jon.g.

Haiti Relief Trip day 7

2010-03-07T19:12:00.000-08:00

Had the day off today. Woke up, had breakfast and headed to the mountains to one of the church plants that IMO has to attend church, that was an experience. The ride up there took us through Petionville which is where the orphanage is that I had stayed at 8 years ago on my previous visit. On the way up the mountain we passed by Fort Jacques and the Baptist overlook, also places that I had visited last time I was here. The road to the Robin church was about as narrow and crazy as you could imagine, there are pics on facebook showing it. Straight down drops with no shoulders or forgiving edges for slips, a driver has to stay on his toes.

After church we drove back down the mountain to have lunch for the last time with the West Virginia crew before they flew back to the States this afternoon. After seeing them off we headed downtown to see the damage to the government sector and grab a few souvenirs from the market. The downtown area of Port-au-Prince is pure devastation like nothing we've seen anywhere else on the island! I mean, it is beyond comprehension. They lost their entire government and legal sectors, there's nothing left. I mean, literally, there's nothing left but rubble. Their equivalent to our Supreme Court building was 4 stories tall and is now barely 6-8' of rubble with a 100% mortality rate within the building and the bodies within have yet to be claimed, it remains a tomb. The Presidential Palace looks like a bomb went off within it, every entrance is collapsed on itself. The Records building is gone, the prison is half gone but a total loss. The saddest part was when we drove up to the ruins of a large Catholic church, the first church ever in Haiti. What was its roof is now its floor, only the walls remain, and barely at that.

We got out at a side market and decided to cross the street to one of the larger "Tent Cities" that we had seen and just walk through it, I was amazed by its relative cleanliness considering its context, put it this way - New Orleans should be ashamed of itself. To draw a comparison of the disasters and its peoples reactions to them is to shame the city of New Orleans and it's people...and that's coming from someone who is from there. I wish I could get the aid that the spoiled, bratty, government subsidized babies of New Orleans whined about to these people who would actually cry with appreciation instead of spitting hate and spitefulness, its embarrassing for me. Rant done...

Well, we get to go home tomorrow and I'm happy and sad as I usually am. I do hope to come back and help more...I'd blog more, but I'm tired...

I may regret the emotional opine about N.O....so if you come back later and find that gone you'll know why...

Haiti Relief Trip day 6

2010-03-06T18:35:00.003-08:00

Today was our last work day, our extra mile since it was originally going to be our day off, by we’re all happy that we went and finished the project for the Hanson’s.
Got an estimate on the homeless around Haiti from the earthquake, it’s 1.2 million! Not sure how to wrap my head around that number. One of the men who work here at IMO is living in a single room that’s left from his house. His testimony is that when the quake started he huddled his family into that room and started praying and the entire house fell around them except for the room the were in, they were kept safe, wow…
I asked John if the stories that we had heard were true, that the earthquake was causing people to turn from Voodoo and other religions and towards Christianity? He said in ways that we wouldn’t believe. The weekend following the quake they had over 500 salvations and hundreds since then. Another interesting fact is that people are starting to turn to Christianity because the Voodoo priests and temples are doing nothing to help the people while the Christian ministries are spearheading the distribution of aid and helping the communities get back on their feet. At times the Voodoo priests are actually hindering people by telling them not to return to undamaged homes because they are “cursed.” How they come to the conclusion that a home is “cursed” because it is undamaged is a bit daft to me, and I think the people are seeing that contrasted with the faith in action through the incredible ministries here and drawing the same conclusion.
Today we finished early because we had some extra help. We finished around 2pm. We basically did the same thing we did yesterday on the other side of the same building, but this side was a little worse. We had to knock down three more walls whose integrity was compromised through the quake and clean those up as well. We finished three buildings and made them ready for whatever IMO needs to start setting them up to do. John has a vision for the property that he believes God gave him a few years ago even before the land was miraculously given to him. He wants to start a youth outreach program, a facility where he can host youth camps and retreats as well as outreaches focused on the youth of Haiti. It’s a very aggressive vision and it’s a great perfect place to set it up. It already has basketball courts and hundreds of thousands of dollars of buildings on it that have either remained undamaged or merely has cosmetic damaged to interior walls, but the integrity of the building has remained intact.
As I was walking around the building today I saw a paper heart from the school that we had cleaned out laying on the ground among the rocks. It had scotch tape around the edges that had aged to a milky white and faded crayon coloring scribbled on it. It looked so haggard just lying there on the ground, and yet it hinted at it’s original intent: a heart. I thought of Haiti. I took a pic of it and I think it’s one of my fave’s of the week so far.
On the way home we pulled over next the U.S. Military encampment and threw two footballs over the barbed wire to some servicemen that were playing volleyball on a crudely constructed net, they were super stoked when the saw us offering them the footballs! So, we got out of the truck and asked if we could grab some pics of them, they said OK. When we hopped out of the truck we started chatting with them, Andrew pointed out that they seemed starved for interaction with other Americans, I tend to agree with him, they were very eager to just shoot the breeze with us and talk about their deployment. I thought my heart would burst with pride just being that close to them, they are without a doubt the heroes around the globe and I could never express my gratitude and appreciation for the sacrifice they make everyday…thank you, thank you, thank you!
Today we had a moving moment with Frank, our contact, which I won’t share here because it was too sweet a moment to share outside and intimate conversational setting. Needless to say, it was very moving. I only mention it so to remember it when I read this in the future.
The weird thing about reflecting on the past week is that I’m not filled with foreboding or anxiousness at the future of the Haitian people, but rather with hopeful anticipation that this is the beginning of a new day after a very long night.

