Adventures in A-land

My recent trip to Afghanistan was wonderful! I've been back now for 3 weeks and have had that place on my mind every day. While I made the trip, I read half of a thousand-page book about the history of the region dating back to 1200 BC, when Alexander the Great invaded Afghanistan. very interesting. Since then, A-land has not not known a significant period of peace....more than 3,000 years of war. This is a huge factor in understanding Afghanis, and what has shaped their culture up to this day in history.

Basically, the theme of every war fought there was that foreign powers invaded Aghanistan in order to get to India, which was the crown jewel as far as imperial dreams go. Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Persia, Napoleon, England, the Soviet Union, and some others have all invaded this "buffer zone" in order to stage an ultimate invasion into India, but they all failed. The British finally established their "rule" in India when they reached it by sea.

Anyways, my time there was a really cool experience. We hooked up with an NGO, non-government organization, that, like others, is focused on humanitarian aid efforts. This one in particular is reaching out to a particular people group that we desire to introduce the Good News to. We had no idea who this NGO actually was, and what they actually did, going into this trip. But were very surprised and happy in what we found they were doing. It's going to be exciting to see how we can partner with these guys in the future.

The people were beautiful. There was a spectrum of color among them, which made the culture so much more mysterious to me. Some were Arab-looking, some more Indian-looking, and some that were caucasian-looking. There was black hair, brown hair, red hair, and blonde hair. There were deep black eyes and light blue eyes. A beautiful people that God has created!

the simple life

a sweet pic of me, rich, and big al.

big al sometimes simplifies life for me in one sentence. "Matt, wake up and smell the coffee!" May we wake up and smell the proverbial coffee today.

oh yeah, and please pray for us as we head to a really volatile part of the world. we're going to be exploring options for future investment in that country in some sort of humanitarian avenue. pray that we would be given wisdom from Him who is infinitely wise, and that God would also keep us safe and protect us. thanks guys. i'll update when i get back in a couple weeks. love YOU!

Wow....chuch norris and captain obvious, not to mention roy and andrea demanded i must post....imediately. It feels good to actually know that people have gone out of their way to push a few icons in order to read my thoughts and be disapointed that there's nothing new to read about me. yeah, and for a whole freakin month! What a friend I am!

My days have been really busy for the past month, sometimes working 11 hour days. It's keeps me busy though, which is definietly what i need right now. idleness takes me places i don't want to go. And then I'm going to Afghanistan this saturday for a couple of weeks. I'm excited about it, but also it just feels really regular, like going to work or something ordinary like that. I am thankful for the opportunity, and along with all the other great reasons that we're going, I am hoping it will help me sort out my own heart. I haven't really been able to verbalize myself to myself, or to anyone else for that matter for a long time, like months, almost years maybe. it's frustrating and scary and lonely. So when i'm busy, I don't dwell on the negatives, which, if not human nature, is iron-mann nature:)

You see there's man, and then there's iron-mann.......

ha ha! the name for this blog is funny. People that know me well, know exactly what a sensitive and weak person i am, definitely not as indestructable as my screen name makes me out to be. Although, even at 26 (by the way, it was my birthday this weekend), I still fantasize about kicking people's butts, especially chuck norris'.

My brother and i went to a buddy's birthday last wednesday night. His name is Big Al. He's been a faithful friend for more than 15 years now. My older brother knew him first, and then when i got to high school, he became my buddy, and then on to be my little brother's good buddy as the years went by. He came to every single one of my football and baseball home games to cheer me on and sometimes would even make signs. He just turned 37 years old, and has downs syndrome. It is extremely rare for a downs person to live this long. I think it's because Al is full of joy. I have rarely seen him upset or worried or vexed over trivial things. He is a simpleton by nature, and he is blessed because of it. He really has been a faithful friend.

Hopeful

I have always loved my time with my family and bros, until I went to China for a couple years. There, when I couldn't be with them or really talk with them very easily, I was overcome with feelings for them. People always say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but everytime I've heard that it was in the context of romance. I don't have any of that in my life yet, but I have discovered what a passion I do have for my relationships with family and other "brothers" in my life. In China, there were several times I would be moved to tears thinking about people I missed. I've become such a family man now! And it feels freeing and right.

Over the past couple years, I have learned more and more about what true fellowship is, what it should feel like, what it should look like, and the effort that it takes to have. It's not as simple as we think it should be, even though simplicity is satisfying. And just because there's pics here of us fishing, doesn't mean that we've just had some intense time of fellowship together. Guys are different like that anyways. We can build some deep friendships without really saying much, but just doing something cool together. But we enjoy each other, which is hard to find in this world. It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to fish together, but it takes a huge amount of effort to start a deep conversation, which is where the deep brotherhood must come from. I guess it takes both.

My closest bros, the one's who pursued a deep friendship with me in college, all live in other parts of the state, country, or world. I've been wanting some close bros here in Houston to share life with. I've found a few guys, or maybe they've found me, and we've all beat around the bush that we want to do life together, but haven't reached the critical moment of really making a consistent effort for each other yet. It's gonna happen I hope. It's got to.

Where I'm at these days

Well....where to start.... Since I got home right before Christmas, I've basically been playing catch-up on things that I missed while away in China: family, hunting, fishing, baseball, and bros. My little nephew will be 3 next week, so I've been trying to let him get comfortable with me. He's a really neat little guy, really hyper, cute, and hard-headed. The makings of a true Mann. I've spent tons of quality time with my brothers, hunting and fishing, and watched the whole season of Clint's baseball team this Spring. I missed his 1st 2 years of college ball, so I was anxious to watch some baseball. Spent lots of time with my grandad, one of my best buddies. He and I have fished together on 3 seperate occasions, and I've managed to skunk him every time! I let him know several times just in case he forgot. I also went on a sweet bro trip to Vail, CO with some of my best buddies, and we tore it up!


I feel like I'm in the biggest in-between stage of my life right now. More so than when I graduated college, because even then, I knew where I was headed. So....I've been applying for tons of jobs and have had several interviews, but nothing has sparked my intrigue enough to make me want to commit yet. I'm living at home, driving my dad's truck, so I'm not really spending any money except on insurance and gas...which has doubled or more since when i left for China!

Anyways, enough about me. Or....maybe that's what blogs are all about. I'll figure it out.

blogger nova (first time ever!)

Hey friends! Welcome to my humble blog. I've been wanting to do one of these for a while now that I've been back on US soil for a few months, but I was nervous my blog wouldn't be as cool as Roy Keely's! But here I am. Most of the stuff like facebook or myspace was total news to me after i got home. Just never had heard of it.

Anyways, so i hope that you can keep up with me and what's going on in my life through this, instead of having to rely on me replying to your emails, which sometimes just never happens. One time my buddy Brandon waited for me to reply to his email, and he grew a beard. Yes. It took that long. See.

So, I hope to catch up with you guys better through this thing. I'll put an update in a few days about what's up with me in my life now on terra nova. Oh yeah, and if any of you more experienced internet geeks have suggestions, let them be shared.

Thank you to all of you who have supported me over the past 2 1/2 years by lifting me up. As much as i want to, i could never repay you for the encouragement that came to me by knowing that you were fighting for me. I love you guys and hope to hear from you!