But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. ~ Psalms 22:19
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Instead of re-writing the story, I figured I'd just insert some clips from my journal that tell the story:
Aug. 29, 2008Today we drove the three hours from the Hector’s home to the Pacific Ocean. Swimming there was great! We were wading out as far as we could, and then being swept in as big waves would knock us off our feet. The power of those waves was beyond words. It was so much fun! But because the waves kept coming in with such force we weren’t able to get out to where they were just beginning to break.
Toward the end of the day after playing in the waves, running up and down the beach, playing catch and digging holes in the sand, I decided to try getting out there one more time. I was very exhausted going in, but didn’t see any danger in it. It didn’t even cross my mind as dangerous. I figured it would wash anything up to the shore with its amazing force! So out I went. There were a few guys with me, but I was faster moving out than they, keeping about ten or so feet in front of them. All of a sudden I got out to where a wave broke between them and myself! This drove them inward, but only pushed me farther out. Immediately I started swimming for shore. The swells were huge out there. Between the swells in one valley, I remember touching the bottom, but otherwise I was swimming. It took me no time to realize I didn’t have the energy to fight back. I was under the waves a lot... ...I tried rolling on my back to float, but I’m not much of a floater, and I took in a lot of salt water. I knew I didn’t have a chance. I broke the surface and yelled for help, and the next wave broke behind me! It must have been a huge wave to break that far out, but it drove me in to where other waves were breaking, which drove me back to shore... ...Thinking back, my last words before ‘help!’ were ‘now I’m ready for something big!’. That was back immediately before I was separated from the other guys. At that point I was just excited to have finally made it out to where the big waves were beginning to crash.
Walking away from it... ...It’s obvious God has his hand on my life, and without him I’m truly helpless! Life is truly a vapor. The fact that I’m alive tells me he has more in store for me... ...BTW, from re-reading what I wrote it sounds like I was out there a few seconds. There were a lot of details I didn’t fill in. I spent a few minutes out there struggling, going up and down, and drinking salt water before I finally called for help. I honestly don’t think I could have survived much longer. Even afterward, when I was wading into the shore in thigh deep water, the waves that hit me there kept knocking me over.
Right now I’m laying in the back of the Hectors van cause every muscle in my body hurts. Literally, even the muscles in my feet ache. I’d be sitting, but that hurts my back muscles so bad. Haha… Even eating dinner hurt. I was holding onto my sides during dinner cause of the pain of stretching the muscles with what I had just put inside me... ...I guess there’s a lot to be said for a vigorous aqua-cise after all! :)
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The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust... ~ Psalms 18:2
The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. ~ Psalms 28:7
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. ~ Psalms 46:1
In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. ~ Psalms 62:7
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever. ~ Psalms 73:26
The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation. ~ Psalms 118:14
O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle. ~ Psalms 140:7
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. ~ Isaiah 12:2
...Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD. ~ I Chronicles 28:20
I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. ~ Psalms 18:1
First off, last weekend we got Luke's truck up and running on Waste Vegetable Oil for the first time! :) Here's a video from that...
And where exactly is the road? Unfortunately all the roads were not covered with snow, and the bare ice is what's really scary!
Now this is my kind of S10! :) Uh, I'm talking about the big one... And could we make that a 6.5L Diesel? Haha...
Driving down in my truck is always fun! I love driving in the city!
Here I am on a scaffold laying tile in el Baño...
Oh, I didn't mention it's called 'Banco Popular', so we spoke as much Spanish as we could. :p The rooftop view at night is really neat!
And there is one of the bathrooms that I tiled. Thanks Aaron for all the cuts! Aaron also drove my truck home one night so I was able to see it on the road for the first time! That was pretty cool. :)
Start by scratching the roof about three million times. A fingernail works great for this. lol jk Definitely want a power tool for this one!
Apply spray-on bed liner to top of cab! I did this cause with all the junk that sometimes gets piled in my bed (and overflows onto the roof) the roof was getting beat up, and starting some light surface rust.
I also put spray-on bed liner on the bottom few inches of the truck, to prevent rust from breaking out down there. How do you like the new color scheme for my wheels?
Here's the scrap yard where I'm taking junk metal from a neighbor who is cleaning his barn! :)
Here I am freezing in my junky work clothes that are much better in warm weather! lol
My car is the yellow and green one (Bio-Fuel colors), and here it is waiting in the pit for the next race.
