It's been a while since our last update. In the last month we finished SBS, packed up our house, drove across the country, moved back to our favorite place on earth, attended a multi-day family reunion on one side of the family, spent the Fourth of July with the other side, and finally started working again and settling into normal life!
My favorite sight during the road trip: the first sign for Boston! A welcome reminder that the driving was almost over!
Second favorite sight: we stopped to see Niagara Falls (the US side):
Other exciting moments: documenting each step of the way...
...because we won the ipad contest! Thanks to all of you who voted! We successfully placed in the top ten and got the ipad 2, and came in second place overall, just missing the grand prize of the imac. Slightly disappointing, but mostly really exciting! (Click here to watch the 2-minute video documenting our trip)
For now life has slowed to a comfortable pace. Jesse's landscaping and I'm returning back to the place of my very first job-- Dunkin Donuts! Ah, how I've missed smelling like coffee... We're also apartment-hunting, and I'll soon be cramming in calculus and chemistry reviews before I attempt to take further courses in the fall after not using that side of my brain for a few years. Yikes.
Thanks again for all of your prayers, and an extra big thank you to those who have continually showed enthusiasm for what we're doing and how God is leading us. This phase of life may be less eventful than the past couple of years, but we know he's still doing big things in us and still planning big things to do through us. It's such an encouragement to know that there are people cheering us on! We love you!
We're getting close enough that we're counting down by DAYS now, instead of weeks! YAY! We're also taking a photo a day of us with the number of days left.
18 days from today we'll be home!
We're also flying through a whole bunch of books! We're almost done with the Old Testament! This week we covered Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
Dear SallyJo, forgive me for this not being the most flattering picture of your face!
Next week we have two tiny more prophets (Haggai and Malachi) then on to Matthew, our very last book! AHHH! Hard to believe it's so close.
In other exciting news, we've entered a contest to win a free ipad and imac! Zagg.com is holding a "What would you do?" contest, and we got picked in the top 30 finalists. If we get picked as one of the top ten (we'll find out the day that we leave) we agreed to paint their logo on our cargo trailer that we're pulling home, and we'll document our trip which advertises their site. Click to vote for us! We're the first one on page 2! If they like our video of the whole event and they deem us worthy, we win the imac and ipad! (It's about a $1700 value)
We also dove into our 2-weeks-till-we-leave To Do List! This weekend we packed up all of our kitchen stuff and put back the stuff that belongs to the people who usually live in this house. We'll be using their stuff for the last couple of weeks.
With only 18 days left until SBS graduation, our schedule is looking crazier than ever with final homework assignments, last-minute social engagements, and cleaning and packing up the house. It's starting to feel real, yet still unbelievable that 8 months have gone by so fast.
This weekend we started tackling the cleaning and packing. We're planning to do a little bit each weekend, since we'll be driving out immediately after graduation and won't have the time to do it all at the last minute. We were really lucky this week to have some help!
Jesse did the lawn work
Our good friend Graham is a window-washer when he's home, so he brought his fancy rags over to do our windows for us.
Our friend Joel offered to help too, so we put him in charge of burning 8 months worth of cardboard that we'd been stockpiling in the garage. It may have been a little bit out of control at one point...
I stayed inside and did the usual cleaning stuff, then started packing up our least-used items.
Everybody breathe a sigh of relief for us! I don't mean to ever imply that 15-hour days of nothing but Bible study are anything but a privilege, but believe me when I say that finishing our Jeremiah assignment this morning was like the first sunny day after a few weeks of rain (which, by the way, we would really appreciate)! This was the last of the really big books, and for the next four weeks we'll be cranking out smaller books at a much faster pace.
Lectures this week were done by our favorite teacher. This is a picture of the timeline of the book of Jeremiah. It's hopelessly unchronological, so this was a HUGE help in figuring out what went where.
We'll be studying Daniel for the first half of this next week (my favorite book!) and for the second half we'll be studying Zechariah. Judy Smith, co-founder of the School of Biblical Studies, will be teaching us Zechariah. She's a wonderful teacher, so we're looking forward to it!
This is a picture of the sunrise last week, taken as I walked to my 6-am bread-baking duties.
Thank you, God, for putting us someplace that's nice to look at :)
I'll apologize in advance that this is a lot longer than I intended it to be. I figured I'd go ahead and post it as-is though. FINALLY, we're letting everyone in on the big story of what's next for Jesse and Amy!
