Two ways that God worked in Paul’s life is blessing him with the ability to learn. When he was a child he learned a ton of different languages such as Greek, Aramaic, Konie Greek, and Hebrew. Knowing these different languages came in handy when he traveled to different places to spread God’s word. Some places spoke in different languages, so God worked in his life early on to prepare him for the road ahead with him becoming a missionary. He studied the Septuagint and this helped him be able to quote the Bible while he was a missionary.
Two ways God can use me to further His kingdom is by my leadership. God has also given me a great Christian family and I feel like He can use me and my family to help further His kingdom.
This past week has been a lot different than usual. Having school at home is not fun for me at all. It has been challenging for me to just have to sit at my desk and do my work without being able to interact with all of my friends. It’s super boring. The only thing I like about having school at home is that I can do it whenever I want to. There also isn’t as much work so it doesn’t take as long to finish everything you need to get done. I’ve had more time to be able to do whatever I want which is nice, but at the same time it can get boring pretty fast. In all of this mess I keep telling myself that God is in control over whatever happens and that he has a plan for this all. It has challenged me in my faith because we have to put this whole situation in God’s hands because it is so out of our control. Even if we wish we could handle it, we can’t.
For the Stoning of Stephen project we made a news report on the story. I think we did a really good job acting out the story and showing what happened. If I was there when this event took place I would be scared to see this happen. I would feel very angry towards Saul for just letting this happen and not doing anything about it. They kept their faith despite persecution because they love the Lord and they knew that keeping faith with Christ was the right thing to do.
One thing I have enjoyed this year was the camp day. I loved the team building part of it. I’ve learned that we need to be respectful of others. and when others are talking let them talk. I am excited about small groups and being able to be a leader for it. I am also looking forward to the Timber wolf trip at the end of the year.
This summer my family and some friends went camping at the conference grounds. It was a ton of fun. There was a lot to do there. We went swimming and there was an ice cream shop that had blue moon ice cream with cookie dough chunks. It was amazing! I also did some sports camps this summer. I did a HC soccer camp, HC volleyball camp, and a ZCS volleyball camp. My friends and I hung out a lot this summer. We moved churches this summer also. Some friends from our old church moved with us. Along with moving churches I had to work a lot this summer. Not the most fun thing, because at times I had to get up earlier than I do for school.
I do. I usually think of Africa as a place with poor people, sick people, and people who don’t have a lot of stuff. But I think that I am missing the fact that there isn’t all bad things. There are people who are happier there then some people here. The danger of having a single story on someone or a place is because there could be more to it then you can just see. You can’t just look at someone and say you don’t like them because you haven’t even meet them yet. You have to get to know the person or place before you judge them or it.
When we went to Saugatuck we watched short films that people made. I thought the film when the people went down Jackson Hole was cool. It was cool that the guy went down the mountain on a bike and the other guy went down on normal skis. The one that was weird and different was the one where people went down on like a zip line and then they strapped a surf board to the top of the zip line so someone was “air surfing” all the way down the zip line. When they wanted to jump off they did, and then they had a parachute that they pulled the string to.
When we went outside to walk around the dunes it was super cool and it impacted me to see that we don’t need to live on our screens and technology. It was amazing when we stopped for 7 min on the tree stumps and just looked around. I felt close to God in that moment and it was fun to be there with my friends and just see and appreciate everything that God made. It is good for me to every once and a while stop, and take a look around at what God made.
I will live differently by the way I look around at whats happening. I will open my eyes to see the things around me. Not just in nature but in my friends. I will pay attention to what is happening to them and just see if they are okay and checking in with them on a regular basis.
Names are important in the Bible because they give an idea of what the person is like. Names help others know what some of your characteristics are and your personality. For example the name Elohim means creator God and the name Yahweh means relationship God. God was the one who gave the people their names. For example the name Jesus means “deliverer” and he delivered us from our sins. The name Paul means humble. Which God changed Him and he was humble. God gives and changes names as he sees fit. The name Jaylyn means “beautiful jay bird” and the name Jay means “to rejoice.” I did a baby for my example because every baby has a name. Some pick names for the meaning and some pick it because a family member has that name.
Theme Call:
God called Abraham, Issac, and Jacob to follow His call to travel to a different land and the promise that his nation will become great. We need to read the Bible and trust, obey, and listen to His voice. We need to listen to the people that God has put in our life to help us. God still calls us today. I can relate that to my life in the fact that we recently got a new Pastor. We gave a call to him and he accepted. I definitely saw God through this because we were looking for a Pastor for 3 ish years before we found Rev. Macedo. He is also the example that I had.
Theme Sinai Law:
Moses wrote the 10 commandments on 2 tablets of stone. God gave us laws to protect us and to keep us safe not harm us. God said “I will be your God but part of that is you having to obey my law.” We need to strive to obey the law of God. We are not perfect so we are not going to follow them perfectly, but we need to try to at least. We can not let phones, money, sports, friends, food, social media, popularity, video games, and more get in the way of us trying to follow God. The 1st commandment even says “You shall have no other gods but me” We may not worship anything but God. Even if other things take away time from God, those are idols. God should be our #1 priority, not trying to be the most popular. Focusing on God and not trying to get into the “cool kid” group. (I need to work on this one)The picture that I had was an adult driving. The rules are that you can drive AFTER you are 16. That rule is set in place to keep us safe. Just like the 10 commandments are doing.
Theme Symbol of a Lamp:
God made a promise to David in a covenant that his lamp will never go out. God loved David and he was a man after God’s own heart. Even though he made many mistakes God still loved him. David’s line eventually came to Jesus, and Jesus was the ultimate light that will never ever go out. Jesus is the light of the world. When I am in a hard situation or something bad has happened I see God working through that. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Out of something bad comes something good. In the tunnel it is dark but at the end is something good….Jesus. An example is when it is cloudy. We can’t always see the sun but it is always shining somewhere. Just like if we are going through something tough. We don’t always see Jesus but we know he is always there.
The video made me feel spoiled and awful! It made me remember that we have so much and we complain and are ungrateful for what we have.
I learned that some people have to wonder if they are going to have food the next day. Unlike us we come home from school and work and know that we are going to have supper soon. But people in other parts of the world wonder were they are going to get there next meal or if they are even going to have a next meal.
I can’t stop poverty all around the world but I can help here. We can give food to those who need and it and tools to build.
Something that I noticed was that sometimes after school some friends and I go to Captain Sundae. We get it for a treat. That is not a big deal for us a $1.98. But to someone else that is about 2 days worth of money for everything. Food, School, etc. It makes me feel so spoiled and ungrateful. It’s not a good feeling.
