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up 27 November 1999
Hello There Everyone!
It's been a long time since April (the last time I put something on the web page!) Life has been busy but I've been wanting to update you all this whole time and Thanksgiving break has finally provided that opportunity. So here goes...:-)
Last I wrote I had pretty much just gotten home and was looking forward to the summer and trying to figure out what to do in the fall. Well, fall found me at Eugene Bible College in Eugene Oregon where I am attending now, but I'll get back to there by telling you what I did before that.
I can't remember how I spent last spring. I know there were some odd jobs I did, but time flew and before I knew it, it was fishing season. I did take a week to visit some colleges which I had spent multiple hours investigating on the internet. I visited 5 schools including, Pacific Life Bible College (the school I thought I liked when I last posted a letter on this page), Multnomah Bible College, Warner Pacific University, Northwest Christian College, and Eugene Bible College. After my initial visits, I revisited Eugene B.C. to confirm the feeling that I had on my first visit that that was where I was supposed to go. Confirmed. I fell in love with it. I could feel God's presence there and I knew it was where I was supposed to be. I went back to AK, applied, got accepted and spent the rest of my summer anticipating my enrollment in the fall.
I spent the summer commercial fishing with my family. God provided sufficiently as usual. In past years my college expenses have been fairly cheap, and our fishing seasons have been fairly poor, but sufficient to pay my way through school, debt free. Well, this past summer, after I had decided to go to a school which cost about twice as much as my other school did, we had our best fishing season ever! catching twice as many fish as the season before! Is God good or what!?! Give Him Praise!
I also got to spend time that spring and summer being involved in a youth group at the parent church to the church I became a part of. My spiritual Dad is the pastor of the new church and I had a great time becoming a part of that, and getting my mom and little sister involved, praise Jesus. (they don't know Him... yet :-)
I left Alaska in early September, went to Oregon and spent a week wilderness hiking/camping in the mountains with an old college friend of mine. We studied through the book of Romans in the mornings and evenings. Our hike was 40+ miles. It was great. I then spent a week working on my truck at my siter's house in Seattle and then it was off to the long awaited school!
I arrived and began making friends immediately. We spent a week in orientation, including a overnight retreat for the new students at a camp in the woods. It was a great start to a great year. All the returning students in leadership kept saying how we were a special class. (hmmm. where had I heard that before? :-)
Worship was so free and genuine and God was really moving in even that first week. They hoped it would carry through into the shcool year. It hasn't been as mighty and powerful as we had hoped but there is still potential and there are a growing handful of us who are praying to see God finish what was started in the fall.
At times I get frustrated with the seemingly carefree attitude toward small sin, but I've realized that all the students there are at such different places in their walks with Him and have such different backgrounds that what I may have convictions about may not even cross their minds. I've stopped praying that everyone would live up to my standards (that wasn't my direct prayer, but it is what I implied) but rather that Jesus would meet each student where they are at and grow deeper in their relationship with Him. It is from that deepening of relationship with Jesus that their lives will change. I have been spending my Thanksgiving break with my unsaved brother and sister and their girlfriend and boyfriend, and I have realized how blessed it is to live in the community of believers that I do at school.
That reminds me of being on the ship with all of you. It has crossed my mind many times how annointed that time really was. I remember Stephen and Belinda saying that it was an annointed time because of the choice we all had made to sacrafice that portion of our lives for the Lord. It truly was. It was like the cloud of His presence envelopped the whole ship whereever it went. I long for a time like that again. We were so protected from the enemy's attacks. Now, out in the real world, even at a Bible College, Satan hits hard and it isn't easy, but remembering times like ours on the ship reminds me that God is good and is bigger than the enemy. I need that reminder to live as more than a conquerer. The enemy gets us to think that life is supposed to be powerless and we are supposed to struggle with him all the time, when the truth is that life is supposed to be filled with Power from on high and we are really free from the clutches of the enemy. Wow, we need to realize that and walk in it!!! Help us Lord!
