Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The blessing of friends...
I feel truly blessed to have such great friends here at school that I can hang out with, chat with, spend time with, and do photo shoots with. Today all the single staff got together so we could take pictures for the yearbook. We tried all kinds of crazy shots in crazy places... So here is a smattering of the whole bunch.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
More thoughts on Revelation
I have thoroughly been enjoying my studies on Revelation as I have been preparing for Bible class. Let me just share some more of the amazing things I am learning. We are in chapter 7 right now on the 144000. Vs. 3 says that it is the "servants" of God who are sealed. I had my students look up four passages that give insights into a qualification of a servant. Romans 6:22 says that a servant is "free from sin." But how are we free from sin? Romans 6:7 says that those who are dead are free from sin. So then, what needs to die? Romans 6:6 says that our old man needs to die. How does he die? Do we drown him? shoot him? strangle him? chop him? beat him? Galatians 2:20 says that we must crucify him. It is only through the power of the cross that the old man will be forever laid to rest. I then had the students string all the verses together to create one thought. Here was an example: "We must start at the foot of the cross. Seeing Christ on the cross helps us realize what our sins did to him. his love helps us crucify that old man of sin. Once the old man is crucified and is dead, then we are free from sin. When you are free from sin, we are a servant of God. When we are a servant of God, we can receive the seal of the living God. Then we will be able to stand when Jesus comes back the second time."
This thought that God will only seal his servants who are free from sin has really made me think. Right after the servants are sealed, we know probation closes. This means that Christ steps down from his meditorial work. There is no longer any forgiveness of sin because our intercessor has set aside his robes and stepped out of the sanctuary. The case of every person has been decided. God's sealed servants must go through this time of probation with no intercessor. Yesterday in class, we had an incredible discussion of what this really means. I asked the class that if Christ is no longer mediating for his people, then what does this mean about the lives of the 144000 after the close of probation? It means that their lives must be perfect before God during that time otherwise there is no forgiveness of sin after Jesus steps down. But then I asked the class if it is that they "cannot" sin or they "will not" sin. We talked about how God never takes away free choice, so it must not be that they cannot sin. But how is it then that they will not sin. One student asked how God can guarantee that after he seals them, they will not sin. It is not like God can deduct numbers from the 144000 if someone slips after they were sealed. In response, I asked how they were even sealed in the beginning. The only way they were sealed is that they had already shown in their lives prior to the sealing that they were living a life free from sin. They had already purposed in their hearts long before the sealing time that they would not sin against the God they loved. It was only because of this that God knew he could seal them and this is the guarantee he has that they will not sin after he has sealed them. (It is interesting that although God views them as sinless, they have such a distrust of themselves that they go through the time of Jacob's trouble pleading with God that their hearts are right before him.)
Then we talked about Satan's accusation that nobody can obey God's law and be sinless before God. He tried to prove his point when he tempted Adam and Eve and they fell into sin. God sought to disprove this by sending his Son with fallen nature. Satan hit hard on Christ to try to make him sin, but Jesus didn’t. So God said that it was possible for someone to obey the law even in human flesh if they trust in God.
This thought that God will only seal his servants who are free from sin has really made me think. Right after the servants are sealed, we know probation closes. This means that Christ steps down from his meditorial work. There is no longer any forgiveness of sin because our intercessor has set aside his robes and stepped out of the sanctuary. The case of every person has been decided. God's sealed servants must go through this time of probation with no intercessor. Yesterday in class, we had an incredible discussion of what this really means. I asked the class that if Christ is no longer mediating for his people, then what does this mean about the lives of the 144000 after the close of probation? It means that their lives must be perfect before God during that time otherwise there is no forgiveness of sin after Jesus steps down. But then I asked the class if it is that they "cannot" sin or they "will not" sin. We talked about how God never takes away free choice, so it must not be that they cannot sin. But how is it then that they will not sin. One student asked how God can guarantee that after he seals them, they will not sin. It is not like God can deduct numbers from the 144000 if someone slips after they were sealed. In response, I asked how they were even sealed in the beginning. The only way they were sealed is that they had already shown in their lives prior to the sealing that they were living a life free from sin. They had already purposed in their hearts long before the sealing time that they would not sin against the God they loved. It was only because of this that God knew he could seal them and this is the guarantee he has that they will not sin after he has sealed them. (It is interesting that although God views them as sinless, they have such a distrust of themselves that they go through the time of Jacob's trouble pleading with God that their hearts are right before him.)
Then we talked about Satan's accusation that nobody can obey God's law and be sinless before God. He tried to prove his point when he tempted Adam and Eve and they fell into sin. God sought to disprove this by sending his Son with fallen nature. Satan hit hard on Christ to try to make him sin, but Jesus didn’t. So God said that it was possible for someone to obey the law even in human flesh if they trust in God.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Four Horses...
I have been doing a lot of thinking lately...thinking about how to make Revelation more practical to my students and helping them see the significance of what the prophecies mean to us as SDAs. We just finished covering the seven seals of Revelation and the first four seals are the horses of Revelation. We spoke of the rapid decline of God's church from his pure church (the white horse) to a church in persecution (red horse) to a church in apostasy (black horse) to a church that was dead (pale horse). We spoke about God's viewpoint of his church and how he had to do some drastic measures to raise the church out of apostasy and restore it to the condition of his first church. He did this through each of the Reformers that presented a message that got the church back on track. Just as someone being in pitch darkness has to slowly be brought back into the light, God slowly brought his church out of error by introducing new messages through various people. Each message that the reformers preached was significant in both the message that was given and the order in which it was given. This is the sequence.
Waldenses -- The Bible and Bible Alone
Huss -- Obedience
Luther -- Righteousness by Faith/Grace
Calvin -- Spiritual Growth
Anabaptists -- Baptism
Wesley -- Holiness
Miller -- 2nd coming
God's Last Day church -- Sabbath, Sanctuary, Health, 2nd coming (deeper knowledge)
On a Bible test this week, I asked my students to string these messages together and show why the order in which they came was significant for God's church. Here is one student's response.
"The 1st message was the Bible and the Bible only. The Bible had to be the foundation of the church otherwise it could not grow. The 2nd message was obedience. You must obey what God says in His word. The 3rd message was salvation through faith. By having God's word you can see the sacrifice of Christ and that you do not have to earn your salvation but Christ paid for it. The 4th message is Christian growth. Once we have faith in Christ, we must continually walk with Him and we will grow close to Him. The 5th message was baptism. As we grow closer to Christ, we must make a public stand to show your allegiance to God. The 6th message is holiness. Once we make a stand for Christ and we continually grow, we will become like Christ. The 7th message is the second coming. Once God's people have become like Him, then He will come and take us home to live with Him forever. The 8th message is health, sanctuary, Sabbath, second coming, etc. This is the last truth. Now Christ can come as soon as His people are ready."
Another student concluded the last part by saying "...As it gets closer to the time when He will come, times will become harder and we need to have clear minds. Having a good diet will help with this. We have also been given a time of rest every week to focus on Jesus. We also have light as to how things will work and how things are going in the sanctuary. This progression helps paint a picture of a Christian walk. And shows how their messages, working together, help us to become the true church."
I love her last statement. All these work together to create God's last day church. God is so good to have used each of these Reformers and movements to bring His church around to the true message. One other question I asked on the test was why we see so many different denominations rising out of the Reformation period and what challenge this is to the SDA church. This was another student's response.
