discapades: fellowship!

this blog is going to be a little more special than the others b/c

it not only deals with disc golf

but about friends that came from out of town

 to play the sport with me.

when i was out in Haiti.. i met an awesome man of God from Crossroads church in Valdosta, Georgia named Chris V.  (pictured center below)

after the trip i really started getting into disc golf more and more...

Chris, who plays as well, noticed that i was making these postings...

...and commented on how he knew the courses that i play in town etc.

i was like.. "man that's awesome..

we should play whenever you're in town... etc"

... sure enough..

Chris DID come to town!

and he brought his OWN portable disc golf hole with him!!!

this thing is super legit

 and i was dumbfounded by it when

 he first put it together in my yard.

now you guys saw my previous post on how i

built my own disc golf hole

well.. needless to say...

this thing def put my measely po-dunk hole to shame.

i live on 2 acres and we immediately began practicing driving/putting in my yard.

the will to play was so strong i was like...

"LET'S GO TO THE COURSE RIGHT NOW!" 

We hit it up and played either 18 or all of the 24 holes on the course.

 if you haven't been out there... Ed Austin park is BEAUTIFUL.
in my head i think it's Narnia.
on one of the holes.. Chris gets the idea to do a little tree climbing..

 which reminds me of this video of my roommate.

Chris also brought his buddy from Valdosta, LEVI!

this was Levi's second time (or so) playing.. and he did well. 

 this was right about the time where the fires were starting.

afterwards i hosted a small dinner at my house

about 6 of my friends showed up.

i had the idea of having communion at dinner.

it was LEGIT!

REAL BREAD!

REAL WINE!

i took this BEYOND serious

turned off the lights, lit a candle,

and asked my buddy Chris to read from Luke 22

about the last supper where Jesus initiated what we now know as..

Communion:

¹⁵ And he said to them,

“I have eagerly desired

to eat this Passover

with you

before I suffer.

¹⁶ For I tell you,

I will not eat it again

until it finds fulfillment

in the kingdom of God.”

 ¹⁷ After taking the cup,

he gave thanks and said,

“Take this and divide it among you.

¹⁸ For I tell you

I will not drink again

from the fruit of the vine

until the kingdom of God comes.”

 ¹⁹ And he took bread,

gave thanks

and broke it,

and gave it to them, saying,

“This is my body given for you;

do this in remembrance of me.”

we then broke bread and ate...

²⁰ In the same way,

after the supper

he took the cup, saying,

“This cup

is the new covenant

in my blood,

which is poured out for you.

 we then drank wine...

afterwards... lights back on...
we grubbed. joked around..
it was awesome.

when i knew that Chris was actually coming..

the Holy Spirit gave me the notion to have dinner like that..

and have communion...

and... something else extra special.

about a week before this..

i went to my parents' house

and found my old drawing paper booklet. (18x24")

the Holy Spirit gave me this idea

(which has probably been done at many retreats

...because i've done it before)

... to write down what may be

a "thorn in your side"

something that's really troubling you in life.

the 6 of us.. wrote down our afflictions

and rolled the paper up into a tube.

this part is so awesome..

we then..

..the 6 of us..

..stood around the fire...

...held up our rolled up paper

in knight-like fashion.

i then light our papers on fire..

we then proceed to light a bonfire.

PRETTY EPIC!



the next morning..

Chris, Levi, & I

went to the Servant Warriors Ministry breakfast

at Chic-Fil-A on Southside blvd

(each and every tuesday morning at 6:30 am)

 we wore these shirts as we arrived in Haiti

as we partnered with LOVE-A-CHILD inc,

Afterwards, the 3 of us got down to business
and played disc golf on the new course off Baymeadows.
This new course is very large and tricky.
Par 3's, 4's, and 5's!!!!

The course itself is fairly new
and a lot of landscaping had to be done to accomodate the holes.

With that being said... trees were cut down

the greens were mowed

and native animals emerged

 this turtle had to be about a foot and a half long.

HUGE SUCKER!

I was like... 'Levi.... put your foot on it.. i'll take a picture!'

we then proceed and to our amazement....

ANOTHER TURTLE..

 this time about half the size...

"Levi, pick it up!... i'll take another picture!!!"

 let's just say.. he scared the piss out of it.... LITERALLY!

