This Past Week

This past week has been very busy. I had major tests in Spanish, Ecology, and Math. This has been kind of frustrating, but the good thing is that I don't think I will have very many more tests between now and Spring Break, which is just a couple of weeks away.

One thing that has characterized this week is the cold weather. It has been in the teens all week long and we have had snow twice this week. On Tuesday one of my classes got cancelled because of the snow and then it has been snowing tonight. I am thankful for the weather that God provides us, but I am getting quite sick of this extremely cold weather and snow. It seems like we have had snow on the ground here the majority of the time since I got back from Christmas break. It is absolutely miserable walking around campus when it is this cold and there is this much snow. In addition to the FREEZING temperatures, it is also quite windy, which makes it even colder outside. I will be so glad when it gets warmer outside.

The other major thing that happened this week is that I had a summer job interview with a different camp called Camp Lakewood. It is located in Potosi, near the Ozarks. This is a completely separate camp from the one I mentioned in a previous post. This interview went extremely well. They basically said that they were going to check my references and if my references matched what I said about who I was then they would start talking to me about a contract. This is extremely exciting. Now, I am anxious to find out what is going to happen. If both of the camps offer me a job then I will have to make the hard decision of which one I should work at. I have been on the Internet doing some more research about these camps and they both sound like a lot of fun. Looking at pictures of children swimming, canoeing, kayaking, and playing games outside is making me crave Spring Break and Summer. I can't wait until Spring Break and ultimately I can't wait for summer. I am really excited about the opportunities that God seems to be giving me to minister to children. I hope that I end up getting one of these jobs because my dream job is working at a summer camp for children. I will keep you updated on things.

I am excited because tomorrow night I will be going to a sweetheart dinner that is being put on by the church that I am involved with here. I am excited because I will get to know the people at the church better. I haven't been going to this church for too long, so I don't know many of the people very well. I will also get to spend time with this women and her family that I stayed with a couple of weeks ago. It will be good to see her. I can't wait till tomorrow night.

Church Update

On Sunday February 11, my church at home had a special evening worship service. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there, but my parents gave me this report. At this service the congregation met downstairs and sat at tables. They worshipped at the tables and then afterward they all were fellowshiping together and talking about how they had seen the Lord work in their lives and in the life of the church. This was very good for everybody at church. First of all, it was a great way to unite my church. When everyone was together it helped to strengthen and heal relationships. There were testimonies of how the pastor had worked in peoples lives, which was and is exactly what my church needs right now. I think this was very encouraging to my pastor and many people from the congregation. It was good to finally get some good news about the things going on in my church.

Leadership Development Conference

This past weekend I went to a leadership development conference with the Baptist Student Union (BSU) at my school. This is the Christian ministry that I have been involved in this year. There are only two other Christian ministies on campus and I have found that BSU has met my spiritual needs. I went to this conference because I have joined the Joshua Team this semester which is a student leadership team. I very much enjoyed this conference and I learned a lot. One of the things I enjoyed most about it was getting to know people in the group. All year I have been going to the BSU and never really felt like I knew people. I now really feel like I am apart of the BSU. I also got to know the leader better which was a lot of fun.

Fun Things in Life

This past week I have had the opportunity to stay with a women here from Warrensburg. I have these friends from home and their son is stationed here at Whiteman Air Force Base. He is married to this women and they have a 31/2 month old son. He had to go out of town this past week and she didn't want to stay by herself with the baby, so I went and stayed with her. It has been so much fun. I got to hold, play with, and take care of the baby. I also got to know this women quite well and she is a wonderful Christian women. We played Monopoly about three times during the week. I am very glad that I was able to do this. It was so much fun.

Sad, Hard Day Yesterday

Yesterday was a sad day for me. I found out at about 2PM that my cat, Ashes, had died. She was 16 years old and her health had been going down pretty steadily for the past six months or so. My parents had taken her to the doctor a little over a week ago and a few days later, they diagnosed Ashes as having hyperthyroidism. She was given medicine that was supposed to help her, but it did not. My parents said that she had stopped eating a few days before the Saturday doctors appointment. After she stopped eating, she went down hill fairly quickly. This has been harder for me then I ever expected. I always thought that I wouldn't be affected very much when Ashes died because she was just a cat, but it has been hard for me. I think a lot of this is because I never got to say good-bye to her. The last time I saw her was over Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. I am going to miss Ashes a whole lot. She was a great cat to me and my family for almost 17 years. I will never forget the many memories I have of playing with her and watching her do funny things. I am very thankful that I was able to have Ashes for this long.

Summer Job Interview

When I attended Urbana 2006 I found out about a summer job opportunity to work at a camp for children that is put on by Salvation Army. I very quickly got online and got the application so that I could fill it out and bring it to the Salvation Army before I went back to school after Christmas Break. About a week later, my mom informed me that someone from Salvation Army had called me, but she couldn't remember what the person's name was. The other day I decided that I would call Salvation Army and talk to the person who was hiring people for this camp. I got to talk with this person and it sounds like I have a good possibility of getting the job. I am extremely excited about this because this is my dream job, working at a summer camp for children. I love the outdoors and love working with children. Earlier this year I had spent hours on the Internet trying to find summer camps to work at that were not very far away from my house. I never really succeeded. I am very glad that this opportunity has arisen. I am going to meet with this lady during my Spring Break. I will know at that meeting whether or not I will be offered the job. I will let you know what happens.

Stuck at Home

I came home for the long weekend. I always do this because the town that I go to college in becomes a ghost town on the weekends. A lot of people that go to my school are from places that are close to the school, therefore a lot of people go home on weekends. This is especially true on long weekends. Anyways, I ways supposed to go back today, but I couldn't because the weather was so bad in Warrensburg. I will be taking a train back tomorrow morning. I guess I am somewhat excited to go back, but in a lot of ways I am not very excited.

This is an update on my church situation. Yesterday, I had the wonderful privalege of going to church twice. In the morning church went very well. After the morning service I got to talk to my pastor and he mentioned that he was begining to feel encouraged about the future of the church. This was very encouraging to me. It is good that he is somewhat encouraged. Last night, my church commissioned a family to missionary work in South Africa. In a lot of ways, this was very encouraging. It was neat to see us send out missionaries even though my church in general is still a big mess. Whenever we commission someone, the elders and missions committee lay hands on the family and pray for them. Last night when this happened, I visually saw the impact that the church split had had on the number of elders at our church. There were very few people up there compared to how many used to do this. Even though this is still hard, I know that God is going to bring good out of it somehow. I am trying to just trust in God and know that this is all apart of His perfect plan for my life. Once again, I will keep you updated on this situation.