Tag: Royale

The Abyss – Pushing the Perimeter!

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Put this one together fairly quickly the night before my Q while laying in bed w/ my 2.0.  Those tend to not work out so well for the Pax as it’s super easy to write down everything that is awful and hard and then ask the Pax to make it happen.  Well, that’s what I did.  It felt lazy.  It felt last minute.  It was both of those things.  And I was happy about it.

Had a solid crew of 18 boot campers – gave them the general theme of what this would be about, quick disclaimer, just enough to scare them a bit, and then we were off for a very quick warmup – something I am known for.

Warm-up:  seal jacks, merkins, plank punches, shoulder taps, superman coupled w/ Moroccan night club, slow as day windmills and we were done.

I didn’t know how long this next part would take, so I had a few extra things to do if we had time, but I was a bit uncertain from the get-go.  If you’ve been to Abyss (Palisades Elementary School), you know the front of the school is a standard school set up – a long road in w/ some turns, making its way to the parking lot, a roundabout for the drop off, etc, etc.  My goal was for us to do the outer perimeter with exercises as our mode of transportation – for the entire thing.  Starting at the loop at the front doors of the school:

– Lunge Walk (90 yards / 80ish meters) to the first turn
– Burpee Broad Jump (175 yards / 160 meters) to the next turn that then goes uphill to 49
– Crab walk up the hill (230 yards / 200 meters)
– Bear Crawl down the side walk parallel to 49 and then down the stairs (140 yards / 130 meters)
– Grand Finale:  Burpee Bounces around the loop / circle back to your starting point…you make ground by doing one burpee and as you push-up, you explode up and throw yourself forward 3 times on all fours.  Pop up, jump, that’s one burpee.  Keep it moving.

After the last of the pax finished the full loop, we had about 10 minutes, which we leveraged for partner carry work.  Thanks GRT from Friday night.  Felt inspired.  Partner up –
– Partner 1 does Spiderman Merkins while Partner 2 runs the length of the parking lot.  When they get to the end, they call for Partner 1 who starts to run to their Partner 2 (while Partner 1 is catching up, Partner 2 does Spiderman Merkins).  When they meet up, they partner carry each other the full length of the parking lot back to the starting point.  Did that 2 more times so everyone carried their partner 3 separate times.  The other exercises while one partner was running were squat touches (squat low enough to touch the ground w/ your fingers) and crunchy frogs.

2 minutes left – good old fashioned sprints.  Everyone back pedal 1/2 the length of the parking lot, all you got, and then turn and sprint the second half.  Did that 2 times and then it was time for COT.

Praises – new jobs / promising job interviews
Prayers – marriages, big flo barreling our way

Thanks to Bones for giving me the chance to lead these great men.  Big thanks to all the guys who made it out today – was awesome to bust a$$ together and get after it.

ChaChing

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8

Board of Pain at the Fire Ant

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It was an honor to again be placed on the Q list of the long list of candidates for The Fire Ant. After Spiderman renewed the mission of this AO, I knew I needed to make it worthwhile for the 14 others who decided to remove themselves from the fartsack this gloom.

THE THANG

So we began with the following: We took a quick ruck march around the building to the front of the Harris Teeter where YHC had previously placed the BOP. At this point YHC gave the F3 Disclaimer. YHC requested that everyone partner up. I then explained the Board: Partner 1 was to perform the first exercise and partner 2 was to perform the movement timing mechanism/then flapjack. The the pair was to go to the second exercise and timing mechanism. The exercises and timing mechanisms are listed below:

Exercises: Merkins, Low Slow Squats, CDD’s, Lunges, Flutters w/Press, Ruck Thrusts, Curls, Tricep Extensions, Lateral Lunges, American Hammers, Overhead Presses, Ruck Swings, and Man Makers.

Timing Mechanisms: Shuffle, Karaoke, Butt Kickers, High Knees, Ruck Run.

After much mumblechatter was had and we made it through the list YCH led us into the following word. Once the message was given the group headed back to the COT and held our Rucks overhead until 0600.

