The Redneck Desert Dweller

My church, Cornerstone Christian Fellowship, has believers that are not just hearers of The Word, but they also put their faith into action. One of the ways that we’ve done this is to partner with Huruma Children’s Home in Kenya. There have been many people from Cornerstone that have not only given their money, but have also made the trip to Kenya to assist this amazing ministry, run by a woman named Mama Zipporah. This woman, with her husband Papa Issac, have adopted over 150 children. But what’s amazing is that they not only house and feed these children, but they teach them as well. Since I haven’t been to Kenya (yet!) to witness this, I can only imagine what this looks like from some of the pictures I’ve seen from there.

I first became aware of Huruma when Caroline, Mama Zipporah’s daughter, came to our church for a few months last year. I can’t say that I spent a lot of time with Caroline, but she made an immediate impact on me. There was something so kind and graceful about her…it wasn’t just charisma, but she possessed a gentle, peaceful, and loving spirit. A truly Godly and beautiful woman.

Earlier this year, Mama Zipporah had also visited us. Because of the size of our church, and the amount of people I saw talking with her, I only had a chance to shake her hand and wish God’s blessings on her and Huruma. But it was immediately clear where Caroline got her spirit from; her Mama had the same loving spirit.

Since that visit, Cornerstone has been a huge part of Huruma, adopting children, providing financial support, and also physical labor. Our pastor and his wife were recently there, along with many other church members…some of which have stayed months. Huruma is definitely part of our family.

Yesterday, I received some sad news. Brian Wurzell, our worship leader, informed us on his blog that Papa Issac had passed away suddenly from a heart attack. Not only is this the loss of a father and husband, but for Huruma it’s also the loss of the man that donated the land to build their home. Papa was also the strong male figure for everyone at Huruma…what a tremendous loss this is.

With apologies to Brian for almost direct copy and paste from his blog, here is what we’re requesting from you:

1. Pray for healing and comfort for Mama Zipporah, Caroline, and everyone at Huruma.

2. If you have a blog, Myspace page, etc., please help us get the word out about Huruma. Donations are badly needed, and they will be wisely used.

3. Give! Link below is for donations.

Thanks for your time reading this, the prayers that you’re saying for Mama and everyone at Huruma, and your donations.

• I just signed up for NaNoWriMo. Why? I have no incredible idea. I’ve always felt like I would be able to write a novel, but never knew how or when. Well, I’m at least going to try. With the 3-Day walk coming up, I don’t think I’m going to be successful…but I’m giving it a try.
• Speaking of the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk…I’m still short on donations. After my fundraising event last weekend, I’ll be at about $1000 raised, and I still need $1200 to make goal. If you read this, please consider donating $10. Or more, if you feel like it! But if 120 people donate $10, I’ll be done asking for money. But don’t do it for me. Do it because 1 in 8 women get breast cancer…and that’s way too many. Link is at top right.
• School is going pretty well. I get a few markdowns for little things, but I’m keeping my A in both classes. It is more time consuming than previously thought, but going well.
• I went to a TweetUpAZ lunch last Friday. Met a LOT of really nice folks. I knew some of them from Twitter, some I didn’t, but before Friday, I had never met any of them in person. Cool people, great social networking.
• PodcampAZ is coming this weekend! If you blog, tweet, or do anything with the internet, show up. I’m going to try to show up…but it’s going to be another busy weekend. 18 mile walk coming up on Saturday morning.
• People are weird.
• When is cooler weather coming? I hope it gets here before the walk.
• I’ve been following several different people on ustream.tv, including Brian Shaler, Jody Gnant, and The Nanas. I can’t do links right now, but go to ustream.tv and search. You’ll like!
• Time to get back to work. God bless.

EDIT: Oops! I’m following The Nadas, not The Nanas. Thanks, @ousooner44 for being my proofreader.

I can’t believe it’s happening…but it is.

Starting October 5, I will be attending class at the Axia College at University of Phoenix. Due to the way their program is set up, I won’t just dabble, taking a course here and there…I’m in it for the long haul. I should have my Associates’ in business around June or so.

Based on my experience at Rio Salado, dabbling around with courses there, I don’t think I’ll have any problems with competency. However, time management to make sure that all of my coursework is done on time is my real concern. Wish me luck…and, if you know me personally, you probably won’t see as much of me. Sorry…but I promise I’ll try to make time.

Howdy, kids. There’s a lot of stuff packed tightly into Bubba’s noggin…here it comes.