"What happened during the Reformation was that only so much light was given at a particular time to God's people. And what happened to many is that they would follow a new truth and go no farther. If later more truth was presented, they chose not to follow it. As was and is the case with the Lutherans. To Luther was revealed the truth of righteousness by faith and grace, not by works. This was revealed to Luther for him and for that time to reform the church as God saw fit in that period of time. Luther still kept to Sunday and many other Catholic beliefs only because at the time, light was not given to show those things were wrong. But when new light did come, the Lutherans decided it unnecessary I suppose to hold to that new light. This same type of thing happened with the sects that came out of John Calvin, Menno Simmons, and John & Charles Wesley's movements, which is how we ended up with so many different denominations. It's like the sun, if you stop moving with the light, you'll find yourself in darkness."
Another student concluded, "This can be a challenge for us today. God is still giving light to this world. His knowledge is unending. If we are not searching for his truths, the light will pass us by and we will only be pew warmers, not part of the remnant."
So my friends, are we as guilty as each of these different denominations that formed in the past? They became satisfied with the light they had and stopped progressing. But the light moved on and they were left in darkness. Jesus challenged his disciples in John 12:35, 36 "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light."
I ran across a startling statement by Mrs. White while I was going over this topic with the seniors in the Philippines. She says:
"We shall not be held accountable for the light that has not reached our perception, but for that which we have resisted and refused. A man could not apprehend the truth which had never been presented to him, and therefore could not be condemned for light he had never had. But if he had opportunity to hear the message, and to become acquainted with the truth, and yet refused to improve his opportunity, he will be among the number of whom Christ said, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Those who deliberately place themselves where they will not have an opportunity of hearing the truth, will be reckoned among those who have heard the truth, and persistently resisted its evidences" (RH April 25, 1893). (emphasis supplied)
This is a solemn thought. Many choose not to place themselves where they will hear the truth because then that will require them to change. They say that ignorance is bliss--as long as they didn't know, God couldn't hold them accountable. But this statement says that if we had the opportunity to know the truth and chose not to, then it will be as if we persistently refused the truth. So my friends, my challenge to you is twofold: 1) are you walking in the light and 2) have you placed yourself where you will have the opportunity to be acquainted with truth? My prayer is that you will.
Waldenses -- The Bible and Bible Alone
Huss -- Obedience
Luther -- Righteousness by Faith/Grace
Calvin -- Spiritual Growth
Anabaptists -- Baptism
Wesley -- Holiness
Miller -- 2nd coming
God's Last Day church -- Sabbath, Sanctuary, Health, 2nd coming (deeper knowledge)
On a Bible test this week, I asked my students to string these messages together and show why the order in which they came was significant for God's church. Here is one student's response.
"The 1st message was the Bible and the Bible only. The Bible had to be the foundation of the church otherwise it could not grow. The 2nd message was obedience. You must obey what God says in His word. The 3rd message was salvation through faith. By having God's word you can see the sacrifice of Christ and that you do not have to earn your salvation but Christ paid for it. The 4th message is Christian growth. Once we have faith in Christ, we must continually walk with Him and we will grow close to Him. The 5th message was baptism. As we grow closer to Christ, we must make a public stand to show your allegiance to God. The 6th message is holiness. Once we make a stand for Christ and we continually grow, we will become like Christ. The 7th message is the second coming. Once God's people have become like Him, then He will come and take us home to live with Him forever. The 8th message is health, sanctuary, Sabbath, second coming, etc. This is the last truth. Now Christ can come as soon as His people are ready."
Another student concluded the last part by saying "...As it gets closer to the time when He will come, times will become harder and we need to have clear minds. Having a good diet will help with this. We have also been given a time of rest every week to focus on Jesus. We also have light as to how things will work and how things are going in the sanctuary. This progression helps paint a picture of a Christian walk. And shows how their messages, working together, help us to become the true church."
I love her last statement. All these work together to create God's last day church. God is so good to have used each of these Reformers and movements to bring His church around to the true message. One other question I asked on the test was why we see so many different denominations rising out of the Reformation period and what challenge this is to the SDA church. This was another student's response.
"What happened during the Reformation was that only so much light was given at a particular time to God's people. And what happened to many is that they would follow a new truth and go no farther. If later more truth was presented, they chose not to follow it. As was and is the case with the Lutherans. To Luther was revealed the truth of righteousness by faith and grace, not by works. This was revealed to Luther for him and for that time to reform the church as God saw fit in that period of time. Luther still kept to Sunday and many other Catholic beliefs only because at the time, light was not given to show those things were wrong. But when new light did come, the Lutherans decided it unnecessary I suppose to hold to that new light. This same type of thing happened with the sects that came out of John Calvin, Menno Simmons, and John & Charles Wesley's movements, which is how we ended up with so many different denominations. It's like the sun, if you stop moving with the light, you'll find yourself in darkness."
Another student concluded, "This can be a challenge for us today. God is still giving light to this world. His knowledge is unending. If we are not searching for his truths, the light will pass us by and we will only be pew warmers, not part of the remnant."
So my friends, are we as guilty as each of these different denominations that formed in the past? They became satisfied with the light they had and stopped progressing. But the light moved on and they were left in darkness. Jesus challenged his disciples in John 12:35, 36 "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light."
I ran across a startling statement by Mrs. White while I was going over this topic with the seniors in the Philippines. She says:
"We shall not be held accountable for the light that has not reached our perception, but for that which we have resisted and refused. A man could not apprehend the truth which had never been presented to him, and therefore could not be condemned for light he had never had. But if he had opportunity to hear the message, and to become acquainted with the truth, and yet refused to improve his opportunity, he will be among the number of whom Christ said, "Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life." Those who deliberately place themselves where they will not have an opportunity of hearing the truth, will be reckoned among those who have heard the truth, and persistently resisted its evidences" (RH April 25, 1893). (emphasis supplied)
This is a solemn thought. Many choose not to place themselves where they will hear the truth because then that will require them to change. They say that ignorance is bliss--as long as they didn't know, God couldn't hold them accountable. But this statement says that if we had the opportunity to know the truth and chose not to, then it will be as if we persistently refused the truth. So my friends, my challenge to you is twofold: 1) are you walking in the light and 2) have you placed yourself where you will have the opportunity to be acquainted with truth? My prayer is that you will.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
I want spring!!
This winter seems like it has dragged on long enough! When I first came here to Canada, everyone assured me it does not snow in this valley or if it did, it would only be an inch or two and then it would melt right away. Ha! I am still trying to figure out if that was supposed to be a joke or not. Right from the start when I got stranded in the lower mainland for a week (read my archived post), I knew I was in for a long winter. From what I understand, they say this is one of the worst winters they have had in 30 years. We literally got dumped on this year and the snow stayed almost the entire winter.
It was such a welcomed relief to finally get away from it all and go to the Philippines for 3 1/2 weeks. When we returned, much of the snow was melted, but having tasted warmer weather, I was even more ready for spring. I wondered it it would ever come... Finally, last week, the weather spiked a warm streak and on Sabbath it was 77 degrees. It was amazing. I laid out in the sun with some friends, took a nice long walk, and enjoyed the taste of spring. All the fruit trees on campus began to bloom blanketing everything in white and pink blossoms. It was beautiful. Then on Thursday night, the wind started howling around my place. (It is so fitting that the place where I stay is called "Whistling Winds." Well, I guess it is not so fitting. It should be more like "Howling Winds." Anyway, I couldn't sleep much that night and wondered what was going on outside. When I woke up in the morning, there were nearly two inches of snow on the ground and it was coming down hard. Within an hour, there was another inch or so of snow on my car. Ugh... I only thought spring had come. It has been freezing the past two days and I don't foresee warmer weather any time soon...
I am starting to have an issue with this "global warming" business. Come to Canada and you will get "global freezing." Welcome to Canada everyone!! Doesn't it just make you want to come visit me in April? (Be sure to bring your ski pants... you may just need them!)