NMM

This was a morning surrounded with many HIMs in whom YHC is intrigued by. Men who wake up at 0345-0445 to get to a workout at 0500 or 0515 almost every day of the week. Most of the PAX in attendance this gloom are planning on taking what they do with fellow F3 brothers each day and taking it into the world this coming weekend. These PAX will be participating in a Goruck event in Charlotte in remembrance of 9/11 and the men and women who sacrificed their lives on that horrific day. 9/11 is a day, if you were alive, that all will remember no matter what you were doing on that dreadful morning. However, our country came through the struggle united and closer than I had ever seen before.

This morning I challenged all PAX to remember who and what they represent when they leave the workout each morning. First they represent the one who they place their faith in. Second, they represent their families. Then they represent F3 Nation (an event is a great place to EH Sad Clowns into the brotherhood). Finally, they represent the communities they are a part of from where they live to where they work.

The challenge was to represent well no matter where or what they are doing. And trust me, I write this to remind myself of this challenge.

Announcements, Prayers, & Praises were given with the whole group.

Longshanks led the COT.

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Recovery Q

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Almost evenly split, 6 for the bootcamp and 5 for rucking.  After a busy week of tough workouts and Qs, I did not have much time to plan for this morning’s adventure so I borrowed routines from some HIMs.

Warm-ups:

Butt Kickers

High Knees

Soccer Circles

Next, we jogged over to Just Fresh for COT.

SSH x 20

Imperial Walker x 20

Windmill x 15

Plank

  • Elbows, left arm out for Moroccan Night Club x 10
  • Back to plank
  • Honeymooner
  • Downward Dog
  • Elbows, Right arm out for Moroccan Night Club x 10
  • Back to plank
  • Honeymooner
  • Downward Dog

Next, we lined up for 7 minutes of sprints.  Each segment was 1 minute, any extra time would be used to rest between sets.

We took a break from the running and performed part of this week’s Iron Pax Challenge:

25 walking lunges

25 squats

Rinse and repeat 4x

Next, we went back to the clock for ten minutes of merkins.  Each 1 minute segment, we did 20 merkins, any extra time would be used to rest.  This exercise was tough, not much rest 5 minutes in.

We headed back to COT at a slow jog pace, passing the ruckers twice along the way.  We had time for one set of LBCs before time elapsed.

 

Announcements:

Q School – Golden Corral starting next week

The Fort Invergence – Sept 21 @1730, Rush Pavilion

Prayers:

Injured Pax

Family stresses (kids, jobs, etc)

New F3 Pax – life changing, keep coming out

Families traveling over the holiday

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Live Right through your Concentrica

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My goodness it was humid again.  The day started at 74 degrees and just being outside for 1 minute you started to sweat.  It was going to be a tough morning!

17 men gathered before the 5:15 start, I was happy to meet Radar down from F3 Gastonia.  Tesla told him to come down and check us out.  Regal also brought Supafly who was posting for his 2nd workout this week while up from GA on business.

Bones allowed me the pleasure to Q at one of my favorite AOs.  Always a large and great group of guys out at the Abyss.  Today I wanted to bring more of a message to the group than usual, but this is a 1st F workout…so a beatdown came with it!

Gave the longer disclaimer (I needed the practice) and off around the parking lot we went for the warmup.  Standard running stuff, high knees, butt kickers, karaoke, toy soldiers then circled up.

COP consisted of Seal Jacks, Imperial Walkers, Moroccan Night Clubs,  Slow Squats, Merkins, Plank Jacks…all at different reps.  That seemed to drive Witch Hunt and Jedi crazy because the mumble chatter between those two wouldn’t stop.  Tough to yell at someone when you’re counting in cadence (and they know it).

Mosey to the back bus parking lot for the things I had planned.

The Thang

I really did find these on the F3 Nation exercises!

“Bo jangles Biscuit” = Use the oval track, sprint the straightaways & mosey the turns. Do this twice.

“Slowjangles Blueberry biscuit” = lunge walk around the oval and at four designated spots we stopped for 5 burpees.  One lap.  This was longer and harder than I thought!  I might have been the biggest complainer about this evolution.

