Here is an abstract of the Church of Christ In the United States report.
Finally got around to redeveloping my tumblr blog. Good Times..
A few thoughts as we plan our next event for GROW South Florida..
- We drew a per/respondent average of $5.54 which was more than our $5.00 per respondent we were expecting.
- We’ve begun the process of developing an website that will allow people to track the canvassing campaign.
| Congregation | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Hallandale Beach | 23.546% |
| Pembroke Park | 14.958% |
| Magnolia Park | 11.911% |
| Coconut Grove | 10.803% |
| Deerfield Beach | 8.587% |
| 15th Street | 7.479% |
| Brownsville | 6.648% |
| North Dade | 4.986% |
| Driftwood | 3.324% |
| Liberty City | 2.770% |
| Miramar | 2.493% |
| Unattributed | 2.216% |
| Royal Palm | 0.277% |
| Total | 100.000% |
- Door Knocking campaign that yielded 35 baptisms – Article from the Christian Chronicle.
- Canvassing – An article via Wikipedia.
- Does Door knocking still work? – Article via Christian Chronicle.
- Houston Campaign – A writeup on the Crusade for Christ in Houston Texas.
Beginning Thursday, February 9th, we will begin our Griffin Lake Performance Simulation. Download and reference the pamphlet “Now that I’m A Christian” as it will serve as the starting point for our discussion on Time management and Goal Setting.
- 1-Day Planner – The Single page planner module
- Now That You Are A Christian – Information Packet.
As a point of reference, I’d suggest checking out the following videos on Time Management and Goal Setting.
- Randy Pausch – A Lecture on Time Management
- Zig Zigler Setting Goals – Part 1 of 3
- Zig Zigler Setting Goals – Part 2 of 3
- Zig Zigler Setting Goals – Part 3 of 3
And, even now, as I allow myself to ponder, I meditate on having a life of substance beyond measure, love without limit, faith without question, peace beyond understanding, and character above reproach.
- My sister is always gonna play matchmaker – She’s my sister. Her plan is always to go find the most awesome, impossibly gorgeous woman she can find and try to get me to muster up the courage to ask her out. Never quite works out that way – i’m always gonna be a shy guy – but, I love her for trying.
- Life is better when you don’t have to worry about your health – 30 was the first time in what felt like forever that I consistently felt healthy. I try to jog everyday, and try to eat healthier, but, most of all… I don’t get stressed out. It’s a recent idea that I’m now kinda laid back. I just want to experience the goodness of life. I know i’ll never be the carefree type like my sister, but slowly i’m becoming the grand optimist that the rest of my family is.
- If a snack comes in a variety of flavors, I’m gonna want all the flavors… It’s that simple.
- End of relationships don’t equal the end of the world – I’m still alive. And Happy. The End.
- It’s OK to be different – There was a time when I felt like an outsider because I felt so different from other guys I saw. I was never a girl chaser, I’ve never had playboy aspirations, I’ve never referred to a girl as shawty, thick, fine, or any of those other terms… It’s just not who I am. And, you feel strange when you see women respond favorably to that sort of behavior and not to what you’re presenting… Until you finally meet women who actually like guys who are going to treat them with respect. I like those women. A lot.
- I’ll never understand dysfunctional relationships and why people remain in them. I can’t relate to the desire to yell and argue constantly; It’s not something I’d like to engage in. I’m not into yelling, and I’ve never been. I can’t understand how people argue and fight everyday and call it love. I’ll never understand how women allow men to degrade them and they simply stay. I’ll never understand why guys try to ruin the self-esteem of the women they’re dating. It’ll never make sense to me.
- My thoughts are extremely lucid when being recorded with my Magic Pen – Never fails. I turn on that little blue light and the thoughts begin to flow. Haven’t quite rationalized the correlation between the pen usage and ability to write, but, it happens that way..
On that note…
- Birthday kisses are the best kisses – I’ll miss this the most on my birthday. Life is awesome, but, let’s be honest… A Kiss from a beautiful girl is inherently better than a kiss from your mom.
- I’m glad that Taco Bell is a part of my life again
- You’ve only truly moved on when you no longer seek vindication – I can still remember that May morning in 2008… It still stands as the only time in my life outside of the chickenpox in 5th grade that I failed to attend worship service. Even 4 years earlier after I had a blood transfusion the day before and was insanely weak, I still found a way to muster up the energy to make it out to serve the Lord. And yet, my body and mind and spirit couldn’t take it, and, I laid in bed and refused to attend worship. It was during that morning that I contemplated for approximately 8 minutes how I might just leave the church altogether because I felt like everything I had come to know and believe was false. Having essentially been withdrawn from by-proxy, No one at the congregation spoke to me or looked in my direction, or shook my hand for 8 months.
So, this past month, when My sister came to me and told me that The minister sent his sincerest apologies to me for that situation, it was fine.