(side note... about a week later.. i found this empty turtle shell on the same course)

it's HUGE!

 Chris really came in town to get some camping gear.
he's like the official missions extraordinaire at Crossroads.
he JUST got back from a mission trip to Hawaii right before he came to see me.

 i had to satisfy my curiousity and try out those finger toe shoes...

 kinda weird... kinda comfortable.

 if you've been to my house... you've seen my portable hammock...
well.. this one puts mine to shame!

 Chris tries out the product before he buys..

 Levi goes up the 'down' escalator...

.. and then.. we hit the BEACH! (with the portable hole)

in theory.. going to the beach with a portable disc golf hole sounds awesome

in actuality.. it was super windy out that day...

BUT... these female disc golf enthusiast saw us throwing and decided to come over and throw.

... if you've ever played... disc golf is rather competitive.

so we up'd the ante on just throwing to the target

and broke into teams to play a game of H-O-R-S-E.

Levi & I

Chris and the Girls.

(Chris is extremely good by the way.. the girls were rather amateur.. Levi & I are decent)

with that being said...

we had to come up with CRAZYYY ideas so that chris's ultra awesome skills wouldn't prevail.

just WATCH : P

9 times out of 10

when i hit the beach

i'll hit up OHANA!

talk about delicious

Chris, just getting back from Hawaii said...

it smells like Hawaii in here..

to where ms. Cindy replies, "everyone says that"

they couldn't contain the deliciousness that is 'OHANA'

 Levi and Chris then played a game of Sungka

 to where Ms. Cindy kinda helped Chris slaughter Levi..

 Chris vowed to return to play Ms. Cindy.

"THAT'S A HUGE MIRROR!" (if I had a dollar...)

we then rode back to my house

i had to take pictures at a rehearsal for the GLOBAL DAY OF PRAYER

and the guys made their way back to Valdosta.

that was seriously some of the best fellowship of my life...

thanks Chris/Levi

yall are awesome.

discapades: building a disc golf hole.

so i guess i'm getting better/slightly obsessive with disc golf.

if you've never played it... it's an awesome sport: personally challenging. slightly psychological. really helps you put mind over matter. i've met some awesome people out on the disc golf course and the sport is only growing here in jacksonville.

like any 'golfer' who aspires to be the best... you want to play all the time...  or live near/on a course.

since moving to my house on 2 acres a month ago the possibilities seemed endless on what to do with all the land.

here's what a real disc golf hole looks like:

after playing and  introducing more players to the sport...

a buddy (Mike Amendolare - http://www.facebook.com/mamendolare) made a hole..

 that got my creative juices flowing.. i wanted to build a hole of my own.

... MY QUEST BEGAN...

...as a fine arts major.. i'm no stranger to 3D design and building something out of nothing....

.. i go to the local home depot and started gathering materials. i show an (older derranged looking) employee a picture of what a hole looked like.... i say..

"I need to build this" (showed him the pic)

he replies, "good luck"...

i grit my teeth and continue on with my search.

here's the best i could do in round 1:

The next morning... i started building...the best i could.. haha.

ok.. here's where my problem began.

the top of the pole has a cone on it, which prevented me from attaching the top piece that the chains would hang from.

so i took my 'contraption' back up to home depot to get it cut possibly.. that's when i met Austin

"I'm building a disc golf hole... " [shows the picture] "but i need to have this top cut off so i can put the grill on to hang the chains

"ok.. let me see what i can do"

pretty much.. Austin is like McGever ...

...with a home depot apron on....

he was super helpful and literally turned my hokey piece of crap into a sturdy functional disc golf hole:

here lately

 it seems like i've been getting

 the CRAPPIEST customer service EVERYWHERE i go..

i was THRILLED at the finished results..

I couldn't thank Austin enough.

 he was a cool dude that likes the same kind of music/DJs that i like 

and it was just a real solid customer service experience.

he took the time to really help me out start to finish... 

cut the pole with a crazy looking device..

used a hacksaw to make a grid where the grill could fit on..

 got items that would keep the pan taut on the pole...

 got a pvc pipe fitting for the cap so water wouldn't seep in... 

