Tuesday, July 28, 2015

The Tuesday that became a Monday

So today's Tuesday, not Monday, but I still feel I need to update this week since so much has been happening!

The past two weeks I haven't been able to post because I was on vacation to and from Oklahoma. ended up being about 2400 miles of driving over 8 days, and we hit 9 states (my girlfriend went with me).

During our time out west I spent a lot of time working on homework and getting a sermon ready. This past Sunday I preached both services at my home church over unity in the Spirit. I feel that both services went really well, I seemed to get a good response from those that were there. After the service I got back on stage to switch hats and talked about the ministry that I've been a part of the past year and about the ministry that I'm coming into.

Unfortunately I didn't gain any extra support, but I know that God will continue to provide for me.

I can already see this beginning to happen too.

Yesterday I spent the day in Altoona, trying to get some business stuff done on campus and also looking for apartments. I ended up finding one, with is $450 a month including all utilities except electric and I get to keep my cat! It's right around 3 miles from campus, and I think it'll be a good place for me to be the next year or two. The only hurdle I need to get over right now is I need my security deposit.

After I was done looking at apartments and got as much business stuff done as I could I was able to meet with the president of our fellowship and got to talk with him for a few hours about the coming year, plans, events, our theme for the year, how we're going to run it, and just life. The longer him and I talked the more excited I got about this coming year and what God is going to do.

Today I've been packing stuff up. So far I have most of my books packed, which was a surprising amount. As the weeks go on I'll continue to be packing up things up, getting ready for a big move.

In two weeks I got class down in Kentucky, which means for the first time in 25 years I'll have class on my birthday. Which I'm not excited about. But oh well, it's where I'm supposed to be so I can learn even more!

But over all things have been going well. God continually provides and helps, and I will continue to live my life based off of his promises.

Thank you for taking your time to read this, and as always, feel free to get a hold of me!

Monday, July 13, 2015

What lies behind and ahead

Greetings! Hope everyone is doing exceptional!

Well it's Monday again, meaning a couple updates! We've had our first mainly dry week in Pittsburgh in a like a month which is nice. I've seen people online attempting to start petitions to send all the rain we've been having to California since they've been having that drought.

This week is also Comic-Con in San Diego which makes me really sad that I can't be there. But one of these days I'll make it.

Well this past week has been quite busy, as is the week ahead.

This past week the church I've been going to (Squirrel Hill Christian Church) has been doing VBS. On average we had 21 kids a night, which was a lot bigger than what they anticipated, and we had a total of 27 throughout the week, only 13 of which being kids of members of the church meaning we had over half not from the church!

The theme of the week was "God of the Underdogs" and we looked at stories about Joseph, Esther, Daniel, David, and Hannah. I got to take part in a couple of the skits as an alligator named Gally (I tried to change it to Gary, they wouldn't let me).

That ended up taking up my time from 5-9 every night and it was a blast.

Throughout the day during the week I've been working on homework with my class finally in full swing. There's a ton of reading I have to do before I get to campus in August, so I've been getting to work on that. This class is Doctrine of Salvation, and we're looking closely at Ephesians and Colossians. From reading those two books and the texts the professor has sent I feel like this is going to be a class I'm going to enjoy a lot and learn a lot from.

Wednesday I took a trip out to Altoona, PA where I'll be working for the next couple of years! I met the director of CSFPA there, Buzz, and we met at the church that I'll be working closely with. We got some business stuff out of the way, and went ahead over to the campus, right across the street from the church, and met with some faculty/staff there. I also got some leads on apartments, which I'll be looking at hopefully in a couple weeks. So far I got connected with the student life people on campus, which are good to have, and I also got on some of our (CSF's) websites so now I can easily get in contact with the students.

Already I've been talking with our president and gave him the task of getting an event put together. I got paintball tickets left over from last year that never got used, so we're trying to get a group together to go. Hopefully we have a good turn out! Some other events that I want to do are a snowboarding/skiing trip to the resort only 45 minutes away. I'm also thinking about doing a weekly meal at my place for students to come and eat or even cook for whoever comes to help create a community and have a good time of fellowship together.

