Momentous May gives way to June

Well, it is hard to believe that we are already two days in the the month June!  The year is almost half over.

May started out with some exciting events:  seminary graduation, time with my Dad, etc.  I am now typing this post on my new 15′ MacBook Pro which was a graduation gift from my Dad.  I am very thankful for this gift.  I did not realize how bad and slow my old computer is until using this one and it is lightning fast!  I am still trying to get use to the way Apple does things.  It is harder for me because I have used Windows for soooo long and I still am subjected to using Windows at work.  I did get a copy of Parallels to run a few apps that are Windows based that do not have a Mac equivalent (NotaBene, etc.) I still have to obtain a copy of Windows 7 which I should be doing in a couple of days.  I also need to take both computers in to the Apple store to have the data (music, pictures, etc.) moved from the old laptop to the new one.  I will then remove most of the stuff that is slowing it down and it will be a decent machine for my son who is 4 and uses the computer from time to time.  It will still be slow, but it won’t matter to him.

We are staying in our current apartment for another year.  We really wanted to move elsewhere but found out that there is not a lot out there in our price range and the few places that we did find, neither of us were agreed on them.  We would have had some challenges because of the reduction in either storage space or square footage.  What we did learn from this exercise is that we need to downsize.  So that will be a summer project for us!  Even though the rent has been increased by $50 a month, my goal is to pay the increase for the entire year ($600) before the new lease starts so we can pay rent at our current rate and possibly try to enjoy a small amount of the pay raise that I received last week.  I was able to negotiate a new refrigerator out of the deal since the one that we currently have in the apt is original with the apt building (1984-1986)

I have had the opportunity to do some preaching recently.  I had not preached since April because of a heavy seminary load and trying to get all of my academic work completed before graduation.  I hated to suspend my preaching, but knew that it was the best decision for that particular time.  I preached a week ago at Calvary Baptist Church in Cambridge, MN.  The pastor along with a good number of the church leadership were away at a convention in KY.  I was glad to fill the pulpit in the pastor’s absence (even though we have never met or spoken personally)  I spoke three times (Sunday School, AM, and afternoon service).  I spoke from 1 Peter 1 all three times.  This is part of an experiment that I am trying (see previous post) and so far I am really enjoying it because it really takes the pressure off of trying to decide what to preach when you are invited for a single Sunday.    I am preaching this Sunday in Cameron, WI for one service and then I will be back at FBC International Falls again on July 11th.  Thankful that the Lord has allowed these opportunities!

We are still praying and seeking God’s will regarding future full-time vocational ministry.  I am searching the usual websites for such opportunities.  If I was skilled in the area of music or a youth pastor, I could have a choice of a number of opportunities.  I recognize that I do not possess the gifts for either of those areas, so I will wait for the Lord to open the right opportunity.  I am also looking in earnest for a better secular job in the meantime.  I have been with the same company for almost eight years and I think I have reached a point where I cannot go any further.  I have watched my job function change drastically to where I have become somewhat of a robot due to a change in job functions.  I do not like being marginalized like I have seen in recent days.  Coupled with a  performance review that really did not provide me any guidance or career pathing, I have decided that it is time to find better more suitable employment until full-time vocational ministry is available.  I will keep working and looking.

We are hoping to take a family vacation this summer if we can find the time and if finances are favorable.

I was recently honored with a nomination to serve as a deacon in our church. I accepted the nomination and will wait to see if I am permitted to serve in such a capacity (election at annual meeting in a couple of weeks).

God is good all the time.  All the time God is good.

From elation to frustration…. in one week

Well, this time last week I was experiencing some elation as I finally completed my academic work and earned the Master of Divinity degree (MDiv) after eight long years of work.

Now I am frustrated….here is why

1) We received our lease renewal notice and the rent has been raised to $1110.00 contingent on us signing another year lease.  This is frustrating because we do not think that this place is worth $1110.00.

2) Where I work,  the entire company is on a common review date (June 1) and we get our pay raises (?) and performance evaluations before June 1.  Not sure how generous pay raises will be this year.  Last year, they were very small and whatever increase one received was eaten up by taxes and higher costs.  Trying to budget for the remainder of this year has been difficult in addition to trying to figure out what we can afford in rent for the coming year.

