Lots of Firsts

There have been “lots of firsts” for us in the past couple of weeks as we both have had several opportunities to teach many new topics at our jail ministries. While preparing for our teachings, God has taught us the most. God has been challenging us to be affective teachers, and also to know what it means to be a teacher like our Lord Jesus Christ. In one of our classes, we learned about how Jesus was the greatest of all teachers and we took time to look at His life and how to implement some of His methods into our different ministries in which we teach.

Nicole and I had a blessing in one of our classes to teach together. It was the first time that we ever had an opportunity to team-teach. As a class we went through a condensed chronological teaching of 27 thematic lessons in the Bible, from creation to the Resurrection of Christ. We as a class, divided up the lessons and broke into groups, having your other teammates help with readings, skits, and most importantly, consulting the presenting group. We learned the value of walking through a lesson with people who have many different perspectives and to focus on main themes of the passage such as; Jesus Christ is Lord and Sovereign. We are learning how to use that thematic focus to target our audiences and try to understand any barriers they may have in trying to understand our teaching due to their age, culture, and/or their individual personal history. A theme to focus on is only as good as the target you are aiming to hit within a person.

On a lighter note, Nicole and I had another first. We got to ride a quad together (Nicole has never been on a quad). One of the families at our church in Kansas has a few motorized vehicles and lots of room to use them. We had a great time with a family from our church in Kansas and learned how God has burdened them to get involved in missions in various ways. We are so thankful to have many hospitable and great families at our church in Kansas-it lessens the sadness of missing the families at our home church in PA.

Nicole and I have had many “ups” and “downs” in our jail ministries. We have seen people make solid professions of faith and even thank God for them being in jail, because some of them got saved in jail (and to admit their guilt in jail is a rare and BIG thing), and we have seen others be disinterested and seem that they only want to be there to disrupt others from learning.

We recently had a field fair at the training center where missionaries from the field shared the needs of the countries they are working in. This was a great opportunity to make us candidates more aware of how we best could fit in with that particular field. For the first time in our marriage, God brought an answer to us individually without ever talking to one another. God placed on both of our hearts to serve Him in Indonesia. We will continue to keep this decision in prayer. Please PRAY with us about this.

We just started Phonetics, this class teaches you how to listen and break down another person’s speech. It is very useful for when we get overseas. We just took an aptitude test to see if we are naturally gifted in the areas of linguistics, such as grammar, etc. It was like a puzzle game and kind of fun (well I-Seth-thought so), except for the strict time constraint, so that gave me a slight heart attack.

Finally, we are excited to participate in the sunrise worship service at our home church in PA for the first time as a married couple! We are at my parent’s house, and Nicole’s parents are driving to be with us here in PA so we can celebrate this monumental time as a family. Our prayer is that we understand the gravity of what Sunday means to the Christian. The resurrection is the necessity of Life for the Christian. Without Christ’s resurrection, we would all still be in the grave living under the penalty of sin. (Romans 6:4)

Please Pray; Jennie’s (Seth’s sister) baby is due in June, and the baby has an enlarged kidney. Jay (Seth’s brother) and Briana are officially in Papua, Indonesia and now are one step closer in serving in a tribe that God has prepared them to serve in. Dave (Nicole’s brother) is still getting adjusted in Panama with college and full-time missions. Praise and Prayer; we recently had a field fair, in and which God has used to solidify our future service in Indonesia. PRAY for the Lord’s leading in this decision. We are going to start Rosetta Stone (once we get it) probably in May and start learning culture through various missionaries who have served in Indonesia.