Nathanael Rowe

Today, My buddy Andrew and I went to Taco Surf for happy hour.  On our way back, we got stopped by some green peace folks who wanted to try and guilt us into joining Greenpeace in order to save the rain forrest.  This lady could not have picked a worse target for her guilt piling techniques because just yesterday I watched a South Park episode entitled “Rainforrest Schmainforrest.”

The episode is pretty hilarious, with the basic premise being that the students get lost in the rain forrest on a trip to save the rain forrest, and because of their close brush with death in this ordeal, they all decide that the rain forrest actually sucks, and we would all be better off with out it.  So with this hilarious new point of view I decided to have a little fun with this lady.

So, as this lady tried to tell me how we were down to the last 20% of rain forrest in the world, I responded by saying, “Thats good cause that place is deadly.”

“What?!” She said.

“Yea, there is something like over 3,000 deaths per year in the rain forrest”  I am pretty sure this is an accurate number, it may actually be much higher but in reality the rain forrest is actually a really dangerous place for humans.

She laughed and said, “I thought you were saying that we should get rid of the rain forrest because so many people die in it.”

“Yea, That is exactly what I am saying.”

She was laughing, and then quickly stopped.  I don’t think she knew what to say in response to this.  At this point her green peace boy friend chimed in and said something like, “I think there are lot more people dyeing from having their villages burnt down from the destruction of the rainforrest, because it is such a cheap source for paper, and the tigers are going instinct.  Plus one third of all cures for illnesses comes from the rain forrest”

Now after hearing this my thoughts were, “Why would people who want to cut down the rain forrest for paper, burn it?”  But I decided not to mention that little point, simply because I did not want his head to explode, instead I kept on with my playful attack against the rain forrest and said, “Yea, but I bet two thirds of all the diseases come from there.”  In reality there are actually several hundreds of things in the rain forrest that cause cancer, I didn’t just make that up either.

The guy just shook his head, and the girl said, “Well if you guys aren’t really interested then you should probably just go.”

Andrew stopped laughing enough to say, “Well what do you actually want from us?  Do you want money, or a signature, or what?”

“We are looking for people to become members.”

“Oh well I am not going to be a member, but maybe he is interested,” as I pointed to Andrew.

“No I don’t think I want to be a member either” Andrew told them.

Her face was priceless, I don’t think she ever expected anyone to respond by saying the rain forrest should be destroyed.  It was pretty hilarious, and Andrew and I walked away cracking up.  I was pretty harsh, but I have little sympathy for solicitors, so I get a slight sick pleasure by messing with them.

OK so I just got back from one of my best trips to vegas yet, and so I thought I would share all that happened to make it so epic. So I am going to do my best to recap those few days.

Monday, I went over to the Ellingsen house in Henderson and celebrated Memorial day by having a bunch of great food, way more than I can handle, and just hanging out by their pool for several hours. In fact I slept out by the pool on one of their lawn chairs because the weather was so beautiful. The next morning I went for a jog through a desert trail and it was all just beautiful.

Afterwards, Ty came and picked me up from the Ellingsens, then we picked up Matt, Ty’s work associate, from the airport. We all went out to In n out, and then checked into the the Signature, the luxury hotel somewhat attached to the MGM. Ty had a friend who got us a couple free nights there, it was awesome.

Tuesday I played a lot of poker, did pretty well, and went out to eat for Sushi, and then came back and played more poker. I was up enough money that I could just relax and do pretty much whatever I wanted, its a perfect way to start a Vegas trip.

After poker, Ty’s same friend that hooked us up with the hotel room, got us tickets to see David Copperfield. So we went, and to my surprise we did not just get regular tickets, we got touching the stage, dead center tickets! It was awesome. No one was closer to the show than us. So 5 of us were sitting at this table, Greg, Ty, Frank, Matt, and myself when the waiter came up and asked what we wanted. As I started to order, she told us that we should get whatever we wanted because our tab had already been picked up. So we of course ordered a couple drinks each, and big thing of popcorn.

Right after we ordered, a security guy came up to us and told us that we were only allowed to have 4 seats to that table, and one of us would have to leave. Our server interrupted him to tell him, “Sir, these are David’s guests.” Thats right as in David Copperfield’s guests. He immediately started apologizing over and over again, to which Matt replied, “It’s cool man, just don’t let it happen again.” I don’t think the guy even heard him, but we all started cracking up.

The show was phenomenal, Copperfield made things appear right in front of our face and I didn’t have a clue how it happened. I think I was most shocked by the car that appeared just 10 feet in front of us in only about 1 second.

