Author Archives: jackmansjourney

Learning Albanian

14 Monday Jun 2010

Posted by in Self Improvement

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Learning a lnaguage comes easy to some, but hard for others.  Is there an inbetween?  I think I might be inbetween.  I studied French in Jr. & Sr. High school so I am familiar with how to study another language, but it is not the same when you are trying to learn on your own.

The movtivation needs to be there.  The support needs to be there.  The practice needs to be there.  The speaking needs to be there.  The writing needs to be there.  It just needs to be there – the language and all that goes with learning it!

So, what language am I learning?  Albanian.  I know what you are thinking, “That’s not a very popular language to learn.  Why not Spanish or German or a lanuage that people are familiar with?”  When you are in a serious dating relationship with someone who speaks the language and his family members do not speak English, you would probably learn Albanian too.

How is my progression in the language?  At first I was learning words here or there, but now that his Sister is visiting, I am learning more a bit faster.  She is trying to learn English, but it does not come as quickly to her as it does for me to learn Albanian.

Our goal was to learn 10 words a day.  She would learn 10 Enlgish words and I would learn 10 Albanian words.  I wish I could say that I have stuck with this!  Life gets busy along with everything else on this journey and I have fallen from learning my 10 Albanian words a day.  I need to get back on track.  Sometimes I wish I could go live there for about a month or two and then I would learn so much Albanian.  I wouldn’t have a choice.  Unfortunately that is not the situation and I am here learning the language on my own as best as I can.

I hope that by the end of the week I can come here and tell you that I have learned 50 words.  We only learn words from Mon – Fri taking a break on Sat & Sun for review and resting our minds.

Miripafshim – Goodbye

Until next time <

Update 11/11/11:  I’m not learning Albanian anymore and I am no longer in the relationship that was referred to in this blog.  Although, It was fun learning a bit of Albanian at the time.

It’s for Kids Too

19 Friday Feb 2010

Posted by in God Time

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Peter replied, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.   – Acts 2:38-39

But what does it say? The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.   – Romans 10:8 – 10

Ok, so salvation is for everyone, even the kids.  Don’t leave them out. 
And Jesus is Lord and I believe that God raised him from the dead.  It’s that simple.  It’s hard to live a Christian life, but it’s that simple – child like faith.  
Please don’t disregard a child when he or she says they have made a decision to follow God because we are to proclaim Christ to kids that they can believe in him too and what he has done for them, for all of us.
Just a thought.

God, I love you too

22 Friday Jan 2010

Posted by in Me and God Time

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How do we respond to God’s love? 


We say all the time, “God, I love you!”  

Wait a second, he loved us first.

As my prof said the other day, how about saying, 

“God, I love you too.”

Hmmm….

1 John 4:19  We love because he [God] first loved us.

So, the prof explained that when someone tells you they love you first and you love them back, you say I love you TOO.  

It made me wonder why we don’t do that?  Is it because we don’t actually hear Him say that too us?  We know that he loves us and does love us first.  I wonder what it will be like to add the “Too” as I tell God I love him.  Will it change my love or make me think more intentionally that he loved me first.  

Why not try telling God you love him too and see if it makes a difference in your life.  It makes me think more of his love for me and reminds me “that this is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”  (1 John 4:10)  

Check out 1 John 4: 7 – 21 or really all of 1 John.  It’s not a long read.  5 chapters, one chapter a day… and don’t just read it through, really think about what you are reading!   Extra challenge:  Count how many times the word “Love” is used.  

God Takes Care of the Little Stuff

08 Friday Jan 2010

Posted by in God Time

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Wow, we are so early.  We probably could have left more like 9 then 7ish.  There was no traffic on the roads and even though there was only three lines at the border, we didn’t have to wait at all.  I don’t know why we thought it would take us so long.  Hey, now that we are in the US and have some time, let’s stop for a pee break.  Here’s a Burger King.

Wait, don’t lock the door I need to get my purse.

As she was starting to shut the door she heard the above words and tried to stop the door before it shut. Too late.  The door shut – not the full way but just enough that it was locked.  She looked for her keys to unlock it.  Oh NO!

They both peered through the window of the car and there they were, still in the ignition.  Now what!?  Well, she still had to go to the bathroom and so they went it.  They asked one of the workers if they had a phone book and something that would help them get into their locked car.  No phone book – they throw them out – but a coat hanger!  Yes!  There is hope.

God, please let us get the car unlocked.  Thank you for the coat hanger!

Maybe we should ask a guy to help.  They are good at this kind of thing.

It’s dark and cold and scary in a place you don’t know even though you are at a very lit up Burger King.

Should we ask him.

I don’t know.  Let’s just try it ourselves.

Oh God, please help us get it unlocked.  I don’t want to call a tow truck!

Hey, at least we have plenty of time before we have to get to the airport!

