Spring Semester, Second Half of Seminary Begins

Spring Semester marks the second half of my seminary life. Halfway done and it still feels like I only just started... This past month has been a really great start to a new semester. It is my first time deciding to take a weekend course which meets Fridays 6-9:30 and Saturdays 9-4 once a month. I had thought this would be the end of me, but instead, it really opened up a lot more time to do work and s

pend time being intentional with the relationships up here. In terms of school work, Hebrew has surprisingly taken a turn and hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be. Maybe because we have been moving relatively slower in comparison to first semester of it, but the new information is just slight changes to information that we had learned in the previous semester. Unlike Greek which increased in difficulty in the second semester, Hebrew actually levels off and remains at the same difficulty. There is however, still, a lot of vocab to remember so ... I guess that will be the bulk of it. My other classes have been pretty chill and good as well. Exegesis of Revelation has been really good, and honestly, it feels very similar to the Sunday School at NYCAC except that we go faster through the verses. Old Testament Interpretation has also been a nice class. We spent the first class really going over the history and archaeological support of the stories in the Old Testament and the geographical mapping of where things were. I never really had a knack or passion for history, but it was definitely helpful to recognize and go over where everything was and just have a visual picture of everything.

During the reading week for this month, I actually came back the Wednesday before reading week in order to surprise Visalia for Valentines Day. I also went back for Chinese New Year, which was a good time spent with my family. I'm slowly realizing that as I grow up, there is less and less opportunities to spend with my family, and am really starting to cherish the little bits of time I can eat

dinner with them. During president's day weekend I also went to D.C. and spent the time there with Visalia and my friends. It was a nice break from the grind of seminary, and thankfully, the weather wasn't too bad. It kind of went up and down, with a hailstorm on the first day, but the next few days were really nice. It was also really nice to just catch up with some old friends from my Summer Missions  Project in San Francisco in 2014. It was nice to know that even though we weren't able to keep up with one another constantly, that the relationship was still there.

This first month has also been really good in terms of my personal devotion time. I may have mentioned before, but I have been going through Psalm 119, and honestly, it was really repetitive at first. But recently, I have been very convicted on the attitude of the Psalmist towards God's commands and laws and my own. This semester, I think God is really challenging me to be faithful and act on my beliefs and words, and not to just say or believe the right things. As I read through Psalm 119, I realize that the Psalmist doesn't ask God for help and then go and do whatever he wants. Instead, the Psalmist really takes the time to ask for guidance and also actively pursues a life that reflects his commitment and devotion to God. I feel like God is calling me to such faithfulness in my daily living. Another new but not really new beginning is my new commitment to serving at CBCGB. I had been serving in the young adult ministry and Sunday school here, but I had not really put my whole heart behind it. Because of all the reading weeks, I would usually miss at least 1 or 2 of the meetings per month which didn't really give me much time to actually develop and foster relationships as I should have. However, with this new coming semester, I believe God is calling me to be more intentional with my relationships up here, especially with serving at this church, and that is exactly what I have been doing. Instead of coming home for the whole reading week, I decided to only come back for the weekdays and drive back up for fellowship on Fridays. This way I can be faithful in serving CBGCB as well as find time to rest in between all the work up here. This last month has also been filled with great conversations. Whether it be the change in heart or just the willingness to talk with people, God has been blessing my conversations, and I had been able to spend time intentionally getting to know people at school and my church. I also decided to start a GCTS Ping Pong Tournament to help build some community as well as provide some stress relief for the students up here XD.