Final Week Recap - July 30th to Aug 3rd

(Clever title right?)

July 30 - Aug 3: What a final week. Every day we had class from 9-12, 1-4, and then studied with classmates for our big final/quiz every morning, half of lunch and usually for an hour after class. Daaaang. 

Just one of the many coffee shops we studied in after class

During the week we had some great speakers: Pastor David Houston on a balanced life, Paul B our teachers (as per usual), Dr. Stephen Mansfield (amazing speaker and author - he wrote, "The faith of Barack Obama," "The Faith of Oprah," and "The Faith of George W. Bush" - he is engaging, brilliant and hilarious - a class favorite for sure) and Pastor Brock Lillis (I mentioned him here earlier). Brining us to Thursday, which was our final day of classes. Phew!

It was a week filled with excitement, growth, the Holy Spirit and deeper relationships with these new friends. 

In the evenings we were CRAZY packed: 

Monday was dinner at Kacey and Tanner Shetlers - how fun to get to hang out with their kids and have great conversation with the parents as well! The Shetlers have spent time in Vancouver at our church and been a part of a church here in Nashville - we had so many wonderful conversations about how to do church and how to grow.  

Tuesday was dinner at Bert and Sheila Thompson's - what a treat to get to enjoy their hospitality (Grilled chicken & pork, fresh salad and a fruit bowl (raspberries, strawberries and blueberries - sooooo good) and great conversation about doing ministry in Canada, especially planting churches. It was such a life giving, helpful night. 

Wednesday was dinner with Jessica and Barry Lee - we'd had them over at the beginning of our time here, and it was great fun to get to see their house - they have only been married a few months and it was fun to see them in their space. We had a great dinner with them - not only could we laugh and play dominoes but we could also talk about school and ministry and church. 

Thursday our classmates were feeling excited and ready to celebrate being officially done classes, so almost all of them ended up coming over after dinner - we hung out, 20 of us, sprawled around our place eating popcorn, watching olympics and some of the group playing Spades. It was a pretty perfect evening - it felt like family. 

Heather and Christopher

Kait, Victoria, Heather, Dorinda and Rachel

Playing Spades

Will, Alex, Kika, Heather and Evan.

Heather managed to get in all of those photos, haha. 

Some of the olympic watching crew

Toya, TJ, Virginia, Tif and Constance.

Me and my girl Sherwine

Mama Toya and I

Quelf!

Quelf dictated that Sherwine had to do the Chicken Dance for a minute

I had to do the Hawaiian Hula

Alex had to hold something in her left hand for the entirety of the game.

Rachel was attempting a magic trick taught by Constance.

Kika Morgan and Paul Morgan

The Morgans

Me, Kait and Paul

And I'll leave graduation day and our last TN day for another post since this has already gotten extremely long!

Almost finished - July 23rd to 29th

In the craziness my blogging recapping suffered so I'll recap for the last while:


July 23 - 29: This was a great week in class - Pastor/Prophet Jim Laffoon was in to prophecy over us, we had the EN president Steve Murrell in to talk about discipleship, and many others; an EN pastor from Iran who'd been imprisoned for his beliefs (and was supposed to be executed but was miraculously saved), Steve Hollander (senior evangelist at Bethel), Campus Ministers/Pastors from Texas (Shadrick Bell and Peter Dusan), and we practiced two minute miracles (your two minute testimony). It was a full but great week. 


The prophesy was so cool - so encouraging and affirming of the things we care about. And pastor Steve's talks on discipleship and growth were life giving and exciting - and gave me new ideas and foundations for back home. 

One day at lunch I came in to find Paul sitting mostly alone in a room. 

Upon further inspection he was playing with Lego.

That's my husband!

In the evenings we still had fun while getting through homework: 
Monday we had Dorinda (a classmate) and Zach (her boyfriend) over for dinner (which was a lovely time of conversation - seriously wonderful conversation).


Tuesday - Thursday was for homework.

And of course we ate well as usual

And more of the beautiful Tennessee landscape

Friday night we hung out with classmates Abigail, TJ and Karylanne (we watched the opening Olympics Ceremony and chatted).

Paul played with Omolemo's builder hat

TJ played with Omolemo and he had so much fun

Karylanne and I enjoyed the cupcakes that Aleta made for us.

Olympic Opening Ceremony and desserts

TJ and Abigail

(one of our two pregnant ladies in the class)

Saturday I went to a Womens Tea (Tea and Pride & Prejudice - love!) and then met up with Paul's aunt, uncle and cousins from MN for dinner and shopping at Opry Mills (soooo good to see them).

Cindy and Michelle spoiled us with treats

Heart shaped Sandwiches for the win!

Tif and I

Rachel, me and Tif

And again, but with Victoria

We were meeting up with the Pfaff's at the Grand Ole Opry.

After some confusion we found each other and headed for dinner

Sunday was a BBQ with our class at Nick and Heather Jones (which felt cozy, warm and like family). Heather decorates and throws a party like I love/long to so it was a treat to be in her home and pick up some tips. Plus she's just a lot of fun. And our classmates are awesome also and we all love the chance to hang out and talk. 

Baby Chloe was entertaining us. 

Heather was defending herself.

She's a runner at the collegiate level and was bested in the street by one of our classmates

Watching the Olympics and relaxing

Paul massaging one of the guys.

Strange.

But apparently he's really good.