God's been good!

Feeling a bit random right now. So despite the obvious literary handicap I will try my best and write something.
I just got back tonight from a very long weekend of singing, playing around and studying God’s Word. I’m so glad our band had people praying for us! We were off to a really bad start on Friday, with a flat tire within the first couple minutes of driving, we forgot someone back at our house, so we had to go back. Obviously not a good start for what was about to be a long day. When we got to the ARC, we quickly unpacked, only to notice that we forgot the mic stands AND my guitar was not coming out of the sound system. We prayed, and God continued to provide for us! The ARC found some mic stands we could borrow, and my dad ( a complete genius ) figured out what was wrong with my guitar. So we practiced for an hour or so on Friday night, then we played at the opening session. Friday night I had some MT. Dew, and ended up staying up until 3:00-ish. ( Not a good idea if you have a busy weekend of singing up ahead of you ) Saturday morning we went to sessions, and stuff. ( Ryan Chase was A-W-E-S-O-M-E! ) Anyway, I played mafia, broomball, went tubing, played some football and eventually was sore in 95% of my body. Then we had another singing time Sat. night, and that went well. Afterwards Nathan and I got to go up and play background music during the alter call, and like 4 kids from our youth group responded to the call and gave their lives back to Christ! I’m so happy! I made a good choice, and decided not to stay up, but in the morning I had completely lost my voice. ( Another one of those spiritual warfare things ) I made it through the last session by God’s grace. ( and singing an octave lower than usual ) Then before leaving we got a casual invitation back. ( In other words they will call us next time have a youth event or something and they need a praise team) Our whole team got some valuable experience on stage, in-front of 350 kids, and we came out of the weekend stronger and closer together.
I better sleep, it’s like 1:20.

Still Alive =)

Mood: Exuberant
Ello! Been a lil' busy lately. Thursday was guitar lessons with Austin and Jessica, and that went REALLY WELL! ( Jessica learned everything Austin did in 4 weeks, all in 1 week, and the fact that "A is outdoing me" seems to be adding to Austin's motivation level ) It's really nice to be leaving my mark on the world in some way. Who knows, maybe Jessica in 20 years teaches her child guitar, and then he goes on to be a rock star! Anyways, I have been noticing how people who have played an instrument like Piano seem to be able to self-teach easier than people who haven’t. Friday was the youth group talent show. So I spent the night serving coffee, and I did 2 acts. I did a heavy English Accent for a skit by Naomi, and I played Blessed be Your name on guitar with Nathan. ( I was going to do the amazing “fit a cup in your mouth” thing I can do, but mom said I shouldn’t, if you want to see it, I can show you sometime ) So I had a good time there, then on Saturday I went to Chris’ house and just hung out there in the PM side of the day. Then today I drove to church and back, then after that I drove us over to the Olson’s house to celebrate Caleb’s b-day, drank some Mt. Dews then came home. Dad got home from the Youth Worker’s retreat tonight, so we did devos and then Alan came over. ( We were able to talk about an upcoming district retreat that Nathan and me are putting the music on for ) I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with all the music stuff going on. ( Side by Side, A 2 hour Coffee Shop gig and now a District youth conference ) But I’m positive that with God all things are possible!
Sorry if I’m coming across a little random, I’m feeling pretty random.I better put myself to bed before I go and bounce off any walls.
If I haven’t told you yet, I Love you allot, even when it doesnt seem like it!

To all who read this

Hello. Please leave a comment. My motivation for writing right now if pretty low. =)
Got home from youth group t'night, we practiced songs for praise team too. I think we are pretty ready for the worship time at the Side by Side retreat. We got invited to play at a Coffee Shop at the end of the month, it's a 2 hour gig, so I better warm up! I'm teaching guitar to Austin and Jessica tommarrow. I hope it goes well! Gas is only $1.979 right now. =) School is going good, I just filled out 5 tax forms for Buisiness Math yesterday. Tommarrow I'm going to help the Ritters load stuff into a truck to put it into storage. (?) That should be fun since they are a pretty awesome family. For devotions I just started going through the "Disciplines of a Godly man", my dad is going over some of it with me, and it's really good. ( I would reccomend it to any guy readers out there ) Then for family devos we are going through a video series by Dr. Emerson on "How to have healthy marraiges". It's REALLY good, it has helped me understand how women think. =)
Cheers!

