// thoughts

I know one of the major problems we're having is rides. We don't have that many drivers out there but the few that we have are willing to pick people up.

One thing I ask for people who need rides - please ask ahead of time. We love rides, but it gets frustrating when someone calls 5 minutes before an activity is supposed to start and ask to be picked up. Plans have to be changed and it's a snowball effect.

That's all you have to do to get a ride - ask ahead of time. Even one day before is fine, so the drivers can plan. Get in touch with me if you need a ride, here are the following ways of contacting me:

cell : 619.253.6989
text : 917.753.7637
email : simon@raymundo.us
aim : bnpflipkid

You can pretty much reach me at any of the above ways 24hrs a day, if I'm sleeping I'll usually wake up. Keep in mind that when I say RIDE, I mean to BNP activities. Not to pick you up from work, or school or taking you shopping hahA!

Last note...if you can take public transportation (train/bus) please do so. I know a lot of people take the train/bus to go to school, work, parties, clubs, bars, whatever - so take public transpo to BNP stuff if you can. If you really can't take public transpo, please get in touch so we know you want to go and will pick you up.

Don't be scared to ask for a ride from me or the other youth. We are not going to get mad or bite~!

+ mon

As most of you know (I wonder if people still read my blog?) we had a fellowship last Saturday in the Ultreya place. This was supposed to be our get together to start off the year - food, games, chit chat, talk, share, whatever. We were just going to all get together and reaquaint ourselves with each other.

I remember speaking to some of you via text, aim, phone and people said that they were going. Of course it's not about the numbers that show up, but when one of the older people asked me who's going to be there, I told them that there would be a good number of people who said that they were going.

I was driving in from south NJ since I had something to attend to during Friday night so I got there late, around 1:30 because of other things I had to do on the way (that I wasn't expecting to do). Some people didn't have rides and called last minute asking for rides so they got picked up and we started pretty late.

Got there and it was all staff and the old youth. Only new grad there was Eve and then Wilson showed up afterwards. Instead of doing the "program" that the adults had planned, we just sat there, ate and talked to each other, shared a bit, and just talked in general.

Some people said that this was a "waste" but nothing is ever a waste. There is always a reason behind everything. Even if you don't like that reason, there will always be one.

During the fellowship on Saturday when I saw almost no one show up, I started to ask myself why? I made excuses for people who didn't go, "it was raining," "they had no rides," "short notice."

It's never mandatory for anyone to go to BNP functions, but it is always great when we see everyone show up. Say someone goes to the function, and their friends aren't there but it's just them that shows up - that one person can be so inspirational to the other people who are there. For Saturday, when people were "down" that there weren't that many new grads there I looked at it differently - Wilson and Eve were there. That was a great thing! Them being there was reason enough for me driving 2+ hours in the rain to be there.

One of the council in Cali was sharing once and he was talking about "being there." He said that when a BNP activity comes, just go - even if you don't want to go, if you have nothing better to do or have nothing else that is so important that you can't go to the BNP activity, go to the activity. Why? Because your presence can inspire someone, you being there will affect someone. At first you may not want to go because it's boring, or you just don't feel like it - but usually when you get there, you absort something, even if it's so little, it's still something. You never leave empty handed, and it's never a waste of time regardless of the numbe of people who show up.

Ever since that sharing from the council, I try and make it to every activity possible even if "I don't feel like it." Who knows - maybe when you get there, one of the other people just went there to talk to you about something important, or a problem in their life that they know you can help with. Sometimes I go just to give people rides, sometimes I just go for the food, sometimes I go just to see everyone - regardless of the reason just be there.

I think this fellowship and the turnout, in terms of the number of new grads, was a wake up call for the older youth. This usually happens every year, for the month of December, things slow down and we spend time with our families and just relax a little bit. Then come the new year things start up again and it's "dead." People are slacking and things are going sooooooo slow - only like 10 people at Ultreya or Vigil and it just keeps on going from that point on until the next retreat.

2005...time for a change. There will be no more sitting back and waiting for things to happen. There will not be anymore "just chilling" or "taking a break," this time we're going to set things off right and start off strong and continue strong.

Let that fire burn. The next activity we have is Vigil this coming Friday in St. Rose. We will show up, we have to get out of that relaxed mode from December and get back up and work. That's what the fellowship was for, it was to open our eyes and wake us up. That's the reason for the fellowship was the way it was, in my eyes. We needed that to make us realize that we can't just sit back and wait for everyone to come back, we can't just sit there and expect someone else to do the work. We have to make it happen, and we will.

See you at Vigil, be there.

+ mon