Tuesday, November 16, 2010

New Cupcake, Senegal or Bust, and Jacob's Letters...

I made a new cupcake...

Lemon Lavender Cupcake with Vanilla Bean Butter Cream Frosting
...

Also,
We have a new number for Senegal funds. God's got us! We are moving in the right direction!
We also heard from Jake Wineinger this week. Pam typed out his letters so I'm going to post them here.

1st letter:
So I'm writing this in a hurry because I'm standing fire watch at 3:00 in the morning. Everything is going fine. It is definitely different. Everything is so fast paced. They count down for everything. I have to shower, shave and brush my teeth in 400 seconds that are counted fast. The food sucks, but I am so hungry it doesn't matter. Remember how I said I needed to lose weight? Well, that was the truth. They put me on a diet. So I get half of the crappy food, and I am always hungry. I have already lost 8 pounds in the last week. We are doing PT and martial arts already. Then we go to class and study a bunch of crap. The nice thing is the days go fast, and when we aren't in class or PT or martial arts, we drill. Which is simply marching. There is so much information to take in. That's all I have for now.
Love you, Jake

2nd letter:
So its Monday. Today was a mix of good and bad. Good because we did the confidence course, which was fun. And bad because I got in trouble at chow. I was talking in line and someone said something funny, so I smiled. Big mistake. I could have lived with one of the DI's seeing it, but the Chief drill instructor saw me, and took me to my senior drill instructor who was pissed. So a good day turned south fast. But it's a lesson learned.

I don't know if I've told you about the glasses yet. I can't wear contacts so they issued me these stupid glasses. And you know how much I wore my contacts. Well I wear these glasses less, only in class or when I'm reading a letter or the bible or something small.

There is a laundry mat at the end of our barracks that all of Lima Company uses. Well at night you can leave your laundry on your footlocker and firewatch does it. Well, me being trusting person, did that, and all my laundry was lost. And I told the guide who told the DI's and they said tough crap. So I have to buy more clothes. They have this cool little store where you can buy everything you are issued. And you pay with this debit card that draws out of the account you get paid into. The worst part about the clothing is this tighty whiteys. So uncomfortable!

Well that's all I have time for now. Thanks for the prayer.
-Jake
P.S. I weigh 180, that's 12 pounds down.

3rd letter:
So it's Sunday! This is the day I look forward to everyday of the week. Church here is amazing. We sing and they have guest speakers. This week we did communion. Its great. It is a recharge for the week. There is a lot of guys I go with from my platoon. It's amazing how I can feel Jesus help me everyday. Especially Sundays. I get chills sometimes. The days are going by fast. Everyday starts at 0500 and gets going 100 mph until lights out at 2100. I'm receiving lots of mail from everyone which is great. I look forward to mail call every night. Today is a field day which basically means we clean the squad bay all day, then go drill. But a bunch of the guys got our stuff done early and we were just sitting around so I read that devotional for everyone. It was cool. I've lost 12 pounds and I'm still on this stupid diet. I mean I guess it's working, but I'm hungry all the time. All I can think of is food!

You were asking about the graduation date. It is January 14 as long as everything goes all right, no injuries, and I don't fail any tests or anything like that. So you can start looking into those tickets if you want. If you do come up the day before, that is visitor's Thursday. I can't leave base, but I get two hours of family time. That Thursday morning we do a moto run which is the first time I can see you. I can't spend time until little bit later in the day. But I will have more details about that later. Then after the 2 hours of time together, we have to get on a bus and go to some stupid basketball game where they show us off. And I don't think you can come. So the next time I can see you is the next day after graduation and that's when we get to leave, I think its around 11:30.

I can tell you right now the first thing we are going to do is get some fast food. I'm craving food! I want moose tracks ice cream and all you can eat chinese food. But that's just the diet making me hungry. I ordered my pictures already and a DVD thing. Which is interesting. They are having us do this stuff so early in training.

We have two more weeks left here at MCRD, then first phase is over. These two weeks are going to be fun, but challenging. The first week is the confidence course and some log stuff. And the second week, which is probably more important because you have to qualify, then they give you a ranking of how good you are. But because of my MOS of Recon, I need to do very well. So pray for warm weather, strength, stamina, breath, and that I excel far above everyone.

Then after these next two weeks we go to Camp Pendleton which is 3 hours north of San Diego. That is where 2nd phase starts. We get to shoot our rifles. We do team building and scenarios. We are up there for 4 weeks, which is different. Everyone else is only there for 3 weeks, but because we are the last platoon in our company, we have to stay an extra week. Let's hope it is for something good.

We didn't do anything for Halloween. I didn't realize it was here til it was gone. The next holiday is the Marine Corps birthday on November 10. So that day we will probably do something special.

There is this thing here that they call the recruit crud. Scotty (Wilcoxen) talked about it. And its true. Since you have so many people from all over together in one place. Everyone is sick, including me. But that just adds to the fun I guess.

Oh, you asked about how long leave is. It is 7-10 days. But its going to be longer because of the waiting list to get into SOI, which is School of Infantry, the next step of training for me. So my leave is going to be like 18 days maybe. But I have to do what is called recruiters assistance, which is to help Sgt Edwards with his recruiting (in Peoria). I don't know how that works yet. I wrote him a letter, so I'll know more later. But I know I got at least 7-10 days.

Ash asked wht to send me. Right now just letters. You can send food, but like I said, I have to eat it all fast, then get in trouble for it. So unless I write asking for food, please don't send anything but letters.

I got letters from Grandma and Pop and Nan and Gramps. Please tell them the graduation date. I know they said they might want to come. And if you would once a week, send one of those devotionals so if we get the chance to do that every week, I can share that.

I'm running out of stuff to tell you. So here are some questions. Has it snowed? Have you seen any geese around the house? How's everyone doing? Has anything big happened in the news? How are the cows? Did you get your truck ready to plow yet? Did Josh get that Mustang?

Well that's all for now. Thanks for prayer and support. It makes what I'm doing worth it that much more.

Love, Jake

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

...i'm not doing so hot...

On the cupcake challenge that is...

I think im gonna keep the website though and when i finally get 200 cupcakes done (ten years from now) it will be complete.

I got a new story right now though on my blood pumping organ. Nathan and I have committed to going to Senegal...again for me, for the first time for him. And I know God is at work in this situation. I don't know how and what for, but Im getting anxious and excited to see how He's gonna work. I got an incling of how he was going to work though tonight as I was putting together a budget of what we've got to do between now and January 23 to make this happen.

No something that i have felt very passionate about for a long time, you can ask my mother... we fought about this when i was in the youth group and wanted to do everything...that $$ has no hold when it comes to mission work and where God wants his Children. If he wants you somewhere he's going to provide a way.

So i did the math tonight and discovered that Nathan and I need to save $52 a day to make it to Africa. Get ready folks! God's shedding his light and Nathan and I have to trust in what He has planned.

Now im not saying, "Ok, God! Here's the challenge! It's time for me to step back and let you get to work!" No. I'm saying, "God, when March comes, I'm gonna be content in you whether I'm on the couch or on a plane. May I faithfully travel on the journey that you put me on to get there."
Some parts of that statement i say with gritted teeth, but do i say it truthfully...i think for the first time in a while, i think i really do...

So... as I hit the transfer button on my bank account...

Nathan and I are 1.4% on our way to Senegal.