Recent Movie Reviews

Leap Year - starring Amy Adams

I saw this a few weeks ago with Angie. We're considering a vacation to Ireland for our 5 wedding anniversary and I'm apparently trying to plan WAY ahead. Ever since Ang saw P.S. I Love You, she's had her heart set on going there some day. When Leap Year came out, it was pretty much a no-brainer for us as a date night movie opportunity.

This movie is cute. It's clean. And it's relatively funny when it comes to reoccurring mishap comedy. The cinematography is great when it shows off the Irish countryside, which again makes the both of us want to head overseas all the more. It's an all around fun "couples" movie for those looking for a nice night out. Aquila - Approved


Avatar - starring Sam Worthington

If you liked Dances With Wolves and cartoons ... you'll love this behemoth of a movie by James Cameron. the visuals are breath-taking and the 3D is well worth the extra money. The story however ... ehh?

Go see it for the special effects and CGI, but get some caffeine in you, as it's long and has some drawn out sections between action scenes. I fell asleep in the middle. Aquila - Approved with some Reservations



The Invention of Lying - starring Ricky Gervais

This one started out funny but the laughs and ran out really fast. I was also pretty troubled by how much lying or bending of our own version of the truth actually happens in day to day life, when it comes to communication with others. Perhaps that's the point of the film, but just because I got it doesn't mean I half to like it .. or stay awake. Skip this one, even if you did like the original version of The Office. NOT Aquila - Approved


Moon - starring Sam Rockwell

I had high hopes for this one and was disappointed. Sci-Fi lately has just not done it for me, outside of the Star Trek reboot. Movies about cloning are no longer appealing to me. Skip it. NOT Aquila - Approved


Extract - starring Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Kristin Wigg

If you expecting another Office Space, you're gonna be ticked. This one had a lot of potential and the trailer makes it look hilarious, but in the end, the comedy fell flat. Affleck as a stoner is pretty funny however. In the end - I say skip it. Not Aquila - Approved.

$1,000 left to Raise for India !!!

Kalavai from Granger Community on Vimeo.

With just about a month left until my finances are due for the mission to India, I as of today have slightly over a thousand dollars left to raise. This is great news as I have several other supporters recently pledging their financial gifts and intention to help in the last couple of days. I have been very blessed by those who have already decided to give and those who are planning to give, it is truly beyond words.

One such supporter made their intentions known this morning while I was serving them at work. One of my customers is a missionary organization called Gospel for Asia. I had told my customer about the mission to India around the holidays, and he was so moved by the video above the team at GCC created, that he and his wife decided they wanted to help. How cool is that?

If you're reading this and are thinking "I like J Aquila" or "I want to help people in Kalavai" or perhaps a "wuzzle" (to mix) of the two : "I would like to help J Aquila help the people in Kalavai", then please consider giving towards my mission to India. you can do so by clicking on the following link ...

http://www.gccwired.com/defaultStory.asp?storyid=1174

Or you can send checks to my home church ...

Granger Community Church
630 E. University
Granger, IN 46530

Your gifts and consideration is great appreciated and will be a blessing for generations to come, in the community of Kalavai, India.

Upcoming Saturday Mornings

I found out today that Shawn can receive visitors at 6 AM, on Saturday mornings. I've also been in touch with two of his family members and they have told me that they would appreciate anyone willing to reach out to Shawn. Currently, Shawn has several broken ribs and has had surgery on his foot, which sounds like it was severely hurt in the crash. This is what prevented him from having visitors until recently. Hopefully I'll be able to visit with him in the near future, as he's only allowed two visitors per day, for forty-five minutes, each Saturday morning.

I hope to potentially attend Shawn's first trial hearing, tomorrow morning at 8 AM, which will be the first time he's in front of a judge.

One person that will be visiting Shawn this weekend, however, will be his older brother Ryan. He lives out of state, so this weekend will be his first visit to Shawn. I wanted to share with you his words and thoughts revolving around this situation. This comes from this past weekend's South Bend Tribune ...

