Reading, Retreating, Teaching, and Pies

Hey Everyone!

I realize that it has been over a month since I have blogged…my apologies. The past couple of weeks I have been so tired after I come home from work that I just don’t think about it. Then when I do think about it, there’s really nothing to say. Unless you want to hear about some of the stuff I do at work…which isn’t super exciting. I could update on my Life group and things like that, but I just don’t really know what to say. Thus, you get the blank blogs. Now since I have a little time, I will try to write something.

There were a couple big events that I went to this month that were really cool. Our church had things thing called the Immersion Conference which basically was a two day conference where this professor from Union University, Dr. George Guthrie, taught us the basics of reading/studying the bible. He wrote a book called, “Read the Bible for Life” which I highly recommend. Whether you are a new Christian, been a Christian for years, or are just curious, it is a good book. What he did was interview several experts in their fields and had each chapter is an interview with that person about the topic. For example, some chapters have to do with reading the Bible in context, reading the Bible in translation, Reading the Old Testament Stories & Laws (2 separate chapters), Reading for personal devotion, reading in times of Sorrow and Suffering, Reading with family/church, and many, many, more. If this interests you, try to find the book. I got it on my Kindle, but it is also available other places.

I also got back from Fall Retreat a couple of days ago with our Youth Group. We took about 300 7th-12th graders this year! Talk about organized chaos :-) All the small groups were co-ed and I had 7th graders (5 girls and four boys). This year was really great. I loved our theme. Our theme was the cross and it was based around 1 Corinthians 1:18 which says, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (ESV). I could mention all the days lessons but basically we wanted to show them how important the message of the Cross is and what it means for us as Christians. Something that has really been a struggle for our students, and a lot of adults, is the fact that they are not assured of their salvation and they put limits on what God can do and wants to do for them. There’s a lot more I can say, but frankly I’m still processing it all even after being back a couple of days! The kids have all this week off so pray that they process it too :-)

My MIT group is going well. I had to miss last week to make up some time at work and we are not meeting this week so I feel a little out of it. Also I haven’t been as faithful with this book. I like the book and it is a very good commentary on Proverbs, but it is just a little harder for me to get through. Plus Proverbs is pretty convicting so when you do have time to look at it you almost have to stop and reflect for like an hour before you can move on. My Life Group is going well. I think that we are at a place where we are starting to understand each other better. The past four weeks I have been teaching God’s story – Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration. This study has been fun because it goes over the whole thing. We don’t teach the whole story all the way through a lot. It’s pretty sad. The Children’s ministry is actually going through the Bible this year (the major stories and not revelation). I’m really surprised with some of our kids. We may have one or two that know the OT and NT by now! I’m thankful for being able to teach this class because I finally memorized the books of the OT and NT. Feel free to quiz me sometime.

Let’s see, what else is there? I have been updating my status each day with something I am thankful for. I have been using the letters of the alphabet so I can finish near Thanksgiving. Today was the letter “V” and I was thankful for Volume! I have gotten some pretty good response on these. I think I will post them all in my next blog because I am almost done with them all. What has been cool about this was that it has almost forced me to be thankful for the small things. When you get to some of these letters you are like, “What starts with this letter?” It’s harder than you think! Good exercise though.

I am going to Indianapolis for Thanksgiving to see my Great Grandparents (Hi Grandmom and Granddad if you are reading this!) It will be fun and good to see the family. My parents and sister were able to go up several weeks ago, but I couldn’t make it. It should be a good time of catching up and a lot of eating. I’m starting to get hungry just thinking of the Pumpkin Pies (By the way when I got to the letter “P” I was thankful for pies!)

I better be going I hope everyone reading this has a great day!