This Friday and Saturday I will be attending the Readiness for Ministry, hosted at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, but is being presented by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Here is my class schedule for the Spring 2009 term (which starts today):

Tuesday
9-10am – Greek

Wednesday
1-4pm – Medieval Church History

Thursday
9-10am – Greek

Friday
9-11am – Apologetics

I also have these two intensive courses:

Pastoral Counseling
2/5, 5-10pm
2/6, 9am-9pm
2/7, 9am-7pm
2/9, 9-11am

Ethics
3/24, 9-11am
3/25, 9-11am
3/26, 9-11am
3/27, 9-6pm
3/28, 9-5pm
3/30, 9am-12pm
3/31, 9-11am

I also have a final exam March 9 in Homiletics (left over from the Winter 2009 term).

If anyone is interested in helping us financially, my Spring 2009 school bill is $1,500.79. Contact Greenville Seminary if you are interested in helping @ 864-322-2717.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

I am scheduled to preach at Calvary Presbyterian Church, Travelers Rest, SC on Feb. 1. My text will be Romans 12:1-2. I would appreciate your prayers for preparation and delivery.

This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to preach the first time in a Homiletics class. My sermon was based on Hebrews 12:1-2. If you are interested in hearing it, and the critique from the professor and students that followed click here.

Students who attend Greenville Seminary are (for the most part) to preach extemporaneously. In the past, I have always preached from a manuscript (that’s not saying I’ve read it). This time, I did eliminate things, which reduce my outline (i.e. manuscript). Wouldn’t you know it, less then two minutes into the sermon I get stuck. That because at the point, I was reading.

Here is the sentence on which I froze “But do you … from the beginning of Paul’s ministry, some … disciples of Christ were afraid of him (they wanted nothing to do with him).”

The funny thing is the missing word I could not remember/recall is “remember.”

BTW: The professor for the course was Dr. John Carrick who authored The Imperative of Preaching and his latest The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards.

If you are interested in supporting a seminary student (me in particular at this point) and/or his family, contact Greenville Seminary at (864) 322-2717.

Since we are away for a few days, I have access to the internet. I took a look at our blog and decided it needed a new look. Although, I’m sure I won’t be posting very often once we get back home.

Since we are back “home” in Pennsylvania, we went to worship at our old church on Sunday. We were so blessed with the preaching and we were welcomed by everyone there. Plus, people noticed that I lost weight! But seriously, it was so nice to see everyone again.

Yesterday, July 11, was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A‘s across the country. If you dressed up like a cow, you got a free meal of your choice from their menu. So this week I made the kids cow shirts. I cut out black spots from an old pair of pants and sewed them onto a white t-shirt. I also made a tail from the same black material and white yarn and then made ears using Megan’s headbands. I painted spots on their faces and arms and gave them an udder using a latex glove.

Here they are ready for their free meal. They are standing with their legs apart so you can see the tail hanging down.

 

Jeff decided at the last minute to get in on the act so I just cut out spots from black construction paper and taped them onto his white shirt and gave him the latex udder.

 

When we walked in the doors of Chick-Fil-A, all the employee’s rang cow bells if you were dressed up like a cow. The 8 foot Chick-Fil-A cow was walking around and Nathan wanted nothing to do with him. He actually started to shake and cry when he saw the cow so we had to sit in the corner where he wouldn’t be able to see him.

Next year Nathan and I will dress up too so we can be a cow family. It was unbelievable how many people dresses up as a cow. Our Chick-Fil-A alone must have given away thousands of dollars worth of food yesterday.

Nathan in a happier moment yesterday.

Here are a bunch of miscellaneous pictures.

The highlight of our trip was Grandpa’s new boat.

 

Nathan was not a fan of the boat from the very beginning with the putting on of his life preserver.

 

No, this is not my in-laws house.

 

Neither are these.  Just some beautiful houses we saw along the way.

 

Captain Grandpa

 

I love this picture of Megan. I just wish the windshield wasn’t in the way.

 

Jeff trying to calm Nathan down.

 

Captain Grandpa and gang

 

Megan and Grandma

 

This was so strange coming across 3 silos in a lake. This lake was formed years ago by destroying a town to create the lake. I think most of the houses were knocked down but for some reason they didn’t knock down these silos.

We went to The Lost Sea Adventure which is caverns that have an underwater lake in them. There is an hour long tour through the cavern that ends up at the underwater lake. It’s really neat because after the walking tour you get in a boat and they give you a short drive around.

None of the pictures turned out inside the caverns because it’s so dark but here is the one picture that did turn out, Grandma and Grandpa with Seth and Megan.

 

Seth and Megan like to be always doing something so they dug out the golf clubs and practiced in the front yard.

Grandma showing them the proper technique.

 

Apparently Megan needed some extra help.