Insomnia

It's my fault. I had a coke at about 10 pm and I am still feeling the effects of it. It's past 3 in the morning and I decided that instead of tossing and turning, I can get some things done. I am washing clothes and cleaning. What do you do when you can't sleep?

Ministry and The Single Man

I was backstage sitting in the green room during a service at our church recently. I was having a conversation with one of my married friends and the conversation turned into the topic of relationships. She asked me why I was still single with so many beautiful women at our church. My friend's husband is a pastor at Flamingo Road Church and both she and her husband's parents are pastors. I tried to explain that as a pastor's kid myself, finding the right girl is tougher in my opinion.  To me, being a girl that loves God is just the beginning. Think about it, as a PK, I have been around ministry life since I can remember and I plan to be in ministry as long as God allows me. Being in ministry is not a typical life; there has to be a delicate balance between church and family time. To me, it's very important to be with someone who understands that. 

My question is to both the single and married people in ministry. If you are single, how do you balance ministry with those you date? It's gotta be tough to find time during the weekend to be together. What adjustments do you make and how do you find that balance? If you are married, how important was this issue when looking for a spouse and how important was it after marriage? How do you ad your spouse approach the topic and how much harder is it with kids?

Birthday

Today is my birthday. I am celebrating with family and friends. Thank you for all the calls and texts. I will be back soon. For now, where's the party?

The Warrior

We started a new series at church named "The Princess and the Warrior." This past weekend, Pastor Troy spoke to the men. He spoke about having a Father in heaven that is proud of us. Many men were greatly impacted and were able to be free of their struggles.  During the teaching I was reminded of how fortunate I was to have my heavenly father but also to have had such an amazing earthly father. This upcoming Labor Day weekend will mark 2 years since his death and there is not one day that goes by where I cannot see my dad's influence in my everyday life.

I wanted to share with you a song that I wrote when my father passed away. He taught me about life; how life is about climbing and growing. It's about growing old and growing up. It's about how you learn everything from people you look up to, learning how to live and learning how die. It has been in the rough times where I have grown the most. There's a very lonely feeling that comes over you when you realize that a person you looked up to for guidance in the your times of questioning is a human being that will not be here forever. My dad was a superhero, but one day, his human body failed. 

This song is about legacy, about the things my father taught me from the hospital bed that saw his last breath. This song is a timeline of a boy who grew up by realizing the true meaning of manhood.  This is my most personal song to date, It was written during the days I prepared to bury my dad. When my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I began to see his health deteriorate and our roles change. It was in those rough years that I grew into a man and realized what my father wanted me to learn from my very first day; Leave a Legacy. The things that my father and those before him accomplished are the shoulders I stand on today. The Best thing that I can do is continue climbing from where my forefathers left off and hopefully my children will learn and continue to climb from wherever I stop. We never know where our life will lead, what we will have or lack. The one thing we will always have is our memory and our legacy. When someone is on his deathbed and has his family around, that person will always try to communicate the most important thing that he has learned in his lifetime. With my dad's last breath, his advice was not to finish school or take care of my mom, his advice was to follow God. That has, and will always stay with me.

Shadows of Daylight 
by pedro navas


Daylight opened my eyes
I can see for the first time
Out into the world
First comes the sense of excitement
Then you fall for a moment
It all evens out

The years go by
In the dark, the boy becomes a man

Behind the boy stand shadows of
Men of time who once stood tall
They carved this floor that we stand on
So one day, shadows, we too will become

Who can know where the wind will take me
Who can know where the waves will break me
I don't know, I'm just here letting go
Who can know where this ship will sail to
Who can know how life repays you
All I know, I'm not on my own

You built this house for me
& I watched through the window 
as the walls came down

Chicago Recap

Everything is getting back to normal after a whirlwind weekend in Chicago.  These last few days have been amazing.  I have met and grown closer to incredible people who have taken me in and have taught me things a classroom can never teach.  I was also able to make a lot of contacts and I am feeling really comfortable at what I am doing. I no longer feel like a rookie; I feel like I can handle my own and I am acting more confident. Even full time staff is looking to me for direction.

I had to take a day or so to recover. Not so much from work, but from my airport experience. My flight was scheduled for Monday morning at 8:25. I woke up early, got in our rental car and headed to O'Hare very much on time.  On the way there, we noticed that the GPS was acting up because of the bad weather that had come in overnight. Needless to say, we got lost and I made it to the gate at 8:45.  My flight was gone. I made arrangements to be on the next flight to South Florida later that day. What I realized was that all flights were being grounded because of the severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings in the area.  I spent all day in the United Airlines terminal.  By 9pm, the terminal was full of people trying to get home, at which point, we were told that all flights for the night were cancelled. After making a line at the costumer service counter, the only flight that was going to get me home the next day involved me leaving Chicago at 6am, then connecting in Knoxville, Charlotte and then finally to Ft. Lauderdale.  By the time I arranged my flight, it was 11:30 pm and I had to find a place to sleep.  I found a hotel near the airport and fell asleep at 1 am to wake up at 4 for my flight. I finally arrived back home at 4:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon, 34 hours after leaving to the airport.

Besides that fiasco, everything went great. Below are some pics that I wanted to show you. Enjoy!

The Lobby at our hotel, The W Lakeshore.

