The scars of battle

"This picture was removed because arrently now that Robert knows that people actually read his blog, it's too 'gory'."

So yesterday I was supposed to have a one on one lesson with Coach Brown at PWFA (Prince William Fencing Academy for those of you who don't know) but he got sick. So during a fencing bout with Garret I got hit a few good times under the arm and right now it stings allot. I mean, allot.

Gradparents+Fencing+Marines= A WHOLE LOT OF STUF!!

So I wish I had finished yesterday's blog...yesterday. It would have saved the awkwardness of writing two long blogs in the same time frame. Sheeesh.
Alright, here it goes.

So yesterday my Grandparents came from Florida to visit us. I was also excited because that meant that I could go Fencing that day. I love to go Fencing. I just love it. And it was a bonus that my grandparents would get to come watch me. So I get there and I'm setting up and putting away my stuff, when coach walks over to my sisters and convinces them to join us in the class. Then Coach says, "Ok! We're going to have an Épée pool! Robert, teach them the basics and get warmed up." And one thought goes through my mind, crap.

So I got them to run a few laps and I started to lead stretching and i kept on thinking, my team is going to get creamed, I better be doing better than my best, I hope they don't hate me for this. But I continued to teach them the basics of the en garde position, the advance, the retreat and the lunge. And so we got them fitted with their equipment, and I don't think Kristen knows this, but chest guard are for girls. Guys can, but don't have to wear them. But they suprised me and did very well. And in the end our team won 45 to 44
Really close.
And today we got to go to the Marine museam. That was really cool. Walked in circles all day. And they had this cool little shooting range. Unfortunatly, I got a 73% grade. I was totally bummed.

Cold feet

So I have been sitting in the basement playing Madden 09 of the PlayStation 2 for the past hour and while flipping through channels (waiting for the game to load) and I came across two very interesting stories. One of a man inner tubing in almost completely submerged Florida being tug by an SUV. But his little fun ended with a tree. Hitting him in the face. Or was it the other way around?

Anyway, the other story was about a nine year old kid pitcher who could throw it 40 miles an hour. This kid has quite the future. But the story wasn't about the kid's potential, it was that he was kicked out of his league. He can't play baseball. And it's all because he wouldn't join a rival team. So a person who is a parent of that team and on the baseball committee kicked him out.
Doesn't that ever make you think that parents are taking it out of context of what the game should be about?
And don't you feel that we take our faith and God and the Church out of context? Arguing over what color the carpet should be than biblical truth?
That gives me cold feet.

Oh yeah...

One last thing

The Burkes and the Quanns, officaly some of the absolute coolest people I know

Just throwing that out there

The Burke's Manor. Quite the place to be

Well I had a great time last night.
Last night my family was invited to the Buke's for dinner. Unfortunatly is was a little apprehensive at first but I soon warmed up. All it took was Josh to start talking about football. That will lighten any mood. It got even better throughout the night when we got talking about guitars and me playing...guitar. Duh. And I told Josh I didn't exactly remember who I drafted for my fantasy football team, so here it is.
The lineup right now is
Starting QB: Tony Romo
RB: Jamal Lewis
RB: Maurice Jones-Drew
RB/WR: Donald Driver
WR: Wes Welker
WR: Hines Ward
TE: Dallas Clark
D/ST: NY Giants
K: Shayne Graham
Now, Bench
Phillip Rivers, SD QB
Eli Manning, NYG QB
D.J. Hackett, CAR WR
Benjamin Watson, NE TE
Chris Brown, HOU RB
Derrick Mason, BAL WR
Greg Olsen, CHI TE

Comatose

Think about it...



When you think of comatose, what slips into your mind?



Your Uncle, laying there lifeless in the hospital? Or you wanting to strive for what you have been working for your whole life only to never meet your expectations.

But to me, being comatose is what I fear the most. Being unmoved, by the works of God. It's petrifying. Not being moved to do what he wants, to do his will. It's disheartening when I don't. It's one of the things I often worry about. And yet Christ tells us to not worry because if even the sparrow is in his hand, how much more does he care for me? I just comprehend that. And it breaks my heart when I'm listening to a message, and I look around for one who actually cares. And when I don't I have to hold back the tears.

When will we not be silent? When will be quite anymore my God?

Fencing is back! And so am I

Wow

I am always going places

I really just need to settle down and stay home. But first off I just wanted to say that i got home safely with the Cains. It was another interesting experience. On the first day (mind you the FIRST DAY!) we went swimming at this waterpark extravaganza thay had at Pocahontas State Park. But apparently, on the way home, Jonathan lost his mother's flip flop and so she sent us to go and find it. So Jordan, Jonathan and I went on our bikes to see if we could find it. And it was getting a little late but we weren't worried. I mean, come on, we're on bikes, we can get back in no time. but by the time we got to the pool and turned around, it was starting to get dark, so I made the suggestion that we take the road home. Turns out that it take quit a while on bike to get to the top of the mountain and get to the camping grounds. At night. But we eventually made it back and we had dinner over a fire and went to bed. At 2.

And that was a bunch of fun, but I split my big toe's finger nail of the slide there. No biggie. But oddly enought, since no one was home when I got home, I stayed and extra day at the Cain's. But turns out that dad was home because he wasn't feeling good. So I got to go home yesterday relax a little then go to Fencing at PWFA.

