My Life: What God Did in My Life This Summer

In spring i was really, really looking forward to, and sort of banking on my summer job being in one of two places.  I was planing on working at either my uncle’s photography studio this summer or at a Christian video production company that i found out about last christmas break.  i never got a reply from the second one so i then planned to work for my uncle, which i had done the previous summer and really enjoyed.  Working for my Uncle also payed really well, and that was a bonus because the whole reason I came home this summer was to work myself out of debt so i could be free with my finances and be able to do ministry unhindered.

Well, after being home for about three days my uncle told me that he wouldn’t be able to use me this summer.  Disapointed, i began job hunting 5+ hours a day.  A week later and i still hadn’t found a job and i was getting kind of discouraged.  I got kinda mad about my situation and had a crappy attitude about it all.  The next day i went into the Subway i worked at in high school and asked if they had any openings… they said no.  Here’s where it gets interesting; The next day i get a call from my old manager asking if i can work (at subway); someone quit the day i came in and so I started the next day.  Subway started me at $8.00 (more than i used to get paid) and because of the $5 footlong thing i was able to work 30+ hours a week starting out; i never worked that much when i worked there in high school.  In spite of all this, my crappy attitude persisted.  i did not think of Subway as a blessing, i didn’t really enjoy working there and was still mad that i wasn’t working at my uncle’s.

Then a few weeks go by… i consistantly work night shift (ugh, another thing i do not consider a blessing) and i work almost every night with the same girl.  Let’s call her Sarah. We spent at least two hours a night alone at Subway… I, still not realizing my attitude was not the greatest, decide to try and be forward about my faith… i answer all the questions like “do you drink?” “are you a virgin?” truthfully and sight my faith in Jesus Christ as my reason (at least i did something right, lol).  So after Sarah started seeing that i take my faith seriously, the questions started coming.  She shares with me the fact that she has been around Christians her whole life and that she believes in God.  she said she’d even tried to read the Bible before but never understood it…  i asked her where she started and she said genesis and i related to her… i asked if she got bogged down in the genealogies and stuff and she said yeah; she always stopped reading at that point.  i told her she should start in Matthew with the life of Jesus.

That night I went home and grabbed the Bible i had failed to give away when we were evangelizing during STP and gave it to her the next day with some pages marked; it had the romans road written in the front cover and i told her what it was and that she should read it if she wanted.

That night when i got home I realized what a crappy attitude i had had.  Here i was unhappy with the job i had when God had placed me there all along to impact this person.  I repented and prayed about it committed that now i would purposely use the rest of my time there to help Sarah.

Soon after that sarah’s boyfriend got arrested.  He was practically her husband (the father of her two children) but they were not technically married.  He was struggling with heroin addiction so going to jail was actually a good thing… anyway…  There was a lot of turbulent things going on in Sarah’s life this summer and i was able to share things with her all summer… every once in awhile i would ask her if she was reading her Bible and keep her accountable and i am still doing it to this day.

Soon before i left we had i discussion about baptism and what it means to be born again.  I am now confident to say that Sarah is a member of the kingdom of God!   i also gave her a Bible story book for her kids and she said she would read it to them!  I  am still in contact with her and am still trying to keep her accountable and encourage her…

Moral of the story… God can use us, in any situation… whether we are looking for it or not… and that every situation we are in is from God and has a purpose in his plan so we should not get a crappy attitude when things aren’t going our way because things are going God’s way and that is what’s important!

I was too wrapped up in myself… I’m just glad i realized it before i wasted my whole summer.  I didn’t do much it was all God… i’m really happy for Sarah too… i hope she continues to grow… i just sent her a text message asking her if she is still reading her bible

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Ep. 16 – Haggling is Fun – July 22nd, 2008

 

Since i had so much money left after hunting yesterday i went out again today.  I went to Rcord Time first, picked up a couple good things.

