Fall Festival

We have had another marathon week at the Smith household! Monday night we baby-sat Christian, Tuesday we actually got to stay at home with NOTHING on the agenda, Wednesday night was church, I worked the basketball game after school on Thursday (Evan and Kendall joined me for a little bit, however, Kendall couldn't handle sitting in her stroller with all that action going out on the basketball court!) and Friday night was my school's first ever Fall Festival!

The night turned out to be a huge success. We had tons of students and parents show up, great games and prizes, a tasty chili supper, and just a lot of fun! The only draw-back was that the time frame was from 5-9, which made for a HORRIBLY long day. Our team's booth was a General Store with all kinds of trinkets, candy, and sodas, and thankfully we were able to shut things down around 8: 20 or so. I think we were the only booth with drinks (besides the ring toss where two-liters could be won) and were out of sodas by 7:00! (We did get a kick out of watching several kids walk around while chug-a-lugging the two liter bottles of pop!)

Kendall was a little small to enjoy too much of the action, although she did love watching the big kids and running around on the gym floor. She also got her first taste of the ever-so-yummy cotton candy and thoroughly enjoyed it! We had to eat it up really quickly so she would forget about seeing it!!

Why I love middle school kids...

This is the conversation that went down in my first period class as we were discussing the economic regions of the US, in particular, the large cattle and sheep ranches out west:

Christina: "Mrs. Smith, what is a cattle?"

Larry (before I could answer): "A cattle is a baby cow."

Me: "No, cattle is a large group of cows. A baby cow is called a calf."

Larry: "Then what is a decaf Mrs. Smith?


Way too funny!!!

Two Stories

Story #1
We ended up closing on our house yesterday instead of Monday due to the bank not getting the paperwork finished in time. (Surprise, surprise that it got pushed back two days!) Anyway, all the papers are signed and we have officially started the ripping of wallpaper. YAY!!!

However, yesterday we had a little drama after the closing. Here's what happened:

We were in separate vehicles at the bank because I had to meet them from school. As I was putting Kendall in the car and Evan was trying to get the stroller loaded, I saw that he put the folder with all our papers, home warranty, etc, on the hood of the car. I thought to myself, "That is not a good place for that." (Did I mention that the folder also contained the check we got back and closing AND a gift card to Home Depot from our realtors?) In the process of my noticing that, I bumped Kendall's head on the car and she starts screaming hysterically (more out of being tired and hungry than pain) and I guess I didn't say anything to Evan about the folder. We drive home in 5:00 traffic only to realize that neither of us picked up the folder. Evan jets out of the house as fast as he could as I get down on my knees and start praying.

He gets to the bank parking lot and no luck. We just knew it fell off the car somewhere when I was pulling out, because neither of us saw papers flying all over the place. At this point, Evan goes on to church and I stay home (mainly because I'm just tired of driving all over creation). I then call my best prayer warriors and ask them to pray. Miranda, my sweet accountability partner from AR, prayed with me right there on the phone. (I loved her words of, "God, you know where that folder is and we just pray you will return it to Evan and Leah without anything missing." ) We knew that the worst case scenario would be that we would have to stop payment on the check, recopy all the papers, and just loose the gift-card, but we also knew and believed that God was bigger than that. I was pretty much praying continually throughout the evening, Evan and I prayed together and then I read/prayed through the "worry" verses in Matthew 6 and went on to sleep.

Surprisingly, we were both able to sleep pretty well last night.

This morning, I woke up, got on my knees again. I just had hope that everything was going to be okay. Around 8:30 this morning, I got an email from Evan that said "THE FOLDER HAS BEEN FOUND!!!" A bank employee found it in the parking lot and gave it to our loan officer!

God is so faithful!

I've been thinking all day about the lessons learned from this situation. First, I know part of the lesson is to slow down and pay attention! We were so busy and excited about finally closing that we were getting too anxious and careless. Second, I also know that God has already proven his dependability to me, but he continually reminds me how faithful He is. He will always hear us when we cry out. I am so thankful. Last, I think God just wanted to remind me that my satisfaction and contentment will ALWAYS be from him alone. Not from a new house, decorating, paint colors, more square footage, etc. This is something that I've had to remind myself a lot along the way...that just because we are getting more space and I have new projects, I still need to remain faithful to Him and spending time daily in prayer and in the Word. I could just see Evan and I coming home from that closing talking about renovation projects, what we would do with that gift card money, more paint color/furniture buying talk (which I don't think any of that is bad at all) and clearly, last night, God wanted us focused on Him, as we should be ALWAYS.

He is so good. If only we would truly believe that all the time.


Story #2
Today is one of those days that I would have gladly quit my job. I'm not sure if my kiddos were on a day-after-a-field-trip high or if they just had the Thursday crazies, but EVERY ONE of them pushed every button on me today! I promise you, if I said "Stop talking" or heard "Mrs. Smith, I don't have a pencil/paper" one time today, I heard it 500 times, along with a plethora of other whines and cries. At one point, in my next-to-last period class, I said, "I am so tired of putting out fires today..." and the whole class starts in with, "Where was a fire?" "Who caught something on fire?" "You had to put out a fire, really?" When that all started, I just bent down over ever-so slightly and hung down my head for a minute. I just needed to "check out" for a moment. The longer I stood there bent over the kids started in with, "What's wrong, Mrs. Smith? Are you throwing up? Are you crying? What's wrong?" To which my sweet little George yells out, "No, she's pushing out a fart!"



