From Half Way Around The World

My cousin, Mike, who's in the Air Force and stationed in Iraq recently sent my parents and I a letter with a 250 Dinar bill. (Unfortunately I don't know how much that is in dollars; if you know let me know.) Needless to say, I thought this was really cool. But it also caused me to think that Mike and the rest of the men and women who serve in our military are really in a different country, different culture, and it's one that's is still very dangerous. These men and women need our prayer, because although things are getting better we are still are at war. So, hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of Iraqi culture. :)

P.S. I had a friend e-mail that this bill equals approx. 22 cents in US dollars.

To Chicago, Ohio, and home

I guess I’m really not staying very regular with this blog. Lord willing I’ll manage my time a bit better and update this more often. A couple of weeks ago Tom, Kathleen, and I went to the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago to do some PR work for TEP. We set up our display in one of the main buildings, hung out with students, went to some classes, and also went and preached in the open air with Student Outreach. Student Outreach goes out twice a week, Wed. and Fri., and they do some sort of evangelism in downtown Chicago. On Wednesday, the team that I was with did more of one-on-one personal evangelism, something that I’ve done a bit of but still need of lot of work in. The Lord blessed me with a good partner, Adam, and we got into some good conversations. Friday, we did more the traditional open air preaching with the paintboard. Both Tom and I preached along with one of the leaders of Student Outreach, Robert. I really enjoyed getting to know the students there and hopefully building on the relationships that I’ve made. The plan is, Lord willing, to go there once a month and do more of what we did this last trip.

Also this past weekend my parents and I went down to Ohio to visit some family and my dad was preaching on Sunday down there. I have to say I am really glad I went. I was able to spend time with almost all of my cousins, including my cousin who’s going to school in GA and made a surprise visit up for the weekend. I would’ve been really upset if I didn’t go and found out that she was there. Please continue to pray for my Grandma who just had surgery for cancer and is recovery. The doctors say that the surgery went well and that they got all of the cancer out, praise God. But please pray for the continuing recovery.

Right now I'm just trying to get stuff done. It seems that I've had a lot of work creep up on me. So, now I'm just hunkering down and getting it done; that's the plan anyways. :) If you could also pray for my preparations for CTU (our chapel's youth group) and I'm speaking Nov. 2nd and am not sure what to preach on yet. So, please pray that the Lord will give me wisdom.