What we did last weekend!

Hey everyone, last weekend we went to an International festival in Spartanburg, which is like 45 min from Greenville, we thought it was really great just not what we really expected. I will put it this way, we got there at 1:30 walked around for 15 min watched the parade of nations and then left at 2:30 -3. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!

The reward for living a

The reward for living a life of faith ... is to know God!
~ unknown ~

Wedding Pictures

Hey we finally got our wedding pictures this week. Here are a few for you guys to look at.

First Test

Hey everyone, well I hear that the cold is coming to Ohio and the frost has come already. As for us its getting a little colder in the evenings, usually around 65-70 but it has gotten a little lower, its been around the 50s once or twice. Ha, I have to rub it in while I can. It usually is around the 50's for the winter but it can dip down into the 30's. We have heard there is not to much snow and if it is it's gone the next day. They have had some pretty bad ice storms though in the past several years.
Anyways, things have been really busy for us these last three weeks. I think we are finally getting to be familiar with the times and scheduling. Here is a typical day. Wake up 6, devotions 6:30-7:20, Breakfast 7:30-8:30, Prayer 8:30-9, Classes 9-1:15, Lunch 1:15-2, Homework, work or ministry 1:45-5:45, Dinner 6-6:30, and then meetings twice a week and the other days we have study time from 7-10. As you can see we are pretty busy and thankful for a weekend!
Not sure what we are doing this weekend, we are thinking about possibly going to an international culture festival that is in a neighboring town and watching the Buckeyes tomorrow night but other than that hopefully taking it easy.
We had our first test today on the Love of God and His attributes. I have been learning a lot from the class. Its been really good. To truly see and study who God truly is and how much of our lives are lived subconsciously often on a works based relationship with Him. We ask the question "What have i done to deserve this, or I've been doing all these good things and teaching Sunday school at church how could God have allowed this in my life?" All of this stems from a wrong perspective of who God is. We shouldn't love God bases on what He does for us but truly on the fact that He is God the Self-Existing One and that is enough. We need to understand that God's love is Abounding Exodus 34:6 (deep, plentiful, and you can never exhaust the love of God for you), now He hates our sin but will always love us with His Abounding love as people. Be encouraged guys that when tests and trials come, He has allowed it because He is giving you a choice to be drawn closer to Himself. I pray that you all would be drawn closer to your the Lord this week! Love you guys!

Night Out!!!!

Well, it has been raining all day, at least the heaviest rain I have ever seen in the US! It felt like rainy season in Nicaragua. But that wasn't going to stop us from doing something! It was so good to hang out with a lot of the students off campus! This is the Spill the Beans Cafe. It was so weird to walk in, in the middle of the city, and hear christian music being played! Yep we found a christian cafe by accident! ;) It's a sweet place! They only serve drinks, desserts and this really awesome ice cream that you can put almost anything in! I had brownies with strawberries in my ice cream, and Kenny had blueberries! yummmy!!!!

L-R: Laura-Louisiana, Ritu-India, Amanda-New Jersey, me, Marite-Latvia, Erika- Peru
and Christie-Maryland

Me and Kenny

Me, Marite, Ritu and Amanda.

And guys did go with us! So it wasn't just Kenny and all us girls! The computer is acting up for some reason it won't let me upload and more pictures right now.

It was a lot of fun! You'll will have to come on down and see for yourself! ;oP

Another Week at E.I.

Well I think we have now finally gotten into a routine down here. Orientation is done and we began all our classes this week. They have all been awesome! It's been really neat, since we are all living practically together, seeing every bodies personality's coming out, especially Tomasz and his wife Justina. (pronounced Ustina) They are both in their 30's and the only other married couple that is here right now. There is still suppose to be another couple from India coming. Anyway we took Tomasz and Justina with us to down town Greenville, and had a wonderful time talking at Spilling the Beans Cafe. It was great talking about how our cultures differ, learning more about how the church works over in Poland and how much Justina said about how opened our country is.

It's been awesome getting to know all the teachers here at E.I. they truly practice what they teach. One thing that we love, is they try to really get involved with your life while you are here. Mr. Braizer comes out and plays volleyball/soccer with us every day, Mr. Johnson always eats lunch with us and the 1st and 3rd Friday nights Mr. Garreau has an open house for anyone that wants to come over and fellowship. Marie his wife is 23 and their first child is due in Nov. I'm really enjoying getting to know her. Last night was the first time we went over to there house. We had a great time playing games and Kenny really likes the climbing wall they had! :)

Fellowship at the Garreau's
Joe, Kenny and Tomasz.

Marite, Janelle, Laure and Justina.

The climbing wall.

I have to say, coming down here I thought that volleyball would be a piece of cake. I was afraid that the girls wouldn't be competitive, but I was wrong way wrong. I walked into it thinking I knew how to play, which I do already know the rules, but my form was not up to what they wanted. I was told over and over again what I was doing wrong. At the time it made me really mad, thinking to my self "I already know how to do this, I'm getting it over the net, so whats the big deal?" But through that, I really realized I have a lot of pride in me, and always need to keep a teachable spirit through it all. The Lord has taught me so much through volleyball. Here I thought this would be a time to just play a game and get some exercise, but the Lord has a lot more to teach me.
Oh, and the girls are really competitive even if it's 95! ;o) We're gettin some sun even at the end of Sept!