After the show, a PA came and took us back stage to meet Copperfield himself. He chatted with us for a few moments, and then signed all of our complimentary books about him. After that we went out and met Chris Kenner the Executive Producer of the show. He was a really nice guy, and we talked to him about the show for a few minutes, and then let him go back to work.

We were all a little shocked by the whole night, except Greg and Ty who had both done this all before. We then hung out on the balcony of our 29th floor hotel room for a while, and later went down to the strip to film Ty and Greg do some magic tricks.

The next day, Wednesday was a lot simpler, I just hung out by the pool, met up with Sean, Jamie and Raven, and then walked up the strip with Ty and Matt. We ate at the Mirage Buffet and enjoyed a lot of crab legs and prime rib. It was all delicious. Ty and I played some more poker that night but neither did as well. Then Thursday we all just relaxed until it was time to fly home. What an awesome experience.

So on Good Friday Marquise, a regular skatesider, came up to me a little before tear down time and asked, “Hey Kozmo, can we do something tonight?”

I didn’t know what he meant, but I said, “Sure, what do you want to do?”

“Anything man, I just don’t want to go home yet.”

“OK, man let me think about that.”

Shortly after I was putting something away in the kitchen, and I saw a bunch of left over popcorm, and it hit me, we can have a movie and popcorn night!  So I went and got Marquise and his friend Robert and asked them if they wanted to watch a movie.  They both emphatically said “Yea.”

So we walked next door to the local movie store, (Yea, we still have those on the Westside) and started looking for movies.  It was hard to find something that we all wanted to watch and that would be appropriate, until finally I realized and said out loud, “It is good

Friday, we should watch The Passion.”

As soon as I said this, Marquise said, “Yea, that movie is scary!”

So we grabbed the movie, put the ramps away, and about 10 kids stayed back to start watching the film, while I popped popcorn.  I came in about 15 minutes after it started, and they were all pretty into it.  These guys are rarely quiet for 5 minutes straight, so to see them so engaged was awesome, and to be honest I did not expect it.  I thought they would get over it quickly and have me turn it off, but instead they just sat and watched the whole thing, asking me questions through out.

Afterwards their attitude was very solemn.  One student told me, “Man Kozmo, I was praying throughout the whole movie.”  Remember these are not church kids, these are neighborhood kids who may or may not have a church background.  I have to be honest, I am normally a skeptic of emotionally pulling movies, especially like “The Passion”, but I was very impressed by the way the story of our messiah pulled these guys in.  I think part of what happened that night was that God showed these guys truth, he showed them just how much He really loves them, and that spoke to them.  Many of them told me afterwards that they felt sad and kind of guilty, one skatesider even said that he couldn’t help feeling like he was somehow responsible for His suffering.

Thank you Lord for always planting seeds in these young men’s hearts, and for letting this curmudgeon of a kingdom worker be a witness to Your amazing grace.

What a night.  I locked my keys in one of the bins for the skate ramps tonight, what a brilliant move that was.  I tried to call Sean, the pastor, to see if I could get his keys to unlock his office, to get the spare key for the skateside bin to unlock the bin, to get my keys to my car and my house and the church, so I could lock everything up and eventually go home, but his phone was dead.  What should I do?

Fortunately Randy was still hanging out at the church waiting for me to help him move some stuff into his new place, so he drove over and got the keys from Sean for me.  It took some time, but we were able to get my keys back and lock everything up properly.  Afterwards I followed Randy back to his place and helped him move his stuff up.

I started talking to him about his story, and have realized lately that God has really been showing me a lot of people’s stories lately.  Randy is celebrating 502 days of sobriety today!  So great to hear.  At one time he owned his own business, but since it was a mortgage business, and he started it right at the tail end of the housing spike, he shortly went bankrupt.  He lost everything, and even spent a short period living out of his car.  Eventually he checked into a shelter, and ended up going through some programs for his alcohol addiction.  During that time he was also suffering from severe pain due to gout.  He went through quite an ordeal, but just last week he moved into his own place for the first time in 5 years.

His story was encouraging, and amazing to hear how God worked in his life.  Who would have thought I would have been so blessed to hear his testimony tonight, just through moving furniture.  The Lord is up to some awesome things on the Westside, and I blessed to be a part of them.

Peter lives some where nearby the church.  I have gotten to know him over the past several months since I am his razor supplier.  When his beard has gotten too long, he knows he can ask me for a razor, and I’ll give him one, as long as he is not too drunk.  He always wants to shake my hand when he sees me, and yesterday was no exception.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish to dehumanize him by not shaking his hand, its just that along with Peter comes several stains of dried snot, the constant smell of a mixture of urine and cheap booze, and his hands, well I just don’t know where they have been.

