Michael Holmes and Bethel Education

This past semester one of the 20+ books I "got" to read was a book edited by Doctor Don Alexander, one of my former professors at Bethel.  Kathee was his TA for Beginning Greek.  We are both very fond of Doctor Alexander.  So it was pretty awesome to read a book that he had edited (although I was disappointed that he didn't have a chapter in the book).  

This semester, in my Greek 3 class, one of the books I'm reading all about Greek exegesis (what the text says and meant "back then).  Many of the footnotes of this book quote or intereact with my favorite Bible professor I had at Bethel, Michael Holmes.  He's a pretty deal in translating the Church Fathers and was writing a commentary for 1 Thessalonians when I had him for Life and Teachings of Paul.  I LOVED him!  So it's pretty awesome to be reading and engaging with Bethel profs as I'm in the midst of seminary studies.  I feel as though my undergrad training at Bethel (in both Biblical and Theological Studies AND Youth Minisries) was top-shelf.  And I think that the training I'm receiving here is second-to-none!  How awesome is that?!

Being Dutch...Going to Dordt... and Saleem Ghubril

Here's a fun, small-world story.  This past Friday (not yesterday, but a week ago), I went to chapel.  I knew that Covenant's board was meeting, because one of the board members sat in on one of my classes, and one of the board members preached at chapel.  

After chapel, as I was gathering up my things, the gentleman behind me asked if I was a student and asked how classes were going.  As we spoke, I thanked him for serving on the board and shared with him how much I love Covenant and how special of a place I think it is.  I asked him in what capactity her served on the board and he shared that he is the chairman.  Knowing that these guys come in from all over the place for these meetings, I asked where he resided.  Sharing that he is from Pittsburgh, I shared how much I love the city and said that I took teens on missions trips to The Pittsburgh Project for almost a decade.  He brought up Saleem and how loved he is in Pittsburgh and what an asset he is to the entire city.  He was surprised that I said I knew Saleem from Saleem's seminary days in Dubuque and that he was a youth pastor of mine.  So that was fun.

And in the midst of our discussion, he asked me my name and was interested in my last name.  He asked if it was Dutch (which it is) he asked me if I had attended Dordt College for my undergrad.  I got a good kick out of that question and proudly told him I went to Bethel College (now University) in St Paul, MN.  

As he and I spoke, another board member came up and the chairman introduced us and he had a barrage of questions for me (how I found Covenant, how they can do a better job of making Covenant known outside of PCA circles, etc).  It was fun to be able to encourage these guys and thank them for their hard work. 

One never knows who they'll run into around campus.  It was sure fun to talk with these gentlemen.  And continue to see just how small of a world we live in.  

Esther's Smile

This morning I asked Esther to smile for the camera.  She gave me one of the funniest (worst) smiles I've ever seen.  I busted out laughing.  This afternoon I did the same thing, and so did she.  I took pictures.  Hilarious.  "Esther, can you smile for the camera?"

Kathee's Invention

See what I'm saying?  Everyday either Kathee or Gideon builds something that is really cool.  I came home from class today to see Kathee's latest creation!  And now Karl bought Kathee and Gideon another Marble Run (that makes three boxes now) to further develop and hone their skills!

Second Semester Begins Today!

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
1a.  Communicating the Scriptures- this class goes until March 6, and is the basics of how to preach sermons.
1b.  Exegesis & Homiletics Lab 1- this class goes from March 9 (and runs until the end of the semester). In this class, I will prepare and give two sermons
Tuesdays and Thursdays
2.  Covenant Theology 2- a continuation from Cov Theo 1 and learning the general story of God's redemptive plan through the use of covenant relationship with His people.
3.  New Testament Exegesis & Communicating the Scriptures- that's one class.  It's Greek 3 and will be focusing on grammar (and more vocabulary, and more reading, and more everything).
4.  God & Humanity: Foundations of Counseling- This is the study of God's interaction with His people from creation and rebellion.

There is not one class I'm taking this semester that I'm not excited about!  I continue to love having multiple professors in the classroom (I love watching their interaction with each other and us... makes learning so much better).  I have multiple profs each each class but my preaching lab class and Greek 3.

So I'm going to be hitting the ground running today and will be working like crazy until May.  I think it is my age, but I am seeing seminary is a blip on the radar... meaning that it's going to go very fast.  I think if I were younger I'd see this as taking FOREVER.  I'm a bit surprised that I'm starting today and finishing my first year of seminary!  Before I know it I'll be done and moving on to the next thing God calls me to do (if you have that figured out, let me know so I can be a bit more at ease).

Please feel free to pray for me as you think about us.  I put my schedule here so that you can see what I'm learning and how to pray better for me/us.  I have one less class than I did last semester, so I'm excited to potentially not feel so rushed with EVERYTHING!