It was such a welcomed relief to finally get away from it all and go to the Philippines for 3 1/2 weeks. When we returned, much of the snow was melted, but having tasted warmer weather, I was even more ready for spring. I wondered it it would ever come... Finally, last week, the weather spiked a warm streak and on Sabbath it was 77 degrees. It was amazing. I laid out in the sun with some friends, took a nice long walk, and enjoyed the taste of spring. All the fruit trees on campus began to bloom blanketing everything in white and pink blossoms. It was beautiful. Then on Thursday night, the wind started howling around my place. (It is so fitting that the place where I stay is called "Whistling Winds." Well, I guess it is not so fitting. It should be more like "Howling Winds." Anyway, I couldn't sleep much that night and wondered what was going on outside. When I woke up in the morning, there were nearly two inches of snow on the ground and it was coming down hard. Within an hour, there was another inch or so of snow on my car. Ugh... I only thought spring had come. It has been freezing the past two days and I don't foresee warmer weather any time soon...
I am starting to have an issue with this "global warming" business. Come to Canada and you will get "global freezing." Welcome to Canada everyone!! Doesn't it just make you want to come visit me in April? (Be sure to bring your ski pants... you may just need them!)
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
word confirmation...
hey everyone, I have been getting quite a number of spam comments on my blogsite, so for a while I am just having everyone enter in a confirmation password that will appear when you leave a comment. I am sorry I have to do this (please don't let this hinder you from leaving comments!), but I just want to see if it helps...
Sunday, March 30, 2008
A final update....
Here is one final update of the Philippines trip...
God blessed so much in the final events of our meetings. Saying goodbye to all the people was hard. On the last night, most of the groups had a going away party. One site begged me to come back for their final night. We had a wonderful time with a sermon and then a social night with crazy Filipino games (some are rather unusual!). I had only been at this site one other time, but the people made me feel as though I had been there the whole time. They even gave me a going away present.
That night I met one little boy named Kenneth who was ten years old. He hung out with me the entire evening and always wanted to sit right next to me. When I said goodbye, he cried and cried. I felt terrible! The people have a way to just work themselves right into your heart. (Kenneth is the boy right next to me.)
The last Sabbath, there were over 1500-2000 baptisms (I didn't get the exact final count). It was amazing to stand by the edge of the pool and see so many commit their lives to Christ. It was so neat!!
After we were done in Manilla, we went down to the lower part of Luzon Island to a beach resort called Matabungkay. On the way down, we stopped to see Taal volcano, the world's smallest active volcano at only 406 meters high. It is described as a "crater within an island within a lake" because it stands as an island in Taal Lake. The lake was formed after the volcano, which used to be much larger, collapsed. It was really cool. The volcano is the tiny island in the forefront.
The final day in the Philippines, we took a boat to an absolutely beautiful island. It was a very tiny island, but it had cool things to see including an old ship and a type of Greek acropolis on the top that we climbed up to. The water around the island was absolutely amazing. It was emerald green in places and deep blue in others and it was so clear that you could see way below the surface. I went snorkeling for the first time and it was incredible. I saw so many different types of fish, star fish, coral, anenome, etc. I felt like I was looking down on an aquarium from the top. On the way back, we were blessed with a wonderful sunset.
The trip back was uneventful--unlike the trip there. It has been good to be back, but jet lag hit me once again. I came back to a full stack of grading, which was rather unpleasant, but I am slowly making my way along. This weekend we are at Puget Sound, so I will have to post about my time here in another post.
p.s. I meant to post a picture of the "demise of the star apple" since Paeter requested it (see comment on previous post), but I forgot that it is on a friends computer, so I may just have to post that one later...
God blessed so much in the final events of our meetings. Saying goodbye to all the people was hard. On the last night, most of the groups had a going away party. One site begged me to come back for their final night. We had a wonderful time with a sermon and then a social night with crazy Filipino games (some are rather unusual!). I had only been at this site one other time, but the people made me feel as though I had been there the whole time. They even gave me a going away present.
That night I met one little boy named Kenneth who was ten years old. He hung out with me the entire evening and always wanted to sit right next to me. When I said goodbye, he cried and cried. I felt terrible! The people have a way to just work themselves right into your heart. (Kenneth is the boy right next to me.)The last Sabbath, there were over 1500-2000 baptisms (I didn't get the exact final count). It was amazing to stand by the edge of the pool and see so many commit their lives to Christ. It was so neat!!
After we were done in Manilla, we went down to the lower part of Luzon Island to a beach resort called Matabungkay. On the way down, we stopped to see Taal volcano, the world's smallest active volcano at only 406 meters high. It is described as a "crater within an island within a lake" because it stands as an island in Taal Lake. The lake was formed after the volcano, which used to be much larger, collapsed. It was really cool. The volcano is the tiny island in the forefront.The final day in the Philippines, we took a boat to an absolutely beautiful island. It was a very tiny island, but it had cool things to see including an old ship and a type of Greek acropolis on the top that we climbed up to. The water around the island was absolutely amazing. It was emerald green in places and deep blue in others and it was so clear that you could see way below the surface. I went snorkeling for the first time and it was incredible. I saw so many different types of fish, star fish, coral, anenome, etc. I felt like I was looking down on an aquarium from the top. On the way back, we were blessed with a wonderful sunset.
The trip back was uneventful--unlike the trip there. It has been good to be back, but jet lag hit me once again. I came back to a full stack of grading, which was rather unpleasant, but I am slowly making my way along. This weekend we are at Puget Sound, so I will have to post about my time here in another post.
p.s. I meant to post a picture of the "demise of the star apple" since Paeter requested it (see comment on previous post), but I forgot that it is on a friends computer, so I may just have to post that one later...
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Another update...
It has been really hard for me to find time to post about all the things that are happening here. So once again, I'll include a lot of pictures to catch everyone up on the events of the past week. It is hard to believe that we have been here for a week and a half already. It seems like it has flown by already and at the same time, it seems that a lot has been packed into it as well.
On Tuesday, we went to the village of the staff member that is with us who is from the Philippines. It was so much fun to tour around his little village. We rode on motorbike tricycles from the main highway to his village because the road was too narrow for the bus. I think we were the amusement of the entire village seeing a bunch of white people riding around on the trikes. But it was fun! We took a long walk into the country side which is really pretty. They used to grow a lot of rice in the area but after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, the soil was too acidic from the volcanic ash. Now there are fish hatcheries all around. Notice the volcano in the background.
When the volcano erupted, it left so much volcanic ash in the area that some of the houses were completely buried. Others have only the roofs sticking out above the ground. This church used to be a lot taller than it is now. It was buried in 12 meters of ash. They have since just raised the floor in the inside of the church so the ceiling inside feels very low for it being a cathedral. The side windows are halfway sunk into the floor with only about 3-4 feet of the top of the window still exposed. It is really strange.
Out in the country, the fruit grows all over the trees there. We tried a new fruit there called a star apple (I can't remember what it is called in Tagalog) but it is so incredibly good. The fruit puts out a very sticky milky substance that makes your mouth feel really funny, but the inside of the fruit is almost like a jelly substance and is super sweet. I wish I could bring some back to the states.
This is one of my students and I eating a star apple. They are super messy to eat!
This is another fruit called a jack fruit. They are huge. I saw one cluster of jack fruit that had about 6 to 8 of these large fruits all growing together. I don't know how the branch can hold them up.
I haven't tried the star fruit when it is ripe, but I had it when it was green. They use it like a vegetable when it was green and cook it. It was really really good. The dish was called "come-and-see"... no, not really...:) I don't know how it is spelled in Tagalog, but that is how it is pronounced.
I don't think I have ever eaten as many different varieties of fruits as I have here in such a short amount of time. Most of them have been so good! We are in mango season right now so every day we eat tons of mangoes and since they are right of the tree, they are so good! Every day our meals consist of a large variety of mangoes, pineapples, papaya, bananas (they are wonderful here!), and a mixture of other fruits that I can't spell. I am getting spoiled!