“Survive, Kaleidoscope” – Underoath

I picked this up because it is a live DVD and CD and they play a couple songs off of “They’re Only Chasing Safety” which is an album i love by Underoath.  I’m not crazy about their new one, Define the Great Line.  I’m hoping this DVD / CD combo will help a few of those new songs rub off on me…  either way i get to see Aaron Gillespie rock out by drumming and singing at the same time (he does both extremely well, even at the same time!!)  Price Paid: $8

“Masque” – Kansas

This is one of my other favorite Kansas albums.  A little less well known but on par with their two biggest hits which i already own.  They had this on Vinyl at Record Time and i didn’t know when I’d get the chance again so i picked it up.  Price Paid: $3

 

“In-a-gadda-da-vida” – Iron Butterfly

Haha.  This song/album pretty much sums up my last two years of high school.  It was the theme song for me and band of wacky friends.  I first heard this song through my friend George Lutz III.  He had this big ol’ conversion van that me and my friends would always pile into when we wanted to spend the night having fun.  He would always play crazy music from “Rock Me Amedeus” by Falco to “Atomic Dog” by George Clinton.  He played this 17 minute classic many times at full volume, cruising down gratiot or down harper yelling at old ladies, or just before entering Meijer to kill some time by pretending one of us was blind… those were the days.  Last years my band even covered this song as an omage to Mr. Lutz.  It was in the new arrivals at Record Time, on Vinyl… how could i say no?  Price Paid: $2

That was all I picked up at Record Time today.  I decided to go by Hot Hits for a second time to pick up a couple albums i remembered seeing there but didn’t feel like getting at the time.  I picked them off the shelf and took a look at the disks and they were actually scratched up… they were probably still playable but Hot Hits is a little pricey and i didn’t want to overpay for scratched up CDs.  I decided to try and haggle with the guy a little.  I showed him the scratches and said i’d give him $5 a peice for them.  He look and the disks and saw that they ideed were scratched and he apologized.  He then took them and said he would clean them for me.  He put some wondex on them and buffed them with what looked like a table grinder with cloth on the rotars.  He gently held the disk up to the spinning cloth covered wheel and slowly rotated the cd with his fingers.  It worked like a charm.  He got rid of almost all of the scratches on both CDs!  But that’s not even the best part… he gave them to me for the price i named!  I got them both for $10 plus tax.

“The Adventures of the O.C. Supertones” – The O.C. Supertones

First release by one of the two great christian ska bands.  Solid album, no hiding the christianity which is great.  The lyrics are straight forward and glorify God.  A little rough sounding considering it is their first release but the listener is willing to forgive the roughness because it is expected with this kind of genre.  Price Paid: $5.30

“Chase the Sun” – The O.C. Supertones

This is the album the Supertones released 3 years after their debut album.  It sounds a bit more polished, a bit more professional and it flat out rocks.  So many good songs.  I love the song “in between” i which the chorus claims:

 ”What I am is in between what i want to be and who I am”

I love this!  He talking about the struggle of following Jesus and how we strive to be perfect but never reach perfection.  Even the Apostale Paul spoke of this struggle in the book of Romans.  I really identify with it, i’m a work in progress.  Highly recommended album, check it out!  Price Paid: $5.30

 

I was quite amazed that my attempt to haggle actually worked but i’m sure glad it did.  It made today a very productive day of hunting!

Ep. 13 – St. Vincent DePaul’s – July 13, 2008

Went to a St. Vincent DePaul’s today to look at Vinyls.  My friend told me she gets hers there for 10 cents.  She said that you don’t find anything very often though.  Well i didn’t find any good Vinyls but i actually did find some good cd’s!

“Lift” – Audio Adrenaline

Great release by a great christian band.  I think the title track “Lift” is great as a praise song.  Who would of thought i’d find it here.  I found it unopened!  Price Paid: $2

“Point of Know Return” – Kansas

I got really into Kansas last year.  I illegally downloaded a few of their albums, and this was one of them.  Only recently did i find out that a lot of Kansas’ later releases are heavily christian inlfuenced because Kerry Livgreen gave his life to the Lord.  Kansas’ albums are very good and i’m excited i found this one.  Price Paid: $2

“Under a Blood Red sky (Live)” – U2

U2’s legendary live album featuring live tracks recorded at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre.  My interest in U2 has been reaffirmed since purchasing Achtung baby and War and the album released after the War Tour in 1983 caught my eye.  For the price it was well worth it!  Price Paid: $2

Well that’s all for today.  A couple of unexpected finds from an unexpected place.  It just goes to show that however unlikely, it still pays to take a look!