I am one of Shawn Devine's older brothers and am deeply saddened by everything that has unfolded. Shawn made choices that he and the family of Mishawaka Police Cpl. James Szuba will be haunted by forever. There is nothing good about what happened.

There are many people around me who keep saying that God brings these things into our lives for a reason. I disagree. God doesn't bring these things into our lives at all. Unfortunately, people make choices that can deeply affect themselves and others for good or evil.

For those of us who are left with the consequences of others' actions, God can help us deal with the pain and allow us to respond with love and grace. This is not the normal human response in the midst of suffering; it can only come from God. This is where I am praying I might find myself in the wake of the events that have occurred.

I was a pastor for 11 years before working in the career that I have now. As a pastor, I had the experience of being with a family weeping over their dead high school student after he was hit by a drunken driver.

I had the experience of sitting in the courtroom while the driver was sentenced and hearing the piercing jeers hurled at him from family and friends. Those reactions resonated with me then, and I still have unresolved anger over the pain that was inflicted. I was very close with this family, as the boy who was killed was one of my students in the youth ministry I led. I have a strong relationship with his younger brother, who, along with his family, remains painfully aware of the lingering effects of one man's choice to drive drunk.

With all of this experience in mind, it is surreal to be on this side of things, when someone you care about makes choices that destroy another person's life and family. I guess all I can say is that I am learning a lot more about how our choices have the power to bring destruction and pain.

Shawn was a really great kid growing up and we were very close. He is six years younger and always looked up to me as a big brother. He always had a tender heart for others and was someone others loved to be around.

I remember having so many crossroads-moments and conversations with him over the years. I remember vividly having a conversation with him when I graduated from college. He came with my parents out to Arizona and we had a long walk together through the mountains. He expressed how deeply he wanted to change but how difficult it was to escape the pressure of the crowd and the path that he had begun.

I also remember a time when he came to stay with me for a week in Wisconsin. I remember him saying how he couldn't be like me and couldn't become the person that I had become. How desperately I tried to share with him my imperfections and that it was more about small choices each day and building on the momentum of each victory.

Shawn and I had lost touch since our father passed away. I know he made his own choices, but I am kicking myself for not pursuing him harder. I feel like I failed him over the years.

I will be honest that a part of me hated what he had become. He wasn't the same little boy that I knew years ago. A thick, impenetrable shell grew on the outside of him. He seemed to really want to change but could never get over the hump of all the years of hurt he had inside. When my dad died about seven years ago, Shawn fell apart and went off the deep end. I never fully realized how deep it was. Regardless of what has transpired, I will always love him, no matter the terrible choices he has made.

The news media are really causing my mom, sister and brothers in Indiana a lot of pain. The reports are saying Shawn can get a maximum of 31 years and many in the community are crying out for vengeance. Again, it is surreal being on this side of things. I know he needs to be, and will be, accountable for his actions, whatever the law determines.

I also see how easily evil and violence creep into our hearts. I rest in Jesus' words and the sound of stones dropping to the desert ground from those eager to kill the woman caught in adultery. We are all one or two bad choices away from something like this, and that is sobering to me. It is all the more reason to draw near to the one who calls me his child and trust that he loves me unconditionally and is good.

Please pray for Shawn. God is not finished with him yet, as much as many want to write him off. There is hope. Pray, too, for the family of Cpl. Szuba. They are now left without a husband and father. It should not have been this way for the Szuba family. There is nothing anyone can do to fix the pain that they bear.

Please pray, too, for the forgotten ones in this whole ordeal, my family. We see the picture of someone we love plastered all over the television and Web, vilified, leaving us wondering what happened to the boy with the playful smile and the fullness of life ahead of him. We all have heavy hearts and many questions without answers.

Love is an Action

Food Drop 2010 from Granger Community on Vimeo.

