Community

So we have just spent the past week on the book of Acts and the thought that I have had continually running through my head is idea of community. The book of Acts gives us such a good picture of what Godly community is supposed to look like. In the chapters following Pentecost it gives us a great example of the disciples of Christ living like the Church is suppose to live. They are all willing to help one another in any way that they can, there are people selling off their possessions and giving it to the Church in order to provide for their fellow man. I talks about how they were in fellowship with one another and that they ate together and talked about Jesus and the Scriptures.

I feel like what we see in the church of Acts is similar to the type of community that we have hear and I am so thankful for it! I am thankful that I have been given the opportunity to live life and be in this community here. Its such a pleasure to be in a place where conversations about Jesus don’t have to be held in private, but that they are everywhere. This is something that I want to take with me, whenever I may leave, because I want Jesus to be talked about in my conversations. I want this because he is the most important person in the world and I want him to be made known. I also love how when someone is down here, everyone rallies around them in order to pick them up and comfort them. This is something that I can see the early church in Acts excelling at because of the love the book displays they had for one another.

The thing that I think I love the most about being here is the safe environment (spiritually) that we have. I love that I am really able to wrestle with the things that I am learning and really allow them to affect my life. I love the fact that I can talk with other staff members and “challenge” what they believe with what I believe and we can continue to have a dialogue as we both learn. This has been something that has really changed me over the past year and I am so thankful for it!

First One Down

It has been a frantic and crazy past couple of weeks up here and I am just now starting to breathe normally again after I have been on what feels like a full sprint. The sprint included reading rather large books, sitting at my computer for hours at a time, a trip to Matthews and then once again reading rather large books and sitting at my computer.

The past couple of weeks I have been frantically studying the book of Luke in order to give my first Big-Boy lecture. I have realized that I really enjoy the studying aspect of being a teacher. I really “geeked out” on all of the little details within the book of Luke and just really enjoyed comparing what one person thinks to another and then trying to come up with my own conclusions. But I have also realized that I can only do this for so long!

So to get a little break from all the studying, I made a trip to Matthew, NC to stay with the BuCrew aka Uncle Tim, Aunt Mary, Hannah, Julia, Victoria and Josh. I had a blast and probably consumed about 3 gallons worth of kettle corn popcorn. I was given the privilege of being UT’s spotter for his PA announcing at one of the local high schools and I think that I might have a career as a spotter if I turn out not so good at this teaching thing. I love my time in Matthews because it is just always so relaxing … especially when its football season!

Whenever I got back from Matthews it was time to hit the books again and I started writing and preparing my lecture on Luke. I got a little frustrated because I had so many thoughts but I couldn’t figure out which ones should be in my lecture and which ones I should leave out. Luckily for me I have a great group of fellow staff members that helped me out!

So ya … yesterday I gave my lecture on the book of Luke and I think that it went pretty well. You can listen to it here if you want. (Luke Lecture) I really just hope that the students learned something! I think that the book of Luke is so great and it really has impacted me as I studied for it and it really has given me a new outlook on the way that I look at those around me. I’m not better than anyone and I can’t look at them like I am because we are all on the same level within God’s kingdom!

Out Of The Starting Gate

We have successfully made it to our second week of school, the students noses are deeply in the Bible and everything is going well! The staff is really excited because the community has bonded quickly and it looks like we are going to have a great year. This past Saturday we took a break from our studies to go on the ESBS Annual Blueberry Picking Trip. The great part was that the weather was beautiful and we got to hike up on a mountain. The bad part was that there weren’t really that many blueberries to be found! We had come a little too late and everyone had snatched them all up.

We have already gone through the books of Philemon, Philippians and we are in the middle of Titus. There have already been some good truths that have been learned about God and about how we have been called to live. Its exciting for me because after last year and going through the program its allowing me to go more in depth with the text.

Next Monday the 29^th, I have my first big lecture on the Background to the New Testament. During the lecture I am going to hopefully be helping the students get into the mind of the people living in the Roman empire in the first century. I am really excited to be teaching this lecture because it was one of my favorites last year!

(Action shot on the mountain)

(Group Shot)

My Summer Roommate

So the summer has come and gone and its finally time for the ESBS to start. I am excited to get this ESBS party started, but it does come with some sadness. I have to part ways with my 3 year old roommate, Anna. I had the pleasure of living with the ESBS director, Tom and his wife Julia for the summer. And I can honestly say that it was a summer that I will never forget!

This past year I felt like I hadn’t done enough playing. I mean I was confined to a room and a computer screen for the most part of 10 months. However, I never thought that this complaint of mine would have been answered by being asked to play from the moment I woke up, until the moment that Anna went to bed. It was an exciting summer of playtime that involved games like “I’m gonna get you!” or “Bear” or anything else that her little mind could come up with. My personal favorite was a game I created which was called “Meditation.” In this game we sat still for a while (and by a while I mean 3-5 seconds). It was nice because I convinced her to play it over and over again.

We even had our own nighttime ritual where we would take some photos on my computer (I have attached them below) and then we would watch Rebecca Black’s “Friday”. This was my favorite part of the summer not only because some of our pictures are amazing, but mostly because she knows every word to Friday. We were just partying, partying YEAHHH!

There were some things that I learned about myself while I hung out with Anna. I realized that my appetite and that of a 3 year old are the same. We both prefer Mac N Cheese and Hotdogs for dinner. (I mean we are just trying as best we can to eat healthy!) We also love playing with bath toys! (Not at the same time though … that’s weird) It was fun to share a bathroom with Anna because I never knew what I was going to find in there. Some days it was an alligator or shark in the shower or a big number 2 left in the toilet for me!

But the biggest thing that I have learned about myself through being with Anna this summer is that at times I lose my childlike faith. That is one of the things that I absolutely love about Anna is that she has that kind of childlike faith in Christ. She already understands the concept that Jesus loves her now and that he always will. (Her prayers at dinner were always the best) She loves reading her Bible stories and she has some that she can tell you by just looking at the pictures. Its amazing to see how God is already working in her life. She really showed me and taught me that I am to have that kind of faith and that I am not going to be able to understand or explain everything about God and to be ok with that. Because in those moments I am to still believe and trust and remain faithful to Christ.

This truly is a summer that I am never going to forget and I am thankful for Tom, Julia, Anna and Luke allowing me to be apart of their family!

Nighttime Photo Shoots:

(^^^ This one is my favorite)

(Thats Julia, my roommate from last year Daniel, and Baby Luke in the back)

We So Excited

We are currently one week away from the start of Staff Training for the upcoming school year and I’m not gonna lie … I’m excited! (But I'm not as excited as this) I can’t wait to get into the grind of the school year and see what God has in store for our community up here. I think that thing that I am most pumped up for is to meet the students and to start building relationships with them. This past year, while I was a student, the teachers had a huge impact on my life and it was not only with their knowledge in the classroom; but it was more because of the way that they took time out of their own lives to invest in mine. I desire to make that same impact on the students this year!

As we approach August, I ask that you would please pray for the school. Pray that God will show up and that he will move within the community. That he will reveal his character to the students and that they will continue to fall more in love with him over the year as they work through the Bible. I ask that you please pray for me and that he will give me the confidence to stand up and present his word and truth to the students. That I would not be distracted by my own ambitions to be a good teacher, but that I will be more concerned with how he is going to use me to present his truths to the students. I want to be focused on what he has for them and what they are going to learn from the books that I teach; rather than how I look up there in front of the class.

I can’t wait for this year to start and to see what God is going to do in my life and in the lives of the students and other staff! Thank you so much for your prayers!