JUST EVERYTHING...

all in all i think i paid 7 bucks for the materials that he helped me to find.

the experience was so good that i went straight to the manager and said how awesome he was.

they pointed out a survey on the receipt that i could do online as well..

he's got a wife n kids so helpfully the good word helps him out financially.

i put the hole out in my yard...

kinda crazy looking but works..

"TO GOD BE THE GLORY"

can barely see in this pic but it's out there.. so legit.....

then my buddy Chris came in town from Valdosta with his portable hole... 

that's a COMPLETELY... different blog entry hahah.. 

.. wait until you hear about our time and his buddy that he brought from valdosta.

discapades: probably the most GRODY thing I've done......

alright... if you've played disc golf at ed austin park... then you know about the lake.

the lake is NOTORIOUS!

if you've never played.. then here's a mental image.

there are 24 holes at that park.

6 are alternates.

18 are real deal.

in the middle lies a lake.

on opposite sides of the lake there's 2 holes.

it's not uncommon for someone to lose a disc to the lake.

in fact... i've lost about 3 in there myself.

on the second lake hole,i threw a DX champion sidewinder across the lake.

there was a major headwind and caused my disc to not turn back.

it landed in.

i got the disc for free so i wasn't too traumitized.. BUT I KNEW that i'm real legit with sidewinders and was kinda bummed.

i JUST bought an Excalibur for about $7.

it's a more stable disc and i knew it would turn back for me.

threw it...

...landed in.....

arrrrrRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH........

the two dudes i was playing with (one super awesome... one playing for the first time) decided to get in.... i was wearing swim trunks (athletic shorts with lining) so.... i took the plunge.....

ok....

this lake is FILTHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.. haha...

there's turtles that live inside... and... having owned 2 tutles before... in a tank with no filter... i know that the water needed to be "cleaned" on a daily basis....

imagine the heat of the day... in florida....

... now imagine the water being green... hahah.. yuck right?

[the water was warm at the top and super cold towards the bottom]

well... the risk is swimming in turtle poop.

the reward was finding about 15 discs.....

VERY very legit..PLUS... the buddy that i was playing with (anthony) FOUND both my 'new' EXCALIBUR ANNNND the SIDEWINDER that i threw in.... so so so awesome.

after tip-toe'ing through this 'lake' for about an hour.... we called it quits and decided our game was done as well..

[oh... i saw my buddy Ryan that i met previously (lived in his car temporarily due to a breakup.. see previous discapades entry - http://reggietaylor.blogspot.com/2011/05/discapades-ministry.html)]

later on that day... i called my buddy justin to see if he wanted to play disc golf at the NEW COURSE OFF BAYMEADOWS!

(anthony told me of the new course being opened.. i couldn't refuse)

justin, matt, n I got out there and lo & behold one of the creators/founders/funders for the course was out there playing.....

there's not many signs telling you where to start or anything.. so thankfully he was able to guide us around the course.

IT'S SO nice and spacious...

spoiler alert... there's going to be an ISLAND HOLE... oh man..

well.. gonna get some rest for tonight because tomorrow morning is the "grand opening" of the hole and one of the churches that happens to be adjacent/on the property is having a breakfast at 8am to celebrate and there's a 7:30 am T-time. gonna be AWESOME!

matt n I are going to hit it up. sure to be fun..(AND I'm shooting a wedding later on that day... RIGHT across the STREET! gonna be awesome!!!!!)

FIN.

best thing about owning a hammock....

this whole unemployed thing is a double edged sword.

it's been great to relax and chill (chillax as it were)...

however boredom has been the wrench in my gears.

needless to say it's been a crazy day.

this evening i called a good buddy up to dish out all my problems on the forefront of my psyche.

while on the phone, i layed in my hammock out in the yard.

it was an extensive conversation that truly lifted my spirits.

while being encouraged... i glanced up at the stars.

they were twinkling.

it's very bizarre to behold something like that.

in this "age of information" we 'humans' can seem like we have it all together.

when really... we're just a vapor.

the stars twinkling weren't really the point of me blogging...

..the real reason is because while i was on the phone with my buddy...

i saw a shooting star!

this wasn't a sight that lasted 2 nano seconds...

it streamed across the sky for about 5 seconds.

in that moment.... my problems didn't seem valid... or that they mattered.

something so seemingly miniscule made me feel the same way.

just gonna keep trusting and relying on God for my entire being.

FIN