Until tomorrow…

Haiti Relief Trip day 5

2010-03-05T18:40:00.001-08:00

Four days in and the tent cities still shake me. I’m not sure what the estimate is as to the number of people that are in them across Haiti but I’m sure it’s astounding. We hear that the town nearest the epicenter is 90% destroyed; I can’t comprehend that. The first day we were here we were approached by a man on the sidewalk who tried to talk to us in broken English while we were stopped in traffic. He saw the boxes and sledgehammers and asked, “Have you come to help,” with a smile. I said, “yes,” he gave a large toothy smile and said, “thank you, Haiti is broken,” and gave us a thumb up, I asked him what his name was and he said Simon and I gave him my name and we drove off while I returned his thumbs up sign. The next morning we were driving down the same road to the place we were to start working and I heard, “hey, Jon!” and I looked and saw Simon waving and giving a thumbs up at me and I yelled back, “Simoooon,” this has happened on the way out and the way home everyday until today, I missed Simon today.

Today we started work on a third building that had a lot of interior walls destroyed in the quake. It was a metal building on the outside so it held up really well. By the end of the day we had broken up and filled 4-5 dump truck (I forget exactly) loads of concrete and blocks by hand through a back door, we’re tired. We only got half of the building cleaned and swept out before quitting time. Large trucks here have to be off the road by 6pm or the will get fined so being that we’re working a good 45 minutes commute from the compound where we’re staying, we have to be off by no later than 5pm everyday.

Tomorrow was originally planned by our hosts for us to be a day off to see the city, but we decided tonight as a group to go the extra mile and go finish the building that we had started and were unable to finish instead. I think they were a little taken back, but seemed genuinely appreciative that we’d actually opt to work instead of exploring the area.

I think the plan for Sunday is that we’re going in the mountains to experience one of their services, half of me is excited the other half is thinking, “Um, I’m not going to understand a single thing that’s said/sung,” but you never turn down an invitation from your hosts, especially hosts as gracious as the Hansons. We should have a few hours of down time to sight see Sunday afternoon and grab any souvenirs for our ladies back home;)

Laura went to her first opera tonight without me and I’m wishing with everything that I could have experienced her first opera since I love it, but I wouldn’t trade this opportunity for anything.

This trip has reminded me vividly of life’s brevity and beauty.

Please visit the host ministry’s website at www.imohaiti.org

Haiti Relief Trip...

2010-03-04T17:06:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was a fairly non-eventful day. Andrew and I finished off the roof while Dad, Manny and Jimmy started cleaning out the massive mess that was inside the building. Andrew and I started tearing out the rafters when we noticed the walls beginning to move and realized the quake had caused massive cracks in the corners causing most of the interior walls to become free standing, and without the support of the rafters attached to them they decided they wanted to move. We notified the missionaries that the building might be in worse shape then originally thought. While Andrew and I were climbing along the 2x6 rafters and “wire walking” the walls the guys were inside working hard at cleaning up the second mess that we had made behind them by knocking down the ceiling into their newly cleaned rooms. The last half of the rafters were a bit tricky because of the wires running through them and the fact that they had bolted two lengths together and the bolts were rusted tight, so Dad joined us up top with sledgehammers and knocked them loose while walking on top of the newly exposed walls. Luckily there were no injuries as there could have easily been.
It was a much longer day than the day before and we were all pretty drained when five-o’clock hit.