25 minutes after Christmas

Merry CHRISTmas to all!

This year was allot of fun. Last night after getting home from the Christmas eve service we gave presents. I gave Rayman 2 to Naomi, iPod supplies for Nathan, a Crockpot for mom and new sockets for dad. ( It's a little funny how every summer I work my head off, but by the time Birthday's / Christmas is over my budget is broke ) Then I got some stuff too. Like a new Capo from Nathan, Glow in the dark stars from Naomi and an office chair from mom / dad. This morning we opened stockings, read our notes and then went to my grandma's house. ( Mom's side ) Because I've been "doing very well with my driving" - quoth dad, I have gotten allot of time behind the wheel. so far 105 daytime, and 75 nightime minutes. ( In only 2 days!! ) Total I need 1200 daytime, and 600 nightime before I can qualify for my licence. Anyway, so I went to my grandma's today, and played Apples to Apples about 6 times. Then we opened gifts and I got an awesome lime green Suit top and pants that my grandma made. She is awesome. Now I even have the lime green pants! :)
I better go!

CHRISTMAS EVE!!!

Wow! This week has gone quite fast. Sunday we were at my Great Grandma’s for church. We had a little party at her place Sunday afternoon, then we got home packed up, and went hunting! We left here around 7:30-ish, and I enjoyed the company of Brad Kupser, my dad and Nathan the whole 15 some hours to Colorado. We got there around 1:00 Monday afternoon, and then went hunting that evening. During the first hour of our hunt, Nathan got his elk. Then later on that evening near sunset Brad and I both got our elk too. So we took pictures, gutted them and loaded all of them in the truck. That night we stayed at a really cheap but cozy motel, with hopes of getting 3 more elk the next day. ( One for Marty, Katy and Brian ) So we got out on the field around 7:30AM, then come noon.. All of our tags had been filled. It was practically a new record. 6 elk in 24 hours. ( And we even slept! ) So we headed home Tuesday afternoon, and drove through the night until we reached home about 10:00 AM Wednesday morning. Because we got home early, we had extra time to cut up our elk. So Wednesday and Thursday we spent all day processing our meat into hamburger, jerky and a couple roasts. Thursday morning I took my drivers test, I scored a 90% and I got my permit! ( Mom took me out to the bakery to celebrate ) Then yesterday we went up to my grandma’s house to celebrate Christmas. ( Dad’s mom ) I got a lime green hoodie from her. :) Tomorrow is church, and then there is a Christmas eve service at 4:00. So it should be a full day. ( Pretty sure we will be doing our family Christmas thing tomorrow night as usual ) My dad is making jerky right now, so I better go help!

It's definately December!

Today was Naomi’s birthday, and as always we celebrated with the Traditional Olson Birthday breakfast. The birthday boy or girl chooses the menu, we have a prayer time, eat and then open cards and gifts. Things have changed since when I was younger, and Birthday breakfast times have gone from 7:30 to an unbelievable 6:00AM!! I’m definitely not a morning person, and it usually takes about 20 minutes ( or a cold bucket of water ) to wake me up. So this morning was an interesting experience. So after school I kinda just hung out around home here, and had some music stuff to work on for youth group, and I shaved for my first time ever! ( “Yessssssssss” – Napoleon Dynamite ) The pace of things is definitely picking up! lol I saw the nativity movie yesterday, and that was pretty good.

Stuff Stuff

To anyone who even reads this:
I just got back from planet wisdom. It was allot of fun, and I had a really good time. Last Wednesday I gave my testimonial thing, and I did 2 skits for youth group. Then Thursday I started teaching Austin guitar. He is doing pretty well I guess, I thought we were just going to take the whole day strumming, but we made it to some chords! :) Thu. night was choir practice. ( We are singing this Sunday ) Friday I just chilled all day, and then went to planet wisdom. Had an awesome time, slept at King of Glory church, and played some b-ball. Then this morning we were at planet wisdom all day. :) And that brings me to right now. I just had some Ramen Noodles, so I think I'm going to work on my other blog. www.ramennoodlefanclub.blogspot.com.

