Daily Archives: June 15, 2013

It’s an epidemic! PRAY that we stay health! Nicole caught a little something and I got it pretty hard last week with all these people traveling carrying their diseases with them down here. There are quite a few of us living in close-confines with one another and this encourages sickness to strike! The second week of school, last week, and this week it seemed that everyone was dropping like flies! Classes looking like they turned into a ghost town; a nasty fever, upset stomach, and sore throat attacked the compound and many people were hit, even little ones (your heart goes out for the infant that suffers).

We hope we saw the last of it, and pray we are not in the “eye of the storm” where the second wave will soon attack.

Classes are going great! We are learning a lot! So far we had Culture Language Acquisition (CLA): where you learn how to talk, relate and live like a certain culture, even here in the U.S. We just finished Worldview Analysis, and that class challenged us in how we approach someone before we ever speak! (Proverbs 8:13). We were challenged to focus on the heart of the matter like Jesus did with the lady at the well (John 4:4-30). Our teacher used questions to attack the heart of the matter: true worship, no distinctions between people before God, eternal things not temporal, and so much more!!!!! We are currently in Foundational Bible Teaching (FBT) and Love and Respect. The latter is known by most, and how it focuses on the principles of Ephesians 5:33(more to come on this topic). FBT is the system on which the Missions organization focuses its strategy for evangelism. The teaching really stresses the need for a solid foundation because of the syncretism that takes place within the mind of an animist (spirit worshipper/manipulator) to add Jesus to their list of many “gods” if their slate is not per se “wiped clean”, and THEN started the missionary can being built up anew. The focus is God and His centrality in the entirety of the Bible. To focus on God not the people of the Bible; Noah found favor in God’s sight, yes, but God was the one who sought Him out, provided a way for the righteous and Judges the wicked Righteously. The people within the Bible are there to relate to and make a personal application, but the focus always is and should be, God. God is the Eternal Creator, Preserver, Judge, Faithful Friend, Persistent Pursuer of man and so much more!

Neither Nicole nor I would be considered “farming” people. We would probably be considered “city folk”. We are currently attending Bethel Community Church in Kansas, which is about a 2 and a half hour drive from the training center one way. Its slogan on the billboard and website says “its worth the drive”, and they are no kidding. Pastor Greg Stine is a close friend with our home Pastor, Kurt Skelly. Pastor Stine is an excellent expositor and we are being blessed by his teachings. He and his family are especially blessing us along with the other church families who are making us feel at home and welcomed; however, we really miss our home church though!

We are growing in love for the people of this church, we are getting to know them and learning about what life on the farm is like. We had chances to; milk both cows and goats, collect eggs, feed many animals, see cows giving birth aka “calving” (a first experience for both of us), and we got to play with various other animals (I never realized how loveable a baby lamb was). We are loving the church and it makes us feel at home, please continue to PRAY for our car as it is a 5hr round trip on Sunday.

P.s. I (Seth) got to start a basketball camp for the kids at the church, and I am loving this time with the kids and having fun while doing it!

What is this?! A foreign language? No, these are the four basic learning styles we are going through in our “Learning Styles” class.

A-Abstract

C-Concrete

S-Sequential

R-Random

Would you believe Nicole and I do not share the exact same learning style?!  We do not have the same outlook (global/analytic), or even share the same “way” we learn (audio, visual, kinesthetic). We are pretty much opposites and this class has helped us out tremendously to see how one another learns, process, and relate to life. This has improved our marriage and communication so much! We are learning to live in light of how God made us perfectly different and unique for one another. How we can best compliment and build up one another despite our apparent opposing styles. They aren’t opposing they are gifts!

Our first week consisted of making our place “home”, aka nesting : ) . And then we moved straight into orientation where we got the “way of the land” in Roach, Missouri. Oh, did we mention we slept through a tornado???? So there was a big storm and I, (Seth), thought lightning just struck a siren box right beside our bedroom window and it went AWOL, but really it was a tornado (later we found out there were two tornadoes) that was 4 minutes away from us! God bless Nicole, I told her to put her earplugs in and just go back to sleep, and me being the hard sleeper that I am, pretty much didn’t miss a beat of my sleep. By God’s providential care no one was harmed and my ignorance didn’t cost us our life. Nicole will probably put earplugs in when I make suggestions now. 🙂

I (Seth) got 10 hours of sleep in 5 days, being busy with traveling and saying good-bye to friends and family. I drove down to Missouri back to Pittsburgh and then back Missouri to switch out our cars (thank you Harvest for blessing us with the church van) all within less than 60 hours. I drove for almost 50 hours, I took a 45 minutes nap and the battery died on me at 2:30 in the morning. I had to run around in a t-shirt to find someone to give me a “jump” in the middle of Ohio, but other than that the trip went well.

Nicole stayed down in Missouri to start the unpacking job and organize the house. We missed each other, but it worked out for the best. Thank God nothing major happened, and my car held strong until literally I got to Missouri when the transmission light came on. I had one thing fixed and it “seemed” to be working better, but now (February 20th) the car is having the same problems so it has to go back to the “doctor” next week. Please PRAY that it is nothing major and can be fixed inexpensively.

