Some things

Well, it's Friday of my first week back in school and there's a few things to update y'all on.

Tonight is the final night of the summer softball season. We get to play twice: at 8:00pm and 9:15pm. The later game is against Bloodline, a team made up of a large extended family in our church (along with some friends) and our rivals. I'm really looking forward to it. This is my fourth summer playing softball with the men from our church. I love it because I get to play a sport (which doesn't happen much anymore), but more than that, I love it because I get to know people in the church that I wouldn't get to know any other way. Also, our games have tons of fans in the bleachers because bunches of people from the church come and watch our games, which just adds to the fun.

In other exciting news, our friends the Rehrers are in the process of adopting a little girl from Africa! That's really exciting and something Amy and I have tossed around as an idea for the future. It will be fun and informative to see them go through this process.

Some people have been waiting - with bated breath no doubt - to hear about why I shaved my head. In fact, I believe my mom's exact word was "yuck." Thanks mom. Anyway, two weeks ago I was trying to hustle so I could get to church in time for our weekly staff meeting. I needed to shave and my sideburns were also getting a little long, so I decided to pull out the hair clippers and give the burns a little trim. However, in my rush, I forgot to put a guard on the clippers! So when I whooshed upwards with the clippers, my sideburns did not get trimmed, they got shaved! Not only that, but I went past the sideburns.

I called Amy and told her what happened. I said that I thought I would have to shave my head. She said not to. I took a picture with my phone and then sent it to Amy. She said I should shave my head! That's the story.

Palm Springs and a New School Year

Sunday through Tuesday, Amy, Alice and I were in Palm Springs with Pastor Ron and Susie and their three kids: Mark, Jeffrey and Alicia. As you'd expect, it was hotter than hot, averaging about 110 degrees while we were there. We stayed in a two-bedroom condo that a generous person in our church let us stay in for fairly cheap. The air conditioning was cranked up (down?) the whole time we were there, making for an almost 40 degree difference between the outside and inside temperatures during the hottest part of the day. We took several pictures and videos, which you can view here.

This coming Wednesday marks the beginning of my fifth semester at Talbot. I'm taking Apologetics, Biblical Leadership & Management, and Exegesis in Acts and the Epistles. Yep, that last mouthful is my last required Greek class! That means two things: 1) People now will (mistakenly!) expect me to be proficient in biblical Greek, and 2)I can begin taking Hebrew in the spring!

Last night I checked online to see if any of my professors had posted syllabi and was ridiculously excited to see my Apologetics syllabus up. My professor, Garrett DeWeese, not only posted the syllabus, but also all the supplementary reading, the first day of class' powerpoint slides, and other miscellaneous links and resources. Besides the last day of class, I think the first day of class is my favorite day of the semester!

Today I have Alice until 11ish and then a church friend will be watching her. She's getting big, but especially growing long. Here's a video for you to enjoy!

Knowing God

I'm finally reading a book I've always wanted to read. That book is J.I. Packer's Knowing God. I'm reading for my Theology I class and it has already proven in the first several pages why it is a modern classic. Today, I found this warning especially helpful:

If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of our interest in it and grasp of it; and we shall look down on those whose theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate and dismiss them as very poor specimens.

May we all take heed.

What's Going On?

Once again, it's been a while. Here's some food for thought and some updates.

Congratulations to our President-Elect, Barack Obama. Clearly, the country believes in you and backed you in a decisive victory over John McCain. We support you when we can, oppose you when necessary and always pray for you. We respect you and your family, but we cannot respect some of your views, such as your stand for the murder of unborn babies and your support of human embryonic stem cell research. God himself has placed you in this position and so we plead with God that you would change your mind on the issues pertaining to the sanctity of human life. God help you Mr. Obama.

I've settled into my new position as Youth Director at Village Bible Church and have hit the ground running. I am learning my way around the office and figuring our procedures. One thing that I have much to learn about is how to handle the paper work and financial processes. I am also trying to learn how to balance my 20-hour-a-week job, my full-time schooling and having time to spend with Amy. It's been challenging to find a happy medium, because Amy is busy working hard to support us and is also trying to keep up with her Financial Accounting class. Pray for us.

My book reading this year has been abysmal, and I'll end 2008 with by far the lowest count since I started keeping track in 2005. As it stands right now, I've read 27 books on the year. Now, with the semester ending in December, I will add some of the books that I've been assigned for classes. However, I doubt there's any chance that I'll rise above 35 books. I know, I'm a failure. But there's always next year!

Speaking of being off the pace, you'll notice on the sidebar that this is only the thirty-second post of the year on this blog. To match last year's pace, we'd have to post 71 more times before January! All I can say is that we'll just have to try harder to post more regularly.

Also, click on the Web Album 2 link on the sidebar to see some new pictures from some of the things we've been doing.

In two days, we'll be heading up to Santa Clarita for Thanksgiving with my family and we'll have Amy's brother Tom with us! It will be a fairly small group, so we're glad to add to that number with Tom. Other than my mom and dad and my two brothers, my grandpa will also be joining us. It looks like there's some rain in the forecast for the rest of the week, but our annual football game on Thanksgiving Day should be rain-free. Amy and I are looking forward to some long walks (to work off all the calories!) in the colder Santa Clarita air. It should be good! There is so much to be thankful for!