While we were out in the country, I pet my first caribou and made friends with this cow. When I walked away, it tried to follow me.
We walked to this park in the village that had a lot of animal statues in it. Now I can say I have ridden a gorilla. He was a little harder than I expected and he didn't move... oh, well, maybe it is just a defective Filipino gorilla...
The other day, one of my students and I caught a gecko. I have been wanting to see one since I got here, so I was pretty excited to catch this one. His feet are super sticky so they can crawl across the ceiling.
In addition to all the fun things I have been doing here, I have been keeping busy with the evangelistic meetings. Every night, I go to a different site to watch each of my students preach. I am so proud of all of them. They are doing a wonderful job. One day last week, I reorganized their entire presentation for the 2300 days. The Share Him program was really confusing and the poor students were so frustrated that they couldn't understand it let alone preach it. I reorganized the entire presentation and then explained the entire 2300 days to the students who were going to preach. After that I worked individually with almost every speaker helping them tailor the sermon. At the conclusion of the day, I felt like I had prepared about 6 different sermons and was exhausted. But I am glad I was here to help them out of their pickle.
Some amazing things have been coming out of some of the sights. At one site, a woman came to the meeting one night after she had been randomly invited by one of the elders. She is not a religious person, but decided to accept his invitation to come. The night she came, they show the part of the Jesus video about Christ's baptism. She said she started to get goose bumps up here arms. Then one my students got up to preach. This lady was in absolute shock. She later explained to me what had happened. In December of 2001, she was sitting on her couch, when this being appeared in the room. This being told here that he would lead her to the true church. Being from a Catholic background, she asked the being if the Catholic church was the true church. He told her no... that it was corrupt and didn't teach the Bible. He then went on to explain that she would know the true church when she saw a video of Jesus baptism and then a American girl with long hair would begin to speak (a perfect description of the girl who spoke that night). In fact, (from what I understood) she was told there would be two or three American girls who would be preaching about the Bible (this is our only site with three girls). They being told here that when she saw this, this would be the true church. She told me that just three months ago, she moved to this province and when she moved, the being told her that it would be in this new location that the fulfillment of her dream would come. That night, she said she was overjoyed because she realized that what the being had told here 7 years ago actually happened. I wish you could have heard her express her story. She was so excited. Two days after this experience is when I met her and spoke with her. She told me that she felt this church was God's gift to her. I agree!
Today, I went with one of my students to a local radio station here in town. Every Sunday afternoon, Adventist laymen have a two hour radio timeslot. They asked my student to give a presentation on prophecy, so she preached about the 2300 days and the investigative judgment. for the first 35-40 minutes of the broadcast and then for the remaining 1 1/2 hours, we discussed the assurance we have in the judgment, the purpose of the investigative judgment, etc. Then callers called into the station and we answered live questions on the air. It was so much fun and a challenge to be able to answer questions like how we can prove there is a sanctuary in heaven, how we know the cleansing began in 1844, how to explain what the sanctuary is being cleansed from , how it got defiled in the first place, and how symbolically Christ can cleanse a sanctary in heaven. Thankfully we had two other laymen there that were helping us with the answers just in case we got stuck. It was a first time experience for me to be on a radio station, but it was such a blessing to share God with the people of the Philippines. They say that most of the their 3 millions listeners are non-Adventists. So I pray that God spoke through us today to teach people of the investigative judgment that is now happening on this earth.
It is late here...almost midnight. So I am headed to bed. Please continue to pray for our work here. We have 6 meetings left. God is still working on people's hearts.
On Tuesday, we went to the village of the staff member that is with us who is from the Philippines. It was so much fun to tour around his little village. We rode on motorbike tricycles from the main highway to his village because the road was too narrow for the bus. I think we were the amusement of the entire village seeing a bunch of white people riding around on the trikes. But it was fun! We took a long walk into the country side which is really pretty. They used to grow a lot of rice in the area but after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, the soil was too acidic from the volcanic ash. Now there are fish hatcheries all around. Notice the volcano in the background.
When the volcano erupted, it left so much volcanic ash in the area that some of the houses were completely buried. Others have only the roofs sticking out above the ground. This church used to be a lot taller than it is now. It was buried in 12 meters of ash. They have since just raised the floor in the inside of the church so the ceiling inside feels very low for it being a cathedral. The side windows are halfway sunk into the floor with only about 3-4 feet of the top of the window still exposed. It is really strange.
Out in the country, the fruit grows all over the trees there. We tried a new fruit there called a star apple (I can't remember what it is called in Tagalog) but it is so incredibly good. The fruit puts out a very sticky milky substance that makes your mouth feel really funny, but the inside of the fruit is almost like a jelly substance and is super sweet. I wish I could bring some back to the states.
This is one of my students and I eating a star apple. They are super messy to eat!
This is another fruit called a jack fruit. They are huge. I saw one cluster of jack fruit that had about 6 to 8 of these large fruits all growing together. I don't know how the branch can hold them up.
I haven't tried the star fruit when it is ripe, but I had it when it was green. They use it like a vegetable when it was green and cook it. It was really really good. The dish was called "come-and-see"... no, not really...:) I don't know how it is spelled in Tagalog, but that is how it is pronounced.
I don't think I have ever eaten as many different varieties of fruits as I have here in such a short amount of time. Most of them have been so good! We are in mango season right now so every day we eat tons of mangoes and since they are right of the tree, they are so good! Every day our meals consist of a large variety of mangoes, pineapples, papaya, bananas (they are wonderful here!), and a mixture of other fruits that I can't spell. I am getting spoiled!
While we were out in the country, I pet my first caribou and made friends with this cow. When I walked away, it tried to follow me.
We walked to this park in the village that had a lot of animal statues in it. Now I can say I have ridden a gorilla. He was a little harder than I expected and he didn't move... oh, well, maybe it is just a defective Filipino gorilla...
The other day, one of my students and I caught a gecko. I have been wanting to see one since I got here, so I was pretty excited to catch this one. His feet are super sticky so they can crawl across the ceiling.
In addition to all the fun things I have been doing here, I have been keeping busy with the evangelistic meetings. Every night, I go to a different site to watch each of my students preach. I am so proud of all of them. They are doing a wonderful job. One day last week, I reorganized their entire presentation for the 2300 days. The Share Him program was really confusing and the poor students were so frustrated that they couldn't understand it let alone preach it. I reorganized the entire presentation and then explained the entire 2300 days to the students who were going to preach. After that I worked individually with almost every speaker helping them tailor the sermon. At the conclusion of the day, I felt like I had prepared about 6 different sermons and was exhausted. But I am glad I was here to help them out of their pickle.
Some amazing things have been coming out of some of the sights. At one site, a woman came to the meeting one night after she had been randomly invited by one of the elders. She is not a religious person, but decided to accept his invitation to come. The night she came, they show the part of the Jesus video about Christ's baptism. She said she started to get goose bumps up here arms. Then one my students got up to preach. This lady was in absolute shock. She later explained to me what had happened. In December of 2001, she was sitting on her couch, when this being appeared in the room. This being told here that he would lead her to the true church. Being from a Catholic background, she asked the being if the Catholic church was the true church. He told her no... that it was corrupt and didn't teach the Bible. He then went on to explain that she would know the true church when she saw a video of Jesus baptism and then a American girl with long hair would begin to speak (a perfect description of the girl who spoke that night). In fact, (from what I understood) she was told there would be two or three American girls who would be preaching about the Bible (this is our only site with three girls). They being told here that when she saw this, this would be the true church. She told me that just three months ago, she moved to this province and when she moved, the being told her that it would be in this new location that the fulfillment of her dream would come. That night, she said she was overjoyed because she realized that what the being had told here 7 years ago actually happened. I wish you could have heard her express her story. She was so excited. Two days after this experience is when I met her and spoke with her. She told me that she felt this church was God's gift to her. I agree!
