Fear

Fear. "An emotional response to a perceived threat", according to wiki.

Fear was something I always imagined little children to have. It is common for children to fear bees, sleeping, monsters, etc, but I never thought fear was apart of adult life. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe fear isn't apart of most adults lives, but it is apart of mine. I would say I am much like a child myself with fears of bees, the dark, allergies and spiders.  I try not to think about these fears or live in them but there are some days I can't get these fears out of my mind. One of the biggest fears I have is being alone. I HATE being alone. I have learned to be alone during the "normal" work hours, 7am-5pm, but I don't like it at all. I have learned to be ok with working alone in a house with 2 little boys, but I don't like it all the time. Another huge fear I have that I am still learning to cope with is fear of tornadoes. I have no idea why I am scared of this. I have never been in a tornado or known anyone who was in a bad one, and yet this is a huge fear of mine. Learning to conquer this fear is huge to me! Living in Michigan there aren't many tornadoes or tornado warnings but there seem to be A LOT of watches. Some of you might be laughing at me but that is ok.

This blog is to share who Jacob and I really are as individuals going into the ministry, and these fears are a huge part of me (although they shouldn't be). Anyways.. I know that these are just watches and I shouldn't be worried but a watch means a warning could come.. and that's what is scary. The anticipating, not knowing, wondering, the lack of control I have over the issue. I don't know if there will be a tornado or when it will occur. I can watch the radar all I want but i still won't know.

Fear of a tornado is a very good analogy to the main fear of my life, the unknown. I hate not knowing and not being able to plan. I have been working on placing everything in God's hands and have done pretty good with the big things (i.e. moving, seminary, marriage). But am continually working on the day to day worries.  I know this will be a continual sturggle and pray that one day I may be able to be rid of certain fears that I have.

Meanwhile, I have been resting and meditating on Psalm 46:1-3

     "God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling"

Rest assured that God is always with us and we have nothing to fear. If you are like me and have many "adult" fears please stay strong and lean heavily on God our father who is always with us and has everything planned. Just like little children rely on their parents for their health, safety, and planning we to are to rely SOLELY on Christ our Heavenly Father. 




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Parents for a Weekend.

One of the ways Jacob and I have served others over the past year, is to babysit. We have watched children for the day, a night, and even over night. This past weekend Jacob and I had the opportunity to watch some of our friends children from Saturday morning until Monday morning. We had such a great time, but along the way we learned some important lessons:

1. Although we could see ourselves someday having six children, we are not ready for them yet
2. We LOVE everything about a 10 passenger van
3. We will be buying a memory foam king bed in the future (less time spent asleep, means we need higher quality sleep)
4. When cooking for 8 people, you eat what you are given
5. I am more energetic when with children
6. Jacob looses energy when watching children
7. Quiet time or naptime is a must!
8. Sometimes its good to trade bedtime duties to learn how child X may try to manipulate parent Y
9. Outings are awesome to do in the morning, being out of the house in the morning and home in the afternoon is a recipe for a good day.
10. Being on the same page for discipline, rewards, and routine, is essential to running an orderly house.

Mission Trip

Hey Everyone! A good friend of ours, who sang at our wedding, is raising money to go to Haiti this summer for 3 months. She is going to work at the Children of Israel Orphanage in Torbeck. She has a beautiful voice and is such a great women. She is currently making her first cd and will be selling it when it is finished, late December, to fund her mission trip to Haiti. Please check our her website for more information and to hear samples of her songs.


http://www.reverbnation.com/juliannesabo#

Life Goes On...

I made a goal to post once a week and I am going to stick to that goal. This past week and a half have been so busy! Although it has been busy it has been joyful busyness and learning. Since it is now officially "seasonal" time at Hobby Lobby, Jacob has been working a lot more, close to 40 hrs a week. This has been difficult for me since I am use to Jacob being home 2 days a week to get internship and seminary work done which allows for us to have time together. Working 5 days a week means he only gets 1 day off which is spent doing homework, internship or ministering to others. Having Jacob so busy with school, work, and church has been difficult for us but has taught us to treasure the time we have together. We now make sure to take a walk after dinner together to have some alone time and relax before going back to work. While Jacob is working, I have been reading some books, cleaning the house, packing for seminary and job searching. We are in continual prayer that God will provide for us and provide jobs in His time.

Just a little bit about our past week and some struggles we have had. I know the struggle of time together will continue through out seminary and I pray that God will keep us both strong and able to deal with the difficulties that will be thrown at us.

September Newsletter

Internship

The month of September has been spent in study and in teaching. Jacob has been leading the Life and Doctrine Study (LADS, the midweek study for Providence Church) on the book of 1 John. Teaching this has been very convicting for Jacob. Much of 1 John is about asserting who are in Christ and what their actions should be. It is nigh impossible to study 1 John without questioning our own actions and our own motivations.