But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. ~ Psalms 22:19
The main 'workbench' over at his house on tuesday
Part of the conversion at the end of Tuesday... Far from complete, but we made a lot of progress! :)
On Thursday (yesterday) he brought his truck over, and we spent the afternoon and evening trying to wrap things up. In this picture Luke is soldering the 'T's onto the ends of the heated fuel lines.
In this picture I believe Luke is trying to route the heated fuel lines up from the darkness beneath.
Waiting for another wire to pop through the firewall...
...from Ethan my faithful companion electrician. Thanks Ethan for volunteering your help! It was GREATLY appreciated.
Not sure exactly what is happening here, but there is Luke, his truck, myself, and the open door to my blazer (which served as a make-shift tool shelf).
I hope this picture didn't scare you too badly! I still have my truck, and I'm not planning on getting rid of it (sorry if you were interested). There's a story behind this one though...
Last night Joseph and I dropped the two top gauges into the truck. The one on the left reads fuel pressure, and the one on the right is a Turbo Boost/Vacuum gauge. I installed the fuel pressure gauge so that I can monitor the pressure that my veggie oil system is delivering to the engine, and I installed to turbo boost gauge so I can tune up the turbo of course! :) 
There I am, perched happily under the hood of my gorgeous truck!
Here is what the engine compartment looked like about a year ago when I finished converting it for the first time!
Here it is as of a half hour ago! :) Much more classy! I owe a HUGE thank you to my Dad who specifically helped me with the design of the new mounting plates/locations, to Mr. Hirst who generously offered the services of his machine shop to make the mounting plates, to Nathan DeLadurantey who got me started on this in the first place, hahaha! ...and to my whole family for enduring the mess I've made with oil, tools, and parts everywhere!
Here is what my dash looked like one year ago (although I did have a vent cover for that dash section, I just couldn't find it in a picture).
And lastly, here is my dash now! Again, I owe a big thanks to Dad for lending me his design expertise!
Over the weekend of May 17th the Rock Valley College Chamber Singers went on tour down to St. Louis. This picture speaks for itself!
Here I am headed over to the St. Louis Arch to enjoy a short nap at the museum after a wonderful lunch at Max and Erma's! THANK YOU MR. LAPRADE!
Part of our group in St. Louis
Then school let out and we headed straight for the lake! Well, not quite... Some friends from California (the Hector family) visited with their new sailboat, so we just HAD to test it out on Lake Geneva.
Actually the Hectors tested the boat while we just rode along :) For more about the adventure, click HERE
For the last week in May, Joseph and I headed out to Virginia to record and run AV at Witherspoon School of Law and Public Policy.
A reception for Chief Justice Roy Moore on the patio outside the conference center.
Everything went very smoothly except the last three hours in this room. Due to "dirty power", and flat out power failure, things got a little chaotic! Fortunately, none of it was our fault and considering the obstacles, it could have gone much worse!
Last week the Strands hosted a group of guys for some paintball fun! Here we are preparing to be attacked on the first round. You can see our opponents just beginning to walk out of the trees on the opposite side of the field. I definitely preferred attacking the hill rather than being attacked.
Last but not least is all the work I've been doing on my truck! Here you can see I ripped out the headliner. I'm planning on reupholstering it, and hopefully getting CHEVROLET put across the ceiling just to the back of the visors.
I have also been rebuilding my vegetable oil conversion, after having it brutally ripped off by a mechanic that I won't be sending any more work to. :/ So far all I've got under the hood is the mounting brackets and the wires. I have everything for the conversion assembled, I'm just waiting for the final mounting plates from a machine shop that a friend in our church works for. I can't wait to finish this job! I haven't skimped on anything, and it should run without a hitch!
One of the new additions to this conversion is a fuel level sender, and gauge that I installed. It'll be nice to know how much grease I've got back there! Haha...
My dash in process. By the time it's done I'll have added four switches and four gauges.
Here is one of the gauge pods that I made with the design help of my Dad (having a Dad who is an engineer is GREAT!).
Aside from that there is always summer work to be done around the house, including some less expected work projects like cleaning tornado damage! I was washing a window in my parents room when the tornado came through and we lost the tops of three trees, as well as one that was pulled up from the roots!
Thanks for letting us use your saw Jeremy!
The ever growing pile of branches. We finally burnt it all yesterday. WOW! What a fire!
Relaxation! :) Well not really, with the little nieces and nephews around you've got to always be on your toes! Here I am whacking Winston on the head with a foam float... I made him cry, but he got used to it and eventually returned the fire :)