Music Collection on Firestream.net

I found this cool website/forum of people that like the same kind of bands as me.  On the website they allow you to create a “music collection” which shows all the albums you own of the albums in their database.  It’s pretty sweet, check out mine  –>  Music Collection

Ep. 7 – Remote Control Planes – June 23rd, 2008

I did some work for my grandmother this morning and she gave me some money so i decided to check out “Blast in the Past” again.  Once again upon walking in my ears were assaulted by the inane conversation of the store owner and his ded-head friends.  This time, i almost laughed aloud at their conversation.  They were having an in-depth, heated conversation about how 911 was a conspiracy… oh man!  They complained about all the people that said “I am so glad Al Gore wasn’t president when the planes hit” and they proceeded to explain their own theories on what “really went down.”  According to the owner, George W. Bush is actually responsible for 911, not only that but he was at the controls.  They claimed the planes were remote-controlled?!?!  How ridiculous!  Then they went on to claim that all the people that supposedly died on the plans were actually all targeted by the government and taken out ahead of time.  They brought many other ridiculous “points” that i just can’t seem to remember… i don’t know what kind of stuff these guys used to smoke (or still do) but whatever it was, it messed them up.  It is quite entertaining to listen to them though…  and by the way, they seem like good people, they just have some wacky ideas.

Ok, on to today’s finds:

“[A-->B] Life – Mewithoutyou”

I actually came across this one on my last visit but i passed it up.   When i got home i listened to my burned copy and i realized i had made a terrible mistake!  I actually tried to go pick this one up Sunday before work but only when i got to the door of BitP did i realize they were not open on Sundays.  So today i made sure to grab it.  Mewithoutyou has been one of my favorite bands for awhile now.  I first got into them early in high school…  i found a few of their songs on the Internet and i got really into them.  Then they released their second album, “Catch for Us the Foxes” and my drama team leader from my youth group, Emily, burned me both their albums.  I have loved mewithoutyou ever since.  I remember blaring the song “Gentlemen” in my room at my old house and screaming/yelling along because i could actually do a decent job at imitating Aaron Weiss’s interesting vocal style (at least i though i could, who knows )  If you have never listened to mewithoutyou then i suggest trying them out, they have a very interesting style…  It’s like hard rock with some ambient-rock thrown in, a little shoegazer, and little yelling, a harp, some metaphors… they are an experiment that at many times is just beyond words.  Give them a try, but if you do, i recommend either their second release, “Catch for Us the Foxes” or their third release “Brother, Sister” first.  Don’t get me wrong, this is a great album, but they have matured since this album and they keep making better and better music!  Price Paid: $9.50 (not particularly cheap, but worth it)

“The Light in Guinevere’s Garden” – East West

I downloaded this album awhile back with a couple of their other releases and of them all i liked this one the most.  They have a really good sound, kind of like a christian version of Korn, but not exactly…  I saw this one ever time I’ve been in BitP but i kept passing it up because it was priced a little high… it was sealed though…  I decided it was worth it today, I’ve been getting a lot of tips at work lately…  Price Paid: $12.50

I actually had a little more cash left over and some extra time before work so i decided to head over to record time since i hadn’t been there in a little while, i thought they might have gotten some new stuff in… they had, and i was lucky to find the best find of today:

“Summer of Darkness” – Demon Hunter

I have been a fan of Demon Hunter since they released their self-titled debut album.  They are a christian heavy metal band, and they are really good!  I didn’t buy one of their albums until they re-released their third album last year with a DVD.  That DVD/Album made me love the band even more, the DVD showed me just how cool the guys in the band are!  They are really outspoken about their Christianity and not at all ashamed of it, and that’s really cool!!!  When they released their forth album this year, it was actually one of the first albums i resisted the urge to download and waited until i could afford to buy it legally.  Ruckus helped.  Now i own three of their four releases, all i have to do is find their self-titled album now!  Price Paid: $4! (makes up for the other expensive ones today)

“Leave Here a Stranger” – Starflyer 59

I haven’t had much exposure to this record, but it is Starflyer 59 so i trust it’s good (it has to be since it’s not “the fashion focus” )  It is on the hunt-list because i did have a few tracks off it downloaded but never found the whole album.  I’ve actually known this was at Record Time since the first time i went there but have passed it up every time since i hadn’t heard it before.  I gave it a listen today and decided to shell out the cash for one more album today…  Price Paid: $8

All in all a good day of hunting.  See ya next time!

P.S. I pre-ordered Brave Saint Saturn’s new album today, their store is up — you can order it too, right here!

