In this photograph I am thirteen years old . . . it was taken in August of 1997.

The hat I am wearing in the picture was the first hat that I wore constantly . . . I think I wore it every chance I could for three or four years straight. Essentially it was the beginning of era where "Jen-Leonard" always wore a hat. It was a simple hat . . . navy blue with a tan brim . . . I think I bought it at Bradlee's (a local department store) . . . if I still had it . . . I probably wouldn't deem it "cool" enough to wear.

The jersey I have on is from my Uncle Kenny's softball team . . . my dad's brother in law. I spent some of my spring breaks down on Long Island with him and my Aunt Linda.

I am being put in choke hold by my friend Angelo Sarna . . . he has a twin brother named Billy . . . I was friends with them for most of my teenager years. They are from a town in New York called Brewster. I met them through different sectional (Hudson Valley of the A/G) activities . . . the first being Bible Quiz . . . which was basically the center of my life back in my youth.

We are in the basement of the Carmel American Legion . . . where I attended my first local AIM (Ambassodors in Mission) trip. I, along with about 30 other teenagers from the Hudson Valley were helping the Carmel A/G church with some evangelism and children's activities.

I met a lot of cool people on that trip . . . made some really neat connections that lasted throughout middle and high school . . . some that I even still know now.

It was on this trip that I first met Pastor John Jackson . . . whose family would eventually play a very significant role in my life.

This trip was four months after my first youth convention . . . where I "felt the call of God" into full time ministry . . . at this point in my life I wanted nothing else but to become a youth pastor and eventually a missionary.

God was my life . . . there was nothing else.

It is hard to believe that this picture . . . this part of my life . . . was almost ten years ago.