Just a few pictures with remarks at the bottom… posting this update from a McDonald’s wifi during a quick evening trip into town so I don’t have a lot of time to gab…

Mike holding the shovel as the backhoe loosens up the shale. Bro Robert (red shirt) and I are going to install all the plumbing for this outhouse in three days

Mike knocking out the concrete wall so we can install air vents for the vault

Air vents installed and leveled (that took a lot of work!) My job was to bevel the edges of the green pipes and slick them up with dishsoap so that we could shove them into the white pipes... and I did all the digging too lol

View of the camp from our worksite. We are building a restroom/washroom on the edge of the opposite mountain where the entrance to camp is. Hopefully this will be done by next year.

I got to help on the tail end of this project. The camp has their own sawmill where they cut boards from logs and then trim them into lumber. Here we are residing the "trading post" with the fresh-milled wood. Looks cool huh?

I never thought I would see the day where I would be dressed in cowboy boots, cowboy clothes and a cowboy hat, but that day came on Sunday when the camp director took us all to church to promote the Camp Cookout complete with cowboy attire.

Mike, Katie and I left at 1AM Saturday morning to drive to Treasure Mountain Bible Camp and arrived at 8:30PM. All I can say is that Colorado is amazing and that this is an amazing camp and I am so excited to see what God is going to do here this summer. I can already tell that we are going to work really well together as a team and the snow is already melted off so we don’t have to worry about that fact.

Bird's-eye View of Camp From Hiking Trail

It was an amazing trip! The only mishap was that I left my wallet on the back of my trunk when we were filling up at a really old-fashioned gas station out in the middle of Utah. It fell off when we drove away and I didn’t realize it was missing until I went to purchase my meal at Denny’s in a town 30 miles down the interstate. Mike remembered seeing it on the back of my trunk at the gas station (and it is even in the picture that we took!). I didn’t want to drive all the way back just on a whim so I asked the waiter if she knew the name of the town and she did. To make a long story short, we got a hold of the owner and he found it out in the gravel parking lot. What a blessing! An hour later we passed the Denny’s restaurant again on our way to Colorado.

See my wallet perched on the edge of the trunk? Yeah... it fell off driving away

Here is a picture album of all the pictures so far … I don’t have time to explain each one but they are amazing…

I am finishing up this blog post at Glenwood Springs Baptist Church in Glenwood Springs which is just off of I-70 which goes through the middle of CO. This is the town we go to church in every Sunday and get supplies for the week as well as make phone calls and check email.

So long parner!

Finals are over! My first complete year at West Coast is concluded and I can’t even begin to retell all of the amazing events that shaped this “epic” period in my life; so many life changes in so little time. It is useless to try to gauge how much knowledge I gained this year, but instead maybe I can gauge how many habits I established and attitudes I developed towards ministry, my relationship with the Lord, how I serve others, and towards myself. Knowledge comes and goes based on the strength of the mind, but habits and character are from impressions on the heart. These impressions developed first from nagging questions in my heart as I saw my life in sharp contrast to the lives of pastors, missionaries, evangelists, parents, fellow students, and personal friends who had an evident, spirit-filled and spirit-led walk with the Lord. How can I follow the Great Shepherd when I don’t understand the proper role of authorities in my life? How can I pray like I ought when I don’t desire a personal relationship with my Savior? How I reconcile the dying masses to their Savior when I don’t understand my responsibility in the great commission? How do I discern what is acceptable or unacceptable to the Lord when our culture has reversed so many norms? The answers to these questions were slow in coming because they could only be answered as I was willing to be diligent in searching for wisdom (Prov 2:4), asking for it continually (James 1:5), and waiting on God to answer. I have been surprised how much God has taught me personally through my daily devotions and regular church sermons from Pastor Chappell. Some of the most significant lessons this semester have not been from my classes, but from these personal lessons. It is a tremendous blessing and exciting to see!

Besides the obvious spiritual developments, I also made some awesome memories with my roommates, friends and church family. The highlight of this semester was when my church youth group drove down from Oregon for the Youth Conference Event. It was so amazing seeing my church friends on campus with me and getting to see them have a little taste of what college life has been for me. God blessed with several decisions being made in the hearts of young people, not just in my church, but in the conference as a whole. It was an awesome site seeing the platform overcrowded as teens went forward to make life-changing decisions for the Lord.

Here are most of the men from my church youth group. WCBC alumni and assistant Pastor Nathan Leir is standing in the back middle.

SBT Youth Conference

Here we are having a little fun on the water rides (they are the only ones I wanted to go on .

Raft Ride

Jetstream!

Every spring semester the college has a talent show for all students that want to perform in front of an audience with whatever they think will impress. Here I am with two of friends from my dorm playing Blackberry Blossom bluegrass-style. We called ourselves the “Hicks with Picks” and had a great time… but we didn’t win

Hicks With Picks - WCBC Talent Show

After finals I had some time to relax and play games (like my favorite: Settlers of Catan) with friends and fellow Oregonians

Oregonian Friends After Finals

Graduation week was a little sad because I had to say goodbye to the class of 2012 and many seniors that I became good friends with and helped encourage me in the Lord. One particular senior that was a blessing to me was Matt Hodge. He and I did a widow’s visitation ministry together that gave me experience ministering to shut-ins in a way that I wouldn’t have normally had otherwise.

