Gospels Class

Hey Everyone!

So last weekend I served at our Juniors Retreat. These retreats are basically like a week of camp squished into a weekend. We had 100-150 campers ages 8-11 come for the weekend. Students are placed in various roles throughout the camp. I was really excited about this weekend because I love the kids especially the younger age group, but I was disappointed when I found out that I wasn't going to be with the kids at all during the weekend. I was serving by doing dishes. Even though that wouldn't have been my first choice, I actually really enjoyed the job. Through different experiences recently God has been teaching me how important and meaningful jobs like dishes are even if I would rather be with the kids. He placed me there for a reason. I was working with a really great group and it was awesome being able to get to know them better. And who wouldn't want to do dishes while listening to Veggie Tales :D

This week we had our gospels class. Before going into it many people were telling me how hard it was going to be and making it sound very brutle. They gave the analogy of trying to drink from a fire hydrant while its spraying in your face. My roommate (after class was done) added to this analogy by saying; sometimes the water is spraying so forcefully that it knocks you over and even though it is still spraying at you, you aren't actually getting any water in your mouth.
So needless to say I was nervous going into this class. I envisioned our prof up at the front of the room spouting off information and talking super fast and my hand going a mile a minute. But this class wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. Yes it was intense and information overload and the analogy is correct but our prof tried to go slow so we would understand what he was saying.
Our prof Wes Olmstead was amazing. He is really smart and he definitely knows what he is talking about. I can`t even begin to tell you all that I learnt because my mind is blown and I`m still trying to process all that I learnt. Our main focus was on Matthew`s Gospel although each day we touch briefly on one of the other gospels.
In Matthew:
- We compared similar passage with the other gospels to see the differences in Matthew and understand why these differences are important.
- We looked at themes that Matthew emphasizes throughout his gospel.
- We often referred back to the Old testament to read the prophecies in their original context or to understand the language and culture of Jesus`day.
- It was amazing to see all the hidden/deeper meanings of the texts and to see how Matthew intentionally put his account together to portray a certain message to his readers and to see all the connections even throughout the gospel itself. It was amazing to read the stories as a whole instead of individually and to understand what was going on in Jesus' day and to see why Matthew used certain words and what the meaning of those words are and how that changes our understanding of the text.

I learnt so much this week and I am excited to explore the Bible even further; to not just study at a surface level but to find out what is actually happening in that passage and what God is trying to tell me and to know how that applies to my life.
In two weeks we have our Old Testament class. Nobody has given me any expectations for this class but I'm guessing that after my head exploded from gospels, now all those exploded pieces will explode even more as I gain even more crazy knowledge about the bible. ;)
Please pray that I won't become so focused on the knowledge but that I would let what I'm learning transform my life.

God is doing so many amazing things here in my life. At AWANA God is opening up some of the kids hearts to trust and respect me. It is so good to see his hand at work.

Tomorrow I leave for surfing! I'm super excited for this new adventure.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Sabrina