Ok, my blog-writing has kind of died out in the last couple of weeks, and I want to apologise for that. So here goes…I’m Sorry.
Now to my blog. It’s been almost a week again since I was sitting in Joes writing my previous entry, and here I am again, in Joes with Chris. We have just taken another quiz and I am getting the funny feeling of Déjà vu, like I have done all this before. Oh yea, I have. Lol
I’m sitting looking out the giant windows into the plaza watching the wonderful world of Moody go by before my eyes. Its quite cold today and a little dull, it reminds me of home in the middle of October, makes me think of being curled up on the settee watching TV in front of the fire drinking a nice big cup of Knox’s tea, brewed by my mothers fair hands ☺ (probably because I am actually drinking Knox’s tea, thanks mum) So yea my package finally arrived it took like two weeks to get here and I was so grateful for it ☺ real chocolate, thanks Mum, Laura and Dad (you probably paid for the postage fee lol) I have put the lid of the teabag box on my wall, it is looking beautiful, another little memento of home.
I finally got to watch some football this week and it was a great game. United all the way! Take that you Chelsea scum; I hope your reading this Stoddo. Haha. We went to an Irish Pub to watch it. The guy who took me goes there every week for his PCM to witness to the ‘Pub Goers’ its so cool, I met so many people from the UK, one guy was from Belfast, he lives here now and Aaron has been speaking to him lately and the guy has professed that he is an Atheist so can you all pray for him.
I feel like I have written enough for this entry. I will maybe come back on later and write a new one, I think a few of us are going to get together and write a “joint blog” so be prepared to read a whole load of rubbish.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Joes on Saturday Night.
OK so its Saturday night once again, the weeks here seem to fly in at a massive rate of knots. But it’s all good. I am sitting here in Joes Coffee Shop studying for a test I have on Monday. The studying kind of started to diminish after about an hour though because… Well, I got bored learning about fitness and physical strength and all the other topics related to my LF100, Physical Education class.
Chris is sitting next to me buying a shed load of music from itunes (he has just bought a MacBook within the last 2 weeks so he is still distracted by its sheer awesomeness and wastes most of his time playing around with it, I know the feeling so I wont judge him for it.) Joy is lying on the ground, basically under the table, reading a book and listening to music. Tomas is also reading his book and studying for his OT Quiz, and David is lying on the couch sleeping. Jessica and Sarah have just left and I believe that they are returning in a little while with some freshly baked sugar cookies, AWESOME!!! (we are all such model scholars, haha) I love my friends here, they are all so cool, I have truly been blessed. But don’t worry guys I haven’t forgotten about you back home, I miss you all and I’m looking forward to seeing you when I get back at Christmas and I would like to hear from you now and then via my CPO Box (Central Post Office, my box is Number 96 HaHa) A package of Cadburys chocolate would really touch my heart and id be eternally grateful ☺
Ooooh the Cookies are here… See ya
Chris is sitting next to me buying a shed load of music from itunes (he has just bought a MacBook within the last 2 weeks so he is still distracted by its sheer awesomeness and wastes most of his time playing around with it, I know the feeling so I wont judge him for it.) Joy is lying on the ground, basically under the table, reading a book and listening to music. Tomas is also reading his book and studying for his OT Quiz, and David is lying on the couch sleeping. Jessica and Sarah have just left and I believe that they are returning in a little while with some freshly baked sugar cookies, AWESOME!!! (we are all such model scholars, haha) I love my friends here, they are all so cool, I have truly been blessed. But don’t worry guys I haven’t forgotten about you back home, I miss you all and I’m looking forward to seeing you when I get back at Christmas and I would like to hear from you now and then via my CPO Box (Central Post Office, my box is Number 96 HaHa) A package of Cadburys chocolate would really touch my heart and id be eternally grateful ☺
Ooooh the Cookies are here… See ya
Friday, September 14, 2007
Trust & Obey
Over the last week I have felt God teaching me even more, I have felt Him telling me to be totally trusting in Him. Everything I read and studied in my devotional times was about “Trust & Obey”
It really hit me that, although I do trust God and I am a Christian, do I trust God with my ENTIRE life, with my everything? How much of my life do I trust Him with. Jesus is my best friend, what do you do with your best mate?? You hang out all the time; you share what’s bothering you, what you are going through and what you like. Tell him or her how you are getting on, you ask them for advice. I don’t treat Jesus like this often enough. I don’t hang out with Him as much as I should. I don’t ask his advice often enough. I don’t tell Him what is on my heart or what’s bothering me as much as I should. He loves me so much, he wants nothing more than a personal relationship where I share my secrets, where I tell him my desires, I tell him my worries, I tell Him I love Him and where we just hang out together.
