Adventures

I have been saying for about a year that eventually I would like to bike across an entire state. Preferably Texas, but if any other state could offer interesting sites to see, then I may consider that too. I had been saving up this spring and beginning of summer to buy a bike, maybe a road bike. You know, the kind with skinny tires. But I recently had to give up saving money to pay rent. The leftover money after rent and bills is going to a camping trip that I am going on soon with a few friends.

You see, the thing is, I'm not even a biker. I own a bmx, but going any more than 4 miles on that begins to give me scoliosis, so that wouldn't work for the long distance that cross-state travel requires.

I remember the first time I saw the movie Forest Gump being in awe of all of the different landscapes and areas that he ran through on his 3 year and however long run, and thought that I wanted to be able to see all the same things. Additionally, the bassist of one of my favorite bands, the Bouncing Souls, took a cross country motorcycle ride a few years ago and posted pictures on their site, and I thought, dannnnnnng, i want to do that. But I don't own a motorcycle. So I kicked around the idea of becoming a truck driver for a year, or maybe just a few months, so that I could see the country. I gave up on that one pretty quickly. Not sure why, other than that I don't necessarily want to be a truck driver.

So I thought, and thought, and I even did some thinking during that time and decided on a cross-country bicycle ride, which soon narrowed down to a cross-Texas bicycle ride. Which, if I was super-Texan, I could go ahead and consider that a country. It is bigger than France, by the way.

All that to say, if anyone knows someone trying to get rid of a bike, or if you want to watch Forrest Gump sometime, let me know.

"A cowboy leads a different kind of life..."

Curly, the old cowboy in this clip from City Slickers, says this seconds before he leads into this little "lesson" of sorts. I like Curly, first, because he does this cool lesson while he is driving a herd of cattle with Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern (voice-over voice from the Wonder Years, which is my favorite tv show ever, and in Home Alone), but also because he "always had a thing for redheads". I always kind of had a thing for redheads. Not as prevalent these days, but I think its still in there somewhere.



Question for you: what's your "one thing"?

Seriously, leave a comment if you know. Or, even if you don't.

New Idea

Check out this blog i started just a week or so ago. Its an idea that I came up with last week. As you can read in "22" I have recently been doing a lot of thinking about not only what I am doing now, but what I want to do. Not that I am going to crack the code and figure everything out, but this is something I am excited, and scared about.

I have never committed anything to a year of intention prayer and research, so I hope this is something I can follow through with.

check it, tell me what you think:

Four In Forty

Proverbs 4:23, Phillipians 4:6,7

22

Every once in a while i get this feeling. I have these things run through my head that I immediately recognize as lies, and not of God, yet still I entertain them in my head. And, I don't mean entertain like, they have a good time, I just mean that they stick around and I start to think more about them.

This past week was a kind of slow week, which isn't usually how my weeks are. It was good to actually have some down time to relax and such though, but at the same time, when I don't have a whole lot going on I begin to do more life-evaluation type thinking. The problem with this, is that in my own bias, as most people are with their own, there's the idea that I have not done, or I am not doing enough. It's the need to "make-it".

So, when I sit and do some of these life-evaluations, here are some of the normal thoughts that go through my head:
"Why have I not 'made it?'" (even though I don't even know what that would actually look like)
"When am I going to get a real job and start making money?"
"When am I going to have more than enough to just 'get by' in my bank account?"
"When am I going to (insert whatever piece of the American Dream that I have not achieved yet?"

How selfish of me.

When I get into this pattern of thinking, like I said, I recognize it instantly as not being from God. But I can't stop myself.

I was eating breakfast with Aaron, (my room mate) before church on sunday, and we were talking about the idea of looking for a solid job (currently I am triple employed, each part time, and each inconsistently), yet I am still not fully satisfied with what I am doing, as I know it is not what I want to do when I "grow up". And then I realized, and admitted to myself, though I knew it before, that I am only 22 years old. Aaron reminded me that Jesus himself was 30 before he started his ministry.

I know, I know, big epiphany. But thats my problem sometimes, is that I don't let myself remember that. I hang out a lot with people that are older than me. Out of college, and in the real world. and I see them doing what they love, or, maybe not love, but what brings them money, and I think to myself, "how come they are doing this and I am not? Am I inferior?"

