Hello Partners in the living Word of God. It has been a little while since I have been able to spend any time updating yall about life here at Emmaus. I wanted to just take some time sharing with y'all what is happening here at the school, what I am doing here at Emmaus and what is going on with our wedding planning. As I write this Lauren and I have less than 100 days until we tie the knot! We are so excited to kick off our life together! Currently, we have sent out all of our invites and are now working through everything for the reception. It feels weird to be this close to the wedding, yet it still feels far away. Lauren and I do recognize that October, November, and December are all going to fly by and before we know it, we will be married! We recently got back from Northern Georgia where we had the pleasure of shooting our engagement photos! Our Photographers are a young couple our age and we had an awesome road trip to the mountains to make these photos happen. Here is a little sneak peek of what is to come: [gallery ids="269,270,271,272,273,274" type="rectangular"]

(Our Photos were taken by Old Pine Pictorial)

So much has been happening here at Emmaus that I am excited to tell you about. On September 8th, Jacob and Samantha McRae (staff) welcomed little Benaiah McRae into the world and we welcomed him into the Emmaus family! We are so excited for the McRaes! We have been able to spend some time with Benaiah and it has been a joy. Sam and Jacob are both doing well! They are currently trying to get used to life with a baby. Since Jacob and Sam are on leave, their responsibilities have been split between the remaining staff. Over the past month, I have picked up a few more responsibilities with things on campus and with making the day to day operations run. The main new thing is that I have currently been cooking/ordering breakfast for our students. A big part of this work is doing what is ultimately unseen by students. I feel like God has been growing in me an appreciation for the work in ministry that goes unpraised. Very rarely would I ever sign up for a task that wouldn't result in me getting some sort of praise. In this season I feel like my heart has been pushed and challenged. God has said to my heart, “I have more for you than what you want, isn't it enough that I see you and am pleased?”. This time has really forced me to be more forward-thinking, more organized and more humble than ever before. I really am grateful for it and I still have tons of room to grow! In September I had the pleasure of teaching Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy might be my favorite book of the Law and it was a blast to prepare and teach. I found myself, more than ever, vulnerable while teaching Deuteronomy. I believe that God has called me to be open and vulnerable when I teach, to share my own faults and weaknesses with our students. I didn't realize until I was teaching Deuteronomy, but it was really hard this time to be open and share my own brokenness with the students. Deuteronomy has a great message. The Israelites are about to enter over into the promised land and they are given a choice: Follow God in faithfulness or rebel and do what they think is right. Moses phrases it like this. “Today I set before you a choice, life or death. Choose life”. It has really hit me during prep and teaching what it looks like to have true life: following Jesus with everything I've got. Death looks like doing what I think will bring me life. Too often in my own life, I have chosen death when it disguises itself as life. Jesus would say it this way in the Gospel of Mark (8:35), “For whoever would save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life or my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Deuteronomy was the hardest book for me to teach, but it was one of the most rewarding at the same time. More recently I was able to teach the prophet Joel. This seemingly insignificant book is absolutely packed with amazing truth about God’s character, the day of the Lord and the hope that we know we have in our Savior. I was able to teach about how God is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and willing to relent of disaster. Joel has been one of the more challenging books to teach and yet one of the most rewarding. If you would like the audio lectures for either Deuteronomy or Joel, feel free to message me and I will send it to you![gallery ids="275,278,276,277" type="rectangular"] 

What is coming up:

During this month we have several Biblical Narrative Series! All of them will be on the prophets and we are so excited to share these with the local church. Caleb Ives has been teaching and totally killing each one! Lauren and I are moving right along with wedding planning and getting ready for starting life together! We can't wait to be married. I will be teaching Ezekiel (November) and Zechariah (December). I am really excited for both, but I don't feel like I have enough time to sufficiently study and know Ezekiel. Pray that I will be diligent in my study!  

Prayer Request:

As always, pray that our students would find life in their study and their work, that it wouldn't just be turning in homework. Support- I'm still attempting to be fully funded by the wedding. We have had a few more partners join us! Slowly but surely God is closing the gap. Please pray for more meetings and for divine appointments! Praise- Lauren and I just got accepted for an apartment! We are really excited about moving in and starting our family together. I will be moving in at the end of November. I’m going to get the apartment ready (paint, furniture etc). Then Lauren is going to move in after the wedding! We are so excited and so blessed to have our living situation figured out!!

