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.

Good to be home!

Wow, praise the Lord for safe travel this holiday season! There was a big snow storm coming so we were actually dismissed early from school by a day. Although we were dismissed on Thursday we didn't leave until Sunday morning. The Indian couple from school were coming with us up to Ohio and they actually had some appointments both Friday and Saturday causing us not to be able to come home right away. So we were chilling at school for a few days, it was actually very refreshing. Although the electric went out for about 6 hours on Friday we made due with what we had and tried to stay warm in our cold rooms. During this time we actually went to an Indian social Christmas party which was definitely different from what I have ever been too, but it was really great. We enjoyed lots of spicy Indian food. I was really glad that we waited until Sunday to come home, the roads were all clear and great to travel on. We did drive through some snow but let me tell you driving through all the mountains in NC and VA was amazingly beautiful with all the snow that dumped down on Friday!! We have a few pictures that we will post but pictures don't due justice to how beautiful it looked. There were places where there was at least 6-8 inches of snow on the tree limbs. Coming up to OH, we dropped Suresh and Seelah out at Cambridge where some relatives picked them up and took them to IN. It feels so good to be home though and excited to see family and friends.

Hey if you want to listen to some of the sermons
from the teachers here at EI here is a link where you can find them.
Listen to Sermons!

Also I would highly recommend the book "How to Worship Jesus Christ" by Joseph S. Carroll. He is the founder of the school that we are attending. Click the following link to buy a copy,
Buy Book.

Hey we made it home.

Hey we made it home. We are home for the funeral of my 2 yr old cousin Trinnen.

Alumni Conference

This past week has been really busy, but an amazing blessing too. We went to hear Dr. David Jeremiah, he was at the Bi-Lo center here in Greenville. It was really good! He spoke on Rom 13:11-14 He said Christians need to wake up and quit having one foot in the world and one foot in the church. Live for Christ' return and put everything else aside.

Bi-Lo Center! It was a full house and amazing to hear everyone sing too!

For the first time at EI they had an alumni conference! It was so awesome having students here in almost every class that has ever been through EI, including someone from Holland and Poland, about 90 former students! My favorite time was talking with all the former students and hearing testimonies of what they had gone through here at EI, everything they had gone through is still what students are going through today! Everyone here has similar experiences, we all died at EI. They are going to be building a prayer chapel here and one of the alumni said they need to have a jar full of little tomb stones there as well for all the students that have died here! It was so funny all the things that the students this year complain about are the same things that the alumni had complaints about, but through the thing that they didn't like, that's how God worked, it was very encouraging!

We had so many people in a little tiny dining room! We had dish crew this night with four other people and it took us 1 hour and 15min to get it done!

Here are some random pictures we took at EI. We have some of the most beautiful sunsets!

Noah, Zach and Marc.

Yes, we play volleyball ran or shine, recently it's just been rain!

Hey looking forward to a

Hey looking forward to a full weekend. Please pray we are having a big alumni conference here at school this weekend.

Alleluia Frog!

I thought you guys would enjoy some of these random pictures and my Alleluia Frog! We were playing around the other day around campus and I was able to take this picture. Now I assure you this is a real frog and nothing was wrong with it. It jumped away from us when one of the girls said that she would kiss it to see if he turned into a prince. It might be better that he jumped away when he did, LOL!

"Alleluia, I'm so glad God created me!" ~Frog~

I love God's creation, it all reflects the Majesty of who He is. He has created all things, big and small! And you know God has a sense of humor as well and loves to place things in our lives that cause us to stop and say, ha God you are so good!
I encourage you, look around you today and find something that you don't notice everyday and give God praise for it, He deserves all our praise!

Come on baby ... I just want to give you a hug!

Pic-a-boo Squirrel

Have you ever seen a hairy spider, spinning up its food.
This is how you package food that last up to a month later, lol.