My friend Tyler, who is a 3-year intern at Willow with the Axis ministry is someone I look up to a lot. He is 25 (or 26, I may have missed a birthday somewhere this year), and in his 3rd year of the internship, and I find myself comparing myself to him a lot. His ministry is going great, and he has been given great opportunity and responsibility, and has even been given the opportunity to speak at some of the Axis gatherings on the first Friday of each month. I was talking to him one day when I was feeling this way, and he told me about how he almost left the ministry when he first started, now 2 years ago, but that he decided to stick it through and only now, 2 years later, is he being given all these opportunities.

Not that I have though about not wanting to do ministry, though it may have crossed my mind here and there, but just thinking that he wasn't in the place he is in now 2 years ago. Which would put him at 23 years old, still older than I am now. I'm 22, and I think that I am behind. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm right on time.

I just need to remember. I'm still a student. And I'm only 22.

I Blame The Gangsters

I, quite frequently, misplace things, and consider them lost or stolen forever. Normally after a day or two of looking, or even actually taking the time to move things (a special trick my mom taught me for when I couldn't find something) I usually find the lost item, and, if need be, apologize to the person I blamed for losing it.

Now, almost a week since the last time I saw my iPod, I am convinced that it is just a memory of mine now. And I blame gangsters. I'm not too sure what happened to it, but I would like to take this time to remember the good times we had.

Today I salute you, black, 30gb video iPod. We had some good times together, I'll never forget:
-when i got you at a discounted rate for buying a macbook. You were cheap, but you were good.
-when I plugged you in at the Loft to listen to my favorite tunes while I worked
-listening to you while I worked out, or rode my bike to class. The Karate Kid theme song never sounded so great
-the various plane and car rides we went on, where you entertained me for hours, or soothed me to sleep. We went to North Carolina, Chicago, back to Texas, then we drove to Chicago from Texas, and flew back to Texas.
-the time I put the cool Jesus mailing tape on your back
-when I blasted country music from our garage while hanging out in the yard with friends. You never forgot your roots.
-and many, many more.

Goodbye iPod. Not that you're going to be easy to replace, but I hope I can move on someday.

Someday...

On the "Staying End of Saying Goodbye" x2

A few of my real good friends here in the Chicago area will be saying Goodbye in just a matter of months, maybe for a period of time, maybe indefinitely. and, even though you may or may not know who they are, i am going to keep the names to myself, just in case they are still planning on telling you and haven't yet.

1. A good buddy that I met when I first moved here is moving back home to Oklahoma to finish school, Which, I think he should get that taken care of. I know there are a ton of people who are going to miss him up here, but I have a feeling that a side hobby of his that he has here (great musician/ songwriter) will do something special for him when he goes home. Maybe more opportunities to play and be heard.

2. a friend that I consider to be one of the coolest people I know (I may at times use the word 'rad' to describe her) got into a ministry training school in LA. California that is, not Louisiana. When I first met her this is something that she told me she was interested in doing, and after hearing and getting to know some of her heart toward ministry and learning more about, and serving God, I know that this will be an awesome opportunity for her. I have a friend right now that is at the school she is going to, and all he has to say about the school and the program is how amazing it is. and I believe him.

I told #1 that I was probably going to cry when he left, but I honestly would not be at all surprised if I cried for both. Now I know how my friends and family must have felt when I told them I was leaving. And, again when I told them I was staying (here, not there, that is). You hate to see it happen (thats what my room mate aaron always says, and it works for most any situation), but you know how good it will be.

North South East West

I could never stand when people gave me directions, and instead of saying, "turn left," "go straight," or "turn towards the walmart" they would say things like, "east, 3 blocks," or, "the southwest side of blank and blank intersection."

Seriously, who knows directions by using N S E or W?

Well, since moving to the chicago area last summer, this is common to me now. I love it, its just how I do things now. When people say "right on Golf Road, I ask, so, east, or west? You see, theres a big body of water in Chicago. Lake Michigan. This is as far east as you can go. Then, there is everything outside of Chicago, which, the more you move WEST, the more cornfields and emptiness it seems you hit. So, I know directions as East (moving towards more things), and West (moving away from things. Then there's HWY 90. A big highway with a speed limit of 55, but if you drive anything slower then 70 people start cursing you and hating you. So, Anything above 90 is North, and anything below 90 is South. (Obviously, you are probably thinking to yourself). BUt then I know directions as north and south as "Closer to 90, and further from 90".

It all makes sense. Now, you may wonder, "why is he blogging about this?"

The answer: No idea. Other than I now can use nautical directions when telling people how to get places.

There you have it.

Mama, Mama I'm Coming Home..

July 8 I fly home for a week or so. Leaving the heat on July 16.