Update on Shawn Devine

As of this morning, I contacted the St. Joe County Jail and Shawn is currently still being held within the medical unit there, due to the injuries he sustained in his crash that killed Officer Szuba and his K-9 dog. According to the officer I spoke with, Shawn can not walk, so receiving visitors is currently not an option. My attempt at speaking with Shawn will , for now, be limited to writing him a letter and / or waiting for his recovery.

I am trying to get in touch with Shawn's mother, hoping that I can communicate my sympathy to the Devine family and share with them my desire to meet with Shawn. I've learned quite a bit more about Shawn and his family in the last few days and I will communicate more about the circumstances surrounding the accident once I get concrete info from his immediate family. I'd share more now, but I want to be sure I'm not putting the cart before the horse.

I found my Jr. High yearbooks last night, and found Shawn's pictures in couple of them. Back then, I used to put red stars next to those I considered my friends. Stuff like that normally makes me laugh these days. I wonder what my criteria for "friendship stars" were back in 6th and 7th grade? Because how not funny this whole situation is, I found myself a little emotional by this. The good news is, Shawn got a red star. I can only hope he'll remember me, whenever we get our chance to speak.

The "What If's" in Life

Looking back on the past, I sometimes wonder what "today" would be like if I had made different decisions, setting out an entirely different path for my life. What would my "today" be like without Christ at the center? How would a decision to not go to Taylor have effected my education and current career path? Perhaps I should have played T-Ball or continued to play football after breaking my wrist?

How different would our lives be from the decisions we all make daily? How different would other people's lives be from the decisions we make today? I can only thank God for the people who made decisions to be a part of my life and inter vein on my behalf while I was growing up.

Over the weekend, a police officer and his K-9 dog were killed while attempting to apprehend a drunk diver, who had sped away from a routine traffic stop. It turns out I knew the driver that killed the Mishawaka officer and his partner in the car accident. Shawn Devine went to school with me at Penn. I don't recall having many classes with him, but as I sat watching the newscast Sunday evening, I remembered Shawn's face from his mug shot that was being used for TV.This disturbed me because I remembered his name and face but not any real interaction with Shawn. We probably passed by each other daily at school without as much as a "hello". We might have even played football together during our freshmen year at Penn, but I can't recall.

The point I'm trying to make here is that I made no intervention into Shawn's life. Shawn was not on my radar and it's apparent that I stayed clear from his. Looking back at my teen years, I would be willing to admit that I did not attempt to be every man to everyone. I stayed away from those dubbed as trouble makers and stuck with people who, for the most part, were on the straight and narrow path. People who wouldn't cause me to stumble and accepted me as I was. I loved on the unloved, but did not seek out those who needed an intervention ... if that makes much sense.

Guys like Shawn Devine were simply not an agenda to me because I associated them with the likes of those who would most likely blow me off or consider me to be uncool. My decision to follow Christ was pretty well written on my face and within my actions, and this sometimes set me a part from the upper echelons of high school popularity. I was liked by those who really knew me beyond my name and meager achievements, but I was by no means "upper-crust" high school royalty. The crowd I ran with was not anywhere close to the crowd I assumed Shawn might have run with.

I most likely stayed clear of Shawn because I apparently did not find him to be worth my time. I'm ashamed to say this now. It honestly bothers me to type this out, realizing that perhaps my friendship or possible witness in his life could have in some way set Shawn's life in a different direction. I have no clue on whether or not I could have lead him to receive God's love for him, but I could have introduced him to HIM. What I do know is that I never gave myself a chance to know him and be a part of his life.

A friend of mine reminded me today that God puts people in our way that we are supposed to pay special attention to. He calls on us to love Him, love ourselves, and love the next person He puts in our path. I felt like I have done a good job at this throughout my life, but today I can't help but wish that God might have put Shawn Devine in my path years ago.

