Fuller Week #2

2 weeks, down, 8 more to go. It's pretty crazy knowing 1/5 of the quarter is already over, (thus midterms in a few weeks). So, to keep with my writing "outline", I'll briefly mention how my classes are going, my/sara's work, and then church/social life. You can use this as a table of contents so if you have no interest in the first 2 parts, just skip right down to the end. Enjoy!

Greek:
A few weeks of Greek and I feel fairly good about my grasp of the language. I've gotten perfect scores on both my vocab quizzes and we have yet another one on Monday. The thing I've realized with Greek is that you have to use/study it everyday; otherwise you'll forget what was just taught in class. With that said, I'll probably try reading some of the NT when I'm done with this email. I’m learning all sorts of things I should have learned in Jr. and Sr. High (syntax, cases, syllabification, etc.), so it’s somewhat coming back to me now.

NT2:
Can you believe I dominated that map quiz? If there was ever a time I felt like memorizing something for the sake of memorization, this was it. However...after I began reading Acts for our class, in chapter 2:5-11 it's written

5Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’

Amazing! I know where those places are and I didn't even use the map in the back of the Bible. Let me just say that I can see the reasoning behind the map exercise and am thankful I studied it so adamantly. This past Thurs (10/5) we talked about Acts and were asked to come up with questions regarding our reading; questions that would fall under a few different categories such as Text, Literary, Historical and Theological questions. It was definitely a fresh way of looking at the text and I thoroughly enjoyed a classroom full of people bombarding our prof with, "why in chapter 16:6-9 written as a 3rd person account, yet in verses 10-18 it's written like a first hand account. It then changes back to a 3rd person version, etc." Another one was "why does Luke put Paul in Jerusalem several times but Paul writes he's only been there twice?” There were several more but those are the 2 that were fresh in my memory bank. As for the answers, I'm not gonna be the one to pay for schooling and then just "give" away freebies. Our prof did have a take on those questions, but if any of you would like to post comments, it might make it more interesting.

Ethics:
We are still setting up a foundation for which we filter decisions and responses. We had a quiz outlining those responses and I felt I did fairly well setting up the diagram. Other then that, we haven't discussed many ethical issues, but I feel that will start to change starting this coming Tues. I am reading "Free of Charge, Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace" by Miroslav Volf and it's VERY good. Anytime the opening sentence starts out "In the Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyeyevsky tells a story…" it has to be good. I mean, how can a book not be good when it references Dostoyeyevsky from the start?! (That's a shout out to you Cook).

Foundations:
I met with my small group again and I was the facilitator of our small group session. The theme was community and I enjoyed hearing more about the background of my group, as well as their thoughts on what authentic community looked like. We've set up a tentative retreat (5 hrs. required) on Sat 10/21, so Sara and I might not be back to Fresno until the 28th :( Other then that, I like the diversity in our group and see how incredible it is to hear stories of the Lord at work across the globe.

Lets see, as for employment I just finished my third day of training and am loving the flexibly and variety of my job. No two pools are the same and meeting the owners is a great way for me to meet people outside the Christian bubble. Not realizing that being a pool boy requires being in the sun several hours in succession, I failed to use sun screen the first day and came home a bright red. I've since learned the ways of the pool boy and liberally use sun-screen on my face, neck and arms. Although I have gotten a nice farmers tan, the hope is to someday get the full body tan, something to the effect of Bob Barker's leathery face.

Sara has been busy terping for her student and has had many days from sheol. I can't tell her enough how proud I am of her and to encourage her to do her best. She is so amazing with kids/students that I'm sure she'll have a greater impact on those around her via her lifestyle then anything she could say or interpret. She just had an IEP this past Friday and it went on for a good 1.5 hours. That's a lot of terping without more then a few minutes rest in between. Several of the other students in the same class as her student have talked to her at length about coming to Young Life and helping out. This might be something we pursue as YL definitely has a tug on our heart and (according to Sara), this group also goes to Woodleaf camp! So, perhaps we coordinate with Fresno YL and double down at Woodleaf. All speculation at this point but it would definitely be a blast.

We are planning on attending the Warehouse again this weekend, and would really like to attend the main service to see the church’s vision. The pastor of the Warehouse said a lot of newly married couples are attending this service and he’d like to form a newlywed small group. Nothing yet is concrete, but we definitely miss the community we have in Fresno, especially our small group. A few of the couples on our floor are meeting once a week for dinner and discussion/accountability. They met this past Wed and I was unable to go because of class, but they have changed it to Tuesday’s so we look forward to attending this coming week.

As for "regular" stuff going on, Sara and I used the local laundry here in our apt complex and spent about $12 to wash and dry all our clothes/towels/etc. I'm thinking it might be worth it to drive to our Aunt's house and utilize her washer and dryer, not to mention she has cable (hello ESPN/TLC/HGTV). This weekend Sara's mom and 2 of her aunts from Fresno are driving down to celebrate Aunt Debbie's birthday. It should be fun to see some familiar faces and enjoy some Fresno company.

As of now I'm in the midst of getting a cold, which should be expected because I usually get sick twice a year; once during the transition from winter to spring, and then from summer to fall. Don't ask me why as I'm sure it has to do with pollen and the mold content, but it never fails that I get sick around this time late in the year, as well as around my birthday (end of march) during the beginning of the year.

Sara and I also got memberships at the local YMCA for about 1/2 the price of the nearest gym to us. We're still working out our schedules, but hope to go a few times a week so I can get physically buff, to balance out the spiritual side of my workout. Well, on that note, it's probably time to end this novel...and with that, I hope the Dodgers win at least one game so baseball for me doesn't end today. We'd love to hear from all of you with the things going on at home/church/work and for any prayer requests/praises. Feel free to either post here, or if you don't want to make it public, just email us directly. We love you all and look forward to seeing you in a few weeks.

Much love,
Matt and Sara