Potatoes

I feel like my life is a field. Up until this point all i have learned to grow is potatoes. I've gotten pretty good at growing potatoes. Potatoes are important to the entire world as a major food source. In recognition of this importance, the United Nations officially declared the year 2008 as the International Year of the Potato in order to "increase awareness of the importance of the potato as a food in developing nations" and calling the crop a "hidden treasure". This follows the International Rice Year in 2004.
I am in a season of change for my life currently. I'm looking at a lot of things differently then i have before and a lot of my current roles are shifting in the next few months.
Back to Potatoes...
I feel like my life is a field.
Up until this point all i have grown potatoes. that's what i was taught to grow. that's all i have known. I have been harvested and now i long for something more.
God is tilling me.
Tillage is the agricultural preparation of the soil by ploughing, ripping, or turning it.
For so long now all i have known how to grow is potatoes and God wants to plant something new in me. Something far more grand then i could comprehend at the moment.

I feel that Gods wants me to grow a variety of things, strawberries, carrots, blueberries, corn, wheat, beets, rice, oranges, cherries, mango's, green beans, lettuce, water melon, maybe even some hotdog trees!

God is tilling me. In this time of preparation i need to learn from the other fields around me. I need to learn how to grow the things they can grow. I need to learn what it takes to produce other things than potatoes.
Once God is through tilling me for this season of life i will be ready to accept those other crops. Then the harvest will come once again and i will be able to produce the bounty of things God yearns to see from me.

Thank you to all those fields around me for showing me that there are other things to grow than potatoes. Thank you to those that are teaching me how to grow something more.
My apologies to those that grow tired of farming analogies.

Jimmy's Diner Fundraiser!

The other day i met with the owner of Jimmy's Diner and he was awesome enough to put on a fundraiser for our missions trip to Thailand! if you visit Jimmy's Diner on Thursday May 7th between 8am and 9pm he will donate a minimum of 15% of the total sales to our trip!
All you need to do is tell them that you are there for the "catalyst fundraiser".
So just by eating out, which we do all the time, you can help send me and my team to Thailand!

Please pass this info on to everyone you know! i would love to bless Jimmys Diner with TONS of business and also bless our team by funding our trip! Pass it on!

Crunch Time!!!

Wow i only have a few weeks to go until i take off for Thailand! still so much to be done. My Head is spinning a bit.
A lot of the different fundraisers we scheduled fell through right before they were supposed to happen. such a big bummer! needless to say the team is short on money for the trip. To top it all off we were just told that if we didn't have the full $3000 before May 17th we wont be allowed to go on the trip!

so its time to get creative!
Ive embedded a video that a good friend of mine made to help raise funds for the trip. I'm sending it out to lots of people so pray for that.
we also have a couple food fundraisers scheduled this week AND a bowling fundraiser.
so please help out by spreading the word on the events as they roll out.

thoughts...

so im still figuring stuff out for Thailand. preparation for this trip is really making me evaluate myself and things going on around me. the biggest things is simply that i want to rid my life of "clutter". this is driving me to try and sell everything i own and don’t use more than once a year on craigslist.com .

but today i simply wanted to ask 2 questions...
1. Must we repeat the things that have been demonstrated and taught to us by those that went before us, or is there a possibility to change/improve upon those things?
-I was slapped in the face (not in reality a human slap) today when i confronted someone on an issue i have seen with them. after the conversation in which i tried to wipe the speck out of my friends eye i realized that i had a log in my own eye. i was doing the very thing to those people around me that this person was doing, and i had the audacity to criticize him for it!
consider me put in my place.
as an encouragement to all those in internet land that may one day read this, simply take 5 mins and look at yourself very carefully before confronting anyone on anything you think they may be doing wrong!
so back to my question... must i do the things i learned from those around me simply because they are now imbedded in my mind, or may i brake away from the mold and improve upon this situation? the answer i think is to remind yourself that everyone makes mistakes and has weaknesses and you must know your own before you go pointing other peoples out to them. also, you cannot look to those around you to teach you forever, there will be a point in which your goal has to change from "i want to be like that person one day", to " i want to be better then that person one day", to finally "what that person is like doesnt matter because i know what God wants ME to be!"

2. is winning the battle over whats morally right and wrong worth losing your loved ones?
-just finished watching the movie "flash of genius" in this movie a person’s invention is stolen and another group make money off of it. the inventor sues the group and it is drawn out to a 12 year long court case.
through the course of those 12 years this inventor lost his wife and six kids. he also lost a lot of sanity. he pursued this case for 12 years and denied multiple deals offered to him simply because he wanted it stated that he was right and the group was wrong.
while this is very noble, turning away loads of money for the idea of right and wrong, is it right for a person to lose his family over it? well in the end the inventors children come to his side and help him with the case and his wife will actually speak with him, but it doesnt go further than that. also, he wins the court case and he is stated officially as being "right", but there is still immeasurable damage done to his family.
so at what point would you give in?
if your family was on the line and you were fighting a case over right and wrong, would you give in, lose recognition that something had been stolen from you, and keep your family for $100,000?
$250,000?
$1,000,000?
$10,000,000?
$30,000,000?
in the end, what is actually right and wrong in this situation? i dont know, but its something to think about and measure values against.

Success!

Thanks so much to everyone who donated to my yard sale/fundraiser for Thailand! i think it went great! we ended up raising $300 dollars for my air fair! PRAISE GOD!!! that is a good sized amount to be taken away from the balance owed. thanks to my mom and anyssia and all who donated! the due date is coming up very quickly now though and im getting kinda nervous.
it looks like i will be trying to have a couple more yard sales before we take off for Thailand to try and get the air fair paid off. i will keep you all posted on what i have planned.... stay tuned!

-Jesse

Yard Sale for Thailand

well im still gathering donations for my trip to Thailand. i picked up lots of stuff and am about to leave for another round of pick ups. all my family and friends have been very generous with their things and it looks like the yard sale is gonna be a great success. only problem is its gonna rain tomorrow so im restricted to saturday. oh well. thanks so much to all who have donated!

YardSale!

I'm having a yardsale this saturday morning at my house. trying to clear out the stuff in my life that is simply clutter and helping keep me from clarity and closeness with God.
I am also using it as a fundraiser to help send me to Thailand. this week i will be collecting anything that has any sort of value, and that still works, from anyone willing to donate. also, in some cases i can pickup the items from their homes.