If I just trust Him more and obey Him in his entirety, I will be satisfied completely. I will know my purpose; I will know what He wants from me and what He wants to do with my life. I pray that God will reveal to me what I am supposed to do and where he wants me to go, all I need to do is obey the words of one of my favourite verses in Scripture, Psalm 37:4.
“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
When God says to delight in Him all He means is that you trust and obey Him fully.
"This is what I feel life is about. To live a life following Christ so close that the very dirt he stirred up as he walked will cover my feet. I attempt to do my best to follow him and when the day is done...hopefully, my feet are in need of a major washing."
I read this quote this morning on my friend’s facebook and I thought to myself, “that’s how I want my life to be, I want dirty feet ☺
It really hit me that, although I do trust God and I am a Christian, do I trust God with my ENTIRE life, with my everything? How much of my life do I trust Him with. Jesus is my best friend, what do you do with your best mate?? You hang out all the time; you share what’s bothering you, what you are going through and what you like. Tell him or her how you are getting on, you ask them for advice. I don’t treat Jesus like this often enough. I don’t hang out with Him as much as I should. I don’t ask his advice often enough. I don’t tell Him what is on my heart or what’s bothering me as much as I should. He loves me so much, he wants nothing more than a personal relationship where I share my secrets, where I tell him my desires, I tell him my worries, I tell Him I love Him and where we just hang out together.
If I just trust Him more and obey Him in his entirety, I will be satisfied completely. I will know my purpose; I will know what He wants from me and what He wants to do with my life. I pray that God will reveal to me what I am supposed to do and where he wants me to go, all I need to do is obey the words of one of my favourite verses in Scripture, Psalm 37:4.
“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
When God says to delight in Him all He means is that you trust and obey Him fully.
"This is what I feel life is about. To live a life following Christ so close that the very dirt he stirred up as he walked will cover my feet. I attempt to do my best to follow him and when the day is done...hopefully, my feet are in need of a major washing."
I read this quote this morning on my friend’s facebook and I thought to myself, “that’s how I want my life to be, I want dirty feet ☺
Work, work, work!
It’s Friday morning and my class has been cancelled because there is an FYT retreat that my prof is away on. So I thought id take this gap in my schedule to do a spot of homework but then I thought to my self,
“Writing my blog would be more beneficial for me and all of you who are going to read it”
I’m a nice guy so I felt that over a week was too long enough without a new post and I was overcome by the temptation of avoiding the homework for that little bit longer.
And besides, the homework is for College writing so this is, kind of, still training for that class. So to make myself feel a little better and that I wasn’t just wasting time I thought id take my laptop down to the basement and do my washing while I’m writing this. How awesome am I?? Answer: VERY!
So now that my whites and colours are all separated and spinning about in the noisiest washing machines in the world I am poised and ready to write.
This week has been a little more hectic, classes are all well on there way. Reading has all started to pile up and it is so easy to fall behind. My PCM has started, work schedule is finalised, and on top of all the reading I am studying already, I have taken a grand total of 3 tests already; 2 for Church and Its Doctrine and the third was a verse quiz in Intro to Disciple making. (I passed them all) Then to add even more into the busy equation I love to socialise, haha!
My PCM (Practical Christian Ministry)
I have to do this once a week, like what I did when I was in Belfast. I did it for the first time last night, Thursday night. I really enjoyed it, myself and a few others go to the local YMCA centre and feed homeless people.
At first I was nervous but I really enjoyed it, I got to talk, haha, my favourite thing to do. It was so interesting to hear all the different stories of each person. The guy I spoke to was called Errol, he was a nutjob, but so cool. He used to be in the RAF and was based in Ipswich for 2 years in the Seventies, it’s a small world.
I am really looking forward to see how I get along in it as the time goes on.
