Christmas Break and the Start of the Semester

It's a little late for this post, but I'm going to post it anyway.

Christmas break was good. I relaxed, a lot. I didn't really do anything but relax and see family during the break. I enjoyed it. Christmas Break is vastly different that being back at Virginia Tech, but I'll talk about that in a couple minutes.

I enjoyed being around my family. Going to college has made me realize how much I enjoy being around them even we don't always get along. Ben is Ben. We're always going to fight, but until he can take me, I'll probably provoke him. Carolyn is growing into a beautiful young woman. She has a job and babysits. She gets to babysit the preacher's kids and I'm so jealous of that, I love those little nuggets. Whenever we talk on the phone the conversation always turns to who is better. I'm sure that one day she'll actually be better then me in a lot of ways. Clay is getting old. He has a girlfriend and man's best friend, Beethoven. He has moved several times, gotten fried from a job, and then got another job. Yet during all of this he is concerned about me and makes sure that I'm doing okay. Mom is getting older, but she isn't old yet. She won't be old until she has grandchildren (I think that's the current definition). She loves talking to all of us though. I've heard countless people say that you don't truly appreciate your parents until you leave and I've learned that lesson. Dad is still dad. He gets into something that he loves and will tell everyone about it. He got into learning the family history over break and we found out that we were related to someone who knew Hudson. He has such a passion for learning and I hope that I'll always have that. That is enough being sappy, I'm sure my Nana is shedding a couple tears if she is reading this.

This semester, I know great transition, I'm taking a full load of classes. Most of them are freshmen level classes, so it shouldn't be that hard. There is a lot of reading though, I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. I do need to start reading though. I've picked up another job at Owens food court. I've only worked a couple of hours there and I have my first whole shift tonight. I'm still working at the Bookstore, but they only gave me one 3 hour shift a week for the semester, so I guess it has worked out that I'm working at Owens as well.

I recently gave the first club talk of the semester, it's the introduction talk, and it went well. It was during our first club of the semester as well, weird that those things line up. I talked about Luke 9:18-20 and how the crowds had misconceptions of Jesus and that we often have misconceptions about Jesus as well. Then talked about how we're going to be in the crowd as the Leaders tell everyone about Jesus and that and misconceptions will go away.

Well, that's all I have to say. Sorry it has been so long since the last lost. Hopefully I'll be able to keep posting regularly.

Joe

What does THAT mean?

In future posts I'm going to be talking more about leading, Wyldlife, and anything else that has to do with that. SO I'm going to give you guys a brief, noninclusive, dictonary of a couple words and terms. Hopefully you won't be too confused while reading future posts and simply talking to me soon.

Younglife - A Christian, relationship driven, outreach ministry that have leaders pour into kids with the hope and prayer to earn the right to be heard and tell lost kids about Jesus Christ. With this ministry leaders go to high schools and their primary focus are kids in high school.

Wyldlife - Very similar to Younglife, except leaders go to middle schools. I am a Wyldlife leader. It used to be thought that Wyldlife wasn't as important as Younglife, but I've found that middle school kids are going though things that I didn't even know about until high school.

Leader - typically a college aged kid that has accepted Jesus Christ as their savior and wants to share the love and joy that comes with that. It is a completely voluntary position. However, anyone who feels called to be a leader can be one where they are living.

Leadership - What we call the meeting where all of the leaders in the New River Valley meet and have fellowship. We'll often worship with song, have a small group meeting (where we share about a topic they suggest), and then hear a message at the end.

New River Valley - area name for the leaders in Montgomery and Giles County. Leaders go to 9 different schools and 11 different ministries in this area.

Dave and Mellisa Sloop - the Area Directors for the New River Valley

Contact Work - how leaders earn the right to be heard. It consists of going to lunches (to see kids) being in the classroom as a teachers aid or tutoring, playing video games, going to the mall, going to sports games, or talking to them. Contact work looks different for every leader.

Club - Our weekly 'meeting', I use that term lightly, where we play crazy games, have skits, hang out with kids, and then give a 5-10 minute talk about Jesus Christ. We don't expect every kid to listen or even come, but our hope and prayer is to have kids hear the Gospel.

Campaigners - a weekly Bible study with kids. At the middle school level boys and girls have different campaigners.

Team Meeting - when everyone on a team, for Christiansburg Middle school there are 7 of us, comes together. We often have dinner, play club, and share prayer requests.

AMT - Adult Ministry Team. We meet monthly with them and share how our ministry is going. We share prayer requests with them as well and they prayer over us through out the month.

I hope this helps you guys understand what I'm doing while I'm in college.

I'll post again soon!

The name of the blog

You may be asking yourself, "Joe, why did you name you're blog that?". Well, it's the three most common names I go by. Everyone on my team and the middle school kids call me Joe. The rest of leadership call me Vick. That started last year because there are two other Joe's in leadership and since my last name is Vickers, I get the nickname, Vick. Lastly, I went on a camp trip this past summer with Capernaum (it's Young Life for special needs kids) and one of the guys called be Vickters by accident and it has stuck since. His name is Clay Caldwell and he is one of the coolest kids I know.