Today, I went with one of my students to a local radio station here in town. Every Sunday afternoon, Adventist laymen have a two hour radio timeslot. They asked my student to give a presentation on prophecy, so she preached about the 2300 days and the investigative judgment. for the first 35-40 minutes of the broadcast and then for the remaining 1 1/2 hours, we discussed the assurance we have in the judgment, the purpose of the investigative judgment, etc. Then callers called into the station and we answered live questions on the air. It was so much fun and a challenge to be able to answer questions like how we can prove there is a sanctuary in heaven, how we know the cleansing began in 1844, how to explain what the sanctuary is being cleansed from , how it got defiled in the first place, and how symbolically Christ can cleanse a sanctary in heaven. Thankfully we had two other laymen there that were helping us with the answers just in case we got stuck. It was a first time experience for me to be on a radio station, but it was such a blessing to share God with the people of the Philippines. They say that most of the their 3 millions listeners are non-Adventists. So I pray that God spoke through us today to teach people of the investigative judgment that is now happening on this earth.
It is late here...almost midnight. So I am headed to bed. Please continue to pray for our work here. We have 6 meetings left. God is still working on people's hearts.Sunday, March 2, 2008
a view of the Philippines...
This is the flight from Seattle to Toyko Japan. It was a great flight. All the seats have monitors in front that have games, flight info (maps of where the plane is, how fast it is traveling), etc. The best part was that we could play games with multiple partners so we would play with various people in our group. It kept us well entertained on the 11 hour flight.
I hadn't realized it until we got to the Philippines that they are celebrating their 100th year of Adventism in the Philippines. Their first converts were in 1908. It is really neat to be here 100 years later and be preaching the gospel message so more people can hear. All throughout this year there are major events, rallies, conferences, etc. This past Sabbath, we went to a huge event in a auditorium that seats thousands of people. There were so many Adventists there celebrating the events. Don Schneider gave the sermon. It was neat to be surrounded by so many Filipino Adventists.The people here are absolutely amazing. They are so incredibly friendly. They open heart and home to you and welcome you right into their lives. We almost feel like celebrities in the way they treat us. It is humbling. They have a wonderful sense of humor too and make us laugh all the time!
I have been traveling around to all the different sites to hear each of my students preach. One site I went to last night was so nice with all the children and young people. Here are just a few pictures of the group.
Two of my students are co-preaching at this site. They are doing a wonderful job! The man on the far right is Benny Moore, the Share Him coordinator.
This morning, one of the pastors picked up my two students that are speaking at his church and myself and took us with his family to the park. It was wonderful to get "out of the city" (it is still in the city but at least it is away from the houses, markets, etc. and the air is cleaner to breathe). I had my first green coconut. (It is call buko here.) It is so amazing to watch them cut the thing! They are so skilled with the machete. The buko is really interesting to eat. It has a layer of thin meat on the top that you poke through, then you drink all the liquid out of the shell. Then you eat the meat that is really soft. It tastes good. Here are just a few pictures of our time out this morning. (Oh, ya, they do things early around here. We got ready to leave for the park at 6:30 am!)
This is the pastor, his wife, son and daughter, and grand daughter as well as my two students.
This is his grand daughter Keesha. She is only two. But she was so cute!
This is the little shop where we got the buko.
I wish I could post the video of this guy chopping the buko.
This is the inside of the buko...
Then we ate it on the hood of the car. It was fun...
This was a memorial at the park to Manuel Louis Quezon, a previous president of the Republic of the Philippines.
Here are just two other random photos of a jeepney ride we took It was fun, but the jeepney's here put out such pollution that it is hard to ride near the back. You about suffocate from exhaust fumes. It was funny watching all the locals being so amused with a bunch of Americans riding in a jeepney. They probably thought that was a funny sight. They kept waving and laughing. So we would wave and laugh back. It was rather entertaining.
Please continue to pray for the work here. God is doing amazing things I know. I will keep you posted.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Off to the Philippines...
I am writing this from the lobby of our Philippines hotel. I honestly cannot believe I am here. But I am grateful to be here. I know God has some big things in store for us while we are here.
Here is just a recap of what has happened on our trip so far.
Got to Seattle airport around 10:30am on Monday. We boarded our flight to Tokyo Japan around 1 pm. It was a great flight. We had a lot of fun on the plane since our whole group of students and staff sat in the same area of the plane. I really thought I would sleep on the 11 hour flight. But I didn't. We were following the sun west so it never got dark. It was like a never ending day. It was really strange. We crossed the international date line and that threw everyone for a loop. We couldn't figure out what time it was or even what day it was. We actually skipped the remainder of Monday afternoon and picked up sometime around Tuesday afternoon. I guess that is a day that never existed. But for never existing, we sure had some crazy things happen (I'll talk about this later...)
We landed in Tokyo about 5pm Tuesday evening (about 2am Tuesday morning Canada time). We had an hour and a half lay over that gave us time to tour around the Tokyo airport. All of us really wished we could go out of the airport to say we had actually been in Japan, but the airport would have to suffice. Once we boarded the plane for the last 5 hour flight to Manila, we sat on the ground for about 45 minutes. I was so tired, I fell asleep before we took off. About half an hour after take off, I woke up to a frantic announcement from the pilot ordering all flight attendants to immediately go to their jumpseats and buckle up. I knew this never happens unless there is turbulence, but there was no turbulence, so I immediately suspected something was very wrong. Within minutes, the flight attendants started running up and down the aisles and where ordering everyone to stay in their upright seats and buckle up. I started to get really nervous. My heart started racing and I began praying...hard. I knew that with so many of us on board going to the Philippines to do a work for God that the devil was surely mad and would try to stop us. While praying, the emergency lights went on at all the emergency exits. I was just praying that we weren't going to have to do a water landing. Within about 15-20 minutes, I saw we were very low to the ground and realized we were making an emergency landing. When we touched down, I saw quite a number of fire trucks all along the run way anticipating our arrival. It was only after we landed that the captain explained they had smelled smoke (I had smelled something really strange earlier that smelled like something was burning) and immediately took precautions for an onboard fire. He radioed back to Tokyo requesting clearance for an emergency landing. The fire trucks met us at the end of the runway and followed us all the way to the terminal to make sure a fire didn't break out.
When we got off the plane, there were dozens of security agents in full Japanese uniform and men in firesuits and other safety people lining both sides of the walkway waiting for us to get off so they could investigate. It was an eery feeling...If it wasn't for the emergency, it would have felt like we were being royally welcomed into Japan. When we got off, we could see about 7 or 8 firetrucks right by the plane. Newscasters where there when we got off but it wasn't until later that I realized we had made national headline news. I understand CNN had a television report about the incident as well as Fox News. Here is just a link if you want to read about it. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332615,00.html
Since they couldn't get us another flight that night they put us into a hotel for the night. Japan has new regulations for letting people into their country so we had to go through the whole process of getting a visitors visa. By the time we got in it was about 1am.(We wanted to just sleep in the airport, but they wouldn't let us.) We ate supper when we got to the hotel and then slept for 2 1/2 hours before we headed back to the airport. Our flight to Manila was uneventful and we landed around noon. It was good to finally be here.
I don't even know how to describe what I am seeing here. There is such a contrast in how people live. There is a huge mall just down the road that has prices that are more expensive than the states. And then just down the street is the worst squaller, filth, and poverty you can imagine... It is really sad. In fact, we have been told that the average person makes about $7-$9 US dollars every day. I don't know how they afford to shop for things at the big mall...
Tonight the meetings start. I am so excited to see how diligent these young people are in getting their sermons ready to preach. I am eager to travel to each of the different sites to watch them all preach.
