Hey everybody so sorry for the delay. I was in a place with no internet and I also had food poisoning or the flu the last 3 days which has made it difficult to do much.
Otherwise this week has been kind of jumbled together since being sick, so this one might be a little shorter than usual. The beginning of the week was the same old stuff with getting up and chillin at a coffee place of some sort and reading and doing studying for my Pastor. Finance related stuff in the beginning of the week was great and I was able to continue to look further into the monthly processes that Charis has. Through this I will be able to update the last 2 months of there financial statements, etc. Might sound boring but I am looking forward to it!
This week I was able to get up in the morning and do something physical, which is something I am trying to get in the habit of being that I am not doing any sports right now. I have been getting up with the mornings and meeting up with a kid I know pretty well now, which has been great to try and get to know him better on a personal level. Trying to gain this friendship to further dig into his life and relationship with Christ and be as much of a mentor that I can be for this guy and also learn from him.
I met up with another elder/pastors from my church this week, Craig Stimpert. I joined him for lunch at Potbelly and was able to talk with him about things going on in his life and mine. He was able to pour into me through the conversation, but also I was able to give him insight on certain questions just from talking to him about my upbringing and such. It was a great time of fellowship and great time of personal talk to be able to know Craig on a different level while also being able to show him my life story. Two days after this I met up at the same place with my lead teaching pastor Jon Bricker again and we were able have a long talk about his chance to share the gospel this last week at a wedding he was doing. We were also able to talk more in depth about the book we are going through, and with that it led to some really great, edifying theological talks that had me challenged and thinking through.
This past weekend was a fun weekend for me, in that my best friend from back home came down and we went camping. It was such a blessing to have him come down and hang out with. We had so much great conversation involving the Gospel and how it looks in our lives right now and really just tried to challenge each other in leadership and understanding where we are in life. We cooked some awesome food and had some great God time while being out in nature. One of my times of reading we set up my friends hammock over the water and I was able to sit and look out on the lake and forest while reading God's word. Such a great experience and such a humbling experience too.
Sunday my mom was down here and joined me for church and was able to meet the people that God has placed in my life down here this summer. She then stayed till this morning and it could not have been at a more opportune time. We had plans to go places and do stuff, but unfortunately I got sick like I said in the beginning for the whole time she was here. But what better time for my mom to be down here to hang around and watch movies and baby me while being sick down here! haha I was really happy she was able to come down and see how my life is going down here.
Monday night there was a bunch of friends from my floor last year that came down here to move into their apartments, and they ended up having a party thing there. I was able to go over and hang out there for a while and talk to all the guys about what I am doing down here this summer and how gracious God has been towards me in giving me this opportunity.
So this post was delayed as I said and the next post will not be until July 9th! I will be gone for a while on a family trip, that I am looking forward to so much!
Thanks all who are following along with this and I hope everything is going splendid on your side of life!
See ya in a couple weeks!
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
Week 4! 6/4 - 6/10
So before talking about this week, I would like to thank all of you who have supported me so far financially this summer. I would also like to thank you all for your support through the prayer that God has received regarding this. So far this experience has been great and I owe so much of it to those of you who have supported me and made it possible for this to work out as God intended it to.
The beginning of the week I was able to spend a good amount of time with Don Dahl from State Farm who is the head of the finance portion of my internship. I was able to go through the process of recording all the tithes and offerings for the week again. This time I was able to learn more in depth on the internal control process with the money. From taking the money to a place where we would record it using Quickbooks, to learning the deposit strategy between people to getting the money to the bank. This is another project that I will be taking on slowly but surely, is talking to all the PNC banks in the area and making an excel sheet showing certain credential each bank has for depositing money. Specifically night depositing and what that entails for a non-profit like Charis Community Church.
I was also able to meet up with Don at the end of the week to, again, count and record the tithes and offerings via certain information systems. He then took me into some more bigger picture things with Charis starting with month to month duties through excel and other programs. How they make their financial statements and the comparisons they make in figuring out expectations, profits, losses, etc. (We also jammed out to 80's music while doing it, I hear it helps the brain work better haha)
This week I was able to continue in great fellowship with some of the guys from a college ministry here near campus. One kid specifically I was able to talk with more on a personal level and see where he was at with things, while also sharing my heart in areas of my life. Most importantly I was just able to continually try and reveal the gospel through events going in his life. Conversations like that are always the best conversations to have, and just makes a day end with complete joy with the Lord.
