February 16, 2011 - "News from the King of NTBI - February"


Trying to stay caught up on keeping everyone caught up. :) Here's a brief update and prayer list for y'all who aren't here in Jackson:

School is going really well. We just finished our first block of classes on the 8th, and it was a super light block as far as homework goes, so things are getting more intense. The last block I had a theology class and 2 hours of Prophets, and I just finished an elective on Spiritual Disciplines from a Grace Perspective. This block I'll have Man & Sin (aka Anthropology & Hamartiology), Life of Christ, and continuing Prophets. Classes have really been phenomenal so far and I have particularly been loving going through the prophets. I had never read books like Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Nahum, etc. but they are actually pretty great books. It's also new to me to be going through them chronologically, and let me tell you, they make so much more sense in their cultural and historical context! haha who knew? :)

A few things I would love prayer for:
- of course, the new heavier course load settiing in, and, with that, tighter reins on how I use my time.
- work: I am still waiting for them to hire someone for the morning hours and my last pay stub didn't show that they had given me the promised and necessary raise yet. I will wait to see what that one says before I give them a call. Who knows, perhaps God is trying to show me that as much as I can work my butt off, He is the one who will get me through this semester - not me.
- work: a lot of changes going on right now in management, and I think for the better, but time will tell.
- also with work, I have not been sharing my faith with my kids there, and I feel that is a huge reason why I'm even there. So, pray for opportunities, interest on the kids part, and boldness & clarity on my part by the grace of God.
- roommates: still such an encouraging, sweet blessing. One of the chapel speakers in the last block said that the best class you'll take in school is your roommates, and I will definitely say it has been so good for me to be living with a dozen awesome girls, and also learning through the challenges of living with a dozen girls.
- church: I decided to continue helping with youth group and children's church. Children's Church has been going really well as far as building relationships goes, and the kids' teacher (who is also a teacher here at NTBI) is doing great with the bible lessons, but of course keeping the kids focused is always a bit of a battle with youngin's. :) The youth group has been a harderplace for me to build relationships because they are very different from most of the teens I've been involved with before, ministry-wise. Most of them don't actually come to church on Sunday morning, and the Sunday morning teens often don't come to youth group. So we're working on encouraging the two groups of teens to mesh and intermingle - like get the Sunday morningers to some to youth group and the youth groupers to come to Sunday morning. We have a winter youth retreat coming up in March and I would love to see that be a big thing in the spiritual lives of all the kids who go and maybe a chance for the two groups to get to know each other and form friendships.

So that's my brief update. Thanks for the prayers and encouragement. Y'all are the best :)

Jessi

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