JESSE RYAN

Recently i have been reading a series of books called The Legend of Drizzt. It is, hands down, the best book series i have ever read. Yes, i am a nerd… through and through. I decided to take a break from Drizzt and break into some other reading.

Years back I read The Hobbit, and also The Lord of the Rings book series. They were amazing reads. I had heard that Tolkien had written some other works about Middle Earth but had never really looked into it. In my travels home this past week, I ran across a new release of one of Tolkien’s older writings… Children of Hurin. I browsed through the book, and immediately made the purchase. By the time i got through the introduction, i realized i still was missing alot of info. I realized there was another of Tolkien’s works that came before The Children of Hurin: The Silmarillion. Each of these books take place near to 6000 years before Bilbo ever found the ring of power in The Hobbit.




I’m pretty pumped about digging into these stories. Tolkien’s mind just amazes. The detail in this world he created just scrambles my brain. The imagination is boundless. I’ll let you guys know how the books go.

introducing ms. angelika eleni ruiz…

well, alot of new stuff going on. just returned from summer camp, which was simply amazing. especially wednesday night! well, if it’s true that a picture tells a thousand words, then here are a few thousand:
(just click on the picture to enlarge it)

well, i’ll just let you into the bad news: i did not go to nicaragua. yeah, sucks. i received my passport via mail the day after our team left the country, so i was left behind. sad, i know (let’s pause to shed a tear.) well, i stayed in town and took it easy. not too much to tell the world out there except that this man was a great show:

if you thought john mayer made some ugly faces, you have not seen Jonny Lang. honestly, some of the most amazing blues/soul i have heard in my life (that is, if you can get past the awful faces you have to endure for the two or so hours.)

greetings all you people who read my very rarely updated blog.  sorry i’m so slow with updating this thing.  i’m working on getting faster, i promise.  so whats new with jesse?  i leave for managua, nicaragua next sunday at 1:30pm!

i am super stoked.  the last time i traveled internationally was 2002.  thats a long time ago.  now, it’s costing me a good more than i thought to go on this trip… so if you would like to send a donation it is more than welcomed!  i have put my address at the bottom of this entry if you would like to take part in what i am doing over there.
i’m going with a group to help build a new church by day, and ministering to families and in orphanages at night.  we plan on having a healing crusade one of the nights and are believing for some awesome things to happen!  so please help… whether it be donation, or more importantly, prayer!

this week has been a blast.  i love being in such a large city because the music scene is always hoppin’! this week i went to some sweet shows at house of blues:

AUGUSTANA

MATT COSTA

THE DELTA SPIRIT

they were all really great shows!  love the style and the sound.  you need to hear them all if you haven’t yet.  well, i’m be sure to keep posted about nicaragua will have tons of pics up on here when i get back.  stay in touch folks!

(here is my address) 18081 Midway Rd, Apt 413, Dallas, TX, 75287

ray lamontagne… i cannot stop listening to his stuff.  he has one of those classic voices that you find hard to compare to anyone else.  if you haven’t fallen in love with his tunes… give him a gander.  his newest album is Till the Sun Turns Black, following Trouble, his earlier album.  check him out on myspace.

well, here is some of the newest info about me.  i’ll be heading to NICARAGUA in june!  i’ll be going with a large group from our church and we will be doing some work on a church, while also ministering to the people in the evenings.  this is a big deal to me considering the fact that i have not been out of the country since 2002.  wow, thats a long time.  the door is open and i’m jumping through with no hesitation!  we will be sending a group of students to Nigeria in july, as well as a second trip to Nicaragua in june, also.  Next year:  rumors of trips to africa, nicaragua, and even germany are being spread throughout the church.

FLAG FOOTBALL – SUNDAYS AT 2PM!!!  any and everyone is invited.  last week was our first game and we had a blast.  about  10 guys showed, and next week we are expecting 16 to 20.  if you think you can throw a ball, and catch, or run… and keep up with me, then you need to be out there!  or sit at home and watch another episode on the cooking channel.  i’m not hatin’ on the cooking channel… but football, or the cooking channel.  please.

so tonight me and the kean boys, and dennis and josh went to a dallas stars hockey game.  good times.  men hitting things with sticks, and then fighting about it, food, soda, and thousands of people cheering.  you can’t beat a night like that.  yes, i do get a kick out of watching to guys try to beat each others face in.  i don’t know why really… but there wasn’t a man in the room sitting when a fight breaks out.  and there were quite a few fights.  in the words of ben kean, “Sweet.”

I am now in the process of starting my reservations in Destin, FL for my summer vacation.  a full week on the beach.  i can’t imagine a better way to spend my vacation: sun, sand, crystal clear water, pools, fruity drinks, the small of sun tan lotion, beach towels… and not having to wear a shirt for a week.  niiiiiiiiice.  you can’t beat the beach.  and then another part of my summer vacation…

yes, you guessed it… dave matthews.  gotta throw a dave concert in my summer vacation.  how can i not?!?!?  also gonna try to swing a jack johnson concert there, and possibly a john mayer one if i can manage it.  i get excited thinking about it all.

well, this weekend at Student Impact was great.  we had alot of kids answer the altar calls, and had over 30 visitors.  we really have been praying for God to begin to do some great things at Student Impact.  it’s been awesome.  every service more and more students are entering the kingdom of god!  “filling heaven and plundering hell.”  we are making some traffic in the sky.  but after three services, and a hockey game i am wore out!  so i’m going home and going to bed… and not setting my alarm.  niiice.

miss all u guys back home,
jesse ryan

You know how when you are small and are always trying to get your parents attention? “Mom, watch! Mom! Mom! Watch! Mom!” Sometimes I feel like that in my relationship with God. “Hey God, look! Look! Pay attention to me!” It would seem like a selfish thing, but I thing that is where God wants us. Faith like a child. He wants us doing whatever it takes to get His attention. And any good father wants his child to know that they have his attention. I think it’s the same when you are a pastor. It’s about attention. Giving them attention that they would not normally get…. being an extension of God’s attention towards them. Make sense? Today we went to one of our students awards ceremony at school… the look on her face was priceless when she saw us there! It’s always nice to know there are people in your life who would go so out of their way to go to something like that just to support you. The awards ceremony wasn’t even that big of a deal, but that made it even a bigger deal that we came.

So I did it… i bought a banjo. I did. Now I have to learn how to play it. I’m excited… I know, I’m a nerd… with a banjo. So what. Don’t hate. Here a picture of my new beauty…

So the worship team is growing here at Student Impact… we now have a brass section -two on saxophone, and one on trumpet. Now we are working on creating a strings section… we have a few students interested. So, here’s the breakdown. 5 guitarist, 2 bassist, 4 drummers, 2 on keys, 3 on brass, and possibly 2 on strings, percussions soon to come also, plus 27 in the choir. All of the students are in mid-hi and high school…. thats the great part. It’s definitely crazy working with so many students, but it’s a blast. A blasty blast.