While I am in town I want:
-Some dang good family time (my sister and I plan on going to Enchanted Rock, maybe I'll rope the whole family into going...)
-To plan Mancalla (mom, get ready. You may have me this time, I haven't played in a while)
-Some Loft Coffee (Jenny, make sure the honey is out and filled)
-Some TexMex (Dad, make sure Maria's has passed their most recent health inspection. Or, maybe not, sometimes the dirty ones have the best food)
-Some Barefoot Algae Skiing time (Scott and Phil, lets hit up the Comal. Even though neither of you read this, I am making this your responsibility)
-Cigar Club Time (Hink and Josh96, this is in your hands to make sure happens)
-Scripture Reading with Jake (You better make it to town this time jake.)
-Time with the Schmidt Clan (Hannah and sarah, you're gone, so this is in the hands of emma and caleb)
-and finally, I want the temperature to be below 100 degrees (God, this one is up to you to make happen!)

See you all soon!

Couple Videos

I spend a good amount of time on YouTube. Here are a few music videos that I really like. The first one is a John Mayer Cover by some guy I found, and the second one if Jonah Werner, who played at a Young Life camp a few times when we took students. Both are good.

Riverside Community Church...

Is now putting Sunday messages online. I am SUPER pumped about this.

Also, recently my friend Jen Taylor, who works for RIverside, sent me every Sunday message from August 2007-April 2008. I got a stack of CD's in the mail, and I did the "Victory Fist" into the air.

Many of you know that this is my home church, and has challenged me more than any other church I have ever been to. A large part of my heart is with this church and with the pastor, Scott Heare, who, even though I am still in the Chicago area, I consider to be my teacher/mentor.

You should definitely listen to some of these messages. Go here!

Made the Switch...

...to Google, leaving behind Yahoo! which was formerly my search engine/email provider of choice.

Jon Svensson, cool intern guy I like to call my friend, and a few other people, always told me about iGoogle. Its a way of personalizing Google's homepage. Apparently it was cool, but I could never get it to work for me. I think it's because I didn't have a Gmail email account. But yesterday I decided to give it a shot, so that I could still use outlook on my computer. (yahoo doesn't work with outlook, which is actually called Entourage on Macs).

Dang, not going to lie, I spent over an hour last night customizing my stuff. I'm definitely a fan, and it only took me about a year to make the change.

Heres the new email address, coded so that I don't get junk mail and such....

C William Hughes [at] g mail [dot] com

except take out the spaces and put the actual "punctuation"

Much love friends.

Blogging...

Is hard work...no lie. I not only don't keep up with posting, but I don't keep up with reading my friends'. My friend Krista had a cool idea for the month of May to have a different friend each day write a blog entry, and she would post it with a story about how she knows them, or something to that effect. Kind of cool. I'll tell you what...if you email me something that you want posted, be it a funny picture, story, or quote taken out of context, I will post it. BUT, I will call it my own unless you credit yourself in the text. I'll to it, I promise.

About the Feed My Starving Children post I was supposed to write. I started...then never finished. A. because there is a lot of information to post, B. I didnt have any cool pictures, and C, A lot of other stuff started happening that I focused on instead. However, you should check out their website and read about them, for real. Because it is cool stuff. Click Here

In unrelated news...my sister comes to chicago this friday! I am super pumped about this, and we are going to have a dang good time. Maybe even eat some chicago pizza...who knows.

and, today was my last Sunday with Student Impact for my internship. We had our last house group today with a commissioning of the senior (yeah, only one in our house group), and a welcome and introduction for our incoming freshmen. It was a good time, and I cooked out on the grill. I have been doing that a lot lately, but it was fun to serve the high school students one more time.

Next, you ask? I don't exactly know. Working for the summer, and then starting school in the fall at North Park University, in Chicago. I am really looking forward to going back to school and finishing. I only have about a year left, but I actually like school a decent amount, so it shouldn't be too bad. I'll keep you updated (on here hopefully?)

and Dawn...I finally updated the Blog, like you are always harassing me about. I hope I can keep it up. I'll try tomorrow. AND, tomorrow I'll try to post about the job I have been doing with a family the last few weeks. Heres a hint: it involves me doing random handy man stuff around their house, and one of the stories involves a $300 flower purchase.

Until then...

Solidarity Day 3 Update

So the first day of our Solidarity Challenge I woke up and decided to go ahead and eat my morning oatmeal, as that was the recommended breakfast (that, or cream of wheat, which I have no idea what it is, and honestly I do not want to know). I opened up the can of oatmeal, took one look inside, and then got this weird anxiety that I was about to eat it. I then opted to skip breakfast, and just head straight to work. That day I didn't eat anything until about 5pm when I got home from work, and at this time I was pretty hungry. Through out the day I had drank about 3 or 4 nalgenes full of water (which, ounce-wise I don't know what it is, but its a lot), So I was very ready to eat my cup of rice. So I did, and it was tasty, but not satisfying.