That's it for now.

Good thing I didn't find that big tree, short rope, fast horse after all

I was greatly fretting my Greek 2 grade.  I know I did very well on the quizzes and I felt like I had put in more work than necessary for my exegetical notebook (which was my handwritten translation of 1 John, along with parsing of various Greek parts of speech (verbs, participles, nouns, etc), and included grammar rules as well (which bullied me all semester).  So when I took the final test, I left feeling defeated.  I really did.  I thought I nailed the actual translation part (he gave us two sections of 1 John and 1 section of the Gospel of John in Greek and we had to translate it into English).  But the parsing and especially the grammar destroyed me.  By the end of the test I was guessing on some of the answers... which is NOT a good feeling.

My final grade hit my grade audit today.  I got a B+!  I am shocked (my wife is not)!  As you can see, I still have a LONG way to go before I figure out what it takes to succeed here!  So that is great news and I'm celebrating!  

Greek 2

Doctor Perry taking a scheduled bunny trail from Greek 2 to teach us the three main thrusts of the book of 1 John.  His classes are VERY rigorous, which is good since I'm in graduate studies.  I really enjoyed sitting under his teaching and learned a lot from him.  I will have him next semester as one of my Covenant Theology 2 professors!    

Back in the Game

I really miss the game.... A LOT!  That game is ministry.  And specifically youth ministry.  I know that God has called me to ministry.  And I love ministry.  So taking a long-term sabbatical to work through seminary is pretty hard for me.  

So when I received the call from one of my old  youth pastor chronies from the Quad Cities, I was delighted.  He asked if I would be willing to come up and speak at the annual YouthQuake Junior High Retreat at Camp Wyoming.  My first couple of years at FUPC I took kids each year on this retreat.  When I first started going we had about 200 teenagers coming from about 6-8 churches.  The fun thing is that my friend Nick from Homewood EFree in Moline, Dan from Grace EFree in Davenport, Heather from First Baptist in Aledo, and churches from Dubuque (Hope EFree), Geneseo (where I have friends who attend), and First EFree in Moline participated.  

I was asked to speak to 100-125 kids over 4 talks. The theme was based on the movie Frozen and I was given freedom to speak about whatever I wanted.  So, after watching the movie, I decided to cover the entire Bible in 4 talks.  The first talk was about Creation, the second about Rebellion, the third about Redemption, and the fourth about Restoration.  I used a lot of what was discussed in my Covenant Theology 1 class last semester and thought it went VERY well!  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  

  

One of the neat things happened as I was speaking with one of the adult leaders from Hope EFree in Dubuque.  As I was speaking to her, she said that one of the other leaders went to elementary school with me.  She pointed out the lady and I asked, "Is that Kiersten Janco?"  The lady responded that it was in fact her, but that her married name was something else.  So I spoke briefly with Kiersten, and would have liked to have chatted more, but it was always so loud (junior highers being loud?  No way). However, she is someone I'd like Kathee and I to get together with as she and her husband adopted from Haiti.  

So it was a blast to speak at the retreat.  Great to feel needed again.  Great to be around people I know and love.  Great to be paid so that the car I rented is paid for.  And great to preach the Gospel to a generation of kids who need to hear the Gospel preached and the Bible conveyed.  I LOVE ministry!  

PBS Kids!

The Ballerina

Last week I had the week off (between my two-week Greek 2 course and the beginning of 2nd semester).  Not wanting to waste a week just sitting around, we kinda did little stuff each day.  One place I wanted to go and visit again is the St Louis Museum of Art.  I really enjoy it there and it's so large that you can't get through it in one day.  The woman at the front desk helped out immensely by telling Hope of the ballerina sculpture. So naturally, we went there first!  I think Hope was a little let down as the ballerina didn't move AT ALL.  She didn't say anything.  She just stood there stone-like.  So I guess her love of art will have to remain in coloring pictures, playing with her Playdough, and working with her water colors.  

We also saw ancient Greek and Assyrian artwork, and walked quickly through the modern art section (because the modern art that they were showing was stuff that I could do).  

There is so much to do in St Louis, and so much cultural opportunities, that we are loving being here more and more.

Watching the Siblings!

She is really a pretty quiet and peaceful little girl.

As she watched her siblings playing out on the sidewalk, she kept pointing out the window at them.  

Not begging and whining, just sitting there with a grin watching (and pointing) at her big brother and sister.  

It's a good thing Gideon has school

I'm not sure who has more fun with the Marbel Run that Gideon received for Christmas this year.  It's almost once a day that Kathee carves out some time to build a kickin marbel run.  She's REALLY good and making awesome runs!  Between her creativity and Gideon's, we have seen some really fun marbel runs over the past month or so!

