Kayaking two days before Christmas. Only in Florida.

My arms are killing me. Me and Brad decided at 2:00 that we would go kayaking to the cape today. We figured it gets dark at six so if leave by about 3:30 we should be okay. I hurried to get some last minute Christmas shopping done then left T-Ville to head to the Cape where I would drop my truck off to pick up later. Brad met me and we headed to his house to set out on our ten mile paddle. His parents quizzed us on where we were going and how long it would take us cause they were worried about it being dark and us being out in the middle of the river. We left his house at about three thirty and made pretty good time getting from there to the 528 bridge over the Indian river. As we were going under we looked at the clock and decided we had been out for about 20 minutes. "If we keep this pace I think we'll make it in plenty of time." After the bridge the water got really calm and it was easy going, there was a slight northwest wind but since we had the land to the south of us the water wasn't choppy at all. I almost felt disappointed because i had wanted it to be a hard trip, 10 miles is as far as I've gone before in a Kayak, its no easy task. On our way through the barge canal we passed a sailboat going the same direction as us, I was feeling great, if we were passing boas we were definitely making good time. I turned around in my seat and could still see a little of the sun through the tree tops, that was good since the horizon must be well below those trees that are right in front of me. We went under the draw bridge and the sailboat had to stop and wait on the bridge to open. on our way past the marina we saw some really cool looking old shacks that we'll have to make another trip to explore later. About ten minutes later we were surprised by the sailboat passing us, I wondered if we had slowed down but there was really no way to tell. My fingers were getting really stiff on the paddle. it hurt to move them out of their curled position. I also had to reposition my hands because of a rising blister on my thumb. Brad was in the slower kayak and behind me a little bit so I looked to see if he was keeping up okay, we had agreed that we would switch kayaks at some point so that one of us wouldn't get worn out way before we got to our destination. I couldn't see the sun anymore but we were passing the second marina and I Could see the cruise ships in the distance, so I wasn't to worried. Brad wasn't ready to trade yet and that was fine with me since my arms had just begun to burn a little. He said that his arms were definitely going to be sore so I assumed that he must be working a lot harder with the slower kayak. We switched not long after that and noticed another interesting thing that we would have to come back later to explore, an old VW bus was sitting in the brush abandoned near the canal. We were finally into the Banana River now and I could see the sun again, reassuring me that we still had enough time to get to the other side of the locks and into the main channel at the cape. As we drew near the locks I was telling Brad about my past experiences going through it, the operator almost always had something to say to me about being safe or that I was doing something wrong. I think he just didn't like running a lock just to let some kayakers through. We waited outside the doors anxiously, they didn't open right away. We watched some manatees and dophins that were playing nearby. The other three times I had been through here I hadn't had to wait, it had been day time and there were lots of other boats coming and going through the lock, but now it was about 6:00 and the boat traffic was almost gone. Finally it opened after about 20 minutes of waiting. A boat came out and I started in, the operator leaned on the rail staring down at me, next to him stood a sheriff. He yelled at us because we had come in to soon and then told us we needed to wear our life jackets which we had strapped to the back of the kayaks since it was such a calm day. Okay whatever we put our life jackets on and waited on the doors to close. The sun was fading fast, and i was worried now because it was 6:20 and after the lock the next place to get out was where we had parked. at this point there was not turning back and calling someone to bail us out, we had to go the whole way. form the locks to Grills it was about 1 mile, alot more than me or Brad had expected. The rest we had given our arms while waiting on the locks was really hurting me now and I couldn't wait to be done and get out of this place. By the time we were passing the Sun Cruz Casino it was completely dark, if it hadn't been for the lights form the restaurants that line the water front we probably would have had a lot of trouble finding the place where I parked my truck.Finally we pulled up to the boat ramp beside Grills and pulled ourselves and our kayaks out of the water. As i stood my legs cramped and i bent over because my back was stiff. I stumbled away to get the truck and Brad took apart the paddles and got ready to load up. We made it, but learned some lessons that will probably help next time, 1. don't leave on a kayak trip right before sunset, 2. put your life jacket on before you get to the lock, and 3. (this is just for me) dont start out in the easy kayak.

BeggarTown

Beggartown is a non-profit organization started by some college students from my church.

