God's provision

God is providing!

I sent out my newsletters to many many friends and family. There are more names than I can remember on that mailing list! God is faithful though and people have been seeking him about giving to my help support my trip. In the last week, I've recieved promises for a one time donation of $250 and $50 a month in pledges towards my monthly budget. I also recieved a donation today for $200! I'm amazed at people's generosity and at the encouragement that the Lord is giving me through them. I wasn't even expecting the people to give that gave today! Praise God for his provisions and for being constantly faithful... When He leads, be sure that He will provide as well!

Sermon Preparation

I am currently working, rather diligently too, at building the first sermon I will be preaching to an actual congregation. I have struggled for a while on how I should go about it and how it will be an effective, exogetical sermon. I have been certain on the passage I should use. In fact, I lead a devotion with a basic 3 points from the same passage just over a month ago. I have been feeling that what I said there wouldn't be enough. It doesn't have enough meat to it, it isn't solid enough to build a full 20-40 minute sermon on. After reading the passage over and over, practicing some of my hermeneutic techniques on it, I still wasn't satisfied. This morning, I pulled out my Biblical Preaching book from one of my classes at Bethany U, and just started skimming the pages again. I soon realized that I had missed what many people consider the most important step, seeking the "Big Idea" of the passages as a whole. I've been thinking since this morning on what the big idea is for my passages, Joshua 1:1-9, and have weighed the "Be Strong & Courageous" theme, I've weighed the "Joshua stepped out and filled humongous shoes" theme, and every other thing I could think of. Unfortunately, I just didn't think any of them fit the entire passage. God has finally shown me something. The common thread is on the Lord's presence amongst his people. I finally have something that my sermon can be built on. Constantly, the book of Joshua comes back to the point of the Lord's presence, not only in 1:1-9, but in the entire book! From the beginning, it shows that the Lord is stepping in to move his people. I'm comforted and I know that this message will be one that is easily preached!

Encountering A Memory

As I still have many things stored in many places from my 4 years at Bethany, I have been slowly putting things away that I would like to keep. Today I was going through my art box where, in the rushes of packing up after finals week, I threw a bunch of random things in with my painting supplies. As I was putting stuff away in my current bedroom, I found a couple pieces of paper folded together almost as if they were sent to me in the mail. Naturally I wanted to see if indeed they were a letter from someone from my past and I found that yes they were, but the best part about them is that they were written by me.
In my sophomore year at Bethany U, I went on a missions trip to England. During the trip every team member lead a devotional before we left to do whatever we were going to do for the day. The letter was two fold. It contained my notes for the devotional that I lead, and a journal entry that I wrote beforehand. As I read through both pages, a flood of memories came back to me. I was challenged by my own writing too. The devotional challenged our team to be focused on what Christ did for us and what it meant to us. It challenged us to do everything with a greater passion so as to illustrate to the kids we were teaching how much Jesus means to us.
As I read my journal entry, I remembered the England team and what that trip meant to the rag-tag group of us that went. I'm amazed to this day by the bond that most of us still have and take to heart. We all went through a lot before the trip and this trip was a renewing experience for all of us. Sure we went to London and Paris, and yes we saw Canterburry and a bunch of other south-eastern English towns. The most impacting memories are still the ones of Christ changing us and illustrating his love for us even through our own dramas and lessons that we taught the kids. I want to go to England again, but not for the same reason as most people. I want to go see the people that impacted me while I was there to impact them. I want to tell them how much the experience that they were willing to host has changed my life. I want them to know that they are valued. They wouldn't believe that I'll be going to Macedonia soon to serve as a missionary. I feel as if they're part of my family, distant, but still part. Still important. I sure hope I'll never forget times like those that I had in England. I sure can't wait to be able to look back and enjoy memories from other experiences like them too!

The beginning of a blogsite

Since most of my readers will be those that know me, I am beginning a brand new blogsite that they can come to. The main reason is that I won't be too interested in logging into myspace when I start serving in Macedonia as a Missionary Associate come September. In fact, I wouldn't mind not having it now if I could avoid it, but for now it's a valid way of communicating to those around the states that I know and love. When I am in Macedonia however, I don't plan on taking a lot of time on the internet to check emails, post on myspace and wade through all the posts, messages and comments that will eat up my internet time! I do desire to give my friends and family a way to keep up to date on what I'm doing while I'm there. I will reflect here on many things. Things I encounter or go through that are physical, spiritual, or just plain interesting to me. I may take the time to converse with God through this blog, or I may just rant. Then again, I may just express my loneliness as I am sure there will be some of that for me to go through. I hope this can be both informal, informative, and interesting to all who come by and read my new blog. This is the beginning of my telling of The Story Of My Life.