• Obama is pro-choice. I know that, you know that, all God’s children knows that. Do we really need reminders? If you’re pro-life, and abortion is a decisive issue for you, you know who your candidate is. Good night.
• Speaking of political stuff…Heart is complaining about McCain/Palin’s use of their song, Barracuda. First of all, the song is covered by the licensing of the venues where it was performed, so legally, you don’t have a leg to stand on. Second of all, do you really think that someone using your song at a political rally makes people think “oh! Ann and Nancy must be McCain supporters!” Nope. Not for a second. You put your song out in public, and part of that action means that someone might use your song in a way you don’t like. That’s something you’re going to have to live with. And third, your song is thirty-one years old. THIRTY ONE years. You can’t be complaining about royalties.
• Forgot to mention, Heart. You’ve lost at least one fan. Get over yourselves, please.
• It’s been a much rougher road healing my ribs than expected. The generic message that I got from the urgent care clinic is that the x-rays were negative. Sorry, I have to disagree…because the muscle stuff has now gone, and it still hurts like H-E-double hockey sticks when I cough or sneeze or stretch the wrong way. Doesn’t matter, though. I started riding my bike to work today…and all I can say is it felt great. After two weeks of taking it easy, it was tougher than normal, but it didn’t take long to get some speed built up, and I made it to work in seven minutes this morning. Funny thing, is: driving takes over twice as long.
• I plan to start walking a little bit tomorrow night, and then Saturday I’m going to push myself and do a normal Saturday walk for my training, which is now 14 miles. I also got new shoes, an even exchange for my old ones, that were causing a lot of blisters. Great service by the guys at Performance Footwear. Tempe at Rural and University, and Tucson. Great service, and they tend to beat other places from the two pair of shoes I’ve gotten there.
• I’ve been listening to Jody Gnant’s album, Pivot. If you go to her website, you can download it for free. Very talented young lady, and the band isn’t bad. She’s also on Twitter, not to mention a live stream that’s on some of the time.
• It’s been a stinky past few days for me as a baseball fan. The White Sox just won their game against the Blue Jays, but dropped three in a row before that. Next week they go to New York for their last series in Yankee Stadium. Make it a heartbreaker, boys.
• The Dbacks haven’t fared any better, having dropped six in a row. *sigh*
• From xkcd.com, my new favorite comic…married people have fights over the stupidest of reasons. I should know, I’ve started enough for a lifetime. EDIT: you’ll have to click on it to see the whole thing.
• I decided I’m going to make biscuits tonight. With no rolling pin, this should be interesting.
• I feel like I’m forgetting about 30 things…but I’m going to cut it short. G’night, and God bless.

• Finished my first workshop for school. Even though I’ve done online classes in the past, this is going to be much less of an individual event. The classrooms are much more structured online for UOP than my previous experience (Rio Salado).
• I’ve finished my last Sunday doing lights for a while. There are several reasons that I’m no longer doing it…the most pressing is that I just live too far away to come back later in the day, and I don’t think that two different people running lights is a feasible plan. But I could be wrong. And it’s no longer my concern.
• I don’t know what to say about my friendship/relationship with pretty girl. We haven’t seen each other since last weekend, and she didn’t come over to see me at church today. I’m sure I’ll see her tomorrow…but I don’t really think this is going to go anywhere. The good thing is, though, that I’m starting to realize a couple of things about what I would want from a relationship (and not just her qualities). One thing that I realized I need is someone that will be available for interaction more than once a week…and not just at group functions. So many women that I meet are just busy, busy, busy. Now, maybe they’re just blowing me off. Probably the case, at least sometimes. However, I believe that we make time for what’s important…and if I’m not important enough to spend one on one time, keep moving. Or maybe it’s just me…and I’m not discounting that possibility, either.
• I’m bringing zucchini bread to the potluck tomorrow, if it turns out ok. It’s in the oven now.
• It’s been a good week for politics. Those of you that read this blog regularly (both of you), realize that I’m a Republican. But when I look across the aisle at Obama, I see someone that is philosophically different that me…but doesn’t seem to be morally bankrupt. I don’t care for his foreign policy beliefs, and several other planks in his platform. It’s also exciting to see an African-American nominated for the Presidency, and the fact that America has advanced in race relations enough for this to happen. Can he gain enough votes to win? To me, that’s going to be the $64,000 question.
• Also, I’m encouraged by McCain’s pick for VP. I can’t say I know enough yet about Sarah Palin, but initial reports seem encouraging. But his pick seems to be unexpected to even those much more familiar with politics than good ol’ Bubba. No matter how this election turns out, it will be exciting, and no matter who wins, I think that man is going to represent the United States to the best of his ability. I haven’t been able to say that in a long time.
• The zucchini bread should have been done by now…but still looking pretty soggy. Didn’t even test to see if it was done.
• I finally got all my CDs ripped and on my computer. Since I didn’t renew Yahoo Music Unlimited, I’m going to have to sign up for Rhapsody at some point…but I’m delaying it for now. When I look at what I spend on entertainment in a month, I have a lot of trouble putting out another $15 a month. *sigh*
• During sermon today at church: anyone collecting a welfare check in the United States is in the top 2% of the world’s wealthiest people. Wow.
• Cornerstone just launched a video, “Experience Cornerstone”. I found out this morning…when they told me I was in it. I just saw it…I had no idea I was being filmed. Not sure I know what to think about how I look…although I didn’t think I looked fat, so that’s good.
• I have really missed walking and riding my bike this week, as I’m still attempting to rest up to heal my ribs. Bonus: my back is now also starting to hurt from whatever I’m doing to compensate for my left half hurting. I apologize to anyone I ran into at church that didn’t think I was my usual, friendly self. I wasn’t.
• I am going to start pushing for donations for my Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk. I also have a couple of local events I’m going to be at to raise money. Please contact me ASAP if you’re interested in helping locally. If you want to donate, please go to the top right of the page. A huge thank you if you’ve already donated!
• Well, time to get cleaning again. Y’all be good.