Today we woke up to a wet morning as it had rained fairly hard all night and must have stopped right before dawn. We had another great breakfast and got our needed tools together for the job that was ahead of us for the day. We arrived on the job site and jumped right on it, demolishing and cleaning up fallen walls inside a chapel-like building. Originally we had tried to save whatever blocks we could by cleaning them up with a hammer and a chisel….this lasted about 20 minutes. Whoever had built the walls had decided to pour cement through the majority of them making them virtually solid; to those unfamiliar with construction concrete block walls are not solid, they have hollow cavities inside of them. When we realized this we just decided to make it a full on demolition project rather than a salvage project and out came the sledgehammers. We backed the large dump truck up to the main entrance and started a smooth process of shoveling, sledging, wheel barrowing, loading truck with literally tons of concrete and cement block. At the end of the day we had broken up, shoveled and hand loaded 3 large dump truck loads of debris. When we left the building it was swept, empty of trash, straightened up and ready for use.
John Hanson, the missionary we’re here serving, showed up toward the end and gave us a tour of the next project…it’ll probably take us the rest of the trip.

John Hanson has been here for 35 years with his wife and started with a school of a little over 100 kids and preaching from a front porch of a friend they had met here. He now oversees a ministry that draws 120,000+ people to church across Haiti every week in 43 churches, 175 “outstation” churches and leads 310 pastors not to mention the approximate 7,000 grade school students the ministry educates. He is one of the hardest working missionaries I’ve ever met and the best way to describe him is “jolly”, may sound funny, but it’s so fitting. He’s a loud, jovial, large man that is serious about his work and can fill a room with his laughter. His wife came in to dinner tonight with John absent as usual, because he was still out at one of the churches working somewhere, telling us that today she had treated over 115 children at one of the school/clinics. This couple is simply amazing.

It was brought to my attention by my lovely girlfriend that I had failed to really introduce the team that I’m here with, so let me remedy that oversight.

Andrew Bailey: He’s our team leader and owns a remodeling company in the Dallas area; he’s been a Gateway member for almost 2 years.

Garry Gaspard: He’s my father and does roofing in South Louisiana for his “day” job but is praying about going full time with a ministry he started 10 years ago called “Infinity Ministries” that goes around the globe basically doing what we’re doing right now, helping local ministries and pastors with whatever they are in need of.

Jimmy Hedge: Has owned a floor and window company for the past 23 years, he’s been a member of Gateway for 4 years.

Manny Martinez: Home builder in the Southlake area for the last 6 years, has been a member of Gateway for 3 years.

And myself…

Until next time…

Haiti Relief Trip...

2010-03-02T16:38:00.001-08:00

Hello from Port-Au-Prince! I'll try to catch you up on the last two days...

I found out that I had the opportunity to go to Haiti with Gateway's relief effort about a week before we hopped on the plane. I had a busy week before so that I hardly had a lot of time to really think about the trip, but so begins our excursion to bring some semblance of help to a disaster of unimaginable parameters.

We (Dad, myself, Andrew Bailey, Manny Martinez and Jimmy) met at DFW at 5:30 am with all of our clothes, etc., packed in our respective carry-ons for the whole week;) This was because we were checking 7 bags/boxes of tools and 3 jackhammers...yes, jackhammers...
Mark Jobe had met us at the airport and we prayed before heading out.
American Airlines were great with working with us in not charging for any of the bags except the overweight charge on the jackhammers (98lbs!) and off we went to Miami to catch our connection to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. We were unable to fly directly into Port-Au-Prince because of oversold flights, apparently it's the place to be this time of year.

MIA (Miami International) was MIA, except less annoying than usual. In about two hours we were off to the DR for the night before an early morning to begin our trek into Haiti. Oddly enough our U.N. contact, for transport out DR happened to miss his earlier flight and was on our plane. After landing immigration was a breeze even with our odd shaped and extremely heavy cargo, may have been the presence of our U.N. guy helping us along, which was great. He and his brother escorted us to our hotel in a very, very old part of Santo Domingo, which happened to be Christopher Columbus' first stop before the "New World". They have an amazing memorial to him which I was dying to go in! Our hotel was an extremely historic building that had been turned into a very nice place. We went and ate dinner at a restaurant on the coast with a deck hanging over the water, I know what you're thinking, "Wow, some rough trip," but just wait!

So, after we ate Dad, myself and Andrew went with our contacts in search of a SIM card or phone that we could use instead of paying the ridiculous international rates on our phones, alas, to no avail.