No, we're not pregnant.
We’re planning to start a ministry in New Hampshire, which we’ll be calling Deeper Well.
The Mission Statement
Deeper well aims to transform the city of Dover, New Hampshire through mercy ministry, evangelism, and discipleship of both new and old believers. Rather than participating in individual mercy ministry events, we desire to live a lifestyle of dedication to our community and consistently recognizing the people around us and meeting needs where we see them. Evangelism will naturally but intentionally take place as we meet these people and come to care for them. As people come to know our living God and find hope in him, we will facilitate their growth through one-on-one mentoring, small groups and classroom-style teaching on the Scriptures. Since each worker has different gifts and a different God-given role, we aim to place people where they specifically have the gifts, passion and vision to help people be transformed to reflect God’s character. Our long-term goal is to see those we have evangelized to eventually become evangelists and teachers and disciplers themselves.
The Back-story
During our time in Africa, we felt God leading us toward a future ministry of some kind, though we didn't know what. The closest we could figure was that we might plant a YWAM base in New Hampshire.
We did a 6-week leadership seminar last summer called DTS Equip, where learned more about how our personalities and gifts and passions factor into the calling that God has for us. There we realized the huge role that teaching would play in our future. That time also confirmed our desire to disciple Christians to discover all that God has for them.
Throughout our 9 months in SBS, we’ve uncovered a deep desire to give people solid biblical teaching, and the tools to study the Bible correctly on their own. During these last few months God has given incredible clarity to the vague vision that we had in mind when we started in September.
The Vision
As the mission statement describes, we want to focus on evangelism, mercy ministry and discipleship. Evangelism, because our desire isn’t to lure bored Christians away from their churches into a more ‘exciting’ looking thing. Actually, we want to do the opposite. We want discontent Christians to rediscover what Christianity is all about so that they’re more active in their own churches and in the lives of the people around them. We want them to realize that there is always more we can learn about God; we shouldn’t ever have the chance to be bored! As we see more people coming to Christ, we’ll need to make sure they learn more about who God is—his nature and character, the necessity of sharing the gospel, of learning his Word, etc. We have dreams of small groups and of evening classes or multi-week seminars to pass on some of the things we have learned about studying the Bible. We want people to discover their own spiritual gifts and begin to use them as part of the body of Christ. We have lots of BIG dreams too—of full-time ministry, of seeing people saved and healed, of taking outreach teams to other countries. We dream of having a large group of people on board with us who all want to see the same changes in our city, who donate their time and money to see it happen. It’s sometimes hard to know what to call our ministry. It’s part church, part not. Our goal certainly isn’t a Sunday morning service, but it’s easy to see it ending up there. We could talk for hours about the many different ways that this could look, but we’ll spare you the ramblings! All we know is that God will reveal more and more as we go along.
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Acts 2:42-47
The People
We’re excited to have our good friend Ben joining us for this endeavor! He is one of the ones who has been there since the beginning of SBS, staying up late many nights talking with us about all of our dreams for the future. Even though New Hampshire is our home and not his, this is just as much his dream as it is ours. He’s ready to make Dover his home and be committed to seeing change in this area.
We also have a couple of other friends who are seriously praying about joining us. Even if they don’t come right away, we’re excited about the possibility of them coming along in the future to help us get things off the ground.
The Timeline
6 months – 1 year:
We’ll get settled back into “real life” after being in the YWAM bubble (off and on) for 3 years. Amy is returning to UNH to finish her computer science degree. Jesse and Ben will be working with a landscaping company to open up a new division of work there. This is one of the ways that we plan to support ourselves as we won’t be in full-time ministry at this point and won’t be raising support. Jesse and Ben are both considering their options for further education and praying about what path to take.
During this time we plan to be intentional about the friendships that we make and the mentoring relationships that we seek.
1-3 years:
We have a lot of goals for this stage. We would like to start up small groups at this point, and possibly start up small bible classes through existing churches for people who feel inclined to learn more than they get at small groups and Sunday sermons (And no, we’re not bashing either one, but young/immature Christians could certainly benefit from learning early on how to study the Bible). At this stage we plan to be spending a significant amount of time teaching and helping people grow, but we will still be finishing up school and working part-time. We may raise support during this stage, but that’s still unclear at the moment.
