Reflections

     Starting school this morning felt great! I was very glad to be over and done with 11th grade work and fully engaged in 12th. It wasn't really any sort of change in coursework, I just picked up with the next chapter in the second half of my Latin book and kept on with my writing, but it is awesome to have the mental satisfaction of knowing that I finished my course (if you don't mind the pun). A great sense of accomplishment. I replied to a comment on a post from a couple of days ago and mentioned that 11th grade was one of the hardest, if not THE hardest, school years I've completed.

Inquisitive Prophets

     Sunday School resumed today after the break for the Holidays. Our class is studying through the 1689 confession of faith; the class is excellent. I've thoroughly enjoyed learning more about the more technical side of our faith, what the components are and how they relate to one another. For instance, before the break, we had just finished going through justification and adoption, and now we are detailing saving faith and its applications. Our teacher is a great Sunday School teacher role model; his lessons are obviously well thought out, planned, and researched.

Finished!

     The Good News Club had a leader conference/seminar today. It was hosted by the lady who leads GNC for our local school and designed for all the leaders to show up, but only myself and one other leader besides the hostess showed. The speaker has been working with Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) for more than the past thirty years and had a lot of experience and information to share.

Mulching With A Dead Battery

     This afternoon I engaged in an unusual activity for January: mowing the lawn! The weeds had been growing slowly but surely and had gotten my attention, but our recent weather front put them over the top. It was time to reclaim the yard. I filled the mower up with gas, turned the key, and got...... nothing?

GNC & A Wrench

      Today I returned to volunteer work for Good News Club at a public school near us for the first time since we've been back from vacation. It's been a hard year -- attendance started above 100 students but has tapered off to 80 or so I think -- and the kids have been extremely rowdy. Part of that is due to a glaring lack of equipment, the sound systems that we have access to are not powerful enough to do a very good job. The rambunctiousness is also caused by the student to leader ratio, the overwhelming number of students has thrown the system off balance quite a bit. Despite the problems, though, the other leaders have shown a lot of dedication and have really put a lot of effort into presenting the Gospel to these children. All it takes is the salvation of one of their souls to make this entire year worth the effort; it's in the Lord's hands!
     I picked up my chainsaw from the shop today. I still need to test run it, but I trust

Latina Est Gaudium!

     This morning my dad and brother put up the first of two partition walls for my brother's new room. My dad pre-cut most of the boards a couple days in advance, and so today they assembled the lumber, erected the wall, insulated for a sound barrier, and attached the drywall. My brother remarked that it was indeed a BEDroom because the bed literally fills the entire room right now with about a foot of walking space left on two sides. Once the loft is built and the bed is raised up off the floor there will be more room, but for the time being there isn't. The dimensions are something like 7 feet by 5 or 6 feet.
     As my dad was installing the screws for the wall, the drill bit he was using began to

An Accomplishment!

     Today was a long day. Highlight of the day was being able to finish Revelation chapter 1 at guys' group tonight! We started to go through Revelation back in October I think, but it took quite a while for me to figure out how exactly I was going to teach through the book since I was quite the novice at eschatology. I've learned more than I've taught as we've studied through the book, although there have been many times when I have felt very inadequate. Thanks be to God who has

Missions Focus

     Our church had a guest pastor in this week for our missions focus weekend. Our family did not find out until this past week that the event was taking place this weekend, so we were not able to attend the service on Saturday. Today the guest pastor spoke to us about missions efforts in a certain foreign country, where he had recently been on a preaching/missions trip. It was a very inspiring reminder to

Riding A Whirlwind

     Wow, today has just seemed like a blur! That might be partially due to not getting the early start on the day that I'm accustomed to; since we were up until almost three this morning watching Courageous, I let myself sleep in until later in the morning. I did wake up at my regular time and keep myself awake for a little while just to keep the habit though.
     Spent some time in the morning after breakfast working on school, but then got sidetracked with the multitude of house projects flying around.

In The Groove

     Today it is finally beginning to happen, my body is adjusting to my new sleep schedule! I was on a lazy vacation for a little while after Christmas, so coming home and getting back in sync with life has been a bit of an adjustment. The first day was not too bad, but rising and shining got steadily harder each morning until today. My body has now set its internal alarm clock and it was actually quite easy to get going. Yes!