Dating Kathee

Grandpa Karl came to visit on Friday afternoon.  So Kathee hatched a plan for Kathee and I to go on a date Friday night and have Grandpa watch the kids.  After much arm-twisting of Karl (yeah right) and much weeping and gnashing of teeth from the kids (not likely), Kathee and I headed off to our second date since we've been in St Louis!  We had a blast.    

As Kathee has developed a good relationship with Sohe (the lady from Korea that I blogged about last week), Kathee asked her where we should go to eat good Korean.  Interestingly, we drive right in front of the place each Sunday on the way to church.  

Neither of us had eaten Korean before, so we were a bit like fish out of water.  And based on the servers nice-but-awkward responses to us, it appeared that they don't serve many people who haven't had Korean food before.  Sohe had told us to order something that came with Kimshee (which are all the bowls in the picture above).  So we agreed that we'd order two entrées and then share them between us and have the Kimshee.  When they brought the food, we asked what all the Kimshee was.  So after they found someone able to translate it all to us, we delightfully partook.    

We ate lotus root, seaweed, potatoes, tofu, a jelly thing, and a bunch of other things with wildly diverse flavors.  One of my favorites were the anchovies (seen above).  Although they were quite crunchy, the sauce they were in was fantastic!  

After supper we went down to The Loop (on Delmar), which is a rejuvenated area that has become quite trendy.  It was so fun to just walk the 5 or 6 blocks with Kathee and be able to chat (about our marriage, about the kids, about seminary, etc, etc, etc).  We stopped in a bike shop I've read a lot about and oogled the wares.  We stopped in a World Villages shop (where Kathee found the perfect ring that she bought using some money from our friend Rhonda), and stopped by the Bubble Tea place for some bubble tea.  

Side story.  I wish that we lived closer to Bubble Tea, as I have become friends of sorts with one of the employees there.  In past years I have taken students down there everyday while we were on the mission trip.  I have spent time getting to know him bits at a time.  When my family stopped there two summers ago when we were on our way to Branson, he remembered me the minute I walked in.  He asked where the teens were and if I'd be bringing them again (Kathee just laughed at me and said, "Really, Isaac?  You come here enough that the guy remembers you?).  

Anyway, on our date, after we ordered and were waiting for our drinks, he came out from behind the counter and sat down to chat with us.  Remembering that he is going to college in West County, I asked him about classes.  Our conversation got interrupted, but I thought it cool that he felt comfortable enough to just pull up a chair and join us.  We'll see how this goes, but I'd love to get to know him more and talk with him about things of weight.  That's why I wish we lived closer... and I had tons of time... and all kinds of money to go and spend on Mango Snow Bubble Teas (with Boba).    

We had such a great time on our date.  I love spending time with Kathee.  And it's even better knowing that our children get to spend time with Grandpa Smith, and that they are doing stuff like this, which build lifelong memories!  God is good!  

Greek Quizzes

This picture is not to show off.  This picture is to remind you to pray for me.  I spend TONS of time studying Greek.  I honestly wake up in the morning already saying Greek endings (that's sick) in my head.  I have my first test this coming Wednesday (this one is 15% of my final grade).  And though my quiz scores are good, I don't feel like I have proficiency yet.  That will come with time and practice.  It will also become "over-learned," as Doctor Yarbrough says to us all the time.

So far, Greek is my favorite class.  Certainly not because it comes easy to me, but because I'm able to measure my progress (we take a quiz each class period).  

I'm also liking my professor A LOT MORE.  Even to the point that I told Kathee last week that as there are the courses he teaches that I'd love to take more from him.  Weird going from not liking him at all to  giving him first dibbs to future courses.  Oh how things change quickly at seminary.    

Esther's Center Stage

Each day of the week, we make going to the bus stop with Gideon a family affair.  Not because we are helicopter parents, but because we just need to get out of the apartment.  So we go up to the bus stop (right outside the campus library) and do recess duty until the bus comes in the morning.  As you can see below, Esther is a highlight each morning.  The kids absolutely love her.  Her favorite right now is Moses, the boy from South India (Chennai), with his back to the picture.  She looks and him and just smiles.  We love our time with the kids each morning!  

New City Fellowship's Firm Foundation Tutoring Program

The church we attend has a tutoring program on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.  As the church started doing outreach in one of the more difficult neighbors in the city, they went door-to-door to ask people what the biggest need they had for their children.  The resounding answer was that their kids needed help with school work.  So the church's first outreach ministry was started 20 years ago and is the Firm Foundation Tutoring Program.  It meets in the church offices (which is about 5 or 10 minutes from where the church meets) and is the home of all of the church's outreach ministries.  

Over the past years, as I've brought high school mission teams to New City Fellowship, we have helped Firm Foundations in the summer with tutoring.  So now that we attend the church weekly, this is something that both Kathee and I wanted to help with on a weekly basis.  So Kathee serves Tuesday nights from 6:15-7:45.  I help out on Thursdays from 4:15-5:45pm.  So far, Kathee has been working with an 8 or 9 year old girl named Leslie (a city kid).  I have been assigned to Baraka, a 5 year old refugee boy from Burundi (shown below).

I am REALLY enjoying serving in the tutoring program and see how important it is.  Specifically with Baraka, his parents speak very little English (he has 4 older siblings, also in the program, and a baby brother just born a few weeks ago).  Not only are we helping him (and his siblings) to succeed in school, but the leaders of Firm Foundations advocate for each kid in the program with/to their teachers at school, etc.  They know what to ask of the teachers, what changes need to be made, are able to set up specific goals for the child, etc, so the kid doesn't slip through the cracks.  It's truly a vital ministry.  

And as a seminary student, it's nice to be doing hands-on ministry with the least of these.  It's nice to get off campus and do ministry in the real world.  And with a face and attitude like Baraka's, how can I not love every second of it.      

Preaching Chapel Classroom

This is what the inside of the preaching chapel looks like prior to class starting.  Currently I have two classes in this room.  I have Covenant Theology in here on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and Spiritual and Ministry Formation on Monday nights (with Kathee).  As you can see, there are MANY students in my Covenant Theology course.  The class is made up of first year MDiv students, as well as, all of the various master's degree students.  The course is taught by Mike Williams, Doctor Chapman, and Jay Sklaar (Chapman and Sklaar are contributors to the Hebrews study notes and Leviticus study notes (respectively) in the ESV Study Bible).   

And most of the time you'll find me with my Greek flashcards.  I try to run through them prior to each class period if I have time.  

Esther on the Front Sidewalk

It's Not A Tumor

This past week we had another family from our building up for supper.  We had so much fun with the Wheeler family.  Rob and Lisa spent a couple years in Belarus as missionaries, and some years with RUF (Reformed University Fellowship, which is the PCA's version of Intervarsity or Cru).  Their eldest son Robert is the teenager on campus I've connected the most with while here so far.  We've loaded him up on Whitey's Ice Cream and freezie pops (to the point that he calls me either Mr Whitey's or "the ice cream guy").  

After Gideon was excused from the table, and after he took his dishes over to the sink and washed up, he came running down the hall excited to show us something from his room.  Not having worn socks on linoleum before, when he hit the linoleum he wiped out and slid the rest of the way into the wooden chair.  Head first.  

I swooped him up and took him into my bedroom to get him away from everyone (he was just howling in pain).  As I pulled him away to get a look at him I saw the biggest egg I've ever seen.  It was absolutely huge.  

Now, 4 days later, the egg has diminished and has moved down to his eyes.  He currently supports swollen eye lids and black eyes under each eye.  Stylin and profilin!