[believers.voyage]

I joined a Stepping Challenge at school that’s for the whole district, I figured as a custodian, without extra steps I’d crush the competition. That is not usually the case I am finding out. Today though, I had over 7,000 steps with Steinhafels (my part time job) and then I crushed it at work, I finished my shift at just over 24,000 steps and stayed to midnight to make sure I stayed ahead of the competition and ended up walking over 34,000 steps or 16 miles. The thing is, this competition doesn’t officially start till May 6th, so all these miles I’m logging right now is more or less just striking fear in the competitions hearts.

I don’t know if I’ll win the competition, but the people who do win are going to have to go far far above and beyond to beat me and I will at least be able to say I am lifting up the district with my walking 🙂 Win-Win if you think about it!!

It’s been a rough few weeks so far. I’ve had a cough that doesn’t seem to want to go away, I’m working all the overtime I can because of needing money right now, and I can’t take sick time off to get better because 1)I’d lose my overtime money (it would just be regular money instead of time and a half) and 2) we’re short people at work and I’m the type of person that doesn’t want to put that extra burden on others. I’ve been complaining about needing more people and I’ve been told repeatedly we don’t need people and we can’t get more people because we don’t have the money, we lost a 6 hour guy at work because of bullying and were only going to get a 5 hour to replace him and I complained a lot about that yesterday to my boss. Today, he came in and said we will get a 6 hour guy. Who knows if this is real or not, I’ll believe it when I see it, but I feel like I finally won. It’s been a long time I feel like and it just feels good. Plus, I didn’t cough all that much today which is doubly good! It’s been a rough few weeks, but it’s days like this that make me think I’m going to be ok, we’re going to make it and maybe I can make a difference where I work. 

I think it’s important to have days like this, days when all else seems to be falling apart, you have a day where you feel like you’ve won and you see a little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. Remember, those days are out there. If you’re struggling, keep pushing forward and I hope the light shines in for you. God bless and thank you for all that you do.

I have a wall in the room where my computer is, it has banners of all the times I’ve gone to Guatemala and pictures of my sponsored kids. If you would’ve told me I would be living this life when I was in middle school or high school, I wouldn’t have believed you. The desire I remember grew in college, I would talk about sponsoring kids all the time but never followed my own advice. Then, I went to a conference, and I wasn’t ready to sponsor a child, but I did get involved in a money Survival Program with Compassion International. That was fun and I finally decided to take the plunge and sponsor my first kid. He is very very special, he is from Ecuador because one of my greatest friends in college was in Ecuador doing a mission trip during the time. His name is Jonathan because I have a nephew named Jonathan and he has my same birthday! After him, I have sponsored a kid through Compassion from Guatemala and he graduated from the program already! 🙂 I sponsor two more kids from Guatemala through Common Hope, which is the group I work with when I go to Guatemala and I get to see those kids every other year. If you sponsor a kid, let me say…. getting to see the kids is life changing. I absolutely LOVE that I get to see these two kids and their families. Last time I was there, the mom was crying saying how much I’ve helped her and her family… but the truth is they’ve helped me in so many more ways. I am getting teary eyed just thinking about it. They give me a purpose in life, they give me a reason to keep going and a reason to smile. My dad brought up the idea to go to Guatemala with his Rotary group to help build houses and visit schools, etc. I am so so happy that I said yes to him because it has been a journey of a lifetime. I hope to sponsor more kids and be blessed with this amazing life that God has given me. I don’t deserve it, but hopefully I don’t waste it completely.

I don’t know why, but death has been on my mind a lot lately. I’m only 36 years old and I feel like my best life is behind me and my time is almost up. I don’t know if death itself scares me as much as what’s going to happen after. I have spent a good number of years saving money into a ministry fund for me to donate to various charities, I would absolutely hate it if I died and that “ministry” died. I’d hate to see all my stuff I have (and I do have a lot of stuff unfortunately right now) gets thrown out in the trash instead of being given to those in need and helping those who have less. A little bit of me is nervous about what they’ll do with my body even. Sometimes when I have these thoughts, I do cry because I am scared sometimes. But, it is what it is, we all go sometime. I just keep trying to do a little more every day to help make people smile, make people laugh, make people happy. I have been misunderstood in this life, I have been thought of as a “weirdo” or whatever you want to say… but I like to think at the end of my time, those people will see what I’ve been working on and understand that my “weirdness” is a unique thing that I have used to create a better world, a light that I have shined into the darkness to bring forth an important light that can lead others into being who they are and not being afraid of standing out. We are created for a purpose, we are meant for bigger things. My overall goal in life is to have an overflowing funeral with people that I have helped in one way or another. Just wait and see, you’ll understand.