I set my alarm for 3am...yes, 3am! OK, so it was 5am our time though:) Still, felt really early. We loaded up our heavy cargo and headed to the small airport in Santo Domingo. We pretty much got there before anyone who worked there...not very helpful except the owner of the airline we were using happened to walk in before all his employees and checked us in and gauranteed our cargo all on the one, small, tiny airplane...which really was a good deal, we were worried we'd have to make two trips because of the weight and the size of the plane. I assumed he'd cut back on passengers or the plane was relatively empty and that's how he could do it...uh, no...

He called our plane and we walked outside...with a crowd...umm...uh oh. So, ya, every seat in the tiny plane was sold. Yes, they got all of our luggage on the plane. How? I'm glad you asked. They got it all on the plane, after filling up the cargo hold AND the extra storage in the rear of the plane by putting one of our boxes and Andrews carry on in the aisle of the plane, at this point I looked at the trees at the end of the runway, and further to the peaks of the mountain range ahead...and prayed.

We took off with our plane sounding, at least to me, like the little train who refrained, "I think I can, I think I can!" An hour later we are landing in Port-Au-Prince...whew.

As soon as we landed we helped unload the jackhammers and tools off the plane and the damage was instantly recognizable from a ominous crack down the entire facade of the main airport that was completely shut down. We walked across the tarmac to an AA storage facility that had been made a makeshift immigration HQ. Everything went incredibly smooth, we walked outside to meet Jack waiting to take us to our home for the week. Along the way I got to grab some images I'd rather not describe as remarkable or incredible because they are neither.

The destruction here, even after a month of cleaning up is unimaginable if you weren't standing in the middle of it. We're told that there are still bodies in the rubble even in the neighborhood where we are staying. After being here 6 years ago I was trying to draw a comparison to what I saw today, and astonishingly enough there is very little difference in the peoples attitude and what would seem to be normal day to day happenings, and if not contrasted by the massive physical damage surrounding them, it would seem nothing happened.

After having breakfast we headed out to work, which we were antsy to get to after a long trip and not doing anything for two days. We get to the building and find it in horrible repair and evidence of damage. We decided to remove the entire roof system as it was very obviously a massive failure. This turned out to be one of the most difficult roof tear offs I've ever done...not only did they put a stupid amount of screws in the roof, they tarred the slats of corrugated sheet metal together on top of that they put the rafters and the lathing too far apart making for a severely precarious surface to work on since the metal was seriously compromised in areas with rust and rotten lumber underneath...something I found out first hand.

So, the interesting part of the day came when I...fell straight through the roof into the room underneath barely missing a metal cabinet. And by straight through, I mean I was told I looked like a magician disappearing in front of them by one of the guys on the roof. Yes, I'm fine, shoulder is a little sore from where I reached out with both arms to attempt to grab the rafters on either side of me to slow me down, which I did. I landed flat on my feet and heard the yelling on the roof and Manny calling for my Dad to run inside to get me...at this point I wanted out of the building quickly to gather myself and was outside in the yard walking around before they could even get off the roof and Jimmy grabbed me and hugged me, lol, it made me feel good. Honestly, it boils down to experience, if I hadn't been comfortable in that situation I could have really been hurt, and by God's grace that I came straight down in one of the few spots where there was no furniture or on the metal cabinet which would have sliced my back open, or worse, contorted my fall where I landed in a way that I could have broken something.

So, we finished up there and came home for an amazing dinner! Was hoping to lose weight and tone up on this trip...ya, this food is ridiculous...that's all I have to say about that! :)

Well, that's it for tonight, tune in for more updates from the isle of Haiti...love ya!!

Christmas in north Georgia....

2009-12-23T07:56:00.000-08:00

Day three of Christmas with the Gaspard's in the small north Georgia town or Ellijay, slightly larger then last years town of Helen but far less touristy. The isolation of my grandparents, well really Nanny's since Pawpaw's passing three months ago, cabin up here is refreshing; just fires in the fireplace all day with a puzzle gradually coming together in the dining room, mainly with Dad leading the way, mom staring at the fire or in the kitchen doing something...mainly staring at the fire (she's a bit of a pyro, but so am i:)). Melody reading or making some jewelry in the kitchen. Melinda and David (sister & brother-in-law) weren't able to make it this year because of being stationed in Hawaii, rough, I know, and having to have flown in three months ago last minute. If you've never been to Ellijay, which is very likely, it's really a quant little town full of antiques, mountain ridge views and southern accents. Really, nothing worth noting has been going on since I've arrived...and that itself is almost worth noting:) As much as I appreciate the slowness of the holidays tucked away in the mountains, I'm pretty sure that I'd go crazy if I had to live with it for more than a few weeks! Anyway, here are a few pics I took yesterday with my NEW camera my lovely girlfriend got me for Chistmas...enjoy!

