CSBS

In case you have not heard, I made it safely to Hawaii on the 17th. I have been loving every second of being back in this beautiful place. The Lord has been confirming over and over that this is what I am supposed to do, and has been blessing me in little ways. The immeasurable joy that I cannot explain has me with this dorky grin on my face that I just can not wipe clean. Life is way too good.

I started class last Tuesday, September 22. By the end of the week, we had had thirty-four hours of class, and done about eight to ten hours of homework. It was a bit overwhelming to do all that in such a short amount of time, but it was good. From Tuesday to Saturday morning, the only thing I really did was sleep, go to class, do homework, and drink coffee. Such is life I suppose.

I have heard from my mother that many of you have been wondering what our study method is here in the Chronological School of Biblical studies. Well....it is a lot. 

We start with reading the book of the Bible that we are currently studying, and when we read it we have to either read it out loud or listen to an audio of it while reading along to it. Once read, we have to go back through and make a paragraph title to every single title in said book. The title cannot be longer than four words and the four words must be taken from the text of the paragraph. The title needs to give one a summary of the paragraph just by reading it. After doing those two things, we do horizontal charts. In this step, we have to separate the book into what we think the chapters should be. This is a step that takes a bit because we have to make sure that everything we put together fits well. Shortly after doing that step, we begin charts. Charts are split into three segments. On the left of the chart, we put observations into the list. In the middle of the chart, we insert in all the words we don't understand and what we have questions on. Which in some books happens to be a lot. On the right side, we put timeless truths and questions/answers. The timeless truths are things that could go as a proverb on a calendar. After we are done with that, we have to put a summary on the bottom of the chart explaining what it is we learned from the chart. We have several charts throughout each book, and it all depends on the size. Jonah had four charts. Every book is different.

So this is a little more knowledge on as to what I have been doing the past week of my life.
As you may have been able to see, my life is rather hectic lately with balancing school and friends, so I would greatly appreciate your prayers. Thank you so much for your support in all of this! 

Two Weeks.

One fortnight. Two weeks. Fourteen days. Three hundred and thirty six hours. Am I really this close to returning to the beautiful island of Oahu? These past six months have flown by for me. I have spent my time working at Cherry Valley Greenhouse, Russ', and for my parents on our farm.

In case you have been unaware of what my plan is for the following year, I plan to fly back to Honolulu on September 17 and participate in a school called the Chronological School of Biblical Studies (CSBS). No, it will not be a vacation as some may think. I will have little time to go down to the beach. I will learn about the context, culture, and history of each book of the Bible. It will be a time consuming school and I will be spending the majority if not all my time studying. The school will be nine months long, and there is an optional two month outreach following the completion of the CSBS.

You may wonder what weaseled into my mind to make me want to do something as crazy as this is. Why would I want to go study in-depth for nine months in Hawaii? When I arrived at DTS last September and met the students who were currently in the CSBS, I vowed to never participate in that school since I hated studying and could not imagine why one would willingly decide to set apart nine months of time for that dedication. God seemed to have another plan for me though. When I was in India, I was doing an ample amount of praying about what I should do after my completion of DTS in March. He had just started to give me a desire to do the CSBS, which I was quite nervous about. One evening I was praying and asked God to just give me a dream about what I was supposed to do. That night, I had a dream about heading back to Hawaii for a school and somehow I knew that it was CSBS. I woke up the following morning with a peace and I knew that this September I would be returning to YWAM Honolulu to continue my studies.

To all who have donated money-THANK YOU SO MUCH. I would not have this opportunity to go and learn without all of you. I am so incredibly appreciative of it. If you would still like to support me, I am still in need of at least $3000 for this school. Prayers are another big thing I will be needing for the duration of this school, seeing as it will be extremely challenging for me. Pray for the continued desire to learn more and for motivation to not get discouraged when it becomes hard and I am tired of studying. Also that I would have a great support system to encourage me and to press on as it talks about in Philippians 3:14. "I press on toward the goal to win the prize which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

I am immensely excited to be able to return back to the YWAM Honolulu base to continue my studies. To be able to truly know what the Bible is saying and not just what I take from it will be a gift and I cannot wait to increase in knowledge. Once again, thank you!