3) Trying to find a decent, clean, safe place for me and my family to live in is difficult.  We do not feel lead to sign any long term leases because we do not want to lock ourselves in here because there could be potential opportunities for full-time vocational ministry that we would not be able to take advantage of if we were committed here long-term.  Most places that we have looked at are quite expensive (if I was going to pay that much, I might as well buy a house!) and if one wants to rent for a term shorter than a year (6 or 9 months) then you are taken for another $40-50 a month onto the rent that is already cost-prohibitive.

4) We are also praying about full-time vocational ministry opportunities (pastoral, etc) now that I am finished with my educational pursuits for the time being (I did not get accepted at SBTS and not sure if I will ever be able to pursue a doctorate from a reputable institution)

5)  We are trying to decide whether or not to enroll Joseph in K-4 for next year.

We have a lot of things that seem to be converging all at once and we are trying to be spiritual about all of this.

Wishing that we :

knew someone who owned a house or condo and would rent it to us month to month for an affordable, reasonable rate without wanting us to lock ourselves in to the area for a year or more.

knew a church that would want to hire me for full-time ministry, thereby solving the uncertainty that is faced by not knowing what or where I am supposed to go and what I am supposed to do.

knew what our financial situation was going to be so we could make better, more informed decisions.

We know that none of these things are a surprise to God, even though they have rocked our world so to speak.  We are trying to respond appropriately and trying to learn what God would have us learn in the midst of these converging events/trials.

I guess it is okay to dream….and then reality sets in.

2010 a pivotal year for our family…

2009 was a good year for us.  In spite of all the skepticism, we are thankful that we are both employed and we have a place to live and we are fortunate to attend and serve in a good local church.  What more could one ask for?  Well, I could think of a few things, but I will rest in being thankful for the things that I mentioned above.

However, 2010 could be described as a year of change for our family:

• After almost 8 long years, I will finally finish my seminary work here at Central.  I will graduate in May 2010 with my MDiv.  I will have an M.A. in Theology and an MDiv.
• We are currently praying and searching for opportunities to serve the Lord in full time vocational ministry.  I am working on finalizing my resume and looking at the possibilities of creating a website for this purpose.
• I have submitted my application for postgraduate studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.  I am waiting to see if I get accepted.  If I get accepted, it would be nice to find a place of service in Louisville that would work well with PhD studies.
• We realize that there are no guarantees, and we could easily remain here because of no open opportunities, or not getting accepted to SBTS.

Please pray with us for the following:

• Last semester of seminary will involve a class load of 9 credit hours along with the tuition expense. I am trying to work as much overtime as possible in order to pay down as much as I can before the semester starts at the end of January.  This will be an expensive tuition bill.  We are praying for God’s provision in this area.
• The Lord’s clear leading in where and how He would have us to serve after graduation.
• The ability to reduce our debt and to be debt-free very soon.

Looking and praying for the will of God.

Graduation is coming soon… then what???

Well as the title says… Graduation is coming soon.  For me it will be the culmination of a long academic career which has had two parts over a span of years (1988-1992) and then (2002-2010).  College was relatively easy, so to speak. I took anywhere between 12-16 credit hours and worked almost full-time along with ministry and other pursuits.  I was not an honors student, but I enjoyed college and what I learned.  I managed to put four years into four years and some summer school.

I took a ten year hiatus from academics and worked secularly and in vocational ministry from 1992-2002.  In 2002, I moved to MN to attend seminary and that journey started in 2002 and will culminate Lord willing in May 2010 with my graduation from seminary with my MDiv.  When I graduate in May of 2010, I will have earned my MDiv after eight long years of study.  What has taken me eight years to accomplish, some have done in three or four, but their circumstances were far different than mine.  During these last eight years, I got married (2004),  broke my left foot severely requiring surgery (2005), lost my mother and one infant son, Jonathan David (2006), saw the birth of my other son, Joseph (2006).  I was ready to quit after losing my son and mother, but I was glad for the encouragement that I received along the way from family, friends, and the local church who really ministered to us during these crisis points in our lives.  I am glad that others were there to help me not to quit and to finish the task that I have started.  Along the way, I have made some lifelong friends and have learned some things about myself !  I have had some tremendous opportunities of service in our local church.  I have also seen one pastor retire and a new one come on board during the last few years.

Well, what is next…. honestly I do not know, but the best part is that I am not worried about it.

I have completed and submitted my application for possible post-graduate work at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. I still have to take the GRE.  I am not sure what my chances are in getting accepted.  That is in the Lord’s hands.

