Home!

I Flew home last night. Went to a place called home. It looked vaguely familiar. I remember where some of the light switches are located. However, I have not forgotten what Debbie and Danielle and Samantha and Blake look like and that is the most important. It felt good to sleep in a bed that wasn’t a twin bed. However, we need to go buy a bed today as this one is beyond shot and Deb can’t sleep in it without hurting her back. So, off to the store today to buy a new bed. It is raining, which is about usual for Columbia lately. We are celebrating Valentine’s day today so I am done with this post and putting my focus where it should be today. God bless you all. Amen.

Passed Greek Test

Holy Spirit come to me.  I put my name on the test and the Holy Spirit took over from there.  I put my trust in and walked with the Spirit.  Thank you Lord.  Amen.

Greek Test Behind Me Now

The first Greek test is history, or was the first history test Greek to me?  Anyway, the first Greek test is done and I am still breathing and the blood is still circulating.  Hopefully we have the test back before we leave Friday for Spring Break.  I think I did good enough to pass, but would like the graded test to prove that out.  I made a lot of progress this last week studying for this test.  The downside to this is that everything else was pushed aside to work on the Greek.  Now I need to catch up on everything else.  Luckily I was caught up before I started the Greek work, so I am not too far behind.  I can finally start looking forward to getting home.  After 7 weeks away, I can't wait.  It would be nice to be home for a week, but that won't allow me to get the study time I need for the History of Christianity and Lutheran Confessions tests the following week.  So, back here after 3 days and hit the books.  This will allow me to totally forget about school for the 3 days I am home and spend time with the family and get to see my home congregation again. 

We have put forth our 3 proposals for helping the homeless here in Columbia.  We will meet as a class to vote on any action after we get back from break.  Here is a cut and paste of the proposals we put forth.  Please realize they are somewhat vague on purpose to get people to attend the meeting.  We have more information that we put forth in the letter, but we want to hold some of it for discussion at the meeting.

PROPOSALS SUBMITTED TO THE JUNIOR CLASS FOR SERVICE PROJECTS


JUNIOR SUBCOMMITTEE ON HOMELESSNESS MISSION

Proposal 1

We propose to develop a program of providing individual boxes of shelf-stable foods to the homeless through the best distribution channel, which is yet to be determined. We are not aware of this type of food being distributed to the homeless through any ministry. The goal is for the homeless to have food that can be kept in their backpacks without need for refrigeration, or the need to be eaten in a matter of hours, such as sandwiches. This is not intended to replace the other food ministries offer, but to give the homeless food for when they can’t get to those ministries. We have identified a list of foods we could offer.

Proposal 2

Focusing on resources available in the group and needs of the homeless we determined that small health kits would be of use. Through some web sites and programs that we can access, we can obtain travel size tubes of toothpaste for free and good toothbrushes at reduced costs. We ask XXXXX to help in obtaining analgesic and vitamin samples through some of his professional web sites. He is willing to do this for the homeless. We would then need to package these supplies in zip lock bags and deliver them to one of the homeless centers here in Columbia.

Proposal 3

There are certain goods needed by local homelessness agencies to enable them to continue their mission. Such goods can be collected by us in a drive. We can do this ether here on campus or in our field parishes. We can determine for ourselves what goods we want to collect in this drive. However, local agencies have expressed need for male underwear (socks, undershirts, and underwear) as well as copy paper.

As a committee member we hope to take on all three of these.  Between our class we are in about 50 field churches.  The ability to raise goods and funds within 50 congregations for a concentrated effort through the seminary in conjunction with the local agencies that serve the homeless everyday has got to have an impact.  I will keep you updated as we progress through this.  The challenge will be selling this to the class and getting everyone to ACT.  There are 10 lists of reasons why we can't do this or don't have the time.  Reality is that it won't take a lot of time if we all contribute and all of these will allow us the ability to schedule things on non-crunch weeks.  I am excited about our proposal and implementing these things.

Back to things; as I have had to put my life in the hands of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit I ask you to conside the same during this Lenten time.  It is only through knowing that I am not able to do things on my own and intially having to turn to God that I am finally able to look to Him to WANT to do what He wants me to do.  As I have said this Greek class is my Holy Spirit proving ground this semester.  If God wants me to be a Pastor, I am going to pass this Greek class.  There are many other trials in life that with the Holy Spirit we either know that God wants us to accomplish or not and not doesn't mean we are a failure.  Failure is a term we humans put on people to make us feel better about ourselves.  God's can only see us in our inability to be anything but sinners.  He knows that we care not capable of anything but sin.  That is why He sent His Son to save us.  It is not failure in God's eyes when something we try to do doesn't work out.  It means that God has another path for us and we have not found the path that He is leading us along.  This is what is so awesome about being here in this time at this place doing what I am doing.  I am convinced that I am finally aligned with what God wants me to do at this time.  The feeling is incredible, like I have never experienced before.  If you have not stepped out of the boat and on to the water, I can not possible tell you what it is like.  (Translated: If you have never put your life in God's hands you will not know what it is like to do so for I am not aware of another way to describe it), I can only pray that you deepen your faith enough to trust that first step out of the boat on to the water.  It is not about us, I finally figured that out.  It took a lot of pain to get to that point, but He brought me through that time also.  I pray that you are able to see this and find the desire to act on it.  Remember seeing isn't believing, BELIEVING IS SEEING.  God's grace and peace be with you always, Amen.