In addition to teaching LADS, Jacob has been preparing to teach Biblical ethics for 6 weeks in adult Sunday school at Providence church. The upcoming class will focus on topics like the 10 Commandments, definitions of ethics, and good works.

Jacob's sermon in August at the Rescue Mission went well. There was plenty of constructive feedback received to encourage further preaching. This sermon was on 1 John 1:1-4.

Jacob's sermon in September was on Genesis 11:1-9. The Tower of Babel is a wonderful example of God’s ordering all things for His glory (just like how He is ordering our journey for His glory). Preaching at the mission has been a wonderful opportunity to practice this highly important part of ministry. Jacob is constantly reminded of Romans 10:13-15:

¹³For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ¹⁴How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? ¹⁵And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

In addition to our web blog about our journey together, Jacob has a new blog,  which is specifically focused on seminary, and God’s Word. http://tomanstome.blogspot.com/  

Family Fun

This month we went on our first trip alone as a married couple. We spent the weekend near the beach in a beautiful hotel.  We had a great time relaxing, spending time together and remembering our past year of marriage. It was such a great time and one I am sure we need to continue yearly.

            The other family event we had this month was attending the Tigers baseball game. We received tickets for Jacob’s birthday and were thrilled! Neither of us had ever been to a major league baseball game. We had a blast, and are so thankful for the tickets. 

 

Seminary

The two courses Jacob is involved in at the moment have been incredibly helpful to personal discipline. One class (Calvin's Institutes) requires a detailed journal be kept of quotes, ideas, and questions. This journal assignment has forced Jacob to spend more and more time in reading, a good discipline which has been conceived during the last year, and now is going through birth pangs. The other class (Early and Medieval Church History) has been fast paced and fun. Currently the class is studying Constantine, the Arian controversy, and the Nicene Creed.

Jacob's class schedule is all set for the spring of 2011. Please continue to pray for employment which would be conducive to the upcoming duties of Seminary. 

Good Morning Girls

I wanted to share with everyone a group that I am a part of this fall, Good Morning Girls. Good Morning Girls is a blog that focuses on inspiring and promoting quiet time with God. You create your own group and hold each other accountable for reading as well as being an encouragement and friend. Since I did not have a group of women already, I went to their message board and found a group looking for members. The group that I am apart of consists of Pastor and Missionary wives. We communicate daily through discussions on facebook about our daily Bible readings and studies we are involved in, as well as how they apply to our lives. This has been such a great blessing to me. Before this group, I was spending quiet time with God but had no women in similar situations whom I could discuss my thoughts with. This group gave me women from all over the world in similar situations as me, pastors wives and dealing with challenges in the ministry.
I am so thankful to have found this blog and been able to create connections with women all over the world. I hope that someday I may be able to meet some of my friends in person.

I have learned that quiet time with God does not have to be an hour long, or even a half hour, or consist of reading as much as you can. Quiet time with God is whatever you want it to be. For me, most days it includes reading a chapter in the Old Testament (currently Proverbs) and New Testament (currently Galatians). I then try to find a verse or verses that stuck out to me and write then down along with a few sentences on how they apply to my life. Some days I only read 1 or 2 verses and some days I don't read at all. My goal in all this is to have quiet time with God 5 days a week and be held accountable and have friends that I can go to with my thoughts. 

I pray that all of your would consider how you spend alone time with God everyday, and if you don't to maybe considering working it into your schedule. You will be amazed at how much just a few minutes in God's Word will do for you.

Anniversary

     This past weekend we had the privilege to finally take a trip! Since we got married right out of college last year, we did not take a honeymoon and instead went right to work. We were determined to take a trip for our 1 year anniversary before seminary starts full time.  We only had the weekend off of work so we decided to go to Holland. I had made a plan (no surprise there) of what we could do Saturday, like go to dutch village, see the bison, play miniature golf etc, and of course we did NONE of that.

Beautiful Friday Evening

     It ended up raining all day Saturday so instead of the outdoor activities I had planned, we went bowling! We haven't been bowling in over 3 months and were thrilled to finally have the time to go. Jacob picked up just were we left off 3 months ago bowling well over 100 and even into 200. I on the other hand, had only used my new ball once before and was trying to get use to the new way of bowling and bowled HORRIBLE! Now, I am usually a fairly decent bowler usually getting over 100 every game, but not that day. That Saturday we played 4 games and my highest score was 101. I attributed my horrible bowling to the fact that I was on vacation and just wasn't thinking about anything and bowling requires a lot of thought.
    Other then bowling we spent the time sitting in our hotel room watching cable, (never would have thought I'd miss cable that much) playing computer games and spending quality time together doing nothing. We did have quality time together that involved more then just watching tv and playing games, but a lot of the time was spent quietly relaxing with each other.