Please continue to pray for us that God will bless our work here. I know God will work in marvelous ways! (I will have to post some pictures later...)
Here is just a recap of what has happened on our trip so far.
Got to Seattle airport around 10:30am on Monday. We boarded our flight to Tokyo Japan around 1 pm. It was a great flight. We had a lot of fun on the plane since our whole group of students and staff sat in the same area of the plane. I really thought I would sleep on the 11 hour flight. But I didn't. We were following the sun west so it never got dark. It was like a never ending day. It was really strange. We crossed the international date line and that threw everyone for a loop. We couldn't figure out what time it was or even what day it was. We actually skipped the remainder of Monday afternoon and picked up sometime around Tuesday afternoon. I guess that is a day that never existed. But for never existing, we sure had some crazy things happen (I'll talk about this later...)
We landed in Tokyo about 5pm Tuesday evening (about 2am Tuesday morning Canada time). We had an hour and a half lay over that gave us time to tour around the Tokyo airport. All of us really wished we could go out of the airport to say we had actually been in Japan, but the airport would have to suffice. Once we boarded the plane for the last 5 hour flight to Manila, we sat on the ground for about 45 minutes. I was so tired, I fell asleep before we took off. About half an hour after take off, I woke up to a frantic announcement from the pilot ordering all flight attendants to immediately go to their jumpseats and buckle up. I knew this never happens unless there is turbulence, but there was no turbulence, so I immediately suspected something was very wrong. Within minutes, the flight attendants started running up and down the aisles and where ordering everyone to stay in their upright seats and buckle up. I started to get really nervous. My heart started racing and I began praying...hard. I knew that with so many of us on board going to the Philippines to do a work for God that the devil was surely mad and would try to stop us. While praying, the emergency lights went on at all the emergency exits. I was just praying that we weren't going to have to do a water landing. Within about 15-20 minutes, I saw we were very low to the ground and realized we were making an emergency landing. When we touched down, I saw quite a number of fire trucks all along the run way anticipating our arrival. It was only after we landed that the captain explained they had smelled smoke (I had smelled something really strange earlier that smelled like something was burning) and immediately took precautions for an onboard fire. He radioed back to Tokyo requesting clearance for an emergency landing. The fire trucks met us at the end of the runway and followed us all the way to the terminal to make sure a fire didn't break out.
When we got off the plane, there were dozens of security agents in full Japanese uniform and men in firesuits and other safety people lining both sides of the walkway waiting for us to get off so they could investigate. It was an eery feeling...If it wasn't for the emergency, it would have felt like we were being royally welcomed into Japan. When we got off, we could see about 7 or 8 firetrucks right by the plane. Newscasters where there when we got off but it wasn't until later that I realized we had made national headline news. I understand CNN had a television report about the incident as well as Fox News. Here is just a link if you want to read about it. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332615,00.html
Since they couldn't get us another flight that night they put us into a hotel for the night. Japan has new regulations for letting people into their country so we had to go through the whole process of getting a visitors visa. By the time we got in it was about 1am.(We wanted to just sleep in the airport, but they wouldn't let us.) We ate supper when we got to the hotel and then slept for 2 1/2 hours before we headed back to the airport. Our flight to Manila was uneventful and we landed around noon. It was good to finally be here.
I don't even know how to describe what I am seeing here. There is such a contrast in how people live. There is a huge mall just down the road that has prices that are more expensive than the states. And then just down the street is the worst squaller, filth, and poverty you can imagine... It is really sad. In fact, we have been told that the average person makes about $7-$9 US dollars every day. I don't know how they afford to shop for things at the big mall...
Tonight the meetings start. I am so excited to see how diligent these young people are in getting their sermons ready to preach. I am eager to travel to each of the different sites to watch them all preach.
Please continue to pray for us that God will bless our work here. I know God will work in marvelous ways! (I will have to post some pictures later...)
Friday, February 15, 2008
God is good...
Just wanted to update everyone on my last post. The more the story of Trevor's accident unfolded this week, the more we saw God's hand in protecting him. I really want to thank everyone for their prayers over the last week. I believe God heard each one and used them to do something great for Trevor this week.
Just an update on the accident itself. Trevor and his friend John went to the pond Sabbath night to go swimming. One part of the pond is quite deep while other parts are shallow. Trevor thought he remembered where the deep part was but misjudged and dove into the shallow part instead. His friend jumped in (he didn't dive in) right after Trevor and immediately popped up to the surface but it took Trevor a little while to surface. When he finally came to the surface, he yelled out to John and then went back under. John went down to get him and brought him up to the surface for air. He brought him over the bank and Trevor could hardly move. It is a good thing that John was there otherwise, who knows what might have happened.
The update on his injuries include a break at C4 and swelling in his spinal cord. He has no sensation of cold on his left side and still has tingling and numbness in both arms. He can't lift his arms very high either. Thankfully a lot of his pain has subsided and when I saw him yesterday, he hadn't taken any pain medication since the previous day.
Anyway, several of us went to the hospital yesterday morning to see him before he was discharged at noon. All the doctors have been amazed with his progress. They commented that they haven't seen anyone with his type of injuries leave the hospital so soon. They have warned him though that any further damage to the neck could be extremely serious. He will be going home for several weeks to give his neck time to heal and will have to wear a neck brace for nearly 6 weeks.
Here are just a few photos of us at the hospital... I have to explain about the "safety first" creatures. Trevor and John are always begging me to let them blow up something in the laboratory and I always have to caution them to be safe. We always use a slogan in the laboratory called "safety first." 
I had no idea where that came from until in church on Sabbath the speaker was talking about a chemist whose last name was First. He was always so concerned about being safe that he would wear lab glasses, coat, boots, safety belt, helmet, etc. His fellow associates nicknamed him "Safety First" and 
that name is now used all the time in the laboratory. So then it became a joke between Trevor and I about "safety first." After this whole pond incident, I thought Trevor needed to be reminded about that more often, so I made him something to always remember it. Also, as a little memento, each of us signed his neck brace... can't say I've ever done that before!
Then one of my other students decided he would try out Trevor's bed. And after all, since we were on the pediatrics floor, he thought a teddy bear and thumb would be a nice addition. (We all laughed when the nurse came in to get Trevor's breakfast tray. She looked right at Jerome in the bed and asked him if he was finished with it. Jerome played right along with it... I wonder if she finally realized he wasn't the one with the neck brace.)
Anyway, that is just the latest update. All in all, we see how God blessed through it all since it could have been much more serious than it was. Thank you again to all those who uplifted him in prayer.
Just an update on the accident itself. Trevor and his friend John went to the pond Sabbath night to go swimming. One part of the pond is quite deep while other parts are shallow. Trevor thought he remembered where the deep part was but misjudged and dove into the shallow part instead. His friend jumped in (he didn't dive in) right after Trevor and immediately popped up to the surface but it took Trevor a little while to surface. When he finally came to the surface, he yelled out to John and then went back under. John went down to get him and brought him up to the surface for air. He brought him over the bank and Trevor could hardly move. It is a good thing that John was there otherwise, who knows what might have happened.
The update on his injuries include a break at C4 and swelling in his spinal cord. He has no sensation of cold on his left side and still has tingling and numbness in both arms. He can't lift his arms very high either. Thankfully a lot of his pain has subsided and when I saw him yesterday, he hadn't taken any pain medication since the previous day.
Anyway, several of us went to the hospital yesterday morning to see him before he was discharged at noon. All the doctors have been amazed with his progress. They commented that they haven't seen anyone with his type of injuries leave the hospital so soon. They have warned him though that any further damage to the neck could be extremely serious. He will be going home for several weeks to give his neck time to heal and will have to wear a neck brace for nearly 6 weeks.
