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.