Eugene Bible College is on the edge of the city of Eugene, OR. population 1,000,000. Eugene is a very liberal city. It is known for its state university, the University of Oregon and for its liberality. I like it a lot. EBC is a small school, only about 225 total students with 50 of those being night students or extended programs students. It is an Open Bible (denomination) College. Open Bible is a charismatic/pentecostal demoniation much like Assemblies of God and Foursquare. I really love the school. I pretty much know all the students now and have made many, many friends.
The classes I'm taking are Early Church History (studying the Book of Acts), Bible Study Method, Hermeneutics (the science of Biblical interpretation- Jonny would be proud of me taking those last two classes :-), Old Testament Survey, and Writing 121 (yuk!).
My major right now is Youth Ministry, but I may change to Christian Counseling or Biblical Studies or maybe even Pastoral Studies, but no matter what my major, I'm pretty sure I want to start out in Youth Ministry when I graduate. I hope to graduate in three years including this one. I got a little less than a year worth of credits when I transferred from my old school. Boy am I thankful not to be studying math anymore!!! I love what I am studying. It is so awesome to be studying the Word of God for credit! I actually like school! Don't get me wrong, the work is hard and sometimes it gets to be a drag, but I just remind myself that I really do want to be doing it and it gets better. They do keep us plenty busy though.
Well, that's enough for now. I'll be going home for Christmas (I'll be in Alaska for a white Christmas again!!! Christmas last year in the African mountains just wasn't the same. It will be so good to be home!) That will probably be the next time I'll check my email so if you want to write me back I'd love to hear from you. I hope everyone is doing well in the hands of the Lord. God Bless You.
In His Grip, always, your brother in Christ,
Trevor
P.S. Just think, at this time last year we were in Conakry!
up 18 April 1999
Hello everyone!
I got myself an email address up here in Alaska, (yes, we have computers in our igloos.) and I wanted to give you all my address a send you a short note to let you know how I'm doing.
After five days in London, spending nights with Katanyas parents, a day traveling, two nights and a day with, Irene, Rebekka, Elsbeth and Oliver in Switzerland (we got to go skiing!!!)(I snowboarded Brent, of course :) ), and another day traveling back to Belgium, I flew back to the states, spent 10 days visiting my sister and my college friends, and then went home to Alaska to catch the tail end of winter. It has snowed a few times and I got to go snomobiling. It is great to be home.
A lot of my time has been spent catching up on things after DTS, like writing my final correspondence letters to my supporters and friends.
I spent almost all of my first two weeks while I was home watching my brother Levi finish his senior basketball season. That was really great.
Now I'm looking for job to get me through until the commercial salmon fishing season which starts in June. I have some leads on some good ones - the Lord is providing. Praise Him.
I've been getting involved in a baby church who my awesome friend and spiritual father, Dave Kuiper is shepherding. I am excited to be a part of a very cool thing God is doing here.
This fall it looks like I'll be going to Bible College. I have my eye on a college in Vancouver, Brittish Columbia, Canada called Pacific Life Bible College. Not quite in Larry's neck of the woods but in Canada anyway. I'm not 100% sure about that yet, but I like the feel of it.
I don't plan on sending another mass email like this, but I wanted to get my email address to you all because it wasn't on the address sheet.
Do any of you have an email address for any of the others who didn't put one on the list? Like Larry, Beth, Oliver, Irene, Ulrike, Kathy, Charles, Elsbeth, and Barbara? I'd be happy to have them if any of you guys have them.
I have one other info request too. If any of you have the address for the church in Labe, if you could send it to me I would really appreciate it. Thanks.
Well, I'd love to hear from you guys. Do you have that web page up yet Olivier? I've been looking forward to that. God Bless all of you.
I pray that you are trusting the Lord and He is leading you in what you are doing. I hope all is well on the ship too and that the Lord is blessing you there. I'd love to hear from you guys and look forward to it.
In Him, Trevor
P.S. Isn't Deb's Journal Great!!!
P.P.S. If any of you wanted pictures from me, remind me and I'll get them too you.