If possible we would also love to travel and teach in Schools of Biblical Studies around the world. Second and Third World countries often have a very difficult time getting teachers to come to their schools because of the cost of travel, but we have a big heart to raise our own support and help in these places if possible. In many of these countries, pastors earn their positions simply because they were the first convert in their village. They desperately need solid biblical teaching, and by taking a week or two to go and invest in one of those SBSs we could actually be helping many different ‘pastors’ how to correctly study the Bible and lead their congregations in truth.
3-5 years:
By this time we hope to have a building in which to hold classes and have group meetings. We hope to have a group of people who are enthusiastic about evangelism and reaching out to their neighbors. We want to make teaching a nearly full-time job. Again, when possible we hope to travel to teach in other countries and/or bring teams to do outreaches.
Video For those of you who missed it the first time around, we got to share our vision with our SBS a couple of weeks ago and we got video of it. It's basically the same information as above, but if you're interested, here it is!
This week we were privileged to have Dr Ronald Youngblood as our teacher for the book of Ezekiel. He's just a couple of months away from turning 80 years old and has spent most of his life studying the Old Testament! He helped translate the NIV Bible and worked on the Nelson's Bible Dictionary, just to name a couple of his accomplishments. Read his official biography over at Zondervan. All of his study and experience was definitely helpful on this book, and he's an adorable little man. We thoroughly enjoyed class this week.
It's been a BUSY week though. Ezekiel is the third largest book in the Bible, so the work load was similar to the week that we did Isaiah, plus we had an extra day of class this week. Dr Youngblood has too much information not to take advantage of him being here! Needless to say we're both in a little bit of an over-tired state at the moment. Five more weeks of class seems like a lot, but after next week (Jeremiah) it will be a little bit of a downhill to the end. Then a week of fun road-tripping, and we'll be home for good!
Financial Update
I've been keeping a close watch on our expected expenses from now through the second week of July (our first hope for a real live paycheck from real jobs!). Assuming our regular amount of support comes in this month and nothing unexpected arises, we're only about $500 away from being able to cover all of our expenses. We've already been promised the money to cover our trip home, which is our biggest expense in the near future. However, it's also the farthest away. So our $500 need is a little bit time-sensitive; our current bills need to be paid by June 1st. Once those are paid, we should be all set until getting home.
If you'd like to help us with these last few expenses, let us know! As usual, support can be sent through Grace Community Church or given through Paypal. Click here for details.
Again, thank you SO much to everyone who has helped us get this far!
PS- We haven't forgotten that we haven't told all of you what we're doing next. We did a presentation here a couple of weeks ago and shared our vision with our class, and we took video of it. If you haven't already seen it and would like to, here it is! Admittedly, it's a really long video, so we'll post a shorter summary soon. Be sure to check back!
This week was another small book week. We studied Micah, Habakkuk, Obadiah, and Zephaniah, and spent Saturday preparing for burying ourselves in Ezekiel this next week.
This week also marked our last teaching of the year. Jesse and I both love teaching, and I wish it was a bigger part of our course. This teaching was on the book of Habakkuk.
I chose to pretend I was talking to a team that was about to go on outreach to Japan-- a place that desperately needs some hope in the midst of terrible circumstances. So after going through the historical background of the book and talking about the main message of the book, I focused on one of the last verses in the book:
"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there by no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
I loved this little book. If you've never read it, DO IT! I love that Habakkuk-- God's prophet-- has trouble accepting what God says he's going to do. That last verse is so powerful when you understand that Habakkuk just heard that God was planning on wiping Judah out for their sin AND he was going to use an ungodly nation to do it. It was a big deal for him to come to the place to be able to say, "Ok, God. I trust you. I know what's in front of me is TERRIBLE, and there's literally no hope that you're going to change it. You've promised that this is what's coming. But I know your character, and I know who you are, so I trust you."
I promise not to preach. But seriously, go study Habakkuk. If you do it and you're confused, I'd be more than happy to share my historical background summary and powerpoint! (And just to clarify, Jesse would be more than happy to share about his teaching as well, but you get to hear about me because I'm the one doing the writing!)
Anyway, on a less serious note, Jesse and I did some rearranging! We sort of hit the wall a couple of weeks ago and knew we needed a serious change of scenery. So we moved Jesse's big desk out of the office and into the living room so we could be in the same room. Then I started piling my things up on the big bookshelf so I can work standing up and save my back from so many hours of sitting! This was in response to this article about the terrifying effects of sitting all day long.