The Main Event

I’ve truly enjoyed the 43 feet Podcasts and the Q source posts.  The messages are excellent, but the implementation is tough…but bringing this stuff to our PAXs attention should be something we all do as a Q in some detail.  Many of my most memorable posts are when the Q brings a solid message with the workout and I wanted to live up to that.  In my own life I know how backwards I’ve had my Concentrica lately and a good refersher for all followed.

We talked about the Acceleration of a HIM going from Get Right –> Live Right –> Lead Right –> Leave Right.  Today was a focus on the Live Right.

The discussion I shared was around intentionality, understanding the fallacy of a work-life balance being represented on a teeter-totter.  The picture is best represented as a target.  In the center is your “M” (and we properly defined M) then 2.0 (family) then Shieldlock Brothers then Friends then Mammon.  I explained each and there suggested relevance to your life.

But I had also drawn a large target representation of all this on the ground (Mr. Selfie forgot to take a picture)…so we were going to play a game! Each PAX was going to get an opportunity to throw a bean bag at the target from about 18 paces away.  (definitely not corn hole regulation distance I was told multiple times.)

Each section represented a different 10 rep exercise we would do…and DO NOT miss the target!

M = 10 count (we had ZERO hits here)

2.0s/Family = Squats in cadence

Shieldlock = Ranger Merkins

Friends = Jump Lunges

Mammon = Bombjacks

outside the circle = 10 burpees (about 5 men missed)

I thought it was fun, and we kept sweating quite a bit.   I hope the PAX enjoyed it as well.

Mosey back to COT where we had 5 minutes left of Mary.  10 counts for ab exercises picked by the PAX

Annoucements = (read your newsletter)

Prayers for Lutefisk’s mother, Tesla’s friend Meredith and her passing, Qbert and his church helping 100 children through the gospel.

A Honor to Lead!

-Royale

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Cone Relay and The Cooper

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I don’t know what the temperature was this morning, but it was nice. Somewhere in the low 60s if I had to guess – perfect for getting a good running based workout in. 9 PAX for the boot camp, and 1 Tater went for a run.

Disclaimer disclaimed. Then we moseyed across the street to the elementary school.

COP

SSH, Windmills, low slow squat, weed pickers, 5 worst merkins ever OYO, superman

The Thang

Cone Relays

We went down to the football field where YHC had set up the first event for the day. PAX formed 2 teams and were told they would be competing against each other, with the losing team getting a penalty exercise. 17 cones had been setup at the goal line on the far end of the field. On each team 1 PAX would sprint to retrieve a cone and bring it back (200 yard round trip). While P1 was running, the others on the team did an exercise which was determined by the previous cone (we started with SSH for the first round). On the bottom of the cone (so you don’t know what you are choosing) was an exercise and rep count which had to be completed by the entire team before the next PAX could run for the next cone. The “waiting” exercise was written on the top of each cone (clearly visible when the cone was selected) that the non-runners had to do. For example, P1 brings back a cone and everyone on the team does 30 merkins. Then, while P2 is running, P1, P3, and P4 do high knees in place until P2 returns. Repeat until there are no more cones. The team with the most cones at the end wins. Here were the cone pairings:

 

PAX seemed to enjoy this one and there was some good competition. The final score was  a close 9 to 8, with the losing team having selected both the burpee cone, and the lap cone. The winners (YHC, Twitch, Nemo, Royale, and Blocks) had the option of giving 10 burpees to the losers (Wolverine, Lorax, Two Ferns, and Shakespeare) or taking 5 burpees for everyone. We magnanimously chose the 5 burpees for all.