A Whole New World

I know when you read the title that you were hoping that there'd be a video of me singing the Aladdin song, so I'm sorry to disappoint. What I meant by that title is that on Thursday morning at 8:00am, I'll officially be back to school. Graduate school. Seminary. It's a daunting task, but Amy and I are both very excited about it. Last night, we went to Talbot New Student Banquet. It was a great time of being introduced to Talbot School of Theology at Biola University.(notice the guy in the brown shirt on the right side of the first picture that pops up on Biola's site. He's wearing a Hotchkiss shirt! That's the dorm I lived in at TMC!)

There was good food and cheesecake for dessert, but the best part of the evening was being able to sit at the same table with two professors. Dr. Garry DeWeese and Dr. Clint Arnold were very friendly and curious hosts at our table. We talked about how we got to Talbot, where we were from (lots and lots of questions about Amy being from New Hampshire, which she very much enjoyed!), what program we're in, etc.

Toward the end of the night, a microphone was passed around to all the faculty present. They introduced themselves, what department they teach in and several - sometimes very funny - interesting facts about themselves or their spouses. It was very helpful for Amy and I to be there together and meet and see who I will be learning under for the next several years.

This semester, I'm in five classes:
Beginning Greek I
Personal Foundations of Ministry
Theological Research Methodologies
Theology III
Hermeneutics and Bible Study

In other news, Amy and I are looking forward to a mini-vacation this Labor Day weekend with our newly married friends, Travis and Katy. They invited us to go camping with them on Santa Rosa Island, an island in the Channel Islands chain off the coast of California. We're jumping on a boat that takes off at 8:00am Friday morning from Ventura Harbor and hoping to return sometime in the afternoon on Monday. We'll be roughing it, since we have to hike a mile and a half from the shore to our campsite and nothing that we bring can weigh more than 45 pounds. It should be a blast! We'll post pictures and our experiences when we get back.

Adieu

Unemployed

I am no longer an employee of Liberty Christian School.  I do get paid through the rest of the summer, but my contract with LCS has expired.  Friday was my last day and it was a weird feeling.  Teaching at LCS was my first "real" job.  It was the thing that determined where Amy and I would live after we got married.  I said my goodbyes on Friday, gathered my last few belongings from my "cloffice," and drove out of the gates on Friday afternoon.

Now, I'm excited, nervous, and anxious about my first seminary class tomorrow.  I'm also anticipating a great summer of being the youth ministries intern at our church.

Speaking of that, it's time I got back to reading and studying.

A plethora of . . . stuff

Last night, my Aunt Tracy gently reminded Amy and I that we hadn't updated our blog since May 20.  Of course, I knew that, since I think about blogging everyday, I just never do it!  So let me give a few updates:

Today is the last day of school at Liberty Christian School.  Tomorrow and Friday are clean-up, wrap-up days and then it's officially summer.  Friday will also be my last day as an employee at Liberty.  I have worked at Liberty for the last two years, teaching PE, Bible, doing recess duty, lunch duty, coaching basketball for two years and volleyball for one and loving what I do.  There have been a few rough spots, but I can truly say that I have enjoyed working and serving and coaching at Liberty.  I am very appreciative to the principal, Thom Doney, for giving me this job and giving me much leeway in how I developed and taught PE.  I have learned so much here.

The main reason that I will not be returning next year is because of my plans for seminary and becoming a pastor eventually.  I am enrolled at Talbot School of Theology at Biola University and will begin full-time in the fall.  Because Amy and I decided that I should enroll full-time and try to complete seminary in a timely manner we also decided that I should only work part-time, at least at first.  We both know my strengths and my weaknesses, and so we came to the conclusion that I would be a lousy husband, Christian, employee, church member, sleeper, etc., if I tried to work full-time, go to school full-time, be involved at church in the youth group and other ministries, and be a good and loving husband to my wife.

At first, I tried to investigate working part-time at Liberty, but due to several factors, and after much discussion, prayer and mulling over scenarios, we thought it best to try to find part-time work for me elsewhere.

Last Friday, June 6, Amy and I celebrated her 25th birthday with a spaghetti dinner (disastrously planned, orchestrated and partially cooked by yours truly!) and then a stop at Coldstone Creamery after my softball game.  On Saturday, we drove over to Seal Beach, ate lunch at In-N-Out, and walked around Main St. and the pier for a few hours.  It was a fun, relaxing time together that we have rarely had in the past few busy months.  We browsed in some antique stores, noticed the many Irish pubs and bars, and walked out to the end of the loooonnnnnnggggg pier.

That night, we enjoyed being treated to Olive Garden with our good friends, Brian and Becca.  We went home after that and chatted with them for a few hours, which was really fun.  They were also the first people to sign our hospitality cloth on our new (used) kitchen table!  Amy found a solid wood table on craigslist and borrowed a truck and picked up the table two weeks ago.  It has six chairs and a leaf to extend the length and we really love it.  Maybe now we'll begin to practice hospitality a little more.

This summer I have an internship at our church and I'm also taking a summer class (Patristic and Medieval Theology, woo hoo!) at Talbot starting on Monday.  That's all for now.  Keep checking the blog for more updates.