A final chapter in this trilogy to document my experiences with weather, people, and God.
I said in the last post that this would be a hard post. A post that would be difficult and bittersweet. There is much joy in sharing this post with you, there is also sadness as another chapter to my life is being concluded in the near future.
In early April, as I was placed into the position of chief meteorologist, a letter I had set aside was brought back to my attention.
While in the UK, I had continued to seek out job positions and grad school opportunities. During the latter weeks in the UK I applied to 4 universities to attend for graduate school and earn a master's degree in meteorology. The University of Wyoming, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mississippi State University, and North Carolina State University all received an application for acceptance from me. Shortly after arriving in Bowling Green, MSU replied with an acceptance letter. This letter was exciting, I knew then that I qualified for grad school. I had been turned down by three schools in the spring of 2013. However, it was a second letter from MSU that was brought to my attention in early April.
This second letter extended to me an assistantship to aid in my pursuit of research and a master's in meteorology and climatology at MSU. The assistantship consisted of an out of state tuition waiver, a partial scholarship for tuition, and the offer of a graduate teaching assistant position with a monthly stipend to cover the rest of my educational expenses, and the main portion of living expenses. The letter gave me until Easter weekend to make my decision.
In the midst of the chaotic rise to chief's position, I knew that this was the end of the road if I stayed in Bowling Green. I can climb no further here, I knew this was the highest spot I could attain within the station and the corporation. I also knew that the Lord has placed me at Christ Fellowship for a reason, and I love the church dearly. The Lord doesn't call us to sit back on our laurels and marvel at all we've accomplished. He desires men and women who will passionately follow His guiding across the street, across town or around the world.
Life in television in Bowling Green appears to be, quite frankly, in opposition to God's call. There, I would develop a routine, develop a clique at work, and become hardened to others around me and to the city of Bowling Green. I would become cynical, cut off from the rest of the people of Bowling Green and out of touch with other humans and unwilling to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
God has placed in front of me an opportunity to take His name back to Mississippi State University. He's provided me an opportunity to be a leader within the department of geosciences at MSU. Part of my desire to work in television was to be just that, a leader and an example to others. The Lord has given me the opportunity to do that back in Starkville. He's not only blessed me with a roommate, as well as many friends from undergrad; He's blessed me with new contacts who are incoming freshmen, transfers, grad students with whom I can share my knowledge of weather, Mississippi, and most importantly, my knowledge of how Jesus has changed me.
Life following Christ is crazy, illogical, exciting, and completely worth it. I cannot imagine, after being taught many things by God, living my life just to please me. I can never be pleased. I'll always find something wrong with me, something I can't have that I want, or something I don't want that I have. Following Christ means that though there is something wrong with me, it's called sin and Christ died to deal with the consequences of what's wrong. In Christ, He has promised to make me new, and He will make good on His promise. He rose from the dead to prove that fact. Following Christ means giving up my selfish desires and wants, and seeking Christ. The Bible says that the one who saves his life will lose it. The one who loses his life gains it. This is made possible in Christ, in His resurrection from the dead. Following Christ means that the stuff I don't want (pain, persecution, hunger, stress, etc) can be handed over to God. I give up control of trying to fix my life and myself. I'm letting the Potter mold the clay, the sculpture chisel off the imperfections. The process is painful, I have been and will be pushed, stretched bent, even broken. Above it all, God has a plan. His plan is for His glory, and in His glory, our greatest joy is found.
On August 11, 2014, approximately 1 year after I made the commitment to spend my autumn in the UK, I will return to the place where God took hold of me, grabbed my attention, and began remaking me and teaching me.
He knows my fears, He knows I want to be independent, and there are bills to be paid. He has since blessed me with a part time job in weather and TV. Wednesday, I accepted an offer to become the weekend meteorologist at WVUA-TV. THIS TV network, channel 7 in Tuscaloosa, AL.
I love working in television. I love being able to interact with people and help them by providing information they need in daily life and in emergencies. These two positions give me the opportunity to become better at that, and learn where it is God wants me from now until I see Him face to face.
