Fall is Coming

Well, every day the fall draws nearer and more signs of the changing seasons approach. Shillage, our church’s youth group, had our first meeting of the new school year this past Friday. It was awesome. Nathan (our pastor) spoke on the gospel. There was a great turnout (I think around 40???), and a lot of the people there (about 7 or 8) were at Shillage for their first time ever!!! We are having our official ‘big’ kickoff for the fall this coming Friday night. This fall, we will be studying Hebrews in Shillage, and Nathan and I are now trying to decide how we will split Hebrews up into lessons that will be in-depth and instructive for the students, but that will allow us to be able to (hopefully) get through the book in a semester. Actually, he assigned me to divide it up, then I just need to show him my plans for his approval once I’ve decided the format we’ll use for teaching through Hebrews.

Of course, with the changing of the seasons comes a sad time as well. The university students in IBC (my church) all go to school outside of Hong Kong, and they will all be leaving for school in the next few weeks. This is tough for me because some of the guys I’ve grown closest to this summer at IBC are the college guys, and now they are all leaving me (of course I guess I’ve left home for college enough times that I’ve lost any right to complain about this). In addition to the university students, a few of our high schoolers attend boarding schools outside of Hong Kong, and these students have already begun their seasonal exodus.

Speaking of school, my semester starts next Monday (August 23). I will be taking 2 classes this semester (History of Christianity and American Government) through DBU’s online education program. Up to this point in my education, I have been a full time student and part time worker. Now, I will be switching to a part time student and a full time worker. I am interested to see how I handle this transition and to see how I handle the transition from my job here with no school on the side to now having work and school.

Regardless, I am excited for the coming fall and to see all of the ways that God works in Hong Kong during this coming year.