Hello, Partners in the Gospel of Jesus Christ!Catching Up:I try to do a blog update once every 2 months, but March and April were so jam-packed with teaching that it was hard to find time to sit down, process the season, and give you an update on it all! In the span of 7 weeks, I taught 5 books for our SBS, 3 different seminars and was a guest speaker for my own church. Needless to say, it was probably the busiest I’ve ever been. I wish that I could share everything about these lectures. Each lecture had a different impact on me as I prepared, and I pray a lasting impact on those who attended my classes, lectures, and sermons. In this update I will be sharing some of the highlights, telling you about what God is doing in my heart, then talk about what we are currently working on here at Emmaus. Teaching Books of the Bible: In the last few months, I taught 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Peter, and Jude for our students in our 10-month school. All of these books have heavily impacted me as a teacher and leader. Corinthians taught me to lead out of my weaknesses and humility, and to seek my neighbors needs instead of my own. 1 Peter taught me that I am a priest both in word and action, because of this I’m called to a holy life. 2 Peter and Jude showed me that it's easy to be a false teacher, say what’s popular, and stay comfortable. These books challenged me to contend for the faith and stand up for the truth.Teaching Seminars:Many of you know that we offer several different seminars. This spring I was able to teach a few. The first was a seminar that we call Bible Overview. We break up the Bible into different “acts” and teach people the overarching story of Scripture. My Lecture covered Acts to Revelation!The second seminar was a historical background lecture to the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark is my favorite book to teach, so to be able to help a church better understand this amazing book was so awesome! I also taught one of our Biblical Narrative Series. I had the pleasure of talking about Hebrews, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude and James in a 2-hour seminar. This was honestly one of my favorite lectures. The seminar is part of a series where we teach each book of the Bible and how they fit into God's bigger story!Lastly, I had the distinct pleasure of teaching Sunday morning for my church, Grace Oviedo. This was my first time teaching on a Sunday morning at a church ever! I have never been so nervous and so excited to teach. I was asked to teach in the middle of our series on marriage, where we were going through the book Song of Songs. My sermon was on chapter 7! I taught on Nakedness and Vulnerability in marriage. If we want true intimacy we must first be vulnerable and open. You can listen to my sermon here!  https://discovergrace.com/media/?sapurl=Lys0ODk0L2xiL21pLytrczVnajZjP2F1dG9wbGF5PXRydWUmZW1iZWQ9dHJ1ZQ==Current work:We are in our last few weeks of school so we are shifting our attention to the Fall. There are a few big things that we are focusing on.

Here are a few of our favorite pictures from the big day. Don't worry, more will be coming soon!Pictures by Old Pine Pictorial. 

Hello, partners in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I’m super excited to be writing you! This year has been a great year of change already, with much more to come. As we enter 2019 we have a lot on our hearts for this ministry. I wanted to take some time to vision cast with you, to show you what we are hoping to accomplish this year and all that we have going on.

General Ministry Updates!

This year is really exciting for two big reasons: We have just welcomed two brand new staff members to help run the school! I want to introduce to you, Kristi Marsh and Morgan Phaneuf.Over thMorgan was a student with our SBS program this last year. Morgan really let Scripture transform and mess with her life. Even when she was a student she had a passion for helping people engage with the Bible. We are thrilled to welcome her husband, Justin, and their children Drake and Tannis, to the Emmaus Family. Please pray for Morgan as she is currently support raising and preparing to teach her first book: Colossians.

This spring we are back in the New Testament. This semester is our second time teaching the New Testament with our revised format. This makes it so much easier to not be creating the curriculum as we teach. We feel like we have hit a groove and now we can focus on fine-tuning our school to be the best experience it can be. Vision for the future: We first changed the program because we believed that God was calling us to make the school more accessible. We took the program down to 20/hours a week by eliminating some “busy work”. We also designed our program to be more commuter friendly so that our students didn't have to live on campus. We are exploring even more ways that we can remove barriers and make the school even more attainable to more people. We have a few ideas that we are considering, Stay posted!

We have been blown away by the response to our Biblical Narrative Series. We created this monthly night class as a way for people to learn the overarching story of Scripture. We have been seeing great engagement from those in attendance. People are getting quick and easy tips and tricks for tackling each book of the Bible. Vision for the Future: We want to reach more people with this great resource. We are currently looking into ways that are going to make the monthly night class easier to attend. We are even praying through multiple nights and locations. Our hope as always is to help as many Christians feel less intimidated by Scripture. We want to see Orlando know their Bible in a way they haven't been able to yet. We believe that the Biblical Narrative Series will play a big role in seeing this vision come true.

We started 2019 the best way ever! On January 19th Lauren and I got married here in Orlando! It was a beautiful service lead by Tom Phillips. We celebrated with family and friends at First Baptist Orlando. Lauren and I were blessed to spend our honeymoon in Hawaii. We spent most of our time on Maui. I have never seen anywhere so beautiful! We are home now and getting back into the swing of normal life. Lauren and I have been looking forward to getting into a rhythm! We only have the rest of our lives together to figure this thing out! (wedding pictures by Old Pine Pictorial)

Emmaus- Please pray for me as I prep for the books that I'm teaching this semester. Please also pray for our new staff as they support raise and teach for the first time. Support Raise- Now that we are married I am feeling the pressure to get fully funded. I'm starting to close the gap, but I'm still in need of more monthly donors. Please pray for God to move in the hearts of people and to set up divine appointments.If you would like to join me as a financial partner in ministry, Click Here.Grace Oviedo- Pray that Lauren and I will have a real impact on these high schoolers. Pray that God will use us to break into their lives.

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!!

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.