And Fencing last night was really cool. Even though there was only five of us there. We got to Fence with all three wepons. It was so much fun. And I killed at Sabre. I think I've got a new weapon

Success! (and a newly found system)

Today brought about anew found experience for me. I am going on Johnathan Cain's birthday bash this weekend, which happens to be a camping trip. I went last year, so with this years time to prepare and last year's experience, I was ready. Except for one thing. Johnathan loves bike riding. He said I could bring my bike. Well, one of my bike tires exploded(literately!) and the other one had a leak. And last week my dad tried to replace the tire/tube that exploded. But it blew up as well. Turned out to be a tire failure. And now with my father at work, I had to replace the tire. It was a strenuous, thumb bleeding, greasy experience. But finally(with a little of my mother's help) I replaced the tube and put the tire back on. I feel soo accomplished.

Another big achievement. I started my first day of homeschooling yesterday. It actually was quite that handfull. But the funny thing is that 90% of it is one that computer. The other is reading. So I sit at the computer for my lectures (as I am doing now) and for Biology. But for Liturature I read books. Ad instead of world history for history I am doing The History for Christianity.
This will be an interesting year

My Wednesday Night Teaching

Opening Question: Was there ever a time when you had to step up to the plate and lead in a big way?
Thesis: Everyone is a leader, but who are you leading, and where are you going?
Did you know that everyone is a leader?
(Matthew 28:19-20)
Jesus has called every single one of us to lead in some way shape and fashion. Being a leader is essential to being a Christian, because by being a Christian, it is your life purpose and responsibility to be obedient to God by spreading God’s word into the world. In that, you are leading the Kingdom. Though you are leading the Kingdom, you are not controlling were it is going. God controls the Kingdom; we obey and fulfill his orders. (perhaps another way of thinking about this would be to consider that it is GOD who determines His kingdom. We don’t “control” God. Ours is to be obedient to Him. I think what you really mean is that we all have the responsibility. It isn’t a question of whether or not I should go, it was a command. “Go into all the world…” So the issue comes down to obeying His command, not controlling).
Leaders have influence, (even the bad ones) what are you doing with yours?
It’s a given, leaders have influence. They wouldn’t be leaders if they didn’t. But people just don’t follow every leader that shows up. They have to know what they stand for. And what is the best way to do this? Look to see if they follow through with what they say right? Well, the same applies to us.
(Matthew 7:15-20)
Jesus, the God-man drew people in to him by the radical way that he lived. So if we are to have Jesus live through us, shouldn’t we act as though we were different from this world? They say that leadership is about reputation. Reputation is how you act when everyone is around; character is how you act when no one is looking. So your character should reflect and please the Lord. It’s what you do in the secret places when no one (but God) is looking.
(2 Timothy 1:7)
So we have all of this influence, but often, people don’t want to use it. But it says in the bible that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and sound judgment. God has given us power of everything in this world, and with this power we can do incredible things. But it’s hard. We live in a world where all of the odds are against us. But if we try to do this in our own strength we will fail. God can even orchestrate the circumstances of our lives to see this. When have you felt closest to God? Most people would say that it is in the hardest times, the lowest points, when they are broken that they “feel” close to God. If then, that is when we fell closest, why do we pray for those times to go away? Shouldn’t we lead with joy and show how God has demonstrated His power in our lives? Maybe if we were more in tune with God’s power we would see the opportunities to lead before our very eyes…

Well, then, how do we become these leaders where it is evident that God’s love is in us? Well there are few simple, but important things.
Be in God’s word

Live God’s word. (John 3:21, Matthew 15:10-11)
Pursuing the Goal, Jesus’ returning (Philippians 3:7-14)

Gahh!!! I definetly need to make this a habit

Man, I haven't blogged since, ummm, Monday.
DANG!!
It's been so long! what have I been doing?
Oh, yeah.
Well the obvious answer was that I was at fencing camp all week. On Tuesday I relaxed after getting home a 5 from camp. Wednesday I got my new jammin Rolling Stones Guitar (AWSOMENESS!) and went to Mike's after camp and was almost late for Youth Group. But since NO ONE SHOWED UP, I wasn't late and in trouble. But I was really bummed, i was supposed to teach that week. By the way, I will be posting that (Bryan!). And Thursday after camp, I went to the Quanns with the girls to play Ultimate Frisbee. It was fabulous! We got to play in the dark! But the consequence of all that fun is that in the end I was very cold and very, very tired. And the worst thing is that I had a fencing tournament the next morning I got plenty of sleep surprisingly. And the tournament went very well. Even though I only had 4 days experience with a weapon called foil, I placed third just below two Junior Olympians. I won four bouts and lost two. And I thought that i would be able to capitalize on the camp coming up next week, the Epee/Sabre camp. But not enough people signed up. That is the damper of my weekend.

Tears, blades, and moustaches

Well by the title, you might think this is about some Zoro movie. Close, but so far.
I'm SOOO excited because Michele(my sister) is finally home. She came back from being a summer intern at Global Youth Camps.
That was Sunday.
But, let's backtrack, shall we?
Friday, nope Saturday. The Stafford Baptist, long awaited, highly anticipated 3 on 3 basketball tournament. My team, The Three Amigos (Bryan Scott, Jason Pelt and myself) waged war with the rest of the team for honor, for family, and for laughs. Unfortunately, we were eliminated in the first round. But fun was had by all and I got to participate in a one on one match with Victor Captman and a intensive five on five game after the tourney was over. Then, Marks' and the Quann's headed down to Fredericksburg for some Carl's Ice Cream.
Good stuff.
Then Sunday after church, while my Mother and brother were still coming home from PA, we went to go pick Michele up from the airport. and it was great to see here again. And all of her friends were there at our house waiting for her and totally surprised her. It was great.

But today. Today I had my first taste at what is widely considered toughest fencing camp in all of VA. And I'll tell you. It was tough, but I endured. But it was also alot of fun and very new. I fenced with foil, which is a starter common weapon, but I don't fence that weapon. So it was a new learning experience. But like our motto. "Sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn."