My day with God

On Saturday I went out to the Frederick, MD area and hiked along the Appalachian Trail.

After a steep uphill climb in my car, I got to the parking area. There were many people gathered around, ready to go hiking. I found the Appalachian Trail, and went north, toward Annapolis Rock. After a 2.2 mile climb, I was there, and I was presented with a grand view of the valley to the west of the mountain (The South Mountains). I sat down there and just prayed and read the Bible, and looked out over the valley. It was very chilly too, so after a while I had to get moving so I could warm up. I made my way down to a natural spring, and drank some of the fresh water coming out of it. It was so good!

I then walked back to where I started on the trail, and crossed over I-70 on a footbridge. It was a three mile climb up to Washington Monument. There weren't too many people on the trail, so most of the time I was just by myself. Towards the end of the hike up, it got really steep, and I could see the Washington Monument through the trees. It was surreal, and it felt like I was climbing this mountain for God, and that he was helping me.

Washington Monument is a stone tower, built by the local townsfolk in the 1830s. I climbed to the top, and there was a stunning 360 degree view of the surrounding country. I could see many towns, forests, farms, and distant mountains. I could see Annapolis Rock, where I had just been five miles before. I couldn't believe I had walked that far. I spoke to two men up there, who were really nice. They were looking at hawks through binoculars.

As I started walking back to my car, I become very exhausted. It was difficult to walk any longer. I saw some large rocks over to my right, and I went over. I sat down amongst the rocks, on the side of the mountain, and no one could see me from behind because the rocks were behind me. I sat there and read the Bible and prayed, in complete privacy. Just God and me. It was great. I was restored from that point, and I hiked the rest of the way down to my car.

I then went to another state park, and drove along the roads. I stopped at an overlook and looked out over the entire city of Frerick. Then, I drove down to Frederick, and got dinner and Starbucks. And the view from inside Starbucks was awesome, because the mountains were right there, towering over the city. And then, with a little help from God and coffee, I got home safe and sound.

It's almost April

April, the month to end all months, the fabulous weather month, is almost at hand. I can't wait.

Some updates for you all:

I have decided to take a break from school, indefinitely. Right now I need to focus on other things, and save some money.

Work is going well. I am learning more and more every day. I am picking up new accounts and some people are still advertising.

Movies! All winter long I have not really had any interest in the movies in theaters, as with any other year. So soon we will start seeing some good movies hit the theaters.

Adventures: I am planning some hiking adventures for this year. I am looking at places in Central Maryland, Northern Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. I am planning on going away on March 21st to spend a day with God. I am looking to go hiking somewhere new.

Recover, our new ministry, started up last weekend, and it was tremendous. Every Sunday night we will be meeting at 6:00 at The Georgia House Restaurant in Laurel, DE.

That's all for now. Who wants to go hiking?

News

Our new ministry, Recover, will begin March 1st. Really looking forward to it. This will be a great opportunity for us to serve God and reach out to new people.

I have switched majors. I was a Communications Major, and now I am a General Business major.

I may start taking online classes in the summer, and trying to fit as many classes on my plate as possible. This will make me extremely busy, but I will get more bang for my buck and get through it quicker.

I was pulled over Tuesday for having an expired license plate. I have since resolved the problem.

I have had some success this week in selling advertisements.

I have discovered some amazing 80s songs, and have enjoyed listening to them this week.

I have several ideas for new adventures:
Go on a weekend trip to Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. Spend the night in a tent or lodge. Go hiking and climb a mountain.

Go down to Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and explore the area. Check out some of the navel ships in Norfolk. Ride around everywhere and go to the boardwalk.

Go explore the Annapolis area. Check out Sandy Point State Park.

Go explore the Jersey Shore.

Go to Assateague Island.

Go hiking in new places.

I am, as always, planning a trip to Los Angeles. I am looking to go there for at least a week and a half. I will get two weeks vacation after December 1st. I am looking for people to go there with me, and also to go with me on any of the above trips as well.

Well, that's all that is on my mind right now. God bless.

Brandon

An update

Dear Reader,

It has been over two months since I have updated this blog, and a lot has changed. I now have a new job, as a sales rep for a publication. It is very fits me well, but it is not easy. Sales can be a tough field to get into. I am taking three night classes at Delaware Tech as well. These are unnecessary classes that they make me take for my Communications major. So I am already starting to get burnt out. I don't want to spend my nights studying about the brain, learning how to operate windows xp, or learning about venn diagrams! But I am hoping that maybe an Associates Degree will help me out. Maybe I'm wasting my time, I don't know. One good thing is that I could always go for a Bachelor's degree after i get my associate's degree.

And I am re-connecting with God through prayer and Bible Study. I am really looking forward to the new ministry that will start up at The Georgia House in two weeks!