Here are just a few photos of us at the hospital... I have to explain about the "safety first" creatures. Trevor and John are always begging me to let them blow up something in the laboratory and I always have to caution them to be safe. We always use a slogan in the laboratory called "safety first." 
I had no idea where that came from until in church on Sabbath the speaker was talking about a chemist whose last name was First. He was always so concerned about being safe that he would wear lab glasses, coat, boots, safety belt, helmet, etc. His fellow associates nicknamed him "Safety First" and 
that name is now used all the time in the laboratory. So then it became a joke between Trevor and I about "safety first." After this whole pond incident, I thought Trevor needed to be reminded about that more often, so I made him something to always remember it. Also, as a little memento, each of us signed his neck brace... can't say I've ever done that before!
Then one of my other students decided he would try out Trevor's bed. And after all, since we were on the pediatrics floor, he thought a teddy bear and thumb would be a nice addition. (We all laughed when the nurse came in to get Trevor's breakfast tray. She looked right at Jerome in the bed and asked him if he was finished with it. Jerome played right along with it... I wonder if she finally realized he wasn't the one with the neck brace.)Anyway, that is just the latest update. All in all, we see how God blessed through it all since it could have been much more serious than it was. Thank you again to all those who uplifted him in prayer.
Monday, February 11, 2008
The devil attacks once again...
It seems that just in the past few months, there has been one accident after the other and one emergency after the other. In the past few months, the tally seems to be getting longer and longer: a death over Christmas, three friends admitted to the hospital (some with very serious, life-threatening conditions), at least three bad car accidents (all of which could have resulted in a death), in addition to several other incidents with people that I have heard about but don't know personally. And I know this isn't even the whole list. I think there have been more that I can't remember.
And then Sabbath night another one happened... One of my junior students went diving into the pond here on campus. It is quite deep and has been dove into before, but this time something went wrong and he hit his head on the bottom of the pond. (I am not sure if the pond is lower than normal or if he just dove into a more shallow part). Anyway, he fractured his neck in three places, traumatized his back, and inquired his wrist as well. The doctors are struggling to find where the numbness and pain is occurring in his arms. They can't trace it yet to the fractures in his neck and are trying to decide if it is nerve damage elsewhere in his body. Tomorrow he goes in for a MRI to see what trauma has occurred to his spinal cord.
And then Sabbath night another one happened... One of my junior students went diving into the pond here on campus. It is quite deep and has been dove into before, but this time something went wrong and he hit his head on the bottom of the pond. (I am not sure if the pond is lower than normal or if he just dove into a more shallow part). Anyway, he fractured his neck in three places, traumatized his back, and inquired his wrist as well. The doctors are struggling to find where the numbness and pain is occurring in his arms. They can't trace it yet to the fractures in his neck and are trying to decide if it is nerve damage elsewhere in his body. Tomorrow he goes in for a MRI to see what trauma has occurred to his spinal cord.
Even in spite of it all, God has been good. They thought they were going to have to take him into surgery Sunday to repair the fractures in his neck, but decided that was not necessary. They thought he had severe back inquiry due to the pain he was experiencing, but realized it was a result of being strapped to the backboard for so long. Thankfully today he was able to get a little relief from the pain due to the high pain killers he is on.
Right now, it looks like he will be in the hospital for most of week. Then after that, none of us are sure what will happen. He will have to wear a neck brace for at least six weeks to allow the neck to heal properly. We are just praying that the recovery will not take too long.
Anyway, please keep Trevor in your prayers that he will have a complete recovery. As a teacher, it is difficult to see one of your students go through something like this and Trevor is one of the students here that is closest to me so it makes it really tough. I just thank God that he was not killed or completely paralyzed.
I am seeing more and more how real the great controversy between Christ and Satan really is. I believe the devil knows his time is short and he is doing his best to attack God's children and cause them suffering, pain, and heartache. But whatever he tries to do, let's not let him win! In the end, Christ will be victorious!
Friday, January 25, 2008
Placed on trial
This past semester, I taught senior Bible--Defending Your Faith. During the course of the year, we studied how to defend that God exists, Jesus is divine, and the Bible is true. We then focused on studying some of our core doctrines and getting solid Biblical answers for what we believe as Seventh-day Adventists. We studied four major issues which were the Law and Sabbath, State of the Dead, Second Coming, and Millennium/Hell.
I divided the class into four groups and gave them one of these major doctrines to study and defend. I told them that for their final class project, they would be put on trial to defend their faith. I reminded them that in the end of times, all of us will have to stand up for our beliefs and we may be called to stand in a court to give a Biblical defense of the truths we hold dear. A court session would help them see what it would be like to defend their faith.
The students have been studying like crazy trying to understand their particular doctrine in depth and then answer challenging Bible texts that other denominations use to contradict these Biblical beliefs. They were nervous about the court session, but I assured them they would do great. So yesterday was their day in court. I rearranged the classroom and had a long table at the front of the room for the panel group on trial. To their side sat their defense attorney, one of the pastors on campus. In front sat three jurors consisting of the principal, and two teachers. And also in front of them was me--the prosecuting attorney. I had each group open their session with a Bible study on their topic and then I began challenging their responses. Taking the opposition side was somewhat difficult because I had to try to argue positions that I knew were totally incorrect. Even as I was presenting the arguments, I kept thinking how dumb they sounded and how easy they were to disprove, but I had to sound convincing so that my students could see that these are valid arguments that people will use against them.
I challenged them on verses that use "spirit" and "soul" in the Bible and made them prove why these cannot be conscious entities that live on after death. I made them respond to verse likes Phil. 1:21,23 or 2 Cor. 5:8 that other denominations use to prove that you go to heaven at death. I asked them about Col. 2:14-16 about the law being nailed to the cross or the apparent "first day" (Sunday) worship services in the New Testament and Romans 14:5,6 of not judging a person regarding what day they keep. I questioned them about the Sabbath and the mark of the beast in the end times. I challenged them on hell burning forever and 1000 years of peace on earth after Christ's coming. I challenged them on the secret rapture, the seven year tribulation, and the dangers of believing in such a thing.
The whole court session was 3 1/2 hours, but the students loved it. They said it was so real to them of how they may have to stand up for what they believe and they better have Biblical answers to back them up. It was a nice way to end the semester and I just hope it really challenges them to dig deeper to really know how to "be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you, with meekness and fear." (1 Pet. 3:15).
One thing that is nice too is that this whole semester goes right along with the senior class trip to the Philippines. In just one month, myself along with several other staff and the senior class will be spending three weeks there. The students are preaching evangelistic meetings at 8 different sites. I am so excited that now they have the opportunity to share with others what they have been studying this semester. I have included the senior promotional video for you to see. We are still trying to raise the remainder of the funds to go, so if you have a burden to help sponsor them to the Philippines, we would be very grateful!
I divided the class into four groups and gave them one of these major doctrines to study and defend. I told them that for their final class project, they would be put on trial to defend their faith. I reminded them that in the end of times, all of us will have to stand up for our beliefs and we may be called to stand in a court to give a Biblical defense of the truths we hold dear. A court session would help them see what it would be like to defend their faith.
The students have been studying like crazy trying to understand their particular doctrine in depth and then answer challenging Bible texts that other denominations use to contradict these Biblical beliefs. They were nervous about the court session, but I assured them they would do great. So yesterday was their day in court. I rearranged the classroom and had a long table at the front of the room for the panel group on trial. To their side sat their defense attorney, one of the pastors on campus. In front sat three jurors consisting of the principal, and two teachers. And also in front of them was me--the prosecuting attorney. I had each group open their session with a Bible study on their topic and then I began challenging their responses. Taking the opposition side was somewhat difficult because I had to try to argue positions that I knew were totally incorrect. Even as I was presenting the arguments, I kept thinking how dumb they sounded and how easy they were to disprove, but I had to sound convincing so that my students could see that these are valid arguments that people will use against them.