The Indoor Pool, with views of Lake Michigan and the Navy Pier

The Press Conference setup at the hotel

Sightseeing at the Chicago River

The view of Lake Michigan from the window of our office

View of downtown from the top floor in the hotel

Gino's East. Heather suggested it, I had to try it.

At Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears and site of the Barcelona vs Chivas game

Luis Arroyave, sports writer for the Chicago Tribune. He is writing the article for Sunday's paper. This is the article I mentioned on the August 3 post. By far, the coolest thing I was involved in this weekend.

Luis Arroyave's article in the Sunday morning edition of the Chicago Tribune. How cool is that?

Toyota Park, home of the Chicago Fire. The staff was so nice

Barcelona doing a  light workout at the University of Illinois-Chicago

Suited up for game day

In our office at the Soldier Field. The staff is going over last minute preparations for the game.

Barcelona warming up before the game

Moments before the game

That's all for now...

Atempting Normality

Guys,

I am back in Miami. I am just trying to recover from the weekend and my airport adventures. I will be posting all the stories and pics from the weekend but right now, I am just trying to get things back to normal.  In the meantime, my friend told me that this t-shirt should be my catch phrase. What do you think? I think I'm going to buy it.

Game Day

It's finally here. The day of the game! All the preparation, all the practices, all the long days and long nights lead to this. The teams are ready and the staff is ready and we're in the calm before the storm. I was able to sleep in today. I woke up at 8 am. That's the latest I've been in bed all weekend. That's right folks, Pedro got to sleep 6 whole hours last night. I had breakfast at a cafe on the shores Lake Michigan and I was able to take a walk along the river. It has been such a picture perfect day. It's 80 degrees and it's a great day to be in a suit.

Quick story, probably my favorite moment of the weekend. Thierry Henry is a very busy man and schedules his media time weeks ahead of time. The Chicago Tribune wanted an interview and do a huge front page paper spread, but Henry declined. My team was instrumental in making Henry understand how the article would sell a lot of tickets and he finally agreed. I spoke to the sports writer who did the interview and he was super happy. This morning at breakfast, I read the article during my breakfast. It is so cool to be on the inside. I am learning so much from people in my team about Journalism and just dealing with people. This has been a great learning opportunity.

Well, that's all for now. I'm off to the stadium for the game. If you guys want to watch me on TV, the game will be on FSC (Fox Soccer Channel) at 7pm Eastern Standard Time. Look for me. I will be in a black suit and you can find me on the field of play. Later...

Chicago Update

I'm still in Chicago. Here's a little history of why I'm here. I work with Soccer United Marketing in International Communications. I am a Public Relations major in college and last year I did an internship with SUM. They have been nothing but great to me and they call me up sometimes to travel out to an event to help them out. SUM represents Major League Soccer, US Men's and Women's National Team, Mexico and now Barcelona. I have been fortunate to be able to work in one of the things that I love; soccer.

This weekend I will be working with Media Relations and the Barcelona Tour Press Officer for the Barcelona vs CD Gualdalajara game in Soldier Field. This is going to be a huge media event for two reasons. First, Chivas is the most popular team in Mexico and have a huge following in Chicago. Chivas fans and media will be in full force. Secondly, Barcelona is a media circus. They have 25 members of media that travel with the team and with world-class players like Messi, Et'o, Rafa Marquez, Puyol, Xavi, to name a few, media from all over the world will decend in Chicago.

This is a sweet gig. Sometimes I feel like I won some sports auction event. I know that many people would pay to do what I get to do. Who wouldn't want to be able to interact with these huge sports figures and stay in plush hotels and have all access passes to practices, team meetings, press conferences and interviews. Then on game day, I get to be on the field during the game and be able to go anywhere in the stadium. WHo wouldn't want that? Then on top of that, I get all expenses paid for and then receive a paycheck for my services! I'm thankful because when I tell people how I got this job (another day), they are amazed. Don't get me wrong, it's not a vacation. I will be pulling long hours and will be exhausted afterwards but it's a great job.

Anyways, this is where I will be until Monday. I will be taking lots of pictures and blogging as much as I can. Don't forget that you can also follow me on Twitter.


Good night beautiful world.

On The Road Again

Guys, I will be in Chicago for the next few days doing some work with Soccer United Marketing.  If you watch the Barcelona vs. Chivas game on Sunday, look for me. I will be on the sidelines.  Anyways, I will updating and posting all weekend. Good night beautiful world.

One Year Commitment

I sent out this e-mail today to everyone on my mailing list. I wanted to share it with you. Let me know what you think...

Friends and Family,

I am writing to you today in order to make my decision public and therefore, official.  Today, before God and you as my witnesses, I have promised myself that I will not drink alcohol for one year.  Those of you that know me well know that I do not drink very often and thankfully, I have never struggled with a desire for alcohol.  I never understood it. When I am thirsty, I drink something that will quench my thirst. Alcohol has the opposite effect on me; it sometimes burns as it goes down and it makes me sweat. What I do understand and have seen firsthand, is how alcohol can affect people I care about and how it can put a strain on friendships.  

I don't do this because I think drinking alcohol is wrong. I strongly believe that it is wrong to lose control because of it. I do this because I do not want anyone to sin because of me (1st Corinthians 8). I make this promise to remember my dad, who struggled with alcoholism for 20 years before God changed his life.  I make this pledge for my childhood friend, who continually drowns his memories from war in a bottle. Lastly, I do this for those who stay up late at night worrying about their loved ones. 

Sincerely,

Pedro F. Navas