A blast from the past-OT Lit.

Sir Don Taylor came by this week and tossed a tongs fill of burning coals in my lap. Hot, scorching coals of desire for more information on Old Testament Literature.

My expectations were low for this class at the beginning which I dub as something to be good in this case. It made for a greater increase of love for what Don invited us to learn. Even as I read scripture for pre-class work, I was gaining an appreciation for what this course was going to teach me. Because we discussed the entire OT in the time period of only a week, the depth was not, how would I say this, "deep enough". Though it gives me hope in that now I see clearly what I can learn through self studying of scripture by using the major and minor points that Don taught. I can hardly wait before getting time to read large passages of OT text and applying what I learned in my on studies.

During this class, we were asked to put together a film of the entire OT in an overview. The task was not exactly difficult but took a fair amount of time to conclude. The fun of acting and watching what other classmates ideas were made this assignment well worth finishing and hopefully it will make its way onto the kaleoseven.blogspot.com page. Here's a couple of photos

Lighting of the torches

Emma Furfarro

Group photo

Warrior pose

Jeremy Derksen

This last photo is essentially the most epic. Not only is it quite intense and almost straight out of something like the movie 300, but he is by far my best friend here. My first impression of Jeremy was when he was helping others carrying bags and I was already unpacked and just standing in the foyer. He walked by and introduced himself as Jeremy and I just stood there starring at him as he walked by. Not a great start to the year. His first impression of me was that I hated him because I didn't say anything and only starred at him. Pretty funny now. We have had some great conversations since then. Really, the first and definitely best one was when we were scheduled for night watch on the Pacific Grace during the week of sailing. It was a chilly, cloud scattered, moonlit night. Like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean, and we just poured out our testimonies to each other. Since then we have been able to have some devotions together, scripturally encourage each other, pray for one another, and have some great and crazy time like filming a movie about God.

This weeks prayer requests: I feel too comfortable. In some ways this is good. I am usually on schedule as far as homework goes. But in the beginning of the year, not being completely comfortable gave me more of a dependancy on God. I now feel like that dependancy has begun to lose its focus on God and shift. Pray that God challenges me or does something to bring back my focus and dependancy on Him. Also, that the friendship between Jeremy and I may flourish and strengthen to something like David and Jonathan, that is may hope and dream. Throughout this semester I have had a burden for the homeless and broken people in surrounding communities as you may have received through past blog posts. I hope do be helping them out through the rest of my life time in whatever place physically or job wise that I am in. What I'm getting at is that I have declined the olympics and will not be joining most of the Kaleoers on that missions trip. I believe I have felt the just Lord's calling towards some other kind of street ministry. We are unsure of the exact location at this time but it could be anywhere form Victoria to Mexico. There has also arisen the possibility that I may go to India after all as well. A Kaleo alumni group will be returning to India in the late April early May time of year. We have not much more knowledge than that to say though. Pray for the Lord's will be done.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Mark