Praise the Lord we are in ohio.

On the road. Car is running good with the normal stops every few minutes. Thanks for your prayers.

We made it back to school!

Thank you everyone for your prayers! Our travel back to school went well. We found a slow leak in one of our tires and were able to replace it before loading up our little prius and heading down to SC. We did have access last year to internet in our rooms but for some reason the staff has discontinued providing internet access and most sites are blocked including blog websites. So we have to go off campus in order to post so we will try our best to keep you up to date. The student body is 47 this year and beginning to get to know the first years. We are spending some time with a lativan couple who has been married a little over a year. Getting to know them which has been a lot of fun. Until next time we love you all and are praying for you.

Give the Lord Praise!

I am continually overwhelmed when I think of the surpassing goodness of our Lord and Savior. Every day is a blessing and each breath is a gift from above. Wow it is going on three weeks already that we have been home. This summer is flying by so quickly. Well a lot has happened since we have been home. The basement apartment is done and ready to move in ... well I think there will be things to work on and projects to do for a very long time but the basement is livable and we are beginning to move in. Currently we have been living in the top of my parents house. As we move into the basement, they are going to move into the top. Wow what a blessing it is to have a place to call home, that we can begin to decorate as home. I know Janelle is getting really excited. The Lord has blessed us so much, Janelle is currently working as the church secretary and I was helping my uncle paint this week. Amidst the poor job availability I was able to find a job so that has been so good as well. I am waiting on a call right now from the boss on when to start, I am assuming next week but we will see. Well, that is all for now but truly overwhelmed that the blessings of the Lord. Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow!

Heading to Ohio for the

Heading to Ohio for the summer. It is cold, have to go through spring all over again. Its been in the ninties in SC.
KC

End of School is drawing near!

Wow, I can't believe that our first year is almost over. Looking back, it has been an exciting year full of ups and downs and the Lord teaching us a lot. The last several weeks have been really busy for us with conferences and back to back long distant trips but it was well worth it. Friends only get married once.

Prevailing Prayer!

During the last month especially, the Lord has been teaching us here at EI a lot about persevering and prevailing prayer. One of our GC missionaries was arrested when entering a country with a suitcase of bibles. During this time we were alerted about the situation and began interceding for him around the clock. He was released a few days later unharmed and untouched miraculously! Praise be to God! Be assured that when we pray we never change the mind of God, for He knows our thoughts before we even think about them (Ps 139:2). The beautiful thing about prayer though is that by discerning the will of God and praying accordingly we are able to take part in God's glory and what He is doing around where we are and around the world. Through this answered prayer we boast in Christ and Christ alone. An aspect of God which the Lord has really been reaffirming in my life lately has been, Jesus Christ as our Great High Priest! He in continually interceding before the throne of heaven on the behalf of His children. As we are born of a sinful nature and will find ourselves in many difficult situations tempted and tested, for we are no match for the devil. Be assure that our Great High Priest desires the very best for us and is praying that our faith fail us not as He did with Peter (Luke 22:31-32). The man who was arrested came to visit us here at EI and shared with us his testimony and what the Lord did through the situation he found himself in. I was really encouraged and challenged in getting to know him and hearing about how the Lord met him and provided everything he needed to endure, even in a place where he thought he would not come out alive. The devil has been and is right now a defeated foe, so let us continue to share of the goodness of God, destroying the works of the enemy (Rev. 12:11). A quote that I have heard lately and thought that it was really good was "Let us be an Arminian on your feet and a Calvinist on your knees!" We need to continue to teach and preach the gospel every where we go even in the face of death as if it were up to man to save and yet we need to be on our knees pleading and interceding to God, knowing that there is nothing of our own self that will ever be able to save a single soul.