Street view near the square in downtown Ellijay

Dad right before pulling out the yearly puzzle, playing a game of solitare

Nanny's "cabin"

Have We Met?

2009-03-05T20:16:00.001-08:00

Have we met?
I’m not who you’ve known.
I let the despair drown me
And apathy the crop I’ve sown

Memories of someone else
Same name, same face
Masquerading behind a past where I laughed
But long since decayed
My call, I’ve betrayed

My tears have dried
My breaking heart, many times died
My wings, fractured by my side

I am broken
In every sense of the word
I’ve no footing
There is no gravity in my world

Memories of freedom
Like a runner, old and done
Behind closed eyes he still runs
I wonder if my time has gone, not come

My dreams with trace fingerprints
Were for a moment mine
Intoxicating, flirting…and I tried…

Moments flatter
And in them dreams shatter
And everything that really matters
…Lie tattered…strips of me

Have We Met?

2009-03-05T20:14:00.000-08:00

My Fragile Hope...

2008-11-06T12:11:00.000-08:00

So, I woke yesterday morning after the election with a hope in my heart that I was wrong about Obama. "Maybe he really will govern from the center, maybe, just maybe he can bring some healing he's been preaching...no, I don't agree with his policies but what leader do you agree with all the time? Lord knows I've disagreed with Bush on a number of issues and I voted for him, so maybe President Obama will be different than I anticipated during the race, or reasearched on my own..."

Well, less than 24 hours later the Obama camp began to leak certain cabinet choices and my heart sank...:(

Chief of Staff: Rham Emanuel
Famous for such professional quips as: "Republicans can go f*** themselves."

Having the incredible tact to tell the Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair, regarding the Lewinsky affair, "This is important. Don't f*** it up!".

Also known for sending a rotten fish in the mail to a former co-worker he didn't exactly agree with.

After the 1996 campaign which Clinton won he stood up at a dinner and angrily called out the names of Clinton detractors and after each name he exclaimed "dead...dead!" and stabbed the table with his steak knife for, i guess, extra emphasis.

Real moderate this guy....

Then there's who he's considering heading the EPA, the one and only Robert Kennedy, Jr.
To say that Bobby Jr. is a radical is like calling Wiley Coyote mildly interested in the Road Runner. Other than being arrested in '83 for trying to bring HEROIN on board a plane he also served 30 days for trespassing on government property in 2001...that's right, only 7 years ago. He considers ANYONE who questions man made global warming a "flat-earther" and should be "silenced". Hmmm...ever heard of free speach? Along with Obama's stated wish to bankrupt the coal industry in a January interview (which wasn't released until last week conveniently) Mr. Kennedy has stated it as a purpose to go green at break neck speed and without consequence to the people or their jobs. President-Elect Obama has stated that bankrupting the coal industry would "of course" make electricity bills "skyrocket" for the everyday person. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdi4onAQBWQ) But, the messiah of hope sees this as collateral damage for his and Mr. Kennedy's ideology.

I'm more comfortable with Emanuel than this hypocrite who preaches to us about carbon footprints but maintains family mansions and flies everywhere in a fuel guzzling private jet. Oh, not to mention is a heavy advocate of wind (as am I) but his family refuses to allow the permit process to proceed to build a wind farm within eyesite of their compound (http://www.aim.org/media-monitor/liberal-hypocrites/)...wake up people!

Did I mention that Obama blurbed a book for a guy who dedicated another one of his books to Sirhan Sirhan...the guy who shot Robert Kennedy...Robert Jr's dad.