Awesomeness Weekend

As I am most of the time at night. I'm feeling lazy ( Or maybe just tired, I can't tell the difference ) But I don't really feel like writing much right now. So I'm going to copy and paste some stuff I wrote to one of my friends about this last weekend.
My last weekend can be described in 3 letters. F-U-N. My friends ( Isaac, Nate and Chris ) came over at 5:00 on Friday. ( This year I told them not to bring presents, and instead just to bring something to eat. Isaac disobeyed though and they gave me this awesome “Ramen Noodle Cookbook” that he made ) Once everyone was here, we broke out the 2 liters of Mt. Dew, and did some LAWG-ing. Went inside ate some pizza, and played Age of Empires for about 3 hours straight! Then we did some wrestling, ate cake, and played more Age of Empires. ( My dad even played! ) Since it was a tournament, everyone had really practiced up, and we had a pretty intense “tournament battle”. This year I took the “Age of Empires 2 Champion” Certificate, which really surprised me. ( I was almost positive that Isaac was going to win it again! :) ) Then after that was over we watched Napoleon Dynamite, and went to sleep around 3:00. We got about 4 hours of sleep, and then we played some more Age of Empires in the morning.
Check out my picture website for picture from the party. Today I sang in choir at church, then the Community Thanksgiving service was tonight, so I sang at that too.
Prayer Requests:
- Wisdom for me, and the words to say to my friends who I e-mail
- Isaac Paige's dad, so that he can get a job
- Ben and Jesse in Tanzania

Hunting

We just got back from hunting last night. It was fun. I didn't see any deer the whole time, but I did shoot a grouse. So I was happy! Nathan did get a 9 point buck, so at least we didn’t get skunked. I went to grandma’s house today, and we did some decorating, then when I came back home we cleaned the deer, and I’m going to tan the hide. So I spent a good portion of tonight working on that. I called Katy on the phone tonight, I was nervous because I don’t usually call people on the phone. Umm… I can’t really think of anything else to write, other than I have a new blog called the Ramen Noodle fan club. I’ve put a good deal of work into it, and I made an instructional video. http://www.ramennoodlefanclub.blogspot.com

It's November!

We have flipped the calendar over to the next month, and a new picture of some landscape somewhere “where the grass is greener” is now on display in our kitchen. It's November now, Only 22 more days until my birthday, and until I will be getting my drivers permit! ( Look out world! =) )Halloween was last week, for that I went over and had a Bible Study at Alex’s house. ( Since Halloween was on a Tuesday this year ) I had way to much sugar, as would be usual for any child who went Trick or Treating. (And I didn’t even go! ) Then last Wednesday at youth group I was really happy because 3 new people joined the praise team! 2 more female vocalists and a bass piano player! We also have been invited to play for a Sunday service, and possibly for Side by Side this winter. Not much happened over the weekend. I went to Bible quizzing on Saturday, and I quizzed out for my first time ever! ( That’s where you answer 5 questions right in 1 quiz ) So I was happy about that. Then Saturday night we had a movie night, and Isaac, Chris and I practiced for Special Music. Then Sunday Isaac, Chris and I played Days of Elijah for special music. I thought it sounded really good and we got lots of compliments. ( Especially Chris because it was like the first time an Electric Bass guitar had been played in church for a while ) Then today I started school up again, and it went pretty well. Physics is making more sense thanks to my wonderful dad who should’ve like taken over the world by now with his insanely awesome brain! He is so cool to take time with to go over Physics with me. I’m going Deer hunting this Thursday, so I better start packing!

