FBI, Nate and Cori, visiting

Faith Bible Institute (FBI) starts again tonight. This is our fifth semester. One more and we will have completed the three-year program and will receive our diploma’s. It could be a nice addition to Victoria’s resume and will be a good addition to Mama’s resume also since she did not get to complete her Bible degree at Gulf Coast Bible College years ago. I do not know that it will make much difference to my resume at this point in my working life but I will happily accept it. It will at least give me a Bible degree since I was not able to finish my master’s degree at Nazarene Theological Seminary – also, years ago. We are both excited and apprehensive about the coming semester. It is a pleasure to sit through the preaching/teaching each Monday. It is an additional scheduling challenge for all of us to make it work week by week but it is always worth it. The wealth of information and insight into the Bible has made a huge difference in how much Mama and I get out of our daily Bible reading. It is much more fun to discuss the Bible since we have a lot more information to draw from in those discussions.

Last night, the church voted to take on Nate and Cori for support. While they were staying with us over the holidays, Nate made a point of using the internet at the church (ours was not serviceable at the time) to make as many contacts as possible with churches in the areas they already had appointments so they could fill the calendar without making too many repeat trips to areas they had already visited. I think one day he made over eighty phone calls through which he only got one meeting scheduled, but he definitely put in the phone and internet time – looking up churches and making whatever contacts were offered to him via the church website. Finding churches that he wanted to contact was a large part of the search. Our pastor was very impressed with his diligence. So much so, that he is the first missionary we have taken on this year. It was nice to be able to give them that news last night. It was also good news for them.

Over the weekend, I got the chance to go on bus visitation. I am not as faithful as I would like to be. There are some Saturdays that the needs of the farm and family (like visiting my Dad) keep me from going, but I try to get there as often as I can. The man I was with this Saturday morning has a son who is deaf. Bobby loves it when Mama come with us to visitation. They keep each other entertained through the entire morning with just the little signing Mama knows. One stop we made was at a house where one of Bobby’s fellow students lives. She was there with her older sister and a friend -also from the deaf school. The four of them jabbered back and forth in sign language while we hearing folks chatted amongst ourselves. Although the girls could not commit to coming to church yesterday, they all said they would make plans to come next Sunday. We will have to be ready to sign to the group of four or five rather than the one we normally have. Pastor was very excited about that. So was Bobby. In addition to that we had two other very good visits. 

It was an encouragement to the man I was with who faithfully visits this route every Saturday.