 

The Cooper

The Deep has a great full-sized track, which I was eager to include in my Q. As a track routine, the Cooper is as simple as it is exhausting: PAX do 10 burpees, 10 squats, 10 merkins, and 10 big boy sit-ups then run a lap on the track. Then they do 9 burpees, 9 squats, 9 merkins, and 9 big boy sit-ups and run a lap on the track. Rinse and repeat until you get to 0 reps. When done to completion the Cooper affords 2.5 miles of running and 55 reps of each exercise… unless you are Nemo and accidently do 10 reps for every round. Technically this was a Sheldon Cooper, but whatever. It was good to see the PAX pushing each other through the running – you definitely run faster when you think you have someone trying to pass you. Most PAX made it into round 3 or 4 before we had to start the mosey back to COT.

 

COT then coffeeteria at DD.

It was lots of fun to plan this Q. Thank you Shakespeare for the opportunity to lead.

Stay Classy,

Homebrew

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The Millennial

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25 men showed up for the awesome Fire Ant ruck Q lead by NASA. If your wanted to hear about that, well you’re in the wrong place… YHC had the bootcamp Q.

So I gave the full group the official disclaimer to all Then we split off. 8 of the men came with me.

The Thang

dynamic warmup with high knees butt kickers and toy soldiers.

Circle up for some number of reps of Imperial Walkers, Abe  Vagota, Merkins,  moroccan night clubs, and mountains climbers.

Mosey over to the board I brought,  affectionately called the “millennial”

heres how it goes… 100 reps each exercise, then 100 yard lap around the Parking lot.

1. Side straddle Hops (SC)

2. Merkins

3.LBCs

4.Squats

5. Mountain Climbers (SC)

6. Lunges (SC)

7. Plank Punches (SC)

8. Carolina Dry Docks

9. Flutter Kicks (SC)

10. “Mystery Exercise”  Everyone guessed burpees but I let Manifold pick for us.  He chose poorly….Monkey Humpers…God I hate those things!

Why the “Millennial” you ask?  So you take 10 exercises at 100 reps plus 1000 yards of running

you get 2000 – about the time millennials came into this world.

Finished up with Ab Labs for about 3-4 exercises called out by the PAX.

COT Namorama prayers and announcements.

An Honor to lead

-Royale

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Burpees, Bearcrawls, and Barf!

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A great crowd this morning at The Abyss.  We had a bunch of runners and a bunch of bootcampers and 1 FNG.  Those that stayed for the bootcamp probably wish the would have joined the runners, I know I did.  This workout was hard and we didn’t complete it, but there is always next time…

We started with the typical mosey to get the blood flowing a bit, we circled around the parking lot and did some shuffle steps, NUR, and back to mosey before circling up for warm-a-rama around the basketball hoops.  I decided prior that the warm-up was going to set the precedence for the workout (hard) and warm-up the muscles we’d be using a lot (shoulders, core, arms).

Warm-a-Rama

  • 10 Windmills
  • Elbow plank (called on random PAX for 10 counts, at least 2 rounds)
  • Back to regular plank – 10 Merkins
  • 9 Diamond Merkins (Q-Shame, I didn’t have one more in me)
  • Recover with 25 SSH IC
  • Back to Plank – 10 Peter Parkers
  • 10 Parker Peters
  • 6″ hold – Called on Random Pax for 10 counts (at least 2 rounds)
  • 25 Moroccan Nightclubs IC

We then moseyed to the grass hill for the next exercise.

For the first routine we paired up and started at the bottom of the hill on the sidewalk.  PAX A was to do Burpees while PAX B went backwards up the hill (NUR) and forwards down the hill x4.  After 4, we switched and PAX B continued the Burpees while PAX A ran backwards up/forwards down x4.  We did this until we reached 120 Burpees… a few of the PAX finished, most were over a 100 when I called it for time (I had another routine I wanted to get to).  Our Friendly New Guy thought this was a great time to splash merlot, so he did, but he kept on trucking right after.  He definitely brought the GRIT!

Congratulations and welcome Doubtfire! No better way to start F3, it’s all uphill from here!

