Idaho

So, as a number of you already know, I recently had an amazing opportunity present itself to me. One of my friends from Spring Arbor called me up Sunday night, asking if I wanted to work on an organic farm in Idaho with him from September to December. Needless to say, I wanted to give him a "Yes!" right then and there, but a number of things had to be sorted out first.

I have spent this whole week thinking and praying about this, trying to sort out my options, and thinking about my job, housing, financial, and ministry situations...and now, at the end of this week, I have decided to go all in on this adventure. My mom and pastor are in support of me going (which are both very important to me), and I've put in my two week notice at Preuss Pets. The right steps have been taken as much as possible, and I'm ready to start preparing for the craziest thing I've ever done.

We will be leaving September 2, taking a week to have a fantastic road trip out there: South Dakota, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, the Montana Rockies. The farm itself is in the northern end of the Idaho panhandle, twenty miles from Canada, and right next to Glacier National Park. Each workday will be done by 4pm, we will be housed in a cabin with a wood-burning stove, all our food will be provided, and we will have three-day weekends. Can you say, "road trips every weekend?"

All in all, this is going to be amazing. I've been looking for opportunities to get away from everything, particularly seasonal jobs like this. I feel I function better in short-term jobs...maybe it's a result of working at camp for too many summers.








One thing in particular I'm very excited about is the alone time I will have. It's been too long since I've disconnected from everything. I'll have a lot of time to connect with God in the mountains, to work on music, to read...to just enjoy life.

I will be coming back to Michigan probably via train in December; my friend will be looking for other opportunities elsewhere. When I get back, I will work on finishing up the albums for which I've been trying to raise support, and looking for a new job and place to live. I still don't know exactly where I will go once I'm back home: my family's house in Williamston is where I will go initially, but I will probably be looking for jobs in other parts of the state as soon as I can. My time in the Lansing area is coming to an end. My church will be waiting for my return, and I will be there for a time as the worship leader again, although I do not yet have a guess for how long. I'm trying not to think too hard about what December will bring, though.

Anyway, I'm very excited about this whole thing. I feel it's a very good and important step in the right direction. I want to be able to make at least a little time for anyone who wants to see me before I leave, so let me know! Tonight, I will be at Center Lake Bible Camp to say goodbye to my former employers, who are going on their own journey to work at a camp in Santa Fe. Lots of people I know will be there, and, without trying to steal the moment, I will have a chance to say goodbye to many of them as well.

Your prayers are appreciated.

Peace.

Father's Day

So, if you read my last post, you know that I was about to try to contact my real dad. Last Monday, I called him. This is pretty much how the conversation went:

"Hey, it's me Casey."

"Casey.......I'm so glad you had the heart to call me, because I just couldn't call you."

"Oh...well, yeah, I was thinking about heading out your way tomorrow or sometime this week; are you free sometime so I can see you?"

"Yeah, my buddy Terry and I are going out to the Wooden Nickel in Dansville right now, and you should come meet us there! That way there will be an extra person, and it won't be as tense."

"Wellll.....alrighty then. See you there!"

To keep it short, I was able to have some time talking with my dad: I told him I forgive him for anything that happened in the past, I don't hold anything against him, and I want to be his son...which is just what he wanted, too. There was lots of hugging. We both agreed that we just want to put the past behind us and be family from now on. The timing was so perfect...we were both ready for it.

Today I got to call him to wish him the first Happy Father's Day I've ever really been able to give, and we talked for a while again. I'm really happy to actually have a more real family now.

God is a good Father.

Peace.

Reconciliation time

So, God is good. I'll just start with that. I had a crazy and excellent weekend, and the crazy is still continuing. I now have a mentor at least for the summer, which is something I've been needing for a while. Thank You Lord. The same day that happened, I also had a very good talk with a friend which, among other great Jesus-things, got me motivated to get in contact with my dad. That's something I've been putting off for months now, but God has confirmed several times that it's finally the right time to sit down and talk with him.

So, thanks to my Uncle Tony, I have my dad's address and phone number. It's going to be awkward, for sure...but so far my uncles have given me enough encouragement, God has confirmed it, and my peers have pushed me enough to prove that it will be good anyway. Next week I'm going to call him and set up a day to go talk to him. Prayers are appreciated.





Last night, Jesus let me know how important this is to him. Of all the things I worry and pray about, He said this one takes precedence. Moving out West, relationships, all that stuff takes a back seat right now to reconciling with my dad. He said that we have a lot to work on, and this is the first thing. So, that's where I'm putting it. I've never had a very good chance to honour my dad as I'm told to do in Scripture, and now it's time.

Also, I received a prophetic picture on Saturday that God has ALREADY confirmed this week...didn't take very long at all. It has to do with how God is using me in my friendships. If you want to know more you can ask me personally, haha, but it just adds to the cool things God is doing.

Good stuff. God stuff. I love it.

Peace.

Possibilities...

