Now that the Spring Semester has finished, here are our plans for the summer. Next week I am starting a course called Educational Ministry of the Church, which I am really excited about as it seems a very interesting and pertinent topic for my future pastoral work. It is about the call to 'go and make disciples' within the Great Commission and so looks at the continuing role of education and discipling in the church, and how to teach people and get all members of the church involved in hands-on ministry work. This will be examined by a Final Exam 50% and a Research Paper 50%, and I have to complete the course by 9th July, which should be ample time. I had originally planned to study an elective called 'Intermediate Greek' but have since decided against it, as it would have meant starting and finishing 2 classes in 8 weeks, which would have been too demanding given how busy Shelley and I are at this season of life, with a young Sienna, and before Jess starts school (she is due to start on 18th September this year and will go Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8-12).
We are then going on a road trip on the 14th July to visit some friends. We are traveling to Michigan to stay with Mark and Sharie in their log cabin for a week, and are going via the Victoria Falls in Canada for a couple of nights. On the way back we will visit Toronto, before staying with our friends Heather and Kyle in New York State for 5 days. The whole trip will be 17 days in total with around 30 hours driving. We will be stopping overnight at various points on the way there and back. It might seem a little ambitious to our British friends, but Sienna is remarkably easy to look after, and we can set up the DVD player in our mini-van to keep Jess quiet, and we know that it is a now or never opportunity.
We will return in the beginning of August, by which time I will start translating the book of Matthew from the original Greek text to refresh my language skills and to get a head-start on some of the assigments in my exegesis class in the Fall, and I hope to also read some books for my preaching class, also in the Fall.
I do not plan to do any ministry experience in the summer, other than to continue to offer healing prayer for those that need it, and whom the Lord puts in my path, and to read books around this subject. I am also doing a small amount at our church, namely arranging for people to read the sermon passages each week. I am trusting that when the time is right the Lord will increase my ministry responsibilities, but know for now I just have to be obedient in the small things.
We are going to return to Britain for 3 weeks in the Christmas holidays, from around 18th December through to the 2nd week of January, and will do the same the following year. We will not be visiting over the summer for the next two years, as I would like to graduate in the summer of 2010, and will need to take two classes in the summer of 2009 and 2010. Shelley and I feel very much affirmed that our call to serve will be back in England, as enjoyable as our life in America is, and still feel that this will be in a pastoral position for me.
We have yet to ask God about details including denominations and will start to be prayerful about this after the summer onwards. We know we are in the right place at the moment, and this is a great feeling to have. As things stand I would feel happy serving in a pentecostal/ charismatic church, and to help bring strong Bible teaching into this environment. I would find it very difficult to serve in a 'cessationist' denomination due to our views on the ongoing nature of the spiritual gifts described in 1 Cor 12 and 14. I would love to help a church hold the highest view of BOTH the Holy Spirit and Scripture. However, we'll leave it in God's capable hands.
We hope all of you have a very blessed summer and look forward to hearing from you in due course.
PS. I am praying for an extra special blessing for our friends the Smith's who are having their first baby, and also for my friend Doddsy, whose in the same position, both of whom will have bigger families come August.
Lots and lots of love
Andy