My meeting with Jon one of the pastors this week was an unbelievable time together! We continued to go through the book we are reading together and I was able to talk with him about how God has both worked through the book we are reading and through reading the scriptures to bring great realizations to me. The book is basically about Law and Gospel and the theology behind those. The constant reminder by the author and reiteration that as believers in Christ we are COMPLETELY DEAD to sin! This idea sometimes that we think we cannot get out of a rut of that we are held under certain sin because it is "too strong a temptation" is honestly... baloney! As believers in Christ and therefore sons and daughters of the heavenly father, we have power OVER sin, not the other way around. This constant reminder has been something I have been incorporating in my prayer so much recently to be able to really fully understand the strength that God has imputed to us via the holy spirit, to conquer sin.
This conversation with Jon also lead to great conversation with my accountability partner Mitch regarding Law and Gospel and how we need to see things and how today it is so simple to fall into the area of ignorance when it comes to this teaching.
These next couple Sundays at church (counting this last sunday) I will be watching and learning the video side to the service so that hopefully I will be able to serve the church in that way on some Sundays. I am looking forward to that extra way to serve and having the chance to learn another area of technology that I do not fully know how to work!
Last but not least JD and Amy Bridges are the hosts I am living with this summer and Amy's sister Erin had her second child this week! Praise God for that and all of it going smoothly. Crazy how creative God is when it comes to child birth. I honestly took a second this week and was talking with JD and looked over at was like "wow there is a baby in that stomach". Now that also sounds just like a funny thing to say, but seriously it was just so crazy to me that humans can form a human inside them (well women at least). I looked into it further in that God created Adam in the beginning of the world and then God, with Adam not finding a suitable mate, created Eve. God created them! Do we look at the creation of a child in a woman in the same way? He gave us great blessing that we should be able to make a human which was only his duty in the beginning of time. Wow
Lastly this week I was able to serve Christ by being transportation for a high school kid and his mom to a sport doctor appointment. I was able to get to know them as also fellow Christians and hear about their life as well as tell them about mine and why I am down here for the summer. Concluding with the time with them I dropped the kid off, and used what Christ has really put on my heart this summer with the free time I might have towards this family. I offered to give this young man a ride to other doctor appointments that he was going to be having the next couple weeks. I am so looking forward for this chance to serve and also this chance to disciple this young mind that loves the Lord. I am driving him tonight actually and cannot wait to have that short time to be able to pour into him as much as I can!
Well thank you all for reading about my life in Normal, I will see you all next week! Soli Deo Gloria!
The beginning of the week I was able to spend a good amount of time with Don Dahl from State Farm who is the head of the finance portion of my internship. I was able to go through the process of recording all the tithes and offerings for the week again. This time I was able to learn more in depth on the internal control process with the money. From taking the money to a place where we would record it using Quickbooks, to learning the deposit strategy between people to getting the money to the bank. This is another project that I will be taking on slowly but surely, is talking to all the PNC banks in the area and making an excel sheet showing certain credential each bank has for depositing money. Specifically night depositing and what that entails for a non-profit like Charis Community Church.
I was also able to meet up with Don at the end of the week to, again, count and record the tithes and offerings via certain information systems. He then took me into some more bigger picture things with Charis starting with month to month duties through excel and other programs. How they make their financial statements and the comparisons they make in figuring out expectations, profits, losses, etc. (We also jammed out to 80's music while doing it, I hear it helps the brain work better haha)
This week I was able to continue in great fellowship with some of the guys from a college ministry here near campus. One kid specifically I was able to talk with more on a personal level and see where he was at with things, while also sharing my heart in areas of my life. Most importantly I was just able to continually try and reveal the gospel through events going in his life. Conversations like that are always the best conversations to have, and just makes a day end with complete joy with the Lord.
