The Faith of Cain

I’ve been reading The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World’s Most Beloved Neighbor by Amy Hollingsworth and I just want to tell you what a wonderful book it has been. I loved Mr. Rogers when I was a boy and my parents loved him too because he was very quiet and could get me to be quiet too! I do remember crying when Mr. Rogers died not too long ago but ever since I’ve been reading this book I’ve been really grieving for him. I just wish he were here.

For the summer I will be involved with Impact Northern Kentucky where I will be working with a team of 5 others in a church. We will be immersed in discipleship everyday and will be working closely with churches there and we will also be ministering to the local community. I struggled with accepting the position there because I was really interested in Impact Louisville, the sister program of Impact NK, because I had heard so much about it and I had idealized it and then I got it in my head that Impact NK couldn’t be half as grand as Impact Louisville. This was a very foolish and selfish thing to think. After talking with Starla (who is also on Impact NK), Wyndee, Adrienne, and my last resort being God I realized how much a blessing that I would miss if I didn’t do it and the fact that I had been chosen to be a part of this team never occurred to me until I spoke to God. I was supposed to be on the Impact NK team this is what God’s plan for me had been all along.
Also more exciting news. I have accepted an intern position with Calvary Baptist Church in Lexington, KY (this is where LTC will be in a few weeks as well as the commissioning service), in their collegiate ministry department! The collegiate minister there is very much like our beloved Wyndee (a yellow) and has all the wonderful attributes that we come to love in our campus minister. After a tour around the church and college building I was also introduced to the president of the Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, Dr. Earwood. In a nice chat with him I told him that I really appreciated BSK and that I would be interested in taking some classes someday (that someday may be sooner than later since I’ve accepted the position at Calavary). I will get to work with college students every week and be involved in the huge ministry of this wonderful church. I am so excited; I wish I could start right now.

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

I’ve been having a great semester and a great past few weeks although lots of not-so-good things have happened. I want to note a small experience that I had just yesterday. – I had just got a ceasar salad at the café and was going to meet Wyndee. As I got to the car I was thinking how wonderful the day was and how sweet the rain made the air smell. With that I got into the car and as soon as I did I spilled almost the entire container of Italian dressing in the floor of the car (warning: they just pretend to put the lids on those things, what they do is just set them on the top of the container). Well I could have gotten really mad but with a lot of help from God I gracefully and very humorously tried to swab/smear/dab the dressing from the floor all the while balancing the most humongous drink I’ve ever gotten at the café without spilling it directly into my lap. Well the car smells like a greasy Italian kitchen now but when I got out of the car I was still able to smell the sweet rain.

I guess that’s how I would characterize the ups and downs of this semester although there have been some bad and unfortunate things happen (like losing your vehicle authorization, but I don’t know anyone that could happen to) there has always been the scent of sweet rain on the horizon. Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to continue with the dichotomies throughout this post because there has been much more rain that drought.