I am once again longing for adventure. I want to swim in the ocean on a warm day. I want to climb a mountain. I want to go to California and Florida. I want to go to Germany (Greg, once I have time I'll be there). I want to see what it feels like to be in love. I want a chance to play basketball and soccer again with people. I want to just get in the car, with unlimited funds and time, and see where the road takes me.

Some nights you will find me, standing over the Nanticoke River, praying to the Lord. This is how I find inner peace.

Brandon

As for me, I will boast only about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14)

This evening, I feel absolutely in love with Jesus. Words cannot express it. I was awoken by Pastor Danny's salvation message yesterday and the Night of Worship last night. I have a hunger for God's Word now. I read Galatians today, and I encourage all of you to read it as well.

I worked today, and I went to Del Tech to sign up for classes. I have been so happy and smiling to everyone and I feel very confident! I want to tell the Kainos family that I love you all. Steve, Chelsea, and Jon, I admire you so much. It can be hard to say this in person, so this is how I feel.

Friends and strangers, I hope that all of you will accept Jesus as your Savior. None of us are promised tomorrow. Understand that if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, believe that He died for your sins, and accept Him as your Savior, you will spend eternity with Him in Paradise. He will wipe away all tears from your eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. This is in the book of Revelation. This is the Truth. "Come, whoever is thirsty; accept the water of life as a gift, whoever wants it." I want to spend eternity with all of my friends. I do not want anyone to be left out.

Local man rides bike across America

On June 4, Shawn Yoder embarked on a bike ride across America with his cousins Bruce and Evie Yoder. Their three-month long adventure took them from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore.

Shawn, 25, of Cannon, is a graduate of Greenwood Mennonite School who has a degree in biblical studies from Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa, Ga. He works for Sam Yoder & Son in Greenwood. “We wanted to do something fun,” he said of the motivation for the trip. “Bruce’s and Evie’s cousins had done a similar trip a couple of years before.”

To kick off the trip, their fathers, Curtis and Ronnie Yoder, drove them up to Portland, Maine. They left Portland, having done little training beforehand. “The first part of the trip was hard,” said Shawn. “It wasn’t until a month into it that I felt like I was in good shape.” At the start of the trip they traveled 50-60 miles per day, but later on in the trip they went 70-80 miles per day. On one particular day they traveled 167 miles, because it was a barren area without any good campsites.

They carried cycling maps with them and combined some different bike routes. Most days started at around 7 a.m. and they rode until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. They spent their nights at campgrounds, where they cooked food. Breakfast usually consisted of oatmeal and granola bars at the campsite. For lunch they would pull over and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then, they ate dinner at the next campsite. They usually bought food for dinner at the local grocery store. They ate a lot of bananas, nectarines, rice and beans, veggie wraps, sandwiches, tuna wraps, and ice cream cones.

From Maine, they went to Buffalo, N.Y., and Niagara Falls. As they made their way across the country, they visited Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park, which Shawn said was the highlight of the trip. In Anacortes, Wash., they finally saw the Pacific Ocean.

“I ran in the water,” said Shawn. The cyclists put their front tires in the water and took a picture. Their trip wasn’t yet finished, however. From there, they went down to Portland, Ore.

“We hung out in the city for a while,” said Shawn. “Portland is good, especially if you’re a cyclist.” It was in Portland that a family took them into their home. Then, some relatives from Salem, Ore., came and picked them up and took them to Salem. The entire journey concluded after a train ride home from Portland to Washington, D.C. Altogether, the trip totaled 5,000 miles, and they crossed 15 states and one Canadian province. By the end, Shawn and Bruce had shaggy beards.

They read a lot of books during the trip. Shawn mostly read novels, including some classics. One book that Shawn read, The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, was a tedious read, he said.

The trip wasn’t without its fair share of problems. “Some days it rained and poured and was miserably cold,” said Shawn. “Riding in the rain wasn’t much fun.” Also, the Midwest was very hot and windy, and they stopped riding around noon during those days. The Appalachian Mountains were very steep. Evie’s bike had a lot of broken spokes, and the riders had a lot of flat tires.

For Shawn, the good outweighed the bad. “I liked being able to get away from everything and just relax,” he said. “Everything was beautiful in its own way. You do gain a great appreciation for nature.” He enjoyed being on a bike rather than being in a car, because “you’re out in it. You just feel more connected to everything.” Shawn said that it was nice to be able to talk to people. “People would come up all the time and talk to us. Everybody was really friendly with us.”

“When I think about this trip I don't think of it as a difficult physical task,” Shawn said. “After the first month or so of getting in shape it really wasn't too bad and I really think almost anyone could physically do it. But more so I think of it as a great privilege to be able to have the time and be in the position to be able to go on an adventure like this. It really was an amazing summer, one that I'm sure I will always look back on as one of the best things I ever did.”