We both have job's here on campus, since it is student run to keep the cost down. Like I said before Kenny is working for Mr. Sterr, lately he has been working on making shelves for the work shop. And I have been working in the media department. I've been learning a lot. They have me down loading the classes (since we record them all) on the computer to then edit. I'm still not sure what everything is called, but I am learning how to trim the sound waves from the beginning and then end, and cutting out part where they would cough etc..... Then changing them into mp3 format. That's just one of the things they taught. ;o) Like I said I'm learning a lot!

For though's of you who were praying Ritu and Zita, they got their visa's all straightened out. Praise the Lord for that. But please continue to pray for the girl from Chad and the couple from India, that they will be able to come. Thanks!
Love you all!

Hey sorry everyone that tried to post comments but was having difficulties. We had a few people info us of this problem. I fixed the setting and everyone should be able to post now. Thanks, KJ

Hey heading back to school

Weekend away!

Streets of Charleston!

Hey heading back to school after a weekend vacation to Charleston and Isle Palms, SC! We had a lot of fun! It was beautiful!

Week one of school ...

Janelle and I have really enjoyed our first week of school. We really haven't started real classes yet but that should all change next week. The first week is set aside for orientation and going over rules and focusing on why we are really here. The first week has gone by fast but on the other hand it has seemed as if we have been here for a while already. It's been really easy to fit in here, its not home but it is right where we believe God wants us for this season. There is no better place to be then in the midst of God's will.
The first week hasn't been a bed of roses at the same time. We have endured a lot of pain already. Let me explain, we are both out of shape and the assignment for the first day of school was .... yup wish you could have been here to join us. Go run 1.3 miles, oh and if you really want you can run the bigger loop which is 3 mi. Its pretty safe to say we were sore the next morning and still feeling the side effects of that and the rest of the physical activity we had to do through out the week. It has been fun though and a great way to build character, team work and discipline. That is one of the main reasons for having physical activities as one of the classes here at EI. Usually we play volleyball or soccer instead of running.
The classes first semester that we are taking include; Old Testemant Survey, Doctrine I - Attributes of God & Quiet time, and Spiritual Conflict. The atmosphere here is wonderful, located about 5 miles from downtown, nestled in a quiet 55 acre plot surrounded partially by woods and mountains in the background. It provides a great place to study and relax yet not out in the middle of no where.

We all have to sign up for two different ministries to be involved with while we are here. One as an outreach to those who are unsaved and the other as one to build up the body of Christ. We decided to help with a ministry that teaches bible stories to children and their families at a local apartment complex. Many of which are Hispanic. We are really excited about this opportunity to serve. Janelle then signed up for choir and I am helping with drama for the ministry to encourage the body of Christ. We will travel to different churches doing a program once a month. Below are so pictures of our first week at the Sidewalk Sunday School program.

They do the programs from a box truck that turns into a stage.





This is Zeta from Latvia.

Please continue to prayer that we would have open hearts to learn all that God wants to teach us while we are here. Thank you very much for all your prayers and encouragement!
Kenny & Janelle

Hey for anyone that wants

Hey for anyone that wants our address and doesnt have it here it is:
Evangelical Institue
700 N Parker Rd
Greenville, SC 29609

'' God created the world

'' God created the world out of nothing, and as long as we are nothing,
He can make something out of us.''
~ Martin Luther ~

Home Sweet Home!

Our truck lol! Look at the tires. The car is so low.

Our living room.

The bathroom. We love that we have two sinks!

And the bedroom. We had to run to Sears and get some sheets to fit this bed! It's a king and I was expecting a queen!

We made it....

Well guys we now live in Greenville, SC. It took us about nine hours, so it wasn't to bad. I thought for sure something was going to go wrong with the car, me being the optimist and all, since our car was packed like a truck! lol But we still had no trouble getting down here! So far there are mostly international students here. I could tell that this morning, the married couple from Polland went to the kitchen and instead of getting the food most Americans eat for breakfast like cereal, toast, donuts, etc.. no they got out the meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato's......... is America the only country that has food specifically for breakfast?? But that's why I love this place, all the diversity. ;o)

We had our first work day with Mr. Stairs today. (I've heard through word of mouth down here that you don't tell him that you have experience in a specific field, other wise that's all you'll be doing while down here. lol )Kenny got to mow, and sang at the top of his voice, for 3 hr. and I got to paint. While painting, I met a girl named Zeta (sp?) from Latvia, I still don't know much about her since she has a hard time speaking English, but the one thing I did get was that she can sleep a lot better over here because she feels free. Wow I never really even thought about that till now. We don't know we are free until we were not free. God and I also had a very in depth conversation about mosquitoes. Why did he make them? lol Those little boogers ate me up while I was painting.

Well, the rest of the students get here tomorrow, we should have altogether around 32 for a student body this year! I'm really excited about that! If you could, please pray that my allergies stop bugging me. They have been raging war against me! Thanks! Love you all!

Last day at work...

Wow! What a beautiful day! God is so good and I want to give Him praise. Today I was thinking again how gracious God has been to us and being my last day, how he has been and still is day by day our provision!

• Proverbs 16:9 NIV

  In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

Lord we ask that as we enter a new season of our lives you would truly guide our every step, Amen!