You ever get down watching the news or reading the paper? I honestly quit watching it mostly because it’s always so depressing. The world is filled with so much darkness, pain and suffering. It seems impossible to change the world sometimes no matter how badly you may want to do so, right? That’s where my motto comes in to help, “Change the world, one person at a time” Just like anything, start with one and build off of that. You can’t climb a mountain in a single leap, but with one hand in front of the other and one foot in front of the other, you can scale any mountain. Plus, luckily, we live in a world where everyone has cellphones if you think about it, your one act of kindness will be seen by someone and they will hopefully be filled with the sense of wanting to help someone as well and it goes on. May we shine together, may we remember what it was like being that odd one out. Love the unloved, give hope to the hopeless, help those in need. The saddest thing in my world is that we no longer give hugs anymore it seems, I LOVED LOVED LOVED giving hugs to everyone and anyone in High School. But, no one these days seem to like hugs. Anyways, enough rambling from me, go out there and be a radiant light in the darkness!

I love Christmas! The season for giving. It’s a stressful time obviously as well for those who put a lot of importance on presents and buying the right thing for the right person. It gets harder and harder every year for me to buy good gifts that will be something that the people receiving them will cherish for years to come. Some years though, when I’m feeling the real sense of Christmas, I enjoy just donating money and reminding those around me the true meaning of Christmas. As much as I do love opening tons of presents, those days are long long gone…. I have found more joy in having people donate that money they would’ve spent on me on charities. I usually ask that they write down why they chose the one they picked and it’s inspiring and uplifting to read. PLUS, if you give to a charity to help the less fortunate, it’s something that could potentially change a life instead of gathering dust in a closet. May we find that happiness, that peace, and that content feeling to just give up on the presents and give to charities instead. May we shine brighter every year that passes and remember the real meaning of Christmas is Jesus being born! We have been given the greatest gift of all, all other gifts pale in comparison when you think of the gift that Jesus offers us. Just a thought. Love and be loved.

My hope and dream is that I can grow this ministry up enough so that someday when I am no longer here it will continue without me. I don’t know really how to do that and I’m sure I’m overall failing at it. It would be nice to figure out more ways to make money quickly for it since right now the big money maker is my part-time job paycheck going into it. If you don’t know about this ministry, I started saving money after I won a few 50/50 raffles in college to help people in need. After that, I started taking online surveys, playing games, etc. to make money for it, which took FOREVER. Then I got a part time job to help pay the bills, got full time at my other job and turned that part-time job into a ministry job where I funneled all the money into my ministry funds. In about 2019 I think it was I was able to finally start spending a decent chunk of money doing some bigger things like buying houses for families in need and such. I’m not getting any younger though and I’m terrified of dying without knowing what will happen to my funds after I’m gone. I don’t want this ministry to die with me. Anyways, that’s whats been on my mind here and there and I hope you enjoy taking a peek into my thoughts. God bless and shine bright!

I posted a video on my YouTube channel a few years back going through my bottle cap collection and it is kinda crazy how many views it’s gotten. Matter of fact, you search bottle cap collection on YouTube and I think mine is number 5 on the list. Anyways, it’s exciting to see the types of people I get to see because of this video and this collection, it makes me also attempt new types of beers and sodas I would never normally try at all. What’s a collection of yours that is dear to you? How has it opened your eyes? My collection has surpassed 200, but it’s always being added too, so I’m not sure what the current number is. It’s also nuts because I just went through all the extras that I have stored in a shadow box and found some that I didn’t have in my collection that must’ve gotten accidently thrown into the extra bin, crazy as daisy I tell ya!

Have a great day and keep exploring!

…for about 3-5 seconds….

If you’re from Wisconsin, you’ve most likely heard of Steinhafels Furniture. I am in a commercial that I have personally only seen on YouTube so far, but it’s for our mattress sale we are having. If you happen to run across it, I’m that good looking guy in blue taking a pillow hahaha…

It’s been a fun experience trying to get into ads and such and it makes living exciting. I hope you get to enjoy the little things in life like this as well and enjoy what experiences are given to you at any given time.