I don't know where God wants me. I don't know if He wants me to continue in television or move to another field, but what I do know is that He is good. He allowed the dream of working in television come true, even if it's only for a short amount of time, I'm thankful for what He has blessed me with.
Throughout this year, I have been reading novels, and one, "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, is very appropriate in its closing. Edmond Dantes writes a farewell letter to his heirs,
"Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, -- 'Wait and hope.' -- Your friend,
Edmond Dantes,
Count of Monte Cristo"
Through it all, strength has been found in waiting and hoping in Christ. He will never fail, His promises are true, His love is deep, and His majesty is worthy of all my praise.
I want to thank a bunch of people. Through all of this, my parents have worried, stressed, prayed, and let me follow God's call even when they doubted.
I'm thankful for my British family, my friends from college and Colorado, all of whom supported, loved, prayed, and encouraged me to pursue the Lord's call to England last fall.
Additionally, I'm thankful for all of my wonderful new friends here in Bowling Green. I have been blown away by your love, acceptance of myself as a new friend and encouraged me through the rough days. Thank you for showing me around Bowling Green, welcoming me into your homes and lives. You've blessed me immensely.
Finally, I thank God, my Savior. He saved me, showed me love, cared for me, and blessed me beyond measure.
I love you all so very much. To those I'm leaving, I'll be in Bowling Green through June, and please, let's spend more time together. Please come visit me in Mississippi, it's a lovely place that I would love to share with you. To those I'm returning to, I love you and I cannot wait see you again and spend time together.
All, may the Lord bless you, keep you, and may you seek His face and His glory with every breath.
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prayer. Show all posts
Friday, June 13, 2014
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Week 8: Conversations, Both Individual and Corporate
One more week in the books. Another week of spending time with crazy, wonderful English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, and Northern Irish people. They are truly incredible people.
This week was a calmer week in terms of activities. With Andrew and Grace out of town early in the week, Daniel and I spent the week building bunk beds, putting up new mattresses, and taking apart the old ones. After two days using a screwdriver, I felt like I was developing rheumatoid arthritis in my right hand. There are still some red spots on my hand from the screwdriver, nearly a week later.
This week, I began reading through the Psalms. I had been reading a Proverb a day since July, and so I felt like I needed to change things up a bit. So I started reading the Psalms. We as a team found out that one of our church members reads a Psalm every night. I thought it might be the perfect opportunity to further engage and encourage them in Christ. Since we would both be reading the Psalms, we could share ones that stuck out to us in the week. Later I found out they do not read the Psalms in any order, however, I still feel that I can encourage them through my reading of it also. This will also encourage me and push me to not simply read the text, but to study it, mull it over in my mind. I've heard people use the illustration of a cow chewing its cud as what we should do as Christians with the Word of God. We should read it and take it in, then a little while later, bring it back up into our minds, and think on it some more.
Throughout this week, I have been preparing for today. Today was marked on our calendars here as the day that I would preach at the church on the estate. For those of you who don't know, I never preached before in my entire life. While my training in university has made me comfortable with talking in front of people. This was a whole new animal to try and wrangle. My experience with public speaking has been with sub-10 minute speeches. The majority were under 3 minutes, and about the weather. This one was expected to be 15+ minutes. Thankfully, God has placed an illustration on my heart for children early in my time here. This illustration was to describe what it means to be a Christian. I was able to in a way, use the illustration through the text I was given. For those who are curious, the text was Luke 18:9-14. This passages talks about the Pharisee and the tax collector. I focused on how they approached God, and how we should approach God. Well, today was the day. I preached. With the church being made up of mostly non-Christians, specifically, non-Christians with loads of children, there were plenty of distractions. Yet, I was surprised and blessed by how closely some paid attention to the sermon. I know that my voice isn't the most exciting of voices to listen to, and the fact that they listened and paid attention for 15+ minutes (I have no idea how long I preached) is solely something to give the praise and glory to God for. I pray that as they paid attention, that God spoke to them, that they would see for themselves that they can do all they want to look like a Christian to the world (like the Pharisee), but that will not make a lick of difference when they come before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
This weekend I also had the opportunity to speak about Christ and Christianity to a Swedish girl who is working for a local family. She brought the children to a bonfire night we had in Harby. The children come regularly to our Bible study on Friday nights for the youth of Harby. Although she isn't a Christian, or even interested in Christianity, she and I were able to discuss religion, our thoughts on it, and also through our discussion we talked about holidays, in Sweden, England and America. I was able to tell a little bit about why we celebrate Christmas, and Easter. I pray something sticks with her, and that she would start to ask questions, to herself, as well as to the family she works for, who are also Christian.
