Teaching Adventures

This is one of the areas I feel I have to constantly work on and strive for. Strive for rest... oxymoron? But it is true I do have to make a concerted effort not to overwork myself. I suppose I come by it naturally, my mom and dad have always been hard workers. Hard work is a good thing, but longevity and health come from rest in conjunction with work. I am teaching a workshop tomorrow on time management and I will be ending with the topic of rest. Here is what I wrote in my teaching notes:

 

In the Old Testament God gave the Sabbath as a gift to men. In Hebrews we also see that it was a signpost to point people to enter the true rest of Jesus. A rest that consisted not of working for salvation but instead resting in the work of Jesus Christ at the cross. Therefore, now a true sabbath, a true rest, will only come as one realizes that one doesn't need to work for God's approval. It is really only once a person fully comes to that revelation that they will find peace and rest for their souls. It is also only then that they will really be able to take a break from their work and truly rest, because there will be no guilt in rest, no propelling force driving them to 'just do more.' God has placed rest in all of creation for us to see. If you are a surfer you know that waves come in sets, a bunch of large waves and then there is a break. The heart pumps, pauses, pumps, pauses. The body needs to sleep every night. Trees goes dormant over winter. Bears hibernate. Geese take turns being in the lead as they migrate. God has put evidence all around us that rest is just as important as activity. In fact, in music the beauty of melodies is accentuated by rests of silence between notes.

 

Now the challenge is to live my own teaching, always the biggest challenge for me. I want to teach with integrity. I don't think this means perfection, but a true desire to live what I preach- to walk the talk:) We'll post some pictures in the next few days of our training session tomorrow! Enjoy the new video from Titus Project South Africa who just sent a team to Rwanda this past summer.

 

 

Global Impact

 

One very cool thing about making a global impact is that often the impact reverberates right back into your own life. As you learn about others and help them, they often help you just as much. It's community, a global community.  

 

This weekend was Global Impact Weekend at our church. We had a youth event friday night where we did a live Skype call with a great friend of ours who is a missionary in Taiwan. Mike did a great job and shared with the youth that he wouldn't trade his life as a missionary for anything.

Saturday we held a huge fall supper to raise funds for a short term missions trip to Turkey and K*stan next year. 139 people came and over $3000 was raised! Wow! It is amazing how generous people can be! Sunday Ben and I had the chance to share with our church about our plans for 2010 and also the message for the morning. Ben preached and did a great job- have 20 minutes to listen? Check it out here, you'll see the link on the left side of the page: www.kilcona.org

 

By monday morning Ben and I crashed and had a nice day to relax and do some work around the house (Thanks dad for helping with the soffits). Now we are onto preparing for: Ephesians (we teach every sunday), a workshop for Camp Arnes staff, a teaching trip with Titus Project to Armenia and Titus Project in Sweden! We may be home, but we are definitely not lacking things to do. One main focus we have for being at home is connecting with people, so please contact us if you would like to get together. We are leaving for Taiwan December 28th.

This past weekend Ben went on a men's retreat (see photos). On the way there he killed a bear by hitting it with his truck. While he was there a bunch of guys went target shooting so of course Ben joined in the fun. It was the first time he shot a real gun. So between killing a bear and shooting a gun we joke that he became a real 'man,' the funny thing is that he didn't do them in the right order :)

 

By the way, the video playing to the right is joshua Wallker's video. He was one of our students in Titus Project Montana last month. We sent the team out to Ukraine and this is a video that they shot after teaching a course called Bible Overview in a Bible School there. check out his amazing website at:  http://joshuajordanwalker.com/site 

  

Just doing a little reading and I came across this quote:

 

"For example, America was founded on the idea of liberty, but we have taken that to the extreme. Originally, the word meant 'the right to do what is right.' But this postmodern society has changed its meaning so that, for many people today, liberty is defined as 'the right to do whatever I want to do.' However, true liberty will not cost others their liberty."

 

This is really interesting ... both from the perspective that America's founders possibly held to that definition and that it has changed SO much. What do you think is the better definition? How should a society define liberty? We'd love to hear your thoughts!

 

Many of you know that our first plan was to go and pioneer Titus Project in South Africa! The great news is that our wonderful friends Marysol and Dewet pioneered it before we could get there and they have done a tremendous job! They have an amazing website www.blomerus.org so feel free to check it out! Anyways, they made this great video after the last Titus Project outreach in Capetown, in one of the very same areas that Cherie Campbell wants to work in the future (for those who know her). Watch the video and let your heart be stirred for the need for teaching and training all over the world, from Asia, to Africa, to Europe!

 

On a different note, some of you may know that there was a forest fire on the mountain very near the YWAM base where Ben is right now. Thankfully it is all under control, I posted a few pictures so you could see how close it was.

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