Car Troubles

        A big part of this year has been leading at Christiansburg Middle School which is about a 15 minute drive from Blacksburg. The year started off great driving my 1986 Toyota Camry from my senior year of high school. At the end of September I was driving some guys around making a video, then the radiator blew. At the beginning of November my room mate and I finally had time to replace the radiator. It turned out to be a pretty easy job and I got to learn a little about cars. Earlier in the year he taught me how to change oil in a car. I was on my way to become a regular ol' mechanic.
        Once the radiator was replaced something was still wrong. We continued to work on it and found that the radiator fan fuses were blown and the thermostat was broken as well. So we replaced the thermostat and began looking online for the radiator fuses. At this point the car needed to be inspected to be street legal again. I knew the muffler was bad and that it needed to be replaced. What actually needed to be done to the car, before it would be road worthy, was ridiculous. The brake lines were bad, the back tires needed to be replaced, the power steering was leaking, the tri rod was bad, and the right front axle was a safety concern.
        In all, there were $1300 worth of damages. I talked to my mom about this and we both agreed that the car wasn't worth that much. We still haven't decided what to do with the car, as it currently sits in the driveway of the Hokie House.
         Luckily I have a freshman friend who has a car and lets me use it whenever I want. Literally he gave me the keys and allows me to use it to go hang out with guys, go to campaigners, club, and the middle school. It has been such a blessing this year and I haven't been able to thank him enough. Although he does stay at my house at least 2 nights a week.
       That's the current car situation. I'm sure the Lord is going to provide for me as I go on with the school year.

Love You Guys,
Joe

#teamCMS

My first real post is going to be about my team, I have a picture of everyone from our Halloween Club, so you guys can see a picture of us. If you didn't know, I am on a team with 6 other people that lead Wyldlife. It's a Christian relational outreach at at the local middle school in Chrisitansburg Virginia. I'll have another post about leading and Wyldlife and what all that means. Here is my team and a little about them.
(I'm going left to right)

Me - On the far left is me. We're having Halloween club and I didn't have a costume, so I simply wore orange and black, very simple yet effective.

Ryan - He's the big guy on our team, literally. He is 6' 5" 250 pounds. Some would think he was an awesome linebacker in high school, they would be wrong. He actually swam. I've never seen him swim. So I don't know how true it is, but I wouldn't call him a liar (see mention above about how big he is) He is a sophomore just like me, and is majoring in HNFE (Health Nutrition Food and Exercise) and he's hoping to be a physical trainer, I think that's what he wants to do. We all change our minds a lot. He is from VA beach and I've been to his house once. I really like his family. We might end up living together next year, living situation is another post. Kids at the middle school love him, maybe because he is 4 times as big as some of them, probably because he is just awesome.

Jaime - She is the one with the cat ear's. She decided to take the easy way out with the costume as well, except she added the cat ears as a little extra. She is a senior from Lynchburg, VA and her grandparents went to the same church as David Wilson's grandparents. I think that's true, but I might have dreamed it... who knows. She is also majoring in HNFE (Health Nutrition Food and Exercise) except she is going to graduate school to become a physical therapist. SHE'S GETTING MARRIED!!! Everyone is really excited about that. They have been dating for 4 years and he finally popped the question about a month ago. Jaime is really smart and we're in an online class together. I love hanging out with her because she can match my sass word for word.

Peter - He is the guy wearing the hat and basketball uniform. He thinks he is a thug sometimes, but we all know he is just that guy from Vermont. Peter is a Junior majoring in Business. He currently lives in C which is an apartment behind Willard. A lot of young life guys live in the Willard complex, the House, A B and C. There are currently 21 guys total in the Willard complex. Peter love to be home, he loves being places as well, but only for the amount of time he is supposed to be there. While he is at home he enjoys playing Xbox 360 and watching Dexter. You can usually find me at C on Sunday night around 9 PM to enjoy Dexter with the men of C.

Rachel - Under Peter is Rachel. She is a senior majoring in communication, but decided she didn't want to leave Blacksburg quite yet so she is staying an extra year. AKA - She changed her minor so she has a couple extra classes to take. She is from Culpeper VA so I was excited about Thanksgiving break because she is within an hour of me. However she decided to go to China to visit her sister instead. She is in China teaching English for a University. Over the summer I got to help her move to a new place and I occasionally get to drive her home once she gets off work from Moe's. She enjoys staying up late and not leaving the party until she is the last one there. Oh yeah, she is an Olympic Athlete for club.

Nicole - She also took the easy way out and wore orange and black. Then she added the nerd glasses to change things up. She is a senior as well majoring in Human Development. She isn't really sure what she is going to do with her major but she is graduation a semester early, so she has a little bit of time to try and figure her life out. She is our team leader and literally loves to hang out with middle school kids. She has so much knowledge about leading and I'm so excited to keep learning from her. She is about the same height as some of the middle school kids so it's fun being there with her because I literally can't find her sometimes. I get to ride back from break with her and it's going to be so much fun. She is currently in 21 hours to finish her undergrad so she doesn't have much free time.

Katelyn - the panda bear. She loves panda bears. Like Ryan and I she is a Sophomore. Like Nicole she is majoring Human Development. Like Jaime SHE IS GETTING MARRIED! Kidding about the getting married part, I just liked saying she is like other people. She really isn't. One of the most unique people I know and it's amazing. I rate her burps, and she calls me out for everything. It's a good relationship. I do love hanging out with her and being able to lead with her. We both did summer staff this summer but we did it in different months. I got to see her once when I visited Rockbridge.

That is a very small snippet into my team mates. I don't think I could be sharing Jesus Christ with anyone better then my team mates. They all run after kids almost as hard as they run after Jesus Christ. I'm so excited to get to know them better as the year goes on.

First Post

I thought this would be a great way to keep family and friends informed about what's going on with me at Virginia Tech and leading Wyldlife at Christainsburg Middle School. I'm sure I'm going to change the layout a couple times, but it's a start. Hopefully I'll be able to really kick it off over Thanksgiving break.

Vick