I am wondering what the next steps will be for our family, whether it is continuing in education or going off into ministry somewhere.

Will I pastor, serve as an assistant somewhere, go into teaching at the college or seminary level?  I am not exactly sure.  All I know for now is that I have some classes to finish up, get my resume tuned up and ready to submit.  Right now, it hardly seems possible that I will be graduating in approximately seven months, but the time will fly by and before I know it the day will be here.

I have already begun to pray about what the Lord would have us to do as a family and where we will serve.  Yes, I have a short list of “preferred places”, etc.  I had one those in college and none of those ever materialized either.

I am truly happy living where I am (geographically) and I truly love serving in our local church.  But I have trained for full-time vocational ministry and I am not sure if it will be possible to remain here to fulfill God’s call on my life in that regard.   I really like MN except for winter, but I always manage to survive, even though I am not fond of snow or ice.

I am reminded of the passage in Job which tells us, “…stand still and consider the wondrous works of God”

 

Traditions – MN State Fair 2009

A tradition is defined as the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., especially by word of mouth  or by practice.  Another definition is a continuing pattern of culture beliefs or practices.

When I came to Minnesota back in 2002, I had heard a lot of chatter about the MN State Fair.  I honestly did not know what to think.  Growing up in California, the fair was not a part of our culture.  Sure we had the LA County Fair out in Pomona, which I went to once but was not really impressed with it.

So this tradition started in 2002, to go to the Minnesota State Fair.  Some people have no use for the Fair because of the crowds and they see no purpose in the Fair.  I beg to differ with them.  I find the Fair to be a celebration of what Minnesota represents in many areas (although I do not agree with some of the performers at the Grandstand).  It is a way for families to enjoy extended time together, trying some unusual and exotic foods, seeing some of the exhibits, etc.  When I came to Minnesota, I was single when I started this tradition and it has carried over into our family’s life.  I have been to the Fair every year except for 2006 when my mother was dying of cancer.

This year was especially enjoyable because we were there as a family for an extended period of time without any other encumberances on our time and because Joseph was old enough to enjoy some of the rides on the Kidway this year as well.

Joseph on the boats at the Fair

As you can see, he was really enjoying himself!

Here is another shot of him

Joseph on the race cars

He had a great time on the various rides, especially the ferris wheel!  I think I had more fun watching him enjoy himself and some of these rides for the first time.

Here is another shot of him:

Joseph all worn out!

He was all worn out and decided to take a snooze in the wagon that we wisely brought!  He slept while we traversed the fair.  Many people commented on him sleeping or riding in the wagon.

Some of the things that we learned from the fair this year:

• Use the park and ride buses – we went to Bandana Square and rode to the Fair via the Park and Ride bus.  Cost is free and it saved us a tremendous amount of time and hassle.
• Get a coupon book.  We used one from a friend who had already gone to the Fair, it is well worth the price and there are a lot of good deals.
• Go early – there were over 200,000 people at the fair on Saturday… the earlier the better!
• Purchase advance tickets – we did not do this and it cost us on one ticket.  The other ticket we bought for $9 from a fellow bus rider who had an extra ticket, so we saved $2 but could have saved $4.

We enjoy going to the Fair each year and even if we move away, we plan to return as we able to to enjoy the Minnesota State Fair, which by the way is one of the most popular State Fairs in the country!

Spiritual exchanges

Recently, I have been having some interesting spiritual exchanges with my 2 1/2 year old son Joseph.  He has asked me questions about God, Jesus and heaven.  This has been a good reminder to me of how these things are to be taught in the home and reinforced in the church and Sunday school ministry.  Also, it has been a good reminder that Joseph is starting to ask questions and that I must be very careful how things are explained to him, so that I do not lead him into a misunderstanding or a false impression of salvation.

He also saw me writing out our check to the church and he asked more about that.  I tried as best as I could to explain it to him.  Not sure if it kicked in, but he said that he was going to right a check to God!  It may not be what I intended for him to understand, but it is a start!

Praise God for these small opportunities and reminders to continue to pray for our children!

Praying through Scripture/ Two years old tomorrow

Tomorrow, I am going to try to teach through a portion of the material that I learned earlier this month at the Spiritual Disciplines Conference in Louisville, KY.

I have found that by putting what I learned into practice that it has given me a new outlook regarding prayer, but at the same time challenges me to be consistent.