We then took the short mosey to the paved hill the leads up to the rear gate to the school.  For the 2nd routine I brought back Paula Abduls, I’ve never done them on a hill so I thought that would be a nice (painful) new twist.  Paula’s aren’t really an exercise, its just a movement, 2 forward, 1 back, which is a nice metaphor on life.  Life isn’t a consistent line straight up, we all have setbacks, we all get knocked down, but it is how we respond to those set backs that contribute to our success.  We all know that through failure we become better, this is a nice way to build an exercise around that idea.  I didn’t have the energy to hammer that point home during the workout so I thought I would take the opportunity to point that out here.  In any case, back to the routine…

6 Cones were placed up the hill about 25 paces (50ft. or so) apart. We would always move in this order, 2 (cones) forward, 1 back until we reached the 6th cone and then we would work our way back. If you ever plan do this keep in mind cones will be hit multiple times depending on where they are placed, so plan accordingly.  Each cone had an exercise on it:

  1. True Americans x10 (hand release merkin & a plank jack =1)
  2. Donkey Kicks x10
  3. Squats x25 (this was meant to be a break)
  4. Crab Jacks (think plank jack, but in crab position) x10
  5. Diamond Merkins x10
  6. Absolution x10 – I haven’t done these before, but they will be back.  They were awesome and it was also a bit humorous watching the PAX get the coordination down for these.  It’s an 8-count exercise that goes a little something like this:
    • Start in plank position and perform a single Groiner (cadence “1” jump feet forward, “2” jump feet back), then Mahktar N’ Diayes to Chillcut position (cadence “3” & “4” with drop to each elbow), then Chilly Jack (cadence “5” feet out, “6” feet together), and finally Mahktar N’ Diayes to plank starting position (cadence “7” and “ONE, TWO, etc.” with rise on each hand).

Oh and I almost forgot to mention… we always went forward 2 by way of the Bear Crawl and backwards 1 by way of the Crawl Bear.  Brutal.

None of us made it back down, but we did all make it to the top, so I called it with about 5 minutes to spare to head back to CoT.

With only about 2 minutes left we did a couple of Ab exercises, I called LBC’s x 25 IC and called on Bones who did another 20-25 Flutters IC until we hit 6:00AM.

Announcements, praises, prayers

Read your newsletter!

Prayers for school teachers and our children as they head back to school.  Prayers for injured PAX and those with nagging injuries.

See ya’ll Monday at the Quagmire 🙂

-Flux

 

 

 

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Pre-Blast: September ’18 – Back to (Q) School

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Men,

The Mission of F3 is to plant, grow and serve small workout groups for the invigoration of male community leadership. In order to invigorate male leadership, we must strive to invigorate and encourage new males to step up and become leaders. One of the best ways we have to accomplish this is to help new PAX learn what it takes to Q.

This is especially important this year as we push to expand the number of leaders in The Fort with our #218in18 FNG Campaign. We are encouraging SiteQs to schedule VQs throughout the remainder of this year. To support this effort, we need to make sure we provide the resources needed to these new leaders.

We’ll be launching Q School at Golden Corral (centrally located for everyone in the region) every Tuesday in September (4th, 11th, 18th, 25th). Q School will be led by a few of our veterans (who are also trying to get better at these opportunities to lead). Q School will feature both Q101 (perfect for new guys or those that want to get a handle on the basics) and Q201 (a more advanced session focused on some of the more detailed aspects of Q’ing).

Here is the schedule:

  • September 4th – Q101 – CakeBoss + Longshanks
  • September 11th – Q101 – Senator Tressel + Bones
  • September 18th – Q101 & Q201 – Double D + Royale
  • September 25th – Q101 & Q201 – Pusher + Dark Helmet

This is a great opportunity to work together to continue to develop leaders across the Fort Mill/Indian Land/Lake Wiley area. Contact Ginsu or any of the Qs listed above with questions.

– Ginsu

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CSPAN Send off Convergence

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141 Men came to show the Respectable**CSPAN** some Respect!!

He leaves The Fort and heads north or as Dredd refers to Yankee land. Not gone forever but just up the road 600 miles to start a new chapter in life and in F3 as he will launch F3Philly.

I am not the most eloquent with my back-blasts and I am usually to the point with posting the workout, add some words and being done, however since I can’t get Italian Job to write this up and Double D challenged the PAX to think of one word to represent CSAPN, I think that is the best way to document this convergence.

