findandyleonard.com

Hey! I have launched my official website, www.findandyleonard.com . I will no longer be blogging on blogspot. Thanks for following me here, I hope to meet you on the new site!

Andy

Website

So I have switched platforms for my site, and because of this, the finished product may take a little longer than expected to roll out. Never-the-less, I thought it would be fun to launch it anyways and see what happens.

Cheers,
Andy

Jason in Cologne

Jason bravely boarded a train Thursday night and traveled through the night 12 hours to visit me. He arrived Friday morning so I went to pick him up from the train station before I went to work - this is when we both realized our first mistake - we had not planned a meeting spot. The Cologne Hbf is pretty big but after about 20 minutes of searching for each other, I bumped into him walking down a staircase.

What an amazing weekend. Friday I left work early to find Jason in the apartment helping himself to the coffee maker, cloths spewed all about my room, with a big grin on his face. "Nothing has changed" I told myself. We prayed morning prayer (at noon) and strode off the the Köln Dom. We climbed all the way to the top and discover an amazing view. It didn't seem bad at the moment but once we got down, we noticed how worn out our calves were. We must have walked up almost 1000 steps. After resting at the apartment for a while and catching up with some folks on Skype, we went to Georg's place for a night of Zwiebelkuchen and Federweißem. 

Saturday we just tromped all over Cologne ravaging the city. If only the Colognian's knew what was in store for them. We had lunch at the Brauhaus Früh with some traditional German food. It was great to catch up and talk about the wonders the Lord has been working in our lives. 

Saturday night we walked down to chill on the edge of the Rhine. We were suddenly caught up in an adventure when Jason swore he saw a shark and we ran down the bank of the river trying to catch a view of this fresh water shark. Although I never caught a glimpse, Jason swears he saw it's fin in the water. Surprisingly, I'm still a bit skeptical.

Website under construction

So, after much thought, I have decided to create a webpage. Partially for my own entertainment, partially for my mom to keep tabs on me, and for you to have a chance to spend a few moments with me. I will keep updating this blog for a while, but once the website is launched I will slowly gravitate toward keeping that blog up to date. After a few months, I will disable this link and rely fully upon the website. 

In his message, Pope Benedict said that if used creatively and correctly new computer technologies can help people meet the human longing to connect with others and share the search for goodness, beauty and truth.

I pray this website and blog can bring us closer together so that when we have a chance to be together in person, we can continue our walk together as if never apart. 

"It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop online friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbors and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation,"  

I will let you know once the site is launched. 


Rock n' Roll,
Andy  

Wild @ Heart

I was going to stay up and cruise on the net, but I decided to get back to reading "Wild at Heart." I'm sure a lot of you have read it, if not - I highly recommend it. I have a habit of reading like 5 books at a time so consequentially, it takes a while for me to get through them. I have been working on this one for about the past 4 months and am almost done. I will write a review when I am finished. Over all thought, I feel more wild at heart so apparently the book has lived up to it's promise ;-)


Cheers,
Andy 

Music

So I am sitting here in the dining room, just finished an online homework assignment. Throughout the assignment I was listening to Praise and Worship music, mostly Hillsong. It is amazing to me how music can have such a profound impact on what I am doing throughout the day. I have been listening to the same songs for like 2 years now, but they never get old. It is kind-of like a prayer. Many times throughout my life, I have prayed the same exact thing, but depending on the situation, my emotional status, and everything else going on in my life, it totally makes the prayer unique to every situation. Praise and worship  is like custom fit music. It adapts perfectly to wherever you are in your life. "Shine your light and let the whole world see, for the glory of the risen King!" This can be sung in times of triumph, sadness, hardship - most praise lyrics cover everything. 


I think this is possible because God is the artist of all things. Everything in one way or another has a reflection of Him, so it is possible to bring him into every situation. I guess my word today is just to have the courage to bring God here, right in this place, right now. He wants to be here. Why would he create something if he had no interest in it?

would I create food and then not eat it?

In the same way, I think God has an infinite interest in each one of us. So much so that He loves me the same as if there was no one else to love. The hardest part, like in every situation is taking that first step. Once I realize He is here and call out to him, no matter the difficulty, this is it. This is living in Truth, in reality, in the fullness life has to offer because He created it, and anyone can read a book, but if you get the inside scoop from the author, how much more can I understand it?


