After Mission's Emphasis Week

This week was Mission's Emphasis Week here at LeTourneau, and it was quite good. We had Marilyn Laszlo, a Bible translator who worked in Papua New Guinea, as our speaker on Wednesday, and several other good chapels throughout the week. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to meet and visit with Jeff Turcotte, the president of Spokane Turbine Center, where the training is done for the Kodiak airplanes. It was a good week confirming for me that I am to work in the mission field.

Classes went well this week, and I was able to get a good deal of work accomplished in my labs, as well. This week plans were made for me to go home for spring break, instead of going to Colorado. I had been planning on going camping with a group of friends in a cabin in the Rockies, but it was decided not to do that this time. So instead I will be flying home, and Becky will be flying in a little bit before me, so I will get to see her during break!

Please, feel free to write to me and let me know what's going on in your life.

First Monday of classes

Well, due to classes starting on a Tuesday, then having MLK day off, today was my first Monday of classes. Thankfully, the class part is over now.

Last week was a good week, classes and labs went well, and I got a bit more of a feel for how the semester will go, or at least I think I know a bit of how it will go.

Friday night was an honors progressive dinner, and that was a lot of fun. Three of my friends rode with me, and there were probably 30 other people that were there, too, most of whom I knew. A couple hours after the progressive dinner ended and I got back to campus, my old roommate Rusty and I went over to Kilgore for LeTourneau's skate night - we had probably 80 or more people there roller skating, in a really small roller skating rink - but it was a lot of fun. That started at 11 PM, and went for 2 hours. I was tired when I got back, but it was definitely worth it, and a lot of fun.

This week I'm keeping busy with classes and labs, and this is Missions Emphasis Week here at LeTourneau, so there's a lot going on with that, too. I am a missionary liaison, which means that I need to try to be available for one of the missionaries this week. I don't expect that to take a whole lot of time, and it should be good. Prayers are definitely appreciated though, for that specifically, and Missions Emphasis Week in general.

Take care, and may God bless you this week.

First week of school - check

Hello!

Well, it's been a busy two weeks again.

I spent my last week at home helping out with stuff around the house, getting ready for school, and catching up on some sleep. Sarah came home for my last weekend, so I got to see her for about a day, which was shorter than I liked, but it was good to get to see her.

Sunday morning I headed out for Alabama, arriving there Sunday mid-late afternoon, and spending the rest of the day with Tim, Beth, Annette, Becky, and Mrs. Hewitt. I was planning on heading out first thing in the morning on Monday, but interstates were closed, then deemed impassible, for several hours due to the snow storm that came through. Eventually at 3:00 Monday afternoon, I decided that impassible in Alabama might not mean truly impassable, and that I could turn around if I had to. So, since nothing else was closed at that point, I headed out. I found that there were definitely some places that needed to be taken slowly, but the roads were far from impassable, IF you know how to drive in a little bit of snow. So, the normally 9.5 hour drive took 10.5 hours, and I arrived on campus at 1:30 Tuesday morning. I got to bed at 2:00, and was awake at 6:00, with lab at the airport at 8:15.

The first days of classes were average for first days of classes - figuring out "okay, this class will be more interesting than expected, this one will be less," stuff like that, but all-in-all, pretty good.

One of the things that I love about the spring semester is that we start off with two four-day weeks, with not starting classes until Tuesday, then having the day off for MLK day.

As always, I'd love to hear how you're doing and how I can pray for you, so please, feel free to send me an email or give me a call.

First post of the year

Happy New Year!

As I was thinking about the fresh start that is today, the first day of a new year, it occurred to me that today is really not so different from every other day of the year.

Today is an opportunity to get a fresh start of doing our best, breaking bad habits, and forming new ones. Today is an opportunity to begin the process of becoming who we want to be, and of serving God more wholeheartedly, and putting Him first in every area of our lives. Really, though, every day presents us with these opportunities.

We find ourselves disappointed when we fail to follow through with our New Year's Resolutions - but we must learn from this, and not be discouraged. So, you only make it through a few days without messing up? Learn from it, and start over. Don't wait until next year to implement a change. What we have is this year, this day, this moment, and we need to use it as if it were our last. There are some things that we simply must not procrastinate on (yes, I know, that is a shocking statement, coming from me.) Right now you do have opportunities to start new things, make changes, etc. on the first day of the new year - but continue to make new improvements throughout the year.

My challenge to you this year is to be continually improving things, changing what you need to, throughout the year. Don't just make changes today, or even this month. We can all find things in our lives that we need to change in order to be more pleasing to God. Ask Him to show you these things, and then constantly throughout the year seek His guidance and implement the changes that you need to. When December gets here, God may still be showing you more things that can be improved, and that is okay. Just remember to implement the changes immediately. Even when December 31 arrives, we can still make changes each day, without waiting for the next year.

May you have a wonderful year, being blessed and filled with joy, but more importantly, being a blessing and bringing joy to God.