“Writing my blog would be more beneficial for me and all of you who are going to read it”
I’m a nice guy so I felt that over a week was too long enough without a new post and I was overcome by the temptation of avoiding the homework for that little bit longer.
And besides, the homework is for College writing so this is, kind of, still training for that class. So to make myself feel a little better and that I wasn’t just wasting time I thought id take my laptop down to the basement and do my washing while I’m writing this. How awesome am I?? Answer: VERY!
So now that my whites and colours are all separated and spinning about in the noisiest washing machines in the world I am poised and ready to write.
This week has been a little more hectic, classes are all well on there way. Reading has all started to pile up and it is so easy to fall behind. My PCM has started, work schedule is finalised, and on top of all the reading I am studying already, I have taken a grand total of 3 tests already; 2 for Church and Its Doctrine and the third was a verse quiz in Intro to Disciple making. (I passed them all) Then to add even more into the busy equation I love to socialise, haha!
My PCM (Practical Christian Ministry)
I have to do this once a week, like what I did when I was in Belfast. I did it for the first time last night, Thursday night. I really enjoyed it, myself and a few others go to the local YMCA centre and feed homeless people.
At first I was nervous but I really enjoyed it, I got to talk, haha, my favourite thing to do. It was so interesting to hear all the different stories of each person. The guy I spoke to was called Errol, he was a nutjob, but so cool. He used to be in the RAF and was based in Ipswich for 2 years in the Seventies, it’s a small world.
I am really looking forward to see how I get along in it as the time goes on.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
How am i doing?
Well I figured I have bored you all with the facts and details about what life is like over here in an American college, so now I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about how I have, already, felt myself grow deeper and more mature in my faith.
OK, since I have got here I have had this awesome experience and feeling of Gods Holy Spirit about the place, I love it, I pure love it and I have never felt more on fire for ministry, or have had such a burning desire to serve God than right now.
God is blessing me, continually, and I praise and thank Him for that. He motivates me, keeps me attentive in class and is really opening my eyes and heart to learn more of Him.
Living here in such a diverse community has been amazing, we are all learning little things about a lot of different cultures world wide but at the same time we are all similar, we all have a desire to serve God with our lives, and I am so thankful for that.
God works in so many ways. That is something that has been on my heart lately. For example, just last night Chris, myself and a few other friends whom we have met over here decided to go for a wee walk to the shop for an ice-cream. We were halfway there and Chris said he needed to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at McDonalds so he could use the toilet in there. While I was waiting for Chris this homeless guy asked me about what time the church service starts at on Sunday. My first thought was, “oh no, I’m going to be hounded for money again” but I was so wrong, God had scheduled a Devine appointment for that time between us. So I thought to myself maybe we can minister to this guy and share our faith with Him, but instead he ministered to us, for about an Hour and a half. He told us his entire life story, and man; it would make an awesome film. He has been through a lot! He humbled me so much, I mean he had nothing, but he was totally content with that. I have basically everything I could want and I complain that the food, which I have in an almost infinite supply, isn’t tasty enough!
It was so encouraging to be there at that time, infact I loved it so much that we stayed and talked for ages and I didn’t even go get my ice-cream, we had to go back to campus as I was just about to break Curfew.
Another great encouragement to me is the people, my friends here, they are all on fire for God and so passionate, the other night we all met for a prayer meeting and it was the most, intense, passionate and truly amazing thing I have experienced in a long time, God is really working in the lives and hearts of these people, so my request is that you all pray for myself, and this school. Pray that we will start to make a difference in this world. Little by little we can all work together and make a massive impact for Christ across this world. We can all do this (I am talking to every member of WPC as well) if we really want to make the difference we have to start right now!
So lets go out and make that impact, live a life totally sold out for Christ!!
God Bless
OK, since I have got here I have had this awesome experience and feeling of Gods Holy Spirit about the place, I love it, I pure love it and I have never felt more on fire for ministry, or have had such a burning desire to serve God than right now.
God is blessing me, continually, and I praise and thank Him for that. He motivates me, keeps me attentive in class and is really opening my eyes and heart to learn more of Him.
Living here in such a diverse community has been amazing, we are all learning little things about a lot of different cultures world wide but at the same time we are all similar, we all have a desire to serve God with our lives, and I am so thankful for that.
