Out of Winter Hibernation

As most of you have realized by this time, I might not be the most consecutive blog poster of all time. That being said, each time I do post something my post percentage does get better.

Christmas break for the most part went great! I was able to visit with the family, meet up with long distance friends from out of state, go to my home church, have a beach bonfire, work some at my old job and have the opportunity to go to  Passsion2013 in Atlanta.

Passion was a total God thing. I found of that I was going at 9am December 31st, the ride to get there was leaving at 3pm that same day. I had to pack, change work schedules and everything but God made sure that everything just fell into place and was able to get there and enjoy some wonderful speakers, make great new friends, refresh my soul and be spoken to by the Lord. He knew that the conference was something that I needed and made sure that I got there.

I am back at school in the Valley (Rio Grande Bible Institute), for the semester and will be finishing up with the language program in this May.

While I wasn't the keenest about Christmas break coming to an end, I was a happier about being back than I expected after arriving. It has been great seeing everyone and catching up on what they did for break. Classes started the 8th and I have already completed a full be week of schooling. This semester on top of what the class dictates me to take, I will also be taking Vida Familiar on Monday nights. This is a Bible school class and I will be taking it with the rest of the normal students that are not in the language program. I have been told that it is a very good class and am looking forward to it, although it does mean that I will be reading close to fifty pages a week in Spanish for this class alone. It will be worth it though. This semester is going to be packed!

Prayer requests:

School load - this will be a busy semester with all the classes and school work.
Job - Trying to get hired at the Academy across the street to help pay for school and daily expenses. Pray that if God wants me to have a job that I will be hired and if not that I will not get the job so that I can focus on other things.
Health - I have had a cough since March of 2012. I have been to the doctor twice for it and so far they do not know what I have. For wisdom.
Focus - That I will stay on track to finish all my work in a timely manner and make the best use of my time.


Stay warm and come back soon! Another update at the end of the month to follow!!!

Nope. Still not a zombie...

After living here for a month, things are going pretty well. I haven't been sick, classes still make sense most of the time, the food isn't poison AND I haven't been killed off yet. All in all, it hasn't been too shabby. But in all seriousness, those are things to be thankful for. So far, so good. Also, I went back to Corpus for Labor day! First time that I was able to be with my family close to my dad's family in two years. I had a great time and it really is a huge perk being less than a 3hr drive away as opposed to a 6hr flight. 

P.S. I now own more collared/button up shirts than I do t-shirts. There's a first time to everything!  AND I'm for sure holding the #1 slot for slickest unmarried white male on campus... Although I will be the first to day that the competition is a bit lacking.

At the moment, classes are smooth, understandable and about to get hard. Or at least, I know the end is near. What was once me wading in Spanish has turned into treading water, which will be in the near future become me drowning.  I am still amazed at how much my grammar has improved, even in this short month. Although now when I go to pray, I can't figure out which language I'm supposed to be doing it it. It turns is to a poor excuse for gibberish most times, accompanied by smatterings of Spanglish. Little by little my brain is being hijacked from me.... pretty soon my thoughts will look like this guy.

In my previous post, you would see that God was just smothering me with "Give me your desires and dreams, die to yourself." Now the tune of the song has changed to "Give me your distractions, focus on me." While it may seem obvious to some of y'all, these things go hand in hand with each other, and in most cases overlap. Strangely, this second, seeming simpler part is harder to follow through with than the first. While dreams and desires are things that we desperately want to hold on to, they are all future and aren't quite as tangible as of right now. However, the distractions are happening constantly and right now. Whether they be the rabbit trails your brain follows, the people you keep in contact with, the amount of exercise you do, how much food you eat or even the songs that are stuck in your head. All these things are taking conscious thoughts, and while not anything wrong in their own right, need to be filtered and have their worth tested. Sometimes, it could be you just need to fast from something, in order to keep your perspective from being overtaken. Sometime stressful, frustrating, aggravating, seemingly senseless and in constant need of patrolling, I have faith that it is worth it in the end.  

If you would like more information on what I am doing please feel free to find me on Facebook and/or send me an email to jakeinecuador@gmail.com and I will do my best to get back to you as my school schedule allows.

If you feel led to support me, please send donations in my name to:

Bayshore Bible Church

2145 Rodd Field Rd. 
Corpus Christi, TX 78414