100 Days at Mason Ridge!

On Friday, Gideon had his "100 Days of School" Celebration.  He had one last year at Morningstar, too.  I assume it has something to do with Doc Seuss as it's built around him.  At this celebration, Gideon, and everyone else in 1st grade, received a medal for reading 100 books.  As he loves to read, he had his done right after Thanksgiving!  

During the show the kids shared poems, songs, and received their medals.  

Gideon even had a line to share during one of the poems.  The boy is growing up too fast.  Although we are delighted to see him growing up and doing well, it's also with a bit of sadness to see how fast it's coming about! 

Moolah Theater for Selma

One of the young ladies at church approached Kathee last week about coming over to babysit the kids so we could go on a date.  Selah is a young, college-aged lady who does childcare at the Bible study Kathee attends each week at church.  I somewhat know her father (who is a spitting image of Chevy Chase), who is an elder at the church, from bringing teenagers from FUPC down over the past few years.  They are well-respected in the church and have a bi-racial family like ours.  

So Kathee got all excited and purchased movie tickets for the movie Selma.  The movie was playing at the Moolah Theater and Lounge.  It's a HUGE, old masonic temple that took 17.5 million dollars to renovate and turn into a movie theater.  Kathee said it has the largest movie screen in all of St Louis (I wouldn't argue, it was huge).  

.

As you can see, the seats on the main floor are all couches.  So comfortable and so fun to watch a movie here.  This is now the movie theater of choice in St Louis for Kathee and me!  

So Kathee, Karl, and I took in the movie together.  It was LOTS of fun!  I will say that it was a bit different to watch a movie as powerful as Selma in a city that has been ravaged with racial tension over the past few months.  We had great discussion on the way home from the movie and saw many similarities and many differences from what is going on in our fair city.  

The ceiling light changes colors...kinda mood lighting with a Masonic Temple feel!  

Grandpa Smith's New Car

After flying to Florida to spend time with Uncle Bob (Grandpa's brother) and Aunt Phyllis, Grandpa has driven up to St Louis to spend some time with us.  He flew to Florida to buy his new car.  It is really a sweet ride.  And with the sunroof and 2 grandkids who are able to stand up and see OUT the sunroof?  Well, what's not to love?!  They love "touching all the buttons" to get the car started and whatnot.  I snapped this picture yesterday as we scurried off to a German Meat Market to buy more Goose Poop!  

PS- Goose Poop is a hot pepper relish that I love (and have every day on my chicken salad sandwich for lunch). It is made locally, and based on the fact that I had to call three different stores that carry it in order to find one that had it in stock, I'd say it's a big hit!  

Greek Devotions

Greek 2 is SUCCESSFULLY in the books (I write that in all bold as I did not know if I was going topass the class) and Greek 3 starts tomorrow.  In the meantime, I have purchased a Greek Reader's New Testament (it parses out all words that appear less than 30 times in the text) and have begun reading it and Doctor Yarbarough's commentary on 1-3 John for my daily time with God.  The other cool thing is that Pastor Barry and Pastor Tony are preaching through 1 John on Sundays at church.  The thing I'm most excited about reading through 1 John is that for the first time in my life I feel like I'm really getting to know the author of the book/epistle (and not just the doctrine or the information they are presenting). I feel like his heart for his people is being born out on the pages of Scripture and I'm getting to know him personally.  I suppose that might have something to do with spending 8-10 hours a day over the past two weeks focusing on all things John (each class we spent 30 minutes on a section of John's Gospel as we read and then translated on the fly, then another hour and a half going over our homework... which was translating 1 John from Greek to English).  Tie that into reading Yarbrough's commentary and now New City's preaching, and I'm all about this book and all about this apostle.    

And since I know all the Greek vocabulary, and all the forms that appear in 1 John, I thought it would be a good place to start doing daily devotions in Greek.  My plan is to then move to 2 John (which we translated one day in Greek 2), then move to 3 John, and then finish the year in John's Gospel.  

I was told last week by a second year student that I shouldn't go more deep with anything than what each professor assigns.  Though that may be good information, I'm not doing it to deepen anything in my brain as I am my soul.  I have heard many students already say that they've lost their Greek ability already, and I'd like to keep it going.  That may be first year optimism, but that's where I am currently.  

I'll keep you posted.    

Feeding on the Word of God

As you can see, feeding on the Word of God is done both figuratively AND literally in this Terwilleger residence.  Esther carries this Bible around the house with her all the time.  Last night after bathtime she came running out, grabbed it, climbed up in the yellow chair, and went to town.  I certainly want our children to be strong in the knowledge of God's Word, being able to use it as a resource to draw near to the Lord each day, but this may be taking it a bit far.   

