{{ POSTCARDS FROM FAR AWAY }}

PART One -



I haven’t blogged in a while again. Part of it is that I feel as though I’ve lost some of my bloggin’ mojo. Part of it is that I’ve yet to find a way to properly describe/explain the stuff that God has been teaching me. Before I get to the meaty stuff allow me to catch you up on some things...

CLASS - New Testament I. Probably one of the best classes that I’ve ever taken. The gospels have so much more depth than I give them credit for. Mind blowing stuff. I’m insanely thankful that Dr. Cook was my professor and that he felt so compelled to literally walk us through the gospels.

My preaching class is next. probably the one class I don’t really care to take. I know that I will probably like my professor so thats good. It isn’t that I’m afraid to teach in front of people. I used to do it two and three times a week. I think it is the audience that I’m not looking forward too. Seminary students. 55 of them.

LIFE - I went to the SBC pastors’ conference on Sunday night. Good stuff. Heard from JD Greear and Chuck Colson. There was a third guy, but we were out buying mini donuts and water. one of the things that I REALLY appreciated from Greear is that he said that everyone who joins his church knows that unless they experience a specific call NOT TO, they are fully expected to serve two years over seas. I love this! I’m sure that there are some out there who think “he can’t really do that” but yes, yes he can. Why? The Great Commission. Boom goes the dynamite.

Chan and Platt spoke yesterday and, of course, they were awesome. Platt’s talk was so powerful! Each year a host church is responsible for funding the pastors’ conference. This year they are short something like 30K. The host church got up after Platt to take an offering and said that there was NO WAY that they could, after hearing Platt, take up an offering for the Pastors’ Conference. Instead he urged the people there to give to the Missions Boards! This was unheard of and powerful and awesome!

Went with the Falls’ to Sari Sari and it was delicious. I know of no other couple who are so willing to go to hole-in-the-wall food crazy food places. Filipino food this time. I think that we’re going to head over to the Vietnamese Kitchen sometime again soon too. So if you’re interested and would like to try the best tasting iced coffee that I’ve ever had...join us.

My car exploded. not really. But sort of. I noticed one day that the battery sounded like it was having some issues. Struggling to start. That night I asked Alexis not to go inside our apartment but to listen and tell me if it sounded like the battery was dying. She agreed. I jumped in and started the car. Sounded good. Started to slow. Then started clicking. I poked my head out of the car door at Alexis and she said “yeah, that doesn’t sound good.” $500 later we have a new alternator. I praise God for clearly leading me NOT to take Hebrew. if I had taken the class, that $500 wouldn’t have been available. It couldn’t have happened at a better time. And I couldn’t be more thankful for the friends who went out of their way to jump my car, follow me to the car place, buy me lunch, pick me up after class, and drive me back out to get my car.
I’m still not healthy. Doc said if I’m not completely better by the end of this week that I have to go to a specialist. This won’t be fun.

Work is good.

Alexis is awesome!

SPORTS - John Smoltz pitches this Thursday for the Redsox. jodie Meeks will hopefully be drafted in the first round on thursday.

GOVERNMENT - What can you say? On a local level, whats up with Sanford disappearing? I did watch an insanely disturbing video on the news of a young girl in Iran. She was shot by the police there and someone recorded it as the people around her tried to save her. They couldn’t. Really disturbing. Neda Sultan. The situation there is HUGE! Many people are saying that its similar in scope to our Boston Tea Party. And now I’m hearing all over the place that people want the US to somehow show support for the people there. Which makes me wonder why we elected the one man who wouldn’t. But whatever.

I don’t have as much time as I wanted to write out the long part about what I’ve been learning and about how my faith has been changing and growing. So I’ll have to do that tomorrow. I have to go now and begin getting ready for the B21 Panel at Sojourn. Hearing that we’ll get some books from the guys on the panel. this makes me happy.