I've still been training for my 1/2 marathon at the end of August. It has been hard to run long miles in the heat and humidity of the Virginia Beach summer. I ran 8 miles on Saturday this weekend. That is actually the farthest I have ever run and probably the most I have ever sweated. I have 5 more miles to add on before the race in August. I have to keep up with my boss at work who will be running the race with me.
We heard some sad news today. The pastor at our church will eventually be leaving to start a church in Las Vegas on the strip. It's sad for Megan and I because we are in a small group with them and have been getting to know them more recently. But what an awesome opportunity to start a church in a town like like Las Vegas. They are really listening to God's calling. Pray for Vince and Jen and their family as they start to plan this church.
Vince also mentioned that XXXchurch.com is heading to the Las Vegas Strip to start a church as well. They may work together to reach out to different people on the strip. There are actually no churches on the strip. Most of the churches are out in the suburbs away from the strip. I am excited for the things God will do in Las Vegas.

I decided about three weeks ago, kind of on a whim, to run the Rock and Roll Half marathon in Virginia Beach. Then I started running 2-3 miles a day and realized that 13 miles is a long, long, long run and it will take about 2 hours of non-stop running to finish. It was overwhelming and I got kind of mad because I payed about a 100 bucks to suffer for 2 straight hours. I found a training schedule online written by some guy who's run about a 100 marathons. The training schedule starts out at 3 miles and adds about a half mile per week. I can set a small goal of running an extra mile every two weeks. I try not to let myself think about running 13 miles when I'm in the middle of a 3 mile run because I almost start to cry and want to stop running right then.
So I'm already up to a 5 mile run which I ran on Saturday. It feels great to have this big time goal of running the half marathon over Memorial Day weekend. I need some kind of big goal like that to be motivated or else I would only run like 1-2 miles every other week. I remember growing up in school and hearing people talk about setting goals in life. I always thought it was stupid because whatever I wanted to do, I just went and did it. Then things in my life started happening like college, marriage, saving for a house, career advancement, and a lot of other grown up stuff. Maybe goals could actually help me overcome laziness.
I think I need to set some spiritual goals in my life. Goals for reading my bible, prayer, and community service. I always start out the year with the goal to read through the bible, pray for a few minutes a day, and maybe do a habitat for humanity or some project like that. Sadly, by the end of Feb or March, most of those goals are gone.
I'm challenging myself to write down some new spiritual goals for the next three months. I'll write those down in my next blog post. I gotta think about them for awhile.

I had some free time today while Megan was out working at a home show for her new sales job. I was kind of bored after watching TV, playing a video game for a while, eating some food. It felt good to relax on a Sunday afternoon after working all week, but I was bored after 4-5 hours of not really doing anything. I picked up a book I had started last week called I became a Christian, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt and starting reading a chapter about hunger. I was casually reading the book, throwing back a beer when the words in the chapter hit me hard. The guy who write the book, Vince, talks a hunger for God, and how he doesn't always stay hungry for God because he has a roving appetite. A roving appetite for other things in life like a new car, new job, new shows to watch on TV. It seems like every week I want to hungry for God but something comes up and I keep myself busy. It seems like I can't make myself hungry for God even though I really want to. Vince had some simple advice. He said maybe rather than trying to make yourself hungry for God, maybe you should ask God to make you hungry for God. He also said, maybe the only thing that will induce the hunger you need is eating. It inspired me to take some quiet time today to speak with God, and talk to him about how I spend my time. Then I went and played some darts with a lighter heart.

I thought it was funny that I was drinking a beer when I was reading today. Some of the people from my old church that I grew up in would probably say that reading a Christian book and drinking a beer would cancel each other out.

Wow, It's been a long, long time since I wrote something on this blog. I forgot that I started the blog until I saw the link on my Facebook page. There's been a lot of change in mine and Megan's lives over the past year. I graduated from graduate school and we moved shortly after that to Virginia Beach, so I could start my career as an occupational therapist. It was hard to leave our family and our friends in Michigan and try something new in VA Beach. We always said that we would move away when we were done with college.
It has been lonely some of the time down here. We spent a lot of Sunday's looking for a church to go down here. It's a weird experience being a new person at all kinds of churches when I'm used to welcoming new peeps into my church. There are some churches that are welcoming and other churches seem indifferent to you presence.
We found a church called Forefront in Va Beach. They have three places they meet including one in a bar on Tuesday night. They call themselves a church for people who don't like church. They focus on people 25-35 years old and say they are no perfect people aloud. They're website says their services are like Saturday night live, Scrubs, the Office, and live rock and roll thrown in a blender and all mixed up.
We got to have lunch with the pastor of the church campus we've been going to and he shared what Forefront is about. We hope to get plugged into one of their small groups and see where we can fit in.
I pray that we can make an impact here in Va Beach through our jobs and in peoples lives.