December 16, 2000 – Saturday – 11:05 a.m.

Ten days have passed. What has happened in 10 days?

I live a beautiful life with my Jesus. Anna and I see each other every day. We stay up late, for it is difficult to say goodbye. If we have an hour of free time, we find a way to see each other.

Work at Forefront is going well, but I must ask for more money soon; I’m simply going broke. I have received additional editing and production work: a missions video for Laos and a evangelistic video. Both are paying decently well.

Once February arrives I’ll need to start earning $400 a week to be able to make my student-loan payment. I might have to get a second job.

In one week Anna will return to Florida for Christmas. She is so lovely. I visited her this morning just so I could watch her get ready for work.

I have an audition today as well as three videos I must complete before tomorrow.

I love you Lord. Thank you for this full life!

September 7, 2000 – Thursday – 4:10 p.m.

Oh God! You are so good.

I was able to see Marcus on my way back through Greensboro on Monday. I had not seen him for over two years, so I knew I had to. He has changed.

But so have I.

All of September has been wonderful so far.

The big news is that I quit Acoustic Works yesterday. Their main business was installing fancy lights and sound equipment in bowling alleys across the country, but they eventually ran out of bowling alleys, so now they are bankrupt. The president wanted to me to follow him to a new company he is forming called MDS, but everything in my gut told me to move on. So, I guess it really was just a summer job. The money was nice while it lasted.

I will put all of my time into Forefront and telling stories there. I’m not sure how I’ll get paid, but they are eager to have me produce videos for them on a weekly basis. I’m sure I’ll be fine. God is my provider, and he is a big, wealthy God.

Tomorrow will be my last day, and I won’t even stay the whole day. I’ve already got four different short video projects in the works for Forefront, as well as another church in Northern Virginia. Time to get to work!

August 18, 2000 – Friday – 7:20 a.m.

Jonathan, if he is still alive, turns 24 today.  Which made yesterday my 24th birthday.  I ate lunch at Applebee’s with some of my co-workers.  It was nice of them to buy lunch for me.

Today we are having a pizza party for lunch, and tonight my Forefront small group is going out for seafood in Pungo.

Tomorrow my Regent small group is having a beach party up on the Eastern Shore.

Many great things are happening.  I’m enjoying work a bit more, for my boss is giving me more responsibility.

It will soon be September.  There is something special in the air when September arrives.  The slightest morning chill gives me so much hope that nothing will ever stay the same.  It reminds me to appreciate what I have, for it will soon fade away.

August 1, 2000 – Tuesday – 9:50 p.m.

The month of change has arrived.  I’ve been in the same apartment for two steady years, but my third roommate just moved in.

Work has become a bit boring to me now.  There hasn’t much for me to do recently, so I’ve spent my days teaching myself Photoshop.  I pray I do not get stuck in a rut.

I went to a “Meet the Staff Dessert” Sunday night to meet all the people that work at Forefront Church.  They are excited to know I’m a film guy.  I want to serve there so badly.  They meet in a movie theater, so it would be awesome to make videos for them that would be shown on the big screen.  I wish I could work there and not at Acoustic Works.

But you are guiding me God.  I’ll follow you.

June 30, 2000 – Friday – 6:50 a.m.

I haven’t written in two weeks.  I did that on purpose, for writing makes me focus too much on myself.  I need to be more selfless.

Much has changed in the past two weeks.  As I both feared and predicted after Marie returned to New Jersey five weeks ago, she came back to Virginia Beach and broke up with me.  It was clear that she’d been heavily influenced by her parents to let me go.  Her parents grew very uncomfortable with the fact that I needed student loans to pay for school and that I used a credit card to pay for making my thesis film.

So my girlfriend broke up with me because her parents think I’m broke, and then my job gave me a raise, a promotion, a salary, and benefits, which means I’m now making $300 more a week than I had been making.  Hmm.  I just started humming Alanis Morissette’s Ironic. 

I went to Charlie and Kate’s wedding last weekend and had one of the most blessed weekends of my life.  I’ve also decided to do Marie a favor and not attend Avalon Hills anymore.  The minister who married Charlie and Kate told me about a church in my area called Forefront, so I’ll check that out.

Here I am again.  June is over.  July is here.

The summer is flying by.

June 4, 2000 – Sunday – 10:30 p.m.

Whew…life!

I miss Marie.

Good things are happening, but I do feel separated from Regent University and from my film Dang!.

Townley, Andy, Jean, and I had a great trip to D.C. this past week.  I really got the chance to talk with them about Jesus.  Jean is a Christian, but she is sad because her husband Chad isn’t very affectionate toward her.  I know how she feels.  Marie isn’t terribly affectionate towards me either.

I helped the team put the Glo-Cycling package together up at Langley Air Force Base.  It starts tomorrow.  The means I be spending half the week cycling and getting paid for it.

It is all a bit odd to me.  I’m surrounded by people desperately trying to make a buck and I’m just not passionate about money.  Sure I need it, and I’m very much in debt, but what is most important to me are spiritual matters, matters of the heart.  These people at work are successful, but I feel they are losing their souls in the process.

I went to Rob and Mary Jo’s wedding on Saturday.  It was the most beautiful and Christlike wedding that I’ve ever attended.  I see more and more each day how the only thing that matters is Jesus.  Forgive me God for my apathy.

