Freddy's Blog

time is a constant... consistent... an always here dynamic that we cannot shut off, shut down, ignore. so the question that begs, although ridiculously obvious, what do we do with our time?

i am at home in buffalo with my family, I haven't been here for over a year... if I am not careful I run the risk of missing the moments and the opportunities... Essentially wasting my TIME here and now. Look back the year that was or even the summer months that were... How much time was wasted? it's so easy... remember the easiest things to forget are the most obvious and closest to us.

if remembering is linked to our ability to be successful... so is our our ability to recoginize the moments of TIME that are being wasted and have been wasted.

some things can wait... TIME cannot... It won't.

for those of us who can, enjoy time with your family... One day you might live 800 miles away from them.

F

... this my first post written from my iphone... Ridiculous!

alright so it seems that something happened at twitter today and if you were following me you NO LONGER ARE! you need to re-do everything.

i will repost the instructions from my last twitter post.

if you want up to date info on mexico and/or whatever we have and want the ability to have this info sent right to your phone via text messaging sign up to follow me at twitter.com or just send "follow freddywilliams" to 40404 on your cell phone and follow the instructions to activate your phone to get all the updates that i will be sending out. its FREE, well your standard text messaging rates apply.

F

its so easy to forget...

i recorded the espy awards the other night and watched it tonight... the award show opened with a video of the best moments in sports in the last year... i remembered them all... the games, the plays, the come-backs, the upsets, the inspiration but only after i saw them again on the video. its so easy to forget the amazing moments in life that we have experienced, why is this?

we ALL have been a part of some amazing conversations, seen the faces, visited the places, felt the emotions, let the wisdom soak in...

how do you remember?

is it possible that our ability to live has something to do with our ability to remember or least is directly connected somehow?

its pays to remember... don't forget that!
vision leaks... keep it in front of you.

F

ran across this site on http://www.jeffshinabarger.com/ blog and wanted to spread the word... good stuff! i love ideas... not just any idea but big, huge, audacious ideas... ones that talk about changing the course of humanity... pretty sweet. the girleffect.org is an investment into the world of girls in third world countries. check 'em out!

F

"consistency wins" seems like the motto that has kept coming to my mind and heart all year. three years of consistency in attempting to build people rather than just a program that people attend seems to be taking root in the lives that have attached and call the REALM community HOME.

makes me dream of what will happen next year?

builds anticipation for curiosity and wonder... like a child the on the eve of christmas. i pray that my heart will continue to pursue what life looks like through the heart and eyes of a child.

have you asked any childish questions lately?

i want to be like the kids we lived life with in mexico... the things that create the currency by which we will live here didn't matter there. all that mattered was genuine love. white people from st. louis loving people we couldn't understand in mexico perhaps was the closest thing to genuine love that we have ever experienced... allow that to marinate awhile!

F

as i sit and reflect on the week that was and the experiences that i accumulated i remember something that a mentor of mine taught me in college... he said that the best gift that you can give someone would be a better you.

i can't help but think that st. charles just received 49 better "you's". i know that right now i am a better me tonight, my first night back home than i was my last night home before we left.

there are VIVID pictures that have been burned on my heart like a brand that will be permanent fixtures for life. its trips like this, opportunities to extend life further and farther than before that shapes and nudges lives... all the lives involved in every side. we had the incredible privilege to feed the less fortunate, but who got the bigger blessing? who witnessed the bigger miracle?

the best gift you can give is a better you...

are you a better you today than you were yesterday?

F

if you only had one day left with someone that you have grown to love...

what would you do?
what would you say?

this is the reality that we will be faced with tomorrow... to have to leave the faces, the places, the stories, the hunger, the depression, the opportunities, the lives, the hugs, the smiles, the mission...

it seems funny to me that a place with NOTHING gives so much to people that seem to have EVERYTHING!

F

i have debated and actually re-wrote this post 3 times now trying to describe what i experienced tonight... i can't!

to date in my life this is the closest thing to PURE, AUTHENTIC community that i have ever experienced! the best picture of UNITY that i have ever seen. the willingness, the desire, to EXPLORE depth and not be afraid of it. tonight was a glimpse of what happens when one seeks... ONE WILL FIND!

it really can happen... it really does happen... it really IS happening!

F

the faces tell the stories of the lives...

there are few experiences one will remember for the rest of their lives... today will be a day full of experiences not only that one will remember, but will shape lives. lives, people were shaped and molded into what will they will be... into who they will be.

we had the privilege, and i don't use that word lightly, to be a part of bringing food, toiletries, bibles and womans package to people, families that needed it the most. several months ago on a wednesday night we talked about the great banquet feast in luke where the poor, crippled, blind and lame were placed at the table of the king... today we experienced that! the marginalized, the down and out, the people that we have shoved into the gutters of society were elevated and raised to a position of honor... they were the served.

perhaps were the most like jesus when we serve... is it that serving is the most clear expression of love?

this i know... today 49 teenagers were a living expression of the gospel... not the watered down gospel, an eikon, an image of jesus. this is what jesus was talking about when he was describing not an idea of life, but an existence...

F