Mexico in...

29 hours.  Andrew Miller and I are headed to Mexico tomorrow.  We will be headed to Juarez tomorrow night to meet up with Ernesto and Alfredo then head to Le Baron on Saturday.  We will be teaching at Calvary Chapel Le Baron on Sunday then headed all the way back home that night.

Please pray for us as we are taking my 1974 VW Beetle down to Juarez to meet up with Ernesto.  This is a big trip for this car and it needs to hold together.  Ernesto will be teaching the adults, Alfredo will be leading worship, and Andrew and/or I will be teaching the children.

I appreciate your support and will update when I get back (with photos.)  There has been a building project going on in Le Baron for the Church there and I am excited to see how well it is going.

Joshua

Redundant

I have not updated by blog in... nineteen days.  Sorry 'bout that, but nothing overly unique has happened in the past three weeks.

There is one thing I guess.  We had a class on composite structures in school.  What are composites, you may ask?  Well let me tell you.  Composites are things like carbon fiber, kevlar, and fiberglass.  They are held together by a matrix, better known as a resin.  A lot of aircraft are starting to benefit from substantial weight savings through the use of advanced composite structures.  The Boeing 787, for example, is about 58% advanced composite structure by weight which means much more of the structure is composite than aluminum since aluminum weighs much more.  So with all this weird matrix/fabric flying around, there needs to be more mechanics equipped to repair it.

It was a pretty intense class and I had to study a bit and really work to get a decent grade.  It was challenging and I loved it.  There was a lab we did where we built an advanced composite structure using all three mentioned fabrics covering an aramid (the actual stuff kevlar is made of) honeycomb core.  The honeycomb core makes the structure about seven times stronger and thirty times stiffer.  Then we poked a hole in it and repaired the structure.  This took a lot of thought and preparation.  Mine didn't get a perfect finish, but I was fairly pleased with the overall lab.  

The instructor was gone for a while after the course so we didn't get our final grades until yesterday afternoon.  I was so excited when I got my project back and an over all grade of... wait for it... 99.9%!  Yeah!  I was SO not expecting that, but I will definitely take it!  That is about as exciting as things got in the past three weeks, so there you go.

No we are back to the every-day, redundant, time-wasting classes I am used to.  Does that sound depressing?  It should.  I actually slept in class today for a total cumulative time of about 2 seconds.  That is intense.  I like a challenge.

So, until next time, peace out,

Joshua

Neon Artesia

Practicing at night, hand held.



Joshua

Driven Part 2

After giving this idea a bit of thought, I think I agree a lot with Mr. Ken.  To simplify what I think, I would say we are driven by wanting to be happy.

Strange thing to admit, but happiness drives me also.  I have tried to deny this for a long time, trying to be "holier than thou", but the truth is I am driven by happiness just as much as the next guy.  I am not driven by some kind of spiritual force that overrides everything I do.  My faith in God changes what I believe will make me happy but my desire to be happy has not disappeared.  If I choose to go get a cup of coffee it is because I think drinking a cup will make me happy.  If I go to school for two years it is because I think the outcome will lead me to happiness.  Even if I choose to give up my home, wealth, and friends to serve God in a foreign country, I do it because I think that by sacrificing these things will bring me happiness through a sense of purpose, by God's gifts to me, by the simple belief that helping someone is worth while.  Happiness drives us to extraordinary feats of bravery and foolishness alike.  Ecclesiastes 10:2

Why does the business man forsake his family and work eighty hours a week?  Is it because he hates his job?  Is it because he desires to destroy relationships for the sake of a dollar?  I don't think so.  I believe that he thinks sacrificing family time and relationships to be a provider or gain wealth for himself will somehow make him happy.  Luke 12

Some of us need to know we are useful.  Some need to know that they are needed.  Some need a limit to break, a goal to exceed.  Some need physical comfort.  We all need something and we think that when we finally attain that need, we will be truly happy.  Happiness can drive us to do great things and accomplish a lot in our lives.  It can drive us to strive to spread the Kingdom of God, to preach, teach, disciple, and intercede.  It can also lead us to strive for something completely useless in an improper manner.  The desire can lead us to run down wrong roads and do selfish, useless, and destructive things in an attempt to falsely satisfy our happiness.

God can use happiness.  One may say that joy is happiness realized.  Even if I am not currently happy with my circumstances, I can be joyful because I know that the outcome of my predicaments will lead to eternal happiness.  Romans 8:18-19

Look at your actions and the actions of those around you.  Do those actions lead to a desire to be happy one way or another?   The path may be skewed and incorrect, but is the intention to seek happiness?

Joshua

White Christmas

Hope you have a blessed white Christmas!



Joshua

Home Sweet Tarmac

This is the place I call aviation home.

Roswell Industrial Air Center


Joshua

Really?

An hour or so ago I went to the fairgrounds because they are supposed to be having a "liquidation" sale.  Basically it is a big junk sale.  I was thinking it would be nice to get a cheap stereo for a VW, and I knew they would have stereos.