Thank you CSPAN for being all of these things and more to you r brothers in the PAX. As posted on Twitter and many of these were repeated multiple times:

brother
camaraderie
commitment
confidence
connected
consistent
courageous
dedicated
empathetic
example
genuine
handsome
HIM
honorable
humble
humility
impact
influence
influencer
insightful
inspiration
integrity
investor
legend
magnanimous
model
respect
selfless
servant
shepherd
solid
squaredaway
steadfast
steady
wise

The Workout looked like this:

WWL at the Q:

  • Mosey around the lot
  • Line up; karaoke, side shuffle, high knees, butt kickers, toy solders, lungewalk, power skips
  • COP
    • SSH, squat, merkin, moroccan night club, 10 Flying squirrels
Double D at the Q:
  • Run to practice field
  • Plank sequence
  • Split into 2 groups on each sideline
  • Sprint to center and back to sideline
  • Monkey humpers x25
  • Rinse + repeat with Merkins x 25
  • CDDs x25
  • Burpees x25
Longshanks at the Q:
  • Burpees
  • Lunges
  • Inch worm Merkins
  • Maktar Ndiayes
  • Plank Jacks
  • Squats.

Dredd at the Q:

  • Prayer for CSPAN
  • Merkin/Ab Lab series
  • Truth Nuggets and Leadership development with Major Payne, Wegmans, & Drop Thrill
  • Mosey to hill behind Bob Jones Stadium
  • Prayer for CSPAN heading to F3Philly…..”CSPAN Coming”
  • More Merkin/Ab lab series

COT:

141 Count, Name O’rama, 2 FNGs (Bikini & Manzel), Skinny Jeans pray out over CSPAN and his IMPACT on men and for Sky Q’s kingdom.

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104

Pain Stations and Partner Beatdown on tap at Bermuda Triangle

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YHC is a big fan of getting up at 4:20 for the Q at the 5:00AM launch of Bermuda Triangle.  Fresh off 3 miles of Suicides courtesy of Which Hunt at Poopdeck, I was excited to get after it, hoping for a strong turnout.  Disclaimer was delivered and the we got to business.  Here is how it went down:

Warm-o-rama:

Started with a 400 meter (more or less) modified indian run where the lead runner passes back overhead a 10lb medicine ball.  Last man sprints to the front of the line and so on until we arrived back near the flag:

  • 20 SSH IC
  • 15 Imperial Walkers IC
  • 15 Weed pullers IC
  • 10 Merkins IC
  • 15 Mountain Climbers IC

Next on to Part 1 of the workout: a 3 station beat down with pain stations spread around the 400 meter track.

Station 1:

  • 10 Jump squats
  • 10 single count curls/arm (25lb dumbells)
  • 20 Nolan Ryan’s (10/side)
  • 25 LBCs (single count) => run to station 2

Station 2:

  • 10 Lunges per leg
  • 10 WWII Sit ups
  • 10 Tricep hammers/ arm (20lb dumbells)
  • 10 Diamond merkins => run to station 3

Station 3:

  • 25 SSH
  • 20 Flutters (per leg)
  • 15 Derkins
  • 15 CDDs

Rinse and repeat once

Unfortunately for the Pax, we still had 15 minutes left, so on the Part 2: 

Partners would split reps, with one running about 100 yards while the other got cracking:

  • 100 Lunges
  • 75 Ranger Merkins
  • 75 Bobby Hurley Squats
  • 75 Carolina Dry docks
  • 75 Crab Cakes
  • 75 Werkins
  • 75 Monkey Humpers
  • 100 LBCs
  • 40 Flying Squirrels

The leaders only got as far as the Monkey humpers.  Pax were told completion at home was optional.

In Closing

We circled up to name 31 year old FNG Matt Hickey , now forever to be known as “Love Bite”.  Praises and prayers for health and healing, comfort and celebration were brought forth.  YHC closed the COT with prayer.

As always, I’m grateful to be a part of F3 Nation and fort the opportunity to Q.

-Wolverine

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