It’s finally here! This last week we kicked off our first full year with our revamped School of Biblical Studies. We have been waiting and praying for this day for months and it’s crazy to think that it’s finally here. As always, I want to give you an inside look at what is going on here at the school, give you a picture of what is to come, and then a quick prayer request. This fall we have welcomed 6 new students into the school and 4 students from the spring semester are continuing their journey. We are always excited to help students begin their Emmaus journey, this year we have been blessed to have the nations come to us. When we changed the school to be part-time, we thought that was the end of seeing students come from all over the world and United States but were surprisingly and thankfully wrong!! This year we have a couple from the Netherlands and a student from Germany and Pennsylvania. This has filled our classroom with a diversity of backgrounds and cultures, this helps all of us to learn more about God, life in community and ourselves.Within our student body, 6 students are living on campus here at Canterbury. One thing that we strive for at Emmaus is to establish genuine relationships and community life. So when we welcome new students I am always a little nervous. Will the students like living on campus? will they enjoy each other? how can we facilitate good community? A lot of my worries about our on-campus community were answered before the school even started. Several of our students showed up a few days early, before classes or our scheduled community times. However, our new students instantly started to cook food together and have game nights. The community on campus has already been a wonderful surprise. The students have started to grow closer together. Below you can see a picture of us sharing some Dutch pancakes for dinner. Afterword we played ping pong. I can already tell that this season is going to be very life-giving. [gallery ids="253,252" type="rectangular"] We have started to walk the students through the way that they are going to study Scripture this year through the Inductive Bible Study Method. I had the pleasure of teaching 4 times in the first week. On the first day, we talked about what inductive Bible study is, digging into what it looks like to lay aside our preconceived notions and let the text speak for itself. On our second and third days, we talked about methods of Observation. I was able to teach the students how to see and study the structure of each book and how to create and utilize their own color code. Thursday I walked the students through Interpretation, which is considering what the book would have meant to the original readers or hearers. On this day I had two lectures, one where I introduced the idea of what good interpretation looks like. Each year when we teach the students the Inductive method, we have them “practice” on a book of the Bible. This year we chose the book of Jonah to help them learn the method. Thursday morning I had the pleasure of walking them through the relevant historical background of Jonah. The difficult part of teaching this for many Old Testament books is that we aren't sure for a lot of it. This is part of why we wanted to start with Jonah. Right off the bat, our students have to wrestle with difficult questions like who wrote Jonah, when was it written, is it history or allegory? [gallery ids="263,261,258" type="rectangular"]This semester we are so excited to see these students journey through the Old Testament. I know that when I began my Emmaus journey through the Old Testament it was exciting, scary and awesome all at the same time. Please pray that God will work through us and help us to encourage these students as they begin their journey here at Emmaus. Lastly, we have started up our Biblical Narrative Series. This is our Monday night class open to the public. Our narrative series is designed to run in tandem with our school. At each lecture, we spend some time talking about the relevant historical information that all the books share and we give tips on how to study every book within that unit of Scripture. This last week we started out in the Pentateuch! One of our teaching staff, Sarah Wise, did an amazing job in leading this first session of the fall! Our next narrative series will be September 17th covering Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuels, and Kings! If you are local please join us!  

Prayer Requests:

This season is admittedly the busiest I have ever been. I am teaching full time for Emmaus, leading the new high school ministry at my church, speaking once a month at the assisted living home, and planning a wedding. I feel tired already, and have a long way to go. The wedding is closing in!!! With marriage just around the corner, I feel the pressure to get fully funded. Pray that God will help me find divine appointments and stir in the hearts of future partners to give. I am so thankful for your continual prayer and support! Thank you for partnering with me in the Gospel here at Emmaus! 