Since the 5pm cup of rice was my first meal all day, I justified that that was my lunch, and therefore decided I still owed myself my dinner cup, so I had that a few hours later.

Day 1 accomplished.

Now, day two I was at work at Willow Creek, and to support all those who were participating in the Solidarity Challenge, they sold a small bowl of rice and beans, complete with small tortilla, for only a dollar. I wanted to drop a 5, and get a few extra bowls, but I stuck to just the one. About 45 seconds after sitting down to lunch I was out of food, so I called it a good meal and distracted myself the rest of the day to keep from getting hungrier.

Now, here is where I am going to be completely honest and admit my short-comings and failures. When I got home from work that night, I had a handful (or, maybe 2) of m&m's. I told myself that it was ok because they weren't anything that would satisfy my hunger, but they made me happy. So unfortunately I have to admit the fact that I didn't stick to the strict diet of rice, beans, and tortillas. Don't judge.

Today was much easier, surprisingly. Maybe it had to do with the fact that so many people from WIllow were talking about how they got their portion of rice and beans at Chipotle and it was super cheap, and thats where I decided to get mine today. They were packed with flavor, but when it comes down to it, it is still just rice and beans. I think its the monotony of eating the same thing every day that gets to you more than the hunger itself. But I could be wrong, because I'm pretty sure that those who are without food would much rather eat the same thing everyday than eat nothing at all.

I am looking forward to the rest of the Challenge, while at the same time I am not. I don't want to bend the rules anymore, and I want to be able to stick much closer to the actual recommended food portions that way I can truly experience the hunger that more than half the world feels.

Speaking of which, ask me to tell you about Feed My Starving Children sometime. If I get even one comment on this post, I promise my next post will be telling you about what that organization is doing to combat world hunger. BUT, that comment must include the word "elbow" somehow. Make it happen.

Dominican Republic

well, for some reason the pictures wouldn't upload. I'll get them though, I promise.

Celebration of Hope 2008

First of all, yes, I realize it has been almost 3 months since my last post. I attribute this to both my laziness, and to the fact that so many great and sometimes hard things have happened, that I had a list piling up of "things I need to blog about," and rather than actually starting that list at some point, i just kept adding things, and then eventually lost the list. I didn't really lose it, but it sounds better than saying that I just decided not to start it. However, I feel like today I have something really worth Blogging about. And I hope you enjoy it.

Beginning today, thousands of people in the Willow Creek community, including just about all of the hundreds of staff at the church, are beginning something called the Solidaritiy Challenge. Since half of the world lives on less than $2 a day, we are being asked to limit our consumption for this 5-day challenge, and at the end of the week donate what money we would have spent on food to aid eliminating hunger around the world.

For these 5 days we have three meal options to chose from, each of which in 8 oz. portions:
Plain oatmeal or cream of wheat
A tortilla, rice and beans
Rice with bits of fish or chicken and a vegetable.

For most of the people doing this challenge, me included, I think it is going to be pretty hard. But I think we, who are so blessed to be able to have large meals multiple times every day, are going to think about the people in third world countries who feel those hunger pains every day, and hopefully those images and those feelings will give us strength to make it through the challenge.


The Celebration of Hope that Willow Creek is engaging in this week is so much more than just this one initiative of limiting our consumption, and as I give updates on how this challenge is going for me (hopefully each day), I will also write about another aspect of the Celebration of Hope that we will all be experiencing this week.

Until then, in my next post (which, for you will actually be the previous post) I am going to post pictures from the Dominican Republic. I wish I could write more about that experience to go along with the pictures, BUt i have only recently started journaling about that time, and truly getting to see what God taught me through that experience. So when I get all that figured out, I will share it.

Good days!

So Ridiculous...

I left for work yesterday morning at about 8am. It was cloudy and a bit drizzly, but it was a warm 49 degrees. Much of the snow was melting at this point, and I was beginning to be able to see some grass.

Fast Forward.

I leave work at about 530 with one of my friends to head to our Tuesday night group, which is about 20 minutes away. When we walk outside its still drizzly and wet, but has dropped to about the 30's somewhere.

Fast Forward.

We walk out of the house we were meeting in, only to instantly freeze our faces, and walk through a couple inches of snow towards out car. We get to the car, look at the temperature: 3 degrees.

