Verse 3

So I should probably admit that this memory verse project has been harder than I expected. Even though I'm one month in, I'm finding that I haven't made it part of my daily routine, which is really the key to learning these verses well. I hope to improve this time around. So, here's my third verse, Colossians 1:17:

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

Church Update

Today we visited BG Covenant Church for the third time, and I think we'll go back again next week and try to check out some of their home groups to see if we can meet some more people. The first week we went, they had an update from a missionary they support, so we didn't get to hear the pastor speak. We went back last week, and were invited to lunch at one of the elder's homes, along with the pastor and his wife. We were really impressed by the hospitality. Today, we enjoyed the worship and the teaching, so we thought we'd try and get more plugged in. I may have mentioned here that I've been discouraged that we haven't found a church home yet, but I'm optimistic that this might be it. We'll see what happens...

Week 3

It's amazing to think that the third week of school is already halfway over. Things have kind of been a blur since the semester began. I haven't really posted all that much about teaching here lately, so here's some updates.

I'm teaching two sections of the same writing class I taught in the fall and two speaking/listening classes for graduate students. One of those is the graduate version of the speaking/listening class I taught in the fall and the other is totally new to me. On one hand, I'm really enjoying teaching the writing class again. It's nice to have a better grasp on the big picture. However, since I have a few students repeating the course, I have to make the major assignments different, and I'm trying to make sure they don't find the day-to-day too boring. The other big downside is that my classes are huge. The undergrad ESL classes are supposed to be capped at 15 students; last semester, my biggest writing class was only 12 (which was a really nice number). This time, I have one class of 15 and another of 18. My colleague who teaches the third section of this class has 18, too. It seems like a small difference, but in the classroom (particularly the ones we use), it feels significant. So, I'm having to re-think a lot of things just to accomodate/manage the bigger class.

In contrast, my intermediate speaking class (the one I taught last semester, too) has only 4 students. So I have the opposite problems. So far, they've been excellent with attendance, which helps. I'm hoping the extra attention will help the students to learn more, but it's much harder to create energy. The last class is normal--9 students (since it's graduate level, it's capped at 10). I think that class will become more and more fun to teach, once we get through the introductory part.

I hope it doesn't sound too much like I'm complaining...there have certainly been some frustrating moments so far, but I still love what I do. I also have some fantastic students, and I've been interacting more with some of the other teachers. Lots of challenges, but I also have support.

So, what's going on besides school? Well, we're still checking out churches. I'm so ready to find a church home, and I hope we do very soon. We've been getting a little bit of snow here and there, but no major problems on the road this week. Also, I've been invited to join a little book club, which I'm pretty excited about. We're still choosing our book, but I think it should be a fun once we get going. I think that covers it...

Snow

We got some more snow this week. It was also the first week of school, which is why I didn't find time to post these pics any earlier. Basically, it snowed all day on Tuesday so that by Wednesday morning, we had about 5 inches. I also had an 8:30 class to teach, but we made it to school without incident. I actually thought they did a better job with snow removal this time around (compared to when we had the 3-4 inches during finals week). In general, I'm still trying to enjoy the weather as much as I can. Here's the pics. The first one is meant to show the giant icicles on our window. The others were taken on my walk home from school.

Verse 2

I had some trouble thinking of my second verse for the scripture memory project. As I looked through a little book I have with collections of verses by theme, those on the topic of "comfort" stood out to me. In the last week, I found out that the mother of one of my students recently passed away (he's been home with his family this week, so I haven't even met him yet), and last night I heard that the father of a student I used to work with in the student ministry at H-town passed away. In light of our own losses of loved ones in the last couple of years, I have especially been praying for God's comfort for these families. 2 Thessalonians 3:16 seems like a perfect verse to meditate on and pray for them:

"Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all!"

Pictures from Christmas Break

Here's a collection of pictures I took over Christmas Break. First, the cookies I baked for the Mother-Daughter Tea and the rest of the lovely food/table setting:

Here's the peanut butter and chocolate dessert I made when we went to Matt & Meg's. I spruced up the decorations for Christmas:

Mom and I had a really tasty lunch and milkshakes at the Rodeo Grill.

Here's the super tricky murder mystery puzzle that Katie and I started and Diana slaved away on to finish.

When we went to visit Damon and Diana after Christmas, we got to see Diana's office:

We got some snow while we were there, too. Notice the birds chowing down on the berries in this tree (outside the kitchen window):

On our last day there, Diana and I went to see the King Tut exhibit. We couldn't take any pics inside, but we did take a few on our way out of the Denver Art Museum. Notice the interesting modern art--keeping the streets clean, I guess.

A New Year Begins

I haven't taken much time to reflect on the past year, but it sure brought a lot of changes for us! I imagine I've already written here about most of the big stuff, but it's still amazing to think of where the Lord has brought us over the last 12 months. I'm thankful for Mark's doctoral program in BG and all the great people he works with. I'm thrilled with my job and the great colleagues I have. We're also blessed by our families and friends, and by the technology that allows us to stay in touch. While I worry about some uncertainties we face in the coming months, I have certainly seen God's hand in our lives all along. With that in mind, I've chosen Philipians 4:6-8 (NASB) as my first memory verse for this year.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethern, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.