Then there is the person vying for Secretary of State...none other than John Kerry
Let's see...he's honored with a photo as a hero in a communist museum in Vietnam (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38738)...FOR THE OTHER SIDE! Do we really need to go over 2004 again...and before you start defending him, facts are facts are facts are facts...they're "stubbern things" - John Adams

And so the "new hope for America" includes these steps:
1.) Harry Reid wanting to censure Joe Lieberman for supporting John McCain, so this is the party of free speech? Sounds like China "meeting" with detractors on a beginner scale...stick with the "party" or be punished. Even though Joe, up to this point, caucused with the Dems and voted with them more than 60% of the time...but he voiced his conscience and is now going to be chastised and silenced because of it....hmmm, remind you of another form of government?
2.) Sen. Schumer has compared talk radio to pornography and is wanting to revive the "Fairness Doctrine" into legislation while the Dems hold power and push it through. Whatever your feeling is on talk radio, this is an outright attack on free speech in the market place, and I fear it's only the beginning...after all, it's only been 48 hours.
3.) Rep. Pelosi is going to push for the introduction of the "Employers free choice act" which is exactly NOT that. It CLEARLY states that union members may ENTER your home and view and record how you and your family votes concerning issues that concern them, it eradicates the ability to cast a secret ballot on the whim of a union...and get this...you don't even have to be a member of the union....now, listen to that...they may ENTER YOUR HOME! The Constitution states that the army can't even quarter soldiers in your home without your permission, but a union official can do it. Think about it people...where is this leading?

Oh, and on the international front...upon hearing of Obama's win the Russians threw a party by notifying the world that it intends to deploy missiles toward Poland which can, and should be, seen as an act of international aggression toward us through an ally. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081105/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_medvedev) and did i mention he blamed us? It's alright though because the "Messiah is speaking" - Louis Farrakhan (concerning obama) and the world will soon join hands and sing lullibies while cavorting in flower laden glens under 72.5 degree weather...forever...or at least the next four years at minimum.

President-elect Obama, I'm begging you to remember your own words and to listen to the 58 million dissenting voices out here as well...we want you to be a good President...and I want to support you since you won...but I will not sacrifice my principles for that. I don't expect to agree with you on a lot of stuff, but please make an effort to include 48%+ of the U.S. in the conversation. I will never demonize you as the bitter people on the left did to Bush...but I will not stand silently by, I CAN'T stand by when in less than 48 hours I see you building a bulwark against not just the right...but the center as well.

In the words of Reagan,
"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

New Orleanians are NOT representative of Louisiana...WE Cajuns are Louisiana!

2008-09-23T19:37:00.000-07:00

This article was in the Lafourche (pronounced lafoosh) Gazette by a lady named Laurie Laine Guidry after returning from evacuating from Gustav. It shows you the difference between the people in New Orleans after Katrina and true Cajuns. Enjoy.

The Exposure of Cajun Looters
Laurie Laine Guidry

Maybe the reason nationally-broadcasted news stations don't flock to catch a glimpse of Cajun looters is out of fear of being bitten by pet alligators that run rampant through our backyards.

Maybe the reason Anderson Cooper and his broadcast buddies didn't stake out southern Lafourche to catch a glimpse of firsthand Cajun looting is because we back-wood folks, starting at the age of four, can recite "the right to bear arms" ammendment and no trespassing by-laws in our sleep, in French.

Perhaps the most logical reason that Cajuns looters aren't exposed worldwide is because, well, we just aren't as glamorous as those Reebok stealin' city slickers.

"A lootin' Cajun? There's no such thing", you might be thinking. Well folks, there are plenty of them. You probably know a few and may even be one of them yourself.

Did you return home from the storm and notice that things were missing from your yard? Did you notice that your gas tanks had a little less gas in them from the time you waited three hours in line to fill up prior to evacuating? Did you gasp at the sight of you door slightly nudged open? Did you have to argue with people who were taking boxes of your belongings out of your inlaw's houses?

I did, most my friends did and I'd venture to say half of the bayou experienced similar acts of Cajun connivery.
Upon returning home from evacuation, my family found our door wedged open by none other than an alleged bandit. Somehow a Cajun looter in my neighborhood got into my house, drug extension chords throughout our home, moved refrigerators and freezers from their designated spots and plugged them into his own generator so our precious seafood wouldn't defrost and leave our home smelling worse than a shrimp shed in the middle of August. The nerve! He did all that and didn't even grab a cold beer.

A friend of mine who had moved into her mother's house to indulge in some much needed, generator-powered air conditioning, was finally rewarded when Alabama turned on the electricity to her own home. What she wasn't expecting for was a Cajun looter to drop by, grab her family's goods from her mom's house and take them...all the way back to her house to help lighten her load.

Another Cajun, apparently up to no good, stayed home to weather the storm and entered not only one, but three evacuated homes...when he realized their automatic generators hadn't kicked on. This sneaky, sneaky looter drove around hours prior to the storm "casing" his friends' joints and went in without their knowledge. Once inside the abandoned homes, he replaced a run down battery on one generator, opened the gasline on another and switched some wires around on the third so all three of the homeowners were able to return home to a cool, smell-free home.

