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Update from Great Lakes

Greetings from Zion, Illinois, my new home. This blog will be a bit different than most others since I want to catch everyone up to speed on what has been happening in my life over the past couple of months of transition.

I spent 30 days on leave. I spent about two thirds of that time in Nebraska with family. I spent about a week of it down in OK and TX visiting some great friends and having wonderful time of fellowship and throwing some frisbees of course! I also made a very short, very unplanned, wonderful trip to Michigan to visit my beautiful girlfriend and meet her family. Leave was refreshing, relaxing, and just about the right amount of time.

Near the end of August, I made my way up to Great Lakes to check into the band. I feel like things are finally starting to quiet down a bit, and I'm beginning to find a routine to settle into. It only took about 3 days for me to find an apartment that I liked and I moved in a couple of days later. I'm about 10 miles from the base in a smaller town with lots of forest and lakes and golf courses right off the coast of Lake Michigan. I've found a running trail less than half a mile from my place and I've met a few of my friendly neighbors already.

The biggest difficulty with the move has been building my apartment from scratch. Since I've been here, I've bought a bed, two book cases, a study desk, and a work out station. Most of these things are in place, but I'm still waiting on a couple of little things to assemble. It has been very stressful at times just wanting to have a place to sit down and study Scripture and having to wait until the right desk at the right price came along.

So far, things have been slow with the band. There are a lot of trumpet players here and all of the needs for the band are being met. So, I have marched a parade and played at one of the graduation ceremonies. Those will be my primary duties until some of the small groups open up. I've become good friends with a clarinet player in the band who has been an encouragement to me and my walk with Christ. I am very thankful for having someone around to help me transition well.

Yesterday was the first time I was able to attend a church since arriving in Great Lakes. I attended an outdoor service at Community Christian Church which was recommended by the lady who cut my hair last week. The pastor spoke on Daniel 3 and I appreciated his insights. This finding a church thing is different for me, but it's also exciting to see where God might lead me to serve. I plan to attend a Wednesday morning meeting with the pastor and whoever else shows up to hopefully get a fuller picture of what the church is about. There is one other church that I'm interested in trying out once I have another free Sunday (it seems that people want to see parades on Sunday).

I'm sad to say that the disc golf in the immediate area is pretty weak. There are courses, but most of them are not very good. The closest good course is 20 miles away in Wisconsin. Thankfully, I do have one just a couple of miles from my apartment that will help me keep the skills polished a little bit.

I am in the process of figuring out the route I'm going to take to start seminary courses. I'm considering commuting to Moody or starting online courses with Moody, DTS, or Liberty. It seems like online classes may be the best option right now with the unpredictable winters and long commutes. We'll see what God ends up leading me towards with this!

The biggest thing that I have been learning recently is that God takes great pleasure in blessing me even though I don't deserve it. I have a supportive family, a steady job, a great apartment, a working car, furniture for my apartment, plenty of food, a beautiful girlfriend, and so many more that I could list. I look at my life in awe of how good God is and feel convicted to continue to seek ways to share His goodness with others. I've been reading a book called Radical by David Platt over the last couple of months and have been really compelled to seek ways to be more outgoing with my faith, time, and finances to advance the Gospel. I've begun rereading and discussing Crazy Love and am just as motivated as when I read it the first time. I also have begun studying the book of Hebrews and have been amazed by all of the ways the author describes Jesus as preeminent, supreme, and Lord of all. I'm convinced that in order to do anything of significance for the Gospel, we must continue to deepen our understanding of Christ's magnificence and glory. If He doesn't become greater and greater in our lives, we will never become warriors for His cause. As I ponder what this looks like in my life, I continue to be blessed by His grace.

Right now, my heart is in two places. It is with this community and the need to reach out to those in need around me. And it is with my friends all around the world who I love and desire to maintain and grow relationships with. There is a lot going on and I'm so thankful to have so many things to be thankful for including the opportunity to share this with all of you.

Blessings,
Matt

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