Just in case, Dr. Whitney, if you are reading this, thanks again for a great conference and this is a fruit of your labor!

Tomorrow is also my son Joseph’s 2nd birthday. It is hard to believe that he is going to be 2! A lot has happened in those two years of his young life, but I am also very thankful to have him in our home because he brings a great amount of joy and also a great reminder of the responsibilities that I have as a father! Is he a perfect child? No, he is a sinner like his parents. He cries and has his moments of disobedience. Being a parent has done more to help me understand my own depravity before God than any other thing! It is also very humbling as well, especially when your child repeats or parrots what you say. It gets you to think about everything you say before you say it.

Merry Christmas

I am typing this from my in-laws farm south of the Twin Cities. We are enjoying our time here and there is plenty of snow on the ground!
I just wanted to take the time to wish each of you who read a very Merry Christmas.

I am also typing this on my mother-in-laws new iMac. What a nice machine. Makes me want to save faster to get out of debt and to be able to upgrade to an MacBook!

More posts after the 27th!

Light at the end of the tunnel

I apologize for not posting more often…. yes I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and no, it is not a train coming at me!

Seminary will be over for the semester this week. I am almost done with my 1st of 2 degrees. In the fall, I will be taking three classes (two are to complete the current degree that I am almost finished with – Master of Arts in Theology with a Biblical Studies emphasis – MATBS — one course is for the Master of Divinity-MDiv — that I will finish once I get the MATBS) Sound confusing?

Basically, I started working on the MDiv in 2002. You technically have 5 years to finish the MDiv. I was at my fifth year with at least another two to go. After prayer and consultation, I decided to drop back into the lesser degree of the MATBS, get that degree, then apply those credits and the work I have already done to finish the MDiv (96 hrs). Lord willing, I will graduate with the MATBS in May of 2008 and the MDiv in May 2010 or sooner, depending on how I progress.

I have also entertained the idea of seeing what will be available for ministry positions once I get the first degree. It would be nice to get a ministry opportunity if possible (locally) while finishing the MDiv. We will see what happens there.

My work schedule will change once seminary is done for the semester which will allow me to be off on Friday afternoons, which I enjoy, my wife enjoys, and my son Joseph will hopefully enjoy having dad around a little more than usual.

Hopefully, I will be a bit more disciplined to post here more often.

What are in the two piles on my desk

I always seem to have book piles or stacks on my desk. Right now, several things are going on. We are getting ready to move, so half of my books are already packed in boxes and in a large plastic bin (we move on 2/23) I hope I do not need any of those books before then!

The other half of my books are still sitting in the bookshelf (for now) and I have two stacks on my desk. One stack is my reading stack that I try to have read in between semesters of seminary.

In that stack, I have the following books.

1)Jim Cramer’s Mad Money – a Christmas gift from my infant son Joseph. Almost done reading this one.

2) Created for Community by Stanley Grenz – have not started this one yet, so it will have to wait until May.

3) Reviewing the Movies by Peter Fraser & Vernon Neal – I wanted to start this one right about the time all of the theatre debate was going on, but did not get to it. Another book that will wait until May

4) From Sabbath to Lord’s Day by D.A. Carson — I finished reading another work about the Sabbath and wanted to read this one, but again, did not get to it.

5) Mentoring Leaders by Carson Pue – started but have not completed.

6) Margin by Richard A Swenson – a great book — about 1/3 of the way through and I started this one on Sunday night after church. This one will get finished before the semester starts next week. A great book about time and how we live. I should write a more thorough review when I finish it.

Now to the other stack to my left — this is the stack of books for my two classes that I will be taking in seminary this semester. Remember I am only taking two classes

1) A Complete Guide to Sermon Delivery by Al Fasol

2) Putting the Truth to Work by Daniel Doriani

3) Preaching to a Postmodern World by Graham Johnston

4) The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text by Sidney Greidanus

5) The Church in God’s Progam – Robert Saucy

6) Maranatha Our Lord, Come! by Renald Showers

7) Christian Theology by Millard Erickson

8) Polity by Mark Dever

Looking forward to an interesting and intellectually stimulating semester!

We are also looking forward to moving. The Lord has blessed us with a larger apartment about 9 miles north of where we are currently living. We are going to be paying $20 less a month in rent for more space. It will be nice to get done with the actual moving task itself, but I realize that there is a lot of work involved in packing and purging,etc.