November 11th 2010

Time for another update:

I would like to say that things are going well, but that would be dishonest or at least misleading. The truth is that school right now is very rough, I am loaded down with tons of homework and it seems like it just won't end. I keep thinking to myself that if I can just get through this next week then I will be okay. I think I have said that now for four or five weeks now. Thanksgiving does look promising though. The only major thing that I have right after thanksgiving is a preaching assignment, which although a pain in terms of timing, shouldn't be too bad.

Another thing that I am concerned with is some of my friends in other classes. I don't like to see them struggle and so I help them. I personally see it more important to help others then to get a good grade in class or even pass a class. At least that is what I have come to conclude this semester, that people are more important then a piece of paper.

I went to the financial office today to talk about what I am going to do for next semester, and they seemed okay with me not having a whole lot of money. They have seen my record for paying and would be able to work with me for next semester without to much problem. For that I am very thankful. I am still in need of work to pay for my schooling come next semester, or money, whichever works. My experience is that you have to work for money, and I am willing to do that.

speaking of parties, I am trying to decide when to get out west. I think that I will spend a week back home with the family before I head out there. I would like to see them more often than once a year, and this would be the chance to do that. Then I would probably go again for spring break. That way I would spend half my time out west and half out east, just seems fair. But I need to act on that soon, because price of tickets is going up and quick. Might do that tonight after I finish most of my homework.

My homework for the next week consist of: two books with reports (I have one done already), sermon preparation, two theology quizzes and a class project... all due by this time next week. The biggest problem that I run into is sleep now. I just can't seem to get enough of it.

The biggest concern that I have right now is how unimportant God has become in my day to day life. I know that I need to spend time reading and praying, but I can't seem to find any. I understand that this is much like any other relationship, in order for it to work time and energy must be given to it, but for the next two weeks that is going to be short. I did decide that I am going to try harder to have that prayer time. After all, God is the only one that can truly change the situations in my life, I might as well talk to him about it. God has done some wonderful things for me in the past, at least released some stress, I can have that same hope in him now also.

For those that don't now, I have decided not to go to south Africa next semester. It was getting to be too much too fast for me, and I had other things that I needed to work on that were getting pushed aside. I might consider it again another time when I am more prepared, but not now... way to much for me.

In brief what to pray for:

• Homework load until thanksgiving, there is an over-whelming amount.
• Financial situation, that I could either find a pot of gold or some more work
• My friends who are struggling with classes - I want to help, but I am struggling myself.
• Flight out west, that I would find cheap tickets.
• Time with family over the next breaks, I want to spend more time with them.
• That I would have time to work on my relationships, both with God and with Rachel. I seem to be lacking in both of them right now.
• Rachel as she decides what she is doing next semester, she tends to take on more than she needs to.

Thank you so much. From someone who has a hard time praying himself, your prayers are very appreciated!

Later

Picture of my sister from youth group. she had to get a jelly bean from a bowl

Picture of my sister from youth group. she had to get a jelly bean from a bowl of flour

This message has been sent using the picture and Video service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

Note: To play video messages sent to email, Quicktime@ 6.5 or higher is required.

Body

I have a brother in biology as his field of study. Currently he is working as a tutor for an anatomy lab dealing with body structure, function and overall make up. I would hate to break it to him, but the body of Christ is far more interesting in my book. I understand why the illustration is made from the body, it is the only thing that might compare.

The body of Christ, the church - believers, Amazing and wonderful. I am a part and have experienced this crazy complex thing called the body. I have been... I am hurt and discouraged, yet I walk through those doors and I am greeted and loved. I am cared for and watched over. I am part of the body.

I experienced this "body" today when I was asked how my parents are doing. I experienced this when I was handed a envelop that would get me back to school even though the person had no idea that I needed it.

