I'm Back!

Greetings to you all in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I know I did not write to you once over my two week break and for that I apologize.  However, after finals week of last quarter, I was burnt out on writing.  Also, the last two weeks have gone by so fast, it felt like two days.  I do have a lot to fill you in on though, so buckle up and get ready for the ride as I relive for you the past two weeks.  

The first night of break I spent in Kansas City with my old roommate Taylor.  It was really good to see him again and made me realize how much I appreciated our friendship the year we lived together.  I wish we could live closer so he and I could see each other more often.  I have really enjoyed getting to know his parents, who I never met while living with him.  They are such kind people and have treated me like family since the first time I met them.  Not only did they treat me to a super nice steak dinner, but they gave me a free driver's seat for my car.  Taylor's dad drove my car back from the restaurant so I could ride with Taylor in his new truck.  He decided that my driver's seat was not very comfortable.  Since he drives the same type of car I do, he had an extra clothe seat lying around that he had replaced with a leather one.  So they graciously gave me the new seat, and I do have to say it is much nicer.  His dad also cleaned my headlights that were all fogged over, and they now are much brighter.  I was there less than twenty-four hours and they did all of this for me and gave me a place to crash for the night.  They truly are wonderful people.  

Saturday I headed to Seward for the week.  Now as much fun as it was seeing all of my old college buddies, I realized I do not miss college life as much as I thought I did.  We had plenty of fun, with many, many a laughs.  I got to see several of the guys I had not gotten to see at Thanksgiving or Christmas too. That week in Seward definitely went the fastest as I spent every night playing cards or just hanging out with the guys, sleep in the next morning while they were at class and work, and then hang out with them again.  I did make it out to Worms to see Ben and Shalee in their new home.  They did an awesome job on the house and I think they will be able to call it home for hopefully many years.  I hope to spend some time out there with them this summer, if they do not get sick of me, cause I always have a good time with them.  

Then last weekend JoAnna and I went up to Cedar Falls to see Nate, Kari, and the boys.  They were at that time still getting their house ready to put on the market.  So while their kitchen was torn apart, we still had a nice visit.  The parents came up Saturday and spent the rest of the time with us.  I am realizing how important family time is anymore as I fear it will become less and less as the years continue.  The boys are growing up so fast.  Justin will be nine this month and Josiah turned five last month.  I cannot wait for them to be only a couple hours away so hopefully I can see them more.  

On our way to Nate and Kari's we were able to stop and see Grandpa Wayne in the Stuart nursing home.   We knew it was only a matter of days that he had left.  So while I was happy to see him one last time, it was not easy seeing him in that shape.  I was doing really good until I looked over and saw JoAnna tearing up.  We were also able to see our old neighbor Laura Garret who is in the same nursing home.  She is doing pretty well and turned ninety-nine this week.  She has lived a long hard life, but is still a wonderful lady.  It is never easy to be reminded that our bodies do fail us and will eventually die.  Grandpa Wayne did die on Monday the 27th.  This is the second break in a row I have had a Grandpa's funeral.  However, both Grandpa's had lived long happy lives and were failing health wise at the end, which makes it a little easier. Grandpa Wayne, as most of you know, is my step-grandpa.  He is my Grandma Richter's second husband after she lost her first, my Grandpa Claire, to cancer.  However, Grandpa Claire died before JoAnna and I were even born, so Wayne was the only Grandpa we ever knew on that side.  We have always simply called him grandpa, and that is who he was to us.  He was a good man who always treated Grandma well.  I will always remember him in his button up blue shirt, with check book and pens in the pocket, sitting in his chair at the table ready to crack a joke or scolding looking (which ever one was appropriate at the time).  Grandma Phyllis is the only grandparent I have left living, but she promised me she would live for a long time, and I pray she does.  

