This is...

Just to let you know we are still alive. It currently escapes our minds what to write about! And instead of making up random sentences regarding spring and what food we're eating, we thought we'd just be outright honest! Inspiration will find us again next week, I'm sure!

Actually, the more I think about it, I do want to share a couple of photos. Jessica was reluctant to let me publish these, but I just want to give you all a brief glimpse of what happens when you stick your nose where you shouldn't :-)

Unfortunately, we've a bit of a problem from time to time with these little critters, but our landlord has provided us with some excellent traps that work well (as you can see)...

I took these pictures because this reminded me of what temptation and sin are like....sometimes the bait looks very good, but like this mouse found out, the consequences can be deadly. He died with his nose on the cheese! Perhaps the worst thing that can happen sometimes is for us to actually get what we think we want...

Thankfully, God has provided a way through every temptation that we face (1 Cor. 10:13). My good friend, David Fry, used to quote James 1:12 ("Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.") when he was tempted to do wrong. Actually, I think that's a great idea...in the end, the crown of life will far outweigh any trials/temptations we've had to face--and I'd take that over the Devil's cheese any day!

Oh The Places We've Been...

It seems like we've been doing a lot of things lately in between these writings! I am very happy to say though that we are home here in Illinois for a full week now. With no where to go or meetings (other than work and studies) to keep. That's a nice feeling. The traveling and all we've done are wonderful too!! We very much look forward to the times when our schedules let us go visit family and do special trips together. Last weekend opened up for us to spend Friday through Monday with our family in Indiana. We haven't been to either of our parents since the Christmas holidays. And we were due for a good dose of family time. Thank you very much Mom and Dad Smith and company for a very fun time eating, catching up, and just being all together!

The past three days we have been attending a marriage conference hosted by Family Life, called "Weekend To Remember." Through a wonderful gift from Stephen's school we were able to attend under a scholarship. The conference was held at a resort about 10 miles from our house which allowed us to stay here at the apartment. Stephen was fully looking forward to the event, where as I was thinking it would just be nicer to stay home. I am very glad that we didn't do that! I highly recommend you visiting www.familylife.com to find a conference nearest to you. The environment was very non-threatening and addressed all spectrums of marriages, bringing biblical truth to the purpose and direction of marriage. This week we will celebrate our 8 month anniversary and are thankful to have had this opportunity to begin actively choosing God's priorities for our marriage. I'll switch over the keyboard to the guy who attended with me now...

Hello. As Jessica has explained, we've been privileged to spend this weekend focusing on our marriage and on God's purposes and plans for us. It's been a wonderful weekend, and we can definitely recommend this event to our friends and family. Pastors and their wives are allowed to go for free. Along with approximately 600 other attendees, we studied such topics as threats to oneness in marriage, how to have good communication, and how to leave a godly legacy. Just for fun, we're including two photos below: one that pictures us before this marriage retreat, and one after (NOTE: this picture is done 'tongue-in-cheek' for fun! Jessica and I have had a good first eight months together. Still, we found several very helpful pointers this weekend for how to make our already good marriage even better!)



Before the Conference:



















Afterwards:










This shot is where we would tell each other: "You are NOT my enemy!"

Our Church in Chicago

I (Stephen) wanted to show you all a picture of the church that Jessica and I have been attending since moving to Chicagoland last August. It's the Wesleyan Missionary Church, located about a mile or two from Midway Airport (we hear the planes flying overhead during services). Pastor Tom Reed and his wife, Joyce, have been pastoring here for 50 years! They are wonderful friends, and Jessica and I usually eat Sunday afternoon dinner with them. They have a back bedroom that they have designated as Jessica's room for Sunday afternoon naps. Pastor Reed originally agreed to serve as an interim pastor for this church until they could find somebody else--and he's been doing it ever since...

A fellow God's Bible School & College graduate, Mark McCall, and his wife Jennifer, have been serving as the Associate Pastor beginning this past January. Mark is also attending Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) with me (he's in the M.Div. program).


I am teaching one of the adult Sunday School classes (they have two). We usually have about 12-20 in the class, which meets in the basement of the church. I've been fairly happy with the S.S. curriculum published by Herald and Banner Press (Overland Park, KS). It's called "The Way, Truth, and Life." Of course, I usually do my own research for the lessons, but this S.S. literature seems to do a decent job of explaining the text and providing helpful teaching techniques (in the teacher's edition). No S.S. curriculum is perfect, but I feel fairly comfortable recommending this series. They have various contributors to each lesson (right now my former professor, Allan Brown, is one of the contributors in this quarter's lessons) who focus on different aspects. While this may sometimes take away from the over-arching unity of the lesson, they often provide helpful insights.


My question for those of you who like to comment in response to these posts (any comments would be appreciated!) concerns your own experiences with adult S.S. classes. I think we've all been in classes that could be called 'boring', but hopefully most of us have had the privilege of sitting under interesting teachers and dialoguing about God's Word with other interested students. I'm thankful that there are several in my class who study their lessons during the week and come to class prepared to discuss it. Some of them are not too bashful to speak up in class, and almost all of them participate in reading the scripture lessons. I'm very thankful for the chance to minister through this class while I'm doing doctoral work at TEDS. It's a chance to become a better teacher, as well as to learn from the discussions with these interested and engaged laypeople. The pastor also attends this class (he used to teach it) and adds his practical and perceptive points.


I'm wondering what kind of experiences some of you have had in S.S. classes. I'm especially interested in any advice you might have for me in terms of being an effective teacher of adults (i.e. what you've found helpful or unhelpful in your experiences in attending or teaching adult S.S. classes). It's good to be married to a trained teacher who attends the class and can give me feedback :-)


If any of you have comments I'd love to hear them....


By the way, I should mention what most of you already know, but someone might not realize. Anytime you're reading these posts and see blue text [like Herald and Banner Press (Overland Park, KS)], that means that I've inserted a hyper-link to another website. If you clink on the embedded link, it should take you to another webpage (in this case, the S.S. literature publisher's website).