Woohoo! I'm very much enjoying the new setup.
56 books down, 10 to go.
3 student teachings down, 0 to go.
who-knows-how-many tests down, 2 more plus a giant paper to go.
Last week we studied Isaiah. As I write that sentence, all I can think of is what a massive understatement it is. We spent six days studying sixty-six chapters, and most of it was done in total fear of the 5 pm deadline on Saturday. However, I am more than happy to report that we made the deadline and even learned some awesome stuff in the process! I only wish we’d had more than a week to dig into it.
This week we’re busy with four of the minor prophets: Micah, Habakkuk, Obadiah, and Zephaniah. We’re also doing teachings on the book of Habakkuk on Thursday.
Other than that, there isn’t a lot to report. We’ve been spending more than the usual amount of time sitting at desks typing, typing, typing. We haven’t slept much but we’ve loved seeing God’s heart for his people. We’ve also found ourselves acting like complete idiots at the recent occasional patches of sun-- you'd understand if you only had one or two sunshiney afternoons through the entire winter!
We’ll keep you posted if anything more exciting happens!
I'm actually feeling kind of intimidated by how little time we have left here. I feel worried that I won't finish my homework this week because I actually have long-term worry about homework plus social events plus deep cleaning and packing up the house the very day that the school ends. Then I slap myself and remember I'll be just fine and I rejoice that 9 weeks from now I'll be sitting at my mom and dad's kitchen counter telling them all about our trip home. Ah, that sounds nice :)
I don't have a whole lot to report on for this past week. We were busy studying four minor prophets: Joel, Jonah, Nahum, and Hosea. We also read Isaiah in preparation for next week's huge assignment.
Remember a couple of weeks ago how I wrote about a friend giving us a bunch of food when they moved away? There's another family in our church that's moving across the country, and they heard that I love to cook and that the other couple left their food with us, so they brought us food too!
I now have more instant potatoes than I'll ever use...but I also have a whole bunch of various flours! Perfect for baking experiments between now and June :) Woohoo!
AND on the topic of huge blessings--
This week we went to the accounting office to pay the last bit of our tuition as well as our rent. This makes us almost completely done paying for things here! According to my records, all we had left was to pay rent in June.
Just to give you a little bit of background on this topic, I should tell you that earlier this week we were adding up expenses from now until the day we drive into Dover, NH, and we realized that we were short several hundred dollars. Not to worry, this is pretty normal for us; I think God likes building our faith! The really awesome thing is that when we went in to pay our tuition and rent the other day, we were told that all of our bills would be covered by that payment. Somehow we were ahead of schedule, and instead of handing them rent for May, I was handing them rent for June! We're DONE! And that means that from now until we drive into Dover, NH, we are actually very close to having what we need!
I know I say this every week, but I can't believe how fast time is going by! Ten weeks is tiny! And it includes a week of driving! Only nine short weeks until SBS is over. Only 19 (mostly small) books left to study. Last week we spent two days whipping through the book of Job, followed by four days meandering through Amos. Those of you who know your Bible-book-lengths just scrunched up your faces. It's ok, I did too. I happen to love Job to pieces so I was a little sad to spend so little time on it. However, our seasoned staff aren't insane! Since Job is so very repetitive, we did big-picture study of it. Amos, on the other hand, is the first prophet that we've studied and was thus our introduction to the slight differences we'll be seeing in our assignments from now on.
As a whole, the week was one big reminder that we serve an awesome God. Awesome, huge, holy, sovereign, just, loving, merciful. Need I go on? When we first started the Old Testament I wrote about how people often think that the God of the Old Testament is mean and scary and the God of the New Testament is soft and cuddly or something equally as appalling. I've always disagreed with that notion (in case you couldn't tell) and books like Job and Amos really cement it for me. Well, actually every single Old Testament book has reminded me how untrue that idea is. Oh wait, and the New Testament. Sorry, but Jesus isn't soft and cuddly. He might have made God's love a little easier to understand, but he sure wasn't a pushover.
I digress. I find the Old Testament just astounding. Someone please read 2 Kings 17 and then read Amos and tell me that God's heart didn't ache for his people. Tell me he's a ruthless, heartless, Zeus-like being who delights in terrorizing humans. You won't find that god in the Bible. My God laid the earth's foundations and commands the morning. He gives wisdom and understanding. Encountering him leaves us no choice but to step back and admit, "I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know...I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:3-6).