Oh, the joys of middle school!!!! Will I get an extra jewel in my heavenly crown?!?!?!?!

Loving God with all of my mind

Well, Leah's been on my case lately about how long it's been since I posted anything on here. Honestly, my lack of posting hasn't really been intentional. I just know she does such a good job of keeping everyone up to date with what's going on with us that I don't have to worry about it.

Anyway, here's a few thoughts on school.

I'm taking nine hours again this semester, Ancient Near Eastern History, Personal Evangelism and New Testament Survey II. The classes are all pretty enjoyable, but Ancient Near Eastern History and Personal Evangelism are definitely my favorites. Our Sunday School teacher, Dr. Betts, teaches the ANEH class, so I was really looking forward to that one. I didn't know anything about the other two professors (Dr. Randy Smith in Personal Evangelism, and Dr. Dave Deklavan in NT Survey II), but I have come to really appreciate both of them as well.

In fact, the professors have probably been the most pleasant surprise about Boyce. Before starting school, I was sort of skeptical about how they might be. For some reason, I had this preconceived idea that the professors were all going to be arrogant scholars who were more interested in proving how smart they were, than on the loving Jesus and other people. But that isn't what I've found at all. All six of the professors I've had so far have been some of the most humble, godly, men I have been around. That's not to say they aren't extremely smart or serious about academics, because they definitely make us work hard and place a high emphasis on excellence in the classroom. But they all stress the fact that the reason we strive for excellence in our schoolwork is because doing so glorifies God. After all, the Bible says to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your MIND and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30, NASB)

For whatever reason, it seems that many Christians have the same attitude I had before coming to school, that its somehow unimportant - or dangerous even - to study the "meatier", more complex aspects of theology. Since coming to Boyce, I have come to reject this idea. I believe God wants us to use our minds to know as much about Him as we possibly can. Having said that, there is a very real danger of falling in love with knowledge for the sake of knowledge, and focusing too much on secondary matters that quite frankly none of us will know the answers to this side of heaven. In my Personal Evangelism class this week, Dr. Smith gave us an example the other day of some theologians who once had a whole debate on how many angels could stand on the head of a pin.

I was reading in 1 Timothy last night, and I think this is exactly the sort of thing Paul addresses in the first chapter when he instructs Timothy to stay on in Ephesus to correct some bad teaching that was taking place there. This is what Paul tells Timothy:

"But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussions, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions." (1 Timothy 1:5-7 NASB).

Unfortunately, I think these verses could apply to a lot of the students here at Boyce and Southern. I seem to hear a lot of confident assertions being made by students about matters that quite frankly I doubt they understand well enough to be making, and are ultimately part of fruitless discussions. On the other hand though, like I said, so far I haven't seen this at all with any of my professors. In fact, I have heard Dr. Betts warn our Sunday school class (which is comprised entirely of students and their spouses) about this exact thing on numerous occasions.

As a student on this campus (and probably any seminary campus for that matter), there is a fine line between loving God with all of our minds, and turning aside to fruitless discussions about matters we do not understand well enough to make confident assertions. But fortunately for me, the example of my professors proves that it is a line that can be walked, and that just because there is the danger of the latter is not an excuse to ignore the former.

This and that

It seems like it's been a while since I've posted anything on here other than videos or pictures of Kendall. Thankfully, Leah's really taken ownership of the blog and keeps it updated so everyone can keep track of what's going on with us.

I figured out how to put music on the blog and was able to add this song by Audio Adrenaline, which is one of our favorites. In fact, ever since Leah and I first got the CD with song on it, it has been kind of a theme song for us. When we first surrendered to the ministry, it seemed to say exactly what I was feeling. I love how music is like that. I wish I had the lyrical ability to put my feelings into words the way musicians can.

These lyrics really remind me of Jesus' words in Matthew 8:35, where he said, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel will save it." And his reminder to the disciples in Matthew 16:24 that "If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me."

I still don't know what God has in store for us after school, as far as what ministry setting we'll be serving Him in, but these two verses sum up exactly what I know His call is for us - total surrender to go wherever He leads and do whatever He asks, knowing that whatever it costs, the reward will be well worth it. If we're really honest, that's what He requires of all us who claim to be His disciples.

On another note, I'm really ready for school to start back up. Classes start the week of January 21st and I'm enrolled in nine hours again this semester. The classes I'm taking are Old Testament Survey II, New Testament Survey II, and Personal Evangelism. I'm really excited (and a little nervous) about the Personal Evangelism class. From looking at the syllabus, I feel like this might be the most beneficial and practical class I'll take in all of my studies. The bulk of the grade comes from an assignment in which I have to share the gospel on five occasions throughout the semester and write a paper describing those experiences. For one of the other assignments, I have to write out my testimony and then share it in front of the class. It's kind of sad that they have to offer a college level class on this for people who are going into the ministry, but the reality is, sharing the gospel is something I fail miserably at, so I'm looking forward to being "nudged" into action.