Well, after some sustained coughing today, and additional pain, I decided it was time to see the doctor. My own doctor didn’t return a call that I made at noon, so I went to an urgent care after I was told that they have x-rays, and can take care of me.

That was partially true. After pre-registering online, and then still waiting 90 minutes, I see a very pretty nurse practitioner who informs me that they don’t have the equipment to do proper x-rays for my ribs to see if they’re broken…but she’d like to do a chest x-ray all the same.

I have the x-ray taken…and what do you know. On top of bruised/cracked/broken rib, I also am the proud owner of a case of bronchitis. Yeah, I know. I’ve had it before, and no biggie, right? Except for the fact that sneezing and coughing are more than a little painful.

So…I’m supposed to have more x-rays done tomorrow…which means I’ll need to take at least part of the day off. Should I take part, all, or none? THAT is the question I’ll be facing at 5:30 am. Until then…g’night kids.

Well, that’s how I feel, anyway.

With the ribs still hurting, I went for my 4 mile training walk last night. It hurt all the way, but since I’m a guy, I just did it. When I got home, the pain was starting to get pretty severe, but I gritted my teeth, went to bed after swallowing some ibuprofen. But I woke up about 2:00 am to what I would describe as excruciating pain.

A lot of you have asked me if I’d seen a doctor. Nope, not yet. So, to make sure I’m doing the right thing, I checked Web MD. According to the article, I should be seen by a doctor, even though there’s probably not much they can do. My concern right now is the stuff I feel building up in my lungs. So I’ll probably go after work…unless I get off early again, which is what I did yesterday. Oh, and for all of you telling me to wrap my ribs: the article says that’s a big no no.

I signed up for my first workshop for University of Phoenix yesterday. I’m going to be attending their Axia college to get my Associate’s degree in business…and then (hopefully) continue on to my Bachelor’s.

If you’ve ever worked in customer service, I just found a site for you. notalwaysright.com is full of hilarious customer service stories…some of them look just a bit too familiar to me.

If you’re a runner, walker, or bicyclist…BIM Active might be a site to check out. It works with your GPS-enabled phone on several networks (mine is Verizon) to track your activity, complete with distance, time, pace, calories burned, and will also give you a neat little map of your travels. The GPS on my phone (LG Voyager) has gotten so good that the maps tell me where I crossed the street. It’s frighteningly accurate.

Well, it’s 6:02. Time to get ready to go to work…y’all be good!

Holy cow. What a weekend it has been.

This was the retreat in Prescott for our church small group. I was a little nervous at first…because as part of the car assignments, the ex-girlfriend that I previously mentioned was one of the people riding in our vehicle. However, the ride up was pretty decent. I was the only guy in the car, and as the driver, it was totally acceptable for me to ignore most of the conversation about shopping. We got there early enough to stop off at Starbucks, which is something that I do not regularly have because of the cost.

So, we get to camp and unload, pray, unload, have lunch, and have our first teaching session. I got to play a djimbe as part of worship…which is fun for me. Hopefully I didn’t mess up TOO much. While we were learning about Psalm 61, it started raining. Hard. I don’t believe this much rain was in the forecast, either. Now, if you’ve been reading this for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m not all that crazy about rain. However, the rest of the Arizona residents with me acted like it was raining $100 bills and were all ecstatic. Up to this point, things were going pretty well. I mean, not great, but I was having a good time.

