Weekend away....to the sunshine state

Things this week are going great! Last weekend I was privileged to go to Jupiter, Florida with the Dean of the program to visit one of the church plants that was started by a graduate of the Harvest School of Ministry from last year - Jeremy Hill. But I'm going to recount the weekend in a somewhat of a chronological order.

God knew that I needed time away from Chicago in the sun! Although the weather was somewhat mild in Chicago, there is NOTHING that compares to sitting on the beach of the Atlantic Ocean. It was only partly sunny and as a matter of fact on Saturday when I was at the beach, it started to rain, but it was a glorious day nonetheless. I had a chance to hang out with a dear friend Christin, who made the long drive from Ft. Lauderdale to Jupiter to show me some love. I was grateful for having a relaxing afternoon on the beach with a good friend.


Jeremy and his wife Jo, moved down there with their three kids from Chicagoland (a new term I learned when moving to the area, sort of like living in the Valley even if you aren't in the city of Phoenix proper). It was a great time to see God using one of his young men for mighty things. It gave me a good idea of what to expect when working with a core group, how to plan out your week, what it's like to settle into a new area where you will be ministering, and more. I learned a lot from observation, and I had some time to just pick his brain, about the School of Ministry and the transition to the next step.


Sunday afternoon, post church and after a good lasagna lunch, I had an opportunity to kick it with Jeremy and his family. His in-laws joined us as well before they had to drive over to Tampa. Playing games such as "I Spy" out of the book. As you can see, Dr. Jones (the dean of the School of Ministry) is schooling Jo and Zeke in this intense game of observation.


After allowing the in-laws to take off, Jeremy and his gang took David and I to the beach. David had not yet had a visit to the beach. So we had a chance to hang out at Loggerhead Beach. Eli - short for Elijah, the middle son - was giving me lessons on how to boogie board. The water was great, and it was a true time of refreshing.

Right now I am thankful for the ministry that God is doing through Jeremy and the future connection that we'll have serving the Lord at Harvest in the future.

Please pray for me as I seek to clearly hear the voice of the Lord through this season of learning.

Dinner in the city.... Nate represents the Czech

October 18.
So in an effort to be more on top of my blogging as I attempt to launch, I am going to try to take some notes throughout the day. Today we have a guy who’s come in to give us personality assessments. Although part of the typical process of applying for the residency program was to take a DISC profile before entering the program, somehow I missed that step. The last time that I can recall taking any sort of personality profile was when I started working at General Mills. I believe that was the Myers-Briggs profile.



Well, as I wait for my pencil, I’ll go ahead and share about last night. I went to Chicago to hang out with a buddy, Nate, who is currently a missionary to the Czech Republic working with Josiah Venture in Youth Ministry. Also, Sarah, a friend that I met at Scottsdale Bible Church a few years back, who moved to Chicago and allowed me to reconnect with. I am thankful for the good friends.

I am also thankful that we DIDN’T HAVE PIZZA!!!! Every time … well a lot of the time when people have guests over… especially in Chicago everyone feels that it is necessary to have pizza. Really folks… let’s expand a little bit. I have eaten more pizza during the 7 weeks that I have been here than I have eaten in the past two years (barring somaNorth dinners ☺ from that statistic)

Anyhow we hung out at Mark and Kristin’s house (gracious hosts) who have a cool upper level flat (apt.) just outside of downtown Chicago, but still part of the city. A newlywed couple who –individually as well as collectively - comprise the epitome of athleticism. Hopefully I’ll get to know them better as well as other friends that were present – Pyary Jessica, and Natalie aka PW.


All for now…