Everything else is going pretty good for us. We are constantly amazed and humbled at how God provides for all of our needs (even as He continues to help us learn the difference between "needs" and "luxuries").

We love you all and are so thankful for your encouragement and support.

Fall 2007 Final Grade Report

I don't really like the idea of "tooting my own horn", but considering how jacked up my grades were at Henderson and OBU, I'm pretty proud of this one. Hopefully, I can do it again this Spring.

I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed my classes this Fall. I'm really looking forward to classes starting back up in January.

Thanks so much to everyone who has been praying for Leah and me

(The Cooperative Program Class was graded on a Pass/Fail basis and didn't count for any credit. Hence, the "P" and zeros.)

School & Other Stuff

Well, today was my last day of class for the semester. I had already finished my Intro to Missions class last Monday, and today I took my final exams in Hermeneutics and Math. My Missions professor posted my final grade in his class this past week. I made a 98% in that class, which was good enough for an A. Heading into the my tests today, I had 90% in Math and about a 98% in Hermeneutics. My math teacher counts a 90% or better as an A, and my other two teachers count a 94% or better as an A. I feel like I did pretty well on both of my tests today, so there's a chance I could end up with straight A's - which I'm pretty pumped about.
Anyway, it's hard to believe a whole semester is already in the books. It seems like only yesterday Leah and I didn't even know what school I was going to end up at.
I'll probably sound like a big nerd for saying this, but I really kind of hate that I'm not going to have any classes for two months. Isn't that weird? But with the exception of my Math class, I'm really enjoying school that much.
In other news, I'm fired up about getting down to Arkansas next week and getting out in the woods. Scottie turned me on to deer hunting last year and I can't wait to go again this year. I'm going to hook up with Matt and go to his lease in Carlisle for a few days. It's going to be great. He was telling me today that he's got a catfish pond out there so we can run some yo-yo's too. I thought he was about to tell me we could "skin a buck and we could run a trot line..." Anyway, I'm not sure what I'll do with a deer if I actually get one. Maybe I can tie it to the top of my truck and haul it all the way back to Louisville to parade around campus. That would be awesome.

School and stuff

Well, I survived my first day of classes yesterday.
I'm taking 9 hours this semester and all three of my classes meet on Monday only. I start my day with a general math class at 8:30. That class gets out at 11:15 and then I have Hermeneutics from 11:30 to 2:15. My last class is Intro to Christian Missions which starts at 2:30 and lets out at 5:15. Sitting through three 3-hour classes, back-to-back, makes for a long day, but its going to allow me to work 8-hour days on Tuesday - Friday.
Yesterday, the main focus in each class was going over the syllabus, but we did get into some of the class material too. I think I'm really going to enjoy these classes. In addition to being really Godly people, all of my professors seem like they will be really good teachers and interesting lecturers too.
My Intro to Missions professor, Dr. Bruce Carlton, served 20+ years as a missionary in Asia. In 1989 he and his family were the first Baptist missionaries appointed to Cambodia. God used his family in a might way. During their stay in Cambodia, the number of Baptist churches grew from six in 1992, to 194 in 1998. The SBC estimates that there approximately 600 Protestant believers in Cambodia in the early 1990's and more than 60,000 by 1999, 10,000 of which were Baptists. And on top of all of that, when I told him I was from Fayetteville, he asked me if I knew where Elkins was, because his wife is from there. I told him I had just sold a house in Elkins in order to move to Louisville. Needless to say, I think his class is going to be fantastic.
I think Hermeneutics is going to be a really neat class too. I didn't really even know what Hermenutics meant when I signed up for the class, but it is apparently the science/art of interpreting the Scriptures. The professor, Dr. Joslin, said we will be learning how to interpret the scriptures from the standpoint of the author's original intent, rather than just looking at what does this mean to me. I think it will be pretty interesting and will be a big help in learning how to study God's Word.
My math class is basically just math, which isn't exactly anything I'm going to get very excited about. :-)
We visited a church called Ninth & O Baptist Church on Sunday. It's the church Gibson and his wife attend. Leah and I both really liked it. They run about 600 people on Sunday mornings, but they two services, so it didn't feel that big. It really felt about the same size as our church back home. A couple of members of the church came by last night to visit with us. The church just finished registration for its second season of Upwards Soccer and saw more than twice as many kids sign up as they had anticipated - the vast majority of whom are un-churched kids. What an awesome opportunity to share the gospel!
I asked the guys about their visitation program, because I was curious about how focused the church's members are on reaching out to others, as opposed to just having their own needs met. They said they have more than 100 members who actively participate in their G.R.O.W visitation program. I thought that was pretty great.
I'm sure we'll probably visit a few more churches, but I bet we end up joining there.
Anyway, that's probably enough for one post.
Hope everything is going good for all of you!