Reunion, Chinchilla, the Devil's Preferred Diet, and Ice Cream

School is out for the summer! I subbed for an English high school teacher the last day--it was a little crazy! The students weren't bad, but the last day of school is just its own wild entity! Everyone is already checked out and ready to celebrate. I will miss the students for the summer (along with the paychecks), but I am excited to devote more time to "New Zealand stuff." The past week I've been spending time on getting out more mailers to churches and individuals, making phone calls, and reading missiological books. This coming weekend I'll be speaking at a church in Evansville. I will be in a church every weekend this month as well as spending three weeks at Missionary Training Institute. Yay for a full month! Please keep the prayers coming for God to put together the support team He has called and for me to become as equipped as possible for the work.

Ok, now for the themes in my blog title. :)

1) Reunion: A couple whom I am dear friends with and are part of my support team came to visit this past weekend. We were able to spend some quality time together, talking about the Lord and His Word as well as laughing... a lot. It was medicine for my soul. You two know who you are--thanks for being incredible friends in Christ. You mean a LOT to me.

2) Chinchilla: One of my super friends here at home has a pet chinchilla! How cool is that? The chinchilla needed a temporary residence, so he's been staying with me for a few days. Did you know a) chinchillas can bark, b) they are nocturnal, and c) they enjoy making their running wheel spin and squeak all night? :) In all seriousness, it's been a joy to have a pet for a while. The youth group LOVED it Tuesday night.

3) The Devil's Preferred Diet: So, at youth group this week, we had a small group because several people were out of town after Memorial Day. I decided to take a break from Romans for the week, so we were talking about spiritual warfare. We read from I Peter chapter 5 about the devil prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Well, thanks to the popularity of Narnia (which don't get me wrong, I love), the youth were a bit confused. They were like, "We thought Jesus was a lion, but the devil is a lion?" We went on to struggle with the analogy for quite some time. I felt like I was hitting my head up against a wall trying to explain that it meant Satan was an Enemy who wants to destroy us while Jesus is the majestic King. I even went so far as to compare Jesus to Mufasa and the devil to Scar from The Lion King. Finally, one of the girls said, "So, the moral of the story is... the devil wants to eat us?" There was quite the outburst of laughter at this point. The night somewhat recovered its seriousness eventually, and we were able to pray together before I just took them all out for 4) ice cream. Maybe we will need to talk about spiritual warfare again another time. :)