Nine Monthiversary

Typical goofy.

Overexposed but still neat-o.

First Dance as Husband and Wife.

The Lord has blessed us with a sweet beginning to our life together, for which we are exceedingly grateful.

"Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exult his name together!"
Psalm 34:3

Tennessee and Georgia with the Mark Dever entourage

Hello friendly readers. Welcome to my first blog post ever.

Last week I had the privilege of traveling to Lookout Mountain, GA, Chatanooga, TN, and Atlanta GA with all of my fellow interns, four Pastoral Assistants from Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Michael Lawrence, Mark Dever, and Matt Schmucker. Mark preached three chapel messages and gave one lecture at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, GA on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. On Friday and Saturday 9Marks put on a workshop for pastors at Concord Baptist Church just down the road (and the hill) from Lookout Mountain in Chatanooga, TN. The workshop was very well attended as some very humble pastors soaked up the teaching from Mark, Michael, Matt, and Greg Gilbert. We lowly interns had the privilege of helping with registration, etc. while getting the chance to speak with attendees during breaks, lunch, and other free time. After we finished the workshop the whole entourage drove two hours down to Atlanta for the installation of Aaron Menikoff (former staff at CHBC) as the senior pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church.

In all, the trip was full of fellowship with the brothers from CHBC, some great time listening to Mark and the other men preach, lots of good conversations with hospitable southern folk, and eating way too much barbecue.

Some highlights:

Playing basketball three days in a row with my fellow interns and PA's. I was giving them all a run for their money for the honor of "worst guy on the court," but I had a great time.

Watching the sun rise each morning from the top of Lookout Mountain. Beautiful country.

Seeing six states (on a clear day it's seven) from the tower at Covenant College. If I recall correctly: Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina.

Practicing my newly improved southern accent.

Getting to enjoy all kinds of extended time with really dear brothers from CHBC.

Seeing a church (Mount Vernon Baptist Church) that evidently loves and respects their brand-new senior pastor. Their gratitude for his ministry and eagerness to grow through his preaching and leadership was palpable.

Shai Linne and 'Holy Hip-Hop'

Shai Linne:

1) Solid theology
2) Awesome Artist

Check out his albums The Atonement and The Solus Christus Project.

Listening to his lyrics helps sharpen my grasp of theology. I highly recommed him.

Biblical Counseling

Here John Piper works toward a definition of biblical counseling: "God-centered, Christ-exalting, cross-cherishing, Spirit-dependent, Bible-saturated, emotionally-in-touch, culturally-informed use of language to help people become God-centered, Christ-exalting, joyfully self-forgetting lovers of people who spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples." Whew.

At Capitol Hill Baptist Church they are serious about equipping the congregation to minister to itself - training laity to care and serve each other effectively, in this case in the realm of biblical counseling, to the glory of God.

One of the ways I am benefiting from this is a small group I am in on Tuesdays. We are learning introductory material in the "Transformation Series." This semester we're completing a workbook entitled "How People Change: How Christ Changes Us by His Grace." The coursework is offered through the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF for short), and is based on both a book and a full course taught at the CCEF center, both of the same name as the workbook. For those of you familiar with CCEF, the workbook is written by Paul David Tripp, Timothy S. Lane, and David Powlison contributes. The course is geared towards helping both the lay counselor-in-training (me) pursue growth in godliness as well as help others toward the same end.

To get a better idea of what that looks like, this is what they write in the introduction to the workbook:

Many people in our culture would call How People Change a self-help course because it leads people through steps of self-examination and change. However, the Bible would use two words for this material. The first word would be gospel. This course is a study of what God has done in Christ to transform us from idolatry-enslaved sinners to people who are like him, zealous to do what he says is good in a world that is terribly broken. This course celebrates the truth that Jesus came to save us because we are unable to save ourselves. His work addresses the deepest and most personal issues of the human experience. This course calls people to know their world, to know themselves, and to know the Lord and his grace. The second word the Bible would use for this course is discipleship. Discipleship is walking with someone as he or she learns to walk more faithfully with the Lord. Rather than helping themselves through this course, people are being discipled by the Lord as they are discipled by you...Our ultimate goal is to encourage people to: 1) Look at themselves in the mirror of God's word, 2) Know and rely on Christ's grace and 3) Step out into life with renewed faith and courage.