Immediately after graduation I drove a co-worker and college friend of mine to the airport in Ontario which required a drive through the East-side of the desert. I realized as I was driving that this would be the last drive through the desert until the fall. I thought I would take a picture for all of you to see what we see on a daily basis. I won’t see this anymore for several months though!

Mojave Desert

Looking forward to camp and all that God has for me there! Please pray for me.

http://www.tmbiblecamp.org/index.html

I was blessed to have two days away from school to help Amazing Grace Mission evangelist Rob Holm and Pastor Tracey Ross at the World Ag Expo. They boast that it is the world’s largest farm show and I believe it! Second to the California State Fair, I haven’t seen so many people walk in front of our 3-door display as I did during the last two days. I was excited that I got to go through the Gospel with at least 20 individuals each day. Most of the time it was in groups of 2 or 3, but on one occasion occasion I witnessed to 5 FFA girls who were all about 17 years old. That was especially neat because one of the girls was a Christian, but the rest of her friends were Catholic, and she clearly wanted her friends to hear the Gospel and was an active helper.

Each fair I work at there is some aspect of the Gospel that seems to be a real stickler for people to understand and believe. At this fair an unusually high number of people didn’t understand that when Jesus died to pay for our sins, he died to pay for all the sins in the world forever. I also noticed that I was “out of shape” in my Scripture knowledge and referencing and it seemed like by the time I got back into the groove the event was over. Nothing like stepping into the spiritual battles of lost people to reignite a desire for Scripture memory and meditation.

Finally, I noticed the great need in people’s lives for biblical pastoring and this stoked the flame for learning as much as I can about this from good Pastors. So much need in the world for preachers of sound doctrine who are willing and able to preach the whole counsel of God. By God’s grace I want to be that man.

I rejoice to announce that finals week is upon us and I will be going home for winter break in one day!!!! Today, in celebration, our room got together and went out bowling and then had In-N-Out burgers for supper. It was amazing! Here are some pics. Oregon bound!

My roommate Ramero inviting me to his house for thanksgiving break and it has proved to be an awesome experience. On wednesday we headed to LA to meet his family. His mother greeted us and heated up homemade tamales for us. We setup camp in his back room and then went to the LA auto show. I am not a big car fan but I was amazed at the amount of work that went into making the car show spectacular. I kept noticing how professional and extreme everything was. Here are a few pics to get the idea.

Thanksgiving Day

Ramiro’s Uncle had the entire family over for thanksgiving dinner as he traditionally does. Ramiro’s father is from a family of 13 and his mother is from a family of 12. There were 40 chairs set out at the extra long dinner table. We had the usual turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing; but we also had some killer steak, green bean salad, ham, and unlimited Marie Calendar’s pies (Ramiro’s dad manages their restaurants). I was so welcomed into their family and felt as if I had always been a part. After the dinner they let me play pool with them in their garage. It has been a long time since I have been able to do that.

Black Friday

Romero and I did not want to do very much shopping so we slept in while everyone waited in line for their cloths and video games. His mom made some breakfast with fried tortillas and eggs which was really good. Then we went with Romero’s sisters and friends to buy suits in downtown LA. They know of some cool shops that sell good suits for cheap so I picked up a navy blue suit for $65 which was a pretty good deal. Later that night we went to the youth pastor’s home for fellowship and enjoyed several board games and leftover turkey. All of Romero’s friends and family were very welcoming and friendly.

Saturday

If Wednesday through Friday wasn’t packed enough, Saturday just added more to the pile. We started the day with the Spanish ministry soul winning meeting which was attended by over 200 people and preceded by a Mexican continental breakfast complete with Conches (sweet bread) and beverages. After the soul winning meeting we split into groups and went door knocking around Long Beach. This worked up an apatite so the gang went to Tommy’s Burgers and had chili cheese hamburgers and fries. After that we did a little clothes shopping around Long Beach and then went to a birthday party (the Pastor’s 2-year-old grandson). It was well attended as can be seen from the pictures. The food was wonderful and the fiesta–muy bien. When this was over we went to the “Juevenes” which is the Spanish youth group. The youth pastor preached a powerful message about conforming to the world which was translated into English using these fancy wireless headsets that we got a picture in. It felt awkward sitting in church and having the message translated into your language. Now I know how a lot of other people feel. Afterwards the guys played basketball until 930. Phew! I need some rest!

I thought it would be high time I provide a photo update of a couple of activities we have been up to since I have time on my Thanksgiving break to get on the internet.

Towards the beginning of the break we went on a field trip to the Reagan Library, which is a museum dedicated to the life of President Ronald Reagan. I thought the most interesting thing in the museum was the part about his experience working for GE communications where he got a lot of experiencing working with the common people and solving problems.  My absolute most favorite part of the whole place was the piece of the Berlin wall outside in the back courtyard. I got a picture of that.

Several weeks later we went to the Santa Monica Pier. I got to walk on the California beach and write my brother a note while sitting in the sand. It was a nice diversion from the norm .

We also had the opportunity to go to Tom Cantor’s creation museum which was previously belonging to the Institute for Creation Research. They needed to sell it and Tom Cantor was willing to purchase it. The most interesting part was the butterfly exhibit. A Christian couple collected every single one of those butterflies and then donated them to the museum. Here are some pics.

Recently we went on a hike on top of a rock formation near Lake LA where we are doing door knocking. The desert is peculiarly fascinating to me and I enjoy studying its beauty and biology when I get a chance.