All along the bayou, Cajun looters were seen days after the storm, trepassing into neighbors' yards to steal broken branches and storm-worn shingles that not-so-elegantly decorated our yards. Some of these Cajun looters even wielded weapons such as chain saws and axes as the wreaked havoc on their friends' and neighbors' trees.

Arguments broke out over who would be responsible for cooking, each of the looters insisting on supplying supper and cold refreshments for those who helped in the scandalous deeds.

So you're probably thinking back now to all the looting you saw happening before your very own eyes. You may even be realizing that you too, are a Cajun looter. Well, if you are, pat yourself on the back.

Cajun looters don't need CNN, NBC or any of those other fancy-pants networks to broadcast these events. Cajun looters do what they've got to do no matter who's watching and who's not.

So keep your eyes peeled for those trespassing Cajun looters and if you catch one in the act, say thanks and offer him or her a cold beverage because all that hard work is in definite need of a reward.

Slopes of Sentiment...

2008-07-07T20:20:00.001-07:00

It's never as simple as it seems,
So easy to get lost in a dream

Forgiven but not forgotten
-Cast forever in the sea of rememberance
The tighter my grip the further i slipped
Sliding down the slopes of sentiment,
And I try not to care

Yes, resentment is the filament of hate
Sibling to apathy - mother absent to jaded
With smile lines faded

...and still i try not to care...and yet I do.

Thoughts and ramblings...

2008-04-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

Why does it seam at times that our weaknesses are so strong that our strengths pale in comparison? Is it that the enemy is so strong, or is it that we are so weak?

Questions roll through my head attempting to dissuade me into their confusion, blindly beckoning me to join them in their realm of disarray...ugh...I've been there so many times they have a seat for me...
But I find myself, once filled with unsatisfied curiosity of the misery they so eagerly offer me, now in disgust of their offer. For I know they are not my questions to answer, and so I stand aside and find myself in His shadow...healed and focused...as He whispers the answer to me gently in my ear, as I repeat it...all falls silent.

Reverent...my lips move slowly, forming the sound that forces a tear in respect and sliding off a tongue bloodied with my brother's blood, and I am humbled to hear my voice carry this treasure, empowered by the very sound of its precious cargo..."Jesus"...and I wonder how could I have ever been so enthralled with my little confused world called, "me"?

So I weep...as my heart sings of its gratefulness, and I see you smile. As your eyes dance to the rhythm of your laugh, and my soul dances with them...I see my name form on your lips, I take it in slow-motion and for an eternal moment I explode from within, and I'm satisfied with nothing less...

But the moment passes and it seems I must begin again, though my love for you remains so do the questions. But I know you hold the answer, so I wait and wait...patiently, I wait...quiet and still, prostrate and humbled I wait...and here I will stay, at your feet, for eternity and this moment...

-This is where we must stay. We are bombarded with uncertainties of life, questions and situations but the solution remains at His feet, hidden in His eyes and revealed in His voice. So often we get caught up in trying to force God's hand, or trying to face everything ourselves that we get drawn into the all-so-well known confusion that ensues. Whatever the questions are that face you right now, or situation that seems to tower over you and mock you...stop!!!

Wait...patiently, wait...He knows...He may be waiting for you to simply wait for Him...

Rediscovery is both refreshing...and frustrating.

2008-04-03T06:45:00.000-07:00

Do you ever just stop and reread journal entry's? I'm assuming those of us who keep journals, even if chaotically sporadic like me, do go back and read them, I mean what's the point if you don't, right? Well, lately I've been feeling a bit off-kilter in my walk and some of my problem is the typical "I'm too busy" crap...which really is crap if you think about it, I mean why is it that our devotional time is often the first thing we cut when we get "busy"? Really, Jonathan, is there not one other thing in your "busy" day that can be cut for 15 minutes at least so that you can maintain at least a small amount of face time with your father? And I get mental images of SNL news anchors Amy Pohler and whats his name going, "Really? Really?.....Really?!"

Sooo, I was reading today in an online version of "My Utmost for His Highest" devotional (www.myutmost.org) and was in a round-a-bout way brought back to what I claim is my favorite scripture, Jeremiah 12:5,

"If you have raced with men on foot
And they have worn you out,
How can you compete with horses?
And if you stumble in a safe land,
how can you manage the thickets by the Jordan?"