I challenged them on verses that use "spirit" and "soul" in the Bible and made them prove why these cannot be conscious entities that live on after death. I made them respond to verse likes Phil. 1:21,23 or 2 Cor. 5:8 that other denominations use to prove that you go to heaven at death. I asked them about Col. 2:14-16 about the law being nailed to the cross or the apparent "first day" (Sunday) worship services in the New Testament and Romans 14:5,6 of not judging a person regarding what day they keep. I questioned them about the Sabbath and the mark of the beast in the end times. I challenged them on hell burning forever and 1000 years of peace on earth after Christ's coming. I challenged them on the secret rapture, the seven year tribulation, and the dangers of believing in such a thing.
The whole court session was 3 1/2 hours, but the students loved it. They said it was so real to them of how they may have to stand up for what they believe and they better have Biblical answers to back them up. It was a nice way to end the semester and I just hope it really challenges them to dig deeper to really know how to "be ready always to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope in you, with meekness and fear." (1 Pet. 3:15).
One thing that is nice too is that this whole semester goes right along with the senior class trip to the Philippines. In just one month, myself along with several other staff and the senior class will be spending three weeks there. The students are preaching evangelistic meetings at 8 different sites. I am so excited that now they have the opportunity to share with others what they have been studying this semester. I have included the senior promotional video for you to see. We are still trying to raise the remainder of the funds to go, so if you have a burden to help sponsor them to the Philippines, we would be very grateful!
Monday, January 14, 2008
A Brush with Death...Grateful to be Alive...
When people say life is fragile, it is so true. But sometimes it is not until you come face to face with death that you realize just how fragile it is.
Yesterday was my birthday. I felt so grateful to God for giving me a new year of life to live for Him. I had hopeful dreams of what the new year would bring. Little did I know that just as I had started this new year of life, it almost ended as soon as it began.
In one of my very first entries regarding life in
This morning, Shanuk ran out of food, so I had to take a trip into Lillooet. (Interesting side note here…Before I left on Christmas break, I had bought Shanuk 5 bags of dog food. I knew that should be plenty to last her through break and then some. But when I returned from Christmas break, she was on her last bag. I wondered at how much food she had been fed while I was gone and was shocked she had eaten so much… More on this later.) I really didn’t want to go to town since it had been raining all morning. But I knew I had to. I prayed earnestly before I left that God would keep me safe from falling rocks on my way into town. When I got to the slide, it was fairly bad. There were quite a few rocks on the road but at least it was passable. Small rocks and stones continued to fall from the cliff as I crept my way down the mountain. I got behind a snow blow along the way which was pushing huge fallen boulders off the road and into the ditch. I chuckled to myself that the snow plows here probably do more boulder pushing than snow plowing.
After running my errands in Lillooet, I once again prayed that God would keep me safe on my return. I had barely left Lillooet, when I came to a section of road that was literally covered with large rocks (6-12 inch boulders) all over the road. (They had fallen since I had driven through there a little while before.) I tried to go around them but there were too many so I drove slowly over them trying to not completely tear up the underside of my car. Then all of a sudden, I heard this absolutely horrifying blast right by my head and realized I was completely covered in glass. A large boulder (I am guessing it was anywhere from 6-12 inches across) fell from the cliff and completely shattered my driver’s side window. Knowing I couldn’t stop for fear more would come down, I crept through the remaining debris and kept driving towards home.
Since my windows have a darkened tinted film on the inside of the glass, it acted almost like tape on glass and kept part of the shattered window in the opening rather than all on my lap. (I really think this is one thing that protected me from getting more glass in the face. If that hadn’t been there, the impact most likely would have sent the entire window into my face.) To prevent it from all falling in on me, I had to hold what was left of the shattered window in place for the remaining 30+ km back home.
To make matters worse, I still hadn’t gotten to the Big Slide yet. When I got to it, larger boulders (these about 3 feet across) had fallen onto the road almost blocking the one lane. I was able to squeeze through them and prayed so hard all the way through that God would just at least get me home safe. (I am so grateful it wasn’t one of those boulders that hit me. I can almost guarantee it would have killed me.)
When I got home, I tried to shake the large quantities of glass off me (I had it all in my lap, my coat hood was filled with glass, it was down my sleeve from holding the window up, in my hair, in my shoes, and even in my mouth. Thankfully none in my eyes.) When I stepped out of the car, I realized then how God had spared my life. Along the top of the door frame was the huge dent that had taken the brunt of the boulder’s impact. Because it had hit partly on the frame and partly on the window, the boulder had bounced off the frame and back onto the road. If it had hit merely 3 inches lower, it would have come right through the window and hit me in the side of the head. Considering the size of the boulder, I either would have been dead, seriously injured, or had shards of glass all through the side of my face.
Though I tried to shake most of the glass off in the car, I kept dropping shards of glass all throughout the house. (The glass was so imbedded in my coat, I had to vacuum clean it to get it all off.) So I went to get the vacuum cleaner (in an obscure room of the house I never go to) and behind the door I saw the three left over bags of dog food from break. Someone had put them there and never told me they had done so. (So now I have six bags of dog food, a shattered window, and a very shook up psyche!)
Friday, January 4, 2008
Funny sayings...
I always enjoy spending Christmas with my family and this year was extra special since we were able to spend it with my grandparents (we haven't had Christmas with them for four years). Whenever the extended family gets together, we always have loads of fun accompanied with tons of laughs. My grandfather usually takes the cake in getting the family to laugh. I've taken note of just a few of the things that made me laugh this break.
Overall, my Christmas break was wonderful! I spend five days in Michigan, then I flew to Minnesota for GYC, then flew to Arizona for Christmas and New Years. Went to the Grand Canyon with my family while there. It was all fun! I will have to post some pictures later, or better yet, you can just go to my sister's blog at http://resurrectiongirl.blogspot.com. She's given the full scoop there.
As this new year begins, we find ourselves one year closer to Christ's soon return. I pray that this year will find us preparing more than ever for that great event!
- My grandfather ran into a friend at the grocery store last week. This individual asked how my grandmother was. My grandfather replied that he didn't know because he hadn't spoken to her in three weeks. His friend asked very seriously if they were having marriage problems. My grandfather replied nonchalantly, "No, I just didn't want to interrupt." (To which my grandmother replied later, "He is always picking on me!"
My grandfather was proudly showing me his Oklahoma University hat that he got a while back (he is a fan of OU). Then he showed me a second OU hat made for a lady. I asked him if that was for Grammy to wear. He replied, "Of course not! It is for me to wear when I feel like being a girl." (Right! I think not!)- My grandfather recounts a time when he was about to give a waitress a 50 dollar bill and asks her if she knows whose face is on the bill. She doesn't know so he offers her a hint: "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?" She answers, "Lincoln?" (I hope he somehow covered that with grace!)
- One night, my grandfather randomly flings his dirty socks onto the floor. A few minutes later, my grandmother goes around trying to pick them up and chides him for doing it. Later, she asks him where he put his dress shirt that he had just taken off. He replies, "I threw it on the bathroom floor!" He was kidding of course, but my grandmother was ready to get after him big time!
Overall, my Christmas break was wonderful! I spend five days in Michigan, then I flew to Minnesota for GYC, then flew to Arizona for Christmas and New Years. Went to the Grand Canyon with my family while there. It was all fun! I will have to post some pictures later, or better yet, you can just go to my sister's blog at http://resurrectiongirl.blogspot.com. She's given the full scoop there.
As this new year begins, we find ourselves one year closer to Christ's soon return. I pray that this year will find us preparing more than ever for that great event!
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