The more I prepare for this coming year the more excited I get. But I still have times of worry and mini freak out periods because of funding. I've been trying to get in contact with different people that I went to school with to try something with them, but I'm still waiting on a couple of calls. Plus I'm trying to get friends from church's that I've attended or worked at to help with support, but that's not always lucrative either. I know God will provide one way or another, and that always gives me peace.

Something that I'm trying though is to connect with youth ministries, specifically Jr. and Sr. High ministries, and have them take me on as their own personal mission. I do consider myself an missionary, and I want to connect with youth ministries so that they can learn about campus ministry, what it's about etc, and take responsibility for a mission. I wouldn't expect it to produce a lot of support, but I still think that it would be good for both ministries.

But that's been my week so far. This next week is going to be a busy one as well. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'm heading on vacation to Oklahoma for a wedding my girlfriend is in. The following Sunday (26th) I'm preaching at my home church, and hopefully will have some time to get to talk with people about supporting my ministry as well. So please keep that in your prayers.

So if I don't update this blog next Monday, I'll still be on vacation that that would be why.

CSF Altoona now has a new Twitter account @CsfAltoona feel free to follow us!

Until next time!

Monday, July 6, 2015

Kicking off July

Well it's Monday again! Hope you had a good long weekend celebrating Independence Day (Not America's birthday). I got to go to Columbus and visit family which was a good time.

It's also the first Monday of the month meaning it's News Letter day. I planned on doing it last Monday, but I had a guest with me so I decided to do it this week.

The past week has been highly eventful, but not incredibly productive. If you remember I just came off of two weeks of camp and a wedding, so I was pretty beat. My girlfriend was in town in with and I haven't done anything touristy in the year that I've been here so we decided to see the sites of the 'Burgh. Monday we went to the zoo, Tuesday we hung around the house, Wednesday we went up an incline and walked around Mt. Washington. Afterwards we went to visit my aunt and helped her put up a gazebo. When we left we decided to make a pit stop on the way back to my house and went to the Point and watched the sunset. That was the first time I've been there in 13 years and it was amazing. Picture below. Thursday we went into Oakland and toured the Museum for a few hours. Luckily we got some awesome connections and got to go in for free. Friday we had a baseball game, first in the series of Indians v. the Pirates. It rained most of the time but it was a really fun experience! Then Saturday rolled around and we headed towards Columbus for the 4th.

Over the past week I began doing some work for this coming year and the ministry I'm going to be a part of at Altoona. I began to think of what I wanted to focus on and have come to the conclusion of talking about religion as a verb. Religion, when it comes down to it, is really no more than the practicing of one's faith. I wrote a blog post on it here to kind of get my thoughts out and also to share! I've also been working on the mission, vision, values, and goals for the ministry. Once I get those done I'll be working on them for the year's curriculum then the lesson planning process begins.

I also begin class this week, like a month after it starts. This class is Doctrine of Salvation which I am really excited for, except for all the reading I'm going to have to do.

This Wednesday (two days from now) I'm going out to Altoona for meetings and apartment hunting, so keep those in prayer for me. It'll be interesting, especially since money right now is getting tight. But as always, God will provide.

Just so there is transparency here between us, many of you that read this support me and my ministry both through prayer and financially. For that I thank you from the bottom of my heart. This past year has been a major blessing for me and has showed me even more how God will constantly provide for me. Lately though I have been having random spells of panic when thinking about finances both in the present and future. I continue to pray and trust that God will provide, either by weird but awesome ways like giving me a free place to stay, or by bringing in financial support. God is always good and always trustworthy, and though it seems at times like we're in a dark place his promises still ring true and he will come through on them. In that we are to walk, in anticipation that he will come through for us. But please keep in your your prayers and that I remember that in the coming months where life may get a bit bumpy.

As always thank your for your support and be looking for a News Letter this week! If you regularly support me you'll receive one automatically, if you want one and don't support me just ask!