We ended up getting about 4-6 inches of snow.  Mostly gone after the next day.  It sure was pretty while it lasted.  Enjoy the pictures. 

I think my Holy Spirit challenge this past semester was just getting here and through the first semester after so many years away from academia.  My Holy Spirit challenge this semester is definitely Greek.  At this point I have had to put all hope of passing this class in the Holy Spirit.  I don't see how, but if I am suppossed to be doing this then the Spirit will pull me through some how.  I am just going to remain faithful to the process and let it work.  We have a test next week, so let's see what happens.  I might have passed the quiz last night but then I might not have also.  At least I didn't know for sure that I flunked it right after I took it.  PROGRESS!

I sure am missing home and my family.  I get to come home for a few days next week.  By the time I get home it will have been 7 weeks since I saw them.  That is too long!  We have to do something different when we have such long stretches between breaks.  I am looking into possibly moving to a school in Florida next year and transfering the credits back for next year only.  That would allow me to be closer to home and probably home most weekends.   I don't know that we can get through another year and a half of being this far apart for this long.  This semester is much more challenging than last.  Then again, we didn't have a 7 week stretch last semester either. 

We preached our first sermon for grades yesterday.  Only one more sermon in class and then one in our field congregation.  They have asked that we not preach until we get into the preaching class and I have not preached since I got here.  I am trying to honor the process.  Holy Spirit help me!  The sermon went well.  The real challenges to this sermon vs. others that I have preached is the process we had to go through to develop the sermon or what is called the "Exegesis".  Obviously there is a much more formal process than I am used to.  The other major challenge was that we have so many students in our class we were limited to 7 minutes.  This is timed and we are told thank you, that's enough, if we went over.  No pressure there.  My sermon started at 1050 words.  With my more paced way of preaching I ended up having to pare it down to 850 words.  Have you ever tried to cut 20% out of something you were presenting?  It is not easy and you start examing the role of every word in the text and let the red ink fly.  I got it done and came in right at 7 minutes.  I am preaching in my field congregation on Easter 5 weekend, but I am also filling in for Pastor the Sunday after Easter while he is on vacation.  Never hurts to get a little more practice. 

All for now.  May the Holy Spirit be active in your life!  God bless, Steve

Let is Snow, let it snow, let it snow. . . . .

Yes, they are forecasting snow here starting late this afternoon and going into tonight.  2-3 inches.  I have not been where it was snowing in the last few years.  I am looking forward to it.  I only have to walk to work on Saturday afternoon, so no big deal with that.  Have a blessed day! Steve

I think I can see a bit of letting up in a couple of weeks.  I preach my first sermon for preaching class next week and after that there may be a breath.  I have the rough draft written so things are progressing as they need to.  Tuesdays are a bear with class starting at 8:30 am and Greek ending at 8:30 pm.  Long day.  Thursdays will get better this week as we don't have our 8:30 am class for about 6 weeks.  This class is shared with the Middlers so neither class goes every week.  I am not too sure what will happen in Greek.  I have flunked the last two quizes after getting an A in the Fall semester.  The focus of the quizes is different with this teacher and it focuses on my weakness the translations.  Of course, the goal is to be able to translate.  Having been an engineering major it seems like I am learning a foriegn language with a foriegn language.  The named parts of sentences and all that terribly english stuff are the other foriegn language to me.  Another thing that isn't helping right now is that I have been away from home for 5 weeks with two more to go before I get home for three days.  Our break is longer than that, but we have test in History and Lutheran Confessions when we get back and these are two classes I can't wait until the last minute to study. 

We are working as the Junior Class on something we can do for the homeless here in Columbia.  We meet again this morning to go over what we have found.  I have been too busy with school to get my part of the research done.  I am not happy about that, but have not had a choice.  I am passionate about this subject, especially after my Cross Cultural experience in Atlanta.  That shows you how busy the homework has been.

They say we have a slight chance of snow on Friday night.  That would be great timing.  I hope it does snow....and then melts the next morning. :)

This is all I have time for right now.  Back to flash cards for Greek.  A couple of Bible Trivia questions:
1.  According to Paul who take away the "veil" over the Old Testament?
2.  What is the only gospel to mention Jesus' riding on a donkey?

Answers:
1.  Christ
2.  Matthew
God bless you!

Quick One

The homework load has started off about triple last semester with a library full of reading assigned.  The break was no fried to my Greek.  I flunked the quiz last night.  Different teacher that teaches and tests in a different way.  The first one tested to my strength.  This one tests to my weakness.  I know what I need to do but it is not going to be fun or easy.  (who ever said this would be?)  I will try to get on at least once a week to update how things are going.  On another note we as the Junior Class are working on an outreach project to see how we can help the homeless here in Columbia.  I am on the committee to determine what we will propose to the class for approval.  This falls right in with my trip to Atlanta in January and my groups video project last semester.  The one thing I learned in January is if you want to help someone or a group ask them what they need.  We had people yesterday that were halfway to the kitchen to start making sandwiches to hand out.  Who wouldn't want a sandwich right?  Well, the homeless people we have talked to here in Columbia say they have enough food and clothes.  They have other needs.  We will ask them again and come up with a game plan.  I will keep you posted.  God bless all of you.  May you see God in your lives and in each other.  Steve