September 20

Its been a long last couple of weeks. Kristine has been working 30 hours a week, and I've been up around 45-50. My partner in the financial aid office was out of town for a conference so I had to handle everything and believe me, it is definately a 2-person job. I even worked 8 hours on Saturday, plus my normal 40 during the week. Yuk. I've been getting a lot of compliments lately, both from students and those in management. My Director even gave me a compliment which just doesn't happen, so I felt very good about that. God has definately had His hand on me. It seems taht wherever I go, I have favor. It reminds me of Joseph and Daniel. I am certainly not changing nations, but I am working in a secular environment and succeeding. People see that, but then see my humility and sincere love for people and they have no choice but to ask whats going on. Obviously its my faith and love for Jesus Christ that compels me to love those that He loves, and died for. There is lady in the Student Accounts office that seems a little hard hearted. She shows signs here and there of compassion. She seems really up tight and angry most of the time though. Well anyways she has a horrible keyboard at her computer that she has to use one finger at a time because she has to press really hard to make the keys work (you can hear her typing all the way down the hall). So I went out and bought her a new keyboard. I brought in to her and she was absolutely floored. Why would anyone do something like that. She kept insisting I fill out a requisition form to get my money back for it but I refused and said it was a gift for her. She has definately softened up, at least around me, since then. That was pretty cool.

Kristine's parents are currently in Yukuska, Japan. They are visiting David, Kristine's brother. He's in the Navy, recently got married and had a son named Brody. We are all jealous that they got to go see Brody and David, not to mention Miku (Davids wife). Their trip is 10 days long so it was impossible for me and Kristine to go since we both have fairly new jobs. Oh yeah, and it costs a lot of money to fly around the world. They are due to get back this Thursday, so it will be quite interesting to hear all about Brody and Miku, as well as the tourist stuff they did. We instructed them to have their cameras ready at all times and use up all the available space on their digital camera (I sent them with about 600 MB worth as memory).

Now that Kristine and I are pretty solid in our finances, we are looking at next summer as the possible date for buying a house. I'm looking into christian mortgage companies. We are looking into homes between 80,000-110,000. Nice starter homes, nothing extravagent. We just want simple and something that costs just a little more than apartments. We are pretty confident we can find the perfect place for us by then. I love our apartment so I have no problem staying here until then. This place really feels like home and Snowflake definately likes all the different rooms to sleep in.

EBC starts its new term shortly and I'm not there. This feels so weird. I'm so used to being at the registration and working long hours in preparation for it since I worked in teh financial aid office. It doesn't feel like I graduated, but I have a degree to prove it. What a weird feeling it is not to have homework or required reading. I love it. Kristine and I have been reading a lot since we moved here. Its very relaxing when you aren't having to study. Kristine has been reading a lot of historical fiction books (set in the times of Aaron and Moses, during the Civil War, during the Dark Ages, etc). They've been a very powerful influence for her. She also is doing INSTE. I've been reading a lot of fiction as well, except for I just finished "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel. What a powerful book. Anyone who has doubts about the authenticity of the existence of Jesus should read it. Let me modify that actually, everyone should read it because it dives into all the tough questions regarding the historicity and authenticity of scripture, proof for the ressurection, proof that Jesus was an actual historical figure and that he was Divine. Very powerful, a must read.