Letter of Apology to Mark Salomon

So in light of recent events i sent a letter to Mark Salomon, lead singer of Stavesacre, my favorite band to apologize for the fact that i downloaded stavesacres albums in the past. Here it is:

Hey Mark,

My name is XXXXXXXXXXX and I’ve messaged you a few times before. More recently about some pretty hilarious movies, but anyway… I feel the need for an apology but first hopefully a semi-short explanation.

Stavesacre is one of my favorite bands, has been seen high school… i could go on and on about how awesome you guys are, how passionate the lyrics are and how you guys just flat out rock but i’ll spare you what you must hear pretty dern often and hopefully tell you something people probably don’t too often.

I have been a “Christian” since i was 7 years old but i never took it seriously. I played the good Christian boy in front of others for so long yet i was just a sinner like everyone else. God gave me a wake up call in college. I finally found out what it means to be a Christian. I went through most of my life and i rarely ever read the Bible… amazing how i claimed to follow something i never read… now i try my best not only to read my Bible everyday but to study and understand it.

In high school i was heavy into downloading music. I was poor and i really liked music so free music sounded like a good idea to me. I stole most of the stavesacre albums you release. I’m sorry, truly i really am. I am beginning to understand just how much time and effort goes into writing a record and with the click of the mouse i just steal all that hard work. I am sorry. I am truly repentant. I have learned that repentance is not only feeling sorry for something but turning from it and not doing it anymore. I have ceased downloading music and have actually began a project. I am going to purchase every album i downloaded, it’s my way of making things right, so that will include stavesacres albums, and i’m excited to own them.

If you want to read more, i keep a blog of my search for all the albums i stole here: barnavkristus. wordpress. com

but anyway, all of that was just to say that i am sorry i stole from you, Sam, Dirk, Jeff, Ryan — even Neil and Jeremy…

I love the music you guys write and from now on i will do my best to support you and any other band i like buy legally purchasing the music!

God Bless you Mark!

Jake

A little bit more about the mission…

People have been asking me lately why i would undertake such a project. For those of you who have never read my blog before, i am on a mission to purchase all the albums I illegally downloaded in the past. I thought i would go into a little more detail about just why i would make a decision like this:

1. Music is a huge part of my life.

Music is like a drug. Its very hard to describe the effect music has on me, i feel that music is so closely tied with emotion… it speaks to you on more than just a conscious level… there is anger, sadness, joy, and all of it can be so easily felt by the listener… you can listen to a piece that is completely instrumental and know exactly what emotion is being conveyed just by how the piece sounds.

I remember when i when i first started getting into music. I really didn’t have a defined sound, i just liked what people around me liked… i remember the first CD i ever owned (before that i owned 1 cassette tape – Carmen – “The Champion” yikes!) The first CD i ever owned was “Underdog” by Audio Adrenaline, and it is actually an album i still listen to. I remember exactly how i got it too… My Aunt was in this “CD Club” thing through a catalog where as long as you bought so much per month you got CDs for pretty cheap. Anyway, i was talking to her about my new CD player that my parents had just got me and i told her how i didn’t even have any CDs yet… she had just ordered Underdog and “Supernatural” by DC Talk… she said i could have one of them… i listened to a little of both and chose Audio Adrenaline. This brings me to my next point:

2. Music is closely tied to memory

or at least in my life it is… just like i have a story about the first album i ever got, there is a back story behind a lot of the albums in my collection, even the ones i stole. The sounds of these albums, the songs, the music… every time i hear them they bring me back to a specific point in my life, i feel feelings of that time, i think about people i haven’t seen in years, it’s about more than just the music. Buying these albums that I’ve been listening to for years is like buying little pieces of my life, little time capsules.

3. Downloading music is wrong.

boy did it take me a long time to come around. I starting pirating music freshman year of high school and took off like a bat out of hell… i downloaded everything i could find on the internet, i only bought a few albums here and there from my favorite artists and only if they were new releases… i hardly ever went out of my way to pay for an album… Well, without going into too much of a rant about ethics and morals and what not, i have decided its wrong. I am a Christian and i can finally say that since i started college i am trying to live my life acourding to Jesus’ teaches and to honor God with my life. Taking music that does not belong to me without paying is not honoring God plain and simple so i have decided to stop.

4. I listen to obscure bands that need every record sale they can get.

I also want to support the bands i like especially since most of the bands i like are obscure bands that are semi-well known but are in no way famous. I really love their music and i want them to keep making it, so i should support them.

So there are four-ish reasons why i am undertaking this grand project, plus hunting for the good albums is quite fun!