As far as school, I’m continuing to learn a lot. Not really much else going on to speak of, because the workload is quite a bit more than I anticipated. I’m enjoying it, but I’m extremely thankful that I’m not working right now while I adjust. I thought I was going to ease into things by taking a “light load” of 11 units. Along with all the lectures, notes and papers, my four classes require 4,250 pages of reading. So basically, that’s what I’ve been up to. Thankfully I’m taking a rapid reading class which is supposed to double my speed and increase my comprehension. So with the time savings it will be as if I only have 2,125 pages. Much less intimidating. I think I’m going to try to start making a weekly log of book reviews as I finish them so that I have a record of what I’ve read, and you all at home can get a glimpse of how my time is being spent. Here goes.

Introducing Christian Education: Foundations for the Twenty-first Century

This was the first textbook for my Christian Ed coursework, and it was basically an overview of all the different areas and topics that are classified under the umbrella of Christian Education, from philosophies and methods of education, to small groups and singles ministry. Very informative and it moved pretty quickly because each chapter is written by a different author who specializes in a different area. The only thing that bummed me out about this one was that I stayed up until the early morn hours to finish it for the due date on the syllabus, only to have the prof say the next morning in class, “You don’t have to report any of your reading until the end of the semester. The deadlines are just a guideline to help you schedule your reading out, but as long as you get it all done it doesn’t matter when you do it.” Thanks.

The Grace Awakening

This was the first book I had to read for a class called “Spiritual Life”, which is basically an intro on how to live out your faith on a daily basis, or in syllabus speak, “To understand Biblical, theological and pastoral dimensions of the doctrines, dynamics and disciplines of the spiritual life in preparation for a life of godliness and ministry.” Anyway, here’s the gist of the book: Chuck Swindoll hates legalism. So does the Apostle Paul. So does Jesus. Me too. The first half of this book makes the case that salvation and sanctification come by grace, and yet there are many people in the church who give way to legalism, sometimes without realizing it, and often without confronting it. The second half of the book goes into practical ways to live out grace in your life and in your ministry. Good stuff.

Due to said weather, Grace Bible Church was cancelled for my first Sunday here so I decided to visit FellowshipChurch.com, which happens to be both second largest church in the country and about five minutes from my house. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Here’s a brief play-by-play:

• Follow the long line of cars into the gargantuan parking lot, directed along the way by several friendly parking attendants.
• Enter complex through the children’s department, which rivals the set decoration and graphics of any amusement park I’ve ever been to.
• Walk up to the large information booth in the foyer, and get greeted by the singles’ pastor. When asked for a church doctrinal statement, singles’ pastor replies, “We don’t really have that, are you single? Here, take the singles pamphlet.”
• Enter into the main auditorium, complete with theater seating, rocking band, night club light show, and video setup akin to a Hollywood set.
• Listen while the worship team plays 3 songs, very skillfully, while the congregation quietly listens and grooves along.
• Watch the incredibly professional and efficient set change between the music and the message.
• Listen to a 15 minute sermonette by pastor Ed Young, as he talks about the current theme of “Larger Than Life” complete with video interview of Hulk Hogan, and how said theme relates to a fast that the church is doing. And by fast I mean vegetarian diet.
• Listen to pastor’s wife for 10 minutes talk about the challenges of doing the diet while preparing meals for the family.
• Leave the auditorium to a really cool acoustic version of a Switchfoot song.
• Get handed a list of approved foods for the “fast” as I walk out the door.
• Try to to laugh as I think about the irony of a list of approved foods for a fast.
• Browse really well decorated bookstore, containing approx. 3,572 copies of Ed Young books and sermon CDs.
• Walk out to the parking lot in sadness as I think about the current state of the church in America.

This was quite the contrast to my first week week at DTS, which was both very educational and spiritual enriching. I took the advice of Pastor Bob and sat in the front row of all my classes, and I was well rewarded. Sitting under the wisdom of Howard Hendricks has been amazing, and I’m already really excited about my education classes and how applicable they’ll be.

Also of note this week, I bought a new vehicle to get around in the inclimate weather and to learn the inner workings of the Land Rover. That way, when I’m stranded on the side of the road some day in India or Africa, I’ll be able to make the repairs needed to get home with a roll of duct tape and a paper clip. Hopefully this time next week I’ll be able to post some pictures of it along side my sweet ’72 Datsun 510.

I plan to post something significant about my last times in Santa Clarita, the going away party, my new place, life in Dallas, and seminary. But that is for a later time. This will be the official road trip recap. We quickly learned that the governor on our Penske was set at 90mph. We learned this from reading the manual. I promise. To end the suspense, the rooster made it to the beautiful city of Ludlow, California. It was there that he breathed his last, however as you can see in the picture his legs were still firmly attached to the roof when we arrived in Grapevine. The strange part is, about 15 minutes before he left us, we herd a very loud, very distinctive rooster clucking sound coming from above us. Apparently he didn’t approve of the harsh hand that life dealt him.

In this next picture, you can see the ridiculous price we paid for gas in Needles, CA. You know how sometimes if you have a big car the pump shuts off before your tank is full because you hit a certain dollar amount? Well that happened here – only it didn’t shut off until $100. And we didn’t get our full tank. However, I was VERY happy to pay the exorbitant price. Why you ask? Good question. To finish Jeff’s first leg of driving, we ran out of gas in the no man’s land before Needles. This is the hard part to believe – we coasted over 8 miles to the gas station. Go ahead and read that again. Yes, 8 miles. It was crazy, and we have video to prove it. It was mostly down hill, but at one incline we got down to 2mph and almost stopped, but by God’s grace and some creative body momentum, we made it to the next downhill and onto the home of the $3.29 gas.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful – we stopped for dinner and Starbucks in Flagstaff, then drove through the snow all night in New Mexico, then had breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Amarillo before heading down deep in the heart of Texas. That last leg of the trip was pretty fun, we shouted country music lyrics as we drove through the small towns of north Texas, and I had my first encounter with the Texas State Troopers. Which is not the same as the Texas Rangers, and they don’t like it when you call them “Walker”. I got off with a warning though, and honestly I was surprised I even got pulled over because I was only doing about 4 mph over the speed limit. Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come.

The last few days have been pretty crazy getting everything unpacked and the house set up. Our new place is sweet, I’ll post some pictures for everyone (and by everyone I mostly mean mom) to ogle this weekend. Monday night I got to go out to dinner with all the Zellers and my friend Chris Pryor, then last night I had dinner with the Ochoas. I’m already so thankful for the friends the Lord has provided me here. It was really tough moving to Alabama without knowing anybody, and I’m glad I don’t have to go through that whole ordeal again.

A little car news – my Nova is officially sold as of Monday night. I got a price I’m happy with, but I’m really going to miss working on that car. Good times. But now on to new things. Speaking of new things, I went and looked at this car today. I think it may be mine sometime next week. I’ll keep you posted. I’d better get to bed, my first day of school activity is tomorrow. It’s test day. From 9 to 3:30. Should be fun.