Africa Sunday!

So today was African Sunday at church.  I love African Sunday at church.  The worship director at church welcomes us by saying that we'll be singing in Lingala, Swahili, and French today, and that we are sadly mistaken if we assumed we'll be singing any songs in English.  I am, and continue to get more and more, accustomed to singing in different languages.  And today was no different.  I really enjoy the beat of the songs, the seeming excitement and anticipation in each song, and some pretty good theology to boot (plus, I love the African shrill of "lalalalala" that some of the women do during each song).  So today was lots of fun.  

The preacher today is from Togo, West Africa, and was on staff at New City while he was a student at Covenant Seminary.  While he preached in English, the French-speaking pastor translated for him.  As per usual, the one doing the translating preached a better sermon than the one preaching it!  

I'm not sure what our children think, and I'm pretty sure they have no idea what a blessing and opportunity it is to worship God, in America, with the nations, in their heart languages.  That, I hope will come in time.  But for the meantime, Kathee and I LOVE African Sundays at New City Fellowship!

Staying Current!

Greek Vocab Quiz Tomorrow...I could use some prayer

Tomorrow I have to know all vocabulary words from Greek 1 (approximately 250-300 words, I think) and all vocabulary from Greek 2, which consists of 75-100 words from 1 John.  I desparately need points for my quiz points.  Then the Greek 2 final is on Friday.  Prayers much appreciated.

The Girls!

Princess Batman

60's Bedhead?

"Rush, Rush, Rushing Into History"

Over the past couple of weeks, Esther has made it a practice to grab a book from the kids' book shelf and then climb onto the yellow chair and "read."  She has even started to make mumbling sounds like she's actually reading.  Apparently she is finding out that books are important in this family!

The latest book I'm reading to the kids each night is the latest Rush Revere story (about Paul Revere and the Revolutionary War).  Along with that, I've been working with Gideon on my iPad, showing him the places that are talked about in the story, grabbing pictures of the people talked about, etc, etc.  We are learning a lot together.  Tied with that, we are watching a cartoon on Youtube called Liberty's Kids and are 21 minute episodes about the founding of our nation.  

Gideon is all about history right now.  When I told him that his uncle Nathan has a degree in history and his uncle Aaron taught history in school he seemed very interested.  He then asked me if they knew history better than I do, which I responded in the affirmative.  He then asked if he could ask them any question about history and if they'd know the answer?  I told him that they'd love to hear his questions and share their love of history with him.  

So tonight, as I was reading, Esther kept messing around and kept standing up on Gideon's bed as I read.  After telling her to sit down or I would discipline her, she smiled at me, stood right up and bounced on the bed.  It was the first time I've had a kid cry themself to sleep.  After disciplining her, I carried her into her bedroom and put her in her pack-n-play.  Upon completing our reading and then each taking turns to pray, I went in to chat with Esther, but to no avail.  She was out like a light.  

Greek 2

So I'm in Greek 2.  That means I have Greek each day from 9-12pm.  During that time we are reviewing, at approximately 3-5 chapters per class, the textbook from Greek.  We are also translating the book of 1 John, and are taking about a half an hour each class to read audibly and translate on the fly parts of the Gospel of John.  I LOVE IT!!!  Yet, it's tons of work!  I am spending about 4-6 hours each day after class translating and studying for the next class.  Although I doubt my Greek 2 grade will be remotely as good as my Greek 1 grade, I am loving the class.  And since I'm 22 minutes late for studying Greek 2 tonight, I need to get going.  My final (which will include all vocabe from Greek 1, plus about 50-100 new vocabe, plus translation of parts of John and 1 John, and some new syntax stuff--which is super-hard) is this Friday from 9-12.  I could use prayer!

France and Cousins and Worship and Whatnot!

Corporate worship today at New City Fellowship-University City was great!  It was great to be back after being gone for what seems to be about a month.  The worship songs were quite lively and we knew most of them, so that was fun.  And with all the things that have been going on in Paris over the past couple of days, I have been thinking a lot about my cousins Maelig and Glen (and Aunt Sarah and Uncle Olivier).  So today when we sang a song in French I was really moved.  It was also fun to catch Gideon singing, clapping his knee, and snapping his fingers to the French song.  It was just pretty cool to see my song enjoying singing and worship with the body of Christ, especially one that is so multi-cultural!  So fun!

Boxes over Presents

Esther LOVES cardboard boxes.  Most of all, she loves to play in them (for unchild-like, right?  yeah, right).  Last week when Kathee got home from Aldi's and was putting away our groceries, Esther took an empty box, moved it out of the kitchen, climbed inside, and had a ball.  Busted and caught in the act.  The funny thing is that she's so quiet that she is able to fly under the radar quite often.