Another prayer request that i do want to make you aware of if you aren't already is for a young teacher here at EI. He is about 29 and just had his first little boy, he was very active in mountain climbing and even worked for search and rescue in CO. About three weeks ago he came down with a very dreadful yet mysterious decease called Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Basically what this does is it shuts down the entire nervous system. So for the last two weeks Michael has been completely paralyzed but able to still feel pain and itch. Right now he can only move his little pinky a little and his eye brows. This has been another real life situation that the Lord has been using to teach me about persevering and prevailing prayer. If you think about it please join in prayer for healing and that the Lord would be Glorified through this unsuspected circumstance. Also for grace and endurance for his wife as during this same time their little boy has been hospitalized as well. We are all praying and expecting great things, trusting that the Lord knows exactly what he is doing. A verse that I want to leave you with that the Lord encouraged me with is Rom 12;12 "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer". No matter what life brings our way, Praise be to God that we have hope to rejoice in our Lord Jesus Christ, that by being patient in tribulations the Lord is forming us more into the likeness of Himself which is the highest possible goal to seek after as Paul explains in Col. And through it all taking everything to God in prayer.

Crazy Hair Night at EI

Well, we had a crazy hair night at EI last weekend and had some pretty interesting hair dos. Here are some pictures to show you the styles that appeared for the event. We had a good night of fun and fellowship.

Green Hair Dan

The Rock Band (Note our teacher is in the middle)

Lost in the Hair Ladies

Noah impersonating Mr. Johnson (He was the hair style winner)

John Deere Women with her brother

Bono and his wife

This is the EI logo

Mr. T "I pitty da fool!"

Theological Question

So, this is a question we have been asked this week and are going to discuss tomorrow in class. Janelle and I had a great discussion over this question and wrestling with different passages tonight. So I posse the question to you guys out there, wanting to see your views. Anyone is free to comment giving their explanation. But with your answer you need to have a valid point and an explanation. Here goes, in the latter part of Romans 7, from verse 14 to 25 Paul speaks of a specific person. Is this person saved or unsaved, if unsaved did he get saved, if saved is this the norm for Christians to experience this warfare or is this a defeated Christian, why or why not? Let me know your thoughts?

Ok I spoke to soon, winter hit again

We call it the Lord's sanctifying work and it usually takes place on the volleyball courts. Rain or shine we are usually out and playing. At EI it's considered another class, and I have learned so much while on the volleyball courts. Even now I look back and simply just laugh.

Spring is around the corner!

It is beginning to smell, sound and look a lot like spring in the southern parts of the country. With birds chirping, flowers blooming and the smell of spring in the air Janelle and I decided to spend our Saturday hiking some of the beautiful mountains surrounding the area down here in SC. It ended up being a perfect day, with the sun shining and the temperature right at 50 degrees, I think I even got a bit of a tan. Our time went by so quickly enjoying the company of each other and the company of our loving God and King, Maker of the universe! Rom 1:20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Pictures can not truly express the beauty there was in standing in the front of this chapel and looking out across the mountains.

For all you single people out there this would be a great place to get married, lol!

One of the most amazing views that I have ever seen, this place was so amazing.
Over and over again I stand amazed by the God of my salvation.
The one who spoke and formed all that we see around us from nothing, and it was all Good!

This is the chapel that took my breath away.

It was a beautiful day and yes we did soak up the sun and had a blast on our hikes. Oh and there was a little bit of snow for all those Ohioans.

Raven Cliff Falls

Over 400 feet of falls

Almost back to our second

Almost back to our second home in Greenville! 60 Degrees and lots of sunshine! Uh i think spring is coming soon!

Going back to school. Cant

Going back to school. Cant believe break is over. Latvians, Indians, cheese sampling, riding horse and buggies, igloos: Equals tons of fun!

We ran from winter, but winter still found us!

Top of Paris Mt. One of the most beautiful
places to watch the sunset here!

While another weekend has past and Greenville is officially an ice box, at least for the last three days! :) It was 18 degrees last night! There was a big winter storm that came through the region this past weekend and we got a lot of sleet, mixed with freezing rain and little bit of snow. At even the thought of snow down here everybody goes to the store and buys milk and bread, which is really funny to me! :) I do have to say that a little bit of snow can be really bad. For one, they don't have very many snow trucks or salt, so the roads get really bad really fast, and then on top of that you have people from the south that don't know how to drive! ;)

Some of the bushes that are covered in ice!

