tomorrow i have tickets to attend the first showing of the newest harry potter flick. i along with many other muggles here in the czech republic and im sure the world, think that your lack of things to do besides criticise a great childrens book series, is as one famous boxer put it: ludicris. could you please find something else to do besides constantly painting christians with the wrong color. you could spend the millions that it takes to run your great informative services on truly worthwhile endeavors. like maybe feeding children in africa, helping fund aids research, or just by giving more to your community that you live in. thanks again - but im quite sure we dont need your organisations to represent us.

almost out of tuesday
running into the weekends

smiling today
frozen pee on the sidewalks
babies bundled up so much like zombies rolling
man on the tram playing the harmonica
looking for an audience
sara watkins singing to me
thinking about christmas
jesus and his smile
cant help it

wondering how long i will be here
thinking maybe a long time
always asked when i will be back in
wish i knew

december almost
new year already
life is good

thinking so much
people i miss
hard to not hear
hard to not speak
my tongue feels tired
talking to myself

just wanted to tell all my american friends happy thanksgiving. enjoy the food and family. and eat a little (or lot) for me. t-bone this means you... it looks like i will just be having a normal workday tomorrow but i will still be thinking of all you guys back home. wish i could be there with you all. maybe another year. while you are there in the nice mississippi warmth - i will be here in the snow chillin. really chillin. once again - happy thanksgiving... miss you loads!

so yep. it happened. last night at about 3. was sitting talking to dave and looked out the window. snow. first just a bit - then it started coming pretty hard. i think it snowed for a few hours. walking to the tram i got a good little coat on me. seems to stick to wool pretty good. i cant say i was super excited - but after walking in it a bit - and looking up at the huge flakes falling - i realized it wasnt so bad. after all the next day was a saturday and i didnt have to get up and do anything in it. the town looked nice too. the first snow of the winter. im glad i got to see it. kinda brightened things up a bit. lately the weather has been a little dreary with it getting dark at 5 and all. so i think winter is here.

friday again. i have actually had the last few days off and have been relaxing. yeah - i know. prolly dont really need it - but it is pretty nice. no more days off until christmas now. which is only about a month away. it is getting cold here. i think last night it was -1 Celsius. supposedly it will snow tomorrow. snow? come on. could we have waited a bit longer for this? oh well... the days are sneaking by.

said goodbye to a friend this week. matt left to go home. back to seattle. not that i dont think i will ever see him again - but it is kinda sad. he will be missed for sure. had a good time getting to know him. it is kinda funny how often in life we have to do this. well - maybe not funny. im not sure it ever quite feels right. or that i will ever get used to doing this. but it wont be the last. when i leave this place - i wonder what it will be like. what will i miss - or who will remember me when i leave? i guess the latter is the better question. never know. but hopefully someone will. that is something i probably will never know.

ok - off to find my weekend. gonna get lined up first - then gonna get outta the house. been reading a lot lately and it has been good. but i think my skin needs to have some sun on it. may warm my soul some.

the weekend is already over. cant believe it. seems like 5 minutes ago i was finishing my class on friday, ecstatic that it was the weekend. now it is sunday night at like 11. back to work. well sort of. cant say i work too hard here. but nonetheless i am not looking forward to the work week. guess i cant stay out until 6 in the morning every night. yep - 6. i know what you are thinking. will - you didnt stay out past midnight back home. guess i am kinda turning into a night owl of sorts. maybe. i still love my sleep though. just hate wasting my days. i wake up ready to go most mornings and dont want to go home. i am being pulled in so many directions. last night i was out with a different set of friends or a person each night of the week. it has been so much fun. people from everywhere. old friendships getting stronger and new ones being started. forgot how much fun life could be. how is that? are we really abel to forget that life is amazing? that these short short years we have are not a read through? once they are gone - they are gone. i am having to get used to the fact that my life is flying. but the best part is that right now i think i am really where i am supposed to be. doing what god has put in front of me. who knows what that may be tomorrow - or even next month. but i am ready. there is still so much to see. and i dont want to miss it. dont get me wrong. i miss all my friends that i dont see in the states. miss them immensely. as well as my family. but man - this is good stuff. really good. guess i will just start another week and see what kind of trouble i can get into. im sure i can find some. should be anohter short week this week because on thursday is a national holiday. so i will maybe hitch a train north somewhere. go see some more of this country. who knows - i will keep you up. as dr. dre would say - until the next episode....

friday morning and classes for the week are over with. finally again – the weekend. well not that my weeks are too hard these days – but it is still a great feeling to be able to do whatever your heart desires in the span of a day.

weather is starting to really get colder and I am having to get used to this. not easy for a mississippi boy. in fact january kinda frightens me.

november already. been here over 3 months. cant say that I have ever seen time fly by so fast in my life. but things are going amazingly well. most mornings I have class at 7:30 and I find myself on the outskirts of prague among panelaks (high-rise communist era housing) in some not so pretty settings. but life is good. i still am in awe of answered prayers that happen daily and am amazed at the several times a day that I think I can hear his voice or see his face in things or people.

christmas will be here soon. the decorations already are. no thanksgiving here to act as a buffer for all the wal-mart decorations. I wont be making it to the states for the first time ever in my life. but I think it may be fun. prague is supposed to really be beautiful under a coat of snow and decked out in its finest garb. I shall see. but I think I will make a journey north to spend a few days in dresden with a really good friend for the actual holiday.

im excited.

days fly by here and I go to bed at night thinking where have the days and weeks and months gone. but I am where I am supposed to be. god has made that clear. im not sure life as I once knew it will ever be the same.

The following extract is from Pete Greigs book red moon rising. amazingly inspiring. if you havent read it - i really suggest it strongly. this vision/poem is amazing. i meant to post this long ago - but am just getting around to it. read it. really read it. look at the words and see what they mean to you. yes - it is coming to pass. soon... now...


The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.They wouldn't even notice.They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.

They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.

What is the vision ?

The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.A million times a day its soldiers
choose to loosethat they might one day winthe great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters.
Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"

And this is the sound of the undergroundThe whisper of history in the makingFoundations shakingRevolutionaries dreaming once againMystery is scheming in whispersConspiracy is breathing…This is the sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed.

Young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ?Can hormones hold them back?Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ?

And the generation prays

like a dying manwith groans beyond talking,with warrior cries, sulphuric tears andwith great barrow loads of laughter!Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials.

The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive

inside.

On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide.Would they surrender their image or their popularity?They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,
they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.Don't you hear them coming?Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be.

It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.