BUT at the same time my God is the God who begs his people to return to him so he doesn't have to see them destroyed. He sends prophets to warn his people, even though he's given them warnings enough and they haven't returned (Amos 4:6-11). He assures them over and over again, "If my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14). How anyone can read the Old Testament and find fault with God is beyond me. We as humans are so obviously the ones with the problem.
Perhaps the most encouraging thing about this whole process is the way we have the opportunity to live out what we learn in the classroom. Three weeks ago our class of about fifty students added up how much money was needed for everyone to finish SBS. Many of us have been able to cover our school costs, but many are still in danger if being sent home if they can't pay. Three weeks ago the total amount still needed was over $17,000. Today it's down to just over $10,000. Talk about trusting that God is bigger than what we can see! Every penny that's come in has been a miracle. It's money that our classmates didn't have and had no way of earning. God speaks and nudges and guides people all over the world, and in three weeks $7,000 has come in. God is big.
After turning in our massive Kings and Chronicles assignment on Tuesday, we heartily welcomed the two small books of wisdom literature that occupied us for the rest of the week. We covered Ecclesiastes for two days, and now we're finishing up Song of Songs. To address the elephant in the room, the lecture on Song of Songs was handled brilliantly. Admittedly, it could easily be an awkward book with a mix of guys and girls, and the majority of the class being single. Our school leader taught the book and managed to explain it with minimal awkwardness and a huge amount of insight into the numerous confusing figures of speech.
Next week we're tackling Job, then getting a prophet overview before we spend the next nine weeks buried in the books of the prophets.
I should note a big praise for God's provision! The nearing end of school has left me hesitant to spend too much money on groceries, knowing that whatever we don't use we'll have to leave behind. This week our good friends were packing up to move to Oregon and blessed us with all of the food they weren't taking with them! YAY! Thank you, God!
Other news-- Jesse's birthday is today! THREE packages arrived yesterday afternoon! Excellent timing, everyone!
We had coffee cake muffins (and mini muffins!) in class to celebrate (not made by me).
Another "big event" is the end of Jesse's one-month mustache! He started on March 16th and didn't shave till today. Here's his handiwork:
Haha, I'm sure you all desperately wanted to see this!
Praise: Last year when we hit the 12-week-till-home mark (when we were in Africa) I was really homesick. The countdown crawled by. This time around, I couldn't be more content with life as it is. I'm beyond excited for being home soon, but at the same time, God has been doing such amazing things in my heart and in our lives. I'm sad to have to leave all of our new friends here, and I'm totally in love with our little house and with every day that we get to study the Bible. Praise God for all of these blessings!
Another praise-- we finally received my new laptop keyboard! You might remember this post, in which I announced that I'd gracefully dumped my cup of tea all over my laptop. Miraculously, nothing was broken except the keyboard, and I was able to borrow an external one for a month while we figured out a replacement. I was even able to replace it myself with no problems, which helped save a little bit of money! Thank you, God!
This week we've been working on 1 & 2 Kings and 1 & 2 Chronicles. One of our assignments is to make a timeline from Saul's reign through the exile and the eventual rebuilding of the temple. The Samuels and Kings are some of my favorite books, so I've been especially enjoying our homework lately.
This Friday was also our quarterly Welcome to Montana Night. Jesse sadly had a nasty flu-like thing and couldn't come, but it was fun as always!
I would like to announce one of my proudest moments in the kitchen which took place yesterday afternoon. Please be enthusiastic for me. I made marshmallows!
It was kind of a sticky mess part of the time, but my good friend Candace was there to document the event for me!
I write this feeling more rested than I have in a long time. I'm happy to report that I'm (gasp) even a little bit anxious to get back to our normal work load! I kind of miss the routine. However, this week of relaxing has been awesome!
We spent our first vacation day driving to Seattle to see a friend that did DTS Equip with us over the summer. We only stayed for one day (two nights), but it turned out to be just the right amount of time.
It's kind of a pretty drive
True to the stereotype, it rained the entire time we were there!
And true to the stereotype of Bellevue (where we were staying), we saw 856,398 Microsoft buildings. Holy cow.
