The Road to ARISE

Two weeks ago, just outside the little town of Waitsburg, I saw what no driver wants to see. In my rear view mirror, I saw following close behind me a cop, and then a couple seconds later that cop flashed on his lights. We pulled over and I gave him the necessary documents.

This was not the way we wanted to start our trip to California. Danelle was sleeping, and woke up to the unpleasant site of flashing lights. I told her what happened and we waited for the cop to return to our car with the verdict, the sort of process that always seems to take an unnecessarily long time. Through the rear view I saw him walk back to our car, and then he simply returned our papers and said, "make sure you slow down, I'm just going to give you a verbal warning."

I love warnings! We don't have the money to throw away on speeding tickets right now. We would not have been able to enjoy the drive to California as much if we would have gotten the speeding ticket. We were planning to do some camping on the way to California and the first place we stopped at was Crater Lake National Park.

Crater Lake is gorgeous, it has to be some of the bluest water I have ever seen. From Crater Lake we drove to Redwoods National Forrest and then to Bethany and Gill's new house to spend some time with them and get cleaned up before heading to the ARISE program. It was great being with them, and biking along the lake path. We look forward to spending more time with them and the rest of the family there on Thanksgiving break.

We arrived at Arise last Monday, it is beautiful here. There are 49 students in the ARISE class. The students come from South Africa, England, Australia, and North America. Many of them are at the program by the providence of God. For example there is another student here also named Kevin. The reason he is in the program is because he was on youtube and by "chance" he came across a Discover Prophecy Serries that David Asscherick was presenting. This was so persuasive to him, he spent a year studying and reading nonstop. He is convinced, and wants to be baptized. There is numerous stories like this of the different students who are here from all sorts of backrounds, religions, and belief systems.

We are in class Monday through Thursday and also will be doing community outreach on the weekends. The daily schedule is busy, but we also have time to unwind. Danelle and I have rediscoverd our love for tennis and Saturday night we played from 8 PM until 1 AM in the morning. Our teachers Matt Para and David Asscherick played with us.

Today we went swiming at a place called Candy Rock. I never knew California was so preaty. Next weeknd we are planning on visiting Yosimitie National Park. We are so thankful for the opportunity to be here and be apart of this church. A church is more than a building it is a community of believers whose passion it is to represent Christ.