And the weight of why this is my favorite scripture started to convict and challenge me again...and the refreshment of God's filled my chest, it truly is alive and is life to us who believe, isn't it? Wow. But still, in reference to the title of this entry, it frustrated me in that here I was having to go back and relearn, rediscover something that God had already taught me...I thank God for his patience with me, but sometimes I feel bad for His having to put up with me:) It's like, "Alright, son, let's go back and look at this again...there, now do you remember?"

"If you have raced with men on foot and the have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?"

To put this in context for all you hermeneuticly correct theologians, the chapter before Jeremiah was whining about all the bad stuff that he was going through to God, and this was Gods response to him.
This statement seems so, ummm, crazy? The idea that men racing with men on foot and being tired is not an odd thing, however how can a man ever compete with a horse? See, sometimes we get so caught up in what WE can do in our own strength that we forget the power of our God. It's like we start running and "doing", always doing, doing. Doing stuff that we think we can do when Daddy God has called us to do more, and then we get weary, or "burned out" because we're trying to do all this stuff with our own strength and all the while we are still just competing with men.
In this statement there seems to be an understood emphasis on the competing with horses, as if God was saying to Jeremiah, "I EXPECT you to compete with horses, and you're not." Say wha?! A man competing with horses on foot...talk about crazy...in OUR own strength. See, that is where the challenge comes in, how much do we trust God to complete what He has called us to do? To bring forth the visions HE placed in us? Do we really think that WE could possibly fulfill HIS vision? Really? We act like it, don't we?

"...how can you compete with horses?"

There's the challenge, because we can't and God knows we can't...in our own strength. Here's a secret, anything we do in our own natural strength will fade away in the natural...eventually. Anything we do in God supersedes the natural and lasts forever, and God has a long-term vision...the longest term, as in forever. So if you feel something in your core that seems absolutely impossible to accomplish without God, don't be discouraged...compete with the horses...

"If you stumble in a safe land, how can you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?"

Another way of looking at this is the flooding of the Jordan. If we stumble and can't walk straight spiritually when everything is rosy and we're surrounded by support groups and going to a great church, how the heck are we gonna manage the floods of life, and when the "thickets" grow up around us so thick that you can't maneuver through them? This is just an extension of the previous challenge that God put to Jeremiah while he was whining.

God's will does not always come with greased tracks and no resistance, often it's exactly opposite of that, we don't just see that in our lives but we can read it in the Word...great achievement always came with great sacrifice.

I was working out the other day and was thinking about how annoying it is that I have to constantly be in the gym to not only grow in strength but also to just maintain what strength I had gained, I cannot achieve a level physically and then just stop excercising and working out, if I did I'd lose all my gains! Which led me to realize that the cessation of resistance leads to the cessation of strength. This is sooo true of our spiritual walk as well, we cannot just get to a place where we feel comfortable and then stop striving for more and expect to just stay there, no, we will begin regressing if we did that.

So, this is the challenge, compete with horses. Lately this has been my refrain in my head when feeling weary, "compete with the horses, Jon." Because I know that I cannot do that on my own, and therefore when I do I get no glory, but God gets all of it. If we achieve things in our own strength we can claim the glory for it, but when we strive through God and achieve things that we could not have in and of ourselves then there is no glory for us but only for Him.

So I extend this challenge to you, compete with the horses. Don't be afraid of them, don't be intimidated by them, and most of all remember your God who strengthens you.

His,

jon.g.

A new tune for my soul to hum...

2008-03-20T20:05:00.000-07:00

Sitting in the bed with Shadow at my feet and listening to Death Cab for Cutie and found my self humming along, and I started thinking...what a great song, I mean it IS DCC, right?
But it made me start longing to write a song and I was thinking about lyrics in my head and how some of them were cool and others sucked...and all the while wondering what someone else would think about them? Hmmm, what would someone else think of my song? Would they like the tune and want to sing along with me if it was ever birthed for an audience? Then it dawned on me how erroneous that was, it was/is after all MY song. It's my tune and here I was judging its quality by what others may or may not think about it rather than closing my eyes and allowing my heart and soul create a new melody...and it made me start to think about this symphony of life, and yes I think that is very proper description and not just a pretty analogy, the music we create in our conduct with the relationships around us. How much do we try to temper our tempo to match someone we may want to be seen similar to, or at least not stand out and maybe be looked on as an inadequate melody, lacking in our lyric and structure, and I wonder how much beauty is aborted out of insecurity.

While there is nothing wrong with humming along to the melody of another for a while, there comes times when my innermost being wants sing its own song, whether you enjoy the cacauphony or not:) So sing...so hummmmm...this is my concerto...