That's why I plan to reach out to Shawn Devine today. I've been thinking about him since Sunday afternoon, sitting alone in his hospital room, under police watch. Shawn will face punishment for what he has done. This is for certain. But today I've decided that he will not do it alone. He will know the love of Christ and the forgiveness He offers for all sins.

The killing of a police officer while in the line of duty is a tragedy, but so is the story of Shawn Devine. Shawn will face judgment for his crimes, but that will hoepfully not be the end to his life. He will most likely spend time in prison and have to live with the pain he has caused this community and the family of the fallen officer. I now feel the God I serve has asked me to at least reach out to Shawn and try to reveal that life does not end "today" because of what has happened.

Life moves forward until God takes us home. I don't know God's plans for Shawn, but I do know what He has called me to do. I know that God has now put Shawn in my path. It's now up to me to move forward towards His call on my life and to inter vein within Shawn's.

Please pray for me and for the message of mercy I take to Shawn. I will keep you posted.

Working Out Again

This past Tuesday I started to prep for the physical side of the mission to India by working out with a personal trainer. I've needed to reprogram my body physically and reboot the nutrition intake methods for some time now, and India has provided me a reason, goal date and inspiration.

The Reason : I don't want to physically get hurt or take myself out of the game by going in cold. It's been close to ten years since I physically built or took part in a team offering physical labor. I can only imagine that building homes and the community center (as well as other duties) will be taxing on my body while in Kalavai. I don't want to suffer through the work or have fatigue lesson my impact while I'm there to work.

The Goal Date : I leave for India on March 5th. I started working out and got on a high protein, fat burning food plan on January 5th. This gives me two months to slim down and better my physical shape before heading off on mission. I've committed myself, both mentally and financially, to working hard at preparing myself for the work ahead. I weighed myself at 248 lbs on Tuesday, with 28% body fat. We'll see where we are come February and then again the night before I leave.

The Inspiration : The people of Kalavai are excited about our coming. I want to be ready to meet them and be a part of restoring their community. I don't want to be on the sidelines. I'll be a part of a team who will also be leading worship through music while we are there, and I'll need both the energy and motivation to both start ad finish the days strong. This prep is going to help me do everything I will be asked of and want to do while in India.

Day one of working out was hard. I had issues with my balance and equilibrium while exercising, and that cause me to be light headed. I also had issues with what we think was a sciatic nerve pinch. This did not allow me to accomplish the first basic work out. I'm hoping tonight will be different and that I'll do better. I need to remind myself that this is a marathon and I'm doing myself on good by pacing myself.

My cardio alone has been a great experience. I have done about an hour on the exercise bike so far and enjoy that quite a bit. I've always enjoyed riding my bike, but this past summer, I really wasted a lot of opportunities to get out a ride. To give myself some inspiration, I've created a Itunes Playlist for my cardio workouts, which inspires me to keep my pace going ...

1) That Was Just Your Life - by Metallica
2) Mess of Me - by Switchfoot
3) Get it Up - by Chickenfoot
4) Lights Out - by POD
5) Unbreakable - by Fireflight
6) The End of the Line - by Metallica
7) The Nerve - by MuteMath
8) The Resistance - by Anberlin
9) The Pretender - by Foo Fighters
10) The Sound - by Switchfoot
11) Broken, Beaten & Scared - by Metallica
12) Spotlight - by MuteMath

Living a Good Story

So why go back to India?

What's in it for you?

What good can actually be done over there?

These are some of the questions I've been asked or have asked myself while prepping for the mission this upcoming March. To be honest, I really did not give my decision all that much thought when approached with the notion of going back to India. It's been close to five years since I took my first BIG step into missions and ever since I have wanted to go again. Previous trips that headed to India had opportunity written all over them, but I never took the leap back into joining one of the teams.

A lot has changed since 2005. I'm a married man and a home owner. The driveway needs shoveled. My wife needs me for companionship and I need her love and friendship. I have two dogs to take care of, which includes me driving home (at lunch) from work everyday to let them out and play. I have a full time job with customers that need attended. I've become a soccer coach to my nephew. Life isn't boring ...

