Change is a-coming!

I can't believe that September is already at its halfway point! It seems as if time has flown by. I have only two Sundays left as the Children's Ministry Director, and I start school on Monday! It seems weird, but I start a week earlier than OSU, which I didn't realize until about 2 weeks ago. :) Monday is my orientation, then classes begin on Tuesday. For fall term I will be taking 16 credits: Bible Doctrine I (this is a course I will take all year), Hermeneutics I (which is the study of Bible interpretation and application), a course on prayer, Acts and the Pauline Epistiles, Old Testament Survey (Genesis-Esther, this quarter), and pastoral discipleship. I'm not totally sure what pastoral discipleship entails, other than the obvious being discipled by a pastor :) I am truly looking forward to getting started. I don't know what school is really going to be like this year. I can't imagine that it will be anything like the schooling I have had in the past. It may be a real challenge this year to maintain my academic focus while also trying to learn spiritually. This is definitely a prayer request for this school year.


There is definitely still need for prayer for the position of Children's Ministry Director as well. As I said earlier, I only have two more Sunday's of work, through September 28. At this point, there is no one who will take my place when I am finished. Part of me is ready to be finished with this job, and part of me knows it will be really hard to leave with this position still unfilled. This job has provided a lot of opportunities to learn lessons as well as several challenges. I know now the huge challenge staffing Sunday schools can be. Recruiting volunteers is pretty much my most dreaded part of every week. If I work in full-time ministry at some point, I will definitely not want recruiting to be a part of it, if at all possible. There are things I have really enjoyed as well. The volunteers I do have are amazing with what they are willing to do, how dedicated and passionate they are about these children. I would love to be a worker like this in the future. I think I will definitely come back to teaching Sunday school at some point in my life. What an opportunity I have been given this summer to get a quick, but very real taste of what life in full-time ministry is like. While this experience has been hard and discouraging at some points, it is also a blessing just to have been able to have this opportunity.


In other exciting news, we have also purchased our tickets for Brazil this week. It's official...we are going back!! I can't wait to see how God is going to use the team on our trip this year. And I can't wait to get back to Sao Paulo and hug all my friends! What a blessing to be able to take a third trip!!