A True Pursuit - Alex Stenman at 6:21 PM

I've got this really great friend, Alex Stenman. There are some really cool things about Alex.

1. I met him many many many years ago before I even went to CCV(we were on the same hockey team) So he is pretty much the first person from my church family I've ever had interaction with.

2. Since the first day I've known him he's always strived for being great at guitar, and if you've ever heard him then you know its safe to say that hes pretty legit.

3. I've always admired him because of his pure determination for something!

Let me explain. For many years Sweet Thang(nickname) has always wanted to sing worship.
He plays guitar really well, picked up drumming incredibly fast, and is still in the process of learning piano. For the past few years its always been a joke about Alex wanting to sing, he was pretty awful so we always made jokes about it. I was scared for him to ever get on stage. Every year he 100% confidently talks about how one day he'll be on stage signing worship and we all kinda just joke about it.


This Sunday was probably a really cool experience for Alex, and because of that it made my Sunday night riot experience pretty awesome. For our student ministry Sunday night service for high school worship was changed a little bit. It was a pretty awesome acoustic jam. There was Scott singing, Alex on guitar and Shannon signing backup. Worship started and I did my thangg ya know? We'll the really cool part for me is when Alex began to sing! Crazy I know!! I cant even joke about it sounding bad! I looked into the tech booth and listened closely to see if by some chance they muted him or even turned him down, nope...His voice was clearly heard.


This post isn't about Alex being having extraordinary musical talent that I wish I could have, but its more about how watching him worship made me think about all the years Alex swore he was going to sing, and we all laughed. His determination is nothing less than honorable. We all know he was awful to start out, it was comical. But seeing him through the years work hard, and talk about how one day he'll sing, and then seeing him sing on stage was pretty awesome.

With some persistence, faith, and some hard work its incredible to see what can happen. Great job buddy!

Who's your Hero? at 8:53 PM

I met an incredible person tonight, this guy was so incredible with his faith, a very admirable trait. He managed to recover his train wreck life and turn around into one of the most devoted Christians I've EVER seen. He managed to memorize almost the whole entire New Testament ..Incredible!!! While he was talking to me and the rest of my leadership team, it made me want to strive to be like him, to have the ability to do what he does. Then it got me thinking, who are my hero's? There are few people who I consider my "Hero's." There are a few people who I would love to inherit some of their amazing qualities. So as I was sitting there tonight I was reflecting briefly on who I call my Hero's. During my reflection I realized that without some of these people I would not be half of the guy that I am today. As well as my recent reflection I experienced something similar, a few weeks ago I talked with a person I clearly disappointed, a Hero in my eyes. Doubts of why they try began to float around, I realized that person has had one of the biggest affects on me more than anyone in the world. Who's your Hero? What do they look like to you? I am pretty curious to see who other teenagers Hero's are. Who do you consider a Hero?