Jean is selling her house.  It is in a fine neighborhood only ten minutes from downtown Norfolk.  It’s small, I’ve wondered if I should buy it; I don’t know, I’ve also been thinking about building a log cabin out in rural Chesapeake or Suffolk.  I have exactly one year until I’m through with my movie and my thesis.  I will graduate and have to move out of the Regent apartments.  I really don’t want to pay rent again.  Please reveal your will to me oh God.

It is a beautiful and cool night.  I have an interesting job.  There is a girl I dearly love in New Jersey.  This evening I had some fantastic barbecue with the Acoustic Works Xtreme Fitness team.  In less than a month it will have been two years since I moved here.  Hmmm…life.

June 1, 2000 – Thursday – 9:10 a.m.

I’m not entirely sure where I am.  I think I’m in Arlington, VA.  I’m in Northern Virginia none the less.  I came up here yesterday with Jean from work.  She’s my colleague and we’ve spent much time working together recently on several projects.  She’s becoming a good friend and we are sharing a great deal with each other about our personal lives.

I also came up with Townley and Andy, the vice-president and president.  Andy has a presentation in Baltimore.  I created his PowerPoint presentation for him and he said all the other Presidents from different companies from all over the world were watching it, and they all loved it.

Jean and I stayed in Arlington to do some work with Waveworks, a sister company of Acoustic Works.  It didn’t go too well, but we learned a lot, and we are staying with Townley’s parents.

June is here.

I love you God.

May 19, 2000 – Friday – 7:30 a.m.

It’s been a long week.  In 20 minutes I have to leave for my 5th day on the job.  I’m beginning to figure out who all these new people are:

The president is Andy.  He is divorced and has no children.

Townley is 31 and has never been married.

Karen, another intern like me, is 30 and divorced.  She has two dogs and is from Pittsburg.

Andy’s mom and brother also work there.

Then there’s Michael, the senior project manager, he is also divorced and has a son who works there as well.  I think Michael has been recently remarried to Serena, the office manager.

Robin, the sales manager, lives in Richmond, but he’ll soon move down in Chesapeake.

Jean is another intern.  She is my age and married, but her husband is in the military and he might even be deployed overseas, or is about to be, I’m not sure.

All in all, I think one or two of them may have some degree of Christian faith, but many are not Christians.

They have only known me for a week, but they all tell me I am “unusual.”  I don’t know why everyone who meets me tells me that.  I’ve only ever been me, so it is odd to hear that I’m so different from the norm.

Allen and Jessica will marry in three weeks, and I’m sure Vince has arrived in Bolivia by now.

I fear Marie may be separating herself from me.  We talked on Tuesday and she sounded different.  It is clear she is back under her parent’s influence.  Oh well, let your will be done God.

I go bike riding every evening after I return from work.  I enjoy it greatly.  It’s my time with God.

May 11, 2000 – Thursday – 9:23 a.m.

Yesterday was a fantastic day!  I got a job and I saw myself on the big screen during the Regent Film Festival.  I was in TR, kinda like ER, but for televisions and not people.

As for the job, I had applied to be an installer, a guy who would go around and install light and sound equipment, but they sat me down in front of a computer and asked me to create something with PowerPoint.  I had never even seen PowerPoint before, but I figured it out and created a brief presentation.  I was later offered to be the personal assistant to the President of the company!  Crazy!

Technically, I’m considered an intern where I’ll make $10 an hour.  But after a few weeks, if they like me, they’ll offer me the full job with a salary and benefits.  This is my first job that pays above minimum wage!  God is so good!

I start on Monday the 15th.  The drive takes about 30 minutes, and my uncle Jeff is going to let me borrow his truck until I can get another car.  Mom says there’s a used one near her in NC that looks pretty good, so I may travel down and pick that one up.

I love you Lord!  Thanks for helping and guiding me.

August 3, 1995 – Thursday – 5:40 p.m.

Today was my last day at McDonald’s.  My collection has grown because of that place.  So many names, so many stories.

Betty, Cindy, Debbie, Toni, Danielle, Robert, Lynn, Carl, Travis, Ronnie, Louisa, Delores, Ola, Deborah, Tim, Tamika, Tonya, Amy, Shawn, Thomas, Julissa, Betty, Virginia, Josefina, Reggie, John, Kenesha, Beth, Natalie, Mike, LaQuisha, Phillip, Martha, Herbert, Avis, Jackie, Hershel, and, of course, Barbie.

Then there were people who came through the drive-thru everyday.

Jimmy

Butch

The Mayor

The Medium Coffee Girl

The Newspaper Man

And the beautiful woman with three little girls who either got a bacon biscuit or a plain biscuit with a buttered muffin, hash brown, and a small Diet Coke.

With the bacon biscuit, her price was $3.16.

With the plain biscuit, her total was $2.63.

She came through everyday for the past three months, but I only remember her looking me in the eye once.

. . .

I called Emily a little after 5 o’clock.  They are in the middle of a hurricane.  Everything is wet.

But I like water.

Especially when it is falling.

Marcus and I will leave around 3 o’clock tomorrow morning.

And I have absolutely no idea what will happen.