Hosanna in the highest -


Andy

 

Trier

Yesterday after we left the movie, Matt and I went to a local bar to discuss our thoughts on Inglorious Bastard. At the end of the conversation we talked about our plans for Sunday. We had been wanting to visit Trier, one of Germany's oldest cities that has many Roman remains in good condition. Not to mention this is the town my Oma (Grandma) lived before she moved to the US.

The city is perfect to visit in 1 day. We picked up a free map at the city information center that had a walking trail. It is a small city, so if you walk around the trail, you hit all the sights the city has to offer. We walked around had many awesome experiences. Check out the pics here!

It is about a 2 hour drive, so we left early in the morning to make it to 10:00 mass at the Trier Dom. It is a beautiful building and the choir blew me away. I literally thought angels were singing throughout the mass. The church building is so beautiful, we walked down into the crypt where there is a small chapel and the burial ground of the bishops of Trier. In the main body of the building there are tons of small chapels, one that stood out form the rest was a chapel to the Blessed Virgin. I said 1 Hail Mary, but I think I could have stayed there for days and just hung out with our Mother. The link to Trier Dom above gives a great description of it's significance and beauty (Built at the same time as St. Peters to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Constantine's reign.) Outside the Church is a huge marble stone which I sat on when I visited Germany some years ago. It is funny because the family has a picture with all of us sitting on it, so it was fun to visit that sight again.

Trier is in the wine growing region of the country, in the Mosel Valley. There was a wine tasting stand set up in the middle of the town square where Matt and I stopped to test the regions fineries. Ended up buying 2 bottles which was great for two reasons, 1: we got two bottles of wine 2: we walked back to the car to put them away and got our jackets. The day started out chilly but looked promising to warm up. Never did, but with the jackets, it was real comfortable.

After we walked around and saw the sights (pictures attached are worth 1.000 words), we were starving! We had only eaten Ego like waffles on the drive there so when we saw a restaurant that served food to compliment your wine, we went for it. Got potato soup, and cheese and bread with white wine. Pretty basic, but at this point as far as I was concerned, I had never eaten anything better.

Trier was the perfect day trip. Throughout the day, I was imagining Oma as a girl walking around the same streets I was on. Pretty surreal. Of course the Lord blessed the day. A little cold, but beautiful weather and the readings at mass were great to reflect on throughout the day. Jesus rebukes Peter, one of his best buddies. Mostly I lay by the wayside or join in when things are going down that I know is wrong. Jesus called me out today, he said "Andy, I stood up for the Truth, what about you?"

Peace-
Andy

Inglourious Bastards

So yesterday went to see the newer film Inglorious Bastards. After 25 minutes, including a graphic scene of a Nazi getting beat to death with a baseball bat, we decided it was time to leave. Apparently I didn't know of Quentin Tarantino's reputation for taking his films to the edge. I totally don't think watering down a film of historical significance, WWII in this case, is necessary, but I think there is a tasteful way to show death and in my opinion he didn't do a great job with this. With modern day cinematography, someone dieing looks like reality to me, which is what it is if you hear a gun shot and see someone fall to the ground... On the other hand watching one scene of someone getting their scalp cut off with a knife and another with a guy getting beat with a bat, at least 20 strikes in the face (blood everywhere), that isn't my cup of tea. 

Needless to say, I'm upset I wasted my money for 25 minutes of images that will haunt me for the rest of my life.    

First lasagna EVER!

So yesterday was the first day I ever made lasagna. If you can see, it turned out amazing! Oh, the pleasures in life ;-)

Corinth vid (cont.)

Me standing in the exact spot where Paul stood before the Roman tribunal!

Video of Corinth baths and Forum

Trip to Corinth

I am sitting at my dining room table looking over the Rhine River. It is a beautiful day here in Cologne and I thought I would share my trip to Corinth with you!

After spending 3 days in Athens, and a few days on the islands, Matt and had the choice to take a day trip to either Delphi or Corinth. We decided Corinth to see the sights, but more specifically to check out where St. Paul preached to the Corinthians for 1 1/2 years.

