In TekasWell, we've been in Dallas TX for a few days.... almost a week now. We head back to Florida tomorrow. It's been quite a time, up here for a Youth for Christ conference. I think I'm understanding a new level of suffering for Christ. On Monday, after the time to leave, I was laying in bed with a fever. With a rag on my head, I made it up to the hotel room in Orlando the night before the plane left. We had 4 hours before the taxi to the airport would leave; then came the coughing. I had some of the most awful hacking and seal noises going on for the next 3 hours. I couldn't stop, with every cough swelling my face and pressing my fever into a sharper pain. After my hour of sleep, we crawled out of bed and had some hours of trying to rest in very uncomfortable places... Because my head was so stuffed, the pressure from the plane made my ears feel like they were bleeding. Tonight I still have something wrong with my right ear. I had decided not to go on the trip because I knew I'd be trying to feel good in a hotel room for a few days, with fear of a hospital visit in Dallas in the future, but after I called it off I got a call from the YfC board. I guess the rest of the staff felt like they couldn't leave without me and would do anything they could to get my sick butt in Texas; not to mention the over $2k of nonrefundable loss already paid to send me and Jess. So I brought and spread some sickness with me, but through it all, God honored the trip, even in spite of me dragging my feet. It's hard to look past a fever that lasts for 3 days, but on the other side, sometimes there's the greatest blessing in years. It's hard to say exactly what God's done... I'm pretty excited about YfC, not because it's a organization and a title that links me to some support, but because it's really an opportunity worth being excited about. I have some fresh ideas of reaching kids through short speaking and then playing a song I wrote on the same topic to really grab kids attention. Jess herself wants to have a job where she can make a difference; it's really a great passion of hers to reach lives. I'm excited to see how that goes as we return home to the house that's probably hours from being moved into :D Maybe Jess will wanna join the YfC staff and we can do ministry together... As far as music goes, I'm hoping to write songs in the near future that incorporate more hip-hop. Of today's youth, over 60% listen to hip-hop and less than 30% listen to rock. I'll always be anxious to write melodies, but if the world won't hear my message in song through them alone, who knows, maybe I can "spit" a little. | 
