Start of a New Year!

  

(This is pretty long, it might take some time to read, just so you know,  it takes a while to update you on 2 months of my life. ha)

Hello Everyone!  Its the start of a new season and im excited!  Im excited to see what the Lord will do.  

    I am now in Boston Massachusetts.  Playing for a team called   The Bay State Breakers.  I am playing in the Eastern Junior Hockey League.  Our website is     www.jrbreakers.com  

  I am living with Mike and Nancy Souza.  Our brother and sister from the church who happen to live in the Boston area!  Im very thankful that i am able to stay with them.  It is provision from the Lord totally.  

  I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update my blog.  I have been wanting to it just seemed to keep getting pushed back.  But i have been here for about 8 weeks now and my time has been excellent!!!  The Lord has been teaching me some excellent things.   Im very thankful.  

Well i will start off with training camp.  I got here 2 days before training camp started.  When i got here i had just gotten new skates.  So i got here early enough that i could get all moved in and get on the ice a couple of times before camp started.  So the first day i got on the ice (just me by myself messing around)  i found out that the guy who had sharpened my skates when i got them did a HORRIBLE job.  I didnt have any edge (meaning that i was not able to really push off hard and make sharp turns because the edges were not sharp enough).  So wednesday before camp started i was able to get them sharpened by our trainer, but he did not do too great of a job either.  They were better, but definitely not good.  So i ended up going through camp with them like that.  I was not really happy about that because i noticed i was skating how i normally skated.  I would definitely say my skating is my strongest part of my game.  So these skates were throwing me off.  But the coach knew my skates were not perfect, but i didnt want to say anything to him and make excuses.  So at the end of camp i was talking to one of my teammates about my skates and he told me about a guy 5 min away that does an excellent job on skates.  My teammate is a local kid so he knows who is good around town.  He ended up leading me out to the rink where this guy was and i got them sharpened.  I was very very thankful to get them sharped.  The next day when i was skating i noticed a GREAT improvement!  I was able to skate like normal!  At the end of that day i was talking with the coach and he even mentioned an improvement in my footwork, and i said yeah i got my skates sharpened.  

  So training camp went well.  After training camp we played some preseason games.  We played a team called  the   Woodstock Slammers.  They are a team from the league i played in last year up in Nova Scotia.  I was excited to get to play them because it would give me a good gauge on how this league was compared to last year.  We tied them the first game and we beat them the second game.  So i was happy about that.  Later on that week the Hursh's and the Fridg's came up to Boston for the weekend.  Michelle and Jason had to go to a wedding up here.  Friday night i had an exhibition game and they all said they would come down to watch it.  It was really great to see some familiar faces in the stands.  It was really fun getting to see them.  After the game we went out and got a bit to eat and then we met up again on sunday up in Boston.  Mike, Nancy and I drove up to Boston after church and met them downtown to eat at a restaurant.  I really had a great time getting to hang out with them and i know Mike and Nancy enjoyed themselves also.  

   After training camp and preseason we were getting ready to start the season.  The week of our home opener i went in to talk with the coach to see how things were going.  To hear from him of how he thought things were going.  So basically he ended up telling me that he thought my skills and my skating were excellent.  The only problem he saw was he thought that when i was playing i was "over thinking" things.  Playing timid,  not wanting to make a mistake.  And when you play that way you usually end up making mistakes.  He ended up grouping that as the "mental part" of the game.  There wasn't really anything that he could do to help me with that.  I knew the Lord was going to have to do something to help me with that part of the game.  

  After all that i found in practices that my mind would just wander.  I would be thinking about,  is the coach watching me, is he noticing me, whats he thinking, what are my teammates thinking about me and i found myself just thinking about the game too much.  Not relaxing and having fun playing.  It was a little while ago so i am trying to remember most of the details.  

After that first meeting with my coach we had our season opener and i didnt dress for any of those games, it was a bit of a shock to me because our meeting had seemed pretty positive to me.  So during that time i had to watch over my heart (thoughts) with thoughts like,  oh this is the same as last year now.  Same old sitting out games.  I really had to watch over my heart during that time.  But after the weekend i talked with my coach again on that monday.  He said the same thing about the mental part of the game and that was what i needed to work on.  So i worked hard that week in practice and we had 3 games coming up that following weekend.  He said i was going to dress in the game so just be ready.  I played in the first game and i thought i played well.  My first couple of shifts were not the best, but it got better and better as the game went on.  After the first game we had a game later that day in the evening.  It was an exhibition game (the schedule is a bit weird up here, a little different from last year).  And i played in that game too, which i played very good in too.  So saturday we had a game and i came to the game expecting to dress for it and when i got there i found out that i wasn't going to play.  So i talked with the coach again that monday to see why i didn't play.  That meeting went a little different.  Basically he told me that if i wanted to go to another team i could.  He thinks i would have a better opportunity to play more.  But he said that he wasnt just going to trade me, but he wanted to talk with me about it first.  So after we talked i came to the conclusion that i wanted to stay with the team.  I told him i had gotten traded last year and i dont think that it solves all your problems all the time.  So he said okay.  

