Building Life Management Skills

These last days have been crazy for me! A lot of work to do, a lot of new land to explore. Let me be brief about that: it's not easy to start a TV show... Two is even worse.

But what I feel deep inside of me is that God is trying to teach me about "life management skills" through this chaos of responsibilities and tasks to be done in such short time.

Now, you may find this a little geek of my part, but if you know me personally, you find me a little geek nonetheless, lol! The thing is I like to divide my life in "sections", and right now this is how my life is "divided":

• My relationship with God
• My relationship with my girlfriend
• Job at church/TV (because they are pretty mixed)
  
• The youth leadership

Of course, besides that comes all the other stuff from life: you got friends, parents, relatives, hobbies, entertainment, etc. But I would say these 4 are the "core" in which my life spins around, because they are the most important to me right now. Specially my relationship with God (I hope I'm not lying).

And so I need to find the best way to use my time correctly so none of these areas are prejudiced by the other, or become deficient. At first that may seem like an easy task: just work out a good schedule that fits all those needs and go for it. But there lies the little big problem, in the "go", where we end up in the same million-dollar question from before...

It's funny how so many issues in my life are coming down to this self-discipline-based question. But my hope is that God will give me an answer in the right time, when all the right questions are made, and that will result in an explosion of blessings in my life and in those around me...

Thanks y'all for reading, and I'll leave you with a video that really spoke to me this week. See ya!

The Weight of Responsibility

Hello people!

I want to share with you readers this situation in which I'm in, with the hope that it might add somehow to your life.

So, I was chosen to lead the new adolescents group at my church. That's something I've been waiting for sometime, something God had told would happen a long time ago, and that God has been preparing me to for a long time too...

I can't explain how happy and excited I am to start working with them. I know we're gonna start with a very low number of people, but despite that, the responsibility of leading and taking care of them is just the same as if leading thousands to me, because I already love them, or better saying, God has already been pouring his love in my heart for them.

And so, having this huge responsibility of leading this new youth, this emerging generation to spiritual growth and experiences with God, it brings me the obligation of being closer to God than ever, so that God can lead me into doing His will in the group, the meetings, the activities, and counseling to come.

Since July I've sensed God calling me closer to Him very deeply, very intensive. In a lot of situations I can see, hear, sense God calling me closer to Him. And now, He even gave me this great responsibility so that I may be compelled (through my own sense of duty to God) to tight up my relationship with Him.

But the same way, that's my biggest difficulty right now: to spend time with God. There's so much stuff going on, so many things to do, so many distractions, I'm finding hard to spend time with God, and it's killing me inside, like if I'm being ripped in half: on one side, God's pulling me closer to Him, the other, my self (I guess I could say flesh) is pulling me to everything else. And to top it all, this new leadership role is totally dependent in who wins this "thug-of-war" inside of me...

This has been one of my biggest questions to God lately: How can you win over yourself? In other words, how can you really surrender to what God wants? How can you win this battle between flesh and spirit, you vs. you, praying or playing wii, reading the bible or youtube, and so on?? Believe me, that's my one million dollar question right now, but if God reveals to me this big secret, then my friends.. Nothing will stop me.

Well, I think this is enough for this late-week post. Thanks for reading, pray for me if you can, and may God bless you!

See ya!
W.Z.

A 4-Day Trip to Connecticut (part II)

The following tuesday we started unloading the truck. It was easier than I thought to unload everything. Well, at least for me it was, I don't know about the guys who had to take out the fridge, oven, cabinets, etc... hehe

Anyway, we took about half a day to unload everything. After that me, Josh, and his friend went to play some soccer on a seminary's field that's just in front of their house.

When we were back there wasn't much to do. I just took a nap, spent some time outside listening Andy Hunter, and help them set up their little entertainment center (home theater, video games, etc.)

But it was in that little walk outside that God spoke to me something really important. All that was on my mind was what I said to Eziliana while we were looking for some place where we could buy a lock for the truck in (back in Smithfield): "you gotta find peace in the middle of chaos if you wanna be happy in this country". But the truth is it's not only in USA, but in our own lives. If we wait until all the problems are gone, all our wishes be fulfilled in order to be content with life, then we'll most likely never be. Sometimes seems like the world will fall on our heads, but it's those times we must rest and trust in the Lord that He's in control and will open a way for us. Sometimes is only a matter of appreciating a sunset. Only God can give us peace in the middle of chaos...

