Winter Fun

We got a couple inches of snow/tiny ice pellets yesterday, so, since no one could leave campus, we spent most of the afternoon sledding! A lot of fun!!!

Campus covered in wintery mix (mostly)

The creation speaks of a Creator! How beautiful!

Sledding!

More sledding fun (I'm on the right)!



Everyone who went sledding (eh, the couple kissing is married, btw)

Trying to sled in a train... didn't work so well, but fun! :-)

Two of my friends and I built this wall. What fun! :-)

Do We Really Believe?

Charles Peace was a British criminal in the late 1800s. When he was about to be hung for his crimes, he was confronted by a priest who was warning him about the dangers of hell. To this, Peace replied, “Mr. Chaplin, Sir, if I believed even half of what you believe about hell, I would crawl across the length and bredth of England on my hands and knees, even if it were strewn with broken glass, to save one soul from that hell that you so glibly speak about.”

Wow.

In chapel yesterday, the speaker asked us the question, "Do we really believe what we say we believe?" He had three categories: prayer, hell, and what God says in His Word. It challenged me to think about each of these areas and consider, do I really believe what I say I believe? Would I, like Peace, crawl the length and bredth of England on my hands and knees to save one soul from the terrifying reality of hell? Do I daily commit myself to prayer for the lost souls around me and the needs and burdens that I have? Do I truly believe the promises God has given us in His Word?

Sometimes, I wonder.

I live life so flippantly at times. God has really been convicting me recently about how much I take my life, my possessions, my salvation, my health for granted. How much I treat God as a little jack-in-the-box that I wind up and let loose whenever I need help. Whenever I want help.

But He's so much bigger than I can ever fathom. And His plans are always good, even if I don't think so. Do I really believe that? If I'm living life pouting in a corner because I can't get my way, do I really and truly believe that He works all things together for my good?

Hmmmm...

Exciting News!

By this time, many of you have heard this bit of information either from Facebook or newsletters, but I wanted to post it here for those of you who haven't.

(note: if you know Josiah fairly well, please sit down before reading this)

Many of you back home got to meet my friend Rachel Clipperton over Thanksgiving Break. I invited her to come down to spend the holiday with my family, and she did. We had a ton of fun!

Well....

The inevitable finally happened.

After four-ish months of waiting and praying, Josiah really felt God moving him to pursue a relationship with Rachel.

Sooo...

Josiah and Rachel are officially courting!

For those of you who know Josiah, this may be slightly startling (hence why I warned about sitting down before reading this). :-) But, I can assure you, it's real!

It's so cool to see how God has been leading the two of them! If you want to know more of the full story, feel free to e-mail Josiah and ask him. He'd be more than happy to tell you!

Josiah helping Rachel during one of our tech labs

Fun Work Day

Today, I got to learn a new skill during work detail (you'll be proud of me, Dad)! I am currently working over in the Development Office as a secretary on Monday and Tuesday afternoons for my work detail. However, they haven't been having enough jobs to keep me busy, so today, I was supposed to go clean some vehicles that are used around campus. BUT, the guy who is in charge of the work detail crews, Joel, asked me to help him with a task on the backhoe (for those who don't know the name, see the picture). So I hopped on the side and held on while he drove. And then after that, we headed back so I could finish cleaning the pick-up truck that I was supposed to clean. But then, he asked me if I wanted to try digging with the backhoe. I was like YEAH!!! So I hopped in the pickup truck and drove it across campus to an area where they are digging to put in some water pipes while he drove the backhoe. That was the first highlight (getting to drive the pickup truck!). The second highlight was actually getting to dig with the backhoe!! I wasn't very good, but I did move some dirt! Unfortunately, I don't have any pics since I wasn't expecting to get to do that, but if he lets me do some more work tomorrow, I'll make sure to bring my camera!

So yeah, that was SUPER exciting for me! :-)

Field Choice

It's been a while coming, but God has finally led me to choose a specific mission field to serve on. New Tribes Mission (NTM) is currently in about 12 different fields which encompass at least 20 countries. In all of these countries, they focus on reaching tribal groups that are unreached. For NTM, unreached means that the people group has no Bible written in their language, no missionaries, and very few (if any) known believers.

Coming into training, I was thinking of heading to Papua New Guinea (PNG). However, during my first semester, I wanted to confirm that PNG is the place where God wants me to go. I researched all of the open fields where NTM serves, genuinely wanting to determine which country will be where I end up.

After a lot of research and prayer, God does seem to be leading me to PNG as a field of service. I am really excited about this! Let me give you a few stats on PNG:

• Location: Papua New Guinea is the right half of the large island right above Australia. The other side of the island is Papua Indonesia (previously Irian Jaya).
• Size: PNG is about the size of California
• Population: 7,013,829 according to the 2011 census
• Language: The trade language in PNG is Tok Pisin, which is fairly close to English. However, this language is very basic and is not spoken by the majority of the population in PNG. Actually, there are over 800 distinct language groups in PNG (imagine all those languages in California!)
• Unreached Status: Over 400 of the language groups in PNG are considered unreached.
• NTM Presence: NTM has a very strong support base in PNG. Permanent support teams comprised of support missionaries work in Wewak, Madang, and several other cities around PNG to keep those in the tribal works on the field. This is a huge blessing, because it means that the missionaries don't have to travel out of their villages to buy groceries, to buy construction materials, or to do their finances (often the missionaries don't have internet in the tribe). There are quite a few tribal missionaries in PNG, due to the enormous amount of work left to be done there.
• Geography: PNG is a very diverse nation due to its varying climates. There are lush jungles, beautiful untouched beaches, stunning coral reefs, cooler mountainous regions with snow, hot and humid lowlands, and everything in between. I'm excited to get there and see it for myself!