Worldview Weekend

Since I'm lazy, and want to get sleep, instead of typing my whole weekend out. I think I'm going to copy all the stuff I wrote to a friend in an e-mail and paste it here! I did have an incredible time though, and it was a life-changing experience. "So I went to WW ( Worldview weekend ) Friday night, and just had a BLAST. I would definitely recommend it to anyone. There was a very awesome speaker there named Mark Cahill. ( Author of ONE Heartbeat Away ) His message was really convicting. Just for backgrounds’ sake, this guy is a total evangelist. Everywhere he is he evangelizes to just ordinary people. Just before getting to WW, he got kicked out of Green Mill ( restaurant ) for evangelizing some of the waiters there. So now that the background is over.. Some of his quotes were really good, like: “If you don’t want my Jesus, You don’t want my money. But if you want my Jesus, you can HAVE my money.” The convicting one was He asked everyone to stand up, once they were standing he said “ A SINNER asked you to stand, and you all stood up. Then why is it when GOD ALMIGHTY asks you to go into all the nations and spread the gospel, you are still sitting down?” All to say I had a really good time last night. Then they continued the WW this morning, it was o.k. but it didn’t seem to be as interesting as the night before. ( Maybe it was because they only let you go back to your house to sleep for less than 7 hours ) It was generally good though. I learned allot of stuff about Euthanasia, Abortion, Post-Modernism and the Emergent Church." So as you can see ( Or read ) lots of fun there! So go to http://www.worldviewweekend.com/ to find when it's coming to you. Tomorrow our choir is singing in church again. The song is Grace us O Lord. I think I got it down, so I hope it goes well! I went to work Friday, and installed the computer I fixed Thursday, and grandpa's cancer is going away! I think he has 5 radiation treatments left, it hasn’t spread. So that’s a BIG praise the Lord! Goodnight!

Busy.. Busy... Busy...

Wow! I haven't been on here in a while. Lots of things have been going on lately. Campus Days was a couple weeks ago, that was lots of fun. I loved all Erik Westlake's messages, but it was awesome to just hang around with cool people like Chris and Katy. Mowing has stopped for the year, that means I need to find some winter job to keep me occupied. I'm planning on printing some flyers for snow shoveling sometime this week. Physics has been going, the rate is just as slow as I expected it to be. Currently I'm at lesson 33. I decided to learn the whole Greek Alphabet! Even though its like 2000 years outdated, I need allot of the letters for Physics, and it would be helpful to know if I ever went to seminary, so I decided to learn it. My dad taught me how to change the brakes on the car yesterday. I'm completely convinced that guy knows how to do almost anything! ( And he teaches me stuff too! ) I'm pretty happy about that. My first choir performance was this last Sunday, it was an interesting experience. Everyone I asked said it went well. ( But how do I know I can trust them?? ) This upcoming weekend is "Worldview weekend" I think I'm going, which is a BUMMER because I cant go to Bible quizzing practice or Faith Haven witch is the same weekend. I think it should be a good time, there are going to be some awesome speakers there. I updated the layout on my blog today, and I went out to McDonalds with Austin W and my mom to go over Austin's testimony that he is sharing tomorrow night at Youth Group. Speaking of youth group, I should probably go over my songs.. hahaha =) We just got small pops, and sat there talking and getting refills! =) We didn't have Bible study tonight, that makes like 2 weeks in a row now. I'm really tired so I should probably get some sleep.

White African average life..

School is getting tougher, but thank goodness I made it through the first week! We went to my grandma's on Friday, did some 4 wheeling, garage saleing and of course! Target Shooting! I got to shoot my 30-06, my dad's 30-30, my grandma's 22 and my grandpa police handgun! That was probably the most fun to shoot, I had to have strict supervision the whole time. ( Even though I took gun safety and passed.. ) Anyway that was fun. We came back Saturday night, and Nathan and I went to A&W. I probably drank too much. I made it up to 3 1/2 mugs! We had some good time to talk though, so that was good. Then yesterday was Pastor Ritter's first day as our pastor! I really enjoyed his sermon. It was on how Spiritual Pride can destroy an individual and even a whole congregation. I loved how he used lots of examples, if I ever become a pastor, I have to remember that.. After church we went downtown Minneapolis for one of Nathan's school assignments. We had to go to an "ethnical restaurant and community". We ended up going to the Spanish Community Downtown. It was lots of fun, and I bought like 4 sodas so I could add the bottles to my collection! They had lots of pop you could choose! =) After that we went to the Upper Room in Edina, that was an interesting experience. It was like a Sunday night youth service. They had a really awesome band, and some good speakers too. So after yesterday, I got home, did devotions and just crashed... That's probably why I slept until 8:30 this morning!!

