Visit Conclusion

I can't remember the last time this happened, but I'm actually writing this week's entry on the day, and even  time, it normally goes out. The last few days have been busy and have not allowed me to write early, but they were good days.

Friday, my friend John came to visit for a few days and brought his oldest son, TJ. It has been a couple years since John came long enough to stay overnight, let alone bring his son. He stopped for a quick day visit last year,but that was it.

TJ is now 11 and old enough to have conversations with, but still plays games. He had an older version of farming simulator on his iPad, so I had fun teaching him farming basics. However, one reason John came this weekend was to hear me preach.

Today was the end of my three week preaching stint and the final assignment for the preaching class I've been taking. I gave the same message last week for practice, but today was recorded and what I will be handing in, if I can figure out how. I think I covered the majority of the requirements, except changing my tone of voice and having a suspenseful pause. I attempted to do more "body movement" than I normally do, but I don't know if it will count. I hope I will get a passing grade at least, but I'm preparing myself to get a bad rating as well.

After nearly 12 weeks of reading books and watching lectures, I'm somewhat glad to be finished. I can't say I learned a lot of new information, but did get a better appreciation of preaching and am more able to look at a passage and prepare a message. If I have more opportunities for similar, I will likely take advantage of them. However, I will give it a few months in order to get further caught up on my reading and personal study.

Living the quad life, I'm thankful for what I've been enabled to do and close friends to share life with. None of us know what a day may bring, but the past few have been fun. Now, I start a new week with hardly any nights covered and a day empty as well.