, “I can show you the best place for breakfast in town.” We had to eat sometime, so we followed his directions and found ourselves walking in the door of Grimm's Diner.

The best word I could use to describe the diner is Hick. I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to best paint the picture and I think the best bet is just to say it how happened.

When we walked in, Melvin promptly walked to the far corner of the room, picked a mug off the shelf, and filled it with coffee. Walking back his seat, he said hi and made small talk with a couple of elderly people sitting at a table, sipping on their own coffee. We stared at the menu written in different colors on a chalkboard that was above the counter. Country music played in the background as we ordered three “pancake stacks” (four pancakes per stack) and a bowl of hash-browns. Melvin was reading the newspaper and talking to someone on the other side of the room about some random news article. People came and went, but everyone seemed to know everybody. “This is classic,” I thought. Eventually the pancakes and hash-browns showed themselves. It definitely wasn't “the best breakfast” I'd ever had, but it wasn't too bad. Melvin gave us a couple numbers to call for people who might be able to change a tire, but nothing worked.

We left the diner and dropped our dear friend Melvin off at church. He invited us to stay with him, but we had a tire to fix and snow to carve, so we went on our way. After a few more personality tests and me trying to grasp that I was an extravert and not an introvert, we arrived at Whistler. With no tire place open there, the plan was for Mr. West to drive on to Squamish while Melissa, Matthew, and I would hit the slopes. We put our gear on and headed out of the parking garage. We passed a couple that were coming in. They told us that they were done for the day, that the top of the mountain was closed because of 70mph winds, and that it was pouring rain at the bottom. How nice... We went ahead to the ticket counter to see for ourselves, and sure enough, it was not a good situation. After a couple minutes, we unanimously decided that is was not worth the money to ski on a day like that, so we promptly got back in the car and drove to Squamish.

Arriving there, we pulled into the parking lot outside a Starbucks to get internet so that we could find what tire place was open. Initially, we just sat in the car, but ended up going in, buying a drink, and staying for an hour. While there, we came to the realization that the nearest tire place that was open was past Vancouver, in Surrey. That was a long ways away, but it had to be done. Along with that realization came the epiphany that there was no way we were going to be back to school that night.

So we called Mrs. West and Fiona (who were still at FVA) told them to grab some stuff for us, and had them catch a ride with Jeremy Brousson who was driving down to Abbotsford that evening. The school's leaving to go to Las Vegas for a concert tour on Tuesday,” we thought. “What's the point in going back up to school for a day and a half and then coming south again. With that, we decided that we would just go to the West's house and catch the bus as it came by on Wednesday morning.

So we had a plan, but we were still driving on a donut tire. We loaded the car and drove on to Surrey. We got to the tire place at 3:30 and were out of there by four. We ended up having to buy a new rim and a new tire because the rock had actually cracked the rim. But we had 4 normal tires, so we were happy.

It was going to be a few hours before we could meet Mrs. West and Fiona, so we decided to go get some food to eat. We pulled into another Starbucks parking lot and, from the car, got the directions to the nearest Olive Garden. :) On the way to Olive Garden, however, we got lost, but there was nothing to fear. We found another Starbucks, and from the car got new directions. We soon found ourselves at Olive Garden. Walking inside, we noticed there was substantial line and because we were starved, we set the 30 min wait threshold. The wait was 30-45 minutes so we hopped back in the car, drove across the street and went to Red Robin. It was a delicious new experience for Melissa, who had never been to one before. How she had lived life up to that point, I do not know...

After Red Robin, we crossed the parking lot to Dairy Queen. We sat there eating our Blizzards and watching the winter X-games. We witnessed the first successful front flip on snowmobile. We also saw a failed double backflip... not pretty. We all came to the same realization that flipping snowmobiles was just plain dumb.

We loaded ourselves into the car, feeling very fat, and drove across the parking lot to Starbucks. That's right, Starbucks number four. From the car we got directions to the Broussons' house, where we were going to meet up with the rest of the West clan. We sat at their house for a couple hours until they arrived, which was at about 9:45 PM.

Somehow we fit everyone and everything into one vehicle and made drove off. We arrived at the West's house after midnight, thoroughly tired.

Talk about a crazy day! Sure, it hadn't turned out how we had planned but it had still been a blast. On top of learning that I am an extravert, I learned a valuable lesson: even if your plans fail, with a positive attitude, you can always have a blast! We sure did. And of course there was an extra perk: we got 3 days off of school!