We went to Mars Hill Church and saw Mark Driscoll preach
and spent the afternoon walking around Pike Place Market. The highlight for me was seeing the home of my favorite tea (which I feel I must acknowledge is actually my Mom's favorite tea and I've just inherited her love for it).
We spent the next day driving back to Montana, with a quick stop at the halfway point to see some fellow SBSers.
We have since gotten huge amounts of sleep, done some spring cleaning, and had a couple of movie nights with the small number of people who actually stayed on base for spring break.
One night (in spite of the nearly constant rain) we even had a BBQ and bonfire!
We also spent almost 8 hours reading 1 & 2 Kings, and 1 & 2 Chronicles out loud to prepare for next week's mammoth assignment.
It’s hard to believe that another quarter (third) is almost over! Here's a quick video update from Jesse before I go into more detail about what we're up to! Be sure to watch both of them; they're really quick!
So last week we prepared teachings on the book of Ruth and presented them to a small group. It was a great break from the normal routine, and we always love getting the chance to teach! The rest of the week has been crazy busy with First and Second Samuel. Jesse was really sick for a couple of days, so the work load has been especially painful for him. Thankfully, since it’s an enormous book (both books together), we get a few extra days than we normally would to complete our homework. Then we’ll be getting ready for our last test before spring break!
As you might imagine, we’ve all been having a serious case of spring fever. Winter here is overcast…every single day. So the recent sunshine is making everyone a little bit bitter about being inside doing homework all day, and the approaching break makes it even harder to focus. But we will finish strong!
On Saturday we’ll be leaving to spend part of our break in Seattle! We’ll be staying with a friend who did DTS Equip with us this past summer and hopefully meeting up with some friends. We’re also planning on visiting Mark Driscoll’s church while we’re there. We don’t want to see him like a tourist attraction, but we’ve been listening to his sermons off and on for years and it will be really fun to actually be there!
We’re definitely looking forward to a chance to do something other than study for a few days. SBS doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for extracurricular activities, but we try to make room for them so we can feel like well-rounded human beings. One of Jesse's favorites is Monday night volleyball. Last Monday was their end-of-quarter tournament, and his team won! Yay!
As much as I love and miss our real home in New Hampshire, we have indeed made ourselves at home here. For the most part, the ability to participate in hobbies is what really makes me feel settled someplace. So cooking and running take up a good chunk of my spare time (not that there’s all that much of it). Beyond that, though, we’ve been blessed by even more important things that I think we should have shared by now.
This is Lakeside Baptist (yeah, I’m aware that we aren’t really Baptist, but we like these guys!)
It’s not a big place, and is often overlooked by YWAMers (in spite of the great location) who are looking for something big and exciting. Most of our classmates go into Kalispell to various churches, but we’ve found something really awesome in our little church.
These people have hearts of gold and a love for missions. They also have a really super grasp on the whole concept of a church being a community. Everyone is really loving and friendly, and the “handshakes, howdies and hugs” time before the sermon lasts longer than the sermon itself.
We also have monthly potlucks. PRAISE JESUS FOR GOOD BAPTIST WOMEN! We have some good food at these potlucks. I’d show you a picture of it, but the potluck was last week, and I forgot my camera.
But here’s the chocolate cream pie I made!
Meet Candace from Seattle! She loves cooking almost as much as I do, and is one of my favorite classmates!
And these, my friends, are some of the other people that make us feel at home here. This was taken today-- our first sunny warmish day since Thanksgiving! YAY! There was an insane amount of energy in the dorm today!
When you pray for us, thank God for them! They’re all a piece of what makes us able to do what we do. As are YOU, by the way. Whether you support us with love and prayer or with money (or both!) we’re thankful for you. You make us able to do this week after week. Thank you!
Yesterday we handed in our homework for Deuteronomy, and passed yet another SBS milestone: the end of the Pentateuch. We’ve spent four weeks studying these five books, and I’ve been more amazed by God’s mercy and faithfulness every day. I’ll never understand why he put up with this nation that kept rejecting him, but I’m so glad he did! Haven’t each of us done the same thing at some point?
The end of Deuteronomy got me thinking about the end of SBS. Moses’ time as their leader was coming to an end, and he gathered all the people together to remind them of the covenant that they had made with God, and to urge them to obey him and follow him as they went into the land that he was giving to them. Moses wouldn’t be around anymore to intercede for them or confront them when they’d sinned. He just had to let go and know that God would send someone after him to lead the people.