Thank you all so much for your prayers with me about mission fields! I'm very grateful that God has made this clear to me!

Wow, things have been crazy busy here the last two weeks! We basically hit the ground running, not realizing that we're in for a marathon... such fun!

No, really, it's been awesome getting back into the swing of things and reconnecting with friends from last semester. It's also been neat meeting the new students.

Classes have been great so far! At least, Romans class has been fun. :-) Tech class... not so much. I don't understand pretty much anything in Tech class, but it's been fun getting to do the labs. I got to solder for the first time (for those who may not have a concrete concept of soldering, it's basically melting metal with lots of smoke and fire and stuff... lots of fun!).

Soldering (with cool glasses :-) )

We just finished Romans class last Friday, and it was really great being reminded of so many foundational truths. One concept that I really appreciated was the idea that our relationship with God is like a marriage or an adoption. It is final and secure. This promotes intimacy between us and God. I thought that was a good way to succintly describe our relationship with God.

One interesting thing is that we now have a new crop of babies on campus that were born over break. As some of you remember me saying while I was on break, the joke goes that those who enter MTC married end up leaving with five kids (basically accurate) :-)

So for the benefit of all those back home who are insanely jealous at the moment (ahem, Mrs. Debbie ;-) ), here's a picture of me with one of the babies, Hudson, who is a month old.

Baby Hudson!

Starting Second Semester

(like my nice alliteration?)

We just arrived back at MTC. It feels like forever since I've been here, but in another sense, it seems like I just left for Georgia yesterday. I know God is going to continue growing me and teaching me a ton.

Here's the week's schedule:
-Tuesday: free day to relax, unpack, and get ready for the semester
-Wednesday: Kick-off
-Thursday: Missionary Technology class for 1st and 2nd period, Romans 5-8 class for 3rd and 4th period, and work detail in the afternoon
-Friday: same as Thursday

It's been interesting seeing a few people from our class, and we've already met a few new faces, which is cool. I'm very excited to see everyone!

I had so much fun getting to see a lot of you back home over break! Thanks again for your prayers! I'll be posting a few new pictures as the week goes on, so stay tuned! :-)

Happy New Year!

It seems like yesterday that we started 2012, and now we're beginning 2013! I'm reminded of Psalm 90:12: "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

Speaking of numbering our days, it's been quite a few since I've posted! Several pretty big events have occurred since I last wrote. First, I finshed my first semester at MTC!!! Super exciting! We had a ceremony on the 21st for all of the third semester students who were graduating, and it was really neat to hear how God has used their time at MTC to challenge and grow them in the Lord.

Another neat thing that happened was a wedding on campus for two MTC students. It was a beautiful but simple ceremony, and it was a lot of fun for me helping out and getting to dress up a bit. ;-)

Our Winter Break officially started the 21st, but we didn't drive home until the 23rd. We had a wonderful Christmas celebration! It was interesting coming home and then two days later opening presents, but it was fun! I got a new, small camera that can fit in my pocket, so now I can take more pictures on campus! I know my parents would appreciate the thank-you notes from all of you, haha!         :-)

I've had a great time here sleeping in and getting to re-connect with people that I haven't seen in several months! I'll be here at home until next Monday, and then Josiah and I will be driving back to Missouri to spend a week with friends in Kansas City. Then, we'll head back to MTC on the 14th. Classes start again on the 16th.

Some more pictures for those interested!

We've finally hit the last week of classes. It's hard to believe that our first semester at MTC is almost over! Time seriously flies when you're busy!

So life has been pretty crazy recently. Different things have been stretching and growing me. It's painful, but really, really good. Sort of like when you have your wisdom teeth taken out.......   the painful part is, well, the pain, and the really, really good part is all the pudding and Jello and wonderful thoughts about never ever having to go through this again......

Ok, so maybe bad analogy.

But at any rate, I've been reminded over and over how God wants me to trust Him, no matter what happens (even if the pudding falls on the floor and gets eaten by your dog... hypothetically speaking, of course). As our pastor here in Missouri was saying recently, you have to keep putting your mental car in neutral. We often want to reverse or drive forward in certain situations, but God wants us to be willing to put the car in neutral and wait for Him to clear obstacles or give us directions.

Much better analogy. :-)

Now for some less heavy stuff:

A group of us went down to Branson, MO on Friday to see the show, Joseph, at Sight and Sound Theater. We were able to get half-priced tickets, which was awesome! If you haven't heard of Sight and Sound before, you NEED to look them up!!! My family saw the show back in August, and we LOVED it (nothing at all like Joseph and the Technicolor Coat... or whatever that show is called). Sight and Sound is like the Broadway of Christian theater. They have incredible shows, cast, sets, and soundtracks. If you ever are in Branson or Lancaster, PA (they have two theaters), you MUST check out their shows!  www.sight-sound.com

The show was absolutely incredible. It painted such a vivid reminder of how God is still in control, even when situations are literally the pits (like in Joseph's case).

At Sight and Sound!
Back to front, left to right:
Josiah, Janel, Jared, Clint
Dan, Katie
Holly, Melanie, Cassy, Anne
Rachel, Me, Brian

Puzzles

My friend, Rachel, and I working on a puzzle :-)