Tuesday I had to go to the dentist, get my license renewed, and run a few other errands in Atlantic.  I got to spend most of that time with my friend Brit which is always a pleasure.  Then Tuesday night was when the real fun happened.  For those of you who have ever heard me sleeping, I snore pretty badly.  I also never feel rested no matter how much sleep I get, so I went in Tuesday night for a sleep study.  I had to go to the hospital in Atlantic at ten that night, and there was a pretty good thunderstorm going on.  I met the lab technician and she walked me up to the sleep lab.  She explained how everything was going to work, and then proceeded to hook up a billion wires to me.  OK, maybe it was not a billion, but it was a lot.  I had two wires on each leg, a belt with wires attached around my stomach and another one around my chest.  A wire was attached to each of my pecks to monitor my heart rate.  Then she measured my skull with a tape measure and made a bunch of marks with some kind of fancy marker on my scalp.  She then would dip a wire in a glue-like substance, and stick that wire to one of the marks she had made.  There were probably ten or twelve wires glued to my head after she was all done with that part.  Then she glued and taped four more wires on my face, one on each cheek, one up higher above my eyes and one on my chin.  The final wire was attached to my neck for a snoring monitor.  Then she had me wear what I can only describe as an oxygen tube around my ears and inserted in my nose.  It looked exactly like an oxygen tube that people on oxygen wear, except this did not put out any air; it was simply used to measure my breathing.  After a few tests to make sure everything was working, she told me I was free to go to sleep.  You can probably imagine it was no small feat even falling asleep.  To make it worse I had one of my weird sleeping nights.  Every so often I will have nights where I lay there for a long time until I finally fall asleep.  However, as soon as I fall asleep for just a few minutes, I wake up for some odd reason.  Then I feel wide awake and rested since I was just technically asleep.  So I lay there waiting to fall asleep again, but as soon as I do I wake up again.  This cycle repeats itself a few times before I am finally so exhausted that I just fall asleep and stay asleep.  Well this is exactly what happened as I was all wired up and trying to sleep.  Eventually I did fall asleep for good.  The technician came in once to fix some of my wires I had adjusted or pulled off, but then let me go back to sleep.  The second time she came in to wake me up was when she gave me the C-Pack machine.  She had told me before we started that if I started showing signs of sleep apnia she would have me wear the machine for the remainder of the night.  So she woke me up and had me wear it for the rest of the night.  Only thing was now I had a whole new obstacle to get used to before falling back asleep.  The mask was the kind that only goes over my nose, not my whole mouth.  So it took me quite a while of concentrating on breathing with the machine, then slowing breathing with the machine without thinking about it.  I eventually fell asleep again.  However, I woke up and was only half awake and still half asleep and was in pure panic mood as I felt I could not breathe with the machine.  I kept trying to take it off, until finally she came in and told me I was supposed to leave it alone.  I told her I could not breathe and she made some adjustments.  Then I fell back asleep and the next time she woke me up was to tell me that we were done.  I had made it through the night, but it was rough and I was definitely tired.  I asked her if I had shown signs of sleep apnia since she had me wear the machine.  She unofficially told me yes.  I am suppose to hear my results from my doctor not her, but she did let me know that I had quit breathing a few times during the first half without the machine, and that she truly thinks the doctor will recommend I start using the machine every night.  It is definitely going to take some getting used to, but if it helps me feel rested during the day I will certainly get over wearing it.  Plus, sleep apnia is not really something to mess with.  I mean I am not a doctor but I hear breathing is kind of important at all times.  I have to wait another week or so until I talk to my doctor about what he officially wants to do with it all.  

Wednesday, despite my sleep conditions the night before, I ran a bunch of errands around Adair, and got some paper work filled out.  Then Wednesday night I went with mom to Ames to pick up the boys.  Nate and Kari had parent-teacher conferences, so we kept the boys the rest of the week.  It was a good trip and was a good chance to spend a few more days with the boys.  

Thursday, I had to finalize my paperwork from the day before since there was one little detail that seemed to go wrong with each thing I was trying to accomplish.  Most of it was financial aid for the seminary.  Another important one was my application so I can work at the State Dept. of Roads in Seward again this summer. So that felt nice to have some of those big things done.  Thursday night was the visitation for Grandpa Wayne.  They thought there were over three hundred people there and I would believe it because it was a non-stop line that filled the church the entire time.  It was definitely not hard to see he was a loved man who had helped many people in his life.  

Friday morning was the funeral.  It was a nice service, minus my disagreement with the very Catholic sermon, but that is beyond the point.  The lunch was nice and then we went to the cemetery.  It was super windy and chilly, but they had a tent set up for us.  This was a very touching service as he received full military honors for his naval career.  Then after the funeral, we spent some time with Uncle Larry and Aunt Phyllis who had come up for the service.   Uncle Larry, amazing man he is, brought me a four drawer filling cabinet for all of Grandpa's Bible studies.  I went through and organized all the folders, but have not gone through any of the individual folders.  I brought a box back with me to the seminary, so maybe I can find some time to start typing them up as I go through them.  Then after Larry and Phyllis left, we went up to Grandma's house where all the Richters who had been at the funeral were gathered.  It was a fun afternoon of talking and drinking.  Friday night I hung out with friends as we celebrated Brit's birthday and had a good time.  