Fast Foward.

This morning i wake up, look out the window, and see a bright sunny day. Sure, there's snow on the ground, but i think, the sun's out, must be another nice day. I start my truck, which, by the way, is not used to this crazy weather, I look at the temperature: -3.

Thats right. The temperature dropped over 50 degrees from yesterday morning to this morning. Which makes me think...SO ridiculous.

But the good news: winter is about halfway over (I hear), and I have been doing a lot better with the cold weather than I thought I would. Some would say I was born to be a Chicagoan (and some may not). But what we can all agree on is that by the time spring comes, I have earned my stripes as a Chicagoan, and now hold bragging right and story rights for when someone says, "It's sooooo cold!" when in fact it is only 50 degrees.

True story.

Linda Marceau and Pasta

Dear Riverside Community,
Consider yourself lucky to have a person like Linda Marceau in your community.
-Charles


Linda was in the Chicago area this past weekend for her intensives for seminary and made it out to WIllow on Sunday to go to church, and we were able to sit at Willow's coffee shop and catch up a bit. I told her that I was going to be in the city Sunday night to go to another church with some friends and asked if she would want to meet up afterwards for dinner and to chat. We went to the Pasta Bowl, which, in my opinion, is the best pasta restaurant in Chicago. And, by in my opinion, i mean that the first time I strolled in to eat I decided that I didn't want to give any other places a chance at competition. Anyway, I had a very encouraging conversation with Linda. She is the type of person that, just talking to her, you can see the Holy Spirit in her. After she told me about how she is back at Riverside now, no lie, I got a bit jealous that I wouldn't be able to hang out with her and the rest of my friends on staff there until this summer.

Dang, I love Riverside and all the people there. I hope you all know that I think about you often, and I can't wait to see you all again. Being home for Christmas, and spending time with my family, and going back to my "home church" definitely renewed my heart for ministry and for serving and loving people.

Thanks for everything, and if any of you ever want to come visit me in Chicago, believe me, we much meet at the Pasta Bowl.

Dominican Republic and the Cubs

So today I turned in my application for the Student Impact serving trip to the Dominican Republic. Not that I need to "apply," but they had to have all my medical history and contact information and such. So it's in, and it all goes as planned I will be co-leading a group of I believe 6 or so high school guys, along with my small group leader for the internship, Jeremiah.

I think this will be a great opportunity, and I am really looking forward to it. We will be gone for 8 days, from March 22, through March 30. And, as if the trip wouldn't be cool enough, God planned for the opening day at Wrigley Field to be March 31. So What a way to end the serving trip by being able to go to the Cubs' first home game of the year!

Baseball aside, I am not too sure yet of what my role will be on the trip, other than leading the group of high schoolers, or what exactly we will be doing there. But, be assured that as soon as I find out I will let you all know. Not necessarily on here, but possibly through letters and phone calls and such.

Until then, good days!

Chasing the Lion

The other day I got an email from my friend Bobby Bo, who is currently in Thailand on a mission trip with YWAM (Youth With A Mission). He wanted to encourage me with how great Uncle Wong is. Uncle Wong is the code-name that we gave for God while he is overseas, since he will also be traveling in China, and doesn't want to be kicked out of the country. Well, Bobby emailed me to tell me a bit of the story about Samson.

He wrote:
"he chases a lion and just destroys it. thats how we need to look at any fear that is in us. chasing that fear. facing it head on and not running from it like we normally would. not feeding into the lies that satan wants us to believe. chase after your dreams and whatever god will put on your heart. chase the lion!!"


Rather than running and hiding from the lion, which is something he would normally be afraid of, he chases IT down. Now, I'm not going to lie and pretend that I know much about the story of Samson, but after being encouraged with the phrase, "Chase the Lion!", I honestly can't wait to read more about it.

I can't help but ask myself, "What would it look like if I chased my lion? Or, if you chased your lion? What is my lion? And more importantly, what would I do once I caught it?"


I met Bobby when I flew to Chicago in July for Sandblast, Student Impact's summer camp. We only talked briefly, but once I moved up here in August, we got to hang out some, and I got to know a bit more about who he is. Bobby just became a Christian in 2007, and quickly decided that he wanted to be involved with ministry, so he decided to attend one of YWAM's DTS programs in California. (Discipleship Training School, if I remember correctly). From hearing about his passion to serve God, and to know God, and to trust God, I have been so encourage and motivated. He's a super cool guy, and I just wanted to encourage anyone reading this with the words gave me..."Chase the Lion!!"