I can recall my father joking as to whether I felt vindicated. He knew every detail about the whole ordeal. My reply, a simple “Nah, I’ve been over that”.
It was done years ago. I don’t harbor any ill-will towards anyone for that situation. I know that God allowed me to go through that situation to test my spirit as well as to show forth an example to the other members that, in standing up for yourself, there may be some persecution, but, in the end, you’ll get through it.
All in all, 30 was Awesome… Here’s to hoping 31 is EPIC!
In preparation for our quiz/test [whichever makes you feel better], here are the notes we’ve studied over for the past month. Also, clean sheets to highlight yourself.
- Genesis – Highlighted note sheets on Genesis 1-4. Greyed out text not required for test.
- John, Chapter 1 – Reference for our essay question.
- Chapters 1-4 [clean sheet] – Covers the creation, Adam & Eve, their disobedience, dismissal from the garden.
- Chapter 5 [clean sheet] – Won’t be covered in test one. Will be discussed on January 29th.
- Chapter 6 [clean sheet] – The beginning of the story of Noah & The Ark.
There’s a measure of clarity that comes when you’re on the 5th night of working past 4am on a project. That clarity pertains primarily to the idea that I am doing work for the sake of saying I’m working instead of working towards a goal. And, upon further assessment, I can genuinely say that I am working on a project that I’d rather not be involved with and in doing so, it reminds me of the fact that I have a consistent streak of being unable to decide on which direction to take projects these days. Such is every other aspect of my life, AND I need to change it.
So, I’m going back to square one.
This time 10 years ago I purchased the domain aldanzopratt.com. I had no real idea what I would use it for and I knew absolutely nothing about the concept of blogging, but I did understand that in terms of branding it would be useful, if for nothing else, the ability to place a web address on my business card1.
In some form, I’ve had this blog for 8 years, and yet, I only have 150 posts total. In reasoning why, I point to posts like this and this, and finally, this. Indeed, I have deleted all of my old posts and started over every year for the past 4 years. I have no true reason why, save for the idea that I allow the winds of change to sweep me away, leaving my blog rather empty.
Over that same span, I’ve posted (and deleted) some 6,000+ photos between Flickr accounts here, and here, and here… and, even here.
Unable to decide on a particular domain, over the past 8 years this blog has resided at aldanzopratt.com, and aldanzo.com, and danzopratt.com, and danzo.tv, and…. alpratt.com. This, of course, is in addition to danzo.org, danzo.info, danzopratt.mobi, danzopratt.info, danzo.me, alpratt.info, and alpratt.net.
Over the last 3 years, I’ve had 7 different business card designs, 4 alone in the past year.
The consistent themes in my life over the past few years have been dissatisfaction and lack of a singular focus. I have been plagued with the inability to settle on a singular idea or of a plan of action. In assessing, my father has consistently told me that:
I need to discover my passion….
On that point, I am in full agreement. It appears that I’m always searching for that missing piece. There are so many things that I do that others are much more passionate about. I sing, I write a lot, I design for others, I create constantly, I’m engaged in the youth ministry at my congregation, I co-produce an awards show, and yet, none of those individuals items really move me. Even as I pull all of those individual ideas together under an umbrella and term it all Marketing, it still doesn’t drive me on a consistent basis. In terms of work, I go at it hard; I always have. But, none of that is really getting me anywhere in terms of fulfillment. I would spend hours on end in the library researching and studying and trying to be great in school, so much so that I nearly drove myself insane with desire and want. I believe, by my own personal count, I spent 5 consecutive years worth of Fridays in my mid-twenties holed up in my room reading and writing instead of experiencing anything else. I love reading and writing, but even that isn’t my true passion. My parents are constantly telling me that I need to build better relationships; that, in doing so it will allow me to narrow my focus to what truly matters in life. That, in finding solace in that relationship, I will find a passion in something else altogether. I agree. And, that’s something i’m working on constantly.
I’m seeking a change. It’s always unsettling to look back on how indecisive I have been for the past few years. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I never feel comfortable with the overall quality of the work that I’m producing, be it writing, or strategic work, of something arbitrary. I have a tendency to over-do things even while not being thorough and this has caused me to accomplish less, even while doing more in an effort to stay busy. This lack of balance in thinking and working is really killing any forward momentum I build when I finally am able to deliver a finished project.
And, so, I am resolving to simplify everything. I am planning to do less projects this year, but, do those projects BETTER. I want the work that I complete this year to be meaningful. I have made a personal vow to stick with this particular domain for the entire year. I want to see what I can accomplish if my focus is singularly centered on the current project at hand and not on 7 or 8 projects that I need not be involved with.
- Yeah, I was thinking about business cards and stuff when I was 21 [↩]
aldanzo, Sepia Brown
aldanzo, Sepia Brown
aldanzo, Sepia Brown
aldanzo, Sepia Brown
aldanzo, Sepia Brown
Sepia Brown
Harrell L, Henton
Ritz