Reggie

Reggie lives across the hall and 2 doors down. He is 6 years old (that was how he introduced himself to me). Through an amazing turn of events (which included a sluggish, grumpy me one morning and a random roadside meeting) I now take Reggie to school in the morning. Reggie is a bundle of pure energy. There are mornings when he is literally (and I really mean literally) bouncing off the walls on our way down to the car to leave. Reggie has a Spiderman backpack (which I think is SO cool), but Batman is his favorite. In fact, Reggie wants to be Batman when he grows up, and our daily conversations often revolve around what his life will be like when he is Batman (in case you were wondering, it would be pretty cool). Everything is exciting to him..."Look horses! I like horses!" "Look, a white school bus! I've never seen one that color before. I bet they come in all different colors!" "Look! A boy with a backpack! I have a backpack! I bet he's going to school." There is never anything we see that isn't exciting in some way. And, like many boys much older than him, he relives his amazing sports moments often. I still hear about his first day of school during recess when they were playing basketball and a girl went to shoot the ball and he knocked it far, far away "right out of her hands. Isn't that amazing?" I have to leave 20-30 minutes earlier than I used to, but I really don't mind at all. I enjoy starting the morning looking at the world through the eyes of a 6 year old. I too find myself thinking, "I could do so many more things if I were Batman," and I'm starting to notice little things that may seem mundane, but now I think they are very exciting. It's a refreshing way to start my day. Although I do worry that sometime when I'm playing ball toss with my residents, that I'll be hoping for the chance to knock the ball right out of their hands, far, far away so I can brag about it in the car later...

Thoughts on Prayer & Evangelism

Things are well here on campus. I am learning a lot in my classes and from my required reading. I have been learning a lot about prayer, and not just reading a lot about prayer, but truly learning about prayer through study and practice. My professor for my Evangelism course has continued to stress to us the fundamental importance of prayer for our lives (mentally, physically and even spiritually!), for the church and especially for reaching those who do not yet have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. So 1/3 of the class period is spent praying as a class or with our prayer partner. It has been refreshing and reinvigorating to say the lest. The more time we spend in prayer the more our focus is on God and his business here on Earth, in our communities and in our lives. This also dovetails with another book I am reading for a different class called "God at Sinai." This book details all those events in the Bible where God reveals himself to someone or someones. The example I am thinking about is when Moses is called by God to go up to the Mountain to make two new tablets in Ex 34. When Moses returns to the people, they cannot even look at him because there is a light shining about his head because he "has spoken with the LORD." It is so bright that Moses has to where a veil to talk to the people. In the same way as we draw close to God and are transformed into disciple of Christ and more closely walk in the way of the Spirit, we reflect that same glory that Moses encountered by drawing close to God. When we have that glory, people cannot help but wonder what is different about us or our lives or what is missing from his or her own life. This is evangelism as it is proclaimed in the Bible. People attracting others to Christ, not pushing or pulling them to Christ. Now, there are things I am leaving out that are important (building relationships, communicating the gospel message clearly, etc). Well, thus my thoughts over the last week. I didn't expect it to be this long, but I guess, once you get going, you really get going. Your thoughts?

Ice Cream Temptations

I know it has been a while since we posted a new blog. The school year has begun and I have about 6,000- 8,000 pages to read this semester, numerous papers, and a lot of Hebrew and Greek translating to do. So, it may be hit and miss for a while. Kim is usually exhausted after work, but I will encourage her to do more posting. Perhaps I will tempt her with ice cream? That certainly works to get her to do the dishes when I just don't want to do them. "If you do the dishes, I will run to the store and bring back ice cream with chocolate and peanut butter." That usually does the trick; that and she likes to race me to see if she can get the dishes done before I return, which she usually does. Off to study for my Hebrew Comprehensive Exam. Fun, fun. Just translated 1 Kings 18:1-16 yesterday, so if you are bored, read that passage about the prophets Elijah and Obadiah.