After that meeting i was driving home and i called my mom.  She told me to go back into my notes and to read the things that the Lord had promised to me last year.  Also that the devil will try to push me into a decision (whether i should go to another team or not), but the Lord will lead me into that decision.  So i got home and i had a private time with the Lord which was excellent!!!  He gave me the idea to get some note cards and He gave me scriptures to put on them.  I carry them around with me and meditate on them now.  I was so encouraged by the Lord in that private time and I know i took hold of the victory that is mine in christ in my situation.  I took hold of that victory by faith.  I knew i had the Victory!

So basically to sum up the following weeks my practices from then on were excellent!  I was playing so much better.  I was continually meditating on the scriptures that the Lord had given to me.  I wasn't getting to dress in many of the games but that didn't matter right then.  I knew i had the victory already.  I had it by faith.  But in the course of those weeks i had 2 meetings with the coach where he gave me another opportunity to go to another team.  It felt like at first since he kept telling me about going to another team that he wanted me to leave, but he said that that wasnt the case.  He thinks it would be a better move for me to go to another team, but he said he has to tell me about opportunities that come up from other teams.  So at our last meeting where he told me about a team that would take me, i told him that i would still rather stay with this team and work my butt off to play than to go to another team (a worse team) and get to play more.  I am so confident that the Lord will make a way for me here where there is no way.  "God rules over the kingdom of mankind"  Dan 4.  I have planned to stay here back when the coach first told me about going to another team.  I knew from the Lord that this is where He wanted me to be, after i was able to be willing to go where He wanted me to go, the Lord told me this is where He wanted me.  So even though opportunities have come up for me to go, i have planned to stay.  My mom told me she heard from the Lord that i have planned to stay and now He is planning my advantage.  I cant forget that i do have the advantage here.  

So now i have updated you to right around now.  Almost 2 weeks ago my family came up for the weekend (October 10-13).  We had an excellent time!!  I was very thankful that they were able to come up.  They came friday night, i had a game saturday, nothing on sunday and another game monday.  Saturdays game was a home game.  Mondays game was almost 2 hours away.  We went to the game saturday and i found out that i was not dressing.  I really wanted them to watch me play so it kind of stunk that i wasn't playing then.  But we watched the game together.  Sunday we had a full day with Mike and Nancy (saturday mike was running in a marathon so we only saw them for about 10 min that day when we were on the way out the door).  It was great, we went to church in the morning.  Then had lobster for lunch, took a walk in the afternoon and then had fondu later on that night.  But we had an excellent time.  Monday i called the coach in the morning and found out that i was going to dress for that game!  So my parents came to that game,  it was pretty much right on the way home.  I played in the game and i played very well.  I was very pleased.  Especially that they got to see me play!  So after the game we got some dinner and then i headed back to my Boston home and they headed home.  

At our next practice i had a meeting with my coach and he thought that i played well, but i made 2 mistakes that he thought that i could of easily avoided.  So i kept working hard in practice and we had 2 more games coming up the next weekend (Oct 17, 18).  They were both home games.  One thing that i ask the Lord when i play is that the Holy Spirit would play through me,  so its not me playing out there but that the Lord is playing right through me.  So friday morning we had a pre game skate and after the skate the coach told me that i wasnt going to play that night.  I asked him why because he had said that he thought i played well monday.  He said he wanted to see this other kid (the kid who sat out when i played monday),  this kid is young he is only 18.  So the coach wants to develop him better for next year.  So i said okay.  I knew that the Lord rules down here,  if the coaches mind needs changed the Lord will easily do that in order for me to play more.  So i didn't play friday.  Saturday night we had a game to, i didnt know before hand if i was going to play or not.  But when i got there i finally found out that i was going to play!  Before the game i was asking the Lord that the Holy Spirit would play through me and then i asked the Lord how do i do that?  The Lord plainly told me to speak in tongues.  Before the game if i would start to pray the Lord again said, speak in tongues.  So thats what i did, throughout the whole game.  I spoke in tongues the WHOLE time.  Between every shift i would sit on the bench and speak in tongues.  I played sooooooooo well.  I was so pleased.  The Holy Spirit completely took over, my mind was at rest, my movements where His movements.  It was great!  

After the game Jason Rummel called me and said that he was able to get together with me if i had time.  So i drove up to Boston and picked him up.  He came back to the house here and we stayed up for a while talking (3 am!  haha).  But it was excellent!  He stayed overnight and sunday we got to spend some more time together.  Then sunday afternoon i drove him back up to Boston so he could get back to work.  But our time together was excellent.  It was great for the both of us.  

So you are now officially caught up.  Tonight i have a game.  I dont know if i am playing yet.  But my hope is in God.  Not in playing.  He is so good, His promises are Yes and Amen!  I am trusting Him.  

Now that i have the blog updated, the plan is to update it weekly.  I will try to keep to that plan.  Thank you all so much for praying for me continually.  I love you all sooooooooooo much!!!