Maybe we should just try a tow truck.  We should shut the door tight and save the battery.  (The dome light was on)

She didn’t want t give up.

A scream and jump at the same time from her when an older man came and asked if we locked the keys in the car.  They were concentrating hard on getting the coat hanger snug around the nob on the door.  The nob that is flat with no lip to catch on.  The nob that is slippery and won’t let the hanger catch on.  The nob that we hope will pull up and let us in the car!

Well, you could help us!

Give me a minute.  The man went to pick up his lady in his truck (yes a truck – we thought maybe he might be helpful) at the front door of BK and drove back to us – which was only a few feet away – and put the truck lights on the car so we could see.

Thank you God for sending a good man to help us.  Please help him get it unlocked.

He pushed the hanger through the open space of the door.  He fiddled with it trying to get it hooked on the little flat nob.  Try after try after try.

Do you have Triple A?  

Nope.   We’re from Canada and no CAA.

Well, you could try calling the police. Usually they have something to unlock cars.  If not they could probably call a tow for you.

Oh Lord, please I don’t want to have to call the police or a tow truck.  Please help him.

He tried some more.  Does the door open if you pull on the handle from the inside?

Nope.  That didn’t work.

He tried a few more times.

God, please, just one more time!

She looked away asking God for help one more time.

There you go!

Wow!  So much excitement!  It’s unlocked!  Thank you God!

Thank you, sir.  Thank you so much.  You are my favourite person right now.

Thank you God!  You are great.

45 minutes later we were back in the car, ready to continue our trip to the Buffalo Airport.

Wow, it’s so awesome how God takes care of the little stuff.

Yeah, He knew all along.  The door didn’t shut all the way.  BK had a coat hanger.  We tried, but then a man came along who had a bit more strength then us and got it unlocked!   Oh, and he knew we needed to kill some time!  lol

We were so excited!  Abi and I thank God for taking care of us!  Sometimes, we miss the little things that God does for us to show that he is taking care of us and loves us!  This is a true story that happened to my friend Abi and I on the way to pick up Besmir at the airport in Buffalo.

God takes care of us in all our needs whether big or small!  It’s not coincidences.  It’s God.

Extraordinary: The Life You’re Meant to Live

07 Thursday Jan 2010

Posted by in Me and God Time

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I’m reading the book of the above title written by John Bevere.  It is quite interesting so far.  I want to share little things that popped out to me that made me think about God in a different way.

John writes, “We can’t do one thing to make God love us any more than He already loves us, and conversely, we can’t do anything to make HIm love us any less.  However…we are responsible for how pleased God is with us.

2 Peter 1:3 says, “We have everything we need to live a life that pleases God.  It was all given to us by God’s own power.”

We can please God through his power because it’s hard to please a perfect God when we clearly aren’t perfect.  Thank you God for your grace!  That’s his power that he has given us to be able to please him!

Titus 2:11-12 – “For God has revealed his grace for the salvation of all people.  That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world.”

John says, “Grace not only instructs but also empowers us to live above our own human potential – extraordinary.  We’ve been born again; we’re brand-new people; we’re sons and daughters of God.”

I know that without God’s grace it is hard to keep self-control, it is hard to live upright, and it is hard not to go back to old habits.  We need God’s grace and to fully receive it to get the strength we need to pull through our trials and tough times and struggles.

I feel like I am learning about God’s grace all over again and how to please him and where the strength comes from to do that.  It’s not from myself, but from God.

1 John 3:1-10

02 Monday Mar 2009

Posted by in Me and God Time

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Sin….
Born again…
to know if you are born again and not to be deceived by false teachers…
how to deal with sin…

I just listened to a sermon by John Piper about the above. It was good because it was talking about if you are born again (believe in Jesus that he died on the cross, rose from the dead and is still alive in heaven today) then you should not be practicing sin. But everyone sins. So we all do wrong things. The difference is that if we are born again then we won’t want to keep on sinning and doing those wrong things. We have someone to come to when we do those things and can say sorry and ask for forgiveness. We don’t have to keep the guilt hanging on our shoulders because we have an advocate that can take that away…Jesus Christ.

I know I have done something wrong and asked God for forgiveness and then did it again. Not because I was going against him, but because it happened. one of those addictions that is hard to quit. But as I continued to seek God and ask his forgiveness I conquered that sin. 🙂 And now it is so much better. We probably all have something in our life that we are dealing with like that, but doesn’t mean that we are not born again believers. If we do something wrong and know it is wrong and continue to do it with out remorse and don’t care…then we need to re-evaluate and see what is going on there.


1 John 3:1-10

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

If your interested in listening to the sermon, visit
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/BySeries/83/2665_No_One_Born_of_God_Makes_a_Practice_of_Sinning/
He has a bunch of other sermons on different topics. He is a good speaker!

With a bit deeper thoughts today,
Jackman <