Just FYI, I wrote this post as if I was writing back when it all happened, so even though I'm posting it now, you can pretend that I posted it six months ago. :-)
Greetings and salutations to my family and friends!
It may have been awhile since you have heard from me, but that primarily is due to my extensively busy schedule over the past several months. Following my graduation from Fountainview Academy on June 4 of this past school year, I spent the summer working at the school doing various and sundry forms of maintenance work, attempting to amass as much capital as possible to assist me in my scholarly advances for this year. But alas, as Ecclesiastes says, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” (2:11) A few weeks into my summer work experience, a nightmare began with Customs that has not been resolved to this day. Because of some misunderstandings, every American student was not permitted to work for a time, at least until the situation could be taken care of. We were told originally that it would be only until the end of the week, but that soon panned out more and more until I had to leave at the scheduled time five weeks later! And still the Americans were sitting around, desperate for any little bit of work, even for free! Because of that whole fiasco, I lost around $2000 that would have gone toward my school experiences this year. I had quite an enjoyable time being a lazy bum every day, but the unproductiveness (is that a word?) of it all effectively outweighed the fun of it.
After spending a week at home, I set out on one last music tour with Fountainview, and was it a doozy! We left SeaTac on July 30, bound for Dallas, TX, and the ASI National Convention (a yearly gathering of SDA organizations). After two and a half days of straight driving, we arrived in Dallas and spent the next few days practicing like maniacs, attempting desperately to obtain again the musical skills that had spent the summer rusting and growing obsolete. We played multiple concerts that week, including one concert Sabbath morning for the church service that was broadcast live internationally via satellite on the Three Angels Broadcasting Network. After our last concert on Sabbath afternoon, we packed up and drove straight back up to Seattle. I spent one more week at home, and flew out for the commencement of Witness for Life, a one year evangelism training program. We will spend this next year going from one program to another, each designed to refine a particular tool used in sharing your own Christian walk with others. We began in Colorado and Utah learning survival skills and getting to know one another. We made ourselves into human kayaks and floated down a river on our backs for a couple of days; we learned how to tie various knots and pulled a truck through a creek using a pulley system; we hiked up a 12,000 ft. peak; we dangled from the end of a rope, the other end of which was attached to the Corona Arch in Utah; we rappelled down a drain hole in the middle of a lake (don’t ask); and we rented mountain bikes and biked along the Slickrock Trail in Moab, Utah. All in all, I had a terrific time and learned a ton.
After two weeks in the boonies, I hopped on a plane, flew to Detroit, and moved into an apartment in the middle of the third-wealthiest county in the United States, Oakland County in Troy, Michigan. I have spent the last 2 months at A Research Institute for Soul-winning and Evangelism, also known as ARISE. Started and run by Pastor David Asscherick (one the most powerful evangelists in the Adventist church) ARISE exists “to equip, educate and empower effective soulwinners”, and it is doing a fantastic work! I spend several hours each day in class, being trained to witness to anyone and everyone I come in contact with; then I am given the opportunity to put into practice what I have just learned. With my partner, Laura, I have spent three afternoons a week knocking on doors, inviting people to study the Bible with us in preparation for the prophecy seminar that will be beginning on November 4th. I have had the opportunity to interact with people from a wide spectrum of beliefs, ranging from Mormon and Jehovah’s Witnesses to staunch Catholics, Methodists, and Baptists. I’m even studying with an agnostic progressive creationist who is reading (and really enjoying) a book by a Gnostic. A couple of my contacts have very little Christian knowledge or experience, and my role has been primarily one of facilitating spiritual growth and increase in understanding. It has all had a tremendous effect on me and my own walk with the Lord, strengthening what I believe, and giving me an even stronger desire to share what I believe. God is giving me a vision for what He wants to do with my life, and I’m getting more and more excited every day. I will only be at ARISE for another month before I leave to come home for Christmas break, but in that time we will have the entire evangelistic series, so I would solicit your prayers in that area, that God will pour out His spirit mightily that our goal might be reached: to plant a church in Sterling Heights, MI.
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