The best part about the body of Christ is that there is no human head, Christ is the Head. We are just the members and the parts. Christ is the head, and the holy spirit almost works as the nervous system or the blood - communicating with all the members regarding how to function as a body. The holy spirit worked to provide the means to get back to school by knowing my needs and by knowing others resources while neither of us knew anything at all.

wonderful, amazing, body.
Later

Fall Break

I came home yesterday for the first time in about a year. Whoa. I was surprised at how much has changed and at the same time how much has stayed the same. Because somethings really do just never change. I find this fact saddening at times when it is not in good context, we call them ruts or bad habits. I am over joyed when I have found other things like the relationship with my sister still the same after the year or so. I like to call this a blessing, or in other situations good habits. I believe that even if I went away for a few years I could still come and find my family waiting for me with open arms, yet no matter what happened over those years I don't think my brother would have ever cleaned his home. Simply put, some things just never change. My family is one of them. In some cases that can be a good thing, but for the most part this is a bad statement of fact and one that is in need of prayer.

Also pray for communication issues for my family and my church. We are having a great deal of them recently, and I didn't even know about them. Just to prove my point.

My church is going though a huge deal right now with some very bad communication, gossip and slander, and it could really use some prayer as well. I think a lot of problems could be solved if people talked with others to their face instead of working through other people. Talking through other people or getting second hand information from other is overly cowardly at best, and wrong whichever other way you look at it. Not to mention is just plain dumb and a sorry excuse for not having the guts to talk to the person about the issue.

This happened in the bible once, it got messy real quick, but the dealt with it. Here, I'll try to recount the principle of the story and what happened back then and how they managed to deal with it.

Basically Peter gets a vision from God that tells him that what he once thought was unclean and vile to him is now clean and acceptable. Speaking mainly of people and food. The common people and unclean food were once unacceptable and are now accepted and clean. At the end of the vision Peter is told to go the house of a once unclean man named Cornelius and present to him and his household the gospel. Just so you know, this is not something a person did back then, bad idea.

Now the problem arises because Peter is the only one that received this message from God about the common grace to all people. The rest of the apostles didn't hear know about the grace and so began to question Peter and gossip about what the junk was going on. News made it all around town and even back to Peter before Peter could come and explain himself to the others. The whole country was a mess when Peter walks on the scene.

Peter could have done a few different things when it came to dealing with this mess. He could have gone to different people and worked with behind the people involved in the problem, he could have fought back and tried to fight the mess back into submission, or could have simply ran from it. All the solutions aren't really solutions but things to make matters worse. The apostle did what most of of should do when faced with poor communication, face it head on and just deal with it honestly and the people involved first.

Peter comes back into town knowing all this mess is getting around the town, and the first thing he does is goes to the people involved. He doesn't take a day to settle in or find out what is going on, he deals with it first thing. He goes to the other apostles and work through the problem with the others until everything was settled.

If only that kind of straight forward communication was part of my return to town instead of everyone working behind the backs of others and gossiping. I hope and pray that things will get turned around before everything is lost and all the relationships are destroyed. I will not be part of the gossip, so I am going to God on this one and praying that He will work things out.

Later

10-22-10

The event that took place last Saturday went well, considering what God gave us. All the leaders showed up, and we had a total of probably 10 kids that cycled through. Some came at the beginning but had to leave early, and other came near the end. Most of them had a good time and enjoyed the games and food. Most of them even had a positive response to the gospel from what the leaders told me. One seemed eager to accept the idea and was willing to, but did not by my understanding.

Since the goal of the event was simply to plant seeds (or put out the idea) of the gospel that Jesus is real and love them, I think that the event was a success. I have to be very thankful for Abby in that regard, if not for her than I don't think we would have even had one person.

Another level of success: encouragement and unity of the kids/leaders that where there. It was an honest good time to just hang out and have some fun without all the worry about getting somewhere or doing something. Just a good old time.

Fall play is this weekend, and along with that is Rachel and I's tradition of going to the fall play. Cool thing that happened this week came in the form of front row tickets. Rachel at first bought some 11^th row tickets, but just today Ross told me he wasn't going and gave me his tickets, which happened to be within the first three rows. I am very thankful for that and I am sure that Rachel will be too. Now we also have tickets to give to people who might want to go, and I enjoy giving things away to people.

