‹ Back

Still Alive

 

(Photo of the AMT Hangar and our neighbor, Parkwater Aviation)

 

I'm quite sure after all this silence that you are wondering if I am still alive. I'm glad to pronounce that I am. Mostly. Ah, where to begin?

 

- Staff Training

Well, at the end of my Christmas break in January I had the opportunity to return to Teen Pact Staff Training. If you remember my post from last years staff training (you might have to go to my old blog to find it), I had a wonderful time in Georgia complete with staying awake 38 hours straight, southern cooking, and Teen Pact!!! If you are confused about how awesome Teen Pact is, call me up, or someone you know that is a Teen Pacter. This time it was hosted in North Carolina. God worked out the flights so that there wasn't one out there during the time that I would have wanted, but for the day before. So, my mom and I tried to find a place that I could stay for that night. We ended up taking a long shot and called JAARS, one of the top mission aviation agencies, based in Waxaw, NC. They responded with immense welcome, despite Covid stuff. So I had a place to stay and got a tour of the JAARS home base, meet my roommate Noah's dad, Paul, who works for them, and had lunch with Dennis Garretson, the head of the recruiting office and was dropped off at the airport in time for the vans heading to the camp. This year it was a lot less of the program elements that I was learning, but more of the connections and re-connections with people, and the spiritual lessons learned. The two main themes this year were, Gratefulness, and Branding. How being grateful and the particular quirks of your character are things that you aren't just born with, and are not just something you put on one day and not the next. They are things you choose to put on and grow and develop, that are permanent, you keep them no matter what happens. They both can be that way because they depend on Jesus, who never changes.

 

- New Term

After that wonderful event, I flew back to Spokane to begin my second term! This time around it was significantly better. I was mostly adjusted to having a second home, adulting, and was connected much better with the community that the first term. It has been a wonderful time of really hard work mentally and emotionally, lots of stress. Next year I will be doing the hands on stuff in the shop that we call the Aviation Maintenance Training hangar (AMT), which the big brick building in the picture. One big thing I learned was how to focus on abiding and spending time with Jesus, even though I was taking 20 credits. A thought from my Swiss friend, Johnny Lauber, you can't take the time you spend studying the Bible for school as your devotional time, that has to be your own ungraded, unassigned, voluntary work. It may require more sacrifice and diligence, but that's kinda the point. In school you feed your head, but spending time with Jesus is for filling the soul. It was a really helpful thought for me, hopefully that helps you too!

 

- Classes

This term I took Speech and Communication, Research Writing, Intro to Philosophy, Christian Missions, The Church and its Doctrines, New Testament Survey, and Intro to Aviation I.

Speech,

I had a fun time practicing and refining my speaking skills, as well as preaching a sermon as my final. Shoutout to my Speech teacher in High School Miss. Krause for her excellent instruction that prepared me for this! I realized through this class how much of an impromptu style of speaking that I have, it was super interesting.

Writing,

This kind of writing is what I had the least experience in, so it was super helpful in that way. Also I learned a lot about my research topics: Ambassadors, and the Founding Father's philosophy of God.

Philosophy,

This one was definitely my favorite class! The instructor was Shebuel Varghese. He came at philosophy from the perspective that, seeking truth and gaining wisdom is how we love God with our minds (Matt 22:37). It was structured like a survey through many different philosophers and their ideas. The class format was a cross between discussion/debate and lecture. My favorite was discussing tough issues after class with him and three classmates.

Christian Missions,

Focused more on the history of missions and on cross-cultural communication and problem solving. It was like an intro to a Cross-cultural communications course.

The Church and its Doctrines,

This was super fun to get into bible doctrines and all of their super confusing names and what they mean. It is neat to see how vital doctrine is to the proper handling of Scripture, and how Theology affects our daily lives.

NT Survey,

We read through whole books at a time! That was super powerful, getting the full context and overview of whole books, especially books like Revelation.

Intro to Av,

This was our taste, the "carrot on a stick." Unfortunately due to Covid and trying to keep the years separate, we were not allowed in the shop. So we looked at and learned names, tools, uses, and organization for use next year! Can't wait.

 

- Oregon I and Sine Die

Just after spring break I was actually able to staff! It was amazing after having it cancelled last year. It was huge being able to serve and teach with the people I had been a student with, and some new friends. Although sadly it was what we call, Sine Die. Latin for, "without another day." It is a term used in the legislature for when they adjurn the final session of the year. I gotta say though, it was the best possible (minus Covid) way to do my final Teen Pact event. (Untill my kids do it way in the future, ha!)

Worship,

The worship as always was a huge highlight. One thing that blew me away was how much of a participant and not an active leader I was. Just as out of control as when I was a student participating in worship, when I was up front leading the class, and my co-leaders in worshipping the Lord. It was an experiencing of how God is the part that brings the power, reverence, the heart moving, and I basically just said, "I'm in!"

Students,

The students this year were so fantastic. I loved and am so proud of how they led that week, and I am sure they will keep leading in the future. The best example was Wednesday night. It is like the best night of the week, the staff guys had just finished praying for Rendezvous, our before bed debrief of the day, and we saw a bunch of shadows through the window of the guys cabin. We were confused, was there like a meeting or something in that conference room? So we crept in and peeked around the corner to see what was going on. We saw our students had set up a legislative session in the little conference room and were drafting, debating, and passing/failing bills, just like we do in the class.

Fillibusterin',

For the One day class where we do a mini version for elementary aged students. My favorite part was one girl's bill. She wanted to make "filibusterin'" a part of the Teen Pact Legislature (TP Leg). She then proceeded to demonstrate by filibustering her own bill! Luckily we were able to talk her into letting it come to a vote before we had to adjourn! Those kids are so cute!

 

- Big Themes

This term God has really been teaching me a lot, like I mentioned above, learning to abide in Him. Another is with fasting and hunger. In the gospels when Jesus is baptized in the Holy Spirit, He goes out into the wilderness for forty days to fast. A key word that is mentioned is that Jesus was, "hungry." My first thought is like, "well duh." But that phrase is significant. There is something powerful about hunger, something 100% human, that we all have. What Jesus did with it is He began satisfying His hunger with prayer, the Holy Spirit, Scripture. That was a lightbulb for me. The purpose of fasting isn't to exercise willpower, or lose weight, although those are side benefits. It is to dig below your desires to your raw hunger, and redirect your hunger toward new desires. Another theme is the Word. It is a big topic so I am going to write a separate post about it soon.

 

- Summer!

Currently I have completed my first year at Moody! I am home in Oregon enjoying the summer, getting some good rest and sunshine while catching up with friends and playing music! If you want to talk, meet up, or pray or something sometime let me know!

 

- Prayer Requests

There are a bunch of things that I want to plan and projects to work on over break, so good wisdom in prioritizing my time while there are no deadlines.

I have a bunch of people to reconnect with, and I'm an introvert, so wisdom and help in connecting with people.

There are also a bunch of things that will be changing up at school for the next year, so please pray that I would be prepared for all of that when it comes.

 

Thank you for reading all of that! Next time I will try to keep it a bit more short. 😊

 

In Christ,

Jonathan