Blue Water Rodeo

I entered my first spearfishing tournament. It was a blast!

Here's our team.

We spent a full 13 hour day out on the water and came back with this!

Dean, our captain, would have had two trophy fish. The first one (a 60 pound Cobia) he would have landed, but his crew lost it at the boat. The second, a 50 pound permit (half eaten fish above) got chewed on by a bull shark before we could get it to the boat.

Out off all our fish, the half eaten permit got the most attention at the weigh in. Fellow spearo's from the crowd applauded when we pulled it out of the cooler. People screamed "tax collector" referring to the shark that took his portion on meat before letting us depart the sea with the fish.

Of course my beautiful wife was there to support me.

 All in all it was a great experience.

The Man

My Grandfather & My Wife

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;


If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools;


If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

IF - Rudyard Kipling

Paul W. Collins

Started out climbing telephone poles with a baby on the way and a young bride. He build our entire family from scratch. Gets up at 4:00 AM every morning still.

 

Home

Lauren and I have a very modest starter home. Here is a picture of what it looked like when we first moved in.

We plan on making some improvements to it, but for now it fits us very well.

Spearfishing

I spearfish… and I love it. It’s one of my favorite pastimes and something I’m hoping to do more in the future. Here is my latest catch.

A friend of mine introduced me to spearfishing about a year ago. After shooting my fist fish I immediately knew that I had a new hobby. It just adds an element of excitement in your life that fishing with a rod & reel cannot... something about being amongst the fish while you hunt them. When you free dive (which is what we do) you have to be able to dive down to the fish and once you shoot them you have to fight them to the surface. Then you have to fend off the barracuda and sharks as you swim your catch back to the boat. There is just a more primal feel to it than sitting on a boat waiting to get a bite. I love seafood, but there is no better tasting fish than one you just swam after, shot and fought back to the boat... not to mention fish just tastes better fresh.

Lauren just likes holding the gun.

Got hitched!

So… it’s been awhile since I posted last. Let me rephrase… it’s been a year since I posted last. I’m not apologizing, there has been a lot going on. I got married! What a lucky man I am to be married to this beautiful, kind and intelligent Godly woman. Here are some pictures to let you in on the last year of my life.

Here is my "walking dream"... her name is Lauren.

She puts up with my fascination with tractors and all things tractor related.

I love her family.

This was an amazing day.

Here we are... The Collins Family!

Artifact

Got a text from Lauren Monday evening…. I’m healthy! =)…

Praise God!!!!!

I can’t explain the joy and relief I felt to know that my fiancée was going to be ok. The spot that showed up on her CT scan ended up being an Artifact (some type of glitch in the scan).

I woke up this morning with a HUGE smile on my face… my Oatmeal and Craisens breakfast never tasted so good before.

How often I can forget the simplest verses 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. I dove into the word today with a new found joy… A reminder that my joy and peace should always be anchored in Christ.

Trust

I got engaged one month ago… I know, I know… we didn’t see anything on your blog. To me it really didn’t seem real for the first two weeks. It was kind of like being caught up in this amazing fantasy engaged to this amazing, beautiful, Godly woman. About two weeks ago the reality set in, I’m going to be married in five months. Suddenly the fear and anxiety set in… am I going to be a good husband, how can I take care of her physically / spiritually when I can barely take care of myself, finances, family relationships, and on and on. I prayed about it constantly, however the fear and anxiety just stuck with me. I wasn’t sleeping; I wasn’t tending to my fiancée like I should. When I prayed I didn’t really expect God to follow through in my heart (I know that sounds bad, but it’s true). Friday evening Lauren (my beautiful fiancée) called me. She has been struggling with headaches for about a year now and went in to get a CT scan just as a precaution. She was balling when she called, I could feel the tension and anxiety in her voice. She informed me that there was a complication with her CT result, something about a spot in her brain that they aren’t sure about and that they would need to run more tests. We immediately prayed together, I tried to comfort her the best I could. After getting off the phone I realized how insignificant my worries for the past two weeks were. I came to the realization of how quickly I am to forget God’s sovereignty. There isn’t anything I can do to take care of Lauren, she’s totally in God’s hands. That Sunday we studied cynical prayer and how prevalent it is in today’s society. I realized how cynical my prayers had been in the past two weeks. How often do we truly believe what we pray is going to happen? It’s seems so hard for us to let that knowledge that we are filled with the Holy Spirit and that our prayers have power travel the twelve inches from our head to our heats. We went over James 1:5-8 and it made me realize how small my faith really is.