Schools Starting

I'm getting used to life in America again. Everything here is very unlike Tanzania, there everything revolves around relationships, here it's all about schedules. So that has been one of the biggest adjustments for me. School started yesterday. I'm skipping 9th grade, and doubling up on classes. My classes this year are; Algebra 2, Physics, Chemistry, Buisiness Math, Managing your life under God, Creation Science, History of Literature, Spanish, Struggle for Democracy and Drivers Ed. I think my favorite this year is going to be Literature or Drivers Ed. Everything else is a lot harder. Algebra is a slow process as always, starting at lesson 85. I have about 2 months worth of that up ahead. This tedious work load is showing me how much I need the Lord!

Back from Africa

I just got back yesterday from Africa. The plane trip was really good, even though the security was a little tight. God was really watching over us the whole time. We got there, and the people were right there at the airport ready to pick us up. We made it through customs very fast, and we didn’t have any many problems with our 2 projectors we brought along. The very second day in Tanzania, our ministry had started. We divided into two teams, “Team K” or “Team Lamb” and “Team A” or “Team Goat”. My dad lead team K, and I was the leader of team A. Our schedule was really tight. We had 16 presentations on the schedule, and we ended up doing over 30. So all the say, there wasn’t a dull moment. Since about half of those were schools. My team usually went to the schools, and my dad’s team usually went to the churches. All of the worries we had, God was helping us with. Before leaving I was really worried about the translating, and just how much responsibility that was. We were at one of the first schools, and there were about 600 students there. So we were doing our presentation ( Consisting of an introduction, 3 songs, a skit, testimonies, a short message and then the Jesus film. ), and after the Testimonies, the one of the pastors we were traveling with asked if I would share a short word with the students, and this was about 2 minutes before the “short message”. I reluctantly agreed, and I started writing down Bible verses and anything I could tell them that might point them to Christ. So I got up there, and even though everyone was laughing at almost all my attempts to speak Swahili, but from then on God was helping me with the language. By the very next day I was able to translate conversations. After that humbling moment, the pastor came up to me and said “You tried Andrew, and you are a very good empty pipe.” I think it was supposed to mean I was a vessel for the Lord or something. All along the way God was continually opening doors for our ministry as well. In total around 2000 people heard the Word of God during the trip. More than just what we were doing for the Tanzanians, God was also teaching us new things, like hospitality and the true heart of Worship. So I had a really good time. .

Last Day in America!

I just a party with my friends last night. We played about 4 full games of Age of Empires. Isaac was the champion! It was allot of fun, but I still can't beleive today is my last full day here in America before leaving! Tommarow will be a full day of team preparations, we are going to be at Headquarters going over language skills, and culture readjustment. Then early Wednesday morning, we are taking off from the Minneapolis International Airport. I have 3 lawns to mow today, and it's really hot outside, so I hope I can get them all done!

Counting down!

Camping was good, we just got back last night. God really blessed us with great weather, and 15 fish! =) I think my cousins had fun, and I had some good time to talk with Xavier. He is still hard towards the Lord, and I think he misses his dad in Iraq.
Tanzania preparations are coming along. Last night I was up until 1:00 translating. I only have 1 more to go though. So I think I will do that one tonight. ( With the help of 2 liters of Pepsi! LOL! ) 9 days left before we leave!

Camping.. Again

I’m going camping with my cousins this week. We are leaving tommarrow around 2:00. It's going to be a long week. I hope we catch lots of fish! I started my new mowing job today, it went well but it was a huge lawn. So it took about 1 hour and 1/2.. I'm going to have to keep mowing it until we Leave for Africa.

Tanzania Preparations

All the things for Tanzania are coming together. I just found out yesterday that I had 4 more testimonies to translate, so I got working on those last night. I have 2 down now, and 2 more left to go. I have a feeling that things are not going to get any easier though, because these next two I don’t have the written transcripts for! So I need to listen to the audio translation of them.. I’m starting another mowing job this week, which brings the weekly work-load up to 4 lawns. I have this next one until I leave for Tanzania. It’s been raining a lot lately; I hope it calms down so I can get some work done outside. August 2nd is coming VERY fast.. Only 2 more weeks!