West Ham - What?

I have not written in a while simply because not much has really happened in Columbus. I have not been playing much this year and it has been frustrating for me. Tomorrow we play West Ham a team of the English Premier League team. It should be a great test for us since they play the MLS all-stars next week so they will probably play there full team. I am going to be starting the game and finally be getting a look in my native position, left defense. I am looking for some prayer as tomorrow will be a great test for me.

Also this weekend my church that I have been going to out here is having there annual young adult camping trip/conference. Please pray that everything continues to go well at the conference. I have not been able to stay overnight with my small group because of practice. :(

Monday we are doing a outreach for my team. A bunch of us are going paintballing at a fans farm. There will be about 12 Crew players, which will be awesome. It should be a great time for fellowship as well as a time to let the Spirit work in a few non-believers that will be coming.

Oh yeah, one last thing why I have not really written is I have kind of found a little special someone out here. Please pray for her as well. Columbus is the last place I ever imagined finding anyone, but it happened and I love it. Her name is Megan.

I will try to update more frequently.

Andrew

Radio Broadcast!!!!

Hello Everyone, I just wanted to stop by and let you know that I did a interview on a radio station today. Here posted below. I share a few things about my faith and a little bit about what is going on in Columbus. Check it out below it is only about 15min. Also feel free to comment.

Thanks,

- Andrew

Also check this website out

http://everystudent.com/index.html

Florida - California - England = tired

Over the past Month and a half I have been traveling to three major destinations, Florida, California, and England. I have been on the road for what seems like an eternity. I am warn out. We started out in Bradenton, FL for 17 or so days. The majority of the days we had two practices a day and worked to get into shape. We played a few teams down in Florida - Kansas City Wizards, Chicago Fire, and University of South Florida.

The next trip we took was to California where our hotel was right on the beach. I was nice to be able to wake up and go have my quiet time right on the beach next to the ocean. I have never had such and experience. We trained and played a few games. I only played 45 min the whole trip so I was kind of annoyed but God has a plan. I just have to be ready when called upon. We played San Jose, Chivas, and some PDL team. We did not play the best against any of the teams but we are starting to create some team chemistry.

In England we had a rough schedule. We were up late and got up early. We got in on Monday morning at 8:00am and had no time to sleep or anytime to ourselves. We had training later on Monday at the Blackburn training facilities. They were awesome. The training facilities of the English Premier League (EPL) Teams are a billion times better then ours. I went to three games while I was in the UK. The first game we went to was Liverpool vs. West Ham. The crowd was amazing. It was 100% better atmosphere than anything in the states. Liverpool won 4-0. The second game we went to was Bolton vs. Lisbon in a UEFA Champions League game. It was a really good game. The atmosphere was not as good as the Liverpool game but it was still fun. I do not remember the final score of the game... The last game we went to was Blackburn vs. Fulham. It was nice to see a bunch of Americans playing in the EPL. Blackburn has goalkeeper Brad Fridel and Fulham had Clint Demsey, Eddie Johnson, Brain McBride, Kasey Keller, and Carlos Bocanagra. The score line could not have been any better. It finished 1-1 with a fantastic goal by Fulham in the remain seconds to tie the game. I also forgot my camera for this last game so I do not have any photos from it. I am trying to get a few from some of the guys.

Overall, preseason is done. I have yet to break into the starting line up, but my spirit is high. I still believe I can make it here.

Oh yeah one more thing..... The Saturday we got back from England Columbus got 22 inches of snow, which gave me plenty of snow to play in. My roommate and I made the biggest snowman in the world. Seriously, it was 9 feet tall - at least. The link for the photos is here for the snow day....

http://picasaweb.google.com/adidasmn6/TheSnowDayInColumbus


Prayer Requests:

1. Pray that I can continue to gain confidence while playing. I am not playing as well as I can or as well as I need to.

2. Pray that our Bible study can continue to workout. We are currently on hiatus. I need to be more forward in reminding people to read and not to keep putting it off.

3. Pray God continues to Bless me and my soccer endeavour. I just need reinforcement that is where/what God wants me to be/do.

4. Pray for some guys on the team. We need to be more of a community of believers.

I have pictures and a few videos from all the trips on the web. The link is below. A few are embarrassing and should not be shown. It is funny what guys will do when we have to much time on our hands.

http://picasaweb.google.com/adidasmn6/EnglandCaliforniaFlorida

Entering my second year with the Crew, First Offical Year

I thought I would simply catch everyone up with what is going on in my life and what is currently happening. I moved back to Ohio and just started playing back with the Crew about a week ago. I believe I can make something happen his year on the team both on the field and off. I am more comfortable around the guys. I now know how things work. We have a very busy start to the spring season coming up. The season officially started on Monday, the 28th. We have been playing indoor at this place with the field turf and my knees are taking a beating. We are going to some incredible places this spring so I am super pumped to travel with the team. We start out in Florida and stay there for 15 days. Then go to LA to hangout with Beckham and company, but that is not even the highlight. We are then traveling to the United Kingdom to go train with Blackburn or Everton in the English Premier League. It is going to be an awesome experience (I can't wait). We finish off the trip going to New Orleans. In all we have eight weeks of preseason and I am gone for seven of them.

I will miss everything back in Columbus.

I am living with the same host family until they kick me out which will probably be sooner than later. Things with them are going really well. I can't complain too much. The dog is still annoying sometimes but cute, my host mom still does too much for me, and my host dad has not been around too much since I have moved back in.

As for prayer request......

1. A few members on the team are going to read through Mere Christianity by C.S Lewis. We need prayer that God will bring us closer together and closer to him.

2. Also I am thinking about buying a new car. My current car works fine at best. It has a few problems but nothing major. It gets me around. However, the Crew has a really good deal with a local dealership so I am thinking about getting a new one so I can take advantage of the offer.

3. I am looking to get more involve with my church and my team. I need some guidance on what role I should play.

I hope all is well and God Bless,

Andrew