stevendaniel's Xanga

Rwanda Journal Entries...

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:13:40 GMT

Came across my ol' journal entries from Rwanda tonight...
Figured I'd share this as I'm getting rid of the domain this week that houses all of these... tear.

I do believe I posted them in Xanga at one point as well, however, here are my online entries...

I have some entries that I wrote in a personal moleskine on my journey there, however, I'm not too sure if I'm ready to share those yet... I'll look them over once again and post my thoughts here.

Goodnight friends!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:34:50 GMT

I really miss the days when one would come home after class and sit on the front porch with a cup of coffee and the mac and pour thoughts into the online blog... it became a release to an extent --- there were days when I would type out life on a daily basis.

Now, the 9 to 5 kind of keeps my 5 to 9 time in limited check if you know what I mean, but that's quite okay... a lot of really cool things on my end that are keeping me pretty busy...

Jamie and I are down to about 1 or 2 small boxes that have yet to be unpacked (and yes, we have lived here since December and still have boxes to unpack). Unfortunately, those boxes are mine and are tucked nicely away in the back bedroom closet. I've almost forgotten what is back there to be honest.

In the last week and a half, I've changed jobs. Still working for the same great company, only instead of my dream job of designing all day long, I've upgraded to my life-goal-passion-dream job of producing music and getting paid to do it. I really never thought that I would ever be doing something like this, but I was promoted at the beginning of the month to our brand new department, and me and a buddy of mine are the only 2 in this brand new endeavor. But basically, my job consists of showing up to work, plugging in a guitar and/or bass and writing, composing, producing, recording, re-writing, mixing and mastering these artists songs... did I mention for a living? Because now I actually do get paid to do music... haha... also... did I mention I've always wanted to do this? Couldn't remember really...

So yes, God has opened up door after door since we've made the move up here to OKC.
If we could somehow transplant the church from Weatherford up here, we would be all set. But that's okay.. we've been going to church here and are really starting to like it... a little different than what we are used to, but nonetheless, it has been a great experience...

I'm hoping that once the spring moves on in, that I will take advantage of sitting on the back porch with some coffee and the mac, pouring more substantial thoughts into this thing... for now, I will sit on them.

I miss you SWOSU peeps... just FYI.

Friday, December 07, 2007

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 03:38:20 GMT

there is not one day that has gone by recently that I haven't been completely amazed at the things God has done in Jamie and I's life. lots of change - moving, leaving our friends, leaving our families, leaving our first home together (which was actually harder than it seemed), adjusting to a new city... with a Chili's... its all different now.

but it is an exciting change...
its exciting that we have 2 super Wal-marts to choose from... haha... and that the streets don't exactly roll up at 8PM anymore... there are a handful of 24 hour restaraunts to choose from that don't include a Love's and Jerry's... in the end, there are a lot of perks to this not so little move we've just delved into.

its a bit saddening to see all of our belongings in boxes and to really not know what shirt is where when it comes to getting ready for work in the mornings... it was also quite taxing to see the house that we made a home for over 3 years, completely emptied one box at a time, until finally there was nothing but dust bunnies and random pennies left... it had been awhile since I shed a tear over something so trivial, but when I walked out of that door for the last time at our old house, and turned the porch light off, I couldn't help but get emotional.

All in all... God's blessed us with a brand new home and despite the boxes, we're blessed to be here. Jamie is soon to find a substitute teaching job here in the Mustang area and my job is going freaking awesome... my co-workers are amazing and my job is incredible. Pretty exciting that I do this for a living, much less get paid to do it.

these have been the desires of our hearts since we got married...to have a great job and live in a slightly larger home, and now that we have just that it seems surreal. Seems like we are on vacation soon to return.

"what's in store next?" is the question I can't help but ask myself... there's always the what-ifs, but I've learned to ignore the what-ifs for the time being...

now we continue on in our new surroundings doing what God has called us to do, whether that be ministering where we are or eventually getting into ministry, we are just along for the ride.

the thought that has captured my thoughts and heart for the better part of a year now is the thought of going back to Rwanda. Jamie and I have talked about adopting from Rwanda one day (hopefully sooner than later)... but my desire is to go back to Rwanda. Whether it be short-term or long-term. The thought of the children and all the people of Rwanda have really touched my heart and captured my thoughts... its hard to not want to act on it. So hopefully we get that opportunity soon to return to central Africa and Rwanda. Also be praying that the bible schools that have been recently planted in Mozambique will be translated into Kinyarwandan to plant in Rwanda... that will be an incredible key in planting more churches and seeing the Word spread throughout the region...

maybe one day God will open a door for Jamie and I to retire and move to Rwanda for missions... haha... may be a stretch, but I'm totally game for it.

that's pretty much my life right now... figured i'd finally mention what's been going on.

update...