The next four weeks are the kicker for me. If I can manage to make it the next four weeks I will be on much better ground in terms of work load for the semester. Most of my book report will be done, my semester projects, and any other big assignment comes in the next four weeks. The one that I find myself to be most nervous about is preaching. I am assigned to preach when I come back from fall break the first week of November. I am very glad that it got moved back, but that does not help me be less stressed about it. I am just thankful that God is in control and that everything will ultimately work out in the end. Some times not how I would like, but it does work it out one way or another for His purpose.

I managed to get my license for PA on Wednesday and now am a official PA resident according to my driver's license. I don't think I will ever be able to say that I am from PA, I will always be from MI in my books. This works out much better than trying to renew it in MI, much faster as well. Now within the next fifteen days I will receive my official copy in the mail and will then be able to apply for my passport to go to South Africa! It is getting very close.

I hope to send out support letter by this weekend. I got to talking with both my dad and another missionary going to south Africa about ideas concerning the letters. I have never done something like this before, so I nervous about getting them right.

Rachel and I are going through some tension right now. The worst part of it: we don't even know what the causing the tension. We both have some ideas, but neither of us can pin point what exactly is causing the problem. Pray that we would be able to figure out what the problem is and come to a solution to adjust the relationship accordingly.

Pray that I have a good time on fall break, it has been a long time since I have been with my family and I really miss them.

Oct 14th

Fall has come, and winter is coming fast! Leaves have almost completely changed by now and are starting to fall. Lots to do with the coming season, and lots to do for the remainder of this semester. The roughest part of my semester will be taking place over the next three weeks. Most of my class projects, events, and book reports are due by the end of this month. On top of that, I will be going home at the end of the month. I need to take things one day at a time.

Friday:

Last school day for the week, and the beginning of a much needed weekend. For the most part my Friday is nothing special. I will probably hang out with Rachel and do some last minute things for the youth evangelism event on Saturday. Otherwise it will probably be the only restful part of the weekend that I can see.

Saturday:

The main thing that is going to need pray is going to be this evangelism event. A lot has gone into this and I would really like to see God honored though it. I want to see the students that do come have a better understanding of the gospel afterwords. For those that do not know Christ as their Lord, nor the salvation that give, I pray that they would. That is the big event of Saturday.

Sunday:

I hope this day to be a day of rest and homework time. The two don't normally go together, but both are things that I am going to need this weekend. Other than that I might go on a date with Rachel if she and I have some time to spare. Maybe go for a drive out on the country side to look at the changing leaves. Another thing to pray for, a friend of mine is gone for the weekend for a wedding. His unsaved brother is getting remarried and he is hoping to have a chance for conversation.

Monday-Wednesday:

Nothing out of the ordinary going on to my knowledge. It does begin the start of the fall play performances which are a great outreach for the school into the community. Pray also for youth group, the kids there are going through a very rough time with the suicide of a student this week. It makes for very hard times for the students who are already going through a rough time. It also makes for a great opportunity for conversation as we have already experienced. Talking about life after death and the reality of our mortality.

Monday is my little brother's 19^th birthday! How time flies.

Tuesday is community appreciation day for our campus, we will be going out and working in the community to hopefully make an impact for good. I will probably be work with my off campus jobs and just not get paid for it, that is the hope at least.

Thursday-Saturday:

Fall play and Rachel and I will have been dating for a whole year come Saturday. That is kind of a big deal for me at least. I want to do something that will be enjoyable for her that we can laugh about later down the road.

Other prayer request:

Pray that I would continue to trust God about the direction of South Africa, I want to honor Him with what I do. I have for the most part decided that I will be going try and go. Everything has been lining up for me to go other than my own stupidity. I have a lot of work to do on top of what I already have for homework and work. Pray that I would be able to get everything done and trust God with it.

Pray for Rachel and I as we continue in this relationship. I want to be a good leader and care for her as I should by putting her needs before my own. I want the relationship to be blameless and honoring to God, and I want to follow God's direction with this as well.

Pray for my family back home, I am sure they still have things going on back home that could use pray. Mom is always having to deal with her renters and businesses that she is managing, Dad has been doing a lot of extra hours as well at work and I know that can get stressful, and the rest of them as well.