Anyway, yesterday I shook his hand and told him I would be right out with a razor.  I went inside and washed my hands instantly then I went and got the razor.  When I handed him the razor, he was very thankful, so he again grabbed my hand to thank me, and then still holding it asked if I had any money.

I had just told him in our encounter 4 minutes ago that I didn’t have any money.  This of course was a lie, I just know better than to let Peter know I have cash on me.  I reminded him that I did not have any money, and asked him if he remembered my name, since he had asked me that 4 minutes prior as well.

He shouted out a couple of random names that sound nothing like mine, so I just had to laugh.  I thought about how I know his name all too well, he is after all pretty infamous in that area, but I don’t know if it is even possible for him to remember mine.  Its kind of ironic the way he forgets my name. It reminds me of someone who is very full of himself, like some kind of quasi celebrity and therefore had little time to remember anyone’s names.  This dirty homeless man, gives off a similar feeling, but it is not because he is arrogant, I just think he lacks the kind of social skills it takes to remembers someone’s name.

I reminded him of my name and went back to the church to wash my hands again.  I came out and started setting up the ramps with a junior high student from the neighborhood named Juan.  Juan seems to be a good kid, he voluntarily swept all the pine needles away from the skate ramps while I was talking with Peter.  Some of Juan’s friends came to help us carry some of the ramps out.  While we were doing so, Peter walked over and decided he was going to help.

I like the idea of Peter helping, but in reality he shouldn’t be around kids.  He has said some things to kids in the neighborhood that force me to keep him separated from them, for their own safety.  So I kept asking Peter to step back, and not to worry cause we could handle it.  Well after asking this several times, he wasn’t getting the idea, that I didn’t want his help.  So I stopped and told Peter, “Peter, you are too drunk right now for me to let you hang out with the kids, I don’t think you are the best example for them right now, and so I am going to have to ask that you not hang out here while the kids are here.”  I have to be honest, my feelings were very mixed in saying that.  On one hand I need to protect the kids, and he can be very counterproductive to what we are trying to do here so it feels kind of good to tell him off, but on the other hand, I don’t want to belittle Peter or make him feel like he is less than the rest of us somehow.  Either way, he shouldn’t be around the kids, and he agreed.

Before he left he had one request, he wanted me to pray over him.  “Really?” I thought.  “I just reamed you, and you are going to ask me to pray over you?”  OK, I thought and I again grabbed his hand, and started to pray over him.  I asked God to look out for him, and to protect him, and all that other stuff you awkwardly say when you are praying over someone.  “Amen” Then Peter said, without letting go of my hand, “Can I pray for you?”

“Of course” I said.

He told me to close my eyes, and then he went on to pray all kinds of blessings over me, or at least I think that is what he did.  I heard him say a couple of times that we were like brothers, and that he loved me.  Now that was probably the booze more than anything, but it really touched me that he would say that, even though at the same time I was hesitantly waiting for the moment that he would let go of my hand so that I could wash it again.  He finally ended with an Amen and wandered off, as the kids watched nearby with confusion.

Honestly, I don’t really like Peter.  He annoys me, and he defecates on the storage units for the skate ramps, but I am constantly remind of Jesus’s words.  “Whatever you did to the least of these, you did unto Me.”  Really God?  Really?  Am I really supposed to treat the smelly disgusting alcoholic sexual predator like he is You?  That is ridiculously hard to do.  I guess the only thing I can do is to continue to keep trying to show love towards Peter as if he were Jesus himself, despite my own repulsion towards him

Here is my sermon from today:

http://www.nathanaelrowe.com/storage/Understanding%20Pain.mp3

Click the picture above for a high def image.

After Shot

First off, it is important to brag that both Ron and I got straight A’s this semester, but the champion of academic excellence could only go to one of us.  So here were the final grades in the three classes we had together.  My grade is on the left, and Ron’s is on the right:

Adolescence               90.2%     92.7%

Special Education    100%       100%

Health Science          94.9%     90.9%

This makes my average grade a 95.0%, and Ron’s average is 94.5%

Yes ladies and gentleman it is true, I am officially .5% smarter than Ron.

Here is my sermon from today on the Magi. Around the 23 minute mark I play the 2nd video on here, so that is why you can’t hear anything real well.

Magi Visit the Messiah.mp3

Here is my powerpoint presentation:

The second video:
Star of Bethlehem Clips