2nd week (5/21 - 5/27)

This week I was back in Gurnee for half of it and Normal for the last half.  From Monday until Wednesday I was back home in Gurnee for jury duty.  Though it was sort of an inconvenience to have to drive 2.5 hours north just to attend jury duty it was a great couple days back home.  I was able to have a get together with guys that I was not necessarily able to see before I left for the first time back to Normal.  Was able to inform them on what I was doing this summer and what my internship looks like. It also was nice that I was able to actually get on a jury for a case so jury duty was not 100% boring! Having a part in someones "fate" (if you want to call it that) is kind of crazy, but I felt me and the rest of the jury did a job well done :)
Wednesday was great even though I spend half of it traveling back to Normal. I was dropped off at the Libertyville train station to take the Metra into Union Station and there is where I would catch the Amtrak back down to Bloomington/Normal. Taking the metro in was great.  Not only do I love taking trains but I was able to bask the in the beauty of Chicago, which of course is the best city in the world! Now the Amtrak down to Normal is horrifyingly boring, because it consists of corn fields. When I arrived my accountability partner and brother in Christ, Mitch, picked me up and were able to have lunch and talk about the ways God is working in our lives through our jobs, relationships and whatever else. At night I was able to regroup with my host's at there relatives house for dinner. After dinner consisted of being able to talk with one my hosts who is a pastor of the church and two other guys from Charis Community. We were able to have a great long talk that was just Christ-centered and edifying in its entirety. Being able to grow in Christ through the fellowship of others is so awesome.
As the week continued I was able to meet up with the lead Pastor of my Church. He had assigned me a reading called "The Steward Leader" by Tim Keller (which I recommend for anybody it is short and awesome) and we were able to have conversation about that and also was able to focus on where God is working in amazing ways in my life through growth and also where I see areas of needing improvement. Another great time of edifying awesome conversation!
Thursday night was a night of awesome JOY!!! I was able to be a part in the engagement of a great friend of mine. I could not have been more excited for him and to be able to see a great example of Christ's love in a relationship! That whole night was just continued celebration.
The weekend was full of stuff. I had great study time this weekend and just received the book that me and my lead Pastor, Jon, will be reading for the summer called "The true bounds of Christian freedom". Looks like it will be a great read and plan on it challenging me in many areas of thought and theology.
I was also able to get together with a good buddy of mine and have lunch and be able to see how he was doing in his relationship with Christ and seeing that he is getting married in like 20 days we were able to talk about how that was going as well. This was followed by a get together from a group of people from my church. A couple hosted a "shooting and food" at there home in Funks Grove.  First off, I heard the town Funks Grove and thought for sure I was heading into the boonies. Shooting and food can sound misleading but basically it was a time for fellowship, brats, and shooting a shotgun at clay pigeons. Needless to say it was a great time to get to know more people and also dive into some of the culture down here in the middle of no where haha!
Still in the weekend I was able to spontaneously go camping with 2 college guys I met from Charis and one of their fiancé's. We literally traveled maybe 20 minutes away but it turned into woods and you would have had no clue you were still in farm land. Nothing against farm land, but ya farm land is boring. That whole night was an adventure from finding our site to me realizing that even though these guys were from  the country they had not a clue to what they needed to do for camping. Luckily I was able to turn on MacGyver mode and get the fires going an such. The best part of the camping experience for me outside of the awesome fellowship with these guys was the nature in front of me. I woke up at the crack of dawn and just watched the sun rise over the lake and dwell in the creation of the Lord.
Then to wrap up this long week was sunday which is one of my busiest days. Left the camp site to go clean up and set up for Charis and had service then helped with the offering (which is part of my finance portion of the internship). Tore down everything for Charis and packed it up again for next sunday. I then was able to go over to Don's house who is the head of the finance part of my internship and I was able to learn what he does every Sunday regarding the offering deposits from the week before and the current week. This part is not very interesting to a lot of people haha but I was able to put the nerdy side of me out and play with numbers :)
This week was a very crazy full week so thanks for reading and being apart of My "Normal" Life!!

First Week in Normal!!!

This first week has been awesome here down in Normal.  The first day I was here was monday and I was able to meet up with the head pastor of Charis Jon, the church I am apart of.  We went over the part of the internship that would be focused under him and the pastoral help that I could give him this summer. I will be supplying him with heavy detailed notes on the book of Colossians separated by chapter.  This will be something he will be able to reference when he starts to get into his study for his message on Colossians that he will do in the fall.  I have already dove into Colossians, but only such a small amount compared to how much more work I have ahead of me.  I cannot complain though, studying God's word hardly seems like work to me! I also will be studying through a book with my pastor with another student most likely that I am excited to grow and learn through.  The next day I met up with Don who is the finance leader to my internship.  He is a great guy, and when we met we just took time to get to know each other and see the journey that life has both taken us through while also hitting heavily on my duties for him for the summer.  He described to me about the practicalities that he was hoping to drill me in and teach me throughout the summer, so that I would have a good idea of what a normal finance type job might take in on an every day basis. We will also be having very much 1 on 1 time where he will be teaching me plenty on information systems used in the finance environment and also a little bit of everything to do in finance with real hands on money exchanging. He has also had plenty of projects for me to take part in on my time during the day that is not only helpful for my essay at the end of the semester, but also to help me with normal every day interactions with people that I could see when I graduate; specifically on an everyday basis in the working world.  There was some down time this week, more than usual weeks since it was the first week, and I was able to get comfortable in the town in this different setting.  Having fellow students down there that I know has helped with that plenty.  I hope this gives everyone an idea of what things look like for me right now down here in Normal, Illinois, and look in next weekend for another update on this coming week!!! Thank you!

First Full Day!

So everybody yesterday I arrived here and was able to move in pretty quickly. My mom helped me get everything put away, and after we had lunch she head on back to Gurnee. So far so good, I just wanted to let you all know I will be leaving my weekly updates every weekend, but just wanted to say hello and make sure everybody knew they were at the right place if you were looking for my blog. See ya all again this weekend. Excited to let everyone know how my first week down in Normal has been!!!