Shawn has advice for anyone planning a similar trip. “Don’t worry so much beforehand,” he said. “Don’t plan it out too far ahead of time. Just do it.” He recommends getting a touring bike, and carrying a couple of extra bike tubes, a patch kit, and spare tires. Shawn rode on a Novara Randonee touring bike, which is made by REI. It has 27 speeds.

Shawn is getting married soon to Kaylene Myers of Oil City, Pa. Evie lives in Harrisonburg, Va. Bruce is working for Air Serv International as a humanitarian aid pilot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To learn more about the trip, and look at the photo album, visit the blog at www.pedal-to-portland.blogspot.com/.

The day that fate had it's way...A true story

July 3rd, 2005: I wasn't really feeling it that morning. I reached for my cell phone and called Justin. Justin's roommate, Greg, was visiting Seaford for the first time. I said, "I'm not going to go to church today, but I still want to go to the beach with you guys." We agreed to get up with each other later on about the beach.

But for some reason I changed my mind about church. I decided to get out of bed and go. When I got to Bayshore, I looked all around, but I didn't see Justin or Greg there. After the service, I called Justin, and he said that they were heading over to Ocean City. So I left church and made my way to Route 50. When I was about five or six miles out from Ocean City, I ran into heavy, stand-still traffic, which is typical for Independence Day Weekend. So I called Justin and told him where I was, and he said that they too were on Route 50, a few miles ahead of me, in stand-still traffic.

About an hour past, and I was really getting tired of the slow, stop-and-go traffic. So I called Justin and told him that we should call it off and go somewhere else. But Greg insisted that we go to Ocean City. So I put up with it for probably another hour, and finally crossed the bridge into the city. I parked at a Candy Kitchen and arranged to meet them there. They arrived, and we went down to the boardwalk.

We walked around in the blazing heat, and decided to eat at Paul Revere's Smorgasbord. The food was great, but one thing that really struck us was that most of the employees were Russian or European girls. Greg really appreciated that, and he especially like our waitress. After eating, we went outside and walked around the boardwalk some more. We decided to go sit down on the sand, so we picked a spot and walked out on the beach.

We couldn't help but notice these two blonde girls doing leg exercises about 40 yards away from us. Somehow Greg could tell that they were foreign. I told him that he should go over and talk to them, but he was chickening out. We kept talking about it, but for a while it seemed hopeless. But I kept pushing him to go over and talk to them, and so he stood up and walked over. Justin and I were flabbergasted. We watched as Greg laid down on the sand, on his side, and talked to them. They opened up to him and looked very happy. They talked for a couple of minutes, while Justin and I debated whether we should go over and join them.

Finally, we went over and met them. They were Russian, and they could speak English, but not so well. They taught us some Russian words, and we helped them with their English. We found out that they were staying in Ocean City for the summer through a college program that allowed them to come here and work. We had a good conversation, and then we walked them back to their place. They were staying with a lot of other Russian students in a house that read "Emily's Photo House" or something on the front of the building. Greg asked them if they wanted to hang out later on, and they said to meet them at the house in about an hour.

So we went back to our cars and freshened up and relaxed for a little bit. When the time came, we went back to their house and met them. It was starting to get dark outside. The five of us walked around for a couple of hours. Greg and one girl, named Nastia, made a good connection. They even went down to the beach by themselves for a while to talk. I connected well with the other girl, Vera. At the end of the night we said goodbye, got in the car, and drove up to Newark, to Greg and Justin's apartment.

The next day we planned on going to see Blue Oyster Cult play in New Jersey, followed by a fireworks show. But Greg wanted to go back down to Ocean City to see Nastia. So he went down there, and Justin and I went to the concert.

Over the next month or so, Greg and I kept hanging out with the Russians. We had a lot of good times. Greg and Nastia started dating, while I spent a lot of time with Vera. As the summer drew to a close, I was looking to get out of Seaford, and move up to Newark. Vera flew back to Russia, but Nastia actually moved in with Greg for a little while. Then, Greg called me and wanted to know if I wanted to move into the apartment, because he and Nastia were moving out. I said yes, and the next week I was living in Newark.

Greg and Nastia ended up getting married. And after a year of living in Newark, I felt like God was calling me to move back down to Seaford. So I moved back so that I could get back into going to Bayshore and what was then called The Edge. And that's how I got to where I am today. I'd like to think that I played even a small role in transitioning The Edge into Kainos.

The moral of the story is that every decision that you make counts. Greg chose to visit Seaford. He chose to go to the beach. Despite heavy traffic, he chose to keep driving to the beach. We chose to sit out at the perfect place on the beach, at the perfect time. He chose to go talk to those girls. We chose to meet them later on. He chose to keep going back to Ocean City. And it led to a marriage. What if I hadn't gone to the beach with them? What if we had gone on a different day?

Did fate bring those two together that day? Or was it God?