Orientation & Registration

Since Tuesday I have been going through orientation here at GCTS. While most of it is old news for me due to having moved here 3 months ago, I did register today and thought I would share my class schedule with you. Oh, good news, I took a New Testament and an Old Testament Competency exam and passed out of two survey courses. What this means is that I have 2 elective courses that have opened up for me. This is very exciting because the MDiv program here is pretty much mapped out for us (26 of our 30 courses are mandatory), but some of the mandatory courses do have options. For example, I need to take a course in Christian Ethics and there are 3 or 4 courses that would fulfill that requirement. Now that I have passed out of the OT & NT survey courses, I have 6 electives to play with instead of just 4, which is so nice considering that there are so many courses I want to take, but I just can't fit them all in! Anyway, here is my schedule for this fall:

Basic Greek M,W,F 8-9 am
Exegesis of the Elijah and Elisha Narratives M 1:15-4:15 pm
Introduction to the Old Testament T 1:15-4:15 pm
Personal Evangelism through the Local Church W 6-9 pm
Introduction to Pastoral Counseling F 1:15-4:15


A few comments:

1. Yes, I am taking 5 courses, which is considered to be a heavy load (most take four), but I have taken Greek before, so that should be more review than anything, and I am not yet heavily involved with our church yet, and I have a job that allows me to study as I work. Additionally, I am use to taking 5 courses per semester when I was at Hillsdale.

2. The exegesis course is my Hebrew class.

3. I am very excited to get started. I have been antsy lately, especially when Kim is at work and I am home bored.

4. I have already met and visited with 4 of my professors here and have been very impressed with how welcoming and personal they have all been. You can sense here that there is a very heavy emphasis with in the administration and faculty concering each student's spiritual life and character. It's humbling to see how much prayer there is on campus among the students and faculty. It certainly has been encouraging and motivating for my own prayer time. By the way, if you have something for which I can pray for you, please let me know via comments or shoot me an e-mail. This could be a one-time thing or I can add you to my weekly prayer list. Prayer is refreshing in and of itself for the soul, and then you add on top of it that God actually listens and acts upon them is utterly astonishing. I will write more concerning my classes as the semester proceeds. Ta, ta for now.

She's Alive!!!!

For anyone who has read the blog lately and wondered if I (Kim) am still alive, I am. Between work and visitors (Lucas failed to mention the visit from Maggen Stone and Dr. Jordan - they didn't come together - two weekends before his parents came) It's been a little hectic. Now, I would love to tell you all about my job, all that I have been doing the last 4 weeks, and all that is coming. But that would take forever. So, instead I will tell you about one event from this week that rocked my world. We had scheduled a Hawaiian luau over lunch on Wednesday. It was originally going to be outside and we had a professional hula dancer coming, and inflatable limbo set (we were going to set it high enough so wheel chairs could pass through), tropical decorations, Bryan (who is an activities assistant, but also a DJ on the side) brought in his sound system and tropical music, and a Hawaiian meal. BUT it was a crazy week, and the weather was absolutely awful, and we had to move it inside which meant less room (which meant not all of the residents could come). So we had to ask the residents and make lists of those who wanted to come and the morning of the luau we discovered that we had about 20 more residents coming than could currently fit in the room. It truly looked like we were going to have a disaster. But on of the administrators took it upon himself to drastically rearrange the room and bring in different tables to accomodate more residents, and everyone in the building (housekeeping, maintenance, social workers, CNA's, nurses, administration) helped with transporting residents and serving, and we ended up with about 15 more residents than we had on the lists but they ALL fit. Then the hula dancing started (and here I must add that the directors of maintenance and housekeeping - both males - had us order them grass skirts and coconut bras ahead of time that they wore to the luau and they jumped right in and did some hula dancing of their own) and the residents loved it. Some of them smiled more than they ever have before (granted most of these were men...oh the power of a coconut bra...). We ended up extending it almost a 1/2 hour over the time limit becuase everyone was having so much fun. In the end residents and staff alike were telling us that it was the most fun they've ever had at Brooksby. It's things like that, that make me so happy to be where I am. The best part is this wasn't that special of an occassion. While it turned out to be an extra spectacular time, we have similar events at least twice a month. It is truly an amazing place to work.
I have to add that the activities staff has been an amazing group to work with. I have learned so much, and continue to be amazed every day at how talented they are and how dedicated they are to the residents. And the residents are also amazing. They all know I'm new and they constantly encourage and help me, making me feel so welcome. I LOVE my job.
The only problem is that I love it so much I could stay there forever, and often do work overtime and bring work home (which is why no one has heard from me in such a long time). But starting Sunday I have a 3 day "weekend" and I am planning on using that time to reply to e-mails and phone calls. I love you all so much and thank you for all the prayers when I was looking for a job. I have definitely been blessed with this opportunity.

GCTS Bookcentre

Good news, Kim is not the only one with a job in our family anymore. I was hired to work at the bookstore here on campus. While this may not seem so glorious, this is one of the few jobs on campus where if work is slow, it is ok if I study for my classes while I am at work. How great is that? Plus, I love just walking around the bookstore because, well it's a Christian bookstore. In addition, I receive 15% off my textbooks. Not too shabby.