Hello Partners in Jesus Christ. I wanted to take my monthly update blog to share the story about how God brought Lauren and I together. Lauren and I have loved to talk about how we have seen God work collectively and individually to bring us together.The story is even better when you hear both sides. One thing you will notice, as one of our friends, Sarah, pointed out, our story isn’t normal. As Lauren talks about it, it’s not overly thrilling or even glamorous but it’s the one that God orchestrated. God in his infinite wisdom and goodness moved in our hearts in just the way that each of us needed.

Stephen’s Story:

I had been living in Orlando for ten months and was really involved with my church's young adult Bible study. On one of our monthly game nights I was introduced to Lauren. She was the roommate of a mutual friend. That night Lauren and I sat next to each other and talked. I went home not thinking too much about our interactions. Not long after that night I graduated from ESBS and traveled back home to Michigan to support raise and speak at summer camps. In August I returned to Orlando and started working full time with Emmaus Ministries. After getting back to Orlando I continued attending the young adult group. At the group Lauren and I started to talk more and more. Not long after, a mutual friend called me to tell me that Lauren had a crush on me. I knew that I had some feelings for her, but I was still pretty unsure about dating her. After thinking and praying about it for a little bit I decided to go for it. After each date I felt my heart pulling closer and closer to her. I really feel like I saw the heart of God in Lauren as she pursued me. It wasn't long after we started to date that I knew I wanted to marry her. So I recruited some of our best friends to help me pop the question to Lauren while at St. Simon’s Island. Lauren has done a great job telling the story of the proposal below. I knew it had to be magical yet simple. Lauren told me I could propose to her in anyway as long as I didn't use a flash mob. I knew that I wanted to use her favorite song Clair de Lune and I wanted to tell Lauren how much I care for her. So I recruited some of the greatest love quotes of all time to help me tell the story of how I loved her. Now here we are, engaged and getting ready to be married. I can honestly say that I keep falling more and more in love with Lauren as each day passes. I can’t wait to be married to her and can’t wait to have y’all help us celebrate. [gallery ids="240,243,244,245" type="rectangular"] 

Lauren Story:

On the drive home from the game night where I met Stephen my roommate said to me, "What do you think about Stephen?"  When we met, I really didn't think too much of it. But, it's because of that conversation that I gave Stephen a second thought.Over the summer while Stephen was away I really felt like the Lord was impressing on my heart to pursue a relationship with this boy that I had met only once. I felt a deep and profound certainty that Stephen was going to be my person. It honestly freaked me out at first. When I sought counsel I prefaced it with "I know that this sounds crazy, but I think I'm supposed to marry Stephen." When Stephen returned after summer, we started spending more time together, then we began going on dates. On November 10 we made things official. And boy am I ever glad that we did.I don't think I've ever seen anyone as nervous as Stephen the day he proposed. We had gone to St. Simon's Island for a weekend trip with some friends for my birthday and Stephen had roped them into helping set up the beach site where Stephen proposed. Stephen used my favorite song, Clair de Lune, and had mixed movie quotes about love over it. He had that playing as we walked to where he would propose.  There, in the sand, was a journal that Stephen had written in. It ended with, "I just have one question..." and when I looked up Stephen got down on one knee. Words can't even come close to capturing the depth of my love for Stephen. He is my best friend and such a perfect match for me. He loves me more deeply than I ever knew was possible. He is gentle and kind and he pushes me to become more like Christ everyday. He's also a giant goofball and that makes life with him so much fun! I am so grateful that God chose Stephen to be my companion through life and I can't wait to celebrate with everyone in January!!! [gallery ids="239,238,232,233,234,236" type="rectangular"]Thank you for taking time to read about our story. We are so excited to get married in January and are so blessed to have friends, family and partners in ministry cheering us on as we step into this new phase of life. I can't wait to share with you more as the wedding day approaches and school starts up in a month. As we move forward, our hope is to continue to make connections with people who are excited about what God is doing here at Emmaus through our new family.

Prayer Requests:

Fundraising. I’m still looking for more monthly financial partners. I’m hoping to be fully funded for my own needs by September. Then I'm hoping to continue fundraising so that I can support both Lauren and I by the wedding in January. Please pray for the Lord to set up divine appointments and to move in the hearts of people excited about this ministry! The School: We are starting in under a months time! Please pray for use as we prepare the physical spaces and prepare our lectures. Please also pray for the incoming new and returning students. Pray that God would use this time to really mold and shape them into who he is calling them to be.