The ride there was 90 km and took us about 1h 20min. We had a guide on the bus who had a great understanding of scripture, philosophy, and Greek culture and history. He explained the walk from Athens to Corinth took about 2 days, which Paul did at least on one occasion.

Our guide, speaking about Socrates, said he was one of the first people to challenge the idea of polytheism. Recognizing the world was ordered in a way that seemed to give conclusive evidence of one author. He has no written works, but his ideas were written down by his students, most notably Plato. It was amazing to sit on the mountainside where Socrates would have discussions. I like the idea of philosophy in his day. The philosophers would just hang out and try to discover the truth contained within the world. It wasn't so much of a school subject but more of a way of life. To discover why we exist, among other things you can read a billion other places. Seeing the landscape of Greece, it is no wonder it drew them into these amazing conversations. Saw Socrates prison which was also where he died. To think if I would have been there 2500 years ago! Anyway, that was off the subject of Corinth.

The views in Corinth are breath-taking. There is a huge mountain where they had the Acropolis. This is where the "slaves of the Temple" lived. The main temple on the Acropolis of Corinth was for Aphrodite. To worship Aphrodite, you would have sex with a "slave of the temple." You could give them a donation to go towards the temple and their living - big, small, or nothing. When Paul started preaching, many of these men and woman converted, but there was one issue - in order that all people would recognize a slave of the temple, they had their heads shaved (apparently this didn't turn people off). For the men this wasn't a huge issue, but for the woman, it was a big deal. In order that people would not discriminate against these woman converts, Paul requested that all Christian woman cover their heads (1 Cor. 11:5).

Saw the road that was paved as a contribution by Erastus to the city of Corinth.(pictured) He is spoken about throughout scripture (Rom. 16:23, Acts 19:22, 2 Tim 4:20). The records from the city don't exist anymore so finding this stone proved that Paul's writings were not fictitious, as many scholars were arguing. It was so amazing to see this first hand. I am pictured here next to the stone with the inscription (translated from Latin) "Erastus laid this pavement at his own expense."

Saw the stone that was above the doorway to the Jewish synagogue where Paul would worship. This trip, being so close to Paul, really called me on to be a bad ass like he was. He totally put it all out there for the Lord, as I desire to do. He did not worry about his image or what others thought. He knew the Truth and he was so ecstatic about it, he wanted everybody to know Him/it. It is amazing, the Truth is a person, and his name is Jesus.

I learned that Christians weren't killed for believing in Jesus, that was no big deal. Jesus was seen as just another one of the multiple gods being worshiped. It was ok to worship Jesus as long as you worshiped the emperor Augustus as a deity as well. The Christians had two choices if they were tested. First, they were brought to the temple and literally, all they had to do was say Augustus was a god and throw some incense in front of a statue of him. If they did not do this, they were brought to the coliseum and thrown to the lions, killed by gladiators, or burned in front of screaming crowds. It was nutty to see both this temple and the coliseum where they were put to death. It further called me on; these people were murdered in the most gruesome ways for Christ. They had families and jobs and lives to live, and all they had to do was throw some incense and say a few words to carry on. First I think, if you know the truth and deny it at it's most fundamental level, what would there be to live for? Since you just denied the truth, you are obviously living a lie. Second I think, what do I possibly face that is similar to what the early Christians faced?!

The picture above is me standing next to this pole where Paul stood and anyone else would stand to be questioned by the Roman judges. When people were found guilty they had their arms strapped around this thing and they were beaten. Same thing (different place) Jesus had his arms around when he was flogged. It was in the public area, so everybody watched you get beat. That is actually where the movie, "Passion of Christ" got it wrong. They made it seem like he was flogged behind a wall, but this actually would have been in a place which was open to all the public. How humiliating.
Some people today call Socrates and many of the early philosophers the first Christians because they refused the false god's of the world and were seeking out the truth.

Well, this was essentially my trip to Corinth. There was so much to see, so much history to learn and so many blessings from being in this place.

I will never read the letters to the Corinthians the same!

May God's peace guide your feet into the ways of happiness,

Andy