Come to Guatemala, all you who are weary and burdened...

Dirt bikes down rocky roads, skyscrapper volcanoes, black sand beaches, and seventy-degree weather. That's all about four hours away! We're heading off to in Guatemala for our "make-up" honeymoon. Currently we're chilling in some execuative lounge in the Dallas, TX airport. We just got off our Chicago flight where we sat first class, feasted on deep-dish pizza, and ate hot chocolate-chip cookies. Can you hear the excitment in my words? These next days are going to blow us away. I just know it.

These past few weeks have been so hard and draining. Life is overwhelming. I (Katie) have been bombarded with homework and studying, I can barely find the time to throw a salad together for dinner, and our youth group is screaming out in hurt and want. This last part being the hardest. It is heart-wrenching to watch people ignore their Savior and dabble in evil things.

I almost feel defeated right now and am praying that these coming days would be a refresher for our souls. I have been reading through the Gospel of John and just recently read through chapter 14. Over and over again Jesus tells His disciples that "If you love Me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). What a simple and powerful truth! Our love is shown through our obedience to God. Jesus Himself gives the world an example of this as He proves His love for God the Father by doing "exactly as the Father commanded Him" (John 14:31), by dying on the cross.

Regardless of what comes our way, His truth remains unchanged. We cannot keep making up excuses. If we do not obey Him, we are showing we do not love Him. Plain and simple.

School Update

Well, I have decided to apply to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for their counseling program, and last week I decided that I would get started in JANUARY! That's going to be nuts. The application is in, but tomorrow I have to to the Miller Analogies Test, and I'm not too excited about that! I've been doing some studying and pratice tests, and I've got my average up for about 60%. That's failing where I come from, so I'm a little nervous. Hopefully they'll still let me in. I got to remember a bit of what college was like last night as I stayed up studying until I fell asleep sitting at the table. There'll probably be another one of those tonight! Anyways, I'm really excited to get started. Last night I had a conversation with one of my youth group kids in which I once again felt powerless, and it reminded me of why I really want to do this (it's not just to go broke and to have homework again)!

Katie is currently working on which nursing school to apply to. We've got some options, but we're really praying that plan A (UIC) works out, because it would be the cheapest and the easiest. She should get in, since she's pretty much amazing and she's rocking all of her pre-reqs, but UIC is a very selective and competetive program. You can pray for us that this will work out, because otherwise, it's going to require more pre-requisite courses and possibly a delay in the whole process.

Marathons are for lunatics...

It's been 8 days since I ran the marathon now, and I'm still feeling the effects. This is what happens when you marry into a running family, and I even dragged my Uncle Dave and Aunt Brenda down with me! What a rough road this whole marathon training was. I signed up Katie and me for the marathon back in March and I gave it to Katie in April as her college graduation present. Shortly afterward, I was in the hopstial having 18 inches of my intestines removed. That slowed down the whole training process for a few months. This summer we put in some good miles, but about 2 months before the race, Katie started having some IT band problems (a muscle in your knee). She cleared up and was able to start running 2 weeks before the marathon, at which point I inherited her injury! So I didn't run for 2 week before the race and we decided to give it a shot.

The weather was perfect for us, I have no complaints there. However, by mile 9, both of us had some killer pain from our IT bands, and we were miserable. We decided that we were going to finish this race. Katie and I had to drag each other along (she dragged me more than I dragged her), and we finished in 4:38. Wow were we in some major pain. However, it was a great picture of our lives. It shows that we can push through just about anything together! It was a great experience for us to have together, and we will always remember it!

Katie is already talking about running it next year. As for me, I'm done.

I've Been Thinking...

So I'm preaching this Sunday at my church, and I'm not quite sure how it's going to go yet. I'm really fired up about what I have to say, which is often very dangerous. Katie tells me I usually scare the kids, so maybe I'll tone it down a bit.

You see, I've really been challenged lately by Jesus' call for us to go and make disciples. I feel like we're dropping the ball so huge here, and I feel like God wants me to shout the wake-up call, so I'm going to do it. How do you change the way people think? How do you get them to care about a call from Christ that should dictate and overwhelm their whole lives? Well, that's what's on my mind. Also, I am equally guilty of not living up to this task, so I'm working on it. Pray for Laura. I ref with her, and she is very lost and confused right now. She's captivated by culture and by the lies of Satan, as so many people are, and we're working on her.

And finally, I'll challenge you...start bringing up Christ in your conversations with people. It's both your privilege and your responsibility. If He has changed your life, then be different and live the life He has called you to! Have a great day!

Big Decisions

We had an awesome weekend going to Minnesota for Katie's cousin's wedding! It was great to see the fam again, get to hang out with the cousins (Bill and the ladies, it was a blast!), and get to know some of them much better. There was plenty of dancing, which is always scary with me on the floor, but they didn't seem to mind too much. We rode our motorcycles up there, that's right, Katie rode her own bike almost 700 miles this weekend, and she did a great job!

So, here's the major development: I (Billy) am going back to school! I always thought I would eventually go back to school, but I wasn't sure when. Luckily, our interim pastor told me last week "What are you waiting for? You think you're busy? You will never be less busy!" Well, this got me thinking, and researching, and I decided to go back to school. I am hoping to attend Wheaton and get a Masters in Counseling Ministries. I've always had a desire to learn about counseling, so here I go! I will begin my pre-requisites in January and then my graduate program in the fall, which will take me 3 years (because I'm still going to work full time). I'm really excited to do this, but it will be taxing in many ways, such as time, finances and stress, so please be praying for Katie and I as we enter a crazy new phase of life. Thanks so much for your interest in our lives!

So we're new at this...

Hey Everybody! So Katie and I have talked about sending out update letters to let everyone know how we're doing, but that's just so 20th century, so we're going to start a blog. Seriously, we'd like to keep you all involved in our lives and we'd like you to keep us in your prayers, so we're going to use this to keep you updated on our lives. We'll try to post a blog once a week or so.