Summer~

July has come and gone, along with my short vacation back in NY. I am now back in Gordon Conwell, finishing up my second summer class (Exegesis of Mark). While back at home, as

We went to botanical garden, guess what, it's free on Tuesdays
so bring a friend or family member and head on over
(I feel like I'm advertising for them... maybe I'll get paid)

mentioned in the previous post, I had a lot of time to spend with friends and family. I also had the opportunity to teach one of the Sunday school classes going through an Old Testament Survey course. I was blessed with the chance to teach the book of Kings, which was chock-full of kings that were up to no good. Teaching the class gave me an opportunity to review for myself about the kings in the OT, and it really seems like you learn something much better after you have taught it. I also had time to spend a lot of time with Visalia, and that in itself was a new adventure. We had started off long distance, so we never had the opportunity to spend so much time together, since we started dating. There were new challenges that we noticed, and since there was more time spent together, that meant more opportunities for us to experience more of each other's quirks and shortcomings. As the time went on, we recognized more of how a relationship isn't all about fun and games, but there is the very real challenge that comes from learning to love a person, especially when it is between loving them or our own pride. We both struggled with it, but thankfully, God continued to remind us time and time again of His love, and where our focus needed to always be on!

I don't think he knows I'm using this photo
I don't even know if he knows I took it ^.^

While I was back home, I also had the opportunity to reconnect with my younger brother, something that I knew I was lacking. It's so easy for me to take my family for granted, but this time, God just did not let me go. He kept prompting and prodding my heart to reach out to my brother. During the year up in seminary, I had recognized the importance of how our first ministry should be to our family. How funny is it that we would want to go out into the world and share God's gospel, but fail to even care for or love our family members the way we want to, everyone else. As I talked with my younger brother, I was able to see him not just as that little boy in the past who always bothers me or tries to start fights with me, but I truly started to see him as my brother. Not just biologically but in Christ as well, and when I realized that, my heart broke for how I have been neglecting this relationship. Surely the me of the past was not the worst brother, but I definitely did not give them the love or care that God has called us to. Anyway, we had a good talk, and I was able to understand where he was coming from and what was happening in his life at the moment. This was without a doubt, a major blessing from God, and I hope that he continues to developing this relationship!

As I started staying longer in New York, I found myself not really having much to do, and falling into a lazy routine of wake up, eat, hang out, eat, sleep... I was actually missing the studying, and felt like something was missing now that I wasn't studying as much. I also realized that I was not spending as much time with God as I thought I would. I had intended my break to be restful and relaxing, but somehow, I ended up taking a break, not only from my work, but from God as well. I lazied on my daily devotions, and just spent more time doing other things. It wasn't until half way through July did I realize the rut I was falling into and was awaken to the need to be resting in God's presence and not away from Him. I was able to spend the last few days in devotion and preparation for coming back up to Gordon Conwell, and preparing my heart for a new class. It was a good time for me to reflect upon the last year that had happened, and then the short break that I had back at home. There was a re-focusing and re-centering my life on God, and the calling he had given me.

After coming back up to Gordon Conwell, I jumped right into my summer class (Exegesis of Mark). At first I was worried and was a little bit frantic in working on my translations, because I thought I needed to translate half the book. I was also translating it word by word, and finding the function of

Not really great photos as they were taken candidly...
It also seems like I always have photos of food...

each word; which is very helpful, but was taking up a huge bit of my time. After going through the class, I was able to get a better grasp of what was expected for the class, and managed to get the work that needed to be done, completed for each class. During this class, we learned a lot about the context of Mark, and the historical context during the time the book was written. We dove into the literary style as well as the literary content and allusions to the OT. During the short week that I've been back, I was also blessed with the opportunity to be a part of the leaders of the young adult fellowship at my church. We had decided to go on a 1 day 1 night retreat to plan out the vision and theme for the coming year. This retreat was a really amazing time where I got to sit with other leaders who were passionate for the community, and for God's work to be done. I learned so much, and was also very encouraged to just hear them talking about their visions for the fellowship and how they had been hearing God speaking. During this retreat I was also challenged with the very difficult idea of reaching out to young adults. What is the main focus of young adults?? For family fellowships, the goal would be to be a good husband/wife/parent. For college and under, it would be to ground their faith, listen to God's calling, and/or to be faithful in the place that God has placed them (school, families, etc.) Now when I turn to young adults, I just could not figure it out. There were different ideas floating in my head, but I could only end with one: To find their identity/security/stability/comfort. During this time of young adult-hood, we are experiencing for the first time, being on our own and not being told what to do. I think this time is where we feel the most lost and confused. We have the church telling us we need to get married, and society telling us we need to focus on our careers. What I believe that God was awakening me to; was the reality that all of these things would create some kind of security or identity for the person, but was that ever enough? I think ultimately, God is calling them to point back to Him, and realize their very real identity as His child and as belonging to Him. Security and Identity need to come from Christ, and not from the things of this world.

Anyway, that was my little rant/word vomit on what was going through my head, sorry if that sounded very convoluted or confusing. All in all, it has been a really good and restful summer, and I cannot wait to jump into the new year. I pray that you are all doing well, and feel free to hit me up and ask me more about how things are!!