Freedom! Seth after his 55 hour drive

Hello everyone! we just wanted to write a quick note to let everyone know that we have arrived safely to the Missionary Training Center (MTC) and are working on unpacking and getting settled. Thank you all for praying for us as we were on the road and as Seth drove the church van back and then returned to MTC again (about 50 hours of straight driving). Yea he is a beast! He says he will never do that again. We will write more extensively soon, just wanted to let you all know that we are safe and are getting settled. We begin orientation tomorrow and classes on Thursday.

Prayer requests:

Getting adjusted and for the semester
For us to be open to where God is leading us to serve Him on the foreign field.
To use this next year and a half to grow in grace and knowledge of the Holy One
That the two of us grow in knowledge and love with each other
Family: Seth’s mother’s health and his fathers’ recovery from hip replacement surgery. For Seth’s sister (Jennie) and brother-in-law (scott) in their ministry to the Dao tribe in Indonesia-For Jennie in her second pregnancy. For Seth’s brother (Jay) and his sister-in-law (Briana) in their decision as missionaries to where exactly God would have them minister to the unreached people of this world. For Nicole’s parents as they go on a mission trip to Panama (January 28) that God would open opportunities for them to return to the mission field and use them in this time. For Nicole’s brother (Dave-visit his wordpress.com site: http://daveterranova.wordpress.com/) as he is in ministry in Panama using skateboarding and other avenues to reach the lost. Pray for Dave in his new phase beginning college and engaging in full-time ministry.

Saturday night Nicole and I started a devotional together: Sacred Marriage by Thomas, it left us with some great thoughts after our 6 months of marriage. We cannot give into selfishness, we can never respond with sin, and that our one motivation must be reverence for God and “that” must be our BCM (basic control module). To all those who are married I hope those apply to you as well as they do to us.

The Preeminence of Last

Today Nicole and I were walking into church just thinking about how this is the last Sunday service before we begin our training… we just really soaked it in and dwelt upon the experience… we love our Church, the people of Harvest Baptist are just so sincere and purposeful you are “to a point” spoiled with love from the Church congregation.

Pastor Skelly preached another Biblical message from the passage of Psalm 34, really emphasizing the context of that passage where David was fleeing from Abimelech to the town Gath, whose “hero” Goliath, David slew many years ago. Such a transition in David’s life, the one promised to be King (for all intensive purpose and from God’s perspective was King), to now a fearful man-made to run to his enemies post. Fear can make you do seemingly crazy things, I guess that’s why God said “Trust in the Lord”, and that he did not give us a spirit of fear, but “of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”. Pastor belabored the fact that every time is a great time to praise God, because He is always good! This passage of blessing God, made during a time of despair, was written in a way to be memorized. In the original Hebrew Language, the text uses an acrostic or pneumonic device to begin each verse with a different Hebrew letter. God made a passage easy for us to learn how to bless Him!

During this transition of our lives, we want to bless God and to have a spirit of power. We want to live out verse 3 where we cannot magnify God Himself (who can not get any bigger), but magnify God in us, with the hopes of magnifying God in others through ourselves. We are so “stoked” for this next step in our lives, and yet will miss our biological and church families. We are so blessed to have you all (yinz if you’re from the burgh) in our lives.

We had lunch today with my (Seth) parents, for the last time before we start training. My mother prepared a feast and we left full, full stomachs and full of love. 🙂

Just a few more days in the Burgh then off to Missouri for the beginning of our missionary training! Such an exciting time in our lives. We just celebrated 6 months of marriage 🙂 Yes, I know those of you marriage veterans are saying “huh, that’s nothing”-however, we think its something to be thankful for. Marriages are collapsing all around us therefore we celebrate it. Seth and I (Nicole) leave for Missouri on January 12 and classes begin on the 17th. We are really excited for this new phase of our lives to begin.

This site will be the place you can see what is going on in our lives. I will try to post regularly to keep you all in touch. We will add prayer requests to these posts as needed. If you would like to support us in any way that would be a huge blessing! If you would like to support us prayerfully: I will add requests to the blogs. If financially: there will be a tab on the top of our page to explain how you can do so. As missionaries in training, we covet your support along the way. We cannot do it without your support.

Join us on this exciting journey as we venture off to seek the Lord’s will for our lives. Our goal is to be expendable for our Lord and Saviour. Peace be with you.

Prayer requests:

Travel safety down to Missouri with the trailer
Getting adjusted to the move and starting training
For us to be open to where God is leading us to serve Him on the foreign field.
For a  solid church to get involved in and become a part of (Though it will not compare to our home church)
To use this next year and a half to grow in grace and knowledge of the Holy One
That the two of us grow in knowledge and love with each other
Family: Seth’s mother’s health and his fathers’ recovery from hip replacement surgery. For Seth’s sister (Jennie) and brother-in-law (scott) in their ministry to the Dao tribe in Indonesia-For Jennie in her second pregnancy. For Seth’s brother (Jay) and his sister-in-law (Briana) in their decision as missionaries to where exactly God would have them minister to the unreached people of this world. For Nicole’s parents as they go on a mission trip to Panama that God would open opportunities for them to return to the mission field and use them in this time. For Nicole’s brother (Dave-visit his wordpress.com site: http://daveterranova.wordpress.com/) as he is in ministry in Panama using skateboarding and other avenues to reach the lost. Pray for Dave in his new phase beginning college and engaging in full-time ministry.