So, here I am, filling out an application for a camp in Colorado. Whoa. I discovered a great-looking camp near Colorado Springs, and if they like my application, I may be moving there as soon as the end of this coming May. That's only three months away!!! This is bizarre.

This evening I calculated out roughly how much I SHOULD and CAN have saved by May. I can have upwards of $1400 in savings by May 11 if I am very, very wise with my money. That will easily get me to Colorado...or at least it should, haha. Defnitely more money than I thought I could have before I did the math.

Now, I was originally planning on moving in August. Getting a job at this camp would mean bumping that up by three months...and halving the time I have left in Michigan. This means I really need to spend quality time with my family and start preparing myself to move far away.

Lots of thoughts. I just can't wait to get out there.

Peace.

Music time!

So, I haven't posted in a while...partly because I haven't had much to talk about, and partly because I haven't had internet at my house for over a week. Now the internet is back, though, and there are things to talk about, so let's get to it.

First, Christmas was weird. It's the first Christmas that I've actually had a real job during, so I didn't have a "Christmas break." Definitely weird, but also very good. I got to spend time with both sides of my family, which was really great. Realizing that this may be my last Christmas in Michigan, not including visiting in the future, was another strange moment.

Second, I got a chance to hang out with my roommate Justin in Grand Rapids last night. While I was there, I met one of his friends who has a small recording studio in the basement of his house. When I saw each side of my family, both sides told me they want me to record an album before I go to Colorado. After meeting this guy in GR, I actually have a place to start. My goal is to record three albums, actually. One will be a farewell album for my family and friends in Michigan with some of my personal favorite songs and some goodbye-type songs. The second one will be a more fun album specifically for my Center Lake Bible Camp friends. It will have a bunch of parodies on it, and will be the only album of the three with any totally original songs on it...maybe up to three or four, depending on who I can get to collaborate with me on it. The third album will be a metal-to-acoustic one with a number of metal songs I've covered on the acoustic guitar. Several of the musical arrangements on this album will be my own, but none of the lyrics will be changed from the original songs.

I'm pretty stoked for this. The metal and camp albums are the most complete as things stand right now (other than actually recording them, of course). I still don't quite know what songs are going to be on the goodbye album, though. There are some ideas floating around my brain, but I need to develop a solid list and start practicing.

Several of my family members and the friends who are most closely associated with the songs on the albums will probably get these for free, but I think for the most part I'm going to sell them for cheap to try to partially fund my move to Colorado this summer (for which I may now have one or two travel companions...). This is what I'm thinking regarding prices:

$3 per album
$5 per album with all the lyrics and some song explanations
$7 for all that plus the chord charts for the songs
$10 for all that plus a personal message (and maybe some original artwork).

Yeah, we're gettin' deluxed in here.

Any thoughts, questions, comments, suggestions, requests, etc.? Comment below or send me an e-mail. If you don't already have it, my e-mail address is: butlerc777@gmail.com

Peace.

More life changes!

So, I haven't posted in a while, I know, but it's because I wanted a few ideas more solidified before I sent them off to the internet.

I am very close to getting a great job. If everything goes through as it seems it will, in two weeks I should start as a delivery driver for a rent-to-own furniture company called Aaron's. On the surface, a delivery driver job doesn't seem to fit my MO, but the benefits, ability to save plenty of money, and transferability are all things I really need in a job right now, and park ranger jobs around here just don't make the cut. There's still a little more processing I need to go through before I'm officially in, though, so your prayers are still appreciated. Getting as far as I have already with this job is very important to the things I talk about next, so it would be really great to not have something fail now, haha.

Also, I've been giving more though to the whole "moving to Colorado" thing, specifically regarding the time frame and prioritizing the steps to get there. First off, for plenty of reasons you can ask me about somewhere else, I'm probably going to be moving home by the end of January. I'll still be spending plenty of time in Lansing with my church and other friends, but I want to be closer to family before I leave, and they take priority. Second, late August in 2013 is my goal for the move, so about nine months from now. Theoretically, this job should allow me to save enough money to move by that time. Since it's a large, nationwide company, I shouldn't have an issue with transferring to Colorado Springs (or somewhere close, at least), meaning I also shouldn't need much of a savings buffer so I can survive while I search for a job.

Lots of hypotheticals in there, if you didn't notice. I've spoken with my pastor (who is also my landlord) and my mom about moving home, but I will be spending the next few weeks praying about all of this. If you would, please pray with me about these three things:

1. The job works out and is as stable as it sounds.
2. I make the right decision on when (and if I should) move home. The date in my head is February 1, 2013.
3. End of August 2013 as a moving date.

Thank you.

Peace.

The Soo

So, I just got back from vacation with my family at Sault Ste. Marie. My grandparents have been going there almost every autumn for the past...many...autumns so my grampa can go fishing. My mom and I went up to visit for an extended weekend since neither of us had been there with my grandparents in seven years. I didn't actually catch anything, but it was a great trip. We went thrift store shopping on the first day, something my family isn't used to doing, and I got to show them what kind of AWESOME things you kind get for super cheap. Alright...maybe their idea of awesome is a little different from mine, but oh well.