Well, Indiana in March IS actually pretty boring - so India will be an escape into adventure. I guess ADVENTURE is one reason I think this specific trip is the one I've decided to go on. This past fall I read Don Miller's new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Days, which is about how Don changed his perspective on living out life like a great story. One that means something in the end. One that you'll look back on a say that you lived well and for a purpose.

I know that sounds kinda cheesy, but it makes sense. When we look back on our lives, do we really want our memories to be a bunch of cluttered after-thoughts or a story that excites us to tell someone, and then retell it with the same excitement that we had while living out that story? I've had a pretty good life so far, and I know there is more good stuff to come. India is going to be a part of my adventure story.

Not too many people can say that lived in tents, under the stars, thousands of miles away from home for a week. Not many people can say they helped build houses for people in dire need, or provide clean drinking water for those who have none. Not too many people can say they were the ones who helped reestablish a community with healthy sanitation and a place they could go for education and an over-all better existence. I'm going to be one of the few who can say I went to Kalavai and changed their world for the better.

It's an exciting idea for most who consider the opportunity to go out and change this world. For me, come March, this will once again be a reality. I will be living out the adventure with some great people and serving those who are looking for a better story to happen in their lives as well.

I thank God every day for the opportunity to be a part of His plan. I'm going back to India because He called me to. This trip has me written all over it. I gain nothing by going to India again, outside of seeing God's plan for His people becoming fulfilled. The result from this mission to Kalavai will be nothing short of a miracle of God. The Irula people will see this and discover they have a story worth living out as well.

This is all I could ask for when it comes to wanting to live a story worth telling.

60 Days Until India

I've been pretty bad during the last couple of months about writing here. Outside of the holidays there has been very little to talk about. Things had slowed down pretty significantly both at home and at work, so that days have been mostly a blur through December.

But as of today, we're looking at 60 days until I leave for India. This is going to be my second trip to southern India with GCC. The first was back in the summer of 2005, when I traveled with a small group of people to help establish the reputations of some of the church planters we supported throughout Tamil Nadu, India. The trip was ten days, just like my upcoming trip in March. This time, however, we will be getting our hands dirty and taking care of some much needed upgrades to the village of Kalavai.

Home need rebuilt after the government poorly constructed housing for the the Irula / Dalit people of Kalavai. The bare minimum of mortar was used to construct these government supplied houses to the poor there, and they are crumbling in on the families who occupy them. We will build a more sound structure and also help provide them drinkable water sources, through filtration systems and by digging additional wells.

Other sanitation projects will also be taking shape. This includes the digging and construction of latrine trenches, so that the people can effectively take care of "their business" without it potentially mixing with their drinking water. This is a huge issue for the people of Kalavai and we plan to take care of it on this trip.

GCC's team will also continue the construction and development of the Kalavai Community Center. This building will provide community members a place to receive teachings in conversational English, health care education, community support, and the overwhelming physical love of Jesus Christ through those who are going to be running the facility. The first phase has already been completed and I'm excited to see what we can add during our time there.

I am just about half way to raising the financial support needed to be a part of this mission to India. The price tag (if you want to call it that) is $3,000 to help pay for my plane tickets, daily expenses while on the ground, and training. All of my support must be in by the end of February, and I could use you help in raising the remaining half of what is needed.

Would you consider in helping me raise the remaining money needed to get me to India?

If you think you could help (EVEN THE SMALLEST AMOUNT GETS ME CLOSER) please click on the following link and create a support account through Granger Community Church's website. You will need to indicate that your gift goes towards my personal fund raising ...

http://www.gccwired.com/defaultStory.asp?storyid=1174

I look forward to continuing to write about my upcoming mission to India. There is much more to do in both preparation and the telling of stories about my last trip in 2005. Please check out all the links within this post and pray for the team heading there in March.

God Bless,

J Aquila