Moments

  Here I am at Fountainview, just flying up to the 1 semester mark for my senior year. Crazy...
I've never lived in a place longer than three and a half years and I have come to Fountainview for four. I love this place and let's just say that in the last month, God has really been teaching me to make the most of my time here. God gives us today, let's live in it. Let's minimize the bad times and blow up the good things and blessings until the cover the already-minimized bad times. Make the most of today!

I just finished and posted a song about this -  I hope it's a blessing to you.

Where's the Hero Now?

Probably one of my biggest struggles as a Christian is consistency. All to often I display myself as a Spiritual leader and a good mentor, only to be walk back to the dorm or get in with my friends and become no different than everyone else in the world. I though Christ was supposed to change me. The truth is that He is, but it's not an instant thing; it's the process of a lifetime! Patience is a virtue...

How can I be the "perfect Christian" and then seconds later, be no different than anyone else. As I thought about this sometime last school year, God inspired me to write a song about it. So, with some help from my cousin Michael, I wrote a song called"Where's the Hero Now?"

Just this past week I finally got around to recording it and I just posted it on my "My Music" tab.
I pray that it'll be a blessing to you.

PTL for the Sabbath

It sure has been a long times since I posted something... A lot has happened. Christmas has come and gone (in case you didn't catch it), I went to GYC (which was a huge blessing), and now I'm flat out in school again. But I will say, since I have been back at school, I have realized how much I am going to miss is when I graduate in a few months. So, I have decided to make the most of it :)

Another busy school week has past and in a couple hours it'll be Sabbath. What a blessing! In Bible class, we spent a little time looking at the Sabbath and I wrote a little paper on it. Here it is.

What is the purpose of the Sabbath? Over and over in the Bible the Sabbath is talked about and it is said to be “made for man.” (Mark 2:27) What does the Sabbath really mean for us?

At Mt. Sinai, when the ten commandments were given, the Sabbath commandment was written in stone. It said “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it, thou shalt not do any work...” (Exodus 20:8-10)

When reading this, it seems as though the purpose of the Sabbath is to give us a weekly rest from the busyness of the week. Is this true? Yes, and No. The Sabbath was made as a day of rest, but that's not everything.

Though the Sabbath commandment was given at Mt. Sinai, the Sabbath was established at the beginning of the world. On the seventh day the world had been around, the Lord rested from His work, “blessed” the day, and spent it with his new creations, Adam and Eve. Now, follow me; the Sabbath was the first full day that humans were alive. It is irrational to say that the Sabbath was made just for rest because Adam and Even had just been created; they did not need the rest.

When I realized this, the true purpose of the Sabbath came into view. It is not a day for us to do whatever we want, it is the “Sabbath of the Lord your God.” If you read on in the fourth commandment, it is clear that the purpose of this day for the Israelites was to look back and see all that God had done for them and to spend time with their Savior and friend. It is the same for us today. God, at creation, knew that the most important thing for Adam and Eve was for them to have a strong relationship with Him. So the first day they were alive was set aside to establish this connection and every week they took a day to get to know Him better. There is nothing more important than our relationship with God. The Sabbath was set aside as a day for us to get to know God better as our Savior and our friend.

God is Working!

Tours have always been a blast... but I must say that this one is the best I've. Why? There are a few things.

1) The food is unbelievable... like absolutely amazing.
2) I'm a senior and I guess I have come to the realization that this is my last Christmas tour and I need to make the most of it.
3) God is working.  This is the highlight. This year, we give out decision cards during the concert and in the season so far, we have had hundreds of people say they desire a deeper walk and God and request prayer, and at least a dozen people/ families request Bible Studies. The Holy Spirit is working in ways I never would have imagined. Last night I heard a professional violinist say in between tears that she saw something in us that was beyond skill. She saw joy, happiness, and peace. She said she didn't know exactly what it was, but she knew she wanted it. PTL

Please remember us in your prayers over the next week and a half as we share the gospel up and down the west coast.

Music

I tell you, I love music. Everyday it seems that I enjoy it and appreciate it more. I have a USB mike and recently I have been having a blast recording songs in my room. Some of them have been old classics, some written by others here at Fountainview, and some that I have written. Some of the songs that I have posted are recorded in Ryo's Studio (Fountainview's studio engineer), but some are in my room...
I was thinking about it and I thought, "What's the point of music if it is not shared with others?" So I started a page for me to post my recordings on...
There are a few songs already on there, but between now and Christmas there will be a number more added. If you want to have a look, just click that tab that says "My Music" at the top of my blog.
God Bless