Paul’s story is really cool. I love how God could take someone who had such a broken life and turned him into a missionary. Here are some of the ways that God was working in Paul/Saul’s life before he was converted. First of all, when he was young, he studied the scripture, and memorized it, especially the Hebrew old testament. He would be able to quote it. Another thing that would help him throughout his missionary career is the trade of tentmaking. Every Jewish student was expected to learn a trade, and Paul/Saul learned how to make Goat hair tents. This might help him later on when he needed somewhere to stay.

God hs given me lots of gifts and talents as well. One talent that he has given me that I might be able to further his kingdom with is music. God has given me a lot of musical ability, and I might be able to tell people about him with it. Another talent that he had given me is being able to understand people. I am usually able to put myself in someone’s shoes and understand what they are going through. This might help me because I am able to relate to someone, and then I can tell them about God easier.

What has been challenging?

It has been challenging to just be at home and not being able to hang out with my friends. It gets very boring and lonely.

What has been rewarding? 

It has been particularly rewarding to finish school and be able to do anything I want for the remainder of the day.

What hobbies have you been able to pour into?

I have had tons of time to be able to learn new songs on the guitar and get better at playing it.

What are some ways you are hoping to grow in this time of uncertainty?

I am hoping to grow academically as I am learning to work in different ways without my friends. I am also already growing musically because I have more time to practice the piano and play the guitar.

1.  What did you do for the Stephen project (ie. newspaper, comic, etc.)?

I made a newspaper article about what happened.

2.  What did you do well on the project?  (or what are you proud of and what you want me to look at when I grade it?)

I think that I did a good job of really showing what happened.

3.  How do you think you would feel if you were really observing this event?

I think that if I was how I am right now in my faith, it would make me feel sad that such a man was being stoned.

4.  Re-read Acts 7:57-58. How would you feel towards Saul?

I would feel mad that he was just sitting there and doing nothing about what was happening.

5.  What do you think encouraged these early Christians? In other words, why did the early Christians keep up the faith despite the persecution?

I think that the reason that they kept the faith was because God was all they ever knew. Also, they knew that if they stayed faithful to God, when they died they would go to heaven.

The start of this school year has been very good so far. What I have enjoyed this year so far is getting to see my friends again and getting to know my teachers. One of the things that I have learned this year is that you need to rely on other people because most of their ideas are good. this year I am really looking forward to doing chapel for worship team. I think that it will be lots of fun to lead the middle school in worship.

Yesterday, (Wednesday, March 20) we went on a field trip to the Mountianfilm film festifal, were we watched 8 short films. After that, we went to the Saugatuck dunes, to hike (in the rain.)

My favorite film that we saw was one called “Surf the Line.” It was the same as surfing, except you were way in the air. You were on a surf board, that was secured to a zip line, that was probably more then 500 feet above ground, with a parachute. (There was also a person hanging on to a rope to the bottom of the surf board, to stabalize you, but that wasnt what it was about.) Somewere in the middle of the line, or were ever you felt comfortable, you would jump off and deploy your parachute and float safeley to the ground.

 I really thought this was cool, because its cool to see what kinds of extreme sports people could come up with. I learned that I now really want to go line surfing someday.

Now I will live differently because I will hopefully someday do this extreme sport, and be thinking about it.

Names

God gave us names based on their meanings. In the Bible, he also changed them. People still change their names, but not as often as they do in the Bible. Names usually show what a person is like and their personality. Some of the names and meanings for God are Elohim, which means creator God, and Yahweh, which means relationship God. Today, I don’t think that names mean as much as they did in the Bible. Back then, names were super important, and they were usually a name of one of your ancestors. That still happens today, but it is not to serious. Names are still chosen for their meanings, but they are usually just that because it sounds like a good name.

Call

In the bible, God calls Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham to go to a different land. He also promises that if they do, they will become a great nation. God still sometimes calls us today. We just need to read the Bible, trust God, and pray to him. Some people in my life have been called to tell others about God. My grandparents went to Hungary to be missionaries there. After about 4 years, they came home, and felt God’s call again, to go to Rehoboth, New Mexico, and teach in a school there.

Sinai Law

God gave us a law to protect us. If we didn’t have any rules to live by, the world would be chaos. God says that he can be our God, and we can be his people, but part of that is that we have to follow his laws. If there were no rules for us to follow, everyone would be killing, and hurting each other when they got mad, because there was no punishment. Pictures that relate to this would be seatbelts, or helmets, because they exist to keep us safe. To me, this means that God cares about us, so he wants to keep us safe.

A Savior

The people couldn’t keep the ten commandments, of Sinai covenant, so God gave them another covenant. The new covenant would be unconditional, so God would do his part no matter what. Also, this new covenant would be written on their hearts instead of on stone tablets. This covenant wouldn’t require animal sacrifices, because Jesus would be the new sacrifice. This new covenant would be based on God’s grace and forgiveness. When Isaiah gave them the new covenant, he gave many word pictures for God. When I think of a covenant, I think of communion.

This past week, at school, we had immigration day, where immigrants come to school and we interviewed them. The first guy we had was from the netherlands. During world war two, when he was seven, his dad ran an illegal newspaper buisness underneath a hollowed out haystack. They had a tunnel behind their stove, and if you craweled through, It led to a foom underneath a haystack, were there was a typewriter and a printer. They would deliver around six hundred copies a week throughout the town. He came here because of economics, on a boat. The ride took about a week. The second immigrand we interviewed was from india. She came to the United States to get married. Her trip was smooth, and she flew over here.

En el salvador, en la escuela ellos estudiar sociales estudios, lectura, matimaticas, biblia, (dependiendo en la escuela) ingles, y musica. los clases es una hora. clases es una hora. al igual que aqui. Ellos comenzar, terminar y comer al mismo tiempo que nosotros.

En El Salvador, algunos famoso personas es lester blanco. Lester blanco es un futbolista. Es muy athletico, alto, y tiene el pelo castiano.

Mauricio Funes es el presidente de el salvador. Es alto, inteligente, y Tiene el pelo negro.

Jose Cortez es el jugador de futbol americano. es alto, athletico, y tiene el pelo negro.