I know there are not any pictures in this week's update. However, I plan on having loads of pictures tomorrow, as this coming Saturday, we are going to London as a team! There is also plan to go on the London Eye. If that is the case, there will be LOADS of pictures.
This week was a calmer week in terms of activities. With Andrew and Grace out of town early in the week, Daniel and I spent the week building bunk beds, putting up new mattresses, and taking apart the old ones. After two days using a screwdriver, I felt like I was developing rheumatoid arthritis in my right hand. There are still some red spots on my hand from the screwdriver, nearly a week later.
This week, I began reading through the Psalms. I had been reading a Proverb a day since July, and so I felt like I needed to change things up a bit. So I started reading the Psalms. We as a team found out that one of our church members reads a Psalm every night. I thought it might be the perfect opportunity to further engage and encourage them in Christ. Since we would both be reading the Psalms, we could share ones that stuck out to us in the week. Later I found out they do not read the Psalms in any order, however, I still feel that I can encourage them through my reading of it also. This will also encourage me and push me to not simply read the text, but to study it, mull it over in my mind. I've heard people use the illustration of a cow chewing its cud as what we should do as Christians with the Word of God. We should read it and take it in, then a little while later, bring it back up into our minds, and think on it some more.
Throughout this week, I have been preparing for today. Today was marked on our calendars here as the day that I would preach at the church on the estate. For those of you who don't know, I never preached before in my entire life. While my training in university has made me comfortable with talking in front of people. This was a whole new animal to try and wrangle. My experience with public speaking has been with sub-10 minute speeches. The majority were under 3 minutes, and about the weather. This one was expected to be 15+ minutes. Thankfully, God has placed an illustration on my heart for children early in my time here. This illustration was to describe what it means to be a Christian. I was able to in a way, use the illustration through the text I was given. For those who are curious, the text was Luke 18:9-14. This passages talks about the Pharisee and the tax collector. I focused on how they approached God, and how we should approach God. Well, today was the day. I preached. With the church being made up of mostly non-Christians, specifically, non-Christians with loads of children, there were plenty of distractions. Yet, I was surprised and blessed by how closely some paid attention to the sermon. I know that my voice isn't the most exciting of voices to listen to, and the fact that they listened and paid attention for 15+ minutes (I have no idea how long I preached) is solely something to give the praise and glory to God for. I pray that as they paid attention, that God spoke to them, that they would see for themselves that they can do all they want to look like a Christian to the world (like the Pharisee), but that will not make a lick of difference when they come before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
This weekend I also had the opportunity to speak about Christ and Christianity to a Swedish girl who is working for a local family. She brought the children to a bonfire night we had in Harby. The children come regularly to our Bible study on Friday nights for the youth of Harby. Although she isn't a Christian, or even interested in Christianity, she and I were able to discuss religion, our thoughts on it, and also through our discussion we talked about holidays, in Sweden, England and America. I was able to tell a little bit about why we celebrate Christmas, and Easter. I pray something sticks with her, and that she would start to ask questions, to herself, as well as to the family she works for, who are also Christian.
I know there are not any pictures in this week's update. However, I plan on having loads of pictures tomorrow, as this coming Saturday, we are going to London as a team! There is also plan to go on the London Eye. If that is the case, there will be LOADS of pictures.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)