We're Breaking, When Does Spring Arrive?


Today began my spring break from studies here at Bethlehem Seminary. While we're happy to see the six foot high snow banks melting down to the size of small shrubbery - when does spring arrive? I saw some red-headed sparrows outside my window this morning, but when does spring arrive? My wife is now wearing flip-flops on a daily basis, but when does spring arrive? My running shoes are feeling neglected, when does spring arrive?


I think it's like a lot of things in our walk with God, we wake up one morning and somethings we've been longing for are here. We struggle and fight and pray for more faith and one day face a trial where we notice - it's here, although still imperfect. We long and fight and pray for release from a besetting sin that almost seems to be part of our personality and one day we feel its grip released, though it remains crouching at the doorstep.


These are vague generalizations, proverbs if you will. But what's most important is that one day soon I'll wake up and cast off the mantle of winter because spring is here. Even so, come Lord Jesus, we await the eternal spring of your presence.


From the sublime to the... well, you can label them...

We got a little fussy, so the bottle became a prop.

My new favorite place to play, the couch!

Why is this monkey attached to my pants?

Dad builds with blocks and I eat them.

Mum, could you fetch the Rolls-Royce for me?

So it Begins!


Even though we've been offline lately, many of you have been keeping up with us and know about our new language learning venture.  About one month ago we began a basic curriculum in preparation for my studies in Israel this summer. (Rachel's doing the pre-course studies with me :-)  If you have time you can watch this video and see how we're learning biblical Hebrew.



It's a basic audio-lingual method that helps you connect the meaning straight to the target language without translation.  This helps get the language inside the learner instead of learning about the language as some sort of external entity.


Today I just sent in my registration for 6 weeks of study in Israel where this curriculum will be followed up by 8 hour days of immersion in Biblical Hebrew.  We'll target the books of Genesis and Jonah during those six weeks of class time, personal study, field trips, and other interaction with speakers of modern Hebrew in the community.  Lord willing this will be followed up by two years of teach Hebrew here at Bethlehem, a master's thesis, and beyond that as the Lord would see fit to use us... (feel free to contact us if you want more details :-)


Meanwhile, we're making plans for Rachel and Benaiah to be in Michigan over the summer with Rachel's family.  She'll be teaching swim lessons and enjoying summer-time in the country. (It can get pretty hot here in Minneapolis.)  So, please pray for us as we make this venture out of our comfort zones as we follow God step by step.  Pray for focus and endurance as we face this summer.  Pray for financial provision as we have some funds saved but not the full amount and will need to raise some support.  Pray for us to hear his voice more clearly over the summer as we seek his direction for our time beyond seminary.


And as for Benaiah, he just keeps on smiling and swimming.  Kick, buddy, kick!

Star Student!

The Little Monkey Fell Asleep

Trying to Play with Dad's Books