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 01:20:26 GMT

I've really got to get a quick update in here...
Since I've started the new job, I really haven't even had time to do anything more than check this thing, and the 3 or 4 of you that still update it (which don't get me wrong, it keeps me checking it).

So... recap?
How far back to I really need to go.
Graduated college finally in May of this year... hoped to find a job in radio, video, something communications...
However, pretty soon after, I started the new job as a graphic designer for the best freaking publishing company on the planet. Yes. Its true. It's definitely a great place to work and the people there completely make-up for the hour drive there and then home again.

Jamie's been student-teaching since August and myself doing my daily 2 hour driving routine, and dropping lots and lots of dollars on gasoline.

All of that is fixing to change...
Pretty bittersweet, but it is an incredible blessing that we were able to buy a house there in Mustang and will close on the new house on Thursday and start painting Friday with hopes of being in the house in 2 weeks.

But here's a pic of the new place... pretty pumped about it.

Therefore, THAT my friends is May thru present in a nutshell...
Pretty depressing when you think about it... no real random trips to the coffee shop to sit and hang out on a Saturday... only few little trips of equal randomness to little "scary" places around Halloween... haha... with plans for a few future trips.

Speaking of which... check out this site
Really gets me pumped up on checking out random awesome and abandoned buildings around Western Oklahoma before moving...

That's pretty much it though... new job, jamie looking getting ready to finish up her student teaching... and again, NO, we still have NO children and are perfectly happy with just having a nephew... haha... STOP ASKING!

I have one more update on some happenings today, but I'll update that in a completely different post later on.
Have a blessed Saturday...

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 03:05:19 GMT

according to Keely, I should go as the founder of our company (Tate Publishing) for our work Halloween dress-up day...

I'm really really considering it...

so far this is the best recommendation... but would have to shave the beard. yikes.
i told myself I wouldn't shave the beard until I lost a little bit of weight, but thats a whole different story...

any suggestions on halloween?

kid nation...

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 23:13:19 GMT

is it just me, or does it seem that the new show "Kid Nation" could easily turn into a "Lord of the Flies" meets "Children of the Corn"?

that might actually make the show interesting if it did...

wow, i need to update. something new coming soon. honest.

finally...

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:48:03 GMT

it finally happened...
I'm an uncle...
after 25 minutes of hard labor (yes, I did say 25 minutes), Mr. Peyton Matthew was here and seeing and holding him was pretty awesome... needless to say I'm a proud uncle.

Jamie and I's first nephew...
so without further ado, here's Mr. Peyton, all 5lbs 15oz and 19.5 inches of him...

Last day of distribution... 50,000 books later

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:52:40 GMT

Today was it.
The last day of Book of Hope distribution in the Maputo province.

It was a lengthy day, but like I said before, nothing short of incredible.
I got to go film Mark's team today.

The greatest part about Mark's team is the fact that they are the smallest team and they work so hard! Plus its just humorous to see 6 Americans, 13 local Mozambicans, enough books to take the schools of Maputo by storm as well as everyones gear, bags, food, etc. (plus the driver) in a 12 passenger van.

God did some pretty miraculous things through this trip. Even though this trip was unusual, it was a trip that paved the way for the local team that will continue to train other teams as time goes on. That's the realization I came to today.

I've been walking the rural parts of Maputo province, taking video, taking pictures, speaking what little Portugese I know, talking to the children and conversing with new Mozambican friends... waiting for God to just say "THIS is why you are here..."

This has really been the first year that there was no one person that was my reason for being here. It was for the encouragement of this local team that I believe we were all here. To pave the way for them to succeed in bringing children to Christ. It was extremely hard saying goodbye to our national team tonight at dinner... I had a phone call from a guy that was not able to make it, but has helped us out this week. His name is Armando. He called me on another guy's cell phone because he wanted to tell me goodbye and that he would miss me. He lives hours outside of the city in a very small village... we teamed up one day and played soccer with his neices... it was just a somewhat emotional evening to get to know some so well and then we go back to life as usual and they continue on with their life.

God is an incredible God... He has worked in so many lives this week... including my own.
Please continue to pray for Mozambique and the people who's lives we've touched this week...

We've handed roughly 50,000 Books of Hope to the children in the Maputo, Mozambique schools this week alone. This is only the beginning. From here, the national team that we trained will continue the work we started, with a goal to reach every child in Mozambique with the word of God through the Book of Hope.

Tomorrow we are off to South Africa for a few days, so this will be my last entry for a bit. But to all at home... I love you all! We will be home late Monday night!

Days Five through today... (seven?)

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 05:05:51 GMT

Although my last two entries have been fairly lengthy, I will leave this one fairly short.
the last two days have been wonderful... some hard work and crazy drives, but nothing short of incredible.