At first I didn't understand why God was sending me in this trip, busy as I was and with so much to do. But the trip ended up being the prove itself that God wants us to take a break once in a while, even if the world crashes on you, so we can hear his voice and what He has to say...

The next Wednesday I woke up late at 12:45pm, so all I had time to do was get ready to leave. We left the house at 1:30pm for a 2-hour drive to Providence, Rhode Island where I took a plane to Detroit, MI (another 2 states, yay!). Because the GPS gave us some trouble, we arrived at the airport a little late. I was in line for the security check when I listened my name on the P.A., making a last call before my plane takes off. It was 4:00pm and the flight departed 4:20. I almost panicked! But again, I sought peace in the middle of trouble, and, thank God, I told the people in line that that was my name they just called and they let me go in front of them. After my stuff past the x-ray, I didn't even put my shoes on, I just grabbed my stuff and ran to my gate. Imagine me running without my shoes on in an airport! LOL! Luckily, I made it on time, and when I got into the plane, people were looking at me like "yeah, we were waiting for you, punk!" =P

After that scary moment, I had a calm flight to Detroit. Arriving there (about 6:30pm) I went straight to a Burger King, since I hadn't eat anything all day except for 2 cookies in the airplane. While I was eating I saw a couple talking Italian, which reminded me of my sweet girlfriend who loves Italian ;)

Detroit's airport is huge. They have a nice little water-show fountain, a hotel annexed to it and even a train rail inside to take you around the airport! After I ate I just sat next to my gate and wrote this second part of my big post (08/05), as I waited for the time to board - 8:45pm...



Ps.: Always leave a little bit earlier than you planned when you have to catch a flight. Specially if you're depending on a GPS to get there ;)

A 4-Day Trip to Connecticut (part I)

Finally, after 2 days on the road we arrive at Hartford, CT. Me, Eziliana, Josh, Helen and the old little Keenan were the party that traveled all that distance.

Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and finally Connecticut: 10 states that we cut through, more than 1300 miles of road.

We had a safe and calm trip, thanks to God. We didn't had any serious traffic delays or unexpected bad surprises. Zi and Helen drove the truck, while me and Josh the car (hehe).

We left Fort Myers around 6:30am on sunday, stopped a few times to eat and stretch our legs. 10:30pm we stopped to sleep at this really cheap Howard Johnson Inn in Smithfield, NC. Eziliana was really mad about the terrible quality of the hotel. She even left a note saying "I rate your Hotel from 1 to 10, -0 (yes, she put "negative zero") LOL!

The next day we spent all in the road again, only making a few small stops to eat and such. Finally, we arrived at their house around midnight. The following are some of my picks about the trip:

• Prettiest State: North Carolina. Even though I couldn't see much from the road, NC looked like the most "comforting" state of all, with this awesome atmosphere of peace and tranquility.
• Coolest part of the trip: Cut through New York at night. What an awesome experience! I'd never been to NY before, and going through those huge bridges and seeing the Empire State Building at night (even though it was far away) was very nice. All the lights and big bridges just blew me away.
• Funniest part: Redneck cities in Florida. Because we cut through the middle of Florida instead of just getting I-4, we had to pass by these small cities. Every little town seemed to have at least one church and one porn place, lol! I saw at least 3 "Adult Supercenters", where one was named "Theater X", which I saw an old man leaving from. That was hilarious! And then, just a little after that, there was this big billboard about Vasectomy! I thought to myself "what'a freak! Sex must be the only type of entertainment aroundo here", sadly...
• Worst part: Bad road parts. Specially in South Carolina, where a part of the road seemed like having more patches than actual road.

Well, that's about it. As I write this at their house (08/03), I feel bad for missing sunday morning's service, and I'll also miss the 3 days of EBF (which I was suppose to help) and tuesday's night service. But anyway, I know it's for a good cause and plus, God has a plan: there's a purpose behind all things. Maybe there's more God wants to teach me in this little "mission", hehe.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you read part II too.
See ya!

Ps.: When you have to stay at these cheap hotels by the side of the road, be sure to check the room before you get it ;)