Their main purpose is to be a ministry that shares the Gospel and raises money for missions at the same time. Patrick Maguire and Zach Dodd, both former "Firehouse Band" members, came up with the idea for the organization. Tonight they were at Firehouse selling t-shirts and CD's of their band (BeggarTown). Right now they are raising money to help build an orphanage in Uganda Africa. Both Patrick and Zach had to quit their jobs to basically become missionary's. The form that their ministry takes and the way they present it is very cool.
Check it out for yourself: http://beggartown.org/ http://www.zachdodd.com/

My Great Grandparents

My great grandmother (Mimi) and great grandfather (Papa) both got bad news about there health today, I'd like to ask everyone to pray for my family and extended family as we decide what to do about thier declining health situation.

Mimi has had several mini-strokes,She has severe dementia), she has severe back pain do to shingles and fractures in her spine, is recovering from breaking her leg (on two different occasions in the last 6 months), has alergy problems and probably has cancer, we're waiting on test results.
Papa has severe alergies, heart murmur,severe neuropathy in his legs (basically it feels like hes stepping down a step thats bigger than he thought every time he steps.)and he has also had some mini-strokes.

Thanks for reading and please pray for my family, Mimi's cancer (if that what it is,) will not be treated because treatment would kill her quicker than the cancer. Papa is also going through a hard time with everything and is seeking a part-time caregiver to help him take care of Mimi.

Wasup

Hey, if you have a blog on blogger leave a comment with your url so i can link to you. If your reading this on facebook click the "see original post" link to view my blog.
http://paulmurraysblogsite.blogspot.com/

The Wall

Nathan (my youth pastor) spoke on Samuel tonight. He told us the story of David and Goliath and made some great points about facing giants in our lives. Sometimes when I look at the direction my life is going it seems that all I can see is the giant, the elephant in the room, all I can see sometimes is how bad I messed up. but then as soon as I see it and I know it I turn back around and do the same thing again. It's like I'm running in the wrong direction and I hit this wall of realization that I'm going the wrong way, and it hurts a lot to get knocked down when I run full speed into the wall. So i get up and i say, man I'm so stupid, God why'd you let me do that? couldn't you have just gave me a different direction when i turned back there? But of course I look back and say Oh...you did... So then I go back and try to walk the right way. But then the very next day there I am again running into the same stupid wall again, and I'm a little more used to God's wrath this time, so I just kinda whimper and go back, and then hit the wall, then go back and hit it again and again and again. Nathan showed how the Israelites were standing there for 40 days looking at the giant, and he was all they could see because they had forgotten how big God was, I'm in that same place looking out across the battle field at my giant. But then David came out and he was like "what??? why are you scared?" and they said, "he's big! and your the littlest person here!" and David was just all relaxed and goes "yeah but I have bigger friends." and he walks out and the giant laughs and says, "your little, what the heck are you doing? I'm to big for you to even hurt" but david knew where he stood and saw how small the giant was in the big picture. I think that if I can convince myself that the giants I face are as small as Goliath was to David then I can get past my giants as easily as David did. So hopefully the next time I'm running and I see the path that leads to that wall I'll remember that God has the right path right in front of me and i don't have to run into the wall again to find it, and it'd hurt less not to hit the wall again too...

Now What??

Today I'm struggling with a very important decision. I'm not sure what God want me to do and I am so in need of direction that I don't even know where to turn to find it. Some of my close friends have already heard about it, but if you don't know just pray that God would make his will in my life obvious to me. It seems lately that just when I think everything is going to be okay, and I feel like my life couldn't be better, something bad happens. I'm not sure what God is trying to teach me through all of this, but i wish i was a quicker learner cause the learning process sure hurts alot...

You Give And You Take Away

If I look at the past week and a half it seems like I should be completely messed up, it’s been terrible. My car broke so now I have to buy a new one, my girlfriend broke up with me, the atm ate my credit card so I can’t cash my check, and since I don’t have a car I can’t go anywhere except work. But for some reason God has given me the strength I need to sort things out, it hasn’t been easy and I hope this next week will be better, but God works in mysterious ways and I don’t try to figure it out sometimes. A pastor I heard one time gave this illustration for people who are going through hard times:
There are spiritual highs and lows just like there are geographic highs and lows. Getting on a mountaintop is so refreshing, you feel a great accomplishment in it that you have climbed so high, you feel refreshed because of the crisp air; you stand amazed at the beauty of what is around you. But then you realize that while this feels so wonderful and life is so perfect, the only things growing are thin and weak, because the grass grows in the valley, the valley doesn’t feel good, it’s humid and there’s brush scraping you and hurting you. But look around, this is where things grow. In the same way a spiritual high can feel fantastic, but a spiritual low in your life can make you a stronger Christian. So like job in the Old Testament, I rejoice in my sufferings.

“You give and You take away. Blessed Be Your name!” -Job