Monday we headed out as far as the vans could take us... or so it seemed.
2 and a half hours north of town into an area that seemed barely recognizable to even our interpreters and van drivers. Let me also start this story by explaining that all of the roads are sand, playgrounds are sand boxes (not by choice like some American schools), and vans become stuck fairly easily loaded with books, americans and 5 or 6 of their own.

We also make 12 passenger vans into 24 passenger vans, also packed with our packs, books, and other materials needed to present the Book of Hope at each school.

So we were way out... and then all of a sudden there was a school. For miles we'd seen nothing but trees and sand, trees and sand, an occasional grass roof hut or so, as well as some occasional smoke from some locals cooking or burning off trash, but other than that, it was a desolate as it gets. Then there is a school. And a nice school at that.

The kids were amazing! We gave them a soccer ball which they held in the air as if they'd just won some sort of championship trophy.

----- moving on to yesterday... we met some Americans...and not just Americans... Oklahomans.
While ministering at a local children's center (orphanage), another team from Journey Church was there ministering for the week as well. How awesome!! So we talked with them and realized that we knew a lot of the same people and lived pretty close to each other.

But it was at this school that I had an awesome experience.
I met Olga, who seemed to have some sort of speech disorder... she could talk, but not well...
After giving an altar call at the school, hundreds of students raised their hands and accepted Christ. She was one of them.

She came up to me afterwards and gave me a hug... for no reason. And why me?
She was so happy... then she just held my hand for the remaining few minutes we had at the school before rushing off to our next destination. But it was quite the experience... and such an experience that touched my heart more so than any experience I've had... words don't do it justice, so I'll leave you all with this.

Day Three and Four

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 20:53:20 GMT

Well, yesterday was day three here in Maputo.
It was a rough Friday for everyone.
Everything that could've gone wrong did go wrong.
Basically, without expounding on all the details of the day, I believe I can sum it up fairly well using short sentences and one word phrases:

Early morning, different team, 2 hours behind schedule, 2 hours north into the "bush" of Africa, nobody speaks english (minus 2 and our team), van leaves us, walked door to door in a neighborhood (although American neighborhoods have houses that sit side by side, these have houses that sit... where ever they would like... usually where one piece of land meets up with another, some could be what we would call city blocks apart), walked miles more, met pastors of two churches in which we would present our movie "Godman" in Portugese, walked back to the original starting point from the morning, van never came back, took flatbed mini-truck to school at sunset to setup for the Godman, no power to run sound so we show the movie without sound and try to explain the movie afterwards (they still loved it), van arrives (whew!), i lose my right contact and am in pain because it is folded upon itself under my eyelid, nationals singing worship songs on the way back to our original starting church before leaving us (lets just say the verse "make a joyful noise to the Lord" stands here... it was joyful to them), van gets stuck in the sand in the pitch black out in the middle of nowhere, miles and hours from the hotel, van gets pulled over by policemen (also in the middle of nowhere still) and we are detained shortly, van driver is horrible at driving, potholes=headaches, chicken with oncoming cars=vomit, 6 Americans in a van with one driver that is upset and speaks no english=small fright and frustration.

in the end, we did make it back. although we spread God's word, it was just a rough day. a lot of "what could happen next" thoughts... all in all, it really was a great day, but there were some setbacks that took us by surprise.

it is a beautiful thought, however, to sit under the Acacia trees and eat lunch (which we bought on the street by the way... some good, some... yikes... haha), but to eat lunch with a nice cool breeze and as the sun is setting being able to play with some of the village children as we catch their interest.

Jamie and I and some others from our team were able to kick around a soccer ball with some of the most adorable children we'd ever seen, and they schooled us in futbol, but it was great just spending our afternoon as they would.

God really is doing a great work here in Maputo and the outlying areas. Sometimes its rough, and sometimes it's scary, but sometimes that is worth it to get the word out.

Just a quick note on today (saturday), as it was fairly uneventful due to the schools being out of session and such, a small team left the hotel early this morning to minister at a local prison. from what we hear, it was a good turnout and that the altar call was great! They had a great response... other than that though, we spent the rest of the afternoon driving and walking around Maputo, getting to know the area as well as picking up some pretty nifty crafts and such.

That pretty much sums up the last few days.
Prayer wise, if you could keep these lifted up in prayer, that would be great.
For Fernando and his national team -- mainly organization. They have a heart for their people and it is shown through their actions... although, unlike us in America, organization and promptness? doesn't really apply as it would at home.

Other than that, we hit the churches in the morning so be praying for our team leaders as the bring the word in a foreign place, as well as for our interpreters, that they are able to clearly interpret what it is we are trying to teach. We might also get to do worship in the church my team is going to tomorrow morning, so keep that in prayer... it would be awesome to lead worship in a country like Mozambique!

It is midnight here... so off to bed for us.