Next Update:

We will be starting the school on the week of august 13. That whole week will be all morning classes introducing students to the way that they are going to study the bible for the year. Keep an eye out for a start of the semester update sometime in mid August. 

Hello Partners in the ministry of Jesus Christ!It’s been a while since my last official update, so I wanted to take some time to fill y’all in on everything ministry-wise as well as giving some prayer requests moving forward.

Traveling and Teaching

This past semester I was blessed to travel to Michigan twice to teach for the middle school and high school youth groups on their separate winter retreats. For years my dad has spoken at the winter and summer camp retreats. I grew up attending the youth group while I was in middle school. For both retreats I tried my best to focus on the simple Gospel. Both groups let me choose the theme and feel for the weekend. Part of me loves that creative freedom and another part of me always gets a little nervous. For the Middle Schoolers we focused on the theme of Identity. The tag for the weekend was “Who are you? You are who God calls you!”. We talked about how when the Gospel is at the center of our identity we are able to walk in this world in peace. We don't search for our identity in the world because we have been called righteous by our heavenly Father because of how Jesus took our place on the cross. For the Teens the theme for the weekend was Coming Home to the Gospel. We talked about how we were created to long for and desire home, a place where we’re accepted, wanted and treasured. We looked at the story of the Prodigal Son and his brother, and how they both looked for their home in the wrong place.I feel like God used this difficult theme to really speak to the hearts of the campers about their eternal hope and home in heaven with Jesus. Both weeks I left feeling ministered to. Jesus tends to use the topics that I am teaching to convict my own heart and push me closer to him. I was so honored to be used by God to speak to the youth and inspire them to follow Jesus with their whole hearts and lives!

Serving at Emmaus

Over the past few months I have taught Mark, 1st Corinthians and 1st Peter. Teaching for Emmaus, to me, feels like playing for the Major Leagues. As I tackle the unique challenges of each book, I wonder how I will bring the books alive for the students.. The temptation for my flesh is to make each book about me and how great I can teach it or how impressive and how much of an authority I am on the book. Instead I try to let the learning and discovering happen in the minds and hearts of the students. Learning usually sticks better when a student comes to a conclusion themselves, rather than when they are brought to one.

The Bridge- Assisted Living Home

Once a month I lead two church services for the residents of an Assisted Living Home. I was given this opportunity by a friend who used to teach there.It has surprised and humbled me that my time spent here is usually the highlight of my monthMost of my teaching experience has been with people ages 13-25. However, the application for that age group is vastly different than it is for a group of people who have already lived a full life and are nearing the end of their time on earth. This has stretched me and blessed me in so many ways as a Bible teacher, and I look forward to this responsibility every month!

Looking Forward.

There are many exciting things coming up! First, Lauren and I are in the middle of wedding planning! We are super excited about getting married and are working towards getting all the details figured out. We hope to have a date figured out by the middle of May. We were both blown away by all of the congratulations we received. Thank you so much for your support and encouragement! Second, this summer I will be teaching at two different summer camps. The first one will be at camp Lurecrest.The second week I will be tag teaming with my Dad at a family camp in Ohio. Lastly, we have assigned the books that we are going to be teaching in the Fall for the Old Testament. I will be teaching Deuteronomy, Joshua, Ezekiel, Joel and Zechariah. I’m really excited to tackle these books! I’m going to be using the entire summer to get ready for Deuteronomy and Joshua (I’ll be teaching them back to back).

Prayer Request.

Now that I’m engaged and going to be married by this time next year I really feel the pressure to get fully funded. I’m going to get back to support raising this week and, to be honest, I’m a little nervous. Please pray for God to stir in the hearts of individuals to give to God’s ministry here at Emmaus. As always, when I speak I want to do my best to get out of the way and let God do his thing. So, please also pray for the campers that I will be ministering to this summer. Pray that God can use me to communicate his Gospel to them. Please continue to pray for Emmaus as we continue to minister to the local church. We are super excited about everything that is going on with our school and Biblical Narrative Series.Blessings,Stephen