What does that have to do with the end of SBS? Well, in about 4 months our staff will no longer be with us to help us on our journeys. While we’re here they teach us, they love on us, they correct us, and lead us ultimately toward God. When we receive our diplomas, they’ll be letting go. SBS isn’t the Promised Land. It’s an amazing privilege that we get to do this for 9 months, but it isn’t the kind of setting we’ll be in for the rest of our lives. It’s a preparation stage to help us as we move into the calling the God has prepared for us to spend our life doing. That calling is our Promised Land. We’re going to need to take all of the things that we learned here—the skills and the knowledge of God—and apply them to whatever we do next.
Are you ready to hear what that is? I know we’ve been pretty silent on the subject since well before the holidays. I’m sorry to tell you that we’re still not revealing it! I will tell you a few things though:
Teaching is most definitely part of it…but probably not right away after SBS
There’s still more to learn…but we’re coming home to learn it!
God has been SO faithful in guiding us. We asked for prayer as we considered what to do next, and we have definitely seen God give us vision and excitement and confirmation and MORE excitement over and over again!
The “coming home” part is most likely in August, not immediately after SBS ends in June.
I was all set to write about what we're learning in the Books of Moses, but just discovered something that needs to be shared more!
You might remember that we took at trip to the ER last fall because Jesse had some chest pain and we were worried it might be serious.
So the FIRST God story is that he was fine!
After that fun little trip, we found ourselves with over $2000 worth of bills-- one for about $1500 to the hospital itself, then smaller ones to the doctors and to the imaging department. So each month we get three bills popping in to say hello. Mmm, fun.
Look what I found today:
They randomly took over $1000 off our bill! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Dear Supporters,
My computer received a bath in a cup of tea. After letting it dry out for a day to ensure minimum damage, I turned it on and discovered a very broken keyboard. It isn't covered by the warranty. I've been loaned an external keyboard to temporarily use until I can get my computer fixed.
I'm sorry to say that we can't afford to get it fixed right now. We need about $40 for the new keyboard (yes, I've checked ebay and lots of other sites; it's a new computer and spare parts aren't in abundance yet) plus probably $50 to have it installed. Please let us know ASAP if you feel that you would like to help us with this! You can send money, as usual, to Grace Community Church, but it would be faster to put it directly in our account. If you'd like to help, let us know and we'll give you details!
The Bright Side:
We're studying Numbers right now, and it's reminding me not to grumble.
I'm more sure than ever that God is in control of all things and that he loves his people
Only the keyboard is broken
I was able to get an external one to use, so I don't have to pack everything up and study in the library
None of my files are lost
Everything belongs to God; he is more than capable of providing
So here we are in Genesis…back at the beginning. I actually love the Old Testament. When we did the Core Course in South Africa (a 3-month school very similar to the SBS), it was while studying Deuteronomy that I knew I wanted to get to spend more time doing this. Sometimes we have this weird view that the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New. We think he was big and scary and that he really enjoyed killing people. I think it’s impossible to read through the Old Testament and still walk away thinking that. We serve an AWESOME God, and he’s more loving than we can even imagine. I’m ready to get to know him better in Genesis and through the rest of the books from now until June (and, of course, for the rest of my life as well).
Talking to a fellow SBSer last week, I was struck (not for the first time) by the realization that this experience is not just for me. I’m not learning about God just so I can have warm fuzzies about him, or so that I can have a lot of knowledge crammed into my head. HE is the point. He’s the reason for everything that we do. He’s the One who called us here and the One who gives us the strength to finish it. This knowledge of Him and passion for Him are not just for me—they’re gifts to pass along.
This is where you come in. Whether you’re a financial supporter or someone who prays for us, or someone who just gets encouraged by reading what we’re doing—I’m doing this for YOUR benefit. If you need a little more Jesus in your life, I want to pass something on to YOU in return for the love and support you’ve given to US. Feel like you need to spend more time in the Word and kind of stuck on what to read? Feel like it’s really dull to read the same stories over and over again? Tell me about it. Ask for a reading plan. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do claim that chasing after God ALWAYS leads to growth in relationship with Him and greater awareness of who he is and what he’s doing in our lives. Join me in that chase?
If you're not convinced you want to chase him, go read AW Tozer’s Pursuit of God and come back to me when you’re done. You’ll be convinced.