Saturday I babysat the boys most of the day and that evening.  Of course by babysit, I mean I sat in the chair watching an awesome documentary on Vietnam, while they played and watched movies.  They really are pretty well behaved when they are not wrestling or intentionally bugging each other.  Then Saturday night I babysat them again as Mom and Dad had a class meeting of Dad's to go to.  

Sunday, I got up early and met pastor at church.  We rode together out to St. John's where I helped him with liturgy.  I only had one brain fart, but other than that got several compliments.  Then we went back to town where I helped with Immanuel’s service too.  That one went much better with zero brain farts.  Then after both services and a quick lunch at Grandma's, I packed up my clothes and headed back to St. Louis.  I drove for over an hour in a pretty intense snow storm, but was kind of fun to be reminded it is still winter.  I made it back safely Lord willingly.  Then I spent most of the evening with Chris and Stein.  We had to celebrate over a beer that Chris finally set his wedding date.  

Today I went to my three classes and very quickly realized exactly how busy I am going to be this quarter.  The biggest problem is most of it will be reading which takes me longer to do than most.  Of course, it does not help when I fell asleep for twenty minutes reading today.  Hopefully, I can survive this quarter. 

My thought for the day comes from a thought I had in one of my many car trips over break.  I often get bored while driving by myself, and while the music is always playing, I still find myself talking to myself.  You may call me crazy; I simply call it entertaining myself.  However, I was thinking about when you are discussing Bible stories with someone, how is the best way to help them remember how Jesus fits into the story?  I decided you should ask them to tell you the story how they remember it before you start discussing anything with them.  Each person is going to remember different details about different stories, and it’s important to use the details they already remember.  I thought of two different examples for this and will share the second one with you: the story of David and Goliath.  If I were to ask you to repeat everything you know about the story, what details would you include?  Hopefully you would include the obvious ones like the small boy who defeated the giant by throwing a rock out of his sling shot.  But would you start with how Saul tried to put armor on David, but it was too heavy for the little boy?  Would you include the fact that David was a shepherd boy?  Would you include the fact that David picked up five stones and put them in his pouch?  Determining which of these details you include, will help me to best discuss with you what underlying themes we can see.  For instance, look at the idea of Saul putting armor on David.  To me this shows how Saul relied on earthly things and never had his full trust in God.  We can see this later when he goes to the witch to see if he will win the battle.  He was never strong enough in his faith to just trust God, but relied on human things such as armor.  David, being the faithful boy he was, took the armor off and went against the giant with nothing more than his normal clothes.  He did trust in God which is why he was a better king than Saul.  However, he did not fully trust in God, because he picked up five stones rather than just one.  But would you not do the same thing?  We put our faith in God, but our sinful nature still cause us to take precautions, such as picking up five stones, when God only used one.  The fact that David was a shepherd boy points to the fact that he was a very unlikely candidate for this feat.  He was not a solider or trainer person, but rather was simply an agent God used to show His might.  However, being a shepherd had required him to be able to use a sling shot to protect his flock.  This was a simple trait he already knew from his life experiences.  God gives us each our own gifts and talents that He uses for His purposes.  This use of simple people with their own talents and gifts can be seen so many places in the Bible, including Moses, Matthew, and even Jesus Himself.  Jesus, born in a barn, eating with sinners, and serving His disciples did not seem like much of a king, let alone the Son of God.  However, God uses agents that do not fit our worldly understandings to show that it is truly His will these actions are done.  This also gives us hope that even we feeble sinners can still be used by God and His Spirit to do great things if we just put our trust in Him.  So if you are ever trying to help someone better understand, or just better remember a story from the Bible, ask them first to tell you what they remember and then use those details they give you to strengthen their faith in our wonderful and powerful God.  All Praise Him who uses the lowly sinful creatures such as us to do His wonders. 

Dear Heavenly Father,

We pray that you help us to make time for Your Word.  We ask You be with us as we study, learn, and grow in it.  Help us to remember the stories and Your true meaning behind them.  In the name of our Savior, Your Son Jesus.  Amen.