The course thus far has been teaching me a lot about God's promises and my own heart's reactions as well as equipping me to ask better questions of people as I talk with them about their own spiritual walk.

I have a lot of great resources that I have gleaned from the classes, so expect more posts in this topic.

Apples!

My plan to have pictures of my first apple picking failed when I realized the camera batteries I thought I had charged were dead. Sad day.

However, we still had a great time. It was a beautiful sunny fall day. We drove to Maryland and picked apples in an orchard that had about ten different varieties. I appreciate knowing where my food comes from, and it was great fun choosing exactly which kind and which apple we wanted.

Together Bobby and I picked about twenty pounds of Red Delicious, Rome, Pink Ladies, Jonathons, and so on. The only thing I've made so far is an apple crisp - if anyone has any good apple recipes, email them to me or leave them in the comments for all to enjoy. We also picked up some butternut squash, a couple sugar pumpkins for baking, and lots of homemade jam.

We enjoyed great fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the faith: Sunshine and Dan, Lindsey and Josh, and Geoff and Stephanie. They are encouraging and open people, and so its been fun sharing both joys and stuggles of marriage and getting to know them more. Our small group rotation is two years, so we will be able to all grow together as our marriages progress.

Finally, this week Bobby is headed off with Mark, other church staff, and the rest of the interns for a week-long trip to Georgia and Tennessee. Please pray for their safe travel and that the trip would be fruitful (Mark is preaching the chapels at Covenant College, they are doing a 9 Marks talk, and Mark is preaching at an installation of a former CHBC member). Also pray for me - this is our longest time apart since we got married. I'll be staying with a family from the church, so I'll be occupied, but still.

Starting dog walking tomorrow. Updates soon.

And two things: Shai Linne at Crossroads? Incognito or did he perform? Haha. And - leave comments! If just to say hi - Bobby and I appreciate it.

C.D.W.

Well folks, for those of you who know that I've been searching for a new job for two and a half months now, I am pleased to announce my new career: dog walker.

There is a company that owns the dog walking market on Capitol Hill, and one day when I was burned out on looking for office positions on dcjobs.com and washingtonpost.com, I went to the "etc." column of craigslist, and there it was. The company needed new walkers. Preferably those who live on Capitol Hill and are flexible. Perfect! So, two "trial" dog walks with current employees and a full hour interview later, I am now, as Connie Dever says, a "certified dog walker."

The perks? I work 11AM - 3PM every week day, walking around 12-15 dogs in that time. My salary makes it feasible to work part-time, and I have no commute, get to walk around outside for four hours a day, and get to play with dogs...for my job. Sweet.

Also, there are other options like boarding, pet sitting and taking morning and evening walks. It leaves me enough flexibility to take care of necessary house stuff, hang out with cool ladies that live in my neighborhood, and pursue some volunteer interests.

Even though the search was at times discouraging, God is utterly faithful to supply Bobby and I with all we need, in a job that is better than I was expecting.



In other news: tomorrow we're going apple pickin' in Maryland with our "newly-marrieds" small group. How East Coast is that?! Expect pictures soon...

Blog?

Bobby and I have thrown around the idea of having a blog since before we left California. Two and a half months after moving, I realize that actually having a blog will be a great way to keep friends in California updated on life here. We don't get to talk to everyone as much as we would like, and so I hope this will allow me (and Bobby sometimes) to let our friends and family know what we're doing, thinking about, enjoying and finding difficult about life on the East Coast.

Expect a couple posts a week, and please comment and email in response.