My meeting with Jon one of the pastors this week was an unbelievable time together! We continued to go through the book we are reading together and I was able to talk with him about how God has both worked through the book we are reading and through reading the scriptures to bring great realizations to me. The book is basically about Law and Gospel and the theology behind those. The constant reminder by the author and reiteration that as believers in Christ we are COMPLETELY DEAD to sin! This idea sometimes that we think we cannot get out of a rut of that we are held under certain sin because it is "too strong a temptation" is honestly... baloney! As believers in Christ and therefore sons and daughters of the heavenly father, we have power OVER sin, not the other way around. This constant reminder has been something I have been incorporating in my prayer so much recently to be able to really fully understand the strength that God has imputed to us via the holy spirit, to conquer sin.
This conversation with Jon also lead to great conversation with my accountability partner Mitch regarding Law and Gospel and how we need to see things and how today it is so simple to fall into the area of ignorance when it comes to this teaching.
These next couple Sundays at church (counting this last sunday) I will be watching and learning the video side to the service so that hopefully I will be able to serve the church in that way on some Sundays. I am looking forward to that extra way to serve and having the chance to learn another area of technology that I do not fully know how to work!
Last but not least JD and Amy Bridges are the hosts I am living with this summer and Amy's sister Erin had her second child this week! Praise God for that and all of it going smoothly. Crazy how creative God is when it comes to child birth. I honestly took a second this week and was talking with JD and looked over at was like "wow there is a baby in that stomach". Now that also sounds just like a funny thing to say, but seriously it was just so crazy to me that humans can form a human inside them (well women at least). I looked into it further in that God created Adam in the beginning of the world and then God, with Adam not finding a suitable mate, created Eve. God created them! Do we look at the creation of a child in a woman in the same way? He gave us great blessing that we should be able to make a human which was only his duty in the beginning of time. Wow
Lastly this week I was able to serve Christ by being transportation for a high school kid and his mom to a sport doctor appointment. I was able to get to know them as also fellow Christians and hear about their life as well as tell them about mine and why I am down here for the summer. Concluding with the time with them I dropped the kid off, and used what Christ has really put on my heart this summer with the free time I might have towards this family. I offered to give this young man a ride to other doctor appointments that he was going to be having the next couple weeks. I am so looking forward for this chance to serve and also this chance to disciple this young mind that loves the Lord. I am driving him tonight actually and cannot wait to have that short time to be able to pour into him as much as I can!
Well thank you all for reading about my life in Normal, I will see you all next week! Soli Deo Gloria!
Monday, June 4, 2012
3rd week! 5/28 - 6/3
This felt like the shortest week ever! The beginning of the week just consisted of more study time for my study in Colossians. It is going great and even though I have been through Colossians a couple times before God is revealing new realizations and convictions for me in my life.
I was able to help serve the leaders of our church for the leader appreciation dinner picnic Monday night, which was awesome to be able to serve the people that help the Church run every sunday. Also just had a great example of being a servant Leader from what the elders/pastors of our church did for the leaders for the picnic. In cooking everything for them and setting up everything so that these leaders could be appreciated and understand how much they mean.
Wednesday was a fellowship/fun day with a couple friends of mine and we were able to go to the Cubs game. And yes if you do not already know that was the game with a walk off 2 run home run. Needless to say it was awesome! Me and my friends on the car ride down and while walking around the city were able to converse about futures and what we have a passion for. For me being in Chicago erupts so many ideas in my head and so much passion for the possible future. I was able to voice my interest in living in Chicago not only in the mind set that I think it is the best City in the world :) but also able to show my love for the urban ministry aspect. When I get done with school I am absolutely content in wherever Christ has me going, right now I do not know what that is for sure but I sure feel a big tug to urban ministry. I see how God works in my life the past 3 years at ISU in the dorms. A gift he has definitely bestowed upon me is the gift of being relational with people and creating friends really easily. God has used this gift in me through the years and really blessing me with the ability to create a bible study on my floor my sophomore year for any guys that just wanted to read the bible and were interested. I was able to get about half the guys on my floor to attend and as far as I know they loved the opportunity to read the bible and have some people explain it to them when it seems to be hard to understand.
