This past month has been pretty busy for me. We had spring break, then I had class in Kentucky, then trying to get back into the groove here at Pitt, plus get a research paper done, and now this is the last week of classes at Pitt. I know, they end super early.
Last week I preached at Turtle Creek, the church that's letting me use their parsonage. With it being the week after Easter, and it's still a part of the 40 days Jesus was alive I decided to use some work from a class I had called Resurrection Narratives and preached on the majority of John 20. What was interesting was I called the elder at the church, asking what the preacher spoke on the week before as to not cover the same thing, and he told me that he used John 20.1-18. I intended to preach on John 20.19-29. That definitely was a God thing. But during that time I noticed that there were some running themes in the texts I was using. There was the Emotion, fear from the apostles and anger from Thomas. Then there was an Encounter between Jesus and the apostles, and later between Jesus and Thomas. Finally there was the Effect of the Encounter. The Effect was always the same; go and tell people about Jesus being risen from the dead.
Three days before that I led CSF, the last one with a Bible study. We looked at Ephesians 4.11-16 which are the verses we were hoping to focus on during spring break, but that didn't happen. So I went through the passage and pulled out different points from each verse. I'll just list them really quick.
11-What God gave
12- Why
13- For the purpose of
14- So that we will not be
15- But we should be
16- Relation to the Church
I made a chart for the students, then showed them how that chart can be applied to different passages, particularly those about the Resurrection. For the example I went through Luke 24 and the Acts to show how these six points fit into the story. Then I paired them up to go through John 20 and do the same thing. The first team done won a Starbucks gift card with the purpose of them going together and getting to know each other. It was a really good and fun exercise.
A few weeks before that (sorry I'm jumping all over the place) we went to Greg's house for a Seder meal, abridged. Heavily. Like 10 minutes. But it was a good time of fellowship with the students, having them out our way for food and fun.
The week before that our director came out from State College for evaluations. I guess I did pretty well on mine because I actually got offered a campus with our organization. We're losing two campus ministers this year, one at our Lockhaven campus north of State College and another at our Altoona campus about two hours east of here. I was offered both, but the more pressing campus is the one at Altoona. So now I'm stuck between attempting to plant a campus ministry at Marshall in Huntington, WV or going into Altoona and fixing a ministry. This is a tough decision for me and is one I've been praying through for weeks now. I'd appreciate your prayers on helping me make this decision as well.
Last Tuesday I actually went to Altoona for the day to meet with the leadership there and see the campus. I was unsure if I was going to be able to make it because the weekend before I girlfriend came up and had some car troubles, so I had to help with that which took a big bite out of my funds. But God blessed that trip. The day before I left I got a care package from my home church, Buckeye Christian, and in it was a $25 gas card! Then on my way there I got superb mileage, not even having to fill up there or back. I could tell all about the visit to the campus, but that'll take a while so I'll just say this: It was a good visit and there is a lot of potential with that ministry.
Last week there was a carnival at CMU which opened Thursday with food, rides, games, and displays made by different organizations with the school that we went to as a group. We had a pretty good turnout for it.
This past weekend we were supposed to go paintballing, but that fell through. And this week is finals so we're spending time on campus just to be there for the students.
Thursday is our last meeting, not entirely sure what the plan is, but my internship is coming to a close now. It's been a fast paced school year that I greatly enjoyed. I'll keep updating this blog as I continue on my journey.
And here's where my beard has gotten thus far!
And I can even chew on it!
This thing has a mind of it's own. I even found food in it a couple nights ago! My uncle Butch would be proud!
