First Post of 2010!!!

Yay!! The first post of JC's Blog of 2010! Can you believe it's already a new year? Or perhaps you're wondering why it's taken till March 13 to post the first post of the year. We obviously have started the second semester of TEPSE and are trucking through it. It is hard to believe that in 6 weeks or so we will have graduated another batch of students. I've been moving my way along with my classes, Church History and Cults & World Religions, and I think for the most part they have gone well. As this is my first time teaching Church History I will definitely be doing some revisions to the curriculum next time I teach that class. 

Every spring we take our students on a ministry trip for a week or so. For the past few years we had been going down to Augusta, GA for the Master's Golf Tournament. This year because of several circumstances we decided to go to New York City instead. We plan on leaving this Monday and being in town for about a week. Lord willing we plan on doing open air evangelism non stop while we're there to maximize our visit. The forecast is predicting a bit a rain so please pray that is held off until the night time or until we get back. If you're in the NY area we'd love for you to come with us if you are able, just let me know. 

How's that for the first post of 2010? Thanks for praying and I'll try, Lord willing, to be more diligent in keeping everyone updated. God bless!

Thankful

"Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God." (Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelly)

Without that humiliation I could never have my sins forgiven and that is what I am thankful for.

Pictures...Finally!

Here's some pictures from the California trip. I've posted them to my Flickr account, which is a photo sharing website, but I can't seem to get it to post onto my blog. Someday I'll figure it out. Right now here's some picture hope you like them.

The Rockies

Open Air evangelism at the University of California Berkely

The next few are from the Grand Canyon

This was at a rest stop with some of the gang.

You Would Think... (part 2)

You would think that if you failed to post for several weeks/months you would try really hard to post some more. Once again I don't fit that mold. I have to say though that since the end of August things have been going non stop, or at least that's how it feels.

So, since my last post we at TEP went to California to train the guys with the Discipleship Intern Program (DITP) in San Jose. Dad did a one week class of Eschatology (end times) and the next week we did a seminar on open air evangelism. Plus all the traveling involved. There's a whole lot more to our trip but it's hard to put it all into one paragraph. To summarize we were gone about a month and got back early/mid October.

Since getting back I've been teaching a lot! On Mondays I teach Church History and Thursday nights I'm teaching Hermeneutics (studying and interpreting the Bible). All other time is spent grading homework, preparing for the next class or something else that has to be done. I love teaching, but I think I've underestimated the amount of time it takes to prepare properly.

That's pretty much what's been going on lately. I'm also leading the College & Career study on Tuesdays and I preached yesterday at Calvary, my home church. I will post pictures up soon, especially from the California trip because there were some amazing sights. Hope you all are doing well.

You would think...

You would think that if you have three weeks "off" that you would be posting to your blog all the time. But apparently I don't fit that train of thought. I guess part of that is being busy and just plain laziness.

So here's a little update of some of the things that have gone on the past few weeks. We got home the first of August and we got to just spend some time off at home; which is a nice break from a long summer. While on break I preached at my home chapel and in Ohio which meant I had some studying to do. The Lord was really great in helping me prepare. The weekend after I spoke in Ohio my dad spoke at the same chapel and we got to spend time with some of my family. Praise the Lord that during this quick trip my Grandpa accepted Christ as his Savior! After all of that, Christina who worked with us at TEP got married at our house. It was really great and was a fun time but the house was a little hectic. That same weekend we had a baptism and picnic with the chapel at our house as well and started TEPSE that Monday.

With TEPSE I'm teaching three courses this year: Hermeneutics, Church History, and Cults & World Religions. I've had two sessions of Hermeneutics, Church History will start in October and CWR starts next semester. All of my courses are one a week.
Right now we are on the road once again. We left Sunday afternoon after my dad and I spoke, for California. We plan to be gone about a month and would greatly appreciate your prayers. Once we get to San Jose my dad will teach course on Eschatology (end times) to the DITP with Jim McCarthy. The week after that we will do a seminar on open air evangelism with them.

If this seems lacking a train of thought, I apologize for the dumping information. As always I would greatly appreciate your prayers especially with us being on the road. Hope all is well with everyone!

Back to the Bush!

Well I guess I haven't updated everyone on what's been going on lately. It's been a while so I'm not really sure where to begin. I guess I'll start with the schedule, since the beginning of May I've been home three weeks, not consecutive. So, needless to say we've been all over the place and have been a little busy, thus the lack of posts. We've been in Atlanta, Chicago, back to Atlanta, Kansas City, and New York. This most recent trip to New York started off with my dad and I working at Pine Bush Bible Camp. My dad spoke and I counseled during their suburban week.

Chapel

Some of cabin listening to the rules of the game

My CIT (counselor-in-training), Nick

Archery

It was a great time to be back at my old stomping grounds of The Bush. I think I spent the first 14 summers of my life at Pine Bush, but because of scheduling problems I haven't been back in 5 years. I had a good group of kids in the cabin and a great CIT to work with. One of my boys I know for sure accepted the Lord that week. Praise the Lord! Please pray for growth in his Christian walk. I hope to go back next year, but that's a long way a way and I haven't layed out my schedule for next year yet. So, we'll leave it up to the Lord for now. Right now we're doing the seminar in New York but I'll post about that later, seeing how it's getting close to my bedtime.

The last few months...in pictures

Well I guess I haven't updated my blog in over a month and haven't posted any pictures that I've taken in an even longer time. So, because things are a little busy I don't have anything earth shattering to report I'll just upload some pictures for now until I get some more time to do an actual report of the summer so far. Hope you enjoy the pictures. :]