My mom and I visited Whitefish Point and Tahquamenon Falls on the second day. Note: the snack shop at Whitefish Point has AWESOME pasties (I had my first one ever there) which they order from Gaylord, and they make their own fudge, which is really fresh and delicious. Tahquamenon Falls was really nice; there are two parks, Upper Falls and Lower Falls, which were formerly only connected to each other by a long, rough dirt trail through the woods...but now it's all boardwalk and asphalt. Definitely an improvement.

Like I said already, I didn't catch any fish at the Soo (Sault Ste. Marie, for any non-Michiganders), but spending time with my grampa was worth it. We went out hours before the sun was up each morning to try to land a big one. This morning, the skies were clear for the first time and we got to watch the stars right before sunrise. I saw a shooting star travel down the handle of the Big Dipper, and Orion is finally back in the sky. It was a good morning.

This is my last full week as an Ingham County park ranger. I'm sad, but I'm hopeful that a new job will come my way soon...one that will help me save more money so I can get out of Lansing for good. I started applying for new jobs this weekend.

Also, my good friend Nate Martin stayed at my house on Labor Day. We walked around the Harris Nature Center in Okemos in the evening, and he took some pictures with his awesome camera. He sent a bunch of them to me, so I'll share some on here.

Peace.

Honesty

So, today I had a very minor crisis. I was going to see my mom, and as I started driving, I realised I was wearing my tank-top. This wouldn't be any big deal at all if she had any idea that I have a tattoo on my arm.

I got a cross-Trinity combination tattoo from one of my best friends last November. It was something I designed myself, and that I had wanted for over a year. I'd been waiting for the right time, a time when I really felt ready to put something on me that wouldn't go away until I get a new body in heaven. It was the right time. This tattoo is a seal on my arm, a mark of who I belong to and who I want to serve. My friend made me sit, think, and pray for a few hours before he would start, even after I told him how I felt about it and after we discussed the design more in-depth. That was a very good night.

Anyway, I never told my family about it because I felt really awkward. We're a mid-Michigan farming family, very down-to-earth and normal, and by the standards that are generally obeyed in it, I thought I might get scolded, or even shunned a little. So I hid it...until today.

When I left my house and realised I didn't have sleeves to cover it, I immediately turned around and sat in my driveway. "My mom isn't ready to know I have a tattoo yet," I thought. After a little more thought, though, I came to the conclusion that it was really me who wasn't ready to come clean with something that I was embarrassed to tell my family about. As I considered it, I remembered why I got it in the first place, as a mark for Christ, and I came to the conclusion that if I'm ashamed of something that I chose to do for Christ, then I might as well admit to being ashamed of Him as well.

At that point, I decided I was ready.

Of course, as most of you could probably guess, it wasn't even that big of a deal. My mom was surprised, even laughing and thinking it wasn't real at first, but I think she's okay with it now that she knows I put a lot of thought into it, and that my reasons were good. "Better than other things you could be doing, I suppose," was her response. True statement.

I've been caring a lot less about people's opinions of me lately (those who really know me already know how little I cared in the first place, haha), and this was one big step in that direction. I don't mean this in any bad way, but more in the way of trying to please people less and trying more to please God with my life. My family has always been hard for me to deal with in this way, not because they're mean or judging...I was just afraid they would see me as something other than "a good little boy who doesn't do anything out of the ordinary." That's generally the image I've always had in my family (or at least I thought so), but I decided that I don't need to be afraid of letting it go.

"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both sould and body in hell." ~Jesus Christ, Matt. 10

"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." ~Paul, Gal. 1

We are to fear God, not man...and especially not man's opinions.

Peace.

A side thought while traveling

So, I need to post this along with my daily travel blog. It's been really interesting traveling with my mom over the past week. The past four years have each looked like this: about seven months at SAU, about two months at camp, about two months at home, and a month of random travels. The two months at home each year aren't even all at the same time; they're broken up into a few weeks at a time throughout the year.

All this to say, I haven't spent much time around my mom since I graduated high school. The first few days of the trip were especially hard because of this; we haven't traveled together for a long time, and we were getting on each other's nerves quite a bit. We talked about it a bit, and have been trying to do better at dealing with the differences between us which we haven't had to deal with for the past four years.

In the end, though, it really comes down to an issue which God has been revealing to me a lot this summer: my own pride and self-righteousness. I got rebuked by a Godly man this summer because of my own self-righteousness, and it hurt to see how much I have. It's become more and more apparent as the summer goes on, and I think it's the main cause of a lot of the tensions between my mom and myself.

Things like this is where following Christ gets hard. It's not a physical hardship...but it might be harder than one. It's so difficult to lay down your rights to stick up for yourself and/or your opinions. I want to prove myself right so much that it gets in the way of having right relationships with my friends and family...which gets in the way of my relationship with God.

I would probably keep going, but I'm tired, and my thoughts are muddled.

Friends, pray that God continues to humble me and reveal more of this to me. Thank you.

Peace.