Late Friday night we lost power but it came back on before morning. Then again Saturday morning about 9, we lost power until sometime in the afternoon. With out power we have no heat so our rooms got pretty cold. I was also working on my commentary on Philippians when the power went off, so it was a race to get it done before my computer ran out of battery. I got it done and then tried to clean our two dorm rooms to stay warm, now that was fun! ;) Kenny was actually gone Friday night and Saturday morning at a Men's Retreat at Brushy Creek Baptist Church. It was kind of funny on Saturday, all the guys from school that want to the Men's Retreat on Friday night decided not to go because of the weather except Kenny who was the only one that went with Surresh (he is from India), when they got back I ask him how the roads were and he said "not a problem", yay! Good old northern driving!

We usually play volley ball when there is nothing to do,

but looking at the courts that wasn't an option!
We did fined a local church that was warm and had power
so we played for 3 hours on Sat. afternoon! :)

Silas and Brian making lunch out side since there is no electricity!
They're making hash browns, I think!

Next week we are going to have International week, I am so excited! Each international has a day in which they are going to cook dinner for us! It has been so good and challenging living in the midst of so many different cultures. It is truly a unique place and a blessing!


On a more serous note.....
God is teaching me so much about trusting Him this past month. I tend to be a worrier and realizing that when I worry I'm not trusting in my Heavenly Father. This verse in Philippians 4:6 " Do not be anxious (worry) about anything" is a verse that I have said to myself so many times. But you know what I realized, right before that verse Paul say "Rejoice in the Lord always, I will say it again: Rejoice!" It hit me, if I am rejoicing in the Lord always, then I cannot be worrying, but if I'm worrying there is no room for me to be rejoicing in the Lord! I can't have both worry and rejoicing going on at the same time. Something that I've learned here is three things I need to do each and every day. "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" 1 Thess. 5:16-18 If I am doing all three of these then there is no room for me to worry! It is so much easier said then done, but the Lord is giving me opportunities each and every day to try to get better at it and by His grace I will!

First Christmas with our little nephew

Christmas Break

Christmas with the Coblentz family.

Hello, we took a little break and I'm not sure why after the holidays. But we are hoping to keep things updated once again. So anyways things have been going well after the break. Right now we have some big assignments that we are working on. One of them includes an in depth commentary on a passage of scripture. That has been really fun to dive into, it is a tedious job but I have been really enjoying it. I'm doing my research on the life of Peter and a passage in his second epistle. I'll let Janelle give you her details, that is so she then has reasons to post as well. Another study that we started just before going on Christmas break was a book study in our church on Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs. We have both really enjoyed this class. Its been funny how as we sit in the class and they are explaining how different men and women react to things Janelle and I snicker because something of the likeness has usually just happened to us. This has happened several times. I'll share some with you. Now granted these things are general for men and women so I am not saying all men act this one way or all women act this one way. But how Emerson describes it is men give and receive infomation through a blue tube while women give and recieve information through a pink tube. When one is speaking in pink you can't hear it in blue and correctly assess the problem. As men we need to understand how when women speak to us using the pink tube to interpret what they say through a pink receiver. Most men are problem solvers women normally aren't, so Janelle came to me with a situation and I thought to myself well this one's easy to solve so I began to give her a solution. Well if you haven't learned yet guys, women are pretty smart and usually when they bring up a problem they have an idea how to fix it but they simply want someone to sympathize with them. So anyways, I began to share what I thought was a pretty good solution to the problem Janelle had brought up and after a little while of listening to me ramble she said, I just need you to listen to me. Oh ok, well I can do that then, and so I listened and gave her a hug and things ended up going well. Well you know it takes a while for guys to learn things sometimes and so another situation came up that Janelle was sharing to me. Forgetting what I had learned in the first situation and not using my pink receiver I immediately went right back to what I know how to do, solve problems. Guys big mistake but if you do this here is what you can say. A little into my rambling I understood what I was doing again and immediately began to proceed with these words "You know darling, I really understand how you must feel. It will all be ok! Followed by a big hug. So it has become an ongoing joke if I find myself interpreting the situation wrong to resort back to this familiar line. I'm not an expert by any means but just having fun learning and thought I'd share it with you all.