I was able to help serve the leaders of our church for the leader appreciation dinner picnic Monday night, which was awesome to be able to serve the people that help the Church run every sunday. Also just had a great example of being a servant Leader from what the elders/pastors of our church did for the leaders for the picnic. In cooking everything for them and setting up everything so that these leaders could be appreciated and understand how much they mean.
Wednesday was a fellowship/fun day with a couple friends of mine and we were able to go to the Cubs game. And yes if you do not already know that was the game with a walk off 2 run home run. Needless to say it was awesome! Me and my friends on the car ride down and while walking around the city were able to converse about futures and what we have a passion for. For me being in Chicago erupts so many ideas in my head and so much passion for the possible future. I was able to voice my interest in living in Chicago not only in the mind set that I think it is the best City in the world :) but also able to show my love for the urban ministry aspect. When I get done with school I am absolutely content in wherever Christ has me going, right now I do not know what that is for sure but I sure feel a big tug to urban ministry. I see how God works in my life the past 3 years at ISU in the dorms. A gift he has definitely bestowed upon me is the gift of being relational with people and creating friends really easily. God has used this gift in me through the years and really blessing me with the ability to create a bible study on my floor my sophomore year for any guys that just wanted to read the bible and were interested. I was able to get about half the guys on my floor to attend and as far as I know they loved the opportunity to read the bible and have some people explain it to them when it seems to be hard to understand.
Seeing God work through me in this way has gotten me so pumped for continual close interaction with guys this next year when I am being an RA. This is the person who is the "head" of the floor for the students and in my eyes the example and possible mentor for guys on the floor. This translates for my want to live in the city because after school I still would want to use the gifts God has given me to the fullest extent. Meaning I want to be in an area of close quarters where there are a lot of people and very close around me. Whether it be the idea of an apartment or row house or whatever I would be able to create plenty relationship with people living right next to me and hopefully be able to pour in their lives and reveal to them the reason why I live and what I live for.
So! The day in Chicago was a great day this week!
The end of the week was mixed with things. I was able to meet new people which I always love. On friday I met up again with my Pastor, Jon. Just before meeting with him at a coffee place near by I ran into 2 friends of mine who are newlyweds! I had not seen them in some time and it was great to be able to catch up with them quickly and see how God was working through them the past year and also to see the evidence of God working through their relationship.
My meeting with Jon was great. We talked about the book that I had just received in the mail and being excited about that. I was also able to really pour out to Jon about convictions and areas of repentance that needed to occur in my life in certain areas. He was able to talk with me and make me realize the Gospel even more through the convictions I have, and through this praise God even more for revealing those sins in my life and not letting them continue on and on.
That same day I met up with another elder from church in regards to the "Charis Kids" program at church. We were able to get to know each other on a more personal basis and converse about the coming up Sunday and the routines they go through in leading the class labeled "Big Kids 2". These kids are around the ages of 8, and when it came to help lead them Sunday it was a great time. Being able to see how younger kids respond when the Gospel is presented to them in the correct way and also in a way brought down to their level was so cool.
Sunday was another great day as always. I setup for Charis again and was able to help with the kids as I previously mentioned. Then was able to help clean up too. Sunday night I attended Fuel, which is a college ministry here in Bloomington/Normal and was able to see a friend of mine preach!!! I had not seen him in a while and heard he had recently become the associate pastor of this ministry so I jumped on the opportunity to see him speak. I was able to catch up with him afterward and talk about him being a newlywed too (Everyones getting hitched now haha)! I was able talk to him about how Christ has been working in my life and he was able to share the same. It was awesome edifying conversation and also just another glimpse of God's crazy work he can do if our faith is fully in him and not in other things that can perish.
I praise God every week for the blessings that he shows me even though I do not deserve the slightest. This week the highlight had to of been seeing my friend up there preaching. Praise God for the miraculous work he can do, it is just unbelievable.
Thanks for reading guys! See ya in a week!
P.S. I was able to attend a black barber shop on Friday too, lets just say ... legendary (thank you for my buddy Isaiah for taking me there)
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