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