Thank you

~Jeremy

Oct 1st

Hello Everyone,

I wish there was a way to take you through my week and what I have been learning, because there is no way that I could possibly explain or retell what has gone through my mind this week. Some really high ups at the beginning of the week and just today a hit a low only to hit a high a few hours later.

I would be sitting in class trying to grasp the concepts present to me, but would only get confused and would begin to doubt what I believed. It was a theology class that I was sitting through when this confusion hit me, and I really had to think about what I believed to be true and why I believed it. As I struggled through the rest of class I thought that it would be a good idea to talk with one of my professor on the subject. He has an understanding of what the bible is trying to say rather than all the mess we make of it. He is able to look at the big picture of what is going on and help me to do the same. I still have to deal with the problem that I was presented with in class today and think through what I believe and why I believe it, but I have a better understanding now that I have talked with one of my professors.

For those reading, I encourage you to think about what you hold to be true, and consider why you believe it. I know that is something that I will be doing.

Another crazy thing on my mind is this: I have been presented with the chance to go to South Africa for next semester (Jan-June). A professor here at school told me of the opportunity and I have been thinking about it the last two weeks. By the nature of the opportunity, I have to decide fairly soon whether or not I will take him up on it. It would be for 6 months where I would be over looking a ministry that they have down there. I would get to teach and work with kids, among other things. It is a great chance for me to travel and do something I have never done before, but at the same time I am very nervous about going through with it.

If I were to decide to go, it would mean raising support to be over there, which I would have to start doing in the next two weeks, and any other planing that would be required for someone to leave the country for 6 months. I am praying about this, and I would appreciate yours as well.

Well, I think that the best way to tell you about my week is to simply walk through it day by day.

Saturday Rachel and I will be heading down to the bike exchange in Allentown first thing in the morning. She wanted to get me something for my birthday and thought that letting me buy something would be a good idea. I would agree.

After that I have a bunch of work to do for some people off campus; mostly yard work of some kind. I would like to have some people help me so I can get it done faster, but we'll have to see what happens. Even though the only other thing is church I have a fairly busy weekend for school, so I might have to ask others for help just to get it done at all. The other thing that needs to happen this weekend is advertisement for the youth event that I am helping with in a few weeks. Posters really need to be put up soon.

Monday is class as normal with a twist for the evening. We start set up for our bible conference right after dinner. We have a ton of set up to get ready for the conference that starts Tuesday morning making for a longer night than normal. Other wise I believe that Monday is the only normal day of this next week.

Tuesday is day of prayer. A day set apart for the purpose of prayer and bring before God our anxious thoughts or even daily concerns. This semester I have a lot on my mind, many circumstances that I feel like talking to God about. If you have anything that you would like me to pray for, let me know.

Some of my concerns that you could pray for:

• Youth group event on the 16^th

• I have a big decision that I need to make within the next two weeks about going to South Africa for next semester

• Rachel and I as we continue to pursue our relationship with each other

• For me to find the truth for the questions that I am asking myself.

• Stuff going on at home with some of our rentals, businesses, etc.

• On top of everything I have a heavy load of school work that needs my attention most of the time.

Wednesday is youth group day. Though we have seen lots of improvement from the teens, there is still a lot of work to do with the relationships that we have. There is an equal amount of work to be done with the leaders at the youth group, we are still very dis-unified. I do not see any of us working to a single direction and because of that it limits our effectiveness.

Meanwhile... Bible conference is continuing...

Thursday from what I can tell is a fairly normal day. Almost empty of anything scheduled. I have sessions that I have in the morning and work in the evening, otherwise I think that day is completely open. I think I will take a nap.

Friday is a big day! We have a comedy group coming in and an illusionist to do a magic show for the whole campus and anyone else who wants to come. We watched a preview today, it was pretty good and I can hardly wait. What that means for me is that I will be helping set up and tear down. We get to tear everything down friday night after everything is down, making for a very long night.

And that is my week from my perspective. Who knows what God will accually do with my 168 hours, but it is completely up to Him.

Later