"Rejoice in the Lord Always!"

Sziasztok!!
The Lord has blessed me with another amazing week full of His Word and His unfailing grace. What a God I have! This past week we studied the book of Philippians!! What a treasure that book is. Paul writes to the church in Philippi with immense joy. The words "joy/rejoice" appear twelve times in this book of 104 verses. Through everything that Paul went through there was joy in his life because he was furthering the gospel! What a conviction to me while I am here at WOLH. It really taught me that although I may not have everything I want or the resources to do whatever I want, there is still a command to be joyful! The fact that Jesus Christ my Savior came and laid His life down so that I may have eternal life is reason enough to be joyful!

Angela Baby!!

The teacher of Philippians was Pastor Ed Hart from Upstate New York. As Pastor Ed has been on sabbatical since November, he brought along with him a young pastor, Matthew. Ed Hart taught joy the whole week–from the first hour to the last–and it was absolutely evident in his life. This wasn't just something that he taught, but was clearly something he lived. After the first hour of having him on Monday morning, I talked with him during the break and invited him to my dorm on Wednesday night for devotionals because usually the guys only get the guest teachers but I really wanted to have this one over(:

Our frozen over lake and rivers(:

Tuesday night I was invited over to my dear Nancy Hocking's home for dinner and dessert with two fellow students–Daniel Stephan and David Graef. Pastor Ed Hart and Pastor Matthew Something joined as well for marvelous chicken soup, cornbread and coconut cake dessert stuff. Seriously delicious! I'm so blessed!
It was really a great night getting to talk to the teacher and hear about his ministry back in the States. His little church in the Adirondack Mountain area has a huge (three times the size of WOLH's campus!!) property where they house, feed, clothe and disciple many individuals. This place seriously sounds awesome. They really are doing a great work for the Lord. It really got everyone excited to see how the Lord is using that church. People from all over come to this property and stay for however long the Lord wants them there. Ed Hart has many stories about people that have completely turned their lives around according to what the Bible says. The "philosophy" there on the property is one based on the Bible. There is no problem big enough that searching and digging into the Bible, calling on the Lord, and the gospel cannot fix or mend. And that's just how they present it! Their way of fundraising to pay and keep up the property? Well...prayer! Seriously. They have never once asked for money, sent out letters, advertised that money was needed to purchase the property back in like...2004. They prayed, prayed, and then prayed some more. Yep! The power of prayer is great(:

Ákos showed me how to zoom in and out of my
computer screen!! Revolutionary.

So as you can see, I have been oh so encouraged by Ed Hart and the ministry there in the Adirondack Mountains. And I haven't even talked about the devotional we had in my dorm on Wednesday night!! It was great–testimony of Pastor Ed Hart, ice cream cake, and a wonderful prayer time all together.
Also, I think I am going to ace this Philippians test. He went over every single question in class and I knew every single answer. Of course, I don't mind studying for it, either ;)

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."

Philippians 1:9-11

It's Winter Alright!

Friendzies

Wow! January flew by!
Here at the Bible Institute we started the year off with two weeks of Matthew. So applicable and fresh! It was so awesome to learn more about this book that I have taken for granted so much.
The amazing love and compassion of Jesus Christ is so beautifully authored by Matthew, one of Jesus' disciples. The book is heart-wrenching and powerful from beginning to end and is still teaching me, even two weeks after studying it, that it's about the heart and not the show that is often put on by so many.

Master Wood Gatherer ;)

After those two weeks and two very good exams in Matthew, we studied Church History! So. Much, Information. To. Remember. This was a very difficult class that we just finished this past Thursday afternoon. Of course, it was absolutely interesting and totally awesome to hear about so many people that gave their lives for the work of our Savior. All those people are in the line of heroes for history. It made me think, "What am I doing that's so big for Christ?! Am I willing to die for Jesus and what I believe?!"

Our Beautiful Castle and Lake

Just for Funzies

This past weekend was the winter camp. It started Friday night with NO snow. It ended this Sunday afternoon with a beautiful white landscape! I've walked on the frozen lake and rivers so many times these past few days and just marveled at what a beautiful thing snow is. It snowed literally all day long Saturday. I had the awesome idea of making a campfire in the abandoned castle (remember when I talked about going there way back in November?!) so after lunch on Saturday a group of students and myself made our way over to the castle, gathering wood on the way. I must say-it was a wonderful idea! It was freezing and snowing, of course, but absolutely fun! David Johns and Kevin Cox made a fire in one of the basement rooms as all the girls watched and added little twigs to the fire. We warmed up and chatted for a long while and then headed off to take a look at the snowy, abandoned castle. We played tag as well :D
Each First year student here has to do a thing called Chapter Titles. It's where one reads every chapter in the Bible and writes a 3-10 word title. I began reading Nahum-well, the whole book took only 20 minutes-and it is so awesome!! I urge you to read it for yourself some time soon!
Lord bless you all and hope you're having a warmer winter than I am!!

The Lord is good,

A stronghold in the day of trouble, 

And He knows those who take refuge in Him. 

Nahum 1:7