This week marked the end of the New Testament for us! Actually, we’re saving Matthew for the very last book of SBS, so we won’t REALLY be done until June, but we’ve done all the other NT books! A week ago we finished up the book of Revelation, and this week we spent Monday and Tuesday working on 2 &3 John. Wednesday we had a huge New Testament oral exam which we’ve been studying for like mad (click here to see why!), and immediately after that we started in on the Old Testament!
This experience has been priceless already, and we aren’t even halfway done. It’s such an unbelievable privilege to be here and do this. I probably don’t mention it enough, but we’ve seen God’s faithfulness SO clearly during this time. As we reach this milestone, I feel like we need to enter the next phase with thankful hearts and eyes wide open to the ways that God has blessed us so far. Ready? In no particular order…
We have a HOUSE—and unless you’ve had to combine marriage and dorm life before, you can’t imagine what a blessing this is. It is also something I somewhat hesitantly BEGGED God for as we were making plans to come out here.
We have some really awesome friends—something I was really concerned about. Not because I thought people wouldn’t like us, but because I haven’t made any really CLOSE girl friends in about three years. I needed some people to lean on, and God has provided them! Yay, God!
He’s consistently provided money just when I’m starting to get worried about upcoming bills.
He’s put us in a place where its safe to go running! If you didn’t hear any of my lamenting when we were in South Africa (a really high-crime place), this might not seem like a big deal. It’s HUGE. Not to mention that YWAM schools are notorious for a trend most know as the “freshman fifteen”…except in YWAM every 3 months is a new school, and as such it usually means a NEW fifteen pounds for each girl (somehow all the men seem to lose weight. Weird and unfair, yes). Running is a blessing. End of story.
I have an oven. This is a separate blessing from the house, because cooking is definitely in its own category of awesomeness. I feel so much more relaxed about life when I can take a break from my work and eat warm, gooey, homemade macaroni and cheese. And chocolate cream pie. And homemade applesauce. I’m pretty sure there are ovens in heaven. I’ll find a verse to prove it if you give me long enough!
We’re in the United States—which is not a statement about patriotism, but rather about the fact that we have cell phones and reliable internet and get to talk to our families all the time. Again, new appreciation after the Africa experience.
Maybe this should be lumped with #6, but I think it deserves its own number because it is one of the biggest blessings: NOT BEING HOMESICK. Thank you to those who have prayed your little lives away for this. I have a major problem with homesickness…usually. However, due to God’s unending faithfulness and miracle-working powers (and due to many of the blessings listed above), I have not been homesick at all! If you know the Shevenell Clan well, you’ll understand. They’re amazing people, and it’s pretty hard not to miss them. Yet I miss them with a content heart this time. THANK YOU, JESUS.
Last night we had a big party to celebrate finishing the New Testament. We had hamburgers and hot dogs and a “Gong Show” (a talent show in which the talents displayed might not be particularly good). I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard! It was the perfect ending to an amazing four months :)
The moral of the story: READ THE NEW TESTAMENT. If you’re in YWAM or are considering doing a DTS, do an SBS too!
As another quarter begins we've been looking at our current financial situation, and the first thing we want to say is a huge THANK YOU to those of you who have been financially supporting us. It is an amazing privilege to get to spend this time in God's word, preparing for the future that he has for us, and we couldn't do it without your help! We've been so blessed the past few months as we've received more than we've expected and exactly what we needed to cover bills! Thank you so much! And now, a recap of our current monthly budget: $550 Housing $360 Meals $100 Phones $40 Gas $100 Medical -------------- $1150 Total We are currently receiving about half of this. God has been so faithful to get us through first quarter without enough pledged support, and we trust that he will continue. Please pray about helping us finish what we've started (and what He's started). No monthly commitment is too small; we know that God has often used those who think that they have the least to give to make the biggest difference. We also owe $2000 per quarter in school fees. We've paid for first and second quarter, and will need to make the last payment at the beginning of April. If you would like to help us reach our monthly goal, please contact us: amylynndavies@gmail.com jessedavies@gmail.com Checks can be written out to "Grace Community Church" with "Davies" in the memo line, and mailed to Grace Community Church 159 Rochester Hill Road Rochester, NH 03867 Note: Support is not tax-deductible because we're students. You can also click on the "giving to us" button above to donate through Paypal. Again, a hundred thank-yous to those of you who have already given. We appreciate you so much!