I walked in the building and they lady sitting at the desk inside told me it is $7 to walk around and shop.  What?  Yeah, you have to pay in order to see the prices or merchandise but they refund it if you spend $100 or more on electronics or $50+ on anything else.  I told her, "no, thank you," and walked my little self on out of the junk store.

Really?  I have to give you money to purchase something.  You guys lost my business because you were trying to rip me off.  Congratulations.

Strange days.

Joshua

Driven Part 1

I wrote this down while killing time at school today.  I had considered keeping it to myself for a while until the thought is more developed but instead, I am sharing it now.

What is a man's drive?  What leads us to do what we do?  There are seven billion people on Earth doing seven billion different things.  There are seven billion minds moving around doing what seems appropriate to them a the time.  We all are driven to live life in whatever way we do.  What is our drive and what determines that drive?

What drives one person to give their life to helping the poor and another to taking a life for the profit of something such as a car?  Why does one person start a major corporation and another live on the streets?  What makes one man give his life to God and another to kill Christians? 

Is there a common drive for every person or are people's reasons as diverse as their characters?  Are we all created with some imprinted purpose that cannot be deviated from?  Or can we deny our callings?

What is my drive?  Maybe if I could understand what drives me, I could begin understanding what drives others and if there is a common denominator.

What drives you?  Think about it . . . hard.  Give an honest and thoughtful answer, not necessarily the first thing that comes to your head.

Joshua

 

 

Yosemite Climbing - Photo Gallery - Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine

I love climbing, free climbing, but heights really get me still. Maybe that's why it is fun.

Yosemite Climbing - Photo Gallery - Pictures, More From National Geographic Magazine

Joshua

From the Archives

Joshua

Fired

Sometimes funny things happen and you learn useful (however unpleasant) aspects about people without being hurt by it.

I got a part-time job at the local airport working on aircraft.  A guy I know got me an interview and I spoke with the owner about my schedule and his plan in employing me.  Everything seemed to work out and I was employed as a part-time mechanic's help.  The only times I would be able to help would be on vacation days from school during the week.  I go to school 7:00 to 4:00, five days a week.  The shop closes its doors at 4:30 and doesn't work on weekends, so this was understood from the beginning.

I showed up today because school was canceled due to the weather.  The mechanic said I wasn't on the time clock so we went to the office to get me back on.  It was then that we were both informed that the owner decided I wasn't going to work out.  Hmm.  Nice to know.  Neither the mechanic or I knew this.  So I was fired before I worked a single day for this company and I didn't even know.  This is a valuable thing to know about the company without being injured by it.  Lesson learned.

Joshua

I Don't Know

It is true, I really don't know.  I don't know how old the Earth is.  I don't know why "bad things happen to good people."  I don't know how there can be no beginning of God and no end.  I don't know how I can exist for Eternity.  I don't know how to prove to you that God exists (although I may have already mentioned that.)  I don't know why the History Channel says that Israel was a nation of hired guns.

I don't have a problem saying, "I don't know."  At one point in time, I would have had an issue with such a statement, but not more.  When I say, "I don't know," it drives me to find the answer.  Not know the answer to a question and admitting it is not an easy way out, it is the truth.  Learning those three words came with experience, making mistakes and claiming things I can't back up.

I think more Christians need to learn that phrase.  I have spoken to many people who had a different view that I do on spiritual subjects and they made ridiculous arguments that seemed to come from thin air.  It seemed as though they were defending an opinion that they were not sure why they believed it themselves.  Now, I have done this in the past and may do it again but I will try not to.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 reads, "He has made everything appropriate in its time.  He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end."

You catch that?  We will not understand all that God does.  So why do some claim they do?  I also wrote a while back about not trying to over-understand God.  You can read it in Digging Deeper.

I read a Q&A session with an atheist about what he believes about and sees in Christians.  One thing he said that I have to agree with is that Christians are horrible about backing up what they believe.  He did use a few extreme examples, but much of what he said appeared to be sound.  He also said that we are unable to admit that we DON'T KNOW EVERYTHING.  That's sad, because truth be told, we don't know everything.

Consider what you say.  Are you certain of your answer?  Are you using valid information or are you making stuff up?  Don't be afraid of saying, "I don't know."  Then once you say that phrase, try your hardest to not have to say it again for that same question.  Find the answer.

There is no replacement for faith.  I have found that some things have spiritual/supernatural answers that no one will believe.  At that point, the only way to believe is faith.  Nothing can replace the faith that we were told to hold on to.

Joshua

Let's Play a Game!

I start the sentence, you finish it however seems fit for you.

"Cold weather is..."


Example: "Cold weather is an excuse for drinking obnoxious amounts of coffee."


Your turn!





Joshua

Panoramics

I like panoramic photos.  They give a more real perception of things.  A person's field of view is much larger than most cameras'.  In stitching panoramic photos, you get a wide view angle AND extreme detail.  An aerial photographer came by last weekend and we shot some photos around town.  Here's one of the Roswell Courthouse.  Click the photo then at the top of the page click "O" under sizes to see the photo in all its glorious pixels. 





Joshua

My Ears are Ringing

Complaint:  Why does the F-bomb get dropped an average of twice a minute in this place?  My ears are melting.

Joshua