With many advisers...

One of the best parts of organizing Tennis for Water has been receiving help and support from my friends. It touches my heart to see them willing to dedicate time and energy into planning it. Their support is an extremely talented army that has joined my side.  Before having this army, I was anxious about how the event would turn out; now that they are behind me, I have a jolt of adrenaline and a confidence boost. How could I not be more confident now that these eloquent, hard working, organized, ambitious, creative, talented, attentive, perceptive, compassionate, selfless and globally minded people have joined me? And what a joy to work with friends instead of strangers!

Proverbs 15:22 says that "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."  I am so thankful for the friends who have offered their support of Tennis for Water. Truly, it could not succeed without them.

reposted from www.tennisforwater.com

Do Hard Things - Tennis for Water

A friend asked me the other day, "why did you decide to do a tennis fundraiser?"  --> check it out at www.tennisforwater.com!

Good question.  I'm not sure when the idea came into my head, but I do remember some steps along the way.  I received a standard Compassion letter from a pastor of a church in Aquin, Haiti, where most adults are unemployed, but the average worker makes the equivalent of $47/month.  Two powerful sentences from his letter caught my attention and compelled me to highlight them: "We can say we met some of the needs of the sponsored children in the community, such as: malaria, typhoid, diarrhea, and worms after a distribution of a filter made by Compassion...Sometimes the work is very hard, but we love to minister to them."  These sentences assured me that the water filters were indeed having an impact and that hard work for others is nothing to fear.  If this pastor can summon his strength for a mentally, physically, and spiritually grueling challenge, then certainly I can follow his example with Tennis For Water.

Later I read this quote posted by a friend of mine, and I knew that I had to do it. -MICHAEL

We are often too afraid of failure. We should be way more afraid of succeeding at something that is insignificant - Jeff Christopherson

 Reposted from tennisforwater.com's blog...

My Apartment in Peoria

1822 N Linn St
Living Room
Dining Room with Built in China Cabinet
Kitchen

Steppin' Out...

Crystal and me at Ben's wedding
Ben, the groom himself, and me; all of those years since elementary school...

Crystal dressed up for our fancy dinner at French Toast

Baby Shower, Crater Lake, and Purdue Friends

Randy, Erin, Crystal and me at their baby shower

Jeff at Crater Lake
Shadows Cast at Crater Lake
Chris on ice at Crater Lake
Me, Ben, Clay, Nate, and Scott: friends from Purdue

Pacific Coast and Redwoods and Midwest Flowers

Pacific Coast
Chris at the root of a redwood
Rouge River Valley in southern Oregon
Flower at my colleague's place (Tim)
Flower at Chicago Botanical Gardens

Santa Cruz Flowers and Beringer Winery in Napa

Beringer Winery in Napa, CA

Yosemite and Santa Cruz Sailing

Yosemite Valley
Pine trees and Lower Falls at Yosemite
Yosemite - don't look down!
Yosemite Half Dome and the proper scale of Man
Megan and Brian Thom's boat:

a wonderful trip on the Pacific (near Santa Cruz) and highly recommended

January through May

Alec's and my shadow near the Golden Gate Bridge


Pacific coast near San Francisco
Crystal in the Everglades
John and me
Family celebrating Mom's birthday

Made to Spend

It's a surprising foray for me, into this blogging world. I'm not sure how often I'll update any postings, but it seemed like a good way for me to share my pictures with friends and family.

I thought I should start by explaining the title. As a few of you know, there's an acoustic singer-songwriter named Tom Conlon, who plays a folk-rock sort of sound. One of my favorite songs is called Made to Spend. You can check him out and listen to a few full songs here in MySpace and here on YouTube.

Made to Spend
You can't change my mind about this mess that I am in
Or change the messy world and the way it tends to want to spin down
And I am only one man

I can't change her eyes to the way they used to look at me
And I can't change myself to the way I think she wants to see me, strong and tan
I am only this man

And this life's a messy game, try to win it if you can
Then you ride like Jesse James, to your promised land

Now there ain't nothing wrong with the way I feel when you don't call
But I've been gone so long and you don't feel anything at all
And what we put in pockets may eventually fall down
Look for it, it's gone man

And this life's a messy game, try to win it if you can
Then you ride like Jesse James, to your promised land

I came gunning through the door, for what I'd left behind
Now I'm running like an outlaw with a troubled mind'
Cause the girl I knew before, she don't live here anymore
She don't live here any more

…and you must remember love is like a dollar in your hand
No, you can't take it to your grave, what was made to spend