God works in so many ways. That is something that has been on my heart lately. For example, just last night Chris, myself and a few other friends whom we have met over here decided to go for a wee walk to the shop for an ice-cream. We were halfway there and Chris said he needed to go to the bathroom, so we stopped at McDonalds so he could use the toilet in there. While I was waiting for Chris this homeless guy asked me about what time the church service starts at on Sunday. My first thought was, “oh no, I’m going to be hounded for money again” but I was so wrong, God had scheduled a Devine appointment for that time between us. So I thought to myself maybe we can minister to this guy and share our faith with Him, but instead he ministered to us, for about an Hour and a half. He told us his entire life story, and man; it would make an awesome film. He has been through a lot! He humbled me so much, I mean he had nothing, but he was totally content with that. I have basically everything I could want and I complain that the food, which I have in an almost infinite supply, isn’t tasty enough!
It was so encouraging to be there at that time, infact I loved it so much that we stayed and talked for ages and I didn’t even go get my ice-cream, we had to go back to campus as I was just about to break Curfew.
Another great encouragement to me is the people, my friends here, they are all on fire for God and so passionate, the other night we all met for a prayer meeting and it was the most, intense, passionate and truly amazing thing I have experienced in a long time, God is really working in the lives and hearts of these people, so my request is that you all pray for myself, and this school. Pray that we will start to make a difference in this world. Little by little we can all work together and make a massive impact for Christ across this world. We can all do this (I am talking to every member of WPC as well) if we really want to make the difference we have to start right now!
So lets go out and make that impact, live a life totally sold out for Christ!!
God Bless
Classes Start
I’m not going to bore you all with the details of my classes so this section of my blog is going to be exceptionally short. All I am going to tell you is the name of each class and if you are interested in what they entail and what is involved then email me and I will be more than happy to fill you in.
I have to take 12credit hours per week; each different class has got a different amount of hours so that pretty much means I can choose whatever I want after I have picked my 2 core classes.
My core classes are The Church and its Doctrine, and Church History. Both very interesting classes and I have amazing, passionate Profs who take them, which is also very encouraging.
My other classes are, College Writing, Introduction to ministry, Introduction to Disciple Making and Physical and Lifetime Fitness (P.E.)
Ok so I thought I was going to have it easy since I’m only in class for 12 hours each week, but man, was I wrong! I have like a million different books and textbooks to read for the classes, which are also a clean ripp-off, so, my savings account that I opened took a bit of a blow when it came to the book sale. Haha. Then on top of all the homework, I have to study for weekly quizzes on what we are learning. Then…I have a job to attend to as well, and then…(yes even more) I have a PCM, which I do weekly.
PCM is Practical Christian Ministry, kind of like my weekly placement that I did back in Belfast, I do it on a Thursday night, I go to the local YMCA and help feed the homeless people and share the Gospel with them, I am so excited for this to start ☺
So, that pretty much sums up what I am going to do all semester, but don’t fret! I will continue to post articles on this blog as regularly as I can.
I have to take 12credit hours per week; each different class has got a different amount of hours so that pretty much means I can choose whatever I want after I have picked my 2 core classes.
My core classes are The Church and its Doctrine, and Church History. Both very interesting classes and I have amazing, passionate Profs who take them, which is also very encouraging.
My other classes are, College Writing, Introduction to ministry, Introduction to Disciple Making and Physical and Lifetime Fitness (P.E.)
Ok so I thought I was going to have it easy since I’m only in class for 12 hours each week, but man, was I wrong! I have like a million different books and textbooks to read for the classes, which are also a clean ripp-off, so, my savings account that I opened took a bit of a blow when it came to the book sale. Haha. Then on top of all the homework, I have to study for weekly quizzes on what we are learning. Then…I have a job to attend to as well, and then…(yes even more) I have a PCM, which I do weekly.
PCM is Practical Christian Ministry, kind of like my weekly placement that I did back in Belfast, I do it on a Thursday night, I go to the local YMCA and help feed the homeless people and share the Gospel with them, I am so excited for this to start ☺
So, that pretty much sums up what I am going to do all semester, but don’t fret! I will continue to post articles on this blog as regularly as I can.
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