Sunday, October 19, 2003

This is going to be a long journal entry with good reason. This has probably been one of the all time best weeks of my life. As you read the entry, you will find out why. I would just like to start out by thanking God from who all blessings come. I know that everything that has happened has been in his control and I am so thankful for that.

This week was a bit busier than usual but as always God provided me the time to not only get all the work done that I needed to but also to have some fun. Monday at prayer we had a God hunt. We examined our lives to look at all the ways that God has been active in the past week, month, and year. This was an incredible opportunity to thank God for all that we have received from him. Even though we had an entire thirty minutes, I could have went on thanking God for hours more.

The other big event on Monday was our prayer leaders meeting. This meeting was a real challenge and looking back I know that God was there and had an active role in how we handled things. At the time the choices we had to make seemed impossible difficult but looking back now I think God really helped us to make the best possible decisions.

Tuesday was probably the best day of the week in many respects. Even though it probably wasn't the most fun day of the week, I think that God used me more than ever in those few hours.

Like every Tuesday we had our floor small group study. The attendance this week was down but the message was just as powerful. I tried something different, in that I had the group write down answers to some of the questions before speaking Outloud. I did this for a couple of reasons. First it gives everyone a chance to process what they feel the answer is and people don't just hurry up to blurt out some sort of answer without really thinking about it. The second reason is because a lot of engineers can get more from reading and writing than from just discussing a topic, by writing something down they might be able to remember it more.

This was our last study of Thessalonians and I think that it was a very worthwhile book to study. I really feel that we got a lot out of this passage.

Another huge event for the day was finding out that I was accepted as an Urbana Small Group Leader. This is a huge opportunity but also a challenge. I know that God would not have called me to do this if I was not up to the challenge. It is really exciting to know that I will be leading a group of fellow Christians in bible study and prayer at this amazing convention.

This has really gotten me pumped up for Urbana . It is going to be such an amazing opportunity and I still have another 2 ½ months before it is actually here. I just pray for all the attendees and the presenters. I also want to lift up those on our campus who you have called to go to this convention. I know that there are a few of us signed up so far and I ask that money and time not be a problem as so many people make it. Just allow them to go freely and be willing to take this once in a lifetime opportunity to experience this conference as a student.

The third thing that happened, while it might not seem anywhere near as important as the others, is probably the best thing that happened all day. I ended up getting to bed at about 12:30 and for once Scott was going to bed at the same time. Instead of falling asleep like usual we started talking. Before I knew it hours had passed and it ended up being 2:30 by the time I got to sleep. This was a great opportunity for Scott to get some things off his heart and also for me to see where he is at.

I am not going to get into the details but my main prayer is that we can continue to have good conversations like this and to work through the issues that are causing a problem in Scott's life. I know that this is part of the reason that God put us together. Here is my prayer for Scott:

Dear Lord,

Thank you for giving me Scott as a roommate. He is such a great guy and is really trying to seek you with his life. I just pray that you continue to bless us with great conversations about you. I know that Scott has a lot of questions and I don't have the answers. I ask that through prayer and your word, I will be granted the wisdom to help Scott find the answers to these difficult questions and struggles he is facing. Lord, only you know his heart and what he needs. Please use me and the others in his life to make a difference and help him to grow in you. I ask these in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. Amen.

I never planned on writing a prayer in my journal but as I was writing I felt compelled to pray and to write it down for others to see.

Speaking of prayer, I would encourage all you MSOE InterVarsity members to check out the message board and to post your prayer requests there. I know that I will check it daily and be committed to praying for whatever you post there. If you want to be anonymous, just log out and you should still be able to go into the forum and post a request.

Wednesday was my day to lead a prayer meeting. I decided to focus on the hymn Praise to the Lord, the Almighty and how it really talks about adoration. We split up into groups and read this hymn and then prayed about adoration as well as other requests. We ended the meeting by singing this beautiful hymn as praise and adoration to our Lord the Almighty.

It is getting to be an incredible long entry and I have only covered three days so I am going to speed things up a bit. On Thursday we had Oasis. Bran Hansen was the speaker and talked about reaching out through evangelism. This was an inspiring message and has made me do a lot of thinking about how I personally and we as witnessing community can reach out to our friends.

Friday ended up being the most fun day of the week by far. I went out to dinner with Sarah Harter and afterwards we saw a show at the Rep. We went out to eat at the Waterfront Deli, I thought that it was the first time I would be eating there but it just happened to be the same place that my parents, brother and I had eaten at when they moved me in last fall. It is a really pretty place on Water Street and we sat outside on the second floor balcony. It was so great just to talk to Sarah for an hour while we enjoyed our food.

I am so thankful that God has blessed me by putting Sarah in my life. She is so easy to talk to and I never get nervous around her which is what happens when I am alone with girls most times. I guess it might be me growing up or more likely because she is different from most girls I know. She has a great sense of humor, has a deeply rooted faith in God, loves to talk about nothing (just like me), grew up on a farm, and is also incredibly beautiful. I am not just saying these things to impress her or out of flattery but because they really are true.

The show we saw at the Rep was the Sunshine Boys , this was an incredibly humorous play. I am not going to go into much detail because this entry is way to long and I am writing a review on this play for the paper so you can get the information there.

Upon returning to the dorm, a whole bunch of my friends, 13 to be exact gathered in my room to watch Bourne Identity. This was a good time but I was getting tired and having to work at 10 the next morning put a bit of a damper on the fun.

Now I finally arrive at Saturday. Once again this was a fun filled day. I worked for four hours at the library. This was a good day to be working because there was an open house so tour groups were coming to look at the library. Also towards the end of my shift Sarah, Brittney, and Erich stopped by to do some research.

After work, Gabe, Scott, Andrew, and I went to pizza shuttle. Upon returning I called my dad to wish him a happy birthday and talked to my mom for close to an hour. At eight a bunch of us went to the budget movies. We saw Bruce Almighty which was a very funny movie. When we got back to MSOE some of us went to the MLH lobby to play MAD GAB for an hour or so. There ends my week.

One last comment, at the movie on Friday in my room and at the movie on Saturday we were blessed to have in our presence two of Sarah B's friends John and Laura. It was great to meet then and they are really cool.