It's begun

So we're 37 weeks pregnant and I (Melissa) went to the doctor today for one of my normal appointments. Everything is as usual. I'm measuring a little small still but within the normal range. I'm dialated 2 cm and she said I could go really any time. I've been experiencing cramping for the last week so I know my body has been getting ready, just like it did with Noah. I'm not really sure I'm ready for labor again though....

And speaking of which, they informed me today that the hospital requires a doctor to deliver me as opposed to a midwife, which I'm not a fan of. Midwives are always so much more personal. Plus, probably 5 of the 6 in the practice would let my sister actually deliver the baby, so that would be fun (since she's a midwife...just not in Columbus). So please pray that all the details of labor/delivery would get worked out so that I can have a midwife again like I did with Noah. It was such a good experience and I'm hoping for a similar one with this baby.

It's hard to believe that we're 3 weeks away from our due date. Where did the time go? I think the baby's room is ready and the car seats are ready as of today, but what on earth? How do you really prepare for things like this? I have no idea. But we have decided on names. Levi for a boy and Leah for a girl. It was a pretty easy decision once we finally sat down and talked about it. Bart's kind of picky. :)

So please pray for us. We need it. We need grace to approach this new journey we're about to embark on. And Noah will have a transition as well. We're praying he handles it as well as a toddler can. He's a champ though, so I think he'll be ok. We're not too sure about ourselves though.....haha

Taking the plunge

I'm going to purchase a Mac. I think. Pretty sure. Pretty hesitant, but I'm going to do it! Maybe. Yes. Perhaps.

We've been having all sorts of computer issues lately and we're both just kind of tired of it. A couple weeks ago we got the "blue screen of death" on our laptop, which, in the following days, became more frequent. Sometime last week the machine decided to just stop starting up all together. We start it up and get nothing. It's pretty irritating. It also puts a damper on quite a few things we were doing/planning to do including working on our support raising a little bit. Sort've a bummer that we had this month to raise support for our ministry (and probably this month only with a new baby coming in a few weeks) and it's halted by computer issues. It's also tough to do my current job, which is coaching one year missionaries on their support raising when I can't keep anything organized because our machine is falling apart. Thank you Lord that you are sovereign and all this will turn out fine; it's just irksome in the meantime to have our "control" taken away. We're growing :)

I promise I will talk about outreach week because it was a great week. I'll do that soon.

Greek is going well. It's starting to sink in a little bit more and more each day, and its becoming quite fun to see words that I recognize quite frequently in the New Testament. The language really isn't that hard. I find it easier than French and Azerbaijani.

All boy

I like to rough house with Noah, so why wouldn't we swing nice and high?

As you can hear at the end, Melissa wasn't super thrilled about it!

Random thoughts from this morning:

Great time in the Word this morning. I read Acts, yeah all of it. Then Galatians. Then James 1-3.

Spent a significant time with the Lord trying to work out the "faith v works" stuff that's been going on in my head lately. I've been having a few discussions with Hop (our neighbor and fellow staff member) about NT Wright and the "New perspective on Paul" and I've just been trying to get a grip on the entire debate/discussion really. I'm not going to jump in because frankly I just still don't know much about it.

Here's what I've been gathering this morning (and part of yesterday's study as well). I think Paul wrote Galatians around 49 AD, which is significant because it was before the Jerusalem council in Acts 15. It's significant because Paul seems to be on the defense of his apostleship/gospel validity a great deal in Galatians. Also, a commentator I was reading from yesterday even made a hint that seemed to say that he believed probably even James wasn't sure what to think of Paul or this perceived new gospel that he seemed to preach. Perhaps the "judaizers" and "men from James" were the same people? Perhaps they just went a little further than James gave them instructions to do?

I think the heresy Paul is addressing to the Galatians is not so much "Do good works to make yourself right with God" as it is "Do good works to remain right with God." These Judaizers or "men from James" seemed to think that once you were redeemed by grace for free, to remain "in Christ" means to live lives in accordance with the law. Make sense? Paul's answer is, no! You're made right gracefully by placing your faith in Christ. You remain right by gracefully placing your faith in Christ which works itself out in acts of love. It is in Christ alone that we are redeemed, so add nothing.

Then looking at James it seems he is in agreement. He essentially says, "Want to know if the faith you profess is genuine? Look at the works." James doesn't adhere to a "faith by works" system, but one that starts and ends with faith as the thing that makes us right. He is simply clarifying what that faith is, namely, that it's not just profession.

So what pierced my heart is the goodness of God this morning in giving himself to be the redeemer of a lost people. Having redeemed us, he then gives us the privilege of being His witnesses. I get to live out that goodness in being a loving witness, both to those inside my circles (family, friends) and those way outside.

I hope my writing is adequate enough to convey theological truth with any hint of clarity whatsoever, but fear that it is not. Oh well.

Our current lives

More on the spring outreach tomorrow. For now I'll catch anyone that reads this up on our lives.

Noah is huge. Around 30 pounds and the dude knows how to throw it around. We're starting to have a lot more son/daddy roughhousing and I'm a huge fan of that. He is nearly 2! He's saying all kinds of stuff and getting much better at communicating. He has this big truck that tows other cars around and that's been his favorite toy lately; he loves stacking the cars on there and towing them around. Also loves eating rocks.

Our summer assignment is coaching our interns and stinters (those going on one-year mission trips abroad) on their support raising. It's a job I rather enjoy actually. It's fun to have a front row seat during this process of their lives and watching God show up. Our movement is sending 13 students overseas for the next year to plant ministries! In total we're coaching 21 students throughout the summer. It's keeping us pretty busy. We're actually not even quite done with school yet, OSU's finals week is next week, so we've been pretty busy lately trying to begin to coach those in support raising and simultaneously finish up the year.

We're due July 12th for baby number two. Pretty sure it'll come early and we're ok with that solong as it's not really early.

I'm training for the columbus marathon and sometimes I think I'm nuts. Just got back from a 3 mile trek. Also started up Koine (New Testament) Greek and I've been loving that lately. Seriously.

We just spent our 5th anniversary getting a hotel in Lima this past weekend. Sad, I know, but it was actually quite a good time. We went there because we could drop Noah off at Melissa's parents and already be at our destination. We didn't want to have to spend our little time together traveling or anything. It was awesome to have about 36 hours of unhindered Melissa time. Man I love my wife.