The next part was when it got to be a LOT of fun. Outside of the teaching, worship, and meal times, not a lot was really structured. I started looking around for something to do…and found several people starting a volleyball game. Since it had just rained pretty hard outside, I was a little skeptical about playing in low-grade sand with sneakers. But there was something about it that was a lot of fun. For the most part, it was guys against girls…we had one girl on our team, and the other team was entirely girls. There were five of us on our team, and the other team had up to seven at one point. We didn’t blow them out, and it wasn’t really competitive, but everyone seemed to have a competency that made the game a great time.

Except for one thing, that is. I ended up diving for a ball…and fell on my ribs. When I landed, I heard something go crunch…and I’m reasonably certain that the sand wasn’t going “crunch”! If I don’t lay down or reach for something, I’m good. But if I lay down…it’s pretty excruciating pain. And if it is broken, not much the doctor can do…so I’m just doing the ibuprofen and heating pad routine. It’ll heal, eventually. Oh, and sneezing is a LOT of fun. NOT.

After the game, we gathered in the main room…where it seemed like all anyone could talk about was food…especially ice cream! There are a couple of places in downtown Prescott that were rumoured to have pretty good ice cream, and Pastor Jeff was absolutely certain of two things: his walk with Jesus, and the fact that after the evening session, we would head downtown to have ice cream.

Then, I took a walk with the ex-girlfriend. It was a really, really good chat…and we ironed out a lot of things that just weren’t being communicated. We’re going to try to be friends and see where things go from there. I’m not sure how much else to say or think, other than just taking it one day at a time…and not expecting too much at this point.

Dinner, in its simplicity, was pretty decent for camp fare. We then had our afternoon/evening teaching and worship session, which also went well.

Then came the trip to downtown Prescott for ice cream. I am having much difficulty finding the name of this place…but it was incredible. I sampled the root beer float flavour, and while it was good, I ended up with blackberry and pralines & cream. Oh. My. Goodness. It was incredible! But what happened next was totally unexpected. Out on the town square, they had several different bands playing different types of music. We ended up at the rock and roll side. One of the very pretty ladies that went with us kept cajoling me into dancing…and I kept blowing her off. But for some strange, unknown reason, after I was bugged enough, I pulled her out and started dancing. Or, at least what I call dancing. But we seem to have started an avalanche, because everyone else followed. In my wildest dreams, I never would’ve pictured going on a church retreat, and dancing with about 30 friends in the town square while a local band played AC/DC. There are pictures, but I don’t have any of them, and I’m sure that the people that do are holding them as blackmail. We even had the pastor out dancing with us! Honourable mentions go to the square dance lady that joined us, the kids that found their way into our crowd while headbanging, and the gal that was obviously “looking for a good time”, and kept making eyes at me.

After we get back to camp, we start playing games, but after a while I realize I’m too tired, and start heading to bed. But then the ex-girlfriend/friend/whatever I’m calling her pretty girl comes in, and we end up taking another walk to discuss our relationship…or whatever it is. We stay out until about midnight, and head to my room again, thinking I’m going to go to sleep.

However, Bubba is wrong. Again. After about 5 minutes, the pretty girl pokes her head in the room and tells me to get my butt outta bed, because they want pizza. After some initial cajoling, they get me to start driving towards town again. Oh, but there’s a couple of problems. First of all, it’s 12:15 at night. Prescott, like a lot of other smaller cities, doesn’t have pizza places open that late, even on the weekend. And secondly, half of the crew that commandeered me is wearing pajamas. After about two miles, I realize that this is going nowhere fast, and turn the car around. The bonus on this trip is that one of the gals that came along had already taken her Ambien for the night. Ambien, for those unaware, is a sleeping pill. “Hey! L____! Where are you going?” “I don’t know…I was counting on you guys to tell me where to go!”

The next morning comes way too soon. And again, as I’m getting showered, dressed, and smelling a lot better than I did last night, the pretty girl tells me that I need to get moving, because there’s a crowd of people clamoring for Starbucks. Now, the vehicle I’m driving is NOT mine, so I’m a little uncomfortable with this and the pizza run. But after looking for (and not finding) the owner of this vehicle, I make an executive decision to head down. The car is actually a large SUV, but we’ve taken out one row of seats to make room for the stuff that we had to bring to Prescott with us. We end up with six people, four sitting in one row of seats meant to hold three. The ride back was interesting, when one of my passengers (Ambien lady) spills a little bit of hot chocolate on her pants. Her white pants. Her brand new white pants, that she had never worn before…that she is now wearing on a camping trip. Fortunately, she got the spots out.

After breakfast, we do our last session of worship and teaching. We also had a couple give their testimony of how they got to where they are today…and it was really touching. They also made frilly bookmarks for all of us. Normally, I’m not into that type of thing, but they’re really well done, and it will be a souvenir of a weekend that will not be easily forgotten.

Thanks to everyone involved. It was truly an amazing weekend.